Edge Davao 9 Issue 19

P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO

GENSETS NOWIN SAMAL IS.VM Al David Uy: Supply contract covers 10 yrs.

VM PAOLO: EXPELDISLOYAL MEMBERSPulong wants Hugpong membersnot supporting Bello epelled

DAVAO City Vice May-or Paolo Z. Duterte askedofficials of lo-

cal political party Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod to re-move all members who are not supporting the par-ty’s candidate.

The Vice Mayor yes-terday issued a statement after majority of the ba-rangay officials in the third district who are also mem-bers of the local party have thrown their support to a candidate who is not a member of the party.

The vice mayor is re-ferring to Alberto Ungab, brother of incumbent third

district representative Isidro Ungab, who is run-ning in the third district against the party’s official candidate councilor Karlo S. Bello.

In an interview with EDGE Davao yesterday, Paolo said he sent a let-ter to Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod secretary general lawyer Jesus Melchor V. Quitain yesterday after-noon asking to expel the barangay officials from the party as those who do not follow the party’s endorse-ment are not respecting the laws of the party.

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO [email protected]

By ANTONIO M. AJERO

EIGHT giant modular gen-erating sets from the Min-doro Grid Corporation

arrived yesterday to end the powerless days, running for the 12th straight day yester-day, in the Island Garden City of Samal. This was announced by IGaCoS Vice Mayor Al David Uy who told newsmen that the people of the city, includ-ing business establishments, could have easily lost P50 mil-lion to P60 million a day due to the total lack of electricity in the island.

He said the “conservative estimate” of the daily losses was based on the fact that IGa-

CoS has a population of 95,000 who had to buy everything, including potable water, due to the prolonged power out-ages, and the additional costs that companies had to incur while doing business in the island. The additional expens-es would include purchase of generating sets by business firms.

Vice Mayor Uy said the Mindoro Grid and the Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco) earlier signed an agreement for the company to provide the modular gen-sets for at least 10 years, while Daneco is looking for ways

to rehabilitate or replace the 30-year-old submarine elec-tric cable between the island and mainland Davao. The ca-ble was destroyed when MV Ecuador, an interisland vessel dropped anchor on the cable dragged and destroyed it in the process, cutting electrical sup-ply to the island last March 17.

IGaCoS City Councilor Dan Gervacio, chairman of the city council energy committee, said the eight Mindoro firm gensets will provide a total of 8 mega-watts, sufficient for the need of IGaCos which is only 6.7 MW during peak hours and 3.8 MW during daytime.

“We have made our own due diligence on Mindoro Grid firm and we have no reason to doubt its integrity and capabil-ity to fulfill it service contract with Daneco,” the vice mayor said.

Councilor Gervacio said that the ship carrying the mod-ular gensets arrived in Davao City yesterday and was expect-ed to proceed to Samal Island shortly.

Gervacio said that tem-porary station of the gensets will be in Barangay Caliclic near the AC Quiboloy Beach while its permanent station in

FVM PAOLO, 10F GENSETS, 10

TRIBUTE TO PARENTS. A grandmother kisses her grandson while the graduates offer a song as tribute to their parents in a graduation ceremony held at Fil-Asian Mission Academy, Inc. in Garcia Heights, Bajada yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 20162 EDGEDAVAO

NEWS

REP. Jose L. Atienza, Jr. (Party-list, BUHAY) has filed a bill compelling

international airlines to play Philippine folk music in their sound system immediately upon arrival in the Philip-pines.

In House Bill 5998, Atien-za said such practice is being done by different countries worldwide such as Hawaii, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thai-land where they have suc-cessfully utilized their own

music, songs and dances, leaving tourists going home with a better appreciation of their respective countries’ arts and culture.

Atienza said the proposal is intended as part of a more effective tourism promotion program in the country.

Likewise, Atienza pro-posed that Philippine music should be played in all public areas like tourist attractions, tourist buses and business

TO mitigate the effects of droughts and other nat-ural calamities, the tan-

dem of PDP-LABAN standard bearer and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and running mate Senator Alan Peter Cay-

etano will work to extend the government’s crop insurance program should they emerge victorious in the May 9 elec-tions.

The two also vowed to implement a non-collateral

credit fund for agri-workers to help them cope with the ill effects of extreme weather phenomena.

Cayetano made this pledge during a recent visit to Bacolod City’s sugar cane

workers.Among the concerns

raised by workers is the lack of alternative livelihood, par-ticularly during off-season or in times of calamities when

THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is still verifying reports that 10

crew members of a Taiwan-ese tugboat were reportedly kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) while passing off Tawi-Tawi waters.

“The AFP through the

WMC (Western Mindanao Command) has received initial information on the missing crewmen of a certain foreign owned vessel in the Zambasul-ta area. We could not yet con-firm this information and at the moment, in the process of validating it,” AFP spokesper-

son Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said.

“We shall issue a state-ment once there is certainty that the said incident actually occurred. In the meantime, all our forces are on alert ready to assist if necessary and help as-certain the incident,” he added.

Reports claimed that the privately-owned tugboat had just come from Indonesia and headed for Manila when at-tacked by the bandits.

The tugboat was found moored at Languyan Island, Tawi-Tawi province on Sunday. (PNA)

THE Philippine Air Force (PAF) will continue its operation to put off the

fire in Mt. Apo today.Davao del Sur Provincial

Risk Reduction Management officer Harry Chester Camoro told EDGE Davao yesterday that the Huey helicopter of the air force will start pouring buckets of water by 6:00 a.m. to stop the possible fire out-break in the afternoon.

“We will go early because we are expecting good visibil-ity around 6 or 7 a.m.,” he said.

Camoro said the operation of the air force yesterday only lasted for four hours because of poor visibility.

“The operation was stopped because there was a threat of rain but it did not come. Now the mountain is now covered with fog,” he said.

Camoro said the water

pouring operation of the he-licopter started around 9:00 a.m. yesterday and ended around 1:00 p.m., releasing a total of 13 buckets of water in the activity. He said each bucket has 1000 liters capacity each.

He said the Davao del Sur government has already made a fire line in the Sta. Cruz area to prevent the spread of the blaze.

Camoro said as of 3:00 p.m. yesterday, there was still smoke seen in the area of Sta Cruz which prompted his team to raise its alertness level.

“Part of our strategy is to make a fire line to save the ar-eas of Sta. Cruz, Kapatagan and Mt. Talomo of Davao City,” he said.

He said the fire has already damaged a total of 350 hect-ares in the Mt. Apo area.

Air Force uses chopper to stop Apo fire spreadTHE Davao City council

approved another sup-plemental budget for the

salary adjustment of city gov-ernment employees and offi-cials.

In yesterday’s regular ses-sion, the city council passed on first reading Supplemen-tal Budget No. 2 for this year. This after councilor Danilo C. Dayanghirang, chairman of the committee on finance, ways and means, and appropria-tions, moved to consider his privilege speech to be referred to his committee for immediate discussion.

“I received a transmittal from City Hall signed by Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte about the adjustment of the salaries and wages of the city employees,” he said.

Dayanghirang said the sal-ary adjustment will be for the regular employees, appointed

and elected city officials.Since the salary adjustment

became effective last January, this year, he said a committee hearing needs be conducted immediately due to its urgency.

Based on the certification issued by the local finance com-mittee (LFC), there is P203.112 million available fund for the purpose

The available fund came from the reversions and sav-ings from the previous year’s budget.

Of the total available fund, P163.169 million came from the savings of the general fund, P33.544 million from the de-velopment fund and P6.369 million from the economic en-terprise.

The document of appro-priation is yet to be finalized during future committee hear-ings. ARMANDO B. FENEQUI-TO JR.

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO [email protected]

Duterte-Cayetano to extend gov’t crop insurance program

AFP verifying report of Abu Sayyaf abduction of Taiwanese tugboat crew

Dads okay SB2 on first reading

Bill requires airlines to play Pinoy music upon arrival in PH

NO PANSIN. Students walk pass election campaign posters of local and national candidates along a sidewalk in Bo. Pampanga yesterday. Campaign season for local candidates officially started on Sunday. Lean Daval Jr.

F DUTERTE, 10F BILL, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 3NEWSEDGEDAVAO

FORMER President and incumbent Manila may-or Joseph Ejercito “Erap”

Estrada on Monday endorsed the presidential bid of Senator Grace Poe, daughter of his best friend the late Fernando Poe Jr.

Estrada made his an-nouncement during his local party’s proclamation rally attended by an estimated 20,000 orange-clad support-ers at the Liwasang Bonifacio.

”Mga kasama, mga kai-bigan palakpakan po natin ang aking inaanak at susunod na pangulo ng Pilipinas, walang iba kundi si Grace Poe,” Estra-da said in introducing Poe to the cheering supporters.

In his endorsement speech, Estrada described Poe as a woman with talent and heart, a daughter of his best friend, a mother, a wife and a Filipina.

”Her father never left me. How can I leave her? A daugh-ter of king and queen of the Philippine movie, you know already? Who is the king? Fer-nando Poe Jr. and who is the queen? Susan Roces,” he told the crowd.

Before endorsing Poe, two other presidential candidates Vice President Jejomar Binay and Davao City Rodrigo Dute-rte reportedly approached Es-trada with the hopes of getting the support of the still popular former President.

In her response speech, Poe thanked her ‘godfather’ Estrada for endorsing her can-

didacy.”Ninong maraming

salamat po sa inyong pagen-dorso sa akin. Nakakataba po talaga ng puso. Alam ko ito ay isang desisyon na pinagisipan ninyong mabuti. Alam kong mahal ninyo ang aking ama pero alam ko na ang mga de-cision na ganito ay para rin sa bayan,” Poe replied.

Poe promised that she will not fail her godfather, saying “it would be a great honor to have a support from someone who loved so much by the peo-ple and who loved our coun-trymen.”

”Si Erap ang isang pinuno na kung saan kinakatawan ang ating ordinaryong mamayan. Si erap ay nakakaramdam, na-kikiisa sa inyo, hindi manhid, naiintindihan kayo, yan din an gaming isulong: isang gobyer-no na nakakaramdam sa inyo mga sulirinanin, na mag-bibigay ng isang agarang solu-tion para sa inyo,” Poe said.

Poe promised to the peo-ple of Manila that she will push for free lunch in all public schools and free tuition fee in the government universities and colleges.

”Muli sa aking minahal na ninong, maraming salamat sa inyong pagpili sa akin. Alam ko hindi nagging madali at dasal ko na hindi ko kayo pap-ahiyain, na gagawin ko ang lahat para naman maitaas ang ala-alala ng aking ama at mat-ulungan ang masang Filipino,”

THE forest fire contin-ues to affect large areas of Mt. Apo as govern-

ment and other stakeholders pooled resources to prevent further spread towards Talo-mo mountain range in Davao City and Davao del Sur areas.

The affected area is now estimated at 300 hectares.

Maj. Ezra Balagtey, offi-cer-in-charge of the Eastern Mindanao Command Pub-lic Information Office, said a large portion of the fire is

within North Cotabato, al-though a fireline has already been established as a means to control the spread of the fire.

Balagtey said the assess-ment also showed large por-tion of the fire is now within Talomo Mt. Range and Davao del Sur.

The damage assessment was conducted on Monday after the Tactical Operations Group (TOG) 11 together with personnel from Davao

del Sur Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRMMC) took an aerial view of Mt. Apo.

Another reconnaissance for possible conduct of heli bucket was conducted using the Huey rescue helicopter from central command in Cebu City.

Last night, a joint PDRRMC meeting of North Cotabato and Davao Del Sur was held at the Incident Command Post of PDRRMC-

North Cotabato in Lake Agco, Illumavis, Kidapawan City, North Cotabato. They have yet to determine the cause of fire.

Agencies have planned out to contain the fire, while other stakeholders such as mountaineering groups and IP communities.

