By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE Panigan River in Baguio District, Davao City is contaminated with agriucltural chemicals and is at risk

of being damaged as one of the city’s im-portant watershed areas.

Results of a six-year water monitoring initiative of Panigan River conducted by

the farming community of Tawantawan in Baguio District, Davao City show that its phosphate and nitrate content are of Class B and Class C standards.

This was presented by Aian B. Guma-pac of Bantayo Aweg, a volunteer group

the community-based water monitoring group for the Panigan-Tamugan water-shed, last Thursday at Lispher Inn, Juna Subdivision, Matina, Davao City.

He said under the standards used by the Environmental Management Bureau

EDGEP 15.00 • 20 PAGES

www.edgedavao.netVOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012

Indulge!Page A1

SportsPage 16

Panigan River at risk: Study

Hibermating bearsPage 14

Serving a seamless society

FSARA, 13

FPANIGAN, 13

n Run-off from plantations during heavy rains carried the agricultural inputs to the river.

Follow us on

DAVAO

JAYWALKING. Ignoring the danger of being hit by fast moving vehicles and the street sign that prohibits crossing, a pedestrian wrestles through the rope to cross the street in a major thoroughfare in the city. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

By Jade C. Zaldivar

DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has bared the following challenges that her administra-

tion faces: waste segregation, vehicular traffic, informal settlers, and flooding.

“Basura, traffic, problema sa baha, ang informal settlers. Mao na ang chal-lenges. Dili man gyud sakit sa ulo pero challenges,” Duterte-Carpio told Edge Davao.

The mayor, in an interview, reminded

locals to follow the city’s Waste Segrega-tion Law.

“Kung ilahang dauton ang envi-ronment sa syudad sa Davao kita lang gihapon ug sila gihapon mag-antos,” Duterte-Carpio said, referring to hard-headed locals who still do not segregate their waste.

The mayor has been receiving re-ports that some barangays are still “hard-headed” in regards to following the Waste Segregation Law.

“As a little contribution sa city, segre-gate your waste, make our city clean. To

segregate is to make the city clean and green,” she said.

“Giingnan na nako si Joey nga pak-usgan ilang enforcement. Daghan kaayo ta ug mga enforcers sa basura, gi-train na sila so dapat pakusgan pud niya ang implementation,” Duterte-Carpio said, referring to Joseph Felizarta, officer in charge of the City Environment and Nat-ural Resources Office (Cenro).

The waste segregation policy also known as Ordinance No. 361-10 Series of 2010 has been in force since July 1, 2011.

Sara names 5 challenges city faces

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 20122 THE BIG NEWS EDGEDAVAO

It figures

BALANCE of payments surplus aggregating $1.452 billion in the first two months, which was 1.4 percent higher year-on-year. The surplus validated the view that the country’s macroeconomic underpinning remains resilient in view face of global economic slowdown.

COST of the terminal expansion project of Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) whose contract being sought by five construction companies.

NUMBER of “critical elements” found by the US Federal Aviation Ad-ministration (FAA) which the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) needs to address before the country can regain its ”Category 1” safety status.

NUMBER of ecotourism sites in the Philippines where mining activi-ties will be barred. The sites have been identified by the Department of Tourism for nurturing and sustaining tourism growth.

ADDITIONAL number of nurs-ing schools facing possible closure of their degree programs for failure to im-provetheir passing rates for three consec-utive years in the licensure examinations administered by the Professional Regula-tory Commission.

AMOUNT involved in the planned investment of Texas-based Quantum International Group Inc. on five plasma gasification plants in the Philippines that can produce as much as 13,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

8023P390billion$1.452billion 78 $2.6billion

‘WE are approaching what would seem to be a stale-mate in our ideas of how to make permant the solutions that work for our peoples.’

--Marvic Leonen, chief government nego-tiator.

Quips

By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE sunflowers were bowing their heads at noon time

last Thursday, an indica-tion that each flower was full of seeds, thanks to the bees. The back of the flowers showed a yellow-ish color, signalling the time had come to harvest them.

This was in Barangay Catigan, in Davao City’s Toril district where the 1.5 hectare demonstra-tion farm will be harvest-ed by the end of March in anticipation of the arrival of an oil extractor equip-ment on March 26.

A project under the Gawad Kalinga Pueblo Antonio, this demo farm will spawn a massive pro-duction of sunflowers in 10 more hectares of land which the landowner, Sal-ly Habana, is offering to the farmers to utilize.

Project Director Jai-me Severino said a cos-metic company known for organic products will buy the sunflower oil pro-duced there. In fact, the oil extractor belongs to the cosmetic company.

Samuel Escamis, mu-nicipal agricultural officer of Toril district, said the cosmetic company will need a total of 2,000-hect-ares of sunflower farms from which to extract oil, an organic ingredient for the manufacture of lip-stick, body oil, and the like.

City Agriculturist Leo Avila III who visited the demo farm last Thursday said the company had of-ten been visiting his office

to propose for a sustain-able supply of sunflowers.

In order to sustain a good harvest of sunflower seeds, swarms of bees are needed to act as pollina-tors. Hence, farmers in GK Pueblo Antonio have cultivated a number of beehives, a mixture of Eu-ropean and native bees, not only for pollination of sunflowers, but also for production of honey.

Every European bee-hive produces 25-40 kilos of honey a year while a native beehive produces only two kilos of honey a year.

To gain more techni-cal know-how on the cul-tivation of bees, Severino and Escamis will attend a seminar on the subject on April 17 at the Univer-sity of the Philippines, Los Baños. Immediately after the seminar, they will apply their learning so that they could start the bee project.

A kilo of sunflower oil costs P2,000, a price much higher than buy-ing only the flower. That is why the farmers of Ba-rangay Catigan will ex-tract the oil themselves using the equipment to earn a better income.

Sunflower is suitable for propagation in the area for it requires an al-titude not lower than 600 meters above sea level, and an average tempera-ture of 21 degrees Cel-sius.

The success of the demo farm will help many farmers who will be doing the work them-selves on their own, Sev-erino said.

FIELD VISIT.(L-R) GK Project Director Jaime Severino and City Agriculturist Leo Avila examine the Sunflowerss at Brgy. Catigan, Toril District, Davao City.

Sunflower productionto help many farmers

By Jade C. Zaldivar

n CIO now with two consultants

JOSEPH Lawrence Gar-cia, 37, is the new City Information Office

(CIO) head.City Mayor Sara

Duterte-Carpio said on lo-cal television Thursday that the CIO is now ‘man-aged’ by Garcia who has been working as an em-ployee of the city for the past11 years.

While there has been no official memorandum from the Mayor Duterte-Carpio designating Garcia as officer in charge he had earlier been named by for-mer OIC Bong Aportadera as his replacement.

“When he (Aportadera) tendered his resignation before the Araw ng Davao celebration, he also issued a memo that I be put in charge,” Garcia said when sought for his comment.

“Technically, by opera-tion of law I am next in line sa office. Si Bong, position

niya was Information offi-cer IV ako kay Information officer III,” Garcia said yes-terday.

Meanwhile, the mayor on Monday announced her appointment of veteran radio/TV broadcaster Leo Villareal as consultant to

the CIO.Villareal, a veteran me-

dia personality in Davao City, is currently host of Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s weekly TV pro-gram ‘Ato ni Bay’ at the City Council.

Status quo

Garcia said he will be maintaining the status quo in the CIO “which already has an established system which works.”

“We upgraded and add-ed to our equipment back in 2010, at the beginning of the city mayor’s admin-istration when she allotted P5 million for our equip-ment upgrade,” he said.

“Perhaps masasabi ko na may kulang kami dal-awa o tatlong tao pero sa ngayon we can still man-age,” he added.

Garcia said under the leadership of Aportadera, the Creative media unit of the CIO was put up, add-ing to the capability of the office.

“The Creative media unit was started in 2010 which coordinates with the News gathering unit in order to produce our own news,” he said said.

Garcia added that the CIO had been expanding its reach to the locals by maintaining the city’s offi-cial website and several ac-counts on social network-ing sites.

Experienced CIO manis new city info chief

Garcia

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012 3THE BIG NEWSEDGEDAVAO

‘HE should really retire from boxing. In the Bible, God some-times appeared to people in their dreams, so the result is very good to him.’

_-- Sorsogon Bisahop Arturo Bastes on Manny Pacquiao

Quips

FHUNTING, 13

By Lorie A. Cascaro

HUNTING turtle scutes/scales of marine turtles, lo-

cally known as pawikan, continues in the Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS), according to re-searcher Ernesto T. Santa Cruz who received a re-port of discovered cara-pace of hawksbill (Eret-mochelys imbricate) by a foreign diver last Febru-ary.

A volunteer research-er on marine turtles in Davao Gulf since 1986, Santa Cruz said the con-tinuous activity of marine turtle hunting for scutes/scales and meat poses a serious threat to the pres-ent species range popula-tion in Davao Gulf.

Last February, Santa Cruz submitted a report on sea turtle exploita-tion incident in the Is-land Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS) to Jaime O. Sam-pulna, regional director of the Department of En-vironment and Natural Resources (DENR) 11, Pawikan Conservation Project – Parks and Wild-life Bureau (PCP-PAWB), and the city government of IGaCoS.

According to his re-port, a visiting foreign guest diver had recov-

A foreign guest recovers a hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) carapace shell at the White Rock dive site in IGaCoS.

Life in the Davao Gulf:

Hunting turtle scutes continues in IGaCoS

ered a fresh carapace of an adult sized hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) while on a diving tour. During his interview, the attending dive master of the dive tour reported that this incident took place on December 11, 2011, at 90 feet in White Rock dive site, IGaCoS.

He said the pictures show that four lateral scutes and five pieces of central scutes were miss-ing. He observed that the

recovered hawksbill cara-pace had traces of burns at postcentral scutes. Burning the carapace to remove the scutes was the method used by hunt-ers as reported by some boatmen in Davao Orien-tal, he said.

The dive master told Santa Cruz that there were no traces of meat, internal organs, front and hind flippers, and, head of the hawksbill marine tur-tle within the perimeter

of the discovery site.Santa Cruz mentioned

in his report that in 2006, the PCP-PAWB conduct-ed a formal training on marine turtle conserva-tion and management in IGaCoS. He said, “For unknown reasons, how-ever, the training’s main objective of information awareness did not pros-per into enlightening fish-ermen and other marine resource stakeholders.”

He said the lack of

House okays bill seeking public access to info on food and basic commodities THE House of Rep-

resentatives has approved on sec-

ond reading a bill adopt-ing and implementing a policy of full public dis-closure of all government transactions involving food and food supply, con-sistent with the Constitu-tional right of the people to information.

Although with limi-tations, House Bill 5868 mandates that all infor-mation involving food and basic commodi-ties in the custody and control of the govern-ment be made available and accessible to the public.

The bill was endorsed for plenary approval by the House Commit-tee on Trade and In-dustry chaired by Rep. Albert Raymond Garcia (2nd District, Bataan). It substituted House Bill 1143 authored by Rep. Reynaldo Umali (2nd Dis-trict, Oriental Mindoro)

and House Bill 3603 au-thored by Reps. Diosdado Macapagal Arroyo (2nd District, Camarines Sur) and Gloria Macapagal-Ar-royo (2nd District, Pam-panga).

Umali said this infor-mation is necessary in taking the needed actions, whether for families bud-geting their daily expens-es, law enforcers running after hoarders and price colluders, private enter-prises planning for the medium-term, or for na-tional agencies and local governments directing their efforts to solve im-pending supply problems.

“Indeed, government transparency in food in-formation is a step to-wards reinforcing the right of the people to af-fordable food and food security. The people have the right to know the fac-tors that influence food supply and prices,” Umali said.

Arroyo said the Fili-

pino people have the right to information on all matters of public con-cern. Access to food is a fundamental human right and it is the government’s responsibility to ensure an adequate food supply for the people at afford-able costs.

“In order to reinforce and guarantee the right of the people to afford-able and adequate food supply, the government must be transparent in all its transactions involving food and basic commodi-ties,” Arroyo said.

The bill defines the term information, among others, to mean all documents, papers, letters, minutes and transcripts of official meetings, maps, books, photographs, films, sound and video recordings, magnetic or other tapes and electronic data pro-cessing records.

The term also refers to and includes stored

computer data, elec-tronic mail messages, or any other like or similar data or material, record-ed, stored or archived in whatever form or format, which are made, received or kept in or under the control and custody of any government body pursuant to law, executive order, rules and regula-tions, ordinances or in connection with the per-formance or transaction of official business by any government body.

The measure pro-vides for the creation of a Congressional Oversight Committee consisting of five members each from the Senate and House of Representatives, which shall be composed of the Chairpersons and mem-bers of the Committees on Agriculture, Trade and Commerce and Justice and Human Rights of both the Senate and House of Representatives, which shall meet bi-annually.

THE Commission on Human Rights in the region is

set to lead a conference and workshop activity on March 23-24 at The Marco Polo Davao, this city to discuss emerging challenges in conflict and emergency situations that gravely affect women.

CHR 11 will con-duct the activity dubbed “Workshop on Women’s Human Rights in Conflict and Emergency Situation” in collaboration with the United Nations Entity for Gender and Equality and Women Empowerment (UN Women).

CHR 11 regional direc-tor Atty. Alberto B. Sipaco, Jr. said the workshop in-tends to draw from the participants recommen-dations on how to bring the focus of human rights protection to women in Mindanao within the con-text of the theme.

The inputs will be very valuable for this first joint project of CHR and

UN Women as well as for the target group of rights holders, he stated.

Prior to the workshop proper, presentation and discussions on the situa-tional analysis of the con-flict and emergency situa-tion in Mindanao will also take place.

Sipaco said they have invited as keynote speak-er Pramila Patten, former member of the UN Com-mittee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimi-nation against Women (CEDAW).

Patten will tackle on using the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women for the advancement of women’s rights in conflict and emergency situation, he said.

He added that the par-ticipants will be coming from UN Agencies, CHR, other government agen-cies and non-government organizations. [PIA 11/CARINA L. CAYON]

CHR workshop on women’s rights in emergency

JAPANESE Ambassa-dor to Manila, Toshi-nao Urabe, signed last

March 22 eight grants for socio-economic projects in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao, with major stakeholders in the re-gion’s peace process wit-nessing the occasion.

The Japanese em-bassy in Manila said this new package of as-sistance amounting to USD824,653 (about P34 million) forms part of Japan’s commitment to support peace and de-velopment efforts in the region.

With the funds, four school buildings, two post-harvest facilities with agricultural equip-ment and a training cen-ter will be constructed and hospital equipment installed.

Secretary Teresita Deles, chair of the Office of the Presidential Ad-viser on the Peace Pro-cess (OPAPP) and Major General Dato Abdul Ra-him Bin Mohd Yusuff, the Head of Mission of the

International Monitor-ing Team (IMT) will be among the witnesses.

The eight projects are the sixth batch of assis-tance under the Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development (J-BIRD) funded through the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP).

