P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

PASTOR Apollo C. Qui-boloy yesterday cleared the air between him and

presumptive president-elect Rodrigo Duterte and called on members of his church con-gregation to pray and fast for the country’s next leader.

Reacting to reports that he felt slighted for not be-ing consulted by Duterte on the latter’s choice of Cabinet members whose names were recently announced.

In a press conference yes-terday morning, the popular evangelist denied reports he felt bypassed. He even praised Duterte for choosing the coun-try over friendship. Quiboloy said that contrary to the re-ports he was not sulking, and the word sulk should not be used, for he understands the situation of Duterte.

“Hindi po ako nag tatam-po, naiintindihan ko si Mayor (Duterte). In fact, si Mayor

napaka-busy, alam natin ang kinalalagyan niya ngayon dahil sa influx ng mga tao,” Quiboloy said.

The founding leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name ex-plained that there are people calling him, hoping that their concerns towards the country will reach Duterte, knowing that he is close with the incom-ing president.

He said that he was trying

to reach Duterte to relay the people’s concerns, however he failed get through him because of the latter’s busy schedule.

“Sinasabi ko sa kanila na dumiretso nalang sila kay Mayor, kasi wala naman ako dun, hindi ako kasali. Pero ang iba talaga gusto sakin dumaan kais nga kaibigan ko si Mayor,” Quiboloy explained.

The pastor said that he was supposed to have a sched-

F ACQ, 10

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO

ACQ: HE’S RIGHT, COUNTRY FIRST

Pastor Quiboloy belies rift, renews support for Duterte

Thunder rout Warriors in Game 3, lead series 2-1 P15

WHEN RAINDROPS FALL. A young boy cools himself from the raindrops during a heavy downpour in Davao City yesterday, indicating that summer has ended and rainy season is about to start. Lean Daval Jr.

By FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

EDGEDAVAOSports

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

PRESUMPTIVE Presi-dent-elect Rodrigo Dute-rte debunked claim that

the selection of his would-be Cabinet is marked by influence peddling, saying, “I decide for myself. I never consulted any-body.”

“I have been in the govern-ment…mayor for 22 years…congressman… vice mayor in 19878. Hindi ako nabobola (I am not being flattered), “he told reporters past midnight Sunday at his long-time favor-ite hangout- The Afterdark.

Duterte said he does not consult anybody although he listened to his transition team on the names submitted to him. The transition team also clarified earlier final decision will come from Duterte.

“I decide - I do not take into consideration friendship.

I am forced to come with a statement and say to you again my loyalty to you as a friend ends where my loyalty to my country,” he said.

“Lahat lahat ng suporta sa akin tulong (All of the support to me – that’s my statement. – I am sorry,” Duterte stressed referring even to the reported disheartened Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who through his spokesperson expressed dis-appointment that the church leader was not consulted in the selection of the Cabinet.

Duterte’s statement was in reaction to many reports that some of the people named to join the incoming administration are not ac-ceptable like incoming Press Secretary Salvador Panelo and recently-proclaimed Las Piñas

2 EDGEDAVAO

NEWS

HONORARIUM. Dabawenyos who served as Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) during last May 9’s national elections troop to a bank along San Pedro Street in Davao City yesterday to withdraw their honorarium worth P6,500 each. Lean Daval Jr.

HOURS before presump-tive president-elect Rodrigo Duterte an-

nounced to the media that outgoing Maribojoc Mayor Leoncio “Jun” Evasco will be next Cabinet Secretary, the lat-ter again politely declined the position and said he opts to just walk away into the sunset of his public career.

In a teleconference with Evasco Saturday night, Duter-te’s head of the national cam-paign said that he would like to retire after his term ends as Mayor of Maribojoc in Bohol.

Duterte made the an-nouncement of appointing Evasco as the Secretary of the Cabinet early Sunday in Davao City.

Evasco said that he is busy with his own transition team in Bohol, since he is about to leave his post.

He said that even before Duterte was leading the elec-tion votes, he already told him that he will not ask for any cabinet position.

“Daan naman ko nag in-gon nga dili ko mangayo og cabinet position, dili pud ko

mudawat kay panahon na mag retire nako. Ihatag nalang na sa mga bata-bata,” Evasco said.

Evasco is a long-time po-litical strategist and campaign manager of Duterte even be-fore he threw his hat in the presidential race.

On Sunday, Duterte an-nounced that Evasco is suited for the Cabinet Secretary. The post is vital for the Cabinet secretary to represent the President in meetings where he cannot attend due to other commitments.

Evasco also asked the people to respect the choices of Duterte on who will he put on the cabinet post.

He said that Duterte has all the prerogative to get the people that he can work with.

“Prerogative mana sa presidente kung kinsa ang gitan-aw niya nga maka com-plement sa trabaho niya. We should respect that. Respeto-hon nato si Digong (Duterte) ana,” Evasco said.

Evasco has yet to talk to Duterte after Sunday’s an-nouncement.

SENATE Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday said presump-

tive President Rodrigo Duterte will respect the independence of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Cayetano made the assur-ance as posturing for Senate presidency heats up among at least four aspirants includ-ing himself, Duterte’s running mate who already conceded his defeat.

”He’s not declaring public support because he knows that the Senate as institution is independent. But when and if asked in public, he will express anyway and all presidents have done that in the past,” Cayetano told the media be-

fore the resumption of Senate regular session.

When asked if he is inter-ested to Senate presidency, Cayetano said he would be hypocrite if he would not ad-mit about it.

”I think everyone is in-terested in the Senate Lead-ership. So I mean, let’s not be hypocritical about it. But it’s really a consensus,” Cayetano said.

Other senators and their respective groups eyeing for Senate presidency include the Liberal Party (LP) bloc headed by incumbent Senate president Franklin Drilon, dep-uty minority leader Senator Vicente Sotto III, and Senator

THE incoming adminis-ration of presumptive president Rodrigo Dute-

rte continues to take shape as more personalities are expect-ed to come out in the coming days.

In a press conference past midnight Sunday, Duterte said he wants his would-be Cabi-net in place when he takes his oath of office.

In selecting his Cabinet, Duterte said he wants to bal-ance it as he pointed out that people must not put color on his policy and decisions on his choices.

“I will not allow anybody to put color on my choices. From now on it will be for the interest of the people that counts,” he said.

Duterte announced he is considering a retired military official to head the Depart-ment of National Defense (DND) after Gilbert Teodoro begged off to join the govern-ment again as the head of the agency.

Teodoro served as DND secretary during the term of former president and now Pampanga Representative (2nd District) Gloria Macapa-

gal-Arroyo and is currently the president of a mining firm.

Duterte also named for-mer Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III to be his Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and at the same time could be his consultant on the peace pro-cess with Communist Party of the Philippines-National Dem-ocratic Front (CPP-NDF).

He also picked his nation-al campaign manager and currently Mayor of Maribojoc town in Bohol, Leoncio Evas-co, Jr. as Chief of Cabinet; and Ernesto Pernia for the Nation-

al Economic Development Au-thority (NEDA).

It is not sure if Evasco would accept the post con-sidering his earlier statement that he is not eyeing any post as he would rather retire from government.

Evasco was reported to head the Department of In-terior and Local Government (DILG) but he denied he was offered the post.

Duterte is also eyeing retired army general Hermo-genes Esperon as his National Security Adviser.

Evasco: Thanks but I’m retiringBy FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

More changes seen in selection of Duterte Cabinet

Duterte will respect independenceof Congress – Cayetano

Duterte debunks claim ‘influencepeddling’ marks selection of Cabinet

F DUTERTE, 10

F MORE, 10F DUTERTE DEBUNKS, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

THE Department of Transportation and C o m m u n i c a t i o n s

(DOTC) will now focus solely on transportation after Presi-dent Benigno Aquino III signed on Monday the law creating the Department of Informa-tion and Communications Technology (DICT).

Presidential Communica-tions Operations Office (PCOO)

Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., in a statement, said Republic Act 10844, or “An Act Creat-ing the Department of Infor-mation and Communications Technology (DICT)” mandates that the newly-formed agency will have a Secretary , three Undersecretaries and four As-sistant Secretaries.

These officials need to

3NEWSEDGEDAVAO

Rody backers violatelicense plate policy

THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Davao Region arrested five

supporters of presumptive president Rodrigo R. Dute-rte for replacing authorized license plates with “DU30 El Presidente” decorative plates.

Eleanor Calderon, op-erations chief of the LTO 11 said the violators were fined P5,000 each, pursuant to Sec. 2E of the Joint Administrative Order 2014-01 of the Depart-ment of Transportation and Communication.

“We will intensify our campaign against these viola-tors,” LTO 11 operations chief Eleanor Calderon said in yes-

terday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Annex.

She said even the new president himself will not al-low such activities.

Calderon said the LTO 11 is coordinating with the more 700 members of Traffic Man-agement Group (TMG) of the Davao City for the apprehen-sion of the violators.

The coordination will help them expedite the ap-prehension of violators, she explained.

Calderon also clarified that the private vehicle own-ers can use decorative plates as long as it will be placed on

LTO nabs 5 Duterte supporterscrc@edgedavao.net

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

GOING BALISTIC. Incoming president Rodrigo R. Duterte lambasts the Catholic Church for attempting to dissuade the public from voting for him in the recently-concluded May 9 polls. Lean Daval Jr.

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has cited Senator Antonio “Sony” Trillanes

IV in indirect contempt for “malicious” statements against the CA justices.

In a 15-page resolution released on Monday, the CA Special 11th Division also im-

posed a fine on Trillanes in the amount of P30,000 for his allegations that the camp of then Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay has paid the two magis-trates of the CA Sixth Division the amount of P25 million each to issue a temporary restrain-ing order (TRO) and stopped

the suspension imposed by the Office of the Ombudsman (Ombudsman) against Binay.

In the resolution written by Associate Justice Stephen Cruz, Trillanes was given a period of only 30 days within which to file his comment and not a “motion to dismiss” in the

contempt charges filed against him.

Likewise, the CA gave Binay’s camp a period of five days within which to reply on the comment to be filed by Trillanes.

The CA clarified that if

CA cites Trillanes for indirect contempt

F LTO, 10

F DEPARTMENT, 10 F CA, 10

Department of Information and Communications Technology created

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 20164 NEWS

MALAYBALAY CITY -- The family of slain Umayamnon leader

Datu Benjamin “Otto” Omao Sr., representative of the Indig-enous Peoples (IPs) in the City Council here has vowed to respond to the accusations of the New People’s Army (NPA) which owned responsibility for killing him allegedly due to criminal acts.

But the family will wait until the 54-year old Lumad (IP) leader is laid to rest on May 26 in his village in Mi-glamin, Malaybalay City, Bede Blise Omao, his 29-year old daughter told MindaNews in a telephone interview Sunday.

“As of now, our mind is still blank. Personally it is just very painful to hear of all the accusations,” Bede Blise, who served in her father’s legis-lative staff, added. Omao left behind sx children.

Bede Blise acknowledged having read the statement of the New People’s Army (NPA) issued e-mailed to the media on May 21, or five days after her father was killed in his of-fice in the Indigenous Peoples Apostolate (IPA) in Casisang village.

Three unidentified gun-men who posed as solicitors shot Omao using long fire-arms. Three other suspects

acted as lookout outside the office and along the highway. They fled on motorcycles, heading south.

The NPA, in a statement by Ka Ariel “Inda” Magban-wag, spokesperson of the South Central Bukidnon, said in the e-mailed statement that a team of comrades from the South Central Bukidnon sub-regional operation com-mand killed Omao, whom they accused to be a “crimi-nal”, “land grabber”, “intimi-dator” and a “counter-revolu-tionary.”

Magbanwag also called on local government units not to put IP mandatory representa-

tives who have criminal acts and urged them to check the records of possible IP manda-tory representatives in what-ever level of local governance.

The NPA accused Omao of being armed and work-ing with a local bandit group with the support of a military official. They said despite his record, he was chosen as an IP mandatory representative, allegedly by threatening his fellow tribal leaders who se-lected him to the position.

The NPA said the people have long asked for Omao’s execution. They accused Omao of being responsible

IP leader’s daughter says familywill respond to NPA after funeral

CRYSTAL CLEAR. Children take turns jumping into the crystal clear waters of Enchanted River in the municipality of Hinatuan in Surigao del Sur Friday (20 May 2016). MindaNews photo by Bobby Timonera

ANTI-DRUG operatives arrested two suspect-ed big time illegal drug

pushers in separate buy bust operations here over the weekend.

The suspects, who yielded around PHP257,000 worth of dried marijuana and metam-phetamine hydrochloride or shabu, were nabbed on Sat-urday in Barangays Mabuhay and Lagao by elements from the city police and the Philip-pine Drug Enforcement Agen-cy (PDEA) in Region 12.

Chief Insp. Geovanni Ladeo, chief of the San Isidro police station here, said Mon-day they cornered suspect Suraida Mama, 45, in an op-eration on Saturday at a road-side coffee stall in Barangay Mabuhay.

He said Mama initially

sold a sachet of shabu worth PHP500 to one of their opera-tives who posed as a buyer.

A subsequent search on the suspect led to the recovery of two sachets of suspected shabu valued at PHP47,000, he said.

