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EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAOSECURITY

ADJUSTMENTSPSG to adjust to Duterte’s style, stringent security protocols bound for major tweaks

ARE the days of Presi-dent-in-waiting Rodri-go Duterte’s oft-care-

free style over?Between the Presidential

Security Group’s stringent se-curity protocols and Duterte’s easy-going and minimalistic security, it will be the former which will have to make the protocol-changing security adjustments.

With 40 days to go before Duterte begins his term, secu-rity measures have been laid out this early.

Duterte’s chosen head of the Presidential Security

Group (PSG) Col. Rolando Bautista has conducted a close door conference with Police Regional Office (PRO) 11 chief, Police Chief Supt. Manuel Gaerlan, on Tuesday for the security measures of Duterte while he is in Davao City.

Bautista said that they have talked with the PRO 11 chief for the security measures that will be implemented un-der the protocol of the PSG be-fore Duterte takes his oath on noon of June 30.

The current commander of the 104th Brigade based in Basilan, however, said that he

has yet to talk to Duterte for the adjustments to be made for his security measures es-pecially that he is now the highest leader of the country.

Duterte, long-time Mayor of Davao City, ordinarily roams around the city even during unholy hours and sometimes unguarded.

Duterte is known to many as someone who is hard hands-on in seeing for himself the safety precautions of his constituents.

Bautista said that the PSG has a protocol and procedures

By FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

TIGHT SECURITY FOR RODY. Colonel Casiano Monilla, deputy commander of Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry Division, bares that heightened security measures are currently being implemented on incoming president Rodrigo R. Duterte as he

continues to stay in Davao City. Monilla, together with Davao City Police Office (DCPO) spokesperson Chief Inspector Milgrace Driz, is among the guests in yesterday’s AFP-PNP Press Corps media forum at Camp Domingo Leonor. Lean Daval Jr.

SILHOUETTED. The cross atop the building of San

Pedro Cathedral in Davao City is silhouetted by the

midday sun yesterday. The Archdiocese of Davao

recently expressed its support and respect

to incoming president Rodrigo Duterte even after

he criticized the Catholic Church. Lean Daval Jr.

F SECURITY, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 20162 EDGEDAVAO

NEWS

BREAK. A hawker takes a break from peddling his merchandise to feed the pigeons at Rizal Park in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

Pols in illegal drugs ‘no’; medical marijuana ‘yes’INCOMING president Rodri-

go Duterte reiterated his stern warning to politicians

involved in illegal drugs but at the same time admitted he is in favor of legalizing marijua-na for medical use.

Duterte asked the erring politicians whom he did not name to stop their involve-ment on the illegal activities if they value their lives.

Duterte sent the warn-ing addressed specifically to mayors saying that the politi-cians should not think highly of their post to operate drug syndicate.

“Sa mga Mayors, local of-ficials, do not think highly of your office that you can oper-

ate a drug syndicate in your city. ‘Wag kayoing magkaka-mali dyan!” Duterte said.

Although Duterte is strongly against illegal drugs, he favours medical marijuana for the improvements of the modern medicines.

He said that there are now medicines developed or al-ready in the market that has the components of marijuana.

“Marijuana is really an in-gredient of modern medicines now. There are medicines right now being developed or already in the market that contains marijuana as a com-ponent but used for medical purposes,” Duterte said.

The incoming president,

however, was firm on his deci-sion that he will never legalise the use of marijuana for recre-ational purposes.

Duterte said that he will never tolerate nor forgive a politician who is involved with any drug activities especial-ly that it ruins the lives of the young generations.

He said that he might be forgiving at times but not when drugs is involved.

The incoming president is aware though that there are also group of drug dealers who are going after him.

“I am also warned about the drug people after me. It takes two to tango,” Duterte said.

Duterte has also sent the warning to the Police officials who accepts money from drug syndicate.

He said that he is aware that almost all police officials has an involvement into drugs or accepts money from drugs.

Duterte said that he knows a police general who is actively involved on the illegal drugs.

He said that the general better retires before he takes the oath as the next president of the country.

The incoming president also said that some of the police officials has their own mansions and will surely fail the lifestyle check because of this.

By FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking to ask Congress

for the postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections since the country had just concluded a national polls.

“We will suggest that, may-be, it is better that we post-pone it,” Comelec Chairman Juan Andres Bautista said in a media forum in Manila on Wednesday.

He believed that the polls should be moved to a later date so as to avoid “election fatigue” in the country.

“We have this so-called election fatigue. We don’t want to have too many elections in the country,” the poll body chief added.

He noted that holding an election in over 42,000 ba-rangays in the country is very

costly.“Aside from fatigue, hold-

ing elections is expensive, mainly because we have to pay more teachers that will serve as Board of Election Tellers (BETs),” Bautista added.

The Comelec needs some PHP3.4 billion to be able to conduct the 2013 barangay elections.

Under Republic Act No. 9164, the election for baran-gay officials shall be held on the last Monday of October and every three years thereafter.

On the other hand, there is a pending measure, House Bill 6420 filed by Pasay City Rep. Emi Calixto Rubiano to reset the October 2016 barangay elections to October 2018.

While Republic Act No. 10656 has moved the 2013 SK polls to the last Monday of Oc-tober 2016. (PNA)

THE incoming head of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) met with

members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) here on Tuesday to craft a security plan for the incoming President Ro-drigo Duterte.

Col. Rolando Bautista held a closed door meeting with Police Regional Office (PRO) 11 Director Manuel Gaerlan to discuss the security measures while Duterte stays in the city before the official oath-taking in Malacañan on June 30.

Bautista is currently the commander of the 104th Bri-gade based in Basilan. He said

the security measures will be presented to Duterte first for adjustment.

He also pointed out the implementation of the security measures is important con-sidering that Duterte will be the next highest leader of the country.

Bautista said the PSG fol-lows protocol for the president although Duterte is known to many as “hands-on” on his safety as he despises security tailing him every time he is out of the house.

Bautista said he expects changes but what is important

Comelec eyes to move barangay, SK elections

Incoming PSG chief, Davao police meet on security plan for Duterte

AROUND 198,760 fam-ilies that were affect-ed by the prolonged

El Niño phenomenon from 12 towns in the province of North Cotabato recently re-ceived rice assistance through the facilitations made by the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) and the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).

The PSWDO said in a re-port that the continuing rice

distribution that started on April 25 has already delivered a total of 19,883 bags of rice to affected families in the area.

Around 2,093 bags of rice were already delivered to the affected families in Kidapawan City; 1,216 bags in the town of Arakan; Antipas with 422 bags; Matalam 1,943 bags; Alamada 2,217 bags; Aleo-san 489; Carmen 2,214; Pig-cawayan 1,378 bags; Midsay-ap 2,565 bags; Banisilan 1,221

bags; Makilala 1,451 bags; and 2,674 bags to Pikit.

The distribution has so far covered 367 barangays from the said municipalities, the PSWDO added, emphasiz-ing that the distributions were spearheaded by the PRC in the wake of the prohibition for lo-cal government units to phys-ically distribute relief goods in line with the May 9 local and national elections.

Another round of distri-

butions was also scheduled last May 16 and will continue until May 26 where 7,964 bags of rice are set to be distrib-uted to the identified 79,613 household beneficiaries in the towns of Kabacan with 15,419 families (1,542 bags); Magpet, 14,601 families (1,461 bags); Pres. Roxas, 9,216 families (922 bags); Libungan, 10,618 families (1,062 bags); Tulunan, 12,081 families; and Mlang,

Continuing rice distributions benefit thousandsof drought-affected families in North CotabatoBy ALEXANDER LOPEZ

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VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016 3NEWSEDGEDAVAO

SECURITY PREPARATIONS. Police Regional Office (PRO) 11 spokesperson, Chief Inspector Andrea Dela Cerna, gives details of the security preparations for the coming thanksgiving party for incoming president Rodrigo R.

Duterte slated on June 4 at Crocodile Park in Davao City. Dela Cerna graced yesterday’s AFP-PNP Press Corps media forum at Camp Domingo Leonor. Lean Daval Jr.

WITH 36 days left to the inauguration of a new president,

incoming President Rodrigo Duterte admitted people are prodding him to practice presi-dential protocol for his June 30 oath-taking.

He however said he re-fused, saying, “I already told them ituro niyo lang sa akin saan ako magtindig (point to me where I should stand).”

Duterte has been telling his inaugural team to prepare

only a simple inauguration suggesting that serving finger foods for the guests will do. Under the law, the oath-taking of the president should take place 12 noon. The president will have a choice where to deliver his inaugural address after.

He said he plans to fly only to Manila on June 30 before the 12noon oath-taking then fly back to Davao.

“Kung delayed ang flight di walang oath-taking (If the

flight is delayed then there is no oath-taking),” he said draw-ing laughter from the report-ers.

After the oath-taking, Duterte said he would go on national television. Duter-te, who usually spends time talking on media interviews, rallies and conversations with friend, said it would only take him five minutes to spell-out his governance and let each member of the Cabinet detail the program later. What is im-

portant is action, he said.In holding office, Duterte

said he wants to spend more in Davao and for the papers needing his signature could be done here. “Pwede naman siguro yun (Maybe this can be done),” he said in jest.

For attire, Duterte, who dons maong pants to go with his barong, said he is looking for a barong made of cotton because he does not like fab-rics that are itchy. Sources close to the mayor revealed a

tailor has already designed a barong embroidered with a design unique to Davao.

Presidential monikerThe past days have ne-

tizens including the media guessing for the presidential monicker of Duterte. Some say PRRD for President Ro-drigo Roa Duterte; PRody for President Rody – the more formal nickname of the may-or; PDigong for President Di-gong – the casual nickname of

the mayor used by Davaoeños; and just Digong (pronounced Dī-góng not dee-góng). Others say Mayor President.

“Just call me Mayor,” said Duterte admitting that he feels awkward being called Pres-ident. I am just a worker in government I just want that…to impress upon your state of mind and there is no reason to give too much adulation, he added.

“I do not want that kind

Duterte wants simple inauguration

A SEA turtle or pawikan rescued by the Depart-ment of Environment

and Natural Resources (DENR) in Barangay Coaco is now kept at the Cleanergy Park in Punta Dumalag in Matina.

The Hawksbill Turtle which weighs about 60 kilos and measures around three feet was rescued last April 25 from an individual who had kept the turtle as a pet for about 10 years.

The turtle is now kept temporarily at the Cleanergy Park for observation and treat-ment. Its enclosure is bigger than its previous space when it was kept as a pet.

Republic Act 9147 prohib-its the keeping of endangered

wildlife such as the sea turtle or pawikan as pets.

Formerly known as the pawikan sanctuary, a known nesting ground of sea turtles located just seven kilometers from Davao City proper, the Cleanergy Park is a biodiver-sity park developed and main-tained by the Aboitiz Founda-tion and Davao Light and Pow-er Company.

It has untouched man-grove and beach forests sur-rounded by a 37-hectare ma-rine protected area. Facilities such as a turtle sanctuary view deck, a mangrove board walk, seedling center, botanical gar-den, weather station and a learning center. (PIA/RG Ala-ma)

Rescued sea turtle now kept in Cleanergy Park

F DUTERTE, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 20164 EDGEDAVAO

SUBURBIA

KORONADAL CITY -- All is set for a massive clean up drive and tree

planting activity on June 7 as the province joins the globe in the celebration of World Envi-ronment Month, officials here today said.

In a statement, South Cota-bato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuen-tes, who was reelected to another three-term, said the activity will be spearheaded by the Provincial Environment Management Office – Mines & Geo-Sciences Division (PE-MO-MGD).

Environment protection and preservation is one of the priority agenda that Fuentes vowed to enforce if elected for another term of office.

According to Nencita Acain, PEMO-MGD head, this

year’s clean-up drive will focus more on small-scale mining (SSM) areas particularly gul-lies, riverbanks or tunnel sites identified as environment pro-tection areas.

While the provincial envi-ronment management office has set requirements for SSM association, quarry operators to conduct clean up drive to include clean-up drive in its area of operation, the PEMO believed more have to be done to ensure the environment are protected.

In a memorandum, PEMO chief Siegfred Flaviano, re-quired all small scale mining operators and quarry firms to ensure the environments are protected in their respective project sites.

Aside from clean up drive,

SSM operators were also di-rected to submit location site for tree planting activities and provide seedlings.

Individual operators of mining firms who do not be-longed to any group are urged to participate in the prov-ince-wide clean up drive and tree planting activities.

To document participa-tion, those joining the twin ac-tivities are advised to provide photos and written reports to PEMO for recording and mon-itoring purposes.

The PEMO environment management division, headed by Elbe Baluzanag will have its own tree planting activity on June 8 at the Integrated Provincial Environment Man-agement Center in Barangay Tinongkop,Tantangan, South

Cotabato.On the other hand, Forest

& Inland Water Division under Forester Mary Jane Manlisis will celebrate Earth Savers Day on June 10 at the PROTECH Center in Koronadal City.

Fuentes urged every cit-izen of South Cotabato to participate in whatever way they can in their communities during the clean-up drive and tree planting activities.

She told DXOM-AM Radyo Bida that clean up drive and tree planting activities are ev-erybody’s business, regardless of political, religious, cultural and social affiliations.

Candidates who made it during the last local elections are expected to participate in the activity to celebrate World Environment Month. (PNA)

PIKIT, North Cotabato -- Police and military per-sonnel have taken safety

measures to prevent attacks against unarmed members of the Philippine Army following the shooting and wounding of a soldier here Tuesday, police said today.

“We are working with the 7th Infantry Battalion,” Senior Inspector Sindatu Karim, Pik-it town police chief, said after unidentified gunman shot and injured Sgt. Reniel Cabundu-can, assigned with the Artillery Operations Company of the 7th IB.

