32 feared dead in Davao towns Up to 32 people were

feared dead in the provinces of Com-

postela Valley and Davao Oriental in the wake of Ty-

phoon pablo, the strongest storm to hit Mindanao in two decades.

pablo made landfall in the region at dawn yester-day, bringing driving rain

and packing gusts of up to 210 kilometers (130 miles) an hour that toppled trees and brought down power

EDGEP 15.00 • 20 PAGES

www.edgedavao.netVOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

Serving a seamless societyDAVAO

20 soldiers missing

FPABLO, 11

FBANGSAMORO, 11

Page 16

Page 15

Science/Environment

Page 14

Page 4

Sports

Follow Us On

Page A1Indulge Page A4 Pablo’s aftermath

By Greg G. Deligero

By Antonio M. Ajero

THE BANGSAMORO land defined in the Frame-work Agreement on the

Bangsamoro (FAB) is bigger

than the present Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindan-ao (ARMM), but a lot smaller than the Bangsamoro Juridical

Entity (BJE) stipulated in the scratched Memorandum on Agreement on Ancestral Do-main (MOA-AD).

This was one of the mat-ters discussed by Undersecre-tary Jose Luis Martin “Chito”

Bangsamoro Bigger than ARMM, smaller than BJE

Luoyintawon!

TOPPLED. Strong winds brought by typhoon Pablo’s tail end uproot a 50-year old tree that made some parts of E. Quirino Ave. to lose power yesterday. LEAN DAVAL JR.

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012THE BIG NEWS2 EDGEDAVAO

FKARAPATAN, 11FSERENO, 11

MA L A C A N A N G is bullish the F r a m e w o r k

Agreement signed by the philippine government and the Moro Islamic Lib-eration Front will pass constitutional scrutiny.

Deputy presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte, in a press briefing Tuesday, said when the Framework Agreement was about to be signed by the former chair of the government peace panel, now Supreme Court Jus-tice Marvic Leonen, “the Framework Agreement was crafted with the Su-preme Court decision on the MOA-AD (memoran-dum of agreement on an-cestral domain) in mind.”

Lawyer Elly pamatong, a nuisance candidate in 2004 presidential polls, has a petition before the Supreme Court question-

ing the constitutionali-ty of the government’s Bangsamoro Framework Agreement with the MILF.

pamatong, however, admitted in his pleadings even before the GpH and the MILF could come up with the annexes of the Framework Agreement and make it final.

He said the govern-ment peace panel al-legedly committed grave abuse of discretion, say-ing the Constitution only provides for Autonomous Region in Muslim Min-danao and the creation of a “Bangsamoro” is no-where cited.

pamatong claimed that the government peace panel, as a result, “has usurped the pow-er of Congress to enact, amend or repeal laws vested on it by the Con-stitution.”

Malacanang defends Framework Agreement

PASKO FIESTA. A huge Pasko Fiesta 2012 billboard can be seen erected in front of the Davao City Hall to remind Dabawenyos about the activities for the Yuletide season along San Pedro Street yesterday. But after a reported disagreement between Mayor

Sara Dutere Carpio and Davao City Treasurer’s Office head Rodrigo Riola, the budget for Pasko Fiesta 2012 and bonuses of the local government employees are now in peril. LEAN DAVAL JR.

FOR the first time, Chief Justice Ma-ria Lourdes Sereno

was not able to attend Tuesday the en banc session of the Supreme Court.

Under Special Order No. 1384 dated Dec. 4, 2012 and signed by Sere-no herself, titled “Adjudi-cation of Cases”, she des-ignated Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio as Acting Chief Justice for the reason that she

is sick.“In view of the sick

leave of absence of the undersigned, Senior As-sociate Justice Antonio T. Carpio is hereby des-ignated as Acting Chief Justice, with authority to exercise the powers and prerogatives of and pertaining to the posi-tion of Chief Justice on matters that cannot wait for the Justice, effective today, Decr 4, 2012, until the undersigned reports

back to work,” Sereno’s Order read.

Carpio is the most se-nior associate justice of the highest court of the land.

However, the justices of the SC were surprised how Sereno suddenly got sick after it was reported she was lobbying Mon-day when she personally went in the chambers of Justices Teresita Leonar-do-De Castro, Arturo D. Brion and Martin S. Vil-

larama Jr.Sereno allegedly even

lobbied with other jus-tices over the telephone to support her and not to revoke the reopening of the Regional Court Ad-ministration Office Re-gion 7.

