WHAT to do with the Matina Shrine Hills is one of the most contentious issues in the proposed amendments to Davao City’s Com-prehensive Development Plan and Zoning Ordinance.

This was bared by Councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling, chair-

man of the committee on housing and urban development which has been holding public hearings on the proposed 2012 to 2021 Devel-opment Plan.

Cabling told reporters dur-ing the Kapehan sa Dabaw at the

SM Annex that the city council is carefully reviewing the proposed amendments to the city’s decade-old Comprehensive Development Plan.

“We have to review it and strike a balance with all sectors

that may be affected,” Cabling said.

One of the proposed amend-ments is for the declaration of the posh Shrine Hills area as a park and recreation center which would mean that all proposed

WILLIAM HOTCHKISS III, newly assumed chief of the Civil Aviation Author-

ity of the Philippines (CAAP), has vowed to act on the many defects of the Francisco Bangoy Interna-

tional Airport (FBIA), including purchases of costly equipment like firetrucks.

General Hotchkiss, a retired chief of the Philippine Airforce, bared his plan after meeting in Ma-

nila with Rep. Mylene Garcia-Alba-no of Davao City’s 2nd congressional district and Regional Director Ar-turo Boncato Jr. of the Department of Tourism.

Shrine Hills eyedin zoning changes

P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.net

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

EDGEThe hills are alive

with conflicts!

Serving a seamless societyDAVAO

Page A1Indulge

FCAAP, 11

FSHRINE, 11

Follow Us On

Science/Environment

Page 7

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Sports Page 14

CAAP chief to act on airport defects

Dumoy aquifer a contentious area

Property

By Carlo P. Mallo

Meeting with Rep. Mylene, RD Boncato

SIDEWALK POLICY. Vice Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte meets with about 1,200 vendors of Davao City at the Almen-dras gym Monday afternoon telling them to respect the 1/3 -2/3 sidewalk policy. [LEAN DAVAL JR.]

Garcia-Albano

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

A LEADING figure in the Mindanao business sector is bullish on the

Philippine economy which has shown renewed dyna-mism with many businesses growing under a rosy envi-ronment.

Vicente T. Lao, president of the Mindanao Business Council, said the 6 -7 percent growth in the GDP (Gross

Domestic Product) is a very good indicator considering that China’s growth is slow-ing down and the United States showing downturns.

Lao, who is also vice chairman of the Regional De-velopment Council 11, said the country is currently en-joying very good economic fundamentals.

“We are just a notch be-

low investment grade,” Lao said.

An investment grade would mean cheaper loans and lower risks for investors that could spur more invest-ments in the country.

The Mindanao business leader said that during a visit by a delegation from the Asian Development Bank, the ADB officials observed

the increased per capita income of $2,200. One del-egate said that if the per cap-ita income reaches $2,000 there is no way to go but up.

Among the growing sec-tors Lao cited in an improv-ing Philippine economy is the Business Process Out-sourcing industry which is experiencing growth that

THE BIG NEWS2 EDGEDAVAO

FBIZ, 11

FDAVAO, 11

TWO police sta-tion commanders are set to relinquish their

respective posts effective today, according to Davao City Police Office director Sr. Supt. Ronald dela Rosa.

Dela Rosa confirmed in a text message late afternoon yesterday that instead of the scheduled September 12 turn-over ceremony, it was moved for this morning.

He offered different rea-sons as to the relief of San Pedro police station com-mander Supt. Antonio Rivera and Sta. Ana police station chief Sr. Insp. Ronald Lao.

Rivera, who is only six months in his post, was or-dered relieved upon the recommendation of Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio over

“unstoppable killings” in his area of jurisdiction while Lao, recently awarded for his intensified drug drive, reached the mandatory two-year stint and should be re-placed.

But Rivera will only change places with Chief Inspector Eliseo Malana Jr. as head of the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG) while Lao will be replaced by Chief Insp. Caezar Cabuhat, the deputy chief for operations of DCPO. Cabuhat’s replacement is still unknown. Lao will be as-signed to the DCPO’s Inves-tigation and Detection Man-agement Branch (IDMB).

It would be Malana’s first assignment as station com-mander under the DCPO and

MAYOR Sara Duterte-Carpio said the city’s emergency re-

sponse units can handle only 800 fatalities during times of contingeny.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Duterte-Carpio said she will seek outside help from line agencies should the number of fatalities rise exceed eight hundred.

She said the emergency response will depend on the magnitude of the tragedy

and the number of fatalities, adding that the local disaster response plan is in layers where the Emergency Re-sponse Center Central 911 acts as first responder.

“We will call the police, Task Force Davao, Philippine Army, Air Force and Philip-pine Navy if the damage is greater plus ha igh fatality rate,” the mayor said.

Recalling the earthquake that hit Eastern Samar Fri-day night which was felt also

in the city, she said Central 911 recommended the im-mediate evacuation of resi-dents along the shoreline following the issuance of the tsunami warning.

Duterte-Carpio said the city through the Information Office posted on the social network for people to stay calm and that Central 911 alerted its barangay func-tionaries to prepare for any eventuality.

The mayor said many

residents inquired about the real situation through the Central 911.

“I did not agree to the evacuation since the city was not included in the tsunami alert. We conferred with the National Disaster Risk Re-duction and Management Council (NDRRMC) which confirmed that Davao City was not included in the tsu-nami alert, so we no longer announced an evacuation.” [PNA]

DAVAO City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte warned

street vendors to respect the 1/3-2/3 rule on side-walk occupancy to al-low pedestrians to pass through freely.

Duterte told an es-timated 1,500 sidewalk vendors to police their ranks and avoid conflict amongst them.

The commonly ac-cepted rule of thumb for street vendors is for them to occupy only 1/3 of the sidewalk and to keep the remaining 2/3 free for pe-destrians use.

Duterte also even le-gitimate business estab-lishments who are illegal-ly using the sidewalks will also be penalized.

“We want to reduce the disturbance in the public’s movement,” Duterte said. “We do not want to hear complaints that they are obstructing passages.”

Duterte gave the side-

walk vendors only one week to comply with the established rule lest they face the full force of the law. “We will enforce the law,” Duterte said.

The vice mayor also discounted the possibil-ity of some vendors be-ing displaced in the pro-cess. “Everybody will be accommodaated, but we will limit the space they occupy on the sidewalk,” Duterte said.

A number of com-plaints has been lodged with the vice mayor’s office against sidewalk vendors who block the streets with their stalls and merchandise while some legitimate business estsblablishments have been using the sidewalk as an extension of their stores, blocking passages in the process.

The vice mayor said he hopes that their dia-logue would provide an acceptable solution to the sidewalk problem.

HIGHER PRICE. Coconut farmers from Talikud Island, IGACOS choose to sell their copra Davao City where the price is higher. [LEAN DAVAL JR.]

2 cop chiefs sackedBy Anthony S. Allada

Rody warns vendors to respect 1/3-2/3 ruleBy Carlo P. Mallo

F2 COPS, 11

OFFICIALS declared a village in Koronadal City under a state

of calamity due to the on-slaught of flashfloods and landslides in the last sev-eral days that has resulted in the devastation of some 60 hectares of upland farms in the area.

Mayor Peter Miguel said Tuesday officials of Barangay Saravia issued the calamity declaration to allow the immediate use of its calamity funds and facilitate the intervention by the city government, as well as other government agencies.

“Our damage assess-ment in the area is still ongoing, but the initial reports show that an es-

timated 40 to 60 hectares of farmland and four to six local communities were affected by the landslides and flashfloods,” the may-or said.

He said a portion of the mountain in the upland portion of Barangay Sara-via collapsed at the height of the heavy rainfall last Saturday, burying farms planted to sweet potato (camote), cutflower and other agricultural crops.

The mayor said vil-lage officials reported that 10 houses sustained partial damage from the landslide which affected Puroks Ilang-ilang, Maha-rlika, Maunlad, Crismos and Camp Mariano. [ALLEN V. ESTABILLO/MINDANEWS]

Koronadal village in state of calamity

Davao City’s emergency response units can handle only 800 fatalities

Biz leader bullish on PHL growth

POLICE Supt. Dionisio Abude, chief of the Po-lice Precinct 3 (Talomo

police station) of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO), was recently awarded with the prestigious “Pinoy Hero Award” for caring and send-ing to school 34 children in conflict with the law (CICL).

Abude received the award with a corresponding cash prize of P100,000.00 on

August 29, 2012 in Manila that was sponsored by the Interbev Philippines Inc., the producer of Cobra Energy Drink.

He was selected from among 2,000 entries sub-mitted by various sectors all over the country, either by application or recommenda-tion.

For his part, Abude did not apply to get the award

but he was recommended by concerned organizations here in the city to be a right-ful recipient of the award.

And true enough, they did not fail to have a person-al handpick for Abude whose passion to help the CICL has become a dedication and a commitment.

His area of responsibil-ity has known youth groups involved in crimes like ran-

sacks and “Akyat-Bahay” particularly in Central Park, NHA-Bangkal and Alpha Homes.

Those involved were regular prisoners, meaning since they were minors they cannot be detained at the po-lice station.

Abude then strategized an intervention program. Those arrested minors in-

Davao cop official gets Pinoy Hero Award

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 3EDGEDAVAO

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 20124 SCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT EDGEDAVAO

A mysterious new species of stick in-sect has been dis-

covered living in the Phil-ippines by scientists.

The stick insect is wingless, lives on the ground rather than in trees, and is spectacularly coloured, having a green-blue head and orange body.

The insect also vents a foul-smelling spray to de-ter predators.

The stick insect is so unique that scientists have given it its own ge-nus and do not yet know its relationship to other stick and leaf insects.

“Recently a colleague, entomologist Oskar Conle, showed us some museum specimens of a strange-looking stick in-sect found several years ago on Mount Halcon, a remote locality in the Philippine island of Mind-oro,” explains Marco Got-tardo, who is studying for a PhD at the University of Siena, Italy.

The insect was found on the third highest mountain in the archipel-ago, which is considered one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world.

“We were baffled. It looked so different from any other known stick in-sect in the world that we immediately realised it was something very spe-cial.”

Mr Gottardo and col-

league Philipp Heller carefully examined the specimen.

“We concluded that it represented an unknown genus and species of stick insect,” Mr Gottardo told BBC Nature.

The scientists have published details of the discovery in the journal Comptes Rendus Biolo-gies.

“The new stick insect is wingless, with a stout body and rather short legs,” says Mr Gottardo.

The scientists think these features are likely to be special adaptations for living in the low-growing vegetation of a montane rainforest.

Most tree-dwelling stick insects that live in the forest canopy have slender and elongated bodies and legs, thought to provide good camou-flage among stick and leaves.

