P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015

INSIDE EDGE

52 Pinoy fishermen to be turned over in Panacan today The BIG NEWS P2

Soho witnesses Rody dance the ‘Bodots’, frisked at hotelThe BIG NEWS P2

THE DECISIONMayor Duterte to make announcement ‘soon’

Sports P16

Battle of MVPs in NBA Finals

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO2014 CIVIC JOURNALISM

COMMUNITY PRESS AWARDS

2013, 2014 BEST EDITED COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

SEPARATION ANXIETY. A father comforts his crying daughter who is experiencing separation anxiety on the first day of classes at the Vicente Hizon Sr. Elementary School in Bo. Pampanga, Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

By FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duter-te has only three

more places to visit in his “listening tour” onfeder-alism before he declares that he will run for Pres-ident – or not.

In a press conference

on Sunday afternoon in Matanao, Davao del Sur, reporters had asked the mayor for his time frame on when he would de-clare if he is going to run for President or not.

He responded by say-ing he still has three more

places to go to before he proclaims his final stand on the Presidential elec-tion.

He did not say, how-ever, when his listening tour will end.

“Time frame? May tatlo pa akong pupuntah-

an na lugar. Punta akong Pampanga kay nakasaad na ko didto, tapos punta ako sa Lucena groups of lawyers ang puntahan ko at isa pang lugar sa Lu-cena. Pagkahuman ana mu-undang na ko (I still FTHE DECISION, 10

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 20152 EDGEDAVAO

NEWS

REOPEN THE CASE. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte talks to Vijealyn Sacro Omila (right), Ramon Curray (second from right), and other members of the Sacro family who requested the mayor to order the reopening of the Catalunan Pequeño massacre case which was declared case closed by the Davao City Police operatives. Duterte met the family over the weekend at Grand Men Seng Hotel. Lean Daval Jr.

THE 52 Filipino fisher-men who were arrest-ed in Indonesia last

April will be turned over today (Tuesday) at the Eastern Mind-anao Command (Eastmincom) headquarters in Panacan, Davao City.

In a text message, East-mincom public information officer Captain Alberto Caber said the repatriates from Indo-

nesia will arrive on board BRP Cebu at 7:45 a.m.

“These Filipino fishermen ages 19 to 50 years old were apprehended by Indonesian authorities for illegal fishing and illegal entry in the terri-torial sea of Indonesia,” Caber said.

Caber did not give the names and origin of the fish-ermen.

He said the Indonesian government destroyed most of the fishing boats seized during the arrest.

Caber said officials from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Bureau of Im-migration, and the Bureau of Quarantine will witness the turnover ceremony.

The Department of For-

eign Affairs (DFA) said since January 2015, the department has repatriated 139 Filipino fishermen from Indonesia for entering Indonesian waters without proper documenta-tion and permission.

Last May, the DFA repa-triated 17 Filipino fishermen who were arrested in groups for illegally fishing in Indone-

THE families of the vic-tims of last month’s Catalunan Pequeño

massacre asked Mayor Ro-drigo Duterte to reinvestigate the case, claiming that some neighborhood children had seen one other person in the house before the crime was committed.

Last Saturday afternoon, Vijealyn Sacro Omila, the 31-year-old mother of vic-tim Ceasar Ann Sacro Omila, 12, and daughter of victim Virginia Sacro, 58, met with

the mayor at the Grand Men Seng Hotel along with Omila’s common-law partner Ramon Curray.

Also present was the grandmother of another vic-tim, 12-year-old Liezel Boron-gan.

The three asked Duter-te to have the case reopened since the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) had declared it “case closed” after finding a suicide note written by Philip Sacro Salazar.

Police had found that the

handwriting was consistent with that on Salazar’s note-books and test papers.

Police established that Salazar killed the three vic-tims before stabbing himself. His body still had the knife embedded on the chest.

Police also established that Salazar had molested Bo-rongan.

Curray had initially been tagged as a “person of inter-est” but was set free after Salazar was tagged in the ap-parent murder-suicide.

But in the meeting with Duterte, Curray said some children in the neighborhood told him they had seen one other person in side the house before the murders.

Curray said the police did not take this seriously since the children could have been making up stories.

Curray, however, said the victims’ families did not be-lieve only one person could have committed the crime.

“Ang sa amin po, nanini-

DAVAO City Mayor Ro-drigo R. Duterte has ad-mitted being the voice

behind the teaser advertise-ment that has already aired in major television stations.

“Ako nga ang nag voiceover pero matagal na yun (I was the one who did the voiceover but it was a long time ago),” Dute-rte said in an interview with reporters last Saturday at the Grand Men Seng Hotel.

He said he recorded the voiceover upon the request of

a group of Chinese business-man who wanted to release the advertisement.

Duterte also denied being the one who paid for the ad-vertisement, saying he has no money to buy airtime.

“Yung mga gumagastos sa mga ganyan sabi nila na Mayor pagbigyan mo lang kami, hu-wag mo lang kaming parahin kasi nasa sa iyo yan kung tatak-bo ka o hindi (The people who paid for the advertisement

DAVAO City Councilor Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz is leaving it to the lead-

ership of local administration party Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod to decide on her po-litical fate come 2016.

Ortiz said she has not de-cided what path to take the moment her third term as councilor ends in June next year, but is not shutting down the door for any higher posi-tion, including a seat in Con-

gress.“I still believe in destiny,”

Ortiz said during the regular Kapehan sa Dabaw forum at SM City Annex Monday.

Ortiz added that becoming a councilor in the third district of Davao City was itself a desti-ny for her.

As of now, Ortiz would not say whether to seek the third district Congressional seat with Rep. Isidro T. Ungab also

Kin of Pequeño massacrevictims ask for new probeBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.

abf@edgedavao.net

52 arrested Filipino fishermenreturn from Indonesia today

Duterte admitsvoicing TV adBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR. and FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

Ortiz leaving political fateto Hugpong leadershipBY CHARLES RAYMOND A. MAXEY

FDUTERTE, 10

FKIN, 10

F52 ARRESTED, 10FORTIZ, 10

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 3NEWSEDGEDAVAO

BACK TO SCHOOL. Parents and students walk by the Sasa Police Station’s “Balik Eskwela” streamer at the entrance gate of the Vicente Hizon Sr. Elementary School yesterday. Millions of students trooped to the country’s public schools during the opening of classes yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

OFW AID. Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) officer in charge Eduardo Bellido (right) tells reporters that his office is helping four victims of human trafficking from Panabo City, Davao del Norte who have been jailed in

Malaysia since early this year for illegally working there. Bellido and Philippine Science High School South Mindanao director Delia Legaspino (left) graced yesterday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at the Annex of SM City Davao. Lean Daval Jr.

THE education of some 1,700 Lumad students from almost 80 indig-

enous schools in the munic-ipalities of Talaingod and Kapalong in Davao del Norte is in danger of being disrupt-ed as the division of Depart-ment of Education (DepEd) in the province has called for their closure.

“This is a clear violation to the constitutional right of our Lumad brothers to have access to education,” Salug-pongan Tatanu Igkanogon Community Learning Cen-ter (STTICLC), Inc. principal Ronie Garcia said in yester-day’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Annex.

In a letter dated May 12,

2015, Davao del Norte divi-sion superintendent Dr. Jose-phine L. Fadul asked DepEd 11 regional director Atty. Alberto T. Escobarte for per-mission to close the STTICLC and its 35 branches for being infiltrated by the New Peo-ple’s Army (NPA).

In the same letter, Fadul said the temporary closure of the indigenous schools was based on the order of the Talaingod Municipal Council of Tribal Leaders “and the reinvestigation, reinspection, and reevaluation of the said school in terms of perfor-mance in providing efficient, quality and relevant educa-tional services consistent with DepEd and National

Education policies, plans and standard.”

She also allegedly rec-ommended the creation of a public high school in Butay, Talaingod utilizing military personnel as “para-teachers” which she said was discussed in her meeting with the “Re-gional Intelligence Commit-tee at NEAP last April 23, 2015.”

Garcia said the request was “immediately” granted by the regional office as well as the permit to close the MISFI Academy in Kapalong and its 39 other branches.

“DepEd never even both-ered to communicate with us. Ginatago nila sa amo ang ilang order kay bisan sa

panahon nga nakigdialogue mi mismo kay atty. Escobarte wala man lang sila nagpa-hibalo sa amo aron unta makadepensa mi sa among eskwelahan,” he said.

Garcia said the allega-tions that the schools were NPA-infiltrated were “unjust and baseless.”

Garcia also said there were no due process because of the lack of consultation and the “order” from the council of tribal leaders was “probably not true” given that the Saluggpungan Ta’ta-nu Igkanogon is a member of the council.

“We didn’t receive any information that such order

DAVAO City councilor Myrna Ortiz is push-ing for the approval of

the proposed House Bill that will extend the membership of councilors with the Gov-ernment Service Insurance System (GSIS) even after the nine-year maximum of public service in the govern-ment.

“We want our member-ship with GSIS to be extend-ed even after out three-year term,” Ortiz said during the Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Annex yesterday.

She said the current GSIS rules and regulation limit the membership of councilors and other local government officials to within their ten-ure of public service.

Ortiz said the bill that

was filed last year will hope-fully be discussed in the 2nd Quarterly National Executive Officers and National Board (NEO-NB) meeting and the second series of 2015 Con-tinuing Local Legislative Education Program (CLLEP) on June 10 to 12 at the SMX Lanang Convention Center.

“I expect that the update of the bill will be presented in the meeting organized by the Philippine Councilors League,” she said. “The PCL might produce a resolution pushing for the approval of the bill and will be submitted to the House of Congress.”

Ortiz said around 3,000 councilors from all over the country will convene in the event with the theme “So-

MAYOR Rodrigo Duterte said that he will tap the Liga ng mga Barangay

to remind the 179,967 voters who have not yet accomplished their biometrics with the Com-mission on Election (Comelec).

The Comelec had earlier said it was alarmed at the big number of voters without bio-metrics in Davao City.

Under Republic Act 10367 or the Mandatory Biometrics Registration Act of 2013, voters who lack biometrics records in the Comelec will not be al-lowed to vote in the 2016 na-tional election.

Duterte said he will see what he can do to help the Comelec.

“We’ll try to ask how we can help. If not I’ll call the atten-tion of the Liga ng mga Baran-gay,” he said.

Last Thursday, Comelec 11 assistant regional director Marlon Casquejo told the me-

dia that at least 300 people per day must accomplish their biometrics data before the deadline in October in order to complete the 179,967 voters.

From January to March this year, only a little over 2,000 voters completed their biometrics data.

Casquejo said the Comelec has sent notices to voters with-out biometrics to tell them to complete it before the dead-line.

“Every week we send 5,000 letters, but out of that only 20 respond,” he said.

Satellite registration sites were also put up in every ba-rangay in the 2nd and 3rd district to accommodate those who are living far from the Comelec office.

Davao City has a total of 888,442 registered voters. Casquejo said those who were registered before 2004 have no biometrics.

THE Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) is helping four

victims of human trafficking from Panabo City, Davao del Norte who have been jailed in Malaysia since early this year for illegally working there.

OWWA OIC regional di-rector Eduardo Bellido said the victims were promised work as domestic workers in Malaysia but ended up in night clubs and bars.

Belliod said the four vic-tims, all residents of the port area in Panabo, were recruit-ed by a relative who has a neighbor working in Malay-sia.

He said the four rode a bus to the Davao City Overland

Transport Terminal (DCOTT) and travelled to Cagayan de Oro. From there they travelled to Zamboanga City and rode a plane to Sandakan, Malaysia.

“The cases of the four victims of human traffick-ing from Panabo City were already brought to the DOJ (Department of Justice), the national section of the DFA (Department of Foreign Af-fairs), and a representative of an NGO (non-governmen-tal organization) which has a branch in Malaysia,” Bellido said.

He said OWWA is current-ly working hand in hand with the three agencies to help the victims.

1,700 Lumad kids’ educationdisrupted in schools’ closure

crc@edgedavao.net

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

Councilors press approval of billon GSIS membership extension

Mayor Rody to help Comelecremind voters on biometricsBy FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

4 Panabo residentsjailed in Malaysia

F1,700, 10

FCOUNCILORS, 10

F4 PANABO, 10

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 20154

Losing biodiversity“A few decades ago, the wildlife of Philippines was notable for its abundance; now, it is notable for

its variety; if present trend of destruction continues, Philippine wildlife will be notable for its absence.” -- Dr. Lee Talbot, former director of Southeast Asia Project on Wildlife Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources

***

Text and Photos By HENRYLITO D. TACIO

“More than 11,000 spe-cies of animals and plants are known to be threatened with extinction, about a third of all coral reefs are expected to vanish in the next 30 years and about 15 million hectares of forest are being razed annu-ally.”

