P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAORODY PICKS NEXT IP GUYKagan tribe aspirants favored to replace Mambo-o

DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte has already identified the next Indigenous People (IP)

representative to the City Council.In an interview after the light-

ing ceremony of the “Pasko Fiesta sa Davao” last Monday night, Duterte told reporters that he already chosen the successor to outgoing councillor Berino

Mambo-o Sr. of the Ata tribe.“Naa na koy natarget (I already have

someone in mind). But I will divulge his name in the proper time,” the mayor said.

Duterte, however, confirmed the earlier statement of Mambo-o that the next IP representative will be from Ka-gan tribe.

“Ilis-ilis ng mga IP representative. Iniikot yan… Para makapahimulos tan-an (The IP representative post is rotat-ed so that all tribes have equal opportu-nity),” he said.

Duterte said he will also reveal next year the name of the person who will assume the seat left by city administra-tor J. Melchor Quitain, who was council-

or only from July to September 2013.Duterte said he will select someone

from the Muslim sector to replace Qui-tain.

“Ang ako man gud…. Kung mahimo lang kanang ang tanan nga sector nay representante (What I want is for all sectors to be represented),” he said.

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.abf@edgedavao.net

F RODY, 10

PASKO FIESTA. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte delivers his Christmas message of joy, peace and hope during the opening ceremony of Pasko Fiesta sa Dabaw 2014 and lighting of Christmas decorations at Rizal Park on Monday evening. Lean Daval Jr.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014

THE province of Davao Oriental, which was struck by typhoon

Pablo in December 2012, re-corded the highest increase in job generation this year, up 45 percent from 4,176 jobs generated in 2013 to a total of 6,067.

A Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) report also showed that jobs gen-erated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Region 11 increased by 19 percent from January to November this year over the same peri-od last year,

SMEs, dominating the business industry of the region with more than 95 percent, generated a total of 27,683 jobs, higher than the 23,283 recorded last year.

Of the total jobs gener-

ated, SMEs accounted for 81 percent or 24,293. Jobs gen-erated in Pablo stricken areas accounted for seven percent of the total, while jobs gen-erated from shared service facilities (SSF) accounted for five percent.

The bulk of the job gener-ated was recorded in Davao City with 9,217, higher by three percent than the 8,934 recorded in 2013.

Davao del Sur recorded an increase of 44 percent with a total of 4,339 jobs gen-erated, higher than the 3,009 jobs generated last year.

Another Pablo-stricken province in the region that showed positive increase in the job generation was Com-postela Valley, which had a total of 2,735 jobs generat-

2 EDGEDAVAO

THE BIG NEWS

crc@edgedavao.net

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.abf@edgedavao.net

DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte reiterated an appeal

made by city administrator J. Melchor Quitain for money lenders to suspend their col-lection from city government employees for this month.

In an interview after the lighting and opening ceremo-ny of “Pasko Fiesta sa Dabaw” on Monday evening, Duterte said the lenders must sus-pend their collection so that city government workers can have money to spend for their families this Christmas.

“To the lenders, whoever they are, suspend the collec-

tion for the meantime. Do not touch the salary of the City Hall workers for this month. They can resume payment in January. They need the mon-ey now,” the mayor said.

Duterte said he decided to release the city employ-ees’ bonus or Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI) because many of them are in dire need for money just to have a decent Christmas cel-ebration.

During the flag raising ceremony last Monday, Quit-ain said City Hall will formu-late a mechanism on how to release the bonus because he

is worried about employees who have debts from loan sharks.

Also yesterday, the City Council approved the ordi-nance titled ‘An Ordinance Granting Authority to the City Mayor to Release the Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI) based on Res-olution No. 2014 -010, series of 214 of the Local Finance Committee (LFC), City Gov-ernment of Davao entitled “Recommending Approval of the Implementing Guidelines on the Grant of Incentive for Plantilla Personnel (to in-clude self-paid teachers but

to be charged against special education fund), Consultants, Job Orders/ Contract of Ser-vices, including Barangay Nu-trition Scholars and Auxiliary Personnel of the City Govern-ment of Davao, in recognition of their valuable support in the performance of actual duties and responsibilities towards attainment and suc-cessful accomplishments of the city’s vision, mission and goal chargeable against any savings of 2014 appropria-tions.”

The chairman of the com-

PEACE and Order and Lingap – the medical assistance program

of the Office of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte (CMO) -- will get additional funds for this year as they have been given allocations in the P183.6 million Sup-plemental Budget No. 2.

The City Council ap-proved the ordinance titled “An Ordinance Approving the General Fund Supple-

mental Budget (SB) No. 2 of the City Government of Davao for Calendar Year 2014, Consisting of the General Fund Proper in the amount of P183, 607, 913.71.”

City Ccouncil commit-tee on finance, ways and means, and appropriations chairman councilor Danilo Dayanghirang said Duterte decided to pour the entire budget into these two pro-

Duterte to lenders: Don’tcollect from city workers

FOR SAFETY. Phoenix Petroleum Philippines president and chief executive officer Dennis A. Uy hands over a traffic safety cone to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte during the turnover ceremony of traffic safety signs and road barriers donated by the Davao-based petroleum company to the city government of Davao at Rizal Park on Monday evening. Lean Daval Jr.

Peace and order, Lingapget additional allocation

The Office of the Om-budsman in Mindanao will establish the Investment Ombudsman (IO) to give a voice to local and foreign in-vestors and businessmen in Mindanao who experience injustice.

“The Ombudsman rec-ognizes this need. There should be timely action on investors’ complaints,” Dep-uty Ombudsman for Mind-anao Rodolfo M. Elman said in an interview yesterday.

He said the office was

created under Office Order No. 327 series of 2014 “in the interest of the service and to encourage local and foreign investments in the country and improve glob-al competitiveness through prompt action on investors’ grievance and speedy res-olution of investors’ com-plaints.”

The team will “take cog-nizance of investment-re-lated grievances or com-plaints… provided the com-plainant is an investor of

potential investor.”Elman said the office

was created last June and its team will be in full force next year as it gains more manpower.

“At present, the Mindan-ao IO team has a total of five members headed by Public Assistance and Corruption Prevention Office chief Atty. Corazon Arancon,” he said.

Among investment grievances or complaints that can be filed under IO are delay in the delivery

of frontline services relat-ing to the establishment or conduct of business; solic-itation, demand, request by a government official or employee in exchange for the issuance of licenses, permits and certificates, the release of shipments and cargoes, as well as the arbi-trary assessment of fees for the conduct of business.

IO will also entertain complaints on issuance of licenses, permits and certif-

Investment Ombudsman set up for businesses

Davao Oriental sees 45%hike in job generation

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VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 3NEWSEDGEDAVAO

People affected by ‘Ruby’ breaches 2 million mark

INVESTMENT OMBUDSMAN. Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao lawyer Rodolfo M. Elman tells reporters about the establishment of the Investment Om-budsman (IO) which will give a voice to local and foreign investors and businessmen in Mindanao who experience injustice. Lean Daval Jr.

HOLIDAY FOR ALL. The holiday rush is for the religious, too, as these nuns prove by entering a mall in Lanang, Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

THE National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council

(NDRRMC) said on Tuesday the number of people affect-ed by typhoon “Ruby” has hit the 2.096-million mark.

NDRRMC said 456,386 families or 2,096,562 per-sons were affected by “Ruby” in Regions 4-A (Calabarzon), 4-B (Mimaropa), 5 (Bicol Re-gion), 6 (Western Visayas), 7 (Central Visayas), 8 (East-ern Visayas) and Caraga. Of these, 371,846 families or 1,699,041 people were evac-uated.

NDRRMC Executive Di-rector Alexander Pama said there were 11 confirmed

fatalities and 45 injured during the onslaught of the typhoon.

He said three of the fa-talities have been identified while the cause/s of death of the eight others are still be-ing validated by the Depart-ment of Health (DOH).

Pama said the three identified fatalities were Jim-my Cardente, 14, resident of Cebu who died of electrocu-tion; Princess Abelgas, two-month-old baby girl from Ba-rangay Pagbalican, Calbayog, Samar; and Sunny Recto, from Naval, Biliran, who died due to head wounds caused by falling debris.

Pama also said the two

fatalities earlier reported in Iloilo were not included in the death count because they died due to hypother-mia which was not directly related to typhoon Ruby as per validation of DOH.

Meanwhile, Pama said the agency could not yet re-lease the post-disaster anal-ysis since Ruby is still inside the Philippine Area of Re-sponsibility (PAR).

“I’m happy with the way the people showed their co-operation and the way our local government units and practically the stakehold-ers reacted, acted and even pre-acted on the prepara-tions. If you look at the pre-

paredness and the response, I will say that we are happy,” Pama told a press briefing held at the NDRRMC Head-quarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

At least 1,523 passen-gers, 38 rolling cargoes, 379 vessels and two motor boats are still stranded in various ports of the country while 61 domestic flights and nine international flights have been cancelled due to bad weather.

Power outages are re-ported in 20 provinces in six regions. Globe and Smart networks are currently down in some parts of Leyte

THE Department of Social Welfare and Develop-ment (DSWD) in Region

12 is delivering an additional 50,000 family food packs in the next few days to augment the relief operations in areas affected by typhoon “Ruby” in parts of Eastern Visayas.

Dennis Domingo II, DSWD-12 information officer, said their personnel and some volunteers are currently re-packing the relief goods, which comprise rice and other food items, at the regional ware-houses in the cities of Koro-nadal and Cotabato.

He said volunteers from the regional chapter of non-government group Ka-

lipunan ng Liping Pilipina or KALIPI, which is a national federation of women’s organi-zations assisted by the DSWD, are helping the repacking of the relief goods.

Domingo said they also sought help from the Bureau of Fire Protection in Region 12 in the preparation of the family food packs.

“We’re targeting to dis-patch these food packs to the typhoon-hit areas within this week,” he said.

DSWD-12 has sent an ini-tial 15,000 food packs to the agency’s relief hub in Tacloban City to assist the ongoing relief operations in the area.

THE city government is considering adopting a zoning scheme for tri-

cycles in a bid to address the worsening traffic congestion in major streets in the area.

Geraldine Zamora, co-ordinator of the city’s Mo-torized Tricycle Franchising Regulatory Board (MT-FRB), said they are current-ly studying the viability of implementing the zoning scheme for various routes within the city’s 26 baran-gays.

She said such move was among the alternative solu-tions that were identified to help address the problems in the city’s traffic and trans-port management plan.

The plan will be present-ed by the local government

to transport stakeholders in the scheduled city transpor-tation summit in January.

“It’s one of the steps that we’ve considered to help ease traffic congestion in our major streets and roads,” she said.

Zamora, who also heads the City Permits and Li-censing Division, said the proposed zoning scheme involves the creation of tri-cycle routes for the city’s ba-rangays.

She said the barangays will be tapped to assist in the monitoring and regulation of tricycle operations, espe-cially those plying specific routes in their areas.

Along with the imple-mentation of the proposed

HE biked “for peace” across the country for 18 days in 2000,

meeting truckloads of sol-diers on their way to the Estrada administration’s “all-out war” in Mindanao; “for life and peace” around Mindanao for 21 days in 2006; “for life and peace” from Davao to Appari and back or 5,000 kilometers for 56 days in 2008; walked “for life and peace” from Davao to Appari for 57 days in the summer of 2011 and in this stormy month of December, go on a 1,800 kilometer 14-day “Climate Ride” from Manila to Bicol, Samar, Leyte, Compostela Valley, Davao, Bukidnon, Cagayan and Iligan,

Redemptorist priest Amado “Picx” Picardal of Iligan City, presently based in Manila as Executive Secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines – Basic Eccle-sial Communities, intends

to start his 1,800 kilometer ride from Baclaran to Iligan on Wednesday, December 10 (also International Hu-man Rights Day). He is ex-pected to arrive in Iligan City by December 23.

Picardal, who turned 60 two months ago, said he will bike across areas hit by destructive typhoons since 2011, in honor of the vic-tims of Typhoon Sendong (December 16-17, 2011), supertyphoons Pablo (De-cember 4, 2004), Yolanda (November 8, 2013) and Ruby which made landfall in Dolores, Eastern Samar at 9:15 p.m. Saturday, De-cember 6.

