The Standard - 2016 April 28 - Thursday

VOL. XXX NO. 75 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 THURSDAY : APRIL 28, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Binay tells Digong: Get AMLC ‘treatment’

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RELAX, DUTERTE TELLS BUSINESS

‘I’m not what they say I am,’ Digong says to Makati crowd

By Othel V. Campos

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Rodrigo Duterte told business leaders Wednesday that he would spend P18 billion yearly to support start-ups, made up mostly by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), with each region getting P1 billion.

No cause for alarm. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte delivers a speech beforemembers of the Makati Business Club during the group’s 2016 Presidential Dialogues at the Peninsula Manila Hotel in Makati City on Wednesday,.

Widodo: Joint patrols to stop abductions JAKARTA—President Joko Widodo on Tuesday proposed joint maritime patrols with Malaysia and the Philippines in response to the kidnapping of 14 Indonesian sailors taken hostage in Philippine waters.

“This week, we will invite the Malaysian military chief and foreign minister, and the Philippine military chief and foreign minister to discuss the possibil-

ity of a joint patrol to ensure that the sea lane is safe,” Widodo said at the State Palace in the Indonesian capital on Tuesday.

The president said the process of releasing the Indonesians held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf would not be simple or easy.

“We will find it hard. We must understand that the other cases which have lasted for six and eight months

have not been resolved either. In fact, any of them has been executed,” he said, referring to the beheading Monday of Canadian hostage John Ridsdel.

“As Philippine soldiers have cordoned off an area... the hostages have been removed to another area,” he said.

The president said he will never give up trying to release the Indonesian hostages.

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“This is what I want the Trade department to do,” he said, addressing members of the Makati Business Club and the Management Association of the Philippines at the Manila Peninsula Hotel.

He said small businesses are forced to get financing from the loan sharks because there is no institutionalized government agency.

The Department of Trade and Industry, he said, should be in charge of loan assistance to MSMEs. He said he has what it takes to be a capable president but people should not judge him superficially.

“This government will be clean,” he said.

“I am willing to turn a blind eye to what these corrupt officials have accumulated but once I am elected these activities should stop.”

Duterte also sought to put the business leaders at ease.

“Relax, I am not the man I am portrayed to be by some,” he said, apparently trying to rein in his use of profanity.

At one point, however, he turned to a racial stereotype—saying he would talk to the Indian ambassador to get Indian loan sharks to ease up on Filipino MSMEs. Next page

Roxas steps up attack on Davao City mayor

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that Canada would not pay ransoms for the release of its citizens held hostage overseas.

His comments come after Trudeau delivered the grim news on Monday that Ridsdel had been killed by his captors—the Abu Sayyaf militant group—in the Philippines. Efforts, however, were continuing to try to secure the release of three others, including another Canadian national, he said.

Trudeau said payouts helped to support criminal or terrorist activities, and “endangered the lives of every single one of the millions of Canadians who live, work and travel around the globe” as they could become targets for abduction.

Trudeau said he and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed in a telephone conversation earlier to press allies on the issue.

“We agreed that it is something that we are going to make sure that we do bring up with our friends and allies around the world as we come to grips with the fact that the world is a dangerous place,” he said.

“We need to make sure that terrorists understand that they cannot continue to fund their crimes and their violence from taking innocents hostage,” he added.

Ridsdel, fellow Canadian tourist Robert Hall, Hall’s girlfriend Filipina Marites Flor, and Norwegian resort manager Kjartan Sekkingstad were kidnapped seven months ago from yachts at a marina near the major city of Davao.

In a recent video, Ridsdel, a retiree in his late 60s, said his captors would kill him on April 25 if a ransom of $6.4 million was not paid.

Hours after the deadline passed, police in the Philippines said two people on a motorbike dropped a head in a plastic bag near city hall on Jolo, one of the Abu Sayyaf group’s main strongholds.

The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines on Wednesday joined international and local leaders in condemning the murder of Ridsdel.

In a statement, Amcham extended its deepest condolences to the Ridsdel family, friends, and others who were close to him.

“John Ridsdel was well-known to the American business community in Manila, where he was based for many years. He was a strong believer in the development of the Philippines, to which he contributed as the senior executive of a mining company known for its highly responsible practices. He regularly addressed foreign chamber business fora and advised Arangkada Philippines on responsible mining policies,” the statement said.

Ridsdel had decided to retire in the Philippines. He made many friends among many nationalities and loved to sail among the islands from his base at Puerto Galera.

It was when he responded from his boat moored on Samal Island to a call for help from a neighboring boat that he was seized.

On Wednesday, military spokesman Brig.

Gen. Restituto Padilla confirmed the relief of Brig. Gen. Alan Arrojado as commander of the Army’s 501st Infantry Brigade based in Sulu.

He said Arrojado did not resign, because Army officers may not relinquish their post until properly relieved.

Colonel Jose Faustino Jr. replaced Arrojado.

But a source familiar with Arrojado’s departure said Arrojado and Maj. Gen. Gerry Barrientos had a heated discussion Tuesday evening on what approach to take against the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

Barrientos is the commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division and concurrent commander of the Joint Task Group Sulu which under the Joint Task Force “Zambasulta” (Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi).

Padilla, however, explained that such disagreements are normal among officers.

He also dismissed talk that Arrojado was relieved because of Ridsdel’s execution.

“There is no blame game,” Padilla said, noting that Arrojado had served with distinction for two years and five months.

“In the last 18 months he led the campaign against kidnap-for-ransom groups in the island of Jolo. Army officers usually serve a minimum of one year and six months in major positions to complete their billet requirements.”

Just recently, Arrojado was relieved as commander of the Joint Task Group Sulu, a position he held concurrently with brigade commander.

Florante S. Solmerin, Vito Barcelo, PNA, AFP

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Binay challenges Digong to get AMLC ‘treatment’

By Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta

THE camp of opposition presidential candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay challenged his rival Rodrigo Duterte to allow the Anti-Money Laundering Council to look into his bank accounts after reports said the Davao mayor did not declare some P211 million deposited in a local bank in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

United Nationalist Alliance campaign communications director Joey Salgado also urged Binay’s other rivals to let the AMLC look into their bank accounts, as well as those of their spouses and children.

“The Vice President has said this last Sunday and we will say it again: If they really don’t have anything to hide, they should allow AMLC [to look at their accounts]. Let their SALN and income tax returns be disclosed,” Salgado said. “Sadly, none of them responded.”

Salgado recalled that Duterte’s camp had earlier claimed that the Davao City mayor signed a waiver that would allow his bank accounts to be examined—a detail Duterte seems to have forgotten in his latest statement.

On March 14, Duterte and his running mate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano signed a manifesto that stated that they “pledge to open all our bank accounts in local and foreign currencies both here and abroad in the interest of transparency and accountability.”

But Duterte has refused to sign a waiver so that the AMLC can look into the existence of

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Duterte also said he would discontinue the agrarian reform program because it has not benefited businessmen or farmers.

He added that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program has caused more agricultural lands to become less productive because farmers are not able to develop their lands for lack of resources.

His remarks on land reform drew the most applause from an audience that appeared tentative or lukewarm toward Duterte.

Duterte, who was mayor of Davao City for more than two decades, said he would not hesitate to “just plagiarize” the good development plans of previous administrations, including infrastructure projects that have been delayed.

On top of that, he promised to allocate as much as P30 billion as health assistance to poor families living in the poorest provinces.

“There should be at least, one doctor per barangay. I will make sure that government doctors will be compensated for their service,” he said.

Turning to his platform of law and order, Duterte said he would hire 3,000 more policemen and double the salary of security forces to start a bloody war against crime.

Duterte’s lead in the presiden-

a joint account with the Bank of the Philippine Islands that he allegedly shared with his daughter, Sara Duterte.

The vice president has earlier signed a bank waiver, giving the AMLC access to his bank accounts as well as those owned by his spouse and children.

“A month ago, VP Binay signed a waiver allowing AMLC to open his bank accounts, as well as those of his spouse and children. He urged all the other candidates to do the same, in the interest of transparency and honesty.

The Vice President also released the copies of all his SALNs from 1987 as well as his ITRs,” Salgado said.

Last Sunday, a few hours before the presidential debate, Binay reiterated his call for fellow bets to sign the AMLAC waiver.

On the campaign trail, a visibly irritated presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe attacked Duterte for accusing her of bribing vice presidential candidate Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to smear the mayor.

Duterte had reportedly said Poe paid Trillanes P1 million to attack him because he has overtaken Poe in various opinion polls.

“Prove it,” Poe challenged Duterte. “Why would they say that I’m paying [Trillanes]?

How am I paying? I did not know about this until it was brought up now.”

She also hit Duterte’s running mate, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who claimed Trillanes was Poe’s “attack dog.”

Trillanes said the P211 million was in a joint account of Duterte and his daughter Sara in the BPI branch on Julia Vargas Avenue in Pasig City. He said eight cash deposits totaling P197 million were credited to the mayor’s bank account at the Julia Vargas branch on March 28, 2015, Duterte’s 69th birthday.

In a statement issued yesterday, Cayetano said the allegation is a desperate ploy to bring down Duterte and promote Poe, Trillanes’ preferred candidate.

“Why was he blaming me? Does he not

tial race has unnerved the business sector. The peso slumped 1.6 percent in April, as opinion polls put the mayor firmly ahead of his rivals, despite his inflammatory comments about rape and extrajudicial killings.

Duterte trailed his two closest rivals in a Bloomberg survey of economists on which candidate would best steer economic policy.

Duterte’s popularity has been boosted by peoples’ anxiety over crime and, like US presidential candidate Donald Trump, supporters praise him for straighttalking. As the election looms, Philippine bond risk has climbed from near an eight-month low and foreigners have pulled $41 million from local stocks this month.

“Duterte represents uncertainty,” said Edwin Gutierrez, who helps oversee about $11 billion as head of emerging-market sovereign debt at Aberdeen Asset Management Plc in London.

“He’s a bit of a one-trick pony with his law and order message.

I don’t think he’d do anything to upset the apple cart with economic policy, but I don’t see economic reform as being his priority. The comparisons to Trump are obviously rather unflattering whether justified or not.”

The peso fell 0.1 percent to 46.81 per dollar as of 1:30 p.m. in Manila, while the nation’s benchmark stock index dropped 0.9 percent. The currency is headed for its worst month since August

know Senator Trillanes who was with him in so many hearings against PDAF [Priority Development Assistance Fund]?” asked Poe. “Can you stop him if he [Trillanes] knows something?” she further said.

“Of all the people in the Senate. Of all our colleagues in the Senate, if there is one person that you cannot stop from investigating anomalies—whether you’re a friend—an ally or a foe—that’s Trillanes. Why doesn’t he [Cayetano] talk directly to him?”

After he accused Duterte Tuesday, Trillanes on Wednesday attacked his rival, Cayetano, who called him Poe’s “Poe-tector.”

He also said Cayetano should stop or he would be next in his exposés.

Trillanes also said a source had told him that the P211 million was only for 2014, and that there was more.

“Apparently, many people who love the country are scared that we may have a psychopath commander in chief,” said Trillanes, obviously referring to Duterte, and warned the mayor not to mess with him.

A spokesman for Duterte said he is considering filing charges against Trillanes.

Duterte, who was the guest speaker at a meeting with the Makati Business Club and the Management Association of the Philippines, denied the existence of the bank account.

“Believe me, that’s garbage,” he said. “You can check with the bank. You go there.”

Responding to reporters’ questions, he said he signed a waiver for his bank accounts but it does not cover the BPI account referred to

by Trillanes.

“I signed a waiver, yes, but I will make it hard for Trillanes,” Duterte said.

He said Trillanes must show proof to back his claim.

“You [Trillanes] prove it. I will not make it easy for you. I will not play into your hands,” he said.

He then called the vice presidential candidate a liar and an idiot.

and reached 46.943 on Tuesday, the weakest level in seven weeks.

ING Groep NV said it’s reviewing its forecast for the exchange rate to weaken to 47.60 by the year-end. Local-currency bonds have handed dollar-based investors a loss of 0.5 percent this month, a JPMorgan Chase & Co index shows.

“We could see the peso hitting 48 per dollar before heading back to 46.50 by the end of the year,” said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc. in Manila. “It’s driven by fear and the normal reaction of local investors is to buy the dollar.”

Duterte’s spokesman sought to calm market jitters by saying uncertainty usually arises in the weeks before an election, and it will be “business as usual” should the mayor be elected president. The front-runner will provide businesses the “right and proper atmosphere” to prosper without sacrificing the welfare of the people, Peter Laviña said in a statement Tuesday.

The latest poll conducted by Social Weather Stations showed Senator Grace Poe in second place, while Mar Roxas, the candidate backed by Aquino, was third and Vice President Jejomar Binay fourth.

Duterte has won support from locals by transforming Davao from a city battling crime and gangs in the 1980s to what his campaign calls one of the nation’s safest. A controversial

figure, the 71-year-old former lawyer and prosecutor is facing a backlash for comments he made April 12 about the rape of an Australian missionary in a 1989 prison riot. He told the US and Australian ambassadors not to meddle in Philippine politics after they condemned the remarks.

“His comments were a curve ball to the market,” said Joey Cuyegkeng, economist at ING Groep NV in Manila. “It more or less shakes the confidence of investors that gains in reforms are irreversible. We estimate something like 70 percent to 80 percent of the peso’s weakness is attributable to the local developments.”

The cost of protecting Philippine sovereign debt against nonpayment for five years has risen eight basis points since April 19 to 104, according to data provider CMA. The credit-default swap contracts were at 93 on March 18, the least since July 2015. A three-month gauge of expected swings in the peso climbed 54 basis points in April to 5.70 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“Duterte’s governance philosophy doesn’t seem to have much focus on economic policy, and his lack of national experience is a drawback,” said Mixo Das, a strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Singapore. “We are overweight on the Philippines but we’ll reevaluate our position if Duterte’s win looks more certain.” With Bloomberg

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Roxas: Don’t vote for Duterte ADMINISTRATION standard bearer Manuel Roxas II on Wednesday warned Filipinos against voting for Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, saying his rise to power could make communism, a godless ideology, to prevail in the country.

He challenged Duterte to prove that his “hands are cleaner than his mouth” after Duterte allegedly did not declare P211 million in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

“If you want communism to rule over the country, if you want the New People’s Army to strengthen its ranks, it’s clear who should you choose. It’s [Mayor Duterte] who said that,” Roxas told reporters in Talisay City.

“I will catch and fight the NPA. Not because I want them killed, but they want to overturn the government and the way we live today. Communism is a godless political philosophy. There is no god, they don’t fear any god.

Communism deprives people of individual empowerment.”

Malacañang on Wednesday also expressed concern over Duterte’s ties with Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.

“Freedom-loving citizens would find sufficient cause to be alarmed at the picture published in a major broadsheet, where erstwhile captive PNP officers are shown wearing shirts with POW [Prisoner of War] printed thereon and being paraded by heavily armed NPA members in the company of Mayor Duterte, with the CPP, NPA and the NDF flags prominently displayed in the background,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said

in a statement.

Roxas did not mince words after the NPA sealed an agreement with Duterte on Monday to release five policemen that they had been holding.

Duterte emphasized that while he was not left-leaning, he wanted to overthrow the Aquino administration and install another one.

“I am not [a communist]. I do not subscribe to their armed struggle,” Duterte said in answer to some claims that he was supportive of the rebel group.

But “I want to overthrow this government [Aquino administration] because it’s already very weak.”

Duterte also claimed he talked with the NPA rebels and told them that there should be no conflict during election season because “the voting public will be affected.”

In various occasions, Duterte has admitted exalting the NPA, which was founded by Jose Maria Sison who is in exile in The Netherlands. But he said he wanted the NPA disarmed.

A video showing Duterte praising the NPA went viral after the major television networks refused to air it for allegedly failing to pass ethical standards.

Another video showed Duterte cursing Pope Francis for causing heavy traffic when he visited the Philippines last year. John Paolo Bencito and Sandy Araneta

Vow. To uplift the lives of Filipinos, United Nationalist Alliance standard bearer Jejomar Binay vowed Tuesday to implement nationwide the anti-poverty programs he started during his term as Makati mayor.

Binay backers describe latest surveys as ‘rigged’ SORSOGON CITY—The local officials backing the presidential bid of Vice President Jejomar Binay in Camarines Sur and Pangasinan on Wednesday described the latest surveys as “rigged” and decided to come out with their own internal surveys that showed Binay was the top choice of the voters.

Former Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte and Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco said their camps had separately conducted surveys in their re-

spective bailiwicks and the results were contrary to those commissioned by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia.

Binay himself said he could not possibly believe the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys because even Malacañang’s internal survey showed he was leading his rivals.

“History will repeat itself. Watch out for the coming days,” Binay told reporters shortly after his rally at the Sorsogon Provincial Gymnasium.

“The Surveys in 2010 showed I

was trailing my rivals but a few days to the elections, my single-digit rating became double and on election day I was elected the vice president.

“These surveys, and I don’t mind mentioning SWS and Pulse Asia, were rigged.”

Villafuerte and Cojuangco said their surveys truly reflected the sentiment of the voting public.

Pangasinan has a voting population of 1.26 million while Camarines Sur, excluding Naga City and

Parubcan, had a total voter turnout in 2010 of 644,742. Albay had a total voter turnout of 571,885 while Sorsogon had 323,191.

Villafuerte said their surveys were comprehensive and being done every three weeks in the whole province down to the smallest villages.

“Dito po sa aming survey ay nangunguna si Vice President Binay sa pagkapangulo,” Villafuerte said.

“But we survey based on strategic and tactical reasons. Hindi nga lang

namin pina-publish. Why? Para malaman namin ‘yung areas of strength, where are the areas of weakness at doon pinapasukan na namin ‘yon.”

Villafuerte predicted that in this year’s elections those who did the national surveys would be shamed because the results would be contrary to the results of the surveys they had conducted, where Binay was overtaken by his rival Manuel Roxas of the ruling Liberal Party, who ranked third. Christine F. Herrera

Two lawmakers seek probe of Comelec website hacking

Tondo rally. Independent presidential candidate Grace Poe greets residents of Moriones in

Tondo, Manila, on her arrival in Zamora and Santa Maria streets over the recent mini-campaign rally of her team Gobyernong may Puso. EY ACASIO

TWO lawmakers on Wednesday filed a resolution asking appropriate committees in the House of Representatives to probe the hacking of the Commission on Elections’ website.

In House Resolution 2694, Bayan Muna party-list Reps. Carlos Zarate and Neri Colmenares said the issue that put serious questions on the integrity of the May 9 elections had to be explained by the Comelec.

On March 27, the Comelec’s website was defaced and its database containing personal information on 55 million voters was hacked by the groups Anonymous Philippines and LulzSec Pilipinas.

The whole database was posted online

by LulzSec Pilipinas and was made available for downloading by the public. That was considered by information technology communities and companies as one of the biggest data breaches in history.

“The Comelec downplayed the issue when it admitted that the commission

did not strengthen its website’s security features,” Zarate said.

In seeking a probe, Zarate said they wanted Congress to ensure the transparency of the automated election system.

Colmenares said the House committees on suffrage and human rights to conduct a joint investigation of the leaked personal and sensitive identifiable information of voters from the Comelec’s database, effectively compromising the security and identity of about 55 million Filipino voters.

“The Comelec failed to reassure the voters’ clamor for protection and security when for more than a month since the breach happened on March 27, 2016 [when the poll body] has yet to verify the accuracy of the leaked data,” Colmenares said.

“This puts into question the claims of Comelec that sensitive biometrical information was not included in the leak, as they are still in the process of verifying the accuracy of the leak.” Maricel V. Cruz

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DoJ hit for stand on airport brouhaha

By Christine F. Herrera, Macon Araneta and Joel Zurbano SORSOGON CITY —United Nationalist Alliance presidential candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay on Wednesday said the Department of Justice and the Palace were running out of excuses in blaming critics of the government for the planting of bullets in the luggage of innocent airline passengers.

Vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. also chided acting Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas for his curt dismissal of the latest bullet plant, or “tanim bala,” incident by saying it was a possible smear plot against the government.

“What else is new?”

Binay said when sought for comment on the DoJ’s claim that the tanim-bala was a smear plot versus government.

Binay reminded the public that it was those in government that has control of the airports, international and local, not the opposition or the Palace critics.

“The government is running out of excuses and that is the Palace line usually being adopted if caught in the corner.

Blaming others but itself,” Binay told reporters in an ambush interview, shortly after a campaign rally at the jampacked Sorsogon Provincial Gymnasium.

Marcos noted that while the DoJ has yet to complete its investigation of the alleged “tanim bala” incident, Caparas has practically prejudged the case with his statement.

Commencement speaker. Vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. is welcomed as he arrives at the commencement exercise of the

University of Perpetual Help System at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. He is flanked by university vice president and treasurer Daisy Tamayo and her son Anthony Tamayo. EY ACASIO

Poll agency rejects mall precincts plan

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

THE Commission on Elections on Wednesday junked the proposal of its Chairman Andres Bautista to allow voters in 352 clustered precincts to vote in 86 shopping malls across the country because the proposal did not comply with the law.

Bautista said Commission voted 4-3 against the proposal with Commissioners Christian Lim, Arthur Lim, Luie Guia and Rowena Guanzon voting against the proposal because of its illegality.

“You can see that we sought and we obtained the approval of the en banc, and made sure that we complied with all the requirements, like subjecting the proposed trans-

fer to public hearing, attached to the said approval,” Bautista said.

“Despite all these, I regret to say that three members of the commission changed their mind last night,” the poll chief added.

Originally, the two Lims and Guia agreed with Bautista, Commissioners Sheriff Abas and Al Pareño to allow voting in malls “to enhance the voting experience.”

But they were apparently persuaded that the idea was illegal, especially after former Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that the proposal did not meet three requirements.

“When you transfer polling places or clustered precincts from one polling place to another, there are basically three requirements. First, you have to notify all parties and voters affected. Second, you have to have a Comelec resolution moving the clustered precincts to the new polling places and you have to specify the clustered precincts that will be moved.

Third, it has to be done not later than 45 days before elections,”

Larrazabal said.

“If you transfer the polling places now, it’s illegal,” Larrazabal added.

Bautista apologized to voters who want to vote in malls and to all mall owners who have been helping the Comelec in improving elections.

“We can say that we have done our best and we will still keep doing so to make things better,” he said, paraphrasing inspirational writer Arthur Williams who said “all you can do is all you can do.

Hopefully all we can do is enough.”

Meanwhile, Larrazabal lauded the decision but advised the Comelec to start “focusing” on the more pressing issues.

‘Explain SAF 44 case, De Lima’

Absentee voting. Journalists show their thumbs after casting their ballots on the first day of absentee voting at the Metro Manila regional office of the Commission on Elections in Intramuros, Manila. DANNY PATA

FORMER Justice secretary Leila de Lima should come out and explain to the public why it has taken more than a year to investigate the Mamasapano incident after acting Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas refused to talk about the status of the case, non-government organizations demanded.

Arsenio Antiporda, spokesman of the Balikatan People’s Alliance, pointed out that De Lima was justice secretary when the massacre happened and much of the work was done under her supervision.

“She ordered two investigations into the massacre.

Complaints were eventually filed before the Justice department but there has been no update even after De Lima stepped down [as Justice secretary],” Antiporda said.

“Therefore, she knows a lot of the investigation results. So with the current Justice secretary refusing to even talk about the case now, it’s only De Lima who can enlighten the people on the findings of the probe,” Antiporda said.

Antiporda emphasized that “had the SAF 44 not killed Malaysian terrorist Julkifli Abdhir, alias Marwan, God knows how

many innocent people would have died from the bombs he could have made.

“The heroism of the SAF 44 deserves nothing less than the truth, and swift justice. More than a year is way too long for the truth.

The people have all the right to know what’s going on with the case,” he added.

“If Ms. De Lima, and the government for that matter, has nothing to hide, then there should be no problem for her or anyone else to report to the people what has been established or uncovered on the massacre,” Antiporda said.

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Bongbong bats for BPO workers’ magna carta

By Macon ramos Araneta Vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday pushed for the creation of a magna carta for the more than one million call center workers in the country, citing the many labor and health issues besetting them.

Marcos said there is a need to address their working conditions to make sure they are in line with international labor standards.

“There are reports that many of our workers in the call center industry do not get proper compensation that is based on international standards. There is need for a specific body to make sure that they are not discriminated upon,” said Marcos.

Marcos’ Presidential running mate Senator Miriam Defensor had filed Senate Bill No. 57 or the Magna carta for call center Workers to enforce their right to organize and establish regulations to ensure their welfare.

Marcos said there is also a need to look into the health issues hounding the call center workers.

A study by the international Labor Organization showed that call center workers face serious health risks that include high blood pressure, sleep disorders, diabetes and obesity.

“This is because call center workers work long hours and usually during the graveyard shift,” said Marcos.

He related that call center workers spend most of their time sitting down in a high-pressure environment.

Caring for PWDs. Senatorial candidate and Leyte Rep.Martin Romualdez (left) delivers his ‘malasakit’ message to the leaders of Cebu Persons With Disabilities during the consultation and forum held at the White Gold House Restaurant in Cebu City. Ver NoVeNo

Comelec urged to grant PWDs easy access to polls

By Maricel V. Cruz

WITH the cancellation of “mall voting” , senatorial candidate Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez on Wednesday urged the Commission on Elections to guarantee sufficient Accessible Polling Place (APP) as a form of “malasakit” (compassion) to persons with disabilities and senior citizens, and priority lanes for pregnant women during the May 9 presidential election.

