P 15.00 • 20 PAGES www.edgedavao.net VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015 INSIDE EDGE No plate no travel policy lifted in R11 The BIG NEWS P4 Duterte-Rosales word war resumes The BIG NEWS P4 HOW TO PUT RODY DOWN ‘De Lima and Rosales should know that I know my law.’ EDGE Serving a seamless society DAVAO 2014 CIVIC JOURNALISM COMMUNITY PRESS AWARDS 2013, 2014 BEST EDITED COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Sports P16 Picking Alyssa Valdez’s mind M AYOR Rodrigo Duterte is not one who picks up a fight with wom- en. It’s not in his personality. Not even in his DNA. But not when he is provoked. Enter two of the President’s women. Justice Sec. Leila Deli- ma and the just retired Human Rights Commissioner Etta Ro- sales. Just how do you put May- or Duterte down? These two women will find the ways. De Lima and Rosales have taken turns at the tough- talking Davao City mayor. For the two women to turn the heat on Mayor Duterte, he probably must’ve shaken the boat more than they expected him. Obviously, Duterte’s name is now in the same sentence as the other presidentiables, and in each paragraph where the subject matter is the 2016 presidential elections. Time FHOW, 2
Transcript
P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015
INSIDE EDGE
No plate no travel policy lifted in R11The BIG NEWS P4
Duterte-Rosales word war resumesThe BIG NEWS P4
HOW TO PUT RODY DOWN
‘De Lima and Rosales should know that I know my law.’
EDGE Serving a seamless society
DAVAO2014 CIVIC JOURNALISM
COMMUNITY PRESS AWARDS
2013, 2014 BEST EDITED COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Sports P16
Picking Alyssa Valdez’s mind
MAYOR Rodrigo Duterte is not one who picks up a fight with wom-
en. It’s not in his personality. Not even in his DNA. But not when he is provoked.
Enter two of the President’s women. Justice Sec. Leila Deli-ma and the just retired Human
Rights Commissioner Etta Ro-sales. Just how do you put May-or Duterte down? These two women will find the ways.
De Lima and Rosales have taken turns at the tough-talking Davao City mayor. For the two women to turn the heat on Mayor Duterte, he probably
must’ve shaken the boat more than they expected him.
Obviously, Duterte’s name is now in the same sentence as the other presidentiables, and in each paragraph where the subject matter is the 2016 presidential elections. Time
FHOW, 2
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015
FEDERAL ADVOCACY. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte talks about federalism and the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in his keynote speech before the delegates of the 4th Vice Mayors’ League of Laguna General Assembly at Grand Men Seng Hotel on Saturday. Lean Daval Jr.
2 EDGEDAVAO
COVER STORY
“To make her happy, I’d own up to knowing DDS. Delima just like Etta (Rosales) believed that there is really DDS. That is a phantom created by a police general at the height of communist insurgency in Davao. Lawyer ‘ako noon, isang ordinaryong’ fiscal trying to eke a living in a troubled city and Delima and Rosales are telling the world that I created DDS. ‘Di ba kagagahan yon?
was when Duterte was just an-other jester in the run up to the elections. Just another name thrown into the list of presi-dentiables.
Five months into the filing of candidacy for President, the mayor is fast becoming the tar-get of demolition jobs.
You don’t have to be a polit-ical analyst to know why.
Mayor Duterte is in the league now and they want him down. As fast as they can be-fore he gets even bigger.
Recently, the mayor got what supporters branded as below-the-belt editorial from Philippine Star which com-pares him to “Dirty Harry,” a movie police detective played by Clint Eastwood who baits known criminals especially re-cidivists to gun duels and says “thank you for making my day” after downing the gangsters. Excuse the publication’s weak research but the editorial mis-takenly identified the mayor as a former policeman when he was a former assistant city fis-cal, old name of prosecutor or defender of the State.
Did the demolition job wear down the Duterte train? Per-haps not. Instead of condem-nation, however, the embattled Mayor Duterte is getting an unprecedented media mile-age. This week, Manila-based television giants have sought Duterte in Davao City, sending their topnotch reporters here to go down deeper on what seemed like a Duterte-mania.
There’s also a video clip of him riding in a big bike while making surprise rounds of
the city and 911 emergency headquarters was made into what looks like an advertising material and had been shown also in major TV networks and in the social media. Duterte who is a bike enthusiast is a member of the exclusive Phil-ippine Motorcycle Oganiza-tion which lately landed in the Guinness Book of Record for the most number of rumbling motorbikes assembled in one place (Tagaytay City). Duterte who was guest of honor and speaker of the event was being pushed to be President of the club.
Unlike another presiden-tiable who attempted to gen-erate publicity during a disas-ter by riding a motorbike and crashing, Mayor Duterte is a natural on two wheels.
And so it comes down to this battle against De Lima and Rosales. How many men have been put down by these two women? Now, it’s Duterte’s time to come face to face with the formidable duo.
Delima made a knee-jerk reaction to the New York City-based Human Rights Watch which, through its Asian affili-ate, condemned Mayor Duterte for alleged extra-judicial kill-ings in Davao City. The same allegations also by HRW New York were subject of a probe headed by Delima herself when she was CHR chairper-son under the former detained president Gloria Macapa-gal-Arroyo. The charges were dismissed by the Regional Tri-al Court of Manila.
In a surprised statement
last week Delima issued a threat that she will have Dute-rte investigated and appealed to the nation “not to idolize Duterte”.
On the heels of that state-ment, Rosales also cautioned those endorsing Duterte for President not to vote for him.
An exasperated Duterte who had been consistently dodging calls for him to run for President, shot back at Delima. “To make her happy, I’d own up to knowing DDS. Delima just like Etta (Rosales) believed that there is really DDS. That is a phantom created by a police general at the height of com-munist insurgency in Davao. Lawyer ‘ako noon, isang ordi-naryong’ fiscal trying to eke a living in a troubled city and Delima and Rosales are telling the world that I created DDS. ‘Di ba kagagahan yon?’Duterte fumed.
The mayor however ad-mitted warning criminal ele-ments. “Papatayin ko kayo” but I never order policemen “pata-yin ninyo”, he stressed.
“Delima and Rosales should know that I know my law. I have my way of dealing with criminals,” Duterte said.
‘Magkaiba kami ni Deli-ma. Siya’ she allows inmates in Muntinlupa to leave their cells. She allows a Hilton (Ho-tel) to be put up in Muntinlu-pa. Women are allowed in and out of the special Hilton Hotel inside Muntinlupla. Kung ako ang Presidente I will restore death penalty and will hang those drug convicts with a laundry wire. Electrocution or
gas chamber is too expensive for these drug lords. Imagine, they are allowed to cook shabu inside Muntinglupa and super-vise the distribution. I was in Mindoro when drug enforcers discovered that the peniten-tiary there was getting its sup-plies from the Bilibid prison. What has Delima done? Kung may laboratory sa Munti sigu-rado ako na may kaparte ang mga atoridad”, Duterte said.
Delima’s rebuke and the release of the recent video clip have become viral on YouTube and various forms of social media.
In Cotabato City where Duterte had a forum on Fed-eralism last week, the par-ticipants handed him a ‘bay-ong’-full of coins to help him in his Federalism crusade. The teary-eyed Duterte clutched the bayong and thanked them for their help despite the na-tional government neglect of the region. In a guttural and unintelligible words he was heard as saying “kung ako maging presidente…” He did not finish his statement but proceeded to clasp the hands that reached out to him. The enthusiastic Cotabato crowd chanted Duterte! Duterte! Duterte! imitating the shrill cheers of the children in the leaked video except that this one go with thunderous ap-plause.
Just how do you put Dute-rte down?
De Lima, Rosales, and the rest of them tasked with the unenviable job, will have to try harder.
How... FROM 1
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VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 20154 EDGEDAVAO
NEWS
EAGLE EYES. Veteran photographer Rene Arias checks out the photographs of Philippine Eagles on display in the ongoing Philippine Eagle Foundation Photo Exhibit at lobby of The Marco Polo, Davao. Lean Daval Jr.
THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) 11 has lifted the No Plate No Travel
policy in Region 11 in line with the national office’s decision to suspend it due to strong public
“Nasuko ang mga tao kay ang LTO man daw ang nahutdan og plaka nganong amo man daw sila ang pandakpon? So, karon gi-lift na siya (The people were angry because they were being apprehended even though it is the LTO that has run out of plates. That’s why it has been lifted),” LTO
11 operations division chief Eleanor Calderon told EDGE Davao in an interview.
“You can now travel without a plate provided that you will present a certificate of registration,” she added.
Calderon said the LTO national office dropped the policy after the LTO National Capital Region issued a certification that it had no new plates available for release.
But Calderon said while the No Plate No Travel
DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte hit back at former
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Etta Rosales and defended his views on martial law and the 1986 People Power uprising.
In an interview on Thurs-day night, Duterte said Ro-sales was “ignorant” about what martial law really is
when she said he (Duterte) would bring back martial law if he became President.
“She (Rosales) is not a lawyer, that is the problem with ignorant people,” he said.
The latest exchange of words between Duterte and Rosales is a far cry from a few weeks ago when Rosales said she recognized that it was Duterte’s leadership that
brought peace and order to Davao City.
Duterte said martial law is mechanism in the Consti-tution to meet the challenges of rebellion, invasion, or law-lessness in the country.
The mayor also said his view on People Power, which Rosales had put into question, is that its spirit has been lost because the people behind it
are now involved in corrup-tion.
He hinted that among these people is Rosales her-self. “I would like to ask her, how many projects sa PDAF (Priority Development Assis-tance Fund) niya pumunta doon kay (Janet) Napoles be-cause in the documents pub-lished before, she made cash
VILLAGERS in Barangay Poblacion here have armed themselves
against a huge dog they described as “aswang” (Philippine version of a vampire) after it attacked a couple on Friday last week.
Muslima Guiamad of Ba-rangay Poblacion 8 was walk-ing with her husband Abdullah to the public market before dawn on that day when a huge dog attacked her from behind.
She recalled the dog bit her in the nape and upper arms.
“The extra big dog has wide red eyes, sharp sets of teeth and very strong,” Musli-ma said, trying to picture out her ferocious attacker.