Picardal said he will stay overnight in parishes and will concelebrate the-misa de galloand preach as well to “call attention to the climate change and the disasters that result from it” such as extreme weath-er events like super-ty-

DSWD 12 sending 50K morefood packs to Ruby-hit areas

Fr. Picx bikes for climate

GenSan to adopt zoning for tricycles

F DSWD, 10

F PEOPLE, 10

F GENSAN, 10

F FR. PICX, 10

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 20144 EDGEDAVAO

SUBURBIA

THE provincial govern-ment inaugurated on Thursday, December 4,

the newly constructed beach park in Barangay Dapnan in Baganga dubbed Baganga Sunrise Boulevard.

Opened in time for the second anniversary of Super typhoon Pablo that devastat-ed the province exactly two years before, the new mon-umental landmark “symbol-izes the province’s resiliency and development after three of the province’s towns were badly destroyed,” Governor Corazon N. Malanyaon said.

With project cost of about P 5 million shelled out by the provincial gov-ernment, the site covers a 750-meter stretch of creamy-white coastline.

Overlooking the scenery ofthe vast Pacific Ocean, the new boulevard, which was completed in a span of only 45 days, consists of several amenities that include two restaurants, a volleyball court, shower area, beach huts, children’s playground, a concessionaire’s area, and

an information center. The latter will serve as the jump-off area for tourists who wish to explore other tourist sites that can be visited with-in the town.

CPDA Chief Architect Charisse Puentespina, who worked on the project, said this is only the first phase of the entire site development as the province intends to expand its development. Among the additions to be-placed are mangrove walk and boating area set to be realized next year.

Designed as an in-come-generating tourism site, the Sunrise Boulevard is also a venue for the locals to sell and promote their products andcommodities to tourists.

The Baganga Sunrise Boulevard is only one of the many infrastructure devel-opments that the province has been implementing in the province as it takes off with its tourism industry.

Malanyaon divulged that the provincial government in-tends to put up a tourist land-

DavOr remembers ‘Pablo’ with new landmark

THE Diocese of Tagum’s Most Reverend Bish-op Wilfredo Manlapaz

reached his 50th year as a priest on Saturday, Decem-ber 6, with the Diocese’s 130 priests (109 of whom he ordained), religious laity, and the tens of thousands of laymen celebrating the mile-stone in the bishop’s long years in the priestly ministry.

The historic day was also marked by the inaugu-ration and blessing of the retirement facilities for both retiree bishops and priests in Purok Capagngan, Brgy. Vi-sayan Village, Tagum City.

In the morning, the collec-tive congregation communed in thanksgiving mass for the bishop in the New Cathedral in Tagum City, followed by a program and lunch in pre-pared tents on the grounds at the Cathedral’s back.

The rare celebration of the diocese covering Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley, and Davao Oriental had for its theme “Celebrating only once.”

“I celebrate this only once. A little over one year from now I’ll be retiring and I have to prepare,” the 73-year-old bishop said in an inter-view Saturday evening at the just inaugurated St. John Paul II Retirement Home for Tagum Clergy, the name he chose for the retirement facil-ities that he first planned to build three years ago.

Under Church rules, bish-ops have mandatory retire-ment age of 75 while priests have 65.

The bishop also asked the congregation to pray for the priests serving the parishes and wished for “more priests and good priests, not just the quantity but also the quality.”

mark in each town. In fact, de-velopment has already started in other municipalities, which include, among others, the

Cape San Agustin in Gover-nor Generoso, Pusan Point in Caraga, Mt. Hamiguitan in San Isidro, and Aliwagwag Falls in

Cateel. The latter is set to be inaugurated early next year.

She said that these devel-opments intend to support

the province’s eco-tourism industry and boost economic development. [KLD/Photos by Eden JhanLicayan]

Retirement home for priests unveiled

The retirement houses sit on one-hectare land donat-ed Benedictine sisters. The compound has bishop’s re-tirement house with a chapel and guest room, and a retire-ment house for the priests with chapel and a function room, and a wide ground concretely fenced around.

“The priests are getting old and sickly, and priests have no families to take care for them when they retire. While waiting for them to retire, religious gatherings can be held here,” explained Bishop Manlapaz.

He said most of his priests are in their mid 30s, while some priests, includ-ing Mati Most Reverend Bishop Patricio Alo, will soon retire. The oldest priest in the Diocese is Fr. Dioscoro “Dodong” Bucod, who is 73 years old.

There are some 120 col-lege seminarians current-

ly enrolled in the Queen of Apostles College Seminary (QACS) and 50 theologians (senior seminarians) en-rolled in various seminaries in the country and bound to serve the Diocese.

Two retired priests, Fr. Jose Sison and Fr. Eligio Bi-anchi, died this year and last year, respectively.

“The compound has wide ground to give a spa-cious and homely ambience that the elderly priests need and an asphalted road for give ease to their movement when they are already on wheel chairs,” said Fr. Em-erson “Father Em-Em” Lu-ego, the priest who started the construction and whose planning and conceptualiza-tion started three years ago.

The funding comes from the parishes and donations from private patrons and benefactors.

It took only four months

to build the facility in full-blast construction starting August 6 this year under the timetable of Project 646, he said.

Project 646 refers to December 6, 1964, the date when Bishop Manlapaz was ordained priest.

Bishop Manlapaz is now on his 28th year serving as bishop. After serving for 22 years as a priest, Pope John Paul II on Dec. 2, 1980 ap-pointed him as the Auxiliary Bishop of Maasin, Leyte.

On Jan. 31, 1986 he was by appointed as the Bishop of Tagum, succeeding Bishop Pedro Dean, who is now the Archbishop-Emeritus of Palo (Leyte), who alsosucceeded first Diocese of Tagum late Bishop Joseph Regan, who served 1962 to 1980.

Bishop Manlapaz was born on April 7, 1941 in Par-acale, Camarines Norte. [Cha Monforte, Correspondent]

THOUSANDS of indigenous people benefited from

services brought by national government agencies (NGAs) during the ARENA-XI’s 12th “Serbisyo Caravan” in Sitio Patel, Barangay Gupitan, Kapalong, this province, on November 30.

Lumad constituents composed largely of the Langilan-Manobo tribe from the 43 sitios of the far-flung barangay availed themselves of the various services and assistance of the NGAs.

The agencies were joined by the Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry Division, Provincial Government of Davao del Norte, and the local government of Kapalong.

Started in 2011, the “Serbisyo Caravan” is a flagship project of ARENA-XI or the Association of Regional Executives of National Agencies in the Davao Region that aims to bring the government closer to the people far-flung and depressed areas.

Engineer Mariano Alquiza, president of ARENA-

XI and regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-XI), led the one-stop shop of government services.

He said the caravan brought the government assistance down to help alleviate the living condition of the lumads in Barangay Gupitan, which is Davao del Norte’s largest village that shares its borders with the provinces of Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur.

Lumads in the village were recently caught in the fighting between government troops and the New People’s Army (NPA).

Over 20 national agencies brought their services to the far-flung village, including the DPWH, DA, OPAPP, DSWD, DAR,DENR, BFAR, AFP, TESDA, PNP, NEDA, DOH, DILG, DTI, CHED, PIA, and DepEd.

Straight from his official trip from Singapore, Governor Rodolfo del Rosario joined the caravan, binging with him the top executives

ARENA-XI Serbisyo Caravanserves lumads in Gupitan

FARM TOOLS. ARENA-XI president and DPWH XI regional director Engr. Mariano Alquiza, Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario, and Mayor Edgardo Timbol hand over farm tools to tribal chieftains at the ARENA-XI Serbisyo Caravan in Sitio Patel, Gupitan, Kapalong, Davao del Norte. [noel baguio/davnor pio]

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VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 5EDGEDAVAO

ECONOMY

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Region 12

has distributed around P26 million worth of machiner-ies and equipment to help improve the operations and competitiveness of 54 micro, small and medium enterpris-es (MSMEs) in the region.

The machineries include portable cow milking ma-chines, abaca spindle strip-ping machines, and meat processing equipment.

Ibrahim Guiamadel, DTI Region 12 director, said Monday that the initiative is part of the continuing imple-mentation in the region of the agency’s flagship Shared Service Facility (SSF) Proj-ect.

Also known as Soccsk-sargen, Region 12 compris-es the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotabato and the cities of Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan and

Cotabato.“The grants were aimed

to improve their products and enhance their market competitiveness,” Guimadel said in a statement.

The DTI central office had allotted a total of P54.2 million for 83 SSF project grants in the region this year he said.

SSF was launched by the DTI to assist the expansion and address the develop-ment needs of MSMEs in the

P26M machines for MSMEs

HOT CAB. A hot pink Grab Taxi is literally calling for attention as it waits for the light to turn green at the intersection of C.M. Recto Street and Roxas Avenue in Davao City. In contrast, the cab behind it looks so… ordinary. Lean Daval Jr.

country.Guiamadel said the ini-

tiative aims to help local MSMEs produce more prod-ucts of better quality and at a lesser production cost.

It addresses the gaps and bottlenecks in the value chain of priority industry clusters, through the pro-vision of processing ma-chines and equipment.

In Region 12, the pri-ority industry clusters that are covered by SSF program are abaca, bamboo, coconut coir, processed fish, pro-cessed food, wearables and homestyles, cacao, coffee and rubber.

Under the program, Guiamadel said the agen-cy provides machineries and equipment that are utilized or shared by mul-tiple users like members of cooperatives and trade associations, communities, beneficiaries of recognized foundations and non-gov-ernment organizations.

The units are provided for free to the beneficiaries but will remain the proper-ty of the DTI for six years from their awarding or re-lease, he said.

He said their owner-ship would be transferred to the beneficiary after the prescribed period by way of donation or sale.

Among the project’s major accomplishments this year was the establish-ment of a mechanized milk-ing facility in Malungon town in Sarangani in part-nership with a local dairy cooperative.

Guiamadel said they released last October two units of portable cow milk-ing machines to the Malalag Cogon Bangkal Dairy Farm-ers Cooperative to expand and enhance its operations.

He said the automatic milking machines were the first for the cooperative since it started produc-ing fresh cow’s milk about three years ago.

“The machines help lower the risk of contam-ination of the milk and at the same time reduce the production process per cow to just 25 minutes from the previous two hours,” he said.

Two weeks ago, Guiamadel said they also turned over four units of

abaca spindle stripping ma-chines to a group of weav-ers based in Barangay Lam-lahak in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato.

He said the machines will improve the quality of abaca fibers that are used in making the province’s popular T’nalak fabric.

The shift from manual to mechanized mode has-tens the processes involved in the production of T’nalak by 50 percent, he said.

In Barangay Concepcion in Koronadal City, 11 units of meat processing equip-ment were distributed to the Concepcion Women’s Association (CWA).

CWA’s meat processing center is manned by its 90 women members and is en-gaged in the processing and marketing of meat processed products such as chorizo, embutido, tocino and corned beef. It also produces frozen beef, poultry and pork.

Guimadel said they are currently working on the release of funds for the pro-curement of machines and equipment that were earlier proposed by 29 beneficia-ries. (MindaNews)

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014THE ECONOMY6 EDGEDAVAO

MOVES are underway to make the tourism industry in Bukidnon

prepared for emergencies.About 450 hotel and

restaurant management stu-dents of Bukidnon State Uni-versity underwent a two-day training on emergency pre-paredness and first response that opened Saturday with trainers from the private and public sector.

Maite Abellanosa, tourism cluster head of the Bukidnon Kaamulan Chamber of Com-merce and Industry Inc. called the training an initial step in partnership with BSU to build a safe and emergency respon-sive tourism industry.

Abellanosa, who owns the training firm Ohana Adven-tures and Events Management, said local tourism players need the training as one of the requi-sites of the international tour-ism industry.

First year to fourth year HRM students of BSU were re-quired to undergo the training as part of their preparation, especially because they are taking internships and future jobs around the country and abroad, said Josephine Eugen-io, a faculty member at BSU’s

College of Business, Accoun-tancy, Hospitality, and Public Governance.

Eugenio said it was the first of such training for their HRM students.

Dr. Rachito Abellanosa told MindaNews the training is cru-cial for tourism professionals as they may figure in emer-gency situations in their jobs in the tourism and restaurant industries.

He added that many of the country’s HRM professionals are employed in first world countries where demand is high for emergency first re-sponder certifications.

There are two batches of students with each batch to undergo whole-day training in four areas.

The first of the four work-shops is the anti-crime/an-ti-terrorism safety workshop handled by Dr. Abellanosa, an international instructor for emergency first response, and Carlo Clapano, a former safe-ty officer at the Philippine Air Force.

