the standard - 2016 july 6 - wednesday

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Warns of bloody fight in anti-drug drive

Reds told: Lay down arms and get amnesty

VOL. XXX � NO. 144 � 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 � WEDNESDAY : JULY 6, 2016 � www.thestandard.com.ph � [email protected]

AFP poundsSayyaf camp

DUTERTE NAMES 5‘NARCO-GENERALS’

A4

GEN. EDGARDO TINIO

GEN. JOEL PAGDILAO

RETIRED GEN. MARCELO GARBO

RETIRED GEN. VICENTE LOOT

GEN. BERNARDO DIAZ

By John Paolo Bencito

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday named five police gener-als that he said were protecting drug lords, relieved three of them and or-dered them to report to Philippine National Police chief Director-Gen-eral Ronald dela Rosa.

“I would like to name publicly: Gen. Mar-celo Garbo, he is protector of syndicates in the country; [former] Gen. Vicente Loot, a munici-pal mayor of Cebu; Gen. Bernardo Diaz, former regional director of Region 11; Gen. [Joel] Pag-dilao, director of NCRPO (the National Capital Region Police Office); and Gen. [Edgardo] Tinio, former district director of the Quezon City Po-lice District,” Duterte said.

The police generals denied Duterte’s accusa-tions, and one of them decried the lack of due process.

But Dela Rosa said he would give them the op-portunity to clear their names.

“I will talk to them and I will listen to their ex-planation. Those who are already retired I can-not compel them to talk with me because they are no longer under my jurisdiction. They are no longer under my command,” he said.

He also revealed that the three generals who are still in active service—Diaz, Pagdilao and Tinio—were already relieved on July 1.

Discarding a prepared speech during the cel-ebration of the 69th anniversary of the Philip-pine Air Force at Clark Air Base, Pampanga, the President spoke extemporaneously on the wors-ening drug problem.

“I am compelled by my sense of duty to say to all of you those who are involved in the illegal drug trade one way or another that contributed to deterioration of law and order of this coun-try,” he said.

“It has deteriorated with advent of drugs be-cause of the corrosive effects of money,” he added.

Two of the five police generals that were named are already retired Marcelo Garbo Jr. and Vicente Loot.

Garbo, a former PNP deputy director-general and a graduate from the Philippine Military Academy batch 1981 is a close ally of losing pres-idential candidate and former Interior secretary

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said he is willing to issue safe conduct passes and grant politi-cal amnesty to four top leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines who are in jail, as long as the rebels lay down their arms and give way to the peace process initiated by the gov-ernment.

“Good thing that we’re talking to the Communist Party of the Phil-ippines and we hope to have a firm agreement by the end of the year if [Jose Maria Sison] would come home,” Duterte said during the 69th anniver-sary of the Philippine Air Force at the Clark Air Base in Pampanga.

“I am ready to give him safe con-

duct passes, including the Tiamzon couple and [Luis] Jalandoni,” he said.

Government peace negotiator Her-nani Braganza had earlier said that up to 21 consultants are currently on the list of those being considered to be giv-en safety conduct passes from the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity

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NEWS

PAF turns 69. President Duterte leads the celebration to mark the Philippine Air Force’s 69th anniversary on July 5, 2016 at Haribon Hangar, Clark Air Base in Pampanga. REY S. BANIQUET

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PH-China backchannel talks, special envoy eyed

Duterte...From A1

Manuel Roxas II. He was one of the so-called Novotel Generals seen meeting at the Novotel Aran-eta Center owned by Roxas’ fam-ily.

Loot is the newly elected mayor of Daanbantayan town in Cebu province.

Duterte said the involvement of the five police generals in the drug trade had been validated many times.

“Even when I was mayor of Davao, their names were being mentioned,” he said in Filipino.

He also said he was disap-pointed that police officers who trained and studied at the people’s expense later turned to the illicit drug trade.

“It’s saddening because the state funded their education, you gave them uniform, socks, and spent [money]. By any language it is re-ally treason,” he added.

Duterte acknowledged that it would take longer than his prom-ised six months to wipe out crime, but said the campaign against drugs would continue.

“Many more will die.... It’s going to be a dirty fight, it’s going to be a bloody fight. I’m not apologizing for it… I have been warning eve-rybody. At the end of my speeches, when I was campaigning for the presidency, I always end by say-ing “Do not destroy my country because I will kill you. Do not destroy the young people of this country because I will kill you,” he said.

In the same speech, Duterte defended his plan to reintroduce the death penalty, saying that this will not deter criminality but was a form of retribution.

Duterte also vowed to protect law enforcement officers who are dedicated to their duty.

The President also said he would reveal the names of other government officials who were involved in the illegal drug trade, but said he was still validating the information he received.

Tinio, one of the retired po-lice generals named by Duterte, said he would use his remaining months in service by proving that he was not “a plague on society.”

“I still have one year and six months in service. I plan to clear my name,” he told radio dzBB.

In a separate interview with GMA News, he said being named a protector of the drug trade was unfair because he was not given due process.

“I was caught unaware, flatfoot-ed. “It’s sad that the President has been given the wrong informa-tion,” he added.

Diaz told radio dzMM that he might have been the victim of mistaken identity.

He said he hated illegal drugs because a close relative of his was once lured into the drug trade.

Loot said he was “a victim of propaganda” because of his fam-ily’s involvement in politics.

Also on Tuesday, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Investi-gation said all agents and employ-ees would be subject to surprise random drug testing.

Ferdinand Lavin, director 1 of Negros Island Region and newly-designated NBI spokesman, said he could offer no further details of the testing at the moment. With Sandy Araneta, AFP

The President’s statement came as China began a week of naval ex-ercises in disputed waters around the Paracel Islands.

Beijing has boycotted the arbi-tration hearings and is engaged in a major diplomatic and publicity drive to try to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the process.

In an editorial, the Global Times, a newspaper owned by the People’s Daily group, said China should ac-celerate the build-up of its defense capabilities and “must be prepared for any military confrontation.”

“Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short term, it should be able

to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force,” it added.

The newspaper, which is pub-lished by the government, added: “It is naive to expect China to swallow the bitter pill of humilia-tion.”

Foreign Affairs Secretary Per-fecto Yasay, meanwhile, said they are considering backchannel talks with Beijing and said they were considering a special envoy tasked to resolve the controversies sur-rounding the maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

Speaking extemporaneously

By John Paolo Bencito and Vito Barcelo

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday urged Bei-jing to talk even if Manila wins the arbitration case that it filed before the Permanent Court of Arbitra-tion, saying that the Philippines is not prepared to go to war.

at a ceremony marking the 69th anniversary of the Philippine Air Force, Duterte emphasized that the Philippines is not ready to go to war.

“As for the West Philippine Sea, we remain optimistic that the judgement will be in our favor. If not, we will accept it as a country which honors international agree-ments… we will talk to China as we are not ready to go to war.”

In his first Cabinet meeting Thursday, Duterte said the gov-ernment would await the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbi-tration before making any other moves on the West Philippine Sea.

“After the arbitral tribunal rules on Philippine maritime dispute with China on July 12, we can de-cide on next steps,” Duterte said.

In a television interview, Yasay said Duterte wants better relations with China, unlike his predeces-sor, the former President Benigno Aquino III, who had an adversari-al relationship with Beijing.

“It is my understanding that the President would like to main-tain stronger, better relationships with everybody, including China, including the United States, in-cluding Japan and all. The Con-stitution mandates amity, close friendships with all nations and this is what we should pursue,” Yasay said.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said that the Philip-pines is committed to a peaceful settlement of the issue, dismissing China’s threat to use its military force to assert its sovereignty over almost all the resource-rich strate-gic waterway in the South China Sea, which is claimed by other Asian countries.

“We don’t see any need for that because Philippines has always been firmly committed to pursu-ing a peaceful resolution to the SCS dispute and a rules-based regime in the region,” Jose said in response to Chinese statements on the possibility of war. With AFP

Guarantees were mostly CPP and NDF officials who were previously part of the initial stalled talks be-tween the government and the communist rebels, all of whom are incarcerated in different parts of the country of criminal charges.

Leading the list are spouses Be-nito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, who both held senior ranks within the armed commu-nist movement and were arrested on murder charges in Carcar,

Cebu last March 2014.Sison, CPP founder and Jalan-

doni, NDF chief peace negotiator, are currently seeking asylum in Utretch.

Duterte, however, said that he’s not ready to release everyone unless the talks between the government and the reds were “successful.”

He added that granting a gen-eral amnesty might be possible for all political prisoners, but only if there are successful talks and the CPP’s armed wing, the New Peo-ple’s Army would surrender.

Braganza said that a general am-nesty can be possible through leg-

islation or amnesty can be granted by the President of the Philippines.

In both cases, however, Con-gress would have to approve the amnesty grant.

Braganza said that the progressive bloc in the Lower House may spon-sor a measure in seeking to grant amnesty to all political prisoners.

President also reiterated that he will talk to both the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro Na-tional Liberation Front.

Government negotiators earlier went to The Netherlands to ink a five-point agenda with the commu-nist upon resumption of the talks,

which includes an affirmation of previously signed agreements; an accelerated negotiation process, reconstitution of the previously signed Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees; an am-nesty proclamation with the con-currence of Congress; and the mode for an interim ceasefire.

Earlier, incoming Labor Sec-retary Silvestre Bello said that simultaneous peace talks will be pursued to accelerate the already 40-year peace efforts with the CPP to come up with a final peace agreement in 9 to 12 months. John Paolo Bencito

Reds...From A1

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Synchronized elections eyed

Getting ready. Two Muslim women decorate a stage at the Baseco Compound in Tondo, Manila, with colorful curtains that will be used in a program for Eid’l Fitr on Wednesday. DANNY PATA

Conference. From left, Civil Service Commission Chairwoman Alicia Bala, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, and Consuelo Foundation CEO Jon Matsuoka are shown during the opening of the International Conference on Social Work at the Manila Hotel on Tuesday. LINO SANTOS

Commissioners again opposeBautista’s postponement plan

Belmonte wants raise in campaign expendituresFORMER Speaker Feliciano Bel-monte Jr. said Tuesday he is seek-ing to increase the allowed cam-paign expenditures of candidates and political parties to realistic amounts “to accurately reflect” the cost of goods and services.

Belmonte, vice chairman of the Liberal Party, filed House Bill 15 following the failure of the LP and presidential candi-date Manuel Roxas II to submit on time their Statement of Con-tributions and Expenditures in the last national elections.

“With these amendments in place, the law will accurately re-flect the current economic land-scape and allow candidates to pay the full and fair price of the goods and services they wish to

engage,” Belmonte said, adding that his proposal seeks to amend Section 13 of Republic Act 7166.

Belmonte said the amend-ments would also allow candi-dates to maximize their resourc-es to effectively communicate their platforms and ideas to a greater number of their constit-uents, which could translate into a voting public that was more ac-tive, intelligent, and aware.

Belmonte noted in his bill that the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines allows can-didates to spend an aggregate amount not exceeding P1.50 for every voter registered in the constituency where he filed his candidacy.

He said RA 7166 was enacted

in 1991, amending the provi-sions of the Omnibus Election Code and increased the allowed expenditures for candidates and political parties.

“Candidates are allowed to spend P3.00 for every voter currently registered in the con-stituency where he filed his Certificate of Candidacy, and candidates without any politi-cal party, and without support from any political party, are al-lowed to spend P5.00 for every such voter,” Belmonte said. The candidates for president and vice president are allowed a larger sum of P10.00, while political parties are allowed P5.00 for every voter current-ly registered in the constitu-

ency or constituencies where they have official candidates. “Twenty-five years later, these figures have yet to be updated to reflect inflation and the eroded purchasing power of the Phil-ippine peso,” Belmonte said. “The limitations also hin-der candidates from launch-ing campaigns that could reach even the most remote of places in the country for fear of running afoul of the law.” Under the measure, all can-didates would be authorized to spend P50.00 and P30.00 for po-litical parties for every voter cur-rently registered in the constitu-ency or constituencies where they have official candidates. Maricel V. Cruz

INCOMING Speaker Panta-leon Alvarez on Tuesday said he will file a bill that will al-low the holding of elections for delegates to the Constitutional Convention synchronized with the barangay elections sched-uled in October.

Alvarez, after filing his House Concur-rent Resolution 1, said synchronizing the two elections would allow the govern-ment to save money.

“We can have a few months of exten-sion to prepare for the election of Con-con delegates, so we can save money,” Alvarez told a radio interview.

He made his statement even as Senator Juan Edgardo Angara said he didn’t know if Charter change was inevitable, “but cer-tainly it will get a big push because of the support of President Rodrigo Duterte.”

Angara also cited the fact that Cha-Cha would be done in the first half of the Du-terte administration.

As a result, there would be no suspicion of any type of term extension which, his-torically, had been the obstacle to pushing any kind of Charter change.

Alvarez’s HCR No. 1 seeks a Constitu-tional Convention to propose revisions to the 1987 Constitution.

Alvarez stressed that under a federal system, “there won’t be any need for too many laws because each federal state will have its own laws.”

“The parliament will concentrate on managing the affairs of the federal gov-ernment,” Alvarez said.

Duterte is pushing for Charter change to pave the way for a federal form of gov-ernment with a unicameral legislature.

In his concurrent resolution, Alvarez proposes that the Con-Con be composed of elected and appointed delegates: one delegate per legislative district and 20 del-egates to be appointed by the President.

Alvarez also proposed that no congress-man or senator—at the time of the adoption of the resolution—may run as a candidate for or be appointed as delegate to the Con-Con.

He also says in the resolution that “the Con-Con shall be deemed functus officio, or an agency or office whose mandate has expired, upon approval of its proposals in a plebiscite called for such purpose, or after two years from its opening, whichever comes first.” Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta

THE six commissioners of the Commis-sion on Elections on Tuesday again op-posed Chairman Andres Bautista’s sug-gestion to postpone the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in Oc-tober.

Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said her five other colleagues ignored Bautista when he raised his proposal during their weekly commission meeting on Tuesday.

“He mentioned it but nobody said any-thing,” Guanzon told the reporters min-utes after their meeting.

“Nobody commented on it. Nobody said a thing after he mentioned it. We did not discuss it.”

Guanzon also rejected Bautista’s “fi-nancial” reason, saying the Comelec had enough funds to conduct a manual ba-rangay and youth elections.

“Money is not a problem. Congress gave us enough money for conducting

elections. It’s not about savings,” Guan-zon said.

The cold shoulder given to Bautista’s proposal came after he insisted Monday that the government could save P5 billion to P6 billion if they postponed and syn-chronized the town and youth elections with the proposed elections for the Con-stitutional Convention in January.

Bautista recently said that the Philip-pines might encounter “election fatigue” if the Barangay and SK elections pushed through on Oct. 31.

But Guanzon said Bautista had no basis for making that statement.

“I think people got excited by the last elections. I think they’ll be excited to vote again in the barangay, where they know all the candidates. Why not push through with it? Why not take advantage of the momentum of the last elections?,” she said. Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

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WEDNESDAY : J ULY 6 , 2 0 1 6

NEWS

AFP pounds Sayyaf camp

‘Butchoy’ now a typhoon

Ubial outlines new family planning tack

Duterte pizza. Chief Bong Soriano of Ristorante d’Amore at the Citystate Hotel on Mabini Street in Ermita, Manila shows off the Duterte pizza he developed in honor of the new president. DANNY PATA

Butchoy cometh. Weather forecaster Banison Estareja points to a satellite image of Typhoon ‘Butchoy’ which entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility Tuesday. MANNY PALMERO

TROPICAL Storm “Butchoy” [inter-national name: Nepartak] intensified into a typhoon on Tuesday as it entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility around 2 p.m., according to the state weather bureau Philippine Atmospher-ic, Geophysical and Astronomical Ser-vices Administration.

Pagasa said Butchoy, packing sustained winds of 140 kph near the center, was located 1,325 kms east of Casiguran, Au-rora and moving northwest at 30 kph.

The movement track the weather bu-reau released at 4 p.m. predicted that the typhoon will not make landfall in Philip-pine territory but has begun to enhance the southwest monsoon which is already affecting Southern Luzon and the Visayas. It may stay with the PAR until Friday.

By Wednesday morning, it is ex-pected to be 1,010 km east of Aparri, Cagayan. On Thursday morning, it is expected to be around 495 km east

northeast of Itbayat, Batanes.By Friday morning, Butchoy is fore-

cast to be 435 km north northeast of Itbayat, Batanesa and outside the PAR by Saturday.

Pagasa predicted cloudy skies with light to moderate rains and thunder-storms in the Visayas and the regions of Bicol, Mimaropa, Davao and Caraga while partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms will prevail over Metro Manila and the rest of the country.

Moderate to strong winds blowing from the southwest will prevail over Southern Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and the eastern section of Northern and Central Luzon.

The coastal waters along this areas will be moderate to rough. Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the southwest to south with slight to moderate seas.

By Florante S. Solmerin

THE military pounded Abu Sayyaf encampments in Basilan island in a bid to crush some 150 extremists believed to be led by Furuji Indama and Isnilon Hapilon, the military said Wednesday.

“We haven’t had a battle damage assessment but the pounding continuous there up to now,” Major Felimon Tan Jr. of the Western Mind-anao Command (Westmin-com) said Tuesday.

He said the groups of Is-nilon and Indama initially tried to enter the village Magkawa of Al-barka, Basi-lan but the residents resist-ed and called for military resistance.

“They tried to get near one area but the people resisted. They tried to defend them-selves. You already know that even small villages in Basilan are armed. So there was a gun-fight there,” Tan said.

“From there, the enemies be-gun to make bunkers and they tried to build that up until we located them. That is what we’re pounding now,” said Tan.

“At first, only the group of Indama was there but before long the group of Hapilon joined in. Actually, that’s also good so they will die togeth-er,” he said.

From time to time, Tan said the military would inset more troops in certain posi-tions around the Abu Sayyaf and this was followed again by heavy artillery fire.

The military offensive started on Sunday with a series of airstrikes and artillery fire while troops of the 18th Infan-try Battalion engaged them in a series of battles.

Focused military opera-tions are currently being in-tensified in all efforts of the military to neutralize the ASG based in the province of Basilan.

In Sulu, troops continue to operate in an area where kid-nap victim Kjartan Sekking-stand is known to be located.

“As to the report that the kidnap victim will be beheaded anytime, we cannot confirm or deny that. The troops of the Joint Task Force Sulu con-tinue to conduct focused military operations where intelligence reports point operations should be con-ducted,” Tan said.

Tan said they have no new report so far except from a newspaper report regard-ing negotiations being done reportedly by Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza and a certain ASG spokesman to save the life of Norwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad.

THE Department of Health is ex-pecting to be able to lay down with-in a six-month period its family planning program that will anchor on the strict implementation of the Reproductive Health (RH) law.

According to Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial, they are looking at that period to provide the family planning needs of cou-ples in a bid to help them achieve the desired average number of children and the proper spacing of births.

“Women in this country have more children than they want. So in terms of implementing that, we

will ensure that the unmet need for family planning becomes zero,” Dr. Ubial said.

She noted that the statement made by President Rodrigo R. Duterte on couples having only three children is not a hard target but is rather based on the statistics.

“That [three-child] is the desired number of children, the average number of children that women of reproductive age want. It is actually 2.7, so 3 is the round-off number. So that is actually their desire,” she explained.

She added that they want to make sure that the spacing of births of chil-

dren will be in accordance to what they (parents) can really afford.

The new DoH chief said that the health of mothers and children is optimized or ideal if the spacing of births is three to five years.

President Duterte had earlier announced he intended to strictly implement the family planning program in the Philippines, while advocating the three-child policy.

When asked how the DoH intends to achieve such a target, given the temporary restraining order of the Supreme Court against contracep-tives, Dr. Ubial said she intends to meet with other health stakeholders.

She said that aside from health workers, they will also seek advice from faith-based organizations, in-cluding the Catholic Church, which is known to reject the reproductive health law.

The SC issued twin TROs in June last year, the first of which stops the DoH from distribut-ing, selling, and administering contraceptive implants; and the other prevents the Food and Drug Administration from acting on all applications for reproductive products and supplies, including contraceptive drugs and devices, such as implanon. PNA

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Alvarez: Budget ‘pork-free’SC defersaction on Bongbongpoll protestvs Leni

Anti-laundering law gets extra boost

Alvarez, representative of Davao del Norte, made the statement in response to The Stand-ard’s story that each congressman will be al-located P 80 million in pork barrel funds un-der the next year’s budget.

“There is no pork barrel, it has been declared illegal by the Supreme Court. I do not intend to violate it and [Budget] Secretary Diokno will not allow it,” Alvarez, secretary-general of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), said.

Alvarez dismissed as “preposterous” the allegation that the pork barrel funds will be

revived under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“How can there be pork barrel funds in the [2017] national budget when it had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court,” Alvarez stressed.

Alvarez said that he himself would see to it that pork barrel funds which had been the source of corruption among legislators will not be revived in any way, or in any form.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate also doubted that there will be pork funds un-der the Duterte administration.

“Pangulong Digong Duterte already said

By Rey E. Requejo

THe Supreme Court has reset its deliberation on the election protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bong bong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo since two of the justices were on leave.

The Marcos case filed with the Presi-dential electoral Tribunal was includ-ed in the SC’s regular en banc session on Tuesday. PeT is composed of 15 justices of the high court.

However, PeT members agreed to defer to next Tuesday, July 12, their discussions on Marcos’ protest.

A court insider said that two mag-istrates were on leave yesterday—As-sociate Justice Jose Mendoza and Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, who is also chair of the tribunal.

The case was raff led to Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, appointee and known buddy of former President Benigno Aquino III, who is tasked to study the pro-test and submit recommendations for actions of the PeT.

Caguioa and Aquino were classmates from elementary to college at the Ateneo de Manila University. Prior to his appoint-ment to the SC last January, Caguioa was Aquino’s chief presidential legal counsel and then secretary of justice.

Aquino’s sister, actress Kris Aquino was the top campaign contributor of Robredo in the polls.

In his protest, Marcos assailed the election results in 39,221 clustered pre-cincts in 25 provinces and five cities all over the country involving some nine million votes.

Marcos lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the final and official tally of votes. He garnered 14,155,344 votes, while Robredo got 14,418, 817 votes.

He sought the nullification of about a million votes cast in three prov-inces—Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Maguindanao because of alleged mas-sive cheating.

Marcos also asked the electoral tribu-nal to order the reopening of ballots and manual recount of about eight million votes in 23 provinces and five cities.

Drug den. Probers check a compound where two suspected drug dealers were killed during a shootout with the police after a buy-bust operation in Malibay, Pasay City on Tuesday July 5. Police recovered firearms, drugs and paraphernalia from the suspects. DANNY PATA

By Maricel V. Cruz

IncomIng House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Tuesday promised to make the 2017 national budget ‘pork-free.’

before that he will no longer allow ‘pork’ to be inserted in the national budget, know-ing fully well that it was, is and will still be a source of graft and corruption. Duterte’s avowed stand of zero tolerance on corruption campaign will be put to nothing if ‘pork’ is allowed to grease the hands of legislators as a form of patronage.

Zarate also stressed: “If this budget is the one still prepared by the Abad-DBM that is littered with pork allocations for the mem-bers of congress, then the same should not be allowed at all and should be scrapped at once from the proposed 2017 budget,” Za-rate added, referring to former Budget Sec-retary Florencio Abad, who is said to be the architect of the illegal Disbursement Accel-eration Program that was conceived during the Aquino administration.

By Maricel V. Cruz

SeeKINg to boost President Rod-rigo Duterte’s anti-corruption cam-paign, a bill has been filed at the House of Representatives seeking to include casino operators in the coverage of the Anti-Money Laun-dering Act of 2001.

House Bill 14, authored by former Speaker and Quezon City Rep. Feli-ciano Belmonte Jr., said the proposed measure will help ensure the integrity of financial and banking institutions and transactions in the country.

It is also a crucial step towards

making the Philippines’ anti-money laundering laws fully compliant with the international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“We cannot afford a repeat of the 2016 Bangladesh Bank heist which saw $81-million stolen from the bank’s account that entered the Philippine banking system and made its way to local casinos and junket operators before being transferred overseas,” Belmonte said.

“Attempts to trace and recover the money encountered several setbacks, as casinos are excluded from the coverage of the country’s present anti-

money laundering laws,” Belmonte pointed out.

The importance of including the casino sector under the coverage of the Amla has been pointed out by the Bangladesh Bank heist where tens of millions of dollars were stolen from the bank’s accounts with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Belmonte recalled that RA 9160 of the anti-Money Laundering Act was enacted on Oct. 17, 2001 to address the growing concerns over money launder-ing. Years later, in order to strengthen the law, the Amla was amended by RA 9194, and RA.10365.

Drug test. Manila policemen go through another round of drug testing at Police Station 8 in Sta. Mesa Manila on Tuesday, July 5. Last week, several policemen tested positive of drug use. DANNY PATA

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Binay orders auditof Makati personnel

250 drug suspects give up as Munti launches ‘double barrel’AT LEAST 250 suspected drug pushers and dependents in Muntinlupa City surrendered to the police, the city public information of-fice said on Tuesday.

This developed after the city’s Anti-Illegal Drugs-Special Operations Task Group con-ducted the “Oplan Double Barrel,” in support of the National Police’s nationwide campaign dubbed as Barangay Drug Clearing Strategy and neutralization of illegal drug personalities.

Muntinlupa City chief information officer said the authorities also began house-to-house visitations and interviews of personali-ties who opt to surrender. She added the group visited 264 households of suspected illegal drug personalities and continued to double check individuals listed on the police intelli-gence report.

The local task force holds a list of suspected

individuals who might be involved in the use and trade of illegal drugs in Muntinlupa.

Mayor Jaime Fresnedi earlier ordered the Muntinlupa Police to augment drug clearing strategies in the communities and encouraged locals to report cases of illegal drugs in their area.

In Makati City, 26 individuals believed to be involved in drug dealing also surrendered to the police.

The government’s continuing crackdown on suspected drug traffickers also resulted in the arrest of more than 500 individuals in the National Capital Region from January to May this year.

Newly designated Metro Manila Police di-rector Oscar David Albayalde, in his speech during the turnover ceremony last Monday, promised to intensify the campaign against criminality and illegal drugs. Joel E. Zurbano

By Joel E. Zurbano

MAKATI City Mayor Abigail Binay on Tuesday ordered an immediate audit of city government personnel to determine if spouses, relatives, in-laws and friends of people identi-fied with former mayor Romulo Peña Jr. were hired mostly under the Office of the Mayor.

eral services department to act promptly to avoid delays in acquiring medical sup-plies and other needs.

Residents have com-plained about the lack of medicine, supplies and poor maintenance of fa-cilities at the Ospital ng Makati during the previous administration.

On solid waste man-agement and sanitation, Binay ordered environ-mental services to ensure regular garbage collection and at the same time make aggressive efforts to enforce waste segregation at source among households and es-tablishments. She cited the need for tie-ups with non- government organizations for more materials recovery facilities and waste markets

to promote recycling and waste reduction.

“Garbage is a parochial concern. Aside from better waste management, we will be very aggressive in clear-ing sidewalks of all kinds of obstruction to give them back to pedestrians. We will instill discipline in Makati and make our streets safe and walkable,” Binay said.

Binay also directed the city social welfare depart-ment to prioritize the relo-cation of informal settler families that have taken over certain streets in the barangays, posing serious concerns on sanitation, or-der and security.

Meanwhile, following an inspection of City Hall of-fices last week, Binay said she has plans to relocate all

offices with high foot traffic to the first five floors. Of-fices that have little interac-tion with the public will be relocated to higher floors.

“We will do everything possible to make our front-line services more accessible and convenient for our con-stituents and stakeholders, including the business sec-tor,” Binay said.

