Regional Director leo Carrillo of the Probation and Parole administra-

tion, an agency of the Department of Justice in Region 11, bared Monday that Davao needs more courts, especially drugs and fam-ily courts, although he does not

know the extend of the shortage.Carrillo who guested at the

Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City yesterday to announce the activi-

ties of his agency’s 36th founding anniversary this week said that there is likewise an acute shortage of judges because very few law

practitioners apply for the many vacancies.

“i’m really sure the region lacks courts. They (judiciary) themselves admitted there is shortage,” he told reporters.

Carrillo said there is need for

President Benigno “noynoy” Aquino iii has advised his countrymen

to practice responsible parent-hood in his third state of the nation Address (sona). it was probably the most applauded

portion of the one-hour-and-a-half speech of the President, who at 52, is still a bachelor.

Aquino shifted from boast-ing of upgrades in the country’s education system to taking a stance, although not quite di-

rect, on the highly controversial reproductive Health Bill, saying that responsible parenthood was the answer to many of the country’s problems.

“Bago matapos ang susunod na taon, ubos na ang minana

nating 66,800 na kakulangan sa silid-aralan. Ang minana po nating 2,573,212 na backlog sa upuan, tuluyan na rin nat-ing matutugunan bago mata-pos ang 2012. sa taon din pong

Page A4Indulge

P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.net

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012

FMORE, 13

More drug courts, judges needed

EDGEServing a seamless society

DAVAO

Follow Us On

The Big News

Sports

Page 3

Page 15

‘Nod’ to RH bill most applauded

F’NOD’, 13

n RD Leo Carrillo says each Davao court handles 500-600 drug cases

Nalipay ang mga pro-RH, maguol ang mga anti.

By Lorie Ann A. Cascaro

Property Page 8

PROTEST. Militant groups stage a protest rally yesterday along Roxas Ave. to condemn the policies of the current administration. [LEAN DAVAL JR.]

P-Noy’s 3rd SONA

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012THE BIG NEWS2 EDGEDAVAO

TOP SCHOOL. Dr. Jonathan Alegre, president of the Davao Medical School Foundation, center, bares that DMSF is ranked 6th among 40 medical schools in the country during the Kapehan sa Dabaw yesterday at SM City Davao.

With him are Dr. Rosanna Bitoy, Dental Batch 87 president (right) and Dr. Luz Acosta, Medicine Batch 87 president. [LEAN DAVAL JR.]

PeAsAnt women in the davao region joined a nationwide protest ral-

ly yesterday to express the genuine state of the Filipino nation, contrary to the highly applauded state of the na-tion Address (sona) of Presi-dent Benigno Aquino iii.

Malen Uyanguren, spokesperson of the Amihan or national Federation of Peasant Women – southern Mindanao, said until now, women are continuously deprived of land to till due to entry of big plantations, mining corporations and land conversions.

“the government’s agrarian reform is a sham. the Comprehensive Agrar-ian reform Program (CArP) was a big failure,” she said in her speech at rizal Park, davao City.

she cited the continued incursion of lands by big corporations for their plan-tations such as banana and pineapple among other ex-port agricultural products.

Amihan has been push-ing for a genuine agrarian re-form program (GArB), pro-posed by representative ra-fael Mariano of the Kilusan ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (KMP) and other representa-tives from progressive bloc, and is still pending in the House of representatives.

Meanwhile, Mariano, said in a statement, that Aquino should distribute Ha-cienda Luisita and “stop his family’s maneuvers to resist land distribution.”

“Up until now, the presi-

dent’s family refuses to dis-tribute Hacienda Luisita to its rightful beneficiaries. in fact, Aquino is condoning the Cojuangco-Aquinos ille-gal and immoral stronghold of the land estate. Luisita’s distribution is all the more made difficult by legal obsta-cles imposed by the depart-ment of Agrarian reform (dAr) and the bogus Com-prehensive Agrarian reform Program extension with reforms (Carper),” Mariano said.

Aside from big planta-tions, mining and land con-version continue in the re-gion, tony salobre, spokes-person of KMP southern Mindanao, said, citing the entry of four to five large-scale mining corporations in Marilog district, davao City.

According to Bagong Aly-ansang Makabayan (BAYAn) southern Mindanao, the regional issues depict the worsening plight of work-ers, farmers, the urban poor, consumers, and intensified threat to the environment.

BAYAn sMr, during the rally yesterday, burned an ef-figy of a bulldozer-cum-war canon to demonstrate their protest against the plunder, exploitation, and state of impunity.

Before joining the multi-sectoral protest at rizal Park in the afternoon, some 300 small-scale miners from Pantukan, Compostela Valley staged a “pre-sona picket” at the Mines and Geosciences Bureau region-al office.

Peasant women remain landlessBy Lorie Ann A. Cascaro

tHe department of science and technol-ogy (dOst) recently

launched nOAH project, named after a Biblical character, noah, who built a ship to save human race and wildlife from the del-uge spawned by 40 days and nights of continuous rain.

the national Opera-tional Assessment of Haz-ards and risks or nOAH will help local government units (LGU) improve and strengthen their capac-ity to manage disasters, according to dOst 11 re-gional director Anthony C. sales.

sales added that this nationwide disaster miti-gation system will help LGUs minimize casualties and property loss during catastrophic events.

nOAH is “a program de-signed to serve as sentinel or watchman that will ad-

dress the seriouschallenges brought by

extreme hazard events,” dr. sales said.

this two-year project will provide high-resolu-tion flood hazard maps and install 600 automated rain gauges and 400 water level measuring stations for 18 major river basins of the Philippines, includ-ing davao river Basin and tagum-Libuganon river Basin in davao region.

nOAH has seven com-ponents, including Hy-dromet sensors develop-ment, drAM-Lidar, Flood-net, Hazards information media, Landslide hazards mapping, doppler system development, and storm surge inundation mapping.

data on nOAH may be viewed in its website: http://noah.dost.gov.ph/.

“This is specifically to enable the Philippines’ warning agencies to pro-

vide a 6-hour lead-time warning to vulnerable communities against im-pending floods and to use advanced technology to enhance current geo-haz-ard vulnerability maps,” sales said in a statement.

He said the project is dOst’s response to Presi-dent Benigno Aquino iii’s instructions to put in place a responsive program for disaster prevention and mitigation.

Meanwhile, the re-gional disaster risk reduc-tion Management Council (rdrrMC) said earlier LGUs, including barangays, should strengthen their preparation and capac-ity to respond to disasters, and plan ways on evacuat-ing their constituents from risk areas.

in doing so, LGUs should utilize scientific data produced by the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau

(MGB) and the Philippine institute of Volcanology and seismology (Phivolcs) in their local planning, ac-cording to national eco-nomic and development (nedA) regional director Ma. Lourdes Lim.

Geo-hazard maps showing level of risks to landslides and flooding are provided by MGB to guide LGUs in their disas-ter and risk management planning, as well as lists of earthquake-prone areas are obtained from Phivolcs.

Lim added that LGUs will be assisted by nedA in mainstreaming the con-cept of the disaster risk re-duction management and adaptation, in local devel-opment planning process-es, through a project fund-ed by the United nations development Program (UndP) and the Australian Agency for international development. [LoRiE A. CAsCARo]

NOAH to help LGUs savelives, property in disasters

MininG regulators in south Cotabato have ordered the closure

of 40 unlicensed or unregis-tered ore processors and ball mills in t’boli town as part of the provincial government’s crackdown against illegal small-scale gold mining and processing operations in the area.

south Cotabato Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr. said Mon-day the Provincial Mining regulatory Board (PMrB) approved the closure of the unlicensed ore processing plants after their owners failed to obtain the neces-sary permits and licenses despite an earlier directive from the local government.

“We have to make this move to show to them that we are serious and deter-mined to cleanse the area of all illegal mining and pro-cessing operations,” said the governor, who chairs the PMrB.

A report from the Provin-cial environment Manage-ment Office (PeMO) showed that there are at least 100 processing plants based in

t’boli town but only 86 have obtained permits to operate.

in January, the provin-cial government issued a stoppage order against the unlicensed ore processors and ball mills in the area and issued notices to their opera-tors to comply with the local government’s regulations or face closure

Pingoy said the stoppage order is pursuant to Provin-cial Ordinance no. 7, series of 2003, which sets the “tax-es, fees, charges and other impositions on small-scale mining, mineral processing operations and transport-ing of mineral ore within the province of south Cotabato.”

“this ordinance strictly prohibits the extraction and processing of ores without proper permits and payment of necessary fees to the pro-vincial government,” he said.

engr. siegfred Flaviano, acting PeMO chief, said the issuance of the closure order was part of the local govern-ment’s efforts to properly regulate all small-scale min-ing and related activities within the province. [PNA]

SouthCot shuts down 40 unlicensed ore plants

tHe social security sys-tem (sss) has granted partial to full amnesty

on loan penalties to 58,995 delinquent borrowers who availed themselves of the agency’s Loan Penalty Con-donation Program, which is now halfway through its six-month implementation.

According to sss Presi-dent and Chief executive Officer Emilio de Quiros, Jr., the pension fund re-corded a corresponding to-

tal amount due of P748.03 million in principal, inter-est and collectible penalties since the Condonation Pro-gram started last April 2, 2012. Penalties condoned amounted to P426.83 mil-lion.

“Members only have three months left to apply for amnesty before it ends on september 30. Other-wise, they’ll have to pay the full amount of penalties, making it much harder for

them to settle their loan obligations and risk having these deducted from their future benefits,” he said.

the sss waives 50 to 100 percent of penalties incurred by members avail-ing themselves of the pro-gram. Full payments from 35,644 borrowers reached P378.44 million and sss stands to collect P369.58 million from 23,351 mem-bers who have started their monthly amortization,

based on total availments as of July 2.

De Quiros said the SSS posted an average of 19,665 availments per month un-der the current program. it was higher than the monthly average of 11,903 availments under the past four implementations of its amnesty on loan penalties for individual members , which spanned a total of 63 months within september 2003 to October 2009.

SSS amnesty program attracts 59,000 availments in 3 months

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012

“APArt from turning the coastal areas into danger zones,

we don’t want our coastlines to become a huge public toi-let like what happened in Bo-racay island.”

this in effect was the statement of Cleto B. Gales Jr., administrator of the is-land Garden City of samal, in partly explaining the on-going massive demolition of illegal shelters along the coastlines of iGaCos.

Actually, the demoli-tion has been ongoing for five years now, Gales said, adding that the informal settlers affected are as-sured of a relocation site.

He also said that the demolition activities are closely coordinated with the housing agency and the Human rights group

“to make it a peaceful and violence-free dismantling of structures.”

Gales said the city gov-ernment has already been able to relocate several communities, but admit-ted that there remains to be a backlog of 8,000 in-formal settlers that need to be relocated.