The other workshops in-cludes the medical workshop with registered nurse and trainer Wynn Manette Perig, a certified emergency first re-

sponder; fire emergency work-shop handled by Malaybalay City Fire officers led by Russel Bacawag; and Ms. Abellanosa, who gave the workshop on being psychological and emo-tional preparedness to survive.

Abellanosa said the two-day training only covered ba-sic skills because the original training design requires five days for all four areas.

She earlier told MindaN-ews that Bukidnon’s tourism stakeholders “are not linked in a value chain.”

Abellanosa further cited the need to develop potential scenic attractions to make them better tourist destina-tions.

She said Bukidnon’s top attractions are nature and ad-venture tours, but added that the province can do very well in attracting tourists interest-ed in culture and agriculture.

The province hosts seven indigenous tribes, each with a colorful culture that get show-cased only during the annual Kaamulan Festival.

Abellanosa also said there is a need to train tour guides.

Abellanosa, a pioneering cultural guide in the province, noted that there are only two

tour operators accredited by the provincial government, but with workers who are mostly from Cagayan de Oro City “who know nothing about Bukidnon.”

Chamber officials lauded the initial training of BSU stu-dents on Bukidnon culture as a start of the enabling measures to develop tourism in the prov-ince.

Abellanosa said she will link with tour operators so the trained students will be hired as cultural guides.

The chamber, she said, intends to support culture tourism in the province, citing the music and arts of Waway Saway and his group of Talaan-dig artists.

“That’s our top glob-al product from Bukidnon. What’s good about them is that among similar groups, they are the ones who excel. They take efforts to polish their craft,” Abellanosa stressed.

Roberto Tinsay, the cham-ber’s vice president for mem-bership, cited in an earlier in-terview that tourism should be emphasized in pursuing devel-opment because it is “one the best drivers of growth”. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)

Bukidnon tourism industry gears up for emergencies

SAY CHEESE. A group of ladies have their photo taken at the lobby of The Marco Polo, Davao which has been decked with decorations for the Christmas holidays. The season is a busy time for the tourism industry in Davao City. Lean Daval Jr.

AN ING Bank economist discounts changes in the Bangko Sentral ng

Pilipinas’ (BSP) key rates af-ter the meeting of the central bank’s policy-making Mone-tary Board (MB) on Thursday.

In a research note, ING Bank Manila senior economist Joey Cuyegkeng said “softer inflation practically cemented a no change outcome at this Thursday’s BSP-MB meeting.”

This after rate of price increases last November slowed to 3.7 percent from month-ago’s 4.3 percent.

This brought the average for the 11-month period to 4.3 percent, within the gov-ernment’s three to five per-cent target for the year.

Cuyegkeng said the No-vember 2014 inflation rate came as a surprise, which is corroborated by other ana-lysts because of its big drop.

He said the December level “is likely to remain very modest with sustained drop in energy prices despite the inflationary pressures that Typhoon Hagupit/Ruby may trigger.”

He noted that the current policy setting of the BSP is likely to be carried until the second quarter of 2015.

“The moderating infla-

tion reports not only headline inflation but also core infla-tion deliver to BSP-MB policy space,” he said.

To date, the central bank’s overnight borrowing or reverse repurchase (RRP) rate is at four percent and the overnight lending or re-purchase (RP) rate is at six percent.

Relatively, Cuyegkeng projected further cut in the BSP’s average inflation fore-cast to within the two to four percent target for 2015.

In the previous rate set-ting meet of the Board last October, it lowered the 2014 average inflation forecast to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent.

The forecast for the next two years were also cut to 3.7 percent and 2.8 percent from 3.8 percent and three percent for 2015 and 2016, respec-tively.

Cuyegkeng, however, stressed that Philippine mon-etary officials will definitely move to protect its policy stance given the develop-ments both here and abroad.

“A volatile financial mar-ket environment globally and locally may spur BSP to act as it protects the financial and banking sector,” he added. (PNA)

CRUDE prices plummet-ed Monday as reports said that Iraq has cut

its oil prices to Asia and the United States.

Iraq, the second-larg-est producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, decreased its official selling price (OSP) to Asian and the U.S. custom-ers in January for its main

crude oil export grade, Iraqi state oil marketing company SOMO said on Monday.

The move followed a sharp reduction to Saudi Arabia’s crude oil OSP to Asia next month.

The price cut, announced last Friday, continued to weigh on crude prices. U.S. and Brent crudes closed at

the lowest levels in five years on Monday.

Despite a supply glut pushing down oil prices, OPEC, which pumps a third of the world’s crude, decid-ed to maintain its collective production ceiling of 30 mil-lion barrels a day on a meet-ing in Vienna last month.

The producer group

pumped 30.56 million bar-rels crude a day in Novem-ber, exceeding its official target for a sixth straight month.

Analysts believed that OPEC countries do not in-tend to cut production but decide to let the market de-cide the crude prices. (PNA/Xinhua)

SMART Communications, Inc. (Smart) and Sun Cel-lular (Sun) on Monday

announced that its postpaid subscribers have reached 2.66 million as of end-September this year, a 15.4 percent in-crease from 2.30 million in the same period last year.

In a statement, the Phil-ippine Long Distance Tele-phone Co. (PLDT) said that these numbers take on 55 percent of the total postpaid market.

The telcos’ combined postpaid revenues mean-while acquired a 13.3 per-cent year-on-year growth, up from PhP14.035 billion to PhP15.908 billion.

Postpaid revenues now account for about 20 percent of total cellular revenues for the PLDT wireless group.

Smart and Sun executive vice president and head for wireless consumer business, Charles Lim in the statement said that both Smart and Sun continue to be the postpaid leader in terms of subscriber base and revenue growth.

He said that this was due to its offering innovative ser-vices that suit the various lifestyles of their subscribers.

“This is a segment where customer experience is key, we’ve definitely raised the bar in postpaid with our com-bined strategy of network superiority and digital life-style offerings together with premium handset deals and brand of customer service,” Lim said.

“As wave after wave of powerful smartphones come

into the market, and our network becomes more and more pervasive and able to deliver meaningful and valu-able content via these devic-es, Smart and Sun Postpaid subscribers will have the ad-vantage of having a full lineup of all kinds of relevant con-tent ready for them to enjoy,” he added.

For Smart Postpaid, an array of value-added services launched during the period promoted this digital life-style, driving usage among subscribers and fitting per-fectly with the rising number of more affordable but more powerful smartphones.

These services include premium music streaming via Deezer, and other con-tent like movies, books and magazines, that are all ac-cessible via mobile, and are conveniently charged to sub-scribers’ monthly bill at very competitive prices.

In the case of Sun Post-paid, its range of fully flexible, affordable but value-packed plans that all come with a handset and an assortment of value-added services such as mobile Internet and con-tent, continued pushing usage among subscribers.

Innovative offers such as plans that come with function-al and fashionable wearable gadgets at as low as Php 499 per month, or the pioneering tablet bundles that pair the device with a smartphone for productivity and enjoyment, also helped grow the number of Sun Cellular Postpaid’s sub-scribers. (PNA)

ING eyes zero movement for BSP key rates on Thursday

Crude prices plunge as Iraq cuts prices

PLDT’s Smart, Sun postpaid subscriber base now at 2.66M

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 7EDGEDAVAO

AGRITRENDS

Goat feeding

Goat manure

Goat milk

Dairy goats

FILIPINO farmers who want to earn extra in-come from their farms

should raise goats. They will not only help the Philippine economy, they will also lessen their farm expenses and help fight malnutrition among chil-dren.

“They may be known as ‘poor man’s cow,’ but goats can be farmers’ source of income should there be crop failure,” points out Roy C. Alimoane, the director of the Mindanao Bap-tist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) based in barangay Kinuskusan, in Bansalan, Davao del Sur. “Since goats have relatively smaller built than cattle and carabaos, they are easier to raise and require a small initial investment. As such, farmers won’t have any problem in integrating raising goats with their existing crop-based farm-ing systems.”

Goats have been raised since time immemorial. David Mackenzie, in his book Goat Husbandry, wrote: “When man began his farming operations in the dawn of history, the goat was the kingpin of the person-al life, making possible the con-quest of desert and mountain and the occupation of the fer-tile land that lay beyond. The first of Man’s domestic animals to colonize the wilderness, the goat is the last to abandon the deserts that man leaves behind him.”

History records showed that goats were considered the first hoofed animals ever tamed. In the Biblical town of Jericho, people kept tame goats as long as 6,000 or 7,000 years before Christ. The an-cient Greeks and Romans paid great attention to the rearing of goats. Anyone at all familiar with classical authors will re-member how frequently these animals are mentioned, espe-cially in pastoral poems.

According to Alimoane, goats multiply faster than cat-tle or carabaos. “Before a goat turns three years old, she can have given birth to as many as five kids,” he says.

Another advantage: goats require less feeds than cows and carabaos. “About 10 na-tive goats can be fed on the feedstuffs sufficient for one cow,” Alimoane claims. “About 6-7 purebred dairy goats can be fed on what one dairy cow needs.”

Although it is a small an-imal, “a purebred goat can produce as much as 4 liters of milk if the doe is given a ration that meets all of her nutrition-al requirements,” points out Alimoane.

Goat’s milk is nearest to mother’s milk. “Thus, it has a wide variety of health ben-efits,” wrote Dr. Edwin C. Vil-lar in an article, “The ‘udder side’ of goat.” “Goat milk has smaller, well-emulsified fat globules, without agglutinin protein hence easier to digest. This is very ideal for infants and senior citizens which con-stitute approximately 16 per-cent of the population of the country.”

That’s not all. “Goat milk has higher levels of amino ac-ids and significant proportion of medium chain triglycerides, recognized as highly benefi-cial to a number of health is-sues, and has higher amount of vitamins and minerals with greater bioavailability,” Dr. Vil-lar wrote.

A research done by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) showed that goat’s milk per 200 mil-ligram serving can provide 20 percent of the daily require-ments for calcium, 4 percent for vitamin A, and 8 percent for iron.

In the cosmetic industry, goat milk is the new trend. “It has naturally occurring al-pha-hydroxyacids which is a good skin exfoliant,” Dr. Villar reported. “It is also high in capric, caprylic, and caapronic acids, which makes it a good moisturizer with good fats (the medium chain fatty ac-ids) that keeps the skin’s oil in balance.”

But goats are not only sig-nificant because of their nutri-

tional milk. In fact, they can also be valued for their ma-nure. According to an article written by Rey E. Andres, “rice and tomato plants sprayed with liquid fertilizer made from fresh goat manure can effectively reduce the dam-aged caused by golden apple snails, tomato fruit worms, and other common pests at-tacking high value commer-cial crops.”

Andres based his report from the result of a study con-ducted by Dr. Aida D. Solsoloy. It was presented during the regional symposium on re-search and development high-lights in San Fernando City, La Union. The lady scientist from Batac, Ilocos Norte gave goat manure a brand new name: bio-organic fertilizer and pes-ticide.

The rice and tomatoes ap-plied with the liquid fertilizer were not only healthier, Dr. Solsoloy also found them not to be adversely affected by the damages caused by golden ap-ple snails and fruit worms.

“As a result, she gained a substantial profit from the harvest of both crops because no additional expenses were incurred on chemical fertil-izers and pesticides,” Andres wrote. “Another thing that amazed her was that the liq-uid fertilizer did not emit foul odor, thus, it did not attract other harmful insects, mi-crobes and harmful fungi in the farm.”

In her study, she found out goat manure contains 1.5 per-cent of nitrogen (N), 1.2 per-cent of potassium (P), and 0.5 percent of phosphorus (K). “Goat manure contains more NPK than any other animal manure such as those in cow, deer, horse, pig, and chicken,” the study showed.

Despite this, goat farming is still not very popular among Filipinos and no one exactly knows how many goats there are in the country. The Lagu-na-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research

The prospects of raising goatsText and Photos By HENRYLITO D. TACIO

(First of Two Parts)

and Development (PCAAR-RD) claims that the total goat inventory is “steadily increas-ing” at two percent per year. This supply is still not enough to meet the current demands. “We expect that the increased demand will last to 2020 when the project supply can meet the demand of the con-sumers,” PCARRD said.

The optimum potential of goat as one of the main sourc-es of milk and meat has not been fully tapped in the coun-try. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics of the Department of Agriculture reported that the total number of goats in the country is about 3,355,574. Most of the goat farms are concentrated in Southern Lu-zon and various parts of Min-danao.