J-BIRD was launched in 2006 to pursue Japan’s commitment to the peace process between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Lib-eration Front (MILF).

Since its launching, Ja-pan has already support-ed 58 grassroots projects amounting to a total US$ 4.7 million (about P243 million).

The projects are locat-ed in the municipalities of Magpet, Alamada and Carmen in North Cotaba-to province, in Sultan sa Barongis, Sultan Kudarat and Pagalungan towns in Maguindanao province, and in barangays in La-nao del Sur province. [PNA]

Japan grants P34M projects for Mindanao

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 20124 THE BIG NEWS EDGEDAVAO

THE Philippines and Kuwait will seal sev-eral agreements dur-

ing the five-day state visit of Kuwait’s Amir, His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber, to further cement the growing relations between the two countries.

Sheikh Sabah will arrive in the country Friday after-noon and will meet with President Benigno S. Aquino III at the Malacanang Palace for a courtesy call and bilat-eral meeting.

Among the agreements to be signed by the two countries include: Memo-randum of Understanding on Agricultural and Fish-eries Cooperation, Agree-ment on the Waiver of Visa Requirements for Holders of Diplomatic, Special and Official Passports, Executive Program for the Cultural Agreement for the Years 2012-2014, Memorandum of Understanding on Coop-eration in the Recruitment and Employment of Filipino Household Service Workers,

and Memorandum of Un-derstanding in the Field of Labor Cooperation.

The signatories for the Philippine side will be For-eign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Agriculture Sec-retary Proceso Alcala, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, and National Commission on Culture and the Arts Chairman Felipe de Leon.

For the Kuwait govern-ment, the signatories will in-clude Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah, deputy head of the coun-cil of ministers, minister of foreign affairs and minister of state for the affairs of the council of ministers.

The Amir’s visit to the country is upon the invita-tion of President Aquino to reaffirm the commitments of the two countries in rein-forcing ties and in strength-ening cooperation.

Kuwait is one of the country’s leading invest-ment and development partners in the Middle East. [PNA]

PHL, Kuwait to ink accord

UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE. Bebina Limpag (right) calls for the immediate release of Debirth Zabala, a peasant who was detained on September last year for accusa-tions of being a member of the New People’s Army. Andres Baticure (left), Barangay

Captain of Paquibato District, said that Zabala is just an ordinary peasant who lives by making coconut wine. KARLOS MANLUPIG

A group of engineering students from a local school in Kidapawan

City may soon acquire a pat-ent for their invention: an-electronic helmet that they said can detect drunk driv-ing.

Agham party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones said his group will help the student-inventors apply for a patent to protect their intellectual property rights.

Palmones considered the invention necessary since drunk driving is one of the many causes of ve-hicular accidents not only in North Cotabato but also in many parts of the country.

“This is very impressive, that’s why Agham party-list, through our representative, is bent on supporting the patent application of the

invention,” said Bing Belar-mino, a staffer of Rep. Pal-mones.

Belarmino said they have already given the in-ventors the checklist needed for the application so they could submit the documents to the patent division of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The electronic helmet was invented by fourth year Electronics and Commu-nications Engineering stu-dents at the Notre Dame of Kidapawan College, namely Dessa Caro, Bryan Lumbay-an, Julius Lopez, and Darwin Zoilo, all residents of this city.

Caro, the group leader, said they could not imagine their invention would reach this far.

“I just could not believe

it. We did not expect we’ll reach this far. Actually, we invented this product as part of our thesis and as a requirement for our gradu-ation,” she said.

Lumbayan said they were inspired to invent a motorcycle helmet when one of their classmates was hurt in a road mishap on his way home to Makilala, North Cotabato. The driver, he said, was drunk and did not use a helmet.

The group spent two months on their invention.

The critical stage was when they had to dispose some of the parts they ear-lier used to make the prod-uct work. One of these, Lum-bayan said, was the Solenoid bulb.

“We intend to include in the gadget a gas sensor

using Solenoid bulb. But we didn’t use it because we have problems with the switch. It may create a spark and may cause a fire so we have to dispose it,” he said.

For the wireless com-munication, the inventors used a chip taken from a remote-controlled toy car which they used as trans-mitter and a receiver.

Lumbayan said all the materials they used to man-ufacture the product are available in the Philippines.

They all said the inven-tion was 100-percent origi-nal.

“The gadget worked. We know it’s also viable, mean-ing, it can be reproduced and sold in the market,” said Lumbayan. [MALU CADELINA MANAR/MINDANEWS]

ND Kidapawan students invent electronic helmet

THE Philippine gov-ernment (GPH) and Moro Islamic Libera-

tion Front (MILF) ended their three-daypeace nego-tiations Wednesday with no significant agreement reached on the substan-tive issues of power and wealth sharing but agreed to approve the request of the Office of the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (for-merly Conference) to sit as observer in the 15-year old talks.

The approval of the OIC’s observer status was contained in the Joint Statement signed by GPH panel chair Marvic Le-onen and MILF panel chair Mohagher Iqabal with Malaysian facilitator Dato Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed.

“Excellent move,” his-torian Rudy Rodil said of the entry of the OIC. Ro-dil served as government peace panel member in the negotiations with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) from 1993 to 1996 and in the negotiations with the MILF from 2004 to 2008.

The OIC, he told Mind-aNews, is the “perfect me-diator between the MNLF and MILF.”

Peace advocate Soliman Santos, a regional trial court judge who has written sev-eral books on the Bangsam-oro peace process, echoed Rodil’s comment. He told MindaNews the entry of the

OIC is “good for convergence and international clout. They should be able to help the MNLF-MILF unity pro-cess and see also who better represents the Bangsam-oro aspirations.” “A value addition to the talks,” said Guiamel Alim of the Council of Elders of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society.

The 57-member pan-Islamic body brokered the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the MNLF that led to the signing of the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and the 1996 Fi-nal Peace Agreement (FPA).

The MNLF has been holding an observer status in the OIC since 1977 and has been sending delega-tions to OIC meetings in the last 35 years. The MILF is composed of members of the MNLF who broke away from the MNLF in the late 1970s to form what it initial-ly called the “New MNLF” but which it later renamed to MILF. The leader of the breakaway group was Sala-mat Hashim, vice chair to chair Nur Misuari.

Hashim succumbed to an illness in July 2003. Misu-ari was elected governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) a week after he signed the 1996 FPA. He was detained on charges of rebellion from January 2002 to April 2008.

The OIC initially cre-ated a Committee of Four that later expanded into the Ministerial Committee

OIC is observer in peace talks

FOIC, 13

SPEAKER Feliciano Bel-monte Jr. lauded mem-bers of the House of

Representatives on Thursday for passing on third and final reading eight priority mea-sures identified by the Legis-lative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) out of the 15 national bills ap-proved despite the daunting dual tasks of lawmaking and the ongoing impeachment trial of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“We did our job well. We have a very good record of bills approved on third and final reading,” said Belmonte in a press conference at the Hotel Sofitel in Pasay City.

“Like our common folks who carry pails of water on their shoulders, this House -- since the resumption of

session on January 16, 2012 -- has had to lift a dual bur-den which the Constitution imposes upon it... that of en-acting laws for the greater good, and of enforcing public accountability among a select group of government officers removable only by impeach-ment,” he said.

With the adjournment of the Lower Chamber Wednes-day evening, the House has approved 15 national bills on third and final reading; and eight national bills on second reading in line with the Aqui-no administration’s 16-point agenda or Social Contract with the Filipino People.

Before the chamber ad-journed at 6:59 p.m. Wednes-day, the House passed on third reading these LEDAC priority measures: House Bill

House approves priority measures before adjourning for Lenten break

(HB) 98 “Defining and Penal-izing Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance;” HB 5460 “Providing Incentives for the Manufacture, Assembly, Conversion and Importation of Electric, Hybrid and other Alternative Fuel Vehicles;” HB 5715 “Providing for the Pro-tection, Security, and Benefits of Whistleblowers;” HB 5854 “Amending Republic Act 8239 or the “Philippine Passport Act of 1996;”

HB 5860 “Providing

for the Delineation of the Specific Forest Limits of the Public Domain;” HB 5870 “Authorizing the Land Man-agement Bureau to Conduct a Survey on Cadastral Lots in the Country;” HB 5932 “Pe-nalizing the Unauthorized Stealing of Government Risk Reduction and Preparedness Equipment;” and HB 5990 “Providing the Compensation to Victims of Human Rights Violations during the Marcos Regime.”

‘IT is really hard for peo-ple to see if they refuse to see, to listen if they do not want to hear. If they’re hap-py doing it, it’s okay.

--PRESIDENT AQUINO ON “NOYNOYING”

Quips

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012

By Noel T. Provido

FARMERS here have adequate irrigation and postharvest facilities but lack of financing

is a major productivity setback. “Although necessary infrastruc-ture where already in place, we cannot go full blast in rice pro-duction as it would require us fi-nancial capital for labor and farm inputs,” said Gamiel Portarcos. Portarcos who is the president of the Sitio New Talisay – New Clarin Irrigators Association said they have no option but to turn to non-formal lenders to overcome financial constraints. While he recognized that non-formal lenders helped them ad-dressed their needs for the whole cropping season oftentimes, small farmers are in the losing end. “Non-formal lenders collect high interest rates usually from 10 to 15 percent,” Portarcos said add-ing, “Most of the non-formal lend-ers are also traders and require farmers to sell their produce only to them. This practice usually shortchanged our farmers as they can no longer dictate the buying price.”

Portarcos said bulk of their income from rice farming goes to the repayment of their loans from traders with only meager amount left usually not enough to fund the production for the next cropping season.

“So we have no option but to again borrow money from non-formal lenders. Murag wala na’y katapusan (It becomes a vicious cycle),” he said.

He stressed insufficient fi-nancing limits some farmers to ex-pand production for fear of having to pay higher interest rates.

The prospect of earning bet-ter in rice farming came when their municipal agriculture office endorsed their irrigators’ associa-tion as one of the beneficiaries of the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP).

MRDP is a long-term poverty alleviation initiative of the Depart-ment of Agriculture (DA) with a funding assistance from the World Bank.

Through the Community Fund for Agricultural Development (CFAD), the program’s livelihood component, their association was able to access a funding assistance of at least P250, 000.00.

The funds they have availed themselves of were used to de-velop an interest-free package of assistance amounting to P25, 000. The said package is a combination of cash and farm inputs. Since members observe synchronous farming (planting rice simultane-ously) the release of assistance was based on the farming activi-ties within the production cycle.

“Our ultimate goal was to en-able our members to break-free from their continuing depen-dence on trader-lenders in financ-ing their farming activities. With this, the association does not only provide inputs but also cash as-sistance as there are activities like land preparation that requires money instead of inputs. If money is not available at this time, they would still resort to borrowing

from non-formal lenders to catch-up with the planting season,” he said.

“Members can avail of cash assistance only during land prep-aration and transplanting. Seeds can be withdrawn from the PO during seed preparation while fertilizers and insecticides will be released as the need arises,” Por-tarcos explained.

“For other farming activities, inputs will be made available in-stead of cash to ensure that the assistance will go to its intended purpose such as fertilizer and in-secticides,” he added.

At the end of every cropping season, each member are re-quired to return the total amount of the package of assistance he has availed himself of plus the P2,000.00 capital share which is a meager repayment compared to the interest imposed by non-formal lenders. They were made to realize that the sustainability of their livelihood project relies on their repayment.

“Since we have availed our-selves of the CFAD assistance in Nov ember 2009, we have at least collected a savings mobilization of P57, 332.00. We have also in-creased our revolving fund from P250, 000.00 to P282, 332.00. Our farmers have also increased their average yield from barely 60 sacks [at 60 kg/sack] to 120 sacks,” Portorcas said.

“Our income now allows us to support schooling of our children while some expanded their rice production including livestock raising for added income,” said

Rizalde Palermo, the associa-tion’s vice president.

“The assistance we received from MRDP enabled us to re-cover from huge debts incurred from non-formal lenders. We are glad that MRDP as well as our lo-cal government provided us the window of opportunity to break-free from the vicious cycle of un-fair financial arrangements from trader-lenders,” Portarcos said.

The association also agreed that for the next cropping season they will apply for a crop insur-ance to ensure they collect capital share even if the farms is affected by calamities or damaged by pest.

MRDP program director Lea-lyn Ramos for her part said she is glad that out of the modest fi-nancial assistance provided by the program rice farmers in New Clarin are making headway in im-proving their income.

“Given the increasing demand to secure the supply of our staple food, the challenge now is how to make rice production more prof-itable so that we can entice more farmers to sustain rice farming,” Ramos said.

Aside from providing infra-structure and livelihood support to our small farmers, MRDP she said is also building the capaci-ties of farmers to maximize their productivity.

“Rice farmers in New Cla-rin exemplify how the program’s community-driven development approach would not only ad-dress the beneficiaries felt need but also enabled them to be self-reliant as they are no longer dependent on traders to finance their farming expenses,” she added.

Portarcos said their asso-ciation seeks to further improve their rice farming activities with several plans that would en-hance their productivity. He is optimistic that that sooner they will not just sell their palay but will eventually produce and sell rice for better profit.

As they continue with their rice farming activities he urged their association officers and members to keep their financial resources well-guarded as they are not sure if the same liveli-hood opportunity will come by.

“Now that we have liberated ourselves from burden of paying high interest credit, we have to sustain our project not only in-crease our income but to reach out to other small farmers,’ he said.

