P 15.00 • 20 PAGES www.edgedavao.net VOL. 8 ISSUE 26 • FRIDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 8 - 9, 2015 D AVAO City Mayor Rodri- go Duterte is consider- ing issuing firearms to personnel of the Traffic Man- agement Center (TMC) after a TMC personnel was gunned down on Monday night while on duty at McArthur Highway, Matina, Davao City. Duterte said the recent killing of TMC enforcer Ruel P. Siacor has given him the idea that traffic personnel should carry firearms. The mayor, however, ad- mitted that arming traffic en- forcers could scare the people. “Maybe this is the time to arm them. Ang problema baka umabuso naman (The prob- lem is they might become abu- sive),” he said. Siacor was directing traf- fic at McArthur Highway in Matina at around 7:50 p.m. on April 4, 2014 when two men on board a motorcycle shot him three times. Based on initial reports, the perpetrators were flagged down for driving without hel- met. They reacted violently, however, and shot Siacor. The mayor said he hopes the police will arrest Siacor’s killers. The Davao City Police Of- fice (DCPO) is now holding the cartographic sketch of the gunman who shot Siacor. DCPO spokesperson Se- nior Inspector MilgraceDriz on Wednesday said police are looking at personal grudge as motive for the killing “but we are still looking for other pos- sible angles.” Siacor was the second TMC man to be killed in recent years. In 2013, TMC enforcer Julan Gentapa was killed in To- ril while on duty. For his part, TMC head Su- perintendent Rhodelio Poliq- uit said he does not believe traffic enforcers should be armed. “Dili ko uyon nga armasan akong mga sakop kay pwede raman mag man og traffic nga walay armas. Basta maayo lang pag istorya ang tao wala may gubot mahitabo (I don’t EDGE Serving a seamless society DAVAO ARMS FOR TMC QUIET DAY FOR DAVAO Sports P16 FARMS, 10 Rody mulls arming traffic personnel after TMC man was gunned down INSIDE EDGE By FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA FIRST INDIVIDUAL GOLD. 12 year old Bernadeth Arabelle Elesterio shows her her gold medal in the 50m breaststroke which she won on Wednesday in swimming in the ongoing 2015 Palarong Pambansa held at the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex. She got her first silver on the first day of the competition last Tuesday and her second silver yesterday for the 50m and 100m medley relay respectively. She will be competing in the 100m breaststroke and 50m freestyle today. DavNor Photo
Transcript
P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 8 ISSUE 26 • FRIDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 8 - 9, 2015
DAVAO City Mayor Rodri-go Duterte is consider-ing issuing firearms to
personnel of the Traffic Man-agement Center (TMC) after a TMC personnel was gunned down on Monday night while on duty at McArthur Highway, Matina, Davao City.
Duterte said the recent killing of TMC enforcer Ruel P. Siacor has given him the idea that traffic personnel should carry firearms.
The mayor, however, ad-mitted that arming traffic en-
forcers could scare the people.“Maybe this is the time to
arm them. Ang problema baka umabuso naman (The prob-lem is they might become abu-sive),” he said.
Siacor was directing traf-fic at McArthur Highway in Matina at around 7:50 p.m. on April 4, 2014 when two men on board a motorcycle shot him three times.
Based on initial reports, the perpetrators were flagged down for driving without hel-met. They reacted violently,
however, and shot Siacor.The mayor said he hopes
the police will arrest Siacor’s killers.
The Davao City Police Of-fice (DCPO) is now holding the cartographic sketch of the gunman who shot Siacor.
DCPO spokesperson Se-nior Inspector MilgraceDriz on Wednesday said police are looking at personal grudge as motive for the killing “but we are still looking for other pos-sible angles.”
Siacor was the second
TMC man to be killed in recent years. In 2013, TMC enforcer Julan Gentapa was killed in To-ril while on duty.
For his part, TMC head Su-perintendent Rhodelio Poliq-uit said he does not believe traffic enforcers should be armed.
“Dili ko uyon nga armasan akong mga sakop kay pwede raman mag man og traffic nga walay armas. Basta maayo lang pag istorya ang tao wala may gubot mahitabo (I don’t
EDGE Serving a seamless society
DAVAO
ARMS FOR TMC
QUIET DAY FOR DAVAO Sports P16FARMS, 10
Rody mulls arming traffic personnel after TMC man was gunned downINSIDE EDGEBy FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA
FIRST INDIVIDUAL GOLD. 12 year old Bernadeth Arabelle Elesterio shows her her gold medal in the 50m breaststroke which she won on Wednesday in swimming in the ongoing 2015 Palarong Pambansa held at the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex. She got her first silver on the first day of the competition last Tuesday and her second silver yesterday for the 50m and 100m medley relay respectively. She will be competing in the 100m breaststroke and 50m freestyle today. DavNor Photo
THE Davao City govern-ment is facing restruc-turing as 10 different
departments and divisions recommended the creation of new plantilla positions.
“These are City Planning and Development Office, City Accountant’s Office, City Trea-surer’s Office, Sangguniang Panglungsod, City Assessor’s Office, City Budget Office, City Civil Registration Office, City Social Services and Develop-
ment Office, City Health Office and different divisions of the City Mayor’s Office (CMO),” Hu-man Resource Management Office (HRRMO) head Erwin Alparaque said in Thursday’s I-Speak Forum at City Hall.
Alparaque said different division under the Mayor’s office are also requesting for new personnel, including Davao City Treatment and Re-habilitation Center for Drug Dependents, City Records and
Archive Center, City Library, In-tegrated Gender Development Division, and the Permits and Licensing Division of the Busi-ness Bureau.
Alparaque said most of these departments and divi-sions lack personnel.
“The CHO, for instance, said that it needs more physi-cians, medical officers, nurses, and midwives that can provide services to our constituents in all 182 barangays, especially to
those far-flung areas that don’t have enough barangay health workers,” he added.
However, adding new po-sitions will follow the process based on the Civil Service Rules and Regulations and will depend on the availability of funding.
Alparaque said the pro-posal of the different depart-ments will be thoroughly stud-ied and evaluated by a review
MAYOR Rodrigo Duterte asked the New Peo-ple’s Army (NPA) to
retreat from Region 11 while the Palarong Pambansa is still going on in order not to scare the athletes.
This after four soldiers died while eight others, includ-ing a militiaman, were wound-ed in a firefight on Wednesday morning between the NPA under the Pulang Bagani Com-mand (PBC)-1 SMRC and the 69th Infantry Battalion in Sitio Islid, Barangay Dalagdag, Cali-nan District.
On Tuesday, an improvised
explosive device (IED) explod-ed in Davao Oriental. No ca-sualties from the government side were reported.
“I do not want the children to be scared... Retreat muna kayo, mamili kayo ng ibang lugar (pick another place),” Duterte said.
The mayor also said he does not want the children to go home with bad dreams.
Davao del Norte is hosting this year’s Palarong Pambansa, which runs from May 4 to 10.
In last month’s Region-al Peace and Order Council (RPOC) meeting which he
chairs, Duterte assured all par-ticipants that the there will be no disruption from the NPA during the entire event.
Duterte said he was “100 percent sure” the NPA would not create trouble during the event, adding he has coordi-nated with the NPA regarding the security of the partici-pants.
Duterte said the rebels are even welcome in Davao del Norte to watch the event.
The mayor is known to be in communication with the NPA and has even secured the release of several “prisoners of
war.”Duterte said if any trou-
ble arises during the Palarong Pambansa, “it will not come from the NPA.” He did not elab-orate, however.
He also said as RPOC chair, he can assure the safety of all participants and the entire Re-gion 11.
But while he said he ex-pects nothing bad to happen, he is “always prepared for anything.”
Over a thousand security forces are securing the en-tire Davao Region during the event.
MANILA-BASED Mega Harbour Port Devel-opment Corp. is plan-
ning to start the 200-hectare reclamation project stretching from Bucana to R. Castillo in January next year.
“This is if the company will be able to secure all nec-essary permits to proceed with the construction,” Davao City Investment Promotions Center chief Ivan C. Cortez told reporters at the sidelines of the I-Speak media Forum at the City Hall on Thursday.
Cortez said the port de-veloper is planning to pour an investment of P33 billion. The project will have a port oper-ation and industrial, commer-
cial, and government centers.“It will be three times the
capacity of a rehabilitated and expanded Sasa Port,” Cortez earlier said, adding that the city will have a chance to posi-tion itself as a transshipment hub in the region and the en-tire Mindanao.
“The company has already submitted its feasibility study,” he added.
Last January, the city’s Public-Private Partnership Board granted original propo-nent status to Mega Harbour Development Corp. for the de-velopment of project, which is accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority
HOUSE Committee on Labor Chair and Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei
Nograles said on Thursday there is no need to scrap the K to 12 law as long as this will be supplemented with legislation that can provide undergrad-uates the opportunity to be self-sufficient after finishing senior high school.
Nograles made this po-sition amid calls to stop the implementation of the K to 12 program as it will allegedly only make life even more diffi-
cult for parents who can hard-ly send their children to school and leave thousands of college of professors jobless because of absence of enrollees in the next two years.
Nograles said while there could be some basis for the concerns raised by those op-posed to the K to 12 program, the country is now in danger of losing its competitive edge in terms of producing skillful professionals because of an outdated educational system.
SKETCHES. A police officer from the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) holds the cartographic sketches of the suspects in the shooting death of City Transportation and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) enforcer Ruel P. Siacor last Monday in Matina. Lean Daval Jr.
draws, including its white sand beaches, cool moun-tain retreats, a bustling economy, and Mayor Ro-drigo Duterte.
This according to Davao City Investment Pro-motions Center (DCIPC) chief Ivan C. Cortez, who told reporters on Thurs-day that for the past three months, “we recorded at least three foreign inves-tors who would like to visit Davao City for possible in-vestment and at the same time meet the mayor.”
He said one of the rea-sons foreign investors con-tinue to see Davao City as a haven is the charismatic Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Cortez said the influx of foreign investors inquiring with DCIPC as well as the increasing number of for-eign tourists for the past three months has been
“unusual.”He attributed this to
the desire of foreigners to meet the next president of the Philippines – a ref-erence to the widely held view that Duterte is go-ing to run for President in 2016.
Duterte, however, has consistently said he is not interested to run because of budgetary constraint, health problem, and a lack of enthusiasm.
However, recent survey results showed that Dute-rte is starting to gain the attention of the voters.
In the latest Social Weather Survey (SWS) survey result, Duterte shot up and now ranks third in the list of possible presi-dential candidates.
In the March 2015 SWS survey on the three best leaders to succeed PNoy in 2016, Duterte got 15 percent of the total 1,200 respondents nationwide.
Duterte is one of Davao City’sinvestment, tourism attractions
SATELLITE. City Transportation and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) chief Rhodelio V. Poliquit (right) says the agency needs to put up satellite offices in Toril, Panacan, and Tibungco so it could fully implement the three
Es – education, engineering, and enforcement – to motorists. Poliquit and City Library OIC Pedrita M. Badar (left) were guests in yesterday’s I-Speak me-dia forum at City Hall. Lean Daval Jr.
This was a 10 percent in-crease from the December 2014 survey in which he
only got five percent.Duterte is now tied
with Department of In-
terior Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Rox-as, who could be the stan-
dard bearer of Liberal Par-ty in the 2016 presidential election.
THIS week, Abreeza Mall kicks off Mompower-ment May, a month-long
campaign that aims to cele-brate and empower all the moms who make great things happen for themselves and their families in various ways.
As a toast to moms who make a living on their own terms, Abreeza Mall’s Mom-powerment May brings you the second year of the MOM-preneur Fair, happening from May 7 to 10 at the Activity Center. Here, shoppers are treated to a fantastic selection of products proudly made by Davao City’s enterprising moms, among them baby items, organic treats, food and desserts, bags and accessories, crafts and home décor, give-aways and novelty items, and assorted services.
