The Standard - 2016 July 3 - Sunday

VOL. XXX NO. 141 3 Sections 24 Pages P18 SUNDAY : JULY 3, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

CHA-CHA

BY WAY OF CON-CON SOUGHT

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MORO DEALS UP FOR UNIFICATION Dureza: New law must be consistent with reforms

By John Paolo Bencito

THE new administration is looking at the possibility of crafting a new law consolidating the peace agreements forged with Moro separatist rebels to make them more consistent with planned constitutional reforms, the top government peace negotiator said Saturday.

“We are committed to these peace agreements that have been signed but they have to be consistent with the planned constitutional and legal reforms we will implement,” presidential peace process adviser Secretary Jesus Dureza said in an interview with state radio dzRB. “[President Rodrigo Duterte] has said we will implement all peace agreements. That includes the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro that we signed with the [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement that we signed with the Moro National Liberation Front,” he said.

“We will also look at the other Moro leaders that have to be considered,” Dureza said, adding that while the Moro separatist movement has many factions, they decided to come together at the start of the Duterte administration.

“The President was glad the leaderships of different Bangsamoro groups came and expressed to him their willingness to come together and unify,” he added.

“So what is emerging is that we will have one law that we will try and converge on, but what is really important is that our Moro brothCHANGE OF COMMAND. Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo Visaya (seated) witnesses the change of command of the Presidential Security Group from ers get together as one,” Dureza Rear Admiral Raul Ubando (right) to Lt. Gen. Joselito Bautista during ceremonies held at the PSG headquarters in Manila. Story on A3. MALACAÑANG PHOTO

SWISS MISS MAKES AN IMPACT

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Visaya vows relentless campaign vs terror

By John Paolo Bencito NEW Armed Forces of the Philippines chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Ricardo Visaya vowed to focus unrelenting pressure against the Abu Sayyaf Group and its allied terrorist cells as troops recovered the body of the Canadian man the group beheaded last June 13.

“We will be unrelenting in our focused military operations against terrorist groups like the ASG and all its allied terrorist cells,” Visaya said as elements of Joint Task Group Sulu found the body of slain Canadian Robert Hall around 11:35 a.m. in Talipao, Sulu.

“We will realign military resources to their identified bailiwicks and

sanctuaries and apply our military strength to suppress them, hunt them down and finish them,” Visaya stressed.

“We will continue to apply the full force of the law 24/7 to go after these criminals and profit-seeking elements who operate under the guise of religious fervor and holy war,” he added.

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Major Filemon Tan, Western Mindanao Command spokesperson, said Hall’s decaying remains were brought to Jolo, Sulu for documentation before its turnover to Philippine National Police crime scene investigators.

Hall was beheaded by the ASG last June 13. His head was later recovered by civilians in front of the gate of the Jolo Cathedral.

Hall, together with John Ridsdel, Kjartan Sekkingstad and Marites Flor, was abducted last Sept. 21 at the Ocean View Resort in Barangay Camudmud, Samal City, Davao del Norte and was beheaded last June 13. His head was later found in front of the Jolo Cathedral.

Sekkingstad is the only remaining kidnap victim with the ASG as Flor was freed by her kidnappers last week.

The Western Mindanao Command decries the barbaric act of the ASG in beheading its captives which can be described as contrary to the Islamic teachings.

Meanwhile, Visaya change will be felt in the way the military conducts its internal and territorial security operations.

“We are now in the final push as we approach the culmination of Internal Peace and Security Plan ‘Bayanihan’ by the end of this year. By stroke of fate, this six-month duration also coincides with the beginning of a new era of change as we lay down the bedrock foundation for security and defense under the new administration,” he said during his assumption speech Friday.

“It is in this context that I set the direction of our force allowing our Commander-in-Chief’s paradigm shift in military operations,” Visaya said.

In a television interview, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana affirmed that there will be a “redirection” of the country’s defense priorities to address the most pressing matters, but the new administration will continue with the plan to modernize the AFP. Lorenzana said that the 15year AFP Modernization Plan that was previously laid out will continue “as planned” and “as scheduled” with the purchase of jets, warships and other assets that can be used for territorial defense.

“But there will be redirection,” Lorenzana told ABS-CBN News.

“The priority [of the President] is to fight criminality, and how Abu Sayyaf [can be rendered insignificant.] That’s very important kasi it’s giving us a bad name sa international community.”

He added that in line with the President’s marching orders, all contracts that have already been completed will be respected, and all projects in the pipeline without apparent problems will be approved after review.

After the top priority of ending the Abu Sayyaf, the second priority for the Armed Forces will be to help the Philippine National Police in its anti-illegal drugs and criminality campaign.

“Criminality, anti-crime, is covered by the police. But we will provide whatever troops they may need,” Lorenzana said.

NEWS

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GET THE CHA-CHA BALL ROLLING, SOLON URGES THE groundwork for amending the 1987 Constitution should start early because it will require a lot of study and debate, Davao City Congressman Karlo Alexei Nograles said Saturday as he supported a measure calling for Constitutional Convention to change the Charter.

Incumbent Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who is expected to lead the minority when the House of Representatives convenes on July 25, had no objections to the proposal and instead focussed on why economic provisions in the Constitution should be changed.

“It may sound very simple but changing a system of government is an arduous task. Going to the nittygritty of dividing our regions into federal states and creating new administrative positions would require long hours of serious deliberation,” Nograles said.

He said the proposed House Concurrent Resolution No. 1 calling for an elected convention to amend the Constitution, filed by incoming Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Friday, would already avoid debate on the method by which the Cha-Cha initiative would be carried out.

But Nograles also expects serious debates on whether the amendments should only cover provisions on the system of government or include contentious provisions on the economy, patrimony, national security and even term limits.

“We should expect intense debates on these issues which is why I believe that this early, we should already start the ball rolling,” he pointed out.

The Davao solon said that he will definitely co-author the Alvarez proposal and work with the incoming speaker in ensuring that this will be approved in Congress at the soonest possible time.

“We should work immediately on this Cha-Cha proposal although we can simultaneously focus on other proposals that are part of President Duterte’s legislative agenda,” Nograles said.

Belmonte, on the other hand, posed no objection to the Con-Con proposal and instead focused on restrictive eco-

nomic provisions in the 1987 Constitution which hampers the flow of foreign capital into the country.

“In order to realize the full benefit of inclusive growth, the restrictive economic provisions in the Philippine Constitution, which hamper the flow of foreign capital investments, must be lifted,” said Belmonte in filing Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 2.

Belmonte said statistics show that despite the economic growth, poverty incidence remained constant for the past six years, thus the need to urgently address the issue.

“The mandate given to current leaders who advocated for change signifies renewed trust in the government and immense optimism in its ability and commitment to bring about improvement in the quality of life of Filipinos.

He further said the trust reposed by the people upon the country’s leaders has encouraged more investments, which have led to economic growth, earning for the country the reputation as the fastest-growing economy in Asia.

“Growing global interest in Asia provides an opportunity for the Philippines to compete for more investments,” said Belmonte.

Under Belmonte’s proposal, the constitutional amendments will be done by the Senate and the House of Representatives, by a vote of threefourths of all its members, each House voting separately, and pursuant to Article XVII of the Constitution, to propose amendments to Articles XII, XIV and XVI of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines.

Belmonte’s resolution seeks to insert the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” to several sections of the Constitution which restrict foreign ownership of land, natural resources, public utilities, media, and advertis-

MORO...

[through BBL],” he added.

The BBL, borne of the peace agreement the government signed with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2014, seeks “to establish the new Bangsamoro political entity and provide for its basic structure of government, in recognition of the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people.”

The BBL seeks the creation of a new autonomous region that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the entity created after the government reached a peace deal with Misuari’s MNLF. The BBL, however, failed to get enacted into law during the 16th Congress because of questions on the legality of some provisions.

Offering federalism as an alternative, Duterte repeatedly said his federalism proposal will address injustices, such as unequal distribution of wealth in Mindanao by allowing regions to keep most of their income, which could be used to develop poor areas.

Duterte believes that Moro rebels may like the idea of federalism as long as key aspects of the BBL are

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said. “We’ve already made a good start when they expressed to President Duterte their intention to come together.”

Dureza said he is planning to go to Cotabato City next week to meet with stakeholders and formulate a roadmap to peace.

But MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim said Duterte plan to amend the 1987 Constitution to shift to a federal form of government may not be the solution to the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people.

“We say that federalization per se may solve the general problem of the country, but we feel that it may or may not solve the specific problem in the Bangsamoro homeland,” Murad said.

“We will still push for the continuity of peace process and then the implementation [of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro], because the negotiation has already ended. It’s a matter of implementation of the agreement

ing.

Specifically, these parts of the Constitution are: Sections 2, 3, 7, 10 and 11 of Article XII pertaining to National Patrimony and Economy; Section IV of Article XIV pertaining to Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture, and Sports; and Section 11 of Article XVI pertaining to General Provisions.

The amendment to Paragraph 1, Section 2 of Article XII provides that “All lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated. The exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State.

The State may directly undertake such activities, or it may enter into co-production, joint venture, or production sharing agreements with Filipino citizens, or corporations or associations at least 60 per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens, unless otherwise provided by law.”

Meanwhile, the amendment to Paragraph 1, Section 3 of Art. XII provides that “Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural, forest or timber, mineral lands and national parks. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be further classified by law according to the uses to which they may be devoted. Alienable lands of the public domain shall be limited to agricultural lands. Private corporations or associations may not hold such alienable lands of the public domain except by lease, for a period not exceeding 25 years, renewable for not more than 25 years, and not to exceed 1,000 hectares in area, unless otherwise provided by law.”

As to the amendment to Section 7 of Article XII, it provides that “Save in cases of hereditary succession, unless otherwise provided by law, no private lands shall be transferred or conveyed except to individuals, corporations, or associations qualified to acquire or hold lands of the public domain.”

The amendment to Paragraph 1,

Section 10 of Article XII provides that “The Congress shall, upon recommendation of the economic and planning agency, when the national interest dictates, reserve to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens, or such higher percentage as Congress may prescribe, certain areas of investments, unless otherwise provided by law.”

The amendments to Section 11 of Article XII provides that “No franchise, certificate, or any other form of authorization for the operation of a public utility shall be granted except to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations or associations organized under the laws of the Philippines, at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens, unless otherwise provided by law; nor shall such franchise, certificate, or authorization be exclusive in character or for a longer period than fifty years.

Neither shall any such franchise or right be granted except under the condition that it shall be subject to amendment, alteration, or repeal by the Congress when the common good so requires. The State shall encourage equity participation in public utilities by the general public. Unless otherwise provided by law, the participation of foreign investors in the governing body of any public utility enterprise shall be limited to their proportionate share in its capital, and all the executive and managing officers of such corporation or association must be citizens of the Philippines.”

Meanwhile, the amendments to Paragraph 1, Section 4 of Article XIV provide that “Educational institutions, other than those established by religious groups and mission boards, shall be owned solely by citizens of the Philippines or corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of the capital of which is owned by such citizens, unless otherwise provided by law. The Congress may, however, require increased Filipino equity participation in all educational institutions. The control and administration of educational institutions shall be vested in citizens of the Philippines, unless otherwise provided by law.”

present and leaders of the MILF and the MNLF went to Davao City two weeks ago to express support for Duterte’s plan to shift to a federal form of government.

The MILF, however, warned against holding public consultations on the BBL because “any consultation asking the same people or repeating the same issues will only slow down, if not stifle, the legislative process.”

“More seriously, if those to be asked are those who harbor strong anti-Moro prejudices, biases, hatred, the outcome is already predicted,” the MILF said in a statement.

The government should instead “revisit or use the inputs of these consultations or hearings, in the case of Congress, to fast-track the legislative roadmap or process.”

The MILF said the peace process in the Duterte administration “should start from where they [authorities] stopped.”

MILF vice chairman Ghazali Jhaafar wants Duterte to first pass the BBL in Congress before shifting to a federal form of government because it would take time to legis-

late and thus dampen the hopes of Bangsamoro fighters.

Last June 29, the MNLF and MILF had signed a Joint Communique for Peace seeking to form a joint technical working group tasked with “finding common ground between the 1976 Tripoli Agreement/1996 FPA on the one hand, and the 2014 CAB on the other, as a means of harmonizing the two peace tracks.”

Murad considered the event as a demonstration of unity. “Despite the non-support of some groups, he stressed that the event “only strengthens the Moro’s steadfastness in their struggle for right to self-determination.”

In their joint communique, the two Moro groups said, “as they join together, they declared a cohesive stand on their efforts to regain their lost freedom and self-determination so that they will enjoy the blessings of peace, justice and development.”

“We come together with a unified action to work at common goals and objectives to engage with the new Philippine administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” both leaders said in their communique.

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NEWS

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RODY HEALTH PLAN LAUDED A GROUP of health workers on Saturday lauded President Rodrigo Duterte’s announced plan to allocate the earnings of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. for his administration’s health programs.

END CONTRACTUALIZATION. Manila Auxilliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo leads a protest against the prevailing practice of contractualization in front of the Department of Labor and Employment office in Intramuros, Manila. DANNY PATA

NEW HEAD OF PALACE SECURITY INSTALLED ARMED Forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Ricardo R. Visaya on Saturday called on the Presidential Security Group to remain steadfast in their sworn duties to secure and protect President Rodrigo Duterte, the First Family and Vice President Leni Robredo and her family.

Visaya presided over the changing of the guard at the PSG from Rear Admiral Raul Ubando to Colonel Rolando Joselito D. Bautista, both members of Philippine Military Academy Sandiwa Class ’85.

“I urge all of you to support your new commander. Extend your cooperation and exhibit your best performances you are known for. Ensure the safety of our key policymakers and decision makers,” Visaya said.

“They toil so much to arrive at crucial decisions to steer our country forward and build the nation. They as much deserve to be protected and secured to freely do their respective jobs. We owe it to them and to the people to guarantee their security and protection from threat and harm,” he said.

Visaya said that with the brand of service the new PSG commander is known for, he is confident that Bautista will be able to deliver his mandate.

As the new AFP chief of staff congratulated Ubando, who will assume a new post as Inspector General of the Philippine Navy, he said “the Philippines had the privilege to accommodate many important events in the course of the past two years. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2015, for instance, was a shining moment for the PSG.” “The defense unit endured and won against threats to the safety of 20 highlevel foreign leaders and around 10,000 other members of the delegation. From their cordial welcome to their safe sendoff, we credit the success of the two-day international conference to the competence, commitment and professionalism exhibited by every member of the PSG.” PNA

DROP RAPS VS ACTIVISTS, DOJ URGED

By John Paolo Bencito THE Department of Justice should withdraw the arrest warrants that the Aquino administration slapped against human rights activists who helped tribal folk in seeking shelter at a compound of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Davao last year.

Saying that the warrants filed against the 14 activists by Regional Trial Court-Branch 10 Presiding Judge Retrina Fuentes was “a bitter parting gift of the Aquino regime to some of its staunchest critics,” Bagong Alyansaing Makabayan secretary-general Renato Reyes urged new Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre to withdraw the cases.

“We call on the Department of Justice, the agency who conducted the preliminary investigation and who is now tasked to prosecute the case, to withdraw the trumped-up charges filed against the human rights defenders and to cease fur-

ther legal actions against the lumad supporters,” Reyes said.

The cases stemmed from the complaint filed by Cotabato Rep. Nancy Catamco last year who claimed the lumad refugees were being held at the UCCP Haran Complex against their will when the tribes folk were actually seeking refuge from military operations.

Despite Catamco insisting that the lumads return to their communities, they refused and defied her orders fearing for their safety following the alleged militarization of their villages in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

Catamco then accused the militant leaders of forcing the lumad to stay in Haran against their will, filing kidnapping and illegal detention cases.

Those included in the warrant issued last May 13 were 14 activists—Rev. Jaime of the UCCP-Haran, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan spokesperson Sheena Duazo, Karapatan-SMR secre-

tary-general Hanimay Suazo, Ryan Laniba, Tony Salubre, Jimboy Marciano, Mary Ann Sapar, Jaja Encosio, Pedro Arnado, Lumad leader Kerlan Fanagel, Catholic nun Stella Matutina, Restita Miles, Isidro Andao, child rights advocate Kharlo Manalo and Rius Valle.

It was only on June 28 that the accused learned of the existence of the warrants. No bail was recommended for the cases.

Reyes added that these attempts were possibly made up by the previous administration “to undermine the favorable climate for peace negotiations under a Duterte government.”

“It is a mockery of the legal system and an instrument of repression,” he added.

Last year, the lumads trekked all the way from Mindanao to Manila during the height of the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Manila to air their grievances to the government.

DRUG ENFORCERS. Outgoing Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director-general Arturo Cacdac turns over a banner of the agency to his successor Isidro Lapeña in a ceremony at the PDEA headquarters in Quezon City. MANNY PALMERO

“We are expressing hope na ang mga pronouncements ni Pangulong Duterte ay mag-luluwal ng meaningful change sa health care delivery system. It is a positive development na ilalaan nya ang pera ng Pagcor sa health,” said Alliance of Health Workers spokesperson Sean Herbert Velchez.

Velchez, a registered nurse, said that they were happy to hear that Duterte included health as one of his priority agenda and is making true to his promise that he made during the campaign period.

He added that new Health Secretary Dr. Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial should come out with a clear stand on people’s right to health to ensure that no form of “corporatization,” or privatization of healthcare will push through under her leadership.

“We challenge Secretary Ubial to stand for the people’s right to health and to trash all form of privatization of health care,” Velchez said, adding that it would be good if Ubial makes random visits to government hospitals to have clearer picture of their conditions.

“If she comes from the public health sector, she should know the plight of hopsitals under local government units. Some LGUs lack hospitals so many patients go to regional hospitals under the DoH even for simple cases, like child-birth,” he said.

He said that is one of the reasons why Fabella Hospital in Manila is preferred by many mothers and families who cannot afford the cost in lying-in clinics.

He further said that corporatization was something being feared because it could lead to a greater burden on the part of the patients and only those who could afford could pay the resulting high cost of health services.

Under the administration of former President Benigno S. Aquino III, public-private partnerships involving hospitals were planned but failed to push through after the government realized its impact on the poor.

As a result, the privatization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center and Philippine Children Medical Center was halted.