Abdullah came to her res-cue as soon as the “aswang”
clamped on his wife. He hit the attacker with his machete but it continued to feast on his wife’s arms.
Then the “aswang” turned to Abdulla and bit his leg.
“I hit the dog several times but my machete bounces back. As if I was hacking a stone,” he said.
“I’m convinced it was not an ordinary dog but an as-wang,” he added.
Bai Ingkong Manalasal, another resident, said rumors spread that an “aswang” has been transforming into a dog to attack humans.
A police blotter report showed the Guiamad couple was bitten by a dog.
Residents, meanwhile, have forbidden their children
Duterte-Rosalesword war resumesBy FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA
No Plate No Travelpolicy lifted in R11By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
Maguindanao, North Cotabatovillagers arming vs ‘aswang’
BACK TO SCHOOL. Parents and their children choose from a wide array of school supplies at the atrium of a shopping mall along J.P. Laurel Avenue offering a back-to-school sale over the weekend. Lean Daval Jr.
FNO PLATE, 10 FDUTERTE, 10
FMAGUINDANAO, 10
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015 5EDGEDAVAO NEWS
THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) 11 has so far not arrested anyone
for drunk driving based on Republic Act 10568 or the An-ti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013.
In an interview, LTO 11 op-erations division chief Eleanor Calderon told EDGE Davao that six drivers were stopped for speeding during the peri-od of May 7 to 19 and made to undergo a sobriety test since speeding is probable cause for
drunk or drugged driving.Calderon said the LTO
flagged down two drivers in Quimpo Boulevard, two driv-ers in Lanang, one driver in Matina near MTS, and one driver near Davao Memorial Park.
“The six drivers under-went a field sobriety test and two of them failed,” Calderon said.
A sobriety test consists of straight line walk, one-leg stand, and eye reaction using a
FOR consistently exhibiting excellence in agricultural
sustainability and productivity, the Department of Agriculture hailed Davao Oriental as fourth-time Regional Champion in the prestigious Gawad Saka Awards.
Gov. Corazon N. Malanya-on, who was guest speaker at the awarding ceremony held Friday, May 29 in Davao City, said that having been recog-nized once again as overall champion of the Gawad Saka is an affirmation and a clear indication that the province has charted the right direction.
She said agriculture has always been a top priority of her administration consider-ing the province’s vast agri-cultural resources waiting to be tapped. “We have the po-tential for growth production, the market is continuously ex-panding and the opportunity for increase in income is also a given fact,” she said.
In her speech, Gov. Malanyaon highly attributed this success to the programs and complementary projects established by the provincial government that does not only address food security but also increases productivity and income of small farmers and fisherfolks.
Governor Malanyaon who is about to finish her term next year said she is deeply hon-
ored and privileged to have made a difference in her prov-ince’s agriculture sector—which after taking respite for 18 years as an awardee has now made it to champion.
Under Gov. Malanyaon’s leadership, Davao Oriental was first hailed Gawad Saka regional champion in 2011 and has been consistently ad-judged with such recognition ever since, only taking respite in 2013, after super typhoon Pablo severely hurt its agricul-ture sector. This year, the prov-ince garnered the champion spot following the same top spot last year.
Basking on her province’s victory, the governor recog-nized the support of the De-partment of Agriculture, along with its attached bureaus, for its guidance through technical and financial assistance to her province. She further thanked the department for believing that Davao Oriental has what it takes to succeed in agricul-tural ventures.
She also cited the support programs extended by the Mindanao Rural Development Program and the World Bank which complemented the province’s efforts and resourc-es in the completion of the P256 million worth irrigation project in Cateel. Set to irrigate more than 2,000 hectares of rice fields, the people of Cateel, said the governor, are now as-sured of a steady supply of
CHAMPION FOR THE 4TH TIME. Regional Director Remelyn R. Recoter. Gov. Corazon N. Malanyaon, Banaybanay Mayor Adalia Tambuang and PAGRI Head Rotchie Ravelo during the awarding ceremonies of the Gawad Saka Achievers 2015 last Friday in Davao City. Davao Oriental is the regional champion for the fourth time.
DavOr is 4-time Gawad champ of R11
No drunk driving arrests yet: LTO
water which would definitely contribute in achieving 100% rice sufficiency level for the en-tire province.
Even after the brunt of super typhoon Pablo in 2012 that created a huge blow in the province’s agriculture sec-tor, the province had explored more opportunities that helped encourage the pour-ing of support for the total recovery and rehabilitation of
the province, particularly the three hard-hit towns of Bos-ton, Cateel, and Baganga.
Meanwhile, she also cred-ited this success to the farm-ers, fisherfolks and communi-ty organizations, whose labors and hard work helped Davao Oriental emerge as a leading province in the region in terms of agricultural productivity.
For this year’s Gawad Saka, Davao Oriental has pro-
duced eight winners. Among the achievers under the indi-vidual category are Genevieve Madelo from Banaybanay town - Outsanding Rice Farm-er, Artemio C. Cabanog from Cateel town – Outstanding Organic Agriculture Farmer, Dominador Sampiri, Jr. from Mati City – Outstanding Small Animal Raiser, Modesto Ingig from Mati City – Outstanding Large Animal Raiser, and Gly-
neth Laurea from Lupon town – Outstanding Fisherfolk. Meanwhile, included in the group category are Carmen Barangay Food Terminal from Boston town – Outstanding Barangay Food Terminal, PAFC Davao Oriental from Mati City – Outstanding Provincial Agri-cultural and Fisheries Council, and MAFC Banaybanay from Banaybanay town – Outstand-
TESTING BREATH ANALYZER. Ramon Sartiga Jr. of the Land Transportation Office (in uniform) demonstrates the use of the breath analyzer on Rotarian Jim Sabino of the Rotary Club of East Davao as LTO
chief of operations division Eleonor S. Calderon (left before podium) explains the enforcement of the recently-passed law against drunk and drugged driving. In the foreground is banana executive Vic Sojor, club past president.
FDAVOR, 10
small flashlight.Calderon said the two
drivers immediately under-went breath analyzer test to check if they were driving un-der the influence of liquor.
Under RA 10568, drivers of private four-wheeled ve-hicle are allowed up to 0.05 blood alcohol concentration (BAC), which is equivalent to drinking two bottles of San Mig Light.
The two drivers, however, showed only 0.02 BAC. They were not charged because they did not reach the thresh-old.
Calderon said as of the press time, no public utility driver has been apprehended violating the law.
Calderon said so far only Davao City and Mati City have implemented the law in Re-gion 11, with the other areas still in the process of training their police and local traffic enforcers.
Places with on-going train-ing are Tagum City, Island Gar-den City of Samal, and Com-postela Valley Province. Next week, the LTO will train the local enforcers of Digos City.
Calderon said on the third week of June the LTO will con-duct full implementation of the law after the office finishes the training of local enforcers.
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 20156 EDGEDAVAO
ECONOMY
THE Banko Sentral ng Pil-ipinas (BSP) announced on Friday the complete
facing out of old bank notes and will start circulating the new design series in the econ-omy by 2017.
“The start of the demone-tization is on January1, 2017. The old series of banknote will no longer have monetary value. Only the new banknote series will remain as legal ten-der in the country,” BSP deputy governor for monetary stabil-ity sector Diwa C. Guinigundo said in a briefing at the BSP-Davao.
Demonetization refers to the process of the process of removing the monetary value of a legal tender currency by BSP.
Guinigundo said for this year the old banknotes series can still be used for daily trans-actions while starting January 1, 2016, the old banknote se-ries can no longer be used in daily transactions and can be only exchanged in authorized agent banks and BSP cash de-partment or any regional offic-es or BSP branches.
He said universal banks, commercial banks, thrift banks including saving banks and private development banks and rural banks under the supervision of BSP are the au-
thorized agent banks that are allowed to engage in the ex-change of the old series with the new series.
“What will replace the old banknote series launched in 1985 consist of eight denom-inations, namely P5, P10, P50, P200,P500 and the P1000 piso is the new series,” Guinigundo said.
Of the 2.8 billion pieces of combined old and new series circulating in the Philippine economy, only 540 to 560 million pieces of old series of banknotes are left and up for demonetization.
“We’re expecting that all old series of banknote will be retired before the end of 2016,” Guinigundo said
“Among the reasons we de-monetized the old banknotes is because this is one way of safe-guarding the integrity of the currency to protect it against counterfeiters,” he added.
The BSP official further said that there is a need to re-place the old bills with new de-signed banknotes because the new one are printed with sig-nificant events years after the launching of old bills in 1935.
“Our new generated cur-rencies (NGC) are printed not just with faces of past presi-dents but also with faces we consider our heroes. It is also
THE Philippine Banana Exporters and Growers Association (PBGEA)
said Davao Region’s export volume of bananas to Japan and the Middle East will de-crease by 20 to 30 percent in the first six months of the year.
PBGEA executive direc-tor Stephen Antig said the expected drop in the region-al banana export industry is attributed to the mild El Niño phenomenon.
“It will not definitely as
big as compared to last year’s banana export,” Antig said.
Last year’s exportation to Japan, China, South Korea and Middle East for the sec-ond quarter of the year was pegged at US$480 million.
Antig said banana pro-duction areas in Davao del Sur and all the way to General Santos City and Saranggani Province have been damaged by the long drought season, which is expected to end by December as forecasted by the government’s weather
station Pag-asa.“A lot of banana farmers,
especially the small ones who cannot afford the installation of an irrigation system, have been affected by El Niño,” An-tig said.
Banana industry stake-holders here are hoping that the exported banana will re-duce by half just because of El Niño by the end of year, ac-cording to him.
Antig also feared that the banana export would de-
THE Philippine proper-ty sector is expected to sustain its growth in
2015 as the country’s strong economic performance, rising business sector, and expanding export market will contrib-ute to another stellar perfor-mance.
Aside from the familiar places such as Makati, Boni-facio Global City, Ortigas and Quezon City, Davao City also presents big potential to be-
come a major real estate mar-ket given the region’s contin-ued strong economic growth and emerging tourism indus-try.
The Board of Investments (BOI) recently reported that P17.4 billion worth invest-ments are expected in 2015 for the Davao Region, mostly in real estate development and agriculture. Davao City is still considered the most urban-ized city in the region and in
Mindanao, having the biggest share in housing projects.