On May 8, 4pm at the Ac-tivity Center, TV personality, book author, and mom Aman-da Griffin-Jacob signs copies of Project Mom: Our Natural Approach to Motherhood, a book she co-wrote with fellow
celebrity mom Bianca Arane-ta-Elizalde. Through Project Mom, Amanda and Bianca seek to guide mothers going through pregnancy up to their baby’s first birthday.
One of the advocacies Abreeza Mall aims to promote through Mompowerment May is breastfeeding, so it teams up with LATCH Davao, the local counterpart of the Manila-based non-profit or-ganization LATCH (Lactation, Attachment, Training, Coun-seling, Help), to bring you Mommy Talk from May 9 to 10 at the Activity Center. Here, mothers will learn from the members of LATCH Davao as they impart the best ways to nurse and care for babies. Fur-thermore, LATCH Davao is set to educate everyone about the Milk Code and inspire them to choose breastmilk through the Yes to Breastfeeding! Pho-to Exhibit from May 15 to 31 at the 2nd Floor Hallway. Mall-goers will be moved by beautiful photos of LATCH
NO ID, NO ENTRY. Identification cards owned by visitors are displayed at the entrance of the Davao City Police Office yesterday. People are required to leave their IDs before they are allowed to enter the premises of the police headquarters. Lean Daval Jr.
THE Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that Con-gress will pass will not
be less than the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that it seeks to re-place, officials of the House of Representatives assured a del-egation of peace advocates led by Mindanao’s lone Cardinal, Orlando Quevedo.
“One thing is sure, it will be very hard to have a BBL that has less powers than the ARMM,” Lanao del Sur Rep. Pangalian Balindong, Deputy Speaker for Mindanao, said during a 75-minute dialogue at the Speaker’s office on Monday afternoon. Belmonte and other officials nodded.
The government and MILF
peace panels had agreed in 2012 that “the status quo is unacceptable” and that they would work for the establish-ment of a new autonomous po-litical entity that would replace the ARMM.
MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim and MILF peace pan-el chair Mohagher Iqbal had repeatedly said that what the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) pro-vides and what the BBL has articulated in its provisions is a future Bangsamoro govern-ment that would be “less than independence but more than the ARMM.”
Concerns have been raised over proposed amendments to the draft BBL that the 75-mem-
ber Ad Hoc Committee on the BBL will introduce as what will come out may be a “mangled” BBL or a “watered down” BBL that will make the future Bang-samoro less autonomous than the present ARMM.
Constitution, Compre-hensive Agreement
According to Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong, chair of the House Committee on Muslim Affairs and a former com-mander of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), in pushing for the BBL, “we are guided by this CAB and above all, by the Constitution. “
“If there is something in the CAB that is contrary to the Constitution. let us find a language that will conform to
the two – the Constitution and the CAB,” Loong said, adding “there is no BBL without this (peace) agreement.”
“We are just acting on the basis of what has been agreed by the executive branch of government and the MILF. So as co-equal branch of govern-ment, we belong to the legisla-tive branch, that is our job now, to put everything in order,” he said.
Belmonte said what both-ers him is how the “common man” understands the BBL.
He said some “might think that when somebody is ques-tioning the constitutionality or what to do this way or that way, they might think that one,
THE provincial govern-ment of South Cotabato has set aside its plan to
declare the area under the state of calamity with the on-set of the rains in the area.
South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance Fuentes said Thurs-day the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Manage-ment Council (PDRRMC) has decided to scrap the calamity declaration as the areas that were hit by the dry spell have started to recover as a result of the almost daily rains since last week.
“The situation in our farm areas have been improving so I think there’s no need for us to issue a calamity declara-
tion,” she said.But the governor, who
chairs the PDRRMC, said the local government will still as-sist farmers and farm labor-ers who were directly affect-ed by the long dry spell.
She said the delivery of the assistance, which com-prise seed subsidies and input grants, are now under-way.
“As of this time, our local budget could still provide for the needs of our affected sec-tors,” Fuentes said.
The city government of Koronadal and the municipal governments of Suralah and Tboli have already placed their areas under the state
of calamity due to the effects of the dry spell, which was triggered by the mild El Nino Phenomenon.
Mila Lorca, acting PDRRM Office chief, said the dry spell has so far destroyed a total of PHP210.87 million worth of agricultural crops within the province’s 10 towns and lone city.
She said the province’s corn areas posted the biggest damage at PHP172.1 mil-lion followed by palay with PHP34.8 million.
About 1.36 metric tons of projected fish catch valued at PHP577,813 had been lost due to the dry weather, she said.
Lorca said the province’s livestock and poultry sector recorded a production loss of around PHP3.4 million due to the effects of the dry spell.
The official said they are currently working on the re-alignment of around PHP4.5 million from the province’s Local DRRM Fund to facilitate the purchase of the needed seeds and farm inputs.
She specifically cited pa-lay and corn seeds, fertilizers and vital farm implements.
Aside from the seed and input subsidies, Gov. Fuentes ordered the PDRRMC to look into the plight of farm labor-ers and extend immediate as-sistance to them. (PNA)
Solons tell peace advocates:BBL won’t be less than ARMM
Abreeza Mall celebrates Mompowerment May
SoCot scraps calamity declaration for dry spellFHOUSE, 10
FABREEZA, 10
LATCH Davao member Alexandria Hao, pictured here with her children, advocates breastfeeding.
DAVAO City Investment Promotions Center (DCIPC) chief Ivan
C. Cortez yesterday said the city’s services and property development sector contin-ues to thrive as reflected by the increasing number of in-vestors in these sectors for the first quarter of the year.
“There’s a growing de-mand for housing in Davao City because of the growing demand from the city’s grow-ing population,” Cortez said during the I-Speak media fo-
rum at City Hall yesterday. Cortez said his office has
received applications from real estate companies and agribusiness companies.
He said the agribusiness sector also posted positive growth in the first quarter of the year because of the grow-ing demand for high value crops like corn, banana, coco-nut, and cacao.
The peace and order and the leadership of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte continued to attract both lo-
cal and foreign investors, he added.
Cortez said the city’s growing population, which has reached almost 1.5 mil-lion, created a ripple effect and is fueling other industries like the services sector.
“If you look at the south-ern and northern part of the city there are a lot of settlers compared before. I’m really surprised to see a lot of resi-dents in the Cabantian area during my event visit,” he said.
Cortez said township
projects in different parts of the city helped the city gov-ernment in bringing soft in-frastructure like power and water supply in areas far from the downtown area.
He said real estate com-panies continue to enter Davao City even though there are already a lot of ongoing housing development proj-ects in different parts of the city.
Cortez said this growth will continue in the next three years.
EIGHT Filipino firms have been included in Forbes’ list of the top 2,000 list-
ed companies for 2015.According to Forbes’ 2000
Biggest Public Companies for 2015, Sy-led SM Investments Corporation seized the spot of 911 with a market cap of US$16.7 billion.
The 164 year-old Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) got the 1,243rd rank. It has a stock offer limit of US$9.1 bil-lion.
The third highest Filipino firm in the list is Philippine Long-Distance Telephone (PLDT), having landed the 1,259th place. It has a market cap of US$14.2 billion.
With a stock offer limit of US$7.1 billion, Metropolitan Bank and Trust gained the 1,297th spot.
Ayala Corporation bagged the 1,344th rank, with a mar-ket cap of US$11.2 billion.
At the 1,525th spot is Gokongwei-led JG Summit
Holdings Inc., which has a stock offer limit of US$11.9 billion.
It was followed by Ang-led Top Frontier Investment Hold-ings at the rank of 1,792. The company has a market cap of US$763 million.
The last Filipino firm on the list is distribution-utili-ty Manila Electric Company (Meralco), having grabbed the 1,808th spot. It has a stock of-fer limit of US$6.8 billion.
Last year, 10 Filipino com-panies made the top Global 2000 list.
Forbes Global 2000 is the list of the world’s largest, most powerful public companies, based on revenues, profits, as-sets and market value.
The 2015 list recogniz-es 2,000 companies from 61 countries, which have a com-bined revenue of US$39 tril-lion, profits of US$3 trillion, assets worth US$162 million, and a market value of US$48 trillion. (PNA)
THE Asia-Pacific Eco-nomic Cooperation (APEC) first Ministers
Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting which will be hosted by the Philippines in Boracay, Aklan from May 23 to 24 will focus on easing trade in the region in order for micro, small and medium enterprises (MS-MEs) to directly participate in the global trade.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecre-tary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr., in a pre-MRT Meeting briefing on Thursday, enumerated the three focuses that will be dis-cussed by APEC’s trade minis-ters during the meeting which include support in the multilat-eral system, regional economic integration, and MSMEs.
Cristobal, who will be the country’s trade minister as DTI Secretary Gregory L. Domin-go will chair the whole MRT Meeting, said the discussion on promoting multilateral trade
system will be in line with the activities of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which is celebrating its 20th year and will be holding its 10th Min-isterial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2015.
He mentioned that APEC has invited WTO Director Gen-eral Roberto Azevêdo to speak in the MRT Meeting to give up-dates on the Bali package and the preparation for the Minis-terial Conference.
On regional economic in-tegration, the 21 APEC econo-mies will continue talks on col-lective strategic study on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pa-cific (FTAAP) which is initiated by China when it hosted the APEC 2014 meetings.
During the MRT Meet-ing, trade ministers target to come up with terms of refer-ence for the collective strate-gic study on FTAAP that will be endorsed during the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting
(AELM) in November 2015.The study is expected to
be completed by next year’s AELM.
Moreover, the meeting will also have an assessment on implementation of leaders’ commitment that was forged in the 2012 APEC meeting in Russia, Cristobal said.
He added that APEC econ-omies committed to reduce by 5.0 percent or below the tariffs of 54 environmental goods. Mostly, these are parts of machines or equipment that preserved the environment, including parts of solar panels or cells, parts of gas turbines, machinery for liquefying air or other gases, among others.
He mentioned that the Philippines has already 51 items out of the 54 environ-mental goods that are now down to 5.0-percent duty.
Moreover, consistent to the APEC’s theme of “Building Inclusive Economies, Build-
ing a Better World” and the Aquino administration’s push for inclusive growth, the MRT Meeting will discuss how trading system will be more MSME-friendly in order for the sector to participate to the global trade.
The Philippines will also push for the APEC MSME Ac-tion Agenda, according to the DTI official.
“The APEC Action Agenda on Growing Global SMEs calls for economic cooperation in APEC for inclusive growth through fostering participation of SMEs and MEs in regional and global markets. Emphasis will be on initiatives that are geared on the development and integration of micro, small or artisanal enterprises into the trading system,” he said.
In the Asia-Pacific, 96 percent of businesses in the region are SMEs while employ-ing more than 60 percent of its
SECURITY Bank Corpora-tion earned P3.36 billion in net income in the first
quarter of 2015, represent-ing 135 percent year-on-year growth resulting in a 28 per-cent return on shareholders’ equity (ROE).
Security Bank posted healthy growth in core busi-ness, with loan growth of 20 percent year-on-year to P199 billion and deposit growth of 17 percent year-on-year to P247 billion. The loan-to-de-posit ratio was 81 percent. To-tal assets were at P409 billion as of March 31, 2015, 8 percent increase from year-ago. The return on assets (ROA) was 3.3 percent.
Interest income increased by 15 percent year-on-year and 8 percent quarter-on-quarter. Interest expense increased by 47 percent year-on-year and 11 percent quarter-on-quar-ter, reflecting the expected ef-fect of the P10 billion Basel III compliant Tier 2 capital issued in July 2014 and the USD 300 million senior unsecured notes issued in January 2015. As a re-sult, net interest income grew by 4 percent year-on-year and 7 percent quarter-on-quarter to P2.9 billion. Net interest margin was 3.3 percent for the period, same level as in Q4-2014 and versus the 3.4 per-cent average in 2014.
