edge davao 5 issue 16

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www.edgedavao.netVOL.5 ISSUE 16 • MARCH 25 - 26, 2012

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Motoring0

DENR to penalizeerring plantations

Agusan MarshPage 14

Serving a seamless society

FDAVAO, 13

FDENR, 13

n Plantations failed to put up buffer zones

n Gold produced = P1.8 B, silver valued at P4.17 M

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DAVAO

By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of En-vironment and Natural Resources

(DENR-EMB) 11 will penalize planta-tions in three barangays in Baguio Dis-

trict, Davao City, reported to have not implemented buffer zones at Panigan River.

This was according to the regional director of DENR-EMB 11, Ruth M. Tawa-ntawan, last Thursday during World Water Day 2012, Highlighting Commu-

nity Initiatives in Protecting Davao City’s Water Resources, at Lispher Inn, Matina, Davao City.

Tawantawan said the DENR may can-cel the environmental compliance cer-tificate (ECC) of the plantation or own-er of the land, and also penalize them

By Jade C. Zaldivar

NATIONAL Economic Develop-ment Authority (Neda) Regional Director Ma. Lourdes Lim said

the total volume of minerals produced in the region grew last year as com-

pared to 2010.Based on data released by the

Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) 11, Lim said the volume of gold and sil-ver produced in the region increased by

at least 4.3% and 29.4%, respectively.However, the figures represent the

production volume of two large-scale mining companies.

“This collected data is based on the 2011 production of Apex Mining Co., Inc. and JB Management since only

Davao gold, silver production upRESPONSIVE. Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte welcomes the rolling out of Globe Tel-ecom’s 4G technology in the city on Friday. Duterte added that Globe has been responsive to the

needs and requests of the city. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012

‘HE is a changed man, trying to be an obedient son of God our Father.’

--Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez on Manny Pacquiao’s retirement from boxing

Quips

By Lorie A. Cascaro

A financial literacy on microinsurance ad-vocacy training was

held last March 20-22 in Davao City, following the one in Butuan, which was the first microinsurance advocacy training in Min-danao. The next stop will be Cagayan de Oro City this year.

The training was initi-ated by the Department of Finance, Insurance Com-mission and Asian Devel-opment Bank, and partici-pated in by cooperatives, insurance providers, mi-crofinance institutions and non-government or-ganizations.

In the press confer-ence last Friday at the Apo View Hotel, Insur-ance Commissioner Em-manuel Dooc said mi-croinsurance is a tool for poverty reduction, adding that there are 3,100,000 microinsurance institu-tions in the Philippines.

Microinsurance is one of the financial services under microfinancing which generally means providing a broad range of financial services to the low income sector. Other financial services include savings, credit, payment transfers, and remittanc-es.

Republic Act 8425 or Social Reform and Pover-ty Alleviation Act recog-nizes microfinance as one of the tools for poverty al-leviation.

However, despite the government’s issuance of the National Strategy

for Microfinance in 1997, the low-income sector remains an untapped market for microfinanc-ing, while poverty is still prevalent in the country.

The lack of aware-ness of insurance, and low financial literacy level among the low income sector were cited as rea-sons for the low insur-ance coverage of the poor.

It is stated in Magpas-eguro para protektado: A Roadmap to financial literacy on microfinance that various case studies of Microinsurance Center show that the poor either lack an understanding of insurance or have a nega-tive perception of it or distrust.

Dooc said the finan-cial literacy on microin-surance is a strategy to change the negative no-tion of low-income sector about microinsurance, in line with the Microinsur-ance National Strategy. The paper is a joint effort of the members of the Technical Working Group organized by the Depart-ment of Finance and sup-ported by the German Technical Cooperation Microinsurance Innova-tions Program for Social Security.

Also at the press con-

ference, Hiroyuki Aoki, senior financial sector specialist of Asian De-velopment Bank, said no country in the ASEAN re-gion has national strategy in terms of microinsur-ance, only the Philippines.

“Microfinancing is very promising in the Philippines because of the very active role of micro-finance institutions that help us reach our benefi-ciaries,” Aoki said.

Part of the Technical Working Group in craft-ing the Microinsurance Strategy paper, ADB also helps in financial literacy campaign and provides technical support.

Microinsurance has “lower premiums and guaranteed benefits”. Pre-miums may range from P1 to P20 per day, or should not exceed five percent of the current minimum wage for non-agricultural workers in Metro Manila. Monthly premiums for microinsurance should not exceed P600.

Maximum guaran-teed benefits should not be more than 500 times the daily minimum wage rate for non-agricultural workers in Metro Ma-nila, or in actual current rates, should not exceed P200,000.

2 THE BIG NEWS EDGEDAVAO

It figures

ESTIMATED yearly damage of climate change to world’s ocean ocean sys-tem, according to a new study, “Valuing the Ocean,” released on Wednesday by he Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).

WORTH of funds which banks deployed to businesses and households without properly pricing them, an error that bank executives are trying to correct by establishing a new lending bench-mark they collectively lost when interest rates can no longer be pegged on the 91-day Treasury bill rate as domestic rates have fallen to record lows.

COST of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub and terminal in Pagbilar, Quezon. The hub and terminal will also supply LNG to the Energy World Corp. of Australia. Energy World said that it received strong interest from local companies and financing institutions to invest and development the plant.

BALANCE of payments surplus aggregating $1.452 billion in the first two months, which was 1.4 percent higher year-on-year. The surplus validated the view that the country’s macroeconomic underpinning remains resilient in view face of global economic slowdown.

COST of the terminal expansion project of Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) whose contract being sought by five construction companies.

NUMBER of “critical elements” found by the US Federal Aviation Ad-ministration (FAA) which the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) needs to address before the country can regain its ”Category 1” safety status.

$210millionP3.12trillion$1.98trillion $1.452billion P390million 23

n Investment total was P32 billionn In 2010 it was only P4.252 billion

By Jade C. Zaldivar

THE National Eco-nomic Develop-ment Administra-

tion (NEDA) for the Davao region reported an as-tounding 653% invest-ment growth in 2011 as collated by the Board of Investments (BOI).

Ma. Lourdes Lim, re-gional director of NEDA 11, said the growth is at-tributed to investments poured into the region on projects for the energy sector, steel manufactur-ing, and mass housing.

“Compared with the project commitments registered with the BOI in 2010, in 2011 there was a total project cost of P32 billion which reflects a P653% growth compared to the amount invested through the BOI in 2010,” Lim said yesterday.

The BOI in 2011 col-lated a total project cost of P32,023,608,955 bil-lion, a huge leap from the P4,252,748,809 billion collated in 2010.

Lim said the top in-vestments that poured into the region were (1) the Aboitiz Power Cor-

poration’s 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fire power plant along the boundar-ies of Binugao,Toril and Inawayan in Sta. Cruz; (2) the steel billets manufac-turing plant in Bunawan, Davao City worth P3.5 bil-lion; and (3) the low-cost housing projects in the cities of Davao and Tagum which reached P2.7 bil-lion.

“The 300 MW power plant of Aboitiz contrib-uted a huge chunk to the P32 billion investment as the project commitment for the 300 MW power plant amounts to P24.9 billion,” Lim said.

Lim also noted that there was a growth of in-vestment specifically for Davao City as 2011 saw numerous construction projects and expansion of shopping malls, bank and hotel renovation projects.

Investments for Tagum City in 2011 were in hotel construction, shopping malls, and mass housing projects.

“For the first semester of 2011 alone, the value of paid-up capital registered with Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC)

reached P231 million, up by 95% with the bulk of investments going to real estate/renting and hotel/restaurants projects,” Lim said during Kapihan sa PIA press conference at the Philippine Informa-tion Agency 11 office.

Lim attributed the growth to the improve-ment of government re-sponse to private invest-ments, most especially the city.

“Davao City has been recognized by the World Bank as the second fastest LGU to streamline its pro-cess and make business start-ups easier, and the first among LGUs in terms of processing of construc-tion permits,” Lim said.

Lim noted that both Davao and Tagum cit-ies “instituted reforms, streamlining, in order to expedite business transac-tions that would consider-ably cut cost in doing busi-ness.”

“The massive infusion of investments for build-ing construction, as well as other business interests is a result of good gover-nance practices by our lo-cal government units.

NEDA says investmentgrew last year by 653%

FOUR weekly and three daily regional publica-tions have made it to the

finalists’ circle in the 2011 Civic Journalism Community Press Awards. Weekly pub-lications Mabuhay (Malolos, Bulacan), Baguio Midland Courier (Baguio City), Edge Davao (Davao City) and The Mindanao Cross (Cotabato City) figured prominently in the the screenings. Daily publications Sun.Star Davao (Davao City), Sun.Star Cebu (Cebu City) and Sun.Star Pampanga (City of San Fer-nando) also made it to the initial round of judging.

All seven community newspapers will be vying for excellence in six major cat-egories: best in photojour-nalism, best in culture and arts reporting, best in sci-ence and environmental re-porting, best in business and economic reporting, best ed-itorial page, and best edited community newspaper.

The winners will be an-nounced during the awards program on April 24 at Trad-ers Hotel Manila during the 16th National Press Forum

and Annual Membership Meeting of the Philippine Press Institute. Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales will be the guest of honor and speaker for the 16th awards season. No less than President Benigno S. Aquino III will keynote the open-ing ceremonies of the con-ference which has “Media Accountability and Public Engagement” as this year’s theme. The PPI is celebrat-ing its 48th founding year and 25 years since reactiva-tion after the People Power Revolution.

The additional category on culture and arts, which is this year’s theme for photos and stories exhibit will be presented by the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA). The winner of the exhibit will receive tro-phy and cash.

The management of the awards, cash prizes and tro-phies are being funded by The Coca-Cola Export Cor-poration (TCCEC) and the six newspaper-members of the Board such as Malaya, Philippine Daily Inquirer,

BusinessWorld, The Philip-pine Star, Manila Standard Today, and the Journal Group. The TCCEC is the major strategic partner of the PPI for its project on Building Better Communi-ties Through Civic Journal-ism since 2002.

The forum and awards are also being supported in part by St. Luke’s Medical Center which is this year’s corporate partner. Other major sponsors are: Chev-ron Philippines Inc., Liway-way Marketing Corpora-tion, Metro Pacific Invest-ment Corporation, First Philippine Holdings Corpo-ration, Anflo Management Investment Corporation, Pe-tron Philippines, United Laboratories, Land Bank of the Philippines, Pilipinas Shell, McDonald’s Philip-pines, and Smart Communi-cations, Inc.

Part of the donations will go to the training fund of the Institute to support workshops and seminars for its members for continu-ing media education and professionalization.

Edge Davao finalist in PPI Awards

WHITE GOLD. A small-scale miner in Pantukan, Compostela Valley displays a white gold that he is selling for P300 per

gram. The chunk of gold that he is selling weighs 30 grams. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

Microinsurance literacy drivevs poverty held in Davao City

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012

‘HE is a changed man, trying to be an obedient son of God our Father.’

--Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez on Manny Pacquiao’s retirement from boxing

Quips

By Lorie A. Cascaro

A financial literacy on microinsurance ad-vocacy training was

held last March 20-22 in Davao City, following the one in Butuan, which was the first microinsurance advocacy training in Min-danao. The next stop will be Cagayan de Oro City this year.

The training was initi-ated by the Department of Finance, Insurance Com-mission and Asian Devel-opment Bank, and partici-pated in by cooperatives, insurance providers, mi-crofinance institutions and non-government or-ganizations.

In the press confer-ence last Friday at the Apo View Hotel, Insur-ance Commissioner Em-manuel Dooc said mi-croinsurance is a tool for poverty reduction, adding that there are 3,100,000 microinsurance institu-tions in the Philippines.

Microinsurance is one of the financial services under microfinancing which generally means providing a broad range of financial services to the low income sector. Other financial services include savings, credit, payment transfers, and remittanc-es.

Republic Act 8425 or Social Reform and Pover-ty Alleviation Act recog-nizes microfinance as one of the tools for poverty al-leviation.

However, despite the government’s issuance of the National Strategy

for Microfinance in 1997, the low-income sector remains an untapped market for microfinanc-ing, while poverty is still prevalent in the country.

The lack of aware-ness of insurance, and low financial literacy level among the low income sector were cited as rea-sons for the low insur-ance coverage of the poor.

It is stated in Magpas-eguro para protektado: A Roadmap to financial literacy on microfinance that various case studies of Microinsurance Center show that the poor either lack an understanding of insurance or have a nega-tive perception of it or distrust.

Dooc said the finan-cial literacy on microin-surance is a strategy to change the negative no-tion of low-income sector about microinsurance, in line with the Microinsur-ance National Strategy. The paper is a joint effort of the members of the Technical Working Group organized by the Depart-ment of Finance and sup-ported by the German Technical Cooperation Microinsurance Innova-tions Program for Social Security.

Also at the press con-

ference, Hiroyuki Aoki, senior financial sector specialist of Asian De-velopment Bank, said no country in the ASEAN re-gion has national strategy in terms of microinsur-ance, only the Philippines.

“Microfinancing is very promising in the Philippines because of the very active role of micro-finance institutions that help us reach our benefi-ciaries,” Aoki said.

Part of the Technical Working Group in craft-ing the Microinsurance Strategy paper, ADB also helps in financial literacy campaign and provides technical support.

Microinsurance has “lower premiums and guaranteed benefits”. Pre-miums may range from P1 to P20 per day, or should not exceed five percent of the current minimum wage for non-agricultural workers in Metro Manila. Monthly premiums for microinsurance should not exceed P600.

Maximum guaran-teed benefits should not be more than 500 times the daily minimum wage rate for non-agricultural workers in Metro Ma-nila, or in actual current rates, should not exceed P200,000.

2 THE BIG NEWS EDGEDAVAO

It figures

ESTIMATED yearly damage of climate change to world’s ocean ocean sys-tem, according to a new study, “Valuing the Ocean,” released on Wednesday by he Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).

WORTH of funds which banks deployed to businesses and households without properly pricing them, an error that bank executives are trying to correct by establishing a new lending bench-mark they collectively lost when interest rates can no longer be pegged on the 91-day Treasury bill rate as domestic rates have fallen to record lows.

COST of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub and terminal in Pagbilar, Quezon. The hub and terminal will also supply LNG to the Energy World Corp. of Australia. Energy World said that it received strong interest from local companies and financing institutions to invest and development the plant.

BALANCE of payments surplus aggregating $1.452 billion in the first two months, which was 1.4 percent higher year-on-year. The surplus validated the view that the country’s macroeconomic underpinning remains resilient in view face of global economic slowdown.

COST of the terminal expansion project of Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) whose contract being sought by five construction companies.

NUMBER of “critical elements” found by the US Federal Aviation Ad-ministration (FAA) which the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) needs to address before the country can regain its ”Category 1” safety status.