‘Green voters’. Members of the EcoWaste Coalition stage a short play at the Peoples Hall of the Quezon City Memorial Circle as part of the group’s ‘Green Voters’ education drive to encourage the public to pick candidates who safeguard the environment against greed, corruption, waste and pollution and inaction.

MANNY PALMero

50 drug suspects arrested in Metro

By Joel e. Zurbano THe National capital Region Police Office arrested at least 50 suspected drug pushers and seized P400 million worth of prohibited substances in the first four months of the year, Metro Manila police director Joel Pagdilao said on Wednesday.

From January to April 24, the NcRPO confiscated 80.384 kilograms of shabu amounting to P401.74 million and arrested 55 persons, Pagdilao said.

He added the NcRPO Anti-illegal Drugs Unit has been consistent with their performance in

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the campaign against illegal drug traders in Metro Manila.

Recently, the team conducted buy-bust operation at Morato Avenue corner Timog Avenue, Barangay Triangle, Quezon city which resulted in the arrest of seven suspects and seizure of 20 kilos of shabu worth P100 million. early this month, police also arrested three suspected drug traffickers and seized five kilos of shabu in a buy-bust operation in Alabang, Muntinlupa city. The suspects were identified as Akmad Hassan Bagal, Halil Sulaiman Said and Kamar Bayantol Marham.

Romualdez, leader of the House independent Bloc, said specialized voting place under Republic Act 10366, otherwise known as “An Act Authorizing the comelec to establish Precincts Assigned to Accessible Polling Places exclusively for Persons with Disabilities and Senior citizens” must be fully implemented.

“This is our way of showing malasakit to elderly and PWDs and we should ensure a hasslefree voting place that is exclusive for them,” Romualdez said.

Romualdez’s statement came as he lamented the announcement of comelec chair Andres Bautista that the poll body’s en banc voted 4-3 reversing its 6-1 ruling last March 10 that allowed mall voting.

“At the same time, we call on the comelec to put a priority lane for pregnant women as a matter of malasakit to their condition,” Romualdez, who was credited for the enactment of the measure exempting more than 1.5-million PWDs from the payment of 12-percent value added tax on certain goods

and services, he said.

The comelec cited legal concern under Omnibus election code which provides that the transfer of a polling precinct should be approved 45 days before the elections.

The mall voting has a total of 231,174 electorate who will cast their votes in designated 80 malls from 10 companies for the May 9 general elections.

Based on a minute resolution dated Dec. 23, 2015, the comelec approved the recommendation to create a consolidated project of precincts with APP instead of creating the specialized precincts.

Under this, senior citizens and PWDs will “accomplish the ballots in the polling place together with the other voters assigned to the cluster.”

However, the comelec gave assurance that a separate area in the polling place shall be assigned for the exclusive use of the elderly and PWDs in accomplishing their ballots.

Assistive devices and experts’ services will also be given to the PWDs who need some help.

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3-way battle of pairs heating up in Manila

By Tony Macapagal

Solid, steady and firm. That was how a Manila city hall oldtimer described the Amado Bagatsing-Ali Atienza tandem vying for top political posts in the country’s capital city.

As far as the current Mayor Joseph Estrada-Honey Lacuna partnership is concerned, it’s rather shaky, unsteady, unsure, said the oldtimer.

The former Mayor Alfredo Lim, who has teamed up with Benjamin Asilo, the situation is rather messy, directionless, rudderless, said the city hall old hand, the 80-year-old Benja Pahar.

“I might be wrong, maybe even off-tangent... but that’s the way I see it, that’s how I feel it that these three leading political teams are doing

and going about their campaigns,” said Pahar, a retired Manila government employee who worked under the administrations of then Mayor Arsenio Lacson and Antonio Villegas, and continued to go to the city hall everyday to earn a living by running errands for officials and workers alike.

Pahar said the BagatsingAtienza ticket appears not troubled by any serious political problems, even as there are persistent words spreading around that Ali “is being wooed and probably

being used by other political groups to gain some mileage from the popular and muchliked son of former Mayor Lito Atienza.”

Despite this, Ali is constantly declaring that “Bagatsing is my only mayor” and Bagatsing, for his part, has been proclaiming in his public speeches in meetings, rallies and caucuses “to support and vote for vice mayor Ali Atienza,” Pahar noted.

The Bagatsing-Ali has a complete slate with only one candidate for Congress seats in the six congressional districts (except in District 3), as well as, six council aspirants from Districts 1 to 6.

Pahar claimed that the Estrada-Lacuna camp is “shaky” because its political alliance— the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino and the Asenso Manileño—is not deep-rooted, not

well grounded.

He said that Estrada “was disturbed and eventually got irked” when informed that certain officials of AM “visited and offered to help Lim in the latter’s mayoral quest if Lim will also help Lacuna’s vice mayoral bid,” right after the filing of Certificates of Candidacy or CoCs October last year.

Upon learning this, Estrada, through the secretary to the mayor, lawyer Edward Serapio, called an urgent meeting with the officers and members of AM, to discuss and evaluate the issue.

A loyalty check was discreetly enforced by the Estrada camp, a source said.

The incident, since then, caused Estrada to doubt the loyalty of AM members who were included in his slate.

“Estrada is wary. He must

be thinking of being junked.

Sabotaged moreover,” Pahar commented. “Uneasy lies the crown on the mayor’s head.”

Meanwhile, the Lim-Asilo team has become “messy” because Lim, aside from the official and declared hopefuls of his party, has additional aspirants he is endorsing.

For vice mayor, he has three others; and for councilors, he has more than six bets, the required official numbers, in each of the six districts.

“If that is not messy,” what is?” Pahar asked.

The Bagatsing-Atienza team is bannered by the coalition of “Kabaka LABS Manila-Kababaihan ng Maynila,” the Estrada-Lacuna by the “Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino-Asenso Manileno,” and the Lim-Asilo by the Liberal Party.

Members of the media cast their votes during the first day of absentee voting at the Comelec’s National Capital Region office in Intramuros, Manila.

DANNY PATA

Energy vows no outage on election day

By Maricel V. Cruz EnErGy officials on Wednesday assured lawmakers that there will be adequate power supply in the country on May 9 general elections while the Commission on Elections assured the public of a ‘no brownouts’ election day.

Comelec’s Jerome Matas said the vote counting machines are equipped with batteries that run up to 14 hours.

At a hearing conducted by the House committee on energy chaired by Oriental Mindoro rep. reynaldo Umali, Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada said that power outages next month is unlikely, nor forced outages that might cut off the power transmission.

“I would say that we are confident, there would be no more forced outages. We are confident we can have a sufficient supply for the elections.

Of course, everybody should pray that things go well,” Monsada told the panel.

Umali said the hearing, which he described as “consultative meeting,” was intended for Congress, in cooperation with agencies of government concerned, to ensure the conduct of clean, credible and honest elections on May 9 as well as to rule out speculations that the elections may be cheated in situations of power outages.

“This is important, to keep everyone on board, to keep the public well-informed, that the government is on top of the situation. We will have less of these ‘chismis’ [controversies] that [happen] every election time,” Umali said.

Monsada also assured the public that there will be no failure of elections because of insufficient power supply.

She said the power generators have been in place in case of a power shortage during election week.

Senate pursues probe of fake land titles SEnATOr Aquilino Pimentel III recently visited General Santos City to investigate a high-profile land-grabbing case involving spurious original certificates of title (OCTs), stepping up the Senate-led campaign against fake land titles.

Pimentel, who took time out from his party’s busy presidential election campaign, visited this southern Mindanao city to see for himself the property in question.

Arriving at the General Santos City International Airport, Pimentel proceeded to conduct an inspection of the disputed land, a 707-hectare government property which is located right beside the airport.

The senator was given a briefing on the local situation by

Miguel Dominguez, a director of Alsons Development and Investment Corp.

Pimentel chairs the Senate committee on justice and human rights, which has been conducting a long-running probe into the proliferation of fake land titles in the country, particularly in General Santos where some 6,000 fake land titles are reportedly in circulation.

“Actually, the number is not just 6,000,” the senator said.

“In my estimate, these fake land titles might reach up to 10,000 in Gensan alone.”

“These are alarming developments, which is why we should bring these cases to court,” Pimentel said. “It should be one case per dispute so the judge can focus on the

issues specific to each case.”

“Until we are able to clean the records of the Land registration Authority [LrA], there will always be a big obstacle to commercial activities in areas covered by fake land titles,” Pimentel warned.

Pimentel’s visit was close on the heels of a decision of the regional Trial Court of General Santos, which issued a status quo ante temporary restraining order last March 22, which stopped the city’s register of Deeds from registering the supposed sale of this state-owned property in the names of supposed owners of the fake land titles. This status quo ante order restores the situation in question to the state where it was before the conflict arose which,

in this case, refers to the time when both the LrA and nBI had declared the subject OCTs to be fake.

Aldevinco signed an Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) with the Department of Environment and natural resources in 1992. Under the terms of the IFMA, Aldevinco has developed and reforested the property that is now planted with mango,pomelo, banana, molave and mahogany trees.

While at the site, Dominquez informed Pimentel that the other claimants belonged to a group headed by a romeo Confesor who suddenly surfaced in 2003 brandishing OCTs that supposedly covered the 707-hectare property.

Senator Koko Pimentel examines documents on land scam during his visit to General Santos City to conduct an inspection of the disputed 707-hectare government property located right beside the airport, while Miguel Dominguez, director of Alsons Development and Investment Corp., gives him a briefing on the local situation.

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‘Luzon has enough power for polls’ LAOAG CITY—The Power Task Force Election said Wednesday it has more than enough power reserve to cover Luzon before, during and after election day even as the Luzon grid had been placed on yellow alert in mid-April following annual maintenance work on several power plants.

In Luzon, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines reported it has a gross reserve of 1,822 megawatt on May 8, 2,243 MW on May 9 and 810 MW on May 10, on top of the 9,807 MW to 10,565 MW available capacity, and 7,985 MW to 9,537 MW system

load during the election period.

At a forum here, the NGCP, Commission on Elections, Department of Energy and the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative presented their respective contingency plans during the synchronized local and national elections.

The power sector expressed a hundred-percent readiness in case of any untoward incident during the election period.

Benjamin Saraza, NGCP head for operations and maintenance in the Ilocos region, said contingency measures are now in place to ensure round-theclock transmission service.

Citing the expanded transmission facilities with three highways to reach Ilocos Norte, the NGCP is confident there will be a stable power supply on election day.

The NGCP also revealed it had at least four aircraft ready for dispatch in case of emergency. They will also

activate the Malaya power plant to provide back-up power supply, among others. Maintenance work has also been suspended.

Efren Balaoing, DoE director for Northern Luzon, said the Luzon grid has enough power supply but he appealed to power consumers including mall owners to conserve energy nonetheless.

“We have enough power supply in the Luzon grid on election day, even before and after,” Balaoing said.

In compliance to the memo of the National Electrification Administration and the Depart-

ment of Energy, the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative represented by engineer Rodrigo Agliam, Zone 2 manager of Laoag, said they have already prepared the distribution utility, at least two weeks ahead of election day, mobilizing resources such as vehicles, materials, communication and manpower to ensure, “We are ready for this important occasion.”

Meanwhile, the Comelec said the vote counting machines with built-in power bank for Ilocos Norte already arrived and are ready for dispatch. PNA

Trees prompt CAAP to shorten usable runway in Dumaguete

By Joel E. Zurbano

Moonshine. Local residents watch a full moon over the Cebu Strait in Argao, Cebu. DAVID CHAN

THE Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines has started to move the runway markings of Dumaguete Airport because of the danger posed to commercial jets by a row of tall trees.

Rodante Joya, CAAP assistant director-general for operations, said the agency is now in the process of shortening the usable length of the runway for safety concerns posed by tall trees obstructing the glide path of incoming flights on the approach to Runway 09 from the west.

Pilots have also complained that the trees, which are on a property less than 100 meters opposite the runway, almost graze the bellies of planes approaching for touchdown, posing a threat to life and property.

Last Tuesday, a Cebu Pacific airbus A320 type with registry number RP-C3237 was forced to stay overnight at the airport parking bay after mechanics found hydraulic leak on right side main landing gear and existence of tree leaves attributed to tall trees lining up on the runway approach.

With the shortening of the usable runway, Dumaguete Airport operations will be limited to propeller-type commercial aircraft and general aviation jets.

Joya said the agency came up with the decision to keep with standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization particularly where the trees pose significant safety issues, endangering the lives

of commercial jet passengers, as they are located within the final approach of the runway.

“The obstruction limits the required ground visual contact of the pilot to the threshold during final approach and may cause unstabilized approach, shortness of landing distance available [LDA] which may lead to aircraft overshooting the runway or unnecessary missed approaches,” he said.

“During bad weather condition, low level approaches may cause the pilot to lose sight of the runway resulting in the aircraft hitting the trees, damaging the landing gears and other aircraft parts, which may cause fatalities,” Joya added.

Joya cited a finding by the agency’s Aerodrome and Air Navigation Safety Oversight Office which described the conditions at the Dumaguete Airport runway as “critical and has the potential to result in loss of life, serious injury or damage to facilities and which requires corrective action to be completed immediately and if not may lead to downgrading of aircraft operation to a smaller airplane or, worst, closure of the airport.”

He pointed out that numerous operational hazard reports were submitted by airline companies saying that the presence of the tall trees were hazardous to aircraft during the landing phase of the flight, where they almost touch the belly of the planes on runway descent.

Lawmaker survives ‘slay try’

By Maricel V. Cruz ZAMBOANGA del Norte Rep. Frederick Seth Jalosjos has denounced what he described as assassination plot against him by unidentified gunmen during a political rally in La Libertad town in the province Tuesday.

Jalosjos, who is seeking reelection, also slammed the police’s inaction on the incident.

Jalosjos, son of convicted rapist and former congressman Romeo Jalosjos, said he was approaching the podium at the rally of the Alliance of Parties for ProgressNaciolanista Party in Barangay Poblacion when the gunmen, some wearing military fatigue uniforms, opened fire. “[But] during the entire incident, which lasted over 30 minutes, not one policeman came, even as their outpost was only across

the street—less than five minutes from where the encounter occurred,” Jalosjos said in a statement issued Wednesday.

“The police arrived after it was over, when the firing had stopped,” he said.

Jalosjos said he was surprised that there were a dozen policemen, including the chief of police, most of them in civilian clothes at the local police station when they filed a blotter report of the incident.

“Clearly, there was no shortage of policemen. They could have easily responded if they wanted to,” he said.

“But they opted to simply sit in through the entire incident. It was impossible not to hear the gunshots.”

“It is alarming when political colors stand in the way of protecting lives, especially of our civilians. Over a thousand supporters attended the rally and not one policeman came to protect them,” he added.

Shelter row. Some families living in bunkhouses in Tacloban City have been transferred to this project of the National Housing Authority. MEL CASPE

A8

ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2016

OPINION

[ EDITORIAL ]

THE PERENNIAL VICTIM

PRESIDENT Aquino has the exasperating habit of portraying himself as a victim to minimize his liability for the things he should be responsible for.

In his belated statement following the beheading of Canadian John Ridsdel by the Abu Sayyaf, Mr. Aquino said one of the bandit group’s leaders, Isnilon Hapilon, was trying to gain favor with international terror group ISIS and that among the plans was to kidnap his own sister or either of her children.

The same garrulous sister had been criticized lately for using the presidential helicopter campaigning for the administration’s presidential bet, and her brother defended her by saying she had a right to

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take the official ride because she was one of the country’s biggest taxpayers. The sister later complained about the “violence” that she had been receiving over social media.

Even he had threats to his own life, Mr. Aquino said.

This is not the first time.

Taking a full week to speak about the killing of 18 soldiers in Sulu earlier this month, Mr. Aquino said he was not able to act immediately because he had been sick; such was the toll his difficult job was taking on his health.

When 44 members of the Special Action Force were killed in a doomed mission to arrest a Malaysian terrorist, Mr. Aquino reminded their grieving families that he, too,

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knew what it felt like to lose a loved one because his father was assassinated.

Critics are not objective observers of the nation’s affairs. Members of the media who do not see things his way are out to sabotage the “daang matuwid,” bring him down because of his crusade, and wish to revert to the old, dark ways at the expense of the people.

Even the still-unresolved bullet-planting scandal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport has been attributed by his alter ego, Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas, to a plot to mar the administration’s image ahead of the May 9 elections. The scam’s most recent victims were a couple

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

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

in their 70s who were told they should pay P50,000 so they could board their flight to the United States after a bullet had been found in their luggage.

The same pattern emerges when we look back to all other issues, big or small, that the Aquino administration has failed to resolve. Somebody else is always at fault, and the President is always helpless in the face of evil forces conspiring to bring him down.

With a leader always playing the victim instead of taking charge, it is hardly surprising that nothing much has been accomplished under Mr. Aquino’s watch. What a relief that will soon be over in a few weeks.

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

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Emil P. Jurado Chairman Emeritus, Editiorial Board

THURSDAY : APRIL 28, 2016

A10

OPINION lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

THE ANTI-TRUDEAU LOWDOWN JOJO A. ROBLES CANADIAN Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has many obvious advantages over our very own President Noynoy Aquino. One of them, highlighted only recently with the beheading of a Canadian national by a gang of Moro bandits in Jolo, Sulu, is quick reaction.

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile once famously described Aquino as a “three-day president,” a thoroughly unflattering sobriquet referring to the incumbent’s distressing predilection of disappearing for that long whenever a crisis situation develops. In the case of the beheading of Canadian John Ridsdel, Aquino was determined to max out

all three days Enrile had allotted to him.

It took Trudeau only hours to condemn the killing of Ridsdel, after the former mining executive was killed in cold blood Monday night because his family and his government were unable to raise the P300 million in ransom demanded by the Abu Sayyaf Group. And when he finally emerged to comment on the atrocity yesterday, Aquino could only come up with something typically bizarre.

According to Aquino’s account, the Abu Sayyaf has recently escalated its kidnap-for-ransom racket in the hopes of catching the attention of the Islamic State and getting funding from the Middle Eastern Muslim extremists who run it. As Aquino tells it, ASG has also hatched plans to kidnap and

kill not only foreigners like Ridsdel but also him, his sister Kris and boxing champion Manny Pacquiao.

If only Aquino had shown a little more caring and competence, then maybe he wouldn’t have to campaign so hard.

I am not, as the satirist Dave Barry used to say, making this up. And I’ll have whatever powerful stuff it is that Aquino is having, please.

It only took Aquino three full days to come up with this fantastic theory about Kris and Manny. Time he could have spent acting like a real head of state right after the Canadian’s beheading, to both reassure the citizenry, the jittery expatriate community and even his fellow leaders like Trudeau.

Only last week, Malacañang reacted sharply to calls that Aquino cut down on the time he’s been spending to campaign for his candidates Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo. His spokesman, who always reminds me of the dwarf Sleepy, said basically that Aquino is on the ball and that everything is under control—which, as we know from sad experience with our monomaniacal president, almost always isn’t the case.

The people calling for Aquino to focus on his job

in the remaining days of his administration were speaking in the context of the socalled Kidapawan Massacre, of which the administration basically washed its hands after allowing a farmers’ protest to degenerate into a violent and fatal police dispersal operation after just four days. So that took more than three days—maybe Aquino was trying to disprove Enrile’s theory.

Of course, the surveys tell us that Aquino’s fulltime focus on the campaign isn’t doing his candidates any good. But if he wasn’t stumping, I don’t think Aquino can be forced to act like a real president and work on the pressing problems of the day—his whole six-year record of burying his head in the sand militates against that.

Continued on A9

A NEED FOR UNITY AND HEALING TO THE POINT EMIL P. JURADO I AM sure all the recrimination and stink during this campaign period will continue after May 9.

Along with charges of fraud, presidential and vice presidential candidates will continue what they have been saying against this or that candidate.

In this country, there are only two kinds of candidates—the winners and those who claim they have been cheated.

I have witnessed elections since Apo Pediong Quirino won against Jose P. Laurel in the early 1950s. At that time, charges of cheating were thrown at the winner.

This coming election will be no different, Santa Banana. Whoever will make it will be accused of cheating, and whoever loses will surely complain before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

This is the reason we need a healing and unifying president.

We should move the country forward. If not, the country will suffer from too much bickering and we will be a nation severely divided and fragmented, my gulay!

I’m sticking my neck out for saying this, but this is why I think Vice President Jejomar Binay and Senator Bongbong Marcos should win. Both espouse messages of healing and unity.

This said, I doubt the credibility of surveys from Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations. I know for a fact that they can be manipulated by those who commission and pay for them. In my over 66 years as a journalist, the only survey I can believe is that of the Iglesia ni Cristo, circulated among its over 2.5 million members just a few days before Election Day.

I know about the Iglesia houseto-house surveys, made by its deacons nationwide, because my friend, the late Ka Imon Cuevas, told me about them. Cuevas was an Iglesia stalwart and a close friend of the Iglesia Supremo Ka Erdie Manalo.

Ka Imon told me that they had supported then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo instead of movie icon Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004 since their own surveys showed that the people preferred Gloria.

Santa Banana, this debunks the accusations that she cheated!

While SWS and Pulse Asia surveys show a Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte or even a Mrs. Llamanzares win, I’m still not counting out Binay or Roxas.

Those rooting for either “DuDirty” or Mrs. Llamanzares may be in for a big surprise. I know for a fact that the Vice President has been campaigning since he and his family came to power in Makati. When he became vice president, he strengthened his grassroots political machinery nationwide.

As for administration candidate Mar Roxas, I’m not discounting cheating on Election Day. We all know that BS Aquino is desperate to have Mar, if not his Manchurian Candidate Mrs. Llamanzares, win at all costs. President Aquino may resort to anything just ensure their victory because he is certain to face multiple civil and criminal cases when he steps down. The stakes are just too high. A desperate man will try anything to save his neck.

As for Bongbong Marcos, at this stage of the campaign, I am almost sure he will make it unless he will also be cheated. I am basing my prediction not only on poll surveys, but what I see over television and in print media about how enthusiastic people greet him nationwide.

It does seem that despite all

the black propaganda, there are still many people who believe in the Marcoses.

Taking into consideration all the challenges and problems that the new administration must face, we need a healing and unifying president. Otherwise, we go back to the dark days of the Aquino regime where hypocrisy, bare-faced lies and vindictiveness ruled. That’s our choice. *** I don’t know why Mrs. Llamanzares had to lie through her teeth about the citizenship of her husband, Teodoro Daniel Misael “Neil” Vera Llamanzares in

Without these, we would not be able to move forward as a nation.

answer to questions about having an American First Gentleman. Imagine, if Mrs. Llamanzares wins, he would be living in Malacañang and would be paraded around the world as the spouse of a “presumed” naturalborn Filipino!

Santa Banana, according to Mrs. Llamanzares, her husband already renounced his American citizenship before a barangay official. What, before a barangay official?

That’s the height of stupidity,

and I am sure Mrs. Llamanzares knows it. An American citizen can only renounce his citizenship before an American consular officer, and this must only be done at the American embassy or consulate.

Actually, this was not the first time Mrs. Llamanzares lied. It’s public record that she lied before immigration officials when she applied for dual citizenship. She said she was born of the marriage of her father, Fernando Poe Jr. and Susan Roces, when she herself claimed she was a foundling and adopted by the couple.

She lied again when he told the Comelec and the Supreme Court that she will have resided in the Philippines for 10 years and four months by May 9, when she herself said in her Certificate of Candidacy for the Senate that she will only have done so for nine years and six months.

Would you trust a presidential candidate who habitually lies? It’s a dangerous affliction. Have we not had enough of BS Aquino III, who makes lies the hallmark of the administration? *** One big problem contributing to the horrendous traffic congestion on Edsa is the big number of buses coming from the North every day.

We may just have to wait three or four years from now when provincial buses have to unload thousands of passengers to take the MRT from San Jose del Monte, Bulacan to Quezon City to connect MRT 7 to MRT 3 and LRT 1.

This possibility appears bright after San Miguel Corp. broke ground on the P69.3-billion mass transit system after the government finally approved it.

I must congratulate San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang for finalizing the

23-kilometer elevated railway system. This project will have 14 stations to be implemented by newly formed SMC Mass Rail Transit 7 Inc., under SMC’s infrastructure subsidiary San Miguel Holdings Inc. Once the MRT 7 is built, it would take only 30 minutes to commute from North Avenue to San Jose del Monte, Bulacan and back. Ang said that the project would be a 23-kilometer stretch that would start at the Balagtas interchange of North Luzon Expressway and end in an intermodal terminal at San Jose del Monte.

This will provide provincial buses an alternative route, hence decongesting Edsa.

The long-awaited MRT 7 will serve commuters who ply the heavily congested Commonwealth Avenue to get to their workplaces or schools daily. The new railway system will not only significantly lessen travel time along this corridor, but also help decongest traffic in Caloocan and NLEX. I was privy to this project way back in 2003 when Israeli businessman Eli Levin first presented the project to then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, together with MRT-7’s proposed financing and government guarantee.

Unfortunately, some bright boys of the National Economic and Development Authority sat on it, questioning every technical aspect of the project.