The justices of the SC last weekend denied Sereno’s order that a resolution be issued ratifying her act for the revival and reopening

Sereno fails to attend SC en banc session

YMCA  RESOURCE  MOBILIZATION  WORKSHOP. Incoming YMCA Davao president Nonoy Villa-Abrille (right), past president Joe Custodio (left) and general-secretary Sylvia Piedad participate in a 3-day seminar-workshop in Pines City that gathered key leaders and staff of selected local associations. Hosted by YMCA Baguio on November 23-25 and organized by the National Movement under the auspices of the Asia-Pa-

cific’Alliance of YMCAs, the group dynamics is handled by resource persons and ex-pert-presenters Paul Andresen, president & CEO of Anaheim Family YMCA, California, USA, (2nd left)  and   volunteer consultant Ron Coulombe,   former president & CEO of  Edmonton YMCA, Canada (2nd right).

A MILITARY official here said that the Karapatan human

rights group in South-ern Mindanao, which has been its number one critic, has reportedly signified to join the cul-minating activity of the International Human Rights Week on Decem-ber 10, Monday.

Lt. Col. Jerry Besana, spokesperson of Task Force Davao, said that they already sent an in-vitation to the group and that they received a positive response that it

would join the event.Besana said that on

that day, there will be a march from Ateneo de Davao Universitycam-pus to Rizal park where a peace Rally would be held.

“Our very purpose here is to celebrate Hu-man Rights Week and this is the opportune time when we act as one to protect human rights,” he said.

He said Karapatan members may bring with them placards and

Karapatan joining soldiers on Human Rights WeekBy Anthony S. Allada

THE special commit-tee on food security and the commit-

tee on agriculture of the House of Representatives will be filing a joint reso-lution asking the Board of Investments to suspend the granting of a sev-en-year tax holiday and duty-free importation of raw materials to a Thai firm.

During the joint hear-ing Tuesday by both House panels, they agreed to file a joint resolution after representatives from the hog industry aired their concerns on the alleged “preferential” treatment given to the Charoen pokphand Firm of Thailand, which is op-erating in the country under Charoen pokphand Food philippines Corpo-ration, by the BOI.

Reports said Charoen pokphand purchased

large tracts of lands in various areas in Central Luzon as base of opera-tions of its billion pesos projects. It has a total investment of p7.14 bil-lion in Central Luzon, a part of which is close to p3 billion project widely criticized by local hog and poultry raisers.

Because of its huge investments in the coun-try, Charoen pokphand was granted a seven-year income tax holiday and duty-free importation of raw materials by the BOI. BUTIL party-list Rep. Agapito Guanlao, howev-er, said the alleged pref-erential treatment given to Charoen pokphand “is like butchering the local hog and poultry indus-tries.”

“The BOI seems blind over the fact that 80 per-cent of the hogs in the country are produced

BOI asked to suspend granting of tax holiday

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

A six-year-old boy died in neighboring Valencia City this

morning when he was hit by a fallen coconut tree when Typhoon pablo battered the province, re-ports said.

A MindaNews source working at the Lavina General Hospital in Va-lencia said the boy, who is still unknown as of press time, did not make it to the hospital alive.

The eye of Typhoon pablo passed by Malayba-lay and neighboring areas around noon yesterday.

Malaybalay Mayor Ignacio Zubiri said resi-dents were forcibly evac-uated in Sitio panamucan, Barangay San Jose here due to the rain-induced landslides. Last October, residents in the area also evacuated because of landslides.

According to the phil-ippine Atmospheric, Geo-physical and Astronomi-cal Services Administra-tion’s (pAGASA) Severe Weather Bulletin No. 8 issued 11 a.m. today, sev-en Mindanao provinces remain under Signal No. 3 as pablo continues its westward path. These are

Misamis Oriental, Bukid-non, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occi-dental, Zamboanga del Norte, and Camiguin.

Surigao del Norte (in-cluding Siargao Island), Surigao del Sur, Dinagat, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Davao del Norte (including Samal Island), Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental, North Cotabato, Zamboanga del Sur, Zam-boanga Sibugay and Ma-guindanao were degrad-ed into Signal No. 2, while Davao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Basilan, Saran-gani and South Cotabato are now under Signal No. 1.

In Lanao del Sur, Col. Satar Buriongan, provin-cial risk reduction man-agement council officer, said that a bridge was washed out and there were two reported cases of landslides in the mu-nicipality of Kapai.

Buriongan said con-tinuous strong rains since last night forced them to dispatch a team for an emergency evacuation of hundreds of families in Kapai this morning.

“The road is not pass-able at the moment, but

we advised the residents to evacuate now and look for higher grounds for their safety,” Buriongan said in a phone interview.

In Bubong town also in Lanao del Sur, water rose knee-deep as trees were uprooted with the strong wind. At least 25 families were recommended for emergency evacuation.