The fear on privatization of Fabella was also allayed by former Health Secretary Jeanette Garin before she stepped down and she made it clear that she wanted to be remembered as a Health secretary who exerted effort in controlling the privatization of government hospitals.

Garin even said in her last press briefing that government hospitals should not even be included in PPP projects.

According to Garin’s accomplishment report, the DoH spent P40.7 billion for Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) services in 2015, a leap from the P26.8 billion in 2014.

Spending for the Health Facilities Program was 32 percent higher than in 2014. Similar improvements in utilizing the budget was also seen in the Expanded Program on Immunization and Family Health and Responsible Parenting. P240 million was spent by the Commission on Population for their RPRH activities. PNA

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OPINION

CHANGE FROM THE INSIDE

By Megan McArdle

NOW that the Duterte administration has officially taken over, pronouncements made take on the character of policy, not just plans.

One such plan is to effect much needed changes in the New Bilibid Prison, the state penitentiary in Muntinlupa.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has some ideas on whom could best act as director of the Bureau of Corrections. He also believes members of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police should replace prison guards, albeit for a short period, to disrupt the culture of familiarity—and corruption—among the inmates and the officials tasked to rein them in.

We remember all too clearly the raids conducted by Justice Department officials on the prison compound during the previous administration. We were aghast that certain inmates enjoyed privileges—luxuries—despite their conviction and their final sentences. Some of the VIPs lived in their own “villas” and had access to communication devices, cash, weapons, drugs and women, among others. Some get special passes to leave the compound—negating the entire idea of corrective justice through deprivation of liberty.

In fact, the raids and the depravities unearthed in them were featured in a crime and law enforcement show that ran in Asia. Unfortunately, the impression left by the documentary was that order was restored and the privileges stopped after they were discovered.

We are aware, however, that after the initial surge of public disgust and token administrative changes, the culture seeped back into the prison system.

This brings us to where we are, now that President Rodrigo Duterte, nicknamed “The Punisher” by some news organizations, came to power.

After assurances that he knew the bounds of his position—a fact not quite apparent before—Duterte and his team now have the rest of us anticipating his next moves in restoring order in a flawed system, even as he struggles to strike a balance between achieving his purpose and still upholding the rights of others.

We expect to see a corrected correctional system under this administration.

AFTER BREXIT, THE REAL RISK IS EUROPE COULD FAIL which was supposed to bring more industrial specialization and economies of scale. A single currency, they hoped, would put an end to that game, bring low German interest rates to all and enable national governments to reduce deficit and debt levels, as enshrined in the Maastricht criteria.

But there would be a cost: Respecting these rules would create political pain as parts of the labor force were displaced.

That is where the 1985 Schengen Agreement came in. The pain of fiscal restraint and adjustment would be eased by promoting free movement. People might lose their jobs in Fiat, but they

Both the euro and Schengen are now on life support.

could go and work in the Ruhr.

The single market had already enshrined this freedom, but Schengen made it truly palpable

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FORGET THE WHITE HOUSE, DUMP TRUMP TO SAVE THE REST OF THE TICKET

[ EDI TORI A L ]

WHILE the short-term economic consequences of Brexit are not to be dismissed, it is the impending failure of the European project that should provoke the bigger sense of concern. The EU’s two biggest achievements since the establishment of the single market —the euro and border-free travel —are both under threat. These implosions would be a magnitude more painful than the British vote.

The two are closely linked.

European governments realized in the 1980s that competitive currency devaluations were hindering the single market,

EDITOR

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OPINION

By Jean-Michel Paul

ADELLE CHUA

by removing border controls.

Over time, cross-border trade, tourism and labor mobility increased markedly as a result.

The freedom to retire, go on holiday or study in another EU country created important political constituencies in support of Europe. As Eurobarometer polls consistently showed, borderfree travel was hugely popular.

Both the euro and Schengen are now on life support.

Schengen has been unravelling for a while, under the strain of uncontrolled immigration from outside Europe and from the threat of terrorist attacks.

Without Schengen, the European project loses a sense of common

destiny, an aura of plausibility and a great deal of the cachet it held, particularly for the young. It is no longer possible to have “just” freedom of movement without borderless travel as it will now feel to Europeans as if a crucial freedom has been taken away.

The potential demise of Schengen has undermined support for the EU as a whole, and that in turn has compounded the problems faced by the euro—recently described by the normally cryptic Alan Greenspan as vulnerable. Even that was an understatement.

The European Central Bank has been all but screaming that monetary policy alone can buy

time but not hold the unfinished euro zone together for ever. Germany, the ECB’s largest shareholder, has watched successive rounds of QE with concern.

Meanwhile, other euro zone economies have suffered under Germany’s large current account surplus, so large that the country received a warning from the US Treasury as a potential currency manipulator.

The high youth unemployment in southern countries and the lack of income on the savings of the elderly in Germany are a dangerous political

cocktail. Uncontrolled waves of migration have only enhanced the sense that countries need to, as the Brexiters had it, “take back control.”

Across Europe, political parties surfing of this wave of discontent are increasing in popularity and openly calling for an end to euro membership.

Strengthening both Schengen and the euro—or at least preventing their demise—is not impossible. Better control of external borders and more robust intelligence sharing would make borderfree travel safer and more defensible from

a security perspective. But, crucially, there will also have to be less generous social benefits for those who have not contributed to the system, something Denmark’s prime minister mooted on Thursday. That may be politically controversial, but it is possibly the only way to hold on to the social-democratic welfare models without creating an irrepressible appeal for poor migrants.

If it can’t fix its flagship projects, the EU will face far more upheaval than simply a British vote to leave.

Bloomberg

IS IT time to Dump Trump?

Long past, #NeverTrumpers would say. Many of them in my vicinity have been wistfully speculating on the means, from convention coup to publicspirited time travelers, by which Donald Trump might be removed from the top of the Republican ticket.

But the case for doing so has become stronger with three pieces of news. First, the revelation that he has, to a first approximation, done none of the things necessary to build a viable campaign, such as raising funds or hiring staff. Second, he is trailing Clinton so badly that his supporters have already resorted to the kind of poll “unskewing” rituals that are traditionally reserved for the first week of every fourth November. And third, Nate Silver has released his election forecast on his FiveThirtyEight blog, giving Trump just a 20-26 percent chance of winning the election.

So let us consider three questions: 1. Would the Republican Party be better off if they staged a coup at the convention and substituted another candidate?

2. Does the Republican Party have a moral right to stage such a coup?

3. Can the Republican Party manage to pull it off?

The answer to the first question is, I think, simply obviously “Yes.” Consider the magnitude of Trump’s campaigning incompetence. He is, at this late date, just learning basic political skills such as writing speeches down and reading them off a teleprompter, rather than blurting out whatever offensive slur or made-up factoid that happens to pop into his head while standing at the podium.

He has completely failed to master such basic political skills as phoning people up to ask them for money, or hiring professionals who know how to court donors and voters and get everyone out to the polls come election day. July of an election year is not the ideal month in which to commence these important learnings. Also, the things he said while he was in the “random blurting” stage have made many of the Republican Party’s professionals unwilling to work with him, either because they are personally offended, or because they are afraid that they’ll never be able to scrub the stain off their careers.

Other Republican politicians are keeping as much distance as they can. Leaving this man on top of the ticket in November will not only mean probably losing the presidency, but bring a downticket disaster for the party.

FiveThirtyEight is only forecasting the presidency so far, but their forecast matches the forecast of prediction markets, which also place the odds of Republicans losing the Senate at 60 percent, and losing the House at almost 20 percent.

In other words, if you believe the betting market, the chances that Hillary Clinton gets to be president with solid majorities in House and Senate are on par with Trump’s chance of getting to be president at all. And I think the odds of losing the House are probably understated.

While we tend to focus mostly on the presidency, a party is a much larger entity that needs to build a coalition to wield power—and for this reason, the fates of its members are strongly intertwined.

In a presidential election year, candidates for the House, Senate, and even local elections get a free ride on the presidential campaign efforts. People voting for your party’s presidential candidate will probably also vote for your party in the House and Senate.

Getting people to the polls is hard. This is not like a primary, where you need a relatively small number of highly motivated voters to come out and swing the election your way; this is the Big Game, where you need to get well north of 60 million folks into the ballot booth. By definition,

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S U N D AY, J U LY 3 , 2 0 1 6

A4

OPINION

CHANGE FROM THE INSIDE

By Megan McArdle

NOW that the Duterte administration has officially taken over, pronouncements made take on the character of policy, not just plans.

One such plan is to effect much needed changes in the New Bilibid Prison, the state penitentiary in Muntinlupa.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has some ideas on whom could best act as director of the Bureau of Corrections. He also believes members of the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police should replace prison guards, albeit for a short period, to disrupt the culture of familiarity—and corruption—among the inmates and the officials tasked to rein them in.

We remember all too clearly the raids conducted by Justice Department officials on the prison compound during the previous administration. We were aghast that certain inmates enjoyed privileges—luxuries—despite their conviction and their final sentences. Some of the VIPs lived in their own “villas” and had access to communication devices, cash, weapons, drugs and women, among others. Some get special passes to leave the compound—negating the entire idea of corrective justice through deprivation of liberty.

In fact, the raids and the depravities unearthed in them were featured in a crime and law enforcement show that ran in Asia. Unfortunately, the impression left by the documentary was that order was restored and the privileges stopped after they were discovered.

We are aware, however, that after the initial surge of public disgust and token administrative changes, the culture seeped back into the prison system.

This brings us to where we are, now that President Rodrigo Duterte, nicknamed “The Punisher” by some news organizations, came to power.

After assurances that he knew the bounds of his position—a fact not quite apparent before—Duterte and his team now have the rest of us anticipating his next moves in restoring order in a flawed system, even as he struggles to strike a balance between achieving his purpose and still upholding the rights of others.

We expect to see a corrected correctional system under this administration.

AFTER BREXIT, THE REAL RISK IS EUROPE COULD FAIL which was supposed to bring more industrial specialization and economies of scale. A single currency, they hoped, would put an end to that game, bring low German interest rates to all and enable national governments to reduce deficit and debt levels, as enshrined in the Maastricht criteria.

But there would be a cost: Respecting these rules would create political pain as parts of the labor force were displaced.

That is where the 1985 Schengen Agreement came in. The pain of fiscal restraint and adjustment would be eased by promoting free movement. People might lose their jobs in Fiat, but they

Both the euro and Schengen are now on life support.

could go and work in the Ruhr.

The single market had already enshrined this freedom, but Schengen made it truly palpable

A5

FORGET THE WHITE HOUSE, DUMP TRUMP TO SAVE THE REST OF THE TICKET

[ EDI TORI A L ]

WHILE the short-term economic consequences of Brexit are not to be dismissed, it is the impending failure of the European project that should provoke the bigger sense of concern. The EU’s two biggest achievements since the establishment of the single market —the euro and border-free travel —are both under threat. These implosions would be a magnitude more painful than the British vote.

The two are closely linked.

European governments realized in the 1980s that competitive currency devaluations were hindering the single market,

EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

OPINION

By Jean-Michel Paul

ADELLE CHUA

by removing border controls.

Over time, cross-border trade, tourism and labor mobility increased markedly as a result.

The freedom to retire, go on holiday or study in another EU country created important political constituencies in support of Europe. As Eurobarometer polls consistently showed, borderfree travel was hugely popular.

Both the euro and Schengen are now on life support.

Schengen has been unravelling for a while, under the strain of uncontrolled immigration from outside Europe and from the threat of terrorist attacks.

Without Schengen, the European project loses a sense of common

destiny, an aura of plausibility and a great deal of the cachet it held, particularly for the young. It is no longer possible to have “just” freedom of movement without borderless travel as it will now feel to Europeans as if a crucial freedom has been taken away.

The potential demise of Schengen has undermined support for the EU as a whole, and that in turn has compounded the problems faced by the euro—recently described by the normally cryptic Alan Greenspan as vulnerable. Even that was an understatement.

The European Central Bank has been all but screaming that monetary policy alone can buy

time but not hold the unfinished euro zone together for ever. Germany, the ECB’s largest shareholder, has watched successive rounds of QE with concern.

Meanwhile, other euro zone economies have suffered under Germany’s large current account surplus, so large that the country received a warning from the US Treasury as a potential currency manipulator.

The high youth unemployment in southern countries and the lack of income on the savings of the elderly in Germany are a dangerous political

cocktail. Uncontrolled waves of migration have only enhanced the sense that countries need to, as the Brexiters had it, “take back control.”

Across Europe, political parties surfing of this wave of discontent are increasing in popularity and openly calling for an end to euro membership.

Strengthening both Schengen and the euro—or at least preventing their demise—is not impossible. Better control of external borders and more robust intelligence sharing would make borderfree travel safer and more defensible from

a security perspective. But, crucially, there will also have to be less generous social benefits for those who have not contributed to the system, something Denmark’s prime minister mooted on Thursday. That may be politically controversial, but it is possibly the only way to hold on to the social-democratic welfare models without creating an irrepressible appeal for poor migrants.

If it can’t fix its flagship projects, the EU will face far more upheaval than simply a British vote to leave.

Bloomberg

IS IT time to Dump Trump?

Long past, #NeverTrumpers would say. Many of them in my vicinity have been wistfully speculating on the means, from convention coup to publicspirited time travelers, by which Donald Trump might be removed from the top of the Republican ticket.

But the case for doing so has become stronger with three pieces of news. First, the revelation that he has, to a first approximation, done none of the things necessary to build a viable campaign, such as raising funds or hiring staff. Second, he is trailing Clinton so badly that his supporters have already resorted to the kind of poll “unskewing” rituals that are traditionally reserved for the first week of every fourth November. And third, Nate Silver has released his election forecast on his FiveThirtyEight blog, giving Trump just a 20-26 percent chance of winning the election.

So let us consider three questions: 1. Would the Republican Party be better off if they staged a coup at the convention and substituted another candidate?

2. Does the Republican Party have a moral right to stage such a coup?

3. Can the Republican Party manage to pull it off?

The answer to the first question is, I think, simply obviously “Yes.” Consider the magnitude of Trump’s campaigning incompetence. He is, at this late date, just learning basic political skills such as writing speeches down and reading them off a teleprompter, rather than blurting out whatever offensive slur or made-up factoid that happens to pop into his head while standing at the podium.

He has completely failed to master such basic political skills as phoning people up to ask them for money, or hiring professionals who know how to court donors and voters and get everyone out to the polls come election day. July of an election year is not the ideal month in which to commence these important learnings. Also, the things he said while he was in the “random blurting” stage have made many of the Republican Party’s professionals unwilling to work with him, either because they are personally offended, or because they are afraid that they’ll never be able to scrub the stain off their careers.

Other Republican politicians are keeping as much distance as they can. Leaving this man on top of the ticket in November will not only mean probably losing the presidency, but bring a downticket disaster for the party.

FiveThirtyEight is only forecasting the presidency so far, but their forecast matches the forecast of prediction markets, which also place the odds of Republicans losing the Senate at 60 percent, and losing the House at almost 20 percent.

In other words, if you believe the betting market, the chances that Hillary Clinton gets to be president with solid majorities in House and Senate are on par with Trump’s chance of getting to be president at all. And I think the odds of losing the House are probably understated.

While we tend to focus mostly on the presidency, a party is a much larger entity that needs to build a coalition to wield power—and for this reason, the fates of its members are strongly intertwined.

In a presidential election year, candidates for the House, Senate, and even local elections get a free ride on the presidential campaign efforts. People voting for your party’s presidential candidate will probably also vote for your party in the House and Senate.

Getting people to the polls is hard. This is not like a primary, where you need a relatively small number of highly motivated voters to come out and swing the election your way; this is the Big Game, where you need to get well north of 60 million folks into the ballot booth. By definition,

Continued on A6

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OPINION

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

THE LAST NAZI TRIALS

Ex-Auschwitz guard Reinhold Hanning, 94, tells court, ‘I am truly sorry.’ AFP

By Coralie Febvre DETMOLD, Germany—“A semblance of justice.” The four words fall like thunder in the courtroom, where a judge has just used them to describe her verdict. “There is no adequate sentence for such atrocious actions,” Judge Anke Grudda says in a clear voice amid the tense silence.

The court in this western German city has just sentenced 94-year-old Reinhold Hanning to five years in prison. The former SS officer has been convicted of contributing to the murder of at least 170,000 men, women and children during his two and a half years at the Auschwitz death camp.

He walked into the courtroom for the start of his trial in February but listens to the verdict in a wheelchair. His trial, as well as that of Oskar Groening, known as the “bookkeeper” of Auschwitz who was sentenced in July 2015 to four years in prison for his role in the death of 300,000 Hungarian Jews, are likely to be the last of the Nazi trials.

The two trials had an air of contradiction.

In Lunenburg and Detmold, judges handed out sentences that are unlikely to be served in full. The justice system recognized the guilt of the few cogs of the Nazi machine, but most of them have long gone. Old men were put on trial, 70 years after the death camps were liberated, while their bosses had been left alone for years.

Out of the 6,500 Auschwitz guards who had survived the war, less than 50 have been sentenced. A pathetic statistic that German justice is trying to belatedly set right.

The paucity of debate on this subject in Germany is striking. Judges here have long held that justice for the Holocaust must be carried out to the end. But this determination at times results in uneasy images.

Like when a court last year ruled that 95-year-old Hubert Zafke was

“not totally inept to appear” in the courtroom. Or when 93-year-old Ernst Tremmel died a week before he was to be judged—under juvenile law because of his age at the time of the acts. Or when 90-year-old John Demjanjuk was convicted in Munich in 2011, a mute drooling in his chair.

Demjanjuk’s trial was a turning point in the Nazi trials, as the former Sobibor guard was convicted without prosecutors having proved that he actually killed anyone. In previous trials, starting with the Nuremberg trials of 1945, prosecutors had to prove the defendant’s direct involvement in atrocities. But since Demjanjuk’s trial (he died pending appeal), it has been sufficient to prosecute someone for being a cog in the machine.

The Nazi trials of the past several years have been a race against time— both the accused and the victims are octogenarians and higher. Much of the testimony of these trials consists of survivors recounting their tales, the most heart-wrenching accounts that I have ever heard. But for the most part, they do not mention the accused, because most victims don’t remember having seen them in the camps. In the immensity that was Auschwitz, the SS guards rest a mass of black and green-gray uniforms, not men that survivors remember.

“Do you have any good memories of any SS guards? Did some behave better than others?” the judge asks the first survivor witness during the Hanning trial.

