The Standard - 2016 May 19 - Thursday by Manila Standard

VOL. XXX NO. 96 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 THURSDAY : MAY 19, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Aquino: I’m ready to leave Palace

DUTERTE: PH WILL REMAIN A US ALLY

Obama given reassurance in call to Davao mayor By John Paolo Bencito and Vito Barcelo

DAVAO CITY—President-in-waiting Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday the Philippines will remain a staunch ally of the United States despite his willingness to work with China on their territorial dispute over the South China Sea.

Audit wanted. Lawyer Jose Amor Amorado, counsel for Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz show

copies of the petition they filed demanding an audit of the automated election system used in the May 9 elections at the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila on Wednesday. LINO SANTOS

Comelec, Smartmatic sued before Ombudsman By Rio N. Araja, Sara Susanne D. Fabunan and Macon RamosAraneta AN ELECTION watchdog filed a class suit for electoral sabotage against the Commission on Elections, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and Smartmatic before

the Office of the Ombudsman Wednesday. Running priest Robert Reyes and Rodolfo Javellana Jr., convenors of Mata sa Balota Movement, accused the respondents of violating the Automated Election Law when the hash code of the Comelec’s transparency server was altered by Marlon Garcia, Smartmatic project manager.

The alteration of the script in the transparency server, the complainants said, also changed the results of the May 9 elections. Included in the charge sheet was PPCRV chairwoman Henrietta de Villa, and Comelec officials whose names were not identified since the poll commissioners are impeachable officers.

According to Javellana, Garcia tampered with the election results by changing the transparency server’s script, while De Villa did not do anything to stop the supposed electoral sabotage. Earlier, Comelec head Andres Bautista said the alteration was just a “cosmetic change” to correct the spelling of candidates with the letter “ñ.” Next page

Speaking to GMA News, Duterte said he told this to US President Barack Obama Tuesday night when the American leader congratulated him on his landslide victory on May 9 and hailed the country’s “vibrant democracy.” “I assured him [Obama] that we will continue with our mutual interests and that we are allied with the Western [world] on this issue on China Sea,” Duterte said. He said that while he would maintain the Aquino administration’s present track of taking a multilateral approach and pursuing arbitration, he was ready to try something else if this did not work. “If it goes on still waters, I said, [if] there’s no wind to move the sail, I might opt to go bilateral,” Duterte said, referring to direct talks with Beijing. Obama told Duterte that he should wait for the result of the arbitration case before the UN tribunal. In the case filed in January 2014, the Philippines challenged the validity of China’s sprawling territorial claims in the resourcerich waters and sought to clarify the territorial entitlements of certain Chinese-occupied features under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas. Next page

Villar’s nomination to DPWH questioned

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Talks between Duterte, communists underway

The NDF also confirmed that Duterte has promised a general amnesty for all political prisoners. “There were already talks with Mayor Duterte early Tuesday morning. We discussed how the peace process would move between the NDF and [the government],” Agcaoili said in a TV interview on CNN Philippines. Duterte also bared plans to meet exiled CPP founder, Jose Ma. Sison, Agcaoili said. On Tuesday morning, the NDF negotiator handed Duterte a bag full of books from Sison, who is in exile in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Sison told The Standard in an interview Tuesday that he would offer an immediate and mutal ceasefire with the incoming administration as the leftists prepare to nominate members to join Duterte’s new Cabinet. Agcaoili stressed the need for formal talks about procedures for the peace process. “There should be extensive discussions on mutual ceasefire and agreements on social, economic and political reforms,” Agcaoili said. In another television interview on Wednesday night, Duterte said his decision for progressives to join the ranks of his government would ensure an improvement of ties with the communists. “Remember that I was elected as president on a basis of [what] I said, I will try to improve things in this country and make it comfortable for everybody,” Duterte told GMA News. On Monday, Duterte offered four Cabinet positions to the CPP, namely the departments of Agrar-

ian Reform, Environment and Natural Resources, Labor and Employment, and Social Welfare and Development. Asked about the seriousness of his pronouncement, Duterte said that he just wants an end to the ideological war that killed thousands. “Why? The military faction is there, there are rightists in the government, the elite that controls the economy. Do you want to fight forever? Do you want to elect government after government, 20 governments in a row [and] you want to fight to death? Is that what you want,” Duterte said. He also reiterated his campaign promise to talk to rebel groups— the New People’s Army, the Moro National Liberation Front, and Moro Islamic Liberation Front— during his term. “The communist rebels are not criminals. They fight for ideology. The fight is intellectual. So that life will change, they need a new setup for a new order,” Duterte’s spokesman, Salvador Panelo, said in Filipino. He added that he believed the military and police would be loyal to their commander-in-chief, despite their reservations over the involvement of communists. “They trust Mayor Duterte. They believe in him.... They will follow the commander-in-chief,” he added. NDF chairman Luis Jalandoni said Duterte plans to grant an amnesty to all political prisoners in a bid to end a four-decade communist insurgency. “We are pleased that Duterte said there would be a general am-

nesty once he becomes president,” Jalandoni told radio dzMM in Filipino. Jalandoni said there are currently 543 political prisoners, 88 of whom are sick and elderly. Out of the total, 18 are also NDF peace consultants while three were sentenced to life imprisonment. The NDF chairman said peace negotiations with the Duterte administration would succeed because of his openness to work things out with the CPP. “In our view, that’s a big factor so that we can obtain peace and national unity,” he said. Peace talks between the Aquino administration and the CPP-NDF collapsed in February 2011, after the communists insisted on the release of its consultants as a prerequisite for talks. But Agcaoili said their side demanded nothing, while Aquino said they had to lay down their arms. Outgoing House deputy minority leader and 1-BAP party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III on Wednesday said he has accepted the offer by Duterte to serve as peace negotiator with the communists. Bello said Sison’s offer of an immediate and mutual ceasefire was a positive development. “This could pave the way for the resumption of the formal peace negotiations,” Bello, former Justice secretary, said in a text message to The Standard. At the same time, Bello said Duterte’s offer to give the communists four key Cabinet posts was a “gesture of building bridges.” Bello had led peace talks with the communists in 2004, but those bogged down after the US included Sison and the CPP-NPA on its terrorist list. Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate, a member of the leftist Makabayan bloc, echoed Bello’s optimism about the peace talks. Zarate said the Makabayan bloc in the House will fully support Duterte. Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo Visaya said

Comelec,...

change, it was in fact a blatant violation of the Automated Election System Law, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Code of Conduct for Public Officials and other laws,” the group’s complaint read. Reyes called on Comelec to block the departure of Garcia from the country. In an interview, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon questioned the inclusion of Comelec officials in the suit. “He is not my agent. Was he my agent when Marlon Garcia did what he did? He is an agent of Smartmatic, isn’t he?” Guanzon said. “By agent, I mean employee, who acted on behalf of his principal, his corporation,” she said. Guanzon had earlier pushed for an investigation into Garcia’s uploading of a new script to the transparency server. She said they would act on the complaint as soon as they ob-

tained a copy of it. Guanzon added that an internal investigation would begin once the canvassing of votes has been concluded. “It should be finished within 30 days to be fair to all. It should be speedy administration of justice,” Guanzon said. On the evening of May 9, Garcia altered a few lines of the programming script of the transparency server without authorization from the Comelec en banc. He later said it was a cosmetic change, to change the “?” to an “ñ” in some names. Vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday called on the Comelec to let his It experts and programmers conduct an audit on the server used to count unofficial vote tallies, even as the Senate said it would inquire into the unauthorized script change. Marcos said the audit must be done due to doubts over the in-

By John Paolo Bencito, Maricel V. Cruz, and Florante S. Solmerin

DAVAO CITY—Talks are already underway between the Communist Party of the Philippines and the camp of President-in-waiting Rodrigo Duterte, the chief negotiator of the National Democratic Front, Fidel Agcaoili, said Wednesday.

From A1

But the movement maintained that Garcia’s act cast doubts over the integrity and credibility of the national and local elections. “This has reference to the recent incident involving a serious breach of protocol under Comelec Resolution No. 10105. It is worthy to note that an officer of the tech firm Smartmatic broke protocol and the laws when it changed a part of the code at a server handling unofficial election results. These unauthorized acts were highly irregular and can raise doubts about the credibility of the national elections,” the complaint read. The alteration in the script was not merely a cosmetic change, Reyes said. “This was neither a mere violation of protocol nor a cosmetic

the Armed Forces of the Philippines can easily adjust to the security plan that Duterte wants to pursue to unify the country and bring about genuine peace and security. “We in the military can always adapt to any kind of situation, from war to peace and development. Who would not want this insurgency to end? If peace is attainable without killing each other, then let’s join hands to take that path,” Visaya said. Duterte is expected to name Visaya as his first military chief after he called him a “vibrant general.” Visaya is a member of the Philippine Military Academy “Matikas” Class 1983. Asked if the AFP’s anti-insurgency program Internal Peace and Security Plan or IPSP Bayanihan is history in view of Duterte’s overall peace plan to enjoin the communists led by Jose Maria Sison in his government, Visaya said this would be determined by the outcome of the peace talks. “The president-elect knows very well what he is doing. We’ve a chain of command of which he is the commander-in-chief of the AFP,” Visaya said. “We always want to attain peace as fast as we can because it has been 47 long, long years. The rebellion caused by the communist rebels had very damaging effects on our economy. Again, we’ve to stop killing each other, let’s unite because we’ve a bigger challenge that our sovereign nation is facing.... We’ve to hasten efforts to modernize our AFP,” Visaya added. In a statement released Wednesday, Karapatan secretarygeneral Cristina Palabay welcomed Duterte’s plan to release all political prisoners through a general amnesty. “This will partly give justice to the political prisoners, whose rights were violated,” she said. She said that at present there are 543 documented political prisoners languishing in different government jails across the country. With Sandy Araneta and Macon Ramos-Araneta tegrity of the system following the introduction of a new script to the transparency server. “The alteration removed the only security feature of the data by causing the hash codes to change,” said Marcos in a letter filed by his representatives. “With the tampering of this sole security feature, how can we be assured that the data has not been altered in other ways or on other occasions?” the senator wrote. “If a single person can introduce ‘cosmetic’ changes, how can we be assured that the same person and/or other persons did not introduce substantial alterations to the script and that the data had not been affected just as easily?” he added. The Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Automated Election System chaired by Senator Aquilino Pimentel III will conduct a Senate probe on the matter.

Duterte ...

From A1

The White House, in a statement, highlighted “the enduring values that underpin” the US alliance with the Philippines, including “shared commitments to democracy, human rights, rule of law, and inclusive economic growth.” “The two leaders affirmed their interest in seeing the relationship continue to grow on the basis of these shared principles,” the statement read. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said that while the United States did not refer directly to allegations of human rights abuses against Duterte, Rhodes noted that some “controversy” and “statements ... drew attention in the past.” “But look, this is a new government and we’ll want to hear from them directly what their priorities are,” he said when asked about the May 9 presidential election in the Philippines. Rhodes said Washington hoped “to build on progress made with the last administration” in the country. “For us the priorities will remain the security and the prosperity of the Philippines; we’ll want to see continued efforts in the Philippines to respect the rule of law and combat corruption, just as we support those kinds of efforts across Asia and around the world,” Rhodes added. During the campaign, when Duterte drew flak from the Australian and American ambassadors for saying he should have been first to have sex with an attractive Australian missionary who was raped and killed in the 1980s, he told the envoys to “shut their mouths” and to stay out of local politics. In its 2014 human rights report, the US State Department said extra-judicial killings were the “most significant” human rights problem in the Philippines, its key ally in the Pacific. Washington has since signaled its willingness to “work” with Duterte, despite allegations of rights abuses in the city he has led for over two decades. “Washington respects the choice of the Philippine people. We gladly work with the leaders they’ve selected,” State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said. In an interview, Duterte spokesperson Peter Laviña admitted that they have problems with at least three embassies over Duterte’s controversial statements during the campaign period, but said they may visit them once Duterte becomes president-elect. “We have problems now with at least three embassies—the US, Australia, and Singapore,” Laviña said. The State Department, however, emphasized that it is up to American officials in the country, led by Ambassador Philip Goldberg, to fix relations with him, after he criticized the mayor’s rape “joke.” Goldberg has yet to pay the incoming president a visit in Davao City. In an interview with The New York Times after his win, Duterte recounted how an American bombing suspect was arrested in Davao City, but was later “spirited away” by US Embassy officials, which was the source of his disgust. Earlier, Duterte met with Chinese and the Japanese envoys in Davao City. He is also set to meet with the ambassador from Russia on Wednesday. Incoming acting Foreign Affairs secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. on Wednesday assured the international community of continuity in the country’s foreign relations, particularly on the territorial dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea. Yasay said that continuity was important in foreign relations, and assured the public that the Duterte administration would not bring drastic changes in the Department of Foreign Affairs. He also said that the incoming administration would wait for the decision of the arbitration court in The Hague, The Netherlands. With AFP

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Villar’s post as DPWH secretary questioned

R.A. 10821. President Benigno Aquino III poses with children after signing into law the Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act in Malacañang on Wednesday. With him are Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Aquino says he’s ready to quit the presidency PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday he was ready to step down from the presidency with his head held high as he remained true to his mandate throughout the six years of his presidency. “Our term is almost over. With just 43 days left we will step down from our post. Nevertheless, you can see that we are continuing with our work,” Aquino said. “We are doing this to its fullest to have the opportunity to serve our Bosses, the Filipino people,” he said during his speech at the Presidential Enactment Ceremony for R.A. 10821 or the Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection

Act in Malacañang. The new law seeks to provide children with comprehensive relief and protection in the aftermath of disasters. RA 10821 establishes a strategic program of action so that the government can immediately respond to the needs of children, protect their rights and facilitate rehabilitation. Aquino said the law strengthens the mandate of the government to put

up evacuation centers with facilities for children and pregnant women. He said the law also mandates child-responsive training for emergency responders in calamity-hit areas. “What I can say is that on the 30th of June, at around noontime, we will step down from our post peacefully, we could look with heads up high towards the Filipino people, and with eye to eye, we can say ‘I have been honest with you. I have fulfilled the mandate given by my Bosses’,” Aquino said. “Until the end, it is an honor for a Noynoy Aquino to serve a great race, my Bosses, you the Filipino people.

“Surely, we will bequeath to the future generations a Philippines that is far better than we have found it. And we’ve done it because we worked together. We lifted each other up and put our people and nation before our own interests,” said Aquino. Aquino and his appointees in Malacañang have started packing up, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said earlier. A Presidential Transition Commission has also been formed for the transition process from the Aquino government to the administration of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte. Sandy Araneta

ELECTION lawyer Romulo Macalintal said reelected Las Piñas Rep. Mark Villar could have violated a law when he accepted the appointment of presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte as secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways. He said Villar would be violating Article 234 of the Revised Penal Code once he did his duties as Public Works secretary and refused to discharge his duties as representative. “I believe he could be violating the law once he accepts the appointment and not take his oath and serve as the elected congressman of Las Piñas City,” Macalintal told the reporters at the Philippine International Convention Center. “During the campaign season, he never mentioned any possibility of him being appointed,” Macalintal said. “Now he is accepting the appointment and will turn his back on the people of Las Piñas City.” Macalintal said he voted for Villar on May 9, but he would not have voted for him had he known he would accept an appointment to Public Works. On Tuesday, Villar confirmed he had accepted his appointment to Public Works instead of serving his third term as Las Piñas representative. Macalintal then advised Villar to first take his oath as a congressman before resigning to avoid any legal liabilities. Assuming that Villar would resign after taking his oath, Macalintal said, the Commission on Elections should hold a special election in Las Piñas for the congressional seat. But Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said holding a special election would depend on the House of Representatives. Macalintal said the second placer in the Las Piñas congressional race, Zardi Abellara, may not assume the post since Villar had already been proclaimed. Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

SC asked: Stop naming winners in the Senate SENATORIAL bet and former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections from proclaiming some of the winners in the senatorial race, where he is expected to land in 13th place. Through his lawyer Jose Ventura Aspiras, Tolentino asked the high court to stop the Comelec from proclaiming the senators landing in the 10th to 12th places because of what he called “unauthorized manipulation” by Smartmatic, the company that provided the vote counting machines. He asked the Court to order the Comelec to open the automated election system to forensic audit and investigation because the canvassing of the votes had been questionable. He also asked the Court to compel the Comelec to “institute adequate measures to correct the unauthorized access to and interference with the AES.” “The mirror server and the trans-

parency server of the Comelec have been manipulated,” Tolentino said. “Among these are the observed ‘abnormalities’ in the results of the senatorial elections.” Tolentino said the manipulation of the AES had “compromised the results of the senatorial elections, in particular the rankings of the 10th to 12th winning candidates for senator. “The proclamation of winners for the 10th to 12th positions for senator should be held in abeyance pending full, independent and credible determination of the effects and consequences of such manipulation.” Tolentino named Valenzuela Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian, reelectionist Senator Ralph Recto and former Justice secretary Leila de Lima, who are in the 10th to 12th places, respectively, as respondents in his petition. As of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the Comelec had tallied 96.14 percent of the votes with De Lima leading Tolentino with a margin of over 1.4 million votes. Rey E. Requejo

Covenant. Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez and Al Cusi sign a covenant for unity between the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan and Lakas CMD on Wednesday at the Midas Hotel in Pasay City . DANNY PATA

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Lakas-CMD backs Alvarez By Maricel V. Cruz THE Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats and Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) signed on Wednesday a “Covenant of Unity” in the House of Representatives even as incoming Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez claimed more than 150 congressmen would support his bid for the speakership. Lakas-CMD president and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez signed the covenant with Alvarez, who is PDPLaban secretary-general, PDP-Laban vice chairman Alfonso Cusi. Romualdez stressed the importance for the formation of a super majority in the Senate and House of Representatives to achieve the desired reforms of Duterte. “The coalition for change agreement signifies our willingness to cooperate

with one another in bringing out the change and reforms that incoming President Duterte wants,” said Romualdez who introduced other Lakas members to Alvarez at the Midas Hotel and Casino in Pasay City. The Lakas members included incoming Leyte Rep. Yedda Marie M. Kittilstvedt-Romualdez, who will succeed her husband Martin. “The agreement is about working for change. We will work together

under the Duterte presidency to push people’s interests,” Kittilstvedt-Romualdez said. The event was also attended by former first lady and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Romualdez-Marcos. At the same time, the 40-member Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc., headed by its president AGAP party-list Rep. Nicanor Briones, vowed to support the Duterte administration even as they also signed a separate agreement with PDP-Laban at the event. One of the stalwarts of the partylist coalition in the Lower House, Cibac party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna, said the party is committed to support the candidate for speakership “who can guarantee a fair and equitable distribution of positions and chairmanship in the House of Representatives.”

Tugna said the group vowed “to continue and strengthen our engagement in our duty to the people, through advancing vital advocacies and sectoral concerns of our members.” Earlier, the Nacionalista Party of former Senate President Manuel Villar forged an alliance with PDP-Laban. Alvarez, for his part, welcomed the support extended to him by other lawmakers from the Nationalist People’s Coalition, National Unity Party, Kilusang Bagong Lipunan and the 40-strong Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc. “In behalf of the Duterte administration, we would like to sincerely thank you for your support and we have a lot of things to do to execute the changes that the Duterte administration have promised to the Filipino people,” Alvarez said.

From Utrecht with love. National Democratic Front peace negotiator Fidel Agcaoili hands over to President-apparent Rodrigo Duterte a bag full of books from Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison at Duterte’s temporary office in Matina, Davao City.

Abad admits release of funds By Sandy Araneta THE Department of Budget and Management admitted on Wednesday that 84 percent of the P3-trillion budget for 2016 has already been released to agencies as of end April 2016, but this does not mean that the incoming administration has been left with little resources for its priority programs. “It is not true that only 16 percent of the budget is left, contrary to the claim of the camp of former Vice President Jejomar Binay. That is an incorrect and malicious claim. Allotment releases to agencies do not indicate actual spending of funds,” Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said. An allotment gives an agency the authority to obligate funds for projects. When projects have been awarded, the funds have been obligated and it is only then that actual funds are disbursed to agencies to pay the contractors and suppliers, said the budget chief. Abad clarified that of the total P3.002-trillion general appropriation in 2016, P2.505 trillion in allotments have already been released to government agencies. The remaining allotments amount to P496.3 billion and this is slated to be released later this year. For Special Purpose Funds, as of May 2016, P157.4 billion has already been released out of the P446.4-billion total appropriation—a large share of which was for the Budgetary Support to Government Corporations at P43.1 billion and the Pension and Gratuity Fund at P41.6 billion.

Trillanes on official trip to Hawaii By Macon Araneta and Eric B. Apolonio THE camp of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who was accused of mounting a black propaganda against presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte, left the country for Hawaii Tuesday afternoon, but his aides said the trip had nothing to do with the election. Immigration officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 confirmed that Trillanes was wearing a dark blue shirt with large two suitcases when he left the country via Philippine Airlines flight PR100 for Honolulu, Hawaii at 5:30 p.m. of May 17. But Trillanes aides said the sen-

ator left on an official trip which was approved by Senate President Franklin Drilon. In a separate phone interview, Drilon’s chief of staff lawyer Rey Bantug said Trillanes asked permission to travel, but he could not give the details since the request was made before the election. “We are just waiting for a copy of the travel authority from the [Senate President] to prove that his leaving the country was official,” said Trillanes’ media relations officer Adette Romero. Romero also dispelled rumors that the senator escaped to avoid the ire of Duterte who would assume the presidency on June 30. Towards the end of the campaign

period, Trillanes accused the Davao mayor of failing to declare P211 milllion in bank deposits at BPI Julia Vargas branch in Pasig in his SALN for 2014. He also charged that Duterte has P2.4-billion unexplained wealth in at least four banks. Duterte strongly denied the charges and engaged Trillanes in a “word war.” Trillanes even said he would withdraw from the vice presidential race and quit as senator if it can be proven that his accusations against Duterte were untrue. The Immigration bureau at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 confirmed Trillanes left the country in the afternoon of May 17, 2016 (Tuesday).

Maritime patrol. Philippine authorities check a vessel in the Balintang Channel in Batanes on Monday, the week after they captured two Chinese and three Vietnamese fishing boats poaching in Philippine waters. AFP

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Defense chief seeks meeting with Duterte By Florante S. Solmerin Defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin is among incumbent government officials who have lined up to seek a meeting with President-elect Rodrigo Duterte. The meeting will take place at Duterte’s hometown, according to sources. “Definitely, the meeting would be at his [Duterte] office where the President-elect has been receiving well-wishers and doing press conferences,” a source at the Duterte camp said. Gazmin, who has full six years as secretary of national Defense under the Aquino administration, is facing a plunder case filed by a whistleblower before the Office of the Ombudsman for his alleged role together with several military officials in the alleged rigging of the P1.2-billion helicopter deal with a United states-based company. Gazmin, a former Army chief and chief security aide of President Benigno Aquino III’s mother, has been accused of meddling in the affairs of the Board of Generals, which disgruntled officers refer to as the “Board of Gazmin.” Gazmin has repreatedly denied meddling in the BOG affairs. earlier, Duterte, after announcing that he was considering southern Luzon Command chief Lieutenant General Ricardo Visaya as his Chief of staff of the Armed forces of the Philippines, issued his first would-be guidance to the military. “I have ordered to reactivate the Board of Generals,” Duterte said during his first press conference. Duterte also warned government officials including the military and police not to ask favor from him or seek recommendation from senators, congressmen, governors, among others, just to get promoted.

Gender journey. Millennium Challenge Corporation and Millennium Challenge Account- Philippines launch the Philippine Compact Social and Gender Summary Report book which the Philippines may use as a guide in the implementation of government projects. The launching held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ortigas Quezon City was in partnership with the departments of Social Welfare and Development, Public Works and Highways and Finance. Dubbed ‘Learning Forum: MCC/MCA-P Gender Journey’ the event was aimed to celebrate the major accomplishments, challenges, lesson learned, and best practices on social and gender integration in MCCs $434-million compact grant to the Philippines. From left: Marivic E. Anonuevo-managing director and chief executive officer Millennium Challenge Account- Philippines, Remedios Rekkin-chairperson, Philippine Commission on Women, Michael S. Klecheski-deputy chief of Mission, US Embassy, Manila, Jozefina Cutura-associate director, Gender and Social Integration, Department of Compact Operations Millennium Challenge Corporation and John A. Polk-resident country director MCC.

Comelec sticks to SC rules on party-list seats By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan The Commission on elections will farm out 59 congressional seats to party-list groups based on the formula adopted by the Supreme Court in 2009. Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista on Wednesday said that the 2009 sC ruling on the Banat versus Comelec would prevail under the incoming 17th Congress, “It would still be the Banat formula,” Bautista told reporters. Bautista’s statement came after the An Waray party-list filed a motion asking the Comelec to use a different formula from the one prescribed by the high court. “We believe that if the commission will apply the Banat

formula, it would cause gross misappropriation of allocation of seats. That’s why we recommend that another formula be made by the commission,” An Waray 2nd nominee Raoul Creencia said Tuesday before the Comelec, sitting as the national Board of Canvassers . The Banat versus Comelec ruling provides for the allocation of the 59 seast for party-list representatives based on the number of votes party listers garnered during the May 9 polls before undergoing two rounds of allo-

cation of seats. In the first round, the party-lists receiving at least two percent of the total votes cast shall be entitled to one guaranteed seat each. for example, if 20 party-list groups were able to meet the two percent threshold, they will be assured of 20 seats. for the second round, partylists, including those that were able to meet the two percent threshold (two-percenters), would be allocated seats based on the whole number of the product between the percentage of their respective votes and the remaining available party-list seats. This means that the percentage of vote for party-list “X” shall be multiplied by 39, which is the remaining available party-list seats, with the product’s whole number becoming the additional

seats for the party-list “X.” Allocation of seats in the second round will be continuous until all of the remaining seats have been distributed, including those party-list candidates that did not garner the two-percent minimum. The three-seat cap for the party-list representation remains in effect. The Banat ruling is the third formula used by the Comelec in determining the allocation of party-list seats following the “2-4-6 rule” as provided by the Party-List system Act (Republic Act 7941) and the “Panganiban formula” as shown in the Veterans federation Party vs Comelec case in 2000. Meanwhile, more party-list groups joined the opposition to the An Waray proposal.