When BS Aquino came to power in 2010, Salvador Zamora, a big contributor to the Aquino campaign, bought the majority of the project, hoping that it would finally be approved by Neda. Zamora failed, however, and was forced to sell the project to Ramon Ang. Considering the financial clout of San Miguel, Neda finally gave MRT-7 the go-signal.

At least, this is a solution, even as we still have to wait three or four more years for it.

THURSDAY : APRIL 28, 2016

A11

OPINION lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

SPECIAL OPERATIONS DUTY CALLS FLORENCIO FIANZA WITH 12 days to go before the elections, who will it be? Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Senator Grace Poe, Vice President Jejomar Binay, former secretary Mar Roxas or Senator Miriam Santiago?

If we go by the surveys, Mayor Duterte will win hands down. It is all over except the proclamation.

This is in spite of the criticism on the mayor coming from many sectors of society. The surveys, however, seem to show the voters do not care.

But as we also know, surveys alone do not win elections. There are other factors. Money, political machinery and since 2010, the precinct count optical scan machines. In the last presidential debate in Pangasinan, Mar Roxas seemed to have all the answers and propounded on his programs with skill and authority. Senator Grace Poe also tried to portray her best quality, her honest persona while Mayor Duterte was unusually subdued. The feisty Senator Santiago was uncharacteristically unable to demonstrate her usual wit and trademark oneliners that have made her the darling of the millennials. Perhaps her medical condition has taken its toll. Despite this, however, two percent to three percent of voters would still vote for her. Sadly, she

will have to be taken out as a serious contender.

VP Binay, on the other hand, was also not in his usual combative self. He gave the impression that he was not trying his best.

With election day so close, one wonders what the four serious contenders are doing to ensure victory.

Mar Roxas has to win not only for himself but also to shield the band of merry men of sherwood forest led by President Aquino from possible corruption charges that will surely come if he does not win the presidency.

The protection of the President is one of the most important objectives of this political exercise as far as the administration is concerned. President Aquino, for his part, is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure the victory of his surrogate.

Money, the power of the government, and lest we forget, the so-called special operations. There is always a special operations group in every election in this country, be it local or national. This can take many forms, from activities allowed by law to outright illegal actions.

For the Mar campaign, the use of government resources has been a source of criticism and we saw this in the case of the President’s sister Kris when she used the presidential helicopter to campaign for Mar. We must not also overlook the distinct probability of electronic manipulation as part of special operations by all political camps.

Since Mar Roxas is so far behind in the polls, it is difficult to think that this aspect is not being considered by their camp. If ever this is going to be employed by the government, I suspect that the President will rely on his man Friday Jojo Ochoa, who has actually become a very powerful person in the country—some say equalling the power of the President.

Assuming this is true, this is probably one of the reasons why Mar Roxas is also so confident of winning. But VP Binay is equally confident of winning in spite of his fast- deteriorating poll numbers. This showed in that last debate. Maybe he has also an ace hidden up his sleeve. The recruitment of Ronnie Puno as reported in the media a few weeks ago brought a lot of rejoicing in the VP Binay camp and seemed to have rejuvenated the campaign of the vice president. The administration has been working relentlessly to bring him down.

Ronnie Puno has of course the reputation of making presidents. This is the reason he is a much sought-after political operator in every election. This was built with years of experience which started during Martial Law when he worked in the Ministry of Interior and Local Government under the late Minister Jose Roño. In the 2010 elections, the last time I had a firsthand knowledge of what happened, Ronnie Puno was then the powerful DILG secretary and worked for the admin-

istration candidate.

During that election, much as he tried to prevent the victory of President Aquino, he failed simply because the lead of President Aquino was such that it was impossible to reverse. I know that Puno’s group also tried to erase the result of the presidential elections but failed.

Since the electronic counting was still at its infancy in 2010, a lot of errors were committed.

Since then, however, the technology for electronic fraud must have improved to a level that is now a lot more sophisticated.

Unfortunately, I am no longer able to verify this. What I know is that Jojo Ochoa and Ronnie Puno have been friends since 2010. The last time I had any contact with people who knew Puno’s work in the 2010 elections, was that both he and Jojo Ochoa also worked together in the 2013 elections. This was in the middle of 2013. It stands to reason therefore that both could be working together again if at all.

But Ronnie Puno as we know is now with VP Binay while Jojo Ochoa is with the administration.

Since both VP Binay and Mar Roxas cannot obviously both win, the side that actually possesses the technology will win. But we do not know whether Mayor Duterte and Senator Poe also have something up their sleeve. That’s also possible. What is scary would be if we end up with a president winning because he or she has the better special operations group.

THE UNDECIDED AND THE UNHEARD MINORITY REPORT DANILO SUAREZ ELECTION surveys remain as curious as they have been in the past. One of its curiosities is how they have both a disconnect from reality and an effect on reality. These are two of the most discussed topics when it comes to opinions and analyses of election surveys.

Another path of discussing election surveys is the context of when the surveys were conducted, in an effort to explain the rise and fall in the rankings of the candidates. In a way, these are attempts to translate graphs and numbers into words. Almost everything else are just variations of these themes.

So let’s get into a different variation.

If there is a number most often overlooked in discussing election surveys, it would have to be the number of undecided respondents, or those who have yet to make up their minds on whom to vote for.

Recent surveys for the May elections show that the percentage of the undecided fluc-

tuates from somewhere as high as six percent to as low as three percent. It seems to be a really low number if the number tries to represent the entire voting population of the country.

The curious number of undecided voters could stem from the way the survey question was crafted. The question usually takes the form of “If the elections were held today, who would you vote for president?” An undecided voter being asked this question has a few ways to react to this question with varying reasons for each: The undecided voter would choose a candidate from a list because he or she is compelled to give an answer to the survey-taker by some form of hiya, pakisama, or peer pressure. The undecided voter could also choose a candidate from the top of his or her mind, which could be the success of political ads, catchy jingles, or the noise a candidate makes over media, but does not necessarily reflect a rational and well-thought out choice. Or the undecided voter can just flatly say he or she has not made a choice yet.

There are a number of reasons for being “not undecided” out there, but the question to the

question should be “Does this number truly reflect the mindset of the electorate?”

Political analysts say that 20 percent to 30 percent of the country’s voting population remains undecided up until election day. The surveys should verify this and ask respondents if they are prone to changing their minds even after identifying a candidate. Moreover, some surveys tend to lump together in the “undecided” category those who do not have an answer or those who are not voting.

This now begs the question: How reliable are these surveys if there is doubt in the number of the undecided? If there is indeed such a small fraction of the electorate who are yet to make a choice, then the purpose of holding the presidential debates is reduced to the networks profiting from advertising spots instead of voter education.

And speaking of profits, would not the pollsters be beholden to the whims of those who commission the surveys?

The surveys should declare if there were other specific terms of the research method were identified by those who commissioned it. For example, were the pollsters asked to get respondents from specific barangays,

or even entire towns? We appreciate every bit of information that contributes to the veracity and transparency of the study, but the electorate is entitled to the disclosure of information that is pertinent in interpreting the survey results.

In addition, we must ask how can the surveys account for the amount of grassroots support a candidate receive. No, they are not the “silent majority” as some candidates and their supporters would claim. They are the unheard majority, the ones in the periphery of television cameras, the ambient noise from the radio, the fine print mistaken as margins. In a battle waged by and with numbers, observers tend to overlook the individual whose vote counts for oneself and shows up in the political rallies. Pollsters and critics need to get a feel of how the groundlevel political actions move, of what grassroots support feels like, of how a political machinery churns.

Come election day, we will see what the survey numbers cannot measure: adherence to a principled vision for a country that brings down fences for those who sit on it. Come election day, the undecided will finally be heard.

THE ANTI-...

From A10

I get that Trudeau is such a good-looking head of state that he made even supposedly hard-nosed Manila journalists write front-page fluff pieces about him when the Canadian PM was in town for the recent Apec summit. And there’s really nothing the appearance-challenged Aquino can do to beat Trudeau in the looks department.

But I really wish sometimes that Aquino were half as focused on his job as any other head of state. After all, if only he’d shown a little more caring and competence, then maybe he wouldn’t have to campaign so hard for his candidates, just so he doesn’t end up in jail after his term, in part for doing almost nothing and for always reacting too slow. *** I apologize for asserting in my last column that polling company Social Weather Stations conducted a traditional survey when it came up with that now-famous “jump” that put Leni Robredo in a statistical tie with the frontrunner in the vice presidential race, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It turns out that SWS used another unusual method in their last survey—a “secret balloting” method.

Nothing wrong with that, really, except that SWS also acted like the Commission on Elections in its survey when it invalidated a percentage of the respondents’ votes for improper shading.

If the government ever decides to outsource the entire electoral system, I expect SWS to make a serious bid for the contract.

By not counting five percent of its “ballots,” SWS came up with mostly the same results as other polling firms in the presidential race. But when it came to the VP contest, Robredo’s numbers suddenly and inexplicably jumped.

Someone reminded me that SWS also conducted that 2004 exit poll which had Gloria Arroyo beating Fernando Poe Jr. in Metro Manila in the presidential contest that year. The actual, official balloting found that the reverse was actually true.

Again, I’m not making this up. Then again, I’m not SWS, either.

POP GOES THE WORLD JENNY ORTUOSTE Ms. Ortuoste’s column will resume soon.

THURSDAY: APRIL 28, 2016

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Raptors stun Pacers, Hawks soar DEMAR DeRozan returned to form with 34 points as the Toronto Raptors overturned a double-digit deficit to defeat the Indiana Pacers 102-99 and seize control of their best-of-seven playoff series on Tuesday.

DeRozan, who had entered the game averaging just 13.3 points, turned on the style as the Raptors fought back from 13 points down to seal a win which gives them a 3-2 lead.

“I felt like my normal self,” said a relieved DeRozan, who admitted Toronto had struggled to concentrate as the Pacers took an early lead.

“Me and the guys weren’t think-

ing too hard. It’s all about patience, you can’t get flustered, you can’t get frustrated, you’ve got to stay the course. And that’s what we’re going to continue to do, whatever it takes to win,” DeRozan said.

Toronto had found themselves staring down the barrel of a home defeat after Indiana raced into a 90-77 lead in the third quarter.

But a 15-2 Raptors points blitz in the opening 5 minutes, 29 sec-

ond of the fourth quarter hauled the home side back into the contest with rookie Norman Powell scoring a monster dunk to tie it 92-92.

DeRozan then stepped up to drain a three-pointer to give the Raptors their first lead as Toronto held on for a pulsating win.

Pacers star Paul George had a game-high 39 points including eight rebounds and eight assists while George Hill added 15 points and Myles Turner had 14.

George bemoaned the Pacers’ failure to hang on for what would have been a potentially pivotal road victory.

“We didn’t make enough plays, that is what it came down to in the fourth quarter,” said George. “We have to put this (game) away. Friday (Game 6) is a new day and we have to get a win -- it’s a must win.

It’s awful to have a chance to win on the road and then come back home, but we failed to live up to the moment.”

The Pacers had appeared to be firmly in control after opening up a 61-52 halftime lead.

Indiana had looked the more polished side throughout the opening half, with George scoring 22 of his points in the first two quarters.

Toronto had lagged 35-20 after

the first quarter following Indiana’s freescoring start. George led the Pacers scoring with 12 points and four assists in the quarter while Hill added nine points.

In Tuesday’s other game, Atlanta also took a 3-2 series lead after a blowout 110-83 win against the Boston Celtics.

Atlanta’s Mike Scott top scored after weighing in with 17 points off the bench as the Hawks hassled the Celtics into 19 turnovers in what rapidly became a rout.

The victory means Atlanta lead 3-2 in the best-of-seven series heading into Game Six in Boston on Thursday. AFP

Russia in frantic race to reach Rio THERE are just 100 days until the Rio Olympics and defending women’s high jump champion Anna Chicherova is in limbo as Russia fights for a place in the athletics contest.

While the Russian government and sports authorities race to overcome a huge doping scandal, Chicherova is perfecting her technique at a training centre in Sochi.

“We are preparing for the Olympic Games regardless of what lies ahead,” Chicherova told AFP. “I am training for results.”

Rio 2016 would be Chicherova’s fourth, and possibly last, Olympics. The doping scandal that has hit her sport has caused widespread doubt.

“There are times when you don’t know where you’re going, when you lose sight of the goal,” she said.

“I have experienced many things on an emotional level from this situation, from desperation to not understanding what is going on.”

The International Associaton of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspended Russia in November after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commission said there was “state-sponsored” doping and widespread corruption in Russian sport.

The IAAF said last month that Russia still has “considerable work” to do to be reinstated. A decision on whether Russia can return for the Rio Olympics will not be made until June.

The suspension means Russian athletes are excluded from money-spinning international events like the Diamond League. They can now only gauge themselves against domestic rivals.

Sergey Klevtsov, longtime coach of world champion hurdler Sergey Shubenkov, told AFP that trainers are trying to compensate for the lack of international competition at such a key time. AFP

DeMar DeRozan (no. 10) of the Toronto Raptors drives to the basket past Ian Mahinmi (no. 28) of the Indiana Pacers in Game Five of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals during the 2016 NBA Playoffs at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. AFP

Indonesian officials meet FIFA president over crisis

INDONESIAN officials have met with FIFA president Gianni Infantino in Zurich in a bid to end the crisis engulfing football in the Southeast Asian nation.

It’s been nearly a year since FIFA slapped Indonesia with a ban from international football, leaving players, coaches and clubs in limbo.

FIFA took action after a feud between Indonesia’s football association, known as the PSSI, and its sports ministry saw the country’s top-flight tournament suspended.

FIFA takes a dim view of governments interfering in domestic associations, and issued the ban after repeated warnings.

Infantino met Tuesday with Agum Gumelar, the head of the PSSI’s interim reform committee, and Erick Thohir, chair-

man of the Indonesian Olympic Committee and owner of Italian club Inter Milan, to discuss the crisis.

“In-depth and very fruitful discussions were held and all parties shared the genuine desire to resolve the suspension of the PSSI as soon as possible,” FIFA said in a statement posted on its website.

The football federation said it remained “ready to assist” Indonesia’s domestic football league throughout this process and hoped to bring Indonesia back to the international fold.

Despite the ban, Indonesia earlier this month expressed interest in hosting the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. It has also launched an interim football league, to start later this month, as a substitute until the disagreement is resolved. AFP

In full swing. This handout photo taken and received from OneAsia 2016 shows Zhang Lianwei of China hitting a shot during the Pro-Am event ahead of the Volvo China Open golf tournament at the Topwin Golf and Country Club in Beijing. AFP

THURSDAY: APRIL 28, 2016

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Suson, Velez hog spotlight YOUNG CJ Thalia Suson drew inspiration from the home crowd as she racked up two victories to share center stage with Davao ace Patricia Velez in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala regional age-group tennis tournament at the Mactan Island Lawn and Airbase Tennis Club in Cebu recently.

The second-seeded Suson, one of the rising stars from Liloan, upended No. 1 Chad Cuizon, 4-2, 4-0, to snare the 10-unisex crown then, as top seed, hit clutch winners to ward off Nicole Villar and clinch the 12-and-under title in the Group 2 event sponsored

by Palawan Pawnshop and presented by Slazenger.

The third seeded Velez, on the other hand, wore down No. 2 Gennifer Pagente in a thrilling threesetter, hacking out a 6-2, 6-7(2), 11-9 victory in the girls’ 16-U finals then overpowered Kristin Salimbangon, 6-1, 6-1, to complete a twinkill in the premier 18-U section.

Unranked local bet Nicole dela Rita worked her way up from a couple of walkover wins, a shock 6-0, 7-6(3) over second seed Lyra Repollo in the quarters and a 7-6 (2), 6-1 stunner over No. 4 Bless Coderos in the semis with an imposing 6-0, 6-2 romp over fellow giantkiller Nicole Villar to bag the girls’ 14-U crown in the event sanctioned by Philta and backed by Asiatraders Corp., exclusively distributor of Slazenger, the official ball.

Matt Palasan from Cagayan de Oro and Koronadal’s Janus Ringia split the top crowns in the boys’ side at each other’s expense with the former taking the 18-U plum with a 6-3, 6-4 win and the latter striking back with a 6-2, 7-6(4) triumph in the 16-U finals.

Stiffer penalties for phone use THE Philippine Racing Commission recently set stiffer penalties for mobile phone use by Philracom licensees in restricted areas to better protect the interests of the betting public.

Players from the Tali FC cheer Kaya FC during its Asian Football Confederation game against HK’s Kitchee.

Young footballers back Kaya FC IT’S not easy to bring people together.

But the universal language of sports prompts individuals to unite towards a shared vision, purpose and direction that allows them to succeed as a team.

It’s this value of teamwork that became the highlight of the recent AFC match between Philippine team, Kaya FC, versus Hong Kong’s Kitchee SC, held at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

“As someone who played football as a kid, I have come to recognize that success is all about the team. Whether we’re

talking about a sports, work, school— any community for that matter—working as a team means each one cares more about the vision and purpose of their task. It’s a value that we at LBC are fortunately able to demonstrate through our support for Kaya,” said Santi Araneta of LBC Express.

Joining him as spectators for this critical game were the the young fans of the team from Tali FC, who travelled all the way from Nasugbu, Batangas, coached by Kim Limboc.

“Fan talaga kami ng Kaya—at the same time, Kaya sets such an example for my team, gaya ng teamwork, sportsmanship and integrity,” he noted.

Indeed, few other opportunities can put the spotlight on the kind of values that inspire today’s youth to work towards a united goal—that’s what Kaya is playing for. And as demonstrated by the groundswell of support from football enthusiasts around the city who came to cheer for Kaya, it’s the kind of teamwork that translates beyond the field.

Lu, Kawamura barge into quarterfinals UNFANCIED Mark Lu and Japanese Takuya Kawamura hacked out a pair of upset victories each in a grueling day to crash into the quarterfinal round of the 2016 Philippine Amateur Open Match Play Championship at the Orchard Golf and Country Club in Dasmariñas, Cavite Wednesday.

Top seed Rupert Zaragosa and No. 2 Tom Kim of Korea also scored expected two-win feats in the day but the No. 25 Lu and No. 29 Kawamura took the spotlight by bundling out higher ranked rivals to clinch berths in the Last 8 phase of the event sponsored by the MVP Sports Foundation, Smart,

PLDT, the Philippine Sports Commission and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

Lu surprised No. 8 Lanz Uy, 1-up, in the morning duel then came back in the afternoon to ease out No. 9 Jay-R Salahog, 1-up, while Kawamura dominated club bet and No. 4 Ace Stehmeier, 4&3, in the first round of the knockout phase then tripped No. 13 Ricar Candinato, 3&2.

But Lu would need a mix of talent and luck as he slugs it out with Zaragosa in today’s featured match for a spot in the semifinals, also set this afternoon.

The fancied Zaragosa rolled past Eric

Gallardo, 5&3, in the morning then held off Ira Alido, 2&1, to take the first quarters berth.

Kawamura, on the other hand, will battle No. 5 Luigi Guerrero, who beat Brixton Aw, 3&2, and nipped Rolando Pila, 2-up.

Kim, winner of the Philippine Junior stroke play crown two weeks ago, clobbered Marc Corrales, 6&5, then foiled John Jun, 2-up, to lead the cast in the lower half of the draw in the event organized and conducted by the National Golf Association of the Philppines and held as PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour.

Resolution No. 30-16, passed April 13, amends Philippine racing rule (PR) 60 by updating it to reflect current technological trends in communication and sets harsher suspension periods and fines.

Among the banned gadgets from the stewards’ and judges’ stands, jockeys’ quarters, paddocks, starting gate, and computer room (for the pari-mutuel system) are “cellular or mobile phones, personal digital assistants, smartphones, and other similar communication devices that use wireless communication network or the internet.”

Any Philracom licensee, including horseowners, trainers, and jockeys, caught in the “use or possession” of the listed devices in the restricted areas during racedays shall be meted a suspension of six months and fine of P30,000 for the first offense; one year suspension and fine of P60,000 for the second offense; and revocation of license and/or a fine of P100,000 for the third offense.

The suspension periods were doubled from the previous three months and six months for the first and second offenses, while from a one-year suspension for the third offense, the penalty is now revocation of license.

Racing clubs are mandated to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and audio equipment in the restricted areas for monitoring by the management of the racing club and Philracom.

The amended PR 60 also instructs racing clubs to promulgate rules and regulations with regard to violation of this rule by nonlicensed personnel.

Phoenix slalom goes to Pampanga RACE Motorsports Club’s first Phoenix National Slalom Series out-of-town slalom event erupts on Sunday at Robinsons Starmills in Pampanga.

Registration for the longestrunning motorsports event in the country begins at 8 a.m., with the open practice runs set from 8 to 10 a.m. In between from 9 to 10 a.m. is a free slalom clinic for participants.

Official practice sessions are slated from 11 a.m., with only one official practice session given to all participants regardless of how many classes or cars he/she is entered.

Each participating driver will receive 4 liters (1 gallon) of Phoenix Accelerate Fully Synthetic Oil.

To accumulate points for the overall and class championships, contenders must use the specified Federal Tyres for at least nine or 75% of the series. They must also possess the Automobile Association of the Philippines Clubman license.

All drivers will be charged an additional fee of P300 per leg for the AAP Clubman License.

The National Slalom event is affiliated with the AAP and FIA. Now leading the series is 2015 national champion Milo Rivera of Tough Gear Racing, followed by Dr. Peewee Mendiola of Team Big Chill and Dion Ortiz of the AF Racing Team.

Winners of the third leg last April 24 will get their awards on Sunday.

The series is presented by Phoenix Premium 98 and Phoenix Accelerate Fully Synthetic Oil, with the backing of major sponsors Federal Tyres, Outlast Battery and Robinsons Starmills. It is also supported by Starbright Body Kits, Auto Transporter, media partners Stoplight TV, C! Magazine, Auto Industriya and Ride and Drive Philippines.

For details, contact Bing Bang Dulce at tel. nos.

928-6951, 0922-8165344 or 0917-8119337; e-mail racemotorsportsclub@yahoo. com or Race Motorsports Club’s Facebook page.

Abet Reyes of Team All Fish negotiates the race course during the third leg of the Phoenix National Slalom Series.

T H U R S D AY : A P R I L 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Foton gets light Asian volley bracket THE Philippines’ Foton squad landed on a light group after the drawing of lots yesterday for the Asian Volleyball Confederation Asian Women’s Club Championship at the Foton showroom in Quezon City.

The Toplander—the reigning Philippine Superliga Grand Prix champion—fell in Group A together with lightweights Hong Kong and Vietnam in this prestigious regional club tourney set Sept. 3 to 11.

Southeast Asian powerhouse Thailand will be in Group B, together with North Korea and Iran, while Japan will be joining Kazakhstan and Indonesia in Group C. Group D, meanwhile, will be composed of China, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia and Turkmekistan.

“We like where we landed,” said Proponents of the Asian Volleyball Confederation Asian Women’s Club Championship are shown after the drawing of lots. They are (from left) PSL Chairman Philip Ella Juico, AVC technical delegate Jaksuwan Tocharoen of Thailand, Larong Volleyball chief Joey Romasanta and PSL President Tats Suzara. ROMAN PROSPERO

Republic of the Philippines Province of Cagayan MUNICIPALITY OF CALAYAN Calayan, Cagayan Invitation to Bid for CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY FISH LANDING CENTER 1. The Municipal Government of Calayan has received Grant from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Recourses (BFAR) toward the cost of Construction of Community Water System, and it intends to apply whole of the proceeds of this Grant Financing to payments under the contract for Construction of Community Water System.

2. The Municipal Government of Calayan intends to apply the sum of TWO MILLION E I G H T H U N D R E D F I F T Y T H O U S A N D P E S O S & 0 0 /100 (Php2,850,000.00), being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to Payments under the contract for the CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY FISH LANDING CENTER AT P O B L A C I O N , CALAYAN, CAGAYAN. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

3. The Municipal Government of Calayan now invites bids for the CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY FISH LANDING CENTER AT POBLACION CALAYAN, CAGAYAN.

San Rafael batters sustain form THE San Rafael, Bulacan men’s team continued to flash top form, trouncing Rizal Technological University, 3-1, to force a three-way tie for the lead in the men’s division of the 10th Summer Grand Slam tournament at the Batangas Sports Complex in Batangas Wednesday.

The victory came on the heels of the Bulacan batters’ 12-2 romp over Montalban, Rizal the other day as they hiked their record to 3-1 in a tie with their latest victims and the Lipa City bets in Division B. In the other results,

Project Engineer, Carpenter, Steelman, Mason, Welder, Painter, General Foreman

Equipment

1-Bagger Cem. Mixer, Concrete Vibrator, Welding Machine, Generator Hand Tools

PCAB

Small B Category C & D

Bar Cutter,

4. Completion of the Works is required for One Hundred fifty (150) Calendar Days.Bidders should have completed, within five (5) years from 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 Bidders.

5. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using non-discretionary pass/fail criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9184 (RA 9184), otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

“Since we started planning for this year’s Summer Grand Slam, I have no doubt that this will be the most exciting softball season yet,” said ASAPHIL president Jean Henri Lhuillier.

“I’m just glad that through this tourney, we have provided a positive environment for participation, development, fun, and teamwork for our athletes, all while developing an appreciation and love for the game of softball,” added Lhuillier, also the president and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.