He said iGaCos has slowly become a favorite refuge of informal settlers from the mainland.

still part of the hous-ing program, Gales said the city government is now also developing an-other relocation site for around 270 lots in Babak.

in this connection, he said iGaCos will sign a memorandum of agree-ment (MOA) with the na-

A PrOMinent long-time davao City resident complained last week

that a valuable piece of land in the center of the city be-longing to the estate of her grandmother has been sold to a couple through fraudulent means by what she alleged to be a group of impostors.

Complainant Gerun-dia “ruding” Cutler said the prime lot whose area is 576 square meters at the corner of Anda and rizal streets worth millions of pesos is among the properties of the estate of Ma-ria dominga Chicote nueno.

nueno is the sole and uni-versal heir of the late Maria Villa Abrille in the probate of Villa Abrille’s last will and tes-tament covered by a decision dated July 17, 1967 issued by Judge Alfredo i. Gonzales of the then Court of First in-stance in davao City, Ms Cut-

ler said.As the administatrix of

the nueno estate, Cutler said the owner’s duplicate of the lot’s title, no. t-345667, was released to her by the regis-try of deeds of davao City and “which should be reflected in the records of the said office.”

to her “shock and dis-may,” however, Cutler said she discovered last week that the title – no. t-345667 – had been cancelled by the reg-istry of deeds of davao City and that another title in the name of a certain ricardo U. estoperes had been issued in lieu of it.

she said that she found out that a certain Alexander L. VillaAbrille had executed a “falsified” and “perjurious” affidavit of loss claiming that the owner’s duplicate title no.t-345667 had been lost “when in truth and in fact the

said owner’s duplicate is still intact and existing in my pos-session.”

she said that this should have been clear in the re-cords of the registry of deeds of davao City as the same owner’s duplicate copy was issued to her by then acting register of deeds Florenda F. t. Patriarca.

in a three-page affidavit of adverse claim executed last July 18, 2012, Ms Cutler said she suspected that the fraudulent transaction is the handiwork of “a group of impostors, pretending to be heirs of the late Maria Villa Abrille led by a certain er-nesto Villa Abrille and necito Villa Abrille.”

she said this group filed, and tried to intervene, in several cases involving the estate of Maria Villa Abrille, trying to enforce claims over

the property covered by title no. t-345667 in the name of the late Maria Villa Abrille.

However, the group lost these cases one by one, she said.

in her affidavit, Ms Cutler enumerated these cases as follows:

--Civil Case no. 29,005-2002, for quieting of title, damages, etc before Branch 33 of the rtC of davao City which was dismissed by the said court which dismissal was affirmed with finality by the Court of Appeals as CA-G.r. sP no. 82540;

--Civil Case no. 29,312,02, which is essen-tially, before Branch 16 of the rtC of davao City which was dismissed by the said Court and which dismissal was also affirmed by the Court of Ap-peals in CA-Gr no. 80178.

--A Motion to intervene

in Civil Case no. 28,951-2002 before the Branch 15 of the rtC of davao City which was denied by the said court which denial was also af-firmed by the Court of Ap-peals in CA-G.r. sP no. 83036.

--A Motion to intervene in sP PrOC.no. 13, the estate proceedings of Maria dom-inga Chicote nueno before Branch 2 of the rtC of tagum City, which was denied by the said Court and which denial has also been affirmed by the Court of Appeals in CA G.r. CV no. 00058-Min.

--A Motion to intervene in PenrO CLAiM no. 112403-98-07 before the denr which was also denied by the said office.

in fact, she said the deci-sion of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.r. sP nO. 83036 (Annex “F”) where the impostors, led by ernesto Villa Abrille were

the petitioners, the said court clearly ruled that “to finally settle this present contro-versy, this Court categorically holds that petitioners do not have any right or interest in the estate of the late Maria Vila Abrille, much less in Lot 112-A. there is no dispute that the last will and testa-ment of the late Maria Villa Abrille had already been ad-mitted to probate, where the late Maria dominga Chicote nueno was instituted as the late Maria Villa Abrille’s sole and universal heir.”

it appears, Cutler charged, that ernesto Villa Abrille, allegedly represent-ing other persons, had also executed a falsified extra-judicial settlement of estate which led to the issuance of title no. 146-2011003386 of the registry of deeds of davao City. [AMA]

3EDGEDAVAO

F’IGACOS, 13

THE BIG NEWS

iF YOU’re looking for an indication of the davao City government’s con-

cern for persons with disabil-ity (PWd’s), you’ll found one in the employment of many hunchbacks in city hall.

davao City Mayor sara duterte-Carpio has employed 15 of them. they are hired to assist people who transact business at city hall but do not know their way around. some of them are assigned to various tasks in the People’s Park.

We talked to four of of them about their dreams in life and what they are doing right now. the others de-clined to be interviewed say-ing they were busy and one said he was too insignificant to be publicized.

Magdalena s. sebumpan, 56-year old single parent of one, is a high school gradu-ate. she has been a job order (contractual) employee for four years as public informa-tion desk attendant at the city hall.

Called “Astig Mama” by friends and foes, Magdalena admits she’s raising her kid by herself.

“i hope Mayor inday will make us permanent employ-ees of the city government,” she said in english.

encerita L. Lahot, 36, also a high school graduate and still single, also man the public information desk. she is also a “job order” employee for three years now.

she told edge davao, the job helps her financially.

“i’m working not only for myself, but also for my epi-leptic brother because both of us have been orphaned long ago.”

rico B. nueque, 33, is an elementary school graduate and still single, also an atten-dant at the city hall’s public information desk. Like Ms la-hot, rico has been a job order worker for three years now.

the employment, rico said, is a big help.

“i have a widow sister that i help. i have volunteered to shoulder the school ex-

penses of my her kids,” he said.

Jolan nacarcio, 37, is a high school graduate and single. He has been attendant at the People’s Park. With his salary as such, Jolan helps his parents with the house ex-penses.

“tabang sad ko sa akong mga igsoon sa ilang mga pan-ginahanglan.(i also help my siblings in their needs)” he said.

Jolan is also hoping that his job in the city government will help him find a girl friend.

He said that his mobile phone number is 09286911423.

teogenes s. Comil-ing, president of the davao City Federation of PWds, earlier said thecity govern-ment has complied with the requirement of the law to employ PWds, saying that that there the city’s 35 regu-lar employees and some 160 job orders are PWds.

Most of the PWds em-ployed, Comiling added, are polio victims, amputees and those who have other ortho-pedic disorders.

Visually-impaired were given financial assistance by the city government for training as masseurs, Comil-ing said, adding that they are now required to hold li-cense from the department of Health, through a training with the technical education and skills development Au-thority (tesdA).

in celebration of the 34th national disability Preven-tion and rehabilitation Week (July 17-23), the dOLe 11 and the local government of davao City provided an op-portunity employment to PWds in the city through an exclusive jobs fair on July 20 at the sangguniang Panglun-sod.

saying that private com-panies will participate in the jobs fair for PWds, Comiling mentioned that some 5,000 PWds are registered in the city federation, however, they only comprise less than two percent of the total number of PWds identified.

The hunchbacksof Dame SaraBy Leandro Daval Jr. and Lorie Ann Cascaro

An Edge Davao exclusive

GREEN BUILDING. Dr. Oliver Victoriano, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Davao Medical School Foundation, holds a picture of the proposed 12-storey DMSF green building during Kapehan sa Dabaw yesterday at SM City Mall Davao. [LEAN DAVAL JR.]

Encerita LahotHelping epileptic brod

Magdalena SebumpanAstig Mama

Jolan NacarioLooking for a girlfriend

Rico NuequeSending kids to school

Lady shocked over change of title, sale of lot

Continuing demolition

‘IGaCoS’ shorelinenot a public toilet’

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 20124 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO

Stat Watch

MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2009 - December 2011)

Month 2011 2010 2009

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

September 43.02 44.31 48.139August 42.42 45.18 48.161

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

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

3.5%4th Qtr 2011

3.7%4th Qtr 2011

USD 3,342Million

Nov 2011USD 4,985

MillionNov 2011

USD -1,643Million

Nov 2011USD -114

MillionDec 2011

P4,442,355Million

Nov 2011

4.71%Oct 2011P128,745

MillionNov 2011

P 4,898Billion

Oct 2011

P 43.65Dec 2011

3,999.7Sept 2011

128.1Jan 2012

3.9Jan 2012

3.4Dec 2011

284,040Sept 2011

19.1%Oct 2011

6.4%Oct 2011

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

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

3. Exports 1/

4. Imports 1/

5. Trade Balance

6. Balance of Payments 2/

7. Broad Money Liabilities

8. Interest Rates 4/

9. National Government Revenues

10. National government outstanding debt

11. Peso per US $ 5/

12. Stocks Composite Index 6/

13. Consumer Price Index 2006=100

14. Headline Inflation Rate 2006=100

15. Core Inflation Rate 2006=100

16. Visitor Arrivals

17. Underemployment Rate 7/

18. Unemployment Rate 7/

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

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

as of august 2010

seVerAL civic groups in the Caraga region and some residents now liv-

ing abroad have expressed fears that the new mining policy under executive Order 79 would create more prob-lems and confusion to towns directly affected by large scale mining operations.

Vicente Cirilo A. iriberri, chairman of the Cantilan tourism Council and a mem-ber of the diocesan social Ac-tion Center, said that eO 79, which is supposed to give new set of rules and policies, would create more gray areas unless given “further qualify-ing policy statements.”

“the eO may have the primacy effect over [local] ordinances, but it is not su-preme over the protection of the general welfare, which is incumbent upon the local government units, in so far as their respective territorial jurisdiction is concerned,” iriberri said.

iriberri added that hope-fully the eO is serious about the “no-go mining zones,” noting there are areas in Caraga that needs to be con-sidered.

He urged the government to look closely at critical wa-tershed areas, island ecosys-tems, key biodiversity areas, prime agricultural areas (in-cluding the head waters), in-tegrated fishery zones, local tourism development areas, geohazard zones and ances-tral lands.

these are protected by other statutes like the Agri-culture and Fisheries Mod-ernization Act of 1997, Fish-eries Code of 1998, tourism Act of 2009, Water Code of the Philippines, Local Gov-ernment Code, Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and so much more, he said.

Mario Llamas, president of the Parish Pastoral Council of st. isidore Parish in Madrid town, stressed the new min-ing eO obviously favors the industry and its capitalists.

“it lacks the proper re-view of the real situation in the area, thus failing to assess our place properly. Farm-ing and fishery sustain the lives of the people here. Our communities and the people within it are in danger but Malacanang failed to see

Mining EO feared to bring more problems in Caraga

the early morning solitude in Barangay new iloilo here was suddenly interrupted by loud bursts coming from a palay thresher that started to churn freshly harvested palay from a field located beside the national highway.