That was what the week-ly American magazine Time wrote in its special report dat-ed September 2, 2002.

At that time, Harvard bi-ologist Edward O. Wilson has just published his book, The Future of Life. He wrote of his worries that unless people on this planet change their ways, “half of all species could disap-pear by the end of this centu-ry.”

As early as 1993, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sounded the alarm. “We are losing biological diversi-ty at an unprecedented rate,” deplored the United Nations agency during the World Food Day celebration.

Biological diversity -- or biodiversity for short -- is made up of all species of plants and animals, their genetic ma-terial and the ecosystems of which they are a part. Species diversity refers to the variety of species within a given area.

Samuel R. Peñafiel, in an article which appeared in Can-opy International, explained that there are three different levels by which biodiversity can be viewed: genetic diver-sity, species diversity and eco-system diversity.

Genetic diversity pertains to the variability in genes within a species, variety, sub-species or breed. “Each organ-ism is a repository of immense number of genetic informa-tion which can be as much as 1,000 genes in single-cell or-ganisms to more than 400,000 in animals and flowering plants,” Peñafiel pointed out.

On the other hand, species diversity covers the variety of

life-forms estimated to be 30 million species of which only about 1.4 million have so far been discovered. It is no won-der why there are new species still being discovered.

Ecosystem diversity, meanwhile, is the variety of biotic communities, habitat types and the ecological pro-cesses in the various hemi-spheres of the planet. Exam-ples include grassland, forest, marine, and freshwater eco-systems.

Unfortunately, most of the biodiversity we know now are fast disappearing at nothing less than mind-boggling. “Dif-ficult as it is to accept, mass extinction has already begun,” Dr. Wilson deplored.

The Harvard biologist es-timates that, at a minimum, 50,000 invertebrates species per year -- nearly 140 each day -- are condemned to ex-tinction.

“Some people will argue that if we lost a number of insects yesterday, and the sun still came up today, does it truly matter?” asked Prof. Nor-man Myers, authors of several books and has served as a con-sultant to several UN agencies.

Here’s what Time has said: “The damage being done is more than aesthetic. Many vanishing species provide humans with both food and medicine. What’s more, once you start tearing out swaths of ecosystem, you upset the existing balance in ways that harm even areas you didn’t in-tend to touch.”

Dr. Peter Raven, another noted American biologist, is very much concerned with the fast disappearance of the world’s biodiversity. “Of all the global problems that confront us, species extinction is the one that is moving the most rapidly and the one that will have the most serious conse-quences,” he contends.

Unlike other global eco-

logical problems, Dr. Raven stressed, the crisis is com-pletely irreversible. “Extinc-tion is forever,” declared the Washington-based World Re-sources Institute.

The Philippines, with more than 7,000 islands, is considered by many respected scientists as one of the coun-tries with the highest degree of biodiversity in the world.

The Philippines is home to about 170,000 faunal spe-cies, most of which are insects and are mostly unidentified, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Twelve thousand plant species and 960 animal species are found in the country’s forests. Of the identified animal species, over 500 are birds and 167 are mammals.

Out of the 500 known cor-al species in worldwide, about 488 coral species in 78 genera are found in the Philippines. There are only about 50 spe-cies of seagrasses in the world. A total of 16 species can be found in the country, and this is the second highest diversity that exists in one country; only Western Australia has more -- with 17 species. At least 2,000 fish species are found in the Philippines.

Almost 100 mammal spe-cies are endemic to the Philip-pines. In recent years, experts have discovered more than a dozen species of mammals in the country seen nowhere else on the planet.

“The number compares with other countries like Bra-zil,” noted Philippine fauna specialist Dr. Laurence Heaney of the Field Museum of Nat-ural History in Chicago. “But compare their sizes. For such a small area, the Philippine rockets ahead.”

Brazil has a total land area of 3,286,488 square kilome-ters while the Philippines has a total land area of only

115,800 square kilometers. On the other hand, Indo-nesia -- another biodiversi-ty-rich country, has a total land area of 741,101 square kilometers.

While its biodiversity is among the highest, the Philippines’ ecosystems are among the most threatened. In fact, the US National Can-cer Institute lists the entire Philippine archipelago as among the five biogeo-graphical areas in the world considered to be the “hot-

test of the hot spots,” a hot spot being an area whose high biodiversity is gravely threatened.

Although no endemic species yet in the country are reported to have been extinct, several made it to the list of rare, threatened and endangered species compiled by the Conven-tion for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), of which the coun-try is a signatory.

To name a few: tamaraw,

Philippine tarsier, pango-lin, Philippines palm civet, Philippine eagle, Nicobar pigeon, Koch’s pitta, falcons, Peregrine falcon, Palawan peacock pheasant, Pygmy curlew, Sander’s alocasia, pitcher plant, some species of orchids, and pitogo,

“Once these species are gone, they are gone forever, leaving behind an imbal-ance in ecology and beauty difficult to determine and restore,” a Filipino environ-mentalist observed.

EDGEDAVAO

ENVIRONMENT

Endangered Philippine eagle

Different species of butterflies and insects

Different kinds of vegetables

Mount Apo, home to Philippine eagle and other biological diversity

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 5EDGEDAVAO

ECONOMY

A TOTAL of 1,000 small rice and corn farmers from Davao Region will

be insured for free in the next three years with the imple-mentation of a pilot crop in-surance project in Mindanao.

The project will be imple-mented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) of the De-partment of Agriculture (DA).

“Farmers that will be list-ed in the Registry for System of Basic Agriculture (RSBA) will be able to receive an insur-ance of P20,000 per hectare of rice and P30,000 per hectare of corn area,” PCIC regional manager Bonifacio Pales said in a press conference for the launching of the $1 million in-surance project at the Marco Polo Davao yesterday.

Farmers who will au-tomatically qualify for this testing project known as the Weather Index Insurance (WIBI) are those who have production area within the 15 kilometer radius of Pag-Asa’s rain gauge facility, which has a capacity of testing the amount of rainfall which will be the in-dex of the insurance.

The project will be piloted in areas where Pag-Asa has a 30-year rainfall. Among the

areas in Davao City that will be within the 15 kilometer radius are Calinan, Callawa, Paquibato District, Tagum City and Panabo City. Other proj-ect sites will be in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.

“Unlike the losses under the traditional crop insur-ance scheme, the insurer does not need to visit the farmer’s field,” Pales said. “The pay-ment is based on the amount of rainfall, it iis below or above the set thresh hold.”

The WIBI, Pales said, is an innovative insurance prod-uct that has the advantages of fast settlement and lower administrative cost. It is first implemented in India where it originated.

The amount of claims each farmer will receive will differ on the stage of crop-ping. Farmers of crops that at-tain damage near the harvest-ing season will receive bigger compared to those are on the vegetative stage.

“At the vegetative stage, farmers will receive 60 per-cent of the claims. As the stage of cropping advances, so with the amount claims,” Pales said, adding that a farmer has an average production cost of P25,000.

Aside from Davao, the Caraga Region will be also

1K farmers get free crop insurancecrc@edgedavao.net

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

piloted with the insurance project.

UNDP national project coordinator Israel dela Cruz said the project will be also implemented in the rice and corn production areas of Bukidnon, Misamis Occiden-

tal, Misamis Oriental and Ca-miguin. This project will also benefit another 1,000 small farmers.

“The $1 million crop in-surance project is one way of strengthening farmers and their livelihoods against the

climate change,” Dela Cruz said.

Other component of the climate change resiliency project are policy advocacy amid the community-based customized adaptation learn-ing and measures where

farmers and producers or-ganizations and other local stakeholders will be able to analyze climate risk and de-velop and implement adap-tation practices to enhance agricultural productivity and food security.

GADGET GIVE-AWAY. SM City Davao assistant mall manager engineer Nick D. Santos announces the “Gadget Give-away” promotion in which shoppers have a chance to win the hottest gadgets in the monthly raffle set on June 1 to September 30. Santos was a guest in yesterday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at the Annex of SM City Davao. Lean Daval Jr.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015THE ECONOMY6 EDGEDAVAO

MOA SIGNING. Department of Trade and Industry provincial director Engr. Edwin O. Banquerigo, DTI 11 director Maria Belenda Q. Ambi, Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. president Antonio T. dela Cruz and DCCCII chairman of the board John Y. Gaisano Jr. (from left)  during

the signing of the memorandum of agreement on the shared service facility - business resource center last May 29 at the Royal Mandaya Hotel. DTI also turned oversome P500,000 worth of IT equipment and furnitures & fixtures to the Small Business Development Center.

ENCOURAGING more businessmen to come to the Philippines as

well as security issues would be President Aquino’s top agenda when he visits Japan next week, Deputy presiden-tial spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

Valte said that apart from the bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe and other

high-ranking Japanese offi-cials including the Emperor, President Aquino is sched-uled to meet Japanese busi-nessmen.

“The President has a long line of meetings with captains of industry of either Japanese businessmen, who already have investments here in the Philippines, and those who are... because of our economy now, are look-

ing to expand or are looking to put in more investments in the country,” Valte said.

“Every time the Pres-ident goes out, he always makes it a point as much as possible to touch base with the captains of industry to really tell them what has been happening to country, and so far, you see that this is bearing fruit.”

The foreign direct invest-

ments are up and the num-ber of foreign businesses that come to the Philippines are also increasing, she not-ed. Those already operat-ing in the country have also shown quick expansions of their operations, she added.

With more than a year in office, the president will con-tinue to push for the busi-ness agenda whenever he travels overseas, she added.

Security issue is also a top agenda for the Presi-dent, Valte said. This is in the midsts of the ongoing recla-mation activities of China in the West Philippine Sea.

Japan also has conflicting claims with China in the East Sea.

“The reclamation activ-ity is a current issue, and it’s a shared issue between our country and as well as

one of our strategic part-ners, which is Japan—ma-pag-uusapan at mapag-uu-sapan; ngunit hindi natin masasabi kung saan pupun-ta ang usapan,” Valte said. Aside from China and Philip-pines, other claimants in the contested territory include Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. (PCOO News Release)

Business top agenda on Noy’s Japan trip

THE Philippines joins other countries to work together to end

the illicit trade of tobacco products, said Presidential Communications Opera-tions Office Secretary Her-minio Coloma, Jr.

“Nakikiisa ang buong pamahalaan sa buong mun-

do at sa World Health Orga-nization (WHO) sa pagguni-ta ngayong araw ng ‘World No Tobacco Day’ (WNTD) sa ilalim ng temang “Stop Il-licit Trade of Tobacco Prod-ucts,” said Coloma.

According to WHO, tobacco is the cause of death of 6 million smokers

around the world, and is responsible for the mor-tality of some 600,000 non-smokers due to sec-ondhand smoking.

This year’s ‘World No Tobacco Day’ highlights the health risks associated with tobacco use and advo-cating for effective policies

to reduce tobacco con-sumption.

“From many angles, the illicit trade of tobacco products is a major global concern, including health, legal and economic, gover-nance and corruption,” said the WHO. (PCOO News Re-lease)

Phl joins call to end illicit trade of tobacco products

OFFICIALS of the SPC Power Corp. said the feasibility study of the

City Naga power complex in southern Cebu is in full swing and is expected to be com-pleted in October this year.

SPC chairman Alfredo Henares said the Naga power complex will house two units of 150 megawatt (MW) circu-lating fluidized bed combus-tion (CFBC) coal-fired power plant, or a total of 300MW.

The new power plants will replace the plant’s exist-ing old coal thermal power plant 1 and 2.

“Once the comprehen-sive feasibility study is done by October we will imme-diately start the construc-tion of the power plant next year. We expect the project to be operational by 2019,” Henares said during the firm’s annual stockholders meeting at the City Sports Club Cebu.

“It will be a source of a stable, clean and cheap elec-tricity for consumers in the Visayas region,” he said.

Demolition of the plant’s existing old coal thermal plant 1 and 2 is slated in July.

SPC is expected to spend USD579 million to construct the power plant.

With the plant’s new addition Kepco-SPC Power Corp. (KSPC) will soon have a total power capacity of 500 MW.

