The Standard - 2015 March 13 - Friday

Springfling

Februarycar salesrose 22%

VOL. XXIX NO. 29 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 FRIDAY : MARCH 13, 2015 www.manilastandardtoday.com [email protected]

Farm girls eye crownsfrom beauty boot camps

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK


C1 B4

Junjun Binay refuses to leaveMakati City hallA3A4

FINALLY, REPORT ON SAF 44 OUT

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Countdown. Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather pose during a press conference on March 11 in Los Angeles to launch the countdown to their May 2 super-fi ght in Las Vegas. (Story on A16) AFP

Palace vows to keep peace panel members intact

Heading heading heding heading heading heading heading

BOI report on Mamasapano outA2

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Report on Mamasapano. Police Directors Benjamin Magalong (C) and Catalino Rodriguez (L) and Chief Supt. John Sosito sign a copy of their report on the Jan. 25 incident in which 44 police commandos were killed in an counter with Muslim rebels in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, during their operation to arrest the terrorist Marwan. AFP

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III will not change the gov-ernment’s peace negotiators despite calls for their dis-missal, a Palace official said Thursday.

In a privilege speech Wednesday, Senator Alan Pe-ter Cayetano urged the Presi-dent to replace presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles and the head of the government’s chief negotiator, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, for their bias toward the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

But Communications Sec-retary Herminio Coloma said Thursday the President had no intention of changing the

composition of his negotiat-ing team.

Asked to comment on Cayetano’s allegations that the MILF coddled terrorists, Coloma said that informa-tion should be referred to the Senate committee on pub-lic order, which investigated the Mamasapano incident in which 44 police commandos were killed while trying to hunt down Malaysian terror-ist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Mar-wan.

Coloma said the Aquino administration remained committed to the peace talks, despite the doubts that Cay-etano raised about the MILF’s sincerity.

Coloma added that nego-tiations with the MILF have gone well for the last five years, and were marred only by the Mamasapano incident this year.

But Cayetano warned Thursday that the Bangsam-oro might become a terrorist haven once the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is passed, be-cause the MILF does not want peace but power.

With funding for the first year of the BBL, the MILF could join forces with other Muslim rebel groups and make the Bangsamoro a haven for armed groups, Cayetano said.

Cayetano also said that ear-lier peace talks that resulted

in the creation of the Autono-mous Region in Muslim Min-danao (ARM) failed to bring peace because of the MILF.

“The MILF did not want peace. They wanted power, They wanted to lead ARMM,” he said.

He said the same thing that happened with the ARMM could happen with the Bangsamoro, with other groups such as the Bangsam-oro Islamic Freedom Fighters continuing to fight.

In the House, the 75-mem-ber ad hoc panel tasked to scrutinize the BBL announced a new deadline for the re-sumption of deliberations on the measure.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Ru-fus Rodriguez, the panel chairman, said his commit-tee would conduct a series of executive sessions on the BBL from April 8 to 16, even though Congress is on a break during those dates.

Rodriguez said the panel moved the date to April 6 from March 3 after the Phil-ippine National Police (PNP) board of inquiry failed to sub-mit its report on time.

He said the report would be useful in their discussions of the BBL.

1-BAP party-list Rep. Silves-tre Bello III, a member of the ad hoc panel, said he was not aware of the April 6 to 16 closed

door meetings, however.An administration ally

who asked not to be named slammed Rodriguez for being “the poster boy” of the gov-ernment peace panel headed Deles and Ferrer, who have been criticized for lawyering for the MILF.

“Is Malacanang again pres-suring Congress? Is hat why Rodriguez keeps giving a timeline for the BBL delib-erations? Why the rush?” the lawmaker said.

The source also criticized Rodriguez’s decision to hold the sessions behind closed doors. – Sara Susanne D. Fabunan, Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta

THE Philippine Na-tional Police board of inquiry finally submitted its report Thursday on the Mamasapano inci-dent, 47 days after the covert operation that resulted in the death of 60 people, including 44 police commandos.

“We are confident that we were able to seek out the truth,” said the board’s chair-man, Police Director Benja-min Magalong, chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

“We can face the people without shame, including the families of those who lost

loved ones,” he told reporters in a press conference where he, Director Catalino Rodri-guez and Chief Supt. John Sosito signed a copy of the fi-nal report.

Magalong denied accusa-tions that the board was being guided to a specific conclu-sion when President Benigno Aquino III, who has admitted involvement in the operation, publicly blamed sacked Spe-cial Action Force commander Getulio Napeñas for the de-bacle and disavowed any fault on his part.

“There was no pressure. We did not mind [Aquino’s pub-lic remarks],” Magalong said, adding that the members of the panel could “look straight into the eyes of the family members of the SAF 44.”

Magalong, however, did not provide journalists a copy of the report because they need-ed to get permission from In-terior and Local Government

Secretary Manuel Roxas II, who ordered the investiga-tion.

Aside from Roxas, acting PNP chief Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Justice De-partment received copies of the report, he said.

Magalong said the families of the slain SAF commandos will also be given copies once Roxas approves the release of the report to the public.

He also said they were still printing 60 to 70 sets of the final report.

He said the people account-able in the incident are identi-fied in the report.

”We are confident, for the sake of the truth , that (the report) will enlighten every-body,” he said.

The board was originally scheduled to submit the report on Feb. 26 this was moved to March 6 and again to March

9, and was completed after a three-day extension.

Magalong said the delay was due to the volume of evi-dence that the board’s opera-tional audit team had to scru-tinize, including the results of investigation in the field and statements from interviews.

Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma assured the public that the board’s re-port would be made available.

Coloma noted that Presi-dent Benigno Aquino III has yet to see the report.

Coloma again defended the President against criticism for publicly blaming Napeñas even before the board released its report, and said these were the President’s “personal thoughts” and “an overview” of the Mamasapano oepra-tion.

In the House of Represena-tives, lawmakers hit the PNP for keeping the public in sus-pense over the board’s final

report.Reps. Gary Alejano and

Ashley Acedillo of Magdalo partylist, Leopoldo Bataoil of Pangasinan, Romeo Acop of Antipolo and Samuel Pagdi-lao of ACT-CIS partylist also said the report was crucial for the House to resume its own investigation into the Mama-sapano massacre.

“Every day of delay casts a shadow of doubt and dilutes the BOI of its credibility and further the flames of distrust on the presidency,” the group said in a statement before the media at a forum Thursday.

“Our own inquiry in Con-gress had been put on the back burner, in suspended anima-tion, just to give way to the BOI,” the group added.

An administration law-maker, meanwhile, asked President Aquino to disclose everything he knows about the Jan. 25 Mamasapano op-eration and to avoid giving

piecemeal information that tends to raise more questions.

Valenzuela City Rep. Sher-win Gatchalian warned that failure on the part of the Pres-ident to reveal what he knows about Operation Exodus will further erode the command-er-in-chief ’s credibility and will ultimately result in the chief executive’s political death.

“The more President Aqui-no talks piecemeal about the Mamasapano incident, the more he buries himself in the political quicksand of his own doing. And if the chief executive can’t extricate him-self from this quicksand, he will be politically dead sooner than expected,” said Gatchal-ian, a member of the Nation-alist People’s Coalition, which is allied with the administra-tion.

Gatchalian added that Pres-ident Aquino’s “unstatesman-like” and “unpresidential” remarks against relieved SAF Director Getulio Napeñas were indications that he was confused about who to blame for the botched operation.

“The most glaring incon-sistency on the President’s statement before Christian leaders was his admission that suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima was the one texting him about the developments on Oplan Exodus based on the information being relayed to him by Gen. Napenas,” Gatchalian said.

“This fully contradicted the President’s Jan. 28 statement before Malacanang reporters that General Purisima was directly involved in the Ma-masapano operation only up to the time that he was sus-pended by the Ombudsman December of last year.”

Gatchalian said finding scapegoats and pinning the blame on the likes of Napeñas will not do the President any good since his own statements reveal that he knew about the SAF operation and as com-mander-in-chief, he had com-mand and control over both the SAF teams and the Army units in Maguindanao.

“What the President should do is to tell all, be humble enough to assume responsibil-ity for the fiasco and render justice to the SAF 44 soonest,” Gatchalian said. – Francisco Tuyay, Sara Susanne D. Fabu-nan and Maricel V. Cruz

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Pork-less lawmakers slam DBM fund policies

Bello: Aquino runsgovt like fraternity

Junjun refusesto leave city hall

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

COMMISSION ON APPOINTMENTS

A N N O U N C E M E N T

(TNS-MAR. 13, 2015)

President Benigno S. Aquino III has submitted to the Commission on Appointments (C.A.) for confirmation the adinterim appointments of the following officials:

Department of Foreign AffairsBernadette Therese C. Fernandez – Chief of Mission,

Class II; Shirlene C. Mananquil – Foreign Service Officer, Class I; Ferdinand P. Flores and Dominic Xavier M. Impe-rial – Foreign Service Officer, Class II

Armed Forces of the PhilippinesCornelio P. Pelaez – Brigadier General

The public may submit any information, written report or sworn complaints or oppositions in forty (40) copies on the above appointments to the CA Secretariat, 6th Floor, PNB Financial Center, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, Metro Manila.

For the schedule of the public hearings, the CA Secretariat can be reached through telephone numbers 551-7532, 831-0893, 831-1824, 834-2706, 831-1566 and 834-2713.

12 March 2015. ARTURO L. TIU Secretary

Sleeping bag. Embattled Makati Mayor Junjun Binay shows off his sleeping bag that he used in his office Wednesday night after the Ombudsman released its order suspending him for six months for allegedly overpricing the Makati City Hall Parking Building 2.

Vigil. Makati residents continued their vigil outside the Makati City Hall on Thursday after the Ombudsman released its order suspending Mayor Junjun Binay for six months over the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Parking Building 2. Ey AcASio

By Joel E. Zurbano and Macon Ramos-Araneta

MAKATI Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. stayed overnight at the Makati City Hall accompanied by his family, including his father Vice President Je-jomar Binay, in defiance of the six-month suspen-sion order of the Office of the Ombudsman.

At a press conference, the mayor said he was prepared to remain at City Hall as long as necessary to thwart any attempt by political opponents to replace him with his vice mayor, a member of the ruling Liberal Party.

“We will stay here. We will not al-low a member of the Liberal Party to take this place because of that order,” Binay said.

Aside from the Vice President, the mayor spent the night with his four chil-dren--Jejomarie Alexi, 12; Maria Isabel, 9; Jejomar III, 7, and Maria Kennely, 5, and sister Senator Nancy Binay.

The Ombudsman suspended Binay and several other persons while they are being investigated for the alleged overpricing in the construction of the Makati City Hall Building II.

Assistant Ombudsman Asryman Rafanan warned Binay that he could be cited for contempt and arrested if

he defies the suspension order.Interior and Local Government

Secretary Manuel Roxas II, the Vice President’s bitter political rival, said he had no choice but to carry out the Ombudsman’s order.

“The law is the law, and we are all covered by the law,” Roxas said.

He also assured Makati residents that the suspension would not result in any interruption of city services.

The suspension of Binay and 22 others was ordered nearly a week after a special panel of investigators from the Ombudsman filed the complaint against the Vice President, his son and other city government officials.

The younger Binay said there was apparent haste in the issuance of the preventive suspension order. He said the concerned government agencies tasked to look into the case have al-ready been given all the documents they want relative to the construction of the building.

“They got all the documents they want. The contract for the architec-tural design was done during the pre-vious administration. I was not the mayor then and my involvement was only to pay the obligation of the city government,” said Mayor Binay.

Both the mayor and the camp of Vice President Binay have maintained that the allegations of overpricing did not have any factual or legal basis, and were part of an organized demolition campaign against the Vice President, who is leading the opinion polls for the 2016 presidential elections.

Binay’s lawyers earlier filed a peti-tion for certiorari and asked the Court of Appeals to issue a temporary re-

straining order against the Ombuds-man.

If the court turns down his petition, Binay said, his lawyers would explore other legal rememdies.

Late last year, Binay exposed a plan of their political opponents to unseat him and members of the city council to pave the way for the designation of Vice Mayor Romulo Peña Jr., a Liberal Party member, as acting mayor.

He added the plan is to have him and the entire City Council suspended to pave the way for the designation of their LP ally and a council filled with LP, Nacionalista Party and other per-sonalities who have not won a single election in the city.

Binay also lambasted his detrac-tors for not including in the evidence submitted to the Ombudsman an or-dinance showing the names of their political allies as principal authors to fund the City Hall Building 2.

The mayor said the complainants failed to provide the Ombudsman a copy of City Ordinance 2008-035, which he said, was principally spon-sored by a number of councilors, in-cluding Peña, then a sectoral represen-tative for the Liga ng mga Barangay, and former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado.

Peña is the incumbent vice mayor while Mercado ran for mayor in 2010 as official candidate of the Nacional-ista Party.

“This is no different from the 2006 suspension of my father and the entire City Council ordered by the Arroyo re-gime to get back at my father for being the leader of the opposition,” the mayor said. – With Nelson Flores, Francisco Tuyay, and Maricel V. cruz

By Maricel V. cruz and Joyce Pangco PañaresAKBAYAN party-list Rep. Walden Bello said Thursday he resigned from the House effective March 19 over his party’s continuing support for Presi-dent Benigno Aquino III, whom he accuses of being responsible for the death of 44 police commandos in Ma-masapano, Maguindanao, on Jan. 25.

The 44 were killed during an en-counter with Muslim rebels as they were pursuing the terrorist Zulkifli Abdhir alias Marwan.

Bello said his resignation was ac-cepted by the Office of the Speaker Wednesday night.

He said he personally handed over his resignation to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. He maintained that President Aquino III must be held ac-countable for the death of the SAF 44.

“The President should admit re-sponsibility,” he said.

“In fact, that is what the Filipino peo-ple have been demanding from him. It might be late but better late than never.”

Bello said one of the flaws of the President was his stubbornness. An-other was his loyalty to his friends.”

“He is very loyal to subordinates who are either corrupt or incompe-tent,” Bello said.

“The Cabinet is like a fraternity. In-stead of competence, instead of con-siderations based on rational discus-sion, loyalty is what counts.”

Bello made his statement even as Malacañang said there was no need to conduct a loyalty check on its allies after Bello’s withdrawal of support over Aquino’s handling of the Mama-sapano debacle.

“[Bello’s decision] is an internal mat-ter for the Akbayan party-list group. We do not see a need for a loyalty check,” Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.

“Bello’s decision was personal, and this does not mean our alliance with Akbayan has weakened because they continue to serve the government and

they remain an ally of the Aquino ad-ministration.”

Bello earlier said he could no longer support Aquino because of his “bra-zen cover-up” of his role in the Mama-sapano tragedy.

“I am withdrawing support from the President because I can no longer support a President who is washing his hands of responsibility in a mis-sion he planned and executed. I can-not support a man whose behavior is a disgrace,” he said.

Bello was supposed to deliver a privilege speech last Wednesday but the session was adjourned a few min-utes after it was opened at 4 pm due to lack of quorum.

Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Ale-jano, one of the members of the Saturday Group, said Bello’s withdrawal of support for the President “weakened” Aquino.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate said Bello’s resignation showed that even Aquino’s rabid allies could no longer stomach his “brazen lies, cacique arrogance and atrocious in-competence.”

But House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales Jr. denied Alejano’s view that Bello’s resignation weakened Aquino.

He said Bello’s replacement would be sitting as soon as Akbayan party-list’s next nominee was proclaimed.

He said Bello’s resignation as rep-resentative of Akbayan was between him and the party.

“That’s internal to them, but he is a big loss to Congress because he is a very intel-ligent congressman,” Gonzales said.

Bello is the first nominee of the Ak-bayan party-list and Rep. Barry Guti-errez is the second representative.

The Akbayan party-list group is considered a power bloc in the Aqui-no administration as its stalwarts are among the President’s appointees, and they include Presidential Ad-viser on Political Affairs Ronald Lla-mas, Commission on Human Rights chairwoman Loretta Ann Rosales and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. board member Risa Hontiveros.

By Maricel V. cruzCONGRESSMEN sought the ap-proval of a concurrent congres-sional resolution rejecting poli-cies of the Department of Budget and Management that purport-edly threaten the independence of Congress as a co-equal branch of government.

House leaders, including Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., House Majority Floor Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gon-zales II and Minority Leader and San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, filed House Concurrent Resolu-tion 10 affirmed the fiscal inde-

pendence of Congress.Complaining that over the past

15, Congress was only allocated an average of ½ of 1 percent of the national budget, the congressmen assailed the DBM for policies that restrict the release and use of gov-ernment funds.

“The present budgetary poli-cies formulated by the Executive, through the [DBM], threaten [Con-gress’] independence, encroach on its exclusive domain and violate the principle of separation of powers, upon which the entire fabric of our constitutional system is based,” the proposed resolution read.

Belmonte said he is confident

the Senate will support HCR No. 10 “affirming, ensuring and operationalizing the fiscal inde-pendence of the Congress of the Philippines.”

“The imposition by the DBM of restrictive policies, rules, pro-cedures, guidelines and condi-tions relative to the release and utilization of appropriations, ap-plicable only to executive offices and agencies, on the Congress of the Philippines, is an undue encroachment on the exclusive domain of the legislature and a violation of the principle of sepa-ration of powers,” HCR 10 read.

The resolution noted “the Ju-

diciary and other constitutional bodies, to safeguard and guaran-tee their independence, enjoy the full control of their financial af-fairs while Congress is subjected to regulations similarly imposed on executive agencies.”

“The legislative power vested in the Congress of the Philippines is plenary, complete, unimpaired and subject only to such limita-tions as are found in the Consti-tution,” the resolution said.

In an effort to ensure and opera-tionalize the fiscal independence of Congress, the HCR proponents said the following policies and pro-cedures need to be adopted:

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NEWSCYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

3 relatives of bomb maker Usman slain in fi ghting

By Joyce P. Pañares

MALACAÑANG said the country’s employment rate grew by 2.8 percent year-on-year in January, which translates to more than a million additional Filipino workers in the labor force.

“The Philippine Statistics Authority has announced the results of the January 2015 La-bor Force Survey, which pegs our employment rate at 93.4 percent. In real numbers, this translates to a year-on-year ad-dition of 1.04 million workers in the employment force, for a total of 37.5 million employed,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

Lacierda said the increase is al-most four times the 281,000 jobs created during the January 2013-2014 period, which posted an an-nual growth of only 0.8 percent.

“According to the January 2015

survey, employment grew across all classes of workers, except those in family-operated businesses,” he added.

The survey also showed that year-on-year underemployment rate went down to 17.5 percent, from 19.5 percent in January last year.

The January 2015 Labor Force Survey, however, did not include data from Region 8 to make it comparable to the previous ending in January 2014.

No survey was conducted in the area last year due to the dev-astation caused by super typhoon Yolanda, the PSA said.

“Since 2010, driven by our be-lief in good governance as good economics, the Aquino admin-istration has continued to enact widespread reforms, which have increased public trust in gov-ernment and spurred economic growth. This has led to a surge in investor interest in the country, beginning a virtuous cycle of em-powerment and inclusive growth,” Lacierda said.

“The new opportunities gener-ated by these investments have resulted in not just more jobs but also more meaningful livelihoods for our citizens, as indicated by the lower underemployment rate.”

“Amid concerns about increased global volatility and slower growth, the Philippines has continued to buck the trend and surpass ex-pectations. Moving forward, let us collectively work toward further entrenching our good governance reforms and making permanent the gains we have achieved,” the Palace official added.

The government survey came a day after a separate poll con-ducted by the Ibon Foundation showed that seven in 10 Filipinos have rated themselves as poor and had difficulty meeting their basic expenses in the past three months.

The survey, conducted from January 19 to 30, showed that 65 percent of the 1,501 respondents saw their families as poor.

Majority of the respondents (59 percent) also believed that their livelihood has not improved com-pared to a year ago, while 21 per-cent said their livelihood became worse.

“Asked how their family met household expenses in the past three months, 59 percent said they had difficulty in paying for elec-tricity, 53.6 percent said that they had difficulty in buying enough food, and 50.8 percent said they had difficulty buying medicines or paying for medical treatment,” Ibon Foundation said.

PH posts 2.8% increasein new jobs, Palace says

By Florante S. Solmerin

THREE relatives of terrorist bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman were among the casualties in the fighting that raged for most of Wednesday morning in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, accord-ing to Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Joselito Kak-ilala.

“Our commanders on the ground just reported to the AFP

General Headquarters about de-velopments. We are still counting the number of casualties as close-quarter battles are ongoing,” said Kakilala, concurrrent head of the miltiary’s Civil Relations Service, said

Kakilala said Usman’s relatives were among the 20 Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) who were killed in the fighting and he identified them Rene Masabpi and Kunudi Simeon.

“Our troops on the ground were still trying to identify the third one and all of them were reportedly buried somewhere in Sitio Ilang, Barangay Tina in Shariff Aguak,” Kakilala said.

The third relative was suppos-edly killed in clashes with Marine troopers in the swampland of Ba-rangay Pamalian in Shariff Say-dona Mustapha.

This brings the number of BIFF killed in the military offensive, that

started last Feb. 25, to 116 and 63 wounded.

The three fatalities were buried by retreating BIFF forces in shal-low graves in Sitio Ilang, Barangay Tina, Shariff Aguak Civilian in-formants pinpointed their burial sites to government troops.

The operating troops under Marine Battalion Landing Team-8 spotted more or less 20 bandits who were either dead or wounded during the series of firefights.

Farm girlseye crownsfrom Manilabeauty campsBy Joel Guinto

AS A child she waded in muddy rice paddies, now teenager Jani-cel Lubina struts down runways for the country’s top design-ers and is hoping to be crowned among the world’s most beauti-ful women.

Lubina is a star recruit in one of Manila’s beauty pageant boot camps, where shy, lanky teenage girls from remote farming prov-inces are transformed into poised Barbie dolls who can preach about world peace in six-inch heels.

Beauty pageants are hugely popular with women in the Phil-ippines, with many taking part in the hope it will lead to luxury liv-ing, success in high fashion, and movie stardom.

“My mother was a maid. I can’t be a maid forever and get stuck in the province,” 19-year-old Lubina told AFP before she auditioned for this year’s Binibining Pilipinas (Miss Philippines) contest.

Lubina mastered what is dubbed the “duck walk” at the Kagandah-ang Flores (Beauty of the Flower) training camp in Manila, where students are taught to perfect their beauty queen strut by swinging their hips from side to side like ducks.

Camp director and “duck walk” inventor Rodin Gilbert Flores ap-proaches training with the preci-sion of a scientist. He is a licensed chemical engineer who worked for a major glass company before shifting to entertainment.

“It’s is all about muscle memory. It’s calculated down to the move-ment of the hands,” he said.

“The girl should also show her personality. She can’t be like a mannequin with no expression on her face.”

Flores ruthlessly watches as his students, wearing two-piece bi-kinis and high heels “duck-walk” from one end of a dark covered basketball court to the other.

Sweat drips down their cheeks but they are not allowed to sit down until they perfect it.

“We’ll take in a girl, she will be in pain because of the duck walk, but the end result is she’ll be a head-turner,” he said.

Towering at six feet in heels, ra-ven-haired Lubina hopes to repre-sent the country in the Miss Uni-verse pageant, which has a huge following in the Philippines.

But Lubina’s camera-ready smile fades when she talks about her strug-gles back home in Palawan province, where she worked as a maid like her mother, while her father was recov-ering from a mild stroke.

“One time, I mopped floors for an entire day and my boss made me do it all over again because she didn’t like my work,” she said.

Lubina was discovered by a local make-up artist while she was out on an errand, walking on a dirt road. The beautician was amazed by her towering frame, she said.

She won P3,000 ($68) in her first pageant three years ago and has never looked back—for her the money has flowed in to the extent that she can support her family and pay for stroke treatment for her father. AFP

Pageant school. Aspiring beauty queen Janicel Lubina (center) and two other candidates practice their moves in one of Manila’s beauty pageant boot camps, where shy, lanky teenage girls from remote farming provinces are transformed into poised Barbie dolls who can preach about world peace in six-inch heels. AFP PHOTO / NOEL CELIS

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NEWS



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Palace allays fearsof rehab fund misuse

WHILE Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile opted to remain at the PNP General Hospital in Camp Crame, sixteen of his colleagues in the Senate asked the Sandiganbayan to place him under house arrest.

The senators, both belonging to the majority and minority blocs, signed a letter addressed to the anti-court’s third division which is hearing Enrile’s plunder case over the pork barrel scam.

“Compassion is urged to be extended to Senator Enrile on account of his health condition and his being 91 years old already,” read the letter.