$210millionP3.12trillion$1.98trillion $1.452billion P390million 23

n Investment total was P32 billionn In 2010 it was only P4.252 billion

By Jade C. Zaldivar

THE National Eco-nomic Develop-ment Administra-

tion (NEDA) for the Davao region reported an as-tounding 653% invest-ment growth in 2011 as collated by the Board of Investments (BOI).

Ma. Lourdes Lim, re-gional director of NEDA 11, said the growth is at-tributed to investments poured into the region on projects for the energy sector, steel manufactur-ing, and mass housing.

“Compared with the project commitments registered with the BOI in 2010, in 2011 there was a total project cost of P32 billion which reflects a P653% growth compared to the amount invested through the BOI in 2010,” Lim said yesterday.

The BOI in 2011 col-lated a total project cost of P32,023,608,955 bil-lion, a huge leap from the P4,252,748,809 billion collated in 2010.

Lim said the top in-vestments that poured into the region were (1) the Aboitiz Power Cor-

poration’s 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fire power plant along the boundar-ies of Binugao,Toril and Inawayan in Sta. Cruz; (2) the steel billets manufac-turing plant in Bunawan, Davao City worth P3.5 bil-lion; and (3) the low-cost housing projects in the cities of Davao and Tagum which reached P2.7 bil-lion.

“The 300 MW power plant of Aboitiz contrib-uted a huge chunk to the P32 billion investment as the project commitment for the 300 MW power plant amounts to P24.9 billion,” Lim said.

Lim also noted that there was a growth of in-vestment specifically for Davao City as 2011 saw numerous construction projects and expansion of shopping malls, bank and hotel renovation projects.

Investments for Tagum City in 2011 were in hotel construction, shopping malls, and mass housing projects.

“For the first semester of 2011 alone, the value of paid-up capital registered with Securities and Ex-change Commission (SEC)

reached P231 million, up by 95% with the bulk of investments going to real estate/renting and hotel/restaurants projects,” Lim said during Kapihan sa PIA press conference at the Philippine Informa-tion Agency 11 office.

Lim attributed the growth to the improve-ment of government re-sponse to private invest-ments, most especially the city.

“Davao City has been recognized by the World Bank as the second fastest LGU to streamline its pro-cess and make business start-ups easier, and the first among LGUs in terms of processing of construc-tion permits,” Lim said.

Lim noted that both Davao and Tagum cit-ies “instituted reforms, streamlining, in order to expedite business transac-tions that would consider-ably cut cost in doing busi-ness.”

“The massive infusion of investments for build-ing construction, as well as other business interests is a result of good gover-nance practices by our lo-cal government units.

NEDA says investmentgrew last year by 653%

FOUR weekly and three daily regional publica-tions have made it to the

finalists’ circle in the 2011 Civic Journalism Community Press Awards. Weekly pub-lications Mabuhay (Malolos, Bulacan), Baguio Midland Courier (Baguio City), Edge Davao (Davao City) and The Mindanao Cross (Cotabato City) figured prominently in the the screenings. Daily publications Sun.Star Davao (Davao City), Sun.Star Cebu (Cebu City) and Sun.Star Pampanga (City of San Fer-nando) also made it to the initial round of judging.

All seven community newspapers will be vying for excellence in six major cat-egories: best in photojour-nalism, best in culture and arts reporting, best in sci-ence and environmental re-porting, best in business and economic reporting, best ed-itorial page, and best edited community newspaper.

The winners will be an-nounced during the awards program on April 24 at Trad-ers Hotel Manila during the 16th National Press Forum

and Annual Membership Meeting of the Philippine Press Institute. Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales will be the guest of honor and speaker for the 16th awards season. No less than President Benigno S. Aquino III will keynote the open-ing ceremonies of the con-ference which has “Media Accountability and Public Engagement” as this year’s theme. The PPI is celebrat-ing its 48th founding year and 25 years since reactiva-tion after the People Power Revolution.

The additional category on culture and arts, which is this year’s theme for photos and stories exhibit will be presented by the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA). The winner of the exhibit will receive tro-phy and cash.

The management of the awards, cash prizes and tro-phies are being funded by The Coca-Cola Export Cor-poration (TCCEC) and the six newspaper-members of the Board such as Malaya, Philippine Daily Inquirer,

BusinessWorld, The Philip-pine Star, Manila Standard Today, and the Journal Group. The TCCEC is the major strategic partner of the PPI for its project on Building Better Communi-ties Through Civic Journal-ism since 2002.

The forum and awards are also being supported in part by St. Luke’s Medical Center which is this year’s corporate partner. Other major sponsors are: Chev-ron Philippines Inc., Liway-way Marketing Corpora-tion, Metro Pacific Invest-ment Corporation, First Philippine Holdings Corpo-ration, Anflo Management Investment Corporation, Pe-tron Philippines, United Laboratories, Land Bank of the Philippines, Pilipinas Shell, McDonald’s Philip-pines, and Smart Communi-cations, Inc.

Part of the donations will go to the training fund of the Institute to support workshops and seminars for its members for continu-ing media education and professionalization.

Edge Davao finalist in PPI Awards

WHITE GOLD. A small-scale miner in Pantukan, Compostela Valley displays a white gold that he is selling for P300 per

gram. The chunk of gold that he is selling weighs 30 grams. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

Microinsurance literacy drivevs poverty held in Davao City

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012 3EDGEDAVAO

23

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 20124 FOCUS ON TOURISM EDGEDAVAO

‘HE should really re-tire from boxing. In the Bible, God sometimes ap-peared to people in their dreams, so the result is very good to him.’

_-- Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes on Manny Pacquiao

Quips

By Jade C. Zaldivar

DAVAO City boasts of six festivals celebrat-ed every year: the

first being Araw ng Davao, celebrated every March in commemoration of the city’s chartering; the Ka-dayawan in August which pays tribute to the city’s rich cultural heritage and celebrates the together-ness of the tri-people, the Christians, the Muslims, and the different tribes of the indigenous peoples.

But most people do not know how the other four festivals came about only in recent years.

The Davao Chinese New Year Festival created through an Executive Or-der in 2009, celebrates the harmonious relations of the locals with the city’s Chinese community as well as promotes the

development of the lo-cal Chinatown bordered by R. Magsaysay Ave., Mon-teverde Ave., Sta. Ana Ave. and Leon Garcia St. as a major historical, economic and cultural center of the city.

Later that year, the first Chinese Mid-autumn Moon Festival, more popu-larly known as the Moon-cake Festival, was first commemorated.

The Mooncake Festi-val is set every 15th day of the eight month in the Chi-nese lunar calendar, falling around late September or early October, when the moon is at its fullest.

In augmentation to the long-running Pahalipay ni Mayor Rody, the Pasko Fi-esta was created in 2009, officially becoming a festi-val in 2010.

Pasko Fiesta integrates the annual beautification of the city every Christmas with events of music com-petitions and economic op-portunities among others.

Then in 2010, the city’s Summerfest was born which extends from April to May, highlighting tour-naments, competitions, and multiple sports and arts-related activities.

Recognizing the op-

portunities for economic growth through festivities, the local government in partnership with various organizations from the private sector gave birth to these festivals. As when visitors come into the city and spend for ameni-ties, spending leisurely time here, locals earn and thus increasing economic growth.

And attached to each festival celebration is the promotion of Davao City as a peaceful, colorful, clean, orderly metro city – in sum, a worthy tourist des-tination.

The city government takes things a step further by promoting a communi-ty-based tourism program.Communities as tourist

destinationsThe Davao City Invest-

ment Promotion Center (DCIPC), which serves as the advertising arm of the City Tourism Office (CTO), has set its sights on three barangays here which are already garnering curious visitors to become pilot areas for its community-based tourism program.

In place of CTO officer in charge Jason Magnaye, DCIPC economist Cath-erine Pagatpatan said the program encourages ba-rangays to promote their communities as tourist destinations.

“The program is an-chored on sustainable growth and development of communities wherein the residents of communi-ties will foster their areas to become tourist-friendly. We’ve been guiding them so that on their own they can implement economic-generating activities or programs within their ba-rangays,” Pagatpatan told Edge Davao.

Pagatpatan said part of the program is for the ba-rangays to create their own tourism action plan.

“So far as creating a vi-sion and a mission, these barangays already have crafted theirs. They have been cooperative but things are work in prog-ress with a positive out-look,” Pagatpatan said.

n City identifies Mintal, Hizon, Baganihan as tourism sites

n Looks into Times Beach development

Japanese Cementary

Times Beach

Botanical PlantsShe mentioned by Ba-

rangay Mintal in the Tug-bok district which during the pre-war era was a loca-tion for plantations of Japa-nese entrepreneurs.

There was a large num-ber of Japanese residents here, so much so that Davao City earned the title ‘Little Japan’ while Mintal was called ‘Little Tokyo.’

Japanese entrepre-neurs engaged in hemp production and traded with Manila businessmen as far back as two decades prior to the Pacific War outbreak in December of 1941.

During the war, Mintal was a major stronghold of the Imperial Japanese Army of Emperor Hirohito.

Many Japanese lived in this village and to this day relatives of those who died during the Japanese war carry on the tradition of paying a pilgrimage, espe-cially in August, in remem-brance of their loved ones.

“The Davao-Japanese Tourism Council which was created in 2011 is work-ing with stakeholders and members of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in promoting Mintal. There

have already been devel-opments there but we’re looking forward to pouring in more for their tourism,” Pagatpatan said.

The city is gearing Ba-rangay Vincente Hizon Sr. as a marine eco-tourism destination.

Barangay Hizon is bound on the north by the Davao International Air-port and the Davao Gulf coastline in the south.

It is home to several high-end residential com-munities and prides of peaceful seclusion from the bustle of the city al-though the area remains easily accessible from downtown Davao.

“We are working on utilizing Barangay Hizon’s coastline of the Davao Gulf. The barangay has the potential to become a marine eco-tourism area. Meron rin silang dive sites for those who are into eco-adventure,” Pagatpatan said.

Hizon has several beach resorts and features a marine sactuary.

“Barangay Hizon is also known for being a cleanly-kept barangay. The people there like peace and quiet which can be very attrac-tive to tourists who’ll be going to leisure sites locat-ed there,” Pagatpatan said.

“What we’re aiming for is making it more popular-ly known sa tourists and the residents themselves should be the ones to wel-come these developments na sa kanila talaga man-gagaling at sila ang mag-propagate,” she added.

The city is also aiming for Barangay Baganihan in Marilog district, to be-come an agri-tourism and eco-tourism hub.

Already developed there is a one-stop souve-nir and agricultural prod-ucts display center along the Davao-Bukidnon na-tional highway, approxi-mately 79 kilometers from the city proper.

The Baganihan Agri-Products Display Center also features amenities for travelers and tourists to enjoy their visit.

Officer in charge Leon-ardo Avila III of the City Agriculture Office said fea-tured in the Baganihan Ag-ri-Products Display Center are the produce of the lo-cal farmers and handicraft makers of the barangay.

Showcased at the cen-ter are the carefully grown botanical plants and handi-crafts which celebrates lo-

cal culture. Times Beach develop-

mentAlong with their pro-

motion of Barangays Baganihan, Hizon, and Mintal, Pagatpatan said the city is also optimistic about developing Times Beach as another pilot area for the community-based tourism program.

Admittedly, Pagatpa-tan said there are a lot of things needed to be cor-rected and developed at Times Beach.

City upbeat on barangay tourism

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012 FOCUS TOURISM 5EDGEDAVAO

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 20126 FOCUS TOURISM EDGEDAVAO

By Greg G. Deligero

THE US, Japan and Korea remain the three leading coun-

tries of origin of tourists visiting Davao City com-prising 30.27 percent of the 52,602 total number of foreign visitors.

Foreign tourists com-prised 5.76 percent or 52,602of the the total 682,821 number of tour-ists in the city last year.

Some 68.39 percent or 624,511 tourists were domestic travelers who came from as far as the Batanes, Bicol, Bohol and Taw-Tawi. The remain-ing 0.62 percent or 5,668 visitors were returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Most of the domes-tic travelers visited the city either for commercial and business trips or to to attend conventions and conferences.

Regional clustersIn terms of regional

clusters among foreign tourists, East Asian coun-tries like China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan contributed the most number of tourists with a total of 20,981 visi-tors followed by US and Canada of North America with 14,499, followed by European countries with 3,874.

Countries in the Oceania region such as Australia and New Zea-land contributed 2,495 visitors while India and Saudi Arabia contributed 536 and 331 visitors, re-

spectively. Another 7,236 foreign visitors failed to specify their origin.

Only 2,650 visitors came from neighboring countries in the South-east Asia region. Majority of foreign tourists came to the city either for plea-sure or to visit friends and relatives.

BenefitsThe visitors stayed

over in Davao City for an average of 3.5 days spend-ing an average of P4,000 daily each. In 2011, es-timated tourist receipts was P9.55 billion while the estimated total eco-nomic benefits (derived by multiplying the 2.2 in-ternational standard by the number of tourists, the length of stay and the daily expenditures) was P21.01 billion.

In terms of tourist distribution, Davao City corners 74.77 percent of the 913,182 total number of tourists who arrived in the Davao tegion last year. The city offers at least 51 tourist attractions, which include historical, cultur-al and religious sites.

Aside from 131 ac-commodation facilities like inns and hotels, the city also offers 731 dining and entertainment places. It is also equipped with 16 convention facilities, 14 shopping centers and 55 money changers and banks.

FestivalsWhile Kadayawan

remains its biggest festi-val, Davao City also hosts other events and festivi-ties, including the Pasko

US, Japan, Korea: The top sourcesof foreign visitors to Davao City

Japanese Tourists

Fiesta the entire month of December, the Araw and Dabaw in March and the Summerfest which culmi-nates in May.

A landmark legislation which helps propel the local tourism industry is the Tourism Development Code of Davao City enact-ed in 2009. The ordinance embodies provisions that call for global code eth-ics for tourism and pro-motes the principles of a balanced conservation, development, ecological integrity and family-ori-ented tourism sector.

The law also protects the city’s cultural heritage through the promotion of

sustainable tourism and to consciously promote gender sensitivity among all domestic and foreign tourists.

PlansTo further strengthen

the tourism industry, tourism stakeholders plan to develop transpor-tation facilities that will promote connectivity of tourist attractions and facilities like putting up a bus terminal near the air-port, a better building for passengers at the seaport.

In a series of consul-tation meetings hosted by the City Planning and Development Office, tour-ism stakeholders eyed the

establishment of Pasalu-bong Centers at various strategic parts of the city to promote purely Davao products.

Meanwhile, the Phil-ippine National Tour-ism Development Plan 2011-2016 has identified a number of tourist infra-structure, transportation and communication re-quirements for the entire region, including the need to provide tourist road signages and appropriate warning signs along the highways, the need to im-prove transport systems and develop viable sea transport to realize the Davao Gulf connectivity.