Beside it were scattered piles of golden yellow palay straws spewed by the thresher that practically increases by the min-ute.

Up ahead, the horizon was again turning gloomy, signaling a coming rain that is typical for a July morning here and in nearby areas.

Until about two years ago, the rainy months of June and July were traditionally lean periods for palay in south Cotabato and other parts of region 12 or the soccsksargen region but climate change as well as the national governments strategic adapta-tion measures and interventions practically reversed that situa-tion.

Government investments in irrigation and other agricultural infrastructure in the area were into high gear in the last two years, complementing initiatives geared at ensuring the country’s rice self-sufficiency and reducing dependence on imported staple by next year.

this, along with enhanced service delivery and implemen-tation of various agricultural reforms outlined in President Benigno simeon C. Aquino iii’s state-of-the-nation address a year ago have so far triggered the region’s resurgence as one of the country’s top rice producers.

115.7 percent rice self-suffi-cient

According to the department of Agriculture (dA), region 12’s current palay production is more than enough to supply the grain requirements of its populace, with its rice self-sufficiency rat-ing reaching 115.7 percent.

region 12 covers the prov-inces of south Cotabato, sultan Kudarat, sarangani, north Co-tabato and the cities of General santos, Koronadal, tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.

except for sarangani Prov-ince, which is still catching up in terms of palay production, all provinces of the region were considered on track towards their rice self-sufficiency targets.

sultan Kudarat posted the highest self-sufficiency ratio of 242.4 percent or more than dou-ble its total rice requirement.

south Cotabato, which pro-duced 310,410 metric tons of palay last year, is considered rice self-sufficient by 147.5 percent.

“We’re producing more palay now than in the previous years. Our supplies in the markets are stable while play buying prices and commercial rice prices are at a level that is very advantageous for our farmers,” said south Co-tabato provincial agriculturist reynaldo Legaste.

Overall, the soccsksargen re-gion produced an average of 1.21 Mt of palay annually in the last two years. the area’s yield was equivalent to around 690,000 Mt of rice, more than enough to cover for the estimated 598,000 Mt annual rice requirement of its 4.2 million population.

data from dA’s Bureau of Ag-ricultural statistics showed that the region is presently the fifth largest palay-producing region

in the country and Mindanao’s top palay producer.

Central Luzon topped the list followed by Western Visayas, Cagayan Valley and ilocos re-gion.

Agri investmentsregion 12’s emergence as

a top food producer may be at-tributed to the significant invest-ments poured in by the national government into the area in the last several months in terms of seed and fertilizer subsidies, opening and rehabilitation of major irrigation facilities, estab-lishment of grains processing centers, distribution of farm ma-chineries, among others.

in late 2011, the government finally gave its go-signal for the resumption of the unfinished portions of the Malitubog-Mari-dagao or MalMar irrigation Proj-ect in north Cotabato through an initial funding of P305 million.

north Cotabato Gov. emmy-lou taliño-Mendoza said such funding will be utilized for the rehabilitation and completion of stage 1 of the irrigation project.

she said P169 million was allocated for this year’s rehabili-tation and construction works while the remaining P136 mil-lion was intended for the 2013 works.

the governor said the na-tional economic and develop-ment Authority (nedA) also approved a proposal for an addi-tional funding of P6.1 billion for the project’s second stage.

Last May, the national irriga-tion Administration (niA) closed down the Allah river irrigation system (ris) in south Cotabato to undergo repair and rehabilita-tion for three months.

SoCot on track to rice sufficiency

that,” he said.Fr. John Young, president of

the Father saturnino Urios Uni-versity, also pointed out that the new eO is geared towards the mining industry.

“there are provisions in the new eO that is good but clearly more of it is in favor of the huge mining corporations. it actu-ally does not address the present problems large scale mining is causing the communities and the nearby towns,” Young said.

Alum Urbiztondo tuldanes, now based in California, United states, wrote at the social media

site Global CArCAnMAdCAr-LAnon that “mining advantag-es are only temporary, but the disadvantages would remain forever.”

“i experienced this myself be-cause my father was a miner be-fore, but we remained poor. Had it not been for the agricultural lands owned by my grandfather, our family couldn’t have survived at all,” he said.

tuldanes said that education, perseverance and hard work freed them from poverty, and not mining.

CArCAnMAdCArLAn stands

for the towns of Carrascal, Canti-lan, Madrid, Carmen and Lanuza.

nikki Arpilleda Orzales-Yu, based in Houston, texas, also ap-pealed for the pooling of resourc-es and concerted efforts so the government will consider their sentiments.

“even if we are living abroad, our hearts are with the people back home and that we will con-tinue to push for more support to make our native homes a better place to live not [just] for us but for our children’s future,” Yu said.

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012 5EDGEDAVAO

Congratulations

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012VANTAGE POINTS6 EDGEDAVAO

Graver problems in drug abuseEDITORIAL

EDGEDAVAOProviding solutions to a seamless global village.

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reCent neWs accounts about cases of drug abuse in davao and elsewhere in the

country indicate a worsening of the problem despite the relative success of anti-drug abuse agen-cies in lately busting drug dens and arrests of pushers and users.

Only days ago, no less than a commercial airline pilot was caught selling methamphetamine hydrochloride, scientific name of “shabu,” in taguig City.

rioklyn P. toledo, the 40-year-old suspect, was caught red-hand-ed selling two plastic sachets of shabu weighing a little over 9 grams to a PdeA agent posing as a buyer. He was also found to be a shabu user himself.

toledo, a PdeA official said, supplies shabu to fellow pilots and other airline workers, raising the possibility that he is doing the same to foreign users.

One wonders what dangers passengers face if the commer-cial plane is being flown by drug-crazed pilots. this is the graver implication of allowing these pi-lots to continue working with the airline despite being exposed as drug addicts or pushers. We shud-der at the thought.

in davao City and neighboring places, the PdeA under regional director emerson rosales and its collaborating agencies are scor-ing several drug busts lately. this is a good record of the law enforc-ers. And yet, as rosales himself admits, the arrests also indicate that the drug problem is increas-ing.

indeed, there is need for more aggressive and more creative ways in dealing with this social menace, ways that would effec-tively prod a vigilant citizenry to get involved in the campaign.

War without hate

By PRiaM F. NEPoMucENo

Special Feature

KiLLinG while avoiding being killed is perhaps one of the hardest things to do in wartime.

But showing compassion and mercy to foes dedicated to eliminate you and your fel-low soldiers in the theater of battle is prob-ably harder.

this is what Cpl. rishman Ballasta, a member of the 201st infantry Brigade, 30, experienced after a fierce firefight with at least 15 heavily-armed rebels in Barangay White Cliff, San Narciso, Quezon last June 30.

Ballasta was leading 10 other soldiers in a security patrol to locate and apprehend the heavily-armed rebels who allegedly extorted money from the villagers.

it was around 11 a.m. when the soldiers spotted the armed men, resting inside a nipa hut.

the troopers were approaching the house when heavy gunfire broke out, prompting the soldiers to dive for cover.

At this point, Ballasta ordered his men to return fire at the communist rebels, who came out one by one with guns spitting fire.

it was during this time that one of his fel-low soldiers was hit, prompting him to order his other companions to secure the flanks and provide cover as the medics treated the wounded soldier.

the return fire from the government sol-diers caused heavy casualty among the reb-els as Ballasta saw several of them dead a few meters away from his location.

“i asked the remaining rebels to lay down their weapons and raise their hands. they kept on firing at us, wounding another of my men,” Ballasta said in his report to Philippine Army spokesperson Major Harold Cabunoc.

At this juncture, a soldier overheard one of the rebel commanders egging his compan-ions to continue fighting, telling his men that the soldiers were down to a few men and al-most out of ammunition.

More shots were fired at the soldiers, bullets plowing the positions of the soldiers, wounding one of them.

Left with no choice, Ballasta and his men continued to fire back as they gradually ap-proached the enemy positions.

sensing that the gunfire from the rebel camp was slowly fading away, Ballasta com-manded his men to approach the rebel camp-site.

By that time, he realized that they killed 11 of the rebels, some of whom were obvious-ly “child warriors” and a female rebel.

While gathering the rebel dead, Ballasta and his men cannot helped but feel sorrow, after seeing the bodies of innocent-looking young boys still carrying their bandoleers and rifles.

Among the dead were identified through their id cards including a young female com-batant, Maricel Benegas, 17, and Benjo endo-nilla, 17.

He said that he did not really want to wipe out the whole armed group.

“Amidst the hail of bullets, i negotiated for their surrender. i was frustrated that they re-sponded with bullets,” he said.

Ballasta said that shedding tears for the rebels was not a sign of weakness.

“i felt the pain suffered by the grieving rel-atives for the death of their loved ones as the news about the incident unfold. i also cried in anger because the communists deceived the young boys into believing that the problems in our society can be resolved by perpetrating atrocities against government forces,” he said.

He said that he was proud even if it would be known to the whole world that the sol-diers’ eyes had filled with tears while fighting fellow Filipinos.

“We are not happy shooting our misguid-ed ‘kababayans’ (countrymen) during clashes. We will always try our best to convince them to peacefully surrender and cooperate with the government in solving our problems,” he said. [PNA]

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012

WitH today’s society being revolu-tionized by computers and its vari-ous allied sciences making a tri-

umph entry in the business world, VMware, inc., the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, made its grand entry in the Philippines during a recent presentation at the Makati shangri-La Manila Hotel.

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that en-able businesses to thrive in the Cloud era.

Cloud computing is the delivery of com-puting and storage capacity as a service to a community of end-recipients.

the name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts services with a user’s data, software and computation over a network.

Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume information technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs.

With 2011 revenues of Usd$ 3.77 billion, VMware has more than 350,000 customers and 50,000 partners.

Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a hardware platform, operating system (Os), storage device, or network re-sources.

While a physical computer in the clas-sical sense is clearly a complete and actual machine, both subjectively (from the user’s point of view) and objectively (from the hardware system administrator’s point of view), a virtual machine is subjectively a complete machine (or very close), but objec-tively merely a set of files and running pro-grams on an actual, physical machine (which the user need not necessarily be aware of).

Virtualization can be viewed as part of an overall trend in enterprise it that includes autonomic computing, a scenario in which the it environment will be able to manage itself based on perceived activity, and utility computing, in which computer processing power is seen as a utility that clients can pay for only as needed.

the usual goal of virtualization is to cen-tralize administrative tasks while improving scalability and overall hardware-resource utilization. With virtualization, several op-erating systems can be run in parallel on a single central processing unit (CPU). this parallelism tends to reduce overhead costs and differs from multitasking, which involves running several programs on the same Os.