Close to 50 teams nationwide are battling for the tournament’s coveted cup, which is by far the biggest number of participants the tournament has ever had since it was launched in 2006. The tournament also drew softball teams from Indonesia and Malaysia in the Open divisions.

Gunning for title repeats are Adamson University (women’s Open), University of the Philippines (women’s Club), the Philippine Air Force (men’s Open), and the San Antonio Bobcats (men’s Club).

I N V I TAT I O N TO B I D ( I T B -16 - 017 ) PU RC H A S E O F T W O (2) U N I T S A M B U L A N C E V E H I C L E FO R E M E RG E N CY A N D R E S P O N S E PU R P O S E S 1. The MUNICIPALITY OF PATEROS through the 2016 LGU-DRRM FUND intends to apply the sum of THREE MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND PESOS (P3,600,000.00) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for the above mentioned procurement. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

2.

The MUNICIPALITY OF PATEROS now invites bids for the PURCHASE OF TWO (2) UNITS AMBULANCE VEHICLE FOR EMERGENCY AND RESPONSE PURPOSES. Delivery of materials is immediately upon RECEIPT OF THE PURCHASE ORDER. Bidders should have completed, within two (2) years prior to 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 Bidders.

3.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using non-discretionary pass/ fail criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 9184 (RA 9184), otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

6. Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least seventy five percent (75%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

7. Interested bidders may obtain further information from BAC Office, Calayan Municipal Hall Poblacion, Calayan, Cagayan on April 28,2016 to May 30,2016 and may inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 08:00AM to 05:00PM from MONDAY to FRIDAY.

hometown favorite Lipa City essayed a 14-7 victory over the fancied Benguet Phantoms while the Montalban, Rizal squad bounced back with a 7-0 demolition of the Alabang Coaches in the country’s premier softball tournament sanctioned by the Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, UM Davao blanked PUP Alumni, 3-0, in the women’s Division B of the annual event which lured the country’s top teams in the men’s and women’s Open and the men’s and women’s Club.

Municipality of Pateros OFFICE OF THE MAYOR BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE Metropolitan Manila

ProspectiveBiddersshouldpossess thefollowing: Technical Personnel

Foton team manager Alvin Lu after the brief ceremony graced by Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. president Joey Romasanta, AVC marketing and development committee chairman Ramon “Tats” Suzara and AVC technical delegate Jaksuwan Tocharoen of Thailand.

“With this, we can now start our preparation for the tough grind ahead. We will complete our lineup next week and schedule our international training, probably in Thailand, very soon.”

Aside from the core of the squad that defeated Petron in a

heart-stopping fashion for the PSL Grand Prix crown last December, Foton will be employing the services of some PSL stars.

Lu confirmed that Aby Marano of F2 Logistics, Jen Reyes and Aiza Pontillas of Petron, Rachel Anne Daquis, Jovelyn Gonzaga, Tina Salak and Honey Royse Tubino of RC Cola-Army will be invited to join the team that will be powered by American imports Ariel Usher and Lindsay Stalzer.

“We want to have an early preparation and we’re looking to assemble a very strong and fighting team,” Lu said. “Hopefully, we can land in the Top 4.”

Romasanta said he is satisfied with the outcome of the drawing of lots and hopes that a successful participation will pave the way for the resurgence of Philippine volleyball in the international level.

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least seventy five percent (75%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

8. A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders from the address below and upon payment of a nonrefundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount of Php. 5,000.00.

4.

9. It may also be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) and the website of the Procuring Entity, provided that bidders shall pay the fee for the Bidding Documents not later that the submission of their bids.

Interested bidders may obtain further information from BAC OFFICE, Mezzanine, Municipal Hall, Pateros, Metro Manila and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from April 19 to May 16, 2016 from 8:00 to 5:00 p.m

5.

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders from the address below and upon payment of a non refundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount of FIVE THOUSAND PESOS (P5,000.00) on April 19 – May 04, 2016 from 8:00-5:00 p.m.

10. The Local Government of Calayan will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on May 18, 2016 @ 2:00 PM at, BAC Office, Calayan Municipal Hall which shall be open to all interested parties.

11. Bids must be delivered to the address below on or before May 30, 2016 at 1 2:00PM at BAC Office, Calayan Municipal Hall. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause18.

6. Pre-Bid Conference is scheduled on May 04, 2016, 2:00 p.m. at the Conference Room, 3rd floor, Municipal Hall.

7. All bids should be place on the BID BOX located at the CONFERENCE ROOM, 3/F, MUNICIPAL HALL, PATEROS, METRO MANILA on May 16, 2016, not later than 1:30 p.m.

8.

Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below.

Late bids shall not be accepted.

12. Bids will be opened in MUNICIPAL CONFERENCE ROOM ON MAY 30, 2016 @ 2:00PM the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below. Late bids shall not be accepted.

13. The Local Government of Calayan reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at anytime prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in the form of CASH OR MANAGER’S CHECK PAYABLE TO MUNICIPALITY OF PATEROS and in the amount stated in ITB Clause.

Bids shall be opened on May 16, 2016 @ 2:00 P.M.. at the Conference Room, 3/F, Municipal Hall, Pateros, Metro Manila.

9.

The MUNICIPALITY OF PATEROS THRU BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE (BAC) reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

14. For further information,please refer to: 10. For further information, please refer to:

ROMEL P. REMOLACIO BAC Secretariat

( T S - A P R . 2 8 , 2 016)

DR. MARK JOLEEN M. CALBAN, MD Chairman, Bids and Awards Committee +639989728243

ARLENE P. ORTIZ Head, BAC Secretariat Pateros, Metro Manila Telefax: 641-7195, e-mail: arlene@pateros.gov.ph April 19, 2016

(TS-APR. 28, 2016)

(SGD) ADELIO T. DOMINGO Chairman Bids and Awards Committee

T H U R S D AY : A P R I L 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

A15

SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

LOTTO RESULTS

6/55 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0 M+ 6/45 00-00-00-00-00-00 P0 M 4 DIGITS 0-0-0-0 3 DIGITS 0-0-0 2 EZ2 0-0

Nietes leads Pinoy Pride 36

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Chihiro Ikeda (left) rode on an explosive frontside charge for a two-under 69, leading amateur Bernice Ilas (right) by two at the start of the ICTSI Beverly Place Challenge in Mexico, Pampanga Wednesday.

Ikeda nets a 69, leads by 2 CHIHIRO Ikeda rode on an explosive frontside charge to wrest control then birdied the last hole to cushion the impact of a faltering finish for a two-under 69 and a two-stroke lead over amateur Bernice Ilas at the start of the ICTSI Beverly Place Challenge in Mexico, Pampanga yesterday.

A perennial contender but never a winner on the fledgling Ladies Philippine Golf Tour, Ikeda took one big step in her pursuit of the elusive crown, taming the flat par34-37 Beverly Place Golf Club layout with three birdies at the front

then birdying the par-5 closing hole to negate her bogey mishaps on Nos. 10 and 17.

“The course is tricky that’s why I’m wary to commit mistakes,” said Ikeda, a former SEA Games gold medalist who had a number

of runner-up finishes in the fouryear-old circuit. She bucked the bunker laden layout with superb iron play, ramming in birdies on Nos. 1, 7 and 9 inside five feet only to lose her rhythm at the back.

“I just hope to keep my lead and finally win. My last victory was way back during my amateur days,” said Ikeda.

With majority of the other pros groping for form despite coming off back-to-back stints in the Taiwan LPGA Tour here, Ilas assumed the early challenger’s role with a two-birdie, two-bogey stint for a

71 while Ilas’ The Country Club teammate Mikha Fortuna missed grabbing solo third with a bogey on the par-5 17th and wound up with a 73 in a tie with Lovelyn Guioguio, who gunned down four birdies but had the same number of bogeys with one double bogey in hot, humid condition.

“I took it one shot at a time and made sure I stayed focused throughout. Everything went great and I enjoyed playing with the pros and to have learned from them. I am blessed to have played well today (yesterday),” said Ilas.

Ceres-La Salle makes KO stage after scoreless draw CERES-La Salle played Selangor to a scoreless draw Tuesday in the 2016 AFC Cup Group E encounters at the Selayang Stadium in Malaysia.

This allowed the team from the Philippines to earn their place in the knockout stage with one game remaining after notching their third draw against two wins in five games.

SYLVIA LOPEZ ALEJANDRO

Selangor moved into second place in Group E with their 2-2-1 win-drawloss slate.

Because of this, Selangor needs at least a draw in the final group game at Singapore’s National Stadium against Tampines on May 10 to make it to the next phase.

Selangor struggled to break through

the Filipinos’ defense, but their Liberian star Patrick Wleh nearly scored following a substitution after 19 minutes.

Ceres made an attempt before the 30th minute mark, but a well-struck free-kick from Stephan Schrock was blocked inside the box.

Mauro Olivi then dribbled through the right side of the Ceres defense. But

his shot from a tight angle was turned around the post.

Olivi then went close with a wicked low shot from outside the box and it rolled just past the Philippine post.

Schrock then tried to score again, sending in a long ball into the path of Adrian Gallardo, who pulled his shot wide. Peter Atencio

THREE top fighters from the famed ALA Gym will see action in the “Pinoy Pride 36” fight card aptly titled “Legend in the Making,” a tribute to WBO light flyweight champion Donnie Nietes, the longest-reigning Filipino world champion, who will battle Raul “Rayito” Gracia at the University of La Salle Coliseum in Bacolod City on May 28.

Two other ALA boxers—Milan Melindo and King Arthur Villanueva—who are both striving to regain their rankings following controversial defeats last year, will be featured in the attractive card presented in cooperation with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN. While it may not be as riveting as the massively successful “It’s About Time” presentation at the Cebu City Sports Center last April 23 before 25,000 cheering fight fans, the Bacolod City card headlined by Melindo, who is a favorite son of Murcia, a town on the outskirts of Bacolod, is bound to attract a huge crowd.

This is because fans clamored for ALA Promotions to give them another chance to see Nietes in action after he won the accolade of surpassing the longtime record of the late, great world junior lightweight champion Gabriel “Flash” Elorde.

Nietes, who won the world light flyweight title with a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision over Ramon Garcia Hirales, the identical twin brother of “Rayito” Garcia on October 8, 2011, faces the 32-year-old southpaw, who is determined to avenge his twin brother’s defeat and has an impressive record of 36-3-1 with 22 knockouts.

But the 33-year-old Nietes (37 wins, 21 knockouts, with one highly questionable loss in Indonesia to Angky Angota early in his career) is aiming to cement his status as a true legend of the sport.

Bocchi plays golf with Cruijff I AM reprinting famous bridge player Norberto

Bocchi’s column here.

Another myth has gone. RIP, Johan Cruijff.

The passing of Johan Cruijff put the world to a halt here in my city Barcelona. The importance of Curijff for football, FC Barcelona and the Catalonian people, is enormous. Here in Barcelona, people constantly compare Curijff to God. I think that’s not right. I mean, he was good indeed, he was great, but he was no Cruijff.

I will tell you a true story. I have played golf with Cruijff a full day in 2010. There, he told me about his interest in other sports. Hearing that I was from Italy, he started talking about volleyball. Italy had the best volleyball team in the world in the nineties, but Cruijff was a fan of the sport and of the Dutch team led by legendary coach Ari Selinger. He teamed up with Selinger and told him how to win against the Italians.

He went even as far as suggesting to lose a match in the group phase of the 1992 Olympics here in Barcelona, so they would get the almighty Italians in the quarterfinals as opponents. In a thrilling match the Dutch indeed beat the Italians. Four years later, the Dutch team again beat the Italians, this time in the Olympic final in Atlanta. So you can say that Cruijff robbed Italy of two Olympic volleyball gold medals.

Then I told him about my sport, bridge, and my team and ranking in the world, and about the upcoming World Championships, Cruijff-as an avid amateur

card player-knew the sport and was very interested to hear about the promising Dutch team. He said-smiling-he would contact the coach and join the staff in the preparations for Veldhoven. “I will tell them how to beat Italy, just as in volleyball”, he said with a big smile, and we laughed out loud.

Funny as it was at the time, it crept into my head when I was playing in Veldhoven. The Dutch were so confident, smiling almost arrogantly as they walked around. When chatting with Sjoert, he casually said somewhere “but we have Cruijff. That was a big mind blow. You know by now that I didn’t play at my best in the semi-finals. Not at all. It was a mind thing. Cruijff had robed Italy again.

-oOoWorld champs Brink and Drijver hired by Angelini Dutch superstars Sjoert Brink and Bas DrijverBermuda Bowl winners from Veldhoven 2011 – will play for Atalian Angelini team on the upcoming Italian Open Team Championships. These Spring Championships (as this event usually is called in Italy) will take place from April 28 to May 1 in the historic town of Salsomaggiore Terme (near Parma), Italy. In a recent interview Francesco Angelini said: “Our primary goal has always been to hire the best players”.

So it comes as no surprise that Mr. Angelini has hired the two World Champions.

Brink and Drijver will form a team together with Italian aces Lorenzo Lauria and Alfredo Versace (who won last year in team Zaleski). It is likely that

Mr. Angelini will also play in his new team.

I feature the recent match in the Italian Championships 2016 how close the match of Angelini with Lavazza were. This was RR79 Angelini BR won over Lavazza 21-19.

North Bildo ♠Q98 ♥A1065 ♦J32 ♣873 West East Tokay Versace ♠KJ4 ♠A107653 ♥7 ♥QJ ♦AQ109 ♦K7 ♣KQ1052 ♣A96 South Duboin ♠2 ♥K98432 ♦8654 ♣J4 West North East South 2♣ Pass 2♠ Pass 2NT Pass 3♦ Pass 3♥ Pass 3♠ Pass 4♣ Pass 4♦ Pass 4♥ Pass 6♣ Pass Pass Pass

West Biaachedi ♠KJ4 ♥7 ♦AQ109 ♣KQ1052

North Sementa ♠Q98 ♥A1065 ♦J32 ♣873

East Madala ♠A107653 ♥QJ ♦K7 ♣A96

South Cima ♠2 ♥K98432 ♦8654 ♣J4 West North East South 2♣ Pass 3♣ Pass 3♦ Pass 3NT Pass 4♦ Pass 4♠ Pass 4NT Pass 5♥ Pass 6♣ Pass Pass Pass The above deal in Board 18 illustrates the importance of the opening lead. The commentary of pelu said the diamond lead in the closed room allowed the heart to be gone. It was the heart in the Open Room that defeated the six clubs.

Comments to: sylvia.alejandro@yahoo

A16

T H U R S DAY : A P R I L 2 8 , 2 0 16 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

Painters go for clincher vs SMB Game Today (Smart Araneta Coliseum) 7 p.m. - Rain or Shine vs. San Miguel

By Jeric Lopez

Alyssa Valdez of Ateneo scores against La Salle’s Kiana Dy Kim and Mary Joy Baron. LINO SANTOS

Lady Eagles stay alive, force deciding Game 3

By Peter Atencio

THE defending champion Ateneo Lady Eagles fought back from two sets down and repulsed the La Salle Lady Spikers, 18-25, 26-28, 25-15, 25-18, 15-11, to tie the best-ofseven UAAP volleyball finals at the Mall of Asia Arena at one win apiece and remain in contention for their third straight crown.

Season Most Valuable Player Alyssa Valdez, one of three players on their final year with the team, struck with 34 points and scored the key points in the last two sets to stop La Salle’s

Raptors grab 3-2 lead over Pacers TURN TO A13

bid for a sweep.

The Lady Spikers kept matters tight until the fifth set, when Valdez struck twice in succession to give Ateneo a three-point edge, 9-6.

Valdez also shone in de-

fense, as she came up with a block and another killshot to hand Ateneo a decisive 11-7 spread.

“Hindi pa tapos. We’ll see you (them) Saturday,” said Valdez, who hit three points with her frontline spikes and allowed Ateneo to shatter 5-all tie as the Lady Eagles moved away, 10-5, in the third.

The Lady Eagles, who will meet the Lady Spikers in the deciding Game 3 at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, should have won the second set, but blew a 24-20 lead, as La Salle charged back with an 8-2 run.

In the men’s side, graduat-

ing student Ysay Marasigan made the crucial plays in the second set to lead the Ateneo Blue Eagles to their second straight men’s division title.

The 22-year-old Marasigan struck for 12 points, including three of the last four points scored on attacks in the second set.

His performance helped propel the Blue Eagles to a 2516, 25-20, 25-19, (3-0) victory over the National University Bulldogs in Game 2 of their best-of-three finals series.

Marasigan was later named Finals’ MVP as the Blue Eagles went on to complete a two-game sweep at the end of

Ikeda sizzles with a 69 TURN TO A15

their 71-minute showdown.

“The players delivered.

They believed that they are worthy. ‘Yun ang importante,” said Ateneo coach Oliver Almadro.

Playing a consistent game, the Blue Eagles had little trouble taking a 16-8 lead in the first period.

In the third set, Joshua Villanueva’s kill and block allowed Ateneo to move away, 9-4.

NU missed the crown for a second straight season.

The Bulldogs last won the crown via a 2-game sweep over the same team in Season 77.

GO for the jugular.

That’s what Rain or Shine aims to do when it shoots for an appearance in the finals of the 2016 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup for the second straight year.

Holding a commanding 2-0 lead and on the cusp of punching a ticket to the finals, the Elasto Painters go for the best-of-five semifinals series sweep against rival San Miguel Beer today at 7 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Even without head coach Yeng Guiao, who attended a political gathering in Pampanga, the Elasto Painters were still able to grind out a hard-fought victory under top assistant coach Caloy Garcia’s watch in Game 2 Tuesday night to take a tight grip on the series against the powerhouse Beermen.

Rain or Shine squeaked out a 98-96 thriller in Game 2 after Marcio Lassiter’s made triple was waved off as it didn’t beat the clock, allowing the Painters to escape.

“We can’t be complacent at this point,” said Garcia.

“We need to focus again on this game and play hard.

We can still play better.”

San Miguel is once again facing a familiar territory and it needs to once again have a miraculous run to get back in the series and earn another trip to the finals.

In the last Philippine Cup Finals, the Beermen had a celebrated 4-3 series victory over Alaska wherein they made history of coming back from a 0-3 hole. They need to do the exact same thing again against the Elasto Painters.

However, the San Miguel is in the middle of a chaotic situation offcourt as its import Tyler Wilkerson threw a tantrum in the dugout after that Game 2 loss and reportedly wants out. At this point, this Wilkerson situation is still unresolved for San Miguel, leaving him as a game-time decision for the Beermen’s elimination game.

Guiao will now be back at Rain or Shine’s bench and will call the shots this time around.

B1

THURSDAY: APRIL 28, 2016

RAY S. EÑANO EDITOR

RODERICK T. DELA CRUZ ASSISTANT EDITOR

business@thestandardtoday.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

BUSINESS

SMIC annual meeting.

SM Investments Corp. vice chairman Henry Sy Jr. presides over the annual stockholders meeting of SMIC at Conrad Manila in Pasay City. Shown with Sy on the table are (from left) SMIC director and chief finance officer Jose Sio, corporate secretary Elmer Serrano, and vice chairperson Teresita Sy-Coson. BOBBY CABRERA

Imported car sales surged 151% in Q1

By Othel V. Campos

A GROUP of vehicle importers said Wednesday sales surged 151 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, making the Philippines a bright spot in Asian automotive sector.

The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors said members sold 21,160 units in the January-March period, up from 8,434 units sold a year ago.

Avid president Ma. Fe AgudoPerez said the group was challenged to maintain if not surpass the recent sales feat, as the Philippine automotive industry continued to expand to meet the rising demand.

“As the Philippines continues to be Asia’s bright spot, Avid registered a triple-digit growth of

151 percent in the first quarter of 2016. This growth will further motivate Avid to give customers value-laden and pioneering products and services, which drive at the hearts of the Filipino people,” she said.

Data showed sales of the passenger car segment jumped 81 percent in the first quarter to 7,609 units from 4,205 units sold in the same period in 2015.

The light commercial vehicle segment jumped 220 percent to

13,452 units from 4,229 units sold in the same period last year.

Avid said the Philippines was expected to maintain “its healthy economic track record on the back of sound macroeconomic fundamentals amid the global economy slowdown.”

The group said the positive outlook was supported by the forecast of debt watcher Standard & Poor’s which raised its 2016 economic growth forecast for the Philippines to 6 percent from 5.7 percent.

Private consumption will continue to drive gross domestic product growth due to the healthy demographics of the fast-growing middle class, the group said.

Avid said despite a slight spike in the inflation rate, demand for automobiles would keep its up-

ward trend in the coming months due to better and more attractive financing packages.

The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and Truck Manufacturers Association said in an earlier report members sold 76,479 units in the January-March period, up by 22 percent from 62,882 units delivered a year earlier.

This means that total sales of the automotive players, consisting of Campi, TMA and Avid members, reached 97,639 units in the first quarter, up by 36.9 percent from 71,316 vehicles sold a year earlier.

Campi said the growth momentum was expected to be sustained in the rest of 2016, as the country’s economic fundamentals remained strong.

Insurance regulator issues stay order on Sobrepeña firm THE Insurance Commission on Wednesday issued a stay order, suspending all payment claims against CAP General Insurance Corp., a non-life insurer controlled by the Sobrepeña family.

CAP Gen, which was placed under IC receivership in June 2015, used to provide insurance services for motor vehicles, fire/ property, contractor’s all risks, aviation, marine, electronic equipment, golfer’s, personal accident and comprehensive general liability. It had an authorized capital stock of P300 million.

The IC said in a notice of stay order dated April 26, 2016 all

payment claims against CAP Gen were “stayed and suspended until further notice.”

“All actions or proceedings, in court or otherwise, for the enforcement of all claims, whether for money or otherwise, against CAP Gen are suspended,” Insurance commissioner Emmanuel Dooc said in the order.

“Likewise, Cap Gen is prohibited from making any payment of its liabilities as of 26 April 2016,” he said.

An Insurance spokesman said the stay order would allow the agency to assess the assets of Cap Gen against all claims.

The notice mandated CAP Gen to pay in full all approved administrative expenses incurred after the issuance of the order.

Cap Gen was prohibited from selling, encumbering and transferring any of its properties, except in the ordinary course of business and upon recommendation by the appointed receiver of the company and/or the conservatorship, receivership and liquidation (division and approval of the lnsurance commissioner.

IC placed CAP Gen under receivership on June 8, 2015 and appointed lawyer Rhodela Virginia

Garcia as receiver of the company.

IC, however, said any course of business suggested by the receiver of the company would be considered.

Dooc said the insurance sector remained healthy, with data showing that the total premium of the life and non-life insurance industry rose 18.59 percent to P231.7 billion in 2015 from P195.40 billion in 2014.

This made 2015 as the banner year for the insurance industry, beating the previous record of P205.89 billion in total premium in 2013.

Gabrielle H. Binaday

PSe comPoSite index Closing April 27, 2016

8300 7840 7380 6920 6460 6000

7,180.53 31.39

PeSo-dollar rate

Closing April 27, 2016 48.00 46.00 45.00

P46.780

44.00

CLOSE

43.00

HIGH P46.720 LOW P46.840 AVERAGE P46.787 VOLUME 548.00M

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

oPriceS il P today

P19.25-P22.75 Diesel P34.55-P39.15 Kerosene Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Wednesday, April 27, 2016

F oreign e xchange r ate Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

46.8440

Japan

Yen

0.008985

0.4209

UK

Pound

1.458400

68.3173

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128952

6.0406

Switzerland

Franc

1.027855

48.1488

Canada

Dollar

0.793525

37.1719

Singapore

Dollar

0.740138

34.6710

Australia

Dollar

0.774700

36.2900

Bahrain

Dinar

2.653928

124.3206

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266745

12.4954

Brunei

Dollar

0.737409

34.5432

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000076

0.0036

Thailand

Baht

0.028444

1.3324

UAE

Dirham

0.272287

12.7550

Euro

Euro

1.129900

52.9290

Korea

Won

0.000872

0.0408

China

Yuan

0.154095

7.2184

India

Rupee

0.015062

0.7056

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.255102

11.9500

New Zealand

Dollar

0.689800

32.3130

Taiwan

Dollar

0.030954

1.4500 Source: PDS Bridge

THURSDAY: APRIL 28, 2016

B2

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

The STandard BuSineSS daily STockS review Wednesday, april 27, 2016

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low 7.88 75.3 124.4 107 56.5 2.49 4.2 17 30.45 2.6 890 1.01 100 30.5 91.5 361.2 57 180 124 3.26

2.5 66 88.05 88.1 45.45 1.97 1.68 12.02 19.6 1.02 625 0.225 78 17.8 62 276 41 118.2 59 2.65

47 5 1.46 2.36 15.3 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 3.95 4 74 33.9 90 13.26 293 0.62 5 5.25 12.98 6.75 15 7.03 3.4 4.5 6.3 7.34 1450 5.5 3.28 0.315 2.18 2.65 234 1.3 26 2.17

35.9 1.11 1.01 1.86 7.92 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 2.3 1.63 33 23.35 17.3 5.88 250.2 0.335 3.37 3.87 8.45 3 10.04 3.03 1.95 1 4.02 5.9 801 4.1 1.55 0.138 1.02 2.09 152 0.640 10.02 1.2

0.59 59.2 30.05 7.39 3.4 3.35 823.5 10.2 84 3.35 4.92 0.66 1455 7.5 76 5.29 6.66 9.25 0.85 17.3 0.71 5.53 0.0670 2.31 1.61 84.9 3.5 974 1.66 1.39 156 0.710 0.435 0.510

0.44 48.1 20.85 6.62 0.23 0.23 634.5 7.390 12.8 2.6 2.26 0.152 837 5.3 49.55 3 3.52 4.84 0.59 12 0.580 4.2 0.030 1.23 0.550 59.3 1.5 751 1.13 0.93 80 0.211 0.179 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

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

STOCKS

High

Low

FINANCIAL 2.98 2.79 45.75 45.35 99.50 98.45 90.80 88.80 38.55 38.5 2.93 2.92 1.78 1.60 14.1 13.9 16.2 16 1.77 1.68 600.50 600.50 0.650 0.590 82.8 81.85 14.50 14.36 53.55 52.15 273.8 269 31.95 31.6 169.6 166 57.70 57.50 1.55 1.51 INDUSTRIAL Aboitiz Power Corp.