“It appears that our area is one of her major distribution points. Our investigation is currently ongoing and we’re determining the other areas covered by her illegal activi-ties,” Ladeo said.

Citing quantity of the re-covered shabu from Mama, the police official said she could be part of a major illegal drug syndicate and had access to bigger drug supplies.

Mama, who is currently detained at the San Isidro po-lice station lockup, admitted her involvement in the illegal

activity and claimed that Sat-urday’s buy-bust should have been her last deal.

She said her illegal drug stocks came from a supplier based in the coastal town of Maasim in Sarangani Prov-ince.

“It should have been my last (deal) as I know (incom-ing President Rodrigo) Dute-rte detests it,” she told report-ers in the vernacular.

Ladeo said the suspect would be charged for vio-lation of Sections 5 (selling of dangerous drugs) and 11 (possession of dangerous drugs), Article II of Republic Act (RA) 9165 or the Compre-hensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Meantime, PDEA-12 agents under the supervision of regional director Lyndon

Aspacio nabbed suspect Rene Boy Malayon, 30, in a buy-bust operation infront of a gaso-line station along the national highway in Baragay Lagao at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Kath Abad, PDEA-12 pub-lic information officer, said the suspect, was included in the agency’s list of high-value tar-gets in the city.

She said they recovered from Malayon, who is a resi-dent of Purok 18, Sitio Nursery in Lagao, four bundles of dried marijuana leaves weighing around six kilograms and with an estimated market value of PHP210,000.

Abad said the suspect, who is detained at the PDEA-12 lockup here, will be charged for violation of Section 5 or sale of dangerous drugs, Arti-cle II of RA 9165. (PNA)

2 pushers arrestedin GenSan buy-busts THE Armed Forces of

the Philippines (AFP) has said that incoming

Presidential Security Group (PSG) commander Col. Ro-lando Bautista is a good choice for the position.

“He is a well-rounded officer. He is an operations man and also adept in intel. He is a good family man and service-oriented,” AFP public affairs office chief Col. Noel Detoyato said.

Bautista was earlier named by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte as his PSG chief.

The former is a member of Philippine Military Acade-my (PMA) Class of 1985.

“He is the current bri-gade commander of the

104th Infantry Brigade based in Basilan.

“One of his significant operations resulted in the neutralization of Abu Anas, a foreign bomb making in-structor, during an encoun-ter in Al-Barka, Basilan in December 2015, and Mo-hammad Al Khatab, a Moroc-can terrorist,” Detoyato said.

He added that Bautista has existing PSG protocols and doctrines to guide him in protecting Duterte.

Bautista also had stints in the First Scout Ranger Regiment, United Nations Peacekeeping Forces, and various battalions and units in the AFP before reaching his current post at the 104th Infantry Brigade. (PNA)

THE choice does not have to be between the Bang-samoro Basic Law (BBL)

and federalism, said Govern-ment of the Philippines (GPH) chief negotiator Professor Mir-iam Coronel-Ferrer.

Ferrer said this in response to incoming legislator Panta-leon Alvarez’s statement that the next Congress will no lon-ger pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and go straight to a shift to federalism.

According to Ferrer, it can be both the law and charter change. The next Congress can pass the draft law within 2016 and at the same time under-take the needed legal process-es for charter change.

“Any move to change the charter requires a lot of study and consultations. It will take several years since such a major change is not a mere amendment to the constitu-tion and is best done through a constitutional convention,” Ferrer said.

“Any further delay with completing the Bangsam-oro peace process will work against the stability of the next administration,” said the Aqui-no administration’s negotiator for talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“Set up the Bangsamoro entity and let it exist. If we de-lay the road map, things might get worse. There are extremist ideologies existing around us recruiting among the Moro youth,” she added.

Ferrer pointed to the ad-vantages in pursuing the cur-rent roadmap laid out in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

“Passing the BBL as soon as possible will help stabilize the situation in the Bangsam-oro. It will pave the way for the full-scale decommission-ing of the MILF’s weapons and combatants, the delivery of the socio-economic programs, and greatly enhance security cooperation between the gov-ernment and the MILF,” said Ferrer.

The partnership between the government and the MILF is essential in fighting crime and terrorism in the region, she added.

Aside from the legislative track of establishing the Bang-samoro, the CAB also provides

a roadmap for the implemen-tation of socio-economic pro-grams for the normalization of conflict-affected areas and the transition of MILF combatants back to civilian lives.

Without the enactment of a CAB-compliant Bangsam-oro law, the decommissioning of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) and im-plementation of the normal-ization track remain stalled.

The BBL is the enabling law for the establishment of the Bangsamoro political en-tity that seeks to replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). It provides for political and fiscal reforms that will greatly enhance the fiscal and political autonomy of the region.

However, the proposed law was not passed by the current Congress before it ad-journed for the national and local elections last February.

Ferrer said she believes that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte understands the im-portance of passing the BBL, noting that during the last presidential debate held in Pangasinan last April, Duterte voiced his support for the BBL as a way to correct the histor-ical injustices done to the Mo-ros and the key to ending their armed insurgency.

“You have to make the peace there [in Mindanao] bago ka makagalaw (before you can move),” Duterte had said during the televised de-bate among the presidential contenders.

“Kung hindi mo makausap ito in peace talks, everything will fail (If you cannot talk it out in the peace talks, every-thing will fail). And I am telling now, the Republic of the Philip-pines, nothing will appease the Muslims, the Moro people if we do not give them the BBL.”

The government peace panel chair assured the incom-ing President and his peace lieutenants that the current government panel will turn over a fully functional set of mechanisms charged with overseeing all the different components of the CAB, from the ceasefire to the camps transformation and decom-missioning to transitional jus-tice and overall monitoring.

EDGEDAVAO

Incoming PSG chief a good choice --AFP

F IP LEADER’S, 13 F GPH, 10

GPH negotiator says BBL passage, federalism can go hand-in-hand

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016 5EDGEDAVAO

ECONOMY

A TOTAL of 122,784 households in South Cotabato province

who were affected by the on-slaught of the long dry spell spawned by the El Nino Phe-nomenon have already re-ceived relief assistance from the provincial government.

Milagros Lorca, chief of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), said Mon-day such figure comprise the beneficiaries who were so far covered by the local govern-ment’s El Nino relief opera-tions since April 27.

She said the beneficiaries, who were mainly composed of farmers and farm laborers, received five-kilogram rice packs each.

“Our relief operations are currently ongoing and we’re hoping to complete our tar-get by the end of the month,” she said.

The provincial govern-

ment had targeted to dis-tribute some 128,000 relief packs to households affected by the El Nino.

The entire province was placed under the state of ca-lamity last month due to the El Nino, which already de-stroyed around PHP284.23 million worth of agricultural crops in the area.

The declaration was made following similar moves by Koronadal City and the three municipalities.

The PDRRM Council had approved the purchase of 12,800 sacks of rice worth PHP16 million from the Na-tional Food Authority for the relief operations.

Lorca said they have so far covered the municipalities of Lake Sebu, T’boli, Tampa-kan and Surallah, which were among the areas that were hit hardest by the El Nino.

The provincial govern-ment initially tapped the

services of personnel and volunteers of the Philippine Red Cross for the distribution of the rice packs due to a pro-hibition in line with the May 9 general elections.

The PDRRMO and the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office took over the relief operations two days after the polls.

Lorca said the distribu-tion activities are currently ongoing in the remaining ba-rangays in Lake Sebu, T’boli and Surallah towns that were affected by the calamity.

She said the repacking of the relief goods by volunteer enlisted by the provincial government is currently on-going at the provincial capitol compound in Koronadal City.

The NFA has already re-leased a total of 9,250 sacks of rice to the local govern-ment since the start of the relief operations, she said. (PNA)

El Niño drive helps 123K households

ART OF BONSAI. Oliver John Tiu (fourth from left), SM Supermalls Mindanao VP for Operations, preside over the ribbon-cutting ceremony of “The Art of Bonsai” exhibit along with Salvador Barraca (second from

left), President of Davao Bonsai Society, and Therese Lapeña-Manalo (extreme right), SM Lanang Premier Mall Manager. The exhibit showcases the best bonsai collections of Davao’s bonsai growers. SM Photo

NEWLY-FORMED Davao City Sustainable Move-ment urged Presi-

dent-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte to implement a nation-wide banning of aerial spraying of pesticides and fungicides.

The proposed agricultur-al practice in all areas in the country is one of the points identified by the movement in the proposed 8-point envi-ronment agenda submitted to Duterte last week.

Mary Ann Fuertes, exec-utive director of the Interface Development Interventions (IDIS), the movement sec-retariat, said they expected Duterte to replicate Davao City’s landmark legislation of banning aerial spraying na-tionwide.

“An Executive Order man-dating the application of the Precautionary Principle as a yardstick by which all en-vironment issues are mea-sured by, would ensure that

problems like aerial spraying are nipped in the bud before it can cause long-term harm to health and environment,” Furtes said during the Kape-han sa Dabaw at SM City An-nex yesterday.

Fuertes said aerial spray-ing “is a long-running issue in the country’s agri-sector which is used by the banana industry.”

The chemical drift, she added, affects the health and welfare of farming communi-ties living near or inside ba-nana plantations.

“No less that the Depart-ment of the Health has stated that acute and chronic pesti-cides exposure can result in harm to both health and envi-ronment,” the group said.

However, Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Asso-ciation (PBGEA) executive di-rector Stephen Antig said the multi-billion banana industry, which employs millions of Fil-

ipinos, will not thrive without aerial spraying.

Antig said companies have developed technologies to ensure that drifts will not proceed to nearby commu-nities. He also said there had been no study supporting the claim of green groups.

Under the agenda, the group proposed for the amendment of Presidential No. 1607 or the Philippine Water Code to allow the devolution of assessment and monitoring function and the demand-supply manage-ment.

Under the water code, the mandate of administering and enforcing provisions of the code is given to the Na-tional Water Resource Board.

For his part, Mission Davao member Nick Solana said this centralizes the pow-er to issue or cancel water permits and monitor illegal or

Group submits 8-pointenvi agenda to Duterte

crc@edgedavao.netBy CHENEEN R. CAPON

F GROUP, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 20166 EDGEDAVAOTHE ECONOMY

PHOENIX Petroleum Phil-ippines will hike pump prices beginning today.

In an advisory Monday, the oil firm said it will increase diesel prices by PHP1 per liter and gasoline prices by

PHP1.20 per liter at 6:00 a.m., Tuesday.

The company noted the higher prices was due to “high-er crude prices brought about by tensions in Nigeria and the wildfire in Canada.” (PNA)

NEW SHOWROOM. City Administrator Atty. Jesus Melchor V. Quitain (front row, third from left) and businessman Nelson Chua (fifth from right) join other guests in souvenir shot during the opening of the Goldens Dynasty Motors brand new showroom in Lanang Thursday last week. The firm, owned by Chua, is the sole distributor of China’s Shacman truck brand in Mindanao. Lean Daval Jr.

IMPORTED dump trucks made by China’s No. 2 brand will now be made

available in the Mindanao market with the opening last week of the Goldens Dynasty Motors brand new show-room in Lanang, Davao City.

Charles Peña, general manager of the Goldens Dy-

nasty Motors, said their com-pany will now become the sole distributor of the Shac-man brand in the island re-gion and will cater to clients even in the Visayas region.

“Davao City, north and western Mindanao are our target market,” Peña told EDGE Davao during the affair

graced by no less than the firm’s owner Nelson Chua.

Peña said Shacman prod-ucts include cement mixer and oil tanker and counts contractors, local govern-ment units and miners as their potential buyers.

“We also mini dump trucks,” Peña said.

With the opening of the showroom, Goldens Dynas-ty Motors initially imported 37 units. Two of these units have already been sold out to a buyer in Tacloban.

“We are already sold two dump trucks even before we opened,” Peña said.

Peña added that unlike

their Manila counterpart, Goldens Dynasty Motors is not only an importer and distributor of Shacman units, but also a dealer of these trucks.

“We import, distribute and we also deal. So, we are a retailer and wholesaler,” he said.

Goldens Dynasty Motors is also planning to penetrate the Visayas market by open-ing another showroom in the region.

Prices of their trucks are a little bit high but are rel-atively lower compared to other brands, according to Peña.

China truck brand now in MindanaoBy CHARLES RAYMOND A. MAXEY

DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment Secre-tary Rosalinda Dimapi-

lis-Baldoz said on Monday the DOLE, through its Bureau of Local Employment (BLE), has completed on schedule the se-ries of orientation on the Spe-cial Program for Employment of Students (SPES) Integrated Manual of Operations for all DOLE regional directors, PESO managers, and implementers.

“The completion of the series of orientation on the Integrated Manual of Oper-ation ahead of schedule is a positive development toward our efforts to make the SPES truly responsive and effective in facilitating the employment

of poor, young Filipinos by pre-paring them for the realities of the workplace,” said Baldoz af-ter she received a report on the conclusion of the orientation from DOLE Undersecretary Nicon F. Fameronag.

Fameronag, who delivered a message at the fifth and last edition of the SPES IMO ori-entation held at the Sunlight Hotel in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, said close to a hun-dred PESO managers, includ-ing DOLE field officers from six regions -- Cordillera Adminis-trative Region, Regions 3, 4-B, 9, 11, and 12 -- attended the orientation.