The plan also cites the need to improve the main-tenance and operations of existing airport and sea-ports while stressing the need for setting up of visi-tors’ assistance and tour-ist information centers equipped with rest rooms in strategic locations in the city and other areas in the region.

Specific to Davao City, the plan spells out the need to undertake drain-age improvements to mitigate flooding along the major thoroughfares, the improvement of a road network to Mt. Apo and rehabilitation of the Davao-Bukidnon road.

By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE Davao region De-partment of Tourism (DOT) is up for two

major programs this sum-mer: “Visit Samal Island, Enjoy Eco-Island Adven-ture”, and the Second Inter-national Mount Apo Boul-derface Challenge come April 28 at Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.

Part of its “Islands to Highlands” campaign, these are the major activi-ties to attract tourists to the region, according to Art Boncato, DOT regional director.

A partnership with pri-vate tourism industry play-ers in the Island Garden

City of Samal (IGaCoS) and the DOT 11, the Visit Samal 2012 will run from April 21 to July 15. Highlights of this event include the IGa-CoS founding anniversary celebration, White Nights, Kabasan Festival and Hug-yaw Festival.

Boncato said there are 40 teams registered in this year’s Mt. Apo Boulderface Challenge, a 24-hour ad-venture race to Mt. Apo’s peak through mountain biking, trekking, road run-ning and white water tub-ing. Five of the teams are from Singapore (multi-racial), and one from Aus-tralia.

To promote all tourism destinations in the four

provinces and six cities of the region, Boncato men-tioned the “One summer fun, one Davao” approach. It means everyone will pro-mote all the destinations, including that of the other cities and provinces in the region.

He said DOT 11 pro-vides an information coun-ter at the Abreeza Mall as a way to share information about all the tourism desti-nations in the region, espe-cially for the summer.

Also for this summer, provincial shows will be conducted featuring cul-tural and other tourist at-tractions that a province likes to showcase during this event which will hap-

Davao tourism promotes‘Islands to Highlands’

Summertime come-on

Isla Reta Beach Resort

pen between April and May, he added.

Further, the DOT 11 has started promoting Davao City as a venue for interna-tional meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibi-tions (MICE) in anticipa-tion of the establishment of SMX Convention Center in 2013. Boncato said they dubbed this campaign “Let’s meet in Davao.”

‘IN the US, 70 of its top 100 advertisers have advertised in FB (Facebook), you can even find New Times in FB.’

--Jonallier Perez, executive director of the Mindanao Tourism Council (MinTC)

Quips

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012 7FOCUS TOURISMEDGEDAVAO

Republic of the PhilippinesDepartment of Transportation and Com-

municationsLAND TRANSPORTATION FRANCHISING AND

REGULATORY BOARDRegional Office No. XI

Davao city

Petition for Approval of Sale and Transfer of a Certificate of Public Convenience with

Equipmentwith Dropping and Substitution of Unit to operate an AIRCONDITIONED TAXI service.

ERNESTO BAYRON, Petitioner-VendorBIEN G. SOLITRINO,Petitioner-Vendee

Case No.2012-XI-00208(94-XI-00037)

x- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -xNOTICE OF HEARING

Petitioners request authority for the Approval of Sale and Transfer executed by ER-NESTO BAYRON in favor of BIEN G. SOLITRINO of a Certificate of Public Convenience with Equipment issued in this case authorizing the operation of an AIRCONDITIONED TAXI service on the route: WITHIN DAVAO CITY to any point in Region XI with the use of TWO (2) units, which certificate is still valid and subsisting up to April 26, 2015. In the same petition filed on March 6, 2012, petitioners likewise request to DROP its authorized units particularly the unit bearing Plate No. LWC 364 and to SUBSTITUTE the same with another unit bearing Chassis No. NCP929048322 to operate along the same route.

NOTICE, is hereby given that this petition

will be heard by this Board on APRIL 2, 2012 at 02:00 p m at this office at the above address.

At least, FIVE (5) days prior to the above date petitioner shall publish this Notice once in a one (1) daily newspaper of general circulation in Mindanao

Parties opposed to the granting of the petition must file their written opposition sup-ported by documentary evidence on or before the above date furnishing a copy of the same to the petitioner, and may if they so, desire appear on said date and time.

This petition will be acted upon by this Board on the basis of its records and the docu-mentary evidence submitted by the parties, unless the Board deems it necessary to receive additional documentary and/or oral evidence.

WITNESS the Honorable BENJAMIN A. GO, CESO V, Regional Director, This 6th day of March 2012 at Davao City.

TERESITA DELA PEÑA-YÑIGUEZChief Transport Development Officer

/hocCopy furnished:Petitioner-Vendor, Ernesto Bayron, Brgy. Sto. Niño, Tugbok, Davao CityPetitioner-Vendee, Bien G. Solitrino, PNP Vil-lage, 5th St., Digos City Counsel, Atty. Gilbert G. Abellera, #64 Virgo-Mars St., GSIS Subd., Matina, Davao CityNOTE: Affidavit of Publication and newspaper where notice was published must be submitted three (3) days before the scheduled hearing.




Davao city

Petition for Approval of Sale and Transfer with Renewal of a Certificate of Public

Conveniencewith Equipment to operate a PUJ DUAL

Ordinary Regular Service.

ROMEO Y. AVERGONZADO, Petitioner-Vendor TYRON CHEMCE GUEVARRA,Petitioner-Vendee

Case No.2012-XI-00097(2002-XI-00958)

x- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -xNOTICE OF HEARING

Petitioners request authority for the Approval of Sale and Transfer executed by ROMEO Y. AVERGONZADO in favor of TYRON CHEMCE GUEVARRA of a Certificate of Public Convenience with Equipment issued in this case authorizing the operation of a PUJ DUAL Ordinary Service on the route: MINTAL ROUTE and for cargoes as dual service from said route to any point in Region XI with the use of ONE (1) unit, which certificate will expire on July 18, 2012. In the same petition filed on January 31, 2012, petitioners likewise request authority to extend the validity of said certificate to operate along the same route with the use of the same unit previously authorized.

NOTICE, is hereby given that this peti-

tion will be heard by this Board on APRIL 02, 2012 at 09:00 a. m. at this office at the above address.




WITNESS the Honorable BENJAMIN A. GO, CESO V, Regional Director, This 31st day of January 2012 at Davao City.


/hocCopy furnished:Petitioner-Vendor, Romeo Y. Avergonzado, Pu-rok 6, Bryg. Sto. Niño, Tugbok Dist., Davao CityPetitioner-Vendee, Tyron Chemce Guevarro, B14 L8 P2, Elenita Heights, Mintal, Davao City Counsel, Atty. Ernesto Raphael V. Robillo, 58 F. Iñigo St., Davao CityNOTE: Affidavit of Publication and newspaper where notice was published must be submitted three (3) days before the scheduled hearing.

Jeminez

Kapatagan: Catching the rising sun at Mt. Apo IN another historic first

for the Philippine tour-ism, visitor arrivals

reached a record-breaking high of 411,064 in January 2012, a very good start to open the year.

The 411,064 visitor ar-rivals represent a double-digit gain of 17.5 percent from 349,713 visitors for the same month last year.

“We are happy to set a new all-time high for the industry, as we have now reached and surpassed the 400,000 visitor arrival mark for the first time in any single month,” said Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr.

“We expect that these numbers will continue to steadily increase with the introduction of our new brand campaign this year and the convergence ini-tiatives and efforts that the DOT has been undertaking with other government agencies and the private sector,” Jimenez added.

Korea remained the biggest supplier of visi-tors at 102,166, raking in 24.9 percent of the to-tal visitor volume to the Philippines. This achieves another feat for Philip-

Record-breaking arrivals a historic first for tourism

pine tourism as this also marks the first time that a market achieved more than 100,000 in any single month.

Visitors from the Unit-ed States came second with 63,160 arrivals con-tributing 15.4 percent of the total inbound traffic.

The Chinese market bested the Japanese mar-ket as it recorded the third

biggest volume of 42,868 arrivals and posted a tri-ple-digit growth of 173.8 percent from its volume of 15,656 arrivals last year. The increase in Chinese tourists is attributed to the heavy influx from this market for the Chinese New Year, which fell on the third week of January of this year.

Meanwhile, the Japa-nese and the Taiwanese markets ranked as fourth and fifth top producers, with 32,089 and 21,995 arrivals, respectively. The Japanese arrivals posted a 1.6 percent growth at 7.8 percent share of the total while those from Taiwan posted a growth of 60.7 percent, capturing 5.4 per-cent of the aggregated data.

Overseas Filipinos, or Filipinos permanently re-siding abroad, contributed 15,531 arrivals, registering 3.8 percent to the total vol-ume.

“We are excited to meet our year-end target of 4.6-million arrivals with the full roll-out of the “It’s More Fun in the Philip-pines” campaign. Our in-stitutional programs will be complemented by those from the private sector and the local government units,” Jimenez said.

Meanwhile, he said policy reforms and conver-gence projects with other government agencies will seek to address impedi-ments to tourism growth particularly on accessibil-ity, connectivity and entry procedures.

“More importantly, ev-erybody’s support is criti-cal in creating the fun and competitive image that we are selling to the world,” the Secretary said. [PNA]

By Aurelio A. Pena

FOR so many stupid reasons before, I kept turning down

special invitations by friends to go on an over-night trip to Kapatagan in Davao del Sur, not only to see Mt. Apo in all its glory up close, but to see all the pine trees that have turned that place into something like Ba-guio.

It took somebody’s birthday within the membership of the Cam-era Club of Davao to make this weekend trip pos-sible and that somebody is Willy, a photo hobbyist and owner of a graphics design store along Rizal Extension here.

Like almost every-one else who was smart enough to get land rights in that blessed piece of Mt. Apo’s mountain rang-

es, Willy also planted hundreds of pine trees several years ago after he got that property’s rights from title own-ers over there. Others, in fact, planted thousands of pine trees, turning the Kapatagan moun-tain tops into something that looks like Wyoming mountains right out of a U.S. postcard.

Although the wind-ing dirt road climbing up the forested mountain southwest from Digos City, the capital of Davao del Sur, is only good for vehicles with four-wheel drives, most of the ac-cess road coming off the highway was concrete, so the trip can be pleasant at times to visitors plan-ning to drive all the way to the Kapatagan moun-tain ranges.

Along the way, one can stop at one of the

winding mountain curves to buy “marang” from makeshift nipa stalls and eat the fruit on the way up to the top.

What really struck me after waking up very early morning inside Wil-ly’s family resort house was the thick fog and the freezing cold that city-breds like me couldn’t take without wrapping myself with thick wool-en blanket over thicker sweater and jumping up and down to keep warm among the dark, tower-ing pine trees still slum-bering and whistling with the cold winds sweeping over the sleeping valley.

It’s too bad I didn’t go there as a photogra-pher to capture Mt. Apo’s cream-streaked face catch the first sliver of the early morning sun as it rises above the distant mountain ranges in the east -- which happens to be the direction where the metropolitan city of Davao is located.

Trying to make our way through the muddy trail up the slope in the dark, amidst the whis-tling pine trees, my 10- year-old son Sean and I had to pick up some fall-en tree branches along the way and break them up into walking sticks to support our careful steps to the mountain top.

“We have to hurry, Sean, if you want to catch the sun before it comes up,” I said, as he trailed behind, a few steps be-hind me. [PNA]

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012 7FOCUS TOURISMEDGEDAVAO




Davao city

Petition for Approval of Sale and Transfer of a Certificate of Public Convenience with

Equipmentwith Dropping and Substitution of Unit to operate an AIRCONDITIONED TAXI service.

ERNESTO BAYRON, Petitioner-VendorBIEN G. SOLITRINO,Petitioner-Vendee

Case No.2012-XI-00208(94-XI-00037)

x- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -xNOTICE OF HEARING

Petitioners request authority for the Approval of Sale and Transfer executed by ER-NESTO BAYRON in favor of BIEN G. SOLITRINO of a Certificate of Public Convenience with Equipment issued in this case authorizing the operation of an AIRCONDITIONED TAXI service on the route: WITHIN DAVAO CITY to any point in Region XI with the use of TWO (2) units, which certificate is still valid and subsisting up to April 26, 2015. In the same petition filed on March 6, 2012, petitioners likewise request to DROP its authorized units particularly the unit bearing Plate No. LWC 364 and to SUBSTITUTE the same with another unit bearing Chassis No. NCP929048322 to operate along the same route.

NOTICE, is hereby given that this petition

will be heard by this Board on APRIL 2, 2012 at 02:00 p m at this office at the above address.




WITNESS the Honorable BENJAMIN A. GO, CESO V, Regional Director, This 6th day of March 2012 at Davao City.


/hocCopy furnished:Petitioner-Vendor, Ernesto Bayron, Brgy. Sto. Niño, Tugbok, Davao CityPetitioner-Vendee, Bien G. Solitrino, PNP Vil-lage, 5th St., Digos City Counsel, Atty. Gilbert G. Abellera, #64 Virgo-Mars St., GSIS Subd., Matina, Davao CityNOTE: Affidavit of Publication and newspaper where notice was published must be submitted three (3) days before the scheduled hearing.




Davao city

Petition for Approval of Sale and Transfer with Renewal of a Certificate of Public

Conveniencewith Equipment to operate a PUJ DUAL

Ordinary Regular Service.

ROMEO Y. AVERGONZADO, Petitioner-Vendor TYRON CHEMCE GUEVARRA,Petitioner-Vendee

Case No.2012-XI-00097(2002-XI-00958)

x- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -xNOTICE OF HEARING

Petitioners request authority for the Approval of Sale and Transfer executed by ROMEO Y. AVERGONZADO in favor of TYRON CHEMCE GUEVARRA of a Certificate of Public Convenience with Equipment issued in this case authorizing the operation of a PUJ DUAL Ordinary Service on the route: MINTAL ROUTE and for cargoes as dual service from said route to any point in Region XI with the use of ONE (1) unit, which certificate will expire on July 18, 2012. In the same petition filed on January 31, 2012, petitioners likewise request authority to extend the validity of said certificate to operate along the same route with the use of the same unit previously authorized.

NOTICE, is hereby given that this peti-

tion will be heard by this Board on APRIL 02, 2012 at 09:00 a. m. at this office at the above address.




WITNESS the Honorable BENJAMIN A. GO, CESO V, Regional Director, This 31st day of January 2012 at Davao City.


/hocCopy furnished:Petitioner-Vendor, Romeo Y. Avergonzado, Pu-rok 6, Bryg. Sto. Niño, Tugbok Dist., Davao CityPetitioner-Vendee, Tyron Chemce Guevarro, B14 L8 P2, Elenita Heights, Mintal, Davao City Counsel, Atty. Ernesto Raphael V. Robillo, 58 F. Iñigo St., Davao CityNOTE: Affidavit of Publication and newspaper where notice was published must be submitted three (3) days before the scheduled hearing.