“each organization’s it and business re-quirements are different and there is no one-

cloud-fits-all approach. Virtualization is the technical foundation for cloud computing, and customers are leveraging our industry-leading products like VMware vsphere® to transform their datacenters into simplified cloud computing infrastructures. VMware is on a mission to simplify and automate it management in the cloud era and enable cus-tomers to deliver it as a service, and this has seen us successfully expand our footprint across southeast Asia,” VMware AseAn chief Jon robertson said.

discussed during the above-mentioned meeting were insights around the state of virtualization and cloud computing adoption in Manila, and how cloud computing can be a source of competitive advantage.

“We continue to see strong demand for our robust virtualization platform in Philip-pines, particularly in the BPO, healthcare, financial and government sectors industries. Most VMware customers start with a desire to increase server efficiency and reduce capi-tal expenses by virtualizing low risk work-loads. As more of their datacenters are vir-tualized, customers can realize more value by implementing management and policy-driven automation. the resulting quality of service improvements accelerate transfor-mation to an agile cloud computing model, which allows customers to accelerate their it so that in turn, they can accelerate their business,” he added. [PNA]

7VANTAGE POINTS

Monkey Business

EDGEDAVAO

Of virtualization and cloud computing 

By chRiStoPhER t. caLiwaNSpecial Feature

Recurring farmers’ concerns Facing Up to a Super Bully

PatRicio P. DiazOpiniOn

(Conclusion)

tHe Philippines has nothing to fight the super bully. navy? Air force? Brave words! they make

the super bully laugh. the Philippine economy is at China’s mercy. she sus-pended the flights carrying 20,000 tour-ists; she blocked the banana shipments. President Aquino buckled down.

the AseAn would have been a po-tent force against the bully. But, forget it. the ten member nations cannot unite. in their prime ministerial meeting just weeks ago, the presiding nation, Cambo-dia – an economic dependent of China – blocked proposals to include the south

China sea disputes in their joint commu-niqué, hence aborting it.

China and the Philippines are both signatories to UnCLOs. However, citing its provisions, China refuses to submit their dispute to the international Court of Justice or to the international tribu-nal for the Law of the sea (itLOs). On signing UnCLOs, China declared under Article 298 that UnCLOs does not apply to disputes pertaining to its territories. Hence, the Philippines can bring her case to itLOs but China will not oblige.

From their position papers and relat-ed authoritative articles, the scarborough question can be put to rest by itLOs or similar United nations’ arbitrating bod-ies. But China is so certain: (1) she owns scarborough shoal and (2) the Philip-pines will lose her case in itLOs. so, there is no need – it’s a waste of time – to submit the case for international arbi-tration. Professor Wu Hui, an interna-tional law expert, wrote: “tribunals Can-not solve the Huangyan [scarborough] island issue” [posted by the Chinese em-bassy in Manila].

China’s alternative offer is bilateral settlement and joint development ven-ture. Her final verdict: the Philippines must face the facts squarely, by implica-tion accept them, and should not make trouble. the “or else” hangs like the sword of damocles. For all her manifes-tations of “patience” and “magnanimity,” that verdict is what makes Filipinos see China as a bully.

if China is sure any international or Un arbiter will rule in her favor, why will she not submit the scarborough issue for arbitration? there is a thousandth per-cent (0.001%) chance the arbiter might rule in favor of the Philippines. she does not want to take any iota of risk.

How can a small thin kid face up to a super bully? teng Jianjun writing for Beijing review, posted by the Chinese embassy in Manila, said it succinctly in his title, “A no-Win standoff” – for the Philippines, of course. [MiNDANEws]

The ASEAN would have been a potent force against the bully. But, forget it. The ten member nations cannot unite.  In their

prime ministerial meeting just weeks ago, the presiding

nation, Cambodia – an economic dependent of China – blocked proposals to include the South China Sea disputes

in their joint communiqué, hence aborting it.

setBACK in A G r i C U L -tUre – While

earning plaudits from government economists and fi-nancial managers, Mindanao’s agricul-ture sector is prob-ably running into trouble. not long ago, government economic experts firmly believed the present leader-ship would successfully contrive a project that embodies a concept of livelihood – its primary goal is to stimulate the small farm-ers to strive for the improvement of their liv-ing conditions with maximum help from the government.

But to fully realize the vast potential of agriculture and small and medium enter-prise (sMe) in Mindanao – the Philippines’ food basket super region, it should have more accessibility to government loans.

the bad news keeps coming. the recur-ring lack of access to financing has made small farmers’ groups and fisher folks seemed resigned to the fact that stringent rules and requirements of government-owned and controlled banks limit them from accessing urgently needed loans. Govern-ment requirements to obtain loans are too heavy to comply.

the coconut industry cannot attain its full potential due to lack of financing avail-able to coconut farmers. the department of Agriculture (dA), the lead agency tasked to oversee the job did try to clarify the matter stating that the Aquino administration has

enough funds for the purpose and a top of-ficial even assured the department has P7.4 billion guarantee fund at the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and available for farm-ers who wish to borrow. Aside from that amount, another P2 million Agricultural Competitiveness enhancement Fund is also available, and which was already released in 2010. Yet, even with such an assurance from the dA to acquire government loans may not guarantee its realization based on the prog-ress of loan processing.

Owing largely to a relative lack of access to government loans, the present status of the agriculture sector in Mindanao keeps hanging on the balance. in the past, private banks and government financial institutions were allowed to undertake government lending. it is no longer the case and non-gov-ernment credit facilities have likewise been prohibited from handling them. different groups suggest that funds for agriculture and sMe instead be released the way the Mind-anao rural development Program (MrdP) is being done.

the dA says it has no capability to handle financing, thus encouraged the private sector to elevate their concerns to LBP where the government funds are lodged. On the other hand, the Mindanao development Authority (MdA) suggested during a farmers’ conven-tion that the funds be distributed using the Conditional transfer Method, but with a re-payment system. the most urgent question right now is this: how long will it take to fully realize the potential of the agriculture sector

and sMes in Mindanao?

‘Owing largely to a relative lack of access to government

loans, the present status of the agriculture sector in Mindanao keeps hanging on the balance.

In the past, private banks and government financial institutions were allowed to undertake government

lending. It is no longer the case and non-government credit facilities have likewise been prohibited from handling

them. Different groups suggest that funds for agriculture

and SME instead be released the way the Mindanao Rural

Development Program (MRDP) is being done.’

8 EDGEDAVAOPROPERTY

A kinder, gentler refuge for dabawenyos is how Marlon escalicas,

general manager for Camella davao and tagum, would de-scribe Camella northpoint, a condominium development of the Villar-led company in the city.

Last saturday, Camella unveiled the latest addition to the condominium enclave – a 15-story tower that prom-ises to be the greenest of its kind in the city. dubbed as Liverpool tower, the build-ing will be home to 329 units with pocket gardens and sky gardens that will allow the building to ‘breathe’.

“Camella northpoint is the fusion of both vertical and horizontal development. With this project, our home-owners still get to enjoy the beautiful outdoors even if they live in a condominium. it’s more than just a condo-minium,” escalicas said.

in an event that gathered hundreds of homeowners, brokers, and suppliers, escal-icas unveiled the scale-model of Liverpool, the fourth and last residential building to be constructed in the peaceful enclave.

“Aside from being the tall-est building in the project, we have also incorporated more ‘green’ characteristics into the building,” escalicas said.

selected homebuyers

were the first to see the el-egant Liverpool tower 4 in its scale model and perspec-tive, and at the same time get a taste of what ninyo restau-rant has to offer with its fu-sion cuisine set within a fine dining ambiance. ninyo is the restaurant in the heart of the commercial area of Camella northpoint.

“Homebuyers will get a taste of the elegant lifestyle they will enjoy as residents of Camella northpoint as they partake of the delicious din-ner menu made especially for them by ninyo,” escalicas said.

escalicas added they will reveal the green features of Liverpool in an event filled with light jazz music and cocktails, and the delectable dishes that will give home-buyers a one-of-a-kind buy-ing experience.

One of the key features of Liverpool is the sky Garden, a wide open space within the building that will allow not only natural light but also natural breeze to enter the structure to expel any warm air, cooling down the hall-ways and condo units.

the sky Garden will also have natural plants that give off fresh oxygen and will aug-ment the indoor gardens to provide a refreshing, green ambiance throughout the building.

“We sacrificed space worth around P70 million to allot it to the sky Garden, because we put a premium on creating a green ambiance in Liverpool for the benefit of our homeowners,” added es-calicas.

Camella northpoint is a landmark condo develop-ment that offers its residents class, comfort, and a pleasur-able living experience they will not find in any other condo project in the city. it is the newest premier address in davao, nestled within the heart of north davao’s growth area, making it near to where all the action is.

Yet the condo property is ensconced within a veritable pine estate, tastefully tucked within sloping hills filled with stately old trees at the junc-tion of Buhangin road and Bajada in JP Laurel Avenue. Presently growing all over is P4 million’s worth of all-weather Caribbean pine trees imported from new Zealand.

these aromatic pine trees make northpoint a healthful and refreshing place to live, letting its home-owners live a green lifestyle with its verdant surround-ings. With northpoint’s buildings also designed to principles of green architec-ture, its homeowners can definitely breathe green and live green.

Liverpool is not only unique for its green charac-teristics; it also offers bigger suite units on the top floor at 55, 84, and 93 square meters. this saturday, Camella makes buying a northpoint unit a more pleasurable experience with discounts as high as P100,000.

it will also give easy-on-the-pocket down payment terms for three years at zero interest, or a very affordable monthly due of P12,000 only. All these special offers will be available on that night only.

As the greenest building so far of Camella northpoint, Liverpool is considered the gem among all the towers in this British colonial-themed condo development. As such, it symbolizes not only green living, but elegant living as well, as its homeowners get to enjoy an elevated lifestyle of comfort, privilege, and convenience.

northpoint gives its resi-dents many privileges: the stature of living in a posh condo with world-class ame-nities, the convenience of urban living with its premier location, and the benefits of green, healthful living within nature’s bounty.

inquiries can be made at their offices at 2/F delgar Building, JP Laurel Ave., Ba-jada, davao City, (082) 222-0963 and (082) 222-5221.

Green living on the rise at Camella Northpoint

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012 9EDGEDAVAO PROPERTY

Green living on the rise at Camella Northpoint

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 201210 COMMUNITY SENSE EDGEDAVAO

tHe 26th celebra-tion of the davao City’s Kadayawan

Festival has gotten ad-ditional boosting from the national government with two proclamations aimed at enhancing this year’s festival.

the proclamations include a city-wide gun ban and a special holiday for the city both aimed at enhancing this year’s Ka-dayawan experience.

Philippine national Police Chief director Gen-eral nicanor Bartolome has issued a Gun Ban which suspended all Per-mits to Carry Firearms Outside of residence (PtCFOrs) for a period of one month in davao City, effective August 1 to August 31 in time for the festival.