THE ECONOMY 5EDGEDAVAOStat Watch

MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2009 - December 2011)

Month 2011 2010 2009

Average 43.31 45.11 47.637December 43.64 43.95 46.421November 43.27 43.49 47.032October 43.45 43.44 46.851

September 43.02 44.31 48.139August 42.42 45.18 48.161

July 42.81 46.32 48.146June 43.37 46.30 47.905May 43.13 45.60 47.524April 43.24 44.63 48.217

March 43.52 45.74 48.458February 43.70 46.31 47.585January 44.17 46.03 47.207

3.5%4th Qtr 2011

3.7%4th Qtr 2011

USD 3,342Million

Nov 2011USD 4,985

MillionNov 2011

USD -1,643Million

Nov 2011USD -114

MillionDec 2011

P4,442,355Million

Nov 2011

4.71%Oct 2011P128,745

MillionNov 2011

P 4,898Billion

Oct 2011

P 43.65Dec 2011

3,999.7Sept 2011

128.1Jan 2012

3.9Jan 2012

3.4Dec 2011

284,040Sept 2011

19.1%Oct 2011

6.4%Oct 2011

1. Gross National IncomeGrowth Rate(At Constant 2000 Prices)

2. Gross Domestic ProductGrowth Rate(At Constant 2000 Prices)

3. Exports 1/

4. Imports 1/

5. Trade Balance

6. Balance of Payments 2/

7. Broad Money Liabilities

8. Interest Rates 4/

9. National Government Revenues

10. National government outstanding debt

11. Peso per US $ 5/

12. Stocks Composite Index 6/

13. Consumer Price Index 2006=100

14. Headline Inflation Rate 2006=100

15. Core Inflation Rate 2006=100

16. Visitor Arrivals

17. Underemployment Rate 7/

18. Unemployment Rate 7/

Cebu Pacific Daily 5J961 / 5J962 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:15Zest Air Daily Z2390 / Z2390 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:25Cebu Pacific Daily 5J593 / 5J348 6:00 Cebu-Davao-Iloilo 6:30Philippine Airlines Daily PR809 / PR810 6:10 Manila-Davao-Manila 7:00Philippine Airlines Daily PR819 / PR820 7:50 Manila-Davao-Manila 8:50Cebu Pacific Daily 5J394 / 5J393 7:50 Zamboanga-Davao-Zamboanga 8:10Cebu Pacific Daily 5J599 / 5J594 8:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 8:30Cebu Pacific Daily 5J347 / 5J596 9:10 Iloilo-Davao-Cebu 9:40Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun 5J963 / 5J964 9:40 Manila-Davao-Manila 10:10Philippine Airlines Daily PR811 / PR812 11:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 12:20Cebu Pacific Daily 5J595 / 5J966 12:00 Cebu-Davao-Manila 12:30Silk Air Mon/Wed/Sat MI588 / MI588 18:55 Davao-Cebu-Singapore 13:35Cebu Pacific Thu 5J965 / 5J968 12:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 13:25Cebu Pacific Tue/Wed//Sat 5J965 / 5J968 13:35 Manila-Davao-Manila 14:05

Silk Air Thu/Sun MI566 / MI566 18:55 Davao-Singapore 15:20Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri 5J507 / 5J598 15:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 15:30Philippine Airlines August 15:55 Mani2Mani 16:50Zest Air Daily Z2524 / Z2525 16:05 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 16:45Cebu Pacific Daily 5J967 / 5J600 16:35 Manila-Davao-Cebu 17:05Philippines Airlines Daily PR813 / PR814 16:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 17:45Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Thu/Sat 5J215 / 5J216 18:00 Cagayan de Oro-Davao-Cagayan de Oro 18:20Cebu Pacific Daily 5971 / 5J970 18:40 Manila-Davao-Manila 19:10Cebu Pacific Tue/Sat/Sun 5J973 / 5J974 20:00 Manila-Davao-Manila 20:30Cebu Pacific Daily 5J969 / 5J972 20:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:00Airphil Express Daily 2P987 / 2P988 20:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:00Philippine Airlines Daily except Sunday PR821 / PR822 21:20 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:50Philippine Airlines Sunday PR821 / PR822 22:20 Manila-Davao-Manila 22:50

as of august 2010

Modest financing boosts rice farming in Davao Sur

TRADERS NO MORE.  Gamiel Portarcos, president of New Clarin Irrigators’ Association is shows off palay harvested from his farm sans high interest rates from non-formal lenders.  Portarcos and his members availed them-

selves of modest but interest-free financial assistance from Mindanao Ru-ral Development Program.  Photo by Sherwin Manual.

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 20126 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO

A business group has filed with the Ener-gy Regulatory Com-

mission (ERC) a motion to intervene in the hear-ing relative to the appli-cation of the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) to purchase additional power from independent power pro-ducer Therma Marine In-corporated (TMI).

The ERC has set the public hearing on the pro-posed purchase of power by Zamcelco from TMI on April 1.

However, Pedro Rufo Soliven, Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc., president clarified they are not opposing any plan by Zamcelco to pur-chase additional power from an IPP.

Soliven said they are only concerned over the amount that Zamcelco would eventually pass on to its consumers passing

on to its consumers the cost of purchase.

Zamcelco project su-pervisor and acting gen-eral manager Jesus Castro said the proposed rate which will eventually passed on to the consum-ers is more or less 90 cen-tavos per kilowatt hour based on the proposed contract between Zam-celco and TMI.

However Castro said the rate is not yet fixed and the ERC is evaluating everything to establish the right and affordable rate that TMI may charge from Zamcelco.

Meanwhile, Mayor Celso Lobregat, who per-sonally talked with ERC Chairperson Zenaida Ducut over the phone on Monday, said the ERC will give Zamcelco a pro-visional authority “so the cooperative can imme-diately purchase power from TMI.

Lobregat said that

Zamcelco, with the provi-sional authority, can buy power from TMI but the actual charging more or less will be dependent on the rate and will depend on the outcome of the public hearing to be held by the ERC.

Zamcelco is buying 18 megawatts of power from TMI needed to augment the power supply in this city.

Zamboanga City will eventually experience brownouts of between four and six hours daily if no additional power will be purchased, according to Castro.

Purchasing additional power will shorten the daily brownouts, he add-ed.

At present, Zamboanga City is experiencing three-hour daily brownouts since it consumes about 85 megawatts but is only receiving an average of 60 megawatts a day. [MINDANEWS]

Zamboanga business group urges purchase of more energy supply

AT least 85 unem-ployed housewives graduated recently

in the RTU Handicraft Livelihood Training held in two separate venues as part of the City Gov-ernment of Tagum’s pro-gram to equip housewives living in housing reloca-tion areas with skills that could help them augment their income.

The City Investment and Promotion Office—the lead office who conducted the event—will help in marketing the products with the help of the Tagum City Council of Women.

Meanwhile, 43 house-wives from Purok 8-A Laureta Homes in Baran-gay San Miguel benefited in the Native Plate Making last March 13-15, 2012 held at the Barangay San Miguel gymnasium. For three days, these house-wives learned the basic of native plates making from coconut string locally called tukog.

Purok Chairwoman Aida Aparece of Laureta Homes said she was very happy that her purok col-leagues were able to avail of this skills training pro-gram which they can use to

earn money in the future. Aparece added her group is planning to organize a community-based orga-nization that will produce native plates.

“Na-inspire gyud mi para maka-income among mga tagsa-tagsa ka pami-lya,” she shared in an inter-view.

One dozen of native plate is tagged at 170 pesos while flower baskets range from 10 pesos-45 pesos apiece.

Meanwhile, a total of 42 housewives from the RTU Relocation Site also received free training on

Flower Stand Making last March 16-18, 2012 held at the Barangay Apokon Gymnasium.

In an interview, City Councilor De Carlo “Oyo” L. Uy vowed to strengthen the skills training program of the local government, as it is one key in empower-ing women.

“This is one of the pri-orities of the local govern-ment of Tagum and this is a good way to help our less-privileged constitu-ents to have an additional income,” the young solon said. [CITY INFORMATION OFFICE- TAGUM/JDA/PIA XI]

85 housewives learn entrepreneurial skills

THE Social Se-curity System is calling on its

members with overdue loans to apply for the new loan condonation program, which would start on April 2.

The new loan con-donation program al-lows members to settle the unpaid principal amount and corre-sponding interest of their loans without pay-ing the entire amount of incurred penalties. Its terms and require-ments vary depending on the type of applicant availing the program.

Beneficiaries of de-ceased borrowers filing their death claim appli-cations and borrowers filing total disability

or retirement claims within the availment period are also covered by the new amnesty.

The deadline of ap-plication is on Septem-ber 30 but beneficiaries of deceased borrowers with outstanding loans can apply until March 30 next year.

The new amnesty program covers over-due salary, calamity, emergency, education-al, study-now-pay-lat-er, stock investment and privatization fund loans.

For more informa-tion and inquiries, members can call the SSS Hotline: 920-6446 to 55 or email the m e m b e r _ r e l a t i o n s @sss.gov.ph.

SSS Announcement

PROGRESSIVE groups urged the Aquino administration to

push for renewable ener-gy as a long-term solution to oil price hikes. Akbayan lawmaker Walden Bello said that the spiraling cost of fuel should send alarm signals to the government and stress the urgency of pushing for renewable en-ergy to address the coun-try’s energy needs.

“High fuel prices are here to stay because crude oil is a limited and non-renewable resource. On top of that, an increase in oil prices always results in an increase of other com-modities› prices because of our economy›s broad dependence on petroleum and other fossil fuels. In-deed, this dependence on fossil fuels has made our energy sector susceptible to price fluctuations. If there is any magic bullet to oil price hikes, it is renew-able energy,” according to Bello.

Bello also said that the deregulation of the oil industry and the subse-quent sale of Petron did not result in the promised decrease in fuel prices. He called on the government to invest in renewable en-ergy alongside an increase in government regulation of the oil industry.

“The best solution re-mains to be serious gov-ernment regulation of the oil industry with the view of eventually shifting to renewable energy. We cannot sustain this depen-dence on imported fos-sil fuel under the present circumstances; we should not allow our energy se-curity to be violated by market forces. The key is for government to regu-late fuel prices while de-liberately strengthening the country’s capacity to meet our energy needs us-

ing solar, wind, hydro and other renewable energy resources,” Bello said.

Meanwhile foreign re-newable energy experts who attended the recently concluded Renewable Energy Conference orga-nized by the Active Citi-zenship Foundation (ACF) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) last March 12-14, 2012 stated that re-newable energy can meet 50% or more of a coun-try’s energy needs.

According to renew-able energy expert Dr. Uwe Leprich, Director of the Institute for Future Energy Systems (IZES) of Saarland University of Ap-plied Science, Germany is already pushing for 50% of their energy to come from renewable sources by 2020.

“We are already push-ing for 50% of our energy needs to come from re-newable energy by 2020. Full renewable energy is possible,” according to Leprich.

Another expert from Germany, Dr. Joachim Spengenberg of the Helm-holtz Center for Environ-mental Research, when asked of the current con-struction of coal-fired power plants in the coun-try said that from his ex-perience, “coal is a child of politics and not of the eco-nomics.” He said that coal power is very expensive in the long run and suggest-ed that the country make use of the huge amount of renewable energy sources

it has such as solar and wind.

Prof. Bjorn Karlsson of the Efficient Distribution & Consumption of Energy Research Group, Mälar-dalen University in Väs-teras in Sweden also stat-ed that renewable energy can be done small scale.

“Small houses in the countryside can be con-nected with solar panel and then connected to the grid,” according to Karls-son.

Bello urged the Aquino administration to fully implement the Renew-able Energy Act of 2008 that lays down the govern-ment’s policy on develop-ing the country’s renew-able energy resources.

“Many countries have successfully made the shift to renewable en-ergy, this should inspire the government to take the route to renewable energy. We should take the first step to ensuring that 50% of our energy needs are supplied by clean, renewable sources by scrapping any plan to construct additional coal-fired power plants. After all, the more we de-velop coal power plants, the harder it becomes to end our dependence on them, and the graver the consequences become for the people and the environment. We should instead seriously transi-tion to other alternatives such as solar, wind and hydro power,” according to Bello.

Renewable energy solution to oil price hikes

“An across-the-board pay adjustment via legislation would all the more hurt mi-cro and small establishments as such staggering amount of wage increase would compel them to close shop to the detriment of workers.”

--Employers Confederation of the Philip-pines President Edgardo Lacson on the pro-posed P125 across the board wage hike.

Quips

BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando

Tetangco Jr. urges banks to really commit to their responsibilities to fur-ther gain the trust of their banking public.

“There should be no room for complacency in bank and bankers. Filipi-nos trust you with their money. You are account-able to them. Shape up, level up, and never betray their trust,” Tetangco told members of the Cham-ber of Thrift Banks (CTB) during the group’s con-

vention in a Makati hotel Wednesday.

The central bank chief said thrift banks play a major role in the country’s development because their primary clients -- the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) -- are the back-bone of the economy.

“Indeed, by accumu-lating savings of deposi-tors to finance small and medium enterprises as well as consumer loans, thrift banks continue to help the economy grow and generate employ-

ment,” he said in his speech.

Tetangco said the thrift banking industry’s resources posted high growth and cited that rise in thrift bank’s deposits is equal to the expansion in their loans to consumers, thus, the industry have surpassed their minimum requirement for MSME lending.

He stressed that the Philippines “is poised to achieve solid growth this year” due to strong mo-mentum in both the mon-etary and fiscal sides. [PNA]

BSP urges thrift banks to level-up

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012 7AGRITRENDSEDGEDAVAO

LEGUMES are the rich-est and cheapest com-mon source of protein

among all foods of plant ori-gin. The protein found in le-gumes is a cheap substitute for fish, chicken, pork, and other meats. Aside from being an important food in the human diet, legumes are also good supplemen-tary feed for livestock and poultry.

Legumes – soybean, mung bean, peanut, string bean, winged bean, to name a few – are special kinds of plants. They have the abil-ity to hide bacteria in their roots, which form nodules (“numerous rounded mass-es in the roots”). The bacte-ria present in these nodules catch nitrogen from the air and transform it into usable from and supply it to the soil to be used by the next crop.

“Though nitrogen is abundant in nature – cy-cling between the atmo-sphere, soil and living or-ganisms – it is only directly available to plants when converted through biologi-cal or industrial processes to certain forms, primar-ily ammonium and nitrate,” explains Lindsay Watkins, seed bank manager of the Florida-based Educational Concerns for Hunger Orga-nization (ECHO).

Some nitrogen is made available to plant through the decay of existing soil or-ganic matter (example: ma-nures and plant residues) or residues of the current crop. A small amount of atmospheric nitrogen is also “fixed” and converted to nitrate through light-ning. Generally, these meth-ods are not sufficient to re-plenish the nitrogen taken

up the crop and removed with the harvest.

“Adequate replacement of plant-available nitrogen in the soil, then, is accom-plished by applying fertil-izer (expensive inorganic chemicals, manure, etc.) and through biological ni-trogen fixation.

Nitrogen fixation in the soil is primarily accom-plished through a symbi-otic relationship between plants in the legume family and a soil bacterium calle-drhizobium. This microor-ganism interacts with the roots of leguminous plants to produce nitrogen which will naturally fertilize the plant and build soil fertility.

“If the nitrogen-fixing bacteria are not present in

the soil, the legumes will have to depend much on soil nitrogen,” explains Roy C. Alimoane, director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foun-dation, Inc. in Kinusku-san, Bansalan, Davao del Sur. “As such, the soil is de-pleted of its nitrogen.”

Both ECHO and MBRLC are non-profit, Christian organization that helps poor people in industrial-ized countries to grow food using science and technol-ogy. MBRLC, for instance, is known for its sustainable upland farming systems like Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) and Food Always In The Home (FAITH) gardening.

According to Watkins,

Inoculating leguminous cropsBy Jims Vincent T. Capuno

String beans

Beans

Muling bean seeds

a legume growing in its native habitat is likely to have the appropriate bac-teria present in the soil. “If nodules are present on the roots, especially along the taproot near the crown, and if the nodules are pink or red inside, then an ap-propriate bacterial strain is living in the soil and active-ly fixing nitrogen in sym-biosis with that legume,” she says.

If the nitrogen-fixing bacteria are not present in

the soil, then it is necessary to introduce them into the soil where legumes are to be planted. This is made possible through a proce-dure called inoculation.