“Another unique char-acteristic is the spectacu-lar colour pattern. [A male] has dark bluish-green head and legs, and a bright orange body with distinctive bluish-black triangle-shaped spots on its back,” he adds.

It is more likely that the insect uses these striking colours to warn off predators, rather than as a form of camouflage.

“In fact we have dis-covered that the new stick insect has the ability

‘Mystery’ stick insect discovered

to release a potent defen-sive spray from glands lo-cated behind its head.

“The defensive sub-stance is sprayed when the insect feels threat-ened, and has a strong dis-tasteful smell, which likely functions to repel poten-tial predators in a similar way to skunks,” says Mr Gottardo.

Enigmatic originThe scientists have

named the insect Conle-phasma enigma.

“We have named the new stick insect with the specific epithet “enigma” because its systematic po-sition in the tree of life of stick and leaf insects re-mains a mystery,” says Mr Gottardo.

Many of the stick in-sect’s distinctive features are unlike those recorded on other stick insects.

One feature, however, has been seen before. The microstructures ofConle-phasma enigma’s mouth-parts are strikingly similar to those held by another group of stick insects.

The problem is that these stick insects live in tropi-cal America, on the other side of the world, raising the question of how two insects so far apart might share a similar trait.

The researchers hope that a more detailed mo-lecular analysis of the stick insect’s genetics may shed

light on its true identity.“We also hope that

the discovery of this par-ticular new insect species may draw attention into the problem of rainforest conservation in the Phil-ippines, which are home to unique and still poorly known wildlife,” Mr Got-tardo says.

TIGERS in Nepal seem to be taking night shifts in or-

der to avoid their human neighbors, a study has shown.

The big cats generally move around at all times of the day and night, to monitor territory, mate and hunt.

But the study of tigers in Chitwan National

Park - where humans and tigers walk the same paths - showed a noctur-nal shift in activity.

The research, by an in-ternational team, is pub-lished in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

The results challenge t h e conven-

tion-al wis-

dom that tigers need

lots of people-free space. This

can lead to people being relocated, or their access to re-sources compro-

mised to make way for tigers.

“It’s a very f u n d a m e n t a l

conflict over resources,” said co-author Neil Carter, from Michigan State Uni-versity in East Lansing, US.

“Tigers need resourc-es, people need the same resources. If we operate under the traditional wis-dom that tigers only can survive with space dedi-cated only for them, there would always be conflict. If your priority is people, tigers lose out. If your pri-ority is tigers, people lose out.”

Chitwan, nestled in a Himalayan valley, is home to about 121 tigers. Peo-ple live on the park’s bor-ders, but rely on the for-ests for wood and grasses, venturing in on roads and narrow footpaths.

Mr Carter spent two seasons setting motion-detecting camera traps for tigers, their prey and people who walk the roads and trails of Chit-wan, both in and around the park.

His analysis of the

thousands of images show that people and ti-gers are walking the same paths, albeit at differ-ent times of the day. The cameras documented a pronounced shift towards nocturnal activity in the tigers.

People generally avoid the forests at night, so dusk would seem to pro-vide a signal for tigers to come out and play.

Mr Carter said that conditions for tigers in Chitwan were good, with high prey numbers, low levels of poaching, and forests that are re-gener-ating outside the bound-aries of the park.

But, he explained: “People of different stripes, including tourists and local residents, fre-quent the forests of Chit-wan.

“Tigers need to use the same space as people if they are to have a viable long-term future. What we’re learning in Chitwan is that tigers seem to be

Tigers ‘taking night shift’ to dodge human neighbors THE Department of En-

vironment and Natu-ral Resources (DENR)

employees pledged anew to a life of committed service to the country and to the Filipino people, to the ways of peace and justice, and to doing their personal share in cleaning up the environ-ment.

The DENR personnel made the vow in the wake of the forthcoming commemo-ration this September of the Civil Service Commission’s 112th Anniversary, the Peace Month and the International Coastal Clean-Up Month.

DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje launched during the agency’s flag-raising ceremony Monday morning, the department’s drive to ensure the cleanliness of the DENR offices, declaring ev-ery last Friday of the month as clean-up day for the en-tire department. “DENR must serve as the example in keeping the environment clean. And this drive should also be implemented soon in all government offices,” Paje said.

He added that DENR and its officials and staff should lead in the effort to boost the

country’s anti-pollution and waste management drives and help address the flood-ing problem around the country and other pressing problems linked to the en-vironment like dengue and other infectious diseases.

Paje reminded the DENR employees that every little trash that is irresponsibly handled and disposed of, whether land-based or ma-rine-based, affects not only our local environment but also our marine environ-ment. Coastal clean-up ac-tually begins in everyone’s backyard and is the duty and responsibility of every-one, he added.

The Secretary also em-phasized the need for a kind of public service that stems from the purity of the civil servants’ commitment to be of service to the country, as well as exhorted everyone to doubly work hard “para sa isang maunlad, masagana at mapayapang Pilipinas.’

Paje again cited the good example of the late Interior and Local Government Sec-retary Jesse Robredo, par-ticularly his “tsinelas” lead-ership, for DENR employees to emulate. [PNA]

DENR workers strengthen commitment to cleanliness

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

A DISCUSSION to final-ize the start of roll-on-roll-off (Roro) ferry

operation between Davao in the Philippines and the city of Bitung in Indonesia will take place in Bitung middle of Sep-tember.

This was learned from Marc C. Ayes, deputy team leader of Research, Education and Institutional Develop-ment (REID) Foundation, Inc., the Philippine-based entity to handle the project.

Ayes said the key issues of the meeting would be the shippers, tapes of cargo and its volume, the frequency of service, the customs clearance and processing time, the port fees, the freight rates, the in-centives and mutual recogni-tion of chassis and trucks.

Earlier, he told business-men attending the August 31 monthly general membership meeting of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) that the Roro ferry route of the As-sociation of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) from Davao to Bitung is targeted to start on January 2013.

The REID officer said this month’s meeting in Bitung will be joined in by Mindanao-based shippers to Indonesia, officials of the Mindanao De-velopment Authority (MinDa),

the Philippine Consul-General in Bitung, the proposed Roro operator, representatives of the APEC Business Advisory Council, officials of the Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera-tion (APEC) and Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII). Other participants are Bitung/Ma-nado shippers, the Bitung Governor, local Roro operator, Customs officials and Bitung port officials.

The discussion is expect-ed to culminate in the signing of a memorandum of under-standing (MOU) in November.

As stated by President Noynoy Aquino on August 9 ASEAN Foundation Day, “the Philippines has major interests here, with its exist-ing nautical highway or Roro project. Once it is imple-mented, ASEAN connectivity will bridge our nation to our neighbors, shorten transfer distances and open more eco-nomic opportunities for more people.”

According to Ayes, Bi-tung is 350 nautical miles away from Davao City and the transportation from Davao to Bitung would only take less than two days. He said that the benefit of the Roro opera-tion is that the shipping time will be lessened, apart from reducing shipping costs.

5EDGEDAVAO THE ECONOMY

FEL NIÑO, 11

PROTEST VS WATER BILL. A group of militants stages a protest rally against Senate Bill 2997 (Water Sector Reform Act) and House Bill 5497, seeking to institutionalize an Integrated Water Resource Management. The rally was

staged in front of the Davao City Water District (DCWD) office in Matina, Davao City yesterday. [LEAN DAVAL JR.]

MINDANAO’S al-ready precarious power situation

is bound to get worse as the Philippine weather bureau announced the

probable start of the long dry spell or El Niño by this month.

A Philippine News Agency report says that “dynamical and statisti-

cal model forecast sug-gests the El Niño will likely develop in August or September, and will last through the rest of the year.”

The report quoted Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astro-nomical Services Ad-ministration (PAGASA)

Asean Roro meet setin Bitung this monthBy Vicky Berdina M. de Guzman

El Niño to worsen supply of power in Mindanao

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

PHL second quarter economic performance

6 EDGEDAVAOTHE ECONOMY

THE country’s largest rural bank posted another high this

year, when its net income this year of 93-percent growth already made it P300 million more than the minimum capital req-uisite for a commercial bank.

The One Network Bank, banking on the Mindanao countryside, said in a recent state-ment that its first seven months of the year “has outperformed its own 2011 earnings perfor-mance.”

The operating net in-come after tax of P336 mil-lion as of end July this year “already surpassed the P315 million income [last year] and registered a re-cord breaking growth of 93 percent compared to the P174 million in the same period last year”.

“This net income level, if annualized, translates to a 41-percent return on av-erage private equity and 4 percent return on average assets,” the ONB statement said. This performance, the bank said, “indicates a powerful core perfor-mance for the leading pro-vider of modern quality banking products and ser-vices in the countryside”.

Overall, it emphasized, “rural banking giant One Network Bank already exceeded the P2.4 billion minimum capital requisite

for commercial banks as it raised its capital base to a robust P2.77 billion as of end-July this year”.

“Despite the obvi-ous capacity to convert to a commercial bank, ONB decided to retain its status as a frontrun-ner in the rural banking industry,” it added.

The bank attributed the “upsurge in net income mainly to the substantial expansion in net loans and receivables, an increase of around 17 percent or P1.83 billion since the on-set of 2012”. Half of the net loan expansion and receiv-ables were recorded in the month of July, with a loan portfolio growth of P5 bil-lion or 70 percent higher compared to July 2011.

It said it earned P775 million in net interest income as of July this year, a number that ac-counted for 61 percent of the total operating income. It also generated P361 million in “fee-based income principally derived from service fees on loans”. This amount contributed to another 28 percent to the total operating income.

What is to the disinter-est of commercial banks in attracting household income the ONB has har-vested in leaps and bounds to increase its deposit base to 575,000, and allowing it to continue its policy to re-invest profits. [MINDANEWS]

THE National Statis-tical Coordination Board (NSCB) has

recently announced that the Gross Domestic Prod-uct (GDP) of the Philip-pines has accelerated from 3.6 percent in the second quarter of last year to 5.9 percent in the second quar-ter of this year. This has boosted growth to 6.1% during the first semester of this year from 4.1 over the same period last year. But this second quarter growth of 5.9 percent this year is slower than the first quar-ter growth of 6.4%.

But, as I have pointed out in my previous articles, equally important is the extent by which the vari-ous sectors of society are contributing to economic growth. Below are the con-tributions of the major sec-tors of society to economic growth in millions of pe-sos:

The sector comprising the agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing sub-

sectors is the largest eco-nomic sector in the coun-try. It is also largely rural based. As indicated above, the overall output of this sector is considerably low and has in fact further de-clined by 1.3 percent over the last quarter.

