15 MARCH 2019

U.S. GROUNDS
BOEING 737 MAX
MOST
INNOVATIVE
BROADSHEET
2018
44TH
PHILIPPINES
BUSINESS
EXPO
A STORY IN
EVERY BITE
CAR SALES LAG 8%
OVER 2 MONTHS
MANILA, PHILIPPINES FRIDAY, 15 MARCH 2019
TIMES ARE A CHANGIN’
ROCKETS PFFFT
AFTER
9TH
PAGE 20 WORLD PAGE 24 LIFESTYLE PAGE 9 BUSINESS
PAGE 5 COMMENTARY
PAGE 17 SPORTS
Money litters
halls of ivy
The poor have to camp out and struggle to
enter a prestigious university while kids of the
rich and famous breezes through the school of
their choice through their moneyed parents.
The above may have been the usual
narrative during the opening of school years
Turn to page 6
Courage begets courage President
Rodrigo Duterte commiserates with a relative
of a slain soldier during a visit to Cauayan City,
Isabela as he fumed against drug traffickers, the
politicians who protect them and the hypocrites
who criticize him for his vicious war on drugs.
MALACAÑANG PHOTO
46 narco pols named
By Kristina Maralit
and Mario J. Mallari
After weeks of
speculation,
President
Rodrigo
Supplement eyed for pork
By Mario J. Mallari
and Hananeel Bordey
A likely compromise will
allow the immediate approval
of the stalled appropriations
for 2019 after economic
managers yesterday said the
re-enacted budget from last
year will severely undercut
the growth momentum.
The Senate said it will
accommodate a special
session with the House of
Representatives for the
inserted lump sums to break
the impasse on the 2019
national budget.
Under the proposed
deal among leaders of both
chambers of Congress, the
General Appropriations
Bill (GAB) transmitted
to the President would
revert to the one which
the bicameral conference
committee approved.
Senate President Vicente
Sotto III then said a special
session will be called to pass a
The initial list
released to the
public by the
President includes
35 mayors, seven
vice-mayors, one
provincial board
member, and
three members
of the House of
Representatives
supplemental budget for the
lump sum appropriations that
the House of Representatives
wanted included in the 2019
national budget.
In a television interview,
Sotto said the suggestion
was to revert
to the ratified
version of the
2019 GAB and
let President
Rodrigo
Duterte veto
the lump sum
appropriations.
Sotto said a special session
would then be convened
for Congress to pass a
joint resolution granting a
supplemental budget for
the vetoed portions of
the 2019 budget.
Turn to page 2
Sail ho! The USS Blue Ridge, the flagship of the US 7th fleet, arrives in Manila Bay for a visit. The ship is in the
country for a cooperative deployment with the Philippine Navy.
AFP
‘Till death
do us park’
The Tagalog saying walang
sinasanto means “zealously.” That
can aptly describe Metropolitan
Manila Development Authority
(MMDA) traffic enforcers for being
aggressive lately in ticketing violators
in the Mabuhay Lane in Quezon City.
In fact, one MMDA enforcer ticketed
a police officer for illegally parking his
car in a portion of the lane this week.
The police officer resisted
the citation but the enforcer did
not budge and issued the ticket.
Fortunately, no untoward incident
happened between the two and the
cop accepted the citation charging
him a P2,000 fine for illegal parking.
Turn to page 6
Duterte released yesterday
the controversial “narco list”
containing 46 politicians
allegedly involved in the illegal
drug trade.
The names on the list, from
vice mayors to representatives,
according to the Chief
Executive, were “vetted and
validated” from July 2018 to
earlier this month.
He enumerated some of those
on the list including a handful
of women politicians whom he
accused of involvement in the
narcotics trade.
The initial list released to the
public by the President includes
35 mayors, seven vice-mayors,
DILG files cases
The names mentioned by the
President were already charged
administratively before the
Turn to page 2
Admiral Uy sails 88 ships
Rising star in the business sector Dennis
Uy owns what could be the biggest fleet of
passenger and cargo vessels in the country
which he said is a good investment considering
the archipelagic feature of the country.
“We are the largest shipping group in the
country,” Uy said.
Uy’s Chelsea Logistics Holding Corp.
(Chelsea) currently has a fleet of 88 ships
in the country.
Chelsea operates 16 tankers; 22
roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) ships; 11 cargo
vessels; 14 tugboats, and one floating
dock through units Chelsea Shipping,
Starlite Ferries, Trans-Asia Shipping
Lines Inc. and Fortis Tugs.
An affiliate 2GO Group Inc.
operates eight RoRo vessels, five
cargo vessels and 11 fast crafts.
“We are connecting the
country’s many islands everyday,
carrying around 5 million
passengers a year within all of
our shipping group,” Uy said.
Uy said aside from the rising
commerce and trade in the country,
he is betting on an increase in the
volume of local and foreign tourists.
Busy man Dennis Uy loves the seas.
Turn to page 6
ROY PELOVELLO
Veteran, TV star duel
By Hananeel
Bordey
It’s a
blockbuster
showdown
MANZANO for the lone
district of San
Juan City at the House of
Representatives between a
veteran politician and a movie
celebrity.
Television host and artist
Eduardo “Edu” Manzano will
be going against incumbent
one provincial board member
and three members of the House
of Representatives.
Notable personalities the
President mentioned were
Pangasinan 1st District Rep.
Jesus Celeste, Zambales 1st
District Rep. Jeffrey Khonghun,
and Leyte 3rd District Rep.
Vicente Veloso, Mayor Vicente
Loot of Daanbantayan, Cebu
and dismissed Iloilo City Mayor
Jed Mabilog.
San Juan Rep. Ronaldo “Ronny”
Zamora in the race for the
congressional seat of the city.
Zamora, who is running under
ZAMORA
Turn to page 6
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NEWS
2
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Supplement eyed
for pork
The GAB transmitted to the President would
revert to the one which the bicameral conference
committee approved
From page 1
“Yesterday there was a new
development. Sen. Ping Lacson
had a talk with Congressman
Ronnie Zamora. They had a long
talk and the suggestion was
that again, recall the submitted
GAB to us and from there we
could probably amend or let the
President veto that portion,”
Sotto said.
1-day session
“Then we can convene even
for one day in a special session
and pass a joint resolution
approving a supplemental budget
for that particular 3 percent of
the budget,” Sotto added.
Lacson earlier had claimed
P95 billion worth of funds in the
2019 budget was realigned by
the House leadership to favor
the allies of Speaker Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo.
A special session will
be called to pass a
supplemental budget
for the lump sum
appropriations that the
House of Representatives
wanted included.
The realignments were made
even after both chambers of
Congress ratified the bicameral
conference committee report on
the 2019 budget.
“If we agree…then I will sign
it and transmit to the President,
then the President can veto the
supposed lump sums…it (vetoed
funds) will remain there and
therefore we can convene into a
special session and address that
particular portion of the budget,”
Sotto explained.
Sotto said the special session
will only take a day to pass a
joint resolution approving the
supplemental budget concerning
three percent of the proposed
P3.757 trillion national budget.
The President can veto the
supposed lump sums.
According to Sotto, some House
members realigned billions worth
of funds after ratification of the
budget measure and, worse, they
supposedly moved allocations
from Mr. Duterte’s “Build, Build,
Build” program to some select
congressional districts.
Sotto and Speaker Arroyo
earlier had met with Mr. Duterte
in Malacañang to break the
budget impasse.
Lacson blamed
House leaders, however, put the
blame on Lacson for the long-drawn
feud between the Senate and the
House of the budget.
Lacson earlier had claimed
P95 billion worth of funds
in the 2019 budget was
realigned by the House
leadership.
Majority Floor Leader
Fredenil Castro said in a
statement President Duterte
and the Filipino people are the
collateral damage of Lacson’s
continuing animosity towards
Speaker Arroyo, adding the
Senate leadership was convinced
to do his bidding.
Castro reminded the Senate
did not do its part in crafting
measures that will support Mr.
Duterte’s agenda which he has
laid down during his State of
the Nation Address in July 2018.
“These include continuing
the process of Charter change
towards federalism, passing
the second tranche of tax
reform or TRAIN 2, the traffic
emergency bill and creating a
new Department of Disaster
Management, among others,”
Castro said.
Moreover, he said the
senators should also explain
the realignment that they did in
the 2019 GAB where P2.5 billion
was slashed from the National
Greening Project, P3 billion from
TESDA (Technical Education and
Skills Development Authority)
scholarship, P11 billion from
Department of Public Works and
Highways Right of Way projects
for the President’s “Build,
Build, Build” program
and P2.5 billion
funding for
foreign
assisted
projects.
In demand In almost every street corner are motorcycle
technicians as a result of the proliferation of motorcycles
in the city.
ROMAN PROSPERO
Soon a fad Caliraya, Laguna residents wash their clothes the traditional way which may soon be a common practice as most households’
faucets dry up.
ROMAN PROSPERO
46 narco pols named
The names mentioned by the President were already charged administratively before the Office of the
Ombudsman yesterday by the Department of Interior and Local Government
From page 1
Office of the Ombudsman yesterday by the Department of Interior
and Local Government (DILG).
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the “narco politicians” are
facing administrative charges of grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial
to the best interest of the service, conduct unbecoming of a public
officer and gross neglect of duty.
Año said the
involvement of the officials in illegal
drugs was
b y
evaluated and judiciously validated
the Interagency Committee on Anti-
Illegal Drugs chaired by Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency in coordination
with the Philippine National Police,
Armed Forces of the Philippines and
National Intelligence Coordinating
Agency.
“So this is already validated
report,” said Mr. Duterte.
He stressed the work of the law
enforcement agencies was only
to establish probable cause of
the alleged involvement of the
politicians in the illegal drugs
trade.
On the other hand, Mr.
Duterte said it is the duty of
the court judges to determine
the guilt beyond reasonable doubt of
those charged.
The Chief Executive hinted that more would be
named soon after further validation by government
law enforcement.
Mr. Duterte also asked the United States Embassy
regarding Mabilog, who fled the country last year after
being tagged in the illegal drugs trade.
Mabilog flew
The President expressed belief that Mabilog is either in the US
or Canada.
He also slammed Loot and fellow retired police general Marcelo
Garbo for “destroying” the people for their involvement in the illegal
drugs after graduating at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).
On Alcala, who is a relative of former Agriculture Secretary
Proceso Alcala, the President asked him to change his ways before
it’s too late.
“Sir, the Alcalas are running out, they are all dead. They never
learn,” Mr. Duterte said.
“You (Roderick Alcala) have always been on this list for many years
now, you have a lot of money, maybe P50 million you can’t use it all
up, don’t wait until you are killed,” warned the President.
The President said he would resign if he fails to neutralize those
involved in the illegal drug trade.
“You went to the PMA. You were educated on a scholarship of the
people’s money because we wanted a good soldier. Why did you do
that to the Filipinos?” the President expressed as he convened the
government’s security cluster for a command conference in Davao
City.
Dangerous time
The last three years of his administration will be the “most
dangerous time” in the lives of drug lords and drug pushers, President
Rodrigo Duterte vowed.
It is the duty of the court judges to determine the guilt
beyond reasonable doubt of those charged.
Citing the recent spate of gruesome crimes, particularly the rape-slay
case of a 16-year-old high school student in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu,
the Chief Executive issued the warning as he promised to end drug
menace by the time he steps down from office.
“I have 3 years left, I would make it the most dangerous time
of your life, as a drug pusher, drug lord,” an obviously exasperated
Mr. Duterte said in his speech at the campaign sortie of Partido
Demokratiko Pilipino in Cauayan City, Isabela last Wednesday night.
Christine Silawan, a student of Maribago High School, was first
reported missing by her family before being found lifeless in a vacant
lot. She was naked from the waist down, her face skinned to bone.
Autopsy reports showed she sustained 16 stab wounds and was
sexually assaulted. Her internal organs were also said to be “missing.”
Root is drugs
“Those sons of b*tches killed someone and skinned her face. I told
the police, it could be the work of a cult. I ordered them to search for
the killers. I told them, that’s because of drugs,” stated the President.
He also mentioned other incidents of sexual assault, particularly
rape incidents where the victims were minors.
“Nowadays, children are being raped. There was a five-year-old
kid raped by a priest. The other one, four months. The one that
raped that four-month-old is already dead. You can all go to hell,”
Mr. Duterte said.
Dig deep
“Human rights, maybe you don’t know… Try to dig into the case
and you would find my revulsion about it,” he added.
“I kiss women, I hug women, but I never raped them,” he said.
Strong in his resolve to establish law and order in the country, the
President reiterated anew his warning to those who have committed
heinous acts against the public and those involved in the illegal drug
trade.
“Do not destroy my country, either by drugs or by committing
rampant criminality because I will kill you,” the Chief Executive
stressed.
“And do not feed my children and my neighbors’ children with
shabu or any other drugs… Ecstasy… Because I will kill you. And that
is a warning to everybody,” he concluded.
Smile it away The many ways to relieve searing temper due to water
disruption includes a lot of humor which luckily many Filipinos have in
great abundance.
AP

Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
PAGE THREE
TRILLANES MUST BE GNASHING HIS TEETH
Even Magdalo survey
shows Go rising
Go was ranked at solo No. 6 with 41.1
percent vote preference.
In its previous survey, Magdalo
ranked Go at No. 16
By Mario J. Mallari
There seems to be no stopping former Special
Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence
“Kuya Bong” Go’s rise in the senatorial race as even
the opposition Magdalo Group’s survey showed his
huge jump in ranking.
Magdalo is chaired by opposition Sen. Antonio
Trillanes IV, an arch-critic of President Duterte and
Go himself.
Call for death
penalty renewed
By Alvin Murcia
The Volunteers Against Crime
and Corruption (VACC) yesterday
called on the public to support their
call for the re-imposition of the
death penalty in the aftermath of
the brutal murder and mutilation of
16-year old Christine Silawan after
possibly being raped in Lapu-Lapu
City, Cebu.
VACC founding Chairman
Dante Jimenez made the call as
he condemned the heinous crime
against Silawan, who was found
dead and defaced, naked from the
waist down. The victim’s head and
face was skinned off, exposing her
skull. She also bore multiple stab
wounds.
The perpetrators are now at
large and the subject of a manhunt.
Former Special Assistant to
the President and 2019 senatorial
candidate Christopher Lawrence
“Bong” Go condemned the brutal
slaying and supported calls for the
re-imposition of the death penalty
for heinous crimes.
“I believe it is a good deterrent
against these heinous crimes,” said
Go who called on authorities to do
everything in their power to bring
the perpetuators to justice.
The victim’s head and face
were skinned off, exposing
her skull. She also bore
multiple stab wounds.
Jimenez expressed his grief and
deep sentiment over the incident,
and aired his strong and urgent
appeal for legislation, especially
those running for re-election in
this year’s mid-term elections to
seriously consider the implications
of the incident in terms of law and
order and public safety.
“I hope that legislators,
especially during this election
season, will give particular
attention to the re-imposition of
the death penalty for heinous
crimes. The gruesome murder
of Christine Silawan presents
disturbing development in the
government ‘s campaign against
crime, corruption and illegal
drugs,” he said.
In a survey conducted by
Magdalo from 5 to 7 March and
released yesterday by the office of
Trillanes, Go was ranked at solo No.
6 with 41.1 percent vote preference.
In its previous survey, Magdalo ranked
Go at No. 16.
Independent reelectionist Senators Grace Poe
and Nacionalist Party Hugpong ng Pagbabago bet
reelectionist Sen. Cynthia Villar topped the Magdalo
polls with 60.6 percent and 49.2 percent, respectively.
Actor-turned-politician Lito Lapid was at No. 3 with
43.9 percent followed by Taguig Rep. Pia Cayetano
with 41.7 percent then former Sen. Bong Revilla at No.
5 garnering 41.6 percent.
Other candidates who made it to the top 16
were reelectionist Sen. Nancy
Binay, 34.7 percent (7); former
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, 33.2 percent
(8); reelectionist Sen. Bam Aquino, 32.6
percent (9); Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee
Marcos, 31.0 percent (10); Mar Roxas,
30.9 percent (11); reelectionist Sen. Koko
Pimentel, 30.2 percent (12); reelectionist
Sen. Sonny Angara, 29.9 percent (13); former
Bureau of Corrections Chief Ronald de
la Rosa, 26.9 percent (14); former
Presidential Adviser on Political
Affairs Secretary Francis
Tolentino, 26.5 percent (15), and
reelectionist Sen. Joseph Victor
Ejercito, 24.5 percent (16).
TRILLANES
THE hapless body of the defaced victim led to calls calls for the resurrection
of the death penalty.
By Gladys Mae Ablon
Rody says
no to RICH
President Rodrigo Duterte is
not in favor of the law aimined at
establishing Regional Investment
and Infrastructure Coordinating
Hub (RICH) in Central Luzon.
The bill, proposed by Sen.
Richard Gordon, aims to bring in
jobs and capital to the region. Tax
exemptions will also be issued to
some registered enterprises for 50
years and possibly be extended
for a longer period of time.
In a veto letter to the Senate
dated March 13, Duterte said the
bill “has several provisions which
would pose substantial risks to
the country and are thus inimical
to its economic growth.”
The President insisted that
what the country’s needs is a tax
system that would not be heavy
for the people but could still raise
enough funds for government
programs.
“This renders the whole
system incapable of generating
a yield sufficient to sustain the
country’s social and economic
infrastructure, and this would
necessitate looking for new
sources of revenue through
additional taxes or borrowings
in the future,” Duterte said.
“In the end, it is the taxpayers
all over the country, who are
excluded from the tax incentives,
that will bear the brunt of the
burden,” he added.
UNMINDFUL of the water shortage, threat of El Nino and heinous crimes,
this boy finds time for a quick text to a friend while waiting for customers
in Port Area, Manila.
ROMAN PROSPERO

