P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 8 ISSUE 117 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015

Davao City Mayor Ro-drigo Duterte once again raised the hopes

of his supporters when he said in a live television inter-view yesterday that nothing is final.

“Masama ang magsali-ta nang tapos sa mundong ito (It is bad to say anything with finality in this world),” Duterte said as he guested in the News Room 5 Happy

Hour yesterday afternoon aired over Aksyon TV.

He was reacting to re-ports that he had met with Senator Aquilino Pimentel III yesterday and that he had told the senator he was not withdrawing from the pres-idential race because there was nothing to withdraw as he has not yet filed his can-didacy.

Last Monday, Duterte

held a press conference in which he officially said he was not running for the pres-idency in 2016.

In the same television interview, Duterte said he is not interested in running for Vice President or being appointed as Interior and Local Government Secretary because he does not want to work under a superior.

“Itatapon ko sa Mala-

cañang ang ibang mga patay diyan. Magagalit talaga ang president niyan (I will throw dead bodies in Malacañang. The President would really get mad at me),” he said.

As this developed, Dute-rte’s spokesperson former councilor Peter Laviña said the mayor “loves to confuse the enemy” and will not let possible opponents read his

NOTHING IS FINAL

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAODuterte: ‘Masama ang magsalita nang tapos’

FNOTHING, 10

EDGEDAVAOSportsFederer faces Wawrinka in US Open semi-finals

Page 15

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR. and FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

SPIDER FIGHT. Young boys watch as their spiders fight it out on a stick outside their school along R. Magsaysay Avenue in Davao City yesterday. Spider fighting, which some believe introduces young children to the world of gambling, is rampant near elementary schools around the city and is usually organized by adults. Lean Daval Jr.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 20152 EDGEDAVAO

NEWS

ENDORSEMENT. President Aquino endorses resigned Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas as stan-dard bearer of the Liberal Party to LP members last Wednesday afternoon during the ‘Gathering with Friends’ at the SMX Convention Center. Aquino said Roxas is the only candidate who can continue his ‘Tuwid na Daan’ legacy. Seen

seated near the president are Davao City Rep. Mylene G. Albano and Compostela Valley Gov. Arthur T Uy. Armando B. Fenequito Jr.

MAYOR Rodrigo R. Duterte did not in-tend to avoid Presi-

dent Benigno Aquino when the latter visited Davao City on Wednesday for a series of events.

Duterte’s spokesperson Peter T. Laviña made this clarification yesterday in answer to reports that the mayor was trying to avoid the President when he did not join the welcoming par-ty at the Davao International

Airport. “He was in Manila sched-

uled to fly to Tuguegarao. The mayor was already in Manila as early as the eve-ning of September 7,” Laviña said.

Duterte had always made it a point to welcome Mr. Aquino – and all Pres-idents, for that matter – at the airport during Presiden-tial visits.

This time, the mayor flew to Manila on Monday

night for a series of activi-ties in Luzon. Before leaving the city, Duterte held a press conference at the Grand Men Seng Hotel where he announced that he was not seeking the presidency in 2016.

His non-appearance at the airport on Wednesday to welcome Aquino was inter-preted as a snub by some ob-servers since the President has endorsed former DILG Secretary Mar Roxas for the

presidency.“(The word) ‘snub’ is

harsh. The mayor is not like that,” Laviña said.

Part of Mr. Aquino’s visit in Davao City was to boost the candidacy of Roxas in the “Gathering of Friends” at the SMX Convention Center.

Duterte, meanwhile, is a popular choice for President – even inching out Roxas in recent surveys – even though he has already declared he is not running for the position.

A soldier is in hot water after allegedly illegally firing his service gun

inside the Isaac Robillo Hos-pital in Calinan on Tuesday morning.

The Calinan Police Sta-tion identified the suspect as Private First Class (PFC) Richard Dalion, 28, member of 84th Infantry Battalion based in Barangay Malagos, Baguio district. Charges are now being readied against him.

According to a police re-port, Dalion was confined at the hospital due to hearing failure around 2 a.m. of Sep-tember 8.

At around 9:45 a.m., the soldier had an altercation with his wife inside room 212 and fired his caliber .45 handgun after reportedly failing to hold his temper.

The bullet broke the window of the room.

Dalion was detained for several hours at the Cali-nan Police Station but was sent to Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) later after his blood sugar went up.

Davao City Police Office (DCPO) spokesperson Chief Inspector Milgrace Driz said the management of the hos-pital is willing to file charges against Dalion.

Driz, however, said Dalion was temporarily be-ing released since the man-agement was not able to file the charges.

She said the hospital will sue Dalion through regular filling because the period to file a case through in-quest procedure has already

THE Department of En-vironment and Natural Resources (DENR) 11

is targeting to train 50 more Bantay Gubat (forest guards) for the 7,000-hectare pro-tected area of the Mt. Hami-guitan UNESCO Heritage Site in Davao Oriental this year.

“We (local government units and Department of Environment and Local Gov-

ernment) have agreed to cre-ate a security group or task force for Mt. Hamiguitan,” DENR 11 regional director Joselin Fragada said in an in-terview last Wednesday.

This was one of the re-sults of the death of the three-year old female Pama-na, a Philippine Eagle re-leased last June 12 in an area

THE Al Qalam Institute for Islamic Identities and Dialogue in South-

east Asia of the Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) has urged the national gov-ernment to provide more scholarships to Muslim stu-dents to study Islamic stud-ies abroad to enrich Islamic culture in the country, espe-

cially in Mindanao.Speaking in yesterday’s

I-Speak media forum at City Hall, Al Qalam Institute ex-ecutive director Mussolini S. Lidasan said it is important for Mindanao to have Mus-lims who are educated with the Sharia principle because there are many followers of Islam in the island.

“Right now we have to encourage the Muslims to learn more about Islam,” Li-dasan said.

Lidasan said there are many Madrassah schools in the city, but students who graduate usually proceed to college courses that are not related to Islamic culture.

“We do not have Islamic

universities in the Philip-pines right now. Hopefully the Philippine government will send more Muslim scholars to the Islamic uni-versities in Malaysia and In-donesia,” he said.

Lidasan said if Mindanao will offer Sharia concepts of governance and finances,

Rody didn’t snubPres. Aquino: aideBy CHARLES RAYMOND A. MAXEY

Gov’t urged to provide scholarshipsfor Muslim students to study abroadBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.

FGOV’T, 10

FSOLDIER, 10

FDENR, 10

Soldier in hot water afterfiring gun inside hospital

50 more forest guardseyed for HamiguitanBy CHENEEN R. CAPON

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015 3EDGEDAVAO

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015

THE House of Represen-tatives and the Senate have filed separate

resolutions to investigate the recent killing of Lumads (Indigenous Peoples), the displacement of hundreds of residents in some towns in Surigao del Sur that led to the death of a four-year old evacuee.

“A four year old child has died in the evacuation center yet no action is being taken by the national government to facilitate the Lumads’ re-turn,” Gabriela partylist Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan said in a statement released Wednes-day.

Eliza Pangilinan, sec-retary-general of Karapa-tan-Caraga told MindaNews Wednedsay night that four-year old Merabel Enriquez,

a Lumad from Magkahu-naw, Barangay Buhisan in San Agustin town suffered a severe asthma attack at the evacuation center in the sports center in Tandag on Tuesday, was rushed to the hospital but expired there.

Pangilinan said the En-riquez family arrived at the sports center in Tandag City on September 2.

At the Senate, Senator Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate Committee on Cultur-al Communities, filed Senate Resolution 1575 urging the Senate to conduct an inves-tigation into this “possible case of extrajudicial killings, and on the continued exis-tence of paramilitary groups which I believe must be im-mediately reviewed and dis-

ORGANIZERS of the Kakao Konek 2015 National Cacao

Congress are eying the creation of the Philippine Cacao Board as the two-day event opens today (Friday) at the SMX Con-vention Center in Davao City.

“The board is an insti-tutionalized government agency to oversee the growing cacao industry in the country,” said Valente Turtur, chair of the Ca-cao Industry Council and executive director of the Cacao Industry Develop-ment Association of Min-danao Inc. (Cidami),

Turtur said the board

will be composed of ca-cao industry players and officials from different government agencies like Department of Agricul-ture (DA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Environ-ment and Natural Re-sources (DENR), Depart-ment of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and Philippine Co-conut Authority (PCA).

During the event, which will close on Sat-urday, the organizers aim to come up with a com-mon development agenda and roadmap for the fast emerging cacao industry of the country.

“There is a need for all

the cacao players and ca-cao-concerned agencies to sit down and discuss ways of boosting the in-dustry so we will have a common vision for ca-cao’s sustainable produc-tion,” Turtur said.

“We have to create a common protocol to maintain the good quality of cacao beans produce in the country,” he added.

Turtur said the cre-ation of a common pro-tocol will be led by a na-tional technical working group of the proposed National Cacao Council.

Currently, each na-tional agency and indus-try players involved in

cacao production imple-ment their respective protocols that lead to the loss of important traders and export market in the industry.

Turtur said the Davao Region has a total of 23,000 hectares plant-ed to cacao. The biggest production area is locat-ed in Davao City with a total of 6,000 with some 16,000 farmers, followed by the province of Davao del Norte with 5,900 hect-ares.

Among the other issues that will be dis-cussed during the con-gress are the source of

4 EDGEDAVAONEWS

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

FPHL, 10

FHOUSE, 10

LUMAD PROTEST. Nagkahiusang Mag-uumasa Barangay White Kulaman (NAMABAW) chair Claro Gawilan airs his grievances against the alleged mil-

itarization in their communities and the killing of Lumads during a protest rally along San Pedro Street yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

SEARCHING. An elderly registrant browses through the list of voters who still do not have biometrics outside the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

RESIGNED Interior and Local Government Sec-retary Mar Roxas vowed

to continue the development in Mindanao that President Benig-no Aquino started during the latter’s term.

In his speech during the “Gathering with Friends” of the Liberal Party at the SMX Conven-tion Center on Wednesday night, Roxas said Mindanao received P260 billion in capital outlay in the five years of the Aquino ad-ministration.