On June 30, the mayor formally appointed key city officials, including lawyers Claro Certeza and Michael Arthur Camina, as city administrator and legal of-ficer, respectively.

Binay also appointed Arnold Magpantay as city general services officer, en-gineer Elmer Acuesta as city engineer, and Rhoderick Torres as city budget officer.

“There is an urgent need for the rationalization of the city government’s or-ganizational structure to promote a higher level of professionalism and com-petence in the workforce. The end-goal is to make the city government more re-sponsive, more efficient and more effective in providing public service,” Binay said in a statement.

Binay reaquired all depart-ments, offices and institu-tions under the city govern-ment to submit a complete list of personnel, including their respective positions, duties and functions. The mayor also ordered the im-mediate recall of all detailed personnel to their mother units to facilitate the ration-alization process.

Binay reminded the gen-

THE Iglesia ni Cristo and the National Housing Au-thority finalized a “land swapping” agreement on June 29 covering proper-ties in Quezon City that would enable the Depart-ment of Education to build additional classrooms on a 2,000-square meter parcel of land next to the Holy Spirit National High School.

INC originally owned the said parcel of land in Barangay Holy Spirit, Que-zon City that was intended for its Republic and River-side worship locales, but the property was considered inadequate for the Filipino Church’s ever-increasing number of members in the area.

The land swap address-es the growing needs of Holy Spirit National High School, which needed to build more classrooms for its senior high school stu-dents. A non-contiguous area comprising approxi-mately 2,000 square meters, coupled with a lack of funds, prevented the national gov-ernment from expanding facilities that would ben-efit local residents in need of access to free secondary education.

Glicerio P. Santos IV, who represented the INC in the negotiations and the signing of the agreement, expressed the Church’s sen-timents regarding the land swap.

“We are thankful that the NHA and the DepEd ap-proached the INC to propose this agreement, which we believe addresses the needs of our Church and especially the needs of the students of Holy Spirit National High School,” said Santos.

Santos added that these were the kinds of “public-pri-vate partnerships” that could benefit all the stakeholders involved.

INC-NHAland dealpaves way for moreclassrooms

Caloocan survivors. At least 42 families who survived the fire in Barangay 144, Caloocan City receives financial aid from Mayor Oscar Malapitan and Congressman Along Malapitan during ceremonies held at the Caloocan City Hall on Tuesday. ANDREW RABULAN

Lifetime leadership award. San Beda College Rector-President Very Rev. Fr. Aloysius Ma. A. Maranan, OSB (center) receives the ‘Lifetime Leadership Award’ during the commencement exercises of the San Beda College Graduate School of Business for his many years of dedicated service, for his exemplary, discerning and inspiring leadership, and for bringing to even greater heights of excellence to the San Beda College. With Maranan are (from left) San Beda College Alumni Association president Dominador D. Buhain Jr. , Graduate School of Business Dean Ramon Ricardo A. Roque, Diplomate, PGA Group of Companies CEO and Chairman Robert G. Coyiuto Jr., Prior-Chancellor Very Rev. Fr. Rafaelito V. Alaras, OSB, and vice president for services Dr. Josefina M. Manabat.

[email protected]

W E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

NEWS

Police chief injured in scufflewith suspected drug pushers

Benguet to host 1st coffee lab in PH

By Romeo E. Dizon

THE chief of police of the City of San Fernando, Pam-panga was rushed to a nearby hospital after she sus-tained a gunshot wound during a scuffle that killed two suspected drug pushers in a resettlement area in Barangay Calulut on Tuesday.

OMBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio Morales has de-nied the motion for recon-sideration filed by former Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia, paving the way for the filing of graft charges against Garcia and 11 others over the allegedly anomalous construction of the Cebu International Convention Center.

Charged with Garcia are bids and awards com-mittee members Eduardo Habin, Roy Salubre, Cris-tina Gianco, Adolfo Quiro-ga, Necias Vicoy Jr., Emme Gingoyon, Glenn Baricu-atro, Bernard Calderon, Marino Martinquilla and Eulogio Pelayre, and W.T. Construction Inc. vice pres-ident Willy Te.

In her order, Morales said the alternative methods in the awarding of the P830 million worth of contracts for the engineering, archi-tectural and civil works on the CICC in 2006 were un-justifiable and violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

She also said Garcia gave WTI “unwarranted benefits and caused un-due injury to the govern-ment” to the tune of at least P257,413,911.73 by allowing the contractor to perform additional work without any appropriation, contract or public bidding.

Morales also dismissed Garcia’s claim the charges are “politically motivated,” saying: “This Office, as a dispenser of justice, en-sures that justice is meted out objectively, without fear or favor, and that the cases are decided based on the evidence, not on mo-tives, personalities or po-litical affiliation.”

Ombudsman clears way for graft case vsCebu ex-gov

By Dexter A. SeeLA TRINIDAD, Benguet—The Department of Trade and Industry will open on Thursday the first ever Shared Service Facility Project for Arabica Coffee Post-harvest Processing and Cupping Lab-oratory in the country at the Benguet State University.

The Coffee Post-harvest Pro-cessing and Cupping Labora-tory is expected to continue research and extension services of the University to coffee farm-ers in the Cordillera region, im-prove the quality of Arabica cof-fee products in the Cordillera Region, enhance income gen-eration of Arabica coffee farm-ers and processors from quality Arabica Coffee products, which will also eventually create alter-

native job opportunities to cof-fee farmers and their families.

The facility is also expected to improve post-harvest pro-cessing methods of Arabica cof-fee in the production of quality coffee products; provide excel-lent service to coffee producers and processors; establish qual-ity protocol in the production, post-harvest processing, pack-aging and marketing of cof-fee products; and disseminate developed technologies on quality production, post-har-vest processing; and packaging to coffee farmers, processors and other stakeholders.

DTI-Regional Operations Group Supervising Undersecre-tary Zenaida Maglaya said that the facility will be a big boost not only to the coffee industry but to coffee farmers as well.

“We have partnered with the Benguet State University to lift the coffee industry, especially the Arabica coffee. As we all know, Arabica coffee is one of the 10 high value crops in the Cordillera Administrative Re-gion and is recognized to be of excellent quality by the Cof-fee Foundation Institute of the Philippines,” Maglaya said.

Under the agreement with DTI-CAR, the Benguet State University will manage the facility and provide technical assistance. The DTI-CAR Regional Office will regularly conduct moni-toring and evaluation on site to ensure efficiency of service.

The DTI identified BSU as cooperator for its active re-search, extension, instruction and production of organically grown Arabica coffee.

The casualties were identified as Jaime Untad and Mulong Biliwang, both residing at the resettlement area of Northville in Calulut.

Northville is a resettlement area for those displaced by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.

Initial investigation showed that Fajardo and her team served a warrant of arrest issued by Ex-

ecutive Judge Divina Luz D. Aquino-Sumbulan of Regional Trial Court against the suspects.

However, upon seeing the policemen, one of the suspects grabbed the service firearm of Fa-jardo forcing her to grab it back until it went off.

Another policemen shot the sus-pects including Biliwang, police report said.

Formation. The Philippine Air Force celebrates its 69th anniversary at Haribon Hangar, Clark Air Base. REY S. BANIQUET/PPD

It just makes sense. A worker cleans the solar board of a solar jeepney in Imus, Cavite. This solar-powered vehicle has a maximum speed of 45 kph. DANNY PATA

Police Supt. Jean Fajardo was rushed to a nearby hospital for

treatment after injuring her lower right arm.

OPINIONA8

[ EDI TORI A L ]

THE HUNGER GAMES

A9ADELLE CHUAE D I T O R

W E D N E S D AY: J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

OPINION

IMELDA, NOT CORY

ENOUGH OF ELECTIONS

Continued on A11

SUPPORTERS of former President Benigno Aquino III who carried placards expressing their thanks around his Times Street residence or who posted messages of gratitude for “a job well done” the day he left office should consider the poll released this week that showed more Filipinos went hungry as his administration came to a close.

The Social Weather Stations survey, which questioned 1,500 adults nationwide from March 30 to April 2, said more Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the preceding three months, with their numbers growing to 3.1 million families from the 2.6 million families in the December survey, and bringing the hunger rate to 13.7 percent of the population, up from 11.7 percent.

Of the 3.1 million families, some 2.6 million said they experienced “moderate hunger” (going hungry only once or a few times in the last three months) while some 481,000 families said they suffered “severe hunger” (“often” or “always” hungry in the last three months).

The latest hunger statistics fly in the face of Mr. Aquino’s claims that his administration had managed to cut back poverty or that his 4Ps dole program had truly benefited millions of poor families.

That more people are going hungry is hardly surprising, given the previous administration’s dismal performance in supporting agricultural development.

Official data show that the 5.8-percent growth in gross domestic product for the full year of 2015 was unmatched by any improvement in agricultural output, despite early boasts that the country would attain self-sufficiency in rice during Mr. Aquino’s term. In fact, the sector actually shrank 0.2 percent in the absence of meaningful support from a government that opened fire on hungry farmers in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, who were demanding food aid in the face of a months-long drought.

The situation was so bad that the socio-economic planning secretary at the time described the agricultural sector as “the biggest roadblock” to the country’s goal of attaining higher and more inclusive growth.

The failure to address declining agricultural production was matched only by the previous administration’s half-hearted implementation of agrarian reforms, as exemplified by the circumvention of a Supreme Court order for the vast sugar estate belonging to the former President’s family to distribute land to tenant farmers.

As the Duterte administration takes over on the promise of change, it will need to address the pressing needs of the growing number of hungry Filipinos. The solution could well lie in a reversal of Mr. Aquino’s years of neglect of agriculture, and the adoption of genuine agrarian reform that improves farm incomes while boosting food production.

Leni looked at the vastly thinned

crowd of Yellows behind her and

decided she wanted ‘unity’ with Duterte

instead.

LOWDOWN

JOJO A. ROBLES

BACK CHANNEL

ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO

THE dust has not even cleared on the May 9 presidential and national elections, and yet we are again headed into another one.

At least P6 billion would be needed to hold the Oct. 31 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, according to the Commission on Elections.

The people are suffering from election fatigue. It does not, after all, really do much to change their lives. If at all, the change can sometimes be for the worse. Yet local officials are again in a frenzy to keep their posts while the newcomers are raring to dislodge them. This is divisive politics at the grassroots level. These young men and women going into politics will be the next generation of politicians we will see later on as councilors, mayors, provincial board members and ultimately as members of Congress.

The sad part of this process is that the next breed of politicians do not have the best role models for their careers. This early, they see how the game is played. Winning is the paramount consideration.

In view of the fact that we just had an election, can we not postpone, reset the next barangay and SK polls or synchronize it with the proposed election for the Constitutional Convention to amend the Charter? We will be saving much-needed funds that can well be spent on social amelioration projects if these elections are synchronized.

This, even as the Comelec is rocked by its own internecine warfare between Chairman Andres Baurista and other commissioners. And we all thought anybody or anyone after Boy Brilliant would make a better Comelec chairman.Duterte names five general in drugs

President Rodrigo Duterte, in a bombshell delivered yesterday, named five Philippine National Police generals involved in the illegal drugs trade. In a speech at the anniversary of the Philippine Air Force, Duterte named publicly PNP Generals Marcelo Garbo, Vicente Loot, Bernardo Diaz, Joel Pagdilao and Edgardo Tinio.

General Loot denied his involvement in the illegal drug trade. The 37-year PNP veteran said the demolition job against him started

LENI Robredo is not turn-ing out to be the new Cory Aquino, like her Yellow boosters wanted her to be-come. Now, what she really wants to be—and some peo-ple have seriously proposed this—is Digong Duterte’s Imelda Marcos.

But hear the woman out. “Six years,” Vice President

Robredo told a forum last Monday, “is a long time.”

I agree. Especially if you don’t have a real job or any real inf luence for that long a period.

As defined by the Constitution, Robredo’s job description is that of a spare tire in a car, a benchwarmer in basketball or an understudy in theater. She sits around doing nothing except wait for her big opportunity to come; otherwise, she stays where she is, in a high-profile but limbo-like political state,

getting ready for a break that may never come.

Because Filipinos can vote for a split ticket, they usually pick presidents and vice presidents who don’t belong to the same party. In fact, in the past three decades, only Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Noli de Castro have been elected to the top two posts that they sought in tandem, in 2004.

Past presidents have sought to win over their vice presidents, especially if they ran on differing

tickets, by giving them jobs in the Cabinet. Traditional political thinking dictated this strategy, because it is supposedly better to co-opt a popular vice president than to allow him to become a full-time critic who will campaign for six years to a captive audience who elected him in the first place.

But President Rodrigo Duterte, we now know, doesn’t really care for tradition—or even subscribe to orthodox political thought. And so he has refused to give a job to Robredo, as if daring her to become his highest-ranking

political foe and critic.Robredo looked at the vastly

thinned crowd of Yellows behind her and decided she wanted “unity” with Duterte instead. Leni, who was being cast by the Yellows as the new Cory leading the opposition like Joan of Arc against the Dictator from Davao, felt that the better offensive was an Imeldific charm offensive.

Leni did not let Duterte’s refusal to make her a part of his official family get her down. Fresh from a

grueling campaign, she decided to wage a new one—to win over the vote of one man, who just happens to be the president.

I give Leni credit for refusing to engage in a protracted political struggle with Duterte that she knows she can never win. But I think Duterte knows that Robredo needs him more than he needs her, because he can give her the position, the influence and the funding to stay relevant in the next years and beyond.

Robredo understood that while the LP may have funded her campaign (and, many say, engineered her victory), it cannot support a six-year battle against a powerful and popular president. Ultimately, even the orphaned Yellowists who have made Leni’s new digs in Quezon City their clubhouse saw the wisdom of winning over Duterte—perhaps because they, too, needed jobs, as Teddy Boy Locsin has trenchantly alleged. Continued on A11

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Published Monday to Sunday by Philippine Manila Standard Publishing Inc. at 6/F Universal Re Building, 106 Paseo de Roxas, corner Perea St., Legaspi Village, Makati City. Telephone numbers 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558 (connecting all departments), (Editorial), 832-5546, (Advertising), 832-5550. P.O. Box 2933, Manila Central Post Office, Manila. Website: www.thestandard.com.ph; E-mail: [email protected] Anita F. Grefal Treasury Manager Maan Ilustre Advertising and Marketing Head Edgar M. Valmorida Circulation Manager

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cannot be eradicated so long as there is de-mand for it.

But here lies the prob-lem. While there are some rehabilitation cen-ters put up by the na-tional government, like in Bicutan and Tagaytay, or by local government units, the most these centers can do is sepa-rate the addicts from the pushers.

Rehabilitation is not

just isolation. An ad-dict, in the first place, becomes dependent on drugs for various rea-sons. In these cases, a psychologist or psychia-trist is needed.

I spent years as vice president at DARE Foundation. I have seen many encounters between drug depen-dents and their families. There are deeper rea-sons why they become

addicts. It can take more than a year to re-habilitate them.

This is why I think the Duterte administra-tion must establish re-habilitation centers as part of the fight against illegal drugs. This has been adopted in coun-tries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

The campaign against illegal drugs must be holistic.

* * *So will there be pork

barrel under the Du30 administration?

The answer is yes, if Congress had its way, by allocating P80 mil-lion to neophyte mem-bers of the House of Representatives and P150 million to some members of the Senate. This P80 million is broken down as P30

OPINIONW E D N E S D AY: J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

A10

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has spoken about his administra-tion’s fulfillment of its promise of real change.

The Philippine National Police, now under Chief Rolando dela Rosa, has vowed to cleanse the police ranks of scalawags, who are either in cahoots with drug lords or who themselves are in the trade. PNP officials with pending criminal cases will be sent to Basilan or Sulu to fight the Abu Sayyaf terror-ists.

President Duterte himself has given en-couraging signs that better days are ahead for business and indus-try. He has committed to uplift the status of the poor, eliminate red tape and improve the way government transacts with the people.

These are positive sig-nals. This was shown by President Duterte’s two-day dialog with busi-ness heads in Davao. He listened as business groups presented their plans; that he listens at all is, I think, a positive sign. A good leader al-ways listens.

With regard to peace and order, there will be a ceasefire next month between the govern-ment and the com-munists. The govern-ment panel will be led by Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza, who will ne-gotiate an agreement with exiled National Democratic Front lead-ers Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni. The two are asking that politi-cal prisoners identified with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army be released.

On China’s claims on some islands in the West Philippine Sea, we still have to wait for the result of the arbitra-tion case we filed before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

China says it will not not be bound by the arbitration tribunal’s

decision, but it will be open to bilateral talks—only if the Philippines also does not abide by the decision.

It could be an uncom-fortable situation, but it could decrease tension between China and the Philippines.

* * *The Duterte admin-

istration should bear in mind that it should never negotiate with the Abu Sayyaf Group, especially now that the ISIS has infiltrated Abu lairs in Basilan and Sulu.

And as for the push for a federal form of government, it’s now up to Congress to achieve this through their pre-ferred mode. Congress must also decide on the actual amendments to be made in the law of the land.

On death by hanging, I think Duterte will soon come to a realization that it is easier said than done. Imagine the opposition that would come from the Catholic Church and the pro-life segments of society.

By now, President Duterte must be real-izing that winning the presidential race is so much easier than actu-ally being president.

This is why we must, first and foremost, heal political wounds. If we cannot be unified, our country cannot move forward.

* * *In yesterday’s col-

umn, I stressed the need for rehabilitating drug addicts. I believe that while Duterte is focused on eliminating drug lords and deal-ers, the drug menace

EXPECTATIONS KILLING POVERTYPRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has taken a direct hand in poverty alle-viation. He has, in effect, comman-deered the offices and functions of 12 major agencies having to do with the marginalized sectors and the basic needs of the poor and wage earners—food, shelter, and jobs.

Duterte’s direct takeover of the poverty reduction functions of the government is contained in his first Executive Order. EO 01 designates the Cabinet Secretary, Leoncio Evasco, as having supervision of 12 major government agencies—the Philippine Coconut Authority, the National Food Authority, Technical Education Skills Development Authority, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, National Anti-Poverty Commission, Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, National Youth Commission, Presidential Action Center, Philippine Commission on Women, and the Cooperative Development Authority.

These agencies cover people who are very poor and marginalized— the jobless (four million Filipinos are utterly jobless; another 12 mil-lion are underemployed. The gov-ernment claims unemployment rate of 6.1 percent, which is a lie); the young (unemployment is high-est among the young); women (22 million housewives do unpaid work); the urban poor or squatters (there are about five million squat-ter families); coconut farmers (four million coconut farmers are among the poorest Filipinos); indigenous peoples (aside from being marginal-ized and powerless, they are among the poorest, too); and Muslims (the highest poverty incidence and illit-eracy rates are in Muslim areas).

These people need three things— food (the poor spend 55 percent of their income on food); jobs (a genu-inely robust economy must generate two million new jobs a year—one million because the economy by itself creates a million jobs even if the President of the Philippines were dog, and another one mil-lion because the President of the Philippines, it turns out, is not a dog but a decent, honest and hard-working human being); and housing (four million houses were needed yesterday; only 200,000 units are produced every year).

Aside from food, the government should also look into reducing the cost of utilities to help the poor.

Utilities—fuel, transport, electricity, water—now are about 20 percent of household consumption.

The Philippines has among the highest-priced electricity in the world. Electricity is now 20 per-cent of the cost of producing goods which means goods are high-priced and because they are high-priced they reduce consumer’s purchas-ing power. And because the biggest consumers are the poor, high-cost goods make the poor even poorer and more miserable.

The Philippines has also among the most expensive telephone and cellular rates and among the poorest quality telephone services.

Why is there so much poverty in this otherwise rich country? Because we don’t produce enough food which is 55 percent of con-sumption. Because the rates on our utilities are astronomically high and utilities are 20 percent of consump-tion. So 75 percent of our poverty problem is all about food (55 per-cent) and utilities (20 percent).

Evasco was a rebel priest and a for-mer New People’s Army command-er. As Davao’s fiscal, Duterte cap-tured and prosecuted him. Jobless, Evasco went to Duterte when he be-came mayor and applied for a job. Duterte took him in as a trusted personal assistant. Today, Evasco will run the government’s biggest economic and social transformation program—poverty reduction.

In the whole of Asia, the Philippines is unique for being the only country to fail to halve poverty in 25 years, from 1990 to 2015, the last full year of the six-year presi-dency of BS Aquino III.

In 1990, 34 percent of Filipinos were poor. In 2015, 26 percent (26 million Filipinos were poor. The 2015 ratio should have been 17 per-cent, not 26 percent. Since in 1990 the population of the Philippines was 62 million, 34 percent was 21 million—the number of Filipinos who were poor then.

Today, poor Filipinos number 26 million, an increase of 5 mil-lion people. The increase happened during the reign of BS Aquino. So all this talk about Daang Matuwid making the Philippines a rising

economic star is just BS—bullshit. More Filipinos became poor under the Aquino III presidency than in any presidency before him. Adding insult to injury, Aquino has the gall to claim he is one of the country’s best presidents. E di wow!

Under EO No. 1, Evasco is given the task of supervising the 12 agencies as they “evaluate existing poverty reduction programs and, if deemed necessary, formulate a more responsive set of programs complementing existing ones, channeling resources as necessary to reduce both the incidence and magnitude of poverty.”

Under Evasco, the agencies will also develop “specific programs and projects that seek to reduce poverty, improve the lives of the most vulnerable sectors of society.” These agencies must improve their “responsiveness”—meaning, do their job.

They are to “conduct consulta-tions with LGUs [local government units] for the proper allocation of resources and program implemen-tation” and “recommend courses of action for the government.”

One of EO 01’s premises is that the attainment of national develop-ment goals requires the “efficient, responsive, and just allocation of resources by eliminating duplica-tion or overlapping of common functions, maximizing resource uti-lization with minimum disruption to operations, coordinating efforts more closely, sharing information, and consistently working in a col-laborative manner.”

Duterte’s economic team has said it wants to cut the country’s poverty rate by 30-35 percent during his six-year term, focusing on projects to lift the rural poor.

This means poverty incidence will be 17 percent by June of 2022—the goal that was missed in 2015.

Between now and 2012, the population will increase at the rate of 1.8 percent per year so that by mid-2022, the number of Filipinos would be 113 million. And 17 per-cent of that would be 19.2 million. Deduct that 19.2 million from the 26 million poor today, the number of Filipinos Duterte will rescue from poverty will be 6.79 million.

Compare that to the three million who became poor under Aquino. Saving almost 7 million poor Filipinos from poverty would have been a milestone achievement.

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President Duterte must

be realizing it is so much

easier to win the presidency than actually running

a country.

TO THE POINT

EMIL P. JURADO

VIRTUAL REALITY

TONYLOPEZ

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Continued on A11

A11W E D N E S D AY: J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

OPINION

MAKE HOSPITALS COME CLEAN ABOUT ERRORS

[email protected]

CHONG ARDIVILLA#FAILOCRACY

Bloomberg editorial

MEDICAL errors, by one count, are the third-leading cause of death for Americans. Surgery mistakes, misuse of drugs or equipment, delays in treatment and the like kill at least 100,000 a year, possibly as many as half a million.

No one knows the exact number, and that points up an underlying problem: Hospitals almost universally resist confessing when a medical error hurts or kills a patient, because admitting

fault can expose them to lawsuits. Getting them to overcome this reluctance is essential—to let patients and their families know the truth, and to ensure that hospitals become safer by learning from their mistakes.

The federal government has made only a token, indirect effort to push for greater truthfulness. It demands that hospitals be accredited to qualify for Medicare funds, and the largest accrediting organization, a private group called the Joint Commission, requires hospitals to tell

patients or families when something goes seriously wrong. But this rule isn’t enforced; hospitals don’t lose their accreditation when they conceal errors.

So this year, the Department of Health and Human Services is trying anew strategy: It’s recommending that hospitals quickly admit fault for their errors and offer compensation, by following a detailed set of steps. The model has been adopted by the University of Michigan Health System,

MedStar Health and other hospitals, and research has demonstrated why it works: When patients and families are given the truth, they become less likely to sue.

It’s not a fail-safe solution. After all, hospitals face an inherent conflict in determining when to call something an error and whether to offer money (and how much). The best programs acknowledge this by requiring hospital staff to recommend that patients or families get legal representation, and by

submitting to outside audits to ensure compensation offers are fair. The HHS program ought to include those steps.

More important, HHS should make its plan more than just a recommendation. Hospitals should face federal penalties for failing to report errors, including, at a minimum, the loss of some Medicare funding. The come-clean approach can save lives, and hospitals should be not just encouraged, but required, to follow it.

* * *Duterte and Robredo finally

met late last week, during the turnover rites for the National Police. And after they met last Monday in Malacañang, where Leni paid Digong a visit, the Yellows seem to have convinced themselves that change is indeed coming—Robredo is no longer the political outcast that everyone thought she would become.

And what’s a cool new pairing without a mashed-up hashtag of the couple’s names? They have one now: #Dubredo.

But I’m really not so sure about that. After all, like her entire party before, from Noynoy Aquino on down, Robredo may once again be guilty of misreading and underesti-mating Duterte.

My own suspicion is that Duterte is such an old-school gentleman that he cannot re-ally bear to be rude to a wom-an. And because Robredo’s only real sin against Digong is to be in the company of the Liberals, Leni is betting that if she doesn’t sound like the new Abigail Valte, she will be able to wear his resistance down.

That is certainly what Robredo, the new, concilia-

tory Yellows and their media sympathizers want to happen. “We cannot afford wars,” as Robredo herself said, because “there’s a lot that still needs to be done.”

I never thought I’d see the day when the Yellows, who have always believed that they have a monopoly of righteous-ness, would embrace some-body like Duterte, even if only for six years. I actually expect-ed that Robredo would follow in Cory’s footsteps, instead of becoming just another practi-cal, conniving and unprinci-pled politician.

Oh, well. I guess if the Yellows who said they would immigrate if Duterte wins still haven’t even packed overnight bags and are now #Dubredo fans, I can’t really be more righteous than they are.

After all, even the sainted Cory wholeheartedly sup-ported Gloria Arroyo against the supposedly corrupt and immoral Erap Estrada. Until Arroyo made a move to distrib-ute Hacienda Luisita, of course, prompting Cory and her brood to accuse Arroyo of being im-moral and corrupt, too, as they reprised the role of “principled” opposition leaders.

Hypocrites.

Imelda... From A9

when his wife entered Cebu politics, adding he was already cleared when he retired two years ago. Cebu politics, as anyone knows, is a rough-and-tumble thing. Mudslinging is pervasive even within the province’s political dynasties.

Initially, Duterte hinted that there were only three PNP generals who were protectors of drug lords and criminal syndicates. The five generals implicated by Duterte were ordered to report to the PNP higher-ups. That is, if some of them have not yet left the country after Duterte put the heat on illegal drug criminals with the

PNP’s all-out war against drugs and other forms of criminality.

This is a move Duterte would gain points for. Illegal drugs have ruined many lives particularly among the youth. It used to be the Philippines was a mere transshipment point for illegal drugs but in the last few years the country developed into a source with many illegal drug laboratories being run by Chinese criminal syndicates.

In fairness to the accused police generals, they must be given the chance to clear their names from these serious allegations made no less by the President of the Republic.

Also yesterday, Duterte

met with Vice President Leni Robredo who called on him at Malacañang, VP Robredo said the meeting was very cordial and that she did not call on him to ask for a Cabinet post.

Since she expressed her support for the President, why not give her a post where she can contribute to the success of the administration? Perhaps she can head a center for the rehabilitation of drug abuse victims without necessarily being the Secretary of Social Work and Development. It’s such a waste of human resources for one elected by the people not being able to serve them to the fullest extent of her capability and competence.

