The Standard - 2016 July 10 - Sunday

VOL. XXX NO. 148 3 Sections 24 Pages P18 SUNDAY : JULY 10, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph

THIS TIME, HEAT IS ON ‘NARCO POLS’

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8 MORE KILLED IN WAR ON DRUGS

2,856 suspects give up, stir fears of jail congestion

By Francisco Tuyay

EIGHT more suspected narcotics dealers were killed in a gun fight with drug enforcers who swooped down on their hideout in Matalam, Cotabato before dawn Saturday.

In a report reaching the Philippine National Police’s Camp Crame headquarters, the police said re-

gional police units and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency raided the suspects’ hideout

in Barangay Poblacion around 2:30 a.m. on the strength of duly-issued search warrant.

But the suspects—identified as Tainko Lamping, Bolao Palti, Haron Lamping Mamakan, Abudzaid Runas, Tahir Kasan Salipudin; Mustapha Tausi, Mangapan Mama Musa and Jobaina Lumantag—fired on the policemen resulting in the gun fight.

All of the suspects, who are

also believed to be involved in car thefts and robberies in the area, were killed except for a certain Aratok Iba Balabagan, who is now undergoing tactical interrogation at the Matalam police station.

Recovered from the scene of the fighting were one cal. 45 pistol, a 9mm pistol, one cal. 38 pistol, four hand grenades, five sachets of shabu and assorted drug paraphernalia.

The killing of the eight suspects brings to 10 the number of suspected drug dealers slain in just seven days after two other drug suspects were shot dead in an antidrug operation in Dinalupihan, Bataan.

Meanwhile, more confessed drug users and petty pushers continued to surrender to the police for fear of being slain in the ongoing anti-narcotics drive. Next page

HARD LESSONS. After being rounded up in Quezon City for various offenses, 93 people receive a public dressing down from newly installed Quezon City Police District Director Senior Supt.

Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar at Camp Karingal. MANNY PALMERO

EYEWEAR INDUSTRY REDEFINED

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YASAY HEMS AND HAWS ON SEA ROW

By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay clarified his reported statement that the country is willing to share with China resources from the contested West Philippine Sea even if the Permanent Court of Arbitration rules in the Philippines’ favor.

“What I said is we have to wait for the ruling and study and dissect its implication,” Yasay said in a statement released on Saturday amid criticism of his supposed statement that he is ready to negotiate with China on joint exploration of oil and fishery resources in the disputed area.

Yasay issued the clarification amid reports that China has begun military

drills in the South China Sea with the navy carrying out combat exercises with live missiles in the area between the Paracels and the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

Despite the Chinese muscle flexing, however, an international jurist said a PCA ruling favorable to the Philippines would be a “game changer” in Next page

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NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

THIS TIME, THE HEAT IS ON NARCO-POLITICIANS

By John Paolo Bencito

MALACAÑANG on Saturday suggested that the proceeds of the illegal drug trade may have been used to finance some politicians in the recently-concluded national elections.

In an interview with state radio dzRB, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella also said there is also a possibility that members of the media may be involved in coddling the illegal drug trade in the country.

“I think that’s part of the implication of the President’s message —that the Philippines falls into narcopolitics,” Abella told state radio dzRB. “Because apparently, there are mayors who acted independently of their parties [and didn’t ask for

donations] because they already have their own sources of funds,” Abella said after President Rodrigo Duterte said that some mayors were involved in the illegal drug trade.

Duterte presented a chart that showed the web of suspected drug lords and their alleged protectors, among them local officials and police officers.

“I will not allow these idiots to run their show, not during my watch,” Duterte said.

Philippine National Police

chief Ronald dela Rosa, meanwhile, said there are 23 mayors who were believed to be involved in the illegal drug trade.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said the authorities are also looking at the possibility that some high officials of the Aquino administration protected members of the Chinese drug triad in addition to the five police generals whom Duterte had publicly identified.

Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno, meanwhile, plans to release a complete list of those implicated in the syndicates identified by Duterte.

Sueno said that the DILG is now collating intelligence information from government agencies, security forces and all over the country and overseas.

Among those reportedly involved in the protection of drug

situation in the country are highranking officials in the Aquino administration.

Asked to confirm reports on Dela Rosa’s claim that some members of the media are either protectors of drug lords or using drugs, Abella said that they would have to confirm to members of the media involved in the drug trade.

Abella also replied to the claim of lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno, who lamented the “explosion” of Duterte’s anti-criminality campaign.

“As far as we can see, the President has given us directives, given a directive regarding criminality which is drug related. If there are any complaints, then let’s not base it on speculations. Let us not base our reactions on reportage,” Abella said.

Police officers investigate the body of an alleged drug dealer, his face covered with packing tape and a placard reading ‘I’m a pusher’, on a street in Manila. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on July 1 urged communist rebels to start killing drug traffickers, adding another layer to a controversial war on crime in which he has warned thousands will die. AFP

YASAY...

From A1

international law and could lead other nations with territorial disputes with China to adopt the Philippine strategy of arbitration.

“It will provide our neighbors in Asia and our allies abroad a neutral ground upon which to take a position on the issue,” said International Criminal Court Justice Raul Pangalangan.

“In other words, without states saying ‘China is right’ or ‘Philippines is right,’ we provide even the erstwhile hesitant Asean states an opportunity to take a decision without riling China’s sensitivities,” said Pangalangan, a former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law. But it might turn into a disadvantage if the Philippines will agree to pursue bilateral negotiations with China.

“In a David versus Goliath scenario, the Philippines would have been helpless. By filing the case, we have shifted it from a two-par-

ty settlement and submitted it to a third-party decision maker in the tribunal,” he explained.

But Yasay maintained that since the ruling on July 12 will not cover sovereignty and delimitation of territory, it is possible that some claimant countries will be open for joint exploration.

“As the ruling will not address sovereignty and delimitation, it is possible that some time in the future, claimant countries might consider entering into arrangements, such as joint exploration and utilization of resources in disputed areas that do not prejudice the parties’ claims and delimitation of boundaries in accordance with the [United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea],” Yasay stressed.

Unclos is a binding agreement signed by the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China where every countries has the exclusive maritime right to explore and exploit resources within its 200 nautical miles economic exclusive zone.

In a text message he sent and was quoted by the ANC on Fri-

day night he also clarified that the Permanent Court of Arbitration does not have “any enforcement power” for a plan of shared resources.

“Since the PCA does not have any enforcement powers, any overlapping claims awarded can be best implemented by negotiating an agreement with other claimants that could possibly include the joint exploration and utilization of the resources in the disputed area,” Yasay said.

In a forum on Monday, Yasay cited the courtesy call of Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jinhua to President Rodrigo Duterte, and disclosed that both countries have plans for a joint exploration of oil and fishery resources in the contested waters.

“If the Chinese, in respecting the decision of the arbitral tribunal, would like to negotiate within the context of that arbitral tribunal along with the other claimants, if at all that will be covered by the decision, to see how we can jointly use and explore the area, by all means let’s pursue that,” Yasay said.

Yasay also expressed the same idea in an interview with Agence France-Presse which reported that the Philippines is willing to share resources from the disputed waters.

“We can even have the objective of seeing how we can jointly explore this territory—how we can utilize and benefit mutually from the utilization of the resources in this exclusive economic zone [EEZ] where claims are overlapping,” Yasay said.

It was the second time Yasay turned back a statement about China since he assumed leadership of the foreign office on July 1.

During their Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Yasay referred to the Philippines’ possible victory on July 12: “What if, in the face of these circumstances, China will dig in and put us to a test? They will disallow again our fishermen from fishing in Scarborough Shoal.”

His statement has increase concerns that the Duterte administration is afraid of China, leading Yasay to make a clarification in another forum.

8 MORE...

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In Metro Manila, around 400 drug personalities in the northern cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela voluntarily surrendered to the police while a total of 2,856 individuals have already surrendered in the southern part of the metropolis.

In Caloocan, Supt. Ferdinand del Rosario said drug personalities surrendered in the belief that the government would give them an opportunity to have a better future after Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan promised to extend assistance to those who would voluntarily surrender.

Police said that the city government is continuously extending the P50,000 to P100,000 reward money to anyone who can pinpoint to the authorities those personalities involved in drug pushing or proliferating of illegal drugs in the city.

In Valenzuela, not less than 200 drug personalities have surrendered to the Valenzuela City Police the other day, according to city police chief Senior Supt. Audie Villacin.

In Malabon and Navotas, there are about 100 drug personalities who voluntarily surrendered, according to Malabon police chief Senior Supt.

John Chua and Navotas police head Supt. Dante Novicio.

In southern Metro Manila, a total of 2,856 individuals surrendered and are now undergoing evaluation, said Southern Police District spokesperson Jenny Pecson.

The suspected pushers and dependents gave themselves up to the police following the reported series of killings involving drug dealers during buy-bust operations conducted by law enforcement agencies.

Just recently, seven were killed in separate anti-illegal drug operations in cities of Pasay, Parañaque and Muntinlupa.

Newly-designated National Capital Region Police Office director Oscar Albayalde said five other drug pushers were also killed last Sunday in a gun battle with law enforcers in Quiapo, Manila.

He said his men were about to serve arrest warrants against the suspects “when shots rang out from one of the houses in the area.”

Albayalde said after the incident, his men recovered four firearms and 200 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu, from the suspects.

In his speech during the turnover ceremony at the NCRPO, Albayalde had promised to intensify the campaign against criminality and illegal drugs.

He said his leadership will focus on three major thrusts—Practical Programs for crime prevention and suspension, an intensified campaign against criminality and illegal drugs, and sustained cleansing of ranks.

Albayalde said he will be implementing “Oplan Double Barrel” to hit both high-value target personalities and street-level drug operators.

He also ordered all district directors—Manila Police District, Southern Police District, Eastern Police District, Northern Police District and Central Police District—to intensify police street patrol operations to prevent robbery, snatching, theft and numerous modus operandi.

The government’s continuing crackdown on suspected drug traffickers also resulted in the arrest of more than 500 individuals, some of them Taiwanese and Chinese nationals, in Metro Manila from January to May this year. With Jun David, Joel Zurbano

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NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

NAT’L FEEDING PROJECT EYED

By John Paolo Bencito

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is planning to implement a national feeding program to address the hunger problem of the country which is more serious than most countries in East and Southeast Asia.

FIRST MUSLIM APPOINTMENT. President Rodrigo Duterte announces his appointment of Guiling Mamondiong (extreme right) as head of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority during an Eid’l Fitr celebration in Davao City on Friday. MALACAÑANG PHOTO

ASG STILL LIABLE, PALACE CLARIFIES THE Palace clarified on Saturday that the extremist Abu Sayyaf group will still have to be held accountable for their actions even if they were spurred by desperation spawned by historical injustices as claimed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

“He is not condoning what they have done. He is only putting their actions in the context that they were forced to desperation,” Abella said in an interview over state-run dzRB. “But they still need to be answerable for the actions.”

Abella made the clarification after Duterte said he was excluding the Abu Sayyaf from his anti-criminality campaign because they were only “driven to desperation over broken promises.”

“I’m not including the Abu Sayyaf dito sa criminality. You’ve never heard me say that they are criminals,” Duterte said, pertaining to the Moro rebellion that was spurred by real injustices experienced in the past.

Even before he assumed office, Duterte had already said that neutralizing the Islamic militant group, which recently beheaded two foreign hostages and kidnapped seven more, would be a top military priority.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the kidnappings of the extremist group—which is also blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history—were already affecting the country economically.

“Our first priority is the Abu Sayyaf because that is the order of our new president: address the Abu Sayyaf immediately so we can neutralize them,” he told reporters.

John Paolo Bencito

1ST MORO CABINET EXEC NAMED

By John Paolo Bencito PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte named his first Moro appointee to the Cabinet, lawyer Guiling Mamondiong from Lanao del Sur, who will head the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

“Attorney Guiling Mamondiong will be the [director-general] of Tesda. It is a Cabinet position,” Duterte said during an Eid’l Fitr celebration in Davao City on Friday.

Mamondiong, who earlier served as undersecretary at the Department of Transportation and Communications during the administration of former President Gloria Arroyo, will replace TESDA Director-General Irene Isaac.

Duterte said Moro might be surprised “that there are only about three, four, or five Mus-

lims who would be occupying Cabinet positions” but he explained that there will soon be a need for more Moros in government in the federal system he is envisioning.

“I am trying to do a framework and if I succeed in convincing everybody in Mindanao, if I could convince my [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] brothers and Nur Misuari of the [Moro National Liberation Front], there will be a reconfiguration of the territory and most of them will occupy the regional or state positions,” he said.

The only other Muslim in the Duterte Cabinet is Bai Yasmin Busran-Lao, also from Lanao del Sur, who heads the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.

Meanwhile, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella clarified that while Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo was appointed

head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, she will have to get policy directions from Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco.

In his first executive order, Duterte tasked Evasco, a former mayor of Maribojoc, Bohol, to oversee 12 national government agencies, including the HUDCC, in implementing the new administration’s anti-poverty programs.

“Policy-wise, she works with Secretary Evasco,” Abella said in an interview with state radio station dzRB. “Basically she’s responsible to the President as Vice President and she relates to Jun Evasco, especially for policy.”

Another appointment was that of television host Arnel Ignacio, who was named assistant vice president for community relations and services department of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.

SONA PHALANX. Quezon City riot policemen practice phalanx maneuvers ahead of the first State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte on July 25. MANNY PALMERO

Speaking at an Eid’l Fitr celebration in Davao City, Duterte noted that some regions in Mindanao, particularly the Cotabato and ARMM regions, have the highest incidence of hunger in the country and he plans to pour government resources in such areas.

“Our solution is a national feeding program,” he said, noting that he did the same thing in Davao City where he had a substantial part of the city’s budget to address the problem of hunger and nutrition.

Duterte did not specify details of the scope and cost of his national feeding program, but Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol has already unveiled a plan to institute a national milk feeding program.

The plan aims to address the problem of dairy farmers in marketing and distribution of milk and at the same time, help alleviate malnutrition among school children.

Even before assuming office, Piñol visited the Philippine Carabao Center to determine how his department could help dairy farmers distribute carabao’s milk products, such as mozzarella, bocconcini, “kesong puti”, pastillas, yoghurt, fresh milk and different flavored milk drinks.

He was also ushered to the national gene pool to visit the purebred buffaloes and later toured the Livestock Innovations and Biotechnology Center where he was briefed about the PCC program in a video presentation featuring success stories of farmers.

Piñol said the program would be multipurpose as it will boost the income of dairy farmers and farm workers, while likewise addressing malnutrition among children.

“We will coordinate our efforts with the National Dairy Authority and Department of Education to identify schools or barangays that have high rates of malnutrition and we’ll focus our program there. If the carabao program could be replicated in other province successfully, then we will support it all the way,” he said.

According to the 2015 Global Hunger Index, the food and nutrition situation in the Philippines is rated as “serious”—despite steady improvements since the 1990s, positioning the country at 53 out of 104 countries. Prevalence of undernutrition remains an issue of public concern.

Although it is two points lower than in 2005, the Philippines’ score is still 6.8 points higher than the East and Southeast Asia average of 13.2 points.

The President has already outlined an anti-poverty program that will be spearheaded by 12 line agencies that he placed under the Office of the President in his first executive order.

As of first semester last year, 26.3 percent or roughly 26 million of the 100 million Filipinos were living below the poverty line, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

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OPINION

ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

OPINION

NATO NEEDS TO STAND STRONG AGAINST PUTIN

[ EDI TORI A L ]

HURRYING THE PROCESS IN AN address Thursday night, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would implement the executive order on freedom of information next week, immediately after he has reviewed the draft submitted to him during a Cabinet meeting.

The order will be called “Operationalizing in the Executive Branch the people’s constitutional right to information and the state of policies of full public disclosure and transparency in public service and providing guidelines therefore.”

The order will only be binding to executive officials, Duterte emphasized, because of the separation of powers of the different branches of government. “It is up to Congress. If they want, they can file and maybe come up with a copy of the Freedom of Information Law,” he added.

“If they want” appears to be the operative phrase.

Over the course of many congresses, different versions of the freedom of information bill have been submitted. Discussions and debates have taken place, under different political contexts and legal nuances. Six years ago, then-presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III ran on the platform of transparency and good governance, promising to enact an FOI Law that would shed light on all government transactions.

Alas, these were just flowery promises, soon to be forgotten when Aquino won and started what he called the Daang Matuwid administration. In the most recent Congress, the Senate passed its version but the House failed to advance a counterpart.

While this was supposed to be a legislative failure—after all, lawmakers may not have been keen on making it easy for citizens to gain access to public records—it was also a reflection of the lack of will and sincerity of Aquino who is known to make legislators toe the line when he wanted to.

Separation of powers notwithstanding, the executive order will, we hope, set the tone for the other branches to follow suit.

The Duterte administration is only right to hurry up the process, because a genuine FOI environment—an order, a law, a ruling—has been long overdue.

TRUMP FINDS HIDDEN PRIZE IN FBI CLINTON REPORT

By Margaret Carlson SAY this for Donald Trump: He can make political hay with whatever is at hand.

His unique skills were highlighted by the ham-handed Republicans in Congress, who spent their time on the fruitless task of trying to prove that Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey’s recommendation not to indict Hillary Clinton was evidence of bias. Trump, meanwhile, is concentrating on what Comey said, not what he didn’t do.

Trump dramatized Comey’s findings, zeroing in on the destruction of more than 30,000 e-mails that Clinton’s lawyer unilaterally deemed personal.

As President Barack Obama embarked on his first campaign trip with Clinton, extolling how qualified she was for his job, Trump said the only thing she is good at “is getting out of trouble.”

It’s true that she has a talent for dodging bullets. Just look at Whitewater, Troopergate, cattle futures, Paula Jones, the Travel Office firings, the Lewinsky scandal, the Mark Rich pardon and furniture being moved out, and back into, the White House.

