By Lorie A. Cascaro

The possibility of foul play in the death of a couple who allegedly committed suicide in their house at San Antonio,

Matina, Davao City last July 2 is still under police investigation.

The couple, Ali Crisostomo, 40, originally

from Kidapawan City, who served as a dea-con of Jehovah’s Witnesses Church, and his wife, eden, 22, from Dumaguete City, report-edly left a suicide note inside their room.

Senior Inspector Aldrin Juaneza of the Talomo Police Station said the letter, which is significant in determining whether there was foul play, is under custody of the

Crime Laboratory 11.The note says: “To my body of elders.

Dear Brothers, I wrote this letter to inform you all that I voluntarily stepping down my privileges as one of the elders of our congre-gation due to the wrongdoings that I have been committing. It is sad that it happens to

By Antonio M. Ajero

The LAND TRANSPORTATION Fran-chising and Regulatory Board headed by Jaime D. Jacob has been asked by

Secretary Mar Roxas of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) to explain the alleged controversy over the

issuance of a permit to Mabuhay taxi com-pany operate taxi cabs colored black which is being opposed by an association of taxi op-erators in Davao City.

LTFRB insiders told edge Davao that Jacob was directed to report on the contro-versy and answer the memorandum briefing submitted by LTFRB Region 11 Director Ben-

jamin Go regarding the case.The LTFRB regional director reportedly

narrated the “lapses, shortcomings and pos-sible complications of the black taxi issue.”

An earlier report indicated that mem-bers of the Metro Davao Taxi Operators As-sociation, Inc. (Medatoa), whose members

EDGEP 15.00 • 20 PAGES

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SUPPORT. Governor and national president of JCI Senate Philippines Antonio H. Ce-rilles says Junior Chamber International supports responsible mining and opposes il-

legal and unregulated mining during JCI’s Forum on Responsible Mining yesterday at the Grand Menseng Hotel. [LEAN DAVAL, JR.]

LTFRB asked to explain Black taxi row

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012

By Greg G. Deligero

The local government of Davao City is set to ink an agreement

with major colleges and universities to better man-age data and information beneficial to both the city government and the aca-deme.

The draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the “Academe-Government Partnership for Sustain-able Development of Davao City” between the city gov-ernment and the Davao Colleges and Universities Network (DACUN) has yet to be forwarded to the city

council for the enactment of a corresponding ordi-nance authorizing the city mayor to sign the agree-ment.

In his official endorse-ment to the city legal of-fice, Ricardo D. Franco, of-ficer-in-charge of the City Information and Technol-ogy Center (CITC) said the MoU is favorable to the city government.

CITC is the city’s front-line office in the adoption and application of infor-mation and communica-tion technology in govern-ment operations.

Under the draft agree-ment, DACUN and the city government will share ex-

pertise and resources in database development, profiling of barangays, construction of indicators for comparative develop-ment analysis and project evaluation.

“Both parties recognize the importance of estab-lishing a mutually benefi-cial public-private partner-ship in providing effective and efficient social servic-es to the people of Davao City and thus contribute to the sustainable growth of the city,” said part of the MoU.

It emphasizes the need for the development of a database to allow “the

PRO-people and envi-ronment groups at-tending yesterday’s

Forum on Responsible Min-ing at the Grand Men Seng hotel here said equating responsible mining with le-gally documented mining lacks perspective for struc-tural analysis on the mining industry.

The multi-sectoral forum was organized by JCI Sen-ate Philippines, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines and Coalition for Respon-sible Mining in Mindanao to convey their pro-stand on responsible mining.

Jean Suzanne Lindo, Kalikasan Party-list Third

Nominee, at the sideline of the forum, said the discus-sions sent a general message for the eradication of small-scale mining because they are illegal, and only those that are legal should be al-lowed to operate.

The groups Kalikasan, Panalipdan, Bagong Alyan-sang Makabayan (BAYAN), Promotion of Church Peo-ple’s Response in Davao City submitted a position paper to the forum, opposing the current mining policy under Republic Act 7942 and push-ing for national industrial-ization.

“The mining that we want is an industry that gives

more than it consumes,” Lin-do said, adding that it should be more of national and local industries to help the Philip-pines’ economy and not of other countries.

She cited matters that were not discussed at the forum, including health im-pacts of mining, environ-mental sustainability, and targets for reduction of car-bon emission and increase in forest cover among others.

“The vulnerabilities should be taken into consid-erations,” she added.

The groups also ex-pressed their categorical and unequivocal support for

A Davao City business-man is calling for a clean-up trash in the

Davao Gulf which threaten to contribute to the grow-ing plastic vortex in the oceans.

President of the Ameri-can Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines - Davao City, Philip “Sonny” Dizon plastics are insidious as these cannot be decom-posed.

“There is no joke with these plastics,” he told re-porters, adding that the biggest trash vortex in the world is found between Japan and Alaska, and it is four times the size of Japan.

“All the oceans in the world have a plastic vortex.

It’s so big that it creates its own biodiversity under-neath the plastic,” he said.

Also known as “the Asian Trash Trail” or the “eastern Garbage Patch,” trash vortex has an area equivalent to the size of Texas, according to Green-peace International.

It has been reported that plants and animals in marine ecosystems “can be transported on the floating plastics outside their nor-mal habitat, invading new habitats to become pos-sible nuisance species.”

Dizon acknowledged the efforts of the Davao City government to reduce the use of non-biodegrad-

By Lorie A. Cascaro

Davao City’s Registry of Deeds (RD) of the Land Registration Au-

thority (LRA) 11 was hailed for ranking 12th among the top 20 grossers in the coun-try last year, a government officer said yesterday.

Lawyer Asteria e. Cruz-abra, Davao City registrar of deeds, in an interview, said Davao City is number one in terms of collection in the Visayas and Mindanao, sur-passing Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro City and Zamboanga City.

She said the city’s in-come from registration fees and other fees collected last year was close to P90 mil-lion, showing a significant in-crease from that of previous years.

She said, “We are hope-ful that we will surpass last year’s income, although we have no annual target be-cause we are dependent on

people who want to register their lands.”

Davao City ranks sixth among the top RDs in terms of performance through the number of transactions last year, including commercial, industrial and residential matters.

“There were many land title applications for condo-miniums and housing. Prop-erty development in the city is very positive. Yearly, we have a growing trend in col-lections,” she added.

She mentioned the imple-mentation of the Voluntary Title Standardization (VTS) policy by the city since last month, although there have been only two applicants so far which are pending ap-proval due to extensive phys-ical damage of the original copy of the land title.

“This is only voluntary, so we are waiting for people to come and register their man-ual land titles with the data

base. But, most people think this is a way to replace their tattered titles,” she said.

Cruzabra is yet to see the implementing rules and reg-ulations to determine wheth-er the new policy authorizes the registry to convert dilapi-dated titles, considering that in cases such as this, there should be a court order be-fore replacing the original copy under Republic Act 26.

Despite the extensive physical damage of land titles, usually by termites or burned beyond recognition, the registry has no authority to convert unless there is a court order, she said.

“It’s not as easy as that because it may be abused and would lead to corruption as peole don’t have to go to court,” she said.

She added that the regis-try is offering 20% discount within six months for all ap-plicants for VTS, which costs P600 per title.

By Jade C. Zaldivar

ONLY four out of dozens of small-scale mines in the

Davao region operate legally with permits ac-quired from the national government, according to the Mines and Geosci-ences Bureau (MGB) for Davao region yesterday.

The four registered small-scale mines, named after their location, are: Lumanggang and Panor-aon in Maco, Compostella Valley (Comval); Inupuan-Saravan in Nabunturan (Comval), and Dinagsaan Puntalinao in Banay-banay, Davao Oriental “They are paying taxes already. every shipment of copper or gold ore goes to the processing plant, for which they have to pay excise tax,” MGB 11 regional director edil-

berto Arreza said in an interview at the Grand Men Seng hotel where a mining forum was held. “It is unfortunate that the biggest number of small-scale mining groups have not applied for permits, with Pantukan having the most with 20,000 miners since there are 19 small-scale mining areas there, and also in Diwalwal which has approximately 10,000 miners who do not operate legally,” he added. Arreza said there are approximately 50,000 working miners in the re-gion. Minahan ng Bayan is in line with Presiden-tial Decree (PD) No. 1899 “establishing Small-Scale Mining as a New Dimen-sion in Mineral Devel-opment” which was ap-proved by former presi-dent Ferdinand Marcos in 1984.

PD 1899 allows the operations of small-scale miners to “generate more employment opportuni-ties, thereby alleviating the living conditions [in] the rural areas and will contribute additional for-eign exchange earnings.”

however, following the identification of Mi-nahan ng Bayan areas throughout the country, Arreza said, majority of small-scale miners fail to register although it is ex-pected of them.

“Actually they (small-scale miners) are happy that the national govern-ment has identified Mi-nahan ng Bayan areas. It means the national government will be al-lowing them to mine as opposed to when they operated on their own before without proper

THE BIG NEWS2 EDGEDAVAO

FDAVAO GULF, 13

FGROUPS, 13 FLGU, 13

FONLY, 13

Only 4 small-scale mines in region legal – MGB11

Davao registry of deeds named 12th top grosser

PAINTER AND PEDESTRIAN. A pedestrian passes under a construction worker painting the facade of a newly constructed building along Claveria Street. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

Warning

Davao Gulf may add to ‘plastic vortex”’

Groups attending forumdoubt responsible mining

LGU-academe partnershipon data management mulled

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012

By Jade C. Zaldivar

The prominent group, JCI Senate Philippines, manifested its support

for responsible mining in the country in a forum at the Grand Men Seng hotel here yesterday.

JCI Philippines, an affili-ate of the worldwide orga-nization Junior Chamber In-ternational (JCI), said “min-ing should not be abhorred but exercised through re-sponsible and legal means.” “We invited representatives of sectors, whether anti or pro mining or those who are undecided yet. The intention is not to persuade these sec-tors to support mining but to educate them that with prop-er implementation, mining can help improve our coun-try’s economy,” said Zambo-anga del Sur Governor Anto-nio Cerilles, president of JCI

Senate Philippines.Mines and Geoscience

Bureau (MGB) for the Davao region, an office under the Department of environment and Natural Resources, not-ed this was the first time JCI manifested its support for mining.

“I think what they’re do-ing is commendable. The most important thing really is educating the people on the potential of mining to the country,” MGB 11 regional director edilberto Arreza said in an interview.

JCI’s Committee on Re-sponsible Mining chair, lawyer Menjie Redelosa, stressed that mining will ex-ist with or without laws gov-erning or limiting such.

“The matter is already before us. In areas where there are mineral deposits, there will always be mining.

3EDGEDAVAO THE BIG NEWS

JCI Senate supports responsible mining

FJCI, 13PEOPLE’S MINING BILL. Members of progressive organizations staged a protest action in Davao City on Tuesday claiming that there is no “responsible min-ing” under the Philippine Mining Act. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012

By Jade C. Zaldivar

The prominent group, JCI Senate Philippines, manifested its support

for responsible mining in the country in a forum at the Grand Men Seng hotel here yesterday.

JCI Philippines, an affili-ate of the worldwide orga-nization Junior Chamber In-ternational (JCI), said “min-ing should not be abhorred but exercised through re-sponsible and legal means.” “We invited representatives of sectors, whether anti or pro mining or those who are undecided yet. The intention is not to persuade these sec-tors to support mining but to educate them that with prop-er implementation, mining can help improve our coun-try’s economy,” said Zambo-anga del Sur Governor Anto-nio Cerilles, president of JCI

Senate Philippines.Mines and Geoscience

Bureau (MGB) for the Davao region, an office under the Department of environment and Natural Resources, not-ed this was the first time JCI manifested its support for mining.

“I think what they’re do-ing is commendable. The most important thing really is educating the people on the potential of mining to the country,” MGB 11 regional director edilberto Arreza said in an interview.

JCI’s Committee on Re-sponsible Mining chair, lawyer Menjie Redelosa, stressed that mining will ex-ist with or without laws gov-erning or limiting such.

“The matter is already before us. In areas where there are mineral deposits, there will always be mining.

3EDGEDAVAO THE BIG NEWS

JCI Senate supports responsible mining

FJCI, 13PEOPLE’S MINING BILL. Members of progressive organizations staged a protest action in Davao City on Tuesday claiming that there is no “responsible min-ing” under the Philippine Mining Act. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 20124 SCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT EDGEDAVAO

Three-quarters of the tons of meat from Japan’s controversial

whale hunt last year was not sold, despite repeated attempts to auction it, offi-cials said on Wednesday.

The Institute of Ceta-cean Research, a quasi-public body that organ-ises the country’s whaling, said around 75 percent of roughly 1,200 tons of min-ke, Bryde’s and sei meat from the deep-sea mission did not find buyers.

It is separate from the smaller coastal whaling programmes in northern Japan, whose meat still at-tracts buyers because it is fresh -- as opposed to fro-zen -- and sold in regions with deep whale-eating tra-ditions.