Non-interest income in-creased more than three times year-on-year to P3.4 billion, which included extraordinary trading gain of P2.1 billion
from sale of investment secu-rities. Excluding extraordinary trading gain, non-interest income was P1.4 billion, 72 percent increase year-on-year. Fee-based income inclusive of asset management posted 20 percent growth year-on year to P482 million.
Core revenues – compris-ing of net interest income, fee-based income, and trading gain attributable to customer flows – grew by 9 percent year-on-year to P3.6 billion.
Security Bank’s total op-erating income increased by 77 percent year-on-year and 96 percent quarter-on-quar-ter to P6.3 billion. Operating cost (excluding provisions for credit losses and impair-ments) grew by 46 percent year-on-year and 14 percent quarter-on-quarter due to tax-es and licenses and intensified advertising and marketing expenses. The cost-to-income ratio was 40 percent. Pre-pro-vision-and-pre-impairment income was at P3.8 billion, 107 percent increase from year-ago level. Provision for prob-able credit losses was P188 million in Q1-2015.
Asset quality remained healthy, with the net non-per-forming loan (NPL) ratio at 0.08 percent in Q1-2015, which is among the lowest in the banking industry. NPL reserve cover was at 198 per-cent, which is among the high-est in the industry.
“We thank our customers
Services, property dev’tcontinue to thrive in Davao
HAND IN HAND. Farmers in Barangay Candiis, Magsaysay town in Misamis Oriental help each other out prepare coconuts for processing on Monday (4 May 2015). MindaNews photo by Erwin Mascarinas
Filipino favorites return to Waterfront’s La Parilla
NOTHING beats dining out with the sea breeze blowing on your face and the smell of freshly grilled meat and seafood on your table. The salt in the wind as well as the smoke wafting from the grill create a per-fect seaside venue that is called the La Parilla. Recently reopened, the La Parilla is the al fresco dining area of the Water-front Insular Hotel which specialises in everything fresh off the embers and its reopening also marks the return of all-time favourite Filipino comfort food such as Grilled Chicken Inasal-style, as well as Grilled Ti-ger Prawns. Adding to the excitement is Waterfront Insular Hotel’s new execu-tive chef, Victor Barangan, who came up with a new specialty for the La Parilla. Called the Senuelo or “lure” in English, the dish is inspired by the Brazilian Churrasco with various meats as well as seafood skewered and served dan-gling on a custom-made metal hanger. With enough portions of meat hanging on the table plus a com-plimentary family portion of Java Rice, the Senuelo is sure to be a hit for groups of friends who want a differ-ent dining experience.Bibingka with salted egg.
Serving the Senuelo.
Executive Chef for Davao, Victor Barangan, and the recently appointed Corporate Executive Chef, Marinus Berend Sievert Mulder.
Waterfront Insular Davao’s OIC for Hotel Operations, Bryan Lasala & the MarCom ladies, Jessica Romero and Jessica Segura.
Grilled tiger prawns.
The evening was capped by various Filipino desserts such as Sticky Rice-filled Turon, Flan-topped Puto, a trio of sweet Pastillas, and my favourite, the Bibingka with Salted Egg. Many thanks to the Waterfront Insular Hotel team for the wonderfully filling eve-ning. Follow me on Instagram or on Twitter at @kenneth-kingong for more travel stories, foodie finds, and happenings in, around, and beyond Durianburg.
YEAR 2015 for MX3 has been another year of thanksgiving and celebration. The re-cently concluded awarding ceremony last April 19, 2015 at the Bayfront Hotel, Cebu City of the Business Achievement Recogni-tion Awards (BARA) Council afforded MX3 as the National Herbal Dietary Supplement in 2015. The honor and recognition was heralded by the City Mayor, Michael Rama who inspired and saluted the other Honor-ees and Awardees of the Awards Night not only with words of acclamation but with his song that inspired and entertained the audiences. Truly, it was an evening of affir-mation and declaration.
Back-to-schoolstyle at theSM STORE
IT’S the hottest back to school season ever! SM Accessories makes sure you’re all set with our complete line of school finds at your nearest SM Store. From Children’s Accessories to Character Shop, SM Accessories is your one-stop destina-tion for school essentials.
MX3 awarded as National Herbal Dietary Supplement of the Year
Get the best socks at the best prices whether for school or play. Bringing lunch to school? How about lunch kits ranging from cute and function-al to playful and heavy-duty? Don’t forget about those towels and han-kies that come in all sorts of prints and textures you can choose from! We all know how much these are prone to getting lost, so why not get a dozen of these enough for the entire schoolyear? And how about school
bags? We have a school bag for every requirement and budget at SM Ac-cessories! With lots of alternatives to the usual boring designs you see around, your kids would definitely look for-ward to another year of fun with SM Accessories! Don’t forget to like us at SM Accessories and SM Accessories Kids on Facebook and follow us at @smaccessories on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to learn more!
UP AND ABOUT
ny our goal is to address wellness and supple-ments healthneeds for every individual. Also, we congratulate the same to the BARA Council for such noble undertaking of inces-santly inspiring and mo-tivating the country’s business toward excel-lence and competitive-ness. With your continu-ing trust and support, we will be achieving greater heights of suc-cess. Thank you and keep up the good! DMI-MX3 Company will continue to uphold whatever is true, what-ever is worthy of com-mendation and what-ever is of significance to the end-users.
The BARA Council is a prestigious award giving body founded in 2009. The intention of recognizing and hon-oring Business Com-panies that outrivaled in their product Lines and put premium in
Customer Service has impacted and upraised the quality of busi-nesses in the country paving the way to the global market. Its aim is not only to make peo-ple aware of companies that are performing
well, but also aspires to encourage companies to continue to strive for competitiveness in their products and ser-vices; quality company reputation, ability to deliver the promise of the product and servic-
es; excellent customer service; and be the best among our countries top businesses. The DMI Medical Supply Co., Inc. with its MX3 Products would like to share its honor to all those users who
made it possible for us to achieve such recog-nition and honor. Our desire and prayers that MX3 as Herbal Dietary Supplement will main-tain its integrity as one of the best Food Sup-plements. As a Compa-
Charo Santos-Concio named one of most influential female industry personalities by Adobo Magazine
Idol sa Kusina takes care of I Love You, Mom recipes this Sunday
GMA Network is one at heart with thousands of proud and excited Kapusong Ilocanos in celebrating a his-toric milestone last Thursday, May 7, as Ilocos Sur capi-tal Vigan City of-ficially becomes part of the New Seven Wonder Cit-ies (N7WC). Through an inau-guration ceremony to be held at the St. Paul Cathedral grounds at 7:00pm, the Heritage City of Vigan formally earns a new distinction following its proclama-tion as one of the seven most incredible cities of the world last December 2014. Among the Kapuso celebrities who graced the occasion were Ben-jamin Alves and Lauren Young as event hosts, together with Soul Diva Jaya and Fearless Diva Jonalyn Viray as special guest performers. The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the top musical ensembles in the Asia-Pacific re-gion, will also be pres-
ent to provide a classic touch to the affair. A plaque of apprecia-tion was also awarded to GMA Network for mounting a success-ful inter-regional pro-motional campaign in support of the city’s bid to the coveted title last year. Receiving the award on behalf of GMA Network is AVP and Head of Regional Strat-egy and Business De-velopment Division Oli Amoroso. “We, from the Net-work, are proud to have been given the oppor-tunity to partner with the local government of Vigan for the N7WC
ABS-CBN president and CEO Charo San-tos-Concio has been chosen by Adobo magazine as one of “the most influential female industry per-sonalities” in the Phil-ippines and across the region. In its 9th anniversary is-sue, Adobo magazine pub-lished its first-ever “Wom-en of Influence,” where Santos-Concio was listed as among the 20 “fine, fresh, fierce” women ex-ecutives and personalities. “I am extremely thankful to have the chance to lead a company whose core is to provide service. In the words of Kapitan (former ABS-CBN chairman emeri-tus Eugenio Lopez, Jr.): It is an opportunity to render public service without be-ing in public office,” she told Adobo magazine. “ABS-CBN is in business to serve our public. Impec-cable service is our corpo-rate philosophy. It may be altered, dimensionalized and expressed in varying consumer-oriented com-munications executions, but it must remain orient-ed towards the very public
that supports and sustains us,” she added. As the first female presi-dent of the largest media conglomerate in the coun-try, she considers “sustain-ing the corporate growth and leadership momen-tum that ABS-CBN chair-man Eugenio Lopez III has started, and continuing to create world-class content that can be applied in vari-ous platforms” her mission. When Adobo asked Santos-Concio what expe-rience has helped shape her into the woman she is today, she cited civil rights activist Harriet Tub-man, who said: “Every
great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remem-ber, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” In 2014, Santos-Concio bagged three international honors for her outstand-ing leadership and accom-plishments as the presi-dent and CEO of ABS-CBN. She won the Gold Stevie Award in the Female Ex-ecutive of the Year in Asia, Australia, or New Zealand category at the prestigious Stevie Awards for Women in Business; the Gold Ste-vie Award for the Woman
of the Year category for all Asia-Pacific nations (except Australia and South Korea) at the 2014 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards; and was named Asian Media Wom-an of the Year by Conten-tAsia, a premier informa-tion resource that covers the entertainment media industry across Asia-Pacific region. Santos-Concio, who completed an Advanced Management Program at the Harvard University, was appointed CEO in Janu-ary 2013. Prior to this, she was ABS-CBN’s president and chief operating officer since 2008. She was previ-ously the head of Channel 2 Mega Manila Manage-ment. Onscreen, she hosts ABS-CBN’s longest-run-ning drama anthology “Maalaala Mo Kaya.” She began her career in ABS-CBN as a television pro-duction consultant in 1987 after working as a line producer for BanCom, Au-diovision, Vanguard Films, Regal Films, and Vision Ex-ponents. She also worked as a film production man-ager for the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines.
NOTHING SAYS “I Love You, Mom” better than delicious home-made dishes made es-pecially for Mothers’ Day. This Sunday, Chef Boy Logro and Bettinna Carlos share recipes that will make this joyous occasion extra spe-cial! Surprise mom and take over the kitchen to prepare a delightful menu made up of Adobong Baby Squid sa Gata, Creamy Pinakbet with Bagnet and a special family dish called Florentina’s Ginataang Boneless Bangus. Wait for her sweet smile of approval with Bettinna’s yummy Yoghurt Fruit Pops for dessert! Bettinna gets a treat of her own as her cute daugh-ter Gummy comes over to greet her on this special day. Also joining in on the fun is Kapuso premier ac-tress Lovi Poe! Be sure not to miss another night of great food in this week’s serving of Idol sa Kusina airing on Sun-day, May 10, 7:15 PM only on GMA News TV.
campaign. We are so honored because all our hard work paid off. The recognition we are about to receive from the people of Vigan will surely serve as a re-minder of the fruitful re-lationship we have with them,” says Amoroso. “Without question, Vi-gan is definitely one of the world’s most beauti-ful cities,” he adds. Also gracing the inau-guration ceremony are Hon. Eva Marie Singson-Medina, Mayor of the City of Vigan and Mr. Bernard Weber, Presi-dent and Founder of the New 7 Wonders Founda-tion.
The New 7 Wonders Foundation is the same institution that named the underground river in Puerto Princesa City as one of the New 7 Won-ders of Nature. The oth-er winning cities for the N7WC include Beirut in London, Doha in Qatar, Durban in South Africa, Havana in Cuba, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and La Paz in Bolivia. For more details, fol-low GMA Regional TV on Twitter and Instagram via @GMARegionalTV. The Network’s official hash tags for this event are #ViganNew7Won-derCity and #Kapu-soStarsInVigan.