KSPC is a subsidiary of SPC, which currently has total power capacity of 200 MW.

SPC acquired through public bidding the Naga power plant complex from the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) on Sept. 2014

and had already paid Psalm in full the purchase price amounting to about P1.4 bil-lion.

“This is one of the proj-ects we are currently looking forward to,” Henares said.

SPC is also the parent company of SPC Island Pow-er Corp., SPC Malaya Power Corp., Bohol Light Co. Inc. (BLCI) and Mactan Electric Co. Inc.

The firm ended 2014 with a consolidated net in-come of P1.5 billion, up by 51.6 percent from P996.8 million in 2013. (PNA)

Study on Naga City power plantcompleted in October: Cebu firm

THE Civil Service Com-mission (CSC) un-veiled earlier today the

expansion project for their Davao del Norte Field Office located in the Capitol Com-pound, Mankilam, Tagum City.

Leading the unveiling ceremony, CSC 11 Regional Director Annabelle Rosell declared that the event sig-nalled the start of a bigger and better field office in the province.

“The expansion will in-clude a bigger record room that will contain all person-nel files of government em-ployees in Davao del Norte” Regional Dir. Rosell said.

Rosell added that aside from a bigger space for the staff to comfortably provide services, there will be an additional examination and training room in the build-ing.

“In the future, we can conduct training programs for small groups here in the

office and hopefully provide a space for the computer-ized examination that we are planning to hold in every field office,” she stated.

Dir. Rosell bared that the commission allocated P3-million for the expansion, while the provincial govern-ment will shoulder the labor expenses for the construc-tion and some other expens-es necessary for the project that will not be covered by the CSC’s budget.

“The provincial govern-ment will be undertaking the project; and as what I’ve heard, they are now in the process of purchasing the materials. Hopefully, by the middle of June, the materials will be delivered and they will commence with con-struction,” she said.

She hoped that the proj-ect will finish within two months after its commence-ment.

“We would just like to

CSC to expandDavNor office

TOYOTA Motor Phil-ippines Corporation (TMPC) has issued a

special service campaign for the Toyota RAV4 Driver Air-bag.

In a letter to Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary for Consum-er Protection Group Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba dated May 12, 2015, lawyer Rom-mel Gutierrez, TMPC’s First Vice President for Govern-ment and Industry Affairs of its Corporate Affairs Group, said the particular Driver Airbags of Toyota RAV4 were produced from July 2003 until July 2005 at their Japan Manufacturing Plant.

Gutierrez said the spe-cial service campaign covers 2,651 RAV4 vehicles official-ly sold in the Philippines.

“The Driver Airbag In-flator Modules may have increased potential for mois-ture intrusion over time, which could potentially make the inflator assembly susceptible in the event of

an airbag deployment. An inflator rupture may result in metal fragments striking and may cause serious inju-ries,” he said

“As a preventive mea-sure, we will replace the Airag Inflator Module As-sembly with a new one, at no cost to our customers,” he added.

Gutierrez said TMPC has committed to contact the affected customers through notification letters and invite them to bring their vehicles to authorized Toyota dealers for vehicle servicing.

DTI-Davao Region Offi-cer-in-Charge Maria Belenda Q. Ambi said Dabawenyos who bought a RAV4 may also contact the nearest DTI office should they have clar-ifications or some other con-cerns related to the advisory.

In Davao City, DTI office is located at 2F Mintrade Realty Building, Monteverde Avenue corner Sales Street. They can be reached at (082) 224-0511.DTI11/NCL/jmm

Toyota replaces defectiveRAV4 driver airbags: DTI

FCSC, 10

One such exciting place in Manila is the walled city of Intramuros. What is the oldest district in Manila, Intramuros was the Spanish seat of gov-ernment in the Philip-pines and is where one can find many architec-tural as well as historic gems in the big city. A tour of Intramuros starts with a visit to the Manila Cathedral. Locat-ed at Plaza de Roma. the Manila Metropolitan Ca-thedral-Basilica as it is of-ficially called is the seat of power of the Archdiocese of Manila. The church was closed for two years to undergo repairs as well as earthquake retro-fitting and is just recently opened to the public. Just a short walk north-wards from the Manila Cathedral is Fort Santia-go. Established, in then, the mouth of the Pasig River, Fort Santiago is a stone fortress which forms part of the defences of Intramuros. It was also where Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal was incar-cerated just before his ex-ecution in 1896. Walking on the walls and ramparts of the fort, one is treated to a view of the Pasig Riv-er and of the Chinese dis-trict of Binondo. Retracing back South-wards, through Plaza de Roma, one can pass by Bahay Tsinoy. A museum run by the Kaisa Founda-tion, it features the con-tribution of the Chinese immigrants to the con-

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015

EDGEDAVAOINdulge! TRAVEL

INTRAMUROSThe lure of

ADMIT IT! Every time you visit Manila, you look at spending time in the metro’s many shopping malls with their rows of stores and restaurants as a travel experience. Although it is true that many of the capital’s malls are virtual cities with their own look, feel, and attractions, I feel that travellers going to Manila should try to get off the beaten path to find places that are more exciting beyond the mall’s air-conditioned spaces.

struction of Intramuros as well as the community’s contribution to Philippine nation building. A little further down the road from Bahay Tsinoy is the San Agus-tin Church with its Chi-nese stone lions guard-ing its door. The Baroque designed San Agustin Church is also home to a museum which was once the church’s adjacent monastery. After all that walking, it is best to end the day with some pizza and drinks at the rooftop of the Bayleaf Hotel which is located at the Eastern quadrant of Intramuros. The view from the rooftop of the Bayleaf offers an unob-structed view of the walls of Intramuros, its golf course, the Manila Cathe-dral, Manila City Hall, the National Art Gallery, the port of Manila, as well as fiery Manila Bay. AirAsia flies three times daily between Davao and Manila. For the best deals, check their website at www.airasia.com or download their app on Google Play or the Apple App Store.

Inside San Agustin Church with its gaudily painted walls and ceiling.

The view from the rooftop of the Bayleaf Hotel is second to none.

The Manila Cathedral’s imposing facade.

Learn about the shared history of Chinese immigrants and the Filipino people at Bahay Tsinoy.

The main gate of Fort Santiago. The original structure was severly damaged after World War II.

It will be remembered that Dame Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick in Little-hampton, England. The beauty brand pioneered corporate activism and was built on a philosophy that business can be a force for good. With its brand expression, Beauty with Heart, the company continues to be focused on five core values; Against Animal Testing, Support Community Fair Trade, Activate Self Esteem, De-fend Human Rights, and Protect the Planet. All products are created using the finest ingredients sourced from the four corners of the globe, which are not tested on animals, and are 100% vegetarian, hence its being known for cruelty free beauty. As it celebrates 19 years in the Philip-pines with over 55 stores strategically located nationwide, The Body Shop has expanded its reach by opening its

A2 INdulge! VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015EDGEDAVAOEVENT

The Body Shop celebrates 19 years in the Philippines

MOMS and their fami-lies enjoyed an extended Mother’s Day celebra-tion at Abreeza Mall with the MOMpreneur Fair, a four-day festival at the mall’s Activity Center which showcased prod-ucts by Davao’s enter-prising moms and fea-tured informative talks on motherhood and baby care. On May 7, the MOMpreneur Fair formally opened, with De-partment of Trade and Industry-XI Regional Director Ma. Belen-da Ambi gracing the launch. Now on its second year, the MOMpre-neur Fair continues to honor and celebrate moms who make a liv-ing on their own terms by bring-ing together a fantastic selection of products by Davao’s mompre-neurs, among them baby items, organic treats, food and desserts, bags and accessories, crafts and home décor, giveaways and nov-elty items, and assorted services. The MOMpreneur Fair ran until May 10, Mother’s Day. On May 8, TV personality, book author, and mom Amanda Griffin-Jacob graced the Activ-ity Center to speak about being a mother and sign copies of Project Mom: Our Natural Approach to Motherhood, a book she co-wrote with fellow celebrity mom Bianca Araneta-Elizalde. Through Project Mom, Amanda and Bianca seek to guide moth-ers going through pregnancy up to their baby’s first birthday.

Abreeza Mall also partnered with LATCH Davao, the local counterpart of the Manila-based non-profit organization LATCH (Lactation, Attachment, Train-ing, Counseling, Help), to edu-cate moms on nursing and car-ing for their babies. From May 9 to 10, Mommy Talk took over the Activity Center stage with lec-tures on babywearing, cloth dia-

pering, and the truths and myths about breastfeeding. To further promote its breastfeeding advo-cacy, LATCH Davao teamed up with Abreeza Mall for the Yes to Breastfeeding! Photo Exhibit, which is on display until May 31 at the 2nd Floor Hallway. The exhibit seeks to inspire women to breastfeed by educating them on the health benefits of breastmilk

and sharing photos and stories of real breastfeeding moms. These events are all part of Mompowerment May, a month-long campaign by Abreeza Mall that aims to celebrate and em-power all the moms who make great things happen for them-selves and their families in vari-ous ways. Another component activity of the campaign is the

Thank You, Mom Photo Exhibit, a touching tribute to the moth-ers of eight Davao personalities which runs at the Ground Floor Hallway until May 31. And in keeping with the Mompower-ment May theme, this year’s stag-ing of the annual Style Origin fashion show on May 22 featured celebrity mom Andi Eigenmann and daughter Ellie along with

Moms are the stars at Abreeza Mall’s MOMPRENEUR FAIR

UP AND ABOUT

THE BODY SHOP celebrates 19 years in the Philippines with a new store concept and exciting beauty deals for its customers. It also celebrates its being part of the SM Retail Group.

first-ever Shop-in-Shop concept store in the newly renovated The SM Store Makati, making it more accessible to all beauty enthusiasts. The brand is housed in a 22.5 sqm space, that showcases the latest Pulse Shop-in-Shop concept for easy shop-ping. Its lighting is conducive for

browsing products, and its spacious layout makes it convenient to shop for the best skincare and beauty favorites. With accessible bays for product vari-eties, each highlights bestseller items and cult favorites from bath and body, down to make-up, skincare, & fra-grance.

The Pulse Shop-in-Shop concept aims to provide consumers not just a unique, interactive and memorable over-all beauty experience, but at the same time allows the shoppers to ex-perience the brand values and prod-ucts that are derived from the finest natural ingredients around the world,

making every shop-per feel good about themselves. This Shop-in-Shop con-cept may also be found at a 15.4 sqm space at the SM Store at the SM Mall of Asia As it celebrates 19 years in the Philip-pines, The Body Shop is treating everyone with exciting deals until June 3, 2015. Everybody can enjoy The Body Shop’s Big Sizes and Fruity Deals at 40%, as well as Se-

lected Gifts at 50% off. The Body Shop now accepts SM Ad-vantage Card for points earning and redemption, SM and Sodexo premium pass in all The Body Shop stores na-tionwide. The Body Shop is located at the Ground Floor, Main Mall of SM City Davao.

Amanda Griffin-Jacob is accompanied by her son onstage. LATCH Davao member moms.

Rochelle Venuti and daughter Cassy sing onstage at the MOMpreneur Fair.

INdulge! A3VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 EDGEDAVAO

The Body Shop celebrates 19 years in the Philippines

Lucky SKY subscribers can watch WWE Divas Live in Singapore

GMA Artist Center stars Enzo Pineda and Barbie Forte-za formalize their commitment as ambassadors of Haribon Foun-dation in a con-tract signing held on May 26 at the 17th floor Execu-tive Lounge of the GMA Network. Present in the con-

tract signing were Hari-bon Foundation Chief Operating Officer Maria Belinda de la Paz (left-most) and Chairman of the Board of Trust-ees John Philip Lesaca (third from left), GMA Network’s Assistant Vice President for Talent Im-aging and Marketing Simoun Ferrer (second from right) and Senior Talent Manager Vic del

Rosario Jr. (rightmost). Enzo and Barbie’s ad-dition to the esteemed roster of Haribon am-bassadors aims to in-spire more people to take action on environ-mental conservation and encourage others to do their share in car-ing for the environment in order to leave a last-ing impact for future generations.