He said this is twice the com-bined capital outlay of the past two presidents, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Roxas said the three-year administration of Estrada ear-marked only P25 billion for Mindanao, while under the nine-year Arroyo administration the amount was only P105 billion.

Roxas said this is concrete proof that Mindanao is import-ant to the Aquino administra-tion.

“The call now for everyone is to expand the legacy and make it permanent to the people,” he said.

In an interview with Davao City reporters, Roxas said, “Itu-tuloy natin ang daang matuwid. Ito’y kabahagi ng program ng Pangulo na ang serbisyo at im-prastraktura ay maparating (We will continue the straight path. This is included in the Presi-dent’s program, that the services and infrastructure will reach the people).”

Roxas said if he becomes President, he will give Mindan-ao all the needed services and infrastructure with no regard for politics.

“Ibibigay ng gobyerno, walang pulitika, walang ibang konsiderasyon kundi ang pan-gangailangan ng boss (The gov-ernment will give it with no pol-itics and no other consideration but the needs of our boss),” he said.

Aquino, in his speech during the gathering, boasted of Roxas’ qualities as a good leader.

The President said Roxas knows how to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of the majority, as he did in 2010 when he gave way to Aquino for the presidential candidacy.

A medical platoon lead-er of the New People’s Army (NPA) surren-

dered to the military in Mabini, Compostela Valley Province on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Eastern Mindanao Command (East-MinCom) said the NPA mem-ber, identified as Alias George, revealed that he was the vice team leader of the medical pla-toon of Guerrilla Front 72 of the NPA-Southern Mindanao Regional Committee.

The EastMinCom said George went to the soldiers of the 71st Infantry Battalion in Barangay Pangibiran at around 2 p.m. on September 8, 2015.

The NPA member was

brought by the soldiers to the Mabini Police Station for doc-umentation and then to the Municipal Health Office for medical check-up.

The EastMinCom said George was responsible for the medical concerns of his pla-toon and the disposal of med-ical supplies.

EastMinCom said George wants to start a new life with his family and to avail himself of the comprehensive local integration program (CLIP) of the government through the local government unit of Com-postela Valley province.

The EastMinCom said a to-tal of 214 NPA members have have surrendered to its units this year.

Phl Cacao Board creationeyed during Kakao Konek

Roxas vows to continueMindanao developmentBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.

NPA medic surrenders

House, Senate to probe deathof 4-year-old Lumad bakwit

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015 5EDGEDAVAO

ECONOMY

A TOTAL of 12 Japa-nese consultants rep-resenting different

companies arrived last week to conduct a pre-feasibility study on the best possible route of the proposed bridge linking Davao City and the Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos).

“The group is studying on eight possible routes,” Department of Public Works and Highways 11 region-al director Mariano Alqui-no said at the sidelines of the briefing convergence tourism road project of the DPWH and the Department

of Tourism (DOT) at Baran-gay Camudmud in Babak District, Igacos last Wednes-day.

The Japanese companies were contracted by the Jap-anese International Cooper-ative Agency (JICA). One of group studying on the bridge was Katahira Engineers In-ternational.

Alquiza said the Japanese consultants are eyeing on two possible routes because of its short proximity to the island city. These routes are both located in Davao City and not in Panabo City, as earlier proposed.

Alquiza said one of the two routes will be from the Km. 9 in Sasa going to Babak District. The director failed to identify the specific area but he said it will be the most possible because the pro-posed bridge will be shorter if constructed in this area.

“The bridge will be more than a kilometer, shorter that the proposal to build the bridge in Panabo City which may reach 2 kilometers,” Alquiza said.

The funding for the pre-FS came from the JICA, he added.

Alquiza said the study

has already started and the group targets to have an exit conference with the DPWH on September 14.

Prior to the conference there will be also a public consultation on stakehold-ers from Davao City and Ig-acos.

However, the Regional Development Council (RDC) 11 approved the conduct of a full blown feasibility study for the construction of the bridge which has an estimat-ed cost of P10 billion earlier this year.

In a statement, the Na-

Jap consultants conduct study on Samal bridgeBy CHENEEN R. CAPON

LEADING international hotel brand Dusit Inter-national has disclosed

its intent to increase its presence in the Philippines, beginning with reaching out to the upscale, long-staying travel sector.

The hotelier has further expressed plans to tap the strong MICE (Meetings, In-centives, Conventions and Exhibitions) market in Asia.

“We are looking to grow in the other cities and des-tinations within the Phil-ippines as we are positive about the country’s tourism outlook and potential. These new projects can leverage from our experience and established networks in the Philippines and in the re-gion,” said Ryan Chen, Dusit International Director for Development Asia Pacific.

Currently, construction is underway for Dusit Thani Residences Davao. The first Dusit Thani Residences in Asia-Pacific, the 168-key full-service residences is scheduled for turnover in 2018.

According to Chen, Davao was chosen because of the positive economic growth in the region, which

bodes well for the interna-tional hospitality industry. He further commended the company’s timely partner-ship with Filipino real estate developer Torre Lorenzo.

“We have found a quality partner in Torre Lorenzo as this company is both expe-rienced with the local real estate market and is aligned with our vision for the Dusit brand in the Philippines,” Chen elaborated.

Other projects in Davao also in the works are the dusitD2 Hotel and Lubi Plantation Resort. dusitD2 Hotel is a 120-key hotel that will feature high-tech and modern convenienc-es coupled with a chic and playful design that matches Davao city’s youthful vibe. Located adjacent to Dusit Thani Residences, this will be the first dusitD2 Hotel in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Lubi Plan-tation Resort is a 37-hect-are master planned resort community situated in a private island off the coast of Davao. Developers in-tend to position the resort as the country’s first in-ternationally branded club membership.

Dusit reveals plans for tourism market

OVER a couple of years ago, Bai Wahida M. Abtahi, the soft-spo-

ken lady who was also the president of Katiyakap, was wondering if a Shariah com-pliant micro-financing is possible as a project that the organization can take up.

“Saumpisa, walakamin-galam kung papaanogagaw-in, pero may mgataongtu-mulongsaamin” (We have no idea at all how we were going to do it, but some people helped us in making this dream a reality), she re-called.

“It wasn’t easy but it was challenging,” said Bai Wa-hida who was very sponta-neous in her sharing of how her organization has gone through the pains of pursu-ing Islamic micro-financing. But with sheer determi-nation and will, Katiyakap embraced the way of life that has changed not a few

among their clients.In a study entitled “As-

sessing the Islamic Lending Practices in General Santos City: The Case of Katiyakap, Inc. which was undertak-en by undergraduate stu-dents from the University of the Philippines Mindanao Nor-Aiza R. Unasl and Jon Marx P. Sarmiento of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Islamic financing started by Katiya-kap has also been practiced by small entrepreneurs in General Santos City.

With Katiyakap cli-ents, some of the Islamic micro-finance practices undertaken by their part-ners include the Murabaha which is “cost plus or mark-up “ trading; the Musharaka, which is more on partner-ship or profit and loss shar-ing; and then the Ijara which is lease/rental.

Run by women who

have, for decades, immersed themselves into develop-ment work that has helped many other women and their families, Katiyakap have made a landmark in Shariah-compliant micro-fi-nancing in General Santos City such that it has already made a niche for itself in the world of micro financing.

Bai Yolanda M. Nawal who is the sister of Bai Wa-hida was also instrumen-tal in making their efforts a success. Admitting that the movers among them of this Islamic micro-financ-ing had little, if none at all, background of Shariah com-pliant micro-financing, Bai Wahida said they had to be trained in the beginning, and learn from scratch, re-garding this project. Never-theless, with the assistance coming from the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) that has been working on

peace initiatives in Mindan-ao for over a decade, Katiya-kap could not have found a more willing ally.

Registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2009, Ka-tiyakap started its peace advocacies, gender and de-velopment, networking and linkaging, and later microfi-nance. Among its partners in the past include the ACT for Peace Program with its early recovery programs in Mindanao, birthing home, health and sanitation, promotion of traditional products and rehabilita-tion of water system. With Mindanaw Commission on Women (Mothers for Peace) they have worked with Al Nisa-UlHaq on Gender in Islam and with FUMBMW on Interfaith Dialogue and Islamic Microfinance with Peace and Equity Founda-

Islamic financing: A reality

THE Philippine manu-facturing sector con-tracted slightly in July

2015 due to the continuing weakness in global demand, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

In the Philippine Sta-tistics Authority’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Select-ed Industries for July 2015, the manufacturing sector’s Volume of Production Index (VoPI) contracted by 0.5 per-cent, much slower than the 3.0 and 1.6 percent declines in May and June 2015 respec-tively.

However, production volume remains a contrast from its 7.6 percent growth last year on the same month with its three-month moving average posting a drop of 1.0 percent.

“We must diversify and ensure the quality of our ex-port-oriented products, which is the key to surviving the con-tinuing weak global demand and stiffer competition in the global market,” said Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan.

On the other hand, the Value of Production (VaPI) also contracted by 6.9 percent along with its three-month moving average which posted a 7.5 percent drop.

“Providing adequate and efficient infrastructure is a must to be able to provide

reliable and cost-effective logistics and transport re-quirements for manufactured goods and other related ser-vices,” the Cabinet official said.

For consumer goods, the volume and value of net sales for beverages began to recov-er from its double-digit drop last May 2015 posting an in-crease of 7.9 and 17.4 percent respectively. Also, tobacco continued its double-digit growth in volume and value of net sales with 14.7 and 15.8 percent, respectively.

However, the food sub-sector continues to fall, posting a 20.4- and 20.1-per-cent drop in volume and val-ue of production while its net sales volume and value dropped by 16.0 and 17.4 per-cent respectively.

The 32.1-percent drop in production values of milled and refined sugar, together with the declining global de-mand and prices for dairy products, weighed down the sub-sector.

For intermediate goods, non-metallic mineral prod-ucts sustained double-digit year-on-year growth in pro-duction and net sales by 19.8 and 20.2 percent in volume and 13.0 and 13.3 percent in value, respectively. The con-tinuing growth in this sub-sector is backed by the steady demand from the private and public sectors for construc-tion-related materials.