Cabunducan was biking at past 5 p.m. along Notre Dame Drive in Barangay Poblacion, Pikit when two men riding on a motorbike opened fire on him.

Cabunducan, who was un-armed, was hit on his upper arm and was rushed by pass-ersby to the town hospital.

Karim said initial inves-tigation showed that the sus-pects who fired one shot fled on the same motorbike toward

the interior portion of Baran-gay Poblacion.

“It could be personal grudge but we are looking at other angles at the same time we have devised measures to prevent similar attacks on unarmed infantrymen in the future,” Karim said.

According to Karim, police visibility in areas frequented by unarmed soldiers and po-lice officers was one of the pre-ventive measures.

“We are taking an active stance,” Karim told reporters. “We have to admit that loose firearms proliferate in Pikit and nearby towns of Maguind-anao,” he added.

The town police chief said most of the cases of crime against life in Pikit was borne out of personal grudge and “motornapping.”

“Police visibility is one steps we are taking,” he said even as he urged residents to report any suspicious looking individuals on motorbikes to prevent crimes from happen-ing. (PNA)

BUTUAN CITY -- Phil-ippine National Police Director General Ri-

cardo C. Marquez pinned on Monday the “heroism medal” on a police combat battalion commander and two other commissioned and a non-com-missioned police personnel for the arrest of a ranking New People’s Army (NPA) official early this month.

Police Director General Marquez, during his farewell visit to Camp Rafael C. Ro-driguez, the police regional headquarters here on Monday noon, pinned the “Medalya Ng Kadakilaan” (PNP Hero-ism Medal) on PSupt. Chito G. Bersaluna, the Regional Pub-lic Safety Battalion (RPSB)-13 Commander, Police Senior In-spector Julius B. Alamani, Po-lice Inspector Mohammah Faiz M. Cosain and Police Officer 2

Romie E. Rosalad.The police officers and

personnel were cited for their significant role in the arrest of Ricardo Ampan Manili, aka “Joker” the alleged command-ing officer of the Regional Op-erational Command (ROC), also known as the “Julito Tero Command” of the North Cen-tral Mindanao Regional Com-mittee and six others at a PNP-AFP Comelec Checkpoint last May 2 in the areas of Barangay Mat-i, Las Nieves in Agusan del Norte and Barangay Remedi-os, Esperanza boundary of the province of Agusan del Sur.

Manili had six companions at the time of his arrest and recovered from their posses-sion were an improvised cali-ber 22 rifle; a caliber .45 Edge pistol with magazine; a 9mm Jericho 94IF pistol with two

CAMP MELCHOR DELA CRUZ, Gamu, Isabela -- The 5th Infantry Divi-

sion, Philippine Army (5ID, PA) officially conducted a send-off ceremony to new soldiers in-side the camp on Monday.

The send-off ceremony was led by 5ID, PA assistant division commander B/Gen. Andres Aguinaldo Jr. and wit-nessed by military officials and enlisted personnel at the camp’s grandstand.

“Itakda ninyo ang paman-tayan ng pagiging world class na sundalo lalo na kayo na nasa unang yugto pa lamang ng inyong military service,” Assistant Division Command-er B/Gn. Andres Aguibaldo Jr. said during he send-off cere-mony.

A total of 115 new soldiers

with the lowest rank of Private started their official duty yes-terday.

B/Gen. Aguinaldo said the military discipline and doc-trine learned during the train-ing of the new soldiers must be applied in their respective assignments and advised them to keep in mind their mandate to be defenders of democracy, territory and people.

The new soldiers have undergone rigid trainings in the camp and upon finishing the training course they are prepared for duty as army sol-diers.

The new soldiers are de-ployed in the 5ID, PA brigade command particularly at 501st, 502nd and 503rd bri-gades of the Army division. (PNA)

DAVAO CITY -- The mem-bers of the 17th coun-cil of the city of Davao

in its 19th regular session on Tuesday, May 24, passed and approved an amended ordi-nance appropriating the sum of P38,909,900 as calamity fund that will be utilized for distribution of food to resi-dents in 82 barangays who were affected by the recent drought.

City Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang sponsored the amended ordinance and the resolution that will provide assistance to the affected vil-lages subject to the required barangay resolution that will be submitted to the City May-or’s Office, the Sangguniang Panlungsod and the City Social Services and Development Of-fice (CSSDO).

The city council during its 16th session last week already approved the resolution and ordinance that declared 75 ba-rangays in the city under the state of calamity with a total appropriation of P32 million.

Dayanghirang asserted that last week’s ordinance must be amended as addition-al barangays were submitted by the City Agriculturist Office (CAO) to be included in the declaration of the state of ca-lamity.

With the amendments, the allocation now stands at P38 million from the former P32 million budget with a target of more than 37,000 farmers and residents to benefit from the assistance.

Present during the de-liberations was Emmanuel Jaldon, head of Davao Cen-tral 911 Communication and Emergency Response Center.

Jaldon said 55 barangays have so far submitted their resolutions declaring their respective villages under the state of calamity.

Aside from resolution, Jal-don said guidelines for declar-ing an area under the state of calamity include – that 40 per-cent of the means of livelihood of residents are severely affect-ed; and that 20 percent of the

total population are affected by the calamity.

City Administrator Jesus Melchor Quitain who was also present during the delibera-tions on Tuesday asked the city council to stick to the P38-mil-lion budget to fund the distri-bution of support to the calam-ity-affected areas in the city.

Quitain said that the spe-cifics of the request of the ex-ecutive department based on facts and data gathered by the City Agriculturist Office stated that initially, there were only 24,000 families affected and the budget requested for was P32 million.

“But because there were additional areas to be includ-ed in the declaration of the state of calamity, the families affected also increased. So we requested for P38 million. But the point is, after I requested for the increase of financial as-sistance in the form of money what happened was that addi-tional areas were submitted by the City Agriculturist Office to be included in the declaration

of calamity, so there is another increase in the number of fam-ilies affected.”

The additional areas to be included in the calamity, Quita-in emphasized, are not includ-ed in the P38 million that the city administrator requested.

“We could no longer in-crease the P38 million to an-other amount because it might affect the calamity fund. We will never know what will hap-pen in the future and we might not have enough money. We are sticking to P38 million.”

Quitain also asked the city council to let the barangay offi-cials understand that there will be reduction of the assistance that will be given per family because of the increase of the number of barangays that will be declared under the state of calamity.

“The barangay captains might complain why it is that there is decrease in the amount of food assistance if we do not explain to them now that is how things should go,” he said. (PNA)

South Cotabato exec asks publicto join cleanup, tree planting

Cops, Army devise stepsagainst attacks on soldiers

Marquez pins ‘heroism medal’ on RPSB-13 leader, 3 others

Dads approve P38-M calamity fundArmy camp holds send-offceremony to new soldiers

F MARQUEZ, 10

DAYBREAK IN OPOL. A usual scene during daybreak in Opol, Misamis Oriental (May 22, 2016). MindaNews photo by H. Marcos C. Mordeno

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016 5EDGEDAVAO

ECONOMY

DLPC: Shutdown won’taffect Davao consumersDAVAO City and other

franchise areas under the Aboitiz-owned

Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) will most likely be spared from rotating black-outs once the Therma South Inc (TSI) put one of its two 150-megawatt units into maintenance shutdown start-ing June 18.

“Most likely no rotating brownouts to happen within our franchise area during the four-week preventive main-tenance shutdown of the 150MW Unit 2 of TSI,” Ros-sano C. Luga, DLPC assistant vice president for reputation enhancement, said in yester-day’s edition of Wednesdays at the Habi at Kape in Abreeza Mall.

DLPC is one of the distri-bution utilities and electric co-operative which has contract supply agreement with TSI.

Luga said the distribu-tion utility is serving a total of 353,290 customers from Davao City and some areas in Davao del Norte like Panabo City and municipalities of Sto. Tomas and Braulio Dujali.

“We’re studying the im-pact of TSI shutdown because of the additional supply from the Southern Philippines Pow-er Corporation (SPPC) and it is starting to rain,” Luga said.

He said the DLPC had contracted 50-MW from the 55-megawatt (MW) die-sel-fired power plant of SPPC in Alabel, Sarangani, which be-gan operating in 1998.

Luga said allocation from the National Power Corpora-tion- Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Cor-poration (NPC-PSALM) had increased following the end of the long drought on the sec-ond week of May.

G o v e r n m e n t - o w n e d weather station Pag-Asa an-nounced recently that El Niño is officially over, earlier that the June forecast.

Luga said the water level in the bodies of water hosting the Agus-Pulangi Hydro Com-plexes are above the critical level soon after the rain start-ed for a week already.

As of yesterday, the DLPC is getting a maximum of 178 MW out of it 183 contract-ed supply from state-owned power suppliers.

Starting June 18, the same supply allocation will be coming from NPC aside from the additional supplies from the Hedcor Sibulan, Hedcor Talomo, Therma Marine Inc. (TMI), SPPC, and the 50 MW from TSI, totaling 416.50 MW.

However, this will vary depending on the hours of the

day when the demand is either high or low.

With the projected peak demand of 348MW and vary-ing power supply allocation every peak and off peak hours, the DLPC will implement its contingency to cover supply shortage.

“We will be implementing the Interruptible Load Pro-gram (ILP) and the full opera-tion of the 32-MW Bajada die-sel power plant starting June 18,” he said.

The ILP is participated by a total of 15 companies includ-ing malls like Abreeza, Gaisano Malls, NCCC, SM City Davao, SM Lanang Premier and oth-er manufacturing companies like Coca-Cola Femsa and Pep-si and other firms operating within its franchise area.

“We were able convince these companies to “de-load,”meaning they will op-erate their respective power generators instead of getting power supply from the grid,” Luga said, adding 10MW is saved every time these partic-ipants run their own genera-tors.

“In every 1 MW load is deloaded under the program, around 4,000 smaller custom-ers are spared from rotating blackouts during power short-age,” he added.

VARIOUS destinations in the Philippines have been trending in social

media sites after some of the world’s sought-after travel and lifestyle influencers have posted destination images and videos of their island-hopping around the country.

On the invitation of the Department of Tourism (DOT), the five-man team from the award-winning creative technology agency Beautiful Destinations have so far been to Cebu, Bohol, El Nido in Pal-awan, Manila, and Hundred Islands in Pangasinan.

DOT is the first nation-al tourism organization in Southeast Asia to partner

with Beautiful Destinations through organizing a 13-day familiarization trip for the team to drive huge global ex-posure for the Philippines and its various destinations among the social media giant’s more than 10 million followers in over 180 countries.

Beautiful Destinations founder and CEO Jeremy Jauncey said that the Philip-pines has been among the top trending content in their Insta-gram account since they start-ed in 2012, getting between 120,000 to 150,000 likes for the first 24 hours.

“It has been an amazing journey for all of us to be able to see your beautiful country,

and share your story with a lot of people around the world,” Jauncy said during the Insta-meet event held at the Bay-leaf Intramuros between the Beautiful Destinations team and local travel and lifestyle in-fluencers from the Philippines, whose photos have been fea-tured on the Beautiful Desti-nations Instagram page.

World renowned iP-hone-only photographer James Relf Dyer was over-whelmed by the landscape he described as “amazingly in-credible.”

“This is by far the best journey I have ever had, and I enjoy doing content for the

Phl travel destinations trend on social media

crc@edgedavao.netBy CHENEEN R. CAPON

BROWOUT LOOMS. Some parts of Mindanao are expected to experience power interruptions as Therma South, Inc. (TSI) announced that it will shut down for

one month the 150-megawatt unit 2 of its coal-fired power plant in Barangay Binugao, Toril  to facilitate maintenance work. Lean Daval Jr.

F PHL, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 20166 THE ECONOMY

crc@edgedavao.netBy CHENEEN R. CAPON

EDGEDAVAO

FAN FOR NUN. A nun buys a native fan from a vendor outside San Pedro Cathedral before the start of mid-noon mass. The fan is needed to at least ease the humidity brought by the warm weather. Lean Daval Jr.

THE premium 100 per-cent unsweetened chocolate from Malagos

Agri-venture in Davao City made another mark in the world chocolate industry af-ter bagging the silver medal in a drinking chocolate (plain) competition at the Academy of Chocolate’s Eighth Golden

Bean Awards held in London.Malagos was named win-

ner by the Academy of Choco-lates together with Akesson’s Organic and Pump Street Bak-ery on their website at http://www.academyofchocolate.org.uk/awards/ last Sunday.

This international rec-ognition is already the third

garnered by Malagos choco-lates. Last April and October, its premium 100 percent unsweetened chocolate won the bronze award for Best Un-flavored Drinking Chocolate at the 2015 World Chocolate Awards in London, while its 65 percent dark chocolate won the silver medal at the World

Drinking Chocolate Compe-tition in Hannover, Germany, respectively.

Malagos is considered as one of the first pioneering chocolate makers in Davao.

Founders Roberto and Charita Puentespina started venturing into cacao growing in 2003 after it leased a farm

that has existing cacao trees in Malagos, Baguio District.

But, it was just in 2012 when he family established the Malagos Agri-Ventures Corporation and started mak-ing premium single-origin co-coa liquor, while the famous Malagos Chocolate was com-mercially launched in June

2013.Charita and her son Rex

are the tandem behind Mala-gos chocolates.

All of Malagos’ cacao beans are single-sourced from Davao’s Calinan District at the foot of Mt. Talomo where they also process the beans into luscious chocolate products.

Malagos chocolates cited anew

ECONOMIST and former secretary of the Nation-al Economic and De-

velopment Authority (NEDA) Arsenio Balisacan said the in-coming administration of pres-ident-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte should “deepen the reforms” started by President Aquino.

