Various organiza-tions of lawyers in Davao City call for

the speedy prosecution of alleged plunderers in-volved in the P10-billion pork barrel scam and the abolition of the priority development assistance fund (PDaF) during a press conference on Thursday at the integrated Bar of the Philippines-Davao chapter office.

Lawyer Jose Edgar ilag-an of iBP-Davao, said inves-tigations being conducted in relation to the alleged misuse of the PDaF should not stop at the mere collec-tion of evidence rather, it should lead to the prosecu-tion of the plunderers. He cited the case of indonesia where government offi-

cials involved in corruption were ousted, including the president.

“The Commission on audit (Coa) and the De-partment of Budget and Management (DBM) mere-ly pass their audit reports to the office of the om-budsman. Due to the many cases that reach the om-budsman, it would take forever before all of them are read,” ilagan said.

ilagan added that the Coa and DBM should do their job by filing formal complaints if they see dis-crepancies in the release and use of funds, instead of just passing the audit re-ports without highlighting any violations.

Bayan Muna represen-

P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013

FUNITED, 10

By Emilord P. Castromayor

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO

ROWDY FOREIGNER. Sri Lankan Methsiri Ambegoda Liyanage lands in Sta. Ana Police station jail for allegedly pointing a gun at his live-in partner inside the Quality Plaza Inn in R. Castillo Ave. yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

UNITED VS ‘PORK BARREL’Local lawyers call for abolition

GROOVY AND TECHIE OLDIES. An elderly woman proudly shows to fellow senior citizen her “Candy Crush Saga” score during the culmination program of the 2013 Elderly Filipino Week at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 11 office yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 20132 EDGEDAVAO

THE BIG NEWS

THE DaVao MEDi-CaL soCiETY and rotary internation-

al have joined forces to wage war against dengue in Mindanao, starting in Davao City.

“our objective is to achieve a zero-dengue sit-uation here,” said Dr. ana Liza P. Lanuza, DMs presi-dent for 2013-2014.

Dr. Lanuza said the ob-jective may be ambitious but it is doable as shown in Cebu last august.

The campaign, which started last week in sitio Dumangas, involves the broadcast of powdered temethos chemical in dump places in order to

kill the larvae of mosqui-toes.

she said killing the larvae, locally termed “ki-ti-kiti,” is better than kill-ing mosquitoes.

“Kung papatayin na-tin ang lamok, manganak pa rin sila, dahil naka-pag-iwan ng larvae,” Dr. Lanuza said, adding that “pagnamatay yong kitikiti wala nang lamok.”

after Dumanlas, the campaign will go to an-other part of Buhangin this saturday.

Lanuza said that the DMs member physicians themselves, joined by volunteers from rotar-ians led by Dr. romeo

Du, past president of the rotary Club of Davao, students, barangay res-idents will put the pow-dered temethos chemical on places identified to be breeding places of vector mosquitoes.

she said the campaign will first focus on Bu-hangin because the bulk of dengue cases, including deaths, came from Bu-hangin.

The barangay resi-dents themselves will identify the breeding places where the cam-paign will focus.

To be effective, the ac-tivity is scheduled every three months in a target-

ed place. she said the activity in

putting temethos in plac-es identified to be with mosquito larvae takes only one hou. Before the activity, the barangays residents led by their offficials are educated through a one-hour sem-inar on dengue, how to avoid getting sick with dengue and what to do if one is already sick of it. The seminar takes only one hour, she said.

Lanuza said in waging the campaign, the DMs needs more volunteers and donations as the chemical being used is quite expensive.

THE City Government of Davao, spear-headed by the City

Environment and Natural resources office (Cenro) is eyeing the development of a promenade alongside the Davao river, and the rehabilitation of existing public parks.

Eliza Madrazo, Cenro head, said they have sub-mitted the river prome-nade plan to the City Plan-ning and Development of-fice for approval.

The plan entails the extension of the exist-ing promenade from Bolton Bridge to Genero-so Bridge. a river prom-enade was built on the

riverbank beside Bolton Bridge but had been ne-glected, Madrazo said that the plan under the Davao river Development Pro-gram will have the prom-enade expanded.

she said the prom-enade will be useful as a viewing deck where people can watch fluvi-al parades. Future plans will include the expan-sion of the promenade to Madapo beyond Generoso Bridge.

she said that although the riverbanks at the pro-posed promenade are presently occupied by in-formal settlers, it has also

DMS docs, Rotarians target‘zero-dengue’ in campaignDrive starts in Buhangin

ama@edgedavao.net

By antonio m. ajEro

Davao City plans river promenade

SCAVENGER-FRIENDLY FORUM. Elisa P. Madrazo, head of City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO), says she will gather some 100 garbage scavengers for the first ever scavenger-friendly forum on October 18. The scavengers became a problem in the city’s garbage collection operations due to the mess they leave every time they rummage through the garbage bins. Lean Daval Jr.

SATELLITE OFFICE. A client enjoys the fast service of the spacious Land Transportation Office (LTO) satellite branch at SM City Davao yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

EParTMENT of Trade and industry (DTi) 11 regional Director

Marizon s. Loreto believes that region 11 is “looking at a much better business environment in the fu-ture.”

Loreto in Wednesday’s Local Chief Executive Con-vergence on Competitive-ness at the Pinnacle Hotel and suites, Davoao City, said DTi and the Depart-ment of Local and interi-or Governance (DiLG) is united in adding compet-itiveness among the local government units from

different cities and prov-inces in the region.

Yesterday, DTi, DiLG `and 50 local chief execu-tives in region 11 signed an agreement to ensure the implementation of ac-tivities outlined in the DTi-DiLG Joint Memorandum Circular No. 01, series of 2012, “guidelines in im-plementing the standards in processing business permits and licenses in all cities and municipalities” and jointly facilitate the application for clearances, permits, and licenses to ensure compliance of poli-

ejf@edgedavao.net

By Ej dominiC FErnandEz

DTI-DILGEnhancing LGU competitiveness

FDTI, 10

saBa banana is one of the important com-modities being fo-

cused om by the Depart-ment of agriculture (Da) regional field office 11 to maintain agriculture production on a high lev-el, according to assistant regional director Berna-dette san Juan.

san Juan said the Da, together with saba stake-holders, has proposed a budget of P84.6 million for the next four years to support the production of saba banana starting year2014 up to 2017 sub-ject to the approval of the government.

This amount is a cor-rection a previous news release that the P84.6 million is proposed for one year only.

The proposed four

year program fund will prioritize the production research and develop-ment, which is necessary to achieve high export quality saba banana produce; postharvest and marketing to avoid postharvest loses and in-crease the income of the farmers; and regional ba-nana extension and insti-tutional development to equip our banana farmers with knowledge on ba-nana production.

The Bureau of agri-cultural statistics (Bas) reported that 41 percent of the total area planted with saba nationwide is located in Mindanao. in terms of volume produc-tion, 61 percent of saba is produced in Mindan-ao. Based on a separate

Four-year budget for saba development

FFOUR-YEAR, 10

FDAVAO, 10

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013 3

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 20134 THE BIG NEWS

JOB FAIR. JobStreet.com Marketing and Commu-nication manager Eileen

G. Camarillo discusses the company’s history

and background during yesterday’s press briefing

for JobStreet Career Fair 2013 set on October 12 at the New Commercial

Complex Center Mall. Lean Daval Jr.

PASALUBONG CENTER NOW AT SM CITY GENSAN. To provide locals, tourists and excursionists a blend of SOCCSKSARGEN products and authentic pasa-lubong crafts and foods, the Department of Trade and Industry Region 12 has finally brought these products at SM City General Santos. Products including food, fashion accessories, Gift, decors, and health and wellness products and services, are being sold at producer’s price are located at the Second Level of the. Hurry! Visit DTI Region 12’s Pasalubong Center at SM City General Santos.

soME 100 garbage scavengers will con-verge on october

18, 2:00 pm, for the first ever scavenger-friendly forum of the Davao City Environment and Natural resources office (Cenro).

Cenro department head Elisa Madrazo, in yesterday’s ispeak forum at the city hall said, these garbage scavengers are among the problems of Cenro for the mess that they leave every time they rummage through the garbage bins.

“i really hope they would cooperate so that they won’t leave too much mess, and they will be more organized,” she said, adding, “in return, we are planning to give them healthcare benefits such as medicine, and assis-tance from our (Cenro)

nurses.”Madrazo said that

when the scavengers learned of the event, they became excited.

The scavengers who will join the event have their own groups, some are elder garbage collec-tors, and some have their own tricycles for garbage collection.

This event will help the scavengers be recog-nized, and perhaps get permission to enter those subdivisions that have banned them.

Later on, Cenro plans to create a depository area for recyclable items that will help scavengers to earn more from the garbage they collect.

“The mayor (rodrigo Duterte) will definitely support this program,” Madrazo said.

oVEr a thousand Mus-lims in Davao City will celebrate the Eid

al-adha through a unified prayer at the agro football field, Ecoland on october 15.