Enough... From A9

million for “soft projects” like hospitaliza-tion, scholarships, training and livelihood, and another P50 million for so-called “hard projects” or infrastructure.

Under the BS Aquino administration, each congressman got P70 million as pork barrel.

In fact, even before the opening of Congress later this month, these so-called “hard” and “soft” projects for neophyte

congressmen have already been submit-ted. This also goes for new senators.

Thus, the pork barrel system is still alive and kicking. Santa Banana, why do you think people run for Congress? For the pork barrel system, of course, if only to recover their expenses during the campaign period.

As always, it’s payback time for mem-bers of Congress. Happy days are here again for them. The name of the game, as always, is political patronage at the people’s expense.

Expectations... From A10

Murray-Federer showdown loomsA12

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wednesday: J uly 6 , 2 0 1 6

sports

LONDON, United Kingdom—Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Serena Williams cruised into the Wimbledon last eight on ‘Manic Monday’ as Dominika Cibulkova pondered cancelling her wedding following her shock run to the quarterfinals.

Murray racked-up his 50th Wimbledon match win while Federer reached the quarterfinals for the 14th time as the top two remain-ing seeds edged closer to a dream title match.

Second seeded Murray, the 2013 champion, eased to a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 win over fiery Australian Nick Kyrgios and will next face French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Federer equaled Jimmy Connors’ mark of 14 quar-terfinals at Wimbledon and tied Martina Navratilova’s all-time Slam record of 306 match wins by seeing off Steve Johnson of the United States 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

Serena Williams powered into her 12th Wimbledon quarterfinal as the defend-ing champion clinched a 7-5, 6-0 victory over Rus-sian 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

World number one Wil-liams hit 43 winners and served 14 aces as she won the last nine games on Centre Court to remain on course for a record-equal-ling 22nd major title and a seventh Wimbledon crown.

“She has played really well against me in the past and she beat me earlier this year so I know that I had to play re-ally well to win this,” Williams said of the Kuznetsova clash.

The 34-year-old, an eight-time Wimbledon finalist, will next play Russian 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchen-kova, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Coco Vandeweghe of the United States.

Kyrgios, the 15th seed who defeated Rafael Nadal at the tournament in 2014, did not force a break point on Murray’s serve as he slipped to his fifth loss in five meetings against the world number two.

“The first set was very tight. I managed to get the break at 6-5 but it was very tight up to that point,” ex-plained Murray.

Kyrgios condemned his own performance.

“The first set was OK but after that it was pathetic,” said the 21-year-old.

Seven-time champion Federer, the third seed, next takes on Croatia’s Marin Cilic for a place in the semifinals. AFP

Cycling cheats hard to detect

BUDAPEST, Hungary—There is no per-fect method to detect hidden motors in bicycles, the Hungarian who pioneered the system claimed on Monday, as Tour de France organizers vowed to stamp out technological fraud.

Cycling authorities are taking the issue of tech fraud seriously with a thermal camera and magnetic resonance detec-tors being used at the Tour de France for the first time this year to try to trip up the cheats.

But Hungarian Istvan Varjas, who claims to have developed the system some 15 years ago, insisted there was “no perfect method” of detecting hidden motors.

“The thermal cameras don’t al-ways work especially if the motor is switched off at the time of testing,” Varjas told Index.hu. “And the cyclists are not cheating alone as sometimes the motors are in the wheels and acti-vated from a distance.”

Tour organizers however have con-sidered this and will be using motorcy-cle mounted equipment to take secret checks.

Varjas himself suggested however what he felt to be a valid method of test-ing without looking for motors at all.

“Simply test riders on a mountain and check their maximum performance, if a rider then surpasses this by five percent it would clearly indicate (cheating),” he said.

The first case of motor fraud was detected in January on the bike to a young Belgian competitor at the cyclo-cross World Championships. The 19-year-old was banned for six years and fined 20,000 Swiss francs ($20,000/18,180 euros). AFP

Montano blasts ‘corrupt’ IAAF after Olympic agony

Alysia Montano cries in frustration after falling down the track in the Women’s 800 Meter Final during the 2016 US Olympic Track and Field Team Trials at Hayward Field on July 4 in Eugene, Oregon. AFP

Britain’s Andy Murray raises his hand after winning his match against Australia’s Nick Kyrgios at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships on July 4. AFP

EUGENE, United States—Alysia Montano launched a blistering attack on track and field’s world governing body here Monday as her dream of Olympic redemption after being denied a series of medals by dope cheats ended in tears.

The 30-year-old Montano—an outspoken voice in the fight against doping—was left distraught after an apparent collision with Brenda Martinez sent her crashing to the track on the final bend of the 800m at the US Olympic trials.

Montano picked herself up but staggered across the finishing line in last place sobbing as the realization that her hopes of earn-ing a place on the US team for Rio de Janeiro had evaporated.

It was an agonizing climax to what has been a tumultuous year for Montano, whose world has been upended by the revelations that emerged in the doping scandal that has led to Russia being barred from the Olympics.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigation found evidence of a state-sponsored doping program in Rus-sian athletics that Montano believes robbed her of medals at the world championships in 2011 and 2013 as well as the Lon-don Olympics in 2012.

One of her main rivals, Mariya Savinova, is facing a lifetime ban from the sport following the revelations.

“I’m missing three medals. In my eight years of life as a profes-sional runner, my entire professional life has been a farce,” Mon-tano told reporters tearfully at Hayward Field here Monday.

“Everyone’s coming out and talking about the Russians not running in the Olympics—but they’re missing the whole point that the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federa-tions) is a corrupt institution which is still running the game for us professional athletes.” AFP

[email protected]

wednesday: J uly 6 , 2 0 1 6

sports

RP Blu Girls open bidagainst United States

The team, which is eye-ing to eventually make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has undergone rigorous train-ing in the past months in a bid to make a good show-ing in this tournament.

“I am very confident that our girls will give other teams a run for their money in this tournament. I have been challenging

them to not just be com-petitive but to win games here. I‘ve always believed in the Filipino talent and softball is one team sport where we can be at par with the world’s best,” said newly re-elected Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines President Jean Henri Lhuillier.

The RP Blu Girls will

compete against two teams from the USA, world no. 1 Japan, China, Mexico, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Can-ada, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Venezuela in the World Cup, which will be on July 5 to 10.

“This is just the first step towards our goal of mak-ing the 2020 Tokyo Olym-pics. Our girls need as much international exposure as they can get to use to the high standards of competi-tion. Our goal is not just to make the 2020 Olympics, but to contend for a medal

when that time comes,” add-ed Lhuillier.

The team will also be play-ing in the World Women’s Softball Championships on July 15 to 24 and will be pit-ted against powerhouse teams such as USA, Canada, France, Italy, Puerto Rico, Czech Re-public, India, Chinese Taipei and Mexico, among others.

The RP Blu Girls are a pe-rennial champion of South-east Asia and are one of the top teams in Asia. Their in-ternational stints are made possible thru the sponsorship of Cebuana Lhuillier.

SEAOILbacks Tayao’s

F4 trainingSEAOIL Philippines recently sent its youngest brand ambassador, Gabe Ta-yao to the famed Formula 1 circuit in Malaysia to test Formula 4 single-seat-er cars as an initial preparation for the F4 Southeast Asia Championships to be held later this year at the Sepang Inter-national Circuit.

“We are happy to have been there for Gabe since his early years, from a novice to becoming the country’s reigning Karter of the Year as well as an Asian Karting Cham-pion. We are excited to see him soar higher as he now moves up to cars and formula single-seaters,” said Seaoil CFO Mark Yu.

Debuting this year worldwide as the official entry level to Formula 1, F4 race series are held simultaneously in several countries. The F4 SEA in particular, has 30 races held across six rounds in Malaysia and Thailand.

“It’s a harder climb up the motorsports ladder but nevertheless, I am proud to represent the Philippines as one of the pioneers in the F4 grid comprising Asian champions who have likewise moved up from karting,” said Tayao.

Headed by Meritus GP, the F4 SEA is a single-team motorsport championship with highly experienced international engineers, providing young drivers with technical and circuit training. It also pro-vides a platform to create successful inter-national motorsport heroes.

Backed by Victoria Court, DC and Gold’s Gym, the 16 year old Tayao is like-wise training under the tutelage of Car Porn Racing for GT races in between his F4 race schedules and school obligations where he is a graduating student of Makati Hope Christian School.

Gabriel Tayao: It’s a harder climb up the motorsports ladder but nevertheless, I am proud to represent the Philippines as one of the pioneers in the F4 grid comprising Asian champions who have likewise moved up from karting.

Intense senior men’s division action between La Salle (left) and Lyceum in the MVPSF-Meralco Philippine Taekwondo League at the SM Bicutan Mall activity center last Sunday.

La Salle, Arellano jins shine in taekwondo openerPOWERHOUSE De la Sal-le and surprising Arellano swept their men’s and wom-en’s senior division matches at the start of the MVPSF-Meralco Philippine Tae-kwondo League at the SM Bicutan Mall activity center in Paranaque last Sunday.

The reigning PTL men’s champions, the La Salle jins whipped Lyceum, 38-17, while their female coun-terparts polished off Rizal Technological University, 29-11, in the event organized by the Philippine Taekwon-do Association and spon-sored by the MVP Sports Foundation and Meralco.

Sharing the spotlight was Arellano, which got off to shaky start in nipping Uni-versity of the East, 26-25, in the men’s division before its women’s squad sent no-tice that it would be a team to reckon with by humbling

College of St. Benilde, 20-6, in a battle of NCAA teams.

Lyceum also wielded the upset axe in the women’s di-vision in routing defending champion University of the East, 30-10, in the competi-tion also backed by the Phil-ippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission.

Tournament director Ste-phen Fernandez welcomed strong turnout in the 2016 edition of the competition meant to identify future ath-letes who could make it to the national pool and compete in international meets.

“This is one of the show-piece tournaments of the PTA as the Philippine Tae-kwondo League is a proving ground for our future nation-al athletes for overseas com-petition,” Fernandez, himself a former national team main-stay, said.

THE CEBUANA Lhuillier-backed RP Blu Girls get its World Cup campaign going as the team takes on the United States in today’s game in Oklahoma City, USA.

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

DANGEROUS former world title contender Jether “The General” Oliva (23-5-2, with 11 KOs) battles Pakistani star, Muhammad Waseem, who has a record of 3 knockouts in 3 wins, for the World Boxing Council Silver Flyweight title at the Millennium Hilton Hotel, in Seoul, Korea.

The WBC reported the fight has undergone several important changes and amendments. It was moved from Singapore to the luxury Mil-lennium Seoul Hilton.

The winner will rise in the WBC rankings, on the way to WBC flyweight King, Roman ”Chocoaltito “ Gonzalez.

“This fight is very important for Waseem and his promoter, Andy Kim (Promotions AK), who are aware of the significant responsibility,” the WBC said.

Kim indicated: “I am very thankful to the WBC for this great opportunity. I have no doubts that Waseem will prove he is ready for great things. I am sure he will conquer the WBC silver belt. ”

Waseem is preparing in Las Vegas with popu-lar and accomplished trainer Jeff Mayweather, the uncle of Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Oliva lost two fights against vaunted oppo-nents. On Feb. 20 this year, he lost by a 10-round shutout, 100-91, to former world champion Pe-dro Guevara and previously dropped a unani-mous 12-round decision to Zolani Tete in a va-cant WBO Africa super flyweight title bout.

“Oliva proved to be a tougher opponent than expected as he absorbed damaging blows throughout the fight and only went down once in round four,” said Tete added. “I give Jether props for hanging in there despite the beating I dished out. He is made of sterner stuff.”

PH’s Oliva fightsWaseem for title

WEDNESDAY : JULY 6, 2016

Lascuñaeyes 3rdstraighttriumphTONY Lascuña hopes to buck fatigue and the expected charge of a slew of rivals as he kicks off his bid for a third straight victory on the Philippine Golf Tour in the ICTSI Bacolod Golf Challenge unfolding Wednesday at the Ba-colod Golf and Country Club in Binitin.

“I’m a little bit tired but I still feel good,” said Lascuña, playing on his third straight week, in-cluding a stint in the Asian PGA Tour in Tai-wan last week.

Though he wound up way below at joint 69th in the Yeanger Tourna-ment Players’ Champi-onship, the veteran cam-paigner remains upbeat of his chances, ready to add another title to his victories at Eagle Ridge and Forest Hills last month.

To prepare himself for another grueling campaign, the 46-year-old Lascuña skipped yesterday’s pro-am and will start at 7:40 a.m. today on No. 10 with Charles Hong and Rene Menor.

“I just need a good start and let’s see what happens from there. But this will be anybody’s race with so many oth-ers raring to score a win on this short but chal-lenging course,” said Lascuna.

Premium will be on accuracy with the tight par-70 layout expected to punish wayward shots and its unpredict-able putting surface tipped to spell the dif-ference between victory and defeat.

“I like my chances here,” said Cassius Casas, also out to snap a long title spell in the circuit sponsored by ICTSI and organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc.

Overnight rain actually softened the narrow fair-ways a bit with rookie pro Justin Quiban also put-ting emphasis on course management.

“The course is tight and short and the long hitters will have to make a lot of adjustments to score here,” said Quiban, who made a strong showing of joint third with Angelo Que at Lu-isita Championship won by Lascuña last April but has struggled the last few tournaments.

Quiban drew veteran Elmer Salvador and former leg winner Jo-enard Rates in the 7:30 a.m. flight on No. 1 while Casas will tee off at 7:20 at the back with Rufino Bayron and Jun Bernis.

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINESDepartment of Finance

Department of Trade and Industry

JOINT ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 1-2016

RULES AND REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10708

Pursuant to Section 10 of Republic Act No. 10708, entitled “An Act Enhancing Transparency in the Management and Accounting of Tax Incentives Administered by Investment Promotion Agencies, otherwise known as the Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (TIMTA)”, the Secretaries of the Department of Finance and the Department of Trade and Industry, in coordination with the Director-General of the National Economic Development Authority, Commissioners of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs, and Heads of concerned Investment Promotions Agencies, hereby promulgate the following Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR):

RULE I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION 1. Declaration of Policy. — It is hereby declared the policy of the State to promote fiscal accountability and transparency in the grant and management of tax incentives by developing means to promptly measure the government’s fiscal exposure on these grants and to enable the government to monitor, review and analyze the economic impact thereof and thereby optimize the social benefit of such incentives.

SECTION 2. Definition of Terms. — As used in this IRR, the following definitions shall apply:

a. “Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs)” shall refer to government entities created by law, executive order, decree or other issuance, in charge of promoting investments, administering tax and non-tax incentives, and/or overseeing the operations of the different economic zones and freeports in accordance with their respective charters. These include the Board of Investments (BOI), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Clark Development Corporation (CDC), John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC), Poro Point Management Corporation (PPMC), Bataan Technology Park, Inc. (BTPI), Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority (ZCSEZA), Phividec Industrial Authority (PIA), Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO), Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) and all other similar authorities that may be created by law in the future;

b. “Registered Business Entity (RBE)” shall refer to any individual, partnership, corporation, Philippine branch of a foreign corporation or other entity incorporated and/or organized and existing under Philippine laws and registered with an IPA;

c. “Tax incentives” shall refer to fiscal incentives such as those which come in the form of income tax holidays (ITH), exemptions, deductions, credits or exclusions from the tax base, as provided by law, to RBEs;

d. “Annual Tax Incentives Report of Registered Business Entity” shall refer to the report to be submitted by RBEs to its respective IPA containing complete information on income-based tax incentives, value-added tax (VAT) incentives, duty exemptions, deductions, credits, exclusions from the tax base and other information required under these rules.

The report shall be in matrix format as presented in “Annex A.1” for ITH and other income-based tax incentives and “Annex A.2” for VAT incentives and duty exemptions.

e. “Consolidated Annual Tax Incentives Report” shall refer to the report to be submitted by the IPAs to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) based on the Annual Tax Incentives Report of RBEs.

The reports shall be in matrix format as presented in “Annex B.1” for ITH and other income-based tax incentives and “Annex B.2” for VAT incentives and duty exemptions; and

f. “Aggregate Annual Tax Incentives Report” shall refer to the tax incentives report to be submitted by the IPAs to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Secretariat containing the aggregate tax incentives and investment-related data, on a sectoral or per industry basis using the Philippine Standard for Industrial Classification (PSIC), including, but not limited to, investment projects, investment cost, actual employment, export earnings and all other benefits derived from the registered projects. In cases wherein the sector or industry is not classified under the PSIC, the NEDA Secretariat shall refer such matters to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA); and, in the interim, adopt a proxy classification for the purpose of completing the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) on investment incentives within the period provided in this IRR.

The NEDA Secretariat shall provide the definition of investment projects, investment cost, actual employment and export earnings.

RULE II

COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR REGISTERED BUSINESS ENTITIES

Section 1. Filing of Tax Returns and Payment of Tax Liabilities. – All RBEs shall file their tax returns and pay their tax liabilities, on or before the deadline as provided under the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), as amended, using the electronic system for filing and payment of taxes of the BIR.

The IPAs, where required under applicable laws, rules and guidelines, shall consider only electronically filed tax returns for purposes of availing income-based tax incentives.

In the event the electronic system for filing and payment of taxes of BIR is unavailable, as evidenced by a written advice issued by the BIR, the RBEs shall file and/or pay the taxes due on or before the statutory deadline manually, in which case the BIR duly stamped tax returns shall be accepted by the IPAs. However, upon written advice of the availability of the electronic system for filing issued by the BIR, the RBEs shall within fifteen (15) days from the date of said written advice, electronically file their tax returns which was initially filed manually.

SECTION. 2. Submission of Annual Tax Incentives Report. – RBEs, availing of incentives administered by the IPAs, shall file with their respective IPAs an Annual Tax Incentives Report within thirty (30) days from the statutory deadline for filing of the Final Adjustment Return for Income Tax and payment of tax due thereon, if any.

RULE III

INCENTIVES MONITORING MECHANISM

SECTION 1. Role of Incentives Promotion Agencies. – The heads of the IPAs shall:

a. Submit to the BIR a master list (“Annex C”) of all RBEs, whether granted incentives or not, within thirty (30) days after the approval of this IRR. The master list shall be updated within thirty (30) days after the close of each calendar year.

b. Submit to the BIR the Consolidated Annual Tax Incentives Report on income-based tax incentives (Annex B.1) and the Consolidated Annual Tax Incentives Report on VAT incentives and duty exemptions (Annex B.2) within sixty (60) days from the statutory deadline for filing of Final Adjustment Return and payment of taxes due thereon, if any, of those employing the Calendar Year accounting period. The IPAs shall include in the said report the Annual Tax Incentives Report on income tax and Annual Tax Incentive Report on VAT incentives and duty exemptions of RBEs employing the Fiscal Year accounting period with fiscal years ending within the subject year. Thus:

Accounting Period Year Ending On IPAs shall submit on:

Calendar Year December 31 June 14 of the following year

Fiscal Year January – November June 14 of the following year

c. Submit to the NEDA Secretariat an Aggregate Annual Tax Incentives Report within four (4) months from the statutory deadline for filing of Final Adjustment Return and payment of taxes due thereon, if any, of those employing the Calendar Year accounting period. The IPAs shall include in the said report the Aggregate Annual Tax Incentives Report of RBEs employing the Fiscal Year accounting period with fiscal years ending within the subject year. Thus:

Accounting Period Year Ending On IPAs shall submit on:

Calendar Year December 31 August 14 of the following year

Fiscal Year January – November August 14 of the following year

d. Submit to the NEDA Secretariat other relevant data or information, such as, but not limited to, aggregate incentives claimed as validated by the IPAs, where required under applicable laws, rules and guidelines, within nine (9) months after the statutory deadline for filing of tax returns and payment of taxes due thereon, for the conduct of a CBA.

e. Disseminate information for the RBEs to provide proper information in their reports.

SECTION 2. Role of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. – The BIR shall:

a. On or before September 15 of every year, submit to the Department of Finance (DOF), notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the tax incentives of RBEs as reflected in their filed annual tax returns: Provided, That, pursuant to Section 270 of the NIRC, as amended, such submission of BIR to the DOF shall not contain specific names of the RBEs or other identifiers.

b. Within ninety (90) days after the lapse of the said period to assess provided under the NIRC, as amended, update the foregoing report with income-based tax incentives, deductions, credits or exclusions from the gross income as assessed under the NIRC, and submit the same to the DOF and NEDA Secretariat.

SECTION 3. Role of the Bureau of Customs (BOC). – The BOC shall, on or before September 15 of every year, submit to the DOF, notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the VAT and duty incentives availed by RBEs as reflected in their filed import entries.

SECTION 4. Role of the Department of Finance. – For purposes of monitoring and transparency, the DOF shall have the following responsibilities:

a. Maintain a single database for monitoring and analysis of tax incentives granted; and

b. On or before June 30 of the subsequent year, submit to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee created under Section 9 of RA 10708, and upon request, to the NEDA Secretariat the aggregate data categorized by sector, by IPA and by type of tax: (1) the amount of tax incentives availed by RBEs;

(2) the estimated claims of tax incentives immediately preceding the current year;

(3) the programmed tax incentives for the current year; and

(4) the projected tax incentives for the following year.

SECTION 5. Role of Department of Budget and Management. – The aforesaid data shall be reflected by the DBM in the annual Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF), which shall be known as the Tax Incentives Information (TII) section: Provided, That the TII shall be limited to the aggregate data related to incentives availed of by RBEs based on the submissions of the DOF and the concerned IPAs, categorized by sector, by IPA and type of incentive.

RULE IV

CONDUCT OF COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS ON INVESTMENT INCENTIVES

SECTION 1. Role of the National Economic and Development Authority Secretariat. – The NEDA Secretariat shall:

a. Conduct a CBA on the investment incentives to determine the impact of tax incentives on the Philippine economy.

b. Conduct a CBA of the Aggregate Annual Tax Incentives Report yearly, within six (6) months from the acceptance of the required submissions from all IPAs as specified in Rule III Section 1 (c) and (d). In the event that IPAs are unable to submit the required submission as specified in Rule III, the NEDA Secretariat shall conduct a CBA and indicate in the CBA report the limitations, as necessary.

c. Provide to the DOF, DTI, IPAs, DBM and Joint Congressional Oversight Committee the results of the CBA.

SECTION 2. Inputs to the Cost-Benefit Analysis. – The NEDA Secretariat shall utilize the following information:

a. Aggregate Annual Tax Incentives Report as submitted by the IPAs pursuant to Rule III Section 1 (c) and (d) and the aggregate incentives claimed as validated by the relevant IPAs, where applicable;

b. Information from the DOF database for monitoring and analysis tax incentives granted pursuant to Rule III Section 4 (b);

c. Other information and reports, as endorsed by DOF and DTI; and

d. All other material information to be identified by the NEDA Secretariat.

All reports submitted must be accepted by the NEDA Secretariat and should be in electronic and hard copy.

RULE V

PROMOTION AND REGULATION OF INVESTMENTS ANDADMINISTRATION OF INCENTIVES BY THE IPAs

SECTION 1. Non-diminution of Incentives. – Nothing in this IRR shall be construed to diminish or limit, in whatever manner, the amount of incentives that IPAs may grant pursuant to their charters and existing laws; or to prevent, deter, or delay the promotion and regulation of investments, processing of applications for registrations, and evaluation of entitlement of incentives by IPAs. RBEs availing of incentives shall comply with the incentives validation requirements of their respective IPAs.

For avoidance of doubt, the IPAs shall not be precluded from exercising their authority to evaluate or validate any application for availment of ITH and/or other income-based tax incentives and from endorsing the result of the same to other agencies: Provided, That, such evaluation or validation by the concerned IPA is required under its applicable laws, rules and guidelines.

RULE VI

NON-COMPLIANCE WITH FILING AND REPORTORIAL REQUIREMENTS

SECTION 1. Penalty for Non-compliance with Filing and Reportorial Requirements. — Any RBE which fails to comply with the filing and reportorial requirements with the appropriate IPAs and/or fails to show proof of filing of tax returns to IPAs using the electronic system for filing and payment of taxes of the BIR shall be imposed with the following penalties:

a. First (1st) violation — payment of a fine amounting to one hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00);

b. Second (2nd) violation — payment of a fine amounting to five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000.00); and

c. Third (3rd) violation — cancellation of the registration of the registered business entity.

Provided, That, the failure to show such proof shall not be a ground for the suspension of the ITH and/or other income-based tax incentives availment where such failure is not due to the fault of the RBE.

SECTION 2. Penalty for Government Official or Employee. — Any government official or employee who fails without justifiable reason to provide or furnish the required tax incentives report or other data or information as required under this IRR shall be penalized, after due process, by a fine equivalent to the official’s or employee’s basic salary for a period of one (1) month to six (6) months or by suspension from government service for not more than one (1) year, or both, in addition to any criminal and administrative penalties imposable under existing laws.

RULE VII

FUNDING

Such amount necessary to carry out the implementation of these Rules shall be sourced from the current General Appropriations Act.

For this purpose, the DOF, NEDA Secretariat and IPAs shall be granted supplemental budget, subject to DBM Rules and Regulations, for the development and/or enhancement of systems and database with a view to generating data and reports electronically.

The IPAs, NEDA Secretariat, BIR, BOC and DOF shall endeavor within a period of three (3) years to automate their systems with a view to generating data and reports electronically. For this purpose, the said agencies shall be granted their budgetary requirements to meet the objectives of these Rules.

RULE VIII

REVIEW

The DOF, DTI, and NEDA Secretariat in coordination with the IPAs shall, if necessary, conduct a general review of their rules, policies and programs in relation with this IRR within five (5) years from the effectivity thereof.

RULE IX

FINAL PROVISIONS

SECTION 1. Transitory Provisions. – The first submission of all the reports required under this IRR shall be as follows:

a. For income-based tax incentives covering taxable year 2015:

Submission by RBE to IPA

Submission by IPA to BIR of Consolidated Annual Tax

Incentives Report and to NEDA Secretariat of Aggregate Annual

Tax Incentives Report

Submission of BIR to DOF

Submission by IPA to NEDA Secretariat of other relevant data or

information

September 15, 2016 November 15, 2016 January 15, 2017 March 15, 2017

b. For VAT and duty exemptions covering calendar year 2015:

Submission by RBE to IPA

Submission by IPA to BIR of Consolidated Annual Tax

Incentives Report and to NEDA Secretariat of Aggregate Annual

Tax Incentives Report

Submission of BOC to DOF

Submission by IPA to NEDA Secretariat of other relevant data or

information

September 15, 2016 November 15, 2016 January 15, 2017 March 15, 2017

SECTION 2. Separability Clause. – If any provision of this IRR is subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional, other provisions hereof which are not affected thereby shall remain in full force and effect.

SECTION 3. Repealing Clause. – All other rules and regulations or parts thereof, inconsistent with the foregoing rules and regulations are repealed, amended, or modified accordingly.

SECTION 4. Effectivity. – This IRR shall take effect fifteen (15) days following its publication in a newspaper of general circulation and filing of three (3) copies hereof with the Office of the National Administrative Register (ONAR) University of the Philippines (UP) Law Center, Diliman, Quezon City pursuant to Presidential Memorandum Circular No. 11 dated 09 October 1992.

APPROVED, this 23 June 2016.

CESAR V. PURISIMA ADRIAN S. CRISTOBAL JR. Secretary Secretary Department of Finance Department of Trade and Industry

CESAR V. PURISIMASecretary

Department of Finance

ADRIAN S. CRISTOBAL JR.Secretary

Department of Trade and Industry

(TS-JULY 6, 2016)

National Ugains Leagueof Champsemifinals

2 EZ2 0-02 EZ2 0-0

6/49 00-00-00-00-00-00

6/42 00-00-00-00-00-006 DIGITS 0-0-0-0-0-03 DIGITS 0-0-03 DIGITS 0-0-0

6 DIGITS 0-0-0-0-0-0

LOTTO RESULTSP0.0 M+

P0.0 M+

A15W E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

[email protected]

TITLE favorite National University and Central Philippine University came away with a pair of straight-set romps with the former formalizing its stint in the Final Four and the latter assuring itself of a playoff in the Shakey’s Girls’ Volleyball League of Champions Season 14 at Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig late Monday.