SUMMER 2015 embraces us with a tropi-cal heat tickling our flipper feet for a step in the perfect beach getaway. To take a dip and chow with the family and barkada have be-come an all-time Filipino summer bucket-list. As one of the country’s iconic beaches, Pearl Farm Beach Resort promises a sum-mer retreat for all. It has once again celebrat-ed its annual Summer Fun Party, dubbed as the Colors of Summer Party, last May 2. The Colors of Summer Party was opened through a beer toast from DOT Regional Director Roberto Ala-bado, General Manager Josu Mikel Villaverde and Sales Manager Kathy Dizon. Hosted by Kapamilya Claudette Centeno, the party featured Davao icons with a bikini collection from Ross Sevilla, tribal dances from Tribu K’Mindanaoan, live music from Davao Music Author-ity, and party music from DJ Torch Gacuma.
Pearl Farm Beach Resort celebrates Colors of Summer
Psoriasis and what you can do about itBy HENRYLITO D. TACIO
TONY is a sales and marketing director of a big multination-
al company. And yet people shun him like a plague. The reason: he has a severe case of psoriasis. “When I would offer a handshake, they would look at my hands instead of extending their hands,” he was quoted as saying.
People avoid having in contact with him because they thought they would get the disease. But a der-matologist assures people who get in contact with Tony: “Psoriasis is not con-tagious.”
The doctor is 100-per-cent sure because she is also diagnosed of having the disease some years back. In the Philippines, there are about 170 million individu-als with psoriasis but most of them are in hiding, espe-cially if the disease is active, because of shame and emo-tional distress.
Psoriasis comes from the Greek word psora, which means “itch.” It was believed to be first used by Aurelius Cornelius Cel-sus, and the term was also applied by Hippocrates to describe scaly facial and genital eruptions more than 2,000 years ago. However, it took hundreds of years be-fore an Englishman, Robert Willan, described psoriasis accurately in the 18th cen-tury.
Some medical experts consider psoriasis as a disease “in which the skin cells run amok.” Normally, skin renews itself in about 30 days – that’s the time it takes for a new skin cell to work its way from the inner-most layer of the skin to the surface. In psoriasis, that cell reaches the top in just three days, as if the body had lost its brakes.
The result is raised ar-eas of skin called plaques, which are red and often itchy. After the cells reach the surface, they die like normal cells, but there are so many of them the raised patches turn white with dead cells flaking off.
“(Psoriasis) usually starts as one or more small patches on the scalp, el-bows, knees, back, or but-tocks,” notes The Merck Manual of Medical Informa-tion. “The first patches may clear up after a few months or remain, sometimes grow-ing together to form larger patches. Some people never have more than one or two small patches, and others have patches covering large areas of the body.”
EDGEDAVAO
HEALTH
Thick patches or patch-es on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, or skinfolds of the genitals are more likely to itch or hurt, but many times the person has no symptoms. “Although the patches do not cause ex-treme physical discomfort, they are very obvious and often embarrassing to the person,” the Merck manual informs.
Psoriasis persists throughout life but may come and go. “Symptoms are often diminished during the summer when the skin is exposed to bright sun-light,” the Merck manual points out. “Some people may go for years between occurrences. Psoriasis may flare up for no apparent rea-son or as a result of a variety of circumstances.”
Flare-ups often result from conditions that irritate the skin, such as minor in-juries and severe sunburn. Sometimes, flare-ups follow infections, such as colds and strep throat. Flare-ups are more common during cold-er months and after stress-ful situations.
“Psoriasis has always been on the list of the top 20 diseases in the country,” says Dr. Francisca de la Cruz-Roa, one of the country’s leading dermatologists. “It often appears in the late teens to adulthood. It rarely occurs in children.”
A recent study led by Dr. Joel M. Gelfand of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Phil-adelphia shows that people with severe forms of psori-asis are more likely to die of heart-related causes and stroke than those without the condition. The genes that make people suscepti-ble to psoriasis are linked to heart disease, and the type of inflammation associated with heart- and stroke-re-lated disease is very similar to that involved in psoriasis, says a Reuters Health re-port.
Despite medical ad-vancement, no one knows what causes the disease. “Psoriasis is a disease that continues to baffle medical science,” says Dr Joyce Lim, a visiting consultant derma-tologist at the National Skin Centre in Singapore.
Until now, there is no known cure for psoriasis. However, there are many things you can do about it. But the hitch is, what works for someone else may not work you. So, you have to keep on experimenting. Here are some strategies from the experts:
Accept your situation. Since you have it already, try to focus your attention on how to manage the dis-ease and prevent it from getting serious. “If you have a positive attitude towards your skin problem, you will be able to handle it better,” says Dr Tham Siew Nee, a consultant dermatologist at Gleneagles Medical Center in Singapore.
Apply emollients. Peo-ple with psoriasis tend to have dry scaly patches. As such, emollients top every dermatologist’s list of over-the-counter treatments. “Repeated studies have shown that with the appli-cation of emollients alone, up to about a third of the psoriasis patients improved in their skin condition,” ex-plains Dr Tham. “Emollients improve the integrity of the skin and soothe irritated and inflamed skin.”
Spice up your body. Of-tentimes, people with psori-asis takes a bath more than once using warm water. Un-fortunately, this leaves their skin drier than ever. Apply bath oil in the tub to “mois-ture and sooth the skin,” says Dr Tham. “Oatmeal bath is also soothing.”
Soak up the sun. Many patients with psoriasis are advised to undergo specific ultraviolet light treatments. While experts recommend a special lamp or tanning booth, you can play under the heat of the sun. “Howev-er, the intensity of the heat varies from day to day and from time to time,” reminds Dr Tham.
Get help from your kitchen. Feeling itchy, look no farther. Go to your kitch-en and dissolve that baking soda. Apply it in itchy areas. “Baking soda has an anti-in-flammatory effect and also helps get rid itch,” says Dr Lim.
Don’t go on binge. “Those with severe psoria-sis may need to take tablets, some of which are potential-ly toxic to the liver,” explains Dr Tham. “We usually dis-courage them from drinking to keep their liver healthy.”
Cover the cracks with cream. If your skin is cracked because of psori-asis, use cream. “Apply the recommended creams reg-ularly to keep the condi-tion under control,” says Dr Tham.
Avoid injuring the skin. “Do not scratch the skin to avoid injuries,” advises Dr Tham. “In some people with psoriasis, injury to the skin can aggravate psoriasis.”
Don’t worry; be happy.
Psoriasis has been observed to flare up when a person is under some form of stress. “Avoid stress – both physi-cal and mental,” advises Dr Lim.
“Since there is no cure for psoriasis, people have
to manage their disease during their lifetime. It is a major challenge to find a treatment that works, has a favorable track record for safety and can be easily in-tegrated into a patient’s life. Because of its convenience
and ease of administration, it may provide patients with a sense of control over their disease,” said Dr. Gail Zimmerman, president of the Portland-based Nation-al Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) in the United States.
THERE’S a lot of furor after the much ballyhooed “Fight of the Century” which turned out to be a dud of a fight.
Our sports hero Manny Pacquiao lost clear and clean to a boxing scientist named Floyd Mayweather. Love him or hate him, Mayweather did just what the sweet sci-ence of boxing requires--win the most number of rounds as possible. Manny Pacquiao did not do as expected as he came just short of winning.
Now, the question most of us are staring in the eye is this: Are we robbed?
Most of those who watched whether dyed-in-the-wool boxing fans or just plain housewives felt shortchanged af-ter the fight. All the more when Manny Pacquiao announced that he had an injury that he kept silent from the world.
The revelation, if Manny wished to use it as an alibi, did not work to bail him out of the defeat. Instead, it only em-
boirled him in deeper trouble as fans now felt they were shortchanged for the non-disclosure. Some of those who lost bets also are raising hell becuase they felt they did not get a fair deal from the fight.
Was it Manny’s fault not to have revealed the injury? Manny said he owed it to the fans and he did not want to disappoint them by not showing up or asking for a post-ponement. But Manny also owed the fans the real deal--his condition before the fight. He could not have pretended he was okay. He could not have told people in his statements to keep calm because he was the one fighting. He could not have made selfies all the way to the ring on the grand walk to the ring. He made people believe he was 100 percent fit to fight when he was not.
It’s like a ship that is not seaworthy and the captain makes his passengers believe the vessel is fit to sail.
Columnists: MA. TERESA L. UNGSON • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • AURELIO A. PEÑA • ZHAUN ORTEGA • BERNADETTE “ADDIE” B. BORBON • MARY ANN “ADI” C. QUISIDO • LEANDRO B. DAVAL SR., • NIKKI GOTIANSE-TAN • NICASIO ANGELO AGUSTIN • EMILY ZEN CHUA • CARLOS MUNDA Economic Analyst: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG • JONALLIER M. PEREZ
OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager
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WITH the onset of peace and cooperation occasioned by the Bangsamoro Basic Law’s passage, there’s a lot of multi-
tasking to be done, implementing measures to be made, monitoring of developments, and the like.
No less than the total mobilization of Mindanao society is needed to pursue the agenda of peace and development, on all levels, with all sectors, in all corners.
All eyes and all hands should now be on the present and its onward march to the future; no dilly-dallying or wasting time on what essentially belong to the past.
Much better to focus on what the future needs and what need to be done at present so that nothing will delay the future’s arrival. And, please, no more killing and hurting… or arming!
*****To whomever it may concern: rather than
invest on weapons and killing machines, it is so much more rewarding and life-affirming to invest in life-giving, life-enhancing programs and implements.
Inveterate warriors should now moderate the urge to battle. Would they turn their swords into plowshares? Gun owners who are fascinated by killing machines and “kill-ratios” should change gears now and wake to the realization that there has to be an end to anger, hate, death-dealing, and destruction.
Too many killings and killing machines cheapen life in our society. Rather than enrich and ennoble life, they demean it.
Obsessive attachment to weaponry is unnatural and destructive. Brandishing weapons is menacing and cruel. Except in rare cases, as in self-defense, weapons terrorize people and diminish their dignity. A terrorist who uses a weapon dishonors his nobility and debases his worth as a person.
*****Terror turns off hope and drains out
happiness. It kills laughter, creates fear, and spreads the darkness of despair. It’s inhuman! Not humane at all.
Far too many people in our society have been in the clutches of terror, especially in barangays and towns conflicted by insurgents and terrorist groups. Terrorists have mindlessly made innocent people suffer.
Really, there’s hardly any compelling reason
for war-mongering or for stocking an arsenal anymore. What grievances there are to redress are essentially unaddressed issues of the past.
Let’s address them now, but in so doing, let’s not traumatize the present generation. Bring up the problems now. And let’s involve civil society and government in resolving them.
*****It’s saddening that clan wars are breaking
out in various places at this time. It reflects how badly developed are our communities, how poorly served by education, how disorganized still, how badly functioning their institutions, and how substandard the people in charge of them.
Given our level of education and access to information, education, and the sciences, it is so unseemly that instances of barbarism and crudeness should still roil the community.
More than enough processes, techniques, and resource persons are at hand with which to define, rectify, and redress the wrongs of the past. Justice is possible; it is within our reach if we have the will and the focus.
Together we can take wise measures and adopt enlightened policies to prevent past wrongs—and present ones—from recurring. We just have to think them through and give full play to our sense of justice and fairness in order to resolve them.
*****We owe it to ourselves and to the rest of
society to address bigotry, killing, and corruption seriously. We owe it to ourselves to establish an effective regime of law and order.
We have to learn to let passions cool down, to avoid provocation and bad blood, such that all the men and all the women in all our barangays may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want.
The Mindanao Peace Talks are now at the stage where mutual trust and confidence, mutual understanding and acceptance, are crucial.
It’s time to lay the cards on the table, to take off the mask, to reveal ourselves to one another without posturing or concealment in our
motives. No more dissembling or pretense.*****
Of ourselves, let us demand openness and candor; of our government, transparency and accountability. Let the concluding talks proceed cordially as befits an exchange between and among citizens in search of honorable peace and understanding.