Speaking to reporters, Balisacan said the economic reforms that the incoming ad-ministration could continue will allow the country to con-tinue economic momentum it attained in the past six years.

“We have to get the eco-nomic momentum continued

because it is the only way we can catch up with our neigh-bor. We cannot afford to be left out especially with the Asean economic integration,” Balisa-can said in a recent interview.

The reforms the next gov-ernment would like to pur-sue once the new president assumed his post on July will allow the Philippine economy to not “hit the wall” and move beyond it, according to him.

“We now have opportu-nity. In the last six years, we have achieved quite a lot in the economy and we have that opportunity to continue it now

that the perception of the peo-ple and investors is now that the country is best place for investment,” Balisacan said.

The country, he further said, cannot afford to become the sickman of Asia once again because other Asean countries and our nation are prospering and we are left behind.

Balisacan, who is now the chairman of the newly-formed Philippine Competitive Com-mission (PCC), believes that Duterte, with his 8-point eco-nomic agenda, can move the country forward.

“We now have opportuni-

ty. The last six years we have achieved quite a lot in the economy and we have that opportunity to continue it now that the perception of the peo-ple and investors is now that the country is best place for investment,” he said.

Balisacan said it “is re-assuring” that the economic gains of the current admin-istration will be continued, while those that have required reforms will be pursued and defended.

“For example, I’m so pleased to hear that the new

Duterte should deepen reformsof Aquino, says former NEDA chief

TO promote sustainable agriculture invest-ments in the Autono-

mous Region in Muslim Min-danao (ARMM), the Regional Board of Investments (RBOI-ARMM) in partnership with the International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of World Bank and the Hineleban Foundation is launching today the High Carbon Stock Approach at RPDO-ARMM office in Cota-bato City, investment officials said.

The HCSA is part of the

Bangsamoro Sustainability Framework (BSF) that aims to promote sustainable ag-ricultural investments in the Bangsamoro.

Lawyer Ishak Mastura, RBOI chair, said that despite some uncertainties of a new autonomy framework in the Mindanao peace negotia-tions, more and more private sector investors are pushing for agri-related investments in the ARMM region.

ARMM is composed of the provinces Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu

and Tawi-Tawi.Mastura said the country

had just elected its new lead-ers and the new President may have different plants for the Bangsamoro but despite that, he said, more and more private sector investors are eyeing ARMM as investment destination.

For the past five years, investments in ARMM have greatly increased owing to the improved peace and order condition as a result of the government’s peace overtures.

Mastura named some of the aggressive business-es that braved the negative impression about ARMM as Al Sahar Agri–Ventures Inc., Salam Agri-Ventures Corpo-ration, Al Shayan and many others.

To facilitate the avail-ability of the much needed financing for the projects, government is expected to enter into an agreement with multilateral and bilateral partners for a project enti-tled, “Harnessing Agribusi-

Sustainable agricultural investments unveiled

THE Philippine Amuse-ment and Gaming Cor-poration (PAGCOR) once

again made history when it remitted the highest contribu-tion to the government during the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation’s (GOCC) Dividends Day held at Malacañang on May 23, 2016.

PAGCOR turned over a total of P8.86 billion to gov-ernment coffers, P89 billion of which accounts for cash divi-dends for 2015.

Fifty-four GOCCs remitted a total of P40.2 billion in divi-dends and other forms of con-tributions during the event.

According to PAGCOR President and COO Eugene Manalastas, who led the cer-emonial turnover of check to President Benigno S. Aquino III, PAGCOR’s good corpo-rate governance enabled the state-run gaming firm to con-tinuously beat its targets and maintain its position as one of the government’s top-revenue earners.

“For the past four years, PAGCOR has religiously re-mitted cash dividends to the national government. From the ₱1 billion dividends remit-ted in 2012, our contributions

continuously increased, en-abling PAGCOR to consistently make it to the GOCC Elite Circle or the Billionaires’ Club. These are the corporations that remit at least ₱1 billion to the gov-ernment,” he said.

He also shared that from 2012 to present, PAGCOR has already remitted a total of P13.39 billion cash dividends to the government.

President Aquino noted that he wants to leave behind a better nation when he steps down from office this coming June 2016.

“Ang panata ko po sa ating mga Boss: Iwan ang ating ban-sa na talagang napakalayo ang sitwasyon kaysa ating dinat-nan. At ang pagtitipon nga po natin tuwing GOCC Dividends Day ang isa sa mga patunay nito,” he said.

Aquino shared that during his term, GOCCs have already remitted a total of P163.33 bil-lion dividends. “Halos dobleng pag-angat ito kung ikukumpa-ra sa naabot ng nakaraang ad-ministrasyon na P84.18 billion mula 2001 hanggang 2010. Idiin ko lang po: Siyam at ka-lahating taong nasa poder ang ating sinundan,” he explained. (PNA)

PAGCOR remits P8.86 B

AROUND P883.5 million worth of crops were de-stroyed by the onslaught

of El Niño phenomenon in the province of Davao del Norte, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) in the area reported.

The prolonged dry spell also affected a total of 57,244 families in the province, most of these depend their livelihoods in agriculture.

The extent of the damaged has impelled the PRDRRMC for the approval of a resolution on Wednesday recommending to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Davao del Norte the declara-tion of a state of calamity.

In a statement to the me-dia, the provincial government said that Governor Rodolfo del Rosario has already stressed the urgency of passing the res-olution for the declaration of a state of calamity in the prov-ince.

“Invoking Republic Act No. 8185, the council pushed the measure following the decla-ration of state of calamity by

the local government units of Kapalong, Asuncion and Car-men, after sustaining the brunt of the water scarcity,” the state-ment said.

It added that the council has also proposed for a budget intervention of around P11 million to combat the adverse effect of the weather anomaly.

“The amount will be ear-marked for seed assistance, fertilizer assistance, fingerlings, medicines and relief goods.”

Provincial Agriculturist Dr. Anastacia Notarte also report-ed the drought damaged some 36,449.45 hectares of agricul-tural land in the province while the export banana sector suf-fered the impact of the calami-ty that affected around 13,828 hectares of banana crops val-ued at P408.6 million.

Notarte added that some 6,809 hectares of rice valued at P202.8 million were also de-stroyed by the drought in the area.

“The Provincial Health Of-fice also recorded 7,593 cases of morbidity related to the ef-

El Niño destroyed P883.5 Mworth of crops in DavNorte

F NEDA, 10

F SUSTAINABLE, 10

F EL NIÑO, 10

By ALEXANDER LOPEZ

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016 7EDGEDAVAO

BIGGER PICTURESo, you wantto drink?Text and Photos by HENRYLITO D. TACIO

AS part of his efforts to curb criminality in the country, the incoming

president Rodrigo R. Duterte is considering a nationwide liquor ban. He wants to rep-licate the city ordinance of Davao City that prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages after midnight until 6 in the morning.

“This has nothing to do with denying us of our free-doms,” spokesman Peter Laviña clarified. In fact, people are not prohibited from drink-ing in their homes. High end hotels are exempted from the ban.

Actually, the reason why Davao has liquor ban is be-cause people, including the restaurant staff and customers, have to work the following day. “This liquor ban is because we have to work the next day,” the 71-year-old mayor of Davao told local media.

In his Facebook account, someone wrote: “To those who want to drink after work, it’s better to start the session earli-er. Take advantage of the Hap-py Hour. If you start drinking from 6-7 pm, by the time it’s already 10 pm you are already loaded. So before midnight, you can go home and take the much-needed rest so you can work the following day.”

Aside from seeing a cor-relation between drunkenness and crime, Duterte also ob-served that alcohol drinking is one of the culprits of road accidents. This is true in most parts of the country.

“Vehicular accidents are the biggest manmade killers in the Philippines,” wrote Cai Or-dinario in an article published in Business Mirror. Quoting data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), he reported that some 532 ve-hicular accidents nationwide caused the death of 1,240 Fili-pinos between 2003 and 2013.

“That means annually, 53 vehicle accidents kill an av-erage of 124 people a year,” Ordinario surmised, adding that with such high stakes in vehicular accidents, those commonly perceived “killers” such as structural fires and sea mishaps “pale in comparison.”

The PSA data showed there were 662 Filipinos who died in structural fires and an-other 635 people perished in sea mishaps during the same 10-year period.

“Drivers under the influ-ence of alcohol and those tak-

ing dangerous drugs are con-sidered as impaired drivers -- a major contributing factor to road mishaps,” wrote Ge-lyka Ruth R. Dumaraos inThe DOH Files of the Department of Health.

Reactions about the liquor ban to be implemented by Duterte vary, but most people seem to approve it. “It’s about time,” was all Espie Angelica A. De Leon, a staff of the infor-mation institute of the Depart-ment of Science and Technolo-gy, could say.

Dan Vallescas Adorador, who hails from Butuan, has the same idea. “It serves only right. It’s about time to in-still national discipline. Many good things will come out of it, boosted productivity, less crimes, healthier nation.”

“I like it based on the conditions (Duterte) stated. It’s not an absolute prohibi-tion naman eh,” said Bernard Supetran, a travel writer from Cebu.

“Yes, the ban is absolutely a good thing,” said Joe Torres, a journalist who is now based in Bangkok, Thailand. “It’s not only good for the wallet; it will also lessen the number of in-toxicated drivers on the road. Discipline on things that we are used to doing in excess is a good start for change that everybody is hoping for in this

country.”Kenley Yap Wong, a young

professional from Manila, thinks the liquor ban is a great idea. “There are many people who drink in the streets here, especially outside the public market. Sometimes, you don’t feel safe when you go home at night.”

“Good for health, bad for business,” commented Paul Vesagas, a health profession-al who works in Cebu. And someone from Baguio said: “(The liquor ban) is a big joke. There are more serious issues in the country that needs at-tention from the national gov-ernment.”

Ethanol (the alcohol that’s drunk) and the carbon dioxide (yes, the same chemical that causes global warming) are the natural excreta of yeast-con-suming sugars (those found in fruits, grains, saps, and nectars in all plants). Yeasts are ubiq-uitous.

The Babylonians and Egyptians (where the Bib-lical Moses grew up) found that if they crushed grapes or warmed and moistened grain, the covered mush would bub-ble and become a drink with a kick.

French microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur discov-ered that yeasts are single-cell, living fungi and that fermen-

tation is their act of survival. Yeasts can’t get directly until brewers first “malt” their bar-ley; that is, moisten and warm it so that it germinates just enough to release enzymes that convert starches into sim-ple sugars.

In itself, alcohol is a toxin. Once alcohol concentration reaches about 14%, or the sugar runs out, the multiply-ing yeasts die and fermenta-tion ends. A stronger drink requires distillation, in which substances are vaporized and then condensed by cooling.

The origins of distillation, however, are ambiguous. The Arabs get credit not so much for the process but for the word. But as far as history is concerned, alcohol was first distilled in the Middle Ages, at a medical school in Salerno, Italy.

There are all sorts of al-cohol these days. Considered an important medicine, wine was boiled and the vapors then cooled and condensed to produce a more powerfully concentrated drug. A Span-ish scholar gave this ragged brandy the name “aqua vitae,” which means “the water of life.”

Distilled alcohol evolved in Russia as “vodka,” in Holland as juniper-flavored “jevener” (the French called it “gene-ivre,” which the British blunted

as gin), and passed through charred barrels, peat smoke, and across the Irish Gaelic tongue as “uisce beatha” or whiskey.

It was a matter of time that alcohol was drunk in almost all parts of the world. In the Phil-ippines, alcohol is one of the most widely consumed drinks.

“One reason for this may be that the Spanish colonizers not only brought with them the Roman Catholic religion but also their drinking culture,” the website alcoholrehab.com writes. “There is a gen-erally positive view of alcohol among most Filipinos, but there are growing concerns about the impact drinking is having on society. As the is-lands become more urbanized there appears to be a growing reliance on alcohol to help peo-ple deal with stress.”

Recent studies found that beer is the most popular al-cohol drink in the country followed by “lambanog” or “tuba” (whiskey made for co-conut sap) and then wine. In the rural areas, some folks add cooked tablea (grounded cacao beans) to “tuba” to come up with a drink called “kinotil.”

“In the past drinking alco-hol was predominately a male pursuit but things have change in recent years,” alcoholrehab.com says. “The Filipinos seem to be adopting a more Western approach to alcohol and so are developing all the problems associated with this. It is com-mon to see people drinking in the media – especially in TV soap operas where it can be portrayed as glamorous or sexy.”

The website quoted earlier ranked Filipinos are the second highest consumers of alcohol in Southeast Asia (after the Indonesians) and the number one wine drinkers. “It is esti-mated that 5 million Filipinos drink on a fairly regularly ba-sis – it is believed that 39.9% of the population drink on an irregular basis,” it said.

On the other hand, Euro-monitor’s country report on alcohol consumption in 2012 found that Filipino adults each take 5.4 shots of distilled alco-hol weekly, making the country third in the list of the world’s heaviest drinkers -- after South Koreans’ 13.7 shots and Rus-sians’ 6.3 shots.

In the Philippines, the le-gal drinking age is 18, but it is estimated that 60% of young people will have at least tried

alcohol before then. Under-age boys are far more likely to drink than underage girls, but the females seem to be closing the gap.

Eighteen-year old Marc re-called gulping “way too many” alcoholic drinks after a Friday afternoon class with two of his friends in a nearby bar. First, they ordered whiskeys, then more whiskeys. “It’s as if we were drinking only fruit juices,” Marc says.

At 10:00 p.m., they decided to drink some beers. Marc was half-way of the bottle when he suddenly had the urge to vom-it. He stood up and before he could run, he was already vom-iting. He did not know what happened next and how he was able to get back home.