COMMENTARY
4 Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Daily
Tribune
WITHOUT FEAR • WITHOUT FAVOR
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
Crispin G. Martinez
Chito Lozada
Dinah Ventura
Aldrin Cardona
John Henry Dodson
Jun Vallecera
Jaimes R. C. Sumbilon
Larry Payawal
Komfie Manalo
Patricia Ramos
Board Chair
Willie Fernandez
Publisher and President
Founding Chair
Executive Editor
Managing Editor
Associate Editors
Business Editor
Central Desk
Special Reports
Mar without
principle
“Jueteng
lords are
milking
cows of
politicians,
particularly
during an
election
year.
Otso Diretso candidate Mar Roxas received
another tongue-lashing from President Rody
Duterte Thursday night calling him without
principle primarily referring to his lackluster
stint in government.
“Not because you are a namesake
of Roxas (former President Manuel
Roxas), you’re good. He is nobody who
pretends to be somebody. He doesn’t have
any principle, nothing to speak of,” Duterte
said in his speech during the campaign rally of
Partido Demokratiko Pilipino’s senatorial bets
in Cauayan City, Isabela.
Roxas served as Secretary of Transportation
and Communications and Secretary of Interior
and Local Government from 2011 to 2012 and 2012
to 2015, respectively, under the Aquino administration.
The claim of Rody may have referred to their 2016
faceoff when Mar tried to pull all the tricks in the
yellow bag in his vain attempt to ensure victory in
the presidential race.
Among such dirty rotten maneuvers was his effort
to secure the highly-classified records of the Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Bingo Milyonaryo
operators that was a game platform which was conceived
mainly as a ploy to draw out and identify jueteng operators.
The operation of Bingo Milyonaryo was similar to the
illegal numbers game and was practically allowed to be used
as a front for jueteng operations.
The effort of Roxas to secure the list, however,
encountered a kink after then PCSO Chairman Margie Juico
refused to hand over the list to Roxas.
Roxas then went to Noynoy for him to issue a letter
directing Juico to release the list.
The Bingo Milyonaryo contracts have then become so
highly priced that competing jueteng and swertres operators
reportedly launch vicious wars against each other to get
these despite the small income that the gambling operations
showed.
Mar needed to get Noynoy to order in a memo Juico and
her clique at the PCSO to open up the data mine on the
jueteng-like Bingo Milyonaryo.
Noynoy in signing the memorandum indicated to Juico
and her group that Roxas has his sanction to do whatever
he wanted and even referred to him as his “alter ego.”
Jueteng lords are milking cows of politicians, particularly
during an election year.
The tone of desperation can even be perceived in what
was likely the memo drafted by Mar and signed by Noynoy
to cow Juico and her cohorts into submission.
The President in his memo to Juico said: “It is therefore
both disappointing and embarrassing to know that an agency
directly attached to the Office of the President has refused
to respond to formal and reasonable requests coming from
the Secretary of the Interior and Local Government who
is considered an alter ego of the President himself. I find
PCSO’s refusal inexcusable and unjustified considering
that these requests are proper and legitimate, guided by
instructions from the President.”
The game then has a private operator,
“The operation
of Bingo
Milyonaryo was
similar to the
illegal numbers
game and was
practically
allowed to be
used as a front
for jueteng
operations.
Comnet Management Corp., a company that
has ties to former Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Co. chair Antonio “Tonyboy”
Cojuangco, Noynoy’s second cousin.
Roxas then gave a lame excuse for his
desperation to obtain the PCSO list as
he said “I was asking (for information)
because P-Noy instructed me to look into
what Bingo Milyonaryo was all about after
he heard or read about it. The matter
became moot because as I understand, it
did not push through. Other than this, I have had no other
dealing with Chairperson Margie.”
Later on, Juico, a yellow lady close to the Aquinos, was
booted out and an LP member, former Cavite Gov. Erineo
“Ayong” Maliksi, took her place and for sure Roxas obtained
what he wanted.
Jueteng is estimated to earn for its operators P50 billion
a year and it is the gambling lords that candidates run to
during election years.
Rody should know what he is talking about when he
tackles corruption and Roxas based on information that he
gets deep from people who were around when the yellow
rampage was ongoing.
“It is in
justifying
the House
leaders’
unconstitutional
amendments
that Castro,
like Rolando
Andaya,
has exposed
himself
to be a
constitutionally
deficient
congressman
and a
perennial
fabricator.
“The
law also
makes
accountable
not just
those
actually
engaged
in illegal
recruitment,
but also
those who
have aided
or in
any way
assisted
them in
doing so.
For the love, lust of pork
Refusing to budge
from its position in
not giving in to the
Senate’s move for both
chambers to submit the
ratified twin bills for the
President’s signature,
House Majority Leader
Fredenil Castro the other
day insisted there was
nothing unconstitutional
in the House’s stand in
itemizing lump sum funds
in the ratified bicameral
report on this year’s national budget
which has been long delayed.
This delay will impact on the
government’s infrastructure projects
that will generate more jobs and
negatively affect the growth of the
country’s economy which is already
expected to slow some more.
But this doesn’t seem to disturb the
conscience — assuming these pork hungry
legislators have one — of the lawmakers
and their leaders, Castro and other
House leaders along with their allies.
even insist on the constitutionality
of the House insertions even after
congressional ratification of the
2019 budget.
Castro argued that
insertions are constitutional
since the President has yet to
sign the budget bill into law.
Whatever happened to their
logic? Has
it been
clouded
by their
desire to
ensure they get the pork through
such unconstitutional itemization
of the budget after ratification, and
of course, their insistence on the
projects not being placed under cash
basis,
One study found that there are
about 2.3 million overseas Filipino
workers (OFW) scattered globally at
any given time. With an estimated
number of 4,500 OFW leave the country
daily, it is no surprise that job seekers
continue to flock recruitment agencies
in search of greener pastures abroad.
But with hefty placement fees
and rising costs associated with a
foreign employment application, it is
not uncommon for applicants to leave
the country penniless, often after
mortgaging their homes or farm lots
and borrowing at sky-high interests. All
these, with the hope that the sacrifice
and indebtedness would all be worth it.
To protect those seeking foreign
employment and to curb the alarming
rise in the number of fly-by-night
recruitment agencies, the Labor Code,
as amended, prohibits and punishes the
act of enlisting, contracting or procuring
workers for employment abroad, whether
for profit or not, without a license issued
by the Philippine Overseas Employment
Agency (POEA).
The law assumes that a non-licensee
who, in any manner, offers or promises
for a fee employment abroad to at
least two persons is engaged in illegal
recruitment.
It is not only non-licensed recruiters
who are in violation of the law. Even
licensed recruiters act illegally when they:
(a) charge or accept directly or
indirectly any amount greater than the
specified in the schedule of allowable
fees prescribed by the Secretary of
Labor and Employment, or make a
worker pay any amount greater than
that actually received by him as a loan
or advance;
(b) furnish or publish any false
notice or information or document in
relation to recruitment or employment;
(c) give any false notice, testimony,
information or document or commit
any act of misrepresentation for the
purpose of securing the requisite
license for recruitment;
(d) induce or attempt to induce
a worker already employed to quit
his employment in order to offer him
another unless the transfer is designed
to liberate a worker from oppressive
terms and conditions of employment;
(e) influence or attempt to
influence any persons or entity not to
employ any worker who has not applied
for employment through his agency;
(f) engage in the recruitment of
placement of workers in jobs harmful to
public health or morality or to dignity
of the Republic of the Philippines;
(g) obstruct or attempt to obstruct
inspection by the Secretary of Labor
FRONTLINE
Ninez Cacho-Olivares
as they may not get
their “pork” on time,
considering that some
of the House leaders,
and congressmen-allies
are graduating by 30
June officially?
What is really
strange in the House
leaders and their
allies’ insistence on
the constitutionality of
their act of “itemizing”
the lump sums despite
the two houses of Congress having
ratified the budget is the fact that
they are not only prostituting the
Constitution and its pertinent
provisions, but they also elevate
themselves as above and beyond the
collegial body of the House which
had already ratified the 2019 budget
early last month.
These House leaders, through
their act, are actually saying they
are more powerful than the House
body itself, that is constitutionally
mandated to approve and ratify the
national budgets.
By going against the House and
the Senate ratified and therefore
final approved budget, and insisting
on their illegal and unconstitutional
stance of insertions and itemization
after congressional ratification,
these House leaders are, in fact,
usurping the constitutional power of
the two chambers having the final say
in approving the budget through their
separate ratifications of it.
As things stand with these House
leaders’ assertion of constitutionality
in relation to their act of budget
insertions even after approval of the
bicam conference, further approved
by the two chambers through
ratification, these House leaders are
in fact, arrogating unto themselves
the power vested in the bicameral
committee and ratified by the two
legislative bodies — and all because
they want their pork, despite their
clearly unconstitutional positioning.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who insists
that no amendment can be made
to a measure already approved on
third and final reading and moreover,
ratified by the two chambers, was
slammed by the House Majority
Leader, with Castro saying Lacson is
wrong as he compares the process of
passing a budget law, or the General
Greener pastures abroad eyed
and Employment or
by his duly authorized
representative;
(h) fail to submit
reports on the status of
employment, placement
vacancies, remittances
of foreign exchange
earnings, separations
from jobs, departures
and such other matters
or information as may
be required by the
Secretary of Labor and
Employment;
(i) substitute or alter to the
prejudice of the worker, employment
contracts approved and verified by the
Department of Labor and Employment
from the time of actual signing thereof
by the parties up to and including the
period of the expiration of the same
without the approval of the Department
of Labor and Employment;
(j) For an officer or
agent of a recruitment
or placement agency
to become an
officer or member
of the Board of any
corporation engaged
in travel agency or to
be engaged directly
or indirectly in the
management of a
travel agency;
(k) withhold or
deny travel documents
from applicant workers
before departure for
monetary or financial
considerations other
than those authorized
under the Labor Code
and its implementing
rules and regulations;
(l) fail to actually deploy without
valid reasons as determined by the
Department of Labor and Employment,
and
(m) failure to reimburse expenses
incurred by the workers in connection
with his documentation and processing
for purposes of deployment, in cases
where the deployment does not actually
take place without the worker’s fault.
When illegal recruitment is
committed by a syndicate (that is,
carried out by a group of three or more
persons conspiring or confederating
with one another) or in large scale
(if committed against three or more
persons individually or as a group), it
shall be considered as offense involving
economic sabotage. Bail is not a matter
of right when a person is charged
in court with illegal recruitment
A DOSE OF LAW
Dean Nilo Divina
“It is not
uncommon
for
applicants
to leave
the
country
penniless,
often after
mortgaging
their
homes
or farm
lots and
borrowing
at sky-high
interests.
Appropriations Act (GAA), to that of
an ordinary bill.
Castro added in the budget law,
only the period of legislation and the
period of implementation are taken
into consideration.
“When we say period of legislation,
including the bicameral conference
report up to the time that even before
the President signs it, that is still
period of legislation,” Castro said.
“And when we say period of
legislation, this means that
amendments are permitted provided
that you do not alter what has been
agreed upon and the amount of lump
sum appropriation contained in the
bicameral conference report,” he
added.
“These
House
leaders are
actually
saying they
are more
powerful
than the
House body
itself, that is
constitutionally
mandated
to approve
and ratify
the national
“Once the
President has already
signed the budget
into law, it is the time
where the period
of implementation
sets in. And during
which time, you
may no longer
tinker with what
has already been
approved because
that will already
be post-enactment
amendment,” he said.
Castro can say
this even when
he knows this
goes against the
budgets.
constitutional grain?
The explanation from Castro is too
much of a stretch that goes against
what the Constitution says to the
point of him looking like a fool. It
is in justifying the House leaders’
unconstitutional amendments that
Castro, like Rolando Andaya, has
exposed himself to be a constitutionally
deficient congressman and a perennial
fabricator.
They don’t even know that Section
26 article 4 explicitly mandates that
upon the last third reading of a bill, NO
further amendment shall be allowed?
If that constitutional section is not
clear enough to these House leaders,
they are either fatally deficient
in constitutional matters that
translates to their being unfit House
leaders, or they know just what the
1987 Constitution says, but willfully
violate it anyway, for the love and lust
of the unconstitutional pork.
committed by a syndicate
or in large scale.
In recognition of the
fact that some of these
fly-by-night recruiters
succeed through
clandestine referrals,
the law also makes
accountable not just
those actually engaged
in illegal recruitment,
but also those who have
aided or in any way
assisted them in doing so.
In case of juridical persons such
as corporations, the officers having
control, management or direction of
their business are liable. Even a mere
employee of a company or corporation
can be engaged in illegal recruitment
once it is shown that he had actively
and consciously participated in illegal
recruitment.
A person who commits illegal
recruitment may be imprisoned for
12 to 20 years and fined P1,000,000 to
P2,000,000.
Aside from being liable for illegal
recruitment as defined and punished
under the Labor Code, as amended,
a person engaged in the foregoing
prohibited acts may also be liable for
estafa under the Revised Penal Code
(RPC).
In the 2016 case of People vs
Marissa Bayker (G.R. 170192, 10
February 2016), the Supreme Court
(SC) clarified that a person involved in
illegal recruitment committed in large
scale may also be charged, personally,
with the crime of estafa.
The elements of estafa as charged
are, namely: (1) the accused defrauded
another by abuse of confidence or by
means of deceit; and (2) the offended
party, or a third party suffered damage
or prejudice capable of pecuniary
estimation. In contrast, the crime of
illegal recruitment committed in large
scale requires different elements.
The SC clarified the active
representation by the accused of having
the capacity to deploy abroad despite not
having the authority or license to do so
from the POEA constituted deceit as the
first element of estafa. Her representation
induced the victim to part with his money,
resulting in damage that is the second
element of the estafa.
Thus, a person who is not licensed
to recruit a person for employment
abroad, and who takes money from
another person in pursuance of such
promised employment, may be liable
for both illegal recruitment and estafa.
Email: cabdo@divinalaw.com
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Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
“There
was a
consensus
in the
United
Nations in
the years
after World
War II
that an
independent
international
tribunal
was needed
to prosecute
crimes of
similar
gravity.
In my last column, I once more
explained my decision to support
President Duterte’s withdrawal
from the International Criminal
Court (ICC). That decision
was not reached easily. In
this column I will attempt to
summarize the history of the
ICC and the matters currently
pending before it in order to
demonstrate why the Philippine
communication is unique, and
the resort to the Court was
a political move rather than an earnest
appeal for justice.
The ICC is the product of over a
century of human suffering. After the
massive civilian casualties incurred during
the Second World War, tribunals were
convened in Nuremburg, Tokyo and even
here in Manila to punish the perpetrators
of what were deemed to be war crimes:
among others, the genocide of the Jewish
people, the mass-murder of the people in
ICC’s provenance and its present situation
BRIEFING ROOM
Harry Roque
Nanking and similar atrocities
committed here during the
Japanese occupation.
There was a consensus
in the United Nations (UN)
in the years after World
War II that an independent
international tribunal was
needed to prosecute crimes of
similar gravity, or (as stated
in the Preamble of the ICC)
“the most serious crimes of
concern to the international
community as a whole.” This consensus
grew following the terrible crimes in the
former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s.
These two instances were so jarring that
the international community could not wait
for the creation of an ICC — the UN created
special tribunals specifically to try the
atrocities committed in these countries.
To give context: an estimated 130,000
people died in the former Yugoslavia
during the period concerned, and in
Rwanda an estimated 800,000 were killed
in a span of 100 days. In these instances,
an international criminal tribunal was the
only option — the state of the legal system
in these countries at the time, considering
the conflict, was such that they could not
prosecute the perpetrators of the crimes.
The ICC was born with
“To seek
accountability
before an
international
tribunal,
without
even trying
to fight the
battle here, is
to give up on
the Philippine
legal system.
such instances in mind:
that in the event that the
conflict or circumstances
in a state overtakes the
local justice system, a
tribunal is ready to take
its place, if only for the
very worst of crimes. This is
why the ICC’s jurisdiction
is limited to only four
crimes and further
limited by the principle of
complementarity (which I
have discussed previously).
The Philippines is one of 10 countries
presently undergoing preliminary
COMMENTARY
5
examination before the ICC. The others
are Ukraine, Guinea, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Gabon, Nigeria, Colombia, Venezuela and
Palestine. In many of these countries,
we could reasonably conclude that it
is difficult to hold the perpetrators of
the very worst crimes accountable: the
conflicts have stretched for decades or are
still raging (or both) or the state is still
in the course of rebuilding or facing some
other setbacks (like the massive starvation
crisis in Venezuela).
I am sure we cannot say the same thing
about our justice system in the Philippines.
I will repeat: our courts are working. They
are there, ready to hear any cases that
may be brought against perpetrators of
wrongdoing. Cases have been filed and
there have even been convictions. To seek
accountability before an international
tribunal, without even trying to fight the
battle here, is to give up on the Philippine
legal system.
I am not prepared to do that.
Despite some leading bankers’ positive economic outlook for
the country this year, they are on guard against the possible
negative impact that may arise from the ongoing trade war
between China and the US — two of the Philippines’ major
commerce partners.
The rosy numbers are just there,
with one bank president telling his
officers during a recent internal event
that President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Build,
Build, Build” projects are fuelling
economic growth.
Coupled with the coming midterm
elections, they are seeing a boom. One
of them wished elections were held
annually because money flows like fertile
rain falls on election years.
But that is just it. Real boom will still
anchor on the world developments in
which the Philippines is a tiny dot player.
“Pompeo’s offer
of protection to the
Philippines when
it is not needed
apparently did not
sit well with the
military. It now
wants a review of
the country’s Mutual
Defense Agreement
with the US.
Tiny as it is, the Philippines is a vital partner to the US
in keeping its presence and influence over the region. Great
America cannot afford to lose the Philippines or it would have
let the country off its grip like it did momentarily when it saw
itself losing Europe to Germany and Italy at the onset of the
Second World War.
Only when the theaters of war in Europe had begun to clear
in its favor, thanks mainly to the help of the former USSR and
the major US allies, when the Americans poured back into Asia
by way of the Philippines to bring Japan down on its knees.
The US had long made Asia its playground. But US armies
Times are a changin’
lost badly in Vietnam and left Korea divided when the
communists — then a threat at the height of the Cold War
against the USSR — proved they can win wars and beat even
the mightiest of the world’s military powers with poor guns
but with great conviction.
But long after the Cold War, the US fought battles somewhere
else. These were wars born out of the US’ own seeds. Like the
acids and substances it had toyed with which now have become a
world menace, the religious anti-communist armies it had created
are now fighting a religious war and against the US itself.
While the US was busy keeping tabs of oil-rich countries, it
had left Asia and a sleeping dragon alone. Only that the dragon
woke up bigger than everyone had expected it to become.
To the surprise of the US, China rose as a threat to the lone
super power nation.
Former US President Barrack Obama’s so-called “pivot to
Asia” came too late. He was too busy fighting wars in Iraq, Syria
and Afghanistan that he failed to arrest the dragon’s growth.
China is now flexing its economic and military muscle in the
region. That is needed if it wants to protect its own economic
growth. Majors powers — past and present — did the same in
different forms and approaches.
But there is no stopping China now.
While the Philippines is taking a strong stance
against China’s encroachment of its waters,
it cannot help itself stand up against the
region’s top power like it had failed to stop
the US then from establishing its presence
right on its soil through the military bases
and its meddling in politics.
It was for this that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
recently paid President Duterte a visit where he promised
military support to the Philippines should a war break out
between the Philippines and China.
But what war?
President Duterte had said he will not go
“Tiny as it is, to war with any country. Not with China, not
the Philippines with anyone.
is a vital
We have heard all these before. Pompeo
partner to the
was all hubris when he raised yet another
US in keeping
of the imaginary wars of the US when it is
its presence
clear that his country only wants back its
and influence
over the region.
former unimpeded access to trade routes it
used to have.
Pompeo also could not brandish US military power when
its soldiers are now thinly scattered all over the world where
the US has interests in. It could not afford to go to
war against China which has millions of soldiers at
its disposal.
Unlike before when the US was considered
the Philippines’ savior, Pompeo’s offer of
protection to the Philippines when it is not
needed apparently did not sit well with the
military. It now wants a review of the country’s
Mutual Defense Agreement with the US.
It will take time but the US should
realize that times have changed.
It no longer has a
strong grip on Asia.
The balance
has tilted.
“All
laws and
regulations
that
require
authorities
to peek
into
moving
vehicles
are useless
absent
a law
regulating
the
darkness
of a car’s
tint.
Amid the several and more
controversial issues in the
Philippines right now (i.e., water
shortage crisis, 2019 budget
impasse and midterm elections.),
I’d rather write about a piece
of legislation that was most
recently signed into law by the
President: Republic Act (RA)
11229 or Child Safety in Motor
Vehicles Act which I’d simply
call the “Car Seat Law.” This law
prohibits children 12 years old
and below from sitting in the front passenger
seat while the car engine is running, unless
the child is at least 4’11” tall. Further, the
car seat must be appropriate to the child’s
age, height and weight.
Having two kids — a toddler and an
infant — my wife and I are directly affected
by the Car Seat Law though we already saw
this coming. Our toddler is well-trained in her
car seat and almost instantly falls asleep in
it after a few minutes while on the road. Our
infant of course could not care any less as
long as he’s been fed by her mother. But the
bigger concern would be the general public
that hailed this measure as anti-poor.
Notably, the Car Seat Law covers both
private and public motor vehicles, not
including tricycles and motorcycles. In
Section 9 thereof, the Department of
Transportation (DoTr) is required to conduct
QUO VADIS
Darren M. de Jesus
Enforcing Car Seat Law
a study and recommend to
Congress the use of child restraint
systems (car seats) in public utility
vehicles such as, jeepneys, buses,
including school buses, taxis, vans,
coasters, accredited/affiliated
service vehicles of transportation
network companies and all other
vehicles of public transport.
DoTr shall determine whether
car seats shall be applicable in
certain public utility vehicles, and
recommend other safety measures
to Congress within a year from effectivity of
the law. I recall in our trip to Australia last
year, taxi drivers had a foldable car seat
stored in their trunk ready just for children
passengers.
This can spell a lot of business for those
in the baby and child equipment business,
although the law, in Section 6, requires
manufacturers, distributors and sellers
of car seats to secure from the Bureau
of Product Standards (BPS) a Philippine
Standards mark license or import clearance
certificate license prior to the marketing,
sale and distribution of their products. The
BPS is likewise required to publish a list of
accredited companies and brands that pass
its standards in a newspaper of general
circulation.
Violators will be penalized, if caught:
P1,000 for the first offense, P2,000 for second
offense, P5,000 and suspension of license for
a year for the third and succeeding offenses.
These are hefty fines for those who fail to
purchase and use a car seat that is expected
to cost in the thousands. But then again, how
sure are we this law will be enforced in full?
I have said this before — All
laws and regulations that require
authorities to peek into moving
vehicles are useless absent a law
regulating the darkness of a
car’s tint. What is the point
of penalizing passengers
they could not see at all?
This has been the downfall
of other good laws, such as
RA 8750 or the Seat Belt
Law of 1999, perhaps one
of the most violated laws in
the country, as it imposes
“The BPS
is likewise
required to
publish a list
of accredited
companies
and brands
that pass its
standards in
a newspaper
of general
circulation.
penalties ranging from P100 to P5,000 based
on the number of offenses committed.
Another failed law is the relatively
new RA 10913 or the Anti-Distracted
Driving Law, a measure that lapsed into
law without former President Aquino’s
signature or veto in 2016, and took effect in
2017 during the term of President Duterte.
Almost immediately after its effectivity,
the public called for its suspension due to
confusion as to its proper implementation
due to the lack of a decent information
campaign. The Land Transportation
Franchising and Regulatory Board then
suspended its implementation and the law
has remained inactive ever since.
An example of a flawed regulation is
the short-lived Driver Only Ban in EDSA.
Just like the Anti-Distracted Driving Law,
this regulation created by the Metropolitan
Manila Development Authority caused a
stir in the metropolis and it had temporary
benefits for those who plowed through EDSA
on a regular basis, except for solo drivers.
Traffic ended up in the side streets and not
all offenders were apprehended, again, due to
the inability to see if there were passengers
in a moving vehicle.
I understand that the Land Transportation
Office already has proposed rules on regulating
car tint, which is a step in the right direction.
But the better route would be legislation
since it would not be easily revoked by an
administrative agency. We already have some
good laws in place, the success or failure of
which is dependent on how visible the driver
and/or his passengers are inside a moving
vehicle. I can enumerate a number of other
unenforced laws that would have been feasible
only if other laws were passed before it, and this
is usual in the fields of environment, energy
and water (now more than ever). The car tint
regulation is a low hanging fruit that the next
Congress can focus on.
Email: darren.dejesus@dejesuslegal.com

6 NEWS
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Money litters
halls of ivy
They had all the advantages but they had to cheat
From page 1
in the Philippines but it is what is actually
happening in Ivy League schools in the
United States.
Several persons were arrested and charged
for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud
in a nationwide scheme to fraudulently secure
admission for their children to top universities
through rich bribes and falsified standardized
test answers.
The scandal of parents paying to
cheat their children’s way into elite US
universities has put a harsh spotlight on
the ultra-competitive college admissions
process, in which the haves hold a massive
advantage over the have-nots.
Thirty-three wealthy parents, financiers,
lawyers and two famous actresses among
them were arrested Tuesday as part of
an operation that charged from $15,000 to
millions of dollars to help them get their
children into renowned schools.
Wide outrage
For most Americans, the corruption
in the college admission system exposed
by the indictments further shatters any
notion that hard work, good grades and
perseverance are the way to get into a
prestigious school.
“For most people outside the elite, these
institutions might as well be on the moon.
This story just reinforces that, the way in
which money buys opportunity in America,”
said Richard V. Reeves whose book “Dream
Hoarders” argues that the American upper
middle class hoards opportunities.
Prosecutors said dozens of parents
paid bribes to alter their children’s test
scores or get them into colleges like Yale,
Georgetown, Stanford and USC as athletic
recruits, fraudulently.
In court papers, the ringleader explained
the realities of getting into top colleges in
America in stark terms: There’s the front
door, which involves getting in legitimately
through academic achievements. There’s
the back door, which involves donating huge
sums of money to a university to influence
admissions decisions.
His scheme — much easier and
cheaper — was through the side door.
Side door entry
The back door was common knowledge,
and bad enough. The description of a side
door — a corrupt advantage on top of the
advantages already accorded the rich — has
set off outrage, especially for hard-working
kids trying to get in on merit.
Lalo Alcaraz’s son is a Los Angeles high
school senior who is waiting to hear back
from over a dozen schools that he’s applied
to, including some in the top tier.
“It really infuriates me right now. These
people jumped ahead in line of my kid, I
mean, literally my kid, this year,” the author
and cartoonist said.
Prosecutors said dozens of
parents paid bribes to alter
their children’s test scores or
get them into colleges like Yale,
Georgetown, Stanford and USC.
For Alcaraz, there’s also outrage at
seeing wealthy, white families try to cheat
the system, especially when many minorities
have experienced being questioned over
whether they got their spots because of
their race.
“They had all the advantages but they had
to cheat,” he said.
Tilted to wealthy
But as outraged as many Americans were
at the illegality, even within the law, the rich
have a huge, unfair advantage when it comes
to gaming the intensely stressful annual
college admissions battle.
The competition is clear in the numbers.
Just 4.6 percent of over 40,000 students
applying to Harvard University get in.
The figure is 4.3 percent at Stanford and 5.5
percent at Columbia, two other top universities.
Many who are qualified grade-wise are
rejected, intensifying the competition to
stand out.
Thirty-three wealthy parents,
financiers, lawyers and two
famous actresses among them
were arrested Tuesday.
The process favors the wealthy. They can
apply to more schools and invest heavily in
preparing for tests and essays.
“It’s an extremely stressful process,
especially for kids whose parents aren’t
the most affluent,” said Angela Perez, a
student at the highly competitive Georgetown
University in Washington.
“While I considered myself academically
strong, getting in was one thing, and paying
for it was another.”
Perez, from a working class, immigrant
Filipino family, said to maximize her chances
at both acceptance and financial aid, she
applied to 18 different universities.
Adding together the application fees, test
fees, training for the tests and other, she said,
“it was honestly quite costly.”
Donations, game changers
The richest can beat the competition by
donating to universities. ProPublica editor
Daniel Golden documented how President
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner gained
admission to Harvard University in 1998
after his father made a legal $2.5 million
donation to the school.
“There’s a limited number of spots for
those with enormous means,” said Hafeez
Lakhani, whose Lakhani Coaching company
helps prepare students.
“I understand that there is a disparity out
there and that not everyone is able to afford
the best help or any help at all,” he added.
Many parents spend their kids’ lives
planning their university career.
“In the United States, families are
obsessed with the entrance into university,”
said Sylvie Bigar, a New Yorker whose
daughter just entered the respected Smith
College in Massachusetts.
“It seems like these things are decided
almost in kindergarten, that admission to a
prestigious university leads to a prestigious
career and happiness.”
$40,000 as preparation
The process begins in earnest in tenth
grade, three years before graduating
from high school. Students prepare
for and take multiple times
the ACT and SAT entrance
examinations — the ones the
parents arrested Tuesday paid
to have fixed for their children.
There are essays to write,
interviews, tutorials, preparation
tests and for the families with access
and connections, direct lobbying.
And, notes Bigar, “at every stage
of this process, there are firms that help
families who can afford it.”
According to the Independent Educational
Consultants Association, parents pay on
average $200 an hour to consult experts on
the applications process. But that price, in
some situations, can run into the thousands
of dollars per hour.
The parents of
children who are
shepherded by Lakhani pay
on average $40,000. AFP, AP
Architect of concern Former Special Assistant to the President Christopher
Lawrence “Kuya Bong” Go got the best pat on the back from President Rodrigo Duterte
for crediting him for conceptualizing the Malasakit Center program that had helped many
Filipinos in need of government services.
Admiral Uy sails 88 ships
From page 1
Travel and trade
“As the population grows and prospers,
people would want to travel not only for
vacation but also as a necessity,” Uy said.
He said people work in one island and live
in another. Sometimes people work in Cebu
but they live in Bohol …so they use that ferry
service from Cagayan to Cebu.…
Trade is another consideration since ships
are critical in terms of moving products.
The common
complaint among
traders that it is
cheaper to ship
goods between
China and the
Philippines
than to haul cargo from Manila to Davao,
thus resulting in more imports from China
rather than goods from Mindanao in Manila
markets, can be addressed, according to Uy,
by investing in larger vessels.
Currently, however, there’s a lot of
overcapacity which is a disincentive for
investors.
“Vessels from international lines from
wherever to the Philippines are very big of at
least 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU)
to 20,000 TEU,” he said.
The biggest local container ship has a
capacity of 700 TEU. “So if you look at scale,
the locals really lose. They have a lower cost,
bigger, faster and more modern vessels.
“Compared to our vessel which is on a
container side, it’s so hard to buy brandnew
not because you can’t afford but it is
expensive compared to the existing market
that it does not make any economic sense,”
he said.
Overcapacity remains
“Our container industry has overcapacity.
So all the players pull down the rates, which
is good for consumers,” he said.
He added fuel cost in the country is higher
compared to its neighbors.
“It is higher because of the excise tax under
the reform package. We’ll say that our cost here
is higher than those of shipping companies
abroad plus the higher fuel cost. So it’s very
challenging,” Uy said.
Trade is another consideration
since ships are critical in terms
of moving products.
Starlight ferries has the biggest brand-new
RoRo in the country that runs the Calapan to
Batangas route which is part of the nautical
highway.
Holding firm Chelsea is investing $100
million to acquire six new sea vessels, as it
expands its fleet operations in the country
with two vessels up for delivery every one year.
Holy craft Lenten season is also a time for expressing artistic mien for a sculptor of a religious image.
From page 1
the ruling party Partido Demokratiko
Pilipino (PDP), has been in public service
since 1978 compared with Manzano who
will be a neophyte in case he wins.
Zamora was elected as representative
of San Juan-Mandaluyong in 1987 under
the new Constitution and was re-elected
in 1992 and 1995.
He became the executive secretary of
former President Joseph Estrada in 1998
but he resigned from his post during the
impeachment trial of Estrada.
Veteran, TV star duel
Long legislative history
In 2001, Zamora was re-elected in the
House and served as the minority floor
leader during former President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo’s term.
Manzano was appointed chairman
of the Optical Media Board in
2004 and resigned from the post
in 2009.
Zamora is now in the majority bloc
of the House and is a member of the
committees on Metro Manila Development
Danger in horizon A farmer checks his farm as a dry spell threatens grains harvest all over the country.
and the West Philippine Sea.
Among the measures that he worked
on during the 17th Congress were
the National Integrated Cancer
Control Act, an Act creating the
Department of Disaster Resilience,
an Act establishing the Polytechnic
University of the Philippines in San
Juan City, and an Act Prohibiting End
of Contract (ENDO) Practices.
Recently, Zamora, together with his
son former Vice Mayor Francis Zamora, led
the oathtaking of PDP in San Juan City.
They were also endorsed by reelectionist
ROMAN PROSPERO
Sen. Koko Pimentel.
ANALY LABOR
PMP bet
On the other hand, Manzano
will be running under Pwersa
ng Masang Pilipino.
His congressional bid is not his first
try in politics. Manzano was elected as
Makati City vice mayor in 1998. However,
his declaration as winner was interrupted
as his citizenship was questioned through
a protest before the Supreme Court.
The High Tribunal declared Manzano
as winner after it was proven that he was
a Filipino but born in the United States.
After that, he tried his luck on Makati
City’s highest post against former Vice
President Jejomar Binay Sr. in 2001 but
failed in his bid.
Manzano was appointed chairman
of the Optical Media Board in 2004 and
resigned from the post in 2009.
TV regular
The popular television host was a vice
presidential bet in 2010 under Lakas-
Kampi-CMD but he again lost to Binay.
Manzano ran anew for the Senate in
2016 with Sen. Grace Poe’s slate Partido
Galing at Puso and under the coalition of
former Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago
and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Again his bid was unsuccessful.
For the past few years, Manzano has
been busy with his show business career
as he became a part of television shows
such as Barangay 143, Alyas Robin Hood,
Celebrity Bluff, My Dear Heart and
Someone to Watch Over Me.
New ships
Chelsea last October inaugurated its
latest sea vessels M/T Chelsea Providence
and M/V Salve Regina at the Manila North
Harbor Port.
Chelsea plans to operate in routes traversing
Batangas to Iloilo, Batangas to Bacolod, and in
ports across Visayas and Mindanao.
The shipping firm has launched M/T
Chelsea Providence, a 183-meter long
medium-range oil tanker that can carry up
to 54 million liters of petroleum making it
the largest registered vessel in the country.
Chelsea Providenceseeks to support local
oil companies in the importation of oil products
and in ensuring a reliable supply of fuel. The
company has invested around $35 million for
the oil tanker.
M/V Salve Reginais a RoRo vessel which
will operate along the Batangas-Caticlan route.
It can accommodate more than 500
passengers and 41 vehicles. It was built by
Japanese-based shipbuilder Kegoya Dock
Co. Ltd.
“In our efforts to provide better customer
experience, safe and reliable journey, and
convenient travel, the Chelsea Group has been
investing in younger vessels and presently
brand-new ones,” Uy said.
‘Till death
do us park’
From page 1
Other MMDA enforcers in the area were
also on a ticketing spree. One of them argued
that no violators should get preferential
treatment as it would be unfair for those who
got tickets. Thus, a hearse in a funeral parlor
that was apparently obstructing a sidewalk
as it waited for a casket to be loaded was
ticketed for illegal parking.
For the occupant of the casket to be
involved in an illegal parking violation
is out of this world. But since the strict
MMDA traffic enforcer won’t compromise,
that last brush with the law up until the
trip to the final resting place puns that
traditional wedding vow of “till death do
us part” to “till death do us park.”

Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune NATION
7
Digong makes adoption process easier
A simulated birth is the act of tampering of a child’s birth
record to make it appear that he was born to a person who is
not his biological mother
By Kristina Maralit
Aware that the country’s
adoption process is a tedious, long
and complicated process, President
Rodrigo Duterte stepped into the
matter and signed into law a measure
Kankanaeys
perform
harvest ritual
By Aldwin Quitasol
Grateful for the bountiful harvests
despite challenges and the threat of
drought brought by El Niño phenomenon,
the Kankanaeys from the Mountain
Province had initiated thanksgiving
rituals to thank their creators and spirits.
The ritual called Begnas di Bauko, which
has been institutionalized by the municipal
government 13 years ago, was being done
yearly to ask for blessings and guidance.
The Kankanaeys particularly perform
the begnas also called pis-ik to ask
Kabunyan (Igorot term for the Creator),
their ancestors and the spirits called
Tinmengaw for favors.
Most of their rituals had to do with
their prayers for help and protection in
their everyday lives and especially ask for
rains so that they can plant and expect
bountiful harvests.
aimed at simplifying the system.
Republic Act (RA) 11222, also
known as the Simulated Birth
Rectification Act, allows an easier
administrative proceeding of altering
simulated birth records.
A simulated birth is the act of
By Maya M. Padillo
The Tagum City police are hot on the
trail of unidentified suspects who killed
lawyer Rex Monfort Lopoz in the parking
area of City Mall of Tagum the other night.
Probers said they are yet to determine
the motive behind the incident even as the
local chapter of the Integrated
Bar of the Philippines (IBP)
strongly condemned what it
described as the senseless
killing of an innocent law
practitioner.
Initial investigation
showed Lopoz, 41, was about
to board his car together with
a companion identified only
as Daddy Santos, when shot
dead by a still unidentified
gunman.
“We strongly condemn
the killing of Atty. Lopoz
or the killing of lawyers in
general,” Atty. Mylene Baura,
IBP-Tagum chapter president,
said.
tampering of a child’s birth record
to make it appear that he was born
to a person who is not his biological
mother.
According to the new law, this is
for the best interest of the child by
giving him or her all the benefits of
adoption and ensuring that the child
shall be entitled to all the rights
provided by law to legally adopted
children.
This is without any discrimination
“This serious incident is an affront to
our legal system and the law profession,”
she added.
She described Lopoz as a jolly fellow
whose only passion was music and was
known to be the leader of a local band
called Taraming and had no known
enemies.
of any kind, as well as to love,
guidance and support from the child’s
adoptive family.
The new law also frees anyone from
any criminal, civil and administrative
liability who simulated a birth record
of a child.
Provided, however, that a petition
for adoption with a corresponding
application for ratification of the
birth record is filed within 10
years from effectivity of the Act, as
Mystery shrouds lawyer’s murder
Baura assured that the family of
the victim that they will exert every
effort to bring the perpetrators before
the bar of justice.
His companion narrated that they
were about to board their vehicle when
the victim suddenly clutched his chest
before falling to the ground.
stipulated in Section 4 of the new law.
For an adoption to be legal, the
petition must be filed with the office
of the social welfare and development
of the city or municipality where the
child is a resident.
RA 11222 also mandates the
secretary of the Department of Social
Welfare and Development to decide
on the petition not more than 30 days
from receipt of the recommendation
of the regional director.
Thankful The indigenous peoples of Bauko, Mountain Province offer
traditional prayers and dances as part of its Begnas ritual for the abundant
harvests.
AQUITASOL
Faithful urged to pray for rain
By Raymart T. Lolo
As the country reels from the effect of El Niño weather phenomenon,
Manila Archbishop Luis
Antonio Cardinal Tagle
yesterday called on the
faithful to storm the gates
of Heaven and pray for
rain to come.
Tagle was prompted
to call for prayer
intercession after
reports reaching his
office indicated that
the long dry spell has
resulted in a drought and
huge drop in the water
level of dams supplying
water in various provinces,
including Metro Manila.
“Experts reported
that we are experiencing
a mild El Niño. People
tasked with managing
our water resources have
warned that we
are facing a
crisis,” he said.
Storming the
heaven Cardinal
Tagle wants the
faithful to pray for rain.
LOCAL
METRO MANILA
32°C
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METRO CEBU
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33°C
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INTERNATIONAL
Tokyo
JAPAN
18°C
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LIGHT RAIN
Hong Kong
CHINA
20°C
PARTLY CLOUDY
WE ARE HIRING!
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Taipei
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8
METRO
John Henry Dodson, Editor
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Riding-in-tandem criminals
days numbered
An initial funding of P150 million
will be appropriated for the
implementation of the measure
By Kristina Maralit
Consistent with his policy of fighting crime and
restoring peace and order in
the streets, President Rodrigo
Duterte has signed a new law
requiring the two-wheeled vehicles
to have larger, more readable and
color-coded number plates.
Republic Act 11235,
also called the
Motorcycle Crime Prevention Act, was signed by
Duterte last 8 March.
The law is aimed at curbing crimes perpetrated by
the so-called riding-in-tandem who uses motorcycles
in committing criminal acts.
The most common crime committed by ridingin-tandem
suspects is murder, where the back rider
shoots the victim while the driver zips them away from
the scene of the crime.
A copy of the new measure was officially released
by the Palace on Thursday, 14 March.
An initial funding of P150 million will be appropriated
for the implementation of the measure.
Under the new law, the Land Transportation Office
(LTO) is mandated to implement the new number
plate system.
It will issue the new plates which must be readable
from the front, back and side of the motorcycle and
from a distance of at least 15 meters.
The plates must also be color-coded based on a
scheme yet to be devised by the LTO which
matches a specific color
to a particular region.
Registered motorcycles
must bear the plates in
the color which corresponds
to the region where they have
a record.
This is to give law enforcement
agencies an easier way of tracing and
identifying the origin of a motorcycle.
The law requires motorcycle owners to have
their units registered within five days of purchase.
Failure to do so would result in imprisonment or
a fine of not less than P25,000.
Driving without a number plate will result in
imprisonment plus a fine of P50,000 to P100,000.
The use of stolen number plates, meanwhile, carries
a fine of P50,000 to P100,000.
Owners, drivers and passengers of motorcycles
proven to have been used in the perpetration of
criminal acts will be slapped with hefty fines and jail
time, according to RA 11235.
If a crime is attempted or committed is a grave
felony, the owner, driver and passenger will be meted
out a punishment of 12 years and 1 day to 20 years
imprisonment or reclusion temporal, to 30 years or
more prison time, or reclusion perpetua.
Should the crime be ruled as a less grave felony, the
guilty party will face prision correccional to prision
mayor or six years and 1 day to 12 years imprisonment.
If death or serious physical injury results from
the commission of a crime using a motorcycle, the
punishment shall be reclusion perpetua.
Outlaws Riding-in-tandem criminals will soon
be stopped with a new law requiring motorcycles
to have bigger plate numbers.
By Neil Alcober
The long arm of the law has finally
caught up with a man who went into hiding
for four years after being convicted for
robbery-extortion by posing as member of
Communist Party of the Philippines-New
People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
Senior Supt. Ariel Fulo, San Juan police
chief, identified the convict as Mario Luis
Gonzales, 67, of 19 J. Vicencio St., Barangay
By Alvin Murcia
A court employee who fails to exercise
diligence in performing his duties and
repeatedly disregards the directives and
instructions of his superiors is a disgrace
to the judiciary and should be dismissed
from service.
With this strongly-worded decision, the
High Tribunal dismissed Raul C. Guevara
of the Valenzuela City Regional Trial Court
Branch 270 as clerk-in-charge for criminal
cases for unsatisfactory performance,
continuous disobedience to his superiors
and infidelity in the custody of court records.
Aside from the dismissal, the SC
also ordered the forfeiture of all his
benefits.
In a nine-page per curiam decision, the
Supreme Court en banc ordered Guevara’s
immediate dismissal from the service.
The SC also ordered the forfeiture of all
his benefits, except accrued leave benefits
and disqualified him from re-employment
By Neil Alcober
Sta Lucia, San Juan City.
Unidentified thieves believed to be members of the notorious
Akyat Bahay Gang carted away some P280,000 cash and a
firearm worth P120,000 Wednesday night from a house in
Provident Village, Barangay Jesus Dela Peña, Marikina City.
The victim said he was walking along Angel Santos Street,
Barangay Tumana, around 6 p.m. when the suspect who
was armed with a knife announced the hold-up.
Police said the victim, Robert Natthavong Jumchjai,
By Pat C. Santos
Cops arrest extorting NPA poseur
The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 13 yesterday
sentenced a lady drug dealer with life imprisonment while
three of her cohorts were meted with 15 years behind bars
after being found guilty for violation of Sections 5 and 11
of Republic Act 9165, otherwise known as Comprehensive
Dangerous Drug Act of 2002.
But unknown to the suspects,
agents of National Bureau of
Investigation set an entrapment
operation against them.
Fulo, said Gonzales was collared by
members of the San Juan City police warrant
and subpoena unit in his house at 1:20 p.m.
yesterday.
SC axes incompetent
court executive
in the government service, including
government-owned and controlled
corporations.
Court records showed Guevarra
was slapped with an administrative
complaint by Milagros P. Malubay,
officer-in-charge of the RTC Branch
270, after receiving two consecutive
unsatisfactory performance ratings from
1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015.
He was also accused of continuously
disobeying the instructions contained in
several memoranda issued by Malubay and
Presiding Judge Evangeline M. Francisco.
His insubordination had prompted Judge
Francisco to relieve him from his duties
as the clerk-in-charge for criminal cases,
following the discovery of the loss of court
records under his custody.
The SC in its ruling expounded, “Such
loss of court records while in his custody
reflected his lack of diligence in performing
his duties and indubitably revealed his
uncharacteristic indifference to and wanton
abandonment of his regular assigned duties
and responsibilities.”
Court records showed Gonzales and two
other suspects extorted P550,000 money
from one Noel Franco, an engineer of a
construction firm.
It was learned that Gonzales was
convicted by Makati Regional Trial
Court Branch 143 to suffer four to six
years of imprisonment on extortion
charges.
The suspects reportedly claimed to be
members of the central committee of the
48, left his house unattended at around 12 noon
Wednesday.
When he came back at around 9:30 p.m. of the same
day, he noticed that his main door was already open
while the other door going to the second floor was
forcibly broken.
When he checked his room in the second floor, he
discovered that his cash and the .45 caliber pistol Kimber,
worth P120,000, registered under his name were already
missing.
Meanwhile, Christian Dela Cruz, 35, lost his silver
fine of P600,000, while Dulay, Santos and Sicat were ordered
to pay P350,000 each for their crime.
Court records showed the suspects were arrested
during a buy-bust operation on December 2014 in
Sta. Cruz, Manila.
CPP-NPA and contacted Franco through his
cellphone and demanded the said amount in
aid of the revolutionary movement.
But unknown to the suspects, agents
of National Bureau of Investigation set
an entrapment operation against them.
When the victim handed the P200,000
to the suspects, authorities who were
positioned at the area nabbed the two
suspects. Gonzales, however, managed to
elude arrest.
Thieves cart cash, firearm from Marikina house
Lady drug dealer gets life
Every drop counts A young boy looks dejected as he waits to fill up his water container in
Makati City.
BOB DUNGO JR.
necklace to a stick-up artist, identified as Byan Pilandi,
26, the other night, also in Marikina City.
The victim said he was walking along Angel Santos
Street, Barangay Tumana, around 6 p.m. when the
suspect who was armed with a knife announced the
hold-up.
He immediately
reported the incident to the
police who immediately
conducted a follow-up
operation that resulted in
the arrest of the suspect.
Balutan
not yet
off the
hook
Former Philippine
Charity Sweepstakes
Office general manager
Alexander Balutan may
have voluntarily resigned
from his post, but he might
still find himself facing his
detractors and even some
of his former colleagues
anytime soon.
The Board and its
management and
its employees stand
by its value of
professionalism.
This, after the agency
yesterday said it welcomes
the conduct of a probe into
corruption allegations. It
added it will not condone
anyone found to be involved
in graft and corrupt
practices.
PCSO spokeswoman
lawyer Marissa Medrano
said their office is open to
all forms of investigation,
adding they will subject
themselves to any probe.
“The PCSO is optimistic
that the investigation is
also a means to cleanse
the agency if there really
are corrupt officials and
employees among its ranks,”
Medrano said.
“The Board and its
management and its
employees stand by its
value of professionalism.
If a person has nothing to
hide, then by all means
an investigation by an
independent investigating
body will be very much
welcome,” she added.
Last Tuesday, presidential
spokesman Salvador Panelo
said he will recommend to
President Rodrigo Duterte
an independent probe by the
Office of the Ombudsman
regarding corruption
allegations against Balutan.
The court ordered Reyes to pay the fine of P600,000
while Dulay, Santos and Sicat were ordered to
pay P350,000 each for their crime.
In a decision penned by
Judge Emilio Rodolfo Legaspi
III, he found the accused Irene
Reyes guilty and immediately
sent her to the Correctional
Institute for Women, where she is
doomed to serve her life sentence.
Her other co-accused, namely Pablito
Dulay, Andres Santos and Angelito Sicat,
however, were sent to National Bilibid
Prison (NBP) where they will serve 15-year
jail terms.
Also, the court ordered Reyes to pay the
Child’s play Unmindful of the searing summer heat these children take a piggyback ride from a hippopotamus statue at the Kamay ni Hesus Fun Park.
ROMAN PROSPERO

MOST
INNOVATIVE
BROADSHEET
2018
44TH
PHILIPPINES
BUSINESS
EXPO
VENEZUELA
BLACKOUT
TRIGGERS
LOOTING
P20
THAI BAGS
SOUTHWOODS
CROWN
P18
LOOKING
AT LONG
TERM
P15
Jun Vallecera, Editor
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
BUSINESS
9
Car sales lag 8% over 2 months
A MAN walks through a used car sales yard in Beijing, China’s economy grew at its slowest pace in almost three decades losing more steam in the last
quarter as it battles a massive debt pile and a US trade war, official data showed.
AFP
Guarding vs
systemic risks
The interagency Financial Stability
Coordination Council (FSCC) on Thursday
said it will continue to steer the financial
system by continuing to be the venue for
financial market authorities to identify,
monitor, manage and mitigate the buildup of
systemic risks in the financial system.
The new Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
(BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno, who is
also the new chairman of the FSCC, said he
will continue to build on the progress made
by the council.
At its quarterly meeting, Diokno, being
the new council chief, led the assessment
on the impact of the slowing global growth
in the Philippines, as well as the changing
economic landscape in both the US and
China.
“Global markets were turbulent when we
closed 2018 and there are new developments
at the start of 2019 that could affect financial
markets,” Diokno said.
“We need to consider the possible
scenarios and steer our financial system
so that we can effectively manage these
possibilities and continue with our economic
growth agenda,” he added. JLao
For employers, the challenge is to be able to transform the
business process, redefine the job towards higher value and
redeploy qualified workers in order for them to continue
working with dignity and self-respect
The increasing sophistication and
commercial application of advances in
technology, principally in automation
and artificial intelligence, will have far
reaching consequences on the nature
of work and the workplace across many
sectors. The debate focuses on the
changes they will bring and the extent
of their impact, mainly in terms of
workforce dislocations and the process
of transitioning to new jobs, not only to
workers but to society as well.
I remember during my early working
days, there were rows upon rows of
accounting clerks tabulating and posting
manually various company transactions.
The ledgers and accounting sheets were
so cumbersome to maintain. Similarly,
there were dozens in the secretarial
staff typing away letters, memos and
what have you. Today, with almost each
worker having laptops and printers,
Mainstreaming women‘s insurance
Insular Life, along with the International
Finance Corp. (IFC), eyes greater financial
inclusion by capturing a bigger share of the
insured population.
With the help of IFC, the private investment
arm of the World Bank Group, the insurer
launched its newest program expected to
impact the lives of one million Filipino
women.
Dubbed as the InLife Sheroes, the program
provides life-long risk mitigation solutions for
women while educating them on financial
management, health and well-being.
Insular Life executive chairman Nina
Aguas said the program is a reflection of their
belief that women are an important market
that remains largely untapped at the moment.
We believe the women sector is
important not just as a market
segment. There are clear needs
of women that are not fully
addressed.
“This is such an important initiative for
us not just at Insular but also, I think, in
many ways for the insurance industry. This
is beyond our company because it will touch
the communities and the cities and ultimately
the country,” Aguas told reporters.
“We believe the women sector is important
not just as a market segment. There are clear
needs of women that are not fully addressed.
So, we are focusing our initiatives on women
with the help of the IFC,” she said.
The World Bank unit helps the insurer
address the specific needs of Filipino
women by conducting a study on
the subject.
According to the insurer, the
program will reach out to the
untapped segment of women in
the country, starting with women
entrepreneurs who need life and
health protection as well as financial
solutions to expand their business.
The IFC study revealed a massive
market opportunity for the insurance
industry reaching an estimated $1.7
trillion by 2030 globally. Half of this
opportunity, the study said, is in the
Philippines.
Henriette Kolb, manager of IFC’s
Gender Secretariat, said the latest
study requires a clear need for a
women inclusive insurance program
that will also promote further
economic growth. Joshua Lao
Changing nature of work
work in these areas has been reduced
drastically. There is greater efficiency
and accuracy in reporting and overall
productivity has increased immensely.
The workplace, the organization and
the processes have changed. And the
workers? They moved on to other things.
With the increase in computing power
and rapid technological innovations and
commercial applications, a greater
number of jobs will be eliminated.
Some jobs are prone to automation,
particularly those that are manual,
routine and repetitive. Low-skilled
jobs in manufacturing, among other
things, are particularly vulnerable.
Robots in the automotive industry
will eliminate jobs such as welding
or painting. Some jobs, however, are
not susceptive to automation, not yet
anyway. These are in the creative fields
like arts, highly technical fields, nonroutine
work, and those
requiring interpersonal
and social interactions
such as healthcare aides.
Others have only
specific segments or tasks
that can be automated
to compliment the work
of humans, thus humans
will work alongside
digital-technology-driven
machines. With the
proliferation of automated
diagnostic machines in
the medical profession,
the human touch is still
EMPLOYER’S
CORNER
Ed Lacson
needed in explaining to the patient his
illness and the required treatments.
The same is true for financial advisors
interacting with clients on various
investment options.
What is interesting to note is the
creation of new and transformation of
existing jobs because of automation,
which when handled well, could reduce
widespread displacement or dislocation
of workers. In the banking industry, ATM
machines do most of a teller’s job of
receiving money. However, some banks
We are encouraged by the good sales performance of
AVID for the month which signals stronger consumer
confidence as well as preference for top-notch
products
By AJ Bajo
The Association of Vehicle
and Distributors Inc., (AVID) on
Thursday reported 14,499 units sold
during the first two months of the
year, 8 percent lower compared to
figures in 2018.
Still, annual car sales grew
by 12 percent to 7,876 units sold
in February, owing to increased
consumer spending and fresh
products in store.
“We are encouraged by the
good sales performance of AVID for
the month which signals stronger
consumer confidence as well as
preference for top-notch products,”
AVID president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo
said.
“While we are still in the early
part of the year, we have gotten
over the hump and expect a
robust recovery for the automotive
industry.”
Demand for passenger
cars dropped a notch in February
this year compared to a year ago,
to 2,843 units from 2,881.
For the first two months, car
sales for the segment dropped by
a cumulative 15 percent to 5,140
units, AVID said.
Hyundai remained the best-selling
brand, accounting for 3,490 units
of the total units sold, or about 68
percent.
The light commercial vehicle
(LCV) segment made up 62 percent
of the sales mix. Sales for the
segment went up by 22 percent to
4,905 units sold compared to 4,028
units sold in February 2018.
have transformed their
tellers into a “universal
processor” that attends
to all the financial needs
of a customer, instead
of just doing the limited
tasks of deposit taking
and withdrawal. The job
has evolved to providing
higher value services
to customers which,
eventually, leads to higher
pay.
Such changeover,
however, requires an
appropriate assessment
There is greater efficiency and
accuracy in reporting and overall
productivity has increased
immensely.
of training needs to reskill workers
and mentoring throughout the period
of adaptation to the new job. For the
workers to stay relevant, they need to
unlearn their previous skill set, start
acquiring new skills and adapt fast to
the new job.
Year to date, the LCV segment
saw a slight decline with 9,146 units
sold this year from 9,434 units the
prior year.
Ford led the segment with 3,596
units sold.
Sales in the commercial vehicle
(CV) segment grew by 19 percent
to 128 units sold in February, while
sales were unchanged for the first
two months this year compared to
2018, at 213 units.
Hyundai topped the segment
with 154 units sold, AVID said, while
JAC Automobile Int’l Philippines
Inc. followed with 59 units.
Initial indications point
to the fact that the
Philippine economy is
poised for improved
performance in 2019. We
aim to ride this wave for
growth.
“We are seeing an upturn in all
major segments which augurs well
for AVID in the coming months,”
Perez-Agudo said.
“Initial indications point to the
fact that the Philippine economy is
poised for improved performance
in 2019. We aim to ride this wave
for growth.”
AVID is banking on the
expectation the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas will ease monetary policy
rates in light of improving inflation,
which fell 3.8 percent in February.
The attractive financing and
lower inflation bode well for auto
demand, AVID said, which is poised
to stage a recovery.
A TECHNICIAN works on the Nomex production line of a subsidiary of China Energy
in Lingwu, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.
XINHUA
Those unable to make the transition
become social liabilities that government
and companies need to look at from a
social security issue to reduce the
human costs of automation. On a wider
context, since the vulnerable jobs are
primarily low-skilled jobs, the inability
to acquire new skills and thus gainful
employment can exacerbate income
disparity.
On this note, government can facilitate
the reskilling process by supporting
skills development institutions, develop
relevant curriculum, and make tuition
affordable. Companies, on the other
hand, can invest and cultivate within
their system a continuous learning
culture and more cross-functional
exposures for their workers to ease
the transition process. Workers in turn
need to be flexible and adaptable. For
employers, the challenge is to be able to
transform the business process, redefine
the job towards higher value and
redeploy qualified workers in order for
them to continue working with dignity
and self-respect.
This article is the last in a three-part
series on the “Changing Nature of Work.”
MEGALOTTO 6/45 FRIDAY, 15 MARCH 2019 JACKPOT PRIZE H
PCSO
www.pcso.gov.ph
P41,000,000.00
* Jackpot amount may change depending on actual sales until 8:30 PM of March 15, 2019
* Jackpot amount may change depending on actual sales until 8:30 PM of March 15, 2019
PLAY & WIN NA!
TONIGHT NA!