44.55 44.55 44.4 Agrinurture Inc. 4.6 4.6 4.4 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 0.82 0.83 0.78 Alsons Cons.

1.39 1.39 1.36 Asiabest Group 14.8 15 13 Century Food 18.94 19 18.8 Chemphil 136 135 135 Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ 197 230 180 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 18.12 18.5 17.9 Concepcion 47 46.75 46.75 Crown Asia 2.25 2.32 2.25 Da Vinci Capital 5.32 5.32 5 Del Monte 10.92 11.02 11 DNL Industries Inc. 9.050 9.050 9.000 Emperador 8.02 8.02 7.90 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 5.92 5.94 5.77 EEI 7.18 7.35 7.18 Euro-Med Lab 1.66 1.67 1.66 First Gen Corp.

20.9 21.1 20.55 First Holdings ‘A’ 69.55 70 69.15 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 13.80 13.50 13.50 14.00 14.00 Holcim Philippines Inc. 14.00 Integ. Micro-Electronics 5.72 5.72 5.58 Ionics Inc 2.350 2.360 2.220 Jollibee Foods Corp.

226.00 226.00 221.00 LMG Chemicals 2.09 2.07 2.07 Mabuhay Vinyl 3.2 3.63 3.3 Macay Holdings 40.00 41.50 38.00 Manila Water Co. Inc. 27.75 27.9 27.45 Maxs Group 20.6 20.7 19.9 Megawide 6.61 6.61 6.31 Mla. Elect. Co `A’ 345.00 350.00 340.00 MG Holdings 0.290 0.290 0.280 Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp. 4.40 4.40 4.25 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 3.79 3.78 3.75 Petron Corporation 10.70 10.80 10.42 Phil H2O 3.18 3.39 3.17 Phinma Corporation 11.56 11.60 11.54 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 4.76 4.78 4.65 Phoenix Semiconductor 1.60 1.68 1.60 Pryce Corp. `A’ 2.71 2.71 2.69 RFM Corporation 4.30 4.31 4.14 Roxas Holdings 4.7 4.6 4.56 San Miguel ‘Pure Foods `A’ 200 215 200 SPC Power Corp.

4 4 4 Splash Corporation 2.72 2.74 2.58 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.156 0.156 0.153 TKC Steel Corp.

1.20 1.27 1.16 Trans-Asia Oil 2.60 2.60 2.53 Universal Robina 209.6 211 208 Vitarich Corp.

0.9 0.99 0.86 Vivant Corp.

32.00 40.00 30.00 Vulcan Ind’l.

1.30 1.33 1.28 HOLDING FIRMS Abacus Cons. `A’ 0.365 0.365 0.350 Aboitiz Equity 65.90 66.80 64.40 Alliance Global Inc. 15.84 15.70 15.16 Anscor `A’ 6.06 6.06 6.05 ATN Holdings A 0.380 0.395 0.350 ATN Holdings B 0.380 0.390 0.350 Ayala Corp `A’ 778 780.5 766 Cosco Capital 8.2 8.2 8.08 DMCI Holdings 12.38 12.38 11.90 F&J Prince ‘A’ 5.1 5.3 5.2 Filinvest Dev. Corp.

5.70 5.60 5.50 Forum Pacific 0.212 0.244 0.220 GT Capital 1370 1375 1359 House of Inv. 6.42 6.32 6.21 JG Summit Holdings 83.30 83.75 82.10 Keppel Holdings `A’ 5.4 5.64 5.5 Keppel Holdings `B’ 5.21 6.45 6.29 Lopez Holdings Corp.

7.5 7.47 7.34 Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. 0.7 0.73 0.68 LT Group 15.44 15.42 15.2 Mabuhay Holdings `A’ 0.485 0.485 0.485 5.79 Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. 5.83 5.83 Pacifica `A’ 0.0330 0.0330 0.0330 Prime Media Hldg 1.370 1.840 1.370 Prime Orion 1.930 1.940 1.870 San Miguel Corp `A’ 70.00 69.90 67.00 Seafront `A’ 2.16 2.16 2.14 SM Investments Inc. 954.50 956.50 948.50 Solid Group Inc. 1.20 1.20 1.14 South China Res. Inc. 0.82 0.82 0.79 Top Frontier 148.000 147.000 139.000 Unioil Res. & Hldgs 0.3400 0.4150 0.3250 Wellex Industries 0.1900 0.2060 0.1900 Zeus Holdings 0.270 0.280 0.275 PROPERTY 8990 HLDG 7.800 7.750 7.390 Anchor Land Holdings Inc. 7.12 7.12 7.00 A. Brown Co., Inc. 1.13 1.12 1.03 Araneta Prop `A’ 2.450 2.860 2.220 Arthaland Corp.

0.260 0.285 0.255 Ayala Land `B’ 34.200 34.350 34.200 Belle Corp. `A’ 3 3 2.93 Cebu Holdings 5.19 5.2 5.1 Cebu Prop. `A’ 5.5 6 6 Century Property 0.550 0.56 0.550 City & Land Dev. 0.98 1.03 0.94 Cityland Dev. `A’ 1.000 1.000 0.960 Crown Equities Inc. 0.141 0.145 0.134 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. Manulife Fin. Corp.

MEDCO Holdings Metrobank PB Bank Phil. National Bank PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Union Bank Vantage Equities

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

Close

SHARES 15,792,881 91,730,997 253,543,900 226,794,007 657,105,434 232,632,844 1,485,683,833

2.9 45.75 99.50 89.85 38.5 2.96 1.80 14.1 16.16 1.77 601.50 0.590 83 14.46 53.55 270 31.95 168.7 57.65 1.56

Close

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

2.93 45.6 99.50 90.80 38.55 2.92 1.61 14 16.04 1.77 600.50 0.610 82.35 14.50 52.15 269 31.65 166.5 57.65 1.51

1.03 -0.33 0.00 1.06 0.13 -1.35 -10.56 -0.71 -0.74 0.00 -0.17 3.39 -0.78 0.28 -2.61 -0.37 -0.94 -1.30 0.00 -3.21

396,000 23,300 2,887,330 665,300 129,400 50,000 848,000 20,500 478,500 550,000 10 6,472,000 1,339,740 59,700 100,780 550 63,400 528,490 130,470 1,047,000

44.5 4.54 0.78 1.36 15 18.86 135 190 17.9 46.75 2.28 5.03 11 9.010 7.93 5.94 7.30 1.66 20.65 69.45 13.50 14.00 5.59 2.290 226.00 2.07 3.6 38.00 27.9 20.7 6.4 344.60 0.290 4.29 3.77 10.54 3.17 11.60 4.78 1.64 2.69 4.20 4.56 210 4 2.68 0.155 1.25 2.58 210.4 0.94 35.90 1.30

-0.11 -1.30 -4.88 -2.16 1.35 -0.42 -0.74 -3.55 -1.21 -0.53 1.33 -5.45 0.73 -0.44 -1.12 0.34 1.67 0.00 -1.20 -0.14 -2.17 0.00 -2.27 -2.55 0.00 -0.96 12.50 -5.00 0.54 0.49 -3.18 -0.12 0.00 -2.50 -0.53 -1.50 -0.31 0.35 0.42 2.50 -0.74 -2.33 -2.98 5.00 0.00 -1.47 -0.64 4.17 -0.77 0.38 4.44 12.19 0.00

2,112,900 316,000 53,000 3,623,000 37,800 910,500 50 1,620 273,300 7,500 583,000 1,170,500 10,800 2,122,700 1,270,600 7,983,900 668,400 8,000 3,045,800 193,880 2,400 4,900 218,700 4,258,000 2,507,200 4,000 27,000 8,700 1,111,200 818,400 75,700 107,290 440,000 8,000 1,425,000 3,146,200 6,000 15,200 658,000 562,000 503,000 221,000 8,000 20,910 1,000 911,000 6,360,000 144,000 9,316,000 2,428,080 31,540,000 9,200 458,000

0.350 66.80 15.24 6.05 0.360 0.360 776 8.09 12.10 5.2 5.55 0.225 1368 6.32 83.50 5.5 6.29 7.42 0.68 15.28 0.485 5.8 0.0330 1.590 1.880 67.70 2.14 950.00 1.15 0.82 139.000 0.3400 0.1940 0.280

-4.11 1.37 -3.79 -0.17 -5.26 -5.26 -0.26 -1.34 -2.26 1.96 -2.63 6.13 -0.15 -1.56 0.24 1.85 20.73 -1.07 -2.86 -1.04 0.00 -0.51 0.00 16.06 -2.59 -3.29 -0.93 -0.47 -4.17 0.00 -6.08 0.00 2.11 3.70

10,510,000 974,150 28,491,968.00 5,002,900 -10,827,706.00 42,300 22,490,000 5,840,000 -307,050.00 325,530 78,538,115.00 1,139,200 -2,022,756.00 3,564,400 -7,716,302.00 5,100 365,300 -985,040.00 4,270,000 12,050.00 57,105 4,299,100.00 3,600 1,235,070 28,018,676.50 9,800 800 3,232,000 1,068,623.00 2,208,000 2,061,700 2,102,304.00 10,000 25,362,900 38,304,469.00 16,200,000 3,029,000 -72,000.00 859,000 261,420 5,896,349.00 8,000 260,080 33,081,015.00 831,000 74,000 10,350 140,640,000 -98,600.00 2,150,000 10,300.00 130,000

7.600 7.12 1.09 2.710 0.255 34.200 2.96 5.1 6 0.550 0.96 1.000 0.136

-2.56 0.00 -3.54 10.61 -1.92 0.00 -1.33 -1.73 9.09 0.00 -2.04 0.00 -3.55

408,500 3,100 10,546,000 22,832,000 9,650,000 10,203,300 3,087,000 27,200 300 3,056,000 168,000 135,000 35,640,000

40,800.00 -14,830,877 16,558,083.00 60,730.00 120,824.00 -187,400.00 24,086,705.50 -123,250.00 -3,981,506.50 -851,785 -2,385,763.00 -144,126.50 33,721,075.00 513,240.00 -71,436.00 6,758,194.00 471,252.00 4,520.00 1,113,630.00 501,273.00 -1,943,857.00 24,538,251.00 629,494.00 -8,283,220.00 -149,456.00 -68,600.00 67,750.00 -280,476,494.00 13,200.00 10,340,750.00 1,890,435.00 -147,840.00 1,648,172.00 -128,140.00 12,154,916.00 -760,000.00 -146,000.00 794,530.00 1,375,924.00

7,718,120.00 -17,142,228.00 -1,101,040.00

1,291,515.00 2,848.00 53,370.00 -3,805,560.00 212,100.00 46,046,475.00 673,250.00 -268,400.00 5,640.00 14,550.00

52 Weeks

Previous

High Low

STOCKS

Close

High

%

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

0.415 2.4 0.83 0.188 1.15 1.42 1.27 3.1 4.13 0.090 0.290 0.39 23 2.69 22.15 1.6 3.1 15.08 0.69 3.38 0.83 5.73

Cyber Bay Corp.

0.470 Double Dragon 37.9 Empire East Land 0.830 Ever Gotesco 0.150 Global-Estate 1.04 Filinvest Land,Inc. 1.89 Interport `A’ 1.29 Keppel Properties 4.50 Megaworld 3.95 MRC Allied Ind. 0.084 Phil. Estates Corp.

0.2500 Phil. Realty `A’ 0.580 Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry 34.50 Primex Corp.

8.54 Robinson’s Land `B’ 28.00 Rockwell 1.6 Shang Properties Inc. 3.14 SM Prime Holdings 22.60 Sta. Lucia Land Inc. 0.88 Starmalls 6.52 Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. 1.110 Vista Land & Lifescapes 4.790

-3.19 1.58 0.00 0.00 -3.85 0.00 0.78 0.00 -3.80 1.19 0.00 -6.90 -17.25 -0.12 -2.14 -0.63 -1.27 -0.66 -2.27 0.00 -6.31 0.21

10,780,000 1,647,800 10,000 250,000 10,435,000 8,190,000 196,000 13,000 59,202,000 1,040,000 440,000 2,914,000 1,800 2,000 2,146,900 65,000 7,000 13,399,600 13,068,000 19,500 5,088,000 2,084,000

10.5 66 1.44 1.09 14.88 15.82 0.1430 5.06 99.1 12.3 2.6 7.67 1700 2720 8.41 1.97 119.5 7 5.8 12.5

1.97 35.2 1 0.63 10.5 8.6 0.0770 2.95 56.1 10.14 1.6 4.8 830 1600 5.95 1.23 102.6 3.01 4 8.72

0.8200 2.2800 5.93

0.041 1.200 2.34

12.28 3.32 1 2.46 15.2

6.5 1.91 0.650 1.8 6

1.040 22.8 6.41 185 22.9 3486 0.760 2.28 46.05 90.1

0.37 14.54 3 79 4.39 2748 0.435 1.2 31.45 60.55

11.6 0.85 2.95 10 1.9

7.59 0.63 1.71 5 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. FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. `A’ Imperial Res. `B’ IPeople Inc. `A’ IPM Holdings Island Info ISM Communications Jackstones LBC Express Leisure & Resorts Liberty Telecom Manila Bulletin Manila Jockey Melco Crown Metro Retail NOW Corp.

Pacific Online Sys. Corp.

PAL Holdings Inc. Phil. Seven Corp.

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

SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Yehey

-4.71 -0.09 -2.34 0.00 6.31 -2.56 -5.26 -0.33 1.14 -0.83 -6.21 0.71 0.00 0.46 -2.48 -2.50 -3.31 32.46 37.04 -0.69 0.10 -17.65 4.29 -1.81 -0.18 -4.88 2.67 -4.92 0.00 -1.40 -2.56 5.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.63 -1.99 -4.55 -2.30 1.11 -0.84 -2.45 -2.03 -3.23 -4.62 -2.02 -3.57

244,100 -361,600.00 32,070 258,000 1,520,000 12,100 112,110.00 2,289,000 -770,720.00 45,130,000 550,000.00 265,000 379,630 15,505,082.00 1,400 4,000 267,700 -701,780.00 2,500 -1,651,200.00 138,185 110,747,300.00 215,300 518,000 681,300 -15,344,041.50 352,000 570 12,210.00 3,300 -38,016.00 623,000 489,260,000 3,879,750.00 19,248,000 592,540.00 116,000 9,300 43,000 296,000 -7,560.00 549,000 63,000 13,979,000 -50,200.00 4,258,000 -120,000.00 21,602,000 -519,560.00 700,000 10,000 1,530 171,054.00 33,500 -7,055.00 255,285 -155,513,660.00 3,300,000 87,000.00 23,159,000 101,580.00 5,286,900 19,633,645.00 618,980 -1,642,270.00 1,158,300 -32,650.00 11,037,000 -1,156,960.00 6,254,000 32,000 1,306,000 -2,616,440.00 381,300 -114,850.00

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

0.00 1.00 -1.20 -2.00 4.73 -5.12 -2.78 -7.41 -4.35 -1.11 -4.92 0.00 -0.42 0.00 -7.14 -4.29 -5.65 -3.58 -3.33 -2.27 -4.12 -1.05 3.36 -1.79 -1.38 9.09 -0.08 -6.67 -3.49

116,000,000 96,000 190,000 -50,040.00 1,130,000 20,100 11,000 3,034,000 204,000.00 1,329,000 7,900 33,472,000 5,640,000.00 1,100,000 11,610,000 1,490,000 12,000.00 10,700,000 2,500,000 935,000 4,754,200 1,233,377.00 200,000 10,000 427,000 -19,200.00 14,000,000 7,000,000 20,000 512,700 -383,741.00 1,599,000 -23,650.00 17,100,000 234,180 -5,021,785.00 1,090,000 -16,150.00 2,000,000

70 525 120 515 8.21 12.28 111 78.95 84.8

33 500 101.5 480 5.88 6.5 101 74.5 75

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp.

Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ First Gen G GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. Leisure and Resort MWIDE PREF SMC Preferred B SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred E SMC Preferred F SMC Preferred G SMC Preferred H SMC Preferred I

0.36 0.57 0.52 0.96 -5.00 0.00 -0.54 0.00 2.38 0.00 -0.13 0.65 0.00 -0.13

180,470 4,000 10,100 70 52,000 4,000 400 56,400 26,210 870 10,010 119,720 54,450 87,080

4.50

458,000

-16,950.00

-1.43 0.24 0.33 -4.36

25,000 25,000 307,000 7,720,400

-22,005,324.00

-0.42

6,370

6.98

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

0.470 0.450 0.455 38.6 37.65 38.5 0.830 0.830 0.830 0.150 0.150 0.150 1.04 0.96 1.00 1.89 1.84 1.89 1.30 1.26 1.30 4.50 4.50 4.50 3.99 3.75 3.8 0.085 0.081 0.085 0.2550 0.2500 0.2500 0.580 0.540 0.540 28.55 26.25 28.55 8.53 8.53 8.53 27.85 27.10 27.40 1.62 1.56 1.59 3.1 3.1 3.1 22.75 22.30 22.45 0.9 0.86 0.86 6.64 6.5 6.52 1.110 1.030 1.040 4.800 4.800 4.700 SERVICES 7.86 7.8 7.31 7.49 56.5 57 56.2 56.45 1.28 1.37 1.25 1.25 0.570 0.580 0.570 0.570 11.1 11.8 11.1 11.8 4.30 4.30 4.18 4.19 0.0570 0.0560 0.0540 0.0540 3.01 3.1 3 3 88 89.1 87.55 89 9.68 9.69 9.6 9.6 1.77 1.66 1.66 1.66 7.05 7.24 7.00 7.10 960 960 960 960 2192 2202 2178 2202 6.85 6.85 6.65 6.68 1.20 1.23 1.13 1.17 66.45 66.05 64.25 64.25 12.20 17.50 11.60 16.16 135 185 170 185 11.6 11.52 11.52 11.52 9.70 9.71 9.61 9.71 0.425 0.430 0.350 0.350 2.1000 2.2400 1.9200 2.1900 2.21 2.25 2.17 2.17 10.92 10.94 10.9 10.9 7.99 7.80 7.60 7.60 3.75 3.85 3.74 3.85 0.610 0.620 0.580 0.580 1.98 1.98 1.97 1.98 2.15 2.18 2.09 2.12 3.90 3.90 3.70 3.80 3.200 3.470 3.150 3.360 17.5 17.5 17.5 17.5 4.90 4.90 4.90 4.90 111.80 111.80 111.80 111.80 23.75 23.75 23.20 23.60 1760.00 1770.00 1704.00 1725.00 0.440 0.450 0.415 0.420 0.870 0.870 0.810 0.850 40.55 41.20 40.25 41.00 77.25 77.50 75.40 76.60 6.52 6.60 6.34 6.36 3.45 3.44 3.26 3.38 0.600 0.620 0.620 0.600 1.95 1.94 1.86 1.86 3.47 3.46 3.39 3.4 5.600 5.900 5.250 5.400 MINING & OIL 0.0041 0.0041 0.0040 0.0041 2.01 2.03 1.96 2.03 4.18 4.19 4.11 4.13 0.250 0.246 0.245 0.245 7.8300 8.4 7.84 8.2000 7.8100 8.2000 7.4100 7.4100 0.72 0.73 0.67 0.7 0.540 0.540 0.500 0.500 8.97 8.75 8.01 8.58 0.900 0.920 0.880 0.890 0.305 0.305 0.290 0.290 0.220 0.225 0.218 0.220 0.240 0.240 0.239 0.239 0.0120 0.0120 0.0120 0.0120 0.0140 0.0130 0.0130 0.0130 2.1 2.05 1.99 2.01 5.49 5.5 5.11 5.18 2.79 2.78 2.61 2.69 0.6000 0.5800 0.5800 0.5800 1.3200 1.3200 1.2300 1.2900 0.0097 0.0093 0.0093 0.0093 0.0095 0.0094 0.0094 0.0094 3.87 4.00 3.87 4.00 5.59 5.62 5.39 5.49 2.18 2.26 2.10 2.15 0.0110 0.0120 0.0110 0.0120 127.10 127.70 126.80 127.00 3 3.15 2.78 2.8 0.0086 0.0083 0.0083 0.0083 PREFERRED 56.3 56.5 56 56.5 527 530 530 530 115.4 116 116 116 520 525 525 525 6.8 6.5 6.46 6.46 1.1 1.1 1.08 1.1 111.5 111.8 110.9 110.9 77.5 77.5 77.5 77.5 80 81.9 80 81.9 75.6 75.6 75.6 75.6 77 76.9 76.9 76.9 76.5 77 76.6 77 75.05 75.6 75.05 75.05 75.2 75.5 75.1 75.1 WARRANTS & BONDS 3.110 3.390 2.850 3.250 SME 4.2 4.3 4.01 4.14 4.15 4.48 4.16 4.16 3.04 3.05 3.01 3.05 16.96 16.94 16.18 16.22 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 118.5 118 117.1 118

298,750.00 41,003,450.00 -732,220.00 -9,354,070.00 -13,930,840.00 9,130.00

-28,184,515.00 50,950.00 162,994,060.00 -9,000.00 3,561,920.00

-364,278.00

77,318.00

-512,000.00

-150,300.00

T op L oSerS

STOCKS

FINANCIAL 1,593.18 (DOWN) 2.28 INDUSTRIAL 11,824.97 (DOWN) 4.46 HOLDING FIRMS 7,140.30 (DOWN) 29.52 PROPERTY 2,922.54 (DOWN) 19.08 SERVICES 1,473.65 (DOWN) 21.34 MINING & OIL 10,507.74 (DOWN) 122.40 PSEI 7,180.53 (DOWN) 31.39 All Shares Index 4,301.43 (DOWN) 20.11 Gainers: 60; Losers: 142; Unchanged: 36; Total: 238

Close

0.69 10.96 0.97 0.305 2.22 2.1 1.8 8.4 5.94 0.180 0.470 0.72 27 8.54 31.8 2.29 4.9 21.35 1.06 7.56 1.62 8.59

T op g ainerS VALUE 582,879,007.16 1,565,595,286.77 1,205,193,835.01 1,149,008,128.824 1,597,594,350.44 105,437,543.862 6,334,308,503.07

Low

Close (P)

Change (%)

STOCKS

Close (P)

Change (%)

Imperial Res. `B'

185

37.04

Island Info

0.350

-17.65

Imperial Res. `A'

16.16

32.46

Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry

28.55

-17.25

Keppel Holdings `B'

6.29

20.73

Bright Kindle Resources

1.61

-10.56

Prime Media Hldg

1.590

16.06

Coal Asia

0.500

-7.41

Mabuhay Vinyl

3.6

12.50

Manila Mining `B'

0.0130

-7.14

Vivant Corp.

35.90

12.19

Phil. Realty `A'

0.540

-6.90

Araneta Prop `A'

2.710

10.61

TA Petroleum

2.8

-6.67

Philodrill Corp. `A'

0.0120

9.09

Suntrust Home Dev. Inc.

1.040

-6.31

Cebu Prop. `A'

6

9.09

Discovery World

1.66

-6.21

Asian Terminals Inc.

11.8

6.31

Top Frontier

139.000

-6.08

THURSDAY: APRIL 28, 2016

B3

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

Max’s expands to Middle East

By Darwin G. Amojelar

MAX’S Group Inc. said on Wednesday it signed a new deal to expand its pizza restaurant brand in the Middle East markets.

Max’s said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange it agreed with Jalal Holding to put up at least five Yellow Cab Pizza stores in Jordan and 10 Yellow Cab Pizza outlet in Egypt within five years.

“We continue to chart new territories for expansion overseas.

Our previous ventures and recent openings in this region

have proven successful. We are truly witnessing the emergence of Yellow Cab Pizza as a global mainstream brand,” Max’s president and chief executive Roberto Trota, said.

This is the fifth agreement sealed by the company in 2016 resulting in a total commitment of 131 international outlets to be

rolled out in the coming years.

“We partnered with Jalal Holding as we believe in their expertise and business prowess to spearhead this endeavor. Their credentials ensure consistent delivery of best-in-class products and services to customers,” Trota added.

Established in 2016, Jalal Holding is an emerging food and beverage group in Jordan and shortly in Egypt. The company plans to expand into the F&B business in Jordan and Egypt in the next few years to bring well known international brands into

the market.

“We believe the food and beverage industry in Jordan and Egypt specifically has a huge potential. With our newly established company Jalal Holding, we plan to satisfy Jordan’s and Egypt’s customers’ growing needs of high quality food and beverage products.”