Disaster officials wor-ried continuous rains until noon will submerge the nearby towns of Dit-saan-Ramain, Buadipo-so-Buntong, Molondo, Taraka, poona-Bayabao and Lumba-Bayabao.

In Cagayan de Oro City, half of the city had black-out this morning. The City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (CDRRMC) reported that as of 11 a.m., 24,389 peo-ple have sought shelter in 43 evacuation centers.

The provincial Disas-ter Risk Reduction Man-agement Council of Mis-amis Oriental also report-ed that 1,750 families, or 7,446 individuals, from 25 municipalities went to evacuation centers.

In Kidapawan City, 60 families living around Mt. Apo were forced to evacu-

ate after a series of land-slides in Barangay Bala-bag noon today.

Barangay chairman Ephraim Umpan said the families – who brought with them some of their clothes, kitchen wares, and other belongings – are housed temporarily at the barangay hall.

At least six landslides were spotted at Sitio Mawig, Barangay Balabag, one of the routes leading to the peak of Mount Apo,

the country’s highest mountain.

No one was report-ed hurt during the land-slides, Umpan said.

The heavy rains start-ed around 4:25 a.m. today and continued until noon.

Umpan expressed fears that if the rains would continue until to-morrow, many residents, especially in flood-prone and landslide-prone ar-eas in his village, would be affected.

He already sought help from rescue volun-teers in the city for imme-diate evacuation of these residents.

Teams from the Kidap-awan City Emergency Response Unit (KidCe-ru) and from the phil-ippine Red Cross were dispatched to facilitate the evacuation. [Walter I. Balane, Ferdinandh Cabrera, Cong B. Corrales and Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews]

FDOH, 11

3EDGEDAVAO SUBURBIA

GOVERNMENT forc-es pursuing com-munist guerillas in

the hinterlands of North Cotabato have captured six major camps of the New people’s Army.

Colonel prudencio Asto, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said on Tuesday that joint el-ements of the 57th, 7th, and 6th Scout Ranger Company of the 602nd Infantry Brigade, have been engaging about 200 NpA guerillas at the foot of the country’s highest peak – Mt. Apo.

Lieutenant Colonel Noel dela Cruz, 57th In-fantry Battalion com-mander, said the discov-ery of abandoned NpA camps was made possi-ble with the help of civil-ians who have been com-plaining of continuing extortion activities of the NpAs.

He said civilians were either threatened or co-erced to support the un-derground movement.

“These are clear vio-lations on Human Rights (HR), International Hu-manitarian Law (IHL), Rule of Law (ROL) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Human

Rights and Internation-al Humanitarian Law (CAHRIHL),” Dela Cruz said.

“Nobody should be forced to obey or to give food and money through fear and intimidation,” he said, adding that the NpAs now are on the run following the capture of its major camps in Mag-pet hinterlands.

Last month, according to dela Cruz,the the Army discovered several NpA camps in Makilala and Arakan, both in North Co-tabato.

“The NpAs are rapidly losing popular support from the people. We’ve been hitting them hard with the support and co-operation of people who have stood up against NpA atrocities,” Dela Cruz said.

“We encourage those in the mountains to go back to the folds of the law. The government is sincere in its efforts of ending this conflict. I ad-vise them to avail of the Social Integration pro-gram (SIp) of the gov-ernment and lead normal lives with their families and loved ones,” the 57th IB chief said.[pNA]

Army captures 6 NPA camps in North Cotabato

AFTERMATH. Barbecue stalls clutter  the Baywalk area in Mati City, Davao Oriental onTuesday morning, as Typhoon Pab-

lo makes  landfall in Banganga town at 4:45 a.m. Baganga is at least 126 kilometers from Mati City. [Andrew Bastes]

Boy dies in Valencia as Pablo moves West

THE Department of Health (DOH) in Region 12 is tar-

geting to achieve “ze-ro-casualty” in terms of firecracker-related inju-ries during the Christmas season through its en-hanced campaign against the use of firecrackers and fireworks in the area.

Dr. Marilyn Convocar, DOH Region 12 director, said Monday they have started the posting and distribution of campaign materials on the agency’s “Aksyon: paputok Injury

Reduction” or ApIR to highlight its campaign against the use of fire-crackers and fireworks during the Christmas and New Year revelries.

“We should take care of ourselves and make sure that all our fingers are still intact and com-plete by the start of the New Year,” she said, ex-plaining the campaign’s message.

Convocar said they are presently imple-menting the campaign throughout the region in

coordination with local government health offic-es and rural health units.

Region 12, which is also known as the Soc-csksargen Region, covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotaba-to and the cities of Gener-al Santos, Koronadal, Ta-curong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.