But she hasn’t escaped entirely unscathed. By refusing to indict, the FBI chief handed Clinton a clean legal bill of health but not a political one. Republicans now have in hand Comey’s exposition of the facts to contrast with Clinton’s evasions, justifications

This is not to say that a wounded Clinton makes Trump strong. He still has to run against himself.

and explanations. Spliced together, they make for a devastating video that can be shown in a continuing loop from now until November,

disappointing only to those who want Clinton in prison stripes.

Imagine if Republicans got their indictment. The Democrat that Donald Trump has the best chance of beating would have been chased from the race. Enter Joe Biden, and no wave of white working-class voters who want to build a wall, bar Muslims, start a trade war, and, possibly, a nuclear one would save Trump from defeat.

While Congress saw an opportunity to attack Comey’s integrity at a televised hearing, Trump seized on the fresh ammunition he was given to use against “Crooked Hillary.” Trump crowed to the New York Post, “I would rather face her than almost anybody else.”

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Grandstanding members of Congress who clumsily grilled Comey proved no match for the FBI director whose name is synonymous with straightshooter, a star who once served as deputy to the independent prosecutor Ken Starr and as President George W. Bush’s deputy attorney general. Yet moments after Comey’s announcement, Republicans decided to tear down one of their own down. Former prosecutors rushed to TV studios to attack his integrity, among them former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, and White House counsel Boyden Gray.

Then, Comey was summoned to the Hill to play the villain in

a morality tale scripted by the House Oversight Committee. Sure, instead of allowing him the courtesy of taking the oath privately, they got the frisson of forcing Comey to raise his right hand in public like a tobacco company executive called to discuss a lethal product. But that was their last triumph. Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz tried to inoculate himself by declaring: “I love the FBI. My grandfather was in the FBI.” But the theme of the day was that Comey practiced a double standard of justice: One for ordinary people and one for the powerful. Comey replied that prosecuting

Clinton would have shown a double standard.

Chaffetz inexplicably name-checked Representative Trey Gowdy, who brought the country the Benghazi hearings. That was like turning to the captain of the Titanic for pointers on sailing.

For his part, Gowdy conducted a lengthy law school tutorial on intent and exculpatory statements, while instructing Comey to please keep it short. It’s a given, he said, that Clinton was “treated differently than the rest of us” and this was not presented in the form of a question.

Apropos of nothing, Representative

John Mica of Florida asked Comey if he’d seen “Hamilton.” Neither had. After all, they are men of the people and tickets to the blockbuster musical can cost $1,000.

It was just a long windup for Mica to call Comey’s decision “choreographed.” It brought forth Comey at his G-Man best: “Look me in the eye and listen to what I’m about to say. I did not coordinate that with anyone.”

Members of the committee gave Comey a soft target with their insistence that Clinton’s behavior was worse than that of General David Petraeus, who had Continued on A6

THE political turmoil stirred up by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union has left Nato with an urgent task: To demonstrate to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that Europe remains strong, united and invulnerable to his meddling.

In recent months, through espionage and efforts to incite unrest (notably in Germany), Putin has sought to exploit European political and social divisions to advance his goals. After occupying one-fifth of Georgia, taking over Crimea and invading eastern Ukraine, Putin has responded to sanctions by threatening Russia’s other European neighbors and sending planes and ships far and wide to probe and play chicken with Nato forces.

Meanwhile, Russian hackers have reportedly targeted not just websites, but the Ukrainian power grid, Estonia’s financial system, and a German steel mill.

Nato’s 28 member countries, meeting this week in Warsaw, have to recognize this behavior for what it is—an escalating threat to their interests and values—and respond with a long-term strategy.

The alliance should, for one thing, expand and strengthen its deployment of four battalions to the Baltic nations, to make it a more credible deterrent. It should conduct more joint exercises in Europe, especially in the Baltic Sea, and see that Germany begins to participate more fully. It should also beef up its ability to coordinate its member countries’ intelligence resources, not least to monitor the surprise military training exercises that Russia has been conducting.

At the same time, Nato countries should seize every opportunity for dialogue with Russia, to try to dispel the paranoia that colors Putin’s worldview, and to be prepared to avert any unintended military confrontations.

More fundamentally, the alliance has to step up its military spending. Nato’s membership has nearly doubled since 1990, but its total defense spending has fallen by one-quarter over the same period, as the US accounts for a growing share of the total. Notwithstanding last year’s small uptick in defense budgets, all but five Nato countries have fallen short of the alliance’s goal of dedicating 2 percent of gross domestic product to military spending.

This shortfall constrains Nato’s ability to take on critical new missions such as supporting the fight against Islamic State or expanding its patrols to stop human trafficking in the Mediterranean.

Moreover, the 2-percent goal is an important political symbol. Nato’s members will always argue among themselves over strategies and priorities —that is democracy’s messy prerogative.

But in the long run, the alliance must demonstrate to Putin and the world that it can depend on the support and shared commitment of all its members.

Bloomberg

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A4

OPINION

ADELLE CHUA EDITOR

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

OPINION

NATO NEEDS TO STAND STRONG AGAINST PUTIN

[ EDI TORI A L ]

HURRYING THE PROCESS IN AN address Thursday night, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would implement the executive order on freedom of information next week, immediately after he has reviewed the draft submitted to him during a Cabinet meeting.

The order will be called “Operationalizing in the Executive Branch the people’s constitutional right to information and the state of policies of full public disclosure and transparency in public service and providing guidelines therefore.”

The order will only be binding to executive officials, Duterte emphasized, because of the separation of powers of the different branches of government. “It is up to Congress. If they want, they can file and maybe come up with a copy of the Freedom of Information Law,” he added.

“If they want” appears to be the operative phrase.

Over the course of many congresses, different versions of the freedom of information bill have been submitted. Discussions and debates have taken place, under different political contexts and legal nuances. Six years ago, then-presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III ran on the platform of transparency and good governance, promising to enact an FOI Law that would shed light on all government transactions.

Alas, these were just flowery promises, soon to be forgotten when Aquino won and started what he called the Daang Matuwid administration. In the most recent Congress, the Senate passed its version but the House failed to advance a counterpart.

While this was supposed to be a legislative failure—after all, lawmakers may not have been keen on making it easy for citizens to gain access to public records—it was also a reflection of the lack of will and sincerity of Aquino who is known to make legislators toe the line when he wanted to.

Separation of powers notwithstanding, the executive order will, we hope, set the tone for the other branches to follow suit.

The Duterte administration is only right to hurry up the process, because a genuine FOI environment—an order, a law, a ruling—has been long overdue.

TRUMP FINDS HIDDEN PRIZE IN FBI CLINTON REPORT

By Margaret Carlson SAY this for Donald Trump: He can make political hay with whatever is at hand.

His unique skills were highlighted by the ham-handed Republicans in Congress, who spent their time on the fruitless task of trying to prove that Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey’s recommendation not to indict Hillary Clinton was evidence of bias. Trump, meanwhile, is concentrating on what Comey said, not what he didn’t do.

Trump dramatized Comey’s findings, zeroing in on the destruction of more than 30,000 e-mails that Clinton’s lawyer unilaterally deemed personal.

As President Barack Obama embarked on his first campaign trip with Clinton, extolling how qualified she was for his job, Trump said the only thing she is good at “is getting out of trouble.”

It’s true that she has a talent for dodging bullets. Just look at Whitewater, Troopergate, cattle futures, Paula Jones, the Travel Office firings, the Lewinsky scandal, the Mark Rich pardon and furniture being moved out, and back into, the White House.

But she hasn’t escaped entirely unscathed. By refusing to indict, the FBI chief handed Clinton a clean legal bill of health but not a political one. Republicans now have in hand Comey’s exposition of the facts to contrast with Clinton’s evasions, justifications

This is not to say that a wounded Clinton makes Trump strong. He still has to run against himself.

and explanations. Spliced together, they make for a devastating video that can be shown in a continuing loop from now until November,

disappointing only to those who want Clinton in prison stripes.

Imagine if Republicans got their indictment. The Democrat that Donald Trump has the best chance of beating would have been chased from the race. Enter Joe Biden, and no wave of white working-class voters who want to build a wall, bar Muslims, start a trade war, and, possibly, a nuclear one would save Trump from defeat.

While Congress saw an opportunity to attack Comey’s integrity at a televised hearing, Trump seized on the fresh ammunition he was given to use against “Crooked Hillary.” Trump crowed to the New York Post, “I would rather face her than almost anybody else.”

A5

Grandstanding members of Congress who clumsily grilled Comey proved no match for the FBI director whose name is synonymous with straightshooter, a star who once served as deputy to the independent prosecutor Ken Starr and as President George W. Bush’s deputy attorney general. Yet moments after Comey’s announcement, Republicans decided to tear down one of their own down. Former prosecutors rushed to TV studios to attack his integrity, among them former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, and White House counsel Boyden Gray.

Then, Comey was summoned to the Hill to play the villain in

a morality tale scripted by the House Oversight Committee. Sure, instead of allowing him the courtesy of taking the oath privately, they got the frisson of forcing Comey to raise his right hand in public like a tobacco company executive called to discuss a lethal product. But that was their last triumph. Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz tried to inoculate himself by declaring: “I love the FBI. My grandfather was in the FBI.” But the theme of the day was that Comey practiced a double standard of justice: One for ordinary people and one for the powerful. Comey replied that prosecuting

Clinton would have shown a double standard.

Chaffetz inexplicably name-checked Representative Trey Gowdy, who brought the country the Benghazi hearings. That was like turning to the captain of the Titanic for pointers on sailing.

For his part, Gowdy conducted a lengthy law school tutorial on intent and exculpatory statements, while instructing Comey to please keep it short. It’s a given, he said, that Clinton was “treated differently than the rest of us” and this was not presented in the form of a question.

Apropos of nothing, Representative

John Mica of Florida asked Comey if he’d seen “Hamilton.” Neither had. After all, they are men of the people and tickets to the blockbuster musical can cost $1,000.

It was just a long windup for Mica to call Comey’s decision “choreographed.” It brought forth Comey at his G-Man best: “Look me in the eye and listen to what I’m about to say. I did not coordinate that with anyone.”

Members of the committee gave Comey a soft target with their insistence that Clinton’s behavior was worse than that of General David Petraeus, who had Continued on A6

THE political turmoil stirred up by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union has left Nato with an urgent task: To demonstrate to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that Europe remains strong, united and invulnerable to his meddling.

In recent months, through espionage and efforts to incite unrest (notably in Germany), Putin has sought to exploit European political and social divisions to advance his goals. After occupying one-fifth of Georgia, taking over Crimea and invading eastern Ukraine, Putin has responded to sanctions by threatening Russia’s other European neighbors and sending planes and ships far and wide to probe and play chicken with Nato forces.

Meanwhile, Russian hackers have reportedly targeted not just websites, but the Ukrainian power grid, Estonia’s financial system, and a German steel mill.

Nato’s 28 member countries, meeting this week in Warsaw, have to recognize this behavior for what it is—an escalating threat to their interests and values—and respond with a long-term strategy.

The alliance should, for one thing, expand and strengthen its deployment of four battalions to the Baltic nations, to make it a more credible deterrent. It should conduct more joint exercises in Europe, especially in the Baltic Sea, and see that Germany begins to participate more fully. It should also beef up its ability to coordinate its member countries’ intelligence resources, not least to monitor the surprise military training exercises that Russia has been conducting.

At the same time, Nato countries should seize every opportunity for dialogue with Russia, to try to dispel the paranoia that colors Putin’s worldview, and to be prepared to avert any unintended military confrontations.

More fundamentally, the alliance has to step up its military spending. Nato’s membership has nearly doubled since 1990, but its total defense spending has fallen by one-quarter over the same period, as the US accounts for a growing share of the total. Notwithstanding last year’s small uptick in defense budgets, all but five Nato countries have fallen short of the alliance’s goal of dedicating 2 percent of gross domestic product to military spending.

This shortfall constrains Nato’s ability to take on critical new missions such as supporting the fight against Islamic State or expanding its patrols to stop human trafficking in the Mediterranean.

Moreover, the 2-percent goal is an important political symbol. Nato’s members will always argue among themselves over strategies and priorities —that is democracy’s messy prerogative.

But in the long run, the alliance must demonstrate to Putin and the world that it can depend on the support and shared commitment of all its members.

Bloomberg

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OPINION

lettertotheeditor@thestandard.com.ph

ABOUT BREXITIME FOR AN INDEPENDENT SCOTLAND

By Eric Wishart HONG KONG—After 30 years living abroad as an expat Scot, I’d managed to more or less figure out my family’s place in the world. Or at least that was the case until Brexit came along.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, I joined AFP in Paris in 1984, married an American and we had two children—who went to French schools and speak the language fluently. The family has strong bonds to the United States and Britain and also to our adopted homes of France and more recently Hong Kong. Ask us where we all come from and you will not get a very clear answer, but at least there were some anchors out there.

My accent—you can take the man out of Glasgow but you can’t take Glasgow out of the man—certainly anchors me in Scotland.

Our home in France and our European identities were other anchors.

But the Brexit result last week effectively sent us heading into uncharted waters, particularly for my (adult) children, who spent much of their childhood in France but who have British and US passports. While their British passports used to be European passports, this will no longer be the case.

We had always planned to apply for French citizenship, but gathering together all the necessary official documents from administrative authorities in the UK, Ireland and various cities in the United States has been a long and frustrating process: by the time a certified copy of one parent’s birth certificate was issued by the Registration of Persons

Bureau in Omaha, Nebraska, the birth certificate we had obtained from Scotland for another parent would be past the three-month validity limit imposed by the French administration.

Fortunately, with most of the family on British passports, we were free to live in France and anywhere else in Europe, and we could not have imagined in a lifetime of French Sunday lunches that this would ever change.

So with a sudden sense of being

cut adrift from our French and European cultures by the referendum result, my ears ringing and head spinning in shock, and after a lifetime of rejecting the very notion of Scottish independence, I posted this on my Facebook timeline in the seconds following the result: “I’ve just become a supporter of Scottish independence—for real.”

That famous quote from George Bush Sr. (and the Big Lebowski) flashed through my mind as I did it: “This aggression will not stand.”

And this is from someone who deeply believes in the United Kingdom and its shared history and values.

But what choice did I have—after Scotland had chosen overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union, it saw its future decided otherwise by voters in the English heartlands south of the border.

My worries are shared by many expat Britons in Europe now. And like me, many parents have seen their children deprived, from one day to the

TRUMP... From A5

Pro-EU campaigners demonstrate outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland. AFP

THIS CHINESE DYNASTY NEEDS A NAME

By Justin Fox THE Communist Party of China, it is frequently asserted, is a misnamed organization. That’s because, since the party began experimenting with private enterprise in the 1970s, it has shed much of the intellectual baggage associated with Marx, Lenin and that ilk.

Not all the baggage, mind you.

As Richard McGregor explains in his book, “The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers”: The Chinese Communist Party’s enduring grip on power is based on a simple formula straight out of the Leninist playbook. For all the reforms of the past three decades, the Party has made sure it keeps a lock-hold on the state and three pillars of its survival strategy: control of personnel, propaganda and the People’s Liberation Army.

So that’s one reason to keep calling it the Communist Party. Another is that most of the possible alternatives are problematic.

The BBC’s Carrie Gracie suggested a couple of years ago that the Chinese Nationalist Party would be the most appropriate name, except that it is, of course, already taken. The leaders of the Nationalist Party, aka the Kuomintang, fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Communists defeated them in a civil war. Now the KMT is a standard-issue political party in Taiwan’s multiparty democracy. Just to complicate things, though, it, too was organized along Leninist lines for much of its history, despite its popularity among certain 20th-century American capitalists.

Daniel A. Bell, the Tsinghua University political theorist whose ideas I’ve been giving a lot of play to this week, suggested in his book “The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy” that the Communist Party rename itself the Chinese Merito-

next, of their European birthright.

So hence my case for Scottish independence.

I’m not what I would call a “tartan” expat. In my years away from Scotland I have gone to the occasional Burns supper but have never joined St. Andrew’s societies or worn a kilt (in fact, I’ve never worn a kilt in my life). At the same time, the sense of national identity never leaves you.

If the only path forward for Scotland and its people, if they want to remain part of Europe, is to break away from the United Kingdom and apply for EU membership, with all the ramifications and uncertainties that this will entail, then so be it.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that the Brexit vote represented a “material change” since the Scottish independence referendum and that as a result a second vote on independence was “highly likely.”

I saw her at a breakfast last year at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club and was impressed: she was incisive, convincing—a modern leader for a modern Scotland. And if she gives me a vote next time around, despite all the attendant economic and other uncertainties, it would be in favor of an independent Scotland as a member, hopefully, of a united Europe. AFP

cratic Union or the Union of Democratic Meritocrats. When I asked last week if those proposals were gaining any traction, he laughed and said: “No, are you kidding? Not at all, and that part will be censored from the Chinese edition. In private people say, of course, it’s not a bad idea. But the idea that you would do it in public is really viewed as totally out of the realm of what’s possible, for the next few years anyway.”

I’m going to offer some free advice to the Chinese leadership here: It’s actually a terrible idea. If you’re a Chinese factory worker, being ruled by the Communist Party at least makes it sound like you, as a member of the proletariat, have some say. The Union of Democratic Meritocrats, on the other hand, would be very clearly announcing that it thinks its members are better than you. Even in Singapore, which offers the most successful model of what Bell envisions for China, the ruling party knows enough not to put anything about merit in its name. It instead goes by the innocuous and almost entirely meaningless People’s Action Party.

