EDGE By Lorie A. Cascaro T HE Mr. GAD, a federation formed by 15 barangays in Davao City, including Ba- rangays Toril Poblacion, Lizada, Sasa, Panacan, Buhangin, Tibungco, and San Antonio of Agdao, will promote the protection of hus- bands from abuses committed by their wives. Guesting at the Kapehan sa Dabaw, SM City Davao yesterday, Agdao Brgy. Captain Rene Estorpe, president of the federation, said in his barangay, there were two reported cases of abuses against husbands. “Kung sumahon nato ang rekord sa tibuok Pilipinas, daghan na pud diay By Jade C. Zaldivar T HE P300 million fish cultivation in- dustry in Punta Dumalag, this city, will have to stop operations, accord- ing to Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. This after the mayor learned that said coastal area is ‘unfit for fish cultivation.’ In the process of declaring Punta Dumalag as a Mariculture Park, several studies were made by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Davao region,through sampling of the water in fish cages and the milkfish produced thereat. P 15.00 • 20 PAGES www.edgedavao.net VOL.5 ISSUE 30 • APRIL 17, 2012 Sports Page 15 Dumalag fish cages closed SCIENCE\ENVIRONMENT Page 4 Serving a seamless society FHUSBANDS, 13 FDUMALAG, 13 n Water sampling bares E. coli Follow Us On DAVAO Husbands rise vs wives’ abuses Indulge! Page A4 Special Report WASHED. Children play with a dead milkfish (bangus) which washed ashore in Punta Dumalag where some 200 fish cages have been ordered closed by Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on March 29 following Department of Science and Technology’s water analysis results showing presence of coliform and other pathogens. [JADE C. ZALDIVAR]
Transcript
EDGE
By Lorie A. Cascaro
THE Mr. GAD, a federation formed by 15 barangays in Davao City, including Ba-rangays Toril Poblacion, Lizada, Sasa,
Panacan, Buhangin, Tibungco, and San Antonio
of Agdao, will promote the protection of hus-bands from abuses committed by their wives.
Guesting at the Kapehan sa Dabaw, SM City Davao yesterday, Agdao Brgy. Captain Rene Estorpe, president of the
federation, said in his barangay, there were two reported cases of abuses against husbands.
“Kung sumahon nato ang rekord sa tibuok Pilipinas, daghan na pud diay
By Jade C. Zaldivar
THE P300 million fish cultivation in-dustry in Punta Dumalag, this city, will have to stop operations, accord-
ing to Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
This after the mayor learned that said coastal area is ‘unfit for fish cultivation.’
In the process of declaring Punta
Dumalag as a Mariculture Park, several studies were made by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Davao region,through sampling of the water in fish cages and the milkfish produced thereat.
P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.net
VOL.5 ISSUE 30 • APRIL 17, 2012
SportsPage 15
Dumalag fishcages closed
SCIENCE\ENVIRONMENT Page 4
Serving a seamless society
FHUSBANDS, 13
FDUMALAG, 13
n Water sampling bares E. coli
Follow Us On
DAVAO
Husbands rise vs wives’ abuses
Indulge!Page A4
Special Report
WASHED. Children play with a dead milkfish (bangus) which washed ashore in Punta Dumalag where some 200 fish cages have been ordered closed by Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on March 29 following Department of Science and Technology’s water analysis results showing presence of coliform and other pathogens. [JADE C. ZALDIVAR]
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 20122 THE BIG NEWS EDGEDAVAO
CTO collects P863 Million
By Jade C. Zaldivar
THE City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) has re-ported a total col-
lection of P863,673,740.59 from January to February this year.
CTO chief Rodrigo Riola last week said the sum is already 37 per-cent of the city’s target revenue collection this year‘,quite a feat con-sidering we’re only two months into the year.’
In 2011 the CTO sur-passed its annual target by 130 percent with a to-tal of P4,525,267,675.00 revenue collection.
With 37 percent al-ready acquired out of the 2.3 billion targetted col-lection for 2012, Riola is optimistic the city would accomplish its target or even surpass it.
The CTO head attrib-uted the achievement to the intensified education and information cam-paign as well as to the increase in the number of business establishments in the city.
“The city may have relatively grown much in 2011, but without inten-sified efforts to inform the business establish-ments’ responsibility to pay their taxes, then wala rin,” Riola said.
Of the P863,673,740.59 collect-ed, 56 percent came from business taxes amount-ing to P482,012,567.97.
Also a big con-tributor were fees and charges amounting to P279,000,000 while P113,810,000 was col-lected from the City Eco-nomic Enterprise.
The city’s revenue is expected to increase even more after Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio last month confirmed the city is gearing to in-crease taxes to make up for the decrease in the internal revenue
allotment (IRA) from the national gov-ernment, hence the city government is crafting a proposed plan in aid of legislation for the pur-pose.
US TROOPS OUT NOW. More than 5000 Mindanaoans led by Patriyotiko Mindanao will embark on a five-day Mindanao-wide caravan from Davao City to Zamboanga to protest against the alleged US intervention in the
Philippines in time with the start of the joint US-Philippine joint military exercises on April 16. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]
FISH cultivation inves-tors in Punta Dumalag, who were ordered by
the city government to stop harvesting by August, are will-ing to fully cooperate, Davao City Agriculturist Office head Leo Avila III said yesterday.
In fact, they are will-ing to donate public toilets to informal settlers along coastal areas.
Out of 200 fish cages in coastal areas of Matina Aplaya, only 93 currently have fish stocks. Operators of these will then have to harvest their produce in August new fingerlings will no longer be replenished.
The major points agreed upon during the dialogue between fish cage owners and the CAO in a meeting last April 11 were to look for alternative sites, conduct samplings.
On April 24 stakehold-ers will again meet to cre-ate an interagency collabo-ration and will be attended by fish cage operators.
The interagency col-laboration will be a venue for planning how to ad-dress land-based pollu-tion which will be par-ticipated in by barangays, the City Health Office, City Environmental and Natu-
ral Resources Office, City Agriculturist’s Office, De-partment of Agriculture, and Department of Health among others.
Avila said City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will also come up with an ex-ecutive order creating the task force for this program.
“It’s a priority kay himuon na ang Implement-ing Rules and Regulations sa Sewerage and Septic Management Ordinance of Davao City,” he said.
He added that there has been no order to dis-mantle the fish cages, but only a notice to stop the harvest, adding that that they can move them some-where else after conduct-ing a series of tests.
Noting the govern-ment’s concern for public health, Avila said reloca-tions of fish cages would be within Davao City, un-less the target areas re-main positive for bacteria, in which case there is no reason to continue their operation.
He said that while all operators are from the city, some of them already have similar investments in Davao del Sur and Davao del Norte among
others.“Namalhin na lang
sila diha kay duol lang, but they can always go back,” he said, adding the stop-page will not affect fish supplies in the market.
It was earlier dis-covered through studies conducted by the Depart-ment of Science and Tech-nology (DOST) that the coastal areas along Ma-tina Aplaya are positive for bacteria, specifically Escherichia coli (E. coli) whose serious types can cause food poisoning; and fecal coliform from hu-man and animal wastes.
Mayor Duterte-Car-pio on March 29 gave or-ders to halt operation in Punta Dumalag to prevent the health risks in con-suming fish from waters declared by the DOST as unfit for fish cultivation.
Riverbank surveyAvila also said that
the two rivers in Matina Aplaya and Talomo will be surveyed as there are piggeries located along the riverbanks.
He added that some septic tanks of house-holds are not properly redirecting wastes to the drainage.
Fish cage owners agreeto stop their operations
THE Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) will carefully and constant-
ly monitor the chick of the first bred Pinkser’s Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus pinskeri) hatched last April 2 through its breeding program.
Although the PEF’s conservation breeding program has gained sig-nificant advances in the past 20 years, it considers the survival of the Pin-sker’s Hawk-Eagle in the wild as the real challenge.
“Hopefully, it will sur-vive and we will be able to improve our breeding techniques of this species through this experience,” said PEF Executive Direc-tor Dennis Salvador.
Coming from a natu-ral pair, and weighing a
mere 57.2 grams when hatched, the chick un-derwent an incubation period of 48 days at the PEF conservation breed-ing facility.
“The fast diminishing forests and destruction of their habitats are still the biggest threats to their survival. We need every-one’s contribution to en-sure that the Pinsker’s Hawk-Eagle population will increase, especially in the wild,” Salvador said.
The Pinsker’s Hawk-Eagle, endemic to the Philippines, is a species of bird of prey in the Accip-tridae family.
The loss of its natural habitat, which is the sub-tropical or tropical moist lowland forest, threatens
its extinction.This medium-sized
eagle’s appearance is light brown on the upper part and its dark brown tail is striped with four to five darker, narrow bands.
It has a barred brown, black and white belly. The head and under parts are reddish-brown with black streaks, while the throat is whitish.
Its wings are broad and rounded and barred flight feathers can be seen in flight.
The PEF’s conserva-tion breeding program made a historic break-through with the birth of Pag-asa, the first Phil-ippine Eagle bred and hatched in captivity in 1992. [LORIE A. CASCARO]
PEF frets over survivalof Pinsker’s Hawk-chick
White and fluffy. The Pinsker’s Hawk-Eagle chick at 10 days old is the first of its species bred and hatched by the Philippine Eagle Foundation’s Conservation Breeding Program.
Binay supports mandatorymilitary service for males VICE President Jejomar
Binay supports man-datory military service
for Filipino males, saying they will benefit from the discipline, among others.
During his visit here last week, Binay said that, unlike in some other Asian countries,
Filipino citizens ‘lack discipline.’
“Ang kulang sa atin is disiplina – the discipline to strive harder,”he said in an interview.
“When you look at other countries, we may have the same looks or height; have the same opportunities for educa-tion; we may even have more natural resources, but why is it they’re more
advanced? It’s because they work even harder,” he added.
Binay said having compulsory military ser-vice like Singapore and South Korea would de-velop a more disciplined citizenry.
“Males should serve one or two years of mili-tary training which in
FBINAY, 13
By Lorie A. Cascaro
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012 3THE BIG NEWSEDGEDAVAO
FPNoy, 13
FISHERMEN. Local fishermen work even on Sundays as they check their fish cages in Punta Dumalag, Matina Aplya, Davao City. Mayor Sara z. Duterte has ordered the fish cage owners to stop their operations as the local government is trying to come up with mechanisms to mitigate the pollution, which reportedly caused a spike in e-coli bacteria in
the waters in the area. The source of e-coli allegedly came from two rivers in Talomo and Matina and washed out into the fish cages in Punta Dumalag, Matina Aplaya. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]
KIDAPAWAN bent on going to court to get power from geother-
mal plantsMembers of the
Kidapawan City Council are bent on going to court if the National Power Corpora-tion (Napocor) and other subsidiary agencies of the Philippine government re-fuse to dispatch 25 percent of the total supply from the two geothermal plants lo-cated in Mount Apo to the local electric cooperative.
Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista, who presides over the Sangguniang Pan-lungsod, said they would seek a court order to com-pel Napocor to supply the service areas of the Cota-bato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) the needed mega-watts of power.
The city council is also seeking President Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s inter-vention to immediately implement the provisions of Section 6(b) of the im-plementing rules and regu-lations (IRR) of Section 5 (i) of Republic Act 7638 or the Department of Energy (DOE) Act of 1992.
Section 5(i) of RA 7638 (Department of Energy Act of 1992) mandates the DOE to “devise ways and means of giving direct ben-efit to the province, city, or municipality, especially the community and people af-fected, and equitable pref-erential benefit to the re-gion that hosts the energy resource
and/or the energy-generating facility.” The law made sure though that “other provinces, cities, municipalities, or regions shall not be deprived of their energy requirements.”
The DOE said in its IRR that “in times of energy shortage, the energy-gen-
erating facility shall priori-tize up to 25 percent of its contracted or available ca-pacity (whichever is lower) which shall be delivered to the appropriate electric utility for distribution to the official resettlement/relocation sites of the com-munity and people affect-ed, and thereafter, to the relevant host LGU or host region….”
The remaining 75 per-cent shall then “be dis-patched to the grid so as not to unreasonably de-prive other municipalities, cities, provinces, or regions of their energy require-ments,” Section 6(b) of the DOE’s Energy Regulations No. 1-94 added.
The council is already preparing petition for man-damus, a writ which com-mands an organization to perform a certain action, to which the agency is re-quired, pursuant to a stat-ute.
Evangelista also cited a memorandum of agree-ment signed more than two decades ago that stated the host city and province where the geothermal power should be generated must have a direct line of electricity from the plant.
The Mount Apo geo-thermal plants, which pro-duce 104 megawatts of electricity, are located at Barangay Ilomavis within Kidapawan, some 30 min-utes ride from the city proper.
The Sanggunian said that Cotelco is thus entitled to have 26.25MW for dis-patch to its service areas in the province of North Cota-bato, including this capital city.
The province needs at least 32 to 36 megawatts of power daily, according to Cotelco’s spokesman Vi-
cente Baguio.The Philippine National
Oil Company (PNOC), a government-owned and controlled corporation, used to own the Mount Apo geothermal power plants.
But in 2008, it sold the facilities to the Energy De-velopment Corporation (EDC) of the Lopez Group of Companies.
The EDC plans to put up its third geothermal power plant inside the 701-hect-are reservation area for geothermal production at the Mount Apo.
The project, however, needs endorsement from the local government unit, including the provincial government of North Cota-bato.
Kidapawan City coun-cilor Lauro Taynan, chair of the Committee on Energy of the Sanggunian, warned the Mount Apo Geothermal Power 3 project would not get a backing from them if the EDC rejects their de-mand to give a direct sup-ply of power from the plant to the distribution lines of Cotelco.
“This is non-negotiable. If the EDC won’t heed our demand to give us direct supply of power, then the project won’t get an en-dorsement from us,” said Taynan.
It is so “unfortunate,” Taynan said, that the city is host to two renewable sources of energy yet it experiences two to four hours, or sometimes even up to six hours, of daily ro-tating blackouts.
The EDC hopes to com-plete the project in 2014 and the commissioning of plant in 2015.
The plant is expected to generate additional 50 megawatts of power. [MALU CADELIÑA MANAR / MINDANEWS]
Kidapawan bent on going to court to get power from geothermal plants
By Lorie A. Cascaro
MINDANAO Devel-opment Authority (MinDA) Secre-
tary Luwalhati Antonino is asking for an investiga-tion into the P34 billion income of the National Power Corporation (NPC) from the Agus-Pulangi Hydro Complex (APHC) in 11 years.
She said instead of us-ing the proceeds of the APHC to pay off the NPC’s debt, which according to President Benigno Aqui-no III was P1.24 trillion in 2003, the Power Sec-tor Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) is allocating the money to support the Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG), which is a losing invest-ment.
“Napupunta sa island electrification na lugi. Isa sa sinusuportahan ng PSALM yan. Part ng ine-earn ng Pulangi, nadun yan sa SPUG. Eh, paano yung utang?,” she told re-porters.
Originally, the NPC’s debt was P17 billion when the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) be-gan, then it went up to P20 billion in 2004 when former President Gloria
Arroyo did not adjust the prices.
“For one year, they were running it at a loss. Ngayon balik na naman sa dati,” she added.