Know your president: Rody featured in packaged tour

Day of museums. Students take a group photo in front of Juan Luna’s painting entitled

‘Spoliarium’ at the National Museum on Wednesday May 18 during the commemoration of the International Day of Museums. The painting was submitted by Luna to the Esposicion Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884 in Madrid and won a gold medal. DANNY PATA

The tourism sector is set on crafting “Know Your President” package tour in Davao City that will showcase the accomplishments of presumptive President-elect Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as the local chief executive in the past 20 years. Tourism regional director for Region XI Roberto Alabado III said the package should address the increasing interest in Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the longest serving Davao City mayor. he also served as acting vice mayor after the edsa people power, was elected vice mayor and later a congressman. According to Alabado, the package tour will feature important events of Duterte’s life apart from his accomplishments.

“Duterte is synonymous to Davao and Davao to Duterte. The mayor has also become a tourist attraction in the city even before,” Alabado said during Davao Business forum on Tuesday here. With this tour, he said “we will let them experience Davao.” Many people are interested to know how Duterte carries out his policies in governance, his life story as well as the state-of-theart facilities here. Alabado said “Know your president” will be a tour showing important landmarks during Duterte’s term as mayor. Once the packaged tour is ready, it will be marketed through the tour operators, the social media and other related media channels. PNA

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3 luxury cars from S. Korea seized By Vito Barcelo THE Bureau of Customs seized three high-end luxury cars valued at a combined P5 million declared as auto spare parts at the Port of Subic. Customs Deputy Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno said the luxury cars are a brand new BMW 735 IL, a Chrysler and Audi. “The misdeclared shipment came from South Korea and was placed under alert order after customs intelligence agents discovered discrepancies in the statement of declaration in the manifest,” he said. “This is a case of misdeclaration, in which the shipment was declared as truck spare parts instead of cars. As the enforcer of Customs laws, it is our duty to apprehend imports or exports which are shipped in violation of the TCCP. Further, this shipment may also be in violation of EO 156. Importers of used cars usually resort to misdeclaration of cargoes to avoid the ban on used cars under the said executive order,” Nepomuceno said. He said the BoC has strengthened its drive against technical smuggling through misdeclaration. Nepomuceno said that bureau has recently issued a memorandum mandating all concerned officers and offices of the bureau to observed correct and proper valuation of all harmonized system codes or of all motor vehicle commodities, as part of the government’s fight against technical smuggling. The BoC said it will file charges against the importer or importers whose identities were not revealed.

Book center. Tourists check the books at a free public library and book exchanges center in front of the Manila Cathedral on Wednesday, May 18. The library is intended to provide space where people can enjoy reading, interact in lively discussion with fellow readers and share their love for books by donating books to the center. DANNY PATA

Airport fee scam bared By Eric B. Apolonio

THE Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines sacked 11 of its personnel assigned at the Kalibo International Airport for their alleged role in a scam involving terminal fee tickets. CAAP Director-General William K. Hotchkiss lll directed his deputy Rodante S. Joya and concurrent head of CAAP’s Security and Intelligence Service to look into the possibility that the group has been involved in the modus operandi of “recycling” terminal fee tickets. The scam could have

been going on for several months or possibly years now, taking away possibly substantial amount of earnings from the KIA, Hotchkiss said. The KIA terminal fee for domestic flight costs P200 and for international travel, P750. CAAP Deputy DirectorGeneral for Administration

Maj. Gen. Artemio Orozco terminated the contracts of the 11 job order personnel. A CAAP regular employee, who is also suspected of involvement in the scam, has been suspended pending investigation by the CSIS. “A show cause order has been issued to the regular employee who works as a terminal fee collector at the airport,” Orozco said. According to Orozco, the CSIS has found proof that former members of the group, removed from the agency, were involved in the scam in January and February this year. He said that the CSIS is probing

deeper to determine how long the modus operandi has been going on at the KIA. “We cannot yet say how much of the KIA’s earnings this group have been lost through the scam of basically recycling terminal fee tickets. The CSIS has yet to conclude its investigation,” the CAAP official pointed out. The memorandum terminating the contracts of personal services of job order (JO)/casual personnel were issued to terminal fee inspectors Daniva Acosta and Shane Alejandro; terminal fee collectors Shiela Oirada, Cherry Peralta,

Jojean Conanan, Precious Fernandez, Gerry Revister, Maria Briones, Andy Mel Jones Concepcion, and Jovert Alejandro and Flight Data Encoder, Shamar Glenn Mabasa. The CSIS investigation showed their involvement in the “collection of CAAP terminal fees for personal gain through the willful and unauthorized issuance of used CAAP terminal fee tickets at the KIA.” The casual workers were directed to surrender their CAAP identification cards and submit certificates of clearance pertaining to their property and financial responsibility.

Ex-congressman trumps mayor in Bacolod City’s ‘final battle’ BACOLOD City Rep. Evelio Leonardia is reclaiming City Hall after he won as mayor in the May 9 election over incumbent Monico Puentevella in an unprecedented fashion. With a record 120,231 votes or a lead of 22,238, Leonardia ended “The Final Battle” between him and Puentevella, with whom he has a long-running political contest that goes all the way back to 1988. It was the biggest landslide victory in the history of Bacolod and Leonardia is going back to City Hall for an unprecedented 5th term. As neophyte politicians, Leonardia and

Puentevella started their political careers in 1988 when they both ran for the city council. Leonardia topped that election; Puentevella came in second. Three years later, they both ran for vice mayor; Leonardia won. Their rivalry went on mainly over the media, as both ran for different posts after that: Puentevella went for Congress while Leonardia took City Hall. They met again in 2010, when Puentevella aimed for the mayorship after his congressional stint. Leonardia won that one, too. In 2013, with Leonardia’s term as mayor ending, Pu-

entevella ran for mayor and won. Leonardia went on to Congress. Last year, in response to public clamor, Leonardia decided to give up his congressional seat and run for mayor. It was also a landslide win for Leonardia’s party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition-Grupo Progreso by clinching the positions for congressman, vice mayor, and eight of the 12 city council seats. Puentevella’s Pamilya Magbinuligay Kita Kapamilya won only four slots of the Sangguniang Panlungsod. Vice Mayor Greg Gasataya won as congressman, El Cid Familiaran won as vice mayor.

Comelec registrar Mavil Majarucon-Sia (left) proclaims Leonardia winner in the Bacolod mayoralty race. On hand to witness his proclamation are his wife Elsa and daughter Loren Kara.

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Fresh catch. Fishermen in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur hope for some catch at the onset of the rainy season. DAVID CHAN

Grenade wounds 7 soldiers in Sulu SEVEN troopers from the 10th Scout Ranger Company were wounded in a grenade attack in Jolo, Sulu early Wednesday morning. The incident took place 5:21 a.m. at Barangay Walled City in the above-mentioned town. Major Filemon Tan, Western Mindanao Command spokesperson, said the victims were conducting a logistic run when a still unidentified suspect hurled a fragmentation grenade at the soldiers, wounding seven of the latter. logistics run means the soldiers went to the town proper either for marketing or to get supplies. Tan did not release the names of the wounded soldiers except in saying they belong to the 10th Scout Ranger Company of the Army’s 4th Scout Ranger Battalion based in Bud Datu, Tagbak, indanan. “They [the soldiers] opted not to open fire as civilians might be hit,” he said citing there were many people at the vicinity of the incident. He said there is a big possibility that the Abu Sayyaf brigands were behind the grenade attack. PNA

Police nab 5 for illegal logging in Mt. Province By Dexter A. See

BAUKO, Mountain Province—Five persons were arrested and more than P500,000 worth of assorted lumber and by-products were recovered in a five-hectare suspected illegal logging site in Sitio Bataan, Barangay Balintaugan here Saturday. Chief Superintendent Ullysses Abellera, acting regional director of the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera, identified the individuals who were invited for questioning by police operatives as Carlos Kimakim Combisen, 55; Ariel Bateg Bomogao, 36; Jerry Magnanang Padingil,

23; Joel Magnanang Padingil, 26; and William Bistayok Daping, 49. All of them were from Mountain Province. On the other hand, the confiscated lumber had a total volume of 13,582.99 board feet composed of 2,401 pieces in assorted sizes. They had a total market value of P380,323.67.

Authorities also confiscated 34 sacks of charcoal amounting to over P100,000. Also recovered in the site were two chainsaws and three guide bars which were used by the loggers in the perpetration of the crime. Officials and employees of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Sabangan conducted surveillance operations through several choppers from the Philippine Air Force that led to the discovery of the site. Authorities immediately sought the support of police personnel from the Mountain Province Police Office that resulted in the arrest of

the men and confiscation of the items. The arrested individuals and the confiscated pieces of evidence were subsequently brought to the Mountain Province Police headquarters for documentation and safekeeping awaiting the filing of appropriate charges against them. “We call on our people living in the watershed area to be vigilant on the activities of illegal loggers and immediately report to local and police officials the existence of such illegal logging activities so that they will be arrested and illegal logging will be curbed,” Mayor Abraham B. Akilit stressed.

Landowners stop grid agency from constructing new line By Mel Caspe TAClOBAN CiTy— Construction work along a portion of the Sta. RitaQuinapondan 69-kV line in Samar was stopped because of uncooperative landowners. Betty Martinez, corporate information officer of NGCP Ormoc City, Charito R. Cruspero, lorna R. Cruspero, and Rodney R. Cruspero, registered owners of the property in question, stopped the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines from proceeding with the project in open defiance of the courtissued Writ of Possession dated April 7, 2016.

The writ, issued in connection with an expropriation case filed over the property, allows NGCP to enter, take possession, and acquire an easement of right-of-way over the property of the Crusperos to construct the transmission line. The Sta. Rita-Quinapondan project will improve power reliability and quality in Western and Eastern Samar. “NGCP complied with all the requirements of the court, so that we can lawfully proceed with the project. The open defiance of the Writ of Possession by the Crusperos frustrates our ef-

forts to provide better transmission services to the people of Samar. The claimants, as parties to the legal case, are bound by all lawful issuances of the court. Their act of defiance only serves to delay the implementation of national development projects like this crucial power infrastructure,” NGCP said. “We are appealing to the local officials led by the governor, the mayors in Eastern Samar, and the police to support NGCP in addressing this issue. We have the common goal of improving the lives of the people in Samar,” NGCP added.

Praying for plenty. Residents of Gumaca, a town located at the mouth of Pipisik River and nestling at the foot of the Sierra Madre range, celebrate a feast in honor of San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers. TEDDY PELAEZ

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opinion

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An unpreCedented offer DuTy cAlls

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An eArly gAffe It wAS heartening, what davao City Mayor Rodrigo duterte said during his press conference Monday that he would not entertain endorsements from politicians in picking the members of his Cabinet. he would decide by himself, he assured the public. we liked what we heard because it indicated duterte was averse to the culture of payback and patronage. unfortunately, it did not take long for that pronouncement to go sour. one of the first appointments announced by the presumptive President was that of Rep. Mark Villar as head of the department of Public works and highways. Villar is the son of former Senate President and presidential candidate Manuel Villar and former las Piñas congresswoman and now Senator Cynthia Villar. The young Villar said he had humbly accepted duterte’s offer after consulting with his family. what other counsel could his parents have offered, we wonder. The Villars head the nacionalista Party which has formed what is called a “functional alliance” with the duterte’s PdP-laban. duterte’s defeated running mate counted himself an nP member. we find several issues with the choice of the young Villar to head the department that would implement the building of infrastructure—a crucial aspect of the next six years if we are to go by duterte’s eight-point economic plan. The Villars have made their fortune in the real estate and construction business—a glaring conflict of interest with an executive department that would make decisions and implement projects across the country. The conflict should have been immediately apparent to Villar and he need not have consulted his family anymore. It is not as if he would be out of a job if he turned down the offer. he had just been reelected congressman of his district. In fact, by accepting the executive post, he would be betraying the confidence that his constituents gave him. what of his promises that he would champion their interests in the legislature? By saying yes, it was clear whose interests were paramount for Villar. That a mix of seasoned and young executives would be given the opportunity to serve in the duterte Cabinet is a good idea—but it presupposes that even the young officials would have sufficient achievements of their own outside of the shadow of their prominent parents. we have too often been let down by this kind of association. The Villars, who were supportive of the duterte campaign, this week joined the so-called coalition of change—a diplomatic way of characterizing an obviously flawed party system ruled by personal interest instead of ideology. It appears, however, that “change” will be a word made trite in the next six years, much like “the straight path” was in the previous six years. As before, we need to keep our expectations low.

ConfliCt of interest

I wouldn’t worry about the communists too much. But I think we better look out for the capitalists—the rentseeking kind, in particular. In the past two days, the Phisix, the “basket” of publicly traded stocks in the Philippine Stock Exchange used as an indicator of overall market activity and direction, moved

up marginally, by 0.17 percent on May 17 and 0.12 percent on May 18. But one stock, Vista land, shot up a whopping 5.18 percent and 3.79 percent on the same two days. I got a hot tip on the amazing performance of Vista land stock on May 17, when it was logging an amazing seven percent increase by midday in a generally flat market. And if you don’t know, Vista land is the listed company controlled by high-flying real estate developer Manuel Villar and his family.

did Vista make a big announcement about potentially profitable new developments, declare huge dividends or do anything else that would fundamentally cause its stock to rise in a generally quiet market? nope. The news that caused Vista stock to move up was the appointment of Mark Villar, son of Manny and Senator Cynthia and the just-elected congressman of las Piñas City, as secretary of the department of Public works and highways by President-in-waiting Ro-

I wonder what motivation Villar would have to renounce a House term even before he could start it.

drigo duterte. The market just put two and two together and came up with the result that Vista’s properties would dramatically increase in value as a result of Mark’s appointment to a department that could do just that. now, I know that duterte should be given a free hand

to choose the people that he wants. But putting the son of one of the country’s biggest real estate developers in charge of a department that could directly act to improve the value of the family business—by approving and implementing self-serving road projects and even by just being privy to all

sorts of government infrastructure plans—is just going too far. I don’t know what contribution the Villars made to duterte’s campaign or even if, as some have proposed, Mark’s appointment has something to do with protecting the new president from an impeachment attempt in the Senate. But I really wonder what motivation the young Villar would have to renounce a third three-year house term even before he could start it, in favor of a Cabinet post with no secu-

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rity of tenure. My only hope, as far as Villar and people like him are concerned, is that duterte makes good on his promise to sign an order implementing a version of the Freedom of Information for officials in the executive department. then we will have some protection from predatory government executives who may attempt to use their position for good old rent-seeking. But to answer the question: Is

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change coming? The stock market seems convinced of it —and is now voting with investors’ louis Vuitton wallets that Villar will do the job expected of him. *** which leads me to my earlier pick to be the most controversial appointee of digong duterte, the abrasive lawyer who is already being described as “Edwin lacierda on steroids,” Salvador Continued on A11

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

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wIth 42 days before Mayor Rodrigo duterte becomes president, we are beginning to get a glimpse of the kind of government we will have. his prospective Cabinet appointments are a mixture of old and new. he wants the death penalty restored and wants it by hanging. liquor consumption will also somehow be regulated. The first couple of months will probably be something of a martial atmosphere but it is too early to judge. duterte’s plan to offer four cabinet portfolios to the CPP/nPA is unprecedented and is creating a lot of buzz. It is a leap of faith to find a solution to the communist insurgency problem which has been going on for the past 47 years. It is one of the longest, if not the longest, insurgencies in the world. when I entered the military service, the CPP/nPA was just beginning. when I retired about 35 years later, we were nowhere near solving the problem. Although many of my colleagues then and now still believe that the way to solve this insurgency problem is to destroy the new People’s Army by force of arms, the government has been unable to do so over these past years. It is time for a new approach. If offering the CPP/nPA some Cabinet positions so that they can bring their brand of dedication to the government, it is worth a try. this decision may seem unwise to some observers. duterte, however, must have given the matter much thought in his 22 years as mayor and come to the conclusion that this is the best way to solve the problem. From the looks of it, there will be a nationwide truce followed by renewed negotiations then the signing of a peace deal followed by the appointment of four CPP/nPA representations to be nominated by the national democratic Front. Jose Maria Sison, the erstwhile chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, will not assume any position. The release of political prisoners will be done after the signing of the peace deal. And just like any negotiation, the use of terminologies will be important. The ndF wants to characterize its entry into government as a coalition government. whether the negotiating panel of the Republic of the Philippines will allow this or not will be entirely up to them. The term “coalition government” would Continued on A11

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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ConfliCt of interest

I wonder what motivation Villar would have to renounce a House term even before he could start it.

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A10 What really happened DAVAO City is the new Mecca of the Philippines with all the Rodrigo Roa Duterte wellwishers —including turncoats, taipans who contributed to other candidates, and job-seekers—trying to get on the good side of the presumptive president. This phenomenon will continue since Duterte will be making Davao City his real home while holding Malacañang as his official residence. This never happened when Fidel V. Ramos became the presumptive president. Neither did it take place during the time of Gloria Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III. Santa Banana, this says much about our society, when there are no public or national interests —just personal ones! *** Where did our votes for Marcos go? This is what members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo are asking upon learning that their votes in Lamitan City, Basilan had vanished. In that city, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, the vice presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, bagged 100 percent of the votes while her rival, Senator Bongbong Marcos, did not get a single vote. What is curious is that Marcos was endorsed by the INC and the INC members usually vote as a bloc. In Basilan, where there are Christians beI would rather believe longing to the the IT experts than INC, zero votes for Marcos is the Comelec and a puzzlement. Smartmatic. There are at least three INC churches in the area! To me, this is the best example of election fraud. And now I ask: Indeed, where did the nearly 2.5 -million Iglesia votes for Marcos go? This I think attests to the manipulation of results transmitted to the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting. A Smartmatic project director tampered with the hash code of the transparency server. After this, my gulay, the over-a-million lead of Marcos started disappearing. Information technology experts say there was manipulation. Leni overtook Bongbong in the count after that breach of protocol. I say breach because the intervention was done without the permission of the Commission on elections that owns the automated election system. The Comelec chairman and Smartmatic officials, on the other hand, claim otherwise. They say what was done was only a “cosmetic change.” I would rather believe the objective assessment of the IT experts. The conspiracy between Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista and his Smartmatic friends is too obvious. We need a system audit to find out what truly happened. Congress should also pursue its investigation into the alleged manipulation of votes. The breach of protocol could lead to economic sabotage because it might have compromised the integrity of the May 9 polls. This is why the proclamation of the winner in the vice presidential race should be put off until the public is assured that no cheating took place and that the polls were indeed fair, honest and clean. We cannot afford to have a vice president who cheated her way to the second-highest office! *** I have lowered my high expectations of real change under the Duterte administration because of several things that the presumptive president has been saying. First of all, I cannot believe that Duterte can fulfill his promise to end criminality the illegal drugs problem and corruption in three to six months without resorting to drastic means like proclaiming martial law or having a

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Make a Meritocracy The elections were a chance for the people of the Philippines to appoint someone they could relate to, a guy who came across as a regular Juan de la Cruz like themselves, and who they thought would bring about the kind of change that would benefit them. Rodrigo Duterte has proven himself a capable administrator of his bailiwick, Davao City. everyone I’ve spoken to who is from Mindanao, people coming from all across the demographic, say that he’s made Davao a safe and vibrant city. his influence, some Mindanaoans say, even extend to nearby areas such as General Santos City and South Cotabato, and beyond. So Duterte won by a landslide, in an election that saw the highest voter turnout in 12 years. “Change is coming!” But has it? The Duterte team initially bared plans to appoint a “Trudeau”-style Cabinet, thought by many to mean progressive, meritocratic, and egalitarian, especially with regard to gender. half of Trudeau’s team are women. So the actual list of new cab-secs was a disappointment: all are male. The only woman named so far is Andrea Domingo to Pagcor, and that’s not a line agency, that’s a GOCC. Plus the selection of Las Piñas representative Mark Villar to DPWh is controversial. So what’s new? The people rejected the previous administration’s patronage politics—let’s hope this is not another reiteration. The only area so far where drastic change really occurred, or will occur, is Duterte’s offer of four departments to the Communist Party of the Philippines—environment and Natural Resources, Social Welfare and Development, Labor and employment, and

Agrarian Reform. These departments are connected to precisely the issues the CPP has been struggling for years to resolve. This announcement alarmed a great many people, which is no surprise because government demonized the communists for decades, and the CPP hasn’t helped their own cause any by continuing their armed struggle. But there are those who point out that the inclusion of the communists in government could be a good thing. Former environment Secretary Mike Defensor said last May 16 in a much-shared Facebook post that many who “continued the path of activism and became part of the communist movement” are “now professionals who in their own small way contribute in [sic] the social transformation of our country.” he himself, he said, was a member of the Kabataang Makabayan (youth arm of the CPP), and went on to name some prominent personalities who were, or are, also “part of the Communist Party which may be unknown to many.” “My point in writing this,” he said, “is to inform my friends that the Communist Party is not a shadowy organization out to kill and conquer our nation but a group of individuals who sincerely want change for the betterment of this country… Do not be scared of the CPP entering the Cabinet. This may be the step towards finally ending a decades-old war…” This appointment of communists to the Cabinet is actually less disappointing than some

revolutionary government. With so much opposition to his advocacy of reviving the death penalty—by hanging, mind you—for heinous crimes, I bet Congress will not support this. First of all, statistics show the death penalty has not deterred criminality. As for me, I believe in life, which only God can end. Then, there’s the move of Duterte to give to the Communist Party of the Philippines, under Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni, four of the most sensitive Cabinet positions: Labor, Agrarian Reform, Social Welfare and Development, and environment and Natural Resources. Joma Sison may be saying now that upon his return, there will be a ceasefire between the New People’s Army and the government. We have all heard him say this before, but under certain conditions like releasing all political prisoners and other demands. In other words, the sincerity of Joma Sison and Jalandoni are suspect. They come to the negotiating table with blood on their hands. how can there be peace with the communists when all their demands mean the government surrendering to them, my gulay? For one thing: Will the Armed Forces of the Philippines just stand by and allow the communists to have power in government when so many soldiers have died fighting the NPA?

other choices made so far, and the shape of the proposed Cabinet as a whole. It is not too late for the Duterte administration to bring the change they promised by making their government a meritocracy, rather than the usual payback time for supporters. To Team Du30: put the best and most qualified people to work to eradicate corruption in government and deliver basic services. Ban the sycophants and the turncoats. Don’t be misled by gladhanding extroverts who foist off the real work on the industrious introverts in the background. Find the overlooked toilers who actually get things done—they’re the ones who the people need, and not the experts in self-promotion or public relations looking out for themselves. In the end, it should come down to who can do the job right and on time. hopefully the incoming administration realizes this and makes the right decisions, for the sake of the long-suffering Filipino masses who put them in power in the first place. *** The National Book Development Board recently announced the categories for the NBDB Trust Fund 2016, which gives grants for the development of manuscripts in certain areas of Philippines knowledge where the materials are few or non-existent. The three categories open this year are Mother Tongue, Senior high School, and Intellectual Property Rights. The deadline for Mother Tongue manuscripts is July 31, and for the other two categories, Sept. 30. Visit nbdb.gov.ph for details, or call (02)929-3887 or email oed@nbdb.gov.ph. Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @jensdecember

It would seem that Duterte, a self-confessed leftist, wants the government to yield to the communists. There’s also the problem with China. Will he allow China to go on bullying us just because he wants to preserve cordial ties with our giant neighbor? No wonder China’s ambassador, upon meeting with Duterte in Davao, was all smiles. As for Duterte’s promise of federalism, I am all for it. I have always wanted structural reforms in government. But I know too that shifting to federalism is easier said than done. We will need to amend the Constitution for that. But who will amend the Constitution? A constituent assembly is suspect since it will further personal interests of congressmen and senators. Besides, it will promote political dynasties. If Duterte wants to change the Constitution, there is no substitute for a Constitutional Convention called for that purpose. But, again who will constitute the “Con-Con?” The political dynasties which the Constitution itself wants banned? The charter called for a law to have it enforced. But how, when most of those in power are members of political dynasties? There’s also the problem of constitutional regions for self-rule. The problem is that some regions are richer than Continued on A11