The fire in Mt. Apo start-ed Saturday afternoon at the peak and spread downhill to-wards the Kapatagan area in Davao del Sur. (PNA)

Mt Apo forest fire affects NorCot, Davao del Sur, Talomo Mt Range

Erap picks Grace

OUSTER DEMAND. Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte tells

reporters yesterday he will respect the decision of his sister former Mayor

Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio supporting incumbent third district representative

Isidro Ungab’s brother Alberto as her congressional candidate in the third district over the Hugpong sa

Tawong Lungsod’s bet councilor Karlo S. Bello. Paolo later on submitted a

letter to Hugpong secretary general lawyer Jesus Melchor V. Quitain

recommending the removal of the barangay officials in the third district who are supporting Ungab instead of

Bello. Armando B. Fenequito Jr.

F ERAP, 10


SUBURBIA

THE Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will be one of

the two areas in the country that will receive Vote Count-ing Machines (VCM) early as compared to other areas, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

Commissioner Sheriff Abas, who was here over the weekend, said ARMM and Batanes province will receive VCMs, the machine that will be used during election day, that will be distributed to the re-gion at least two weeks earlier.

”This is because of the fact that the region is composed of island municipalities that needs enough time for the de-livery of election machines,” Abas told reporters.

Abas also announced that public school teachers who will act as board of election in-spectors on the use of VCM will be retrained.

This after the Supreme Court directed the poll body to issue voters’ receipts on elec-tion day.

Abas said the teachers have been trained but with the new Comelec directive, they will undergo another set of training sessions, especially on the issuance of voters’ receipts.

It is needed due to issu-ance of voters’ receipt, as the casting of vote time has been adjusted from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. until 5 p.m.

”There is really a need for the teachers to be retrained,” Abas said.

Nationwide, the prepa-rations as far as operation of VCM was about 90 percent but with the new ruling, the poll body starts back to zero.

The poll body will be us-ing 92,000 VCM nationwide. The ARMM, composed of the provinces of Maguindanao, La-nao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, will receive its VCM from Comelec Manila in April and will be kept for safekeep-ing by the VCM provider.

Abas said the early distri-bution has been decided since ARMM has many island mu-nicipalities and villages that would be difficult to reach.

Meanwhile, police and military officials met here to continue assessing the peace and order situation of provinc-es and municipalities as cam-paign period starts.

Lawyer James Jimenez, Comelec spokesperson, has repeated its appeal for the lo-cal candidates to display cam-paign materials to Comelec designated common poster areas.

In ARMM, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have started remov-ing posters and propaganda materials posted on trees, parks and plants through its “Oplan Baklas (remove)” team.

At the same time, DENR-ARMM Regional Sec. Kahal Kedtag repeated its appeal to supporters of local candidates to spare the trees and display campaign materials in desig-nated areas only. (PNA)

GOVERNMENT troops have arrested a leader of a kidnap-for-ransom-

group (KFRG) in the province of Zamboanga Sibugay, a mil-itary official announced Tues-day.

Maj. Filemon Tan, West-ern Mindanao Command (Westmincom) information officer, identified the arrested KFRG leader as Esmael Pingli alias Tago Pingli.

Tan said Pingli was ar-rested by the troops of the Ar-my’s 102nd Infantry Brigade around 1:15 p.m. Monday along the highway between the municipalities of R.T. Lim and Tungawan, Zamboanga

Sibugay.Tan said the troops were

conducting checkpoints when then spotted and arrested Pingli, who has standing war-rants of arrest for kidnapping and illegal detention.

He said Pingli was in-volved in many kidnapping incidents here in the Zambo-anga Peninsula the previous years.

He said among the inci-dent Pingli was involved was the kidnapping of a local busi-nessman, Inocente Bautista.

Bautista was kidnapped on May 27, 2008 in Barangay Tetuan and was released on June 9 of the same year. (PNA)

AN outlawed Moro armed group has been manufacturing impro-

vised explosive devices aimed at killing or wounding com-batants and non combatants alike in Maguindanao and nearby provinces, the military here said today.

It was clearly evident when the Army’s 6th Infantry “Kampilan” Division through its Task Force Central present-

ed to the media on Monday various improvised explosive devices (IEDs) recovered, dis-posed and defused by Army bomb experts.

Capt. Joann Petinglay, speaking for Task Force Cen-tral, said the IEDs were manu-factured and dispersed by the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

The Geneva-banned war materials were recovered

during the more than one month operations against the BIFF in Datu Salibo, Maguind-anao.

It started when the out-lawed group torched two heavy equipment of a private construction company dredg-ing portions of the town for the flood control project.

When the Army respond-ed, a full blown shooting war erupted and lasted until mid-

March, leaving five soldiers killed and 35 others injured, mostly by IEDs.

Civilians near the clash area claimed more than 50 BIFF were killed in the oper-ation but the Army would not confirm nor deny the report.

But an Army junior officer said the number of fatalities could be that high since the Army used air and ground

AN improvised bomb explosion has de-stroyed a classroom of

a school in Lamitan City, Bas-ilan, a police official disclosed Tuesday.

Senior Insp. Gean Gal-lardo, Lamitan City police chief, disclosed the incident took place around 7:20 p.m. Monday at the Dangkalan El-ementary School.

Gallardo said while there

was no casualty, a classroom of the said school was de-stroyed in the explosion.

Gallardo said that per-sonnel of the Explosive Ord-nance Disposal (EOD) have recovered parts of an impro-vised bomb at the blast site.

He said they are conduct-ing thorough investigation to establish the identity of the suspects as well as the motive of the incident. (PNA)

Troops arrest KFRG leader in Zamboanga Sibugay

Army presents 64 IEDs after operation against BIFF

Batanes, ARMM to getVCM weeks before pollsRye Glen Trinidad, head of the Mindanao Mountaineers Federation (in khaki polo) briefs members of the Bureau of Fire Protection on the Mount Apo trails

in Barangay Kapatagan, Digos City in Davao del Sur on Monday, March 28, 2016. The fire started at the peak last Saturday afternoon. MindaNews photo by TOTO LOZANO

POLICE authorities have tightened security in four remote villages in Koro-

nadal City in line with the start of the local campaign period for the May 9 elections.

Supt. Barney Condes, Koronadal City police chief, said Tuesday they have placed Barangays Cacub, Topland, San Jose and Esperanza under heightened alert due to the reported sightings of armed elements.

“We’re closely monitoring the situation in these areas to avert possible security-related

problems in the run-up and during the election day,” he said in a radio interview.

The official said they are specifically focusing their se-curity operations in Sitio Sta. Barbara in Barangay San Jose that is considered as among the remotest communities in Koronadal City.

He said the area is not quite accessible and might pose some problems during the polls.

Sitio Sta. Barbara could only be reached so far through an alternative route in an adja-

cent municipality, he said.The village is close to Koro-

nadal City’s boundary area with Columbio and Lutayan towns in Sultan Kudarat and Tampakan in South Cotabato.

The mountains of Tam-pakan and Columbio hosts a guerrilla front of the New People’s Army that had been blamed over several attacks in the area these past years.

“These armed groups don’t necessarily stay in our area but they regularly pass by there and it’s a serious concern for local residents,” he said.

Condes assured that they are currently on top of the sit-uation and making the neces-sary moves to ensure that up-coming polls in the area will be smooth, peaceful and orderly.

He said their security plan for the May 9 elections had long been in place as man-dated by Philippine National Police central office and the Police Regional Office 12.

“We’ve been taking this matter seriously and we will not stop until we effectively address or resolve it,” he add-ed. (PNA)

Alert up in 4 Koronadal villages due to sightings of armed men

THE Commission on Elec-tions (Comelec) in South Cotabato has activated a

team that will lead the remov-al of illegally-posted campaign materials in the area.

Lawyer Kendatu Lagui-alam, Comelec-South Cotaba-to provincial supervisor, said Tuesday the team is com-posed of personnel from the Comelec, South Cotabato Pro-vincial Police Office and the Department of Public Works and Highways.

He said the move is in line with the commencement over the weekend of the campaign

period for local candidates in the May 9 elections.

Comelec-South Cotabato has jurisdiction over this city and the province’s 10 towns and lone city.

“We’re currently monitor-ing our area for possible viola-tions regarding the posting of campaign materials,” he said.

Laguialam said the team is tasked to immediately launch an “operation baklas” or re-moval of campaign materials if they would find any viola-tion.

Comelec has set specific sizes for campaign posters

and other related materials as well as identified common poster areas within localities.

The move is based on the provisions of Republic Act 9006 or the Fair Elections Act.

Laguialam said they had properly informed candidates regarding the campaign rules and regulations in a series of orientations in the past weeks.

He said all candidates, es-pecially those running for pro-vincial-level posts, have signed covenants declaring that they would obey or abide by the election laws and regulations.

“So far, we don’t have

problems with any of our can-didates when it comes to com-pliance with the Fair Elections Act,” he said.

Laguialam reminded can-didates and political camps to also remind and ensure that their supporters are also com-plying with the campaign reg-ulations.

He said candidates may be held liable later on for viola-tions that might be committed by their supporters.

“It’s important for every-body to strictly follow our elec-tion laws to avoid problems later on,” he added. (PNA)

Comelec-South Cotabato activates ‘baklas team’

Improvised bomb blast hits school in Lamitan

F ARMY, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 5

[email protected] CHENEEN R. CAPON

EDGEDAVAO

ECONOMYGroup presses formation of banana councilKEEPING high hopes

that the next admin-istration will address

strongly the challenges of the multi-billion banana industry, stakeholders will push for the establishment of the National Banana Council dedicated for the development of the sector.

“The Council will focus on the formulation and im-plementation of programs

and projects that will help the growth of the banana industry,” Philippines Ex-porters Confederation (Phil-Export)-Davao president Ferdinand D. Marañon told re-porters at the sidelines of yes-terday’s forum on the region-alization of the Philippines Export Development Plan 2015-2017 at the Microtel by Wyndham- Davao.

Dubbed as one of Min-danao’s economic drivers, the industry has many issues threatening its development, he said.

Among the issues con-fronted by the banana indus-try are the lack of research and development activities, lack of government subsidy for planting materials, tighten-ing global export market, and

regulations of local govern-ment units that undermine the growth of the industry.

Ranked as the second top export product of the country, Philippine bananas, Marañon said, is now threatened by Fusarium Wilt or the Panama disease.

In a separate interview, Department of Agriculture

(DA) 11 focal person Virgelio Gutierrez said the Davao Re-gion alone has already a total of 15,500 hectares planted to bananas affected by the soil-borne disease.

Being the top regional producer and exporter of ba-nana in the country, Davao Region has approximately 22,000 infected mats as of this month. Farms planted with

the granine variety of caven-dish banana along with those planted with the local saba and lakatan varieties are the ones greatly affected by the disease.

Most of the affected plan-tations are located in Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, and Davao City.

THE Davao Light and Power Comapny’s (DLPC) Feed-In Tariff

Allowance (FIT-All) of will increase from P0.0406 to P0.1240 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) starting April 2016,

In a statement, the im-plementation of the FIT-All is pursuant to Section 7 of Republic Act No. 9513, oth-erwise known as the Re-newable Energy Act of 2008 (RE Law). The said bill was established to promote the development, utilization, and commercialization of Renewable Energy Resourc-es.

Last December 2015, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) through an order, provisionally ap-proved an application of the TRANSCO, as fund adminis-trator of the FIT-All, to col-lect an additional P0.0834/

kWh from customers.Similar to the Universal

Charge, the FIT-All is im-posed on all On-Grid elec-tricity consumers supplied with electricity through the distribution or transmission network. The same order from the Commission di-rects all electric distribution utilities, including Davao Light, to effect the imple-mentation of the FIT-All as a separate line item in the customers’ bills and remit the same in accordance with the guidelines.

The impact of the FIT-All to a residential customer whose consumption is 200 kWh per month will be an increase of P16.68 month-ly. As mandated, the said charge is shown as a sep-arate line item in the bill, particularly after Universal Charge.BOILED CORN. A street vendor unhusks boiled corn she sells for P10 per piece at her makeshift store in Bankerohan Public Market yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

F GROUP, 10

DLPC’s FIT-All to increase next month

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 20166

[email protected] CHENEEN R. CAPON

EDGEDAVAOTHE ECONOMY

IN spite of the strong El Niño that has been batter-ing the entire nation since

September last year, the De-partment of Agriculture (DA) is optimistic that only a small percentage decrease in ag-ricultural production will be felt.