Finally, it makes no sense anymore for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to invoke its revolutionary nature. That’s something it already agreed to set aside when it sat down to talk and negotiate.
Nor is it necessary to trigger memories of barbarism and refresh the reasons for sabotaging, killing, destroying, or terrorizing. No need to challenge government, to which establishment we all contributed.
Let’s just start the healing process, mindful of all the hurts and reckless rhetoric of the past. We’ve all seen enough and felt the effects of violence and terrorism, images of mangled, mutilated bodies, broken dreams, and dashed hopes and ideals.
*****So let’s begin now the task of transforming
Mindanao into the home of civilized peoples. No more bombings and beheadings and barbaric carnage to horrify the civilized world.
Our basic sense of humanity must prevail; violence must be stigmatized. Even as we express remorse for so much violence that has taken place, let us now resolve to stay the hand of the reckless and the lawless and give peace a chance.
Thus, we focus on making our social, religious, political, economic, and other institutions bring about civilized living. They are our societal control mechanisms, the safety valves moderating the urge to barbarity or violence. Agreed?
Manny is former UNESCO regional director for Asia-Pacific; secretary-general, Southeast Asia Publishers Association; director, development academy of Philippines; member, Philippine Mission to the UN; vice chair, Local Government Academy; member, Cory Govt’s Peace Panel; awardee, PPI-UNICEF outstanding columnist. Author of books on governance, he is chairman/convenor ofGising Barangay Movement Inc. [email protected]
NOT in the last 30 years have we seen elections in the United Kingdom take a multiparty turn. Often, the elections
end in a clear majority, giving the Prime Min-ister a clear leadership mandate. The United Kingdoms electoral process is radically differ-ent from the American system which we have copied. In the UK, political parties field can-didates for seats in parliament, who, in turn select the prime Minister and Cabinet from among the elected MPs. Thus, the party with the highest number of seats wields the power to select the Prime Minister.
Closer to home, this British system is simi-lar to that of Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, where the former have constitutional mon-archs as heads of state, and the latter, a pres-ident. In all three Southeast Asian examples, the Prime Minister is head of government, and thus is often more well known than the head of state.
But these UK elections are special in that they are hotly contested, with the ruling Con-servative or Tory Party under current Prime Minister David Cameron neck-and-neck with Ed Miliband’s left of centre Labor party. Yet in recent surveys both parties are given a run for their money by the UK Independence Par-ty (UKIP), the centrist Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP). With this, no party is expected to have a clear majority
after the votes are counted. Cu-riously the UKIP emerged raising the call for the UK’s exit from the European Union, and the rise of the SNP signals a major issue about be-ing one with the United Kingdom.
What these elections therefore raise is whether or not stay-ing in the EU is beneficial for the British people. Similar questions will be asked in France, Ger-many, and the different Scandinavian countries that comprise the donor community within the EU. With recent economic meltdowns and political instability in Greece and Spain creat-ing problems for the European Common mar-ket and currency, many Britons are concerned about whether these new inequalities within Europe will affect their own British economy. Previously, all member states created an inter-dependent common market that helped each other’s country become strong. To keep their economies afloat, the countries facing difficul-ties borrow from the EU, or bilaterally from other European countries. With this, where
once the different EU member states enjoyed some equality in economic power has become a debt or subsidy pool for the less affluent Eu-ropean countries. Apparently, This is the key question posed in this year’s UK elections.
What does this mean for us in Mindanao? For one, it shows us that being autonomous and independent as a polity or economy is no magic bullet to make us affluent overnight. Fledgling regional economies spawned under a proposed federal government may not all be as strong as the others. Some will need assis-tance, while other can give assistance to others in need. The lesson is that the different regions need to have a strong understanding and effort to strengthen their local economies. As a Re-gional Mindanao economy, do we want to be like Germany or Greece?
Beyond this, what role will the Mindanao economy play in an integrated Asean econo-my? Are we in Mindanao truly the food bas-ket of the BIMP EAGA? Or will we be simply a source of skilled labor for high-tech Singapore, or the manufacturing hubs in Malaysia and Thailand? The next few years will be critical as they set the stage for building that niche or room that the country’s economy will play in ASEAN. Do we have something important to trade, or will we simply be hired? That’s the question we need to ask our presidentiables, and most of all, ourselves.
APRIL 30, 2 0 1 5 , around 3:00
pm, somewhere in a semi-remote vil-lage in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, Lang Dulay en-tered immortality. She was a recipient of the Gawad Man-lilikha ng Bayan, the equivalent of a National Artist award for textile weaving. It was no ordinary fabric or ordinary design. Lang Dulay was the famed dreamweaver of the T’nalak of the T’boli people of Lake Sebu in South Cotabato. Dreamweaving is an age-old tradition unique to the T’boli people, entail-ing months-long and rigorous preparations of locally available materials and dyes. It is only done by the females who also abstain from having carnal knowledge with their husbands during the weaving process, usually lasting four to six months. Tradition has it that the weavers dream of patterns, usually inspired by local flora and fauna, hence the term “dream-weaving.”
The patterns are iconic and the imagery powerful enough to be destination brand sym-bols of the whole province of South Cotabato. In fact, South Cotabato has long and still is be-ing packaged as the “Land of the Dreamweav-ers” and Lake Sebu town being the “Home of the Dreamweavers.” The minimalist patterns in the T’nalak fabric are original, clearly, con-fidently, and competitively telling a unique, authentic, and compelling story about the T’boli people. No such other cultural commu-nity in the world replicates the T’nalak. Mostly inspired by things found in the local environ-ment, the patterns are highly iconic. They are memorable, ownable symbols that inspire oth-er people to know more about their weaving tradition. In the end, they have become unique-ly associated with the destination. Apart from earning the distinction of being the summer capital of SOCCSKSARGEN Region, Lake Sebu is also the center for development for communi-ty-based ecotourism in the whole BIMP-EAGA growth area.
I had the honor of meeting her in person at least three times when I was still doing various tourism-related strategic sector studies, such as the crafting of the South Cotabato Tourism Development Plan, among others. She rarely smiled. Her poker face was etched with various lines, representing the long earthly years spent dreaming about and weaving her signature patterns. They are now iconic and have evolved to represent the visions, dreams, and aspira-tions of her people. Amidst threats of mod-ernization and unbridled tourist activities that have the potential to disrupt the indigenous so-cial fabric of the T’bolis, Lang Dulay ensured the perpetuation of the dreamweaving tradition through the younger generations. One of them is her granddaughter who stays inside the T’bo-li long house cum weaving center and learns the craft from her grandmother and mother. Of the many lasting legacies of Lang Dulay, such as the T’nalak patterns that are now famous around the world, ensuring the continuation of the dreamweaving tradition is probably her greatest contribution to the preservation and protection of her people’s culture.
A close look at the log book at her weav-ing center paints an impressive profile of her visitors. A very significant number of them are from outside the Philippines, mostly from the West, particularly the Europeans who are more interested in cultural tourism and the preser-vation of ancient culture and heritage. Forget about the Americans who are more interested in ecotourism and nature-based adventure and the East Asian market, which is more fascinated with shopping and holiday attractions.
Lang Dulay may be gone but the challenge remains. It is said that there are four more orig-inal dreamweavers or so still living in another village in Lake Sebu and have yet to receive government support. For a long time, with re-spect, focus was devoted to Lang Dulay, largely because of her national distinction. Currently, there are no such concrete efforts to extend as-sistance to the remaining aging dreamweavers. Some of these agencies are far more keen on arranging funeral rites and empty gestures that mean practically nothing to the surviving gen-erations of dreamweavers of Lake Sebu. Isn’t it about time that we convert some ideals and vi-sions – long confined in the board rooms – into something tangible, something local people can actually see, hear, feel, touch, and even taste?
The UK Elections and the future of our own economic integration
Begin transforming Mindanao now
Farewell, Lang Dulay
VOL. 8 ISSUE 26 • FRIDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 8 - 9, 201510 NEWSARMS... FROM 1
Reclamation... FROM 2
City... FROM 2
APEC... FROM 6
Nograles... FROM 2
Abreeza... FROM 4 Security... FROM 6
House... FROM 4
EDGEDAVAO
total workforce.“Trade should be conve-
nient, efficient, and attrac-tive not only for medium and large business, but also for micro and small enterprises. It should result into more pro-ductive employment oppor-tunities, sustainable and in-clusive economic growth, and for its benefits to be spread more widely. That’s why we
want to ensure that the out-come for APEC 2015 involves our trade facilitation priorities and, at the same time, be ben-eficial to all participants. Ulti-mately, we want to bridge the gap between developing and developed APEC economies by further opening trade and investment in the Asia-Pacif-ic Region,” Cristobal stressed. (PNA)
and partners for their trust and support. Our core businesses – Financial Markets, Wholesale and Retail Banking – contin-ued to produce healthy results after a robust 2014 perfor-mance. As we focus to deliver the best value to our custom-ers and grow the Retail Bank as a third pillar to our business, we are greatly pleased to have Mr. Alfonso ’Yogi’ Salcedo, Jr. – with his depth and breadth of experience and vision in con-sumer banking – as our new President and CEO,” Security Bank Chairman Mr. Alberto S. Villarosa said.
Security Bank has a total network of 257 branches and 516 ATMs as of March 31, 2015. The integration of the 39 branches of thrift bank subsid-iary Security Bank Savings into the branch network of Security Bank was successfully com-pleted in March 2015, after
receipt of regulatory approval in January 2015; these branch-es now offer the full universal bank product range to whole-sale and retail clients. Security Bank launched the bancassur-ance product in partnership with FWD Life in February 2015.
“The Bank’s balance sheet continues to be strong with sustained asset quality and capital strength. Our share-holders’ capital increased by 19 percent year-on-year to P50 billion as of March 31, 2015 due to retained earn-ings. Our Basel III Common Equity Tier 1 (CET 1) was 13.8 percent and total Capital Ad-equacy Ratio (CAR) was 17.5 percent, well above the BSP’s minimum requirements of 8.5 percent and 10 percent, re-spectively,” Security Bank Chief Financial Officer Mr. Joselito E. Mape said.
agree that they should be armed. They can direct traf-fic without firearms. As long as they talk to people polite-ly there will be no trouble),” Poliquit said.
“Pag may armas kasi,
pwede na maka create pa ng gulo, sabi ko sa mga tao ko ayusin lang ang pakitungo (Arming them could lead to more trouble. I told my men to just deal properly with the public),” he added.
(PEZA).Cortez said the comple-
tion of the reclamation project will affect the dynamic price of properties in the down-town area because it is prime property.
Earlier, Davao City Plan-ning and Development Office (CPDO) plans and programs division chief Engineer Jose Froilan T. Rigor said the com-pany is planning to build a a coastal road running from R. Castillo Avenue to its pro-posed port in the reclamation area in Bucana.
“The CPDO came up with a recommendation that the investor should build a com-pletely separate road if it will pursue its port operation because based on our assess-ment, the operation of the port will have an impact on our traffic situation,” Rigor said.
He said the operation of the port will bring in more cargo trucks and trailer trucks that might cause traffic con-gestion in the downtown area.
Rigor said the proposed road has an estimated cost of P200 million.
He said Mega Harbour is currently revising its plan due
to its impact on traffic as well on settlers along the coastal area of the city.
“Hopefully, they can do better,” he said.
However, Cortez said the company already have plans on how it will mitigate the traffic it will create once it starts its port operation.
Rigor said the 200-hect-are reclamation project might expand up to 400 hectare in-stead of the original plan to make a reclamation project which is 150 meters away from the mainland.
The original proposal of the group was to start the project from Magsaysay Park up to Bucana, but because of CPDO’srecommendation it might start from R.Castillo.
Affected settlers identi-fied by the CPDO will be re-located to tenement housing in the reclamation project where they will be also em-ployed.