More investors are warm-ing up to the business oppor-tunities offered by Davao’s real estate market. Among these is Torre Lorenzo Development Corporation (TLDC), invest-ing P4 billion on three luxury property development proj-ects in the region.
printed with iconic natural wonders that are mostly rec-ognized by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul-tural Organization (UNESCO) and species that can be only found here like tarsier and the
Philippine Eagle,” Guinigundo said.
According to him, the NGCs features the new BSP logo, and available in six de-nominations, including 20-, 50-, 100-, 200-, 500-, and
1000- piso.“The security thread is
wider compared to the old banknote series,” he said. “The serial number is still com-posed of one of two prefix letters and six to seven digits
which are increasing in size.”Meanwhile, he assured
that even with the demon-etization of old series, there is enough pieces of new banknotes circulating in the economy.
PBGEA: Davao’s banana export bulk to decrease
FPBGEA, 10
FDAVAO’S, 10
WEEKEND UPDATE. SM Lanang Premier tenant relations officer Josh Supan gives updates of the mall’s Lanang Weekend Market which is being participated in by various companies such as organic producers and furniture makers. Supan graced the FAST Fridays media forum at Barrio Fiesta in SM Lanang Premier. Lean Daval Jr.
Andi and Ellie joined other mother-and-child duos from Davao in conquer-ing the Abreeza Mall runway—a fitting highlight that strengthened the mall’s on-going Mompowerment May campaign. In keeping with the campaign’s goal of cel-ebrating and empowering all the moms who make great things happen for them-selves and their families in various ways, Abreeza Mall invited moms from dif-ferent fields in the Davao community to model the latest pieces from Abreeza Mall retailers with their little ones. Among the moms who were fashion models for a day were Stockbridge International School vice-president for operations Careen Lim-Hao Bian, Manic Nightnings proprietor Kat Dalisay, Sun.Star Davao columnist
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015
EDGEDAVAOINdulge! EVENT
Andi and Ellie Eigenmann graceAbreeza Mall’s
STYLE ORIGINSTYLE ORIGIN, the annual fashion event that tours around Aya-la Malls nationwide, once again took over Abreeza Mall’s Activity Center on May 22. This year, Abreeza Mall’s community fashion show starred young actress and celebrity mom Andi Eigenmann and her daughter Ellie, who both strutted down the runway for the show’s finale.
Andi A4
Andi and Ellie Eigenmann in GAP.
Esprit.
Dorothy Perkins. Mango. Promod.
A2 INdulge! VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015EDGEDAVAOEVENT
AirAsiaPH backs Geeks on a Beach 2015 Back-to-school is cool with ASUS NotebooksPREP UP for this school year with ASUS notebooks-- now with even more incred-ible prices. Checkout below for the amaz-ing and affordable price specifically made for the young ones! From touch notebooks to 2-in-1 hybrid devices, to gaming and multimedia laptops, ASUS gives you the right device that’s perfect for your every need. ASUS Notebooks give you the needed perfor-mance in order for you to finish all your schoolwork. Windows 8.1 and ASUS exclusive touchpad gestures make them convenient to use when multi-tasking. From now until June 30, selected ASUS Notebooks are now bundled with trendy Quiksilver backpacks worth PHP1,990 – PHP2,990 so you can bring your device wherever you go.
GEEKS ON A BEACH (GOAB), the international tech confab which re-turns this August 2015 to Boracay Island, gets back-ing from Air Asia Philip-pines. In the event launching today at the Azia Suites in Cebu City, GOAB organizers announced that AirAsia Phil-ippines CEO Joy Caneba will be giving the keynote ad-dress during GOAB in behalf of Asia’s leading and largest low-cost carrier. “AirAsia Philippines is ex-cited to take part in an event renowned to be the Interna-tional Summit for Tech, Start-ups and Design in the coun-try. We are more than glad to share our own experience of building tech innovations that enhance the lives of or-dinary people,” said Caneba. GOAB has been providing an international platform for startups or innovation-driven enterprises, techno-preneurs, and designers with
a laid back yet productive in-teraction and discussion on technology, entrepreneur-ship, and actual business op-portunities. Caneba said that AirAsia Philippines’ backing of GOAB is a reaffirmation of the seri-ousness of its efforts to take roots in the Philippines by supporting its budding tech and startup communities. The airline has earned a reputation for making air travel experience more con-venient through tech inno-vations such as the mobile, web, and kiosk check-ins. GOAB’s lead organizer TechTalks.ph, a non-profit or-ganization dedicated to em-powering Filipino tech entre-preneurs and promoting the Philippine tech sector to the world, emphasized that this year’s event will be about less the hype and more ac-tion. “Our success these past 2 years has pushed GOAB to return to Boracay Island this
August 20-21 with a triple splash — triple number of in-novative minds, triple fund-ing opportunities, and triple doses of fun,” said Tina Am-per, TechTalks.ph founder. Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), the country’s leading wireless service pro-vider, and IdeaSpace, the largest privately-backed early stage startup incubator in the country, have also con-sistently supported GOAB for the past three years since the event’s first staging in Bora-cay. “This year marks a transi-tion of the Philippine startup ecosystem - from potentials to success stories. The 3rd Geeks on a Beach will be as exciting as ever as we go back to Boracay - a conver-gence of the best minds in the country with the best beach in the world.” said Earl Martin S. Valencia, president at IdeaSpace and VP for cor-porate innovation and strat-egy at Smart.
Also expressing support in behalf of the Smart Develop-er Network is Paul Amerigo Pajo, senior manager and de-veloper evangelist at Smart. “Developers want to meet startups. Startups want to meet developers. Geeks On A Beach is one of the few events that cater to both.” “SMART and IdeaSpace have been with us from the very beginning. And now we also have AirAsia with us. We are very happy to have more and more businesses, sea-soned entrepreneurs, and even people from govern-ment backing GOAB,” said Amper. She said that twenty tech champs in the world have so far confirmed their atten-dance to speak before an expected 600 participants from across the globe. Some of the speakers in-clude IdeaSpace President, Earl Valencia; Monk’s Hill Ventures Managing Director, Kuo-Yi Lim; Kickstart Ven-
tures President, Minette Na-varrete; Rappler CEO, Maria Ressa; SMART Communica-tions Developer Evangelist, Paul Pajo; Department of Sci-ence and Technology-Infor-mation and Communication Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) Deputy Executive Di-rector, Mon Ibrahim; and 500 Startups Managing Partner, Khailee Ng. TechTalks.ph and the DOST-ICTO have partnered once again with Sym.ph, Happy Garaje, and PRWorks for the third GOAB, and ma-jor partnerships with Smart through the Smart Devel-oper Network, IdeaSpace, Microsoft, and Monk’s Hill Ventures. To register, sponsor, or inquire about GOAB, visit the website, www.GeeksO-nABeach.com<http://www.geeksonabeach.com/>, fol-low @GeeksOnABeach in Facebook and Twitter @GeeksOnABeach, or [email protected]
GUMASA, Glan—Smart Communications (Smart), in partnership with the Province of Sarangani, hosted a series of events during Sarangani Bay Festival, an annual event which promotes Saran-gani as an eco-tourism hub. Smart supported the biggest summer beach festival in south-ern Mindanao by staging a chal-lenging triathlon course, among others. A coastal cleanup was also organized by Smart to gener-ate public awareness on the need to protect and preserve the rich marine resources of the province. The pristine waters and coastal terrain of Glan was once more the venue to the 2nd SarBay Swim-Bike-Run for the Environment participated in by Filipino and foreign athletes last May 16. But changes were made in this year’s route to make it more challeng-ing for the participants. Michael Murphy, an Austra-lian triathlete that represented the Philippine Red Cross, ex-pressed how challenging the race was after taking the lead in the Olympic category in just over 2 hours and 22 minutes. “The race was unbelievable. It was my first time here in Sarbay (triathlon) and it blew my expec-tations,” Murphy said. “It was one of the toughest courses I have ever
been in a bike-and-run. But what kept me going were the cheers of the children and the crowd…it’s like an entire community is root-ing for you.” Murphy, who is also an ad-vocate for the environment, re-vealed he is planning to start a training camp in Sarangani Bay to prepare himself for next year’s triathlon event. Seasoned triathletes like Mur-phy opted for the standard or “Olympic” category, which in-cluded a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-
km bike ride, and 10-km run, for a total of 51.5 kms. A total of 36 triathletes accepted this challeng-ing trail, including Lea Coline Langit, who was first in the over-all standard female category. Meanwhile, beginners regis-tered themselves in the “Sprint” category, which was half the dis-tance traversed in the Olympic category. Young triathletes domi-nated the Sprint category with Kimi Jade Wee, 16, and Gennex Rey Combatir, 15, both from the Gensan Red Sea Lions (GRSL),
finishing first and second. Part of the proceeds from the triathlon event will go to the tur-tle hatchery in the town of Maa-sim. Nova Concepcion, senior manager and head of environ-ment and disaster preparedness programs of Smart Public Af-fairs, said the triathlon was origi-nally conceived as a “Bike for the Environment” similar to what the telco is doing to boost public awareness in its other environ-mental advocacies. However, it
was deemed a triathlon would better showcase the coastal area and its challenging terrain. “Smart is known for innova-tion. Activities like the SarBay Fest triathlon is an innovative way of amplifying public support for an environmental cause like preserving the coastal waters of Sarangani Bay as a marine habi-tat. Through initiatives like this, we have raised funds to support a specific advocacy. This time, we will help ensure that the turtle hatchery in Maasim is protected,” said Concepcion. Meanwhile, around 10,000 fin-gerlings of bangus were released during the coastal cleanup led by Smart last May 17. Donated by the Alcantara Foundation, the fingerlings were released to re-plenish the supply of bangus in
Smart supports SarBay Fest, advocates preservation of the environment
UP AND ABOUT
INdulge! A3VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015 EDGEDAVAO
Lifestyle Network adopts new tagline and logo
‘Pangako Sa’Yo’ debuts as most-watched TV program
Back-to-school is cool with ASUS Notebooks LIFESTYLE NETWORK
expands its reach among Filipinos by adopting the new tag-line “love your life” and a new logo that appears in its programs and so-cial media platforms to communicate to young Filipinos. Lifestyle’s channel head Tippy Benedito says that the revamp-ing was needed for the channel to evolve and connect with young, fun-loving Filipinos. “For 16 years, Lifestyle has established itself as the one-stop lifestyle hub for career-driven Filipinos. As the channel turns a year older, we have decided to cater to the younger crowd as well to involve them in the channel’s call to embrace and love life,” Benedito shares. With its expansion, Lifestyle will launch a roster of new shows this June that appeals
to its younger audience. Part of the line-up is the Emmy-winning lifestyle show “1st Look” hosted by Audrina Patridge, who shows the best destinations, adven-tures, and must-try eats each week. Beefing up the food programming strand are “Brunch @ Bobby’s Season 4,” the cooking show of renowned chef Bobby Flay and “Sweet Julia,” a sinful dessert show featuring Julia Baker, a patissier and master chocolatier who infuses sweet flavors in savory dishes. Lifestyle also show-cases a brand new TV series that will hook young Filipinos. Ameri-can drama “Chasing life” follows the life of ambi-tious twenty-something April (Italia Ricci) who is suddenly diagnosed with cancer. The rest of Lifestyle’s new shows this June are
“Rachel Khoo’s Ktichen Notebook: Cosmopoli-tan Cook,” “Model TV,” “Italian Food Safari,” and “Port Town Walks in Hokkaido.” It also re-tains its originally pro-duced shows, “Listed,” “Food Prints,” “Curios-ity Got The Chef,” “Life-style Shorts,” “A Pinch of Portia,” and “Scene & Heard,” among others. Aside from new titles, Lifestyle continues its aim of bringing Filipinos closer to the interna-tional scene. On June 27, Lifestyle airs the Tony Awards and hit foreign films each Saturday for young adults such as the “Silver Linings Playbook.” For more updates, log on to Lifestyle’s Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LifestyleNetwork), Twitter (https://twitter.com/lifestyle52), and In-stagram (https://insta-gram.com/lifestylenet-work/).