The institute held regu-lar auctions between No-vember and March to sell frozen meat from creatures caught in Northwestern Pa-cific waters last summer. It was intended to promote whale consumption and in-crease revenue.

A spokesman for the institute blamed the “dis-appointing” auction results on food sellers wishing to avoid trouble with anti-whaling activists.

“We have to think about new ways to market whale meat,” he told AFP.

Japan exploits a loop-hole in the international moratorium on whaling al-lowing for lethal research.

Anti-whaling nations and environmentalist groups routinely condemn the missions as a cover for commercial whaling that they say threatens the pop-ulation of the giant marine creatures.

Japan however says the research is necessary to substantiate its view that

there is a robust whale pop-ulation in the world.

Japan also argues that whaling is part of its tradi-tion and accuses Western nations of cultural insensi-tivity. The country’s power-ful fishing industry, as well as right-wing activists, have urged no compromise.

In a recent report, Japa-nese anti-whaling cam-paigners said the poor auction results confirmed that Japanese consumers no longer ate a lot of whale meat.

however, the public supports whaling missions, mainly as a demonstration of their outrage against anti-whaling groups which have harassed Japanese whalers, said a report by freelance journalist Junko Sakuma, released by the Iruka and Kujira (Dolphin and Whale) Action Net-work.

Sakuma, who stud-ied the institute’s auction outcomes, said the top-grade whale meat from the Northwestern Pacific mis-sions still attracted buyers.

But the low general de-mand for whale meat and Icelandic whale meat im-ports are creating oversup-ply, which in turn makes Ja-pan’s whaling programme unsustainable, Sakuma said.

“Among (Japanese whaling officials) who con-tinue research whaling by relying on Japanese senti-ment that ‘anti-whalers are outrageous’, there must be people who are secretly thanking Sea Shepherd,” she said.

Sea Shepherd is a mili-tant environmental group that has routinely attacked Japanese whalers on the high seas to hinder the hunt.

Pieces of whale sushi are pictured in 2010. Three-quarters of the tons of meat from Japan’s controversial whale hunt last year was not sold, despite repeated attempts to auction it, officials said.

75% of Japan’s NW Pacific whale hunt unsold: official

JAPAN and its allies shot down a Latin American-led pro-

posal to create a sanctu-ary for whales in the southern Atlantic Ocean, reigniting international tensions over Tokyo’s whaling.

The International Whaling Commission, which has long been torn by disputes, fell into fa-miliar divisions just hours after officials opened the main session of their week-long annual meet-ing in Panama City.

Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Uruguay put forward a proposal to declare the southern Atlantic a no-kill zone for whales, a largely symbolic measure as whaling end-ed there long ago.

Thirty-eight countries voted in favor of the mea-sure and 21 voted against, with two abstentions. Under commission rules, proposals need to enjoy a “consensus” of 75 percent support for approval.

Jose Truda Palazzo, who spearheaded the proposal for the Atlantic sanctuary when he was Brazil’s representative to the International Whal-ing Commission, blamed nations that receive Japa-nese aid for scuttling the proposal.

“Japan doesn’t want to give an inch on anything that may compromise their ability to roam the world doing whaling as they see fit,” said Truda Palazzo, who is now at

Brazil’s non-governmen-tal Cetacean Conservation Center.

“You can’t really be-lieve that Nauru or Tu-valu has an interest or has studied the sanctuary. They are voting because Japan tells them to.”

But environmentalists saw some silver lining, saying the proposal was enjoying growing sup-port. At last year’s meet-ing held on the english Channel island of Jersey, whaling nations walked out to prevent a vote on the Atlantic sanctuary.

Japan each year kills hundreds of whales in Antarctic waters that are already considered a sanctuary, infuriat-ing Australia and New Zealand, where whale-watching is a lucrative industry.

Japan, whose Antarc-tic expeditions are rou-tinely hindered by the militant US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, says it is techni-cally abiding by a 1986 moratorium on commer-cial whaling as its activi-ties are for research.

The International Whaling Commission al-lows lethal science on the ocean giants, with the meat then going to con-sumption.

Japan argues that whaling is part of its cul-ture and accuses Western nations of insensitivity. environmentalists say few Japanese eat whale and that the country’s

position is driven by its powerful fishing indus-try.

Norway and Iceland are the only countries that openly defy the com-mercial whaling mora-torium, although their hunts are confined to nearby waters. The two countries also voted against the proposed At-lantic sanctuary.

China, Russia and South Korea -- which all have faced friction in the past over their fishing in-dustries -- also opposed the Atlantic sanctuary.

South Korean del-egate Kang Joon-Suk told the session that the Inter-national Whaling Com-mission needed to move beyond its divisions and support both “conserva-tion and sustainable use” of whales.

Monaco, which de-spite its small size has been assertive on whale conservation, submitted a proposal that would invite the United Nations to take a role in enforc-ing the authority of the International Whaling Commission.

Graphic on the proposed southern Atlantic Ocean whale sanctuary, rejected at the Intenational Whaling Commission meeting in Panama after Japan and its allies voted against the initiative.

Whaling nations shot down proposed Atlantic sanctuary

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012

The Department of Ag-riculture is allotting an initial P6 billion to fur-

ther increase rice production and farmers’ incomes, and sub-sequently increase the coun-try’s farm mechanization level and keep pace with neighbor-ing Asian countries like Thai-land and Vietnam.

Agriculture Secretary Pro-ceso J. Alcala said “our target in the medium-term is to in-crease the current farm mech-anization level at 0.57 horse-power per hectare (hp/ha) to 0.8 hp/ha.”

To attain it, he said the Department of Agriculture is implementing a medium-term (2011 to 2016) agricultural and fishery sector mechaniza-tion and modernization pro-gram, a major component of the Aquino government’s Food Staples Sufficiency Program (FSSP). The mechanization program is spearheaded by the Philippine Center for Posthar-vest Development Mechani-zation (PhilMech) in tandem with the DA national commod-ity programs (rice, corn, high value crops, livestock and fish-eries), regional field units, and other concerned agencies.

For the national rice pro-gram alone, Secretary Alcala said the DA has already allot-ted P3.6 billion (P1B in 2011 and P2.6B this year), and proposes a P2.4-B budget in 2013. The amount is used to procure various farm produc-tion and postharvest machin-ery and equipment that the DA provides to qualified irriga-tors’ associations (IAs), farm-ers’ groups, and local govern-ment units (LGUs) via an 85:15 counterparting scheme, where the DA shoulders up to 85% of the equipment cost, while the remaining 15% serves as the equity or local counterpart of the beneficiaries.

The production and post harvest machinery and equip-ment include rice drum seed-ers, transplanters, power til-lers with trailers, mini four-wheel tractors, hand tractors, floating tillers, reapers, seed

cleaners, rice cutters, thresh-ers, combine harvesters, col-lapsible dryers, hermetic co-coons, laminated sacks, flatbed and mechanical dryers, multi-purpose drying pavements or solar dryers, including con-struction of palay sheds, ware-houses, rice mills and process-ing facilities.

In 2011, the DA rice pro-gram has procured P1-B worth of 2,300 units of various production and postharvest machinery and equipment, including 429,450 pieces of 10-square meter laminated sacks or ‘trapal’ that serve as dryers.

This year, with a P2.6-B budget, the DA targets to provide IAs, other farmers’ groups, LGUs with more than 7,000 units of various farm machinery and equipment.

For his part, DA Undersec-retary Joel Rudinas said “we want to provide the environ-ment that would encourage the private sector to invest in the country’s farm machinery in-dustry. We plan to reach a farm mechanization level of 0.8 hp/ha, similar to that of Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.”

he said other developed countries like Japan and South Korea are already highly mech-anized, at 7 hp/ha and 4 hp/ha, respectively.

“We want to move from tra-ditional to mechanized farm labor by enabling our farmers acquire appropriate farm ma-chine and equipment so they could perform various farm and postharvest chores faster and more efficiently, and thus produce more harvest and earn more income,” said Rudi-nas.

“Secondly, as we are vulner-able to climate change, with farm machines we could de-vote less time for land prepara-tion and harvesting. We could plant early, and similarly har-vest early with the use of har-vesters, thus avoiding possible damage due to typhoons,” he added.

For his part, Assistant Sec-retary Delima said “we do not

intend to displace any farm la-bor. Instead, we aim to increase farm labor productivity. More importantly, with the use of farm machinery, farmers could prepare their land at the same time and adopt a synchronized rice planting schedule. This practice would enable farm-ers to monitor and effectively control crop pests, and subse-quently minimize production losses.”

he said the DA will explore other alternative sources

of energy, which are cost-efficient and sustainable, to power farm machinery and equipment. “We will there-fore encourage manufacturers to develop farm machines and equipment that could run effi-ciently on alternative sources of energy,” Delima said.

Finally, he said “we will also have to train new breed of farmers on how to properly use and maintain farm ma-chinery, equipment and facili-ties.”

5EDGEDAVAO THE ECONOMYStat Watch

MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2009 - December 2011)

Month 2011 2010 2009

Average 43.31 45.11 47.637December 43.64 43.95 46.421November 43.27 43.49 47.032October 43.45 43.44 46.851

September 43.02 44.31 48.139August 42.42 45.18 48.161

July 42.81 46.32 48.146June 43.37 46.30 47.905May 43.13 45.60 47.524April 43.24 44.63 48.217

March 43.52 45.74 48.458February 43.70 46.31 47.585January 44.17 46.03 47.207

3.5%4th Qtr 2011

3.7%4th Qtr 2011

USD 3,342Million

Nov 2011USD 4,985

MillionNov 2011

USD -1,643Million

Nov 2011USD -114

MillionDec 2011

P4,442,355Million

Nov 2011

4.71%Oct 2011P128,745

MillionNov 2011

P 4,898Billion

Oct 2011

P 43.65Dec 2011

3,999.7Sept 2011

128.1Jan 2012

3.9Jan 2012

3.4Dec 2011

284,040Sept 2011

19.1%Oct 2011

6.4%Oct 2011

1. Gross National IncomeGrowth Rate(At Constant 2000 Prices)

2. Gross Domestic ProductGrowth Rate(At Constant 2000 Prices)

3. Exports 1/

4. Imports 1/

5. Trade Balance

6. Balance of Payments 2/

7. Broad Money Liabilities

8. Interest Rates 4/

9. National Government Revenues

10. National government outstanding debt

11. Peso per US $ 5/

12. Stocks Composite Index 6/

13. Consumer Price Index 2006=100

14. Headline Inflation Rate 2006=100

15. Core Inflation Rate 2006=100

16. Visitor Arrivals

17. Underemployment Rate 7/

18. Unemployment Rate 7/

Cebu Pacific Daily 5J961 / 5J962 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:15Zest Air Daily Z2390 / Z2390 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:25Cebu Pacific Daily 5J593 / 5J348 6:00 Cebu-Davao-Iloilo 6:30Philippine Airlines Daily PR809 / PR810 6:10 Manila-Davao-Manila 7:00Philippine Airlines Daily PR819 / PR820 7:50 Manila-Davao-Manila 8:50Cebu Pacific Daily 5J394 / 5J393 7:50 Zamboanga-Davao-Zamboanga 8:10Cebu Pacific Daily 5J599 / 5J594 8:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 8:30Cebu Pacific Daily 5J347 / 5J596 9:10 Iloilo-Davao-Cebu 9:40Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun 5J963 / 5J964 9:40 Manila-Davao-Manila 10:10Philippine Airlines Daily PR811 / PR812 11:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 12:20Cebu Pacific Daily 5J595 / 5J966 12:00 Cebu-Davao-Manila 12:30Silk Air Mon/Wed/Sat MI588 / MI588 18:55 Davao-Cebu-Singapore 13:35Cebu Pacific Thu 5J965 / 5J968 12:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 13:25Cebu Pacific Tue/Wed//Sat 5J965 / 5J968 13:35 Manila-Davao-Manila 14:05

Silk Air Thu/Sun MI566 / MI566 18:55 Davao-Singapore 15:20Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri 5J507 / 5J598 15:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 15:30Philippine Airlines August 15:55 Mani2Mani 16:50Zest Air Daily Z2524 / Z2525 16:05 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 16:45Cebu Pacific Daily 5J967 / 5J600 16:35 Manila-Davao-Cebu 17:05Philippines Airlines Daily PR813 / PR814 16:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 17:45Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Thu/Sat 5J215 / 5J216 18:00 Cagayan de Oro-Davao-Cagayan de Oro 18:20Cebu Pacific Daily 5971 / 5J970 18:40 Manila-Davao-Manila 19:10Cebu Pacific Tue/Sat/Sun 5J973 / 5J974 20:00 Manila-Davao-Manila 20:30Cebu Pacific Daily 5J969 / 5J972 20:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:00Airphil Express Daily 2P987 / 2P988 20:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:00Philippine Airlines Daily except Sunday PR821 / PR822 21:20 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:50Philippine Airlines Sunday PR821 / PR822 22:20 Manila-Davao-Manila 22:50

as of august 2010

DA allots P6-B fund for rice production

IF the country has enough postharvest facilities, it could save one million

metric tons of palay yearly, and subsequently need not import anymore.