The NPC-SPUG, also referred to as Missionary Electrification Plan 2009-2018, is mandated by law to undertake the electri-fication of the areas not connected to the trans-mission grid.
A total of 68.33 MW will be needed to meet the increasing demand in SPUG areas for the period 2009 – 2018.
The NPC and the Na-tional Electrification Administration (NEA) reduced the selling rate in the islands via a sub-sidy scheme both in the distribution and genera-tion areas, following for-mer President Corazon C. Aquino’s directive to set the ceiling selling rate to end-users at P2.50 per kWh.
Shatter the mythGovernor Rodolfo
del Rosario of Davao del Norte, in his presenta-tion, said people should “shatter the myth that the NPC and APHC are losing propositions.”
He presented data of NPC’s income for nine years from 2003 to 2011
within the period of the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).
(See table below.)There is an Opera-
tion Management Agree-ment (OMA) between the PSALM and NPC, whereby all gross receipts of NPC, including those coming from APHC, have to be re-mitted to the PSALM.
“It’s time to rescind this contract and allow the NPC to run its own affairs, including rehabili-tating the Agus-Pulangi plants according to their full capacity, using its in-ternally generated rev-enues,” he said.
Futher, Representative Maria Isabelle Climaco has a similar proposition to amend the existing structure of APHC, and by establishing a Mindanao Power Company to be owned and controlled by the government.
Its governing body should be multi-sectoral, and its power and func-tions can be detailed after inputs from the relevant stakeholders.
“The hydropower plants are profitable by nature, but there is no means for being self-sus-taining under the current setup,” she said.
AVERAGE 36,904,440 P12.3 P73.2National Power Corporation 9-year Income as presented by Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario
PRESIDENT Benigno Simeon Aquino III dis-appointed participants
from electric cooperatives in the Mindanao Power Sum-mit Friday when he did not commit to agree with their appeal to forego privatiza-tion of the Agus and Pulangi hydroelectric power com-plexes in Mindanao, a power official said.
Rene Cortizano, general manager of the First Bukid-non Electric Cooperative, said the President gener-
ally “accepted for review” the proposals of different presenters and did not ex-pressly commit any change of position.
He said that based on PNoy’s statements, the summit did not address the problems that required im-mediate response, referring Mindanao’s power outages. Other officers of the Asso-ciation of Mindanao Electric Cooperatives (Amreco) who joined him in the summit, Cortizano vows, shares the
same view.He said they are not sure
if the President would heed their call to expedite the op-eration of the Iligan Diesel Power Plant (IDPP), which was cited as a possible im-mediate source of power to mitigate the scheduled shut-down of Pulangi IV on April 17. The IDPP is embroiled in a legal problem with the Commission on Audit, Corti-zano said.
“It was not also clear if the President could seek
PNoy disappoints electric coops
FBINAY, 13
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012 3THE BIG NEWSEDGEDAVAO
FPNoy, 13
FISHERMEN. Local fishermen work even on Sundays as they check their fish cages in Punta Dumalag, Matina Aplya, Davao City. Mayor Sara z. Duterte has ordered the fish cage owners to stop their operations as the local government is trying to come up with mechanisms to mitigate the pollution, which reportedly caused a spike in e-coli bacteria in
the waters in the area. The source of e-coli allegedly came from two rivers in Talomo and Matina and washed out into the fish cages in Punta Dumalag, Matina Aplaya. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]
KIDAPAWAN bent on going to court to get power from geother-
mal plantsMembers of the
Kidapawan City Council are bent on going to court if the National Power Corpora-tion (Napocor) and other subsidiary agencies of the Philippine government re-fuse to dispatch 25 percent of the total supply from the two geothermal plants lo-cated in Mount Apo to the local electric cooperative.
Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista, who presides over the Sangguniang Pan-lungsod, said they would seek a court order to com-pel Napocor to supply the service areas of the Cota-bato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) the needed mega-watts of power.
The city council is also seeking President Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s inter-vention to immediately implement the provisions of Section 6(b) of the im-plementing rules and regu-lations (IRR) of Section 5 (i) of Republic Act 7638 or the Department of Energy (DOE) Act of 1992.
Section 5(i) of RA 7638 (Department of Energy Act of 1992) mandates the DOE to “devise ways and means of giving direct ben-efit to the province, city, or municipality, especially the community and people af-fected, and equitable pref-erential benefit to the re-gion that hosts the energy resource
and/or the energy-generating facility.” The law made sure though that “other provinces, cities, municipalities, or regions shall not be deprived of their energy requirements.”
The DOE said in its IRR that “in times of energy shortage, the energy-gen-
erating facility shall priori-tize up to 25 percent of its contracted or available ca-pacity (whichever is lower) which shall be delivered to the appropriate electric utility for distribution to the official resettlement/relocation sites of the com-munity and people affect-ed, and thereafter, to the relevant host LGU or host region….”
The remaining 75 per-cent shall then “be dis-patched to the grid so as not to unreasonably de-prive other municipalities, cities, provinces, or regions of their energy require-ments,” Section 6(b) of the DOE’s Energy Regulations No. 1-94 added.
The council is already preparing petition for man-damus, a writ which com-mands an organization to perform a certain action, to which the agency is re-quired, pursuant to a stat-ute.
Evangelista also cited a memorandum of agree-ment signed more than two decades ago that stated the host city and province where the geothermal power should be generated must have a direct line of electricity from the plant.
The Mount Apo geo-thermal plants, which pro-duce 104 megawatts of electricity, are located at Barangay Ilomavis within Kidapawan, some 30 min-utes ride from the city proper.
The Sanggunian said that Cotelco is thus entitled to have 26.25MW for dis-patch to its service areas in the province of North Cota-bato, including this capital city.
The province needs at least 32 to 36 megawatts of power daily, according to Cotelco’s spokesman Vi-
cente Baguio.The Philippine National
Oil Company (PNOC), a government-owned and controlled corporation, used to own the Mount Apo geothermal power plants.
But in 2008, it sold the facilities to the Energy De-velopment Corporation (EDC) of the Lopez Group of Companies.
The EDC plans to put up its third geothermal power plant inside the 701-hect-are reservation area for geothermal production at the Mount Apo.
The project, however, needs endorsement from the local government unit, including the provincial government of North Cota-bato.
Kidapawan City coun-cilor Lauro Taynan, chair of the Committee on Energy of the Sanggunian, warned the Mount Apo Geothermal Power 3 project would not get a backing from them if the EDC rejects their de-mand to give a direct sup-ply of power from the plant to the distribution lines of Cotelco.
“This is non-negotiable. If the EDC won’t heed our demand to give us direct supply of power, then the project won’t get an en-dorsement from us,” said Taynan.
It is so “unfortunate,” Taynan said, that the city is host to two renewable sources of energy yet it experiences two to four hours, or sometimes even up to six hours, of daily ro-tating blackouts.
The EDC hopes to com-plete the project in 2014 and the commissioning of plant in 2015.
The plant is expected to generate additional 50 megawatts of power. [MALU CADELIÑA MANAR / MINDANEWS]
Kidapawan bent on going to court to get power from geothermal plants
By Lorie A. Cascaro
MINDANAO Devel-opment Authority (MinDA) Secre-
tary Luwalhati Antonino is asking for an investiga-tion into the P34 billion income of the National Power Corporation (NPC) from the Agus-Pulangi Hydro Complex (APHC) in 11 years.
She said instead of us-ing the proceeds of the APHC to pay off the NPC’s debt, which according to President Benigno Aqui-no III was P1.24 trillion in 2003, the Power Sec-tor Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) is allocating the money to support the Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG), which is a losing invest-ment.
“Napupunta sa island electrification na lugi. Isa sa sinusuportahan ng PSALM yan. Part ng ine-earn ng Pulangi, nadun yan sa SPUG. Eh, paano yung utang?,” she told re-porters.
Originally, the NPC’s debt was P17 billion when the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) be-gan, then it went up to P20 billion in 2004 when former President Gloria
Arroyo did not adjust the prices.
“For one year, they were running it at a loss. Ngayon balik na naman sa dati,” she added.
The NPC-SPUG, also referred to as Missionary Electrification Plan 2009-2018, is mandated by law to undertake the electri-fication of the areas not connected to the trans-mission grid.
A total of 68.33 MW will be needed to meet the increasing demand in SPUG areas for the period 2009 – 2018.
The NPC and the Na-tional Electrification Administration (NEA) reduced the selling rate in the islands via a sub-sidy scheme both in the distribution and genera-tion areas, following for-mer President Corazon C. Aquino’s directive to set the ceiling selling rate to end-users at P2.50 per kWh.
Shatter the mythGovernor Rodolfo
del Rosario of Davao del Norte, in his presenta-tion, said people should “shatter the myth that the NPC and APHC are losing propositions.”
He presented data of NPC’s income for nine years from 2003 to 2011
within the period of the implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).
(See table below.)There is an Opera-
tion Management Agree-ment (OMA) between the PSALM and NPC, whereby all gross receipts of NPC, including those coming from APHC, have to be re-mitted to the PSALM.
“It’s time to rescind this contract and allow the NPC to run its own affairs, including rehabili-tating the Agus-Pulangi plants according to their full capacity, using its in-ternally generated rev-enues,” he said.
Futher, Representative Maria Isabelle Climaco has a similar proposition to amend the existing structure of APHC, and by establishing a Mindanao Power Company to be owned and controlled by the government.
Its governing body should be multi-sectoral, and its power and func-tions can be detailed after inputs from the relevant stakeholders.
“The hydropower plants are profitable by nature, but there is no means for being self-sus-taining under the current setup,” she said.
AVERAGE 36,904,440 P12.3 P73.2National Power Corporation 9-year Income as presented by Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario
PRESIDENT Benigno Simeon Aquino III dis-appointed participants
from electric cooperatives in the Mindanao Power Sum-mit Friday when he did not commit to agree with their appeal to forego privatiza-tion of the Agus and Pulangi hydroelectric power com-plexes in Mindanao, a power official said.
Rene Cortizano, general manager of the First Bukid-non Electric Cooperative, said the President gener-
ally “accepted for review” the proposals of different presenters and did not ex-pressly commit any change of position.
He said that based on PNoy’s statements, the summit did not address the problems that required im-mediate response, referring Mindanao’s power outages. Other officers of the Asso-ciation of Mindanao Electric Cooperatives (Amreco) who joined him in the summit, Cortizano vows, shares the
same view.He said they are not sure
if the President would heed their call to expedite the op-eration of the Iligan Diesel Power Plant (IDPP), which was cited as a possible im-mediate source of power to mitigate the scheduled shut-down of Pulangi IV on April 17. The IDPP is embroiled in a legal problem with the Commission on Audit, Corti-zano said.
“It was not also clear if the President could seek
PNoy disappoints electric coops
FBINAY, 13
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 20124 EDGEDAVAOSCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT
“THE world’s oceans are in danger, and the
enormity of the challenge is bigger than one coun-try or organization,” said World Bank president Robert Zoellick during the World Oceans Summit held in Singapore recently.
“We need coordinated global action to restore our oceans to health. Together we’ll build on the excellent work already being done to address the threats to oceans, identify workable solutions, and scale them up,” he added.
The World Bank head proposed a coalition of governments, global orga-nizations and other groups to protect the oceans. The coalition – which he called Global Partnership for Oceans – “will bring to-gether countries, scientific centers, non-government organizations, interna-tional organizations, foun-dations and the private sector to pool knowledge, experience, expertise, and investment around a set of agreed upon goals.”
Ninety-seven percent of the world’s water is ocean. It also comprises over two-thirds of the planet’s surface.
“From afar, aliens might see the obvious: the sea is Earth’s life-support system,” wrote marine biologist Sylvia A. Earle, former chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceano-graphic and Atmospheric Administration. “The ser-vices provided are so fun-damental that most of us who live here tend to take them for granted.”
“The earth’s great sea is the heart of the hydro-logical cycle – nature’s solar-driven water pump,” explains Don Hinrichsen, an award-winning envi-ronmental journalist and author of Coastal Waters of the World.
About 430,000 cubic kilometers of water evapo-rate from the oceans ev-ery year. “Of this amount, around 110,000 cubic ki-lometers fall as freshwater
precipitation over land, replenishing surface and ground waters and even-tually completing the cycle by returning to the sea,” Hinrichsen reports.
The ocean is also the engine that drives the world’s climate, storing huge quantities of solar energy in the process. “The ocean absorbs and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” says Hin-richsen. “Since this invis-ible gas is one of the main agents of climate change, the ocean is an important sink that helps to modify human impacts on global climate.”
Ocean currents, the blue planet’s super high-ways, transfer enormous quantities of water and nutrients from one place to another. The Gulf Stream, for instance, pushes more water from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean across the Atlantic into northern Europe, than is carried by all the rivers on earth.
“Once thought to be so vast and resilient that no level of human insult could damage them, the oceans are now crying out for at-tention,” noted a report re-leased by the Washington-based Worldwatch Insti-tute. “While the public eye is periodically turned to large disasters, it is routine assaults that most threaten the marine environment.”
Burgeoning human numbers and growing con-sumption per capita are putting intense pressure on ocean coastal areas, over-consuming ocean re-sources, and undermining the health of the oceans themselves. “The world’s oceans are in danger,” Zoel-lick deplored. “Send out the S-O-S: We need to Save Our Seas.”
Human populations have a tremendous impact on the quality of coastal and oceanic environments. A full two-thirds of the world’s population live within 400 kilometers of a seacoast. Just over half the world’s population occupy
a coastal strip 200 kilo-meters wide, represent-ing only 10 per cent of the earth’s land surface.
This is true in the case of the Philippines, which has about 7, 107 islands. “Every Filipino lives within 45 miles of the coast, and every day, more than 4,500 new residents are born,” wrote Joan Cas-tro and Leona D’Agnes in a report circulated by the Washington, D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson Interna-tional Center for Scholars.
Rapid population growth and the increasing human pressure on coastal resources have resulted in the massive degradation of the coral reefs, touted to be the tropical rainforest of the sea.
Robert Ginsburg, a specialist on coral reefs working with the Rosen-stiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, said human beings have a lot to do with the rapid de-struction of reefs. “In areas where people are using the
reefs or where there is a large population, there are significant declines in coral reefs,” he pointed out.
Dr. Edgardo D. Gomez, director of the Marine Sci-
ence Institute of the Uni-versity of the Philippines at Diliman, agrees. “If asked what the major problem of coral reefs is, my reply would be ‘The pressure of human populations’,” he as-serted.
A visit to any fish-ing village near a reef will quickly confirm this, he pointed out. “There are just too many fisher-men. They overfish the reefs, and even if the use non-destructive fish-ing gear, they still stress the coral reef ecosystem,” Dr. Gomez deplored.
In the Philippines, an estimated 10-15 per cent of the total fisheries come from coral reefs. Fish pro-vides more than half of the protein requirement of most Filipinos. “Unless we look for other sources of protein, the food intake of Filipinos will be greatly affected,” says an official of
the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, a line agency of the Department of Agriculture.
Daily chemical and biological pollution – again
caused by human activi-ties – is likewise damaging the oceans at a frightening rate, while ongoing coastal development – driven by tourism and economic boom – hamper their abil-ity to recuperate.