Under the ban, only the members of the PnP, the Armed Fores and other law-enforcement agencies performing of-ficial duties and in agen-cy-prescribed uniforms will be allowed to carry weapons.

the gun ban was pro-posed by the City’s Peace and Order Council last month to ensure that the Kadayawan will be free from firearm-related in-cidents and the city will be made safe for the resi-dents and tourists who will converge in the city.

the directive of the

PnP director-General includes the strict imple-mentation of the policy through Police integrat-ed Patrol system (PiPs), which includes the con-duct of checkpoints, LOi sitA/Oplan Bakal, mo-bile/beat patrols and other police security operations in close co-ordination with the AFP, other law enforcement/government agencies and Local Government Units (LGUs).

Meanwhile Mala-canang has released Proclamation no. 432 which declares August 17 as a special (non-Work-ing) day in davao City. the Proclamation gives full opportunity to the people of davao City to celebrate and participate in the occasion with ap-propriate ceremonies.

Kadayawan is an an-nual festival in the city held every third week of August with main cel-ebrations occurring in the third weekend of the month. this year’s Kaday-awan will be on August 17-19. Main highlights include the famed street dancing (indak-indak sa Kadalanan) and the Flo-ral Float Parade (Pamu-lak sa Kadayawan).

the City tourism Op-erations Office is expect-ing 20,000 to 30,000 tourists to visit the City during the celebrations.

Kadayawan is a ‘holiday’

LAst July 17, sM City davao along with 43 sM malls across the

country and 4 malls in China advocated for book reading among children.

sM Cares through its Committee on Youth and Children’s Welfare has been observing the national Children’s Book reading day for the past 3 years. this year’s celebra-tion was supported by the department of education (deped), the national Book development Board (nBdB), Vibal Publica-tions, national Bookstore, sM Foundation inc., BdO Foundation, and Jollibee. the event was participat-

ed in by kids from Circu-lar Homes and euro Asia.

“25 years ago, when SM opened its first Mall to the public (at North EDSA), we were given an opportunity to help im-prove the quality of life of the community surround-ing us. Today, the SM Su-permalls have become home to more than 12,000 tenants, 25,000 SM em-ployees, serving 3 million shoppers daily, nation-wide. And we have grown because our customers and partners have allowed us to grow with you. Truly, the SM Malls have now grown beyond shopping, beyond entertainment,

and leisure. It is now about taking affirmative action in our social responsibili-ties. It is now, about tak-ing initiatives to be in-strumental in caring for children, the best way we can. It is now about, how SM gives back,” says engr. nick santos, sM davao as-sistant mall manager.

dr. rovic Cuasito and BdO Foundation volun-teers were the readers for the activity. Also in attendance were City Li-brarian norafe Alajar and department of education regional supervisor ii Carmencita diamante.

“Kudos to SM City Davao for their efforts

to instill in our young Davaoeños love for read-ing through this National Book Reading Campaign. This is in line with ‘Magba-sa Ta’ project in the local government which extends our literacy program to far-flung communities through story-telling in barangays,” City Librarian norafe Alajar reads in be-half of the city mayor.

Apart from the very entertaining story-telling session, games and mas-cot interaction, sir el-ementary school and Ka-bacan elementary school also received children’s books from sM Founda-tion during the activity.

SM Davao promotes book reading Kids from Circular Homes and Euro Asia at SM City Davao’s National Children’s Book Reading Day celebration.

LeAdinG telecommuni-cations company Globe telecom said it would

support initiatives by the in-ternational telecommunica-tion Union (itU) and GsM Association (GsMA) to revise the radio frequency spectrum to allow easier and cheaper global broadband expansion and lower the cost of mobile devices in many markets.

Atty. Froilan Castelo, Head of Globe Corporate and Legal services Group and a mem-ber of GsMA Chief regulatory Officer Group – Asia, said it was imperative that Asia-Pacific carriers come-up with a common stand on the issue of spectrum harmonization. He added that consistency and fairness in the allocation of frequency spectrum would help boost competitiveness and give telecommunication companies the opportunity to further expand penetration and offer more compelling products and services.

“While Globe recognizes that the power of managing spectrum allocation is in the hands of the regulators, we believe that a review and re-vision of frequency spectrum can bring benefits to a greater number of people, particu-larly in far-flung, rural areas. telcos will be able to deliver

low-cost internet connectivity and the cost of mobile devices could become lower since there will be no need to cus-tomize these across differing spectrum bands,” Castelo said.

For instance, the new Long term evolution (Lte) standard for high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals which wireless car-riers worldwide are currently deploying can be used with many different frequency bands. As a result, cellular phones from one country may not work in other countries unless the units are multi-band capable.

GsMA is pushing for a har-monized 700MHz band plan for mobile services across the Asia-Pacific region, noting that spectrum harmonization would result in bigger econo-mies of scale and increase the capacity of the region’s mobile operators to provide better telecommunication services. the organization, in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), has published research suggest-ing that mobile services could boost Asia-Pacific economies by $729-Billion in the next twenty years through the region-wide adoption of the 700MHz spectrum band for mobile broadband.

Globe Telecom backs radio frequency revamp

Jollibee joins the book reading campaign at SM City DavaoDavao City Librarian Norafe Alajar expresses the mayor’s gratitude to SM for its laudable program for children of Davao.

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012 11SUBURBIAEDGEDAVAO

DRIED FISH BENEFICIARIES. Herminia Salazar (2nd from left) from Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-Internal Audit Services from Manila leads her team in the surprise monitoring and assessment of the Kababaihang Magbubulad ng Old Poblacion (KAMOP).

With Salazar was Willie Concepcion from DOLE 12. The group was satisfied in the operation of KAMOP, a recipi-ent of P71,000 fund assistance from DOLE. KAMOP is one of the organizations which produce marinated bangsi (flying fish), Maitum’s One Town, One Product.

ECO-TOURISM. Mayor Elsie Lucille Perrett (right) and Dr. Adeluisa Garcia-Siapno, newly-installed regional executive director of Department of Environment and Natural Resources Region 12, exchange ideas on how to sustain the environment during the latter’s visit in Maitum. RED Siapno assured Mayor Perrett that she is

available 24/7 whenever she needs help. “If you have any concern, I am just a phone call away, any time of the day,” she told Mayor Perrett. Maitum will be a recipient of technical assistance from DENR Region 12 in the eco-tourism program and forest preservation.

BUSOG, LUSOG, TALINO. Participants giggle as Saran-gani Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Allan Farnazo cracks a joke in his message during the launching of Busog, Lusog, Talino (BLT) in Perrett Central Elementary School in Maitums Friday, July 20. The BLT which started in 2007 is a school feeding program developed by the Jollibee Foundation. The program aims to address hun-

ger among malnourished Grade 1 and Grade 2 pupils to help them stay in school and learn better. Jollibee Foun-dation partners with public and private sectors in the local communities to ensure better health and nutrition among public school children. As of 2012, the program has nourished more than 25,000 BLT pupils nationwide.

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 201212 EDGEDAVAONATION/WORLD

BeiJinG will estab-lish a military gar-rison on a group

of disputed islands in the south China sea, China’s defence ministry said Monday, a move likely to provoke further tensions with its neighbours.

the troops will oper-ate from sansha in the Paracel islands, one of two archipelagos in the south China sea that are claimed by both China and Vietnam.

the garrison, ap-proved by the Central Military Commission, “will be responsible for the sansha area national defence mobilisation and reserve forces activities”, the defence ministry said on its website.

the ministry did not say when the garrison would be established, but the move to station troops on the Paracels is likely to provoke Hanoi’s ire.

Beijing’s move last month to designate san-sha as its administrative centre for the Paracels and the spratly islands prompted a rare dem-onstration sunday in the Vietnamese capital against China’s territorial assertions.

China and south Viet-nam once administered different parts of the Paracels but after a brief conflict in 1974 Beijing took control of the entire group of islands. Vietnam holds several of the larger spratly islands.

China says it owns much of the south China sea, while the Philip-pines, taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia each claim por-tions.

disputes have flared in recent weeks, with Viet-nam and the Philippines criticising what they call Chinese encroachment.

in June, the state-backed China national Offshore Oil Corporation announced it was wel-coming bids to explore oil blocks in the disputed wa-ters, a week after Vietnam adopted a law placing the spratlys under its sover-eignty.

A July 13 meeting of the Association of south-east nations broke up without a joint statement for the first time in 45 years because members could not agree on how to refer to China’s behaviour in the disputed waters.

the countries are drafting a “code of con-duct” to try to overcome the rift.

China plans garrison

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012 13EDGEDAVAO

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tional Housing Authority (nHA) this coming July 26.

He said there is also an affordable housing program for government employees, uniformed personnel, teachers, and OFWs.

the city government is now finalizing nego-tiation with the Housing and Urban development Coordinating Council (HUdCC) on this housing project, whose site has been identified.

Gales said that anoth-er housing project is also

being eyed to develop in the island under Localized Community Mortgage Pro-gram (LCMP).

Among 15 LGUs nation-wide, iGaCos is one of the beneficiaries of LCMP that was approved by the social Housing Finance Corpora-tion (sHFC) Board of direc-tors on July 27, 2007.

the sHFC was created by virtue of executive Order no. 272 on January 20, 2004. the sHFC is subsidiary of the national Home Mortgage Fi-nance Corporation (nHMFC) with mandates that include to undertake social hous-

ing programs that will cater to the formal and informal sectors in the low-income bracket and to take charge of developing and administer-ing social housing programs, particularly the Community Mortgage Program (CMP).

LCMP is also a derivative of the CMP that would as-sist and empower the LGU in achieving their housing pro-grams for the informal sec-tor in their respective areas.

Gales said sunrise Vil-lage in san Agustin, Babak is a model community of LCMP with close to 200 households as beneficiaries.

ito, masisimot na rin ang 61.7 million na backlog sa textbook upang maabot na, sa wakas, ang one is to one ratio ng aklat sa mag-aaral. sana nga po, ngayong paubos na ang backlog sa edukasyon, sikapin nating huwag ul-ing magka-backlog dahil sa dami ng estudyante. sa tingin ko po, responsible Parenthood ang sagot dito,” Aquino said, draw-ing successive cheers and applause.

Aquino took a swipe yet again at his prede-cessor’s administration while boasting of the country’s wins under his leadership.

Turned down He turned down calls

for him to forget the sins of his predecessor so that the country can move for-ward, warning that the Philippines would suffer if he would not punish the people who plundered the country to enrich themselves.

“Forgive and forget ang lahat ng atraso ng mga naglubog sa atin sa bulok na estado? Forgive and forget para maibalik ang lumang status quo? Ang tugon ko: Ang mag-patawad, maaari; ang makalimot, hindi. Kung ang nagkasala ay hindi mananagot, gagarantiya-han mo ang pagpapahi-rap muli sa sambayanan,” Aquino said in his third

sona speech delivered at the joint session of the Congress at the House of representa-tives yesterday which lasted one hour and 37 minutes.