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A11

ProPer imPlementation of revenue laws ONE of presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte’s most anticipated reforms, especially in the business sector, is his promise to reform the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. While both agencies are crucial in the revenue-generation efforts of the country to fuel welfare projects, infrastructure development, and everything that comes with monetary costs, it is his reform proposals for the Customs that I am most keen in seeing executed. Like in every six-year presidential period, the Duterte administration is in the cusp of making headway for sweeping reforms. There’s no better way for an administration with a swagger like Duterte’s to get the ball running than by taking on possibly the most controversial and difficult task of reforming the Customs. Taking heed from the overwhelming majority of Filipinos voting for Digong for president, it almost goes without saying that it his charac-

an unprecedented... From A9 somehow denote some form of victory on the part of the NDF because this has always been part of the objective in their struggle—to wrest control of the government. Now, they will be getting into it peacefully. The nuances of terms should therefore be disregarded so that we can move on. Forty-seven years of fighting is a long time and if the mayor succeeds, he would have achieved what other presidents before him failed to do. Let us give the CPP/NPA a chance at governance and see if what they have been fighting over their long years of struggle can actually work. After all, four Cabinet portfolios do not constitute a majority of the cabinet. There are risks of course—like the Labor portfolio. Business always ensures that stability is necessary in order to grow and progress. Constant disruptions like labor strikes could severely affect production. The constant demand for a fair living wage, which is a lot higher than current wages,will most certainly be rejected by management. The consequence of higher wages will be loss of jobs. How the NDF will balance this would be interesting to see. There is, after all, a lot of difference between waging a revolutionary war and governing. The three other Cabinet portfolios that are being dangled to the CPP/NPA such as Agrarian Reform, Environment and Natural Resources, and Social Welfare are tailor made for them. There should be less of a problem here but considering that this country is already over populated and land is scarce, where the government

ter that won him the seat. His demeanor and his approach towards reform and peace and order scream of political will—like a Spartan’s war cr y in the Battle of Thermopylae. His sheer intensity and willingness to reform Customs is one of the most notable details in his platform. Thus, his victor y became a cause for celebration for many Filipinos. The Aquino administration, with all its claims of having a strong anti-corruption record, has never made significant steps in reforming the bureau. Its efforts ended up being a combination of a lack of political will, competing interests inside and outside PNoy’s circles, and a recalcitrant agency refusing to let go of a culture of corruption and complacency. Sure, they made some changes, but making these changes was akin to wearing yet another mask to hide the ugly

will get land to redistribute will also be interesting to see. *** Lost in the euphoria of the Duterte landslide victory is the monumental collapse of the Grace Poe campaign in the last three weeks before election day. From a high rating of about 47 percent, this went down to a little over 21 percent after the votes were counted. This was a decrease of 16 points and this is something that has never happened before. What happened? How could the campaign collapse so fast in such a spectacular manner? It would seem that her campaign ran into a storm that is Duterte. In the end, Senator Poe even lost to the Liberal Party candidate, Mar Roxas. Can both Senator Poe and Roxas bounce back? Many suggested to Senator Poe that she should run for vice president to better prepare herself considering her relative political inexperience. She refused and proceeded to run for the highest position and lost badly. For Mar Roxas, it is his second defeat. But the circumstance of his defeat in 2010 is a lot more complicated. The second defeat, however, was fair and square. But even in defeat, maybe he should look at this as something that is not a total failure. Even with the baggage of being associated with President Aquino, he acquitted himself rather relatively well. He bested Vice President Binay and Grace Poe which observers never believed would happen. He himself surged in the last couple of weeks preceding the election—although it was not enough to win.

face of a government agency. The Aquino administration cannot claim to be waging the fight against corruption when it has not reached any milestone in reforming the Bureau of Customs. Case in point: The Customs Modernization and Tariff Act has been waiting for PNoy’s signature since the beginning of the year. Both houses of Congress did their due diligence in crafting the bill, and called for its passage. PNoy’s allies themselves called for its passage into law. Dilly-dallying on such an important measure is never a sign of strong political will, nor is it a character of anti-corruption leader. The same case could be said for the Lateral Attrition Act, which, as I have mentioned in previous months, needs to realize its full potential and enforcement. The Lateral Attrition Law gives Customs employees the chance to earn additional and honest earnings based

conflict... From A9 Panelo. Between Villar and Panelo, Duterte is in grave danger of squandering a lot of the goodwill that his election created—and the goodwill created by announcement of the other, infinitely more deserving people that Duterte has nominated to high office. When Duterte talked to US President Barack Obama over the phone Tuesday night, the issue of human rights just had to come up. The US State Department reiterated Obama’s specific concern in a statement released soon after the presidential call to Davao City. Duterte will surely have to repeatedly address allegations that he violated human rights as mayor of Davao in the days to come, allegations that will also hound his controversial anti-crime strategies such as bringing back the death penalty. What Duterte doesn’t need right now is someone in his official family who will also have to face similar charges, like his what... From A10 others. So, may gulay, what will happen to impoverished regions like Muslim Mindanao and Sulu and the Cordilleras? Federalism is something devoutly to be wished, but I doubt if it can ever come under the Duterte administration. Think about it. Even the much-deserved amendment of the Constitution’s restrictive economic provisions has been delayed. How much more restructuring the government system? *** There are two other notable appointments by Duterte, aside from that of Sonny Dominguez as Finance secretary, Gibo Tedoro as Defense secretary and Perfecto Yasay as act-

on their performance. Pussyfooting on the enforcement of this law is an injustice to exemplary Customs employees; it also results in foregone revenue. It appears that the incoming administration will be characterized by a system of reward and punishment that will implement law to the fullest. Connecting this with the seriousness of an effective revenue measure, it is high time that the Lateral Attrition Law is implemented fully. It is regrettable that the implementation of this law, aimed at incentivizing BIR and BoC officials and employees to exceed their collection quotas, was made optional by the PNoy administration. The effect is a perennial shortfall in the collection of these agencies. My unsolicited advice to the incoming administration is to properly implement this law so that the country could reap the rewards of a steady and consistent revenue surplus for the government coffers. At the same time, it can rid itself of corrupt and inefficient personnel.

combative new spokesman, Panelo. Panelo is probably most known for lawyering for the Ampatuan family of warlords in Mindanao, the same family that was supposed to have masterminded the Maguindanao Massacre of 2009. For those who may have forgotten, 32 of the 58 victims of that heinous crime were members of the media—the colleagues of the reporters and other journalists that Panelo will be dealing with on a daily basis when he assumes the post of presidential spokesman. It’s people like Panelo who will reinforce the perception, in the eyes of Filipinos and foreigners alike, that Duterte doesn’t really respect human rights—something that the president-in-waiting has repeatedly denied. And the fact that Panelo has been so successful in delaying the prosecution of the Ampatuans (none of whom have been convicted to this day) will remind journalists that this is a lawyer who knows how use the law in order to prevent justice from being done. ing Foreign Affairs secretary (until the ban on Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is lifted for either DFA or Justice secretary.) I am referring to my good friend Jess Dureza as peace adviser. That was his job under GMA, and he’ll certainly do well. There’s also Andrea Domingo for Pagcor, the regulatory agency for gaming and entertainment. But while I say that Domingo’s appointment is well-advised, perhaps the Duterte administration should now be thinking of privatizing all Pagcor casinos nationwide. Government has no business getting into this business, and competing with all the private casinos. Pagcor should remain a mere regulatory agency.

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Volcanoes remain in Division 1 THE SPI Philippine Volcanoes, finished the 2016 Asia Rugby Championships in third place after a heartbreaking loss to Sri Lanka in the closing seconds of the final match of the Division 1 championships held last Saturday at the Royal Selangor Club, Kuala Lumpur. The Sri Lankans started strong and took an early lead with a steady 20 points to 11 at half time. The Volcanoes hit back in the second half with a late try by

experienced back rower Terry Javier Carroll, putting the Volcanoes within two points of the tournament’s no. 1-ranked team with only 10 minutes remaining

SOCIAL HOUSING FINANCE CORPORATION Enhancing People’s Lives and Empowering Communities through FAIR Shelter Solutions

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR THE BIDDING OF PROJECT NO: 2016-11 PROCUREMENT OF CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND BRANDING STRATEGY 1.

The Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), through its Corporate Budget for 2016, intends to apply the sum of One Million Three Hundred Fifty Thousand Pesos Only (Php1,350,000.00) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) payment under the contract for the Procurement of Consulting Services for the Development of Customer Experience and Branding Strategy. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at the opening of the financial proposals. SHFC now calls for the submission of eligibility documents for: Project

Procurement of Consulting Services for the Development of Customer Experience and Branding Strategy

Location

BDO Plaza, 8737 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City

Objective

The development of a customer experience study and a branding strategy is intended to examine the current strategies of SHFC in dealing with its stakeholders, both internal and external. It will also enhance SHFC’s current strategies and/or develop a new strategy in order for the Corporation to continuously become relevant, effective, and efficient to the needs of its stakeholders, which in return, effect to satisfaction. The Customer Experience study shall: 1.Guide SHFC in the implementation of quality services to its stakeholders to attain a complete customer experience The development of the Branding Strategy shall: 1.Explicitly define SHFC’s branding and image

Outputs/ Deliverables

Inception Report First progress Report Second Progress Report Final report/output

10% 30% 30% 30%

other year. “It was obviously gut wrenching to lose in the final play. The players rallied and worked really hard to grab the lead at the end. I’m so proud of the fight back the Volcanoes showed, and very proud to be involved once again with this national team,” said veteran Volcano Jake Robrigado Letts after the match. The national team successfully fielded eight debutants dur-

ing the competition. Christopher Arpon Bird, Derrick DeGuzman Broussard and Andrew Pagalilauan Ramsden were first time caps in the 15-a-side code and showed glimpses of brilliance throughout the competition. The new players represent the next generation of Volcanoes and ensure the team’s continued growth and success.

Phoenix slalom goes to Bulacan REV up for the fifth leg of the RACE Motorsports Club’s 2016 Phoenix National Slalom Series, which will have a new venue – the Malolos Convention and Sports Center on Sunday. Registration is set from 8 a.m. onwards, an hour before the free slalom clinics at 9 a.m. Slalom action in the sport of slalom, considered as the grassroots of motorsports, will start with the open and unlimited practice runs from 8 to 10 a.m. Official practice runs begin at 11 a.m., with each driver given only one official practice run regardless of how many classes or cars the participant is entered. Each driver will receive 4 liters (1 gallon) of Phoenix Ac-

celerate Fully Synthetic Oil. Winners of the fourth leg will also get their trophies and prizes during the awarding ceremony. To accumulate points, overall and class champions 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, worth P300. The national slalom event is affiliated with the AAP and FIA, and is the longest-running national motorsports discipline in the country. Expected to participate are the series champions, headed by Dr. Peewee Mendiola of Team Big Chill, MSM Motorsports, AF

Racing Team and Orthodox Racing Team Comet, among others. The 2016 National Slalom Grand Series Series is presented by Phoenix Premium 98 and Phoenix Accelerate Fully Synthetic Oil, with Federal Tyres, Outlast Battery and Robinsons Antipolo as major sponsors. It is also supported by Starbright Body Kits, Auto Transporter, Aeromed, media partners Stoplight TV, C! Magazine, Auto Industriya, Ride and Drive Philippines and Targa Pilipinas. For details, contact Bing Bang O. Dulce at tel. nos. 928-6951, 09228165344 or 0917-8119337; email racemotorsportsclub@ yahoo.com or the event’s Facebook page.

The consultancy firm or corporation must have the following minimum qualifications: 1. 2.

1. 2. 3. 4.

in the match. Captain Oliver Abalos Saunders converted a 3-point penalty kick to take the Volcanoes to a 21 to 20 point advantage with 7 minutes remaining in the game. It was Sri Lanka however, which took the final lead with a try in the corner at the buzzer to finish the match 25 to 21. The final result left the Volcanoes in third place, securing their spot in Division 1 for an-

Expertise and track record in developing customer experience study and branding strategy and must have handled at least two (2) projects of this nature and scope within the past five (5) years with positive feedbacks from clients. Has a roster of experts in charge of the development and design of customer experience and branding strategy.

Interested firm shall submit one (1) original and two (2) copies of its eligibility requirements including the project leader and its technical staffs’ curriculum vitae on or before 25 May 2016 at 10:30 am (also the date of opening of eligibility documents) at 4th Floor, Training Room, Banco De Oro Plaza, 8737 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City. Applications for eligibility will be evaluated based on a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion.

The required documents and criteria are provided in Section 24. Eligibility Requirements and Short Listing for Consulting Services of the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 9184 (RA 9184), otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act.” 5.

The BAC shall draw up the short list of consultants from those who have submitted Eligibility Documents and Curriculum Vitae of the Experts to be employed andhave been determined as eligible in accordance with the provisions of RA 9184 and its IRR. The short list shall consist of three (3) prospective bidders who will be allowed to purchase the Bidding Documents and are entitled to submit bids. The criteria and rating system for short listing are: Applicable experience Qualification of project leader& technical staff Current workload relative to capacity Total

= = =_ =

40 % 40% 20 %_ 100 %

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using nondiscretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the IRR of RA 9184.

Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

The Procuring Entity shall evaluate bids using the Quality-Cost Based Evaluation/ Selection (QCBE/QCBS) procedure. Only bids whose Technical proposals pass the minimum technical evaluation score of Eighty percent (80%) shall have their Financial Proposals opened and evaluated. The Technical Proposal shall carry Eighty percent (80%) weight in the evaluation. The bidders shall be ranked in descending order based on the combined numerical ratings of their technical and financial proposals and identify the Highest Rated Bid. The criteria and rating system for the evaluation of bids shall be provided in the Instruction to Bidders (ITB).

The project is intended to be undertaken over a period of six (6) months.

10. Short Listed Bidders may purchase a complete set of Bidding Documents from 27 May 2016 until 14 June 2016 at the address below, for a non-refundable fee of Two Thousand Five Hundred Pesos (P2,500.00) Only. The fee for the Bidding Documents must be paid to the SHFC Cashier only. The cost of bidding documents corresponds to the ABC. 11. SHFC will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on 02 June 2016 at 10:30 am, at the SHFC Training Room, 4th Floor, BDO Plaza 8737 Paseo De Roxas, Makati City, which shall be open only to all short listed bidders who have purchased the Bidding Documents. 12. Bids must be delivered to the address below on or before 14 June 2016 at 10:30 am. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18. 13. Bid opening shall be on 14 June 2016 at 10:30 am, at the SHFC Training Room, 4th Floor, BDO Plaza 8737 Paseo De Roxas, Makati City. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend. Late bids shall not be accepted. 14. SHFC assumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify Bidders for any expenses incurred in the preparation of the bid. SHFC reserves the right to waive any or all formal requirements, and it shall likewise not be held liable for any defects or typographical errors in all documents received by the Bidder, which shall be presumed to have been read and understood by the bidders to be mere defects in form only. 15. SHFC reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject a bid at any time prior to the contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

NOTICE OF DECREASE OF THE AUTHORIZED CAPITAL STOCK OF NORTH LUZON RENEWABLE ENERGY CORP. Notice is hereby given that the Board of Directors, by majority vote, during their regular meeting held on 12 February 2016 at 20 th Floor, ACCRALAW Tower, 2nd Avenue corner 30th Street, Crescent Park West Bonifacio Global City office, and the stockholders, representing at least 90% of the outstanding capital stock, during their annual meeting held on 11 April 2016 at Barangay Caparispisan, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, approved the amendment to Article VII of the Amended Articles of Incorporation NORTH LUZON RENEWABLE ENERGY CORP. (the “Corporation”), decreasing its authorized capital stock from PhP6,630,078,970.75 divided into: (a) 100,000 common shares with par value of PhP100 per share; and (b) 28,945 redeemable preferred shares with a par value of PhP228,712.35 per share; to PhP2,514,628,944.85 divided into: (a) 100,000 common shares with par value of P100; (b) 10,951 RPS with par value of PhP228,712.35. The application for the said decrease of the authorized capital stock of the Corporation will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For further information, please communicate with: Joselito A. Cada Head, BAC Secretariat Social Housing Finance Corporation 6th Floor BDO Plaza, 8737 Paseo De Roxas Makati City Trunkline: 750-6337/46 loc. 732 Direct Line: 817-3168 procurement@shfcph.com (TS-M AY 19 , 2016 )

John Carlo Alvarez makes his move during a past leg of the Phoenix National Slalom Series.

Taguig City, Metro Manila, May 19, 2016.

(SGD.) ANNICIA D. VILLAFUERTE Chairman, BAC

ANNE MELANIE P. TRINIDAD-GEMANIL JOANNE Corporate Secretary NORTH LUZON RENEWABLE ENERGY CORP. ( T S - M AY 19 , 2 016)

Rain or Shine 5 wins without lifting a finger Games Today (Philippine Science High gym) 8 a.m. – Rain or Shine vs San Miguel 9:30 a.m. – Alaska vs Brgy. Ginebra 11 a.m. – Meralco vs Tropang TNT

SEVEN different teams chalked victories over the last two days in the Cloudfone-Batang PBA 16&Under basketball tournament at the Philippine Science High School gym in Quezon City, throwing wide open the battle for supremacy. Rain or Shine won by default over Tropang TNT after heavy traffic and a flat tire caught the Batang Texters on the way to the venue from Las Pinas last Monday. Phoenix then turned back NLEX, 70-62, after trailing, 48-44, going to the fourth quarter, while Mahindra coasted past Alaska, 69-62.

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Vettel quicker than Rosberg in Barce testing MONTMELO—Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets in the first of two days of testing in Barcelona on Tuesday, with world championship leader Nico Rosberg of Mercedes going second-quickest. Four-time world champion Vettel and his fellow German Rosberg both set their fastest times on soft tyres, with McLaren’s Jenson Button slower depsite using the super softs. Rosberg holds a 43-point lead from team-mate and defending champion Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, after they both crashed out at the Circuit de Catalunya as Red Bull teenager Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. Barcelona testing results on Tuesday: Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) 1:23.220 (103 laps), Nico Rosberg (GER/ Mercedes) 1:23.337 (116), Jenson Button (GBR/McLaren) 1:23.753 (86), Romain Grosjean (FRA/Haas) 1:23.882 (96), Pascal Wehrlein (GER/Manor) 1:24.297 (86), Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 1:24.307 (89), Pierre Gasly (FRA/Toro Rosso) 1:24.821 (78), Alfonso Celis Jr (MEX/Force India) 1:25.467 (99), Alex Lynn (GBR/Williams) 1:26.071 (86), Esteban Ocon (FRA/Renault) 1:26.530 (104). AFP

Indian shooter Heena Sidhu lines up a shot as she takes part in a training session at the Maharshtra Rifle Association firing range in Mumbai. With one hand in her pocket and the other on the trigger, India’s ace shooter Heena Sidhu is trying to keep it cool as she targets glory at the Rio Olympics. The 26-year-old, who is a qualified dentist, may be desperate to put a smile on the face of medal-starved fans back home, but she knows that she must stay relaxed despite carrying the huge burden of an expectant nation. AFP

Dozens of Rio athletes likely banned for doping

Injured Wozniacki to miss French Open PARIS—Former US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki will miss the upcoming French Open at Roland Garros because of injury, the WTA announced on Tuesday. “@CaroWozniacki has withdrawn from @RolandGarros due to a right ankle injury,” the WTA tweeted. The 25-year-old was already a doubt for the clay-court Grand Slam having missed recent tournaments in Madrid and Rome with the injury, which she suffered while training. The former world number one, who reached the US Open final in 2009 and 2014, has tumbled to 34th rankings having not played since losing in the third round in Miami almost two months ago. The French Open gets underway on Sunday. AFP

PARIS—IOC president Thomas Bach said Wednesday that “dozens” of athletes could be banned from the forthcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after new tests on samples from previous games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to re-examine samples from the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the London games in 2012 “using the most recent scientific methods”, Bach said in an opinion piece in French daily Le Monde. “This decisive action will probably prevent dozens of athletes who have doped from competing in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016,” added Bach. The re-examination is part

of widespread measures taken by sporting bodies after a wave of new doping scandals to hit international sport with Russia at the centre. The IOC will apply a policy of “zero tolerance,” Bach told Le Monde. The committee had said on Tuesday that up to 31 athletes from 12 countries could face bans from the Rio event after new tests from the 2008 Games in Beijing. These athletes were caught

in new tests on 454 Beijing samples. Around 4,000 tests were carried out in total during those games, meaning the number of retroactive failures could well increase. In addition, results from 250 retests on samples taken at the 2012 London Games are due “shortly,” according to the IOC. The IOC board has also demanded that the World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) start “a fully fledged investigation” into allegations that Russia’s secret services and sports ministry subverted testing at the laboratory for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The allegations against the Sochi laboratory are “very detailed and therefore very worrying,” Bach said in Le Monde. “If the inquiry confirms that

the allegations are true, this would be a shocking new scale of doping, with an unprecedented level of criminal activity,” added Bach. The IOC has instructed its lab in Lausanne to re-examine samples from Sochi “using the most modern and efficient methods at its disposal.” The Sochi samples are stored for 10 years in the facility in Lausanne. Russian authorities have strongly denied any wrongdoing and Bach called for “total cooperation” from them. Russia is already battling to get its track and field athletes back into the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) so that they can compete in the Rio de Janeiro Games. AFP

Snoop Dogg reinvented as football coach

SNOOP DOGG

LOS ANGELES—With a criminal career that takes in cocaine trafficking, rolling with Los Angeles gangs, weapons charges and a murder trial, he may be an unlikely role model. But Snoop Dogg, infamous for violent, misogynous lyrics and a lifelong love of marijuana, is shaking off his bad boy image to reveal his softer side -- as avuncular little league football trainer “Coach Snoop.” The 44-year-old founded the Snoop Youth Football League more than a decade ago and has been quietly teaching thousands of inner city children teamwork, discipline and

self-respect through sport. Now his little-known community work is to be made public in “Coach Snoop,” a reality show chronicling the rise of his Diamond Valley Steelers from a rag-tag bunch of 12-year-olds from the mean streets of LA to one of the top youth teams in the United States. “The experiences I give these kids, it’s nothing to me but it means the world to them and I’m just privileged to be able to take my Snoop Dogg power and use it to sprinkle all this love to these kids,” said Snoop. Sporting spectacles and his dreads tied back in a ponytail, Snoop comes across as an en-

lightened, urbane father figure, imparting wisdom to his proteges, many of whom come from single-parent families in tough neighborhoods. Most of the children know who he is, but the millionaire musician is at pains to keep his R-rated hip-hop persona away from the football field. “I’ve never busted a rap for the kids. Thirteen years I’ve been coaching, I ain’t never did one rap,” Snoop said at a preview screening of “Coach Snoop” in Hollywood on Monday. “If a k id c a l ls me Snoop Dog g t hey got ta do 20 pushups. T hey k now t hey don’t get Snoop Dog g u nt i l t hey

h it 19 or 20.” The show was directed by multiple Emmy award-winning sports filmmaker Rory Karpf, who helmed the ESPN miniseries “Snoop and Son,” about the rapper’s relationship with his son, UCLA wide receiver Cordell Broadus. “It was actually shocking -- I didn’t realize how involved he was. He’s involved to the point where he’s sitting down with these kids talking about their grades and home life, and bullying,” Karpf told reporters. “What he says on the series is this is his true calling, and he looks at music as a means to an end.” AFP

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

Mondilla, 2 others seize control CALATAGAN, Batangas—Clyde Mondilla took up from where he left off, blasting in a bogey-free five-under 67 to seize control with unfancied Joenard Rates and Reymon Jaraula, one stroke ahead of Tony Lascuna and Jhonnel Ababa at the start of the P2 million ICTSI Calatagan Invitational here yesterday. coming through with solid iron shots that set up a number of makeable birdie chances as he came out unscathed in an early shootout with Lascuna and Mhark Fernando in the 72hole championship sponsored by International Container Terminal Services Inc. He impressed the veteran Lascuna no less although the former three-time Order of Merit winner brandished superb putting to relive his glory days here where he reigned supreme when Calatagan last hosted the last

Mondilla continued to dish out top form coming off a playoff victory at ICTSI Manila Masters at Eastridge two weeks ago, hitting a pair of back-to-back birdies from Nos. 13 and 2 and adding another on the par-4 sixth while saving a couple of pars to kick off his drive for another crown with a 33-34 card at the Calatagan Golf Club. The 23-year-old Mondilla took a conservative approach on the tight, up-and-down layout, opting for a 3-iron off the mound on most long holes while

Philippine Golf Tour event in 2013, putting himself in early contention with a 68. “Clyde is hitting it quite long and solid with a 3-iron. But I also feel good about my chances, especially now that I’ve got my putting touch back,” said Lascuna, who birdied three of the last four holes inside five feet at the front. He could’ve actually tied for the lead but muffed a six-footer on No. 8 and missed completing a fiery windup. He went straight to the practice green and polished his stroke and did some practice chipping and pitching in preparation for a spirited battle in the last three rounds of the event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. Mondilla, meanwhile, found an early company in Rates, who spiked his 34-33 round with an eagle on the par-5 No. 4 to go five-under with five holes left. The diminutive

shotmaker, still in search for a follow-up to his breakthrough win at Camp John Hay in 2012, took a bogey on the next but drilled in another birdie on the par-3 eighth from close range to gain a shared view of the top.

Jaraula actually matched Mondilla’s solid 67, stringing back-to-back birdies from No. 5 then birdying the two par-3s at the back along with the par5 13th for his best start since joining the ranks in 2014.

Clyde Mondilla chips onto the green on No. 9. Republic of the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources MINES AND GEOSCIENCES BUREAU North Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City. Philippines

PORT MANAGEMENT OFFICE OF AGUSAN

Tel. No. (+632) 928-8642/928-8937 Fax No. (+632) 920-1635 E-mail: central@mgb.gov.ph

Port Area, San Francisco Street, Butuan City 8600, PHILIPPINES Tel. Nos. (+6385) 342-5352, 342-6451, 815-3449 ; Fax No. (+6385) 815-4434 ; Email: pmo_nasipit@yahoo.com

INVITATION TO APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY AND TO BID

Invitation to Bid

Network Enhancement for Central and Regional Offices ITB No. 2016-05-025 P.R. No. 2016-01-143

The Philippine Ports Authority, Port Management Office of Agusan, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) for Engineering Projects, invites contractors registered with and classified by the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) to bid for the hereunder contract: A. B. C. D. E.