The signatories to the letter were opposition Senators Vicente Sotto III, JV Ejercito, Nancy Binay and Gringo Honasan. Macon Araneta

By Joyce Panares

MALACAÑANG has shrugged off a report of the Commission on Audit that the government kept in banks P48.8 million in local and foreign donations for victims of super typhoon Yolanda instead of using these for recovery efforts.

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma did not address directly the observation of CoA that the actions of the Office of the Civil Defense and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council defeated

the purpose of the donations for Yolanda victims.

“There is nothing to worry. The money is safe in the banks,” Coloma said.

“The donations will not be misused. These will be used for

their intended purposes,” he added.

The CoA report, released on Wednesday, stressed that the donations were intended to assist the Yolanda victims and not for safekeeping in banks.

“Donations for Typhoon Yolanda remained intact with the depository bank. There were no disbursements out of the donations received,” read the audit report.

“What the victims need is speedy delivery of basic goods and services as temporary relief from their unexpected plight. We believe that this is the very essence

of the prompt donations entrusted by the donors and NDRRMC should actively play the very important role lodged to it in times of disasters,” it added.

CoA directed the OCD and the NDRRMC to utilize the donations for the intended purpose by determining the actual needs of the typhoon victims.

It also recommended that the OCD and the NDRRMC coordinate with other agencies and other relief providers on the grant of assistance already extended to the victims to avoid duplication.

Coalition pushes TRO vs K-12By Rey Rquejo and Macon Araneta

SEVERAL groups including Senator Antonio Trillanes IV have asked the Supreme Court to stop the government from carrying out the K-12 law for being unconstitutional.

In a petition filed before the high court, Trillanes and the Coalition for the K to 12 Suspension sought the issuance of a restraining order against K-12.

They said that the law violates the Constitutional rights of education workers and fails to provide for full protection to labor and promotion of full

employment and equality of employment opportunities for all as mandated in Article XIII, Section 3 of the Constitution.

“The Constitution promotes work creation or protection and not work displacement or loss. In the implementation of this law, education workers face the risk of early separation, forced retirement, constructive dismissal, diminution of salaries and benefits, labor contractualization and a general threat to self-organization,” the petitioners stressed.

Trillanes for his part stressed that the educational system “does not need

the K-12 program and the people cannot afford it.”

The present system worked for the earli generations and there is no reason why it shouldn’t work for for the present crop of students, Trillanes said. “We just need to fill in the shortages in classrooms, teachers, desks and books and increase the salaries of teachers.”

The petitioners said the IRR, Joint Guidelines and DepEd memo that were subsequently formulated had no basis under the K-12 Law, particularly in terms of the provisions on lower compensation (upon transfer to senior high school) and retrenchment.

Detour. The Public Works and Highways has called on the public to use alternative road as the southbound lane of Ayala Bridge in Quiapo will be closed starting March 13 from 10:00 am to 5:00 am. DANNY PATA

THE homicide case against eight Philippine Coast Guard personnel who figured in the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman off the coast of Balintang Island in May 2013 from Batanes will now be heard by a Manila City regional trial court.

The Supreme Court’s second division granted the request made by the PCG officers in June last year to order the transfer of the trial venue to Manila after the accused complained that the present venue would be |burdensome not only for accused but also for the prosecution.”

In a three-page notice of resolution, the SC also directed the Basco, Batanes regional trial court Branch 13 to forward records of the case to the executive judge of Manila RTC who will raffle off the case. Rey Requejo

IN BRIEF

16 senatorsseeking JPEhouse arrest

Manila RTCtapped for Taiwaneseslay case

Yolanda update. President Benigno S. Aquino III , Finance Secretary Cezar Purisima, Agrarian chief Virgilio delos Reyes and other members of the official family pray together before the Cabinet meeting on “Typhoon Yolanda Updates” at the Aguinaldo State Dining Room of the Malacañan Palace on Thursday (March 12, 2015). MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

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f r i D AY : m A r c h 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

newsCYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Marcos panelokays bill to name streets for Aquinos

Ombudsman dismissescases filed by Stradcom

Shabu-carrying commuter arrested in Cagayan Valley

By Macon R. Araneta

The panel of Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, chair of the senate committee on public works and highway, on Thursday ap-proved bills which seek to name two roads after the parents of President Benigno Aquino III.

Approved at the committee level were hBN 4400 naming as “Presi-dent Cory C. Aquino Avenue” the circumferential road at the junction of the Iloilo-Dumangas Coastal Road in Balabago, Jaro District, Iloilo City and hBN4398, naming a stretch of the national highway along the Iloilo Diver-sion Road as “Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. Avenue”.

The Marcos panel also gave its nod to house Bill No. 4400 which asks to call diversion road in Taclo-ban City, Leyte as Gov. Benjamin T. Romualdez Diversion Road.

The three bills were among the nine proposed measures which originated from the house of Representatives that seek to name or rename roads in various parts of the country.

Marcos’ panel likewise agreed to the committee’s omnibus ac-tion to hBN 1247—Naming the diversion road in Sorsogon City, Sorsogon as Salvador h. escude-ro III Diversion Road and hBN 4215—Naming the Camiguin Cir-cumferential Road in the Province of Camiguin into the Pedro P. Ro-mualdo Circumferential highway.

The other approved measures were hBN 5204—Naming “St. Paul Avenue” the road beside the St. Paul College of Ilocos Sur (SPCIS) high School Department Bantay, Ilocos Sur and SPCIS College De-partment in Bayubay, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur; hBN 1140—Naming the national road from Barangay Abangay to Barangay Poblacion, Dingle, Iloilo as ‘Board Member Ru-fino A. Palabrica, Jr. National Road’; hBN 4013—Renaming the Acop - Tublay, Kapangan - Kibungan - Ba-kun - Sinipsip, Buguias Secondary National Road in Benguet to Gov. Bado Dangwa National Road and hBN 4012—Renaming the Gurel - Bokod - Kabayan - Abatan Road, Benguet to Cong. Andres Acop Co-salan Road.

Also exonerated from the charg-es were LTO head executive As-sistant Menelia Mortel; Assistant Solictor General Renen Ramos; Police Supt Constante Agpaoa and former police Sr. Supt Rodrigo D. Bonifacio, president and chief ex-ecutive officer of the Unilateral Se-

curity and Safety Solution, Inc.The others were those claiming

to be the new officials of Stradcom Corp: Bonifacio Sumbilla, presi-dent and CeO; Dolney Sumbilla, Treasurer; Aderito Yujuico, board chairman; Rodolfo Millare, assistant corporate secretary; board directors

By Florante S. SolmerinA 28-year-old man who just ar-rived from Manila on board a passenger bus was arrested Tues-day after a kilo of shabu worth P5 million was found in his posses-sion at the terminal of Barangay Lbertad, Abulug, Cagayan, a late report from the Philippine Drug enforcement Agency (PDeA) said Thursday.

The suspect was identified as Francisco Torres, a resident of Gon-zaga town, which is located more or less 70 kilometers from Abulug.

In a phone interview, Cagayan provincial police director Senior Superintendent Ronaldo Olay said Torres was arrested by the ele-ments of the anti-illegal drug units of the Police Regional Office 2 and

provincial police with the support of the regional office of the PDeA.

he said the police received tips from anti-illegal drug assets on the arrival of Torres who was allegedly in possession of an undetermined amount of shabu on board RCJ Bus Lines with terminal in Abulug.

“True enough, the bus passed 6 o’clock in the morning when Tor-res was caught red handed with shabu,” Olay said.

PDeA director Arturo Cacdac Jr. said the recovered shabu from Tor-res has a street value of P5 million.

“Torres, who reportedly arrived from Manila, was at the waiting area of RCJ Bus Lines in Baran-gay Libertad, Abulug, Cagayan carrying the contraband when in-tercepted by the operating team,” Cacdac said.

Ronnie Bilang, enrico Bilang, and egy Geron; Jer Samson, corporate secretary and Narciso Inlong.

The 34 other respondents were security guards of the Unilateral Security & Safety Solutions.

Stradcom filed the graft case against the respondents for violation of Sec-tion 3 of Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), but the Ombudsman dismissed it due to insufficiency of evidence.

In a 40-page joint resolution ap-proved by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, the administra-tive cases of grave misconduct and Conduct Prejudicial to the best Interest of the Service against the respondents were also dismissed.

The finality of the resolution was

dated July 14, 2014.The cases stemmed from the com-

plaints of Cesar Quaimbao and Ric Gene Pilapil of Stradcom Corp. who alleged that the respondents conspired with each other in trying to take over on Dec. 2 and 9, 2010 the Stradcom IT office inside the LTO compound.

The complainants claimed that in the early morning of Dec. 2, 2010, the Sumbilla group attempted to enter the Stradcom compound to take control of the company but were prevented from entering the said facility.

The Sumbilla group then went to respondent Torres informing her and introduced themselves as the new officers and directors of Strad-com and that they were prevented from taking over the IT facility.

By Francisco Tuyay

The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the graft and criminal case filed by an Information Technology (IT) firm, Stradcom Corporation, against 47 people, including former Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Secretary Virginia Torres in connection with the alleged illegal takeover of its office five years ago.

Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos (right) exchanges plesantries with (from left) Leyte (1st Dist) Rep. Ferdinand Martin “FM” Romualdez, Ilocos (1st Dist) Rep. Ronald Singson and Iloilo (2nd Dist) Rep. Arcadio Gorriceta during the deliberation of House Bill 1042 naming the Diversion Road in Tacloban City, Leyte as Gov.Benjamin “KOKOY” T. Romualdez Diversion Road authored by Cong. Romualdez. The late Gov.Romualdez is the father of Cong Romualdez VeR NoVeNo

Call to resign. Members of the Alliance and Concerbed Teachers (ACT) demand for the resignation of President Benigno Aquino III as they claimed that the Aquino government’s poorly-planned K to 12 program only resulted to more complicated problems for the students during a press conference held recebtkt at the Vinson’s Hall University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. MANNY PALMeRo

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F R I D AY : M A R C H 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

NEWSCYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

A7

Petitioners question RTCjurisdiction on recall casePetitioners question RTCIN BRIEF

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan March 12—Smoking is now strictly prohibited in all government offices, hospitals, building, work areas, grounds and canteens within the Capitol compound and inside hospital grounds and premises provincewide.

Gov. Amado T. Espino, Jr. re-cently signed a memorandum calling for the implementation of the smoking prohibition in compliance with the Civil Ser-vice Commission Memoran-dum Circular No. 17, s. 2009 or the Smoking Prohibition Based on 100 % Smoke-Free Environ-ment Policy and the CSC-DOH Joint Memorandum Circular 2010-01 or the Protection of the Bureaucracy Against Tobacco Industry Interference.

In line with this, the Pro-vincial Government of Panga-sinan has adopted the guide-lines relative to the circulars to ensure a smoke-free, safe and healthy environment for employees as well as its clients.

The Circular also strictly pro-hibits smoking in government vehicles to ensure that employees and clients will be spared from the serious negative effects of first-hand, second-hand and even third-hand smoke.

It also ordered to remove ashtrays or any receptacle for dispensing cigarette refuse in different government offices to prevent officials, employ-ees and even the public from being tempted to smoke. Dexter A. See

DIPOLOG CITY, Zamboanga del Norte —For recording the most number of public high schools with student “zero dropout rate” (ZDR) in the soon-to-end school year (SY) 2014-2015, three Mindanao regions—including Western Mindanao (Region 9) were recently cited by the Depart-ment of Education (DepEd), a former WM education official here said Thursday.

Newly-retired DepEd Re-gion 9 Director Walter Albos said a memorandum he ear-lier received from Education Secretary Armin Luistro at-tributed the feat “to intensified implementation of the agen-cy’s Dropout Reduction Pro-gram (DORP) in Mindanao,” the country’s second largest island region.

Albos said Luistro’s memo listed Caraga (Region 13) with the most number of HS, 187, with ZDR, among the DepEd’s 17 regions while Au-tonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and WM (R-9) registered 99 and 98 HS with ZDR to place second and third, respectively.

Luistro’s memo, Albos said, listed the other regions and their respective number of HS with ZDR as Central Visayas (R-7), 87 HS; Ilocos (R-1), 84; Cagayan Valley (R-2), 84; Central Mindanao (R-12), 60; Calabarzon (R-4A), 60; Cen-tral Luzon (R-3),56; Western Visayas (R-6), 41; Mimaropa (R-4B), 35; Bicol (R-5), 41; Northern Mindanao (R-10), 42; Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), 39; Southern Mindanao (R-11), 32, and Na-tional Capital Region (NCR), 24. A. Perez Rimando

Pangasinan govt bans smoking in offi ces, hospitals

Mindanao regions topDepEd ‘zero dropout rate’

Baler to deploy 151 ‘bgy firefighters’

Branch 83-RTC Judge Guillermo Agloro, who issued the temporary re-straining order last Friday that stopped the scheduled validation of petitioners sig-natures and thumb marks set last March 9 to 23 in connection with the recall proceedings, gave the peti-tioners until today (Friday, March 13) to answer why re-call-petitioner Perlita Men-

doza should not be allowed to participate in the hearing as an intervenor.

Atty. Bernadette Sardi-llo, Mendoza’s counsel, � led a ‘motion to intervene’ and ‘motion to dismiss’ last March 10 before Agloro’s sala argu-ing that the petition for the issuance of a TRO and in-junction against the recall proceedings violates the rule on ‘forum-shopping’.

By Ferdie G. Domingo

BALER, Aurora—� e Bu-reau of Fire Protection (BFP) here said it would deploy 151 barangay � re brigades in the province to boost its over-all � re� ghting capability and minimize � re occurrence and loss of lives and properties during � re outbreaks.

Provincial Fire Marshal Bryan Pocyao said the � re brigades aim to involve the entire community in the � re prevention e� orts.

“As we all know, pre-venting or putting out � re requires not only the � re-� ghters of the BFP but also concerted e� orts among the citizenry. As the basic unit in society, the barangays should also be involved and

� re brigades should be the � rst reactionary forces or re-sponders during the occur-rence of � re,” he said.

Pocyao unveiled the plan to deploy the barangay � re brigade as he discussed the BFP’s preparedness in deal-ing with � res, particularly as this month is being observed as Fire Prevention Month un-der Presidential Proclamation 115.

In line with the obser-vance, Pocyao said that they have intensi� ed � re safety awareness campaign by training more people in � re-� ghting techniques and the holding last Mon-day of a Baler Fire Olym-pics (BFO).

� e BFO is highlighted by activities on � re hose man-agement, � re extinguish-

ment, bucket relay and tug-of-war participated by more than 200 individuals from this town’s 13 barangays.

He said the 64 � re per-sonnel in the province have been touching base with barangay people through the regular “Barangay Ug-nayan,” to strengthen and evaluate the capabilities of every barangay, especially barangay volunteers, in re-sponding to � re and other related emergencies.

To further improve � re-busting e� orts in Aurora, Pocyao said they are plan-ning to put up three satellite � re stations in the northern part of this province cov-ering the so-called Dicadi area involving the towns of Dinalungan, Casiguran and Dilasag.

Sardillo also questioned the RTC’s jurisdiction over the Comelec citing the reso-lution of the Supreme Court issued last Feb. 16 dismiss-ing Alvarado’s petition for the issuance of a TRO which in turn gave the green light for the Comelec en banc to order the immediate hold-ing of the recall elections before May 9 this year.

However, Alvarado’s lawyer were able to secure the TRO last March 6 citing the non-compliance of Mendoza with the procedural guidelines on the posting and publication of the “Petition for Recall”. Alvarado accused Mendoza or railroading the procedures when she herself caused the publication of the ‘petition’ instead of the Comelec Pro-

vincial Election Supervisor who should have performed such o� cial acts.

Alvarado also raised the is-sue of non-compliance with the jurisdictional require-ment of Sec.16 of Comelec Resolution 7505 when Men-doza published the ‘petition’ in the tabloid Rekta, a � y-by-night weekly newspaper which is not accredited as a newspaper of general circula-tion in the province as certi-� ed by the RTC-O� ce of the Clerk of Court.

Alvarado’s lawyer also � led this week an amend-ed-petition praying that the Court include all the 24 Election O� cers (EO) in the 21 municipalities and three (3) component cities of Bulacan, namely Malolos,

Meycauayan and San Jose Del Monte, as defendant-re-spondent in the TRO issued by the court.

Bulacan PES Atty. Jerbee Anthony Cortez, the main respondent-defendant in the case elicited laughter at the courtroom when he replied “no comment,” when asked to comment on the manifesta-tions of the opposing parties.

Judge Agloro, however, said he will issue on Mon-day, March16 a ruling on all the pending motions before the Court.

Meanwhile, a huge-crowd of some 10,000 showed their support for Gov. Alvarado leadership during a ‘Day of Prayer for Unity’ at the Pro-vincial Capitol compound last Wednesday a� ernoon.

By Orlan L. Mauricio

MALOLOS City—Petitioners on Thursday questioned the jurisdiction of the Regional Trial Court of Bulacan, as their lawyers raised the issue of ‘forum-shopping’ against Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado at the resumption of the hearing on the recall election proceedings here.

Heavy load. Edwin Cabulana, 37 years old, walks along the island of Lapu lapu City in Cebu while carrying a piece of furniture in the hope of selling it to residents of the city. Cabulana has to endure the hot temperature reaching 31 degrees. The furniture seller starts walking at around 4:30 a.m. and ends his day at 7 p.m. The furniture, which was built by his uncle in Pardo Cebu, sells for 3,500, P500 of which goes to his own pocket. RALPH PIEZAS

E-learning. Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), marketer of the Caltex fuel and lubricants, and Chevron Holdings Inc. (CHI), a pioneer multi-functional shared services center, in partnership with the American Chamber Foundation Philippines Inc. (AmCham Foundation), turn over 48 computers and 2 printers to the 20 public elementary schools in San Pascual, Batangas to help raise the level of education of at least 2,763 Grade 4 to Grade 6 students in the municipality. Photo shows (from left) AmCham Foundation Program Manager Melque Caspe together with Project Coordinator Daisy Palor, DepEd Batangas Schools Division Superintendent Carlito Rocafort, CPI Policy Government and Public Affairs Coordinator Cherry Ramos, and DepEd San Pascual District Supervisor Joel Lubis.

opinionA10

[ EDI TORI A L ]

Nasty weather aheadThe weather bureau has just forewarned Filipinos. Less rainfall will be experienced before the onset of the wet season because of a mild dry spell, but stronger typhoons could hit the Philippines this year as a result of the same weather phenomenon

The Philippine Atmo-spheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Ad-ministration, or Pagasa, con-ceded that the el Niño could make storms “stronger” and more “erratic” in 2015 amid climate change.

“el Nino may cause the behavior of tropical cy-clones to become erratic,

affecting [their] tracks and intensity,” weather bureau chief Vicente Malano said in an advisory. “The tropi-cal cyclone tracks are ex-pected to shift northward and [their] intensity could become stronger.”

Recent typhoons in the Philippines have increased their ferocity and tended to strike even outside the tra-ditional rainy season and hit once largely untouched ar-eas.

Climate change, mean-while, has become more no-ticeable. The weather bureau expects below-normal rain-fall this month in most parts

of the country but more rains over the western section of the country in July. Many parts of the Philippines had already been experiencing less than the normal amount of rainfall as early as Novem-ber 2014 due to the el Niño.

The national government, especially those in charge of planning and disaster response, should heed the warning of Pagasa to mini-mize damage and loss of lives when the typhoon sea-sons sets in. Super typhoon Yolanda, the strongest ever to hit land, left over 7,000 people dead or missing in the Visayas in November

2013 after dumping tsuna-mi-like waves on coastlines and wiping out entire vil-lages.

The government this early must permamently relocate those living along the water-ways of Metro Manila and people sheltered in disaster-prone areas. River and other water systems should be de-clogged once and for all to partly solve flooding in Met-ro Manila.

Climate change, as shown by recent strong typhoons and the more frequent oc-curence of el Niño, requires a more active response from authorities.

A11adelle chuaE D I T O R

F R I d aY, M a R c h 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

OPINION

I met Sondang tampubulon in my graduate school class on the Philosophy of the Civil Code. I did not know then that she was an Indonesian. And after having visited Indonesia I am quite sure that anyone else would be hard put to distinguish between a Fili-pino and an Indonesian by features alone. It was only later on when she approached me to seek my approval of her thesis title -- she is writing on the archipelagic doctrine, Indonesia being one of its principal proponents -- that I knew. Aside from maintaining a reputable law firm, she is very much into politics. Garnita malahayati is her po-litical party that forms part of the incu0mbent In-donesian President’s coalition. I asked her what she thought of the idea of my choir, the Coro de San Jacinto, visiting Indonesia for a concert, and she was enthused. I needed no further prodigy. God, I was pi-ously convinced, had made his will known through Sondang, although this faith was sorely put to the test when in Novem-ber, when we had first set the Indonesia visit, after we had purchased tickets on budget fares aboard Cebu Pacific, I was stricken by dengue. Flights had to be rebooked -- normally impossible for bud-get fares -- but thanks to Prof. teddyboy Locsin’s powerful intercession, the CebuPac management graciously waived penalty charges for rebooking. And so it was that on march 6, at close to mid-night, a group of thirty-three, our Coro family, left for Jakarta. But I had another mission too. Sondang had earlier told me that professors of law who sought higher degrees often had to go to Singapore or, more frequently, Germany. We were set to discuss the broad strokes of bringing San Beda’s Graduate School of Law to Indonesia!

I was surprised to learn that Indonesia is approxi-mately eight to ten times the size of the Philippines. It straddles three time zones and since it was obvi-ous that we neither had the time nor the where-withal to tour all of this huge archipelago, our host billeted us at a government facility -- taman mini, the Indonesia answer to our erstwhile Nayong Pili-pino. Immediately upon arrival, almost all asked

about the availability of WiFi. None was available -- and it turned out to be a grand experience for us all and an abject lesson on our irrational de-pendence on being wired! At break-

fast time -- the only meal we had in residence (the rest were in various places Sondang took us to) -- we talked with each other. We would otherwise have been pathetically oblivious of each other, friends in lived space, preoccupied rather with keeping our ‘friends’ on Facebook informed of our goings on. I told the youngsters of the group that such was life in our simpler, iPad-less days. The good news is that none died from internet starvation!

The march 7 concert was a beautiful experi-ence for us, and, we were told, it was for our audi-ence as well. Senior high school students, wear-ing the costume of Aceh Province, performed a

dance number -- not really a dance that consisted in foot movements, but rather in rhythmic gestures, and we were pleasantly surprised that the young Indonesians could easily express themselves in english. Our numbers were very warmly received and ev-ery song, our kind audience rewarded us with applause.

We opened with Close to You, sang Bituin Walang Ningning and Bato sa Buhangin as our Filipino numbers, and surprised our hosts when we sang an Indonesian song beloved to them all: Bengawan Solo, that had been expertly arranged for choral performance.

Bahasa at first sounded strange to us all of us. Then we recognized many words: lakilaki, ruangan, dorong, that are familiar words in the languages of Northern Philippines, Iluco, for one but unknown to tagalogs. And then it dawned on many of us: Does not Waray sound as foreign to the Ibanag, or Bisaya to the Itawes as Bahasa does to us, and are there not enough words and sentence-patterns nonetheless to remind us that we come from the same corner of the world? So it was that after only two days, the younger mem-bers of the Coro had picked up enough Bahasa to haggle with street-vendors -- and to poke fun at each other!

Jakarta days

PhILIPPINe history’s most popular president ever to be elected is now facing the worst crisis of his presidency. there is a growing clamor for his resignation, if not outright removal. From the pinnacle of popularity and power to the pit of calumny and ignominy – that has been the fate of Benigno Simeon (BS) Cojuangco Aquino Jr.

Noynoy Aquino was elected on may 10, 2010 with 15.2 million votes – the greatest number of votes ever garnered by a winning Philippine pres-idential candidate. the 15.2 million is 42 percent of the total votes cast for president and 5.7 mil-lion more votes garnered by the second placer, the come-backing deposed former president Jo-seph ejercito “erap” estrada who had 9.487 mil-lion votes (26.25 percent of the votes).

Before Aquino, Gloria macapagal Arroyo grabbed the most number of votes cast for presi-dent, 12.9 million – 40 percent of the vote – and 1.123 million more votes than the second placer’s 11.78 million (36.5 percent) polled by actor Fer-nando Poe Jr. in 2004.