The DOLE field officers were headed by Regional Di-

rectors Nathaniel Lacambra (CAR); Atty. Ana Dione (Re-gion 3); Sisinio Cano (Region 9); Joffrey Suyao (Region 11); and Albert Gutib (Region 12). DOLE Region 4-B Regional Di-rector Atty. Alvin Villamor was represented by Phillip Ruga, TSSD Chief.

The SPES is a program where students and out-of-school youth belonging to poor families are engaged and paid for temporary employment, in partnership with participat-ing establishments, whether public or private. Their sala-ries or wages are based on the minimum wage in the area or the applicable hiring rate and are subsidized by the govern-

ment in the form of education voucher.

“Since its implementation in 1993, SPES has become one of the more relevant and pop-ular programs of government where poor but deserving young people are able to pur-sue and finish their studies and at the same time be exposed to the real world of work,” Baldoz said.

“Unfortunately, past imple-menters of the program have not come up with a manual that could guide them for uni-form and effective implemen-tation. What we had was only the implementing rules and regulations of the SPES law

DOLE’s BLE completes orientation on SPES Integrated Manual of Operations

Phoenix to hike prices

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through its Shared Ser-

vice Facilities (SSF) Project, is scheduled to turnover PHP11 million worth of equipments to farmer-cooperatives in this city and in nearby Isabela City.

Eng’r. Rolando Acuña, DTI provincial director, told the Philippines News Agen-cy that first to receive SSF project is the United Workers Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative (UWARBMPC) of Isabela City.

Acuña said the UWARB-MPC will receive black pepper processing equipment, which will be turned over on Tues-day, May 24.

Acuña said the Sinoro-pan Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) of Ba-rangay Vitali, this city and the Vitali Fiber group of farmers will receive rubber process-ing and Abaca decorticating equipments on June 6.

On June 7, two local asso-ciation of farmers known as the Dulian Upland Farmers Association Multipurpose Cooperative (DUFARMCO) of Barangay Dulian-Upper Bunguiao and Cassava Farm-ers Association of Barangay

Lubigan will receive coconut and cassava processing equip-ments.

Acuña said they will turn over on June 8 a mobile cool-ing tank with refrigerator trailer to the Zamboanga Dairy Cattle Association (ZADACA in Barangay Ayala, this city.

He said the SSF is a flag-ship project of the DTI aimed at improving the quality and productivity of the micro, small and medium enterpris-es (MSMEs) by addressing the gaps and bottlenecks in the value chain “of our prior-ity industry clusters through the provision of processing or manufacturing equipment, tools and machinery.”

“We started this program way back in 2013, the SSF is providing equipments in our SME associations, cooperative, and it works like common ser-vice facility where all members can make use of the facility,” he added.

The equipments are given for free through the SSF with an aim to improve the bene-ficiaries’ quality of products, increase the production, and competitiveness in the market.

However, Acuña said the

DTI to release P11-M project aid to farmers

SUGARCANE production in Central Mindanao are expected to improve

with some of the issues and concerns addressed during the Sugarcane Stakeholders Dialogue initiated by Depart-ment of Labor and Employ-ment over the weekend, labor officials said today.

DOLE 12 in partnership with the District Tripartite Council 12 held the dialogue at the Farmers’ Training Cen-ter in Tulunan, North Cotaba-to.

DOLE 12 OIC-Regional Di-

rector Albert E. Gutib lauded the response and presence of all sugarcane stakeholders.

“Your presence means that you are now ready to be part of the solution to issues and concerns besetting the industry. We hope that with this forum, the interest of field workers, planters, mill owners and LGUs will be prioritized,” Gutib said.

He also invited stakehold-ers to visit DOLE 12 Field offic-es to avail programs and ser-vices particularly on the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

More than 80 stakehold-ers dialogue participants were oriented on SAP and other programs and services provid-ed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Bureau of Internal Revenues (BIR) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) whose representatives were present during the dialogue.

Issues addressed during the dialogue include the sug-arcane planters difficulty in filing income tax returns and application for a Tax Identifi-cation Number (TIN).

The concern was resolved when the Cotabato Sugar Central Company Incorporat-ed, the lone sugar mill in the region, through Cane Sup-ply Manager Engr. Edgar S. Sarmiento offered the services of facilitating the processing of documents with the BIR.

Marjorie Latoja, DOLE 12 North Cotabato field office head, believed the dialogue signaled the start of a strong partnership and cooperation between and among stake-holders of the sugarcane in-dustry. (PNA)

Sugarcane workers’ issues addressedF DOLE’S, 13

F DTI, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016 7

Watch out for La Niña!“BRACE FOR THE LA

NIÑA PHENOME-NON, which is ex-

pected to bring heavy rains in the succeeding months,” Sen-ator Loren Legarda urged in a press statement.

The chair of the Sen-ate Committees on Climate Change and Finance sounded the alarm after the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Ad-ministration (PAGASA) issued a La Niña watch that there is a probability that another weather disaster is looming with the coming of La Niña by the second half of 2016.

“La Niña is possible but the chance is only over 50 per-cent and not 100 percent. It is more than a rainfall. We need to prepare,” said Dr. Vicente B. Malano, PAGASA acting ad-ministrator.

According to Legarda, the country is expected to expe-rience more than the normal rainfall as well as more ty-phoons during the La Niña event. As such, she remind-ed local government units to enhance community-based disaster management and early warning system in their respective localities.

“We have to be ready for the impacts of La Niña even as we continue to help drought-affected communi-ties recover from the effects of El Niño,” Legarda reminded. “Agencies of government, both national and local levels, must work together to help commu-nities projected to be hit by the La Niña adapt to the phenom-enon.”

La Niña is the exact oppo-site of the phenomenon called El Niño, which was known originally recognized by fish-ermen off the coast of South America as the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean, occurring near the beginning of the year. El Niño means “the Little Boy” or “Christ Child” in Spanish. The name was used for the ten-dency of the phenomenon to

arrive around Christmas.La Niña, on the other

hand, means “the Little Girl.” It is sometimes called “El Vie-jo,” “anti-El Niño,” or simply “a cold event” or a cold episode.

To simplify, meteorolo-gists explain: El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscil-lation (ENS0) cycle, with La Niña sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Niño as the warm phase of ENSO.

“El Niño and La Niña re-sult from interaction between the surface of the ocean and the atmosphere in the tropi-cal Pacific,” NOAA explained. “Changes in the ocean impact the atmosphere and climate patterns around the globe. In turn, changes in the atmo-sphere impact the ocean tem-peratures and currents.”

The system oscillates be-tween warm (El Niño) to neu-tral (or cold La Niña) condi-tions with an on average every 3-4 years.

In the tropics, global cli-mate variations in La Niña tend to be opposite of those of El Niño. “If you expect drought in the country with El Niño be-cause of reduced rainfall and less typhoons, there will be more than normal rainfall and the normal but ‘stronger ty-phoons’ during a La Niña epi-sode that will cause floods and devastation of farms and prop-erty,” explains Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, former executive director of the Laguna-based Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and De-velopment (PCAMRD).

How does La Niña affect the country’s weather? PAGA-SA has this answer: “Effects of La Niña could be manifested in above the normal rainfall conditions in major parts of the country, particularly along the eastern sections. This is mainly due to more intense northeast monsoon and trop-ical cyclone activities.”

Whether La Niña will hap-pen or not sooner, it would be

best for everyone to start pre-paring for its occurrence. “It is better for the national govern-ment to prepare for another extreme weather event,” An-thony Joseph R. Lucero, chief of PAGASA’s Climate Monitor-ing and Prediction Section, was quoted as saying.

Effects of La Niña could be manifested in above the normal rainfall conditions in major parts of the country, particularly along the eastern sections. Meteorologists say La Niña intensifies the north-east monsoon, causing more typhoons.

“The Philippines has the highest occurrence of tropical cyclone around the world,” Lucero said during the Climate Forum for Agriculture a few years back. “We are known to have the most number of trop-ical cyclones.”

Each year, 19 to 21 cy-clones pass the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). “Our tropical cyclone comes one after another,” he pointed out. However, only six to nine out of those typhoons make landfall.

But with La Niña, typhoons are expected to be more com-mon and disastrous as floods are likely to occur. “Floods are among the most destructive calamities man has to cope with,” the weather bureau wrote in a brochure that ex-

plains the how’s, what’s, and how’s of floods. “Even the most minor flooding poses some in-conveniences.”

A really big flood can re-sult in millions even billions of pesos of damage to road and bridges, buildings and other economic infrastructure, in the loss of agricultural crops and livestock, loss of produc-tivity in industry, commerce and trade - not to mention the incalculable loss of human life. Remember the Ormoc tragedy in Leyte? More than five thou-sand people perished from flash floods, injuring 292 oth-ers with 1,264 missing.

“With too much rain and floods, agriculture production especially in flood-prone areas will be adversely affected with physical and economic loss-es,” Dr. Guerrero said. “Floods will wash away crops, hasten soil erosion and increase crop spoilage due to poor storage and distribution problems.”

Dr. Guerrero admitted that Filipino farmers cannot do anything against the onslaught of La Niña except to prepare and plan for it. “Planting in flood-prone areas should be avoided to avert crop losses,” he stressed. “Drainage and flood-control structure should be renovated beforehand.”

Health-wise, people are likely to suffer from La Niña. During floods, food-borne and

water-borne diseases acceler-ate, according to the Depart-ment of Health (DOH). “Flood-ing can contaminate the public water through the disruption of water purification and sew-age disposal systems, rupture of underground pipelines and storage tanks,” said the disas-ter management unit of DOH.

Using contaminated water can cause a wide spectrum of illness, among them: acute gas-troenteritis, dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera, and hepatitis A. Malaria and dengue fever, in-fections transmitted by mos-quitoes, are also expected to rise after heavy rainfalls due to an explosive increase in breed-ing sites.

Because of these project-ed economic and health prob-lems, the weather bureau said that flood damage mitigation and protection is a concern not only during the disaster but should be practiced be-fore, during and after the oc-currence of a flood. As such, it has issued the following flood safety rules:

Before the flood, a person must know how often his loca-tion is likely to be flooded. He should keep abreast with the flood warning system (issued by PAGASA) in the communi-ty and keep the family knows about it. The head of the family must be kept informed of daily weather condition. He must

designate an evacuation area for his family and the livestock. In addition, he must assign family members instruction and responsibilities according to an evacuation plan.

In addition, people are ad-vised to keep a stock of food which requires little cooking and refrigeration before the flood. The following must be kept: a transistor radio and flashlight with spare batteries, emergency cooking equip-ment, candles, matches, first aid kit and water.

When warned of flood, ev-eryone must watch for rapidly rising flood waters. The fam-ily should listen to the radio for emergency instructions. If the head of the family finds it necessary to evacuate, then he must move them to a safe area before access is cut off by flood waters. However, it is wise to turn off electricity at the main switch in the building before evacuating. “Also lock your house before leaving,” PAGASA said.

During the flood, the PA-GASA advised to avoid areas subject to sudden flooding. It cautions not to attempt to cross rivers of flowing streams where water is above the knee; beware of water-cov-ered roads and bridges; avoid unnecessary exposure to the elements; eat only well-cooked food; and drink only bottled, boiled or treated water.

After the flood, the weath-er bureau recommends to re-enter the house with cau-tion using flashlight. “Be alert for fire hazards like broken wires,” it cautions. “Do not eat food and drink water until they have been checked for flood water contamination.”

The PAGASA also sug-gests of reporting broken util-ity lines (electricity, water, gas and telephone) to appropriate agencies/authorities. “Do not turn on the main switch or use appliances and other equip-ment until they have been checked by a component elec-trician,” it warns.

By HENRYLITO D. TACIO

Rescue operation (Photo courtesy of Dr Ted Esguerra)

EDGEDAVAO

ENVIRONMENT

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 20168 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

EDITORIALSelfless

FRIENDS understand friends.In this age of instagrams, instant food, instant coali-

tions and instant political allies, we wonder if there is still a thing called real selfless friendship.

It could sound mushy, but yes, despite his macho image, pres-ident-elect Rodrigo Duterte treasures his friends. And when it comes to his friends and family, his heart softens. Duterte must have a special standard for friendship because his friends, at least the ‘real’ ones, understand him and would rather shy away from the limelight than cause trouble or put their friend in jeopardy.

First, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, the passionate evangelist who went up on stage in Luneta to profess he would do anything for his friend. Last week, Pastor Quiboloy was reported to have felt slighted by the apparent impasse when Duterte started rattling off his cabinet members.

Yesterday, Pastor Quiboloy denied reports he was sulking. He said he understands his friend and that the interest of the country must come first before friendship. He said he will con-

tinue to support his friend and pray harder for him. He even went on fasting and called his members to do the same. Prayer and fasting are highest forms of meditation in Pastor Quiboloy’s faith.

And then there’s Maribojoc Mayor Leoncio Evasco, Duterte’s campaign manager who denied appointment to the Interior and Local Government. Duterte’s trusted political strategist was again given the position Secretary of the Cabinet in an an-nouncement made early Sunday by Duterte. Yesterday, Evasco said he is turning it down and is opting to walk away in retire-ment.