Jalal Holding chief executive Jalal Dudin said.

“We are delighted to choose Yellow Cab Pizza as our first venture with MGI Group. Yellow Cab Pizza serves a New York style premium pizza in a fast casual

dining setting that our market craves for,” he said.

Dudin said the company planned to start set-up and operation in Amman this year, followed by Egypt by early 2017.

“Jordan and Egypt’s food and drink industry is poised for positive growth and a large consumer base, we are so excited to bring the feel of the ‘Big Apple’ to Jordan and Egypt, as well as looking forward to expand Yellow Cab Pizza branches and introduce Max’s Group other brands to both markets in the near future,” Dudin added.

PAL unit buying 9 smaller aircraft PAL Express plans to acquire nine smaller aircraft for its inter-island route expansion, its top executive said.

“We are in the process of deciding whether smaller jet or turbo-prop aircraft, so we would be evaluating and maybe in the next four months, we’ll be ale to decide,” PAL Express president Bonifacio Sam said.

“We are developing, expanding domestic routes, increasing our frequency and increasing also our capacity. So, we will focus on the domestic.

Right now, we’re doing the Cebu hub. We’ll come up with at least 100 flights out of Cebu, interisland flights,” he added.

The airline also plans to increase its Airbus aircraft from 13 to 17 by the end of the year.

Philippine Airlines in 2013 transferred most of its domestic flights to PAL Express, except Davao, Cebu and General Santos.

PAL Express carried 4.70 million domestic passengers in 2015 from 5.13 million passengers a year ago.

Its parent firm PAL flew 1.67 million passengers last year from 793,512 in 2014.

PAL, now wholly-owned by tycoon Lucio Tan after he bought back a 49-percent stake that San Miguel Corp. purchased from him in 2012, posted a comprehensive income of P6.55 billion in the first nine months of 2015, up from P169.1 million in 2014.

PAL Holdings attributed the sharp increase in comprehensive income during the period to strong revenues, which rose 10.8 percent to P81.98 billion from P73.98 billion in 2014.

PAL’s passenger revenues rose 12.5 percent to P68.37 billion in the first nine months of 2015 from P60.78 billion a year earlier.

PAL earlier asked the Foreign Affairs Department to help resolve a dispute with the Kuwaiti government over fifth freedom flights.

Fifth freedom is the freedom to pick up passengers and cargo from a foreign country and carry them to a second country, which is the final destination.

Darwin G. Amojelar

Security Bank bullish. Security Bank Corp., the country’s sixth largest lender, holds its annual stockholders’ meeting in Makati Tuesday.

Shown are (from left) president and chief executive Alfonso Salcedo Jr., chairman Alberto Villarosa and director Takayoshi Futae. Security Bank plans to surpass this year the P7.7-billion net income posted in 2015, especially after sealing in January a strategic partnership with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFG Ltd., Japan’s biggest bank. TEDDY PELAEZ

Stocks extend slump; PLDT, Megaworld decline THE stock market fell for the fourth day Wednesday as fund managers awaited policy decisions from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index lost 31.39 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,180.53 on a value turnover of P6.3 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 142 to 60, with 36 issues unchanged.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., the biggest telecommunications firm, dropped 2 percent to P1,725, while Megaworld Corp., the third-largest builder, slumped 3.8 percent to P3.80.

Technology stock Xurpas Inc. tumbled 4.4 percent to P16.22.

Xurpas successfully completed a share placement to Philippine and international institutional investors with total proceeds of P2.5 billion.

The shares were priced at a 7.6-precent discount to Monday’s closing price of P17.32 per share

and at an 11.9-percent discount to the 30-day average price of P18.15 apiece.

Security Bank Corp., the sixth biggest lender in terms of capital, declined 1.3 percent to P166.50 on profit taking.

The rest of Asian stocks fell as suppliers to Apple Inc. declined and earnings from Canon Inc. disappointed investors.

Hong Kong ended 0.2 percent down and Seoul gave up 0.2 percent. Shanghai ended 0.4 percent lower, with early gains wiped out by a disappointing reading on Chinese industrial firms’ profits for March.

Wellington, Singapore and Taipei were also well down.

In early European trade London dipped 0.2 percent, while Frankfurt and Paris were flat.

Sydney shed 0.6 percent, reversing a morning rally.

Tokyo’s Nikkei ended down 0.4 percent a day before Japan’s central bank completes its own

policy meeting, which is forecast to see a boost to its stimulus package after deadly earthquakes that led to the closure of several factories in the south.

Apple’s suppliers were among the big losers in Asian markets Wednesday after it announced the first fall in iPhone sales, while overall trading was tentative before a Federal Reserve announcement later in the day.

US tech giant Apple said Tuesday that waning demand for its popular handset led to the first dip in revenue since 2003, and the trend was likely to continue this year as a growth slowdown in China drags on that crucial market.

The news pummelled Apple’s shares in after-hours US trading, with the firm plummeting more than eight percent.

It also hit Asian companies that provide parts for Apple gadgets. In Tokyo Japan Display

was 0.5 percent down, Alps Electric shed more than one percent and Taiyo Yuden slid 0.8 percent.

“The sales drop forecast by Apple for the April-June period is greater than expected,” Nobuyuki Fujimoto, a senior market analyst at SBI Securities, told Bloomberg News.

“The shares of Japanese electronic-component makers are down by association.”

Taipei-listed Hon Hai Precision—parent of assembler Foxconn, which builds the iPhone and iPad—shed 0.9 percent and South Korea’s LG Display lost almost four percent.

Regional stock markets were in the red before the Fed ends its two-day meeting on Wednesday, with dealers hoping for some guidance on its plans for monetary policy even though no major decisions are expected.

With AFP, Bloomberg

B4 Baic showroom.

Universal Motors Corp.’s subsidiary Bayan Automotive Industries Corp., the Philippine distributor of Baic passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles, breaks ground on a new two-level, 1,200-square-meter Baic Makati showroom.

Shown are (from left) Bayan Auto representative Michelle Kimberly Chua, United Coconut Planters Bank president and chief executive Jeronimo Kilayko, Bayan Auto president and chief executive George Chua, Universal Motors representative Wilson Lee and History Channel Asia and A+E Networks Asia country head Jacque Ruby.

Metrobank and HSBC expect strong growth

By Julito G. Rada

METROPOLITAN Bank & Trust Co., the country’s second-largest lender, said the positive economic prospects this year will boost its core businesses, particularly loans and deposits.

“There is an ample liquidity in the system that could mean higher deposits,” Metrobank’s head of strategic planning division head Jett Gamboa said in a news briefing in Makati City Wednesday.

Gamboa said Metrobank loans and deposits were expected to expand by 12 percent to 15 percent this year.

Metrobank sees the economy growing 6.3 percent this year, up from 5.8 percent in 2015, on robust domestic demand, accelerating government spending and sustained strength of remittances

from Filipinos working overseas.

Gamboa said the bank would establish 20 to 30 branches this year in a bid to widen coverage nationwide. Last year, Metrobank opened 25 branches.

Metrobank’s net income fell 7 percent in 2015 to P18.6 billion from P20.1 billion in 2014, on lower trading gains. Total resources hit a record P1.8 trillion last year.

Meanwhile, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. said it expected no major impact on the economic growth trajectory of the Philippines from

the national elections next month.

HSBC said in a report domestic demand would remain robust, due to sustained remittance growth.

“There appears to be little risk to the Philippine’s economic outlook over the next year emanating from the elections –either positive or negative,” the bank said.

“Over the short term, private consumption should remain robust due to remittance growth tracking 10 percent year-on-year in peso terms given the available data for first quarter of 2016,” it said.

Remittances grew 4.6 percent in 2015 to a record $25.767 billion from $24.628 billion in 2014.

HSBC said the high-frequency indicators such as credit growth and trade data all pointed to an increase in momentum

in the first quarter.

“There is a palpable sense that certain policies, like the focus on infrastructure and improved fiscal efficiency, have benefitted the country and the electorate. Encouragingly, most candidates plan to take the pro-growth agenda further by improving the Philippines’ competitiveness with regard to FDI through constitutional changes,” the bank said.

The government earlier projected GDP to grow between 6.8 and 7.8 percent this year anchored mainly on robust domestic demand. Last year, the economy grew 5.8 percent, below the government’s target range of 7 percent to 8 percent.

HSBC said there would be no significant impact on the Philippine peso in the immediate aftermath of the results of the election.

Isuzu reports record sales; Honda bullish on Civic

By Othel V. Campos ISUZU Philippines Corp. said sales reached a record 2,437 units in March, the highest in its 19year history.

Isuzu said the March figure was 27.1-percent higher than 1,917 units sold a year ago. It was also up 12.9 percent from February.

The company said firstquarter sales also jumped 32.7 percent to 6,579 units from 4,957 units a year earlier, based on data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufac-

turers of the Philippines Inc. and the Truck Manufacturers Association.

“The robust performance of Isuzu Philippines in the first quarter of 2016, and specifically in March, is a reflection of the local automotive industry’s continued growth, which in turn is boosted by a buoyant economy that definitely encourages consumer spending,” Isuzu Philippines president Hajime Koso said.

“Still, we are pleasantly surprised that our growth has actually outpaced that of the industry,

and we credit in part our sustained promotional efforts and relevant lineup of vehicles for the rise,” Koso said.

Lifting the company’s sales is the Isuzu mu-X SUV model. The SUV’s deliveries reached 1,198 in March and 3,236 units in the first quarter.

Isuzu Crosswind utility model sold 395 units while D-MAX pickup sold 358 units.

Meanwhile, Honda Cars Philippines Inc. said it expected to double the sales of its all-new Honda Civic to at least 200 units a month from an average of 100

units in previous years.

“The increasing demand for compact cars made us rethink the possibility of coming up with another full-model change for the Civic. It is one of the world’s best compact cars and we want o make sure that it will live to expectations,” Honda Cars Philippines president Toshio Kuwahara said at the launch of the all-new Honda Civic Tuesday (at the ShangriLa Hotel in Makati City.

The all-new Civic is a completely-built up unit imported from Thailand.

SMIC hikes capital stock

By Gabrielle H. Binaday SM Investments Corp. said Wednesday shareholders approved an increase in the authorized capital stock from P12 billion to P28 billion.

The holding company of tycoon Henry Sy said from the original 1.19 billion common shares and 10 million non-voting cumulative shares, the capital stock will go up to 2.79 billion common shares and 10 million non-voting and cumulative shares, both with P10 per share.

“The rational why we bring the capital stock from P12 billion to P28 billion is because there is an SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] rule that once you reached your authorized stock compliance, 25 percent of the subscribed capital stock should be fully paid up,” SMIC executive vice president and chief finance officer Jose Sio said.

SM Investments reported a net income of P28.4 billion in 2015, nearly unchanged from 2014, as revenues rose 7 percent to P295.9 billion.

SM Investments said excluding extraordinary items, recurring net income jumped 13 percent in 2015, as income from operations increased 8.5 percent to P56.9 billion from P52.5 billion in 2014.

“Our strong underlying earnings growth in 2015 was due to favorable domestic market conditions and improved efficiencies which helped us widen our margins particularly in retail and property,” SM Investments president Harley Sy said.

SM Investments is primarily engaged in banking, property and retail operations.

T H U R S D AY : A P R I L 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

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

Conglomerates shift to north of Manila THE ccountry’s conglomerates are ramping up the construction of their projects in Quezon City, creating a property boom ahead of the completion of two big infrastructure systems in the northern side of Metro Manila.

San Miguel Corp., Ayala Corp. and SM Investments Corp. are playing key roles in the redevelopment of Quezon City, with Bloomberry Resorts Corp. of tycoon Enrique “Ricky” Razon Jr. branching out his casino business to the very heart of the former capital city.

The SM Group was the first to develop the area at the corner of North Ave. and EDSA with the construction of its first megamall in the country in 1986—the SM North. The group of retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr. subsequently acquired the adjacent five-hectare Camp Bago Bantay in 2004 from the Bases Conversion Development Authority for P695 million and built condominium towers over the former military camp.

Ayala through unit Ayala Land Inc. constructed its own mall—Trinoma Mall—right across SM North a decade ago. The property company is now developing the Vertis North project, a 45-hectare master planned development in the North Triangle property that includes Trinoma Mall.

Ayala Land is investing P65 billion over a 10-year period to transform the property into a mixed-use development with residential, shopping, retail, office and hotel components.

The two rival property companies are soon to join forces in building a common station for light rail passengers between their malls to resolve the dispute over the location of the project.

Common rail station “The current status [is] we have certain agreement more or less where it would be [located]. It’s a real common area now… not exactly one station, but much much closer to each other,” says SM Prime Holdings Inc. president Hans Sy. “It’s a better solution for everyone. It’s good for them [Ayala], good for us. It’s like compromise. It goes to show how sincere we are in just one thing good for the country,” he said.

The common station aims to serve Metro Rail Transit Line 3, Light Rail Transit Line 1 and the proposed MRT 7 of San Miguel.

The compromise emerged after the Transportation Department earlier said it would pursue two common stations, one near SM North Edsa and the other beside Trinoma Mall.

The idea did not sit well with the SM Group, which secured a Supreme Court stay order, barring the department from transferring the location of the common station to Trinoma Mall.

The construction of the common station around the area is expected to create additional commercial spaces and make the Quezon City corridor a major transportation hub.

The common station itself will become a money-making venture, especially with the completion of MRT-7.

San Miguel last week broke ground on the P69.3-billion mass rail transit system from Quezon City to Bulacan province, eight years after the original proposal was presented to the government.

“We are ready to start the construction of MRT 7,” San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said during the groundbreaking ceremony at the Quezon City Memorial Circle.

MRT-7, a 23-kilometer elevated railway from North Avenue, Quezon City to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan with 14 stations, is expected to be completed in three or four years.

MRT-7 aims to reduce travel time from North Ave. to San Jose del Monte in just 30 minutes from the current two-hour travel time.

Ayala Land’s Altaraza Town Center in Barangay Tungkong Mangga, San Jose del Monte, is expected to benefit from the new railway system.

Ayala Land is spending P6.8 billion over the next five years to develop the 100-hectare property into a new town center.

San Miguel, through unit Citra Central Expressway Corp., is also completing the P26.7-billion Skyway Stage 3 project, a 14.8-kilometer, six-lane elevated expressway from Buendia to Balintawak that will link South Luzon Expressway to North Luzon Expressway.

New casino in town Resort and casino developer Bloomberry, meanwhile, will develop a 1.5-hectare property in Quezon City into a mixed-use development with a hotel and casino.

Razon’s move to put up a casino within Ayala Land’s Vertis North puzzled many property analysts. But Razon apparently knew that the casino will lure several rich Chinese businessmen from nearby Caloocan City and Valenzuela City.

Razon, chairman of chief executive of Bloomberry, said the development of the property would be “similar to Solaire Resorts & Casino” in Pagcor Entertainment City in Parañaque.

“We will probably start developing that property next year. It will be a mixed-use development similar to Solaire with hotel and casino,” says Razon.

Surestre Properties Inc., the hotel and resort development arm of Bloomberry, acquired a 15,676-square-meter lot (1.56 hectares) within Vertis North in Quezon City for P1.97 billion last year.

The lot was part of National Housing Authority’s share in the joint venture between the government housing agency and property developer Ayala Land in the Vertis North project.

Sureste bagged the property after submitting a negotiated offer, which was then accepted by the NHA, after two failed bids where the Bloomberry unit was the lone bidder.

E-mail: rayenano@yahoo.com or businesss@thestandard.com.ph or extrastory2000@gmail.com

B5

New solar projects exceed govt ceiling

By Alena Mae S. Flores

MORE than 200 megawatts of solar capacity may not qualify for the second wave of solar feed-in tariff rate of P8.69-per-kilowatt-hour, the Energy Department said Wednesday.

The Energy Department is completing the evaluation of recently completed solar projects, with a combined capacity of 800 megawatts, exceeding the government’s ceiling of 500 MW for projects that could avail of the preferential rate.

Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsad said the department would announce the final list of the solar projects that qualified for the second wave of FiT rate for solar soon.

“We are sure that there will be

questions. That’s why we want to be transparent,” Monsada said.

She said 800 MW of solar power capacity was being evaluated by the department, but only 500 MW would be given the P8.63per-kWh FiT rate.

Monsada said the department was presently looking at the projects’ completion date. “We’re looking at when the 500 MW capacity was reached. It can be before March 15,” she said.

Monsada said the non-reliability of the solar power plants were

also grounds for disqualification from the FiT availment.

“There are instances when the solar plant is running for three days continuously and then it broke down on the fourth day, so we had to revalidate,” Monsada said.

She said of the 500 MW solar capacity available for FiT rate, power projects totaling 292 MW were found eligible for the feedin tariff.

The Philippine Solar Power Solar Alliance earlier asked the department to exercise prudence in disqualifying completed solar projects from the FiT availment.

PSPA president Tetchie Capellan said the government should recognize the role of solar energy in adding capacity to the national grid and for helping avert possible blackout.

Aviation training. Students at WCC Aeronautical and Technological College ‘K-12 program’ learn skills that help them seamlessly transition to higher academic and successful aviation careers . In the new curriculum, students will have a “whole school experience,” with more hands-on training and exposure in their chosen field of education.

Disasters threaten Manila’s economy MANILA’S economic exposure to natural threats is the highest in the world in terms of the share in gross domestic product, according to London-based insurance specialist Lloyd’s.

“As a percentage of its average annual GDP [gross domestic product], Manila’s economic exposure is the world’s largest [50.28 percent],” Lloyd’s said, citing the results of City Risk Index, a study it conducted with the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

The index is the first analysis of economic output at risk (GDP at Risk) in 301 major cities from 18 manmade and natural threats over a ten-year period (2015 to 2025). The index estimated that a total of $4.6 trillion of projected GDP is at risk due to man-made and natural disasters in these cities around the world.

Lloyd’s Asia-Pacific managing director Kent Chaplin said natural threats accounted for more than 90 percent of Manila’s economic exposure. About $109 billion or over half of Manila’s GDP was at risk, the highest percentage in the Lloyd’s City Risk Index in percentage terms.

Manila’s GDP was placed at $201 billion, with average growth rate of 3.46 percent. Lloyd’s said of Manila’s total economic output, $109 billion or 50.28 percent was at risk due to natural threats.

The amount is the fourth highest in absolute terms behind Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul.

Natural threats such as wind storm, earthquake, volcano, flood, drought and tsunami accounted for 90 percent of GDP at risk, according to Lloyd’s.

In particular, about $60.66 billion of Manila’s economy was

at risk to windstorm, $13.29 billion to earthquake, $5.81 billion to volcano and $5.46 billion to flood.

Manila’s economic exposure to wind storms is the second highest globally. “The impact of wind storms on the Philippines was starkly demonstrated in 2013, when Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people and destroyed or damaged the homes of five million,” Lloyd’s said.

Manila is also located on the edge of the Ring of Fire, a series of tectonic faults and other volcanic features that produces around 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes.

Consequently it has the world’s ninth highest economic exposure to earthquake, the fourth largest to volcano and the sixth largest to tsunami. It is ranked 10th globally by potential losses from drought.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

THURSDAY: APRIL 28, 2016

B6

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

Megaworld bullish on southern projects

By Darwin G. Amojelar

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu – Megaworld Corp. said Wednesday it expects rental revenues from provincial developments to corner 30 percent of total sales by 2021, driven by townships in Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and Bacolod.

“In 2021, as we continue to have this trajectory not only in Cebu but other provincial locations, we feel that the number will improve in terms of provincial share of our rental revenue. It would improve slightly maybe 20 to 30 percent from 10 to 20 percent,” Megaworld senior vice president Jericho Go told reporters.

Go said the growth in rental revenue would be driven by the

P30-billion Mactan Newton in Cebu, the P35-billion Iloilo Business Park, the P15-billion Davao Park District and the P35-billion township projects in Bacolod.

“These are the provincial locations that will contribute to the growth of our rental income,” he said.

Megaworld’s leasing business became fastest growing segment in 2015, as rental income grew 23.46 percent. Rental income

from malls, commercial centers and offices reached P8.73 billion in 2015, up from P7.07 billion in 2014.

“For this year, we are on track to meet our rental revenue target of P11 billion,” Go said.

Go said Metro Manila development remained the largest contributor to total rental income.

“Our rental income is largely driven by our presence in Metro Manila up to 80 percent to 90 percent. There’s a lot of growth potential there,” he said.

Go also announced that USbased Concentrix was set to open business process outsourcing operations at Megaworld’s The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City by the second half.

Concentrix will initially occupy

around 2,600 square meters of office space on the entire second floor of Tower 3 of 8 Newtown Boulevard. It will be the fourth BPO company to open its Cebu operations in the 30-hectare urban township development that boasts of its own beachfront, following the entry of The Results Companies, Enfra USA and Manulife.

“The entry of Concentrix in Cebu, through The Mactan Newtown, is a clear indication of our continuing commitment to build the largest cyberpark in Mactan and to further strengthen Cebu’s position as the country’s top BPO hub,” Go said.

David Brooks, Concentrix country leader for the Philippines, said the operations in Cebu would have 450 to 500 initial seats.

PH book launching.

Trade Secretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. speaks before members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and dignitaries from various countries at the book launching of ‘Investment Policy Review of the Philippines’ in Paris, France. Shown with Cristobal (left) during the book launching is OECD deputy secretary general Douglas Frantz. The book presents to the world the reforms the Philippines has instituted since 2010 to achieve a better investment climate.

Philex’s oil unit reduces net loss

By Alena Mae S. Flores PHILEX Petroleum Corp., the oil and gas arm of Philex Mining Corp., said Wednesday it incurred a consolidated net loss of P15 million in the first quarter, lower than a net loss of P44.2 million it registered a year ago.

The company said the net loss attributable to equity holders of the parent company amounted to P11.8 million in the JanuaryMarch period, also down from P20.4 million a year earlier.

“The lower net loss was primarily attributable to a 76.4-percent reduction in overhead resulting from management’s continuing cost reduction efforts, net of lower petroleum revenues contributed by its subsidiary, Forum Energy Ltd. arising from the decline in oil output and lower oil prices,” it said.

The company said it would continue with its prudent control of operating expenditures and evaluation of asset portfolio while remaining active in exploration activities, in line with the current low oil-price environment.

Philex Petroleum trimmed its cost and expenses to P31.541 million in the first quarter from P81.387 million a year earlier.

Revenues declined to P23.126 million in the first quarter from P37.616 million a year ago.

Philex Petroleum’s board approved the change of the company’s name to PXP Energy Corp. in March.

The change in corporate name and the amendment of the company’s articles of incorporation will be submitted to the shareholders for approval at the annual stockholders’ meeting on May 17, the company said.

Only a heartbeat away: the VP race THE vice-president is only a heartbeat away from the presidency of the Republic, so we are told in Political Theory class. But theory has become reality a few times in the history of this country since the Commonwealth era.

When he was chosen as the future President Manuel Quezon’s running mate in 1934, little did the gentle Sergio Osmeña expect that he would succeed as president ten years later. When he was chosen as Liberal Party presidential standard-bearer Manual Roxas’s running mate, Elpidio Quirino had no expectation that the apparently healthy Capiceño would suffer a fatal heart attack during his term. Little did Carlos Garcia expect that the dynamic President Ramon Magsaysay would get into a military plane that would slam into one of Cebu’s mountains.

And certainly no one expected that less than three years into his term, the very popular movie idol Joseph Ejercito Estrada – he won over the Laban-NUCD Party’s Jose de Venecia Jr. by the highest presidential winning margin in Philippine political history – would be

removed from office by a judicial coup d’etat.

A vice-president’s succession to the presidency before the end of the presidential term is not a matter of theoretical possibility; it happens, and it has happened several times in this country.

And it could happen again. The Chief Executive could leave office prematurely through natural causes (for example, Quezon and Roxas), accident (Magsaysay) or extraconstitutional means (Estrada). For this reason, it is essential that every voter in the coming election scrutinize the personal, professional and—in the light of two presidential candidates’ records in office— moral qualifications to be this country’s No. 2 official.

From the professional standpoint, all of the six candidates for vice-president—Leni Robredo, Fernando Marcos Jr., Francis Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes IV and Gregorio Honasan—are qualified to be vice-presidential aspirants.

All six are well-educated. Robredo, Cayetano and Escudero are lawyers, two (Honasan and Trillanes) came from the ranks of the military officer corps and Marcos went to good schools

here and in Europe. All six have served in the legislature as senators and/or representatives.

All have good records as legislators, with the possible exception of Bongbong Marcos, who was an unproductive senator and came to life only during the Senate review of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law. On the personal plane, all the vicepresidential candidates except Marcos have clean slates. Honasan and Trillanes were charged with rebellion by the civilian authorities and with violations of the Articles of War by the Armed Forces of the Philippines for their leadership of and participation in military attempts to overthrow the government. Honasan was granted amnesty; the charges against Trillanes were dismissed.

Among the six candidates, Bongbong Marcos sticks out like a sore thumb. Given the multiplicity of hidden-wealth charges filed against him and his family – the Presidential Commission on Good Government has already recovered billions of pesos worth of deposits, real property and works of art from Marcos’ family – many Filipinos thought that he displayed a lot of chutzpah in running for vice-president. One has to be a nincompoop

not to be able to see the Marcos game plan: VP in 2016 and a Marcos presidential restoration in 2022.