Madrasa executive di-rector aleem Jamal Munib, in yesterday’s ispeak forum at the city hall said, there were about 1,000 partic-

ipants last year, and they expect the same number to attend this year.

He said, they already spoke to Task Force Davao and the Philippine National Police here about security measure for the event, add-ing that everything (secu-rity) is being arranged for that day.

southeast asian lead-ers gathered here for their bi-annual sum-

mits have adopted a recom-mendation by the asEaN environment ministers for a transboundary haze mon-itoring system.

Brunei’s sultan Has-sanal Bolkiah said in a statement that they also welcomed indonesia’s com-mitment to ratify a regional haze agreement.

“We look forward to in-donesia’s ratification of the agreement at the earliest time,” said the sultan, who is chairing the 23rd asEaN summit and related sum-mits.

The leaders said they took note of the outcome of the trilateral meeting on transboundary haze be-tween the foreign ministers of indonesia, Malaysia and singapore at the asEaN Foreign Ministers’ retreat in Hua Hin, Thailand, last august.

on the sidelines of the 23rd asEaN summit here, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk seri Najib Tun razak had a brief discussion yes-terday on the haze with in-donesian President susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

according to officials, the haze monitoring system that will include digitised land-use maps and conces-sion maps of fire-prone ar-eas that cause transbound-ary haze will be shared on a government-to-govern-ment basis.

in July, indonesia an-nounced it would ratify the asean agreement on Trans-boundary Haze Pollution by the end of this year or early next year.

Countries affected by the haze had been pressur-ing indonesia to ratify the agreement after thick smog, resulting from forest fires in

ejf@edgedavao.net

By Ej dominiC FErnandEz

Cenro to gather 100 scavengers

Davao City Muslims set for Eid al-Adha

ASEAN agrees to adopt haze monitoring system

a 53-year-old sri Lan-ka national could be facing cases after he

was irked by his former live-in partner over a lewd video shown on television inside their room at the Qualiy inn Plaza in agdao on Thursday.

The sri Lankan, Methi-siry ambegoda Liyanage kept insisting that she (Me-leah Canaya, 23) was the nude woman in the lewd show while she denied the

accusation. Meleah had gone to

meet Liyanage to ask finan-cial support for their two year-old child about 10:00 a.m.

Meleah who was about to leave the inn signaled her two nieces and nephew to prepare to leave but the suspect blocked her way.

The suspect ran and knocked on the door of the vehicle, opened it and slapped aludenah Canaya,

her niece, and not content Liyanage struck her with a small bag containing his .45 pistol caliber with tam-pered serial number, police said.

she tried to escape from the car but the sus-pect slammed the door that caused her right fore-finger to get caught in the jamb of the door.

Canaya’s nephew, ruchz rushed to the sus-pect and punched him.

The victims claimed that Liyanage pointed a gun at Fareenah the other niece.

P/supt Ceazar Cabu-hat, commander of the sta ana police station that, Liyanage, will be facing cases of violation against women and children, ille-gal possession of firearm, serious physical injury, grave threats and viola-tion of the Comelec gun ban. [EPC]

Police arrest Sri Lankan

FDAVAO CITY, 10

FASEAN, 10

u.s. secretary of state John Kerry said Thursday that he

has canceled a scheduled trip to the Philippines due to the threat posed by trop-ical storm Nari.

Forecasters say the storm could strike the northern Philippines as a

typhoon as early as Friday, bringing strong winds and heavy rains.

Kerry had planned to meet with Philippine offi-cials in Manila on Friday and saturday. it was to be the last stop in a southeast asia tour that has included indonesia and Brunei and

is moving on to Malaysia later Thursday.

Kerry made the an-nouncement as he wrapped up his sessions at the asso-ciation of southeast asian Nations summit. He said he would try to make the trip up in a month or so and re-affirmed the “firm partner-

ship” between the u.s. and the Philippines.

During much of Ker-ry’s trip he has been filling in for President Barack obama, who canceled a planned asia tour because of the government shut-down gripping Washing-ton. [AP]

Kerry cancels stop in PHL due to storm

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013 5

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013 EDGEDAVAO6 THE ECONOMY

POVERTY SUMMIT. Budget Secretary Florencio Abad (in rostrum) deliver his message during the 2013 Partnerships against Poverty Summit held at Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City Wednesday (October 9, 2013). Abad assures the

government’s role to provide ample support to micro finance clients, especially those coming from the poor.[PNA photos by Jess M. Escaros Jr.]

FiNaNCiaL inclusion or accessibility of fi-nance services up to

the poorest community can be achieved through policy making, according to ex-perts speaking during the 2013 Partnerships against Poverty summit.

The alliance of Finan-cial inclusion (aFi), a net-

work of financial inclusion policymakers, said policy making will provide securi-ty, confidence and competi-tiveness for the industry.

Well-designed policies will also increase the level of financial access in a coun-try, thus providing a higher quality of living, aFi said.

in its study, it was found

in Nepal that access to sav-ings accounts has increased 16 percent of household as-sets while opening a bank account in Mexico resulted to seven percent increase in population engaging in small businesses.

”Policies shall ensure that the impact of finan-cial inclusion will go to

a positive direction,” aFi said.“This will contribute to economic growth and sta-bility.”

aFi noted that in the past five years, awareness on the importance of cre-ating policies for financial inclusion grew worldwide.

it cited the growing number of countries that

committed to The Maya Declaration, a pledge of common principles in the development of financial inclusion, which is now posted in 45 countries com-pared to 2011’s 17 coun-tries.

aFi added that partner-ships among private sector, non-government organi-

zations, and policy makers will create opportunities such as alignment of inter-ests, technological innova-tions, and global advocacy to achieve financial inclu-sion.

”Quality of lives is the measurement of an effec-tive financial inclusion,” it said. [PNa]

Policy making pushedfor financial inclusion

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013

THE amreco-PsaG (association of Mindanao rural Electric

Cooperative- Power supply aggregation Group) has assured Mindanao consumers a 300-MegaWatt power supply by 2017.

amreco President sergio C. Dagooc said different provinces in Mindanao relying on the different electric cooperatives for their power supply are assured of but they are at a quandary as to where to source power from now up to 2015.

“We have already contracted with GN Power and amreco-PsaG for our projected 300-MW demand for 2017,” he said.

amreco is composed of 33 electric cooperatives, six of which are considered sPuG or small Power utilities Group located in different Mindanao islands such as Jolo, sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Dinagat and Basilan. The six cooperatives have their own generators while the 27 others rely on the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

all the six electric cooperatives are under the National Power Corporation (NPC) as per republic act 9136 which mandates the NPC to operate power plants in

isolated islands in the country.He said amreco accounts

for 60 percent market share or an estimated 1,941,554 residential consumers in Mindanao. The rest of the market is accounted for by private electric companies like the Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) and the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company, inc. (CEPaLCo).

Dagooc said 80% of their member cooperatives are Triple a cooperatives which means these are “financially, technically and institutionally stable.”

However, he added, 20 percent of its members are hard-up electric cooperatives located in the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao (arMM).

among the top cooperatives are servicing the Davao region namely Davao del sur Electric Cooperative (Dasureco), Davao oriental Electric Cooperative (Doreco) and the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco) which used to be a top-performing cooperative before it got embroiled in its present controversy.

Twenty-seven of the member coops are hooked up with the island’s transmission grid while another six operate in the off-grid islands

surrounding the main island of Mindanao.

“While most of our member cooperatives are doing good, we have to unify our resources to help ailing members such as those in the arMM,” he said.

amreco-PsaG Executive Director Clint Django Pacana

said these cooperatives are non-stock, non-profit organizations that rely on the P6,000 monthly dues of its members for its continued operation.

“This is mainly the reason why PsaG was formed and do business in the power industry,” he added. [PNa]

7

by the numbersThe global economy is expected to grow 2.9 percent year-over-year in 2013

and 3.6 percent in 2014, revising July estimates down by 0.3 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively.Source: IMF

EDGEDAVAO

THE ECONOMY

ME r C H a N D i s E e x p o r t s in august

accelerated by 20.2%, the fastest since september 2012.

Data from the National statistics released on Thursday, october 10, showed that august exports reached $4.581 billion.

This was the highest spike achieved year-to-date amid weak global economic recovery. This also brought the aggregate January-to-

august merchandise exports $35.003 billion, 0.8% slower from the $35.297 billion a year ago.

in a briefing in Malacañang, Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda highlighted the country’s performance. “The Philippines is the strongest performer amongst its East and southeast asia neighbors in terms of export growths in august 2013.”

“Following the

Philippines as top export performer, Vietnam recorded an annual increase of 15.5% and then followed by the republic of Korea, which placed third with 7.7% annual gain followed by the People’s republic of China at 7.2%,” Malacañang added.

Top exportsElectronics products,

the company’s top export, however, was down 0.4% to $1.785 billion in august from $1.791 billion a year ago.

E l e c t r o n i c s accounted for 39% of the total exports revenue during the month.

Lacierda highlighted the products that contributed to the improvement of the export performance in august.