F. G.

Contract ID: Contract Name: Approved Budget for the Contract: Location: Scope of Work:

NRP-AGN-01-16 Repair of Pavement, Port of Nasipit Agusan del Norte

Contract Duration: Required PCAB Classification/Registration:

₱19,170,573.00 Nasipit, Agusan del Norte 1. Demolition Works – 5,040.00 sq.m. 2. Gravel Basecourse – 378.00 cu.m. 3. PCCP, 3500Psi – 5,040.00 sq.m. 4. Construction/Expansion Joints – 2,580.00 L.M. 5. Catchbasin Covers – 6.00 units 180 c.d.

The MGB now invites bids for procurement of One (1) Lot Provisioning Services on Network Enhancement for Central and Regional Offices

Port, Harbor and Offshore Engineering: Medium A

Delivery of the Goods is required within the period specified in the bidding documents upon receipt of Notice to Proceed (NTP). 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).

Bidders should have completed, within the last three (3) years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a single contract similar and with the same major categories of work to the Project to be bid having a value of at least 50% of the approved budget for the contract to be bid, updated to current prices using the NSO price indices and supported with corresponding certificate of completion/acceptance from project owner/agency. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using non-discretionary “pass/fail” criteria as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”. Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships or organizations with at least 75% interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

Interested bidders are required to submit to the BAC Secretariat of PPA, PMO Agusan machine and original copies of the following documents for authentication before the issuance of Bid Documents: a) Letter of Intent; b) PCAB License; c) Contractor’s Registration Certificate; d) Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) Order Form (Document Request List); e) CY 2015 CPES Rating; f) CY 2015 Income Tax Return (ITR) with Payment Slip thru the BIR Electronic Filing and Payment System (eFPS), and g) Certification of non-inclusion in the Consolidated Blacklisting Report issued by the GPPB.

The schedule of procurement activities is as follows: Procurement Activities

Schedule Time

Date

Venue

Period of Availability/ Issuance of Bidding Documents

9:00 AM -5:00 PM

May 18, 2016 – May 25, 2016

PPA, PMO Agusan Admin Building, Port Area, Butuan City

Pre-Bid Conference

9:00 AM

May 26, 2016

PPA, PMO Agusan Admin Building, Port Area, Butuan City

Deadline of Submission and Receipt of Bids

8:30 AM

June 7, 2016

PPA, PMO Agusan Admin Building, Port Area, Butuan City

Opening & Examination of Bids

9:00 AM

June 7, 2016

PPA, PMO Agusan Admin Building, Port Area, Butuan City

The Philippine Ports Authority, Port Management Office of Agusan 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. Similarly, the PPA Port Management Office of Agusan assumes no obligation, whatsoever, to compensate or indemnify any bidder of any expenses or loss that said bidder(s) may incur in its participation in the pre-bidding and bidding process nor does it guarantee that an award will be made.

Preview of specifications can be downloaded from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (Phil-GEPS). 4.

(TS-MAY 19, 2016)

The MGB will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on May 27, 2016, Friday at 2:00PM, at the Office of the Bids and Awards Committee, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, North Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City, which shall be open only to all interested parties who have purchased the Bidding Documents. Bids must be delivered to the address below on June 08, 2016, Wednesday, on or before 1:30PM. Late bids shall not be accepted. All Bids must be accompanied by a Bid Securing Declaration or any other bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18. Bid opening shall be on June 08, 2016, Wednesday, 2:30PM, at the Office of the MGB-Bids and Awards Committee. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend.

The MGB 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.

For further information, please refer to: HOWELL M. MAPOY Head, Secretariat Bids and Awards Committee North Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City Telephone No. 667-6700 loc. 153 or 156 E-mail: bac@mgb.gov.ph Website: www.mgb.gov.ph

For further information, please refer to: MS. SARAH JANE T. LUCERO Sr. Project Planning & Development OfficerI Head, BAC Secretariat-Engineering Projects PPA, PMO-Agusan Port Area, San Francisco Street, Butuan City 8600 Tel. Nos. (085) 342-6451/342-5352 Fax No. (085) 815-4434 Email Address: pmo_nasipit@yahoo.com

Interested bidders may obtain further information from MGB and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below during office hours, from 9:00AM to 4:00PM. A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders from May 19 to June 07, 2016 at the address below and upon payment of a non-refundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount of Four Thousand Pesos (PhP4,000.00).

The Philippine Ports Authority, Port Management Office of Agusan will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on May 26, 2016 @ 9:00 o’clock in the morning at the PPA, PMO Agusan Administration Bldg., Port Area, San Francisco Street, Butuan City, which shall be open only to all interested bidders who have purchased the Bidding Documents. Bidders must submit their bids on the date, time and place specified in the above schedule. Late bid/s will not be accepted. All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the forms and corresponding amount stated in the Bidding Documents. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening. Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address below.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”. Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

A complete set of Bidding Documents will be available to interested Bidders from the address below upon payment of a non-refundable fee for the Bidding Documents of Twenty Five Thousand Pesos (₱25,000.00), exclusive of VAT. This Office is not electronically-ready to handle documents, thus submission of bids/proposals electronically is not allowed.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), through the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for CY 2016 intends to apply the sum of Fourteen Million Pesos (14,000,000.00) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for One (1) Lot Provisioning Services on Network Enhancement for Central and Regional Offices. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected during opening of bids.

(Sgd.) JUANCHO I. TALILI Division Manager A, Port Services Division BAC Chairperson, Engineering Projects

(TS-MAY 19, 2016)

Engr. JUANCHO PABLO S. CALVEZ Chairman, BAC

Dyan’s netter son on a roll By Ronnie Nathanielsz MATTHEW Castillejo Garcia, son of multititled Philippine ladies’ singles’ champion and Wimbledon, Asian Games and Federation Cup representative Dyan Castillejo, capped his remarkable run of success with a victory in the Boy’s 14-Under National Singles AgeGroup First Gen Championships at the Alabang Country Club. The tremendously talented Garcia didn’t drop a set en route to the finals, where he overcame Sebastian Lhuillier 6-3, 6-1. It was the 13-year-old netter’s fourth 14-under title within the past three months. He also stepped up to win a 16-under title last month at the 8th Alabang Age Group Championships and had three runner-up finishes in his age group. Garcia began with a runner-up finish in the Anthony Tordesillas Cup at the Manila Polo Club on Feb. 14 and then won the Palawan Pawnshop Regional Age-Group Championships at the GSIS Tennis Club in Davao last Feb. 22. In the three-day, Group 2 Philippine Tennis Associationsanctioned tournament, Garcia had a fine run on the fast-paced hard-court, beating Lhuillier, 6-2, 6-1, in the semifinals before cruising past Djondi Velez in the finals, also in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1. He then won backto-back tournaments at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City, taking the Henry Lee Memorial on April 3, where Garcia’s remarkable ground strokes and wicked forehand which often merely skimmed the net, helped him win in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 against No. 4 seed Miguel Luis Vicencio. One week later at the 1st Milo Tecyhnifibre age-group tournament that ended last April 10 at the Manila Polo Club, Garcia made short work of No. 4 seed Miguel Luis Vicencio 6-1, 6-1, in the finals to cap a rousing run of success in the 14-under agegroup championships, clearly following in the footsteps of his mother Dyan, who together with her sisters Jackie and Nina, were a formidable trio in women’s tennis in the Philippines some years ago.

T H U R S D AY : M AY 1 9, 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

Manila Bay Clean-Up Run listup slated

Participants of last year’s Manila Bay Clean-Up Run are shown traversing the route of the fun run, one of many activities that have helped generate funds to institute systematic long-term solutions to environmental sanitation problems.

Garcia: New PSC Chairman will have P1.4-billion budget By Peter Atencio

THE next chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission will have a budget of P1.4 billion in his hands. The money comes from funds saved by the government sports agency over the last six years. PSC Chairman Ricardo “Richie” Garcia, who is waiting for his replacement, said the money was earmarked as seed money for the purchase of land, which will be utilized as a national training center for athletes. The money can be spent well by the new set of agency officials for the PSC’s grassroots program and for national athletes who are preparing for in-

ternational competitions. “The new set officials need not worry about where their budget will be coming from,” said Garcia, who is set to leave the agency once the new administration of incoming president Rodrigo Duterte appoints new people to handle the PSC. Garcia talked about the agency’s accomplishments and the legacy that he and the present set of commissioners will leave behind when he turns over the PSC’s affairs to

a new set of officials appointed by the Duterte camp. So far, the agency will also leave behind a legacy of giving national athletes an increase in allowances through the PSC’s priority program. They have also provided incentives to athletes who have won medals in international meets, even helping differently abled athletes in their campaigns abroad. He is confident that the incoming Duterte administration will be able to order the new Philippine Gaming Corporation Chairman Andrea Domingo to give the PSC its 5% remittance from its gross income. The remittance will strengthen the PSC’s budget and help strengthen the implementation

of its many programs. Pampanga Rep. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao recently filed a petition before the Supreme Court, asking the PAGCOR and PCSO to honor their obligations to the PSC. The two agencies need to remit close to P4 billion between 2010 and 2015. The PSC Act of 1990 clearly mandates that 5% of PAGCOR’s gross income should automatically be remitted to the PSC. It was alleged that the gaming agency has brought down its contribution to 2.135 percent of its gross income since 1993. “Nasa character ng bagong president (Duterte) na ibigay ang dapat ibigay, at gawin ang tama,” added Garcia.

2016 United States Bridge Championship: Diamond wins ♠753 ♥AK4 ♦A ♣AK10974

Fleisher 251 SYLVIA LOPEZ ALEJANDRO

DIAMOND team: Diamond: John Diamond, Brian Platnik, Eric Greco, Geoff Hampson, Kevin Bathurst, Justin Lall. The final of 2016’s USBC will be Diamond vs. Fleisher. The favourite is Diamond just because they gained the bypass to Round of 16, but the number one is Fleisher, who beat Coren who had beaten the original number one Gordon. In the fourth fifteen board segment Fleisher rescued twenty one imps. At press time: Diamond 269

I feature a board in segment 7, where the dynamic duo Lall and Bathurst bid the six clubs contract. Seg. 7 Board 7 North Lall ♠A ♥862 ♦TK9873 ♣Q86 West East Grue Mass ♠K108642 ♠QJ9 ♥J3 ♥Q10925 ♦Q54 ♦K62 ♣52 ♣J3 South Bathurst

West South 2♦ 3♠ Pass Pass

North E a s t Dbl Dbl 4♦ Pass

3♥ Pass Pass

1♣ Pass 4♣ 6♣

Although in Board 23 Platnick and Diamond went down in the six diamond contract. Board 23 North Platnick ♠J1032 ♥KQ2 ♦973 ♣AQ9

West East Fleisher Martel ♠Q75 ♠86 ♥753 ♥A1086 ♦32 ♦J8 ♣106543 ♣K872 South Diamond ♠AK9 ♥J94 ♦AKQ1084 ♣J West Pass Pass Pass

North 2♥ 3NT 5♦

East South Pass 1♠ Pass 3♦ Pass 4♣ 6♦ It was a truly exciting match. Comments to: sylvia.alejandro@yahoo

MANILA Broadcasting Company will mount the sixth Manila Bay Clean-Up Run on July 10. The event is open to all interested participants and will feature races in the 3K, 5K, 10K, and 21K divisions for both men and women. Medals and cash prizes will be given to the Top 3 winners in each race division. Interested runners may register at the designated registration desk at the lobby of Manila Broadcasting Company, Sotto Street, CCP Complex, Pasay City. Registration shall also be accepted at Olympic Village outlets in Trinoma, Market Market, Alabang Town Center, Gateway Mall, SM Taytay, and Robinsons Antipolo. As a solid manifestation of corporate social responsibility, MBC volunteers have joined their counterparts from other establishments based along Roxas Boulevard for Land Bank’s Manila Bay Clean-Up Program since 2009. The fun run is one of many activities that have helped generate funds to institute systematic long-term solutions to environmental sanitation problems that have beset the country’s coastal resources and tributaries. For detailed enquiries, call Runners Link at mobile number 0926.205.2787

Japan champ whips Suganob By Ronnie Nathanielsz FILIPINO Benjie Suganob was beaten by World Boxing Council’s No. 11-ranked Japanese undefeated champion Shun Kobo, who retained his Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation super bantamweight title with a unanimous 12-round decision in Kobe, Japan. It was Kubo’s first title defense of the crown he won with a fifth-round knockout over another Filipino, Lloyd Jardeliza, also in Kobe last Dec. 26. Hall-of-Fame awardee Joe Koizumi reported that the No. 6-ranked Suganob lost to the southpaw champion Kubo over what he described as “12 hard-fought rounds.” “Kubo, a tall puzzling lefty, had him (Suganob) at bay with solid southpaw lefts in Round 6 and took the initiative,” said Koizumi. Kubo led on the open-scoring system after eight rounds by margins of 78-73, 78-74 and 77-75. Suganob put on a surge in the last four rounds, but the Japanese champion was able to maintain his lead en route to the unanimous decision. Suganob was coming off an eighthround majority decision over Seizo Kono last Dec. 11.

A16

T H U R S DAY : M AY 1 9, 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 Cavaliers slaughter Raptors in Game 1 LeBron James (right) of the Cleveland Cavaliers handles the ball in the third quarter against DeMarre Carroll of the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. AFP

LOS ANGELES—The Cleveland Cavaliers maintained their 100 percent postseason record on Tuesday with a crushing 115-84 defeat of the weary Toronto Raptors to take a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. Kyrie Irving scored 27 points while LeBron James added 24 as the Cavaliers dominated almost from start to finish to the delight of their home fans at the Quicken Loans Arena. The 31-point rout was Cleveland’s biggest ever victory in a playoff game. The Cavaliers went into the game well-rested after wrapping up back-to-back 4-0 sweeps in their opening two postseason series. Toronto by contrast had been forced to make a quick turnaround after only clinching a 4-3 series victory over the Miami Heat in their conference semi-final on Sunday.

Snoop reinvented as football coach TURN TO A13

On the evidence of Game One, few would bet against James and the Cavaliers making short work of the Raptors. James attributed the win to Cleveland’s attention to detail. “It’s our preparation, every single day. We understand the moment that we’re in and the guys are rising to that,” James said. “The coach is doing a great job of giving us a game plan and we’re just trying to go out and execute. “We had a couple of mistakes but for the most part our attention to detail was there for all 48 minutes— we’ve got to continue to do

that in Game Two.” James had special praise for team-mates Irving and Kevin Love, who have hit prime form during the postseason. “They waited a full regular season to get back to this moment,” James said. “Last year Kevin’s moment was cut short because of the shoulder (injury); Kyrie wasn’t himself last year in postseason because of the knee and all the injuries he had. “They’ve trained their bodies all season long to get back to this point—those guys are spectacular.” Points blitz The outcome of the contest was effectively decided in a devastating period of Cleveland dominance which began late in the first quarter and continued to the half-time buzzer. A 28-27 Toronto lead with around one minute left on the clock in the first quarter

rapidly became a 39-28 lead for Cleveland as they reeled off 12 unanswered points. The Raptors were always struggling to stay in touch and with Irving, James and Love in form, it rapidly became an exercise in damage limitation for the visitors, playing their 15th game of the postseason. The Cavs quickly sprinted into a 49-30 lead and although the Raptors hit back to narrow the gap to 54-42, it was only a temporary staunching of the tide. Cleveland produced another burst of points and by half-time had surged into a 22-point lead at 64-44, Toronto’s woe exacerbated by consecutive air balls to close the half. The torture continued in the third quarter as the Cavaliers maintained a healthy double-digit lead against a Toronto side unable to find any answers on defense.

Mondilla, 2 others lead ICTSI golf meet TURN TO A14

James’ buoyant mood was typified by a steal which finished with the two-time NBA champion racing up the court for an emphatic slam dunk to make it 81-56. It got worse for the Raptors near the end of the third, with the Cavaliers opening up what at that point was the biggest lead of the night, a 28-point margin of 95-67. That soon became 30 points in the fourth quarter, with Cleveland surging into a 97-67 advantage as the slaughter continued before the score settled at 115-84. DeMar DeRozan led the scoring for the Raptors with 18 points, but it was a miserable night for Kyle Lowry. The Toronto talisman who excelled against Miami on Sunday finished with only eight points. Game Two of the series takes place on Thursday in Cleveland. AFP

Gonzales named new GlobalPort head coach By Jeric Lopez THE shuffling continues for GlobalPort in the Philippine Basketball Association. After being involved in a lot of trades the past couple of weeks, the Batang Pier made another shift in direction, promoting Eric Gonzales to head coach replacing Pido Jarencio. This switch was prompted by GlobalPort’s poor showing this Commissioner’s Cup, wherein it only managed three wins and finished dead last. Serving as Jarencio’s assistant since he took over GlobalPort’s coaching chore in late 2013, Gonzales earned the nod from team management to take charge now. But the situation isn’t exactly new to him. Gonzales took over for Jarencio, as per the instructions of team management, for several games in the Commissioner’s Cup two seasons ago, while latter was re-assigned to a managerial post. But after the break between conferences, Jarencio was reinstated was head coach of the Batang Pier.

THURSDAY: MAY 19, 2016

RAY S. EÑANO EDITOR

RODERICK T. DELA CRUZ ASSISTANT EDITOR

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

BUSINESS

Interest rate corridor. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. (seated center) leads the signing of the memorandum of agreement for the monetary operations system of BSP, which is a web-based electronic platform that will enable counter parties to participate in new auction-type facilities under the Interest Rate Corridor System. Other signatories are (seated, from left) BSP director Gerardo Galvey, Trust Ofﬁcers Association of the Philippines president Angel Marie Pacis, Chamber of Thrift Banks president Rommel Latinazo, Bankers’ Association of the Philippines president Nestor Tan, Money Market Association of the Philippines president Raul Martin Pedro, Investment House Association of the Philippines president Manuel Tordesillas, ACI Philippines’ Anthony Paul Yap and BSP assistant governor Ma. Ramona Santiago.

Govt set to improve terms of Laguna dike By Darwin G. Amojelar

THE Public Works Department said it may remove the flood control component of the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike project to make it more attractive to local and foreign firms. “The DPWH will review the assumptions and the project’s risk profile, as well as the possibility of fully or partially undertaking the flood control component,” the agency said. The Public Works Department said the bidding process on March 28 failed after qualified bidders did not submit offers, citing the project’s risk profile and complexity, especially the flood control component and its connectivity to C5, among others.

The three pre-qualified bidders—San Miguel Holdings Corp., Alloy Pavi Harshen LLEDP Consortium and Team Trident— did not submit any bid for the P122.8-billion LLED project. Team Trident is composed of Trident Infrastructure and Development Corp., Ayala Land Inc., Megaworld Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and SM Prime Holdings Inc. The Alloy-Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium consists of

Malaysia’s Alloy MTD Capital Berhad, Prime Asset Ventures Inc. and Hanshin Engineering Construction. The three prospective bidders said the failed bidding was due to the lack of commercial viability of the project, which involves the construction of a flood control dike, a 47-kilometer, six-lane expressway on top of it and the reclamation of over 700 hectares of land for commercial development. “The Laguna lakeshore project is just not feasible. Government will have to re-examine its assumptions and redesign a mutually beneficial contractual structure best suited for a deal as large and intricate as this one, given its potential to create opportunities that will generate the greatest benefit to a lot of people,” San Miguel Corp.

president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said in an earlier statement. “This is probably the country’s largest and most complex PPP project to date and frankly, from an economic viability perspective and risk allocation perspective, we found that the government wouldn’t provide such concession agreement that addressed all these concerns of the private sector,” Team Trident spokesman Roman Azanza III said. “The most logical approach for us was not to proceed. We have to stop and really give credit to all the men and women in government, their advisers and our advisers including the years worth of effort into this really complex project. But the end of the day, of course, a viable solution could not be found for all parties concerned,” Azanza said.

PSe comPoSite index Closing May 18, 2016

8300 7840 7380 6920 6460 6000

7,534.30 9.46

PeSo-dollar rate

Closing May 18, 2016 48.00 46.00 45.00

THE Philippine Statistics Authority on Wednesday revised upward the gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 to 6.5 percent from the previous estimate of 6.3 percent. The revision brought the fullyear GDP growth to 5.9 percent, also up from an earlier projection of 5.8 percent. PSA said it revised the fourthquarter GDP figures, after incorporating more data into the national accounts. It said the additional 0.2 percentage point was due to upward

revisions in electricity, gas and water supply; public administration and defense; transport, storage and communication; financial intermediation; trade; and mining and quarrying. The economy expanded 5 percent in the first quarter, 5.8 percent in the second quarter, 6.1 percent in third quarter, before picking up to 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter. “This [5.9 percent] is full-year 2015 GDP growth rate at constant prices,” national statistician Lisa Grace Bersales said in a text message. The 5.9-percent expansion in

2015, however, was below the government’s target of 7 percent to 8 percent for 2015. Economists interviewed by The Standard said first-quarter GDP likely grew within a range of 6.1 percent to 7.6 percent, on robust domestic consumption and election-related spending. “We expect first-quarter GDP [growth] to come in at 6.1 percent amid still solid consumption spending, sustained pick-up in election and investment spending,” Metrobank research analyst Pauline Revillas said. Revillas said the negative growth in merchandise exports

continued to drag growth. Ateneo de Manila University economics professor Alvin Ang said economic growth would likely range from 6.1 to 6.3 percent, while Standard Chartered economist Jeff Ng saw it at 6.2 percent. “The second-round effects of government spending may also have boosted investment and household consumption,” Ng said in an e-mail. Eugenia Victorino of ANZ Research said growth likely reached as much as 7.6 percent in the first quarter amid effects of electionrelated spending.

43.00

HIGH P46.500 LOW P46.700 AVERAGE P46.596 VOLUME 606.300M

P426.00-P637.00 LPG/11-kg tank P35.40-P42.60 Unleaded Gasoline

oPriceS il P today

P23.49-P27.07 Diesel P34.55-P39.15 Kerosene

Fourth-quarter GDP growth revised higher to 6.5% By Gabrielle H. Binaday

P46.660

44.00

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Wednesday, May 18, 2016

F oreign e xchange r ate Currency

Unit

US Dollar

Peso

United States

Dollar

1.000000

46.3850

Japan

Yen

0.009164

0.4251

Pound

1.446500

67.0959

Hong Kong

Dollar

0.128834

5.9760

Switzerland

Franc

1.020304

47.3268

Canada

Dollar

0.774893

35.9434

Singapore

Dollar

0.730514

33.8849

Australia

Dollar

0.732200

33.9631

Bahrain

Dinar

2.653787

123.0959

Saudi Arabia

Rial

0.266660

12.3690

Brunei

Dollar

0.727855

33.7616

Indonesia

Rupiah

0.000075

0.0035

Thailand

Baht

0.028177

1.3070

UAE

Dirham

0.272287

12.6300

Euro

1.131700

52.4939

Korea

Won

0.000850

0.0394

China

Yuan

0.153233

7.1077

India

Rupee

0.014967

0.6942

Malaysia

Ringgit

0.249004

11.5501

New Zealand

Dollar

0.680500

31.5650

Taiwan

Dollar

0.030684

1.4233 Source: PDS Bridge

THURSDAY: MAY 19, 2016

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

The STandard BuSineSS daily STockS review Wednesday, May 18, 2016

52 Weeks

High Low

STOCKS

7.88 75.3 124.4 107 56.5 2.49 4.2 17 30.45 2.6 890 1.01 100 1.46 30.5 75 91.5 137 80 361.2 57 180 124 3.26

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 Natl. Reinsurance Corp. PB Bank Phil Bank of Comm Phil. National Bank Phil. Savings Bank Philippine trust Co. PSE Inc. RCBC `A’ Security Bank Union Bank Vantage Equities

2.5 66 88.05 88.1 45.45 1.97 1.68 12.02 19.6 1.02 625 0.225 78 0.9 17.8 58 62 88.35 52 276 41 118.2 59 2.65

47 5 1.46 2.36 15.3 89 148 20.6 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 4 74 33.9 90 13.26 293 0.62 5 5.25 12.98 15 7.03 3.4 4.5 6.3 7.34 1450 3.28 0.315 2.18 2.65 234 5.28 1.3 26 2.17

35.9 1.11 1.01 1.86 7.92 40.3 32 15.32 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 1.63 33 23.35 17.3 5.88 250.2 0.335 3.37 3.87 8.45 10.04 3.03 1.95 1 4.02 5.9 801 1.55 0.138 1.02 2.09 152 4.28 0.640 10.02 1.2

0.59 59.2 30.05 2.16 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 5.53 9.66 0.0670 2.31 1.61 2.99 84.9 3.5 974 1.66 1.39 156 0.710 0.435 0.510

0.44 48.1 20.85 1.6 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 4.2 3 0.030 1.23 0.550 2.26 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 1.44 1.97 1.48 0.201