From February 2015 to March 2016, some 313,356 hectares of land planted to rice and corn were reportedly affected by the weather phe-nomenon. This was 231,666 hectares less than the affected areas during the 2009-2010 dry spell.

The minimal damage, ac-

cording to agri experts, may be attributed to the prompt distribution of support and assistance, as well as the dis-semination of information to farmers.

DA Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said that farmers knew better now and opted not to plant crops that were most susceptible to drought.

This time, he said, farm-ers grew drought-resistant crops including peanut, mon-go, soybean and sweet potato, which reduced the chances of damage and loss.

At the onset of El Niño, the DA has laid-out adaptation

strategies to cushion the im-pact of the season -- deemed to be the driest and hottest of the year (2015-2016).

These include reinforced irrigation and water manage-ment, as well as intensified pest management and sur-veillance initiatives.

For aquatic resources, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said it had been in full com-mand of monitoring and man-agement activities -- keeping a close watch on all operations for both the fish capture and fish culture subsectors.

Aside from these, the

crop insurance system was enhanced. The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) provides insurance protec-tion to farmers against losses incurred from natural calam-ities, plant diseases and pest infestations.

Under PCIC’s crop insur-ance program for rice, a farm-er may get indemnity ranging from Php 41,000-Php65,000 for the cost of production per hectare.

On top of all of these, the DA has steadily provided seed and vaccine support to the most affected communities.

Meanwhile, cloud seed-

OIL firms increased pump prices of petroleum products on Tuesday to

reflect changes in the interna-tional market.

In separate advisories, Pil-ipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Petron Corp., Seaoil Philip-pines Inc., Phoenix Petroleum Philippines and PTT Philip-pines Corp. hike their gasoline prices by 40 centavos per liter at 6 a.m., March 29.

The oil companies, except Petron, also increased diesel prices by 20 centavos per liter. Petron will only add 15 centa-vos per liter to its current die-sel prices.

Shell, Petron and Seaoil also increased their kerosene prices by 10 centavos per liter.

Diesel prices in Metro Ma-nila currently range from Php

21.25-24.62 per liter, accord-ing to the Department of En-ergy’s oil price monitor. It also has a common price of Php 23.

Gasoline prices also range from Php 33.65-41.35 per liter, while has a prevailing price of Php 38.60 per liter.

Bloomberg reported, citing data from Norwegian consultancy firm Rystad En-ergy, Sunday that old oil wells are expected to surpass fresh sources of oil supply in 2016.

The old oil wells tradition-ally produce less resource than new ones, which will likely re-duce the glut in the world mar-ket that started in 2014.

Major oil-producing coun-tries will also discuss their strategy to curb the fall of oil prices in Doha, Qatar on April 17, 2016. (PNA)

DA sees slight decrease in farm yield despite El Niño

Oil firms hike pump prices

IN a bid to hit the target-ted US$101.5-billion total export value by 2017, the

Bureau of Export Trade Pro-motion (BETP) urges both the public and private sectors to anchor their regional devel-opment plan to the recently unveiled updated Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2015-2017.

Director Senen M. Perlada of the BETP, an attached agen-cy of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said both the private sector, the local government units in Mindan-ao as well as national govern-ment agencies should “be on the same page” on the devel-opment of the export sector.

“The export industry of Mindanao is not quite high but it is competitive,” Perlada said, adding the island is one of the country’s main export-ers of fresh and processed fruits, preserved, processed and fresh fish as well as acti-vated carbon.

Accounting for more than 10 percent of country’s total export value in 2015, Perlada

said, Mindanao ranks third, next only to the National Cap-ital Region and Cebu.

“Mindanao is led by Davao for its banana and IT services, Cagayan de Oro and General Santos for its fish products,” he told reporters at the side-lines of the forum on the regionalization of the PEDP 2015-2017 at the Microtel by Wyndham yesterday.

The PEDP, signed on Feb-ruary 4 last year, contains strategies and approaches aimed at increasing total ex-port by as high as 10.6 per-cent at the end of 2017 from the 0.9 percent slowdown last year.

Perlada said total export in 2015 hit US$86.815 billion, lower than the US$87 billion in 2014. He attributed the decrease to the slowing down of the merchandise export. The setback of the country’s export industry was caused by the decrease in the product and services importation of China and Japan.

Despite the negative growth of the export industry

last year, the DTI set a target of US$94.5 billion total export value this year and US$102.4 billion by the end of next year.

The DTI desires to in-crease both the goods and services sector of the export industry focusing on key and emerging industries by using the four-pronged approach.

One approach that will be undertaken under the plan is to diversify the export markets, while another is “to identify and develop export capabilities in products where global demand is growing fast,” a report said.

The plan will also address the bottlenecks that affect the competitiveness of exports, and finally to harness “the po-tential of goods and services where the Philippines can be competitive but have yet to attain comparative advantage,” said Perlada in the report.

The plan will be imple-menting eight strategies zero-ing in on different industries to achieve its target of increasing exportand reducing poverty, he said.

There will be six key ex-port sectors, selected for their contribution to employment and volume of shipment. These are electronics, processed food and beverage, coconut oil, mo-tor vehicle parts, computer and information services, and other business services.

On the other hand, the oth-er four emerging export indus-tries which have high-potential products are activated carbon, chemicals, metal components, and fresh and preserved fish.

Meanwhile, the European Union-funded Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) Project 3 shelled out 8 million euros for the necessary sup-port in formulating the ap-proved plan.

The regionalization forum, funded by the TRTA Project 3, was attended by more than 200 participants from different LGUs, private sector groups, and national government agencies. The forum aims to cascade “the elements, compo-nents, activities, and programs of the PEDP all the way to the region”.

PHILIPPINE Exporters Confederation (Philex-port) - Davao president

Ferdinand Marañon confirmed that export bananas rejected by China over the weekend came from Davao.

“The information that reached me revealed that the banana was exported by a multi-national banana compa-ny operating here,” Marañon told reporters yesterday. He requested not to name the company.

Marañon speculated that the reported disposal of 35 tons or two containers of ba-nana was more than a port routine procedure as claimed by the Palace but a form of eco-nomic sabotage.

Without naming names, he said the multinational compa-ny which shipped the bananas to China is based in a country which has a territorial dispute with China. Marañon did not elaborate.

However, he said the two containers of Cavendish ba-nanas with the equivalent of 2,700 boxes is too small and is not the first time to happen.

“It is too small a volume compared to the millions of boxes we export every year,” Marañon added.

On the other hand, Director Senen M. Perlada of the Bureau of Export Trade and Promotion (BETP) of the Department of Trade and Industry said the recent disposal of banana was part of the business.

“It’s upon the discretion of the Chinese customs authority to dispose the bananas if they find phytosanitary issues,” Per-lada added. “It is still business as usual.”

Perlada said the rejected shipment could have failed the maximum residue limit test.

The Chinese market, ac-cording to him, was just strictly imposing its customs policy as a respond to the increasing de-mand for bananas.

“The demand for Philip-pine banana is so high now because their own bananas are affected by frost,” he added.

With increasing demand, Perlada said, the high price in the Chinese market is enticing even to those “unscrupulous traders”.

“Some Chinese traders are already doing direct transac-tion here,” he said, adding some foreign buyers are even willing to pay high prices.

“We are constant in our re-minder to be vigilant. We have to avoid shortcuts,” he said. “It is important to undergo the proper process.”

Perlada said the Chinese market is one of the largest ex-port markets for the Philippine banana, second to Japan.

Of the total US$450 million worth of exported Philippine banana last year, 25 percent went to China.

In Davao, the Chinese mar-ket is also one of the primary markets of both the small and multinational banana compa-nies. The increasing buying price is also enticing local ex-porters to ship their banana to China.

Meanwhile, EDGE Davao tried to reach Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Asso-ciation executive director Ste-phen Antig for his comment but he did not respond back to text messages and calls. CHE-NEEN R. CAPON

DTI urges sectors:Use export plan

Marañon confirms rejection of Davao bananas by China

COASTLINE ROAD. Davao City first district councilor John Christopher T. Mahamud asks Mega Harbor representative Antonio Rex Chan on the road network on the proposed 200-hectare Davao Coastline and Port

Development Project which will be built from Bucana going to some portions of R. Castillo Street, Agdao. Armando B. Fenequito Jr.

ing, which is one of the most effective El Niño adaptation strategies, continues to bring in positive results.

In Mindanao, particular-ly in SOCCSKSARGEN, Alcala said he had called for addi-tional hours of sorties, follow-ing a successful series of cloud seeding.

In other parts of the coun-try, cloud seeding operations have already taken off -- re-sulting in scattered rain show-

ers that provided a refreshing break for the arid farmlands.

But more than adaptation, Alcala said, the government continued to look for long-term and permanent solu-tions to the repetitive dilem-ma that is the El Niño.

As the DA dons full battle gear to combat the effects of drought, the nation is encour-aged to take action as well.

As per PAGASA report, El FDA, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 7EDGEDAVAO

ENVIRONMENTClimate changethreatens food production

EVERY night, 490 million people in Asia and the Pacific go to bed hungry,

according to the Asian Devel-opment Bank (ADB). To think, 2.2 billion people in the region rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.

By 2050, the region will be home to 5.3 billion people. By then, 64% of the total pop-ulation are living in the urban areas. To feed the ever grow-ing number of people, 70% increase of the current food production is required.

Climate change is going to make food security prob-lems worse in the region. “In 2050, more than half of ir-rigated rice area in Asia will face 5% to 25% loss due to climate change,” warns the Ma-nila-based development bank.

Asia is not alone though. It will also happen in other parts of the world. “The accelerating pace of climate change, com-bined with global population and depletion of agricultural resources threatens food se-curity globally,” reports the Washington-based Interna-tional Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Global food shortages will become three times more like-ly as a result of climate change, according to a report released by the Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food Sys-tem Resilience.

It has been estimated by the United Nations Environ-ment Program (UNEP) that up to 25% of world food produc-tion could be lost by 2050 as a result of climate change, water scarcity and land degradation.

“Despite the technological advances in the second half of the 20th century, agriculture remains to be one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change,” notes Apple Jean C. Martin in a policy advocacy.

“Climate change is more

Text and Photos by HENRYLITO D. TACIO

“Ten thousand years have passed since the current pleasantly temperate period began, so another sudden shift is overdue. The notion that greenhouse gases could trigger such a rapid change keeps serious scientists up at night… And since scientists today have little understanding of past climate flips, it’s impossible to say when the next one will start.” Gregg Easterbrook in an article, “A Skeptical Guide to Doomsday,” which appeared in Wired

coming a reality, their work and other activities are in jeopardy. “Between 1971 and 2000, mean annual, maximum, and minimum temperatures in the country have increased by 0.14 degrees Centigrade,” said a report released by the Lagu-na-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

The Laguna-based Inter-national Rice Research In-stitute (IRRI) reported that climate change could reduce rice yields. Although its study showed that rice could benefit from higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, an increase in temperature would “nullify any yield increase.”

PCARRD says that about 5%-7% decline in yield of major crops in the country is attributed to climate change. “The yield reduction is caused by heat stress, decrease in sink formation (number of spikelet per unit ground area), short-ening of growing period, and increased maintenance for res-piration,” said the line agency of the Department of Science and Technology.

Since 1980, the Philippines has been experiencing an in-crease in annual mean rainfall, and since 1990, an increase in the number of rainy days. There was also an increase in inter-annual variability of onset of rainfall in the past decades. “This erratic rainfall pattern has greatly affected the planting schedule and other activities of the farmers,” the PCARRD said.

Extreme events – heat waves, drought, and heavy rainfall – have become more frequent. Between 1961 and 1998, there was an increase in hot days and warm nights. There was increased occur-rence of extreme rains causing flash floods, landslides, and inundation of low-lying areas. Droughts normally associated with El Niño became more in-tense.

“All these extreme events caused massive crop failures and damages to agricultural irrigation facilities and in-frastructures,” the PCARRD said. It singled out the 1997-98 El Niño events, which has brought considerable yield de-cline in rice and corn harvests.