“Manufacture goods rose by 8.7% to us 3.7 billion from 3.4 billion a year ago,” he said. “Higher exports of total agro-based and forest products also contributed to the

robust export in 2013.”Export marketsThe following

were the Philippines’ main export markets in august: Japan – 25% share; $1.147 billion total, up 67 %, usa - 12.6% share; $575.44 million total, up 15.2%, China - 10.5% share; $479.88 million total, up 26.1 %, singapore 8.5% share and HongKong - 7.6% share; $348.46 million total up 13.5%. [rappler.com]

Amreco assures 300MW power supply in Mindanao by 2017

August exports surprise: 20% growth fastest in 10 months

MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2012-April 2013)

Month 2013 2012 2011

Average 42.23 43.31December 41.01 43.64November 41.12 43.27October 41.45 43.45

September 41.75 43.02August 42.04 42.42

July 41.91 42.81June 42.78 43.37May 42.85 43.13April 42.70 43.24

March 42.86 43.52February 40.67 42.66 43.70January 40.73 43.62 44.17

Stat Watch7.1

1st Qtr 2013

7.8 1st Qtr 2013

USD 3,741 million

Feb 2013USD 4,708

million Feb 2013USD -967

million Feb 2013USD -640

millionDec 2012

P 4,964,560  million

Feb 2013

2.4 % Mar 2013P113,609

million Mar 2013

P 5,281 billion 

Mar 2013

P 41.14 Apr 2013

6,847.5 Mar 2013

132.8 Apr 2013

2.6 Apr 2013

3.1 Apr 2013

418,108 Feb 2013

20.9% Jan 2013

7.1% Jan 2013

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 12:30Cebu Pacific Thu 5J965 / 5J968 12:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 13:25

Cebu Pacific Tue/Wed//Sat 5J965 / 5J968 13:35 Manila-Davao-Manila 14:05Silk Air Mon/Sat MI588 / MI588 13:35 Davao-Singapore 18:55 Silk Air Wed/Sun MI566 / MI566 15:20 Davao-Singapore 18:55Silk Air Thurs MI551 / MI551 12:05 Davao-Singapore 15:45Cebu 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 16:45

as of May 2013

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 20138 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

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EDITORIAL

oF THE more than 80 fake non-government organizations (NGos), only about a doz-en allegedly belongs to Janet Lim Napoles.

What about the rest? Will government also look into their operations to see if they are also involved in multi-million peso scams like those of Napoles?

aside from fake NGos, there are also spurious foun-dations organized by lawmakers themselves which they stuffed with their relatives as officers and directors.

in a statement on the controversial Priority Devel-opment assistance Fund during the inauguration and blessing of the district office of 1BaP party-list rep. sil-vestre H. Bello iii Wednesday afternoon, Mayor rodrigo r. Duterte said that it is not only Janet Napoles who is involved in the plunder of the people’s money. He said the other bogus NGos must also be investigated to de-termine their participation in wholesale theft of public funds.

The mayor zeroed in on foundations which may have

been organized by politicians to become conduits of their PDaF allocations.

Duterte blames some concerned government agen-cies for having tolerated the practice despite its being a violation of republic act 1319. The mayor must be refer-ring to the securities and Exchange Commission, which approves the creation of foundations, and the Commis-sion on audit which should have checked on the foun-dations’ role in the squander of the people’s money by erring lawmakers.

in sum, Duterte is for the abolition of PDaF, warning that the shenanigans involving the pork barrel system “will drag the spirit of the people and bring us down as a nation.”

The mayor’s stand on PDaF is credible considering the PDaF allocations that the city got from lawmakers –mostly senators—totaling some P70 million through the years had barely been touched by the city govern-ment under his watch.

Fake NGOs, illegal foundations

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013

oNE BiG BusiNEss, TaX-FrEE – We’ve been saying all along that it is so de-grading to talk about corruption

particularly those that actually happened in different government agencies. But the private sector is also corrupt. There have been previous cases of banks and other fi-nancial institutions looted by their owners and officials and the losses passed on to the government and the unknowing taxpayers. This is corruption but nobody is talking about it in these terms. The only corruption we used to know is what happens in vari-ous government offices.

The main challenge for the aquino ad-ministration right now is how to get back the economic dynamism and strengthen basic institutions partially derailed because of the highly-sensational issues surround-ing the multi-billion Priority Development assistance Fund (PDaF) and Disbursement acceleration Program (DaP) fund anom-alies embroiling some enterprising mem-bers of Congress and other ranking public officials. another equally degrading issue is the unabated corruption in the Bureau of Customs (BoC) that caught President Benigno aquino iii’s attention. Corruption really is a big problem and is coming out even to the fore even as resources become scarce.

sad to lament, though, many govern-ment officials are such cash-oriented freaks and avaricious personages that they will cling on tightly to their lucrative positions for dear life like hungry leeches as if there is no life after the government. Yes, corruption in its worst form is ram-pant from top to bottom. it has been insti-tutionalized and many officials, elective or otherwise, believe it is a way of living. Cor-ruption has become one big business, tax-free and has a subconscious effect on the

young gener-ation because they think that it is something normal al-ready.

C o r r u p -tion will never stop unless we make systemic changes in the bureaucracy. and President PNoy made a precise move recently by implementing drastic reforms in the Customs bureau, the second largest source of government revenue yet among the most graft-ridden line agencies. We are looking at an office where an estimat-ed P200 billion was lost annually from our nation’s coffers because of patronage and blatant corruption that have long plagued the Customs bureau. The President even issued a stern warning to ranking Customs officials against clinging to the corrupt ways of the past.

President PNoy “reset the button” for reorganization in the much maligned of-fice due to widespread corruption yet 15 thick-faced out of the 27 district customs collectors still have the audacity to ques-tioned their reassignment to the Depart-ment of Finance (DoF), which is the BoC’s principal agency. The callous and stub-born officials claimed their transfer to the DoF made possible through E.o. No. 146 that created the Customs Policy research office (CPro) is some sort of demotion in rank prompting them to elevate their grievances to the court and seek redress.

When an institution’s corrupt prac-tices are entrenched, nothing would ever

come of government’s effort if it would only reshuffle erring officials among dif-ferent positions. allowing these alleged hard-nosed and rapacious officials to re-main where they are and strut around like little kings in their newly-found opulent kingdoms, they could still continue to do their illegal but highly-profitable activities. The administration’s answer to the peren-nially corrupt Customs agency is to reset the button for it has long been the ugly face of corruption in government.

The misconduct becomes endemic be-cause the biggest perpetrators of corrup-tion are those who are in power and sen-sitive positions that do not have the capa-bility and the will to give up their prerog-atives, perks and absolute power. Big-time transactions in the Customs bureau have become more discreet and non-transpar-ent because those in high positions want-ed to do it themselves, of course, for obvi-ous reasons.

President PNoy, as his wont, was frank enough to say that the first order of the day was to put again semblance of order and equanimity followed by a tough direc-tive replacing quite a number of people in very key positions to effect the objec-tives of having the Customs office do what it is supposed to do, which is to perform efficiently by improving collections, and ridding itself completely of corruption. Probably irate and aghast because of the unabated corruption, President PNoy challenges corrupt BoC men by telling them: “Try me and see where that brings you.” The discretion that allows this kind of officials to illegally exact government revenues should be removed posthaste. More than that, government should set the example and go after the “big fish, not just the small fry.”

VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

AQUILES Z. ZONIOCorrespondent

By H. MarcoS c. MordenoSOMEONE ELSE’S

US shutdown :  Just keep on dreaming !

aMEriCaNs look like they’re reel-ing from the current us “shut-down” but a quick email reply

from my sister in the state of Virginia, says it’s the federal government that has no money to run its various offices--- not the state governments which have their own budget and funds.

My sister Marilyn works for the state government of Virginia, which happened to be america’s richest state, according to her email. a bonafide us citizen, she lives in springfield, Virginia, just a three hour drive to Washington DC, the seat of the federal government.

“Thanks for your concern. Don’t worry about us here. We’re oK, all our state gov-ernment offices all over america are open and running normally. it’s the federal gov-ernment that can longer open their offices because Congress failed to approve the federal budget,” Marilyn said in her email to me last week.

if this is happening in the Philippines, it’s like all the national offices all over the country have run out of funds to operate, when Congress fails to pass and approve the national budget. Thank goodness, it’s not happening to us in this country!

The appeal of america as the “land of milk and honey” seems to peel off some more in our minds as this problem is un-folding over there. one still have no idea how this “shutdown” will affect the rest of

the world. But what is becom-ing clear to us is that the united states of amer-ica is no longer as strong and invincible we thought it to be.

still fresh in our minds was the us finan-cial collapse of 2008-2009 when most of Wall street’s strongest and oldest financial firms like Bear stearns, Lehman Brothers, Morgan stanley, Merrill Lynch, american insurance Group, etc all went bankrupt and collapsed like a deck of cards.

This financial collapse was blamed on a financial instrument called “Mort-gage-Backed securities” ( home mortgages that were packaged by banks into a bond and traded like securities). since this MBs was also sold to foreign governments, like iceland, Greece, italy, Great Britain, France, Germany, etc--- most of these coun-tries which were exposed to this bond also went bankrupt when the us stock market crashed in 2009.