So the trend continues. While overall economic growth seems impressive, only a few are actually productive. A large major-

ity are unproductive and poorer. It is also the sector of society that is largely uneducated and unhealthy. So it’s no surprise that in-surgency is more active in the rural areas. But why is this so?

It’s really all about po-litical clout. The urban sec-tor has considerably more political clout than the rural sector. So the urban sector gets more attention

from government. In a way, the largely rural based in-surgency may yet be a force for good. It may yet compel government to pay more attention to this largely neglected but major sector of Philippine society. This convergence of economics and politics is in fact a ma-jor field of study called po-litical economy. I certainly wish our policy makers ed-ucated themselves on this.

INDUSTRY/INDUSTRY GROUP Q2 2011 Q2 2012

Growth Rate (%)

AGRICULTURE, HUNTING, FORESTRY AND FISHING

292,113 288,297 -1.3

INDUSTRY 754,440 794,120 5.3 SERVICES 1,386,018 1,538,396 11.0

Net loan expansion, receivables propel ONB’s 93% net incomeAnalysis

By Gico Dayanghirang

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 7EDGEDAVAO PROPERTY

THE hundreds of Ca-ribbean pine trees dotting the grounds

of Camella Northpoint, Ca-mella’s landmark condo development in Davao, are more than just a pretty sight. These aromatic trees imported from New Zea-land and transplanted in this British colonial themed condo community have more value than just simple aesthetics.

Caribbean pine trees are evergreen trees—mean-ing they have leaves year-round—that can grow to 30 meters tall, about a hundred feet high. They tower with a beautiful broad, rounded or pyramid-shaped crown, and have deep-green bundled needles that crowd at the branch ends, and produce adorable brown pine cones.

Camella Northpoint’s Caribbean pine trees are of the hardy variety, with-standing all types of weath-er and ensuring the condo community is green, fresh, and aromatic all year-round. They are easy to maintain, yet yield many benefits to man and nature.

Good for the environ-ment. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmo-sphere. It is said that one mature tree absorbs 48 pounds of carbon a year, cleaning our air and mak-ing them truly the lungs

of the planet. T h e y

a l s o

help stop soil erosion, as their roots hold the soil in place and the trees act as wind barriers.

Fresh oxygen. As the pine trees take in carbon dioxide, they breathe out oxygen. A mature tree is said to yield oxygen enough for two human beings. The branches and leaves are also known to filter dust particles, which are even-tually washed away by rain. Imagine your Camella Northpoint home being sur-rounded by these pine trees; that’s fresh, clean oxygen all day, every day.

Natural shade. The pine trees offer natural shade, cooling down its immediate environment. Northpoint’s condos benefit from this shade, cooling down the buildings and the homes of the unit owners.

Cuts energy cost. As the condo buildings benefit from a cool surrounding, homeowners enjoy a cool-er ambiance inside their homes, cutting down air-condition use and lowering their energy bills, giving them one significant eco-nomic benefit from the pine trees.

Offers privacy. Once ful-ly grown, these Caribbean pine trees dotting the land-scape of Camella Northpoint create a natural privacy fence for each building, al-lowing homeowners a sense of seclusion and comfort.

Nature’s shelter. The pine trees provide shelter for nature’s wildlife like birds, providing them a home. There’s nothing like waking up to the melodic

chirping of

birds, and the sight of these winged creatures soaring among the trees just outside your window.

Wind breaks. With their girth and height, these Ca-ribbean pine trees serve as good wind breaks or wind barriers. Acting as a screen against the wind, the pine trees protect the condo buildings from very strong winds.

Aesthetic benefits. These Caribbean pines have an ornamental look, adding beauty and value to the

homes of Northpoint unit owners. On top of that,

trees are known to have a positive in-fluence on people’s disposition, giving

h o m e -

owners a good mood.Pine-scented fragrance.

The pine trees emit a won-derfully fresh scent, espe-cially on sunny days. They release a fragrance that make the outdoors smell good, and permeates inside the condo buildings.

Reduce ambient sound. Northpoint’s pine trees re-duce ambient sound, block-ing the city’s noise from reaching the homes inside the condo community. The bigger and denser the pine grove becomes, the more noise it blocks off.

Increased property val-ues. Another economic benefit of these pine trees is the value they add to the property. As trees mature, they lend

beauty and function to the property they stand on, upping its value and giving homeowners the satisfaction of seeing their investment grow.

Camella Northpoint is the only condo community in the city that is a veritable pine estate, with over P4 million’s worth of import-ed, all-weather Caribbean pine trees transplanted all over the property.

To know more about Camella Northpoint and its charming lifestyle, get in touch with Camella Davao 2/F Delgar Building, J.P. Laurel Ave., Davao City, or at 222-0963, 222-5221, 222-5223, vismin@ca-mella.com.ph (email) and www.camella.com.ph.

Northpoint’s Caribbean pine trees – aesthetically useful and value-adding

Some of the all weather pine trees--seen here beside the clubhouse Wakefield Manor with the condo building Manchester at the back--are now over a dozen feet tall and thriving throughout Camella Northpoint.

Camella Northpoint homeowners can enjoy the cool, refreshing, and healthful ambiance created by the Caribbean pine trees dotting the condo community.

Caribbean pine trees growing tall on the grounds of Camella Northpoint, seen here lining the road towards Manchester, the first condo building.

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 20128 VANTAGE POINTS EDGEDAVAO

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THE BIG news yesterday was the absence of sev-en associate justices of

the Supreme Court during the first flag-raising ceremony af-ter the assumption of Chief Justice Maria Luisa Sereno. The absence was interpreted by imaginative journalists as a “snub” of the new CJ, the first ever woman to be appointed to the highest position in the Supreme Court.

It could be just a coincidence that that many associate jus-tices were absent on the same day. For all we know, some of them were sick in bed and the rest had gone on vacation last

Monday.However, granting it was

meant to snub the new CJ, no one should be surprised with such a childish act, or show of poor sportsmanship. It only further proves that jus-tices are ordinary mortals. For hadn’t the recent tempest over the impeachment of Renato R. Corona only gone to show that justices also have feet of clay, that some of them could also lie, perjure and plagiarize?

What is important to ordi-nary citizens are the reforms that the new CJ would institute in a judiciary whose image has left much to be desired.

BY MAUGAN P. MOSAID, PH.D.OPINION

(Conclusion)

Can Anyone be Like Jesse Robredo?

IN his eulogy, Sec. Florencio ‘Butch’ Abad mused about something his friend (a fellow cabinet official) had

told him. “Pare, ang hirap naman nitong nangyari kay Sec. Jess.. baka pag tayo ang namatay at hindi ganito ang reaksyon ng taumbayan.. baka iba ang sasabihin sa atin”. (I fear something because of what had happened to Sec. Jess.. that when we die and people’s reaction is not like this, they might say something differently). This evoked laughter among those pres-ent.

Sec. Abad admits, though, that the way Sec. Robredo lived his public life is “one tough act to follow”. Indeed it is. If your character traits were not molded as to make you so inclined to love what you do above self and beyond personal gains, then it is even more difficult to pretend in the longest time possible. Sec. Robre-do’s character traits made him what he loves to do without even trying.

”To become like him, not just in de-manding good governance, but in work-ing towards it, every man and woman should be a Robredo, whatever our sta-tion in life”, admonished Ateneo School of Government Dean Tony La Vina. Of course, this is easier said than done.

However, if we want Sec. Robredo’s death to be meaningful and immortalize his legacy, “everyone must shape up and follow his examples of honesty, simplic-ity and ethical leadership” (borrowing the words of Ms. Patricia Sarenas).

I repeat, to be like a Robredo is not just to imitate what he did well. It re-quires a more profound transformation over time in terms of character and at-titude and possessing a natural passion of love for the things that you do. This was confirmed in the words of his sec-ond daughter Janine Patricia during the necrological service for her father at the Naga City hall: “Have you ever wondered why he was so good? If you ask me, my answer is he was good because he knows how to love. He loved his job and he loved the people.”

The Robredo magic (i.e. his character traits) is deep within him and not simply his good deeds that we saw. Now, if you have that Robredo ‘magic’ in you, you can be like him. Anyone please? [Mind-aNews/ Maugan P. Mosaid is presently Municipal Administrator of Pikit, North Cotabato. Occasionally, he gives sermon and acts as imam (one who leads in Fri-day congregation prayers). He holds a PhD in rural development]

‘Have you ever wondered why

he was so good? If you ask me, my answer is he was good because he

knows how to love. He loved his job

and he loved the people.’

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 9VANTAGE POINTSEDGEDAVAOLenient drug

policies

BY HONOR BLANCO CABIE

SPECIAL FEATURE

Sereno – ladies’ choice

Are celebrations of birthdates important?

AN T I B I O T I C OVERUSE – There is a per-

ception that if you got either a cold or cough, you need an-tibiotics. Antibiotics aren’t considered dangerous drugs. Doctors prescribe them freely and are readily available even without pre-scription from drug stores and corner shops. Pharmacists likewise will give you a mixture of different colored antibiotics or brand of your choice. Another opinion is that if the doctors or pharmacists do not give them, they’re not doing their jobs.

The problem, of course, is that antibiotics don’t always work. In recent days, as a matter of fact, it was reported on nationwide televi-sion that a female OFW who is working in Dubai was hospitalized after taking antibiot-ics. Perhaps overly concerned of her ailment, she resorted to self-medication or maybe us-ing different kinds of antibiotics. As a result, an allergy reaction caused her body to swell severely.

Infectious disease experts say that such infection causes abscesses on the skin and internal organs, and if left untreated can lead to digestive-tract infections, meningitis and inflammation of the heart valves. Right now the issue on antibiotics is coming to a head. Medical authorities and scientists in several countries in Asia reported that strain virus of different diseases had already developed resistance to antibiotics.

To assess what bacteria the patient has requires extensive testing and check-ups. Like all evolving organisms, bacteria popula-tion included elements with unusual charac-teristics. There traits allow bacteria to with-stand antibiotic attacks. But by taking antibi-otics a patient most likely kills the microbes, however, some bugs survive the chemical assault. Then the multiply quickly and a new, tougher drug-resistant strain is born.

Even with responsible antibiotic us-age, this is bound to happen in the case of the OFW in Dubai when the wrong kinds of antibiotics are used. There is no question about that because as a norm doctors have to make decisions about giving drugs to pa-tients. They are trying to cure their patients as much as possible and the best way to do that is to apply broad spectrum antibiotics at them. In other words, drugs that kill a variety of strain virus but let tough breeds develop resistance.