“I have to say no. I don’t have any memories like that. I lived in constant terror,” answers 95-year-old Leon Schwarzbaum, who lost 35 members of his family in the Holocaust.

The prosecution files in these trials are surprisingly small—during the Groening trial, the evidence of the destruction of 300,000 lives in two months fit into three plastic crates. That’s less than your average organized crime trial, during which

The Standard columnist Emil Jurado receives the Rotary Club of Manila Special Journalism Award from RCM chairman Babe Romualdez. MANNY PALMERO

the prosecution produces tomes and tomes of evidence. Contrary to the first Nazi trials, establishing the facts of the Holocaust is no longer a requirement, as historians have documented the horrors. The testimonies of both the accused and the victims do not diverge when they describe what happened in the death camps. They may differ on the perspective, but they are in agreement on the brutality of the acts —the disappearance within seconds of loved ones in the gas chambers, after a doctor decided they weren’t fit enough for work or other purposes.

Every story you heard at these trials was different. My colleague Hui Min Neo poignantly told the story of Angela Orosz, a petite woman who came from Canada to testify. She was born in Auschwitz and was one of the few babies to have survived the camp, saved by her mother and a handful of her co-detainees.

To hear descriptions of the camps from victims is heart-wrenching.

To hear them from the jailers is disconcerting to say the least. Hanning wrote a 25-page confession in which he speaks both of the smell of the crematoriums and the deplorable “lack of camaraderie” among the soldiers.

Groening is different. Haunted

by Auschwitz since his retirement 30 years ago, he didn’t wait for the justice system to catch up to him. He has written a memoir, participated in documentaries and books, has endured threats and insults and opened his door to journalists several months before his trial.

“Are you ready to answer,” the judge asked him during his trial, reminding him that he had a right to remain silent.

“As long as I can,” came the reply.

He gulped his bottle of water in one go—“Like vodka in Auschwitz”—and plunged into an incredibly detailed and dense testimony. He was at turns prosaic and terrifying, at times showing what seemed like sincere repentance and then saying things that revealed just how deeply Nazi propaganda had infiltrated his thoughts.

Like many of the accused before him, he could have said that it was impossible not to follow orders in a dictatorship. But Groening didn’t hide that he was “euphoric” in the first hours of the war, and that he then joined the project to kill “the enemies of the German people.” You realized the extent of his indoctrination when he spoke of the Holocaust as the “war effort” or when he described the “routine” preparations for exterminate Hungarian Jews.

Throughout these two trials, the public benches were always filled, even when those for the press emptied as the days dragged on.

There were the relatives of the victims and just observers, equally divided between men and women, many university and high school students among them. Looking at their tense faces and eyes red from tears of some, I got the impression that they will not forget. AFP

FORGET... From A5 the last 10 million or so are going to be the ones who aren’t that interested in politics, and need a little push to get them to take the time out of their day. That’s why candidates spend so much time building up their get-outthe-vote operations.

Trump so far has shown no signs of developing either the money or the campaign infrastructure to mount the kind of operation that the typical Republican presidential candidate would put on, which helps shore up down-ticket races even when the candidate loses (as Mitt Romney did in 2012). We’re looking at potentially the first race in modern electoral history where one side has a competent, well-funded presidential campaign moving voters to the polls, and the other one has Donald Trump trying to do it all with free media and Trumpbranded merchandise that doubles

as advertising for his business. So unless something changes, the polls and models are probably overstating his actual performance, with horrific potential results for Senate and House candidates in competitive races.

Trump supporters might justly protest that he won the nomination fair and square, and the party has no right to rob him of his due. I’ve thought long and hard about this. But overall, I think the party does have the moral right to remove Trump.

Even if dumping Trump causes some of his supporters to stay home, getting someone else to lead the ticket would at least enable the party to raise the funds and staff a campaign that could help other Republican candidates. And of course, some of the losses would be made up by recovering #NeverTrump voters. The object at this point is not to win the presidency; it’s to keep from losing everything else. Bloomberg

OUTRUNNING DEATH

By Ted Aljibe I WAS young and about to get married when I came face to face with death 25 years ago. Death was a huge, grey, cauliflower-shaped cloud that hurtled down the flank of Mount Pinatubo at the speed of a jet plane and to a thundering sound, as if hundreds of horses were galloping down the slopes.

To this day, I do not fully understand how I survived.

The cauliflower was the cloud of hot gas and rock from Mount Pinatubo, a volcano in the northern Philippines that, after months of rumbling, spectacularly exploded on June 15, 1991, in the second-largest eruption of the last century that killed more than 1,000 people and spewed so much ash and gas into the air that it lowered temperatures across the globe for several years.

I was a photographer for a Manilabased Japanese news outfit at the time and was in the area with a handful of fellow journalists—Pinatubo had been spewing ash into the sky for weeks, scientists were predicting an eruption, and so we had come to document it.

Although predicted, the eruption, or rather its direction, caught us by surprise and we fled the only way we could—trying to outrun in three vans the cloud of ash chasing us down the slopes. The vans were going at full speed, but compared to the cloud, they felt like they were being drawn by oxen. The moment was preserved in a photograph I took from the rattling rear door of one of the vehicles, showing the giant cloud just behind the other vehicles, looking as if it were about to engulf them.

The 1,000-degree Celsius cloud burned the air and lightning and fire flashed inside, turning everything in its path to ash. Inside the van, I panicked, pulling off my shirt and covering my head with it. The others laughed at me. “Ted, what are you doing? As if it would protect you from this…”

I kept muttering, “I’m going to die, I’m going to die.” “Shut up!” one of my colleagues shouted at me.

I thought this was it, my end.

Thoughts raced within my shirtcovered head: “Oh God, my parents, brothers, sister… and my future wife, what will happen to them, if I die.”

Eventually I told myself, “If it’s my end, so be it” and quieted down.

Pinatubo, around a hundred kilometers north of Manila, had been active for several months and I had taken two trips to the mountain to photograph government scientists at their observation post, accessible via an hour-long hike amid lush green tropical vegetation.

By early June, the hamlets on Pinatubo’s west flank had become ghost towns, forcibly evacuated by the government after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, also known as Phivolcs, declared a “danger zone” within a 10-kilometer radius from the summit.

After Phivolcs predicted an eruption within days, we returned to

the area on June 13.

At daybreak on June 15, hours before the eruption, local television reporter Charie Villa told my group of photographers that the Phivolcs people had told her an eruption the previous night may have killed some residents who had refused to leave their homes. We promptly jumped into three rickety media vans and headed to their village.

As we drove along a dirt road, I heard two thunderous explosions, but thinking we were some distance away and it was safe, we pushed on.

All the three vehicles were outfitted with VHF radios through which we communicated. Mobile phones had not been invented at the time.

Suddenly, somebody came on the radio shouting at the top of his voice: “Look up! The eruption is not vertical, it is zooming down right into our path!”

When we saw the monstrous cloud hurtling down the hill, we screamed for our drivers to turn around and drive away as fast as they could. The vans must have been running at top speeds of more than a hundred kilometers an hour, as if they were flying along the rocky road. The cloud looked as if it was a mere 500-800 meters from us, and rapidly closing in.

I still do not know how we managed to outrun the cauliflower cloud, but I remember strong winds, part of a typhoon that happened to have struck the area at the same time, and those winds apparently pushed the cloud up into the sky. We couldn’t believe it, we were mesmerized by what happened.

Some of my colleagues called it a miracle.

A storm was forecast for the area, but most of us—born, raised and education Catholic—agreed it was a miracle that we had escaped.

We drove north all the way to the province of Pangasinan, at times pushing the vehicles trapped in the thickening sand. The lush tropical vegetation where I had been a few weeks earlier was now a sand-blasted wasteland.

If we stood still for five minutes, our feet would be buried, so we had to move fast to reach safety. After driving for almost eight hours, we reached the provincial boundary and decided to spend the night at a small hospital.

Many locals had also taken shelter there, so we had difficulty finding a place to sleep except, curiously, for one empty room. As we were dead-tired, we just slumped into the empty stretchers there. We were quite comfortable, as the room was air conditioned.

I woke up a few hours later to find myself alone in the room. I got up and found my colleagues asleep in the crowded corridor outside. I asked them why they gave up the convenience of the air-conditioned room.

One of them whispered to me, “Ted, the room we were staying in was the morgue….” Which explained the air conditioning. “Okay, I’ll sleep in the corridor, too.” AFP

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NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Aliens told: legAlize or leAve

By Vito Barcelo

New Immigration Bureau chief Jaime Morente urged overstaying foreigners to legalize their stay in the country or face deportation as he vowed to step up the campaign against illegal aliens.

Morente said he would not allow the country to be used as haven for foreign criminals and undesirable aliens.

“Undocumented foreigners or overstaying aliens

must leave the country or otherwise they would be locked up in jail before being deported,” Morente said.

But the new BI head claimed that he would let

thousands of overstaying foreigners to correct their stay and give them a chance to enjoy living in the country.

There are more than 100,000 undocumented foreigners in the country, the BI record shows.

The new BI commissioner urged employers who are harboring illegal aliens to make their stay legal or let their foreign workers leave the country.

“Let them go home,” Morente advised employers

who are harboring illegal aliens.

Morente, who was a former Davao City police chief, however, welcomes foreigners to come and visit the Philippines.

“They are always welcome as long as they register their stay in the country,” said Morente, a graduate of PMA Class of 1981.

Morente also plan to establish a counter-intelligence operation against employees who are engaged in illegal activities.

“We’re making it our mission to account for all overstaying and undocumented aliens to negotiate for their unauthorized stay for a fee,” Morente added, stressing that improving the bureau’s revenue collections are high on his agenda.

In a statement, Morente listed his three key priorities: strengthening the border control; improving service efficiency and ridding the bureau of corruption.

on President Rodrigo Duterte’s directives to reduce requirements and the processing time of all applications, Morente said he will simplify the frontline services to meet the 72-hour processing mandate, eliminate red tape by reducing the number of processors and signatories, and modernizing the current Alien Certificate of Registration (ACR) Icard system for efficiency and anti-cyber attack purposes.

wage hike in caraga effective july 1

HOUSE TO HOUSE. stepping up the campaign against illegal drugs, police superintendent ferdinand M. del rosario and police inspector Mark janis Ballesteros embark on a house-to-house search to flush out drug users and illegal drug traders in one of the barangays in caloocan city. ANDREW RABULAN

two-day confaB on autisM set AUTISM Partnership, the largest and most established Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) service provider for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), will hold a two-day conference entitled, “Maximizing Progress: Looking Forward to the Future” on July 22 to 23, 2016 at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Cebu City. Topics include strategies on how children with ASD can reach their potential, how to deal with challenging behaviors, enrich social skills and maximize progress. Speaker will be Toby Mountjoy, BCBA associate director of AP. For inquiries, Autism Partnership Philippines can be reached at (02) 6553094 and (0917) 6552552 or http://www.facebook.com/AP.Philippines.

photojournalist escapes death Sonny Camarillo, a veteran photojournalist and former president of the Press Photographers of the Philippines and the Camera Club of the Philippines, cheated death when he was hit from behind his car by a 10-wheeler truck fully loaded with “blue sand” on May 8, 2016 on the eve of election day. Camarillo was not able to cast his votes as he was hospitalized before and during the presidential elections.

According to Camarillo, truck driver Harold Reyes Cabana, 22 years old, was driving the Howo Sino Truck when it lost its brakes along Central Avenue in Culiat, Quezon City.

Cabana said he tried to stop the truck and even sounded the horn repeatedly. Upon reaching near the intersection of Central and Visayas avenues, the truck hit a taxicab that forced it to swerve to the right, hitting Camarillo’s nissan car. The impact was so hard that the whole back portion of the car was pushed all the way to the front seats. Camarillo was pinned between the steering wheel

kibitzers look at camarillo’s crumpled car.

and the backseat of his car. He suffered chest pain and a deep cut on his head. He was able get out with the help of people in the vicinity.

His car was a total wreck.

Both the Howo 10-wheeler and another truck are under the name of Diamond Blessed Construction owned by Maria Victoria Hernan-

dez Sagun who was quarrying “blue sand” in Rodriguez, Rizal, formerly Montalban. Sagun is the sister of incumbent Rodriguez, Rizal Mayor Cecilio “Selyong” Hernandez. Camarillo lamented the arrogance and irresponsible attitude of the truck owner for not making any efforts to help Camarillo.

THe Department of Labor and employment has approved the P12 minimum wage increase for workers in the Caraga region effective July 1, 2016.

Former Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz signed the order a day before she turned over the helm to Secretary Silvestre Bello III. Baldoz, who was then chairman of the national Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board, said the “minimum wage earners in Caraga, numbering about 70,000 in over 16,000 small and medium enterprises, will potentially benefit as a result of the newest wage increase and from the immediate correction of wages due to the wage order.

“Upon effectivity, it raises the basic wage in the region by P7, from P268 to P275. Another increase, this time amounting to P5 in the form of cost-of-living allowance, takes effect on 1 october 2016, thereby raising daily minimum wage rate from P275 to P280 per day,” Baldoz said.

Baldoz explained that the new wage order for Caraga will increase workers’ take-home pay to P8,514.81 per month for daily-paid workers with work factor of 365 days; to P7,209.59 per month for daily-paid workers with work factor of 310 days; and to P5,960.33 per month for daily-paid workers with work factor of 258 days.

Baldoz said the new effective daily minimum wage rates in Caraga is higher by P16 than the daily family poverty threshold of P259, noting that all minimum wage levels in the region have been above the poverty threshold per day since 2012.

While the effective labor cost to employers of the new wage order will increase, Baldoz said this will only be slight and that the department has already factored this in its decision to increase the regional minimum wage.

“We are confident employers in the region will be able to bear the cost of the increase as indicated by the increasing compliance of the region with regards minimum wage,” she said.

“With a single minimum wage rate of P275, there is no more distinction for a minimum wage earner whether he/she is working in a plantation or non-plantation establishment, or whether he/she is employed in a retail or service establishment employing 10 or less or more than 10 workers.

This is for ease of wage administrations,” Baldoz added. Vito Barcelo

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SUNDAY: JULY 3, 2016

NEWS editorial@thestandard.com.ph

LOPEZ ANTI-GROWTH—CONSUMER GROUP

By Alena Mae S. Flores

SET THE TONE ON SEA ROW, THINK TANK URGES RODY

THE Philippines should stand firm on its position once the Permanent Court of Arbitration issues a favorable ruling on its claim over its territory in the West Philippine Sea, according to a private think tank.

“The Philippines should immediately set the tone of what is to follow,” Stratbase ADR Institute President Dindo Manhit said at a recent forum on the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement organized by the think tank.

“In the days ahead, the country should continue to advocate that all states, including China, must abide by the terms of the ruling and that all claimants should avoid any activity that could worsen tensions in the region,” Manhit said.

Manhit said the incoming Duterte administration could pursue its claim in the South China Sea while still improving the country’s economic partnership with Beijing, as the two are not mutually exclusive.

“Developing a credible defense posture in the region should be seen as a complement to the strategic deterrence provided by US and partnerships with Japan and Australia,” he said.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Lisay Sharland said Edca underscores not only American involvement in the region but is also a reminder of the value of other partnerships for the Philippines.

“Australia and the Philippines will work together in regional platforms to develop architecture supportive of security stability and cooperation and to provide confidence building measures to minimize the risk of conflict in the region,” she said.

The decision is expected to be a test for the Duterte administration, not only on the international rule of law but also on diplomacy and communication.

“How China and the Philippines react to that decision will have an impact on regional security dynamics,” Sharland said.

Prof. Katsuyuki Yakushiji of Toyo University said the Japanese government shares its official stand with the governments of the Philippines, the US and South Korea.

“Any intimidating concept or provocative unilateral action that could alter the status quo, increase tension and disrupt freedom of navigation and overflight should be condemned,” he said.

THE appointment of Regina Paz Lopez, a staunch anti-mining and anti-coal advocate, as Environment Department Secretary, could have detrimental effects on the country’s long term economic growth, especially on the lives of Filipinos in Mindanao, a consumer and advocacy group said over the weekend.

TURNOVER. Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje (right) hands over the DENR flag symbolizing the formal turnover of leadership to his successor Regina Paz L. Lopez in simple ceremonies held on Friday at the DENR Social Hall in Quezon City.

PNP POLICY CHANGED TO STOP ‘DRUG MAYORS’

By Francisco Tuyay THE chief of the newly reorganized Philippine National Police has begun zeroing in on the involvement of local government officials in the proliferation of illegal drugs in their own backyard.

PNP Chief Ronaldo dela Rosa said police have already identified mayors who also act as drug lords operating in their own jurisdiction.

With certain mayors linked to illegal drugs, Dela Rosa said they would designate new police chiefs in the city and municipal levels, a unilateral moved to avoid being influenced and persuaded by the LGUs into drug deals.

Under existing setup, mayors select their own police chiefs and seek approval from the Department of the Interior which has administrative control over the police. The PNP then would designate the police chief under the mayors’ supervision.

Dela Rosa said applying an entirely different policy in the

designation of police chiefs is in to random drug testing to deter- months mostly regional direcaccordance with Duterte’s out of mine whether they are using ille- tors,” he declared. the box strategy to prevent may- gal drugs.

Dela Rosa said he was considors from engaging in the illegal “Many reshuffles will take ering jueteng as the next target of drug trade. place in the coming days and the PNP’s operations.

Certain mayors bankrolled by drug money won in the recent election and there were at least 32 of their kind, according to Duterte. He did not name these mayors.

Dela Rosa said the PNP would appoint chiefs of police that would not heed the call of the mayors.

He said the drug menace is now a national crisis that seriously needs an immediate solution.

Shortly after his assumption to office, Dela Rosa imposed a major revamp in the PNP affecting an ini- 300 HOMELESS. Residents of Barangay Central in Quezon City sift tial 41 positions. through their belongings following a fire that razed their houses and rendered He also subjected 300 families homeless . MANNY PALMERO ranking police officials

CitizenWatch expressed strong concern over the pronouncements of Lopez as these send an alarming message to the business sector and investors who are looking at Mindanao for badly needed, job-generating investments.

The group said Lopez’s views on these two issues contravene the current policy of the Energy Department and more so with the no “non-sense” development agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Wilford Wong, secretary-general of CitizenWatch said: “The NGO sees the Lopez’s appointment will peril economic development in Mindanao. Her statements run contrary to the growth agenda of the country and to the ideals of the newly inaugurated President Duterte.”