6.74 12 0.65 1.2 0.192 30.05 3.36 0.79 1.1 0.97 0.083

High

Low

FINANCIAL 3.46 3.25 46.3 45.75 105.40 104.00 94.00 92.85 38 37 3.07 3.00 1.59 1.49 14.3 14 18 17.56 2.29 1.98 610.00 605.00 0.600 0.570 88.55 86.35 0.97 0.97 15.06 14.90 24.20 24.00 52.25 51.50 102.4 102.4 500 380 274 270 30.95 30.5 195 186 68.00 61.00 1.6 1.52 INDUSTRIAL Aboitiz Power Corp. 46.8 46.8 46.35 Agrinurture Inc. 3.89 3.89 3.66 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 0.98 0.98 0.88 Alsons Cons. 1.82 1.94 1.77 Asiabest Group 14.46 14.46 13.6 Bogo Medelin 73.95 73.95 59 C. Azuc De Tarlac 189.00 189.00 189.00 Century Food 21 21.05 20.5 Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ 210 208 194 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 18 17.84 17.68 Concepcion 46.25 46.5 45.5 Crown Asia 2.2 2.32 2.18 Da Vinci Capital 4.61 4.72 4.6 Del Monte 10.72 10.74 10.68 DNL Industries Inc. 9.600 9.720 9.610 Emperador 7.34 7.40 7.10 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 5.94 5.95 5.88 EEI 7.37 7.42 7.35 Euro-Med Lab 1.69 1.7 1.7 First Gen Corp. 22.05 22.3 21.85 First Holdings ‘A’ 68.8 69.45 69 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 14.68 13.30 12.60 Holcim Philippines Inc. 15.40 15.50 15.20 Integ. Micro-Electronics 5.75 5.75 5.74 Ionics Inc 2.310 2.310 2.250 Jollibee Foods Corp. 235.60 239.00 231.00 Mabuhay Vinyl 3.5 3.63 3.5 Macay Holdings 39.60 39.65 36.15 Manila Water Co. Inc. 28 28 27.5 Maxs Group 24 24 23.5 Megawide 6.54 6.6 6.5 Mla. Elect. Co À’ 338.00 338.00 332.00 MG Holdings 0.280 0.310 0.280 Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp. 4.65 4.33 4.33 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 3.5 3.5 3.48 Petron Corporation 11.56 11.80 11.54 Phinma Corporation 11.56 11.62 11.56 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 5.59 5.60 5.41 Phoenix Semiconductor 1.50 1.64 1.52 Pryce Corp. À’ 2.79 2.8 2.7 RFM Corporation 4.21 4.36 4.18 Roxas Holdings 4.03 4.65 4.03 San Miguel ‘Pure Foods À’ 222 222 216 Splash Corporation 2.63 2.6 2.48 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.155 0.165 0.155 TKC Steel Corp. 2.70 3.49 2.16 Trans-Asia Oil 2.58 2.58 2.50 Universal Robina 205.2 208.2 205.8 Victorias Milling 4.6 4.6 4.6 Vitarich Corp. 0.93 0.94 0.9 Vivant Corp. 31.00 31.25 31.10 Vulcan Ind’l. 1.36 1.36 1.32 HOLDING FIRMS Abacus Cons. À’ 0.415 0.420 0.405 Aboitiz Equity 70.70 71.20 70.70 Alliance Global Inc. 14.24 14.66 14.26 Anglo Holdings A 1.25 1.47 1.22 ATN Holdings A 0.435 0.440 0.360 ATN Holdings B 0.435 0.430 0.355 Ayala Corp À’ 835 850 830 Cosco Capital 7.93 8.02 7.86 DMCI Holdings 12.92 13.20 12.90 F&J Prince ‘A’ 5.26 5.26 5.26 Filinvest Dev. Corp. 6.21 6.28 6.21 Forum Pacific 0.270 0.280 0.250 GT Capital 1445 1445 1415 House of Inv. 6.39 6.39 6.39 JG Summit Holdings 93.50 93.50 92.00 Keppel Holdings À’ 5.36 5.36 5.36 Keppel Holdings `B’ 5.51 5.51 5.35 Lopez Holdings Corp. 8.09 8.09 7.9 Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. 0.7 0.73 0.69 LT Group 13.9 13.92 13.62 Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. 6.28 6.29 6.22 MJCI Investments Inc. 3.3 3.34 3.34 Pacifica À’ 0.0320 0.0330 0.0320 Prime Media Hldg 1.550 1.450 1.330 Prime Orion 1.840 1.830 1.800 Republic Glass ‘A’ 2.58 2.61 2.6 San Miguel Corp À’ 74.00 74.00 73.50 Seafront À’ 2.15 2.14 2.13 SM Investments Inc. 1004.00 1006.00 961.00 Solid Group Inc. 1.21 1.20 1.16 South China Res. Inc. 0.87 1.01 0.87 Top Frontier 157.500 157.800 155.000 Unioil Res. & Hldgs 0.3400 0.3500 0.3300 Wellex Industries 0.2390 0.2440 0.2320 Zeus Holdings 0.330 0.435 0.330 PROPERTY 8990 HLDG 7.550 7.600 7.450 Anchor Land Holdings Inc. 7.97 7.69 7.00 A. Brown Co., Inc. 1.22 1.29 1.22 Araneta Prop À’ 2.330 2.370 2.250 Arthaland Corp. 0.260 0.280 0.265 Ayala Land `B’ 36.500 36.700 36.100 Belle Corp. À’ 3.05 3.12 3.05 Century Property 0.530 0.54 0.520 City & Land Dev. 0.98 0.99 0.99 Cityland Dev. À’ 0.970 0.970 0.970 Crown Equities Inc. 0.136 0.136 0.132

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

SHARES 18,085,338 172,493,108 291,467,994 228,384,578 172,950,941 5,938,143,714 6,834,029,835

3.27 46.2 104.00 93.00 40.15 3.00 1.52 14.1 17.56 2.2 600.00 0.600 88.6 0.95 15.00 24.00 51.65 102.9 400 270 30.5 190.9 59.00 1.52

Close 3.44 46.3 105.00 94.00 37.5 3.00 1.49 14.3 17.7 1.98 610.00 0.600 88.3 0.97 15.00 24.20 52.25 102.4 380 270 30.95 193 65.05 1.6

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

5.20 0.22 0.96 1.08 -6.60 0.00 -1.97 1.42 0.80 -10.00 1.67 0.00 -0.34 2.11 0.00 0.83 1.16 -0.49 -5.00 0.00 1.48 1.10 10.25 5.26

260,000 14,800 5,210,210 2,663,940 42,300 21,000 43,000 7,400 707,800 1,374,000 130 205,000 3,858,550 12,000 53,000 9,000 92,430 50 140 3,860 95,100 3,194,920 210,890 4,000

46.8 3.73 0.91 1.94 13.62 67.1 189.00 21.05 198 17.84 46.25 2.22 4.65 10.72 9.680 7.10 5.92 7.37 1.7 22.25 69.45 13.30 15.20 5.75 2.270 235.00 3.58 39.65 28 23.75 6.6 333.00 0.290 4.33 3.48 11.60 11.62 5.56 1.62 2.73 4.25 4.65 216 2.55 0.157 2.20 2.54 206.6 4.6 0.91 31.25 1.36

0.00 -4.11 -7.14 6.59 -5.81 -9.26 0.00 0.24 -5.71 -0.89 0.00 0.91 0.87 0.00 0.83 -3.27 -0.34 0.00 0.59 0.91 0.94 -9.40 -1.30 0.00 -1.73 -0.25 2.29 0.13 0.00 -1.04 0.92 -1.48 3.57 -6.88 -0.57 0.35 0.52 -0.54 8.00 -2.15 0.95 15.38 -2.70 -3.04 1.29 -18.52 -1.55 0.68 0.00 -2.15 0.81 0.00

1,125,800 441,000 1,257,000 18,395,000 2,900 4,290 10 1,137,900 4,160 74,100 763,100 104,000 464,000 17,700 4,775,300 3,035,400 11,292,900 102,400 2,000 1,391,600 391,250 3,700 134,700 543,600 2,026,000 1,829,080 17,000 500 547,300 228,200 44,800 199,670 6,080,000 10,000 4,426,000 11,165,200 1,200 640,400 1,044,000 591,000 3,143,000 7,000 17,700 352,000 15,670,000 54,664,000 6,699,000 2,050,220 34,000 12,543,000 1,100 85,000

0.410 70.90 14.58 1.25 0.360 0.360 840 7.9 13.02 5.26 6.24 0.270 1430 6.39 92.80 5.36 5.35 8.08 0.7 13.86 6.25 3.34 0.0320 1.330 1.800 2.6 74.00 2.13 1006.00 1.16 0.95 157.700 0.3300 0.2320 0.395

-1.20 0.28 2.39 0.00 -17.24 -17.24 0.60 -0.38 0.77 0.00 0.48 0.00 -1.04 0.00 -0.75 0.00 -2.90 -0.12 0.00 -0.29 -0.48 1.21 0.00 -14.19 -2.17 0.78 0.00 -0.93 0.20 -4.13 9.20 0.13 -2.94 -2.93 19.70

4,420,000 2,488,230 21,166,100 857,000 42,900,000 7,780,000 431,990 763,000 13,012,600 100 1,888,900 1,190,000 224,610 8,600 3,328,550 10,800 7,000 3,663,100 434,000 4,318,300 50,517,300 1,000 22,000,000 20,000 442,000 11,000 127,280 4,000 318,735 240,000 2,379,000 1,180 8,010,000 3,040,000 95,320,000

7.500 7.69 1.23 2.260 0.265 36.300 3.12 0.530 0.99 0.970 0.133

-0.66 -3.51 0.82 -3.00 1.92 -0.55 2.30 0.00 1.02 0.00 -2.21

215,300 4,000 4,565,000 2,751,000 510,000 21,259,400 1,914,000 2,193,000 12,000 20,000 7,010,000

130,000.00 613,950.00 69,734,306 23,912,668.00 -50.00 -3,638,778.00 -600.00 -96,434,769.50 29,800.00 -1,441,872.00 27,300.00 -18,655 73,558,479.00 -732,633.00 4,533,055.00 -248,320.00 -19,000.00 9,583,180.00 6,519,910.00 8,860.00 577,375 17,560.00 378,120.00 19,809,619.00 -3,700,795.00 5,314,828.00 25,014.00 7,075,395.00 948,535.50 -776,100.00 501,938.00 -106,850.00 -25,413,966.00 -2,186,765.00 265,330.00 246,504.00 -4,899,624.00 2,550,650.00 4,311,200.00 -778,083.00 -98,000.00 54,400.00 -1,746,740.00 -2,115,168.00 77,100.00 -33,000.00 809,550.00 -1,206,400.00 -102,734,222.00 -68,150.00

-8,300.00 63,301,990.50 -87,652,532.00 -767,900.00 79,481,260.00 -1,169,446.00 8,619,862.00 1,866,000.00 -137,292,955.00 -15,992,723.00 -2,585,591.00 11,684,892.00 62,844,709.00 473,600.00 -205,898.00 -56,657,410.00 -51,400.00

52 Weeks

High Low

STOCKS

56,600.00 28,965,120.00 3,446,690.00 3,710.00

High

Net Foreign

Change Volume

Trade/Buying

-8.77 2.51 -1.20 5.00 -1.00 0.52 0.76 -9.80 -2.28 -1.12 -3.33 -5.66 49.95 0.12 1.89 0.00 1.95 1.62 -1.10 -6.98 -0.93 3.79

10,045,000 699,200 3,110,000 350,000 2,180,000 26,086,000 65,000 10,300 62,754,000 2,580,000 780,000 2,254,000 38,100 3,000 3,900,700 42,000 4,000 20,119,700 3,625,000 44,500 1,110,000 28,113,400

10.5 66 1.44 1.09 15.82 0.1430 5.06 99.1 2.6 7.67 1700 2720 8.41 70.5 1.97 119.5 7 5.8 0.017

1.97 35.2 1 0.63 8.6 0.0770 2.95 56.1 1.6 4.8 830 1600 5.95 17.02 1.23 102.6 3.01 4 0.011

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 22.9 3486 0.760 2.28 46.05 90.1

0.37 14.54 3 4.39 2748 0.435 1.2 31.45 60.55

11.6 0.85 2.95 10 0.490 1.9

7.59 0.63 1.71 5 0.315 1.14

2GO Group’ ABS-CBN Acesite Hotel APC Group, Inc. Bloomberry Boulevard Holdings Calata Corp. Cebu Air Inc. (5J) Discovery World DFNN Inc. FEUI Globe Telecom GMA Network Inc. Grand Plaza Hotel Harbor Star I.C.T.S.I. Imperial Res. `A’ Imperial Res. `B’ IP E-Game Ventures Inc. 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. Philweb.Com Inc. PLDT Common PremiereHorizon Premium Leisure Puregold Robinsons RTL SBS Phil. Corp. SSI Group STI Holdings Transpacific Broadcast Travellers Waterfront Phils. Yehey

-1.59 -0.28 1.55 6.45 -1.13 -1.69 0.00 0.00 -2.16 0.00 1.04 0.00 -0.30 0.71 0.00 1.66 6.88 2.63 0.00 0.21 -5.63 -8.99 2.22 -5.50 0.13 -0.93 0.00 5.00 -0.43 -0.50 -4.26 0.11 -0.98 0.21 -0.92 -1.19 -3.26 -0.36 0.26 -2.18 1.03 1.67 -0.50 -1.18 -5.13 17.04

124,900 83,790 27,000 9,643,000 2,841,000 9,180,000 852,000 622,240 46,000 62,800 20 67,220 206,400 200 222,000 1,971,940 541,100 520 4,800,000 764,700 70,070,000 14,782,000 545,000 126,300 101,100 1,107,000 211,000 116,000 2,331,000 1,323,000 10,084,000 2,600 20,000 52,800 161,150 8,670,000 13,107,000 7,032,800 526,100 608,600 4,637,000 1,745,000 7,000 445,000 60,000 1,678,000

0.0098 5.45 17.24 25 0.330 12.7 12.8 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 7.67 12.88 10.42 0.040 420 9 0.016

0.0043 1.72 6.47 9.43 0.236 6.5 5.11 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 5.4 7.26 2.27 0.015 115.9 3.67 0.0100

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

-2.27 43.33 7.07 -0.71 1.64 4.27 14.06 1.89 3.41 0.00 0.00 17.31 14.55 21.43 12.50 -0.51 1.80 3.56 -1.54 4.38 10.00 -3.21 -2.19 -13.50 7.69 0.31 -7.53 0.00

1,620,000,000 12,200.00 14,387,000 -10,525,910.00 2,967,000 -1,026,610.00 1,600 340,000 60,100 2,600 -7,750.00 5,194,000 -55,000.00 58,500 74,800.00 56,254,000 -1,577,330.00 1,530,000 538,660,000 36,980,000 -48,900.00 2,620,500,000 469,700,000 -1,500.00 730,000 3,023,000 -4,921,360.00 4,248,000 516,000 1,827,000 7,580.00 43,000,000 82,000 3,356,500 -3,062,961.00 16,468,000 11,860.00 148,400,000 361,320 -5,269,239.00 4,920,000 46,750.00 344,000,000 -42,000.00

70 553 118 120 515 8.21 12.28 111 1047

33 490 101 101.5 480 5.88 6.5 101 1011

84.8

1.34

ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ First Gen F First Gen G GLOBE PREF P GMA Holdings Inc. Leisure and Resort MWIDE PREF PF Pref 2 PNX PREF 3A PNX PREF 3B SMC Preferred C SMC Preferred D SMC Preferred G SMC Preferred H SMC Preferred I Swift Pref

-0.19 0.00 6.60 0.68 -0.57 -1.52 0.00 0.00 -0.20 -2.17 -0.63 0.12 0.13 -1.28 -0.53 0.13 36.53

24,310 1,100 1,020 30,000 4,880 13,600 58,000 320 2,020 5,000 990 32,490 600 2,000 18,310 2,010 228,000

6.98

0.8900 LR Warrant

-1.34

81,000

-25.81 -0.80 1.36 0.33

9,531,900 68,000 64,000 2,832,900

0.16

7,360

Alterra Capital Makati Fin. Corp. Italpinas Xurpas

3.5

12.88

5.95

130.7

105.6 First Metro ETF

0.580 0.520 0.520 49.05 47.5 49 0.830 0.800 0.820 0.168 0.151 0.168 1.00 0.98 0.99 1.94 1.91 1.94 1.34 1.32 1.32 4.95 4.31 4.60 4.37 4.25 4.28 0.093 0.088 0.088 0.3050 0.2800 0.2900 0.530 0.500 0.500 68.60 33.20 68.60 8.56 8.56 8.56 29.85 29.00 29.65 1.6 1.58 1.6 3.13 3.12 3.13 25.60 24.75 25.10 0.91 0.88 0.9 6.73 6.12 6.4 1.090 1.020 1.070 5.600 5.370 5.480 SERVICES 7.57 7.56 7.3 7.45 53 53 52.65 52.85 1.29 1.35 1.3 1.31 0.620 0.670 0.620 0.660 4.42 4.49 4.36 4.37 0.0590 0.0580 0.0570 0.0580 3.07 3.09 3 3.07 93.1 93.4 92.4 93.1 1.85 1.85 1.81 1.81 7.00 7.05 6.95 7.00 960 970 970 970 2234 2294 2228 2234 6.67 6.70 6.60 6.65 21.00 21.15 21.15 21.15 1.18 1.22 1.18 1.18 63.35 65.95 63.1 64.4 16.00 18.80 15.08 17.10 190 195 160 195 0.0100 0.0110 0.0100 0.0100 9.65 9.67 9.45 9.67 0.355 0.355 0.325 0.335 1.8900 1.9300 1.7100 1.7200 2.25 2.6 2.24 2.3 10.9 10.84 10.24 10.3 7.79 7.80 7.78 7.80 4.29 4.33 4.20 4.25 0.600 0.610 0.600 0.600 2 2.18 2.01 2.1 2.33 2.36 2.28 2.32 4.00 4.00 3.93 3.98 2.820 2.830 2.690 2.700 17.54 17.56 17.48 17.56 5.10 5.05 5.00 5.05 23.70 23.75 23.30 23.75 1740.00 1729.00 1702.00 1724.00 0.420 0.420 0.405 0.415 0.920 0.910 0.870 0.890 41.95 42.00 41.65 41.80 78.00 78.80 78.00 78.20 6.41 6.50 6.27 6.27 2.92 2.97 2.88 2.95 0.600 0.620 0.600 0.610 2 1.99 1.98 1.99 3.4 3.42 3.35 3.36 0.390 0.380 0.370 0.370 6.280 7.800 6.300 7.350 MINING & OIL 0.0044 0.0045 0.0042 0.0043 2.10 3.15 2.20 3.01 4.67 5.22 4.67 5.00 14.00 14.00 12.00 13.90 0.244 0.248 0.240 0.248 8.2000 8.98 7.58 8.5500 7.7500 8.8400 7.7500 8.8400 0.530 0.560 0.520 0.540 8.80 9.38 8.30 9.10 0.910 0.950 0.890 0.910 0.300 0.310 0.295 0.300 0.260 0.315 0.255 0.305 0.275 0.320 0.270 0.315 0.0140 0.0180 0.0140 0.0170 0.0160 0.0200 0.0150 0.0180 1.98 2.02 1.95 1.97 4.99 5.15 4.99 5.08 2.53 2.68 2.55 2.62 0.6500 0.6700 0.6000 0.6400 1.3700 1.4700 1.3800 1.4300 0.0100 0.0110 0.0100 0.0110 4.05 4.32 3.91 3.92 7.30 7.35 7.01 7.14 4.74 4.78 4.01 4.10 0.0130 0.0140 0.0130 0.0140 128.10 130.00 128.00 128.50 4.65 5 4.3 4.3 0.0150 0.0160 0.0140 0.0150 PREFERRED 52 52 51.6 51.9 525 525 525 525 109.1 116.3 116.3 116.3 117.2 118 118 118 530 527 525 527 6.6 6.6 6.5 6.5 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 110.9 110.9 110.9 110.9 1022 1020 1020 1020 106 107 103.7 103.7 111 110.3 110.3 110.3 80.2 80.3 80.2 80.3 76 76.1 76.1 76.1 78 77 77 77 75.5 75.85 75.1 75.1 75.5 75.7 75.6 75.6 2.71 4 2.85 3.7 WARRANTS & BONDS 2.990 3.000 2.950 2.950 SME 14.88 17.48 10.86 11.04 3.75 3.75 3.72 3.72 2.95 2.99 2.95 2.99 18 18.3 17.2 18.06 EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS 123.6 123.8 122.9 123.8

Cyber Bay Corp. 0.570 Double Dragon 47.8 Empire East Land 0.830 Ever Gotesco 0.160 Global-Estate 1.00 Filinvest Land,Inc. 1.93 Interport `A’ 1.31 Keppel Properties 5.10 Megaworld 4.38 MRC Allied Ind. 0.089 Phil. Estates Corp. 0.3000 Phil. Realty `A’ 0.530 Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry 45.75 Primex Corp. 8.55 Robinson’s Land `B’ 29.10 Rockwell 1.6 Shang Properties Inc. 3.07 SM Prime Holdings 24.70 Sta. Lucia Land Inc. 0.91 Starmalls 6.88 Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. 1.080 Vista Land & Lifescapes 5.280

STOCKS

FINANCIAL 1,697.88 (up) 15.02 INDUSTRIAL 11,947.25 (down) 7.27 HOLDING FIRMS 7,586.21 (up) 2.85 PROPERTY 3,190.50 (up) 15.78 SERVICES 1,482.31 (up) 3.49 MINING & OIL 11,701.38 (up) 331.44 PSEI 7,534.30 (up) 9.46 All Shares Index 4,476.33 (up) 1.34 Gainers: 102; Losers: 101; Unchanged: 38; Total: 241

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

T op g ainerS VALUE 1,788,677,069.87 1,700,895,237.251 2,471,097,277.27 2,045,002,638.05 1,214,288,985.74 547,266,417.004 9,960,629,715.58

Low

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

-587,500.00 -80,327.00

-1,679,800.00 -50,000.00 11,759,060.00 -19,071,990.00 -82,320.00 10,906,900.00 60,800.00 113,957,645.00 89,000.00 -32,988,401.00 51,750.00 -16,200.00 54,110.00 9,150.00 9,694,024.50 41,700.00 -36,482,700.00 4,342,493.00 20,150.00 4,832,250.00 49,500.00 18,250.00

-60,710.00 3,616,390.00 1,164,960.00 906,990.00 -18,930.00 -66,647,415.00 552,090.00 86,736,320.00 -11,639,536.50 632,508.00 -1,471,860.00 656,700.00 -205,015.00

246,620.00

-56,100.00

80,200.00 45,660.00 998,830.00 39,120.00

-796,786.00 5,940.00 -2,190,292.00

T op L oSerS Close (P)

Change (%)

STOCKS

Close (P)

Change (%)

Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry

68.60

49.95

Alterra Capital

11.04

-25.81

Apex `A'

3.01

43.33

TKC Steel Corp.

2.20

-18.52

Swift Pref

3.7

36.53

ATN Holdings B

0.360

-17.24

Manila Mining `A'

0.0170

21.43

ATN Holdings A

0.360

-17.24

Zeus Holdings

0.395

19.70

Prime Media Hldg

1.330

-14.19

Lepanto `A'

0.305

17.31

PhilexPetroleum

4.10

-13.50

Yehey

7.350

17.04

I-Remit Inc.

1.98

-10.00

Roxas Holdings

4.65

15.38

Keppel Properties

4.60

-9.80

Lepanto `B'

0.315

14.55

Ginebra San Miguel Inc.

13.30

-9.40

Benguet Corp `B'

8.8400

14.06

Bogo Medelin

67.1

-9.26

THURSDAY: MAY 19, 2016

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

Megaworld on track to hit goal Market advances ahead of GDP data THE stock market rose for the fourth straight day ahead of the release today of the gross domestic product data for the first quarter of the year, which indicate robust growth. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index added 9.46 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,534.30 on a value turnover of nearly P10 billion. Gainers edged losers, 102 to 101, with 38 issues unchanged. Alliance Global Group Inc. of tycoon Andrew Tan gained 2.4 percent to P14.58, while SM Prime Holdings Inc. of retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr. climbed 1.6 percent to P25.10. Security Bank Corp., the sixth biggest lender in terms of capital, rose 1.1 percent to P193, while Bank of the Philippine Islands, the third-largest bank, added 1.1 percent to P94. Asian stock markets mostly fell Wednesday after a two-day rally and strong US data that fueled talk of an interest rate rise, while Tokyo swung back and forth following a betterthan-forecast economic growth reading. The world’s number three economy expanded 0.4 percent in the first three months of the year, or a 1.7-percent annualized rate, boosted by a pick-up in consumer spending. The country’s benchmark Nikkei stock index spent much of the day in positive territory. But the upbeat GDP figure was offset by fears it could allow the Bank of Japan to delay any fresh stimulus. Hong Kong closed down 1.5 percent, while Sydney ended 0.7 percent lower and Shanghai gave up 1.3 percent by the close. Seoul slipped 0.6 percent and Singapore was 0.3 percent off. In early European trade London and Frankfurt dropped 0.6 percent and Paris shed 0.5 percent. Stimulus bets “may be drying up a little,” Masahiro Ichikawa, a senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co. in Tokyo,told Bloomberg News. “If the... growth figure was a small increase, we might have seen more hopes for supportive policy, but with the data being better than expected, the view now is the size of the policy package may not be that significant.” Tokyo shares ended 0.1 percent lower, with profit-taking also a factor after the market rose for six of the previous seven sessions. The figures come days after local media reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to delay a sales tax rise next year over concerns it could damage the already fragile economy. With AFP

By Jenniffer B. Austria

OFFICE and condominium builder Megaworld Corp. said it may hit its target of one million square meters of leasable office space as early as the end of 2017 after accelerating its office space development on strong demand. Megaworld senior vice president Jericho Go announced in a press briefing the construction of a new office building called 10 West Campus that would offer another 32,000 square meters of office space in McKinely West in Fort Bonifacio. The new project will increase Megaworld’s five-year programmed spending for office space developments in Fort Bonifacio to P23 billion from the initial target of P20 billion. Megaworld as of end 2015 had 700,000 square meters of office and would end 2016 with 800,000 square meters.