Thus said Agriculture Sec-retary Proceso J. Alcala dur-ing a recent forum with rice industry leaders and top offi-cials of financial institutions.

“We can minimize post harvest losses in palay that reaches over 1 million tons per year, if we have enough drying facilities. We can make palay production a lot cheap-er, more efficient, and more convenient for farmers if we have enough farm machiner-ies in place,” the DA chief said.

he thus encouraged the private sector to invest in rice production, processing and trading, including exports when the country eventually achieves sufficiency by 2014 and beyond.

Studies conducted jointly by the DA’s Philippine Center for Postharvest Development Mechanization (PhilMech) and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) showed a total of 16 per cent is lost from the time palay (paddy rice) is harvested from the field, threshed, dried and then milled into rice and stored.

This is equivalent to a

maximum saving of 2.66 million metric tons (MMT), based on last year’s total pa-lay harvest of 16.68 MMT. If we could save at least six percent of total postharvest losses, we would have an ad-ditional supply of one million metric tons of palay, or rough-ly 650,000 MT of rice, which is more than the 500,000 MT the country is importing this year, Secretary Alcala said.

For his part, newly-installed PhilMech Direc-tor Rex L. Bingabing said in terms of percentage the big-gest amount of palay lost or wasted is during drying (5.8%), as most farmers dry threshed palay on roads. Fur-ther, another 5.5% of dried palay is lost during milling, as majority (88%) of millers still use single-pass facilities, with low milling recoveries ranging from 50% to 57%. Modern multi-pass mills have 65% to 70% milling recover-ies, PhilMech said.

Other manual posthar-vest operations that result in palay losses are thresh-ing (2.2%), harvesting (2%), storage and piling (1%). The DA is thus implementing a medium-term national farm mechanization and posthar-vest program to enable farm-ers to produce more crops and reduce losses.

Alcala: More postharvest facilities needed for palay

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 20126 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO

The Department of Agriculture in part-nership with small

banana growers and ex-porters, mostly based in Davao region, will put up common packing facili-ties that comply with re-quired export standards.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said the DA in tandem with the Mindanao Banana Farmers and exporters Association (MBFeA) will initially put up two banana packing facility at barangays Kinnamon and Casig-an, both in Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte,

worth P3.1 million (M) each. The DA chief visited the prospective sites on June 20, 2012, accompa-nied by MBFeA officers, led by its president Ro-meo Garcia, chairman, and DA officials.

Secretary Alcala said the amount will come from the President Aqui-no’s Social Fund which allotted P50M to con-struct new packing facili-ties and upgrade exist-ing ones to enable small banana farmers comply with international sani-tary and phytosanitary standards (SPS).

he said the DA through the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) is currently inspecting small banana packing fa-cilities in Davao region, and subsequently ac-credit those that meet re-quired standards.

Secretary Alcala urged the members of the MBFeA to form them-selves into clusters so they could be served by common or central ac-credited packing facil-ity. he made the call dur-ing a consultation with small and multinational banana growers and

exporters, along with Davao local government officials, led by Vice Gov-ernor Victorio Suaybagu-io, Jr., in Tagum City.

During the forum, the DA chief urged the ‘big players’ — or members of the Philippine Banana Growers and exporters Association (PBGeA), headed by its executive director Stephen Antig — to share their tech-nologies and good agri-cultural practices with the small growers and exporters, so they could be more productive and meet the stringent export

standards.he said the DA will

also provide them tech-nical and marketing as-sistance, and training through the BPI, Agri-business and Market-ing Assistance Service (AMAS), and high Value Crops Development Pro-gram (hVCDP).

however, he cau-tioned some of them not to resort again to ‘pole-vaulting’ or reneging on marketing contracts with multinational companies and dealing with other buyers and importers whenever export prices

of banana spike or shoot up, and in the process hastily skipping or relax-ing on the required SPS or export standards.

Meanwhile, he said the DA, represented by AMAS Director Leandro Gazmin, and officers of the MBFeA and PBGeA, along with trade indus-try officials are embark-ing on a trade mission to explore and clinch more export markets for Phil-ippine bananas. They group left June 23, 2012 for the Middle east, Brus-sels, Netherlands and Italy.

DA allocates P50 M to save small banana players

PUTTING up resorts is the investment of the season. Ancestral houses, family farms, beach properties, are all turned

into resorts. But in this particular city where tourism is the main industry, one official of a very corrupt government agency is con-structing a resort that transcends four prop-erties that she does not own.

how the official of a very corrupt govern-ment agency got her building permit is not surprising. her agency has projects that can make or break the popularity of a politician. So, the folks at the city where her resort is lo-cated just granted her permit turning a blind

eye to the fact that the owners of the prop-erty are already up in arms!

And oh, did you know that the equipment used to construct the resort are government property? Who knew that the government had equipment like that when roads and bridges in the region are all nakatiwang-wang?

When confronted about this, the official of a very corrupt government agency sim-ply said that she was just doing the project on behalf of a congressman who was also rumored to have had an affair with her? Whoopsie daisies!

Of resorts and a congressman A farming cooperative in General Santo City is proving that with

persistence and marketing know-how, an organization can overcome setbacks and emerge stronger in the pro-cess.

For three years, the Greenland Multi-Purpose Cooperative supplied the asparagus requirements of a multinational company. Bound by its contract grow-er agreement with the firm, the cooperative enjoyed a steady revenue stream which provided its mem-bers with a stable source of income and enabled them

to expand production. In the fourth year of

the partnership, however, Rogelio “Roger” Pascual, the cooperative’s presi-dent, noted delays in the company’s payments to the cooperative. The delays in payments by as much as thirty days created cash flow problems for the coop-erative.

“It was a difficult time. We could no longer afford the daily wages of our work-ers and other overhead costs,” Pascual recalled.

After consulting its members, the coopera-tive’s management decided

to discontinue the contract agreement with the com-pany and to look for new buyers. It was a risky move, but deemed necessary to ensure Greenland’s longer-term survival.

Pascual knew that the key to success was to be-come aggressive in estab-lishing new markets. In 2010, he attended a forum organized by the Vegetable enthusiasts and Growers Society (VeGS) in collabo-ration with the U.S. Agency for International Develop-ment’s (USAID’s) Growth with equity in Mindanao (GeM) Program.

GenSan cooperative revitalizes asparagus venture

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012 ICT HUB 7EDGEDAVAO

GOOGLe has finally launched offline editing for Google

Docs users, enabling them to keep writing even when their internet con-nection drops out.

“No internet connec-tion? No big deal. With of-fline editing, you can cre-ate and edit Google docu-ments and leave com-ments. Any changes you make will be automati-cally synced when you get back online,” said Clay Bavor, Product Manage-ment Director at Google in a post on the Google Docs Blog.

While most features are available in the offline mode Google Docs users will not be able to insert an image or drawing, use the translate or research tools, or share, download, publish and print docu-ments.

The offline mode is only available for word

processing documents right now but Clay Bavor said, “We’re also working hard to make offline edit-ing for spreadsheets and presentations available in the future.”

Technology blog Ven-ture Beat writes that, “Of-fline editing puts Google Docs in a position to take on note-taking applica-tions such as evernote. One major complaint about evernote is the in-ability to share notes with others, which Google Docs obviously already enables.”

To enable offline edit-ing, click on the gear icon located in the top right hand side of the page in Google Drive (formerly known as Google Docs) in Google Chrome or Chro-meOS and select “set up Docs offline beta.” For detailed instructions on setting up offline editing, visit Google’s help Center.

Google Docs gets offline editing

APPLe has paid $60 million to end a dispute over who

could use the iPad name in China, a court said Mon-day, giving the US tech gi-ant more certainty in sell-ing its tablet computer in the Chinese market.

Apple paid the sum last week to settle its long-running legal battle with Chinese computer maker Shenzhen Proview Technology, the high Court of the southern province of Guangdong said in a statement.

“This means that the dispute between Apple and Shenzhen Proview over the rights to the iPad brand is resolved in a sat-isfactory manner,” said the statement posted on the court’s website.

The amount paid by Apple was well below the $400 million demanded by the Chinese firm.

Both Proview, based in the southern city of Shenzhen, and Apple had claimed ownership of the Chinese rights to the “iPad” trademark.

Proview’s Taiwanese affiliate registered “iPad” as a trademark in several countries including China as early as 2000 -- years before Apple began sell-ing its hugely successful tablet computer.

Apple subsequently bought the rights for the global trademark -- in-

cluding from the Taiwan-ese affiliate.

But the Shenzhen branch of Proview said the deal did not include the rights for mainland China and the two sides had been locked in a le-gal feud since the China launch of the iPad in 2010.

Proview urged Chi-nese authorities to ban the sale, import and ex-port of the iPad late last year after a Guangdong court issued a ruling against Apple.

however, although a few Chinese cities report-edly ordered iPads to be seized, those calls were largely ignored.

The Chinese firm also sued Apple in China’s commercial hub of Shang-hai and in the US state of California, but the law-suits were thrown out.

A lawyer for Proview, Xie Xianghui, said the debt-ridden Chinese company had originally sought $400 million in compensation for giving up the rights but settled for the lower amount out of “practical” consider-ations.

“We previously hoped that the compensation would be $400 million, so that it would be enough to pay back all the debts,” Xie told AFP on Monday.

“We have to say it is the practical choice. It is a comprehensive settle-

ment and the end of the lawsuit in mainland Chi-na.”

Xie said Proview felt “pressure” to settle, though he declined to say why.

“Court mediation gave us some pressure,” he said.

Analysts said the Chi-nese government wanted the matter resolved, wary of the damage a ruling against Apple could do for the foreign business cli-mate in China.

It is rare for a Chi-

Photo illustration shows a customer in Lyon, France, holding an Apple iPad. The US tech giant has paid $60 million to end a dispute over who could use the iPad name in China, a court said Monday, giving Apple more certainty in selling its tablet computer in the Chinese market.

Apple pays $60 M to end China iPad trademark row

nese enterprise to ac-cuse an overseas firm of trademark breaches -- al-though foreign compa-nies frequently complain of intellectual property rights violations in China.

“It was clear the Chi-nese government would prefer a settlement,” said Shaun Rein, managing di-rector for Shanghai-based China Market Research Group.

“For Apple, it’s a cheap settlement. For Proview, they just needed the

cash.”The legal battle did

not halt sales of the iPad through Apple’s five retail stores in mainland China, its online store and many licensed dealers.

But, amid uncertainty over how the Chinese courts would rule, the row loomed as a potential huge roadblock for Apple if it lost.

Rein said the settle-ment should allow Apple to focus more clearly on China.

“having these rights, they don’t have an excuse anymore to be slow in in-troducing the new iPad line into China,” Rein said, adding that although Ap-ple products were wildly popular in China the com-pany could still do much better.

Greater China -- which includes hong Kong and Taiwan -- has become Apple’s fastest-growing region, with revenues second only to the United States.

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 20128 VANTAGE POINTS

No tokenism, pleaseEDITORIAL

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EDGEDAVAO

IT IS heartening to read about the news re-port that 31 high and low officials of the De-partment of environment and Natural Re-

sources (DeNR) in Regions 11 (Davao) and 13 (Caraga) were relieved of their positions due to their failure to stop illegal logging.

The sacking which involved two regional ex-ecutive directors (ReDs), a number of regional technical directors (RTDs), several provincial environment and natural resources officers (Penros) and community eNROs came days after the confiscation of P16 million worth of illegal log shipment coming from Davao in the Manila North harbor. It also came a week after no less than President Aquino lamented over the continued operation of illegal logging de-spite a ban he had imposed a year ago. In that angry speech, the President had even ordered the Bureau of Prisons to provide more space for illegal loggers his government would arrest and prosecute soon.

Also yesterday, the Philippine National Police chief Nicanor Bartolome, in a parallel move, ordered the relief of the provincial po-lice director and six municipal chiefs of police for reportedly failing to stop illegal logging in Agusan del Sur.

On the surface, these two events show the determination of the Aquino administration to

once and for all stop the destruction of our for-ests through logging.

however, there is need for Mr. Aquino to show his government’s sincerity by ordering the investigation of the relieved officials as to their involvement in illegal logging. There is such a thing as due process in our country which requires that the sacked officials be sub-jected first to a no-nonsense investigation be-fore they are declared guilty and meted the ap-propriate punishment. This is only fair to the relieved officials some of whom may after all be found innocent of the charges.

On the other hand, if the sacking actually involved nothing but the transfer of these people to other areas of assignment without being penalized, then their sacking is being done simply so that government to earn pogi points with the people who have long been in-censed by corruption and other misdemeanor in their government. This form of tokenism is commonly practiced in the Bureau of Customs, Department of Public Works and highways and other graft-ridden government agencies, whose erring officials are usually just trans-ferred from one area to another and be allowed to continue their merry corrupt ways, instead of being prosecuted.

No tokenism, please.

Intensifying uncertainties

ON The GRID – What will you miss most

about summer in the city? Between crazy heat waves and in-sane traffic gridlock – nothing at all! Let the rainy season be-gin!