A national survey from 1989 to 1990 in the Philippines among 15,082 high school and first year and second year col-lege students found that about 36% of high school students and 34.9% of college students used alcohol in their lifetime. Of the surveyed high school students, 2.3% used alcohol that same day, and 5.6% used alcohol in the past two to seven days. Of college students, 3.7% used alcohol that same day and 16.2% used alcohol in the past two to seven days.

While Duterte is gunning for liquor ban for crimes and accidents, there are other rea-sons why alcohol drinking should be minimized.

“Alcohol is the most dan-gerous drug known to man-kind,” wrote Mark S. Gold, au-thor of “The Facts About Drugs and Alcohol.” “It ruins lives, de-stroys families, kills thousands of pedestrians. Despite this fact, alcohol is legal.”

Gold considers alcohol as “the world’s most abused sub-stance.” “We call alcohol a drug because its main ingredient -- ethanol -- acts as a central ner-vous system depressant, just like a sleeping pill,” the author explained. “In high enough doses, it’s also an anesthetic. At lower doses, it acts as a be-havioral stimulant for complex reasons. How impaired one becomes from the depressant effects of alcohol is directly re-lated to a person’s age, weight, sex, experience and level of tol-erance.

“Alcohol, like every other drug, creates tolerance, so the more you use, the more you need to achieve the same effect each time you drink,” Gold fur-ther wrote.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 20168 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

EDITORIALFrom enemies to partners

UNITED States President Barrack Obama was barely 14 when U.S. choppers airlifted Americans and Vietnamese allies out of Saigon as the Viet Cong entered the city in April of 1975.

Today, most of Vietnam has no memory of what the government calls “the American War” (or the “Anti-American War”) but the memories of the war remain.

The images of communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh are present in almost every corner in the city is now named in his hon-or--from a photo high above the old post office floor to the statue near the Rex Hotel that draws selfie-snapping visitors.

When stories of Vietnam and the United States war history is told, image of hundreds of war movies telling different versions and modifications of the story between the two fierce warring nations.

The tragic results and twists from the fierce war between the US and Vietnam only generate hate and enmity not only in the hearts of the young Americans and Vietnamese but also in the minds of just about every individual in Asia in the years after the war in Vietnam.

But like all feuding parties, there always comes a mellowed to-morrow. President Obama arrived in Vietnam Sunday for a trip that is focused on trade, but also included talk of more commercial

ties, military-to-military cooperation and a request that the United States drop its arms embargo against Vietnam.

Obama is the third consecutive U.S. president to visit the com-munist nation. He has already lifted the arms embargo in a gesture that could probably begin a new era in the US-Vietnam relations.

Now, gone are the the horrors of armed conflict. The two nations are moving on with the goal of generating the profits of global com-merce. The United States and Vietnam are forging a unique part-nership that includes a massive proposed Asia-Pacific trade deal and mutual suspicions of China’s ambitions in the region.

Vietnam is the only communist member of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement among a dozen Asian and Pacific Rim nations that faces opposition in the U.S. Congress. Lawmakers — as well as 2016 presidential candidates in both par-ties — say the proposed trade deal will allow low-wage nations like Vietnam to import jobs from the United States.

This new twist in the life of the Americans and Vietnams will surely change the future landscape of Vietnam, which reminds us of the evils of war, and the outlook of a powerhouse nation like the United States.

Columnists: MA. TERESA L. UNGSON • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • AURELIO A. PEÑA • ZHAUN ORTEGA • BERNADETTE “ADDIE” B. BORBON • MARY ANN “ADI” C. QUISIDO • LEANDRO B. DAVAL SR., • NIKKI GOTIANSE-TAN • NICASIO ANGELO AGUSTIN • EMILY ZEN CHUA • CARLOS MUNDA Economic Analyst: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG • JONALLIER M. PEREZ

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

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EDGEDAVAOProviding solutions to a seamless global village.

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Columnists: CARLOS MUNDA • HENRYLITO D. TACIO • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • ATTY. EMILY ZEN CHUA • GREGORIO G. DELIGERO • JOHN CARLO TRIA • VIDA MIA S. VALVERDE • FRED C. LUMBA • HENRY J. SCHUMACHER • VANESSA KATE MADRAZO Economic Analysts: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG

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PHILIPPINE PRESS INSTITUTEthe national association of newspapers

DURING the recent electoral season, two events brought to the fore the significance of Mexico to the Filipino

consciousness. On April 8, 2016, then presi-dential contender Rodrigo R. Duterte joked before a tourism forum on the absurdity of traveling to Mexico given the high-profile drug incidents happening there.

The event, attended by Julio Camare-na Villaseñor, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United Mexican States to the Philippines, promptly got a repartee from the envoy who told media that his country is safe, saying “Mexico re-ceives over 38 million tourists a year. Mex-ico in 2013 and 2014 was the number one direct investor in the Philippines. We want to be known for all our work and coopera-tion with the country.”

A month later, on May 11, Mexican Pres-ident Enrique Peña Nieto, head of a federal state, greeted newly-installed Philippine en-voy to Mexico Eduardo Jose de Vega on May 11 at the Palacio Nacional, expressing belief the ties between the two countries would remain excellent.

Galleon TradePhilippine-Mexican connection is made

more inseparable when one remembers the Manila Galleon Trade which author Charles C. Mann, who wrote the book ‘1493’ (2011), described as the first trade globalization that “linked Asia, Europe, the Americas, and, less directly, the Africas…”

He wrote: “Never before had so much of the planet been in a single network of

exchange—every popu-lous area on earth, every h a b i t a b l e continent ex-cept Australia. Dawning with Spain’s arrival in the Philip-pines was a new, distinct-ly modern era.”

But this intercontinental commerce also brought to our shores cultural idiosyncra-sies uniquely Mexican which, over time, have been integrated in our practices, lan-guage, and religious arrangements, many of them emanating from the Aztec dialects of Mexico.

A titillating subject that deserves not just a passing mention is the origin of ti-yangge long before we adopted our own in-digenous flea-market concept known as the taboan (the origin of Panabo City’s name-place)

MarketplaceTo us Filipinos, especially among Vi-

sayan migrants in Davao region, the words tiyangge, mercado and palenque are inter-changeably used although any lexicogra-pher will tell you that they are uniquely different in ways they are applied in daily conversations in Mexico.

Tiyangge is derived from an Aztec word

tianguiztli, which means ‘market’. Its equiv-alent in today’s Visayan parlance is the tabo-an, where farm produce from upland re-gions are brought to a chosen marketplace on a designated day of the week for trading.

Mercado, on the hand, is the regular marketplace where people converge to se-lect all types of local produce. Quiason, in his ‘The Tiangui: View of an Indigenous Rural Marketing system in the Spanish Philippines’ (1985), wrote:

“[The mercado] served also as the link, on the one hand, between the peasants who produced surplus agricultural goods and the townsfolk and, on the other hand, be-tween the upland dealers ad the Christian-ized lowlanders. In time, the tiangui dealers, mostly women, formed themselves into a small but active class of enterprising peas-ants and fishermen tied to the rural market economy.”

Palenque, meanwhile, is a Spanish term for a wooden palisade or stockade, much like a rural cockpit. It is synonymous with another loan-word toril or bull pen, from whence the District of Toril, formerly a Spanish cattle ranch, got its name.

Loan-wordsWords borrowed from the Mexican lan-

guage, especially from the Nahuatl dialect, abound in our daily use. In fact, they have been adopted as part of our growing vocab-ulary and are used freely much like any of the indigenous terms employed in various regions of the country.

Filipino journalist Floro L. Mercene, in

his ‘Manila Men in the New World’ (2007), identified some of these loan-words from Mexico as “achuete, atole, avocado, balsa, banqueta, cachuete, cachuete, cacao, caimito, calabasa, camachile, camote, calcuchi, chico, chocolate, coyote (nana(y), tata(y), tianggui, Palenque, tocayo, zacate, and zapote.”

Conversely, the Mexican language, Mer-cene found out, has also loaned words from the Philippines, among them the palapa (coconut leaves), tuba (coconut sap juice), ylang-ylang (a fragrant flower) and mang-ga (mango). Actually, the famous source of the local liquor varieties known as siete bi-yernes (literally, seven Fridays) and bahali-na (fermented coconut juice), when freshly extracted, is known to Mexicans along the Pacific coastline as tuba fresca.

Filipino legacy in Mexico goes beyond words. Cultural influences abound in many parts of the country, especially in regions facing the Pacific Ocean where the galleons made stops before travelling to the Mexican capital. In these areas, the thatched houses of residents remind you of the bahay kubo.

The local coconut, which was exported to Mexico, is known there as palmera while the circular fishing net called panti in local parlance is known as tarraya there. The Fil-ipino cockfight, or sabong, is one of the na-tional pastimes in Mexico. The barong Taga-log is used by Mexican men and is known as guayaberra.

Lastly, haven’t you been told that baul or chest is not Visayan but a Spanish term brought to the country via the Galleon Trade?

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

Tiangui, mercado y palenque

THE voice of the Filipino people blar-ingly trumpeted itself last May 9, 2016 with the overwhelming victo-

ry of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte as the President of the Republic. Having bested four formidable candidates for the highest position of the land, the so-called Punisher is cut from a different cloth than that of the other traditional democratic politicians. Duterte has been the mayor of Davao City for over two decades and is known for sanctioning extra-judicial kill-ings to keep the city in order. Duterte is linked to the Davao Death Squad (DDS), a motorcycle-riding vigilante group who outrightly executes criminals. The PRE-DA Foundation reports that the DDS has claimed 1424 victims from 1998-2015 (Fr. Amado Picardal 2016). Though the Com-mission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Watch have denounced the killings, formal charges have yet to be filed against Duterte and the DDS. In May 2015, Dute-rte asked on his weekly television pro-gram “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa, “Am I the death squad?” To which he himself replied, “True. That is true.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer 2016). Later on, Duterte would explain that this “admission” was

his way of challenging the human rights or-ganizations to come to Davao and pursue their allegations.

All other candidates for the presidency stood on politically correct democratic platforms. Administration candidate Mar Roxas made Daang Matuwid and decent gov-ernment his battlecry. He has fared poorly in the surveys and ultimately lost in the elections. Another presidential aspirant Senator Grace Poe tried to convey the im-age of cleanliness and purity with white as her official campaign outfit as she played up her motherhood. Fourth presidential hopeful Vice President Jejomar Binay stood on the strength of his government experience and the vision that he will do for the Philippines what he did for its cen-tral business district, Makati City, of which

he has also been mayor. Fifth presidential aspirant Miriam Defensor Santiago con-stantly harped about her intellectual and moral excellence. Yet, it is Rodrigo Dute-rte, who practically stood on the brutal platform of summarily executing the cor-rupt and the criminals that won the hearts and minds of the nation. Duterte, with his brash comments and unapologetic wom-anizing, has captured the imagination of Filipinos from all walks of life.

The May 9 elections are a hallmark of the Philippines being a democracy. Per-sonally and individually choosing leaders is a right the Filipinos have exercised to ensure that the government that is es-tablished is one that is of the people, for the people, and by the people. Philippine democratic elections show that the public has chosen a leader who allegedly kills but who has also declared that he is ready to get killed. Duterte has famously pro-claimed that he does not care if he goes to hell as long as the people he serves lives in paradise. This he unabashedly announces in a predominantly Christian and Catholic nation.

The Philippines is over 80% Catho-lic (CIA.2016) with very visible and vocal

Church leaders. The Catholic Bishops Con-ference of the Philippines (CBCP),though not naming and endorsing candidates, has called on its flock to “reject candidates who promote the culture of death” (CBCP.2016). Duterte is grimly pictured out as a proba-ble dictator, though most likely the benev-olent kind, who could bring the country back to the dark ages with his iron-fisted and deadly rule. The flock has rejected the call with Rodrigo Duterte’s victory in a national election with 81% voter turnout. Political philosopher John Rawls (1999) asserts that “in public reason comprehen-sive doctrines of truth or right be replaced by an idea of the politically reasonable ad-dressed to citizens as citizens.” Apparently, public reason of the Philippines has gone against the call of the majority’s Church by finding reasonable the leadership of one who could possibly be a benevolent dictator. Public reason calls for the lead-ership of a strongman who could lift the Philippines out of the morass of corrup-tion and poverty to the global power arena where all its citizens can stand shoulder to shoulder with those of developed nations; where all its citizens can live in a paradise that he burns in hell for.

Public reason and Duterte

Antonio V. Figueroa

FAST BACKWARD

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 201610 NEWSSECURITY... FROM 1

Phl... FROM 5

El Niño... FROM 6

PhilHealth... FROM 11

Incoming... FROM 2 Duterte... FROM 3

Continuing... FROM 2

Sustainable... FROM 6

Marquez... FROM 4

NEDA... FROM 6

EDGEDAVAO

that is being applied to the previous presidents and it should not be compromised for the safety of the incoming president.

Bautista said that the pro-tocols can be improved based on the desire of Duterte.

“Apparently may mga pro-tocols tayo, perl young mga protocols na yun that can’t be compromised, but it can be improved based sa desiring ating presumptive president,” Bautista said.

Bautista though stressed that whatever innovations be made on the security proce-dures of the incoming pres-ident the bottom line would always be “we have to secure the president”.

He said that the PSG has to make an assessment based on the things that Duterte al-ways do before they can have a modernification of the pro-tocols.

Asked if Duterte needs

to adjust with the protocols of the PSG, Bautista said that they should be the one who should adjust, as long as the security of the president is not sacrificed.

Bautista said that they would have to make an ad-justment and precautionary measures especially that Dute-rte usually go to the mountain side to meet the rebels or to fetch abducted members of the police or military.