“Our target is to hit the one million square meter office space by late 2017 or early 2018,” Go said. Megaworld originally set to achieve the target of one million square meters by 2018-2019. Go said he expected the planned office tower projects to generate one million jobs. The new office tower will be the seventh office space development of Megaworld in McKinely West after the construction of six campus-type office towers offering 66,000 square meters of office space. Go said 70 percent of the the

six-campus type towers were pre-leased to mostly information technology and business process outsourcing companies. The company plans to lease of the remaining space within the second half of the year. Go, meanwhile, said 17-storey 10 West Campus tower was already 25 percent pre-committed. “We envisioned McKinley West as a sustainable, environmentfriendly township. With this, we design our office towers in a way that they adhere and comply with the international standards on sustainability and green practices,” Go said. All office towers in McKinely West will be registered in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design of the US Green Building Council. Megaworld within the next two years will have more than 30 office towers in Fort Bonifacio alone. Megaworld is currently largest developer and lessor of office

spaces in the Philippines with an inventory in Fort Bonifacio and Eastwood City in Quezon City. It is also starting to develop office projects in Iloilo, Cebu and Davao. Megaworld earlier said it was investing P10 billion to transform a 140-hectare property in General Trias, Cavite into the company’s 21st township project. Megaworld said the new township called Maple Grove would have a mix of residential, retail, office and institutional components in line with the company’s thrust to develop the vast property into another world-class mixed-use development. “In the last 27 years, we have built townships that cater to the evolving lifestyles of Filipinos. As we continue to expand our township footprint in key growth areas across the country, innovation and design will be a significant factor in our masterplans,” Megaworld senior vice president Jericho Go said.

TGP buyer. Robinsons Retail Group acquires 51 percent of The Generics Pharmacy, the country’s largest and fastest growing generics drugstore chain with over 1,800 stores. Shown during the signing of the purchase agreement are (from front left) Lance Gokongwei, Robinsons Retail chairman and chief executive; James Go, JG Summit Holdings Inc. chairman; Robina Gokongwei-Pe, Robinsons Retail president; TGP founder and chairman Benjamin Liuson; Judy Liuson, wife of Benjamin Liuson; and Raymund Sanchez, TGP president. At the back (from left) are Manuel Dy and Dahlia Dy of South Star Drug and Jennibeth Liuson and Joyce Liuson Tan of TGP.

Court order a ‘big blow’ to motoring public—LTO ANOTHER program of the Land Transportation Office suffered a legal setback after a Makati court issued a permanent injunction against the agency’s efforts to help lower the third party liability insurance coverage for motor vehicles, while ensuring prompt payment of claims by motorists. LTO chief Roberto Cabrera III said the recent order of Makati RTC Branch 65 Judge Edgardo Caldona was a “big blow” to all motor vehicle owners nationwide as overpricing and unnecessary mark-ups on CTPL Certificate of Cover will remain unabated.

Cabrera lamented the Makati court judge’s decision as he stressed that numerous complaints about unpaid insurance claims of motorists continued to swell. He said the RCTPL program provided a mechanism to streamline processing of insurance claims and lessen the financial burden on the millions of motoring public when registering their vehicles “The current authentication system does not address the current problem of overpricing. Motor vehicle owners are still at the mercy of unscrupulous

persons who overprice the COCs”, Cabrera said. Cabrera noted that overpricing and unnecessary mark-ups would be totally eliminated, as the premium price would be based on the Insurance Commission tariff rates. “We will abide by the court order to defer the implementation of our reform program. And as necessary, we will seek available legal avenues as we assert the legality of the reform programs with the goal of protecting the motoring public from fixers and unscrupulous TPL insurance agents, Cabrera said.

B4 Puregold launches mobile app By Othel V. Campos

Bank of Commerce’s award. Bank of Commerce receives the Best Rebranding Program award at the 23rd Asian Cards User Conference in Xian, China, for the launch of its Bank of Commerce MasterCard credit card. The annual event is organized by Worldline, a global leader in the payments and transactions systems industry. Shown during the awarding ceremony are (from left) Worldline customer service manager Yamuna Peter, head of managed card services Julianna Teong, sales director for Southeast Asia business Jennifer Cheah, Asia Pacific chief executive Tee Kee Ming, Bank of Commerce president and chief executive Roberto Benares, senior vice president Anna Marie Cruz and vice president and department head of credit card unit Andrew Cajucom.

GMA7 invests P1.5b in digital technology By Darwin G. Amojelar

GMA Network Inc. said Wednesday it is investing up to P1.5 billion to roll out digital terrestrial television service this year.

“We will be launching our digital terrestrial TV technology—a product that we believe is better than what our main rival has introduced to the market,” GMA Network Inc. chairman Felipe Gozon said during the company’s stockholders’ meeting. Gozon said the company would invest between P1 billion and P1.5 billion to roll out DTT technology within the year.

He said its DTT setop box would be “very much cheaper” compared to rival ABSCBN Corp. “considering that the people cannot afford very expensive devices.” Rival ABS-CBN in February 2015 launched its DTT setop box called “mahiwagang black box,” which costs P1,999 per unit. The Lopez-led network sold 1.2 million setop boxes as of end-March. Gozon said GMA Network was studying whether they would offer three or four digital channels. The Philippines adopted Japan’s Integrated Services Digital Broadcast-Terrestrial standard for digital TV migration from analog TV. Besides Japan and the Philippines, other countries using ISDB-T are Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Paraguay and Costa Rica.

The National Telecommunication Commission earlier said the country would shut off analog TV by 2020. GMA Network reported a net income of P1.01 billion in the January-to-March period, up 148 percent from P408 million in the same period last year. Consolidated revenues from all platforms rose 30 percent to P3.9 billion in the first quarter from P3.01 billion in the same period last year. Revenues from regular advertising increased 32 percent in the first quarter to P3.57 billion, while political advertising revenues hit P640 million in the first three months, up 6,710 percent from P9 million in 2015. The network expects a full-year net income of P3 billion in 2016, up from last year’s P2.13 billion.

Bangko Sentral seen hiking policy rate in 4th quarter By Julito G. Rada THE local unit of Dutch bank ING said Wednesday it expects Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to begin raising the policy rates in the fourth quarter. ING Bank Manila said in a report the strong economic growth and low inflation environment might compel Bangko Sentral to keep the policy stance in the near term. “With strong growth and low inflation [at 1.1 percent year to date in April versus BSP’s 2.1-percent full-year forecast] there is no compelling reason for the BSP to move the policy,” it said.

ING Bank Manila senior economist Joey Cuyegkeng, however, predicted a 25-basispoint hike in BSP policy rates in the fourth quarter. It said economic growth would likely accelerate to 6.9 percent in the first quarter from 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015. “Strong domestic demand supported by steady overseas workers’ remittances, government and election spending and favorable investment environment are behind the consensus GDP growth forecast. These are expected to offset weak exports,” the bank said.

Bangko Sentral’s Monetary Board in its last meeting on May 12 kept the benchmark interest rates steady at 4 percent for overnight borrowing and 6 percent for overnight lending. This marked the 13th consecutive time since October 2014 that it retained the interest rates due to a more manageable inflation environment and robust domestic growth. Bangko Sentral said it would shift the monetary policy operations to an interest rate corridor starting June 3, 2016. Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said the rate on the current overnight

lending facility of 6 percent would be reduced to 3.5 percent while overnight borrowing rate would be adjusted to 3 percent from 4 percent. The special deposit account rate would be kept at 2.5 percent. Bangko Sentral said the IRC system would help improve monetary policy transmission and limit interest rate volatility. Guinigundo said over time, the corridor would allow reduction in banks’ reserve requirements. The IRC implementation in the Philippines is in line with international central banking standards.

PUREGOLD Price Club Inc. launched Wednesday a mobile application called Puregold Mobile, an online platform that offers ease of doing business with Tindahan ni Aling Puring members across the country. Puregold president Vincent Co said the company was actively pursuing better solutions to serve the needs of growing base of loyal clients, mostly sari-sari store and mini-mart owners which hit more than 300,000 members so far. “We’re still trying to find out what grocery buyers purchase most of the time on online platforms. We’re doing this initially for our top sari-sari store clients, but we see innovation doing its thing once we have more knowledge of the online market,” Co said in a news briefing during the first day of the 11th TNAP Convention at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Puregold keeps at least 12,000 to 14,000 stock keeping units that makes it hard for the company to place all products online. The mobile app features online grocery for Puregold top sari-sari store members, the rewards feature called SnaPanalo and PurePadala which is Puregold’s remittance service for overseas Filipino workers. It also features an online map of Puregold stores. The app is now downloadable via android phones and gadgets and will be available to iOS mobile gadgets by June 2016. The company targets to put up another 25 Puregold stores in 2016 on top of the existing 255 stores nationwide. Of the 25 planned expansion, Puregold has already opened six companyowned stores this year. Puregold vice president for operations Antonio delos Santos said the company was starting to fortify its presence in the Visayas-Mindanao area. The company has 13 stores in the VisMin area while majority of the stores are still located within the Greater Manila Area. Puregold continues to uphold its growth guideline of 10 to 12 percent in 2016. It posted revenue growth of 14.7 percent in 2015. The company is poised to spend P1 billion in capital expenditures for 2016 to add 25 new stores across the Philippines.

T H U R S D AY : M AY 1 9, 2 0 1 6

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

UK power firm invests $10m By Alena Mae S. Flores

AGGREKO Plc., a power generation equipment supplier based in the United Kingdom, on Tuesday opened a $10-million depot in Laguna province to help avert power outages in the country. The depot, located at the Trans Ocean Cabuyao Yard in Cabuyao, will serve the initial 30 megawatt needs of customers in Luzon and provide reliable power to the growing number of industries and consumers. “The Philippines is one of our most strategic markets globally and in Asia, and our depot and service center opening makes our commitment very clear to serving our existing and potential

customers in this market. The Philippines’ sustaining 6-percent growth is ideal for Aggreko, with the country’s needs also growing,” Venkie Shantaram, managing director of Aggreko for North Asia told reporters. Shantaram said the company wass looking at around 150 MW of installed capacity in the next two to three years. “We would also like to put up one or two more depots,” he said.

The company has projects in more than 100 countries which help bridge the gap in power generation requirements, where national grid infrastructure may be underdeveloped, unreliable, undergoing maintenance or compromised through natural disaster, such as flood, earthquake or drought. ”We recognize that the Philippines’ growing economy has done well compared with its neighboring Asian countries. But it has the potential to even do better if the power shortage situation can be addressed, especially with the availability of new technologies and creative solutions,” Maximino Montenegro, country manager of Aggreko Energy Rental Solutions Inc. said. Aggreko is working with utili-

ties and industrial companies in the Philippines to provide urgent power solutions. The company has around 50 MW installed in several locations serving the needs of electric cooperatives , independent power producers, mines and other industries. Aggreko has a combined installed capacity of 37 MW in Mindanao serving the franchise areas of Cagayan Electric Power and Light Inc., South Cotabato 1 Electric Cooperative and Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc. Aggreko, headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, is the global leader in fast-track mobile power generation rental, which can range from a few days to many months, or on a more permanent, long-term basis, depending on the individual needs of custom-

ers. The new Philippine depot will showcase Aggreko’s generators, as well as its bespoke turnkey solutions. The company, which employs 7,300 people in more than 200 locations around the world, was established more than 50 years ago and is headquartered in the United Kingdom UK. Aggreko designs, manufactures and services its own fleet and has a policy of supporting local communities, through education and employment. It operates in a broad range of industries, including mining, onand offshore oil and gas industry, manufacturing, construction, utilities and food and beverage industries, petrochemical, cement and utility companies.

Govt debt payments fell 28% in 2 months By Gabrielle H. Binaday

PropMech-MaK partnership.

Marine solutions provider Propmech Corp. and MaK, a producer of heavy oil, marine diesel, gas and dual fuel engines under the Caterpillar brand, sign a distributorship agreement for the Philippine market. Shown during the signing of the agreement are (from left) Propmech director Glenn Tong, PropMech chief operating officer Helen Tong, MaK Asia product support manager Calvin Hardiment and MaK Asia’s Fritz Fernando. OTHEL V. CAMPOS

Phoenix Semiconductor, Samsung renew supply deal By Jenniffer B. Austria PHOENIX Semiconductor Philippines Corp. said Wednesday it will produce memory products for Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. of South Korea for another three years. PSPC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the three-year supply contract extension would commence on June 1, 2016. PSPC’s existing business transaction agreement with Samsung only provides for an extension until February 2017, but the new agreement effectively renews the contract for three more years. It also provides for an automatic renewal for one year if no

amendments are found needed by any of the parties. “We are pleased that our partnership with global leader Samsung Electronics has been renewed and we thank them for their continued trust and confidence in the outstanding manufacturing efficiencies and quality of PSPC,” said PSPC president Byeongchun Lee. Lee said the renewed contract sealed once again the continued strategic partnership between Samsung, SFA Semicon Co. Ltd. and PSPC. The common practice in the global outsourced semiconductor assembly and test industry is a purchase-order-based contract.

“A long-term based contract for a semiconductor company is something unique to PSPC among OSAT industry players in the world,” Lee said. Samsung under the agreement shall continue to supply important critical production materials and state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing and testing equipment over the contract period to ensure that PSPC conforms to the former’s highest standards of product quality and manufacturing efficiencies. PSPC recently took delivery of production equipment from Samsung and ramped up the production capacity in line with the technology shift in memory

products. PSPC exported $2.53 billion worth of of memory products in 2015. Its major product lines are dynamic random access memory and memory chips for desktop computer work stations and servers, PCs, laptops and ultrabooks, as well as Samsung branded memory secured digital cards. “The renewal of our agreement with Samsung is a testament to the outstanding semiconductor manufacturing competency of PSPC,” Lee said. He said the company remained cautiously optimistic that a turnaround in the global semiconductor industry would commence in the second semester of the year.

THE government spent P103.4 billion to settle its debt obligations in the first two months, down by 28 percent from P143 billion a year ago, according to the Bureau of Treasury. Data from the Treasury showed debt interest payments declined 4.9 percent in the twomonth period to P66.874 billion from P70.293 billion recorded in the same period last year. Interest payments to local creditors declined to P39.453 billion, while interest payments to foreign creditors rose to P27.421 billion. Debt amortization fell 49.8 percent in the first two months to P36.511 billion from P72.659 billion recorded a year earlier. Of the total amortization, principal payments in the local market dropped to P9.64 billion while principal payments to foreign creditors jumped to P26.863 billion. The Treasury said in February alone, debt services increased 3.4 percent to P25.215 billion as interest payments offset the drop in principal amortization. Interest payments grew 12.6 percent in February to P21.28 billion, while amortization fell 28.14 percent to P3.935 billion. The government’s outstanding obligations reached P5.954 trillion as of end-2015, up by 3.8 percent from P5.735 trillion in 2014. Meanwhile, national government borrowings declined 2.8 percent to P68.97 billion in the first two months of 2016 from P70.921 billion recorded in the same period last year. External borrowing fell 78.3 percent to P11.073 billion from P51.031 billion, while domestic borrowing jumped 191.1 percent to P57.89 billion from P19.89 billion.

THURSDAY: MAY 19, 2016

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

Alsons eyes 150-mw solar power projects By Alena Mae S. Flores

Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. may invest in around 150 megawatts of solar power projects “on an opportunistic basis,” an official said Wednesday.

Alsons vice president for business development Joseph Nocos told reporters the company would focus on developing renewable energy sources aside from coal projects. “Our hydro target is 150 MW. Solar, on a opportunistic basis, we’re looking at 150 MW... Our strategy is to expand our capacity according to what the market needs,” Nocos said. Nocos said Alsons had an available land that could be utilized for solar and that the company was initially looking at 10 MW to 20 MW of solar projects in the next two years.

He also said Alsons was looking at a possible partnership with a Japanese or European company. “For hydro, we will likely go by our selves along with our partner Toyota Tsusho,” he said. Alsons earlier teamed up with Toyota Tsusho to build the 210-MW Sarangani coal-fired power plant. Nocos said the first 105-MW unit of the Sarangani coal plant had started supplying electricity to Mindanao customers. The Sarangani plant is expected to be operating at its full capacity of 210 MW by 2018. Nocos earlier said there were enough baseload or coal-fired power plants being built in Mindanao. “We’re looking ahead to what Mindanao grid will need. First, there is enough baseload power plants being built, so we believe there will be adequate baseload in next 10 to

Alliance profit up by over 2,700%

15 years. We’re anticipating an opportunity for generation companies in RE space, mainly hydro,” Nocos told reporters. The company is pursuing the projects under newly-established Alsons Renewable Energy Corp. Alsons has received service contracts to build 90 MW of hydro power plants, while applications for another 90 MW of capacity are pending with the Energy Department. “We expect DoE to decide within the year. If all is approved, we will have 180 MW which we hope to implement in next five years,” Alsons said. Nocos said the company was moving forward this year with the construction of the 15-megawatt Siguil hydro power plant in Maasim, Sarangani province. He said the project would be followed by a 40-MW hydro power project in Negros Occidental along the Bago River.

Indian investments. The Department of Trade and Industry’s Philippine Trade and Investment Center–New Delhi invites industry leaders and major players in the Indian logistics and distribution sectors to invest in the Philippines during the National Summit: Logistics India 2016 held on May 04, 2016 in New Delhi, India. Commercial Counsellor Michael Alfred Ignacio of the PTIC-New Delhi discussed the potentials of the Philippines as a strategic entry point and logistics hub for Indian merchandise exports to the Asean market, including opportunities in the Subic and Clark free ports.

LISTED international seafood company Alliance Select Foods International Inc. saw its turnaround strategy take effect in the first quarter of 2016. The group improved its net income by over 2,700 percent to $519,000, driven by a 16-percent increase in gross profit margins. The company attributed the increase to new management’s optimization efforts in 2015, including strategies to secure lower cost raw materials, execution of cost-cutting initiatives across all areas of operations, and improvement of customer relationships. Total liabilities, meanwhile, declined 9.1 percent, to $27.7 million at the end of first quarter from $30.4 million at the end of 2015. First-quarter finance costs fell 46 percent to $242,000 from $450,000 year-on-year. The company attributed the decline in total liabilities and finance costs to the effective use of proceeds from a successful stock rights offering and internally generated funds. Liquidity, as measured by current ratio, and solvency, as measured by debt to equity ratio, both improved from 1.11 and 0.80 to 1.16 and 0.72, respectively, from December 31, 2015 to March 31, 2016. The cost of goods sold by the company declined 35 percent due to effective fish sourcing efforts as well as aggressive cost management. Further results from current management’s cost-cutting initiatives include a 5 percent decline in selling and administrative expenses and a 100 percent drop in other expenses. “We are very encouraged by the company’s first-quarter performance. The meticulous clean-up and aggressive cost efficiency efforts implemented by new management beginning 2014 are now steadily bearing fruit, and we believe that these efforts will continue to sustain the company as we contend with the coming challenges of 2016 such as the ill-effects of El Niño and anticipated steep increase of fish cost,” Alliance Select president and chief executive Raymond See said.

Goodbye, Continuity; Hello, Disruption THE defeat in the recent presidential election of the candidate designated by President Noy Aquino to be his successor has again placed in focus one of the key issues underlying the theory and practice of economic development. That issue is continuity. By the time it bows out on June 30, 2016, the Aquino administration will have been in office for the Constitutionally-mandated six-year period. It had taken over the reins of power from an administration of President Gloria Arroyo, which had been in office for nine and a half years (2001-2010), the longest presidential tenure since 1986. Six weeks from now, a new administration will take over the functions and responsibilities of the Aquino administration. This will mean the installation of—to use the language of transportation—a new crew. Given the absence in this country of a permanent-civilservice culture, that will mean the replacement of virtually all officials who had anything to do with policymaking in the outgoing administration, from Cabinet department heads down to bureau directors. That is discontinuous and disruptive. The going out of the current administration and the coming in of the newly elected one will mean all sorts of physical movements—

personnel, offices and equipment. That, too, is discontinuous and disruptive. Most important of all, the virtually wholesale replacement of an incumbent administration by a new set of people produces changes— sometimes total changes—in policies, programs and operating styles. This is discontinuous and highly disruptive. Examples abound from the days immediately following the presumptive election of Rodrigo Duterte as president of the Philippines. The examples relate to both people and policies. One example from the realm of social policy relates to the K-to-12 program. President-elect Duterte has indicated doubt about maintaining the program, which will become fully operational in the coming school year. A repeal or watering down of the long-aborning program would be discontinuous and highly disruptive. Although one of the areas of high achievement of the Aquino administration has been the management of the financial sector—indeed one of the economists apparently close to the incoming administration has acknowledged this—still the appointment of a new secretary of Finance entails massive disruption. This is particularly true if the newly appointed official has no deep experience with fiscal and tax management. Another example that bears citing relates

to the making and implementation of policies relating to the nation’s physical infrastructure. The president-elect has spoken about the need for redirection of those policies – for example, the shift in emphasis from heavy spending on urban areas to increased spending on the countryside. All objective observers of the Department of Public Works and Highways are agreed that outgoing Rogelio Singson did a fine (translation: competent and no-nonsense) job as DPWH head. Yet, as a result of the operation of our system of government, Singson will shortly leave office. Whether the newly appointed secretary will be as good as Singson, we don’t know. What we know is that the incoming DPWH administration, by bringing new personnel, programs and operating procedures into the department, will embody discontinuity and disruption. Do things have to be like this? Must there be discontinuity and disruption every six years? True, the Constitution limits a Chief Executive to six years in office. But if the wheel isn’t broke at the end of that period, does it have to be fixed? Sadly, on May 9 thirty-eight percent of Filipino voters answered these questions with a Yes. Students of government and economic development continue to debate whether six years in office is an inadequate period for a good president of the Philippines. They cite as an

example President Fidel Ramos, who in six years was able to restore economic stability, improve the Philippine economy’s performance and introduce major economic reforms. Because of the Constitutional limitation and the election of a president belonging to another political party, FVR’s performance and economic policies were discontinued when he left office. Disruption ensued. This country is committed to the democratic, non-command form of government. Despite the brief dalliance of some voters with Bongbong Marcos, the Filipinos value their freedom and rights. Still, it bears noting that the East Asian countries that achieved developed-country status during the last half of the 20th century —South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore—were able to do so under authoritarian forms of government. There were no changes of national administration every six (four prior to 1986) years. Planning for 10 years and above was possible. Is there a correlation between this country’s change-every-six-years form of government and its mediocre economic performance during the period since the end of World War II? That, surely, is obvious. So, here comes the Duterte administration. Goodbye continuity. Hello, disruption. E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com

T H U R S D AY : M AY 1 9, 2 0 1 6

WORLD

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

IS accused of killing dozens TRIPOLI—Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused the Islamic State group of unlawfully executing dozens of people in its Libyan stronghold of Sirte, saying the killings amounted to war crimes. The New York-based watchdog said IS, also known as ISIS, had inflicted “severe hardship” on the people of Sirte by diverting food, medicine, fuel and cash from the port city since February 2015. At least 49 people had been killed by methods including decapitation and shooting for alleged crimes including blasphemy, sorcery and spying, HRW said in a report based on a series of interviews. “The Sirte residents described scenes of horror—spublic beheadings, corpses in orange jumpsuits hanging from scaffolding in what they termed ‘crucifixions’, and masked fighters snatching men from their beds in the night,” it said. “They said morality police aided by informants patrolled the streets, threatening, fining or flogging men for smoking, listening to music, or failing to ensure their wives and sisters were covered in loose black abayas [robes].” The 49 executions followed “largely secret proceedings that negate the most basic fair-trial standards”. “ISIS also has kidnapped and disappeared dozens of Libyan militia fighters, many of whom are presumed dead,” said HRW, citing exiled councilors and fighters from groups opposed to it. The 41-page report said IS jihadists

had looted and destroyed the homes of those seen as enemies, as well as forced the closure of shops specializing in lingerie or Western clothing. One resident, a 30-year-old named Ahlam, described life in Sirte as “unbearable” with everyone “living in fear” and innocent people being killed. “There are no groceries, the hospital has no doctors or nurses, there is no medicine... There are spies on every street. Most people have left but we are trapped. We don’t have enough money to leave,” she was quoted as saying. IS seized Sirte almost a year ago, exploiting the chaos in Libya as rival militias and governments battled for power in the wake of the 2011 revolt that ousted and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi. It has been seeking to expand westwards from the city, and Europe fears the jihadists could use its port and airport as a springboard to attack the continent. “The murder of civilians, or wounded or captive fighters, by members of a party to an armed conflict is a war crime, as is executing people without a fair trial by a regular court,” said HRW. “The nature and scale of ISIS’s unlawful executions and other acts in Libya also may amount to crimes against humanity.” AFP

China holds landing drills ahead of Tsai swearing-in BEIJING—China’s military has staged at least three landing exercises in the country’s southeast this month, state-run media reported Wednesday ahead of the inauguration of Taiwan’s Beijing-skeptic president-elect Tsai Ing-wen. The operations appear to be Beijing’s latest warnings to Tsai, chairwoman of the traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, who will be sworn in on Friday and whose political message revolves around the importance of Taiwanese identity. China and Taiwan split in 1949 after the Kuomintang nationalist forces lost a civil war to the Communists. But Beijing has always seen the island as a renegade province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. The largest and most recent of the drills was carried out by a regiment under the 31st Group Army, based in Fujian province opposite Taiwan, reported China Daily, the military’s official mouthpiece. Footage posted on the website of state broadcaster CCTV late Tuesday showed squadrons of attack helicopters bombarded ground targets with missiles and rockets, and landing craft charging towards a beach. Troops fired grappling hooks to climb up cliffs, heavily camouflaged soldiers used sniper rifles, and tanks rolled through fields. The live-fire exercises were intended to “demonstrate and test the joint landing operation capability of a basic combat unit”, the Daily said, citing Lieutenant Colonel Chen Xiaoming,

commander of the regiment. The report, headlined “iron fist strikes on targets like splitting bamboo”, said the drill involved several different PLA service arms and featured information warfare. The China Daily cited an unnamed Chinese military expert as saying: “The rapid development and modernization of the PLA now allow us to fulfill a landing operation using only a couple of hours and with few casualties,” referring the the People’s Liberation Army. At least two other landing exercises have been mounted this month, one in the southern province of Guangdong and another by the navy’s South Sea Fleet using Zubr-class hovercraft, the report added. Beijing has been sending assertive messages across the Taiwan Strait since Tsai was elected in January. It has warned against any attempt to formally declare independence and the Taiwan Affairs Office recently said responsibility for any cross-strait crisis “must be shouldered by those who change the status quo”, a thinly veiled threat to Tsai not to rock the boat. China’s defense ministry denied Wednesday that the military exercises were aimed at any particular entity, adding they should not be over-interpreted. “It is routine arrangement to execute military drills in the southeast of China according to annual training plan, and these drills are not aimed at any specific target,” it said on its website. AFP

am not defending or teaching the necessity or propriety of violence, personal assault or assassination for the success and predominance of one's ideas. I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy. I have not been convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude. I am not suffering from mental alienation or from any incurable contagious disease. The country of which I am a citizen or subject is not at war with the Philippines and grants to Filipinos the right to be naturalized citizens or subjects thereof.