This year’s El Niño is set to end by June yet. The De-partment of Agriculture said that drought caused by El Niño could slash first-semesterpa-lay output by 900,000 metric tons and corn production by 500,000 metric tons.

In Maguindanao, as farms

and rivers started to dry up due to the prolonged dry spell, “upland folk in the province have begun foraging for food, even resorting to eating a poi-sonous root crop if only to sur-vive,” Philippine Daily Inquir-er reported.

Water resources are es-pecially vulnerable to climate change. “In a warmer world, we will need more water – to drink and to irrigate crops,” said the London-based Panos Institute. “Water for agricul-ture is critical for food securi-ty,” points out Mark W. Roseg-rant, a senior research fellow at the Washington-based International Food Policy Re-search Institute.

“The link between water and food is strong,” says Lester R. Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute, also based in Washington, D.C. “We drink, in one form or another, nearly 4 liters of water per day. But the food we consume each day requires at least 2,000 liters to produce, 500 times as much.”

Agriculture is by far the biggest consumer of water worldwide. According to IRRI, a farmer needs a thousand gal-lons of water just to raise a ton of rice.

On the other hand, the emissions from burning oil, coal and gas are both heating up the oceans and making them more acidic. That is com-bining to reduce the amount of seafood that can be caught, ac-cording to Ocean-Based Food Security Threatened in a High CO2 World.

“Many fish stocks will suf-fer because their spawning and nursery grounds in coastal mangroves and lagoons will be engulfed by rising sea levels,” the Panos Institute reported. According to some studies, climate change may become a more important threat to ocean fisheries than overfish-ing.

Less fish is bad news for Filipinos as they are among the world’s biggest fish con-sumers. After all, fish provides more than half of the protein requirement of the people. Each year, a Filipino consumes almost 30 kilograms of sea-food.

Meanwhile, the climate gone crazy continues. “Climate change is taking place before our eyes and will continue to do so as a result of the concen-trations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which have risen constantly and again reached new records,” deplored Michel Jarraud, sec-retary-general of the World Meteorological Organization.

expected to suffer the most serious impacts of climate change, and food security, nu-trition and livelihoods will be affected if we don’t act soon,” Gonsalves, senior advisor at the Cavite-based International Institute of Rural Reconstruc-tion, added.

The IFPRI agrees. “Agricul-ture is extremely vulnerable to climate change,” it says. “High-er temperatures eventually re-duce yields of desirable crops while encouraging weed and pest proliferation. Changes in precipitation patterns increase the likelihood of short-run crop failures and long-run pro-duction declines.”

In Asia, the World Bank lists the Philippines as one of the top 12 countries “at high-est risk to climate change.” Droughts, floods, storms, rising sea levels, and greater uncer-tainty in agriculture were the reasons cited why the country was among included in the top list.

Currently, the Philippines is home to more than 100 mil-lion people. It has a total land area of 30 million hectares. “With decreasing land area devoted to agriculture, higher prices of agricultural inputs, lesser people engaging into agriculture and education in agriculture, and now, the ad-vent of climate change, feeding the nation is a huge challenge,” writes Amavel A. Velasco in an article which appeared in BAR Digest of the Bureau of Agricul-tural Research.

The country’s population, according to the Department of Agriculture, is predominant-ly rural (70%) and two-thirds of the population depend on farming for their livelihood. In terms of employment, about one-half of the labor force is engaged in agricultural activ-ities.

With climate change be-

disastrous to the agricultural industry of the Philippines and its neighboring countries than in other parts of the world,” warned Dr. David Street of the US Argonne National Labora-tory.

According to agriculture scientist Julian Gonsalves, ag-

riculture and climate change are closely linked. “Agriculture is part of the climate change problem. However, it is also part of the solution, offering many opportunities for miti-gating GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions,” he told SciDev.Net.

“The agriculture sector is

Less fish

Dry spell

Farmer is trying to save the rice that was flattened by strong wind.

Coral reefs are set to be destroyed as the seawater turns acidic.


VANTAGE

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

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

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EDITORIALPolitical ads masquerading as commercial ads

HERE’S a part of a controversial detergent ad that was posted online last March 22:

“Sabi ni nanay, huwag magnakaw.(Mother said, do not steal.)Sabi ni lola, huwag mangupit.(Grandmother said, do not filch.)Sabi ni tatay, huwag papatay. (Father said, do not kill.)Sabi ni lolo, kung hindi pa handa, ‘wag pilitin. (Grandfather said, if you’re not

ready, don’t force it.)Pero sabi nila may kandidatong magnanakaw. (But they say there’s a candidate

who’s a thief.)May kandidato daw na kupitero. (They say there’s a candidate who takes what

isn’t his.)May kandidato daw na papatay ng tao.(They say there’s a candidate who will kill

people.)Bakit may kandidato na hindi pa handa? (Why is there a candidate who’s unpre-

pared for the job?)Tanong lang po. (We’re just asking.)Sila po ba ang dapat asahan para sa aming kinabukasan? (Are they the right ones

to trust when it comes to our future?)”A commercial ad can be an advocacy and that is an acceptable practice in the

advertising industry. But this ad by a detergent soap, whose owners are reportedly from Capiz and close friend of administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas, has obviously gone beyond the context of an advocacy.

The political undertones and the subjects referred to in the ads are clearly re-

ferring to the political rivals of Roxas for these are well associated with the same campaign lines of the latter.

The online version of the ad has since been taken down as of Thursday evening, March 24. The ad featured four children are seen speaking directly to the camera.

The ad was also aired during the last Commission on Elections (Comelec) pres-idential debate on March 20 and heard over a provincial radio station last week.

While the detergent soap ad doesn’t name any of the 5 candidates in the 2016 presidential elections, it was pretty obvious who it is alluding to—Roxas’ rivals VP Jejomr Binay, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Grace Poe.

It says nothing about Roxas despite criticisms against him during his stint as transportation secretary and later interior chief of President Benigno Aquino III’s administration.

The ad is titled “ACS Advocacy - Tanong TVC” in the brand’s official Facebook page. Despite that label as “advocacy”, the ad does not pass of as a legitimate one mainly for its perceived bias towards Roxas.

The airing of this political ad masquerading as an advocacy ad may fall under the Comelec’s definition of political ads and be charged for airtime spent. However, the technical question is that without Roxas’ name being mentioned in the ad, the Comelec may have to find a ground to allude the same to candidate Roxas.

Labelling the ad as advocacy is clearly a scapegoat by this company, a way out of the possible violation of election laws which prohibit companies from donating to campaigns.

This could be a bad precedent though if left unchecked.

ONCE upon a time, there were three priests who came together in a park. While talking with each oth-

er, they started to reveal their innermost secrets. “I have used the church’s money in building my mother’s house,” bared the first. “Please don’t tell anyone about this.”

“My problem is,” the second revealed, “I have impregnated a beautiful lady. She will deliver our baby soon.” Like the first priest, he urged that it, too, should be kept a secret.

“What about you?” the two asked the third priest.

“Mine is not really that immense,” he said. “I just can’t control my tongue. You see, when I hear some secrets, I can’t help myself but share them to others.”

Among Filipinos, gossiping is one of the favorite pastimes. This is the reason why gossip magazines are very popular. In ad-dition, talk shows that feature some sort of the secrets of famous people are a hit among viewers.

In the olden times, gossip were re-sorted to normalize and re-inforce moral boundaries in a speech-community; fos-ter and build a sense of community with shared interests and information; enter-tain and divert participants in gossip-ses-sions; retail and develop stories and even legends; build structures and social ac-countability; and reflect unvarnished and spontaneous public opinion.

In modern times, however, “gossip” has taken a new level. It simply means “spreading of rumor and misinformation, often through excited conversation over scandals.” Mostly, people don’t admit they are involved in gossip. Someone may say,

“I don’t mean to talk about her, but…” and what comes next is a lita-ny of untruth facts. The more interest-ing the gossip, the more likely it is to be un-true.

S o m e -times, a gossip takes the form of a false sympathy. “I really took pity of my neighbor who is being beaten by her husband once he goes home drunk.” Oth-ers start the conversation with a question: “Is it true that the 17-year-old daughter of our school principal pregnant?”

Gossips have been catalogued in three different types: vest-button type (always popping off), vacuum-cleaner type (always picking up dirt), and liniment type (always rubbing it in). Which of these are very fa-miliar to you?

“Gossip is one of the so-called ‘little’ sins that even Christians are often unable or unwilling to avoid,” said William McEl-roy. “It is, to be sure, a common sin, but can it truly be called ‘little’? Gossip can destroy reputations, disrupt families, divide neigh-bors, and cause widespread heartbreak and all to no purpose except the satisfac-tion that some find in passing on idle or malicious tales.”

There was a time when British states-man Winston Churchill who, in the twilight of his career, attended an official function.

Two dignitaries seated three or four rows behind him, spoke in whispers.

One said: “There’s Churchill. They say he’s failing badly.” The other replied: “So, I’ve heard. They say he’s not only feeble but growing more and more senile.”

As Churchill was leaving at the close of the session, he paused, leaned over to speak to his detractors and said, “They also say he’s hard of hearing.”

“Gossip,” novelist George Elliot once wrote, “is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who dif-fuse it; it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.” Joseph Conrad states: “Gos-sip is what no one claims to like, but every-body enjoys.”

Bestselling author Erica Jong consid-ers gossip as “the opiate of the oppressed.” Sholom Aleichem describes gossip as “na-ture’s telephone.” Walter Winchell has this idea: “Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing un-said.”

But how can you stop someone from gossiping about you? Mildred, the church gossip, and self-appointed monitor of the church’s morals, kept sticking her nose into other people’s business. Of course, several church members did not approve of her extra-curricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence.

She made a mistake, however, when she accused Frank, a new member, of be-ing an alcoholic after she saw his old pick-up parked in front of the town’s only bar one afternoon.

Mildred emphatically told Frank (and several others) that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing!

Frank, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn’t explain, defend, or deny. He said nothing at all.

Later that evening, Frank quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred’s house, walked home, and left it there all night!

To end today’s column, allow me to share a story that was posted in the wall of a friend’s Facebook. It goes this way:

Once upon a time, an old man spread rumors that his neighbor was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later, the young man was proven innocent. After he was released, he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.

In court, the old man told the judge: “They were just comments, didn’t harm any-one…”

The judge, before passing the judgment, told the old man: “Write all the things you said about him in a piece of paper. Cut them up. On the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come here to hear the sentence.”

The following day, the judge told the old man: “Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday.”

The old man said: “I can’t do that! The wind spread them and I won’t know where to find them.”

The judge then replied: “The same way. Simple comments may destroy the honor of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. If you can’t speak well of someone, rather don’t say anything. Let’s all be mas-ters of our mouth, so that we won’t be slaves of our words.”

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

Henrylito D. [email protected]

THINK ON THESE!

FIVE popular, powerful and high-pro-file Filipinos with contrasting socio-economic and moral back-

grounds want to be president of our na-tion and lead one million citizens to the “Promised Land” – Ilocos or Mindanao? They are:

1. Jesus Jose Maria Binay (Jejomar) – A seasoned politician with vast execu-tive experience in public governance; 6-term Makati City mayor; former MMDA Chairman; long-time president of the world’s second biggest youth organization (Boy Scouts); incumbent Vice President of the Philippines.

2. Manuel Araneta Roxas (Mar) – a for-mer senator; former cabinet member (DTI, DOTC and DILG); lost to Binay in the 2010 vice presidential election.

3. Grace Poe-Llamanzares – former Chief of Movie Television Review and Classi-fication Board; topnotcher, 2013 Sen-ate race; very limited or scant govern-ment service; once renounced Filipino citizenship, swore allegiance to Amer-ica but recanted some years later and then reacquired Filipino citizenship

w h e n P r e s -i d e n t N o y n o y appoint-ed her M T R C B C h a i r ; a self-s t y l e d s a v i o r of the poor, she p r o p s herself as political Joan of Arc.

4. Rodrigo Duterte (Digong) – 8-term Davao City mayor; self-styled crime buster; self-confessed lady’s man; nemesis of drug lords, gambling lords, smuggling lords, kidnapping lords, carnapping lords, evil lords.