MORe ON SMOKING – Many Canadians are, in-deed, chain smokers. I could attest to the fact because I’ve stayed in the city of Toronto for a year. The acquired habit prompted the govern-ment of Canada to require tobacco companies to make cigarette packages with new, more graphic warning labels.

The images according to a strict directive include an emaciated cancer patient and close-up of oral cancer. But Toronto’s most dedicated nicotine fans say the scary labels won’t dis-suade them from buying their favorite smokes. All things considered, Filipino smokers like-wise felt the same and smoking packs of ciga-rettes a day doesn’t seem nearly as perilous to their health.

-O-NO POTeNTIAL MINIMUM FARe ReDUC-

TION – Mindful that all the uncertainties raise the possibility of unexpected oil price upsurges after a series of oil price roll back, leaders of different transport groups have requested the government that the minimum fare should re-main in status quo for two reasons: first, they explained there’s a possibility that prices of gasoline, diesel fuel and other refined petro-leum products would increase unpredictably to undetermined levels, and second, prices of spare parts and lubricants continue to increase despite the assurance of manufacturers and suppliers not to raise prices of their products.

But earlier reports swirl around about the potential reduction of the minimum fare once the prices of diesel fuel goes down to P37 per li-ter from the previous P49 and gasoline at P 48-49 level from the previous P57-58 or according to variants. An over-assuming official of a trans-port group admitted that he and fellow leaders of different groups may not support the idea of a minimum fare cutback while the prices of oil remained in a volatile situation. however, leaders of various consumers and commut-ers groups say they noticed the cockiness of the transport leaders: “now they’re panicking by trying to find ways and the right patsies to stick to the present P8 minimum fare.” They’re now singing a different tune contrary to their earlier statement that the transport fare should be brought down to P7 when the price of crude oil hits the P37 a liter mark. Shade of deception or hypocrisy!

Lately, a consumers’ advocate group filed a petition before the Land Transportation and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) seeking the reduc-tion of the minimum fare to P7 as a result of the series of oil price roll back. Prices of diesel fuel is now peg at P37 while gasoline at P49-50 a liter. Furthermore, it is widely believed that leaders of the different transport groups are protecting their respective turfs and jockeying for a price status quo.

If nothing else, the oil price issue has fo-cused the minds of transports leaders on their own economic problems while disregarding the rights of the consumers and the commut-ing public in particular. Such sentiment rever-berates loudly considering that the commuting public has been too frightened to add what it’s going to cost them more in their daily necessi-ties – notably increased transport fare. In fact, it was the perception of the commuters and con-sumers that some of the enterprising transport leaders’ recent move is politically-motivated and their assurance to reduce the minimum fare is nothing but mere lip service.

Until recently there are no changes in their position sparking a certain amount of confu-sion and public resentment has been building against them. The big question is: how fast will the government move and take necessary ac-tions on the plight of the exploited commuters and how long will it take to produce results? Moreover, the oil price shock concern intensi-fies uncertainty surrounding the price roll back scheme and the minimum fare cutback. But one thing is certain though, none of the previ-ous assurances of transport leaders had helped their standing in maintaining their credibility, which suddenly seems more like an uncon-trolled adolescent rather than responsible fig-ures of society.

In the weeks ahead, if prices of oil con-tinue to plunge and transport leaders remain reluctant to decrease the minimum fare to its desired level, chances are, a groundswell of petitioners for a fare cutback could also make themselves heard. Nevertheless, if there are oil price movements that would indicate it’s go-ing up, then the transport sector is again in a position to exploit it to their advantage. Unfor-tunately, the same is true with the commuting public – in reverse. The poor commuters surely will be disgusted by another turn of disadvan-tageous event.

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012 9VANTAGE POINTS

Monkey Business

EDGEDAVAOFading out in andante An Open Letter to our City Councilors in Davao

The revolution will be organized

By Honor Blanco caBieSpecial Feature

By Hugo Dixon analySiS

(Conclusion)

“ChARISMATIC leadership makes all the difference in the world when you are running a revolution,” says

helvey. It’s good to have a strong leader who can knock heads together and get everybody to stick to a plan. “You can’t have a democ-racy to run a war,” he explains. “Once a deci-sion has been made, everybody has to get on with it.”

Still, it would be wrong to jump to the conclusion that successful leadership has to come from a dominant figure. A leadership team has multiple advantages: It will survive if any single leader is captured or killed; it can stop a leader from getting too egotisti-cal or even turning into a new dictator; and it may lead to more innovation, because having an excessively powerful leader can prevent new ideas from percolating.

What’s more, not all of those movements we think of as fronted by charismatic lead-ers were one-man (or one-woman) bands. Often there were several inspirational lead-ers. Think of the combination of Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi in India; or Viktor Yush-chenko and Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004-2005. even when there is a single strong leader, that person is unlikely to possess all the qualities required to bring a struggle to a successful conclusion. Movements require both brilliant propa-gandists and shrewd strategists. In very few

cases – such as that of Gandhi, who was both a messianic leader and an intuitive strategist – are both qualities found in one person.

The opposite is more typical. For exam-ple, Martin Luther King’s brilliant oratory was married to Bayard Rustin’s tactical ge-nius, according to Roberts. Rustin, who had traveled to India in 1948 to learn the lessons of Gandhi’s campaign, taught King a lot of what he knew about nonviolent struggle. (One of his mottos: Never do the same thing twice.)

An MBA in nonviolent revolution?Is it possible to teach people how to run

a nonviolent revolution? For traditional war-fare, there are military academies – such as West Point in the United States and Sandhurst in Britain – dedicated to teaching the strate-gies of engagement. After training at such a college, young officers then get an apprentice-ship working on military campaigns for senior leaders. There is no nonviolent equivalent of Sandhurst, but there have been attempts to train leaders for nonviolent struggles. During the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, young leaders were trained at Gandhi’s old Phoenix Settlement near Durban. Sharp’s Al-bert einstein Institution has run workshops

for some resistance struggles, as has Popo-vic – his new Centre for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) has trained activists in several countries, including egypt, Ukraine, and Georgia.

There are also a few academic courses. One is a graduate program on the strategies and methods of nonviolent social change started by CANVAS at the University of Bel-grade. Another is the Fletcher Summer In-stitute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict, held at Tufts University in Boston.

More and more academics are also study-ing the field. Their books and articles are filter-ing down to activists on the ground, and what those books are telling them is this: To win a nonviolent struggle you must have leadership and solid strategy. Over time, such initiatives will get the relevant know-how to more and more emerging leaders and make them bet-ter nonviolent fighters. And that sharing of knowledge makes it more likely that the next nonviolent uprising will not just overthrow a dictator, but will replace him with a viable democratic government.

[Hugo Dixon is the founder and edi-tor of Reuters Breakingviews. Before founding Breakingviews in 1999, Hugo spent 13 years at the Financial Times, the last five as Head of Lex. He began his journalistic career at the Economist.]

IF one were a senior citizen today, one would definitely remember the serena-tas of the 1950s and the 1960s played by

at least a 25-piece small town band in the countryside.

If a person were newly married in his 20s in the 1970s, he would as well remem-ber the concerts at the Rizal Park, colloqui-ally called Luneta, by the Manila Bay, where bands from towns in the city’s outskirts played martial music to the delight of after-noon strollers.

The concerts at the Rizal Park are con-tinuing these days, but the serenatas in the country have been overtaken by CDs and DVDs bought from the nearest department stores if not brought in from the metropolis.

A northerner, himself a trombonist in his youth in the 1960s, still remembers the weekends in Paoay, the town which at the time had three major bands of at least 40 members each, doing afternoon serenatas beside the two-story town hall.

Their weekend repertoire included overtures and martial music which always gave great pleasure to the population, most-ly farmers and fishermen and some profes-sionals.

It was soothing to hear any of the three bands – The Majestic, the Smart, and the Rhythm Masters – play, on alternating week-ends, Franz von Suppe’s “Poet and Peasant” and other operettas, a genre of light music in terms of subject matter.

And they always heard, among many familiar classic compositions that were part of the culture of that generation, “haydn Concerto in e flat Minor,” the first movement of the opus of Austrian-born Franz Joseph haydn, acknowledged as a great composer of the classical era.

The small town bands’ supply of sooth-ing music for their captive listeners includ-ed Rafael hernandez’s “el Cumbanchero,” Lara’s “Solamente Una Vez,” and “Quien Sera” by Ruiz and Gimbel, where a listener can easily be won by the sighing reeds and the hugging trombones.

There was also Serradel’s “La Golon-drina,” “Csárdás,” a traditional hungarian folk dance -- the name derived from csárda (old hungarian term for tavern), and was popularized by Roma music (Cigány) bands in hungary and neighboring lands of Ser-bia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Burgenland, Croatia, Ukraine, Poland, Transylvania and Moravia, as well as among the Banat Bulgarians, in-cluding those in Bulgaria.

”Csardas,” like “Poet and Peasant,” and “La Virgen de la Macarena” were very popu-lar in that generation, who danced to the beat of Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood” and Tommy Dorsey’s “Song of India” as well as harry James’ “Ciribiribin” during town fies-tas.

In Manila, the Philippine capital, bands in colorful uniforms of red and white, blue and white, or the original khaki outfit, played “Stars and Stripes,” a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Philip Sousa.

They also played Sousa’s “National em-blem,” “Under the Double eagle,” “The Wash-ington Post,” which has remained as one of the composer’s most popular marches throughout the United States and foreign countries, including the Philippines.

Or they would play Sousa’s “el Capitan” or the locally composed “Dalagang Naic” or the “el Palikero.”

Or the bands would play ballroom beats like “La Cumparsita” as interpreted by the country’s trumpet king Anastasio Mamaril of Pangasinan, or “Cerezo Rosa” by Perez Prado as interpreted by Amy Galinato of the Jolly Boys of Ilocos Norte, the notes on his trumpet frolicking like some ice cubes falling on the pavement, doing one better than the own version of Cuba’s mambo king.

But Prado’s nearly eight-minute “Mo-saico Cubano” was always a winner, punctu-ated by healthy and vibrant applause from the audience, sitting on kind summer’s green grass.

Concerts at the Rizal Park had members of the audience feeling more comfortable as they – young men and women and their grand children – enjoyed the two-hour gift of sights and sounds on benches while the sun was reluctantly setting on the placid Manila Bay.

The concerts, now with other brands of cultural performances, are provided for free to the general public by the National Parks Development Committee.

Many old hands are agreed the perfor-mances in the metropolis, and notably in the country, have started fading out.

The weekend serenatas in the coun-tryside have likewise gone to a moderately slow pace – and are on the last tied note of the last bar, no thanks to the lack of funds and local government support. [PNA] 

DeARLY esteemed Public Servants:Last June 26, 2012 shortly before

the session adjourned for the night, a colleague of yours announced that he will sponsor a resolution seeking 1) the approval of three new memorial parks, in Lubogan, in Baliok, and in Ulas, and 2) a moratorium on new cemeteries in the water rich areas to be put up where we are drawing our Dumoy wa-ter. earlier, the same councilor said he was not supporting nor lobbying (sic) the pro-posed three memorial parks in the area in a privileged speech (Sun Star Davao, June 27, 2002, page 2).

As a Dumoy water consumer and like the hundreds of thousands of others who would be affected by such decisions, we are of the same mind that protecting our environment and natural resources is our lasting legacy for the people of Davao City, encompassing the water everyone drinks, the air everyone breathes and the soil everyone uses to grow the food we eat.

Under the 1987 Constitution and in con-junction with the General Welfare Clause of Republic Act 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991, it is your solemn duty as a legislative arm of the City Government to fully exercise genuine and meaningful local autonomy to be the effec-tive partner of the national government, the people and civil society… in the enhancement of the right to a balanced and healthful ecol-ogy in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.

Connected to this policy is the operative principle for the meaningful protection of the environment and sustainable utilization of the natural resources and the promotion of healthful ecology which is established through mutual consultation with the people especially the affected communities.

Right where we live from Lubogan (To-ril), Baliok, Dumoy, Bago, Puan and Ulas (Talomo), we are aware that underneath us is a huge basin (kawa) containing a large quantity and superior quality of water, we refer to as aquifer, which serves as a ground water supply that everyone of us shares as a common heritage.

These areas are classified in the zoning ordinance as Protected Low Density Residen-tial Areas (R1) where the number of houses is limited to only 20 units per hectare, and the Medium Density Residential Areas (up to 40 houses/hectare). Nonetheless, these ar-eas are referred to as environmentally Criti-cal Areas where development is limited and

regulated. Reason for the sparsity of houses is to lessen their impact on the water re-source underground. A hectare of memorial park lots would be in the hundreds, several hundreds in fact.

As of now, this long stretch of barangays known to be water-rich is governed by the Comprehensive Development Plan of Davao City enacted in 1996 which serves as the Blue Print for Development up to 2021. In crafting this local law, our wise and forward looking lawmakers of the past councils want-ed to leave for us a guide on which to base our development plans of the future.