Is Evasco sulking? No, he is not.Evasco must be serious with his words. He has had enough

and as far as he is concerned, his mission is accomplished.That’s what makes Duterte everyone’s envy. His friends, they

are his treasures.Oh, if only this country can have more of the Quiboloys and

the Evascos who would do something for a friend without ask-ing something in return.

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

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

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EDGEDAVAOProviding solutions to a seamless global village.

ANTONIO M. AJEROEditor in Chief

Columnists: CARLOS MUNDA • HENRYLITO D. TACIO • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • ATTY. EMILY ZEN CHUA • GREGORIO G. DELIGERO • JOHN CARLO TRIA • VIDA MIA S. VALVERDE • FRED C. LUMBA • HENRY J. SCHUMACHER • VANESSA KATE MADRAZO Economic Analysts: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG

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VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

DAVAO may look meekly like it cannot qualify as a ‘killing field’ of politicians. But, an inquisitive look at local history

in the last 150 years will reveal that three pro-vincial governors fell in the hands of assassins, with each instance of murder committed by a different group.

Jose Pinzon y Purga, the Spanish governor, was killed by Muslims in 1860, while Edward Robert C. Bolton, an American quasi-civil gov-ernor, was assassinated by the natives in 1906. On the other hand, Ramon de los Cientos was tragically killed by the communist rebels in 1986.

Curiously, the killings, which were swift and brutal, were predicated on the alleged abuses committed of the leaders while they were still in office. The assassinations hap-pened in three different locations, namely Tagum City, in Davao del Norte; in Lacaron, Malita, Davao Occidental; and Bansalan, Davao del Sur.

A fourth governor was in the crosshairs over a decade when rebels ambushed him. Then Compostela Valley governor Jose Cabal-lero, while travelling with his convoy, was way-laid by insurgents on Aug. 8, 2001 at Barangay Ngan, Compostela town.

Only one was wounded in the attack; the provincial leader’s life was spared from harm.

Death by deceitThe highest colonial authority to die in

Moro hands in Davao was Spanish Jose Pinzon y Purga, Davao’s sixth governor; this took place in 1860. His death had a tragic, romantic twist after his intention to marry the daughter of

a datu from Tagum was turned down. Presumably, the request did not sit well with the chief who ordered his treacher-ous killing of the governor or that a Moro suitor was simply angry at the idea of a foreigner competing for his love interest.

The Jesuit accounts, though, are more be-lievable. Father Quirico More, SJ, in a January 2, 1865 letter written to his Mission Superior in Manila, wrote that the tragedy occurred due to the padre’s plan to establish a big Mandaya settlement in Bincungan, near the mouth of Tagum River. Pinzon was full of energy pro-moting the plan, and the Mandayas, the recip-ients of the initiative, were looking forward to seeing the governor inaugurate the new vil-lage.

But the euphoria generated by the event did not register well with the Moros who hatched the idea of assassinating him. To keep the plan from being discovered, the Moros pre-tended to welcome the project by helping the Mandaya finish the resettlement site in time for the inaugural and joined the Mandayas in receiving the governor.

The scheming Moros even invited the governor head to the ranch, pretending to of-

fer another celebration would complement the one prepared by the Mandayas. Someone, though, smelled dead rat in the plan and told Pinzon about it. But the governor set aside the suspicion.

After the celebration, the datus invited the governor to a room where a Moro chief hacked him from behind with a kris, a Muslim bladed weapon. A second datu at once ran up to de-liver the death blow by chopping off Pinzon’s head. His body was quartered and divided up to various Moro communities in Davao to pro-voke antagonism.

Bolton’s tragic deathA New Yorker, Edward C. Bolton, Davao’s

first quasi-civil governor, was appointed as civil governor of Davao was made by virtue of Act No. 787. He was recommended by his pre-decessor for his war exploits and military lead-ership. But, more importantly, his personal belief that Filipinos could be governed through peaceful means was a departure from the con-cept of pacification many American colonial leaders embraced at the time.

Bolton’s administration was focused on continuing his predecessors’ initiatives. Even with limited funds, he worked in linking set-tlements to primary roads. On the side, he attended to his own plantation, and sat down with native leaders to quell tension among dis-gruntled tribes. In the end, it was his personal indiscretion and the bitter deals and treatment the tribesmen got from plantation owners that contributed to his downfall.

On June 6, 1906, he was by hacked to death by Mangulayon, a Kulaman Manobo chief. His

foreman, Benjamin Christian, also an Amer-ican, died in the same tragic incident that oc-curred in Lacaron, Malita, Davao del Sur. His death resulted in a bloody vendetta launched by the American establishment. His remains were recovered and sent to New York, arriving there after over two months of transit in a me-tallic coffin encased in a wooden box.

Insurgents’ vendettaBefore becoming first governor of Davao

del Sur, Ramon delos Cientos Sr. was three-time elected mayor (1955-63) of Bansalan, Davao del Sur. Prior to his installation as provincial leader, he was a member of the Provincial Board of Davao del Sur in 1966 when Davao was not yet divided into three provinces.

In 1980, he returned to reclaim his old mu-nicipal position, earning a fourth term as Ban-salan mayor. But with the popular uprising in 1986, he lost his clout and had to surrender his position to an officer-in-charge who took over the mayoralty. Silently, though, he was prepar-ing for the next elections, hopeful he could re-turn to his position as municipal mayor.

Tragedy, however, struck when on Sep-tember 29, 1986, armed men jostled him away from the fiesta revelers and brought him to an isolated location where his abductors, lat-er identified as members of the New People’s Army (NPA) shot him in cold blood. The rea-son for the murder was later traced to agrarian problem involving the former governor’s land.

To his credit, the luminary the townspeo-ple called as ‘The Grand Old Man of Bansalan’ was accorded a hero’s burial, his legacy forever remembered by the people he served.

“LET ME be very clear, my friendship with my friends ends when the inter-est of the country begins. I would as

much as possible make you happy if you are my friend, but I will not allow anybody to color my decisions in government. From now on it is always the interest of the people of the Repub-lic of the Philippines that counts, period.”

That was what forthcoming President Ro-drigo R. Duterte said when asked about his re-action on the statements issued by the camp of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy that the religious lead-er was being eased out of the core group.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, a noted Ameri-can humorist and novelist, said it right: “Loyal-ty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”

But friendship is a different thing. “Re-member,” Cindy Lew reminds, “the greatest gift is not found in a store nor under a tree, but in the hearts of true friends.” How true. For he “who finds a faithful friend,” a Jewish saying states, “finds a treasure.”

Do not pity a person with only one friend. Instead feel sorry for someone who has a thousand acquaintances. Because once you find a true friend, it will be forever. Robert Alan said it well when he wrote: “The rain may be falling hard outside, but your smile makes it all alright. I’m so glad that you’re my friend. I know our friendship will never end.”

Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers the world has ever known, also said: “Friend-ship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”

Hollywood sex goddess Marilyn Monroe

said at one time: “When you have a good friend that really cares for you and tries to stick in there with you, you treat them like nothing. Learn to be a good friend be-cause one day you’re gonna look up and say I lost a good friend. Learn how to be respectful to your friends, don’t just start arguments with them and don’t tell them the reason, always remember your friends will be there quicker than your family. Learn to re-member you got great friends; don’t forget that and they will always care for you no matter what. Always remember to smile and look up at what you got in life.”

Monroe’s statement came to mind when I read the Jewish story about two men who were inseparable friends from childhood. Though their love bound them together, a se-ries of unfortunate circumstances forced them to live in separate and hostile countries.

One day, one of them -- a merchant -- vis-ited the other who is living in another coun-try. And it came to pass that the king was in-formed of a stranger from an enemy country was walking the streets of his capital. It so hap-pened that the merchant was walking at the street and was arrested. After a brief trial, the king ordered the executioner to cut his head.

The merchant fell to his knees and begged

the king to allow him to complete his business before he was killed. “Your majesty, all my money is invested with other merchants, and we have no written documents,” he pleaded. “If I die without clearing my financial affairs, my wife and children will be destitute. Please, permit me to go home and set my business in order and I will return.”

“What do you think of me, a fool?” the king replied. “Who has ever heard of a prisoner re-turning without force?”

“Your majesty,” the merchant said, “I have a friend in your country who will take my place while I am away.”

The king ordered the friend to his court and asked, “Are you willing to take his place for your friend? Understand that if he does not re-turn, you will be executed?”

“I count it an honor to offer my life as re-placement for my closest friend,” the man said. The king was astonished and allowed the merchant to go and do whatever unfinished business he had for one month. “If you don’t return in 30 days, we will cut off the head of your friend,” he was told.

On the last day of the month, the king wait-ed until dusk for the merchant to return. Just before the sun was to set, the king ordered the executioner to cut the head of the “prisoner.” As the man knelt before the great wooden block, there was a shout from those assem-bled, “The merchant has returned!”

As the merchant arrived, he saw that his friend was about to be executed. Quickly, he moved to the execution block and pushed his friend aside gently. “I am ready to assume my punishment,” he said, kneeling.

The other man was not easily convinced, “I am ready to die in your place,” he said firm-

ly. The two men argued for several minutes, each declaring his intention to be the one who would be executed. Meanwhile, the king and his court watched the discussion with amaze-ment.

Finally, the king ordered the sword to be removed, saying: “I have never witnessed such devotion in all my life. Both of you are par-doned.”

Next, the king called the two men before him. “Deep friendship is a rare jewel,” he told them. “I beg you, allow me to join you as a third.”

From that day on, the two men became companions of the king.

Now, find a friend; not just a friend but a true friend. An unknown author penned this statement: “Sometimes in life, you find a spe-cial friend. Someone who changes your life just by being a part of it. Someone who makes you laugh until you can’t stop. Someone who makes you believe that there really is good in the world. Someone who convinces you that there really is an unlocked door just waiting for you to open it. This is forever friendship.

“When you’re down and the world seems dark and empty, your forever friend lifts you up in spirit and makes that dark and empty world suddenly seem bright and full. Your forever friend gets you through the hard times, the sad times and the confused times. If you turn and walk away, your forever friend follows. If you lose your way, your forever friend guides you and cheers you on. Your forever friend holds your hand and tells you that everything is go-ing to be okay. And if you find such a friend, you feel happy and complete because you need not worry. You have a forever friend, and forever has no end.”

Three governors in assassins’ hands

The friends connection

Henrylito D. Taciohenrytacio@gmail.com

THINK ON THESE!

Antonio V. Figueroa

FAST BACKWARD

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 201610 NEWS

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EDGEDAVAO

legal water extraction to only one agency.

“LGUs, particularly those who are far from the national capital, cannot immediately act on issues regarding their local water resources because they have to wait for actions from the NWRB,” Solana said.

Solana also believed that the code be amended because it provides an avenue for corruption to happen in the agency and the alck of enough manpower to regularly moni-tor water extraction in every local government unit.

“Currently, the measure and limit of water appropria-tions are based on beneficial use whose limits are not clear-ly stated in the code. This gives the board a wide range of dis-cretion which will eventually lead to corruption,” the group explained.

Other points raised by the group include strengthening of the Philippine Environmen-tal Impact Statement (EIS) System by amending current Implementing Rules and Reg-ulations; support for the ad-vancement of the sustainable agriculture and food security; formulating of National Land Use Act; strengthening of pol-icies on renewable energy and eventually, stop building new coal-fired power plants.

The group also said the new administration should abolish the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and increasing of green spaces in urban areas and assessment of the im-plementation of the National Greening Program.

The group asked the pre-sumptive president to con-sider the group’s proposed 8-point environment agenda in his programs responsive with the Paris agreement on climate change.

Fuertes said Duterte should also give priority to environmental conservation to be able to attain economic growth.

“The environment should be well-taken care of because it is the source of raw mate-rials for production,” Fuertes added, saying having a bal-anced and healthful ecology can also lead to food security and sustainable agriculture.

Furtes said the 8-point environmental agenda was crafted by the members of the movement like Ecoteneo and Mission Davao.

Considered as an envi-ronment champion due to his landmark ordinances, Fuertes believed that the President will also bring Davao City’s green legislations to the na-tional level.

SHIELD FROM RAIN. A wife shields herself and her husband from the heavy downpour with an umbrella while traversing R. Magsaysay Avenue in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

the top, without blocking the authorized plates.

The LTO, she added, can-not ask shops to stop making plates because it is part of their livelihood.

Meanwhile, the govern-ment agency will be request-

ing for more refrigeration identifier, equipment used by LTO officers to classify vehicles that are using illegal refrigera-tion chemicals.

The LTO presently cannot intensify its apprehension be-cause of lack of equipment.

both parties would not file any “pleadings”, the case will be declared as “submitted for resolution”.

Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Myra Garcia-Fernandez and Melchor Sadang. (PNA)

uled meeting with Duterte at the KJC Prayer Mountain, however, it was cancelled due to the latter’s busy schedule.

After the meeting was called off, Quiboloy started a prayer and fasting for Duterte and for the leadership of the Philippines.

He said that he prayed that the country will experience the real change that the peo-ple have been craving from the start of the campaign, es-pecially that the new leader of the country is his close friend.