10 BUSINESS
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Consumer funds for election campaigns?
NASECORE itself has put up for the first time its own partylist
group, KONTRA BROWNOUT, of which Ilagan is a nominee
Can funds from consumer groups be
used for election purposes? Concerned
sectors are asking after discovering what
they said were irregularities in funds being
used for purposes other than what they
were originally intended for.
Outrageous was how the National
Association of Electricity Consumers for
Reforms Inc. (NASECORE) described the
financial contributions made by several
electric cooperatives (EC) to partylist
groups vying for this year’s midterm polls.
A distribution utility, like an
EC, is a public utility because it
provides a public service in lieu of
the state.
In a letter addressed to the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) headed by
chairman Agnes Devanadera, NASECORE
executive director Rafael Antonio
Acebedo slammed these cooperatives for
using consumer payments for campaign
purposes.
The contributions could have been used,
at the very least, he said, in improving the
efficiency and quality of the EC’s services
or lowering electricity rates. Claiming
that EC consumer funds are meant to
be used exclusively for distribution and
other related electric services, he called
on the ERC to immediately undertake the
necessary steps to protect the interest of
the consumers and impose the appropriate
penalties as the law demands.
Acebedo cited as concrete example
the allocation by Davao del Sur Electric
Cooperative of P3 million as “financial
contribution to partylist group Philippine
Rural Electric Cooperatives Association
Inc. (PHILRECA).”
He has in his possession a copy
of the transmittal sheet addressed to
National Electrification Administration
administrator Edgardo Masongsong on
the Davao cooperative’s board resolution
to donate P3 million to the advocacy fund
of PHILRECA.
That these contributions are now most
likely being used for campaign purposes is
“in clear violation of not only of election
laws but, even worse, also of the Energy
Regulatory Commission-approved EC
Annual Revenue Requirement,” Acebedo
said.
These illegal contributions, he pointed
out, are on top of the one peso (P1)
imposed on every registered EC memberconsumer,
and collected annually by the
EC for PHILRECA. This, Acebedo claimed,
could easily translate to P12.4 million
based on the approximately
12.4 million connections
within the franchise areas
of EC nationwide.
Acebedo pointed out that
under the Omnibus Election
Code, the contributions
are prohibited. Section 95
of the code states that no
contribution for purposes of partisan
political activity shall be made directly or
indirectly by any of the following:
• Natural or juridical persons
operating a public utility or in possession
of or exploiting any natural resources of
the nation.
• Natural and juridical persons who
have been granted franchises, incentives,
exemptions, allocations or similar privileges
or concessions by the government or
any of its divisions, subdivisions or
instrumentalities, including governmentowned
or controlled corporations.
It shall be unlawful for any person to
solicit or receive any contribution from
any of the persons or entities enumerated
herein.
Under the law and Philippine
jurisprudence, Acebedo added, a
distribution utility, like an EC, is a public
utility because it provides a public service
in lieu of the state. In order to legally
operate, public utilities have to be granted
a franchise and other similar benefits by
the government. Thus, any contribution
Manny Angeles
made by any EC to any
partylist group for election
purposes violates Section
95(b) of BP 881 or the
Omnibus Election Code.
What is worse, according
to former Department
of Energy (DoE)
Undersecretary Pete Ilagan,
one of the NASECORE founders, is that
the recipients of the EC contributions are
partylist groups purporting to represent
consumer interests.
Two of these party lists, he said, have
had seats in Congress for years but have
yet to present concrete achievements
in terms of lowering electricity rates or
improving systems and structures for
efficient, reliable and quality service. The
membership of these partylist groups, he
pointed out, is exclusive to EC officers and
board directors.
Aside from PHILRECA, Ilagan pointed
to the Association of Philippine Electric
Cooperatives, Padayon Pilipino’s Partylist
and the Rural Electric Cooperatives Board
of Directors Association whose nominees
are either directors or officers of the
electric cooperatives.
NASECORE itself has put up for the
first time its own partylist group, KONTRA
BROWNOUT, of which Ilagan is a nominee.
NASECORE is credited for winning
the fight for the Meralco refund in 2006
before the Supreme Court, bringing the
electricity rates down in LEYECO (Leyte
II Electric Cooperative) in 2000 and for
championing the meter deposit refund by
all power utilities.
The contributions could have been
used, at the very least, he said,
in improving the efficiency and
quality of the EC’s services or
lowering electricity rates.
It has pending petitions before the ERC
and various courts calling for immediate
action on several instances of serious ERC
regulatory failure and utility abuses.
“It is this collusion of regulatory
failure and utility abuse that is the reason
electricity users pay more than 50 percent
of what they should be justly and fairly
paying for their consumption,” Ilagan said
Ilagan further noted despite charging
high electricity rates, many EC are losing
or could hardly break even.
“And yet, EC have the gall contributing
consumer funds for election campaigns?
What an irony,” Ilagan rued. This is
tantamount to qualified theft, not unlike
a treasurer entrusted with funds for
a specific purpose, who uses them for
personal gain or for some other ends.”
By the way, is it not that administrator
Masongsong used to be the partylist
representative of PHILRECA?
For comments, feedback and information,
e-mail us at mannyangeles27@gmail.com.
PHirst
Park Homes
in San Pablo
Central to the San Pablo development
are activity nodes that promote health
and fitness
With the successful sale of its 20-hectare
affordable housing community in Lipa, Batangas,
PHirst Park Homes Inc. (PPHI) — a joint venture
between Century Properties Group Inc. and the
global business enterprise Mitsubishi Corporation
— is set to launch an 18.5-hectare development in
San Pablo, Laguna this month with 1,640 units
totalling P2.7 billion.
The project bears the signature 4Cs of the PHirst
Park Homes brand: Complete and well-provisioned homes
with a perimeter fence and gate; Conceptive amenities
including an outdoor cinema; Connected living through
wifi zones and shuttle services; and a convenient and
simplified selling and buying experience.
PHirst units start at 40 square meters (Calista
Mid and Calista End with 44 sqm and 60.5sqm lot
areas, respectively), while a combined unit is at 80
square meters (Calista Duo with 121sqm lot area).
A single-detached unit is at 54 sqm (Unna). All
units are expandable on the second floor.
Central to the San Pablo development are
activity nodes that promote health and fitness, in
contrast with the Lipa community which features
traditional Filipino games. Monkey bars, cross
trainers, domical bars, foot reflexology area and
pull up bars add a fun challenge to the property’s
amenity core. Rounding up the amenity list is the
village clubhouse, swimming pool, water play area,
kids’ playground, outdoor cinema and basketball
court.
“PPHI is proud to launch a PHirst Park Homes
community in San Pablo, Laguna. True to our
brand mission of delivering first homes that are
beautiful, well-designed, and of good quality at
attainable prices, we continue to raise the bar in
the affordable housing market,” said Loren Sales,
customer management group vice president.
Located in Maharlika Highway, Barangay
San Ignacio, PHirst Park Homes is accessible via
South Luzon Expressway through the Santo Tomas
Exit and only 15 minutes away from SM City San
Pablo. Weather in the area is generally cooler,
as the City of the Seven Lakes is surrounded by
Mt. Banahaw, Mt. Makiling and the Sierra Madre
mountain ranges.
After Lipa and San Pablo, PPHI is set to launch
more communities in north and south Luzon,
which the company has identified as growth areas
with a high concentration of OFW families, unmet
demand for housing, and where infrastructure
projects are in place. Within the next four to
five years, PPHI will launch 15 masterplanned
communities in Calabarzon and Central Luzon
with approximately 33,000 homes.
THE Laguna housing project is a joint venture
between Century Properties and Mitsubishi
Corp.
THURSDAY
14 MARCH 2019
PHILIPPINE STOCK EXCHANGE
NAME OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE VALUE (P)
FINANCIALS
BANKS
ASIA UNITED 58.1 58.65 58.1 58.65 85,247.50
BDO UNIBANK 132.4 132.8 131.2 132 149,974,058
BANK PH ISLANDS 86.1 87.45 85.05 87.45 56,448,129.50
CHINABANK 27.9 27.9 27.6 27.6 1,125,355
EAST WEST BANK 12.26 12.3 12.12 12.12 9,145,596
METROBANK 78.6 78.9 77.3 77.7 62,107,819
PB BANK 14 14.06 14 14 1,632,406
PHIL NATL BANK 61.1 61.1 60.1 60.1 58,445,174.50
PSBANK 58.4 58.6 58 58.6 92,201.50
RCBC 26.5 26.5 26.35 26.35 235,675
SECURITY BANK 168 171.5 167 170.5 127,016,348
UNION BANK 61.25 63 60.6 60.7 195,011
OTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
BRIGHT KINDLE 1.35 1.36 1.35 1.36 39,190
BDO LEASING 2.28 2.28 2.27 2.27 13,630
COL FINANCIAL 18.2 18.2 18.02 18.18 555,446
FIRST ABACUS 0.62 0.63 0.62 0.63 2,545,150
FERRONOUX HLDG 4.5 4.5 4.4 4.5 273,200
MEDCO HLDG 0.455 0.46 0.455 0.46 82,150
MANULIFE 795 795 795 795 79,500
NTL REINSURANCE 0.98 0.98 0.97 0.97 55,330
PHIL STOCK EXCH 185 185 183.1 183.1 25,786
SUN LIFE 1,820 1,820 1,820 1,820 582,400
INDUSTRIAL
ELECTRICITY, ENERGY, POWER & WATER
ALSONS CONS 1.42 1.42 1.42 1.42 1,019,560
ABOITIZ POWER 35.2 35.55 34.5 35.55 86,008,445
BASIC ENERGY 0.24 0.243 0.237 0.24 43,310
FIRST GEN 21.5 21.5 20.5 20.85 116,552,575
FIRST PHIL HLDG 74.2 74.2 73.7 73.7 4,166,337.50
MERALCO 378 380 373.6 380 52,064,052
MANILA WATER 27 27 25.5 26 93,209,595
PETRON 6.74 6.85 6.73 6.74 11,522,488
PETROENERGY 3.77 3.83 3.77 3.77 336,920
PHINMA ENERGY 1.33 1.33 1.32 1.33 2,445,610
PHX PETROLEUM 12 12 11.8 12 1,336,076
PILIPINAS SHELL 49 49.15 48.85 49 32,375,485
SPC POWER 6.4 6.4 6.38 6.38 377,370
FOOD, BEVERAGE & TOBACCO
AGRINURTURE 14.94 14.94 14.12 14.48 12,796,294
CNTRL AZUCARERA 16 16 16 16 100,800
CENTURY FOOD 15.68 15.68 15.6 15.6 7,345,950
DEL MONTE 6.02 6.3 6.02 6.29 12,152
DNL INDUS 11.28 11.32 11.24 11.26 5,776,220
EMPERADOR 7.6 7.6 7.4 7.51 478,115
SMC FOODANDBEV 106.9 106.9 103.2 104.1 187,910,709
ALLIANCE SELECT 1.01 1.02 1.01 1.01 687,040
GINEBRA 27.5 27.5 27 27.1 12,083,550
JOLLIBEE 316 316 312 312 80,441,566
MACAY HLDG 11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1 56,610
MAXS GROUP 12 12.1 11.9 11.96 1,057,368
MG HLDG 0.196 0.196 0.196 0.196 37,240
PEPSI COLA 1.41 1.41 1.37 1.39 1,626,430
SHAKEYS PIZZA 12.28 12.28 11.9 11.92 875,544
ROXAS AND CO 1.83 1.83 1.81 1.81 285,800
RFM CORP 4.69 4.69 4.67 4.67 9,360
ROXAS HLDG 2.68 2.68 2.68 2.68 10,720
SWIFT FOODS 0.129 0.129 0.129 0.129 32,250
UNIV ROBINA 141.4 145 141.4 145 50,390,937
VITARICH 1.65 1.65 1.62 1.62 2,052,640
VICTORIAS 2.55 2.55 2.5 2.5 923,070
CONSTRUCTION, INFRASTRUCTURE & ALLIED SERVICES
CONCRETE A 65.5 65.5 65.5 65.5 655
CEMEX HLDG 2.62 2.66 2.57 2.6 17,347,470
DAVINCI CAPITAL 5.9 5.9 5.9 5.9 147,500
EAGLE CEMENT 15.76 15.8 15.54 15.7 11,217,186
EEI CORP 8.78 8.95 8.78 8.88 1,611,346
HOLCIM 9.62 9.62 9.56 9.56 6,222,213(1,
MEGAWIDE 19.9 20 19.88 19.9 52,997,604
TKC METALS 1.02 1.03 1 1.02 410,800
VULCAN INDL 1.28 1.32 1.28 1.32 791,040
CHEMICALS
CROWN ASIA 1.9 1.9 1.85 1.88 119,850
EUROMED 1.64 1.64 1.64 1.64 24,600
LMG CHEMICALS 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 217,300
MABUHAY VINYL 3.6 3.68 3.6 3.68 90,100
PRYCE CORP 5.85 5.86 5.85 5.85 1,419,470
ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS & EQUIPMENT
CONCEPCION 41 41 41 41 2,296,000
GREENERGY 2.46 2.61 2.25 2.6 157,660,560
INTEGRATED MICR 12.86 12.86 12.5 12.6 8,061,398
IONICS 1.73 1.73 1.72 1.72 13,810
PANASONIC 6.17 6.17 6.17 6.17 617,000
SFA SEMICON 1.29 1.31 1.29 1.3 69,840
CIRTEK HLDG 29.6 29.8 29.35 29.4 3,093,540
HOLDING FIRMS
ABACORE CAPITAL 0.76 0.76 0.73 0.74 9,020,580
ASIABEST GROUP 20.65 20.75 19.8 20 1,487,610
AYALA CORP 920 931.5 919.5 925.5 221,128,450
ABOITIZ EQUITY 58.95 58.95 57.7 58.35 115,114,725
ALLIANCE GLOBAL 14.9 15.2 14.8 15.1 132,464,572
ANGLO PHIL HLDG 0.74 0.76 0.74 0.75 62,330
ATN HLDG A 1.39 1.41 1.39 1.4 2,579,040
ATN HLDG B 1.41 1.41 1.39 1.41 434,310
COSCO CAPITAL 7.5 7.5 7.4 7.46 1,498,552
DMCI HLDG 11.22 11.9 11.22 11.9 51,925,878
FILINVEST DEV 14.68 14.68 14.4 14.42 12,074,970
FJ PRINCE A 4.15 4.15 4.15 4.15 415,000
FORUM PACIFIC 0.238 0.25 0.238 0.25 33,440
GT CAPITAL 993 1,004 983 1,000 154,602,270
HOUSE OF INV 6.18 6.4 6.18 6.39 255,716
JG SUMMIT 62.85 62.95 61.45 61.7 272,433,073.50
LODESTAR 0.57 0.59 0.54 0.57 773,620
LOPEZ HLDG 5.14 5.2 5.1 5.13 1,059,248
LT GROUP 16.52 16.88 16.3 16.62 130,298,086
MABUHAY HLDG 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.56 56,000
METRO PAC INV 4.94 4.94 4.9 4.9 94,035,380
PACIFICA 0.04 0.04 0.039 0.039 482,200
PRIME ORION 3.14 3.18 3.08 3.1 13,124,880
REPUBLIC GLASS 2.58 2.58 2.56 2.56 56,340
SOLID GROUP 1.38 1.38 1.38 1.38 34,500
SYNERGY GRID 448 448 448 448 26,880
SM INVESTMENTS 928.5 936 925 925 221,345,455
SAN MIGUEL CORP 172.4 173 170.4 172 134,663,576
SOC RESOURCES 0.75 0.75 0.75 0.75 7,500
SEAFRONT RES 2.36 2.36 2.36 2.36 30,680
WELLEX INDUS 0.244 0.245 0.24 0.24 89,310
ZEUS HLDG 0.335 0.35 0.335 0.35 2,315,700
PROPERTY
ARTHALAND CORP 0.92 0.92 0.87 0.88 1,235,670
AYALA LAND 42.85 43.45 42.65 42.8 425,657,295
ARANETA PROP 1.87 1.97 1.87 1.97 62,510
BELLE CORP 2.4 2.4 2.36 2.37 311,160
A BROWN 0.79 0.79 0.78 0.79 173,970
CITYLAND DEVT 0.91 0.93 0.91 0.93 19,130
CROWN EQUITIES 0.24 0.245 0.24 0.245 67,300
CEBU HLDG 6.5 6.78 6.5 6.75 355,049
CEB LANDMASTERS 4.28 4.28 4.25 4.26 140,760
CENTURY PROP 0.485 0.49 0.485 0.485 5,721,950
CYBER BAY 0.405 0.405 0.4 0.4 468,050
DOUBLEDRAGON 21.05 21.4 20.75 21.25 5,647,815
DM WENCESLAO 10.4 10.44 10.2 10.26 6,551,510
NAME OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE VALUE (P)
EMPIRE EAST 0.51 0.52 0.5 0.52 138,530
EVER GOTESCO 0.137 0.137 0.137 0.137 1,370
FILINVEST LAND 1.52 1.54 1.5 1.53 11,657,000
GLOBAL ESTATE 1.21 1.23 1.21 1.22 1,932,720
8990 HLDG 12.14 12.14 12.02 12.06 6,058,646
PHIL INFRADEV 1.92 2 1.92 1.96 6,684,130
MEGAWORLD 5.39 5.53 5.29 5.53 126,815,387
MRC ALLIED 0.39 0.395 0.38 0.39 7,744,100
PHIL ESTATES 0.46 0.46 0.46 0.46 23,000
PRIMEX CORP 2.87 2.89 2.85 2.85 315,140
ROBINSONS LAND 23.65 23.8 23.4 23.8 72,957,205
PHIL REALTY 0.455 0.465 0.45 0.455 247,400
ROCKWELL 2.05 2.05 2.05 2.05 4,100
SHANG PROP 3.15 3.15 3.15 3.15 75,600
STA LUCIA LAND 1.59 1.59 1.57 1.59 663,560
SM PRIME HLDG 37.1 37.75 37.1 37.1 155,511,240
STARMALLS 7.08 7.15 6.95 6.99 1,053,824
SUNTRUST HOME 0.74 0.74 0.74 0.74 162,060
PTFC REDEV CORP 46 46 46 46 9,200
VISTA LAND 7.22 7.3 7.22 7.26 26,762,915
SERVICES
MEDIA
ABS CBN 20.8 20.8 20.55 20.55 784,140
GMA NETWORK 5.7 5.72 5.69 5.69 511,552
MANILA BULLETIN 0.61 0.62 0.59 0.6 792,200
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
GLOBE TELECOM 1,900 1,930 1,860 1,930 50,491,380
PLDT 1,120 1,156 1,120 1,132 249,565,805
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
APOLLO GLOBAL 0.045 0.045 0.042 0.045 527,700
DFNN INC 7 7.24 7 7 126,724
ISLAND INFO 0.128 0.128 0.127 0.127 300,450
ISM COMM 5.42 5.76 5.42 5.67 22,301,009
JACKSTONES 3.09 3.26 3.08 3.26 92,610
NOW CORP 2.88 2.88 2.82 2.84 1,250,380
TRANSPACIFIC BR 0.42 0.43 0.42 0.42 1,477,800
PHILWEB 2.74 2.83 2.74 2.79 1,886,180
TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
2GO GROUP 12.28 12.28 12 12 151,026
CEBU AIR 83 83.6 82.55 83.5 898,551.50
CHELSEA 5.8 5.9 5.75 5.9 4,444,385
INTL CONTAINER 116.9 122 116.9 118.9 493,399,201
LORENZO SHIPPNG 0.89 0.89 0.89 0.89 74,760
MACROASIA 19.42 20.5 19.42 20.05 43,291,910
METROALLIANCE A 1.86 1.99 1.85 1.98 140,320
METROALLIANCE B 2.15 2.15 2.15 2.15 6,450
PAL HLDG 10.3 10.36 10.2 10.36 595,556
HARBOR STAR 2.99 3 2.88 2.88 3,598,660
HOTEL & LEISURE
BOULEVARD HLDG 0.079 0.08 0.074 0.075 19,934,700
DISCOVERY WORLD 2.11 2.11 2.11 2.11 2,110
WATERFRONT 0.66 0.68 0.65 0.66 155,730
EDUCATION
IPEOPLE 11 11 10.6 10.6 8,520
STI HLDG 0.71 0.71 0.7 0.71 860,980
CASINOS & GAMING
BERJAYA 2.8 2.83 2.7 2.73 1,297,540
BLOOMBERRY 11.92 12 11.7 11.8 54,886,042
LEISURE AND RES 3.29 3.33 3.29 3.33 676,840
MANILA JOCKEY 4.85 4.96 4.75 4.96 219,210
PH RESORTS GRP 5.25 5.25 4.87 4.9 473,308
PREMIUM LEISURE 0.9 0.9 0.87 0.87 4,818,540
PHIL RACING 7 7 7 7 700
TRAVELLERS 5.61 5.62 5.6 5.62 3,167,519
RETAIL
METRO RETAIL 3 3.02 2.99 2.99 2,070,080
PUREGOLD 48 48 47.1 47.5 6,239,555
ROBINSONS RTL 87 87 84.95 85 43,025,017
PHIL SEVEN CORP 130.1 130.1 130 130 321,120
SSI GROUP 2.36 2.37 2.34 2.36 15,377,660
WILCON DEPOT 15.7 15.88 15.22 15.4 202,681,318
OTHER SERVICES
APC GROUP 0.425 0.43 0.425 0.43 127,600
EASYCALL 14.5 14.78 13 13.2 5,576,588
GOLDEN BRIA 372.4 380 364.4 377 822,864
PRMIERE HORIZON 1.19 1.23 1.17 1.22 18,557,920
SBS PHIL CORP 8.42 8.42 8.4 8.4 89,941
MINING & OIL
MINING
ATOK 13.4 13.88 13 13.54 142,508
APEX MINING 1.45 1.46 1.44 1.45 1,254,860
ABRA MINING 0.0021 0.0022 0.0021 0.0021 2,245,200
ATLAS MINING 2.9 2.92 2.9 2.9 119,080
COAL ASIA HLDG 0.295 0.295 0.295 0.295 2,950
CENTURY PEAK 2.27 2.31 2.27 2.31 4,186,100
DIZON MINES 7.82 7.99 7.8 7.81 205,332
FERRONICKEL 1.49 1.49 1.47 1.49 3,342,430
GEOGRACE 0.249 0.25 0.241 0.249 68,220
LEPANTO A 0.121 0.121 0.121 0.121 123,420
LEPANTO B 0.125 0.125 0.125 0.125 27,500
MANILA MINING A 0.0081 0.0081 0.0081 0.0081 8,100
MANILA MINING B 0.0082 0.0082 0.0082 0.0082 32,800
MARCVENTURES 1.09 1.09 1.05 1.09 155,330
NIHAO 1.05 1.05 1.01 1.05 30,380
NICKEL ASIA 2.68 2.68 2.55 2.59 6,991,900
OMICO CORP 0.59 0.62 0.59 0.6 63,760
ORNTL PENINSULA 0.95 0.95 0.93 0.93 259,690
PX MINING 3.95 3.98 3.95 3.98 2,115,510
SEMIRARA MINING 20 21.25 20 21 64,823,000
UNITED PARAGON 0.0072 0.0072 0.0072 0.0072 57,600
OIL
ORNTL PETROL A 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.013 78,500
ORNTL PETROL B 0.012 0.013 0.012 0.013 260,400
PHILODRILL 0.012 0.012 0.011 0.012 212,800
PXP ENERGY 14.12 14.26 14 14.18 2,653,894
PREFERRED
HOUSE PREF A 95 95 95 95 33,250
SMC FB PREF 2 971 971 971 971 184,490
FPH PREF C 450.2 450.2 450.2 450.2 67,530
GTCAP PREF A 900 900 900 900 540,000
GTCAP PREF B 895 900 880 890 946,520
LR PREF 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 19,800
MWIDE PREF 100 101.9 100 101.9 69,190
PCOR PREF 2A 980 990 980 990 1,088,685
SMC PREF 2B 75.15 75.3 75.15 75.3 297,055
SMC PREF 2C 76.95 76.95 76.05 76.95 4,107,998.50
SMC PREF 2F 74.75 74.75 74.75 74.75 785,622.50
SMC PREF 2H 71.9 71.9 71.9 71.9 719,000
SMC PREF 2I 72 72 72 72 1,080,000
PHIL. DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS
ABS HLDG PDR 20 20 20 20 1,056,000
WARRANTS
LR WARRANT 1.85 1.85 1.85 1.85 22,200
SMALL, MEDIUM & EMERGING
ITALPINAS 5 5 4.94 4.95 796,712
XURPAS 1.35 1.38 1.34 1.36 3,458,930
EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS
FIRST METRO ETF 115 115.5 114.5 115.5 377,328

Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
11

12
Friday, 15 March 2018
Daily Tribune

Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
13

14
Friday, 15 March 2018
Daily Tribune

Elmer N. Manuel, Editor
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Looking
at long term
Children pump water from a communal deep well. These are one of the short-term solutions
of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System to help ease the water shortage
problem in Metro Manila.
AFP
Metro Manila is now facing a huge
problem in water supply — an unseen but
not improbable situation that put tens
of thousands Filipinos raging over the
insufficient supply of one of the major
resources in the country.
The metro has seen a shortage of water
as the levels of the La Mesa Dam breached
its critical level of 69 meters, dropping to
68.93 meters over the week which left
residents of Metro Manila and parts of
Rizal affected by water supply interruptions
since 7 March.
With this, we have seen the insufficient
supply resulting to Manila Water
implementing water service interruptions
in several areas to save more water for the
coming months.
What the metropolis needs is a
long-term solution that can avoid
these water supply shortages
which was actually proposed in
the past administration but was
never approved.
To augment the water supply crisis, the
Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage
System (MWSS) devised a plan that will
cover half of the deficit in Manila Water
Co.’s supply — that is, to provide deep wells
throughout the metro.
MWSS administrator Reynaldo Velasco,
in an interview, said they already identified
sources that can help ease the current water
problem faced by Manila Water, adding that
it can deliver at least 100 million liters of
water per day (mld).
Maynilad, on the other hand, will also
share 50 mld to Manila Water. All in all,
water from deep wells and Maynilad will
amount to 150 mld for Manila Water. The
other 50 mld which will complete the 200
mld needed will come from the treatment
plant of Manila Water in Cardona, Rizal
which they projected to open this March.
The activation of deep wells and sharing
of water supply by Maynilad, the opening
of the Cardona treatment plant may help
solve the water crisis in the metro, but the
way we see it, it’s only a short-term solution
to a problem that can possibly recur in the
not so distant future.
What the metropolis needs — and
the whole country for that matter — is
a long-term solution that can avoid these
water supply shortages which was actually
proposed in the past administration but was
never approved.
And recently, we have seen that pertinent
proposal which may address the problem
on shortages.
In an exclusive interview with the
Daily Tribune recently, Meralco PowerGen
president and chief executive officer Rogelio
Singson revealed that addressing the
problem on water shortage may be done
if focus will be on climate change.
Singson said that the solution for
the unpredictable weather cycle is in
impounding water — saving water during
severe rains and then release it during the
dry season, which can definitely augment
any impending water shortages.
“The solution is a water impounding
system — an ordinance that says
all subdivisions, major commercial
establishments should be prohibited from
spilling their water into drainages. They
should have their own impounding system,”
said Singson, who was once the secretary
of the Department of Public Works and
Highways.
“That’s what we did in Fort
Bonifacio. Burgos Circle
impounds and regulates the
water and this is released
based on the capacity
of the water creek. The
water is absorbed during
rains preventing EDSA
and Kalayaan from being
flooded. So, now there are
no complaints,” Singson
added.
We couldn’t
agree more. What
the country really
needs to look for
now are long-term
solutions that will
provide better
services to the
Filipino people.
Singson’s
proposal may be
worth a shot, and
it can’t hurt if the government will take a
second look at it.
GLOBAL GOALS
Women activists urge focus on services
A wheelchair-bound Pakistani mother
who yearned to visit a park without worrying
about ramp access and a young South
Sudanese woman who dreams of having
affordable health care were among the
speakers opening the United Nation’s (UN)
largest annual gathering on gender equality
and women’s rights.
Addressing the 63rd session of the UN
Commission on the Status of Women in a
joint speech, Muniba Mazari and Mary Fatiya,
both asked for basic social protections to
be extended to women and girls around the
world, based on need and in line with their
inalienable human rights.
“Being a woman has its challenges. Being
in a wheelchair is the cherry on top,” Mazari,
who is also the Goodwill Ambassador for UN
Pakistan, told several thousand activists,
diplomats, and academics gathered in the
UN’s General Assembly Hall.
Fatiya, who described going long
distances to a school where only two toilets
were available for around 600 children, said
her ideal world centered around a peace
existence, access to healthcare and good
infrastructure: “I’m not asking for a luxurious
A new United Nations-led plan has been unveiled to tackle the
estimated one billion cases of influenza which occur each year, and
protect against the “real” threat of a global pandemic, the head of
the organization’s health agency said.
Announcing the revised Global Influenza Strategy
for 2019-2030, World Health Organization
(WHO) Director General Dr Tedros
Ghebreyesus, warned that the
“question is not if we will have
another pandemic, but when.”
“The threat of pandemic
influenza is ever-present,” he said,
noting that the risk of a new influenza
virus transmitting from animals to humans
and potentially leading to a pandemic is “real.”
Influenza remains one of the world’s
greatest public health challenges, according
to the WHO, which says that the viral
respiratory disease is responsible for
between 290,000 and 650,000
related deaths a year.
Globalization,
urbanization and
mobility will
Education still migrants’ ‘impossible dream’
The older refugee and migrant children
get the less likely it is that they will get a
quality education: Less than a quarter of
the world’s refugees make it to secondary
school, and just one percent progress to higher
education. Even for migrants who settle in
wealthy, developed host countries, accessing
university is an uphill struggle.
For many young migrants in the UK, even
those who have the legal right to remain in a
new country, the idea of going to university is
almost an impossible dream: not only are they
are charged “overseas student” fees, which can
be around double those of “home” students but,
until recently, they were denied access to student
loans, which puts up another barrier to entry.
However, a ray of hope has been provided
by Chrisann Jarrett, who is herself a young
migrant (she was born in Jamaica and
moved to the UK at the age of 8). While still
a teenager, Chrisann set up Let Us Learn,
a campaign for equal and fair treatment for
young migrants. In an interview with UN
News, Chrisann explained how a 2015 court
victory against the UK Government has made
a big difference to many young UK-based
SOUKAINA (left) and Mouna work in the marketing department at Label Vie’s corporate
headquarters in Rabat. It has 35 supermarkets and 10 “hypermarkets” nationwide, with
eight supermarkets in Rabat and one hypermarket in Salé.
UN PHOTO
road. I just need it and it’s my right to have it.”
The annual meeting of the Commission,
which dates back to 1947, will bring more
than 9,000 representatives from civil society
organizations to the UN over the course of
the next two weeks. This year’s theme is
“social protection systems, access to public
services and sustainable infrastructure for
gender equality and the empowerment
15
CIVIL Society Representatives Mary Fatiya (South Sudan) and Muniba Mazari (Pakistan)
address the Commission on the Status of Women held in the General Assembly Hall at
United Nations headquarters. UN PHOTO
of all women and girls.” Many of the
marathon-discussions are expected to
also focus on gender equality and the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In his opening statement, Secretary
General António Guterres said the
Commission on the Status of Women could
equally be called the “Commission on the
Status of Power.”
result in the next pandemic moving faster and further, the agency
maintains, while also underlining that those infected with the virus can
face other health threats, such as heart attacks, strokes and severe pneumonia.
The WHO’s 11-year plan focuses on the formulation of robust
national programs and has three goals: reducing seasonal influenza,
minimizing the risk of transmission from animals to humans and
limiting the impact of a pandemic.
In addition, WHO is calling for better tools to prevent, detect, control
and treat influenza, such as more efficient vaccines
and anti-viral drugs.
Influenza outbreaks tend to emphasize the
pressures faced by health systems in low
and middle-income countries in particular,
WHO says, insisting that investing in
influenza-prevention measures will
encourage a rapid response
to many other infectious
diseases.
An outbreak in
Madagascar in 2002 had
a 2.5 percent fatality ratio,
which is very similar to the
1918-1919 pandemic, WHO
says, noting that the cost
of pandemic preparedness
globally is estimated at
$4.5 billion a year, which
is less than one per cent
of the estimated cost
needed to respond to
a “medium-to-severe”
pandemic.
“A severe pandemic
can result in millions
of deaths globally,
with widespread social
and economic effects,
including a loss of national
A PUPIL receives a vaccine against influenza at a high school in the western French town of Quimper. France
opened centers across the country to offer swine flu vaccinations to some six million people deemed most at
risk from the pandemic sweeping the world.
AFP
students born abroad.
“We recognized that over 2,000 students were
being stopped from going to university because
of their immigration status. So, despite being
lawfully resident in the country, they were being
told that they couldn’t move forward with their
education aspirations. In 2015, the Supreme
Court agreed that this was discriminatory, and
we managed to influence government policy,
which means that hundreds, if not thousands
of young migrants are able to access a student
loan and go to university, which previously
wasn’t the case.”
Women’s empowerment and gender
equality are “essential to global progress,”
United Nations (UN) Secretary General
António Guterres stressed in his message
for International Women’s Day which this
year puts “innovation by women and girls,
for women and girls,” at the heart of efforts
to achieve gender equality.
“Last year, for the first time, we achieved
gender parity in the UN’s Senior Management
Group and among those who lead UN teams
around the world,” the UN chief said, adding
that the organization is “working to achieve
parity across the whole United Nations system
within a decade.”
The UN began celebrating the International
UN health chief vows treatment centers protection
Amid a deadly Ebola outbreak, armed militia
members on 9 March 2019 brutally attacked an
Ebola clinic in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo’s (DRC) eastern city of Butembo, prompting
a call from the UN’s global health agency chief “to
protect the treatment centers.”
Just hours after the assault, Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health
Organization (WHO), toured the center, which was
also attacked last week, thanking personnel for
their steadfast dedication.
“It breaks my heart to think of the health
workers injured and police officer who died in
today’s attack, as we continue to mourn those
who died in previous attacks, while defending the
right to health,” he said. “But we have no choice
except to continue serving the people here, who
are among the most vulnerable in the world.”
The visit came as he concluded a three-day
mission to the country, along with other WHO
Being a woman has its
challenges. Being in a
wheelchair is the cherry on top
New strategy
vs ‘real’ flu threat
Globalization, urbanization and mobility
will result in the next pandemic moving
faster and further
Day in 1975, which was designated International
Women’s Year. Over the decades it has morphed
from recognizing the achievements of women
to becoming a rallying point to build support
for women’s rights and participation in the
political and economic arenas.
“Gender equality is essential to the
effectiveness of our work, and we cannot
afford to miss
out on the
contributions
of half of
the world’s
population,”
Deputy
Secretary
economic productivity and
severe economic burdens
on affected citizens and
communities” WHO says.
STUDENTS learning in Makod Primary and Secondary School in Tierkidi Refugee
Camp, Gambella Region, Ethiopia.
UNICEF
Gender empowerment essential to progress
leadership and senior United States officials who
met with the president, government officials,
partner organizations and local responders involved
in the outbreak response. He also spoke to a group
of partners, officials and staff in Butembo.
He stressed that “these are not attacks by the
community, they are attacks on the community”
conducted by “elements who are exploiting
the desperation of the situation for their own
purposes.”
General Amina J. Mohammed explained.
Moreover, “women’s equal participation
in the labor force would unlock trillions of
dollars for global development” she continued.
“Let us be clear,” she spelled out: “We
cannot build the future we want and achieve
the Sustainable Development Goals without
the full participation of women.”
AN injured suspected Mai-Mai rebel fighter is thrown into the back of a truck
outside an Ebola Treatment Center in Butembo, the epicenter of DR Congo’s
latest Ebola outbreak, after an attack on 9 March.
AFP

51.00
52.00
53.00
54.00
55.00
PESO-DOLLAR RATES
14 MARCH 2019
52.60
16
BUSINESS
25700
25200
24700
24200
DOW JONES
14 MARCH 2019
148.23
7900
7700
STOCK MARKET
7500
7300 52.55
14 MARCH 2019
14 MARCH 2019
INDEX SUMMARY
INDEX VALUE CHANGE % CHANGE
PSEi 7,750.42 -15.73 -0.20 ▼
All Shares 4,785.01 -15.66 -0.33 ▼
Financials 1,762.36 -2.44 -0.14 ▼
Industrial 11,551.98 -65.53 -0.56 ▼
Holding Firms 7,671.73 -23.38 -0.30 ▼
Services 1,572.20 3.63 0.23 ▲
Mining and Oil 8,079.75 132.39 1.67 ▲
Property 3,902.86 -15.45 -0.39 ▼
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
THE lucrative business of franchising is seen accelerating at a 25-percent pace this year and contribute 7 percent of the country’s local output growth or the gross domestic product.
Franchising sector eyes 25% growth
We have seen a lot of successful brands not only from
Manila but from Visayas and Mindanao who have
expanded here so it makes sense for them to look for
opportunities abroad
By AJ Bajo
The franchising sector is on a
roll and may still post 25 percent
year-on-year growth in revenues
to $31 billion next year, the
Philippine Franchise Association
(PFA) said on Thursday.
The sector’s revenue
accelerated to roughly $25 billion
in 2018 from $22 billion in 2017,
and now accounts for 7 percent
of the country’s gross domestic
San Miguel Corp. (SMC) breached the P1
trillion revenue mark in 2018, powered by strong
performances from all its key businesses — food,
beverage, packaging, fuels and petrochemicals,
power and infrastructure.
Consolidated revenues reached P1.02 trillion,
up 24 percent from the previous year while
consolidated operating income increased 5 percent
to P117.1 billion. The conglomerate’s consolidated
EBITDA also rose 7 percent to P157.9 billion.
Consolidated recurring net income reached P55.2
billion, up 1 percent from last year.
Income growth for the conglomerate was
tempered by the sharp decline in crude prices
resulting in inventory losses for its fuels
and petrochemical
DIVERSIFIED conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
generated revenues reaching P1 trillion in 2018.ww
By Joshua Lao
The country’s foreign portfolio
investments, also known as hot or
speculative money, flowed inward at
a slower pace in February, the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on
Thursday. “Registered investments
for the month of February 2019
amounted to $1.4 billion, lower by
product, the association said
at the launching of the 27th
Franchise Asia Philippines expo.
The association is eyeing
markets with large
concentration of Filipinos.
“The growth from the
previous years was a bit
more conservative at 15 to
20 percent, but recently we
have seen a great leap on
the performance in terms
of revenue expansion,” PAF
president Richard Sanz said.
The 25 percent growth target
to 2020 will be propelled by
three factors, he added. This
includes the growing middle
class, dispersion of jobs outside
of top cities and continuous
creation of new homegrown
brands.
“What’s driving this is
really the education and the
increasing minimum wage and
more disposable income. For us
franchisors, what that means
is we’ll slowly be shifting our
products and services offering
from a single mass-based
approach to a multi-tiered
SMC ‘18 revenues hit P1T
business during the 4th quarter of 2018. This
was compounded by forex translation losses
for the year.
Food and beverage
San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc. recorded
consolidated revenues of P286.4 billion, 14 percent
higher than the P251.6 billion reported in 2017,
propelled by higher volumes and revenues. Operating
income and net income both grew 8 percent to P45.9
billion and P30.5 billion, respectively.
Subsidiaries San Miguel Brewery Inc.
domestic operations and Ginebra San Miguel Inc.
both recorded strong growth throughout 2018.
San Miguel Pure Foods, meanwhile, posted
revenue growth, due to increased volumes and
better selling prices.
Power
SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. posted
consolidated off-take volume growth of
39 percent in 2018. This was attributed
to additional generation from the Limay,
Malita and Masinloc power plants and better
contributions from the Ilijan and San Roque
power plants.
Consolidated revenues stood at P120.1
billion, a 45 percent increase from the P82.8
billion posted in 2017. Operating income rose
37 percent to P33.2 billion.
Fuels, oils and petrochemicals
Petron Corp.’s combined revenues from
February hot money dips 31.6%
31.6 percent compared to the $2.1
billion recorded for January 2019,”
the BSP said.
On a year-on-year basis, the
posted figure for February reflect
a 34.9 percent growth versus the
listed $1.0 billion in the same
month a year ago.
Likewise, net inflows for the
month stood at $339.57 million, a
reversal from the recorded deficit
of $528.53 million in February 2018.
According to the BSP, bulk of the
registered investments in February
reaching 77.4 percent were placed
in securities listed in the local
bourse such as banks, holding
firms, property, food, beverage and
transport companies.
The remaining 22.4 percent were
approach.” he added.
Moreover, PFA chairman Dr.
Alan Escalona said that while
about 20 to 30 franchising brands
have successfully penetrated the
global scene, PFA is aiming to up
the figure to about 100 brands
by 2025.
The association is eyeing
markets with large concentration
of Filipinos such as the United
Arab Emirates, North America
and Canada, as well as Thailand,
Indonesia and West America
including Los Angeles, San
Francisco and Vancouver.
“This comes from the
mainstreaming of the homegrown
concepts. We have seen a lot of
successful brands not only from
the Philippines and Malaysia amounted to P557.4
billion, up 28 percent from the P434.6 billion
posted in 2017.
Income growth for the conglomerate was
tempered by the sharp decline in crude
prices resulting in inventory losses for
its fuels and petrochemical business
during the 4th quarter of 2018.
Consolidated volumes grew slightly from the
previous year, partly stirred by strong retail sales
of high-performance fuels in Malaysia.
Petron’s operating income and net income
stood at P18.9 billion and P7.1 billion, down
32 percent and 50 percent from 2017 level,
respectively, mainly due to inventory losses
incurred in November and December. Global
oil production supply increased during the
4th quarter of 2018 causing a nine-week
consecutive fall in international oil prices.
Infrastructure
SMC Infrastructure’s consolidated revenues
reached P24.5 billion, up 9 percent versus the
previous year as vehicular volume at all operating
toll roads continue to grow. Operating income
likewise increased 13 percent to P11.8 billion.
Construction of the Skyway Stage 3 and MRT7
remains on track while its Bulacan Bulk Water
project started providing potable water to six
Bulacan municipalities early this year.
invested in both peso-denominated
government securities and time
deposits.
In terms of country of origin,
the United Kingdom, the United
States (US), Singapore, Luxembourg
and Norway were the top five
investor countries for February
2019, registering a lion share of 67
percent.
Manila but from Visayas and
Mindanao who have expanded
here so it makes sense for
them to look for opportunities
abroad,” Sanz said.
Meanwhile, PFA’s Franchise
Asia Philippines to be held from 27
to 31 March at the SMX Convention
Center Manila is set to be the
biggest of its kind in Asia.
The expo will feature more
than 700 franchise brands,
20 percent of which are
international exhibitors.
Among PFA’s members are
Jollibee, Potato Corner, Max’s
Group Inc., Wendy’s, Goldilocks,
7-Eleven, McDonald’s, Penshoppe,
Bench, Seaoil Phils., Waffle Time
and Phoenix Petroleum.
Fresh and hot!
New biz
district in Fort
Bonifacio
Property giant Megaworld
and the Bases Conversion and
Development Authority (BCDA)
are teaming up in creating a new
district in Fort Bonifacio, the
Bonifacio Capital District (BCD).
Covering the southern part
of Fort Bonifacio towards South
Luzon Expressway (SLEX) and the
Ninoy Aquino International Airport
(NAIA), the BCD has a total land
area of around 160 hectares.
This covers Megaworld’s
existing township developments,
the 54.3-hectare McKinley Hill and
the 34.5-hectare McKinley West; and
BCDA-owned properties consisting
of the 26-hectare Philippine Navy
Village; the 33.1-hectare Bonifacio
South Pointe property in partnership
with the SM Group; the 10.1-hectare
consular property beside McKinley
West; and a remaining one-hectare
BCDA lot.
The district will soon
house the country’s major
institutions such as the
Senate of the Philippines,
the Supreme Court and the
Court of Appeals.
Envisioned to be the “country’s
administrative capital,” the BCD
will soon be home to the future
buildings of some of the major
government institutions.
“This marks the strong partnership
of BCDA and Megaworld Corp. in
building for progress. As a key locator
in Fort Bonifacio, Megaworld has made
positive impact in the lives of many
Filipinos through its ‘live-work-play’
concept. We saw the realization of
this concept in McKinley Hill which
is integrated in the BCD. The district
will soon house the country’s major
institutions such as the Senate of the
Philippines, the Supreme Court and the
Court of Appeals. These government
institutions will be complemented with
more office spaces, residential units,
parks, and commercial establishments
— which are all essential to our vision to
create vibrant and livable communities
for the people,” said Vince Dizon,
president and CEO, BCDA.
Not one, but two fresh and
new sections will now also
be served piping hot each
weekend!
The Daily Tribune is
pleased to present Living
Spaces, for property news
and features; and Techtalk,
for information and
technology.
We are as excited as you
are, dear readers!
2018
DOT PROPERTY
PHILIPPINES AWARDS
2018
LAROSSA CAPITOL HILLS
BY PRIMEHOMES
BEST RESIDENTIAL
BOTANICAL DEVELOPMENT
www.dotpropertyawards.com