Manufacturing sector contracts slightly in July

FJAP, 10

FISLAMIC, 10

LOADED. A trader squeezes himself into a tricycle he commissioned to deliver coconuts to the Bankerohan Public Market yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 20156 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO

THE proposed P8.7-billion Davao bypass road is now

undergoing a detailed en-gineering study, the De-partment of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 11

said.This, after the Phil-

ippine government and the Japan Internation-al Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed last month an Official Development

Assistance (ODA) loan agreement amounting JPY33.689 billion or P13 billion for the construc-tion of two infrastructure project, one of which is the the Davao City bypass

road.The bypass road will

be constructed parallel with the Davao-Agusan Road and the Carlos P. Garcia Highway.

“The study will be at

Detailed study on P8.7-B bypass roadBy CHENEEN R. CAPON

least one year up to two years,” DPWH 11 regional director Mariano Alqui-za said during President Aquino’s visit Wednesday.

Mr. Aquino was in Davao City and the Island Garden City of Samal for a briefing of the road proj-ect of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and DPWH) at the Hoilday Oceanview Resort Village at Barangay Camudmud, Babak.

The construction of the three-year project is expected to start by 2018. It is set to be completed by 2021.

DPWH information officer Dean Ortiz said in an earlier report that the project will be imple-mented in two packages.

The first package will be the south section road of 28.8 kilometer and a center section tunnel of 2.28 km while the second package has a north sec-tion road of 15.78 km.

Based on the earlier report, the “Package one’s south section road starts along the Davao-Digos section of the Philippine Highway in Barangay Sir-awan, Toril and will end at the Barangay Tugbok proper where the cen-

ter section tunnel begins crossing the Matina River before it proceeds in Ba-rangay Magtuod.

It will continue north-westerly direction towards Barangay Waan and ends Malagamot Road of Barangay Indan-gan, where the package two north section will start. The north section will end until it intersects the Davao-Agusan Na-tional Highway in Brgy. JP. Laurel, Panabo City.”

The project, which will be 28.8 kilometers long, includes a 2.28 kilo-meter-tunnel along the Magtuod Ridge between the barangays of Waan and Tacunan, which is claimed to be the first long road tunnel in the Philippines, to be built with Japanese technology.

Alquiza said the road project will provide alter-native route to transport vehicles like trucks that do not have any business in the main roads of the city.

It is also expected im-prove transport logistic and ease the traffic con-gestion brought by the city’s economic growth, he added. CRC

ISLAMIC BANKING. Mussoloni Lidasan, executive director of AdDU’s Al Qalam Institute of Islamic Identities and Dialogue, explains the workings of Islamic banking and finance in the Philippine setting while Katiyakap,

Inc. Shariah training officer Ustadz Akman Abtahi listens during yesterday’s I-Speak media forum at City Hall. Lean Daval Jr.

HEALTH

EDGEDAVAOINdulge!

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where you reconnect with your mind, body and soul.

Alternative wellness at

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WELLNESS is no longer available only as a luxury. Nowadays, it is a way of life – a lifestyle, even. With our consciousness awakened by the need to keep abreast with our overall health and wellbeing, it’s no wonder many businesses are offer-ing more than just strokes of the hand but of enhanc-ing the life that we already have. It’s more than just a place of serenity; it’s a place where you reconnect with your mind, body and soul. Thai Raksa offers a wide range of holistic healing services – the likes of massage, Reiki, and Acupuncture to name a few. How-ever, such is not what sets them apart from the rest. Basically, its their passion and dedication to make you live with essence, pur-pose, and balance.  With them, you do not just re-main as just another paying client; they treat you with utmost care and enable you to live the life that you have always wanted – a life free from pains, aches, and un-easiness. Now, saying goodbye to stress is easy with the help of Thai Raksa Healing Spa. For the skeptic in us, we might not be too keen on trying their affordable sevices. Acupuncture,

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By Bai Fauziah Fatima Sinsuat AmbolodtoPhotos from Thai Raksa-Davao Facebook page 

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015

A2 INdulge!STYLE

World’s best brands at up to 80% off at ‘The Off Price Show’

high style with high-top sneakers

Aim high on style with Pony’s Shooter High.

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Converse Chuck Taylor’s All Star Tri-Panel Hi has a durable canvas upper with suede accents in a high-top silhouette. Signature Chuck Taylor All Star rubber toe box, textured gum rubber toe bumper, medial-side air-vent portholes and Converse All Star heel patch complete the look.

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HI-TOP SNEAKERS have gone from the hard court into smart street style.  And at the SM Store, global brands like Converse, Pony, Supra, and Vans are showing us how sneakers have transformed into what is now a fundamental piece of the modern men’s urban wear.

OFFERING huge discount sales of the world’s best brands at up to 80% off, the Off Price Show is back in Davao City. Now on its 3rd year, the large-scale 3-day expo of premium lifestyle brands will be having its stop in the city, and will set shop on Sep-tember 11 - 13, 2015 at the Davao Convention and Trade Center. Established in 2012, the Off Price Show is the first roving sale concept in the country that fea-

tures top lifestyle brands from around the globe. These top brands include Tommy Hilfiger, Vonzipper, Pacsafe, Sugarfree Shoes, Eleven Paris, Playboy Fra-grances, Polaroid Sunglasses, Trim, Dupe, Mel, Lander, Bicycle, Fresh Brand, Chocolate Clothing, Bershka, Parker, Adidas Body-care, Tokyo Laundry, Palladium, Hellolulu, Renuzit, Melissa, Pull & Bear, VNC, Victorinox, Jockey and a whole lot more. In this event holding the world’s most premium life-style naems, there will also be a

banchetto comprised of Davao City’s well-known restaurants and fast eats, to be located in the outdoor area of the convention center. The Off Price Show Davao 2015 will be open from 10:00 AM up until 11:00 PM. All major credit cards will be accepted for pur-chases made during the 3-day expo sale. The Off Price Show will move to the World Trade Center on Oc-tober 2 to 4 and to the Megatent, Metrowalk on November 27 to 29.

UP AND ABOUT

Incorporating function with style in a series of classic, or revised hybrid silhouettes, hi-tops have now crossed over into cool territory with fun on-trend designs. Here are some new designs that make hi-tops hip today:  • Show stopping Prints and Washes!  Chuck Tay-lor’s All Star has an Aztec pattern design; while its Washed Canvas Hi has a stonewashed upper that gives it a distressed look.  Who says hi-tops weren’t hip?  • Going for Gum!  Born 

out of practicality, gum soles were initially de-veloped for hard court sports.  Their rubber con-struction is designed to give better grip that plas-tic soled footwear, while ensuring no marks were left on playing surfaces. Today, this five-a-side staple has moved has moved off the courtside bench into many of a sneaker head’s wardrobe.  Converse Chuck Taylor’s All-Star Tri-Panel Hi has a textured gum rubber toe accent that really makes it cool.

  •  Getting  Textural!   Make a bold statement with woven styles and ex-otic fabrications.  Leather and canvas lead the way in Converse’s Pro Field Hi; while Converse Chuck Taylor’s All Star Tri Panel Hi has a canvas upper with suede accents.  •  The  Great  White Way!  As he epitome of minimalist style, white sneakers have been an off-duty wardrobe staple since the days of Newman, Dean, and McQueen. In today’s reboot of the iconic silhouette, white sneakers have found their way into the wardrobes of a whole new generation of cool men. High–top sneakers are available at the Men’s Shoes Department of all SM Stores

Cool and comfy classic high-top sneakers can be the modern guy’s best buddy.

Black high-tops sneakers worn with mute colors keep you on track with style

Smart and simple. High-top sneakers are best worn with a simple outfit – think Kanye West – with sneakers not competing with the rest of the look.

EDGEDAVAO VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015

INdulge! A3ENTERTAINMENT

Nathaniel to air exciting finale on September 25

AlDub fever reaches new heightsEAT BULAGA’S Kalyeserye sets re-cord on Twitter for 5M tweets with #ALDUBBAT TLE-ForACause AlDubNation was in a frenzy during Satur-day’s episode of Eat Bu-laga as Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza a.k.a. Yaya Dub from the show’s much-anticipat-ed KalyeSerye segment, finally met after their showdown during the “Bulaga Pa More” wild-card edition last Sep-tember 5. Fans had been antici-pating the pair’s even-tual meet up for weeks and suspense had been building as the day of their showdown neared. Both the couple and the fans’ hopes were quelled, however, with the intervention of Wally Bayola’s character, Lola Nidora, who prevented the two from actually meeting each other up

program Sunday PinaSa-ya, is grateful for his fans’ overwhelming support. Just recently, the actor’s Twitter account reached an impressive 1 million followers, which Alden immediately acknowl-edged with a tweet say-ing, “1Million followers!!! Maraming maraming salamat po!!!” For AlDub fans around the country who are wondering if Lola Ni-dora will ever let the two meet and be happy, stay

tuned to Eat Bulaga’s KalyeSerye only on GMA airing over its regional stations in Ilocos, Bicol, Dagupan, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, GenSan, and Cagayan de Oro. To know more about the Network’s regional events, follow GMA on Facebook at www.face-book.com/gmanetwork and GMA Regional TV at www.facebook.com/GMARegionalTV and on Twitter and Instagram via @GMARegionalTV.

close. Attesting to AlDub’s immense popularity, the couple were a hot topic on Twitter, with over 1 million tweets for the episode’s hashtag #AL-DUBBATTLEForACause even before the show began to air. The number of tweets rose to 2 million during

the Eat Bulaga’s broad-cast and reached over 5 million by the end of the day, setting a new record for the high-est number of tweets recorded in the Philip-pines. Last Saturday’s record significantly surpassed that of another AlDub hashtag the previous

Saturday, #AlDubMaiD-enHeaven, which in turn, had exceeded the 3.34 million tweets gar-nered by the hashtag #PapalVisit during Pope Francis’ visit to the Phil-ippines in January 2015. GMA Artist Center star Alden Richards, who is also seen on GMA’s comedy-musical variety

KAPAMILYA STARS Gerald An-derson, Shaina Magdayao, and Marco Masa will show TV view-ers how good triumphs over evil as ABS-CBN’s top-rating primetime drama series “Na-thaniel” airs its intense finale episode on September 25. Since it aired last April, “Nathaniel” consistently won the ratings game ev-ery night after charming the hearts of Filipino families and reminding every-one of the innate goodness of human-ity. Meanwhile, primetime TV viewers will surely not miss the last three weeks of the series as the guardian angel Na-thaniel (Marco) duels with the evil and the wicked in the world. Will Nathaniel succeed in his mission to restore the faith of humanity in God? Can he stop the evil plans of the Tagas-undo (Baron Geisler) against Paul (Ger-ald) and AVL (Coney Reyes)? In the end, how will Nathaniel face Paul and Rachel (Shaina) when they find out that he is their first-born son? Don’t miss the last three weeks of “Nathaniel,” weeknights on ABS-CBN Primetime Bida. For more information about the program, visit the official social networking site of Dreamscape Entertainment Television at Facebook.com/DreamscapePH, Twitter.com/DreamscapePH, and Instagram.com/DreamscapePH. Meanwhile, viewers may also catch up on full episodes and past episodes of “Nathaniel” through ABS-CBNmobile. For more information, please go to www.abscbnmobile.com.