5. Miriam D. Santiago (Pick-up Line Queen) – Who doesn’t know her, she with an acid tongue? The three-term senator believes that the presidency is only for intelligent, college-degreed, scholarly people. (Like her).

----000-----

Now let me end this light rumbling with a listing of what I call presidentialities – mental, intellectual, moral, emotional, phys-ical attributes which a presidential hopeful should possess. These are:

1. Sanity – a candidate must be of sound mental health. A sane person knows what he can and cannot do. He knows what he doesn’t know. A candidate who promises to eliminate poverty should be dumped in the nearest men-tal dormitory.

2. Vision – a president must be a lead-er with a vision. He has that superior ability to perceive discern things, sit-uations and events. A man of vision knows and sees the future.

3. Political will – it is strong determina-tion, a diligent purposefulness. It is the power to act decisively in spite of opposition, friendly or otherwise. It is an effective tool for meaningful change and reforms.

4. Incorruptibility – Power corrupts, it is said. Many leaders were honest

men until power crushed their moral defenses. The incorruptible leader is strong-willed, God-fearing, and a man of conscience.

5. Honesty – It is still the best policy any-where in the world. Countries that had dishonest leaders are still impover-ished. Honesty is not just about keeping one’s fingers away from the cookie jar. Of greater far-reaching consequence is intellectual honesty. Claiming achieve-ments when there are none is intellec-tual dishonesty. Intellectual honesty is honesty first with yourself, and then with the people you have pledged to serve.

6. Delicadeza – This is one virtue that is almost extinct in our country. It is a strong moral sensitivity which enables an official to demonstrate decency and propriety.

7. High Political IQ – This is fundamental for a political leader. Ignorance or in-adequate knowledge of the science of governance exacts a terrible price. We must take care not to elect a political ignoramus.

Favorite pastime

Who wants to be President?

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 201610 NEWSGENSETS... FROM 1

VM PAOLO... FROM 1

Group... FROM 5

Bill... FROM 2

Duterte... FROM 2 Erap... FROM 2

DA... FROM 6

Dinagat... FROM 14

Army... FROM 4

EDGEDAVAO

Barangay Mambago is being prepared.

Councilor Mike Robledo, head of Task Force Marine Cable formed for the emergen-cy situation, said his group is tasked to see to it that the ship-ping line responsible for the cable destruction will be made to answer for the damage the shipping company done to the island and its people as a result of the damaged cable.

Robledo said upon being notified about the cable disas-ter, Vice Mayor Uy immediate-ly convened the City Council to tackle the emergency situ-ation. As a result, the Council passed three resolutions: first, asking the Daneco and the Na-tional Electrification Adminis-tration and other concerned agencies to act on the problem;

second, asking the city legal office to look into the possi-bility of filing civil or criminal charges against the shipping company; and third, forming a Crisis Management Commit-tee to handle this and similar emergency situations in the future.

Vice Mayor Uy said that the destruction of the sub-marine electric cable had oc-curred twice before, a reason the council years earlier asked Mayor Aniano Antalan to ap-prove a resolution to form a crisis management committee.

He told reporters that the power situation, waterworks system, fire department and security are among the basic priority problems his adminis-tration will immediately tackle once elected city mayor in May.

“I asked the secretary gen-eral to choose either to remove the barangay captains sup-porting other candidates who are not member of the Hug-pong sa Tawong Lungsod spe-cifically in the congress race in third district or accept my irrevocable resignation if they cannot remove these people, ” he said.

He said the party has rules which stated that whoever en-dorsed by the party should be supported by all members.

“Tabangan para sa iyang kadaugan (Help the candidate for his or her victory),” he said.

Paolo, however, said this rule is not followed by the members of the party who chose to support Ungab over Bello.

“Ang gituboy namo kay si councilor Bello man gyud og gituboy pud siya ni May-or Rody. Duterte (The party endorsed by councilor Bello because Mayor Rody Duterte himself endorsed him),” he said.

He said he proposed to the party to remove the barangay officials who are supporting Ungab.

“They should not enjoy the benefits of the political party because they are not support-ing the candidate of the politi-cal party,” he said.

Paolo said he will not wait the party to decide it after the election because it must be de-cided “now.”

“The purpose of the po-

litical party is to support the candidate during the election, so, what is the purpose if it will be decided after the election,” he said.

He said there are 76 baran-gay captains and 300 barangay councilors in his list that need to be removed in the party for not supporting the party’s can-didate in the third district.

Paolo said he will respect the decision of his sister for-mer Mayor Sara Z. Duter-te-Carpio endorsing Alberto Ungab as the third district rep-resentative but he will stick to the party’s decision that Bello is the official candidate.

“Si Mayor Inday og dili mo supporta niya (Bello) (If May-or Inday will not support him then) it’s up to her, it’s up to the secretary general and also to the leadership of Hugpong,” he said.

In the letter sent to Quitain yesterday, Paolo said that the “delinquent” party members should be removed because these people attacked him po-litically and personally which raised a negative attitude to the party.

“This issue raised a neg-ative attitude towards party members who are loyal and true to our political mandate,” he said in the letter.

He said in cases that polit-ical party member defy the of-ficial party line-up in the 2016 election should be sanctioned such as removal due to breach of party’s rules.

These issues will be dis-cussed and presented to the new set of cabinet secretar-ies of concerned national agencies in October during the two-day National Banana Congress at the SMX Lanang Convention Center in Davao City.

Marañon said the partici-pants of the congress will also pass a resolution urging the government to intensify the distribution of disease-resis-tant varieties of banana like the Giant Cavendish Tissue Culture Variety (GCTCV) 219 and GCTCV 218 to affected small farmers in the region.

Fearing that all efforts will go down the drain, he also said the Philexport-Davao, or-ganizers of this year’s banana

congress, moved the schedule of the two-day event in Octo-ber when the new administra-tion takes over.

“There will be no point if we will hold the event on the month of April when we know that the Aquino administra-tion will end in few months,” Marañon said.

Marañon said it would be impossible to implement pro-grams for the banana indus-try with only less than three months before President Aquino steps down.

“We would like to present the issues and concerns of the banana industry to the new government,” he said.

Some 1,000 stakeholders of the industry are expected to attend congress.

productivity is low.Cayetano said the plight

of the agri-workers have to be addressed urgently.

“Seasonal employment is a problem that has long plagued our sugarcane workers. And with El Niño now in the pic-ture, the disorder in their lives is bound to get worse. They need a government that has the political will to respond to their needs,” he stressed.

The tandem also vowed to provide better livelihood assistance to agri-workers throughout the country. One

way to do this is by expanding the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to cover more beneficia-ries and formulate a livelihood component for recipients.

They also plan to allot PHP1 billion per region for a capital-lending scheme.

In Negros, this could pave a way to modernize the sugar planting and milling industry by allowing sugar workers to be better equipped and trained to participate in the province’s industrialization. (PNA)

establishments such as ho-tels.

“This would also encour-age hotels and business es-tablishments to put up cul-tural shows to generate more interest and give visitors a better appreciation of the allure and beauty of the Phil-ippine Islands by exposing them to Philippine arts and culture, through music, songs and dances,” Atienza said.

Atienza said the Philip-pines has an even richer res-ervoir of arts and culture than Hawaii and other countries, which somehow does not get promoted because most peo-ple would rather play west-ern music.

“We believe that if the De-partment of Tourism (DOT) incorporates this into its tourism promotion program, every tourist would bring home a very vivid and clear impression of our country’s arts and culture that would make him want to come back,” Atienza said.

Under the bill to be known as the “Promotion of Philippine Tourism Through Arts and Culture Act,” all air-line carriers coming from in-ternational destinations are required to play at least 50% in their pipe in sound system Philippine folk music upon entry into the territorial juris-diction of the country. (PNA)

Poe said.Estrada also endorsed the

candidacy of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand ‘Bong-bong’ Marcos Jr. and PGP sen-atorial bets Manila vice mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso, Rep. Neri Colmenares, Rep. Sher-win Gatchalian, Richard Gor-don and Juan Miguel Zubiri.

The Manila mayor also endorsed senatorial aspirants Sen. Serge Osmena, Francis Tolentino, Joel Villanueva, Cong. Martin Romualdez, Get-ulio Napenas, Manny Pacquiao

and Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson.He was joined by her vice

mayoralty running mate for-mer 4th district councilor Dra. Maria Sheila ‘Honey’ Lacu-na-Pangan and his candidates for congressmen, councilors from Manila’s six districts.

Estrada’s wife former sen-ator Loi Estrada and incum-bent Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito were also present in the proclamation rally that marked the start of the cam-paign for local candidates for the May 9 elections. (PNA)

Niño will reach its peak this March, with 19 provinces in Southern Philippines taking the havoc of the drought.

These include Zambo-anga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Bukidnon, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Saranggani, Sultan Kudarat, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Maguindanao and Sulu.

Two provinces in the Vi-sayas (Negros Oriental and Siquijor), and one in Luzon (Palawan) will also be greatly affected.

Dry spell will continue to linger in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao particularly in Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Zambales, Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, Bohol, Camiguin, Misamis Oriental, Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte. (PNA)

“DA together with the Bu-reau of Animal Industry con-tinues to work on eliminating rabies while promoting animal welfare and preventing ani-mal cruelty. Increasing public awareness on the importance of dog vaccination will also continue throughout the re-gion”, said Dr. Esther Cardeño, DA-Rabies Regional Coordina-tor.

In support to the Rabies Eradication Program, DA’s Regional Animal Disease Di-agnostic Laboratory (RADDL) offers free rabies diagnosis

exam. The free laboratory exam is meant to encourage pet owners the submission of more samples from suspected animal rabies cases.

According to DOH, rabies from dog bites continues to be one of the leading causes of death in the country. On av-erage, 200 to 300 Filipinos die from rabies each year. As of to-day there are 424 Animal Bite Treatment Centers (ABTCs) accessible nationwide where 21 ABTCs are in Caraga region. (Rhea C. Abao, DA-Informa-tion Section)

assaults against the BIFF who were armed with dangerous Barret sniper rifles.

With the number of IEDs recovered, Petinglay said, the BIFF clearly aims to inflict more injuries, not only against government forces but also ci-vilians.

“This is a manifestation that the BIFF will sow more terroristic activities in the area, with utter disregard for the safety of the civilians,” Pe-tinglay said.

She said soldiers of the Joint Task Force “Kampilan” will continue to intensify its operations to clear the area IEDs “so that people in the community can go back with their normal lives.”

At least 3,000 individuals from several villages of Datu Salibo remain in evacuation sites and hoping the Army would give the green light soon for them to return home and rebuild their lives.

At 8 a.m. today, the Army bomb disposal unit will dis-pose by detonation all the confiscated, recovered and unserviceable high explosives in a disposal area in Barangay Semba, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Ma-guindanao.

“We would like to inform the public, especially those liv-ing near Barangay Sema, and Cotabato City that a series of explosions will be heard be-ginning this morning,” Petin-glay said. (PNA)

FAREWELL SONG. An elementary student breaks down as he and his fellow graduates sing their farewell song during graduation rites at Fil-Asian Mission Academy, Inc. in Garcia Heights, Bajada yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 11

Photo by Philippine Air Force Tactical Operations Group 11

THE executive director of the Philippine Ea-gle Foundation (PEF)

has expressed concern over reports that the fire that started at the peak of Mt. Apo last Saturday afternoon is spreading towards Mt. Talo-mo, location of the nest sites of the critically endangered Philippine Eagles, as one of the eagles they are tracking there “seems to be missing.”

“We are very concerned for the Lumads, the eagles and all other wildlife who call Mt Apo their home. Al-ready, one of the young ea-gles we’re tracking seems to be missing,” Dennis Salvador, PEF Executive Director told MindaNews.

He said the PEF is track-ing two eagles in their natu-ral habitat there using GPS transmitters: an adult female and a young eagle. PEF per-sonnel track the radio signals from a miniature transmit-ter harnessed on the eagles’ back.