When he first ran for president, in 1998, Jo-seph estrada won with 10.722 million votes, 6.4 million more votes than the second placer, former Speaker Jose de Venecia’s 4.268 million. erap had 39.86 percent to JdV’s 15.83 million (15.83 percent). In terms of winning margin, erap’s 6.4 million and 24 percentage point-lead over his nearest rival remains unbeaten.

Alas, a huge popular mandate is no guar-antee of stability in the presidency. After only 30 months in office, erap was ousted by People Power II in January 2001, and replaced by then-Vice President Gloria macapagal Arroyo. People Power I defanged strongman Ferdinand e. mar-cos who was succeeded by Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. She never won the presidency but was installed by a People Power revolt.

Will BS Aquino be ousted by People Power III?that is not clear at the moment. With 15

months and a half before the formal end of his presidency on June 30, 2016, the odds are stacked against those seeking Aquino’s ouster by People Power, by a coup, or by a forced resignation.

Resignation is out of the question for Noynoy Aquino. that is not in his genes. that leaves a coup or People Power or a blend of both – the kind that ended marcos’s 20-year reign and es-trada’s 30-month presidency.

marcos had four years remaining in his presi-dency when removed in February 1986. estrada had three and a half years to go before his term was abbreviated in 2001.

Ousting nOynOy

Continued on A12

Integration has to be about people coming

together.

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VIRTUALREALITY

TONYLOPEZ

Continued on A12

PENSEES

FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN

AQUINO

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OPINIONF R I D AY, M A R C H 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

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No to tax exemptioN, yes to peNsioNs

Are our legislators sincere in ex-empting the world’s first and only eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao from paying tax-es for the $80 million prize money that he would get in his upcoming fight with undefeated, five-divi-sion world champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr.?

They better do it before May 2 when the two would fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada to decide who the undisputed welterweight champion of the world is between the two of them.

Other than to inspire him to win for the honor and glory of the country, their main purpose – no doubt - is to gain “pogi” points for their exclusive tax measure in favor of their colleague Congressman Manny.

They all can use in the coming 2016 elections any endorsement from him despite his lackluster election record.

Wasn’t it a woman – rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio - who made him taste his first defeat in the political arena? He absorbed this loss in his 2007 political debut to represent South Cotabato in Congress. Only after he moved to his wife’s nearby province of Sarangani did he win as con-gressman in 2010 over wealthy and politically well-entrenched roy Chiongbian. But by 2013 when he ran for reelection, nobody dared oppose him anymore.

In his fight with Floyd, what are at stake? Win or lose, Manny would receive unimagina-

ble sums of money – despite tax deductions - while a clear victory would catapult him into joining the greatest boxers of all time club and the Senate in 2016.

But for simple-minded and adoring Filipino boxing fans like us, we would commit to him in advance our votes for his presidential bid in 2022.

Does boxing champ Manny need any tax ex-emption privilege?

Perhaps he could enlist as an overseas Filipino worker and be exempted immediately from paying taxes. The fight prize, after all, is income earned outside the Philippines - in the USA.

The amount of tax exemption he could save is worth one-third of this income, but in return, it would earn him critics for life in addition to the Bureau of Internal revenue’s Kim Henares. They could always accuse him of having taken tax mon-ey that was intended for the poor.

Actually, he had rejected outright the idea of his exemption from paying taxes. He had foreseen that it would only blemish his image as the peo-ple’s champ who does not stop sharing his good fortunes with the poor.

Clearly, this is a demonstration of his well-de-veloped instinct for survival, this time in the po-litical arena.

This reminds me - with sadness - of former

Senator Panfilo Lacson whose previous public performance had turned him into a statesman and a formidable presidential timber in 2016 until he carelessly took that Herculean challenge to be-come PNoy’s rehabilitation czar in

Yolanda-ravaged Tacloban City.PNoy gradually showed his dislike –not con-

tempt, maybe - of Tacloban, and never supported the senator’s sincere efforts to help the city stand up on its feet again.

At the end, Senator Lacson had to resign with-out accomplishing anything except to submit a re-habilitation blueprint. By that time, he has become a forgotten ex-senator who could not even express his true sentiments on national issues. If he did, he would have sounded as if he were ungrateful to his once-boss president.

Manny attracted more adoring fans when he told the well-intentioned author – Senator Koko Pimentel - to “instead focus on other achievers, who bring honor and glory to the Philippines, in the field of sports as well as in the arts, science, culture, and other fields instead of giving him tax exemption in his forthcoming megabuck fight.”

Gamely, Senator Koko promised to file such a bill or resolution.

But shouldn’t he file instead a bill that would grant pensions for life to sports greats?

For instance, eugene Torre – Asia’s first chess grandmaster –has brought so much honor and glory to the country in the last four decades that the trophies, medals and citations he had brought home could fill up a museum room.

He barely makes any income now from playing chess and would not benefit from any tax exemption.

What he needs is a pension for life similar to what national artists get.

But a national artist status is granted only after a long, tedious process that requires at the end the final approval and conferment of the award by the president.

On the other hand, eugene and other athletes —especially those who remained amateurs—have brought honor and glory to the country by win-ning in prestigious international competitions. This is equivalent to the national artist selection process.

Perhaps, Manny meant that we show our appre-ciation for our outstanding achievers in sports – as we do now for our national artists and scientists - through pension grants at retirement, disability and death when they and their dependents need those most.

Otherwise, eugene and Manny would end up receiving only P500 as social pension. This is much inferior to those received by public servants whose contributions of honor and glory to the country were not as significant.

filipinopensioner

horacetemplo

ousting..From A11

As much as possible, people want a peaceful transition of power, the kind that ousted both Mar-cos and estrada. That is difficult to maneuver to-day, given an election in May 2016, which is barely 13 months away. People would rather wait out the remaining bumbling years of Aquino’s presidency than resort to violent means of change.

Still, a coup remains a possibility. There are rumblings within the ranks of the 130,000-strong Armed Forces and the 148,500-strong Philippine National Police.

Aquino’s blame throwing after the Mamasapano Massacre has shamed the leadership of the PNP, in-sulted the 44 PNP Special Action Force comman-dos who died in Mamasapano on Jan. 25, 2015, and exposed rifts between the top echelons of the PNP and the AFP.

Senior and battle-tested generals of the AFP have also been made to appear stupid, incompetent, and cowardly, unable to come to the aid of their brothers in arms when the SAF commandos were beleaguered by thousands of enemy forces in Ma-masapano.

The sacked chief of the PNP SAF, two-star police general Getulio Napeñas, has been made to appear

stupid and incompetent by his own commander-in-chief, Benigno S. Aquino, using the slang and lingo of gangsters and crime syndicates words—like “bi-nola” (lied to), and “kulang sa pagiisip nang maay-os” (short of right thinking).

A highly educated and decorated officer, Napeñas by this time, is not inclined to take the presidential insults and blame game sitting down. Initially, he has hired a lawyer to do the verbal counter-punch-ing for him.

At the same time, AFP Chief of Staff, Gen. Grego-rio Catapang (his name means “courage”); the chief of the Western Mindanao Command, Lieut. Gen. rustico Guerrero (his name means “warrior”), and the chief of 6th army Infantry Division Major Gen. edmundo Pangilinan (his name means “fang”) are by now uncomfortable by the recent turn of events. Their once sterling records as the military’s top ca-reer men and combat officers have been tainted by a scandal that is just now unraveling.

The way to approach Aquino’s ouster then is like demolishing a building the slow motion way – piece by piece or brick by brick, until there is nothing left of the structure but a leader shorn of credibility, fol-lowers, and power, except a fancy title.

[email protected]

Jakarta...From A10

Ambassador Maria Lumen Isleta, who has just taken up her post in Indonesia after a tour of duty in Laos, re-ceived us with the warmth, hospitality, and graciousness that we thought we would never receive from the Philip-pine Diplomatic mission in Indonesia. earlier attempts, before Ambassador Lumen took up her post, to involve them in our visit did not augur well for us, but she not only sent a contingent from the diplomatic mission to the concert. She was in attendance at the Mass at St. Cath-erine Church in Taman Mini where we sang on Sunday, joining us for the breakfast to which the parish priest so kindly treated us. The very next day, we were her guests for dinner at the embassy, and we treated the members of the Philippine diplomatic mission to Kahit na Magtiis, Canseco’s Ikaw, the immortal Nahan and Bituin Walang Ningning.

As important I think as the legal framework for ASeAN integration and the attempts at linking econo-mies, industries and professions are the ties forged in less structured but none the less equally felicitous ways as visits made, cultures appreciated, academic links estab-lished and friendships nurtured! If it is to mean anything significant for the ordinary Filipino, or for the Indonesia on the street, integration has to be about people coming together!

[email protected][email protected][email protected]

Bloomberg editorial

THe relentless controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of e-mail during her time as secretary of state raises a question: If her candidacy for president (not yet announced, but widely assumed) falters or implodes—as sometimes happens to front-runners—will her party have an alternative? For voters’ sake, the answer should be yes. That’s just one reason Democratic politicians—the more, the merrier—should take on the daunt-ing task of challenging Clinton for the nomination.

At the moment, four Democrats are playing presidential footsie. Vice President Joe Biden has visited Iowa, New Hamp-shire and South Carolina this year and indicated that if he were to run, it would be as the “sticking with what works” candidate. Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is positioning himself as a bit more liberal than Clinton without all the bag-gage, a fresh face from (slightly) outside of Washington.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is an independent who calls himself a Democratic socialist, crusades against the influence of money in politics, and appeals to the party’s ideological Ben & Jerry’s-eating activists. Former Virginia Senator Jim Webb is a populist who is as critical of Wall Street as he is of foreign military intervention, and his attacks on affirmative action and defense of gun rights speak to white voters who have been de-serting the party—or feeling deserted by it.

Others could yet emerge. Senator elizabeth Warren might change her mind, and the Al Gore chatter has already begun.

The field should be diverse. Primaries offer the best oppor-tunity for parties to conduct a national debate over their goals and ideals. And a lot has changed since Democrats last did this in 2008. In recent years, the party has been battling over how to approach education reform, income inequality, public-sector unions, trade, climate change and other issues. A contested pri-mary would force candidates to take sides, allowing voters to determine the party’s direction.

“Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend,” Mao Zedong said to encourage critics of the Communist regime to come forward with new ideas. True, some who spoke up in China in the 1950s were later executed or sen-tenced to hard labor. But the price of challenging Clinton is not so high: frustration and defeat, perhaps—or, worse, the vice-presidential nomination.

Who Will challeNge

hillary?

[email protected]

fri day: March 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

sports

Seno, Llamas bannerConsolacion net cast

Ateneo batters score 3-peatMayniladholds WorldWater Day Run 2015

ATENEO overcame hitting struggles to frustrate De La Salle, 3-2, and claim its third straight title yesterday in the UAAP Season 77 baseball tournament at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium.

Dio Remollo had a beautiful sacrifice bunt to move up Enzo Orbeta and Matt Laurel, fol-lowed by a Ryon Tionloc fly out on to Andre Palacios.

Then, first base Carlos Munoz committed a throwing error, which led to runs by Orbeta and Laurel to give the Blue Eagles a 3-2 advantage.

The Green Batters never re-covered from there, ruing that

costly miscue that cost them Game 2.

Ateneo swept the best-of-three series, 2-0, to cement its baseball dynasty.

The Eagles’ victory gave a grand send-off to six graduat-ing players, led by Matt Laurel, who bagged the Best Slugger, Most Homeruns and Most RBIs awards.

“It’s my seniors, who delivered.

They don’t want to lose,” said At-eneo team manager Randy Dizer. “I think it was our composure that won it for us.”

The Eagles, despite the loss of their key players, who have com-pleted their playing eligibility, are looking forward in continu-ing their domination with some prized recruits coming in.

“I think I go for four, five, six...hopefully. It’s my dream that I’m working on it,” said Dizer.

La Salle’s Boo Barandiaran claimed the Rookie of the Year and Best Pitcher plum, while his teammate Dino Imperial shared with Matt Laurel for the Most RBIs award.

University of the Philippines’

Jose Miguel San Juan and Ad-amson University’s Manuel Luis Navasero bagged the Best Hitter and Most Stolen Bases plums, re-spectively.

At the end of softball elimi-nations on Wednesday, five-peat seeking Adamson jumped straight to the Finals with its 60th straight win with a 13-2 win over National University.

UP beat La Salle, 7-0, to force a playoff for the No. 2 spot in the stepladder semifinals against Uni-versity of Santo Tomas, a 7-0 win-ner over University of the East.

The Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Batters will clash in a play-off for the last semis berth on Saturday.

MAYNILAD Water Services, Inc. is presenting the “World Water Day 2015: Let’s Run for Water and Sustainable Devel-opment,” organized by Run-ners Republiq and RG Events this March 22 at the CCP Complex, Pasay City.

The run is part of a week-long celebration from March 16 to 22 of World Water Day, in coordination with government agencies and private organiza-tions.

The event is expected to draw some 4,000 runners, in-cluding employees of 25 pri-vate organizations and govern-ment agencies led by DENR.

As culminating activity for the week-long celebra-tion of World Water Day 2015 from March 16 to 22, the run aims to inspire Filipinos to do their part in promoting greater access to clean water and environ-mental responsibility. The initiative also aims to create awareness on the role of wa-ter in meeting all develop-ment needs.

Race categories include 1K and 3K for fun runners, as well as 5K, 10K and 21K for com-petitive runners.

A special touch to the event shall be a symbolic 1K fun walk, wherein the participants shall be carrying saplings throughout the race. These saplings shall be the planted in Maynilad’s La Mesa Water Treatment Plant Compound, the facility that produces drinking water for 8.9 million people daily.

For more details about the run and other Maynilad-led WWD events, visit FB/May-niladWaterWarrior or FB/run-nersrepubliq.

JAN Godfrey Seno and Tracy Llamas try to make it two-in-row as they headline the field in the Consolacion leg of the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala regional age group presented by Techni-fibre at the Consolaction Ten-nis Club which gets going today in Laray, Cebu.

Seno and Llamas racked up two victories each in last week’s LapuLapu leg of the nationwide circuit with the former, a Bogo, Cebu native, installed as the player to beat in the boys’ 18- and 16-and-under classes. Llamas, on the other hand, seeks to score a repeat in the girls’ 14- and 18-U categories with the La Carlota mainstay also vying in the 16-U section of the Group 2 tourna-ment sponsored by the country’s leading pawnshop, remittance and claim center.

Llamas, however, will have her hands full in the centerpiece event top-billed by Ma. Domin-ique Ong, Shyne Villareal, Zeth-ley Alferez, Kristin Salimbangon and Queene Tunacao. Villar-eal, Alferez and Salimbangon are also seeing action in the 16-U

side of the five-day event sanc-tioned by the Philippine Tennis Association headed by president and Paranaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez.

“Despite the presence of the big guns, we expect a number of reversals that has been the norm in all our tournaments with new faces andd promising players emerging,” said Palawan Pawn-sho COO Bobby Castro.

Meanwhile, the 10th leg of the 38-stage circuit will be held March 20-23 at the Ouans Re-sort Tennis Courts in Lucena, Quezon. Registration is ongoing. For details, call Bobby Mangu-nay, PPS-PEPP Sports Program Development director, at 0915-4046464.

Lyra Repollo and Tifanny No-cos banner the girls’ 12-U cast while Sebastien Lhuillier, Har-land Hogan, Edgardo Angara and Vhenz Alforque are tipped to slug it out for the boys’ 14- and 12-U diadems.

The chase for the 10-uni-sex crown is also tipped to go down-to-the-wire among No-cos, Ethan Quino, Josh Abad and John Coderos.

Polo sidelights. Accompanied by wife Sheila (back row, seventh from left) and children, Globalport owner Mikee Romero (ninth from right) poses with the patrons and players of the six teams that took part in the recent 3rd Philippine Polo Open. The Romeros staged several activities during the week-long event, including a gala show for the benefit of the families of the “Gallant SAF 44”.

Freestyle champ. Christian Tio performs his tricks en route to ruling the Freestyle event of the ICTSI Philippine Kiteboarding Tour-Season 2 in Puerto Princesa, Palawan recently. The Boracay-based Tio, who also topped the Camarines stop last month, went on to bag the overall crown in his pet event at the close of the four-leg circuit organized by the Philippine Kiteboarding Association.

NO. NAME OF PROJECT AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

IMPLEMENTING OFFICE

APPROVED BUDGET FOR THE CONTRACT (ABC)

1 Dental Kits for the use of Preschool to Grade 3 pupils of various schools of Dep-Ed Makati DEP-ED P4,931,283.75

2Laptop Computers for the implementation of Information and Communication Technology Education of various schools of Dep-Ed Makati

DEP-ED P98,406,000.00

3 VITEK 2 GN and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P9,548,000.00

4 HemaAnalyzer Diluent and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P8,966,944.81

5 Special Phosphate and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P6,500,908.48

6 Blood Agar Base and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P5,025,610.43

7 ABG Syringe and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P4,002,888.00

8 Evacuated Tubes and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P2,494,022.45

9 Polyvitex Mixtures and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P2,374,365.15

10 Tris Buffer and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P2,269,781.38

11 HIV Ag/Ab Combo Reagent and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P2,191,898.00

12Fan Aerobic Culture Bottles and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati

OSMAK P5,723,636.06

13Fetal Heart Doppler System and other medical equipment for Makati Rescue Medical Support Services Program

DRRMO P3,676,900.00

14 Glucose and other laboratory supplies for the use of Ospitalng Makati OSMAK P8,871,582.24

15 Teacher’s and Instructor’s Fee for S.M.A.R.T. 2015 Program OM P3,256,352.00

1. The MAKATI CITY GOVERNMENT, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), invites interested bidders to apply for eligibility and to bid for the above projects, with Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) indicated, inclusive of all taxes, such as, but not limited to, value added tax (VAT), income tax, local taxes and other fiscal levies.

Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at Bid Opening.

2. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

3. Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

4. A complete set of Bidding Documents will be available one (1) day after posting / publication of the above projects up to Closing Date (before the deadline of the submission of bids),weekdays only from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from the address below and upon payment of a non-refundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount stated on the issued order of payment to the City Government of Makati Cashier.

5. The BAC will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on March 19, 2015 (02:00 P.M.) at PiodelPilar Conference Room, 21st floor, New Makati City Hall Building, F. Zobel Street, Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City to discuss Eligibility Requirements and the Technical and Financial Components of these projects. However, only those interested Bidders who have purchased the Bidding Documents are allowed to raise and submit queries or clarifications regarding the Bidding Documents.

6. Deadline of Submission of Bids shall be on or before March 31, 2015 (02:00 P.M.), atPiodelPilar Conference Room, 21st floor, New Makati City Hall Building, F. Zobel Street, Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City.

Opening of Bids shall be on March 31, 2015 (02:00 P.M.), at Pio del Pilar Conference Room, 21st floor, New Makati City Hall Building, F. Zobel Street, Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City.

7. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the said address. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18. Late bids shall not be accepted.

8. The MAKATI CITY GOVERNMENT reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, or to reduce the corresponding ABC and Terms of Reference (TOR), without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

For further information, please visit or contact: BAC SECRETARIAT OFFICEMakati City Government9th Floor, New Makati City Hall BuildingF. Zobel Street, Brgy.Poblacion, Makati CityTel. No. 870-1000 loc. 1331; Fax No. 899-8988website: www.makati.gov.ph

(SGD.) Atty. ELENO M. MENDOZA, JR.Chairman (MST-MAR. 13, 2015)

Bids and Awards CommitteeJ.P. Rizal St. corner F. Zobel St., Makati City

Tel. No. 870-1000 Fax No. 899-8988www.makati.gov.ph

INVITATION TO BID

REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINASLUNGSOD NG MAKATI

NO. NAME OF PROJECT AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION

IMPLEMENTING OFFICE

APPROVED BUDGET FOR THE CONTRACT (ABC)

1Furniture and Fixtures for the use of University of Makati Administrative Building and 4th Floor Academic Hostel

UMAK P8,876,778.00

2 Interactive Whiteboard for the use of various schools of Dep-Ed Makati DEP-ED P50,040,000.00

3Toners for printing and reproduction of instructional / test materials of various schools of Dep-Ed Makati

DEP-ED P5,489,613.00

4Printing of Student Diary and other materials for the use of elementary pupils, high school students and teachers of various schools of Dep-Ed Makati

DEP-ED P5,270,452.10

1. The MAKATI CITY GOVERNMENT, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC),invites interested bidders to apply for eligibility and to bid for the above projects, with Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) indicated, inclusive of all taxes, such as, but not limited to, value added tax (VAT), income tax, local taxes and other fiscal levies.

Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at Bid Opening.

2. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

3. Bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

4. A complete set of Bidding Documents will be available one (1) day after posting / publication of the above projects up to Closing Date (before the deadline of the submission of bids),weekdays only from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from the address below and upon payment of a non-refundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount stated on the issued order of payment to the City Government of Makati Cashier.

5. The BAC will hold a Pre-Bid Conference on March 24, 2015 (02:00 P.M.) at PiodelPilar Conference Room, 21st floor, New Makati City Hall Building, F. Zobel Street, Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City to discuss Eligibility Requirements and the Technical and Financial Components of these projects. However, only those interested Bidders who have purchased the Bidding Documents are allowed to raise and submit queries or clarifications regarding the Bidding Documents.

6. Deadline of Submission of Bids shall be on or before April 14, 2015 (02:00 P.M.), atPiodelPilar Conference Room, 21st floor, New Makati City Hall Building, F. Zobel Street, Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City.

Opening of Bids shall be on April 14, 2015 (02:00 P.M.), at PiodelPilar Conference Room, 21st floor, New Makati City Hall Building, F. Zobel Street, Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City.

7. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the said address. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18. Late bids shall not be accepted.

8. The MAKATI CITY GOVERNMENT reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, or to reduce the corresponding ABC and Terms of Reference (TOR), without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

For further information, please visit or contact: BAC SECRETARIAT OFFICEMakati City Government

9th Floor, New Makati City Hall Building F. Zobel Street, Brgy.Poblacion, Makati City Tel. No. 870-1000 loc. 1331; Fax No. 899-8988

website: www.makati.gov.ph

(SGD.) Atty. ELENO M. MENDOZA, JR.Chairman (MST-MAR. 13, 2015)

Bids and Awards CommitteeJ.P. Rizal St. corner F. Zobel St., Makati City

Tel. No. 870-1000 Fax No. 899-8988www.makati.gov.ph

INVITATION TO BID

REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINASLUNGSOD NG MAKATI

A14F R I D AY : M A R C H 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

[email protected]



By Peter Atencio

FILIPINO-American spiker Iris Tolenada is keen on bringing to local soil her unique brand of play when the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference gets going on March 22 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

THE Philippine Bad-minton Association will send the country’s top two men’s doubles’ pairs Paul Jefferson Vivas/Peter Gabriel Magnaye and Philip Joper Es-cueta/Ronel Estanislao to the 28th Southeast Asian Games in Singa-pore from June 5 to 16.

PBA-Smash Pilipi-nas national head coach Paulus Firman explained that the joint task force of the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Phil-ippine Sports Commis-sion provided badmin-ton with 10 slots each for men’s and women.

But in his latest meet-ing with 2015 SEA Games Chief of Mission Julian Camacho, PBA-Smash Pilipinas decided to trim its entries to four and send only two of the country’s best men’s dou-bles’ team, with the pos-sibility of winning at least a bronze medal.

“SEA Games bad-minton competition level is definitely high. It’s too much for us since it’s still a long, long process before we can compete there. Then, we were given four slots. I just wanted to be realistic, that’s why I will only send players who have a chance to win at least a bronze,” coach Firman said.

KUALA BERANG--Andrea Guardini again proved unstoppable in a bunch spritn when the Astana Pro Team rider took his third win of Le Tour de Langkawi 2015 in a bunch sprint in Stage Four from Kota Baru to Kuala Berang today.

Guardini, 27, beat Team Southeast’s Jakub Mareczko to the finish line, with Orica-GreenEdge’s Caleb Ewan finishing third this time but held on to both the overall general classification and points classification leads. This was also Guardini’s 17th ever win in the race’s history, extending even further his already impressive record.

“I am happy with the way the sprint went. I managed a really

No. 1 PSL pick gets rave reviews

“I expect to elevate the game here with my experience,” said Tolenada after she was selected by Philips Gold as its no. 1 draft

choice during the PSL’s Annual Rookie Draft at the third level of SM Aura in Taguig City.

The 23-year-old Tolenada,

Astana’s Guardini does it again

4 Pinoyshuttlersto SEAG

good sprint to take this win. Today was a really fast paced stage with the speed in the earlier part already very high at 50 to 60 kp/h,” said Guardini.