In Mindanao, goat farm-ing is considered a “sunshine industry.” The country’s sec-ond largest island has a large Muslim population and goat meat is considered Halal food. There is also a big demand in the international market, par-ticularly the Middle East.

But there are some good news. The DOST through PCAARRD has recently em-barked on a 3-year-old pro-gram called National Dairy Goat Science and Technology.

“The program has four proj-ect components which will address pressing issues of the emerging industry,” noted Dr. Villar, who is PCAARRD’s Chief Science Research Specialist Di-rector.

The performance eval-uation of dairy goats in the country will be done under Projects 1 and 2. “The result of the evaluation would lead to the selection and infusion of good breeds across the coun-try through artificial insemina-tion and buck loan,” Dr. Villar reported. “A herd build-up of at least 58 percent is expected with this intervention.”

For Project 3, the nutri-tional value of a forage called

Indigofera as combined with other feed resources will be further explored as “it is be-lieved to have a very significant contribution to the volume and quality of goat’s milk produced in some progressive farms.”

“On animal health, ad-dressing the recurrent prob-lems of mastitis which is com-mon among dairy animals is considered urgent,” Dr. Villar wrote. “Thus, to abate the in-creasing incidence, a program on its control will be imple-mented particularly develop-ing a rapid field diagnostic kit.”

Indeed, there’s a bright fu-ture now for goat raising in the country! (Next: Raising goats for food and profit)

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 20148 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

Give us some reliefEDITORIAL

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

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

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Columnists: CARLOS MUNDA • HENRYLITO TACIO • MA. TERESA L. UNGSON • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • AURELIO A. PEÑA • MARY ANN “ADI” C. QUISIDO • LEANDRO B. DAVAL SR., • NICASIO ANGELO AGUSTIN • VIDA MIA VALVERDE • Economic Analysts: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG • JONALLIER M. PEREZ

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MEGHANN STA. INES NIKKI GOTIANSE-TAN

Lifestyle

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PHILIPPINE PRESS INSTITUTEthe national association of newspapers

ONE of the great mysteries of the universe is how the prices of commodities refuse to follow the law of gravity, particularly when the price of oil goes down

as it has in this past year. For 2014, global oil prices have already decreased by more than 30 percent, and this has benefited industries and businesses immensely. The cost of transporting materials, products, and other such necessities has gone down dramatically, allowing companies to enjoy a bigger margin of profit – all while not even lifting a finger, simply by waiting for oil prices to drop.

On the other hand, the common tao still suffer from the same high prices that had marked the end of 2013. One re-members that oil prices were skyrocketing last year due to unrest in the Middle East, and this was compounded by the destruction wrought by supertyphoon Yolanda. The year 2013 ended on a decidedly sour note, and 2014 was met with not a little pessimism by a people that had suffered a lot. But it soon became apparent that oil prices would actu-ally go down in 2014, beginning as early as January due in

part to some relief in the tense situation in the Middle East. The rest, as they say, is history, and now we have the highly unusual situation of ending a year on a much better note.

The average person, however, has yet to feel the effects of this price drop in global oil prices. As far as we can tell, pric-es of commodities are still on the same level as they were back in January – and there is even a danger that prices will go up in the coming days as the Christmas holidays get in full swing. This makes little sense for the consumer who knows that a huge percentage of a product’s cost is based on the amount of fuel a company uses to manufacture and trans-port it. If oil prices went down by 30 percent, then why are the prices of commodities still basically the same?

There may be some economic rationale for this that in-dustries can quote, but it is significant to note that even the government is asking the business sector to lower their prices to reflect the global decrease in fuel prices. Give the people some relief – the same relief the business sector is enjoying.

INCLUSIVE growth essentially means encouraging those who traditionally have not been able to participate in the

economy to do so. A good illustration of this would be the small communities in our hin-terland barangays and urban poor areas. Of-ten they cannot access the market due to a lack of capital and poor infrastructure that would otherwise enable them to create and sell what they make towards building a sus-tainable livelihood.

Then there are an increasing number of institutions and organizations engaging in social enterprises that aim to build live-lihoods by training local communities to create great products from locally available resources and materials. This adds value to decent work and in the long term, builds a constituency of consumers making the buy-ing preference for products made by locals from local sources. The local economy will be better for it.

Echostore along diversion road in Bu-hangin near the Bacaca Road exit sells prod-ucts made by local farmers and livelihood

p r o d u c t s from Gawad Kalinga Com-m u n i t i e s . Their best seller is spa in a bottle that is made from natural ingredients to soothe aches and pains without the offensive sting. It also has a café where you can eat healthy and sustainably. You can check them out at www.echostore.ph.

The Gift Farm. The family of flowers now produces high quality farm to table cacao and other products for the world market. The Puentespina family has leveled up their market reach by launching the www.thegift-farm.ph, where you can do online shopping for plants, the famous chocolate products, among other items.

Bios Dynamis sells sustainably pro-

duced rice from communities here in Davao and Cotabato. They have a store at Barroga building along Quimpo Boulevard in Ecol-and but are also available at local supermar-kets. Their website isbiosdynamishops.com.

The Freefood Company I set to produce a premium brand of artisanal chocolate candy through their COCO DOLCE Brand. It now comes in small candy bars with coco sugar as sweetener and pili nuts or chili, making them healthy gifts for the discerning choc-oholic. Its texture is perhaps the smoothest of all locally produced chocolate candy and will not disappoint even the most discerning chocoholic. They are available at the Echo-store and at the wines section of the Gaisano Malls.

Also at the Echostore you can find Padre Ninno’s food products such as pasta sauces, duck soppresata and other items from the kitchen of Fr. Franco Uras, a Salesian (Don Bosco) priest who has made it his mission to train lumad youths and local farmers in Buda, Tugbok on cooking such specialties and planting organic produce.

With social media enabling us to pass on quick information and make online pur-chases, the cost of selling and marketing ar-tisanal products has indeed gone down. Fur-thermore, the numerous finds such as these create a community, or ecosystem, if you will of local consumers and producers that will eventually challenge the mainstream. Technology has enabled us to pass on the links to our friends abroad and create a de-mand for these products.

Thinking about inclusive growth in the Aquino regime encourages me to think of it more purposefully given that indeed, this is the Christmas season, a time of giving and sharing. Rather than allow myself to spend for gifts to benefit others from beyond our shores, I have compiled a list of stores where gift items made. Every peso spent on such a product creates a sustainable livelihood for the local farmer, for the urban and ru-ral community, sending their kids to school, and enabling better welfare for their fam-ilies. That’s the inclusive Christmas that makes Christ happy.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

John Triaecisouth@gmail.com

MY TWO CENTS’

“WE really don’t know, Sir,” the front desk lady replied when I asked why there was no Room No. 213. I recently checked-in in one of the hotels

in Davao City. I was given Room No. 214. The room before that was Room No. 212. So, what happened to Room No. 213?

This was the first time I observed this. In the hotel I was staying in New York, there was no 13th floor. Flying from Singapore to South Africa, I noticed there was no seat 13; it jumped from 12 to 14.

The number 13 is considered to be an unlucky number in some countries. Charles Stewart Parnell had an irrational fear of the number thirteen. That fear is recognized as “triskaidekaphobia,” a word which was coined in 1911.

The superstitious sufferers of “triskaidekaphobia” try to avoid bad luck by keeping away from anything numbered or labeled thirteen. As a result, companies and manufacturers use another way of num-bering or labeling to avoid the number, with hotels and tall buildings being conspicuous examples.

There are a number of theories behind the cause of the association between thir-teen and bad luck, but none of them have been accepted as likely. Some thought it had something to do with the Last Supper of Jesus Christ as there were thirteen people around the table, counting Christ and the twelve apostles. That’s why it’s also consid-ered to be unlucky to have thirteen guests at

a table. In ancient

Iranian civili-zation and Zo-roastrianism, the number 13 had been c o n s i d e r e d sinister and wicked. Since beginning of Nourooz tra-dition, the 13th day of each new Iranian year is called Sizdah Be-dar and this tradition is still alive among Iranian people both inside modern Iran and abroad. Since Sizdah Be-dar is the 13th day of the year, it is considered a day which evil’s power might cause difficulties for people. As such, people desert the cities and urban ar-eas for one day and camp in the countryside.

“Triskaidekaphobia” also may be relat-ed to Norse mythology, which tells how the god Odin invited eleven of his closest friends to a dinner party at his home in Valhalla, only to have his party crashed by Loki, the god of evil and turmoil, thus giving a total of 13 people. The legend further relates how Balder, one of the most beloved gods, tried to throw Loki out of the party, resulting in a scuffle and ultimately Balder’s death with a mistletoe-tipped arrow.

While 13 is associated with the number of people at the Last Supper, the crucifix-

ion of Jesus Christ took place on a Friday, thus leading to an association of back luck with the combination of this number and day. However, the association of Friday the 13th with the arrest of Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, on Friday, October 13, 1307 by King Philippe IV of France – as repeated, for example, in D. Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code” – is a modern-day invention.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia, the aber-rant fear of Friday the 13th, is probably the most widespread superstition in the United States (with the popularity of the “Friday the 13th” movie series).

Curiously enough, a study published in the prestigious “British Medical Journal,” which analyzed the relation between health, behavior, and superstition surrounding Friday 13th in the United Kingdom by com-paring the ratio of traffic volume to traffic accidents on Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th over a period of years found that: “The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is rec-ommended.”

Apparently, 13 has not always been con-sidered unlucky. In fact, it appears that in ancient times, 13 was either considered in a positive light or (more commonly) not at all. The apparitions of the Virgin of Fátima in 1917 were claimed to occur on the 13th day of six consecutive months.

The American flag has 13 stripes in hon-

or of the first 13 colonies. Apollo 13 was a NASA Moon mission famous for being a “successful failure” in that while the crew members were unable to land on the Moon as planned due to a technical malfunction, they were returned safely home.

Colgate University also considers 13 to be a lucky number. They were founded in 1819 by 13 men with 13 dollars, 13 prayers and 13 articles. (To this day, members of the Colgate community consider the num-ber 13 a good omen.) In fact, the campus address is 13 Oak Drive in Hamilton, New York, and the male a cappella group is called the Colgate 13.

American country-pop singer-song-writer Taylor Swift was born on December 13. She considers 13 her lucky number due to lucky events that happens to her when the number appears (her first album going gold in 13 weeks, being seated at awards shows in the 13th seat, row or section). She also wears the number written on her hand at her concerts so she has it with her every-where she goes.

Chris Paul wore the number 13 for both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Mats Sundin, Pavel Datsyuk, Bill Guerin, and Michael Cammalleri wear 13 in the NHL. One of Iceland’s best handball players, Sigurður Sveinsson, wore the number 13 when he played for the national team. In association football, both Gerd Müller and Michael Ballack have favored the number 13, among others.

Henrylito D. Taciohenrytacio@gmail.com

THINK ON THESE!

Thirteen: Lucky or unlucky?

Gifts for an Inclusive Davao Christmas

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 201410 NEWS EDGEDAVAO

Earlier, Mambo-o said the IP Provincial Consulta-tive Body and the deputy mayor of six IP tribes in the city sent him a letter asking for the creation of a techni-cal working group (TWG) that will facilitate the In-formation and Education Campaign (IEC) as well as review and validate the ap-plicable local guidelines for

the selection process.He said the TWG also

will help evaluate the se-lection process of the next tribe that will represent the IPs.

Mambo-o said the Ka-gan tribe has six aspirants to be the next IP mandato-ry representative (IPMR). The whole tribe will have a consensus on who its repre-

sentative to the City Council will be.

He said after the names are submitted to the TWG, the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) will evaluate them before it issues the certificate of affirmation on the chosen member who will be the representative of the IP sec-tor in the city.

of the province to assist in the activity.

The Department of Agriculture-XI provided 30 bags of certified corn seeds, 100 bags of OPV corn seeds, 10 bags of peanut seeds, 2,500 camote cuttings, 200 packs vegetable seeds, fruit tree seedlings, anti-rabies vaccine, nutritional supplements, antibiotics, and dewormers.

The Bureau of Fisheries

and Aquatic Resources (BFAR-XI) also distributed 20,000 tilapia fingerlings, while the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-XI) distributed 30 toilet bowls, 4,500 family food packs, crutches, and other services.

The Department of Health, AFP, and DPWH further conducted medical and dental services, while the other agencies

provided their respective information and advocacy drive, and a host of relevant services.