Lopez has long made public her views against coal-fired power plants.

CitizenWatch, however said, her stand, does not consider the complex dynamics on the ground.

The Philippines’ growing economy needs reliable energy supply to continue on its phenomenal growth trajectory.

Mindanao, for example, only contributed 14.4 percent to the country’s gross domestic product in 2015 and one of the factors affecting growth in the region is the constant threat of power shortages due to the lack of power supply.

The region experienced rotating brownouts of up to 12 hours, especially during the summer months in the past years.

The private sector, in response built and continues to build power plants, many of them coal-firedto meet the growing demands in the region.

CitizenWatch said that with Lopez leading the Environment Department, these projects, and the arrival of the needed power they will provide, could come to a halt.

Some pro-environmentalist groups have called on Lopez to halt coal power plants around the country in favor of renewable energy.

CitizenWatch said that they have overlooked the fact that coal fired plants produce much more energy per plant than solar or wind powered counterparts as they are intermittent.

The group also said that the unpredictable weather here can lead to extremely dry months leading to lower water levels, which in turn reduce the output of hydro based plants.

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SUNDAY: JULY 3, 2016

Roderick T. dela Cruz EDITOR business@thestandard.com.ph extrastory2000@gmail.com

SWISS BEAUTY QUEEN MAKES AN IMPACT IN PH

LIZA Andrea Kuster, a 29-yearold entrepreneur who represented Switzerland in the 2010 Miss Earth beauty pageant, is on a mission to help startup companies in the Philippines.

Kuster says the Miss Earth competition was an opportunity that developed her passion for various causes such as environmental protection, ecotourism and sustainable business.

“I’m a former banker [Credit Suisse] and I studied International Management in Switzerland and at De La Salle University in Manila.

I also have several businesses in Switzerland which are all still running. The sustainability side or the impact side [of the business] is because of Miss Earth. In 2010 to 2011, I was crowned Miss Earth Switzerland. With the crown, I got so much exposed to the whole sustainability topic,” Kuster, who speaks five languages, says in an interview.

She also became popular in Switzerland as a brand ambassador, TV presenter and host of sustainability events.

“Today, I’m still a host for TV events in Switzerland and I go back there maybe three or four times a year,” Kuster, a dual citizen, says.

She was already running her businesses when she joined the pageant. Two years ago, Kuster got involved in a global movement called Impact Hub, which means a place for impact entrepreneurs.

Kuster, along with Swiss adventurer and business strategist Matt Jaeggi and lady community builder Ces Rondario, brought the Impact Hub concept to the Philippines. “We were connected

by Impact Hub. We got to know each other and we wanted to pursue that idea,” she says.

The result is Impact Hub Manila, which started in June 2015 with a site at the fifth floor of Green Sun Building along Chino Roces Ave. Extension in Makati City. As a part of expansion, Impact Hub Manila is moving from the old site to four new locations to serve more entrepreneurs and startup companies with big ideas.

Impact Hub Manila is described as a co-working and events space for a membership community of entrepreneurs, activists, creative individuals and professionals supporting positive social and environmental change.

“We’re really a combination between co-working space, incubation or innovation lab where we offer services and a lot of training programs. We have trainings for entrepreneurs on

Impact Hub Manila co-founder LizAn Kuster how to scale their businesses.

We provide mentors and experts in different fields who can help them to scale basically faster.

In the incubation program, we offer fellowships, meaning we are partnering up with corporations such as LBC, WWF [World Wide Fund for Nature] and PEF [Peace and Equity Foundation],” Kuster says.

“If we train startups and entrepreneurs and innovators, they will be creating jobs and they will be creating an impact. They will make products and services which are solutions to the market.

They will employ people and create real value,” she says.

Kuster, who was born in the Philippines to a Filipino mother and a Swiss father on Dec. 8, 1986 before moving to Switzerland when she was three months old, says she “believes in the Philippines, its innovations and startups and the people behind them.”

Kuster experienced the strength of typhoon Ondoy in 2009 and has since felt that the Philippines is one place she could have the most impact in. She moved to the Philippines last year to help establish Impact Hub Manila, which she believes can contribute to the country’s development.

“We will make Impact Hub more successful, so that means making the whole startup community more successful.

That’s our solution to making a

better Philippines,” she says.

Impact Hub Manila is a part of a global network focusing on incubation and innovation.

It supports startups, talents, corporations and organizations with a wide range of training programs and consulting services, offering networking and coworking space. There are now 81 impact hubs around the world, with more than 15,000 members, according to Kuster. The original Impact Hub was established in London in 2005.

Everyone can be an entrepreneur.

Everyone can have an idea and come to entities such as Impact Hub which is supportive of their ideas.

Impact Hub Manila has already rolled out two incubation programs, two accelerator

bootcamps, hosted over 80 events and became home to more than 200 ‘hubbers’.

Following the success of its first fellowship program on innovations in mobility and logistics with logistics company LBC, Impact Hub Manila is launching a new fellowship program focused on sustainable energy solutions in partnership with WWF and PEF. This is to support the best and most innovative ideas and business enterprises which address the need for sustainable energy solutions through the Impact Hub Fellowship Program.

Kuster says Impact Hub is looking for solutions that could really have large-scale impact and disrupt the current system.

She says deadline for application is on July 24. “We are searching for all innovators in the energy sector. These can be renewable energy, access to energy, energy systems or off-grid solutions.

Please go to our website or our page to basically apply there,” she says.

Kuster says to support the expansion in the Philippines, Impact Hub Manila teamed up with staff leasing and serviced office solutions company KMC Solutions to give members or ‘hubbers’ the flexibility to work in more locations.

Impact Hub Manila and KMC Solutions now provide up to 400 seats at V Corporate Center-

Makati, Uptown Place Tower 1-Bonifacio Global City, SM Aura Premier - Bonifacio Global City and Rockwell Business Center in Ortigas.

“We wanted to get closer to the city and also because we want the ‘hubbers’ to be able to work anywhere, anytime and not need to travel around just to get to the hub. We at Impact Hub have to go to the ‘hubbers’. That’s why we take this strategical step,” she says.

Kuster says the plan is to open more sites in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

“I think we are one of the cheapest co-working spaces, but with a huge quality again because you have access to all four sites, you have community events and you have of course the global network. There are 81 impact hubs around the globe with 15,000 members and with that we are one of the largest networks of entrepreneurs worldwide,” says Kuster.

“We hope to double our number of ‘hubbers’ by the end of this year.

We would love to welcome more ‘hubbers’, more entrepreneurs, more innovators. They don’t need to be freelancers or working independently but they can also be like professionals in big corporations who have anything to do with impact innovations and entrepreneurship and likeminded people,” she says.

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SUNDAY: JULY 3, 2016

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

Newly appointed Philam Life chief executive Ariel Cantos

FOUR OF 10 FILIPINOS ARE OVERWEIGHT—STUDY

By Kathreen Abaya

FOUR out of 10 Filipinos are overweight because of insufficient exercise and poor eating habits, according to a survey commissioned by the parent company of Philippine American Life and General Insurance Company.

“We were kinda concerned and a little bit alarmed about the results that we found out,” newly appointed Philam Life chief executive Ariel Cantos said in a news briefing in Makati City.

AIA Group Ltd., the parent company of Philam Life, commissioned the Healthy Living Index Survey early this year to comprehend how people feel about their health and shed light on current health trends in 15 Asia-Pacific markets.

The study, which had 800 respondents in the Philippines, shows alarming results for the country, which slipped from 6th to 9th among 15 markets in terms of wellness.

The Philippines also ranked below the regional average with a score of 61 out of a

possible 100.

Thomas Isaac, director of Intuit Research which conducted the study, said while Filipinos were aware of their poor health choices, little was being done to improve it.

Results show that 80 percent of adults in the Philippines say their health is not as good as five years ago.

Filipinos exercise for an average of 2.1 hours a week, lower than the regional average of three hours.

Isaac said Filipinos were among the sleep-deprived in the region with a sleep deficit of 1.4 hours. Filipino adults want to get 8.2 hours of sleep a night, but only sleep 6.8 hours on average.

About 84 percent of those surveyed said

they tended to eat while distracted and 81 percent admitted to eating unhealthy snacks between meals and 71 percent had their dinners close to bed time.

Internet addiction is also a threat to healthy living. Filipinos listed less time for sleep, less time for exercise and bad posture as three negative impacts of internet addiction.

Isaac said with 30 percent of Filipinos standing as pre-obese and 14 percent as obese, these numbers were not expected to be reduced, given that only a handful of Filipinos wanted to change their daily routine.

“What is interesting and concerning is that only 25 percent said they want to lose weight compared to the regional average of 48 percent,” he said.

Cantos said as a real life company, Philam Life was committed to addressing the real life needs of customers and was actively helping Filipinos attain total wellness by being not only financially prepared but also by staying active “so they can live longer, healthier and better lives. ” Philam Life launched its first revolution-

ary insurance plan that rewards its beneficiaries for living a healthier lifestyle.

Cantos said the new product called Philam Vitality was a stark contrast from the traditional life insurance that centered on the death of a policyholder.

“We’re making it easier for people to think about wellness and we reward them accordingly,” Cantos said.

Philam Vitality motivates Filipinos to know more about their health, improve their lifestyle choices and reward them with each step they take toward wellness.

Philam Vitality head Kats Cajucom said “poor lifestyle choices lead to more deaths worldwide.”

With 95 percent of Filipinos admitting they can do more to improve their health, Philam Life is hopeful that through the new wellness program, more and more people would be motivated to live a healthy and active lifestyle.

“Health is very important. It is a personal responsibility for the individual to take care of his health and find a partner like Philam Life to address those challenges,” said Cantos.

EMC OFFERS SOLUTIONS TO SMALL, MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

By Regina Lintag GLOBAL data storage company EMC has introduced new products to help small and mediumsized enterprises modernize their data centers amid the socalled digital revolution.

“It’s already a given that digital transformation will happen. IT will support that digital transformation,” EMC Philippines country manager Ronnie Latinazo said in a forum at Philam Life Tower in Makati City.

Latinazo said with the old legacy systems being replaced by the surge of the “new industrial revolution,” companies had to deal with challenges.

“Most CIOs [chief information officers], they’re faced with these challenges: How do I manage my old legacy systems and at the same time how do I innovate?” he said.

Latinazo said the solution was

in optimizing the companies’ current environment and modernizing their data systems.

He said the multiple solutions included the EMC Unity which offers storage systems enterprise capabilities with all-flash and hybrid configuration and cloud-like simplicity.

Latinazo said Unity uses the HTML5 format and has the new cloud IQ monitoring system, which collects data and runs reports on how a system is running or behaving.

As EMC advocates for an easyto-use storage, Unity is built with only six cables that can be put together in less than two minutes and takes only 15 minutes to set up, according to Latinazo.

The product is offered for less than $18,000, a value which caters to the range of SMEs, he said.

Another product introduced is the VxRack, a fully integrated

EMC Philippines country manager Ronnie Latinazo

system that allows a company to scale—one of the characteristics of a modern data center. It boasts of its “cloud native” structure, a

fundamental key to the transformation needed by the companies.

Meanwhile, VxRail is the first converged infrastructure solution

and application that was pre-engineered and exclusively designed with another company, VMWare.

It’s a hyper-converged technology composed of nodes which enables companies to aggregate.

“It takes 15 minutes to power on with over 200 work tasks that can be readily leveraged, and five minutes to add a new appliance.

It also comes with basic software solutions for replication, back-up and cloud enablement,” Latinazo said on VxRail’s simplicity.

Both the VxRack and the VxRail are aimed towards SMEs through affordable prices. Latizano said this indicated flash technology’s affordability and availability to SMEs to help them cope with challenges.

“These products will help companies position themselves to the transformation required to support digital transformation of their companies,” he said.

SUNDAY: JULY 3, 2016

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

B3

SWISS... FROM B1 Kuster says ‘hubbers’ can avail of a space in the lounge area for a monthly fee of P2,900 or they can choose an upgrade with the use of a room in any of the four sites for a monthly fee of P4,900. Impact Hub Manila also offers “virtual membership” through HubNet, an international business portal of entrepreneurs and like-minded professionals. For an annual fee of P 2,000, ‘hubbers’ can connect with 81 impact hubs around the world and over 15,000 members worldwide, she says.

Her passion for travels and her stint at Miss Earth competition brought her to different parts of the Philippines. “I listen, read a lot and travel a lot. I love traveling. I love ecotourism. I love everything that has to do with ecology. I try to buy sustainable products. I am very interested in it,” she says. She has visited major eco-tourism sites all over the Philippines such as Palawan, Bohol, Cebu, Davao and Baguio.

When she was 20 years old, Kuster travelled all over the world for a year. “I saved a lot of money by myself and I had five or six jobs when I was younger than 20 because I wanted to reach my dream and goals of traveling the world. After I had worked enough and saved enough, I traveled for a year. I went to Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

I learned a lot from traveling and I also learned that with strategic hard work, you can really achieve so much. I understand that life is hard but I believe that you can reach your goal no matter what. There are so many opportunities out there. You just have to reach them,” she says.

Kuster says Impact Hub Manila, which now has a team of seven, embraces the three Ps—people, planet and profit. “We would love to do more fellowships on different topics such as health or nutrition or access to water which are extremely important topics here in the Philippines. We hope that corporations and the government will come to us to help find innovators and to support them to grow, so we can have an overall bigger impact,” she says.

Kuster says Impact Hub Manila has been quite successful so far, with more than 5,000 people visiting its first space. “We had over a hundred events, two incubation programs, two acceleration programs, more than 200 hubbers. We are cash positive. But of course, we are so much further away, so we work very, very hard to reach our goals.”

She says the company’s vision is to create a very strong ecosystem for startups and innovators in the Philippines, who will in turn create impact, generate jobs and contribute to higher GDP. “Personally, I absolutely want to be a part of this exciting journey of Impact Hub together with my team and we will for sure have more companies in this industry,” she says.

Kuster advises startups and entrepreneurs to follow their dreams. “First, you have to exactly know what your dream is. You have to visualize that. You have to imagine yourself reaching that goal. When you know where your summit is, where the top of your mountain is, then focus on one step after the other. Otherwise, you get overwhelmed with the whole path,” she says.

She says entrepreneurs should not be discouraged by the lack of capital. “Don’t be scared because of the investments. So first of all, entrepreneurship is not limited just to a certain income class. This is extremely important to say. Everyone can be an entrepreneur. Everyone can have an idea and come to entities such as Impact Hub which is supportive of their ideas,” she says.

Kuster is attending the Unlikely Allies Conference in Seattle, Washington to meet other Impact Hub stakeholders on July 5 to 6. She says 500 participants from 80 cities around the world are expected to attend the event, which will discuss the role of the global movement.

“We are for impact, for purpose, for profit,” Kuster says. Roderick T. dela Cruz

From left: PLDT assistant vice president and head of SME community engagement services and marketing communications Gabby Cui, vice president and PLDT SME Nation head Mitch Locsin and assistant vice president and head of SME fixed product marketing Amil Azurin.

PLDT ENCOURAGES TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURS TO ‘BE THE BOSS’ PLDT SME Nation’s pioneering social media crowd sourcing search for the new generation of entrepreneurs is all set to welcome a new batch of digitally-driven industry game-changers. #BeTheBoss, in partnership with Rappler, is back for the second year as it continues its mission to recognize excellence in technological innovation and digital integration.

“Our goal is simple and poignant— to demonstrate how digital technology can empower micro, small, and medium enterprisesand help them grow their business by looking to young and savvy entrepreneurs who’ve actually done it,” PLDT SME Nation head Mitch Locsin said.

Online nominations are currently ongoing until July 10, 2016. A panel of judges will short list the nominations and choose the top three finalists for each category. The final phase will be the online public voting which will comprise of 40 percent of the finalists’ score.

This year’s categories include Boss for E-Commerce, or e-commerce champ who knows how to own the internet and its opportunities through an innovative application or an online service; Boss for Social Media or the entrepreneur who knows how to maximize social media platforms and use it for growing an online community; Boss for Social Responsibility or the entrepreneur who goes beyond marketability and profitability by giving back to the community; and Boss for Innovative Solutions or the leader who thinks outside the proverbial box and utilizes technology to offer services and ideas that cater to a broad audience.

Last year’s first batch of winners and finalists, narrowed down from over 500 nominations from around the country, flew to Silicon Valley for a unique digital immersion in one of the world’s technological melting pots.

Boss for E-Commerce Kim Lato of

online tech store Kimstore, Boss for Social Media and top wedding photographer Jason Magbanua, Boss for Customer Service and queuing solutions company TimeFree Innovations founder Chino Atilano, Boss for Social Responsibility and Messy Bessy founder Kristine Reyes-Lopez and Boss for Mobile Readiness and mobile app MobKard founder Carlo Calimon also received mobile business kits from SME Nation.

This year’s winners will also get the opportunity to broaden their horizons and globalize their business with the Silicon Valley experience.

“For traditional entrepreneurs, digital can be daunting and discouraging. But that’s exactly what we want to disprove with #BeTheBoss. We want to show everyone that the right digital business solutions can actually democratize and level the playing field especially for MSMEs who are only starting to carve their niche in the industry,” Locsin said.

NCH ANNOUNCES GLOBAL BRAND RELAUNCH INDUSTRIAL chemical producer NCH Philippines Inc. announced a global brand relaunch alongside changes to its business groups with the vision to deepen relationships with customers in Asia.

NCH Philippines, the local counterpart of US-based NCH Corp., transforms into a more integrated company under the unified brand name – NCH, thereby reinforcing its strength in an increasingly competitive market.

NCH Philippines manufactures environmentally acceptable and userfriendly specialty maintenance chemical products.

These include industrial cleaners and degreasers, diesel and bunker fuel additives, engine flush and coolant, specialty coatings, lubricants, biocides, floor care products, rust converter, disinfectants, descalers, natural pyrethrum, insecticides, water treatment for boilers and cooling systems.

NCH Corp. of the US has been in business for almost 100 years and is a trusted provider of maintenance services and chemicals that focus on cleaning water, conserving energy and maintaining equipment for businesses.

“Many customers do not realize we own and market all of the different brands: Chemsearch, Certified, Chem-Aqua and Mantek. The consolidation will give our customers greater ease and efficiency in utilizing our various products and services to help them with their water, energy and maintenance programs,” says David Weiss, president and chief executive of NCH Asia.