In the US, Democratic and Republican are similarly uninformative. In Denmark, two leading parties have names that are outright wrong (or at least long out of date): The center-right party is called Left (Venstre) while the middle-of-theroad party is called Radical Left (Radikale Venstre). In Austria, the Freedom Party has Nazi roots. In Indonesia, the former ruling party (now the junior partner in the ruling coalition) is the Party of the Functional Groups. Party names can be weird, and maybe they don’t matter much. Perhaps the Chinese Communists should just follow McGregor’s example and call themselves the Party, with a capital P. Or maybe party is the wrong word here. During my travels in

China over the past two weeks, I’ve come to realize (based more on what I was reading than what I was seeing) that in many respects the current regime is simply the latest in the long line of dynasties that have ruled China since 220 B.C. This is not a novel observation, but it doesn’t seem to come up all that much in non-academic Western discussions of China. The dynasty model works like this: After a period of decline or even chaos, a new ruler takes power—usually by military means—and establishes a new dynasty. Some of these are shortlived—the first imperial dynasty, the Qin, lasted just 15 years—while others bring centuries of peace and prosperity.

Dredging up an old dynasty name feels a little too retro at this point even for the historyobsessed Chinese, and Mao wasn’t the duke of anything.

From a Chinese historical perspective, then, the American republic at age 240 looks like a quite successful dynasty that’s been showing signs of age lately, not necessarily the “end of history.” And for China’s current rulers, legitimating themselves as part of a dynasty with the potential to rule for centuries is a top priority. That’s why Mao Zedong, whose record is openly acknowl-

edged in China as pretty disastrous, still has his face on the money and the big banner overlooking Tiananmen Square. Mao took power after a century of political turmoil and humiliation at the hands of foreigners and defeated the rival KMT, threw out the foreigners, united the country and established a new dynasty.

Repudiating him, as Khrushchev did with Stalin, would mean repudiating the dynasty.

So what should this dynasty be called? Mao Dynasty seems obvious to an outsider, but from a historical perspective it would be terribly inauspicious: The only Chinese dynasty to take the family name of its founder, the Chen Dynasty, controlled only a small part of the country and lasted just 32 years.

Dredging up an old dynasty name feels a little too retro at this point even for the history-obsessed Chinese, and Mao wasn’t the duke of anything. That leaves place of origin and making something up on the spot. The Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai 95 years ago, but there’s no way that Shanghai Dynasty would fly in Beijing. Yan’an Dynasty, for the location of the caves in central China where the Communists sheltered from 1936 to 1948, seems more promising. But it does seem to be getting a little late for that, or for making up something new.

Which leaves Communist, a word probably coined by Frenchmen and popularized by a couple of Germans. That seems awfully foreign for Chinese tastes—even Mongolian ruler Kublai Khan was politic enough to give his dynasty a Chinese name (Yuan). But it’s what China’s rulers have been calling themselves for almost 67 years now, already outlasting six historical dynasties. Communist Dynasty it is, then. Let’s see how long it rules.

Bloomberg

to step down as head of the Central Intelligence Agency and cop a plea when he was found to have mishandled classified information. Comey testified that Petraeus was much more culpable, intentionally sharing a vast quantity of classified information with his mistress and lying about it to prosecutors.

It turns out that the general even hid documents from the FBI in his attic. That was not the bombshell Republicans were hoping for.

This is not to say that a wounded Clinton makes Trump strong. He still has to run against himself: He campaigns by tweet and keeps insisting that an anti-Hillary ad featuring a Star of David on a pile of money was benign: Just your ordinary sheriff ’s star or the kind found in a Disney sticker book from the movie “Frozen.” He’s not an anti-Semite because he has Jewish grandchildren. And he added Saddam Hussein to his list of admired strongmen.

Deflated, Chaffetz demanded that the FBI investigate whether Clinton had lied under oath to Congress. Comey told Chaffetz he would need to make a formal request. “You’ll have one,” he chortled, “in the next few hours.”

Perhaps Benghazi-like, they could spend another year and $7 million on nothing. Instead, they should call it a day and realize that by not finding enough reasons to indict her, Comey enumerated for them persuasive reasons not to elect her. Watching the drama or lack of it play out, it was hard not to think that they had sitting in front of them a person they should treasure in their party— and who may even be presidential material (are you listening, “Never Trump” Republicans?).

Comey’s such a straight-shooter, however, he wouldn’t consider it.

Bloomberg

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A7

NEWS

editorial@thestandard.com.ph

NatioNal iD plaN reviveD By maricel v. Cruz FORMER Speaker and Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has filed a bill establishing an identification system to facilitate transactions with the government and simplify the processes involving public and private services.

Belmonte, in filing house Bill 12, said the Filipino Identification System will provide official identification of all citizens of the Philippines through the issuance of the Filipino ID card, which shall gradually consolidate all existing government-initiated IDs into one integrated and efficient identification system.

Belmonte said the Philippines is one of only nine countries in the world without a national identification system, and the bill seeks to address this deficiency and institutionalize Filipino Identification System to improve government services and limit red tape in government transactions.

“The national identification card will lower costs, streamline transactions, and provide ease and convenience,” Belmonte said.

The measure requires all Filipinos whether residing in the Philippines or abroad to register personal information required by the ID system, and upon application shall be issued a non-transferrable Filipino ID card with an ID number that shall be valid for life.

It provides that the Philippine Statistics Authority shall determine, validate and administer the data and materials required to avail of the benefits of the identification system.

Under the measure, every Filipino residing abroad shall apply for the registration and issuance of the Filipino ID card at the nearest Philippine Embassy or consular office of the country where they are residing.

The Filipino ID card shall be honored in transactions requiring the identity, status, birth and all other personal circumstances, including application for passport, driver’s license; applications for any services and benefits offered by the Government Service Insurance System, the Social Security System, Philhealth, home Development Mutual Fund; National Bureau of Investigation.

ph win in sea row seen to level field

Days before the Permanent Court of arbitration decides on the case, an independent think tank said a decision favorable to the Philippines on the south China sea dispute will strengthen a non-military scenario, and pave the way toward further diplomacy.

“If we get the verdict we expect, it is imperative to cull the best thinking on different post-arbitration scenarios and initiate dialogue on strategically approaching geopolitical, economic, and social changes in the region.” said Dindo Manhit, president of the Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute.

“On an immediate term, the Philippines must capitalize on the international interest in the case to garner international support for its position and elicit strong statements from other countries. While we pursue

diplomatic initiatives, the Philippines needs to take steps to protect itself from any adverse Chinese reaction. “On a medium term, we need to make peace and foster a new era of engagement with China based on mutual respect and the rule of international law,” Manhit said.

Stratbase ADRi Trustee and International Criminal Court Justice Raul Pangalangan said filing the case was a game changer for the Philippines, which would have been at a disadvantage in a bilateral setup.

“In a David versus Goliath scenario,

the Philippines would have been helpless; by filing the case, we have shifted it from a two-party settlement and submitted it to a third-party decision maker in the tribunal,” he said.

Subjecting the case to arbitration also undermined the military aspect of the dispute and instead highlighted the primacy of international law, Pangalangan said, which becomes a venue for alliance-building.

“It will provide our neighbors in Asia and our allies abroad a neutral ground upon which to take a position on the issue. In other words, without states saying ‘China is right’ or ‘Philippines is right,’ we provide even the erstwhile hesitant Asean states an opportunity to take a decision without riling China’s sensitivities.”

But getting other, more capable countries involved in the case is something that China doesn’t like, said Re-

nato de Castro, also an ADRi Trustee.

“The Philippines has sought closer security arrangements with the US and Japan, which have shown interest in providing security and diplomatic support to the Philippines.”

If you have both the US and Japan involved, it might further complicate the dispute as this makes China more belligerent and more uncompromising in dealing with the Philippines, especially after the case was filed.

ADRi will host a forum with the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea on the subject on July 15, 9 a.m. at the Malcolm Theater of the UP College of Law in Diliman. Entitled “Upholding the Law of the Sea Convention and the Post-Arbitration Philippine Challenge,” the forum will be graced by international experts.

sLeX improvement. Manila toll expressway Systems inc. has started pavement work along the southbound lanes of South luzon expressway as part of the toll operator’s 2016 road improvement and maintenance program for the 36-kilometer SleX from alabang to Calamba. MateS assured the public that traffic management plans and safety measures are all in place even as it appealed for understanding for any inconvenience the road works might cause. Work on lane 3 is ongoing after repair on lane 4 was recently completed. activities on all southbound lanes of Southwoods are targeted for completion by the end of July 2016.

KiDNap GaNG leaDer NabbeD oN hiS Way to thai SChool By florante s. solmerin

joint efforts. Suspect patrick alemania (seated) is surrounded by law enforcers including pNp Supt. arturo M. Fullero of the anti-Kidnapping Group, Supt. elmer C. Conchas of pro-19, insp. Melvin r. Motante (CiDG) and General Wuthi liptapallop, deputy commissioner general of the royal thai police.

ThE leader of the Fajardo kidnapfor-ransom group which became infamous in 2003 was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand on July 4 as a result of a close coordination between the Philippine National Police, Royal Thai Police and International Police Agency, the PNP’s Anti-Kidnapping Group said Sunday.

The suspect Patrick Phillip Gutierrez Alemania alias Bobby/Patrick was collared by a team of the Interpol “while on his way to school where he was teaching English language in Rom Klao District,” said AKG chief Sr. Supt.

Manolo Ozaeta.

“Alemania was the mastermind in the kidnapping of businessman Tony

hui Chua on Nov. 23, 2003. Some of his co-accused were sentenced by the court and now serving their sentence at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City,” Ozaeta said.

In February 2004, Ozaeta said Alemania escaped to Thailand evading a warrant of arrest for kidnapping issued against him.

In Thailand, he said, Alemania worked as a band member while his wife was a singer at a night club.” “he enrolled in a Thai language course to obtain a student visa. After learning some Thai language skills, he worked as an English teacher in Language Institute,” Ozaeta said.

On July 9, Alemania was deported to the Philippines to face the kidnapping charge filed against him.

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SUNDAY: JULY 10, 2016

NEWS editorial@thestandard.com.ph

REDS TOLD TO STOP ALL ATTACKS ON MILITARY

By John Paolo Bencito

Supreme Court Justice Jose Portugal Perez (right) administers the oath of office on Rep. Salvador B. Belaro Jr. of the 1-Ang Edukasyon party-list.

Belaro’s Certificate of Proclamation was released by the Commission on Elections last Thursday. He is expected to file 30 bills, mostly to improve further the country’s educational system and enhance the welfare of its stakeholders, when he assumes his post tomorrow as a member of the House of Representatives.

30 BILLS ON SCHOOL REFORMS UP A CONGRESSMAN on his first day in office wants to roll up his sleeves, buckle down to business and hit the ground running.

Rep. Salvador B. Belaro Jr. of the 1-Ang Edukasyon Party-List has vowed to file on Monday 30 bills in the House of Representatives to improve the country’s education system and enhance the welfare of its stakeholders.

Belaro took his oath of office before Supreme Court Justice Jose Portugal Perez last Friday after the Commission on Elections released his Certificate of Proclamation last Thursday afternoon.

Included among the 30 bills are that for the establishment of a College Loan program which will enable all Filipinos eligible for college loans (College Education for All Act), that for the establishment of a community college for every capital town in the country (Community College Act of 2016), that for the creation of a National Center for Scholarships which will be a one-stop-shop for the granting of scholarships in the country (National Center for Scholarships Act), that for the holding of college and graduate courses in all embassies and consulates of the Philippines abroad (Overseas Education Act of 2016), that calling for the strengthening of research in the country (Research Act of 2016),

that calling for the establishment of special education classes in public schools (the Special Education Act of 2016), the regulation of preschool subjects (Pre-School Act of 2016), that for the establishment of computer and internet facilities in all public schools (Computer and Literacy Act of 2016), the granting of incentives and loans to those who want to pursue graduate studies (Graduate Studies Act) and the funding for the creation of educational databases (Online Encyclopedia Act).

Belaro is also proposing that teachers be given the option of availing of mutual funds (Educators’ Mutual Fund), that teachers and students be given accident and indemnity insurance coverage (Education Accident and Indemnity Insurance Act), that the salaries of private school teachers be standardized (Private School Teachers’ Salaries Standardization Act), that teachers be granted a minimum increase in salaries of P10,000 for the next three years, that dependents of teachers be given discounts in tuition fees (Teachers’ Dependents Act), that retired school teachers be accorded preference in availment of government facilities (Retired

Teachers’ Welfare Act), that teachers assigned in far-flung areas be given additional incentives (Teachers for the Barrios Act) and that all schools in the country should have road and transportation access (School Accessibility Act).

The solon’s other bills include that calling for a Uniform Accreditation for Colleges and Universities, the establishment of a feeding program for all public schools (Students’ Nutrition Development Act of 2016), the regulation of rentals of all student facilities (Student Rent Control Act), the amendment of the Magna Carta for Teachers so as not to discriminate the admission into the faculty and studentry of single parents, members of tribal minorities and the LGBT, the amendment of the Tax Code to make grants of scholarships and research grants deductible from the computation of gross income, and the granting of educational assistance for the children of solo parents (Solo Parents Act of 2016).

Belaro is also filing a resolution calling upon the CHED to conduct a full-blast inquiry into what he calls the increasing “education gap,” the phenomenon whereby around 600,000 graduates yearly of our colleges and universities cannot find jobs that match their collegiate studies.

Asked as to why all of the bills he

is filing is all about education, Rep. Belaro reasoned out that his partylist campaigned with the vision that “Ang tunay na pag-asa ay nasa edukasyon” and thus, his initial bills in Congress should reflect that promise. As to why he is filing 30 bills, he cited that he is doing so to symbolize his support for the administration of President Duterte (who is popularly identified with the meme Du30) and to complement the President’s ongoing sweeping reforms in governance.

A lawyer-educator-author for the past 20 years, Belaro is the founding dean of the St. Dominic Savio College of Law (Caloocan City) and has previously taught political science and law subjects at the University of the Philippines (Diliman and Los Baños), Ateneo de Manila University, University of Caloocan and the Entrepreneurship School of Asia. He was also a former commissioner of Bar Discipline of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. He has written many books, including the bestseller “Legal Forms for Entrepreneurs.” Rep. Belaro obtained his BA Political Science (Cum Laude) from the University of the Philippines and his Bachelor of Laws from the UP College of Law wherein he was once elected class president. He also holds a Master of Laws degree from Cornell University (New York, USA) where he was elected Class Representative of the LLM Class of 2004.

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday urged Communist rebels to stop their attacks against the military and start building goodwill as the peace talks are set to resume next month.

Duterte in a speech before the Muslim community in his hometown on Friday sought a stop to ambuscades and kidnapping of soldiers.

“Let’s stop the killings and kidnapping of soldiers. It’s nonsense. Let’s do this so there’s no rambling whatsoever. Because the military cannot just keep silent while all of their men are being kidnapped and killed and while we’re in the process of perfecting the wherewithals of how to proceed with the peace talks,” he added.

On Wednesday, the New People’s Army has been ordered to strengthen its ranks and continue launching tactical offensives against “enemy units that have committed fascist crimes against the people” amid efforts to forge an alliance with the Duterte administration.

In an editorial in its official publication, Ang Bayan, the Communist Party of the Philippines also urged its armed wing to “disarm and arrest the biggest criminals involved in peddling illegal drugs” and to “launch actions to protect the environment against destructive mining, logging and plantation operations.”

The editorial, written in Filipino, acknowledged the “great potential” of building a “progressive and propeople alliance between Duterte and the national democratic forces” even as it stressed that its forces are aware of “the limitations of this alliance” and the “dangers of being tied down, sucked up and drowned by this work.”

It recognized that Duterte himself “is working on and pushing this alliance” as it pointed out that he is also the head of a “reactionary state” that remains dominated by elite and foreign interests.

Duterte cited as an example chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has kept its peace despite the nonpassage of a Bangsamoro Basic Law, the key to its peace agreement with the government.

“And Nur is also just having a stand down somewhere in Jolo,” Duterte added.

Duterte earlier expressed interest in granting safe conduct passes and political amnesty to four leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines who are currently locked behind bars and or currently seeking political asylum in other countries as long as Communist rebels lay down their arms and give way to the peace process initiated by the government.

TAXIS GAIN ACCESS TO TERMINAL ONE

By Joel E. Zurbano

ON THE BALL. Amid renewed terror threat, a security officer with his bomb-sniffing dog inspects the venue of the 2016 FIBA Olympic men’s qualifying basketball tournament in Manila on July 9, 2016. AFP

AIRPORT authorities have given the go-signal for regular taxis to pick up passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 following complaints from passengers about the lack of affordable public transportation.

The Manila International Airport Authority early this year allowed Grab taxi to operate at the Naia and was considering to open the route for Uber taxis.

But the accredited transport company could not supply the required 200 utility vehicles to service the influx of passengers during daily peak periods between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Likewise, the MIAA officials reminds the passengers to exercise

caution when riding taxis not accredited by the MIAA. “The metered white taxis were allowed last year but only during peak hours at the Naia Terminals 2 and 3 arrival areas. This time, the management will allow them to queue up at the Naia Terminal 1 at all times,” Terminal 1 manager Dante Basanta said.

Basanta explained that at least 15 regular taxis will be allowed to form a line at Terminal 1’s arrival extension area, one of the designated loading areas of accredited airport utility vehicles, due to limited space.

He added that another 15 units of regular taxis will be allowed to enter as soon as the first group of taxis leave to avoid congestion.

Meanwhile, Naia Terminal 3 manager Ric Medalla said major passenger terminals have thousands

of incoming passengers a day, most of them arriving practically at the peak-hour window. He added the MIAA has been criticized for the lack of transportation which is why the authority considered opening the airport to non-accredited taxi companies.

Incoming MIAA officials, which will formally assume office on Monday, expressed willingness to meet with airport accredited transport executives concerning unaccredited taxi cabs at the airport.

Airport Transportation Concessionaires Association Inc. comprised of coupon taxis, rent-a-car service and accredited yellow taxis earlier said the addition of other transportation services at the Naia could jeopardize the safety and security of the riding public.

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SUNDAY: JULY 10, 2016

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

4 YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS REDEFINE EYEWEAR INDUSTRY

By Othel V. Campos

A TOP Filipino-British commercial model has teamed up with a young couple and a US-based fashion designer to redefine the Philippine eyewear industry.