Often it is a question of whether the doc-tor is persistent enough to explain – to pre-scribe or not antibiotics. Most doctors find it more difficult not to give antibiotics. They don’t have to think if they give them – but they may have to have good reasons not to give them. Medical and health authorities ar-gue that drug resistance is not relegated to bacterial infections or common cough and cold, especially in poorer countries therefore researchers and scientists need to develop new drugs that cope with super strains.

In many parts of Asia, health experts not-ed that gonorrhea becomes resistant even to pricey second-generation antibiotics. Like-wise tuberculosis must be treated with four different antibiotics over a six-month treat-ment period. This only goes to show that pa-tients are often exposed to up to three kinds of antibiotics, but not even enough to make the microorganisms die.

Based on medical findings, in the 70s there were many different antibiotics being developed, but in recent decades it has been going very slowly. Many drug companies have even stopped making too many anti-biotics because they aren’t very profitable – and due to the misperception that they are no longer needed. Antibiotics do not have high street value and agents from govern-ment drug enforcement organizations are not scouring medical institutions for these kinds of drugs notably in the Philippines.

If some physicians are prescribing too many antibiotics maybe government should at least take some necessary action. The health system found many hospitals pre-scribing antibiotics to some 70% of patients regardless of their diagnoses. And the coun-try’s lax drug policies mean anyone can buy antibiotics even from unlicensed vendors. The Philippines is among the countries in Asia, which is quickly becoming the breed-ing ground for multi-drug resistant bacteria – capable of evading the most sophisticated antibiotics and people eventually will suffer from it.

Elsewhere, there are no regulations and people continue to find a ready supply of antibiotics. But what happens when some-one gets a bacterial infection resistant to all known drugs? Shall we return to the time when we did not have antibiotics and all we could do is let the patient rest and see if his immune system could recover or not. Not a healthy diagnosis.

JOYCE, Maria Natalie, Carmen and Czarina share one thing in common -- they were all born in September in different years

and, at some point, marked their birthday anniversaries in the manner according to their culture.

When Joyce was a growing up young girl in her northern hometown, her annual anniversaries were celebrated by a shower of husked grains on her while visitors sang their own version of birthday greetings com-posed by an anonymous poet-lyricist of Ilo-cos Norte.

Maria Natalie herself grew up in the me-tropolis, and her first three birthday anniver-saries echoed with the birthday song whose melody and lyrics were written by American siblings Mildred and Patty Smith Hill.

Patty was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developing various teaching methods at what is now the Little Loomhouse while Mildred was a pianist and composer.

Cousins Carmen and Czarina both grew up in the rice-producing province of Tarlac and, while they grew up remembering new clothes and pairs of shoes on their birthday milestones, eventually discarded the yearly ritual when they had become adults and hacking out a living in their respective call-ings and disciplines in the capital before leaving for overseas.

Rommel Dionisio, a massage therapist, has a line for this: “We do not have to cele-brate our birthdays every year – celebrate in the sense that we have to have big parties.”

”In my case, for instance, I go to church on my birthday, and think of the opportu-nities on the road ahead. That’s my kind of celebration,” he told the Philippines News Agency.

Some feel that birthday celebrations have gone down the commercial zone – with birth-day cakes and discounts offered by name es-tablishments and restaurants for X number of guests to be able to avail one’s self of the

discounts.Indeed, there are those who think: what

indeed if those marking their birthday anni-versaries suddenly stopped celebrating ev-ery single birthday in their lives, and instead concentrated on just the important ones?

Those who advocate this idea believe – and many agree – that the families would be able to save wads of bills, spending on food to

flatter the taste buds and the memory but be-come thousands of pesos poorer the next day while thinking of the next episode for some house rental.

These advocates argue there is nothing really important about annual celebrations anyway, unless the affair is an excuse for some get-together, a gathering of friends and what the now generation call “some bond-ing.”

In some countries, they don’t celebrate their anniversaries except in specific years.

For instance, in some areas of the United States, families make grand celebrations when a girl becomes “sweet sixteen.”

Here, cultural conventions come to play.For instance, Jewish boys become bar

mitzvah on their 13th birthday anniversary while Jewish girls become bat mitzvah on their 12th birthday anniversary, or some-times on their 13th birthday anniversaries in Reform and Conservative Judaism.

Religion experts say this marks the tran-sition where they become obligated in com-mandments of which they were previously exempted and are counted as part of the community.

In some Hispanic-American countries, as well as in Portuguese-speaking Brazil, the quinceañera (Spanish) or festa de quinze anos (Portuguese) celebration traditionally marks a girl’s 15th birthday.

In India, Hindu male children of some castes like Brahmins have the 12th or 13th birthday anniversaries replaced with a grand “thread ceremony.”

The child takes a blessed thread and wears it, symbolizing his coming of age. This is called the Upanayana. This ceremony is practiced among boys in the Hindu Brahmin culture.

In predominantly Christian Philippines, girls on their 18th birthday anniversary or boys on their 21st birthday milepost cel-ebrate a debut – complete with 18 roses in the former.

In some Asian countries that follow the Zodiac calendar, there is a tradition of cel-ebrating the 60th birthday anniversary – the year when Filipinos, under an existing law, become senior citizens and start to enjoy discounts in hotels and restaurants as well as transport facilities.

In the Philippines, many families cel-ebrate their 50th and 75th birthday and wedding anniversaries in style – and often in posh hotels with prominent friends in the political and cultural fields. [PNA]

PRESIDENT Aquino must have a gam-bler’s instinct.

In naming Maria Lourdes Sereno Chief Justice, he has gambled on her age and inexperience as Associate Justice of the Su-preme Court for only two years.

But justifying his unprecedented choice, Mr. Aquino assured the people that Sereno will make a good Chief Justice.

Good for whom?For the nation and the Filipino people?Or, for the Aquino administration and the

Cojuanco family?That presidential assurance is just an

opinion. It is not a fact.An opinion is worthless without a fact.

It’s the fact that matters. And that fact ( of being good) has yet to be established by Sereno’s performance.

Is Sereno a popular choice? Of course not. She’s a personal choice. (Of PNoy.)

Is Sereno the right choice? Now, that’s a subjective matter. It’s open to varied inter-pretations.

Is Sereno the ladies’ choice? O course yes. But don’t begrudge the womenfolk. Their thirst for power is unquenchable. After conquering men, they want to rule nations.

Is Sereno, the best choice? Of course

that’s debatable. But to Mr. Aquino, she is the one person who can best serve his purpose. (Kuha mo?).

In point of expe-rience as Associate Justice, Sereno is the least qualified to head the High Court. Appointed only in 2012, she ranked last in the seniority ladder. She is also the youngest Associate Justice.

In a manner of speaking, she’s a green-horn, a neophyte, a junior justice, a babe in the woods. She doesn’t have adequate knowledge of the workings of the Supreme Court, the functions, duties and powers of the Office of the Chief Justice.

But these experience and age factors do not matter anymore. She is now the Chief Justice, primus inter pares. And that’s that.

Come to think of it, we now have two of the highest officials in the land who are of the same age range heading the executive and ju-dicial branches of government.

Obviously, Lady Luck has smiled broad-ly on these two souls. But sometimes you

know, Lady Luck smiles at the wrong people. It’s called mistaken identity.

Barring unforeseen circumstances and unexpected life’s twists and turns, (coup d’ etat, assassination, massacre, plane crash, fire, earthquake, typhoon, flashflood, tor-nado, rebel attack, terrorist attack, heart at-tack, suicide bombing, bangungot, etcetera, Sereno will serve 18 long years just one year short of Jose Abad Santos’ tenure.

Will Sereno be equal to the task? Does she have the skills, the maturity and the knowhow to overcome the challenges that lie ahead?

Only time can tell. One year, two years, three years, or 18 years?

How much should the government pay the Cojuangcos for Hacienda Luisita? Sere-no’s vote on this crucial issue will tell us where her loyalty rests, and what kind of conscience she has.

If Sereno turns out to be a good Chief Jus-tice (independent, principled, fearless, fair), the President and the JBC deserve the na-tion’s eternal gratitude.

But, if Sereno turns out to be a bad CJ (puppet, puppy, lackey, yes-woman), then all the heavens will fall on P-Noy and the JBC.

‘Rommel Dionisio, a massage therapist, has a line for this: “We do not have to celebrate our birthdays every year – celebrate in the sense that we have to have big parties.”

”In my case, for instance, I go to church on my birthday, and

think of the opportunities on the road ahead. That’s my kind of

celebration,” he told the Philippines News Agency.’

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 201210 SUBURBIA EDGEDAVAO

MORE than 4,000 people flocked to the poblacion of

Governor Generoso, Davao Oriental turning the day into fiesta when the ARENA Ser-bisyo Caravan hauled on Au-gust 30 varied government services from more than 30 national line agencies.

Micro enterprises were earning as people spread around the venues of distri-bution of conditional cash, social pensions, medical and dental services, legal consultation, information and education sessions, and seedlings.

Vendors of ice cream, water and candies could be seen at the corners serving the immediate need for re-freshment and quick bites for people coming from near or far to get their government benefits and to avail of ser-vices they otherwise would get at the regional center in Davao City, 175 kilometers from Gov. Generoso.

The turn-over of condi-tional cash grants by the De-partment of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) XI to 3,527 households was held at Sigaboy Elementary School while the social pen-sion grants for 209 senior citizens were distributed at the Municipal Social Welfare Office.

A big crowd filled the municipal gym where the program was held, attended by local government officials and heads of 32 national line agencies which took part in the ARENA Serbisyo Caravan in Gov. Generoso.

Among the government agencies which brought along their services In Gov. Gen-eroso were the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Civil Service Com-mission (CSC), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), National Statistics Office (NSO), Department of Edu-cation (DepEd), Department

of Science and Technology (DOST), National Commis-sion on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), National Economic and Development Author-ity (NEDA), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

Other government offices who joined included; Com-mission on Higher Education (CHED), Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Phil-ippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), Technical Education and Skills Development Au-thority (TESDA), Commis-sion on Audit (COA), Philip-pine Information Agency (PIA), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Commission on Population (PopCom), Home Develop-ment Mutual Fund (HDMF), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Public Attorney’s Office, Quedancor, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) XI and the Department of Agriculture (DA) XI, Government Service and Insurance Services and the National Irrigation Ad-ministration.

Municipal Mayor Vi-cente D. Orencia said the ARENA Serbisyo Caravan drew quite a huge crowd which he viewed to have sur-passed the number of target beneficiaries but he assured that those who had not been served would be given their desired service in a separate occasion.