Integral to the company is the unification of more than 1,000 associates in Asia. Doing this gives way to a more organized and productive approach in building and implementing marketing strategies.

“Moving forward, by focusing on just one brand, NCH, we know we can make NCH great,” Weiss says.

“By doing this, over 1,000 NCH professionals in the Asian region will be assigned and given advanced training in one of our specialty groups, NCH Maintenance,” Weiss says.

Customers would benefit from the consolidation because each NCH professional will be better equipped to maintain customers’ equipment and facilities - even provide training for their customers’ employees and workers.

“And as always, we will guarantee every product and service,” Weiss says.

NCH launched its new brand identity and set up six specialty business groups to replace its existing brands.

Chemsearch focuses on cleaning and maintenance service of machine, equipment and facilities. Certified offers lube, grease, maintenance products and cleaners, while Chem-Aqua provides water treatment products and program for cooling tower.

These three brands are now segmented into the six specialty groups according to specialty products and services.

This landmark transformation will ensure world-class products, services and technical know-how that the customers deserve, thus, giving the best professional service solutions to every NCH customer.

“As NCH, we are able to focus our marketing strategies and efforts to attract and educate new customers, thereby adding value to their maintenance initiatives. We also assure our current customers that regardless of this change, all NCH products and services remain of high quality and unchanged.” Weiss says.

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world

US SC endS term with pro-ChoiCe rUling

CHILD SUPPORT. Labor Party leader Bill Shorten (L) thanks supporters before casting his vote in Melbourne on Saturday. Australians flocked to vote in national elections on July 2 with conservative leader malcolm turnbull appearing to have a slight edge over labor’s Bill Shorten, culminating a marathon race where economic management has become a key issue in the wake of the Brexit vote. AFP

london demonstrators reject brexit referendum Crowds were set to march through London on saturday in protest against Britain’s vote to leave the EU, which has plunged the government into political turmoil and left the country deeply polarized.

Demonstrators planned to gather on Park Lane around 11:00 am (1000 GMT) before making their way towards the Houses of Parliament, in the second show of public anger this week over the shock results

of the referendum.

“We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button,” said organizer Keiran MacDermott on the march’s Facebook page.

“Let’s not leave the next generation adrift... Let’s march, let’s protest, and let’s stop Brexit.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s Brexit vote has put Wales’s eU funding in doubt, dealing a potentially heavy financial blow to one of Britain’s poorest regions which relies on money from Brussels for farmers’ subsidies and urban regeneration.

“Wales are in a bit of trouble, we get a lot of money from the eU,” said anna Preece, shocked by the referendum vote to quit the

FrenCh poet YveS BonneFoY, 93 France’s most famous contemporary poet, Yves Bonnefoy, died on Friday at the age of 93, local media reported.

The author of more than 100 books translated into 30 languages was highly decorated in his native France, and his name was often mentioned as a favourite to win a nobel Prize for Literature.

He was also known for his translations of shakespeare’s plays, as well as the works of Yeats, Petrarch and his friend Georges seferis. admirers from around the world took to Twitter to mourn Bonnefoy, known for his pierc-

ing gaze and mop of white hair, many of them quoting lines from his most famous works.

Bonnefoy was born in 1923 in Tours, in central France, to a father who worked with the railways and a schoolteacher mother.

His style often tended to the surreal, but he rejected the “automatic writing” used by many of his contemporaries as cutting the reader off from the real world.

Bonnefoy’s publishers were not immediately available to confirm reports of his death carried in Le Monde and other major French media. AFP

european Union.

Wales, like england, voted “Leave” in the June 23 referendum, in contrast to the United Kingdom’s other two constituent parts, scotland and northern Ireland.

Inside the halls of power, the favourites to succeed Prime Minister David cameron in the ruling conservative Party have been pushing for a delay in starting the process that will see Britain leave the 28-member

european Union. contender Michael Gove said Friday he had “no expectation” that article 50 —the formal procedure for leaving the eU—would be invoked this year, echoing similar comments from his frontrunner rival Theresa May. But eU leaders have called for a swift divorce, fearful of the impact of Britain’s uncertain future on economic growth and a potential domino effect in eurosceptic member-states. AFP

COKE FEST.

Singer Avery wilson performs on stage during the 2016 eSSenCe Festival presented

by Coca Cola on Friday at the louisiana Superdome in new orleans, louisiana. AFP

Us conservatives were expecting some major wins at the supreme court this year, but several dramatic twists —including the death of a justice—reconfigured the bench and liberals ended up scoring the most influential victories.

The high court’s 20152016 term ended with a bang this week when it struck down a Texas law restricting access to abortion —the most important ruling in a generation on the hotbutton issue, and a big win for “pro-choice” activists.

The 5-3 decision by a short-handed court—down one justice since the death of veteran conservative antonin scalia in February —marked a major setback for evangelical christians and conservatives opposed to abortion.

Just a few days before, the top court made a surprise ruling in favor of an affirmative action program at the University of Texas, meaning that race and ethnicity can be taken into account when deciding college admissions.

Once again, the country’s liberals cried victory. and in March, a 4-4 deadlock effectively affirmed the right of public sector unions to collect fees from nonmembers, in a setback for conservatives.

Lee epstein, a supreme court expert based at Washington University in st Louis, said scalia’s death played a major role in some of the term’s key decisions.

On affirmative action, a narrow 4-3 ruling would instead have been a 4-4 deadlock, leaving in place lower court rulings upholding the plan—but setting no legal precedent.

In the unions case, scalia would likely have turned the tables against them.

But she said his death was not the only explanation for the court’s shift to the left.

“The move to the left started a few years ago, not this term,” epstein told aFP. “Our data show that the 2014 term and now the 2015 term were the most liberal since the 1960s.”

The Obama administration however did not emerge from the court’s term unscathed, including big defeats for the Democratic president’s sweeping immigration plan and his efforts to curb carbon emissions. scalia, who died unexpectedly in February, espoused deeply conservative views during his three decades at the court. a staunch defender of gun rights and the death penalty, the roman catholic justice was also openly opposed to abortion, gay marriage and affirmative action. AFP

S U N D AY : j U lY 3 , 2 0 1 6

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WORLD editorial@thestandard.com.ph

Bangladeshi PM vows to eradicate terrorisM

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said she was determined to eradicate terrorism in Bangladesh Saturday after security forces stormed a cafe where islamist extremists had taken dozens of diners hostage.

“It was an extremely heinous act. What kind of muslims are these people? They don’t have any religion,” she said in a televised speech.

“People must resist these terrorists. my government is determined to root out terrorism and militancy from bangladesh.” bangladeshi troops stormed a cafe popular with foreigners in the diplomatic zone of the capital Dhaka after suspected Islamist militants took dozens of diners hostage.

The siege ended on Saturday morning with six gunmen

killed, 13 hostages freed and several casualties.

Gunmen burst into a restaurant in the diplomatic quarter of the bangladeshi capital Dhaka around 9:20pm on Friday night, as people were eating dinner.

They set off explosives, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greater).

As a massive firefight broke out with police, the gunmen took up to 40 hostages, including many foreigners. Two police officers died in the gunfight.

Following a 10-hour standoff, heavily armed commandos stormed the restaurant early Sat-

urday morning, freeing several hostages.

The Holey Artisan bakery restaurant is a western-style cafe popular for its large, leafy garden, situated on Road 79 in the capital’s affluent Gulshan quarter.

The diplomatic zone is home to many of the city’s expatriate workers and several foreign missions, as well as restaurants, upmarket malls and members’ clubs.

The incident took place near the city’s Nordic Club and the Qatar embassy.

About four hours after the attack the Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility, via an IS-affiliated news agency, Amaq.

It later issued a number of photographs of what it said were scenes from inside the cafe showing what appeared to be several

bodies lying in pools of blood.

The news agency claimed that more than 20 people of different nationalities were killed.

Little is known about the hostages, however, Italy’s ambassador to bangladesh mario Palma told Italian state television that seven Italians are among the captives.

Sri Lanka said two of its nationals were among the hostages, but had been freed.

Tokyo said one Japanese was among those rescued, Jiji Press reported.

The attack follows a series of murders of foreigners, religious minorities and secular activists in bangladesh, blamed on or claimed by Islamist militants.

Cesare Tavella, an Italian aid worker was shot dead in Gulshan last September in an attack claimed by Islamic State. AFP

SENTINEL. a bangladeshi security personnel stands guard during a rescue operation as gunmen take position in a restaurant in the dhaka’s high-security diplomatic district on saturday, where several people including foreigners were believed to be trapped. thirteen hostages have been rescued after security forces ended a siege at a cafe in the bangladeshi capital dhaka, a top commander said. AFP

MyanMar Mob torches Mosque A mob wielding weapons razed a muslim prayer hall in northern myanmar, state media reported Saturday, the second attack on a mosque in just over a week as anti-muslim sentiment swells in the buddhist majority nation. myanmar has struggled to contain bouts of deadly religious bloodshed in recent years, with bristling sectarian tensions and rising buddhist nationalism posing a steep challenge to the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. on Friday villagers in Hpakant, a jade-mining town in northern Kachin state, ransacked a mosque “wielding sticks, knives and other weapons” before burning it down, according to the state-run Global New Light of myanmar.

“The mob was unresponsive and entirely beyond control. The building was razed by the riotous crowd,” the paper reported, adding that the rampage was sparked by a dispute over the mosque’s construction.

No arrests have been made, it said.

The riot coincided with the end of a 12-day visit by a United Nations rights investigator who warned that “tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across myanmar society.”

In a press conference concluding her trip Friday, Yanghee Lee called on authorities to investigate the destruction of another mosque in central bago late last month.

“The government must demonstrate that instigating and committing violence against an ethnic or religious minority community has no place in myanmar,” she said.

Religious intolerance has mushroomed across the country in recent years, threatening to unravel advances towards democracy since the former junta stepped down in 2011.

Authorities have been reluctant to launch prosecutions out of fear of stoking further unrest. AFP

china bus accident kills 26, injures 4 A bUS accident in north China killed 26 people and injured four when the coach crashed through a highway guard rail and plunged into a canal, state media reported Saturday.

Images of the scene of Friday’s accident showed rescue workers pulling bodies from a coach submerged in deep water below an expressway near the northern port city of Tianjin.

The long-distance coach was carrying 30 people from northern Hebei province to the northeastern city of Shenyang, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The vehicle crashed when a tyre blew out and the driver lost control,

it said, sending the bus over the edge of the road.

The four survivors included the ticket collector, second driver and two passengers, it reported.

The accident occurred days after a bus burst into blames in central China’s Hunan province, killing 53 and injuring 11.

Traffic accidents are common in China, with more than 250,000 people dying each year on the country’s roads, according to the World Health organization.

Long-distance coaches are a popular cheap mode of travel between cities and competition between transport firms can be fierce. AFP

REVELATION. a boy looks on as kuwaiti men pray at the sunni Grand Mosque in kuwait city early on saturday, during the laylat al-qadr, or night of destiny, which falls on the 27th day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Laylat al-Qadr marks the night Muslims believe the first verses of the Koran were revealed to the Prophet Mohammed through the archangel Gabriel. AFP

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SPORTS

reUel viDAl EDITOR

sports@thestandard.com.ph

Air Force makes triumphant return to ShAkey’S V-LeAgue

By Homer Vidal

THEY also serve those who stand and wait.

The Air Force Jet Spikers are poised to gain their best finish in the Shakey’s V-League after toiling fruitlessly in the league that started it all for almost a decade.

Air Force posted a straight set, 25-20, 26-24, 26-24, victory over the Laoag Power Smashers in the opener of their bestof-three semifinal clash last Wednesday, June 29. Another win brings them to their first finals appearance.

Air Force is getting the job done despite not having a monster open spiker like BaliPure’s Alyssa Valdez or a maestro of a setter like Laoag’s Relea Saet. The Jet Spikers are doing it the hard way, through good old fashioned teamwork and a tenacious scrambling f loor defense.

They also have veteran spikers Judy Ann Caballejo and Joy Cases who always find ways to score.

Air Force does not have a marquee standout player. But the team probably has the most hardworking, the most self-sacrificing group of players in Jocemer Tapic, Mae Antipuesto, May Ann Pantino, Wendy Ann Semana and Iari Yongco.

Other members of the squad include Jennifer Manzano, Yna Papa and Camille Abanto as well as liberos Mary Ann Balmaceda and Mae Crisostomo.

The Jet Spikers had to scramble to post the victory. They trailed by four in the second set before being bailed out

of trouble by the power-hitting Caballejo, who responded with a series of spikes to power them back into the match.

With Air Force ahead 25-24 Caballejo scored on a service ace to steal the set for a two-set lead for Air Force.

Air Force is actually benefitting

from all the attention being given to the glamor match-up between the Ateneo-powered BaliPure Water Defenders and the La Salleinfused Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors. The Jet Spikers are flying high virtually without pressure.

Air Force took a leave of absence after another disappointing fourth

air Force open spiker Joy Cases (12) is blocked at the net by Laoag setter relea saet (17) while attempting a crosscourt smash in the opener of their Shakey’s V-League Final Four semifinal playoff.

air Force blockers Wendy ann semana (7) and angel antipuesto (16) set up a formidable double block at the net forcing Laoag’s Jovielyn prado (18) to attempt a dink to avoid being smothered during Game one of their best-ofthree semifinal series in the Shakey’s V-League.

place finish in the 2014 Shakey’s VLeague Open Conference.

They competed in various commercial leagues the next two years. After gaining experience and much-needed confidence, the Jet Spikers returned with a bang.

They opened their campaign by upending the Water Defenders in their first game and then racked up five victories against a lone defeat to clinch the top seeding in the Final Four.

Air Force coach Jeffrey Jimenez though does not want his wards to relax. He wants his player to step up their game and foil the expected Laoag fight back and then go on to the finals and the chance to win their first-ever Shakey’s V-League championship.

At the other end of the semifinal table BaliPure is leading Pocari Sweat after the Water Defenders posted a 25-20, 25-19, 26-24 in their own semifinal duel.

FueL masters WiLL rise Like a phoenix

By Reuel Vidal

phoenix petroleum Fuel masters import marcus simmons (center) protects the basketball against a double team by Alaska Aces players Chris Banchero (right) and Noy Baclao.

AFTER a truly disappointing stint in the 2016 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup the Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters are hoping that new acquisitions will help propel them to a better finish in the PBA Governors Cup. The Fuel Masters lost to the Alaska Aces, 105-115, in a recent tune-up game at the Gatorade Hoops Center just a few days ago, but there were plenty of positives for the team which tied at last place the previous conference.

The biggest positives are the stellar play of point

guard Josh Urbiztondo, big man Norbert Torres and wing John Wilson. Then there is Asean Basketball League champion coach Ariel Vanguardia who handled the coaching reins.

Urbiztondo was blazing hot from the outside against the Aces as he drilled nine three pointers en route to scoring a team-high 27 markers.

The PBA journeyman may have finally found a home in Phoenix even as he seems poised to have a breakout PBA conference. He led a Phoenix rally in the fourth period which ultimately fell short allowing the Aces to post the victory.

Grizzled veteran Willy Wilson relied on speed and smarts to finish with 16 points. John Wilson continued to improve after regaining his confidence. He finished with 11 markers.

The Fuel Masters’ Asian import Lee Kwan Hee, played in the first period, was held scoreless by Alaska’s resolute defense and didn’t see action for the rest of the game.

Phoenix parades hardworking import Marcus Simmons and the Korean Lee as their Asian reinforcement. Simmons was a workhorse at both ends of the court against Alaska

and eventually finished with 26 markers.

Even unheralded rookie Michael Miranda gave a good account of himself.

With Phoenix trailing 5060 with 6:30 to go in the third quarter, Miranda scored on a layup to cut the gap to eight points, 52-60.

He would go on to convert two more layups and a bonus free throw to trim the Alaska lead to just two points, 62-64 with 4:35 to go in the third.

With the players motivated and playing to their full potential expect the Fuel Masters to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of their fall in the past conference.

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SPORTS

ARMAN ARMERO EDITOR

sports@thestandard.com.ph

B7

CHANGING OF THE GUARD AT THE PSC

By Eddie G. Alinea

ONE is a basketball great. The lone lady apointee is a wife of the late president of the pencat silat federation. Another is a sports journalist and still another is a member of an influential religious sect that supported the presidential candidacy of the appointing power.

These four gentlemen and lady comprise th Philippine Sports Commission team captained by returning Chair William "Butch" Ramirez tasked with extricating Phlippine sports from the ills it has been suffering for so long a time.

Fernandez, born in Maasin, Leyte, the same place where the newly-sworn in President Rodrigo Duterte saw light, and a Philippine Basketball Association great, undoubtedly, is Ramirez's most-credentialed teammate being only the first of only two men to have been accorded the proleague's MVP four times beside being a member, too, of the silver medalist national five in the l990 Beijing Asian Games.

Dra. Celia Kiram, the better half of expencat top man, Sultan Jamalul Kiram, a scion of a family that owns Sabah, presently holds the position formerly held by her husband, while Charles Maxey used to edit the sports section of a Davao daily. Arnold Agustin, besides serving the PSC as one of its department head, is a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo.

To ensure the smooth running of the agency, which, incidentally celebrated its silver anniversary last year having been created under Rep Act 6847, each commissioner was given his own area of reponsibility with Fernandez overseeing the mass-based grassroot develop-

DON’T...

From B8

The answer may well be to go all out at the start and if we can’t hack it, reserve our players for the next day.

Seems logical.

Reyes, who is a fighter and never known to give up, told The Standard: “France is really tough but if we play them well, I think we have a chance.”

Our next best hope is if we can’t overcome France, let it all hang out against New Zealand, which will be without the imposing figure of Steven Adams in the paint. He is a killer as he shown in the NBA Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors. Without him, Gilas Pilipinas has at least a 50-50 chance of making the crossover semifinals and with some luck, can get into a finals showdown for a trip to Rio. While most pundits are picking France, Ranked 5 in the FIBA World Rankings as the team to beat in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila from July 5 to 10, it would be best not to count out New Zealand, whose Tall Blacks’ squad is capable of standing tall against some of the best teams in the draw.

The Tall Blacks are bracketed with France and Philippines and are ranked 21 in the world.