“Accidents at sea such as oil spills, chemical spills or operational discharges from ships are only a small percentage, and affect only limited areas,” noted marine biologist Stjepan Keckes. “They are far less serious than slow insidi-ous pollution which peo-ple get used to because it is progressive. In warm waters, oil evaporates or degrades and is broken up very quickly by bacteria to harmless substances – carbon dioxide and water.”
In recent years, grow-ing amounts of litter have been found in the marine environment. Natural ma-terials disintegrate quick-
ly, but plastics are rela-tively non-biodegradable. “Plastics persist for up to 50 years and, because they are usually buoyant, they are widely distribut-
ed by ocean currents and wind,” reports the World Resources Institute.
Gone with pristine waters are futurists’ dreams of a world fed by the sea’s abundance. In their place is the reality of stagnant oceans; shrink-ing wetlands, coral reefs and mangroves; and fall-ing fish catches that jeop-ardize a key source of pro-tein for the world’s poor.
According to Zoellick, one billion people – most-ly from developing coun-tries – depend on fish and seafood for their primary source of protein and over half a billion rely on fish-ing as a means of liveli-hood.
“Unless we act soon, reversing the worsening conditions of our oceans will only become more difficult,” warns Nicholas Lenssen, author of the Worldwatch report.
Oceans crying out for helpText and Photos by Jims Vincent T. Capuno
Pristine waters
Coastal areas
Islands
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012 THE ECONOMY 5EDGEDAVAOStat Watch
MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2009 - December 2011)
THE Department of Agri-culture (DA) through the Bureau of Fisheries and
Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) has provided P24.5 million in fishery and livelihood proj-ects, benefiting thousands of fisherfolk families and their re-spective island-municipalities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
“The DA-BFAR investment of P24.53 million was matched by almost the same amount by our ARMM local government units, either in the form of ma-terial or labor counterpart,” Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said in a statement.
The DA-BFAR partnership with ARMM and its LGUs is providing sustainable liveli-hood and income to more than a thousand fisher-families, the Alcala said.
For his part, DA-BFAR di-rector Asis G. Perez said the amount included the provision of motor engines to 67 patrol boats for the ‘Bantay-Dagat’ program to protect ARMM mu-nicipal waters from illegal fish-ermen and poachers.
Of the total P24.5 million, more than half or P12.9 mil-lion was used to procure 16
units of non-motorized banca, 15 motor engines, 10 fish dri-ers, 2,500 fish pots, and 250 units of gill nets which were distributed to about a thou-sand fisher-families along the 288,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh, which is bounded by three provinces (Maguindan-ao, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat).
Perez said the DA-BFAR plans to develop a portion of Liguasan Marsh into a center for freshwater fish biodiver-sity, said Director Perez. Tila-pia is one of more than a dozen freshwater species found in Liguasan. It also supports en-demic flora and fauna that in-clude 92 species of birds, six species of reptiles, and five species of amphibians, among others.
Another P8.8 million was allotted for an aquasilviculture program that included the es-tablishment of five multi-spe-cies hatcheries (P6 million), mangrove rehabilitation (P1.4 million), and setting up of 20 aquasilviculture techno-demo farms (P1.36 million).
To date, Perez said the DA-BFAR and ARMM LGUs have jointly planted 225,000
mangrove propagules, worth P1.4 million. The agency also partnered with five state uni-versities and colleges (SUCs) to jointly establish multi-spe-cies hatcheries. They include Basilan State College, and at four Mindanao State Univer-sity (MSU) campuses in Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, and Marawi City.
Finally, about P2.8 million was allotted for two units of ice-maker equipment, 12 sets of seaweeds farm inputs, 200 kilos of seaweed seedlings, and other fishing paraphernalia (P2.175 million), and 2.4 mil-lion pieces of fingerlings.
Perez said with the infusion of investment by the Aquino government through the DA-BFAR that is matched by ben-eficiary LGUs, the potential of further increasing ARMM’s fishery and aquaculture re-mains high.
In 2011, the region pro-duced 909,320 metric tons (MT) of fishery and aquacul-ture products, valued at P14.58 billion at current prices, ac-cording to the DA’s Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS). The volume represents 18.3 percent of the country’s total
production, at 4.98 million MT. The ARMM remains as the
country’s top seaweed pro-ducer. Last year, it harvested 686,450 MT valued at P4.3B, which represents 37 percent of the country’s total seaweed output, at 1.84 million MT worth P11.39 billion, accord-ing to the BAS.
Early this year, Perez said the DA-BFAR conducted a re-gional consultation in Zambo-anga City on a proposed “Fish for Peace” program in Mind-anao, attended by LGU officials who all agreed on the pro-gram’s concept. They included Governors Jum Akbar of Basi-lan, Abdusakur Tan of Sulu, and Sadikul Sahali of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu 2nd District Rep-resentative Nur-Ana Sahidula, and 32 municipal mayors of Sulu (15 chief executives), Basilan (11 chief executives), and Tawi-Tawi (six chief ex-ecutives).
The “Fish for Peace” pro-gram aims to effect sustain-able fisheries development in Mindanao through the imple-mentation of environment-friendly livelihood projects, and fishery and marine con-servation measures.
BFAR allocates P24.5 M for ARMM
THE construction of two hydropower plants which intends to pro-
vide an additional power ca-pacity of 13.7 megawatts to the 42.5MW Hedcor Sibulan Hydropower Plant in this part of Southern Mindanao will start soon.
The Hedcor Tudaya Hydro-electric Power Plant 1 and 2 will be put up in the upstream of Sibulan Hydro Plant A and downstream of Sibulan Hydro Plant B located at Barangay Sibulan in the municipality of Sta. Cruz.
The plants will generate 76 GWh of renewable energy annually for Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative (DASU-RECO) and Davao Light and Power Company in Davao City starting in the first quarter of 2014.
“Our team is processing to finalize all the necessary requirements and other docu-ments,” said Engr. Bill Haboc, Hedcor assistant vice-presi-dent for Engineering and De-velopment in Mindanao.
Haboc said the company is set to construct the structures pending the RE contracts which the Department of En-ergy is currently processing.
“Our engineers are now polishing the design,” he add-ed.
The pre-construction de-velopment of the projects was made easier for Hedcor’s exploration team because the potential sites of the two plants, especially that Tudaya 1 became accessible after Hedcor opened and rehabili-tated 49 kilometers of farm-to-market roads and access road for the Sibulan plants.
The exploration of the ad-ditional hydro power plants started in 2010 and the proj-ect design began last year.
The Tudaya Hydroelec-tric Power is an expansion of the run-of-river Hedcor Sibu-lan Hydropower Plant which started operations in 2010.
Hedcor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AboitizPower Corporation, is the largest de-veloper of run-of-river hydro-power plants in the country with 19 hydropower plants in Benguet, Ilocos Sur, and Davao.
The company plans of building more plants in Mind-anao, aside from Tudaya 1 and 2 in Davao del Sur, another one in Davao City and two in Bukidnon.
Investments in hydro energy pour in DavSur
SAMAL SIZZLES IN SUMMER. A colorful welcome arc greets visitors arriving in the Island Garden City of Samal in time for the island’s “Visit Samal”, a 4-month campaign packed with promos, parties and events.[PHOTO BY GLEN GERMINO]
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 20126 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO
By Noel Baguio
PRESIDENT Benigno Simeon Aquino III paid attention to
the recommendations made by leading Mind-anao leaders to solve the power crisis in the Island.
The president heeded the call of the Mindanao Confederation of Mayors and Governors (Confed), as expressed by its chair, Davao del Norte Gover-nor Rodolfo del Rosario, particularly to review the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and defer the privatization of the Agus and Pulangi hy-dropower plants.
He assured the multi-sectoral participants dur-ing the recent Mindanao Power Summit in Davao City that Malacanang will study the proposal pre-sented by Gov. del Ro-sario, saying it is time to reevaluate whether the EPIRA law has attained its purpose.
Aquino took to heart the consensus of the Min-
danao leaders, asking the national government to discontinue its plan to privatize the hydroelec-tric power plants in La-nao and Bukidnon.
“We ask you Mr. Presi-dent to certify as urgent for Epira Law to be re-visited and look into the privatization of the two government-owned pow-er plants,” Gov. del Rosa-rio said.
The Confed Chair raised the big possibility for private power provid-ers to have a cartel on power if these plants are privatized.
Other policy recom-mendations presented by del Rosario also include the prohibition of cross ownership between and among the generation, transmission, and distri-bution sectors; reclassi-fying the power generat-ing sectors as “utilities” defined under the Public Utilities Law to put a cap on profits; and, appoint-ment of a Mindanao con-sumer group representa-
tive to sit in the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), in order to keep the interest of Mindan-aoans protected.
He also asked Con-gress to rescind the op-erational management agreement between Na-pocor and PSALM (Power Sector Assets and Liabili-ties Management) Corp because the former has been earning billions but the money was not being spent for the rehabilita-tion and maintenance of the power plants.
President Aquino as-sured the possibility of deferring the privatization of the Agus-Pulangi plants.
However, he expressed his worries on the existing P928-billion debt of the Napocor that is presently being shouldered by the National Government.
He said the govern-ment only has P400 billion to spend for all the needs of the country, making it impossible to address the power crisis in Mindanao at once.
He stressed the people of Mindanao must “put in (their) fair share” in solv-ing the power shortage problem by paying “a little more.”
Aside from the revi-sion of the EPIRA law, Sec-retary Lualhati Antonino, Chair of the Mindanao De-velopment Authority, fur-ther outlined other spe-cific solutions drawn from the summit to directly ad-dress the power problem, that include the immedi-ate tapping of existing or available facilities such as barges and imbedded generators, as well as, the upgrading and rehabilita-tion of the existing plant facilities, in order to fill in the current average power deficit of 150 to 200 mega-watts in the island.
She also pointed out the need to fast track processing of pending ap-plications through a one-stop shop processing cen-ter based in Mindanao and to encourage new power capacities, particularly renewable energy.
PNoy heeds Mindanao leaders’ proposal to solve power shortage
THE first and longest-standing life insurance company in the Philip-
pines, Sun Life Financial bucked global economic volatility and posted robust gains in all its core business lines in 2011.
Based on unaudited fi-nancials, the company’s life insurance arm, Sun Life of Canada (Philippines), Inc. or SLOCPI capped the year with Gross Premiums of P14 Billion or 31% higher than the previous year’s level, and Net Premiums of P13.9 Billion, up by 31% from last year’s, putting it in the top spot among life insurance companies. Total Assets were at P119 Billion, up by 16%. Total Benefits paid in 2011 amounted to P7.2 Billion.
“2011 was a phenom-enal year for Sun Life. Certainly, we realized sig-nificant gains in all our core lines. New products, aggressive branding cam-paigns, intensified agency recruitment, provincial ex-pansion and heightened op-erational efficiency signifi-cantly helped in boosting sales. In addition to these activities, and perhaps most importantly, the con-tinued trust of our clients and customers was key in Sun Life’s success in 2011,” enthused Sun Life Philip-pines President & CEO Riza Mantaring.
The company’s mutual funds arm, Sun Life Asset Management Company, Inc or SLAMC posted 11% growth in assets under management to P21.46 Bil-lion, while gross sales were up by 34%, totalling P11.9 Billion. SLAMC continues to place 2nd industry-wide in terms of AUM and gross sales.
The pre-need business, through Sun Life Financial Plans, Inc or SLFPI, contin-ues to remain stable. Total Assets stood at P8 .5 Bil-lion. SLFPI last year paid
total benefits of P2.3 Bil-lion (combing educational and pension plans that have matured), up signifi-cantly by 237% from the previous year’s P681 Mil-lion worth of claims paid.
Sun Life Asia President Dikran Ohannesian com-mended the Philippines for its phenomenal achieve-ments. “We are very happy with the record-breaking results of our Philippine operations. We have full confidence that Sun Life Philippines will continue to achieve further growth. Our Philippines operation has been led the way in many initiatives that fo-cused on financial literacy, branding, operational ef-ficiency and technology. These initiatives have been commended globally and continue to inspire us,” Ohanessian noted.
Sun Life Financial glob-al President & CEO Dean Connor likewise praised the Philippine Operations for its outstanding perfor-mance. “Our Philippine operation is one of the brightest spots within Sun Life Financial. One of our four key pillars in charting a course for the future of Sun Life is strengthening our competitive position in Asia, and Sun Life Phil-ippines’ recent successes, particularly in attaining a number one position in the market and strength-ening its agency force, will go a long way in helping us achieve this goal.”
As to what will con-tinue to push Sun Life to higher grounds in 2012, Mantaring commends the strength of the company’s traditionally-strong agency force. “We are so fortunate to have with us highly ca-pable and talented advi-sors who are dedicated and professional. They have remained passionate with their noble intent to serve and help Filipinos achieve
financial freedom. And the best part is that their numbers are growing. The past two years have seen our agency force grow at over 20% each year, while maintaining the standards of quality for which they are known“ Mantaring said.
Mantaring also ex-pressed optimism about the recently sealed joint venture deal with the Yuchengco Group that al-lowed Sun Life to acquire 49% of Grepalife to form Sun Life Grepa Financial, Inc. (SLGFI) that has an exclusive bancassurance alliance with the Rizal Commercial Banking Cor-poration. This solidified Sun Life’s entry into the bancassurance business. “We hope to maximize the strengths of both partners in bringing our bancassur-ance business forward and achieving SLGFI’s vision of becoming a top-tier life company in the future.”
She also noted that the company will continue to expand its geographic coverage. Last year, the company opened 28 Inter-branch Sales Offices (ISOs) which, in addition to the 35 already existing New Busi-ness Offices, brings Sun Life’s national footprint to
63 sales offices.“Our pre-need business
is stable. Our trust funds are well managed by our trustee banks. We main-tain a disciplined approach to our policy of ensuring that our trust funds man-aged by each of our trustee banks are not only in com-pliance with reserve re-quirements, but far exceed these requirements set out by the Insurance Commis-sion. In fact as of December 2011, our Trust Fund as-sets are about 29% higher than that required by IC,”
says Mantaring.Mantaring also added
that Sun Life’s pre-need product portfolio is lim-ited to fixed benefits plans, meaning the plan pays a fixed amount in the future.
“Because of this, we can better project the amount of funds we need to set aside to be able to pay the plan when it matures. We are well-capitalized and take pains to ensure we will always be able to meet our obligations.
In fact, we conduct an-nual reviews to ensure our funds continue to earn the returns required to be able to pay future claims or ma-turities, and set aside ad-ditional funds if necessary,” Mantaring said.
Sun Life Philippines caps record year
SUMMER HEAT. To beat the summer heat, a group of young kids jump in the cool waters of the fish cages in Punta Dumalag. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]
A young boy skillfully paddles a small bangka from their fish cage to their seaside home in Punta Dumalag on Sunday morning.
FOOD processing firms in Mindanao that comply with in-
ternational food quality and safety requirements are helping to create more livelihood opportunities for the region’s growers as they can reach the more lucrative global markets.
This has been the ex-perience of several com-panies that have acquired HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) certification with assis-tance from the U.S. Agency for International Develop-ment (USAID).