On a separate interview, Duterte said that he is not used to have many security men following him.

“Here in Davao there are only two cars, one is where I am riding and the other one is for my close in guards, I do not like many guards following me,” Duterte said.

On the upcoming days, more PSG personnel will be arriving the city for the secu-rity of the incoming president, according to Bautista.

Philippines,” Dyer said not-ing that the Beautiful Desti-nations’ Instagram page has generated an overwhelming response from followers over the last 12 days of their trip to the Philippines.

Instagrammer and vid-eographer for American DJ duo The Chainsmokers, Sam Kolder said that he could not believe that their trip is near-ing completion by Tuesday.

“It felt like that I have only been here for two days. I wish there is more time to see a vol-cano, or go to a farm, or snor-kel in a shipwreck. There is so many things I still want to do, yet so little time,” Kolder said.

London’s top Instagram-mer and travel photographer Jacob Riglin said that he con-sidered the El Nido trip in Pal-awan as one of the highlights

of their journey.“The sunset at the exclu-

sive beach resort was simply breathtaking. Our amazing itinerary in the Philippines helped us capture what the country is all about in such a unique way. Needless to say, meeting new friends along the way makes this whole trip the best of all our travels so far,” he added.

To view their photos and videos, visit www.beauti-fuldestinations.com or follow their accounts in Instagram @beautifuldestinations, @beautifulhotels, @beautiful-cuisines, @beautifulmatters, @beautifulmenswear (Insta-gram) and @bdestinations, @bcuisines (Snapchat), and DOT @tourismphl on Insta-gram and The Philippines on Facebook. (PNA)

is “we have to secure the Pres-ident.” He is also aware that Duterte visits rebel areas and this is part of their adjustment.

Asked if Duterte needs to

adjust with the protocols of the PSG, Bautista said they should be the one who should adjust, as long as the security of the President is not at stake. (PNA)

17,678 families.The province, placed un-

der the state of calamity last June 19, 2016 is among the areas severely hit by the on-slaught of the El Niño phenom-enon that started late in 2015 until the end of April this year.

The PSWDO said more or less 263,773 families in North Cotabato were directly hit by the drought while the Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPAG) reported that around P1.1 billion worth of agricul-ture crops province were de-stroyed.

Other interventions con-ducted by the provincial gov-ernment and the Department of Agriculture (DA) this year include the cloud seeding op-erations that were conducted on February 17 until April 12.

A total of 668 bags of salt were used during the opera-tions in efforts to water down the drying agricultural crops in the area.

The provincial govern-ment has also extended an animal dispersal program to farmers with the hope to aug-ment their income in the midst of the drought.

A total of 516 heads of ca-rabao and cattle were given to the farmers since the dry spell hit last year, including 1,000 heads of goats and 1,000 heads of swine.

Since January of this year, OPAG reported that a total of 100 heads of cattle and cara-bao, 624 heads of goats, and 228 heads of swine were dis-tributed to the affected farm-ers in the area.

of rapport with the Filipino people. I also discouraged that kind of culto culto na Duterte it does not also fit into my para-digm in life. Sanay ako sa tra-baho ko (I am used to my job). I have been with government (and spent) the best years of my life about two years from graduation from law school.

“I have always been a ser-vant…in fact you are a master,” said Duterte, who was a state prosecutor, once a member of the Tanodbayan, OIC-vice mayor during the time of for-mer President Corazon Aquino before he became the elected mayor of Davao City in 1988.

SecurityMany people who knew

the mayor said Duterte can be a security nightmare for the Presidential Security Guard (PSG).

“I do not like security tailing me alam ng media ng Davao yan (The Davao media knows that),” he told Manila reporters.

In an earlier interview, in-coming PSG Chief Col. Rolando

Bautista said they have crafted a presidential security plan but it still needs the approval of Duterte.

Bautista said they are also willing to adjust to the sugges-tions of Duterte.

Presscon scheduleReporters covering Duter-

te in Davao have been adjust-ing to his work system. The Davao press has been used to late night press conferences or unexpected call for media coverage even waiting for his meetings to finish until after midnight.

A known night owl, Dute-rte told reporters on Monday night that his working sched-ule will start with a press con-ference at 4.a.m.

“That means to say – I am an early riser,” he answered to a reporter’s question about his schedule for press confer-ences.

According to him, I will at-tend press conference if need be but ordinarily the tasks belong to the spokesperson of the Palace. (PNA)

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN. Members of the incoming Cabinet of president-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte meet in an undisclosed place in Manila Wednesday afternoon to discuss their plans and programs. Some of the attendees were (from left) Police Chief Supt. Ronald dela Rosa

(PNP chief), Atty. Vitaliano Aguirre (Justice), Atty. Salvador Medialdea (Executive Secretary), retired general Hermogenes Esperon Jr. (National Security Adviser), Perfecto Yasay (Foreign Affairs) and Carlos Dominguez III (Finance). ROLDAN GORGONIO

magazines; 3 blasting caps; a fragmentation hand grenade; an inside holster, a pair of warning device; three bolos; a rip saw, 5 hammocks; 4 tapita cloth; 6 ropes; assorted back-pack and sling bags; a med-ical kit; 12 assorted cellular phones; a hand radio; 19 SIM packs; 13 D size batteries; 12 micro SD; 8 micro SD adapter; 8 cellular phone chargers; 3 headsets, 5 compact discs; cash amounting to P300.00,

subversive documents and personal belongings.

Manili and his group ac-cordingly were on their way to a hinter village of Balet, San Luis town in Agusan del Sur to attend to the release of two sol-diers who were abducted by the CPP/NPA in the said area.

The cops were cited for their “noteworthy accomplish-ment worthy of praise and em-ulation by the other members of the PNP.” (PNA)

administration will push for the aggressive implementation of the infrastructure program of the government,” he said. “That’s a very welcome an-nouncement.”

Former agriculture secre-tary and member of Duterte’s transition team Carlos “Son-ny” Dominguez presented the Duterte presidency’s econom-ic agenda earlier this month.

The 8-point economic agenda is composed of reforms in tax revenue collection, accel-erating infrastructure spend-ing by setting aside 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), ensure attrac-tiveness of the country to for-eign direct investments by ad-dressing restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution, pursue genuine agricultural development, address bottle-necks in land administration and management system, strengthen basic education system and provide tertiary education scholarships, im-prove income tax system, and

expand the implementation of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program.

Dominguez said the agen-da is aimed at fulfilling the President’s promise of curbing corruption in government.

He said the new adminis-tration will create a business climate that is friendly to in-vestors. The economic reforms under a Duterte presidency will eliminate the bottlenecks of economic growth which prevents the country’s gains from trickling down to the two-thirds of the country’s population or those living un-der the poverty line and in ru-ral areas.

Dominguez also stressed the inadequacy of infrastruc-ture, the need to create more jobs and injecting economic activity. For the agriculture sector, Dominguez said the Duterte presidency will focus on improving productivity by providing better irrigation and better support services. CHE-NEEN R. CAPON

ness Opportunities through Robust and Vibrant Entre-preneurship Supportive of Peaceful Transformation (HARVEST).

“In line with this, the IFC has approved a technical as-sistance for a pilot project on HCSA”, Mastura added.

Mastura said given the momentum of private initia-tives, it will be important to ensure that, first, the private sector investments are sus-tainable and in harmony with the natural and cultural en-vironments of the Bangsam-oro; and second, the benefits of growth and investment are equitably distributed among the Bangsamoro population.

Dr. Urooj Malik, Hinele-ban chair, said the project is keen to partner with ARMM Regional Government agen-cies, the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), and local and international NGOs, among others, in the implementation of the HCSA at the landscape scale for the Bangsamoro region.

“This landscape level strategy will be implemented via use of the HCSA, a meth-odology that distinguishes forest areas for protection from degraded lands with low carbon and biodiversity values that may be devel-oped,” he said.

Urooj said the methodol-ogy aims to ensure a practical, transparent, robust, and sci-entifically credible approach that is widely accepted to im-plement commitments to halt deforestation while securing the rights and livelihood of the Bangsamoro people.

Re-elected ARMM Re-gional Governor Mujiv S. Hat-aman with a fresh mandate is supportive of the project.

“This is a welcome de-velopment making sure that agribusiness investments in the region will help propel economic growth, ensure that there will be enough re-sources and opportunities for the Bangsamoro people now and in the future,” Hataman said. (PNA)

fects of the El Niño. Upper re-spiratory tract infections com-prised the bulk of the illnesses, reaching 3,057 cases, which

also saw the rise of diarrhea, skin infection, chicken pox, mumps and amoebiasis.” ALEX-ANDER LOPEZ

cedures and addressing other PhilHealth related concerns.

They also play an integral role in fighting off fraudulent ac-tivities by serving as PhilHeath gatekeepers in HCIs. Over the years, their desks have become points of convergence for mem-ber feedbacks and complaints. They are also assigned to do random exit interviews with patient-members to check if they actually received ample services from the hospital.

Equipped with knowledge on PhilHealth’s programs and policies, they assert member rights through regular infor-mation-education campaigns. Should one need assistance with PhilHealth matters, they are ready to serve and extend help – truly living up to their ti-tle as “PhilHealth CARES”.

Currently, there are 26 Phil-Health CARES assigned in vari-ous hospitals in Davao region.Kleah Dublin, PRO-XI

FOOD

EDGEDAVAOINdulge!

THE DABAWENYO’S LOVE OF HOME-STYLE FILIPINO CUISINE IS STRON-GER THAN EVER BEFORE. From the street-side eateries serving hearty native fare, to the fancy restaurants in the city’s top ho-tels, Filipino food in Durianburg is experi-encing a renaissance.

One of the restaurants that caught the new wave of Filipino food apprecia-tion is Rekado. Opened in 2015 by young chef Pau-line Benedicto, Rekado’s menu consists of old fa-vourites and new quirky cuisine which tickled the palate of diners. To celebrate Rekado’s anniversary, a private lunch together with me-dia personalities and food bloggers was held last May 12 at the restaurant. The menu of the lunch consist-ed of new dishes whipped up by Pauline and are al-ready part of Rekado’s up-dated menu. “Four of these dishes were formally launched on Mother’s Day and the rest

we are presenting to you today,” said Pauline. “Ex-pect the same bold flavors from the original menu we presented to everyone from day one. Nothing re-petitive and each dish will stand on its own, each will have its own unique fla-vor,” Lunch started with a duo of appetisers. Gam-

bas served on a sizzling plate with lots of garlic and olive oil, and Kinilaw na Malasuge, a Filipino ver-sion of ceviche tossed with seasoned vinegar, pickled radish, green mango, on-ions, ginger, and chilis. The guava and tamarind glaze adds a sweet finish to the sour and bright fla-vours f the dish. As with any Filipino meal, the main dishes served for lunch that day were hearty and filling. These consisted of Sing-ing na Tadyang sa Kamias, tender beef short ribs braised to perfection and

simmered in a rich beef broth and soured by ka-mias; Sesame Basil Chick-en, Callos, slow-cooked beef tripe with Spanish chorizo in a rich tomato sauce; and Rekado Mixed Seafood, a medley of local mussels, shrimps, sword-fish, squid balls, fish balls, and kikiam cooked in a sweet and savoury sauce and spiked with chilis. Two dishes stood out for me during the meal and these were the Grand Po-chero and Rekado Paella. A braised melange of beef shank, chicken quar-ter, pork belly, carrots,

potatoes, garbanzo beans, cabbage and saba banana, Rekado’s Grand Pochero is a hearty savoury and sweet feast by itself. The richness of the dish is further hight-ened by the accompanying tangy eggplant salad. In contrast to the rustic nature of the Grand Po-chero, Rekado’s Paella is more complex with layers of flavour coming from chicken, shrimp, and smoky chorizo all cooked down to be “socarrat” or what Pinoy diners would call “matutong” which I adore. In keeping with chef Beneticto’s love of

adding a modern twist to traditional dishes, Reka-do’s Paella is topped with a creamy chili and lime dressing, adding a bright note to the dish. It is exciting how Reka-do’s dishes have risen to the times of new Filipino tastes and flavours in just a year. I am truly excited at what the upcoming years can bring to the Pinoy food revolution. For more travel stories, foodie finds, and happen-ings in, around, and be-yond Durianburg, follow me on Twitter or on Insta-gram at @kennethkingong.

A Rekado revolution

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016

ENJOY MUNCHING ON PIZZA HUT’S 4X BLOWOUT PIZZA and be on your way to an extraordinary adventure in Las Vegas, USA. Four of the most sought after flavours in one 18 inch pizza is enough reason to celebrate. Pizza Hut brings you one enjoyable gastronomic orgasm with Sausage and Bacon, Roast Beef and Veggies, Supreme and Hawaiian in one pan. No need to choose one; now, you get all 4. With every purchase of their Blowout Pizza (a la carte at P659 only) or any of their Blowout Pizza Hut Feasts from May 5 until June 6, 2016, you get a chance to win one free 4days/3nights trip to Las Vegas, USA. Other exciting prizes include 2 winners of one of a kind collectible Magneto Helmet (Second Prize) and 10 winners of 18” Blowout Pizza (Minor Prize). Take your pick from three filling feasts:

Blowout Pizza Hut Feast 1 (P999) includes 18” Blowout pizza, family size spaghetti Bolognese, 6 cream of mushroom soup, 1 Pepsi pitcher and 1 Mt. Dew pitcher. Blowout Pizza Hut Feast 2 (P1,299) includes 18” Blowout

pizza, 4pc fried chicken, order of slinger, 1 Pepsi pitcher and 1 Mt. Dew pitcher. Blowout Pizza Hut Feast 3 (P1,499) includes 18” Blowout pizza, 4pc fried chicken, family size spaghetti Bolognese with meatballs, 1 Pepsi pitcher and 1 Mt. Dew pitcher.