ABS-CBN’s highly anticipated prime-time drama series “Pangako Sa’yo” made a grand comeback on tele-vision as the re-make of the clas-sic Filipino love story topbilled by Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Ber-nardo debuted as the most-watched TV program in the country. According to data from Kantar Media last Monday (May 25), the pilot episode of “Pan-gako Sa’yo” topped the
list of most-watched TV programs in Philippines with a national TV rating of 34%. It is more than double than its rival pro-gram in GMA “Let the Love Begin” (15%). Meanwhile, even be-fore “Pangako Sa’yo” aired its pilot episode, the show’s official hashtag #PSYAngU-nangPagIbig already became a worldwide and nationwide trend-ing topic on the micro-blogging site Twitter because of the fans’ excitement for the new primetime offering. Positive tweets flooded
social networking sites as netizens praised the effective performances of Jodi Sta. Maria, Ian Veneracion, and Angeli-ca Panganiban as Amor, Eduardo, and Claudia, respectively. Helmed by three of the best directors in the country Rory Quin-tos, Dado Lumibao, and Olivia Lamasan, “Pan-gako Sa’yo” revolves around the promise of true and never-ending love from two generations—the love story of Amor and Eduardo, who were separated by Claudia,
PREP UP for this school year with ASUS notebooks-- now with even more incred-ible prices. Checkout below for the amaz-ing and affordable price specifically made for the young ones! From touch notebooks to 2-in-1 hybrid devices, to gaming and multimedia laptops, ASUS gives you the right device that’s perfect for your every need. ASUS Notebooks give you the needed perfor-mance in order for you to finish all your schoolwork. Windows 8.1 and ASUS exclusive touchpad gestures make them convenient to use when multi-tasking. From now until June 30, selected ASUS Notebooks are now bundled with trendy Quiksilver backpacks worth PHP1,990 – PHP2,990 so you can bring your device wherever you go.
the area. Apart from tuna, Sa-rangani is also known for its ban-gus and the Alcantaras are one of its bigger producers in the area. Smart has embraced its protec-tion and conservation as part of its corporate social responsibility. Not only has it planted a million trees and mangroves in various adopted upland and coastal sites all over the country, it has also in-tegrated green merchandising in its operations, making use of eco-friendly materials for its out-of-home merchandising materials. It is also one of the main pro-ponents of the Marikina Water-shed Initiative that pushes for the rehabilitation, reforestation and protection of the Upper Marikina River Basin, which will prevent severe flooding in Metro Manila and other low-lying areas.
Smart supports SarBay Fest, advocates preservation of the environment
ENTERTAINMENT
and the couple brought together by destiny, Yna (Kathryn) and Angelo (Daniel). Don’t miss the excit-ing continuation of the classic Filipino love story on television, “Pangako Sa’yo,” weeknights after “Nathaniel” on ABS-CBN Primetime Bida. For ex-clusive updates, log on
toTwitter.com/StarCre-ativesTV and Instagram.com/StarCreativesT V. Meanwhile, viewers may also catch up on full episodes and past episodes of “Pangako Sa’yo” through ABS-CBNmobile. For more information, please go to www.abscbnmobile.com.
PG
PG
PG 12:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS
R-16
YOU'RE STILL THE ONE
Maja Salvador, Dennis Trillo
PG 12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS
TOMORROWLAND
12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS
SAN ANDREAS
Alexandra Daddario, Dwayne Johnson
1:00 | 4:00 | 7:00 | 10:00 LFS
George Clooney, Britt Robertson
PITCH PERFECT 2
Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson
May 28 – June 2, 2015
A4 INdulge!EVENT
Jenny Molbog-Mendoza, and Oomph! Radio station man-ager and entrepreneur Joey Sy-Domingo. No less than 40 Abreeza Mall merchants covering men’s and women’s apparel, kids’ and teens’ wear, active life-style picks, footwear, bags, and accessories took part in this much-anticipated annual fash-ion showcase; namely, Armani Exchange, Artwork, Bratpack, Cache Cache, Calvin Klein Jeans, CLN, Collezione C2, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Esprit, Fox, GAP, Gingersnaps, Giordano, Guess, Herschel, Isis,
Andi A1 Izod, Just G, Lacoste, Mags, Mango, Marithe + Francois Girbaud, Marks & Spencer, Nautica, Nike Athletic Club, Nothing But H2O, Onesimus, Original Penguin, Petrol, Plains & Prints, Promod, Silver Finds, SOUL Lifestyle, Springfield, Res Toe Run, R.O.X., Wrangler, and XOXO. Ayala Malls Style Origin 2015 is presented in partnership with The Philippine STAR YStyle, TIGER 22 media corporation, and Starworld. Local sponsors for Abreeza Mall’s Style Origin are Seda Abreeza Hotel, Cebu Pacific Air, TGI Fridays, and Hairless: The Laser Hair Clinic. For inquiries and updates on Abreeza Mall’s Mompow-erment May news and events, please visit the Main Concierge at the ground floor or call (082) 321-9332. Stay updated by liking www.facebook.com/Abreeza-Mall and following @abreeza-tweets on Twitter and @ilove-abreezamall on Instagram.
Collezione Kat Dalisay and her daughter in Nike.
Careen Lim-Hao Bian and her son in Giordano.
Calvin Klein.Armani Exchange.
Marithe + Francois Girbaud.
Andi and Ellie share a light moment on the catwalk.
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015EDGEDAVAO
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015 7EDGEDAVAO
PROPERTY
SMARTHOME. Aeon Towers, the signature project of FTC Group of Companies, is a future-ready community fitted with state of the art technology. A fiber optic backbone goes through every unit.Fused with wireless technology,it gives every unit resident the opportunity to experience a new level of modern,truly smart and connected living. With Smarthome,the house takes care of you.A touch-screen master controller allows you to dim tour light,turn your air Condi-tioner on or off,draw your curtains,play your favorite music at will,adjust your shower temperature,and control your door access wherever you are,whenever you are.
DLI begins sales drive across Mindanao
AEON TOWERS
DAMOSA LAND INC.
NOT long after its suc-cessful groundbreak-ing ceremony, Damosa
Land, Inc. took to the road to introduce its latest residential project, Seawind by Damosa Land. Perched on a sloping 2.8 hectare property in Barangay Sasa with an unobstructed view of the Davao Gulf and Samal Island, Seawind is tar-geting the young and vibrant market. Hence Damosa Land’s involvement in various color-ful events all over Mindanao.
Damosa Land did not miss any opportunity to join various parties to celebrate this year’s summer season. The team toured Mati, Davao Oriental to be at the Sum-merfrolic Party as one of the Major Sponsors of the event. It went on to participate in a series of events such as the
Colors of Summer Party at Pearl Farm Beach Resort, Sa-mal Island; the Palarong Pam-bansa in Tagum, Davao Del Norte, wherein they were also a partner; the Philbex 2015 at SM Lanang, Davao City; the Acoustic Nights at Valley High, General Santos City; and the Sarbay Festival in Sarangani Province.
The Company’s efforts eventually bore fruit as Seaw-ind’s Tower 1 (out of 6 towers) has already been sold out with sales of Tower 2 continuing at a similar pace.
“As a Mindanao based de-veloper, we wanted to give fel-low Mindanaoans first crack at our project. Of course we will be targeting markets outside of Mindanao and abroad, but we felt that the demand from the local market would be
strong,” said Cary Floirendo Lagdameo, Damosa Land, Inc. vice president.
Damosa Land promises big projects this year. It looks to expand further with proj-ects that have residential, ac-ademic, commercial and busi-ness components.
He added, “The series of events we took part in will definitely not be the last as we are determined to bring Da-mosa Land to the rest of Min-danao.”
Damosa Land is the real estate and property develop-ment company of the Anflocor Group – the company that is responsible for developing business and lifestyle oriented commercial center Damosa District and the boutique res-idential community Damosa Fairlane.
A property specialist attends to a client at the Damosa Land booth at Philbex 2015 in Davao City.
Damosa Land was one of the partners of the Palarong Pambansa 2015.