Salvador said the eagle is considered “missing” be-cause “satellite signals cluser around one place which is unusual.” He said the satellite feed was obtained during the weekend.

According to the PEF website, tracking or tag-ging the Philippine Eagles in the wild is part of the PEF’s research agenda which in-volves “locating active nests, monitoring the breeding sta-tus of wild eagles and juve-nile dispersal, tracking them to establish pattern in home

EDGEDAVAO

BIGGER PICTURE

Mt. Apo fire imperilsPhilippine Eagles nest sites

ranges and habitat use, and other aspects of the bird’s life history.”

Its field research also fo-cuses on designing and exe-cuting habitat management plans and establishing forest corridors to bridge the small patches of forests remaining in Mindanao,” it said.

The PEF conducts tag-ging and monitoring of wild eagles to understand how they use their habitats and to determine its home range.

“To understand further their breeding behavior in the wild, our team routinely conducts nest surveys and monitors Philippine Eagle pairs to ensure their chick successfully matures and fledges. To make these pos-sible, we have engaged com-munities to help us monitor and protect the nest sites within their area,” it said.

Salvador said their staff and volunteer forest guards “have been deployed not only

to check on the eagles but to help suppress the fire if nec-essary.”

He said they will be mo-bilized to build firebreaks to stop the spread of the fire.

At least 200 persons in the North Cotabato and Davao side of Mt. Apo have volunteered to help con-struct fire line or fire breaks.

Digos City Tourism Of-ficer Edgardo “Bebot” Elera told MindaNews in Baran-gay Kapatagan, Davao del Sur Monday that the fire was still very far from human population and that efforts are being undertaken to con-struct fire lines to prevent its spread.

“This fire clearly will im-pact people and wildlife ad-versely in the next few years. As another natural heritage is diminished, it once again brings to fore the issue of mitigation and law enforce-ment on crimes against na-ture. How much more are we

really prepared to lose be-fore we act on this?” Salvador asked.

Described by the late avi-ator, Charles Lindbergh, as “the air’s noblest flier,” the Philippine Eagle (Pithecopha-ga Jefferyi), declared national bird in 1995, is listed as ‘Crit-ically Endangered’ on the In-ternational Union for Conser-vation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

The IUCN said the num-ber of these majestic birds “has seen a steep decline, primarily due to habitat de-struction,” noting that since the 1960s, vast tracts of trop-ical forest had been cleared for commercial development, cultivation and mining activ-ities.

The PEF estimates a pop-ulation of “only 400 pairs re-maining in the wild.”

The PEF’s Philippine Ea-gle Center in Malagos, Davao City, hosts a total of 35 Philip-pine Eagles, 20 of them bred

in captivity.The IUCN also observed

that while a major captive breeding program is under-way in Mindanao, “the key conservation need is to pre-vent any further forest loss within the range of this spe-cies.

As of Monday afternoon, there was no available data as yet as to the number of hectares destroyed by the fire in the country’s highest peak. As of 5 p.m. Monday, the Eastern Mindanao Command which sent two aircraft to do an aerial survey morning and afternoon, reported that “large portion of fire is now within the side of Talomo mountain range and Davao Sur area.”

There were reports that the fire had destroyed from 200 to 300 hectares but Elera said he cannot confirm these reports. Kidapawan tourism officer Joey Recemilla, also head of the Ecoturism Com-

mittee of the Mt. Apo Natural Park-Protected Area Manage-ment Board told MindaNews that as of Monday, the Bureau of Fire Protection had de-clared “fire out” in the North Cotabato side of the moun-tain.

Comprising 54,974.87 hectares, Mt. Apo Natural Park (MANP) is one of the Key Biodiversity Areas of the country.

The Park straddles two regions -- Davao City and Davao del Sur’s Bansalan, Di-gos and Sta. Cruz in Region 11 and Kidapawan City and North Cotabato’s Makilala and Magpet towns in Region 12.

Mt. Apo has an elevation of 9,692 feet (2,954 meters above sea level). It is clas-sified by the Philippine In-stitute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) as a “potentially active” volcano. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / Min-daNews)

Photo by Philippine Eagle Foundation



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SUMMER IS THAT MOST-AWAITED TIME OF YEAR FOR TRAVEL, whether it be a trip to another coast or a full blown holiday in hot sandy beaches or the breezy highlands. Wherever you choose to be, summer gives families the opportunity to make new memories together and experience a different adventure.

STYLE

EDGEDAVAOINdulge!

METRO MOM A4

THE PLAY ON CLOTHES: Versatility is the key, high & low altitude dressing. On Caye: M&S checkered polo over crewneck shirt & jogger pants; On Kara: Classic striped top, M&S Collection navy chino & dotted scarf; On Bella: M&S Collection top & light blue cotton cropped pants.

To help make one aspect of a summer trip as smooth and enjoyable as possible, it’s best to get everyone involved in the planning. Where to go? What to bring? Anticipating cli-mate conditions and your itinerary and purpose help in mapping out your ward-robe and essentials for the days you’ll be out. Kara Francisco, a moth-

Summer Sojou rner of three, shares how she plans her family’s summer getaway, with her kids’ bucket list and requests in mind. Will it be a trip to the island or up the moun-tains? “Personally, I like the idea of going up the moun-tains because I have always loved the cooler climate because I like the feel and scenery of freshness,” Kara confessed. Her daughter, Bella, loves the beach. “I like the sun, the sand and the sea. I prefer the beach with waves, the higher the waves the better,” she said with a big smile, the excite-ment evident in her voice. In the family of five, the mother and daughter tan-dem are tied by adventure. Where the thrill is in sight, whether it be the zip lines, roller coasters or whatever vertical and gravity rides there are, you’ll find these two in the line. “Bella has bungee jump-ing and sky diving on her bucket list. The men in the family, my husband and two boys, unfortunately, don’t share in the joy of any adrenaline rushing ac-tivity,” said Kara, pointing out the boys’ fear of heights

BEACH BABIES. On Bella: M&S Collection striped tankini, cropped beach pants and accessories. On Caye: M&S Men’s ensemble of white polo, red shorts & sunglass.

A STYLISH SERVING. On Kara: Classic grey wool blend cardigan over striped top & M&S Collection cropped chino.


Allowing one to expe-rience a new dimension of mobile entertainment, Samsung Gear VR lets Globe Platinum custom-ers see more inspiring mo-ments as it comes FREE with the Platinum Life-style Plans. A Globe Platinum ex-clusive offer, by visiting www.globe.com.ph/plat-inum-S7, customers can pre-order their new Sam-sung Galaxy S7 or S7 edge on any of the Platinum Lifestyle Plans starting at Plan 3799 to get their free Samsung Gear VR. Rede-fining what a phone can do, the Gear VR changes content is enjoyed and experiences are shared. It boasts a super AMOLED display, wide field of view, precise head-tracking and low latency. Carrying a more comfortable design, it is now 19% lighter, with a larger touchpad for easy and accurate control. With a growing library

of Gear VR-compatible content, one can also live through their favorite movies or play the coolest games, as it all comes to life in 360° of detail. “The Samsung Gear VR lets our Platinum custom-ers discover a whole new way to fully enjoy their digital lifestyle. It not only compliments their new Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, but it also allows them to maximize the rich mobile data and premium content they have on their Platinum Lifestyle Plans. With the Gear VR, they will be able to watch mov-ies or play games like never before. We are also happy to be the first in the Philip-pines to release and hand-deliver the new Samsung Galaxy S7 and Gear VR starting last March 14 to some of our Platinum cus-tomers personally by their Platinum Relationship Managers.” says Globe Platinum Brand Head,

THE LAUNCH OF THE LATEST SAM-SUNG GALAXY MODELS, S7 and S7 edge showed today’s digital generation how a smartphone can truly be part of life’s ev-eryday adventures. Complementing the new phones is the introduction of the latest de-vice that will open up a whole new world of entertainment - Samsung Gear VR.

‘GLAMPING BY LIFESTYLE’ IS MAKING A COMEBACK to the Summer Siren Festival at Crystal Beach in Zambales from April 8 to 10. Lifestyle, the premiere cable channel for women, has once more teamed up with leading adventure company Travel Factor to promise another fabulous beach glamping experience to party-going adventure-seekers. After pioneering what has become a travel phenomenon to adventure enthusiasts, Lifestyle brings a combination of luxurious accommodations and unforgettable in-destination experiences and activities to this year’s edition of the ‘Glamping’ experience. The experience includes glamping tents by Coleman, spruced up with an airbed, linens and pillows. A lamp

and a fan make the experience extra comfortable. Completing the list of lifestyle activities are yoga sessions, flow arts and poi dancing, hula hooping or hand-drumming, and cross fit workouts. Aside from the music festival, glampers will also be treated like stars with a welcome dinner and daily breakfasts, a butler service, and recreational products such as a Lifestyle Glamping kit that contains glamping and beach essentials, a Summer Siren Festival kit, and a whole lot of exciting freebies. With the Summer Siren Festival stage as backdrop, expect the country’s top artists such as Marc Marasigan, Travis Monsod, Ebe Dancel, Hale, Moonstar 88, Mother Bass, The Zombettes, Katsy Lee, BV, Quest, David Ardiente, Cheats,

CRWN, among others, to dish out the perfect soundtrack of summer. The nation’s most celebrated DJs will also grace the event for great party nights to remember. ‘Glamping by Lifestyle’ successfully debuted at last year’s Summer Siren Festival with hundreds of glampers in attendance, receiving lots of positive reviews. With no tent to pitch, nor sleeping bags to unroll, or fire to build, Glamping by Lifestyle is the ultimate camping experience. Bask in the summer sun in style at ‘Glamping by Lifestyle’ at the Summer Siren Festival. Book your tickets now at http://travelfactor.org/summersiren. For more information on the event, visit https://www.facebook.com/lifestyletvph and tune in to Lifestyle on SKYcable channel 52.

A2 INdulge! EDGEDAVAOUP AND ABOUT

BEAT THE HEAT with your style and enjoy the coolest treat from SM Accessories and McDonald’s as they go together this summer. Get a FREE McFlurry with Oreo for every single receipt purchase worth P1000 from Men’s, Ladies’, Children’s and Character Shop departments. Promo runs from April 1-30. Hurry now and get this cool offer at The SM Store branch near you!

Kaisie del Carmen. To complete the Gear series, Platinum custom-ers also get a special 15% discount voucher* for the Gear S2 when they avail of the new Samsung S7 or S7 edge on a Platinum Life-style Plan. The Samsung Gear S2 smart watch al-lows one to view notifica-tions at a glance, send SMS and track daily physical activities with the fitness tracker. The new Platinum Life-style Plans lets one stay inspired and connected to everything they love with an upgraded mobile data allocation starting at 15 GB alongside complimen-

tary access to a slew of the best in premium content from Spotify, HOOQ, and NBA League Pass. Staying in the loop and keeping in touch is also more en-joyable as the plans come with free access to Face-book, Viber, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail. All Platinum plans have built-in un-limited calls and texts to Globe and TM. Plan 4999 and Plan 7999 come with unlimited all net calls and texts and corresponding consumable roaming al-lowance. Unlimited land-line calls are also available for Plan 3799 and Plan 7999. Staying true to the Plat-

inum experience, the new Lifestyle Plans are crafted to fit today’s digital savvy and dynamic lifestyles through its worry-free roaming service and inter-national travel privileges, premium rewards, prior-ity service and a dedicated relationship manager. The new Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are both IP68 water and dust resistant in up to 1.5 meters of water and for up to 30 minutes protec-tion against dust ingress. Both have a DSLR-like Real Pixel Camera that is the world’s 1st dual pho-todiode sensor (2PD) in mobile that provides su-

perfast autofocus. The new models also promise brighter and clearer im-ages with f/1.7 lens and faster shutter speed that minimizes motion blur. Available in Black Onyx and Gold, each have an expandable memory up to 200GB and faster proces-sor, smoother graphics, 4GB RAM and a larger battery and faster charg-ing. The new Samsung Smartphones will be avail-able in Globe stores na-tionwide starting March 19, 2016. To discover the inspiring world of Globe Platinum, visit www.globe.com.ph/platinum.