“Pinalanganin ko rin na si Mayor Duterte ay pagpalain, mag karoon ng malakas na panganagtawan, tamang karunongan, ang kanyang pamilya ay bigyan ng ka-lakasan, proteksyon,at pag pala mula sa langit. Sana sa kanyang pamamahala ay mag karoon ng pag babago sa ating bansa tulad ng inaasam natin,” Quiboloy said.

Quiboloy has also called for a national prayer and fast-ing to all members of his min-istry.

Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel Jr., president of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-La-ban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), which endorsed the candidacy of Duterte.

”Anyone can run. The Pres-ident will not have an official candidate but of course, mer-on siyang napupusuan. In def-erence to the institution and the presumptive president, I will not reveal kung ano ang pinag-usapan namin,” Cayeta-no said.

”But even the others, there have been some senators na sila ang nag-tanong, hindi sila ang sinabihan. Sila ang nag-ta-nong so sinagot din sila kung sino ang gusto,” he added.

Sotto, for his part, said his group was not particularly eyeing him but some individ-uals were pushing him to the top Senate post.

”The important thing is that we’re working the vision, the goal of the group – to help the Senate that is independent but is in a working relationship with the incoming president,”

Sotto said.Drilon said it would be too

early to talk about the Senate presidency but “anyone who wants to unseat me would have to get the gift from the 13 senators.”

”We will focus first on the canvassing of votes cast for president and vice president starting tomorrow,” Drilon told the media.

Drilon said the six LP members in the Senate re-mained intact, referring to partymates incumbent Sena-tors Recto, Benigno Aquino III and incoming Senators Francis ‘Kiko’ Pangilinan, Joel Villanue-va and Risa Hontiveros.

Drilon said he was not surprised about reports that some of the LP congressmen have jumped ship to the group of Duterte’s allies at the House of Representatives.

”In the House, that has happened in the past. I am gen-erally informed that the House LPs will not leave the party but would seek an alliance,” Drilon clarified to the media. (PNA)

Representative Mark Villar.Panelo was the former le-

gal counsel of the Ampatuan’s in the Maguindanao massacre to which some of the victims were members of the media.

Panelo in earlier interview said he already withdrew as legal counsel of the Ampatu-an’s last year although even if he has not withdrawn “the fear (not getting justice for the victims) has no basis be-cause the law is clear. He said if evidence is sufficient to get the question of truth that is re-quired for conviction then the accused will be convicted if he do not then the accuse will be acquitted.

On the other hand, the selection of Villar was strong-ly criticized citing conflict of interest considering that Vil-lar’s family is into the property development business. Villar is also criticized for accepting the offer considering that he is a newly-elected representa-tive of Las Piñas. This would mean abandoning the will of the people.

Meanwhile, Duterte’s re-serving positions for the com-munists drew mixed reactions

which the mayor reiterated he is not a communist and nei-ther former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III. Bello was named by Duterte as the in-coming peace negotiator with the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Demo-cratic Front (CPP-NDF).

“I am not a communist - Bello is not but one of the left or center. I never said I am a communist – I said I’m a pres-ident who comes from the left – left center,” he stressed.

So far, Duterte reserved four departments for the Reds: the Department of So-cial Welfare and Development, Department Environment and Natural Resources, Depart-ment of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Labor and Employment. Some names have been floated around like Bayan Muna party-list repre-sentative Karlos Zarate and Gabriela’s Luz Ilagan. Zarate is however a nominee for Bayan Muna, which won two seats while Ilagan, if she agrees, can serve only after one year. Ilag-an ran for councilor in Davao City’s third district but lost. (PNA)

Earlier, Duterte named lawyers Salvador Medialdea as Executive Secretary and Salvador Panelo as chief of the Presidential Communications Group; lawyer Vitaliano Agu-irre as secretary of the Depart-ment of Justice; Las Piñas Rep-resentative-elect Mark Villar as secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH); former Chief Exec-utive Officer and President of the Clark Development Proj-ect Arthur Tugade for the De-partment of Transportation and Communications; Carlos Dominguez for the Depart-ment of Finance; Lyceum of the Philippines president Pe-ter Laurel for the Department of Education; former press secretary Jesus Dureza for the peace process but focusing on the Moro group; former Secu-rities and Exchange Commis-sion chief Perfecto Yasay Jr. as acting secretary of the Depart-ment of Foreign Affairs; Alfon-so Cusi for the Department of Energy; Jose Calida as Solicitor General and former North Co-tabato governor Manny Piñol as secretary of the Depart-ment of Agriculture.

Duterte defended his choices. Duterte said Tugade, who is not a ‘kababayan’, is brilliant and good; Yasay is articulate; Cusi is an organi-

zation man and has expertise and credentials to run the gov-ernment; and Villar as good.

He said he asked Villar to draw him a map where they have property development projects. In those project ar-eas, Villar as DPWH secretary must not build roads and al-leys to avoid suspicion.

Duterte said he wants Tu-gade and Villar to fix their de-partments which he described as two corrupt organizations in the government.

He has yet to name his choices for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Agrarian Reform and the Social Services, which are reserved for the progres-sive left and not the commu-nist party, he clarified. DOLE is already for Bello, who was former secretary general for Mindanao of Bagong Alyan-sang Makabayan (Bayan) and after that served the Cabinet of past Presidents Corazon Aqui-no, Fidel V. Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Bello also chaired GRP Ne-gotiating Panel for Talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF that sealed the first deal with the commu-nists that is the Comprehen-sive Agreement on Human Rights and International Hu-manitarian Law (CAHRIHL).(PNA)

have at least seven years of experience as well as expertise on information and communi-cations technology (ICT), in-formation technology service management, information technology service manage-ment, information security management, cybersecurity, data private, e-Commerce, or human capital development in the ICT sector.

The law requires two of the three Undersecretaries and two of the four Assistant Secretaries to be career offi-cers, while one of the four As-sistant Secretaries need to be a licensed professional electron-

ics engineer.With the signing of the law,

the Information and Commu-nications Technology Office (ICTO), National Computer Center (NCC), National Com-puter Institute (NCI), Telecom-munications Office (TELOF), National Telecommunications Training Institute (NTTI), and all communications-focused operating units of DOTC have been abolished and will be transferred to the DITC.

The law also requires a six-month transition period for the full transfer of functions, assets and personnel of these agencies. (PNA)

beneficiaries of the SSF proj-ects are required to come up with an operational manual of

the equipments given them to include its maintenance and users. (PNA)

“We will be handing over our data base system and as-sessments of all the different activities as part of our termi-nal report under this admin-istration and this would be very useful to the next,” Ferrer stated.

Ferrer called on newly

elected officials and the gener-al public to keep their steadfast support for the peace negotia-tions. “I hope that we will final-ly achieve the much-needed national consensus to contin-ue with the implementation of the peace agreements,” she said. (PNA)

By Henrylito D. Tacio

TRAVEL

EDGEDAVAOINdulge!

FROM EXTREME ADVENTURES OF MOUNTAIN CLIMB-ING AND DEEP-SEA DIVING TO JUST WALKING OVER WHITE SAND BEACHES OR HAV-ING FUN AT NIGHT, DAVAO CITY HAS IT.  Visitors and guests will have a grand time during their stay in any places of the city. With a land area of 244,000 hectares, Davao City is ap-proximately 7.8 times the size of Cebu and three times that of the entire Metro Manila.  It is a melting pot of more than million people, both indige-nous and migrants now being acculturated into the main-stream of society, creating a unique cosmopolitan culture. If you have only a few days in Davao, the first place to visit is the Philippine Eagle Center – home to the country’s bird icon – in Malagos, Calinan District.  Leave your hotel ear-ly in the morning as the travel time is about one hour from the city to the center. Once you enter the center, don’t be surprised if you find yourself in the midst of a for-est.  “This sanctuary stimu-lates the tropical rainforest habitat where we breed eagles in captivity,” explains Den-nis Salvador, the executive of Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc. Here, you will have the opportunity of seeing “Pag-asa,” the first Philippine eagle hatched and bred in captivity.  Then, there’s“Mabuhay,” the 25th captive-bred eagle, which happened to be the first off-spring of “Pag-asa.” About two kilometers away from the eagle center is the Malagos Garden Resort.  Here, you will marvel the arrange-ment of flowers and ornamen-

tals – in various forms and hues – scattered throughout the resort.  Sculptures, done by national artist Napoleon Abueva, are displayed all over the place.  Next stopover is Eden Na-ture Park and Resort, a beauti-ful man-made resort nestled in the foothills of Mount Talomo in Toril.  At 2,650 feet above sea level, it offers a breath-tak-ing bird’s-eye view of the city and the Davao Gulf in the dis-tance.  Over 100,000 pine trees

are growing in the area, com-prising about 80 hectares.    A plus: the skycycling, where you pedal your way through the sky. From there, you need to go to the Davao Crocodile Park, located at the Riverfront Corporate City along Carlos P. Garcia Highway in Ma-a.  With about 700 crocodiles, the park is making waves as one of popular tourist spots in the city.  It is home to the coun-try’s largest crocodile named

Pangil, measuring over 18 feet in length. “The park is an establish-ment that showcases a state-of-the-art crocodile farming sys-tem in the Philippines,” says Philip “Sonny” Dizon, presi-dent of PSD Group of Compa-nies, the mother company of Davao Crocodile Park.  “It has the most recent crocodile farm design equipped with modern facilities and equipment.”

Exploring Davao City

Durian and mangosteen.

Eden’s Skycycle.

D’Bone Collector Museum. EXPLORING A4

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

Close encounter with birds at Malagos Garden Resort.

Davao City Hall.

Paw Patrol is a CG action adventure preschool series starring a pack of six heroic and hilarious pups led by Ryder, a tech-savvy and energetic boy who rescued all six pups and taught them PAW Patrol skills. Chase, a German Shepard Police Dog pup is a natural leader – athletic, smart, and “by the book” organized; while Marshall, the team’s brave firedog, is an excitable, all action six- year- old Dalmatian Pup. Other members of the team

are Zuma, a playful water loving Labrador pup, and the team’s Water Rescue Dog; Rubble a tough construction Bulldog with a heart of gold; Rocky a creative Mixed Breed Recycling pup; and Skye, a cute Cockapoo puppy, who’s also a fearless daredevil who will try anything with grace and a smile. With a unique blend of problem solving skills, cool vehicles, and physical humor, Paw Patrol works together to protect the Adventure Bay community. It takes preschoolers on exciting rescues with high-tech gadgets and transforming vehicles that translate into amazing consumer products opportunities. With values such as teamwork and heroism, the hit series is truly full of heart amidst action and adventure. The visit highlighted the heroic world of Paw Patrol and its Pup activity stations such as the Rubble Building Station, Rocky Recycling Station, Zuma Pup Pup Boogie Dance Station, Skye Face Painting Salon, and the Marshall and Chase Rescue station. Fun stage games also delighted kids during the event. Kids became little Patrollers for a day as they got their pictures taken at

KIDS OF ALL AGES WERE THRILLED WHEN PAW PATROL’S CHASE AND MARSHALL RECENTLY MADE AN AMAZING STOP AT SM MALL OF ASIA MUSIC HALL, giving them the rare opportunity to Meet and Greet these awesome Nickelodeon Pup heroes. What made the event really special is that it is their first visit to Southeast Asia.

A2 INdulge! EDGEDAVAOEVENT

The Paw Patrol Team-NICKELODEON’s Senior Director, Licensing Consumer Products Southeast Asia Cindy Loh and Licensing Executive, Consumer Products Southeast Asia Janice Sou with BATES Licensing and Entertainment, Inc. President Ito Feliciano, and Toy Kingdom AVP-Marketing Pearl Datiles. Also shown in photo is BATES Group Managing Director Toni Bautista with members of the team: Reeze V. La Paz, Karl Michael Domingo, Eric Bordeos, Nini Pacolor, and Marlin Lucero.

It’s was fun family day for Jerilee Blanco and son Jacob as they finally met Paw Patrol’s Chase and Marshall.

Paw Patrol Meet and Greet at Toy Kingdom

Paw Patrol Pups amazing vehicles- Chase’s Police truck, Marshall’s Fire truck, Zuma’s Hovercraft, Rubble’s Digger, Rocky’s Recycling truck, and Skye’s Helicopter.

During the event, kids also had the chance to see the latest collection of Paw Patrol toys and accessories. These are available at all Toy Kingdom Express outlets in

SM Stores and Toy Kingdom Stores in most SM Supermalls. Also visit their website w w w . t o y k i n g d o m . p h ; ToyKingdomPH at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

The winning face of Terrence Lloyd Tambago as he got PUP Stamp of approval on his Paw Patrol Certificate after finishing Pup Pocket games.

Amazing Paw Patrol Pups and their vehicles were among the exciting highlights of the recent Paw Patrol Meet & Greet at Toy Kingdom and MOA Music Hall.

Martina and Lukas Horn wearing Paw Patrol inspired outfits beside Pup heroes Chase and Marshall.

Christian Rhomel Mariano from Alpha Fire Brigade Brotherhood Association inspired kids to become little patrollers as he shared some facts about fire, as well as duties of a firefighter and basic tips on fire prevention.