The Lady Bullpups, seeking to atone for their final setback to the De La Salle-Lipa side last year, ousted Southwestern U with a 25-15, 25-15 victory to join the defending champions in the Pool A lead with identical 3-0 cards.

SWU took its second loss against a win and bowed out of the semis race in the two-division competition among re-gional winners of the league backed by MyPhone, Asics and Mikasa.

CPU, on the other hand, ripped Holy Ro-sary College, 25-16, 25-19, to close out its elims campaign with a 3-1 mark in Pool B.

King’s Montessori, toting a 2-1 card, remains in the semis hunt but must win over unbeaten UST to force a three-way tie for first in Pool B. The top two after the tiebreak will advance to the semis.

In other results, the Espana-based squad toppled Iligan City National HS, 25-17, 25-16, to move within a win from sweeping the elims. UST and KMS were playing at presstime.

DLS-Lipa, meanwhile, sustained its top form and disposed of Holy Family Acad-emy, 25-21, 25-14, to match NU’s three-game win run in the longest-running tal-ent search organized by Metro Sports.

In other final prelims matches, ICN clashes with HRC, Ateneo de Davao col-lides with SWU while DLS-Lipa tangles with NU for the top spot and in what could be a preview of the championship.

The top two teams from each side slug it out in the crossover semifinal today (Wednesday) starting at 5 p.m. with the winners disputing the crown at 4 p.m. to-morrow, according to tournament direc-tor Johanz Buenvenida of the organizing Metro Sports. For details, visit www.face-book.com/shakeysgirlsvleague.

Athletics hoping to send4 PH bets to Rio Olympics

3rd leg Triple Crown on Sunday

IT’S going to be an action-packed Sunday (July 10) at the Manila Jockey Club’s San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite, with the staging of three 2,000-meter stakes races for 3YO backed by the Philippine Racing Commission and the Erap Cup Racing Festival.

The most prestigious of the three Philracom con-

tests is the third leg of the Triple Crown series, which looks like an even-steven race given the lineup: Dewey Boulevard, Guatemala, Ho-monhon Island, Radioactive, and Underwood. No jockeys were named as of presstime. The drawing of post posi-tions is on July 7.

The first leg was won by Radioactive, who was a longshot, with Underwood 2nd and Space Needle 3rd. Dewey Boulevard, sent off as a longshot in the first leg, avenged that loss by win-ning the second leg of the

series, with Radioactive 2nd, Underwood 3rd, and Space Needle 4th. Given those out-comes, I’ll say Dewey Boule-vard can repeat, but Radioac-tive and Underwood will try their best to score an upset.

The Philracom Hope-ful Stakes will feature Indi-anpana, Mount Iglit, Pinagti-punan, Real Flame, Secret Kingdom, Space Needle, Tagapagmana, and Pinay Pharoah. Space Needle, who placed 3rd and 4th respec-tively in the first and second legs of the Triple Crown, might do better here, but will

have to contend with stal-wart Indianpana and Pinay Pharaoh who recently won a Philippine Charity Sweep-stakes Office race.

The Philracom 3YO Lo-cally-Bred Stakes attracted three participants: Leave It To Me, Piskante, and Play It Safe. In line with PR 58-E, “…For stakes races, the minimum allowable number of declared entries is three horses. In case wherein the number of entries falls below this number on the actual day [because of scratches], the race shall still be run.”

However, there will be no betting on this race. Just cheer for your favorite horse!

Also on July 10, MJC will host the 2nd Erap Cup Rac-ing Festival in celebration of Araw ng Maynila (June 24). The highlight race, the 2,000-meter 2nd Erap Cup Open Championship has a purse of P2.5 million and will feature the horses Our Angel’s Dream, Kanl-aon, Gentle Strength, Dixie Gold, Hayley’s Rainbow, Spinning Ridge, Up and Away, Penrith, Messi, and Don Albertini.

To be held as part of the festival are the Im-ported Championship mile with a P1 million purse, the 1,500-meter Araw ng Maynila 3YO Challenge Cup with P500,00 in prize money, and seven other races with guaranteed prize money of P300,000.

Racing fans, mark Sun-day on your racing calen-dar as a can’t-miss day of speed and action!

* * * Facebook: Gogirl Rac-

ing, Twitter:@gogirlracing, Instagram: @jensdecember

By Peter Atencio

WITH long jumper Marestella Torres-Sunang hitting the qualifying mark to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, hopes are high that there will be more legitimate quali� ers.

Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association secretary-gen-eral Nonoy Unso said this after Torres-Sunang became the third outright qualifier in athletics.

“Sana may mag-qualify pa para maging apat,” said Unso after receiving a copy of Torres-Sunang’s performance in the 2016 Kazakhstan Open.

Unso said they are awaiting official confirmation on Torres-Sunang’s status from the Inter-national Association of Athletics Federations.

On the other hand, Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena is still hopeful that he will make it to Rio Games.

He is currently competing in Europe under the guidance

of famed pole vault coach Vi-taly Petrov. Obiena will enter in three competitions before July 11, the day the International Association of Athletics Federa-tions announces the finals list of qualifiers to the games.

On Monday (Manila time), Su-nang-Torres cleared 6.72 meters under not so windy conditions on her sixth and final attempt.

Torres-Sunang, who clinched three gold medals during her stint in tournaments in Kazakh-stan, won the gold after beating Kyrgystan rival Anna Bylanova, who settled for the silver with her feat of 5.97 meters.

A wind condition of 0.8 me-ters was present during Torres-Sunang’s attempt. But it was be-low the legal limit of 2.0 meters/second.

“It’s a legal jump. She sur-passed the Olympic entry mark of 6.7 meters.

Dzolba Oksana of Almaty took the bronze in 5.75 meters.

This is the second time that Torres-Sunang has legitimate-ly made it to the Olympiad since 2012.

She made it to the London Games when she cleared 6.71 meters in the Palembang South-east Asian Games back in 2011.

THE HOARSE WHISPERER

JENNY ORTUOSTE

Blockbusterweekend atthe race track

Dela Torre spars with The Jackal

By Peter Paul DuranTHE Manila Jockey Club is set to host the third and final leg of the Philippine Rac-ing Commission’s Triple Crown, as well as the 2nd Erap Cup on Sunday, dubbed as a blockbuster weekend at the San Lazaro Park in Cavite.

The joint event could even go down in his-tory as the highest-paying horse-racing com-petition with a total purse of over P10 million.

“For the first time in history, we will be surpassing the Ten Million Peso mark in to-tal prize money for the day,” said Albert Di-chavez, director of the Public Recreation Bu-reau of Manila in the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum in Shakey’s Malate.

The competition, which is the culminating event in the celebration of Araw ng Maynila, will also help raise funds for the Erap Para sa Mahirap and the Oasis of Love Foundations.

“It’s definitely going to be a blockbuster weekend, not only for the City of Manila, but for the entire fandom of horse racing in the Philippines,” said Jose Ramon Magboo, racing manager of Manila Jockey Club.

The third leg of the Triple Crown will see a face-off between 1st leg winner Radioac-tive of SC Stockfarm and Hermie Eguerra’s second-leg champ Dewey Boulevard.

“Third fight nila ito kaya expect a thrill-ing race,” said Philracom commissioner Atty. Dondon Bagatsing.

“Siyempre hindi rin naman natin puwe-deng ipagkaila ‘yung tatlo pang kasali,” said the racing official of the three other Triple Crown entries in Underwood (Stony Road Horse Farm), Guatemala (Engr. Jun Sevil-la), and Homonhon Island (Wilbert Tan).

UNBEATEN Filipino Harmonito “Ham-mer”‘ Dela Torre is now the sparring mate of reigning world super bantamweight cham-pion Guillermo “The Jackal” Rigondeaux, who is prepared to defend one of his three world titles—the World Boxing Association super bantamweight crown against James Dickens in the Ice Arena in Cardiff, Wales on July 16.

The manager of Dela Torre, Jim Claude “JC” Manangquil, informed The Standard that according to Dela Torre’s coach Osmin “More” Fernandez,

the promising Filipino boxer did well in sparring against the former Cuban Olympian, who had an impressive vic-tory over Nonito Donaire.

“This type of top-caliber fighter is a good learning experience,” Manangquil said.

Rigondeaux is undefeated with a record of 16-0 with 10 knockouts, while Dela Torre has an unblemished record of 18-0, with 12 knockouts.

Dela Torre is scheduled to spar again on Thursday at Moro’s Gym in Miami.

Ronnie Nathanielsz

Proponents of Sunday’s blockbuster racing are shown during their guesting at the PSA Forum in Shakey’s Malate. They are (from left) Manny Santos, President of Philtobo; Albert Dichavez, Director Public Recreations Bureau, Manila; Atty. Dondon Bagatsing, Philracom Commissioner; and Jose Ramon Magboo, Manager, Manila Jockey Club. LINO SANTOS

A16RIERA U. MALL ARI

E D I T O R

[email protected]

REUEL VIDALA S S I S TA N T E D I T O R

LOS ANGELES—Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant confirmed Monday he is joining the Golden State Warriors in a stunning move that sent shockwaves rippling through the NBA.

TURN TO A15

Murray, Federer showdown looms

TURN TO A13

Tayao’s F4 training backed

W E D N E S DAY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 16

Durant, the most coveted NBA free agent, announced his move on the Players’ Tribune website af-ter what he described as the “most challenging few weeks in my pro-fessional life.”

The 27-year-old forward said he was joining the Warriors to enhance his growth as a player and a person.

“With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors,” Durant wrote.

Reports said Durant is expected to sign a two-year, $54.3 million (48.7 million euros) contract with a player option after the second year.

The capture of Durant, a sev-en-time NBA All Star and the NBA’s MVP in 2014, is a huge boost for Golden State as they build towards next season.

The Warriors are still licking their wounds after slumping to a 4-3 NBA finals defeat to LeBron James and

the Cleveland Cavaliers last month.The 6ft 9in (2.06-meter) Durant

took the Thunder to the brink of victory against Golden State in the Western Conference finals last season, inspiring his team to a 3-1 series lead before the Warriors fought back to win 4-3.

Durant had held talks with no few-er than six teams over the past week, including his current club Oklahoma City, the Warriors, the Boston Celt-ics, the Los Angeles Clippers, the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat.

Record-breaking rosterHowever the prospect of joining

up with the Warriors and their re-cord-breaking roster proved irre-sistible for Durant, who has career averages of 27.4 points and seven rebounds per game.

On Friday, Durant met with NBA MVP Stephen Curry, shooting guard Klay Thompson and coach

PH GilasbattlesTall BlacksBy Jeric Lopez

THE action continues for Gilas Pilipinas as it plays another pivotal game, this time against the New Zealand Tall Blacks for its second outing in the elimination round of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The Filipinos and the Kiwis are set to go at it at 9 p.m. today at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City in a vital encounter, which could determine who moves forward from Group B to the crossover semifinals this weekend.

Canada and Senegal clash in the first game at 6:30 p.m. in an equally important affair in Group A action.

The top two teams in each group moves on to the final four.

Against New Zealand, Gilas Pilipinas, with its core of An-dray Blatche, Jayson Castro, Gabe Norwood, Terrence Romeo, Jeff Chan and June Mar Fajardo will go up against the likes of Michael Karena, brothers Corey and Tai Webster, Isaac Fotu and Jordan Ngatai.

What’s interesting about this tussle is that Philippine coach Tab Baldwin used to handle New Zea-land and is a Kiwi himself.

He might be familiar with the Kiwis’ style of play and vice versa.

In various pre-tournament in-terviews, New Zealand coach Paul Henare and players said that they’ve been preparing hard for this encounter with the Philip-pines, knowing how important this game is for both teams’ chances.

Steve Kerr as the Warriors, who compiled the best regular season record in history this year at 73-9, sought to tempt him to Oakland.

News of Durant’s eagerly an-ticipated move sent social me-dia into meltdown as fans and commentators digested a deal that makes Golden State an even more fearsome outfit.

“Fans of the other 29 teams that aren’t Golden State—let’s have a scared group hug,” broadcaster Bill Simmons wrote on Twitter.

Other Twitter users meanwhile retweeted a six-year-old posting by Durant in 2010 when he appar-ently took aim at star players join-ing stronger teams in the pursuit of NBA titles.

“Now everybody wanna play for the heat and the Lakers? Let’s go back to being competitive and going at these peoples!,” Durant wrote shortly after LeBron James had joined Miami.

Durant meanwhile acknowl-edged his decision would likely dismay Thunder fans.

“It really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people

with this choice, but I believe I am doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my playing career,” he said.

“I will miss Oklahoma City, and the role I have had in building this remarkable team. I will forever cher-ish the relationships within the or-ganization—the friends and team-mates that I went to war with on the court for nine years, and all the fans and people of the community.”

However Oklahoma City chief general manager Sam Presti urged Thunder fans to respect Durant’s decision, hailing the star suggest-ing that it was always likely he would leave eventually.

“None of us are under the illu-sion that Kevin Durant would be here forever,” Presti said.

“Kevin has earned the right to make a decision that’s best for him. We have to be truly grateful for what he represented for the Thunder and also for the city and the community.

“He gave back with his time. He gave back with his dollars. And we need to recognize that. We need to honor that.” AFP

SPORTS

Durantcouldn’tbeat Dubs;so he joined them

Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant confirmed he is joining the Golden State Warriors, adding another potent weapon to an already formidable offense spearheaded by Stephen Curry. AFP

BUSINESSRODERICK T. DELA CRUZASSISTANT EDITOR [email protected]

[email protected]

RAY S. EÑANOEDITOR

PH to privatize UCPB, casinos

WEDNESDAY: JULY 6, 2016

Meralco customers to see higher electricity bills in July

Bangko Sentral ng PilipinasTuesday, July 5, 2016

Foreign exchange rateCurrency Unit US Dollar PesoUnited States Dollar 1.000000 46.8330

Japan Yen 0.009751 0.4567

UK Pound 1.329100 62.2457

Hong Kong Dollar 0.128903 6.0369

Switzerland Franc 1.030078 48.2416

Canada Dollar 0.778634 36.4658

Singapore Dollar 0.743329 34.8123

Australia Dollar 0.753400 35.2840

Bahrain Dinar 2.653224 124.2584

Saudi Arabia Rial 0.266645 12.4878

Brunei Dollar 0.740576 34.6834

Indonesia Rupiah 0.000076 0.0036

Thailand Baht 0.028539 1.3366

UAE Dirham 0.272264 12.7509

Euro Euro 1.115800 52.2563

Korea Won 0.000869 0.0407

China Yuan 0.150033 7.0265

India Rupee 0.014869 0.6964

Malaysia Ringgit 0.250438 11.7288

New Zealand Dollar 0.722600 33.8415

Taiwan Dollar 0.031064 1.4548 Source: PDS Bridge

7,808.1338.41

Closing July 5, 2016PSe comPoSite index

48.00

46.00

45.00

44.00

43.00

HIGH P46.770 LOW P47.020 AVERAGE P46.900

Closing July 5, 2016PeSo-dollar rate

VOLUME 591.100M

Bangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng PilipinasBangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

oilPriceS today

P427.00-P620.00LPG/11-kg tank

P36.35-P43.45Unleaded Gasoline

P24.75-P29.60Diesel

P34.55-P39.15Kerosene

todayP36.35-P43.45

P24.75-P29.60

P34.55-P39.15

PP427.00-P620.00

8300

7840

7380

6920

6460

6000

P47.020CLOSE

By Gabrielle Binaday

THE Finance Department said Tuesday it plans to privatize more assets in three years, including United Coconut Planters Bank and casinos run by Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

“Yes, there will be more assets to be unloaded,” Finance Secre-tary Carlos Dominguez III told reporters.

Dominguez said the Duterte administration also planned to privatize casinos and the Philip-pine Postal Bank.

“I am sure those will be under consideration. Also the banks that we still have,” Dominguez said.

� e UCPB was placed under the supervision of the Gover-nance Commission for Govern-

ment-Owned and Controlled Corporation in March.

� e GCG said pending the ef-fectivity of the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order against the privatization of the UCPB, the GCG will begin regu-lating the bank as a GOCC under the GOCC Governance Act of 2011.

� e SC issued the TRO on June 30 last year, setting aside Execu-tive Orders 179 and 180 signed by President Benigno Aquino III on March 2015.

� e Aquino directives ordered the UCPB privatization and the reconveyance to the government of about P74.3 billion in coco levy funds.

� e SC issued the TRO a� er a petition � led by the Confedera-tion of Coconut Farmers’ Orga-nizations of the Philippines Inc., which alleged the privatization would deny the coconut farmers of their right over the coco levy funds.

UCPB was originally under the supervision of the Presiden-tial Commission on Good Gov-ernment when the agency was still litigating cases involving the bank.

Former president Aquino ap-proved the privatization of UCPB following the Supreme Court’s Jan 24, 2012 ruling that e� ectively made the bank a GOCC.

Proceeds from the UCPB sale

under Executive Order No. 179 would be used by the government for the bene� t of the coco farm-ers.

GCG said until the privatiza-tion is implemented, UCPB re-mains a GOCC that must comply with the corporate governance requirements.

Compensation of UCPB per-sonnel will also be regulated un-der the Compensation and Po-sition Classi� cation System for GOCCs.

� e bank will also have to com-ply with the Government Pro-curement Reform Act and will be subjected to examination by the Commission on Audit like all other GOCCs.

Dominguez, meanwhile, said the government would speed up the disposal process of Power Sec-tor Assets and Liabilities Manage-ment Corp.

By Alena Mae S. Flores

MANILA Electric Co. said Tues-day power rates will increase by an average of P0.29 per kilowatt-hour this month, because of plant outages in June that led to higher generation cost.

Meralco said the higher rates in July followed two consecutive re-ductions in May and June totaling P0.54 per kWh.

Meralco said a typical house-hold consuming 200 kWh a month would experience an in-crease of around P58 in their elec-

tricity bill in July.� e power retailer said the in-

crease in electricity rates was led by higher generation charges, which increased by P0.34 per kWh to P4.06 per kWh from last month’s level of P3.72 per kWh.

It said power cost at the Whole-sale Electricity Spot Market, the country’s trading � oor of electric-ity, increased to P4.49 per kWh from P3.97 per kWh last month.

Meralco said this was caused by tight power supply compounded by the outage of several power plants during the June supply month.

Meralco noted � ve instances of ‘yellow alerts’ in June, speci� cally on June 13, 14, 17, 21 and 22.

Several power plants were shut down in June due to scheduled and unscheduled outages. � ose plants included Pagbilao-2, San Lorenzo Mod 50 and 60, Sta. Rita Mod 40 and iPower.

Power plants that went on forced outage included Sual-1, San Gabriel, Calaca 1 and 2, GN Power1 and 2, Limay A and B, Sta. Rita Mod 10 and 30, SLPGC 1, SLTEC 1 and 2, San Roque 2, Pagbilao 1 and Ambuklao 2.

Meralco said that in contrast, the Luzon Grid did not experi-ence any yellow or red alert in May, when peak demand reached a record9,727 MW.

“Due to the increased incidence of plant outages, too, Malaya 2 was dispatched for around half of the June supply month, when peak demand in Luzon dropped to 9,260 MW,” Meralco said.

� e Malaya diesel plant owned by the government through the Power Sector and Liabilities Man-agement Corp. are considered “must-run units” and are typi-

cally instructed by system opera-tor National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to be dispatched when reserve levels in the grid are very low.

Meralco said costs of energy sourced from independent power producers also registered a slight increase of P0.03 per kWh, main-ly due to the lower dispatch of Quezon Power Philippines Ltd.

Cost of power from plants un-der the power supply agreements with Meralco decreased by P0.02 per kWh on higher dispatch of the Ilijan natural gas plant.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi (right) meets with Manila Electric Co. offi cials at the Department of Energy compound in Bonifacio Global City to discuss the July electricity rate change and on how to address the problem of ‘fl ying connections’ within the power retailer’s franchise area. At the meeting are (from left) Meralco senior corporate communications Associate Michael Garcia, National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc. president Pete Ilagan, Energy chief of staff Jesus Posadas, Meralco public information offi ce head Joe Zaldarriaga and Meralco utility economics head Lawrence Fernandez.

[email protected]@gmail.com

BUSINESSWEDNESDAY: JULY 6, 2016

B2

52 Weeks Previous % Net Foreign High Low STOCKS Close High Low Close Change Volume Trade/Buying

The STandard BuSineSS daily STockS review Tuesday, July 5, 2016

FINANCIAL7.88 2.5 AG Finance 3.66 3.68 3.62 3.62 -1.09 187,000 75.3 66 Asia United Bank 47.55 47.6 47 47.55 0.00 10,500 456,030.00124.4 88.05 Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. 114.50 115.00 111.90 112.00 -2.18 1,928,610 -28,371,172107 88.1 Bank of PI 99.20 99.60 99.10 99.15 -0.05 711,250 9,708,787.0056.5 45.45 China Bank 38.25 38.35 38.15 38.15 -0.26 28,100 -320,460.002.49 1.97 BDO Leasing & Fin. INc. 4.07 4.10 4.07 4.09 0.49 12,000 -16,400.004.2 1.68 Bright Kindle Resources 1.34 1.37 1.31 1.37 2.24 99,000 4 8.7 Citystate Savings 9.05 9.04 9.04 9.04 -0.11 100 17 12.02 COL Financial 14.2 14.4 14.3 14.4 1.41 22,100 30.45 19.6 Eastwest Bank 18.62 19.12 18.44 18.8 0.97 1,466,600 -5,153,052.0010.4 6.12 Filipino Fund Inc. 6.54 6.54 6.54 6.54 0.00 100 2.6 1.02 I-Remit Inc. 2.03 2.05 1.91 1.91 -5.91 447,000 890 625 Manulife Fin. Corp. 600.00 628.00 628.00 628.00 4.67 120 -50,240.001.01 0.225 MEDCO Holdings 0.540 0.540 0.530 0.540 0.00 59,000 2,120.00100 78 Metrobank 89 90 88 88.8 -0.22 2,599,730 102,211,367.0030.5 17.8 PB Bank 14.92 15 14.92 15 0.54 205,100 75 58 Phil Bank of Comm 22.00 22.50 22.00 22.00 0.00 470,700 91.5 62 Phil. National Bank 57.80 57.85 57.05 57.05 -1.30 115,520 -900,486.50137 88.35 Phil. Savings Bank 106 105.8 100.1 105 -0.94 670 361.2 276 PSE Inc. 269 269 259 259 -3.72 2,770 57 41 RCBC À’ 31.7 32.05 31.55 32 0.95 426,300 9,896,825180 118.2 Security Bank 191.8 192.5 191.5 191.8 0.00 1,286,380 -82,215,695.001700 1200 Sun Life Financial 1340.00 1390.00 1390.00 1390.00 3.73 40 124 59 Union Bank 65.20 65.15 65.00 65.05 -0.23 49,040 3.26 2.65 Vantage Equities 1.52 1.52 1.52 1.52 0.00 2,000

INDUSTRIAL47 35.9 Aboitiz Power Corp. 45 45.25 44.8 45 0.00 2,362,400 -10,095,755.005 1.11 Agrinurture Inc. 3.65 3.69 3.59 3.69 1.10 586,000 1.46 1.01 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 0.81 0.82 0.8 0.82 1.23 373,000 2.36 1.86 Alsons Cons. 1.98 1.99 1.94 1.99 0.51 2,564,000 206,760.0015.3 7.92 Asiabest Group 11.5 12.38 11.18 12.1 5.22 6,400 89 40.3 Bogo Medelin 55.05 57 55 55 -0.09 610 20.6 15.32 Century Food 23.5 24.8 23.5 24.3 3.40 4,852,000 38,627,790.0085 20.2 Conc. Aggr. ‘A’ 170 170 165.1 165.1 -2.88 1,140 36 10.08 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 16.38 17.2 15.7 17.2 5.01 6,709,000 10,957,350.0065.8 29.15 Concepcion 47 47 46.5 47 0.00 34,900 1,502,0002.97 1.5 Crown Asia 2.02 2.1 2 2.04 0.99 4,764,000 -108,010.004.14 1.5 Da Vinci Capital 5.51 5.58 5.48 5.5 -0.18 1,165,800 -8,250.0021.5 10.72 Del Monte 12.4 12.6 12.32 12.48 0.65 163,300 -517,912.0021.6 9.55 DNL Industries Inc. 9.600 9.600 9.460 9.470 -1.35 2,376,800 -3,751,924.0011.96 9.04 Emperador 7.30 7.41 7.29 7.41 1.51 1,530,800 6,244,451.009.13 6.02 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 5.60 5.66 5.57 5.60 0.00 15,974,600 27,986,560.0011.8 8.86 EEI 7.66 7.71 7.60 7.60 -0.78 616,600 3,950,890.0031.8 20.2 First Gen Corp. 24.85 25.15 24.75 25 0.60 2,751,500 30,278,990.00109 71.5 First Holdings ‘A’ 68.75 69.8 68.75 69.1 0.51 316,380 6,990,626.5020.75 13.86 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 12.10 12.40 12.02 12.20 0.83 8,200 15.3 13.24 Holcim Philippines Inc. 15.30 15.40 15.06 15.20 -0.65 41,100 -1,700.009.4 5.34 Integ. Micro-Electronics 5.68 5.68 5.56 5.6 -1.41 107,000 0.98 0.395 Ionics Inc 2.380 2.540 2.390 2.450 2.94 12,477,000 -217,050.00241 173 Jollibee Foods Corp. 244.00 245.80 243.80 244.80 0.33 629,320 -13,453,034.0079 34.1 Liberty Flour 32.20 38.45 32.30 36.00 11.80 7,800 4 1.63 Mabuhay Vinyl 3.26 3.29 3.15 3.25 -0.31 15,000 74 33 Macay Holdings 37.50 37.30 35.20 35.20 -6.13 9,000 33.9 23.35 Manila Water Co. Inc. 27.2 27.3 27.1 27.15 -0.18 652,200 -547,445.0090 17.3 Maxs Group 29.9 30.3 29.8 29.8 -0.33 523,300 -690,115.0013.26 5.88 Megawide 6.74 7.08 6.74 7.08 5.04 1,598,300 1,436,982.00293 250.2 Mla. Elect. Co À’ 315.00 315.00 311.40 313.00 -0.63 511,000 29,150,198.000.62 0.335 MG Holdings 0.265 0.270 0.265 0.270 1.89 170,000 5 3.37 Panasonic Mfg Phil. Corp. 4.21 4.25 4.25 4.25 0.95 10,000 5.25 3.87 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 3.42 3.45 3.4 3.42 0.00 13,705,000 2,335,270.0012.98 8.45 Petron Corporation 10.78 10.96 10.64 10.66 -1.11 15,204,900 75,031,696.0015 10.04 Phinma Corporation 11.64 11.26 11.26 11.26 -3.26 400 7.03 3.03 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 6.23 6.20 6.11 6.20 -0.48 941,400 -89,900.003.4 1.95 Phoenix Semiconductor 1.64 1.67 1.62 1.64 0.00 341,000 8,150.004.5 1 Pryce Corp. À’ 2.81 2.87 2.8 2.87 2.14 165,000 6.3 4.02 RFM Corporation 4.19 4.20 4.05 4.20 0.24 423,000 -1,290,470.007.34 5.9 Roxas Holdings 4 4 4 4 0.00 43,000 3.28 1.55 Splash Corporation 2.57 2.59 2.55 2.57 0.00 93,000 0.315 0.138 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.151 0.157 0.151 0.154 1.99 5,640,000 2.18 1.02 TKC Steel Corp. 1.97 2.09 1.88 1.88 -4.57 5,161,000 351,950.002.65 2.09 Trans-Asia Oil 2.48 2.48 2.43 2.48 0.00 867,000 731,500.00234 152 Universal Robina 205.6 207 201 201.8 -1.85 2,162,440 27,901,958.005.28 4.28 Victorias Milling 4.69 4.54 4.54 4.54 -3.20 1,000 1.3 0.640 Vitarich Corp. 0.95 1.02 0.96 0.97 2.11 37,118,000 440,240.0026 10.02 Vivant Corp. 35.00 30.55 30.50 30.50 -12.86 4,000 112,850.002.17 1.2 Vulcan Ind’l. 1.27 1.24 1.22 1.24 -2.36 142,000