Unfortunately, this Blue Print has been rewritten (some call it mangled beyond rec-ognition) many times over through numer-ous requests for reclassification of privately owned properties from agricultural or resi-dential to so-called “special use permits” in order to allow them to be developed into me-morial parks, housing subdivisions, gasoline stations, etc. Usual reason to justify such a request is economic in nature: the conver-sion of the property into something else will create jobs, generate taxes for development, etc. It is an open secret that it is in occasions like these that graft and corruption rears its ugly head. The only condition imposed by the local authorities is: ok, but comply first with clearances and development permits. We wonder why some applicants take only one month to get a bunch of clearances, while others take long years.

We are not anti-business. We have noth-ing against economic development. If ever special permits have been granted to busi-nesses in the past, there should be strict monitoring and evaluation of the effects of their operation on environmentally sensitive areas. It is our right to know that introduced developments have enhanced the life-pro-cess, not threaten it, for the welfare of human beings coming after us.

The real question, therefore, is: how much have we protected the water-rich re-sources of Davao City? We are glad to have two laws addressing such concerns. They are the Watershed Code and the Water Code. The former is serving its purpose quite laudibly. It has mechanisms such as the Watershed Man-agement Coordinating Council and it meets regularly. The later, sorry to say, is a recent discovery of this present council, thanks to Councilor Melchor V. Quitain, who broached this out as the antidote to the opening of new cemeteries/memorial parks. Although enact-ed in 2001, some 11 years ago, it had never

been “tried nor tested”. In fact, when queried in plenary session, a representative from the Office of the City Planning and Development Coordinator, admitted to not being aware of such a local law! But this same law is being used by a committee chair hearing applica-tions for new memorial parks to justify new memorial parks even where are drawing our Dumoy drinking water, simply because there is no mention of Dumoy, Baliok, etc in the code!

In the last council session, there was a startling revelation made by Councilor Ma-rissa Salvador Abella, chair of the council environment committee. She said she has stumbled upon old minutes of past joint committee hearings of the energy and Trans-portation and environment in February 12, 1999, revealing that during the preparation of the coordinates for the water code, there were actually four coordinates, namely: Cali-nan to Dacudao, Calinan to Malagos, Sirawan and Ulas. how the code ended with only three coordinates should be investigated by the council. The non-inclusion of this fourth coordinate is what is being exploited by sponsors of new cemeteries to justify their recommendations. Why was it not included in the first place? Would Councilor Pilar Braga, author of the controversial ordinance, break her silence, as she did in the June 26 session, to shed light on this very vital piece of information?

Let me end my letter with this thought: we have only one planet. In this our only home in the universe, clean drinking water is a very rare and scarce resource. Ninety nine percent of the water in the world is salty. The remaining one percent is clean drinking wa-ter for three billion people in the world to share. There is a very small, small percent-age of water elsewhere, in the atmosphere and in the ice caps. If the world’s water sup-ply is like a pail full of water, the one percent would be just about one spoon of it. The Du-moy water is just a tiny drop of that water in the spoon. Can we not see the hand of God in this wonderful allocation? Should we allow it to be further threatened, compromised or endangered?

We hope and pray, dear Councilors, the holy Spirit will guide you in your decision this coming July 3, 2012. This is your oppor-tunity of a lifetime. The future generation de-pends on it. Thank you.

Ricardo Jr. A. JimenezA Dumoy Water Consumer

‘One tiny drop of water’

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 201210 COMMUNITY SENSE EDGEDAVAO

The Department of the Interior and Local Government

(DILG) awarded P48 million to 36 local gov-ernment units (LGU) for good governance.

Secretary Jesse Ro-bredo said the Perfor-mance Challenge Fund is a grant given to LGUs in recognition of their com-mendable performance in running and manag-ing their respective gov-ernance affairs. The said LGUs are also recipients of the department’s Seal of Good housekeeping (SGh). The seal was de-signed to measure the level of performance of LGUs in good governance.

Robredo was here to hand out the cash award. “Panahon na upang yung

sumusunod bigyan ng gantimpala at ang di su-munod paparusahan na-tin. (It is time that those who practice good gov-ernance are rewarded, and those who do not are punished.)”

The seal is a require-ment in accessing the PCF which the local gov-ernments can use to fi-nance development proj-ects that will help attain the country’s commit-ment to Millennium De-velopment Goals (MDGs), tourism development, di-saster risk reduction and management, solid waste and other local develop-ment initiatives.

Robredo said that since governance man-agement is not the same among LGUs, the seal will

determine the “power and financial allocation” to be granted to a local government.

“hindi lahat ng ma-husay na pamamahala ay matino at ang malung-kot di lahat ng matino ay mahusay dapat pareho maayos at matino na pamamahala,” he told some 800 participants composed of local gov-ernment chief executives and other officials dur-ing the DILG’s “Magtapa-tan Tayo: handa na ba Kayo?”caravan on Sat-urday (June 30) at the Family Country hotel here.

(Governance may be efficient only, but not upright. Sadly, it can be upright but not efficient. In good governance,

both elements should be present.)

Of the 36 high-performing LGUs, 32 were municipalities that received P1 mil-lion each; three cities -- Kidapawan, Koronadal and Cotabato -- with P3 million each; and the only province, Sarangani with P7 million.

Sarangani Gover-nor Migs Dominguez received the check and thanked the DILG for the incentive to LGUs.

Meanwhile, Sec. Ro-bredo also awarded the municipalities of Alabel, Glan, and Maitum, Saran-gani P1 million each as their PCF for having also earned the seal.

The other recipients were the municipalities

of Alamada, Aleosan, An-tipas, Arakan, Carmen, Kabacan, Libungan, Mag-pet, Makilala, Matalam, Midsayap, M’lang, Pigc-awayan, Pikit, President Roxas, and Tulunan in North Cotabato; Banga, Lake Sebu, Norala, Sto. Nino, Surallah, Tampak-an, Tantangan, Tboli and Tupi in South Cotabato, and the towns of Bagum-bayan, Isulan, Kalaman-sig, and Lebak in Sultan Kudarat.

To qualify for the PCF, an LGU should first pass the assessment and eval-uation on good house-keeping that zeroes in the areas of good plan-ning, sound fiscal man-agement, transparency and accountability, and valuing of performance

monitoring. Dominguez said the

province’s laudable per-formance on internal housekeeping for good governance, transpar-ency, and accountability enabled it to bag the seal of good housekeeping award.

The cash incentive, he said will be used to fund programs and projects that will help scale up indicators for MDGs and other vital development infrastructure projects under PCF guidelines.

The seal of good housekeeping was launched in March, 2011 and has since expanded to cover “all 4th to 5th class cities and 4th to 6th class municipalities” nationwide.

DILG lauds 36 LGUs for good governance

GOOD GOVERNANCE. Mayor Elsie Perrett (center) for-mally turns over to municipal treasurer Fely Narvaez (right) the P1 million check from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) which represents the Performance Challenge Fund given to local govern-ment units as an award for good governance. Rodolfo

Jerez of DILG witnessed the turn over of the check, which was earlier given by Sec. Jesse Robredo to municipalities, including Maitum, on June 30 in General Santos City dur-ing the TAPATAN 2012 attended by local government of-ficials in Region XII led by governors and mayors.

Sarangani in photos

FIRE! FIRE! SFO1 Ramon Batuhan (left) of the Bureau of Fire Protection gives a sample of simple fire explosion from a gas tank as part of his lecture about fire safety and prevention during an earthquake and fire drill in line with the national simultaneous emergency drills June 29. The Department of Education partnered with the Department of National Defense and the National

Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council to gen-erate the highest level of public awareness on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation through the emergency drills. With more than 300 students and faculty members, the drill showcased the students’ and school personnel’s preparedness in times of disaster.

FISHUNG SECTOR. Municipal environment officer Jerry Bascuña (extreme left), Mayor Elsie Perrett and Vice Mayor Tito Balazon Sr. award a bottom-set gill net to fisherman Gabriel Ariola (2nd from left) of barangayKi-

ambing Monday, July 2. The gill net project was given by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to its Barangay Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management beneficiaries in the seven coastal barangays of Maitum.

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012 11CULTUREEDGEDAVAO

DAVAO Light & Pow-er Company will conduct a seven-

hour preventive main-tenance servicing (PMS) on its distribution trans-formers being used exclu-sively for the Davao City Water District Talomo Sump Pump 2 operations.

The electric distribu-tion utility’s Communi-cation Officer Ross Luga said that the scheduled PMS on the distribution

transformers is necessary for their improved reli-ability. This will prevent unexpected equipment breakdown and thereby avert unforeseen and lon-ger water service inter-ruptions in the future.

The power interrup-tion which will take place at 9:30 PM of July 6, Fri-day, up to 4:30 AM of the following day, July 7, was chosen for its time where-in demand for water is the

lowest. Davao Light will exert

all efforts to complete the PMS as scheduled or ear-lier. however, there may be instances where main-tenance work may extend beyond the schedule due to some unavoidable cir-cumstances.

Davao Light apolo-gizes to the affected water consumers for the incon-venience the PMS may bring.

POWER ADVISORY

MALAN, a Mindana-won film entry in the 1st Sineng

Pambansa National Film Festival with six scheduled screenings was pulled out from exhibition showing on Saturday, the second of the five-day festival, with-out prior notice to the pub-lic.

Briccio Santos, chair of the Film Development Council of the Philip-pines (FDCP), the festi-val organizer, reversed an earlier decision of the FDCP’s Competition Tech-nical Committee, which ap-proved the showing of the Producer’s Cut of Malan.

In a press statement dated June 30 but sent to Davao City’s media out-lets only on July 2, FDCP chair Santos announced the pullout of Malan “pend-ing settlement of dispute between producers and director.”

The FDCP committee had earlier approved the showing of the Producer’s Cut after Malan’s produc-ers, the Buhilaman Visions Davao, Inc. (BVDI), wrote FDCP, withdrawing the Di-rector’s Cut as it allegedly contained a torrid kissing scene deemed “not ac-ceptable to the B’laans…not culture sensitive and demeans the stature of IP (indigenous peoples) women.”

In statements posted on its Malan Facebook page, BVDI said they had asked director Benjamin Garcia to remove the “un-acceptable” scene in defer-ence to the B’laans but the latter retained it.

It also objected to the exclusion in the Director’s Cut of a “compelling mas-sacre sequence that is inte-gral in the dramatization of martial law” in Mindanao.

In his letter to FDCP executive director Ted Gra-nados on June 4, Agustin “Don” Pagusara, the FDCP grantee and writer of Ma-lan, said that immediately after viewing the rough cut on May 23, they “reg-istered our stand that we wanted the ‘torrid kissing scene’ deleted or cut on the grounds of its being unac-ceptable” but Garcia, he said, “reasoned that it is his prerogative as the direc-

tor to incorporate it in the film.”

Pagusara said they in-vited some B’laans to view the rough cut of the film and “they concurred with our stand to cut the said scene as it insults the dig-nity of their tribe.”

Film enthusiasts who went to Abreeza Mall’s Cinema 3 for the sup-posed 9:15 p.m. screening of Malan on Saturday, June 30, were shown another Mindanawon-produced film instead – Gutierrez Mangansakan’s “Qiyamah” (The Reckoning). No expla-nation was made as to why Malan was pulled out.

At the awards night at the Abreeza Mall on Sunday evening, some members of BVDI staged a “silent protest,” taping on their red shirts a white bond paper raising ques-tions like “Nasaan si Ma-lan?” and “FDCP: why pull out Malan?”

BVDI dubbed the pull-out of Malan as “outra-geous” and blamed FDCP for its alleged “indecisive-ness.”

It noted that days be-fore the festival, they were “assured and reassured by the FDCP” that it would be the Producer’s Cut that would be shown. The film had two screenings on Fri-day, Day One of the festival.

Malan is a story about an activist from Manila who moved to Polomolok in South Cotabato in the late 1960s, falls in love with a B’laan and gets involved in the B’laan tribe’s strug-gles until the martial law years, including the entry of multinational firms into their ancestral domain.

BVDI alleged that the pull out was “simply be-cause its erstwhile director threatened a court action against FDCP for not using his version…of the film.”

Decision reversedMindaNews sought

FDCP’s Granados for com-ment early Monday morn-ing. he opted to send their ““official press statement” by e-mail.

In that press release, FCDP chair Santos an-nounced the pullout of Ma-lan “pending settlement of dispute between produc-ers and director” and said

he regrets the unfortunate turn of events.

“To forestall any further controversy, I have decided to exercise my prerogative as Chairman of the FDCP, and I am hereby revers-ing an earlier decision of the FDCP’s Film Competi-tion Technical Committee approving the showing of the film Malan in its cur-rent form,” Santos\ said.

he said the FDCP is “ex-erting all efforts to bring together the contending parties in the dispute so that they can amicably settle their differences regarding their creative rights and artistic credits arising from the making of the film.”

Santos apologized to the “viewing public, to the owners of the cinema houses where Malan is cur-rently being shown, and to the producers, directors, and film artists” for any “inconvenience or unhap-piness this decision may entail.”