“I then had a good lead-out and I took a good risk, then the job was done. For the moment, this is a good result. But for now, I think I can do more than this.”

Astana rider Guardini wins another bunch sprint at the end of Stage 4. RAMON BOADO

according to team manager Anthony Ty, was picked because she had special hands in her game as a setter.

“We realized she had special hands. When she sets, sobrang ganda ng palo niya. Parang import,” said Ty, who had a glimpse of how good Tolenada was during the Rookie Camp a few weeks back

She carries an impressive resume after becoming the first player from San Francisco State University to win the Most Valuable Player award in the highly

competitive California Collegiate Athletic Association.

Angeli Pauline Araneta of the University of the Philippines was the second pick (taken by Foton), while College of St. Benilde’s Rica Jane Eclona of the College of St. Benilde, the third choice, went to Cignal.

National University spiker Riza Jane Mandapat will play for Shopinas, while CSB’s Therese Maureen Veronal is with Shacman.

Another interesting player,

23-year-old Alexa Michek found a team in Petron as an opposite spiker.

In the second round, Philips Gold chose NU’s Desiree Dadang, while libero Denise Lazaro of Ateneo got picked by Foton.

Diane Ticar of Arellano University went to Cignal, and CSB’s Daniel Cheng will play for Shopinas.

Shacman got Far Eastern Univer-sity’s Samantha Dawson and Petron called in NU’s Ivy Perez.

A15F R I D AY : M A R C H 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

[email protected]



By Jeric Lopez

EYEING to regain a share of the lead, Rain or Shine and Meralco plunge back to action against separate foes as play resumes in the homestretch of the 2015 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup elimination round.

Currently tied at second spot with identical 5-2 slates, the Elasto Painters and the Bolts are both looking to net another win for them to be able to keep in step with league-leading Talk ‘N Text (6-2).

Rain or Shine faces a tall order against desperate Philip-pine Cup champion San Miguel Beer (2-6) at 7 p.m., while Meralco will find itself in a tussle against Barako Bull (4-4) at 4:15 p.m. in the twin-bill at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Elasto Painters are suddenly

playing consistently, entering tonight’s contest with the Beermen having won

four of their last five out-ings and three in a row to find themselves in a good position near the top.

‘’We’re starting to play better now. We’re finding our way and

we finally got the right import that fits us more in Chism,’’ said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao. ‘’We’ll need to continue this to hopefully finish in the Top 2.’’

Contrary to Rain or Shine’s suc-cess this conference, the Beermen

Painters, Boltseye share of lead

went from pre-tournament favorite to a team fighting to stay alive. San Miguel needs to win and sweep the rest of its games to even have a crack at a berth in the quarterfinals.

‘’Our latest win was good for us and our confidence. Chances are still there for us and we have to play really hard,’’ said San Miguel coach Leo Austria.

Both the Painters and the Beer-men have won their last game and those came at the expense of the Energy Colas, 103-91 for Rain or Shine and 102-91 for San Miguel before the All-Star break.

After winning their first five games, the Bolts suddenly hit a skid and have lost their previous two assignments, with the last one coming at the hands of streaking sister team NLEX, 89-76.

Meralco is aiming to snap that slump against Barako Bull, anoth-er team which started out well but is starting to fade a bit.

No animosity between Pacquiao,

Mayweather

FOR nearly six years, people talked about the much-ballyhooed bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

And when the deal was finally sealed, promoters of both camps agreed, those six years of continuous debate among fight fans and boxing experts would be enough to sell the fight and make it as the richest event in the history of sport.

Pacquiao and Mayweather held their only press conference Thursday morning (Manila time) in Los Ange-les in what is deemed as just a formal-ity to announce their 12-round wel-terweight title fight on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mayweather’s handlers and Pac-quiao’s trainers said all of their focus and energy will be spent throughout their whole training camp, thus as-suring fight fans of a top-quality fight between two superbly conditioned fighters.

The press conference started with Pacquiao and Mayweather being in-troduced towards the stage and later on stood face to face for more than a minute.

“It felt good. I’m ready and he’s ready. This is a very important and big fight. It’s going to be a historic fight,” said Pacquiao. “I know this is what you’ve been waiting for since five years ago. The fight is on and I know you are very excited.”

Mayweather, meanwhile, took the presser as an opportunity to thank those involved in making the dream fight become a reality.

“It’s been a long road but we’re here now. May 2nd, fight of the century. It’s all about the best, fighting the best,” said Mayweather. “Pacquiao is one of the best fighters of this era and everything is about timing and you know, I think we couldn’t choose a better time. Our game plan is to be smart and take it one fight at a time.”

Mayweather, 38, was surprisingly mild mannered the entire presscon, a contrast to his previous pressers, where he would usually brag about himself.

The undefeated American boxer also professed the importance of this bout in his 47-fight career.

“Unbelievable match-up. Action-packed fight, I’m in the gym work-ing right now dedicating myself to the sport pushing myself to the limit because I never wanted to win a fight so bad in my life. And I’m pretty sure he’s gonna push himself to the limit because he wants to win the same way I want to win,” said Mayweather.

Meantime, Pacquiao said nothing much will change in terms of how they prepared for Mayweather five years ago when compared with the kind of training camp they are now having at the Wild Card Gym in Holloywood.

“The same. More hard work in training to make sure. He has a good defense but I’m not worried about that. I can easily break that defense,” said Pacquiao.

Mayweather, on the other hand, said Pacquiao’s past defeats may turn out to be a huge obstacle the Filipino sensation may face once they start their battle.

“When you lose, it’s in your mind. If you lost once, it’s in your mind. If you lost twice, it’s in your mind. From day one, I was always taught to be a win-ner. No matter what, be a winner,” said Mayweather.

The media conclave was held at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles were about 700 media mem-bers were given credentials to be at the invitation-only news conference.

Email me: [email protected]

DENNIS PRINCIPE

FOR nearly six years, people talked

SPORTS CHAT

KOREAN Hwang Ye-nah dis-patched Mia Piccio with a solid start then matched amateur Princess Superal’s six-under 66 to wrest a two-stroke lead over the reigning US Girls Junior cham-pion as the rest reeled back with over-par scores in the second round of the rich ICTSI Ladies Open at Southlinks Golf Club yesterday.

Hwang birdied the opening hole and rattled off four straight bird-ies from No. 3 to drop erstwhile joint leader Piccio then added two more birdies at the back to negate a lone bogey mishap on No. 10, seiz-ing the solo lead at 10-under 134 with 18 holes left in the $75,000 event serving as the kickoff leg of the ICTSI Ladies Philippine Golf Tour and fourth stage of the Tai-wan LPGA.

Kanphanitnan Muangkhum-sakul actually shot a three-under 69 but the Thai bet stood seven strokes off Hwang at 141 for third, virtually yielding the top $15,000 purse to the 21-year-old Korean as Superal, just two down at 136, isn’t qualified for the money purse.

“I want to win,” said Hwang, who banked on her solid iron game and putting to piece together two superb rounds on the dreaded tight, hazard-laden layout that took the fight out of a number of fancied bets in the event presented by Champion Infinity and spon-sored by ICTSI.

Piccio, impressive with a lead-sharing 68 in the first round, stayed in the hunt with two birdies after six holes, but lost her rhythm and focus after a bogey on the sev-enth. She parred the next two but stumbled with a double-bogey on No. 10, dropped another stroke on the next and made another bogey on No. 15.

“I was really off,” rued Piccio, who did hole out with a birdie but hardly bounced back into conten-tion, her 74 dropping her to fourth at 142, now eight shots adrift.

Koreanholds offSuperal

New faces emerge. A lot of new names and faces with a sprinkling of familiar ones emerged winners at the recent Kidapawan City leg of the 2015 Cebuana Lhuillier Age-Group Tennis Championships, a nation-wide grassroots developmental tennis program of Philippine Tennis Association Chairman and sportsman/business-man Jean Henri Lhuillier. The only double winner in the individual competitions was Isulan, Sultan Kudarat bet Carlyn Bless Guarde, who annexed both the 16-under and 18-under girls’ titles, while GenSan’s Jarry Endangga ruled the 18-under boys’ division, while teaming up with Duma Hakim Boloto to take the 18-under boys’ dou-bles crown. The event, hosted by the Kidapawan City Tennis Club, attracted 116 entries from different provinces in Mindanao, a rich source of fresh and young tennis talents. Photo shows the different age group champions.

Al Thornton of NLEX (right) makes his

move against Joseph Yeo of Ginebra.

Thornton, an NBA veteran, banged in 50 points, to carry

the Road Warriors to a 96-90 victory.

Games Today (Smart Araneta Coliseum)

4:15 p.m. •Meralco vs. Barako Bull

7 p.m. • San Miguel vs. Rain or Shine



F R I D AY : M A R C H 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

A16RIERA U. MALL ARI

E D I T O R

[email protected]

REUEL VIDALA S S I S TA N T E D I T O R

SPORTS

TURN TO A14

The world stops on May 2

In an unusually amiable press conference at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, both sides at least openly showed that the animosity and rhetoric of the past had been put aside.

“It’s been a long road. But we are here now,” May-weather said.

Both fighters were nattily clad in suits, but while May-weather appeared to mirror an underlying tension and struck the first psychological blow, Pacquiao was all smiles and his usual humble self.

Mayweather gloated over his unbeaten 47-0 record, while

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

UNDEFEATED pound-for-pound No.1 Floyd Mayweather Jr., who for years sco� ed at the achievements of eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, yesterday conceded that their May 2 multi-million dollar showdown matched the best against the best in what he described as “the Fight of the Century,” even as he recognized the Filipino “as one of the best of this era.”

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LOTTO RESULTSGuardinidoes itagain inLangkawi

pointedly drawing attention to Pacquiao’s defeats when he said: “The thing I know about any sport, when you lose, it’s in your mind. If you lost once it’s in your mind. If you lost twice, it’s in your mind.”

He added: “The world stops on May 2.”

Pacquiao has lost five times, including an unmitigated rob-bery in his first fight against Timothy Bradley and a crush-ing sixth-round knockout against Juan Manuel Marquez, but on each occasion, the Filipi-no returned with a vengeance.

Mayweather’s strength is his defense, but Pacquiao confidently said “he has a good defense, but I’m not worried about that. I can easily break that defense.”

Korean grabs 2-shot lead. Korean Hwang Ye-nah (right) chips onto the green on No. 9 en route to a 2-stroke advantage, while Princess Superal attacks the long par-4 No. 11 with a 3-wood for her approach shot in the ICTSI Ladies’ Open at the Southlinks Golf Club. Story on A15

Pacquiao received a glow-ing introduction from Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who praised the courage and compassion of the Fili-pinos as exemplified by Pac-quiao.

Arum was at his articulate best and added a touch of humor, when he leaned over

to Mayweather and said “you missed me, right,” bringing a big grin as they shook hands.

Pacquiao addressed the crowd, which included 700 accredited media men and women.

“I just want the fans to be satisfied. I’m so happy we could make the fight happen. The fans of boxing were wait-ing for this for five years. We are both going to train hard and we will do our best on May 2 to make you happy,” Pacquiao said.

“The most important thing is the Lord. I want to let peo-ple know that there is a God that can raise someone from nothing to something,” Pac-quiao, reflecting his religiosity, emphasized, pointing to his

own rags-to-riches’ journey as an example.

Mayweather Sr., the father and trainer of Floyd, was merely recognized, but not allowed to speak, indicating a desire by the American boxer’s camp not to risk let-ting the mutually respectful atmosphere to be eroded.

“I love challenges. This is the biggest challenge of my life. It’s finally here. It’s finally in front of me. I’ve been look-ing forward to this for a long, long time. I’m going to get my fighter as ready as possible. We are in the toughest fight of our life. We are fighting the best fighter in the world. We are going to kick his ass. Sor-ry, Floyd,” celebrated trainer Freddie Roach said.

Pacquiao

SPORTS

RODERICK T. DELA CRUZASSISTANT EDITOR B1

FRIDAY: MARCH 13, 2015

[email protected]@gmail.com



RAY S. EÑANOEDITOR

BUSINESSUnderspending cut2014 deficit to P73b

GSIS to invest more in stocksB3 February car

sales rose 22% B4

January jobless rate fell to 6.6% as 1m Filipinos found jobs

Bangko Sentral ng PilipinasThursday, March 11, 2015

Foreign exchange rateCurrency Unit US Dollar PesoUnited States Dollar 1.000000 44.3420

Japan Yen 0.008238 0.3653

UK Pound 1.493500 66.2248

Hong Kong Dollar 0.128813 5.7118

Switzerland Franc 0.991867 43.9814

Canada Dollar 0.785484 34.8299

Singapore Dollar 0.720305 31.9398

Australia Dollar 0.758208 33.6205

Bahrain Dinar 2.652520 117.6180

Saudi Arabia Rial 0.266645 11.8236

Brunei Dollar 0.717721 31.8252

Indonesia Rupiah 0.000076 0.0034

Thailand Baht 0.030395 1.3478

UAE Dirham 0.272257 12.0724

Euro Euro 1.055400 46.7985

Korea Won 0.000884 0.0392

China Yuan 0.159686 7.0808

India Rupee 0.015934 0.7065

Malaysia Ringgit 0.270490 11.9941

New Zealand Dollar 0.722178 32.0228

Taiwan Dollar 0.031539 1.3985 Source: PDS Bridge

7500

6840

6180

5520

4860

4200

3860

7,839.8249.12

8000

7500

7000

6500

6000

5500

Closing March 11, 2015PSe comPoSite index

45

44

43

42

41

HIGH P44.230 LOW P44.330 AVERAGE P44.271

Closing MARCH 11, 2015PeSo-dollar rate

P44.250CLOSE

VOLUME 705.300M

Bangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

oilPriceS today

P508.00-P728.00LPG/11-kg tank

P37.95-P43.30Unleaded Gasoline

P27.50-P30.80Diesel

P36.75-P43.42Kerosene

P23.70-P24.40Auto LPG

todayP27.50-P30.80

P36.75-P43.42

P23.70-P24.40

PP37.95-P43.30

PAL contract. Philippine Airlines awarded a two-year base maintenance services for its Airbus fleet to Lufthansa Technik Philippines Inc. LTP will handle all heavy maintenance visits for the A320s, A321s, A330s and A340s of PAL for calendar years 2015 and 2016. LTP is also the line maintenance service provider for PAL’s Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Signing the PAL-LTP agreement in Pasay City are (from left) PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista, PAL chairman and chief executive Lucio Tan, LTP president and chief executive Burkhard Andrich and LTP senior vice president and chief financial officer Edison Que.

By Jennifer Ambanta

THE government said the budget deficit dropped 55 percent in 2014 to P73.1 billion from P164 billion in 2013, as public spending fell 13 percent short of the target for the year.

Data from the Finance Depart-ment showed the 2014 fiscal defi-cit represented 0.6 percent of the gross domestic product, lower than the 2-percent goal and the actual 1.4-percent ratio recorded in 2013.

“The smaller deficit is due to serious government underspend-ing,” former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

The budget deficit in December amounted to P46.3 billion, after the government posted a two-month surplus in October and November.

Revenue collection in 2014 grew 11 percent to P1.908 tril-lion, but fell 11 percent short of the target for the year. Expendi-tures rose 5 percent to P1.98 tril-lion, but also missed the program by 13 percent.

“The country’s tax to GDP ratio further improved to 13.6 percent, up by 0.3 percent from 2013,” Fi-nance Secretary Cesar Purisima said.

“I am pleased to say that the Philippines continues to stand on firm fiscal footing as we grow at a

sustainable pace, owing to the re-forms that we have put in place,” Purisima said.

The department said net-ting out interest payments from expenditures, the government achieved a P248.1-billion prima-ry surplus in 2014, exceeding the target of P86.4 billion and better than the P159.4-billion primary surplus in 2013.

Debt interest payments reached P321.2 billion in 2014, slightly less than the P323.4 billion paid in 2014.

Economists said the lower bud-get deficit in 2014 was due to un-derspending of the government, as a result of issues surrounding the Disbursement Acceleration Program and the Priority Devel-opment Assistance Fund.

Diokno also said the deficit could have been trimmed further,

if the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs were able to meet their targets. “The deficit could have been much smaller as a percentage of GDP had the BIR and the BOC collected what they were programmed to collect,” Di-okno said.

Both the BIR and BOC failed to meet the targets set by the Development Budget Coordina-tion Committee, which stood at P1.456 trillion and P408.1 bil-lion, respectively. BIR collected P1.335 trillion in 2014 while the Bureau of Customs collected P369.3 billion.

University of the Philippines economics professor Ernesto Per-nia said the failure to maximize the allowable deficit was due to lower expenditures on the part of the government due to the freez-ing effect of DAP and PDAF.

UNEMPLOYMENT rate eased to 6.6 percent in January this year from 7.5 percent a year ago, as more than 1 million Filipinos found jobs over the past year, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Thursday.

The National Economic and Development Authority said the results of the latest labor force

survey showed the labor market was improving, fueling hopes the incomes of poor families would also increase.

“The reduction in unemployment rate was indeed buoyed by economic growth last year, which also saw positive growth in the services sector,” said De La Salle University

professor Angelo Taningco. The gross domestic product grew 6.1 percent in 2014.

Data showed employment grew 2.8 percent to 37.5 million in January from 36.4 million in the same month last year. “This means an additional 1.04 million Filipinos were employed from January 2014 to January 2015,

almost four times the 281,000 jobs generated in the previous year,” Neda said.

“The labor market got a boost from a stronger growth in all sectors mainly driven by services which grew by 3.9 percent, contributing a 766,000 net employment gain in January 2015,” said Economic Planning

Secretary and Neda director-general Arsenio Balisacan.

The employment data in January excluded Region 8 due to the devastation brought by typhoon Yolanda, which made it impossible to conduct the survey and gather data in the Eastern Visayas region.

Unemployment improved from 7.5 percent in January 2014, but was higher than 6 percent registered in October. The number of jobless Filipinos reached 2.6 million in January, lower than 2.97 million unemployed individuals in January 2014. However, it was up from 2.5 million in October.

Jennifer G. Ambanta


BUSINESSFRIDAY: MARCH 13, 2015

B2

M S T52 Weeks Previous % Net Foreign High Low STOCKS Close High Low Close Change Volume Trade/Buying

MST BuSineSS Daily STockS Review Thursday, March 12, 2015

FINANCIAL2.7 1.55 AG Finance 6 6.05 5.85 6.05 0.83 138,000 75.3 63.5 Asia United Bank 69.5 70 68.5 70 0.72 63,380 2,126,325.0099.4 67.5 Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. 113.90 114.10 113.70 114.00 0.09 3,336,070 40,843,385.00105.2 82.5 Bank of PI 99.30 101.10 99.30 100.50 1.21 1,450,980 43,569,173.0063 50 China Bank 47.05 47 46.8 47 -0.11 37,800 -9,360.002.3 1.9 BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. 2.25 2.29 2.25 2.29 1.78 38,000 4.2 1.1 Bright Kindle Resources 2.47 2.48 2.40 2.40 -2.83 176,000 -24,800.0015.98 8.58 Citystate Savings 10.5 10.04 10 10 -4.76 1,300 19.6 14.5 COL Financial 16.6 16.6 16.5 16.6 0.00 464,700 7,322,700.0031.6 23.2 Eastwest Bank 25.05 25.35 24.8 24.8 -1.00 526,500 -10,649,755.0022.5 6.84 Filipino Fund Inc. 8.20 8.22 8.13 8.22 0.24 24,100 8222.95 1.75 I-Remit Inc. 1.79 1.79 1.79 1.79 0.00 1,000 1.01 0.175 MEDCO Holdings 0.520 0.530 0.520 0.520 0.00 993,000 92.9 69.35 Metrobank 93.85 94.35 93.85 94.15 0.32 8,867,880 253,940,247.001.65 1.2 Natl. Reinsurance Corp. 1.01 1.06 0.98 0.98 -2.97 303,000 30.5 20.45 PB Bank 18.46 18.46 18.36 18.46 0.00 104,000 25,704.0099 76 Phil. National Bank 82.00 83.20 81.50 81.64 -0.44 66,850 129,713.00140 119 Phil. Savings Bank 95.20 95.30 95.30 95.30 0.11 2,000 392 276 PSE Inc. 354.8 356 352 352 -0.79 4,930 -308,022.0059 41.5 RCBC À’ 46.15 46.3 46.1 46.15 0.00 76,400 -2,693,720.00146.8 105.1 Security Bank 165.8 167 164 166 0.12 739,020 54,086,111.001700 1281 Sun Life Financial 1350.00 1340.00 1335.00 1335.00 -1.11 210 280,950.00130 116 Union Bank 69.50 70.00 69.50 70.00 0.72 106,760 7,069,540.002.8 2.25 Vantage Equities 3.08 3.1 3.08 3.08 0.00 657,000 -52,700.00

INDUSTRIAL42.6 31.75 Aboitiz Power Corp. 45.4 45.75 45.4 45.5 0.22 3,859,500 -10,074,320.006.1 2.51 Agrinurture Inc. 1.67 1.72 1.72 1.72 2.99 6,000 1.66 0.88 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 1.1 1.11 1.09 1.09 -0.91 549,000 -6,660.002.3 1.25 Alsons Cons. 2.07 2.11 2.05 2.1 1.45 6,703,000 519,560.0017.98 9.58 Asiabest Group 8.3 8.29 8.17 8.2 -1.20 400 17.2 14.6 Century Food 18.8 18.9 18.78 18.8 0.00 18,900 15.8 9.82 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 22.05 22 21.6 22 -0.23 442,700 -330,000.0056.8 21.5 Concepcion 59.95 60 57.1 58.7 -2.09 37,910 268,892.004.57 0.82 Da Vinci Capital 1.8 1.86 1.79 1.8 0.00 101,000 39.5 17.3 Del Monte 11.34 11.36 10.72 11.28 -0.53 1,179,900 -8,719,372.0014 5.98 DNL Industries Inc. 20.000 20.450 19.86 20.150 0.75 3,341,600 -13,338,829.0012.98 9.05 Emperador 11.12 11.70 11.12 11.50 3.42 17,162,400 31,354,768.008.15 4.25 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 8.32 8.48 8.32 8.44 1.44 45,312,400 -7,503,991.0012.34 8.68 EEI 9.88 9.99 9.60 9.77 -1.11 1,212,500 -6,893,097.0017 8.61 Federal Res. Inv. Group 18 18.8 18 18.4 2.22 41,800 27.1 12.2 First Gen Corp. 29.85 30.05 28.95 29.5 -1.17 6,444,700 -13,885,270.0090.5 48.9 First Holdings ‘A’ 101.1 104.5 101.3 103.5 2.37 705,740 -26,009,984.0027 16 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 14.08 14.10 14.08 14.08 0.00 2,100 -15,508.000.014 0.0097 Greenergy 0.4800 0.4850 0.4650 0.4800 0.00 170,000 15.74 12.8 Holcim Philippines Inc. 14.76 14.76 14.76 14.76 0.00 700 9.4 2.05 Integ. Micro-Electronics 6.67 6.7 6.63 6.7 0.45 162,800 199.8 150.8 Jollibee Foods Corp. 214.00 214.80 213.40 214.80 0.37 337,710 -17,953,956.0010.98 8.55 Lafarge Rep 10.04 10.14 10.04 10.12 0.80 418,200 -1,224,562.005.2 2.8 LMG Chemicals 2.65 2.52 2.52 2.52 -4.91 3,000 30 20.35 Manila Water Co. Inc. 26.7 27.2 26.9 27.15 1.69 2,375,300 33,429,530.0090 12 Maxs Group 27.65 28.5 27.7 28.15 1.81 758,700 -1,277,650.0014.7 10.1 Megawide 8.030 8.110 8.030 8.050 0.25 169,800 -55,959.00317 246 Mla. Elect. Co À’ 275.00 276.20 275.00 275.20 0.07 195,090 -17,521,526.005.37 4 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 4.57 4.55 4.5 4.55 -0.44 70,000 14.48 11.56 Petron Corporation 10.42 10.64 10.42 10.50 0.77 2,485,800 -3,117,210.007.5 5 Phil H2O 5.75 5.82 5.4 5.4 -6.09 53,700 14.5 9.94 Phinma Corporation 11.90 12.30 11.90 12.04 1.18 410,900 47,920.007.03 4.33 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 3.95 4.01 3.95 3.96 0.25 203,000 58,750.00 Phoenix Semiconductor 2.90 2.95 2.89 2.90 0.00 3,189,000 29,200.006.68 4.88 RFM Corporation 5.92 5.92 5.88 5.90 -0.34 596,700 178,361.00275 210 San Miguel’Pure Foods `B’ 205.8 205.8 205 205 -0.39 850 2.25 1.7 Splash Corporation 1.7 1.75 1.72 1.72 1.18 14,000 0.191 0.102 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.185 0.197 0.186 0.194 4.86 16,970,000 600.002.5 1.6 TKC Steel Corp. 1.53 1.53 1.52 1.53 0.00 3,000 2.68 1.37 Trans-Asia Oil 2.27 2.27 2.25 2.27 0.00 1,561,000 22,500.00188.6 111.3 Universal Robina 215 217 212 217 0.93 1,398,440 -105,997,996.005.5 1.58 Victorias Milling 4.5 4.68 4.5 4.68 4.00 11,000 45,000.001.3 0.550 Vitarich Corp. 0.73 0.75 0.72 0.74 1.37 382,110 2.17 1.33 Vulcan Ind’l. 1.53 1.55 1.52 1.54 0.65 1,327,000