Gilas Pilipinas is ranked No. 28, certainly not bad for a team which only in recent years under the dynamic leadership of esteemed sportsman-businessman Manny Pangilinan and executive director and former Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner Renaul “Sonny” Barrios have redeemed international respect for the Philippines.

FIBA itself believes that those who know all about the international game feel the Tall Blacks appear to have a good a chance as any side in qualifying for the Rio Olympics. This is the view of coach Paul Henare, who continued to drill this belief into the hearts and minds of his 12-man squad in the weeks before the Manila tournament gets underway.

By all accounts, the Tall Blacks are regarded as one of the toughest teams to face and as combative as ever especially after the recent stint in Asia.

Competing in the Atlas Challenge Cup against host nation China in Suzhou, the Tall Blacks came through what was described as “a test of character with flying colors in a fiercely fought and often times controversial third-place playoff match against China, winning 90-84 in Suzhou.”

Tom Abercrombie was a star on the big occasion, as were Isaac Fotu and Shea Ili. Abercrombie with a game high 27 points on 9 of 14 shooting, including 4 of 7 from deep and a perfect 5 from 5 from the free throw line. Fotu poured in 21 points on 8 of 13, including an ice-cold three-point dagger in the final minute of the game to gap the Chinese, while Ili stepped up big time, with Corey Webster in early foul trouble, the Breakers’ point guard had a career night with 15 points and 5 boards and was a constant menace on defense.

Henare was proud of the passion shown by his side, not to mention the ability to stay calm in the face of immense pressure, including a delay of the game by almost an hour before tip-off.

“I am very proud of the boys, any time you prepare for a game and you are on court and finishing your warm up and they tell you the game is delayed 50 minutes that is tough for anyone to deal with. I spoke to them and said we have to deal with it, it is what it is. I said I wouldn’t like to be in their position but they had to find some way to come out and get themselves going and while we didn’t get a good start which wasn’t ideal, I did have a feeling that if we could just chip away at it we would be fine,” said Henare in a post-game interview.

The team faced a long travel day to Europe where they were based in Latvia and Lithuania for 10 days, with a week

ment of team sports.

Ms. Kiram will, naturally, take care of women' sports besides providing link with the sports affairs in Muslim Mindanao.

Maxey, who had served in the sports development program in Davao and Mindanao will handle projects like Batang Pinoy and the Philippine Natiuonal Games. Agustin will be studying the possibility of establishing a modern national training center that will replace the decades-old Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

Ramirez and his commissioners vowed to end the ignominy of the Philippines' embarrassing finishes in all international competitions the Filipino athletes took part in the past six years under the past administration, particularly in the Southeast Asian Games, the lowest regional meet there is.

The new chair and company were referring to PH's sixth place finish in 2011, seventh in 2013, its lowest since joining the biennial conclave in 1977, and, again sixth last year.

With funding no longer a problem, Ramirez, who was one of those responsible for President Duterte's successful campaign,

of training before three final tune-up games ahead of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Manila.

Kirk Penney has made sure that New Zealand gets the underdog tag in Manila.

But he says that with nine returnees from the 2014 World Cup team, which includes five of the top scorers and rebounders who are closer to their prime than two years ago with only Mike Vukona nearing the tail end of his career, they have a chance.

That Tall Blacks team beat Ukraine and Finland in the World Cup and came close to beating Turkey and Lithuania, so the prospect of facing the likes of France, the Philippines, Turkey, Senegal and Canada, isn’t a daunting task.

The Tall Blacks are hell-bent on slaying a couple of the Goliaths in Manila. Time will tell whether they can make it happen.

assured the public during the transition session with ex-chairman Richie Garcia, members of the old PSC board, a better performance of Filipino ahletes in the bigger stage such as the Asian Games and Olympic Games.

Ramirez, incidentally, was at the PSC helm when the Philippines captured the overall championship in the Maxnaila SEA Gasmew in 2005.

Ramirez and his board is foregoing the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, as the preparations for it were handled by Garcia' team.

Outside of the expected backing of a president for whom he was deputy campaign manager, Ramirez said he has already reached out to new Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chair Andrea Domingo, who has given him the assurance that the PSC will receive the full five percent that is due from PAGCOR under the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) law.

Ramirez, likewise, expects the realization of the Philippine Sports Institute, a project he left nunfinished when he was replaced as PSC watchman in 2009.

Rep ub lic of t h e Philip p in e s D e p a r t m ent of Ed uc a t i on Re gi on I V- A CA L A BA R ZO N IN V ITATIO N TO B ID The Department of Education Region IV-A, through the 2016 GAA intends to apply the sum of Six Million Six Hundred Fourteen Thousand Three Hundred Pesos (6,614,300.00) being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to eligible payments under the contract for the supply & delivery of uncoated text paper, white 70gsm A4 size for use in the printing of Learning Resource materials for Grade 11. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

The Department of Education Reion IV-A, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), now invites bids for the herein-mentioned Goods. Bidders must have completed, within five (5) years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project with an amount of at least 50% of the ABC to be bid. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, i.e., in Section II, Instructions to Bidders. Bids received that exceed the ABC shall be rejected at bid opening.

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 may be inspected or purchased at DepED Region IV-A BAC Secretariat, located at Gate 2 Karangalan Drive, Cainta, Rizal upon accomplishing a bidder’s information sheet and payment in cash of a nonrefundable fee by interested bidders in the amount of Five Thousand Pesos (PhP5,000.00) to the DepED Region IV-A Cashier. Only bidders who purchased the Bidding Documents will be allowed to submit bids.

It may be viewed or downloaded free of charge from the website of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhiIGEPS), www. philgeps.net. and the website of the Procuring Entity, (insert website), provided that bidders shall pay the fee for the Bidding Documents not later than the submission of their bids. The schedule and venue of the procuring activities are as follows: Activity Issuance of Documents

Date and Time

Venue

Bidding From July 4,2016 to July 18, 2016 Supply Office-DepED IV8:00 am to 5:00pm A, 2nd flr.,

Pre-Bid Conference Submission and Opening of Bids

July 6,2016-10:00am

DepED IV-A Conference Room

July 18, 2016 -10:00am

DepED IV-A Conference Room

Prospective bidders are strongly encouraged to order or download the electronic copy of the Bidding Documents from the PhilGEPS website: www. philgeps.net. for them to be included in the Document Request List of the project. The pre-bid conference is open-to-all interested parties who may have or have not bought the bidding documents.

Bids must be delivered to the address and on the date and time stated herein.

All bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in the ITB Clause 18. A valid Bid Securing Declaration must accompany the bid(s) in lieu of a bid security.

Bids will be opened in the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend the opening of bids at the address, date and time stated herein. Late bids shall not be accepted.

The DepED IV-A reserves the right to reject any and all bids, declare a failure of bidding, not award the contract(s), or annul the bidding process without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

For further information, please refer to: Ann Geralyn T. Pelias Administrative Division DepED IV-A Gate 2 Karangalan Drive, Cainta, Rizal (SGD) ANN GERALYN T. PELIAS BAC Chairperson ( T S - J U LY 3 , 2 016)

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RIERA U. MALLARI EDITOR sports@thestandard.com.ph

SPORTS

ANDRAY BLATCHE

DON’T GIVE UP ON GILAS PH JUST YET

By Ronnie Nathanielsz DESPITE the fact that the Philippines is ranked behind France, which is No. 5 in the FIBA World ratings and New Zealand, which is at No. 21 or seven notches higher than the Philippines, it’s no reason to give up our national team and its chances, slim though they may be on the surface of making it to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games by winning the FIBA Qualifying Tournament at the Mall of Asia Arena beginning on July 5.

Two crushing defeats at the hands of a tall, agile and amazing threepoint shooting Turkish team and a tough Italian squad, the Philippines scored what must be regarded as a consolation 82-79 victory over China in its final game before escaping the tragic and senseless killing of innocent people at the crowded international airport in Ankara by leaving for Manila hours before deranged rebels struck, killing over 40 people.

The human carnage was much like the battering we suffered at the hands of the Turkish team that took the same flight with Gilas to Manila.

Coach Tab Baldwin, who steered New Zealand to a respectable fourth-place finish in the World Basketball Championships in 2002 and

BORIS DIAW

recorded their best-ever finish at an international competition and earned an automatic berth in the 2004 Olympics, said it succinctly when he noted: “We can’t just close that gap by playing hard and putting a lot of effort out there (in the Manila qualifiers). There is not much we can do physically between now and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, but there’s a lot we can do mentally.”

There has been some criticism over the fact that Calvin “The Beast” Abueva was cut from the Final 12, alongside point guard LA Tenorio, who apparently took it well, unlike the Alaska star, who many considered a shoo-in.

Baldwin explained the thinking behind the Abueva cut, pointing out that the coaching staff was looking

at “size and discipline,” which are key factors for an undersized Philippine squad.

Beyond that, was “the ability to play cohesively and play as a unit and submit to what the team is doing.”

The implication is that “The Beast” fell short in this regard.

As coach Baldwin mentioned: “It’s not the best 12 players or the 12 most valuable players, but those who understand and match what we need to do.”

Marc Pingris, who plays with the same kind of intensity as Abueva and exemplifies the leadership qualities that the team needs, appealed to fans and even some elements of the media to set aside their criticism and give the Gilas Pilipinas team “the support we need because we have a war on our hands.”

The coach of Turkey Halil Ergin Atama, whose team is bracketed alongside Canada and Senegal in Group A, while Gilas is paired with France and New Zealand in Group B, candidly stated: “I don’t give them (the Philippines) a chance against France, but maybe against New Zealand they will fight and have a chance.”

What the Turkey coach apparently forgot was that Gilas Pilipinas scared the hell out of FIBA Euro champions before dropping a close 75-68 game in the opener of the 2014 Antibes International Basketball Tournament in the Azur Arena in Antibes, France.

That Gilas squad qualified for the World Cup in Spain by finishing runners-up to Iran in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships before a huge crowd that packed the Mall of Asia Arena every single game and cheered our team and coach Chot Reyes with unbridled passion throughout.

In the said Antibes tourney, Reyes, who was a mixture of fire and ice when he needed to, saw Gilas make 12 of 29 baskets from beyond

TAB BALDWIN the arc, but unfortunately fell cold down the stretch as France snatched the victory with a 20-8 run in the final seven minutes to prevent a stunning upset.

Nicolas Batum, who scored 12 points in the second half and kept France alive before his teammates got their act together and was originally believed to be skipping Manila, was in the roster of 13 players released by FIBA and it included towering 6’11” center Joeffrey Lauvergne, who in Antibes, capitalized on the absence of former NBA standout and naturalized Filipino

TROY ROSARIO

Andray Blatche, who hurt his ankle in the third quarter and although coach Reyes sent him back in for a final run, the ex-Brooklyn Net continued to hobble.

Boris Diaw, who will play the wing, missed all four attempts in that game and finished with one point, but grabbed 10 rebounds.

Reyes believes Baldwin picked Troy Rosario over Abueva because he is “the only one who can match up with Diaw,” on the wing. Indeed, Rosario at times was “the best player on the team,” according to Chot.

We ourselves believe that officiating in the PBA allows Abueva to get away with the kind of fouls they call in the pro league, but won’t survive under the FIBA officiating principles. In short, what he can do in Asia he cannot do in international competitions.

Reyes conceded that coach Baldwin will have to figure out on whether we “go all-out against France because we will face New Zealand, which will be fully rested the following day.”

But since we are playing before a hometown crowd, Reyes posed the difficult question: “How do we not go all out?”

TURN TO B7

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ISAH V. RED EDITOR

BING PAREL

A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

BERNADETTE LUNAS

isahred @ gmail.com

WRITER

S U NDAY L I V ING

LIFE

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YOUR HOME IN TAGAYTAY HIGHLANDS

AN HEIRLOOM TO CHERISH

Fresh air, breathtaking view. Tagaytay Midlands Golf Course offers homeowners a place where they can tee off on manicured greens while reveling in the scenic vistas of Taal Lake and Volcano

F

amily members are like branches on a tree, all growing in different directions. Yet they spring from the same trunk and are nourished by the same roots. Similarly, family members may nurture individual dreams, with some leaving home to pursue them, but in the end they come home to their root— finding comfort and affirmation in the familiar.

This explains why you are inextricably bound by your past, why the old homestead holds a certain allure for you. For the place where you grew up is where a cache of fond memories constantly beckons to you. It is where your family history is told and retold and where heirlooms play a part in keeping your family bonds strong and enduring.

Among your most cherished heirlooms are your homes—the places where you create happy memories that your children will want to go back to no matter how far they go in the pursuit of their passions.

Thus, for more than two decades now, Tagaytay Highlands has been offering homes that are perfect for raising a family.

While it offers luxury living in a prestigious address at the heart of Tagaytay City, the Highlands is also a haven where your family can weave love and harmony into a fine tapestry of experiences that make up memories of a lifetime.

Tagaytay Highlands continues to revolutionize the premium and exclusive residential real estate sector, providing worldclass services and amenities to its homeowners. A leisurely 50-km drive from the metro, the Highlands is deemed a quick getaway and one that will instantly engage your family in a healthy and active lifestyle. Tagaytay Highlands is easily accessible through four major roads such as Sta. Rosa Exit via SLEX, Emilio Aguinaldo Highway in Cavite, Batino Exit via CalambaTagaytay road, and Silangan Exit via Casile road in Laguna.

Guests in the Highlands can start a day of luxury and leisure with a view of the sunrise at Aspenhills, a contemporary ranch cabin community

One-stop-shop recreation center The Country Club offers a variety of leisure activities including basketball, billiards and squash, among others

Among your most cherished heirlooms are your homes—the places where you create happy memories that your children will want to go back to no matter how far they go in the pursuit of their passions Its proximity to the country’s major international airports and its multiple access roads strategically place Tagaytay Highlands in the midst of emerging tourist hotspots in the National Capital Region.

With the Highlands’ prime location, you will experience year-round cool and balmy

weather, with an average daily temperature of 22°C. Tagaytay Highlands does not only bring your family closer, but it also brings you closer to nature.

Occupying a land area of 1,290 hectares that span the provinces of Cavite, Laguna and Batangas, and rising at 2,000 feet above sea level, it offers the most striking views of Taal

Lake and Volcano, the enchanted Mt. Makiling, the Canlubang Valley, and Laguna de Bay. With its exclusive themed residential communities such as Asian Contemporary-inspired Sycamore Heights and distinct Japanese subdivisions of Katsura and Yume at the Midlands, modern ranch cabin community

of Aspenhills and Coloradoinspired Woodridge Place at the Highlands, Contemporary American-structured Fairfield and modern architecture-themed Nob Hill at the Greenlands, among others, you will surely find a home that will suit your family’s needs and wants. After all, each home is a timeless classic, an heirloom that can withstand the test of time.

Almost 3,000 homeowners will tell you why this mountain resort community is a place they keep going home to. After transforming Tagaytay’s best mountain ridges into a worldclass residential community, Tagaytay Highlands constantly strives to fortify family ties.

Acquiring a property in Tagaytay Highlands is considered a smart investment as it increasingly becomes a most favored weekend destination for families seeking to have quality time together.

There is no shortage in fun activities to do—it has two worldclass golf courses, the first-ever Swiss cable car in the country, 16 food and beverages outlets, 11 sports facilities, and 15 leisure amenities.

Family members may bond over a game of bowling or a tour at the Animal Farm. Discover the beauty of nature together through trekking or bird watching. Pass on a skill or two and simple life lessons through a game of golf between father and son, or strengthen your bond with a mother and daughter spa session at The Spa and Lodge. End the day with the whole family gathered around a rustic table at the Highlander Steakhouse enjoying a meal as fulfilling as their every moment spent together.

And finally, a few decades later, when your children are grown and have lives of their own, your Tagaytay Highlands place will have become a family heirloom where everyone celebrates not only milestones but simply spends priceless time together.

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C2

LIFE isahred @ gmail.com

HOW A COMPANY FOR WOMEN EMPOWERS THIS MAN

R

euben Gloria had his reservations when he joined Avon in 2010.

Prior to signing up with the direct-selling company, Reuben worked as a chef in several hotels in Manila and abroad. With hopes of earning more, building his own business, and spending more time with his wife and two daughters, he eventually came home to try a seemingly more challenging but promising career with Avon.

Being a doting father, he set aside his reservations to be able to provide for his family, which then led to him realizing that Avon had a wide variety of products for both women and men, and that all were of high quality and therefore easy to sell.

“Not only do we have a great selection of practical and stylish gifts for men, but they are also of the highest quality and offered at affordable prices,” enthuses Reuben.

He has since enjoyed great success and received many Avon awards. The “company for women” has recognized him as one of the top performing Representatives in the country.

Apart from recognitions, Reuben takes advantage of excelling in his business while being ever-present in the life of his family; supporting them both financially and emotionally.

Reuben’s Avon earnings have gone toward household expenses, his children’s tuition, and one day, they will go toward giving his two daughters the dream weddings they deserve.

“Bilang isang ama, nangangarap akong magkaroon ng magandang kasal ang mga anak ko. ‘Yung tipong masasabi nila na ang araw na ‘yun ay ang pinakamagandang event na nangyari sa buhay nila,” he shares.

He continues, “Their dreams are mine, and every little girl dreams of the perfect wedding. With Avon, I know I will be able to give it to them. That is the best gift a father could ask for.”

Avon Man’s picks Being an Avon Representative for years, Reuben recommends these products that men would love to have.

Give the man on-the-go this Richard 3-Piece Gift Set

For the stylish man who appreciates form and function, the stainless steel Ronaldo Necklace and Bracelet Gift Set (P599) and the classic analog Ronaldo Watch are versatile enough to match his personal style.

Men on-the-go will appreciate a new set of fashionable and functional travel essentials like the Richard 2-Piece Bag Set (P699) which includes a brown leatherette sling bag and short wallet, or the Richard 3-Piece Gift Set (P699) that includes a brown leatherette short wallet and coin purse, plus a reversible belt in black and brown leatherette.

Reuben believes one can’t go wrong with Richard Sunglasses P399 or the stainless steel Avon Vacuum Flask (P499) that can hold up to 500 mL of fluids and retain its initial temperature for up to three hours.

Handy guys will be equipped for anything with Avon’s stainless steel 10in-1 Multi-Tool Set (P449) complete with a knife, bottle opener, saw and file, pliers,

Reuben Gloria has been an Avon Representative since 2010

Philips screwdriver, two-flat screwdrivers, hammer and nail puller.