The DOH central of-fice launched the ApIR campaign in December last year to help promote a safe holiday celebra-

tion.The campaign reit-

erates the DOH’s Oplan Iwas paputok that was started in 1994 to mon-itor the use of firecrack-ers, particularly from Dec. 21 to Jan. 4, to min-imize the morbidity and mortality from fireworks and firecrackers as well as injuries.

Jane Ventura, DOH-12 information officer, said they are presently post-ing tarpaulins that depict the plight of fireworks

DOH 12 wants zero firecracker casualty

THE Metro Kidap-awan Water District (MKWD) has sent

three teams to monitor the watersheds in Mount Apo and their facilities, including dams and filtra-tion plants, to ensure safe drinking water while Ty-phoon pablo is ravaging Mindanao.

The watersheds are sources of water for more than 25,000 households in Kidapawan City and near-by towns of Makilala, Mag-pet and Matalam in North Cotabato.

Engr. Sandy Alqueza, MKWD assistant general manager who also heads the Crisis Management

Team, said that after they received the advisory from the philippine Atmo-spheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Ad-ministration (pAG-ASA) of Typhoon pablo affecting the province, they imme-diately held emergency meetings to prepare for the disaster.

Alqueza said that tor-rential rains usually cause heavy flooding and land-slides in areas near their water sources.

To make sure their fil-tration plants are working and to avoid heavy tur-bidity during flooding, the MKWD dispatched teams to conduct patrolling in the

watersheds.Alqueza said the teams

brought with them the necessary equipment and facilities for monitoring the watersheds, reservoirs, dams, and their filtration plants located in different areas.

MKWD general man-ager Stella Gonzales said the Oplan pablo, led by Alqueza, will also strength-en community-based approach to reduce the damage to be brought by typhoon pablo.

The MKWD has iden-tified six watershed areas, which include Amapolon, Lawan, padet, pamanga-nan, Basingon and Saka-

tian, all located at Mount Apo.

Also, the teams were tasked to conduct inspec-tion of possible encroach-ment and entry of unautho-rized persons and check on the presence of renewed agricultural activities in the watershed areas.

Early September this year, MKWD watershed personnel team leader Rey Anthony Debelos has strongly recommended the planting of bamboos and giant ferns and cogon grass in the river banks and near stiff slopes to prevent erosion and land-slides. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)

Kidapawan water district dispatches teams to monitor Mt. Apo watersheds

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 20124 SCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT EDGEDAVAO

MOST of the ice being lost from Antarctica is go-

ing as a result of warm water eating the fringes of the continent, scien-tists say. The research-ers used a satellite laser to measure the thinning occurring on ice shelves - the floating tongues of ice that jut out from the land.

The team’s analysis found the shelves’ shrink-age could not be attribut-ed simply to warmer air. Rather, it is warm water getting under the floating ice to melt it from below.

This is leading to a weakening of the shelves, permitting more and more ice to drain from the continent’s interior through tributary gla-ciers. previous studies have already indicated that warmer waters are being driven towards the continent by stron-ger westerly winds in the Southern Ocean.

The researchers say the new understand-ing has major implica-tions for their ability to reliably project future sea-level rises as a result of Antarctic ice loss.

“What we realise now is that we’re looking at a

very sensitive system,” Dr Hamish pritchard, from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), told BBC News.

“previously, you would have thought that we needed a lot of warm-ing in the atmosphere to get a substantial loss of ice from Antarctica - because it’s such a cold place. But what we show is that that’s not neces-sary; you don’t need radi-cal change.

“All you need are quite subtle changes - such as a change in the winds - and that can produce effects at the edges of Antarctica that then lead to a loss of a lot of ice.”

The research is pub-lished in the journal Na-ture but has also been presented here at the European Geosci-ences Union (EGU) meeting in Vienna, Austria.

pritchard’s team used the laser altim-eter on N a s a ’ s I c e s a t space-craf t t o

map the changing thick-ness in 54 ice shelves around Antarctica.

The survey incorpo-rated some 4.5 million data points between 2003 and 2008.

The researchers draw on modelling work and information from a range of other studies to explain the thinning ob-served by Icesat.

Twenty of the shelves were assessed to be be-ing melted from below by warm ocean cur-rents. Most of the 20 are in West Antarctica, and show thinning up to sev-en metres per year.

In every sin-gle case, the

g l a c i e r s o n

land that feed into these shelves have recorded ac-celerated movement over the same period.

This will have drained many billions more tonnes of ice into the ocean, contributing to sea level rise.

The explanation, simply put, is that the shelves no longer have the strength to impede glacier flow in the way they once did.

“When ice shelves completely collapse - and we’ve seen that before - the grounded glaciers be-hind them will speed up; we know that,” explained co-author Helen Amanda Fricker of Scripps Insti-tution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, US.