ARENA President Achil-les Gerard Bravo noted a remarkable improvement of the ARENA Serbisyo Cara-van in Governor Generoso saying the list of local needs was sent quite early by the municipal government and that many government agen-cies joined the delivery of services. [PIA 11/ JEANEVIVE D. ABANGAN]

LUMAD GAMES. Tourists try to mount a “kadang-kadang”, a popular game among the lumads, as they compete to win the indigenous games at the Malasag Eco-Village in Cagayan de Oro on Sept. 3, 2012. [MINDANEWS/FROILAN GALLARDO]

THE provincial gov-ernment of South Cotabato is seeking

the intervention of the Re-gional Development Coun-cil (RDC) of Region 12 over the perennial flooding at a portion of the national highway and the regional center site in nearby Koro-nadal City.

South Cotabato Gov. Arthur Pingoy Jr. said Tuesday they have asked the RDC to help assess the area’s situation and formulate immediate and long-term solutions to the problem, which has already hampered the movement of travelers and products to this city and the neighboring lo-calities.

He said the RDC 12 secretariat headed by the National Economic and Development Author-ity (NEDA) Region 12 in-cluded the matter in the agenda of its scheduled regular meeting next week

in Kidapawan City.“We want the RDC to

look into matter and help us find solutions as well as possible funding sources for the construction of the necessary flood-control structures in the area,” Pingoy said.

The governor said they requested the RDC to spe-cifically look into the P50 million line canal project implemented by the De-partment of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) South Cotabato Engineer-ing District in the area that have turned out ineffec-tive.

DPWH district officials earlier said the project, which involved the con-struction of line canals beside the flood-prone portions of the national highway in Barangays Saravia and Carpenter Hill as well as a drainage struc-ture that will connect and redirect the floodwaters to the Marbel River, was in-

tended to help resolve the area’s flooding problems.

But Pingoy said the 1.8-meter line canals con-structed by a contractor commissioned by DPWH have so far failed to en-dure the volume of flood-waters passing by the area and have caused severe flooding in the last several weeks along the national highway, the nearby re-gional center site and local communities.

Portions of the high-way were closed to traffic for several hours due to the buildup of huge vol-umes of floodwaters in the area.

In a meeting called by the governor, officials and residents of Baran-gay Cerpenter Hill in Ko-ronadal City claimed that portions of the concrete drainage and line canals constructed by a DPWH contractor were not steel-propped and eventually collapsed following a re-

centheavy rain.DPWH officials led

by district engineer Ed-die Amir acknowledged the problem but stressed that the P50- million proj-ect was only a temporar-ily solution to the area’s flooding problem.

“We don’t want to point fingers at this time and put the blame on some people. The DPWH will have to answer to the RDC but our main priority at this time is to find do-able and immediate so-lutions to this problem,” Pingoy said.

Acting on a request from local officials, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson approved last year the funding and im-plementation of the line canal and drainage proj-ect for the flood-prone portions of the Carpen-ter Hill-Saravia section of the Marbel (Koronadal)-Makar (General Santos) highway.

POWER cooperatives in General Santos City and nearby areas im-

posed one to two-hour daily rotating brownouts starting on Monday as Mindanao’s power supplies dropped anew to the critical levels due to the reduced power generating capacity of the NationalPower Corpora-tion’s (NPC) hydroelectric plants.

Engr. Santiago Tudio, South Cotabato I Electric Co-operative (Socoteco I) gener-al manager, said Mindanao’s power shortfall plunged to 320 megawatts (MW) on Monday reportedly due to the shutdown of two hydro-

electric plants in Lanao del Norte.

He said such shortfall was relayed to the coopera-tive on Monday morning by the National Grid Corpo-ration of the Philippines (NGCP).

In the advisory, he said the NGCP noted that NPC’s Agus 5 and 7 plants were cut off from the Mindanao grid over the weekend due to transmission problems.

“The reasons were still not clear to us but there was a report that a fire broke out in one of the Agus substa-tions. Another report was that a portion of the trans-mission line in Iligan City

was bombed anewbut this is still being verified,” Tudio said in a radio interview.

Owing to this, he said the NGCP reduced the area’s power supplies to 24 MW from its peak demand of 31 MW or short by 6 MW.

He said the supply short-fall is equivalent to about an hour of rotating brownout per feeder station within its service area.

Socoteco I covers Ko-ronadal City, Lutayan town in Sultan Kudarat and eight municipalities of South Co-tabato province.

“The power load cuts were imposed (by NGCP) to all electric cooperatives in

Mindanao. So far, our cur-tailment (one hour) is con-sidered the most minimal,” Tudio said.

In this city, officials of the South Cotabato II Elec-tricCooperative (Socoteco II) cited that it is imple-menting two-hour daily ro-tating brownouts due to the supply shortage in the Min-danao grid.

Socoteco II serves this city, the entire Sarangani province and the municipal-ities of Tupi and Polomolok in South Cotabato.

It said the power out-ages cover four phases daily based on the distribution of its 44 feeder stations. [PNA]

South Cot gov seeks RDC assistance over worsening floods in Koronadal

Two-hour rotating brownouts hit GenSan, nearby areas anew

ARENA Caravan, a fiesta of services

THE Center for Health and Development in Central Mindanao has

appealed to the public to join the campaign against den-gue as the number of cases recorded from January to August 31 had increased.

Jenny Ventura, CHD-12 information director, said a total of 2,672 dengue cases were reported by the provin-cial and city health offices in the region composed of the provinces of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Saranggani, South Cotabato and the cit-ies of Cotabato, Kidapawan, Tacurong, Koronadal and General Santos.

Of the total number of dengue cases, 21 deaths have been reported, accord-ing to Ventura.

General Santos City re-ported 432 dengue cases

with 12 deaths and Cotabato City 334 with zero fatality.

North Cotabato prov-ince had the highest cases with 1,038 while Saranggani which has 183 cases had four fatality.

South Cotabato, on the other hand, had 556 cases with five deaths; and Sultan Kudarat with 119 cases and one fatality.

As compared to the same period last year, Ventura said this year is higher because in 2011, CHD-12 through the Regional Epidemiology Sur-veillance Unit (RESU), only recorded 2,137 cases.

While Ventura admitted that dengue, brought about by dengue causing mosqui-toes, is a preventable dis-eases, the health department could not contain it all by itself. [PNA]

Dengue cases surge in Central Mindanao

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 11EDGEDAVAO

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Shrine...

CAAP...

2 cops...

El Niño...

Biz...

Davao...administrator Nathan-iel Servando who said. warmer sea surface tem-perature has strength-ened in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific ocean since June, which is a typical development stage of El Niño.

Around 55-percent of Mindanao’s power comes from hydro power plants around Lake Lanao. The last time a severe El Nino hit Mindanao, many parts of the island suffered up to 12 hours of brownouts.

At present, with all power plants in the grid running, Mindanao is al-ready suffering on a daily basis around 180 MW deficit out of the 1,200 demand for the island. The deficit for Monday, September 3 was at 320

MW. Mindanao’s biggest

back up power plant, the 200-MW bunker-fired barges of AboitizPower subsidiary Therma Ma-rine is already sold out and contracted to 23 elec-tric cooperatives and dis-tribution utilities.

The only available ca-pacity that could be im-mediately injected into the grid -- the Iligan Die-sel Power Plant which could provide up to 100 MW is still facing legal problems while the four power barges of the gov-ernment being bidded out is facing a lack of in-terest from investors.

AboitizPower which is actively constructing at least two major projects -- the 300-MW clean coal

power plant in Davao City and an 11-MW run-of-river hydro pwoer plant in Davao del Sur, announced the two facili-ties will be completed by 2015.

“Our construction ef-forts are ongoing and we are doing our best to complete the con-struction of our plants as scheduled by 2015, so it can provide a more reliable and sustainable long-term solution to the power supply problem in Mindanao”

“The onset of the El Nino will definitely be very challenging for Min-danao. This underlines the need for Mindanao to pursue a more balanced mix of energy sources to secure its future.”

ERRATUMIn the Notice Hearing of the Land Transportation

Franchising and Regulatory Board, Regional Office No. XI Davao City involving a Petition for Renewal of a Certificate of Public Convenience to operate a FILCAB Ordinary Regular Service of Antonio P. Del Mundo (Case No. 2001-XI-00531),published in the August 26-27, 2012 issue of Edge Davao, “JP Lauren” should read “JP Laurel”.

developments on the site would have to be cancelled.

Cabling said several real estate developers have spent millions buying prop-erty in the area which com-mands a breathtaking view of the Davao Gulf and city proper.

“We do not want to jeopardize investors who have already invested, we want to strike a balance,” Cabling said.

While Shrine Hills is a much sought location by real estate developers, concerns have been raised about its stability due to its steep slope.

Another contentious proposal is the declaration of areas wherein the Davao City Water District water pumps are located as water sources areas, which would limit the kind of develop-

ment in the area, if allowed at all.

Should the proposal be approved, one of those who will be affected is business-man Francis R. Ledesma, who was planning to devel-op his six-hectare property in Baliok, Toril into a high-end memorial park. The property is bordered by a water pump of DCWD and is suspected to sit atop one of the city’s aquifers.

“So be it. What’s im-portant is for the law to have a sound basis. As long as the law treats ev-eryone equally, it’s ok. But if they approve the same projects near my area, then that would be unfair, right?” Ledesma told Edge Davao Tuesday.

Ledesma’s project was rejected by the city coun-cil after some sectors com-

plained that the cemetery would contaminate the wa-ter source of the city.

Meanwhile, Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. chairman Se-bastian Angliongto said that while they welcome the proposal to amend the City Comprehensive Develop-ment Plan, they have some reservations about the pro-posals.

“We want to give an educated and well-rounded comment on the matter that is why I cannot comment right now. We have to study the provisions properly be-fore we give our recommen-dations,” Angliongto said in a previous interview. “Also, we’d want to make sure that should the proposed revised zonification be passed, there will be proper implementation in place.”

The lawmaker and the DOT regional official dis-cussed the various problems faced by the decade-old in-ternational airport which are detailed in a thick report pre-pared by a technical work-ing group commissioned by the Regional Development Council in the Davao region headed by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

It was learned from Rep. Garcia-Albano that General Hotchkiss is coming to Davao City on Friday and is expect-ed to have a look-see at the Davao international airport situation.

Earlier, the RDC asked CAAP to take steps to arrest the deterioration of the facili-ties and services at the facility.

The RDC recommenda-

tions include:--purchase of a new fire-

truck to replace the old unit;--provide fire extinguish-

ers as required under the Fire Code;

--undertake regular in-spections of the airport by the Fire Services Bureau;

--regular review of the overall security arrangement in the airport.

he could be facing the big-gest challenge of his life to stop the unabated killings in his jurisdiction.