HOLDING FIRMS0.59 0.44 Abacus Cons. À’ 0.365 0.370 0.365 0.370 1.37 450,000 59.2 48.1 Aboitiz Equity 79.10 80.20 76.00 76.50 -3.29 1,873,140 -3,573,875.0030.05 20.85 Alliance Global Inc. 15.20 15.40 15.16 15.30 0.66 2,804,300 -7,594,806.002.16 1.6 Anglo Holdings A 1.14 1.14 1.14 1.14 0.00 13,000 7.39 6.62 Anscor À’ 6.11 6.25 6.10 6.10 -0.16 13,700 3.4 0.23 ATN Holdings A 0.365 0.365 0.360 0.360 -1.37 2,140,000 3.35 0.23 ATN Holdings B 0.360 0.370 0.360 0.360 0.00 510,000 46,800.00823.5 634.5 Ayala Corp À’ 850 868 850 860 1.18 250,540 -3,710,170.0010.2 7.390 Cosco Capital 7.76 7.84 7.72 7.73 -0.39 3,186,300 376,971.0084 12.8 DMCI Holdings 12.86 12.96 12.64 12.74 -0.93 3,302,200 -98,732.003.35 2.6 F&J Prince ‘A’ 5.32 5.45 5.31 5.39 1.32 14,000 3.68 1.15 F&J Prince ‘B’ 6.2 5.7 5.7 5.7 -8.06 4,000 4.92 2.26 Filinvest Dev. Corp. 6.45 6.60 6.45 6.50 0.78 36,700 -3,300.001455 837 GT Capital 1473 1484 1455 1460 -0.88 132,340 -7,506,145.0076 49.55 JG Summit Holdings 84.00 85.50 83.80 84.00 0.00 3,080,470 -25,176,827.005.29 3 Keppel Holdings À’ 5.36 5.36 5.35 5.35 -0.19 5,200 6.66 3.52 Keppel Holdings `B’ 6.55 5.51 5.51 5.51 -15.88 1,700 9.25 4.84 Lopez Holdings Corp. 7.76 7.77 7.66 7.72 -0.52 1,415,800 3,966,732.000.85 0.59 Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. 0.7 0.7 0.69 0.69 -1.43 353,000 17.3 12 LT Group 15.86 15.96 15.76 15.96 0.63 5,197,000 55,146,346.000.71 0.580 Mabuhay Holdings À’ 0.490 0.510 0.490 0.510 4.08 110,000 5.53 4.2 Metro Pacific Inv. Corp. 6.88 7 6.79 6.79 -1.31 37,771,700 -17,222,852.009.66 3 MJCI Investments Inc. 3.1 3.6 3.39 3.39 9.35 18,000 0.0670 0.030 Pacifica À’ 0.0340 0.0340 0.0330 0.0330 -2.94 35,800,000 2.31 1.23 Prime Media Hldg 1.240 1.230 1.230 1.230 -0.81 21,000 1.61 0.550 Prime Orion 1.830 1.840 1.820 1.820 -0.55 148,000 84.9 59.3 San Miguel Corp À’ 79.05 79.05 77.60 78.45 -0.76 130,240 282,347.003.5 1.5 Seafront À’ 2.15 2.26 2.20 2.26 5.12 19,000 974 751 SM Investments Inc. 990.00 1000.00 988.00 990.00 0.00 234,180 -53,747,980.001.66 1.13 Solid Group Inc. 1.19 1.20 1.19 1.19 0.00 76,000 1.39 0.93 South China Res. Inc. 0.90 0.90 0.88 0.90 0.00 18,000 -8,900.00156 80 Top Frontier 192.000 192.000 186.600 191.500 -0.26 38,880 0.710 0.211 Unioil Res. & Hldgs 0.3050 0.3050 0.3000 0.3050 0.00 940,000 0.435 0.179 Wellex Industries 0.2040 0.2020 0.1990 0.2010 -1.47 350,000 0.510 0.310 Zeus Holdings 0.295 0.295 0.280 0.290 -1.69 3,990,000

P R O P E R T Y10.5 6.74 8990 HLDG 7.650 7.640 7.550 7.600 -0.65 58,800 179,348.001.99 0.65 A. Brown Co., Inc. 1.24 1.26 1.23 1.24 0.00 1,722,000 1.75 1.2 Araneta Prop À’ 2.160 2.380 2.130 2.240 3.70 2,774,000 117,500.0041.4 30.05 Ayala Land `B’ 38.950 39.350 38.950 39.000 0.13 5,956,900 115,016,280.005.6 3.36 Belle Corp. À’ 3.24 3.28 3.23 3.27 0.93 1,888,000 467,250.005.59 4.96 Cebu Holdings 5 5.17 5.1 5.11 2.20 52,400 -153,450.001.44 0.79 Century Property 0.520 0.52 0.510 0.520 0.00 3,645,000 530,400.001.48 0.97 Cityland Dev. À’ 1.040 1.030 1.010 1.030 -0.96 51,000 8,080.000.201 0.083 Crown Equities Inc. 0.130 0.132 0.129 0.131 0.77 2,470,000 0.69 0.415 Cyber Bay Corp. 0.660 0.670 0.650 0.650 -1.52 950,800 266,000.00

52 Weeks Previous % Net ForeignHigh Low STOCKS Close High Low Close Change Volume Trade/Buying

Trading SummarySHARES VALUE

FINANCIAL 10,130,136 834,627,700.30INDUSTRIAL 145,938,606 1,680,896,120.24HOLDING FIRMS 105,065,097 1,566,566,895.79PROPERTY 204,405,780 1,464,935,241.42SERVICES 293,881,101 2,272,961,802.7282MINING & OIL 822,384,933 311,888,780.584GRAND TOTAL 1,587,471,617 8,162,590,490.9622

FINANCIAL 1,75647 (down) 11.93INDUSTRIAL 11,864.96 (down) 49.76HOLDING FIRMS 7,629.57 (down) 34.47PROPERTY 3,453.32 (down) 14.75SERVICES 1,653.84 (down) 5.62MINING & OIL 11,424.91 (down) 17.57PSEI 7,808.13 (down) 38.41All Shares Index 4,726.86 (down) 19.47

Gainers: 85; Losers: 102; Unchanged: 50; Total: 237

STOCKS Close(P)

Change(%)

Keppel Holdings `B' 5.51 -15.88

Vivant Corp. 30.50 -12.86

F&J Prince 'B' 5.7 -8.06

Philodrill Corp. À' 0.0120 -7.69

Ever Gotesco 0.147 -7.55

Leisure & Resorts 6.10 -7.01

Macay Holdings 35.20 -6.13

NOW Corp. 3.630 -5.96

I-Remit Inc. 1.91 -5.91

Benguet Corp À' 7.1000 -5.33

Top LoSerSSTOCKS Close

(P)Change

(%)

Grand Plaza Hotel 24.05 13.18

Liberty Flour 36.00 11.80

MJCI Investments Inc. 3.39 9.35

Italpinas 4.5 9.22

Manila Mining À' 0.0130 8.33

Oriental Pet. `B' 0.0130 8.33

Asiabest Group 12.1 5.22

Seafront À' 2.26 5.12

Golden Haven 18.62 5.08

Megawide 7.08 5.04

Top gainerS

10.96 2.4 Double Dragon 61.9 62 60.8 61.2 -1.13 607,090 2,523,540.500.97 0.83 Empire East Land 0.790 0.790 0.790 0.790 0.00 527,000 0.305 0.188 Ever Gotesco 0.159 0.147 0.147 0.147 -7.55 490,000 2.22 1.15 Global-Estate 0.98 0.99 0.98 0.98 0.00 3,312,000 2.1 1.42 Filinvest Land,Inc. 1.98 2.00 1.98 2.00 1.01 11,599,000 1,053,500.001.8 1.27 Interport À’ 1.22 1.24 1.21 1.24 1.64 139,000 1,240.005.94 4.13 Megaworld 4.65 4.84 4.69 4.74 1.94 94,116,000 182,773,130.000.180 0.090 MRC Allied Ind. 0.100 0.102 0.098 0.102 2.00 1,730,000 0.470 0.290 Phil. Estates Corp. 0.2750 0.2750 0.2650 0.2650 -3.64 30,000 0.72 0.39 Phil. Realty À’ 0.430 0.440 0.425 0.430 0.00 800,000 27 23 Phil. Tob. Flue Cur & Redry 40.00 40.00 36.00 40.00 0.00 2,400 8.54 2.69 Primex Corp. 11 11.28 11.06 11.1 0.91 448,700 281,126.0031.8 22.15 Robinson’s Land `B’ 30.20 31.20 30.00 30.25 0.17 2,124,300 11,201,820.002.29 1.6 Rockwell 1.77 1.79 1.75 1.75 -1.13 230,000 -91,000.004.9 3.1 Shang Properties Inc. 3.33 3.33 3.2 3.29 -1.20 158,000 3,340.0021.35 15.08 SM Prime Holdings 28.10 28.50 26.90 27.55 -1.96 17,136,200 -17,690,125.001.06 0.69 Sta. Lucia Land Inc. 0.92 0.97 0.92 0.94 2.17 23,367,000 7.56 3.38 Starmalls 6.97 6.94 6.46 6.94 -0.43 4,400 1.62 0.83 Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. 1.000 1.020 0.990 1.000 0.00 1,179,000 8.59 5.73 Vista Land & Lifescapes 5.350 5.500 5.360 5.450 1.87 17,350,900 -20,754,775.00

S E R V I C E S10.5 1.97 2GO Group’ 7.22 7.29 7.2 7.28 0.83 22,500 66 35.2 ABS-CBN 48.5 49.5 47.2 47.2 -2.68 201,700 1.44 1 Acesite Hotel 1.29 1.29 1.29 1.29 0.00 13,000 16,770.001.09 0.63 APC Group, Inc. 0.600 0.600 0.580 0.580 -3.33 1,481,000 28.5 18.2 Berjaya Phils. Inc. 7.2 7.2 7.01 7.06 -1.94 43,000 15.82 8.6 Bloomberry 6.60 6.72 6.40 6.51 -1.36 3,937,600 1,017,677.000.1430 0.0770 Boulevard Holdings 0.0590 0.0590 0.0570 0.0580 -1.69 22,830,000 5.06 2.95 Calata Corp. 2.88 2.89 2.82 2.87 -0.35 1,499,000 144,240.0099.1 56.1 Cebu Air Inc. (5J) 98.75 99 98.6 98.6 -0.15 642,760 10,929,341.007.67 4.8 DFNN Inc. 5.00 5.15 4.90 4.99 -0.20 204,700 2720 1600 Globe Telecom 2358 2414 2354 2356 -0.08 43,090 2,457,980.008.41 5.95 GMA Network Inc. 6.30 6.37 6.35 6.37 1.11 64,100 Golden Haven 17.72 18.90 16.20 18.62 5.08 5,385,700 -162,880.0070.5 17.02 Grand Plaza Hotel 21.25 24.35 21.25 24.05 13.18 100,300 1.97 1.23 Harbor Star 1.15 1.15 1.15 1.15 0.00 67,000 119.5 102.6 I.C.T.S.I. 63 63.7 63 63.55 0.87 2,861,570 -87,734,266.007 3.01 Imperial Res. À’ 13.10 13.20 12.86 13.20 0.76 36,900 5.8 4 Imperial Res. `B’ 156 159 145 159 1.92 60 12.5 8.72 IPeople Inc. À’ 11.68 11.7 10.8 11.7 0.17 51,100 0.017 0.011 IP E-Game Ventures Inc. 0.0091 0.0093 0.0091 0.0092 1.10 36,000,000 IPM Holdings 9.38 9.39 9.30 9.39 0.11 340,000 0.8200 0.041 Island Info 0.325 0.335 0.325 0.330 1.54 16,600,000 2.2800 1.200 ISM Communications 1.6100 1.6600 1.5700 1.6100 0.00 1,961,000 -11,410.005.93 2.34 Jackstones 2.24 2.5 2.21 2.22 -0.89 127,000 LBC Express 13.1 13.88 13 13.56 3.51 31,700 12.28 6.5 Leisure & Resorts 6.56 6.94 6.10 6.10 -7.01 3,195,900 -11,390,8803.32 1.91 Liberty Telecom 3.21 3.23 3.20 3.20 -0.31 740,000 3.2 1.95 Macroasia Corp. 2.78 2.78 2.60 2.78 0.00 6,000 95.5 3.1 Manila Broadcasting 20.00 19.98 19.02 19.98 -0.10 700 2.46 1.8 Manila Jockey 2.05 2 2 2 -2.44 44,000 15.2 6 Melco Crown 3.9 3.98 3.72 3.73 -4.36 12,140,000 7,273,540.00 Metro Retail 4.45 4.70 4.46 4.60 3.37 67,057,000 56,899,630.001.040 0.37 NOW Corp. 3.860 4.100 3.600 3.630 -5.96 71,683,000 5,106,170.0022.8 14.54 Pacific Online Sys. Corp. 11.94 12.5 11.94 11.98 0.34 26,700 6.41 3 PAL Holdings Inc. 5.17 5.35 5.17 5.20 0.58 50,800 185 79 Phil. Seven Corp. 124.50 125.00 124.50 125.00 0.40 203,440 598,800.003486 2748 PLDT Common 2140.00 2170.00 2128.00 2136.00 -0.19 141,080 88,417,570.000.760 0.435 PremiereHorizon 0.420 0.435 0.420 0.430 2.38 2,740,000 2.28 1.2 Premium Leisure 1.170 1.170 1.140 1.170 0.00 6,689,000 -2,861,540.0046.05 31.45 Puregold 42.65 43.00 42.10 42.80 0.35 707,900 14,204,810.0090.1 60.55 Robinsons RTL 85.95 86.15 83.00 84.50 -1.69 3,392,570 56,852,634.50 SBS Phil. Corp. 6.36 6.40 6.30 6.31 -0.79 328,900 11.6 7.59 SSI Group 3.41 3.59 3.43 3.50 2.64 19,703,000 1,823,520.000.85 0.63 STI Holdings 0.590 0.590 0.580 0.580 -1.69 1,540,000 29,000.0010 5 Travellers 3.4 3.46 3.38 3.4 0.00 869,000 -857,930.000.490 0.315 Waterfront Phils. 0.330 0.345 0.325 0.325 -1.52 150,000 1.9 1.14 Yehey 6.080 6.280 6.000 6.070 -0.16 4,100

MINING & OIL0.0098 0.0043 Abra Mining 0.0041 0.0042 0.0040 0.0041 0.00 398,000,000 5.45 1.72 Apex À’ 3.50 3.58 3.40 3.47 -0.86 1,948,000 -106,890.0017.24 6.47 Atlas Cons. À’ 4.55 4.58 4.29 4.38 -3.74 511,000 -139,140.0025 9.43 Atok-Big Wedge À’ 11.80 11.80 11.20 11.80 0.00 3,200 0.330 0.236 Basic Energy Corp. 0.234 0.242 0.230 0.230 -1.71 1,120,000 12.7 6.5 Benguet Corp À’ 7.5000 7.6 7.02 7.1000 -5.33 10,400 1.19 0.85 Century Peak Metals Hldgs 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.00 1 144,000.001.62 0.77 Coal Asia 0.480 0.510 0.480 0.500 4.17 10,690,000 65,000.009.5 5.99 Dizon 8.70 9.00 8.73 8.86 1.84 33,800 4.2 1.17 Ferronickel 0.900 0.920 0.880 0.880 -2.22 18,677,000 1,819,160.000.48 0.305 Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. 0.295 0.300 0.290 0.295 0.00 40,000 0.420 0.2130 Lepanto À’ 0.248 0.250 0.246 0.247 -0.40 26,920,000 0.440 0.2160 Lepanto `B’ 0.260 0.260 0.255 0.255 -1.92 1,140,000 0.022 0.013 Manila Mining À’ 0.0120 0.0130 0.0120 0.0130 8.33 66,900,000 0.023 0.014 Manila Mining `B’ 0.0140 0.0150 0.0130 0.0140 0.00 228,000,000 -130,000.008.2 3.240 Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. 1.82 1.95 1.81 1.82 0.00 1,602,000 -45,960.0049.2 18.96 Nickelasia 5.51 5.59 5.34 5.5 -0.18 9,906,600 -4,225,352.004.27 2.11 Nihao Mineral Resources 2.71 2.83 2.71 2.8 3.32 1,002,000 1.030 0.365 Omico 0.5400 0.5500 0.5400 0.5500 1.85 4,000 3.06 1.54 Oriental Peninsula Res. 1.2400 1.2500 1.2100 1.2100 -2.42 39,000 0.020 0.012 Oriental Pet. À’ 0.0120 0.0120 0.0110 0.0120 0.00 7,900,000 0.021 0.013 Oriental Pet. `B’ 0.0120 0.0130 0.0130 0.0130 8.33 100,000 7.67 5.4 Petroenergy Res. Corp. 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 0.00 10,000 12.88 7.26 Philex À’ 8.92 9.14 8.63 8.70 -2.47 6,308,900 8,521,575.0010.42 2.27 PhilexPetroleum 4.70 5.00 4.45 4.50 -4.26 12,141,000 -2,501,930.000.040 0.015 Philodrill Corp. À’ 0.0130 0.0130 0.0120 0.0120 -7.69 8,300,000 65,000.00420 115.9 Semirara Corp. 123.00 125.00 119.50 125.00 1.63 744,220 31,905,309.009 3.67 TA Petroleum 4.05 4.17 3.91 3.97 -1.98 738,000 19,850.000.016 0.0100 United Paragon 0.0110 0.0110 0.0110 0.0110 0.00 19,100,000

PREFERRED70 33 ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. 47.8 48.4 47.2 47.2 -1.26 233,700 -5,320,510.00553 490 Ayala Corp. Pref `B1’ 545 543 543 543 -0.37 50 525 500 Ayala Corp. Pref ‘B2’ 549 549.5 542.5 549.5 0.09 1,110 -542,500515 480 GLOBE PREF P 542 542 540.5 540.5 -0.28 2,000 8.21 5.88 GMA Holdings Inc. 6.35 6.35 6.35 6.35 0.00 21,000 12.28 6.5 Leisure and Resort 1.06 1.06 1.06 1.06 0.00 101,000 111 101 MWIDE PREF 111.9 112 112 112 0.09 10,000 PCOR-Preferred B 1160 1160 1160 1160 0.00 110 84.8 75 SMC Preferred C 80 80 78 79.95 -0.06 164,980 -11,010,625 SMC Preferred D 76 76 76 76 0.00 6,500 SMC Preferred E 76.1 76.5 76.5 76.5 0.53 161,570 SMC Preferred F 78.4 78.4 78.4 78.4 0.00 760 SMC Preferred G 78 78 78 78 0.00 76,700 SMC Preferred H 76.9 76.9 76.9 76.9 0.00 4,000 SMC Preferred I 76.6 76.95 76.95 76.95 0.46 27,750 -1,789,087.50

WARRANTS & BONDS6.98 0.8900 LR Warrant 2.550 2.650 2.500 2.500 -1.96 1,419,000

S M E Alterra Capital 3.68 3.92 3.69 3.81 3.53 1,466,000 -57,850.0015 3.5 Makati Fin. Corp. 3.48 3.53 3.26 3.5 0.57 18,000 Italpinas 4.12 4.7 4.02 4.5 9.22 3,729,000 -881,520.0012.88 5.95 Xurpas 16.4 16.5 16.16 16.22 -1.10 437,500 118,314.00

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS130.7 105.6 First Metro ETF 128.9 129.4 128.4 128.4 -0.39 9,640



B3

Aboitiz consolidates power unit

Stock market retreats;Metro Retail advances

New millionaire.

Smart Communications

retailer Amador Lotino Jr. is

presented the mock check for

the P1 million he won under the

Smart Ka-Partner Rewards Program,

the telco’s loyalty incentive

program. With him on stage is

and Gia Palafox, department head

for distributor sales at Smart.

By Alena Mae S. Flores

ABOITIZ Renewables Inc., the renewable en-ergy arm of Aboitiz Power Corp., said Tuesday it completed the acquisition of an 8.8-mega-watt biomass energy facility being built by Aseagas Corp. in Lian, Batangas.

Aboitiz Power said its renew-able unit acquired Aseagas from parent company Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. for P605 million.

“The addition of Aseagas and biomass technology intensifies

Aboitiz Power’s efforts in expand-ing our renewable energy portfo-lio. We are excited about biomass and we hope to build more capac-ity through this technology,” said Aboitiz Power president and chief

operating officer Antonio Mora-za.

“We have always expressed that Aboitiz Power will continue pur-suing renewable energy as long as it is available and viable; this proj-ect is a testament to that commit-ment,” Moraza said.

The biomass power plant is ex-pected to become fully operation-al and deliver power to the Luzon grid before the fourth quarter of 2016.

This is the first foray of Aboitiz Power into biomass technology, and is set to boost the company’s

renewable energy capacity under the Cleanergy brand, he said.

The sale involved 72.71 mil-lion common shares and 654.3 million redeemable preferred shares priced at P0.832175 and P0.832175, respectively.

The board of Aboitiz Equity ap-proved the sale of all of its equity interests in Aseagas to Aboitiz Renewables in April.

“The acquisition of the shares in Aseagas is in line with Aboitiz Power’s target to increase its at-tributable net sellable capac-ity to 4,000 megawatts by 2020,”

Aboitiz Power said in a disclo-sure to the Philippine Stock Ex-change.

Aboitiz Power also ventured for the first time into solar power, with the inauguration of the San Carlos Sun Power, Inc.’s 59-MWp solar power plant in Negros Oc-cidental in April.

The first Aseagas biomass fa-cility will utilize and convert the organic effluent of its partner Ab-solut Distillery Inc. into clean and renewable energy, which will help power around 22,000 households. It will also produce 33 tons per day of liquid carbon dioxide for the industrial and beverage in-dustries.

Aboitiz Power now has an ex-tensive renewable energy foot-print nationwide with its large hydro, run-of-river hydro, geo-thermal, solar and now biomass power plants.

Aboitiz Power and its partners produce 3,350 MW of total net sellable capacity, 38-percent of which comes from its renewable power plants all over the country.

Aseagas chief operating officer Juan Alfonso said the strong part-nership of Aseagas and Absolut would ensure the sustainability and continued operations of the biomass facility in Lian.

“During the 24-month con-struction period, the team was able to reach the safety milestone of 1 million hours without lost time incident. We look forward to full operations of the plant within this year,” said Alfonso.

STOCKS retreated Tuesday, as trad-ers cashed in profits while keeping a nervous eye on a brewing crisis in Italy’s banking industry.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, fell 38 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 7,808.13. Despite Tuesday’s loss, the bellwether was still up 12.3 per-cent this year.

The heavier index, representing all shares, also dropped 19 points, or 0.4 percent, to settle at 4,726.86, on value turnover of P8.2 billion. Los-ers outnumbered gainers, 102 to 85, while 50 issues were unchanged.

Six of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by retailer Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. which climbed 3.4 percent to P4.60 and property developer Megaworld Corp. which rose 1.9 percent to P4.74.

Meanwhile, most Asian markets traded lower Tuesday, on profit-tak-ing. Shares worldwide have pushed higher since last week after a string of major central banks promised they would shore up financial mar-kets to protect them against any negative effects from Britain’s deci-sion to leave the European Union.

There were also hopes one of the EU’s biggest economies breaking away might not be as painful for global markets as initially assumed.

However, analysts said that with so many uncertainties sur-rounding the future of the coun-

try as well as ongoing weaknesses around the world, the rally had run out of steam.

“The market’s love affair with yield and all-things-not-Europe remains supportive,” said David Croy, a senior rates strategist in Wellington at ANZ Bank New Zealand.

“But it doesn’t alter the fact that caution on behalf of central banks, the forthcoming Brexit negotia-tions with the EU and the wave of elections in Europe next year have raised political risk in Europe.”

Tokyo finished 0.7 percent lower, while Seoul dipped 0.3 percent and Hong Kong fell one percent in the afternoon, although Shanghai rose 0.6 percent.

Sydney sank one percent with Australia looking set for a hung parliament after weekend elec-tions threw up no clear winner. Standard & Poor’s has warned the country’s top-notch AAA rat-ing could be in danger if whoev-er wins office is prevented from continuing to improve budget balances.

Tuesday’s sell-off follows losses in European markets, where financial companies were hurt by a warning from the European Central Bank that Italy’s number-three lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, re-ported to be the world’s oldest bank, had dangerously high levels of bad debt. with AFP

B4

Higher expressway toll unlikely in two years, says Tugade

Inflationin June up slightly to 1.9%—NSA

Duterte govt reduces2-year growth targetsBy Gabrielle H. Binaday

THE economic team of newly-installed Presi-dent Rodrigo Duterte reduced the economic growth targets and projected a wider budget deficit this year and next.

Growth will probably reach 6 percent to 7 percent this year, Budget Secretary Benjamin Dio-kno told reporters in Manila following a meeting of the inter-agency Development Budget Co-ordination Committee.

That’s down from a projection of 6.8 percent to 7.8 percent made by the previous administration.

Diokno said the effects of election-related spending was tapering while the impact of El Niño dry spell con-tinued to hurt agriculture output.

“Effect of election related spending is tapering. [There

would be] slow agriculture out-put due to El Niño, weak infra-structure due to seasonality and weak external trade,” Diokno said, in explaining the reduced growth forecasts.

Duterte’s economic manag-ers also revised downward the growth target for 2017 to a range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent from the previous estimate of 6.6 per-cent to 7.6 percent. DBCC kept the 7 percent to 8 percent targets for 2018 up to 2022.

“This is consistent with the strategy of the government to

boost infrastructure spending,” Diokno said. The Philippine economy expanded 5.9 percent in 2015 and 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2016.

Diokno said the government would submit a P3.35-trillion budget proposal for 2017. “It’s the same level [with the P3.35 trillion proposed by the Aquino admin-istration]. The composition of the budget will be different,” Diokno said in a text message.

He said infrastructure spend-ing would account for about 5.2 percent of gross domestic prod-uct next year.

Diokno said budget deficit would probably reach 2.5 percent of GDP this year and 3 percent in 2017 mainly because of revenue shortfalls. The government will continue to meet 80 percent of its borrowing needs from the domes-tic market and fund the remaining

20 percent abroad, he said.DBCC also revised downward

the export growth targets to 3 percent for 2016 and 6 percent for 2017 from the previous assump-tions of 5 percent and 8 percent, respectively. It maintained the 10-percent exports growth target for the rest of Duterte’s term.

Imports growth target was re-vised downward to 7 percent for 2016 from the previous target of 10 percent. The targets were reduced to 10 percent for 2017 and 11 percent for 2018 from the earlier assumptions of 12 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

DBCC maintained a foreign exchange target of P45 to P48 per US dollar from 2016 to 2018.