Leni Robredo has a big plus over her opponents in the domain of service to society. Mar Roxas’ running mate is the only one among the six vice-presidential candidates who has rendered grassroots community service as a lawyer for NGOs (non-government organizations). Robredo has been down there with the poor and marginalized—an experience that her opponents don’t have.

There’s plenty of good vice-presidential material out there in this election. There are Cayetano and Escudero. There are Honasan and Trillanes. And of course there is Robredo.

The nation will not—should not – lose any sleep if any of these five candidates were to succeed to the presidency in the event of the premature exit of the elected Chief Executive.

At this point, the vice-presidential race appears to be between Robredo and Marcos.

I will end this piece by quoting Mar Roxas’ running mate: “May the best woman win.”

E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com

T H U R S D AY : A P R I L 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

WORLD

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

B7

Sweden’s schools put to the test by refugees

King’s Day. Dutch King Willem-Alexander, his wife Queen Maxima and their daughters Princess Amalia (R), Princess Alexia (L) and Princess Ariane (C) wave to the crowds during their visit to Zwolle to mark King’s Day (Koningsdag) celebrating the King’s birthday. AFP

Surge in EU immigrants fuels ‘Brexit’ campaign PETERBOROUGH—In cities like Peterborough, a recent surge in immigration by mainly East European workers is giving momentum to “Brexiters” in the campaign ahead of Britain’s referendum on EU membership in June.

“The EU won’t stop all the immigrants coming in and we can’t cope,” said John Fovargue, a resident of the city of 184,500 people in eastern England—one of the country’s most euroskeptic areas.

Ginge Tuttlebee, out shopping on a rainy day in the town center, told AFP that the new arrivals “don’t have the same values that we once were able to have”.

“They don’t seem to want to integrate too much—they’ve got their own shops, they speak their own language,” the pensioner said, echoing complaints in many towns that have seen a sharp increase in arrivals.

Almost half of British voters, and

nearly three-quarters of those who want to leave the European Union, identify immigration as the single most important factor in making their decision, according to a recent poll by Opinium.

Peterborough has a history of immigration stretching back decades but it recorded its highest ever level in the decade from 2001 to 2011, with 24,166 newcomers arriving.

The town’s Lincoln Road has been the focal point of immigration by Italians, Poles, South Asians and the Irish since World War II, and now hosts Polish station Radio Star, nestled among Eastern European supermarkets.

Gosia Prochal, a DJ at the station, told AFP there were “lots of Polish people” integrated into British society who had “obvious concerns” about a British departure from the EU ahead of the June 23 referendum.

“British people are generally positive about individual immigrants, but when it comes to the idea of immigration as a whole, they would rather reduce it,” said Prochal, who moved to Britain three years ago from Krakow in southern Poland.

Net migration into Britain—the difference between those coming in and those leaving the country— has reached 336,000 people a year.

London School of Economics academic Joseph Downing said concerns about strains on public services were “legitimate” but that this should be more than balanced out by the taxes paid by EU migrants.

“We’ve had a lot of migration

from Eastern Europe, and those people have contributed quite a lot in terms of tax receipts,” he said. “We’ve been bad at turning that into infrastructure investment.”

That has led to resentment in communities like Peterborough, where local MP Stewart Jackson is among the Conservative lawmakers who have rebelled against Prime Minister David Cameron to support a British departure from the EU, or “Brexit”.

“It’s the pace of change that’s concerned so many people and the impact on public services,” he said.

Pete Reeve, a local councilor for the anti-EU UK Independence Party, told AFP that residents “really experience the darker side of being in the EU”.

The picture is different in east London, where comparably high levels of immigration have not resulted in anything like the same anti-EU backlash. AFP

STOCKHOLM—Sweden’s schools were already struggling with demoralized teachers and declining test scores before the arrival of masses of young migrants whose needs have put unprecedented strain on the system.

Of the roughly 245,000 migrants who have arrived in the Scandinavian country since 2014, 70,000 are under the age of 18.

The majority of these youngsters are Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis who have been robbed of a proper schooling by war and exile.

Their standard of education often lags far behind their Swedish peers’ and, in addition to learning a new language and alphabet, they must also adapt to new ways of thinking and learning.

“It’s a real challenge,” Education Minister Gustav Fridolin said in an interview with AFP. The Swedish school system already faces major challenges including an acute shortage of qualified teachers—60,000 more are needed by 2019—and declining scores in standardized international tests.

The quality of education can also vary significantly from school to school.

A UNICEF report published in April showed that Sweden, along with neighboring Finland, is the country where school results declined most between 2006 and 2012.

The Swedish National Agency for Education blames the decline in school performance on the large number of foreign students who they say drag down results because of language issues.

In 2014, 14 percent of students had results too low to qualify for the second part of secondary school (for students aged 16 to 18), a 10 percent deterioration on the 2006 level.

The lower level of pupils qualifying for further education was due to the rising number of students who migrated to Sweden after school starting age—six-years-old in Sweden—who struggled to catch up as a result, according to the report.

Fridolin said that it is “much more costly” for society to pay for a school system that has failed migrants than it is to give them a good education in the first place. AFP

Fakes threaten Sri Lanka’s gem trade RATNAPURA—From the Queen of Sheba to Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge, Sri Lanka’s sapphires have adorned royalty through the ages, but a flood of cheap imitations is threatening the island’s reputation for the precious stones Ceylon sapphires, known after the island’s colonial-era name, enjoyed a huge boost five years ago when it was revealed that one formed the centerpiece of the engagement ring Prince William gave Catherine Middleton.

They are renowned as the best sapphires in the world, but gem traders say artificial stones—colored glass that to the untrained eye are

virtually indistinguishable from sapphires—are being passed off as the real thing to unsuspecting buyers.

They fear that is tarnishing the image of the gems, seen as a major potential income stream for an economy still recovering from decades of civil war.

“This is the biggest threat to our industry. Our reputation is at stake,” said Nissanka Weerasena, who owns a chain of upmarket jewelry stores in Sri Lanka.

“These colored pieces of glass imported by the kilo are killing the market for gems.”

Stories of buyers getting conned into buying fakes are legion.

National Gem and Jewelry Authority chairman Asanka Welagedara recalled how one Australian buyer who spent $14,000 only discovered that nearly half the stones he had been sold were fakes when he had them tested by the state-run regulator—by which time it was too late.

Another scam is to heat treat opaque, semi-precious stones to give them the color and clarity of a real sapphire.

“The technique of heat treating semi-precious stones originated in Thailand, but our people have now perfected the art,” Welagedara said.

AFP

Festival. A Pakistani Muslim devotee dances around a fire at the shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Shah Hussain, popularly known as Madhu Lal Hussain, during the annual festival Mela Chiraghan (the festival of lights) in Lahore on March 26, 2016, which marks the death anniversary of Sufi saint Hazrat Shah Hussain. AFP

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B8 Satellite data used to fight poachers JAKARTA—Indonesia will use data from miniature satellites around the globe to pinpoint the location of illegal fishing vessels trawling its vast waters, under an agreement announced Wednesday with a Silicon Valley tech firm The deal upgrades Jakarta’s arsenal against illegal fishing by allowing it to more accurately monitor its remote territory, including in the South China Sea where Indonesian and Chinese vessels clashed last month.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti and Spire Global, the satellite-powered data company confirmed. Spire runs a fleet of “nanosatellites” that can detect and track ships as they pass through Indonesian waters.

Ships on the high seas are required by international law to carry a transponder that “pings” information via radio frequency about their identity and location to other vessels in order to avoid collisions.

Spire’s miniature satellites—each no bigger than a wine bottle—collect this publicly available information to quickly and accurately construct a global map of shipping movements, and transmit this data to authorities on the ground.

Indonesia can then respond to any “red flags”—like a vessel switching off its transponder—that might suggest a suspicious ship is passing through their territory, Spire’s business development executive Mark Dembitz told AFP. “This provides them an additional arrow in the quiver to fight the good fight,” said Dembitz.

“They are looking to use as much technology as they possibly can to solve their illegal fishing problem.”

It will also give Indonesia a technological edge to closely monitor its vast exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the remote Natuna Islands in the South China Sea, the scene of a tense standoff between Jakarta and Beijing last month.

Indonesia was towing a Chinese vessel it claimed was trawling without a permit near the fish-rich Natunas when Chinese coastguards appeared and rammed the captured boat.

Indonesia does not have overlapping territorial claims with Beijing in the hotly disputed waters, but it does object to a segmented line China uses to define its claims since this overlaps Indonesia’s EEZ north of the Natunas. AFP

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

WORLD Paris attacks suspect transferred to France PARIS—Top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has been transferred from Belgium to France where he is expected to be charged in court on Wednesday, French prosecutors said.

Demonstration. Third-generation jimador Jose Cortes gives an agave harvest

demonstration at the Casa Herradura Visits Los Angeles on April 26, 2016, in Los Angeles, California. AFP

Abdeslam, a French national of Moroccan origin who grew up in Belgium, is believed to be the last surviving member of the terror squad that killed 130 people in the French capital in November.

“Within the framework of the Paris attacks of the 13th of November 2015, Salah Abdeslam has been surrendered to the French authorities this morning,” a statement from Belgian prosecutors said.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Abdeslam was formally placed under arrest after arriving on French soil at 9:05am (0705GMT).

“He will be presented to judges during the day with a view to being charged. The prosecution will request his placement in temporary detention,” read a statement from Molins.

Sources close to the investigation said Abdeslam had been flown into France under tight security.

Abdeslam has already hired a French lawyer, Frank Berton, who told the regional newspaper Voix du Nord that his client was “anxious to explain himself ” in France.

Abdeslam, 26, was arrested in Brussels on March 18 after four months on the run as Europe’s most wanted man.

He is believed to have played a key logistical role in the Paris attacks, renting three cars and driving three suicide bombers to the national stadium.

After his arrest in Brussels, he said he had changed his mind about blowing himself up, while his brother Brahim went ahead with his suicide mission.

He has refused to answer questions since the day after his arrest.

Abdeslam’s arrest came just days before coordinated attacks on Brussels airport and a metro station that left 32 people dead, and police have uncovered clear links between Abdeslam and the three Brussels suicide bombers.

His Belgian lawyer Sven Mary gave a lengthy interview to the Liberation newspaper on Wednesday, describing the difficulty of representing such an infamous client.

“There have been moments when I thought of giving up. If I had known about the Brussels attacks, maybe I would never have taken this case,” said Mary.

He described his client as a “little moron from Molenbeek, more a follower than a leader. He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray. He is the perfect example of the GTA (Grand Theft Auto video game) generation who thinks he lives in a video game. AFP

Papua New Guinea closes refugee processing camps SYDNEY—Australia’s hard-line immigration policy was thrown into turmoil Wednesday after Papua New Guinea ordered a processing camp to close, leaving the fate of hundreds of asylum-seekers hanging in the balance.

The move to shutter the Australian-funded Manus island facility follows a Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday that detaining people there was unconstitutional

and illegal.

Piling further pressure on Canberra, just weeks out from an expected election campaign, an Iranian refugee set himself on fire during a visit by UN officials to Nauru, the other Pacific nation where Australia sends boat people.

Four others on the tiny outpost reportedly attempted suicide by drinking washing powder on Tuesday.

“Respecting this [court] ruling, Papua New Guinea will immediately ask the Australian government to make alternative arrangements for the asylum-seekers currently held at the Regional Processing Center,” Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said of the Manus camp.

Papua New Guinea’s former opposition leader Belden Namah had challenged the Manus ar-

rangement in court, claiming it violated the rights of asylumseekers.

In a 34-page finding on Tuesday, the Supreme Court found that detaining them on the island was “contrary to their constitutional right of personal liberty”.

Despite this, Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton remained adamant that none of the 850 or so men held

there would come to his country and that the government’s policy—designed to deter others wanting to make the risky journey by boat—would not change.

“As I have said, and as the Australian government has consistently acted, we will work with our PNG partners to address the issues raised by the Supreme Court of PNG,” he said in a statement after O’Neill’s decision. AFP

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TATUM ANCHETA EDITOR

BiNG pAREl

A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

BERNADETTE lUNAS

life @ thestandard.com .ph

WRITER

@liFEatStandard

w El l BEiNG

LIFE

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Clocking in 6:46:50 hours, Victor finished at 13th place

pINOy CON HIElO FINE FEttlE

By BuBBlES pARAISO

V

ictor Consunji must have gone bonkers. I mean, he must have, right? The first time he told his friends that he was running “the world’s coolest marathon” at the North Pole, everyone found it ludicrous. In a tropical country wherein the coldest temperature is

Victor Consunji, real estate businessman, the first Pinoy to ever run the North Pole Marathon

still blazing, a Filipino running over frozen ocean (yup, ice) at temperatures fluctuating between -25 to -45 degrees Celsius sounds like an insurmountable task. But Vic (as he is fondly called), having a different level of internal drive bestowed upon him, found it as a challenge he was willing to take.

It is challenging enough to run 42 kilometers. Now imagine doing that in extreme cold temperatures with the risk of being a polar bear’s dinner if you ever encounter one; getting hypothermia if you trip or fall; stop moving and your core temperature drops; the risk of falling into a crack in the ice and drowning or freezing in the Arctic Ocean among others. When Vic heard about all of these possibilities that would usually scare other people away as they sound too incredulous, he smiled and knew that this was the race he wanted to join.

Having participated in the New York Marathon 2015 in November, Vic kept himself in great marathon condition.

Training for the North Pole included running in Boston in -22 degrees Celsius while taking up a course in Harvard last February, having to lose friends (as a joke, of course) one by one as he would prod them to run with him in the wee hours of the morning, putting a treadmill inside

Global warming has made this year's marathon extremely difficult due to the constant cracking of the ice. Cracked ice on the course meant re-routing and re-measuring all over again

Continued on C2

Lucky 13. Victor was runner number 13 who also finished in 13th place out of 47 runners

Vic had atleast three layers of clothes on when he ran, yet his sweat still froze between his body and clothes as sheets of ice fell on the floor as he tried to take them off post-race

C2 piNOY...

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@liFEatStandard

From C1

an ice bar (a giant meat locker with -1 degrees), getting good equipment, and consulting, researching and getting advice on how else to prep.

Fast forward to April, with Vic already in Svalbard, Norway waiting to depart for the North Pole. Delays kept transpiring as the flight schedule and the marathon itself kept getting postponed due to the instability of the ice this year (hello, global warming).

Strong ocean currents, thinner than usual polar ice, and strong winds caused the manmade runways to crack almost as fast as they could be built. The marathon was supposed to start on April 9, with the runners flying to the pole the day before. However, due to all the delays, they weren’t able to fly until the 14th. By the time Vic departed on that first flight out, the Russians had already built and abandoned four runways due to the ice cracking. Unfortunately, the plane, a Russian Antonov jet, could only carry half of the runners. As the aircraft turned around and picked up the second batch, the runway cracked right smack in the middle, therefore aborting the landing. The jet instead took the runners back to Svalbard.

It took three more days for the Russians to repair and certify that one of the runways was safe for operation for the second half to finally fly in. That meant, of the three days that it took to fix the new runway, Vic and the other runners from the first batch were essentially stranded at the North Pole inside a tent with one heater, no immediate chance to leave or get supplies, and no basic contact with the outside world (except for a satellite phone). It was a test of will. A mindf*ck, I must say.

That week-and-a-half delay forced some of the participants to back out due to different circumstances. On race day, 47 people started and finished the marathon, 16 being female runners, with 21 countries represented. Vic, of course, was the sole representative of the Philippines, and is officially the FIRST Filipino to run and finish the North Pole Marathon to date. Only 378 people in history have ever successfully run a marathon at the North Pole, and Victor is

'You don’t go into this and come out the other side as the same person. It is life changing'

'One step forward.. One meter forward.. One kilometer forward... Repeat' was Vic's mantra as he ran 42-km on the North Pole

The heated tent where the first batch of runners stayed, kept warm and slept in while they were stranded for three days before the second batch arrived

now a proud member of this exclusive club of achievers. He came in 13th place, clocking in at 6:46:50 hours. The first placer finished at 5:17:33 hours.

All that Vic was thinking about throughout the race was how he just wanted to get back to his wife, Maggie, and son Connor as soon as possible. That, and knowing that if he stopped, no one would hear him scream or be of assistance if anything goes wrong while he is out on the ice. He said that once

The view can be quite Zen as long as you've accepted the fact that you are in the middle of hostile conditions, according to Vic

he got past the fact that he was in a hostile environment, it actually felt very Zen, having beautiful landscapes as a backdrop.

Crossing that finish line felt mighty incredible, according to Vic. He goes, “you don’t go into this and come out the other side as the same person. It is life changing. At the very least, you’ll know just how self limiting you were on yourself before, and how much MORE you really are capable of.”

If you think running on ice has already been shaved off Vic’s running bucket list and that he wouldn’t do that ever again, you’re wrong. He is slated to join a marathon in Antarctica soon, apart from joining this year’s Berlin Marathon and Ironman Barcelona (which are one week apart). Has Victor Consunji gone bonkers?

Well, maybe. But it’s our kind of crazy.

Find me on Twitter and Instagram @bubblesparaiso

Discovering the wonders of the philippines on bicycles More and more people in the Philippines are discovering the benefits of riding bicycles. Besides the fact that cycling may be a better option to get to places due to traffic, its also one of the best ways to keep fit.

Some cyclists say that riding puts a person in a good frame of mind and it makes you see your surroundings in a different light. What you would normally see riding a car would be different when you’re riding a bike as some details will be more pronounced – the trees, the sounds in the surroundings, even the grass you will pass by on the street will seem very detailed. Hence, in traveling to different destinations, bicycles are usually recommended for one to actually enjoy the place.

A well-traveled French couple, Fabrice and Celine Garlenque, along with their three children Titouane, Amielle and Fantine, recently shared their travel experience in the Philippines, discovering the beauty of our country within their three-week sojourn, riding and sightseeing on bicycles.

The family rode in tandem and visited Romblon’s largest island, Tablas; the islands of Marinduque and Mindoro; and Intramuros in Manila. Having traveled in so many cities and places around Europe, Australia and Asia, the say that their experience in the Philippines is unparalleled and something their family will always remember. From the provincial mountainside to alluring caves, breathtaking beaches, and heritage

sights, riding their own special bikes made it easier for them to enjoy the country up close.

“There is a huge diversity of things that can be seen and experienced in the Philippines,” says Celine. “Filipinos are very friendly towards tourists. It is authentic and inherent among the people.”

The Garlenques’ adventure also included riding a bangka (an outrigger boat), bathing at a communal water source or poso, and their kids got to experience Filipino childhood activities like climbing coconut trees to pick the fruits.

Their last stop was Intramuros where, instead of using their custom bicycles, they rode around the walled city on bamboo bikes to get a glimpse of the heritage sights which included stops at Casa Manila, the plaza of San Agustin Church, Puerta Real, Plaza Roma and Fort Santiago.

“With so many things to see and experience, we will definitely come back.

We’ve only been to three islands and there are more than 7,000 islands to explore. In fact, we have to come back many times!” shares Fabrice.

It is such a lovely thing to hear from visitors who enjoyed their visit in our country. If you haven’t tried this yourself, today is the right time to explore. Get those legs pumped up and grab a bicycle and see the country in a different light.

For more information on suggested stops in the Philippines, visit www.tpb.gov.ph and www.itsmorefuninthephilippines.com.

The Garlenque family riding bamboo bikes at Fort Santiago

Visiting some of the spectacular beaches in Tablas

Exploring the countryside on their custom bicycle

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

Officials of Toray Industries and Moduvi Inc., the distributor of Torayvino Water Purifier in the Philippines, pose during the launch held at New World Hotel in Makati

U

JApAn-mADE wATER pURIFIER now In THE mARkET

nsafe and contaminated water is the source of many illnesses and diseases that can become fatal.

Unfortunately, people are uncertain about the quality of water they get from the tap. No wonder then that more and more households are buying water from refilling stations that have sprouted like mushrooms.

But how many of these water refilling stations are reliable and consistently compliant with the certification process required by the Department of Health and concerned government agencies?

And how can one be sure if those fivegallon containers are thoroughly cleaned, carefully handled or properly stored?

Given these concerns, the safety of the drinking public now becomes uncertain.

But there’s no question however that every Juan deserves safe drinking water. It’s opportune therefore that the

Torayvino Water Purifier – a market leader in Japan – which has a filtration technology that boasts of a 99.99-percent bacteria removal feature thanks to its four-stage purification system has been launched in the Philippines.

During the prescreen process, impurities such as rust, sands, sediment and particles that are larger than 465 microns, are removed. A second screen removes particles bigger than 114 microns, after which the water will pass through the granular activated carbon which efficiently removes residual chlorine, harmful chemicals and bad odor.

The last step in the process involves the optimal hollow fiber membrane structure which removes contaminants larger than 0.1 micron, such as bacteria and other microorganisms, rust, turbidity, and microscopic impurities.

This is the same kind of technology that is utilized by dialysis machines and artificial kidneys, providing low elution and a high flow rate of water. And while the stringent filtration process removes impurities, essential minerals like calcium, magnesium and others are retained.

An added feature of the Torayvino Water Purifier is that it easy to install with no plumbing required. Attachments are provided to fit most of the faucets available in the market, and unlike other water purifiers, Torayvino is compact and portable, which makes it perfect for condo-dwellers and those who those who live in smaller units and need to maximize every space in their abode.

Best of all, Torayvino will not dent the budget as it approximately cost users as low as P0.92 per liter, or half the cost of a liter of water sourced from

Japanese-made Torayvino Water Purifier

refilling stations. Additional 30 percent savings on water is also achieved when the unfiltered spray setting is utilized, which is perfect for washing dishes or vegetables. Moreover, it operates without electricity.

The Torayvino Water Purifier comes in four models, with prices ranging from P1,980 to P4,980. The product is manufactured by a diversified company called Toray Industries, Inc. with presence in Asia, Europe, Middle East, North America, Central America and South America.

Torayvino Water Purifier conforms with the Japan Industrial Standards and is also certified and approved by the Department of Health. Distributed in the Philippines by Moduvi, Inc. it is now available in modern hardware stores like True Value and All Home, as well as condo partners.

Tips on preventing dehydration The loss of bodily fluids can lead to dehydration, a dangerous condition that is marked by symptoms such as dry mouth, feeling of thirst, dark colored urine, fatigue and headache. If not quicky or sufficeintly addressed, the condition could even lead to death, especially among children. The heat of summer makes dehydration even more imminent.

“As the temperature rises, it is important to know how to avoid dehydration. If not taken seriously, dehydration can cause irritability, exhaustion, lack of concentration or even death. Aside from drinking lots of water and wearing lightweight clothes, snacking on food that keeps the body cool decreases your chance of being dehydrated,” shares MediCard Philippines president Dr. Nicky Montoya.

So before you hit the beach or trek to the great outdoors, here are five tips to beat the summer heat and avoid dehydration.

Drink plenty of water

The body depends on water to survive.

As the weather gets really hot, water keeps the body from overheating. The amount of water intake to stay hydrated depends on a person’s needs, but it is recommended to drink 6-8 glasses of water every day. Dr. Montoya suggests putting fresh lemons, limes or cucumber in your water for a more refreshing and healthier drink.

Eat hydrating snacks

Aside from drinking water, snacking on foods such as cantaloupe, pineapples, fruit popsicles and yogurt also help beat the summer heat. A good option would be fruits in season such as mangoes and watermelon.

If not taken seriously, dehydration can cause illness and even death

Increase water intake during exercise

Working out causes the body to sweat, which also causes a reduction in the body’s water level. That is why drinking water before, during and after exercising is important. Not only does water improve the quality of one’s workout – as it lubricates the entire body – but it also reduces fatigue and shortens recovery time.

Always wear light-colored and lightweight clothes

It’s summer so OOTDs should be lightweight and light colored as light colors

insulate and reflect the sun’s heat from the body to help one stay cooler. Clothes made of cotton and linen are ideal conductors of heat since cotton is made of breathable material while linen easily absorbs sweat and also dries quickly.

Stay out of the sun between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Avoid alcoholic drinks and caffeine

Are you ready to beat the summer heat?

MediCard has 13 free-standing clinics located in key cities nationwide that offer laboratory tests and consultations to monitor your health. Visit a MediCard clinic near you or check out www.medicardphils.com for more information.

Alcohol and caffeinated drinks such as coffee may pull water from the body, which increases the risk of dehydration. Alcohol also lessens the body’s production of an anti-diuretic hormone, which is used by the body to reabsorb water.

The best time to head inside and let your body cool down at the comfort of your own home is between 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. as temperatures and ultraviolet rays are at their highest.

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

Anion: A womAn’s best friend for quick summer getAwAys

T

he heat of summer can be so unbearable and exhausting, causing people to become more hotheaded than usual. Which is why during summer, people head out to the beach or go to other places to entertain themselves with outdoor adventures for some fresh and cooler breeze. For women, it’s doubly unbearable when the heat is coupled with the monthly surge of menstruation – PMS combined with the rising temperature and the icky tricky ways of traveling with Aunt Flow is not a good combination. Jeunesse Anion Sanitary Napkins and Liners allow women to get outdoorsy without having to worry about their period, so ladies don’t have to hide within the confines of air conditioned rooms for the summer.