“I got together with my friends [in 2013]. I was in LA at that time.

I said, let’s create something really cool and do something we really love,” Georgina Wilson, the former host of Asia’s Next Top Model, says to explain how they built a company called Sunnies Studios.

After launching the lifestyle eyewear brand Sunnies and selling more than a million pairs of sunglasses since 2013, the business partners are expanding their venture to include an optical or prescription eyewear line.

Wilson along with her cousin Martine Cajucom and entrepreneurs Eric and Bea Soriano-Dee decided to expand the Sunnies Studios company, which has created a niche in the sunglass sector, to introduce an optical line under the brand Sunnies Specs.

“While Sunnies is more of the adventurous kind of sunglasses, we’ve considered, due to increasing demand and queries, to broaden the brand to optical lenses,” says Eric Dee, director for finance at Sunnies Studios.

“This led us to more researches and studies on the ideal package, the perfect price points and the right amount of fashion sense,” says Dee. Wilson serves as the marketing director of Sunnies Studios, Bea is the operations director while Cajucom is the creative director.

Sunnies Studios, established in 2013, was originally called Sunnies

by Charlie as a part of the clothing brand Charlie, which Wilson co-owned. “Well, we really created something that wasn’t available in the market—the simple, stylish and affordable, and that is exactly what we did for Specs too,” says Wilson.

Three years into its operation, the corporation has opened 40 stores nationwide and expanded online in other Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

The Sunnies eyewear brand which offers “trendy and modern but with a touch of vintage” sunglasses has been receiving suggestions to introduce prescription eyewear.

“We listen to our customers.

People were saying, ‘Can you make eyewear please? We buy your sunglasses and we change them [into prescription].’ We wanted to make a one-stop shop, and we did. We made Sunnies Specs. There’s nothing like it in the market because it’s stylish, simple and affordable, and that is the core of Sunnies Specs,” says Wilson.

Cajucom says: “We wanted to sell products that we personally love, so we created prescription eyeglasses that are affordable, stylish, designdriven and accessible to everyone.

Just like Sunnies, we wanted to make it fun and fit the style of everyone.”

Customers may choose from 10

Sunnies Studios launches an optical line under the brand Sunnies Specs. Shown during the media launching at Dasmariñas Village in Makati City are Sunnies Studios owners (from left) Bea Soriano-Dee, Eric Dee, Martine Cajucom and Georgina Wilson. KATHREEN ABAYA unique pantone colors. The Sunnies Studios team also curated five styles of frames to fit every face shape and personality.

Sunnies Studios established three pilot stores for Sunny Specs at Glorietta 2 in Makati City, UP Town Center in Quezon City and SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City. Sunnies Specs will add two more shops at Trinoma and SM Cebu City in July and five more before the end of 2016, says Dee. By the end of 2016, the group aims to have a total of 10 branches nationwide.

The company is spending a lot for the campaign especially for shoots that are usually out of the Philippines, as it also explores foreign markets.

Sunnies and Sunnies Specs’s ad campaigns were shot in countries such as Japan, Australia and the US. “It is something that reflects our brand. And everything is well worth the investments we spent for promotions. Right now, what we want is to keep everything company-owned. We’re sure for now how much we’re allocating for expansion, but we’re ready to go global,” says Dee. Within the year, Sunnies will

be available in California through online stores. The brand is also available via the same platform in seven other Southeast Asian countries. Physical expansion is the next phase of the company’s global plan.

Dee says Sunnies and Sunnies Specs are both priced competitively, with Sunnies costing from P399 to P599 a pair and Specs at a fixed price point of P1,999 per pair, with frame and multi-coated lens included.

Dee says the company has the same consumer base for Sunnies and Specs, as “most people do not know that they are in need of optical glasses.’

“Most of the time, they go to our shop, get in love with the sunglasses because of style, not knowing that when the doctors asked them to have their eyes checked, they too are in need of glasses.”

Sunnies Studios have suppliers from Europe and China for the frames while lenses are sourced from Korea and India.

Packaging is the only piece assembled locally. The cases oftentimes undergo overhaul in sync with promotions and seasonality.

Cases and packaging change regularly with the season’s collection.

In step with the expansion of

physical stores, Sunnies are available on digital platforms such as Sunny Studios website and fashion site Zalora. It is also available via direct selling firm Avon.

“We’re one of the brands that Avon has brought into the company. We’re exclusively designing for Avon, as well,” Dee says.

Since 2013, the company has sold more than a million pairs of Sunnies with as many as 200 stock keeping units of frames available at any given time.

Every month, the company introduces 10 to 20 new designs while retiring older frames to keep attuned to new fashion trends.

“The new stocks make them want for new pairs. We make sure that our product fits perfectly with our consumers, size and style-wise.

We realized before we ventured into this that there is a gap between affordability and style. And this is what we want to address. We are fashion forward but we never compromise style for price,” Dee says.

Sunnies Studios has a creative team that comes up with new, trendy and stylish pieces both for Sunnies and Specs.

While other optical shops carry multiple brands with multiple

prices, Sunnies Specs has one brand with one fixed price point. “So you’ll need not worry that your budget of P2,000 will become P3,000 or P4,000,” says Dee. Dee says Sunnies Studios expects to continue the enormous growth the company is enjoying, as sales posted a high double-digit to even triple-digit growth at some point.

The company invested a huge amount to bring state-of-the-art machines for eye check-up and refraction. Each Specs store has two to three resident doctors who walk customers through the process.

“For Specs, we’ll be more aggressive. Not only because this is a new brand but because of the need to have people realize their eye needs corrective [lenses] and protection, in the least,” Dee says.

Sunnies Studios currently has 40 physical stores for Sunnies and plans to add five more by end-2016.

The company also plans to put up another business called Sunnies Cafe at Bonifacio Global City. The cafe will feature some of the owners’ favorite food and drinks. “You will see the most ‘instagrammable’ hub,” says Wilson.

With Kathreen Abaya and Regina Lintag

SUNDAY: JULY 10, 2016

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

FILIPINO BPO COMPANY EXPANDS TO US, INDIA

By Regina C. Lintag

PROPLE Inc., a Filipino-owned business solutions provider, has transformed into a major outsourcing company that serves local and foreign companies in the areas of finance and accounting, tax services, human resources/ payroll and data management services.

“We are like business doctors. We can prescribe what the best solution is for them [business clients],” Prople Inc. head of business development and project management Juan Paolo Araneta says in an interview at the company’s headquarters at Robinsons Cybergate 3 in Mandaluyong City.

Araneta describes Prople as a “100-percent Filipino-owned company” with 140 clients globally. Prople acquired K&A Global Management Company in 2013, a US-based accounting firm with offices in California and Kansas, which enabled them to gain 20 international clients. Prople also has an office in India.

Clients include multinational and established companies based in Asia Pacific, Canada and the US. The company provides valueadding, cost-efficient solutions and services, enabling clients to achieve

business goals.

Araneta says the company is on an expansion mode, as it plans to open satellite offices outside Metro Manila and boost revenues by 15 percent year-on-year in 2016.

He says Prople offers “highly customized solutions” for multinationals and small and medium enterprises engaged in retail, banking, manufacturing, leasing and development worldwide.

“We focus on industry-specific quick wins for any client that we actually engage [with]. We leverage on the 20 years of industry knowledge that we’ve had. We’ve come across with more than a hundred companies and whatever new company we actually engage or whatever questions they have, we immediately have suggested quick wins for them,” says Araneta.

Araneta says the company ex-

pects to hit the revenue growth target this year. “We will definitely get that growth from financial and accounting leads and payroll outsourcing in terms of our budget,” he says.

Araneta also hopes to see an increase in client base for data management solutions, which in 2015 accounted for only 10 percent of revenues. Finance and accounting and payroll services contributed 60 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

Araneta says the company started with 50 employees in 1996 and currently has 280 employees in its office in Mandaluyong. Prople plans to expand its main office to accommodate a total of 350 employees.

It has a pool of certified public accountants, auditors, project managers, business analysts and IT professionals. About 120 of the 280 employees are involved in finance and accounting services while 25 are certified public accountants.

The rest are employees in the field of IT and payroll services.

Araneta says Prople plans to open another satellite office outside Metro Manila that will also offer the same services in finance, IT, payroll and human resources.

“We are actually entertaining opening a satellite office down south but I can’t disclose [the de-

Prople Inc. head of business development and project management Juan Paolo Araneta tails] yet. We are already sourcing people from the south,” he says.

Prople plans to secure more partnerships in the coming months which will allow the company to offer solutions that competitors cannot provide.

“We are aggressively looking into partnerships with related services.

We have our online solutions, and you need hardware for this. So we partner with hardware [companies] that would work with our information management system,” Araneta says.

He says Prople hopes to secure partnerships this month with “three major brands.”

HOW TO BECOME A CYBERSECURITY EXPERT

JEFF Castillo works for a company that generates revenues from defending businesses and individuals against hackers and other cybercriminals.

Castillo says he enjoys his job as the Philippines country manager of Fortinet, a US-based network security provider, as the competition between hackers and network security providers redefines the IT sector.

He faces constant challenges as hackers become more sophisticated.

“As we innovate our strategies, tools and systems, the enemies [hackers] will also become much more intelligent,” he says.

A cyber threat assessment program released by Fortinet shows that automated attack systems, botnets and malware are the most prominent threats affecting an organization’s network security and performance today.

The rampant use of social media, video streaming and advertising exposes corporate data to many risks such as social engineering, malware and malvertising, he says. Financial services, education and healthcare are the most vulnerable industries to security risks.

Fortinet revealed an average of 81,000 attempted attack events per organization and said nearly one in six organizations had undetected botnets. “With the lucrative gains that come with these institutions, expect more malicious activities will be done against them,” says Castillo.

Other cybersecurity companies agree that attacks are becoming more prevalent because of rapid technological changes.

Nerisse Ramos, ePLDT Group chief operating officer, says IT security in general, and lately with special focus on cyber security, has become a very big concern among organizations because of the recent data breaches and hacking incidents.

“Many seek to implement some form of IT security solution or strengthen their existing IT security framework but at some point, are held back by a number of challenges,” says Ramos.

“The threat of cyber attacks risks enterprises from actualizing their potential growth. We do think that everyone is very much aware of the need to secure their enterprises; the education comes in finding and implementing the best practices tailored for the organization’s needs,” says Nico Alcoseba, head of PLDT’s disruptive business group.

Jobert David, technical director of F5 Networks Philippines, says that in Asia alone, digital banking consumers are expected to reach 1.7 billion by 2020. “While all of this translates into ultra-convenience for consumers, it has also presented fraudsters with a multichannel digital playing field to operate in,” David says.

Fortinet Philippines country manager Jeff Castillo David says what started out as ‘Nigerian email scams’ has now evolved into highly complex, targeted operations that rake in billions of illegally gained dollars. “Attacks now come in all forms—from web fraud, DDOS attacks and POS intrusions, to crimeware, malware and cyber espionage,” he says.

David says one major issue faced by banks in Asia Pacific is the prevalence of malware designed to target them and their customers. In the first three months of 2016, new variants of the financial Trojan, Tinbapore

and new Gootkit campaigns were found to target banks and financial organizations in Asia, he says.

“Cybercrime is one of the greatest threats to any business, as the slightest oversight could result in financial catastrophe,” says David.

Kaspersky Lab, another security solutions provider, says crypto-ransomware, which encrypts data on users’ systems, has become a huge problem for cybersecurity over the last few years. It has become so widespread that it could easily be called an epidemic, it says.

Kaspersky Lab says over a period of 24 months, the total number of users encountering any type of ransomware increased 17.7 percent from 1.97 million worldwide in 2015 to 2.32 million in 2016 . The number of users attacked with cryptoransomware rose 5.5 times, from 131,111 in 2015 to 718,536 in 2016.

Kaspersky Lab says while the Philippines is not among the top 10 most attacked countries, the number of crypto-ransomware attacks against Filipino users reached 10,414 covering the period April 2015 to March 2016.

“These figures uncover the reality that the threat of crypto-ransomware exists not only in developed countries but also in emerging nations like the Philippines. Kaspersky Lab strongly suggests not to pay ransom but most of all, every Filipino must be cyber-savvy enough to avoid this kind of stealthy and costly threat,” says Anthony Chua, territory channel manager for the Philippines and Singapore at Kaspersky Lab Southeast Asia.

Castillo says Fortinet is doing every effort to optimize its products’ and services’ performance. Castillo is tasked to grow Fortinet’s market share and mindshare by engaging service providers and enterprises of all sizes in the Philippines.

Castillo says his background in computer engineering helped him become a cybersecurity professional.

“I graduated from PUP [Polytechnic University of the Philippines] in

1995 with a degree in BS Computer Engineering. I started my career as a software/technical point person and eventually focused on discovering the ins and outs of IT and sales,” he says.

He has extensive industry knowledge and selling experience in providing end-to-end hardware and software solutions to key verticals.

He also has a solid foundation in technology implementations, having been a technical engineer at the start of his career.

Castillo joined Fortinet in October 2009 from systems integrator Leverage Systems Technologies, where he was sales and marketing director of the infrastructure division for more than 10 years.

F5 Networks Philippines technical director Jobert David “With my rich experience in the industry, I am now part of Fortinet Philippines as its country manager, helping companies intelligently protect their network,” says Castillo, who remains a bachelor, with 20 years of combined work experience in the IT industry.

Fortinet started its operations in 2004 in the Philippines, but the local office was established in 2010 at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig.

“Our customers range from the largest telecom carriers and government organizations to the most

demanding banks and stock exchanges, to healthcare providers, educational institutions, retailers and SMEs,” says Castillo.

“We compete with several other global and Asian network security vendors but none of them can match the performance or end-to-end capabilities of our solutions. We have also enjoyed top market share in the Philippines, according to Frost & Sullivan market research data for many quarters,” says Castillo.

He says being a country manager and IT professional carries with it a myriad of challenges. “As long as you are willing to take on those challenges and discover ways to go around it, you will be able to achieve your ambitions—whether you’re opting to become an IT professional or looking forward to verge into a different profession,” he says.

“More importantly, you must have the ingredients of success—dedication, honesty, perseverance and love for your career. Take advice from people who know better and are more experienced in the path you’re going to take, because one day, that could be you,” he says.

“Many people think too much about the risks involved in doing something, while in fact, the risk of not doing anything could be bigger. Assuming someone has an idea about a new product or concept, he can go about starting a prototype and try to market the product. The risk of that involves spending the effort and money, etc. However, if he decides to stay put, the risk of that could be that he misses the big opportunity to build a great company,” he says.

“Be excited about new things, continuously learn more about your craft, and go out of your comfort zone. Discover, then be discovered,” he says.

Castillo says he would like to pass on his knowledge to other people.

“On my retirement age, I probably would venture into consultancy to still pass on what I’ve learned during my working years,” he says.

Roderick T. dela Cruz

SUNDAY: JULY 10, 2016

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

By Kathreen Abaya

A JAPANESE company is bringing its beauty and wellness services to the Philippines with the soft opening of its first branch in Parañaque City.

Japan-PH Beauty Create Inc. launched Tokyo Nail Station at SM City Sucat to introduce Japan’s renowned nail care services to Filipinos of all ages, gender and economic background.

Japan-PH Beauty Create, a newly established corporation which aims to be the forbearer of Japan’s health and beauty industry in the region, says the SM City Sucat branch is the company’s first salon in Southeast Asia.

Japan-PH Beauty Create chairman Eiji Kakimoto says among Asean countries explored by the company, it is the Philippines and Filipinos’ hardworking spirit and optimism that encouraged them to launch their first beauty salon at SM Sucat.

“There is something about the Philippines, even when you first step into the airport—the overall energy of the people, how excited people are, how warm-hearted people are here. It’s just the drive, the energy people have everywhere,” Kakimoto says.

The rapid 6.9-percent growth of the economy in the first quarter of 2016 drew the attention of international companies such as Japan-PH Beauty Create to invest in the Philippines.

“From economic prospective to the sheer energy and excitement of the people around, it seems very likely that this continuing trend would propagate and expand over the many, many exciting and prosperous years ahead of us,” says Japan-PH Beauty Create managing director Yuto Mendoza Sawaki.

Japan is a leading provider and innovator of health, beauty and wellness services and products. The

JAPANESE COMPANY BRINGS PAMPERING SERVICES TO PH

Japan-PH Beauty Create Inc. chairman Eiji Kakimoto, managing director Yuto Mendoza Sawaki and vice president of operations Andro Lanceta.

nail salon prides itself on the best customer service and products the country has to offer.

Equipped with best nail care and beauty materials straight from Japan, and proficient nail technicians trained from a top nail service school in Tokyo, customers are guaranteed to feel relaxed during their stay, according to Sawaki.

Sawaki says the salon is designed like a subway train to make it look more gender-neutral.

“We want people of all genders to enjoy the salon, not just limiting ourselves to female customers,” he says.

Sawaki wants customers to enjoy their overall experience with authentic Japanese service, aside from leaving refreshed and with expertly cared nails.

“We really want to cater to the general population. We want to give them a sanctuary where they can sit back and relax from their everyday busy lives. All our guests will be served with Japanese tea, a complementary of any service, warm hand towels, and such,” he says.

Sawaki says even with imported and high-quality products, Tokyo Nail Station services will remain affordable to accommodate and reward more people for their hard work.

“Japan has world-renowned beauty products and services and that is something we want to bring to the Philippines, not just for 1 percent of the population or the higher class. We want to cater to everyone.

Our services are not very expensive.

It’s very easy to locate our store, and it is not even overly effeminate.”

He says among the must-try services are Aioi Gel manicure, Hiroshima hand paraffin, Kakegawa foot paraffin and Nagaoka nail embellishment.

Japan-PH Beauty Create plans to open three more branches at SM Malls this year.

CHOCOLATE SALES SEEN RISING ON MILLENNIALS’ STRONG DEMAND

By Othel V. Campos

CHOCOLATE brand Cadbury has come up with a unique proposition for the young millennials–Cadbury 5Star, a new chocolate imported from India.