Damosa Land joins in on the fun at the Sarbay Fest in Sarangani Province
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 20158 EDGEDAVAO
VANTAGE
Standing by free speechEDITORIAL
WITH Mayor Rodrigo Duterte making it more and more clear what his intentions are as far as the 2016 presidential election is concerned, many non-
Dabawenyos are voicing out concern that if he wins the country would fall headlong into martial law. There is a seeming distortion being made in various platforms showing Davao City residents cowering in fear under a dictator who treats both criminals and peace-loving citizens in the same iron-handed manner. Nothing, of course, can be farther from the truth, and one need not be a Duterte supporter to back up this claim. Every person in the city enjoys a peaceful and free city whether or not he or she is a fan of the mayor’s. It is probably hard for non-Dabawenyos to imagine a leader who has two distinctly different aspects, one benevolent to citizens and the other tough on criminals, but there he is.
Those who fear a clampdown on free speech under a Duterte leadership should go back to February of 2006 when then-President Gloria Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1017 placing the entire country under a state of national emergency due to an alleged coup
planned by military officials. Under the proclamation all licenses and permits to hold demonstrations and protests were revoked. Throughout the country, the government clamped down on all such gatherings — a scenario that was likened to martial law declared in September 1972 by then-President Ferdinand Marcos. An uneasy silence followed — except in Davao City where Duterte allowed all groups to continue their mass actions. Even the media went on a protest march without even a reminder or word of warning from from City Hall.
Few people outside Davao City know that even today, rallies can be held here without a permit. Mayor Duterte is one of the few who leaders who respects freedom of speech so much he does not require anyone to ask permission before speaking their mind in a public place. He has also never told a media outfit to stop reporting on particular issues. If anything, the media here can count on the mayor to stand by them whenever their right to free speech is being threatened. Perhaps ironically, we can actually foresee a much freer media under Duterte.
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
Printed by Zion Accuprint Publishing Inc. Door 14 ALCREJ Building,
Quirino Avenue, 8000, Davao City, PhilippinesTel: (082) 301-6235
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NEILWIN JOSEPH L. BRAVOManaging Editor
AGAPITO JOAQUIN JR.Associate Editor
CHARLES RAYMOND A. MAXEYConsultant
FUNNY PEARL GAJUNERACHA MONFORTE
Correspondents
ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.CHENEEN R. CAPON
Reporters
OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager
RICHARD C. EBONAMarketing Supervisor
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PHILIPPINE PRESS INSTITUTEthe national association of newspapers
QUESTION:Why do some people want a divorce?
ANSWER: Because they think it’s an idea whose time has come.
Q: What?A: Nothing is permanent. There will be
changes in human traditions, beliefs, and us-ages. Take family and religious values. In some First World nations (Europe, U.S., etc.), there are laws allowing divorce, same sex marriage, mercy killing, etc. Pro divorce guys say only two countries have no law favoring divorce, the Vati-can and the Philippines.
Q: What is divorce?A: Juan is single, Fe is single. When they mar-
ry, their civil status is changed to Juan married – Fe married. If they divorce, the civil status of Juan is again changed from married to single; Fe’s civil status is also changed from married to single. Juan can marry another. Fe can also mar-ry another.
Q: Divorce and legal separation?A: We have legal separation but no divorce.
Fe filed legal separation against Juan and there is a court order of separation. They can now live separated. Their civil status will be Juan married separated, Fe married separated. However, both cannot marry other persons.
Q: Annulment?A: Fe filed an annulment case and there is a
court order annulling the marriage of Juan and Fe. Their civil status is changed to Juan married annulled, Fe married annulled. They can marry others.
Q: What is the difference between divorce and annulment?
A: Juan cannot file a divorce case because we have no divorce law but he can file an annulment case.
Q: What else?A: The spelling and pronunciation is not the
same. Juan filed a case for annulment. There is a decision that Juan forced Fe to marry him or Fe forced Juan to marry her or both Juan and Fe did not give their consent freely but forced by their
parents. The court will annul the marriage. It is hard to prove that Juan or Fe is forced to mar-ry because the marriage ceremony is an open public place and the solemnizing officer (Judge, Priest, Mayor, etc.) will ask both “Do you take Juan/Fe to be your spouse.”
Q: Divorce?A: The most common ground for divorce is
irreconcilable differences. Petty ordinary quar-rels is enough ground to allow divorce if the couple often disagree. Some states in the USA like Nevada allow no fault divorce, meaning Juan who filed the case does not have to prove it is his fault or Fe’s. Some states allow uncontested divorce, meaning: Juan files a case and Fe does not oppose it. This is uncontested divorce. The court will easily and often time immediately ap-prove it.
Q: Is divorce part of Pilipino culture and tra-dition?
A: No, we were under Spain from 1521 to 1898 and we had no divorce. We were under America from 1898 to 1942. Americans have divorce but they never pushed Pilipino lawmak-ers to pass a divorce law because they knew it is against our culture.
Q: Did we ever had divorce?A: Yes, we had under Japan from 1942 to
1945. The Japanese created a Kalibapi Filipino Puppet Republic which passed a divorce law. When America returned and gave us indepen-dence in 1946, the Japanese created Divorce law was one of the first laws repealed by our na-tion. This is the best evidence that our nation is against divorce.
Q: How?A: If it’s good, the divorce law would not
have been repealed.Q: Is it true that the 1935 and the 1973 Con-
stitutions were against divorce?
A: False, the two constitutions were silent on this matter. The 1986 Constitution is specific that family is the foundation of the nation and guarantees the inviolability of marriage.
Q: The Vatican and the Philippines are the only two nations without divorce. Is this not a stigma, mark of backwardness, or of being out of touch with reality?
A: No, it is a badge of honor. It shows we do not follow worldly whims. Just because there are only two nations without divorce does not mean the rest of the world is correct. We trust in the judgement of the church and our own family values, not worldly materialistic secular culture. This April, news items appeared in all local and national newspapers that Congress will con-sider a divorce bill. These items were indorsed by pro divorce people to test the waters. If the public response will be who cares, no, yes, or not now it is best we should react strongly at once otherwise our silence might be misunderstood as indifference, surrender or weakness. It is also important to know if the state is neutral for or against divorce.
Q: What is the position of the state regarding marriage and the family?
A: The constitution says “The state recog-nizes the sanctity of family and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution (Art. 2 Sec. 12)”. The state rec-ognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation. Accordingly, it shall strengthen its solidarity and actively promote its total develop-ment (Art. 15 Sec. 1). Marriage as an inviolable social institution is the foundation of the family and shall be protected by the state (Art. 15, Sec. 2).
Q: Is there a connection between the Consti-tution and the divorce bill?
A: Yes, the Constitution is clear that mar-riage is an inviolable social institution and shall be protected by the state. Divorce will dissolve the marriage and dissolve the family which is the foundation of the nation. This constitution does not allow a law that says the states shall
strengthen its solidarity and actively promote its total development (Art. 15, Sec. 2, 3) Art. 2, Sec. 12 and Art. 15, Sec. 2, 3 are very solid stonewalls placed by the 66 Commissioners who made the Constitution in 1986 to protect the family and marriage.
Q: But Congress seemed open to divorce.A: No. There are 24 senators and 200 plus
congressmen who must approve the divorce bill before it is sent to the President. The President may or may not sign it into law. There has been no head count in Congress as to how many Sen-ators and how many Representatives will vote yes to divorce. The point is we should not panic so that the faithful will not be demoralized.
Q: How influential is the yes divorce?A: We do not know but Congress and the
President know that the Constitution is emphat-ic about the family and marriage.
Q: That’s a relief.A: The lawmakers and the President like all
public officials and employees took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Maybe if Congress approves Divorce Bill and the Presi-dent signs it into law, they could be charged with violating the Constitution.
Q: What are the chances that the Represen-tatives will hold public hearings about divorce between now and December 2015?
A: Remote. The lawmakers are now busy campaigning, preparing for their re-election and as the candidates for Senator, President, Vice-President, Governor, Mayor, etc.
Q: Hay salamat.A: No, we should not relax. The pro-divorce
group will relentlessly continue their propagan-da/public information campaign even if Con-gress is slow in acting on this bill. We should go on a full all-out dissemination program down to the individual family and GKK (Gagmayng Kris-tohanong Katilingban) or small Christian com-munities level.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Quitain Divorce Primer is produced by Jesus V. Quitain, a re-tired judge of the Regional Trial Court
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO
The Carabao in the roomWATER, Irrigation, and Duterte. In
a statement that came from outside current political discussions, Davao
City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte startled many by suddenly talking about the need to provide free irrigation in our farmlands. Similar to his advo-cacy for the return of the return of the manda-tory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and the call for a self reliant armed forces, the position taken is a departure from established thinking about the value of such an important pillar of agricultural production, and like the other positions, brings attention to issues that are absent from discussions in Manila’s politi-cal circles and mainstream media.
Irrigation makes happy farms, and is of vital importance to the State
Irrigation is a vital need in an agricultural country with rice as the people’s staple. Rice is a difficult crop, and the availability of the right amount of water is key to good harvests, which in turn, determine the cost of the staple that the population consumes daily. Truth be told, only 56% of our irrigable areas are actually provid-ed with Irrigation (NIA, 2014). Furthermore, reality has it that a majority of our farmers are actually considered poor, and that should wor-ry us, because a stable, productive, and happy farm sector is what will sustain our quality of life as a whole. Food availability and scarcity affects prices in the proverbial basket of goods for all Filipinos. Along with electricity and transport, a sudden spike in the price of basic needs has a profound impact on those barely
able to survive the day, many of whom are farming fami-lies.
As the World Bank itself conser-vatively esti-mates that a third of our population live below the of-ficial poverty line, it is not surprising that the farmers of the next generations will de-part from cultivating the land as they mature. Cycles of debt and ill production makes their living difficult. This is the obvious case in Cala-barzon, where the offspring of farmers, having achieved some social mobility through educa-tion, will not continue the farming of their par-ents and instead push the sale of the farmland and divide the cash. This has contributed to the uncontrolled urban sprawl of the greater Met-ro Manila area, pushing agricultural production areas farther away and, due to higher transport costs along expensive tollways, raising the price of agricultural commodities for Metro residents.