“The country’s firm macroeco-nomic fundamentals and strong external position could support the broad stability of the peso over the medium-term,” DBCC said.

THE inflation rate rose to a 14-month high of 1.9 percent in June following higher prices in food and non-food items, data from Philippine Statistics Au-thority show Tuesday.

The June inflation was higher than 1.2 percent recorded in the same month last year and 1.6 percent in May this year. It was also the highest since 2.2 per-cent in April 2015.

“The hike in inflation can be attributed to the residual effects of the weakening El Niño and the slight recovery of oil prices,” said Economic Planning Secre-tary Ernesto Pernia.

“But the inflation trend in the first six months of 2016 was manageable. This is expected to continue for the rest of the year against a backdrop of expanding productive capacity of the do-mestic economy and persistently low oil prices,” Pernia added.

The June inflation was within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ forecast of 1.5 percent to 2.4 percent for June 2016 and the median market expectation of 1.9 percent.

Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., mean-while, said the current mon-etary policy stance remained appropriate at the moment de-spite the 3-basis-point increase in inflation in June.

“... This turnout is consistent with our assessment that over the policy horizon, monthly infla-tion will move to within target, although for 2016 we still see full-year average to be just... around the low end of the national gov-ernment target range,” Tetangco said in a text message.

“Therefore, we see no need to change the stance of monetary policy for now,” he said. Tet-angco predicted last week June inflation likely settled within the 1.5-percent to 2.4-percent range, as upside pressures could come from the increase in tu-ition as well as in rice and veg-etable prices.

The National Economic and Development Authority said the rising prices in housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels drove inflation in the non-food group to 0.9 percent. Infla-tion in June also adjusted to the rise of oil prices for 2016.

Gabrielle Binaday, Julito G. Rada

By Darwin G. Amojelar

THE Transportation Depart-ment said an increase in road toll is unlikely in the next two years.

“I hope and I’m praying that there would be no toll increase in the next two years,” Transporta-tion Secretary Arthur Tugade told reporters.

The operators of North Luzon Expressway, Cavite Expressway, South Luzon Expressway and Skyway earlier filed separate pe-

titions to increase toll, but the previous administration did not act on their requests.

Manila North Tollways Corp. as a result filed an arbitration case against the government in Geneva after the Toll Regulatory Board froze toll along North Lu-zon Expressway, despite an exist-ing agreement that provided for periodic adjustments.

MNTC on April 4 issued a notice of arbitration and state-ment of claim to the government

through TRB, consistent with the dispute resolution procedures under the existing supplemental toll operation agreement.

The operator of NLEx is seek-ing a P3-billion compensation as of end-2015 for TRB’s alleged in-action on lawful toll adjustments, which were due since Jan. 1, 2013.

MNTC filed a petition with TRB in September 2014 for bi-annual toll adjustment that was supposed to start on Jan. 1, 2015, as stipulated under the concession.

The new petition is on top of the previous one filed by the company in 2012 for a toll in-crease scheduled in January 2013. This would bring the cumulative toll adjustment to 15 percent, of which 12 percent was long over-due.

Toll at NLEx from Mindanao Avenue to Sta. Ines currently amounts to P218 for Class 1 ve-hicles (cars, jeepneys, pickup trucks and vans), P544 for Class 2 vehicles (two-axle trucks, buses

and vans) and P652 for Class 3 vehicles (trucks and trailers with three or more axles).

Cavitex Infrastructure Corp., operator of Manila-Cavite Ex-pressway, also filed an arbitration case against the government, re-questing an P800-million compen-sation for failure to increase toll.

Cavitex also proposed a toll hike for Class 1 vehicles to P27 from P22; Class 2 vehicles to P54 from P44; and Class 3 vehicles to P81 from P66.

LG unit in PH. The world’s leading heating, ventilation and air conditioning service and maintenance company, Hi-M Solutek—a unit of LG Electronics—arrives in the Philippines as the subsidiary of global technology innovator. Shown at the introduction of Hi-M Solutek are (from left) LGE Philippines vice president Steve Kim, LG PH managing director Sung Woo Nam, Hi-M Solutek Philippines director James Park and LG Asia regional headquarters director Yong Kim. Hi-M Solutek, which operates in 30 offices and 5,000 maintenance sites in LG Korea, will soon start its operations in the Philippines.


BUSINESS B5W E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

SMC acquires MRT 7 in full

Scam emails

Partners Group sets up Manila office

A FEW days ago, we received an email from US Air Force General Lori Robinson, asking us to reply at once because she has something important that she “will like to discuss.” It’s a fake email of course, easy to tell what with the wrong grammar, though credit should be given to whoever sent it for even taking pains to register the email address as [email protected] to make it look authentic.

Lori Robinson just happens to be the highest-ranking female general (four star) in the history of the United States, Commander of the US Northern Command, and yes, she was born in 1959. While Robinson is not the first female to achieve a four-star rank, she is the first to lead a unified combatant command like NorthCom, a key cog in the defense and security of the US. She also heads the North American Aerospace Defense Command or Norad—that agency that almost always figured in thrillers and espionage novels about the Cold War era.

For sure, Robinson’s ascension has encouraged more female officers in the US military. Here in the Philippines, the first female general in the Armed Forces of the Philippines is BGen Ramona Palabrica Go, whom we wrote about in March 2013 when she was campaigning for mayor of San Enrique, a third-class municipality in Iloilo. Go, finished B.S. Chemistry at Central Philippine University and took her military schooling at the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps School under the Officer Candidate Program. Go won in 2013 in her mayoralty bid, but unfortunately did not make it in the last May elections.

We really don’t know what the purpose of the fake “Lori Robinson” email sender is, but he really got us thinking because it’s a deviation from the standard scams we have been getting, like the supposed suspension of our email account or our non-existent bank deposit from RCBC. More often than not, these fake emails would include a link asking the recipient to click on it and supply certain details, plus of course a field where you have to provide your password for security purposes.

Among the most prevalent of these scams is the Nigerian email (also known as the 419 scam) asking for help to unlock a dollar account containing millions, or the one announcing that recipient just won millions of dollars in a grand lottery. Why people still fall for these obvious fakes really beats us—after all, don’t they even wonder why they would win in a lottery they have never even entered? Most likely, it’s the same mentality that drives people to wish they would also be as lucky as that laundrywoman who won the PCSO Lotto jackpot—and yet they never get around to placing a bet.

Many Filipinos also admitted falling prey to the Diversity Visa program Visa Lottery scam where fraudulent emails supposedly from the US government are sent, claiming that a DV applicant had been selected and to please send the payment to—yup—a fraudulent account. There are a lot of lessons here, among them that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And that it never pays to do things on the quick. Otherwise, you’d find yourself in a fix.

(Those who want to be amused at the numerous scam emails can check out http://fakeletters.org/, which is a repository of every kind of fake email that has ever been sent.)

•••For comments, reactions, photos, stories and related concerns,

readers may email to [email protected]. You may also visit and like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/happyhourmanilastandard. We’d be very happy to hear from you. Cheers!

Ayala Land partner. Makati Development Corp. and the Department of Labor and Employment sign an agreement to formalize a partnership that aims to provide job opportunities for returning migrant Filipino workers. Sealing the agreement are (from left) MDC president Dan Abando, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz and MDC human resources head Ferdie Mangali. MDC, the construction arm of property developer Ayala Land Inc., specializes in engineering and construction services. The partnership lists MDC’s job openings in the government website PhilJobNet.

By Othel V. Campos

PRIVATE equity fund Partners Group of Switzerland is opening an office in Manila to serve cli-ents across the globe and create a climate for private equity invest-ment in the Philippines.

Partners Group director Grace del Rosario-Castano said the company was banking on the pronouncements of President Rodrigo Duterte to reduce if not eliminate the legislations that hinder foreign investments.

“Private equity investment and management in the Philippines is still in its infancy stage. We have the assurance of the Bangko Sen-tral ng Pilipinas that measures are stepping up to accommodate foreign investments like the law on equity ownership,” she said.

Partners Group plans to invest in medium-scale projects in in-frastructure, such as bridges and airports, hospitals, retail and ac-counting.

The company invests in pri-vately-held companies to manage their direction.

“We want to have the control-ling share and for now it is not allowed in the Philippines, in some sectors. If we buy public-ly-listed firms, our hold of the management is weak. Finan-cials will be superficial and we will not get the entire picture. It will be difficult for us to grow the company and sell it for a healthy return,” co-CEO Chris-toph Rubeli said.

The company is interested in buying medium to big companies worth between $200 million and $2 billion in favor of weak and start-up companies.

Partners Group is is big player in private equity management. Its assets under management or to-tal market value of assets are es-timated $50 billion. Acquisition costs in 2015 reached $9.7 billion that may increase to $10 billion to 12 billion in 2016.

Emerging economies have at least a 23 percent share of total AUM with Asia having the big-gest portion.

Partners Group has more than 850 investors worldwide and hopes to bring some of them to the Philippines.

While it is cultivating the cli-mate for investing in the Philip-pines, it will offer services to cli-ents ranging from information technology to treasury, market-ing, finance, accounting and real estate support.

The company ploans to expand the Manila office and make be one of the five biggest globally.

Manila is the 20th office the company established since 1996. It has offices in San Francisco, Denver, Houston, New York, São Paulo, London, Guernsey, Paris, Luxembourg, Milan, Mu-nich, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo and Syd-ney, on top of the Zug office in Switzerland.

By Jenniffer B. Austria

CONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp. has consolidated its ownership in the $1.6-billion Mass Rail Transit Line 7 by acquiring the remaining 49-percent stake of businessman Salvador Zamora.

The deal, worth $100 million, re-sulted in San Miguel owning 100 per-cent of the rail company that holds the exclusive right to design, construct and complete the MRT Line 7.

San Miguel said in a disclosure to the stock exchange its wholly-owned subsidiary San Miguel

Holdings Corp. signed on June 16 an amended share sale agree-ment with Universal LRT Corp. Ltd. and the Zamora Group to purchase an additional 49 per-cent equity interest in Universal LRT Corp BVI Ltd. and 100 per-cent equity interest in ULCOM

Company Inc. “The total consideration for

the acquisitions of ULC BVI and ULCOM is $100 million which amount consists of payment for the sales as well as the outstand-ing shareholder advances made by each of ULC HK and Mr. Zamora to ULC BVI an ULCOM, respectively,” San Miguel said.

ULC BVI holds the exclusive right, obligation and privilege to finance, design, construct, sup-ply, complete and commission the Metro rail Transit Line 7 proj-ect by virtue of the concession agreement dated June 18 2008 with the government through the

Department of Transportation and Communications.

ULCOM, meanwhile, is the designated facility operator of MRT 7 project.

The acquisition of ULC BVI and ULCOM by San Miguel Holdings was completed July 1.

“With the completion of such acquisition, SMHC now owns 100 percent interest in ULC BVI and ULCOM,” San Miguel said.

San Miguel in November 2010 acquired a 51-percent equity in-terest in Universal LRT.

After achieving financial close, San Miguel in April broke ground for the MRT 7 project,

which involves the construction of a 23-kilometer elevated train line from San Jose del Monte in Bulacan to the corner of North Avenue in Quezon City.

MRT 7 covers the construction of a 22.8-kilometer rail system from North Ave. in Quezon City, passing through Commonwealth Ave., Regalado Ave. and Quirino Highway up to the proposed in-termodal transportation termi-nal in San Jose del Monte. The project will cover 14 stations.

It also includes the construc-tion of a 22-kilometer road that will connect to North Luzon Ex-pressway near the Bocaue exit.



B6

HSBC expects 2016growth to hit 6.3%

Banksremainstrong–BSP

Piñol unveils agriculture strategy to achieve food sufficiency

Bello meets workers. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III (left) meets the workers of Tinig ng Manggagawa sa C&F Manufacturing Philippines Corp., headed by Esmeraldo Ison, to discuss the union busting issues of the workers. Joining Bello are undersecretary for labor relations Joel Maglungsod and regional office No. 4-A director Zeny Angara.

By Julito G. Rada

BRITISH lender Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. on Tuesday upgraded its growth forecasts for the Philippines over the next two years on the Duterte administration’s plan to boost infrastructure spending.

BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas said Tuesday universal and com-mercial banks remain well capi-talized.

Bangko Sentral said in a state-ment the capital adequacy ratio—a measure of financial strength of big banks—stood at 14.91 percent on solo basis and 15.78 percent on consolidated basis in the fourth quarter of 2015.

“The latest numbers remain well above Bangko Sentral’s regu-latory threshold of 10 percent and the international minimum of 8 percent for CAR,” Bangko Sentral said.

Bangko Sentral, however, said the capital adequacy ratios in the fourth quarter were lower than 15.55 percent on solo basis and 16.40 percent on consolidated ba-sis registered in the third quarter, as risk-weighted assets grew at a faster pace than their qualifying capital amid the banks’ increased lending activities.

“The banks’ capitalization re-mains mainly composed of com-mon equity Tier 1, the highest qual-ity among instruments eligible as bank capital,” Bangko Sentral said.

The CET1 ratio represented 12.37 percent and 13.33 percent of risk-weighted assets on solo and consolidated bases in the fourth quarter. The latest CET1 ratios are more than twice the regulatory minimum of 6 percent.

The industry’s Tier 1 ratio, meanwhile, stood at 12.55 per-cent and 13.48 percent on solo and consolidated bases in the Oc-tober-December period.

The ratios for the banks’ Tier 1, which is comprised of common equity and qualified capital in-struments, remained higher than the regulatory requirement of at least 7.5 percent.

Bangko Sentral said the recent figures indicated that the banks continued to set aside adequate buffers for risk-taking activities. A robust capital position supports financial stability, which is a key policy of the BSP, it said.

There are currently 40 universal and universal banks in the country. Latest report from Bangko Sentral showed that the Philippine banking system remained strong as balance sheets were marked by a sustained growth in assets and deposits.

Julito G. Rada

By Anna Leah E. Gonzales

AGRICULTURE Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Tuesday unveiled a strategy to boost rice and corn production and achieve food sufficiency.

“ There is now a paradigm shift in many of the DA’s programs and priorities,” Piñol said.

Piñol said for rice, he designed a pro-gram called Rice Productivity Enhance-ment which would involve a thorough re-view of the country’s water management and irrigation policies.

The program aims to conduct a nation-wide soil analysis, improve rice farming

technology, introduce high-yielding rice varieties, implement effective soil rehabili-tation and fertilizer program and provide modern harvest and post-harvest facilities to minimize losses.

Piñol said the department would also focus on producing more white corn for corn-eating provinces.

“There must be a viable program to pro-duce more white corn to supply the grains requirements of the corn-eating provinces like Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Bohol, Cebu, Biliran, Leyte, Southern Leyte, the three provinces of Samar and Northern Mind-

anao,” Piñol said.He said for the livestock and poultry sec-

tors, the country should develop feed com-ponents supplies and lessen dependence on imported materials such as soya.

“For our fish and marine products suffi-ciency, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is now tasked to implement a nationwide program against illegal fishing and a three-month closed season during the spawning period of the distinct fish species in the different parts of the country,” Piñol said.

Piñol said the Agriculture Department would also intensify funding and support

for the production of high-value fish spe-cies such as lapu-lapu and maya-maya.

He said for irrigation, the agency would focus more on small and community-based irrigation projects. “There will be a shift in the irrigation mindset,” he said.

“The DA will also be introducing solar-powered irrigation facilities, especially in remote villages which are not connected to the grid to provide water not only for the rice fields but also for vegetable gardens and for drinking purposes and most of all, to provide electric power to the commu-nity,” Piñol said.

HSBC raised its 2016 growth outlook to 6.3 percent from an earlier estimate of 5.9 percent and the 2017 growth forecast to 6.3 percent from 5.8 percent.

“The fiscal plans of the incom-ing government have important implications for growth. A bud-get deficit near 3 percent [of gross domestic product] in 2017 [the first budget to be released by the incoming government, likely in end-July], will further support the Philippines’ already-robust

growth trend,” HSBC said in a re-port Tuesday.

The bank said an increase in the longer-term growth outlook would be predicated on sustained infrastructure spending.

“The short-term impact on in-vestment and employment leads us to upgrade our 2016 and 2017 GDP forecasts to 6.3 percent for both years, from 5.9 percent and 5.8 percent previously, assum-ing the [budget deficit] target is reached,” it said.

The Development Budget Co-ordination Committee raised the budget deficit ceiling in 2017 to 3 percent of GDP from less than 2 percent over the past several years under the Aquino administration.

HSBC said the 3-percent deficit would be reached by a further in-crease in infrastructure spending and tackling underspending.

It said the target would also likely be achieved through in-come and corporate tax cuts, which would be partly offset by plans for increased tax enforce-ment.

The bank said the infrastruc-ture push would also likely lead to a continued rise in imports, which would place pressure on the current account. HSBC said the current account surplus was expected to moderate to 1.3 per-cent of GDP in 2016 and 0.9 per-cent in 2017.

“Fortunately, incoming Presi-dent Duterte’s economic team is intent on sustaining the infra-structure drive, which is reassur-ing. The Philippines has made great strides in improving fiscal transparency and increasing the quality of spending,” HSBC said.

The bank, however, warned that some longer-term issues should be resolved to ensure that economic growth would be sus-tained.

It said aside from structural trade deficit, the growth of the manufacturing sector needed to pick up substantially outside of electronics, despite policy efforts to encourage other exports.

Diokno on Tuesday said the government expected the econ-omy to grow between 6 percent and 7 percent this year, slower than the previous administration’s target of 6.8 to 7.8 percent.

Republic of the PhilippinesCITY OF SAN PEDRO

Province of LagunaBIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE

(TS-JULY 6, 2016)

BIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE

INVITATION TO APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY AND TO BIDPR NO. 2016-1825

1. The City Government of San Pedro, Laguna through the 2016 Budget Approved by the Sangguniang Panglungsodintends to apply the sum of Php 2,028,497.40 being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for Supply and Delivery of Various Medicines for the Indigent Constituents of City of San Pedro, Laguna 3rd Qrt 2016. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

2.The City Government of San Pedro, Laguna now invites bids forthe following:

QTY UNIT DESCRIPTION 25 boxes Amoxicillin 500mg. Cap 100’s 10 boxes Amoxicilling 250mg Cap 100’s 288 bots Amoxicillin Suspension 250mg 30 boxes Amlodipine 5mg Tab 30 boxes Amlodipine 10mg Tab 25 boxes Ambroxol Tab 288 bots Ambroxol Syrup 25 boxes Aspirin 144 bots Ascorbic Acid Drops 288 bots Ascorbic Acid Syrup 25 boxes Ascorbic Acid Tab 500mg 100’s 20 boxes Atorvastatin 20mg Tab 25 boxes Allopurinol 300mg 144 bots Carbocisteine Drops 25 boxes Carbocisteine 500mg cap 288 bots Carbocisteine Syrup 250mg 10 boxes Clonidine 75mg Tab 10 boxes Captopril 75mg 20 boxes Cefalexin Cap 250mg 100’s 25 boxes Cefalexin Cap 500mg 100’s 144 bots Cefalexin Drops 10ml 288 bots Cefalexin Suspension 250ml 144 bots Cefalexin Suspension 125ml 78 bots Cefuroxime Suspension 125 mg 60ml 25 boxes Cefuroxime Cap 500mg 10 boxes Celecoxib 78 bots Cetrizine Syrup 20 boxes Cetrizine Cap 25 boxes CiprofloxacinTab500mg 10 boxes Cinnarizine 25mg Tab 144 bots Cloxacillin 250mg. Syrup 10 boxes Cloxacilling 250mg Cap 25 boxes Cloxacillin 500mg. Cap 10 boxes Clopidogrel 75mg Tab 25 boxes Cotrimoxazole 400mg Cap 30 bots Co-Amoxiclav 250mg syrup 25 boxes Co-Amoxiclav 625mg 6 boxes CefiximeCap 30 bots CefiximeSyrup 10 boxes Clindamycin 300mg Cap 25 boxes Cefaclor Cap 144 bots Cefaclor Syrup 20 boxes Diclofenac Tab 50mg 5 pcs Chloramphenicol 0.5% eye drops 5 pcs Tobramycin eye drops 5 pcs Dexamethasone 0.5mg eye drops 25 boxes Ferrous Sulfate Tab 25 boxes Folic Acid Tab 10 boxes Gliclazide 80mg Tab 25 boxes Glibenclamide 5mg 288 bots Guaifenesin syrup 60ml 25 boxes Losartan 50mg Tab 10 boxes Loratadine 10mg Tab 30 bots Loratadine Syrup 288 bots Mefenamic Acid Suspension 20 boxes Mefenamic Acid Cap 250mg 25 boxes Mefenamic Acid Cap 500mg. 20 boxes Meloxicam tab 50mg 25 boxes Metoprolol 50mg Tab 25 boxes Metformin 500mg 144 bots Multivitamin Drops 60ml 25 boxes Multivitamins Cap 100’s 288 bots Multivitamins Syrup 25 boxes Phenylpropanolamine Tab 25 boxes Omeprazole Cap 20mg 30’s 20 boxes ORS 144 bots Paracetamol Drops 60mg. 144 bots Paracetamol Syrup 125mg 288 bots Paracetamol Syrup 250mg 25 boxes Paracetamol tab 500mg 144 bots Phenyl+Brompheniramine Drops 288 bots Phenyl+Brompheniramine Syrup 288 bots Salbutamol + Guaifenesin Syrup 20 boxes Salbutamol Nebules 5 boxes Budesonide Nebules 5 boxes Combivent Nebules 5 boxes Salbutamol + Ipratropium Nebule 25 boxes Simvastatin 20mg Tab 4 boxes Tranexamic Acid 500mg Tab 25 boxes Salbutamol/Guafenesin Cap 144 bots Cotrimoxazole 200mg/5ml susp. 20 boxes Cotrimoxazole tab 800mg 20 boxes Cotrimoxazole tab 400mg 20 boxes Hyoscine N Butylbromide 10mg Tab 30 boxes Vitamin B12 Tab 10 bots Tobramycin eye drops 3 boxes Telmisartan 5mg 6 boxes Esomeprazole 40mg 3 boxes Sitagliptin/Metformin HCL 100mg 3 boxes Telmisartan/Amlodipine 40mg/10mg 3 boxes SG-Glutergen 5 boxes Amlodipine/Besylate 5mg 110 pcs Flunarizine 5mg Cap 2 boxes Ploglitazone 5mg Tab 2 boxes Doxoflylline200mgTab 2 boxes Spiriva 5mcg Cap 2 boxes Budosonid/Formoterol

Delivery of the Goods is required within thirty (30) days upon receipt of Notice to Proceed. Bidders should have completed, within two (2) years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail”criterionasspecifiedintheImplementingRulesandRegulations(IRR)ofRepublicAct(RA)9184,otherwise known as the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.

In addition,bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

4. Interested bidders may obtain further information from City Government of San Pedro, Laguna and inspect theBiddingDocumentsattheaddressgivenbelowduring8:30AMto9:30AMonly.

OfficeoftheBACSecretariat 4/f Conference Rm. CityAdministrator’sOffice City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders on thedate, time and address below and upon payment of a nonrefundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount of Php 5,000.00.

ISSUANCE OF ELIGIBILITY AND July 7 - 22, 2016 BIDDING DOCUMENTS: 8:30AM–9:30AM BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. CityAdministrator’sOffice City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

PRE-BID: July 8, 2016 10:00 AM BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. CityAdministrator’sOffice City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

Bidsmustbedeliveredtotheaddressbelowonorbeforethespecifieddateandtime. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.DEADLINE OF SUBMISSION OF ELIGIBILITY July 22, 2016REQUIREMENTS AND OPENING OF BIDS: 10:00 AM BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. CityAdministrator’sOffice City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

Bid opening shall be on the same date and time for deadline of submission of eligibility requirements and submissionofbidsandshallbeconductedattheOfficeoftheBACSecretariat.Bidswillbeopenedinthepresence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address given above. Late bids shall not be accepted.

6. The City Government of San Pedro, Lagunaassumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify bidders for any expenses incurred in the preparation of their bid.

Further, City Government of San Pedro, Laguna, reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

7. For further information, please refer to:

Mr. Merlin B. Paala OfficeoftheBACSecretariat San Pedro City Hall San Pedro, Laguna Telefax No. 847.1722

(sgd.) ENGR. FILEMON I. SIBULOChairmanBids and Awards Committee

(TS-JULY 6, 2016)

Republic of the PhilippinesCITY OF SAN PEDRO

Province of LagunaBIDS AND AWARDS COMMITTEE

INVITATION TO APPLY FOR ELIGIBILITY AND TO BIDPR NO. 2016-1823

1. The City Government of San Pedro, Laguna through the 2016 Budget Approved by the Sangguniang Panglungsodintends to apply the sum of Php 2,048,820.60 being the Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) to payments under the contract for Supply and Delivery of Various Medicines and Medical Supplies for JLAEH for 3rd Quarter of 2016. Bids received in excess of the ABC shall be automatically rejected at bid opening.