HACCP, a systematic, preventive approach to food safety and quality that limits potential physi-cal, chemical and biologi-cal hazards in food pro-duction, is increasingly becoming a standard re-quirement for export mar-kets.
Food processors which are HACCP-certi-fied generally see an in-crease in the number of interested buyers from other countries. To fill the growing demand for their products, these firms source additional raw materials from farmer-suppliers.
“The buyers, who at one time, would not even return my calls, are now buying products follow-ing our HACCP certifica-tion,” said Helen del Ro-sario of Soyuz Foods, a processor of native lime (calamansi)-based prod-ucts that participated in the recent international trade show PhilFoodEx.
Del Rosario said that she is expanding her company’s farmer-sup-plier base and meeting regularly with individual growers, farming cooper-atives, and other groups in southern and northern Mindanao, to ensure a steady supply of the na-tive limes for Soyuz.
“We have to find more suppliers to meet increased demand,” said Marilou Fernandez of KF Nutri Foods International, which, through USAID as-sistance acquired HACCP certification in 2010.
KF Nutri Foods, which exports processed ba-nana chips, sources much of its fruit supply from conflict-affected areas in Mindanao.
“The Cardaba banana from which we make our chips is not a planta-tion crop but is grown on small farms,” added Fer-nandez.
“Farmers now have more options for sell-
ing,” said Isidro Ang, vice president of Martsons Food Corporation, which sells tropical fruit prod-ucts such as dried mango, pineapple and papaya, as well as fruit juices and aseptic purees.
Martsons is one of fifteen Mindanao firms, all small-to-medium en-terprises, which have acquired HACCP certifi-cation through the assis-tance of USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program, which is implemented under the oversight of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).
USAID helps compa-nies to develop the sys-tems and procedures needed for HACCP-com-pliance, which must be audited and certified by TUV-SUD, an interna-tionally recognized qual-ity management agency based in Germany.
The companies shoul-der part of the consultan-cy and certification fees involved, as well as the costs of developing or up-grading of their existing plant facilities as needed.
Depending on the in-dividual company, HACCP requirements may in-clude building renova-tions, reconfiguring of assembly lines, training of workers, and introduc-tion of monitoring and documentation systems.
HACCP certification is a major undertaking but companies like Martsons, which already exports to Asian countries and North America, believe that the investment is worth it.
“HACCP is demanded by our customers. This will allow us to enter new markets,” Ang said.
“The growing compet-itiveness of Mindanao’s food processors has mul-tiplier effects along the supply chain,” said Fer-nandez of KF Nutri Foods, who notes that even small produce traders are able to take advantage of the new market opportuni-ties.
Foreseeing increased demand and trying to cre-ate economies of scale, Del Rosario of Soyuz Foods has begun training some of her farmer-sup-pliers to semi-process na-tive lime (calamansi).
She is also experi-menting with new uses for her products, and says, “There is nothing to prevent even small-scale entrepreneurs like us from engaging in research and development.”
Mindanao food processors reach global markets
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012 7PROPERTYEDGEDAVAO
LIGHTUse natural light-ing. Open curtains
and shades during the day instead of using light-ing. Consider skylights and solar tubes during remodeling or new con-struction design. This al-lows the maximum use of natural daylight.Plan your lighting. Not every room needs the same amount of general light. Plan within a room to provide general back-ground lighting and sup-plementary task lighting. A good lighting plan can reduce lighting costs and still provide all the light you need.Use a single, high-watt bulb. Using one high-watt bulb instead of several low-watt bulbs saves en-ergy. Do not exceed the manufacturer’s recom-mended wattage for the fixture.Control outdoor light-ing. To assure only dusk-to-dawn operation of your outdoor lights, con-trol your fixtures with a photocell or a timer.Turn off lights. Turn off lights when not in use, even for short periods of time. Turning lights off and on uses less energy than if they are left on all the time.Install a timer on in-door lights. Use timers to turn lights on and off to help regulate use.Avoid long-life in-candescent light bulbs. Long-life incandescent light bulbs are the least efficient of the incandes-cent bulbs.Consider LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting. LEDs are becoming more common for can, track, under-cabinet and holi-day lighting. Initial cost is more, but the lights use 10 times less energy and last 50 times longer than incandescent lights. They use one-third the energy and last 5 times longer than compact fluores-cent lights.Position lights prop-erly. Try to illuminate the entire activity area without creating dis-tracting glares or shad-ows. To do this, position your light source closer to the area you want lit. This saves energy by not over-lighting an unused area.Adjust light level. Higher light settings use more energy, so save energy by using dim-mer controls, high/low switches or three-way bulbs to adjust the level of light to exactly what you need.Air conditionersPurchase an Energy Star model. Energy Star room air conditioners cost at least 10 percent less to operate than con-ventional models.Use a timer. Set the plug-in timer to turn off the air conditioner when you leave home and to turn it on just before you return.Purchase a unit with varying fan speeds. Use a room air conditioner
with fan speed control. This allows faster cool-ing when needed and quieter, more efficient operation at other times.Keep the unit central-ly located. To allow bet-ter air circulation, install your room air condition-er in the window or area of the wall that is near-est to the middle of the space being cooled.Seal the unit. Once a room air conditioner is in place, seal the space around it with rope caulk or some other sealant to prevent warm outside air from leaking in.Don’t set the ther-mostat at high initially. When you first turn on your room air condition-er, set the thermostat at normal or medium. Set-ting it any colder won’t cool the room any faster.Keep the unit out of the sun. Locate your room air conditioner on the shady side of your home. It will oper-ate more efficiently in a cooler location.Close the fresh-air vent. Make sure the fresh-air vent is closed when the room air con-ditioner is operating so you aren’t cooling out-side air. Open the vent when the outside air is cooler to let in fresh air.Remove the unit at the end of the cooling sea-son. Take your room air conditioner out of the window when the cool-ing season is over. If you must leave the unit in place, cover the outside of the unit with a weath-erproof cover and fill any cracks around the unit with removable caulk.FansUse fans with your air conditioner. Fans help reduce energy costs by circulating the cool air from your air condi-tioner. This allows you to raise the temperature and still be comfortable. Use oscillating fans for greater circulation.Use ceiling fans for air circulation. In hot weather, set the ceiling fan direction to blow air down. The air moving across your skin creates a cooling effect, allowing you to raise the tempera-ture on your thermostat and still feel cool. In cold weather, set the fan to blow toward the ceiling. This pushes warm air away from the ceiling and evenly distributes heat in the room.
Use a whole-house fan. These fans are mounted in the attic and venti-late your entire home. Be sure to open some windows before turn-ing on a whole-house fan. A qualified heating contractor can help you determine if you need a whole house fan.Maintain your fan. Keep your fan in good working order. Check the manufacturer’s rec-ommendations for care and maintenance. This helps control the operat-ing costs.
23 ways to conserve energy at home
LIVING in compact spaces is one the things you have to
deal with in an urban set-ting. Either there is too little space to accommo-date mansion-like houses complete with sprawling gardens, or the price of land is just too high.
With living spaces in the city ranging from 40 square meters for condo-minium dwellers, and be-tween 80 and 180 square meters for subdivision dwellers, here are some tips on how you can maxi-mize your space.
Aim high: The higher you can go with ceilings, the better.
Turn on a light show: Natural light is key to giving the illusion of space, so maximize the available light and an ar-chitect will help optimize the light and manipulate the space.
• Keep walls as
bright and light as possi-ble: Splashes of color can be introduced through kitchen units and acces-sories; rather than rely-ing on a central fixture, spread lots of different lamps around to create atmosphere.
• Less is more: Simplicity is key in a small space. Keep mate-rials to a bare minimum for a streamlined effect. Have just one type of tim-ber everywhere and be restrained about the pal-ette.
• Get smart about stowaway storage: Cor-ridors are great places for built-in storage for vacuum cleaners, coats and shoes. If you design inadequate storage, you can keep an open-plan area and small rooms uncluttered. Go for spray-painted white storage for a barely-there effect that’s wallet friendly.
• Use it or lose it: Plan a function for every space. If a spare bedroom is used only occasionally, think of turning it into an office or extending a liv-ing area into it. If you have a room over the main liv-ing space that is redun-dant, consider transform-ing it into a double-height space.
• Don’t go for a top-heavy look in kitch-ens: Overhead presses can make a space seem smaller and usually end up with the biscuit tin sit-ting on top. Instead, build appliances into tall units. Express the kitchen in shapes/blocks that don’t give an overly fitted look.
• Pay attention to detail: Splash out on things you touch and feel, such as the worktop, taps and handles. I would rath-er go without a countertop for a couple of years than settle for a cheap, laminate
finish. Because the sur-faces you’re dealing with are restricted, splurge on high-spec materials, such as a natural stone or hardwood flooring -- try iroko or walnut -- and set against white walls.
• There’s no need to get into a tight spot with furniture: Avoid big, thick arms and backs on furni-ture. Sofas with legs and glass-topped tables will make a room seem larger, while mirrors will double the glamour factor and sense of space.
• Blur the bound-aries between indoors and outdoors: If you’ve any kind of a garden, use it and open up the house to it. Even if you can just squeeze in a table and chairs or simply a few pot plants -- and even if it doesn’t benefit from sunlight -- it can provide another room, no matter how space starved.
Space saving tips for compact living
CAMELLA PLAZA. A 3-hectare property along the Davao-Bukidnon highway will be the newest commercial hub in Davao City by 2013. Dubbed as Camella Plaza, the project will be the first commercial development of the real estate giant in Davao City. The project is set to be launched within the latter part of the year.
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012
ACCORDING to the primer, Beijing cannot agree to settlement of their conflict via multilateral or third-
party channels such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Also, some provisions of the UNCLOS do not entirely negate the Chinese position of historical sovereignty and exclusive eco-nomic zones, Ambassador Ma asserted at a press conference recently. The primer says that UNCLOS has been abused and misinterpreted by claimants.
Even the much-vaunted 2002 Declara-tion on the Conduct of the Parties between ASEAN and China is not a legal document for settling disputes in the South China Sea (SCS), but is a mere political agreement to maintain stability and enhance mutual trust, the primer said.
Question No. 9 of the primer asserts that the SCS issue is a dispute between China and some coastal countries in the SEA, not between China and ASEAN so the latter “obviously cannot make territorial and maritime jurisdiction claims or partic-ipate in negotiation as a party concerned.”
The Philippines, for that matter in the 21st ASEAN Summit Meeting in Cambodia recently, has repeatedly asserted that the ASEAN — whose four members are claim-ants -- be drawn into mediating toward re-solving the dispute. To this move, China’s response: that is “incompatible with inter-national practice.”
”The issue is complicated and sensi-tive, direct negotiations is the best way of settling it.” Involving non-parties to the dispute, it says without mentioning the U.S, for example, even as referees, “would only turn this region into an international wrestling ground, create more obstacles and affect peace and stability.” This appar-ently refers to fears raised that the South China Sea issue is a flashpoint for conflict and gatekeepers like America are needed in the region.
In fact, the South China Sea is peaceful, “its shipping lines are open,” there is “un-impeded access to international shipping lanes” and “all countries enjoy freedom of navigation and over flight for vessels and airplanes,” the primer asserts. China takes seriously the security of and unimpeded access to international shipping lines in the Sea.
”The fact is that the South China Sea is-sue only involves disputes between coast-al countries (Philippines, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan — the latter being Beijing’s own province and terri-tory) concerning sovereignty over islands and reefs and maritime jurisdiction,” it says.
The disputes do not affect freedom of navigation, it continues, and stresses that “there has not been any case of freedom of navigation being affected because of such disputes.” Maintaining freedom of naviga-tion and ensuring maritime security there is in the interest of all coastal countries and of any country for that matter, so why would China be indifferent to those con-cerns!
The primer prides that after 26 years of negotiation, China has settled its claims with Vietnam in 2000 “on the basis of in-ternational law and in an equitable man-ner, the delimitation of territorial sea, EEZ and continental shelf.” This was followed by arrangements for fishery cooperation.
Of all the claims on the South China Sea, that between China and Vietnam is considered the worst yet. In 1974, a mili-tary engagement in the so-called Battle of the Paracels (Xisha in Chinese) resulted in more than a hundred dead and injured on both sides; China effectively controlled the uninhabited island. However, residues of the claim are still causing some irritants between the two allies.
The Philippines asserts that Bajo de Masinloc was possessed by virtue of the old international law known as “terra nul-lius,” (territory not under the sovereignty of any state). But in its primer, China also asserts that the Spratlys “are not terra nul-lius”; they have been part of China since ancient times.
The first questions in the primer re-late to the history of China’s claims, how its territories came to be welded’ with the Spratlys discovered as early as the 2nd century B.C. (Han Dynasty). Official maps and documents, local chronicles are filled with detail of such territories and sover-eignty.
China concedes that as marine re-sources in the South China Sea began to be discovered, various parties have started claims, occupied some areas, even sent troops and civilians. [PNA FEATURES]
8 VANTAGE POINTS
THE Mindanao Power Summit held at the Wa-terfront Hotel here last week was supposed to address the worsening electric power service
crisis in the island region.Adding to the feeling of urgency to the whole pro-
ceedings, was the fact that no less than President Be-nigno Aquino himself was in attendance, ostensibly to listen to what the leaders of Mindanao had to say about the problem and see the problem as they see it with their own eyes and from their own perspective.
Gathered under one roof for the first time were the region’s top government officials and political leaders, with each speaker taking his/her turn to add to the dialogue which, hopefully, would some-how lead to a consensus or a meeting of the minds on what is really behind the crisis and what con-crete steps to take to mitigate the power situation, first on the short term, and eventually on the long term.
If the President came to sincerely listen to what Mindanao’s leaders had to say, and on the basis of what they said would act accordingly, perhaps the summit shall have accomplished something tangi-ble enough for Mindanaoans to be able to glimpse a bit of silver lining behind the dark clouds of loom-ing power outages hovering over Mindanao.
First things first. President Aquino should heed the call to investigate what Mindanao leaders claim is the existence of a cartel among big players in the power sector who are responsible for what they suspect is artificial power shortage in the island re-gion. Then there is the alleged cross-ownership in the power industry that results in the jacking up of
powere rates.Mindanao leaders also want the EPIRA Law to
be reviewed, claiming that after eleven years of im-plementation it has not worked to the advantage of Mindanao even as they speak in one voice against the government’s plan to privatize the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric power complex, saying that electric-ity rates will increase with the complex in private hands. They also call for the government to retain ownership of the power barges run by the National Power Corporation (Napocor) as ‘spare tires’ to augment electric supply in Mindanao.
Above all, the President should continue to lis-ten to Mindanao’s leaders who know whereof they speak, like Davao del Norte Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario who warns against cross-ownership between and among the generation, transmission and distribu-tion sectors as result of the EPIRA. Then there’s General Santos Mayor Darlene Custodio who told the President that there is a “feeling of non-trans-parency” where government agencies involved fail to present data during committee hearings. Secre-tary Luwalhati Antonino of the Mindanao Develop-ment Authority (MindDA also hit the non-trans-parency of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM).