“But what this study is showing, which is very

new, is that you don’t need

to lose the s h e l f

e n -

tirely for this to happen; just a reduction in the thickness of the ice shelf is enough to allow more of the grounded ice be-hind it to flow off the con-tinent.”

One key tell-tale that warm water is at the root of the thinning is shape of the sea-floor.

Some of the greatest melting has been seen where deep troughs cut across the continental shelf, allowing the wa-ter easier access to the shelves’ undersides.

The picture is not uniform all around Ant-arctica. Indeed, on the peninsula - the long stretch of land pointing towards South Ameri-ca - the shelves show a different set of thinning symptoms, which very probably can be tied to a warming atmosphere.

But again, the origina-tor is probably the same changing wind patterns.

“Strong westerlies g o up over

t h e

chain of the peninsu-la mountains and these winds descend, they warm up, melting the surface of the shelves on the eastern side. So, although we have two different melting mecha-nisms, the ultimate cause is the same - it’s the wind,” said Dr pritchard.

Colleague and co-au-thor prof David Vaughan said the research provid-ed new understanding to help scientists gauge the likely impact of future ice loss on ocean height.

“This is one study within a programme called ice2sea, which is a European Union-funded programme that’s aimed at improving our projec-tions of sea-level rise.

“The idea is that we go and study some of the processes that are caus-ing ice sheets in Green-land and Antarctica to change, and that allows us to improve the models for projection of future sea level rise.”

The ice2sea project will be releasing its pro-jections into the 21st and 22nd centuries later this year. [BBC]

Warm ocean driving Antarctic ice loss

SOUTHEAST Asian na-tions target integrat-ing, refocusing and

updating research and development (R&D) direc-tion for collectively boost-ing efforts to save this region’s mangrove areas from further destruction and decline.

Such planned direc-tion includes establishing a common ASEAN data-base and mangrove infor-mation center as well as undertaking cooperation projects on mangrove R&D.

Marcial Amaro Jr., di-rector of the Ecosystems Research and Develop-ment Bureau (ERDB), raised urgency for such collective action, noting studies show aquaculture and other economic ac-tivities, population pres-sure and natural disasters amidst climate change are reducing Southeast Asia’s mangrove areas.

“Mangroves constitute an important segment of our environment -more technology is needed to enjoy benefits from these,” he said Tuesday at the First ASEAN Congress on Mangrove R&D that ERDB and the philippine Depart-ment of Foreign Affairs spearheaded in Metro Ma-nila.

Experts noted man-groves are a group of salt-tolerant plants that occupy the inter-tidal zone of sheltered coasts around estuaries and la-goons. Aside from serving as nesting and foraging ground for various spe-cies, they said mangrove areas are sources of wood and non-wood products.

They likewise noted that mangroves help ab-sorb climate change-driv-ing carbon emissions and buffer coastal communi-ties against sea surges. Data show Southeast Asia

hosts about a third of glob-al mangrove area totaling some 14 million to 15 mil-lion hectares at present.

Such mangroves are the most diverse in terms of flora and fauna compo-sition with 18 plant spe-cies being endemic to the region.

“The region has the highest rate of mangrove loss,” Southeast Asia Fish-eries Development Cen-ter Scientist Emerita and Zoological Society of Lon-don (ZSL) Chief Mangrove Scientific Advisor Dr. Jur-genne primavera reported during the congress.

She noted the shrimp production frenzy from the 1980s to the mid-2000s accounted for much of such loss. The congress’ overall coordinator Dr. Honorato palis from ERDB pointed out R&D funding constraints likewise affect efforts for saving South-east Asia’s mangroves.

He noted available data show funding alloca-tion in Thailand and the philippines for respective R&D activities in general, including those for man-groves, are way below UN-ESCO’s recommendation of at least one percent of gross national product.

The countries’ alloca-tion are only about 0.26 percent and 0.12 percent, respectively, he reported. “Developed countries’ al-location is higher at about two percent,” he said.

ZSL’s communi-ty-based rehabilitation project in the philippines’ panay and Guimaras is-lands yielded significant lessons for enhancing ef-forts to regenerate man-groves, she reported.

Among such lessons are shifting mangrove planting activities from seafront sites to aban-doned ponds when possi-ble.

ASEAN countries eye enhancing mangrove rehabilitation efforts MELTING of polar

ice sheets has add-ed 11mm to global

sea levels over the past two decades, according to the most definitive assessment so far.

More than 20 polar research teams have com-bined forces to produce estimates of the state of the ice in Greenland and Antarctica in a paper in Sci-ence.

Until now different measurement means have produced a wide range of estimates with large un-certainties.

But sea-level rise is now among the most pressing questions of our time.

polar ice has a tremen-dous capacity to cause massive rises - with huge potential impacts on coast-al cities and communities around the world.