2. The City Government of San Pedro, Laguna now invites bids forthe following:

QTY UNIT DESCRIPTION JLAEH Medical Supplies (Central Supply Room) 50 bots Alcohol 10 gals Betadine 10 gals Hydrogen Peroxide 30 pcs Soluset 50 rolls Cotton Roll Big 10 rolls Gauze Roll Big 100 vials Sterile water for injection 100cc 50 pcs Oxygen Mask (adult) 50 pcs Oxygen Mask (pedia) 100 pcs Nebulizer kit 20 pcs Digital Thermometer 100 pcs Oxygen Cannula (adult) 100 pcs Oxygen Cannula (pedia) 10 boxes Micropore 1” 5 boxes Clean Gloves (small) 5 boxes Clean Gloves (medium) 5 boxes Clean Gloves (large) 6 boxes 1cc Syringe 3 boxes 10cc Syringe 6 boxes 3cc Syringe 6 boxes 5cc Syringe 60 pcs IV Catheter 20g 100 pcs IV Catheter 24g 100 pcs IV Catheter 22g 100 pcs IV Catheter 26g 5 pcs Arm Sling (small) 5 pcs Arm Sling (medium) 5 pcs Arm Sling (large) 2 boxes Silk 2/0 2 boxes Silk 3/0 5 boxes Chromic 2.0 5 boxes Chromic 3.0 10 pcs Elastic Bandage 5cmx4.5m 10 pcs Elastic Bandage 7.5cmx4.5m 10 pcs Elastic Bandage 10cmx4.5m 10 pcs Elastic Bandage 15cmx4.5m 10 boxes Tongue depressor (wooden) 10 boxes Face Mask 1 box Leukoplast 1/2” 15 pcs Lubricating Jelly 150g 100 pcs IV Tube SetMacro 100 pcs IV Tube Set Micro 50 pcs Heplock 10 pcs Torniquet 10 pcs Tissue forcep toothed 5 pcs Blade Holder No. 3 5 pcs Needle Holder (small) 10 pcs Iris Scissor 2 pcs Stetoscope (Littman) 5 pcs Bed Pan Stainless Steel 5 pcs Urinal Stainless Steel 10 pcs BP Bulb 10 pcs BP Bulb (adult) 10 pcs BP Cuff (child) 1 rolls Rubber Tubing 2 unit BP Apparatus Aneroid Type 2 pcs OxygenHumidifier 1 pcs Ambubag (adult) 1 pcs Ambubag (pedia) 5 boxes Disposable Needle G23 5 boxes Disposable Needle G26 5 boxes Asepto Syringe 5 boxes Sterile Gloves size 7.5 20 pcs Feeding Tube Fr. 5 20 pcs Rubber Catheter Fr. 16 20 pcs Foly Catheter Fr. 14 50 pcs Foly Catheter Fr. 16 5 pcs Foly Catheter Fr. 18 30 pcs Suction Catheter Fr. 15 30 pcs Suction Catheter Fr. 16 30 pcs Suction Tube/Extension Tube 5 pcs Surgical Blade #10 5 pcs Surgical Blade #11 5 pcs Surgical Blade #15 5 pcs Surgical Blade #20 20 pcs Yankeur Suction Tip 2 bots Cidex 50 pcs N95FaceMask 12 bots Hand Soap 12 bots Sanitizer (bactigel) 100 pcs Lidocaine 50ml 2 pcs Fetal Doppler 2 pcs Otoscope 20 pcs BP Latex Bag (adult) 15 pcs BP Coil Tube 6 pcs Scrub Suit for Doctor (large) 6 pcs Scrub Suit for Doctor (medium) 10 yards Cacha for instrument wrapper 6 pcs OR Slipper (any color not white) small 6 pcs OR Slipper (any color not white) medium 6 pcs OR Slipper (any color not white) large for Delivery Room 100 amps Methylergonorvine Maleate 100 amps Oxytocin 50 amps Vit K 100 pcs IV Tube Set Adult 30 pcs Safety Razor 50 pcs Underpad 2 boxes Headcaps 50 pcs IV Catheter - gauge 20 50 pcs IV Catheter - gauge 22 100 packs Sanitex Maternity Pad 5 boxes Chromic 2.0 50 pcs IV Catheter - gauge 24 50 pcs IV Catheter - gauge 26 for Central Supply Room 50 amps Epinephrine 1ml/amp 50 vials Hydrocortisone 250mg/vial 50 vials Hydrocortisone 100mg/vial 20 amps Dopamine 200g 50 amps Diphenhydramine 50mg 50 amps Ketorolac 50 amps Tramadol amp 50mg 50 amps Paracetamol amp 300mg 10 boxes Salbutamol 2mg (nebules) 30 vials Ephedrine SO4 30 amps Digoxin 0.5mg

30 amps Diazepam 10mg/2ml 20 pcs Diclofenac NA 30 amps Furosemide 30 amps Hydralazine 10 amps Haloperidol 50mg 30 amps Tranexamic acid 10 amps Dexamethasone 50 amps Ranitidine 10 tubes Silver Sulfadiazine 3 boxes Clonidine 75mcg 10 boxes Bromide Salbutamol+Ipratropiem 2 boxes Amiodarone 150mg 2 boxes Paracetamol Tab 500mg 10 pcs Erythromycin Eye Ointment 10 amps Dobutamine 250mg 50 amps Hyoscine 20mg 30 amps Methylergonorvine Maleate 30 amps Oxytocin 10 vials Sodium Bicarbonate 50 amps Atropine Sulfate 30 amps Aminophylline 30 amps Norepinephrine 10 amps Terbutaline Bricanyl 10 amps Citicoline 30 vials Cefuroxime 750mg 30 vials Ceftriaxone 1g 30 vials Omeprazole 40mg 30 vials Pantoprazole 40mg 30 vials Cefutaxime 1g 50 vials Ciprofloxacin1g IV FLUIDS 42 boxes D5LR 1L 10 boxes D50.3% NaCl 500cc 15 boxes D50.3% NaCl 1L 20 boxes D5LR 500cc 10 boxes D5NSS 1L 42 boxes PNSS 1L 10 boxes D5NM 1L 10 boxes D5 IMB 1L 10 boxes D5 IMB 500cc 15 boxes Plain LR 1L 15 boxes Plain LR 500cc 15 boxes 0.9SodiumChlorideforIrrigationforDeliveryRoom 25 boxes D5LR 1L 25 boxes PNSS 1L 15 boxes D5 LR 500cc 15 boxes 0.9SodiumChlorideforIrrigation1L DENTAL SUPPLIES 16 boxes Lidocaine 50ml 13 boxes Gloves 10 bots Alcohol 1 gal Cidex 3 rolls Cotton (big) 10 pcs Tissue roll 2 reams Bond Paper (long) 2 reams Bond Paper (short) 2 pcs Record Book (300 pages)

Delivery of the Goods is required within thirty (30) days upon receipt of Notice to Proceed. Bidders should have completed, within two (2) years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the Project. The description of an eligible bidder is contained in the Bidding Documents, particularly, in Section II. Instructions to Bidders.

3. Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a non-discretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the Implementing Rules andRegulations(IRR)ofRepublicAct(RA)9184,otherwiseknownasthe“GovernmentProcurement Reform Act”.

In addition,bidding is restricted to Filipino citizens/sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least sixty percent (60%) interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to citizens of the Philippines, and to citizens or organizations of a country the laws or regulations of which grant similar rights or privileges to Filipino citizens, pursuant to RA 5183 and subject to Commonwealth Act 138.

4. Interested bidders may obtain further information from City Government of San Pedro, Laguna and inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below during 8:30AMto9:30AMonly.

OfficeoftheBACSecretariat 4/f Conference Rm. CityAdministrator’sOffice City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna A complete set of Bidding Documents may be purchased by interested Bidders on

thedate, time and address below and upon payment of a nonrefundable fee for the Bidding Documents in the amount of Php 5,000.00.

ISSUANCE OF ELIGIBILITY AND July 7 - 22, 2016 BIDDING DOCUMENTS: 8:30AM–9:30AM BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. CityAdministrator’sOffice City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

PRE-BID: July 8, 2016 10:00 AM BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. CityAdministrator’sOffice City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna

5. Bidsmustbedeliveredtotheaddressbelowonorbeforethespecifieddateandtime. All Bids must be accompanied by a bid security in any of the acceptable forms and in the amount stated in ITB Clause 18.

DEADLINE OF SUBMISSION OF July 22, 2016 ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS 10:00 AM AND OPENING OF BIDS: BAC Secretariat 4/f Conference Rm. CityAdministrator’sOffice City Hall Bldg., San Pedro, Laguna Bid opening shall be on the same date and time for deadline of submission of eligibility

requirementsandsubmissionofbidsandshallbeconductedattheOfficeoftheBACSecretariat. Bids will be opened in the presence of the Bidders’ representatives who choose to attend at the address given above. Late bids shall not be accepted.

The City Government of San Pedro, Lagunaassumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify bidders for any expenses incurred in the preparation of their bid.

Further, City Government of San Pedro, Laguna, reserves the right to accept or reject any bid, to annul the bidding process, and to reject all bids at any time prior to contract award, without thereby incurring any liability to the affected bidder or bidders.

For further information, please refer to:

Mr. Merlin B. Paala OfficeoftheBACSecretariat San Pedro City Hall San Pedro, Laguna Telefax No. 847.1722

(sgd.) ENGR. FILEMON I. SIBULOChairmanBids and Awards Committee

B7CESAR BARRIOQUINTOE D I T O R

[email protected]

W E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

WORLD

Jailed for torturingtoddler to death

3 suicide bombings strikeSaudi, including holy site

District Judge Bala Reddy cited the “ruth-less and unrelenting” violence in the case and the couple’s lack of re-morse before handing down an 11-year term for 41-year-old mother Zaidah, who goes by one name.

Her boyfriend, Zaini Jamari, 46, was jailed for 10 years and sentenced to 12 lashes of the cane.

� e court heard how over a � ve-week period last year, the couple punished the boy by making him stand for hours wearing only a

SINGAPORE—A Singaporean moth-er who tortured her two-year-old son to death for not eating his breakfast and disobeying her was jailed along with her boyfriend on Tuesday for what the court described as the cou-ple’s “senseless brutality”.

nappy, kicking and slap-ping him whenever he got tired.

“For more than a month, the two of you in a ruthless and un-relenting manner in-� icted severe torture on your two-year-old child who was unable to retaliate or defend him-self,” Reddy said.

� e worst of the abuse happened on November 22 when the couple hit and kicked the boy a� er he refused to eat breakfast, stomp-ing on his chest and force-feeding him dried chili pepper.

� e same punish-

ment was repeated that evening before the boy went to bed, where he was found dead the next morning.

An autopsy showed the boy had 41 exter-nal injuries, including bruises on his chest and legs, and a large welt on his forehead.

Zaidah claimed the boy fell in the toilet and hit his head.

� e couple faced a combined total of 32 charges including caus-ing grievous hurt and physical abuse of the child, who died a month short of his third birth-day. AFP

W E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

B8 CESAR BARRIOQUINTOE D I T O R

[email protected]

Abbas Kiarostami, giant of Iran cinema, dies in France at 76

China floodsleave over100 deador missing

WORLD

Concert. Classical crossover star Jackie Evancho performs at A Capitol Fourth concert at the US Capitol West Lawn on July 4, 2016, in Washington, DC. AFP

Day 2. Music fans attend day 2 of the 2015 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival (Weekend 2) at The Empire Polo Club on April 18 in Indio, California. AFP

Heading headingheadingheading

3 suicide bombings strikeSaudi, including holy site

BEIJING—Flooding in China’s Yangtze river basin has left 112 people dead or missing in recent days, media said Tuesday, with more damage feared from a ty-phoon expected to land within days.

Some 16 million people have been affected by heavy rain that has left vast areas under water near the Yangtze, China’s longest river, the Beijing News cited the civil af-fairs ministry as saying.

Water levels in Taihu Lake, close to Shanghai, are at their highest level since 1954, it said, adding the area faced a “serious” risk of flooding if a typhoon hit nearby on Friday.

Pictures of a farmer in eastern China breaking down in tears as waters mounted around his 6,000 pigs were posted by state media.

Other images showed a sports stadium in the central province of Hubei turned into a “giant bath-tub” by the rainfall.

Flooding is common during the summer monsoon season in southern China, but rainfall has been particularly heavy this year and many areas have been lashed by torrential rains this week.

Rain is expected to move north this week towards the Huai river, the Beijing News added.

China’s Vice Premier Wang Yang warned last month that a strong El Niño effect this year would increase the risk of floods in the Yangtze and Huai river ba-sins.

An El Niño effect was linked to China’s worst floods of recent years when more than 4,000 people died in 1998, mostly around the Yangtze.

The paper quoted a meteorolo-gist as saying that rain patterns this year were more disparate than in 1998, diminishing the risk of a similar toll.

China’s national observatory is-sued an orange alert for storms across the country’s south and east last week -- the second highest warning in a four-tiered system.

Whole villages were leveled and at least 98 killed in the eastern province of Jiangsu last month af-ter the region was hit by a storm with hurricane-force winds and the worst tornado in half a cen-tury.

Floods have also hit South Asia this week, with 33 killed in Pakistan and 25 left dead in India after unusually heavy rains. AFP

RIYADH—Three suicide bombings struck Saudi Arabia in a single day, including a shocking attack at Islam’s second holiest site, the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, where four secu-rity guards were killed.

Monday’s attacks on Islam’s spiritual home came as Muslims prepared for the feast this week mark-ing the end of the holy fasting month Ramadan.

There were no claims of responsibility, but the Islamic State group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during the holy month and has claimed or been blamed for a wave of Ramadan shootings and bombings including in Orlando, Bangladesh, Istanbul and Baghdad.

The suicide bombing in Medina came during sunset prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque—where Islam’s Prophet Mohammed is buried and which attracts millions of pilgrims each year.

The Saudi interior ministry said in a state-ment that security forces became suspicious of a man who was heading for the Prophet’s Mosque through a parking lot.

“As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death and the death of four security personnel,” the statement said, adding that five others were injured.

The targeting of Medina caused widespread outrage.

Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, condemned the attacks and stressed “the sanctity of the houses of God, especially the Prophet’s Mosque.”

Saudi Arabia’s supreme council of clerics said the attacks “prove that those renegades... have vio-lated everything that is sacred.”

The head of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council, the kingdom’s main advisory body, said the attack was “unprecedented”.

“This crime, which causes goosebumps, could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart,” Abdullah al-Sheikh said.

Iran, the main Shiite power, also condemned the bombings and called for Muslim unity against extremists.

“There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

At the same time as the Medina attack, across the country in the Shiite-populated Gulf city of Qatif another suicide bombing took place near a Shiite mosque, residents and the interior ministry said.

The ministry said “the body parts of three peo-ple were found” at the site but had not yet been identified. AFP

TEHRAN—Tributes poured in on Tuesday for Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, acclaimed as a “towering figure” in world cinema, following his death in France at the age of 76.

Kiarostami, who won the cov-eted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for “Taste of Cherry”, emerged from the Iranian New Wave of the late 1960s to be-come one of the world’s most re-

vered directors.Hollywood legend Martin

Scorsese praised his “extraordinary body of work”.

“He was a true gentleman, and, truly, one of our great art-ists,” Scorsese told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kiarostami’s poetic parables of ordinary lives won him inter-national acclaim, with French director Jean-Luc Godard once

declaring that “film begins with D.W. Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami.”

News of his death broke late on Monday, with Iranian media report-ing that he died from a blood clot in the brain following months of treat-ment for intestinal problems.

The ISNA news agency said he had returned to Iran from his home in Paris to undergo several opera-tions between February and April,

before traveling back to France last week for further treatment.

“Kiarostami’s different and deep outlook on life, and his invitation to peace and friendship, will be an everlasting achievement,” tweeted President Hassan Rouhani.

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif added: “Iran has lost a towering figure in international cinema”.

Just last week, Kiarostami had been invited to join the Academy in

Hollywood as part of its efforts to in-crease the diversity of its Oscar judges.

“He wasn’t just a filmmaker. He was a modern mystic, both in his cinema and his private life,” Asghar Farhadi, another of Iran’s renowned directors, told Britain’s The Guardian.

Iranian cinemas were due to pause showings on Tuesday eve-ning for a prayer in Kiarostami’s memory, ISNA reported. AFP

C1W E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

LIFE

ISAH V. REDE D I T O R

BING PARELA S S O C I AT E E D I T O R

BERNADETTE LUNASW R I T E R

FAS HION & BE AU T Y

i s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m

With over three decades under her belt as one of the country’s first supermodels, the ageless and effortlessly beautiful Tweetie

De Leon continues to reshape the industry with her influence today.

The style icon proudly embraces her new role as Debenhams’ newest brand believer.

For decades, Debenhams has helped style the ordinary individual in extraordinary ways with its wide and varied selections. It stands out as one of the premier brands for go-to everyday fashion. From chic casuals to trendy dresses and even formalwear, Debenhams gives every customer the opportunity to look stylishly on-pointe.

“Debenhams has everything you’re looking for. They run the gamut of all types of fashion and so they’re able to address all your needs,” the style and beauty icon shares. “Debenhams remains to be a favorite because it is very wearable, it’s classic. It caters to everyone – from men, women and children.”

“Shopping is also made easier for mothers like me, because Debenhams doesn’t just carry pieces for me, but the rest of the family as well.” For whatever need or lifestyle, Debenhams helps you to dress up for the occasion.

Like Tweetie, Debenhams has remained a stalwart in the fashion industry because it has remained true to itself, even though it has evolved and paved new paths over the years.

“There are so many brands that have come and gone, but there’s a reason why Debenhams has been able to stick it out. They understand the likes, wants and needs of their consumer,” shares Tweetie. For a global brand, this is easier said than done as the modern shopper is very complex and ever changing. As consumers evolve, priorities shift, their wants change, and their lifestyles become more demanding.

But Debenhams has been able to keep up with the challenges as a retail giant. “For Debenhams, it’s not just about selling, it is about being able to service their customer. It’s building loyalty and belief in the brand among customers. They understand what each person wants,” Tweetie ends. Your styles and their retail expertise - it’s a match made in Debenhams.

Rustan Specialty Concepts, Inc. (RSCI) is the official franchise holder of Debenhams in the Philippines.

Debenhams is located at Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Glorietta 4–Rustan’s Makati, TriNoma, Estancia Mall in Capitol Commons and Abreeza Mall in Davao.

TWEETIE DE LEONIN LOVE WITH

DEBENHAMS

‘Debenhams has everything you’re looking for. They run the gamut of

all types of fashion and so they’re able to address all your

needs’ – Tweetie de Leon, model and

brand believer

Tweetie De Leon-Gonzalez looks stylishly on-point as she proudly embraces her

new role as Debenhams’ newest brand believer.

British retailer Debenhams offers a wide range of clothing options for women – from chic casuals to trendy dresses to stylish formal wear

C2W E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6

LIFEi s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m

Lighten’ upTo help Filipinos coveting fair and radiant skin, the

makers of Kojiesan Skin Lightening Soap launches a complete range of lightening products that harnesses the power of Kojic Acid.

Filipino company Beauty Elements Ventures, Inc. (BEVI) introduces its formulation of Kojic Acid—a powerful and all-natural combination of Kojic Acid extracted as a by-product of Japanese rice wine fermentation and high-grade virgin coconut oil—in its three new Kojiesan products.

Kojiesan Cleanser + Toner, which is made with ginseng extract and rosehip oil, revives tired skin by ridding it of excessive oils and repairing skin damage. The natural extracts and high-grade Kojic Acid in Kojiesan Lightening Cream, meanwhile, lightens, nourishes and restores skin’s suppleness for a healthy, rosy look. Finally, Kojiesan Body Lightening Lotion is armed with advanced formula of Kojic Acid, rosehip oil, collagen and vitamin E that whitens skin and promotes youthfulness and skin health.

The Kojiesan products are available in beauty stores, drugstores and s u p e r m ar k e t s nationwide.

Silky straight secretOne indication of a great hair day is having silky straight

locks pleasurable to stroke from roots to tips. To give more women the power to be comfortable with how she looks, Palmolive rolled out its new and improved conditioner.

Palmolive Naturals Silky Straight Conditioner range sports a fresh new look with the same formula that’s infused with micro-moisturizers that penetrate deep into hair making it eight times straighter when used with Palmolive’s

shampoo products. Palmolive’s new

cream conditioners are available in beauty stores, drugstores and s u p e r m a r k e t s nationwide.

Multitasking sunscreensPutting on sunscreen religiously is one of the most

important components of skin care, yet many still skip this step because of the additional time and effort required to do it. This is the situation where products that do more than UV protection come in handy.

Japanese brand Bioré UV offers water-based multitasking sunscreen—each has its own specialty. Bioré Aqua Rich Watery Essence has a weightless and transparent finish that makes for a perfect base for makeup. Bioré Aqua Rich BB Essence, on the other hand, gives a 3D brightening effect that works well as primer for facial contouring.

Bioré Sara Sara Perfect Bright Face Milk gives users a light pink gleam that brightens dull skin while offering oil and shine control. The water-based formula of Bioré Sara Sara Perfect Milk, meanwhile, offers long-lasting protection sans the sticky feel. Lastly, Bioré Aqua Rich Whitening Essence whitens skin even if the wearer is under the sun.

Bioré UV is available online at www.beautymnl.com and in beauty stores, drugstores and

supermarkets nationwide.

Power in a crystalDirect-selling company Avon harnesses the power of the

mild and natural tawas in its new deodorant line. Aluminum Potassium Sulfate or tawas is a widely-trusted

Filipino favorite because of its deodorizing properties and whitening power. It is gentle and it is reliable, but is often difficult to use. Avon Feelin Fresh with Crystal Tawas makes it more convenient to use this home remedy through its two products that combine Whitening Crystal Complex to make underarm skin look whiter and 24-hour Dry Pore Protection to help stop sweat and odor.

Feelin Fresh with Crystal Tawas Quelch Anti-Perspirant Deodorant Cream promises complete underarm protection and whiter skin in one week, while

Feelin Fresh with Crystal Tawas Anti-Perspirant Roll-on Deodorant features a quick-drying and non-sticky formula that makes skin look and smell clean.

These tawas-powered deodorants are available online at

www.avonshop.com.ph or via Avon Representatives.

B E A U T Y C O R N E R

Gearing up to its grand 30th anniversary in 2017, the Professional Models Association of the Philippines

(PMAP) launched its “the next go-see for” Modèle Philippines a reality search for the “New Model of Influence!”

Aspiring female and male models as young as 12 years old tried their luck for a chance to win a modeling contract and become a member of PMAP during the open casting held Saturday at F1 Hotel Manila, Bonifacio, Global City.

The applicants went through a two-step screening process.

They were judged in groups (for comparative judging) on body, face and Modèle Look, and a one-on-one, three-minute panel interview.

Girls were at least 5’8” tall and at least 5’11” for the boys. Fashion designer and beauty expert Renee Salud led the judge’s table with, PMAP past president Angel Agustin-Co and officers Hye Won Jang, Natasha Bautista, Jairus Ferrer, Raffa Kiefer, Patty Betita, and Angel Agustin.

For almost three decades, PMAP, a non-profit organization managed by the member-models themselves, has continued to work to uplift, protect

and professionalize the modeling industry in the Philippines, and to develop and stabilize, national and international awareness, participation, involvement and competition in the field of modeling.

PMAP has proven to be a major force in the development and success of the local fashion industry. PMAPs has discovered international models the likes of Tweetie de Leon-Gonzales, Apples Aberin, Marina Benipayo, Rissa Mananquil-Trillo, Lala Flores-Magpantay, Izza Gonzales-Agana, Lou Bunyi-Pareja, Malou Gonzalez-Hafner, Ornussa Cadness, Patricia dela Cruz, Lucia Santiago, Tina Maristela-Ocampo and Rissa Samson.

PMAP has remained an association for glamour, beauty and fashion, stronger in its goal to improve the overall image of models—to be more than just pretty faces, working for unity among models and serving as training ground for the models’ progress and success. PMAP has earned a reputation for instilling the virtues of patience, discipline and professionalism to its members. Despite the many challenges faced by the PMAP through the years, it has managed to survive, firmly united to fight those who sought to undermine the rights of its members. – Eton B. Concepcion

We’re going nude… on our lips, that is.

When sultry, smoky eyes or luscious, long lashes are the main focus of a woman’s makeup, nude-hued lips were originally worn to downplay a beauty look. But today, nudes have evolved into becoming a style staple and statement perfect for that clean and sexy everyday look.

From the power lip franchise, Color Sensational, that brought us the hottest-selling Creamy Matte and the most vivacious lip colors with Vivid Matte – the World’s No. 1 Makeup Brand, Maybelline New York, unveils a universally flattering rosy nude lip collection for the Filipina skin tone with Rosy Matte.

“Most Filipinas shy away from nude lipsticks because they believe nudes, more often than not, don’t match against

the Filipina skin.” shares Kat Diaz, Product Manager of Maybelline New York. “Maybelline New York, being the World’s No. 1 makeup brand that offers Filipinas the trendiest lipsticks, understands this specific need of Filipinas and with this, we proudly launch Rosy Mattes in the

Philippines. Never look dull, never look washed out with our five sensational Rosy Matte shades!”

Maybelline New York’s ever-popular lip franchise, Color Sensational, has always delivered the best of lipsticks with amazing colors, finishing it with superior formula – and Rosy Matte is no exception to this. Get fully sensational lips with Rosy Matte’s high pigmentation, lasting power, hydrating, and light-weight features in just one swipe. With five lustful and obsession-worthy shades

PMAP LAUNCHES REALITY SEARCH MODÈLE PHILIPPINES

The panel of judges screens the applicants for Professional Models Association of the Philippines' Modéle Philippines

Dare to Go Nude

to choose from: Natural Beige, Soft Pink, Rosy Peach, Apricot Beige, and Salmon Pink – get the right shade for your skin tone and get ready to embrace the nude lip trend you’ve always wanted to try!

With Color Sensational Rosy Matte by Maybelline New York, dare to go nude for only P299. Products are available at all Maybelline counters nationwide.

Maybelline New York's Rosy Matte lipstick range

Male models vie for a modeling contract and membership with PMAP

C3LIFEW E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6


Almost 1,000 fashion people witnessed the birth of a design revolution as new-

old brand, Doggficher, was launched in “Ekorbuohlis: Broken Silhouettes,” June 22, at Whitespace Manila.

“Thank you so much for allowing me to interrupt your lives to witness the re-birth of my Doggficher Empire. I hope I moved you in any way possible,” said fashion visionary Giovanni “Manu” Respall.

DLSU student and blogger Trisha Duncan joined the fashion show. Also, VIPs Director Gorio Vicuna and wife Peejay, Fides Cuyugan, John Herrera, Marita Zobel, Jane de Leon of Star Magic, members of the Makati Tourism Board, Bloggers United, Megaworld, Etonline Manila and people from Craig Lines (BAFTA Director) joined the 976 people who came to see a “broken night of fashionable and design revolution” which, according to Respall, did not

feature a collection, but a birth of a new kind of face and nature of fashion in the Philippines.

In his own words, “ (it is) a burst of madness and a measure of my range in style.”

The show intertwined with theatrical and narrative treatments to push the boundaries of what fashion Respall believes truly is.

The Doggficher brand was actually established in 1994 by Respall, a costume, graphic and interior designer, script and

playwright, singer, model, creative consultant, comic and book illustrator. Since then, Doggficher has been in fashion shows, magazines and TV shows. But the brand remained on the side as Respall pursued a showbiz career and until Doggficher reached the catwalk of the Philippine Fashion Week and noticed by big names in the industry. Three more features in collaboration with other designers, Respall decided to give birth to “an empire” he said was long overdue.

“I want to let the world know of my madness and let me show how beautiful it is to freely live, love and create for the people of this club called Earth. I challenge them to join me in this battle to prove we Filipinos are indeed world class. I dare everyone to upset the nature of design in this country,” ends Respall, who is also a theatre actor, host, TV commercial model, dancer, choreographer, director, voice talent, and lighting and production designer.

HUNDREDS WITNESS DESIGN REVOLUTIONBY ROBBIE PANGILINAN

What to wear on rainy days

Giovanni 'Manu' Respall's Doggficher label celebrates a new kind of face and nature of fashion in the PhilippinesVeteran actress Marita Zobel (left) joins the Doggficher fashion show

The wet season is upon us again, and this means having to adjust your daily wardrobe. While it’s no brainer to wear thicker and water-repellent clothes, some forget how important it is to wear the right shoes and opt to put on bulky rain boots when they think footwear choices are limited.

When the road is slippery and the terrain is muddy, wearing the right footwear is necessary to get you smoothly from point A to point B. Walk safely and brave the elements with this season’s shoe must-haves suitable for different kinds of rainy situations.

SandalsChoose the durable type that

allows your feet dry fast while keeping them in place on wet ground.

Try: Skechers GOwalk 3 Sandals which come in strappy and flip-flop designs for men and women. The sandals feature Skechers’ Goga Mat Technology that cushions feet for all-day comfort.

Quick-drying shoesWhen your shoes get wet,

it’s best to have a pair that dries

Wash and wear. Keds Chillax shoes are made of washable, lightweight materials that make them easy to clean multiple times

immediately, which will happen if it is made of breathable materials.

Try: Paul Sperry Flex Deck CVO Sneaker is designed with lightweight and breathable quick-dry mesh upper for incredible comfort. Its Molded Hydro Grip rubber outsole with Adaptive Wave-Siping disperses water underfoot to reduce slippage on wet or dry surfaces. Or go for Merrell Capra Rapid, which has highly ventilated hydro-hiker with drainage channels for water evacuation. It also features M Select Wet Grip and Capra hoof-inspired siped

sole made for wet, slick and unpredictable terrain.

Jelly flatsThis type of shoes will keep feet

dry in light rain and add a burst of sunshine to your outfit.

Try: Keds Teacup which comes with a removable footbed for the ultimate comfort and practicality, and a pretty jelly upper that lets you wipe off water easily.

Washable sneakersLook for shoes that are made to be

washed multiple times so there’s no need to feel bad when they get dirty.

Try: Keds Chillax that has relaxed washed twill upper, a comfy removable insole, a lace-less snug fit and a super flexible rubber outsole that makes it easy to walk with or to stash inside your bag.

Slip-proof kicksWhether you’re going off-trail

or treading the road to work in the rainy season, it’s vital to wear shoes that guarantee you won’t slip.

Try: Saucony Excursion TR9 which has a trail-specific outsole that provides excellent

protection and traction on rough or muddy terrain.