HOLDING FIRMS0.7 0.46 Abacus Cons. À’ 0.470 0.480 0.480 0.480 2.13 40,000 61.6 45.75 Aboitiz Equity 58.60 58.80 57.80 58.30 -0.51 1,088,080 -6,141,348.5031.85 21.95 Alliance Global Inc. 25.20 25.90 25.00 25.90 2.78 22,566,900 297,411,950.007.39 6.3 Anscor À’ 7.05 7.25 7.12 7.18 1.84 38,700 2.7 1.550 Asia Amalgamated A 1.55 1.60 1.52 1.60 3.23 46,000 3.29 1.8 ATN Holdings A 2.73 2.73 2.61 2.73 0.00 13,000 2.05 1.04 ATN Holdings B 2.71 2.9 2.9 2.9 7.01 38,000 747 508 Ayala Corp À’ 745 758 741 754 1.21 845,880 170,027,855.0011.34 7.470 Cosco Capital 9.14 9.36 9.12 9.22 0.88 2,392,700 6,799,588.0084 47.25 DMCI Holdings 15.40 15.50 15.34 15.36 -0.26 3,867,000 -19,529,156.005.34 4 Filinvest Dev. Corp. 4.72 4.79 4.70 4.79 1.48 26,000 0.23 0.144 Forum Pacific 0.420 0.435 0.405 0.410 -2.38 11,750,000 -125,000.001060 706 GT Capital 1260 1309 1260 1305 3.57 7,800 78,739,945.007.1 5.3 House of Inv. 6.40 6.40 6.40 6.40 0.00 11,200 59.8 36.7 JG Summit Holdings 65.00 66.50 65.05 65.95 1.46 1,361,370 6,753,841.006.55 3.95 Lopez Holdings Corp. 8.88 9.19 8.88 9.18 3.38 5,162,200 19,515,191.000.9 0.58 Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. 0.69 0.7 0.68 0.68 -1.45 206,530 19.9 12.96 LT Group 16.02 16.14 16 16.1 0.50 1,813,600 -1,230,694.000.75 0.580 Mabuhay Holdings À’ 0.6 0.64 0.61 0.64 6.67 1,736,000 278,880.005.4 4.06 Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. 4.88 4.89 4.81 4.84 -0.82 26,177,000 -25,939,210.005.35 4.5 Minerales Industrias Corp. 5.27 5.28 5.28 5.28 0.19 10,000 0.0550 0.027 Pacifica À’ 0.0400 0.0400 0.0400 0.0400 0.00 500,000 0.84 0.355 Prime Orion 0.710 0.710 0.710 0.710 0.00 10,000 88 54.5 San Miguel Corp À’ 74.05 75.00 74.00 74.50 0.61 75,130 1,883,706.503.5 1.5 Seafront À’ 2.85 2.80 2.80 2.80 -1.75 3 84,000.00866 680 SM Investments Inc. 908.50 915.00 905.50 915.00 0.72 85,890 16,744,440.002.2 1.04 Solid Group Inc. 1.20 1.33 1.22 1.28 6.67 156,000 156 58.05 Top Frontier 105.10 105.50 105.00 105.50 0.38 1,900 -52,542.000.285 0.158 Unioil Res. & Hldgs 0.5900 0.6200 0.5800 0.5900 0.00 6,629,420 0.245 0.150 Wellex Industries 0.2650 0.2700 0.2650 0.2650 0.00 1,600,000

P R O P E R T Y9.03 5.51 8990 HLDG 10.300 10.300 9.940 9.950 -3.40 578,800 -1,103,080.0026.95 12 Anchor Land Holdings Inc. 10.00 10.28 10.28 10.28 2.80 1,000 0.001.99 0.99 A. Brown Co., Inc. 1.04 1.04 1.03 1.03 -0.96 215,000 2.07 1 Araneta Prop À’ 1.300 1.410 1.340 1.340 3.08 370,000 35.3 23.7 Ayala Land `B’ 37.75 38.75 37.55 38.60 2.25 11,422,400 132,600,895.006.15 4.41 Belle Corp. À’ 4.4 4.43 4.36 4.39 -0.23 712,000 1,907,070.006.1 5 Cebu Holdings 5.02 5.1 5.06 5.1 1.59 35,100 2 1.22 Century Property 0.94 0.98 0.94 0.97 3.19 8,782,000 2,341,680.001.5 0.97 Cityland Dev. À’ 1.00 1.01 1.00 1.00 0.00 152,000

52 Weeks Previous % Net ForeignHigh Low STOCKS Close High Low Close Change Volume Trade/Buying

Trading SummarySHARES VALUE

FINANCIAL 18,179,250 1,534,998.286INDUSTRIAL 134,624,971 1,944,501,674.8712HOLDING FIRMS 93,545,081 2,115,662,588.64PROPERTY 220,223,783 1,587,615,831.10SERVICES 86,355,217 1,318,254,243.26MINING & OIL 738,866,880 880,507,923.706GRAND TOTAL 1,293,626,601 9,402,910,599.3012

FINANCIAL 1,800.83 (up) 6.87INDUSTRIAL 12,735.58 (up) 93.79HOLDING FIRMS 6,952.50 (up) 71.57PROPERTY 3,166.72 (up) 61.60SERVICES 2,182.15 (down) 28.44MINING & OIL 16,090.47 (down) 35.83PSEI 7,839.82 (up) 49.12All Shares Index 4,550.54 (up) 26.92

Gainers: 105; Losers: 67; Unchanged: 40; Total: 212

STOCKS Close(P)

Change(%)

IRipple E-Business Intl 60.3 -12.61

Lorenzo Shipping 1.5 -11.24

Discovery World 1.68 -6.67

Manila Mining À' 0.0140 -6.67

Phil H2O 5.4 -6.09

Paxys Inc. 3.31 -5.43

Benguet Corp `B' 7.0100 -5.27

LMG Chemicals 2.52 -4.91

Citystate Savings 10 -4.76

Melco Crown 10.26 -3.57

Top LoSerSSTOCKS Close

(P)Change

(%)

2GO Group' 9.15 8.54

Oriental Pet. À' 0.0140 7.69

Oriental Pet. `B' 0.0150 7.14

ATN Holdings B 2.9 7.01

IPeople Inc. À' 11.9 6.82

Manila Mining `B' 0.0160 6.67

Mabuhay Holdings À' 0.64 6.67

Solid Group Inc. 1.28 6.67

Swift Foods, Inc. 0.194 4.86

Macroasia Corp. 2.29 4.09

Top gainerS

0.201 0.068 Crown Equities Inc. 0.157 0.160 0.154 0.154 -1.91 20,590,000 7,850.000.98 0.47 Cyber Bay Corp. 0.470 0.480 0.475 0.480 2.13 530,000 1.09 0.87 Empire East Land 0.900 0.910 0.900 0.900 0.00 1,023,000 0.370 0.175 Ever Gotesco 0.234 0.228 0.228 0.228 -2.56 20,000 2.25 1.22 Global-Estate 1.61 1.63 1.59 1.59 -1.24 3,183,000 -3,800,560.001.77 1.18 Filinvest Land,Inc. 1.76 1.85 1.77 1.83 3.98 50,974,000 -4,752,190.001.6 1.19 Interport À’ 1.46 1.53 1.42 1.51 3.42 1,372,000 4.88 2.75 Megaworld Corp. 5.56 5.65 5.46 5.63 1.26 49,454,200 18,589,569.000.180 0.070 MRC Allied Ind. 0.129 0.131 0.125 0.125 -3.10 2,640,000 4.45 2.5 Primex Corp. 7.21 7.35 7.21 7.3 1.25 1,122,700 24.8 18.72 Robinson’s Land `B’ 27.45 28.95 27.45 28.50 3.83 2,815,900 22,684,815.002.06 1.45 Rockwell 1.75 1.77 1.75 1.76 0.57 220,000 -94,750.003.6 2.9 Shang Properties Inc. 3.20 3.20 3.20 3.20 0.00 62,000 19.62 14.1 SM Prime Holdings 19.30 19.90 19.44 19.60 1.55 13,307,800 24,315,794.001.02 0.58 Sta. Lucia Land Inc. 0.97 1 0.96 0.97 0.00 4,099,000 32,840.006.66 3.05 Starmalls 7.29 7.3 7.12 7.15 -1.92 16,669,500 3,176,222.001.96 0.87 Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. 1.030 1.050 1.020 1.050 1.94 90,000 6.5 4.37 Vista Land & Lifescapes 7.500 7.500 7.390 7.500 0.00 10,320,500 -11,292,269.00

S E R V I C E S3.25 1.55 2GO Group’ 8.43 9.24 8.3 9.15 8.54 3,369,300 -300,560.0043.7 27 ABS-CBN 64.4 64.95 64 64 -0.62 12,340 1.09 0.59 APC Group, Inc. 0.690 0.690 0.680 0.680 -1.45 180,000 12.46 10 Asian Terminals Inc. 12.88 13.12 12.94 13.12 1.86 100,100 703,300.0014 8.28 Bloomberry 10.44 10.62 10.50 10.50 0.57 4,743,300 5,931,786.000.1640 0.0960 Boulevard Holdings 0.1100 0.1120 0.1090 0.1090 -0.91 14,210,000 -438,790.004.05 2.97 Calata Corp. 4.14 4.21 3.98 4.1 -0.97 877,000 71 44.8 Cebu Air Inc. (5J) 86 88 87.5 87.8 2.09 37,283,577 12.3 10.14 Centro Esc. Univ. 10.94 10.94 10.94 10.94 0.00 600 3.28 1.99 Discovery World 1.8 1.68 1.67 1.68 -6.67 13,000 9 4 DFNN Inc. 6.39 6.48 6.44 6.48 1.41 13,300 1700 1080 FEUI 1020 1020 1015 1015 -0.49 205 2008 1580 Globe Telecom 1939 1945 1925 1939 0.00 50,610 14,629,910.009.04 7.12 GMA Network Inc. 6.85 7.10 6.85 7.00 2.19 833,500 2.02 1.2 Harbor Star 1.58 1.62 1.58 1.61 1.90 156,000 118.9 94.4 I.C.T.S.I. 113.2 113.5 112.8 113.5 0.27 452,450 17,318,989.0012.5 8.72 IPeople Inc. À’ 11.14 11.96 11.8 11.9 6.82 162,700 0.0653 0.026 Island Info 0.305 0.315 0.305 0.305 0.00 27,950,000 4,950.002.2800 1.560 ISM Communications 1.3500 1.3600 1.3200 1.3300 -1.48 445,000 6.99 1.95 Jackstones 2.73 2.73 2.72 2.72 -0.37 44,000 9.67 5.82 Leisure & Resorts 9.15 9.19 9.12 9.14 -0.11 126,200 889,013.002.85 1.15 Liberty Telecom 2.00 1.95 1.95 1.95 -2.50 6,000 2.2 1.1 Lorenzo Shipping 1.69 1.69 1.45 1.5 -11.24 924,000 4.32 1.9 Macroasia Corp. 2.20 2.29 2.25 2.29 4.09 18,000 1.97 0.485 Manila Bulletin 0.700 0.710 0.690 0.710 1.43 11,000 2.45 1.42 Manila Jockey 1.95 1.95 1.95 1.95 0.00 50,000 -58,500.0014.46 10.14 Melco Crown 10.64 10.66 10.24 10.26 -3.57 51,775,712 1,993,418.000.62 0.35 MG Holdings 0.365 0.375 0.360 0.375 2.74 150,000 1.040 0.36 NOW Corp. 0.510 0.520 0.520 0.520 1.96 4,000 22.8 14.54 Pacific Online Sys. Corp. 18 18.4 18 18 0.00 16,100 6.6 5.2 PAL Holdings Inc. 4.45 4.60 4.45 4.60 3.37 12,000 2.85 1.85 Paxys Inc. 3.5 3.31 3.31 3.31 -5.43 5,000 107 81 Phil. Seven Corp. 100.50 105.00 101.00 103.00 2.49 13,360 1,162,510.0011.3 4.39 Philweb.Com Inc. 13.80 13.80 13.76 13.80 0.00 144,000 3486 2572 PLDT Common 3092.00 3008.00 2990.00 3002.00 -2.91 119,045 -63,489,800.000.710 0.250 PremiereHorizon 0.590 0.590 0.580 0.590 0.00 275,000 2.01 0.26 Premium Leisure 1.580 1.640 1.580 1.590 0.63 5,712,000 -2,430,020.0048.5 32.2 Puregold 41.20 41.50 40.90 41.00 -0.49 5,667,500 -213,853,750.0074 48 Robinsons RTL 86.70 88.50 86.50 88.00 1.50 3,170,650 -33,788,053.50 SSI Group 10.62 10.86 10.60 10.68 0.56 3,143,200 -10,521,378.000.87 0.59 STI Holdings 0.73 0.73 0.71 0.73 0.00 3,198,000 -1,460,000.0011.46 7.78 Travellers 7.4 7.44 7.32 7.32 -1.08 707,900 -337,472.00

MINING & OIL0.0086 0.0028 Abra Mining 0.0062 0.0062 0.0060 0.0061 -1.61 447,000,000 5.45 1.72 Apex À’ 2.90 2.89 2.85 2.85 -1.72 420,000 -1,201,210.0017.24 11.48 Atlas Cons. À’ 9.70 9.60 9.51 9.51 -1.96 155,400 -393,915.0012.7 6 Benguet Corp `B’ 7.4000 7.0300 7.01 7.0100 -5.27 3,500 1.2 0.5 Century Peak Metals Hldgs 1.09 1.13 1.09 1.12 2.75 585,000 40.001.73 0.76 Coal Asia 0.94 0.96 0.93 0.94 0.00 909,000 10.98 4.93 Dizon 7.68 7.98 7.60 7.80 1.56 31,100 70,019.00 Ferronickel 2.62 2.65 2.53 2.55 -2.67 232,427,000 8,342,000.000.46 0.385 Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. 0.350 0.350 0.340 0.350 0.00 400,000 0.455 0.3000 Lepanto À’ 0.249 0.250 0.245 0.245 -1.61 23,710,000 0.730 0.2950 Lepanto `B’ 0.250 0.255 0.250 0.255 2.00 2,090,000 -2,500.000.024 0.012 Manila Mining À’ 0.0150 0.0150 0.0140 0.0140 -6.67 3,900,000 0.026 0.014 Manila Mining `B’ 0.0150 0.0160 0.0160 0.0160 6.67 100,000 8.2 1.960 Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. 5.68 5.75 5.67 5.68 0.00 423,400 48.85 14.22 Nickelasia 27.9 28.25 27.6 27.75 -0.54 2,999,100 -49,324,475.003.35 1.47 Nihao Mineral Resources 3.35 3.47 3.36 3.4 1.49 4,296,000 540,800.001.030 0.220 Omico 0.7300 0.7400 0.7300 0.7300 0.00 128,000 3.06 1.24 Oriental Peninsula Res. 2.300 2.330 2.260 2.260 -1.74 658,000 0.021 0.016 Oriental Pet. À’ 0.0130 0.0140 0.0130 0.0140 7.69 2,800,000 0.023 0.017 Oriental Pet. `B’ 0.0140 0.0150 0.0150 0.0150 7.14 300,000 12.88 7.8 Philex À’ 7.93 8 7.88 7.88 -0.63 1,424,900 8,690.0010.42 6.5 PhilexPetroleum 3.12 3.39 3.06 3.06 -1.92 954,000 18,900.000.042 0.031 Philodrill Corp. À’ 0.016 0.016 0.015 0.016 0.00 8,000,000 -3,200.00420 123 Semirara Corp. 159.80 163.60 158.40 160.00 0.13 937,110 -69,959,733.009 4.3 TA Petroleum 4.25 4.4 4.21 4.39 3.29 201,000 0.016 0.0087 United Paragon 0.0110 0.0110 0.0110 0.0110 0.00 4,000,000

PREFERRED44.1 26.3 ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. 65 65.9 63 63.95 -1.62 251,100 -16,042,763.00 Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ 510 510 510 510 0.00 1,410 60 30 Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ 519.5 519.5 519.5 519.5 0.00 60 511 480 GLOBE PREF P 510 510 509 509 -0.20 8,465,900 9.04 6.76 GMA Holdings Inc. 6.72 7.08 6.79 6.79 1.04 447,200 -622,915.009.67 5.82 Leisure and Resort 1.08 1.09 1.09 1.09 0.93 1,000,000 -171,130.00 MWIDE PREF 107.5 108.5 107.8 108.5 0.93 44,800 PCOR-Preferred A 1031 1050 1050 1050 1.84 930 PCOR-Preferred B 1065 1075 1070 1075 0.94 4,920 PF Pref 2 1015 1044 1011 1020 0.49 27,515 4,303,655.0077.3 74.2 SMC Preferred A 76.7 76.7 76.05 76.05 -0.85 61,100 -1,445,506.0078.95 74.5 SMC Preferred B 81 81.6 81.15 81.6 0.74 207,152 81.85 75 SMC Preferred C 82.2 83.5 82.6 83.5 1.58 413,710

WARRANTS & BONDS2.42 0.0010 LR Warrant 4.020 4.090 4.010 4.010 -0.25 210,000

S M E10.96 2.4 Double Dragon 7.8 7.78 7.68 7.7 -1.28 779,400 84,700.0015 3.5 Makati Fin. Corp. 3.6 3.63 3.63 3.63 0.83 3,000 35 7.74 IRipple E-Business Intl 69 69.9 60.3 60.3 -12.61 3,330 Xurpas 11.12 11.34 11.1 11.32 1.80 1,016,300 4,268,678.00

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS119.6 94 First Metro ETF 126.1 127 126.3 127 0.71 29,330


BUSINESSFRIDAY: MARCH 13, 2015

B3

GSIS to investmore in stocks

Shares rally; Alliance Global gains

MAYA BALTAZARHERRERAMAYA BALTAZAR

IntegratIons

Why?GREEN, yellow, blue, tan. The stretch of road between the Laguind-ingan airport and Ili-gan follows the line of the coast. It is relatively unspoiled land. The green blue of the ocean is never very far away. In places, the road turns into bridges, straddling streams and rivers, a reminder that Iligan is a place of waterfalls. It is a place of meetings, hills on one side and coast-lines on the other. The one hour road trip between airport and city is a time for pondering.

RhythmsThis week, I am in Iligan to visit a plant. The plant lies in Kiwalan

cove, near the small port where ships dock to deliver raw material and to pick up finished goods. Across the road and up the hill are the staff quarters. It is an unassuming white structure, with a wooden sign saying “Guest House 1.” Inside, guests are greeted by the warm smiles of those who attend to the house and those who stay in it. They ask for your name and motion you to the general direction of your room. It is a small house, four rooms. Everyone who comes in writes their name in a little logbook, with the date of arrival and the expected date of departure. My companion takes care of this. I go check doors and find the door with my name on it. There are three other names on the door. I open the door and there are three beds. One bed clearly has an occupant, the other two seem vacant. I claim one by putting my bag on it. I go outside and briefly wonder how four people will sleep in a room with three beds. I figure there is some sort of system and stop worrying. Worrying is a thing of concrete buildings, busy roads and traffic. I left my worry behind in the city. Here on the outskirts of Iligan, worrying about beds seems out of place. I figure it will get sorted out. There is a roof and there is water. That seems all I really need for the moment.

We go down to the plant and attend to work. At the end of the day, we go back to the staff house. In the open area, there are many faces. Some people are chatting, some working on their laptops. It has the easy rhythm of people used to being with other people. There are greet-ings and questions about whether you have eaten. In the bedroom, the third bed now also has a bag. It is a curious thing to share a room and a bathroom with people you have never met before; to sit down to a meal around a table and get absorbed into a conversation with strangers and yet not be treated like one. There are no sharp, hard edges to these interactions. Even the awkward moments are somehow round and soft.

Like me, the guests in the house come from far Manila, but the cul-ture they have is from the islands. The conversation is punctuated by Bisaya, the language most spoken in the company after English. It is the language of the company’s roots. They have an easy rhythm about them. When I step out to gaze at the waters of the cove, I wonder how much of the peace is the place and how much is the rhythms of the people.

EaseOn the way back to the airport, I watch the coastline. Here at the wa-

ter’s edge, you can see where water meets earth, where sky meets water. You can watch the white froth of the waves churn up into the air before breaking on the shore. It is possible to look at these edges and think boundaries, think separations. But these edges are really places where things meet. They are interfaces, places of meetings and interactions.

I remember the conversation I had with my company contact. I had commented on the pictures of their managers on the wall. The picture of their CEO was clearly not a formal portrait. He had on a little toy crown. “Oh, I think that’s from the last Christmas party. It’s a good company to work for,” he said. “Our CEO really sets the tone. You know how, in oth-er companies, even during parties, the managers are at a table by them-selves and the rest of the employees are somewhere else? That’s not us.”

I realized that the rhythms of that little guest house were also the rhythms in the meetings I had had and those rhythms began at the top. I know it is not an easy company though. It is not a place for laziness or mediocrity. The standards are high and people work hard. But there is an ease about the people who work there. I do not know all their stories. I only know one. He was recruited for something new. The company trained him and challenged him. When the company moved headquar-ters, he uprooted himself, a sign that he values his job and is willing to make sacrifices.

WhyAs the road neared the airport, I remembered another friend from

Iligan. She also has an ease in what she is doing. Her path is not easy but it is one she loves. There is a joy in the rhythms of her life.

As the one hour ride to the airport nears its end, I remembered a question posed by my son. “Mom, why are you still working?”

When I was young and fresh out of school, the answer to why do you work seemed clear. I worked to earn money. Work was how I made sure there were funds for the other things I valued. Sure, work was sometimes fulfilling and occasionally enjoyable but mostly it was for the salary.

Over the years, I have had jobs that were exhilarating, moments when I was getting paid to do things I would probably be happy to do even without pay. My thoughts flashed back to my friend who works on her true passion and realized that there was the key.

In class, I always say that, in dealing with people, managers have two essential paths. There is fear and there is love. There is always a bit of amusement about this and not a small amount of discussion and debate. I always end the class with an observation: Fear is fast, but love lasts.

Work is the same, I suppose. We can work out of fear, fear that we will not have funds, fear that we will lose our place, fear that we will not be the sort of person other people expect us to be. It is so easy to respond to fear. Our brains are programmed to respond first to danger. But we can also work for love, work on what we believe in, work on what excites us.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a choice. But if you do, if you do have a choice, shouldn’t you choose to work on what you love?

You can email Maya at [email protected]. Please like the Integrations Manila Facebook page or visit her archives at manilastan-dardtoday.com/author/maya-baltazar-herrera/ or integrations.tumblr.com or www.mayaherrera.aim.edu.

THE largest Philippine pension fund wants to increase the amount it can invest in stocks as returns from bonds shrink. The nation’s benchmark equities index gained.

The Government Service Insurance System, which has about P860 billion ($19.4 billion) of investable funds, plans to ask its board to raise the cap on equities to 30 percent of assets from 20 percent, president Robert Vergara said in an interview Wednesday in Manila. Equities currently account for about 18.5 percent of the fund’s investments, he said.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index has risen 7.8 percent from end-2014 through Wednesday, the best performance among Asian equity gauges, on expectations falling oil prices will boost consumer spending and propel economic growth. Peso- denominated government bonds have returned less than 1 percent, versus 6.6 percent in 2014 and 17 percent in

2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Bonds right now are just digging a big hole for me,” Vergara said. “As we approach the 20 percent threshold, we want to ask for an increase in the weighting that we can have in equities.”

The fund’s plan to boost stock holdings echoes that of regional peers. Japan’s public retirement-savings manager more than doubled its target allocation for equities in October, while Thailand’s biggest government pension fund said in January it’s seeking approval to reduce sovereign debt holdings.