Get the new Samsung Gear VR on Globe Platinum Lifestyle Plan

‘GLAMPING BY LIFESTYLE’ RETURNS TO LEVEL UP 2016 SUMMER SIREN FESTIVAL


A L T H O U G H MIKAEL DAEZ IS ALWAYS READY FOR ADVENTURE, he did not anticipate how difficult and painful it would be to learn a martial art. The Kapuso actor had to learn the Khmer martial art Bokator when he portrayed Marco in Fight For Love, a co-production between GMA and the Cambodia Television Network. “It was hard ‘cause it hurts. My body is not used to fighting but there, sinabak talaga ako, seven days [a week], six hours a day. I was tired. More than tired, my body just hurt,” he told GMANetwork.com. He trained alongside professional fighters, urging him to bring his A-game. “These guys trained for years to harden their

body, their bones and their muscles. So ako, wala talaga. [It was] seven days [of] six hours [each of] pain but it was worth it kasi there were two major fight scenes. It was the highlight of the show, so I knew that coming in,” he added. He knew that the opportunity to star in an international project didn’t come often, so he endured the pain and focused on enjoying the experience. “I just wanted to make the most out of it, and it was such a good experience. [It] taught me so much… [Bokator] was culturally unique… [and it] was pretty cool ‘cause I had to learn [so much of it],” he concluded. Fight For Love is set to air on GMA Network as a mini TV series in two parts – on April 17 and April 24.

NETIZENS CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF BABY MARIA LETIZIA’S CUTE PHOTO. Last March 24, the Kapuso Primetime Queen Marian Rivera shared on Instagram the first swimsuit photo of her princess. The adorable picture was taken during their Holy Week vacation in Palawan where Zia rocked her pink and purple swimsuit! In fact, the photo went viral since it was uploaded on Marian Rivera’s Facebook account. It has gotten over 1.1 million likes as of writing.

INdulge! A3EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

Mikael Daez shares painful experience in Cambodia

E U G E N E DOMINGO HAS BEEN IN SHOW BUSINESS FOR 25 YEARS, capturing audiences through her offbeat yet comical characters. Though she has been acting on stage and in front of the camera for more than half her life, Uge has yet to reveal a lot of things about her brand of acting. “Most of the time I myself am surprised of the cameo roles I do and always very excited to do it. Big thanks to

the team for the never ending productive collab,” Eugene shared on her Instagram. She also added,

“Then, I make sure to be fair. Our dear cast should also be ready to be surprised themselves and so far we are very

lucky to have actors that are so GAME!!! Yes, they do not realize what will really happen until director commands – ACTION!” Her revelation came with an excerpt from Dear Uge’s recent episode where she is seen giving a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to the unconscious character of Sam YG. Eugene ended her post with another fun fact. The comedienne concluded, “Let me share that the #best is yet to come for you #dearuge viewers! Only on @gmanetwork.”

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THIS, but Kapuso star Glaiza de Castro secretly wants to transform into an animé character. She has always been a fan of animated Japanese television series since she was young through her brother’s influence. Though she has played a lot of roles all throughout her showbiz career, the actress-singer wants to try Cosplay. She has also been learning Nihongo

and has participated in activities such as “Eiga Sai” Japanese Film Festival 2015. The former The Rich Man’s Daughter star revealed it inside

the Preview Magazine March issue. She posted on Instagram about it as well, “Torn between two samurais. On this month’s issue of Preview, Chapter Five titled

“Revenge of the Geek,” I shared how I got into animé and other things most people don’t usually find interesting. Haha. Check it out if you’re in it for a thrill.”

Eugene Domingo reveals 3 facts about her acting

Glaiza de Castro reveals childhood dream

Baby Zia’s first swimsuit photo gets more than 1.1M likes

G/*PG

R13/*PG

PG11:00 | 1:45 | 4:30 | 7:15 | 10:00 LFS

BATMAN V SUPERMAN:

DAWN OF JUSTICE

Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill

PG 12:00 | 3:00 | 6:00 | 9:00 LFS

KUNG FU PANDA 3 /

*HELE SA HIWAGANG HAPIS

11:05 | 1:10 | 3:15 LFS / *5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS

LONDON HAS FALLEN/

*ALLEGIANT

Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman/* Shailene Woodley, Theo James

12:00 | 2:00 LFS / *4:00

Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman/*Piolo Pascual, John Lloyd Cruz

BATMAN V SUPERMAN:

DAWN OF JUSTICE 3D

Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill

March 28 – April 1, 2016


A4 INdulge!STYLE

and her husband’s vertigo. “By default, I am my daughter’s companion,” she said. Caye, the older of the two male siblings, shares with his sister is the love for the water, “I prefer beach be-cause I like swimming over hiking,” he said grinning. “It’s always a compromise,” re-plied Kara, “The family sits down and choose a vacation spot where both the cool weather lovers and sun worshippers can have fun,” citing a couple of places they went to last year and drove from up to the mountain and down to the beach. “It’s always best that everyone in the family enjoy. It makes the trips memorable each time.” “This is what’s beautiful about Mindanao, it has the best of both worlds. We don’t need to travel far to get to a mountain or a white sand shoreline. Everything is within driv-ing distance. It’s traveling economi-cally minus the plane ride for five. Even on a very short break or a spur of the moment decision to take a trip out of town, the family can enjoy ei-ther destination, even both.” When it comes to packing, the family makes sure they have enough gear for the cold and hot weather. “It’s about knowing which impor-tant articles to bring so as not to be lugging heavy luggage from one des-tination to another,” said Kara, “Pack light, breezy clothes for the beach and a couple of cardigans for the cold weather. Sunblock, of course” “Travel light but stay stylish, a tip I learned from my mom. That and be presentable at all times.”

For this year’s summer break, the family is escaping the heat and head-ing to a mountain resort in Dahilay-an, Bukidnon. It’s a six-hour drive from Davao City. “Dahilayan reminds us of Ba-guio—it takes hours of driving to reach, cool weather and hundreds of pine trees,” reminisced the Francisco couple.

Bella will have a time of her life at the resort’s zipline and base jumping, and the water babies can go white water rafting, which is a couple of hours away from the place. “If they’re still itching for the sand and sea, they can always head to our hometown in Mati after the trip. They have all summer to enjoy the beach,” said Kara.

Fashion: Marks & Spencer Spring/Summer 2016 collection available in Abreeza Mall and SM Lanang PremierPhotography: Wizbren AngStyling & Make-up: Otoy Mercado

SUMMER CHIC. On Bella: M&S Collection Lily shirtdress and Indigo straw hat.

BOHEMIAN COOL : On Kara: Indigo printed shirtdress; On Bella: Indigo embroidered blouse & M&S Collection striped shorts.

METRO MOM A1

EDGEDAVAO VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 13EDGEDAVAO

time and again with left-right combinations. The three judges all scored the match 30-27 for the Bukidnon Air Force man.

The only damper in the Philippine schedule was Roldan Boncales’ loss to Oizhas Satti-bayev of Kazakhstan (#4 seed) in the flyweight division. It was a close, exciting fight between two speedy fighters, and the judges found the Kazakh as the winner by scores of 29-28 twice and 30-27. Boncales had won his first assignment against a Vietnamese Friday.

The Tuesday quarterfinals will see the five remaining RP boxers in action: Ladon vs. Al-Kaabi (Iraq), Fernandez vs. Alwadi (Jordan), Charly Suarez vs. Dheeraj (India), Marcial vs. Kazemzadehposhtiri (Iran) and Nesthy Petecio vs. 5-time world champion Mery Kom Hmangte of India.

ABAP executive director Ed Picson says this is “where we wanted to be at this juncture. At least two more wins for each boxer will get them slots to Rio. And I think all five can get there if they want it badly enough.”

Picson reiterated to the boxers ABAP president Ricky Vargas’ pledge that if they qual-ify they will not only get incen-tives but will be given more ex-tensive training and support in the run up to the Olympics.

The top three boxers in the men’s division and the top two in the women’s class book a ticket each to the Summer Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro this August.

5 RP boxers...FROM 15 (SPORTS)

We are now hiring for the ff. job vacancies:

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COMPETITIVE EDGE

WHILE most of the people had travelled away from the hum-

drum of the city to savor the silence of the Holy Days, I just stayed home and watched TV programs about the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ.

After watching, I was reminded of an event - the launching of the One Thou-sand Harps Foundation, Inc. last March 3 at CAP Auditori-um where I was invited as one of the guests. I was touched on how the foundation was cre-ated as I was moved to write about it and the travailed-life story of the founder who hap-pened to be a student of Sta. Ana National High School where I teach for 27 years.

Allan Del Campo Roberos, before he became the presi-dent and founder of the foun-dation, grew up with a hard life as he was orphaned at the age of 16 where he left his province and made a big decision to stay in Davao for good even though he knew no relatives here. Life was so young and tough that he didn’t know how to battle life in the city. Alone but never lost hope.

Facing difficult situation, he went through all kinds of hard labor. He had experienced of somewhat like begging to his neighbors just to have a handful of food to endure from hunger. Thinking his life, his

dream, his future, he worked as a houseboy not only to con-tinue his studies but to survive.

In his life’s journey, his faith in God never ceases. He never gives up on Him. He is blessed with generous people who never tired of helping and providing his needs. These people taught him to face the test of times and be resilient to stand firm to restore his hopes.

As a product of help, Roberos’ dreams are within reach as he was able to finish his studies and enrolled in college. Whatever he had, he shared it to others especially to the children. The value of giv-ing is in his heart.

When he founded the One Thousand Harps Founda-tion, Inc. in 2015, he based it on his own life story that un-derprivileged children need care, attention and love. Its ultimate purpose is to address the needs of these lowly chil-dren so they can be helped to reach their dreams in life.

“I am a product of great help and there is nothing more beautiful than to give back to the community –the simple act of kindness – of which have made me become of what I am now. I thank God for making One Thousand Harps Foun-dation, Inc. an instrument to restore hope to young people, to help them and be ready to face the future with God’s great

love,” Roberos revealed. During the grand launch-

ing event, the foundation had helped more than 700 poor families in the city and had extended community pro-grams such as feeding, giving of school supplies and relief goods, scholarship grants and services such as financial lit-eracy campaign, alternative learning system, values, atti-tudes and family foundation and providing trainings to equip the children to become better citizens in the society.

As the guest speaker,

Councilor Pilar Braga had only few ardent words to say, “…it’s a wonderful, noble, unique foundation because it takes care of the poor children.”

In this Holy Week, we are reminded that Jesus Christ suffered and died on the Cross to save us from sins. We don’t need to be nailed on the cross just to show how grateful we are. This inspiring story of Al-lan D. Roberos - is a great man-ifestation on how to payback the great sufferings Jesus has done to us in this Lenten Sea-son. BY JESAME R. MOISES

THE Province of Dinagat Island has been declared rabies-free zone and

a local declaration was con-ducted last March 16 by the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health, lead implementers of the Rabies Eradication and Control Pro-gram. These include the munic-ipalities of Basilisa, Cagdianao, Dinagat, Libjo, Loreto, San Jose and Tubajon.

“This is the fruit of our la-bor as we push strategic mea-sures in eliminating rabies in our province. Our advocacy through information aware-ness and mass dog vaccination campaign paved the way for us to be rabies-free,” said Dr. Ai-mee A. Jimeno, Provincial Vet-

erinarian.The PLGU-Dinagat Islands

implemented dog control mea-sures through the enforcement of local ordinances in accor-dance with Republic Act 9482 or the Anti-Rabies Act of 2007. “This included impounding of stray dogs from all municipal-ities”, Dr. Jimeno added.

With seven municipalities added, there are already 35 ra-bies-free zones in the country. Out of the totaled rabies-free zones 8 municipalities are from Caraga region including the municipality of Socorro, Surigao del Norte. This is the result of the intensified cam-paign of DA, DOH and LGUs against the disease.

A product of help

Smart reminds subscribersto stay vigilant vs criminals

Dinagat now rabies-free

AMID reports that unscrupulous indi-viduals have been

trying to commit crimes by posing as telco repair-men, mobile leader Smart Communications has giv-en tips on how to protect yourselves from being vic-timized:

• Do not entertain con-tractors/repairmen when you do not have a pend-ing request for repair or troubleshooting. Relay the same advice to the rest of the household, including helpers.