There are several benefits a farmer can get when he inoculates the seeds of legumes before planting. The most obvi-ous is the reduced need for fertilizer application (specifically inorganic ni-trogen). Also, nitrogen fixed by bacteria is not as

quickly leached from the soil as is applied nitrogen, resulting in a more stable nitrogen pool.

Soil quality is also en-hanced by inoculation, which fosters microbe diversity and residual nitrogen build-up over time. Finally, forage quality is improved when legumes are inoculated, since the increase in nitrogen levels promotes an increase in the legume’s protein con-tent.

STATE-run Nation-al Food Authority (NFA) has beefed up

funds for its local palay procurement as the sum-mer harvest season starts, a senior official said on Tuesday.

NFA administrator Angelito Banayo said that under the Food Sta-ples Sufficiency Program (FSSP), the grains agency plans to buy 1.248 million metric tons (MT) of palay from local farmers this year.

Banayo, however, stressed that NFA can only attain as much as half of their target or around 519,675 MT of palay due to limited resources.

“That is the most at-tainable target consid-

ering limited budget on hand, based on the palay procurement subsidy giv-en by the national govern-ment and the sale of rice stocks in NFA warehous-es,” he said,

Banayo said the gov-ernment is hard-pressed to meet the rice procure-ment target of 1.247 mil-lion MT, saying that the NFA would need at least P22 billion to buy the said volume from local farm-ers.

“We can only generate as much as P10.5 million for this year’s palay pro-curement, including the P4 billion subsidy from the national government,” he said.

Meanwhile, Banayo said they plan to buy bulk

of the palay harvests dur-ing the rainy season.

“Usually, summer crop has very good qual-ity, so farmers can sell their palay between P18 to P18.50 to private trad-ers. It looks like our buy-ing will be heavier during the rainy season because that’s when we are need-ed,” he said.

Under the food secu-rity roadmap, the NFA plans to buy 1.248 million MT of palay in 2012 at a buying price of P17 per kilo plus P0.70 for farm-ers group, P0.20 delivery fee and P0.20 drying fee for individual farmers.

The NFA buys palay from local farmers to en-sure stability of farm-gate prices of the staple.

This year’s procure-ment target doubles the 280,000 MT of palay bought by the agency in 2011. It will be the sec-ond largest palay pro-curement by the NFA. In 1979, the government purchased more than 700,000 MT of rice, the largest palay procure-ment in history.

For 2012, the DA tar-gets to produce 18.46 million MT rice, and more than 20 million MT by 2013 to attain rice self-sufficiency.

Last year, the country managed to harvest 16.68 million MT of rice despite strong typhoons, which is 5.8 percent higher than the 15.77 million MT pro-duced in 2010. [PNA]

NFA beefs up funds for palay procurement A Philippine wild

raspberry called “sapinit” processed

into juice, jam, and wine has penetrated the market with its unique taste and richness in leucoanthocy-anin, an anti-Alzheimer’s, and anti-cancer phyto-chemical content.

The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Ag-ricultural Research (DA-BAR) has seen an initial success in its P1.55 mil-lion-funded project.

The processing facility in Tiaong town, Quezon Province only has a ca-pacity now of processing 100 kilos of raw fruit per day.

BAR Director Dr. Nico-medes Eleazar said prod-ucts like sapinit that are unique to the Philippines, particularly to the wilds

of Mt. Banahaw in Que-zon and Laguna, need a big boost in research and marketing support from the government.

“You can’t find Sapinit anywhere as much as you find them thriving in our wilds even without a deli-cate need for nurture and care. They are protectors of our environment,” said Eleazar.

Other funders of the project are the National Agriculture and Fisheries Council and Japan’s KR2 Program.

Sapinit has a bright potential as a specialty product as its price in the market is high. Farmers can sell it fresh in the San Pablo City wet market at P300 per kilo. However, shelf life of fresh fruits is only three-four days.

Raspberry ‘sapinit’ penetrates market

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 20128 VANTAGE POINTS

THE political pot seems to have started to heat up.The national dailies already carried the results

of a Pulse Asia nationwide survey listing senatorial wannabes in the 2013 mid-term elections. Leading the pack are Loren Legarda, a consistent senatorial topnotcher and two-time vice presidential candidate, and Francis “Chiz” Escudero, another wonder boy in politics. Both incumbent senators, Legarda and Escu-dero’s ratings in the surveys have see-sawed between No.1 and No. 2. In the latest survey conducted last 26 to March 9, Legarda regained the No. 1 slot held by Escudero in the November 2011 survey.

The rest of the senatoriables are Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas, Alan Peter Cayetano,Juan Ponce Enrile Jr., Noli de Castro, Antonio V. Trillanes IV, Grego-rio Honasan, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Aquilino Pimen-tel III, Ted Failon and Justice Leila de Lima. The top 20 senatoriables include former senator Rodolfo Biazon, Kris Aquino, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Jambi Madrigal.

The nationwide Asia Pulse survey almost coincid-ed with a similar local survey conducted by the newly launched Institute of Popular Opinion of the Univer-sity of Mindanao. This particular poll is actually about the popularity and trust rating of incumbent elective officials and heads of offices. The survey included the perception of the people on the beneficiality of the city’s impact projects.

The initial release of the IPO opinion poll cover-ing the first congressional district showed that Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, and

First District Rep. Karlo Nograles are tied in popular-ity with an identical rating of 99.4 percent. In trust rating, daughter and father again tied at No. 1 with 98.8 percent, while Nograles was lower with 91.3 percent. In the same survey, Pilar C. Braga topped the first district city councilors, while Leonardo Avila III, the acting city agriculturist, is the most popular and most trusted of the 15 department heads.

That’s not all, Vice Mayor Rody announced he would finance the reelection bid of Mayor Sara if she so desires. Early on, Inday Sara said she would only run again for mayor if papa spends for her candidacy.

From their pronouncements, it may be deduced that there is a big possibility that Mayor Sara will run for reelection because her father said he would be willing to bankroll her candidacy.

The next question is will VM Rody run for vice mayor again, or for congressman of the first district, against incumbent and possibly reelectionist Karlo Nograles? What happens to eldest son, Paolo Duterte, who is a city councilor by virtue of being the presi-dent of the Association of Barangay Captains?

Whatever, political pundits and dyed-in-the-wool observers say, half joking, this is no time to second guess the moves of Rody Duterte, the astute politician that he is. He is known to always keep his cards close to his chest, so much so that even his allies are clue-less about his final moves until the last minute.

But, as far as his daughter and son who are now in politics are concerned, it is always father who knows best.

Reading Rody DuterteEDITORIAL

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EDGEDAVAO

Limits of tradition 2

By Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews

SOMEONE ELSE’S WINDOWS

‘THOSE who re-ceived allowances but did not pay withholding taxes should correct the error and pay.’

--Commissioner Kim Henares of the Bureau of Inter-nal Revenue

Quips

LUMADS or indigenous peoples have their own ways of settling conflicts among themselves. And though

these methods or processes don’t jibe with the prevailing legal system this is no reason to look down on them as inferior. For the Lumads, such modes of conflict resolution have served as effective means of maintaining social order and relations.

Depending on the nature and level of offense that gives rise to a conflict, the in-digenous system prescribes correspond-ing sanctions or actions for each party to comply as sacred obligations not only to the community but also to the spirits in-voked in the whole process. Any intention to deviate from the terms of settlement exacted through culturally-defined stan-dards carries with it the pain of stigma that would hang like a scarlet letter on one’s neck.

Studies conducted by anthropologists and other social scientists have shown that these practices have survived and continued to be observed in pockets of Lumad communities in Mindanao. Even Lumads who are already familiar with the formal legal system but find it too cumbersome – not to say expensive – would opt to settle conflicts among them-selves the traditional way.

A shaman said that their culture even allows crimes like murder and rape to be settled without the parties going to the police and courts.

This is the method being proposed to resolve the murder of barangay chair Jim-my Liguyon of Dao, San Fernando town in Bukidnon reportedly by Aldy “Butsoy” Salusad, a former New People’s Army rebel who now heads a paramilitary group called the New Indigenous Peo-ple’s Army Reform (Nipar). Since both the victim and the culprit are Lumads, theoretically, it would not be hard to find a closure to the incident using cultural standards.

That would have been ideal and realistic in a different setting in the distant past, when a person would take the life of another human being mainly out of passion and not for ulte-rior political or economic motives.

Unfortunately, things have turned for the worse in Dao. As lo-cal officials themselves have admit-ted, violence in the area has been sparked by the greed of some people who want to control the gold min-ing operations there. Salusad and his ragtag band of followers are just among the many characters in this brewing rivalry.

That they have resorted to mur-der and terrorizing local people who refuse to bow to their will sug-gests that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to oblige them to submit to cultural norms. It’s even harder to believe that the police and military would eventually have the will to seriously go after them since they are considered valuable to counter-insurgency.

So what we have in Dao is a con-flict fueled by a deadly combination of economic interests and a campaign to eliminate security threats in the countryside by exploiting latent or actu-al divisions among the local people, the Lumads in particular.

The most the Lumads can do is weep for their dead and lost traditions. [H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com]

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012

DID Mrs. Cristina R. Corona re-ally sell her 1,700 sq. m. land in Marikina Heights to Demetrio C.

Vicente on July 26, 1990? Was the sale genuine?

These questions cropped up as the Philippine Daily Inquirer report-ed last Monday that Vicente would sell his property and move out of Marikina (PDI, March 19: Demetrio Vicente keen on leaving Marikina property). This report fuels and stokes the incredulity that the prosecution has raised.

Why is Vicente keen on moving out of the controversial 3,400 sq. m. property? No, not because of the land ownership having been implicated in Corona’s im-peachment case! That does not bother him, he told PDI. It’s the taxes that do.

What is his plan?First, he wants to move to a “place

where real property taxes are not as hefty” as that in Marikina. His regular tax is P70,000. Since 2009, the city has discounted the taxes by 50 percent due to the massive devastation brought by Typhoon Ondoy; this is temporary. [Note: As reported by Interaksyon, Vicente presented to the court a tax receipt for P65,268 as full payment for 2010 – not specifying if it was for Mrs. Corona’s 1,700 sq. m. or in-cluding that of Miriam Roco’s]

Second, he needs a bigger area of land. Maybe he will buy in San Mateo, Rizal where taxes are cheaper, not in Marikina.

Third, he will sell the property for not less than P27.2 million. The prop-

erty is described by PDI reporter Tara Quismundo as “a lush garden …almost like a slice of a quiet park” of bonsai trees, fruit trees and other ornamental plants. A red-brick house in the middle.”

To sell the property, he has to first transfer the titles to his name. He needs P200,000 for transfer tax, the amount, he says that he does not have. He did not do this in 1990 when this tax, he said, was only P2,599.92; yet, he paid the then P2,594.88 realty tax (ABS-CBNews.com, March 13: CJ witness: I couldn’t pay P2,500 transfer tax). [Note: To add more doubts to incre-dulity, as the realty taxes were going up during the 22 years, he was able to pay the running-away taxes but never the transfer tax and the accumulating penal-ties.]

What is there to watch in the sale? There are interesting scenarios in how Vicente will possibly raise the P200,000 transfer tax.

There is enough demand for bonsai plants. He has some personal property to sell or to mortgage. His daughter in Ku-wait has enough savings to pool with her father’s fund. The critical question: If he would raise by himself P200,000 now, why did he not do this earlier when the transfer tax was very much less?

Vicente can get a loan. Certainly, he cannot use as collateral the property he is selling. He can mortgage his wife’s 10-

door apartment in Quezon City. If he can do this now, why did he not do it earlier?

There is a ready buyer who would advance the P200,000. This is the best scenario from heaven.

In the spirit of give and take, the Co-ronas trust him with a P200,000 loan in return for the trust that he has had for them. This is a long, long shot and a sce-nario that the prosecution likes to see happen.

What if Vicente, as the prosecution believes, is really just a caretaker and a dummy? He cannot sell the property. Only Mrs. Corona and her sister Miriam can sell the property now. Will they through Vicente? If this happens, it will be the most interesting scenario.

Will any of the above scenarios mate-rialize? If Vicente will be able to sell the property, that will prove he is the real owner. Resolving the incredulity of the prosecution at this stage of the impeach-ment will absolve CJ Corona beyond doubt of the charge he has not declared that property in his SALNs.

Is it Vicente for his own sake that is really keen in selling the property he cannot legally sell? Why did he not make an issue about the “hefty” taxes earlier? What does he need a “bigger area” for? Unbelievably, not so he can expand his bonsai garden. In his heyday, he had 3,000 bonsai plants; now, past his hey-day, it’s down to 2,000. He might be too old at 70 and sickly, too, to start a bigger garden.

The more keenly the sale has to be watched.

9VANTAGE POINTS

Monkey Business

EDGEDAVAO

A Sale to Watch

(Conclusion)

The catchword is ‘fair competition’Kapatagan : Catching the rising sun at Mt Apo

By Patricio P. DiazCOMMENT

EVEN with such high cost of beer,

especially in fine restaurants and entertainment joints licensed by the government to sell beer hasn’t hold back beer consumers into buying their favorite drink. Believe it or not, a bottle of beer costs $3.50 to $5.00 or depending on one’s brand of choice plus an additional 13% commodity tax. For example, a certain brand of beer costs $4.50 a bottle plus tax will ultimately to-tal $5.48 or equivalent to P230.16.

A box of a fast-selling beer brand con-taining 12 bottles costs about $33.90, 13% tax included or equivalent to P1,423.80. There’s a huge difference if we have to compare the prices, isn’t it? But despite the staggering cost of beer, Canadians are still inclined to absorb the “superfluous expense”- without com-plaining.

Unlike in the Philippines, licensed beer and liquor dealers are fully moni-tored and strictly regulated by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario or LCBO, in the case of Ontario province. Same is true in all the regional municipalities and prov-inces throughout Canada. Funny but it’s true, I just can’t ignore my stacks of beer therefore I have to drink it slowly and gradually not knowing how and when to consume it. The irony is that I had no drinking partners during my stay in To-ronto. No barkadas with whom I could share my beer supply and rely on during “bull sessions.” That’s it!

Again, I would say comparison is odi-ous. Here, it’s the leading beer producers who are raising a howl against a legisla-tive measure increasing taxes on beer products or the so-called “Sin Tax.” The manufacturers strongly oppose the pas-sage of HB-5727 that seeks to unify and increase excise tax rate for beer products.

They reason out that on its first year of implementation, all beer products will be levied an excise tax of P25.00 per li-ter. And for the economy or low-priced brands that makes up 74% of all beer sold in the country would be tantamount to 140% increase in excise tax. As a re-sult, there will be a steep drop in the beer industry volume.

In their own estimate, I don’t know if it’s reliable, that conservative figures have beer volumes declining by as much as 50% - a staggering decline. Really, gen-tlemen? Furthermore, a status quo will result in loss of jobs and income for those who need it most. Then as many as 8,000 workers directly associated with the pro-duction and selling of beer and tens of thousands more involved in the distribu-tion of beer products stand to lose their jobs.