Whatever the Summit will eventually accom-plish, and that remains to be seen, at the end of the day, it behooves President Benigno Aquino III to keep looking towards the South for the rest of his term and keep tabs of the brewing power crisis over here. It has the potential of becoming worse than sporadic armed conflicts.
PNoy must listen to MindanaoEDITORIAL
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EDGEDAVAOSouth China Sea 101
BY GLORIA JANE BAYLON
SPECIAL FEATURE
(Conclusion)
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012
TO the dismay of many, the Mind-anao Power Summit, held on Fri-day in Davao City, did not live up
to its billing as a venue where stakehold-ers may propose alternatives to the sup-posed power shortage plaguing parts of the island since early this year.
On the contrary, as feared by some sectors, the event simply sought to legitimize the flawed energy development framework that has caused the present power situation in Mindanao, which may also affect Luzon and the Visayas in the near future. To paraphrase former US vice president Al Gore, the government refused to accept the “inconvenient truth.”
President Benigno S. Aquino III quickly dismissed the recommendation of Mindanao stakeholders to stop the full privatization of the power industry, including the generation function. It was like saying, “You can tell me what you think, but this is what I want.” An executive decision had been made to make the people “bite the bullet” even before he boarded the plane for Davao.
Based on what transpired in the summit, as aired on ANC, the participants were quite unanimous in attributing the problem to the ten-year old Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira). Even the electric distributors that conveniently call themselves “cooperatives” wanted a review of the law’s provisions on privatization. Mindanao lawmakers floated the idea of creating the Mindanao Power Corporation that would run the Agus and Pulangi hydropower complexes.
Aquino, however, as if to show his own way of biting the bullet, reached deep into his pocket of arguments in defense of this law. He maintained that privatization, the core substance of Epira, remains the only way to solve the looming power crisis. He was blackmailing the people of Mindanao into choosing between higher electricity rates and darkness. What has happened to the National Renewable Energy Program launched last year by the Department of Energy?
With his spirited defense of privatization, Aquino could well be the proverbial gunman himself who wants Mindanao to bite the bullet called higher electricity rates. Before the summit, I was hoping – vainly it seems – that he would at least feign openness to the solutions the island’s stakeholders were going to propose, and keep his finger away from the trigger.
Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, who attended the summit, gave a description of the President’s obvious lawyering for private capital that fits his “bite the bullet” metaphor: “He was intent on *shooting* down the proposals and insisting that Mindanaoans pay for higher rates from private power companies.” [underscoring mine]
Indeed, Aquino’s gunslinging for privatization effectively sidelined alternatives, which could avert not only power shortage but also higher electricity rates caused by increased dependence on dirty power sources like diesel and coal, the primary investments being pushed by private power firms in Mindanao.
Mindanao consumers are being dragged into a shotgun wedding with an energy regime controlled by private firms. The shooter keeps a watchful eye in a dark corner. [MindaNews/H. Marcos C. Mordeno writes mainly on the environment, human rights and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].]
The shooter TWO years ago, it w o u l d
have been un-thinkable for a sitting presi-dent not to rec-ognize or
a c k n o w l -edge the pres-ence of Rep. Manny Pacqui-ao in a huge public event. In fact, during the heyday of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Pacquiao was a pre-ferred guest and attraction, not only for his immense popularity but also as a con-venient cover-up for then Malacañang’s many and grave shortcomings.
On Friday, members of the Philip-pine press noted the apparent snub he got from President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino during the Mindanao Energy Summit. Pacquiao came as an elected member of the House of Representatives representing one of the poorer provinc-es in Mindanao. He was there perfectly for and with a reason.
While Aquino failed to recognize him, Energy Secretary Rene Almendras broke protocol by recognizing Pacqui-ao’s presence ahead of the president’s speech.
There is no doubt the cold shoulder treatment Pacquiao got from the presi-dent stemmed from the boxing cham-pion’s past association with Arroyo. And because both Pacquiao and Aquino have long memories, the animosity between
them during the 2010 election, when the boxing champ coalesced with defeated presidential candidate Manny Villar, was still apparently in the air.
Pacquiao reportedly has set his sight at joining the Roxas wing of the Liberal Party early on when he was elected con-gressman. But in a political party where one’s loyalty to the leadership is a pre-mium, his past association with former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza doomed his attempt to be in the good graces of the Liberal Party. (Pacquiao was amember of the Atienza wing of the Liberal Party that was ousted from the national lead-ership.)
Pacquiao, too, had political enmity with the Antoninos, who are closely al-lied with former senator Mar Roxas, president of the Liberal Party. One of Roxas’ trusted aides happens to be Liza Antonino, younger sister of General Santos City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio who defeated him in the 2007 congressional race in the city. Pacquiao’s brother Rogelio (Roel), is reportedly running for congress representing the first district of South Cotabato (which includes General Santos), making the Pacquiaos political rivals again with the Antoninos who are again fielding long-time ally Rep. Pedro ‘Jun’ Acharon Jr.
Friday’s episode at the Waterfront Insular Hotel was therefore no ordinary lapse in protocol.
Now, Pacquiao is reportedly join-ing Vice President Jejomar Binay’s PDP-
Laban. Pacquiao himself has issues with Binay who took several swipes against him in 2007 when the former endorsed Lito Lapid against Teddy Boy Locsin for the race in one of Makati’s congressional districts.
There are several factors, however, that favor Manny’s eventual entry into Binay’s party. First, Binay wants to get all the powerhouse and influential fig-ures he could get to form a strong and full slate in the mid-term elections next year in order to build a political machin-ery for his 2016 presidential bid.
Second, Pacquiao’s congressional chief of staff and personal lawyer Frank-lin Gacal Jr is a long time PDP-Laban and a consistent political rival of the Antoni-nos.
Third, Manny is still a valuable po-litical commodity even if he will run for governor of Sarangani next year. Pac-quiao is virtually unbeatable at the mo-ment. He could spend most of the cam-paign period campaigning for Binay’s senatorial slate.
For the first time since joining poli-tics, Manny will be aligning himself with what is shaping up as an opposition to the administration.
The tables have now turned in as far as he is in the spectrum of national politics. How he will influence the 2013 senatorial elections will ultimately de-cide his fate in the 2016 senatorial race. [Edwin G. Espejo writes for www.asian-correspondent.com]
9VANTAGE POINTS
Monkey Business
EDGEDAVAO
Winds of change have already blown
BY MARCOS C. MORDENOSOMEONE ELSE’S WINDOWS
IMPERATIVE: The only key to perma-nent peace is social justice: “The pos-sibility of making peace permanent
can only exist if we put in the necessi-ties of achieving social justice within all our communities.” Social justice can be achieved through practicability and sac-rifice: “To do this, we have to acknowl-edge what is real, what is practicable under the circumstances; hence to build foundations within present grounds in-spired with our most passionate ideals. To do this, we also have to acknowledge that the courage and ability to sacrifice to bring about social justice is now not only a monopoly of a few.”
ARMM Agenda: Leonen focuses on the Aquino government’s ARMM reform agenda as the way to bring social justice to the Moros – obviously, reiterating the invitation to MILF to be a partner in re-forming ARMM under the “3 for 1” for-mula. The President is cleansing “gov-ernment of past sins of corruption and misadministration” which now he does in ARMM to give it “the kind of leader-ship that assures that the resources of government will go where it should even within the legal structure that it has in-herited”.
The President’s gambit is work-ing under OIC Gov. Mujiv S. Hataman. “Already, within less than one hundred days after his appointment as officer in charge,” he and “those who now serve with him, have made necessary enemies of those who should be the enemies of government--ghost employees, corrupt former politicians and their conniving contractors and many others. We have
seen his resolve to continue towards this direction”.
Accepable to All: Obviously, Leonen is hammering on the need of an agree-ment acceptable to all. That agreement should acknowledge “those groups and individuals who also desire the same ends as those who belong to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – Mo-ros … in government and in civil society that are willing to do what is necessary to bring about social justice in all our communities.” Subtly, he reminds MILF “to recognize that there are many other leaders that it can work with”.
This is the imperative: “Working with other leaders representing con-stituents within the Bangsamoro thus requires [1] sitting down to define goals, [2] articulate interests and agree on common courses of action. To a certain extent, this is what we do in this nego-tiating table.” [Numbers in bracket in-serted]
Unite with MNLF: But more than this imperative must be done. While be-ing negotiated is “an agreement to be signed only between the GPH and the MILF” it is hoped “that the MILF can go beyond its initial meetings with leaders of various groups within the MNLF” and “can actually see the current proposals of the MNLF and find common grounds with them”.
Conclude Negotiations: After re-
minding MILF that in keeping peace in its controlled areas it must coordinate with Government through agreed mech-anisms, Leonen proposes to “focus once more on the substantive issues and ex-plore common grounds”; acknowledges “that the issues that we tackle now are the more difficult ones”; and expresses optimism “we can find mutually viable solutions” and “conclude these negotia-tions in the soonest possible time” – em-phasizing: “The sooner, the better.”
Changed FocusOn issuing its “3 for 1 Proposal”, Gov-
ernment changed the focus of the nego-tiation. As shown above, it has firmed up this change. In his opening statement at the 26th formal exploratory talks, Leo-nen declares this focus as the “Welfare of our People”, supplanting without stating “How to Solve the Bangsamoro Problem” agreed in 1997.
“Our People” should be understood as the Filipinos in general but particu-larly the MNLF and Moros other than the MILF, the Lumads and the migrants or settlers. Government offers as political settlement a reformed ARMM, the au-tonomous regional government within a unitary system. The reform is in pro-gress. MILF is being invited to partici-pate in reforming and governing ARMM in partnership with Moro traditional leaders now in ARMM and government and MNLF. Some provisions of the MILF peace draft proposal will be taken as part of the ARMM reform agenda – not to supplant the “3 for 1 Formula”.
Government is urging MILF to re-consider its position to avert a stalemate.
COMMENT
(Conclusion)
No sign of signing
BY PATRICIO P. DIAZ
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 201210 SUBURBIA EDGEDAVAO
Confed Chair Governor Rodolfo del Rosario presents the consensus of the Mindanao leaders, asking the national government to revisit the EPIRA law and discontinue its plan to privatize its hydroelectric power plants in Lanao and Bukidnon, among other policy recommendations. [NOEL BAGUIO/DAVNOR PIO]
THE ceramics water filter is being intro-duced by the De-
partment of Science and Technology (DOST) as part of its assistance to tropical storm Sendong survivors. A demonstration/field testing was recently con-ducted at Calaanan Tent City and Lumbia Resettle-ment Area, Cagayan de Oro City. The demonstration was headed by DOST-10 assistant director Jacinto Taran, Sr. and facilitated by Industrial Technology De-velopment Institute (ITDI) Representatives Josefina Celorico and Edmar Casa.
The technology ap-
plies a water purification system (WPS) by using ce-ramic filters developed by the ITDI, an agency of the DOST. The system was first tested in Muntinlupa City last year in collaboration with the National Housing Authority and was found to be effective in prevent-ing water-borne diseases brought by the micro-or-ganism E.coli bacteria that causes diarrhea.
The ceramic water fil-ter is primarily developed for the people in remote areas that have problems with safe drinking water. One unit of the ceramic water filter costs P400
and lasts for about three years, which is therefore affordable for the target consumers.
“It is also an easy-to-use water filter shaped like a pot and placed at the top of a water container. It is made of red clay which is covered with nano-col-loidal silver which acts as the anti-microbial agent that helps prevent wa-ter-borne diseases,” said DOST-10 regional director Alfonso Alamban.
Several clay samples from the region were tested and one in Bulua, Cagayan de Oro city has been found to be appro-
priate for the production of the clay water filters. Interested individu-als and entrepreneurs are being encouraged to adopt the technology and to mass-produce the clay water filters, Alamban stressed.
“The purpose of this demonstration is to pro-vide a safe source of drinking water to the victims of Sendong. Since there are problems in water sources, and some have high contamination, providing this type of cheap filtration system, therefore, is a big help to them,” said ARD Taran.
Water filters introduced in CDO evacuation sites
THE provincial gov-ernment here has recently recognized
three Panaboans for their outstanding performance and achievements in their respective fields of exper-tise.
One of the awardees is Dr. Francisco Paradero dela Peña who was cited for Category 1 from the field of agriculture.
Dela Peña established the ACES Polytechnic Col-lege in Panabo City and founded the Natural Farm-ing Institute.
He was given “Out-standing Philippine Or-ganic Agriculturist Award” by the Rotary Club of Cu-bao East, the First award extended to Filipinos na-tionwide for manifesting
excellence in the practice of organic agriculture.
The Category 2 award for this year was conferred to two outstanding Pan-aboans namely, Dhjoane Canilon Aguilar and Dr. Roberto Bagsarsa Corcino.
Aguilar is an elemen-tary teacher at the Pana-bo Central Elementary School.
She’s the first Panabo-an to be conferred with a Gold Medallion by Presi-dent Benigno Aquino III for the 2011 Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Teachers Award.
Corcino, meanwhile, was cited in the field of science particularly mathematics.
He is the first in the Philippines to study enu-
merative combinatories, treating formulation enu-meration and properties of partition, variations, combinations and permu-tations of a finite number of elements under various considerations.
Corcino was award-ed with the 2004 Out-standing Scientific Paper Award for his paper enti-tled “Counting Restricted Functions and Its Rela-tions to Generalized Stir-ling Number.”
He was also bestowed of the 2008 Outstanding Young Scientist Award of the National Academy of Science and Technology, for his outstanding re-search contribution in the field of mathematics.
Mayor Jose L. Silvosa,
Sr. together with Second District Representative Antonio F. Lagdameo of Davao del Norte led the awarding of the three outstanding Panaboans on March 31, 2012 at the Panabo Gym.
The awardees are hoped to serve as mod-els and inspiration to all other Panaboans in living the values of hard work, perseverance and deter-mination.
Meanwhile, a special recognition was awarded to Atty. Chervin Pacula-nang from City Legal Of-fice for passing the 2011 Bar Examination, and Cadet 1CL Mark Anthony Tito, a Panaboan who graduated from the Phil-ippine Military Academy.
LGU recognizes outstanding Panaboans
THE scholarship pro-gram of the provincial government here has
yielded another batch of beneficiaries who graduat-ed with high honors at their respective schools this year.
Two of the 12 recipi-ents of the Compostela Val-ley Scholarship Program (CVSP) graduated as magna cum laude, namely Laude Lovely Mie V. Martinez of Maragusan and Kim P. Baloca of Compostela, who both finished a Degree of Bachelor of Science in Ac-countancy at UM Tagum College.
The other ten scholars got cum laude honors in their respective courses to include Anna Marie A. Algodon of Maco who finished Bachelor of Sec-ondary Education (BSEd) major in Mathematics at USEP Tagum- Mabini Campus, and Julius M. Cos-toy of Mawab, with BS in Business Administration (BSBA) major in Finan-cial Management at ACES Tagum College.
Cum Laude Mary Love P. Bangahon and Lewen Jean A. Labor were both from Monkayo and BSBA major in Financial Mgt. graduates at BSU-Monkayo
Center; Neil B. Larino of Compostela, BS in Agricul-ture major in Crop Enter-prise Management at USEP Compostela; and Maria Elvina Jean S. Samontina of Mawab, BSBA major in Financial Mgt. at St. Mary’s College.