“The FDCP only wants to be an instrument of progress and will do every-thing it can to help our Fili-pino filmmakers, including mediating in conflict cases and helping find solutions to problems,” he said.

he added that the FD-CP’s guiding policy is “to uphold always the creative integrity of every filmmak-er joining the festival” and protect the interests of all stakeholders in the making of a film.

Santos assured Malan’s producers that the film “re-mains eligible” for Phase 2 of the FDCP’s National Film Festival which will be held in November also in this city.

But Santos did not say which version of Malan would be included in the November filmfest.

Revised versionsCuriously, the FDCP’s

six-paragraph press re-lease e-mailed to Mind-aNews at 9:27 a.m. on July 2 and whose filename indicated it was “revised,” was dated June 30, the very same day Malan was pulled out. But no such copy reached members of Davao City’s media until Monday, July 2. (CAROLyN O. AR-GUILLAS/MINDANEwS)

1st Sineng Pambansa

The controversy of Malan

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 201212 EDGEDAVAO

NATION BRIEFS WORLD TODAY

NATION/WORLD

Vaccinate

PReSIDeNT Benigno Aquino said the government would

vaccinate 700,000 babies this year to protect them from a virus that causes diarrhoea, a killer disease ravaging poor communi-ties.

While diarrhoea is a preventable disease, Aquino said health au-thorities had struggled to stop outbreaks from hap-pening with many poor communities having no access to basic medical care.

Spy planes

The Philippines may ask the United States to send spy

planes to help it moni-tor a disputed area in the South China Sea, a presi-dential spokesman said Monday, in a move that could deepen tensions with China.

The move to request P3C Orion spy planes would first require the approval of President Benigno Aquino’s top de-fence advisers, Ramon Carandang said.

Seaports

The Department of Transportation and Communicat ions

(DOTC) has allotted P93.8 million to improve sever-al ports in the country in anticipation of increased commercial shipping ac-tivities.

DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas said the govern-ment will rehabilitate and expand the sea ports in Corcuera, Romblon; Sto. Domingo, Bacacay, and Pili—all in Albay; Palid, Zamboanga Sibugay; Mel-ga, Dinagat Island; and Placer, Surigao Del Norte.

Plot

ChINA’S top news-paper accused the Philippines of or-

chestrating a plot to de-liberately stir up tensions over the disputed South China Sea, and warned that Beijing’s patience should not be mistaken for weakness.

The Philippines may ask the United States to deploy spy planes over the area to help monitor its waters, President Benigno Aquino told Reuters on Monday, a move that could worsen tensions with its giant neighbour China.

Wrong message

hAVING President Benigno Aquino III’s cousin run for

the Senate in 2013 would send the wrong message for an administration implementing political reforms, a director of a public policy center said Monday.

Professor Bobby Tua-zon, director for Policy Study, Publication, and Ad-vocacy at Center for Peo-ple empowerment in Gov-ernance (CenPeG), said it would be unbecoming since “people belonging to families whose names are nationally famous already have an inherent advan-tage (at the polls.)”

Rejected

The runner-up in Mexico’s presidential election has reject-

ed enrique Pena Nieto’s “fraudulent” victory, rais-ing the specter of protests that rocked Mexico City when he lost six years ago.

When Leftist candi-date Andres Manuel Lo-pez Obrador lost the 2006 presidential election by less than one percent he claimed fraud and orga-nized mass protests that paralyzed Mexico City for more than a month.

For release

A total of 46 prison-ers will be freed in Myanmar to aid

“national reconciliation”, state media said on Tues-day amid growing calls for the release of the country’s remaining political detain-ees.

A report in the New Light of Myanmar said 37 men and nine women would be set free start-ing Tuesday, although it was unclear if any of the remaining political prison-ers -- estimated to be in the hundreds -- were among them.

Fined

GLAXOSMIThKLINe was socked with $3 billion in fines by US

authorities over charges it marketed drugs for unau-thorized uses, held back safety data, and cheated the government’s Medicaid program.

In a longstanding case that officials said bared the ugly underside of the US pharmaceutical industry, GSK was also accused of paying kickbacks to doc-tors, paying for expensive trips and other benefits, to gain their support for the drugs the company was pushing.

Released

FOUR envoys of the In-ternational Criminal Court who were de-

tained in Libya last month after visiting the son of slain leader Moamer Kad-hafi arrived Tuesday in the Netherlands, an ICC spokesman said.

But their ordeal may not be over just yet, as the four have been summoned to a Libyan court later this month to complete the ju-dicial process set in motion by the Libyan prosecutor general’s investigations against them.

Attack

TWO roadside bombs targeting Shi’ite pil-grims killed four

people and wounded 21 on Tuesday near the central Iraqi city of Kerbala, hospi-tal and police sources said.

The attack, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Bagh-dad, is the latest in a series of bombings in Iraq aimed at Shi’ite worshippers. Shi’ite pilgrims in Kerbala will be celebrating the birthday of an important imam in the coming days.

AUThORITIeS in China’s remote northwestern re-

gion of Xinjiang have culled more than 150,000 chickens following an outbreak of bird flu, offi-cials said.

The outbreak of the h5N1 strain of avian flu initially killed 1,600 chickens and sickened about 5,500, the agricul-ture ministry said late Monday.

In an effort to con-tain the disease, agricul-tural authorities quaran-tined the area and culled 156,439 chickens, accord-ing to the ministry.

The outbreak oc-curred on June 20 but was only confirmed as h5N1 bird flu on Monday, it said.

The ministry and state press did not specify ex-actly where the outbreak occurred, but said it hap-pened at a farm run by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, described by state media as a semi-military gov-ernment organisation of

This file photo shows chickens at a farm on the out-skirts of Beijing, in 2010. Authorities in China’s remote northwestern region of Xinjiang have culled more than

150,000 chickens following an outbreak of bird flu, ac-cording to officials.

Bird flu outbreak in China

about 2.5 million people.Xinjiang is a vast re-

gion bordering Central Asia and home to a popu-lation of about nine mil-lion ethnic Uighurs, a largely Muslim and Turkic speaking people.

China is considered one of the nations most at

risk of bird flu epidemics because it has the world’s biggest poultry popula-tion and many chickens in rural areas are kept close to humans.

The last reported out-break in mainland China was in April, when about 95,000 chickens were

killed in the northern re-gion of Ningxia.

But last month a boy in the southern territory of hong Kong was diag-nosed with bird flu, the first human case there in 18 months. he lived in the neighbouring mainland province of Guangdong.

TURKeY scrambled six F-16 fighter jets in three separate

incidents responding to Syrian military helicop-ters approaching the bor-der on Sunday, its armed forces command said on Monday.

It was the second time in as many days Turkish jets were launched in response to Syrian helicopters flying near the border and comes after a Turkish reconnaissance plane was shot down by Syria late last month.

The jets took off from Incirlik air base in southern Turkey after Syrian heli-copters were spotted flying south of the Turkish province of hatay, the chief of general staff said on the military’s website.

Two helicopters had come within 2.5 miles (4 km) and one had come within 2

miles (3.2 km) of the border, it said. Two of the helicop-ters were MI-8 type aircraft and one was an MI-17, all Russian-built transport heli-copters.

On Sunday, Turkey said it had scrambled six F-16s near its border with Syria after similar transport helicopters were spotted flying either within 4 miles (6.4 km) of the border or “close” to the border.

Turkey’s heightened mili-tary activity along its south-ern border comes after Syria shot down one of its jets over the Mediterranean on June 22, prompting a sharp re-buke from Ankara which said it would respond “decisively”.

Turkey has beefed up its troop presence and air defences along the border since the incident and Turk-ish Prime Minister Tayyip erdogan said the military’s

rules of engagement had been changed and that any Syrian element approaching Turkey’s border and deemed a threat would be treated as a military target.

Syria says it shot down the Turkish jet in self-defence and that it was brought down in Syrian air space. Turkey says the jet accidentally vio-lated Syrian air space for a few minutes but was brought down in international air space.

While the incident has heightened tension between the once-close allies, neither Turkey, which fears a local clash escalating into a region-al sectarian conflict, nor Syria, has any interest in a confron-tation on their shared border.

Turkey has become in-creasingly vocal against Syr-ian President Bashar al-Assad, calling for him to step down, and has given sanctuary to

rebels and groups oppos-ing the Syrian leader. There are more than 35,000 Syrian refugees living in camps on the Turkish side of the border with Syria.

Separately, Turkey’s armed forces command said it had carried out air strikes on three separate Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq between the dates of June 26-30.

It said the strikes were carried out in the Qandil and Zab areas and targeted shel-ters belonging to the “sepa-ratist terror organisation”, a term used to describe the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is fighting for greater Kurdish autonomy in Turkey. It gave no further details.

The PKK is listed as a ter-rorist organisation by Turkey, the european Union and the United States.

Smoke rises from Azaz vilage north of Aleppo, Syria, as seen from the Turkish-Syrian border in Oncupinar in Kilis province July 2, 2012. [REUtERS]

Turkey scrambles fighter jets as Syria aircraft near border

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012 13EDGEDAVAO

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Davao Gulf... Groups...

What is important is for the people to become vigilant and demand from the na-tional government proper regulation of laws. We are calling for an active citizen-ry,” he said.

The forum, organized along with the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines and Coalition for Responsible Mining in Mindanao, con-ducted a series of discus-sions, from defining what is geology, the nature of mining and metallurgy to what are the potential benefits from mining.

Laws governing mining in the country and environ-mental management and protection were also dis-cussed aimed at creating co-operation and bridging the gap between the minerals in-dustry and its stakeholders.

me but I know.”Their relatives said the

couple was last seen attend-ing Church service last Sun-day and had not come out from their house since re-turning there.

At 11 o’clock in the eve-ning last Monday, Mary Rose, Crisostomo’s sister-in-law, went inside the couple’s house and found Crisosto-mo’s body hanging with elec-trical wire around his neck while eden was sprawled on the floor, her face livid and frothing in the mouth.

Considering a possible angle, the police said Crisos-tomo may have killed eden first, and then committed suicide by hanging.

The motive behind the couple’s death remains a complete mystery to the cou-ple’s shocked congregation.

own more 3,000 taxi units, officially objected to the ap-plication of Mabuhay Taxi operator Dr. Manuel T. Tan to field 30 black taxi units in the city.

Medatoa, headed by chairman Wenceslao Bas-cones of Durian Taxi Trans-port Service Cooperative, in its petition to LTFRB Region 11 office, claimed black taxis “will inevitably pose great risks to pedestrians and oth-er vehicles, considering that many streets in the city are not well-illuminated, cou-pled with the fact that the city frequently experiences power outages due to lack of power supply.”

Medatoa’s members con-trol 60 to 70 percent of the total taxi units running in the

city streets.Due to the petition

lodged before his office, LT-FRB 11 director Go report-edly would not act on Tan’s application before it under-goes the usual hearing and other processes required.

however, Tan went to the LTFRB en banc and got a hasty favorable action from LTFRB commissioners Manuel Iway and Samuel B. Garcia. Chairman Jacob did not sign the LTFRB order issued on Tan’s application for black taxis.

It was also Iway and Garcia who sent a team of two LTFRB central office inspectors to Davao to con-duct inspection, testing and sealing of the meters of the black taxi units.

In their motion for re-consideration, the Meda-toa operators, including Rodolfo Jao, son-in-law of Dr. Tan and operator of the Maligaya taxi company, charged that the LTFRB erred and that its order (signed by Iway and Garcia) authorizing the confirma-tion, inspection, and test-ing and sealing of meters of Tan’s black colored taxis was “premature, improper and illegal.”

The Medatoa members said the LTFRB “has no juris-diction” to take cognizance of Tan’s motion, because under the LTFRB rules, only the regional director who issued the franchises “has exclusive jurisdiction or au-thority over these matters.”

The operators also ex-pressed surprise why the LTFRB, particularly Com-missioners Iway and Garcia, took only one day to grant the request of Tan in two instances, on May 25 and June 5.

A national news report yesterday also identified Iway and Garcia as the ones responsible for “resurrec-tion” and sale of 489 fran-chises which had earlier been declared dead or ex-pired by the LTFRB itself a long time ago.

Secretary Roxas had re-portedly ousted Iway and Garcia from the LTFRB for the “Lazarus” deal, refer-ring to the resurrected fran-chises owned by the defunct Pantranco bus company.

guidance and monitoring by the government,” he said.

“We are not yet im-posing (the law). We are just being pro-active, en-couraging them to apply, encouraging them to be legal. I don’t know when the government will run out of patience before ap-prehension starts,” Arreza added.

PD 1899 placed the Department of environ-ment and Natural Re-sources and to local gov-ernment units (LGUs) the responsibility of regulat-ing small-scale mining operations.

It also granted provin-cial governors the author-ity to approve small-scale mining permits, and en-abled the LGUs and the DeNR to share in the local mineral resources of their respective local commu-nities.

able plastics through a solid waste management ordinance.

he noted that Davao businessmen, mostly those who have establishments near coastal areas, donated some 30 bundles of nets to be used by informal sec-tors to keep garbage from drifting to the sea.