Zuma’s cool Hovercraft is an attraction at the recent Paw Patrol Meet & Greet. Skye’s Helicopter is a fun ride for little girls.Rubble’s bright Digger was a fun sight at the Meet & Greet.

Little kid patrollers’ heartfelt smiles with Paw Patrol’s Chase and Marshall.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

F O R M E R C O N G R E S S W O M A N NOW SENATOR-ELECT RISA HONTIVEROS might be one of the most recognizable faces in Philippine politics. But before Risa became known as a legislator, she was in fact a stage actress when she was young. A throwback photo posted on Facebook showing Risa Hontiveros with Broadway actress Lea Salonga, Raymond Lauchengco, and Monique Wilson quickly went viral. The said photo was taken during their days in Repertory Philippines where the lady legislator was part of the play Sound of Music. Rinna Estrella-Gustilo posted the 1980 photo in the Facebook group Memories of Old Manila. Moreover, a netizen even shared a YouTube video of Risa, Lea, Raymond, and Monique’s guesting in the noontime TV program, Student Canteen.

Risa Hontiveros’s win last May 9 is one of the highlights of the 2016 elections. People quipped that Risa did a Pia Wurtzbach because she won on

her third try to become one of the 24 senators of the country. She entered the Magic 12 by placing ninth overall with over15.9 million votes.

TO CELEBRATE HER 27TH BIRTHDAY, Kapuso actress Kris Bernal spent time with the young kids and parents of the Rehabilitation and Empowerment of Adults and Children with Handicap (REACH) Foundation.The choice for her birthday charity event was brought about her role in the recently concluded GMA Telebabad soap Little Nanay. She played Tinay, a mother with a special condition that made her act and think a lot younger than her age.For Kris, the role allowed her to connect with special kids and PWDs at a deeper level.“Alam ko yung life nila eh. Mas naiintindihan ko sila, alam ko yung feeling nila. Kumbaga, parang nagkatawang tao ako sa kanila eh,” she said.During the program held on May 20 at the Lingap Karunungan Compound in Mandaluyong, she got emotional as the kids sang for her and handed her paper flowers and pieces of artwork.“Kaya ako naging teary-eyed kasi [kahit paano] alam ko yung buhay nila. Sanay ako makatanggap ng regalo pero it’s just that [I saw the] effort na [binigay nila]… Alam ko yung capabilities nila, yung kaya nilang gawin, yung strengths nila so mas madali [para sakin

ngayon na] pakitunguhan [sila],” she added.On her birthday, Kris didn’t make any extravagant wishes, but rather hoped for the kind of gratefulness that she saw in the

kids.“Ang saya saya nila sa notebook, ang sayaya saya nila sa spaghetti. Sana ganun din ako maka-appreciate ng maliliit [at] simple na bagay,” she concluded.

INdulge! A3EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

Old photo of Risa Hontiveros and Lea Salonga goes viral on Facebook

Kris Bernal celebrates birthday with special kidsJaclyn Jose bags Best Actress award at CannesTHE MILLIONAIRE’S WIFE ACTRESS JACLYN JOSE IS NAMED BEST ACTRESS AT THE 69TH ANNUAL CANNES FILM FESTIVAL for her portrayal of Rosa in the Brillante Mendoza film Ma’ Rosa. The festival was held from May 11 to 22 in Cannes, France. “Moved” and “surprised,” Jose thanked the members of the Jury and Mendoza in her speech. “I’m at a loss for words! I am so surprised and moved. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the Jury members. I thank the director Brillante Mendoza, whose instructions I simply followed.” “He’s a brilliant director, a genius. I am so happy you liked the film. I’d like to salute the Philippine people,” she added. Ma’ Rosa is about a woman who is struggling to survive, going as far as to selling drugs on the side just to put food on the table for her beloved children.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

PG

PG/*PG 11:35 | 2:20 LFS / *5:10 | 8:00 LFS

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

12:00 | 3:00 | 6:00 | 9:00 LFS

James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,Jennifer Lawrence

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR/

*X-MEN: APOCALYPSE 3D Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. /

*James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,Jennifer Lawrence

May 23 – 24, 2016

PG 12:00 | 2:00 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 8:00 | 10:00 LFS

THE ANGRY BIRDS

Peter Dinklage, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Sudeikis

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

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,Jennifer Lawrence

A4 INdulge!TRAVEL

Now, let’s do the tour in the heart of the city.    Start at the city hall in San Pedro Street.  A few distant walk is the legislative building, whose façade has the famous freedom statue designed by the talented Kublai Millan.  Adjacent to the statue is the his-toric San Pedro Cathe-dral.  Not far away is the city’s repository of its cultural and historical heritage – the Museo Dabawenyo in Pichon Street.  It has galleries that showcase the lo-cal tribes’ cultures and way of living, artifacts and information of the city’s history and a hall of changing exhibits, art shows and various edu-cational enrichment ac-tivities. Don’t miss going to the  D’Bone Collector Museum (shades of one of those Smithsonian museums in Washing-ton, D.C.) in barangay

Bucana.  You will be mesmerized to see a 41-foot or 12.4-meter long sperm whale (which has the largest species of toothed whale).  Bones and skeletons of snakes, tarsier, marine turtles, various fish species, different sizes of the mouths of sharks, and birds abound. “Each group that goes to the museum gets a tour about the animals found in each of the dis-plays.  One of the things we show to them is how some of the animals have died due to humans throwing garbage into the ocean or canals and how these kill the whales and dolphins,” explains Darrel Blatchley, the museum’s curator and owner.

Man-made lake at People’s Park.

EXPLORING A1

EDGEDAVAO VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

DAVAO PARTNER ESTABLISHMENT

GENSAN PARTNER ESTABLISHMENT

Freedom statue and San Pedro Cathedral.

From there, take a taxi and tell the driver to bring you to People’s Park (yes, its Davao’s counter-part of Manhattan’s Central Park) in Le-gazpi Street.  It’s a place  where people gather around, stroll and cross bridges, watch man-made waterfalls, or sit un-der the beautiful trees. The city is one of the world’s leading producers and ex-porters of mango, pomelo, banana, papaya, and mango-steen. Its fertile vol-canic soil makes it most suitable for sus-tained production of these tastiest tropical fruits in the coun-try.  Don’t miss eat-ing the exotic durian, famous because of its spike and offensive scent (“It smells like hell, but tastes like heaven,” one scribe noted).

If swimming is your thing, then go to the adjacent Is-land Garden City of Samal, which can be reached in just a mat-ter of 10 minutes by boat.  Highly recom-mended are the Pearl Farm Beach Resort, Bluejaz Beach Re-sort and Water Park (home to the region’s highest water slides), Maxima Aquafun, and Paradise Beach Resort. Just a reminder or two when you are in Davao City: Drink-ing of alcoholic bev-erages is allowed only until 1 am – be-yond that until 8 in the morning, drink-ing is strictly prohib-ited.  Smoking is also not allowed – except in the house, private vehicle, and in the smoking area of es-tablishments that ap-plied for exception. Welcome to Davao City!

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016 11EDGEDAVAO

COMMUNITY SENSEVXI Phl joins Tebow Fun RunMOTIVATED by the

cause to help Filipino children in need, VXI

Philippines showed its sup-port to Tebow Cure Run 2016: Run to Fuel Hope- a fund-rais-ing event organized by Tebow CURE Hospital last May 1, 2016 at SM Lanang Premier.

VXI quickly responded to Tebow CURE’s call to partic-ipate and be one of the major sponsors of the said event. Hundreds of VXI employees chose to spend their Sunday morning in reaching out to the community and help drive public awareness in promoting the hospital’s philanthropy.

Headed by Ms. Debbie Santos, VXI’s VP for PH Talent Acquisition and Corporate Branding, and Mr. Anant Singh, VP for Operations, the partici-

pants gathered in the venue as early as 4:00 am to participate in the 1k and 5k runs, with routes situated within Davao City.

“This is a simple company initiative that desires to help raise awareness about the pedi-atric orthopedic children from Tebow CURE, Davao,” said Mr. Anant Singh. “The activity in-spires everyone, not only the VXI employees but also its com-munity to take their love for running to a higher and more meaningful level. This is an op-portunity for us to take a break from work and have fun while helping others.” he added.

Because of the support given by VXI community in this project, they were able to raise Php 106, 930.00 that can help fund the medical care

for children with treatable conditions like clubfoot and spinal deformities.

Tebow CURE’s Devel-opment and Sustainability Officer, Vincent J. Bitana, ex-pressed his utmost gratitude for the company’s participa-tion in their fund raising event, which is also in line for their first anniversary.

“On behalf of CURE Philip-pines, Inc. (Tebow CURE Hospi-tal), I would like to thank VXI’s active participation in helping us raise awareness and reve-nues to help fund our charity work. We were able to raise Php 440,000.00 less all the expens-es incurred. The amount that your company gave [will be] used to provide life changing surgeries for physically disabled children.”

Alongside with the run, VXI’s new corporate logo was also revealed that morning. Shirts and visors with the re-newed face of the company were given to all the runners as souvenir.

VXI’s participation in this charity fun run was just a proof that they’re living up with their current core values. This recently concluded event was just a portion of the bigger surprise that the company is planning to unveil in the com-ing months.

Tebow CURE Hospital is one of the primary outreach initiatives of the Tim Tebow Foundation. They’ve been pro-viding pediatric, orthopedic and surgical care to children with treatable physical disabil-ities.

AN environmental organi-zation has propounded a 13-point action plan to

ease the country’s uphill battle against wastes and toxics under the administration of presump-tive President Rodrigo Duterte.

The EcoWaste Coalition through its Davao City-based af-filiate Interface for Development Interventions (IDIS) will sub-mit today its proposed “Action Agenda on Wastes and Toxics” to Peter Tiu Laviña, spokesper-son and member of the Duterte Transition Committee.

“As an environmental orga-nization dedicated to the pro-motion of a zero waste and tox-ic-free society, we are pleased to put forward the ‘Action Agenda on Wastes and Toxics’ that we hope President Duterte will actively pursue in his first 100 days in office,” said Aileen Lu-cero, Coordinator, EcoWaste Coalition.

The 13-point “Action Agen-da on Wastes and Toxics,” if car-ried out, will spell a big differ-ence as to how the new govern-ment will tackle our persistent problem with the growing quan-

tity and toxicity of wastes gener-ated by households, institutions, businesses and industries, the EcoWaste Coalition said.

Citing information from the National Solid Waste Manage-ment Commission, the group drew attention to the projected waste generation in 2016 esti-mated at 40,087.46 tons per day nationwide.

“This figure does not in-clude wastes that are illegally shipped into our country in the guise of ‘recycling’ such as the infamous garbage from Canada,” the group said.

The group expressed its hope that the Duterte presiden-cy will take swift and decisive action to ensure compliance to major environmental laws such as R.A. 9003 (the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act), R.A. 8749 (the Clean Air Act), R.A. 9275 (the Clean Water Act) and R.A. 10771 (the Green Jobs Act), as well as to “The People’s Right to Chemical Safety: A Fif-teen-Point Human Rights Agen-da” issued by the Commission on Human Rights.

To contribute to the protec-

tion of human health and the en-vironment, the EcoWaste Coali-tion urged Duterte to put the fol-lowing points into action during his first 100 days in office:

1. Appoint a genuine pro-environment and pro-peo-ple Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary with an exemplary track record in environmental protection.

2. Announce the govern-ment’s program to determined-ly combat waste and pollution through Zero Waste strategies and practices sans incineration at his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).

3. Convene and chair the first meeting of the National Sol-id Waste Management Commis-sion (NSWMC) and set a com-prehensive Zero Waste agenda to reduce the volume and toxic-ity of the country’s waste.

4. Instruct the DENR Secre-tary to take full leadership and responsibility in ensuring that the Zero Waste agenda is put into operation by the entire gov-ernment machinery.

5. Order a participatory

review and analysis of where the public funds for managing wastes go and recommend pri-ority use of taxpayers’ money to support and advance the Zero Waste agenda.

6. Ensure the proper release and use of the allocated budget from the General Appropria-tions Act of 2016 for capacity building programs towards the effective implementation of Re-public Act 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

7. Make the NSWMC and all its members accountable for the performance of their responsi-bilities towards the effective en-forcement of R.A. 9003, includ-ing providing quarterly submis-sion of accomplishment reports that should be publicly available.

8. Stop all undertakings that are in breach of the incineration ban under R.A. 8749 and R.A. 9003, including the ongoing for-mulation of “waste-to-energy” guidelines by the NSWMC.

9. Suspend the develop-ment and implementation of proposed coal power plants in the pipeline and so-called

Watchdog proposes action agenda on wastesand toxics for Duterte’s first 100 days in office

THE Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC), an attached agency

of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 (JJWA) with the theme “RA 9344: Isang Dekadang Pag-asa” at the SMX Conven-tion Center, SM Lanang Pre-mier on Friday, May 20.

“Republic Act 9344 cov-ers the different stages in-volving children at risk and children in conflict with the law (CICL) from prevention to rehabilitation and reinte-gration. To celebrate the 10th year anniversary of its enact-ment, we will showcase the milestones of the law imple-mentation and, most impor-tantly, recognize the valuable contribution of our partner

stakeholders,” said DSWD Assistant Regional Director for Administration Ma. Vilia L. Vigil.