GSIS, as the Philippine fund for more than one million state workers is known, needs at least an 8.5-percent return on investments to meet its obligations to

members until 2048. Last year, its investments returned 8.9 percent and that may have lengthened the fund’s actuarial life to 2050, said Vergara, who is 54.

Profit at the pension fund more than tripled to P139.9 billion last year from P44.3 billion in 2013, boosted by a shift to fair-value accounting of its assets and returns from its local equity and fixed-income investments.

At the end of 2014, about 48 percent of GSIS’s funds were in fixed income, 26 percent in loans to members, 17 percent in equities and about 4 percent in real estate, Vergara said. The balance was in cash.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index has advanced in each of the past six years, a record winning streak and the longest stretch of gains among 73 equity indexes worldwide. The gauge has rallied more than 310 percent since the end of 2008, outpacing the MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s gain of about 60 percent in the same period.

Bloomberg

Airbus A330 delivery. Cebu Pacific, in cooperation with the Airbus Corporate Foundation and Aviation Sans Frontières, transported 2.4 tons of donations, including clothing and medical supplies, on-board its newest Airbus A330 aircraft. The aircraft took off from Toulouse, France on March 10 and landed in Manila on March 11. The donations loaded in CEB’s new Airbus A330 include new clothes and shoes for children and babies, teddy bears, pens, and schoolbooks, as well as blankets and small medical supplies. These will be forwarded to communities affected by severe flooding and typhoons in the Philippines.

THE stock market rallied thurs-day, led by gains in Emperador Inc., the world’s biggest brandy maker, and GT Capital Holdings Inc., which owns shares in finance, energy and automotive compa-nies.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index gained 49.12 points, or 0.6 percent, to 7,839.82 on a value turnover of P9.4 billion. Gainers swamped losers, 105, to 67, with 40 issues unchanged.

Alliance Global Group Inc. of tycoon Andrew Tan climbed 2.8 percent, while unit Emperador advanced 3.4 percent to P11.50. Unit Megaworld Corp., the biggest lessor of office spaces, rose 2.4 per-cent to P5.63.

Ayala Land Inc., a major prop-erty developer, increased 2.2 per-

cent to P38.60, while Eneregy Development Corp., the largest steam energy and win power pro-ducer, added 1.4 percent to P8.44.

GT Capital of tycoon George Ty advanced 3.6 percent to P1,305.

Philippine Long Distance Tele-phone Co., the biggest telelcom-munications firm fell 2.9 percent to P3,002.

The dollar, meanwhile, edged closer towards parity with the euro Thursday after the European Cen-tral Bank kicked off its stimulus program this week, while Asian equity markets recovered slightly from a recent sell-off.

Sydney shares were given a lift by data showing Australia’s unem-ployment rate had eased slightly, while South Korea became the lat-est country to cut interest rates as

it struggles to fight off deflation.Tokyo rallied 1.43 percent, or

267.59 points, to 18,991.11, Syd-ney added 0.98 percent, or 56.97 points, to close at 5,850.17 and Shanghai rallied 1.78 percent, or 58.42 points, to 3,349.32, while Hong Kong advanced 0.34 per-cent, or 79.99 points, to 23,797.96.

However, Seoul fell 0.52 per-cent, or 10.24 points, to close at 1,970.59.

Traders brushed off more losses on Wall Street, where the three main indexes have given up all their 2015 gains on expectations the Federal Reserve will raise in-terest rates as early as the summer.

The Dow fell 0.16 percent, the S&P 500 shed 0.19 percent and the Nasdaq eased 0.20 percent.

With AFP, Bloomberg

B4

In BrIef

FRIDAY: MARCH 13, 2015


BUSINESS

February auto sales rose 22%

K-Pop trouble in the offing?

WE don’t want to burst the bubble of this young network talent who’s be-ing touted as the first Pinoy artist to be trained under the K-Pop system, but it would seem that trouble is in the offing for one of his backers who we hear is about to be served a warrant of arrest for misappropriating the money of his business partners.

Stoolies who claim to be in the know said a case of estafa had been filed against Alfredo delos Santos, who was identified in photo releases early this year as the CEO of JU Entertainment Music and Contents Inc. Buddies who are updated in the music scene say delos Santos, also nick-named “Doc,” is also the big boss of All Access Production, the group that has been bringing those Korean pop artists to Manila for sell-out concerts.

Informants say Doc started out in the business through Sound Qon-cepts that he put up with his twin brother Alfonso (nicknamed “Ponga”), providing sound systems and equipment for concerts, theater shows and corporate events, before branching out into concert productions them-selves.

One of those concerts was the K-Pop Republic in September 2013 at the Araneta Coliseum featuring SHINee, Exo-K and Dal Shabet that sent Pinoy K-Popster wannabes screaming and jumping to high heavens. And this is where the trouble presumably began, because the money for orga-nizing the concert reportedly came from an investor who was convinced to part with P15 million for the K-Pop concert.

In the complaint filed before the Office of the City Prosecutor of Manila, Doc delos Santos entered into an agreement with the financier wherein profits would be equally divided after the capital/investment had been returned. In case the concert failed to make money, the losses would be equally borne by the partners. Like any businessman, the in-vestor wanted to examine the profit and loss statement, but what do you know – Doc allegedly flatly refused and only relented after several de-mand letters coursed through lawyers, replying through his counsel that the September 2013 K-Pop Republic concert did not make money.

In short, a financial loss, and that out of the P15-million investment, only P10 million remained. But instead of returning the money, the All Access exec allegedly appropriated it to pay for the talent fee of another Korean pop group Super Junior-M three days after the K-Pop Repub-lic concert with SHInee etc. as performers. True enough, Super Junior came to manila in October 2013 – but the problem is that delos Santos reportedly refuses to return the money of the investor, first claiming that the September 2013 K-Pop Republic concert was a failure (a big fat lie, those in the know refute), and that the investor approved the use of the remaining P10 million as nonrefundable advance for the talent fee of Super Junior – a claim that the complaining investor also refutes. Worse, delos Santos allegedly told the investor to go after Araneta Coliseum to get back the P10 million!

Stoolies claim that there are at least two people who were allegedly duped by Delos Santos to pony up P15 million each but were left holding an empty bag. The investor who filed the criminal case of estafa against Delos Santos has every intention to pursue the case, stoolies informed us, and that another complaint also of estafa is about to be filed against the concert producer.

Meantime, we wonder how the network execs and the young talent will react when they hear about the standing warrant of arrest issued against Delos Santos. Hopefully, this development will not (K)pop the young man’s budding music career.

For comments, reactions, photos, stories and related concerns, read-ers may email to [email protected]. You may also visit and like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/happyhourma-nilastandard. We’d be very happy to hear from you. Cheers!

Pure Foods in talks to acquire Asean firms

Pacquiao’s pick. World boxing champion Manny Pacquiao (second from left), in the midst of preparing for his long-awaited fight with Floyd Mayweather, signed a new endorsement deal with EastWest Bank, a subsidiary of Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp. and one of the country’s fastest-growing banks. Signing the endorsement deal are (from left) Solar Entertainment chief executive Wilson Tieng, EastWest chief executive Antonio Moncupa Jr. and EastWest consumer lending head Jacqueline Fernandez.

Hot money nets $1bFOREIGN portfolio investments, or “hot

money,” posted a net inflow of $1.19 billion in February, a reversal of the $354-million net outflow recorded a year ago, after for-eign investors returned to the country, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas show.

Gross inflows reached $2.549 billion in February, up from $1.497 billion a year ago while gross outflows dropped to $1.359 billion from $1.851 billion.

The February figure was also higher than the $591-million net inflow recorded in January this year.

“About 66.4 percent of investments reg-istered in February were in PSE [Philippine Stock Exchange]-listed securities, mainly holdings firms, property companies, banks, food, beverage and tobacco companies, and utilities firms,” Bangko Sentral said.

Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, Luxembourg and Hong Kong were the top five sources of foreign funds in February.

Foreign portfolio investments are over-seas funds that are temporarily invested in local stocks, government securities and money market. These are also called “hot money” because of the ease they are in-vested in and taken out of the local mar-kets. Julito G. Rada

PSC earns P873mPHILIPPINE Seven Corp., the local fran-

chise holder of convenience store chain 7-Eleven, said net income in 2014 in-creased 27.9 percent to P873.3 million from P682.6 million in 2013, on continued store expansion all over the country.

PSC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange retail sales climbed 19.3 percent to P20.6 billion from P17.2 billion a year ago, as it increased its

stores by 27.1 percent. It said as of end-2014, it was operating 1,282 stores. It opened 273 stores and closed down 13 stores last year.

PSC president and chief executive Jose Victor Paterno said the company took steps to protect and expand its leadership in light of increased competition. “This involves not only an increased pace of expansion in areas contested by competition, but stra-tegic entry into new territories. The latter may be unprofitable for the first few years due to the high fixed costs of logistics, but we believe we will later be rewarded with strong first mover advantages,” he said.

Jenniffer B. Austria

Aboitiz selling bonds CONGLOMERATE Aboitiz Equity Ventures

Inc. plans to sell up to P20 billion worth of retail bonds, as it continues to explore in-vestment opportunities in infrastructure and transport sector.

AEV chief finance officer Stephen Paradies said the company planned to issue the bonds with possible tenors of 7 to 12 years by the second half of 2015.

“We have already sounded off to banks our intention to raise retail bonds,” Paradies said.

Paradies said company remained inter-ested in various public-private partnership projects the government might bid out, in-cluding the P123-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike project and the LRT 2 op-eration and maintenance project.

AEV is part of a consortium composed of Ayala Land Inc., SM Prime Holdings Inc. and Megaworld Corp. For the LRT 2 project, AEV forged a 60-40 joint venture with Sin-gapore-based SMRT International.

The conglomerate is also studying other PPP projects including the bundled airport projects, particularly the Bacolod-Silay Airport (P20.26 billion) and Iloilo Airport (P30.40 bil-lion) as Bundle 1 and the New Bohol (Panglao) Airport (P2.34 billion), Laguindingan Airport (P14.62 billion) and Davao Airport (P40.57 bil-lion) as Bundle 2. Jenniffer B. Austria

By Othel V. Campos

VEHICLE sales jumped 22.6 percent in February from a year ago, amid the brisk demand for all product categories, two industry groups said Thursday.

The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and the Truck Manufacturers Association said in a joint report vehicle sales reached 20,663 units in February, up from 16,859 units sold a year ago.

Sales in February also in-creased 11 percent month-on-month from 18,662 vehicles sold in January this year. “There seems to be no letup in sales. With few-er calendar days for February, the industry is surprised to see sales reaching a level normally achieved during the peak month of December,” said Campi presi-dent Rommel Gutierrez.

Campi said based on indus-try forecast, sales in 2015 might reach 310,000 units, higher by 15 percent than the 269,058 units sold in 2014.

“If this trend continues, indus-try may again exceed its target for the year,” said Gutierrez.

Data showed that total sales in the first two months increased 21 percent to 39,325 units from 32,506 units sold in the same pe-riod in 2014.

Campi said all product catego-ries enjoyed brisk sales. It said in the passenger car segment, consumers continued to take

advantage of the offers attached to models introduced since the fourth quarter of 2014 as sales grew 44.4 percent to 8,149 units from 5,644 units, year-on-year.

Sales of commercial vehicles also rose 11.6 percent year-on-year to 12,514 units from 11,215 units in 2014.

Among commercial vehicles, light trucks grew 22.6 percent from 349 units in February 2014 to 428

units last month while category 4 trucks and buses increased jumped 22.2 percent from 126 units to 154 units, mostly due to higher demand for new public utility buses.

Heavy duty trucks and buses or category 5 showed robust growth of 140 percent from 40 units in February 2014 to 96 units in February this year, on continued strong demand from the con-struction sector.

By Jenniffer B. AustriaSAN Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc., the food manufacturing unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., is on the look out for acquisitions in Vietnam and Indonesia as a part of expansion in the Associa-tion of Southeast Asian Nations.

“We are talking to several [companies], but can’t be dis-closed because of confidentiality agreement. But we are focused on acquisition because that is one way to fast track the growth of San Miguel Pure Foods,” SMPFC president Francisco Alejo told reporters at the sidelines of the

listing ceremony for P15 billion worth of preferred shares.

He said the company was look-ing at acquiring businesses en-gaged in processed meat, dairy production, feeds and poultry.

The company is also inter-ested in condiments and snacks food business, which would be good for its flour business, he said.

Alejo said the company was now looking at Vietnam and In-donesia for possible investments in processed meat production.

He said the company was hop-ing to close the acquisition deal in Vietnam within the year.


CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACKF R I D AY : M A R C H 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

world

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Cops shot in flash-point town

Home from space. Expedition 42 Cosmonaut Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency rests in a chair outside the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft just minutes after she and Astronaut Barry Wilmore of NASA, and Alexander Samokutyaev of Roscosmos, landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on March 12. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews. AFP

One officer was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder as a protest rally outside the police station in the Missouri town was dispersing, St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar told reporters. He said the officers were conscious but that their injuries were serious.

Ferguson in recent months has been one of the hot spots for the long-standing US problem of harsh treatment of young black men by mainly white police.

Earlier in the day, the Ferguson police chief re-signed over a scathing US Justice Department report into the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by one of his officers back in August.

Brown was shot and killed by white police of-

ficer Darren Wilson, ig-niting angry protests and a national debate about race and law enforcement in America.

Wilson was not charged in that death.

Belmar said the pro-test that formed Wednes-day night was dispersing when at least three shots were fired.

“The police officers were standing there and they were shot. Just be-cause they were police officers,” Belmar told reporters at the scene of the incident, adding that the officers were alive and conscious.

Witness Markus Roe-hrer told CNN that the atmosphere at the protest was tense and that when he first heard the gunfire he thought it might be firecrackers. AFP

TOKYO—Japanese sci-entists have succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly, in a key step that could one day make solar power generation in space a possibility, an official said Thursday.

Researchers used mi-crowaves to deliver 1.8 kilowatts of power—enough to run an electric kettle—through the air with pinpoint accuracy to a receiver 55 meters away.

While the distance was not huge, the technol-ogy could pave the way for mankind to eventually tap the vast amount of solar energy available in space and use it here on Earth, a spokesman for The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA said.

“This was the first time anyone has man-aged to send a high out-put of nearly two kilo-watts of electric power via microwaves to a

small target, using a deli-cate directivity control device,” he said.

JAXA has been work-ing on devising Space Solar Power Systems for years, the spokesman said.

Solar power generation in space has many advan-tages over its Earth-based cousin, notably the per-manent availability of en-ergy, regardless of weather or time of day.

While man-made sat-ellites, such as the Inter-national Space Station, have long since been able to use the solar en-ergy that washes over them from the sun, get-ting that power down to Earth where people can use it has been the thing of science fiction.

But the Japanese re-search offers the possi-bility that humans will one day be able to farm an inexhaustible source of energy in space. AFP

Savants transmit energy wirelessly

WASHINGTON—Two police officers in the flash point US town of Fergu-son were shot early Thursday dur-ing a new protest over the treatment of blacks by the mainly white police force, an officer said.

Global collaboration for innovative payment solutions. Smart eMoney, Inc. and VISA had a high-level meeting to discuss further collaboration aimed at revolutionizing digital payments at the sidelines of the GSMA Mobile World Conference. In photo are from left, Lito Villanueva, SMI’s VP and head of fi nancial in-novations, digital inclusion and alliances of SMI; SMI president and CEO Orlando B. Vea, VISA president Ryan McInerney; Paolo Azzola, SMI chief operating advisor; and Vish Sowani, VP of MNO partnerships at VISA.

WIRELESS leader Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) reinforced its pres-ence in the global arena for digital � nancial services with a series of partnerships and discussions at the sidelines of the GSMA Mobile World Congress held early this month in Barcelona, Spain.

Voyager Innovations, Inc. (Voyager), a digital � nan-cial and commerce unit of Smart, has forged a strategic partnership with Cash Cred-it, a � nancial technology company based in Bulgaria, to aggressively roll out a mobile-based micro� nance program within the � rst half of 2015. Applying big data analytics, the partner-ship will deploy innovative � nancial services to Smart’s combined subscriber base of over 75 million.

“Cash Credit’s pioneering expertise in aggregating, ana-lyzing and applying data to o� er innovative micro� nance solutions will further promote electronic � nancial access among the underbanked and unbanked segments of the Philippine population. It will leverage on the prevalence of mobile phones in the country with over 100 percent pen-etration rate,” said Orlando B. Vea, president and CEO of Voyager.

Smart’s digital units get nod of global fi nancial community

� e agreement involves Cash Credit bringing in its expertise on lending to individuals through inno-vative partnerships with mobile network operators (MNOs) around the world. Based on big data analysis, Cash Credit’s proprietary decision-making model for credit scoring includes subscriber call and texting usage, payment, and behav-ioral data. � e credit ser-vices to be o� ered include micro-credit loans, airtime top-up credit, utility bill payments and credit for

airtime resellers. � e So� a-based � rm will be respon-sible for underwriting the loans, and managing all the risks with their advanced data analytics technology.

Meanwhile, executives of Smart eMoney, Inc. (SMI), the digital payments arm of Smart, also announced a global partnership meeting with VISA. Vea, who is also president and CEO of SMI, met with VISA global presi-dent Ryan McInerney to ex-plore further collaboration in the � eld of digital payments solutions.

Smart has recently launched the Philippines’ � rst contactless payment and credit product known as Charge2Phone (C2P) with Citibank using VISA’s PayWave technology. C2P will be available to Smart and Sun postpaid subscrib-ers through near � eld com-munication (NFC) stickers attached to the mobile de-vice for in-store transac-tions. � is latest innova-tion will allow subscribers to use their mobile phones for face-to-face payments as well as online purchases.

SMI will also roll out this product to key markets worldwide.

Smart also showcased its � nancial innovations in the Philippines.

Lito Villanueva, VP and head of � nancial innova-tions, digital inclusion and alliances at SMI, was a pan-elist in a thought-leadership session focusing on disin-termediation of � nancial services that was attended by key executives from the world’s leading banks.

“Given the advance-ment of mobile technolo-gy, there have been digital disruptions in the banking and � nance industries, which altered business

models. Banks and � nan-cial institutions need to embrace these changes as a natural progression to stay relevant and still be in competition. It was concluded that mobile will remain and will be at the core of everyone’s digital lifestyle,” said Villanueva.

The other panelists were Cristina de Vil-lenueve, global head of Hello Bank of BNP Pa-ribas Group; Greg Bax-ter, global head of digital strategy of Citi; Michael Sutcliff, group chief exec-utive of Accenture Digi-tal; and Derek White, chief design and digital officer of Barclays.

Global partnership on microfi nance. Voyager Innovations, Inc. (Voyager) and Cash Credit of Bulgaria signed a strategic partnership for the rollout of innovative mobile-based microfi nance ser-vices in the Philippines. Voyager’s president and CEO Orlando B. Vea (4th from left) and Cash Credit executive chairman Georgi Krumov (3rd from left) have formally signed the partnership. Cash Credit executives are joined by Smart eMoney execs Lito Villanueva, VP and head of fi nancial innovations, digital inclusion and alliances (2nd from right); and Paolo Azzola, chief operating advisor (rightmost).

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F r i D aY : M a r c H 1 3 , 2 0 1 5

WORLD

Iraqi forces finally enter IS-held Tikrit

Cops shot in flash-point townAustralia offers to payfor Bali pair’s jail time

China convicts over 700 for terrorism

11 presumed dead in chopper crash

Elvis, Elvis, Elvis. Dorotheum Auction House expert Fatma Kayrul presents record albums of 159 items of the largest private Elvis Presley collection on March 10, which was to fall under the hammer at a branch of the Dorotheum Auction house in Vienna on March 11. AFP

TIKRIT, Iraq—Iraqi forces have entered Tikrit, dodging bombs and sniper fire in search of their biggest victory yet against embattled jihadists who tried to light new fires elsewhere in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State group has suf-fered stinging defeats in the heart of its self-proclaimed “caliphate” re-cently, but its ultra-violent ideology has inspired attacks and recruits globally.

With IS brutality and population displacement reaching new highs, Washington sought increased pow-ers from the US Congress to take on a group threatening to reshape the

Middle East.However, it was without direct sup-

port from the US-led coalition’s air campaign that Iraqi government and allied forces punched into parts of Tikrit on Wednesday, marking a new phase in a 10-day drive to wrest the city back from IS.

A combination of army, police and volunteer forces moved into northern and southern Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi presi-dent Saddam Hussein and a main IS stronghold.

A major general told AFP on con-dition of anonymity that government forces were battling “to cleanse the neighborhood of Qadisiyah” in Tikrit.

“But we are engaging in a very deli-cate battle because we are not facing fighters on the ground, we are facing booby-trapped terrain and sniper fire. Our movement is slow,” he said.

An army colonel said forces com-ing from another direction had also retaken the main hospital on the city’s

southern edge.Early in the offensive, in which up

to 30,000 men were initially involved while IS is believed to have just a few hundred fighters inside Tikrit, most outlying areas were reconquered.

The town of al-Alam, a flash point north of Tikrit along the Tigris river, was fully under the control of pro-government fighters and local anti-IS Sunni tribesmen Wednesday, an AFP reporter there said.

On the back foot in eastern and northern Iraq, IS tried to seize the initiative elsewhere, including with a spectacular coordinated attack in Ra-madi in the west.

Twelve car bombs exploded almost simultaneously around the city af-ter dawn, with at least seven suicide bombers targeting government secu-rity installations, police said.

At least 17 people were killed and 38 wounded, according to a police lieutenant colonel and a doctor at Ra-madi hospital. AFP

BEIJING—China con-victed and sentenced 712 people for terrorism, sepa-ratism and related crimes last year, the country’s top court said on Thursday, saying such offences were its top priority for 2015.

Violent attacks and un-rest have been on the rise in recent years in China’s remote Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority, and Ti-betan areas, where reports

of self-immolation in pro-test against Chinese rule often hit global headlines.

China has vowed to step up punishment of what it calls “violent ter-rorists” and is drafting its first-ever anti-terrorism law. Rights groups have warned it would grant the Communist Party even greater powers to “define terrorism and terrorist activities so broadly as to easily include peaceful

dissent or criticism” of government policies.

The number of people sentenced last year for crimes such as inciting secession and terrorist at-tack was up 13.3 percent from 2013, the Supreme People’s Court said in its report to the National People’s Congress, the country’s Communist-controlled legislature.

It put “maintaining na-tional security and social

stability” at the top of its agenda this year.

“[We will] actively par-ticipate in the fight against terrorism and separatism and firmly punish violent terrorist crimes according to the law,” it said in the report.

“[We will] seriously punish the various crimes that gravely harm the people’s safety, resolutely maintain national securi-ty, ethnic unity and social stability,” it added. AFP

SYDNEY—Australia has offered to pay the cost of life imprisonment for two drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia if they are spared the firing squad, as the pair’s latest appeal was Thursday put back until next week.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop made the offer in a letter to her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi as Canberra explores all av-enues to convince Jakarta not to execute Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

They are among sev-eral foreigners, including a Frenchman, a Brazilian, three Nigerians and con-victs from the Philippines and Ghana, who could be shot dead any time for drug-related crimes.

Bishop suggested a pris-oner-swap with Indonesia in a tense phone call with

Marsudi on March 3, which was rejected, and in a follow-up letter said Canberra was willing to pay for the pair’s life imprisonment costs.

“As discussed, the Aus-tralian government would be prepared to cover the costs of the ongoing life imprisonment of Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran should a transfer not be possible,” Bishop wrote in the letter, released by her department.

“The vast majority of Australians very strongly support the government’s efforts to seek clemency for Mr Chan and Mr Su-kumaran.

“We would not want to see their execution compro-mise the strong ties we have worked so hard to foster over many years,” she added.

In a reply, also supplied by Bishop’s office, Marsudi again rejected a prisoner

swap but did not touch on the reimbursement offer.

Australia has repeatedly called for clemency, fraying ties between the neighbors.

Asked by reporters if Ja-karta had given up listening to Australia because it was fed-up with being told what to do, Bishop said: “We are not telling it what to do.

“We are asking in the most respectful way that President (Joko) Widodo show the same mercy and forgiveness and humanity to two Australians on death row as the Indonesian au-thorities ask of other coun-tries who have Indonesian citizens on death row.”