WWE fans can now get a glimpse of what happens out-side the ring. With Total Divas, viewers have an exclusive look into the lives of professional wres-tling’s best female fighters. A hit show from WWE and E! channel, it focuses on the daily ups and downs of fan favorites like Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Natalya Naomi, Eva Marie, Alicia Fox, and Paige. Catch in-teresting stories on their lives covering heartache, joy, and hope as they bal-ance their time be-tween family and a very demanding athletic career. Thanks to E!, one SKY-cable and one Destiny Cable digital subscriber will get a chance to watch the Divas up-close and personal. Winners will get an all-expense paid 3 days / 2 nights trip package for two to witness a special WWE Match highlighting the Divas.Select WWE Su-perstars and the best WWE Divas will headline the event taking place at the Singapore Stadium on July 2. To get a chance to win this fantastic trip, SKY-cable and Destiny Cable

subscribers need to stay tuned every Wednes-days starting 10PM to watch Total Divas on E!. Subscribers in Metro Ma-nila, CAMANAVA, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna and Bu-lacan can watch the E! on Ch. 57 (SD) and Ch. 207 (HD). Those in other regions can catch E! on Ch. 608 (SD) and Ch. 744 (HD). On each Total Divas episode, a special con-test question will be flashed on-screen. Aspir-ing winners would have to compile their answers and fill-out an online form in the SKYcable or Destiny Cable website on or before June 19. A raffle draw will be held on June 23 to determine the winners. Only SKY and its chan-nel partners like E! offer its subscribers the best digital cable TV experi-

ence while providing once-in-a-lifetime op-portunities to meet the stars that they adore. SKYcable provides qual-ity home entertainment with the widest range of standard and high definition channels and other top-of-the-line services such as flexible subscription options via SELECT; iRECORD that records, pauses, and re-winds live TV; as well as real-time coverage of live concerts and sport-ing events via FREE VIEW and PAY-PER-VIEW. To subscribe and to know more about SKY-cable, E! , and Total Di-vas, log on to www.mysky.com.ph, or call the 24-hour customer service hotlines at 02-381-0000 for Metro Ma-nila, CAMANAVA, and Rizal, 046-484-4701 for Cavite, 049-534-1555 for

other mother-and-child tandems in Davao. For inquiries and updates on Abreeza Mall’s Mompowerment May events, please visit the Main Concierge at the ground floor or call (082) 321-9332. Stay updated by liking www.facebook.com/AbreezaMall and following @abreezatweets on Twitter and @iloveabreezamall on Instagram.

Moms are the stars at Abreeza Mall’s MOMPRENEUR FAIR

ENTERTAINMENT

Calamba and Binan, La-guna, 02-520-8560 for San Pedro, Laguna, 044-693-5877 for Bulacan, 032-421-1818 for Cebu, 082-305-5456 for Davao, 074-442-4841 for Bagu-io, 034-432 0051 for Ba-colod, 033-300-1210 for Iloilo, 035-225-1010 for Dumaguete, and 083-301-3134 for Gen. Santos

City. Enjoy 95 channels in clear digital signal for only P550 per month with Destiny Cable. For inquiries about the ser-vices and promos of Des-tiny Cable call 418-0000. You may also contact Destiny Cable via their email address, weserve@destinycable.com.ph.

Enzo Pineda and Barbie Forteza are new ambassadors of Haribon Foundation

making every shop-per feel good about themselves. This Shop-in-Shop con-cept may also be found at a 15.4 sqm space at the SM Store at the SM Mall of Asia As it celebrates 19 years in the Philip-pines, The Body Shop is treating everyone with exciting deals until June 3, 2015. Everybody can enjoy The Body Shop’s Big Sizes and Fruity Deals at 40%, as well as Se-

lected Gifts at 50% off. The Body Shop now accepts SM Ad-vantage Card for points earning and redemption, SM and Sodexo premium pass in all The Body Shop stores na-tionwide. The Body Shop is located at the Ground Floor, Main Mall of SM City Davao.

LATCH Davao’s Ella Misa talks about cloth diapering.

LATCH Davao’s Alexandria Hao delves into the truths about breastfeeding.

PG

PG

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

R-16

YOU'RE STILL THE ONE

Maja Salvador, Dennis Trillo

PG 12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS

TOMORROWLAND

12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS

SAN ANDREAS

Alexandra Daddario, Dwayne Johnson

1:00 | 4:00 | 7:00 | 10:00 LFS

George Clooney, Britt Robertson

PITCH PERFECT 2

Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson

May 28 – June 2, 2015

A4 INdulge!EVENT

MARCO POLO DAVAO launched the Philippine Eagle Foundation’s (PEF) web-site with a photo exhibit. The exhibit will be showing a walkthrough video of the web-site as well as photos of the Philippine Eagle from the Camera Club of Davao. The ex-hibit will also feature eagle toys dressed by Rene Salud.

Marco Polo Davao launches PEF website

Marco Polo Hotels in the Philippines continue their support to the Phil-ippine Eagle Founda-tion through the Adopt a #phileagle Stuffed Toy campaign. Eagle toys are now available at the Mar-co Polo Davao Business Center and at the Marco Polo Hotels in Ortigas and Cebu. At the Marco Polo Davao, guests can adopt an eagle stuffed toy for only Php565. Each toy comes with a 50%-dis-count coupon on the Eagle’s Flight Cocktail available at all food and beverage outlets of the hotel. The exhibit’s ribbon-cutting was attended by the PEF team headed by Mr. Dennis Salvador, Marco Polo Davao Gen-eral Manager, Ms. Dot-tie Wurgler-Cronin and associated and invited friends from the media.

Dennis Salvador of Philippine Eagle Foundation welcomes the guests during the ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

Camera Club of Davao members: (L-R) Michael Balgos, Michael Li, Rene Lumawag, Will Chin, Anthony Serafin, William Pedraza, and Chiaw Yap.

Fujifilm Philippines representative, Joel Bagas poses with Ms. Cronin and Mr. Salvador.

PEF Exec. Dir Dennis Salvador, MPD Gen. Manager Dottie Wurgler-Cronin and Camera Club of Davao President Anthony Serafin together with other guests officially open the photo exhibit at the Marco Polo Davao Lobby.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015EDGEDAVAO

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 7

The T’nalak dreamweaving continues…THE first time I met Lang

Dulay in person was in June 2014. I had heard

many things about Lang Du-lay before, but nothing re-places a personal encounter for a deeper connection, awe, and high admiration for our homegrown National Living Treasure. She was a gem of our people. But unfortunate-ly, the next time I met her, she was peacefully lying inside her coffin, decked by white flowers with adornments be-fitting a National Living Trea-sure, after almost two months struggling with mild-stroke until she breathed her last on April 30.

It was 10 o’clock in the morning of May 28, 2015 – a beautiful Thursday. There was a long line of mourners and government function-aries. Many of them were wearing the kimu T’boli, our traditional cultural attire. The silent procession was only broken by the suppressed sobbing of the women and the tinkling of the brass bells worn as belts. She was finally laid to rest near her weaving center at Sitio T’bong, Ba-rangay Lamdalag, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato.

Lang Dulay was one of the few National Living Treasures in the country. Since 1993, there were only 13 known living treasures the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) acknowl-edged. The title was con-ferred on her in 1998 by vir-tue of presidential Proclama-tion No. 1189 through NCCA. She was awarded by then President Fidel V. Ramos in Malacañang. The award, offi-cially called the Gawad Manli-likhang Bayan, is pursuant to Republic Act No. 7355, which provides recognition for a Na-tional Living Treasures who is citizen or a group of citizens

Lang Dulay receives the Presidential citation as the National Living Treasure for T’nalak dreamweaving from then-President Fidel V. Ramos in Malacañang.

By HANNAH JOY N. BENTO

EDGEDAVAO

CULTURE & ARTS

The author, a pure T’boli, dressed in her traditional culture attire, with Uwang Ahadas, a Yakan National Living Treasure for music from Lamitan, Basilan.

engaged in any traditional art that is uniquely Filipino and whose distinctive skills have reached a high level of techni-cal and artistic excellence. Her outstanding creations have remained faithful to the T’boli tradition as manifested in the complexity of her designs, fineness of workmanship and quality of its finish, as the presidential citation reads.

T’nalak dreamweav-ing is an age-old tradition among the T’boli people in the mountains of South Co-tabato, notably in T’boli and Lake Sebu towns. It is an in-tricate and tedious process usually lasting six months or so using locally available ma-terials, such as the abaca-ikat fabric as fine as hair and nat-ural dyes from plants like kenalum, among others. The patterns are based on natural images found in nature and are dreamt of by the weavers, hence the name “dreamweav-ers.” Only the females are al-lowed to weave during which they abstain from being inti-mate with their spouses.

Lang Dulay started weav-ing when she was just 12 years old. She knew hun-dreds of designs, including the bankiring (hair bangs), bulinglangit (clouds), and the k’bangi (butterfly). Each pattern is accompanied by a story people tell. Through her great artwork, she brought the T’boli culture and tradi-tion on the pedestal for the whole world to see, acknowl-edge, and admire.

Yes, her death is indeed a great loss for all of us. Thanks to her, she ensured the con-tinuation of the dreamweav-ing tradition by securing her legacy through her children, her grandchildren, and even her neighbors. Many of them stayed with her at her weav-ing center, learning the craft

and artistry of the Master dreamweaver. It is said that Lang Dulay was one of only five known dreamweavers in Lake Sebu, although hers were of excellent artistry, hence the award. There are still four more surviving dreamweavers living in a weaving community found in the upper part of Baran-gay Lamdalag.

Unfortunately, there is no significant government support for them as of this writing. And this is what saddens me the most. All fo-cus had been made to Lang Dulay, with respect to her, while the four other weavers are left to survive a hand-to-mouth existence.

Our whole tribe, joined by a grateful nation, still mourns this loss. She may be gone but not her great con-tributions to our indigenous community and to our coun-try. No amount of money can ever pay her dedication and commitment for preserving abaca-ikat weaving at a time when such art was about to become lost due to neglect and lack of support. Un-doubtedly, she did her best to keep our tradition alive.

This coming July, the whole province will be cel-ebrating the 16th T’nalak Festival, the primary tour-ism event of the province. It is an authentic, cultural cel-ebration depicting the rich tradition and heritage of the T’boli people.

And the dreamweaving tradition continues…

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 20158 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

In the balanceEDITORIAL

THE opening of school this week all over the country is a source of joy for most. On the symbolic level, it tells us that life goes on and that the future is secure; as long as our children troop

to school to learn, the next generations will turn out all right and will be able to take care of themselves and those who come after them. To be sure there are numerous problems that the education system faces, and government is hard-pressed to address all of them. But what cannot be taken away from our national consciousness right now is the feeling of optimism as we see our children heading for school and learning how to build a nation through knowledge.

But for an estimated 1,700 Lumad students in Talaingod and Kapalong in Davao del Norte, the future is getting dimmer by the day. And ironically, it is the government agency that is tasked with helping them learn that is derailing their education. According to reports, Davao del Norte division superintendent Dr. Josephine L. Fadul has asked DepEd 11 regional director Atty. Alberto T. Escobar-te for permission to close a total of 80 schools in the two areas for being infiltrated by the New People’s Army (NPA). In a letter dated

May 12, 2015, Fadul said the temporary closure of the indigenous schools was based on the order of the Talaingod Municipal Coun-cil of Tribal Leaders “and the reinvestigation, reinspection, and re-evaluation of the said school in terms of performance in providing efficient, quality and relevant educational services consistent with DepEd and National Education policies, plans and standard.”

That the schools are actually “NPA-infiltrated” is of course up for debate, but the point is made moot and academic because the DepEd also wants the creation of a public high school in Butay, Talaingod that would utilize military personnel as “para-teachers.” Even if the NPA tag is true, nothing is going to be accomplished by replacing one armed group with another. We certainly have high respects for our soldiers, but ultimately they are exactly that, soldiers, trained in the art of war and not in teaching. We must ask: What possible rationalization the DepEd has for tapping those with guns to replace those whose weapons are chalk and books? Government must step into this sad state of affairs before it is too late; the future of Lumad children is in the balance.

Columnists: MA. TERESA L. UNGSON • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • AURELIO A. PEÑA • ZHAUN ORTEGA • BERNADETTE “ADDIE” B. BORBON • MARY ANN “ADI” C. QUISIDO • LEANDRO B. DAVAL SR., • NIKKI GOTIANSE-TAN • NICASIO ANGELO AGUSTIN • EMILY ZEN CHUA • CARLOS MUNDA Economic Analyst: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG • JONALLIER M. PEREZ

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VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

“EQUIP yourselves with more knowledge… (and) strengthen your belief that science and technology would make a huge differ-

ence to improve the lives of every Filipino.”That was Secretary Mario G. Montejo of

the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) urging the students who hold a schol-arship from the department during a confer-ence held in Pasay City recently.