The new chocolate is expected to raise Cadbury brand’s share in the local market, according to Mondelez Philippines senior brand manager for chocolates Michelle Santillan.

“We want to remain competitive in the chocolate category. This is a tough market and competition is getting steeper each year with the introduction of new chocolate brands. That’s why we asked ourselves, ‘what can we offer that will make us stand-out’. So we brought in 5Star from India, now coated with the Cadbury trademark chocolate,” she says.

Feedback have so far been positive for the new brand. Opening the campaign with strong thematic and digital promotions helped raise awareness for the product, Santillan says.

The chocolate is a response to the rising demand from young millennials for a different snacking experience that does not bore and leaves a lasting impression in taste.

Santillan says Cadbury 5Star is different from the traditional Cadbury tablet as it the first chocolate bar with a solid chocolate center

intrusion wrapped in caramel and crunchy cookie bits with Cadbury chocolate coating.

Mondelez took stock of the rising market of young millennials, who know what they want and are empowered enough to pursue their desires.

“These young millennials are what we have in mind when we decided to bring in 5Star. The multilayered chocolate bar is the kind of eat experience this market segment is after for. To add fun to the experience we have some ideas written on the inner part of the wrapper that a group of friends may find time to take on the challenges. So it’s really more than the chocolate itself. It’s a sort of, maybe, a bonding time for the younger people,” says Santillan.

About 35 percent of consumers are in fact millennials with young millennial consumers aged 18 to 20 who are either in college or on their first jobs. They are youthful consumers looking for fun, excitement and a certain edgy quality to the products they buy.

At the same time, their foray into adulthood require that they also

look for product experiences that are worth their money – moderately priced and with great value, she says.

With these dominating trends in the category, snacking company Mondelez sees opportunities to continue growing its business by combining its snack-making expertise with new and exciting product experiences for young consumers.

In the Philippines, the chocolate category is growing at a rapid rate of about 5 to 10 percent annually.

According to the 2015 FY Nielsen Market Pulse, snacks and confectionery are helping drive the

growth of the fast moving consumer goods-food sector in the Philippines with 9 percent growth in 2015 compared to 2014.

In chocolate snacks, growth of the category was 7.8 percent in March 2016, according to Nielsen.

The chocolate category is one of the most fragmented categories in food and fast moving consumers products that makes competition even more difficult given that the 5Star will be competing with local and even imported brands, as well.

“The growth opportunity in chocolate snacks in the Philippines has inspired us to provide more of

what consumers want. Similarly, we have been a strong competitor in the chocolates category with locally and globally loved brands Toblerone and Cadbury Dairy Milk. Our position has allowed us to see consumer white spaces or areas where we can seize growth,” Santillan says.

Cadbury 5Star represents that growth opportunity as the first filled chocolate brand in the Philippines from Mondelez.

“We’re always listening, always looking for ways to provide more for our consumers. We want to create your delicious moments of snacking joy and like Cadbury 5Star; we’ll always be working to provide Filipinos with brands that meet their needs and lifestyles,” says Santillan.

Cadbury 5Star is the third chocolate brand Mondelez has offered the Philippines market. It has joined the likes of Toblerone and Cadbury Dairy Milk.

“We envision all our products to be strong - from Toblerone to Cadbury to 5Star. So the growth will be driven by all three brands. 5 Star is to generate buzz and excitement,” says Santillan.

She says the company expects a high growth of 12 percent to 15 percent for the new brand.

Santillan says the company does not have specific sales target at the moment, “but I can see clearly that we are entering a new territory with this product because it is distinct and consumers will be thrilled to try out our new chocolate brand.”

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world

Protests held in Us cities over dallas shooting

CATFIGHT. in this combination of file pictures created on thursday, british home secretary theresa May addresses media personnel outside the cabinet office in london on June 28, 2015 and british conservative party leadership candidate andrea leadsom speaks to members of the media as she arrives at the bbc television center in london to appear on “the andrew Marr show” in london last sunday. May won 199 votes out of the party’s 329 MPs, while leadsom won 84 votes, a party official said, meaning third challenger Michael gove—britain’s justice minister—has been rejected. AFP

british PM hoPefuls Pitted vs thatcher

Britain’s interior minister Theresa May and Brexit campaigning MP andrea Leadsom will battle it out to replace Prime Minister David Cameron, who quit following the country’s historic vote to leave the European Union (EU).

They were on different sides of the referendum campaign but both candidates have promised no backtracking on Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc.

They differ, though, on when and how negotiations with Brussels should take place.

The incoming prime minister, to be announced on September 9, will be responsible for invoking article 50—the formal procedure for leaving the bloc that sets a deadline of two years for negotiations.

Based on what May and Leadsom have said, here are their

stances on key policy issues: May, who backed the “remain” camp in the referendum, has said: “Brexit means Brexit.”

But she added: “There should be no decision to invoke article 50 before the British negotiating strategy is agreed and clear, which means article 50 should not be invoked until the end of this year.”

Brexit champion Leadsom has said she wants to trigger article 50 and complete exit negotiations “as quickly as possible” but has not given a timetline.

“We need to get on with it, we

need to seize the opportunity,” she told the BBC. May said that voters had sent a clear message that freedom of movement of people “could not continue as it had” and that immigration controls would have to be included in any deal to access the EU’s single market.

“We need need to bring control into movement of people coming into the UK from the EU,” she said.

She has also warned that migrant numbers could rise ahead of Britain’s EU withdrawal saying: “We may very well see in the run-up to that, people wanting to come here to the UK before that exit happens.”

Leadsom has promised a hard line, saying “freedom of movement will end, and the British parliament will decide how many people enter our country each year.”

May has refused to guarantee that EU nationals already in Britain would be allowed to stay following Brexit, saying only that “as part of the negotiation we will need to look at this question”.

Leadsom accused May of using the EU nationals as “bargaining chips,” and said they would be able to stay.

“I commit to immediately guaranteeing the rights of our EU friends who have already come here to live and work.”

The winner will be decided by rankand-file party members, for whom certain social issues provide a yardstick of a candidate’s conservatism.

May voted in favour of samesex marriage in 2013, whereas Leadsom abstained and said this week she would have preferred “for marriage to have remained as a Christian service for men and women.” AFP

THoUSanDS of protesters took to the streets in US cities Friday after a black extremist shot dead five cops during a peaceful march against police brutality in Texas.

President Barack obama said he will cut short a foreign trip and visit Dallas next week as a shooting rampage by the black army veteran bent on killing white police triggered urgent calls to mend troubled race relations in the United States.

Police found bomb-making materials and a weapons cache at the home of 25-year-old Micah Johnson, a Dallas area resident who gunned down the officers before dying in a standoff with police.

Five officers were killed in the late Thursday shooting, including a Dallas transit cop, while seven other officers and two civilians were wounded.

While the White House ruled out any link between the gunman and known “terrorist organizations,” Johnson’s Facebook page ties him to several radical black movements listed as hate groups.

Described to police as a “loner” with no prior criminal record, Johnson told negotiators before he died that he wanted to kill white cops in retaliation for the recent fatal police shootings of two black men.

The US army said that Johnson served as a reservist for six years, including a tour of duty in afghanistan.

The rampage revives an emotional debate over lethal use of force by police, and problems of alleged police bias towards racial minorities, especially africanamericans.

Leaders of the Black Lives Matter protest movement condemned the Dallas violence, but vowed to uphold planned weekend marches.

Vast crowds marched Friday in US cities including atlanta, georgia; Houston, Texas; and San Francisco, while scores protested outside the White House. AFP

UrUgUay wins arbitration case against PhiliP Morris UrUgUay won an arbitration case against US tobacco giant Philip Morris, which sued the state claiming its strict anti-tobacco law harmed the cigarette maker’s business, both sides said Friday.

“The Uruguayan state has emerged victorious and the tobacco company’s claims have been roundly rejected,” Uruguayan President Tabara Vasquez said in a televised address.

He was citing a decision by the World Bank’s arbitration body, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Philip Morris reacted by saying “we respect” the verdict, which is binding in any case.

“For the last seven years, we have already been complying with the regulations at issue in the case, so today’s outcome doesn’t change the status quo,” Marc Firestone, vice president of the US company, said in a statement.

Philip Morris had “never questioned Uruguay’s authority to protect public health,” he added.

The case was more about getting “clarification” under international law about “an

important, but unusual, set of facts,” he said.

Philip Morris sued Uruguay in 2010 for $25 million over legislation enacted in 2006 banning smoking in public and tobacco advertising.

Uruguay became the first Latin american country and fifth in the world to ban smoking in public places under Vazquez, an oncologist who was serving a previous term as president (20052010) before returning to power last year.

The company argued the law violated an investment treaty between Uruguay and Switzerland. AFP

RIDE. an exterior view shows the new york-new york hotel & casino and the resort’s roller coaster on Friday in las vegas, nevada. AFP

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

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WORLD editorial@thestandard.com.ph

60 civilians killed in syria weekend strikes

More than 60 civilians were killed by shelling and air strikes in the northwest of Syria on Friday, a monitoring group said, hours before the end of a shaky ceasefire for the eid al-Fitr holiday.

Fighting has continued since the truce was announced on Wednesday, particularly in and around syria’s second city of Aleppo, with deaths on both sides of the divided city.

Thirty-four civilians, including four children, were killed and 200 others wounded by rebel shelling in regime-held areas, the syrian observatory for Human Rights said. state news agency sAnA gave a lower toll of 23 dead and 140 wounded, accusing the rebels of violating the ceasefire.

Aleppo -- syria’s pre-war commercial capital -- has been divided between the pro-regime west and the rebel-held east since mid-2012.

An AFP correspondent in the city’s east said that regime air strikes and rocket fire had also targeted opposition neighbourhoods on Friday. six civilians including three children died in regime air raids on a rebel-held area on the route to Castello.

The army has been pressing its advance to retake the rebels’ sole

supply route to the city in heavy fighting.

“The rebels’ violent shelling comes as a response to the advance of regime forces towards the Castello road,” observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The syrian army on Thursday advanced within firing range of the supply route, effectively cutting off the last supply routes to rebel-controlled areas.

The road wraps around Aleppo’s eastern and northern edges then leads into rebel-controlled territory north of the battered city.

Meanwhile in the Al-Qaedaheld town of Darkush, near the Turkish border, at least 22 civilians were killed and dozens wounded by air strikes, the observatory said.

“The toll of the attack is now 22

people, including a child and seven women,” said Rahman, updating an earlier toll.

The observatory had no immediate word on who carried out the strikes but said it was likely either the syrian government or its ally Russia, rather than the Us-led coalition.

Darkush is held by Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-nusra Front and allied rebel groups, which control the northwestern province of Idlib.

More than 280,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since syria’s civil war erupted with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

A 72-hour nationwide ceasefire—announced by the army to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan—ended at midnight (2100 gMT Friday). AFP

REBEL. Kashmiri mourners carry the body of burhan Muzaffar Wani, the new-age poster boy for the rebel movement in the restive himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir, ahead of his funeral in tral, his native town, 42kms south of srinagar on friday. A top commander from the largest rebel group in indian-administered Kashmir was killed in a gun battle with government forces on thursday, police said. Young and media savvy, burhan Wani was a top figure in Hizbul Mujahideen and had a one million rupee ($14,900) bounty on his head. AFP

AfricAns feArless vs Abuse in indiA Congolese student Arnold Mutumbo Muama refuses to be cowed by a spate of racist violence towards Africans in India’s capital new Delhi, defiant after a friend was beaten up by security guards at his apartment block.

“The guard called him a ‘monster’ in Hindi before taking him to the basement and beating him,” recalled Muama, 29, who chairs a Congolese welfare association.

Racism against Africans in India was thrown into the spotlight following the brutal stoning to death in May of Congolese national Masunda Kitada oliver in a dispute over an auto-rickshaw.

Following the attack, African ambassadors in new Delhi threatened to recommend to their governments that they don’t send students to the capital “as their security is not guaranteed”.

Around 30,000 Africans live in new Delhi, according to police, and they have told Agence France Presse (AFP) of numerous humiliations they face, from insults in the street to housing discrimination and even violent attacks.

This week, television footage showed police officers in the southern city of Bangalore forcefully restraining a nigerian woman following an altercation at a market. she was tied up with ropes before being injected with sedatives.

Despite these incidents, information technology student Muama believes it is “out of the question to live in fear.”

“You have to be aware of your rights,” he said.

In Khirki extension, a bustling set of interlacing streets in the south of the Indian capital long home to a sizeable nigerian community, prejudices remain on display.

“The way they eat, drink, live... everything is different,” said Inderjeet singh, a real estate agent who has been in the neighbourhood for 15 years.

“People say they eat street dogs, families fear they cut their children into pieces and eat them,” the 53-year-old said. AFP

chinA to help G20 push GlobAl trAde CHInA will work with its g20 partners to promote global trade growth, Beijing’s commerce minister said on saturday, as the world’s top economies met in shanghai. global trade is expected to grow at a tepid 2.8 percent in 2016, the World Trade organization (WTo) said in April, with uncertainty over Britain’s decision to leave the eU only adding to concerns.

“The economic recovery and growth is still feeble and global trade is fluctuating at a low level,” gao Hucheng said before ministers began talks, vowing: “China is willing to work with all parties with wisdom, courage and action.”

WTo Director-general Roberto Azevedo said on Friday ahead of the talks that 2016 would be the fifth consecutive year with trade growth below three percent -- its weakest sustained level in 30 years.

He warned that there were “no immediate signs of significant change in the current trajectory for trade growth.” gao said ministers would discuss how to boost trade and coordinate global investment strategies, as well as how to strengthen investment among g20 nations.

“The world is hopeful despite the still difficult tasks which lie in front of us. But there is still great hope and opportunities

contained in this,” gao said. saturday’s talks bring together g20 trade ministers as well as representatives from organizations including the the International Monetary Fund, the organization for economic Cooperation and Developmen tand the WTo. They will give a press conference on sunday after two days of talks behind closed doors.

China, a key driver of global growth, has seen its gross domestic product growth slip to its slowest rate in a quarter of a century, with expansion last year weakening to 6.9 percent.

The world’s largest trader in goods also saw its total trade fall eight percent last year. AFP

GUEST.

chinese foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) shakes hands with sri lanka’s prime Minister ranil Wickremesinghe ahead of a meeting in colombo on saturday.

Wang Yi is in sri lanka for a two-day state visit. AFP

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SPORTS

REUEL VIDAL EDITOR

sports@thestandard.com.ph

POCARI SWEAT AND AIR FORCE

BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY

By Homer Vidal

WHAT happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

Expect an explosive battle when the sheer offensive might and defense at the net of the Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors go up against the all-around floor defense and tenacity of the veterans of Philippine Air Force Lady Jet Spikers during the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Open Conference Finals.

It will be a battle of contrasting offensive styles as well as temperament and composure when the two teams clash.

Michele Gumabao led the Lady Warriors past the Bali Pure Water Defenders in a Final Four duel that went the distance.

In Game 3 of their semifinal battle the Lady Warriors beat the Purest Water Defenders in four sets, 15-25, 27-25, 25-11, 25-23, to arrange the showdown against Philippine Air Force in the Finals.

While Air Force breezed past the Laoag Power Smashers in two games in their own Final Four playoff Pocari Sweat had to come from behind to scramble past Bali Pure in a duel that went the distance.

Team captain Gumabao, as well as lead spiker Myla Pablo insists that the

Arellano University’s Carlo Abdeza (8) attempts to score from underneath the goal off JRU’s Toby Agustin (11) even as Anaclito Dulatre (15) looks on from behind. Peter Atencio

Lutgarda Malaluan (16) of Pocari Sweat blasts in a kill against BaliPure’s Alyssa Valdez (2) and Janine Marciano during Game Two of their Final Four duel in the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Open Conference Saturday.

determined challenge provided by Bali Pure made Pocari Sweat a tougher, more determined team.

Gumabao, the former De La Salle University star middle blocker, said that Pocari Sweat’s struggle against Bali Pure not only toughened her team it also gave them a chance to see the holes in their game.

A champion team in the Philippine Super Liga as Philips Gold it remains to be seen whether Pocari Sweat can achieve the same success in the Shakey’s V-League, the league where it all started.

Facing the Lady Warriors in the finals is a veteran laden Air Force squad which has already gained its best finish in the Shakey’s V-League

Lutgarda Malaluan (16) and Michelle Gumabao of Pocari Sweat (7) put up a double block against Bali Pure’s Alyssa Valdez (2) during their Final Four duel in the Shakey’s V-League Season 13 Open Conference.

ARELLANO BRAVES OFF TO A GREAT START

By Peter Atencio

Air Force’s May Ann Pantino (6) hammers in a kill against Laoag’s blockers Katherine Villegas (12) and Mylene Paat (4) during Game 2 of their Shakey’s V-League Final Four duel at The Arena.

after toiling fruitlessly in the league that started it all for almost a decade.

Air Force swept an equally tough Laoag side to gain their first finals appearance in league competition.

The squad leaned on their 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 parades the most wellcoordinated, self-sac-

rificing group of players in Jocemer Tapic, Mae Antipuesto, May Ann Pantino, Wendy Ann Semana and Iari Yongco.

While all the attention has been on the glamor match-up between the Ateneo-powered Bali Pure Water Defenders and the La Salle-infused Pocari Sweat Lady Warriors.

The Lady Jet Spikers have flown through to the finals sans fanfare.

Air Force took a leave of absence after a

disappointing fourth place finish in the 2014 Shakey’s V-League Open Conference.

They’ve come back in triumph this conference.

Air Force coach Jeffrey Jimenez is confident that his team has what it takes to win it all. He knows his players will step up their game to win their firstever Shakey’s V-League championship.

Air Force meets Pocari Sweat in Game 1 of the Finals on July 13 at the Philsports Arena.

AFTER finishing second to the San Beda Red Cubs last season the Arellano University Braves hope to do better in the Juniors Basketball Tournament of Season 92 of the National Collegiate Athletic Assocation.