Still, they allege that lower beer sales will threaten the livelihood of more than 500,000 sari-sari stores nationwide. However, they would support a tax law, which is multi-tiered and provides for moderate increases, protect the rights of low-income consumers and promote healthy growth of an industry which has always been a committed partner to eco-nomic development.

Anyway, it’s their opinion that the implementation of HB–5727 will serve as a crippling blow to the beer industry. But it seems it might get harder to believe them since there are indications that there have been huge productivity gains in the profitable beer industry. In eco-nomic terms, higher productivity suppos-edly lead to lower prices, which requires increased production, spurs increased consumption – and more jobs. We hope that they’re not just expressing alarmist rhetoric. We’ll keep on beat watching!

FOR so many stupid rea-sons before,

I kept turning down special invitations by friends to go on an overnight trip to Kapatagan in Davao del Sur, not only to see Mt Apo in all its glory up close, but to see all the pine trees that have turned the place into something like Baguio.

It took somebody’s birthday within the membership of the Camera Club of Davao to make this weekend trip pos-sible and that somebody is Willy, a photo hobbyist and owner of a graphics design store along Rizal Extension here.

Like almost everyone else who was smart enough to get land rights in that blessed piece of Mt Apo’s mountain ranges, Willy also planted hundreds of pine trees several years ago after he got the property’s rights from owners over there. Others in fact, planted thousands of pine trees, turning the Kapatagan mountain top into something that looks like Wyoming mountains right out of a US postcard.

Although the winding dirt road climbing up the forested mountain southwest from Digos is only good for vehicles with four-wheel drives, most of the access road coming off the highway was concrete, so the trip can be pleas-

ant at times to visitors planning to drive all the way to the Kapatagan mountain ranges. Along the way, one can stop at one of the winding mountain curves to buy marang from makeshift nipa stalls and eating the fruit on the way up to the top.

What really struck me after waking up very early morning inside Willy’s family resort house, was the thick fog and the freezing cold that city-breds like me couldn’t take without wrapping myself with a thick woolen blanket over a thicker sweater and jumping up and down to keep warm among the dark, towering pine trees still slumbering and whistling with the cold winds sweeping over the sleeping valley.

Its too bad I didn’t go there as a pho-tographer to capture Mt Apo’s cream-streaked face catch the first sliver of the early morning sun’s rays as they rise above the distant mountain ranges in the east--- which happens to be the di-rection where the metropolitan city of Davao is located.

Trying to make our way through the muddy trail up the slope in the dark, amid the whistling pine trees, my ten year old son Sean and I had to pick up some fallen tree branches along the way and break them up into walking sticks to support our careful steps to the moun-tain top. “We have to hurry, Sean, if you want to catch the sun before it comes

up,” I said, as he trailed behind, a few steps behind me.

Thinking we were the first the reach the top of the mountain range, we were surprised to see Willy all alone, his camera now attached to his big tripod, aimed steadily at Mt Apo, still dark and sleepy, but catching the growing light of dawn as the sun, still hidden behind the distant mountains, began its slow rise to greet another new day.

“You’re the first to come, where are the others?” Willy said without tak-ing his eyes off his camera pointed at Mt Apo in one of his several attempts to get a more dramatic picture of the majestic, dormant volcano. The others, of course, were the CCD members still sleeping with all their photographic equipment in the mountain resort house, probably still unaware of nature’s drama that was just about to unfold over Kapatagan. It was perhaps just one of the million mornings out there when the rising sun comes up to greet the Philippines’ high-est peak.

If my reason for going to Kapa-tagan was just to watch the rising sun greet the majestic glory of Mt Apo, that weekend trip up there was worth dying for. I don’t think I could ever exchange that for anything else….

(Comments : Email: trading-post_davao@yahoo.com)

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 201210 COMMUNITY SENSE EDGEDAVAO

Thousands of Nokia-natics and mobile phone users from

key provinces all over the Philippines proved its more fun in the Philippines with the country’s leading mobile brand when they trooped to select malls as Nokia successfully put its own spin to the now-famous tourism campaign with exciting activities, freebies and treats.

“We share everyone’s excitement with the new tourism campaign, ‘It’s More Fun in the Philip-pines’ and we decided to inject our own twist to this campaign by bringing the

Nokia experience to the provinces. With the Mall Tours we want to show the fun and exciting mobile lifestyle of Filipinos, en-riched of course by Nokia,” said Dharmesh Goshalia, General Manager and Head of Sales of Nokia Philip-pines.

For this campaign, Nokia visited select malls in five provincial cities. The event kicked off at SM Pampanga, where Nokia launched an exciting pro-motion that had mallgoers and certified mobile phone lovers lining up to take first crack at the amazing deals up for grabs. For a whole

month, freebies and treats such as 4GB flash disks, Nokia fans, pouch bags and memo kits will be given away to visitors who pur-chased Nokia 1280, Nokia 100, Nokia 101, Nokia C2-00, Nokia C2-03 and Nokia Asha 200 models at Nokia’s partner-establishments.

Apart from this excit-ing sale, Nokia also showed just how fun it is to be a Nokianatic with exclusive activities at the Nokia Ki-osk such as SIM redemp-tions and activations, phone demos, postpaid selling, free consultation with Nokia Care and fun games that gave away ex-

citing Nokia freebies. Nokia also brought this

“invasion” to four other malls in key provinces: SM Cebu, Gaisano Mall Davao, SM Baguio, and SM Calam-ba.

The Mall Tours aligned with the “It’s More Fun in the Philippines with Nokia” campaign that aims to showcase its most af-fordable phones with great mobile features. The cam-paign is in collaboration with Smart and Sun Cel-lular.

Hurry, visit the Nokia stores in the said malls until the end of March to have a taste of the fun with Nokia.

Nokia launches ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ campaign AFTER being able

to avoid the rotat-ing power outages

for the past two months, Davao Light and Power Company may now be forced to implement rotat-ing brownouts within its franchise as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has announced an increase in the Mindanao-wide power curtailment at a level of 320 MW.

While other areas in Mindanao have report-edly been experiencing long duration of brown-outs, Davao Light custom-ers may only experience 30-minute rotating out-ages due to the reserve power supply that it has contracted from Indepen-dent Power Producers (IPPs) as part of its con-

tingency plans to address power shortages.

The electric-utility has contracted energy power supply from Hedcor Inc.’s Sibulan and Talomo Hy-droelectric power plants. It also has power supply agreement with Therma Marine Inc. (TMI).

Davao Light also main-tains on hot standby a Bunker C-fired standby power plant in Bajada.

Without the contract-ed power supply, custom-ers would have been ex-periencing 2 to 3 hours of daily interruptions.

However, these power supply contracts can only support up to 280 MW of Mindanao-wide curtail-ment. Beyond this, Davao Light will be implement-ing the 30-minute rotating power interruptions.

Davao Light may conduct rotating brownouts

The DOE has to follow existing laws, which is very clear about

government’s role. We are doing all we can within the limits of law. Our ac-tions have been as trans-parent as possible with very active consultation with stakeholders. We are not siding with anyone but just highlighting the truth of the situation. One such truth is that our actions have resulted in revenue reduction for some cor-porations clearly proving that we are not favoring

big business.We have issued a De-

partment Circular to ra-tionalize the power supply in Mindanao, but again, this will only be a band aid solution. The real solution for Mindanao, as we said in 2010, is additional base load generation capacity which will require invest-ments from the private sector as allowed by law.

These investments will only happen if the lo-cal governments and the people of Mindanao help in solving the situation.

DOE denies connivance with private companies Official Statement

A total of 225 provin-cial employees offi-cially traveled to Ili-

gan City on March 21 and 23 to help re-build Iligan and build 25 houses in 10-14 days. Called the Uswag-Gawad Kalinga Team, the group will be part of the National GK Challenge to help build a village in the resettlement site for the Sendong victims last De-cember 17, 2011.

Inspired by the spirit of Gawad Kalinga and Ili-gan being one of Gawad

Kalinga partners of Com-postela Valley, Governor Arturo Uy sees the need of the people especial-ly those victims whose houses were washed out and rendered home-less. When the governor visited the city following the tragic event, he imme-diately set a meeting with the department heads and presented his plan of help-ing the victims specifically building homes for the homeless, thus the team is now on the go.

The 60 employees composed the first batch while the next batch trav-elled together with the Indigenous People PCB, Apex Mining and other 8 teams from the town of Maco, Mabini, Pantukan, New Bataan, Nabunturan, Monkayo, Laak and Maw-ab with their respective town Mayors.

Each municipality to represent one team is composed of 15 people. In totality, the province is represented by 225 capi-

tol employees, excluding the team from different towns.

Comval’s Uswag-GK team have been recognized on its active participation to other GK build in other provinces and cities and noted as the very first team to finish in the building of the houses. “Let us always be an inspiration to oth-ers, lets help in any way we can,” Uy said. The National build is set from March 23- April 4, 2012. [RODIELYN A. MANU-GAS-IDS COMVAL]

Comvalenyos extend help for Sendong victims in Iligan City

IT’S MORE FUN IN SAMAL. The Island Garden City of Samal with the Department of Tourism Xl revealed last March 17, the line-up of activities for this year’s “Visit Samal” campaign which will run from April to July. The media briefing, led by DOT Xl Regional Director Arturo Boncato, Jr., Mayor Aniano Antalan, Vice Mayor Al David Uy and City Administrator Cleto Gales, was attended by Manila and Davao media. (DOT XL)

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012 11SUBURBIAEDGEDAVAO

A total of 5, 360 fami-lies qualified to be recipients of the De-

partment of Social Welfare and Development’s Pan-tawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

Recipients of the pro-gram received their first cash-out last March 17, 2012 at the City Trade and Cultural Center Pavilion.

The cash grants award-ed by the program are as follows: P500 per month (for a total of P6,000 a year) per household for health and nutrition ex-penses; P300 a month per child for educational expenses, or P3,000 for one 10-month school year. Only a maximum of 3 chil-dren per household are al-lowed to receive stipends; a total of P1, 200 a month for a household with 3 children. Cash grants shall be awarded through a Land Bank cash card with an 8 million plus amount was released.

Tagum City Mayor Rey T. Uy challenged all the recipients of the program to be responsible in using the money given to them by the government.

The City of Tagum is

the last recipient of the government’s conditional cash transfer scheme un-der Set 5 because of its low poverty incidence rate. But because of the national directive to satu-rate all cities regardless of their poverty incidence rates, Tagum City was cho-sen to be a recipient of the program.

Set 5 includes the city including some parts of the Municipality of Brau-lio Dujali and Carmen, re-spectively.

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a so-cial development strat-egy of the national govern-ment that provides condi-tional cash grants to ex-tremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14.

The poorest house-holds in the municipalities are selected through the National Household Tar-geting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) im-plemented by the DSWD using the Proxy Means Test. This test determines the socio-economic cat-egory of the families by

looking at certain proxy variables such as own-ership of assets, type of housing, education of the household head, livelihood of the family and access to water and sanitation facili-ties.

To avail of the cash grants beneficiaries should comply with the follow-ing conditions: Pregnant women must avail pre- and post-natal care and be at-tended during childbirth by a trained health profes-sional; Parents must at-tend Family Development Sessions (FDS); 0-5 year old children must receive regular preventive health check-ups and vaccines; 3-5 year old children must attend day care or pre-school classes at least 85% of the time; 6-14 year old children must enroll in el-ementary or high school and must attend at least 85% of the time; and 6-14 years old children must receive deworming pills twice a year.

Families that will fail to comply with the above-mentioned conditions will be ineligible to receive the cash grants. [Louie Lapat of CIO Tagum]

5k Tagumeño households qualify for cash dole-outs

THE Philippine Sci-ence High School (PSHS) here could

begin accepting the brightest stu-dents of Soccsksargen Region and neigh-boring areas starting school year 2013- 2014, an official of the Depart-ment of Science and Tech-nology confirmed.

DOST 12 Regional Director Dr. Zenaida P. Hadji Raof-Laidan, told Philippine Informa-tion Agency-12 today that the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the PSHS system has formally approved the setting up of a cam-pus in Koronadal City, the administrative seat of Re-gion 12.

“This is part of the ef-forts to put up a Philip-pine Science High School in every administrative region across the coun-try to bring closer to the grassroots quality edu-cation highly focused on science, technology and mathematics,” Dr. Laidan said.

Science and Technol-ogy Secretary Mario G. Montejo chairs the BOT and Education Secretary Armin A. Luistro sits as vice chairman. The mem-bers include 11 others from the government, academe and private sec-tors.

Dr. Laidan said the BOT finally gave its go signal after the pro-vincial government of South Cotabato prom-ised to donate 4.5-hect-

are property in Baran-gay Paraiso that the LGU bought for P7.3 mil-lion specifically for this purpose.

The campus is situated in an area where the state-of-the-art Philippine National Halal Laboratory and Sci-ence Center of DOST shall also rise.

In February, South Cotabato Gov. Arthur Y. Pingoy Jr. announced the provincial government is allocating P5 million to help fast track the con-struction of the buildings of PSHS campus and to augment the P5 million earlier pledged by Youth Against Corruption and Poverty (YACAP) party-list Rep. Carol Jayne Lo-pez.

Laidan said construc-tion works will immedi-ately commence after the formal turnover of the property to the PSHS, and that they are hopeful the school could begin opera-tion next year. The turn-over is still being worked out with Secretary Mon-tejo expected to grace the event.

The PSHS, which is an attached agency of the DOST, is patterned after the Bronx High School of Science in New York City. It was created for the purpose of giving an education highly enriched in science and mathemat-ics to exceptionally gifted Filipino children.

“The PSHS campus will not only boost quality

education in South Cota-bato but also through-out Region 12 and other neighboring regions,” Dr. Laidan said.

Region 12 covers the provinces of South Co-tabato, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sa-rangani and the cities of General Santos, Koronad-al, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.

A PSHS campus usu-ally includes school build-ings, laboratories, dormi-tory, canteen and sports facilities, among other amenities.

Once completed the campus in Koronad-al City will be the coun-try’s ninth PSHS site and the third in Mindanao; the first two are located in Tubod, Lanao del Norte (Region 10) and Tugbok, Davao City (Region 12).

Its main campus is in Diliman, Quezon City. It also has campuses in San Ildefonso, Ilocos Sur; Bay-ombong, Nueva Viscaya; Goa, Camarines Sur; Palo, Leyte; Iloilo City; Argao, Cebu; and Clark Freeport, Pampanga.

The PSHS accepts only the best and bright-est high school students through a rigid screening process.

All students of PSHS schools are schol-ars who enjoy free tu-ition fee, free loan of textbooks, monthly sti-pend, and uniform, trans-portation and living al-lowances for low-income groups.