FEDERER,
NADAL
ADVANCE
P18
PINGRIS
CLOSER
TO RETURN
P19
BRAZIL
SCHOOL
RAMPAGE
KILLS 8
P20
CHILDREN’S
ANGELS:
DAPHNE
AND ANNE
P22
Aldrin Cardona, Editor
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
SPORTS 17
Wednesday’s Games
(Thursday in Manila)
WARRIORS END FOES’ SKEIN
Rockets pffft after 9th
Oklahoma City 108, Brooklyn 96
Washington 100, Orlando 90
Atlanta 132, Memphis 111
Miami 108, Detroit 74
Golden State 106, Houston 104
Utah 114, Phoenix 97
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Atlantic Division
W L Pct GB
x-Toronto 48 20 .706 —
Philadelphia 43 25 .632 5
Boston 41 27 .603 7
Brooklyn 36 34 .514 13
New York 13 55 .191 35
Southeast Division
Miami 32 35 .478 —
Orlando 31 38 .449 2
Charlotte 30 37 .448 2
Washington 29 39 .426 3½
Atlanta 24 45 .348 9
Central Division
x-Milwaukee 51 17 .750 —
Indiana 43 25 .632 8
Detroit 34 33 .507 16½
Chicago 19 50 .275 32½
Cleveland 17 51 .250 34
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Southwest Division
W L Pct GB
Houston 42 26 .618 —
San Antonio 39 29 .574 3
New Orleans 30 40 .429 13
Memphis 28 41 .406 14½
Dallas 27 40 .403 14½
Northwest Division
Denver 44 22 .667 —
Oklahoma City 42 26 .618 3
Portland 41 26 .612 3½
Utah 38 29 .567 6½
Minnesota 32 36 .471 13
Pacific Division
Golden State 46 21 .687 —
L.A. Clippers 39 30 .565 8
Sacramento 33 33 .500 12½
L.A. Lakers 31 36 .463 15
Phoenix 16 53 .232 31
x-clinched playoff spot
Thursday’s Games
(Friday in Manila)
Cleveland at Orlando
Oklahoma City at Indiana
Sacramento at Boston
L.A. Lakers at Toronto
Minnesota at Utah
Dallas at Denver
Friday’s Games
(Saturday in Manila)
Charlotte at Washington
L.A. Lakers at Detroit
Sacramento at Philadelphia
Milwaukee at Miami
Phoenix at Houston
Portland at New Orleans
New York at San Antonio
Chicago at L.A. Clippers
Saturday’s Games
(Sunday in Manila)
Atlanta at Boston
Memphis at Washington
Phoenix at New Orleans
Cleveland at Dallas
Golden State at Oklahoma City
Portland at San Antonio
Brooklyn at Utah
Indiana at Denver
You can put whoever you want on me honestly
HOUSTON — In his first season with the Golden State
Warriors, DeMarcus Cousins hasn’t quite adjusted to the level of
scrutiny and interest that comes with playing for the defending
back-to-back National Basketball Association champions.
And after his best game of the season on Wednesday night
in a win over the Houston Rockets, Cousins likened the media
frenzy surrounding the team to a soap opera his grandmother
watched every day when he was a child.
“I’m sure y’all have heard of it — “As the World Turns.”
She called it her stories. I used to watch it with her and every
episode it was something,” he said. “That’s what this has turned
into — “As the World Turns.””
So does Cousins, who scored a season-high 27 points to help
end Houston’s nine-game winning streak with a 106-104 win,
want to star in the basketball version of the show?
“No I don’t,” he said. “I play basketball. I don’t look for the
drama or stories or anything like that. I just want to go play
basketball.”
Other NBA results saw Oklahoma City cruise past Brooklyn,
108-96; Washington rout Orlando, 100-90; Atlanta clip Memphis,
123-111; Miami smother Detroit, 108-74; and Utah raze Phoenix,
114-97.
I play basketball. I don’t look for the drama or stories
or anything like that.
Some have wondered if Cousins is a good fit with this
fast-paced team and there have been some growing pains
as he’s been worked into the team after missing the first 47
games this season recovering from an Achilles’ tendon injury.
But on Wednesday, with Kevin Durant out with an ankle injury,
Cousins shined. He added eight rebounds and a season-best seven
assists as Houston searched, without success, for ways to stop
him. There were times the Rockets switched on defense and left
much smaller players attempting to guard the 6-foot-11, 270-pound
player. But big or small, Cousins didn’t care who’s was on him.
“I don’t think anybody can stop me one-on-one period,” he said.
“So you can put whoever you want on me honestly.”
Klay Thompson scored 30 points to allow the Warriors to bounce
back after a loss to Phoenix on Sunday, and avoided being swept by
Houston after the Rockets won the first three meetings this season.
Golden State, which had lost six of 10 overall, is 4-1/2 games
ahead of Houston atop the Western Conference standings. The
Rockets are tied with Oklahoma City for third place behind
Denver.
AP
Tokyo ready for the worst
Tokyo is pulling out all the technological stops to
bolster safety
Cyberattacks, terrorism, earthquakes and heatwaves: Tokyo
2020 organizers are hoping for the best but bracing for the worst
and making contingency plans for several possible catastrophes
during the Games.
Clean, virtually crime-free Tokyo has been spared the terror
attacks that have hit many Western cities in recent years, and is
considered a relatively safe bet for the Games — it is often ranked
as low-risk by insurance and risk-management firms.
But that security goes out of the window when it comes to
hosting the Greatest Show on Earth, says Shiro Kawamoto,
counter-terrorism expert and professor of risk management at
Nihon University.
“Tokyo’s safeness in normal times cannot be taken for granted
during the Olympics when the world’s attention is on it,” Kawamoto
told AFP.
AFP
INTERIOR of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics gymnastic and Paralympics boccia
venue construction site is seen in Tokyo.
AFP
GOLDEN State Warriors’ DeMarcus Cousins shoots against Houston Rockets’ Clint Capela during
their NBA game, Wednesday in Houston. The Warriors won, 106-104.
AP
Race boss dies ahead of OZ
Formula 1 has lost a faithful
friend and a charismatic
ambassador in Charlie
MELBOURNE, Australia — Formula One’s
long-serving and widely respected race director
Charlie Whiting died suddenly in Melbourne
Thursday, leaving a “huge void in the sport”
just days before the opening Grand Prix of
the season.
The 66-year-old Briton, who had been at the
helm since 1997 and was in charge of everything
rules-related in the highly technical sport,
suffered a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot.
“It is with immense sadness that I learned
of Charlie’s sudden passing,” FIA president
Jean Todt said in a statement.
“I have known Charlie Whiting for many
years and he has been a great race director, a
central and inimitable figure in Formula One
who embodied the ethics and spirit of this
fantastic sport,” he said.
“Formula 1 has lost a faithful friend and a
charismatic ambassador in Charlie,” he added.
Whiting, a popular and pivotal figure in the
sport, began his F1 career in 1977 working at
the Hesketh team, then in the 1980s at Bernie
Ecclestone’s Brabham, where he was chief
mechanic during the world title successes of
Nelson Piquet in 1981 and 1983.
He rose to chief engineer before becoming
an integral part of organizing the world
championship after joining the Federation
Internationale de l’Automobile in 1988.
His broad role included overseeing track
and car safety, procedural matters on Grand
Prix weekends and starting the race itself.
Whiting died just a day before he was
scheduled to officiate at the first practice
session of the season at Albert Park in
WHITING
Melbourne. It was not clear who would replace
him.
Throughout his career, Whiting was a driving
force in pushing improved safety and played a
key role in the introduction of the halo, the
ring-like barrier fitted over drivers’ heads as
protection.
He rose to chief engineer before
becoming an integral part of
organizing the world championship
after joining the Federation
Internationale de l’Automobile in 1988.
‘Possibly irreplaceable’
Formula one managing director Ross Brawn
said he was “devastated” at the news, after
knowing Whiting all his racing life.
“We worked as mechanics together, became
friends and spent so much time together at
race tracks across the world. I was filled with
immense sadness when I heard the tragic news.
I’m devastated,” he said.
“It is a great loss not only for me personally
but also the entire Formula 1 family, the FIA
and motorsport as a whole.”
AFP

18 sports
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Thai bags Southwoods crown
I don’t know what to say. I have mixed emotions at this point but I’m
definitely feeling good
Thanutra Boonraksasat pulled through
in a high-noon duel of wits with Princess
Superal, wresting control late then surviving
a wobbly finish to hack out a one-stroke
victory in the ICTSI Manila Southwoods
Ladies Championship at the Legends course
in Carmona, Cavite yesterday.
Boonraksasat hit a clutch birdie on No. 13
to take charge and went 2-up on Superal’s
bogey on the next then held on to victory
despite a bogey-bogey finish for a 69 as the
Filipina shotmaker likewise holed out with
a bogey for a 71.
The Thai finished with a 13-under 203 total
worth P350,000, joining the growing list of
winners from the country’s perennial regional
rivals, who have dominated the Ladies
Federer, Nadal
advance
He didn’t have the best start, so that cost him the
first set
Philippine Golf Circuit with six victories out
of 11 tournaments last year.
“I don’t know what to say. I have mixed
emotions at this point but I’m definitely
feeling good,” said Boonraksasat, whose
thrilling victory likewise snapped a five-year
title spell for the 28-year-old Bangkok native.
It was a sorry setback for Superal,
who had led in the first two rounds,
including a solid 64 in the first day.
She dumped her approach shot into the
left bunker on par-4 No. 18 and ended with a
5 but Superal also found the rightside trap off
a 9-iron approach shot and missed a 16-footer
for a crack at a playoff.
“I was left with 111 yards but the ball was
in a tough lie. It’s just too bad that breaks
didn’t go my way in the end,” Superal said.
It was a sorry setback for Superal, who
had led in the first two rounds, including a
solid 64 in the first day. She held on two a
one-stroke by matching Boonraksasat’s 34
start but flubbed a couple of birdie putts at
the back, enabling the Thai to storm ahead
with birdies on Nos. 10 and 13.
Superal wound up with a 204, which
Chihiro Ikeda matched on a sizzling 66. Four
down off Boonraksasat after 36 holes, the
FIl-Japanese moved within two with three
straight birdies form 13 but missed her
chances in the last three and settled for joint
second. Each received P155,000.
Yupaporn Kawinpakorn, the last Thai to
win at Pradera Verde last December, shot
a second 69 to end up fourth at 205 with
compatriot Chonalda Chayanun playing fifth
at 206 after a 71.
THANUTRA Boonraksasat gets a triumphant douse from her rivals in the
LPGT Southwoods event.
SEAG cage venue
downgraded
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Former champions Roger Federer and
Rafael Nadal edged closer to a blockbuster semi-final showdown at the
ATP Indian Wells Masters on Wednesday with brisk fourth-round wins.
World number two Nadal overpowered Serbian qualifier Filip
Krajinovic 6-3, 6-4 to book his quarter-final berth in one hour and 26
minutes.
Federer, seeking a record sixth title in the California desert, needed
just 64 minutes to get past Britain’s Kyle Edmund 6-1, 6-4.
Nadal said his performance on a windy stadium court wasn’t as
good as his 6-3, 6-1 third-round win over Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
But he was more than a match for 113th-ranked Krajinovic,
breaking him early in each set and saving the only break point he
faced.
Nadal, who lifted the Indian Wells trophy in 2007, 2008 and 2013,
is in the last eight for the first time in three years after missing last
ROGER Federer’s happy with the win.
year’s edition, skipping both Indian Wells and the Miami Masters
with a hip injury.
He next will take on 13th-ranked Russian Karen Khachanov, who
beat world number nine John Isner 6-4, 7-6 (7/1).
Khachanov produced just one ace to the big-serving American’s
12 but stretched his record over Isner to 4-0.
Fourth-seeded Federer, fresh off his 100th career title, looked
poised to finish off Edmund in less than an hour.
But the Swiss great had to fight off three break points as he
served for the match, just a small speed bump in a match that he
took charge of early.
Nadal said his performance on a windy stadium court
wasn’t as good as his 6-3, 6-1 third-round win over
Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
“He didn’t have the best start, so that cost him the first set,”
Federer said. “Second set, it was definitely better. I think he probably
struggled throughout a little bit. He never really got going.
“Conditions are tough with the glare, and the jump of the ball it’s
sometimes hard to find the rhythm and timing.”
Federer will fight for a semi-final berth against 22-year-old Pole
Hubert Hurkacz.
Hurkacz, ranked 67th in the world, sent 25th-ranked Canadian
Denis Shapovalov packing 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 6-3.
Although he’ll be an overwhelming favorite against Hurkacz, Federer
said he wouldn’t take a semi-final meeting with Nadal for granted.
“I hope I can get there,” Federer said, “but I’m not going to
underestimate Hubert.”
A day after world number one Novak Djokovic tumbled out of
the third round, 19-year-old Miomir Kecmanovic kept the Serbian
flag flying.
Kecmanovic became the first lucky loser to reach the last eight at
Indian Wells since the ATP’s Masters 1000 series launched in 1990. AFP
AFP
Venues in Manila like Smart Araneta and MOA
Arena are not easy to reserve
By Julius Manicad
The Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee
(Phisgoc) moved the basketball events of the 30th SEA Games from Mall
of Asia Arena to the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.
Phisgoc chief operating officer Ramon Suzara admitted difficulty in
booking both the Mall of Asia Arena and Smart Araneta Coliseum. And
so, the Phisgoc settled for a “backup” venue.
Located at the heart of San Juan City, Filoil Flying V Center can only
accommodate 5,500 spectators, way smaller than the 20,000-seater Mall
of Asia Arena in Pasay City and Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
It is often used as venue for various volleyball tournaments like
the Philippine Superliga (PSL), University Athletic Association of the
Philippines (UAAP) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA).
On the other hand, basketball, especially the Philippine Basketball
Association (PBA), is often being played in bigger venues like the Mall of
Asia Arena and Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Venues in Manila like Smart Araneta and MOA Arena are hard to
reserve because bookings (have been) made (a) long time ago,” said
Suzara.
Suzara also said the gymnastics events will be held at the Rizal
Kendra Dahlke shone anew, delivering the clutch hits that towed
PLDT Home Fibr past struggling Foton, 25-16, 27-25, 22-25, 26-24,
yesterday in the Philippine Superliga Grand Prix yesterday at the Filoil
Flying V Centre.
After erupting for 30 points in their
last game, Dahlke remained hot as she
scored five points in the 6-2 blast that
brought the Power Hitters to match
point, 24-20, in the fourth set of this
prestigious women’s club league
broadcasted by ESPN5 and 5Plus.
Foton imports Milagros Collar
and Courtney Felinski tried to keep
their heads afloat with back-to-back
hits, 24-24, but Dahlke converted
a beautiful drop shot to seal the
victory in this tourney that also has
My last SEA Games were the 1993 edition in
Singapore.
It was also my last year in the sport before
I retired.
I had already won 14 gold medals for the
country at this point and this was my fifth and
final SEA Games.
That year was the most difficult and most
revealing of all my 15 years of competitive
swimming. That was when I had a glimpse of
how my life was going to be soon after the games
were over.
Let me begin by sharing what happened a
year before. The 1992 Olympics just ended and
when I flew back home from Barcelona, I was disappointed about my
performance.
I was only 2 seconds off the gold medal time in the 100 meters
breaststroke and the swimmer who won was an American named Nelson
Diebel, whom I swam against a few months before. I lost to him by a few
tenths of a second then.
I was so puzzled by how much he improved from when we swam
against each other to his gold medal winning time and I thought hard
about what mistakes I made during the last phase of my preparations.
Anyway, I decided that I cannot dwell too much on what had already
transpired and looked forward to the next big competition which was
the 1993 SEA Games.
I was training for a few months with a former teammate in “Kuya”
Joey Andaya — a former 1500-m freestyle SEA Games medalist. He was
tasked to build my endurance and also for the National tryouts.
After two months, I swam the 100-m butterfly and the 100-m
breaststroke and easily qualified for the SEA Games. At this point I
expected to be part of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) roster to
receive support as a national athlete preparing for the games.
After a week I checked my name and was shocked to be informed that
my name was scratched out of the list. I inquired and was told that the
order came from the Chief of Staff of then PSC chairman Aparicio Mequi.
I was furious about the unfair treatment as I worked very hard to qualify
in two events.
Memorial Coliseum and Rizal Memorial badminton hall in Manila after an
initial booking at SMX Convention Center.
“So now, as an update, basketball will now be at Filoil Arena and
gymnastics will be at Rizal Coliseum and we’re also going to use the badminton
area for gymnastics.”
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) has hinted at deploying PBA
players to the SEA Games.
This makes the Filoil Flying V Centre too small to accommodate the
spectators to the men’s basketball event.
A source from the SBP said he suspects the Phisgoc was not able to book
the venues on time.
“Maybe (it was) late in booking (for the venues),” the Daily Tribune
source said.
Prior to the latest announcement, the Phisgoc revealed that indoor
volleyball events will be held at the Philsports Arena; beach volleyball
in Subic; polo in Calatagan, Batangas; billiards at the Manila Hotel while
majority of the sports will be at the New Clark City Sports Complex in
Capas, Tarlac.
Suzara admitted some delays, especially with the P5-billion budget yet to
be released. But he said they are working hard to address the needs of all 56
sports that will be played in the biggest, grandest SEA Games ever.
“There’s still a lot to process. Venue and competition managers still have
to prepare plans and technical requirements. There will also be some testing
of some venues like lighting, toilets and other things,” he said.
“Despite all these delays, we will continue to move forward and make sure
that everything is ready and confirmed so we can proceed with the overlaying
design of the venues,” Suzara added.
PLDT rings loud over Foton
I checked my name and was shocked to be informed
that my name was scratched out of the list
KENDRA Dahlke misses saving the ball during her Philippine
Superliga action yesterday.
ROMAN PROSPERO
Asics, Mueller, Mikasa, Senoh, Team Rebel Sports, Bizooku, UCPB
Gen, Cocolife, Hotel Sogo and Data Project as technical sponsors.
Grace Lazard led the way with 25 points off 16 kills, six aces,
three blocks with 11 digs while Dahlke
chipped in 18 hits. Sasa Devanadera and
Aiko Urdas also delivered significant
numbers, adding 12 and 11 markers,
respectively, for the Power Hitters, who
climbed to No. 4 with a 5-4 win-loss slate.
But PLDT coach Roger Gorayeb was
far from satisfied, especially in the fourth
set when the Tornadoes gave them a
serious scare.
“We were leading by four, 24-20, but
My Last SEA Games
One Stroke At a Time
Eric Buhain
the service error of Grace allowed them to
come back,” said Gorayeb, heaving a sigh
of relief after his wards restored order.
I called for a media conference right away but a
PSC messenger rushed to inform me that my name was
placed back in the list.
I went back in training. But I was under the
microscope since then. I got heckled, with them saying
I was no longer capable of winning a gold medal. This
happened for weeks at a time.
Some colleagues from other sports also asked if
we could organize against the PSC administration for
violations, which ranged from physical abuse to mulcting
and other more serious offenses. I acceded to the call.
I became the President of the Athlete’s Union and we
organized a march to the Malacañang Palace with the
hope of talking to then President Fidel Ramos.
All 800 athletes and coaches joined us and when we reached the
gates of Malacañang, by some stroke of luck the President was to enter
the same gate where we picketed.
He rolled down his window and waved us in. Once inside, he requested
10 of us to sit down with him. President Ramos, being an athlete himself,
listened and understood our plight and called for an immediate hearing
and investigation on the matters we brought before him.
After a month of these hearings in Malacañang and with the kind
help of human rights lawyer and former Senator Renato Saguisag, the
President changed the members of the entire PSC Board.
We will forever be thankful to President Ramos for giving more weight
to the plight of the Filipino athletes at that time.
But after the hearings, the external pressure and heckling mounted
and I had to ask for a change in training venue.
By this time, my former coach Carlos “Pinky” Brosas was now based in
Bacolod City and I asked him if he could train me away from the judging
eyes of my critics.
I packed up my gear and literally moved my training camp to
Bacolod. I rented a house there and the people of the city welcomed
me with open arms and even protected me from my critics by keeping
my location secret.
But after several months, I tore my groin muscles. It was devastating
but I had to get the best therapists and heal fast. The best doctors at that
time were in the University of the Philippines in Diliman. For a few weeks
I flew to UP from Bacolod and all this time I wasn’t allowed to use my legs.
I was given the go-signal to start moving my legs after two months.
At this point the SEA Games were now only a few months away.
(Continued next Friday)

Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
SPORTS
19
ROMASANTA, BACHMANN NAMED
Vargas allies plotted coup?
We’re good. We communicated this morning
By Julius Manicad
Ricky Vargas tagged two of his top allies – Robert Bachmann and
Joey Romasanta – as masterminds in the reported plan to unseat him
as president of the Philippine Olympic Committee.
A highly reliable Daily Tribune source said Vargas sent Bachmann a
text message on Tuesday to ask about a “special election” he’s supposed
to call for the local Olympic council.
Bachmann, the squash president and chairman of the powerful
POC membership committee, initially thought it was about the “special
elections” he was to call for the warring karatedo factions.
He answered Vargas in the affirmative and the miscommunication
fired up the Council chief.
A few minutes later, Bachmann received a call from Romasanta who
related an alleged call from Vargas who chastised the POC Vice President
for allegedly working an ouster plot against him.
After their very long conversation, Bachmann fired a text back to
Vargas to dispel his notion. He allegedly said “don’t include me in your
politics, Ricky!”
Vargas tried to soften his approach by inviting Bachmann over to
lunch. Bachmann declined the offer.
“Bachmann was pissed off,” the Daily Tribune source said. “He is
one of the most passionate and best young leaders we have in the POC.
Vargas’ accusation of him as the mastermind in an effort to unseat him
is very unfair. It’s good that Bachmann fought back and explained that
he has no plan to rock his leadership – not at this point where we are
about to enter the crucial phase of our SEA Games preparation.”
Bachmann fired a text back to Vargas to dispel his
notion. He allegedly said “don’t include me in your
politics, Ricky!”
In a conversation with Daily Tribune, Bachmann meekly brushed
off the issue, saying they already patched things up.
“He already apologized to Romasanta. We’re okay now,” said
Bachmann without elaborating.
“He simply texted me and clarified that he is not upset and it does
not necessarily mean that he believes what was disclosed to him.”
“We’re good. We communicated this morning.”
Romasanta and Bachmann have made a major gamble in helping
Vargas end the 13-year reign of Jose “Peping” Cojuangco in the Olympic
council via a court-ordered election last year.
Bachmann was the first to come out in the open to throw his
support for Vargas at the height of the POC elections last year. He
served as Vargas’ ground commander in the campaign, prompting
other NSA leaders to jump in that led to Vargas’ victory.
Romasanta was a key Cojuangco ally who served as POC spokesman
before assuming leadership of the Philippine Karate Federation-NSA and
Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc.
Several POC executive board members are reportedly
unhappy with Vargas’ handling of the country’s SEA
Games preparation.
But things went sour between him and his boss at the Hacienda
Luisita for more than four decades. He shifted support to Vargas.
In the POC elections, Romasanta delivered what multiple sources
branded as “six life-changing votes” that keyed Vargas’ 24-15 victory
over Cojuangco.
“Both Bachmann and Romasanta took risks to support Vargas,” the
source said.“It’s really unfair — if not insulting — for them to receive
text messages from Vargas, accusing them of plotting his ouster. They
may disagree with him over some issues, but both Romasanta and
Bachmann very are loyal to him.”
Several POC executive board members are reportedly unhappy
with Vargas’ handling of the country’s SEA Games preparation.
They accuse him of making major decisions without seeking
board approval.
Some POC board members vowed to raise in the next executive
council meeting Vargas’ grant of P7.2 million to the Philippine Southeast
Asian Games Organizing Committee to cover the salaries of its employees
for the month of January this year without their approval.
Lady Bulldogs
keep hopes alive
The Lady Bulldogs pulled off a shocker last
Wednesday when they stunned the heavy favorites
Lady Maroons
By Joel Orellana
National University’s upset of tournament favorite University
of the Philippines last Wednesday somehow put the Lady Bulldogs
back in the Final Four contention of Season 81 University
Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s volleyball
tournament.
And rookie coach Norman Miguel said it was a product of
their hard work and the contribution of NU’s former coach Babes
Castillo to the character of the team.
The Lady Bulldogs pulled off a shocker last Wednesday when
they stunned the heavy favorites Lady Marooons, 25-17, 14-25, 17-25,
25-23, 17-15, to snap a three-game losing streak and improve their
ranking to 2-4.
“I always instill in them that every match, just enjoy it. We’ve
been training every day and their technical skills are improving.
There’s no real pressure to us at all,” said Miguel, who drew 17
points, 10 off attacks and seven on aces from rookie sensation
Princess Robles.
“After our game against UST, we talked that our last two games
in the first round are very important. Not the start of the second
round. That they need to step up. And I’m happy because even
though most of them are rookies, they stepped up,” he added.
NU was on the brink of joining Adamson University and
University of the East at the cellar after trailing 10-14 in the
fifth set. But Robles and fellow rookie Ivy Lacsina, who finished
with 16 markers, joined forces and finished the match with a 7-1
assault to shock the crowd.
Another Lady Bulldog rookie Jennifer Nierva also played
with composure with 29 excellent receptions and 26 digs in
their five-set victory.
And Miguel was not surprised with the performance of his
rookies.
RICKY Vargas, Joey Romasanta and Robert Bachmann.
Rain or Shine fans edge bid
We have to go hard against
Meralco if we want a chance to
get one of the Top Two spots
By John Bryan Ulanday
Skidding Rain or Shine eyes to revive its
playoff bonus bid when it goes up against
Meralco in the Philippine Basketball
Association (PBA) Philippine Cup today at
the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.
Though still in good spot at second place,
the Elasto Painters gun for a crucial win
in the main game at 7 p.m. to avoid any
complications from trailing teams like San
Miguel Beer, Talk ‘N Text and Barangay
Ginebra for one of the twice-to-beat incentives
in the post-season.
Alaska, meanwhile, seeks to end its
two-game skid to install order back in their
shaky campaign against streaking Talk ‘N
Text in the 4:30 p.m. curtain raiser.
After starting the All-Filipino conference
on fire with a 7-1 slate, the wards of head
coach Caloy Garcia are now in sudden
free fall with two losses in a row against
Talk ‘N Text and Columbian which doomed
their chances of claiming an outright
quarterfinal advantage.
MARC Pingris (left) hopes to be back in his best form soon.
The playoffs-bound Elasto
Painters’ recent loss was a
painful 82-85 defeat to Columbian
last Wednesday which they also
failed to beat even once in three
season matches last year.
But their good start gave them
enough cushion to still fan their
fate heading into the last game
against Meralco.
“That’s the upside in
having a good start. We
started 7-1 so these losses
still gave us time to learn
and improve,” he said.
Rain or Shine will
need a victory tonight
to finish at 8-3 and just
hope for losses by the
other trailing squads to
secure a top two finish
and a twice-to-beat edge
in the playoffs.
In front of the Elasto
Painters is leagueleader
Phoenix with
8-2 card while behind
them are San Miguel Beer
(6-3), Talk ‘N Text (5-3)
and Barangay Ginebra (4-
GARCIA
3) which all have chances
Blue Eagles’ quick rebound
Cignal-Ateneo started hot, going on a 9-0 start which
turned to a decisive 27-9 lead in the first period
Cignal-Ateneo wasted no time blasting AMA Online Education,
111-81, to bounce back in the 2019 PBA D-League on Thursday at
Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
Ange Kouame unfurled 22 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks
to lead the Blue Eagles after his one-game absence, while Thirdy
Ravena recorded 14 points, eight assists and four rebounds in
just three quarters of action.
BJ Andrade also added 21 points on a 6-of-13 three-point
shooting, on top of five dimes and three rebounds.
William Navarro had 14 points, nine boards, and five assists
and Mike Nieto tallied a double-double with his 10 points and 12
rebounds in the win.
Cignal-Ateneo started hot, going on a 9-0 start which turned to
a decisive 27-9 lead in the first period.
The floodgates opened from there as the Blue Eagles extended
the lead to as many as 33 points in the second half, thanks to
their 16-of-43 clip from downtown.
It was a good bounce back for Cignal-Ateneo, which suffered
a 112-98 loss to UST last week.
By John Bryan Ulanday
to cap off their campaigns with 8-3 marks
for a multiple-team logjam on top.
“We still have a chance. We have
one more game before we end the
eliminations. We have to go hard against
Meralco if we want a chance to get one
of the Top Two spots,” Garcia said.
That’s the upside in having
a good start. We started
7-1 so these losses still
gave us time to learn
and improve.
Leading the attack
for Rain or Shine are
veterans James Yap,
Beau Belga, Maverick
Ahanmisi, Gabe Norwood
and impressive freshman
Javee Mocon who was
named as the Rookie of the
Month in February.
Challenging them are
Baser Amer, Chris Newsome,
Ranidel De Ocampo Cliff
Hodge and Nico Salva while
wing man Jared Dillinger will
still not be available due to a
quad injury.
Pingris closer
to return
I’m okay. I’m getting better
After a year’s absence, veteran big man Marc Pingris is
close to rejoining Magnolia in the ongoing Philippine Basketball
Association (PBA) Philippine Cup.
The 37-year old was back in the Hotshots practice early this
week, 12 months after suffering from an ACL injury back in Game
One of Magnolia’s PBA All Filipino conference semi-finals series
against NLEX last March.
“I’m okay. I’m getting better,” said Pingris who also joined
Magnolia’s shootaround Wednesday before their 109-83 win over
Columbian at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Pingris, however, did not suit up yet as he still has a hop test
to pass before finally getting a doctor’s clearance.
Pingris can’t wait to welcome the whole PBA delegation
to his home province in the coming mid-season spectacle
slated from 29 to 31 March in Calasiao.
“I’m working out every day — doing sprint, jumping and
shooting. The only problem left now is getting the proper timing
on landing. That’s the most crucial thing,” he said.
“That’s my hop test. So far, I’m at 85 percent on that
requirement but once I reach 100 percent, I’m good to go.”
Pingris did not assure an exact date of return but hinted at
coming back in time for the playoffs where Magnolia is on track
with a 3-4 slate in the All-Filipino conference elimination round.
He looks forward to hosting his colleagues and coaches in the
upcoming PBA All Star Weekend.
A Pozzurobio, Pangasinan native, the North Team member
Pingris can’t wait to welcome the whole PBA delegation to his
home province in the coming mid-season spectacle slated from
29 to 31 March in Calasiao.
“It’s my pride and honor because I’m one of Pangasinan’s sons.
Whatever coach Louie Alas, or the bosses or Commissioner Willie
Marcial asks me to do, I’ll do it for my fellow Pangasinenses,”
he said.
“If they ask me to play, I would try to play. I would even
dance, too.

"
20
WORLD
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
US grounds Boeing 737 MAX
Newly refined satellite data
warranted further investigation
WASHINGTON — The ban on the Boeing 737 MAX
aircraft became worldwide on Wednesday after US
President Donald Trump joined Canada and other
countries in grounding the aircraft amid mounting
global fears for the jet’s airworthiness.
US authorities said new evidence showed
similarities between Sunday’s deadly crash of an
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 and a fatal
accident in Indonesia in October.
China leads in AI
WASHINGTON — China is poised to
overtake the United States in artificial
intelligence with a surge in academic
research on the key technology, an
analysis published Wednesday showed.
China is racing ahead of the US
in key areas of technology
The analysis by the Allen Institute for
Artificial Intelligence showed China has
already surpassed the US in published
papers on AI — although many of these
were considered “medium-quality” or
“low-quality.”
But the researchers said China is
likely to top the US in the most-cited 50
percent of papers this year, the most-cited
10 percent of papers next year, and in the
top one percent by 2025.
The findings highlight concerns in
Washington and Silicon Valley that China
is racing ahead of the US in key areas of
technology such as autonomous vehicles,
“Ugly” rape victim ruling
sparks outrage
ROME — Italy’s Justice Ministry has
ordered a preliminary inquiry into an
appeals court ruling that overturned a
rape verdict in part by arguing that the
woman who was attacked was too ugly to
be a credible rape victim.
The ruling has sparked outrage in Italy,
prompting a flash mob Monday outside
the Ancona court, where protesters
shouted “Shame!” and held up signs saying
“indignation.”
The appeals sentence was handed
down in 2017 — by an all-female
panel — but the reasons behind it
only emerged publicly when Italy’s
The Federal Aviation Administration said findings
from the crash site near Addis Ababa and “newly refined
satellite data” warranted “further investigation of the
possibility of a shared cause for the two incidents.”
The FAA issued an emergency order grounding
737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft until further notice.
Trump told reporters at the White House the
“safety of the American people
and all peoples is our paramount
concern.”
virtual reality and fifth-generation wireless
networks.
Allen Institute researchers Field Cady and
Oren Etzioni said the surge in AI investment
in China began more than a decade ago, well
before the 2017 announcement by Beijing
that it planned to become the world leader
in the sector by 2030.
“By most measures, China is overtaking
the US not just in papers submitted and
published, but also in the production of
high-impact papers,” the researchers said
in a blog post.
They added that new US measures that
tighten immigration could make it harder
for the US to keep up.
Last month, President Donald Trump
signed an American AI Initiative executive
order calling for the administration to
“devote the full resources of the federal
government” to help fuel AI innovation,
although analysts said it fell short of a
comprehensive strategy.
AFP
Xinjiang invests for better
living conditions
URUMQI — Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region said
it invested nearly 4.2 billion yuan ($626 million) last year to improve the
living conditions in rural areas.
The regional department of
finance said the amount was doubled
compared with the amount in 2017,
which has been used to clean
up rural areas, push forward the
“toilet revolution,” recycle trash and
dispose of rubbish and wastewater.
The department said social capital
had been attracted to invest in
projects related to the improvement
of rural living conditions.
The region will also focus on
villages’ living environments this
year. It said rural residents are
expected to play a vital role in the
campaign, by encouraging them to
take part in activities including
clean-up, afforestation and
management to provide themselves
better living conditions. Xinhua
Sun Yat-sen
remembered
BEIJING — A ceremony was
held in Beijing to commemorate
the 94th anniversary of the death
of Sun Yat-sen, a renowned
statesman who led a revolution
that ended imperial rule in China.
The ceremony in Zhongshan
Park, named after Sun, was
presided over by Liu Jiaqiang,
deputy chairman of the
Revolutionary Committee of the
Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK)
Central Committee and was
attended by representatives from
all walks of life in Beijing.
A moment of silence was
observed before attendees showed
their respect to Sun by bowing
three times in front of a statue of
BRIEFS
high court annulled it on 5 March
and ordered a retrial. The Court of
Cassation said Wednesday its own
reasons for ordering the retrial will
be issued next month.
Two Peruvian men were initially
convicted of the 2015 rape of a Peruvian
woman in Ancona, but the Italian appeals
court overturned the verdict and absolved
them, finding that she was not a credible
witness.
AP
Pentagon curbs
transgender troops
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon
announced Wednesday a new policy that
will bar enlistment of new recruits who have
SUZANO — Two masked men armed with
a gun, knives, axes and crossbows descended
on a school in southern Brazil on Wednesday,
killing five students and two adults before
taking their own lives, authorities said.
The men, identified as former students at the
school in a suburb of Sao Paulo, also shot and
killed the owner of a used car business nearby
before launching the attack on the school.
Besides the five students, the dead
included a teacher and a school administrator,
said Joao Camilo Pires de Campos, the state’s
public secretary. Nine others were wounded
in the school attack and hospitalized, he said.
“This is the saddest day of my life,” de
Campos said, speaking to reporters outside
the school in the Sao Paulo suburb of Suzano.
Authorities identified the attackers as
17-year-old Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and
25-year-old Henrique de Castro. Monteiro’s
mother, Tatiana Taucci, offered a possible answer,
telling Band News while hiding her face from the
camera that her son had been bullied at the school.
Minutes before the attack, Monteiro
undergone a gender transition or intend to
do so and require most individuals to serve
in their birth sex.
Under President Donald Trump’s new
rules, set to go into effect on 12 April after
the Supreme Court allowed them to go
forward, only transgender troops serving
in their birth gender will be able to stay in
the military after that date and they will
be barred from taking hormones or getting
transition surgery.
The move was a reversal from a policy
enacted under Trump’s Democratic
predecessor Barack Obama, who allowed
military recruits to serve in their preferred
sex rather than just the one they were
assigned at birth.
AFP
Earlier on Wednesday, Canada had also joined the
long list of countries to ban the plane from flying in
their airspaces and many airlines have voluntarily
taken it out of service.
Ethiopia said it would send the black boxes from
Flight ET 302 to France for analysis which could
provide crucial information about what happened.
“Hopefully they will come up with an answer
but until they do the planes are
grounded,” Trump said of the planes.
FAA acting chief Daniel
CARACAS — More than 500 shops were looted in Venezuela’s western
city of Maracaibo during a vast nationwide blackout that struck last week
and lasted for days, a retailers’ association said Wednesday.
The Consecomercio association called on beleaguered security forces
to reimpose order in Maracaibo and its surrounds.
In a statement, it said it lamented the “impunity with which mobs,
taking advantage of the electricity crisis... destroyed installations” in
Maracaibo’s main shopping center and in “500 other establishments.”
The blackout, which cut power to 21 of Venezuela’s 23 states last
Thursday, was still going in western parts of the country.
Electricity had mostly been restored to the capital Caracas and other
regions, but drinking water supplies remained disrupted, requiring water
to be trucked in. The reason for the unprecedented power cut has not
been determined.
President Nicolas Maduro blamed it on “sabotage” by the United
States and the opposition. But opposition leader and self-proclaimed
interim president Juan Guaido -- who is backed by the US and 50 other
countries -- told supporters corruption and mismanagement by Maduro’s
“dictatorship” was the root cause.
The head of Consecomercio, Felipe Capozzolo, urged authorities to
act, stressing on Twitter that looting could undermine retailers’ stockage
and distribution of food and basic goods that have become
increasingly scarce under Venezuela’s economic crisis.
The blackout made matters worse by cutting power
to refrigerators and freezers, ruining produce inside.
According to economic analysis firm Ecoanalitica, the
blackout cost Venezuela $875 million.
AFP
Elwell said the agency has been “working tirelessly”
to find the cause of the accident but faced delays
because the black box flight data recorders had
been damaged.
The new information shows “the track of that
airplane was close enough to the track of the Lion Air
flight... to warrant the grounding of the airplanes so
we could get more information from the black boxes
and determine if there’s a link between the two, and if
there is, find a fix to that link,” Elwell said on CNBC.
Boeing chief Dennis Muilenburg said he supported
the US decision “out of an abundance of caution” but
continued to have “full confidence” in the safety of
the plane.
AFP
AN American Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 is pulled into its gate after arriving at the Miami
International Airport from LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday. American Airlines is reported to say that it will
ground its fleet of 24 Boeing 737 Max planes after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the entire
United States Boeing 737 MAX fleet.
AFP
Brazil school rampage kills 8
had posted 26 photos on his Facebook page,
included several with guns and one that showed
him giving the middle finger as he looked into
================================
==============================================================================
Case Law
By VICTOR C. AVECILLA
the camera. In some of the photos, he wore a
black scarf with a white imprint of a skull and
cross bones. No text accompanied the posts. AP
POLICE officers stand guard outside the Raul Brasil State School in Suzano, the greater Sao
Paulo area, Brazil on Wednesday. The state government of Sao Paulo said two teenagers,
armed with guns and wearing hoods, entered the school and began shooting at students.
They then killed themselves, according to the statement.
AP
WORK continues on an outdoor observation deck on the 30 Hudson Yard’s office building in New York. It is scheduled to open to the public at the end of 2019. AP
Sun at 11:30 a.m.
Floral baskets from the
National Committee of the
Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference, the
RCCK Central Committee, the
United Front Work Department
of the Communist Party of China
Central Committee, the Beijing
municipal government and the
Beijing municipal committee of
the RCCK were presented to the
statue.
China Daily
A CEREMONY is held in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, to commemorate
the 94th anniversary of the death of Sun Yat-sen, on 12 March 2019. CHINA DAILY
Venezuela blackout triggers looting
Facebook
probed over
data deals
SAN FRANCISCO — US
prosecutors have launched a
criminal investigation into
Facebook’s practice of sharing
users’ data with companies
without letting the social network’s
members know, The New York
Times reported on Wednesday.
A grand jury in New York has
subpoenaed information from
at least two major smartphone
makers about such arrangements
with Facebook, according to the
Times.
Regulators, investigators and
elected officials around the world
have already been digging into the
data sharing practices of Facebook
which has more than two billion
users.
The social network’s handling of
user data has been a flashpoint for
controversy since it admitted last
year that Cambridge Analytica, a
political consultancy, used an app
that may have hijacked the private
details of 87 million users. AFP
VIEW inside a wholesale supermarkert looted during the massive blackout
that has paralyzed Venezuela for six days, in Maracaibo, in the border state of
Zulia on Wednesday. More than 500 shops were plundered in Zulia state. AFP
Republic v. Mola Cruz
G.R. No. 236629, 23 July 2018 / Third Division / Gesmundo, J.
Civil Law; Annulment of Marriage. – To declare a marriage
void, the totality of the evidence must sufficiently prove that
the respondent spouse’s psychological incapacity was grave,
incurable and existing prior to the time of the marriage, such that
the party would be incapable of carrying out the ordinary duties
required in marriage; it must be rooted in the history of the party
antedating the marriage, although the overt manifestations
may emerge only after the marriage; and it must be curable
or, even if it were otherwise, the cure would be beyond the
means of the party involved. There must be proof of a natal or
supervening disabling factor in the person – an adverse integral
element in the personality structure that effectively incapacitates
the person from really accepting and thereby complying with the
obligations essential to the marriage – which must be linked with
the manifestations of the psychological incapacity. (VOLUME 2, NUMBER 53)
========================================

Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
21

22
SPOTLIGHT
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
The two ambassadors now join the likes of Gary
Valenciano, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, Millie
Bobby Brown, Jackie Chan, Priyanka Chopra, Ricky
Martin, Leo Messi, Liam Neeson, Shakira and Lilly
Singh in pushing for children’s welfare
By Lourdes Florian M. Hernandez
The future of the world lies in the hands of children. It’s an idea planted
in our heads and repeatedly encountered in our lifetime and even when
we were children ourselves. It’s a daunting responsibility placed at such a
vulnerable age when they can’t even fend for themselves.
But the future of children lies in the hands of adults. That’s what gives the
newly-declared UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassadors Daphne Osena-Paez
and Anne Curtis the impetus to forge on in their mission — to make sure the
children are safe, secure and healthy so they can grow up and fill out their
roles as the world’s future.
Paez and Curtis were given the recognition and with that the added weight
of responsibility as ambassadors for their work regarding the promotion and
protection of the rights of Filipino children.
Elite cast
Paez is an advocate for breastfeeding, infant and young child feeding,
maternal health and maternal mortality, universal primary education,
nutrition and child protection.
Curtis, for her part, supports UNICEF’s various advocacies, including
education, Violence Against Children and adolescent health and development.
Lotta Slywander, UNICEF country representative, spoke glowingly about
the two ambassadors who now join the likes of Gary Valenciano, David
Beckham, Orlando Bloom, Millie Bobby Brown, Jackie Chan, Priyanka
Chopra, Ricky Martin, Leo Messi, Liam Neeson, Shakira and Lilly Singh in
pushing for children’s welfare.
“I have seen the two ladies that we have now today grow into their role
as celebrity ambassadors and have really helped to significantly advance
the issues and causes for children in the Philippines,” says Slywander, who
explained that UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors are “well-known personalities
who lend their influence for the wellbeing of children, who are willing to
do their utmost to mobilize support for them. They are volunteers who
demonstrate a high level of commitment to children and to the organization.”
Daphne’s wish
Slywander says Paez has had a long history with UNICEF and was one
of the keys to pushing for the “First 1,000 Days” law that stands to benefit
millions of mothers and babies in the country. Her passion and deep concern
perhaps started when she saw Datu Ali, a seven-month boy who suffered
from severe acute malnutrition.
“One of my most gut-wrenching trips was to Maguindanao in 2011, where
I met the seven-month old baby Datu Ali, who, despite suffering from severe
acute malnutrition, had the most expressive and beautiful eyes. I didn’t know
that Filipino children could be exposed to severe, acute malnutrition as these
are the images we just saw in the areas that have famine. But because of
conflict and environmental issues, he didn’t get the right nutrition that he
needed but UNICEF was there with the community-based management of
severe acute malnutrition. He recovered,” says the TV host and producer,
entrepreneur and mother of three.
Ali was just one story as Paez paid tribute to everyday heroes making
a big difference in the lives of people. “I will always remember Jocelyn, a
midwife assigned to a barangay in Saranggani. She was assigned to serve five
barangays and at the time Saranggani was still in conflict. And I remember
that Jocelyn was riding her motorcycle and she had to pass through different
barangays but there was fighting going on, so what happened was through
NEA Crossword Puzzle
© 2018 UFS, Dist. by Andrews McMeel Syndication for UFS
ACROSS
1 Shore bird
5 Small store
9 Superlative suffix
12 Two-color cookie
13 Postal delivery
14 Taro product
15 Strong — — ox
16 She, in Baja
17 Annoy
18 Hybrid citrus
20 They have spines
22 Diner order
23 Caesar’s 14
24 Group values
27 Accounts book
30 Near-miss response
31 Longing
32 Old pro
34 Teacup handle
35 Actress -- Hagen
36 Salty drop
37 Steel girders (hyph.)
40 Wed
41 New Zealand parrot
42 Slangy affirmative
43 Take a — (risk)
46 Leaves
50 Vie for office
Daphne and Anne:
Angels
for
children
ANNE Curtis reads a story to children affected by super typhoon “Yolanda”
in Tacloban City.
intelligence radio communication, they stopped the fighting and allowed the
midwife to pass through because she had an important job of delivering a
baby. I remembered that and we even saw the bullet holes from that area.
It’s very, very powerful.”
Paez thought deeply about what she wishes for the children. “I wish for
all children to be loved and cared for. That every child survives and thrives,
learns, is protected from violence and exploitation and lives in a clean and
safe environment. I had the privilege of growing up in a loving and nurturing
family. I’ve had the benefit of growing up in two countries that even if they are
so different in the delivery of services, are both relatively peaceful,” she says.
“My wish is for all Filipino children to have a fair chance in life, to have
access to health services and a good education. As members of society we
all have a duty and responsibility to always put children first — not just
through government or institutional programs but as individuals during our
everyday life.”
Paez raises funds for UNICEF Philippines through her flagship project
Auction for Action, an art auction that brings together top Filipino artists
in design, furniture, art and jewelry for a good cause which is her advocacy
for children.
Running for kids
Curtis enabled UNICEF to reach a younger audience and has
utilized her stock as actress, model, television host, recording artist and
entrepreneur to raise awareness and funds regarding children’s concerns.
51 On a rampage
53 Livy contemporary
54 Gives the
go-ahead
55 Scale button
56 Frigid
57 Earn
58 Gazed at
59 Out of town
DOWN
1 Fall guy
2 Big Dipper bear
3 Slender
4 Archer’s weapon
5 Upriver spawner
6 Luminous circle
7 Well output
8 Calm
9 Saga
10 Organize
11 Polynesian
carving
19 Overhead
railways
21 Batting stat
SUDOKU
23 Lucy
Lawless role
24 Lamb’s parent
25 Siamese, now
26 Spaghetti
seasoner
27 Sanctions
28 Nonstop
29 Caboose’s place
31 Arizona city
33 Make an effort
36 Bland pudding
38 Use sparingly
39 Tend the aquarium
40 Mr. Brooks
42 United
43 Toad kin
44 Jedi knight
45 Technical sch.
46 Fairway shout
47 Affirm
48 — monster
49 Swirling water
52 Merry month
Answer to previous puzzle
by Ramon Lorenzo
Write a numeral from 1 to 9 in each box so that each
appears only once in each row, column and 3 x 3 box.
Answer for yesterday’s puzzle
DAPHNE Oseña-Paez has a conversation with a mother about the health
and nutrition situation in Mindanao.
A major UNICEF donor since 2009 and a celebrity advocate in 2014, her
special projects with UNICEF include the Heroes for Children runs to
support children’s First 1,000 Days, fundraising through international
marathons and a children’s book.
Says Slywander: “The UNICEF brand is something that we have struggled
with, sometimes, but it changed. Little did we know that we actually had a
hidden gem in our list of major donors, this donor has been quietly donating
to UNICEF since 2009. Anne has dramatically helped us reach that divide to
young people and bringing a 70-year-old organization to a new and younger
audience and who have now the genuine desire to use their voices and help
the cause for children.”
Perhaps the most visually-striking sight to show how much Curtis values
her UNICEF advocacy is when she runs marathons, not just for fitness and
pride, but also to raise fund for the organization and its beneficiaries.
“I was offered a slot in an upcoming marathon but it’s in April so I can’t
train for that but I am going to try for the lottery for Berlin. Let’s see if I can
get it. I’ve run two marathons so far for UNICEF, that’s London and then
New York, so this will be the third one. The goal is to do all six world majors
and raise funds too. UNICEF sets up a site for me where they can donate
and you can see the goal going up and up and up so it’s really great. I still
have to join the lottery for Berlin to see if i get a slot. It doesn’t matter how
I place in the marathon as long as I finish it.”
A year after she was named as UNICEF celebrity advocate, Anne visited
Leyte province in 2015 in the aftermath of super typhoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan),
and Samar province in 2017. She is also updated on UNICEF’s various
programs through briefings with program experts in the areas of education
and health and nutrition.
Curtis enabled UNICEF to reach a younger audience and
has utilized her stock as actress, model, television host,
recording artist and entrepreneur to raise awareness and
funds regarding children’s concerns.
“Working with UNICEF is actually a whole new educational experience for
myself and I learned about so many things. For example, about breastfeeding
and how important it is and learning about the first 1000 days of the child and
actually visiting mothers and their children. It’s a whole new education for myself
and it even equips me properly for when the time comes when I’m a mother
myself.” she relates.
“I am honored and committed to raising awareness on the issues and rights
of children. Children should be our priority and it is our collective responsibility to
ensure they have a bright future ahead of them. There is still much more to be done
but I believe we all can play our part to bring smiles to children’s faces,” she says.
Paez and Curtis fully understand the weight that being a UNICEF National
Goodwill Ambassador bears even with their respective careers.
Says Anne, “I knew from the very beginning that working with UNICEF,
my priority would be to serve the Filipino children. It had never been an
issue and even with my manager, she has always known that if there is a
certain brand for an endorsement that is coming in which I know doesn’t
help promote any of the child’s rights when it comes to UNICEF, then it’s an
immediate no. I guess I feel very lucky to be working with brands that are
all approved by UNICEF and are child-friendly.
Daphne, for her part, says, “I already put limitations on myself with
companies that I’m going to work for. Even before I met UNICEF, I have a
wholesome image (laughs) so that was never really an issue but I have come
across companies and brands that I knew I couldn’t work with in a very
professional manner. Luckily, in my work there are other ways for me to earn.”
UNICEF country representative Lotta Sylwander with Anne visited the
children of Leyte after the typhoon affected the province.
D A I L Y G O S P E L
Jesus said to his disciples: “I
tell you, unless your righteousness
surpasses that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will not enter into
the Kingdom of heaven.
You have heard that it was
said to your ancestors, ‘You
shall not kill; and whoever
kills will be liable to judgment.’
But I say to you, whoever
is angry with his brother will
be liable to judgment, and
whoever says to his brother,
‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to
the Sanhedrin, and whoever
says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable
to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your
gift to the altar, and there
recall that your brother has
anything against you,
Friday of the First week of Lent
Matthew 5:20-26
leave your gift there at
the altar, go first and be
reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your
gift.
Settle with your opponent
quickly while on the way to
court with him. Otherwise
your opponent will hand you
over to the judge, and the
judge will hand you over to the
guard, and you will be thrown
into prison.
Amen, I say to you, you will
not be released until you have
paid the last penny.”

Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
LIFESTYLE 23
A story in every bite
For Karay-a poet, fictionist and teacher from De La Salle University, Dr.
John Iremil E. Teodoro, “Food, or culinary arts in general, is a living
repository of the collective memories of a certain race or community. It
that way it is like literature
From page 24
as well,” Dr. Sabanpan-Yu said.
For Karay-a poet, fictionist and teacher
from De La Salle University, Dr. John Iremil E.
Teodoro, “Food, or culinary arts in general, is
a living repository of the collective memories
of a certain race or community. It that way it
is like literature. So if we combine food and
literature, the experience is both physical (in
the realm of the senses) and mental. It could
also be emotional in the case of comfort food
and comfort eating.”
Teodoro read his paper, “Ang Damil Kang
Dagat (Ang Lasa ng Dagat): Ang Lasa ng Asin
sa Kontemporanyong Literatura sa Kanlurang
Writer John Iremil Teodoro, National Artist Resil Mojares and
NCLA head Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu.
Bisayas (The Taste of the Sea: The Taste of Salt
in Contemporary Literature of Western Visayas).”
“The inspiration for my paper was the sea
and the seafood. Panay and Guimaras are
surrounded by the sea. The Malayan settlers in
Western Visayas came all the way from Borneo
in the balangays. The sea being a very powerful
presence in the region, I thought I would look at
the manifestations or the mirroring of the sea
in contemporary West Visayan literature. And
since Namnamin was about food and literature,
I concentrated on the taste of the sea. After all,
Panay (specifically Roxas City) is famous for its
seafood,” he shared.
Initially, he wanted to write about seafood and
generally the taste of the sea. He then realized that
the taste of such sea is actually the taste of salt and,
in this country, salt is associated with poverty, as
evidenced by the idiom, “magdildil ng asin (to dip
in salt),” that is, to eat salt for lack of food. He also
found out that there is a dearth in writings about
food in his home region.
So if we combine food and literature,
the experience is both physical (in the
realm of the senses) and mental. It
could also be emotional in the case of
comfort food and comfort eating.”
In an essay he wrote in Filipino, Teodoro
concluded: “There is almost no work in contemporary
Western Visayan literature that celebrates the
deliciousness of seafood, maybe because such work
is considered a fantasy in the midst of poverty.
Indeed, how can you savor in words the delicious
taste of the sea when you have to spend so much
for it, a big deduction from your wage, and the
country is floating in a sea of poverty? Instead of
writing about the flavors of oysters, crabs, prawns or
lobsters if budget permits, the experience remains
on the tongue and goes directly to the stomach.
While poverty, which includes hunger, may not be
an enticing way to discuss food, it is still a force that
also shapes culinary culture.”
“It is not just food in abundance but also food
deprivation that was tackled in Namnamin. The
spoken-word poetry performance of a young poet
also depicted this theme. Food production and other
areas related to food were also discussed in the
different panels,” said Mallari.
“It is also important to remember that the other
face of food is hunger, that the obverse of the richly
laid table is the poor person’s empty plate,” Dr.
Sabanpan-Yu expounded.
“While modern food research and food technology
seek to eradicate hunger, the great famines of
the past centuries remind us that in all societies,
entitlement to food has been the most precarious
of rights.”
Culinary richness
Teodoro’s companions in the session “Eat and
Be Merry,” on the other hand, talked about culinary
richness such as Maguindanao writer Mubarak
Tahir who presented “Aden Bon Besen Uyag-uyag:
Kultura’t Kakanin ng mga Maguindanaon (Culture
and Rice-Based Sweets of the Maguindanao);”
Lualhati Abreu with her “Mga Pagkaing Kakaiba
(Unusual Foods);” and Gawani Domogo-Gaongen, a
NCCA Writers’ Prize winner for Kankanaey poetry,
with an essay on native Kankanaey foods she
remembered from her childhood.
Abreu remembered her own childhood wherein
people visited their home, bringing unusual food
items such as eel, suahe and “jumping salad” or
small shrimps served alive and still jumping.
All aspects of culture are “time-bound,” she said,
including food. Thus, what was unusual then may
not be unusual anymore. She also related foods
encountered during her travels around Mindanao
since 1974 as a settler from the Visayas and an
activist.
Kaning mais (corn as rice), kinilaw na isda
(fish ceviche), law-uy or laswa (vegetable soup)
and sugba na isda (grilled fish) she observed to
be prevalent fares, while she considered lumad
and Moro practices and dishes to be unusual or
at least new to her — cooking using bamboo tubes
among the Mandaya and other groups; freshwater
fishes previously unknown to her such as sautnon
and daupingan; sea turtle eggs among the Tausug;
mantis shrimp in Agusan; palapa and pastil in
Cotabato; and different sea creatures such as
sea anemone, stingray and sea urchin in Sulu
and Tawi-Tawi.
Tahir remembered his childhood in Datu
Piang, Maguindanao, specifically the observance
of the first day of the Ramadan, market days and
different kakanin or local sweets such as dudul,
tinadtad, panyalam and pastil with different
kagikit (filling).
Domogo described the naturally fermented
foods in Mountain Province, including the
notoriously foul-smelling drink called safeng,
made of sweet potato or cassava.
Another session, “Sticking to Recipes,” dealt
with traditions and innovations.
In “Creativity and Uniqueness in Developing
Culture through the Industry: Describing the
Contemporary Balut-Eating Culture through
Recent Recreations of Balut in Metropolitan
Manila,” Emmanuel Jeric A. Albela surveyed 15
restaurants in Metro Manila whose owners were
fond of balut and promoted new ways of eating
it by offering more choices and transformations
into modern dishes such as balut tempura and
balut in red wine sauce, which elevated the
street food into gourmet fare.
In “Bicol Express as a Site for Regional
Pride and Identity,” Maria Eloisa Sevilla-Perez
used structural anthropology in her research to
assert that food is a powerful way of thinking about
place and identity.
In “Rekado
asin Rekwerdo: A
Book Presentation,”
Maria Leny E. Felix,
a social development
worker, talked
about her
forthcoming book
about spices and
memory, written
in Rinconada,
the language of
her late mother,
whose recipes are
preserved in the
book, and Central
Bicol spoken in
Naga City, the
language of the
author.
The book
featured traditional
dishes and
recounted the ways
of cooking she
remembered from
her mother. The
book, which took
seven years to finish,
is interspersed
with stories and
rawitdawit or
poems.
In “A Memory of
Starch: Storytelling
and Traditional Palm Starch Extraction,” John
Bengan, Andrea Malaya Ragrario and Myfel Paluga
followed how a traditional and ancient food item,
the starch from palms, has fallen out of the Filipino
table. Once a prestige food traded between Mindanao
and Indonesia, and described by Spaniards as a local
bread made from wood, the sago is still extracted in
Aklan, Cebu, Leyte, Samar, Burias Island and parts
of Mindanao.
Many of the talks demonstrated the multi-faceted
link between food and literature and art in general.
Mallari added: “Since literature is a representation
of life, food and eating which are directly connected
SISIG by chef Sau del Rosario.
Cultural researcher and
culinary historian Felice Prudente
Sta Maria.
At 25 Seeds, Anak Bale-Balayan performs while there is a fashion show.
with human existence can be very significant
thematic elements of literary writing. Food can be
an important imagery and metaphor. As food is
in itself a possible literary ingredient, its appeal
to the gustatory and other senses when ‘cooked’
up in a literary piece can be tremendous. Poetry,
fiction and drama make use of food to create visual
and other images as well as metaphors expressive
of human behavior and needs. On the other hand,
eating, being a human act, can be a focal point in
weaving a literary work. Many aspects of eating,
including social, economic and ethnographic, are a
good source of literary writing.”
Culinary historian and cultural scholar
Felice Prudente Santa Maria filled
minds and souls with “Philippine
Culinary Arts: Manifestations of
Cultural History.”
“Food also indicates regional identity as shown in
the delightful reception and perception of delegates
regarding Kapampangan food. For instance, Ilocano
delegates commented on the ‘big difference’
between Ilocano and Kapampangan cooking and
food presentation. Thus, food can project local color
in literature,” she further said.
Savoring history
Culinary historian and cultural scholar Felice
Prudente Santa Maria filled minds and souls with
“Philippine Culinary Arts: Manifestations of Cultural
History.” She started with an investigation of how
rooted is the concept of hospitality in Filipino culture
by examining words and old records.
She said there did not seem to be a native word
for hospitality until she came across the Cebuano
“nayanaya,” recorded in 1885, which means “to
entertain, give food, serve guests and friends; a happy
person, one with good humor.” Nayanayaon is “a
person who is happy, of good humor, who entertained
and was affable as well as benign and content.”
The Filipino is happy feeding others, she
remarked and concluded, “Nayanaya is a unique
Philippine recipe for hospitality and happiness.”
Santa Maria also observed history and its effects
on food and food production, looking for clues in
Chef Sau del Rosario welcomes Namnamin
delegates at 25 Seeds.
old records.
Records from 1609, for example, note that Indios
made paksiw or “cooked in vinegar.” They did not
have sauces but used only salt and vinegar. Boro is
mentioned, using pork or fish especially tamban.
In 1613, adobo was mentioned and it meant vinegar
marinade. Fish or intestines of wild deer or carabao
were marinated in vinegar and eaten immediately.
Salmuera is mentioned, referring to the brining
solution to make bagoong.
During the 1830s, recorded ingredients included
different rice varieties such as lamuyo (in Batangas)
and bontot cabayo (in Ilocos); leaves from plants and
trees such as boyoc-boyoc, cadayohan, dampalit,
diliman, halon, libato and sagnit; anahaw
and talanas seeds; dauag berries and lobas (in
Pampanga); and pipisic and talangtalang fruits.
Santa Maria found that Filipinos had substitutes
for imported ingredients such as santol or bilimbi
preserves for quince preserve; pili for almond; paho
for olives; kasubha or Mexican annatto for saffron;
shallot for the red and white onion; coconut palm
heart for artichoke; and carabao milk for cow milk.
She also found older traditions of common
practices and ingredients: dayap being ahead
of calamansi, shallot ahead of onion, honey and
pakaskas ahead of cane sugar, turmeric ahead of
kasubha and saffron and pasiti ahead of labuyo
and siling haba.
In the 20th century, there were many
developments that shaped modern Philippine
cuisine. She considered the introduction of Home
Economics classes in 1904 to be a very important
milestone. In 1913, canned and bottled goods
increased in popularity in the country, then recipe
books in 1918 to 1937. Modernity, with its machines
and other conveniences, inspired a golden age of
home or amateur cooking, she said.
“Philippine cuisine seems to enjoy what is
fashionable, seems to use what is accessible and
convenient” but “always stay Filipino,” Santa Maria
contended.
The culinary artist, Santa Maria described,
“blends delightful aroma, flavor and visuality with
pleasantness and joyful intent.”
Another key guest was Pampangan visual artist
and chef Claude Tayag, whose talk on history was
personal, tracing his beginnings as an artist who
went seriously into food and cooking.
He kept drawing as a child, he remembered,
and was inspired by his father’s friends. His
father was a journalist, a best friend of artist
and gourmand Abe Cruz. Their circle of friends
included prominent painters. When he was 12
years old in 1968, they gathered and painted or
drew together, inspiring him to go into painting. In
college, he enrolled in architecture because fine
arts was then considered a vocational course and
hung out with the Saturday Group of Artists. In
1987, he seriously thought about cooking and food.
By then, he was known as the artist who cooked.
Restaurateur Larry Cruz invited him to be a guest
chef at his restaurant Ang Hang, reinterpreting
his artworks in food. Thus began his journey in
art and food.
Namnamin also featured a conversation with
newly declared National Artist for literature Resil
Mojares, Cebuano literary critic and cultural
historian, which was led by another National Artist
for literature Bienvenido Lumbera.
“The lectures of Santa Maria and Tayag
were informative and inspirational,” Teodoro
commented. “In fact, I want to write about our
food in Antique. I’m planning to write a book about
this. We should write about our food. We will not
only feed our body but we will also feed our soul.”
Sumptuous sides
Namnamin also featured feasting, cooking
demos and tours. Almost surrounding the
lectures themselves were booths offering food
from traditional kakanin to packaged food items.
Delegates were able to dine out at Balanghai
restaurant at SM City Telabastagan, which
featured buffet spreads from different regions
of the country; and at Bale Kapampangan, one
of San Fernando’s popular restaurants, providing
them a glimpse of the local dining landscape.
Cooking demonstrations were conducted
by one of Pampanga’s famous cooks, Lilian
Borromeo from Mexico, who made sanikulas
cookies; Dr. Lilia “Bebot” Teves, dean of the
College of Commerce of the University of San
Agustin, who prepared pancit Molo; and Shara
Dionaldo, who introduced audience to the
binaki, Bukidnon’s version of the tamale.
Marie Joy R. Sumagaysay talked about the
Hiligaynon ways of cooking — tuom, to wrap in
leaves; asal, to skewer and grill; and boog, to
throw into a fire — all over live coals. On the
other hand, Elizabeth Calinawaga talked about
how pinakbet pizza is made.
Sweet and savory ending
Namnamin was capped with a rousing, artsy
and multi-sensory program at chef Rosauro del
Rosario’s new 25 Seeds restaurant in Angeles
City, combining heritage, tradition, modern
creativity and innovation.
Chef Sau, who also owns Café Fleur and Frida
housed at the Dycaico ancestral house, welcomed
guests and talked about promoting Pampangan
arts and culinary heritage with Culinarya
Pampanga, an association of Pampangan chefs
and restaurateurs.
The main part was, of course, the eating. With
different components, Namnamin is like many
Filipino dishes, with many ingredients, rich in
different flavors, stimulating multiple senses.

24
LIFESTYLE
Dinah S. Ventura, Editor
Friday, 15 March 2019
Daily Tribune
A story in
every bite
Namnamin was conceived as a celebration of the
literary with the other arts through the subject of
food. The title is derived from NAM, acronym of
National Arts Month that is celebrated in February
Text and photos by Roel Hoang
Manipon
The kaldereta (beef stew) and
the kare-kare (stew in peanut sauce)
were remarkable everywhere we
went — rich and really malinamnam
(tasty). “We never scrimp on
ingredients,” they always say in
Pampanga, widely regarded as the
Philippines’ culinary or food capital.
Appropriately, the Central
Luzon province was the venue
of Namnamin, a conference that
proved to be multi-sensory with
dances and other performances,
feasting, exhibits, tours and, of
course, talks on food, food culture
and writing.
Namnamin, held from 25 to
27 February 2019 at the Orchid
TIBOK-TIBOK of Susie’s Cuisine.
Gardens, a resort, hotel, events
venue and dining complex in
Pampanga’s capital San Fernando
City, was organized by the National
Commission for Culture and the
Arts’ (NCCA) National Committee
on Literary Arts (NCLA), in
celebration of the National Arts
Month.
“Namnamin was conceived as
a celebration
of the literary
with the other
arts through
the subject of
food,” the head
of the NCLA, writer
and Cebuano literary
scholar Dr. Hope
Sabanpan-Yu, said.
“ Namnamin i s
derived from NAM,
acronym of National
Arts Month that is
celebrated in February.
The event is termed as
such by the National
Committee on Literary
Arts as a celebration of the
role of food in all artistic
endeavors,” Pampangan
literature professor Dr. Juliet
Mallari, who was the event’s
director, explained.
“Namnamin hoped
to engage the artists
and the local community
in a celebration featuring
the melding of food and
art. When consumed with
pleasure, both are savored
in the ‘namnamin’ sense.
And I think this objective has
been achieved as various
performances during
the event in Pampanga,
known as a culinary capital,
were visually appetizing and
gastronomically as well as
intellectually satisfying.”
She further said: “Visually
delightful were the festive
and artistic renditions of the
kamaru (mole cricket), sisig
and taramindu (tamarind)
dances, which are representing
signature Kapampangan dishes
and a local fruit, respectively; the
funny portrayal of local color in
the comedy skit of the students
about a cooking contest; the
entertaining regional folk art forms
such as mascota, Kapampangan
folksongs, Visayan tagay ta and
Bicol tigsik, which also highlighted
food-related themes. Gastronomically
satisfying were the mouthwatering
cooking demonstrations and the
sisig tasted after the dance number
of the Sinukwan Kapampangan
dance troupe. Intellectually
stimulating were the
moving recitation
of spoken word
poetry and,
of course,
t h e
informative
plenary and
panel sessions that
provided fresh insights
into Filipino culinary arts.”
Garnishes of performances
and exhibits
During the opening event,
between talks and during dinners,
there were several performances
spicing the whole conference,
serving like garnishes and
heightening the experience of the
event. Most of the performances
were on local folk traditions,
some of which are vanishing,
giving participants a taste of
the richness of local culture and
heritage.
PAMPANGA Agta performers during the opening.
PSAU’S tamarind-inspired dance.
Welcoming Namnamin
delegates and attendees, mostly
teachers, to the event halls The
Forum and The Orchidarium were
the Pampanga Brass Band, the
Dolores Rondangklung and a group
of Pampanga Aytas.
The literature of food offers
a rich and complicated
history of value systems
implicit in preparing,
serving, and eating of food.
The opening program featured
a Pampangan oral form by Rene
Salor; a Kamaru Festival dance from
the town of Magalang; a tamarindinspired
dance by the Pampanga
State Agricultural University (PSAU)
Performing Arts La Granja Modelo
Dance Troupe; a comedy skit by
the PSAU Performing Arts; and a
poetry performance by poet Dr.
Vim Nadera.
A miniature version
of a sisig festival was
also held with a
sisig-inspired dance
by the Sinukwan
Kapampangan
Dance Troupe. A
short talk revealed
that the dish for which
Angeles City is famous
was originally made up
of chopped fruits such as
papaya, guava and green
mangoes, or banana
heart, made even sour by
vinegar, bilimbi (kamias
or iba in Filipino) or
calamunding. It evolved
to what we know of sisig
today — pig’s ears and
cheeks boiled, grilled and
finely chopped, blended
with chopped onions,
seasoned with vinegar
and/or calamansi juice,
salt, black pepper and
chili slices and sometimes
minced grilled chicken
liver and served on a hot
plate.
Other performances included a
spoken-word performance by Prolet
Sanchez; a rap performance by
AKT; a mascota, a wedding dance
of the Ibanag people of Cagayan;
and tigsik, Bicol short poems often
funny and pithy.
Aside from the performances, an
area in the event venue was dedicated
to small exhibits: “Kauyagan: The
Blessings of Life,” a solo painting
exhibit of Salima Saway-Agraan;
selected paintings on food by visual
artist-chef Claude Tayag; photos on
food and food culture by a group of
Mabalacat photographers; and an
exhibit featuring National Artists
for literature.
Meaty talks and lectures
The conference proper was as
intriguing and sumptuous as the
food consumed. “The literature of
food offers a rich and complicated
history of value systems implicit
in preparing, serving and eating
of food. Sharing food, breaking
bread, raising a toast, summer
picnics, formal dinners, drinking
traditions — all have certain
LILIAN Borromeo makes the sanikulas cookies.
cultural and ethnic significances
which we hoped to highlight
by bringing in tradition to the
discussion and into performance
Turn to page 23
New faces,
going places
As the Daily Tribune continues to
expand and grow, we welcome the newest
members of our family!
u Super scribes
Entertainment stalwart Isah V. Red joins the
team as a columnist — his “Simply Red” column
will appear in the Spotlight section every Monday
and Wednesday, starting 18 March. He will also be
the sub-editor for the section headed by lifestyle
and entertainment editor Dinah S. Ventura.
Prolific features writer and book author Jojo
G. Silvestre, who joined the Lifestyle team as a
society columnist (“Proust Is Back” every Friday
and “Let’s Drink To That” every Tuesday) last year,
will now also handle the Living Spaces section
that comes out every Sunday.
u Experts in the field
The Living Spaces section, which covers
property development, architecture and design,
will carry a weekly column penned by one of the
Philippines’ experts in the field, Jose Ramon
“Pinggoy” Aliling, who became perhaps the
youngest construction magnate when he took
over the Jose Aliling Construction Management
in 2006. In his 20s, he became the youngest board
adviser of De La Salle’s College of Engineering
and was named the youngest president of the
Construction Project Management Association
of the Philippines. He was the very first Civil
engineer cited in 2015 as one of The Outstanding
Young Men for Civil Engineering.
Meanwhile, the Wellbeing section debuting this
17 March introduces doctor-couple Brian Michael
Cabral and Monica Therese Cating-Cabral, who
will alternately write a weekly column every
Sunday. Brian is a certified specialist in
transplant nephrology and internal
medicine, while Monica heads
the osteoporosis and bone
health clinic.