Six veterans including Lars Sunga, Guilmer de la Torre, Jayson Danas, Anaclito Dulatre, Carlo Abadeza and Ira Bataller are back providing the needed leadership on the floor.

The team is off to a great start. They have won three straight games and are keeping pace with the multi-titled Red Cubs and the Mapua/Malayan Red Robins.

In their latest outing, the Braves posted a decisive 95-74 demolition of the Jose Rizal University Light Bombers.

The win was as easy as their last two games.

In their second match, Sunga fired 18 points for the Braves in their 105-88 destruction of the University of Perpetual Help Junior Altas.

In the opener, the Braves, drawing 13 points from Lars Sunga, mauled the San Sebastian Staglets, 86-66.

Those wins, according to coach Tylon Darjuan, are helping build the confidence of the team.

They have not met tougher squads like the Red Cubs, the Red Robins and the Greenies yet.

Darjuan dismisses thoughts that these early wins can be considered workouts.

“Maganda ang tinatakbo ng team. Sabi ko sa kanila na huwag maging kampante sa mga ginagawa,” said Darjuan.

In their last three games, the Braves’ big men led by Sunga, Dulatre, Abadeza and Bataller have been dominating the paint.

They have been clicking with rookie Aaron Fermin, a 17-year old, 6’4” standout from Nueva Ecija.

Their leader, and team skipper Guilmer de la Torre, is again consistent, and focused just like last year. As a sign of unity de la Torre and every member of the team had their hair shorn to military style buzz cuts.

The Braves have overwhelmed all opposition so far. But the real test will be when they face league powerhouses San Beda and Mapua.

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SPORTS sports@thestandard.com.ph

ONE-EYED MMA FIGHTER RARING TO MAKE IT BIG Text and photos by Peter Paul Duran

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ESPITE having a glaring handicap, Jiar Castillo, an aspiring fighter in Fight Farm—the first RealiTV MMA series to be aired by ABS-CBN Sports + Action, doesn’t consider his blind right eye a drawback at all.

“Alam mo, hindi ko rin iniisip na disadvantage (‘yung mata ko). Matagal ko na rin kase naisip na ‘yan ‘yung sasabihin ng tao (nu’ng sumali ako),” said Castillo, one of the 16 fighters raring to make it big in the competition.

He said that he’s been

living with only one eye since early childhood when the unfortunate incident happened.

“Two years old ako nu’n, tapos may tinatanggal akong sinulid sa pajama ko. Ginamitan ko ng abre lata para mas mabilis kong matastas” he recalled.

“Pagkahila ko, biglang tumusok sa mata ko ‘yung abre lata na hawak ko. Sabi ng doktor hindi na daw mababalik paningin ko (sa kanang mata),” added the 28-year-old Castillo.

But the soft-spoken fighter from Quezon City said that he’s learned to Jiar Castillo’s blind right eye is not a hindrance in the sport of MMA.

Fight Farm participants and ABS-CBN Sports + Action channel head Vince Rodriguez and AFC’s Ron Catunao are ready to get the series started.

cope with his disability, especially now that he’s fighting competitively.

“Nag-adjust na lang ako para ‘di maging disadvantage para sa akin, so lumipat ako ng stance,” said Castillo, who is naturally right handed, but switched to southpaw to guard his right eye. “Atsaka nasa turo din kasi ni Bruce Lee ‘yun, na ‘put your strong side forward’” Castillo, a self-confessed Bruce Lee fan, said that he was inspired to really pursue the sport when he watched videos of the movie star on the internet.

“Nag-download ako ng (videos tungkol) kay Bruce Lee. Ginawa kong basis ‘yung style niya. Binasa ko na rin lahat ng libro niya lalo na ‘yung ‘The Tao of Jeet Kunedo,’ ‘yung mga conditioning at mga techniques,” added Castillo, who only started competing at a high level three years ago.

He also said that while reading the book, he executed the moves and training by Bruce Lee at home, which explains the discipline that he shows in his craft.

Castillo, who gave up his

career as a graphic artist before joining Fight Farm, said that more than talent, mental toughness plays a big role to win the whole thing.

“Ako kasi hindi ko iniisip na kalaban ko sila, pero ang iniisip ko ang kalaban ko ay ‘yung sarili ko. Kapag natalo ka, hindi mo sisihin kalaban mo, sisihin mo sarili mo kasi ‘di ka mentally prepared.”

Castillo will take on Norman Agcopra for the first fight night of the series.

Fight Farm will debut Aug.14 at 7 p.m.

LASCUÑA RALLIES, CAPTURES PGT BACOLOD TITLE IN PLAYOFF

Tony Lascuña: ‘I just got lucky my putt off the fringe went in.’

BACOLOD—Tony Lascuña turned from flawed to flawless and foiled two gritty foreign rivals to annex a third straight championship on the ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour.

Lascuña came away with a bogey-free five-under 65 then sank a 12-foot birdie putt off the fringe on the first playoff hole on No. 9 to edge Dutch Guido Van der Valk and American Micah Shin, completing his fightback from a shocking third round foldup and a three-stroke deficit to snare the ICTSI Bacolod Golf Challenge crown at the Bacolod Golf and Country Club in Binitin here yesterday.

“I just got lucky my putt off the fringe went in,” said Lascuña after pulling off the tensefilled victory that moved him two wins away from matching his record five-title romp in 2014 that netted him a third straight Order of Merit crown.

But it took him a solid round

to fashion out the stirring comefrom-behind triumph, particularly in a duel of wits and nerves at the back that saw him hit all the fairways and greens and pick up birdies on Nos. 12 and 14 to finish with a 10-under 270.

In contrast, Shin bogeyed No. 17 and ended up with a 68 but missed the green in the playoff while Van der Valk matched Lascuña’s closing five-under card but rued a crucial double-bogey mishap on No. 15 and flubbed his birdie bid from long range on their second trip to the par-4 ninth.

“I played perfect golf at the back, hit all the fairways and greens and made two birdies,” said Lascuña, who also tackled the short, tricky par-4 13 with an iron and made a routine par after dropping five strokes on two outof-bounds drives Friday.

With another P270,000 purse, Lascuña hiked his earnings to P2,143,115 and firmed up his hold of the OOM lead head-

ing to next week’s stop at Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club where he won when it last hosted a PGT leg in 2014.

Shin and Van der Valk received P145,000 each.

Lascuña’s solid final round comeback further underscored the brilliance and resiliency in the veteran Davaoeño shotmaker, who blew a threestroke lead with a horrible 9 on No. 13 in the third round and instead fell by three heading to the final 18 holes of the event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. But he knew he still had a chance and he pressed his bid by ramming in three birdies in the first nine holes to pull within Shin and Van der Valk while three others stood just two shots behind in what proved to be tightest finish after nine legs of the circuit backed by Custom Clubmakers, adidas, KZG, Summit Mineral Water, Srixon, Pacs-

ports, TaylorMade, Sharp and Champion.

Truly, six stayed in contention heading to the backside with Shin slugging it out with Jay Bayron and Orlan Sumcad in the final group and Lascuña, Van Der Valk and Mhark Fernando keeping it close in a flight behind.

Van der Valk actually threatened to sneak into the solo lead with three birdies in the first four holes at the back to go 10-under but hit an errant drive on the par-5 No. 15, took a drop and ended up with a double-bogey and fell off the lead.

But the veteran Dutch campaigner fought back with backto-back birdies from No. 16 then parred the last to finish with a 65.

Lascuña put himself back in title contention with a 32 and hit two more birdies at the back to likewise go 10-under. He parred the rest to match Van der Valk’s five-under card.

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

SPORTS MOTOCROSS RENAISSANCE

TWO RIDERS BATTLE FOR POSITION AT THE TURN.

By Randy Caluag

THE sport of motocross is alive and kicking once again, thanks to the hard work and perseverance of friends bonded together by a common faith and passion.

Samuel Mark Tamayo, whose family-owned lot was converted into an event venue, event management expert Elgene Cruz and businessman John Blaylock, put their resources together and the result is the Diamond Motor Motocross Series, now being held yearly at the Messiah Motocross Fairgrounds.

Tamayo is the Generation Congregation director/head, while Cruz is marketing manager of Xtreme Adrenaline Sports.

Just recently, this year’s edition was concluded at the event’s home venue in Taytay, Rizal and treated the crowd not just with the roaring motocross action, but also with other exciting sideshows like daredevil exhibition, car-drifting show and a post-event concert party, provided by Greyhoundz and Blaylock’s Firefalldown.

Veteran rider Glen Aguilar topped the fifth and final leg of the Open Elite Division to emerge overall champion for this year.

Aguilar, now 43 years old, said he had mixed feelings for his victory.

“I’m happy and sad, kasi sa edad ko na ito, ako pa rin ang nanalo although I was hoping din sana na may mag-emerge na magaling at talunin ako because that would mean na the buhay pa rin ang motocross,” he said.

The 43-year-old motocross

rider said the Diamond Motor Motocross series is going to be a great venue for aspiring champion riders.

“I hope magtuloy-tuloy ang series na ito for many years. Nagko-compete pa ako dahil tinuturuan ako ang mga young riders, kahit kalaban ko sila, I share with them the knowledge that I earned through the years.

Pero pagdating sa laban, hindi ko sila bine-baby para matututo sila ng competitive spirit.”

Aguilar’s competition was provided by Rellosa brothers Enzo, JC and Jepoy, who placed second, third and fourth, respectively.

Coming in at fifth and sixth, respectively, were Ralph Ramiento and Aguilar’s son, Maclean.

Late last night at the Manila Golf Club, winners were feted during a formal awarding ceremony along with other champions in the other categories in the women’s elite, kids, pro lite, enduro and executive divisions.

Tamayo, the chief architect of the series, expressed his commitment to pursue a long direction for the series.

“We’re actually investing and learning together on how to better promote the sport, promote the riders with the help of sponsors,” said Tamayo.

The most compelling force that keeps the organizing triumvirate together is their common faith

The new Mitsubishi Montero is unveiled in a drifting exhibition.

The Firefalldown band, with vocalist John Blaylock, treating the crowd to a post-event concert.

and passion. The three belong to the same Christian church named Generation Congregation of which Tamayo has a position of director.

Blaylock, head of Diamond Motor’s corporate planning and marketing, said that it makes sense for the marquee car dealership company to venture into motorsports.

“The reason is more on the relationship that we have and the passion that we see on the riders.

Business wise, we really benefit from it as a by-product, our target market – the motocross riders and fans, fit well.”

The event also provides a venue for Diamond Motor employees to work as a team outside the daily routine in the office.

“It gives us a platform to showcase our Diamond brand and even in terms of benefiting our company internally. We bring our employees to the event and we want them to feel the excitement and enjoy what they are doing as well. On many different fronts, it (event) works quite well for us,” said Blaylock.

Diamond Motor is one of the top franchise dealers of Mitsubishi Motors and thrives on after sales service with a strong presence in Manila and an ongoing active expansion in the provinces.

“We want to invest in our employees. Many different fronts quite well works for us,” said Blaylock, who is also the vocalist of the Firefalldown band that performed during the recent final leg, assuring his company’s long-term support to the event “kahit 50 years pa.”

On making it international, Blaylock said: “There’s always a chance. Why not? We’d love to see that happen.”

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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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GROWING FOOD IN CITY GARDENS

New World Hotel Makati's organic kitchen garden by the lagoon grows herbs and vegetables such as dill, thyme, alugbati and hot chili, among others

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hese days, mothers, yuppies and other residents of wealthy villages are determined to start growing their own herbs and edible plants in pots. Some even are converting part of their yards into organic kitchen gardens.

Marleina’s Garden, owned by landscape designer and author, Marlene Aguilar, in White Plains in Quezon City is just one of these.

“Growing food is fast becoming a wonderful environmental revolution led by Filipinos from all walks of life. But it isn’t just Filipino homes embracing this phenomenon.

Recently, I encouraged New World Hotel in Makati to create its own organic kitchen garden. They now have one by their lagoon. This makes them the first fivestar hotel in Metro Manila to grow their own food.

Their executive chef, Robert Davis, would even like to expand the hotel’s organic garden.

Why should they ever buy calamansi when they can now grow 100 of these small trees around their pool area? Calamansi is the smallest lime in the world and it is native to the Philippines. Depending on the age of the plant, when cared for properly, 100 trees can produce 500 to 5,000 kilos of calamansi fruits a year. They can have a beautiful garden because you can perfectly mix citrus trees with ornamental plants. Why should people buy food like calamansi, kangkong (water spinach), malunggay (moringa), chili, basil, alugbati (vine spinach), eggplants and okra when they’re

so easy to grow? I have over 40 kinds of edible plants growing in my garden in Blue Ridge. If I need herbs and vegetables, I step outside my home and harvest them.

Saves on shopping time and expenses, gas and traffic woes in the city, and this kind of lifestyle is better for your health!”

Marlene exclaimed.

She advises beginners to start with plant varieties that are hardy and easy to care for, like the basic edible plants she mentioned that Filipinos love to use in the kitchen. Grown in pots or directly in the ground, even people living in condos and townhouses can grow them in their small porches.

“There are plants that flourish under full or partial sun and some that grow in both conditions,” Marlene added.

“Plants like kangkong, eggplants and okra like full sun, which means they should get at least six hours of sunlight a day.

Rosemary, mint and oregano which thrive under partial sun, must get at least three hours of sunlight a day.”

But every plant has its natural enemies like pests and insects. “To protect your organic garden, grow natural pesticides around your plants. The strongest natural insecticides I know are our local oregano and the ever-blooming lantana. These plants are also mosquito repellents,” Marlene stated.

‘If I need herbs and vegetables, I step outside my home and harvest them. Saves on shopping time and expenses, gas and traffic woes in the city, and this kind of lifestyle is better for your health!’ – Marlene Aguilar, author and landscape designer

For further information on organic kitchen gardening, call Marleina’s Garden at (02) 911-5558 or visit www.marleinasfarm.com.

Calamansi, chili and okra are among the fresh produce grown at Marleina's Garden

Bananas can also be grown in back gardens just like in Tess Bichara's backyard garden in Bel-Air

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LIFE isahred @ gmail.com

Master craftsmen from ASEAN member countries learn about the latest designs from the world's top design brands in Milan, Italy

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ASEAN MASTER CRAFTSMEN GET MILAN EXPOSURE

aster craftsmen in Southeast Asia can look forward to a new design movement slowly developing with a new project entitled “Improving the Current Status of ASEAN Master Craft Designers.”

It is a project initiated by Dr. Mina Gabor, chairman of the Philippine Small & Medium Business Development Foundation, Inc. (Philsmed) and endorsed by the National Commission of Culture and Arts and the Department of Foreign Affairs with funding from ASEAN – Republic of Korea FOCP Project.

Assisted by noted international designer, architect and art director Paola Navone, the delegation was exposed to the latest designs from the world’s top design brands while absorbing the soul of design from the exhibits and installations around Milan in Italy.

The mission was led by AEAN Deputy Secretary General of Asean for SocioCultural Community ASEAN Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee and Dr. Gabor, partner-implementor.

Designers who attended were Masulin Lim of Byo Living, Indonesia (weaving); Roselyn Lah of Livan Craft from Sarawak, Malaysia (beading); Al Valenciano of Balay ni Atong, Philippines (handweaving); Rush Pleansuk of BlueDot Design World, Thailand (mixed technique sculpture and product design); and Dr. Truong PhiDuc of the University of Fine Arts Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

Other Philippine delegates were Design Center Philippines senior designer Ramon Pabillon who represented the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and Philsmed Deputy Project Manager Oly Delos Santos.

The Project seeks to strengthen the use of design in strengthening cultural identity in merchandising, packaging and marketing of Asean products by developing the region’s master craft designers.

The Project was conceived after the 2nd ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPADA) International Arts and Crafts Expo in Manila when member countries lamented the lack of new designs in Asean products, which was seen as the cause of poor sales.

To remedy the problem, the members proposed the holding of a biennial ASEAN Master Craft Designers Festival to showcase design development by master craft designers.

The master craftsmen will apply these perspectives to their individual styles and train junior master craftsmen in their countries’ process, says Gabor. The

Project will enhance the importance of design as a tool in strengthening cultural identity and creating job opportunities with world-class and environmentally sustainable products.

According to Gabor, after the Milan observation tour, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia have already conducted “echo seminars” to cascade the learning to the junior master craftsmen in their countries.

The Project’s first phase involves Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, whose master craftsmen will be showcased in the Manila FAME Market Week set on Oct. 20 to 23 at the World Trade Center.

Delegates from other ASEAN members– Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Singapore will be invited to the Manila exhibit so they could introduce to their governments the Project’s next phase.

Roosevelt College has new academic leaders Roosevelt College, Inc. (RCI) is under new management following its acquisition

by Far Eastern University (FEU). RCI welcomes a new president and vice president for academic affairs to lead their group of schools.

FEU President Dr. Michael Alba extends his academic leadership and management expertise to RCI as the 80-year-old school’s new president. As an economist who tackles development gaps and inclusive growth, Alba shared that for the next three months, he will focus on consultation and evaluation of RCI. He will explore academic approaches and curriculum advancement that can be introduced to the school.

“For us to formulate plans for the development of RCI, we need to learn the history, understand the mission-vision and aspirations of the school, recognize its stakeholders, and build relationships with the communities where RCI campuses are located,” said Alba.

Alba brings his more than 20 years of teaching experience to RCI. He was previously affiliated with the University of the Philippines and De La Salle University.

He was dean of the latter’s College of Business and Economics from 2001 to

2006. He has a Ph.D in Applied Economics from Stanford University.

He was also the regional secretariat program director for the National Capital Region of the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) for the school year 2015 to 2016.

Recently, Alba was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU).

Joining Alba in managing RCI’s five campuses is Gillian Joyce Virata who takes on the position of vice president for academic affairs.

Virata worked as an executive director of the Jose Abad Santos Memorial Schools and the senior high schools of Philippine Women’s University. She will lead RCI with her educational philosophy based on democracy and progressive approach.