Del Rosario and Alquiza also led the groundbreaking of the Patel-Kapatagan two-lane PSCG Bridge worth P108 million funded by the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) program of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP).

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mittee on finance, ways and means, and appropriations, councillor Danilo Dayanghi-rang said with the approval of the ordinance, employees can receive their bonus next week if their department head will comply with all the requirement of the LFC.

Based on the record, Plantilla employees will re-ceive P10,000 each; consul-

tants, job orders, and contract of service will receive P5,000 each; and barangay health workers, nutrition scholars, and auxiliaries will receive P2,000 each.

Dayanghirang said the total budget for bonus is still being prepared due to the variation of the number of personnel for this year.

Human Resource Man-

agement Office head Erwin Alparaque said that the city government has a total 12, 827 employees: 2,827 are plantilla or regular employ-ees, 4,242 are job order em-ployees, and 5,365 contract of service employees.

The numbers of baran-gay health workers, nutrition scholars, and auxiliaries are not yet submitted.

icates in relation to business to any person otherwise not qualified or legally entitled; and any other delay or re-fusal to comply with the referral or directive of the Investment Ombudsman team.

Elman said the office, though the leadership of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, is serious in assisting the business com-munity in order to create a viable business climate in Mindanao.

He encouraged business owners to file complaints against government func-tionaries involved in mulct-ing, solicitation, or any illegal act that hampers a business entity from doing it business activity.

Elman said the Ombuds-man is willing to assist even those who wish their names

to be confidential.“We can file in behalf of

the complainant,” he said.Elman said his office will

be focusing on complaints on some transactions in the Bureau of Custom (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Rev-enue (BIR).

He also said the Om-budsman is planning to con-duct an investment forum in Davao City in the first quar-ter of next year.

He said that the forum will be a venue for inves-tors and businessmen to lay down their complaints on government offices and functionaries.

“We will be inviting Min-danao business leaders in the forum,” he said, adding that Cebu City which has a vibrant business activity earlier conducted the same forum.

grams because he wants to sustain their operations.

“Maybe this is the amount needed for the op-erations. You know, this is the budget of the Mayor, so the mayor knows what to do,” Dayanghirang said.

Based on the record, the peace and order pro-gram will get a total of P116,017,876. Of the total, P76 million will go to Main-tenance and Other Operat-ing Expenses, P40 million will go to other professional services and P17, 876 will go to the general services.

The Lingap program will get P67,412,294.35. Of the total, P41,727,081.62 will go to the drugs and med-icines and P25,685,212. 35 will go to other main-tenance and operating ex-

penses.The record also showed

that the source of fund came from the rever-sion such as the excess of amount obligated per pur-chase request against the actual payment, fund from Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAG-COR), actual collections not included in the estimates as of October 31, 2014 and actual collections in excess estimates.

Last September, the City Council passed the P217-million SB1to ad-dress the city’s funding of priority programs and ser-vices like the Lingap funds, repairs of Central 911 vehi-cles, and salaries and wages of contractual employees. [ABF]

ed, higher than the 1,972 in 2013.

Davao del Norte also re-corded a three percent in-crease this year with 5,325, compared with the 5,192 jobs last year.

In order to assist SMEs and revive the livelihoods of typhoon victims in Compos-tela Valley and Davao Orien-tal, DTI implemented Pablo rehabilitation projects like the Rebuilding thru Innova-tion, Sustainable Employ-ment and Enterprise (RISE)

project and Bayanihan para sa Kabuhayan.

DTI records showed that the agency was able to assist 126 SMEs in Davao Orien-tal that generated a total of 2,024 and 240 SMEs in Com-postela Valley.

Through the program, a total of 2,361 farmers in Davao Oriental and 1,180 in Compostela Valley were trained for capacity building. DTI conducted 71 trainings in Davao Oriental and 24 in Comval. [CRC]

The food packs were part of the assistance prepared by the DSWD-12 in anticipation of the onslaught of typhoon “Ruby,” which devastated parts of the Samar provinces and the neighboring areas.

Bonifacio Selma, DSWD-12’s acting operations head, said DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman earlier ordered all regional offices in the coun-try to prepare relief packs for immediate dispatch to the ty-phoon-ravaged areas.

Three wing vans carrying 8,400 food packs left the re-gional warehouse for Tacloban City last Sunday. An additional shipment containing 6,600 food packs was dispatched to the area on Tuesday.

The relief items also in-cluded 200 cases of ready-to-eat food, with each case containing 48 tetra packs of

“rice-ulam” like rice-afritada and rice-tuna.

Each standard family food pack contains six kilograms of rice, eight sachets of coffee, eight packs of instant noodles and six canned goods compris-ing three sardines and three corned beef.

The relief packs are meant to address the immediate food needs of a family of five for two to three days.

Aside from the food packs, DSWD Region 12 director Bai Zorahayda Taha sent two so-cial workers and two project development officers to assist the relief operations and camp management activities in the typhoon-hit areas.

The agency’s debriefing team and other social work-ers are currently on standby for possible deployment to the area.

phoons, floods, droughts, rising sea levels, water and food crisis,” and to promote biking “not only for exer-cise but also as a regular means of transportation and commute within our cities.”

“I have done three ad-vocacy rides (for life and peace) around the coun-try in my younger years and I thought I won’t be doing this anymore when I become a ‘senior citizen.’ But the super-typhoons that have hit our country every year and other ca-lamities such as floods and droughts have spurred me to ride my bike across the country once again. I am aware that these are not ‘acts of God’ or mere natu-ral occurrences. These are manifestations of climate change,” Picardal said in a

pre-departure statement(-see statement).

“We are being remind-ed that we human beings are responsible for climate change due to our materi-alist and consumerist life-style, deforestation, depen-dence on fossil burning fuel for our cars, factories, pow-er-plant which emits car-bon dioxide or greenhouse gases into the atmosphere resulting in global warm-ing and climate change. As the oceans gets warmer, the super-typhoons have become the new normal. Ruby will not be the last su-per-typhoon, there is more to come,” he said.

He appealed to the gov-ernment to come up with measures to address more seriously the problem of climate change and miti-gate its effects.

He also appealed to the public to “do our part to contribute in saving the planet and saving our lives.”

While he will bike alone, Picardal said he would welcome local bik-ers to “join me for a few hours as I pass their cities.”Picardal’s journey:Dec 10 Baclaran – Gumaca (Quezon, Luzon): 187kDec 11 Gumaca-Naga:187kDec 12 Naga-Sorsogon: 147kDec 13 Sorsogon-Matnog ferry crossing to Allen- Cal-bayog (Visayas): 135kDec 14 Calbayog-Tacloban: 175kDec 15 rest day TaclobanDec 16 Tacloban-Liloan Leyte cross to Surigao City (Mindanao): 154kDec 17 Surigao- Prosperi-dad (Agusan del Sur): 182k

Dec 18 Prosperidad-New Bataan (Compostela Val-ley): 142kDec 19 New Bataan- Davao City: 118kDec 20 Davao- Maramag (Bukidnon): 152kDec 21 Maramag-Malaba-lay: 49kDec 22 Malaybalay-Cagay-an deOro: 97kDec 23 Cagayan-Iligan: 88 k

Picardal will leave Baclaran after the 5:15 a.m. pre-departure bless-ing in the Baclaran Mother of Perpetual Help Shrine on December 10.

He told MidaNews some bikers will join him from Baclaran to Lagu-na while another group of bikers will meet him somewhere between San Pablo, Laguna and Tiaong, Quezon. (MindaNews)

and Eastern Samar, Pama said.

The NDRRMC also said that three roads have been closed to traffic due to flooding, landslide and fall-en trees in Regions 5 and 8. There were 16 flooded areas reported in the provinces of Quezon, Laguna and Marin-duque.

The total cost of govern-ment assistance for the af-fected families in Regions 5, 6, 7 and Caraga has reached over P60,738,467.10.

Meanwhile, the provinc-es of Albay, Camarines Sur and Catanduanes in Region 5 and San Pablo City in Laguna have declared a state of ca-lamity. (PNA)

zoning scheme, she said they will strictly enforce the ban for tricycles from entering or passing portions of the na-tional highway.

Zamora acknowledged that the zoning scheme will initially cause inconvenience to residents who are used to the current unregulated routes.

“But if this will eventual-ly solve our traffic problem then why not adopt it,” she

said.City officials earlier esti-

mated that around 8,000 tri-cycles have been operating on a daily basis in various routes here.

But such figure was two-folds more than the actual number of tricycle franchis-es that had been issued by the MTFRB.

The MTRB noted that “colorum” tricycles or those without franchises have

been clogging the city’s thoroughfares and eventu-ally cause congestion, espe-cially during the peak hours.

The city government earlier launched a crack-down against “colorum” tricycles after it came out that a significant number of tricycle units plying various routes have originated from nearby towns in South Co-tabato and Sarangani prov-inces.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014

TELCO’S free calling service connects over-seas Filipinos back

homeGlobe Telecom an-

nounced that it will be extend-ing its “Libreng Tawag” ser-vice abroad, which has helped overseas Filipinos connect with family and friends back in the Philippines as Typhoon Ruby (international code-name “Hagupit”) barreled its way through the country.

With the free calling ser-vice well-received by Filipinos overseas, Globe will continue the “Libreng Tawag” program in the said countries and ter-ritories until 11:59 PM EST on December 9 or about 12:59 PM on December 10 in the Philippines.

“Globe is bringing its ‘Libreng Tawag’ initiative to eight countries around the world with some of the big-gest OFW and migrant popu-lations, knowing how import-ant it is during these trying times for families separated by geography to communi-cate with each other and send messages of encouragement. We are pleased to extend this service overseas for one more

day as our way of being unit-ed with our countrymen who may be affected by Typhoon Ruby,” said Globe Senior Vice President for International Business Rizza Maniego-Ea-la.

The “Libreng Tawag” of Globe was well-received overseas that, upon learning the severe weather distur-bance will hit the Philip-pines, Filipinos trooped to various convergence points where the telco provided free calling stations. With this in mind, the telco will contin-ue providing services for an extra day on the following locations:

In Saudi Arabia, at the Philippine Consulate Gener-al in Jeddah, the downtown district in Balad as well as partner stores of Globe, in-cluding in Riyadh, will serve as locations for the calling stations.

In Spain, Filipinos based there may avail of “Libreng Tawag” at four strategic points along Joaquín Costa Street in Barcelona. In It-aly, the new Globe store in Rome, which opened last December 6, as well as its

six month-old counterpart in Milan, will have calling sta-tions for Pinoys in the Ital-ian peninsula. Those in the United Kingdom will also be able to call home at no cost at Earl’s Court in London.

In Hong Kong, particu-larly in Central District, Fili-pinos can have the privilege to contact the Philippines for free, while OFWs in Singa-pore may avail of the service at the Lucky Plaza along Na-

than Road.In Canada, Filipinos

can get call cards for free in Winnipeg in Manitoba; Joyce-Collingwood in Van-couver; Calgary in Alberta; St. Catherine’s in Niagara; Montreal in Quebec; and in Eastern and Western Ontar-io. Pinoys based in the US can also have complimentary Globe call cards at Seafood City branches across the said country.

11

THERE is no stopping the Holy Child Col-lege of Davao – IT

in bagging the Over – all champion cup of the re-cently concluded Mindan-ao Wide IT Olympiad, held at Holy Cross of Davao College last November 28, 2014. The IT program of Holy Child cut above the rest and made its way to the top, besting more than 20 able schools who competed in the different events of the IT Olympics.

The Mindanao Wide IT Olympiad is an event organized by the Council of Deans for IT Education in Region XI (CDITE-XI) and the Philippine Society of IT Educators-Region XI (PSITE-XI) with the participation of the Com-mission on Higher Edu-cation-Region XI (CHED-XI). This is held annually in a host school, this year, at Holy Cross of Davao College, Main Campus. To note, the different com-petitions participated by different schools in Mind-anao, pave the way for the students to showcase their skills and competencies in the different fields of In-formation Technology.