Loose and easy credit for home loans, combined with extreme greed brought down the us financial market in one great

market crash whose waves rippled around the world, bringing down with it such coun-tries as iceland, Greece, italy.

This time, angry contempt against the administration of President Barack obama for his health care programs by Congress, is bringing down the entire us federal gov-ernment.

What a way to bring down the usa. No one needs to declare war and no one needs to invade the most powerful country on this planet!

While the Philippines seems to get all the good economic news with its soaring growth rate and improving credit ratings, the us seems to be getting all the bad news these days.

My sister told me not to stop dreaming of america because she wants me to come and settle over there in Virginia. she and her husband Ed are reserving a car for me and buying another house so i could join them --- that is, if i ever have the chance to go there. i’ve began to dream of weekends fishing with them in a nearby lake.

“Just keep on dreaming. one day, before you know it, that dream will come true,” she said.

oh well, with all these financial and political problems faced by america these days, i’m beginning to have sec-ond-thoughts…

(Comments ? Email > tradingpost_davao@yahoo.com)

NaTioNaL television last week report-ed on a road project in Luzon fund-ed under the Priority Development

assistance Fund. The road was apparently overpriced given its length and substandard quality – its concrete pavement collapsed a few years after its completion.

That project was one glaring example of how the PDaF, popularly called the pork barrel, has been misused and abused by law-makers and their cohorts in and out of gov-ernment.

The same thing may be said too of Pres-ident Benigno aquino iii’s “daang matuwid” program. it is crumbling apart ironically because he is building it in a manner that is anything but straight. Either he often gets bad advice or he thinks his approval rating allows him to squander his political capital every now and then. This may explain his obstinacy to retain the pork under a new guise.

Note that when the House of represen-tatives approved the 2014 budget on second reading, it deleted the PDaF but parceled out P25.4 billion among six government agencies. However, the honorable lawmakers may “rec-ommend” five public works projects at most.

in exchange, the House members kept their hands off the P450-billion special Pur-pose Fund, the President’s own pork barrel. since this is a discretionary fund the Palace can dictate its terms on the lawmakers who would be salivating for allocations for projects from which they could pocket fat kickbacks.

only a few may have noticed it, but the executive branch has effectively usurped the legislature’s power of the purse through such setup, and made the latter hostage of its agenda. This the Palace has accomplished by playing down the notion that the discretion-ary funds of the President are also pork. it has tried to contain public outrage and discourse within the PDaF issue, to keep aquino’s im-age as a serious graft buster untarnished.

But alas, senator Jinggoy Estrada exposed the Disbursement acceleration Program, which like the PDaF has evolved into some-thing that now threatens to blow in the face of this administration. Like the PDaF too, the constitutionality of the DaP has been ques-tioned before the supreme Court.

Questions on the constitutionality of the PDaF and DaP would be resolved mainly on technical grounds. The supreme Court will simply examine if their existence has not vio-lated the limits on the powers of each branch of government based on the principle of sepa-ration of powers. Can the lawmakers identify projects? Can the President realign funds for items which are not specified in the approved national budget? These are some of the ques-tions that the Court will have to settle.

For the public at large, however, the bigger issues behind the PDaF and DaP are not only legal and technical but also moral and political. aside from the legal issues, the discovery of questionable PDaF disbursements that have implicated law-makers and private personalities like Jan-et Lim-Napoles, and Estrada’s claim that the President dangled DaP allocations to secure the conviction of former supreme Court Chief Justice renato Corona in the impeachment trial are among the reasons for those series of protests and the peti-tions now being heard by the High Tribu-nal.

it’s unfortunate that the Palace would hear nothing of the legal questions. With regard to the DaP in particular, Palace spokespersons have stuck to the argument that the issue should focus on whether the funds for it were properly used. in effect, they are saying that there is no crime even if the DaP is illegal as long as the money for it has been spent as intended. The end justifies the means.

The Palace is now saying the execu-tive may flout the law on the use of pub-lic funds if the intentions are good. it’s a dangerous proposition. if legal funds can be abused and misused, it should worry us more if allocations go out of the public coffers through dubious means even if the avowed purpose is to build cloudless hap-piness for us all.

Maybe “daang matuwid” actually means taking legal shortcuts.

(MindaViews is the opinion sections of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com.)

Making systemic changes Road narrows ahead

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 201310 EDGEDAVAONEWS

DTI...

Four-year...

Davao...

Asean...FFROM 2

FFROM 2

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FFROM 4

republic of the PhilippinesDepartment of Transporta-tion and CommunicationsLaND TraNsPorTaTioN FraNCHisiNG aND rEGu-

LaTorY BoarDregional office No. Xi

Davao city

Petition for renewal of a Certificate of

Public Convenience to op-erate

a PuJ DuaL ordinary reg-ular

service.

FlorEntino m. lan-dasan, Case No.94-Xi-00353 Petitioner

x------------------x

notiCE oF HEarinG

Petitioner is a grantee of a Certificate of Public Conve-nience issued in this case au-thorizing the operation of a PuJ-DuaL ordinary regular service on the route: TaLo-Mo rouTE and for cargoes as dual service from said route to any point in region Xi with the use of oNE (1) unit, which certificate will ex-pire on May 27,2014. in the petition filed on september 26, 2013, petitioner request authority to extend the va-lidity of said certificate to operate along the same route with the use of the same unit previously authorized.

NoTiCE, is hereby giv-

en that this petition will be heard by this Board on oC-ToBEr 23, 2013 at 09:40 a.m. at this office at the above address.

at least, TEN (10) days prior to the above date peti-tioner shall publish this No-tice once in a one (1) daily newspaper of general circu-lation in Mindanao

Parties opposed to the granting of the petition must file their written opposition supported by documentary evidence on or before the above date furnishing a copy of the same to the petitioner, and may if they so, desire ap-pear on said date and time.

This petition will be act-ed upon by this Board on the basis of its records and the documentary evidence submitted by the parties, un-less the Board deems it nec-essary to receive additional documentary and/or oral evidence.

WiTNEss the Honorable BENJaMiN a. Go, CEso V, re-gional Director, this 26th day of september 2013 at Davao City.

TErEsiTa DELaPEÑa-YÑiGuEZ

Chief Transport Devel-opment officer

SHORTAGE OF MENTORS. Madrasah executive director Aleem Jamal Munib says that the biggest problem of Ma-drasah schools in Davao City is lack of teachers during this week’s edition of I-Speak media forum at Sangguniang Panlungsod yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

cies, rules and regulations. The main objective

of the convergence was to update stakeholders of the Philippine’s com-petitiveness status; to es-tablish a joint task force to assist investors in the processing of business permits and licenses; and to forge an agreement to assist investors expedi-tiously.

DiLG assistant re-gional director Wilhelm M. suyco said, they aim to create transparency through the 2/5 system where only two signa-tories are needed and a process duration of not

more than five days for any business application.

He said, this will min-imize the usual problems of applying for business, which are the long pro-cess it takes to finish, the numerous signatories needed, and “under the table” transactions.

He also said that they are incentivizing LGus, where in they give loan funding for LGus that are doing a good job in pro-moting their communi-ties to attract investors.

Loreto said business-men who are looking at investing in an LGu that is competitive will be

very happy, since that area would be very con-ducive for business.

she said, they have or-ganized a regional Com-petitiveness Committee (rCC) to make sure that competitiveness mea-sures among LGus will be monitored and to help formulate programs to enhance competitiveness among LGus.

she said, this will in-crease the consciousness of LGus that the compe-tition is not among oth-er LGus, but with other association of southeast asian Nations (asEaN) countries as well.

study of Medium and small scale industries Co-ordinated action Program (MasiCaP), 35 percent of the total saba produce in Mindanao is processed into banana chips.

san Juan said that to constantly support the export milestone of saba banana, Davao region is tar-

geting about 11, 155 hect-ares for expansion. These potential areas are found in Davao oriental with the potential area of 6,000 hectares, Davao del sur with 2,000 hectares, Davao del Nortewith 1, 280 hect-ares, CompostelaValleywith 1,000 hectares and Davao Citywith 875hectares.

The roadmap workshop was attended by Banana industry stakeholders that include Local Government unit representatives in the region, Department of Trade and industry, Department of science and Technology (DosT), private sector and saba growers. [LLBocado/Aggie Media Service]

been identified as a per-manent hazard area, and the settlers would have to be relocated.

Part of the plan is for the opposite riverbank to be covered with trellis-es and its banks planted with mangroves to hide illegal settlers and at the same time prevent them from throwing garbage

along the river.a small river park is

planned at the Tiongko Football Field just be-side the Bolton Bridge. Madrazo said it will be developed as a coastal park, and Madrazo hopes that the project will be implemented during the current three-year term of Mayor rodrigo Duterte.