The mayor expressed dissatisfaction with Rivera’s performance after the latter failed to contain the spate of killings in a span of just three days.

This came after a cer-tain Romar Mercado Salinas, one of the suspects in the robbery-slay of gym instruc-

tress Cherryl Gay Grafilo, was found dead at the same place where the victim was murdered.

Another suspect in the killing of Grafilo, Chearamae Fuertes, was also killed in a shootout with the police in the morning of August 30.

Fuertes was killed in a shootout with arresting po-licemen at his house on Pan-ganiban Street, Barangay 10-A on Thursday.

In her letter, the mayor denounced any form of murder, saying this will af-fect the image of the entire police force of Davao City.

She said she wants Ri-vera’s replacement to be an “equally competent officer who can manage effectively and execute the duty of law enforcement and the pro-tection of lives and proper-ties.”

could mean new invest-ments and more jobs for more Filipinos.

Lao said Davao is react-ing fast to the growth in the economy, particularly in the BPO industry. He said the City Government has iden-tified key priority areas for investment and this includes Information Communication Technology (ICT).

Among the city’s priority investment areas are tour-ism, agri-business and prop-

erty development. Accord-ing to data from ICT Davao, a group of ICT stakeholders in the city, they have tracked 67 BPO companies in Davao with a work force of 6,000 people.

Meanwhile Lao said part of the growth comes from infrastructure spending. “If you notice a lot of infrastruc-ture projects going on, it is not just in Davao but it is na-tionwide.” Lao said.

The simultaneous infra-

structure developments he said comes from the new policy of the national gov-ernment in which next year’s budget is already being ap-proved which allows the Department of Public Works and Highways to bid out and implement projects in the early months of the year.

Lao said infrastructure development is a great way to pump prime the economy as it usually has a big multi-plier effect. [PIA/RG Alama]

cluding hardcore ones num-bering to 34 were housed at their station and called the attention of their parents for counselling and parenting re-sponsibility.

He has to maximize their meager food allocation to feed them since they have no other means to source out their food sustainability.

But he has no qualms

about it. After all, crime occur-rences in those three identi-fied areas were significantly reduced.

Later, Abude was very happy that the Emar Human and Environment College, formerly Emar Learning Cen-ter, for partnering with them in making the 34 CICL to be scholars until college gradu-ation.

“Right now, these children are enrolled at Emar and we are very grateful for the in-stitution that it gives the op-portunity for these children to have a brighter future,” he said.

A day before receiving the award, the Talomo police station and the Soroptomist International, a woman group supporting women and chil-dren, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to adopt the station’s Women and Children’s Desk for sup-port.

Abude said that he would use the winning cash prize for the establishment of a Shelter intended for the 34 children, the youngest of which is 12, and their personal belong-ings, lockers, pails, school uni-forms. [ANTHONY S. ALLADA]

CELL PHONE. A man buys a mobile phone cover to protect his cell phone from scratch at the Annex of SM City Mall Davao yesterday. [LEAN DAVAL JR.]

THE Department of Foreign Affairs has shut down five of its

10 Philippine diplomatic posts due for closure this year as part of restructur-ing plan and austerity mea-sures.

As of July 31, the em-bassies in Caracas in Ven-ezuela; Koror, Palau; Dub-lin, Ireland and consulates general in Barcelona, Spain and Frankfurt, Germany have ceased to operate, Foreign Affairs Undersec-retary Rafael Seguis said.

The embassies in Stock-holm, Sweden; Bucharest, Romania; Havana, Cuba; and Helsinki, Finland and consulate in Saipan in Northern Mariana Islands began scaling down their operations in preparation

for its closure on Oct. 31, Seguis said.

Closing down the 10 diplomatic missions is part of the department’s restruc-turing plan and austerity measures. Seguis said.

Savings from the clo-sures are estimated at P100 million, which can be allocated to other cash-strapped posts that serve a greater number of Filipi-nos, he said.

“We are re-aligning our budget where they are most needed like in the Middle East,” Seguis told reporters in an interview. “We need to maximize our resources and budget.”

The nearest Philippine embassy or consulate will assume jurisdiction and functions of the closed

diplomatic missions.Prior to the closure, the

Philippines had 94 diplo-matic posts abroad, 67 of which were embassies, 23 consulates, and four were missions to international organizations.The selec-tion of posts to be closed down was made based on each of the post’s perfor-mance and economic and political importance.

Host governments of the terminated posts as well as its respective dip-lomatic missions here in Manila have already been informed of the closures. The Filipino communi-ties, under the jurisdiction of the said embassies and consulates, have also been informed, Seguis said. [PNA]

DFA shuts down five of 10 PHL diplomatic posts

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012CLASSIFIEDS ADS12 EDGEDAVAO

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VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 201214 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS

SERB 12th seed Ana Iva-novic reached her first Grand Slam quarter-

final in four years, and first ever at the US Open, when she defeated Bulgaria’s Ts-vetana Pironkova 6-0, 6-4 on Monday.

The 24-year-old, whose last major quarter-final came on the way to her one and only Grand Slam triumph at the 2008 French Open, swept through the first set in just 23 minutes, firing 13 winners and giving up just 11 points.

Pironkova, the world num-ber 55 who became the first Bulgarian to make a Grand Slam semi-final when she charged into the last four at Wimbledon in 2010, was the first woman from her country to make the last 16 in New York since 1994.

But her challenge was re-stricted by a neck injury and she twice needed treatment, including a medical time-out at the end of the first set.

She battled gamely in the second set, breaking Ivanovic twice, including the ninth game

when the former world number one was serving for the match.

But the Serb hit back imme-diately for victory in the 10th game with the match’s 10th break of serve in the 16 games played.

“I hardly made any mistakes in the first set but she is a tough opponent and I knew she would come back in the second set,” said Ivanovic after her 71-min-ute win, where she finished with 28 winners and 21 unforced er-rors.

“It’s amazing to be in my first quarter-final at the US Open.”

Ivanovic will next face either three-time champion Serena Williams, who is targeting a 34th career Grand Slam quarter-final spot, or Czech world num-ber 82 Andrea Hlavackova.

Olympic and Wimbledon champion Williams has a life-time record in New York of 61 wins against just nine defeats.

Hlavackova, 26, is making her US Open main draw debut having lost five times in qualify-ing and will be playing in her first last-16 match at a major.

But she has tasted Grand

Slam success, teaming with compatriot Lucie Hradecka to win the 2011 French Open women’s doubles.

Ivanovic has lost all three meetings with Williams, failing to win a set. Two of those defeats came at the US Open in 2006 and 2011.

She has never faced Hlavackova.

German sixth seed An-gelique Kerber, a semi-finalist in 2011, faces Italian 10th seed Sara Errani, the French Open runner-up.

Errani defeated Kerber, who has a season-leading 56 wins in 2012, in the quarter-finals in Paris on her way to the final in June.

The winner of that tie will face either Polish second seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who has equalled her best performance in New York of runs to the last-16 in 2007 and 2008, or Italian 19th seed Roberta Vinci.

Radwanska has won all of her four previous meetings with the 29-year-old Vinci who had made the last-16 for the first time.

Ana in QFinals

Ana Ivanovic of Serbia reacts against Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria in another fourth round clash at the US Open.

A2 INdulge! VOL. 5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012EDGEDAVAOHEALTH

EATING too much sug-ar certainly isn’t wise for your waistline, but did you know that overindulging in dessert can add years to your face? And even if you do strenuous cardio work-outs each week, you’ll be missing out on potential anti-aging body benefits if your schedule doesn’t in-clude yoga, weight train-ing, and rest. “Good nutrition is a funda-mental building block of healthy skin,” explains Leslie Baumann, MD, a Miami Beach dermatolo-gist. The natural ingredients in whole foods such as romaine lettuce and strawberries help in-crease cell turnover, and boost production of collagen fibers to help keep skin smooth and firm. Conversely, foods with little-to-no nutritional benefits, like sugar-packed doughnuts, can actually damage the collagen and elastin that keep skin firm and youthful. These aging effects start at about age 35 and increase rapidly after that, according to a study pub-lished in the British Journal of Dermatology. Even if your diet is wholesome, you could be making exercise mistakes that age you as well. For example, if you only do cardio at the expense of other types of exercise, like yoga and strength-training, you could be missing out on skin-protective benefits. Find out if you’re making one of these 8 common aging diet and exercise mistakes, and get smart prevention strategies that can keep you slim and youthful for years to come. You overdo dessert The breakdown of sugars, called glycation, damages the collagen that keeps skin smooth

and firm. To prevent this natu-ral process from careening out of control, Naila Malik, MD, a derm in Southlake, TX, sticks to low-glycemic carbs like whole grains; they’re naturally low in sugar, and the body processes them slowly to limit the loss of collagen. If you want to sweeten up your tea or oatmeal without making your skin look older, try all-natural stevia. It’s an easily digested herbal sweetener that doesn’t trigger glycation, accord-ing to board-certified dermatolo-gist Nicholas Perricone, MD, an adjunct professor of medicine at Michigan State University’s Col-lege of Human Medicine. You spin away stress Taking your work angst out on the Spinning bike or tread-mill might make you feel bet-ter for a little while, but incor-porating yoga into your fitness routine regularly may help you look younger and prevent break-outs while whittling away stress. Sounds like a winning workout to us! “Yoga moves like Child’s Pose, Downward-Facing Dog, and Sun Salutations improve circulation--the boost of oxygen is what gives skin that lovely yoga glow,” says Hema Sundaram, MD, a Wash-ington, DC - area dermatologist. New research finds regular yoga practice may reduce the inflam-mation and stress that speed skin aging. If you need another reason to om away your stress: High lev-els of tension can spike hormone production that leads to break-outs or aggravates conditions like psoriasis. “Controlling stress keeps your skin calm,” says An-nie Chiu, MD, a derm in LA. You always choose coffee over tea Research suggests that green and black tea contain protective

compounds--like EGCG and theaflavins--that help prevent skin cancers and the breakdown of collagen, the cause of wrin-kles. You pretend to be allergic to dumbbells Following a regular strength-training routine that creates bet-ter, more supportive muscle tone will help you firm sagging skin from the neck down. “I am re-ligious about strength-training, and I always tell patients to do it more as they get older,” says Pa-tricia Farris, MD, a dermatologist in Metairie, LA. “It’s like adding volume to the face with fillers, except on your body,” says Dr. Farris. Your meat and dairy aren’t organic “Hormones in traditionally produced dairy, poultry, and meat may contribute to acne,” says Katie Rodan, MD, a derma-tologist in the San Francisco Bay area. She says that her patients who eat those less frequently--or at least choose grain-fed beef and poultry and organic dairy--often notice their skin looks better.