The other honorees were Shiela S. Santos of Maco, Jordan C. Cataylo of Mabini and Jessa G. Callora of Maragusan who com-pleted BSA at UM Tagum College, while Cristine P.
Malanog of Nabunturan finished BSEd major in Mathematics, also at UM Tagum College.
With the full support and commitment of Gover-nor Arturo T. Uy, CVSP has been helping deserving students coming from poor families to acquire college and vocational education.
The program has been producing cum laude grad-uates every year.
For the next school year, there will be new
scholar-entrants to fill in the 132 slots for the TVET (Technical Vocational Edu-cation) courses, and 114 for the Baccalaureate, four-year courses.
Applicants for the scholarship program will undergo an orientation and contract signing with the provincial government on April 11 and 12, 2012 at the Capitol.
The new scholars will add to the current list of scholars under CVSP.
Comval produce magna cum laude scholars
IN support of the Visit Samal Island 2012 Campaign of the De-
partment of Tourism Re-gion (DoT)-XI and the City Government of the Island Garden City of Sa-mal (IGaCoS), the office of Congressman Anton F. Lagdameo, Jr. in coop-eration with FABC Presi-dent Vicente «Enteng» Floirendo and Sanggu-niang Kabataan Federa-tion President Michaelle Kirsten T. Ferrazzini will be spearheading a three (3) day environmental, culture, arts and music fair dubbed as «Pigkay-san sa Samal». This will be held from May 4-6, 2012 at the Peñaplata Elemen-tary School Ground, Brgy. Peñaplata, Samal District, IGaCoS.
Various activities are slated during the 3-day af-fair which would include tribal house displays, dai-ly cultural presentations, art contests focusing on culture, a four-hour show featuring tribal culture and music to be partici-pated in by Mebuyan - a music group based in Davao City that weaves Filipino folk and indige-nous music traditions and as finale, a closing cer-emony that will highlight the unity or “pigkaysan» of the people of Samal.
Pigkaysan is the Sama tribe›s term for unity. The tribe is one of the earli-est indigenous groups who inhabited the scenic island long before the ar-rival of Spanish conquis-
tadors. Their culture and traditions will be high-lighted in the various cul-tural presentations of the fair along with the Tau-sugs, Kalagans and other cultural minorities.
Cong. Lagdameo›s Chief of Staff Ms. Gene-rose Tecson said that «the «Pigkaysan sa Sa-mal» emphasizes the rich culture of the tribes of Samal which will effec-tively complement the packaging of the island as a major tourism hub and eco-adventure haven in the country. The fair will also reflect the oneness of the people of IGaCoS in warmly welcoming its tourists and in pursuing greater progress down to the grassroots level.»
She added that the organizers will also be in-volving the participation of major tourist industry players in the island to help by way of participat-ing in the private sector display category.
Some individual and corporate sponsors have also signified their inten-tion to support the activ-ity and this include Davao Light & Power Company, Davao Packaging Corpo-ration, Merco, and Board Member Ely Dacalus of Davao del Norte.
Samal Island is the leading tourist destina-tion in Davao Region and the summer months up to July has long been con-sidered as the peak season of arrivals. (PR by Edwin C. Lagumbay, Jr.)
Lagdameo spearheads cultural, arts, music fair
4Ps for the IP. A Talaingod IP beneficiary speaks up during the monthly-held Family Development Session (FDS) under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. (DSWD/SHERYLL JANE B. SANICO)
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012 11COMPETITIVE EDGEEDGEDAVAO
LOCATION AREA (sq.m.) PRICE/sq.m. Villa Josefina Resort Village, Dumoy Toril, Davao City
Minimum of 240 sq.m.
P5,985
St. Joseph Homes, Sirawan, Toril,Davao City
Minimum of 150 sq.m.
P3,600
LOCATION Lot Area Flr. Area PRICE Blk. 4, Lot 10
Villa Josefina Resort Village Dumoy, Toril, Davao City
240 sq.m. 177.31 sq.m P4.8 M
Nokia Care Center opens in SM Southmall. Strength-ening its commitment to connect people, Nokia, the global leader in mobile communications opened its latest Nokia Care branch at the 3rd Level, Cyberzone SM South Mall. Nokia’s latest endeavor allows South Luzon residents to have easier and more convenient access to Nokia after-sales services. The new Nokia Care Center is
managed by MorganTech Care Services. Present during the store opening were (from left) Nokia Philippines general manager and head of sales Dharmesh Goshalia; President of MorganTech, Jeremy Tan; Congressman Joe Duavit, 1st District, Province of Rizal; General Manager of MorganTech, Eric Yu; and Nokia Care channel manager Bryan Lee.
Nokia.com.ph recognized as best gadget website – Nokia Philippines’ website, nokia.com.ph, won the best website award in the gadget category in the recently held DigitalFilipino – Search Profile Index Web Awards, which aims to promote the use of Internet and e-Com-merce for business development. DigitalFilipino.com and Search Profile Index worked together and scanned several local websites to come up with a list of winners
in more than 50 categories. The winning sites were chosen based on their search engine and social media visibility, website traffic and stickiness, and technical performance. Photo shows (L-R) Search Profile Index owner Bernardo Mitra, Wunderman Interactive Manager EJ Mangahas and DigitalFilipino.com owner and founder Janette Toral.
WITH the com-pany’s thrust to strengthen its
corporate social responsi-bility, Davao Agricultural Ventures Corporation (DAVCO) planted Moho-gany seedlings in the vi-cinity of Brgy. Cawayan, Calinan, Davao City.
Dubbed as “Save the Planet, Plant a tree”, the activity joined the forces of more than 100 volun-teers who worked co-operatively in planting 1,500 Mohogany seed-lings on April 02, 2012.
DAVCO, a producer
and exporter of pine-apple in the global mar-ket, continuously deliv-ers activities beyond the sphere of its main business to contribute to the development of the locality to help uplift the lives of the people. Consequently, tree plant-ing is just one of these ac-tivities that the company earnestly fulfills espe-cially for the benefit of its host communities.
Congruent to this, DAVCO has already plant-ed more than 4,500 trees of different classes early
this year. These trees planted and nurtured by DAVCO will complement the 10,000 forest and fruit bearing trees the company has targeted to plant this year.
The tree planting activity gained the sup-port and participation of the Don Antonio O. Floi-rendo, Sr. Foundation, volunteers from Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association, Bayer CropScience, City Agriculture Office, and Guardians Brotherhood. (CYRIELLE P. NAIG)
DAVCO plants 1,500 Mohogany seedlings
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 201212 NATION/WORLD EDGEDAVAO
NATION BRIEFS WORLD TODAYUnhappy
AUSTRALIAN Olym-pic chief John Coates has de-
scribed Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s decision not to attend the London Games as “a disappoint-ment to the team,” accord-ing to a report.
“I thought London would be an absolute must for Julia, so I’m dis-appointed,” Coates told The Sunday Age.
First speech
NORTH Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-Un delivered his
first public speech Sun-day and vowed to push for a stronger military as his country unveiled an apparently new missile.
Kim addressed cheer-ing troops and citizens waving flowers at a major military parade marking the centenary of the birth of his grandfather and the nation’s founder Kim Il-Sung.
Trade friction
CHINA and the Unit-ed States will expe-rience more trade
friction in the high-end manufacturing sector, as Washington protects its domestic industries, offi-cials said on Sunday.
Friction will “surely increase” as China and the US both focus on high-end and emerging indus-tries, including new en-ergy and materials, Zhang Xiangchen, director for trade policy research at the Ministry of Com-merce, said.
Extra steps
STATE weapons man-ufacturer PT Pindad has to take extra
steps to keep company secrets from being ex-tracted to foreign nation-als wanting a peek into the country’s defence in-dustry.
As Indonesia’s econo-my soars at an impressive rate and with the defence budget expanding aggres-sively, several state com-panies and government agencies have increas-ingly become targets of espionage.
For lifting
AUSTRALIA said it will lift sanctions against Myanmar’s
president and more than 200 others who are cur-rently under travel and financial bans, after a se-ries of reforms in the past year.
However, some 130 names will remain on the restricted list, including senior members of the military and others sus-pected of human rights abuses, Foreign Minister Bob Carr told the Austra-lian Broadcasting Corpo-ration.
DeployedTHE Northern Luzon
Command on Mon-day said that the
Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has deployed an-other ship, the BRP EDSA DOS (SAR-002), to keep watch over the two Chi-nese surveillance vessels still anchored off Scarbor-ough Shoal.
Lt. Gen. Anthony Al-cantara, Northern Luzon Command chief, said BRP EDSA DOS arrived at the disputed territory around 7am Monday.
He added that the PCG ship was send from its Manila South Harbor base to relieve BRP Pampanga (SAR-003) as the latter ship is in need of provi-sioning having been on patrol for three days.
BalikatanASIDE from boosting
the country’s secu-rity and improving
its interoperability with the US military, this year’s “Balikatan” exercises will also boost rural develop-ment in Palawan, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff Gen. Jessie Dellosa said on Monday.
“As we speak, five classrooms are being built in Palawan by Philippine and American military engineers. Civic action programs in engineering, medical, dental and vet-erinary in 10 barangays in Puerto Princesa are in dif-ferent stages of prepara-tion and implementation,” Dellosa said in his speech opening the “Balikatan 2012”.
UnevenTROUGH low pres-
sure areas (LPA) may bring rains in parts
of Mindanao, while Luzon including Metro Manila will experience 35-degree summer heat on Monday, the Philippine Atmospher-ic Geophysical and Astro-nomical Services Adminis-tration (PAGASA) said.
Weather forecaster Ben Oris said ridge of high pressure area which brings warm weather is extending over Luzon, while rains from trough of LPA are affecting Southern Mindanao.
TrainingWORLD Boxing Or-
ganization welter-weight champion
Manny Pacquiao has de-clared himself ready for a tough eight-week grind to prime himself up for his June 9 fight against undefeated American Timothy Bradley with his 147-pound crown at stake.
The fighting Sarangani congressman, in a tele-phone conversation with this writer on Saturday, said an almost two-week prelude he had undergone in Laguna and General San-tos City made him ready for what chief trainer Freddie Roach has lined up starting Tuesday in Baguio City.
BiotechThe Philippines should
take advantage of its pio-neering role in Asia for the development and com-mercialization of biotech crops, Agriculture Under-secretary for Policy and Planning Segfredo Serrano urges.
Serrano assured that modern biotechnology has already taken root in the country and this edge must be exploited to the hilt.
THE first internation-al observers tasked with monitoring a
shaky UN-backed cease-fire arrived Sunday in Syr-ia, where regime forces pounded a rebel city and killed five civilians.
“They’ve arrived and they will start work to-morrow morning,” said Kieran Dwyer, a spokes-man for the UN peace-keeping department an-nouncing that six observ-ers were now in Syria.
Earlier forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed five civilians in shelling of rebel areas in the flashpoint central city of Homs and clashes with gunmen.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was “very much concerned” at the re-newed killings and urged the government to ensure that the ceasefire does not collapse.
State-run news agen-cy SANA said Syria “wel-comes” the observer mission, and hoped the monitors will see for themselves the “crimes” committed by “armed ter-rorist groups.”
SANA also reported that Foreign Minister
DESTRUCTION. A handout picture released by Shaam News Network shows the destruction of buildings and vehicles in the restive city of Homs on April 14. The first
international observers tasked with monitoring a shaky UN-backed ceasefire in Syria have arrived in Damascus, a United Nations spokesman said.
First UN observers land in Syria as clashes warm up
Walid Muallem will vis-it ally China to discuss the mission of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan who designed the cease-fire.
Regime forces sub-jected the Khaldiyeh and Bayada neighbourhoods of Homs to their fiercest bombardment since the truce came into force at
dawn on Thursday, moni-tors said.
“The bombardment of Khaldiyeh intensified this morning with an average of three shells a minute,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rah-man, told AFP.
Three civilians were killed in Homs city, in-
cluding one in Khaldiyeh, he said, while a fourth was shot dead in central Hama province and the fifth died in the Damasc-sus suburb of Douma.
With clashes warming up and both sides blam-ing each other for the vio-lence, Syria insisted that its sovereignty must be respected.
THE Philippines said Sunday it remained locked in a stalemate
with China over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
The statement came a day after the Philippine side reported that two Chinese vessels remained in Scar-borough Shoal, just as the week-old standoff appeared to have eased.
Eight Chinese fishing vessels which sparked the standoff however had al-ready left the area.
“The stalemate remains. Both sides are in touch with each other,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said in a brief statement.
He said Foreign Secre-tary Albert del Rosario left Sunday for a week-long trip to the United States, and ne-gotiations would be taken over by one of his top aides.
On Monday, the Philip-pines and the United States are due to begin joint annual war games to boost its mili-tary alliance amid fears of China’s growing power in the region.
Local military officials said some of the manoeu-vres would take place off the southwestern island of Palawan close to the dis-puted South China Waters, but sought to downplay fears they could further add to the Scarborough tension.
“The Balikatan (shoulder to shoulder) exercises is in no way related to an event like that of the Scarborough Shoal,” said Major Emmanuel Garcia, spokesman for the
Stalemate remains in Scarborough
DISPUTED. Graphic on disputed boundaries in the South China Sea. The Philippines said it remained locked in a stalemate with China over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
Philippine contingent.“We had long planned for
this and the focus would be on improving security, coun-ter terrorism and humanitar-ian and disaster response.”
Presidential spokes-woman Abigail Valte said in a statement the government hoped China would not be be alarmed by the exercises.
“We are hoping that this will not result in provoca-tion,” Valte said.
She said that while Ma-nila maintained jurisdiction over the shoal, it remained committed to resolving the issue in a diplomatic manner.
The Scarborough Shoal dispute started on April 8 when the Philippines found
the eight Chinese fishing boats in the area, which the Philippines claims as its ter-ritory.
A Philippine navy war-ship was deployed there to arrest the Chinese fishermen for illegal poaching, but Chi-na sent three civilian surveil-lance vessels and took turns blocking the ship.
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Dumalag... Husbands...
PNoy...
Binay...
Congress support to allow the temporary transfer of power barges presently stationed in Panay to Mind-anao,” he added. The three power barges, like the hydro plants, are for privatization.
Cortizano said the Presi-dent also did not show any commitment to the Bukid-non Power Commission’s lobby that in the case that privatization becomes inevi-table, the Pulangi IV should be ran by local stakeholders, not by big corporations from outside the province.
“He just told us to sub-mit our proposal,” he added.
Cortizano rated the power summit 50-50 in ad-dressing their expectations. He said they were glad, how-ever, that Mr. Aquino at least committed to put up a one-stop shop in Mindanao to process the permits to put up power generation proj-ects like hydropower and biomass.
The President an-nounced that they are studying the formation of a Mindanao Power Monitor-ing Committee, to be chaired by the Mindanao Develop-ment Authority (MinDA), with representatives from the Department of Energy, National Power Corpora-tion, the National Grid Cor-poration of the Philippines, and others from civil society, electric cooperatives, and the business sector.
In his speech, Aquino said the government is al-
ready implementing short term solutions to the power shortage.