Jeunesse Anion Sanitary Napkin contains a special anion chip that helps prevent bacteria during menstruation, helps balance PH and hormone levels, helps reduce feminine discomfort, and eliminates unwanted odors. So, whether it’s the liner or the napkin, it’s a woman’s perfect arsenal for this season’s travel getaway. The Philippines has 7,107 islands waiting to be explored, and the summer season is always a perfect excuse to discover the country. Don’t let your period get in the way of your travels this summer. Jeunesse recommends top five out-of-town escapes that you can visit for your quick summer getaway.

corregidor island

Budget: Check out the Day Tour (from P2,350), Overnight (from P1, 500) Walking Tour (P1, 800) and Corregidor Ferry Transfers (from P1,400) How to get there: Take the Sun Cruises Inc. ferry at the Manila Bay Terminal If you’re more into heritage sites, a visit to the historical Corregidor Island is one for the books. The place features exotic ruins, jaw-dropping natural landscapes, and lush vegetation – definitely an Instagram worthy trip. Head to the Pacific War Memorial and see the dome ceiling and marble altar, the 830-foot-long Malinta Tunnel, and the Filipino Heroes Memorial and immerse yourself into one of the most historical places that shaped the history of the Philippines. See it by land or through a sunset cruise, traverse its forest trails or go have picnic by its beaches.

taal Volcano

Budget: P2,000 (includes bangka for 6-8 people + environmental fee + tour guide fee [per group]). The more people in your group, the lesser the damage How to get there: Take a Tanauan-bound bus at the Buendia Bus Terminal in Pasay City + Talisay-bound jeepney + hire a bangka to take you to Taal volcano

mt. gulugod baboy, mabini batangas

Budget: P600 How to get there: Bus from Taft-Buendia to Batangas Grand Terminal + Jeep to Mabini + Tricycle to Barangay

Every summer, the heat in Manila makes most of the city dwellers take a drive to the colder mountains of Tagaytay. Aside from the breezy hotels and restaurants to relax in, don’t miss the chance to explore the second most active volcano in the Philippines, the Taal Volcano. Compared to the Mt. Pinatubo trek, Taal is a breezy hike. The distance is short and some people can even get a horse ride from the ground to the top.

Batangas is known for its colorful diving spots and Anilao has always been the go-to for fun underwater dives, but there are other lesser know spots that offer good diving experiences like Mt. Gulugod BaBay. The area also features hiking spots where one can have a bird’s eye view of Mabini.

Pagsanjan falls

Budget: P460 (Cavinti Route) or P1,690 (Pagsanjan route) How to get there: Take the Sta. Cruz-bound bus from Buendia. If going the Cavinti route, take a jeep from Sta. Cruz to Cavinti then a tricycle going to Pueblo El Salvador Nature Park and Picnic Grove in Brgy. Tibatib.

mt. Pinatubo

Budget: P4,350 (inclusive of 4x4 rental good for five people) How to get there: Take a Tarlac-bound bus and stop at the Capas Public Market The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo back in 1991 has left picturesque turquoise waters on the volcanic Crater Lake. Trekking the terrain heading up to the crater is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The tour starts with an exhilarating ride on a 4X4 off-road vehicle while traversing the rocky river heading to the hiking grounds. The trek is a two-hour ride and another two-hour going back down. It is more fun to experience it with your friends so make sure to bring your BFFs and prepare for a picnic at the peak because you’ll sure be hungry when you get to the top. After your trek, get a volcanic ash massage at the Pinatubo Spa or take a dip at the nearby Bueno and Dolores Hot Springs to soothe your tired muscles.

Pagsanjan Falls is one of the country’s most popular waterfalls. But even to this day, some people probably haven’t even visited the place. Here, you can beat the blistering heat and experience a refreshing bamboo raft ride. Heading to the falls can start from the town of Cavinti as it will take you right to the bottom of the falls, where you can catch a bamboo raft to Devil’s Cave.

These places are just a few hours away from Manila. A weekend away from the sweltering heat of the metro will do your body some good. Don’t forget to make Jeunesse Anion Sanitary Napkins and Liners one of your travel essentials so you will never have to worry about your period and all the feminine discomforts that come with it such as dysmenorrhea and cramping. Most of all, they will keep you feeling fresh and comfortable while you bring out the outdoorsy gal in you.

For more information about Jeunesse Anion Sanitary Napkins and Liners, log on to www.jeunesseanion.com and. follow Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Jeunesse Anion. For inquiries, email wellgoldinternational@gmail.com or call (02) 4701294.

t HuR S DAy : A pRIl 2 8, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

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Karren Alvarez, Zippy Brand Manager, at launch of kids apparel brand Zippy

KIDs spEcIalIsTs

Z

ippy ss the largest pure-play children’s specialist apparel retailer in Portugal acting as market leader and continues to expand its presence globally It is a global brand offering a complete range of children’s apparel, kids from 0 to 14 years old, always with the best prices and value for money.

Zippy offers a unique and stand-out style in a full line of apparel, footwear, accessories and nursery products.

It is an urban brand characterized by a contemporary style, expressed through its functional design, so that kids feel cool and comfy, and parents are happy and proud.

The style is unique.

Zippy stands for kids and parents together.

Zippy takes you back to the 70s, with a touch of vintage and nature as the main source of inspiration.

The new 2016 Zippy spring-summer collection is packed full of fun.

With spring come happiness, sun and fun. Spring and summer are the most awaited seasons by children and adults alike. So to welcome the most fun seasons of the year, Zippy has prepared its most authentic, comfortable and modern collection.

For juniors (from ages 3 to 14) on longer spring days it created the laidback Super

Soda line, inspired by vintage and surfer looks. As summer approaches, the collection will give way to the Retro Twist line, taking you back to the 70s, marked by its powdery and aged blues, combined with other more upbeat and bright colours, and fabric that almost looks handmade.

On top of that, this year the Baby collection (up to 3 years old) has taken on a style of its own with a ton of different themes, with more variety between boys and girls.

For boy, the season kicks off with Electric Avenue for active babies. Its comfortable collection has a wide range of colors from yellow and blue to orange and red. As the season moves on, Zippy brings you Eco Rad, a fusion of modern with eco-friendly vintage and a wild spirit. At the height of summer it has the Beach Time safari seaside line for small explorers based on a fresh palette with stripy message prints.

For girls it has Noe, inspired in a slightly vintage Nordic look with prints and romantic and floral embroidery. This line has a precious collection of knitwear and poplin blouses. To welcome the sun, playful items combined with handmade prints and sugary tones of pink, orange and yellow take us to an energetic summer story.

For newborns the beginning of the season is defined by the nostalgic Retro Soft line, with pastel colors (blue, green and yel-

Rissa Mananquil-trillo styled her daughter, Audra

Kelly Misa-Fernandez with her son, tristan

low), broidery, and handmade pieces with a touch of vintage. It also includes the Royal Blue denim line.

With the arrival of summer comes the Retro Summer collection, with the same inspirations making the most out of bright colors, like mint green, pink, peach and coral, to create a happier mix of colors, polka dots and raindrops.

For more information please visit: www. zippykidstore.com

Say Alonzo and her son, Asher

Mr. and Ms. Chinatown philippines partnership

Standing from left, R Mitzi Garcia, Marivin Arayata, Chris tiu, Alexis Go and paolo Valenciano, and seated (from left) Annette Gozon, Joey Abacan, Alvin tan, loraine tan, and Wilson Agbayani

GMA Network partners with Fil-Chi Media Productions Inc. in cooperation with the Miss Chinatown Foundation as they encourage the young ChineseFilipino community to participate in their advocacy to promote unity and diversity through this year’s Mr. & Ms. Chinatown Philippines pageant. The signing of Memorandum of Agreement was held on April 22 at the GMA Network Center. The pageant will be in July and will be aired exclusively on GMA. Present in the MOA signing are GMA Board of Director & GMA Films Presi-

dent Annette Gozon, First Vice President for Program Management Joey Abacan, GMA Consultant for Business Development Department 2 Marivin T. Arayata, GMA Assistant Vice President for Program Management Mitzi Garcia , Fil-Chi Media Productions President Alvin Tan, Miss Chinatown Foundation Executive Director Alexis Go, Fil-Chi Media Productions COO Loraine Tan, Miss Chinatown Foundation Chairman Wilson Agbayani, Pageant stage director Paolo Valenciano, and Pageant host Chris Tiu.

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t HuR S DAy : A pRIl 2 8, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

RuSSIAn fIlmmAkER’S VIDEo now A fIlm

lya Naishuller is a Russian-born filmmaker and front man for the Moscow punk band Biting Elbows. His band’s groundbreaking, irreverent video Bad Motherfucker became a viral sensation, catching the attention of fans around the world, attracting over 120 million views.

Producer/director Timur Bekmabetov was one of those fans and he encouraged Naishuller to expand his vision into a feature length film and the result was Hardcore Henry, an action-packed, immersive experience told completely from the point-of-view of a cyborg named Henry who’s been brought back from the dead by his wife Estelle (Haley Bennett) and soon finds himself surrounded with an army of mercenaries out to kill him and his wife.

Shot almost entirely on GoPro cameras with custom engineered rigs, Hardcore Henry completely abandons, even eviscerates, traditional filmmaking and replaces it with a raw and immediate experience, allowing the audience to become one with

Actor Sharlto Copley in the Russian-American science fiction film “Hardcore Henry”

the protagonist, so viewers go on a very personal and breathtaking journey with Henry.

“Action cinema has always thrived when

it captured the sensation of participating in dangerous situations that most people would much rather avoid in real life. The goal with Hardcore Henry was to push it a

step further, to put the audience right into the body of the protagonist, to have them experience the primal, exhilarating feeling that we usually view from a much safer distance,” says Naishuller.

“I couldn’t stop watching Bad Motherfucker. I admired Ilya’s daring, creative spirit,” says Bekmambetov. “There are three major factors that draw me to a project originality and boldness and an interesting concept. That video was truly unique and unusual. Something that looks like pure insanity turns out to be a well thought out and rational project. Ilya’s process in achieving this effect is one of his most valuable assets,” Bekmambetov says.

“The best way to help promising filmmakers is to give them creative freedom, as well as full responsibility. It gave Ilya a chance to make his own mistakes and then to find ways of making things right in the end,” Bekmambetov explains.

Hardcore Henry opens May 4 in cinemas from Pioneer Films.

Energizer, warner Bros. boost ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ experience Last year, Energizer launched its Energizer® Max® batteries, which are 35 percent longer lasting than its previous version.

Now, Energizer Philippines, Inc., partners with Warners Bros. Pictures for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

The epic action adventure features the much-awaited battle between the world’s

Energizer launches a promotional activity featuring limited superhero-inspired collectibles

most iconic Super Heroes in their first-ever big screen pairing. Adding to the excitement, Energizer launched a promotional activity featuring limited edition Superman, Batman and WonderWoman-inspired collectibles.

According to Claire Guevarra, senior brand manager of Energizer Philippines, the company’s partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures “gives a new perspective to what Energizer can do for its customers.

With the partnership, we can share positive energy with our Filipino consumers, just like these legendary DC Comics characters, Energizer is also powered to bring to life the battery-operated gadgets owned

by Filipinos, making lives more convenient and entertaining. For us, that’s positivenergy beyond borders.”

Guevarra said, “High-powered batteries have an advantage of being cost-efficient in the long-run as these enable portability of different devices without using electricity.

This is why Energizer has been innovating its batteries and lighting products to light up the world, offering them unparalleled convenience with every power used. This

cROsswORD puzzlE

answer PreVIOUs PUZZLe

ACROSS 1 Business suff.

4 Goat’s-hair robes 8 Silica mineral 12 Man-goat deity 13 Livy’s bear 14 Snagged a dogie 16 — Magnani of film 17 Go for broke 18 Actress — Keaton 19 Yes, in Yokohama

20 Kinda drift 22 “Hickory, — , dock...”

24 Solemn vow 25 Future fish 26 Incline 28 Speaker’s pauses 31 Birdbath slime 34 Tilt 35 66 and I-80 36 Perfume bottle 37 Burn slightly

38 Drop a clue 39 Rick’s old flame 40 Sweet treat 41 Factions 42 London’s Old — 43 Art colony town 44 Herriot, for one 45 Eye, to Pierre 47 Danced in Vienna 51 Lamas’ art work (2 wds.)

55 Ginza purchase 56 Platitude 57 Tarzan’s title 58 Give a crew cut 59 Apple juice 60 Data unit 61 Tall vases 62 Hardy’s dairymaid 63 Trellis coverer 64 Good ol’ — DOWN 1 Veranda, on Maui 2 Roman garment 3 Molecular bio. topic 4 Sunspot phenomenon 5 Like the ocean 6 Sec’y 7 Warm wine 8 Severe trial 9 Needle end 10 Indifferent 11 Dogpatch hyena

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2016

12 15 20 21 23 26 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 37 41 43 44 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 58

Saudi royal name Md. neighbor Bay “48 Hrs.” lead Sluggish marsupial Coils of yarn “Picnic”writer Landlord’s due Sonic-boom makers Tel — “Hi- —, Hi-Lo” Boasting Aloha in Rome Butler in a mansion?

Milan’s La — Ward of “Sisters” Cooks’ reminders Singer Rudy — Margins Toad bumps Don Diego de la Vega Piano-key wood Drops Cul-de- — Mine entrance Colo. neighbor “The Banana Boat Song” (hyph.)

Young wolf

high-powered battery is available in the market, there are more reasons for Filipinos to energize their day though highquality batteries.”

Recently, Energizer launched the improved Energizer® Max® batteries, which deliver dependable and powerful performance. The Energizer® Max® AA batteries now powers devices for 35 percent longer than the previous version. What’s more, it helps protect devices from leakage in climate-controlled environments, and holds power by up to 10 years in storage.

“By using the Energizer® Max® batteries, families can now enjoy their battery-operated gadgets longer” Guevarra added.

Aside from the collectibles, Energizer is also giving fans a full “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” movie experience by bringing one lucky winner and his or her loved one to Australia through its ‘Trip to Australia’ promotion. This promo is for four days and three nights that includes airfare, hotel accommodation, pocket money and two entrance passes to Warner Bros.

Movie World.

“Energizer consumers can now get a

chance to win tickets to Gold Coast, Australia, to go to Warner Bros. Movie World through purchase of any Energizer product, by taking a photo of the receipt together with the product purchased, and filling up the entry form found in our Facebook page or website,” said MJ Tiquia, brand activation manager of Energizer Philippines.

“We know that this partnership will reinforce ‘positivenergy’ among the fans of Superman, Batman and WonderWoman.

We are excited with this partnership because this will complement the alreadyexciting feel of the movie. With this engagement, every Filipino will be able to feel the superhero power not only during the screening but also as they go home,” Tiquia said. “Truly, this is a much-powered event we’ve all been waiting for.”

For more details about Energizer’s collect-them-all promo and trip to Australia promo, please visit Energizer Philippines’ Facebook page at https://www.facebook. com/energizerPH/. Learn more about Energizer Philippines and its roster of products by visiting the website at http://www. energizer.com.ph/Energizerv2/home.aspx.

t HuR S DAy : A pRIl 2 8, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

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‘WHEElS’ out of comfoRt zonE

heels, The Philippine STAR’s premier motoring TV show, continues to break the glass ceiling as it provides you with the latest motoring news and developments.

In the next episode, Wheels will take you out of your comfort zone by trying on more new cars and experiencing aspects of the motoring life that you only imagined.

Join Matteo, Manny, Angel and Kap tonight for adventures beyond your threshold.

First up is Matteo, who assumes the life of a mechanic for day to find out why cars need to undergo periodic maintenance service.

Meanwhile, Manny drives the familyoriented Mazda CX-9 SUV, another vi-

able alternative for families looking for a suitable car for their everyday needs.

Angel blasts through Negros Island aboard the newest cars from KIA to see if they can weather the challenges posed by the island’s twisting, uphill and rough roads.

And finally, Kap goes behind the wheel of the all-new Toyota Fortuner and puts it to the test on the racetrack to see what’s changed in one of the market’s leading SUVs. It’s all these and more on the third season of Wheels, your guide to life on the fast lane. Catch it every Thursday, 10:30 p.m., on ABS-CBN Sports + Action Channel. For firsthand info on the latest happenings in motoring, like and follow Wheels on facebook.com/PhilStarWheels.

Mechanic for day. Actor and race car driver matteo Guidicelli gets dirty in the latest episode of “Wheels”

Influential fil-chi group fetes marcos

Noting the crucial role his father played in strengthening the relationship between the government and the Chinese community in the country, the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII) feted vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. during a forum in Manila recently.

The FFCCCII invited Marcos to address the 160-member organization composed of renowned Filipino-Chinese businessmen and civic leaders all

over the Philippines during its Leadership Forum in Binondo, the center of Filipino-Chinese trading in the country.

Those in attendance included Dr. Lucio Tan, FFCCCII Chairman Emeritus, and Honorary Presidents Alfonso Siy, Domingo Lee, Vicente Yu, Robin Sy, Francis Chua, Alfonso Cui and John Tan, among others.

The group noted that the late President Ferdinand Marcos has made it possible for many of their officers and members to stay in the country legally during his

lucio tan (third from right) with vice presidential candidate Sen. Bongbong marcos and other members of ffcccII

Erap, fpJ in new music video

Technology made it possible for Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and the late Fernado Poe, Jr. in one music video that was shown on Erap’s birthday on April 19.

Those who have seen the music video said they had goose bumps while the video was playing with Nonoy Zuñiga’s voice in the background singing “Doon Lang.”

Senator Grace Poe attended Erap’s birthday celebration.

“Kahit alas-singko ng umaga nandoon siya (Erap) sa bahay. Alas-kwatro ng umaga, magkasama sila ng tatay (FPJ) ko,” Grace said of Erap. “My mom (Susan Roces) wasn’t jealous of the women being linked to my dad when he was alive. She was jealous of Erap because they were always together.”

Erap, on the other hand said, “Ang mga artista, ‘pag mga superstar hindi masyadong magkaibigan. Magkaibigan pero hindi masyado dahil may kompetisyon ‘yan e, magkalaban sa propesyon. Sa madaling salita, ang samahan namin ni FPJ, higit pa sa magkapatid at napakabait na tao ni FPJ.”

term when he issued several decrees on naturalization.

The group also stated that the elder Marcos further strengthened Filipino-Chinese relations when he supported export promotion, trade, agricultural exchange, education and other partnership programs during his term.

“The late President Marcos helped strengthen our ties with our neighbors in Southeast Asia and opened opportunities for many of us,” the group said.

On Marcos’ vice presidential bid, the FFCCCII it believed in his capabilities and wished him the best. “We wish you all the best in this coming elections,” the group said.

Also invited to address the forum was senatorial candidate Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez.

Marcos, for his part, thanked the group for the invitation and warm welcome saying the Filipino-Chinese community has been a cornerstone of the Philippine economy.

“We recognize the part you have played not only in the eco-

nomic and cultural aspects but the whole Philippine society,” he said.

He added that if he gets elected to the vice presidency, he will bring back the concept of nation building through infrastructure development not only to create jobs but spur business.

Marcos has been pushing for massive government investment in “business-driven” infrastructures or those that would provide a suitable environment to encourage expansion of private business enterprises.

“By infrastructure, I mean not only roads and bridges but also schools, power generation plants, water system and including our Internet service, which is the second slowest in the world,” Marcos said. He noted that government and business must forge better partnerships to carry out vital programs for the people.

While the government must provide the necessary atmosphere for private businesses to flourish, Marcos added it must also ensure adequate protection for our work-

Sen. Bongbong marcos

ers. In particular, Marcos said laws against contractualization must be enforced strictly.

“We need to unite once again for nation-building, a word I haven’t heard for a long time. With your support we can make our nation great once again,” he said.

AJ still looking for herself

by RObbIE PangIlInan LOS ANGELES - It has been 17 years, but former beauty queen and actress Anjanette Abayari is still looking for herself in the land of milk and honey.

The Bb. Pilipinas-Universe 1991 says she likes living in the USA, and has built for herself a life of contentment here.

“It’s great to be ‘not famous’ sometimes, to have just a few people know who you are. I can be myself and protect the image that I have here,” says AJ, who is best known for her portrayal of Filipino superheroine Darna.

While AJ misses acting back in the Philippines, she has no plans of residing in the country again. She did return last year for a family reunion in Iloilo and said in interviews that she will be back to shoot an international film.

“I miss acting, it’s my passion. But I am happy here now, busy with my international capital broker dealership career,” she says. AJ is also planning to write her own book.

Anjanette spent years in Philippine show business, with films like Hangga’t May Hininga, Azucena, and of course, Darna! Ang Pagbabalik. She reveals that her dream project then was to do Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng Lupa which did not materialize.

former beauty queen and actress Anjanette Abayari, (left) and her boys Aden, 9, and Ashton, 6

AJ has two boys, 9-year-old Aden and 6-year-old Ashton, who take up all her time and attention.

Her fans have never failed to support her, through the time she was jailed in Guam when she was accused of drug possession, which turned out to be a false accusation, as

she was not found carrying or in possession of any drugs. Until now, these loyal fans remain supportive of her. AJ has this message for them: “Thank you for having always been there for me and for having never stopped believing in me. Your love and support inspire me to keep moving on and going forward.”

t HuR S DAy : A pRIl 2 8, 2016

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ISAH V. RED EDITOR NICKIE WANG WRITER

isahred @ gmail.com

SHOWBITZ

conquering Philippine television. top-rating ‘kilig” series “Dolce Amore” consistently outperforms competition in the numbers game

‘DOlcE AmORE’ cOnTInuES TO TAKE cOunTRY BY STORm ISAH V. RED

t

here is truly no stopping Dolce Amore, the no. 1 kilig series in the country, from conquering Philippine television with its string of successes – from its consistent high ratings to the positive feedback it has received from viewers.

The series, starring Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, has constantly attracted primetime viewers nationwide, with its recorded ratings peaking at 37.5 percent, based on data from Kantar Media. There is also an outpouring of positive comments for the love team’s acting

prowess, especially during the tender scenes between Serena and Tenten.

“It’s overwhelming. Lalo na we came from Forevermore na magaganda rin ‘yung feedback, so parang ‘yung pressure na dala namin sa Dolce Amore, kumbaga parang nawala, or kung ‘di man nawala, nabawasan. Of course, we can’t do that kung wala ang help nina Direk Mae (Cruz-Alvar), Direk Richard (Arellano), and all our staff. Nagpapasalamat rin talaga kami sa suporta nila, ng LizQuen fans, at ng mga Kapamilya natin,” said Enrique.

“We’re glad that all the hardwork is paying off. Thankful po ako kasi magagaling ang mga kasama namin. Nakakahawa ang galing nilang umarte. But we have so much to learn. We will never take the love for granted,” said Liza.

liza Soberano and Enrique Gil as Serena and tenten in “Dolce Amore”

Coming on the heels of Dolce’s” success is the launch of the Dolce Amore Destiny Tour, which promises to spread even more kilig to the fans of the show, endearingly called Amores, not just in the country but also in other parts of the world.

Its first stop, which is already gaining buzz online, will happen at Lapu-Lapu Shrine at the Luneta Park, Manila on May 1 where Amores can get to sing and play with the whole cast.

They will also continue to take the world by storm with legs in Yorkshire, UK on June 11; Paris, France and Rome, Italy on June 12; Dusseldorf, Germany on June 19. For more information, just visit emea.kapamilya.com.

As the story of Dolce Amore continues, Tenten and Serena’s relationship faces uncertainty after Kuya Binggoy (Kean Cipriano) kidnapped Serena in exchange for ransom money for the operation of Tatay Binggoy (Edgar Mortiz).

However, Serena thinks that Tenten is involved in the kidnapping. Will Serena finally go back to Italy?

Don’t miss the country’s no. 1 kilig series, Dolce Amore weeknights on ABS-CBN or ABS-CBN HD (SkyCable ch 167).

Catch its latest episodes on iwantv.com. ph or skyondemand.com.ph for Sky subscribers. For updates, follow @realdolceamore on Twitter and Instagram.

‘Game Of Thrones’ marathon on HBO GO exclusively on SKY Daenerys targaryen (Emily Clarke) in the premiere episode of “Game of thrones”

With anticipation for the new season pre-

miere of HBO’s Game of Thrones reaching fever pitch, SKY is pushing the rewind button to give postpaid subscribers access to the hit series’ first five seasons via a marathon on HBO GO. The exclusive offering begins this week.

HBO GO, the video-on-demand site of HBO, allows SKY postpaid subscribers to freely relive their favorite Game of Thrones episodes anytime, anywhere on any device.

SKY postpaid subscribers can even watch new episodes of the worldwide hit HBO original series within the same day as the U.S. telecast.

Meanwhile on Monday, Game of Thrones fans finally got answers as to the fate of Jon Snow. Avid viewers also saw the return of Bran Stark and many other key characters in the show.

What will be the real fate of Jon Snow?

How will Daenerys and other characters fight for their pursuit to conquer King’s Landing and take control of the Iron Throne?

Don’t miss the highly anticipated Game of Thrones season 6 via HBO HD on SKYcable.

To get access to HBO GO, SKY postpaid subscribers need to register their SKY account and download the HBO GO mobile app on Google Play or App Store.

HBO GO is free for HBO PAK subscribers and SKY postpaid subscribers. For more information, visit http://www.mysky. com.ph/hbogo.