Madrazo said they are planning to make osmeña Park, a retirees park where kiosks, benches will be put up for the el-derly visiting the park. she has noticed that some people have turned the park into a sleeping quar-ter. thus the need to put up a fence around it. [PIA/RG Alama]

Davao City...FFROM 4

“Muslims feel welcome in Davao City,” he said, add-ing that this is the only city where the Muslims and the Christians live together in harmony.

Eid al-adha is an islam-ic feast of sacrifice in com-memoration of the obedi-ence of ibrahim (abraham) to the will of allah to sacri-fice his son, ishmael.

Munib said they cel-ebrate this feast to thank allah for letting them expe-rience the Hajj, which is one

of the Five Pillars of islam. The first pillar is the

shahada, which is the dec-laration of faith that there is no other God, but allah and that Muhammud is His messenger.

The next pillar is the salat, which consists of five daily prayers called Fajr during the dawn, Dhuhr for noon, asr for afternoon, Maghrib for evening, and isha’ for night.

The third pillar is the sawm, which is fasting and

self-control during the peri-od of the blessed ramadan.

The fourth pillar is the Zakat, which is the practice of charitable giving accord-ing to how much a Muslim earns.

Finally, the fifth pillar is the Hajj. it is a pilgrimage that happens every islam-ic month of Dhu al-Hijjah to the Holy City of Mecca. all able-bodied Muslims should undergo this pil-grimage at least once in their lifetime.

sumatra and riau, engulfed parts of Malaysia and singa-pore.

in the latest occurrence in June, Malaysia had to de-clare a state of emergency in Muar and Ledang, with many schools forced to close due to the thick smog and the air Pollution index reaching the hazardous lev-el.

indonesia is the only asEaN country which has yet to ratify the asEaN agreement on Transbound-ary Haze Pollution which came into force in 2003 -- despite most of the forest

and peat soil fires originat-ing from indonesia.

The agreement was es-tablished in 2002 involving asean nations to reduce haze pollution, whereby it recognises that transbound-ary haze pollution resulting from land or forest fires should be mitigated through concerted national efforts and international coopera-tion.

it was established due to haze that hit southeast asia in the late 1990s, following land clearing via open burn-ing on the indonesian island of sumatra. [PNA/Bernama]

United...FFROM 1tative Carlos isagani Za-rate said, “as members of the legal community, we cannot just sit down and relax. although we under-stand that there is still an ongoing case questioning the constitutionality of the PDaF, different lawyer or-ganizations of Davao have united to intensify the call to end graft and corruption involving the pork barrel system.”

Zarate said that Con-gress should be account-able and the judicial sys-tem should be persistent in prosecuting the people involved.

“We see impunity in the current situation. Just like impunity in human rights violations, this is an impu-nity in the budget. Without accountability, officials be-lieve that they can get away with it,” Zarate said.

Lawyer Manuel Quibod of the Free Legal assis-tance Group (FLaG) said that people should know what the PDaF is and why it should be abolished. if more people are more knowledgeable about the PDaF and how it is prone to graft and corruption, more people would unite to protest against it.

January Faye riso-nar-Bello of the ateneo Public interest and Legal advocacy (aPiLa), called

for information dissemina-tion on why the pork barrel should be abolished down to the grassroots level.

“Transparency and accountability are not enough. Even though many have called for the such values, there is no realiza-tion of those values into a law such as the Foi Bill. if the people involved in the pork barrel scam are not accountable for their misdeeds, then the people could expose the violations if they have access to the data of Coa and DBM. But that is until the Foi Bill is passed,” Bello said.

Lawyer Eduardo Es-tores of uPLM said that their group is calling for the rechanneling of pork barrel funds to the people.

“indeed they have done projects for their constit-uents, but these projects are just a small part of the funds that they should be giving back to address the needs of their constituents. Congress and the Presi-dent have made the gov-ernment as their business instead,” Estores said in the vernacular.

The lawyers also conducted a ceremonial smashing of a piggy bank filled with peso bills signi-fying their support for the abolition of the pork bar-rel.

soLiCiTor Gener-al Francis Jardeleza Thursday maintained

the provision of the Priori-ty Development assistance Fund under the 2013 Gen-eral appropriations act is constitutional.

During the second day of the oral arguments at the supreme Court on the PDaF, Jardeleza stressed under the 2013 Gaa, the lawmakers are allowed to propose and identify proj-ects and this system is in consistent with the decision of the sC in the case of Phil-ippine Constitution associ-ation.

in the case filed by Phil-consa in 1994, the sC up-

held the power of Congress which was delegated to the lawmakers pertaining to the pork barrel because the proposal and the iden-tification of projects are all merely “recommendatory” in nature.

Nevertheless, Jardeleza pointed out under the 2013 Gaa, at the end of the day, it is still the President who will make the decision on the allotment of pork barrel fund of the lawmakers, and he can also issue order for the release of the fund.

under such a process, he said, there are no con-stitutional powers of the Executive Branch and the Legislature which are over-

stepped or impeded.Jardeleza also made a

comparison of the provi-sion of pork barrel fund un-der the 1994 Gaa and 2013 Gaa.

at the current national budget, he said, there has been a detailed “menu” on the use of PDaF and it can be considered as “self-im-posed limitation” on the part of Congress.

This means, Jardeleza said, in the passage of time Congress has become strin-gent on the use of PDaF.

Jardeleza added no realignment of funds has been done, but rather, only realignment of projects. [PNA]

Jardeleza maintains PDAF is constitutional

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013 11DAVAO DEL NORTE

STO. TOMAS, DAVAO DEL NORTE

COTABATO CITY

EDGEDAVAO

SUBURBIA

CiTiZENs of Davao del Norte were thrilled to honor the

centenarians of the prov-ince for their selfless ser-vice and significant con-tribution to nation-build-ing.

To highlight this year’s Elderly Filipino Week cel-ebration of the province, the provincial council of the elderly, known as the aCHiEVErs, launched the search for the outstand-ing Centenarian of Davao del Norte.

aCHiEVErs Director Leonilo Lariosa said the search aims to honor and celebrate the accomplish-ments and contributions of the aging seniors, par-ticularly to the develop-ment of the province.

“Their living example inspires the Dabaonons to work for better quality of life through dedication, hard work and by pursu-ing healthy lifestyle,” he said.

Centenarian alfredo Pulmano of Tagum City, who turned 105 years old last May, clinched the oustanding Centenarian

award for his valuable achievements in shaping modern Tagum.

Pulmano was recog-nized as the first public school teacher of Tagum City.

He was also among the 1,500 Filipino guerillas who fought and pushed back over 3,000 Japa-nese soldiers in the epic “Battle of ising” in 1945, which has become one of the most decisive battles against the imperial army during World War ii.

Primitiva Payot of New Corella town and Juan Juaban of Kapalong, who are both 102 years old, settled the first and second runners-up, re-spectively.

Governor rodolfo del rosario said it is but fitting that the province pays tribute to the “living treasures” of our modern society.

“in this event we re-new our vow to uphold and promote the rights and well-being of our elderly, as we highlight their contribution in building the nation,” he

OUTSTANDING CENTENARIANS. Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario and Vice Gov. Victorio Suaybaguio Jr. together with Outstanding Centenarian awardee, 105-year old Alfredo Pulmano, (center seated), of Tagum City, with runners-up Primitiva Payot of New Corella town and Juan Juaban of Kapalong, who are both 102 years old. [NOEL BAGUIO/DAVNOR PIO]

Dabaonons honor centenarians

said.He assured the pro-

vincial government con-tinues to look into the

welfare of the elderly, as Capitol steps up its hu-man development thrust called P.E.o.P.L.E.

other activities high-lighting the celebration include the search for Lolo Pogi and Lola Beau-

ty, Dancercise competi-tion and the raffle-for-a-cause. [NoEL BaGuio/DaVNor Pio]

oFFiCErs and mem-bers of different co-operatives sto. To-

mas, Davao del Norte spear-headed by saint Michael Multi-purpose Cooperative (saMiMuPCo) and Knights of Columbus Credit Coop-erative (KCBCC) have offi-cially marked this october’s month-long celebration of Cooperative Month bearing the theme, “Cooperatives pave the way for inclusive growth.”

in an interview, rene Bongabong, saMiMuP-Co Manager, said that this month-long celebration is traditionally recognized and participated in by coop-eratives and our members, the government sector, the non-government organiza-tions including the entire cooperative movement.

Eight cooperatives composed of teachers,

drivers, motorists, private school employees and gov-ernment workers joined the launching ceremony last october 6, 2013 held at sto. Tomas town plaza to mark the celebration which will be culminated on octo-ber 29, 2013.

“We usually conduct various activities that pro-mote cooperativism that could create impact to so-cial and economic develop-ment here in sto. Tomas,” Bongabong added.

Bongabong said that celebrating cooperative month will promote aware-ness building among the public about cooperatives. He cited that in promoting sustainable development, “cooperatives must focus on capacitating the people to improve their economic and social growth.” [aurEL LaraBasTEr]

STORAGE. The coal storage facility for the300-megawatt coal-fired power plant of Therma South in Barangay Binugao, Toril District, Davao City and Barangay Inawayan, Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur. [MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo]

Cooperative month celebrated

auToNoMous re-gion in Muslim Mindanao (arMM)

regional Governor Mujiv Hataman has ordered the release of P5 million for the region’s scholarship to help poor but academ-ically qualified students.