SCN FORM NO. 1 001353

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON NATURALIZATION IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION OF AMRIT PAL SINGH to be naturalized as Filipino citizen pursuant to Republic Act No. 9139. x-------------------------- x

SCN CASE NO. 000618

PETITION Pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act No. 9139, petitioner hereby submits a petition for naturalization to become a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines and respectfully declares: 1. My full name is AMRIT PAL SINGH, but I have also been known since childhood as AMRIT or I have been judicially authorized to use the alias name(s) . 2. My present place of residence is 9-R APO STREET BRGY. STA. TERESITA City/Municipality of QUEZON CITY, Province of METRO MANILA and all my former places of residence are (please indicate periods of residence) 1915 C-LUZON AVE., SAMPALOC MANILA 1734 G. TUAZON ST., SAMPALOC 3. I was born on JULY 4, 1983, in QUEZON CITY Philippines. I have been a resident of the Philippines since birth. At present, I am a citizen or subject of INDIA. 4. My father's name is BALJIT SINGH and he was born on JUNE 5, 1962 , in INDIA. He is a citizen or subject of INDIA. My mother's name is KAUR SHINDER PAL and she was born on AUGUST 20, 1962, in INDIA. She is a citizen or subject of INDIA. 5. My trade, business, profession or lawful occupation is BUSINESSMAN. and from which I derive an average annual income of P 14.270.00, inclusive of bonuses, commissions and allowances. My wife's/husband's trade, business, profession or lawful occupation is __________ and from which she derives an average annual income of P____________. (Where the above does not apply): I am exempt from the requirement of lucrative trade or occupation and from submitting income tax returns for the past three (3) years because I am a college degree holder [please state (1) degree obtained: _____, (2) name of school: _____ and (3) years graduated: _____] who cannot practice my profession (the practice of which requires a government licensure examination) by reason of my citizenship. 6. My civil status is MARRIED , I was married on DECEMBER 30, 2005 in INDIA. My wife's/husband's name is SUKHPREET KAUR BRAR and she/he was born on SEPT 9, 1987 in DODA, INDIA. She/he is a citizen or subject of INDIA and presently resides 9-R APO STREET BRGY. STA TERESITA. 7. I am legally separated from my spouse; my marriage was annulled, per decree of legal separation/annulment dated ____ granted by ____ (please indicate the particular court which granted the same). I am a widower/widow and my spouse died on ____ in ____ 8. I have TWO (2) child/children, whose names, dates and places of birth and residences are as follows: Name Date of Birth Place of Birth Residence JASLYN KAUR BRAR AUG. 3, 2007 Q U E Z O N 9 - R A P O CITY, M.M. STREET BRGY. STA TERESITA QUEZON CITY A P O AVNEET KAUR BRAR OCT. 1, 2012 Q U E Z O N 9 - R CITY, M.M STREET BRGY. STA TERESITA QUEZON CITY

9. I received my primary and secondary education from the following public schools or private educational institutions duly recognized by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), where Philippine history, government and civics are taught and prescribed as part of the school curriculum and where enrollment is not limited to any race or nationality: Name of School

Place of Dates of School Study NAZARETH SCHOOL SAMPALOC, 1996 MANILA NAZARETH SCHOOL SAMPALOC, 2000 MANILA UNIVERSITY OF THE MANILA 2004 EAST

Highest Grade Completed 1 TO 6 YEARS (PRIMARY) 1 TO 4 YEARS (SECONDARY) 1 TO 4 YEARS (TERTIARY)

10. I am able to read, write and speak Filipino and/or any of the following dialects of the Philippines: ENGLISH (READ & WRITE) TAGALOG (READ & WRITE) 11. I have enrolled my minor children of school age in the following public schools or private educational institutions duly recognized by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), where Philipine History, government and civics are taught and prescribed as part of the school curriculum and where enrollment is not limited to any race or nationality: Name of Child JASLYN KAUR BRAR AVNEET KAUR BRAR

Name and Place of School

Date of Enrollment

13. It is my true and honest intention to become a citizen of the Philippines and to renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, and, particularly, to INDIA of which at this time I am a citizen or subject. I will reside continuously in the Philippines from the date of the filing of this petition up to the time of my admission to Philippine citizenship. 14. My character witnesses are ERWIN CHITO L. OLIVA and KRISTIANNE C. LLORIN both Filipino citizens, of legal age, and residing at 725 OLD TORRES, 4TH ST. TONDO, MANILA and 181 MARZAN ST., SAMPALOC, MANILA respectively, who have executed sworn statements attached hereto in support of my instant petition, together with: (a) brief biographical data about themselves; (b) detailed statements on the dates they first came to know me, the circumstances of our initial acquaintance and the reasons and extent of our continuing familiarity; and (c) the number of times they have acted as character witnesses in other petitions for naturalization. 15. Attached hereto as annexes and made part of this petition are the duplicate originals or certified photocopies of the following documents (please check the appropriate box): [ ] a. Petitioner's birth certificate [ ] b. Petitioner's alien certificate of registration (ACR) [ ] c. Petitioner's native-born certificate of residence (NBCR) [ ] d. Petitioner's marriage certificate, if married [ ] e. Death certificate of his/her spouse, if widowed [ ] f. Court decree annulling his/her marriage or granting legal separation, if such was the fact [ ] g. Birth certificates of petitioner's minor children [ ] h. ACRs of petitioner's minor children [ ] i. NBCRs of petitioner's minor children [ ] j. Affidavits of financial capacity by the petitioner, duly supported by bank certifications, passbooks, stock certificates, or proof of ownership of other properties [ ] k. Affidavits of at least two (2) credible witnesses who must be Filipino citizens of good reputation in petitioner's place of residence [ ] l. Medical certificate from a government hospital stating that petitioner is not suffering from mental alienation or a user of prohibited drugs or otherwise a drug dependent and that he/she is not afflicted with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), or any incurable contagious disease. [ ] m. School diploma and transcript of records of the petitioner from the school/s he or she attended in the Philippines [ ] n. Certifications stating that petitioner's minor children are enrolled in public schools or private educational institutions duly recognized by the DECS, where Philippine history, government and civics are taught and prescribed as part of the school curriculum and where enrollment is not limited to any race or nationality [ ] o. Petitioner's income tax returns for the past three years [ ] p. Petitioner's receipts of payment of income tax for the past three years 16. Other documents submitted by the petitioner in support of his/her petition: AMRIT PAL SINGH-PASSPORT #H8571986 SUKHPREET BRAR KAUR-PASSPORT #L1509952 JASLYN BRAR KAUR-PASSPORT #L1507217 AVNEET KAUR BRAR-PASSPORT #L1509795 CLASS PICTURE OFAMRIT PAL SINGH, KRISTIANNE LLORIN,AND ERWIN OLIVANAZARETHA.Y. 1996 CLASS PICTURE OF AMRIT PAL SINGH, KRISTIANNE LLORIN, AND ERWIN OLIVA -NAZARETH A.Y. 2000 CERTIFICATE ST. THERESAS COLLEGE PRAYER WHEREFORE, it is respectfully prayed that petitioner be conferred Philippine citizenship pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act No, 9139. Dated at Makati City, Metro Manila, this 20 .

day of

AMRIT PAL SINGH Name and Signature of Petitioner Address: 9-R APO STREET BRGY. STA TERESITA QUEZON CITY Telephone Number:

Right Thumbmark of Petitioner

Petitioner's signature and right thumbmark

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES) CITY/MUNICIPALITY OF CITY OF MAKATI) S.S. I, AMRIT PAL SINGH, of legal age and a resident of 9-R APO STREET BRGY. STA TERESITA QUEZON CITY, after being duly sworn, depose and say that I am the petitioner herein, that I have read the foregoing petition and know the foregoing petition and known the contents thereof, and that the same is true of my own knowledge.

ST. THERESA’S COLLEGE JUNE 2015 D. TUAZON QUEZON CITY

12. I shall never be a public charge. I am of good moral character. I believe in the principles underlying the Philippine Constitution. I have conducted myself in a proper and irreproachable manner during the entire period of my residence in the Philippines in my relations with the constituted government as well as with the community in which I am living. I mingled socially with Filipinos and have evinced a sincere desire to learn and embrace the customs, traditions and ideals of the Filipino people. I have all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications under Republic Act No. 9139.

AMRIT PAL SINGH Name and Signature of Petitioner SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me at CITY OF MAKATI this 7th day of APRIL, 2016.

I am not opposed to organized government or affiliated with any association or group of persons who uphold and teach doctrines opposing all organized governments. I (TS-MAY 19/26, JUNE 2, 2016)

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B8 Myanmar welcomes US decision on sanctions YANGON—A US decision to pare back economic sanctions on Myanmar could unclog investment as the country claws its way out of poverty, Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government said Wednesday, welcoming the move. Suu Kyi’s party took power in March after clinching a majority at last year’s election, the freest in generations for a nation that withered under half a century of military rule. It now faces a daunting task of rehabilitation in the Southeast Asian country, which is hampered by decrepit infrastructure, conflicts in resource-rich borderlands and the continued influence of the military and junta-era cronies, who still dominate the economy. The United States lifted a host of financial and trade embargoes Tuesday to recognize the “historic milestone” of the country’s transfer to a civilian-led government, according to a statement by the Treasury department. Washington has rolled back many of its sanctions to reward reforms since the end of outright military rule in 2011, but retains scores of names on its blacklists as it seeks to push further changes and promote human rights. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay told AFP that the administration “really welcomes” the latest move. “It could boost trade between the two countries and this raises hopes for the economy,” he said adding that it could encourage investment by firms previously put off by red tape. American companies including Coca-Cola and Pepsi, fast food restaurant KFC and carmakers Chevrolet and Ford have already established a sales presence in the country. But the latest sanctions rollback further eases constraints on Americans wanting to invest. Seven state enterprises previously blacklisted for being part of the former military regime were delisted mostly because they now report to civilian ministries, the Treasury said. It also removed three stateowned banks from its sanctions list and authorized dealings with two army-run financial institutions, opening up all Myanmar banks to American business. AFP

CESAR BARRIOQUINTO EDITOR

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

WORLD Protests in Hong Kong as China official visits HONG KONG—Hong Kong protesters angry at a visit by a top Beijing official shouted prodemocracy slogans Wednesday but were kept well away from a mission seen as an attempt to bridge the city’s growing political divide.

Photocall. French actress Adele Haenel smiles on May 18, 2016, during a photocall for the film ‘The Unknown Girl (La Fille Inconnue)’ at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France. AFP

The three-day trip by Zhang Dejiang, who chairs China’s communist-controlled legislature, is the first by such a senior official for four years. It comes as concerns grow that freedoms are under threat in semi-autonomous Hong Kong as Beijing tightens its grip. Although Zhang’s trip is ostensibly for an economic conference, it is widely being seen as a conciliatory effort and a chance to gauge whether Beijing should back the city’s unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying to stand for a second term. Frustration over lack of political reform has sparked a fledgling independence movement, condemned by authorities in both Hong Kong and mainland China. During a speech at the conference on China’s “One Belt, One Road” international trade and investment plan Wednesday, Zhang urged Hong Kong to play a bigger role in China’s national development strategy. “I hope that Hong Kong, with a broader mind and vision, will fully seize the major opportunities of Belt and Road,” he said. He emphasized the shared Cantonese culture of southern China and Hong Kong, an apparent attempt to ease fears Beijing is trying to erode the city’s separate identity. Hongkongers speak Cantonese rather than the Mandarin dominant on the mainland, and there are concerns the language is being squeezed out. Zhang will meet pro-democracy lawmakers Wednesday evening in a rare move, after promising to listen to political demands from across society. But opponents have criticized Zhang for what they called “tokenistic” diplomacy and slammed Hong Kong authorities for imposing a security lock-down on the Wanchai district for his visit. Roads around Zhang’s hotel and the convention centre hosting the economic conference have been cordoned off with huge water-filled barricades and protesters funnelled into designated areas, out of sight. Around 100 of them marched to one of the areas Wednesday morning before the conference started, vastly outnumbered by police of whom thousands have been mobilized to protect Zhang. AFP

Millions of refugees facing homelessness, says UN GENEVA—Millions of refugees worldwide risk living on the street due to a lack of funds for shelters, the United Nations warned Wednesday, urging the private sector to help amid surging displacement Launching a global campaign called “Nobody Left Outside”, the UN refugee agency said it still needed half a billion dollars (441 million euros) to provide adequate shelter.

“Without a major increase in funding and global support, millions of people fleeing war and persecution face homelessness or inadequate housing in countries such as Lebanon, Mexico and Tanzania,” UNHCR said in a statement. “Without a safe place to eat, sleep, study, store belongings and have privacy, the consequences to their health and welfare can be profound,” it warned.

Conflicts, including the fiveyear war in Syria, have fueled a global crisis with some 60 million people displaced from their homes worldwide. Nearly 20 million of them have been forced to flee across international borders as refugees. The UNHCR campaign aims to raise funds from the private sector to build or improve shelters for around two million refugees by 2018.

The agency each year purchases 70,000 tents and more than two million tarpaulins, and outside of camps helps refugees find housing and pay rent. These operations are expected to cost $728 million this year alone, but UNHCR said so far only $158 million was available for use. “Shelter is the foundation stone for refugees to survive and recover, and should be considered a

non-negotiable human right,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said in the statement. “As we tackle worldwide displacement on a level not seen since World War II, no refugee should be left outside,” he insisted. And at a time when anti-refugee sentiments have flared in many overburdened host communities, Grandi said ensuring that refugees are properly housed is a good way to ease tensions. 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 WRITER

life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

w EL L BEING

LIFE

4,000 RunnERS COnquER nIkE’S 1ST All-WOmEn HAlf mARATHOn In mAnIlA

“A

re we there yet?” “Is it almost done?” “I just want to finish” “Just keep running, just keep running…” “I can’t believe you talked me into this!” “I hope there’s pizza in the finish line!” “We can do this!” these were just some of the words you could hear if you ran with the 4,000 women who braved the first ever Nike NRC Half Marathon in Manila last May 15. The NRC Women’s Half Marathon went off to an exhilarating start at past four in the morning in Blue Bay Walk in Macapagal Highway in Manila. The sound of gun starting began a virtual concert of screams and cheers amidst the loud music motivating the crowd, with “Half Mary” first timers either nervous or pumped up from all the positive energy. “Yes, we can!” “We’re better for it!” people cheered in a sea of Nike race bibs, which for some reason made everyone look good compared to so many other marathons or fun run bibs people have seen in years. Together with their partner runner and the #BetterForIt Nike campaign adrenalin in their blood, these women gave their all amidst the dry humid air by dawn and the already scorching 7:00 a.m. sun along the stretch of Macapagal to Cavitex, finishing in Island Cove, Cavite. NRC Women’s Half Marathon is the culmination of The NikeWomen Victory Tour in Manila, part of an even larger global Victory Tour that has been touted as the largest women’s event series in the world. The event kicked off in Japan last March 13, followed by other capital cities in the world. In Manila, the festivity started with Nike+ Run Club 12-week training program through the Nike+ Running app and the Nike+ Running Club sessions conducted twice a week. During the training, women participants could already choose which pace to run for their actual Half Mary as coached by professional pacers. Veteran runner Luisa Raterta crossed the finish line first in Island Cove, clocking in 1:37:34, followed by long time runners Janette Lumidao and Maricar Camacho. The last buddies to arrive got there in 4:52:08 hours, way past the cut-off time of four hours, but they made it nevertheless. Island Cove was like a runners’ haven with Nike’s post run activities that helped the women recuperate from the race. Some jumped into the pool and enjoyed the cold-water retreat; some cooled down and enjoyed massages and stretches led by professional therapists and trainers; and others refueled with healthy energy food in the Nike tents. Participants who used the Nike+Running app throughout their journey and accumulated more than 250 kilometers received special access to post-race analysis with N+RC coaches and shoe cleaning services. Nike continues to encourage women to push themselves into becoming better versions of them. This first NRC Women’s Half Marathon marks the beginning of an even larger movement as women continue the journey for years to come. So, to the rest of Filipino women – if the 4,000 did it, and a half-million more women across 33 countries, nothing should stop you in trying, because you’re #BetterForIt. Photos by star sabroso

half Mary hopefuls during the gun start at blue bay Walk in Macapagal highway in Manila last May 15

by 7:00 a.m., some participants already opted to walk than run the stretch of Cavitex because of the scorching heat of the morning sun

No matter what time they finished, participants wore proud smiles

Pink Nike race bibs lined the stretch of Cavitex

half Mary finishers received a NikeWomen Victory tour pendant to commemorate their #betterForIt journey and commitment

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

Residents used to trek four kilometers just to get water from the steep slope of Sitio Pulang Lupa in Barangay Batong Labang

@LIFEatStandard

The five concrete spring box water systems provide fresh potable water to upland farming communities

CopIng wITH EL nIño

Isabela farmers receive fruit trees and water spring boxes

lot of households in the countryside, especially those of farmers, were heavily affected by the lack of rains due to the El Niño phenomenon that has beset many parts of the country since last year, compounding the problem of irrigation for farmers. One of those who have suffered from the climate anomaly is Betty Panapit who used to trek four kilometers just to get water from the steep slope of Sitio Pulang Lupa in Barangay Batong Labang, a coarse mountainside community near the city of Ilagan, Isabela. With the help of World Wide Fund for nature (WWF) in collaboration with Sun Life Foundation together with the US Embassy Manila and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Panapit, along with the members of her community, no longer need to painstakingly walk long hours just to get water because of the five concrete spring box water systems that were constructed to help provide fresh, potable water to upland farming communities with the help of Abuan Integrated Watershed Management. Spring box systems are water containers built atop crannies where water flows out naturally. Over time, the boxes will collect water while preventing twigs and plants from getting in. Water is then filtered and channeled down to communities,

The spring boxes provide potable water that can be used for household activities

providing potable water that can be used for household activities and irrigation for farming. The spring boxes will be of big help in providing potable water that will be readily available for families that may need it especially since they don’t have to trek long distances just for water. “Malaking tulong po talaga ito para sa amin, lalo na sa panahon ng El Niño at tagtuyot (this is really a big help for us, especially at this time when we are suffering from El Niño),” she says.

With the help of these spring box water systems, Panapit and many others can have a better life. USAID sponsored the preparation of a water resource inventory, demographic survey, environmental impact review, and the construction supervision and management while Sun Life Foundation financed it by providing cement and steel bars. Residents also did their part by providing gravel and sand, plus their time and labor to build the spring boxes. To add to the spring boxes, Sun Life Foundation also planted 15,169 mango, citrus and cacao seedlings for the area’s agro forestry requirements. This will enable crops and trees to coexist in an environment that will provide water recharge, minimize erosion and increase land productivity. This is an attempt to restore Isabela’s Abuan watershed – a once-lush forest which has been converted to corn and rice farming. Agro forestry is the managing of lands involving the growing of trees while surrounding the crops. This practice has improved the 69.45 hectares of desolate grassland since 2012. “I now have 180 new mango and 200 Satsuma citrus trees, which can help feed my family for years to come,” says project beneficiary Arsenio Cacliong. This way of reforestation allows the balancing of trees, shrubs and crops that will create more sustainable plots.

Since 2009, WWF, along with its partner institutions, have since helped 466 Isabela farmers plant 70,786 fruit-bearing trees that were chosen to provide incentives for farmers who need it. Over 150 endemic animal species – from the symbolic Philippine eagle to the criticallyendangered Philippine crocodile, benefits from the vegetation. Its forest provides water for 35,570 hectares of rice fields and corn plots in the city of Ilagan in Isabela. “Sun Life Foundation champions sustainable solutions in all the advocacies we support. This project is one such initiative,” says Sun Life Foundation chairman of the board Riza Mantaring. “We are proud to be WWF-Philippines’ partner and we will continue to support projects that will offer a brighter life to Filipinos for generations to come.” USAID is working with the stakeholders to improve the adaptability of watersheds, farmlands, and other economic sectors in the Abuan Watershed to climate change threats. The Abuan Integrated Watershed Management Project pilots the Department of Science and Technology’s smarter agriculture program by refining the capacity of farmers in adapting to climate change. To date, this USAID-supported grant has increased the capacity of nearly 7,000 stakeholders to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Affordable quality health care in BgC primary Care plus opens new branch in Taguig business district

The Primary Care Plus clinic in Cubao is equipped with a pharmacy

The steady growth of employee and resident population in the upscale Bonifacio Global City in Taguig has driven the need not only for more dining options and entertainment attractions but also for basic services such as quality health care. According to records, there are over 80,000 employees and 19,000 residents in McKinley Hill alone. On the back of its mission to make affordable quality health care accessible to more Filipinos, Primary Care Plus Inc. has recently opened its

newest branch at McKinley Hill in BGC. “As more people live in condo units and work in offices in BGC, there is a growing need for a reliable and readily available health care in the expanding business district,” posits Primary Care Plus general manager Mar Diokno. He adds, “Primary Care Plus put up a branch here to make it more convenient for patients to attend to their medical needs.” Formerly known as Clinic ng Bayan, Primary Care Plus is a one-stop clinic with Continued on C4

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

Husband and wife Chuckie and Yen Dreyfus for Vaser High-Definition Liposculpture

Arnell Ignacio for Contours' Vaser High-Definition Liposculpture

WHEn EvERYTHIng ELSE FAILS – vASER FIT

e’ve all heard it: Eat right, stay active, drink loads of water and sleep eight hours daily. But what if the formula that works for most just isn’t enough any more? There are many factors why simply maintaining this tried and tested practice for a healthy lifestyle would fall short. For instance, genes, hormonal imbalances, age, or simply lack of motivation to be consistent. But when all else have failed, science gives us an option as a last resort. Introducing – Vaser, a high definition Laser liposculpture procedure that melts fat for distribution. That bulge you’ve always wanted to lose? It can now be transferred to where it can be an ass-set. Like the bum or breast for instance. Contours, a premiere dermatological and cosmetic surgery clinic, is a pioneer of this technology in the Philippines. With minimally invasive and scarring

By Weizel GulfaN

post-ops compared to traditional liposuction, VASER high-definition liposculpture is the prefered choice for body sculpting and weight management.

Non-surgical options

For those who are not ready to go under the knife just yet, there is LaserFit. The same principle as with Vaser sans the suction, Laser-fit gets rid of very stubborn bulges like love-handles, double-chin and arm-bulges, and can help you achieve that trademark thighgap that is can sometimes be difficult to achieve even with a healthy diet and active lifestyle. The procedure is non-invasive and takes about an hour. There is no discomfort in the process and has zero downtime, and results are immediate. However, for long-term permanent changes, a series of sessions are required. Laser-fit also doesn’t exempt you from eating right and

working out as the fat it melts needs to be exhausted in the form of sweat. After the 60-minute session with Laserfit, one will generally feel hungry so it is important to carry a healthy snack such us sugar-free Trailmix, a fruit or a salad on hand so as to not put back the weight lost. Even models, athletes and celebrities need a little help from procedures like Laser-fit before a show or a shoot. Sometimes, there are just stubborn areas that refuse to toneup despite a rigorous exercise regimen and a strict diet. Maintained with a disciplined lifestyle, Laser-fit is the ultimate shortcut to the ideal body that will make people ask if you have been “Photoshopped.”

PPP: Pore, pimples and pigmentation

Having a well-contoured proportion is coveted, so match that with a glowing and clear complexion – and chances are, you’ll have people getting star struck every time they catch a glimpse of you.

“I woke-up like this.” Imagine getting up in the morning and needing no makeup because of your flawless radiant complexion. That is a dream that could become an everyday reality as Contour addresses the PPP which minimizes pores, fine lines, wrinkles, evens out complexion and brightens up your whole look with several sessions. Looking good has never been this easy with Contours Vaser Liposculpture, Laserfit and PPP treatments. To know more about Vaser Hi-Def, contact main clinic at (632) 5564878 or email drclaudine@rouradermsurgery. com. Follow its social media pages for regular updates on promotions and events: Contours Advanced Face and Body Sculpting Institute on Facebook and @contours_ph on Instagram. For a complete list of services and branches, visit www.rouradermsurgery.com.