PG/*R16

R13

R13/*R13 11:25 | 1:40 | 3:55 LFS/* 6:10 |8:05 | 10:00 LFS

R-16

PIXELS/ *SINISTER 2

Adam Sandler, Kevin James/

Shannyn Sossamon

R13 11:20 | 2:00 |4:40 | 7:20 | 10:00 LFS

HENERAL LUNA/*THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED

12:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS

EX WITH BENEFITS

Derek Ramsay, Coleen Garcia, Carmi Martin

11:25 | 1:40 | 3:55 LFS/* 6:10 |8:05 | 10:00 LFS

John Arcilla, Epy Quizon/Ed Skrein, Ray Stevenson, Gabriella Wright

MAZE RUNNER:THE SCORCH TRIALS

Dylan O'Brien, Nathalie Emmanuel,

Thomas Brodie-Sangster

September 9-15, 2015

EDGEDAVAOVOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015

A4 INdulge!HEALTH

though already a staple star in wellness, is not something anyone would gladly do. For most of us, spas only use strokes and are not in any way con-nected with needles. With them, you’ll learn of the many ways to be healthy. You’ll be educated and given a new perspective on how you are to live your life to the fullest. For first timers, do let go of the fear and give it

a try. Be open and learn to relax with the needles in your body. The senation is abrupt and is rather tingly to the feel. It does not hurt in any way. It feels relax-ing and calming. The best way to relax? Do close your eyes and drift away. The moment you let go, you’ll feel the tremendous effect on your body and face. What’s more, there is a guaranteed glowing effect that will be preva-lent after each session. Thai Raksa Healing

Spa – Davao is located at 76-A Ecowest Drive, Gen-esis 88 Building, Davao City. For a scheduled ap-pointment, you can call them at 0906 418 0339 or 0917 875 3108. When in Manila, fret not, Thai Raksa Healing Spa is conveniently lo-cated at Unit 10, G/F City Center Bldg., Ortigas Av-enue, Greenhills San Juan You can call them at (02)668-9780 or 0917 875 3108.

Alternative A4

EDGEDAVAO VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015

NO GENERATION GAP. These four gentlemen may be decades apart age-wise but it seems they enjoy each other’s company because of common inter-ests. From left: Leoncio “Nonoy” P. Villa-Abrille, businessman-civic leader in his 70s; Jose “Joe” B. Custodio, realtor-golfer just turned 80; Uy Ching “Mr. Siong” Siong, billionaire industrialist-philanthropist in his mid 90s; and Antonio “Tony” M. Ajero in his 60s. Their common interests include the Rotary International, Ambassador Club International, Jayceesm, Young Men’s Christian Association, and Ys Men’s International. Contributed

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015 7CULTURE & ARTS

During the Amer-ican Occupation, the railway sys-

tem in Mindanao was primarily used in mili-tary camps, penal farms, and logging. At Port Lam-on, in Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur, locomotives or-dered from the United States transported tim-ber from nearby forests to the pier. Inside Camp Keithley in Marawi City, the flatcars hauled war materiel using the rails.

At Davao Penal Col-ony, a diesel-operated locomotive pulled flat-beds that transported prisoners to work at Mactan, the penal farm’s rice fields. Raymond C. Heimbuch, in ‘5 Broth-ers in Arms’, (2008) de-scribed this scenario of inmates, under tight se-curity, being delivered to their assignments using the corroded rails with rusty ties:

“A narrow gauge rail-road ran from the [Davao Penal Colony] compound to approximately the center of the rice fields. The railroad equipment consisted of an old and poorly maintained die-sel-powered locomotive. The rolling stock con-sisted of approximately

thirty to forty flatbed cars. The men were load-ed on this train and tak-en to and from the rice fields, about a forty-five minutes ride each way.”

Similarly, John D. Lukacs, in ‘Escape from Davao’ (2010), wrote that the flatcars were not only used for haul-ing farm manpower and harvested rice padded in sacks, these were used also in hauling logs to the nearest hauling sta-tion:

“Just beyond Mac-tan [rice fields], POWs hauled wet gravel in five-gallon cans from a creek bed onto flatcars. Seven miles down the rail line, others grunted and pulled in two-man teams felling mahogany behemoths with long bucksaws. The trunks of these ironlike hard-woods were so wide that when lying on their sides some were taller than the lumberjacks. The giant logs were shipped by train to the Japanese outposts at Anibongan and then floated downstream on the Tuganay River to the same sawmill whose pier the Erie Maru [ship] had tied up to.”

(Erie Maru was a steam-propelled car-go-passenger ship built in 1920, with 5493 gross tonnage. Built by the Asano Shipbuilding Co., in Tsurumi, Japan, for Ishihara Gomei-Kai-sha, Fuchu, with a speed of 10.5 knots, it has the capacity to carry 2,500 passengers. It was sunk by the USS Sturgeon on Jan. 11, 1944, at Bungo Straits, 20 miles east of Saeki, Kyushu, Japan.)

American war sur-vivor Hayes R. Bolitho, in his war account (‘The Hayes Bolitho Japanese Story’) at Dapecol, also mentioned the locomo-tive as an indispensable means of transport the Japanese used while they were moved from their field assignments to the incarceration camp:

“The return [of the prisoners] to the [Da-pecol] compound was a gradual uphill grade and because of the rain the wheels on the loco-motive were slipping. Progress was practically nil so the guards began kicking us off the car to push. They were shout-ing and swearing at us… Walking barefooted on

slippery wood railroad ties or alongside in the weeds and brush was miserable… The train was moving slowly, but with practically no help from us. By the time we were probably a mile from camp, men in their barracks could hear singing.”

Preserving the ar-tifacts of rails and lo-comotives has been a struggle for industrial archaeologists and his-torians. While in Negros and Dagupan two sepa-rate trains have found their appropriate plac-es of posterity through local government help, many of the old loco-motives that used to line the Tutuban train station compound in Manila have landed in junkyards.

The rails of Dapecol also met the same fate in the hands of sec-ond-hand dealers. At a time when prices of met-al in the Chinese market were going through the roof, even the long-bur-ied rails in mountainous logging hubs were dug in exchange for money.

Fast forward, to-day’s railway infrastruc-tures and their uses

have been redefined, especially in tourism destinations where monorails link the main entrance to the central hub. But the most sig-nificant clamor is the in-stallation of a light rail-way transit (LRT) in re-sponse to the burgeon-ing traffic that keeps urban centers almost at a standstill by daytime.

In 2014, Davao City, confronted by a growing traffic gridlock, tapped a Korean firm to con-duct a project study for a light rail transport system in the city. This long-term project is via-ble in addressing traffic congestion influenced in large part by the rise in vehicular population.

The proposed monorail type of LRT, with a capacity of 5,000 to 20,000 in an hour, will run at 70 kilome-ters per hour but also has a huge impact on the livelihood of 8,500 jeepney drivers and 14,000 tricycle drivers operating with the met-ropolitan streets. With Davao City projected to host around ten million people by 2040, it can become “one of the ter-ribly trafficked cities.”

Photo credit: National Library

By ANTONIO FIGUEROA

“A narrow gauge railroad ran from the [Davao Penal Colony] compound to approxi-mately the center of the rice fields. The railroad equipment consisted of an old and poorly main-tained diesel-powered locomotive. The rolling stock consisted of ap-proximately thirty to for-ty flatbed cars. The men were loaded on this train and taken to and from the rice fields, about a forty-five minutes ride each way.”

HISTORY OF DAVAO (4TH of a Series)

The railway of Dapecol

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 20158 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

EDITORIALMake it final

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

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IN a forgettable video he made with a group of young “vine” (short video) makers, an obviously coached Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte mouths the words, “Nothing is for-

ever” in answer to a question on — of all things — the boy band One Direction. It was a popular phrase at the time and the video was apparently aimed at making the mayor more accessible to younger people who would conceivable vote for him for whatever position he intended to run for. “Nothing is forever,” as most other products of pop culture go, is now passé, but the message is still relevant today especially in light of recent events.

Last Monday, Duterte called a press conference in which he said his final decision was not to run for President in 2016. That announcement was met with disbelief and sadness by his supporters, and many people have expressed disappointment that the popular local chief executive — dubbed by many as the country’s last hope — is no longer in the running as far as the country’s top position is concerned. To be sure Duterte

had said the same thing consistently over the past year and few believed him, but his press conference announcement had an air of finality that his supporters found difficult to accept.

Yesterday, however, the mayor managed to stir things up again when he essentially said in a live television interview that, to paraphrase, nothing is forever — not even his an-nouncement that he is not running. “Masama ang magsalita nang tapos sa mundong ito (It is bad to say anything with fi-nality in this world),” Duterte said in response to a question on his withdrawal from the presidential race. Indeed, as pointed out by Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, there is nothing for Dute-rte to withdraw since he has not even entered the contest yet.