The program was in partnership with the

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to be jointly implemented in June 2014.

amihilda sangcopan, chief of staff of the office of the regional Governor (orG), said Gov. Hataman has initially allocated P5 million to start with the comprehensive scholar-

ship project dubbed “is-kolar.”

sangcopan said the scholarship project is an expansion of the commis-sion’s regular educational assistance thrusts.

To date, there are 337 scholars presently study-ing in various schools with the help of CHED-arMM.

The “iskolar” program, according to sangcopan, is in line with the regional government’s “Kalusugan, Karunungan at Kabuhayan Handog ng arMM” good governance advocacy.

she said the orG and CHED aim to have the is-kolar fully operational by the start of school year

2014-2015.sangcopan said Ha-

taman is open to any increase in the orG’s funding for the program should there is a need to do so.

“The P5 million the governor committed is just an initial grant. it can be increased as the proj-

ect goes on and as the sit-uation calls for it,” sang-copan told reporters.

Later this month, sangcopan said a qual-ifying examination for scholarship grants will be administered in designat-ed testing centers across the autonomous region. [PNa]

ARMM allots P5M for scholarship

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1) 1-hectare commercial lot at P10,000/sq m, along National Highway, facing east, beside NCCC Panacan, Davao City. 2) 17,940sq m commercial lot at P2,500/sq m, along Matina Diversion Road. 3) 3,831 sq m lot along Matina Diversion Road. 4) 41,408 sq m commercial/industrial lot at P800/sq m along the National Highway, Bunawan. 5) 7,056 sq m at P1,200/sq m commercial/residential lot along Indangan Road, Buhangin District. 6) 27,411 sq m commercial/industrial lot along the National Highway in Bincungan, Tagum City. 7) 116.15 to 245.92 sq meters , at P5.5M to P12.3M commercial/office condo units in Bajada, Davao City. 8) 699 to 1,117 sq m at P4,100/sq m commercial lots at Josefina Town Center, along the National Highway, Dumoy, Toril. 9) Ready-for-Occupancy Residential Properties: 4BR/3T&B in a 240 sq m lot with 177.31sqm floor area (2-storey) at P4.8M in an exclusive beachfront community in Dumoy, Toril.; 3BR 2-storey in a 71.25 sq m 2-storey in a 143sq m lot in an exclusive flower village in Maa, Davao City; 180 sq m lots with 71.25sqm to 126.42 sq m floor areas, priced at P3.751M to P5.773M in an exclusive mountain resort community along Matina, Diversion Road. 10) 1BR/2BR residential condo units located in Bolton, Maa, Obrero, Davao City. 11) FOR ASSUME (RUSH): 1BR res’l condo unit in Palmetto, Maa. P600K negotiable. Note: Items 1-9 can be paid in cash, in-house or bank financing. If interested, please call Jay (PRC REB Lic. 8237) at 0922-851-5337 (Sun), 0908-883-8832 (Smart) or send email to propertiesindavao@yahoo.com.

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VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013 13EDGEDAVAOEDGEDAVAO

NATION

TESDA-MECO MOU. Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) secretary Joel Villanueva (right) and Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) chairman and chief executive officer Amadeo R. Perez Jr. exchanged documents after signing a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to help Taiwan-bound Filipino workers adapt their new environment and be more effective workers. Both parties will develop competency-based curriculum and competency-based learning materials for the workplace-based Mandarin language and cultural training programs. The event was held Wednesday, October 9 at TESDA main office in East Service Road, South Luzon Expressway, Taguig City. Shown in photo at left is MECO director Cesar M. Drilon. [PNA photo by Jhonny Guevarra]

sEN. Grace Poe on Thursday vowed to defend Free-

dom of information bill as the senate begins the measure’s plenary debates at the resump-tion the regular ses-sions on Monday.

”We look forward to defending this im-portant measure on the floor and hurdling its passage in the senate,” Poe, chair of the senate committee on public information and mass media and sponsor of the bill, said.

Poe said she expects not to spend too much time debating the im-portant measure due to the “ overwhelming support of my fellow senators and the pub-lic.”

she said the an-nouncement of Mala-canang that the bill will be included in the list of priority measures would also hasten the passage of the Foi bill.

Poe said the mea-

sure serves to comple-ment the strong public clamor for transparen-cy and accountability and the safeguarding of public funds.

”The proposed Foi act is long overdue. Let us not delay its passage anymore. Let us heed the clamor of the peo-ple and approve this measure without fur-ther delay,” Poe said.

according to the neophyte lady senator, the measure shall allow every Filipino citizen to request and be granted access to any record or information that is un-der the control of the government, subject to certain exceptions. Government includes all agencies—the ex-ecutive, legislative and judicial branches, constitutionally man-dated bodies, local government, govern-ment-owned or con-trolled corporations and government finan-cial institutions. [PNa]

MANILA

Senate sets plenary debates on FOI

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 201314 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS

A total of 100 win-ners were named in the promo’s 14-week run from June 3 to Septem-ber 2, 2013. To join, the contestants simply had to “like” the official Cebu Pacific Facebook page, click on the 100 Lucky Juans applica-tion, and answer the question: “How will I make my homecoming in the Philippines fun?” Answers were sub-

mitted as a photo col-lage, two-minute vid-eo or essay with 200 words or less. These were judged based on creativity, adherence to the theme and the number of “likes” they garnered on the social networking site. The contestant’s length of stay in the UAE was also a factor in the re-sults. The balikbayans

were greeted by their families once they reached Resorts World Manila’s Mall Atrium. The atrium was filled with a whirlwind of activities with Filipino folk dances, and music as GMA’s Jonalyn Viray belted out much-loved Pinoy classics. Seeing the smiles of our kaba-bayans and the warmth of the welcome, I can’t help but shed tears of

joy. “Cebu Pacific is very proud to be reuniting 100 of our hardworking kababayans with their families in the Philip-pines. This has made our maiden Dubai-Manila flight a truly meaningful milestone,” said Cebu Pacific Pres-ident and CEO Lance Gokongwei. “We look forward to be of service to even more Filipinos,

as we continue to of-fer our trademark low fares to even more long haul destinations in the future. ” “I commend Cebu Pacific for their com-mitment to serve Glob-al Filipinos. We at the UAE are fortunate to now have a low fare travel alternative so we can come home more often,” said Philippine Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates

(UAE) Grace Relucio-Princesa. “We look forward to more Cebu Pacific flights in the Middle East soon.” With the spreading of Cebu Pacific’s daily flights to Dubai, the first and only Philip-pine carrier with di-rect flights to Dubai in more than 15 years, I can see many more reunions and home-comings this year many thanks to Cebu Pacific’s affordable year-round rates. Congratulations and a job well done for bringing Filipino fami-lies even closer. Follow me on Twit-ter or on Instagram @kennethkingong for more travel tips, foodie finds, and happenings in, around and beyond Durianburg.

OCTObER is here and with the holiday season just around the corner, one can be sure that a bevy of reunions and homecomings are sure to happen with friends and loved ones flying home from all over the world. I was fortunate enough to be a witness to the homecoming of 100 Lucky Juans who flew home direct from Dubai onboard Cebu Pacific’s Dubai-Manila maiden flight last October 8 at Resorts World Manila.

INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013

EDGEDAVAOEVENTS

The homecoming season is here again

DAVAO’S newest and most modern music hub, MUZIC’SKOOL, has already opened its doors to music enthu-siasts. From its teach-ers with incontestable musical background to their best archi-tectural design that’s conducive for teach-ing and learning, it is truly one great expe-rience to be part of something bigger. MUZIC’SKOOL is equipped with a variety of professional instructors who are well-experienced practitioners in the music and performing industry, most of whom have edu-cational background on music and are recognized in their field of practice. They also provide good music experience and best rehearsal environment through their finest re-hearsal studio with com-plete amenities and tuto-rial rooms that suit their students’ needs. Designed by singer and architect Maila Manalang–Mitra of Mitra Architectural

Studios, MUZIC’SKOOL provides a venue for public performance and experi-ence in music production with their fully air-condi-tioned and sound proofed studios. With more to offer, MUZIC’SKOOL invites all music aficionados to be part of their grand open-ing on October 11, 2013 Friday. Motorcade will start at 3:00 PM followed by a ribbon-cutting cer-

emony at 4:00 PM and an open house at 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM where guests are welcome to check out the school’s facilities. There will also be a showcase of in-house talents at the Da-mosa Gateway at 6:30 PM. Music’skool is located at Door # 7 Damosa build-ing, JP Laurel Avenue, Lanang, Davao City. For inquiries and assistance, you may contact their school administrator Ka-

trine Sarmiento at 0922-8627209/0920-9281695 or check their website at www.muzicskool.com.