Pisay to open in Koronadal in 2013

Tagumeños who qualified to avail of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) flocked to Tagum City Trade and Cultural Center Pavilion for the first cash pay-out last March 17, 2012. 4Ps is a social development strategy of the national govern-

ment that provides conditional cash grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14. [PHOTO BY LEO TIMOGAN OF CIO TAGUM]

A Land Bank personnel hands out cash to one recipient of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program for the first cash pay-out last March 17, 2012 at the Tagum City Trade and Cultural Center Pavilion. To avail of the cash grants beneficiaries should comply with the following conditions: Pregnant women must avail pre- and post-natal care and be attended during child-birth by a trained health professional; Parents must attend

Family Development Sessions (FDS); 0-5 year old children must receive regular preventive health check-ups and vaccines; 3-5 year old children must attend day care or pre-school classes at least 85% of the time; 6-14 year old children must enroll in elementary or high school and must attend at least 85% of the time; and 6-14 years old children must receive deworming pills twice a year.

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 201212 WORLD/NATION EDGEDAVAO

NATION BRIEFS WORLD TODAYExempted

THE United States exempted Japan and 10 EU nations

from financial sanctions because they have signifi-cantly cut purchases of Iranian oil, but left Iran’s top customers China and India exposed to the pos-sibility of such steps.

The decision means banks in these countries have been given a six-month reprieve from the threat of being cut off from the U.S. financial system under new sanc-tions designed to pres-sure Iran over its nuclear program.

Mourning

SOME 5,000 mourn-ers on Wednesday attended a funeral

service for 15 children and two adults from a school in Belgium who died in a bus crash last week in Switzerland.

Soldiers carried small white coffins into the hall where the ceremo-ny, at which King Albert II, flanked by the Dutch crown prince, was to join mourners from 11:00 am (1000 GMT) in this Bel-gian-Dutchborder town.

Observers

MYANMAR has in-vited election ob-servers from the

United States, the Euro-pean Union and the Unit-ed Nations for its closely watched by-elections next month, a government offi-cial said on Wednesday.

They would join about two dozen poll observers being sent by Myanmar’s regional neighbours be-longing to the Association of Southeast Asian Na-tions (ASEAN).

Elections

GREECE must hold general elections on April 29 or May

6, the conservative New Democracy party, which is part of a coalition govern-ment with the Socialists, said on Wednesday.

“We must go to elec-tions immediately, for the sake of consistency and for the sake of democracy,” New Democracy’s spokes-man Yannis Michelakis said in a statement.

Condemed

AUSTRALIAN For-eign Minister Bob Carr Wednesday

condemned as “recklessly irresponsible” claims by mining billionaire Clive Palmer that the CIA was funding a plot against the coal industry.

Palmer, Australia’s fifth-richest person and a top donor to the conser-vative Liberal/National opposition, launched a ti-rade against the left-wing Greens Party Tuesday fol-lowing the passage of a new tax on mining profits.

Concerned

THE Philippine gov-ernment is gravely concerned over

Pyongyang plans to launch a satellite some-time in April, the Depart-ment of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement on Wednesday.

”We find (the plan) un-acceptable, DFA said, urg-ing North Korea “not to proceed with its planned launch” and instead abide by United Nations Reso-lutions 1874 and 1718.

Unaffected

THE Aquino govern-ment will continue to perform and do

its responsibilities de-spite all criticisms by detractors bearing in mind the more important tasks of improving the economy and ensuring the welfare of the Filipino people, a Palace spokes-man said.

Whatever criticisms are leveled against the government, Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacier-da said what is important is that the government is able to carry out reforms that benefit the country’s economy and the poor.

Upgraded

THE Department of Tourism (DOT), in a move to attract

more tourists and boost the country’s tourism in-dustry, has upgraded the visa privileges of foreign-ers as part of the depart-ment’s policy reforms.

The privileges include the granting of a 30-day visa free stay to Chinese nationals tour group, a 14-day visa free stay for Indian nationals with a valid valid American, Japan, Australian, Cana-dian, Shengen, Singapore, or United Kingdom visa and the increase in the visa-free privilege for 166 countries/territories from 21 to 30 days.

Seized

AROUND P14.9 mil-lion worth of ille-gally-cut logs and

its by-products were seized by joint law en-forcement task force dur-ing its recent operations in Mindanao.

These series of opera-tions were conducted in Agusan Del Norte, Agu-san Del Sur, Surigao Del Norte, Surigao Del Sur, and Dinagat Islands or the provinces which com-posed the CARAGA Re-gion.

Aviation

MA L A C A N A N G said the Aquino government is

working double time to ensure that the country’s aviation status is revert-ed back to the Category 1 level to aggressively pro-mote the tourism sector and reach a wider mar-ket.

Presidential spokes-man Edwin Lacierda said the government is con-cerned about the effects of the recent aviation status of the Philippines particularly on the tour-ism sector.

NIGERIAN Finance Minister Ngozi Okon-jo-Iweala and former

Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are set to be nominated to lead the World Bank, sources with knowledge of emerging market efforts to find candi-dates said on Tuesday.

The candidacies of Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo, who have credentials as both economists and dip-lomats and according to sources the respective back-ing of Brazil and South Af-rica, pose a challenge to the United States, whose hold on the top post has never been contested.

But with its majority of votes and the expected support of European coun-tries, the United States is still likely to ensure that another American will succeed Rob-ert Zoellick, who plans to step down when his term expires at the end of June.

Washington has held the presidency since the Bank’s founding after World War Two, while a European has always led the International Monetary Fund. It has yet to publicly identify a nominee to succeed Zoellick.

The deadline for submit-ting nominations is Friday, and the Obama administra-tion has said it will name a candidate by then.

Developing nations to name candidates for World Bank

Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attends a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, January 26, 2012.

All of the World Bank’s 187 members nations have committed to a merit-based process to select Zoellick’s successor.

Emerging and develop-ing economies have long talked up their desire to break U.S. and European dominance of the Bretton Woods Institutions, but have until now have failed to build a coalition large enough to change the status quo.

Three sources said Oc-ampo, currently a professor at Columbia University in New York, would be formal-ly nominated by Brazil.

One source said Okonjo-Iweala could be nominated on Wednesday, while two other sources said it would be Friday.

Nominations will be submitted to the 25-mem-ber World Bank board, which has said it will decide on the next president within the next month.

Two sources said Okon-jo-Iweala’s candidacy had the blessing of Nigerian President Goodluck Jona-than, who convinced her to join his cabinet last year to lend more weight to his re-form agenda.

“IMPRESSIVE CREDEN-TIALS”

The decision to nomi-nate Okonjo-Iweala and Oc-ampo followed weeks of dis-cussions among emerging and developing countries at the World Bank board in-cluding China and India.

Two sources said South Africa’s director at the World Bank board, Renosi Mokate, who also repre-sents Nigeria and other English-speaking African countries, personally flew to Abuja to consult with Okonjo-Iweala about her nomination.

THE government posted a P15.94 billion budget gap in the first month

this year, a reversal from year-ago’s P13.42 billion sur-plus after expenditures over-shadowed revenues.

Data released by the Department of Finance (DOF) showed that revenues last January amounted to P126.35 billion, seven per-cent lower than year-ago’s P135.91 billion while spend-ing reached P142.3 billion, 16.2 percent higher than the P122.49 billion same period last year.

Both the Bureau of Inter-nal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) posted expansion in their revenues contrary to the Bu-reau of the Treasury (BTr)

and the Other Offices.Of the total collections,

BIR, which collects about 70 percent of government rev-enues, shared in P85.15 bil-lion, 14.2 percent higher than year-ago’s P74.57 billion.

Also, BOC contributed P21.99 billion, 7.1 percent higher than its P20.54 billion revenues in January 2011.

On the other hand, col-lections of the BTr dropped by 64.3 percent to P11.05 bil-lion from year-ago’s P30.98 billion.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima traced the decline to the “time difference in the remittance of dividends from government-owned and –controlled corporations (GOCCs).”

He said GOCCs remitted

about P19 billion in divi-dends to the national govern-ment last February, a delay compared to last year when the dividends were remitted in late January.

The DOF, in a statement, cited that “had the amount been credited in January, to make the figures comparable year-on-year, not only would have revenues increased, but a budget surplus of roughly P4 billion would have been realized despite increased spending.”

Relatively, the Other Offices’ revenues reached P8.17 billion, 16.9 percent contraction over year-ago’s P9. 83 billion.

Meanwhile, interest pay-ments rose by 40.3 percent to P50.28 billion over the

P35.84 billion in January 2011.

The government also posted a P34.34 billion pri-mary surplus in the first month this year, which Fi-nance Secretary Cesar Puri-sima attributed to continu-ation of fiscal consolidation.

Purisima expressed con-fident that revenues would continue to increase for the rest of the year and sustain its performance since last year.

He cited the improve-ment in BIR and BOC’s rev-enues, which account for about 90 percent of govern-ment revenues.

He said that “as we con-tinue to strengthen tax ad-ministration efficiency, I do not see any reason for us not to surpass our performance last year.”

“The government will continue its fight against tax evasion and smuggling and plug loopholes in our sys-tem to boost our revenues,” he said.

The Finance chief, on the other hand, said the govern-ment needed lawmakers’ help for “the timely passage of the fiscal incentives ratio-nalization and excise tax re-form bills to generate more state resources.”

“Following a notable performance last year, the government looks at 2012 as an opportunity to con-tinue with its fiscal consoli-dation process as it strives for higher, sustainable and more inclusive growth,” he added. [PNA] 

Gov’t posts P15-B budget deficit

FRIENDSHIP. Defense panel head former Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas shakes hands with former Senator Francisco Tatad before the start of day 33 in the impeachment trial of

Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona on Wednesday (March 21, 2012) at the Senate Session Hall in Pasay City. [PNA/JESS M. ESCAROS JR.]

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012 13

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Asilum...

Hunting...OIC...

Panigan... Sara...EDGEDAVAO

camps lined up during the Summerfest are basketball, tennis, football, swimming and karatedo. These will be handled by various ac-credited professional train-ors and coaches. There will also be Dance, Art and Mu-sic workshops.

The most significant addition to the Summer-fest is the holding of the 1st Davao Sports Expo slated May 1-6 where sports brands, retailers, manufac-turers, service profession-als, pharmaceuticals and sports infrastructure firms are expected to participate.

The Davao Summer Games will cap the Sum-merfest’s sports compo-nent with the staging of competitions in various sports, from regular Olym-pic events to extreme ad-venture sports. This will include initially some na-tional and regional tourna-ments in karatedo, tennis, football, mountain-biking, wakeboarding, and cycling.

The Davao City Sports Development Office and other key offices of the city government will be among the conduits of the Sum-merfest which is one of the four festivals recognized as official events of Davao yearly.

After powering ACD (then known as Blue Ar-chers) to several titles in Davao, Asilum was re-cruited to play for Sacred Heart-Ateneo in Cebu. It was a surprise move considering the Far East-ern University Tamaraws were ready to sign him up when he was 12 to move to Manila.

Apparently, his father supported the move to play in Cebu instead.

Sacred Heart Cebu finished runner-up to the University of the Visayas Baby Lancers in the 2011 CESAFI Juniors tourna-ment, part of which Asilum missed because of his na-tional team commitment. The Magis Eagles, led by Asilum, also emerged champions in the SeaOil

NBTC Elite League Nation-al High School Champion-ships held at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.

Asilum, however, will have to earn his spot at the point for the Fighting Maroons (2-12) who will have several options with incumbent starter Mike Gamboa, Gelo Montecas-tro and the returning Mi-kee Reyes.

UP will also see the re-turn of two other veteran guards who missed last season in Mark Lopez and Alvin Padilla, which could bolster their hopes of making a run at the Final Four.

Mike Silungan, Alinko Mbah, Jett Manuel and Carlo Gomez are all ex-pected to return for Sea-son 75.

concern impedes enforce-ment on existing laws and regulation, and lack of public awareness contrib-utes to poor management of marine turtles in Davao Gulf.

Therefore, he recom-mends that IGaCoS and other Local Government Units of Davao Gulf and National Government Agencies should seriously exert efforts to conserve and manage marine turtle population. Further, he suggests strengthening the awareness and infor-mation campaign, law enforcement and conser-vation management in Davao Gulf.

Santa Cruz told Edge Davao that he has not yet received any reply from the recipients of the re-port he sent through e-mail as of press time.

He also cited the re-port of the Convention on International Trade in En-dangered Species of Wild

Fauna and Fora (CITES) in 2005 that DENR-PAWB published the seizure or confiscation of nine sacks of marine sea turtle scutes / scales weighing 520 kilograms destined for Vietnam.

Vietnam is popular among tourists for its marine turtle products such as jewelry, especially bangles and rings, and various types of hair clips, pins and bands. This was based on a document in 2008, An Assessment of the Marine Turtle Prod-ucts Trade in Vietnam.

Among the five spe-cies of marine turtles known to occur in the Philippines, four are nesting in the beaches of Davao Gulf-- Chelonia mydas (green turtle), Eretmochelys imbri-cata (hawksbill turtle), Lepidochelys olivacea (olive ridley turtle), and Dermochelys coriacea (leatherback turtle).

of the Six led by Indonesia to facilitate the talks until the signing of the FPA in 1996. In late June 2000, just as the military was about to attack the MILF’s main stronghold, Camp Abubakar, in the “all-out war “ waged by then President Joseph Estrada, the OIC’s Interna-tional Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) held in Malaysia, added two more country-members – Malay-sia and Brunei – to make it into the Committee of the Eight , to look into the imple-mentation of the 1996 FPA. Historic That meeting – the International Conference of Foreign Ministers of the OIC – in June 2000, is historic for both the Bangsamoro and the Philippine govern-ment. For the first time, an MILF delegation attended the meeting along with the MNLF as OIC observers. It was also the first time the Philippine government at-tended an OIC meeting as guest.

The June 2000 meeting was held at “Asia’s most ex-traordinary hotel,” - the Pal-ace of the Golden Horses in Kuala Lumpur, venue of this week’s GPH-MILF peace talks.

Malaysia, an OIC mem-ber and member of the Committee of the Eight, has been facilitating the GPH-MILF peace talks since 2001, upon the invi-tation of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In 2006, the OIC initiated the Tripartite Review of the implementation of the 1996 GPH-MNLF peace pact, expanding the Com-mittee of the Eight mem-bership into the Peace Committee for Southern Philippines (PCSP), with In-donesia as chair.

The first Tripartite Re-view was held in Jeddah in November 2007. An Ad Hoc Hi-Level Group meet-ing of the OIC-GPH-MNLF Tripartite Implementation Review Process was held in Bandung, Indonesia early this month “to review the remaining unresolved is-sues to complete the im-plementation of the FPA.”

The GPH-MILF and GPH-MNLF have been moving as two tracks. The Arroyo administration tried to get the two tracks together but failed. “Convergence” The Aquino administra-tion has repeatedly said it wants a “convergence” of the three tracks -- the GPH-MILF peace talks, the GPH-MNLF-OIC review of the implementa-tion of the 1996 FPA along with its reform agenda in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the core territory of both the GPH-MILF and GPH-MNLF peace tracks.