This, of course, could go both ways. On the one hand it ob-viously elates his supporters; on the other hand, those in the fringes could lose interest because of the mayor’s constant vagueness on the matter. Nothing may be final in this world, but Duterte must make his intention clear now or risk losing his popularity.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAODeadly fishing

With trust and faith, peace is possible

Henrylito D. Taciohenrytacio@gmail.com

THINK ON THESE!HE places a puck-sized lump of cyanide in the bottom of a squeeze bottle. He fills it with water, then sprays the contents on a

coral reef. Then he scoops up the gasping fish as they come rushing out of their holes.

This is how most tropical fish commence the journey to home aquariums throughout the world. For years, sodium cyanide has played a major role in supplying the multibillion-dollar global market for fish.

“Cyanide fishing may not be as rampant as in the 1970s and 1980s, it is being done in the Phil-ippines,” says Dr. Alan White, senior scientist of the Asia-Pacific Program of the Nature Conser-vancy.

But still about 150,000 kilograms of sodium cyanide are sold every year, according to Dennis Calvan, executive director of NGOs (non-govern-ment organizations) for Fisheries Reform, quot-ing data from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

In recent years, cyanide fishing is no longer confined to gathering aquarium fish. The demand for live fish in restaurants in Hong Kong and other parts of the world has made the practice preva-lent in Indonesia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the Maldives, the Solomon Islands, and other coastal states in the Western Pacific.

“Some 20,000 tons of live fish are eaten an-nually in the restaurants of Hong Kong, where rich sophisticates will pay big bucks to select a huge grouper fish in a tank and have it cooked for their table,” reports Fred Pearce in an article which was carried by the website of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Yes, money is the reason for cyanide’s pop-

ularity among f i s h e r m e n . “Fishermen can sell live fish to exporters for many times the price of dead fish,” explains the Coral Reef Alliance (COR-AL) based in Berkeley, Cal-ifornia. “The exporters then turn around and demand five times the price they paid for the fish by selling them to foreign luxury live fish markets in Asia.”

Fish coming from the Philippines are pre-ferred by many Hong Kong gourmands because “Philippines fish have the best taste,” they claim.

Because of the huge demand, many fisher-men have no choice but to use cyanide. It takes a fisherman one whole day to catch two de-cent-sized fish using a hook and line. But with cyanide, he can catch more than a dozen.

While cyanide fishing is economically feasi-ble, it is environmentally destructive. It kills coral reefs, the “rainforests of the sea.”

The late Jacques-Yves Cousteau commented after visiting a coastal island in the northern Phil-ippines to examine reefs destroyed by cyanide fishing: “These practices are criminal. They attack the natural productive environment which allows the renewal of marine resources.”

Coral reefs are considered one of the planet’s

essential life-support systems. Only 0.17% of the ocean floor is reportedly occupied by coral reefs and the warm shallow seas of Southeast Asia are home to some of these.

The Philippines has about 27,000 square kilometers of coral reefs. Of the almost 700 coral species known in the world, 500 of these can be found in the country, according to the Center for Environmental Concern.

Science tells us that coral reefs are construct-ed by millions of minute animals called coral pol-yps, each of which lives inside a protective lime-stone skeleton. A single reef can support as many as 3,000 species of marine life.

As fishing grounds, they are thought to be 10 to 100 times as productive per unit area as the open sea. They provide 12% of the global marine fish catch and many account for up to 25% of fish caught by developing countries.

Today, coral reefs are on the verge of extinc-tion. An estimated 10% of the world’s 600,00 square kilometers of reefs has been destroyed during the past 50 years by myriad causes, includ-ing industrial pollution. In recent years, cyanide fishing has contributed to the fast dwindling of reefs. This is particularly true in the Philippines, where thousands of kilograms of sodium cyanide are sprayed into its waters every year.

A study commissioned by the Philippine fish-ery bureau showed that two applications of cya-nide on coral heads four month apart caused high coral polyp mortality. “Unlike blast fishing which reduces corals into rubble, cyanide keeps coral structure intact -- but dead,” Dr. Vaughan Pratt of the International Marinelife Alliance.

Contrary to common belief, cyanide fishing

is not a product of Filipino ingenuity but of the Americans. A certain Bridges first used sodium cyanide to stun and capture tropical fish in 1958 in Illinois. A Filipino aquarium fish collector named Gonzales picked up the practice.

By 1962, American fish exporter from the Philippines Earl Kennedy was surprised by a sudden increase in aquarium fish supply from Lubang Island off Batangas. He found out later that this was due to cyanide use. The practice spread throughout the country in no time.

When caught by using cyanide, many reef fish die on the spot -- about 50% -- since the dose of cyanide cannot be regulated. “Only 10% of the fish that get poisoned is of commercial value to exporters,” said Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, former head of the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development.

Even after the fishermen leave an area, the cyanide stays behind in the ocean current. Ac-cording to marine biologists, it takes only a small amount to kill the sensitive coral. But corals are not the only ones affected: fishermen themselves are not spared.

Although the chemical cannot kill them, fre-quent exposure to cyanide can result in skin le-sions, fatigue, reddened hair, and damage to in-ternal organs.

Although cyanide fishing is illegal not only in the Philippines but also in other parts of Asia and the Pacific region, enforcement is relative-ly poor. “Bribery and corruption of government officials are commonplace in the live fish trade,” CORAL complains. “Although it is illegal to export fish caught with cyanide in many countries, these laws are frequently circumvented.”

ON March 27, 2014, we, the Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), respec-tively represented here by myself and Prof. Ab-

houd Lingga, signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

The Community of San E’digio was a living witness to this event and the many rounds of negotiations be-fore the signing. The Community sits as a member of the International Contact Group (ICG). It was ably rep-resented by none other than Señors Alberto Quartucci and Roberto Pietrolucci. I note with honor and pleasure that also a member of the ICG is the Indonesia-based Muhammadiyah, which Prof. Din Samsyuddin who is also here with us in this panel, until recently chaired.

The International Contact Group is our own ver-sion of the third-party “Friends of the Process” who accompanied the peace negotiators and the Malaysian facilitator as observers, facilitators, advisers, and part-ners in the journey to peace. You can see all of us in this photo as we celebrated the signing of the last annex to the agreement.

It took 17 years of negotiations to get us that peace agreement. Many mini-wars before and even during the talks had erupted in the southern part of the Phil-ippines, where the minority Muslims or Moros, lived. More than 120,000 people have died since the 1970s up to the 1990s. Millions have been displaced from time to time. Children missed school, properties were de-stroyed, and sickness haunted the evacuation centers.

What made the peace agreement that we are now implementing, possible? How did we get this far in our peace process despite the huge gap that divided us?

Social scientists talk about concepts like the “bal-ance of power,” “a hurting stalemate,” war fatigue, and so on as elements that affect the environment for peace-ful solutions.

All these do come to play. But there were defi-

nitely two things that made the comprehensive peace agreement between us possible. Without these two, we would not have gone this far.

These two elements are none other than trust and faith.

There were good reasons for the two parties to hesitate to trust each other. Historical distrust due to legacy of Christianization under 500 years of Spanish colonial rule and 50 years of the American colonial re-gime bred this distrust. The Islamic sultanates resisted. Over the centuries, the Moros thus evolved a different collective narrative and identity, different from the Fil-ipino majority.

Outbreaks of hostilities, break ups of the 1997 ceasefire, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, made wounds fresh. On and off peace talks did not build confidence in both parties and among the general public.

When President Benigno Aquino III came to power in 2010, his administration took extra steps to rebuild the trust.

In August 2011, the first face-to-face meeting hap-pened between the President and the head of the MILF, Ebrahim Murad. This extraordinary step opened doors and allowed fresh air in.

Government has steadfastly defended the process before its many critics. To the cry, “All-Out War!,” it re-sponded with “All-Out Justice.”

Government leadership stayed the course amid all the unfortunate violent in these areas.

This is after all not a simple problem. There are many other armed groups and different stakeholders such as the migrants who have settled here, and the non-Moro indigenous peoples. Many see the complexity as reason

to doubt the process, or any process for that matter, as all complexities cannot be solve by one process alone.

For its part, the MILF took pains to show that it was worthy of the trust. It pledged that it would indeed demo-bilize, and participate in democratic politics through civic and party organizations.

For example, despite uncertainties, MILF cadres have proceeded with building their political party called United Bangsamoro Justice Party. Many trainings have been conducted to prepare them for their future roles.

Last January, MILF forces mistakenly engaged po-lice forces, resulting in the death of 44 policemen, 18 MILF combatants, members of other armed groups in the community, and several civilians. The public uproar almost brought down the peace process.

As a measure of goodwill, the MILF agreed to return the weapons seized from the government police. Last June, we began the process of decommissioning MILF weapons and combatants. These weapons have been stored in a site that is jointly guarded by the Independent Decommissioning Body, and the government and MILF’s Joint Peace and Security Team.

The many joint activities have kept this trust strong and worthy. Among such undertakings are: maintain-ing the ceasefire, cooperatively dealing with ceasefire violations, launching socio-economic programs like the Sajahatra Bangsamoro, repairing schoolbuildings and providing free medical service and haircuts in remote schools, and taking steps to decommission the weapons and combatants, among others.

But trust alone was not enough to sustain our process. We needed to have faith because that trust is challenged by every difficulty phase of the process and unwanted incidents. It can be challenged especially by those others who do not trust – politicians, other leaders, or ordinary folk who do not believe in giving this peace a chance.

To give peace its best shot, we also needed to have faith to see us through.

This faith can be secular – the belief in social justice, in the humanity of all, in the capacity of the other to deliv-er their part of the agreement.

It can be religious faith – belief in the sanctity of creation, that God shall help those who help themselves, that the just shall be rewarded, that His will shall be done. That in the bigger domain of the universe, there shall be order in chaos.

Without the trust in each other and the faith that our good intentions will see us through, our process would not have withstood all the challenges. We would have doubted and wavered.

Without trust in the other we become stingy – for instance in the kind of law that we will pass to institute the Bangsamoro autonomous government. Or even be-grudge our patience, openness and understanding, and our financial resources.