GlobE TElEcom has officially launched the most unbeat-able and affordable unlimited data plan offer for the Sam-sung Galaxy Note 3 in the market today. The best postpaid plan deal is already bundled with unlimited long Term Evo-lution (lTE) that gives subscribers mobile internet speeds of up to 42 mbps. For as low as P1799 m o n t h l y , subscribers can already avail of the latest Galaxy Note at Plan 999 with a monthly cashout of P800* over a 24-month contract period. The postpaid plan offer already comes with unlimited data that allows subscribers enjoy the powerful features of the Galaxy Note 3, including a monthly consumable amount for calls and texts. In addition to the aggressive pricing for the Samsung Gal-axy Note 3, Globe is also offering the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear bundle for free starting at Plan 5000 over a 24-month contract period. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a 5.7-inch full HD Super AmolED display, a 2.3 GHz Quad-core Processor, Android 4.3 Jelly bean, 13-megapixel rear auto-focus camera with flash and zero shutter lag and a 2-megapixel front camera, 32Gb user memory and is a 4G lTE-capable device. Ad-ditional features include the Air command, Action memo, Scrapbook, Screen Write, S Finder, Pen Window, Direct Pen Input, New Easy clip, New S Note, Samsung WatchoN and chatoN, and S Voice. meanwhile, Samsung Galaxy Gear boasts of an 800 mHz single core processor, has a 1.63-inch Super AmolED dis-play, and 1.9 megapixel auto-focus camera. Additional fea-tures include the S Voice, memographer, Smart Relay, and Voice memo. It also has a 4Gb user memory plus a 512mb RAm. “Globe has been a proud partner of Samsung as we bring its latest smartphones and devices to our subscribers for many years now. This month, we welcome a new addition to Samsung’s roster of handsets, the revolutionary Samsung Galaxy Note 3, with its features best enjoyed with an un-limited lTE plan from Globe which offers a plan value that’s almost double of what you pay for,” said Raul macatangay, Head of Globe Postpaid. macatangay added, “With the best-Ever mySuperPlan and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, you don’t only get the lowest and most affordable unlimited data plan offer available in the market today, you also get a postpaid plan and a device that will allow you to see life clearly and design it according to your lifestyle.” Aside from these innovative and value-for-money offers, all new and re-contracting postpaid subscribers are entitled to a free one-month subscription of Globe Gadget care, the first-ever mobile phone protection program in the country today that offers comprehensive coverage for mobile phone theft and accidental damage, guarantees hassle-free hand-set replacement, easy claims processing, and worldwide protection coverage. on the back of these competitive offers is a strategic part-nership that Globe recently forged with Samsung as part of the SingTel Group focused on driving next-generation mo-bile communication, infotainment and technology services in Asia. The new collaboration takes advantage of the scale of the SingTel Group and Samsung’s innovative products and services. Under this partnership, both parties will offer applications and digital services to customers of SingTel Group compa-nies. In addition, the SingTel Group will work with Samsung to identify opportunities for joint launches and marketing campaigns of key Samsung device announcements. The companies will also be able to leverage each others’ distribu-tion channels to extend their retail reach to more customers. To know more about the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 from Globe, visit www.globe.com.ph/galaxy-note3 or call the Globe Sales Hotline at 730-1010.

A2 INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013EDGEDAVAOUP AND AboUT

Globe unveils most unbeatable unlimited

data plan offer for Samsung Galaxy Note 3

MUZIC’SKOOL:Metro Davao’s newest music academe

DEREk RAmSAy, today’s most sought-after lead-ing man, returns on TV with a controversial role that brings to light the complications and moral issues entailed when people have to make the difficult choice between love and an indecent of-fer that comes with an opportunity of a lifetime. In TV5’s upcoming weekly primetime drama For love or money, Derek teams up anew with TV5 drama princess Ritz Azul as they play a loving cou-ple who face the ultimate test of love and morality when a rich and beauti-ful woman (portrayed by Alice Dixson) presents an indecent proposal to pay ten million pesos in ex-change for a few intimate days with the husband. Indeed, For love or money’s highly contro-versial plot is a big leap from Derek’s past proj-ects with TV5 – the pri-metime fantasy hit kid-

lat where he played the superhero title role and was first teamed up with Ritz Azul, and the ac-tion series Undercover wherein Alice Dixson played the main villain. Now that the three of them are together to portray equally chal-lenging roles in For love or money, viewers are bound to be captivated by the heartrending

story of how the fate of their three characters are intertwined when money fuels a cougar’s desire and complicates a couple’s love for each other. Directed by renowned movie and TV director mac Alejandre, For love or money airs every Thursday starting octo-ber 17, 8:30pm-9:30pm on TV5.

INdulge! A3VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINmENT

Derek Ramsay plays controversial role in TV5’s ‘For Love or Money’

comEDy QUEEN AiAi delas Alas and kapamilya child wonder Izzy canillo will trick and treat TV viewers this october as they star in the upcoming Halloween special of AbS-cbN’s award-winning fantasy drama an-thology “Wansapanataym.” “I’m excited about this project because it’s my first time to play lead in ‘Wansa-panataym,” said AiAi who will portray the role of a fake spiritualist named Joanna in “Wansapanataym Pres-ents ‘moomoo knows best” which will air its pilot epi-sode this Saturday. “It’s a perfect story for the whole family this Hallow-een. They will surely enjoy Joanna’s adventures, es-pecially when all her lies come true and she begins to see ghosts like kwatzy (Izzy),” shared the com-edy Queen. For Izzy, being part of ‘moomoo knows best’ is a huge blessing. “It’s an-other chance for us to teach viewers good lessons just like what we did in ‘my little Juan,” he said. Joining AiAi and Izzy in “Wansapanataym Presents

moomoo knows best” are cherry Pie Picache, marco Gumabao, Jojit lorenzo, and michelle Vito. It is written by Arlene Tamayo and direct-ed by Jerry lopez Sineneng. D o n ’ t miss the begin-n i n g of AiAi a n d I z z y ’s

month-long Halloween special this Saturday in the storybook of Pinoy kids, “Wansapanataym” after “TV Patrol Weekend” on AbS-

cbN. For updates, log on to www.abs-cbn.com

or follow @abscbn-dotcom on Twit-

ter.

Aiai and Izzy star in ‘Wansapanataym’s’ Halloween special

GP

R13

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PG 13 12:25 | 2:20 | 4:15 | 6:10 | 8:05 | 10:00 LFS

R-16

ESCAPE PLAN 2D

12:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS

GRAVITY 2D

12:25 | 2:20 | 4:15 | 6:10 | 8:05 | 10:00 LFS

ARTHUR NEWMAN 2D

Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger

12:00 | 2:00 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 8:00 | 10:00 LFS

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE

OF MEATBALLS 2 2D

Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan

Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Colin Firth, Emily Blunt

THEy’RE called am-bassadors, but they hold no diplomatic

posts. Ambassador Inter-national is a civic and fel-lowship club which was born in bern, Switzerland more than 50 years ago.

The idea of Ambas-sador has its origin in humanism. It aims “to re-spect human dignity, take

responsibility in creating freedom, humanity in ev-eryday life, justice, toler-ance and mutual aid as principles in dealing with each other. It encour-ages interest in cultural knowledge which leads to comprehension, gives rise to mutual trust, se-cures agreement between people and nations and enables friendship across national boundaries.”

PioneersAmbassador club-

Davao itself is more than a decade old started by some of the city’s more prominent citizens, many of whom are also Rotari-ans, lions and members of

the young men’s christian Association (ymcA) and its service sister club, y’s men, knights of columbus and many others. Among the pioneer Ambassadors are Antonio V.A. llamas, Wendel Avisado, luis bon-guyan, leoncio “Nonoy” Villa-Abrille, miguel Inigo, Rogelio “Rolly” Santos, the late Antonio m. Garcia, the

late (real) Ambassador to brunei Ramon “monet” Ti-rol, former IGacoS mayor Roger P. Antalan, Davao city chamber of com-merce past presidents Joji bian, Sofronio Jucutan and Domingo Duerme, more than half a dozen members of the Davao city council and other civic and business leaders. Three of them—Tirol, Gar-cia and Villa-Abrille—are past district governors of Rotary International.

Unlike other civic groups, Ambassador Davao works silently to help distressed Filipi-nos during calamities. Through the connections

A4 INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINmENT

Meet the Ambassadors!and genius of Ambassador Scott Nimmo, for instance, the club raised about half a million pesos from the international community. This amount was distribut-ed in relief goods, schools supplies and cash given to victims of Sendong in cagayan de oro, Iligan and Dumaguete last year. The club also came to the succor of residents of a town in compostela Valley hit by typhoon Pablo last December.

Changing of the guardsTonight at 6 p.m. at the

marco Polo Davao, a new set of Ambasador Davao of-ficers will be inducted, led by retired RTc Judge Isaac Robillo Jr. as new presi-dent to replace Antonio m. Ajero. Ambassador Robillo was picked during a special election held last August as a result of the untimely de-mise of civic leader Severo dela cruz. Robbillo will be

sworn into office by mTc Judge Jill Jaugan-lo. Also to be installed are Amb. Anto-nio “ony” Partoza Jr. as vice president, Amb. Pacencio “Jun” Rosalem Jr., treasurer; Amb. Alvin Pinpin, assistant treasurer; Amb. Edwin Gar-cia, assistant secretary.

malaysian consul Gen-eral Abdullah Zawawi bin Tahir will be the guest of honor and speaker. Also in-vited to the affair are Hon-orable consul koichi Ibara of Japan and Honorable consul Eko Hartono of In-donesia and honorary con-suls based in Davao.