“The volume of plastic garbage such as diapers and sachets have been highly minimized,” he said, citing that the food for work program of the gov-ernment also contributes to the reduction of waste in the coastal areas.

This program employs citizens to pick up trash in the coastal areas in ex-change for food.

Joseph Felizarta, head of the City environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), said the

plastic ban recently imple-mented has been yielding positive results such that only one out of 10 estab-lishments was caught vio-lating the ban.

Noting that improper disposal of garbage by in-formal settlers near coastal areas have contributed to plastic trash in the Davao Gulf, Dizon said it is best to relocate these people.

however, he added that considering the real-ity of the Philippines as a third world country, mov-ing them out will bankrupt the government, so the key is to improve the people’s standard of living. [LORIE A. CASCARO]

the enactment of house Bill 4315 or the People’s Mining Bill, saying that RA 7942 or Philippine Mining Act “di-rectly contributes to some of the worst environmental tragedies in the country.”

The tragedies cited in-clude environmental degra-dation in Surigao and fish-kills in Rapu-rapu, Albay; continuing destruction and degradation of coastal, agri-cultural, and upland ecosys-tems; recurring violations of civil, political and human rights; and displacement of the indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands.

The groups also men-tioned displacement of

farmers and Filipino small-scale miners from their live-lihood.

For his part, Sanny C. Bangcayao, president of small-scale mining in Lower Gumayan, Barangay King-king, Pantukan, told reporters that they oppose large-scale mining in their area because people had been disturbed by large-scale mining operations even during exploration stage when the latter built roads and other infrastruc-tures.

he also said it is not true that small-scale miners are the main culprit in environ-mental degradation in the

area.Further, the groups stat-

ed in their position paper that the average contribu-tion of mining and quarrying to the Gross Domestic Prod-uct was at 0.91% between 2000 and 2009.

The group cited Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima’s report that the mining in-dustry contributed only P2 billion or 0.17% of the total P1.2 trillion national tax col-lections in 2011.

In terms of employment, the mining industry contrib-uted 0.376% of the total em-ployment in the country over the past decade, the group said.[LORIE A. CASCARO]

ready and convenient ac-cess or use of data” collect-ed by the city government offices for policy inputs and direction and the need for sustained and periodic updating of barangay pro-files to come up with “com-parable descriptions” of all the barangays in the city.

The academe will also collaborate in the formu-lation of the Davao Devel-opment Index which will be used as reference for “proper calibration” of the city government’s Sustain-able Development Plan and in the conduct of evalua-tion and impact studies to provide feedback on “the effectiveness and rate at which the city govern-ment’s programs and proj-ects are implemented.”

DACUN members who are set to sign the draft

MOU are the presidents of the University of Mind-anao (UM), University of the Philippines-Mindanao (UP-Min), University of the Immaculate Conception (UIC), Philippine Women’s College (PWC), holy Cross of Davao College (hCDC), Davao Doctors College (DDC), Brokenshire Col-lege, Rizal Memorial Col-leges (RMC), Assumption College of Davao (ACD) and the University of South-eastern Philippines (USeP).

Under the MoU, the city government shall not be re-quired to appropriate, con-tribute and expend funds “under the partnership.” Instead, the DACUN “shall take charge” of the finan-cial requirements “and be allowed to secure funding from third parties or enti-ties.”

The United States is hoping to hold more maritime military

training exercises in Mind-anao as part of its continu-ing defense cooperation with the Philippines.

US Ambassador to the Philippines harry K. Thom-as, Jr. expressed hopes on Monday for a repeat of the Cooperation Afloat Readi-ness and Training (CARAT) 2012, noting that the exer-cise is a “living proof that US and Philippine alliance is relevant and strong.”

“For the first time in memory, CARAT takes place in Mindanao, and I hope that this is the first of many,” he said during the opening ceremony of CARAT 2012 here.

This is the 18th CARAT, an annual bilateral naval exercise series between the United States and Phil-ippines, Brunei, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Timor

Leste and Thailand.Thomas said at least

800 US Navy and Coast Guard personnel are tak-ing part in the nine-day joint exercises in Manila and Mindanao, around 400 of them in Mindanao.

The US Navy (USN) de-ployed two vessels for the exercises, the missile-guid-ing frigate USS Vandergrift and the rescue and salvage ship USNS Safeguard, while the US Coast Guard sent USCG Waesche.

USS Vandergrift and USCG Waesche arrived here Sunday afternoon for onshore training exercises that include live firing.

USNS Safeguard, on the other hand, would be do-ing the rescue and salvage exercise in Manila bay.

The naval exercises in Mindanao would be in the seas off Maitum and Maasim in Sarangani and in Balut Island, Sarangani town in Davao del Sur and

would not be visible from the shores, Capt. Robert empedrad, CARAT 2012 exercise director.

Lt. Gen Jorge B. Segovia, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) eastern Mindanao Com-mand, said the AFP is look-ing forward to a stronger military partnership and friendship with the US mil-itary, noting the holding of CARAT 2012 “will benefit both navies as well as the communities.”

“With its goals to strengthen the bond be-tween the Philippine Navy and the US Navy in ad-dressing maritime defense, port security and resource protection, this exercise will not just benefit the participants but also the communities in the Mind-anao sea,” Segovia said in his speech.

In a brief interview with reporters, Segovia said Mindanao was cho-

sen as venue of the CARAT 2012 because of the pres-ence of the Coast Watch Stations (CWS), a modern intelligence gathering or monitoring system project supported by the US gov-ernment.

“It’s an opportunity to test the efficiency of the Coast Watch Stations that lines this part of Mindan-ao,” he said.

Thomas, for his part, said Segovia “is one hun-dred percent accurate.”

The Coast Watch Sta-tions are spread in the towns of Kiamba, Maitum and Glan in Sarangani; Ka-lamansig in Sultan Kuda-rat; Balut Island in Davao del Sur; and Cape San Agustin in Gov. Generoso, Davao Oriental.

The Coast Watch Sta-tion is part of the Coast Watch South, a defense project that is also sup-ported by the Australian government. [PNA]

US eyes more military exercises in Mindanao

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 201214 SPORTS EDGEDAVAO

SAN BeDA’S Red Cubs annihilated Lyceum, 171-14, on Monday in

an utter mismatch that set NCAA juniors’ basketball tournament records at The Arena in San Juan.

The defending cham-pions Red Cubs scored 67 points even before the Junior Pirates could buy a basket and won by an eye-popping 157 points, the biggest win-ning margin in the league’s history.

According to stats-board, the 14 points of Ly-ceum was also a record in fu-tility, well below the previous low of 23 by guest team An-geles University Foundation against San Sebastian (113) in July 2009.

The Junior Pirates’ two first-half points also set a record while the Red Cubs’ points total fell just short of

eclipsing the 172 they scored against AUF in August 2009.

“Dinedevelop lang namin yung character nung team kasi kami ang defending champion,” Red Cubs coach Britt Reroma said, sound-ing apologetic after the win. “hindi pwede mag-rerelax.”

The finish was so lopsid-ed the final scores eclipsed the winning margins the Red Cubs posted in similar beatings they dealt the Ju-nior Pirates last year. San Beda beat Lyceum, 163-28, in the first round and 154-35 in the second round last year.

So dominant were the Red Cubs that they only al-lowed the Junior Pirates to score their first and only basket of the first half half-way through the second quarter. The score was 92-2 at the intermission.

“We treat Lyceum with respect, every team nirere-speto namin kaya ganun kami maglaro — all-out ev-ery game,” Reroma said.

eight players scored in double figures for the Red Cubs, led by Ranbill Tong-co’s 27 points.

Aldwin Ligot scored 12 of Lycuem’s 14 points.

The scores:San Beda 171 - Tongco

27, Inigo 19, Mocon 16, Furaque 16, Diputado 14, Gumtang 13, Tolentino 12, Macapayag 11, Abatayo 9, De Villeres 8, Abuda 7, Abude 7, Caracut 6, Brojan 6, Romero 0

Lyceum 14 - Ligot 12, Lagman 2, Tropicales 0, Moreno 0, Romanes 0, Cru-zada 0, Soriano 0, Licerio 0, Verdad 0, Castaneda 0

Quarter scores: 43-0, 92-2, 136-10, 171-14

San Beda jrs in 171-14 massacreThe eight teams taking part in the Phoenix Season 4 basketball tournament during the opening program at the DCRC.

Spain’s national soccer team players celebrate their Euro 2012 victory on a stage in downtown Madrid July 2, 2012. Spaniards seized on their Euro 2012 triumph as

a source of restored national pride after months of eco-nomic anxieties, as celebrations were set to reach fever pitch on Monday with a victory parade in the capital.

No other side has achieved the feat which Spain managed on Sun-

day evening against Italy.In years to come, the likes

of Andres Iniesta – crowned the Player of Euro 2012 – and Xavi may well be remembered as among the greatest to have graced the sport.

Playing an adapted version of the tiki-taka made famous by Barcelona, they starve the opposition of possession and wait for the opportunity to prise them open with inch-per-fect passes.

However, prior to the 4-0 hammering of the Azzurri, there were claims that La Furia Roja had come to revere style over substance - and some were openly critical of what they regarded as a ‘boring’ ap-

proach.So how do they fare against

great historical teams?The Brazil of the Fifties,

Sixties and 1970 World Cup has always been the one kids and adults alike hold in great-est admiration, as they were winners of three World Cups in four editions boasting play-ers such as Gerson, Jairzinho, Tostao, Rivelino and Pele.

West Germany managed perhaps the most impressive spell of sustained international excellence, reaching five out of seven World Cup finals from missing out to Geoff Hurst and co. in 1966 to lifting the trophy at Italia 90. They also won in 1974, while the Euro ’80 title is a further feather in their cap.

Led by the ‘Galloping Ma-jor’ Ferenc Puskas, The Magi-

cal Magyars of Hungary rede-fined how the game was played in the Fifties, going six years and over 50 games unbeaten – with the exception of the 1954 World Cup final – and doling out some legendary hammer-ings such as the 6-3 against England at Wembley.

And the only team other than Brazil to win consecutive World Cups was Italy in the Thirties: the achievements of a team containing legendary names like Giuseppe Meazza and Silvio Piola are, however, overshadowed by the interfer-ence of dictator Benito Mus-solini in the ’34 tournament, where he is said to have se-lected the referees used in each match and used the tournament as a propaganda tool for his fascist regime.

Is Spain the greatest team ever?

Cristina “tina” san is actually a friend of my friend’s friend. Connect the dots, if you please. Her name never really rang a bell to me until i stumbled on her Facebook page where she sells her fabulous hand-made acces-sories. at first glance, one would be tempted to buy every piece she has posted in her page. sometimes, be-fore one could even type in “hm (abbreviation for how much)?” in the comment space, she’d update each photo caption with sOLD, repeatedly, all the way to the last item in the album. Ev-erything sells like pancakes. ironically, it came to my luck that she only sells one piece per design. My purse had let out a sigh of relief at this revelation, as it would not be depleted to a smaller size given the unavailabil-ity of my choices in tina’s stock room. Whew. anoth-er triumph for shopaholics anonymous. Her considerably priced creations are modified ver-sions of designer gems you can buy in any high end boutique. tina finds inspi-ration for trends like bibs, bejewelled scarves, chunky layered beads, and many more. she never fails to amaze me and my stylist/ photographer-friend, ayie, with her great eye for style. Her accessories have be-come conversation pieces, as well as inspirations for fashion shoots here and there. We’ve always won-dered how she puts togeth-er elaborate and intricate patterns, without the aid of a professional artist. tina shares the back story of her accessory line, tinitch accessories. “i have always loved working with my hands, doing all sorts of arts and crafts. i started making my own accessories back when i was 18 yrs old. They were much simpler in design. Mostly wooden beads and nylon strings.” “i got hooked to de-signing jewelries when my friend asked me to recreate an expensive necklace she

saw in a mall. What started as a hobby of combining beads, cords, and semi-pre-cious gemstones for friends and family, eventually be-came a successful and cre-ative venture that drew in-terest from many jewelry lovers.” tina yearned for a for-mal training in this craft, but found the internet as a better source of techniques and how to’s. “i wanted to join workshops but didn’t have the time. i just learned on my own through online tutorials in Youtube. i get my inspiration online, surf-ing websites like Etsy and Pinterest. Fashion blogs also stimulates the creative juices in me. i love brows-ing though outfit posts,

checking out different ways of matching clothes with accessories. My list of style icons include names of styl-ists and fashion bloggers local and Us based fashion mavens such as Camille Co, aisa ipac, Kryz Uy, rachel Zoe, and Daphne Guin-ness.” From personal flair to a full-blown brand, i’d say tinitch accessories exem-plifies tina’s individuality and style. Friends describe her as funny, eccentric and unpredictable. Her fashion style is more on the subtle side. she follows trends, but sticks to the basics. she puts emphasis on one piece of clothing, making it stand out to establish a statement look. i guess this is where

her accessories come in handy. “i never work by set, nor do i work along the usual method of putting up a whole collection. in-spirations come in from left and right, and i make and upload whatever pops in my head. a simple pen-dant necklace takes 5 to 10 minutes to produce. a beaded chain necklace can be finished in 30 minutes. a sewn beaded necklace with an intricate design can take long hours.” nevertheless, hard work and endurance paid off. Her wounded fingers have created masterpieces that graced newspapers and magazines. Celebrity en-dorsers like solenn Heus-saff wore creations by ti-nitch accessories in fashion shoots, and photos of which were featured in different publications. tina’s accessories even graced the aisle of a friend’s wedding. she dedicated one of her best designs for her bestfriend’s bridesmaids in a wedding back in January. “i don’t have an assistant. i do everything on my own. What i do is fun and fulfill-ing, but it’s also bloody la-borious. This is the reason why i am taking baby steps in going all out with my ac-cessory line. i dream of put-ting up my own store one day, but for now, i’m happy with my online store. i don’t pay for extra fees and rent. i can take your store wher-ever i want and check on it 24/7.” Visit the Facebook page of tinitch accessories to see more of tina’s works. For orders, you may call or text her at 0917-7078462. 