You don’t give your body a break When your exercise routine is so intense that you’re tired all the time but can’t sleep at night, you’re setting yourself up for overuse injuries--not to men-tion dark circles and bags under your eyes from those sleepless nights. These symptoms could be a sign of overexhaustion, says Ryan Halvorson, personal trainer, IDEA Health and Fitness Association expert, and author. Other clues that you’re working out too much include extreme muscle soreness that persists for several days, unintended weight loss, an increased resting heart rate, interruptions in your men-strual cycle, or decreased appe-tite. “Plan your rest as well as you plan exercise,” says Polly de Mille, RN, a registered clinical exercise physiologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. “If there is no balance between breakdown and recovery, then the muscle is in a state of chronic inflammation and what may start as a simple case of soreness after a hard workout can turn into an

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Organic produce and meat typically isn’t any better for you than con-ventional varieties when it comes to vitamin and nutri-ent content, according to a new review of the evidence. But organic options may live up to their billing of lowering exposure to pesti-cide residue and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, research-ers from Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System found. “People choose to buy organic foods for many dif-ferent reasons. One of them is perceived health benefits,” said Dr. Crystal Smith-Span-gler, who led the new study. “Our patients, our families

ask about, ‘Well, are there health reasons to choose or-ganic food in terms of nu-tritional content or human health outcomes?’” To try to answer that ques-tion, she and her colleagues reviewed over 200 studies that compared either the health of people who ate or-ganic or conventional foods or, more commonly, nutrient and contaminant levels in the foods themselves. Those included organic and non-organic fruits, veg-etables, grains, meat, poultry, eggs and milk. Many of the studies didn’t specify their standards for what constituted “organic” food - which can cost as much as twice what conventional food costs - the researchers

wrote Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. According to United States Department of Agriculture standards, organic farms have to avoid the use of syn-thetic pesticides and fertiliz-ers, hormones and antibiot-ics. Organic livestock must also have access to pastures during grazing season. Many conventional farms in the U.S., in contrast, use pesticides to ward off bugs and raise animals in crowded indoor conditions with anti-biotics in their feed to pro-mote growth and ward off disease. The Food and Drug Administration has been ex-amining that type of antibi-otic use and its contribution to drug-resistant disease in humans.

SAME VITAMINS Smith-Spangler and her colleagues found there was no difference in the amount of vitamins in plant or ani-mal products produced or-ganically and convention-ally - and the only nutrient difference was slightly more phosphorus in the organic products. Organic milk and chicken may also contain more ome-ga-3 fatty acids, they found - but that was based on only a few studies. There were more signifi-cant differences by growing practice in the amount of pesticides and antibiotic-re-sistant bacteria in food. More than one-third of conventional produce had detectable pesticide residues,

compared to seven percent of organic produce samples. And organic chicken and pork was 33 percent less like-ly to carry bacteria resistant to three or more antibiotics than conventionally-pro-duced meat. Smith-Spangler told Reu-ters Health it was uncom-mon for either organic or conventional foods to exceed the allowable limits for pesti-cides, so it’s unclear whether a difference in residues would have an effect on health. But Chensheng Lu, who studies environmental health and exposure at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said that while the jury is still out on those ef-fects, people should consider pesticide exposure in their

grocery-shopping decisions. “If I was a smart consum-er, I would choose food that has no pesticides,” Lu, who wasn’t involved in the new study, told Reuters Health. “I think that’s the best way to protect your health.” He said more research is necessary to fully explore the potential health and safety differences between organic and conventional foods, and that it’s “premature” to con-clude organic meat and pro-duce isn’t any healthier than non-organic versions. “Right now I think it’s all based on anecdotal evi-dence,” Lu said. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/PShmuj Annals of Internal Medicine, online September 3, 2012.

8 diet and exercise mistakes that age you

Organic food no healthier than non-organic: study

actual overuse injury.” You drastically cut fat, carbs, or calories When your diet isn’t bal-anced, your skin, hair, and nails will suffer. Cutting calories can deprive your body of certain nu-trients that promote healthy cell division, cell regeneration, and overall skin tone and texture, explains David E. Bank, MD, FAAD, director of the Center for Dermatology, Cosmetic and La-ser Surgery in Mount Kisco, NY. “The skin also requires essential fatty acids--which the body can’t produce on its own--to maintain hydration. A diet that’s too low in fat could cause dry skin, hair loss, and brittle nails.” Other key youth-boosting nutrients include vitamins A, C, and E. Being de-ficient in A can cause acne, dry hair, dry skin, and broken fin-gernails. Get your daily vitamin A fix by eating five baby carrots each day. A lack of vitamin C can affect collagen synthesis (the “glue” that binds our ligaments, bones, blood vessels, and skin), impair wound healing, and make you more likely to bruise. Incor-porate vitamin C - rich foods in the form of citrus fruits, brus-sels sprouts, peppers, and leafy greens. Low levels of vitamin E can result in easy bruising and cause chronic skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis to flare up. Get more vitamin E in your diet by eating almonds, ha-zelnuts, peanuts, spinach, and fortified cereals. You’re missing alkaline-rich foods Kimberly Snyder, a Los Ange-les nutritionist and author of The Beauty Detox Solution ($9.77; amazon.com), says she sees a big improvement in her clients’ skin and hair when they eat more alkaline-forming foods, such as parsley, almonds, kale, pears, lemons, and apples. “If your body is too acidic, which can happen when your diet is unbalanced, it leaches the alkaline minerals, such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium, that allow us to have strong, healthy bones, teeth, and hair,” Snyder explains. (From Ya-hoo! Health)

HEIDI KLUM is mov-ing on. Following Seal’s state-ments about her sup-posed hook-up with her bodyguard Martin Kristen, a rep for the for-mer Victoria’s Secret su-permodel told E! News, “I cherish all of the great memories Seal and I cre-ated together over the years. Our separation was based on issues be-tween the two of us. Seal has moved on and so have I. My priority has and continues to be protecting and provid-ing for our children.” During a family vaca-tion in Sardinia, Italy recently, the Project Runway host was spot-ted looking cozy with her bodyguard of four years, a man named Martin Kristen, ac-cording to Peo-ple, leading to speculation that the duo had c o u -p l e d up. Hei-di shows off sexy bi-kini bod Klum, 39, looked relaxed and content in a white visor and blue cover-up over her bikini. Her security guard wore camo shorts and a red T-shirt; he ap-peared to be part of the family as he played in the sand with Klum and Seal’s four children. And the “Let’s Stay To-gether” crooner was not amused by the rumors. When asked by TMZ what he thought about Klum’s supposed new man, Seal said on video, “That’s what happens when two people sepa-rate. They move on and that generally means other people in their

lives. I certainly don’t ex-pect Heidi to become a nun. My main priority is the emotional well-be-ing of our children and to be quite honest if there is going to be someone in

t h e i r lives, I’d r a t h e r it be a f a m i l i a r face.” “I didn’t

expect any better from him…but I would’ve thought Heidi would of shown a bit more class...before deciding to forni-cate with the help, as it were,” Seal added. Responding to Seal’s statement, Klum’s rep tells E! News, “It is sad

that Seal has to resort to false accusations.”

Shortly after his state-ment, Seal clarified his

p r e v i o u s c o m -

ment o n S u n -

d a y , with his

rep telling E! News his words

were not what they seemed. The singer’s rep said

that Seal was “point-ing out that they are separated and the divorce is not final, so they are legally still married.” Since splitting with Seal in Janu-ary, Klum has been candid about her feelings on love. “I don’t know if I’ll get married again,” she told German publication Bild am Sonntag. “Al-

though I really en-joyed being mar-ried. I’m a dreamer. I loved our annual fairy-tale weddings

that were our big family par-

ties. But sadly, it somehow didn’t work out.” (E! On-line)

PRINCE HARRY is finally getting back into the swing of things…fully dressed. In his first public ap-pearance following his now-notorious Las Vegas trip, the red-headed royal arrived at the WellChild Awards at the Interconti-nental Hotel Monday af-ternoon in London. Prince Harry, who serves as patron of the charity, was on hand to give a speech at the ceremony. The charity supports terminally and critically ill children in the U.K. And it appears adults aren’t the only ones who are aware of the prince’s naked romp in Las Vegas. According to the Daily Mail, Prince Harry “wagged his finger” and laughed at a little boy who wanted to ask him about his naked night in his VIP penthouse suite, but lost the nerve.

“You keep looking at your mum,” Harry said to the little one. “It looks like you’re dying to say some-

thing but you’re worried she’ll tell you off.” Kids say the darndest things. (E! Online)

INdulge! A3VOL. 5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 EDGEDAVAO

Prince Harry goes public, well dressed

Heidi Klum: We’re both moving onENTERTAINMENT

The Brokenshire Memo-rial Hospital opened its newly renovated Operating Room Complex last week, August 30, 2012.

This L-shaped complex is composed of 10 operating rooms with a special room for patients of the popular Operation Smile program. Operation smile program are performed surgeries in treat-ment of facial deformities.

State-of-the-art Equip-ment

Installed in the operat-ing rooms are newly acquired high-end, state-of-the-art equipment and instruments.

One of the sophisticat-ed equipment acquired by the Brokenshire Integrated Health Ministries, Incorpo-rated (BIHMI) is the Philips Surgical LED (light-emitting diode) light which is also first in the Philippines. This Phil-ips Burton Surgical LED light model OR 160 with 160 lux (air sensor) is first to be used in the Philippines. LED is a semiconductor light source and is used as indicator lamp in many devices.

According to Dr. Ed-gar Ramederre, the Medical Director of BIHMI, “it also uses the latest advances in the state-of-the-art OR lighting technology to achieve incred-ible performance and unsur-passed value and energy ef-ficiency.”

Dr. Henry D. Derla, OR Chairperson, also said that the Philips Surgical LED light is the best and is very easy to use. This would give more time for nurses and doctors to do more important matters in the operating room than to spend much time on adjust-ing the light.

Dr. Derla, said that there are nine other newly acquired state of the art surgical equip-ment and instruments. These include MERIVAARA Op-erating Table model OP1650 with special adjustment ranges in terms of its side tilt, leg section, back section, tren-delenburg and antitrendelen-burg, headrest, with kidney elevator to a maximum pa-tient weight of 245 kilograms and orthopedic extension de-vice which mean the patient

can be tilted in different angles favored for the operation.

Another newly acquired equipment of BIHMI is the Edan M9A Patient Monitor which has a crystal clear screen that shows every signal of the heart beat clearly and gives an accurate measurement of the pulse. This technology also has standard parameters such as Electrocardiography (ECG), oxygen saturation in the blood (SPO2), blood pressure moni-toring (NIBP) and others.