Available and affordable irrigation helps protect our food from climate change and other uncertainties
Duterte hails from the Davao region, a collection of provinces falling under Modified Coronas Climate Classification Type 4, which means that rainfall is more or less distributed evenly throughout the year. Essentially, this means that rainfed agriculture is generally vi-able and productive, since dry periods are not as long as those in Luzon, allowing for relative-ly sustained production for most of the year. Now, climate change coming as instant drought skews the climate classifications and creates havoc on the planting and harvesting sched-ules of all famers in the Philippines, even those in Davao and Southern Mindanao. Moreover, in Luzon and the Visayas, and even Northern Mindanao, more frequent strong typhoons are observed. Climate change threatens farm pro-ductivity, the availability and price of our food supply, and the viability of the farmers’ liveli-hood. Irrigation support is needed to weather these. Simply put, we cannot control weather and cannot dictate when droughts come, but we can plan for how much water is available when the drought comes.
Beyond being a buffer to climate change, having the right kind of irrigation is a call for government to get its agricultural priorities in a way that it can help farm sector achieve some stability against the uncertainties of the global economy. The amount and quality of water made available for the farmer is a vari-able in agricultural production we can plan for and invest in. Prices of other inputs and com-modity prices for harvested crops may vary in the global market, but the cost and amount
of water government can plan to be relatively stable over time, with investments in the right infrastructure. Likewise, having less costly ir-rigation lowers the costs of production for the poor farmer, and can help make his production less costly, improving his quality of life, possibly even lowering the farmgate price for other con-sumers. Of course, it can be argued that Thai-land and Vietnam, both located in the water rich Mekong Delta, can produce cheaper rice than the Philippines, and that it may be cheap-er to import this rice than it will be to produce locally. But with political and military tensions brewing in the seas separating us from these rice producing countries, in-country rice pro-duction must be secure.
Calling the Carabao’s attentionThe Carabao (not the elephant) in the room
of Philippine politics is the fact that our atten-tion is drawn too much to being entertained by it. We love reading diatribes and hearing their responses and patuchadas. A cousin of mine often hollers for popcorn when politicians start trading barbs. But how much of Manila’s politics and the discussions inherent in them have real meaning to us, the governed? While some may or may not agree with Duterte’s ad-vocacies, his calls have thus far called attention to many vital issues that heretofore have been ignored or forgotten in Manila’s media and pol-icy circles. Perhaps we call the Carabao’s atten-tion by raising more of these issues so that we can tackle and eventually resolve them to move us forward as a country.
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 201510 NEWS EDGEDAVAO
No Plate... FROM 4
Duterte... FROM 4
PBGEA... FROM 6
DavOr... FROM 5 Davao’s... FROM 6
Maguindanao... FROM 4
crease in the next few months because of the untreatable Panama disease or fusarium wilt.
“Just like what I’ve said before, this banana disease is uncontrollable and we can’t eradicate it. We can just con-tain it,” he said.
Antig estimated that about 700 hectares are infect-ed with the disease.
Some multinational ba-nana corporation and the government have developed fusarium wilt-resistant vari-ety, but the quality of the pro-duce is beyond incomparable to Granine variety of Caven-dish banana.
The government has developed two Panama dis-ease-resistant banana variet-ies, namely the Giant Caven-dish Tissue Culture Variety (GCTCV) 218 and GCTCV 219 that are now grown in some demo plantations in the re-gion.
“If this is true, this will be good to the banana industry,” Antig said. However, these va-rieties are hard to reproduce.”
Antig also lauded the
effort of the Department of Agriculture 11 in implement-ing a 102-million eradication program for infected planta-tions on Davao.
He also feared that the export of banana in the region might be affected by the terri-torial dispute between Phil-ippines and China over the Spratley Island in the South China Sea.
China is the biggest ex-port market for Philippine Cavendish banana.
The exportation of ba-nana here, Antig said, might be affected by the bullish performance of Ecuador, the world’s largest exporter of ba-nana and first to Philippines.
He said Ecuador is now expanding its market.
“We fear that our largest export market for banana, China, will start importing 80 percent of its banana require-ment to Ecuador, leaving us with only 20 percent,” Antig said.
China is presently get-ting 80 percent of its banana import from the Philippines. Cheneen R. Capon
Residences, dusitD2 Hotel and Lubi Plantation Resort — will provide luxury accommoda-tions for guests and investors as these projects are in part-nership with Dusit Interna-tional. Having the renowned global hotel brand on board, Torre Lorenzo’s projects guar-antee to raise the bar in terms of quality accommodations in Davao.
Torre Lorenzo president Tomas P. Lorenzo said the properties promise to cater to the discerning tastes of local and international travellers seeking to take advantage of Davao’s booming tourism in-dustry.
“With an array of benefits for different levels of invest-ment, Davao offers the best val-ue in terms of doing business,” said Lorenzo. “As the Davao economy picks up, its property sector will strengthen and we will continue to see an upward trajectory. Now is the best time to capitalize on its real estate market given such favorable conditions.”
Dusit Thani Residences will feature 168 full-service residence units standing in a complex that offers own-ers and guests prime city and ocean views. Adjoining will be the 120-key upscale dusitD2 Hotel with a full suite of acces-sible facilities and amenities.
Both accommodations are located within Siam 8000, Torre Lorenzo’s first city com-munity project, located in Bu-hangin District, Davao City. The 1.2-hectare development aims to provide a discriminating
and highly diverse market with a self-contained and integrated master planned community.
Lorenzo said that they are also anticipating the rec-reational needs of a growing affluent market. “Torre Loren-zo’s first leisure community, Lubi Plantation Resort, will provide that one-of-a-kind ad-venture and experience.”
The Lubi Plantation Re-sort, easily accessible by a 30-minute private speedboat transfer, is a 37-hectare island paradise that will offer unpar-alleled accommodations and amenities of a private mem-bership club.
Lorenzo said the reason TLDC is bullish in Davao is because the city is one of the most progressive in the Philip-pines and is considered among the world’s safest cities.
“Our goal is to conceptu-ally start with the three proj-ects, and eventually embark on more development ventures in the long run. We believe that the local audience will be excit-ed for this kind of development in Davao, putting the region in the international tourists’ map and make it their destination of choice,” added Lorenzo.
Headquartered in Makati City, Torre Lorenzo first made a name in the real estate mar-ket through its highly success-ful student-targeted university housing project located well within Manila’s school district. The firm all the more solidified its reputation in the property industry with the development of its first township venture in Davao, Ciudades.
policy has been lifted, the No Registration No Travel policy is still being enforced.
She said last April her office apprehended 47 cars, of which only four were brand new bought in Manila while the remaining 43 were surplus.
She said the LTO slapped a
P10,000 on the 43 owners as it found that the vehicles had not been registered for the more than two years.
Calderon said LTO enforcers will still conduct a verification operation in the highways to make sure all vehicles in region are registered.
advances. Is that the spirit of EDSA that you are now talking about?” Duterte said.
“There is no more spir-it of EDSA because the very persons who fought in EDSA are the ones replacing the corrupt people now,” he add-ed.
In an earlier television
interview, Rosales had said she would campaign against Duterte if the mayor intends to conduct extrajudicial kill-ings if he became president.
Duterte, however, retort-ed that if a thousand Etta Ro-saleses campaigned against him, he would surely win the presidency.
to go out at night.Pregnant women were
heavily guarded as elders said the “aswang” was after the ba-bies in the wombs.
In Barangay Tapodoc, Aleosan, North Cotabato, simi-lar “aswang” stories were also reported. The mythical crea-ture allegedly transformed from a cat to a monster-like human and attacked three per-sons on Wednesday.
Villagers have armed themselves with sharp bam-boo poles, machete, knives and even firearms, and kept vigil
waiting for the “aswang”They put garlic at window
openings to drive away the “as-wang”, which is believed to dis-like the smell of the spice.
But for the Guiamad cou-ple, it’s no longer whether the “aswang” really exists or not.
Their worry was they were yet to receive anti-rabies vaccination, something they could not afford to buy.
Belief in “aswang” and oth-er malevolent creatures has persisted in many rural areas of the country. (Ferdinandh B. Cabrera/MindaNews)
IN response to the worsening political conflict in Yemen, the
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has implemented the Financial Relief Assistance Program (FRAP) by virtue of Board Resolution No. 3 and 4, Series of 2015 instructing the release of Php 10,000.00 financial grant to the OFWs (both OWWA member and non-member) who were displaced by the political unrest in Yemen. As per Memorandum of Instruction No. 004 Series of 2015, workers from Yemen who were repatriated after the government declared Alert Level 4 Status requiring mandatory
repatriation on February 16, 2015, are entitled to the one-time financial assistance. The program can be availed of by the repatriated OFW within six (6) months after his/her arrival in the Philippines.
As of May 25, 2015, a to-tal of 337 OFWs from strife-torn Yemen have already availed of the Php 10,000.00 financial grant. They belong to the group of 482 OFWs who have been repatriated so far from Yemen.
FRAP aims to provide immediate relief to OFWs while they are undergoing economic and social adjust-ments in their communities as a result of sudden dis-placement from their jobs.
Qualified OFWs could claim the financial grant at OWWA Regional Offices and should bring with them their passport or travel doc-uments indicating the date of entry to Yemen, date of exit from Yemen and date of arrival in the Philippines, and any government-issued ID with address or baran-gay certificate to establish the residency of the return-ing OFW.
OFWs from Yemen are provided airport assistance, temporary shelter and transport services and fares for their on-ward travel to their respective provinc-es. These post- repatria-tion services, including the FRAP, are components of
the Assist WELL Program of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) which stands for Welfare, Employment, Livelihood and Legal Assistance ex-tended by government agencies to the OFWs who were repatriated due to emergency situations at their respective jobsites.ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL MARKETING DIVISION (ASMD) Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Tel. No. (632) 891-7601 loc. 5414, 5603 or (632) 891-7741 Email ad-dress: [email protected]/ [email protected] Website: www.owwa.gov.ph
337 OFWs from Yemengiven 10K- FRAP from OWWA
THE University of Min-danao continually dis-plays the results of its
quality education as it wel-comes Jayrald D. Socorro in its roster of topnotchers for 2015 after placing third in the Licensure Examination
for Teachers.Socorro, a graduate of
the College of Teacher Ed-ucation with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Edu-cation majoring in Biological Science placed at 90% in the secondary level of the March
2015 LET. The University of Min-
danao has more than half the national average passing rate for first time takers of LET at 66.67% compared to the 31. 63% national average passing rate for the second-
ary level LET.Meanwhile at the ele-
mentary level, UM placed 88.89% average passing rate for first time takers, com-pared to the national aver-age passing rate of only 27. 42%.