Jeminez

Kapatagan: Catching the rising sun at Mt. Apo IN another historic first

for the Philippine tour-ism, visitor arrivals

reached a record-breaking high of 411,064 in January 2012, a very good start to open the year.

The 411,064 visitor ar-rivals represent a double-digit gain of 17.5 percent from 349,713 visitors for the same month last year.

“We are happy to set a new all-time high for the industry, as we have now reached and surpassed the 400,000 visitor arrival mark for the first time in any single month,” said Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr.

“We expect that these numbers will continue to steadily increase with the introduction of our new brand campaign this year and the convergence ini-tiatives and efforts that the DOT has been undertaking with other government agencies and the private sector,” Jimenez added.

Korea remained the biggest supplier of visi-tors at 102,166, raking in 24.9 percent of the to-tal visitor volume to the Philippines. This achieves another feat for Philip-

Record-breaking arrivals a historic first for tourism

pine tourism as this also marks the first time that a market achieved more than 100,000 in any single month.

Visitors from the Unit-ed States came second with 63,160 arrivals con-tributing 15.4 percent of the total inbound traffic.

The Chinese market bested the Japanese mar-ket as it recorded the third

biggest volume of 42,868 arrivals and posted a tri-ple-digit growth of 173.8 percent from its volume of 15,656 arrivals last year. The increase in Chinese tourists is attributed to the heavy influx from this market for the Chinese New Year, which fell on the third week of January of this year.

Meanwhile, the Japa-nese and the Taiwanese markets ranked as fourth and fifth top producers, with 32,089 and 21,995 arrivals, respectively. The Japanese arrivals posted a 1.6 percent growth at 7.8 percent share of the total while those from Taiwan posted a growth of 60.7 percent, capturing 5.4 per-cent of the aggregated data.

Overseas Filipinos, or Filipinos permanently re-siding abroad, contributed 15,531 arrivals, registering 3.8 percent to the total vol-ume.

“We are excited to meet our year-end target of 4.6-million arrivals with the full roll-out of the “It’s More Fun in the Philip-pines” campaign. Our in-stitutional programs will be complemented by those from the private sector and the local government units,” Jimenez said.

Meanwhile, he said policy reforms and conver-gence projects with other government agencies will seek to address impedi-ments to tourism growth particularly on accessibil-ity, connectivity and entry procedures.

“More importantly, ev-erybody’s support is criti-cal in creating the fun and competitive image that we are selling to the world,” the Secretary said. [PNA]

By Aurelio A. Pena

FOR so many stupid reasons before, I kept turning down

special invitations by friends to go on an over-night trip to Kapatagan in Davao del Sur, not only to see Mt. Apo in all its glory up close, but to see all the pine trees that have turned that place into something like Ba-guio.

It took somebody’s birthday within the membership of the Cam-era Club of Davao to make this weekend trip pos-sible and that somebody is Willy, a photo hobbyist and owner of a graphics design store along Rizal Extension here.

Like almost every-one else who was smart enough to get land rights in that blessed piece of Mt. Apo’s mountain rang-

es, Willy also planted hundreds of pine trees several years ago after he got that property’s rights from title own-ers over there. Others, in fact, planted thousands of pine trees, turning the Kapatagan moun-tain tops into something that looks like Wyoming mountains right out of a U.S. postcard.

Although the wind-ing dirt road climbing up the forested mountain southwest from Digos City, the capital of Davao del Sur, is only good for vehicles with four-wheel drives, most of the ac-cess road coming off the highway was concrete, so the trip can be pleasant at times to visitors plan-ning to drive all the way to the Kapatagan moun-tain ranges.

Along the way, one can stop at one of the

winding mountain curves to buy “marang” from makeshift nipa stalls and eat the fruit on the way up to the top.

What really struck me after waking up very early morning inside Wil-ly’s family resort house was the thick fog and the freezing cold that city-breds like me couldn’t take without wrapping myself with thick wool-en blanket over thicker sweater and jumping up and down to keep warm among the dark, tower-ing pine trees still slum-bering and whistling with the cold winds sweeping over the sleeping valley.

It’s too bad I didn’t go there as a photogra-pher to capture Mt. Apo’s cream-streaked face catch the first sliver of the early morning sun as it rises above the distant mountain ranges in the east -- which happens to be the direction where the metropolitan city of Davao is located.

Trying to make our way through the muddy trail up the slope in the dark, amidst the whis-tling pine trees, my 10- year-old son Sean and I had to pick up some fall-en tree branches along the way and break them up into walking sticks to support our careful steps to the mountain top.

“We have to hurry, Sean, if you want to catch the sun before it comes up,” I said, as he trailed behind, a few steps be-hind me. [PNA]

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 20128 VANTAGE POINTS

DAVAO is so abundant with natural gifts, some Dabawenyos have no qualms calling it the “most beautiful city” in the country. Fortu-

nately for these proud citizens, such a claim is of-ten reinforced by award-giving bodies which are always generous in heaping superlatives on places that impress them.

One acclamation that really titillates Dabawen-yos and their leaders to this day is the city’s be-ing called “the most livable city in the country.” Of course, the paean was not undeserved as it had resulted from a yearly evaluation based on a list of criteria wherein the city bested its perennial rivals Manila and Cebu. It was conducted by the Hong-kong-based Asiaweek news magazine. But it was a decade ago --in 1999, 2001 and 2002 to be exact--and Asiaweek had since folded, a victim of the eco-nomic contagion that has continued to batter the finances of many of the region’s once-upon-a-time prosperous periodicals.

Today, despite the rapid development that we see around our city, we also witness some telltale signs of urban decay. This is manifested in our pe-rennial drainage problem which is partly the rea-son for the frequent street flooding; in our worsen-ing traffic situation; and in the increasing frequency of violent crimes, among others.

On the other hand, a similar transformation in the hinterlands has alarmed the observant citizens. The breathtaking sceneries can not anymore hide the growing threats to our once pristine rivers, fer-

tile soils and other natural wealth. One finite resource that is in great peril is water.Unregulated agricultural practices for instance

could destroy the watershed areas, drain the re-charge zones, and poison all of us who drink from water coming from polluted sources.

For instance, rightly or wrongly, alarm bells have been raised for one such important water resource, the Panigan River in Barangay Tawan-Tawan, Bagu-io District. The NGO which has been monitoring the water in the river claimed that the phosphate and nitrate levels in the river were no longer ideal. The NGO may have been alarmist, for all we know, but the point is, we should now be vigilant in watching the environment, especially the priceless resources that human kind can not do without. Yes, like water which is absolutely needed for our survival.

We are heartened that there is now a Watershed Code in Davao City, the first local government unit to have crafted one. If won’t be easy to enforce this landmark ordinance passed as early as 2007. In the beginning, it is bound to be misunderstood and may even be resisted by those who feel threatened by it.

However, a multi-partite watershed manage-ment council, headed by Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio herself, is now determined to go hammer and tongs in enforcing the ordinance. This, after crafting the implementing rules and regulations, identifying the major concerns and answering all possible ques-tions and doubts of stakeholders through regular consultations.

Protecting a finite resourceEDITORIAL

EDGEDAVAOProviding solutions to a seamless global village.

ANTONIO M. AJEROEditor in Chief

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

LORIE ANN A. CASCARO • JADE C. ZALDIVAR • MOSES C. BILLACURAStaff Writers

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

KARLOS C. MANLUPIG • JOSEPH LAWRENCE P. GARCIALEANDRO S. DAVAL JR.,

PhotographyARLENE D. PASAJE

Cartoons

KENNETH IRVING K. ONGCreative Solutions

NEILWIN L. BRAVOSports and Motoring

Printed by Zion Accuprint Publishing Inc. Door 14 ALCREJ Building,

Quirino Avenue, 8000, Davao City, PhilippinesTel: (082) 301-6235

Telefax: (082) 221-3601www.edgedavao.net

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CARLO P. MALLOFeatures and Lifestyle

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Advertising SpecialistsAGUSTIN V. MIAGAN JR

Circulation

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EDGEDAVAO

Attracting that elusive wealth

PRIVATE in-v e s t m e n t brings about

growth and prog-ress to any local-ity. It is necessary to spur local growth and development. In common lingo, it is called business which is easily asso-ciated with wealth and profit. A ball game of the more affluent families in the so-ciety, it counts on the infusion of hard earned savings or wealth into the economic market.

Many investments – big and small - have succeeded but more have failed. The ultimate barometer of success, and the opposite is fail-ure, of any investment is its own growth mea-sured in terms of profit or its ability to gener-ate more and additional wealth.

In recent studies, about 1% of all busi-ness establishments are large scale (with , 9% are micro enterprises, and the remaining 90% are small and medium scale enterprises. This simply means that majority of establish-ments could be put up with relatively small amount of capitalization. Almost anybody can go into business; it only requires some guts to take inevitable financial risks. Setting up a business is a gamble and it depends not only on one’s ability and acumen but also on the business environment he or she operates.

In another recent study, almost all busi-ness establishments that failed or folded up pointed to the unfriendly business climate as the main cause of business failure. Creating and ensuring a conducive environment for business to thrive and prosper is the domain of government, particularly cities and local governments, but this is not given much at-tention and priority.

Better or more business friendly environ-ment entails the following elements:

Streamlined business registration pro-cesses. This means that the requirements and steps to get a business permit or a may-or’s permit are easy, simple and uncompli-cated. It implies that documentary require-ments of various government agencies and entities can be acquired or accomplished almost effortlessly; they are accessible and available where business registration is done – at the business permitting and licensing of-fice of the local government. It also necessi-tates the reduction of the steps or processes to basic minimum. In some local government units, the Business One-Stop Shop (BOSS) is the venue where business registration takes place. As the name implies, BOSS in-tends to bring together agencies (such as BIR, PhilHealth, SSS) that have something to do with business registration. Cutting down the “time” to acquire that valuable signature of the mayor is the ultimate measure of a streamlined process.

Investment planning and direction. Ex-plicit vision for development, particularly for areas or sectors for possible investment is critical for business decision. Potential investors need guidance on the types of business that can easily make money with minimum risk. As such, it requires the local governments to come up, based on its vision and development goals, a list of potential in-dustries and economic enterprises, as well as programs and projects where the private sector could invest into.

Investment promotion. For investors to come in, it is necessary for them to know or be informed of the industry potentials of the locality as well as the incentives they can avail of. At the end of the day, attracting investors is a competition among local gov-ernments. Hence, it requires aggressiveness in “selling” the potentials and “showcasing” what the locality can offer in terms of sup-port policies, technologies, facilities and utilities; after-investment services; human resource capacities; and resource endow-ments.

Strong partnership and coordination. Attracting investments is one thing; making them stay is another and the better thing. Hence, the host local government units should strengthen its coordination – within the government itself, between government and the private sector, and among key stake-holders. Through partnerships, the host local government can establish an enabling environment – one that provides (a) credit facilities for investors, (b) security and pro-tection of human resource and facilities, (c) reasonable and affordable tax rates, (d) facilities that allow trading across borders, and (e) mechanisms that facilitate contract compliance.

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 20128 VANTAGE POINTS

DAVAO is so abundant with natural gifts, some Dabawenyos have no qualms calling it the “most beautiful city” in the country. Fortu-

nately for these proud citizens, such a claim is of-ten reinforced by award-giving bodies which are always generous in heaping superlatives on places that impress them.

One acclamation that really titillates Dabawen-yos and their leaders to this day is the city’s be-ing called “the most livable city in the country.” Of course, the paean was not undeserved as it had resulted from a yearly evaluation based on a list of criteria wherein the city bested its perennial rivals Manila and Cebu. It was conducted by the Hong-kong-based Asiaweek news magazine. But it was a decade ago --in 1999, 2001 and 2002 to be exact--and Asiaweek had since folded, a victim of the eco-nomic contagion that has continued to batter the finances of many of the region’s once-upon-a-time prosperous periodicals.

Today, despite the rapid development that we see around our city, we also witness some telltale signs of urban decay. This is manifested in our pe-rennial drainage problem which is partly the rea-son for the frequent street flooding; in our worsen-ing traffic situation; and in the increasing frequency of violent crimes, among others.

On the other hand, a similar transformation in the hinterlands has alarmed the observant citizens. The breathtaking sceneries can not anymore hide the growing threats to our once pristine rivers, fer-

tile soils and other natural wealth. One finite resource that is in great peril is water.Unregulated agricultural practices for instance

could destroy the watershed areas, drain the re-charge zones, and poison all of us who drink from water coming from polluted sources.

For instance, rightly or wrongly, alarm bells have been raised for one such important water resource, the Panigan River in Barangay Tawan-Tawan, Bagu-io District. The NGO which has been monitoring the water in the river claimed that the phosphate and nitrate levels in the river were no longer ideal. The NGO may have been alarmist, for all we know, but the point is, we should now be vigilant in watching the environment, especially the priceless resources that human kind can not do without. Yes, like water which is absolutely needed for our survival.

We are heartened that there is now a Watershed Code in Davao City, the first local government unit to have crafted one. If won’t be easy to enforce this landmark ordinance passed as early as 2007. In the beginning, it is bound to be misunderstood and may even be resisted by those who feel threatened by it.

However, a multi-partite watershed manage-ment council, headed by Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio herself, is now determined to go hammer and tongs in enforcing the ordinance. This, after crafting the implementing rules and regulations, identifying the major concerns and answering all possible ques-tions and doubts of stakeholders through regular consultations.

Protecting a finite resourceEDITORIAL

EDGEDAVAOProviding solutions to a seamless global village.

ANTONIO M. AJEROEditor in Chief

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EDGEDAVAO

Attracting that elusive wealth

PRIVATE in-v e s t m e n t brings about

growth and prog-ress to any local-ity. It is necessary to spur local growth and development. In common lingo, it is called business which is easily asso-ciated with wealth and profit. A ball game of the more affluent families in the so-ciety, it counts on the infusion of hard earned savings or wealth into the economic market.

Many investments – big and small - have succeeded but more have failed. The ultimate barometer of success, and the opposite is fail-ure, of any investment is its own growth mea-sured in terms of profit or its ability to gener-ate more and additional wealth.

In recent studies, about 1% of all busi-ness establishments are large scale (with , 9% are micro enterprises, and the remaining 90% are small and medium scale enterprises. This simply means that majority of establish-ments could be put up with relatively small amount of capitalization. Almost anybody can go into business; it only requires some guts to take inevitable financial risks. Setting up a business is a gamble and it depends not only on one’s ability and acumen but also on the business environment he or she operates.

In another recent study, almost all busi-ness establishments that failed or folded up pointed to the unfriendly business climate as the main cause of business failure. Creating and ensuring a conducive environment for business to thrive and prosper is the domain of government, particularly cities and local governments, but this is not given much at-tention and priority.