According to Montejo, science and tech-nology remain the important engine of the country. Science and technology drive indus-try competitiveness, accelerate the delivery of government services, and enhance the coun-try’s capacity in emerging technologies, he said.

“With the developing challenges of glo-balization and tough competition in the mar-ketplace, science and technology innovation and research should be a priority to ensure our nation’s global competitiveness,” Montejo stressed.

I can say that it is very true, indeed. In fact, it is technology funded by the science depart-ment that helps deodorize the wastewater of Boracay. But that’s going ahead of the story.

Boracay is a small island two kilometers off the northwest tip of Panay Island in the Western Visayas region. Its fine white sand beaches have received awards from numer-ous travel publications and agencies. In 2012, the international travel magazine Travel + Lei-sure named it as “the best island in the world.”

Apart from its white sand beaches, Bora-cay is also famous for being one of the world’s top destinations for relaxation. It is also emerging among the top destinations for tran-quility and nightlife. It’s no wonder why some of the country’s top celebrities -- from stars to

politicians, and even business-men -- troop to the island during holidays.

But like most islands in the country which have be-come tourist dest inat ions , Boracay Island is not spared from several problems. In fact, it has long been the subject of issues re-garding wastewater, drainage systems, and re-sidual solid waste that fill the air with noxious odor.

“While there are regulations governing waste treatment in the island, the problem persists due to an inadequate treatment sys-tem especially with the continuous influx of tourists to the island,” a press release from the DOST said.

Boracay, the press statement said, may have found the solution to the island’s prob-lem through Eco-Sep, an organomineral treat-ment used in a self-sustaining and portable wastewater treatment system.

Organominerals, according to my source, are minerals that are affected by organics, mostly life-related, but not directly produced by living cells. In other words, they are miner-al products that are formed by interaction of organic matter.

“The Eco-Sep is a low-cost and deploy-able method for immediate installation of domestic wastewater clean-up anywhere in

the country,” the DOST explained. “Being en-hanced with organominerals makes the Eco-Sep appropriate in disaster-stricken areas.”

Another good thing about Eco-Sep: “Among others, it may be used in condo-miniums, housing projects, hotels and areas where wastewater treatment is a problem.”

It was Dr. Merlinda Palencia of Adamson University who developed Eco-Sep. Her re-search was funded by the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technolo-gy Research and Development (PCIEERD), a DOST line agency.

Tacloban, following the disastrous effects of Typhoons Yolanda and Ruby, was chosen as the initial demonstration area for the Eco-Sep. Three Eco-Sep systems were installed for 522 residents in temporary shelters in Palo, Leyte with 61 latrines and 30 bathing cubi-cles.

The demonstration showed positive re-sults. This prompted Mayor Remedios Petilla of Palo, Leyte to recommend that the Eco-Sep must be incorporated in the engineering de-sign for the rehabilitation projects in Leyte.

Inspired by these results, some DOST of-ficials thought that the Eco-Sep technology might be able to help Boracay solve its waste-water problem.

So, a team from DOST (Dr. Palencia who served as the project leader and Ninaliza Es-corial, Laarni Piloton, and Candy Ilaw, all staff from PCIEERD) worked with the municipal environment office and the local government of Boracay. They applied the organominer-al treatment in selected materials recovery facilities (MRF) and some hotels within the beach area.

For the past two weeks, the team checked

on the number and volume of septic tanks in the selected hotels for the computation of the dosage for the treatment. The team has also collected samples of raw wastewater.

In two facilities in barangay Balabag (where seven trucks of residual waste are generated) and barangay Manoc-Manoc, the team sprayed organominerals to reduce odor from the heavy loads of garbage in the areas. “Spraying was concentrated in biodegradable and some residuals that produce bad odor,” said DOST in a press dispatch.

And the result: “The use of the Eco-Sep system with organominerals in Boracay showed significant reduction of odor both in the selected hotels and especially in the MRFs where results were almost experienced in-stantly.”

It has been reported that one hotel which agreed for the study spend about P20,000.00 on commercially available chemical spray for the odor. “Now, it found the organomineral technology as a cheaper substitute,” the DOST dispatch said.

In the jar test conducted by Dr. Palencia in a pumping station in Boracay, the caretak-er reported that after organomineral applica-tion, the wastewater isolated for the jar test changed color and eliminated the bad odor.

“With the positive results shown in the jar test, the organomineral treatment was finally used on-site, resulting in a cleaner wastewa-ter compared with raw wastewater,” the dis-patch said.

I think it’s also viable for those ho-tels, restaurants, housing projects, and con-dominiums in Davao City and resorts locat-ed in Island Garden City of Samal to ap-ply the Eco-Sep technology.

Organominerals to the rescue

Henrylito D. Taciohenrytacio@gmail.com

THINK ON THESE!

Party politics, elections under MILFIT’S unfortunate that many of the most

deplorable abuses that figured in elec-tions past were perpetrated in Mus-

lim-dominated areas of Mindanao including the Ampatuan massacre of the Mangudada-tu contingent and dozens of media people in 2009.

Such lurid happenings gave the people in the so-called Bangsamoro areas a reputa-tion for being corrupt, dishonest, and oppor-tunistic—which remains, clouding the pub-lic’s perception on their trustworthiness.

It is understandable therefore that many people look askance at the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s initiative in forming a po-litical party: the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP).

In view of this, for their own good and for everyone’s information, the party should now announce and disseminate as widely as possible the UBJP’s vision, mission, and plat-form of government.

*****The public needs assurance that in vying

for regional positions during the 2016 elec-tion, the UBJP can be counted on to respect the democratic process, behave democrati-cally, and avoid acts that conjure abuses of the past and exacerbate present biases.

It is especially important that Mindana-ons be now informed of its scope, governing principles, and organizational processes; we

have an immediate stake in all this.It was good to see photos of the leading

personalities registering for formal mem-bership, paying their P20 membership fees, and waving their identification cards.

But the irony of announcing or introduc-ing them as the new party’s leaders—mak-ing statements before the formal filing of membership but without stating whether they were duly elected by the assembly—has raised eyebrows. A “new” party with “old style” leaders!

*****One notices, for instance, that the way

the party is organized is no different from the MILF’s chain of command—with the same cast of characters, and configured the same as the insurgent force.

This is reinforced by the spectacle of fatigue-uniformed, arms-bearing members ringing the gathered assembly—projecting an army formation rather than a party con-vention or congregation.

Then we see is the assumption to the party presidency of Mr. Al Haj Murad who is also the MILF’s chair, and Mr. Sammy Al Mansoor (billed as Islamic Armed Forces

chief of staff) as the party’s secretary gener-al. (Should civilian party leaders be known for their aliases?)

In other words, this is not one’s stan-dard idea of a political party. The interlock-ing directorates of the Party and the MILF’s “Islamic Armed Forces” suggest that, except for the titles—presumably, one to be used for civilian affairs, another for belligerent affairs—it is geared for contingency of an insurgent nature.

*****It would help to publish the UBJP’s Con-

stitution and By-laws, to clarify the thrusts of its vision, mission, objectives, and strate-gies.

For example, it helps to know how the Party is structured, who constitute its mem-bers and officers, how decisions or staff selections take place, and what activities it undertakes.

Will the party seek to empower every-one—not just those already in power like the present leaders, spokesmen, and com-manders?

Will it be inclusive, encouraging vertical or horizontal mobility among the rank and file? Will it level the political playing field within and without through open and free elections?

*****The rest of the country should also be

made aware of its platform, its main advoca-cy, its candidates, and related matters.

Care should be taken that none of the notorious issues of the past gets a reprise, among them: dead men voting (names picked out from the cemetery); birds and bees too on ballots as if real persons. And there should be no more of the foolishness whereby the head of family does the voting for everyone.

No more instances of manufactured votes, altered election results, hijacked bal-lot boxes, and dagdag bawas. And make sure that “Hello Garci…” characters including Lin-tang Bedol aren’t on board at any level of the elections in the Bangsamoro areas.

There are many more issues to address if we are to normalize the confidence level of Mindanaons and the peoples of the Vi-sayas and Luzon regarding the Bangsamoro scheme. About which, more later on….

(Manny is former UNESCO regional direc-tor for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, South-east Asia Publishers Association; director, De-velopment Academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN; vice chair, Local Government Academy; member, Cory Govern-ment’s Peace Panel; awardee, PPI-UNICEF outstanding columnist. An author of books on governance, he is chairman/convenor of Gising Barangay Movement Inc. valdehuesa@gmail.com)

BY MANNY VALDEHUESA

THE WORM’S EYEVIEW

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 201510 NEWSTHE DECISION... FROM 1

Duterte... FROM 2

Kin... FROM 2

Councilors... FROM 3

1,700... FROM 3

4 Panabo... FROM 3

Ortiz... FROM 2

52 arrested... FROM 2

CSC... FROM 6

EDGEDAVAO

Region 12: no shortage in classrooms

inform our clients for the inconvenience that the con-struction may cause but they will still be open and the staff will still be in the same room providing services,” she said.

Rosell also disclosed that the Davao del Norte field

office was the third one in the region to have been im-proved by the commission.

“The first one was our field office in Compostela Valley and the second was the one in Davao Oriental,” she said. (PIA11, Michael Uy)

COUNCILORS’ MEET. Councilor Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz announces the hold-ing of the upcoming Philippine Councilors League (PCL) National Executive Officer and National Board Meeting slated on June 10 to 12 at SM Lanang

Premier’s SMX Convention Center which 3,000 councilors from all-over the country are expected to attend. Ortiz was a guest in the Kapehan sa Dabaw at the Annex of SM City Davao yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

have three places to go to. I will go to Pampanga because I already promised I would go there. Then I will go to Lucena to talk to a group of lawyers, and then another place in Lucena. After that I will end my listening tour),” Duterte said.

Duterte began his listen-ing tour on federalism early this year ostensibly to pro-mote federalism. Observers, however, have said it is the mayor’s way of feeling the pulse of the people to see if he has a chance to become President.

Duterte, however, has repeatedly denied eying the presidency, saying he has no

interest in running and he has no funds to do it.

Last week, however, Duterte said he might run for President if critics like Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and former Commission on Hu-man Rights (CHR) chair Etta Rosales continue to lambaste him.

And last Sunday, Duterte told the people of Matanao that if he becomes President they can expect the same kind of progress Davao City has enjoyed under his lead-ership.

“Pag ako nahimong Pres-idente, tan-awa na lang nin-yo ang (nahitabo sa) Davao City,” he said.

asked me not to prevent them from airing the advertisement since it is still up to me to de-cide if I will run for President or not),” he said.

Duterte said if he does de-cided to run for the post, the group will support him by way of campaign finances.

The advertisement began to air last week after being leaked in social networking sites.

The 34-second video was posted on YouTube on May 27 by Mugstoria, a Cebu-based social news website. It began airing on national TV the fol-lowing day.

In the video, a helmeted Duterte rides through Davao City on a motorcycle and inter-acts with a number of people, including children.

A voice that sounds like Duterte says the following:

“Hindi sikreto kung paano umunlad ang Davao. Kailan-gan lang ng kaunting tapang; tapang para ituwid ang mga mapagsamantala, mga lumal-abag sa batas, at nang-aapi sa walang laban. May katahimi-

kan sa Davao. Kailangan lang ng disiplina at determinasyon. Dumami ang trabaho, naka-pag-aral ang mga bata, suma-ya ang bawat pamilya. Pwe-deng magkaganito ang buong Pilipinas. Kailangan lang ng tapang at malasakit.”

(It’s no secret how Davao became progressive. It just needs a little fearlessness; fearlessness to straighten the opportunists, those who break the law, and those who maltreat the helpless. There is peace in Davao. It just needs discipline and determination. The number of jobs increased, the youth are able to study, ev-ery family is happy. This can be true for the entire country. All we need is fearlessness and compassion.)

The video ends with Dute-rte posing with the words “Tapang at Malasakit” (fear-lessness and compassion) in the background and the voices of a group of children shouting, “Duterte!” and the words.

The video closes with the words, “This is a paid adver-tisement.”

wala po kami... na parang hindi po magawa ng isang tao lang ang krimen na yon,” he told Duterte.

Duterte responded by saying Curray should not speculate on the matter since there is no evidence to sup-port his claim.