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012

EDGEDAVAOSTYLE

Accessories du jourINdulge!

ASidE from Anderson Cooper, here are more celebrities who have waved the rainbow flag high and proud.

ENTERTAiNMENTENTERTAiNMENT

Gay and proud

A2 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012EDGEDAVAO

ANdERSoN Coo-per has revealed ... he’s gay and he’s proud. Cooper made the announcement in a let-ter to Andrew Sullivan, who was doing a story for ThedailyBeast.com about the social impact of famous people who come out as gay. Sullivan reached out to Cooper for his thoughts, to which An-derson replied with a letter.

“There continue to be far too many inci-dences of bullying of young people, as well as discrimination and violence against peo-ple of all ages, based on their sexual orienta-tion, and i believe there is value in making clear where i stand,” Cooper wrote. “The fact is, i’m gay, always have been, always will be, and i couldn’t be any more happy, comfort-

able with myself, and proud.” “i have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my col-leagues. in a perfect world, i don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but i do think there is value in standing up and being counted. i’m not an activist, but i am a human being and i don’t give that up by being a journalist.”

‘I’m gay’

Jonathan Groff

Matt BomerChris Colfer

George Michael

Cat Cora

Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi Ricky Martin Jim Parsons Nate Berkus Tom Ford

Zachary Quinto

Jane Lynch and wife Lara Embry

Neil Patrick Harris and partner David Burtka

Suze Orman

Cynthia Nixon and wife Christine Marinoni

ENTERTAiNMENTENTERTAiNMENT

INdulge! A3VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012 EDGEDAVAO

iN the days, hours, minutes, heck, even seconds after it was announced last Fri-day that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had called it quits, info surrounding the demise of TomKat started coming at a ridiculously rapid rate. Not surprising, of course, seeing how we are talking about one of Hollywood’s biggest (now former) couples. But if it’s been a little tough to keep up, rest easy, as we’re here to help you keep track of all the divorce drama that has unfolded since the sad news broke... Holmes filed for divorce from Cruise on June 28 af-ter a little more than five years of marriage. While there had been no indica-tion of trouble between the two, the actress was largely absent while her husband was busy pro-moting Rock of Ages. “This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family,” Holmes’ attor-ney said in a statement. “Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter [Suri]’s best interest.” Meanwhile, Cruise’s publicist told E! News: “Tom is deeply sad-dened.” According to some tab-loid reports, Holmes not only filed in New York, but

she may be seeking sole custody of 6-year-old Suri. “it’s very interesting if she filed there,” Paul Talbert, partner of Chemtob Moss Forman & Talbert LLP, told E! online’s Answer B!tch. “if she filed in New York, as opposed to Colorado or California, that would lead me to believe that there is a significant pur-pose to that filing, and my best guess is that this is where she wants to live with Suri.” Holmes has hired New Jersey divorce lawyer Jon-athan Wolfe and New York attorney Allan E. Mayefsky to represent her, per the Los Angeles Times. Not surprisingly, Cruise and Holmes have a pre-nup. E! News has learned that the contract calls for payouts to Holmes in the event of a divorce, with specific amounts depend-ing on how long they were married. division of prop-erty and child custody are also discussed in the prenup, we’re told, but the exact details are subject to negotiation. Speculation has sur-faced that Holmes did not feel comfortable with Cruise’s commitment to Scientology and how it might eventually affect daughter Suri. “it was something she accepted and put up with for many years because it was im-portant to Tom and, for that reason, important

to her,” a source close to Holmes told E! News. “But over the past year, they had started to see things differently, and she was beginning to pull away.” Cruise’s lawyer, Bert Fields, spoke over the weekend regarding the pending divorce between Cruise and Holmes. “i would hope that it’s not a contentious matter,” Fields told the Los Angeles Times. “i know Tom is not a particularly contentious person.” on Saturday, Cruise was spotted for the first time publicly since Holmes filed for divorce. The actor was seen in a helicopter taking off from an airport in Reyk-javik, iceland, where he had been filming his up-coming movie, oblivion. incidentally, Holmes was photographed with Cruise less than two weeks ago in the same city. Church of Scientology has told E! News there is “no truth whatsoever” to a TMZ report that the organization has several unidentified men and vehicles tailing Holmes outside her New York City apartment. E! News was informed today by attorney den-nis Wasser’s office that the lawyer will now be representing Cruise in his divorce from Holmes. Wasser also represented Cruise in his divorce from Nicole Kidman.

KATiE Holmes isn’t letting divorce get her down. The 33-year-old actress stepped out in Manhat-tan on Monday looking absolutely radiant. Wear-ing a chic navy ensemble and sexy stilettos, Holmes played up her eye makeup and pulled her long bru-nette locks into a sleek po-nytail. The actress, notably not wearing her wedding ring, was headed to film an upcoming appearance on Project Runway. Earlier in the day, a white Cadillac and a black Mer-cedes were parked out-side the star’s NYC apart-ment. Coincidentally, Marc Jacobs and Lance Bass live in the same apartment building where Holmes is staying. Various reports claimed the vehicles belonged to

Scientologists keeping tabs on the actress, but the church told E! News there was “no truth” to these reports. When Holmes filed for divorce last week, she asked for sole custody of her and Tom Cruise’s 6-year-old daughter Suri. Some reports have specu-lated that this is because Holmes didn’t want Suri getting heavily involved in the Scientology’s intense Sea org corps.

TomKat Split:What we know so far

Katie Holmes spotted in NYC And she’s not wearing her wedding ring!

PrEsiDEntiaL De-cree 491 or the nutri-tion act of the Philip-pines appointed the national nutrition Council (nnC) as the lead agency to coor-dinate the nationwide celebration of this an-nual event held ev-ery July, the nutrition Month. Come this 38th year of nutrition Month, nnC comes up with a theme to call the nation’s attention and action on a par-ticular issue. The 38th nutrition Month celebration will focus on vegetables with the theme “Pagkain ng gulay ugaliin, araw-araw itong ihain!” The objectives of this year’s cel-ebration are to: increase veg-etable consumption as part of a healthy diet to address mi-cronutrient deficiencies and non-communicable diseases; promote vegetable gardening as a source of additional food and income; and increase de-mand for vegetables to help local vegetable farmers. nutrition Month focuses on vegetables for several rea-sons:• Filipinos are eating less and less vegetables. Based on food consumption surveys, Filipinos on average are eat-ing less and less vegetables

per day in the last three de-cades (Figure 1). From 145 grams per day of vegetables in 1978, consumption has decreased to 110 grams per day in 2008. • Across regions, consump-tion varies. CaLaBarZOn and arMM had the lowest consumption at 92 grams per person per day while Car had the highest consumption at 169 grams. in terms of age groups, children 6 months to 5 years old consumed a little amount of vegetables only. infants 6-11 months consumed only an average of 2 grams of veg-etables per day, and among 1 year old children, this amount increased to only 8 grams. The amount of vegetables consumed increased with age. Five year olds consumed 25 grams while 12 year olds consumed 55 grams per day. adolescents aged 13-19 consumed 69 grams, adults 20-59 years old consumed

91 grams. However, for older persons 60 years and over, consumption decreased to 87 grams only. Pregnant women consumed only 91 grams while lactating women ate 101 grams per day in 2005, the nnC com-missioned the Food and nu-trition research institute to determine the reasons why Filipinos eat very little vege-tables. The study showed the following reasons for the low consumption of vegetables: influence of family members who do not eat vegetables, dislike for vegetables because of taste and texture, prefer-ence for meat than vegetables, cultural beliefs about vegeta-bles (e.g. eating squash can cause leprosy), vegetables are expensive, fear of chemicals and pesticides, vegetables re-quire more time to prepare, preference for fast foods and instant foods, lack of supply, and lack of knowledge on nutritional and health ben-efits of vegetables. Eating a variety of veg-etables together with fruits ensures an adequate intake of most micronutrients, dietary fibers and a host of essential non-nutrient substances. Deficiencies in intakes of calcium, iron, thiamin, ribo-flavin, niacin and vitamins a and C can be improved through increased vegetable

intake. as noted previously, preschool children ate little vegetables which could somehow explain why the diet of preschoolers could not meet the recommended nutrient intakes for iron, vi-tamin a, calcium, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and ascor-bic acid. The same trend is observed for the other age groups except for niacin with more than 80% of the dietary food intake meeting its rEni (recommended Energy and nutrient intake.) Only 67.7% or 7 out of every 10 households had veg-etable gardens or fruit trees based on the 2008 national nutrition survey. The survey also revealed that most of the households or 79.1% used the produce from the gardens for their own consumption while only 17.6% both consumed and sold their produce. When it comes to participa-tion in government’s food production program such as the Gulayan ng Masa which promoted integrated back-yard gardening, only 51.8% of households participated. regions with high partici-pation include iV-B, 6 and CaraGa while there was low participation in nCr. The World Health Orga-nization recommends eating a minimum of 400 grams of vegetables and fruits per day which is equivalent to 5 serv-ings per day with 3 servings of vegetables per day. The WHO recommends this amount for the prevention of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity, as well as for the prevention and al-leviation of several micronu-trient deficiencies, especially in less developed countries. One serving of vegetables is equivalent to:• 1 cup raw leafy vegetables or 25 grams• ½ cup raw non-leafy veg-etables or 40 grams • ½ cup cooked leafy or non-leafy vegetable or 45 grams. The health benefits of eat-ing vegetables include:• may help decrease bone loss as vegetables decrease the amount of calcium excreted in the urine• may help in lowering calo-rie intake and thus, help in maintaining healthy weight because vegetables are low in calories • vegetables do not contain cholesterol• contain antioxidants and protectants such as carote-noids, lycopene and phy-tochemicals which can help strengthen the immune sys-tem, reduce the risk of dis-eases, and contribute to well-being. There’s nothing to lose with veggies! Go ahead enjoy all the benefits veggies can give! Go Veggies!

ENTERTAiNMENTHEALTH

A4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012EDGEDAVAO

Nutrition month goes veggie

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 2012 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

The pretty girls got blown away one af-ter the other.

Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, and Yaroslava Shvedova are out of the Wimbledon after four rounds of action in the All england Club.

Former champion and 2012 top seed Maria Sharapova bowed out of the Wimbledon Champi-onships after a 4-6, 3-6 loss to No. 15 Sabine Lis-icki. The 2004 winner, who entered the tourna-ment as world No. 1, will slide down the rankings next week.

Lisicki, who lost her previous three meetings with Sharapova includ-ing the 2011 Wimbledon semifinals and the round-of-16 of this year’s Aus-tralian Open, advanced to the quarterfinals against Angelique Kerber. The eighth-seeded German also sent a Wimbledon favorite packing, winning over former No. 1 Kim Clijsters, 6-1, 6-1.

Serena Williams beat Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5, and will face last year’s champion and 2012 fourth seed Petra Kvitova, who edged Ital-ian 24th seed Francesca

Schiavone, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.World No. 2 Victoria

Azarenka clobbered for-mer No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, 6-1, 6-0, and will take on Tamira Paszek of Aus-tria, who beat No. 21 Ro-berta Vinci of Italy, 6-2, 6-2. Third seed Agniesz-ka Radwanska of Poland whipped Camila Girogi of Italy, 6-2, 6-3, to set up a quarterfinal against No. 17 Maria Kirilenko, a 6-1, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 win-ner over Shuain Peng of China.

In the men’s side, it was all calm after the shock defeat of Rafael Nadal in the second round.

Roger Federer is in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the 33rd-straight time after downing Xavier Malisse, 7-6 (1), 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. The Swiss master set up a match in the last eight against No. 26 Mikhail Youzhny, who beat Denis Istomin, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-5.

World No. 1 and de-fending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeat-ed his Olympic doubles partner Viktor Troicki, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3, to also make the quarterfinals.

When pretty girls fall

The fairest ladies of Wimbledon have fallen. From left: Maria Sharapova of Russia, Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia. Lower photo, Sabine Lisicki hits a return on her way to beating Sharapova.

VOL.5 ISSUE 87 • JULY 4, 201216 EDGEDAVAO

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