He also lamented the inefficient budget he had to endure at the start of his office.

“Para po tayong bok-singero na isinabak sa la-ban na nakagapos na ang kamay at paa, kakampi pa ng kalaban ang referee at mga judge,” Aquino said. Extolled

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales received special mention along with other notable offi-cials from Aquino. He said that Morales had been instrumental in carrying out reforms during his second year.

Aquino said that he admired Morales’ work and told her to expect more challenges.

CommonHe said that the changes

and reforms that Filipinos had been yearning were now common under his adminis-tration.

“nangarap tayo ng pag-babago, nakamit natin ang pagbabago at ngayon karani-wan na ito,” Aquino said

Among the changes he said are the improvement in roads, which he said have been made smoother, and the strict use of sirens, which is only allowed for ambu-lances, firetrucks and police vehicles.

“Ang wang-wang sa lansangan, galing na lang sa pulis, ambulansya, o bumbero-- hindi sa opi-syal ng gobyerno. Karani-wan na ito. Ang gobyer-nong dating nang-aabuso, ngayon, tunay na kakampi na ng Pilipino,” said Aqui-no.

Aquino noted that under his watch, people are no longer waiting for relief goods during ca-lamities, instead goods come ready for the public. Jobs

He also said that some 3.1 million new jobs were created in the past two years of his administra-tion.

“Pababa nang pababa ang unemployment rate sa bansa,” he said.

“sinisiguro nating manganganak ng trabaho ang pagsigla ng ating eko-nomiya,” he said.

Aquino said when he came into office, the un-employment rate was 8 percent, but as of April 2011, the rate dropped to 7.2 percent and as of the first half of 2012, it has been further reduced to 6.9 percent.

He said that 638,000 people have been given jobs in the business pro-cess outsourcing (BPO) industry, which he said has infused $1 billion into the country’s economy in 2011. the BPO industry has also generated many

other indirect jobs, he added.

“di ba makatwirang mangarap na balang araw, bawat Pilipinong handang magbanat ng buto, may mapapasukang trabaho?” Aquino said.

10-million touristsHe also said that the

department of tourism targets to increase the an-nual tourist arrivals in the country to 10 million by 2016.

Aquino said that as of June 2012, at least 2.1 mil-lion tourists have arrived in the country, which he said bodes well for the lo-cal tourism industry’s tar-get of 4.6 million tourists by the end of this year.

“Kung patuloy na mag-kakaisa ang sambayanang Pilipino, gaya ng ipinama-las natin nang hirangin ang Puerto Princesa Un-derground river bilang isa sa new seven Won-ders of nature, walang dudang makakamtan na-tin ito,” Aquino said.

“Ang pahayag nga po natin sa daigdig: it’s more fun in the Philip-pines. Kahit wala pang isang taon sa puwesto si secretary Mon Jimenez, nagagapas na natin ang positibong bunga ng ating mga naipunlang reporma. Masasabi nga po nating pagdating sa turismo, it’s really more fun—to have (tourism) secretary Mon Jimenez,’” Aquino added.

Aquino said that if the quota for 2012 is reached, this means they would have added 1.5 million tourists, which would be higher than the 1.3 mil-lion increase in tourist arrivals during the nine-year term of the previous administration.

Aquino said that in 2001, tourist arrivals were recorded at 1.8 mil-lion and in 2010, it in-creased to 3.1 million.

“Mantakin po ninyo: sa hinaba-haba ng kanilang administrasyon, ang naid-agdag nilang tourist ar-

rivals, 1.3 million lamang; may ambag pa kaming ka-lahating taon dyan,” Aqui-no quipped.

Open for business He declared also that

the country is now truly open for business.

Citing information that the Philippines is now enjoying positive credit, he told the nation that the stock exchange index now no longer went be-low 5000 from the ear-lier 4000, drawing him ap-plause from the audience.

“dati tayo ang nan-gungutang, ngayon tayo na ang nagpapautang. dati namamalimos tayo ng investments, ngayon dumadagsa,” he added, quoting comments on the Philippines being “Asia’s next tiger.”

He claimed that growth in the economy was reach-ing the masses through the government’s Pantawid Pamilya program, which has more than 700,000 beneficiaries.

more drug courts as there are many drug-related cas-es in the region, citing that each court handles 500 to 600 cases in Davao City alone.

asked for his take on the demand of 12 politi-cal prisoners who are now on their eight-day hunger strike in Compostela Valley (ComVal) Rehabilitation Center for additional courts in the province, Carillo said, “i joined their prayers, but all we (DoJ) can do is to ex-press our sentiments.”

aside from calling for more courts, the political prisoners, who are support-ed by some 550 inmates in ComVal, have waged a hun-ger strike since July 16, ex-pressing their dismay over the government’s perennial refusal to grant them free-dom.

They are also calling for additional jail budget and improvement of jail facili-ties and services.

“i would like to believe they (Supreme Court) have a plan to increase the num-ber of courts. They are do-ing their best to provide more courts as they are

aware of the need,” he said.The lack of budget, Car-

illo continued, is a major reason why it took so long for the judiciary to establish additional courts.

“Creating a separate court does not only involve employing a judge, but it should have a complete per-sonnel starting from clerk and stenographer among others. and, that requires a big amount of budget,” he said.

noting that ideally, there should be separate courts for drugs, family and other types of cases, he said regional trial courts are in-stead designated as to the types of courts to cope with the shortage.

Further, he said Parole and Probation administra-tion (PPa) offices also lack personnel, citing that in the region, there are 12 PPa of-fices manned by only nine chiefs of offices.

“Sometimes, we do one-man army,” he said can-didly, adding that there are offices, such as the one in island garden City of Sa-mal, that do not have chief officers but only officers-in-

charge.He said with additional

cities, all the more that PPa offices need additional per-sonnel as it is required that there should be an office in every city or province.

Meanwhile, to cope with shortage of manpower, vol-unteer probation aid (VPa) program was launched, cur-rently having 13,000 VPas nationwide.

as of June 2012, the re-gion has 327 VPas, and 158 of them are supervising 549 clients.

Carillo said there are 1,865 active supervision cases subject for parole in the region.

The Davao Provincial district 2 has the high-est number of cases with 314cases; followed by Davao del Sur with 218 cases; Davao City district 2 with 189 cases.

Carillo said supervision of cases subject for parole may be revoked in cases of non-reporting and/or con-viction of another crime, adding that the maximum supervision period is six years.

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 201214 SPORTS EDGEDAVAO

Phoenix CEO: Strong sports commitmentBy Neil Bravo

tHe vaunted track team of Brokenshire College turned the 1st Cavalier

run into their own play-ground as the Leopards won all but one of the categories at stake.

Arnie Macaneras, Mi-chael Constantino, rolly Paderna, Cynthia Jaro, and Mae Baret carried the Leop-ards to five of the six titles. Macaneras and Jaro ruled the premier 10-kilometer class, Constantino took the 5-kilometer title while Pad-erna and rookie Baret took the 3-k pennants.

Only Flordeliza donos of Baguio City averted the sweep of Brokenshire Col-lege tracksters in the wom-en’s 5-kilometer division.

donos, who clocked 288 minutes and 31 seconds beat Cellie rose Jaro (28:32) and

Cecilie Jaro (29:21) of Bro-kenshire.

Macaneras clocked 35 minutes and 25 seconds to barely beat Kidapawan City’s Gilbert Maluyo who checked in a step behind at 35:26. ronald dagaang (36:42) came in third. in the women’s side, Jaro negoti-ated the distance in 46:09 besting teammates Criselyn Jaro (48:23) and daime rose Jaro (52:02).

Constantino, gold medal-list in the national PrisAA Games, crossed the finish in 18:25 beating University of Mindanao’s Michaerl Barrosa (19:17), and Mike Athony traya (19:34) of Kidapawan City.

Paderna took the 3-k title in 10:46 while the prodigious Baret won the women’s 3-k title in 13:17. (NEiL BRAVo)

Brokenshire bets rule Cavalier Run

AssUMPtiOn College of davao emerged on top of its group in

the mini division and emar Learning Center made its way into the quarterfinals in the Cadet division over the weekend as the royal Mandaya Hotel Cup moves into the crucial stages of the tournament.

the ACd Minis lit up the Genesis 88 Gym with a gutsy rise-from-the-grave win

over stella Maris Academy of davao 67-60. ACd was slow at the get go falling be-hind 20-29 and 39-47 in the first two quarters but came back smoking after the lem-ontime break.

ACd outgunned sMAd 28-13 in the final period to reverse the outcome of what could have been a disas-trous finish.

ACd will take on Group B second placer Holy Child

school of davao in the semi-finals this saturday at 9:30 a.m.

the other mini semis match will have Group B top qualifier Ateneo de davao University staking its un-blemished record against Precious international on sunday at 9:30a.m.

in the Cadet division, emar caught the last bus to the round of 8 by turning back Holy Cross of davao

College, 101-74. emar will now face early favorite Holy Child, which toyed with st.

Peter’s College, 151-21, in the semifinals. A 34-2 explosion jumpstarted the reds who were simply in a different class.

“this is the stage where the best of the best will emerge. We hope more people will come to see the games,” said league founder Glenn escandor. (NEiL BRAVo)

ACD, Emar roll in RMH Cup

SO KIM CHENG SPORTS AWARDS. Phoenix Petroleum CEO and President Den-nis Uy (second from left) receives his Sports Leadership award from So Kim Cheng Sports Foundation Inc. chairman So Peng Kee (3rd from left), SKCSF

vice chairman Dexter So (extreme right), and Davao City Sports Council presi-dent Ben Sur (left).

University of Mindanao President and CEO Willie Torres (seventh from left) with the athlete-honourees from UM and DCSC President Ben Sur, SKCSFI vice

chair Dexter So and SKCSFI chair So Peng Kee during the 18th So Kim Cheng Sports Awards at the Grand Regal Hotel.

PHOenix Petroleum Phil-ippines CeO dennis Uy is truly a sportsman by

heart.sharing the limelight with

the city’s top sportsmen dur-ing the 18th so Kim Cheng sports Awards at the Grand regal Hotel Luzon Ballroom on sunday night, the 36-year old Uy reaffirmed his com-mitment to sports, and where his passion goes, so does the country’s leading indepen-dent oil player.

“since i was young, i’ve al-ways loved sports,” Uy began his message after receiving the sports Leadership Award from the so Kim Cheng sports Foundation and the davao City sports Council. “i play basketball, and golf, i tried bicycling, i also run, but never excelled in sports. As much as i loved sports, it didn’t love me! despite this, i never gave up. i simply practiced harder.”

the young CeO who is also the Honorary Consul to Kazakhstan, cited the influ-ence of sports in running the oil firm’s business.