Highlighting the event was an Artshop which aimed at encouraging youth partic-ipants to communicate and promote this year’s theme in a most creative format. Partic-ipants include children from various youth care facilities here -Poblacion A, Buhangin, Pag-asa, Agdao, Paginhawaan Drop-in Center, Talomo A and DSWD’s Regional Rehabilita-tion Center for Youth.

The RJJWC is a poli-cy-making, coordinating and monitoring body created for the implementation of JJWA. Its mission is to promote and protect the rights of children in conflict with the law under a restorative justice and wel-fare system. (DSWD)

JJWC celebrates juvenile welfare act 10th year

THE Interface Develop-ment Interventions, Inc. (IDIS) called on the

incoming Duterte administra-tion to devolve the enforce-ment provisions in the Phil-ippine Water Code from the National Water Regulatory Board (NWRB) to local gov-ernment units.

“We want the NWRB to allow local government units to assess and monitor the water resources in their re-spective areas because the central office does not have the sufficient human resourc-es to conduct round-the-clock implementation of the Philippine Water Code.”, said IDIS executive director Ann Fuertes.

“Since the LGUs are more familiar with their local water resources, they can immedi-ately conduct ocular inspec-tions and field assessments, without waiting for the NWRB team from the central office. Similarly, in monitoring the Code’s implementation, the local LGU can recommend sanctions or revocation of the water permit if the water user is found violating the national water code.”, she said.

This agenda is first in an 8-Point Environmental Agen-da that IDIS, together with civil society groups belonging to the Sustainable Davao City Movement (SDCM), submit-ted to Duterte transition team member Pete Laviña last week, May 19, 2016.

The lobby for the devolu-tion of the NWRB’s functions came from the problems that the city local government encountered when it tried to monitor the water extraction from the Talomo-Lipadas watershed, the city’s current source of drinking water. In 2001, the city council had passed a Water Code to curb the extraction of drinking wa-ter for industrial use but its implementation was blocked b y the NWRB.

“There have been efforts

to dialogue with and con-vince the NWRB to deputize the LGU to do the regulating and monitoring functions but until now the MOA has not been finalized .. The MOA which was prepared and pre-sented by the technical work-ing group (TWG) formed by Mayor Duterte in 2009 has remained unsigned, with the NWRB refusing to provide their comments on the latest draft.”, Fuertes said.

According to Fuertes, the NWRB considers Davao’s local water ordinance as supersed-ing the Philippine Water Code which mandated the NWRB as the lone authority to issue water extraction and monitor-ing permits.

“But the problem is they do not have the enough per-sonnel to monitor the coun-try’s water resources.”, she said,”which created a situa-tion where the central agency is limited in carrying out its mandate, and local govern-ment units have no control over their own water resourc-es.”

“The NWRB only records water extractors which have been given permits but it does not record or monitor small scale water extractors which have been proliferating and which can result to over-ex-traction of water resources. “

“This is where LGUs can come in because the local knowledge of the LGU can complement the monitoring and regulation functions of the national agency.”

Fuertes recommended that the NWRB should coordi-nate with the LGUs to ensure that the national data on wa-ter extractions are regularly updated.

“This is to ensure that they become mindful that our wa-ter resources are not infinite and therefore, extraction should be carefully and con-stantly monitored to ensure the sustainable management of our water.”, she said.

Watershed advocacy group calls on pres. Digong to amend national water code

MEMORY CARD. A young hawker shows a knock-off version of a popular memory card brand which he sells for only P180 a piece along San Pedro Street in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

F WATCHDOG, 13

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 201612CLASSIFIEDS EDGEDAVAO

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO GENSAN PARTNERS

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO PARTNER ESTABLISHMENTS

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016 13EDGEDAVAO NEWS

nos trust us to fulfill their var-ious mobile needs. We value this trust, and we are continu-ously improving our network so our customers would truly live digital and enjoy a Smart Life,” he said.

PLDT and Smart have set

aside about P43 billion in cap-ital expenditures this year, the bulk of which is budgeted to boost internet services in the country, including the recently announced initial deployment of LTE-Advanced also known as 4.5G.

Smart... FROM 14

IP leader’s... FROM 4 Watchdog... FROM 11

DOLE’s... FROM 6ASEAN... FROM 14the Russia-ASEAN summit.

Although this partnership entails a complex process in-volving detailed talks with each country, Putin empha-sized that “this is the right road to take.”

“We need to unite the different integration organi-zations’ efforts, in the areas where this is possible at least, in order to avoid duplication, parallel work, and general-

ly create a better climate for business development,” said Putin.

The ASEAN-Russia Sum-mit was held to commemorate 20 years of ASEAN-Russia di-alogue relations with the aim to sum up the achievements of the cooperation and chart its future direction. This objective is set out in the Sochi Decla-ration and in the 2016-2020 Comprehensive Plan. (PNA)

for the killing of his nephew in 2004 and a brother in 2005 over land conflict. They also accused Omao of allegedly engaging in trading marijuana from 2005 to 2006.

The rebel group also accused Omao of grabbing about 40 hectares of land and allegedly killing a certain “Nido Omeran” in Brgy. Mana-gok. They also accused Omao of other crimes from alleged cattle rustling to extortion of villagers in relation to the processing of their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT).

Omao told reporters ear-lier that they were processing their CADT application.

The NPA also accused Omao of recruiting members to the Alamara paramilitary group in the villages of Caban-glasan and the city of Malayba-lay and allegedly encouraging fellow IPs in killing NPA mem-bers. They also accused Omao of rigging a subcontract with road construction contractor Ulticon Builders Inc. and sell-ing sand for his business.

The 10-paragraph state-ment also included their ac-knowledgment of two other victims of the incident, Bae Thelma Saieto, another IP mandatory representative from Aglayan and Omao’s aide Sammy Talucdo. They vowed support for the two victims’ financial needs.

On May 17, a day after Omao was killed, the Bukid-non Sangguniang Panlalaw-igan passed a resolution con-demning the “brutal killing” and called on the Philippine National Police to conduct immediate and thorough in-vestigation to bring the perpe-trators to justice.

They said Omao’s kill-ing, done in broad daylight, shocked not only the IP com-munity but the whole city.

“The incident is a remind-er that criminality in our place is clear and present danger de-stroying indiscriminately peo-ple’s lives which adds another statistic of incidents of deaths in the Province of Bukidnon,” the resolution said.

They said the IP com-

munity is in grief for the loss of their representative in the city council, practical-ly depriving them of their voices and aspirations. In another resolution, they ex-pressed their condolences and sympathy to the family. ‘Disciplinarian’

Bede Blise described her father as a disciplinarian who became a mentor to her, her siblings and others who worked with him. She said that although her father was strict on guiding his children on their chosen careers, he was easy to talk to and was “kidding around” when it was time for it.

“But in work, he was straight. He wants you to stick to your expected tasks,” she added.

Omao, the first ever IP mandatory representative to the Malaybalay City council started as a volunteer for the IPA of the Diocese of Malayba-lay under the Jesuit Fr. Vincent Cullen, who pioneered the IP apostolate in Bukidnon.

Bede Blise told MindaN-ews her father never com-pleted a degree but was never ashamed of it. She said he en-couraged his fellow Lumads them to work for the improve-ment of their lives.

Omao’s father was a ba-rangay chieftain, so he fol-lowed his steps and worked as a village councilman. He ran for barangay chair but lost, she added. He continued his volunteer work with IPA as a community organizer until he was selected IP mandatory representative.

“Even before the govern-ment mandated the selection of IP representatives in local government, he was already doing that job on his own as a volunteer,” she said.

On May 20, local govern-ment personnel, support-ers and the police escorted Omao’s hearse as it was trans-ferred from the Villanueva Funeral Homes in the pobla-cion to his home in Miglamin village in the city’s Basakan district. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews contributor)

that each implementer could flexibly interpret according to the dictate of circumstances, context, and local situation, leading to confusion, com-plaints about delay, lack of transparency, petty graft, po-litical patronage, and lately, adverse audit findings by the COA,” she explained.

With the integrated manu-

al of operations, the labor and employment chief assured SPES stakeholders and imple-menters of more uniform and standardized SPES, clear pro-cess cycle times, and concise reporting mechanism.

“We have a definitive and comprehensive manual that SPES implementers can use as “bible” in carrying out the

mandate of Republic Act No. 9547, the law that amended the original SPES law, or R.A. 7323,” she said.

Secretary Baldoz ex-pressed appreciation for the presence in the orientation of DOLE partners from the Con-gress of the Philippines who explained the relevance of the amendments to the SPES law

and provided an update on the status of the SPES amendatory bill.

She expressed the hope that the 16th Congress could still pass the amendatory bill to the SPES law even if its re-maining working days are only very short before it adjourns its third and final session next week. (PNA)

waste-to-energy facilities. In-stead, prioritize the develop-ment and mainstreaming of clean and renewable energy projects to meet the country’s projected energy requirements.

10. Order the NSWMC to fast track the implementation of the “National Framework and Strategy on the Role of the Informal Sector in Waste Man-agement,” including ensuring the safety of workers handling electronic wastes.

11. Draw up the govern-ment’s legislative agenda for the environment, which should, among others, include the pas-sage of laws a) banning plastic bags, b) restricting toxic chemi-cals in packaging, c) establishing

extended producer responsibili-ty for electrical and electronic equipment, and for packaging, and d) ensuring public’s right to know through the Pollutant Re-lease and Transfer Register.

12. Ensure early ratification and implementation of major multilateral environmental and chemical agreements such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Minamata Convention on Mercury and the Basel Con-vention Ban Amendment.

13. Order the re-export of Canadian garbage back to its origin and initiate policy re-forms to effectively block foreign waste dumping in the country, including ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 201614 EDGEDAVAO

COMPETITIVE EDGE

DAVAO City Water Dis-trict advises of a water service interruption

on May 25 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM affecting some Cali-nan areas particularly portion of Davao-Bukidnon National Highway (from crossing Brgy. Lacson to Sto.Nino, Gumalang), Upper Lacson and Gumalang.

This water service inter-ruption will give way to the tapping of the newly installed 50mm diameter Polyvinyl Chloride pipeline to the exist-ing 50mm diameter Polyeth-ylene pipeline for the mainline improvement at Purok 5, Up-per Lacson in Calinan. Once completed, said project will allow for accommodation of additional service connections.

DCWD general manager Edwin V. Regalado asks for the understanding and coopera-

tion of would-be affected cus-tomers. He also advises them to store enough water prior to the scheduled water inter-ruption. Water supply may be restored earlier if work goes smoothly or later if unforeseen problems arise.

The general public may visit DCWD website (www.davao-water.gov.ph) and of-ficial Facebook page (www.facebook.com/davaowater) or call the Central Information Unit / Call Center through the 24-hour hotline 297-DCWD (3293) and press “1” on their phone dial to listen to latest daily water updates. They may also call / text 0927-7988966, 0925-5113293 and 0908-4410653 for other updates, complaints, queries and mat-ters pertaining to DCWD ser-vices. (Jamae G. Dela Cruz)

IN celebration of the 2016 Philippine Ocean Month, Davao City Wa-

ter District invites every-one to come and watch lo-cal bands compete in Mga Awit Para sa Karagatan battle of the bands on May

27, 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Bogser’s by the Sea, Matina Aplaya.

Each band will be play-ing one original composi-tion and one cover song about environment or wa-ter or water conservation/

protection or environmen-tal issues and one cover song of the band’s choice.

Through this activity, DCWD reminds everyone the importance of water, environment and coastal and marine resource pro-

tection and conservation. This contest is organized by DCWD’s Public Infor-mation/Relations Division (PI/RD) under the Commu-nity Relations and External Affairs Department. (Ka-trina Belen M. Roble)

Bands compete in Ocean Month celeb on May 27

Water service interruption in some Calinan areas

May 25, 2016

PLDT wireless unit Smart Communications scored twin victories in the hot-

ly contested postpaid segment in the first quarter, posting the fastest growth both in terms of revenue and subscriber base.

Smart’s postpaid revenues rose 16% year-on-year, more than five times faster than competition’s 3% revenue growth. Smart added P614 million to its postpaid reve-nues, ending the quarter with P4.3 billion.

On top of this, Smart ac-quired new postpaid subscrib-ers at a much faster rate than competition did, 25% vs 4%. Smart grew its postpaid sub-scriber base by 322,000 to end the first quarter with 1.6 mil-lion subscribers.

Best plans and perks

“Smart’s continued post-paid leadership can be at-tributed to our compelling de-vice offers, improved custom-er experience, as well as to the groundbreaking content part-nerships that have enabled us to offer a wider array of digital

services that are relevant to our customers,” said Smart and PLDT executive vice pres-ident and head of consumer business Ariel Fermin.

Smart achieved all-time high iPhone sales in the first quarter of 2016, with sales volume up by 60% year-on-year. This was recorded after Smart launched unbeatable postpaid offers for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Sub-scribers can get a free iPhone 6s at Plan 2000 with a super-sized 10 GB data allowance for all their videos, music, and games. On top of this, they will get All-Month Surf for access to their favorite websites and apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter; plus 150 minutes of all-net calls and 200 all-net texts.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 6s Plus is free at Plan 2499 on a 30-month contract, with a 15GB monthly data allowance, All-Month Surf, 300 minutes of all-net calls, and 300 all-net texts.