There’s more. With every order, you get to collect an exclusive X-Men: Apocalypse designed box. With 4 exciting designs, you’d surely want to collect them all. Now, not only do you get to enjoy extreme pizza flavours in one pan while watching X-Men: Apocalypse

but more so, get to keep a memorabilia. Contest is open to all Pizza Hut costumers with valid passport. All employees of Philippine Pizza Inc., partner agencies and their relatives up to the 2nd degree of consanguinity and affinity are not qualified to join. Visit your nearest Pizza Hut outlet: Pizza Hut SM Lanang Premier at SM Lanang Premier, J.P. Laurel Avenue, Bajada, Lanang, Davao City, phone (082) 285 1199. Pizza Hut Gaisano Mall located at the Lower Ground Level, Gaisano Mall of Davao, J.P. Laurel Ave., Bajada, Davao City, phone (082) 222 2222 and Pizza Hut SM Ecoland located at SM Ecoland, Quimpo Boulevard, Ecoland, Davao City, phone (082) 297 6655. Follow PIZZA HUT on Facebook: PIZZA HUT PHILIPPINES, Twitter @pizzahutphils, or visit their website at pizzahut.com.ph.

IF YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE THE HEAT, THEN THIS ONE IS FOR YOU. Cafe Rihanna by Cafe Bloudan, the newest authentic Middle-Eastern restaurant in Davao, brings you a super hot contest that will surely have your ears and tongues on fire. Definitely, not for the faint of heart.

A2 INdulge! EDGEDAVAOUP AND ABOUT

Cafe Rihanna holds Ghost Pepper challenge

Pizza Hut Xtreme Las Vegas Adventure

The Ghost Pepper Challenge is basically you, consuming a certain amount of ghost pepper sauce for the next 5 min-utes. Easy? Not really. Within the 5 minutes, you need not show any gri-

mace, discomfort or pain. Doable? Of course, yes. If yes, then you defi-nitely need to take the challenge. Participants must be of legal age, sane and acts out of one’s free-will. No pressure. This

is all you. Schedule of challenge is Daily from 11:00am until 9:00pm. Registration fee is waived. The challenge has begun and will end on July 2016. Date to be announced. Elimination Round. Each participant is to con-

sume 7.5 ml of Ghost Pep-per Sauce and must not show any grimace, dis-comfort, and or pain for the next 5 minutes. Weekly Round. All dai-ly winners will increase intake of the Ghost Pep-per Sauce to 15ml. Same

rules apply. Final Round. Weekly winners will face head to head and consume the most Ghost Pepper Sauce. No water, No milk, no nothing. Though a glass of fresh milk and yoghurt will be provided. Con-

suming the same would entail forfeiture A before and after pho-to will be taken to ensure that no facial distortion is noted. Prizes for the Grand Victor includes an I sur-vived “Cafe Bloudan’s Ghost Pepper Challenge T-Shirt” and gift cer-tificates worth P2,000.00 from Cafe Rihanna and P2,000.00 from Cafe Bloudan in Cagayan De Oro City. Also includes 1 month supply of Hum-mus and a T-shirt and Ball Cap “I survived the Cafe Bloudan Ghost Pep-per Challenge” . Consolation prizes of P300.00 Cafe Rihanna worth gift certificate will also be given. Cafe Rihanna is located at Don Dionisio Commer-cial Complex, Cabaguio Avenue, Davao City and is open from Monday to Sunday. For orders and reservations, call them at 0917 309 6008 or visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/caferi-hanna/.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016

THE NEW, CHIC, FUN, AND FEMININE TALK SHOW IS NOW ON LIFESTYLE! There’s more to be excited about this May! “Modern Girls,” the newest TV magazine talk show on Lifestyle is every modern Filipina’s survival manual that discusses interests, issues, and insights of the contemporary Filipina that’s meant not just to entertain but to inform and inspire as well. “Modern Girls” will be hosted by three lovely women, each carrying a special and distinct persona, and who truly embody the epitome of the modern woman- Filipino volleyball player and television host Gretchen Ho, television host Sam Oh, and Filipina actress and singer Denise Laurel will complete your Saturdays with their fun yet truly heartening talkshow “Modern Girls” premiering on May 28 at 9PM. TV host Sam Oh is best known for her witty commentary. Before entering television, Sam earned a name for herself as a radio jock, making morning commutes bubbly and full of energy. Sam brings to “Modern Girls” her larger-than-life personality, open

mindedness, and classy attitude. At 26 years old, Gretchen has become an icon of girl power through her love for volleyball. Gretchen easily became a television darling, having played for the UAAP Women’s Volleyball. She soon landed hosting gigs as viewers saw that beyond her fit physique was an intelligent mind. Strong, determined, and adventurous, Gretchen is considered one of the most admired millennials in the country. Fresh from her win as ABS-CBN’s “Your Face Sounds Familiar” champion is Denise Laurel. Denise is the perfect example of multi-hyphenate. This talented actress-model-singer is also a mother. As a young mom, Denise’s life experiences bring depth

to the pool of hosts. Each episode of “Modern Girls” will be focusing on a specific theme catering to every modern woman’s interests such as dating, love, health, fitness, beauty, music, art, culture, food, and many more! “Modern Girls” will have its replays every Sunday at 12:30 PM, Monday at 2 AM, Tuesday at 7 PM, Wednesday at 11 AM, and Saturday at 6AM. Lifestyle is a Filipino cable television network owned and operated by Creative Programs,Inc., a subsidiary of the media and entertainment company ABS-CBN Corporation. The channel serves as a guide with a wealth of relevant and insightful content for multi-faceted Filipino millennial

women. It is the channel to first recognize the need for lifestyle content that specifically caters to the preferences of Filipinas, and hence is the pioneer in local lifestyle programming. It balances a mix of acquired and locally produced lifestyle content that has also continuously evolved to suit the ever-changing needs and behavior of its viewers. On-air, online, mobile an on-ground, Lifestyle inspires and moves women to become better versions of themselves. Lifestyle is available on SKYcable channel 52. For updates, like their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LifestyleTVPH , follow their IG account LifestyleTVPH and Twitter account @Lifestyle52.

INdulge! A3EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

‘Modern Girls’ to premiere on Lifestyle

STARSTRUCK GRADUATE DION IGNACIO HAS PLAYED A FEW KONTRABIDA ROLES IN HIS PAST PROJECTS, but the Kapuso actor admits that giving life to the likes of MariMar’s Nicandro is a challenge.“Happy ako sa binibigay na roles sa akin kasi challenging eh. Anlayo niya. Tingnan mo ko magsalita, anlayo niya sa pagkatao ko,” the Magkaibang Mundo star tells GMANetwork.com in an exclusive interview.He adds, “Pero masaya ako sa GMA, sa mga naniniwala sa kakayanan ko na magawa ko ‘tong character na ‘to. Thankful ako at nabibigyan ako ng ganitong character, kaya naman pinagbubutihan ko.”Dion admits to being the shy type, so how does he switch

from that to a scheming antagonist?“Basta confident ka lang sa mga gagawin mo, ‘yun ang key. Kasi ako, talagang minsan mahiyain ako. Kaya kailangan maging confident ako dito, tiwala, basahin ko ang lines ko, mag-aral ako sa bahay. Bago mag-taping, magre-review ako para magawa ko nang maganda. Perfectionist ako, gusto ko magaling ako, parang ganun (laughs).”He also shares that knowing the backstory of your character is a big help.“Doon na iiba ang acting mo, kasi nababasa mo ang pinanggalingan, ang background ng character mo. Importante ‘yun eh, kasi doon mag-iiba ang tayo mo, ang salita mo, ang tingin mo.”

WAY BEFORE JUDY ANN SANTOS BECAME A HOST, product endorser and book author, she was an actress. The phenomenal star of the ‘90s is set to return to the big screen as she portrays Juanita in the Cinemalaya 2016 entry Kusina. In an Instagram post, she shared that the film by Cenon Obispo Palomares (screenwriter-director) and David Corpuz (director) held its script reading session. According to the C i n e m a l a y a website, the movie revolves around the kitchen that serves as “the silent witness to the life and love of Juanita. It is her sanctuary, the place where she creates dishes for her family, her friends, even enemies and strangers. Through cooking, she gets to know the people around her, and in return, reveal herself to them.”

Dion Ignacio shares secret in playing kontrabida roles

Judy Ann Santos returns to acting via ‘Kusina’

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016

R13

R13 1:00 | 3:40 | 6:20 | 9:00 LFS

WARCRAFT

12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS

Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Ben Foster

WARCRAFT 3D

Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Ben Foster

May 25 – 31, 2016

PG 12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS

LOVE ME TOMORROW

Piolo Pascual, Coleen Garcia, Dawn Zulueta

PG 1:00 | 4:00 | 7:00 | 10:00 LFS

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,Jennifer Lawrence

A4 INdulge!FOOD

HERE COME THE RAINY DAYS. DAYS WHERE YOU’D RATHER SNUGGLE IN BED, IN YOUR PJS AND A BOWL OF HOT SOUP TO NEU-TRALIZE YOUR BODY TEMPERA-TURE. Times like this, we’d rather sleep in and opt not to lift a finger. How-ever, I find it appeas-ing if I cook. Just like you, I also love my Pinoy sabaw. I love them hot, spicy and with fish sauce. I love their ver-satility that if an ingredi-ent is changed,the whole dish suddenly tastes new but still the same -- if that makes sense. Of them all, what’s my favorite? By now you prob-ably now that I’m an old soul. I’m very much con-tented with a bowl of arroz caldo and binignit to sway the negative vibes away. Yes, I love hot soups even if it’s not cold. What’s your favorite?

Tinolang Manok Favored soup by the many, the tinola, in the Philippines, has more than one version. Of them all, the most common is the Tinolang Manok - with the native chicken win-ning by a mile. Like any other Filipino dish, the tinola uses easy to find in-gredients and is also very easy to cook. Add some dahon ng sili (chili leaves) to make it more authentic and perfect for the cold weather. Oh and don’t for-get the ginger and chilis too. Recipe: Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute onion until translucent. Once done, add the garlic and saute until brown but not burned. Stir in ginger, chili and fish sauce. Mix to marry the flavours. Add chicken chunks and cook until seared. Pour chicken broth (or tepid water) and simmer   for 5 minutes. Add the green papaya and further simmer until the chicken is cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Add chili leaves until just wilt-ed. Serve hot.

Bulalo This clear broth of bone marrow goodness always screams of celebrations. Boiled for hours, the bu-lalo is one soup dish that will make you sweat like you’re under the scrutiny

of the authorities. In real-ity, the bulalo is easy to cook -- with minimal in-gredients -- all you need to have is an overload of patience to achieve that textured taste of the broth. Recipe: In a deep pot, simmer beef shank for at least an hour or   until tender. Al-ways remove the scum that rises above the broth. Add more hot water if necessary. When the beef is tender, add native on-ions, rock salt, whole pep-percorns and corn. Sim-mer on rolling boil until the flavours incorporate well. Add cabbage and bok choy. Season with fish sauce according to taste.

Sinigang According to an on-line article, the sinigang is considered the holy grail of Filipino soup. From simple medley of veggies to fish, seafoods and meat, the sinigang’s versatility is what makes it an easy-to-whip soup on any given day. Not just during the rainy days, that is.Recipe: In a pot, pour beef broth and let boil. You can also use water. Add sliced to-mato, native onion, and

sliced kamias (you can use sampalok or other pam-paasim). Simmer. Add beef chunks and continue to boil over low-medium heat. Add raddish of taro root Cook until beef be-comes tender. In another pot, boil water for blanch-ing vegetables. Blanch your vegetables for 2 to 3 minutes. Pull out veggies from the water and shock in a bowl of cold water and ice. Set aside. Once the beef is tender, add the fish sauce and stir. You can always add more water if needed. Pour soup broth with beef and and radish. Add blanched vegetables.

Arrozcaldo Is a favorites amongst anyone who craves for a bowl of filling soup es-pecially on a cold day...or night. Nowadays, the ar-roz caldo is cooked in so many ways and so many varieties. Still, many fa-vor the simple arroz caldo recipe of chicken, rice and ginger. Now, that’s a prop-er arroz caldo for a growl-ing tummy. Recipe: Heat pot over medi-um heat. Add vegetable oil. Saute onions, garlic, and ginger until every-thing is fragrant but not burned.   Season lightly with salt and pepper. Add chicken and cook. Pour chicken broth or water and bring to a rolling boil. Add rice, and simmer un-til rice is soft, about 30-40 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.Remove from heat and garnish to your liking. Fried shallots, fried

binignit will always make you love being in the Phil-ippines. The medley of fresh fruits combined to create a particular depth only the binignit has is enough reason to cook this on any given day. What fruits to throw in your pot?

Anything. Just make sure that the flavours marry with each other. Make #TheRoyalChef your Thursday habit! Fol-low my messy food affair at theroyalchefeats.wordpress.com and on Instagram @theroyalchefleebai.

Hot soup on a rainy day

garlic, scrambled egg or even hard-boiled egg.

Binignit If you are on a sweet binge, then this is for you. Cold or hot weather, the

EDGEDAVAO VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016

DAVAO PARTNER ESTABLISHMENT

GENSAN PARTNER ESTABLISHMENT

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016

IN 2012, PhilHealth intro-duced a roster of competent workforce called Customer

Assistance Relations and Em-powerment Staff (CARES) and deployed them to government and private Health Care In-stitutions (HCIs) nationwide. This program was designed to respond to the increasing needs of members who seek immediate services and assis-tance at the point-of-availment in hospitals.