• If you have indeed requested such services from your fixed line or mobile service provider, please get the exact day and time their personnel would arrive.

• Once the repairmen arrive, check their IDs and scrutinize the details of their Service Order be-fore letting them into your house. Take a picture of their vehicle’s plate num-ber.

Remember that scam-mers can still victimize you even without person-al contact. Here are tips on how to outsmart them:

Be wary of people ask-ing you to send an SMS to 808 or 2292. 808 is Smart’s official Pasaload number, while 2292 is Sun’s Give-A-Load num-ber. If someone tells you to send a text message to this number in exchange for prizes, refunds, discounts, or free prepaid load, do not be fooled. You would only be sending your pre-cious mobile credits to that scammer.

To protect subscrib-ers, Smart and Sun now require them to confirm Pasaload and Give-A-Load requests to make sure they are aware that they are making the transac-tions.

Be extra careful when dealing with callers or texters using unknown numbers, especially when they tell you that you’ve won a raffle or promo that you did not even join in the first place. Please note that Smart always noti-fies its promo winners via registered mail and a call from phone number 7777. When in doubt, you may verify Smart promos by calling *888 using your Smart mobile or tweeting @SmartCares.

Verify the identity of people claiming to be your relatives. Don’t just be-lieve anyone who claims to be your relative from abroad who has a new roaming number. Get in touch with your loved ones through their old numbers to verify.

Verify emergency claims. If someone calls to tell you your loved one has been involved in an emer-gency and needs money immediately, do not panic. Call the said loved one to confirm that you’re not being scammed.

Be careful with per-sonal details. Do not post the details and photos of your identification cards such as passport, driver’s license, TIN, etc. on social media.

Do background checks on online sellers and peo-ple offering loans and in-vestments over the Inter-net. Consult experts be-fore making transactions and parting with your hard-earned money.

To report text scams, please get in touch with the National Telecommu-nications Commission’s One Stop Public Assis-tance Center (NTC OSPAC) via landline number (02) 921 3251 or (02) 926 7722 or email address [email protected].

“In line with the month-long celebration of Araw ng Dabaw, the Sports Division under the City Mayor’s Office held the Chess Tournament at Damosa Market Basket Atrium. Nearly a hundred children were able to participate and outwit each other in the said eventFDINAGAT, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

QIAN’AN, Hebei Province, China – Monday was a busy and productive day

for the Philippine National Box-ing team at the Asian-Oceanian Olympic Qualifying Event cur-rently being held at the massive Tangshan Jiujiang Sports Center here.

Eumir Felix Marcial, seed-ed NO. 1 in the welterweight class, lived up to his billing as he TKO’d his Australian rival, Kori Istafanos in the third and last round.

The Aussie, actually a transplanted Sudanese, looked intimidating with his stocky, muscular built. But he seemed aware and weary of Marcial’s power and skill.

Istafanos was content with running around to keep out of

harm’s way. Marcial however, caught up with him several times and unloaded power bombs. The Hungarian lady referee Veronika Szuchs issued two standing 8 counts in the third round and stopped the fight after the second one.

Another top seed, Rogen Ladon of the light flyweight di-vision, a bronze medalist in the World Championships in Doha last year, had his hands full with his Japanese foe, Tosho Kashi-wasaki. The Bago City native eked out a 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 decision.

Bantamweight Mario Fer-nandez, a back-to-back SEA Games gold medalist, proved too much for Turkmenistan’s Yakub Meredov whom he jolted

CLOSE to 600 disabled athletes from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao

get to strut their wares as the 5th PSC-PHILSPADA Nation-al Paralympic Games swings into to action at the Marikina Sports Center and neighbor-ing venues on Tuesday.

“We have a bigger field compared to last year be-cause we have more sports so we now have a total of 10 disciplines in all,” said Philip-pine Sports Association for Disabled Athletes executive director Dennis Esta.

Esta said that included in the fifth edition of the sports-fest supported by the Phil-ippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Commit-tee and the Marikina City

government led by Mayor Del de Guzman are athletics, swimming, badminton, chess, boccia, powerlifting, goalball, table tennis, wheelchair bas-ketball and tenpin bowling.

He added that yesterday and most of today was set aside for the classification of athletes depending on the severity of their disabilities in four categories: visual-ly impaired, orthopedically handicapped, intellectually disabled and deaf.

“Our medical staff will classify our athletes based on the four categories men-tioned to determine how severe their disabilities are,” he explained. “This is done so that athletes will be going up against rivals with virtually

the same level in their respec-tive sports.”

Esta bared that members of the national team that saw action in the 2015 Singapore ASEAN Para Games will also see action in the meet also supported by the Depart-ment of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Education (DepEd).

Filipino campaigners cap-tured 16 gold, 17 silver and 26 bronze medals to place seventh overall in the 10-na-tion Singapore Para Games.

The PHILSPADA offi-cial, however, explained that entries who best national athletes during the five-day sportsfest will not automat-ically be included in the na-

tional pool “because we have to look at their performances and compare them with our present records, especially in the measurable sports.”

Simple opening rites will usher in the 5th PSC-PHIL-SPADA Para Games at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the Marikina Sports Center track oval led by PSC chairman Richie Gar-cia and POC president Jose Cojuangco Jr. and PHILSPADA chairman Mike Barredo.

Also invited to grace the affair are Education Secretary Armin Luistro, Local Govern-ment Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, Congressmen Miro Quimbo, Yeng Guiao, Wes Gatchalian and Anthony del Rosario, and Mayor De Guzman. (PNA)

THE Philippine Army (PA) will be deploying a team to participate in the 10th

IDBF World Club Crews Dragon Boat Championships in Ade-laide, Australia on April 1-10.

The PA team, named the Army Dragon Warriors, will participate in the Small Boat Di-vision, Men’s Open Events and Mixed Events (2,000m, 500m and 200m) or a total of six dif-ferent events, said Army spokes-person Col. Benjamin Hao.

The team won two gold medals and set world records in the 500m and 200m events during the 9th CCWDBC held in Ravenna, Italy in September 2014.

For the first time, the Army will allow the participation of fe-male paddlers during the world championships.

“I wish you all the best. Be the ambassadors of goodwill in Dragon Boat sport,” said PA commander Lt. Gen. Eduardo M.

Año.Seven members of the Army

Dragon Warriors were part of the team that captured five golds and two silvers during the 9th IDBF World Championships in Tampa Bay, Florida in 2011.

The Army Dragon Warriors is a SEC-registered Dragon Boat Club that is also a member of the Philippine Dragon Boat Federa-tion.

In 2015, the team emerged as the overall champion of the national dragon boat regatta participated by different club teams around the Philippines.

Among the corporate spon-sors of the team include Cherifer Premium and Mighty Sports; and for other sponsors, PCSO, Smart Communications, AFPS-LAI, Gameville PAFCIPIC and PAGCOR.

The team will depart for Australia on April 1 and it is expected to return on April 11. (PNA)

EUMIR Felix Marcial, Ro-gen Ladon and Mario Fernandez scored vic-

tories to make it five Filipinos in the quarterfinals of the Olympic qualifying event in Qian’An City in Hebei, China.

Lightweight Charly Su-arez of Davao del Norte and women’s lightweight Nes-thy Petecio of Davao del Sur came up with wins on Mon-day to lead the way for Filipi-nos into the quarterfinals of the Asian-Oceanian Olympic Qualifying Event at the Tang-shan Jiujiang Sports Center.

Marcial, seeded No. 1 in the welterweight class, lived up to his billing with a third-round technical knockout of Australia’s Kori Istafanos.

Istafanos tried to keep his distance but Marcial connect-

ed on several huge punches. Hungarian lady referee Ve-ronika Szuchs stopped the fight after the second stand-ing 8 count.

Light flyweight Rogen Ladon, a bronze medalist in the World Championships in Doha last year, had his hands full with his Japanese foe To-sho Kashiwasaki but got a 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 decision.

Bantamweight Mario Fernandez, a back-to-back Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, proved too much for Turkmenistan’s Yakub Meredov, getting similar 30-27 scores from the three judges.

Roldan Boncales lost to Oizhas Sattibayev of Kazakh-stan in the flyweight division, the judges scoring the bout

2016 PSC-PHILSPADA Nat’l Paralympic Games underway

Army in 10th IDBF World Club Crews Dragon Boat

LAST HOME STANDAzkals host North Korea in Asian Cup second-round qualifiers

5 RP boxers pugs in quarters of Olympic qualifiers

Misagh Bahadoran is back afetr serving a one-game ban. Jerome Ascano

THE Philippine men’s football team seeks to finish its

Asian Cup qualifying sec-ond-round campaign on a high note as it hosts North Korea at the Rizal Memo-rial Stadium on Tuesday night.

After putting up a brave stand in a close 1-0 loss to group-leading Uz-bekistan last Thursday, the Azkals return for its last home stand, taking on the North Koreans at 8 p.m.

The Filipino booters have already been elim-inated from the World Cup qualifers but are still firmly in the running for a maiden appearance in the 2019 Asian Cup.

A victory for the third-running Azkals will guarantee them a spot in the third round

of the Asian Cup qualify-ing, while a loss will send them into a playoff for a berth.

After impressively holding North Korea to a scoreless draw in a de-fense-oriented match in Pyongyang last October, the Azkals seek to take the fight to their high-er-ranked foes to get three points.

“We have to play a lit-tle bit of football,” Azkals coach Thomas Dooley said on Monday in the pre-match press confer-ence. “They just have to have the confidence they can do it against a team like North Korea.”

“(But) the players are focused,” the Ger-man-American mentor added.

Phil Younghusband and Stephan Schrock are

still out due to injuries, but Misagh Bahadoran, the team’s top scorer in the tournament, and Man-ny Ott are back after serv-ing respective one-game suspensions.

“I’m looking forward to have those two quality players back,” Dooley said.

James Younghusband also makes his nation-al team return, joining rookies in Loyola Meralco teammate Daniel Gadia and Kaya FC midfielder Miguel Tanton.

“The Azkals are a very promising team…but we came here to win,” said North Korea coach Kim Chang Bok, whose team aims to supplant Uzbeki-stan from the top of the five-team standings, en-tailing automatic entry to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers.

After Davao’s Suarez and Petecio, 3 morePinoy pugs in QF of Olympic qualifying

Nesthy Petecio Charly Suarez

all for the Kazakh fighter, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27.

Ladon takes on Iraq’s Al-Kaabi on Tuesday, Fernan-dez battles Jordan’s Alwadi, Suarez faces India’s Dheer-aj, Marcial squares off with Iran’s Kazemzadehposhtiri

and Petecio fights five-time world champion Mery Kom Hmangte of India.

The top three boxers in the men’s weight divisions and the top two in the wom-en’s classes book a ticket each to the Rio Olympics in August.

F 5 RP BOXERS, 13

VOL. 9 ISSUE 19 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 201616 EDGEDAVAOSports

Gilas backs Clarkson despite accusations

Gilas Pilipinas prospect Jordan Clarkson says allegation of sexual harassment hurled against him and Lakers teammate Nick Young is no more than a ‘miscommunication.’

GILAS Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin is hoping the sexual harassment allega-tions that Jordan Clarskon as well as

Los Angeles Lakers teammate Nick Young are facing turn out to be unfounded.

The Filipino-American Clarkson, a na-tional team prospect, and Young were ac-cused of making “vulgar, sexual” gestures directed toward Alexis Jones, an activist, and her mother in Hollywood last week.

“I just hope that there’s nothing there,” Baldwin said on Monday after Gilas prac-tice. “We support Jordan.”

“But we expect a certain standard of be-havior from anybody that would be repre-senting Gilas,” the American-New Zealand-er mentor was quick to add. “We’re hopeful that it’s erroneous and false charges.”

Clarkson said it was merely a “miscom-munication on both sides.”

“We have to let the process play out,” Baldwin said. “I just wish Jordan well.”

Edge Davao 9 Issue 19

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