How does it feel to be called “ambassador” with-out really holding a diplo-matic position?

“To find out, join the Ambassador club Davao,” quipped former Vice mayor louie bonguyan who was once a national president of Ambassador club Philip-pines. [EJ Dominic Fernan-dez]

Distributing relief to Sendong victims.

Retired RTC Isaac Robillo Jr., new president of Ambassador Club Davao.

Dr. Roy B. Ferrer, past national president of Ambassador Club Philippines, inducts Dr. Hector Z. Nazareno, cosmetic surgeon, and Alvin M. Pinpin, SGV Davao-Gensan head, as new members.

Amb. Uy Ching Siong congratulates Amb. Edwin Garcia after being elected assis-tant secretary of the Ambassador Club Davao

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013 15SPORTSEDGEDAVAO

JuaN Manuel Marquez believes he is still good for four more fights

after his upcoming title bout against WBo welter-weight champion Timo-thy Bradley this weekend.

Marquez admitted he was close to being done

with his professional ca-reer after knocking out Manny Pacquiao last De-cember.

“After that fight [with Pacquiao,] you know, my family thought i was done, it was over. But in my mind, i wasn’t done

yet. But they were. They thought it was over,” said the Mexican in ringTV.com.

But the Mexican coun-terpuncher felt he still has more gas left in his tank and this prompted him to reconsider.

While preparing for the Bradley fight, Mar-quez said he found out that his body can still withstand the rigors of training.

“i’ve trained well. i love this. i’ll keep working hard. i know that there

are like four more fights,” he said.

Marquez, however, clarified that Pacquiao won’t be having one of those bouts.

“Everybody knows what happened in the last three fights with Man-

ny, and i think that the chapter is closed,” he said. “The chapter is closed be-cause i want to keep this feeling. on Dec. 8, i felt a great victory. i had great victory over a fighter like Pacquiao. i want to keep this great feeling for me.”

Manny Pacquiao takes part in a training session on Wednesday in General Santos City. (Jeoffrey Maitem/Getty Images)

JMM: I won’t fight Pacquiao again

FIRST TIME. First time for a Duterte to step inside Maa barangay hall for decades. Maa used to have barangay captain allied with Nograles’. Mayor Paolo “Pulong Duterte, third from left (L-R) Brgy Capt. Marlon Balite (Brgy 35-D), Brgy Capt. Oliva Cal (Brgy Ma-a), Brgy Capt. Rolando Bantayan (Brgy 32-D), Brgy Capt. Artemio Jimenez (Brgy Talomo), Brgy Capt.  Rome Torejas (Brgy Magtuod).-Karl Norman Alonzo

Novak Djokovic hits a return against Marcel Granollers at the Shanghai Masters on Wednesday. (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

sHaNGHai (aFP) - Defending champion Novak

Djokovic shrugged off an injury scare to win his shanghai Masters opener on Wednes-day, keeping alive the prospect of a mouth-watering quarter-final against roger Federer.

in a late-evening match, newly re-crowned world num-ber one rafael Nadal polished off ukraine’s alexandr Dolgopolov in less than an hour, with just five unforced errors in a 6-3, 6-2 win.

Top seed Djokovic cantered through his first set against spain’s

Marcel Granollers with the loss of only two games. But early in the second he pulled up in obvious discomfort and called for the aTP trainer, who applied heavy taping to his right foot and ankle.

Despite the med-ical treatment, the 26-year-old did not look inconvenienced as he returned to the court to seal a 6-2, 6-0 victory, hitting a total of 26 winners.

“it was just an awk-ward movement. i was in an off-balance po-sition. i was running and i made a quick movement that caused a sharp pain at that

instant moment,” said Djokovic.

“But after the match we determined that it’s nothing serious, so it’s all fine.”

View gallery.”roger Federer of switzer-land acknowledges the crowd …roger Feder-er of switzerland ac-knowledges the crowd after his men’s singles match against andreas se …

Federer, who has slipped to seventh in the world rankings and faces a battle to qualify for next month’s World Tour Finals in London, won 6-4, 6-3 against italian andreas seppi after a testing start.

Djokovic romps to Shanghai win

BuENos airEs (re-uters) - Lionel Mes-si’s injury absence

is a psychological blow to argentina and requires a solution so rivals can-not take advantage, coach alejandro sabella said on Wednesday.

argentina will also be without Gonzalo Higuain, Fernando Gago and Javier Mascherano against Peru at home on Friday and for their last qualifier in Uru-guay next Tuesday.

sabella, whose team secured their place in next year’s World Cup in Brazil

last month, will use the last two matches to try fringe players as he looks to settle on a final squad of 23.

“Messi’s absence is always impossible to dis-guise,” sabella told argen-tina’s radio 9.

“it’s a different story, not just for us but also our rivals. it’s a psychological blow when Leo’s not on the pitch and it’s a challenge to find a solution to the prob-lem.”

Captain Messi is argen-tina’s match-winner and top scorer with 10 in quali-

fying, a tally he shares with uruguay’s Luis suarez, and rarely do the team fail to win when he finds the net.

“The team’s heart will be missing,” said sabella of the additional absences of Mascherano and Gago before adding that he now has the chance to test Lu-cas Biglia and Ever Banega together in central mid-field.

“on the one hand, i’d prefer to field the same team to run it in more, but i also can’t help thinking this is a good chance to try out players and bed them in.”

Messi’s absence a blow to Argentina

VOL. 6 ISSUE 150 • FRIDAY-SATUDAY, OCTOBER 11-12, 2013

Outgoing NBA Commissioner David Stern officially gave his hello and goodbye to NBA fans of the Philippines during yesterday’s press conference at the MOA Arena prior to the first ever NBA preseason game in the country between the Houston Rockets and the Indiana Pacers. NJB

16EDGEDAVAOSports VOL. 6 ISSUE 149 • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

EDGEDavao Davao Partners

NBa Commissioner David stern y e s t e r d a y

made both his hello and goodbye to the Philippines, one of the league’s strongest international markets.

stern, 71, will end his 30-year tenure at the helm of the NBa on February next year to give way to his successor adam silver who was his understudy for 10 years. He walked into the press room inside the Moa arena to the cheers of reporters from the host country.

stern summed up his tour of duty with two major legacies—elevating the league into the digital platform and reaching its goal of globalization.

“My legacy is the people of the NBa,” stern said.

He admitted that the Philippines have emerged as one of the strongest international markets of the NBa and this is evident in the inflow of NBa branded events in the country in recent years. The staging of last night’s

preseason game between the Houston rockets and the indiana Pacers is the first NBa game ever in southeast asia.

regardless of the outcome of last night’s game, stern said the NBa’s presence in the country will be sustained. He mentioned such events as Jr. NBa which has been held here for six years.

on the possibility of seeing a Filipino finally play in the NBa, stern said it is not remote. He stressed that it is going to be an individual decision.

“it’s up to the players to make that decision for themselves and make that sacrifice.”

“The Philippines is already in the World Cup for men and the World Cup for the youth,” he said.

stern revealed that the Philippines has long been on the radar of the NBa mentioning a NBa scanning mission some 13 years back with silver and ahmad rashad and talking to personalities like PBa legend and former senator robert Jaworski.

Stern: Pinoys canplay in the NBA

njb@edgedavao.net

By nEilWin josEPH l. BraVo

HousToN rockets all-star James Harden, already

one of the most efficient scorers in the league, is planning to show more variety in his offensive arsenal this season to go along with improved effort on the defensive end.

Last season, his first with the Houston rockets, Harden proved that he had what it takes to be a focal point on offense. He averaged 25.9 points per game to go along with 5.8 assists per game last season, while remaining one of the most efficient scorers in the game.

according to NBa stats, Harden took most of his shots either close to the basket or beyond the arc, and shot at a percentage higher than the league average from both areas. He also

continues to draw fouls at a high rate, and shot an NBa-best 792 free throws last season.

But speaking to local media on Wednesday, Harden said that he has diversified his offensive arsenal during the offseason and added more wrinkles to his game.

“i got a little bit stronger. Pick and roll got better, midrange game got better,” said Harden.

When asked if he plans to operate from the post more, Harden answered: “Yeah, definitely, just to switch it up a little bit. Pick-and-roll, post-game, even playmaking a little bit. i got the variety.”

This season, Harden also wants to make sure that his defense catches up with his offense, saying: “My defense definitely got a lot better.”

Harden diversifies offensive arsenal

THE BEARD. James Harden of the Houston Rockets talks to reporters after practice on Wednesday ahead of the NBA preseason game between the Rockets and the Indiana Pacers at the MOA Arena. NJB