Better or more business friendly environ-ment entails the following elements:

Streamlined business registration pro-cesses. This means that the requirements and steps to get a business permit or a may-or’s permit are easy, simple and uncompli-cated. It implies that documentary require-ments of various government agencies and entities can be acquired or accomplished almost effortlessly; they are accessible and available where business registration is done – at the business permitting and licensing of-fice of the local government. It also necessi-tates the reduction of the steps or processes to basic minimum. In some local government units, the Business One-Stop Shop (BOSS) is the venue where business registration takes place. As the name implies, BOSS in-tends to bring together agencies (such as BIR, PhilHealth, SSS) that have something to do with business registration. Cutting down the “time” to acquire that valuable signature of the mayor is the ultimate measure of a streamlined process.

Investment planning and direction. Ex-plicit vision for development, particularly for areas or sectors for possible investment is critical for business decision. Potential investors need guidance on the types of business that can easily make money with minimum risk. As such, it requires the local governments to come up, based on its vision and development goals, a list of potential in-dustries and economic enterprises, as well as programs and projects where the private sector could invest into.

Investment promotion. For investors to come in, it is necessary for them to know or be informed of the industry potentials of the locality as well as the incentives they can avail of. At the end of the day, attracting investors is a competition among local gov-ernments. Hence, it requires aggressiveness in “selling” the potentials and “showcasing” what the locality can offer in terms of sup-port policies, technologies, facilities and utilities; after-investment services; human resource capacities; and resource endow-ments.

Strong partnership and coordination. Attracting investments is one thing; making them stay is another and the better thing. Hence, the host local government units should strengthen its coordination – within the government itself, between government and the private sector, and among key stake-holders. Through partnerships, the host local government can establish an enabling environment – one that provides (a) credit facilities for investors, (b) security and pro-tection of human resource and facilities, (c) reasonable and affordable tax rates, (d) facilities that allow trading across borders, and (e) mechanisms that facilitate contract compliance.

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012

THE entire Filipino nation seems to be currently fixated with the Senate impeachment trial of

Chief Justice Renato Corona. The usu-al overriding concern with the state of the economy and its consequence on daily life has for a while become unimportant. This in fact is typical of Filipinos who prefer to party for the flimsiest of reasons much more an im-peachment trial of a Chief Justice.

But one may wonder if the out-come of the impeachment trial may impact on the state of the economy. The concern arises from the fact that some political events do affect invest-ment decisions and consumption pat-terns. Mores so, if the outcome of a political event has an immediate im-pact on prosperity or survival both from the point of view of businesses and individuals.

Recent polls show that a large majority favors the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona. This is not surprising because of his close connection with the much vilified former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and persistent media reports of unusual and unethical conduct. He indeed is most likely to be impeached for these important reasons. More-over, the Senator-Judges in the im-peachment proceedings are unlikely to waste political capital by absolving him, especially, that mid-term elec-tion is a just fourteen months away.

But what if Chief Justice Renato

Corona is absolved? Would there be enough outrage to negatively affect the state of the economy? The country is in fact currently poised for a joyride with sound economic policies ema-nating from the political leadership. Both investment and consumption are slowly but steadily heading north. Credit rating agencies are poised to upgrade the credit status of the coun-try principally because of sound eco-nomic and fiscal policies and serious initiatives to curb leakage a.k.a. cor-ruption.

Among these initiatives is the close monitoring and serious collec-tion of tax obligations. Legal cases are also systemically being filed against tax evaders including ‘Pambamsang Kamao’ Manny Paquiao. A system of regular inventory of national govern-ment employees and direct and on-line payment of salaries and wages is being implemented to end the long-standing practice of payroll padding. Infrastructure project costs are be-ing standardized to detect and pre-vent overpricing. National govern-ment purchases are to be centralized through a single commissary for close monitoring and cost control. Share from national tax collection are to be automatically retained by local gov-ernments to avoid lobbying with and

bribery of national government offi-cials responsible for allocation.

Credit rating agencies have taken note of these anti-corruption initia-tives and of the much improved selec-tion of major infrastructure projects to be undertaken and of public servic-es to be provided. In fact, even before the actual upgrade of its credit rating, the country is now able to access ex-ternal funds at low interest rates. This is particularly important because gov-ernment is now poised to pump prime the economy to sustain growth amidst a global economic crisis. Things are therefore expected to be even bet-ter with the effect of economic pump priming soon to be felt.

But then again would an acquittal in the impeachment court spoil every-thing? Not a chance. The anticipated public outrage is not going to be di-rected at government which has been enjoying sustained positive approval ratings from periodic polls. The abil-ity of government to carry on with its policy trajectory is therefore not in jeopardy. This tsunami of public out-rage is going to hit the Senator-Judges who would have to explain themselves in the forthcoming mid-term election. But I’m sure they’re going to spare themselves of this existential threat to their political careers by making the ‘right’ decision. Wouldn’t they?

(An economist, the author used to be congressman of the First District of Davao City)

9VANTAGE POINTS

Monkey Business

EDGEDAVAO

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSACHICAGO

The state of the economy and the impeachment trial Solving the killings

Forget about ‘investing’ in Philippine stocks

By Enrico “Gico” G. Dayanghirang

SPECIAL FEATURE

ALTHOUGH the Philip-pine stock

index had bro-ken thru another all-time high at 5000 plus under Noynoy’s regime, we missed the ac-tion at the start-ing line.

This was the time when the price index surged higher, finally breaking the resistance line on the chart after months of drifting nowhere. Stock traders who know their way around the market, kept their eyes glued to stocks like Universal Robina (URC), Dizon Copper Silver Mines (DIZ), Alliance Global (AGI), Robinsons Land Corp (RLC) and Ayala Land Inc (ALI).

These were the stocks worth wait-ing for as they broke thru the 52-week highs--- just the right time to buy the stock, wait for a couple of weeks before unloading them (sell all) for profits of 20% to 30%. This short-term market strategy, of course, isn’t for investors, but for traders who only want sure gains in their pockets.

If you’ve been following the market action at the website of the Philippine Stock Exchange, you would have seen see stocks breaking thru the 52-week highs like Ayala Land at 22.10, Robinsons at 16.64, Dizon at 43.20, Universal Robina at 64.00, and Alliance Global at 13.48.

For these stocks to go higher, ex-pect them to pull back as traders take profit, pulling down the prices slightly. If they prove to be strong stocks, they’ll move higher in the coming weeks. If the stocks are weak, they’ll probably just drift around for awhile and build a new “base” before continuing their climb up, depending on how the market feel about the stocks at the moment.

Ayala Land, for example, after hit-ting 22.10, pulled back down to 21.30 this week. Dizon however, after hitting its all-time high of 43.20, surged higher to another all-time high at 45.50 as traders shifted their funds from blue chip stocks to this new mining stock. Alliance Global, after hitting its all-time high of 13.48, dropped back to 12.98 as investors and traders who got stuck with this stock for many months, unloaded AGI at a small profit.

Its just too unfortunate that having a good hold of the market, most of us don’t have enough funds to take advantage of this new bull market in the Philippines. It would be nice if a good angel investor or a lender can allow you the use of 200T for just 12 months and return it with 25% interest, you can multiply that amount twice or thrice after that period--- if you know how to get in and out of this market safely.

Forget about investing in Philippine stocks, you’ll only end up losing most of

your investments if you still believe in long term “buy and hold “ strategy. This writer still recommends that you learn how to navigate and trade the Philippine stock market on your own. Read a lot of books on stock trading or surf the inter-net for sites that help (www.pinoystock-trader2012.wordpress.com)

It’s probably the only place where you can turn your small retirement of P200T into P2M in less than five years if you’re an unforgiving, take-no-prisoners type of stock trader who’s only concerned about the market price of a stock, not the value of the company whose shares you’re buying.

Most stock brokers and analysts will recommend to you “blue chip” stocks, cit-ing their own valuations of the company. We’ve been there, done that, and honestly guys, it doesn’t work. That’s why most Mutual Funds in this country who follow this type of strategy end up with average annual gains of only 12% to 17% because they “invest” your money in stocks and bonds.

To Pinoy hard-nosed traders who can generate gains of 60% to 80% or even much higher, the poor performance of Mutual Funds isn’t worth wasting your savings or retirement funds on when the market can give you the most of what you wished for…

(Comments? Email: [email protected])

I would like to congratulate Philippine In-terior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo for telling his subordi-

nates not to be hamstrung in their investi-gation of the attempted killing of newsman Fernan Angeles even if the Malacanang re-porter for the Philippine Daily Tribune has a pending warrant on drug charges.

Relatives of Mr. Angeles have a Con-stitutional right to demand a speedy reso-lution of the killing, so police should not second-guess themselves that they are wasting their time.

It is very hard to solve the case if the trail grows cold. So, police should strike the iron while it is hot by pursuing the murder-ers no matter where it leads them. They should solve the case now and deal with the drug charges later.

And speaking of a solution of the kill-ing of another newsman, Gerardo “Doc Gerry” Ortega, a popular radio broadcaster and environmentalist, I would also like to congratulate Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima for finding a probable cause based among others on forensic evidence – text messages – found in the cell phones of the hatchet man, Rodolfo Edrad Jr., and the mastermind, former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes, for Ortega’s killing.

I hope the same method of solving the killing of my friend, Salvador “Bubby” Dac-er, will also be applied.

Days before and on the day of the kidnapping and abduction of Mr. Dacer and Mr. Dacer’s driver, Emmanuel Corbito, cell phones were easily the instruments of choice in carrying out the grisly double murder.

According to records of the case, the slain Col. Teofilo Vina, assigned as chief of the Presidential Anti-Organized Task Force (PAOCTF) in Central Visayas, was hand-picked to carry out the kidnapping and kill-ing of Dacer and Corbito because he could not be suspected of carrying out the mur-der because he was away in far-off Cebu.

But, of course, Mr. Vina was perfect for the job because he was from Cavite, where Dacer and Corbito were later kidnapped and incinerated before they were stran-gled. Vina knew the terrain of the place and handpicked the killers.

Unfortunately, Vina was silenced when he was shot and killed by four gunmen in 2003 in Cavite before he could tell the court who ordered him to abduct Dacer.

I hope investigators were able to pre-serve the text and voice mail messages that could be culled from Vina’s cell phone and other suspects and be presented in court as evidence in the ongoing double murder trial.

ARNADO SHOULD BE ARRESTEDAnd I also hope former police chief

inspector Vicente Arnado of PAOCTF, who is believed to be in the U.S., will also be ar-rested so he can complete the puzzle. The use of cell phone as evidence was unheard off decades ago.

Today, even if you are in the farthest corner of the world or you are having fun in a $30-$40-million trip to space, you still can give last-minute instructions to the hired murderers on how to carry out the mur-ders as if you are just calling or texting from next door.

Former Gov. Reyes made an amateur and stupid mistake of sending text messag-es using his cell phone to Edrad to carry out the killing even if he was abroad. He did not realize that text messages like voice mail messages are now considered evidence in court and part of the discovery process, like DNA and fingerprints.

When he texted Edrad, “Sana pag-uwi ko ay tapos na ang problema” (I hope when I get home, the problem would be over.)

“OK po” “Ingat” (Take care.),” Governor Reyes incriminated himself just like the alibi of Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autono-mous Region of Muslim Mindanao, who said he was in Malacanang when the mass murder of journalists was in progress in Maguindanao. Didn’t Reyes and Ampatuan know that Gov. Ampatuan could just easily call his relatives to carry out or be updated with the gruesome mass murders by using his cell phone?

During the time that there was no cell phone, here’s how a murder conspiracy was carried out.

(First of 2 Parts)

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012

OUR motoring tip for the week is getting ready for

the stresses of summer and knowing where to get good deals on ser-vices and parts.

With the onset of summer, expect the heat to be just more than tol-erable. That also makes driving a whole lot less comfortable.

To avoid the stress

of summer where the possibilities of your car encountering some trouble is high, make sure that it is in tip top condition. To get your car perform well, check on the lubes and the es-sential parts.

Let’s go discounts hunting.

Isuzu Davao (South-ern Motors)

Isuzu Motors of Davao is offering 20 per-cent off on parts, lubes and labor. That’s right, all for 20% discount. This Isuzu promo will run from March 1-31

You can check out Isuzu Motors Davao along McArthur High-way. Open from Mon-days to Saturdays.

10 MOTORING EDGEDAVAO

You want to EXPORT your products?Is your company READY for export?

A strong business plan will proof your export-readiness!

We have more than 30 years’ experience in business analy-sis and provide excellent and successful business plans at

very affordable rates.

Contact Raf Vlummens at 092 0675 2754 or [email protected]

trv business consultancySME Center - Chamber building

JP Laurel Ave., Davao City

THE flying machines were back in town and it looks like they

have found a home.No less than the country’s reign-ing motocross king Glenn Aguilar and a bunch of 150 topnotch riders took their flying bikes and displayed their riding skills in the Phoenix Petroleum 75th Araw ng Dabaw Motocross event over the weekend at the Moto X Davao race track at the Davao Croco-dile Park.

With topnotch racing like this, Davao could well be on its way to be the next hot spot for motocross rac-ing.

“Our race here is a huge boost to the sport. We ex-pect Davao to be the next hot spot for motocross in the country,” organizer Bok Mata of MXD said.

Motocross racing is ex-periencing a renaissance in Davao not only with the staging of regular races but more importantly, finding a home where riders can practice anytime and races can be held all year round.

The race track at the Davao Crocodile Park has served as the home of the local racing circuit includ-ing auto racing.

“We welcome events like this in this venue. This goes to show that moto-cross and auto racing has found a home here,” said Sonny Dizon, president of the Davao Crocodile Park.

The race track is situ-

Home trackHome trackDavao could be the next hot spot for motocrossBy Neil Bravo

HIGH FLYING Motocross action has found a home at the Davao Crocodile Park. The DCP race track hosted the Araw ng Dabaw Motocross sponsored by Phoenix Petroleum where some 150 topnotch riders from all over the country took part. Shown

here in action is Davao motocross prodigy Bornok Mangosong (below) while two others battle for position in one of the excit-ing races (above).

ated right at the vast space by the entrance of the pop-ular park. Moto X Davao painstakingly developed the track after an agree-ment with park owners to have a regular venue for lo-cal racing.

“It’s great to have a venue as accessible and as convenient as this,” Mata said.

Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Buboy Fernandez Fernandez, who picked up motocross as as a sport outside his boxing training schedules, also took time out to ride his bike as rid-ers from other parts of the country took part in this biggest motocross event of the year.

The riders came from Luzon, Visayas and Min-danao and competed in the PeeWee50, PeeWee65, Mini85, XRM, Exclusive, Pantra, Underbone En-duro, Open 4-Stroke En-duro, Executive, Veterans,

Beginners, Novice, Inter-mediate, Expert and the Pro-Open.

The Manila delegation was spearheaded by Sel-J Sports owner Jay Lacnit, a prominent motocross or-ganizer and TV promoter.