Rigor said CPDO is also accessing the possible en-vironment and economic impact of the reclamation project which almost similar to the reclamation project im-plemented in Cebu and Metro Manila. CHENEEN R. CAPON
URGENT. Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) head Erwin Alparaque (left) acknowledges the urgent need to hire additional personnel for some departments of the city government. Alparaque and Davao City Investment and Promotion Center (DCIPC) chief Ivan Chin Cortez (right) graced yesterday’s I-Speak media forum at City Hall. Lean Daval Jr.
“Many countries in South-east Asia are fast catching up with the Philippines in terms of producing well-rounded professionals. We are slowly losing our competitive edge because many of our graduates are still ill-equipped even after graduation,” Nograles said.
“Employers nowadays barely invest on training for new employees and instead, they’d hire someone who has experience and this is one gap that is going to be addressed by K to 12. This program does not just add more years to our students but it actually pro-vides them the right training and the experience to make them more competitive even just after finishing senior high school,” Nograles added.
To complement K to 12, the veteran lawmaker said that Congress should enact laws that provide adequate train-ing and exposure in the work place for first-time job seekers, part-time students and stu-dent trainees such as his pro-posed “Jobstart Program.”
This would institutionalize the “Jobstart Philippines Pro-gram” which was initiated by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in part-nership with the Asian Devel-opment Bank (ADB) to better prepare first-time job seekers with the needed skills to as-sume full-time jobs.
With programs like the Jobstart program, Nograles
explained that Filipinos who have finished senior high school could already make themselves self-reliant while pursuing a college degree whereas under the old set-up, tens of thousands of fresh graduates end up jobless for years because employers would opt to hire experienced employees.
“With laws like Jobstart, our graduates are already con-sidered to have the minimum amount of experience required by employers to give them full-time jobs. Scrapping K to 12 is a step backward in our bid to modernize education and equip our young with the right tool to become produc-tive members of our society,” Nograles emphasized.
The proposed Jobstart program seeks to provide job seekers, student trainees and part-time students the needed training and work exposure in an actual workplace while get-ting in the process by way of training allowance.
“Given adequate resourc-es and support of the private sector, the implementation of this proposed policy measure will cover at least 70,000 Job-start program beneficiaries by 2020. The training and exposure in an actual work-place will make the job seeker ready to assume the job and be more responsive to industry skills requirement,” Nograles stressed. (PNA)
committee created by virtue of Executive Order No. 13 series of 2015 dated and signed by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte on May 5, 2015.
Under the order, the re-view committee is tasked to study and evaluate the exist-ing staffing and organizational structure of the City Govern-ment of Davao.
It will also gather propos-als of various departments on the creation of new offices and special bodies for the in-ventory of major programs, activities, mandates, functions and linkages within the city government; take into con-siderations the devolved and decentralization functions of specific departments; recom-mend subsequent action such as the creation, upgrading, consolidation and or abolition of departments; and deter-mine the budgetary require-ment of the improved organi-zational structure and staffing patterns upon its implementa-tion.
Alparaque said the com-mittee will be chaired by the
city mayor or his duly autho-rized representative. It will be co-chaired by the city admin-istrator.
“The committee shall un-dertake the tasks for the peri-od of one year. It first meeting will be next week since there are already submitted recom-mendations from different de-partments,” he said.
The committee will also review the recommendation which pertains to the creation of the City Architect’s Office, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, Transport Safety and Traffic Manage-ment Office.
He also said the there was also a proposal to create a sep-arate structure for the Office of the City Building Official that will have its own set of officials and own budget allocation apart from the City Engineer’s Office.
Alparaque said the com-mittee is targeting to finish the review next year so that any recommendation that will re-quire financing will be includ-ed in the 2016 budget.
the national government is re-neging on agreements. Yung expectations might be too high because of itong sinasabi mo na ‘di naman masama kung ilagay mo yan dyan.’ You un-derstand that this is subject to negotiation. You understand it, I understand I but does the common man understand?”
Quevedo, lead convenor of Friends of Peace (FoP), a group of peace advocates and
peace networks promoting the passage of a Basic Law that would respect the Bangsam-oro’s right to self determina-tion and provide them genuine autonomy, expressed concern over news reports quoting representatives as saying they will delete provisions that are “unconstitutional” but actual-ly conform to the Constitution and the CAB. (Carolyn O. Ar-guillas / MindaNews)
Davao’s member moms bond-ing with and nourishing their babies through their natural milk.
As Style Origin 2015, Ayala Malls’ annual signature fashion event, takes over the Activity Center on May 22 at 5pm, one of Philippine show-biz’s admirable young moms will grace the show. In keep-ing with the theme of Mom-powerment May, actress Andi Eigenmann will walk Abreeza Mall’s Style Origin runway with daughter Ellie, along with community models from Davao comprised of mommies and their children.
As a month-long reminder of all the admirable things our moms have done and contin-ue to do for us, Abreeza Mall invites mall-goers to view the Thank You, Mom! Exhibit at the Ground Floor Hallway from May 9 to 31. Here, 10 per-sonalities from Davao pay trib-ute to their moms by sharing photos as well as memorable experiences they shared with the most important women in their lives.
Abreeza Mall has other delights in store for moms on Mother’s Day itself, May 10. Through Mommy Surprise, the first 300 moms at Abree-za Mall that day get a special treat. Meanwhile, a digital contest called Momstagram, which runs from May 7 to 10, lets one lucky mom win a spa gift set and P2,000 worth of Ayala Malls electronic gift certificate. All a child has to do is take a photo with mom at #AbreezaMall, describe her in one word, and post the photo on Instagram with the tags @iloveabreezamall and @iloveayalamalls and the hashtag #AyalaMallsMothers-Day to win these gifts she will surely love.
For inquiries and updates on Abreeza Mall’s Mompow-erment May events, please visit the Main Concierge at the ground floor or call (082) 321-9332. Stay updated by liking www.facebook.com/AbreezaMall and following @abreezatweets on Twitter and @iloveabreezamall on Insta-gram.
Qualifications are as follows:*College Graduate (Any Course)*Male/Female at least 21 years old*With very good Public Relations (P.R.) Skills*Good looks and pleasing personality is a big plus*Applicants with experience in Retail/Corporate Sales will be an advantage*Willing to travel Visayas/Mindanao Area*Female Models with experience in Exhibits/Trade Shows are also encouraged to apply
*Applicants who will be hired as regular staff will receive the ff. benefits:**SSS, Philhealth and Pagibig**Transportation and Communication Allowance**Monthly food allowance**Annual Sales Commission of around P800,000 to P1,000,000 for those who will meet Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Sales Target.
**Interested applicants may email their resume at [email protected] or call our office at (0917)3293471(CEBU) or (0917)7952469 (DAVAO) for interview schedule
**NOW HIRING FOR CEBU AND DAVAO!!!!!!!
VM Security Technologies Inc., Wholesaler and Retailer of Security Equipments (e.g.cctv, biometrics, fire and burglar alarm, access control) and System Integrator (Structured Cabling/Auxiliary System), is currently hiring for the ff. positions:
A formula for rising from the nadir of the times
By AIDA RIVERA FORD
WE live in absolutely hor-rendous times, and the only certainty we have
is that when we thing we have hit the very bottom – the nadir – we haven’t. The nadir is yet to be reached.
How do we rise above these trying times?
If we may turn to mytholo-gy, there’s a story that the Greeks passed on from pre-history:
The union of heaven and earth produced CHAOS. Eros or Love floated on chaos and with his arrows pierced and vivified all things. The ruling gods were the Titans, but even in those times there was a revolution and the Titans were displaced by a hierarchy of gods with separa-tion of powers over dominions but with Zeus or Jupiter as the chief god.
The first men were descend-ed from the Titans”: They com-mitted the sin of stealing from the gods – Prometheus stole fire (the symbol of technology) from the heavens and Epenitheus, his brother, was prodigal with gifts to animals. To punish them the ruling gods decided to give then as companion – the first woman. Her name was Pandora. (As you can see, even in ancient times, men blamed women for their own failings.)
The punishment to man was in the form of an intriguing box given for Pandora to guard: She could do everything but open this box. Well, what do you think Pandora did with the box? Of course – she opened it and as she did, out were released all the blessings as well as the evil into the world, never to be looked up again. So that’s how the Greeks account for the duality that is the lot of man. Only one thing re-mained at the bottom of the box: it was HOPE.
Now I’m sure that if there is a Filipino version to this story, something would be added at the bottom. Can you guess what that would be? Another word beginning with H – yes, Humor. The resiliency of Filipinos is best manifested by our ability to face up the greatest shock with H U M O R. Other oriental people may take to mass suicide but Filipi-nos don’t seem to be in danger of that. For us, disappointment in love is the major cause of sui-
cide. The reaction we observe of fellow-Filipinos with the means or opportunity is mass flight to other countries and/or mass dollar flight.
Well, humor alone or escap-ism will not solve the situation. Is there really hope for us? What can I say to you? One super-qual-ification I have is that I have a panoramic perspective of the Pandora’s box of live with the good and its disasters; its ideals and actualities; its moments of glory and its deep depression.
In youth, my generation had the experience of looking up to leaders like Quezon, Osmeña and Roxas; of being part of a sys-tem where the leaders made it possible for training of others to take over as leaders. I cannot say the same for the present system. Neither in bureaucracy nor in education.
My generation also had the experience of facing up to a World War with its patriotic fer-vor and its deprivation of free-dom; with its high excitement in moments of risk and its fears and anxiety and tragedy of loss of property and loved ones. (I lost a brother in Capaz and my father was in an out of the Kem-petai.) But through all this there was hope that we would regain the freedom that we so palpably missed – the freedom to express ourselves without fear of repres-sion or disappearing without a gasp or trace into the night.
In retrospect, the war was
a crucible that crystallized val-ues. What were the things one cannot do without? What are the things worth risking life and property for?
Then we had the experi-ence of Rehabilitations: We took seriously the Back to the Farm movement advocated by Roxas and Osias. That’s how our family came to Davao. We plunged into abaca production and ramie re-lying on government promises of a steady market. What the experience taught us was that we should not rely whatever pet project the government advo-cates. What succeeded in post-war Davao was hard work and endurance; private enterprise and the Chinese concept of set-ting aside working capital, never drawing on it for clothes, cars, expensive houses. What was meant for farming or business was kept intact. Only then could we compete with the Chinese – by emulating the Chinese way of life.
The experience of studying aboard gave me added insights on the Oriental nature of my own identity. By contrast and through what we miss do we gauge the Filipino in us. There is also that stimulus and challenge to show one’s worth I the face of so much impersonality and competition. I had the exhila-ration of winning a major prize in fiction from the University of Michigan.
Then after getting married I
had the experience of a sojourn in Korea, a war- torn country split artificially into the Com-munist North and the suppos-edly Democratic South. Korea in 1958 was as depressing as its coal-blackened buildings and the suicidal look on the faces of the people. The tyranny and corruptions of the Syngman Rhee government was a byword and when a student revolution swept his government away overnight, he and his foreign wife fled to Honolulu but is ad-opted son and heir following Korean custom lay the blame on his father by family suicide within the President’s Palace. An attempt at democracy fol-lowed but the military became impatient with the slowness of democratic process and a mil-itary coup d’etat brought back dictatorship. I believe the dicta-torship of President Park Sung Hee ended only with his assassi-nation after lengthy Marcos-like term. When I revisited Korea in 1978, 20 years after my sojourn there, I saw tremendous prog-ress, unusual change from an in-dividualistic, pushy way of life to one of order and organization; from corruption as a way of life to a disciplined society. A Kore-an professor of history gives the credit to a real Christianization of Korea that had transformed itself into an agro-industrialized country. Instead of their import-ing finished products, Koreans have successfully competed with Japanese and Taiwanese and made a bid for standards ac-ceptable in Western Countries. I saw samples of Korean products all over the US something the Fil-ipinos must learn – making the product equal the sample.