He said Mindanao’s en-ergy production capacity is at 1,280 megawatts, includ-ing the 200 megawatts from the barges. He added that the peak demand is pegged at 1,300 megawatts, so there is a shortage of 20mw more just to meet peak demand and an additional 150mw for reserve margin for a to-tal of 170mw more needed “immediately.”
He said repairing Pu-langi IV will give additional 100mw and 74 megawatts “can be run by embedded generation units”.
“Therefore, the 170mw need can now be met with your resources, because you have 174 that potentially can be tapped,” he added.
The President said it is important to save the Na-tional Power Corporation from debts and to free bud-get for other services of the government. He cited that Mindanao had an exemp-tion to the Electric Power In-dustry Reform Act (EPIRA).
He said Mindanao then got oversupply of power, more than adequate then for the needs, and cheaper than what anyone else had.
But he said the equation on cheap power in Mind-anao has changed and that to have more power Mind-anawons might have to pay more to get it.
“The simple truth is: we
can have a lot more energy, but we have to provide the incentives for businesses to come here to put up those plants. Therefore, there will be a change in what we have to pay. We will have to pay, perhaps, a bit more,” he said in his speech at the summit held in Davao’s Waterfront Hotel Friday.
Aquino said in his speech, a copy of which was posted on the government’s website, that “the old as-sumptions that allowed all of us to rely on hydroelectric power simply aren’t there anymore.”
“The status quo could be maintained, if – and I have to emphasize – if things didn’t change. But things have in-deed changed: increasing population means increas-ing demand; increasing op-portunities means increas-ing need for more power,” he added.
He said the old setup assumed abundant water. “But the watersheds are vanishing, which results in the sedimentation of wa-terways, not to mention the effects of global climate change, which has drasti-cally changed the amounts and frequency of rainfall,” he added.
Aquino announced the release of P2.6 billion for the large-scale rehabilita-tion of Units 1 and 2 of Agus 6 in Iligan City, “which have been neglected for the past 59 years.”
Results showed that the water in fish cages has a “high content of coliform and other pathogens, including Escherichia coli (E. coli) from animal and human waste.”
While most coliform bacteria do not cause illness, however their presence in a water system poses the danger that disease-causing strains of bacteria, viruses and protozoa are also present.
E. coli can cause flu-like symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea. It can also cause intestinal illness and, in very rare cases, a serious kidney condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome.
High level exposure or contact to E.coli and other fecal coliform bacteria can also produce skin irritation or rashes; and eye, ear or throat irritation.
Mayor Duterte-Carpio directed City Agriculturist Office head Leonardo Avila II to notify cultivators of fish cages in the area to harvest the fish in August, after which they will all be shut down on the basis of water samplings made and the fact that the cultivators have no business permit.
Fish cultivation in Dumalag started in 2003 and grew to a P300 million industry by 2011 with 43 investors’ 200 fish cages occupying two hectares out of the 200-hectare coastal area of Dumalag 1, 2, and 3, in Barangay Matina Aplaya.
Stopping the operations will affect more than 30,000 people--investors, caretakers, feed providers, fish buyers, and their families.
Avila, who had recommended the closure to the mayor, said Punta Dumalag has been the victim of indiscriminate solid and liquid waste disposal.
“The fish cages, although the size and depth were feasible for fish culture, their proximity to houses and other business facilities is a major limitation for commercial mariculture operations,” Avila told Edge Davao last week.
“Most of the residents along the coastal area do not have proper drainage. As a result their waste water and even human waste are directly thrown into the water,” he said.
CAO chief of extension services division Jovencio Umagung also said that Punta Dumalag’s waters are ‘an end point of waste waters thus it is unfit for raising fish.’
“Remember na kung ano mang galing sa highlands, pag-umuulan ay bababa at bababa rin yan to the lowlands. Waters from the Matina Pangi and Talomo River connects to
Punta Dumalag, which is a bay area,” Umagung said in an interview.
“So, if waste water is released to the rivers, pati na ang community along rivers, then all forms of waste end up sa coastline, including human waste,” Umagung added.
Early in 2010, 960 metric tons of fish was harvested out of 96 fish cages, a big boost to the dwindling fish catch caught from the open seas.
Barangay Matina Aplaya and the City Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (CFARMC) recognized that the fisherfolk would greatly benefit once the city, through the City Council, supports the barangay by declaring Punta Dumalag as a Mariculture Park.
Unclean watersThe city in 2010
issued business permits to fish cultivators during the boom in rearing of milkfish, a high-grade fish, in Punta Dumalag.
City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) head Robert Alabado in 2010, however, said the issuance of permits should be put on hold as there is a need for biochemical analysis in the area to ensure the safety of the produce which is consumed by locals as well as the sustainability of the project.
The CAO in turn requested the assistance of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Science and Technology to conduct an analysis.
The baseline study was made November 24-26 in 2010 and the results were released February of 2011.
The results showed that 50% of the water samples contained coliform counts that are ‘beyond the allowable limit of Fishery Water Class 2 and that 7 out of 8 water samples analyzed for fecal coliform contained counts beyond the 5000 MPN (most probable number) limit allowed by the DENR.’
Results of the analysis also showed counts of pseudonmonas aeruginosa, a bacteria ‘that can cause disease in susceptible individuals’ as it can produce toxin proteins which is not only the cause of tissue damage but also interfere with the human immune system’s defense mechanisms.’
“Based on the analysis results of the DOST 11, the waters of the coastal areas of Matina would not be suitable for fish culture if we consider that it can possibly cause negative
health impacts on the possible consumers of fish and aquatic products coming from the area,” Avila said.
“The presence of fecal coliform in acquatic environments may indicate that the water has been contaminated with fecal materials of humans or other animals,” he added.
With these results, the city cancelled all the business permits of fish cultivators earlier released.
In June 2011, the CPDO thru the CAO, funded another set of water sampling. The results were released in July and the waters again showed high content of coliform and other pathogens.
However the fish cultivators continued operations to this year.
S o c i a l transformation
Avila said social transformation is needed in order for fish cultivation to be allowed in Punta Dumalag.
“There should be a continuing campaign against indiscriminate solid and liquid waste disposal, especially in barangays alongside rivers emptying into Talomo Bay,” Avila said.
He added that the City Health Office should include in its education campaign the proper way of preparing and cooking food, particularly fish.
With the city mayor’s order to cancel operations of fish cultivation, Avila admitted that this would affect their livelihood.
“However, what’s at risk is the greater populace who consumes the food. The investors themselves are put into danger when their fish would not bought because of health hazards and eventually constitute a threat to their investment,” he said.
Avila said a meeting was held April 11 this year between the CAO, the investors, and the conductors of the study in order to explain the results of water analysis and to relay the order of the city mayor.
“The investors have agreed to stop their operation by August, which will be their last harvest. Some of them were aware of the conditions of the water because they expressed they too conducted their own water sampling and produce inspection,” he said.
He added that the fish cage operators should actively participate in the campaign for proper solid and liquid waste disposal along the coastal waters of Punta Dumalag.
nadeprive sa ilang katun-god nga nakita nako nga dili lang kababaihan ang giabuso kung dili duna pud diay kalalakihan nga naghilom lang kay dili gusto mahibal-an that they were abused by their wife,” he said.
The federation will conduct trainings, advo-cacy programs, sympo-siums and meetings with their constituents to pro-mote gender equality.
During seminars, men will also be taught how to preserve women’s rights while protecting their own.
“We believe nga kin-ing paningkamot sa 15
barangays, it is the first in the whole Philippines nga naglantaw pud sa gender equality diri sa atong na-sud,” he said.
Mr. Gad has women members who are sensi-tive of men’s rights, espe-cially within marriage.
Cited are cases in ba-rangays where husbands reported physical and verbal abuses and asked for barangay protection against their wives.
“Amo nakita nga there are times ang mga lalaki pud nagapakita og ebidensya nga siya gia-busohan pud sa asawa. Naa pud, siya pa ang gi-kamras, siya pa ang gika-
suhan ubos sa Violence Against Women and Chil-dren Act,” he said.
Although he did not say that it is about time to enact a law protecting men from violence against women, he advocates equal rights between men and women, especially in the household.
Out of some 7,000 male constituents in the 15 barangays, he said, most abused or battered husbands were decent types.
“Tungod naa man gud family secrecy, naandan nga basta family trouble we try to be silent about it,” he said.
other countries serves as a rite of passage into man-hood, kumbaga. In Singa-pore males as young as high school age serve one year of training while in South Korea its two years mandatory. I think we too should have that,” he said.
“Hindi lang yung ROTC (Philippine Reserve Officer Training Corps) kundi talagang military training. Through military training, male Filipinos will be taught the value of discipline and respect for
authority which we lack,” he added.
The Vice President said he envisions the Phil-ippines to become an ad-vanced country.
“Look at South Korea, noong 1950’s after the civil war ano ba sila, pero ngayon talagang advanced na sila technology and in all industries without hav-ing to ruin their natural resources. Talagang
ang ganda, na-pre-serve nila ang ganda ng ru-ral areas nila. At saka ang
mga tao roon have respect for their elders and fam-ily,” he said.
“Nauna na ang Singa-pore, Thailand, Vietnam, baka maunahan pa tayo ng Myanmar. I hope to see a Philippines that thrives economically. Talagang yan ang vision ko para sa Pilipinas,” he added.
Binay is the president of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines which instills to the male youth the val-ue of service to country.[JADE C. ZALDIVAR]
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012
THE Loyola Meralco Sparks had to wait un-til the very last min-
ute to score the lone goal of the match, before defeating
Pasargad FC in a thrilling en-counter Saturday at Univer-sity of Makati.
Mark Hartmann’s goal in the 94th minute gave the
Sparks the hard-earned vic-tory in the intense match, which saw nine yellow cards and one red card is-sued.
Pasargad, which sits near the bottom of the table, almost came away with the draw before Loyola ratcheted up in the final minute, peppering several shots at the goal in hopes of coming away with the win.
The victory gave the Sparks its spot at the top of the table with 22 points over nine games, one point better than erst-while leader Global FC.
Meanwhile, in the second game, Kaya FC began its post-Juan Cutillas era with a 1-0 vic-tory over Philip-pine Army Fritz & Macziol. Cutillas, a former national coach, resigned from his post two weeks ago after a
disagreement with team management. Erstwhile as-sistant Kale Alvarez, who took over head coaching duties in the interim, made his debut in the match.
Nate Burkey scored the lone goal for Kaya at the 40th minute of the game. Kaya defender Anton del Rosario suffered a broken nose at the 27th minute after a collision with an Army defender.
I could only squirm in horror as I looked at the photo showing
the football field high school players had to play, or to be apt about it—forced to play—in the recent Davao Re-gional Athletic Associa-tion (Davraa) Meet in Compostela Valley.
The photo, taken by my good friend and foot-ball fanatic Dapoy Dia-mante, was taken dur-ing the rain-drenched Davraa Meet in Com-postela Valley particu-larly at the Compostela Central School where the Secondary Football matches were played.
If you carefully take a look at the photo, you would not know if it was a football field save for the net-less goal at the endline and the tiny flaglets stuck on a stick serving as corner flags. You can find the photo somewhere in this page.
As I look at it, scenes of past sporting crimes committed during the Davraa meets of the past flashed back again.
They never learn.I thought things like
this will never happen again after years have gone by since I last re-membered covering a Davraa meet.
In fairness to Deped, my judgment is based on the photographs I have seen and this does not mean only this one I am showing here. I have seen in another daily how players splash in mud while playing. They honestly looked like young carabaos grazed in the muddy fields.
But my assessment of the field through the photographs and the personal comments of some football officials, my eyes will not fool me when I say the pitch does not look like a foot-ball field to me.
Deplorable. Despica-
ble. Disheartening. Dis-couraging.
I will throw all my adjectives of disgust.
Okay, to be fair with Deped, I don’t know ex-actly why they had to force the issue. If the pitch is not playable, the Match Commission-er decides to stop the match. Postpone it until another pitch is avail-able or if the conditions improve. But heck, I do not know if the Davraa has a Match Commis-sioner. I know for one the games were ran by tournament managers—all Deped personnel supposedly trained to be sports managers.
Pray tell me, to be fair with you sirs and madams, why did you allow the games to push through?
Again, why did they not stop the tourna-ment when the field is unplayable. Why do they have to risk the lives and limbs of players just to comply with the directives that the tour-nament has to be held “rain or shine.” There is not even a provision for force majeure or acts of God in their rule book.
In a pitch like this, you cannot expect the players to play to their fullest potential and skills level. Worse, you endanger them.
Whoever let the tour-nament push through should be held liable for gross negligence.
May we have your ex-planation, please.
14 SPORTS EDGEDAVAO
Davraa insensitivity
MU LT I - T I T L E D Hooligans FC bagged the men’s
title while the veteran-lad-en Team DDS took home the women’s crown as the Davao City squads domi-nated the recent Governor Douglas Cagas Cup Foot-ball Tournament in Digos City, Davao del Sur.
Hooligans FC beat USEP Davao XI in the fi-nals while DDS triumphed over another Davao squad Davao United FC. Panabo
City took third place in the Men’s Open while Davao Sur United finished third in the Women’s Open.
Mintal United-A beat WFS Digos for the boys Under-12 title while Mint-al United-B settled for third.
The Hooligans, which also took home P10,000 for their triumph, are composed of Jason Morti-llero, Clemens Lademora, Allan Ray Fernandez, Ro-eder Ignacio, Jayric Ili-
gan, Emerson Demegillo, Patrick Asoque, Roelfred Napuran, Marlon Demap-anag, Rocky Custodio, Ro-land Manabit and Roger Ubas.
DDS, which went home with the top P5,000 kitty, finished the tournament with 3 wins, a draw and no loss. The Red Ladies were composed of Analou Ingles, Ching delos Reyes, Kharla Sol Cruz, Ness Ce-lestial, Beth Villa-Abrille, Lorena Mongao, Kristel
Dureza, Alyn Ravanes, Tets Concordo, Wowie Satorre, Joan Mortillero, Kitoy Can-ton and Reynalyn Ravanes.
The Mintal United-A, which got P5,000, are composed of Ceasar Ian Adan, Noel Capuyan, Ace Joaquin, Ashley Jud Lu-cero, Joven Amihan, John Mark Nalla, Raymund Ca-sona, Cloyd Robinson dela Cruz, and Julius Ponpon. The team is coached by Danny Boy Fernandez and John Conde. [NEIL BRAVO]
Hooligans , DDS top Gov Cup football
Loyola edges Pasargad, Kaya FC nips Army XI
The Women’s Open champion DDS of Davao City pose after their triumphant stint in the Governor Cagas Cup Football Tournament held recently in Digos City, Davao del Sur.
IS THIS A FOOTBALL FIELD? Parents and sports officials have asked organizers why they forced the football tourna-ment to be played in a muddy pitch rendered almost unplayable by heavy rains during the recent Davraa Meet in Compostela Valley. (PHOTO BY DAPOY DIAMANTE)Intense UFL action during the Loyola-Meralco versus Pasargad FC won by the Sparks.
INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 30 • APRIL 17, 2012
EDGEDAVAOTRAVEL
A long weekend or a holiday in the middle of the week, boys, or men for that matter, the most that they’ll plan about is where to get booze for the next few days and staying in a hotel with their friends or barkada is the last thing on their minds.