ALTERRA. The new Isuzu Alterra Urban Cruiser, photographed here at the grounds of the Tagum City Hall project, features a new sporty front and rear chins. It comes in 4x4 and 4x2 mod-

els and automatic or manual transmission variants. It is pow-ered by 4JJ1TC ITEQ Commonrail Direct Injection Diesel with Turbo Intercooler Euro 3.

DRAG RACING took centerstage at the Davao Crocodile Park Speed City with the March 23-24 racing hosted by Ground Image.

The Clutch DriverDiscounts count

Burning rubber time with Ground ImageTIME for burning rub-

bers again.Ground Image

and West Ridge Auto Fa-cility took its turn as host of Davao Drag Racing with the 3rd Ground Image Na-tional Dragster 1/8 Mile Bracket Racing Champi-onships over the weekend at Davao Crocodile Park’s Speed City.

60 of local racing’s best car drivers from Davao and nearby cities were among those who saw action in the two-day racing spectacle highlight-ed by a night party after the awarding ceremonies.

Host team Ground Im-age with brothers Elben and Benjie Pang headed the cast of riders along with other familiar faces in the racing scene Gary

Dumbrique and Bash Candao of Classic, Luwer Ricardo and Peter Sia of Driftech Auto Shop, the father and son tandem of JR and Chris Estanislao of SSF Racing and Willie Tor-res and Vanni Garcia of W-Autosports Racing.

Unlimited time trials were set Friday while the races were held Sunday.

The drag racing cir-cuit has for its leg hosts the participating teams to take turns hosting. The weekend races were the turn of Ground Image which was also among the highlights of the 75th Araw ng Davao. (Neil Bra-vo)

(Editor’s note: Com-plete results of the race were not yet available as we went to press.)

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012 11THE ECONOMYEDGEDAVAO

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINESREGIONAL TRIAL COURT11TH JUDICIAL REGION

OFFICE OF THE CLERK OF COURT-SHERIFFDAVAO CITY

NATIONAL HOME MORTGAGEFINANCE CORPORATION (NHMFC) Mortgagee, EJF-REM CASE NO. 13,259-12 -versus- ANASTACIO E. ARBIZO Mortgagor/s.

x- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -xNOTICE OF EXTRA-JUDICIAL SALE

Upon extra-judicial petition for foreclosure and sale under Act 3135, as amended, filed by National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation against the mortgagor ANASTA-CIO E. ARBIZO married to Liberty A. Arbizo with postal address at Juliville Subd.II Lot 14, Blk. Pcs-112402-001466 Tigatto, Buhangin Davao City, to satisfy the mortgage indebtedness which as of February 29, 2012 amounted to Php 627,791.21 Philippine Currency, plus other legal expenses incident to foreclosure and sale; the undersigned Sheriff IV of Regional Trial Court, Davao City; the undersigned will sell at public auc-tion on April 12, 2012 at 10:00 A.M. or soon thereafter, at the main entrance of Hall of Justice, Ecoland ,Davao City to the highest bidder for Cash or MANAGER’S CHECK and in Philippine Currency, the following real property together with all the improvements thereon, to wit:

Transfer Certificate of Title No. T-181844 “ A parcel of land xxx (Lot 14, xxx Pcs-112402-001466 xxx) situated in the Ba-

rangay of Tigatto, City of Davao, Island of Mindanao xxx. Containing an area of ONE HUNDRED TWENTY (120) SQUARE METERS, more or less xxx.”

All sealed bids must be submitted to the undersigned on the above-stated time and date.

That in the event the public auction should not take place on the said date, it shall be held on May 10, 2012 without further notice.

Prospective buyers are hereby enjoined to investigate for themselves the titles herein described real property/ies and the encumbrances thereon , if any there be.

Davao City, Philippines, March 7, 2012.

FOR THE EX-OFFICIO SHERIFF: (SGD.) JAY C. ESPERANZA Sheriff IV

Noted by: (SGD) ATTY. EDIPOLO P. SARABIA, JR. Clerk of Court VI & Ex-Officio Provincial Sheriff

Copy furnished:The Mortgagor- ANASTACIO E. ARBIZO married to Liberty A. ArbizoThe Mortgagee -NHMFCPUBLISHER – EDGE DAVAOPOSTING – 3 conspicuous places( Edge-3/19,26 4/02)

Republic of the Philippines REGIONAL TRIAL COURT11TH JUDICIAL REGION

OFFICE OF THE CLERK OF COURT-SHERIFFDavao City

BANCO DE ORO UNIBANK, INC.(now known as BDO UNIBANK, INC.) Mortgagee EJF-REM CASE NO. 13,274-12

-versus-SPS. MARLON B. SALJAY AND CECIL R. SALJAY Represented by JANET R. TENORIO Mortgagors

x- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -xNOTICE OF EXTRA-JUDICIAL SALE

Upon extra-judicial petition for sale under Act 3135, as amended filed by the above-mentioned mortgagee against Sps. Marlon B. Saljay and Cecil R. Saljay,represented by Janet R. Tenorio with postal address at 563 Osmeña St. Poblacion 3 Pigcawayan 9412 Cotabato North and Lot 16 Blk. 8, Pcs-11-004638, La Vista Monte, Phase 2, Matina Davao City, to satisfy the mortgage indebtedness which as of February 06, 2012 the total outstanding obligation/indebtedness of the mortgagors in favor of the mortgagee has amounted to Philippines Pesos: THREE MILLION NINE HUNDRED TWENTY NINE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED FIFTY NINE AND 56/100 (Php 3, 929,259.56), inclusive of interest, penalties and other charges, plus other legal expenses incident of the foreclosure and sale the undersigned Sheriff IV of the Regional Trial Court, Davao City, will sell at public auction on April 19, 2012 at 10: A. M.; or soon thereafter , at the main entrance of Hall of Justice, Ecoland, Davao City, to the highest bidder for CASH or MANAGER’S CHECK and in Philippine Currency, the following real property mentioned and described below together with all the improvements found thereon, to wit;

TRANSFER CERTIFICATE OF TITLE NO. T-453570“ A parcel of land xxx( Lot 16, Block 8 , Pcs-11-004638), xxx situated in the Baran-

gay of Matina-Pangi, City of Davao, Island of Mindanao. xxx containing an area of TWO HUNDRED FORTY (240) SQUARE METERS, more or less.”

All sealed bids must be submitted to the undersigned on the above-stated time and date.

In the event the public auction should not take place on the said date, it shall be held on May 17, 2012 without further notice.

Prospective buyers are hereby enjoined to investigate for themselves the title of the herein-above described real property and encumbrances thereon, if any there be.

Davao City, Philippines, March 14, 2012

FOR THE EX-OFFICIO PROV’L SHERIFF: (Sgd) JULITO J. ANGGOT SHERIFF IV

NOTED BY: ATTY: EDIPOLO P. SARABIA, JR. Clerk of Court & Ex- Officio Provincial sheriff

Copy furnished:THE MORTGAGEE : BANCO DE ORO UNIVERSAL BANK.THE MORTGAGORS:SPS. MARLON B. SALJAY AND CECIL R. SALJAY, Represented by JANET R. TENORIO THE PUBLISHER: EDGE DAVAOPOSTING : 3 Conspicous places3/26,4/2,9

SAMSUNG Elec-tronics Philip-pines Corporation

(SEPCO) together with i-Click Digishop Corpo-ration recently opened the very first Digital Imaging Brand Shop in the world in SM Davao. Jiho Ha, (business unit adviser for audio-visual group) along with Nel-son Perez (sales head for digital imaging) and Jeffrey Ong (owner of iClick Digishop Busi-ness Corporation) led the ceremonial ribbon cutting to officially open the store.

The concept shop, located at the 2nd floor of SM Davao’s new wing, will showcase the com-plete line-up of Sam-sung’s digital imaging products from compact cameras to camcord-ers as well the NX Se-ries – Samsung’s mir-rorless interchangeable lens cameras – which gives DSLRs a run for their money. One of the highlights of the event was the introduction

of the Samsung SMART CAMERA line-up which includes the WB150F, a high zoom performer, and the DV300F, the lat-est addition to their suc-cessful 2View cameras. The Samsung SMART CAMERA line-up fea-tures Wi-Fi connectivity which enables users to instantly upload, share and store photos wire-lessly.

Packed with unique features, the Samsung WB150F - a Wi-Fi en-abled long zoom camera - lets you capture in-credibly detailed photos through its impressive 18x Optical super zoom Schneider Kreuznach lens. And in order to capture any detail at its best, the WB150F sports an outstanding 14.2MP resolution that you can view on its 3.0” LCD display. Users can also explore and hone their photographic skills by enabling the Full Man-ual Control feature or get creative using its fun features like Live Pan-

orama, Picture-in-Pic-ture and Split Shot.

Coming from the 2View range is the Sam-sung DV300F which has Dual LCD technology that enables users to ef-fortlessly take the most challenging self shot. Capturing subjects in detail even at a distance will no longer be a prob-lem with the DV300F’s exceptional 16 Megapix-els, 5x Optical zoom and 25mm wide-angle lens. Aside from its cutting edge imaging features, the DV300F also has fun and unique features to play around with such as Magic Frame, Split-Shot, Motion Photo and Artistic Brush.

With Samsung’s in-novative SMART Wi-Fi technology, sharing photos is now quicker and easier than ever.

The Samsung WB150F retails at Php 11,990 while the Sam-sung DV300F retails at Php 9,990.

Shoot Wow Share Now!

OPENING. Samsung executives Jiho Ha, business unit adviser for audio-visual group, Nelson Perez, sales head for digital marketing, and Jeffrey Ong, owner of iClick Digishop cut the

ceremonial ribbon during the store’s opening at The Annex of SM City Davao.

Samsung’s first digital imaging brand shop in the world opens

BAYAN Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño has pro-posed a government

takeover of privatized power barges in Mindanao as an immediate step to address the reported power crisis in the island.

“It appears that there is enough power supply in Mindanao. The problem is that it is too expensive, so power distributors are not buying for fear of going bank-rupt,” the lawmaker said in a statement Thursday.

He linked the “dramatic

increase” in power rates to the privatization of the Na-tional Grid Corporation of the Philippines by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation or PSALM which then entered into an Ancillary Services Procurement Agreement or ASPA with Therma Marine Inc. involving two privatized power barges, Power Barges 117 and 118.

Under the ASPA, Therma Marine would sell additional power to the Mindanao grid at a more expensive rate than when the power barges were still being used as base-load plants.

“Using the ASPA, the NGCP obtained a provisional authority for new power rates which is the cause of the exorbitant power rates today,” Casiño said.

“Thus, a logical solution is for the government to take over the power barges of Therma Marine and add it to the grid as cheap base load power instead of expensive ancillary power,” he said.

“Temporarily taking over the power barges will lower prices allowing power distributors to buy cheaper power and supply it to cus-tomers. Based on Article XII Section 17 of the Constitu-tion, the government

can temporarily take over or direct the opera-tion of any privately-owned public utility or business af-fected with public interest, if there is a national emergen-cy, when the public interest so requires,” he added.

Casiño also urged the government to immediately rehabilitate the hydropower plants in Mindanao and tap solar power systems and other renewable energy sources to augment existing supply.

He said harnessing so-lar power and providing in-centives for its massive use would significantly reduce the country’s dependence

on oil companies and lower electricity rates in the me-dium term.

“Power crises then like in Mindanao would be a thing of the past,” he said.

Casiño has filed House Bill 5405 or the proposed One Million Solar Roofs Act which provides for incen-tives and financing facilities to encourage the use of so-lar energy by ordinary elec-tricity consumers like resi-dences, offices and small to medium business establish-ments.

Mindanao’s power de-mand is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.56 per-cent from 2011 to 2030.

Demand is projected to exceed existing generation capacity by 2014 unless ad-ditional power generation capacity is installed.

Electric power distribu-tors in Mindanao have im-posed power curtailment citing the shortage report-edly being experienced by the Mindanao power grid, a deficiency that NGCP attrib-uted to lower water levels in Lake Lanao.

But the Mindanao De-velopment Authority (Min-DA) earlier said the rotating daily power outages in the island “should not be that worse because there is an untapped 65 megawatts from state-owned hydro-power plants.”

Sec. Luwalhati An-tonino, MinDA chair, said Napocor’s Agus 2 and Pu-langi hydropower plants have a combined untapped capacity of 65MW or more that could sustain demand within a few yours during peak loads.

She said Agus has an in-stalled capacity of 180 MW but only 90 MW is being transmitted to the Mind-anao grid while Pulangi has an installed capacity of 255 MW but only 180-200 MW is being dispatched. [H. MARCOS C. MORDENO/MINDANEWS]

Gov’t urged to take over power barges

‘THE Philippines is the most underrated country in the world,’

--Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, who said the Philippines expects an upgrade very soon from credit ratings companies.

Quips

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 201212 SCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT EDGEDAVAO

WORLD TODAY

Tulip Drive, Ecoland, Davao City

You can now buy your favorite Business Paper from any of these

establishments still at Php 15.

S e r v i n g a S e a m l e s s s o c i e t y

F. Torres St., Davao CityTel No. 227-3773 - (72)

Fax: 295-3485

Davao

HELPING YOU MAKE INFORMED BUSINESS DECISIONS.

THE world’s water resources are be-ing depleted at an

alarmingly fast rate and world leaders must do more to preserve water through improved water efficiency in agriculture, an expert with a leading environmental group has urged.

“What we are seeing is a trend of increasing depletion of the world’s water resources and the scarcity of water is in-creasingly becoming an issue of national security for many countries,” said Brian Richter, director of the Nature Conservancy’s Global Freshwater Pro-gram.

It’s increasingly urgent that governments across the world step up mea-sures to help reduce that rate, particularly by mak-ing the world’s production of food crops more water-efficient, he said.

As nations across the globe prepare to celebrate

the 2012 World Water Day, the Washington-based Nature Conservancy, a leading international con-servation organization, released a report show-ing that 2.7 billion people across the world are af-fected by water shortages on a regular basis.

The eye-opening re-port, of which Richter is one of the authors, also shows that it is getting very difficult to meet wa-ter needs in more than half of the river basins in the world.

This Thursday, March 22, is World Water Day, an event established by the United Nations in 1993 to highlight the challenges associated with this pre-cious resource. Each year has a theme and this year’s is “Water and Food Secu-rity: The World Is Thirsty Because We Are Hungry.”

Food production is the place to start in order to solve the water prob-lem, because as much as

92 percent of the water depletion in the world, according to the study, is linked to the increas-ing pressure on farmers to produce crops in areas with limited rainfall.

“In the study we found that 92 percent of the wa-ter depletion globally is tied to agriculture and agriculture is by far the most dominant use of water that leads to the depletion of the world’s water from rivers, lakes and ground water,” said Richter.

“We don’t want to make farmers the villains here because we need the food they produce, but we have to help farm-ers produce more and produce more efficiently with less water,” he said.