For more details on how to be an Avon Representative like Reuben or more information on these products, visit www.avon.com.ph and follow Avon Philippines on Facebook.

25 years of providing kitchen solutions

BY BERNADETTE ANDREA CATALAN Cookware label Masflex recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with the introduction of its new brand ambassador— the Adobo Queen herself, Nancy Reyes Lumen.

Lumen shared during the celebration that she has been using Masflex products since the brand’s inception and expressed how thrilled she was to endorse it.

“I can only be endorsing products I believe in,” she pointed out.

Lumen also told the audience how Masflex is very flexible in finding solutions to existing kitchen struggles. “They listen to the needs of the Filipino kitchen,” she enthused.

Masflex, for its part, was also proud of the brand’s accomplishments in the past 25 years. The company said they always ensure that their products are sold not for the sake of selling but for providing innovative technological

Lola Mereng's Adobo sa Beer cooked by the Adobo Queen herself

Masflex brand ambassador Nancy Reyes Lumen (left) with the grand raffle winner from True Value

solutions to the cookware industry and to every household using a Masflex kitchenware.

“What sets Masflex apart is the quality checks and testing samples the products go through.

We always want to innovate the brand,” Masflex Vice President for Sales and Business Development Ram Mirch told The Standard Life.

Aside from featuring their wide range of basic and premium

lines of cookware, Masflex also showcased several kitchen hacks that will help consumers utilize their products and level up their kitchen experience—especially now that the importance of kitchen is downsized to it being able to fit in small spaces while providing all the necessary

functions a household needs.

As Mirch put it, “We are looking towards the future.”

During the event, Lumen also presented some of her sumptuous recipes, made using Masflex products, including Mommy Nena’s Adobo, Lola Mereng’s Adobo sa Beer and Bibingka Ube Crepe Cake.

Toughest flashlight to get the job done In today’s age, the do-ityourself habit is becoming the norm when it comes to giving homes a more personalized look.

But in order to get the job done, you’ll need a dependable lighting companion—one that does not impede work especially when darkness comes.

Energizer Hard Case LED Task Light is durable enough for on-site or in the field tasks

Energizer Philippines—a company that introduces high quality and innovative lighting solutions and accessories to homes around the world—offers its Hard Case Professional LED Task Light, which can make work even lighter and easier.

“Name your task and this product will be up for the challenge,” said Martin Luis Valenzuela, Brand Activation Manager of Energizer Philippines.

“On-site or in the field, this flashlight’s rugged dependability combined with innovative LED technology offers you the best lighting you’ll ever need.”

The Energizer Hard Case LED Task Light can help you be better at doing specific tasks—from reading, grooming, preparing and cooking food to doing homework, working on hobbies,

playing games and even tasks that require more focus like balancing your checkbook.

“There are even high and low mode buttons that will allow you to control its runtime and brightness. This means you can enjoy six times brighter and two times longer beam distance when it is called for,” Valenzuela emphasized.

He continued, “What’s good about it is that, its low power mode lets you enjoy superb lighting power for up to 60 hours, while its high power mode brightness can illuminate for up to 10 hours.

That’s more than enough energy and lighting quality you’ll ever need to accomplish your projects at home.”

With a brightness of 30 lumens for low mode and up to 125 lumens for high mode, users will no longer have to worry about using a lighting product that best

complements their needs. It has a beam distance of 90 meters, making it a go-to device for multipurpose use.

What’s more, it is built with rugged ABS, steel, and rubber that enable you to maximize your work efficiency without worrying about its durability. This is proven by its shatterproof lens that can withstand breakage and survive drops from heights of up to seven meters. It is guaranteed weatherproof, making it the perfect companion even for sunny or rainy seasons.

For easy usage, the Energizer Hard Case Professional LED Task Light is also designed with large soft push buttons. “Even if you’re wearing gloves, you can still switch on or off this product. That’s how easy-to-use this new lighting product is,” Valenzuela said.

He added, “As a company that strongly believes in sustainability, the Energizer Hard Case Professional LED Task Light is made from recycled materials.”

Valenzuela concluded, “Doing your own projects at home is more possible now that a new innovative and compact lighting solution is on-hand. With Energizer and the products under its umbrella, you’re sure to equip your home with the best products that promise convenience, affordability and durability.”

This tough and reliable product is available at Ace Hardware, Handyman, True Value, Handyman DIY and other leading hardware stores nationwide.

For more details about Energizer’s complete product roster, visit www.energizer.com.ph or follow Energizer Philippines on Facebook.

S U N D AY : J U LY 3 , 2 0 1 6

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LIFE

isahred @ gmail.com

Rectangular undercounter lavatory 'Ladena' with Artifacts collection's 8-inch faucet with lever handle named 'Forte'

'Revival,' an 8-inch faucet with scroll lever handle, is outfitted with rectangular self-rimming lavatory 'Cimarron'

TIME TRAVELING IN THE BATHROOM

BY MICHELLE BUENCAMINO

K

ohler’s latest faucet collection brings people back in time—specifically in the Edwardian era.

Named Artifacts, the new selection of spouts and handles features simplicity rooted in the Edwardian aesthetic, which adds depth, detail and character to what would otherwise be a plain and stark space.

The pieces in the collection look like they came straight out of the past with classy, elegant and vintage styles. But while the design takes cue from the olden days, the faucets nonetheless feature the Kohler brand of quality and craftsmanship.

According to Kohler Kitchen & Bath Vice President and General Manager for Southeast Asia and Australasia Angel Yang, the Artifacts collection can be personalized according to the preferences of consumers.

“Consumers can mix and match their own personality and needs and create their own story behind the product itself,” Yang told The Standard Life.

With the mix-and-match concept, the collection gives homeowners the opportunity to personalize and add more

Kohler Kitchen & Bath Vice President and General Manager for Southeast Asia and Australasia Angel Yang and Sanitec Import Ventures Chairman Jensen Go cut the ribbon to officially open Kohler's newest showroom in Quezon City

character to their bathrooms their desire and needs.

based on

“The Filipino homebuilders become very knowledgeable,

have very

demanding, and they have very varied tastes. Part of this comes from the fact that Filipinos travel often and they see all of these different designs from other countries,” averred Sanitec Import Ventures Inc. Chairman Jensen Go. Sanitec is the new distributor of Kohler in the Philippines.

“For Kohler, we definitely need a distributor passionate about our products, services and history so that’s why we can both work together and bring our businesses in the next high level,” said Yang.

Go is likewise optimistic about the new partnership. “The partnership between Sanitec and Kohler is very strategic for us because our company has been known for contemporary European products, but now with Kohler, we can serve the American transitional and traditional products as well. This is a very good key for us to offer a wider spectrum to our customers and to the Filipino homebuilders,” he said.

The Artifacts collection can be viewed at Kohler’s new showroom in E. Rodriguez, Quezon City.

New elementary school buildings in Cebu As part of its commitment to give back to communities, TELUS International Philippines (TIP), in partnership with Brummer and Partners, recently completed and donated to the municipality of Daanbantayan two Calape Elementary School buildings with three classrooms each.

The school buildings in the school had been destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in 2014. The newly reconstructed Calape Elementary School is serving the needs of over 600 students.

An initiative of TIP’s Community Board, the rehabilitation was undertaken in partnership with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP). Brummer and Partners provided funding through their Navegar fund. Rehabilitation works began two years ago under the auspices of PBSP, which is committed to poverty reduction by promoting business sector leadership and its commitment to programs that lead to selfreliance, including education assistance.

“Access to education is a basic human right, and as an employer of Filipinos that rely on the education system, TELUS International Philippines wants to ensure that the students of Calape can go back to school in a safe and comfortable environment that encourages learning. Education is fundamental to nation building. It is our goal to support Filipino youth in their pursuit of education

Daanbantayan students welcome the newly constructed Calape Elementary School donated by Telus International Philippines

and that we try to mitigate the impact of these disasters as much as possible by providing these types of classroom. Through our partnership with PBSP, children will have a better and stronger school, where

they will once again pursue their studies,” said TIP Vice President of Marketing and Culture Warren Tait.

The school has been constructed to be disaster resilient and compliant with the

Department of Education’s Minimum Performance Standards and Specifications.

For instance, its walls can resist fire for three hours as opposed to just one hour for conventional buildings. The school is built one meter above the ground to protect it from floods, and its roof deck doubles as an evacuation area in the event of a flood. It can also withstand earthquakes up to intensity level 7. Wide doors and handrails in the toilets, and a ramp at the entrance of the building ensure that Persons with Disabilities will have easy access and movement around the school.

Following the turnover, the rehabilitated school is expected to benefit generations of school children in Calape. “It brings us tremendous fulfillment to know that the community is now back on its feet and the people of its community are once again empowered on their children’s education, which is what we at the TIP Community Board and our partners hope to see in all the communities that we assist,” added Tait.

TIP’s Community Board helps nonprofit organizations that focus on three specific areas: health, education, and environment. It is also providing support to four visionary charitable institutions’ youth programs, namely, Feed Hungry Minds Library Inc., Tulay ng Kabataan Foundation, Mary Mediatrix of All Grace Foundation, and Ballet Philippines.

S U N D AY : J U LY 3 , 2 0 1 6

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LIFE

isahred @ gmail.com

Tres Marias by Mauro Malang Santos

A painting of the seascape of Chateau d'If by Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo

PRIDE AND PATRIOTISM #INTHEMOMENT

BY FRANCIS DE LEON

N

othing excites me more than being around a company of people who share the same appreciation of art and the beauty it resonates. Art unites a community to come together, celebrates the geniuses behind the masterpieces, and elevates our national identity, then it is transformative, indeed.

It gives this columnist profound joy to personally witness the excitement and interest around Philippine art as Leon Gallery presented “Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2016” with a cocktail preview.

The gallery, located at Eurovilla 1 in Makati City, thoughtfully curated the setting with works of art that lend the space an eclectic soul. They managed to fill the venue with artists, luminaries and dignitaries that admired the all-Filipino collection.

This columnist shared a toast with guests and feasted on elegant nibbles deliciously created by Bizu to cheer on Leon Gallery for handpicking important works of art by highly coveted artists and highlighting significant pieces that have contributed to defining Filipino identity.

On display were valued pieces by the masters - Fernando Amorsolo, Jose Joya, and Ang Kiukok, including contemporary works by Ronald Ventura and Andres Barrioquinto, among other renowned Filipino artists.

Leon Gallery highlighted a piece of national history by honoring a work by no less than national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

According to them, this sculpture of a wild boar, entitled Jabali, remained in the family in one unbroken line. The piece was an inheritance of a direct descendant of Rizal’s second eldest sister, Narcisa Lopez y Rizal, giving it astounding provenance.

Techie Bilbao stands in front of her mother Chona Kasten's portraits

Betsy Westendorp stands beside her painting of flowers (hung on top)

From left: Rene and Ann Puno, Tina Jacinto, Tita Trillo and Rupert Jacinto

“Narcisa was the closest of the sisters to Jose Rizal, staying with him during the last year of his life.

Carved in 1895 while in exile in Dapitan, it is one of the last works by the national hero,” explained Jaime Ponce de Leon of Leon Gallery.

He added, “It is simply a marvelous piece of history. Leon Gallery is humbled with the trust and confidence bestowed upon by the Rizal family.”

As such, they take pride that an artwork by the national hero was available for the auction market for the first time ever through their gallery.

Also on display was the work of Rizal’s friend, Felix

Resurreccion Hidalgo. Leon Gallery presented Resurreccion Hidalgo’s powerful seascape of the formidable Chateau d’If – the prison where the Count of Monte Cristo was interned.

According to Leon Gallery, the exquisite creation marked a celebration of true friendship.

Unknown to some, the piece was dedicated to the artist’s dear friend, Don Mauro Prieto y Gorricho – an illustrious figure in Manila society at the time and the artist’s neighbor on the exclusive street of Calle de San Sebastian (known now as R. Hidalgo).

As I was enjoying my moment of appreciation of the

Jaime Ponce de Leon with the Isadora in Motion by National Artist BenCab

Bambi Harper and Marilou Senn

masterpieces, another BenCab painting caught my eye. Isadora in Motion was nothing short of sublime. The gigantic piece by the National Artist was a stunning tribute to the elegance in movement of the famous dancer Isadora Duncan.

The assemblage of artwork that also included very rare and collectible Philippine furniture were gathered in a single occasion for the viewing of art enthusiasts and collectors before they are auctioned off.

Judging by the intensity that evening, the demand for Philippine art through auction is one exciting (and lucrative) undertaking.

Derek Flores and Dindi Gallardo

To this columnist, my fervent wish is for Filipino Art to continue to prosper. Like art, may it grow on us with pride and deepen our sense of nationalism.

(For more information, contact Leon Gallery at (02) 8562781 or info@leon-gallery.com.

Like or follow @LeonGalleryMakati on Facebook and Instagram) Follow me on Twitter or Instagram @francis_deleon8 for my life’s moments or email deleon_francis@yahoo.com if you want me to chronicle your milestones and capture your special moments.

S UNDAY : J ULY 3, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

C5

A

BS-CBN gave a sneak peek of its new shows that will showcase the talents and dreams of Filipinos at the ABS-CBN trade event titled “Gabi ng Pangarap” held on June 27 at SMX Convention Center.

Known as the “Reality and Game Show Capital of the Philippines,” the Kapamilya network, with its lineup of reality shows, is set to amuse viewers.

Pinoy Big Brother, the country’s longest-running reality show, is all set for its seventh season and is ready to introduce its newest housemates this month. Also returning next month is the exciting game show Minute to Win It, which will once again make hearts pound with its thrilling games.

Viewers should also brace themselves as the international talent search Pinoy Boyband Superstar will assemble the biggest boy band of the country with judges Yeng Constantino, Vice Ganda, and K-pop superstar Sandara Park.

Aside from the upcoming reality shows, the reigning singing talent search The Voice Kids was also one of the night’s highlights with coaches Sharon and Bamboo giving spectacular performances.

The music continued as the ASAP Birit Queens Angeline Quinto, Morissette, and Klarisse De Guzman brought the house down with their belting prowess. Also giving a grand musical treat were ASAP Soul Sessionistas Kyla, KZ Tandingan, Daryl Ong, and Jason Dy. Meanwhile, a kiligfest ensued with James Reid and Nadine Lustre gracing the stage and performing the theme song of their upcoming series Till I Met You. The sweetness of Dolce Amore stars Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano sent the audience on a spin

ABS-CBN MAKES AUDIENCE’S DREAMS COME TRUE

Kapamilya singers at ABS-CBN Gabi ng Pangarap Trade Event held at the SMX Convention Center

“The Voice Kids” coach Sharon Cuneta

when they serenaded the crowd.

The newest Kapamilya love team of Elmo Magalona and Janella Salvador also did not fail to make the audience excited with their heartfelt song number.

Good vibes were all over the venue as the country’s number one series FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano cast

Crowd at ABS-CBN Gabi ng Pangarap Trade Event

“Dolce Amore” sweethearts Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano

members Simon “Onyok” Pineda, McNeal “Awra” Briguela, Pepe Herrera, and Coco Martin engaged in a showdown and danced to novelty hits “May Tatlong Bibe” and “Totoy Bibo.”

Apart from the upcoming reality shows, the trade event also unveiled the newest drama series

“FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” star Coco Martin

set to capture viewers’ hearts, The Greatest Love, featuring veteran actress Sylvia Sanchez, and Langit Lupa led by child stars Xia Vigor and Yesha Camile.

Aside from the Kapamilya celebrities, the advertisers also had their shining moment as they played and won several cash priz-

Nadine Lustre and James Reid of “Till I Met You”

es. The stars and love teams also expressed their gratitude for the advertisers’ unwavering support through a meet-and-greet.

“Momshies” and hosts of morning talk show Magandang Buhay Karla Estrada, Melai Cantiveros, and Jolina Magdangal were the event’s hosts.

Elmo Magalona and Janella Salvador

‘Art 2 Art’ pays tribute to sculptor Ed Castrillo Art 2 Art honors the late sculptor Ed Castrillo – best known for historical public art such as the EDSA People Power monument, the Spirit of Pinaglabanan and Bantayog ng mga Bayani – in its episode airing today.

Glass sculptor Ramon Orlina is the guest in this tribute episode. He provides insights on Castrillo as an artist, a colleague

and a friend and on the latter’s creative process, from the time that he was making jewelry pieces to when he was creating his monumental works. Castrillo passed away on May 18.

Produced by the Manila Broadcasting Company and hosted by prima ballerina Lisa Macuja, Art 2 Art airs Sundays, 3:30-4 p.m., on radio via DZRH (666 khz on the AM

band), on cable television via RHTV (Channel 18 on Cignal Cable) and online livestreaming at http://dzrhnewstelevision.tv.

The show may also be viewed through the Facebook account DZRH News Television.

For inquiries, please e-mail art2artdzrh@gmail.com.

On Facebook, check out the account Ballerina ng Bayan for updates on Art 2 Art episodes.

Sculptor Ramon Orlina (right) shares insights on Ed Castrillo as an artist, a colleague and a friend to “Art 2 Art” host Lisa Macuja

C6

SUNDAY : J ULY 3, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

BRUCE WILLIS STARS IN BANK HEIST FILM

I

conic action star Bruce Willis of Die Hard franchise and Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) star in the frenetic heist film Marauders about an untraceable group of elite bank robbers chased by a suicidal FBI Agent who uncovers a deeper purpose behind the robbery-homicides.

FBI Special Agent Jonathan Montgomery (Christopher Meloni) is on the trail of an untraceable group of elite bank robbers who give the stolen loot to charity. As he delves further into the investigation, the lawman discovers a deeper purpose behind the robbery-homicides and a trail of secrets protected by the bank’s owner (Bruce Willis). Featured alongside Meloni and Willis in the high octane, smoldering thriller are Dave Bautista, Adrian Grenier, Johnathon Schaech, and Lydia Hull.

In Marauders, Willis is once again in the midst of a heist where everybody is a suspect. His role as bank manager Jeffrey Hubert has just guided an aging woman to the Hubert National exit when he heard shots and he’s blown through the inside glass door.