“We should not specu-

late especially on crimes. We might be arresting the wrong person. The police already said that it is a closed case,” Duterte said.

“If you want, bring to me the person who saw it so that I will order the reopening of the case. I am a lawyer. I must be convinced (first),” he said.

sian waters. A report from the DFA stat-

ed that the 17 were not in pos-session of passports or travel documents when they entered

Indonesian waters.Of the 17, two were boat

captains who served sentence after being arrested in 2012. Armando B. Fenequito Jr.

on his third and final term, but rumors have circulated she is among those interested in the position

City Administrator Jesus Melchor V. Quitain, Hugpong secretary general, mentioned the name of Ortiz when asked who among their members have shown interest to suc-ceed Ungab.

Aside from Ortiz, Quitain also named councilors Ber-nard Al-ag and Karlo Bello and Engr. Alberto Ungab, Rep. Ungab’s younger brother, as

possible candidates for the post. Bello is also a last-termer councilor while Al-Ag is only in his second term as councilor.

Quitain, however, said these individuals have yet to formally inform the party of their desire to run for the post.

Hugpong, he added, also has to meet on the matter and that he is only awaiting in-structions from the party head, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte, to call a meeting in preparation for the 2016 pres-idential elections.

exists,” he said, adding that the council was responsible for the establishment of the learning institution which is receiving support from groups like the Rural Mis-sionaries of the Philippines.

Garcia said the order from Fadul “seems to be a product of some sectors who intend to harass and ques-tion the legitimacy” of the school which was formed with the purpose of helping

indigenous children with their education…which is se-riously lagging for universal education.”

Tribal Council member Datu Kailo Bontulan said the closure of the schools means harder access to education.

“There’s a huge possibil-ity that members of the Ma-nobo tribe won’t be able to send their children to school because it would be costly and inaccessible,” he added.cial Protection and Security

towards a sustainable pro-gram for Filipino’s Rights to Survival, Development, Pro-tection and Participation” to discuss relevant issues to the board.

Ortiz said this is the third time that Davao City will host the event. The first was in June 2011 and the second in February 2013.

She said participants of the three-day activity will also discuss the best practic-es of different local govern-ment units across the coun-try. “Best practices will be adapted by other LGUs. For Davao City, we will present our best ordinance that the city is known for like ordi-nances of Anti-smoking and

liquor ban.”The first councilors’ as-

sembly was organized by the Metro Manila Councilors League in July 15, 1989. It led to the creation of regional and provincial federations of councilors.

The PCL obtained its official status as a local gov-ernment association when it was accredited by the then Department of Local Gov-ernment on September 1990 and registered with the Se-curities and Exchange Com-mission on the same month.

“The convention aims to make city and municipal councilors more effective and efficient local legisla-tors,” Ortiz said. CHENEEN R. CAPON

As this developed, Bellido said the DFA has recorded 89 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs currently on death row in various countries. Of

these, 34 are in Malaysia.Most of the cases of the

Filipinos on death row are murder and illegal drugs, he said.

THE Department of Ed-ucation (DepEd) in Re-gion 12 is not expecting

any shortage in the region this year in terms of classrooms and related facilities.

Dr. Allan Farnazo, DepEd Region 12 director, said they have already filled the class-room requirements of all public elementary and public school in the region based on their targeted enrolment of 1.3 million pupils and stu-dents for school year 20015-2016.

He said this figure is around 177,000 higher than the region’s enrolment record of 1.123 million in the previ-ous school year.

Farnazo did not cite the number of available class-rooms in the area but as-sured that they are enough

to meet the standard class-room-to-student ratio of 1:45.

He said they were able to fill the gap with the construc-tion of 959 classrooms in var-ious parts of Region 12 during school year 2014-2015.

They have also completed during the Brigada Eskwela or national school maintenance week the repair and rehabili-tation of the dilapidated class-rooms, specifically those built in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he said

“As of now we have suffi-cient classrooms to accommo-date our enrolees and we’re ready to welcome them all for the opening of classes,” he said in a radio interview.

The national government released a total of P960.8 million in the previous school year for the construction of

929 additional classrooms in the region.

The new classrooms were intended to fill the region’s backlog of 277 classrooms last year and address the need for the junior and senior high school classes of the K to 12 education program.

The K to 12 program, which was first implemented by DepEd in 2012, provided an additional two years to the country’s basic education pro-gram.

It covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic educa-tion, comprising six years of primary education, four years of junior high school and two years of senior high school.

“Right we have additional classrooms being construct-ed but they are for the imple-mentation of the senior high

school program in 2016,” Far-nazo said.

In terms of teachers, he said the region earlier re-ceived a hiring quota of 1,872 for this school year.

He said they are targeting to fill the initial slots by next week, in time for the formal opening of classes.

Owing to this, Farnazo said they expect a turnout of 95 percent for the enrolled pupils and students during the opening of classes on Monday, June 1.

He urged parents and guardians of the school chil-dren to send them to school on the opening day.

“We will have our lesson one on day one so we want all our pupils and students to report on June 1,” he added. (MindaNews)

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 11EDGEDAVAO

ICT HUB

Hackademy: Teaching programmingto HS students, out-of-school youth

crc@edgedavao.net

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

A DAVAO City-based web and mobile de-velopment agency is

embarking on an initiative to help prepare high school students and out-of-school youth succeed in the digital world.

Ingenuity Global Con-sulting, Inc. soft-launched its program dubbed Hack-ademy, a fun, accessible, and affordable way to learn and acquire programming skills. The launch was held in yes-terday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw held at SM City Davao.

“We believe that every-one and not just a lucky few should be given opportunity to learn computer science, particularly programming, which enhances the individ-ual’s problem-solving and thinking skills,” Ingenuity’s Chief Executive Officer John Naranjo said.

“Even if a high school student will not pursue a programming career later on, the skills acquired such as logic and analysis have broader uses. Essentially life skills,” he added.

Among the first activities of Hackademy is a free two-week web programming boot camp on June 8 to 19, 2015 with students from

the Philippine Science High School-Southern Mindanao Campus (PSHS-SMC) at the Ingenuity training center.

Eleven Grades 9 and 10 students will be mentored by software engineers from Ingenuity to develop web-sites and web applications.

Naranjo said Hackad-emy’s main a p p r o a c h to learning is creating opportuni-ties to in-teract with trainers and m e n t o r s who are some of the best engi-neers in the industry.

He said the students will be mentored by Ingenu-ity members who specialize in programming, including computer engineers Jeffrey Mamacus and Nap Joseph Calub.

In the two-week boot camp, students will be given an introduction to web de-velopment using HTML or CSS, basic Python program-ming, and web developing.

“The trainees are re-quired to finish an output which is a system that will be helpful for their school,” he said.

Naranjo said his com-pany is also planning to of-fer the free skills training to students of other public

secondary schools in the next six months.

“ W e ’ r e prioritizing the public schools be-cause this would up-date their learnings on p r o g r a m -ming and web devel-opment,” he said. “Most of the teach-

ings in the public school are already outdated.”

He also said the firm might partner with the Department of Education (DepEd) in the long term to institutionalize the training program and eventually be-come an academy that will offer the program to even grade school students, out-of-school youth, and the un-

derprivileged.“We hope to have the

academy in three years-time,” he said.

Naranjo said while there are high schools in the Phil-ippines already including computer science subjects in their curriculum, these are “largely introductory.”

“There’s also the chal-lenge in availability of teach-ers properly trained to teach such subjects. Hackademy is Ingenuity’s contribution to address this gap and it will collaborate with high schools, government agen-cies, and private organiza-tions to have courses more accessible. Ingenuity will also pursue a technology platform for Hackademy to broaden its reach,” he said.

“Through Hackademy, we hope to help build to-morrow, one line of code at a time,” he added.

Ingenuity was founded in 2010 to help businesses succeed by crafting well-en-gineered web and mobile applications and providing value-added services, in-cluding strategic consulting. It has been collaborating with startups to enterprises in various countries in real-izing their vision.

HACKADEMY. Ingenuity Global Consulting Inc. CEO John Naranjo talks the reporters during yesterday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw where he talked about Hackademy. (Photo courtesy of Ingenuity Global Consulting, Inc.)

(Photo from the Hackademy Facebook page)

Globe drives Phl as ‘DigitalLifestyle Capital of the World’GLOBE Telecom is lead-

ing the drive towards positioning the country

as the “Digital Lifestyle Capi-tal of the World” through fast and easy data access as well as highly-affordable content and apps.

This was noted in a story carried by highly-influential American online news aggre-gator Huffington Post entitled “Philippines: A Digital Life-style Capital in the Making?” The article talks about the lo-cal Digital Lifestyle landscape which it defines as “one’s real-ity powered by apps, sites, and gadgets that compliment one’s physical lifestyle.”

“Mobile operators along with local mobile phone brands drive smartphone and mobile internet penetration in the Philippines. Globe Tele-com, the leading network for smartphones covering data traffic of 87,000 terabytes with an increase of 270% year on year (compared to its main competitor, PLDT Group 48,000 terabytes of data with 1 6 7 %

growth) has strongly influenced the digital lifestyle of Filipinos,” it stated.

As of March 2015, Globe mobile data revenues signifi-cantly grew by 58% from pre-vious year’s P2.8 billion and by 8% from previous quarter’s P4.1 billion. Meanwhile, com-bined mobile Internet reve-nues of Smart and Sun rose by 19 percent to P2.2 billion from P1.9 billion in the same three months of last year.

Propelling the growth of the company’s mobile data business were its partnerships with global content provid-ers such as Google, Facebook, Viber, Spotify, NBA, HOOQ, and WhatsApp to enrich the cus-tomer experience.

“The surge in mobile data services was spurred by the im-pact of our data adoption strat-egies from the Free Facebook and Free Viber campaigns, as well as the growing smart-phone and mobile browsing adoption among Globe cus-tomers. This also reflects on the phenomenal growth of our mobile data business which in turn, secures our position as the purveyor of the Filipi-no digital lifestyle,” said Dan Horan, Senior Advisor for Con-sumer Business at Globe.

He added: “We believe that this is the most appro-priate path for us to meet the changing needs of our cus-tomers as the world of data becomes more pervasive in their lives. With the growing adoption to more connected devices, Globe expects its mo-bile data business to create deep revenue streams for the company in both the near and long-term period.”

For instance, the Philip-pines became one of Face-book’s first successful test beds for the concept of free Facebook through the relation-ship with Globe in 2013. The service, which was initially of-fered for three months, paved the way for Globe to double its mobile data user base and in-crease its mobile browsing and other data revenues by 42% by end-2013 as compared to the previous year.

Likewise, Spotify, the world’s most popular music streaming service, reveals that the Philippines is its second fastest-growing market glob-ally as well as its biggest mar-ket in the Asia-Pacific region. An exclusive partner of Globe, the music streaming service celebrated a record-break-ing 2.5 billion music streams from music fans across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao – the highest number of streams garnered from any Asian mar-ket a year from launch.

At the same time, online entertainment service HOOQ

continues to gain trac-tion among enter-

tainment-lov-ing Pinoys

through the t e a m - u p with Globe, enabling a c c e s s o v e r 1 0 , 0 0 0

i n t e r n a -tional and

local movies and TV series

across multiple devices. A joint

venture between Singtel, Sony Pictures

Television and Warner Bros. Entertainment, HOOQ has surpassed the 1 million mark in streaming minutes viewed since it launched in February this year. The HOOQ app has also generated over 30,000 downloads from iTunes and Google Play store.

The Filipinos’ love for apps and content encouraged Globe to introduce the innovative service called new myLife-style Plan. According to the article, “Globe automatically throws in what used to be its core services, the regular calls and texts, as a basic unlimited service for about US$14, then gives its Filipino users the op-tion of various data allocations and lifestyle bundles.”

The new myLifestyle Plan provides Globe customers ac-cess to paid content and apps as add on offers in postpaid plans. Such strategy enables more Filipinos to follow the NBA Playoffs, enjoy the free-dom to select songs at ease via Spotify, choose amongst the widest set of movies and TV shows through HOOQ without worrying about data cost, and continuously keep in touch with friends, among other things. With this, they can use their data allocation for other Internet services and focus more on adding to the stead-fast climb of social media data produced in the country.

Globe Telecom’s impres-sive performance was also a result of better network expe-rience with 100% 3G and 4G HSPA+ nationwide coverage as well as the increasing per-vasiveness of its LTE network around the country.