Only with trust and faith can we have the generosity of spirit and the compassionate understanding that are essential to make peace in Mindanao, peace on earth possible.

Therefore, we continue our efforts to build the trust and the faith in our peace process on the Bangsamoro, in Mindanao, before the greater Filipino public and the big-ger community of nations.

Thank you for this opportunity to share with your wonderful community of the faithful, our little story from our part of the world.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. PeaceTalk is open to anyone who wishes to share his/her piece on peace in Mindanao. Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer is chair of the government peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. She delivered this speech at the “Peace is Possible, Religions and Cultures in Dialogue” on 7 September 2015 at Tirana, Albania.)

BY MIRIAM CORONEL- FERRERPEACETALK

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 201510NEWS EDGEDAVAO

Nothing... FROM 1

Soldier... FROM 2

DENR... FROM 2

PHL... FROM 3

House... FROM 3

JAP... FROM 5

Gov’t... FROM 5

Islamic... FROM 5

tional Economic and Devel-opment Authority (NEDA) 11 said the proposal “stems from the results of a pre-fea-sibility study funded by the JICA which was a component of the Davao Integrated De-velopment Program (DIDP) Master Plan formulated in 1999 with an estimated project cost of P6.48 billion for a two-lane suspension bridge with a length of 1,200 meters.”

In a separate study done

by consultants from Kata-hira and Engineers Interna-tional in 2005, alternative start-end points were rec-ommended which increased the proposed bridge length to 1,350 meters, upping the project cost to P 15.93 bil-lion, the statement added.

RDC 11 approved a rec-ommendation by the con-sultants for the conduct of a full-blown feasibility study on the project in 2015. The feasibility study will be

funded by the NEDA Fea-sibility Study Fund and is targeted to be completed by 2016 before Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosa-rio steps down from his post next year.

Del Rosario said in the same briefing event on Wednesday that the con-struction of the bridge will boost the local tourism as well as the number of invest-ments in the island.

“Ito din ay magiging daan

upang maging mas maitaas pa ang katayuan ng syudad bilang isang investment at tourism hub (This bidge will serve as a mechanism to up-lift the standing of the island as an investment and tour-ism hub),” Del Rosario said.

Del Rosario, who is also the chair of the RDC, also appealed to the President to continue supporting the development of the island through projects in the fu-ture.

political moves.“He holds his cards close

to his heart. He doesn’t want anyone to read them. It’s just a strategy to confuse the en-emy,” Laviña said in an inter-view yesterday.

He said the residents of Davao City are already aware of the mayor’s strategy, add-ing that Duterte has never declared his candidacy in any election that he partici-pated in.

Laviña also said what-ever the real intention of Duterte was behind his proc-lamation last Monday that he will not run for President, he wants to send the mes-sage that the presidency is not about personalities but about the change that the country needs.

“Inaalis niya ang sarili niya sa equation. Kung hindi parin mag bago ang isip ng mga tao nothing will hap-pen to our country. Yun ang ibig nyang sabihin (He is just removing himself from the equation. If the people’s minds to not change, nothing will happen to our country. That’s what he means),” he said.

Laviña also said based on experience, the clamor from people for Duterte to run for President grows stronger each time he says he will not run.

Laviña advised the peo-ple to wait until the last day of filing of candidacy on Oc-tober 16 before they with-draw their support from the mayor.

more investors will come to the island.

He one of the reasons investors from Islamic coun-tries do not pour in money to Mindanao is that the banking transactions are not suitable to Islamic principles.

Lidasan also said he hope the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will be passed because the Bangsamoro

Parliament will immediately formulate the Sharia law in the Bangsamoro areas.

The Al Qalam Institute in partnership with the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) conducted research on Islamic financing in the past three years to build the social capital of setting up Islamic Finance in Mindan-ao.

lapsed.“Gihikay ang iyang kaso,

apan kaganihang buntag, sa pagpaabot sa atong police sa Calinan Police Station, wala pa man nibalik ang taga Robillo Hospital tapos mo lampas na ta sa period, maong gi-release ang ma-ong sundalo (The charges have been prepared. The police waited, but the man-agement of Robillo Hospital

did not show up that is why they released Dalion),” Driz said.

She said the suspect will face cases of alarm and scandal and illegal dis-charge of firearms.

The firearm has already been confiscated by the in-vestigators of Calinan Police Station and Dalion was al-ready submitted for paraffin test. (ABFJ)

in Mt. Hamiguitan.“The forest guards will

not be only in charge of en-suring the safety of wildlife but also in protecting the heritage site,” Fragada told reporters in a tree planting activity last Wednesday.

He said a list of person-nel will be submitted by local government units sur-rounding the heritage site, including the municipality of Governor Generoso and San Isidro in the province of

Davao Oriental.“These trained person-

nel will be deputized so that they could enforce the law and arrest violators,” Fraga-da said.

Fragada also said the new guards will be added to the 14 existing DENR forest guards in Mt. Hamiguitan. He said the DENR does not have enough manpower to guard and protect the 7,000-hect-are heritage site.

Fragada also said the

DENR will be intensifying its information education and communication (IEC) for wildlife protection and site protection in order to avoid the occurrence of the same incident.

Meanwhile, Fragada said the DENR 11 and the Philip-pine National Police (PNP) in Davao Oriental have passed a resolution for the creation of an investigating team to look into the death of Pamana.

He said result of the in-

vestigation will be submitted to Task Force Pamana.

Fragada said the team is eyeing to involve the nearby community in the investiga-tion. “We cannot say that the community is suspect, but maybe they are witnesses,” he said.

Fragada said a reward amounting to P150,000 is being offered for information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of those who shot dead Pamana.

IN CONFIDENCE. Resigned Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas whispers to President Benigno Aquino during the ‘Gathering with Friends’ held yesterday at the SMX Convention Center. To the President’s left

is Davao del Norte Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario, while to Secretary Roxas’ right is Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Armando B. Fenequito Jr.

quality planting materials on cacao and encourag-ing farmers to value add their beans by ferment-ing them.

He said farmers have a bigger chance of entering the export market if they start fermenting their beans instead of selling

them either wet or dry in the local market.

“Only 30 percent of cacao farmers here fer-ment their beans in the region,” he said, add-ing unfermented cacao beans are sold at lower price both in the local and international mar-

ket.“The local buying

price for dried cacao beans is P125 per kilo-gram (kg), higher that the P110 price for dried beans,” he said. In the in-ternational market, fer-mented beans are sold at P140/kg.

Turtur said the two-day event will be partic-ipated in by 600 to 700 participants from differ-ent parts of the country.

He said chocolate producers and cacao traders from US, Japan, and Europe will also at-tend the event today.

banded.“This situation of

Lumads being harassed, killed and displaced will turn into a humanitarian crisis, if the national government does not intervene,” she warned in a press statement issued Wednesday.

“I seek justice for the death of our Lumad leaders. Harassment of indigenous communities in Mindanao must stop,” she said.

At the House of Repre-sentatives, House Resolution 2358, introduced last Mon-day, directed the Committee on Human Rights to “con-duct an investigation, in aid of legislation, into the extra-judicial killings” of the exec-utive director of an alterna-tive learning center and two others in Lianga, Surigao del Sur on September 1, “al-legedly perpetrated by mem-bers of the Philippine Army and a paramilitary group.”

Killed were Emerito Sa-marca, 54, Executive Direc-tor of the Alternative Learn-ing Center for Agriculture

and Livelihood Development (Alcadev); Dionel Campos, chair of the Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusu-nod (MAPASU), and Campos’ cousin, Aurelio Sinzo.

According to the re-port of Karapatan-Caraga, Samarca was found dead with a stab wound and a slit open throat inside one of the classrooms of Alcadev in Si-tio Han-ayan, Barangay Dia-tagon in Lianga, while Cam-pos and Sinzo were reported killed in front of residents rounded up by the perpe-trators.

Witnesses pointed to members of the Maga-hat-Bagani Force, a para-military group composed of Lumads and believed to be organized and supported by the military, as the culprits.

The paramilitary group was also implicated in the October 2014 killing of Henry Alameda and Aldren Damaguit. (Carolyn O. Ar-guillas with a report from Erwin Mascarinas / Min-daNews)

tion (PEF).Currently, the project on

Profit Sharing Microfinance for Women Entrepreneurs of SOCSARGEN (Shariah Compliant) has occupied Katiyakap. Starting its im-plementation in 2010, this project has stressed on mi-crofinance support for Sha-riah compliant investments run by Moro women that has “no-interest, is just and fair, and transparent”.

As one of the prime movers of the current proj-ect being undertaken by

Katiyakap with PEF, Bai Yolanda M. Nawal work hands-on with every part-ners the organization has with its Islamic microfi-nance. She explains that at the outset, the Katiyakap leaders, staff members and some of its partners all had to undergo an orientation on Islamic Finance and the Islamic principles that goes with it, conducted by a Mus-lim scholar who studied in Madina, Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Bai Yolanda further

elaborated that most of all, among the important things to be considered by the cli-ents are the guidelines on Islamic Finance and the regulations by the rules de-rived from the Holy Qur-an, Hadith, Sunnah (prophetic practices), Fatwa and Fiqh or Islamic Jurisprudence or Shariah that focus on trans-actions (that) must be halal, authorized, clear and trans-parent, and that it is based on trust and honesty, just and fair, interest-free, asset based, and contractual cer-

tainty. As mentioned in the UP

study, with Katiyakap Inc.’s micro – lending, the orga-nization has, for the most part, empowered the wom-en as it was through the women’s efforts that their families have been able to avail of the financing and other material assistance for the Muslim families.

Hence, three years since it has started with this laud-able effort, Katiyakap, Inc. continues to serve its clien-tele.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015 11AGRITRENDS

Biotechnology: Boon or Bane in farming?EVERY second, three

people are born, the United Nations Popu-

lation Fund reports. Every 7.67 seconds, one hectare of productive land is lost, ac-cording to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Unless we are ready to accept starvation, or place parks and the Amazon basin under the plow, there really is only one good alternative: Discover ways to increase food production from exist-ing resources,” points out Martina Newell-McGlough-lin, director of the Biotech-nology Research and Educa-tion Program of the Universi-ty of California Systemwide.