Sukumaran and Chan, ringleaders of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug traffick-ing gang, were sentenced to death in 2006 for trying to smuggle heroin out of In-donesia. AFP

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENTNATIONAL HOUSING AUTHORITY

The National Housing Authority (NHA), through the NHA-Board approved Corporate Budget for the year 2015, intends to apply the sum equivalent to the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract:

Ref.No. Projects ABC/ Source of

Funds (P)Duration

(Cal.days)

Work Description

2015-03-115

Survey Works and Lot Titling for Area H-2, DBB Project, Dasmariñas, Cavite (Re-bid)

1,498,384.68/ Corporate

Receipts90 Survey Works

and Lot Titling

Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at the opening of the financial proposals.

The NHA now calls for the submission of eligibility documents for the above-cited project. Checklist of requirements for eligibility is available for examination upon submission of a letter of intent addressed to the BAC 2 Chairperson and upon payment of a non-refundable fee of P1,000.00/contract at the BAC 2 Secretariat Office, 2nd Floor NHA Main Building, Elliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City. Interested Consultants must submit their eligibility documents on or before March 24, 2015,not later than 09:00 a.m. at the office of NHA-BAC 2 Secretariat, 2nd Floor NHA Main Building, Diliman, Quezon City. Opening of Eligibility Documents shall follow immediately after the deadline of submission of eligibility documents. Applications for eligibility will be evaluated based on a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion. The BAC 2 Secretariat may be contacted at Telephone No. 928-82-72.

The BAC shall draw up the short list of consultants from those who have submitted eligibility documents/Expression of Interest and have been determined as eligible in accordance with the provisions of R.A. 9184, otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”, and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). The short list shall consist of maximum of seven (7) prospective bidders who will be entitled to submit bids. The criteria and rating system for short listing are:

a) Applicable experience of the consultant and associates, considering both the overall experiences of the firm and the individual experiences of the principal and key staff including the times when employed by other consultants;

b) Qualification of personnel who may be assigned to the job vis-à-vis extent and complexity of the undertaking; and

c) Current workload relative to job capacity.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the IRR of RA 9184 and is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines.

The NHA shall evaluate bids using the Quality-Cost Based Evaluation/Selection (QCBE/QCBS) procedure. The weights to be allocated for the Technical and Financial Proposals and the criteria and rating system for the evaluation of bids shall be indicated and provided in the Bid Data Sheet.

The NHA reserves the right to reject any and all bids, annul the bidding process, or not award the contract at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

(SGD.) VICTOR C. BALBAChairperson, BAC 2NATIONAL HOUSING AUTHORITY

(TNS-MAR. 13, 2015)

Request foR expRession of inteRest

(TNS-MAR. 9/10/11/12/13, 2015)

MIAMI—Seven US Ma-rines and four aircrew were missing and pre-sumed dead Wednesday after their army helicopter crashed during a night training exercise in Flori-da, military officials said.

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was re-ported missing Tuesday around 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Wednesday) near Eglin Air Force Base.

The area was under heavy fog but it was not

immediately clear if that played a part in the acci-dent.

Base spokesman Andy Bourland said rescue teams located debris from the air-craft around 2 am and an investigation was ongoing.

“The thoughts and prayers of everybody here at the White House are with the families of those who were killed in this that occurred apparently overnight,” spokesman Josh Earnest said. AFP

[email protected]

RAMON L. TOMELDANE D I T O R

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MOTORING

Champ’s son alsoraces, steps up to F4

With 77 media personalities representing the different sectors of the motoring beat, NPI head honcho Antonio “Toti” Zara rolled up his sleeves and gamely took part in the day-long event that saw participants driving the Navara in a fuel economy run, and some play time at the famous Sand Dunes of Paoay, Ilocos Norte. “The All-New NP300 Navara is the truck that

will make you proud no matter what the situation, be it a rough road drive or a relaxed cruise in the city. This real world test drive will prove that this Navara is tough and smart,” says Zara, who drove from Manila to strategically visit Nissan’s dealer network along the route going to Ilocos. “It was also a great way to see the rural side of the country and to personally see

Northern

BerlIN—Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time Formula One world champion Michael, will ap-pear in Formula 4 from April with Team van Amersfoort, the Dutch outfit said.

“He spent a full day in the simu-lator at our headquarters in the Netherlands. Then we witnessed him during a test session at Va-lencia and eventually, we reached an agreement to compete together in this year’s ADAC Formula 4 se-ries,” team chief Fritz van Amers-foort told the team’s website.

The 15-year-old was second in the German kart championship last season.

He will make his first appear-ance in Formula 4, a series for young talents, at Oschersleben in northern Germany on April 25 and 26, with the last race set for Hockenheim in October.

The Schumacher family’s spokeswoman Sabine Kehm con-firmed that Mick would be quit-ting karting to focus on the single-seat category.

Formula 4 was created last year as a championship for young driv-ers hoping to eventually take the step up to Formula One.

Michael Schumacher is still re-covering from the serious skiing accident in the French Alps in December 2013 that left him with life-threatening head injuries. AFP

Text and photo by Dino Ray V. Directo IIIFake, according to the Webster dic-tionary, is something that is not gen-uine, a forgery, scam and something that is passed off as the genuine arti-cle. In essence, once you buy a replica or something that is not original, you are committing a crime in viola-tion of Republic act 8293 otherwise known as the Intellectual Property Rights Law. This trademark in-fringement is the unauthorized use in commerce of a registered mark or a colorable copy thereof which re-sults in the likelihood of confusion among the consuming public. The elements of trademark infringement are: (1) validity of a plaintiff’s regis-tered mark, (2) plaintiff’s ownership of the said mark and (3) use of the mark or imitation thereof by a third person which results in likelihood of confusion.

Counterfeit goods come in many forms, and performance wheels are one of the most pirated consumer products. The local market is flood-ed by affordable knock off wheels which are being sold at low prices. Brands which are regarded as the most pirated are BBS, Volk Rays en-gineering, and recently Black Rhino Wheels. Manufactured in the United States, Black Rhino Wheels are off-road wheels for trucks and SUV’s. Their design inspiration is the Rhi-no, one of the toughest animals in the planet, hence their aggressive looking design. The brand is distrib-uted locally by Wheel Gallery, and since its introduction in the market three years ago, Wheel Gallery has invested a lot of time and money in promoting the brand. “The problem with counterfeit products in general is that they look the same in the out-side, but in reality, these counterfeit-ers often cut corners with the raw

material and workmanship. Their aim is to make money, hence they don’t care about quality and their products don’t have warranty,” says Sam Liuson of Wheel Gallery.

Black Rhino wheels undergo stringent testing and backed up by millions of dollars in research and development to make the genuine product reliable, safe and have the right fitment. Unlike counterfeit wheels whose goal is to sell, they en-sure the lowest manufacturing cost possible and fit a wide variety of models they were not originally de-signed for. These fake wheels don’t undergo research and development because counterfeiters simply don’t have the financial capacity to do so. “It is not worth taking the risk of buying counterfeit wheels espe-cially if it involves road worthiness and the safety of your family,” adds Liuson. Your wheel looks good, but will it not break in the next pothole?

conquestwith Nissan

Text and photo by Dino Ray V. Directo III

Barely a month after launching its newest sport utility pick-up, Nissan Philippines threw caution to the wind and staged a ride and drive event up North to put the Nissan Navara through its paces.

what how my dealers are doing up north,” he says.

Powered by a new generation 2.5 DOHC in-line four cylinder VGS diesel engine, Nissan pre-pared a fleet of Navaras for the media which took us to the awe-inspiring views of Ilocos in the guise of an economy run. First stop was the Windmills of Bangui, where we sampled the local “pan-cit”. SJ Huh, NPI’s head of mar-keting marveled at the windmills of Bangui, a project which gener-ates electricity to the ten towns of Ilocos province. Built in 1998 under the watch of then Ilocos Governor Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the Bangui wind farm uses 20 units of 70-metre (230 ft) high Vestas V82 1.65 MW wind turbines, arranged on a single row stretching along a nine-kilometer shoreline off Bangui Bay, facing the West Philippine Sea.

From there, the Navara convoy proceeded to the centuries old Paoay Church, where the contin-gent partook of the famous “Bag-net and Dinuguan” pizza across

the historic church. Our group composed of Botchi Santos of the Inquirer, Ira Panganiban, Olson Camacho of Autocar and the au-thor rode in a Navara 4x4. It was the perfect vehicle for the after-noon event of driving through the Sand Dunes.

Nissan prepared a two kilom-eter course which enabled the par-ticipants to enjoy the 190PS and torque of the engine, the smooth shifting shift-on-the fly seven-speed automatic gearbox and the rigid five-link coil suspension with stabilizer bars. It was experi-ence that allowed us to realize our WrC dreams, as we hit the sand dunes with reckless abandon be-cause we were behind the wheel of a technology driven pick-up.

“Nissan pick-ups are not just vehicles, they are the lifeblood of communities and we are cater-ing to that need by improving this much loved pick-up. Nissan lives up to the promise of providing innovation that excites and that’s what we have been doing for the past 80 years,” explains Zara.

The lowdown on fake wheels

MICK SCHUMACHER

ORIGINALFAKE

The historic Paoay Church is the perfect backdrop for the innovative Navara.

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LIFEg l w e e ke n d @ g m a i l . c o m

C1BAMBINA OLIVARES WISEE D I T O R

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LIFE

F A S H I O N

Balenciaga’s Spring-Summer 2015 Collection contrasts the trademark austerity and purity the house is known for with a layer of opulence.

But it’s an opulence delivered the Balenciaga way. Luxurious calfskin or alligator “Frame” bags are detailed with a linked bicycle chain handle, meant to be carried either as a top-handled bag or, with a quick twist of

the frame, worn as a subversive clutch. So like Balenciaga, chic, ordered, but always with a touch of rebellion.

Balenciaga at Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati City

SPRING FLING

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LIFE

Raffles Makati launches its second Prêt-à-Portea series at the iconic Writers Bar. In collaboration with Italian luxebrand Furla, this delightfully designed Afternoon Tea will be offered from

March 16 to May 16. Available daily from 2:30PM to 5:30PM, enjoy a tête-à-tête as high tea recreates Furla’s Neo Pop collection for confectionary connoisseurs at Php 1550++ for two. Sip on a tea of choice while nibbling on an ambro-sial medley of teacup sandwiches. From a timeless ham and cheese layered in an apricot chutney spread to a br-uschetta tapenade topped with finely sliced olives and cherry tomatoes, this savory selection will surely sati-ate the palate. Chocolate aficionados are also in for a

delectable treat with orange coated macarons, luscious lip-shaped truffles, and divine nutty pralines—all in-spired by Furla’s Spring Collection. Relish the taste of the season with a three-tier assembly of raspberry beig-nets dusted with pink snow powder, apricot-flavored scones, and a vanilla éclair donned with edible silver leaves. The highlight of the day are the toasted marsh-mallow macarons flashing Furla’s Neo-Pop print design and the Candy Bag taking form in a black and red reli-gieuse. Add the classic touch of a sparkling glass of Rosé champagne for Php 1000++ to end the afternoon.For more information and reservations, please call the Raffles Makati Restaurant Reservations at 795 1840, or email [email protected].

ZOOLANDER STAGES A WALK-OFF AT VALENTINORemember the infamous supermodel walk-o� in the movie Zoolander, in which Ben Stiller’s Derek Zoolander and Owen Wilson’s Hansel duelled to the bitter end to see who had the better runway style, with David Bowie as the judge? Stiller and Wilson reprised their roles and strutted down the catwalk the other day during Valentino’s show for Paris Fashion Week. � eir appearance, complete with chiseled cheekbones, coi� ed hair and Anna Wintour in the front row, was a teaser for their upcoming movie, Zoolander 2, which is slated for release in early 2016. In a cheeky backstage interview with Anna Wintour posted on vogue.com, Stiller and Wilson, still in character, talk about prepping for their roles. Explaining his walk, Zoolander says, “I’m going to keep it simple today. Usually, I go right-le� -right-le� -right-le� . But today, I’m going to start le� in honor of how the sun rotates. People want me to start right. But I said, it’s 2012, it’s time for something di� erent. � ey said, it’s 2015. I said, I agree to disagree because it’s one of those things you can never really tell.” Right. Whatever, Derek Zoolander. We can’t wait for Zoolander 2!

WELCOME TOBRASSERIE GABRIELLEKarl Lagerfeld does it again. A� er converting the Grand Palais into a supermarket with all Chanel-branded groceries, a grand boulevard with Chanel-clad protesters, he decides to present the Chanel A/W 2015 collection in a chic French brasserie. Complete with a bar, bartenders and barstools. In short, a very bourgeois Parisian backdrop for clothes that were quintessentially Chanel - tweed suits and coat-dresses, bicolore toe-cap slingbacks, big bows, knitwear, mousseline blouses... � ere were even Chanel sequinned aprons and napkins, and, in echoes of Manet’s famous painting, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere feel. What does Karl have in store for us next season? Chanel at the disco? A Night at the Museum? At 82, Karl Lagerfeld certainly has one of the most fertile imaginations in the industry.

HITTING THEIR STRIDEIt was only a couple of seasons ago when shockwaves reverberated throughout the fashion world. Alexander Wang was replacing Nicolas Ghesquiere at Balenciaga; Ghesquiere was then appointed Marc Jacobs’ successor at Louis Vuitton, while Raf Simons assumed the disgraced John Galliano’s mantle at Dior, and Hedi Slimane took over from an unceremoniously booted out Stefano Pilati at Saint Laurent. And then there’s Jeremy Scott at Moschino, J W Anderson at Loewe. A couple of seasons in, all these designers have consistently presented commercially viable collections, proving that the houses had made the right call in selecting them, as far as the bottom line is concerned. Frida Gianini’s shock exit from Gucci put the relatively unknown Alessandro Michele at the helm; he has not as yet shown his own collection. But what about the brand’s heritage and DNA at these historic houses? A new designer at the helm can revitalize a brand’s image, sometimes at the expense of its identity. As Alexander Fury writes in � e Business of Fashion, “Slimane, however, is the blueprint for label revival - revival without responsibility or respect. It’s paying dividencds. Saint Laurent’s sales have doubled during Slimane’s tenure; Moschino sales grew 7 per cent last year.� ere’s a customer for this. Perhaps those customers don’t care whether the designers � t the label, but only whether the clothes � t them. Maybe they don’t care what the label is at all.”SOURCES: VOGUE.COM, BUSINESSOFFASHION.COM

BAMBINA OLIVARES WISE

FASHION FLASH POINTS

AFTER A FASHIONIt’s pret-a-portea season at the raffles hotel

Designs play with light and color, with clean, modern frames in bright � ower and insect hues. � e style features butter� y-shaped one-piece lenses in tinted acetate. Clean lines are complemented by tonal transparent acetate arms with check engraved metal detail. Burberry Butter� y Shades are available to purchase and monogram exclusively on Sunglasshut.com for delivery in 8 weeks. Lenses can be monogrammed with up to three engraved initials.

BIRDS, BEES & BUTTERFLY

SHADES

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TO SEE MORE FASHION

ACCESSORIES

C3BAMBINA OLIVARES WISEE D I T O RLIFE

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In Silicon Valley patois, to pivot is to change direc-tions. It’s o� en used to refer to startups whose original ideas don’t turn out to

be as promising as initially thought. But plenty of companies, big or small, estab-lished or starting, pro� table or otherwise, that have pivoted. Within the tech industry, we have Nokia and HP and almost every Internet-based app and service. O� ine, a notable example is Starbucks, which used to be an espresso machine retailer. � is week, chatter has it that a new pivot might be underway. Apple, one of the world’s most valuable brands and arguably the most admired tech brand, could be moving forward with its pivot from high-end consumer tech to high-end fashion—an idea that pundits have been throwing around since the compa-ny began hiring fashion execs almost two

SARTORIAL PIVOTINGBY ED BIADO

lished or starting, pro� table or otherwise, that have pivoted. Within the tech industry, we have Nokia and HP and almost every Internet-based app and service. O� ine, a notable example is Starbucks, which used to be an espresso machine retailer. � is week, chatter has it that a new pivot might be underway. Apple, one of the world’s most valuable brands and arguably the most admired tech brand, could be moving forward with its pivot

1 Luigi and Carmela with groom’s parents Louie and Betsy Romualdez Quisumbing. Carmela is the daughter of the + Luis; and Marilou Hofileña.

2 At St. Joseph Parish, newlyweds with their principal sponsors: Senate President Franklin M. Drilon and Senator Grace Poe- Llamanzares; Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte, Jr. and Chairperson Teresita J. Herbosa; Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras and Mayor Teresa P. Alegado; Secretary Florencio B. Abad and Dr. Maria Emelina Q. Panuncialman; Justice Hector L. Hofileña and Dr. Marie Antoinette L. Ortaliz; Mayor Jonas C. Cortes and Dr. Leny O. Ruiz de Luzurriaga; Mayor Adelino B. Sitoy and Ms. Lourdes Y. Hofileña; Atty. J. Antonio R. Nierras and Mrs. Amelita O. Cordero; Mr. Bernardo Y. Hofileña and Mrs. Olivia V. Yanson; Mr. Felix Y. Hofileña and Mrs. Lorie Fe R. Bangloy.

3 Most applauded principal sponsors were Senate President Franklin Drilon and Senator Grace Poe

4 The “newlyweds” Carmela and Luigi at the St. Joseph’s Parish.

5 Guests from the social and showbiz circles: Carmel de Pio, Teresin Mendezona, Dingdong Dantes, Marian Rivera and Pinky Chang.

6 Glitzy guests: Mike Acebedo Lopez,Congresswomen Gwen Garcia and Imee Marcos and socialite and civic leader Kit Yeung. ( Photo courtesy of my friend,Mike Acebedo lopez )

7 Veil sponsor and dinner reception bubbly emcee Cutie del Mar, daughter of Congressman Raul del Mar (who was also in the event).

8 From the business and community sectors of Cebu City and Mandaue led by Jeruel Roa, Mandaue Chamber president; construction wizard Peter Dy, past president of We Care Foundation; Kenneth Cobonpue; Glenn Soco; Consul and Mrs. Sam and Emily Chioson.

years ago, notably former Burberry chief Angela Ahrendts as head of retail and for-mer Yves Saint Laurent chief Paul Deneve for so-called “special projects.” Apple products have always been stylish. � eir designers have always considered the form factor of each device they put out in the market. � ey were the � rst to move away from boxy and clunky devices in fa-vor of smoother edges, luxurious-looking � nishes and understated minimalism. � e clean polished and re� ned look of every-thing from the original iPod to the latest Mac undeniably exudes style and superior levels of taste. One could actually talk about the design of a new Apple product like they were re-viewing the pieces on a Paris runway. As it is, Apple is perhaps the most sartorial of the major tech players. � erefore, it comes as no surprise that the company now advertises on Vogue magazine and is “in talks” with upmarket fashion department store Nordstrom to peddle its wares. With headlines such as Mashable’s “How the Apple Watch could reinvent fashion as we know it” and the Los Angeles Times’ “Apple Watch could become latest must-have fashion accessory,” it’s becoming more

evident that Apple is re-positioning itself as a fashion brand. Particularly, the top-tier version of the Apple Watch, aptly called Edi-tion, is a luxury smart wearable drenched in 18-karat gold (either yellow or gold) and strapped to a leather band. It costs between $10,000 and $17,000, similar to a Rolex. Now, Apple is no longer targeting the “fanboys” and the techies who care about the CPU and the memory capacity and the responsiveness of the touchscreen. � eir attention has shi� ed (or pivoted) to those who covet the season’s must-have even if it’s a tech device that they don’t know how to use. � ey’re also eyeing more discern-ing individuals who have over 10 grand to spend on something they’ll wear on their wrist for—at most—a year because by then, the Apple Watch 2 would have arrived. While the Edition will never be a top-selling piece due to its prohibitive pricing and the assertion from Apple that it will be produced in limited quantities, the fact that it exists is a clear sign that the tech giant-turning-into-fashion house is try-ing to be aspirational and exclusive. What they’re essentially saying is that the Apple Watch Edition is not for everybody. In fact, it’s only for a select few. And that is what makes it a truly fashionable piece.

AH CEBU BY DR. MILA C. ESPINA

GRANDEST WEDDING OF THE SEASONSome 3000 constituents from Cebu’s District 6 and Mandaue and Cebu cities, and selected 600 guests from the business and civic sectors, gath-ered at the St. Joseph Parish in Mandaue City, and Radisson Blu respectively, and shared the overflowing joy when District 6 Congressman Luigi Quisumbing,( grandson of prominent business leader, Norberto and the late Britta Quisumbing); took ‘high school crush’ Carmela Hofilena from Silay City, as his bride. The bride wore a Carrie Santiago gown, while the bridal ensemble donned long and cocktail gowns in blue and aqua hues. Let the photos on this page show part of Cebu’s grandest wedding of 2015.

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F A S H I O N

PAINT IT SPRINGSuperga launches its Spring Summer 2015 Collection

Superga is as Italian as mozzarella. The iconic footwear brand, whose signature shoe is the 2750 tennis shoe in canvas in a rainbow of colors and

a white rubber sole, can be seen on the feet of every Italian, from babies to senior citizens. Not for nothing is Superga called “shoes of the Italian people.” It’s a brand with heritage, founded in 1911 when the company Anonima per Azioni Walter Martiny began producing waterproof rubber-soled boots for agriculture, as well as vulcanized rubber-soled footwear. Today, Superga is on its way to becoming the shoe of the world, as it conquers new markets with its versatile designs in a wide spectrum of colors, from neutrals and basics to eye-popping brights and floral prints. The brand has also embarked on highly successful collaborations with bloggers such as Chiara Ferragni of The Blond Salad and Leandra Medine AKA The Man Repeller. Said Ning Kan, Sales Manager for BasicNet Asia, Ltd., which owns Superga, “We’ve undergone a huge expansion, and Superga is now present in many countries all over the world. Suddenly, you can see Superga everywhere. The company is growing very fast worldwide. The collaborations - the co-branding with designers and bloggers - have helped a lot to bring an awareness of the brand, keeping it relevant and current.”

At the recent launch of the Spring Summer 2015 Collection, Superga went interactive - literally - setting up an area with artists ready to customize Superga sneakers with personalized patterns painted on the shoes. Not that the collection as it already is isn’t funky enough. There are six different ranges within the collection this season:

● COLOR MIX, which is dedicated to color, to fluo and to the strongest chromatic contrasts

● FLOWERS, which presents a world of floral fantasies of all kinds, from the most romantic with little flowers to the modern prints wit bright color combinations.

● TAPESTRY, which presents the vulcanized shoes from the classic 2750 to the 2790 with the 4 cm platform, in damask fabrics typical of couches and armchairs, or in cotton with prints that are reminiscent of antique tapestries.

● EMBROIDERY, which comes in broderie anglaise made of satin and in cotton embellished with embroidery

● HEMP AND ROPE, which consists of ballerina shoes and espadrilles in jute and in woven cotton in fashionable colors

● SPECIAL CRAFTS, which is the most refined Superga offer, featuring laser-cut synthetic fabric, perforated cotton or woven suede

C5ISAH V. REDE D I T O RSHOWBITZ

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i s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m

On Jan. 25, TV5 launched a new dance competition called Move It: Clash of the Streetdancers.” Hosted by Jasmine Curtis-Smith and DJ

Tom Taus, the show aims to revolutionize dance contests by highlighting and promoting the art of streetdancing.

Halfway through the competition, only six solo performers and � ve dance groups remain from the original 10 contestants in each category. Airing ev-ery Sunday night, the show will award P1 million to the group champions and P500 thousand to the best solo act.

As of this writing, the remaining solo perform-ers are former Wowowillie dancer and co-host Lovely Abella, former TV5 tal-ent Anykka Asistio, world champion A Team dance crew member Dhztine Ber-nardino, � e Manoeuvres member and cho-reographer RJ De Claro, actor and Anim-E dance group member Sergio Garcia, and Job Zamora, a member of � e Manoeuvres like De Claro and an alumnus of the La Salle Dance Company (LSDC) – Street.

Already eliminated from the solo catego-ry are former Mocha Girls member Anne Sotelo, TV5 Artista Academy � nalist and Tropa Mo Ko gag show � xture Chris Leon-ardo; commercial model and former GMA soap opera bit player Charlotte Hermoso, and John Wayne Sace, a former ABS-CBN talent and member of the Anim-E dance group like Garcia.