We believe that everyone and not just a lucky few should be given opportunity to learn computer science

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015

GENERAL SANTOS CITY MARKETING OFFICEEDMUND P. RENDONMarketing SpecialistGeneral Santos CityMobile: (Sun) 0925-357-3460 (Smart) 0907-202-3844

DAVAO CITY MAIN OFFICEJOCELYN S. PANESDirector of SalesDoor 14 ALCREJ Bldg.,Quirino Ave., Davao CityTel: (082) 224-1413Telefax: (082) 221-3601

MANILA MARKETINGOFFICEANGELICA R. GARCIA Marketing Manager97-1 Bayanbayanan Ave.,Marikina Heights, Marikina City Tel: (02) 654-3509

GO BOLD GO COLOUR• All text

• Telephone Number (bigger point size)

• Bold Header

• Background• Text

Price: 100.00 Price: 175.00 Price: 230.00

ADD-ON

• Pictures/Logos• Graphic Elements

12 CLASSIFIED EDGEDAVAO

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 13NEWSEDGEDAVAO

EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT AND

PARTITION OF ESTATE

Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late FERNANDO LOPEZ has been the subject of an EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT executed among his heirs per Doc. No.116; Page No.24; Book No. XXVI; Series of 2015, of the NOTARY PUBLIC JOSE M. BALINGIT JR.

5/19,26,6/2

EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF ESTATE

WITH DEED OF DONATION AND WAIVER OF RIGHTS

Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late BENIGNO FRANCISCO PABLO has been the subject of an EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT with deed of donation and waiver of rights executed among his heirs per Doc. No.245; Page No.49; Book No. VIII; Series of 2015, of the NOTARY PUBLIC FRANC EVAN L. DANDOY II.5/19,26/6/2

MAYOR Rodrigo Duterte revealed that the Ex-panded Anti-Smoking

Ordinance which commemo-rated its full implementation in May 30 raised a total of P3.2-Million from June 2013 to March 2015.

He mulled of using the funds to support the cancer patients particularly the chil-dren at the Southern Phillip-pines Medical Center.

“I’ll make use of the fines in taking medical care to cancer patients, particularly children,”

Duterte said.The City Anti-Smoking Or-

dinance have been implement-ed 13 years ago.

Duterte underscored that 10 Filipinos die due to tobac-co-related diseases every hour every day.

He said the Anti-Smoking Ordinance is aimed primarily in promoting public health, by addressing passive smok-ing that impacts on pregnant women and children.

Duterte also bared that a total of 4,613 violators had

been apprehended and fined for smoking in public as of 2014.

The expanded anti-smok-ing law, or Ordinance No. 0367-12, effectively repeals Ordinance No. 043-02 or The Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Ordinance of Davao City ap-proved in 2002 that prohibit-ed smoking in public places, enclosed spaces, buildings and establishments, public motor vehicles and in government facilities.

The new law will ban

smoking in all establishments, and smoking areas will be limited to outdoors with the corresponding sign to alert the public. Smoking areas in build-ings will be prohibited.

The new law also expand-ed the prohibition to electronic cigarettes and shisha or water-pipe.

Violators will be fined 1,000 for the first offense, 2,500 for second offense and 5,000 for third and subsequent infractions. (PIA 11-Joey Sem G. Dalumpines)

P3.4 Million anti-smoking finesto be used for the cancer patients

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 201514 EDGEDAVAO

MOTORING

WHEN it comes to motorsport com-petitions, nothing

can get bigger and livelier than Monster Jam. Witness four-meter tall, five-ton mon-ster trucks wreak havoc in the special race track set up only for them. Monster Jam trucks will face off in two major com-petitions. The first one is the traditional bracket racing. The first truck to cross the finish line will be declared the winner, but it won’t be as easy. The race track is planted with metal boulders, crash vans and more. The second com-petition gives the drivers and their monster trucks a chance to show-off their astonishing stunts, twists and jumps in the freestyle competition. No other competition will have your heart pumping as hard. These monster superstars are out to give their fans a show they won’t forget.

It truly brings sports, en-tertainment, showmanship and the ultimate fan expe-rience in one action-packed show. They give more than 350 performances each year all over the globe, filling stadi-ums and arenas with excited fans. Join in with the madness as they come to Manila for the first time. Six of the best Mon-ster Jam trucks will hit the race tracks from June 20 to 21. See Grave Digger, Max-D, El Toro Loco, Zombie, Dragon

and Son-Uva Digger perform absurd cyclones, donuts and flips. Each monster truck will not go down without a fight, so this will surely be a dynam-ic run. All of them are set to win in the first ever Monster Jam show in Manila. Collec-tively, they will blaze through the tracks at the MOA Arena for a surely frenzied show.

For die-hard fans of the show, you will even have a chance to meet the great-est drivers in Monster Jam history through the world-famous Par-ty in the Pits. This is a rare oppor-tunity to get to know them and have your official merchandise autographed. The Monster Jam truck driv-ers won’t leave the arena until the very last item has been signed. Are you going to miss out on this shot to live it up with these daredevil drivers? Ticket prices start at P 850 only.

Secure tickets be-fore they run out by calling SM Tickets +63-2-470-2222 or by visiting www.smtickets.com. For more information about Mon-ster Jam show in Manila, visit www.monsterjam.com.ph today. Buckle your seatbelts. Monster Jam is here to blow up the motorsport scene in the country.

SUBARU is now offering its XV compact cross-over at a more attractive

price point. Starting today, the XV can be yours for just P 1,198,000—that’s a savings of P 100,000 over the previ-ous price of P 1,298,000. Mo-tor Image Pilipinas, the dis-tributor of Subaru vehicles in the country, believes that its XV can easily compete with compact sedans/hatchbacks and is aggressively re-pricing its offering as such.

More importantly though, it gives the Subaru XV much needed breathing room over

the Forester; it must be re-membered that the pricing matrix of the XV and Forester prior to the price adjustment was flawed given the overlap-ping pricing structure. Hope-fully, this re-pricing fixes that rather unfortunate decision.

Despite the price reduc-tion, the Subaru XV gets all of the tech and none of the short cuts. It’s still offered with the same 2.0-liter 4-cylinder Boxer engine with 150 horse-power and 198 Nm of torque mated to a fuel-efficient Lin-eartronic CVT transmission. Furthermore, it comes with

220 mm of ground clear-ance and of course, Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive System. Safety doesn’t take a back seat either as the even the price-adjusted Subaru XV comes with 6 airbags, an-ti-lock brakes, and stability control all as standard equip-ment.

Finally, in case you’re wondering, the 2.0i-Premi-um (the offending model that overlaps its price with the Forester) also gets a price reduction. The new price is P 1,378,000. That’s P 20,000 cheaper than even the Forest-

er 2.0i-L. Now, it’s all making sense.

Here’s the catch: the new pricing is only applicable if you PAY IN CASH; if you’re getting that Subaru XV of yours via financing, tough luck. Still, it’s the thought that counts, right?

Still fancy a Subaru XV? Head over to any of Suba-ru’s dealerships nationwide: Greenhills, Global City, Al-abang, and Manila Bay for Metro Manila; Batangas and Santa Rosa for Luzon; Cebu for Visayas; Cagayan de Oro and Davao for Mindanao.

Monster Jam goes to PH

Subaru XV gets a price adjustmentON May 12, 2015, Isuzu

Philippines Corpo-ration (IPC) officially

awarded the winner of the P100,000 cash rebate for the 100,000th unit owner of the Isuzu Crosswind - the winner, a lucky family man from Cagayan De Oro City, Mr. Nestor A. Bagaporo, who together with his family re-ceived the award at IPC’s local dealership in CDO.

Present during the award-ing is IPC Vice President for Sales, Mr. Daisuke Inaba, Isu-zu CDO President and Gener-al Manager, Mr. Frank Rolida and Isuzu CDO Asst. General Manager and Sales Manager, Mr. George Ongchua.

“The Crosswind is now more than 100,000 units strong and in such momen-tous event like this, we would like to show our apprecia-tion to our customers.” said Mr. Inaba. “The Philippines is among the few countries worldwide that sell this mod-el and we are proud it is well received by the Filipinos.” added Inaba.

It all came as surprise for the 59 year old Bagaporo, as there was no official an-nouncement that IPC will be giving away cash rebate to the lucky owner of the 100,000th unit.

A retired security per-

sonnel, Mr. Bagaporo worked hard early in his life and now manages his own security agency operating in CDO. He himself is admitted that he does not know how to drive a 4-wheel vehicle and that he hires a personal driver to drive his family around the city.

Accustomed only with his motorcycle, Mr. Bagaporo has always dreamt of own-ing his own 4-wheel vehicle someday. And when the time comes that he can finally afford to buy one, he chose want he think is the best for his family, the 2015 Isuzu Crosswind.

“I prefer the Crosswind because of its over-all appear-ance. I also like that you can easily fit in the whole family – its spacious and very con-venient.” said Bagaporo. “The cash rebate that we received today will be added to the family’s savings. Our heartfelt thanks to Isuzu Philippines and Isuzu Cagayan De Oro for this surprise blessing.” he added.

Aside from the cash re-bate, IPC also gifted OFW and graduating student buyers with a P10,000 worth of Ger-ry’s grill gift certificates last month which is on top of the on-going outright P75,000 cash discount upon purchase.

Isuzu Philippines rewards 100,000th Crosswind owner

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 15SPORTSEDGEDAVAO

PERSISTENCE paid off for Alyssa Valdez and the young PLDT squad, turn-

ing back league power Army, 25-22, 18-25, 24-26, 28-26, 15-13, to lift the V-League Open Conference crown on Sunday at The Arena in San Juan.

Never allowing frustration to set in when it seemed the tough Army defense had them figured out, Gretcel Soltones and Jaja Santiago came up with the huge hits for PLDT as Valdez was temporarily shut down.

Valdez did manage to get her power spikes across in the early goings, but sporadical-ly, as Army constantly threw three blockers at her. Even when facing just two blockers, the league MVP quite a few times had to settle for offspeed shots, which the Lady Troopers also seemed to have solved.

Then Valdez came out fir-ing when Army seemed to for-get about her, the league MVP chalking up the final two points

of the fourth set before the Ul-tra Fast Hitters recovered from a 0-3 fifth-set deficit to capture the crown.

Tied at 13 in the fifth set, Suzanne Roces scored on a quick set before Santiago fin-ished off the match on a tip, set-ting off the frenzied celebration on court as spectators threw cardboard fans that were given away at the start of the match.

Santiago’s patience and smart play also did not go un-noticed, and she was named MVP of the finals.

It was a disappointing end to the campaign of Philippine Army, which won the open-er only tro drop the next two matches of the best-of-three series.

The Lady Troopers were also one set away from a back-to-back Open Conference title after winning the third set, 26-24, averting a comeback try by the Ultra Fast Hitters. Phil-ippine Army was also leading 21-19 in the fourth set.

FILIPINO challenger Milan Melindo failed in his bid to wrest the International

Boxing Federation (IBF) light flyweight title after losing a sixth round technical decision against reigning champion Javier Mendoza Sunday (Ma-nila time) in Baja California, Mexico.

The 12-round bout went to the scorecards after the 24-year-old champion was deemed not fit to continue fighting after suffering a cut from an alleged accidental headbutt.

Mendoza led in all of the judges’ cards when the fight

came to a stop, 59-53, 60-52, 60-52.

It was another heart-breaker for the 27-year-old Melindo, who also lost in his first attempt at a world cham-pionship in 2013 by dropping a unanimous decision against Juan Francisco Estrada for the World Boxing Organization (WBO) flyweight title.

The Filipino fell to 32-2, with 12 KOs.

Mendoza successfully re-tained his belt in his first de-fense of the title he won over Ramon Garcia Hirales. He im-proved his record to 24-2-1, with 19 KOs.

ALTHOUGH the Philippines is the overwhelming fa-vorite, head coach Tab

Baldwin doesn’t want to take any chances and is risk embar-rassment for the Gilas cadets in the Southeast Asian Games.

Winners of the SEA Games basketball competition 11 out of the 12 times, Gilas is heavily fa-vored to improve that mark.

The Philippines’ strength in the Southeast Asian region was once again re-affirmed earlier this month when the country captured the 11th Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) Championship title by a winning margin of 68.4 points.

But Baldwin said they sim-ply can’t take things lightly in the SEA Games.