“RCI has been a traditional academic institution offering basic education.

To introduce innovative educational approaches, we must consider different factors that affect faculty performance and students’ learning outcomes,” said Virata.

Virata majored in philosophy at the University of the Philippines Diliman and has graduate degrees from George Washington University and Columbia University. She was

RCI President Michael Alba, Ph.D

RCI Vice President Gillian Joyce Virata

the senior executive director of the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) where she managed relations and programs with education and training departments of the government.

“Ms. Virata and I are very excited about working with Roosevelt College’s faculty and community. Definitely, change and improvements are coming to RCI, not all at once but in measured steps,” said Alba.

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LIFE

isahred @ gmail.com

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BAMBIKE’S BRYAN MCCLELLAND ON SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD

t takes relentless effort and hard work in order to create and maintain a sustainable program that will provide opportunities to many Filipinos as well as open doors to a unique innovation that is both eco-friendly and profitable. One such venture is Bambike – an idea that started in 2007 by Filipino-American Bryan Benitez McClelland.

While volunteering for Gawad Kalinga (GK) resettlement in Victoria, Tarlac, McClelland was inspired by a bamboo bike-building project in Africa.

Thinking how it would be a good fit in the Philippines, McClelland pushed for the idea to happen in the country, firming up plans for Bambike in 2010.

Part of PLDT SME Nation’s immersion program in Silicon Valley, McClelland had always wanted to provide assistance to Filipino families within the community by providing them sustainable livelihood.

“It’s a community development project for qualified low-income families. I decided to hand select a few competent builders from there and train them the skills necessary to build the bamboo bike,” he said.

From only two builders in Victoria, Tarlac, Bambike has added more full time builders both in its GK community in Tarlac and in Intramuros with nine and six people, respectively, to a total of 15 employees.

Seeing a gap in the market when it comes to guided bike tours, McClelland started the Bambike ecotours on Earth Day in 2014. “We wanted to cater more to the local market and develop a way in which we could provide a service here in the Philippines,” McClelland said.

“We started in Plaza San Luis Complex in Intramuros, which has been great because we’ve been able to take thousands of customers from over 70 different countries to share our Philippine heritage and experience riding around on a Bambike.”

As Bambike pursues growth through its sustainable program, McClelland thrives in the idea of bike tourism, highlighting possible expansion in Bambike ecotours in other places such as Silay in Bacolod, Vigan and Subic. “There is a lot of potential in the Philippines for bike tourism, so we want to be

The Bambike ecotours in Intramuros, Manila offer riders to discover Philippine heritage while riding around on a bike made of bamboo

Bambike founder Bryan McClelland trains competent builders how to build the bamboo bike in a bid to provide them sustainable livelihood

a part of that growth and move into more Philippine heritage centers, especially in places with existing cultural tourism,” shared Mclelland.

Thinking bigger For McClelland, PLDT SME Nation’s Silicon Valley tour was a culmination of a mindopening experience. The caliber of entrepreneurs, who were also hailed as PLDT SME Nation Bozz winners and finalists, inspired McClelland to continuously work towards creative collaboration.

“The Silicon Valley experience enabled us to develop our business people’s skills and think on a larger scale,” McClelland said. “It was

really inspiring to see successful Filipinos in the tech field and learn strategies from them as well as do workshops in order to further improve our businesses.”

As a developing ecosystem rises, where creative entrepreneurial Filipinos can work together towards the development of synergies, McClelland underscores the importance of thinking bigger and the use of data. “Data analytics and the scope to which we need to operate have a real impact. The Silicon Valley experience taught me a great deal on how to do collaborative business initiatives and maintain an entrepreneurial ecosystem that can inspire entrepreneurs in the Philippines

to collaborate, expand business initiatives and really work together to make world-class Pinoy businesses,” McClelland said.

Thus, McClelland also focuses on innovating new bike models while optimizing the newly engineered bamboo treatment process. “We’re planning on developing a more scalable bike model wherein we can try to capture more of the market and make our Bambikes more affordable. We want to develop products that can be used by more people,” McClelland said. “We’re utilizing the new engineering bamboo technique and joints system, which I think we will have a planetary advantage, as

well as focusing more on our brand awareness and the quality of our products.”

As Director of Sustainability in Enderun Colleges, McClelland is determined to create a new undergraduate degree program in sustainability, which will be the first Bachelor of Science in Sustainability in the country.

“Through leadership by example, we are really looking forward to hone the next generation of Filipino leaders, focusing on sustainable development,” McClelland said.

In adapting to the ever-changing world of technology, McClelland plans to strategically incorporate technology in Bambike by utilizing smartphones to help develop self-guided tours. “There’s a lot of interesting technology out there which could be applied in Bambike,” McClelland said.

“For the development of our self-guided tour, it can use applications on your smartphone that are GPS-enabled, making the entire process quicker and more efficient.”

“We also plan on possibly incorporating smart-lock systems into bikes, so that we can have bikeshare programs and accessible mobility that can be integrated in our country’s tourism platform,” McClelland added.

Riding on strength Passing the European standards for bike fatigue and impact testing, McClelland reassures that Bambikes are strong enough, emphasizing the steel-like quality of the bamboo. Bambikes are made of high quality bamboo, which are grown locally in the Philippines.

“Bamboo is arguably the greenest building material out there. When it is built in our bike frame it actually makes for a really nice bike ride because bamboo is naturally shock absorbent,” McClelland said. “Aside from the unique look and having the social component we have, one gets to have the performance of a normal bike but with a smoother ride quality.

With the price varying on the range of components chosen by the customer, Bambike frames cost from P20,000 up to P55,000 with a five-year warranty.

According to McClelland, the best-selling Bambikes include Mira Nila and Luntian, which are the urban road bike and mountain bike, respectively.

Unilab, Benilde

ink Project Inclusion agreement Persons with special needs now have more opportunities for on-the-job training and eventual gainful employment as Unilab Foundation Inc. (UFI) and De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Under the MOU, DLS-CSB continues to identify graduates and current students in its Deaf Education and Applied Studies program qualified for Unilab’s

pool of potential employees.

The initial recipient was blind student Franklin Chong, who has been accepted for training as part of the requirements for the completion of his Bachelor of ScienceInformation Systems course.

The Project Inclusion program explores innovative ways to improve the quality of life of challenged people through appropriate participative and sustainable means.

The memorandum was initialed

by UFI President Rhodora PalomarFresnedi and DLS-CSB President Br. Dennis Magbanua FSC. UFI is the corporate foundation of Unilab Laboratories Inc., the leading pharmaceutical company in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Benilde offers high-standard inclusive and holistic education that nurtures and develops future achievers, including those with disabilities, to their maximum potential.

DLS-CSB President Br. Dennis Magbanua FSC (second from left) and Unilab Foundation Executive Director Rhodora Fresnedi team up for a project that will provide persons with disabilities more opportunities. Joining them are Center for Inclusive Education Director Dr. Catherine Deen and Unilab Foundation Program Manager Grant Javier.

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

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LIFE

isahred @ gmail.com

ANGIE MEAD

T

A KING AND A QUEEN

he media and social media were recently abuzz when Victoria Court group of companies’ scion, sports car enthusiast, adrenaline junkie and husband of TV host and model Joey Mead King, Ian Angelo King came out donning purple locks, women’s clothes and manicured nails.

Ian King came out as a transgender woman last week. And the world was introduced to her other self, Angelina “Angie” Mead King.

People who know Ian but don’t know Angie were understandably shocked upon seeing the masculine man who loves cars turn into a lovely lady with an enviable collection of high-heeled shoes—she still loves cars, though.

But Angie was always there. In fact, on her Instagram account @hailtothe_queen_, which was a private page recently set to public, the first post was a photo of her hands with a woman’s ring and manicured tips posted more than three years ago.

The said photo was followed by a couple more of Angie wearing dresses, Angie sporting wingtip eyeliner, and Angie buying shoes, among a couple more others.

And beside and behind her is wife Joey, that’s why her name Angie Mead King or Angie Mead serves as a tribute to her ever supportive partner.

In her exclusive tell-all interview with events host and friend Tim Yap, Angie revealed that ever since she was a kid she has always been interested in women’s clothes— trying them on and liking the sensation she felt. She would sneak in the maid’s room and borrow their stuff, she related.

Angie was kept as a secret as Ian pursued his other interests in public, but to the people close to her heart, Angie lives and thrives.

Joey knew a few months into their relationship that Angie liked wearing

women’s underwear. But despite of the rather unconventional set-up and struggles they had to go through alone and together, the two remain on each other’s side—until, and especially, today— as they love one another unconditionally and fight conventionality.

Angie’s family also knew of her existence.

She said her late dad Archie King had a hard time accepting it in the beginning but was supportive in the end. Her mom and step mom are also behind her back since she came out to them and her friends are in full support to her and Joey.

In this day and age where homophobia is, sadly, alive and well, Angie, who is known as an alpha male, admitted having a hard time coming out to the public. But throwing caution to the wind was worth it as, since the outing, Angie and Joey received an overwhelming adoration and support from those who know them and random people who heard their story.

Angie Mead King dons a blue body con dress and pointed heels

Twinning. Angie and Joey buy shoes together

At the end of the day, Angie remains the king who is fascinated with sports cars, loves sports, and adores her wife; and the queen

Angie with her purple car and purple nails

who sports lovely dresses and stunning shoes, and is courageous enough to set herself free and be who she wanted to be.

PHOTOS SCREEN GRABBED FROM ANGIE'S INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT @HAILTOTHE_QUEEN_

Ideal place for foreigners to live Moving to the Philippines from the US can be disorienting.

Life in the Pearl of the Orient is vastly different from life in the US. Aside from the local climate, safety, accessibility and the availability of a land for a longterm lease have to be considered when in search of a new home in a new country.

Located in the heart of Central Luzon, with no more than 90 minutes travel time from Metro Manila, Clark in Pampanga is one of the country’s fastest developing Freeport Zones occupying over 33,000 hectares of prime land.

Clark, a place that feels like home to most Americans, is poised to be the preferred destination for foreign investments and tourism mainly because of its almost zero percent crime rate.

This is due to the continuous and existing cooperation of the Philippine National Police (PNP), and of the provincial and local government officials.

The PNP Police Integrated Patrol System and Comparative Statistics became their basis of strategy in alleviating criminal rates. Clark offers a generally peaceful ambience, conducive to hospitality investment projects.

Offering more than just peace

Nature comes alive at Clark Sunvalley Resorts and Country Club

Two state-of-the-art championship golf courses are in full operation at Clark Sunvalley Resorts

and quiet, Clark is home to one of the emerging international hubs in the Philippines – Clark International Airport (CIA) – making it a natural entry point to the Asia Pacific region with only 3.5 hours flying time from Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Korea and other key points in Asia.

With its highly improved road network and continuously increasing flights at CIA, Clark is setting out to become the hub for business, aviation and tourism in the Philippines. Both foreign and local tourists can enjoy Clark’s numerous travel and leisure destinations surrounded by a

experience” in the Philippines.

Here, one can get the perfect balance of enjoying the calm and serene feel of nature while taking advantage of an astounding array of offerings on education, culture, entertainment, leisure and accommodations.

Aside from its high-end, private residential villas, the resort features two state-of-the-art championship golf courses— the 18-hole Sun and Valley Course and the 18-hole Clark Course, all in full operation. These masterpiece private golf courses are located at an altitude of 370 meters above sea level and lets

breathtaking view of the streams of Sacobia River. Adventure-seekers can even sneak in some time to take on the adventurous trail at the extinct Mt. Arayat volcano.

However, the lack of residential areas in Clark available on a longterm lease for foreigners remains a problem, especially for those looking for a house to own or a place for education and even retirement.

To address this, Donggwang Clark Corporation (DCC) developed private residential villas within the Clark Sunvalley Resort— an integrated tourism resort estate providing a “unique leisure

golfers admire great views. The development also has a world class hotel through DCC’s partnership with Hilton Worldwide Soon to rise within the Clark Sunvalley Resorts and Country Club include an international school, indoor water park, world wide wellness spa, kids club, and other sports facilities.

Clark Sunvalley Resorts is now accepting reservations for villas and golf memberships, offering a one-time membership fee good for two persons, with no green fees, monthly and annual fees. For membership and villa inquiries, please call (045) 499-5184 loc. 5.

SUNDAY : J ULY 10, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

C5

‘DIRTY OLD MUSICAL’

L

PROMISES CLEAN, WHOLESOME FUN

et’s hear it for the boys.

Better yet, let’s hear it for the men!

After all, who said only women have issues? Despite having been touted as the stronger sex, most guys continue to grapple with their own share of concerns, however real or imagined, especially more so with the onset of the years.

This is the premise of Spotlight Artists Center’s latest production, Dirty Old Musical (D.O.M.), headlined by five of the country’s topcaliber stage performers including John Arcilla, Nonie Buencamino, Robert Seña, Michael Williams, and Ricky Davao.

Playfully naughty and irreverent, the musical takes a peek into the personal struggles of five men dealing with middle age crisis and all its telltale signs.

Think Full Monty without the

skin. Think Vagina Monologues, but with more balls.

D.O.M. revolves around The Bench Boys, an all-male ‘80s group, which disbanded due to personal issues. After several decades, the long-lost comrades consider the prospect of a musical reunion as their last-ditch effort to raise funds for an ailing member. But do they still have the magic and charisma from their long-forgotten youth?

Touted as Spotlight Artists’ first original Filipino musical, Dirty Old Musical is based on a libretto written by Rody Vera, under the direction of Dexter Martinez, with Myke Salomon as musical director.

The musical soundtrack promises to be a nostalgic romp down memory lane as these are familiar, iconic OPM hits from the ‘80s, including “Kastilyong Buhangin,” “Mag Exercise Tayo Tuwing

D.O.M. (From left) Ricky Davao, Michael Williams, Robert Seña, ohn Arcilla and Nonie Buencamino

TV personality Fred Lo

Comedienne Kitkat

OPM singer Ima Castro

Umaga,” “Nais Ko,” “Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika,” “Babae,” “Legs,” “Ang Himig Natin,” “Sana” “Pag Tumatagal Lalong Tumitibay,” “Pasumpa-sumpa Ka Pa,” ‘Kung Liligaya Ka,” “Ayoko na Sa’yo,” “Balatkayo,” and “Farewell.”

Gary Granada also contributed two new OPM songs, while Myke and Robert Seña collaborated on the third original.

Spotlight’s initial foray into musical production started off with their remakes of Magsimula Ka and Katy. With the success of their previous productions, Spotlight’s top heads Isay Alvarez and

Robert Seña welcomed the challenge of coming up with something fresh and innovative.

Isay recounts, “I was already convinced that the birth pangs are already worth it after the first reading and music rehearsal. We first came up with characters then thought of actors to do them. The show has been postponed twice because of the actors’ schedules, until we finally found a common schedule for everyone.”

And just how bawdy or risque will Dirty Old Musical be?

Isay clarifies, “The only thing they’ll be baring is sheer talent!

It will definitely talk about issues of the geriatric kind sicknesses, waning sex life, erectile dysfunction, relationships, and the like.”

Rounding up the cast are Ima Castro, Kitkat, Fred Lo and a trio of triple threat actors.

Dirty Old Musical opens on the first of September at the Music Museum and will have eight shows, with strong prospects for a rerun before the end of the year.

For tickets call Spotlight Artists Centre (776-4487 / 512-9567 / 0919-911-4444); Ticket World (891-9999); Music Museum (7210635).

Mission to capture turns kill mission in ‘Eye in the Sky’ Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren stars in the white-knuckle thriller Eye in the Sky that tackles the moral ambiguities of modernday warfare. Co-starring with Mirren are three-time Emmy Award winner Aaron Paul (from Breaking Bad) and the late Alan Rickman (best known for his role in the Harry Potter films as Professor Severus Snape).

A contemporary international thriller set in the shadowy world of remotely piloted drone warfare, Eye in the Sky tracks London-based military intelligence officer Colonel Katherine Powell (Mirren) who is remotely commanding a top secret drone operation to capture a group of dangerous terrorists from their safe-house in Nairobi, Kenya.

The mission suddenly escalates from a “capture” to a “kill” operation as Powell realizes that the terrorists are about to embark on a deadly suicide mission. From his base in Nevada, American drone

English actress Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell, a military intelligence officer in the British thriller “Eye in the Sky”

pilot Steve Watts (Paul) is poised to destroy the safehouse when a nine year old girl enters the kill zone just outside the walls of the house. With unforeseen collateral damage now entering the equation, the impossible decision of when to strike gets passed up the

“kill chain” of politicians and lawyers as the seconds tick down.

Director Gavin Hood returns to the realm of contemporary warfare with the tense thriller Eye in the Sky, which explores both the practical application and the ethical ramifications of drone warfare.

“I was aware of all the different aspects of drone warfare,” begins Hood, “because I’d made a film about American military adventures with Rendition. I’d read articles, I’d read opinions and I’d read books. I had always tried to keep up-to-date with what was happening in the American military but I hadn’t taken a deep dive into this very specific question of targeted assassination.”

The collateral damage caused by a drone strike extends beyond potential human casualties. The killing of civilians, even accidentally, has a profound impact on the propaganda war. For the filmmakers, it was vital that the narrative posed these difficult questions while asking the audience to decide on the answers. “What you don’t want to do as a director is preach to your audience,” says Hood. “You want to create a sense of pace, a sense of tension, a thriller, while at the same time, raising

difficult, philosophical questions in the mind of the audience.

“In order to do that you have to keep the story moving forward so as to keep the tension alive, while at the same time finding moments where the story breathes, which allows the audience to catch up.

You need to give the audience time to process the arguments.

“And then, just when the audience thinks they have sided with one particular argument, you throw in another argument that turns it on its head and has the viewer asking, ‘Wait a minute, do I really think what I just thought a minute ago? No, maybe I don’t.’

And just when they’re agreeing with someone else, here comes another point of view.”