Still slugging it out in the crew catego-ry are FMD Extreme, Nocturnal Dance Company, Pangasinan Movement, PUP Power Impact Dancers, and Next to In-nocence Kids. FMD Extreme is the 2013 and 2014 back-to-back champion of the World Supremacy Battleground in Syd-ney, Australia. Nocturnal Dance Company is a former Talentadong Pinoy Worldwide Battle Royale Hall of Famer. Pangasinan

Movement is the 2011 and 2012 back-to-back champion of the World Supremacy Battleground before FMD Extreme took over their reign. PUP Power Impact Danc-

ers is a dance group based at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and winner of di� erent university-based dance contests. Next to In-nocence Kids may be the youngest among the contes-tants but they have proven to be capable of outperforming other groups such as FCPC Baliktanaw, Kana High, � a Mist, F.O.S. 417, and Auto-nomicass Crew, which have already been eliminated from the competition.

Alternately judging the contest in groups of three every week are streetdance masters Lema Diaz, Ter-rence “Hitmaster Fish” Wil-

liams, Ken Johns, Vimi Rivera, Miguel Colon, Prince Paltuob, Christian Lao, and dance diva Regine Tolentino.

“Move It” also has a segment called “DANCEtionary of the Day” to inform and educate its viewers about the history of streetdancing and its di� erent forms. Competing dance groups are required to try various streetdance moves like House, Dance Hall, Krumping, Vogue, B-Boy, Hi-phop, Wacking, Popping, and Locking. � ere is also a new theme every week like Michael Jackson’s dance moves, disco, African dance, salsa, and tapdancing, among others.

Streetdancing has steadily evolved and is now a mix of various forms and dancers come up with di� erent styles, which they can call their own. With the talents featured in Move It: Clash of the Streetdancers, Filipi-no dance groups are de� nitely on the right track as we continue to assert our dominance in the world streetdance championships.

Kapamilya TV host-actress Alex Gonza-ga will open the magical summer season of TV viewers as ABS-CBN’s newest fan-tasy-drama series Inday Bote premieres on Monday.

In the series, Alex will be paired with Matteo Guidicelli and Kean Cipriano.

“� e story of ‘Inday Bote’ is perfect for the whole family this summer season. In the teleserye version, viewers will get to know Inday as a person, daughter, sister, and a young woman who learns to fall in love. � e youth, especially teenagers, will surely learn a lot from Inday’s determi-nation and her belief that there is noth-ing you cannot do, if you will follow your dreams,” said Alex about ABS-CBN’s TV adaptation of the masterpiece of veteran komiks novelist Pablo Gomez.

In “Inday Bote,” Alex will portray the character of Inday, a joyful young wom-an who has many dreams for herself and her family. Inday’s life begins to change when she is given a magic bottle inhab-ited by dwarves who have superpowers.

Completing the powerhouse cast of “Inday Bote” are Aiko Melendez, Alicia Alonzo, Smokey Manaloto, Nikki Val-dez, Malou Crisologo, Je� rey Santos, Nanding Josef, Alora Sasam, Biboy Ramirez, Izzy Canillo, and introducing Alonzo Muhlach.

� e series part of the magical summer campaign of Dreamscape Entertainment Television, the group that created top-rating TV masterpieces such as Walang Hanggan, Ina Kapatid Anak, Juan dela Cruz, Ikaw Lamang, and Bagito, which will air its � nale today.

Streetdancing is evolving and slowly

becoming a form of art, far from the days it was looked down by formally trained dancers

in ballet and jazz. Today, even formal dance classes are

offering it as a subject

MATTEO, KEAN, & ALEX MAKE MONDAYS MAGICAL

ON ABS-CBN

BY SEYMOUR BARROS SANCHEZ

Alex Gonxaga is paired with Matteo Guidicelli (left) and

Kean Cipriano in Inday Bote

The series also featurs Alonzo

Muhlach as a dwarf and performances

by Aiko Melendez and Biboy Ramirez

STREETDANCING IN TV5’S ‘MOVE’

. FMD Extreme is the 2013 and 2014 back-to-back champion of the World Supremacy Battleground in Syd-ney, Australia. Nocturnal Dance Company

Worldwide Battle Royale Hall of Famer. Pangasinan

in the world streetdance championships.

Pangasinan Movement

Tom Taus And Jasmine Curtis-Smith

Nocturnal Dance Company




when she is given a magic bottle inhab-ited by dwarves who have superpowers.

Completing the powerhouse cast of Aiko Melendez, Alicia

Alonzo, Smokey Manaloto, Nikki Val-dez, Malou Crisologo, Je� rey Santos, Nanding Josef, Alora Sasam, Biboy

, and introducing

� e series part of the magical summer campaign of Dreamscape Entertainment Television, the group that created top-

Walang Juan dela

, which




Battle Royale Hall of Famer. Pangasinan Battle Royale Hall of Famer. Pangasinan

Pangasinan Movement

ACROSS 1 — Marquette 5 Cutie-pie 9 Succotash bean 13 Cousteau’s middle name 14 Bumpy 16 Sheik or sultan 17 Dangerous tides 18 Game-show host 19 Quick snack 20 “So what — is new?”

21 Mole, maybe 22 Set free 24 1940s auto 26 False witness 27 Like a good slogan 30 Motown trio 34 Drama awards 35 Irene of “Fame” 36 Kind of straits 37 L. — Hubbard 38 Gave a hand to 39 Hebrew T

40 Anon’s companion 42 Matrix 43 “— Davis Eyes” 45 Water or oil 47 Ravine 48 Ancient colonnade 49 Kinks’ tune 50 Agency 53 Sinbad’s transport 54 Link site 58 Drop 59 Type of surgeon 61 It has rings 62 Catch sight of 63 “Abra-Ca- —” 64 Millay or Ferber 65 This, in Barcelona 66 Employs 67 Kind of bunny

DOWN 1 Ceremonial fire 2 Harm 3 Gym iterations 4 Flower petal extract 5 Like evening gowns 6 Get-up-and-go 7 Miss Van Pelt 8 Opposite of sm. 9 Toiled 10 Orchid-like blossom 11 Jane, to Tarzan

12 Retired 15 Chopper’s place 23 Thole filler 25 Sighs of relief 26 Enticed 27 Kitchen tool 28 On top of 29 Antler branches 30 — Hawkins Day 31 Fictional Walter 32 Muse of poetry 33 Prime time hour 35 About, datewise 38 Wrong way to run 41 Hieroglyphics stone 43 Checkbook amt. 44 Put into law 46 Ms. Hagen 47 Winter quaffs 49 Peter of “Casablanca” 50 Big name in speakers 51 Strike callers 52 Mob scene 53 Burnishes 55 Karachi language 56 Quagmires 57 Tour de force 60 — de cologne

C6 ISAH V. REDE D I T O R

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SHOWBITZ

A N S W E R F O R P R E V I O U S P U Z Z L E

CROSSWORD PUZZLE FRIDAY,

MARCH 13, 2015

Five-time Emmy winner Jim Parsons, also widely known as Sheldon in the hit television sitcom

� e Big Bang � eory stars as the voice of a purple alien called Oh, in the delightful and col-orful family � lm, Home, from DreamWorks Animation.

Oh’s race, the Boov are look-ing for a new home. � ey in-vade Earth, take over the planet and dispatch all the humans to a far-� ung community. But Oh, who is quite di� erent from the other Boov, makes a big mis-take that could lead to an in-tergalactic catastrophe. Hiding out from the rest of his species, led by the weak and vain Cap-tain Smek (Steve Martin), Oh encounters Tip (Rihanna), the last human girl on Earth. She has avoided capture but is separated from her mother Lucy (Jennifer Lopez). Both are on the run, team up and embark on a thrilling road trip … in a bright red � ying car!

Home takes Oh, Tip – and the audience – on a worldwide journey, from the United States to France to China, and � nally to Australia. It’s an epic expedition encompassing millions of Boovian spaceships, and technology that switches o� gravity across the entire planet. An enormous Gorg mother ship also

lends impressive scale. “� e goal from the start was to make Home a big global adventure,” says director Tim Johnson.

“Tip is hostile toward Oh, but as they embark on a global journey, they realize they have more and more in common,” adds Parsons. “You never know where, and with whom, you’re going to � nd friend-ship,” continues the Emmy® win-ning star. “Making lasting friend-ships with people – or visitors from afar – who couldn’t be more di� erent from you, and with whom you’d never expect to connect, is

not only possible, it’s necessary.”Oh and Tip are an interga-

lactic odd couple of friends. “� ey’re from two very di� er-ent worlds and couldn’t be less alike,” says global music star and seven-time Grammy® win-ner Rihanna, who voices Tip. “But they slowly discover com-mon ground and become amaz-ing friends.”

“� e Boov are unilateral,” Parsons adds. “� ey’re all of one mind. Initially, Oh believes in that philosophy and he’s re-ally enthusiastic about being the best Boov he can be. But unlike the rest of them, Oh wants to have a good time.”

Parsons makes his animated feature debut in “Home.” � e classically trained actor em-

braced the challenges of working in the genre. “It’s the most inter-esting ‘playtime’ I’ve ever had as an actor,” he explains. “It feels like you’re going down a mysterious but joyful black hole, where you’re alone with the character. Once you relax, it’s really fun to see what hap-pens. I never le� the recording stu-dio without being a sweaty mess!”

“Home” (2D and 3D) opens in cinemas nationwide on March 26 from DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox and distributed by Warner Bros.

Men of #Diskarte from the showbiz world proved they have the ability to get through any situation during

the launch of Nivea Men’s Test your #Dis-karte challenge at Trinoma Activity Center.

Teaming up with bloggers and journalists, Troy Montero, Karen Bordador, Divine Smith, Franco Mabanta, Julz Savard, and sportscaster Jinno Ru� no took on challenges around the mall, while being introduced To NIVEA MEN’s newest range of products de-signed for today’s quick-thinking males.

Among these are Nivea Men Anti-Perspirant roll-on, suited for adventur-ers, Nivea Men Invisible Black and White

which helps dapper guys’ white clothes stay white and your black clothes stay black for longer, the Nivea Men Silver Protect � ghts body odor for 48 hours, and the Nivea Men Whitening Deo not only controls sweat, body odor and gives long-lasting dryness, but also renews skin and reduces accumu-lated underarm dullness.

� ere’s also the Nivea Men Extra Whit-ening Moisturizer Pore Minimizer SPF30 that stimulates skin regeneration and pro-tects against sun damage, Nivea Men Anti-Aging Q10 Moisture Gel that also � ghts visible signs of stress and aging, and the new Anti-Acne Brightening Mud Serum

Foam which contains carefully selected active mineral powder from Japanese Fuji Volcanic Mud.

� e challenges culminated with each team picking bets from the crowd to match with model Jinri Park, who surprisingly likes men who are not too muscular and can be se-rious and funny when they need to be.

Celebrity or not, when it comes to grooming, the wide range of NIVEA MEN skincare products is with no doubt the Pinoy guy’s trusted partner and ultimate wingman to boost the #Diskarte he needs. For more information on NIVEA MEN, visit http://www.niveamen.ph .

Starting with the new season of Game Of � rones, viewers in Asia can watch HBO and Cinemax Originals at the same time as view-ers in the U.S.

On April 13, subscribers in Asia can catch the worldwide pre-miere of three new seasons of HBO Original series – Game Of � rones, Silicon Valley and Veep as they debut back-to-back and si-multaneously as the U.S. from 9 a.m. with primetime encores from 9 p.m. the same day on HBO / HBO HD.

“� e wait is over. Subscribers in Asia will now have the choice to watch their favorite HBO and Cinemax Originals the same time as the U.S. or during the primetime telecast that same evening. Or if they prefer, via broadband streaming anytime, anywhere on HBO GO2 or our on-demand service, HBO On Demand2,” said Jona-than Spink, CEO, HBO Asia. “� e simultaneous airing of new sea-sons and brand-new Original programs as the U.S. will help with our continued � ght against piracy and end the angst of reading about show spoilers on social media.”

HBO Original programs that will premiere at the same time as the U.S. on HBO / HBO HD include the new seasons of the Emmy®-winning True Detective, with Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, and Ra-chel McAdams; � e Le� overs, starring Justin � eroux and Liv Tyler; and Getting On, the o� eat comedy that follows the dysfunctional sta� ers at a female-geriatric ward; as well as highly-anticipated up-coming new HBO Original programs like Westworld, a drama series starring Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, and Evan Rachel Wood; � e Brink, the dark comedy series starring Jack Black and Tim Robbins; and HBO Films’ Bessie, starring Queen Latifah.

JIM PARSONS’S VOICE IN ’HOME’

CELEBS UNLOCK THEIR #DISKARTE

Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory voices Oh, a blue alien, in Home

HBO,CINEMAX ORIGINALS PREMIERE SHOWS SAME TIME AS U.S.

Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister and Ian Beattie as Meryn Trant in the new

season of Game of Thrones

From left: Chico Garcia, David Guison and Delamar Arias

C7ISAH V. REDE D I T O RSHOWBITZ

F R I D AY : M A R C H 1 3 : 2 0 1 5


GMA Network Chairman and CEO Felipe L. Gozon received the prestigious Global Leadership Award for Excellence in Media Sector on March 5 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Joining him in the photo are (from left) Chris Wong - CEO of the Leaders International; Arthur Carmazzi - Global Top 10 Most Influential Leadership Guru, Secretary General of ALDA; Tengku Suleiman Shah Alhaj Ibni - The Royal Chief Major of Selangor; and HE Abdulrahim Hassan Naqi - Secretary General of the Federation of GCC chambers (FGCCC).

GMA Network Chair-man and CEO Atty. Felipe L. Gozon bagged the pres-

tigious Global Leadership Award for Excellence in Me-dia Sector, reaching another milestone in his distinguished career as a broadcast execu-tive. � e awards’ ceremonies were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 5.

Gozon made history by being the first Filipino recipient of this international award, which recognized his excellent management of the Kapuso Network and the Company’s contributions to the local broadcast industry.

“� is award is signi� cant to me not only because I did not apply for it, but more importantly, I am told that I am the � rst Filipino to be given this award,” Gozon said.

Considered the man who turned GMA Network around to become the leading local broadcast company today, Gozon believes that the Network is headed towards a greater future.

“My vision for GMA Network is for its programs to enrich the lives of all Filipinos everywhere in the world and for the Network to become the number one TV station in Asia,” he said.

The Global Leadership Awards cited Gozon for his “keen involvement in spearheading the corporate business and community development, and for the continued e� ort and contributions done towards steering [GMA] to greater heights.”

Moreover, Gozon was honored for “the leadership values that he had consistently imparted to move forward and transform according to times and needs.”

Described as the “[ASEAN] Region’s most impactful event,” the Global Leadership Awards is organized by � e Leaders In-ternational together with the American Leadership Devel-opment Association (ALDA). It aims “to convene and show-

case the highest levels of Global Leaders representing the dip-lomatic, business, government, philanthropic, media, celebrity, and social sectors.”

★★★★★For the � rst time in Wagas, the audience will get the chance to know about the love story of Gabriela and Diego Silang.

In 1872, both Gabriela and Diego were prisoners. She was trapped in an unhappy marriage; and he, a slave and a captive of the Spaniards a� er surviving a shipwreck. Meeting each other, the both felt what freedom was like.

� eir � rst meeting was in a church, where it was love at � rst sight for Diego a� er seeing Gabriela, who was then wearing a black veil. It took him � ve long years before he � nally won the heart of Gabriela.

Despite the Spanish occupation, their love freely endured.

Together, they fought for their fellowmen in Ilocos, ignited by their love for their country. Still, this was not the only battle that put their love to the test.

Tomorrow, GMA News TV will air the � rst of two parts of the Gabriela and Diego Silang love story. Glaiza de Castro and Marc Abaya play the ill-fated lovers in Wagas, 7 p.m. on GMA news channel

★★★★★Rated K soared high on national ratings in the � rst quarter of 2015. � e top-rating weekly magazine show hosted by veteran and award-winning broadcast journalist Korina Sanchez-Roxas celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Kantar Media Philippines’s survey data showed Rated K as the most watched Sunday television program in the country from January to February this year. It is also the 5th most watched television show in the country for the month of February with an impressive and sustained rating of 24.6 percent viewer share on a weekly basis.

In the last 10 years, the show consistently featured a diverse line-up of stories that mirror and highlight Filipino culture – from inspiring stories of both celebrities and ordinary Filipinos to the latest trends in technology, food, and fashion to unusual tales of mystery and suspense to the hottest entertainment and lifestyle and leisure venues around the Philippines to even funny and trending events and personalities.

Rated K’s � agship advocacy, “Korina’s Handog Tsinelas Campaign,” continues to give free rubber slippers to all underprivileged children in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao since its conception some eight years ago.

Today, Korina and Rated Khave given children over two million pairs of rubber slippers across the country with the hope of restoring each child’s dignity.

Korina’s dream has been no child will walk barefoot ever again.

Korina is currently touring the country along with Rated K team in giving away not only rubber slippers to children but also rice and bracelets among mothers in poor barangays throughout the country. She is also touring the country to share inspirational messages to loyal fans and supporters, and to the youth as well being a favorite guest speaker in cam-puses and universities.

Rated K also partnered with retail giant Puregold for “Handog Tsinelas Campaign.” Supporters may drop o� their rubber slipper donations at Puregold outlets nationwide.

“It is such a blessing that Rat-ed K has stayed on-air this long and maintained its no. 1 status nationwide on its timeslot con-sistently. With sti� competition on weekends it is something to be proud of. I owe this to all the sta� of the show,” says Korina.

Rated K airs on ABS-CBN every Sunday evening a� er Wansapanatym.

PEOPLECRAZY BEAUTIFUL YOUAs of this writing, this romantic teen � ick has already earned more than P225 million. And Star Cinema is very con� dent that this � gure will double. It has been two weeks since it was released commercially and yet people are still trooping to the closest movie house despite the movie tickets costing even higher than Hollywood movies. You see, KathNiel fans are not all scream and shout, they also pay for their tickets at the tills.

RICHARD GOMEZWho needs a PMPC Star Awards trophy if you’re given a more prestigious one? Goma wasn’t even nominated at the recently concluded Star Awards for Movies in a category both won by Piolo Pascual and John Lloyd Cruz. � e 48-year-old former matinee idol won best actor in the Directors’ Week competition for Michael Tuviera’s � e Janitor at the 35th Oporto International Film Festival in Portugal.

ALEX GONZAGAFrom movies to television s, and from television commercial to concert stage, she is undoubtedly ubiquitous. � e Kapamilya star is going to play the role Maricel Soriano played in the movie. Gonzaga essays Inday Bote in its TV incarnation. � e budding comedian considers her being almost everywhere as an advantage. � e fact is, not everybody in the entertainment industry experience the same kind exposure, so why worry if this could bring more fame and ultimately make her bank account even most people in showbiz?

JULIA BARRETTOShe’s ripe for picking as she is now 18. What we mean is that Julia should be starring in her own series paired with popular and young leading men. She shouldn’t be settling for support roles. Besides she came from a clan of lead stars. But wait, the Kapamilya Network has already given her that opportunity. Apparently she was outshone by the likes of Liza Soberano and Nadine Lustre. � at’s a bit embarrassing for someone who was launched to be the next big thing.

SHARON CUNETAShe’s determined to show that she really prepared for her comeback to the Kapamilya Network. In fact, she lost 40 pounds before inking an exclusive contract with the network she le� four years ago over a billion worth of contract with TV 5. � ey say ABS-CBN obviously loves Sharon, but that doesn’t re� ect on her � rst project with the network. Given her caliber, we thought she’d be given her own show. But no, she’ll just be a judge in a reality singing show featuring other celebrities.

VIN ABRENICAAljur’s less popular brother said with conviction that his older brother’s standing in showbiz has not changed since the recent brouhaha that le� the Machete star literally jobless for months. � e younger Abrenica said that his brother was never out of the public’s radar and was able to keep his supposed stature. � at explains why Vin is still a bit player. He’s in denial and doesn’t know if there’s room for improvement, which is crucial in showbiz.

...ARE NOT

TALKING ABOUT

...ARE TALKING ABOUT

Glaiza de Castro and Marc Abaya play Gabriela and Diego Silang in the two-part love story of the heroes in Wagas on GMA News TV

Richard Gomez

Alex Gonzaga

Sharon Cuneta

Vin Abrenica

GLOBAL LEADERSHIP AWARD FOR KAPUSO BIG BOSS

Korina Sanchez-Roxas continues to distribute slippers to children across the country for her Handog Tsinelas Campaign for People...

C7E D I T O RSHOWBITZi s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m


C8 ISAH V. REDE D I T O R

SHOWBITZ

F R I D AY : M A R C H 1 3 : 2 0 1 5

On social media, � ursday is throwback day, which means us-ers can post anything from their own photos or images, that remind them of their once-upon-a-time-years as young persons. Sometimes these images or photographs elicit chuckle or laughter, others can make people snicker with loathing, while some simply ignore them as they, perhaps don’t want to remem-ber of something they had encoun-tered or situations they had been in.

But throwback images are gener-ally fun, not necessarily funny.

GMA Network is riding on this craze about looking back. But the people in the production department want something de� nite…funny.

So, they engaged to funny guys, naturally, to host the show. And who among the talents on the Kapuso network � t easily into the category?

No, not Michael V who is tight with Pepito Manaloto and Bubble Gang, and de� nitely not Vic Sotto or Jose Manalo who are both en-gaged seriously with Eat Bulaga and other comedy shows like Vam-pire ang Daddy Ko for Vic and Ce-lebrity Blu� for Jose.

� e production people tapped two comedians who are in com-edy shows, too, but are not play-ing central � gures, which to them is excellent because they can focus on the new show.

Sef Cadayona, an alumnus of StarStruck artista search, and Be-tong Sumaya, a former produc-tion assistant but was discovered to have a knack for cracking funny lines a� er he joined the Survivor celebrity edition, were the natu-ral choices. � e two are the new laughteam as they are called now. � ey will also host the show that is premiering tomorrow a� ernoon.

Talking to Cadayona, I asked him what this show is all about. � e budding comedian whom you also see every Saturday in Vampire ang Daddy Ko and every Sunday in Bubble Gang doing gags that can make anyone pass gas, said, “We have videos of scenes or events that some people may � nd funny. We will present them in a fresh and comedic manner. � ey may be presented based on their categories, as a countdown, a mash-up of di� erent scenes, and many more. It can surely make the viewers reminisce the past and make the young generation con-nect with the older ones.”

Betong explains in Filipino, “I am sure viewers will enjoy watch-ing the scenes that they may have forgotten but de� nitely made them laugh. � e younger generation can also watch these scenes. So, with us there on screen, we will try to make things wacky as they say now.

“It’s going to be funny. We’ll do our best to keep the viewers glued to their television watching the show. � ere’s going to be lots of colors, lots of love, and lots of high-� ves,” added Sef.

Sabado-badoo will air every Saturday before Pepito Manaloto on GMA

★★★★★� is summer, BUM’s “Black Sum-mer” campaign gathers all of the label’s ambassadors –Jane Oineza, Ella Cruz, Nash Aguas, Miguel Tanfelix, and Bianca Umali – who are all opinionated and expressive, especially when it comes fashion.

Asked about her favorite item in the brand’s latest collection, Jane singles out the #SorryNot-Sorry tee because “she is fond of statement shirts.”

Nash, meanwhile, is a big fan of Black Summer Graphic Sando in black and white not just because it looks good but also because it is comfortable, especially for some-one like him, who is a skater. “� e new collection of BUM matches the look that I want,” he says. “I’m

happy that they have those kinds of clothes.”

With this summer campaign, BUM has once again gathered their celebrity endorsers for a fun-� lled day of shooting, shar-ing laughter and conversations in between shots. Since they have worked altogether for the brand’s Holiday campaign, Jane, Ella, Nash, Miguel, and Bianca are hap-py to be reunited with their fellow young style ambassadors.

� is summer season; forget about dressing up like everyone else. Be the rebel of fashion and do your own thing by going for the dark colors, statements, and de-signs that you really like.

BUM’s 2015 summer collection is now available at BUM boutiques and leading department stores na-tionwide.

For more information about BUM’s Black Summer, visit www.bumequipment.com.ph or follow us “@o� cialbumph” on Twitter, In-stagram or Facebook.

Continued on C7

SATURDAY IS THROWBACK DAY

IN NEW SHOWSIMPLY

REDSIMPLY

RED

ISAH V. RED

The Kapuso network has a

new laughteam. Sef Cadayona and

Betong Sumaya hosts ‘Sabado

Badoo,’ a takeoff from social media’s

#Throwback Thursday craze

Sef Cadayona and Betong Sumaya host

GMA’s Saturday early evening gag show

Sabado Badoo!

BUM’s brand ambassadors, from let, Miguel Tanfelix, Bianca Umali, Jane Oneza, Ella Cruz, and Nash Aguas in the label’s summer collection

The Standard - 2015 March 13 - Friday

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Transcript of The Standard - 2015 March 13 - Friday