“sports taught me disci-pline, perseverance, determi-nation and patience – quali-ties that are essential to an entrepreneur such as myself, and qualities that help team Phoenix achieve our goals,” he said.

“that’s why we at Phoe-nix Petroleum fully support sports. sports showcases man at our finest, pushes us to be stronger, faster, and extraor-dinary. it gives us discipline, builds character, and most importantly especially for the youth, gives them the right venue to direct their energies, instead of to drugs and other vices.”

Uy was awarded the pres-tigious plaque by virtue of his contribution to local and na-tional sports through Phoenix Petroleum.

He was one of the three recipients of the sports Lead-ership Award along with May-or sara duterte-Carpio and samahang Basketbol ng Pili-pinas regional director regino “Boy” Cua.

Phoenix Petroleum was also given a special Citation for its contribution to local and national sports through long distance running, basket-ball, billiards, golf, football and many other sports.

Uy, who plays basketball and golf, cited their biggest endorser and business part-ner Manny Pacquiao and their partnership with the Philip-pine Basketball Association through the sponsorship of “PBA On tour” provincial games, and the United Foot-ball League via the Phoenix-Philippine Air Force team.

“We at Phoenix like to say, “Phoenix Petroleum Fuels Life.” What better example of life at its most promising and most victorious than sports? We only have to look at Manny Pacquiao to see how sports can change a life. Manny is not just our brand ambassador but is also a Phoenix dealer, and his discipline, commit-ment to excellence, and hu-mility are truly admirable,” Uy said as he wished the young athletes in davao to emulate the values of the eight-time world champion.

Uy’s passion for sports took a high note when he pur-sued to buy the franchise of red Bull in 2011. However, the oil firm came up short with the required votes from the PBA Board. Had Phoenix success-fully bagged a franchise in the PBA, it will be the first davao-based franchise in the history of the professional league.

despite that, Uy continued to support sports particularly in davao.

“i will always be a sports fan, and Phoenix Petroleum will always be a supporter of sports,” he said. “We prom-ise to be your partner in local sports, and we thank you for your support and confidence in us at Phoenix.”

Phoenix Petroleum chair-man doming Uy, joined his son on stage to receive the award handed over by dCsCi Presi-dent Ben sur, sFCFi chairman so Peng Kee, and Cholo elegi-no, who represented Mayor duterte-Carpio.

HONG KONG is a shoppers paradise with a multitude of shopping malls built right beside each other. Where malls in the Philippines sprawl outwards horizontally, Hong Kong’s malls are growing vertically much like sturdy trees in an urban jungle.

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012

EDGEDAVAOTRAVEL

Discovering HK’s Kowloon Park

But I am writing about a different kind of Hong Kong, a more greener, less crowded space within the former british colony where one can escape the hum of the city even if it is located smack dab in the middle of everything. I am sure frequent visi-tors to Hong Kong may have heard of it and have even passed by it more than once in a visit, but I can bet that not many have explored the many pathways and attrac-tions that are found within Kowloon Park. Much like New York City’s famed Central Park, Kowloon Park is a breath of fresh air. Located along Nathan Road and right in the middle Tsim Sha Tsui, the park is a huge swath of green in an otherwise con-crete and glass landscape. If you visit the park early, one can see the locals enjoying a round of Tai Chi. The park also has an array of public arts and sculptures that are free for every visitor in the park to enjoy. Kowloon Park is also where one can find the Kowloon Park Heritage Discovery Centre, an archi-tectural heritage museum that occupies a historic British colonial structure that used to be accommo-dations for British troops. Also within the park complex is an indoor sport center and a large aquatics

center. The pool complex includes four indoor heated pools, including an Olympic sized 50-meter main pool, a 25-meter training pool, a 20-meter diving pools and a free form leisure pool. There are three outdoor leisure pools of irregular shapes linked together by water-falls. In addition, there is a circular paddling pool and a sunbathing area. The park also has an avi-ary that is comprised of seven planted enclosures which accommodate over 100 birds of 29 species, in-cluding Blue & Yellow Ma-caw, Green-winged Macaw, Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Nicobar Pigeon and others. The Aviary is famous for its outstanding breeding suc-cess with Red-sided Eclec-tus Parrot, Nicobar Pigeon and Victoria Crowned Pi-geon. So the next time you visit Hong Kong and want to take a break, I suggest you drop by Kowloon Park for a little breather. Add me up on twitter @kennethkingong for more travel finds, foodie delights, and happenings around Durianburg.

The ICC Tower from Kowloon Park

Kowloon Park is an urban oasis.

Otoi, me, and Erwin, take a breather in the park.

You can see locals practice tai chi anywhere in the park. The park is also a nice way to get from one mall to another.

The One Mall as seen from the park. A sculpture along Nathan Road.

A sign post points out the many attractions within Kowloon Park.

INdulge!

ENTERTAINMENTTRAVEL

A2 INdulge! EDGEDAVAO

Destination: UnderwaterBy Carlo P. MalloPhotos by Rude Dolfo

D A B AW E N Y O S travel far and wide to see the world, but how many have actu-ally explored this en-tirely different world which happens to be right under our own noses? It all started with a joke wanting to meet the famous Disney character ‘Nemo’ in real life. So, when Joon, Leo, and Lucky of Coral Dive Center in Davao in-vited me for a ‘fun’ dive, I immediately said yes.

I didn’t mind waking up early on a Sunday so I can join the dive group which was composed of mostly Korean guests who are in the city for recreation. There were also Filipino dive enthusiasts who joined us on the boat. After a few remind-ers and a short lecture, we started gearing up for the dive. Boy, that tank is heavy and so is the weight belt. And oh, try walking with your flippers on. But the moment you submerge yourself under-water and as you go deep-er, the less of life’s worries

could bother you. The sight of schools of fishes in blue, silver, black, striped with yellow, and a million other colors can leave one stunned – and we’re not even talking about shapes and sizes yet! While others had more complex forms of fascina-tions, like eels and nudi-branchs, I was jumping for joy when I saw Nemo, or most probably his relatives, having fun in their own anemones. Nothing beats seeing these wonderful crea-tures in their own natural habitat. It’s a good thing that I did my first dive with Coral Dive

as they constantly reiterated how lucky Davao City is to have these corals still brim-ming with life. “We want more people to know more about the beauty of Davao City and Samal Is-land. It’s not all bad here as what a lot of people think of Mindanao,” Joon said. Coral Dive is located at the end of Monteverde St., just across the Bureau of Fire Protection. For more infor-mation, you may call them at (082) 3044588. Coral Dive Center is the manned by NAUI Worldwide certified dive masters and instruc-tors.

The tragic incident that occurred at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo., has hit all of our hearts, especially the ac-tors from the flick. We’ve heard what Gary Oldman and director Christopher Nolan had to say, and now Anne Ha-thaway and Christian Bale have spoken out about the horrendous event that took 12 lives. “My heart aches and breaks for the lives taken and altered by this un-fathomably senseless act,” Hathaway, who plays Catwoman/Selina Kyle in

Dark Knight Rises, said in a statement Saturday to E! News. “I am at a loss for words how to express my sorrow. My thoughts and prayers are with the vic-tims and their families.” Bale, star of the action film, issued his own state-ment on Saturday, declar-ing, “Words cannot ex-press the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.” At 12:30 a.m. Friday, 24-year-old James Hol-mes allegedly walked into the midnight showing of

Dark Knight Risesin The-ater 9 at the Century 16 movie complex in Aurora, carrying gas canisters, an AR-15 assault rifle, a shotgun and at least one .40-caliber Glock hand-gun. Holmes surrendered himself to police after the shooting and was booked on Friday afternoon. Authorities say he wore protective body armor and a gas mask. Holmes triggered two canisters and opened fire with the rifle, killing 12 and injuring 58 people, making this the biggest mass shooting in U.S. history, according to available data.

IT is the rare Ameri-can spectator sport that runs year-round. But not today. Today, the weekend box office was called. In the aftermath of the Aurora, Colo., shooting rampage, Warner Bros., as pledged, did not issue Fri-day-Sunday estimates for The Dark Knight Rises.The other major studios fol-lowed Warners’ lead, and top reporting agencies like Exhibitor Relations and Hollywood.com did not issue reports for num-bers they didn’t have. The silence was deafen-ing. “I cannot recall the stu-dios ever choosing to not report box-office grosses, even around 9/11,” jour-nalist and TheWrap.com founder Sharon Waxman said in an email. Twelve people were killed and 58 injured at a midnight Friday, opening-day screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora. The incident was the larg-est mass shooting in U.S. history. “All the movie studios are trying their best to be sensitive to the tragedy, and to react with the ap-propriate decorum,” Wax-man said. Max Keiser, who co-founded Hollywood Stock Exchange, a site that taps into the box-office obses-sion, took a dimmer view. “[Warners] is ashamed that the box office is prob-ably going to benefit due to the massacre,” Keiser said in an email. But the numbers are expected to tell another story. Projections are

being downsized, and where once the most-optimistic estimate had The Dark Knight Rises scoring a nearly $200 mil-lion domestic debut, and challenging the opening weekend record of The Avengers, now the talk, per Exhibitor Relations, is of an opening between $155 million and $170 million. Presales, some made weeks in advance of the Aurora shooting, were believed to have driven much of the midnight, opening day and Satur-day revenue. Sunday was to be the wild card: Would walk-ins still walk in? Would families show? The anecdotal evidence was not encouraging. Twitter, in particular, was rife with posts on Sunday from users claim-ing to be moviegoers in “practically empty,” “vir-tually empty” and “half empty” theaters showing the Christopher Nolan Batman movie. One tweet even came with a reputed snapshot of a “completely

empty” screening room. The formal proof will come Tuesday when War-ners and the other studios release their numbers. Hollywood is delaying the box-office weekend, not canceling it, as it were. Professor Robert J. Thompson called the box-office blackout a ges-ture, and in the scheme of things, not a terribly meaningful one. At the same time, Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Tele-vision and Popular Cul-ture at Syracuse Univer-sity, did not dismiss the Sunday-morning routine that is the parsing of the weekend numbers. The game—who’s ahead? who’s behind?—is a sport for people who aren’t necessarily into sports, he said. And better than most sports, box-office results depend on the spectators’ collective participation. “When you hear this mov-ie or that movie broke all records,” Thompson said, “you feel like you were

FOLLOWING the tragic shooting at a Dark Knight Rises screening in Colora-do Friday, Heath Led-ger’s father spoke out, saying “we can’t blame Heath or the [Joker] character” for the incident. “It’s [The Joker] ficti-tious. I don’t know what this does to the character,” Kim Ledger told Austra-lia’s Herald Sun. “I think that’s the least of my wor-ries. I’d be more worried about the families and other people involved in the tragedy.’’ Heath Ledger played the Joker in The Dark Knight before he passed away from an accidental drug overdose in January 2008. James Holmes, the al-leged gunman who fired rounds into the movie theater crowd leaving 12 people dead, reportedly painted his hair red and said he was The Joker the evening of the incident,

according to New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “It’s terrible—the whole circumstances,’’ the elder Ledger continued. “The guy’s obviously a nut case. He has obviously lost it. I think what Amer-ica should be doing is re-stricting the availability of ammunition or revisiting their gun laws—that’s what they should be do-ing.’’