PhilHealth CARES are reg-istered nurses tasked to pro-vide personalized assistance to PhilHealth members and dependents who are confined in hospitals. They are stationed in visible areas of the hospitals where members can easily approach them and seek help in facilitating documentary requirements, availment pro-

11EDGEDAVAO

COMMUNITY SENSE

THE National Govern-ment has allocated P6.5 billion to 74 pilot prov-

inces for the implementation of Konkreto at Ayos na Lan-sangan ang Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran or KALSADA program, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

DILG Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento said the KALSADA program aims to help local government units (LGUs) in progressively improving local road conditions by providing technical and capacity devel-opment assistance to provinc-es through training, mentoring and coaching on local road management as well as fund-ing for road upgrading, im-provement, and rehabilitation.

The DILG Secretary said that the 2016 KALSADA fund was apportioned to the partic-ipating provinces based on cri-teria considering their needs

and performance on Local Road Management.

The performance crite-ria for FY 2016 are based on a province’s performance on the implementation of its Spe-cial Local Road Fund (SLRF) Projects, and Performance on road maintenance based on the DILG Provincial Road In-ventory of good to fair roads.

To qualify for the KAL-SADA program, the province must be a recipient of the Seal of Good Financial Housekeep-ing under the Seal of Good Lo-cal Governance (SGLG).

In 2016, 74 provinces have qualified to participate in the program. Of the 74 prov-inces, 68 provinces with 186 projects amounting to PhP 5.724B (88.06% of the total PhP 6.5B) have been endorsed to the Department of Budget and Management for fund re-lease as of the end of the first

THE Chevron Philippines Incorporated (CPI), marketer of Caltex fuels

and lubricants on Wednesday launches its Fuel Your School (FYS) program at Caltex Sta-tion in Bajada, Davao City that signified the company’s commitment to invest in the region’s students from public senior high schools.

In a statement, CPI’s Coun-try Chairman Peter Morris said that starting from June 1 until June 30 of this year the com-pany will donate one peso for every 1-liter purchase of Caltex with Techtron or sale of Delo Sports diesel engine oil.

The accumulated amount will be utilized to support qualified classroom projects in STEM projects of public senior high schools in Davao City and Davao region.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics classroom proj-ects of public school teachers in public schools.

Around 29 schools from Davao City will benefit from the program and one school will also be supported in Mati City, Davao Oriental, said Ter-

esita Tambagan, assistant re-gional director of the Depart-ment of Education in Davao re-gion (DepED-11) who graced last Wednesday’s launching.

STEM is a vehicle for trans-formation of our society, re-forms and economic develop-ment, Tambagan pointed out.

She also expressed grati-tude to CPI for the project, em-phasizing that the endeavour can be considered as a medi-um or channel for the develop-ment of students in the region.

Aside from FYS, the com-pany will also allocate a sum of P3 million that will be used for the purchase of better class-room facilities and advanced learning materials for the stu-dents.

Morris said the FYS project is well-timed given the entry this year of the country’s first Grade 11 students in line with the implementation of the K-12 program of the DepED.

FYS is a joint project of CPI, DepED and the American Chamber Foundation Philip-pines (ACFP) with the support of the American Chamber of the Philippines-Mindanao Chapter.

Caltex launches program to help schools in Davao

74 provinces allocated P6.5 billionfor pilot year of KALSADA Program

TWENTY (20) child la-borers and seventy (70) identified severely

wasted children coming from Pag-asa Integrated Elementa-ry School in drought-stricken Brgy. Pag-asa, Alabel, Saran-gani Province were the bene-ficiaries of a feeding program organized by the DOLE XII Sa-rangani Field Office in coordi-nation with the RS PO Founda-tion. Emergency employment under the DOLE-TUPAD is also being facilitated for twenty (20) identified farmer-parents

of these children.Feeding was done for 45

days during the school-initiat-ed summer program intended to teach the kids the basics from hygiene to reading in preparation for the opening of classes comes June 2016. To ensure attendance of the chil-dren, DOLE and RS Po Foun-dation provided meals to kids attending school every day.

Pag-asa Integrated School Head Teacher Ms. Sheila Mae Lendio when interviewed during the launching said “Res-

idents of the barangay are suf-fering from the effects of the El Nino and even children are not spared. There is simply no spare food because of the calamity, and children may be eating only one or two small meals a day in their homes and this feeding program through partners is of big help in en-couraging the kids to go back to school and study instead of working or finding ways and means to alleviate their hun-ger.”

RS Po Foundation repre-

sentative Mr. Joel Saavedra lauded DOLE’s effort in as-sisting the children and their parents to ward off the effects of the drought and with this, he declared “This is one gov-ernment undertaking that is getting full support from RS Po Foundation. With the high number of working and se-verely wasted children here, our feeding shall not be good for this summer program only for we are including Pag-asa Integrated School in the foun-

IN the heat of summer time, young boys of Nab-unturan, Panabo City, Car-

men, Tagum City, and nearby towns of Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte benefit-ted from the Operation Tuli successively conducted by Tagum Cooperative on April 16, 20, 27 and May 17 re-spectively.

Escorted by their par-ents, the participants ranging from six to 12 years old took the early morning queue at the mentioned venues to avail the free services rolled out by the Cooperative this summer.

Mr. Julito Niῆal, father of nine year old Christovher who participated in the 1st round of operation in Nab-unturan told their story after the circumcision saying they came from far-flung munici-pality of Monkayo and com-muted via bus for an hour.

When Tatay Julito, a dis-bursement officer of a state university in their locality, heard about the Operation Tuli, he immediately asked his son who, in return, “will-fully” agreed to join.

A Tagum Cooperative member for 10 years, Tatay Julito expressed his grati-

tude to the Cooperative for the “social responsibility” it laid down for the members making it “more than just a financial institution”.

“Pasalamat jud ko sa Tagum Coop nga naa’y hin-ani nga operation (Tuli) kay ma-avail pod namo ang among HPP benefits (We are thankful to Tagum Coop for this Operation because we can avail our HPP benefits” he said. HPP or Himsug Pamilya Program is a health service offering of the Coop for mem-bers and their beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, in the fifth and final leg of Operation Tuli

at Tagum Coop Main Office, about 60 young boys were successfully circumcised out of almost a hundred who were previously enlisted.

Collectively, the five rounds of Operation Tuli con-ducted across Tagum Coop branches catered to around 200 youngsters.

In partnership with lo-cal health offices and pri-vate medical practitioners, the free services culminated with positive feedback from the beneficiaries who looked forward for more health programs from the Coop. (Tagum Cooperative)

Youngsters avail free ‘Tuli’

A father stays by the side of his son who availed the free tuli of Tagum Cooperative

A youngster avails the free tuli of Tagum Cooperative in Panabo Branch

DOLE assists child laborers of Sarangani

By ALEXANDER LOPEZ

F 74 PROVINCES, 13F PHILHEALTH, 10

F DOLE, 13

PhilHealth ‘CARES’ for your needs

Random acts of kindness. Shilhi Cena, one of the CARES in PhilHealth Regional Office (PRO) XI, randomly hands out roses to confined patients in Davao del Sur Provincial Hospital (DSPH). This kind and heart-warming gesture started in 2012 during her ward rounds in the said

hospital. Although the routine goes beyond the bounds of duty, Shilhi believes there is nothing too special about it. “It is my simple way to uplift their (patients’) spirits.”, she shared.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 201612CLASSIFIEDS EDGEDAVAO

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO GENSAN PARTNERS

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO PARTNER ESTABLISHMENTS

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016 13EDGEDAVAO NEWS

3 REPORTERSEDGE DAVAO is in need of 3 reporters for immediate

hiring.

* College degree holder (Communication Arts graduate preferred, but not required)

* Capable of writing English news and feature stories on business and governance

* Has potentials of becoming editor* Single* Not more than 35 years old

Entry pay negotiable.

Submit application letter and curriculum vitae to:

Antonio M. AjeroEditor-in-Chief

Edge Davaoajero_antonio@yahoo.com

09274733467

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO

WANTED

Interested member-bor-rowers may submit their LRP application form and support-ing documents at the nearest SSS branch. Members whose date of contingency for death,

disability or retirement (DDR) falls on or before the last day of the availment period and filing of the benefit claim is within the LRP availment pe-riod are qualified for loan re-

structuring. They are advised to first confirm their eligibility for DDR benefits at the DDR Claims Counter before filing their application at the LRP Counter in any SSS branch.

Member... FROM 14

74 provinces... FROM 11

DOLE... FROM 11

quarter.As of May 4, 2016, funds

have been released for 181 projects, while funds for the remaining five will soon be released as the date of their endorsement reached the election ban.

Of the 186 funded proj-ects, 69 are ongoing construc-tion, 11 subprojects have been issued Notices to Proceed, and the remaining 106 are in dif-ferent stages of procurement.

On the other hand, the re-maining 6 provinces are still in the process of complying with the documentary require-ments regarding governance

reforms set by the program. The total number of projects will increase once said prov-inces are able to comply with the documentary require-ments.

In 2015, to help the LGUs comply with the documentary requirements for the KALSA-DA program, the DILG con-ducted a series of capability building training-workshops to the participating LGUs.

The DILG also conducted one-on-one technical assis-tance on polishing of DEDs submitted as per request of LGUs that need it.

For 2017, the program is

looking to cover all provinc-es and cities nationwide. The governance measures (com-pliance with the Good Finan-cial Housekeeping standards) will still be employed, but it will be included in the list of documentary requirements the LGU has to comply with prior to fund release. The Pro-gram is hopeful in instilling significant improvements in Local Road Management all over the country as well as reforms in governance and ultimately contribute to a sustained progress in the so-cio-economic development of provinces. (DILG)

dation’s year-round feeding program!.” A statement that garnered loud cheers from par-ents and children present.

DOLE Sarangani Field Of-fice O.I.C.-Head Alma P. Borela in her message said to the chil-dren and their parents, “chil-dren’s place must be in school not in farms, not in households as helpers, and definitely not in situations hazardous to them. We believe that the drought has taken its toll on you, but let this not be a reason to send children working. We, the gov-ernment and the private sector are here to support you. Let us work together to combat the

effects of the calamity.”Based on records, Saran-

gani Province is one of the provinces heavily affected by the El Nino and is now placed under state of calamity. In drought-hit communities, is-sues like child labor are exac-erbated hence, there is a need to conduct massive advocacy on DOLE Anti - Child labor Pro-grams in the barangay level.

DOLE’s Child Labor Free Barangay Campaign is geared to free identified barangays from child labor, and also to influence change, identify al-lies and solicit commitments of support from stakeholders,

specifically government and non-government organiza-tions, the private sector and the parents of child laborers them-selves, believing on the norm that the first phase towards empowerment is through edu-cation and other interventions.

The DOLE, in coordination with the PESO and Barangay LGU, further intends to pro-vide parents of the identified child laborers with livelihood projects under the DILEEP for them to have sources of income to be able to support the rein-tegration of their children into formal education. MJamolod/APBorela

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 201614 EDGEDAVAO

COMPETITIVE EDGE

NEGOSYO READY. Three of the eight former OFWs are all smiles after they have received their livelihood grant last May 17. Together with them in the photo are Department of Labor and Employment XI Technical Services and Support Division Chief Neil Allan R. Baban and National Reintegration

Center for OFWs focal person Rea B. Sa-an. After undergoing several skills and entrepreneurial trainings, the former OFWs were granted with P10,000 each for them to jump start their chosen business. KMGL/LCO-DOLEXI

THE province of Davao del Norte is set to de-clare a state of calamity

because of the destructive ef-fects of the El Nfiño weather phenomenon.

After thorough delibera-tion, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Man-agement Council (PDRRMC) approved on Wednesday the resolution recommending

the declaration to the Sang-guniang Panlalawigan due to the onset of drought since January.

Governor Rodolfo del Rosario stressed the urgen-cy of passing the resolution after the El Niño damaged P883,5-million worth of crops and affected 57,244 families around the province.

Invoking Republic Act No.

8185, the council pushed the measure following the decla-ration of state of calamity by the local government units of Kapalong, Asuncion and Carmen, after sustaining the brunt of the water scarcity.

The Council proposed a budget intervention of P11 million to combat the adverse effect of the weather anom-aly. The amount will be ear-

marked for seed assistance, fertilizer assistance, finger-lings, medicines and relief goods.

Provincial Agriculturist Dr. Anastacia Notarte re-ported the drought damaged some 36,449.45 hectares of agricultural land in the prov-ince.

The export banana sector suffered the impact of the ca-

lamity, affecting 13,828 hect-ares valued at P408.6 million.

Some 6,809 hectares of rice were also damaged amounting to P202.8 million, together with hundreds of millions worth of corn, coco-nut, vegetables and fisheries.

The Provincial Health Of-fice also recorded 7,593 cases of morbidity related to the ef-fects of the El Niño.

Upper respiratory tract infections comprised the bulk of the illnesses, reaching 3,057 cases, which also saw the rise of diarrhea, skin in-fection, chicken pox, mumps and amoebiasis.

The Council also ap-proved the 2017 Local Disas-ter Risk Reduction and Man-agement Fund amounting to 73,335,575.

DavNor to declare state of calamityEl Niño damage at P883.5-M

STATE OF CALAMITY. Outgoing Governor Rodolfo del Rosario presides over the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, which passed a resolution for the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Davao del Norte to declare a State of Calamity, following P883.5-million worth of crops damaged by the El Niño phenomenon. Nobags

SHORTLY after announc-ing the launch of its Loan Restructuring Program

(LRP) on April 28, the Social Security System (SSS) has received 20,953 LRP applica-tions from calamity-stricken borrowers all over the coun-try who want to settle their overdue short-term SSS loans, preserve the value of their fu-ture benefits, and regain their good SSS standing.