“It only takes a very poor performance on our part, and the opponent having a great game. Then, all of a sudden, you’re embarrassed,” said Bald-win in an interview with Sports

PLDT star Alyssa Valdez hits a spike in this bit of action in the Shakey’s V League Finals last Sunday. Valdez flew back to Manila after playing in a charity match in Davao last Friday to suit up for PLDT in the finals.

LIMBERING UP. Jia Morado of the Ateneo Lady Eagles limbers up prior to the Heartstrong Charity game at the USEP Gym last Friday. Lean Daval Jr.

SEA GAMES PREVIEW

PH five seek defense of SEA Games cage title

Alyssa keys PLDT title win

Melindo loses title bid

Valdez, however, bounced back from a flat fourth set, scor-ing two points on kills follow-ing a 26-26 tie to send the game into the fifth set to the delight of the PLDT fans although the celebration turned a bit ugly as they threw the cardboard give-ways to centercourt.

After a hot start in the fifth set, Philippine Army commit-ted costly errors that allowed PLDT Home Ultera to close in before another Valdez hit put them ahead 13-10.

Radio 918.The Philippines begins its

campaign in the men’s basket-ball competition on June 10 against Indonesia in Group A play. They will also play Malay-sia and Timor Leste with the top two teams in each group advanc-ing to the semifinals.

Baldwin said he sees Seaba

runner-up Malaysia, Singapore, and possibly Indonesia as the teams that could give the Phil-ippines a tough time in the SEA Games.

“Malaysia and Singapore, those two teams probably rep-resent the upper tier along with us. Depending on how they will strengthen their roster, Indone-sia could also lift be at their level,” said Baldwin.

The Philippines recently had to make a minor change to the squad, inserting Baser Amer and Prince Rivero for Bobby Ray Parks and Arnold Van Opstal. They will be joined by some of the finest amateur players in the country in Kiefer Ravena, Scot-tie Thompson, Mac Belo, Troy Rosario, Jiovani Jalalon, Almond Vosotros, Norbert Torres, Kevin Ferrer, and Glenn Khobuntin.

Just for good measure, nat-uralized player Marcus Douthit has also been lined up for the SEA Games.

DESPITE not being named in the initial list of sports for SEA Games 2015, box-

ing was eventually inducted into the final 36. It certainly would have been disappointing to many had boxing been left out, given its history as one of the original sports from the inaugu-ral SEAP Games in 1959.Barriga and Suarez opt out

Fans of reigning Southeast Asian champions Mark Antho-ny Barriga (light flyweight) and Charly Suarez (lightweight) from the Philippines will have to wait till the next edition of the Games to catch the duo, as both have voluntarily relinquished their positions for a greater goal: to participate in the AIBA Pro Boxing League and increase their chances of qualifying for the Rio Olympics in 2016. Ini-

tially a decision that faced oppo-sition from many, including the Philippines Olympic Committee, the choice has since been ac-cepted.

The Association of Boxing Alliances is confident that their replacements are more than adequate to defend Philippines’ title at the SEA Games, and that this move will allow their best boxers to scale greater heights.Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar wait in line

Fellow heavyweight Thai-land will look to capitalize on the absences of Suarez and Barriga, in order to improve on their seven-gold haul from the last Games. Thai fans still hold fond memories from the 2007 SEA Games, when their boxing team swept home all but one of the gold medals up for grabs.

Thailand will expect competition from Indonesia, whose expo-nents did well enough to make the quarterfinals cut in the AIBA World Women’s Boxing Cham-pionships recently. Meanwhile, fighters from Myanmar will look to build on the two gold med-als they nicked from 27th SEA Games held on home soil.Odds stacked against Singa-pore and Timor Leste

Host nation Singapore’s quest for a gold medal in boxing will fall largely on 26-year old Muhammad Ridhwan Ahmad. Both Ridhawn and compatri-ot Muhammad Solihin Nordin managed to clinch bronze med-als in the Men’s Lightweight and Featherweight categories respectively at the 2013 SEA Games. However, Singapore has not won a gold medal since 1985.

Boxing: Absence of Barriga,Suarez affect PH chances

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 201516 EDGEDAVAOSports

A POSITION-by-po-sition look at the matchups in the

NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers:

CENTER: Andrew Bo-gut vs. Timofey Mozgov. Mozgov, who could be-come the first Russian to win an NBA title, made his Cavs debut in a Jan. 9 loss to Golden State, and his acquisition from Denver was one of the catalysts for Cleveland’s turnaround. He provides valuable de-fense and rebounding, as does Bogut, the former No. 1 overall pick from Australia who has had to tangle with Marc Gasol and Dwight Howard in the last two rounds. Edge: Even.

POWER FORWARD: Draymond Green vs. Tristan Thompson. The versatile Green was run-ner-up for Defensive Player of the Year, is averaging 14 points and 10.8 rebounds in the postseason, and can be a frequent option to de-fend LeBron James. But if the Warriors do that they would need to figure out what to do against Thomp-son, who stepped in when Kevin Love was lost to a shoulder injury and has been a force on the offen-sive boards while shooting 59 percent. Edge: War-riors.

SMALL FORWARD: Harrison Barnes vs. LeB-ron James. Four wins from delivering a long-awaited title for his home team, James nearly averaged a triple-double in the confer-ence finals and has stepped up his game with Love out and Kyrie Irving hurting. He’s shooting just 17.6 per-cent from 3-point range, but he tied his season best with four 3-pointers when he scored a season-high 42 points against the Warriors on Feb. 26. Barnes, one of multiple options the War-riors have to defend James, scored 24 points in the Game Five clincher against Houston in the West finals. Edge: Cavaliers.

SHOOTING GUARD: Klay Thompson vs. Iman Shumpert. Thompson was diagnosed with a concus-sion after getting kneed

in the head in Game Five against the Rockets and will have to pass through the NBA’s concussion pro-tocol before the All-Star guard can be cleared to return. Shumpert, who has played well since stepping into the lineup when J.R. Smith was suspended to start the second round, is a solid defender who could get plenty of turns against Stephen Curry. Edge: War-riors.

POINT GUARD: Ste-phen Curry vs. Kyrie Irving. Curry has followed his MVP season by averaging 29.2 points in the playoffs while shooting 43.7 per-cent from 3-point range. He started in the US backcourt at last year’s Basketball World Cup alongside Ir-ving, who was MVP of that tournament and the 2014 All-Star Game. He arrives at the NBA Finals hoping to overcome knee and foot injuries that sidelined him for two games in the con-ference finals, and if he can, this is an electric matchup. Don’t forget, Irving had the NBA’s two highest-scoring games this season, with 57 and 55 points. Edge: War-riors.

RESERVES: Andre Ig-uodala, Festus Ezeli, Le-andro Barbosa and Shaun Livingston vs. J.R. Smith, Matthew Dellavedova and James Jones. The Warriors probably have the deepest and most versatile bench in the league, with a qual-ity backup at nearly every position. Smith and Della-vedova have been big for Cleveland, but the Cavs don’t go much further than that. Advantage: Warriors.

COACHES: Steve Kerr vs. David Blatt. The rook-ie coaches nearly ended up working together, with Blatt headed to a role as Kerr’s assistant before landing the Cleveland job. A highly successful coach overseas, Blatt has been under scrutiny seemingly from the moment he was hired. It’s been mostly a season-long joy ride for Kerr right into the first matchup of first-year coaches since the very first championship series. Edge: Warriors.

PROVING GROUNDThe NBA Finals: Battle of two MVPs

EVERYBODY’S chasing something as the 2015 NBA Finals approach.

LeBron James is chasing Michael Jordan, judging by the barroom debates, along with a better Finals W-L record -- the Cleveland Cavaliers star is 2-3 at the moment -- and a legacy that might suit him better than “most polarizing player in the NBA today.”

LeBron’s bigger accom-plishment: 2007 or 2015?

Is taking the current Cavs roster to the NBA Finals a bigger accomplishment than taking the ‘07 Cavs there?

Stephen Curry is chasing James, not just in terms of Most Valuable Player awards -- the Golden State Warriors guard trails, 4-1, after capturing the 2014-15 honor -- but as a leader and a champion, someone who can reach this stage time and time again and know in advance what needs to be done.

Multiple Cleveland defend-ers, of course, will be chasing Curry, crowding and pressuring one of the quickest releases and deadliest shots in league histo-ry. And at least as many Golden State players will be chasing James, or banging with him down low, giving up their bodies in hopes of thwarting one of his locomotive drives or pestering him as he shoots into a momen-tary lapse in concentration, hard as that might be to come by.

GAMETIME: DEFENDING LEBRON

Kyrie Irving gives an update on his status for Game 1 and the GameTime crew breakdown what the Warriors will need to do in defending LeBron James.

James and Curry are so different as players, it’s hard to believe the MVP award is e l a s t i c

enough to stretch and fit both of them. Every time James has won it, he has been the NBA’s best player -- but then, most years he hasn’t won it, he’s been the best player too. Curry isn’t nearly as big or as strong, and looks overmatched at times just trying to guard the other fellows who play his position; James can guard all five spots when need-ed.

But Curry had the hot hand and the hot narrative this season -- best player on the best team, pretty much wire to wire -- and that was enough. That’s why he won the award for the first time, while James -- who has finished in the top 10 in balloting all 12 seasons of his pro career, top 5 the past 10 years -- wound up third behind Houston’s James Harden.

Different as they are in size and style, James did find some common ground with Curry -- besides both of them being born in Akron, Ohio -- when asked how Cleveland might cope with the elusive Warrior.

“The same way you slow me down,” James said, his expres-sion deadpan after the Cavaliers’ workout Friday. “You can’t.”

One’s a brick house, the oth-er is more rubber band man -- how else could Curry have sur-vived his nasty spill over Trevor Ariza in Game 4 of the West finals? -- but they’re both MVPs. T w o of the 31 men who

have won the NBA award a total of 60 times. A dozen

of them a r e

multiple winners like James, accounting for 41 trophies. The other 19, like Curry so far, won once.

What we’ll see played out over four to seven games begin-ning with Game 1 Thursday (9 p.m. ET, ABC) -- past or current MVP winners squaring off in the Finals -- isn’t all that rare. It hap-pened the first time it possibly could, with 1956 MVP Bob Pet-tit taking on 1957 winner Bob Cousy in the ‘57 Finals between Boston and St. Louis.

All those Bill Russell-Wilt Chamberlain head-bangings, those bouts of Larry Bird-Mag-ic Johnson one-upsmanship in past Finals were MVP showcas-es, too. There was a dry spell for a while early in this millen-nium, with Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson (the 2001 winner) vs. Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal (2000) in the 2001 Finals as the only such clash from 1999 through 2007.

But since 2008, the Finals have featured dueling MVPs six times, including this year. James vs. Curry (2015 Finals), Tim Duncan (2013, 2014) or Dirk Nowitzki (2011), or Kobe Bryant vs. Kevin Garnett (2008, 2010).

So what does James think of the MVPs won by himself and Curry?

“It all depends how you want to define what an MVP is,” the Cavs star said. “I’ve been fortunate to win the trophy four times, but I’ve been MVP of my team for a long time. Because of the way I lead and the way I ap-proach the game, as far as being professional off the floor. So for me, I’m honored, I’m blessed to be able to have four trophies, but I don’t need to have a tro-phy to understand what

being an MVP r e a l l y

means.”That said, James thinks

Curry was a deserving winner. More than that, he agreed with the suggestion that the Warriors guard, who was the top vote get-ter for this year’s All-Star Game, is an emerging face of the league.

“Steph is great for our league,” James said. “The way he approaches, not only on the floor but off the floor. A beauti-ful family and everything. That wouldn’t be bad at all for our league if they want to model it behind him.”

James has been an admirer of Curry since the younger man was fresh out of high school and headed for Davidson College, modest roots for an NBA MVP. James saw Curry play in a few tournament games, loved his “motor” and his ability to shoot the ball equally well on catches or off the dribble.

“I’m very good at noticing talent,” James said. “I thought he was special then. Obviously he is now still.”

The thing is, so is James. He’s unwilling to yield anything to Curry or his teammates, and he definitely isn’t inclined to defer in their chase of the Bill Russell Award, which gets pre-sented to the MVP of the Finals. James holds a 2-0 edge on Curry on that one, claiming it along with his rings in 2012 and 2013.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 43 • TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015

A position-by-positionlook at the NBA Finals

THE MATCH UP

BATTLE OF MVPs. Lebron James (left) of Cleveland and Stephen Curry (right) of Golden State.