But the remoteness and sheer size of the ice sheets mean accurate measure-ments are a serious chal-lenge even for satellites

which have to distinguish snow from ice, and the rise of the land from the shrink-ing of the ice.

The new estimate shows that polar melting contributed about one-fifth of the overall global sea level rise since 1992; other factors include warming that causes the seawater to expand.

The study does not seek to forecast future change.

Supported by US and European space agencies Nasa and Esa, the research brought together data from satellites measuring the surface altitude, the flow of the glaciers and the gravitational effect of the ice mass to produce the first joint assessment of how the ice sheets are changing.

The results show that the largest ice sheet - that of East Antarctica - has gained mass over the study period of 1992-2011 as increased snow-fall added to its volume.

Sea-level rise from polar ice melt finally quantified

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012 5EDGEDAVAO THE ECONOMY

THE philippines fisheries bureau director yesterday

defended the lifting of the ban on fish aggregat-ing device (FAD) fishing in pocket 1 High Seas in the Western pacific re-gion for Filipino tuna fishing vessels telling delegates to the ongoing 9th Western and Central pacific Fisheries Com-mission (WCpFC) meet-ing that the exemption may have helped eased pressure on the coun-try’s tuna spawning and nursery grounds.

The Fish and Aqua-culture Department of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Orga-nization defines FAD as a “structure or device made from any materi-al and used to lure fish.” It added that generally, “buoys and floats close to the surface comprise the major part of the aggregating system.” In the philippines, FAD is referred to as the payao.

The Sulu Sea and the Sulawesi Sea are said to be the spawning ground of yellowfin tuna and skipjacks.

Both tuna species are highly migratory.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resourc-es director Asis perez,

however, also said the philippines is willing to sit down with everybody to discuss issues related to the opening of pocket 1 to Filipino tuna fishing vessels.

pocket 1 is an area of more than 560,000 square miles of interna-tional waters north of papua New Guinea and east of Indonesia.

Asis said the philip-pines is still consolidat-ing data catches both inside philippine waters and the initial landings of tuna catch from the re-opened high seas pocket exclusively for Filipino tuna fishing vessels.

But the philippine fisheries director said there are marked differ-ences in the sizes of skip-jacks and other tuna-like species caught between two fishing grounds.

He said initial tuna catch from the high seas, after it was reopened recently, are far signifi-cantly longer and larger that those caught inside philippine waters.

Several participat-ing member countries are calling for the total closure of at least four high seas pockets that lie across the migratory path of tuna and other tuna-like species.

Asis also told the WCpFC meeting that the sample size of the re-cent catch landing from the said area is still very small for the philippines to determine its impact to the tuna stock.

He also refuted sug-gestion that more than 400 Filipino fishing ves-sels are now deployed in the area reopened to the philippines.

He said of the 36 fleets allowed to fish in the area, only 11 have so far reached the area with some still working on to comply with the strin-gent requirements of the WCpFC.

Asis said the Filipi-no fishing vessels now in the area could not be more than 50.

He also reported that, so far, only 678

metric tons of tuna catch have been landed in the fishing port of General Santos City, some 920 kilometers south of Ma-nila, after these vessels reached the area on Oc-tober 1.

The WCpFC is still discussing a draft con-servation management measure submitted to the plenary session.

Among these is a

four-month closure on FAD fishing and purse seine operations both in exclusive economic zones and the high seas.

WCpFC is now cur-rently imposing a three-month ban on FAD fishing among its member coun-tries and have closed four pockets of high seas in the Western pacific ocean. [Edwin Espejo / MindaNews contributor]

CLOSED. Several establishments choose not to open due to the strong winds and heavy rain brought by typhoon Pablo’s tail end along Ponciano Reyes Street yesterday. LEAN DAVAL JR.

PH defends tuna fishing ban exemption

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 20126 EDGEDAVAOTHE ECONOMY

MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2009 - December 2011)