My experience in education – teaching at what was then the Mindanao Colleges, and then the Armed Forces School for the University of Maryland, the University of Mindanao, and the Ateneo de Davao University and finally setting up the Learning Center of the Arts in 1980, now the Ford Academy of the Arts, Inc. I learned that teaching by example is still a very effective way in education. One can nev-er inculcate a work ethic or a creative way of life by standing in the sidelines giving instruc-tions. I learned that some enjoy working alone and some en-joy working in groups. But joy makes work light, whatever the
obstructions are.On that note, we enter
the experience in Marcos time, of the Philippines being “Agunized.” More and more, joy becomes and alien experience, but suddenly a new awesome phenomenon confronted us – the phenomenon of the parlia-ment of the streets imposing its own discipline – a parliament of professionals and students and housewives and workers stand-ing up for principle in peaceful manifestation of the worth of the human being – that is indeed beautiful. It was a fearsome thing to because someone could break the chain of peace. Today, the parliament of the streets is highly suspect because it is often manipulated by unprincipled el-ements.
Yet a time comes when a man or woman must give ex-pression to the very deep – seat-ed desire for beauty and truth and justice – the old verities that have motivated the great arts of the world – from Neolithic man’s attempt to express movement, energy and a moment in time in his cave-drawings of animals and men to the marvels of the monumental architecture of the Egyptians and the Mayans – to the glories of Greek architecture and sculpture, literature and phi-losophy to the Roman structures and the Gothic spires pointing straight up to heaven and then to the Renaissance focus on man again – In his God-given magnif-icence.
When I asked our Director of Arts, National Artist Victo-rio C. Edades. What works he considered most influential, he pointed to the works of da Vinci and Michaelangelo, Titian and Tintoretto, all Renaissance artists as the ones he consid-ered most beautiful. Yet he is considered the Father of Mod-ern Art in the Philippines be-cause he broke away from the imitativeness of academic art which kept perpetuating the neo classical tradition. Man has to keep expressing the truth of his times, and so through all modern “isms” – impression-ism, fauvism, cubism, expres-sionism, abstract expressionism and whatever new “isms”. Man keeps trying to render the invis-ible, visible.”
No amount of repressions can really keep an artist from expressing himself and so
when the Nazis prohibited the exhibition of Picasso’s works, a coterie of Parisian artists con-tinued painting underground. His “Guernica” is one of man’s strongest protest against inhu-manity. Another Spaniard, Goya, and the Frenchman Delacroix made memorable statements for liberty through their paint-ings. So did Daumier who went in and out of jail, and the Mexi-can Diego Rivera. I’m not saying that art should be revolutionary. Art for the most part can be en-joyed for itself. The design does not have to mean something. But whatever the artist express-es himself in painting or sculp-ture or architecture or music or literature, he must be true to himself.
The Filipino must be true to himself in the arts. We have been called the most musical people in the world yet we have not produced international art-ists with distinct Filipino mark.
We made a major break-through in painting in 1884 when Luna and Hidalgo placed First and Second in the Madrid Exposition – yet today we have not Filipino artists world stat-ure.
What must we do to bring ourselves up from the nadir?
First we must face up to the problems of the times squarely, honestly, with humor if possible.
Second, we can learn from our mistakes and take a tip from countries or people who have sunk into deeper holes and re-suscitated themselves.
Third, we must depend solely on ourselves and not depend on government assis-tance or initiative nor on out-side loans. Old Filipino common sense tells us to borrow only what we can pay back; spend only what we can afford. If we see an opening out of the hold – let’s find a way to get everyone out without trampling each oth-er to death. Let us stop the cycle of corruption by beginning with ourselves.
Fourth, when faced with op-pression, let us have the courage to take a stance, singly or if one prefers in groups. Let us assert our humanity and the humanity o our fellowmen.
Last, when we reach the bottom line – let us not lose hope. We trust that our built-in moral and spiritual values will sustain us for the hard climb up.
was killed past 11:00 a.m. Sunday near Barangay Muti in Guindulungan town, Magu-indanao while trying to evade pursuing government forces.
MILF forces under Com-mander Wahid Tundok of 118th base command went to the village where usman and his 12 armed followers were waiting for the start of boxing bout between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather on ra-dio.
Mayor Antao Midtimbang of Guindulungan told report-ers he was told that the MILF elite unit has been searching for Maco and Muawiyah.
Tundok said the search for the two foreign bombers was in keeping with their ceasefire accord with government.
Under the ceasefire agree-ment, both the government security forces and MILF will work side by side in the inter-diction of criminals and terror-ists.
Tundok said more and more civilians have offered to assist the MILF in locating the foreign terrorists because they were the main cause of civil-ians’ dislocation in Datu Piang, Datu Saudi, Salibo, Mamasapa-no, Guindulungan and Talayan, all in Maguindanao.
Speaking in Filipino, Tun-dok said even MILF forces had to be moved out along with their families in compliance
with the ceasefire accord to allow military action against Usman and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
“We will operate against these foreign bombers so we will no longer be relocated when the Army hunt them,” an MILF sub-commander said.
The Army offensive against the BIFF, which is believed to be coddling foreign bomb-ers, had displaced 120,000 civilians, mostly relatives and friends of the MILF.
“Our fighters are tired of moving from one place to an-other because of these foreign bombers, so we will get them ourselves,” the commander said.
“Its not about the reward money, all we want is peace in our communities,” he said.
About 900 MILF fighters have been relocated since Feb. 27 when the military launched manhunt against the terrorists and the BIFF.
Muawiyah, whose real name Abdullah Ali, is affiliated with the Jemaah Islamiyah, a group where Marwan also be-longed and a ranking official, according to Army and police intelligence community.
The military tagged these terrorists as the ones who provided training to lawless elements in Maguindanao in bomb making and other terror attacks. (PNA)
After Usman, MILF now targets foreign bomb-makersTHE Moro Islamic Lib-
eration Front (MILF) elite unit that killed for-
eign-trained bomber Abdul Basit Usman is now hunting
down two other foreign bomb-ers hiding in Maguindanao with the slain Malaysian Zulki-fli bin Hir alias “Marwan.”
The two foreign bomb
making experts, Malaysian Amin Baco and Muawiyah, a Singaporean, escaped Baran-gay Tukanalipao after the Po-lice Special Action Force com-
mandos raided on January 25 their hideout in Mamasapano town. Marwan was killed in that incident.
Western Union Foundation surpasses US$100M global giving milestoneUnion Agents, employees and NGOs that have truly helped the Foundation create a better world.”
Patrick Gaston , President, the Western Union Foundation, added, “We are so proud to cele-brate this milestone with organi-zations that have partnered with us through the years to ensure the Foundation’s contributions are improving the lives of count-less individuals worldwide.
This remarkable achieve-ment says a great deal about not only the power of partnership with NGOs, small local non-prof-its, and charities around the world, but the tireless support from the more than 500 West-ern Union Agents and thousands of Western Union employees who gave their time and money to support our mission.”
In 2013 and 2014, more than 72 percent of all Western Union employees, or 7,580 em-ployees across 53 countries, made a donation to the Western Union Foundation. In addition, the Foundation has partnered with hundreds of Western Union Agents and vendor partners to create a true collaborative part-nership instrumental in reach-ing this milestone.
EducationEducation plays a power-
ful role in changing people’s lives for better - translating into stronger, more resilient communities and economies worldwide. These are the rea-sons why Western Union and the Western Union Foundation established Education for Bet-ter , a three-year commitment to education. Unveiled during the launch of the UN Education First initiative in September 2012, Education for Better lever-ages Western Union shared val-ue products and services, cause marketing, advocacy, corporate and the Western Union Founda-tion strategic philanthropy, em-ployee engagement, and com-munications to support second-ary and vocational education programs around the world.
To date, the Western Union Education for Better, has provid-ed more than US$11.6 million to enhance education efforts for an estimated 500,000 students and teachers worldwide.
Disaster Relief & Emergency Situations
When a natural disaster strikes and emergencies hap-pen, the Western Union Foun-
dation works with numerous relief organizations to help in-dividuals and families rebuild their lives. To date, the Founda-tion has supported more than 140 disaster relief operations in 65 countries worldwide, including Nepal Earthquake Relief in which The Western Union Foundation is commit-ting US$200,000 to support the relief efforts through discre-tionary and matching grants in partnership with Western Union employees, Agents, and business customers.
“Save the Children’s need to respond to any disaster anywhere across the globe re-quires strong supporters and resources to ensure that we are supporting children and their families, immediately af-ter the disaster strikes, straight through recovery,” said Caro-lyn Miles , President and CEO, Save the Children. “Without the support of the Western Union Foundation, we would not have been able to make the greatest impact for children and fami-lies in need. We congratulate the Foundation in reaching the $100M mark and look forward to collaborating with them in the future.” PRNewswire
GLOBE Telecom has part-nered with The Walt Disney Company South-
east Asia for a comprehensive and multiyear collaboration that will enhance the Filipino digital experience.
Launched simultaneous-ly throughout the country on Wednesday evening, Globe senior advisor for consumer business Dan Horan said the collaboration will give Globe users access to Disney’s vid-eo-on-demand, interactive content, promotions, and oth-er related services across mul-tiple devices.
Horan also said the part-nership, which was signed digitally by Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu and The Walt Disney Company South-east Asia Managing Director Rob Gilby on tablets, affirmed the relationship of Globe with
Disney, whose brands include Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and global leader in short-form video Maker Stu-dios.
The launch was held in Manila and was witnessed in Davao and Cebu via live streaming.
“We are very happy to enter into a relationship with such an iconic brand. Every-one loves Disney – that’s why we are excited to bring the brand closer to Filipinos and give the best content experi-ence on our their devices any-time, anywhere,” Horan said.
“Globe customers have the chance to get into the wide portfolio of Disney content such as movies, TV shows, games, merchandising, theat-rical releases, and interactive videos available across our mobile and broadband ser-
vices,” he added.Gilby, for his part, said his
company is “thrilled to bring the Disney brand of storytell-ing closer to more Filipinos through this collaboration with Globe.
Gilby said Disney fans in the Philippines will now be able to take their favorite sto-ries and beloved characters everywhere they go across their choices of devices with this collaboration.
Among the services of-fered under the collaboration is access to Disney Movies on Demand (DMOD), an on-de-mand subscription service for selected evergreen Disney and Pixar titles such the Toy Sto-ry franchise, Finding Nemo, The Princess Diaries, Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas, Cin-derella and much more. These can be viewed on any device
anytime, anywhere.Globe customers can
have also access on the Dis-ney On Demand (DOD), an on-demand subscription service for selected Disney TV favorites such as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Phineas & Ferb, that can be watched on any device anytime, any-where; Maker On Demand, an on-demand subscription service featuring the best short-form videos from Maker Studios’ portfolio of content across gaming, comedy, music, sports, fashion, and family, to name a few, featuring popular talent from Makers’ network of 55,000 creators globally .
Horan also announced that Globe and Maker Studios will also team up to create cus-tom branded entertainment featuring top digital influenc-ers – supporting the Globe
servicesGlobe users, those who
uses wither broadband or mo-bile services, can also watch Disney Channel apps which are entertainment apps that provide access to Disney Chan-nel, Disney Junior and Disney XD. Kids and Family can en-joy all the 3 Disney Channels via this digital destination; and have access to Disney In-teractive, which is a world of mobile and web-based games, apps and e-books based on the best-loved Disney stories.
This collaboration con-tinues the journey of Globe as it brings globally innovative brands and content to the Philippine market, including tie-ups with Facebook, Google, Viber, Spotify, NBA, Hooq, and recently WhatsApp.
These partnerships, to-gether with the company’s
US$790 million network transformation program, have cemented Globe as the undis-puted leader in mobile data business, enriching the cus-tomer experience with enter-tainment and lifestyle content offerings.