Other equipment are: -Omni II Cardiac Moni-

tor (Infinium Medical Inc., USA) with NIBP, SPO2, multi-lead ECG monitoring, Tem-perature, IBP (neonate, pedia, adult), drug dose calculations, has a large font display and other specifications

-Omni III Cardiac Moni-tor (Infinium Medical Inc., USA) with NIBP, SPO2, ECG (3 or 5 leads), has dual tem-perature monitoring, IBP, Gas Analyzer and other specifica-tions

-the US top of the line HILL-ROM Transporter and Specialty stretchers which has a 700 pound weight capac-ity, has a low height for safer stretcher ingress and egress, has a 3-inches thick mattress, has dual-locking-four-wheel brakes for stable platform and is Power washable.

-Lifegain CU-HD1 Mul-tifunction Defibrillator and Monitor which is a Biphasic Technology of Defibrillator with ECG monitoring, SPO2, NIBP, and is a non-invasive pacing mode and also has a built-in printer.

-PENLON PRIMA SP2 Anesthetic Machine with AV-S Ventilator v.188 Standalone and Remote Screen (touch screen)

-BOVIE Electrosurgi-cal Machine model IDS-400 which is an innovative electro-surgical generators with fully digital implementation for use in today’s modem OR and sur-gical outpatient center. This is also easy-to-handle yet capable of covering a whole spectrum of electrosurgical interven-tions. Its monopolar and bipo-lar functions satisfy all surgi-cal demands with maximum safety and has a user-friendly interface.

-and complete General Surgery, OB-Gynecology, Or-thopedic, ENT, Vascular and Colo-Rectal surgical instru-ments

Councilor Bernardo Al-ag, Chairman of the Davao City Committee on Health, said that in the increasing popula-tion or growth in Davao city comes bigger challenges which include health services. He added that the government also needs private partners in attaining their goal in serving the needs of Dabawenyos. He wishes that the Brokenshire Hospital will be a good stew-ard for the people as assisted by their facilities and good ser-vices.

Mayor Sara Duterte-Car-pio also sent her message to BIHMI which mainly speaks about her appreciation for the staff and administration for their newly acquired equip-ment and new operating room complex. She thanked them in helping the government re-spond to the health needs of

the Dabawenyos.The patients will surely

benefit from the assured qual-ity and service brought by the newly acquired facilities and equipment. They will also ben-efit from ensured better surgi-cal care among patients who will undergo operation.

Development does not necessarily mean high cost. This is what BIHMI would like to reach the recipients of their service. It is their vision to develop and improve the lives of the community, therefore, the procurement of the stated state-of-the-art equipment and facilities will definitely improve patient surgical care at a very least cost incurred.

Other services of BIHMI include Mindanao Kidney Stone Center ; Eye Laser Cen-ter ; Brokenshire Woman Cen-ter that caters all Obstetrics and Gynecological cases including Sonology, Colposcopy, and Fertility Care Center; Renal Dialysis Center; Davao Hemo-philia and Other Blood Disor-ders Center; Child and Ado-lescent Neuro-Development Center; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Center; Out-Patient Care Services; Newly Upgraded Operating Room Complex; Delivery Room Complex; Newborn Complex; and Endoscopy Center.

Other Ministries in BIH-MI are the Brokenshire Hotel-Resort and Convention Center and Brokenshire Community Health and Development Cen-ter.

ENTERTAINMENTEVENTS

A4 INdulge! VOL. 5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012EDGEDAVAO

Brokenshire Memorial Hospital opens new operating room complex

Chairperson on Committee on Health Hon. Bernard Al-ag congratulates BIHMI for helping the government in serving the health needs of the Dabawenyos

By Vicky Berdina M. de Guzman

Actual blessing of Brokenshire Memorial Hospital’s New Operating Room Complex

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 SPORTS 15EDGEDAVAO

AFTER he was cleared of the sexual harass-ment charges filed by

former POC head Cristy Ra-mos Jalasco, Fil-Spanish An-gel Guirado is all of a sudden missing.

Guirado has reportedly inked a contract with an In-dian club since August and has not left word with the Azkals.

Guirado’s future with the Philippine national men’s football team thus remain uncertain.

Rafael Garcia, Guirado’s cousin, manager and transla-tor when he was still in the

country, said that he has not heard anything from the Fil-Spanish striker since learn-ing about the signing, leav-ing him puzzled if Guirado would still come back to play for the Azkals.

“We’re still in the dark,” Garcia said, referring to Guirado’s future with the Azkals. “We don’t know the terms of the contract.”

Garcia added that it was a different agent who helped Guirado ink a one-year deal with Salgaocar FC, a team which plays in India’s top professional league, I-League.

United Football League

champion Global, for which Guirado suited up last sea-son, was also surprised with the sudden departure of one of their prized players, ac-cording to Garcia, also the team’s marketing head.

But just like the other foreign-based members of the Azkals, Guirado could still come back and play for the national team in its matches if his new club permits him, Garcia said.

Last August, Guirado was initially part of the Azkals lineup in their United States training tour. However, he still didn’t make the trip.

NEW YORK—Serena Williams didn’t drop a game Monday as she

moved into the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Roger Fe-derer advanced with even less work when Mardy Fish pulled out of their fourth-round match for precautionary rea-sons.

Fish missed about two months this season because of an accelerated heartbeat and had a medical procedure in May. Fish’s agent said he wasn’t sure if the problem related to his previous health issues.

“I was reluctant to do so, but am following medical ad-visement,” Fish said about his withdrawal in a statement. “I

had a good summer and look forward to resuming my tour-nament schedule in the fall.”

The 30-year-old Ameri-can’s third-round match against Gilles Simon went five sets, lasting more than 3 hours and ending after 1 a.m. Sunday. Afterward, the 23rd-seeded Fish did not appear at a news conference. Tourna-ment officials said he was get-ting treatment, but didn’t give specifics.

“I am really sorry for Mar-dy. I just want to wish him a speedy recovery,” Federer said in a statement. “We all want to see him back on tour soon.”

Federer, in his 34th con-secutive quarterfinal at a major tournament, will meet

sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych, who defeated 11th-seeded Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-1.

The man Federer beat in July’s Wimbledon final and lost to in August’s Olympic final, Andy Murray, muted 15th-seeded Milos Ranoic’s big serve and won 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to reach an eighth consecutive major quarterfinal.

No. 3 Murray will play No. 12 Marin Cilic of Croatia, who put together a 7-5, 6-4, 6-0 vic-tory over 50th-ranked Martin Klizan of Slovakia, the last left-hander and unseeded man remaining. Murray has won 6 of 7 matches against Cilic over their careers, but the lone loss came at the US Open in 2009.

TIGER Woods’ comeback bid at the Deutsche Bank

Championship came up short on Monday. But don’t feel too bad for the 14-time major winner.

With the $544,000 he earned from finish-ing solo third, Woods became the first player in PGA Tour history to eclipse the $100 million mark in career earning.

That, friends, is what we call “crazy money.” Even with the increase in purses over the years -- thanks to Woods’ pop-

ularity -- there’s a good chance we’ll never see another golfer get any-where close to that num-ber in the future, due in large part to the qual-ity of today’s tournament fields.

“Well, I just think the purse increase helps,” Woods said after his final round 66. “I’ve won few-er tournaments than Sam Snead has. Obviously he was in a different era. It’s just that we happened to time it up right and hap-pened to play well when the purses really had a

nice spike up. It was nice to have a nice start to my career, and I won some majors early. I think we got some interest in the game of golf.”

Woods has a chance to add $10 million to that $100-million figure in a three weeks at the Tour Championship. He’s cur-rently No. 3 in the FedEx-Cup standings and if he can put together another strong week at the BMW Championship, he’ll have a great chance to end 2012 on a high note in Atlanta.

RORY McIlroy finally put the PGA Tour Player of the Year

debate to bed with an im-pressive 4-under 67 that saw him win the Deutsche Bank Championship by one shot and pick up his third win of the season.

But forget about the Player of the Year hard-ware for a second; the win ended another, far more important, debate that’s been raging recent-ly: Who’s the best golfer on the planet. Prior to McIlroy’s win at the PGA

Championship, you could have kicked around a cou-ple of names around for the top spot in the sport.

Following McIlory win in Boston? Well, there’s no need to debate who the king of golf is at the moment. It’s the kid from Northern Ireland.

After spending the last year questioning his lack of closing ability and his inability to put con-sistent finishes together, the 23-year-old managed to add another eight-shot major win and a come-

from-behind victory at the Deutsche Bank to his resume in less than a month.

Say what you will about McIlroy still be young and having moments where his game inexplicably dis-appears for stretches, but for the first time, it seems like the he finally has a handle on closing out tour-naments -- something that didn’t seem possible back in April after he fell out of contention on the week-end at the Masters for the second straight year.

Guirado missing

Serena blanks foe in US Open

Rory is new world No.1

Tiger breaks $100M mark

TIGER. Former world no. 1 Tiger Woods breached the $100 Million mark in earnings.

Serena Williams of the United States looks on against Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic during their women’s singles fourth round match at the 2012 US Open.

OUT OF AZKALS? Fil-Spaniard Angel Guirado has taken his playing skills to India.

VOL.5 ISSUE 132 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 201216 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS

JOEL Yamyamin carded a gross 51 to take the overall gross championship in the recent 2nd Mindanao Motortrade

Cup at the Rancho Palos Verdes Golf and Country Club over the weeked.

Yamyamin led the big winners which also include Boy Tan who took home the Class A Gross title with a 50, Ninot Galicia (51) in Class B, Andy Ugdoracion (46) in Class C, and Korean expat Lee Kwang Tae (41) in Class D.

Apo Luna (49) and Boy Tapucar (48) finished second and third behind Tan in Class A. Jun Serado and Jung In Kyu both had identical 48s but the former took run-ner-up honors in Class B via tiebreak. Jigs Calixto, who actually tied Ugdracion’s 46, placed second in Class C after the tiebreak while Alex Rivera (44) was third.

In Class D, Ruben Paul Quiogue (41) was second and Ed Deguzman (38) was third.

Long-hitting Joe Marfori, who knows the Racho Palos Verdes layout like the palm of his hand, recorded the longest drive at 230 yards. Lee Chul Ju went near-est the pin at 30 inches.

Yamyamin, Tan win in Motortrade Cup

By Neil Bravo

CHAMP. Boy Tan won the Class A gross title of the recent 2nd Mindanao Motortrade Cup at the Racho Palos Verdes Golf and Country Club. (BOY LIM)