UM grad is LET 3rd placer
ing Agricultural and Fisheries Council in the municipal level.
Winners under the indi-vidual roster received trophies and P 30,000 cash prize each while those in the group cat-egory received trophies and cash prize of P50,000 each.
The Gawad Saka is an an-
nual search of the Department of Agriculture which has be-come the highest form of rec-ognition to deserving farmers and fisherfolks in the country who have excelled in the var-ious sectors in agriculture. (With DavOr provincial infor-mation office)
GLOBE Business, Globe Telecom’s information and communications
technology (ICT) arm, spear-heads an engagement pro-gram dedicated to women in the corporate world dubbed as Project W. Women executives from around the Philippines in various industries are invited to a full day of enrichment that aims to empower their per-sonal and professional lives.
With Project W, women can learn new things through interactive forums as well as experience a well-deserved relaxation treat. The said pro-gram gives huge value to in-fluential women as part of the local driving force of the econ-omy with empowerment pro-grams and learning sessions that will give boost to their careers.
“We recognize the role of female leaders in the en-terprise industry as a driving force in steering the progress and growth of the country’s economy,” said Gerry Soler, Globe Telecom Director for Enterprise Group Marketing.
Soler said the Philippines “remains a great place” for working women, pointing out that the country has one of the biggest numbers of female executives in the world. Since more and more Filipinas are becoming leaders of enter-prises, there is also a growing need to empower them so they can strike a balance be-tween career and family life.
Initially rolled out in Cebu early this year, women lead-ers enjoyed activities such as informative forums with renowned speakers such as inspirational speaker Francis Kong and Professional image consultant and coach Olen Juarez-Lim, AICI FLC. As one of the past participants, Rose-marie Basan of MEDCOR INC. Philippine Branch shared, “The activity doesn’t only boost my self- confidence, it motivates me to be the best that I can be in everything I do! I also gained new business friends which is the best part of the program”.
The program held its culminating event over the weekend at Pearl Farm Resort in Davao with over 40 invited female executives. The pro-gram included a session with Juarez-Lim and was followed by make-up workshops where participants learned new ways to improve their every-day look and style.
Globe Business continues to strengthen its relationships with its enterprise partners through different activities such as golf tournaments, mentoring sessions and wom-en engagement programs. Cli-ents can also look forward to enhanced loyalty marketing programs such as Career & Life Design workshops head-lined by some of the country’s top inspirational speakers, complimentary pampering sessions, and fitness activities.
Globe Business spearheadswomen engagement program
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015 11EDGEDAVAO
COMPETITIVE EDGE
GEORGE Bascarpa, Paolo Camacho, Gilia Nolas-co, and Claudine Verga
emerged winners in the first ever Holiday Gym and Spa Teen Superbodies Circle of Four held last May 28 at the Abreeza Mall.
Named to the top five male selection were George Bascarpa, Lavesh Dhanwani, Dale Escudero, Paolo Camacho and Franz Chavez, while the top five female winners were Kimberly Haw, Gilia Nolasco, Nivole ALcober, Claudine Ver-ga, and Reina Vermont.
Special Awards were also given to Lavesh Dhanwani and
Trisha Dillera as Mr. & Ms. Con-geniality, George Bascarpa and Claudine Verga as Mr. & Ms. Photogenic, and Melvin Solon & Kimberly Haw as Mr. & Ms. Nature’s Spring (otherwise known as Mr. & Ms. Fitness Challenge).
The top ten selection, hosted by Mr. Rovicv Cuasito and 2013 Superbodies Win-ner Steffy Dacalos, was judged by Toffy Ledesma of Stunning Events, Architect Michael Dakudao, April Evangelista, school director of John Paul II College of Davao, Kat Dalisay of Manic Nightnings, Juliet Pa-mintuan, a well-known fashion
designer, and Mutya ng Davao 2015 Kris Abegail Guanzon.
Holiday Gym has been holding the Superbodies Search as part of their effort to invite people to join them in their campaign for healthy living. Since its 1st search held at The Venue in 2007, the suc-ceeding searches were held in 2010 and 2013.
This year, Holiday decided to hold a search that focuses mainly on the teenagers be-cause the team noticed that more and more teenagers are flocking to the gym not only during summer but even during regular school months.
And to make use of the poten-tial these young people have on encouraging their fellow youths to start healthy living, the Teen Edition was born.
Twenty-one teen members of Holiday Gym signed up and joined the almost two months of selection process that in-cluded a closed-door panel in-terview and fitness challenges. Gym attendance was also fac-tored in the selection for top ten, of course deportment, au-dience impact, physique, over-all appeal and their campaign slogan were also considered.
Holiday Gym thanked Mr. Arnold Alvarez, his technical
MORE than 700 Dabawenyos will toast milk for health-
ier mornings as Alaska spear-heads the celebration of the Alaska World Milk Day (AWMD) at the Open Parking B, SM City in Davao City on Sunday.
“We’re targeting 400 par-ticipants for the World Milk Day Family Run, and 300 for the Zumba this year,” M2M project manager Miriam Maramba for Alaska Milk Cor-poration said in a press brief-ing at The Marco Polo, Davao on Friday.
This is the second AWMD in Davao City as well as in Cebu and Baguio. Maramba said the first AWMD here last year was joined by about 475 Zumba enthusiasts at the Rizal Park.
“Alaska finally decided to bring the Family Run to Davao, Cebu and Baguio. For Manila, the fun run for the whole fam-ily has been done yearly since 2013,” she said.
For Davao City, the fami-ly run will be at 3 kilometers starting at the Open Parking
B of SM City Davao up to the intersection of Quimpo Bou-levard and McArthur Highway in Matina.
Maramba said the World Milk Day celebration is part of Alaska’s continuing com-mitment to promote proper nutrition and active lifestyle through its “Nutrition. Action. Champion” program.
“Alaska reinforces the im-portance of drinking milk and participation in sports and outdoor play among Filipinos,” she said. “ It also encourages children and families nation-wide to develop the habit of taking a nutritious breakfast through the ‘Alaska for Break-fast’ campaign,” she said.
With the “Alaska for Breakfast” campaign, break-fast stations and milk bars will be set-up in the area and will serve all participants with pandesal, champorado, and milk for free.
“This is to encourage them to develop the habit of having a good breakfast with milk which is crucial since break-fast will provide them with nutritious energy to start the
Holiday Gym and Spa TeenSuperbodies winners bared
team, and his Sining Tala Danc-ers for mounting the success-ful pageant, the designers of Stunning Events headed by Mr. Toffy Ledesma, Modern Tekni-ka, RDL Phils., Splash Corp., Unifrutti, Tanduay DIstillers,
Inc., EyeCrafter, Dole Stanfilco, Park Inn by Radisson Davao, ORIX Metro Finance & Leasing COrp., Bioskin, Camp Holiday, Nature’s Spring Drinking Wa-ter, Elements Salon, Maniniyot Community, and Detox Daily.
GUEST OF HONOR & SPEAKER MANUEL “Bobby” ORIG (2nd from left), Aboitiz Power Corp. 1st VP for Mindanao Affairs and Chairman of the Board of the Ateneo de Davao University, receives a plaque of appreciation from Asia Area President Yaz Okano of Japan during the 64th Philippine Regional Convention held on May 8-10, 2015 following his delivery of an Inspirational Message
entitled “a Life of Success and Significance” by underscoring that “A successful life can be measured by what you have gained and what you give back.” Also shown are Regional Director Paciencio “Jun” Rosalem (right) and Host Pres. Jose “Joval” Valenzuela Jr., of Y’s Men Club of Metro Davao. Regional Conven-tion Chairman is Leoncio “Nonoy” Villa-Abrille. Photo by Robinson Ninal Sr.
day right and get through it,” she said.
The nationwide celebra-tion will culminate in a na-tionwide Milk Toast at exactly 6 a.m. in which children and their families in the four ven-ues simultaneously drink milk and make a pledge to a healthy and active lifestyle.
The celebration of the third Alaska World Milk Day puts greater emphasis on the need to combat obesity and malnutrition in the country, Maramba said.
“According to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute’s 7th National Nutrition Survey in 2008, at least 16 million Fil-
ipinos aged 20 and above, and about 2 out of 10 children are overweight,” she added.
The yearly observance of World Milk Day through the Alaska Family Run and the Alaska for Breakfast campaign helps reverse this prevailing nutritional problem, which could lead to serious health,
economic, and social implica-tions in adulthood.
Alaska has chosen the Children’s Hour once again as this year’s beneficiary of the event. For every participant, Alaska will be donating an equivalent number 1.8 kilo-gram can of milk to Children’s Hour.
Claudine Verga shown here with the hosts and judges Mr. Michael Dakudao and Ms. April Evangelista The Teen Superbodies of 2015
The Top 5 Female
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015
OP E R A T I O N Smile will be p a r t n e r i n g
once again with the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Social Concern Foundation for the Davao City leg of the global children’s charity’s five-site medical mission in the Philippines.
The mission will provide free reconstructive surgery to a total of 750 indigent Filipinos with cleft lip and cleft palate over a period of nine days, commencing on the country’s independence day on June 12 and running up to June 20.
In a joint statement, Operation Smile, Inc. co-founder and president Kathleen Magee and Operation Smile Philippines president Wigbert Funtanilla said the multinational teams of cleft care professionals will hold simultaneous surgeries at the Brokenshire Hospital in Davao City; Adventist Hospital in Cebu City; Ricardo Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Bacolor, Pampanga; Sta. Ana Hospital in Manila; and Our Lady of Mercy Specialty Hospital in Bacolod City.
The foundation has been hosting Operation Smile missions in the city since 1996 and has treated a total 3,083 cleft children or 11 percent of the total treated in the Philippines.
Oral cleft is one of the country’s leading congenital defects, afflicting one in every 500 newborns or a total of 5,000 Filipinos every year. Of the estimated 140,000 born with the defect between 1982 and 2014, around
100,000 are still awaiting surgery.
The highly debilitating deformity disfigures the afflicted and impairs their normal speech. If they are not treated early, they are likely to lose their self-worth and become recluses and outcasts.
Operation Smile aims to attend to and eventually eradicate the backlog of cleft cases in the Philippines and ensure that new ones receive treatment before they turn one year old.