The most pressing need is to help farmers switch traditional agri-cultural practices into us-ing state-of-the-science irrigation methods and improve the productivity

of rain-fed farms as soon as possible, said Richter.

The expert added that while long-term efforts must be placed on help-ing the world’s farmers to grow both rain-fed and irrigated food crops much more efficiently, in mega-cities like Mexico City, which is home to some 20 million people, a quick improvement can be made by repairing the leaks of pipes transport-ing water to the city.

“A very high percent-age of the water taken from rivers and lakes and brought into the cit-ies actually is lost on the way because of leaks on the pipes used to trans-port the water. Between 10 and 30 percent of all this water is lost during the transportation and Mexico City is on the high end of that,” he said, plac-ing the water loss of the Mexican capital at be-tween 30 and 40 percent. [PNA/XINHUA]

Expert urges water-efficient agriculture amid shortages

ENSURING universal access to water and using it wisely in ag-

riculture is essential to end famine, drought and politi-cal instability, UN officials said on Thursday, adding that countries must strive to provide this vital re-source to all their citizens to achieve a sustainable future.

“Over the coming de-cades, feeding a growing global population and en-suring food and nutrition security for all will depend on increasing food produc-tion. This, in turn, means ensuring the sustainable use of our most critical fi-nite resource -- water,” said UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in his message

marking World Water Day, which falls on Thursday this year.

The theme of this year’s observance is water and food security. Currently, nearly one billion people suffer from hunger and some 800 million still lack a safe supply of freshwater.

In his message, the sec-retary-general emphasized that guaranteeing food and water for all will require countries’ full engagement.

“It will require policies that promote water rights for all, stronger regulatory capacity and gender equal-ity,” Ban said. “ Investments in water infrastructure, ru-ral development and water resource management will be essential.” [PNA/XINHUA]

Ensuring access to water vital: UN

Agusan Marsh

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012 SUBURBIA 13FFROM 1 FFROM 1DENR... Davao...EDGEDAVAO

DAVAO del Norte Gov-ernor Rodolfo P. del Rosario highlighted

his administration’s ac-complishments in his fifth State of the Province Ad-dress delivered recently at the provicial capitol.

Attended by local of-ficials and other partners from the government and private sector, Del Rosario said the province was able to achieve a balanced per-formance last year.

He added that this bal-anced performance--ad-ministrative governance, economic governance, so-cial governance, and values of good governance--made the provincial government enjoy an over-all rating of High by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), based on the Local Governance Performance Management System (LGPMS).

“This rating affirms the correctness of our chosen path. This rating

represents how well we fared in heeding the noble terms enshrined in the So-cial Contract, which we all together signed when we elected President Benigno Simeon Aquino III,” he said.

Del Rosario cited the landmark legislations of the province as among the major drivers for the lo-cal government to take off in administrative gover-nance. These legislations included the Provincial Reorganization Ordinance, Provincial Tax Ordinance, and Revised Revenue Code.

At present, the prov-ince’s Sangguniang Pan-lungsod (SP) is also work-

ing on the proposed or-dinance establishing the Davao del Norte Learning Institute that is expected to streamline and rational-ize the trainings for gov-ernment employees, of-ficials, and barangay func-tionaries.

The high rating of the provincial government on social governance, Del Rosario said, was brought about by the “proper use of the Special Education Fund”, adding that on eco-nomic governance, the province had once again proven its responsiveness to the economic needs of the people.[PNA]

Gov. Del Rosario highlights accomplishments in SOPA

‘BECAUSE of this, we are se-riously considering to enact a law on profit-sharing, and this is what the employers don’t want because their books would be opened because it would be the basis for profit-sharing.

--Rep. Emil Ong (Northern Samar)

Quips

with a fine not to exceed P50,000 and/or issue to them a Cease And Desist Order (CDO).

The Kinaiyahan Amumahon Panggaon ug Protektahan, Inc. (KAPPI) reported that barangays Tungkalan, Tawantawan, and Lacson have plantations and yet there are no buffer zones implemented.

A paralegal group of farmers and lumads from the third district of Davao City which has taken up the advocacy of buffer zone implementa-tion for the district’s re-maining forest and water resources, the KAPPI is currently campaigning in those LGUs through their Barangay Watershed Management Councils.

“Naa na man ni sa ilahang ECC pero wala gi-hapon nila giimplement. Naa silay gitanom sa riv-erbanks pero dili mga kahoy ug wala nakafol-low sa requirement nga 40 meters distance gikan sa plantation,” Mael Para-nial of Interface Develop-ment Interventions said.

Tawantawan clarified that an ECC indicates all the conditions required from the proponent of a business or plantation.

“Daghan ni siya miti-gating measures, daghan kaayong gibawal didto ug giingon pud didto nga dili

siya makapadayon kung dili siya makakuhag per-mit and approval sa lain laing ahensiya,” she said.

Tawantawan person-ally talks to owners of establishments who ap-plied for ECC to explain the conditions herself.

“Gusto nako ipasapu-so sa iyaha nga ibutang sa iyang kasing kasing ipasabot sa iyaha unsa iyahang mga responsi-bility ug accountability sa pagpatindog niya og ingon ani nga negosyo kung magpatindog siya og plantation,” she said.

The Watershed Code of Davao City requires that a buffer zone of about 40 meters wide must be established be-tween plantations and critical areas such as recharge zones, river-banks, rivers, springs, wells and other sources of water.

The Natural Resourc-es Conservation Services of the US Department of Agriculture also referred buffer zone as “conser-vation area”, which is “an area or strip of land maintained in perma-nent vegetation that can be used in a systems ap-proach to manage soil, water, nutrients, and persticides for sustain-able agricultural produc-tion, while minimizing environmental impact.”

these two companies re-ported their production volume to the MGB,” Lim yesterday said at Kapihan sa PIA media forum.

“Based on data from the MGB, 836.45 kilograms of gold and 4,524.50 kilograms of sil-ver were produced. This amounts to P1.8 billion for gold, while the silver produced amounted to P4.17 million,” Lim said as NEDA 11 reported the 2011 Davao Region socio-economic perfor-mance and 2012 devel-opment outlook.

Lim also said that 2011 was a good year for the mining industry as the value of precious minerals increased.

“I would like to high-light that the value of gold and silver produced was boosted by corre-sponding increases in the processing of gold and silver in 2011 by as much as 36 percent and 85 percent, respectively. Gold values at P2,417.48 per gram and P54.02 per gram for silver,” Lim said.

Lim added that the volume of other miner-als by the region also in-creased.

“Other minerals such as chromite and cop-

per produced increased considerably. Chromite production, for instance, increased by as much as 43.5 percent,” Lim said.

Top exportGold ranked 5th

among the region’s top export commodities in 2011, Lim said.

“Gold, in semi-manu-factured form, including gold-plated with plati-num maintained its rank as a top export earner and grew remarkably by 56 percent over its 2010 level,” she said.

Lim said bananas, in-cluding plantains, fresh or dried ranked first among the city’s export-ed commodities, while on second place is coco-nut (copra), palm kernel (crude or refined).

Coconuts, brazil nuts and cashew nuts placed third, while on fourth place are commodities of dates, figs, pineapples, avocados, guavas, man-goes, and mangosteen (fresh or dried).

ProfitableLim said the mining

industry is ‘profitable’ and that it ‘contributes to the growth of the region.’

“Whether it’s small-scale mining or big-scale ventures, masasabi natin na mining is profitable,” Lim said.

The NEDA regional director acknowledged that the industry is ‘rid-dled with controversies’ such as laborers’ safety hazards and environmen-tal consequences.

“Despite the risks in-volved, even though they

have to go through tun-nels you could see that they’re still there. They still go back to work in the mines, these small scale miners. And I un-derstand that there’ve also been small-scale mining protesters saying they should be absorbed as miners into big scale mining companies,” Lim said.

“However, we also recognize that the local government, specifically Compostella Valley, their attention has been called for them to provide more safety measures for these small scale miners,” she added.

Lim said as the min-ing industry ‘gener-ates jobs and profit’ it also contributes to the Davao region’s economic growth.

“The mining industry is an emerging growth driver for the region with an estimated 189 mil-lion metric tons of gold deposits, most of which are in Compostela Valley,” Lim said, based on the Davao Region Develop-ment Plan (RDP) of 2011 to 2016.

“There are also 490.7 million metric tons of nickel deposits mostly found in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley,” Lim added.

5 percent growth for 2012

Lim emphasized that NEDA is for ‘responsible mining’ and that the na-tional government is set to increase the mining industry’s growth by 5%

this year. “The government is

for responsible mining. The mining industry was identified as one of the region’s eleven priority industries under the In-dustry Clustering Strat-egy in 2007 and was sus-tained under the RDP of 2011 to 2016,” Lim said.

Lim said a mining in-dustry cluster team was created which is com-posed primarily of the members of the Mind-anao Federal Small Scale Miners with the staff of MGB 11, and the Depart-ment of Trade and Indus-try 11 as members of the technical working group.

“Under the current RDP, the growth target for the mining sector for 2012 is set at 5% in-crease in gross value add-ed,” she said.

“The potential of the mining industry is vast and it is fortunate that the present administra-tion is trying to create policies to facilitate the development of the min-ing industry while at the same time preserving the integrity of the environ-ment,” Lim added.

A new policy for the mining sector is under-way, Lim said, which is geared towards ensur-ing equitable sharing of mining revenues, greater value-added in mining operations, ensuring the integrity of the environ-ment, total economic val-uation, transparency, and enlightened and effective stakeholder engagement.

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 201214 WEEKEND SPORTS EDGEDAVAO

RALPH Lauren will de-sign uniforms for nearly 800 members of the U.S.

Olympic team when they go to London for the summer games this July.

This will be the third time the king of American coolhas created a line for the athletes–he did it for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Cana-da, and for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The work is part of a 2009 agreement between Polo Ralph Lauren and the United States Olympic Committee to supply clothes for each of the three games. Polo is reportedly paying 10-percent royalties to the USOC on sales of any items featuring the Olym-pic seal.

Lauren’s sportswear has hung on America’s elite since 2005 when the brand became the apparel sponsor of the U.S. Open tennis tournament. In 2006, Polo won a deal to dress officials at Wimbledon.

The looks for the London Olympics are fitting: vintage-inspired polos, pants and sweaters on a red, white and blue color palette (above). The

line includes jackets, glasses, luggage, shoes, hats, belts and beach towels, all of which go on sale online and in stores May 15. Separate opening ceremony parade outfits will not be unveiled until July. (As a side note, Stella McCartney will be designing the clothes for Great Britain’s Olympians. An-other fitting match.)

In Canada Lauren gave the parade uniforms a sporty-prep take, using cotton fleece pants, a navy and red down jacket, a cable turtleneck and a wool hat adorned with the American flag (the hat in particular sold like gangbusters online). The overall look was a nod to the Lake Placid Games of 1932.

In Beijing the parade at-tire was more classic, with a sharp navy blazer, crisp white pants and scarf ascots for the women with red-striped ties for the men. White golf caps topped off the effect. It all came out smooth and elegant, which is no small feat for a designer who has to dress everyone from 7-foot-tall basketball play-ers to 98-pound gymnasts, and everyone in between.

Ralph Lauren’s Olympic kit

A Union flag re-drawn in two shades of blue will

be the centrepiece of the British team’s official Olympic kit this summer after Stella McCartney largely jettisoned red from her designs for the Team GB uniforms.

The absence of the colour from McCartney’s

interpretation of the Union flag drew signifi-cant comment at the kit unveiling at the Tower of London, with the design-er saying she had tried to reinterpret the flag.

Red features as trim-ming on many of the 590 individual articles of kit that have been created for Team GB by Adidas,

OLYMPIC FASHIONTeam GB kit for London 2012 Olympics designed by Stella McCartney and Adidas launched

SPORTS FEATURE TEAM USA by Nike

FOLYMPIC, 16

Ralph Lauren

TEAM GB

VOL.5 ISSUE 16 • MARCH 25 - 26, 2012

EDGEDAVAO

I have always been a fan of collabo-rations that

create beautiful results. These collaborations may be done in anything and everything, be it in music, arts, science, and even architec-ture. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I see Min-danao stylist, Otoy Mer-cado’s prized Pulip dolls in the showcases of Emilia’s Jewelry Collection at the Abreeza Mall. On display as a collaboration between jeweler and stylist. The displays naturally grab people’s at-tention as the dolls lend a playful yet enchanting vibe and visually enhances the many fabulous jew-elry pieces of Emilia’s Sonia et So-phie collection which are unique, bright, and vibrant. I actually felt the settings of the dolls as so surreal, surreal in the sense that if you were to imagine yourself sized the way a typical doll is and then imagine how big and larger than life the diamonds,

emeralds, and rubies around you are! The pieces of the Sonia et Sophie col-lection comprises of various jewelry pieces with vari-ous semi-precious colored stones. The collection also has necklaces and brace-lets enhanced with countless cameos

and of course beautiful and spar-kling diamonds. The collection also features var-ious cuffs made of colored sting-ray leather set with gold or silver accents. My personal favorite is the woven, multi-colored, multi-leather cuff done in vivid hues of red and purple. The multi-cameo pearl necklace also never fails to catch my eye and truly stands out with its unique bohemian look but yet retains an air of playful-ness and whimsy, which is what the entire Sonia et Sophie collec-tion ultimately is about. You can still catch a glimpse of the Sonia et Sophie collection along with these beautiful Pulip dolls at Emilia’s Jewelry Collec-tion located at the second floor of Abreeza Mall.

Precious little thingsWhen dolls create a bejeweled wonderland

STYLE


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8100 PhilippinesTel. No.: (084) 216-3003Cell No,: 0939-243-8539

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INdulge!

A2 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 16 • MARCH 25 - 26, 2012EDGEDAVAOEVENTS

Lynette Lopez, mall manager“I will be more environment-friendly.”

Marga Rey, publicist“I will say no to plastic bags if you will say no to plastic bags, also.”

Leah del Castro, blogger“I will join a tree-planting activity, and plant at least five trees, if my friends will ride public transport and limit their travels.”

Apol Legario, publicist“I will commute for 1 week if all of my friends will start segregating their wastes properly.”

Gregg Yan, WWF“I pledge to do a front flip while wearing a barong tagalog if 500 people promise to plant native trees in their backyards.”

Maia Melencio, WWF“I will use the stairs for one month if 5,000 Facebook users like the WWF fan page.”

Jesse Pizarro Boga, media“I will play as Street Fighter if my friends use shopping bags as their bags for a day.”

Naprey Almario, Pinoy Big Brother ex-housemate“I will go scuba diving if my 6,000 Twitter followers will turn off their lights on Earth Hour”

IT’S not the kind of power outage that irks you or one that comes unan-nounced. Its not even a power outage to begin with, but rather a movement

to remind our leaders, neighbors, friends, and ourselves, that time is running out in this fight against a monster we all know as climate change.