The MNLF had repeat-edly said the congressio-nal act -- RA 9054 which amended RA 6734, the Organic Act creating the ARMM -- did not incorpo-rate key provisions in the 1996 FPA and rendered the autonomous region less autonomous than it already was.

The MILF on the other hand has repeatedly said ARMM is a “failed experi-ment” and is not the solu-tion to the conflict. It hand-ed over its proposed peace settlement in February last year -- a Bangsamoro sub-state that is “less than in-dependence but more than autonomy.”

The government hand-ed its proposed “3 for 1” formula on August 22, 18 days after President Aqui-no and MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim met in To-kyo, Japan to fast-track the peace process and ensure an agreement is reached within the first half of the Aquino administration. .

The MILF panel rejected the proposal. Leonen quick-ly replied, “We reject your rejection,” the negotiation was adjourned on the sec-ond of the three-day talks.

The Malaysian facilita-tor shuttled from the GPH to the MILF peace panels in September and October and in November got the key members of the panels into an informal talks that eventually paved the way for the resumption of the talks in December. Since

then, the two panels have been meeting monthly and will meet again in April in Kuala Lumpur.

In his opening state-ment on March 19, Leonen said, “we are approaching what would seem to be a stalemate in our ideas for transition as well as in our ideas of how to make permanent the solutions that work for our peoples. I invite our counterparts to take a step back with us. Perhaps, by examining the reasons why we insist on our various positions we can see ways forward.” Iqbal in his opening state-ment said he hopes the Aquino administration is still pursuing the “first best option, which is to sign an agreement with the MILF, and the second best option, which is merely to reform the ARMM is not being pur-sued by the government in replacement of the negoti-ated political settlement of the Moro Question and the armed conflict in Min-danao.”

“Clearly if the first is the option of the govern-ment, then we can expect seriousness in the current peace talks. But if the sec-ond is now the option, then it is very easy to see. Expect commitment made to be changed randomly,” Iqbal added.

The talks, described “tough” by both panels, moved on until March 21 but without a significant agreement reached. Ac-cording to the Joint State-ment, the parties, “contin-ued their discussions on substantive issues, includ-ing power sharing on gov-ernance and wealth shar-ing.” Nothing more was said about the discussions.

Aside from approving the request of the OIC-Sec-retary General’s office to sit as observer in the talks, the two panels also agreed on the Terms of Reference for the consultants who will be part of their respective delegations in subsequent talks. What the terms are have not been made public. [CAROLYN O.ARGUILLAS/MINDANEWS]

of the Department of En-vironment and Natural Re-sources, such level of phos-phate and nitrate means the water is only good for recreational purposes, al-though the river still con-forms to the Class AA stan-dards, which is the highest for clean water.

According to Interface Development Intervention (IDIS), the use of fertilizers and pesticides and popular use of detergents along the upstream portions of the river may have caused the high presence of the chem-icals.

The group said the run-off from plantations dur-

ing heavy rains carried the agricultural inputs to the river, and the absence of buffer zones augments the problem.

Rey Sapid, advocacy officer of Kinaiyahan Amumahon Panggaon ug Protektahan, Inc. (KAPPI) said most of the planta-tions in the third district have not implemented buf-fer zones, and that this is against the mandate of the law.

An environmental paralegal group of farmers and lumads from the third district, KAPPI is actively initiating information cam-paign on the importance

and implementation of buffer zones to protect riv-ers.

A buffer zone is about 40 meters distance be-tween a plantation and riv-erbanks, planted to trees or permanent vegetation which protect people and other life forms from toxic effects of chemicals from agricultural inputs. This is a requirement of the Water-shed Code of Davao City.

Panigan River is identi-fied by the Davao City Water District as the future source of Davao City’s drinking wa-ter, and is surrounded by monocrop plantations and small farms.

More than a hundred violators were charged before the court.

On first offense, a first time violator is subject to a P300 fine and one-hour mandatory segregation lecture to be conducted by barangay officials and the Cenro.

A second-time offend-er will have to pay P500 fine or render five days community service at eight hours per day, while for the third offense a vio-lator is subject to a P1,000 fine or 10 days communi-ty service.

A case will be filed before the court against four-time offenders.

Based on the 2010 to 2010 List of Major Ac-

complishments, released by the City Information Office, through the opera-tion of the New Carmen Sanitary Landfill, the av-erage disposed volume of garbage per day has de-creased by 97 tons.

Prior to the imple-mentation of the sanitary landfill, the average dis-posed garbage volume per day was 456 tons per day. This decreased to 356 tons because of the co-related program of waste segregation.

The 2010 to 2010 List of Major Accomplish-ments includes a total of 445 underprivileged citi-zens of the city residing within danger zones hav-ing benefitted from hous-

ing projects initiated by the city.

Families who were af-fected by development projects and demolitions were also able to acquire more decent dwellings at Los Amigos Relocation Site.

On 2010, the Traffic Eagle Squad was created in response to irrespon-sible drivers and traffic violators.

The squad is com-prised of 15 patrol vehicle drivers (from the PSCC); five motorcycle drivers; 20 TMC personnel; with five patrol vehicles and five motorcycles.

The squad serves as an arm of the Traffic Manage-ment Center, tasked to en-sure smooth traffic flow in the city’s major thorough-fares.

Meanwhile, the mayor said the local government is intensifying its drainage canal declogging efforts in anticipation of the ad-vent of what Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio calls the “flood months.”

Along with this, the Food for Work program conducts regular de-clog-ging of barangay canals.

The program has 15,676 volunteers from 28 barangays in the city, and from 2010 to 2011, the declogging operations covered 38 kms and 720 linear-meters of dirt net fences were installed.

The Food for Work program has addressed two concerns at the same time—namely, (1) pov-erty and (2) community cleanliness.

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 201214 SCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT EDGEDAVAO

BLACK bears have a surprising capacity to heal as they hi-

bernate, say researchers in the US.

Medical researchers and zoologists worked together to find that the bears’ wounds healed with almost no scarring, and were infection-free.

The scientists hope, eventually, to find out ex-actly how the bears’ bod-ies heal while their body temperature, heart rate and metabolism are re-duced.

This could aid studies of human wound-healing.

The findings, pub-lished in the journal In-tegrative Zoology, are of particular relevance to medical researchers hoping to improve slow-healing and infection-prone wounds in elderly, malnourished or diabetic patients.

This study was part of a project by scientists from the universities of Minnesota, Wyoming and the Minnesota Depart-ment of Natural Resourc-es, who have tracked 1,000 black bears, in order to monitor their health and behaviour, for 25 years.

Whilst tracking the bears - using radio collars - the researchers noticed some early evidence of their surprising healing abilities.

They wrote in their paper: “We identified a few animals each year with injuries resulting from gunshots or arrows from hunters; bite marks from other bears or pred-ators.

“These wounds were considered to have been incurred some time be-fore the bears denned, and were often infected or inflamed... in early win-ter.

“Yet typically, when we revisited bears in their dens a few months later, most wounds had com-pletely resolved whether or not we [cleaned them], sutured the areas or ad-ministered antibiotics.”

To test the bear’s heal-ing abilities experimen-tally, the team carefully tracked the healing of small cuts on the skin of 14 of their radio-collared bears in northern Minne-sota.

Between November (when the bears first settled down in their dens) and March (about a month before they emerged) the wounds healed with “minimal evi-dence of scarring”.

Added to this, there were no signs of infection, the layers of damaged skin regrew and many of the bears even grew hair from newly formed fol-licles at the site of their injuries.

Black bears emerge from up to seven months of hibernation in the spring

Hibernating bears’ wounds heal without scars

One of the research-ers, Prof David Garshe-lis from the University of Minnesota, told BBC Nature: “It seems so sur-prising to us that their wounds would heal so well and so completely when they’re hibernating and their metabolism is slowed down.

But, he added, the ani-mals had many other “re-markable adaptations to

hibernation”.“They sit in the den for

six months and don’t lose any appreciable muscle or bone mass, so I guess this healing is another ad-aptation,” Prof Garshelis said.

During its winter hi-bernation, a black bear’s core body temperature is reduced by as much as 7C (13F) and their heart rate lowers dramatically. In

humans, a lowered body temperature, or condi-tions that hamper circula-tion can seriously compli-cate wound-healing.

For this reason, the team hope to find out the mechanism behind the bears’ remarkable heal-ing abilities.

He told BBC Nature: “We consider this to have implications for medical research.

“If we can work out how the bears heal, we hope there’ll be potential to translate this research to [studies of] human healing.”

This could be espe-cially important for the development of treat-ments for slow-healing skin wounds in mal-nourished, hypothermic, diabetic and elderly pa-tients.

HABITAT loss and commercial hunt-ing have been

blamed for a decline in the number of sun bears - the world’s smallest spe-cies of bear.

An assessment by World Conservation Union (IUCN) has re-clas-sified the animal as “vul-nerable”.

Experts estimate that sun bears, found in south-east Asia, have declined by at least 30% in the past 30 years.

The IUCN’s bear ex-pert groups warn that six out of the world’s eight bear species are threat-ened with extinction.

“Although we still have a lot to learn about the bi-ology and ecology of this species (Helarctos malay-anus), we are quite cer-tain it is in trouble,” said Rob Steinmetz, a member of the IUCN bear special-ist group.

“We estimate that sun bears have declined by at least 30% over the past 30 years and continue to decline at this rate.”

Mr Steinmetz said de-forestation had reduced the size and quality of the bears’ habitat.

“Where habitat is now

protected, commercial poaching remains a sig-nificant threat,” he added.

“We are working with governments, protected area managers, conserva-tion groups and local peo-ple to prevent extinctions of the many small, isolat-ed sun bear populations.”

Until this latest as-sessment, the bears had been classified as “data deficient” because not enough was known about the state of the species.

Uncertain timesOne of the iconic spe-

cies for conservationists, the giant panda, remains listed as “endangered”, despite recent efforts in China to release captive-bred pandas into the wild.

“Even though some people have claimed that panda populations are on the rise, we still con-sider them endangered because too much un-certainty exists to justify changing their status,” explained Dave Garshelis, co-chairman of the IUCN bear specialist group.

Although the giant panda (Ailuropoda mela-noleuca) remains the world’s most threatened bear species, there are reasons to be optimistic

about its long-term sur-vival.

China has established nearly 60 panda reserves, a logging ban and begun a programme of reforesta-tion.

Out of the eight spe-cies featured on the IUCN Red List, only the Ameri-can black bear is consid-ered secure throughout its range, which includes Canada, the US and Mex-ico.

With an estimated population of 900,000, there are more than twice the number of American black bears than all the other species put togeth-er.

An enormous amount of effort and funding for conservation and man-agement continue to be directed at bears in North America,” said Bruce McLellan, Mr Garshelis’ fellow co-chairman of the group.

“It is unfortunate that so little is directed at bears in Asia and South America where the need is extreme.”

The assessment of the seven terrestrial bear species and polar bear (technically classified as a marine mammal) was

Concern grows for smallest bear

Experts are fearful for the long-term survival of sun bears

published on Sunday fol-lowing a meeting in Mex-ico.

The findings will be

used to update the bears’ entries in the 2007 edi-tion Red List of Threat-ened Species, which is

considered to be the most authoritative audit of more than 41,000 spe-cies.

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012

EDGEDAVAOEVENTS

STAYING con-nected is now essential for every Juan and

Maria and modern telecommunication tools are already a necessity. But such basic telephony tools, like the ordinary cell-phone, can get quite pricey in the Philip-pines. If you add in-ternet connectivity like Facebook, twit-ter, and web brows-ing to a cellphone you usually end up with a very expensive phone that is out of each from the aver-age Jowi. Enter Starmobile with its range of well-designed and well-built dual-SIM mo-bile phones that are priced

within easy reach of the ave Dabawenyo. Starmobile’s consumer marketing head, Katrina Tioseco beams “Our phones are designed with great value in mind. Imagine having an average person off the street spend half of his month’s salary to purchase a cellphone but in the end loses it due to poor build quality in just a couple of months. That is a huge loss for that person, that is why we really take pride in our phone’s build quality.” And honestly, for mobile phones costing less than four thousand pesos, I am impressed with the fin-ishes and the solid feel the phones have. On the functions of the phones, Tioseco says that the software for each phone is programed in the Philip-pines for the Filipino con-sumer in-mind. “The fea-tures on our phones reflect the different lifestyles and aspirations our consumers want, like the Venus series is stylish with a chic design, a 3.2megapixel camera, an MP3 music player, video

player and recorder, pus it also has bluetooth, and even has built-in access to Facebook, Yahoo! Messen-ger and MSN all for a low price of P3,290” beams Ti-oseco. “We want our phone owners to be happy with their Starmobile phones by including great value with each and every phone we design, build, and sell.” I guess this passion for making people happy is what sets Starmobile apart from every other entry-level mobile phone player. And with handsets that continually break the mold in design, features (Believe me, I have seen the upcom-ing models and they are just fantastic!), and build quality, it is good to know there are still people who aim to make other people smile. Look for Starmobile phone units at your local phone dealer or better yet, you can visit the Starmo-bile Davao flagship store at the third floor of Gaisano Mall of Davao. You can also like their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/starmobilephones and get a chance to win two tickets daily all the way until April 10, 2012 for the LMFAO concert at the Araneta Coliseum this April 11 no purchase necessary! So if I were you, I’d do it right away and maybe happiness will again come my way thanks to Starmobile.

Starmobile:Designed for happiness

And the crowd goes wild with happiness and great deals at the opening of the Starmobile flagship store at the third floor of Gaisano Mall of Davao.Michael Chen introduces the Naptune T501’s touchscreen to M Magazine’s Ian Garcia.

Starmobile President Michael Chen(From L-R) The Starmobile team: Trade Marketing Manager Michael Gumate, President Michael Chen, Consumer Marketing Head Katrina Tioseco, Assistant Brand Manager Paula Rivera, Sales Director Jameson Say and Mindanao Sales Manager Marlon Alaba

Starmobile Jupiter Q501i

Starmobile Neptune B501i

Integrated MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook, and Twitter.

Starmobile Consumer Marketing Head Katrina Tioseco

Starmobile Venus SQ301i

INdulge!