“Local resources alone will not suffice to achieve this ambitious goal at the moment so we are tapping the Operation Smile international network, via this annual mega mission, to augment our effort,” Funtanilla said.
For her part, Magee said they have committed to help “in any way we can.”
“We owe it to the Filipino people, whose ‘bayanihan’ spirit inspired us to grow Operation Smile into the global movement that it is today, mobilizing volunteers of different nationalities to treat cleft children of all colors and creeds – this is our gift and tribute to them,” she said.
Magee, a nurse and clinical social worker, said she and her husband Dr. William, a plastic surgeon, established Operation Smile in 1982 following a medical mission in Naga City where they first saw the gravity of the cleft problem and the willingness of ordinary folks to help.
“We came to treat 40 children and saw ten times that number waiting for us at the
hospital; we had to turn back hundreds but promised them that we would return,” Magee recalled, adding that what sustained their enthusiasm during the mission and after were the people they don’t even know who dropped by the mission site to bring food and made themselves useful.
Operation Smile has been coming back to the Philippines every year since and, in 1989, helped set up Operation Smile Philippines so that quality cleft care can be delivered to indigent Filipinos year-round.
The advocacy has spread across five continents. Operation Smile now has a corps of 5,400 highly trained, experienced, and credentialed medical and non-medical volunteers from 80 countries doing missions in over 60 countries. And today, an Operation Smile foundation similar to Operation Smile Philippines exists in 42 of those countries.
An Operation Smile mission team usually comprises of plastic surgeons, a n a e s t h e s i o l o g i s t s , pediatric intensivists, p a e d i a t r i c i a n s , dentists, nurses, speech pathologists, child life specialists, biomedical technicians, medical records specialists, and patient imaging technicians. All are volunteers who take a leave of absence from their employment or private practice for more than a week to do pro-bono work.
The missions are mainly funded by private corporate donations.
12 EDGEDAVAO
BIGGER PICTURE
Operation Smile sets hugecleft surgery mission in June
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015 13EDGEDAVAO CLASSIFIED
NOTICE OF LOSSNotice is hereby given by LOYOLA PLANS
CONSOLIDATED INC. that CERTIFICATE OF FULL PAYMENT No.(s) 1003156 under LOYOLA PLAN Contract No.(s) 31696-6 issued to VICKY P. ASENTISTA
was lost. Any transaction entered into shall be null and void.5/18,25;6/1
LOCAL leaders from the region said the 5% al-location for the disas-
ter preparedness budget, which is taken from each lo-cal government unit’s (LGU) annual budget is no longer sustainable for provincial preparations against the ef-fects of climate change.
Under RA 10121, the Di-saster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, LGUs are mandated to set aside no less than 5% of its estimated revenue from regular sources, for its Lo-cal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (LDRRMF).
Davao del Norte gover-nor Rodolfo del Rosario, con-current chair of the Regional Development Council said
that even with a P50 million budget per year, provinces find it difficult to maintain a disaster preparedness pro-gram, and more importantly, fund disaster relief efforts.
Del Rosario cited super typhoon Pablo, which hit Davao del Norte, Davao Ori-ental and Compostela Valley on December 4, 2012, as proof of this.
“We did not anticipate Pablo,” he said, adding that even with his experience leading a province, he had not experienced being in a major storm.
Del Rosario made the comment during the press briefing at the Regional Ad-vocacy Forum on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change held at the Pinnacle
5% budget for disasterpreparedness ‘not enough’
Hotel Friday.The governor, who
served as Environment Min-ister during the last years of the Marcos dictatorship, said that while provinces are able to allocate 70% of the budget for mitigation measures, they would need additional funding from aid agencies to implement a more comfortable alloca-tion.
He pointed to a program initiated by the National Economic Development Agency (NEDA), which in 2011 implemented the di-saster planning program in partnership with the Unit-ed Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Australian Agency for Inter-national Aid (AusAID), and the New Zealand Aid Pro-gramme (NZAP).
The program aims to mainstream disaster pre-paredness measures from the level of budgeting to im-plementation across all lev-els of the LGU, with commu-nities actively participating.
The three Pablo-hit provinces, along with Davao del Sur, submitted last Fri-
day its enhanced Provincial Development and Physical Framework Plans (PDPFP) after years of planning.
The respective budgets would then be submitted to NEDA for consideration for funding.
Compostela Vice gov-ernor Manuel Zamora said LGUs have recently relied on the NEDA for fund-ing of their major climate change-related projects, es-pecially since the controver-sial priority development allocation fund (PDAF) for congressmen has been stopped.
According to a copy of Davao del Norte’s PDPSP, the province has been hit by nine major floods from 2011 to 2013 alone.
This translates to P930 million in infrastructure damage and P3.5 billion in agricultural damage for the years mentioned, it said.
Titon Mitra, UNDP Phil-ippines country director, said the funding provided by UNDP for the program would not be in the form of loans but in the form of grants. (MindaNews)
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 201514 CLASSIFIED EDGEDAVAO
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 2015 15SPORTSEDGEDAVAO
SHE FLIES, SHE FALLS, SHE RISES. Alyssa Valdez of Ateneo goes down for a dig in a sequence of photos above, and then gets up and flies high for a spike during the Heartstrong Charity game on Friday at the USEP Gym. Lean Daval Jr.
IF there’s a name that’s quite sounding like the Tiger Woods domination in golf, that must be Ernest James Casin-
tajan.This boy rose from the ranks of the
junior golf program and now practically makes the local golf scene his very own playground.
EJ, as he is fondly called, started pick-ing up a club at the age of nine when he was introduced to the game by his father. He first hit balls at the now defunct St. An-drews Driving Range at Shrine Hills.
“I had a hard time playing golf before because it was really a difficult sport to play and I only play on weekends,” EJ said. “But when I got to high school, I was more into it and I played more often and joined tournaments in Manila, Cebu and Cagay-an de Oro.
Like most young golfers, EJ is not only a monster with his drives and precise with his putts. He is also a stickler for golf fashion, opting for the subdued but head-turning hues popularized by Rory McIlroy and Ricky Fowler.
“Fashion was not a big deal for me but now I like to dress to impress,” he said.
EJ goes to tournaments wearing multi brands. He wears Nike shirts and caps but goes for a Puma pants, adidas shoes and belt.
He uses a Ping g30 driver and Mizuno irons and putts with a Scotty Cameron.
GOLFER OF THE WEEK
EJ CASINTAJAN: Domination personified
one most of us hindi pa naka-karecover from minor inju-ries. We have physical thera-pists to help us recover fast.”
Playing sparingly in the Davao charity game, Alyssa said she just prepares any-time she is asked to go on the floor. “Kahit naman you have an injury if you are an athlete you give your 100 percent to play naman.”
Talk about the UAAP three-peat?
“As coach Thai said, it’s hard to get a championship, harder to get the second, mas lalo na pag three-peat na.”
After winning the UAAP championship for the sec-
ond straight season, the Lady Eagles did not rest on their laurels. “The ateneo girls are starting training na rin. As early as now, as soon as the season ended we did not stop training.”
Asked to share her piec-es of advice to young spikers dreaming to play in hgih level competition, she summa-rized it in three: Start small. Have fun first. Start from zero.
“Every game we enter the court, we always think na we’re gonna do our best, we’re gonna enjoy the game and we’re gonna play as a team,” Alyssa said.
PICKING... FROM 16
By NEILWIN JOSEPH L. BRAVO
VOL. 8 ISSUE 42 • SUNDAY - MONDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 1, 201516 EDGEDAVAOSports
Davao Partner
PICKING ALYSSA’S MIND‘Have fun first before thinking about winning’
NOT everything that caus-es shakings, shrieks, and screams are natural disas-
ters. Alyssa Valdez is an excemption.
She’s a natural. Just that.But when the country’s newest
volleyball sensation walks into the stadium, the building shakes in wild uproar. It’s obvious. In this rapidly growing volleyball-crazy nation, everyone is going ga-ga over Alyssa.
Alyssa’s popularity rose after she led Ateneo de Manila University to its second straight Universities Athletic Association of the Philip-pines (UAAP) title this year, leading the Lady Eagles past their bitter rivals De La Salle University fir the second year in a row.
Alyssa has not only become the face of the Ateneo Lady Eagles, she has become the face of Philip-pine sports--earning the privilege to be the country’s flag bearer in the forthcoming Southeast Asian Games in Singapore.
The incloming senior has also caused the snowballing of a fan base that has even grown beyond the country. It’s called Alyfinity--a spin off the popular Linsanity phe-nomenon once caused by Jeremy Lin in the NBA.
Recently, Alyssa played for the country’s tri-clors in the Asian Un-der-23 Championships. Despite playing with an injured thumb, the Ateneo star gave it her all and picked up a few lessons which she said made her a better player.
“I think one of the most import-ant na natutunan ko, kasi it’s not me lang naman who’s going to the SEA Games but also Bea (De Leon) and Jia (Morado), it’s the team work talaga that’s the most important naman sa paglaro ng volleyball so definitely yun naman ang na-gain
namin sa paglaro sa under 23,” she told Edge Davao in an interview before suit-ing up for the Heartstrong Charity Game at the University of South-eastern Philippines (USEP) Gym last Friday.
Alyssa thinks that in the SEA Games, the country will be a medal contender although she refused to say if it’s going to be gold, silver or bronze. “Siguro adding more skilled players and smart players like sina Den Den (Lazaro) and everyone else na matured na rin sa paglala-ro. Iba rin yung matutulong nila sa team eh,” she said referring to her teammate Ateneo libero Den Den Lazaro and veterans Jaja Santiago, Rachel Ann Daquis, and Dindin Santiago-Manabat.
The team, however, was only finalized two weeks ago and has trained only for a short period of time given the play-er’s schedules with their mother clubs.
“Madami akong natutunan sa under 23 as a player but there’s also other players na mas older and mas experi-enced so madami na rin silang natutunan kaysa sa amin sa pagvo-volleyball. So I think mag mi-meet lang kami halfway para mas maganda yung maipakita namin sa SEA Games,” she said.
Alyssa, still obviously feeling the wear and tear of having to en-dure the UAAP wars, the ongoing club leagues and the recent Asian tournament, said there is no rea-son to mind an injury. “Everyone naman wala pa ring rest. Every-