Dr. Norman Borlaug, No-bel Peace Prize winner in 1970, shared the same view. “Global food security will not disappear without the effec-tive application of new tech-nology,” he said. “To ignore this reality will make future solutions to food security all the more difficult to achieve.”

Biotechnology -- which is a combination of “biolo-gy” which is the science of life and “technology” which refers to the tools and tech-niques used to achieve a particular purpose -- has been promoted as the new scheme.

As defined, biotechnolo-gy is the manipulation of bi-ological organisms to make products that benefit human beings. Its definition evolved through times and so its context and scope. With the advances in cell and molec-ular biology, biotechnology emerged from classical or traditional (examples: brew-ing, wine making, cheese making, etc.) to modern or advanced biotechnology.

Modern biotechnology is closely associated with recombinant DNA technol-ogy or genetic engineering, a high-end science seen as having tremendous poten-tial to increase agricultural

productivity. “Biotechnology is by de-

fault our best and, maybe, only way to increase pro-duction to meet future food needs,” says Dr. McGloughlin.

Biotechnology, when used among crops, allows a scientist to choose and move the single characteristic he wants -- it’s streamlined, efficient, and produces su-perior results. “The tech-niques used in modern plant biotechnology provide plant breeders with precise tools that permit them to intro-duce desirable characteris-tics into a plant,” explains a fact sheet published by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

“They do so without hav-ing unwanted or extra traits that occur with traditional plant breeding,” the ISAAA fact sheet adds. “Because of the control that’s afforded with plant biotechnology, scientists can examine intro-duced traits in great detail.”

In 1994, Calgene’s de-layed-ripening tomato be-came the first genetically modified (GM) food crop to be produced and consumed in an industrialized country. Since then, several GM food crops are introduced or cur-rently being studied.

In the near future, the following crops will be avail-able: rice enriched with iron, vitamin A and E, and lysine; potatoes with higher starch content and inulin; edible vaccines in corn, banana, and potatoes; corn variet-ies with low phytic acid and increased essential amino acids; healthier oils from soybean and canola; and al-lergen-free nuts.

But all is not rosy, how-ever. “I believe that this kind of genetic modification takes mankind into realms that belong to God, and to God alone,” commented Philip Arthur George Charles -- more popularly known as

Prince Charles -- in 1998. “By transferring genes

across species barriers which have existed for eons,” said Dr. Peter Wills, a theo-retical biologist at Auckland University, “we risk breach-ing natural thresholds against unexpected biologi-cal processes.”

One potential risks of biotechnology is out-cross-ing, the unintentional breed-ing of domestic crop with a related plant. In 1999, it was also reported that pol-len from biotech corn had a negative impact on Monarch butterfly larvae. Another concern is that biotech crops may lead to the development of insect resistance to Bacil-lus thuringiensis (Bt), a com-mon soil bacterium.

Then, there’s that ques-tion about allergen (a pro-tein that causes an allergic reaction) from GM foods which could be accidentally introduced into a food prod-uct.

Some GM crops contain genes for a trait called anti-biotic resistance. Scientists use this trait as a market to identify cells into which the desired gene has been suc-cessfully introduced. Con-cerns have been raised that these marker genes could

move from GM crops to mi-croorganisms that normally reside in a person’s gut and lead to an increase in antibi-otic resistance.

On the potential risks of biotech crops on the en-vironment, ISAAA has this answer: “The environmental and ecological concerns po-tentially associated with GM crops are evaluated prior to their release. In addition, post-approval monitoring and good agricultural sys-tems need to be in place to detect and minimize poten-tial risks, as well as to ensure GM crops continue to be safe after their release.”

As to the health issues, the Geneva-based World Health Organization gives this assurance: “The po-

tential direct health effects of GM foods are generally comparable to the known risks associated with con-ventional foods, and include, for example, the potential of allergenicity and toxicity of components present, and the nutritional quality and microbiological safety of the food.”

“Despite the current uncertainty over GM crops, one thing remains clear,” the ISAAA fact sheet claims. “This technology, with its poten-tial to create economically important crop varieties, is simply too valuable to ignore. There are, however, some valid concerns. If these issues are to be resolved, decisions must be based on credible, science-based information.”

TEXT AND PHOTOS By HENRYLITO D. TACIO

Spices

Fruits

Vegetables

Carrot and potato

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 201512 COMMUNITY SENSE

TAGUM Cooperative welcomed the month of September with

honor and pride as it bagged Galing Pook’s first Citizen-ship Award 2015 in recogni-tion of its outstanding efforts in uplifting and empowering the people and the commu-nity.

Of the 33 institutions that vied for the award, Tagum Coop made it to Top 8 and survived the cut through the five finalists of the Citi-zenship Award.

Director Norma R. Perey-ras, chairperson of Tagum Cooperative (TC) Board of Directors (BOD), delivered to the National Selection Committee TC’s history, best practices, and services on August 30, 2015 at the SMX Convention Center Manila.

Among the awardees, Tagum Cooperative made history in Galing Pook Award as the only cooperative win-ner of the newly-launched Citizenship Award intended for individuals, NGOs, civil society who/which have en-gaged local governments to produce results.

The Galing Pook Citizen-ship Award sought how citi-zenship had been exercised by an organization for com-

munity and nation-building, and guided by the criteria of positive results, promotion of people’s participation and empowerment, innovation, transferability and sustain-ability, good governance, and efficiency of program service delivery.

Pereyras emphasized the contribution of Tagum Co-operative to the attainment of the Millennium Develop-ment Goals (MDGs) partic-ularly on the alleviation of poverty, on health, on envi-ronment, and on global part-nerships through livelihood trainings, feeding programs, donations, medical outreach programs, tree planting and growing activities, and clos-er partnerships with LGUs and other organizations.

Asked about the sustain-ability of programs, Perey-ras pointed out the annual 3 percent allocation for the Community Development Fund from TC’s Net Surplus which enables Tagum Coop to fund various community activities, giving back to the community God’s blessings.

The high-impact and sustainable programs, proj-ects, and activities staged and funded by Tagum Coop every year for the margin-

Tagum Coop wins Galing Pook award

alized sectors caught the attention and votes of the panelists.

The members of the pan-el were Edicio dela Torre (Trustee, Galing Pook), Marides Fernando (Former Mayor, Marikina), Prof. Edna A. Co (Executive Director, UP CIDS), Vincent Lazatin (Exec-utive Director, TAN), and Ve-ronica Villavicencio (Trustee, Galing Pook).

“We have leveled up and raised the bar of excellence as we become part of na-tion-building through our sustainable community de-velopment activities which address Millennium Develop-ment Goals.” Pereyras said in an interview.

She said the award is not for her and Tagum Coopera-tive but is shared to the whole cooperative movement.

Along with Pereyras in the “Mamamayan Mama-mayani Galing Pook Gov-ernance Fair” were BOD members Miriam R. Baloyo, Fe J. Adlawan and Nenita R. Malbas, Treasurer Rosalina S. Argent, SCG Manager Vivelyn D. Fronteras, and Funecare Manager Kathryn Ann J. Sala-zar who all expressed their happiness as Tagum Cooper-ative was adjudged winner.

Tagum Cooperative’s vic-tory follows the Galing Pook achievements (local govern-ment programs) of Davao del Norte with its award-ed Trichogramma (1995), Sustainable Food Security Program (1996), and Blood Sufficiency Program (1997), as well as Tagum City’s Night Market Program (2014). (DQ Lumayno Jr./Tagum Coop-erative)

STANDING PROUD. Tagum Cooperative chairperson Norma R. Pereyras (center) holds the highly-coveted trophy.

STATE think tank Philip-pine Institute for Devel-opment Studies (PIDS)

and Davao-based Mindanao Development Authority (Min-DA) formalized their new development partnership during the 1st Mindanao Poli-cy Research Forum held at the Waterfront Insular Davao on September 4, 2015.

On behalf of their re-spective institutions, PIDS President Dr. Gilberto Llan-to and MinDA Executive Di-rector Undersecretary Janet Lopoz agreed to join forces in promoting the conduct of policy research and knowl-edge-sharing activities in sup-port of Mindanao’s develop-

ment needs. The memorandum of un-

derstanding signed by Llanto and Lopoz also includes the establishment of the Mindan-ao Knowledge Center (MKC), a knowledge hub of socioeco-nomic studies conducted by higher education institutions in Mindanao.

The MKC is envisioned to serve as a knowledge resource for local policymakers in craft-ing policies and programs that will enhance Mindanao’s com-petitiveness under the Associ-ation of Southeast Asian Na-tions (ASEAN) Economic Com-munity and help achieve inclu-sive and sustainable growth for Mindanaoans. (PIDS)

PIDS, MinDA formalizedevelopment partnership

AGREEMENT. MinDA Executive Director Undersecretary Janet Lopoz (left) and PIDS President Dr. Gilberto Llanto formalize the agreement to join forces in promoting policy research and knowledge-sharing activities in support of Mindanao’s development needs.

INTENSIFYING the fight against tuberculosis, a newly completed clinic

for TB DOTS (Tuberculosis Directly-Observed Treatment Shortcourse) was recently launched at the Davao Orien-tal Provincial Medical Center (DOPMC) compound, bring-ing accessible treatment to tuberculosis patients here in the province.

Funded by the Depart-ment of Health (DOH) 11 in partnership with Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), the facility hopes to make a significant dent in the cases of tuberculosis in this province and ultimately ma-terialize the provincial gov-ernment’s vision of bringing free TB DOTS Program closer to the people of Davao Orien-tal.

“With this facility we can

cater many TB patients to avail free TB DOTS services,” said DOPMC Chief of Hospital Dr. Ariel dela Cruz.

DOH Region 11 coor-dinator for the National TB Program (NTP) Evelyn Geli-to said based on the latest TB prevalence survey, more than 30 percent of the presump-tive tuberculosis patients opt for hospital consultation rather than going to health centers, and most of these cases are not being report-ed to the program. Making matters worse is that other patients do not seek proper treatment, thus giving them no chance for a cure.