Month 2012 2011 2010

Average 43.31 45.11December 43.64 43.95November 43.27 43.49October 43.45 43.44

September 43.02 44.31August 42.42 45.18

July 42.81 46.32June 43.37 46.30May 42.85 43.13 45.60April 42.70 43.24 44.63

March 42.86 43.52 45.74February 42.66 43.70 46.31January 43.62 44.17 46.03

Stat Watch5.8%

1st Qtr 2012

6.4 %1st Qtr 2012

USD 4,931million

May 2012USD 4,770

millionApr 2012USD -135

millionApr 2012USD -209

millionMar 2012

P 4,580,674 million

Apr 2012

4.1 %May 2012P131,403

millionMay 2012

P 5,075 billion

Apr 2012

P 42.78Jun 2012

5,091.2May 2012

130.1 Jun 2012

2.8 Jun 2012

3.7 Jun 2012

349,779Apr 2012

18.8 %Jan 2012

7.2 %Jan 2012

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

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

3. Exports 1/

4. Imports 1/

5. Trade Balance

6. Balance of Payments 2/

7. Broad Money Liabilities

8. Interest Rates 4/

9. National Government Revenues

10. National government outstanding debt

11. Peso per US $ 5/

12. Stocks Composite Index 6/

13. Consumer Price Index 2006=100

14. Headline Inflation Rate 2006=100

15. Core Inflation Rate 2006=100

16. Visitor Arrivals

17. Underemployment Rate 7/

18. Unemployment Rate 7/

Cebu Pacific Daily 5J961 / 5J962 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:15Zest Air Daily Z2390 / Z2390 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:25Cebu Pacific Daily 5J593 / 5J348 6:00 Cebu-Davao-Iloilo 6:30Philippine Airlines Daily PR809 / PR810 6:10 Manila-Davao-Manila 7:00Philippine Airlines Daily PR819 / PR820 7:50 Manila-Davao-Manila 8:50Cebu Pacific Daily 5J394 / 5J393 7:50 Zamboanga-Davao-Zamboanga 8:10Cebu Pacific Daily 5J599 / 5J594 8:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 8:30Cebu Pacific Daily 5J347 / 5J596 9:10 Iloilo-Davao-Cebu 9:40Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun 5J963 / 5J964 9:40 Manila-Davao-Manila 10:10Philippine Airlines Daily PR811 / PR812 11:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 12:20Cebu Pacific Daily 5J595 / 5J966 12:00 Cebu-Davao-Manila 12:30Silk Air Mon/Sat MI588 12:55 Davao-Cebu-Singapore 09:05Cebu Pacific Thu 5J965 / 5J968 12:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 13:25Cebu Pacific Tue/Wed//Sat 5J965 / 5J968 13:35 Manila-Davao-Manila 14:05

Silk Air Mon/Sat MI588 / MI588 18:55 Davao-Singapore 13:35 Silk Air Wed/Sun MI566 / MI566 18:55 Davao-Singapore 15:20Silk Air Thurs MI551 / MI551 15:45 Davao-Singapore 12:05Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri 5J507 / 5J598 15:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 15:30Philippine Airlines August 15:55 Mani2Mani 16:50Zest Air Daily Z2524 / Z2525 16:05 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 16:45Cebu Pacific Daily 5J967 / 5J600 16:35 Manila-Davao-Cebu 17:05Philippines Airlines Daily PR813 / PR814 16:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 17:45Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Thu/Sat 5J215 / 5J216 18:00 Cagayan de Oro-Davao-Cagayan de Oro 18:20Cebu Pacific Daily 5971 / 5J970 18:40 Manila-Davao-Manila 19:10Cebu Pacific Tue/Sat/Sun 5J973 / 5J974 20:00 Manila-Davao-Manila 20:30Cebu Pacific Daily 5J969 / 5J972 20:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:00Airphil Express Daily 2P987 / 2P988 20:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:00Philippine Airlines Daily except Sunday PR821 / PR822 21:20 Manila-Davao-Manila 21:50Philippine Airlines Sunday PR821 / PR822 22:20 Manila-Davao-Manila 22:50

as of august 2010

EFFORTS to promote the agribusiness potential of Region 12 or Soccsksar-

gen Region would suffer a blow now that the area has been in-cluded in storm warning sig-nals, a business executive said on Tuesday.

“Unlike before, we could now no longer boast that our region is typhoon-free to at-tract investors in agribusiness,” said Ricardo Juliano, vice presi-dent for Mindanao of the phil-ippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Juliano said that corporate farmers would have to factor in their decision the reality that the region is no longer ty-phoon-free.

Rice farming would like-ly be affected although there are agribusiness ventures that could withstand onslaught of typhoons like oil palm and pineapple, he said.

Juliano also said that plane flights in Cotabato City have been suspended Tuesday be-cause of the bad weather but planes were still flying out from General Santos City.

Typhoon “pablo” (inter-national name Bopha”) made landfall over Baganga, Davao Oriental at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday, with the philippine Atmospher-ic Geophysical and Astronom-ical Services Administration (pAGASA) hoisting public storm signals in 24 of Mindanao’s 26 provinces.

For Region 12, public storm signal number 3 was declared in North Cotabato, number two for Sultan Kudarat and number 1 for South Cotabato and Saran-

gani, pAGASA said in its Severe Weather Bulletin Number Sev-en issued 5 a.m. today.

In Kidapawan City, the re-gional seat of government, the weather was characterized by weak continuous rainfall since 5:30 a.m., with wind velocity remaining normal as of 10:55 a.m.