Eye in the Sky opens July 20 in cinemas nationwide from Pioneer Films.

Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Njw2q7Pc&feature=youtu.be

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SUNDAY : J ULY 10, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

DZMM ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA’S STATION OF THE YEAR

D

ZMM Radyo Patrol 630, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, has another reason to celebrate after being hailed as the Radio Station of the Year at the Rotary Club of Manila’s (RCM) annual Journalism Awards at the New World Hotel ballroom on June 30. The flagship AM radio station of ABS-CBN and the no. 1 AM radio station in Mega Manila, also received the same honor last year.

“We are humbled by this acknowledgement of our efforts by the Rotary Club of Manila. We always strive to be faithful to the needs of our audience, whether it’s news, analysis and commentary or public service events. This recognition serves to remind us why we do what we do. DZMM, and the entire ABS-CBN News, will continue to respond to needs of the Filipino.

We’ve been doing it for 30 years, and we remain focused on continuing this mission

in the years to come,” said Ging Reyes, head of the ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs.

ABS-CBN, the Philippines’ leading media and entertainment company, won three other distinctions to be the most awarded news organization that night.

S.O.C.O.: Scene of the Crime Operatives host Gus Abelgas was awarded Television Male Broadcaster of the Year, while Dos Por Dos anchor Gerry Baja took home the Radio Broadcaster of the Year award.

Abelgas’ long-running crime investigative program has consistently rated high on its weekend timeslot, with viewers tuning in to learn how to protect their families based on the experiences featured in the show.

Baja, meanwhile, continues to provide news analysis and sharp commentary on issues in his radio program.

‘Criminal Minds’ spinoff takes audience to new horizons in crime investigation

“Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” is an police procedural drama starring Forest Whitaker and Janeane Garofalo

Action packed and full of suspense, AXN’s Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior takes viewers to the scene of the crime and how a group of investigators solve each one of them.

This series of crime-busting and investigations is set to capture the audience as Forest Whitaker plays team leader Samuel Cooper alongside Janeane Garofalo as supervisory special agent Beth Griffith.

They take on cases of abductions, murders, and kidnappings with the help of other agents in their unit.

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior is a spinoff of the series Criminal Minds and was developed by CBS Corporation and The Disney Company.

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior premieres July 20 and can be seen every Wednesday at 9:45 p.m. on AXN. AXN is available on Cable Link Channel 38, Cignal Digital TV Channel 61, Global Destiny Cable Channel 61, Dream Channel 20, Gsat Channel 12, SKYCable Channel 49.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ANSWER PREVIOUS PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Seals a package 6 Cattle stalls 11 Pickup 16 Kickboxer JeanClaude Van — 21 Habitat 22 Cliffside refuge 23 UFO captive?

24 Drama awards 25 Mukluk wearer 26 Pop fly 27 Historic shrine 28 Fender benders 29 Logical half (2 wds.)

31 Anagram for “steam” 33 Peat source 35 Fair-hiring abbr.

36 Next year’s alums 37 Adventure tales 38 Milady’s 39 Entice (2 wds.)

41 Aberdeen’s river 42 Garlic juicer

44 46 51 52 53 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 66 67 68 69 70 72 73 74 75 77 78

“— and Shout” Cop’s photo (2 wds.)

Pocket bread Greek sandwich Cheryl or Alan Darth’s real name Bounded along Ceramic squares Fritz’s lang.

Retiring Party poopers Crow cousin Ridiculous comedy Monsieur’s summer Classroom fixtures Greasy spoon Bevels Half the checkers Follow orders Pantyhose brand Shirts or cows Curly coifs Hazy Cratchits’ dinner

SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2016

79 Night owl need (2 wds.)

82 Rudner and Moreno 83 Animal stomach 84 Qtys.

88 Walrus hunters 89 Golf strokes 90 Does pull-ups 91 Cash substitute 92 Attacks on the fridge 93 Video companion 94 Outer garments 95 Henry VIII’s house 97 List shortener 98 Become edible 99 Frightens a fly 100 Sniffing around 101 Catches a glimpse of 103 Gen. — Bradley 104 Happy shouts 105 Polish 106 Dotted fabric 108 Like daylight?

110 Rig the boxing match 111 Springlike 114 Ticket info 115 Deejay’s medium 117 Hi-tech scan 120 Chef’s phrase (2 wds.)

121 It ends in Nov. 123 Censor 125 Tinsel cousin (2 wds.)

127 Pounce 129 On — — (hot) 131 Non-com nickname 133 Prima — 134 Psychic — Cayce 135 Wish granter 136 Piece of paper 137 That is (2 wds.)

138 Bristles with 139 Celerity 140 Overdue 141 Helena rival

DOWN 1 Opossum grippers 2 Daisy Mae’s man 3 Hassocks 4 Prevent errata 5 Save for the future (2 wds.)

6 Nightclub 7 Do a brake job 8 Presses 9 Profile, for short 10 30-day mo.

11 Oxford’s river 12 Sovereigns 13 Amherst sch.

14 Trippet 15 Handle 16 Leaps aside 17 Homer’s dad 18 Worked a claim 19 Ditto (2 wds.)

20 Ruhr Valley city 30 Dangerous gas 32 Out in front 34 Mishmashes 40 It borders Fla. 42 Conduits 43 66 and I-80 44 Mary — Moore 45 Little chirper 46 Preppie’s mom 47 Combine 48 Frequented casinos 49 Zoom on runners 50 Lay low 51 Petunia’s suitor 52 Forks over 54 Think alike 55 Strongly denounce 56 Attire oneself 58 Forfeits 59 Zestful 62 Jazz genre 63 King’s tennis rival 64 Flat-needled trees 65 Befuddled (2 wds.)

67 68 69 71 73 74 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 85 86 87 89 90 93 94 95 96 98 99 100 102 105 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 122 124 126 128 130 132

Radio announcer and “Dos Por Dos” anchor Gerry Baja takes home Radio Broadcaster of the Year award

Fellow DZMM anchor and reporter, Jasmin Romero, was honored by RCM as Radio Female Broadcaster of the Year. While also reporting for ABS-CBN on TV, Romero showed she is still tops in the platform where she first made a name for herself.

Now on its 30th year, DZMM has constantly evolved to reach more Filipinos. It has the first-ever radio-television simulcast in DZMM TeleRadyo on SkyCable and ABS-CBN TVplus, while it also offers audio streaming on its website www.dzmm. com.ph and news updates on Twitter and Facebook (@DZMMTeleRadyo).

Quad quarters Painter of ballerinas Cat calls “Cheers” in Chihuahua Sweepstakes Rivers and Baez Suet and tallow Feel at home (2 wds.)

Holds tightly Tells all Raise spirits Ground crew order More discourteous Pandemonium Calf-length skirts Saturday morning fare Voltage jump Cocoon dwellers What three equals Objectives Cowpuncher’s shout Won — soup Do something with Stirs up Took a vow Undeliverable mail Common ID Restless Angler’s boots — Holiday Walked unsteadily Like cobras Parking attendant Slip past Gamut Steak cut (hyph.)

Harder to find Chuck Berry tune “Boating” painter Dentist’s request Really ticked License plates Discreet summons Mortar troughs Herd of whales Gym iteration I knew it!

These triumphs of ABS-CBN came on the heels of a successful Inauguration Day coverage dubbed Ang Panunumpa: Pangako ng Pagbabago, which rated higher than its competitors according to ratings data provider Kantar Media. ABS-CBN’s coverage garnered an 18.8 percent national TV rating while GMA’s coverage only managed 13.4 percent.

One of the oldest and most prestigious award-giving bodies in journalism, the RCM Journalism Awards has been recognizing outstanding individuals and organizations in Philippine media annually since 1966.

S UNDAY : J ULY 10, 2016

SHOWBITZ

ISAH V. RED EDITOR

isahred @ gmail.com

A

C7

ABS-CBN NATIONAL TV RATINGS SURGE TO 47 PERCENT IN JUNE

BS-CBN Corporation’s TV and Studio business continues to be unrivaled as recent ratings data from Kantar Media shows the Philippines’ leading media and entertainment company still draws more television viewers than any other media network in the country.

ABS-CBN’s national audience share increased to 47 percent in June based on the data provided

by Kantar Media, making ABSCBN still the most-watched TV network, while it also pioneered viewing of content online with video-on-demand services on TFC.tv for Kapamilyas living abroad and iWant TV locally.

GMA is a distant second with a 32 percent audience share for

the same month while Kapamilya shows occupied the Top 10 programs for June.

Kantar Media uses a nationwide panel size of 2,610 urban and rural homes that represent 100 percent of the total Philippine TV viewing population, while the other ratings data supplier AGB Nielsen reportedly has only 2,000 homes based solely in urban areas that represent only 57percent of the Philippine TV viewing population.

While they are scoring high in the TV ratings, ABS-CBN is also leading the nation in bringing online content to its audiences as evidenced by the Filipino consumption of their programs via their video-on-demand services using

the internet. ABS-CBN pioneered the service in the country through their iWant TV website and ABSCBNmobile locally, while Overseas Filipinos can watch their favorite programs through TFC. tv. The strong presence of ABSCBN online is aimed at the company’s charge to be of service to the Filipino by providing content through different digital platforms like its digital television, ABS-CBN TVplus and its own mobile brand, ABS-CBNmobile.

ABS-CBN’s primetime block obtained a 49 percent average audience share that is 18 percentage points higher than rival GMA’s 31 percent average audience share during the same time block. The primetime block is the most im-

portant part of the day when most Filipinos watch TV and advertisers put a larger chunk of their investment in to reach more consumers effectively.

Eleven ABS-CBN programs made it to the monthly Top 10 highest-rating programs for June, led by FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano (42.2 percent ), followed by The Voice Kids (36.8 percent), Dolce Amore (33.7 percent), Maalaala Mo Kaya (33.5 percent), Wansapanataym (31.1 percent), TV Patrol (30.2 percent), Goin’ Bulilit (23.8 percent), Home Sweetie Home (23.2 percent), Rated K (20.8 percent), and the recentlyconcluded The Story of Us (19.8 percent). NBA sa ABS-CBN, the network’s coverage of the NBA Finals, also made it to the Top 10 with

a 22.6 percent rating.

Meanwhile, Be My Lady (18.6 percent) remains to be number one in terms of daytime programming, while It’s Showtime (18.2 percent) never lost a single day to Eat Bulaga (12.9 percent). The Kapamilya Gold afternoon block also shone through for the month, garnering a 45 percent nationwide rating against the 33 percent of GMA, thanks to the great scores of Doble Kara (17.1 percent) and Tubig at Langis (15.1 percent).

More people in the country also tuned in to the network’s Inauguration Day coverage titled Ang Panunumpa: Pangako ng Pagbabago, which hauled in an 18.8 percent rating compared to the 13.4 percent of GMA.

What to expect in ‘I-Bilib’ today Like circles in a spiral while changing colors. That’s what’s going to happen in today’s episode of I-Bilib on GMA 7.

That is part of the Spinning Color Experiment and it is anticipated to amaze the audience.

In Trivia, the audience will see Roller Coaster Zip Line. Will

you hack this one? Of course you want to, because you will also get a science bonus while enjoying the ride.

Color the fire is what the guys over at Discover Science will do and find out how fire can have colors.

Can you see “sound?” In Seeing Sound Experiment, see if you can

see sound.

In Marshmallow Experiment, it will be another explosive surprise as it is the gang’s Hulin Hirit.

I-Bilib is your Sunday morning treat on GMA 7. The kind of show everyone in the household will enjoy. Chris Tiu hosts this multiawarded educational show.

“Art 2 Art” host Lisa Macuja in an interview with Philippine Board on Books for Young People chair Tarie Sabido

Trivia and experiments in today’s episode of “I-Bilib,”

Wedding bells ring in ‘Say Yes To The Dress: Atlanta’ on Diva

Say “yes” to a brand new season of Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta – Diva’s hottest bridal reality show that follows a bride-to-be’s search for the perfect dress. Catch some wedding drama, emotional reunions and rising tempers as the series’ ninth season returns to DIVA with brand new episodes Thursdays and Fridays this month.

Following excited brides-to-be as they search for the wedding dresses of their dreams at Atlanta’s premier bridal salon, Bridals By Lori. The brand new season promises to once again capture the interests and hearts of Filipino audiences with hosts Lori Allen, owner of Bridals by Lori since 1980, and image consultant Monte Durham.

This season premiere starts off with country singer Bride Stephanie’s wedding in 13 days and this is her first time shopping. She’s self-proclaimed “procrastinator” has Monte and Consultant Robin running all around the store, searching for something she can buy straight off the rack.

Even with the clock ticking, this bride’s still holding out for that bridal “moment” before she says “yes”. She’s feeling the heat from her entourage, who are worried she’ll just end up singing the bridal blues.

Meanwhile, in the premiere’s second half-hour episode, a Bride Jennifer is a breast cancer survivor wanting to show off her curves, but Mom prefers her “mounds” be covered. Then another momzilla, Bride Jasmine’s mom questions her sense of style, but Lori suspects that’s not the reason she’s casting doubt on the bride’s dream dress.

With compelling true stories and the dynamic hosting duo that viewers have come to love, the new season of Say Yes To The Dress: Atlanta also boasts an exceptional lineup of guest appearances, ranging from inspiring real life heroes to inspiring personalities.

Diva is available on Channel 37 (Sky Cable), Channel 40 f(Destiny Digital), Channel 65 (Cignal), and Channel 32 (Cable Link).

The program host with Roselyn Perez (left photo) and Jared Tan (right photo)

‘Art 2 Art’ in July

“Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta” fashion director Monte Durham

“Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta” follows events at Bridals by Lori in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs

After its tribute to sculptor Ed Castrillo, Art 2 Art reveals a varied line-up for the rest of July, touching on children’s books, ukulele music, ballet and theater.

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 live streaming on http://dzrhnewstelevision.tv.

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

Today, Art 2 Art celebrates National Children’s Book Day (falling on July 19 this year) as Philippine Board on Books for Young People chair Tarie Sabido shares her organization’s advocacy to help develop children’s literature in the country.

On July 17, Pao Gumba talks about ukulele music and how he

taught himself to play this instrument, as well as the guitar, piano, keyboards, bass guitar and drums.

The ukulele virtuoso, lead artist of the Ukulele Philippine Ensemble, renders numbers for Art 2 Art. On July 24, Atlanta Ballet company artist Jared Tan recounts how he was inspired to be a danseur when he watched ballet icon Osias Barroso dance at age eight.

He eventually became an artist of the Philippine Ballet Theater, before moving to the United States.

On July 31, actress Roselyn Perez shares anecdotes from over 30 years spent in professional theater. Perez recently won a Gawad Buhay for her lead performance in The Normal Heart, her first role after being away from the stage for six years.

For inquiries, please e-mail art2artdzrh@gmail.com. On Facebook, check out the account Ballerina ng Bayan for updates on Art 2 Art episodes.

SUNDAY : J ULY 10, 2016

C8

ISAH V. RED EDITOR NICKIE WANG WRITER

isahred @ gmail.com

SHOWBITZ

The Ultimate Fandom: Jason Dy’s Dyfenders and their charitable group, Kythe Foundation, Inc., receive P1 million after walking home winner in this year’s 107.5 Ultimate Fandom Challenge

R&B singer Daryl Ong (second from left) with his fandom Darylnatics

Rising diva Morisette Amon flanked by the members of Mowienatics

Young singer Francis Lim (second from left) and the Francisnatics

FANS UNITE FOR CHARITY IN FIRST ‘WISH 107.5 ULTIMATE FANDOM CHALLENGE

ble group, Kythe Foundation, Inc., received P1 million while runner-up Darrenatics, the fandom of Darren Espanto, and World Vision were granted with P500,000.00 Following them were the Juanistas (The ISAH V. RED Juans), receiving P300,000.00; Mowienatics (Morissette), P200,000.00; Darylnatics (Daryl Ong), P150,000.00; JKUFC (JK fandom is a group of people who Labajo), P100,000.00, and Francisnatics organized themselves to support a (Francis Lim), Php 50,000.00. particular artist.

These fandom’s’ beneficiaries are the The first Wish 107.5 Ultimate Real Life Foundation, Inc., Marixtell Fandom Challenge was a series of compe- Children’s Foundation, Inc., Blessed Ville tition launched to test the unity of OPM Special School Foundation, Inc., Lingap fandom not only Vo l u n t o u r i s m in helping their PH, Inc., and Throughout the idols but more Philippine Cereimportantly, in competition, the fandoms bral Palsy, Inc. reaching out to Throughout demonstrated their the less fortunate. the competisolidarity in various They have nevtion, the faner imagined that demonchallenges, which included doms they could unite strated their this time for a solidarity in Twitter trending, online noble cause. various chalThe two- voting, music video power lenges, which month friendly viewing and an extreme included Twitfandom battle ter trending, adventure race concluded on online voting, June 28 at the music video SMART-Araneta Colsieum where a to- power viewing and an extreme advental of P2.3 million was given away to ture race. the seven winning groups, their artists The event culminated in a grand finale and beneficiaries. featuring performances led by the seven Jason Dy’s Dyfenders and their charita- participating fandom’s. The main high-

A

SPEED President Mr. Isah Red (center) joined by OPM artist Dingdong Avanzado (left) and PARI’s Alvin de Vera (right) in announcing the first ever winner of Wish 107.5 Fandom Challenge

light of the evening was the much-awaited WISHclusive collaborations of the fandoms and their respective artists, which served as their final task for the challenge.

The panel of judges for this round included Dingdong Avanzado, corporate secretary of the Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit (OPM), and Alvin De Vera, president of the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI) and

myself being the president of the Society of Philippine Entertainment Editors (SPEED) and lifestyle and entertainment editor of Manila Standard.

The lady jocks of Wish 107.5, Jelly Kiss, Faye, Princess Leigh, and Alice were the hosts of the night’s big event while the Faculty of the Mathematics Department of the Ateneo de Manila University served as independent tabulating officials.