Water-resistant lace-upsScaling a mountain or grabbing

a cup of coffee across the street while raining? Either way, it’s best to wear shoes that work for both wet and dry environments and uneven terrain.

Try: Merrell Capra Bolt (for women) and Capra Bolt Gore-Tex (for men) are designed for adrenaline-packed adventures. The shoe’s UniFly midsole offers stability, agility and more efficient stride on trails.

Paul Sperry Flex Deck CVO Skechers GOwalk Sandals Keds Teacup Merrell Capra Bolt Saucony Excursion TR9

C4 LIFEW E D N E S D AY : J U LY 6 , 2 0 1 6


With the arrival of the new BMW i3 version with significantly increased battery capacity, the BMW Group demonstrates yet again how highest demands in quality and design on the one hand and sustainability on the other can complement each other to optimum effect. This understanding of premium, which is strongly defined by sustainability, is also a hallmark of the new BMW i Collection. High-fashion outfits featuring an innovative mix of materials and chic designs as well as intricately crafted leather goods and accessories all take a unique route to blending a sense of responsibility with premium quality.

Sustainability meets high fashionBesides a variety of several styles

for a sporting look, such as the Men’s and Women’s Sweatshirt Jackets made from organic cotton, the new BMW i Collection, also for the first time, includes luxury high-fashion clothing, whose innovative material combinations and cuts guarantee effortlessly stylish looks.

The BMW i Top can be easily combined with different looks thanks to adjustable asymmetrical zips on the sides and a relaxed cut. The beautifully flowing material that produces a silky, elegant appearance is made of cupro and lyocell. These regenerated fibres are produced from natural renewable raw materials by means of chemical processes.

The same mix of cutting-edge textiles has been used for one of the highlights of the collection – the BMW i Jumpsuit. Serving a look that is sporty yet also has an air of timeless elegance, the Carbon Grey jumpsuit will always create a remarkable impression. In addition to being made from a soft material with a slight sheen, the jumpsuit also offers an ingeniously practical styling concept: The concealed

waistline zip allows the one-piece outfit to be quickly split into a jacket and a pair of trousers – allowing additional styling possibilities, thereby further reinforcing its sustainability credentials.

The BMW i Cardigan is also far more than its name suggests: the cascade lapel collar with its asymmetric cut and the carefully hemmed blue border seam on the inside turn the cardigan into a stylish alternative to a classical blazer, with a casual elegance.

Ideal for cooler weather, the BMW i Jacket makes

a clear statement of premium sustainability. Smooth and coarse fabric, produced from organic cotton, and recycled polyester are effortlessly combined into a sophisticated design. The lining of both the fitted women’s version and the men’s short jacket features fine color accents of bright Electric Blue

for the piped band.

‘Carry-on’ sustainabilityThe BMW i Collection

further comprises a series of luxurious luggage items, whose design and manufacture follow a sustainable approach. The fine nappa leather used for the new BMW i Weekend Bag, for instance, undergoes a high-quality tanning process – in line with the latest sustainability standards – at a tannery in Germany that specializes in sustainable production. These items of luggage are subsequently

DENIM DISCUSSIONSA pair of denim jeans can take a

person to different places. This fashion staple is versatile enough to be paired with basic t-shirt for

a casual day of meeting friends or running errands, or with basic crisp button down and blazer for more formal events.

With such versatility and ability to transcend seasons and trends, it certainly doesn’t hurt to own denim trousers in various cuts and styles. Here are some choices that feature different functionalities but offer the same classic style.

Bobson’s Coolmax DenimJapanese denim brand Bobson combines

minimalist style with breathable fabric in its new Kuuru Makkusu Coolmax Denim.

The Coolmax Denim is an innovative jeans made of breathable fabric and features quick-dry technology that gets rids of that icky, sweaty feeling that usually happens when wearing full-length pants during warmer days.

Each piece in the collection features a classic cut that makes it easy to be paired with anything, and the universally flattering shade of blue that makes it a great match for basically any outfit.

Bobson’s Coolmax Denim is available for both men and women. The pants are now available in leading department stores nationwide.

Freego’s Hyperflex JeansTight and constricting pants will be

a thing in the past, thanks to Freego’s Hyperflex Jeans for men. The new line of denim pants is made of a special material that performs ‘reflex,’ whipping the jeans back into its original shape after wear.

Hyperflex Jeans boasts of super elasticity with 98 percent fabric recovery. The pants are also lightweight, making them comfortable to wear.

The collection is composed of slim straight cut jeans in three shades: Hyper Clean is a dark shade, Hyper Wave is a medium shade, and Hyper Sand is a light shade—these color choices make it easier to pick a pants to wear for work, play or other special occasions.

Freego’s Hyperflex Jeans is available in all leading department stores nationwide.

SM Men’s Denim CollectionThe men’s department of The SM

Store offers a lineup of basic denim pieces that exudes simplicity and style with hints of on-trend details.

The collection is not limited to denim pants in classic blue hue, in fact, a part of the collection features the masculine shades of saddle brown and olive. The denim hue also veers from vibrant blue and is instead on the more subdued side of almost-gray sheen. Pieces in solid grays are also present to complete the neutral tone of the lineup.

Denim jackets come with gray cotton hood, button downs feature a faux-distressed quality, and crewneck raglans come in dark colors with marbled buttons.

SM Men’s Denim collection is now available at all The SM Store in SM Malls nationwide.

BMW raises the bar in the lifestyle segment

with high-fashion clothing and premium

accessories

Innovative luxury

Hideo Muraoka wears SM Men's latest Denim collection that marries simple style and on-trend details

BMW launches BMW i Collection that is composed of high-fashion apparel that feature innovative and sustainable materials

handcrafted by master craftsmen at an Italian leather atelier.

Apart from exclusive materials and precision workmanship, the Weekend Bag in Carbon Grey with hand-painted seam edges in Electric Blue comes with several practical features, e.g. an integrated organizer pocket for pens, mobile phones and other small items, or a leather-trimmed inner zip pocket. If you just require enough space to store a laptop, but also wish for a unique aesthetic, look no further than the matching BMW i Leather Bagmade of finest nappa leather.

The BMW i Backpack and BMW i Bag are made from recycled PET and sustainably produced leather and have a more functional design that makes them ideal for daily use. Whereas the BMW i Bag can be used

as either a tote bag or a shoulder bag, the Rucksack easily converts into a holdall with handy inner compartments offering plenty of storage space. Its quilted back section takes its cues from the design of the BMW i3 seats.

Sustainability for the next generationEven the younger ones can discover

the fun of sustainability with BMW i, thanks to the BMW i Interactive Kids’ T-Shirt. The organic cotton T-shirt comes with a set of textile pens – so it can be given an individual color scheme – plus small cardboard cut-outs of the BMW i3 and BMW i8 to play with.

The above and other products from the BMW i Collection are now available at shop.bmw.com, as well as in selected BMW dealers.

C5ISAH V. REDE D I T O RSHOWBITZ

WEDNES DAY : J ULY 6, 2016


The South East Asian Migrant In-spired (SEAMi) and Association of South East Asia Art, Cultural Edu-cation and Innovation Research in

Taiwan recently invited award-winning Filipino filmmaker and UNESCO Laureate artist Richard Soriano Legaspi to screen his films in Taoyuan City, Northern Taiwan as part of a series of weeklong cultural ex-change events in different venues.

Legaspi, the first Filipino artist to be fea-tured in the event, accepted the invitation to share his films including Pipo, which stars Lou Veloso, Chanel “Boom” Latorre, and Maliksi Morales.

Pipo tells the story of a young boy who dreams to have his family picture taken. It is the second installment from Legaspi’s Collective Memoirs short film trilogy. The film was made through a production grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts with support funding from Università delle Idee (UNIDEE) in Italy.

Pipo was shown at the Taoyuan Arts Cinema, a multi- functional community cultural hub that offers art exhibitions and cultural activities for local and foreign art-ists, on June 3. According to SEAMi art manager Winona Wang, the Taiwanese and migrant audiences loved Pipo as part of the panorama screening last year so the group decided to invite it for a second time for its relatively inspiring theme about fam-ily. It is part of a retrospective of Monsoon Asia x SeeMe Mobile Film Festival 2016.

Legaspi’s full-length documentary Ang Walang Kapagurang Paglalakbay ng Pu-lang Maleta (The Untiring Journey of the Red Suitcase), co-produced by GMA News TV - CineTotoo and UNIDEE with Red Room Media Productions, was also shown at the SEAMi library in Taoyuan on June 4. Among the audience were local labor rights lawyers, activists, cultural activators, film-makers and university professors. The di-rector warmly shared his experiences and journey in shooting the film in Biella, Italy.

The Taoyuan city government also in-vited Legaspi to be one of the speakers at the film colloquium “Wind from the South Film Festival” at the MaTsu New Village, Zhongli District on June 5. Other filmmak-ers invited were Kek Huart Lau of Malay-sia and Susan Chen of Taiwan. The forum sought to examine the social narratives of Asia. Chen Yijun and SEAmi founder ZhouXi Lin were the moderators.

Since Legaspi was continuously documenting different migration sto-

FILIPINO FILMMAKER IN TAIWAN

At a time when our nation braces for a fresh start with its new set of leaders, com-poser and music teacher Ryan Cayabyab and the country’s seasoned artists rouse nationalistic fervor through inspiring and heart-rending songs in Para sa Bayan: A Ryan Ryan Musikahan.

Guest performers for the much-antic-ipated original Jeepney TV special were

John Arcilla, acclaimed lead star of Hen-eral Luna and an accomplished stage actor, power-belter Bituin Escalante, rising diva Morisette Amon, and young singing sen-sation Darren Espanto.

Joining them were former band front man and now solo artist Ebe Dancel, mas-ter guitarist LJ Manzano Te, the Ryan Cayabyan Singers, and actor-poet Juan

Miguel Severo who created an original spoken word work performed alongside Cayabyab just for this special.

The special is the fourth in a series of revival specials of Ryan Ryan Musi-kahan, one of Philippine TV’s most awarded and most revered programs. It will be under the helm of iconic TV director, Johnny Manahan.

Para sa Bayan: A Ryan Ryan Musikahan premiered exclusively on Sky Pay-Per-View on June 11 and ran until June 30, in time for the 118th year commemoration of Phil-ippine Independence.

The special was an original production of Jeepney TV, the no. 1 local variety cable channel and home of timeless TV programs that bridge generations of Filipino viewers.

Patriotic songs in ‘Ryan Ryan Musikahan’ special on SKY PPV

ries since 2013, he also visited a shel-ter of Filipino migrant workers in the Northern Taiwan city to share Pipo and another short film, Pamatid-Gutom (Hunger Pangs), starring Mercedes Ca-

bral and co-produced by Focus on the Global South with Red Room, in an af-ternoon screening and film talk.

After its Taiwan screenings, Pipo will be in Europe to compete at the International

Short Film Festival “IndieCrete” in the fa-mous and historic movie theatre “Paradiso” in Archanes, Greece from Aug.18 to 21 and at the Venice Film Week, La Casa del Cin-ema Venice, Italy on Aug. 29.

Richard Legaspi in a press conference in Taiwan where the short film was well received

Child actor Maliksi Morales in “Pipo,” a short film about a boy’s dream to have his family picture taken

Educator and filmmaker Richard Legaspi

On piano. Maestro Ryan Cayabyab with performers Morisette Amon, Ebe Dancel, the Ryan Cayabyab singers and Darren Espanto

C6 ISAH V. REDE D I T O R



SHOWBITZ

ACROSS1 Enthusiasm6 Doctrines

10 Cuff-link hole14 Ryan or Tatum15 Bronco “brake”16 Neap, for one17 Blame deflector18 Light tan19 Maintain20 Designer —

Claiborne

21 Winery triumph (2 wds.)

24 Germ-free 26 Pine product 27 Caddie’s offering 28 Run up bills 30 Lobby 33 Domineering 34 Prefix for “recent” 37 Disposes of 38 Jaywalk 39 Predicament

40 Capp and Jolson 41 Singer

Bonnie — 42 Memory glitch 43 Tattered 44 Startled cry 45 Pilfer 48 Uses a compass 52 Misleading leads

(2 wds.) 55 Response on deck 56 Mexican pot 57 Long time periods 58 Good for

something 60 Bullring shouts 61 Pilaf base 62 Knocked about 63 Lavish 64 Wooden strip 65 Abrasive mineralDOWN 1 Hockey scores 2 Pitch-black 3 Confiscate 4 Actor —Hunter 5 Noted Hamlet

portrayer 6 Sherlock’s lady

friend 7 Splinter group 8 Oscar-winner

— Sorvino 9 Warmth 10 Hung around 11 Dwelt

12 Without a flaw 13 — Haute 22 Seine vista 23 Counting-rhyme

start 25 AAA suggestions 28 Like Santa’s

laundry? 29 Hey you! 30 Monk’s title 31 Fossil fuel 32 NFL gains 33 Liverpool chap 34 Bite 35 USN officer 36 “— to the West

Wind” (Shelley) 38 Wedding hirees 39 Harden, as clay 41 Pan’s opposite 42 R and R 43 Go over old ground 44 Joule fraction 45 Crowd in 46 Phone response 47 Keeps the motor

going 48 First sign 49 Easily conned 50 Mary — Moore 51 Like melons 53 Splash through a

puddle 54 Cuzco founder 59 Turkey or cat

ANSWER PREVIOUS PUZZLE

CROSSWORD PUZZLE WEDNESDAY,JULY 6, 2016

With over 3.8 million Twitter fol-lowers (and counting), 2.4 Ins-tagram followers and almost a million Facebook fans, Maine

Mendoza has really come a long way.It wasn’t that long ago that the simple

girl from Bulacan, whose hobby was to upload her Dubsmash video on Face-book imitating Kris Aquino, skyrock-eted from relative obscurity to stardom – thanks to Eat Bulaga and her unex-pected pairing with Alden Richards.

“I can still remember how nervous and timid I was as I stand in the middle of the stage, facing the camera. It’s been a year but I still wonder how I was able to survive that audition unprepared,” Maine said in her social media post looking back on the launch of her career exactly a year ago.

The 21-year-old star is now considered as one of the trusted celebrity endorsers, the most Googled female celebrity in the Philippines (2015), a television and movie star, an influential personality and a celeb-rity who has an army of rabid fans who are ready to go to any war when their idol is bashed or criticized.

While her fans play a big role in cata-pulting her to where she is now today, it is also safe to say that without Maine, Alden’s showbiz career would have been stagnant. Similarly, had Alden didn’t drop by the Eat Bulaga studio on July 16 last year, AlDub would not have been and Maine’s TV career would just end up like any other social media rockstars who crossed over to TV then went back to so-cial media when things did not work out. But as you can see, Maine’s case is obvi-ously an exception.

Now it can be said, Maine’s astronomi-cal rise to stardom is similar to a Cinder-ella story. But like a fairy tale, will her journey in show business have a happy ending? Will AlDub still be around after a few years? Well, popularity and fame have their upside but they also come with the near certainty that they will end. And no matter how big a celebrity someone is, the person will definitely have a precipi-tous fall from grace.

THE GIRL WHO DUBSMASHED HER WAY TO STARDOM

Is ‘Big Brother’ still relevant?Big Brother used to be very popular it be-

came visible in 55 countries and territories. And it was phenomenal it gave other reality shows a run for their money.

But like any other shows that reached its peak, Big Brother is becoming obsolete and currently in crisis. In fact, as of 2016, 26 television networks have decided not to renew the franchise of the show.

While nearly half of Big Brother franchis-es has reached their natural end point, Pi-noy Big Brother has a different story -- pro-ducers are still fighting to save the show (so they can still milk whatever is left).

Amid declining TV ratings, ABS-CBN still decided to come up with another season with new sets of housemates already been intro-duced prior to its July 11 premiere.

On Sunday, The Voice Kids finalist Juan Karlos Labajo was announced as the third person to enter “Bahay ni Kuya.” JK joins McCoy de Leon and Nikko Nativi-dad, members of the boy band Hashtags, who were revealed as the first two-in-one

housemates on Saturday. Meanwhile, VJ Yassi Pressman and DJ-model Junri Park were announced to join PBB on Monday.Though the network has not confirmed whether or not the new season of PBB will be a special edition, considering they had con-ducted national and international auditions

in 11 different locations, the reality show will be a mix of celebrity housemates and virtually unknown personalities supposedly from dif-ferent walks of life.

Called Pinoy Big Brother: Lucky 7, the new season is the 13th Edition overall since it first aired in August 2005. Changes have been pre-sented, too. The logo now features a human eye instead of a graphical one that was seen in earlier seasons and Mariel Rodriguez is join-ing Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzales, and Robbie Domingo as hosts after her absence since the show’s Teen Edition in 2010.

With a new look, a new batch of house-mates, and a promise of mind-blowing twists and surprises, will PBB be able to renew the viewers’ interest on the show? Perhaps the historical ratings perfor-mance of the “teleserye ng totoo ng bu-hay” can answer that. Although many are still optimistic that PBB will still serve something delish to the table, we cannot discount the numbers the show had pro-duced in recent seasons. PBB viewers are turning in droves, obviously.

Maine Mendoza is now a social media star with millions of fans and followers online, she first appeared on TV as Yaya Dub (left photo) on June 19, 2015

Two-in-one: McCoy de Leon and Nikko Natividad, members of the boy band Hashtags, join PBB

C7ISAH V. REDE D I T O R



SHOWBITZ

Change. That is what the Executive Committee of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) is aiming for when they officially launched this

year’s festival on June 28 at the SMX Con-vention Center.

For 42 years, the MMFF has been a part of the Filipino Christmas tradition. Now, with the theme #ReelVolution, MMFF has declared 2016 as a revolutionary era in Philippine Cinema.

“This cinematic revolution will celebrate the Filipino’s artistic excellence, and will champion the sustainability of the Phil-ippine Film Industry with a new and im-proved film festival,” the MMFF executive committee said in a statement.

In the first quarter of the year, the MMFF created a new executive commit-tee for 2016. Headed by Atty. Emerson S. Carlos, chairman of Metropolitan Ma-nila Development Authority (MMDA) together with various representatives from public and private sectors namely PNP – NCRPO Police Director Joel Pag-dilao, Edward Cabagnot, Jessie Ejer-cito, FDCP Executive Director Teodoro Granados, Moira Lang, Senator Sonny Angara, MMTA Vice President Marcus Ng, MOWELFUND President Boots An-son-Rodrigo, Jun Romana from Bureau of Broadcast Services, Edgar Tejerero, president of SM Lifestyle Entertainment, Inc., Wilson Tieng, president of MPDAP, Quezon City Representative Alfred Var-

gas and Atty. Eugenio Villareal, chair-man of MTRCB.

The new executive committee has brought about a whole lot of changes with this year’s festival beginning with a logo design and theme song contest. The win-ning logo will be the Festival’s emblem and its artist will also design the key visual arts during the six month-long campaign of the festival. The theme song must be written in Filipino and composers Jimmy Bondoc, Jerrold Tarog, and Robert Rivera will select the winning piece. Open to all Filipinos, submission will start –July 15 –and end on Aug. 15. Winners will then be announced on Sept. 15.

The MMFF has recently been swarmed with controversies regarding its new re-quirement for movie entry submission. Instead of the conventional requirement of submitting the script, the producers are now required to submit the finished movie.

One of the issues that this change is fac-ing is the shortened production period of the movies. There have been changes in the submission date prior to the launch of MMFF. From September, the deadline has been moved towards the end of October.

The executive committee said that one of the reasons that they are requiring the fin-ished movies is for the MMFF Marketing and Promotions Committee to have ample time to promote all of the movies.

At the festival’s press conference, Boots Anson – Rodrigo said that since the pro-

ducers have been in the industry for long, it is still possible for them to produce films even in a short span of time.

Additional competitions and recogni-tions guidelines are also introduced during the launch. The New Wave category will be replaced by the Short Film category togeth-er with the Full – Length Feature Film. The deadline for the finished film entry for the short films and full – length films will be on Oct. 19 and Oct. 31, respectively.

According to Atty. Emerson Carlos, this year’s committee will be stricter in terms of the deadline of the entries.

This year, the MMFF aims to bridge the gap between the Independent films and Mainstream films by removing the distinction between new wave films and feature films.

The MMFF Selection Committee will choose among the submissions eight entries from each category and will be shown alongside with each other. The Se-lection Committee is different from the committee that will select the winners of awards in the festival.

As for the criteria for selecting the film entries, the executive committee also came up with a different set for this year’s festival. They have removed the 50 percent com-mercial viability and replaced it with 40 percent story, audience appeal and overall impact, 40 percent cinematic attributes and technical excellence, 10 percent global ap-peal, and 10 percent Filipino sensibility.

While they are vying for movies that are artistically excellent, the executive com-mittee said that commercially viable films could also be award – winning.

Among the other changes that #Reel-Volution is implementing is the scrapping of Best Child Actor Award to give way to the MMFF Children’s Choice Award. This new award’s purpose is to encourage filmmakers to create movies intended for younger audiences. Children ages nine to 12 years will be choosing the winners of this category.

Also added to the prestigious awards to be given out is the People’s Choice Award. This year’s winners will not be receiving any cash prizes.

Doing away with its traditional practice, the MMFF has moved its awards night to the end of the festival in order to avoid in-fluencing the movie preference of the audi-ence. It is now scheduled on Jan. 8, 2017, the day after the film festival period.

In accordance with its mission to de-velop audiences and encourage the pro-duction of quality Filipino films, the MMFF has introduced its first interac-tive gallery featuring the country’s most glorious films called MMFF Corner and a FanCon where movie enthusiasts can meet directors, producers, and artists. Concurrently, MMFF will also hold the “Best of the Best” fest in select cinemas for fans to recall movies that gave color to the Philippine Cinema Industry.

Smart Padala launched its new cam-paign along with Angel Locsin as its newest brand ambassador on June 29.

Known as a family-oriented celebrity, Angel has advocated various well-mean-ing causes. She was chosen by the remit-tance company for the brand to inten-sify its campaign for financial inclusion, which aims to deliver financial services at an affordable cost.

“Angel Locsin represents the family and service – oriented values of Smart Padala. Aside from being a devoted daughter, she also supports advoca-cies such as the Philippine Red Cross and awareness on women’s rights. We’re happy to welcome her to the Smart Padala family,” said Lawrence Ferrer, vice president and head of Domestic

Business at PayMaya Philippines.Having been in show business for

more than a decade now, Angel has represented big brands including Smart Telecommunications.

“I’m proud to be the new ambassa-dor of Smart Padala. Naniniwala ako sa brand dahil malaki ang naitutulong ng Smart Padala sa mga manggagawa at pamilyang Pilipino. By representing the brand, I hope that I can help in Smart Padala’s mission to uplift more lives and communities,” Locsin shared during the press launch.

PadaLapit Lang with Smart PadalaSmart Padala has been made simple

sending money to loved ones anywhere in the Philippines with 15,000 centers

nationwide.“Since the brand was launched over

10 years ago, Smart Padala has been en-abling our countrymen to send and re-ceive money anywhere in the county in a fast, easy, secure, and affordable man-ner. With this campaign, we reaffirm and strengthen this ‘PadaLapit’ brand that has made us a fixture of Filipino life,” said Benjie Fernandez, co-COO of PayMaya Philippines and COO of Voyager Innovations.

PayMaya is the digital financial ser-vices of PLDT and Smart Communi-cations, under the Voyager Group. To know more about Smart Padala, visit www.smartpadala.ph and like its of-ficial Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SmartPadalaPH. – Enna Hermoso

FROM TRADITIONAL TO #REELVOLUTIONBY ENNA HERMOSO

Angel Locsin wants you to send money via Smart Padala

Actress Angel Locsin at the Smart Padala media launch

Actors Epi Quizon (left) and Iza Calzado (right) at the official launch of Metro Manila Film Festival’s new season

From left: Wilson Tieng, Iza Calzado, MMDA Chairman Emerson Carlos, Boots Anson Roa Rodrigo and Epi Quizon

C8i s a h r e d @ g m a i l . c o m


ISAH V. REDE D I T O R

NICKIE WANGW R I T E R

SHOWBITZTHE LONG WAIT IS OVER¼

ALDUB’S FIRST MAJOR FILM

NOW IN THE CAN

Much-awaited and highly-anticipated launching movie of the phenomenal love team of Alden Rich-

ards and Maine Mendoza, Imagine You & Me, will finally hit the screens on July 13.The creative team tediously worked

on the project from conceptualization to film production and the sensational

love team had to shoot a big part of the movie in the picturesque Como and Ve-rona in Italy.

Its teaser, followed by its full trailer shown in Eat Bulaga, displayed so much love, romance and bittersweet moments in each and every scene. In addition, today’s hottest love team was beautifully photo-graphed and the movie viewers can’t help but feel the real emotions Alden and Maine have for each other.

From the simple young lady from Santa Maria, Bulacan, Maine auditioned in Eat Bulaga armed with nothing but her talent in the dubsmash department.

She rose to popularity by playing the character of Yaya Dub (Divina Ur-sula Bokbokova Smash), Lola Nidora’s (Wally Bayola) devoted nanny in the noontime show’s Kalyeserye.

Alden was already part of the EB Dabarkads when Maine joined the noon-time show. He was an ordinary host a year ago until his and Maine’s paths crossed in an episode of the now-famous Kalyeserye.

The rest, as they say, is AlDub history, a phenomenal success the world over.

The AlDub tandem also broke the Twit-ter record worldwide registering the high-est 42 plus million tweets during its “Ta-

mang Panahon” episode on Oct. 24, 2015 at the Philippine Arena. The special episode also posted another record in terms of at-

tendance, proceeds of which were used to finance AlDub libraries.

The country’s biggest advertisers banked on the AlDub phenomenon as well. Com-

panies, one after the other, took turns at getting the multi-media love team’s service for product endorsements.

From the small screen, Alden and Maine made their big screen debut via the Metro Manila Film Festival 2015 movie, My Bebe Love which headlined the comic pair of Vic Sotto and Ai Ai de las Alas. Expectedly, the said MMFF entry generated the highest opening day gross in the annual movie fest history and earned for Maine her first best supporting actress award.

Now the sensational pair is undoubtedly ripe for a launching movie. And so, APT Entertainment, GMA Films and M-Zet Television, Inc. have joined forces to bank-roll Imagine You & Me under the direction of Mike Tuviera.

In the film, Alden is Andrew, a heart-broken guy based in Italy. Maine, mean-while, is Gara, a hopeless romantic over-seas foreign worker in search for her Romeo to be her forever Mr. Right. It was not smooth sailing though, when Gara found her true love.

Andrew and Gara belong to different worlds and have opposing views on love. In short, they are incompatible.

Is there a chance for the two people like Andrew and Gara to fall in love with each other?

Feel the electrifying chemistry between Alden and Maine in Imagine You & Me. Reminisce, fall in love all over again and share the pain a young romance brings while watching the film.

“It’s worth the wait,” direk Mike promises.

Fans will definitely admire the AlDub love team even more after watching Imag-ine You & Me. And while Alden, and Maine’s showbiz life may experience ups and downs, the Dubsmash Queen assures everyone that her and Pambansang Bae’s friendship is getting stronger by the day.

As a bonus, Maine wrote and sang the movie’s theme song, solo and in a duet with Alden.

Needless to say, IYM is Alden and Maine’s gift for their followers and sup-porters in celebration of their first year as loveteam this July.

Feel and spread the love from Alden and Maine in Imagine You & Me opening in cinemas on July 13.

The phenomenal onscreen couple with “Imagine You & Me”

director Mike Tuviera

In celebration of their first anniversary as an onscreen couple, Maine Mendoza and Alden Richards, otherwise known as AlDud, are treating their fans with a rom-com entitled “Imagine You & Me“

ISAH V. RED