A2 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012EDGEDAVAO

EXCITED for Hunger Games? Take a sneak peek at what hap-pened during the movie’s premiere night in New York City with Vanity Fair’s hottest scoop on the most an-ticipated movie of the year. At Tuesday’s New York City premiere of The Hunger Games, co-hosted by the Cinema Society and Calvin Klein, flashbulbs fired for Liam Hemsworth (who plays Gale)—even though the hunky Aussie arrived sans his Vanity Fair Oscar-party date, pop princess Miley Cyrus. And as the movie’s two other stars—Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, wearing a sexy green dress and snug suit from Calvin, respective-ly—wended their way to the School of Visual Arts Theater, Lawrence told reporters that what she most admired about her character, Katniss, is “her willingness and strength to stand up for something when it’s not an easy thing to do.” Not unlike her Winter’s Bone character, Ree—a role that garnered the then new-comer an Oscar nomination at the age of 20—Lawrence’s Hunger Games character is a stoic and tenacious coal min-er’s daughter, out to defend her hardscrabble homeland. On the arrival carpet, Isa-belle Fuhrman, who plays District 2’s Clove in the movie, spoke effusively of her cast mates: “Usually you get to know everyone on set and then you go your separate ways, but not with this cast,” she told us. “We get together in Los Angeles almost every month.” The sole representa-tive of the film’s adult cast, Stanley Tucci—who plays an exuberant, blue-haired televi-sion personality in the film—told Vanity Fair that his own favorite TV host was Jimmy Kimmel, although he seemed to us to be channeling Chris Tucker’s Ruby Rod in The Fifth Element. The movie bowed to a

packed audience, with brief remarks from Lionsgate’s Joe Drake and Hunger Games director Gary Ross, who sum-moned the three young stars and had Tucci—who was already seated in the back—come bounding up to heart-ily wave to fans. Security—at both the screening and the afterparty—was tighter than tight, with celebrities and normals required to check their phones for the movie’s duration, and guards aplenty at the post-movie festivities, held at the top of the Stan-dard Hotel. Still, the inside of the Boom Boom Room, our day’s Rainbow Room, was starry. Seth Meyers laughed quietly in the corner with his girlfriend, Alexi Ashe, and took a very diplomatic ap-proach to V.F.’s questions, es-pecially regarding bromance: “I can’t tell you who was a better host—Jonah [Hill] and Jason [Segel] are both incred-ible. Ask them!” Cheyenne Jackson from NBC’s 30 Rock told us that he “fucking loved” the film. Also in attendance: Tony Danza, Steven Soder-bergh, Penn Badgley, Darren Aronofsky, Spike Lee, Zoë Kravitz, Bridget Moynahan, Patti Smith, Paul Haggis, and Victor Cruz.

ENTERTAINMENT

Let the games begin!

BOOKS

Alexander McQueen: Savage BeautyBy Andrew BoltonAlexander McQueen: Savage Beauty examines the full breadth of the designer’s career, from the start of his fledgling label to the triumphs of his own world-renowned London house. It features his most iconic and radical designs, revealing how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailor-ing, the specialized techniques of haute couture, and technologi-cal innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic.

HOW TO BE A HEPBURN IN A HILTON WORLDBy Jordan ChristyFull of fun assignments, notable names and real-life examples, Christy offers a new look at seemingly “old fashioned” advice. She covers diet, speech, work ethic, friends, relationships, man-ners, makeup, and fashionable yet modest clothing, showing modern ladies how they can be beautiful, intelligent and fun while retaining values and morals.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO COCO CHANELBy Karen KarloDelving into the extraordinary life of renowned French fashion designer Coco Chanel, Karen Karbo has written a new kind of self-help book, exploring Chanel’s philosophy on a range of universal themes—from style to passion, from money and suc-cess to femininity and living life on your own terms.

Francisco Costa and Erin Heatherton.

Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence, and Josh Hutcherson.

Rachel Roy. Cheyenne Jackson.

Shalom Harlow. Zoe Kravitz.

BB Gandanghari is back in town after his/her stint as an androgynous model in New York. Is he/she hot or not?

THE material girl, Madonna, is at it again with her new single “Girl Gone Wild” whose music video show off her fit figure, scantily clad men in high heels, and some scenes aping Lady Gaga. Do you think she may have gone a bit too far this time?

IT’S Suri Cruise’s world, Katie Hol-mes just lives in it. That was evident on Tuesday night when the 5-year-old went to dinner with her actress-mother in New York City dressed in heart-patterned nighties with a purple suede coat and silver flats for a late meal at trendy ABC Kitchen

Robin Padilla, the old-er brother of BB Gan-danghari, announces in public that they are not ok with each other. Do you think the an-nouncement should have been made pub-lic?

A3INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

HOTNOT

or

THE creativity and style of celebrated Filipino designers Oj Hofer and Jun Escario brought the house down in a special fashion preview held at the

Marco Polo Ballroom.

A4 INdulge!EVENTS

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012EDGEDAVAO

Georgina in a Jun Escario creation.

DiaGold’s Jennifer Viloria with Georgina Wilson and Jun Escario.

Aina Del Rosario, Jennifer Viloria, Oj Hofer, Merce Abellana, and Che Uy.

Georgina in an Oj Hofer creation.

Bia Apostol in Jun Escario.

Jessica Yap in Jun Escario.

Aina del Rosario in Oj Hofer. Jarisse Go in Jun Escario.

A creation by Oj Hofer accented by pieces by DiaGold.

One golden evening The city’s most chic and stylish came in their own statement attire, and swayed and posed with much pizzazs and class as they entered the ballroom. The all-white stage set up was complemented by frosted glass imitations of French boutique displays. It was no less than the statuesque Georgina Wilson who opened the show, pa-rading in Oj Hofer’s all black number. Davao socialites Jessica Yap, Jarisse Go, Bia Bautista, Karen Alabado,

and Aina Del Rosario graced the runway together with some talents from Glam Model House. All models were decked with intricate accessories by DiaGold, Inc., the jewelry brand for which Georgina is the main en-dorser. Jun Escario’s black and gold corset gown was the show stopping ensemble that Georgina wore at the curtain call. It was indeed a night of glitter and fashion for the city.

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 2012 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTSGod must have spent a little more time talking

to Manny

CROSSOVER. Phoenix Vega-San Sebastian Stags’ Calvin Abueva loses his guards with a nifty crossover during their match against Goldstar Hardware. The Stags won 83-67 to enter the finals with a 2-0 card in the Araw ng Dabaw Invitational basketball tournament. [BOY LIM]

WITH a third place finish in the tough

AFC Challenge Cup, the Philippines celebrated another milestone as its ace strike Phil Youn-ghusband bagged the tournament’s Golden Boot Award—the prize for the player with the most number of goals scored.

The Fil-Briton Youn-ghusband knocked in a total of six goals in five matches capping his brilliant stint with a twin-goal explosion in the battle for third place against Palestine which the Azkals won 4-3.

The Golden Boot Award is one of the most coveted plums in the tourney.

Y o u n g h u s b a n d scored one against Turk-menistan in the semi-finals, one against Ta-jikistan, and two against India. That achievement added more glitter to the historic finish by the Az-kals who have exceeding their semifinal finish in the Suzuki Cup two years ago that sparked a foot-ball revival in the Philip-pines.

Phil wins GoldenBoot

DID God also tell him three?

Not immedi-ately, not after Bradley. The number is three.

“Three fights pa,” Pac-quiao was quoted as say-ing in a recent interview.

A day after a radio in-terview wherein he said that he was asked by God to hang up his gloves, the Filipino pound-for-pound king told a Manila-based fight scribe that he still has a few more fights left before calling it quits, the report said.

Pacquiao is currently in Cebu and was met at Mactan airport by re-nowned Cebu promoter Wakee Salud, who re-vealed that a couple of episodes of his game show “Manny, Many Priz-es” will be taped in Man-daue City.

Pacquiao is booked to face Timothy Bradley on June 9 in Las Vegas and if victorious, will be sched-uled to return to action again in November.

Manny backtracks, 3 more fights left

THREE MORE OR TWO MORE. Manny Pacquiao says he will retire after three more fights.

Pacquiao is headed for Baguio City next month for the initial stage of his training for the Bradley match at the MGM Grand.

The past few weeks, Pacquiao has been mak-ing headlines, quoting Biblical verses and tell-ing the whole world that

he has gotten rid of many bad habits.

In the past, Pacquiao can be seen betting for-tune in cockfights and casinos and partying all night long.

Since finding solace in the Holy Book, Pacquiao has mended his ways.

DAVAO boy Renzar Henry Asilum will be suiting up for

the University of the Phil-ippines Fighting Maroons in the coming UAAP Sea-son.

The 5-foot-5 Asilum, son of former Assumption College of Davao mentor Henry Sr., has agreed to suit up for the Diliman-based State college. This early, basketball experts believe Asilum’s presence in the Maroon rotation will improve the chances of the squad.

“I’m very excited be-cause I’m one of the few kids that have been given the opportunity to study in UP,” Asilum said.

Asilum was part of the Energen Pilipinas national youth team that finished fourth in the FIBA Asia Under-16 Championships in Nha Trang, Vietnam last year. He averaged 8.3 points and 2.4 assists in eight games. He also made six three-pointers in the tournament, the second-most for the Philippines.

Asilum to don UP Maroons in UAAP

FASILUM, 13

MANNY Pac-quiao’s recent pronouncement

that he was told by God to retire made a big impact not only here but in the global sporting scene.

News of Manny’s impending retirement spread like wildfire in the internet and social me-dia, making it as one of the trending topics early this week.

The God-told-me-so had so much impact that people took it as gospel truth. And when God tells you to stop, it means you got to stop cold turkey. Like stopping abruptly a habit like smoking.

I remembered a few days before Christmas two years ago when my body told me to stop smoking. I stopped cold turkey. Right on the next day.

Manny says it was God, not his body, not his mommy, not even Jinky, to stop fighting. If God to tells me to stop, that is like the highest order albeit I believe God does not order. You come to a point of realization. That is God’s way of telling us.

So Manny declares his now famous God-told-me-to-stop today. Announces it like gospel. And then the next day qualifies it.

Three more fights. Manny clarified.

Did God also tell him three?

Or so that was his clar-ification when he woke up the next day. I don’t know if there was anoth-er demigod somewhere in Vegas in the name of Bob Arum who told him “No way, Manny. Three more.”

So is that three more after Timothy Bradley? Or Bradley plus two more?

Manny must make up his mind. He must be de-cisive.

God is decisive. When he says three for trinity, he does not add one more persona the next day. When he says he will res-urrect in three days, there would be no other exten-sion just because a third day falls on a holiday. What is written is written in stone.

Don’t get me wrong

here. Like most box-ing pundits, I love to see more of Manny. In fact, if only we can put him in a time machine, I suggest we must. Manny is a spec-tacle as rare as a solar eclipse. He is a phenome-non, a meteor that falls on Earth once in 100 years. It will take another genera-tion to see someone come close to his feat.

Eight world titles. Pound For Pound Cham-pion. Pay Per View King. No doubt, Manny is bound for the Hall of Fame.

Everyone loves the Manny Pacquiao show. Everyone is moved by the Manny Pacquiao sto-ry. From baker to world champion boxer. From GenSan to Vegas. From poor boy to billionaire. From prizefighter to fu-ture President.

Three fights.Three more fights.That is what God told

Manny according to Man-ny.

So what would you wish for in the last three fights?

Mayweather, Mar-quez, Alvarez? If I were asked, I would make it Mayweather 1, May-weather 2 and May-weather 3. A Trilogy for boxing history. Only thing is, Mayweather could be 40 in the deciding Chap-ter 3.

Three more fights could also mean another.

2013 Governor.2016 Vice President.

2022 President.God must have spent

a little more time talk-ing to Manny. He must have said, “Make up your mind, Manny. Money (Mayweather) or the Presidency?”

(For your comments, email me at bravoneil@rocketmail.com.)

DOUBLES CHAMPS. Aileen Rogan and Macy Solon (second and third from left) re-ceive their trophies and cash prizes during the awarding rites of the recent Selecta-Mayor Sara Duterte National Men’s and Women’s Tournament at Woodridge Park. Flanking the women’s doubles champions are tournament organizer Maikee Fer-razzini, Atty. Mans Carpio, and Selecta manager Ruel del Valle. [BOY LIM]

NEXT MAROON HOPE. Davao’s Renzar Henry Asilum will be suiting up for the UP Maroons after finishing his stint with Sacred Heart-Ateneo Cebu.

VOL.5 ISSUE 15 • MARCH 23 - 24, 201216 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS

PROMISING KID. Davao boy Francis Escandor (No. 26) suiting up for the Philippine 13 Under Boys basketball team tries to shake off his defender from the Royal Mandaya Hotel Davao Youth selection in the preliminary game of the ongoing 75th Araw ng Dabaw Invitational Basketball League. The PHL squad,

however, lost to RMH, 68-80. (Inset) Calvin Abueva of the Phoenix Vega-SSC will be missing the final two outings of the Stags as he will be playing in the PBA D-League for NLEX along with teammate Ian Sangalang. [BOY LIM]

GAMES tonight, March 234:00 – 5:30 pm

Championship for Phoe-nix Under – 16 basketball tournament

5:30 – 7:30 pm Battle for 3rd place (#3 vs. #4)7:30 – 9:30 pm Championship (#1 vs. #2)

Title favourite Phoe-nix Vega-San Sebastian College took the first ticket to the finals of the ongoing Araw ng Dabaw Invitational Basketball Tournament after com-ing through with another massacre of a win. This time, against the team they consider to be the biggest roadblock to the title—Goldstar Hardware.

The Stags blasted the Hardwaremen 81-67 on

Wednesday night before another sellout crowd at the Davao City Recreation Center for their second straight win in the four-team tournament sup-ported by Mayor Inday Sara Duterte in celebra-tion of the city’s diamond anniversary.

Phoenix Vega-SSC coach Topex Robinson had earlier predicted a tough battle against Gold-star whom he considers as their toughest foe.

The Stags, reign-ing Philippine Collegiate Champions League ti-tlists, earlier beat the Royal Mandaya Hotel-University of the East Warriors 98-79 on Tues-day to serve notice of their title bid. Goldstar upstaged Montana Pawn-shop 80-76 for their first

win. The Hardwaremen (1-1) now needs to hurdle the Warriors (0-2) who succumbed to their sec-ond setback at the hands of the Pawnbrokers (1-1).

Despite the win, the Stags are wary the next two games will be a lot tougher for them.

Spitfirish Calvin Abueva and Ian Sangalang will not be around for the final two outings as they are set to fly out anytime to Manila to suit up for their mother club NLEX in the PBA D-League. The Road Warriors will be playing on Friday.

Meantime, Phoenix Accelerate Supreme will meet Phoenix Cycle Fork Oil in the finals of the 3rd Trip ko Phoenix Fuels Un-der-16 Basketball League at 4:00 pm today.

Phoenix Vega in finalsBy Neil Bravo

AFTER the festivities of the 75th Araw ng Dabaw, get ready for

Summerfest 2012.The city government

in cooperation with the Duaw Davao Festival Foun-dation is all set to launch the summer-long festivities with main focus on sports tourism, the arts and cul-ture.

Duaw Davao executive director Lisette Marques, appearing in the weekly I-Speak forum, said this year’s Davao Summerfest

promises to be an exciting menu and will officially take place from April to May.

Among the activities highlighting the Davao Summerfest 2012 are art and music workshops,

sports camps, sports expo, and the Davao Summer Games which will all have a unique menu of events geared towards attracting more visitors to the city to participate in the said events.

With the onset of sum-mer, outdoor sports activi-ties and workshops are just among the many things one can engage in most espe-cially, the children who will be out from school for two months.

Included in the sports

Davao Summerfest 2012 set

FDAVAO, 13