It’s easy to imagine what girls can do inside a hotel room when they decide to check-in and throw a slumber party. Could anything be easier than dressing up in their pajamas, sharing gos-sip, while getting their manis and pedis done? It’s not the same with boys who’d rather be out playing bas-ketball and getting rowdy with their teammates. But an experi-ment on four of the city’s hottest boys proved otherwise. Boys can do ‘hotelcations,’ too and have fun. Tons of fun, if you must. For locals, the hotel is the last
thing on their minds to head to whenever there is a long weekend or a holiday in the middle of the week. Other would even drive hundreds of kilometers just to spend half day at the beach or wa-terfalls, and spend the other half just getting there. So, we looked at our options and discovered that the city’s premier hotel, Marco Polo Hotel Davao, has some of the amenities that boys can also indulge in. One of the best ways to start your stay at the Marco Polo Ho-tel Davao is by taking a dip in its pool as the afternoon sun sets in
the horizon. What could be bet-ter than lounging at the poolside, basking in the sun, an ice-cold bottle of beer in hand, and pretty girls milling around? The pool-
side is the best place to show off those abs and biceps, and whatev-er muscle groups you have been sweating out at the gym for the past few years.
Sittings editor: Carlo P. MalloPhotographs by Ghea JabileClothes by Bauhaus Style and Layout by Kenneth OngGrooming by Buddy CongsonHair by Hairs and NailsModels: Ken, Patrick, Lou, and Bryan of Glam Model House
Boys can do ‘hotelcations,’ too and have fun. Tons of fun, if you must.
Chow on steaks, grilled seafood and a wide array of no-frills food at the Polo Bistro. If the heavens are on your side, you can dine al fresco under the stars, but there’s always the option of indoor dining. Now that dinner’s done, what else should men do inside a hotel? Why, party, of course! If getting intoxicated is what you have in mind, forget going to the al fresco no frills drinking places that you have frequented since you were studying in the university. Bring it a notch higher and be the man you think you are by getting a glass of scotch or a bottle of good old beer at Eagle’s Bar. With its subdued light-ing, stuffed animal heads, and a great selection of spirits, Eagle’s Bar is one place you wouldn’t have to fret about if anyone sees you there. It’s a good place to hang out with friends; it’s an even better place to be seen by your boss. You don’t have to wear a suit to go there, and you don’t have to break the bank, too. Sleep with no worries in one of the newly renovated cabana suites or lounge and watch the latest in sports, or you can just enjoy the view from your room at the veranda. Wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread or brewing coffee at Café Marco. Choose or eat all you want from regular breakfast staples like bacon, butter, omelets, cereals, and a wide array on the buffet table. There’s no better way of treating a hangover than by feeding yourself. Work out at the gym just before
lunch and sweat out all the booze and calories you have ingested the night before. You can also turn it into a com-petition amongst yourselves as to who can lift the heaviest weight, or who can run the longest distance on the tread-mill.
Wrap the weekend with an appoint-ment at the Lazuli Spa where boys can enjoy the athlete’s massage. It gives your body just the perfect amount of relaxation that will allow you to drive home and have a deep slumber that will prepare you to face a new week.
A2 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 30 • APRIL 17, 2012EDGEDAVAO
The poolside is the best place to show off those abs and biceps, and whatever muscle groups you have been sweating out at the gym for the past few years.
Wrap the weekend with an appointment at the Lazuli Spa where boys can enjoy the athlete’s massage.
A3INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 30 • APRIL 17, 2012EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart reunite for Breaking Dawn reshootsTWIHARDS, rejoice. There might be 150 days until Breaking Dawn Part 2 hits the-aters, but director Bill Condon has de-livered a little treat. “Our Part Two puzzle is finally coming into full view, and in a few weeks we’ll be heading back north to pick up some ad-ditional shots—the last tiny missing pieces,” the Breaking Dawn director revealed in a letter today. Paps, get your cameras ready, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are heading back to Vancou-ver. But that’s not all Bill Condon had to reveal… “I’m excited to report that before too long we’ll have another trailer for you to decode,” Condon wrote in a letter penned to the flick’s loyal fanbase. “And wait until you see the first posters—they’re unlike any Twilight images you’ve seen before.” We’re certainly looking forward to more—the first trailer gave us a short sneak peek of the gor-geous Kristen Stewart as vampire Bella, along with a swoon-worthy shot of Robert Pattinson and Tay-lor Lautner’s reaction to a bloodsucking K.Stew. Condon reassured fans he’s excited to reunite
with the Twi-crew and revealed Rob and Kristen will indeed be on set: “I am really looking forward to being back on set with some of the friends I’ve made on my Twilight journey, like the great Guillermo Navarro, our cinematographer, and his crew,” Condon writes. “And yes, Rob and Kristen will be there too, to pop in those gold contacts one last time...”
Here’s hoping for a few on-set shots of those spar-kly eyes! So, while we’re gearing up for the second trailer, can we expect any major changes after this round of filming? “We’re not shooting any new scenes or dialogue, just some technical work with some of our cast and stunt actors,” Condon ex-plained. Leave it to the Twilight powers to always keep us
coming back for more, and Bill ends his letter with a special reminder while we wait for the final release: “And then November 16th will be upon us and the final film will be yours! Until then, have a very happy spring, and I’ll check back in with you soon.” Sooner, rather than later, we’d prefer. You can’t leave us hanging after dishing so much Twilight goodness.
LGBT community cheers on Brangelina engagement!YESTERDAY, we heard the glorious news that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are final-ly engaged. After seven years and six kids, the gorgeous couple is taking the plunge despite their original vow to wait for marriage equality. “I’ve said that we would not be getting married until everyone in this coun-try had the right to get married,” Pitt told Ellen DeGeneres in Septem-ber. So, how is the gay community handling the engagement? Any hard feelings now that the two-some’s ready to say “I do”? Nope! Turns out, everyone is just as ex-cited about Brangelina’s engage-
ment as we are. Even Equality California, an LGBT advocacy orga-nization, publicly expressed their support for the union: “Marriage is special and unique,” Rebekah Orr, Communications Di-rector for Equality California told E! News. “Marriage says ‘we are a family’ in a way that no other word can. It ap-pears that even Brad and Angelina’s children understand the meaning of that special vow,” Orr said. “We would never want any committed couple to deny themselves and their families the happiness and se-curity that marriage brings.” Brad and Angie have worked hard to raise awareness for mar-riage equality, so it’s no surprise
the LGBT community is behind the couple’s “promise for the future.” Not only did Equality California give Hollywood’s hottest their blessing, but they also seem confident that the globe-trotting twosome will continue their fight for equality as husband and wife: “Brad and Angelina have clearly demonstrated that they are sup-porters of equality,” Orr explained. “Their marriage just provides one more opportunity to remind all of us why marriage matters to all lov-ing couples and why the exclusion of same-sex couples from the free-dom to marry is so hurtful to fami-lies.” Excellent point—we’re sure Brad and Angie would agree.
A4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 30 • APRIL 17, 2012EDGEDAVAOSTYLE
Wear what whereFOR staycations, here are the favorite pieces of INdulge! from edgy retail brand, Bauhaus, which is located at the second floor of Abreeza Mall.
Clockwise from top left:On Ken: scarf, shirt, and shorts, by Tough Jeans, bag by Twisted MindOn Patrick: woven shirt by Tough Jeans, shirt by Super Dry, and bag by 80/20On Bryan: woven shirt by Tough Jeans, short-sleeved polo by 80/20, pants by Tough Jeans, and bag by Super DryOn Lou: shirt by Super Dry, short-sleeved polo by Super Dry, shorts by Tough Jeans, and bag by Super Dry.All available at Bauhaus, 2F Abreeza Mall.
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 2012 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS
LOS ANGELES (AP) Sure, Pau Gasol and the Los Ange-
les Lakers are well aware a regular-season sweep means nothing compared to a playoff sweep.
The Lakers are still pleased they’re con-trolling this rivalry with theDallas Maver-icks heading to another postseason in which they just might meet again - and they even did it with-out Kobe Bryant.
Andrew Bynum had 23 points and 16 rebounds, Gasol made back-to-back 3-point-ers in overtime, and the Lakers won their fourth straight game without the NBA’s leading scorer, 112-108 over theDallas Mav-ericks on Sunday.
Ramon Sessions scored 22 points, and Ga-sol had 20 points and 10 rebounds as Los Ange-les rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit before finishing off a four-game season sweep of the de-fending champion Mav-ericks, who swept the two-time champion Lak-ers out of last season’s playoffs.
‘’This team elimi-nated us last year, and they’re the champs right now,’’ said Gasol, who buried his sixth and sev-enth 3-pointers of the season in OT. ‘’If we face them again, I don’t know
if this 4-0 in the regular season will be worth a whole lot. We’ll have to start over and make sure we play as hard as we’ve been playing lately.’’
Coach Mike Brown thought the Lakers put together a remarkable team effort in Bryant’s absence, with everybody on the floor in overtime contributing a key play. Matt Barnes’ cagey de-fense capped the OT ef-
fort against Jason Terry, who missed what should have been an easy tying layup with 5 seconds left.
With the Lakers hold-ing the No. 3 spot in the West playoff picture and the Mavs at No. 6, both teams realize they could meet again in two weeks. The Lakers boost-ed their lead over the Clippers atop the Pacific Division to 1 1/2 games with six to play. The Lak-ers also have the tiebreak-er edge on their next-door rivals.
‘’We’re excited about the playoffs, but we’re still going to have that bitter taste in our mouths until then,’’ Barnes said.
Barnes had 11 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and Los Angeles’ key de-fensive play, and Metta World Peace scored 18 points for the Lakers, who are 4-1 while Bryant rests his bruised shin. Bryant is still contributing to the Lakers by shouting out in-struction and encourage-ment from the bench, but his teammates are figur-ing out how to win when they can’t count on Kobe to take the big shot.
Dirk Nowitzki had 24 points on 9-of-28 shoot-ing and 14 rebounds for the Mavericks, whose three-game winning streak ended. Delonte West scored 20 points, and Terry had 21 before overthinking his drive and jamming a layup into the underside of the rim while trying to avoid Barnes’ defense.
Gasol added two free throws with 0.5 seconds left in the Lakers’ fifth straight regular-season win over Dallas.
Both teams had chances to win near the regulation buzzer, but Sessions missed an awk-ward shot with 1.5 sec-onds to play, and Now-itzki clanged a 3-point attempt off the back rim.
CLEVELAND (AP) Or-lando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy says
he’s preparing to play the rest of the regular season and playoffs without in-jured star Dwight Howard.
Howard will miss his fourth straight game with a back injury Sunday against the Cavaliers. He was diagnosed with a herniated disk last week. Howard will rest the in-jury for 10 days and then be re-evaluated.
Van Gundy said be-fore Sunday’s game that he would consider it a bonus if Howard or for-ward Hedo Turkoglu, who is sidelined with a facial fracture, return at some point this season. The playoffs begin April 28.
‘’We’re approaching it that the 13 (healthy) guys we have now are who we’re going to have the rest of the season and in the playoffs,’’ Van Gundy said.
Howard joined his teammates in Cleveland,
but a team spokesman said he would remain at the Magic’s hotel during the game. He will accom-pany the team back to Orlando, where the Magic host Philadelphia on Fri-day.
Orlando, which is sixth in the Eastern Con-ference, can clinch a play-off spot with a win Sunday. The Magic were 1-4 with-out their standout center going into the game.
Howard has missed six games overall with the injury. The team initially said he had back spasms. He hasn’t played since scoring 20 points and grabbing 22 rebounds on April 7 against Philadel-phia. Howard was diag-nosed with the herniated disk on Friday in Los An-geles.
Before this season, Howard had only missed two games in his career because of injury.
Howard is averaging 20.6 points and 14.5 re-bounds.
No Kobe, no problem
No Howard the rest of the way for MagicTAKEOFF. Barako Bull import Gabe Freeman breaks away
for a solo jam in Game 3 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup semis. The Bulls lead Talk N Text in the series.
Andrew Bynum (17) of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrates as the Lakers survived the defending champion Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers won in double overtime.
VOL.5 ISSUE 30• APRIL 17, 201216 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS
ELMER Bartolo was looking forward to another race he had
in mind and Judelyn Mi-randa was all focused on winning. The two were the big winners on Sun-day in the Vantage-Castrol Run With The Masters.
The gutsy Bartolo used the rolling terrain as his tune-up for an in-ternational race late this month and proved he is the master of this type of course in winning the premier 21-kilometer men’s title in a relatively paced 1 hour 17 minutes and 18 seconds.
Bartolo, gearing up for the Mt. Apo International Boulder Face Challenge where he will carry the colors of Vantage Sports, took over with five kilo-metres left and barely breasted ahead of Gilbert Maluyo who shadowed him all throughout in fin-ishing second in 1:17:21. Ronald Dagaang finished third in 1:25:13.
The race went through the rolling highway at Di-version Road Maa to Bu-hangin and Dacudao. The sloping course made the race extra challenging for the 1,300 runners who answered the gun start at the Davao Crocodile Park inside the vast Riverfront Corporate City.
In the distaff side, the veteran Miranda re-kindled the old firepower she is known for to win the 21-k women’s title by the skin of her teeth. Miranda strode with fa-voured Cynthia Jaro and Estela Mamac-Diaz be-fore making her move in the final 100 meters. She sprinted home a breath ahead of Diaz and Jaro in one hour, 48 minutes and 40 seconds.
Jaro, the recent win-ner of the Araw ng Davao Phoenix Marathon, fin-ished third in 1:48:44 while Diaz was second with 1:48:43 although the latter was officially declared winner of her age category (30-39). Jaro would be officially second in the women’s 18-29.
James Castillo and Monalisa Ambasa ruled the men’s and women’s 15-kilometer division while Sonny Wagdos and Criselyn Jaro topped the men’s and women’s 10-kilometer division.
Organized by Vantage Sports in celebration of its fourth anniversary, the Run With The Mas-ters was presented by Castrol Philippines with support from Ceelin, Unilab, and Adidas.
“We are happy with
the turnout. This is the first race we solely orga-nize and we are glad we made it with the help of our friends, sponsors and the running community of Davao,” said Vantage president Kenneth Sai.
The race was also ded-icated to the late sports-man Vic Sai, Kenneth’s father who was known in the sports community as an organizer, sports jour-nalist and leader.
Masterful winBartolo, Miranda top Vantage-Castrol RWTMBy Neil Bravo
RUN WITH THE MASTERS. (Top photo) Barefoot broth-ers Manuel and Bonifacio Vismanos, aged 65 and 62, respectively, are interviewed by race by this writer for the cable television coveror Mindanao Travel Channel Sports after they showed why they are the ‘real masters’ of local running. The barefoot-running brothers finished
1-2 in the 60-above category for the men’s 21-kilometer division. Lower photo shows women’s 30-39 champion Estela Mamac-Diaz (left) and men’s 21-K champion Elmer Bartolo receiving their prizes from Castrol Philip-pine country manager Mars Sota. (PHOTOS BY BIBOY NGOJO)