Shot entirely in downtown Cincinnati, “Marauders” is an upcoming action crime-thriller that delves into a series of bank robberies, it stars Christopher Meloni, Bruce Willis (left photo) and Adrian Grenier (right photo)

Four Kevlar clad bank robbers: Tornado, Hurricane, Thunder, and Squall, rush inside and rough up security and customers. Thunder draws a pistol on a teller and activates a creepy order from his smart watch: open the draw, do not hit the alarm or your manager will die. Tornado staunches the manager’s wound and drags him toward the safe; a key-code is entered reveal-

ing three million in cash. While Squall bags the cash, Hurricane places a high-tech device on the floor and a cold audio repeats with crystal clarity over restrained sobs that any attempt to leave or call police will activate the sleek explosive. The well-honed team makes their exit, discretely concealing weapons. Eyeballing a security camera, Squall drags the manager

toward the entrance, raises his shotgun, and blows off the man’s head. Job finished.

Bruce Willis portrays Jeffrey Hubert, president and owner of Hubert National Bank, and the target of repeated heists. An air of entitlement and authority, he goes ballistic when the local newspaper smells a scandal beyond simple robbery. “There’s a lot of power struggle and I think

the power of money and control is one of the major themes. Hubert is trying to take from the rest of us. And of course there’s tension between the FBI and the on the ground cops, the detectives trying to take control of this investigation and who gets to make the decisions,” Grenier reveals.

Marauders opens July 13 in cinemas from OctoArts Films International.

DZMM celebrates legacy of news and public service For 30 years, DZMM, the AM radio station of the country’s leading media and entertainment organization, has been a bastion of news and information and public service to the Filipinos since the end of the Martial Law era. It has since evolved and retooled to cater to its digital audience at the turn of the century.

On its 30th anniversary, one of the most popular and most active radio stations in the land celebrate in a grand manner, unveiling a new station ID that shows the station’s iconic anchors and reporters looking back on the biggest coverage of the station in the last three decades.

The new station ID, which fea-

tures ABS-CBN marquee actor Piolo Pascual singing the DZMM theme, premiered on national TV last Friday right after the broadcast of TV Patrol on ABS-CBN. The station, known to be the leader in news and public service, has more in store for its listeners and viewers. One of them is a special feature called Kwento ng Tatlong Dekada that will reminisce on some of its reports on the biggest issues, scandals, tragedies, and victories in Philippine history beginning July 22.

The feature will air in different DZMM programs and will also bring back former anchors and reporters to relive the important stories of the past.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE 73 74 75 78 79 80 84 85

ANSWER PREVIOUS PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Sweet cherry 5 Gun-cleaning tool 11 Not sit well 17 Big hunk 21 By mouth 22 Plaza Hotel kid 23 “Venus” singer 24 Canter 25 Zhivago’s beloved 26 Flat broke (2 wds.)

27 Layout 28 Put a lid — —!

29 Deadline determiners (2 wds.)

31 Telescope lens 33 Excavates further 35 Spanish money, now 36 Used a jimmy 37 “Aida” composer 38 Funny — DeLuise 41 Nile god of pleasure 42 Glider’s lack 43 Heifer’s mouthful

44 48 50 51 52 53 54 55 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 68 69 70 71 72

Growl Toughened Turn color, maybe — de mer Lacey’s partner Lay a new lawn Said in fun More out of practice Switz. neighbor Goddess sacred to joggers?

Slalom markers Dare to E. — bacteria JFK predecessor Territories Is curious Eyewash acid Trellises Female whale “— you kidding?”

Navajo lodges Heavy burden “Ulalume” poet

DZMM will also honor its tradition of serving the Filipino with three public service events. The 3rd Red Alert Emergency Expo on July 9 in Tanay, Rizal will give emergency training to 200 students and faculty members from different universities in Metro Manila, the annual bloodletting activity Dugong Alay Para Sa Kapamilya that will be held on July 23 at the Fishermall in Quezon City, and the DZMM Grand Kapamilya Day on July 21 at San Andres Sports Complex in Manila that will serve thousands with its medical mission, talks, and storytelling for kids with DZMM’s TLC (Teaching Learning Caring) trucks making its way there with

SUNDAY, JULY 3, 2016

Naval off.

Belafonte hit (hyph.)

Primitive weapons Oola’s guy Be prone Immature Rabbit Dermis plus epidermis (pl.)

87 Turmoil 88 Cosmonaut’s lab 89 Howard and Reagan 90 Shrivels 91 Fragrant blossom 92 Kind of physics 93 “— — tree falls ...”

94 Nags 95 Greek physician 96 Shoulder muscles 97 Pitter- — 99 Amtrak et al.

100 Stadium hoverer 101 Gridiron conference 102 Not our 103 Pisces mo.

104 Trot and canter 105 Actor Herbert — 106 Dublin’s — Lingus 107 Rule 109 Pastime 110 Says “yeth” 112 Arthur’s realm 115 Expert 116 Lingerie buy 120 Freeze!

121 Maui miss 123 Surface 125 Like prime steak 126 Pavarotti piece 127 Poet — Wylie 128 Suit materials 129 A memorable Scott 130 Give free — 131 Hang onto 132 Dirty looks

133 Counting-rhyme start DOWN 1 Weevil’s lunch 2 Latin hymn word 3 Tourist center of Japan 4 Forest clearing 5 Ended a layoff 6 Los —, N.M. 7 Social customs 8 Disposes of 9 Buckeye sch.

10 Kicked out 11 Roof support 12 Shun 13 DEA operative 14 Dutch carrier 15 — for bear 16 ATM key 17 Inclined 18 Unfrequented 19 Could hear — — drop 20 Poker stakes 30 Floated downstream 32 Subatomic particle 34 Psychic — Cayce 36 Vatican figures 37 Condor 38 Full skirt 39 Lake near Syracuse 40 Old firearm 42 Podium features 43 Wheels on swivels 45 Longhaired cat 46 “— and Rockin’” 47 Sheet-music words 49 Future fish 50 Cameos, maybe 51 Run-of-the-mill 52 Fair grade 54 Indiana or Casey 55 Stimpy’s buddy 56 1040 org.

59 Hocus- — 60 Solemn promise

61 Grass for thatched huts 63 Full of zest 64 Misfortune 65 “Gaslight” star Charles 67 Hues 68 Office machines 70 Devastation 72 Sage or bay (2 wds.)

73 Frozen Wasser 74 “No mas” boxer Roberto 75 Movie-to-be 76 Vegetable sponge 77 Natural 78 Got too big 79 Brown of renown 80 Minty drink 81 Shoe-happy Marcos 82 Not much 83 Pencil top 85 England’s FBI 86 Almost-grads 87 Thin coatings 90 Tolstoy title word 91 Pew occupiers 92 Sweater sz.

94 Emerald, in geology 95 Gift-of-gab 96 Short and stout 98 Lama, usually 100 — Zaharias of golf 101 Restaurant seater 103 Femme — 104 Rule over 105 Dawdle 108 Berth preference 109 Asian capital 110 Mammoth 111 Partial darkness 112 Sear a steak 113 Berne’s river 114 Twice DXXVI 115 Girl in “Dracula” 116 Paris papa 117 People devourer 118 Caught red-handed 119 Whirlpool 122 Gold record 124 “Of Mice and —”

DZMM anchors and reporters.

In the past three decades, DZMM has remained staunch and unflinching in its news delivery and programs, striving to incite change wherever it could.

DZMM led in harnessing technology to keep up with the changes in the industry and society. From the AM band, the TeleRadyo was launched on cable, the first time radio programs were simulcast on TV then it began to offer live audio streaming on dzmm.com.ph. More people are now able to watch it on digital television via ABS-CBNTVplus.

ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs head Ging Reyes emphasized the importance of

freedom in DZMM’s history and evolution.

In the speech she delivered during Independence Day, she said, “May tatlumpung taon nang nakalipas matapos ang People Power Revolution nang magbalik ang radyo sa ABS-CBN bilang DZMM na tinawag nating himpilan ng malayang mamayan...kalayaan ang pundasyon noon, ito pa rin ang sandigan hanggang ngayon.”

Join the celebration of DZMM’s 30 years of news and public service, “Pamana ng Tatlong Dekada”. Stay updated on news and DZMM’s public service offerings by following DZMM on social media (@DZMMTeleRadyo) or visiting www.dzmm.com.ph.

SUNDAY : J ULY 3, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

C7

SINGLE/SINGLE FOCUSES ON #LOOKINGGOOD

M

illennials pay a lot of attention to their health and physical appearance.

Due to the demands of a hectic working schedule or lack of inspiration, they often neglect their own fitness and wellbeing.

Tonight on Single/Single 2 episode 8, join Joee, Joey and Ranee, starred by Shaina Magdayao, Matteo Guidicelli and Anna Luna, respectively, as they strive to look their best despite their busy schedules and emotional conflicts.

After a painful break-up, Joee will be out on an extravagant shopping galore. Is she doing this to feel good and cope or to show that she can easily move on despite her failed relationship with Steve?

On the other hand, Joey – already freed from the binds he had with his mother - will focus on improving his physique. Jason, the bartender, will be his training partner. What hilarious moments will the duo go through to achieve fit and sexy bodies?

And of course, get an update on Ranee’s love life, which continues to bloom even more. Is this the reason why she looks radiantly good even without a drop of sweat shed?

Join in the fun and learn some exciting millennial lessons on #LookingGood from PhilStarTV and Cinema One’s award-winning breakthrough series, Single/ Single season 2.

Single/Single season 2 airs Sundays, 10 p.m. on Cinema One with replays on Wednesdays, 8:30

Will Devaughn and Anna Luna in today’s episode of “Single/Single”

p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturdays. Past episodes can also be viewed on philstartv.com. For more updates,

visit facebook.com/SingleSingleC1 and follow @SingleSingleC1 on Twitter and Instagram.

Melai’s life in great danger

I-Bilibers Tiu, James & Roadfill of Moymoy Palaboy and Janine Gutierrez

What’s Chris Tiu and his gang up to in ‘I-Bilib’ Find out what Chris Tiu, James & Roadfill of Moymoy Palaboy and Janine Gutierrez are up to in today’s episode of I-BILIB. Is it possible for a 20-kilo dumb bell to float in the air? Well, the gang of Discovery Science will prove it in an experiment they call “Dumb bell in the Sky.” A colorful staircase made of carton, water and hose is what the I-Bilib gang will try to do in the experiment called “Rainbow Stairs Experiment.”

Can a popsicle stick put a robot down? That’s what we should watch out in the experiment in the show called “Exploding Ninja Stars Experiment.”

An enjoyable hi-tech Bilibabol adventure is what James and Roadfill are going to have in the Bilibabol Wizard Galllery.

Also, watch out for Janine;s yummy “pabaon” in Huling Hirit’s Sleeping Teddy Bear Food Art. Join TV’s no. 1 educational show on GMA-7 every Sunday morning.

Gary still a Kapamilya Mr. Pure Energy Gary Valenciano remains a Kapamilya after signing another exclusive one-year contract with ABS-CBN recently.

His contract covers his appearances in the Sunday noontime show ASAP and new projects. The total performer will also be releasing an album, under Star Music, entitled Gary V at Primetime featuring songs used as official sound track

(OST) in various teleseryes. Included in the lineup of songs are “Wag Ka Nang Umiyak,” “Sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan,” and “Ikaw Lamang” among others.

Present in the signing were ABS-CBN President and CEO Carlo Katigbak, ABS-CBN COO for Broadcast Cory Vidanes, TV Production Head Laurenti Dyogi, and Gary Valenciano’s wife and manager Angeli Valenciano.

Gary V (center) renews his ties with the Kapamilya Network, joining him during contract signing are (from left) Laurenti Dyogi, Cory Vidanes and Angeli Valenciano

Wilma (Pokwang) and Pocholo (Carlo Aquino) are set to face more struggles as Maricel (Melai Cantiveros) still has yet to wake up from a coma after meeting a tragic vehicular accident in the remaining last three weeks of the Kapamilya afternoon series We Will Survive.

Though Maricel is not showing any signs of life, her husband-to-be Pocholo is still hopeful that she will wake up. Their son Jude (Josh De Guzman) is also greatly affected by the current condition of her mother but draws hope from his dad to face the biggest hurdle in their lives yet.

Like Pocholo, Wilma continues to fight for the life of her best friend and works hard to earn money and pay for the hospital bills of Maricel.

Will Pocholo’s dreams for his family still come true? When will Maricel wake up?

More exciting scenes are set to surprise the viewers in We Will Survive, the teleserye that shows however ugly

“We Will Survive” BFFs Wilma (Pokwang) and Maricel (Melai)

the world gets, there is beauty in life as long as we are together, weekdays after Tubig at Langis on ABS-CBN or on ABS-CBN HD (SkyCable ch 167). Viewers may also catch up on the program’s past episodes on iWanTV.com and onskyondemand.com.ph for Sky subscribers.

ABS-CBN TVplus takes on big role in MMDA Shake Drill ABS-CBN TVplus has stepped outside the boundaries of what television can do as it now plays a crucial role in disaster preparedness.

In the metro-wide shake drill held by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), ABS-CBN TVplus demonstrated its state-of-the-art emergency warning broadcast system (EWBS) feature that warns and provides the public with information on what to do in times of emergency.

With the EWBS, citizens can be alerted prior the disaster giving them the head start to evacuate to a safer place.

To facilitate the demonstration, partner schools of Knowledge Channel among the many ‘mahiwagang black box’ holders were tapped to experience the huge impact of the EWBS during the earthquake simulation. At exactly 9 a.m., the warning message flashed on the TV screen while the students watched Knowledge Channel via ABS-CBN TVplus.

After the prompt of the EWBS, students immediately performed ‘duck, cover, and hold’ and rushed outside their classrooms.

“We believe that disaster preparedness is important for every Kapamilya to have. Through the EWBS feature of ABS-CBN TVplus, a prompt automatically pops up while you ’re watching TV that comes together with instructions on what to do like the practice in Japan during an emergency or a Tsunami,” said ABS-CBN digital terrestrial television head of marketing Sharon Tanganco.

ABS-CBN TVplus representatives led by Sharon Tanganco, ABS-CBN digital terrestrial television head of marketing (center) inked a partnership with the MMDA team headed by chairman Emerson Carlos for the shake drill

“We always advocate the use of technology in our services at the MMDA and ABS-CBN TVplus’ emergency warning broadcast system is very much useful in cases of disasters. It would really be a big help in information dissemination like the shake drill,” MMDA Chairman Emerson Carlos explained.

The emergency warning broadcast system (EWBS) of ABS-CBN TVplus was launched last year and is the first and only technology of its kind in the country. The warning message pops on screen of ABSCBN TVplus users nationwide when they are watching ABS-CBN, ABS-CBN Sports + Action, CineMo, Yey!, Knowledge Channel, and DZMM Teleradyo. As of June 2016, there are 1.2 million ABS-CBN TV-

plus box holders nationwide.

ABS-CBN is also the first media and entertainment company in the Philippines to make the historic switch from analog to digital terrestrial television in 2015 to transform the TV viewing experience of Filipinos. Using digital signal transmission, ABS-CBN TVplus makes TV viewing dramatically crystal clear. Aside from exclusive channels, it can also capture and broadcast channels that transmit in digital and is offered for a one-time payment fee of P1,999 without any monthly and installation fee.

ABS-CBN TVplus aims to make digital TV viewing enriching and provides information that can help protect Filipinos from emergencies and disasters.

SUNDAY : J ULY 3, 2016

C8

ISAH V. RED EDITOR NICKIE WANG WRITER

isahred @ gmail.com

SHOWBITZ

Actors Epi Quizon (left) and Iza Calzado (right) at the official launch of Metro Manila Film Festival’s new season

NEW METRO MANILA FILMFEST

LAUNCHED ISAH V. RED

T

he MMFF 2016 announced the restructuring of the annual Tagalog film festival. Also, it revealed that in the following six months there will be a stream of events leading up to the movie festival in December.

The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) officially opens 2016 with a refreshing new season. On a mission to celebrate the Filipino’s artistic excellence, and to champion the sustainability of the Philippine film industry, the MMFF 2016 stated this year’s filmfest would be a cinematic revolution or #reelvolution -- and

everyone is part of the improvement.

In the year’s first quarter, the MMFF reconstituted its board of directors, coalescing high-ranking representatives from the country’s public and private sectors to create the 2016 executive committee. The board began its term by introducing an exciting line-up of activities and new selection criteria for submitting filmmakers.

The conditions for the choice of finalists are built on story, audience appeal, overall impact (40 percent), cinematic attributes and technical excellence (40 percent), global appeal (10 percent), and Filipino sensibility (10 percent).

The new MMFF starts off its official launch by inviting all Filipino artists to take part in the logo design and theme song contest that will set the mood for the entire festival. The winner of the logo competition will be chosen by the new executive committee; the artist will not only design the

OPM rock icon Jett Pangan peforming before the crowd at the launch on MMFF 2016

From left: Wilson Tieng, Iza Calzado, MMDA Chairman Emerson Carlos, Boots Anson Roa Rodrigo and Epi Quizon

festival’s new emblem but will also be asked to create the key art visuals for the entire six-month campaign. The theme song will be a signal banner for the festival; seasoned composers Jimmy Bondoc, Jerrold Tarog, and Robert Rivera will select the winning piece. Acceptance of entries in the logo and theme song competition is from July 15 until Aug. 15. Winners of the competition will be announced on Sept. 15.

The 2016 MMFF has rationalized its current season to honor the hard work of the people in the Philippine film industry, while creating a bigger and more memorable experience among the audience of December’s most awaited family affair.

To develop an audience for and encourage the production of quality Filipino films, the 2016 MMFF is elevating the festival’s annual activities, creating a more experiential ambience for the fans that they will surely enjoy.

Beginning with a travelling installation, the MMFF will launch an MMFF corner

that will allow old and new fans alike to relive the country’s most glorious films through interactive galleries.

Simultaneously, the MMFF will hold the “Best of the Best” fest in select theatres, giving a chance for fans to recall the movies that added much color to the Filipino film industry.

The FanCon will give the audience an opportunity to interact with the directors, producers, and artists as they explore the upcoming movie exhibits and activities.

The annual parade of the stars will be a bigger and more interactive fan fair. The revered awards night will transform into a formal gala. Unlike past years, the MMFF will announce the winner at the end of the festival.

To be held on Jan 8, 2017, the jurors have added more honors in this year’s culminating event, such as the People’s Choice Award.

The 2016 Metro Manila Film Fest is going through a #reelvolution, and you are part of it. For more information on the MMFF, visit www.mmff.com.ph or follow @mmffofficial on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.