Joining in diverse competitions which start-ed 26th of November and ended on the 28th, the HCIT landed on a sweet spot in IT Quiz Bowl par-ticipated by Kathryn Faye Te Eng Fo and Jim Pen-don, as champion among the 33 schools; champion in Hackathon participated by Anthony King Valdez, Emmanuel John Tierra and Reymbrant Alcantara, among 16 schools; cham-pion in Infomercial par-ticipated by Ian Kristoffer Vasquez and Brian Earl Paje, out of 18 schools; and, champion in Info-graphics competed by Ed-mund Jay Michael Rubin, Janssen Panizales, Joanna Lyn Labarite and Arvin John Magturo, out of the 24 competitors. While the Programming event com-peted by Gerard Oesterdal, Samuel Jonne Bustamante and Carlo Aqui, pulled off a close fight against 33 schools placing 11th in the rank. A share of the lead is attributed to the coach-es sphere-headed by Mr. Regil De Castro, Mr. Alvin Mark Cabelino and Mr. Joash Tubaga.

Amidst trials and

Team GameX Wargods bags League of Legends

Team GameX Wargods bagged the League of Legends (LOL) championship at the recent Esports and Gaming Summit held at the SMX Convention Hall to become the top-ranked pro LOL team in the country. The team consists of (from left): Neil “vyy” San Juan; Ronel “Stronger” Tan; Jaiby “JLC” Paglingayen; Robert Conrad “Otchie” Pascual; and Kenneth Jordy “Skill” Garcia.

EDGEDAVAO

ICT HUB

struggles in nailing this competition, the success can all be credited to the collaborative efforts of the IT academic lead, the flexible and vibrant facul-ty and coaches, the heads

– up participants, and the whole HCIT community.

Having brought home the bacon, the Holy Child College of Davao – IT is gearing towards higher goals for the coming com-

petitions so as to meet its statement, “When every-body becomes different, we become the standard; when everybody becomes standard, we become dif-ferent.”

And, while there is so much bragging to say, the glory still belongs to God who made HCIT the cham-pion amongst all.

Kudos champions! [KADV 11302014]

Globe extends ‘Libreng Tawag’to serve Ruby-affected families WIKIMEDIA Foun-

dation and Smart Communications,

Inc. (Smart) have joined forces in promoting and optimizing the use of online resources for learning.

Wikimedia operates Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia.

“Smart’s emphasis on education is aligned with the Wikimedia Foundation’s global mission,” said Carolynne Schloeder, head of global mobile partnerships at Wikimedia. “We’re thrilled to support both Smart and our local partners at Wikimedia Philippines in their efforts to realize this mission, including their groundbreaking partnerships to incorporate Wikipedia into public education.” Schloeder and Anna Koval, manager of Wikipedia’s education program, observed the afternoon session of Tap&Learn in Balanga as part of their recent four-day visit to the Philippines.

Wikimedia Philippines is now a resource partner for Tap&Learn: Tablets for Education, an initiative of Smart that trains teachers on how to make use of wireless devices like tablets as tools for learning. This is the first time

for Wikimedia to collaborate with a telco in advocating community-based and mobile-enabled learning.

“In this increasingly knowledge-driven economy, it is important for our teachers to further improve their skills using mobile technology for education so they can make learning more engaging for their students. Over the years, we have made use of technology and mobile communications to drive learning, and consequently, development,” said Ramon R. Isberto, head of Public Affairs at Smart.

Under the partnership, Filipino Wikipedia editors help train educators from public elementary and secondary schools across the country on how to use the online resource to enhance the learning experience of their students, as well as for their own professional development.

“Filipinos are keen to learn about the world. By making Wikipedia easily accessible through mobile devices, we are putting a huge virtual library of information in the hands of people wherever they go. This is great for students, professionals, and whoever needs to get information quickly,” said Isberto.

World’s first Wikipedia-Smartpartnership promotes learning

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 201412

Call: 224-0733 • Tionko St., Davao City

Billiard Supplies

Phone Nos. Cell Nos.

CLASSIFIED EDGEDAVAO

There’s abetter wayto getattention.

NOTICE OF LOSSNotice is hereby given by LOYOLA PLANS

CONSOLIDATED INC. That CERTIFICATE OF FULL PAYMENT No.(s) 63276 under LOYOLA PLAN Contract No.(s) 1025826-7issued to JOSE YDIANON GUTIERREZ was lost. Any transaction entered into shall be null and void.

12/3,10/17

NOTICE OF LOSSNotice is hereby given by LOYOLA PLANS

CONSOLIDATED INC. That CERTIFICATE OF FULL PAYMENT No.(s) 34428 under LOYOLA PLAN Contract No.(s) 423061-1 issued to ABUDANCIO N. BULAC was lost. Any transaction entered into shall be null and void.

12/3,10/17

DEED OF EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF ESTATE

Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late ADORACION L. SEPNIO has been the subject of an EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT executed among her heirs per Doc. No.356; Page No. 72; Book No. 22; Series of 2014, of the NOTARY PUBLIC EMMANUEL T. EVANGELIO

12/10,17,23

EDGEDAVAO CLASSIFIEDS

Advertise with

DAVAO HELEN’S PAWNSHOP CORP.De Guzman St., Davao City

Telefax (082)225-4473NOTICE OF AUCTION SALE

All unredeemed items pawned during the month of Au-gust 2014,if not redeemed/renewed on December 31, 2014 will be put on Auction Sale January 2, 2015 at 9:00

A. M. to 5:00 P.M.Pahibalo nga ang tanang wala malukat nga prenda sa bu-lan Agosto 2014,kung dili malukat sa Disyembre 31, 2014 isubasta sa bulan sa January 2, 2015 sa alas 9:00 sa bun-

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Davao del Sur:Gaisano Grand Mall of Digos, Quezon St., Digos City

INdulge! VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014

EDGEDAVAOWOMEN

THIS GENERATION has seen the birth of so many home grown brands. This business trend resonates well around the metro as a good percentage of the population has made the practical and sensible move to support local. In a way, you can say the market has matured and found a deeper connection to and appreciation for artisanal creations, homemade epicurean delights and crafts made from indigenous materials.

HumabiStyle and purpose in a bag

While most of today’s art-ists and designers have ex-plored the many types and uses of eco-friendly materi-als and adapted them into their production, Erika Sori-ano Mata has found a gem in recyclables and made good use out of them by turning them into fashionable bags. “Our products are made entirely of tie box twines,” shares the budding entre-preneur. Erika, who is a full-time mom to 3 children, has just recently launched her line of bags under the brand called Humabi. “It means ‘weave,’ which is how the bags are made.” “I put up this brand in col-laboration with my daugh-ters. They are part of the design process. We wanted the bags to complement any outfit. It’s utilitarian in the sense that you can wear it to any event or occasion, even on a regular day. The idea of creating our own brand just sparked from our shared interest in fashion and style, plus the vision we have for the family’s outreach pro-gram.” Erika and her hus-band, Richard, have long since provided assistance to young adults who can-not support themselves in school. “All our scholars are

Marga Nograles

Kay Gempesaw.

Erika Soriano Mata.

Bianca Barretto - Uy.Mimi Vergara - Tupas.

studying at the Philippine Science High School. We re-ally hope we can send more children to school by getting the additional resources.” With this goal in mind, Eri-ka launched Humabi to raise funds for their charity work. “Think of it as fashion for a cause. Every bag you buy sends a child to school. The business provides live-lihood to our weavers who are women and mothers in the correctional institution. There really is so much heart in this project and I couldn’t be any happier with how everything turned out. The response from the market is also overwhelming. We’ve received so many orders from women, especially fel-low moms. I’m so excited to share this blessing with our scholars,” beams Erika.

What other

mompreneurs say about Humabi: “I was impressed with the quality of its workmanship as well as the designs. It was obvious to me that each bag was designed with much thought and created with love and care. What’s even more impressive are the as-pirations behind Humabi. This brand is a perfect mix-ture of style, function and purpose.” – Kay Gempesaw “Only a few can definitely mix taste, class, substance, enterprise and purpose. Humabi nailed all of the above. It comes to no sur-prise to me because Erika, being a woman I greatly adore, exemplifies just the same. She is all of the above, plus she does this with such grace, humility and a pure heart. Each woman would surely love to be just that sometimes and Humabi lends us a chance to be a tiny bit of one, or everything in our own little way.” - Mimi Vergara-Tupas “Humabi encapsulates the heartfelt commitment of the people behind it in their promise of a brighter future for brilliant young minds, and the hope of regaining the spirit of the women in the correctional institution. Erika Soriano-Mata, the driving force behind this admirable advocacy, found beauty in the ordinary. Her tasteful designs were trans-lated into carefully crafted elegant bags.” – Bianca Bar-retto – Uy “Humabi is very close to my heart because of all the love and passion that is put into it. ... Each piece tells a story and I carry it with love and pride knowing that it has helped many.“Humabi is very close to my heart be-cause of all the love and pas-sion that is put into it. Each piece tells a story and I carry it with love and pride know-ing that it has helped many. It also makes a very special gift to your loved ones.” – Marga Montemayor – Nograles

To order Humabi bags, vis-it http://www.humabi-bags.com or email humabibags@yahoo.com.

ALL Smart, Sun and Talk ‘N Text prepaid subscribers are in for a grand treat with the launch of the International Christ-mas Extravaganza promo, which gives all prepaid subscrib-ers a chance to win a total of P1 million worth of prizes ev-ery time they connect with their loved ones overseas. “For Filipinos, Christmas is a special time to connect with relatives and friends – especially those who are overseas. There is no better way to send our warmest greetings to them than with a thoughtful text or call, which are now made easier and more affordable by the products of Smart, Sun and Talk ‘N Text,” said Michelle Curran, head of Data and International Services for Smart and Sun. “The International Christmas Extravaganza promo is our way of thanking as well as encouraging more prepaid sub-scribers to reach out to their loved ones abroad and send them the warmth of Pinoy Christmas.” Prepaid subscribers of Smart, Sun and TNT may earn a raffle entry to the International Christmas Extravaganza Promo for every Php50 worth of load or registration to Smart Sulit IDD (denominations of 50, 100 and 500); Sun Todo IDD (denominations of 50, 100, 200 and 300); TNT Ka-mustext 20 and TNT Flexi-Call and Text (denominations of 30 and 50). To join the International Christmas Extravaganza pro-mo, prepaid subscribers must first register by texting INTL(space)<NAME>/<COMPLETE ADDRESS>/<REGION> to 211 for Smart and TNT and 2222 for Sun. Subscribers should key in three-letter codes to signify their region: North Luzon (NLZ); South Luzon (SLZ); Central Luzon (CLZ); National Capital Region (NCR), Visayas (VIS) and Mindanao (MIN). For example: INTL Juan Dela Cruz/Sampaloc, Manila/NCR. Subscribers will be notified upon successful registration, and may start accumulating raffle entries via call cards, load conversion or eload. Six lucky subscribers (one winner for every specified re-gion) will take home a brand new motorcycle, while 30 sub-scribers (5 winners for every specified region) will each get gift certificates worth P10,000. Also up for grabs are gro-cery baskets for 60 lucky subscribers (10 winners for every specified region). Subscribers may accumulate electronic raffle entries until January 31, 2015, for the raffle draw on February 13, 2015. To check the total number of raffle entries earned, subscribers may text INTL<space> PTS to 211 for Smart and TNT and 2222 for Sun. To know more about the promo, subscribers may simply dial the toll-free 24/7 hotlines of Smart and TNT (*888) and Sun Prepaid (200).

Pinoy Big Brother 2014 big winner Daniel Matsunaga is the ultimate hottie this holiday season as he cozies up with Chalk Magazine to talk about his life in sunny Brazil: his childhood dream of becoming a football player and his love for his tight-knit family. The model turned actor also reveals his pursuit of making it big in the model-ing industry and the frustra-tions and difficulties that come along with it. In this is-sue, the Brazilian-Japanese hunk shares to Chalk maga-zine his experience of living from one country to anoth-er in the hopes of landing a stable career until he finally found a sense of belonging in the Philippines. With all the blessings coming his way like a Metro Manila Film Festival movie entry, Daniel’s future is brighter than ever. So what does Daniel wish for this holiday season? He only wants to fly in his family from Brazil to the Philippines so they can experience an authentic Filipino Christmas to-gether. Don’t forget to grab your copy of Chalk Magazine’s holi-day issue available at your favorite newsstands today! For more details, check out CHALK Magazine’s facebook page (www.facebook.com/chalkmagazine).

A2 INdulge!UP AND ABOUT EVENT

Smart, Sun, TNT launch International Christmas Extravaganza promo

Daniel Matsunaga wishes for a Pinoy Christmas

Hijo Resources Corporation’s tree emerged in first place to benefit the Tuason Development Foundation, Inc.