Healthier you with new mott’s 100% Apple Juice in can Fly Ace Corporation, in partnership with Jolly Al Dente, Lotus Biscoff, Great Leap Academy and Crayola, engaged families in a fun and exciting picnic party at Bonifacio High Street last May 7 to introduce Mott’s 100% Original Apple Juice in can. The event was packed with activities for the whole family, with kids and kidsat-heart enjoying the face painting, hulahoop games, life-sized tic-tac-toe, ladders and slides, and ring and bucket toss games. According to Fly Ace Corporation general manager Ramon Daez, Fly Ace is very happy to partner with a globally renowned brand like Mott’s, in bringing world class products closer to Filipino homes. Their exclusive partnership with Mott’s and the introduction of the handy Mott’s Apple Juice in can allows more Filipino families to enjoy healthy, 100 percent apple juice drink every day at home and even in school or at work. Mott’s Philippines official brand ambassador and mommymundo.com founder Janice Villanueva graced the event together with her whole family. Janice serves as an inspiration to all the modern moms on a mission to balance her career and family, making sure she has time to serve healthy food on the table. A firm believer of the aphorism “an apple a day, keeps the doctor away,”

Mott’s 100% Original Apple Juice is one of her kitchen staples. During the event, she highlighted her fondness for the brand because of its purity, as Mott’s 100% Original Apple Juice only has three ingredients which are water, apple juice concentrate and Vitamin C – a healthy staple for the famliy to enjoy. Philippine-US registered dietitian and nutritionist, Cheshire Que, says that Mott’s 100% Original Apple Juice is helpful in increasing the nutritional value of the family’s daily menu. Cheshire created easy to follow recipes with the use of Mott’s, from entreés, savory snacks, to belly warming or cooling beverages, there’s something delicious for the whole family to enjoy. Mott’s has been a trusted name since 1842, and until now, the company supports moms in their journey to raise healthy and independent kids. Mott’s strongly believes that tomorrow starts with what you do today. Mott’s 100% Apple Juice is available in 64oz and 32oz family packaging in leading supermarkets, and groceries nationwide. The Mott’s in 11.5oz is available in leading convenience stores and supermarkets initially in Metro Manila and will roll out nationwide in the succeeding months.

Tete-A-Tea Cookies

Savory Crepes

From left: Fly Ace Corporation vice president for Marketing Abe Cipriano, Mott's Snapple International Southeast Asia regional marketing manager Terence Chen, Fly Ace Corporation president Jun Cochanco, Mott’s Philippines brand ambassador Janice Villanueva, Mott's Snapple International director of Sales for Asia and Middle East Denzil Croning, Fly Ace Corporation general manager Ramon Daez, Mott's Snapple International Territory Sales manager Sixto Lopez and Mott's Snapple International Southeast Asia regional sales manager Jeremy Ng

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LIFE life @ thestandard.com .ph

@LIFEatStandard

Surya Namaskar or 'Sun Salutations' are believed to be responsible in lighting one's internal fire and generating heat to cleanse the body and mind

surya NaMasKar FINE FEttlE

By BuBBles paraiso

hen you look up the history of Surya Namaskar, more commonly known as “Sun Salutations,” there are quite different answers to its origin. Some traditionalists claim that the sequence (of yoga poses) is at least 2500 years old and that it was born during the Vedic times “as a ritual prostration to the dawn, replete with mantras, offerings of flowers and rice, and libations of water,” while those who are skeptical of this history believe that it was invented by the raja of Aundh in the early 20th century before it got disseminated to the West in the 1920s. As these are being argued, one thing is for sure: Surya Namaskar is not only a sequence to honor the sun, it is also probably the most famous or practiced yoga sequence to date.

Traditionally, Surya Namaskar is performed outdoors, in the wee hours of the morning (a little before sunrise) as you face east or the location of the rising sun, a symbol of the dawn of consciousness and jnana (a Sanskrit term for “knowledge”). Nowadays, it is done mostly as a warm up before an asana session. There are several variations of Sun Salutations as evolved through the years, but Surya Namaskar A is the most basic and famous of them all. Having 12 poses (only 10 are in photo) done in a graceful sequence and repeated at least three times, this yoga flow is also believed to be responsible to light your internal fire and generate heat to cleanse your body and mind. To start with your Sun Salutations, you begin and end in Tadasana or mountain pose. You basically stand up straight, toes together and heels apart and put your hands in prayer to your heart. You have to remember the one-breath-onemovement rule, and also to never hold your breath. As you inhale, you lift your arms up overhead to urdva hastasana, then exhale as you lower your arms down, fold forward hinging by your hips into uttasana. On your next inhale, you arch

your torso up, like a table top, with your fingertips on the floor (or block), then you slowly press your hands down on the floor, walk or jump your feet to the back of the mat for your plank, making sure your shoulders are in line with your hips, and your wrists. On the same breath (or perhaps a new one, if you’re a beginner) lower your plank down into chaturangga dandasana – making sure that you keep your elbows to your torso and it’s not splaying out to the side. You also don’t go all the way down to the floor here, you stop at a low plank. For beginners, you have the option to put your knees down first before you lower your chest down, as you are still building your arm and core strength for this pose. On your next inhale, you arch your torso up, straighten your arms but relax your shoulders into upward facing dog (pose), and when you exhale, you lift your hips up, press your hands down on the floor, push your heels down and engage your quads into downward facing dog. Stay in downward dog for five breaths, remembering to squeeze your belly in and keep looking at your navel – don’t close your eyes. After completing your count, slowly look forward, walk or jump towards

your hands as you inhale and come back to ardha uttasana (arch your back, fingertips on the floor) and back to uttasana. After which, you lift your arms up again to urdva hastasana and end with tadasana. Repeat this five times. Some studies claim that you may already reap the benefits of yoga with practicing just the sun salutations alone. The standing poses build body awareness and help you find your center as it also grounds you to the earth; uttasana and ardha uttasana elongate your spine, stretch your hammies and cleanse your digestive system; Plank and chaturangga engage the muscles in your arms, shoulders, chest and abdomen, while upward dog opens your chest and generally stretches your upper body. Downward dog on the other hand works the muscles in your entire body and also calms your nervous system. To think this sequence is but a warm up in most classes (especially Ashtanga), can you imagine what other benefits you will be able to reap when you practice a whole class? You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @bubblesparaiso

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Jennifer Lawrence is back as Raven a.k.a. mystique, a blue-skinned mutant with shapeshifting abilities

JEnnIfER LawREncE back In baTTLE fORm

t has been 10 years since the heroes of XMen: Days Of Future Past saved humanity and themselves from threats within and without. Now, in X-Men: Apocalypse, things are – at least for people like Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) – a little more settled. Humanity is aware of the mutants living among them and relations have been, for the most part, peaceful. But all that changes when the ancient, incredibly powerful mutant known as Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) awakens in the early 1980s and begins to destroy the world, as we know it, convinced that he can create civilization again the way he thinks it should be. With Bryan Singer once more directing, X-Men: Apocalypse promises a huge global adventure and another thrilling mission for the world’s favorite mutants. The world of 1983 also has undergone upheavals in the treatment of mutants. This next stage of human evolution is now accepted by most—but not all—of humanity, thanks to the heroism of Raven/ Mystique, who (as seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past) prevented the assassination of

the U.S. president and a war between mutants and humans. Jennifer Lawrence is back as Raven a.k.a. Mystique, a blue-skinned shapeshifter, seeking her true purpose, as well as elusive self-acceptance. In the years leading up to X-Men: Apocalypse, she had tried to stay hidden from the world, shunning her celebrity as the face of hope and change for the new, mutant-integrated world. She resists bearing the weight of that label, and feels much of her past doesn’t warrant the world’s perception of her as a hero. Now, Raven is living by her own code and working independently as an underground mutant savior, to fight against the remaining instances of human exploitation of mutants and save those still being persecuted. “The character is more ‘Raven’ than ‘Mystique’ in this story because she cannot be her true mutant self in a world that she feels is still not as mutant-friendly as it’s perceived to be,” says Oscar-winner Lawrence, who first played the role in XMen: First Class and then reprised it in Days of Future Past. “That’s why she has

American actress Jennifer Lawrence as Raven, who has the ability to mimic the appearance and voice of any person with exquisite precision

basically been Raven since the events of the previous films, so no one would know she’s that mutant. When we meet her in this film, she’s been living a covert life as Raven.” Costume designer Louise Mingenbach drew upon the resources and inventory of numerous costume rental houses in the U.S. and Montréal and scoured retail vintage stores across North America to find thousands of wardrobe items needed to dress performers in 1980s apparel from Cairo, East Germany, and the U.S. For Jennifer Lawrence, Mingenbach took into account Raven’s modus operandi: “She’s fighting for a cause and is not particularly concerned with how she looks,” says the designer. She found Lawrence a “Chrissie Hynde type” studded leather jacket and an old rock-‘n-roll t-shirt. “1983 was the great era of the rocker chick,” says Mingenbach, “and that kind of look reflected Raven’s rebellious nature.” It’s mutants vs. mutants in X-Men: Apocalypse now in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros. (also available in 3D and IMAX).

Jennifer Lawrence and Evan Peters in a scene from the highly-anticipated “X-men: Apocalypse”

Home buyers find perfect homes

Viewers will have a glimpse of the new series “House Hunters Asia,” which is filmed in malaysia and Singapore

First-time home buyers from malaysia

married couple Vinamra and Shruthi from Singapore

HGTV’s first long-form original series House Hunters Asia, premieres on May 22 and airs 6 p.m. every Sunday. From high-rise condominiums to humble abodes, House Hunters Asia follows prospective buyers across Asia as they navigate the sometimes rough-waters-of-buying real estate. The brand new series was filmed in Singapore and Malaysia, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what may be the biggest financial and emotional purchase of a person’s life – buying a new home. Home buyers together with their real estate agents tour three properties of varying styles and work through the quirks of buying real estate in Asia before deciding which fits their lifestyles and budgets best. Witness six home buyers, including married couple Vinamra and Shruthi from Singapore, who after years of renting, are looking to settle in a condominium with a large outdoor space for their young son. The show also features Sharul and Faeez from Malaysia, single male bachelors and firsttime home buyers, seeking a dream pad with good public transport connections and a stunning view of Kuala Lumpur city. “By developing an Asian edition of House Hunters, we have been able to cap-

ture authentic stories and reactions of Asian home buyers who are hunting for local property,” said Carl Zuzarte, senior vice president, Programming and Production of Scripps Networks Interactive, AsiaPacific. “We were also able to narrate how some decisions to buy a new home were driven by certain regulatory considerations like HDB flats in Singapore or culturally sensitive factors such as Feng Shui.” Bjorn Sprengers, chief marketing officer of PropertyGuru Group said, “We are really excited to partner with HGTV Asia for their first original production because we share the same commitment - to help individuals and families find a home to live, to love and to grow in. Through House Hunters Asia, we are proud to show how PropertyGuru is an integral part of the home buying journey and together with HGTV Asia, inspire property seekers to realise that the right home is within their reach.” In line with the program premiere, HGTV will also stream ‘live’ the pilot episode of House Hunters Asia on its website (www.hgtvasia.com/househuntersasia). HGTV is seen on Cignal Ch 101, Destiny Cable Ch 88 and SkyCable Ch 88 (SD) or Ch 246 (HD).

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ISAH V. RED EDITOR

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mORE ADVENTURES FOR STAR’S ‘WHEELS’ TEAm

ummer is almost over. But The Philippine Star’s formidable team of motoring journalists are not declaring it over just yet. In this week’s episode of Wheels, the team goes on adventures here and abroad with some of the newest and coolest rides. Matteo Guidicelli tries his hand in car photography with the help of master lensman Mikko David. The actor will learn some nifty tricks in framing, angling, lighting and shooting straight from the expert, just in time for the next car show in town. Meanwhile, Angel Rivero and Ulysses Ang take the all-new

matteo Guidicelli with master lensman mikko David

Toyota Fortuner, Innova, and Hilux to the picturesque paradise of El Nido, Palawan. Find out how this trio of Toyota’s

Actor and car racer matteo Guidicelli tries car photography in the latest episode of “Wheels”

flagship vehicles blend smoothly and perform sturdily in El Nido’s laid-back landscape. Not to be outdone, Kap Mace-

JaDine turns up heat It would not come as a surprise if on April 30 was the hottest day in Philippine history. The heat index certainly shot up when Avon, the number one direct selling company in the Philippines, and the country’s no.1 love team of James Reid and Nadine Lustre declared April 30 as Avon Feelin Fresh National Kili-Kilig Day. Avon Feelin Fresh deodorant kept everyone confidently fresh despite the scorching heat of the sun, as fans enjoyed various games, activities and freebies leading to the concert area – all for free. From basketball, to karaoke, to dance and to photo booths, the Dry Pore Technology

of Feelin Fresh empowered guests with confidence all throughout the day. The No Sweat, You Bet Dance Contest showcased the hippest dance moves of youth groups. The competition was capped by Zeus Collins engaging the crowd with his dynamic dance routines. JaDine was warmly welcomed by the ecstatic crowd with cheers and banners. The love team serenaded the fans with songs that reminded guests of what a true summer love is – young, sweet and confidently fresh! James and Nadine happily portray a true showbiz fairytale, a love that goes beyond the movie set.

Couple James Reid and Nadine Lustre, otherwise known as JaDine, at Avon’s Avon Feelin Fresh National Kili-Kilig Day event

cROsswORD puzzlE

answer PreVIOUs PUZZLe

ACROSS 1 Copacetic 5 Twinge 9 Hoarfrost 13 Bedroom community 15 Indiana neighbor 16 PC system 17 More tender 18 End of the earth 19 Jostle 20 Blast maker

21 Slick 23 Boom box sound 25 “Lonely Boy” composer 26 Disparaged 27 Treadmill user 30 Liquid meas. 31 Avoid a big wedding 32 Wrapped up 37 Loughlin or Petty 38 Lewis’ exploring

partner 40 Cougar’s pad 41 Leave work (2 wds.) 43 Oft-quoted catcher 44 Formic acid producer 45 Frozen dessert 47 Busy 50 Put out heat 51 Sniff the air? 52 Familiar auth. 53 Wash against, as waves 56 Slap on hastily 57 Ties up the phone 59 Soul food 61 Nesting place 62 Adams or Brickell 63 Weighs, as evidence 64 Glimpse 65 Oxford tutors 66 Pit DOWN 1 Wisecrack 2 Nerve part 3 — Vonnegut Jr. 4 Prior to 5 Pulp tree 6 Popeye’s shout 7 Nothing at all 8 Returns (2 wds.) 9 Naive rustics

Avon Philippines’ Director for Marketing Jean Reyes shares, “We just can’t help but fall in love with the sizzling kili-kilig chemistry of James and Nadine. And with the heat of the summer, you’ve got to make sure you’re confidently fresh 24/7. Take it from JaDine, for ultimate confidence and a perfect day’s charm, pair up your daily adventures with the Philippines’ number one roll-on deodorant – Avon Feelin Fresh.” Want to feel fresh everyday like JaDine? Enjoy confidence in a bottle by contacting your Avon Representative now, or order online at www.avonshop.ph to enjoy convenient online shopping and free shipping straight to your doorstep. Want to order on-the-go? Download the Avon Brochure application from the Google Play or Apple Store to start browsing our latest brochure today! The Avon Brochure app will connect you to a nearby Representative, so you can enjoy personalized service! Don’t forget to share your confidently fresh experience online using the hashtags #KiliKilig and #FeelinFreshwithJaDine, and follow Avon Philippines on Facebook and AvonPH on Instagram and Twitter.

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2016

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Toughen up Played charades World’s fair Eyre’s creator Likable prez? Bend an ear Meat jelly Petri-dish goop SOS response Baseball family name Eve’s opposite Butter serving On the qui vive Duds Dublin’s land Heck! Transported Minstrel’s instrument Gardener’s dread Earthlings and ETs Knows intuitively Insurance gp. Diarist — Nin Gullible person Cat, informally Still Quite similar DNA context Business letter abbr. Furtive whisper Turmoil Disposed of

da-Aguila channeled his inner Tomb Raider in Cambodia with the Porsche Macan. Watch as he explores the Macan’s perfor-

mance, features and design, and give his verdict about this suave sports car from the German automaker. And finally, Uly goes on a double adventure in this episode. After El Nido, he’ll go behind the wheel of some of Mazda’s newest diesel vehicles to see if they’re up to his standards. Wheels is your guide to life on the fast lane. Catch it Thursdays, 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 and PhilStarTV_wheels on Twitter and Instagram.

iphOTO

IMMAp Digicon2016 launch Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the Internet and mobile marketing Association of the Philippines (ImmAP), the country’s premier organization of digital marketing professionals launched recently its digital congress. Titled “ImmAP DigiCon 2016: The Power of X”, the congress will be held Oct. 1012 at Philippine Interantional Convention Center. At the ImmAP DigiCon launch were (from left) Ed mapa, Jr., ImmAP Vice President & CEO of Digital Arts Network manila/TWBA SmP; margot Torres, ImmAP President and Executive Vice President & Deputy managing Director of mcDonald’s Philippines; and Donald Lim, ImmAP Founding President and Overall Chairman of the ImmAP DigiCon, and Chief Digital Officer of ABS-CBN Corporation. For more information and registration details, go to www.immap.com. ph or www.powerofx.ph. Or visit also ImmAP’s social media accounts; Facebook page, www.facebook.com/immapPH/ and Twitter, @immapPH.

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ISAH V. RED EDITOR

Lubao Pampanga’s Pradera Verde, a world-class wakepark put up for enthusiasts looking for a place just a couple of hours away from metro manila

NEw DESTINATIoN FoR wAkEboARDING ENTHUSIASTS

ove over CWC, hello Pradera Verde. In Central Luzon, specifically in Lubao, Pampanga, a world-class wakepark has been put up for enthusiasts looking for a place just a couple of hours away from Metro Manila. It is in a 400-hectare estate in barangay Prado several kilometers off the poblacion of Lubao. If you’re driving to Bataan or Zambales you wouldn’t miss the big signage along the San Fernando- Olongapo highway that welcomes visitors to the wakepark. We met reelected Governor Lilia Pineda for breakfast at the ViewDeck Restaurant that overlooks the wakeboarding lagoon last weekend. She said that the wakepark is the first among several other developments in the resort plus the villas for visitors who want to stay overnight or more days. The bungalow-type villas can accommodate six or more persons. Each has a kitchen and two bathrooms. The master’s bedroom has king-size bed and another single bed with a wi-fi modem, a large flat TV monitor and cable HD digibox. The same

members of the Society of Entertainment Editors (SPEED) with Lubao reelected governor Lilia Pineda (fifth from right, standing)

mayor mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab (fifth from right, top row) with the officers and members of SPEED

amenities are also found in the adjacent room good for three to five individuals. Gov. Pineda said Chef Paulo Nasol (an alumnus of Enderun in MacKinley Heights) is overseeing kitchen operations and at the same time officer-in-charge of the wake park. Mayor Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab, daughter of the Governor, also helps in managing the resort along with her brother Dennis.

nor Pineda told members of the Society of Entertainment Editors (SPEED) that visited the place. “When they are both operational, visitors who are not wakeboard enthusiasts can spend time in the wave pool, maybe learn how to surf or jus enjoy the water.” The governor said that the water in the lagoon is spring water. “When the workers were digging for the lagoon to be in place, they discovered there is

Most recently, the resort was in the news as it hosted the 2016 International Hot Air Balloon Festival set from April 11 to 14. That Sunday when we were there, there was a triathlon competition, making the wakeboarding lagoon unavailable to enthusiasts, although the two practice lagoons remained open. Two wave pools are under construction. “They will be the new attraction in the estate,” Gover-

water beneath. Also, to make sure the water is clean, we make sure it is not stagnant.” On the west side of the estate, an 18-hole golf course is now in place. When completed it will be a 36-hole course designed, we were told, by a professional Malaysian player. More developments are in the pipeline, said Mayor Mylyn, “We will let you know and invite you once they are already in place.

New York Asian Film Urbandub’s ‘Endless’ revisited Festival honors Therese ‘Teri’ malvar

GMA Artist Center teen star Therese ‘Teri’ Malvar is one of this year’s recipients of the Screen International Rising Star Asia award at the 15th New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF). The award-winning actress was recognized for her remarkable portrayal of “daring roles that have expanded the range of contemporary Philippines’ cinema.” These include her critically ac-

Rising singing star and GmA Artist Center teen star Therese ‘Teri’ malvar

claimed performances in Sigrid Andrea Bernardo’s lesbian movie Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita and Ralston Jovers drama about juvenile delinquents titled Hamog, which previously gave the talented Kapuso artist best actress awards from local award-giving bodies. Teri feels honored to be one of the awardees at the NYAFF as well as to represent the Philippines in the prestigious film festival. She will receive her award during the festival in New York. “I would like to thank the New York Asian Film Festival for believing in me. This recognition will continue to fire-up my passion in acting and be a game-changer in this industry. Mabuhay ang talentong Pilipino,” she said. This year marks the third Screen International Rising Star Asia award at NYAFF. The award aims to bring Asia’s outstanding new talents to international attention. Other recipients this year are Japan’s Go Ayano and China’s Jelly Lin.

It has been exactly one year since the original line-up of Urbandub performed on stage together in one of the most successful rock concert of that year. Ironically, it also marked an end to one of OPM’s most iconic rock acts. The farewell concert of Urbandub entitled Endless on May 9, 2015 was a sure success with thousands of “dubistas” filling the venue to the brim. After the definite hiatus of the band both Gabby and John has been busy doing their own individual projects. Gabby has been busy running his own production team called “Nemesis Productions” managing fresh and upcoming bands on the indie scene, while also balancing his after tattoo care product called “Dark Matter Artisan Soap.” John is also busy with his new band Cables and Space, which he is fronting, and while also managing his own clothing brand called Pinnacle Clothing Shop. Both of the guys have been really busy expanding their expertise into different ventures both inside and outside the music scene.

Urbandub’s Gabby Alipe and John Dinopol

Earlier this year MCA Music released their much-anticipated DVD entitled Endless that features the band’s final concert at Metro Tent with the same title. The DVD also features a documentary of the band’s history. It can be considered as the best memento for the fans because of all the exclusive content and top notch production. After a year Gabby and John are back to give the “Dubistas” what they have been clamoring for, Urbandub Endless Rev-

isted, The Concert, an up close and personal show that will feature special acoustic version of Urbandub songs on May 27, 8 p.m., Friday at the Music Museum. Endless Revisted will also feature the best new bands from the indie scene, Autotelic and Sirens. You can get a ticket by calling Ticketworld at 891-9999 or Music Museum at 7216726. Urbandub’s Endless DVD under MCA Music will also be available at the venue.

t HuR S DAy : m Ay 19, 2016

ISAH V. RED EDITOR NICKIE WANG WRITER

isahred @ gmail.com

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French dancers and acrobats Kevin troussart and Vania D’Angelo star in “Chrysalis,” a visual and poetic performance about attractions in an intimate relationship

‘ChRySalIS’ In ManIla

ISAH V. RED

all rats recently had a glimpse of Chrysalis, a theatrical street performance by two French artists at the SM Aura Premier Sky Park and entrance. A joint partnership between Alliance Francaise de Manille and SM Aura Premier, the project aims to promote French artistry in celebration of the International Francophonie Day. The International Francophonie Day is an annual weeklong celebration of the anniversary of the birth of the Intergovernmental Francophonie cooperation. Francophonie is the term used to refer to all people and countries speaking the French language, and Francophonie Day celebrates the French language and the values of the French speaking countries around the world. It was French geographer Onesime Reclus first used the term Francophone in 1880. Chrysalis is a theatrical street performance directed by Jordi L. Vidal, a Catalan choreographer and stage director. Vidal’s creative horizon reaches further than the world of dance and theater, including chamber music ensembles, circus and street theater companies, video creations, and art installations. Real life couple Kevin Troussart and Vania D’Angelo, who are both acrobats and dancers, are the Chrysalis performers. Chrysalis follows the story of a highly emotional couple, who perform using a rope, which symbolizes the many aspects of life, particularly in relationship. It shows the ups and downs of a relationship- starting on how it begins, from courtship, to getting married, as well as the struggles and emotional challenges of love. The 20-minute performance wowed the shoppers of SM Aura Premier as this

French performance artists Kevin troussart and Vania D’Angelo bring their street theatrical act, “Chrysalis,” to Sm Aura Premier in time for the International Francophone celebrations

is something that is not seen frequently in the Philippines. The Chrysalis performance is one of the many enriching cross-cultural events at SM Aura Premier. Catch The Magic of Soul On May 26, at 8 p.m., Resorts World Manila’s Newport Performing Arts Theater pays homage to the infectious sounds of ‘60s and ‘70s Motown through The Magic of Soul. On tour from London, the energetic seven-piece tribute group The Magic of Soul comes to Manila for a two-hour, one-night only performance that promises to get audiences grooving from hit to hit. From the classics of The Jackson 5, Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Isley Brothers and other soul greats, The Magic of Soul revisits the golden era in music when Motown hits dominated the charts while redefining rhythm and blues. The performance features the stellar voices of London cast Curtis Lee Scott, Leanne Sandy, Christian Jules, Angela Hurst, Derek Aidoo, Renese Thomas, and André Clements plus 20

costume changes that will provide audiences with an awesome visual spectacle. On board for the one-of-a-kind musical cel-

ebration is prolific Filipino stage director Freddie Santos and the nine-piece accompaniment of the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Rodel Colmenar. “Don’t go alone because you’re going to want to celebrate the music and the magic that soul has joyously shared with the world for the past five decades,” advised Santos. The Magic of Soul is presented by Resorts World Manila in cooperation with Ultimate Shows, Inc. Tickets to The Magic of Soul are now available at the Resorts World Manila Box Office at the ground floor of Newport Mall and all TicketWorld outlets. RWM members may get tickets using points earned until May 26. Points will be deducted as follows: Bronze 400, Silver 500, Gold 600, VIP 700 and SVIP 800. Terms and conditions apply. Visit www.rwmanila.com or call (632) 908-8000 loc. 7700 or (632) 891-9999. and conditions apply. Visit www.rwmanila.com or call (632) 908-8000 loc. 7700 or (632) 891-9999.

tribute band the magic of Soul relives thesounds of ‘60s and ‘70s motown through a concert at Resorts World manila on may 26