Gelito said building the TB DOTS Clinic is the right move for the provincial gov-ernment in its bid to win its long-running fight against TB. “We are very optimistic

that more TB patients will be given more attention with this new clinic,” she said.

She lauded the provincial government’s commitment to help the people of Davao Oriental in fighting TB as well as the eagerness of the staff who will operate the facility.

Dr. Joy Sanico of the Pro-vincial Public Health Techni-cal Division emphasized said building the facility was very significant in treating this infectious disease, especial-ly since multi-drug resistant (MDR) cases of tuberculosis can occur if the patient ne-glects to seek proper medical care.

“MDR cases do not re-spond to conventional treat-ment and are very hard to treat,” she said.

Sanico said the Public Health Office is incorporating

sputum collection in its regu-lar medical consultation and outreach programs as part of the efforts in accounting for and treating TB patients in the communities.

She said they have al-ready started in Barangay Malibago in Cateel as well as in the Provincial Jail as man-dated by Governor Corazon N. Malanyaon.

Sanico said treating the communicable disease re-quires the concerted effort of all health care providers, both in the hospital as curative and public health as preventive. “The work here will always be integration. We will work hand in hand,” she said.

“With this new facility we will be able to realize our goal of seeing more healthy peo-ple and put an end to the stig-ma of TB,” Sanico added. PIO

New clinic in DavOr boosts fight vs TB

NEW CLINIC. Funded by the Department of Health (DOH) 11 in partnership with Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), the new facility hopes to make a significant dent in the cases of tuberculosis in Davao Oriental.

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015 13NEWS

EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF THE

ESTATE WITH WAIVER OF RIGHTS

Notice is hereby given that the estate of the late MARIANO TUMANG BARRIENTOS has been the subject of an EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT OF THE ESTATE WITH WAIVER OF RIGHTS executed among his heirs per Doc. No.392; Page No.79; Book No. 107; Series of 2015, of the NOTARY PUBLIC FATIMA IRENE T. ADIN

9/4.11.18

CITY Mayor Ronnel Rive-ra declared the recently concluded 17th Tuna

Festival as “the most success-ful” in the three years that he has been mayor.

At the closing ceremo-ny of the festival last Sunday (September 6), Rivera expressed gratitude to the people and organizations – especially the Philippine Fish-eries Development Authority (PFDA) – that made the cele-bration successful.

The PFDA, headed by Ma-rio Malinao, was the co-orga-nizer of the 17th Tuna Festival

along with the city govern-ment.

Rivera also acknowledged the efforts of the Philippine National Police, Joint Task Force Gensan, and other pub-lic safety units in maintaining peace and order during the celebration.

This year’s Tuna Festival focused on giving tribute to the industry and people who made Gensan the Tuna Capital of the Philippines.

In a press conference held on August 12, Mayor Rivera and all of the organizers of the 17th Tuna Festival said they

would bring more significance and identity to the festivity.

They also said this year’s Tuna Fest would focus on ad-dressing the challenges that the tuna industry is currently facing.

The 17th National Tuna Congress was held on Sep-tember 3 and 4 at SM City of Gensan and aimed at ad-dressing the issue of declin-ing tuna catch on a global scale. Fishing stakeholders and concerned government agencies – both from here and abroad – were present in the congress.

During the congress, em-phasis was placed on region-al cooperation as the hope of the tuna industry. The con-gress was organized by the SOCSKSARGEN Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc. (SAFFAII).

In previous years, the Tuna Festival had only street-danc-ing competition and tuna float parade as its main high-lights. Jane Gollon-Rivera, president of the Gensan Tour-ism Council (GTC), thought that those were not enough. (IJLagare-Gensan CPIO/DE-Doguiles-PIA 12)

17th Tuna Fest ‘most successful yet’

MindaNews photo by Keith Bacongco

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 20151414

GENERAL SANTOS CITY MARKETING OFFICEEDMUND D. RENDONMarketing Specialist

Mobile: (Smart) 0909-424-7990

DAVAO CITY MAIN OFFICEJOCELYN S. PANES

Director of SalesDoor 14 ALCREJ Bldg.,

Quirino Ave., Davao CityTel: (082) 224-1413

Telefax: (082) 221-3601

MANILA MARKETING OFFICEANGELICA R. GARCIA

Marketing Manager97-1 Bayanbayanan Ave.,

Marikina Heights, Marikina City Tel: (02) 654-3509

CLASSIFIED

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 2015 15SPORTSEDGEDAVAO

ON the eve of his re-cord-breaking mega-fight with Manny

Pacquiao on May 2, pound-for-pound king Floyd May-weather took an intrave-nous injection of saline and vitamins that was banned under World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines, accord-ing to a report by SB Nation on Wednesday.

Three weeks after the fight, Mayweather received an exemption from the Unit-ed States Anti-Doping Agen-cy, the report said. However, Nevada State Athletic Com-mission executive director Bob Bennett said USADA does not have authorization to grant an exemption. Ben-nett said only the commis-sion, which was not notified of the exemption until after it was given, can give an ath-

lete an exemption.Although the substances

contained in the IV were not banned by WADA, whose standards USADA says it fol-lows, the fact that they were given intravenously was not allowed.

According to the report, USADA, which had been contracted by Mayweather and Pacquiao to conduct random drug testing for their bout, sent collection agents to Mayweather’s house in Las Vegas the night before the fight to conduct an unannounced drug test.

The report was pub-lished on the day that May-weather and Andre Berto held the final news confer-ence for their welterweight championship fight Satur-day night at the MGM Grand, which Mayweather has said

will be the final bout of his 19-year career.

SB Nation’s account said Mayweather’s medical team told the collection agents that the IV -- which report-edly included a 250-mil-liliter mixture of saline and multivitamins and a 500-milliliter mixture of saline and Vitamin C -- was being given to Mayweather for rehydration purposes following the weigh-in.

WADA rules do not al-low intravenous infusions or injections of more than 50 milliliters per six hours “except for those legitimate-ly received in the course of hospital admissions, surgi-cal procedures, or clinical investigations.”

According to the report, WADA bans such injections and infusions because they

can be used to “dilute or mask the presence of anoth-er substance.”

SB Nation also reported that USADA did not inform the Nevada commission about the IV until May 21, when it sent correspon-dence to commission of-ficials and Top Rank, Pac-quiao’s promoter, notifying them that Mayweather had been given a retroactive therapeutic-use exemption, which was allowed in the contract the fighters signed to cover the drug-testing protocol for the bout. How-ever, when the commission and Top Rank requested more information about it, they learned Mayweather had not applied for the ex-emption until May 19. It was granted May 20, the report said.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. lands a punch to the head of Manny Pacquiao during their fight dubbed “Fight of the Century” at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 3 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

DID FLOYD CHEAT?

Mayweather used WADA-banned IV before Pacquaio fight

FIVE-TIME champion Roger Federer put on a tennis mas-

terclass, routing Rich-ard Gasquet to reach his 10th US Open semi-final,

where he will face close friend Stan

Wawrinka.The 34-year-old,

b i d d i n g to become the oldest c h a m -

p i o n i n

New York in 45 years, took just 87 minutes to beat Gasquet for the 15th

time in 17 meetings, his 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victory only revealing half the story.

The Swiss fired 50 winners and 16 aces

and did not face a single break point.

Federer hasn’t dropped a set at the tour-nament in five rounds and has been broken just twice.

But he will be wary of the danger posed by Wawrinka despite hold-ing a 16-3 career edge.

Wawrinka defeated him in their last meet-ing in straight sets in the quarter-finals on his way

to the French Open title in June.

“I faced the big serves of John Is-

ner in the last round so

I felt to-night I

had a little e x t r a

time,” said

second seed Federer.“I stayed aggressive

and enjoyed myself.”Also enjoying them-

selves watching the master at work on Ar-thur Ashe Stadium were Andre Agassi and Bjorn Borg as well as celebri-ties such as Justin Tim-berlake and Bradley Coo-per.

“Stan played wonder-fully against me in Paris and I was happy for him that he won the title. He really deserved it,” added Federer, who was playing in his 46th Grand Slam quarer-final to Gasquet’s fourth.

“He has worked so hard and really im-proved. I am happy to play him here for the first time. It’s cool for us and

Switzerland.”Wawrinka reached

the semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 rout of South Africa’s Kevin Anderson.

Wawrinka, the 30-year-old fifth seed, booked a spot in his second US Open last-four match, having also reached the same stage in 2013.

“I played my best match of the tournament so far,” said Wawrinka.

“Against Roger, I will need to play my best to win. It’s a big challenege but I am ready.”

Anderson, the 15th seed and playing in his first Grand Slam quar-ter-final, had knocked out third seed Andy Murray in the previous round.

ATENEO, National U, Far Eastern U and University of

Santo Tomas brace for a back-breaking weekend as they slug it out in back-to-back matches for berths in the finals in the Shakey’s V-League Season 12-Col-legiate Conference at The Arena in San Juan City.

The Final Four kicks off tomorrow (Saturday, Sept. 12) with the top seeded Lady Eagles tak-ing on the No. 4 Tigresses at 12:45 p.m. and the No. 2 Lady Bulldogs facing off with the third ranked Lady Tams at 3 p.m. in matches tipped to go down-to-the-wire.

They switch times on

Sunday with the decider, if necessary, set on Sept. 16. The finals, also a best-of-three affair, starts Sept. 20.

Ateneo and NU beat UST and FEU, respectively, in the group stages of the mid-season conference of the league sponsored by Shakey’s and presented by PLDT Home Ultera. But the top two seeded squads ex-pect the Tigresses and the Lady Tams to be in their best form, ensuring a spir-ited battle for the coveted spots in the finals.

Premium will also be on stamina as the four teams try to endure the rigors of playing two straight games expected to go down-to-the-wire.

Grueling semis matchups up in Shakey’s V-League

Federer faces Wawrinka in US Open semi-finals

Roger Federer returns the ball during his fourth round match against John Isner at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Monday. (AP Pho-to/Kathy Willens)

VOL. 8 ISSUE 117• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11-12, 201516