SSS Diliman Branch, which is adjacent to the SSS

main office along East Avenue in Quezon City, has accept-ed 685 applications within a span of two weeks from mem-bers and future pensioners with past due loans. Among them are Judith D. Ferranco (at the counter, right), a vol-untary member from San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan, who immediately submitted her application on May 4 after watching SSS’ announcement on television.

Ferranco recalled that she

applied for SSS salary loan before the onset of Tropical Storm Ondoy in 2009. Upon validation, records showed that her loan principal and interest totaled P9,100 while her loan penalties were near-ly P5,700. Ferranco decided to settle her overdue loan principal and interest within an installment payment term of 12 months, with a restruc-tured monthly amortization of about P770. The SSS will waive her loan penalties once

Ferranco has fully paid her re-structured loan.

LRP is open to mem-ber-borrowers with past due loans for at least six months as of the first day of the re-structuring period and who reside or work in a calamity area as declared by the Na-tional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council or the national government. The LRP availment period will end on April 27, 2017.

Member-borrowers flock to SSSto apply for loan restructuring CONTINUED demand for

capital and consumer goods drove imports

growth of 11.7 percent in March 2016, according to the National Economic and Devel-opment Authority (NEDA).

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that im-ports reached US$6.4 billion from US$5.7 billion in the same period. This is on ac-count of higher purchases of capital goods at 24.1 percent and consumer goods at 39.4 percent.

“The continued strength of merchandise imports and the fact that it is fueled by spending on capital goods bodes well for the economy. This growth also mirrors the positive prospects of the economy that are expected to be sustained for the rest of the year,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Emmanuel F. Esguerra.

Additionally, among 11 selected Asian countries, only the Philippines posted pos-itive growth of imports in March 2016. South Korea, Ma-laysia and Taiwan showed the steepest declines.

“Given the general slug-gishness of import activities in the region, government support for higher spending on infrastructure is critical not only because it supports do-mestic demand but more im-portantly, because it increases the country’s attractiveness to investors,” the Cabinet official said.

Imports for capital goods continued on its double-digit growth path for the seventh consecutive month by reach-ing US$2.1 billion in March 2016.This bodes well for ro-bust economic activity.

Similarly, imports of consumer goods in-creased to US$ 1.2 billion in March 2016 due to higher spending on both durable goods (67.9%) and non-dura-ble goods (15.6%) during the period.

“Expected to fuel imports growth in the near term will be the continued expansion of public and private construc-tion, along with investments in durable equipment. Mean-while, increased employment opportunities with increased government spending for personnel services and main-tenance and operating expen-ditures will contribute to the growth of consumer goods imports,” said Esguerra, who is also NEDA Director-General.

However, purchases of raw materials and intermediate goods as well as mineral fuels and lubricants declined during the period owing to the wan-ing demand for wheat, inedible crude materials, and lower im-port payments for other min-eral fuels and lubricants, and petroleum.

“The government needs to stay on course towards im-proving the climate for doing business in the country. This will improve our attractive-ness to both local and foreign investors. The passage of the Customs Modernization Act is a step in this direction, as it will reduce opportunities for cor-ruption and technical smug-gling,” said Esguerra.

In terms of market source, imported goods from Thai-land rose significantly by 84.2 percent, overtaking China (45.3%) and Japan (48.9%), and replacing the United States as one of the top three import source since August 2014.

Strong domestic demandboosts imports in March

F MEMBER, 13

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

PRINCESS Superal and Pauline del Rosario found themselves trail-

ing for the first time this week when Madein Herr and Brynn Walker hit three birdies in five holes on the back nine, but re-covered to win in 18 holes and reach the semifinals of the US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball on Tuesday on Bowling Green, Florida (Wednesday, Manila time).

Superal sank a 10-fooot birdie putt on the final hole as she and Pauline del Rosario continued their march in the USGA event.

The Filipinas next take on 13-year-old Californians Angelina Kim and Brianna Na-varrosa, who beat Katie Miller and Kristen Obush, 3 and 2.

Madein Herr and Brynn Walker hit birdies on Nos. 11,

13 and 15 to take the lead.But Del Rosario bird-

ied the tough par-3 16th at Streamsong Resort to square the match, and Superal coolly sank the final-hole birdie.

Herr and Walker were try-ing to reach the semifinals for the second straight year.

The top-seeded Superal and Del Rosario defeated Hana Ku and Jordan Lippetz, 2 and 1, in the Round of 16.

The other Filipina pair of Sofia Chabon and Mikhae-la Fortuna, however, was stopped in the Round of 16 by sisters Nicole and Waverly Whiston, 3 and 2.

The Whistons were beat-en, 2 and 1, in the quarterfinals by Hailee Cooper and Kaitlyn Papp, who play Alexandra Austin and Lauren Greenlief in the semifinals.

PLAYOFFPEST

How Lowry pulled the Raptors from the brink

Superal, Del Rosario in semis

OLYMPIC qualifying for golf ends in seven weeks, at which time

players will have to determine if medals outweigh mosqui-toes.

For now, there is only con-cern.

Rory McIlroy was the latest player to say Zika was in the back of his mind. In an interview with the BBC after his Irish Open victory, he said he has been reading up on the mosquito-borne virus, which

has been linked to serious birth defects. McIlroy is en-gaged, and he said they might be starting a family in the next few years.

“I have to monitor that sit-uation,” he said.

Masters champion Danny Willett was the next to weigh in. Asked about it on Tuesday (Wednesday, Manila time) at the BMW PGA Championship, the 28-year-old from England said he was keeping on top of it. Willett’s wife, Nicole, had

their first child just 11 days before he slipped on the green jacket.

“It’s not great, is it? There’s going to be 500,000 people watching the Olym-pics, and you have 11,000 athletes right in the heart of where it’s at,” Willett said. “If it turns out that it would be a massive threat to myself or to Nic or to the little man, then I probably wouldn’t go. Family comes first.

“But as it stands at the

minute, I think everything should be OK.”

The Zika virus is in the news everywhere, which goes beyond the standard media outlets.

The International Golf Federation posted a two-page update on its website last month, and it is passing along Zika-related material from the International Olympic Com-mittee and the World Health Organization to tours and player liaisons.

HE may benefit from it individually, yet LA Tenorio admitted Paul

Lee’s sudden pullout doesn’t help Gilas Pilipinas as a team in any way.

The Ginebra point guard regretted the withdrawal of Lee from the Gilas pool, say-ing it deprives everyone of seeing a potentially exciting backcourt combination with Jayson Castro in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament un-der coach Tab Baldwin.

“I think coach Tab could attest to that, na this system is iikot talaga kay Paul Lee at Jayson,” Tenorio admitted on the same day Lee formal-ly begged off from the pool. “Yung dalawang guard ang inaabangan talaga.”

“I think that’s the best guard tandem na makikita sana natin kasi di natin na-kita sa Fiba Asia yun eh,” he added of the Castro-Lee duo, which only played togeth-er in the Fiba World Cup in 2014.

Although the unfortu-nate development gives him a better shot at making the Final 12, Tenorio still would’ve wanted to have Lee

at Baldwin’s disposal.“I’d rather na makasama

din si Paul but he has to do the therapy,” Tenorio said. “Sayang, mapapadali sana sa mga leader dito o datihan kasi pag nagsasama-sama kami ng mga yan, dalawa o tatlong practice, ok na kami. Ganun ka-instinctive na pag nagkampi kami, magkakilala na kami automatic.”

However, the Ginebra star said he has complete faith in the remaining guard candidates in the Gilas pool.

“Meron pa namang ibang options and I’m very confident sa mga natirang guards,” he added. “Kung sino man ang mapapasama sa final twelve is going to be tough and it’s still going to be a very talented team.”

“I’m excited pa rin, but sayang because this is not the lineup I’m sure coach Tab is expecting,” the Gilas 2.0 member said. “Pero wala eh. Kung sino talaga ang nandi-yan, as long as everyone is healthy, committed, and ded-icated, I think wala tayong magiging problema.”

Castro echoed Tenorio’s sentiments. BIG LOSS. Paul Lee is the best clutch player of the Gilas squad.

LA: Lee a big loss for Gilas

LEBRON James backed him down and backed him down and backed him down, delivering the framed

portrait of Kyle Lowry’s untidy, uncon-ventional, unrelenting career: too small, too limited, too unworthy. Fourth quar-ter, Game 4 of these Eastern Conference finals, and James had been groomed to treat the likes of Lowry as though a play-off pest to be flicked away like lint.

Only, Lowry kept coming and com-ing in the final minutes on Monday night, big shots and big passes, bigger steals and the biggest steel of all.

“I’ve always been counted out,” Lowry told The Vertical. “ ‘He’s not

this, and he’s not that.’ That’s the life, the position, that I’ve al-

ways been in.“And here I am.”

Somehow, he’s here. Low-

ry had been magnificent in this 105-99 victory

over Cleve-land – 35 points,

five rebounds, five assists and three steals – and it inspired Toron-

to’s general manager to proclaim and

protect the virtues of his two-time

All-Star point guard.

“ H e gets hit,”

M a s a i U j i r i

t o l d T h e Ver-t i -

cal late Monday, fist punching his palm for punctuation, “and comes back …” Ujiri clenched his fist and punched again.

“Hit, and he comes back,” he de-clared.

The Cavaliers aren’t in peril with the Eastern Conference finals at 2-2, but they do have a problem: They let these Raptors believe. The Cavaliers let DeMar DeRozan and Lowry rise up in a victory, and now the Raptors return to Cleveland for a Game 5 with something they didn’t have upon leaving there: belief.

“We will handle this adversity,” Cleveland coach Ty Lue told The Vertical.

How dramatically these East finals have turned; how suddenly the pres-sure’s been thrust onto the Cavaliers. After Game 2, the Raptors had been declared a conference finals farce, and Lowry had let himself become the laugh track of it all. Once the TV cameras caught Lowry leaving the bench to return to the locker room late in the second quarter – something he had done multiple times in the regular season – the heart and soul of a franchise had been deemed a deserter.

On his way to Games 3 and 4 at the Air Canada Centre, Lowry hadn’t only been playing for the Raptors’ season, but his own good name. Narratives get ce-mented, images become unforgettable. That walk to the locker room could’ve strapped itself to Lowry forever, if not for these back-to-back performances that towered over everything.

“Perception is reality, and I put a per-ception out there,” Lowry told The Verti-cal. “What people didn’t know: That’s my normal substitution time. But the percep-tion became that I just took myself out of the game. But you have to understand – and I now understand – that everything on this stage is 30 times magnified over what it is in the regular season.

Rory aware of Zika threat in Rio

ON TRACK. Princess Superal, the 2014 US Girls Junior champion, stays on track for a second USGA title.AP

THE PEST. Raptors guard Kyle Lowry is chased by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love of Cleveland.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 63 • THURSDAY, MAY 26, 201616 EDGEDAVAOSportsPinoy athleteswary of RiothreatsFILIPINO athletes who

will vie in the Rio Olym-pics remain poised and

unfazed by all the threats that could possibly disrupt the Games scheduled Aug. 5 to 21 in the populous city of Rio de Janeiro.

Aside from the deadly Zika virus, a mosquito-borne infection, organizers of the quadrennial event that should attract more than 10,000 ath-letes from over 200 countries have to deal with security problems.

Over the weekend, three members of the Spanish sail-ing team were robbed at gun-point in a tourist area in Rio de Janeiro, where they’ve begun training ahead of the other competitors.

“Peace and order is also a concern,” said Jose Romasanta, chef-de-mission of the Philip-pine delegation, during Tues-day’s Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at Shakey’s Malate.

“The Spanish sailing team was held up on the way to practice,” he added.

Also posing a concern for

everybody is the threat of ter-rorism, which according to Ro-masanta, will always be pres-ent in international gatherings like the Olympics.

“The threat of terrorism will always be there,” he said, adding that Brazil has asked all participating countries to pro-vide themselves with at least two security officers during their stay in Rio de Janeiro.

“Then there is recession in Brazil. There is political insta-bility with the impeachment (trial) of the President. That’s why health and security are both our concern,” said Roma-santa.

Pollution at the Guanabara Bay, where a number of water sports events will take place, is another concern, although not for the Philippines because it has no entries in water sports.

“These concerns are being addressed,” said Romasanta.

The vice president of the Philippine Olympic Commit-tee graced the forum present-ed by San Miguel Corp., Accel, Shakey’s, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. along with Rio-bound athletes

Kirstie Alora of taekwondo and Ian Lariba of table tennis.

“Our athletes don’t allow themselves to lose focus,” said Romasanta, referring to the five Filipino bets, including Ro-gen Ladon and Charly Suarez of boxing, and Marestella Tor-res of track and field, who are bound for Rio.

There are more Pinoy athletes trying to make it to the Summer Olympics, more in boxing and a couple more from golf and athletics, then in swimming, weightlifting or even basketball.

Lariba, the first Filipina table tennis entry to the Olym-pics, said there’s nothing that could disrupt her focus on the Games, not the Zika virus, or the promise of a cash windfall if she wins a medal.

Under the law, a gold med-alist in the Olympics will re-ceive P10 million, silver med-alist P5 million and bronze medalist P2 million.

“It’s normal for incen-tives as big as that to provide added motivation but it still boils down to the fact that we compete not for the incentive

a l o n e but to show t h e

other c o u n -tries how good we are,” said the student of La Salle.

Alora, who pre-pares for major com-petitions by sparring against taller jins, said her focus in Rio is on how to per-form at her best, and not be distract-ed by any other threat.

“We focus on giving our best and going for the gold. That’s the aim,” she said

RIO HOPE. Trackster Eric Cray is one of the bright

Olympic hopefuls for the Philippines.