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012EDGEDAVAO INdulge! A3ENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT

Hathaway, Bale speak about Dark Knight Rises tragedy

Black out for Dark Knight

part of something.” Just like maybe, per-haps the people in the opening-night theater in Aurora wanted to feel part of something. “By delaying the num-bers,” Thompson said, “there is some [acknowl-edgement] that those numbers would include in them some people who went to the movies on Friday, and didn’t come back.”

Warner Bros. delays release of box office resultsLedger: ‘Don’t blame my son’

EQUILIBRIUM, a leading distribu-tor of coffee ma-chines and official distributor of Torani flavored syrup and sauces in Davao City, sponsored the third Mindanao barista contest at the Waterfront Insu-lar Hotel, Davao City last June 30. With four branches na-tionwide, Equilibrium has been part of the annual barista contest initiated by the Philippine Barista and Coffee Academy (PBCA), an affiliate of the American Barista and Coffee School. Elmar M. Limpiado, Davao office branch head, said one of the six professional baris-tas from popular coffee shops in Mindanao who won the pre-elimination round last June 28 won the Mindanao regional elimination. The champion baris-ta, Romyr Bago of Café Demitasse, will represent Mindanao in the nation-al contest at the World Food Expo 2012 in Au-gust at the SMX Conven-tion Center, Manila. He won over Lyndon Recera of Something Sweet Resto Bar & Coffee Shop (1st runner up), and Dina C. Benolirao of Cafe Demitasse (2nd runner up).

The other finalists were Alexies John Eco-nar of Something Sweet by Anne; Mark Anthony Gumapo of Cafe Feren-zo, and Rhyme Lavita of Wine Bar & Restaurant. The criteria for judging were categorized under technical and sensory, according to Limpiado, who said that the con-testants served espresso, cappuccino and signa-ture drinks. The sensory judges were Ron Labtang of The Marco Polo Davao; Rey Sumania of Jamaican F&B Training Center; Adelo Marquez, F&B manager of Waterfront Insular Ho-tel; and Gladys Marcial Aquino, owner of Tata Benito’s Coffee. Limpiado said the barista contest helps promote Mindanao as having skilled baristas, and that specialty cof-

fee drinking is a growing trend, especially in Davao City. “The coffee market in the city is increasing,” he said, noting that most ho-tel functions are already serving brewed coffee instead of instant coffee, which was a common practice in the past.

Equilibrium is also dis-tributing other high qual-ity products, not only cof-fee but also non-coffee based beverages and gourmet food prepara-tions. He bared the compa-ny’s market share in the city has increased by 80% over the past two years.

A4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012EDGEDAVAO

Coffee making at its finestENTERTAINMENTEVENTS

(L-R) Lyndon Recera-1st placer, Dina C. Benolirao-2nd placer and Romyr Bago-champion

Staff of Equilibrium Intertrade Corp. together with the winners of 3rd Mindanao Barista Contest

Mark Anthony Gumapo-Fifth participant from Café Firenzo

Cup of coffee

Equilibrium’s 3rd Mindanao barista competition

Alexis John Econar-First participant from Something Sweet by Anne

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

LYtHAM st. Annes, england – Another British Open ended with a heartbreak kid and a champion

rising from nowhere. Or elsewhere in the case of ernie els.

For yet another time, els plucked the ball from the hole after one last birdie and heaved it into the grand-stand. At the time, it looked like noth-ing more than a classy gesture by a former British Open champion - not the next one.

the name on the claret jug was supposed to be Adam scott, who had a four-shot lead with four holes to play.

But in a shocking turnaround sun-day, els returned to the 18th green less than an hour later to claim the oldest trophy in golf. scott joined a list of players who threw away a major.

that was not lost on els, whose heart sank when he looked over at the 32-year-old Australian.

‘’sorry,’’ els told him. ‘’You’re a great player, a great friend of mine. i feel very fortunate. You’re going to win many of these.’’

scott might not get another chance like this.

After hitting a 3-wood into a pot bunker on the final hole, scott had one last chance when he stood over a 7-foot par putt to force a playoff. it stayed left of the cup, and scott dropped into a crouch. standing off to

the side, his chin quivered as the mag-nitude of the meltdown hit him. in-stead, he mouthed one word: ‘’Wow.’’

Wow, indeed.even though els had gone more

than two years without winning, and had thrown away two tournaments in recent months with shaky putting, the Big easy felt all along that something special was going to happen at this British Open.

And it did - all because of a col-lapse by scott that no one saw coming.

‘’i know i let a really great chance slip through my fingers today,’’ scott said.

On a wind-swept afternoon at royal Lytham & st. Annes that blew away the hopes of tiger Woods and a handful of others, scott looked steady as ever by going eight straight holes without making bogey. And that’s when it came undone.

‘’i had it in my hands with four to go,’’ scott said.

A bogey from the bunker on the 15th cut the lead to three. that was followed by a three-putt bogey on the 16th, where his 3-foot par putt spun in and out of the cup and made the gallery gasp. From the middle of the 17th fairway, he hit a 6-iron that turned left, ran down the slope and took one last bounce in shin-high grass.

From elsewhere, it Els

FiLiPinO Juvic Pa-gunsan ended his first appearance in

a Major tournament with a five-over-par 75, finish-ing in the bottom of the field that made it to the weekend of the British Open.

the Asian tour’s reigning Order of Merit topnotcher finished at 11-over 291, his total bal-looning after a faltering finish to his final round at royal Lytham and st. Annes.

the 34-year-old was in the middle of the pack after making the turn at one-over 35, but he bogeyed four of his last seven holes -- including the difficult 18th which he bogeyed for the third time in four days.

still, Pagunsan earned the distinction as the first Filipino to make the cut at the Open and later said he will return home with a lot of good memories of his Major debut.

“it’s a good experi-

ence. First time on a links course and some good memories already. i love to play here. it’s totally different from home. the weather is different, the grass is different, the bunkers are different. ev-erything is different,” he told asiantour.com.

Past Filipino profes-sionals who also played in the Championship were Frankie Minoza and Cassius Casas. Both did not survive the cut in their respective stints.

Juvic survives first Major

Ernie Els kisses the Claret jug after being crowned the new British Open champion.

Filipino golfer Juvic Pagunsan fired an 11-over par in his first Major championship Tiger Woods struggled in the final round and blew his chances.

FiVe shots back of the lead going into sunday, there was no question

tiger Woods needed to do something special to catch Adam scott and win his 15th major championship. After opening his round with five straight pars, Woods came to the par-4 6th looking for a birdie.

it seemed like the per-fect spot to get things going. Woods was a collective 3-un-der on the hole coming into the final round; if there was a hole on the course that was in his wheelhouse, it was this one.

instead, the hole ended up being the spot where

Woods’ major champion-ship hopes died on sunday afternoon. After finding the bunker with his approach shot, Woods was left with a plugged lie up against the face. it was an almost im-possible shot, but caddie Joe LaCava thought he could pull it off. the day prior on the very same hole, Woods’ play-ing partner thorbjorn Olesen executed the shot from almost the exact spot in the bunker, leading LaCava to believe that if a 22-year-old could pull it off, so could Woods.

“Alright, just go with it,” LaCava could be heard saying on esPn’s tele-

cast. “i mean (thorbjorn Ole-sen) was up against the lip with the same kind of lie, but he got it out. i know it was a little higher, but that’s what he had yesterday.”

But Woods wasn’t nearly as lucky as Olesen. He blasted the shot into the face of the bunker, leaving a diabolical shot that had Woods on his knees trying to get it out of the sand the second time around.

Woods managed to play a nifty shot and reach the green but ended up three-putting to card an unfortunate triple bo-gey that left him seven shots back of Adam scott -- all but ending his chances of winning his fourth Claret Jug.

Tiger tumbles

VOL.5 ISSUE 101 • JULY 24, 2012SPORTS16 EDGEDAVAO

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sUndAY night amidst a sea of local sports stars, Guillermo Jr.,

the lawyer-sports execu-tive, shook the hands of Guillermo Jr., the doctor-CeO.

Atty. Guillermo iroy, Jr., former athletic scholar and now the executive director of the country’s sports gov-erning agency, was the epit-ome of humility and grati-tude, as he shook the hands of the man who gave him a scholarship in college as a football player, and later became his stepping stone to a legal education.

“i was his scholar. i played football in order to get an education and i used it to the best i can. the rest, as they say, is history,” said iroy, Jr., now the Philippine sports Commission’s top administrative officer.

He was referring to dr. Guillermo torres, Jr., Presi-dent of the University of Mindanao, who was one of the guests of honor in the annual awards night for the

Iroy: Be proud to be an athlete By Neil Bravo

city’s top athletes.“it’s not easy running

the administrative business of the PsC but my training as an athlete helped me a lot,” he said in his speech before a crowd of emerg-ing sportsmen who were all awed by his humble, low-profile ways.

iroy graduated as an athletic scholar from UM, playing for the football squad then coached by the legendary maestro Jose “sensei” te.

iroy narrated his expe-rience in sports from his

football-playing days to his odd jobs as “runner” for the late sports journalist and Philippine sports Com-mission regional coordina-tor Vic sai. “nong Vic was also the runner of the late (sports patron and Phil-ippine Olympic Commit-tee regional head) so Kim Cheng.”

He was later employed as job order with the City sports development Of-fice then moved to the PsC during the term of Com-missioner later Chairman William “Butch” ramirez.

He went out of PsC and worked in the Presidential Legal Office in Malacanang during the term of Presi-dent Macapagal-Arroyo be-fore he was recalled to the PsC by Chairman ricardo Garcia.

“Be proud to be an ath-lete. Ang sabi nila bobo daw ang athlete. Patunayan nin-yo na hindi. Karamihan sa atin hindi galing sa bueno familia, pero magsumikap tayo na makatapos ng pag-aaral sa pamamagitan ng sports,” he told the young sports achievers.

PSC executive director Guillermo Iroy, Jr. with UM Presi-dent and CEO Guillermo Torres, Jr., race car champion Vince Floirendo, SKCSFI chairman So Peng Kee and DOT

Regional Director Art Boncato during the 18th So Kim Cheng Sports Awards at the Grand Regal Hotel.