The Anflocor Group of Companies chose as its beneficiary the Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines, Inc.

The Christmas Trees of Life, Love, and Peace are located at Abreeza Mall’s Christmas Village.

PWC’s Fashion Design Program and Davao Elite Fashion Group sought to help prison inmates of the Bureau of Jail Management & Penology.

Villa Margarita Hotel offered its winnings to the SOS Children’s Villages.

A treasured symbol of the Christmas season earns a deeper meaning and a greater purpose through a project at Abreeza Mall that encourages

both charity and holiday cheer.

on display at the Ground Floor of the Abreeza Cor-porate Center as a major feature of the Christmas Village, which runs until December 20. The Christ-mas Village is a one-stop-shop for holiday needs, including gift items and services, holiday sweets and Noche Buena treats, a toy fair and kids’ activities, and more. For inquiries and up-dates on Abreeza Mall news and events, please visit the Main Concierge at the ground floor or call (082) 321-9332. Stay up-dated by liking www.face-book.com/AbreezaMall and following @abreeza-tweets on Twitter and @iloveabreezamall on Insta-gram.

Companies decorate Christmas trees for a cause at Abreeza Mall Abreeza Mall’s “Christ-mas Tree of Life, Love, and Peace” competition invited select companies to put up tree installations at the Christmas Village at the Abreeza Corporate Center, with cash prizes amounting to P60,000 in total at stake. Each par-ticipating company was encouraged to decorate their tree with the sea-son’s ornaments as well as décor that represents the company, but none of the cash prizes would go to their pockets; instead, they would be awarded to each participant’s chosen cause or institution. At the launch of the Christmas Village on No-vember 15, four compa-nies unveiled their trees: Anflocor Group of Com-panies with beneficiary Down Syndrome Asso-ciation of the Philippines, Inc.; Hijo Resources Cor-poration with beneficiary Tuason Development Foundation, Inc.; Villa Margarita Hotel with ben-eficiary SOS Children’s Villages; and Philip-pine Women’s College of Davao’s Fashion Design Program in collabora-tion with the Davao Elite Fashion Group seeking to benefit prison inmates of the Bureau of Jail Manage-ment & Penology. After judging by Coun-cilor Al Ryan Alejandre, Architect Michael Da-kudao, fashion designer Robert Castillo, and Abreeza Mall Deputy General Manager Luigi Escano, Hijo Resources Corporation emerged in first place, Anflocor Group of Companies in second place, Villa Mar-garita Hotel in third place, and PWC of Davao’s Fashion Design Program together with the Davao Elite Fashion Group in fourth place.The Christmas Trees of Life, Love, and Peace are

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014EDGEDAVAO

INdulge! A3

R 13

PG13

PG 1312:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS

R-16

THE HUNGER GAMES:MOCKINGJAY PART 1

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson

GP

PAST TENSE Kim Chiu, Aiai Delas Alas, Xian Lim

12:25 | 2:20 | 4:15 | 6:10 | 8:05 | 10:00 LFS

Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O'HareJames Buckley, Daniel Amerman

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

THE PYRAMID

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS

Christian Bale, Joel EdgertonJohn Turturro, Aaron Paul

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

ENTERTAINMENT

‘Francis: The Pope From The New World’ airs on GMA7 this Sunday

Great music with RCS at SM City Davao

A MONTH before his much anticipated January visit to the Philippines, GMA Net-work airs a documentary that unveils the personal-ity, passion and extraordi-nary faith of Pope Francis. Pope Francis was the first Pope from Latin America, the first Jesuit and the first to take the name Francis. Within days of becoming Pope, he had captured the hearts of Catholics all over the world through his ges-tures of humility and care for the common man. Yet his background remained largely unknown. Filmed on location in Buenos Aires and featur-ing interviews with close friends, collaborators, and his official biographer,

“Francis: The Pope from the New World the Pope” traces the remarkable rise of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. From growing up sur-rounded by soccer games

and tango music to his defense of the poor and marginalized of Buenos Aires during his time as Archbishop, “Francis: The Pope From the New World”

explores the abiding com-passion and unwavering resolve of a priest, a bishop and now a Pope seeking to bring the Church to the frontiers of society. From overcoming the challenges of the day — including Argentina’s Dirty War, to his tireless advoca-cy for the poor, this docu-mentary paints an indel-ible portrait of a towering figure of our time. The documentary, pro-duced by the Knights of Columbus in Rome, will be tagalized and narrated in Filipino by Jessica Soho. “Francis: The Pope from the New World” airs on Sunday Night Box Office (SNBO), December 14 at 10:30PM only on GMA7.

LAST November 29, the country’s pre-mier vocal group entertained SM City Davao shoppers in a 1-hour mall show at the Annex Event Center. The Ryan Cayabyab Singers (RCS) is a vo-cal powerhouse com-posed of seven soloists, hand-picked by world-renowned Filipino com-poser and musician, Ryan Cayabyab. Each of them hails from differ-ent backgrounds, and together they engen-der the vibrant brand of artistry that Mr. Cay-abyab envisioned for his “dream team.” The group has created a blend of their voices, each pow-erful in their own right, to constantly master, re-invent, and deliver that stellar sound that is un-mistakably the product of the Maestro. RCS performed both a cappella and numbers accompanied by canned music. Mr Ryan Cay-abyab’s influence on the group was manifested in their impeccable ren-dition of Motown and Bacharach classics. The group also surprised the crowd with their a cap-pella version of Pharrell Williams’ Happy as well as their medley of pop songs covering Katy Perry’s Roar, Maroon 5’s Payphone, Bruno Mars’ Just the Way You Are, Fun’s We Are Young and Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe. RCS’s cover

of All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor was also a favorite among the crowd. The group seem to have no limits as they

sang a wide collection of both OPM and interna-tional hits. Christmas carols filled the event center during

the second half of the show as the group incor-porated audience par-ticipation in their perfor-mance of holiday songs. With the Ryan Cay-abyab Singers’ inimi-table and outstanding artistry, combined with deep love for music and passion for excellence in performance, the RCS will undoubtedly con-tinue to make waves in the music industry, and will certainly keep prov-

ing to the world that the gift of Filipino talent and generosity is indeed a

treasure to be proud of. Catch more of exciting holiday shows at SM City Davao with The Com-pany Mall Show on the 20th and Grand Christ-mas Parades on the 21st and the 25th. Mall hours are extended up to 10 PM until December 30. To give shoppers more time for Christmas and New Years’ preparations, SM City Davao will be open until 12 MN on De-cember 12, 13, 19, 20 and 23; and from 9AM to 7PM on December 24 and 31. Like SM City Davao on Facebook or follow @ SMCityDavao on Twit-ter and @SMDavao on Instagram for event and promo updates.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 EDGEDAVAO

A4 INdulge!EVENT

Homeowners show off their decorated parols during the judging for the Parol-making Contest.

Like the traditional Christmas parties, homeowners exchanged gifts with their neighbors.

Featuring the 16-feet tall Christmas tree made of bamboo sticks and stars made of abaca fiber mounted on silver painted bamboos, Damosa Fairlane lights up for Christmas.

Damosa Fairlane transforms into a Christmas village

Homeowners celebrate early Christmas partyIT’S THAT TIME of the year again – Christmas! And it’s hard to resist the Christmas spirit that is present at one of Davao City’s new-est communities, Damosa Fairlane.

With the creative touch of the TADECO Liveli-hood and Training Center (TLTC), Damosa Fairlane has been transformed into a Silver Christmas Village. Featuring a 16-feet tall Christmas tree, The Con-tinental Club is especially joyous and dazzling with its decors and lights. Even the streets are all adorned with silver bamboo poles and stars made of abaca twine, all in accordance

with this year’s Silver and White Christmas theme. Damosa Fairlane also made sure that, before everyone gets busy with shopping and merry-making, all its home-owners got to celebrate a fun-filled early Christmas party. Lucky homeowners cheered as they received gift certificates from the event’s major sponsors: Pearl Farm Beach Resort

and Microtel by Wynd-ham. They also enjoyed playing the games and contests with their family and friends. “As what we have al-ways mentioned even be-fore, we want to make our homeowners feel that they are part of the Damosa Fairlane Family. And what could possibly be more fulfilling than celebrating Christmas with your fam-ily in this new communi-ty,” said Cary Lagdameo, Vice President of Damosa Land, Inc. The homeowners who moved in to their houses this year will spend their first Christmas in Da-mosa Fairlane. Lagdameo added, “Our homeowners and clients are our prior-ity that’s why we give them only the best in every first moment that they experi-ence here in Damosa Fair-lane.”

From the time that the homeowners set foot in their home, to the week-end events well-spent with their families, until the re-cent Christmas Party, Da-

mosa Land, Inc. has prov-en that they will be with you every step of the way. Damosa Land is the real estate and property development company of

the Anflocor Group – the company that is responsi-ble for developing business and lifestyle oriented com-mercial center, Damosa District.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014EDGEDAVAO

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 13EDGEDAVAO

COMPETITIVE EDGE

PUBLICLY-LISTED Al-liance Select Foods International Inc. ap-

proved on Monday (Decem-ber 8) changes in its board of directors and top management positions.

Company founder and in-cumbent president Jonathan Dee, who established the firm as Alliance Tuna in 2003, will assume the position of Chair-man of the Board.

“It is now the most oppor-tune time to pass the compa-ny’s leadership on to a younger, more dynamic management,” Dee said in a statement. “I am confident our new president, Raymond See, brings with him

the experience and knowhow to build on past successes of the company and catapult Al-liance Select to even greater heights.”

“With these changes I think the company is prepared and better poised to address greater international competition. As ChairmanI will be focusing on overseeing the strategic direction of the company. This will include deepening market relations and forging further alliances with potential partners” he explained.

“I know these developments may raise questions as to whether it

is related in any way to the recent disagreements between certain board members. That is furthest from the truth and the timing is nothing more than coincidental” Dee added.

Independent Director George Sycip has relinquished his duties as the Chairman of the Board and will instead serve as the Vice Chairman in place of Alvin Dee.

Alvin Dee will continue to advise the company as share-holder. He will be replaced as director by Raymond See, the new president and chief executive officer while Ibarra Malonzo, will be replaced as director by Atty. Antonio Pacis.

Alliance Select bares reorganization

THE HOLIDAYS START. City Hall is all aglow with Christmas lights as the city officially starts the holiday season with a ceremony on Monday night. Lean Daval. Jr.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 201414 SPORTS EDGEDAVAO

Kobe closes in on Jordan’s record

TOP Rank promot-er Bob Arum is not considering any

possible opponent for “Fighter of the Decade” Manny Pacquiao until he has exhausted all efforts to make a Pacquiao-May-weather fight happen.

In an overseas tele-phone conversation with the Manila Standard/Viva Sports, Arum said he has been “talking to CBS pres-ident Leslie Moonves but not the Mayweather peo-ple” amidst indications that Moonves who heads CBS which owns Showtime which has a six-fight, $200 million deal with May-weather, dealing with the Mayweather camp.

Moonves himself had indicated that because of the sensitive nature of the talks with the Mayweather people he didn’t want to discuss it publicly.

Arum said he is “con-centrating on the May-weather fight at least for the next couple of weeks” and indicated that if the negotiations are success-ful the fight will take place in June.

He said that should a Mayweather fight fail to materialize then Pacquiao, the eight division world champion will return to the ring sometime in April next year.

However, while some names are being men-tioned for a possible Pac-quuao fight, he hasn’t giv-en them a thought.

One of those being pushed to a fight with Pac-quuiao is Britain’s former world junior welterweight champion Amir Khan with Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya indicat-

ing he is determined to secure Khan a fight against Pacquiao or – less like-ly – Floyd Mayweather in 2015.

De La Hoya who has mended his ties with Arum said “I’m pushing for a Pacquiao fight” but Khan would first have to over-come Devon Alexander in a WBC welterweight Silver title fight in Las Vegas this weekend.

De La Hoya who was quoted by the British newspaper The Guardian, said Khan “is a devastating puncher, has tremendous speed and he knows how to use it. He pleases the fans. He’s exciting. People want to watch him fight.”

De La Hoya said “Amir Khan is just beginning, he has a lot of fights left in him. He’s still learning and he’s still growing; he’s getting stronger and he’s getting faster. He’s more motivated than ever. If he keeps winning, if he keeps on getting into these big fights that are promised, I really do feel that Amir Khan can be one of the top fighters of all time. But first things first: Devon Al-exander is a tough, tough opponent.”