In 2014, Globe mobile browsing and other data rev-enues reached P14.3 billion in 2014, up 23 percent from P11.6 billion in the previous year, giving Globe a clear edge in the mobile data business with 64 percent revenue mar-ket share.
The Globe network also carried significantly higher data traffic at 87,000 terabytes of data, increasing 270 percent from the previous year be-cause of a significant surge in mobile browsing activity and higher smartphone adoption among its customers.
THE Western Union Foun-dation yesterday an-nounced it has surpassed a
major milestone, donating more than US$100 million in support to more than 2,700 non-govern-mental organizations (NGOs) to provide support to thousands of families and individuals in more than 135 countries and territo-ries.
The Western Union Founda-tion works with a full spectrum of large global NGOs to small
local non-profits and charities worldwide including UNICEF, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, Pratham and others.
From increasing global ac-cess to school and improving the quality of education to providing relief and rebuilding efforts for families and communities im-pacted by disasters worldwide, the Western Union Foundation has supported charitable orga-nizations dedicated to provid-ing a better future for individ-
uals, families and communities throughout the world.
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The audience at the latest Wonderful World with Globe event welcome the special guests for the evening, the iconic Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
▲Globe Telecom is now officially the proud partner of Disney Family Entertainment with brands including Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel and global leader in short-form video Maker Studios. Celebrating the partnership are (from left) Globe Senior Advisor for Consumer Business Dan Horan, Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu, Disney’s Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse, special guest and Disney legend Lea Salonga, and Managing Director, The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia, Rob Gilby.
ALL FOCUS. This leaper from Davao Region pours her all int he girls long jump competition of the 2015 Palarong Pambansa. DavNor photo
WITH their bats com-ing alive in the late innings, the Davao
Eagles rallied past Central Visayas, 4-3, to book a semi-finals seat in secondary girls’ softball of the 2015 Palarong Pambansa in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.
Top pitcher Irene Lumanas’ RBI grounder in the bottom of the seventh and fi-nal inning sent Ailene Alonzo home from second and capped the big Eagles come-back at the E-Park diamond in Barangay Apokon.
The Davao girls erupted
into a wild celebration after Alonzo stepped on home plate, overwhelmed by the victory that did not come easy as they have to erase an early deficit in the game played un-der scorching heat.
“I knew it will come, but we were already worried at that time,” Lumanas said in the vernacular as she de-scribed her big hit that won the game for the team.
The Eagles fell behind early after starting pitcher Ivy Alonzo gave up three runs in the third.
Sensing danger, coach
Willie Bayocboc summoned Lumanas to the mound and the veteran Palaro campaign-er responded.
The 15-year-old Lumanas, who will be turn-ing 10th grader when school opens in June, gave up only five hits starting in the fourth and shut down Central Vi-sayas from there.
After cutting the defi-cit with a run in the fourth, Davao scored two runs in the sixth and another in the sev-enth to silence the Central Vi-sayas squad and its support-ers, who were wildly cheering
early on.The Eagles were to play
in the semifinals Thursday afternoon against the winner of the game between the Na-tional Capital Region and MI-MAROPA.
Lumanas is playing in her fifth Palaro, including two stints when she was still in elementary.
In secondary girls volley-ball quarterfinals played at Max Mirafuentes Academy, Davao recovered from a first set loss to beat SOCCSKSAR-GEN, 23-25, 25-21, 25-12, and advance to the semifinals.
DAVAO City Mayor Ro-drigo R. Duterte will reward the gold med-
alists in the recent Palarong Pambansa 2015 hosted by Davao Del Norte.
In a press conference yes-terday at the Davao Del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex Clubhouse, Duterte said that he will ask the City Council to give incentive to gold medal-ists.
“There will be always be reward for endeavors that they have excelled,” Duterte said.
The incentives could go up to P15,000 for each gold med-al per athlete to encourage more young sportsman to go beyond for success.
Duterte said that the en-deavor of the athletes is also the endeavor of the city as they
bring pride for the people.So far, the Davao Regional
Athletic Association (DavRAA) has three gold medals and two of these came from team ten-nis secondary division in both girls and boys category.
In both teams, majority of the players were from Davao City.
The girls team were dom-inated with Davao City play-ers namely, Danna Mariella A. Abad and Shaira Hope D. Rive-ra both from Sta, Ana Nation-al High School, Nicole Ann S. Bautista od Ateneo De Davao University and Rachel Patricia C. Velez of Precious Interna-tional School of Davao.
For boys team, two came from the city, Jaffary Cariga of Davao Jones Academy and Jomari Justin Guira of Sta. Ana National High School.
THE Department of Ed-ucation (DepEd) will give out incentives to
athletes who win medals and break records in the ongoing Palarong Pambansa 2015.
In press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, DepEd’s Schools Sports Events and Activities Unit Head Cesar Abalon told reporters that the department is giving incen-tives for the gold medalists and record breakers athletes.
Abalon said the DepEd will give P3,000 for gold medalists as well as the record breakers of individual events.
For team events, he said that each athletes of the gold medal team will be given
P2,000.Abalon said the compen-
sation is stated under Repub-lic Act 10588 or the Palarong Pambansa Law which will en-courage all athletes to partici-pate in the event.
Under section 3 of the law, it will “improve Deped’s na-tional school sports program and give more prestige to the annual sports event by en-couraging better participation of schools through incentives and rewards.”
The Palrong Pambansa 2015 hosting of Davao Del Norte is the first national games held under the new law signed May 27, 2014. Arman-do B. Fenequito Jr.
DAVAO Region coasted to its fourth straight win in the eliminations
of the elementary boys basket-ball event after hacking out a close 74-70 win over Bicol Re-gion on Thursday in the ongo-ing Palarong Pambansa at the Rotary Gym in Tagum City.
The win gave the Eagles
a spotless 4-0 win-loss slate in Bracket B to remain one of only two teams without a loss in the tournament. Central Vi-sayas is also perfect so far with a 3-0 record after beating Cen-tral Luzon 70-56 yesterday.
The Eagles earlier turned back Cordillera 58-39, East Vi-sayas 59-41, and Zamboanga
Peninsula 75-71.At the USEP Gym in Tagum
City, the Davao Eagles boys squad stayed alive with a walk-over win over Calabarzon in secondary basketball. The win gave the hosts, who suffered a 58-48 loss to tournament lead-er Central Visayas on Wednes-day, a 4-2 record. Central Vi-
sayas is on top on Bracket C with a 5-0 record, followed by Davao.
Over at the St. Mary’s Col-lege Gym, the Davao Region cagebelles finally barged into the win column with a 44-40 win over Cordillera. The Davao belles now tote a 1-2 record. (NJB)
THE headband returned. The aggressiveness, dunks and dazzling plays
all came back, too.LeBron James rarely has
two sub-par games in a row, especially in the playoffs.
James attacked from the start and scored 33 points, Kyrie Irving added 21 and the Cleveland Cavaliers evened their semifinal series with Chi-cago, beating the Bulls 106-91 in Game 2 on Wednesday night.
Donning his signature headband for the first time in two months and powering to the basket, James kept the Cavs from falling into a 2-0 hole. He added eight rebounds and five assists for Cleveland, which led by 25 in the third quarter and withstood a third-quarter charge by the Bulls.
For the second straight game, the Cavs were without forward Kevin Love (shoulder surgery) and J.R. Smith (two-game suspension). But they had James and he was more like himself after a sub-par per-formance in the opener.
‘’We’re a little banged up, we’re short-handed, so I have to be aggressive,’’ James said. ‘’Even more aggressive than my usual self, and I was happy I was able to make a couple of plays to help our team win to-night.’’
Jimmy Butler scored 18 and Derrick Rose had 14 points
and 10 assists for the Bulls, who host Game 3 on Friday night. Pau Gasol added 11 points - 10 fewer than Game 1, when he destroyed the Cavs on uncontested jumpers.
Iman Shumpert added 15 points, James Jones made five 3-pointers and Tristan Thomp-son added 12 rebounds for Cleveland. Thompson started at power forward in Love’s spot, allowing James to move back to his usual role at small forward. On the perimeter is where James is most danger-ous and he made it clear from the outset that he wasn’t going to stand around and wait for the game to come to him.
‘’They smashed us,’’ Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said.
The Bulls used a 14-0 run to get within 11 in the third quarter, but Jones hit consecu-tive 3s and James scored twice near the basket to put Cleve-land up by 16 going into the fourth.
James arrived at Quicken Loans Arena at around 4 p.m., three hours before tip-off. As if there needed to be another sign of the game’s importance to Cleveland this was it, as the superstar typically gets to the arena for a home game around 90 minutes before the start.
‘’Maybe he wanted to beat the traffic,’’ quipped Cavs coach David Blatt. ‘’Knowing him, it was something else.’’
Davao rallies past C. Visayas,reach girls softball semifinalsBy CHARLES RAYMOND A. MAXEY
Davao cagers notch fourth win
Mayor Duterte promises reward for medalistsBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
The hosts now pin their hopes in boxing and swim-ming and hope that they score medals in the team events like softball girls, football boys and volleyball girls. The Davao boys basketball team is also in contention with four wins in as many outings.
Powerhouse National Capital Region continue to lord it over the field with a five-day total of 38 golds, 31 silvers and 23 bronzes. The Big City athletes have started to break away from its closest pursuers Calabarzon which has 27 golds, 19 silvers and 24 bronzes for second place while West Visayas is a dis-
tant third at 22-26-21.Cordillera finished the
day at fourth spot with 14-5-8 while Central Visayas over-took Soccsksargen for no. 5 with 9-7-13. Soccsksargen, Manny Pacquiao’s home re-gion, remains the best placed Mindanao contingent at no. 6 with a 8-13-11.
Bicol (8-6-9), Northern
Mindanao (7-6-14), Central Luzon (6-5-5), and East vi-sayas (4-1-2) rounded up the top 10.
Davao (3-11-11), Cagayan Valley (3-5-5), ARMM (3-2-3), Ilocos (1-2-11), Mimaropa (1-2-4), Zamboanga (1-3-2) and Caraga (1-2-2) complete the leaderboard after five days of competition.
DAVAO City’s gold ma-chine came to a sudden halt on Day 5 and just
like that, the hosts are down to 11th place in the leaderboard overnight going into the final two days of action in the 2015 Palarong Pambansa in Davao del Norte.
At the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex pool, Zoe Marie Hilario, the region’s best bet in swim-ming, was once again foiled in her quest for a gold medal as she settled for the silver in the girls 200 individual med-ley despite breaking the old Palaro record of Regina Erin Castrillo of NCR set in 2013 of 2:37.16. Hilario, a standout from Ateneo de Davao Univer-sity, clocked 2:34.07 in anoth-er bridesmaid finish to Raven Faith Alcoseba of Central Vi-sayas who now owns the re-cord of 2:33.71.
Panabo City’s swimming sensation Bernadeth Ara-belle Elesterio, who captured Davao’s first individual gold
medal on Wednesday in the 50m breaststroke, also set-tled for a second silver medal yesterday in the 100-meter medley relay. She anchored the 50m medley on Tuesday for the silver medal. The 12-year old standout of Maryk-noll High School of Panabo will be competing in the 100m breaststroke and 50m free-style today.
Elesterio outlasted her more illustrious rival Sam An-drei Doragos of the National Capital Region (NCR) in the 50 meter breastroke for elemen-tary girls. She is eyeing for two golds in today’s session.
The hosts bagged four sil-vers and seven bronzes for the day for a 3-11-11 gold-silver-bronze tally, down one notch from 10th to 11th place in the 17-region meet backed up by TADECO, Davao International Container Terminal, Damosa Land, Anflocor, Davao Packag-ing Corporation, Pearl Farm, Aboitiz Power-Davao Light
QUIET DAY FOR DAVAOHilario rips mark but settles for silver
A CARAGA Region barefoot runner completes in the 200-meter competition elementary divi-sion during the Palarong Pambansa 2015 at the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex in Tagum City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.