Last March, Smart was the first to offer the Samsung

Galaxy S7 which comes free at Surf Plus Plan 1999. This monthly plan is inclusive of a 9GB data allowance, 150 min-utes of calls and 200 texts to all networks, and free access to an app chosen by the subscriber.

Meanwhile, Smart’s pre-mium postpaid brand Smart Infinity offered its subscribers two units of the Samsung Gal-axy S7 plus a Samsung Gear VR under the Infinity LTE Con-sumable Plan 8000.

A state-of-the-art virtual reality headset, the Samsung Gear VR is set to usher in the next frontier in mobile enter-tainment, instantly transport-ing users in 3D and comput-er-generated animated worlds, as well as 180- or 360-degree live action scenes.

Richest digital content

Also driving postpaid growth was the wide breadth of video and digital content made available by Smart’s partnerships with the world’s content leaders. An example of this was Smart’s partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures,

which enabled Smart to take the hit film Batman v Super-man to the digital realm.

Smart opened a Batman v Superman online portal where subscribers could watch ex-citing videos and join interac-tive online challenges. Smart Postpaid subscribers, as well as Smart Prepaid and Smart Bro subscribers, also had the chance to win a trip for two to Japan or Hong Kong with every top-up of Big Bytes promos.

Smart also partnered with Uber to provide its passengers with free in-car Smart WiFi – a first in Southeast Asia. With this service, more Filipinos have experienced the Smart Life even while struck in traffic or breezing through the me-tropolis.

Improved customer experience

Fermin said Smart’s post-paid growth indicates en-hanced consumer trust in the company, as it boosts efforts to improve customer experience.

“We are happy that Filipi-

Smart records fastest growthin mobile postpaid

THE Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is mulling over

the establishment of a com-prehensive free trade zone with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Shang-hai Cooperation Organization (SCO), following the recent-ly-concluded Russia-ASEAN Summit in Sochi, Russia.

The Embassy of the Rus-sian Federation in the Philip-pines issued on Monday the Sochi Declaration, containing the support of ASEAN coun-tries to Russia’s proposal of broadening economic cooper-ation with the EAEU and SCO.

”Explore the possibility of mutually beneficial coop-eration among ASEAN, EAEU, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” read the Sochi Declaration adopted at the summit on May 20.

“Russia put forward a pro-

posal to launch a joint feasibil-ity study of a comprehensive free trade area between ASE-AN and EAEU, ASEAN will con-sider this initiative,” it added.

Russian President Vlad-imir Putin echoed this pro-spective trilateral economic partnership, noting that all ASEAN member states have expressed “unanimous sup-port for this idea.”

“At this summit, we pro-posed that our ASEAN part-ners reflect on the establish-ment of a comprehensive free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and ASEAN, and at the work-ing breakfast, we exchanged views on how we could de-velop links between the inte-gration processes underway in the Asia-Pacific region and in the Eurasian region,” Putin said at a news conference after

ASEAN explores free tradezone with EAEU, SCO

THE Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) and the Social Secu-

rity System (SSS) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to undertake cooper-ation initiatives in the areas of market education and

Small, Medium, Emerging (SME) Board promotion. The agreement is in support of the efforts of the PSE-PCCI Capital Market Development Committee and the Philip-pine Social Security Com-mission.

An integral project in the agreement is the roll out of basic stock market investing seminars for SSS employees and members an allocation by the SSS of P1 billion-in-vestment facility for the Phil-ippine stock market in SMEs.

The PSE and the Philip-pine Chamber of Commerce and Industry established the PSEPCCI Capital Market Development Committee in 2013 with members from the government and private sectors to encourage SME

listings in the PSE and to in-crease awareness about the Philippine stock market’s product and services as well as stock investing.

Shown in the photo (L-R): PCCI Honorary Chairman and PSE Director Edgardo G.

Lacson; PSE COO Roel A. Re-fran; PSE President and CEO Hans B. Sicat; PSE Chairman Jose T. Pardo; SSS Chairman Juan B. Santos; SSS President and CEO Emilio De Quiros, Jr. and SSS Commissioner Di-ana V. Pardo-Aguilar.

PSE and SSS ink MOA for capital market development partnershipF SMART, 13F ASEAN, 13

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016 15

UPSET-MINDED OKC

EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

Thunder rout Warriors in Game 3, lead series 2-1

TIGHT GUARDING. Kevin Durant scored 33 points, Russell Westbrook had 30 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds, and the Oklahoma City Thunder rolled past the defending champion Golden State Warriors in Game 3.

BEHIND 33 points from Kevin Durant and 30 by Russell Westbrook, the

Oklahoma City Thunder hum-bled defending NBA champion Golden State 133-105 Sunday to seize the lead in their playoff series.

The Thunder grabbed a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals and captured momentum with the lopsided blowout, mak-ing Tuesday’s fourth game at Oklahoma City crucial for both clubs.

“We have got to keep the same intensity, same attack mode,” Westbrook said. “They didn’t have the best record in the NBA for nothing. We’ve got

to come back with the same mindset and play with the same intensity.”

Golden State, which set an NBA record with 73 regu-lar-season wins, has not lost two games in a row all season but will have to quickly bounce back from an embarassment.

“Using our brains, making them compete, moving the ball -- we didn’t do any of those things and we got what we de-served,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

“I’m confident we’re going to come out and play a great game in game four. We’ll see what happens.”

Either the Thunder, who have won 10 best-of-seven

series in a row when going up 2-1, or the Warriors will face the Eastern Conference winners, the Toronto Raptors or Cleveland Cavaliers, in next month’s NBA Finals.

In addition to sparking the highest-scoring performance by any team in any NBA playoff game this year, Westbrook and Durant each added eight re-bounds and blocked two shots while Westbrook also contrib-uted 12 assists.

“We’ve got a physical team, an athletic team and we tried to use that to the best of our ability,” Westbrook said. “Our guys do a great job of putting in the work every day. My job is to put the ball in their hands.”

- Thunder must keep passion -Stephen Curry led Golden

State with 24 points and Klay Thompson added 18, but Cur-ry hit only 7-of-17 shots from the floor, Thompson shot 8-of-19 and Draymond Green was 1-of-9. The Warriors were also outrebounded 52-38.

“Come game four, we have to grind them out,” Thompson said. “We can’t have Westbrook and Durant combine to shoot 60 percent.”

Durant scored 23 in the first half while Westbrook add-ed 16 as the Thunder leaped ahead in the second quarter and piled on more punishment in the second half, stretching

the lead to 117-80 after three quarters and went on to match a club playoff scoring record.

“We were physical and we rebounded the ball well,” Du-rant said. “My teammates did a great job taking the pressure off me. We have to keep play-ing with the same energy and passion.”

The Thunder closed the second quarter on a 32-7 run to seize a 72-47 half-time edge, aided by the Warriors missing 21 of their last 23 first-half shots from the floor.

“Frustrating way to end the quarter,” Curry said. “It was a bad flow out there. We couldn’t stop it. That six min-utes decided the game. That’s

something we have to take care of in game four.”

Golden State lost their three prior playoff defeats in the past month by a total of 19 points, nine fewer than they lost by in game three.

“We got our butts kicked,” Kerr said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s one point or 30.”

- Kiwi gets kick from Green -Green kicked Thunder big

man Steven Adams of New Zealand in the groin late in the second quarter and could face a suspension for game four.

“I wasn’t trying to kick somebody in the mid-section,” Green said. “I’m sure he wants to have kids one of these days.”

THE Philippines beat Malaysia, 108-84, on Sunday to win its

opening day assignment in the 2016 Seaba Stankovic Cup in Bangkok.

Troy Rosario finished with 17 points to lead the way for the Gilas cadtes in the lopsided win to start off the tournament.

Mac Belo added 16, while Mike Tolomia had 13 for the Philippine team, which also got 15 rebounds from Raymar Jose.

The team takes a break on Monday before facing Singapore the following day.

The Filipinos found themselves in a tight match with the Malaysians ear-

ly on, 8-8, before putting some distance between themselves and their oppo-nents at the end of the first quarter, 29-20.

They stretched the lead to 52-40 at the break, and then pulled away for good in the third period.

The scoresPhilippines (108) - Ro-

sario 19, Belo 16, Tolomia 13, Ferrer 12, Jalalon 10, Jose 9, Pessumal 8, Vo-sotros 7, Pogoy 6, Escoto 4, Holmqvist 4, Tibayan 0.

Malaysia (84) - Y. Wong 22, C. Ma 15, Y. Kwaan 12, H. Gan 10, T. Kuek 8, W. Choo 6, C. Liaw 5, I. Yeo 4, K. Teo 2, W. Ong 0, L. Mak 0, C Chin 0.

Quarterscores: 29-20; 52-40; 80-60, 108-84.

DEMAR DeRozan re-members the angry emotions Raptors

teammate Bismack Biyombo once stirred in him as an op-ponent.

“I hated him,” DeRozan said on Sunday (Monday, Ma-nila time).

The Cavaliers likely feel a little anger toward Biyom-bo after his pivotal perfor-mance when he helped stop Cleveland’s 10-0 start to the playoffs in Toronto’s 99-84 victory in Game Three of the Eastern Conference finals. Game Four is Monday night at Air Canada Centre.

Biyombo hauled down a Raptors’ playoff-record 26 rebounds, blocked four shots, and scored six of his seven points in a quick fourth-quar-ter spurt that helped seal To-ronto’s win.

That wasn’t all. Biyombo was involved in a first-half skirmish that saw LeBron James take a tumble after catching an accidental elbow

from his own teammate, Tristan Thompson. Late in the fourth, Biyombo drew a flagrant foul after he collared a driving James, sending the Cavs’ star sprawling again.

DeRozan hasn’t forgotten what all that feels like.

“I hated Biz,” Toronto’s All-Star guard said. “He was a fouler, always blocking shots. He always went for the pump fake, though, but I hated Biz. Now by far he’s one of my fa-vorite teammates of all-time.”

Raptors coach Dwane Casey understands Biyombo can be both a “nightmare” and a “nuisance” to play against, whether it’s the cen-ter’s habit of finger-wagging after blocks, or flexing his muscles after big dunks.

To Biyombo, being a nui-sance is no big deal. It’s the way it’s got to be.

“Until you really get to know the real side of me, then you know who I am,” he said. “But on the floor I don’t have friends.”

At the final buzzer Satur-day, Biyombo lay crumpled in pain in Cleveland’s paint after being struck below the belt while battling Dahntay Jones for a loose ball. Biyombo took the hit while tapping the ball to a teammate, his eighth of-fensive rebound of the night.

Casey was upset at the referees after the game, com-plaining that Biyombo wasn’t getting calls and citing Cleve-land’s 86-51 edge in free throw attempts in the series. On Sunday, Casey declined to say whether those comments had drawn league discipline.

“I’m not trying to get any-body,” Casey said. “It’s over with. I said what I had to say last night. I’m not trying to send a message. It was a comment about the game last night and it’s over with.”

Jones was suspended for Game Four by the NBA on Sunday, while Casey was fined $25,000 for his com-ments.

After a testy, physical

Game Three, the Cavaliers were also wondering wheth-er they were getting a fair shake from the referees. Asked whether James and the Cavs had to sell calls, coach Tyronn Lue said it’s tough for his star because defenders “tend to bounce off” a driving James.

“If you don’t foul him hard, he’s going to get an and-one and a three-point play,” Lue said. “You’ve got to try to be physical with him so he can’t take the contact and finish at the rim. When you get around the neck, like Biyombo did last night, that’s different. But when teams hard-foul, you’re supposed to get hard-fouled when you’re going to the basket, especial-ly being that strong and that powerful.”

Speaking before the Cavs held a film session at their Toronto hotel Sunday, James didn’t want to say whether he’s getting the whistles he deserves.

Rosario leads GilasCadets past Malaysians

Cavs not getting good calls?

VOL. 9 ISSUE 61 • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 201616 EDGEDAVAOSports

THE City Mayors Office and Integrated Bar of the Philippines played a clas-

sic basketball game on its first friendly encounter this year.

Both teams showed re-markable composure down the

stretch to end the game in a draw, 75-75, on Friday night at the Davao City Recreation Cen-ter.

Christopher “Bong” Go came through with 38 points in an ex-pected effort to carry the May-

ors men.The sweet-shooting chief

aide of incoming president Ro-drigo Duterte fired six three pointers and nailed 10 baskets within the arc.

Arman Dioso led the charge

with 18 points for IBP which got plenty support from its youth backcourt cast.

Chok Cadiogan and Adrian Paguican chipped in 15 points apiece as Ongkiko had 14.

John Flores made 13 baskets

while Eugene Labor scored 10 for the CMO.

CMO and IBP went into a see-saw battle right from the start.

They managed to trade ral-lies that enabled to show their respective offensive firepower.

CMO, IBP lock horns anew in friendly series

BASKETBALL BREAK. Busy bees all--president-elect

Rodrigo Duterte’s executive assistant Bong Go, Sen.

Alan Peter Cayetano and businessman Glenn

Escandor--take abreak from their busy schedules to play

basketball.