The Golden Boy Pro-motions head noted that “Khan has been having eliminator after elimina-tor. The time for him is now. He deserves to be fighting Floyd Mayweath-er. He deserves to be fighting Manny Pacquiao” although it is clear that the easier fight to negoti-ate would be the one with Pacquiao with whom Khan trained at the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach and also in the Philippines.

STEPHEN Curry and Klay Thompson scored 21 points apiece as

the Golden State Warriors romped past Minnesota to stretch their NBA winning streak to 13 games.

Already enjoying the lon-gest winning streak in club history, the Warriors ran their road winning streak to a franchise-first eight games.

Shaun Livingston and Marreese Speights both scored 12 points and Dray-mond Green added 10 points with 10 rebounds for the Warriors, who saw Aussie center Andrew Bogut depart after just two minutes with

right knee trouble.The Warriors haven’t lost

a game since falling to NBA champions San Antonio at home in Oakland on Novem-ber 11.

But they’re not the only streaking team in the league.

The Cleveland Cavaliers notched their seventh suc-cessive victory with a 110-88 victory over the Nets in Brooklyn, where the atten-dance of Britain’s Prince Wil-liam and wife Kate at their first NBA game took some of the focus off the court.

Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson combined for 40 points and keyed a third

quarter run that propelled the Cavaliers to victory over a short-handed Nets team.

James had 18 points and seven assists and Kevin Love added 19 points and 14 re-bounds for the Cavs.

The Nets, playing with-out ailing guard Joe Johnson and injured center Brook Lo-pez, kept it close through the first half, but they were out-scored 24-6 over the final six minutes of the third to take an 85-67 lead into the fourth.

The Atlanta Hawks won their seventh straight -- and fourth on the road -- with a 108-92 victory over the Pac-ers in Indianapolis.

Al Horford scored 25 points, pulled down eight rebounds and blocked three shots for the Hawks, who had 21 points and seven as-sists from Jeff Teague and 13 points from Kyle Korver.

The Pacers had been hoping to turn things around with a return home after a winless four-game road trip, but instead lost their fifth straight.

Things don’t get easier for the Pacers any time soon. They next face the Los Ange-les Clippers, where were gun-ning for their eighth straight win on Monday against Pacif-ic Division rivals Phoenix.

STREAK CONTINUES. Stephen Curry had 21 points to lead Golden State to its 13th straight win.

Arum not considering anyother opponent but Floyd

Win no. 13 for Warriors

LOS Angeles Lakers su-perstar Kobe Bryant, closing in on Michael

Jordan for third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, insists he isn’t fueled by a desire to sur-pass the league icon.

“I only think about it when I’m asked about it,” Bryant said, refuting former coach Phil Jackson’s claim that Bryant has been driven throughout his career by a desire to surpass Jordan.

“People who say that don’t really understand me,” Bryant told the Los Angeles Times last week. “It’s a myth. Phil likes to say things a lot of times to create good content and create good stories.”

But Bryant has been mea-sured against Jordan ever since he joined the league,

making the leap straight from high school in 1996.

Since then, he has won five NBA titles with the Lak-ers — one less than the six Jordan captured with the Chi-cago Bulls.

Bryant, 36 and back on court after injury limited him to just six games last season, has been fielding questions since the pre-season about how his current campaign compares to the waning of Jordan’s career.

Bryant has admitted he can see how the comparisons arise, but he doesn’t neces-sarily think they are apt.

“We’ve had different ca-reer paths completely,” Bry-ant said, adding that he con-siders himself a torch bearer for a line of shooting guard

greats that includes former Laker Jer-ry West as well as Jordan.

“I feel great about that,” said Bryant, who took his career points total to 32,230 in a loss to New Or-leans on Sunday, and needs 63 to surpass Jordan’s career tally of 32,292.

Only Kareem Abdul-Jab-bar with 38,387 and Karl Malone with 36,928, scored more in their careers.

Bryant will no doubt edge closer to Jordan’s tally this week, when the Lakers host Sacramento on Tues-day and visit San Antonio on Friday. After that, the Lakers are at Minnesota on Sunday and Indiana on December

15.

T h e aging war-rior is among the league leaders with an average of 25.2 points per game, but he’s connecting on less than 40 percent of his shots and his Lakers are a dismal 5-16 — next-to-last in the Western Conference.

Although a Jor-dan-matching sixth title for Bryant is seemingly already out of reach this season,

Lak-e r s

coach B y r o n

S c o t t s t i l l

thinks Bry-ant, who has

v o w e d this campaign will be his last, could still be persuad-ed to come back next year if the Los Angeles Lakers show signs of life.

“He’s got a lot left in the tank,” Scott said.

“And I think if we put something together that excites him, I think we have a real good chance of say-ing ‘Play another year, give it another shot.’ And that’s what we plan to do.”

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 15SPORTSEDGEDAVAO

FIGHT FOR THE BALL. Misagh Medina Bahadoran of Philippines in action against Narubadin Weerawatnodom of Thailand during the semifinals of thhe AFF Suzuki Cup held at Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on 06 December 2014. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA Images)

ONE hundred twenty billiard players from all over the world

trooped to this southern seaport city to compete in the 2nd international open 10-Ball tournament bank-rolled by world eight-di-vision boxing champion and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao.

Tony Danao, the tour-nament director, told re-porters here that the total number of participants in singles category was triple compared to the previous tournament held here three months ago.

“In singles catego-ry alone, 120 players showed up to compete. This is about triple the number of participants who joined in the sin-gles category during last September’s tournament here. I could not yet give the total number of participants for the doubles category as it will start only af-ter the singles is over,” Danao said.

The tournament offi-cially kicked off Monday at SM Mall here. Singles format is dou-

ble elimination which will end up on Dec. 12. Dou-bles competition will be held Dec. 13 to 17.

Pacquiao dangled a total guaranteed prize of USD150,000 (P6.6 mil-lion).

Winners in the dou-bles category will bring home a total windfall of USD40,000 (P1.76 mil-lion), while the champion in singles category will receive USD13 (P.572 mil-

lion). The rest of

the amount will go to

t h e

2nd and 3rd place winners in both categories. There would also be consolation prizes.

World renowned cue artists Efren “Bata” Reyes and Mika Immonen breezed past their respec-tive rival to lead the way of the favorites in the open-ing round of the match.

Reyes wowed the crowd here by his tricks, proving that sheer talent is no match against expe-rience.

Reyes posted a lopsid-ed win against compatri-ot Jerome Adolfo (9-2) to earn an easy spot in the second round.

Immonen proved too much for John Sala-

zar, posting a 9-2 easy victory, to

advance in the next

r o u n d of the

to u r -n a -

ment. Other winners in their

initial match include Ge-nersis Ouano, Godofredo Ducanes, Lauro Bongay, Christian Gariando, Ah-mad Taufiq, Benjie Gue-varra, Archie Padal, Brian Beekers, John Morra, Jo-hann Chua, John Rebong and John Plunkett.

Plunkett engaged Pac-quiao in a featured, thrill-ing match which delighted the crowd inside the mall.

Pacquiao led by a sin-gle rack (8-7) and was about to finish off Plunkett until several miscues gave his rival a chance to catch up.

Joie Mantalaba, one of the spectators, said “Pac-quiao obviously gave up the match to Plunkett. I watched him played sever-al times and those miscues he committed today were unusual.”

For an overjoyed Plun-kett “To me, this victory against a sports icon is worth more than a mil-lion.”

MALAYSIA coach Dollah Salleh blamed indis-cipline for his team’s

2-1 loss to Vietnam in the first leg of their AFF Suzuki Cup semi-final at Shah Alam Stadi-um on Sunday.

Despite taking an early lead through a Safiq Rahim penalty, the hosts lost the plot and allowed Vietnam to take control of the game and dictate proceedings for most of the match.

Dollah, capped 97 times by Malaysia during his playing ca-reer, was at a loss to explain his team’s performance and said the defensive line did not play to instructions, especially on the right and singled out right-back Mahali Jasuli.

“He is a defender and should have been focusing on that instead of thinking of go-ing forward all the time,” he lamented.

However, the 51-year-old said there was still 90 minutes left in the tie and expects his team to put in 200 percent for the return leg in Hanoi.

Dollah added he will be ringing the changes for the next match and said late sub-stitute Indra Putra Mahayud-din - who as a substitute scored the third goal in the final group game against Singapore - will play a prominent role.

The 33-year-old Felda United striker came on in the 81st minute for Azammuddin Akil and had an immediate im-pact, full of running and com-ing close to an equaliser with a stoppage-time header that went wide.

The second leg will take place at My Dinh Stadium on Thursday at 7:00pm local time. The winners will face either Thailand or Philippines in the final later this month.

THE Purefoods Star Hot-shots added veteran presence in their front-

court after trading for Mick Pennisi from Barako Bull. In ex-change, the Hotshots gave away two barely used players in Isaac Holstein and Ronnie Matias.

Pennisi averaged 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 10 games for Barako Bull this conference. Holstein only saw action for three games and he normed 2 points and 1.33 rebounds. Matias only played for Purefoods against Alaska where he scored five points and grabbed three rebounds.

Purefoods will be burdened with twice-to-win disadvantage heading into the playoffs of the 2014 PBA Philippine Cup. They will need to win three straight do-or-die games to keep their title defense bid alive.

After forward Ian San-galang suffered an ACL inju-ry during the Hotshots’ first game, the Hotshots’ frontline rotation suffered. They signed Don Allado but he failed to crack head coach Tim Cone’s rotation. Purefoods played Yousef Taha as a started but they have since reinserted vet-eran Rafi Reavis in the starting lineup.

Getting Pennisi gives Pure-foods a capable defender and a floor-spacer. He will first see action for the Hotshots against his former team on Tuesday at the Cuneta Astrodome.

Pennisi received a warm welcome from Purefoods as James Yap posted a picture with the center on his Insta-gram account a day before the trade was announced by the PBA. TOP FAVORITE. Mika Immonen leads the cast of the $150,000 tournament sponsored by Rep. Manny Pacquiao. Yahoo photo

120 top cue artists inP6.6M Pacquiao 10-BallBy AQUILES Z. ZONIO

Malaysia coach blames indiscipline for loss

Purefoods trades for Pennisi

VOL. 7 ISSUE 192 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 201416EDGEDAVAOSports

NOW OR NEVERIT’S now or never.

The Philippines’ hopes of a dream finals

appearance will be their biggest motivation in to-day’s now-or-never battle against Thailand which plays host to the second leg of the semifinals in the AFF Suzuki Cup at the Ra-jamangala Stadium.

The War Elephants will have their entire nation backing them up and the Azkals know pretty well how hard it is to win in Bangkok.

The Azkals produced one of their finest perfor-mances in the AFF Suzuki Cup on Saturday in holding favourites Thailand to a 0-0 draw in the semi-final, first leg at the Rizal Memo-rial Stadium.

They were unlucky not to win the game but their coach Thomas Dooley sees the result as a huge posi-tive.

“This game was anoth-er step forward just as it

was after the game against Indonesia. We didn’t win but we should be happy with the way we played,” he said.

The Azkals beat In-donesia 4-0 at the group stage in Vietnam and pushed Thailand all the way in a sometimes cagey but always compelling goalless draw.

With the second leg to take place at Bangkok’s iconic Rajamangala Sta-dium on Wednesday, it is essentially half time in this engrossing match-up be-tween three-time champi-ons Thailand and the Phil-ippines, who are bidding to reach the final for the first time.

The Thais won all three of their group matches and have been playing impres-sive football but will feel somewhat shaken after their thriller in Manila.

They had to battle most of the second half on Saturday playing with

10 men after their striker Adisak Kraisorn was sent off.

“If we can hold them for the first 15 to 20 min-utes (on Wednesday) I think we can have a good chance,” said Dooley.

“They will try and do everything to beat us at home and we just have to be ready. I have seen the sparks in our side for the last two days.”

Saturday’s game saw quick counter attacks by both teams.

Said Dooley: “Their transition from defence to offence is very fast as they push so many players forward. But this gives us space to counter attack. As soon as we get the ball we try and play fast for-ward.”

Philippines star strik-er Phil Younghusband summed up the players’ feelings after the first leg: “We now know we can play at this level.”

TOP SCORER. Philippines' Phil Younghusband (right) fights for the ball during the first leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup semi-final. Yahoo Sports

Azkals go for upset in Bangkok