I dare you!Earth Hour 2012

Earth Hour, the annual global movement to switch off lights for an hour every March 31st, has been on going in the Philippines for the past five years. And to amp things up this year, World Wide Fund (WWF) came up with the “I will, if you will” campaign. Aside from being more interac-tive, it also shows the many things, small or big, that an ordinary Filipino can do to help lessen the car-bon footprint of humans, which is the culprit behind the expeditious change in climate patterns. The campaign has taken hold and ‘I Will If You Will’ pledges are now snowballing across cyber-space. WWF-Philippines Na-tional Ambassador Marc Nelson has pledged to swim with sharks - in a Panda costume - and plant trees underwater while munching on a carrot, if 5000 of his Twitter follow-ers pledge to avoid plastic and reuse shopping bags. WWF-Philippines Na-tional Ambassador Rovil-son Fernandez, for his part, has pledged to run races clad in a Panda cos-

tume until April if 5000 of WWF-Philippines’ 23,000 fans opt to use stairs over elevators for a full month. Cynthia Dayco, a moth-er and WWF-Philippines Facebook fan, has prom-ised to let her son Josh play Minecraft an hour longer over the summer break if Josh remembers to turn off the lights and fan whenever he leaves his room. Lyjenunt Gonowon, an-other WWF-Philippines fan, has pledged to recycle if her friends promise to switch to energy-efficient CFL bulbs. So, while waiting for Earth Hour 2012, which is set for 8:30pm on Sat-urday, 31 March, whether you’re on planet Earth - or orbiting it, let’s hear what some of our friends here in Davao are committing to help save the planet.

Carlo Mallo, writer“I will stop flirting for 1 week if all malls in Davao will stop using plastic bags for 1 month.”

A3INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 16 • MARCH 25 - 26, 2012EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

WHITNEY Houston drowned on Feb. 11, having ingested cocaine recently enough to have it be a contributing factor in her death. But what does that mean? Did she overdose? Hit her head? Simply fall asleep? Did years of cocaine use cause the heart disease that was also detected during autopsy? How exactly did Houston, who was only 48, die in her bathtub at the Beverly Hil-ton? Los Angeles County Assis-tant Chief Coroner Ed Win-ter, who determined cause of death to be accidental drowning combined with co-caine use and atherosclerotic heart disease, tells E! News that his team actually has not been able to pinpoint exactly how Houston died as far as sequence of events—but there are some likely possi-bilities. “It means she could have passed out and drowned,” Winter says. “Also, continued use of drugs resulted in heart disease, and that could have led to a heart attack.” “At this time,” he adds, “I don’t know how bad her heart was. That will be in the final report. We know she drowned, she had heart dis-ease, and the cocaine was considered a contributing cause to her death.” They will be reexamining Houston’s heart for other indicators of deterioration in the coming days. As for the traces of pills found in her system, chief coroner investigator Craig Harvey told reporters during a press conference that it was “clear Houston was taking Xanax, but the levels were such they were a therapeutic level...normal for someone following the rules of a pre-scribed medication.” “The Benadryl may have created a combined effect,” Harvey said, “but the toxicol-ogy said all levels were thera-peutic or sub-therapeutic and not contributory to her death.” They found a “moder-ate” amount of cocaine—an “acute dose, not too much before she collapsed,” he said,

but noted that there was evi-dence of “chronic usage.” “Drug use creates prob-lems,” Harvey explained. “If you have one condition and you’re using cocaine, you’ll exacerbate it. It causes the heart to beat faster, the ar-teries to constrict, which can create a problem and set you up for a cardiac event.” “It exacerbates heat dis-ease,” he said. “Probably in the long run, [all of the sub-stances] didn’t help.” The coroner’s office said earlier today that the final report should be available for release within two weeks. Meanwhile, at least one medical expert doesn’t buy the notion that the marijua-na, Xanax and other sedatives found in her system were not considered contributing fac-tors in Houston’s death. “I don’t know how you can

say that a bunch of sedating drugs, even in small amounts, couldn’t contribute to some-body either passing out or be-coming sedated to the point where you wouldn’t neces-sarily struggle to recover the way most people would,” Dr. David Baron, chief of staff at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Ortopaedic Hos-pital, tells E! News. “If we were falling asleep and slipped under the water, our emergency systems in our brain would wake us up,” Baron said. “When people are sedated, the brain doesn’t have the normal alarm sys-tems working properly to make you struggle and fight for life. So I really don’t get why [the coroner’s office] said they were not contrib-uting causes; I don’t know how they can know that un-less they were in such minute

amounts.” Which is a possibility—the official report hasn’t been re-leased yet. As for the cocaine, Baron said, if she ingested a “large amount...she could have eas-ily had a cardiac event like a heart attack and an irregular heartbeat. There is no way after someone dies to know if they had an arrhythmia, they are always the mystery of sudden death where you weren’t there to witness it.” “We are probably never going to know the exact se-quence of events that took place,” Baron concluded. “But the question about whether the drug use caused her to drown or not I think is un-questionable. It either com-promised her heart, made it weak, caused an arrhythmia and resulted in blood vessels constricting.”

What was the cause of Whitney Houston’s death?E! Online reports cocaine was involved.

As for the cocaine, Baron said, if she ingested a “large amount...she could have easily had a cardiac event like a heart attack and an irregular heartbeat.

A4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 16 • MARCH 25 - 26, 2012EDGEDAVAO


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VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 2012

I watched from the sidelines in one of the games of the Araw ng

Dabaw Invitational Bas-ketball Tournament and I silently cursed the way the officiating was han-dled and the way some of our basketball players are behaving on court.

I hate to say this but whenever one starts to hurt intentionally, that is only showing one’s infe-riority in skills. Players react to being outplayed by resorting to dirty tac-tics. Some to the point of intentionally hurting.

This is true not only to local players but even to ex-professional basket-ball players.

Take Jerry Codinera for example. He is a long-retired player albeit not wanting in skills but ob-viously a step slower. Jer-ry uniformed himself in the tournament for a dual role as coach-player. Jer-ry could have preserved his legend had he stayed on the bench mapping the strategy for the Uni-versity of the East-Royal Mandaya Hotel Warriors.

Instead, he played at the same time.

How in heaven can Jerry outrun, outjump and outplay the younger ones? Pray tell me. No

way is he going to be on top of his game.

And then came the unimaginable. Jerry had to do some dirty things on the floor which hurt some players including one player from Phoenix-Vega.

And there were some of the local players from Montana Pawnshop who, outsmarted and out-played, had to throw el-bows during the break.

The refs?They must have been

Noynoying.Or plain blind.I have not been in a

basketball tournament here for sometime but the things that I saw that night only tell me nothing has changed.

You can have a mod-ern gym but if you have refs like that, it’s like playing in barbaric times.

15EDGEDAVAO WEEKEND SPORTS

BEANPOLE. Ian Sangalang of Phoenix Vega uses his left for a short stab in this bit of action against Goldstar Hardware. Sangalang and teammate Calvin Abueva stayed for the rest of the Araw ng Dabaw Invitational Tournament despite commitment with

their NLEX mother ballclub in the PBA D League. The duo led the Stags in the finals against Montana Pawnshop. [BOY LIM]

RUNNING enthu-siasts will be treated to anoth-

er major footrace this summer with the stag-ing of the Castrol-Run With The Masters on April 15 at the Davao Crocodile Park.

Vantage Sports pres-ident Kenneth Sai an-

nounced the staging of the multi-division foot-race to be held at an out and back course start-ing and ending at the DCP.

Sai bared that the categories are the pre-mier 21-kilometer half-marathon, 15K, 10K, 5K and the 500-meter for

kids.“We are expecting

a huge field for this event, maybe around 1,300 to 2,000 runners. Registration will pick up by the last week,” he said.

Registration is open at GMall Adidas outlet. Registration fee will

be P550 for the 21K, P500 for the 15K, P350 for the 10K and 5K and P250 for the 500m. All registration comes with the free race singlet, bib, and finisher’s kit.

The run is spon-sored by Castrol and organized by Vantage Sports. [NJB]

Run with the Masters at Croc Park

I’M a Games Mak-er, what uniform will I receive?

Each Games Maker will receive a jacket, polo shirt, trousers, trainers, socks, cap, bag, water bot-tle and an umbrella.

When will I get my uniform? Games Makers will start picking up their uniforms from April 2012. Techni-cal Officials will pick up their uniforms from June 2012.

Telegraph fashion editor Belinda White gives her view on the volunteer uniform “Hi, can you tell me where I can find the to-mato puree please?”

No, because contrary to appearance I don’t stack shelves in a super-market.

I am in fact a volunteer ‘Games Maker’, here to help make your Olympic experience run smoothly.

Don’t be alarmed by the offensively clashing colours I wear.

They have (according to LOCOG) been inspired by “the heritage and cul-ture of the UK, with influ-ences ranging from the Grenadier Guards uni-form to Henley Regatta fashions”.

We’re pretty sure we don’t recall seeing any of these colours in a Farrow & Ball swatch book, but their retina-searing quali-ties should certainly help our heroes stand out in a

crowd.And if that was the

extent of the design brief then who are we to argue?

And on the Techni-cal Official uniform... There’s a reason why the Wimbledon officials look so smart — they are dressed to perfection by Ralph Lauren.

Sadly it seems LOCOG blew its budget on Stella McCartney’s Team GB kit, so high street stalwarts Next were called to the ta-ble – with a helping hand from Adidas for the lei-

surewear.The end result is a

gaudy fashion car crash which will, at best, make the poor creatures (and they better be no bigger than a size six if they want to pull off these shapeless beige trousers) look like they are Boris Bike me-chanics who moonlight on the deli counter at Morri-sons; at worst like they got dressed in the dark in the early Stock Aitken Water-man era in the 90s.

The crowning glory is the tacky logo.

OLYMPIC FASHION:And now, the fashion set for the Games Makers (Volunteers)

Volunteers

Torchbearers

Bad officiating

VOL.5 ISSUE 16• MARCH 25 - 26, 201216 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS


Koronadal

and some socks and shoes are all-red, but the predominate colours are several shades of blue and white.

The red in the Union flag represents the cross of St George, for Eng-land, and the cross of St Patrick, for Ireland, and its absence drew a mixed response on social net-working sites.

Among those un-impressed was double Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins, who tweeted: “Oh dear — the Olympic kit” shortly af-ter its launch. Wiggins, who was sponsored by Adidas until last year, later deleted the com-ment.

McCartney, retained as Adidas creative direc-tor, said she had tried to give the flag a contem-

porary twist. “The first place to start on a proj-ect like this is to look at the Union flag.

For me it is one of the most beautiful flags in the world and it is im-portant for me to stay true to that iconic design but also to modernise it and present it in a con-temporary way,” she said.

“Ultimately, we want-ed the athletes to feel like a team and to be proud with the identity we created.”

Among Adidas ath-letes attending the launch however there was enthusiastic sup-port for the kit, which has been two years in development and has featured input from po-tential medal hopes, in-cluding Phillips Idowu.

Jessica Ennis, who was consulted by Mc-Cartney, said she was ex-cited to try on the kit in which she hopes she will win Olympic gold and she defended the spar-ing use of red.

“I think its nice, its got subtle bits [of red], the colour stands out more when you have lit-tle bits of red,” she said. “Having the launch of the kit with Stella involved has been a totally unique experience, it really feels like the Games are upon us.

“Stella was really keen to know how you like your kit to fit. Be-cause there are so many sports, she wanted to know how you feel it helps you perform. So I spoke to her about length of leggings and the cut of shorts and things.

“I remember my first Team GB kit was really multi-coloured down the side, but over the years it has just got bet-ter and better. It is really exciting to wear it, it’s all clean cut, it’s just gor-geous. It’s much better than the previous ones.”

Ennis said she would not be taking any of the kit home with her for fear of inviting bad luck.

“I think it’s not a great position to be in, taking it away with you now. I think you should wait until you are safely selected for the team be-fore you collect your kit,” she said.

Triathlete Alistair Brownlee, one of Brit-ain’s strongest gold medal hopes, believes the strip is perfect for his sport.

“The material’s fan-tastic, it’s fast in the wa-ter but dries quickly,” he said. “It fits very well be-cause you don’t want it baggy in the water or too tight for the cycling and

running. It’s a really good, functional piece of kit.”

Adidas will produce 175,000 items of clothing for the 550-strong British team, which will be distributed at the team’s pre-Games preparation camp at Loughborough.

Among the items unveiled yester-day was the Team GB football shirt, predominantly blue, which will be worn by a British team taking part in an Olympic finals competition for the first time since 1948.

A replica of the shirt, modelled by English players Frazier Campbell and Jack Rodwell, will be available to buy for £50. The away kit, predominantly white, will not be on public sale.

As well as the football kit, swim-ming, cycling, tennis, basketball and track-and-field replica equipment will be on public sale.

Idowu, who worked with McCart-ney on the design, said: “I love what Stella has done with the design. Look-ing good is psychologically important but my sprint suit is also technically advanced, so not only do I look good but I also have confidence in the tech-nology in the kit.”

The kit will be manufactured in Ad-idas factories in Turkey, Portugal, the Far East and a small amount in the UK.

FFROM 14

Olympic... Suzuki reinforces brand with 6cyclemind, Ramon Bautista as new ambassadors

Shown in the photo are the members of 6CycleMind with SPH Managing Director Ms. Catalina Calderon and SPH President Satoshi Uchida

Internet sensation and comedian Ramon Bautista with (L-R) SPH Asst. GM for Motorcycle Eiji Kobayashi, SPH President Satoshi Uchida and SPH Managing Director Catalina Calderon

JAPANESE compact car and motorcycle manu-facturer Suzuki Philip-

pines Inc (SPH) is beefing up its roster of already noteworthy brand ambas-sadors after a strong and eventful 2011. SPH is now introducing OPM band 6CycleMind and comedian Ramon Bautista as its new-est motorcycle brand am-bassadors.

Mr. Satoshi Uchida, SPH president said, “we are proud to introduce our

latest brand ambassadors because they are fun, ac-tive and sporty, which very much represents what Suzuki motorcycles are. We are very excited to see more of our new ambas-sadors to promote Suzuki this year”.

6CycleMind performed to a jam-packed audience last year in the Automoto Grand Invasion while Ra-mon Bautista was the host and the endorser during the GD110 Nationwide

launch this January. SPH has noted a sub-

stantial increase in the preference of motorcycles in the last four years, which it said can be attributed to soaring oil prices and de-clining traffic conditions. Its latest campaign “Bakit Hindi Ka Pa Nakamotor? Mag-Suzuki Ka Na!,” not only invites commuters to be riders themselves, but also sends across the prac-ticalities of owning a mo-torcycle,” Uchida said.

edge davao 5 issue 16

Documents

davao gold

oro city

volume of gold

production volume

davao citys water resources

regional director of

microinsurance institutions

natural resources denremb