“This is the first time that a public storm signal has been hoisted in our area,” North Co-tabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza said in a radio interview.

She said that classes were suspended in all school levels in North Cotabato because of

pablo and that the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Man-agement Councils (MDRRMC) have been closely monitoring the situation.

Soldiers and policemen have been deployed to river-banks to watch the water level, Mendoza said, adding they ex-pect the volume of water to rise in the province since it is the outlet of waters from Bukidnon and Agusan provinces.

In South Cotabato, Gov. Ar-thur Y. pingoy said that disaster risk officials are also on alert for possible flashfloods and landslides.

He said that classes have not been suspended although he is closely coordinating with the Department of Education.

Hilario de pedro III, South Cotabato provincial adminis-trator, said the Department of the Interior and Local Govern-ment has been issuing warning messages that they relayed to the MDRRMCs.

“We are on standby for any incident report and are ready for quick response actions,” said de pedro, also the provin-cial disaster risk reduction of-ficer. [Bong S. Sarmiento / Min-daNews]

Typhoon storm signals to affect Region 12’s business promotion

GIRLS AND STRONG WINDS. Dabawenyas brave the strong winds and heavy rain spawned by typhoon Pablo along City Hall Drive yesterday. After being considered as perennially typhoon-free, Davao City must prepare for

typhoons to come after Pablo was felt and left minimal damages in the city. LEAN DAVAL JR.

AN owner of a Spanish dairy company has ex-pressed his confidence on

the philippine economy, as he ventured on forging an agree-ment with one of the country’s beverage giant to market his product locally.

“This is a good place to start. The philippine market presents so many exciting new opportu-nities for us,” enthused Tomas pascual, president of Grupo Leche pascual (GpL), during the launching of the Asia Brewery Inc. (ABI) pascual Foods, at the ballroom of New World Hotel Monday night.

“We are ready to invest. (We are lucky) to find a partner who knows the market very well,” pascual said, as he commended ABI chief operating officer Mi-

chael Tan.Tan, for his part, said “we

have the same passion for con-sumers and the same desire to succeed. Now, delving into a yogurt market, we are re-ener-gized and true to our mission of delivering great quality prod-ucts available to Filipinos.”

The newly formed company, ABI pascual Foods, will market GpL’s major dairy product, the Creamy Delight, a yogurt which they believe will revolutionize Filipinos yogurt experience.

Grupo Leche pascual has been producing milk and milk products for the last 40 years and it has a network of 600 dis-tributors in Latin America.

Lucio Tan-owned ABI, for its part, is the most modern large scale fully integrated brewery

in Southeast Asia. It has inter-national tie-up with world re-nowned brewing company to develop the premium sector of the market and the licensee manufacturer of international brand beers such as Carlsberg, Budweiser Colt 45 and Labatt.

“Our heritage is making prod-ucts that are healthy and satisfy the needs of our consumers worldwide,” pascual said, adding that “we take great pride and in-vest heavily in the highest quality standards that we implement on a daily basis.”

Tan said the product will be sold at a price 40 to 50 percent lower than the price of the same product being sold at the market now (which ranges from p30 to p105).

“This is something unique we

intend to bring the product down to the general trade,” Tan added.

Creamy Delight will be ini-tially marketed in the philippines and with import volume of one million boxes a year, Tan and pascual said they intend to make Manila as the business center as they expand their market in the Southeast Asian region in the near future.

They also added that once the product has created its own local market niche, they would consider producing the product locally.

“In two or three year’s time, we might consider setting up a factory in Cabuyao,” Tan said, as he explained that they will fill the gap on consumers’ con-sumption of yogurt in the coun-try. [pNA]

Spanish firm bullish at PHL’s economy

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012 7EDGEDAVAO ICT HUB

A Facebook page set up to monitor pae-dophiles has been

removed after a judge in Northern Ireland ruled that it risked infringing the human rights of a convict-ed sex offender.

The man, who cannot be identified, started le-gal proceedings against the social networking site after discovering his pho-tograph and threatening comments had been post-ed on the page.

High Court judge Ber-nard McCloskey ruled some content on the page amounted to prima facie

harassment of the man, known only as XY.

The man had previ-ously been given a six-year jail sentence for a string of child sex offences com-mitted more than 20 years ago.

Judge McCloskey said: “Society has dealt with the plaintiff in accordance with the rule of law.

“He has been punished by incarceration and he is subject to substantial dai-ly restrictions on his life-style.”

The judge in his ruling gave Facebook 72 hours to take the original page

down.A spokeswoman for

Facebook said: “We are considering our next steps in light of the court judg-ment and we have nothing further to add at this stage.”

The page, called ‘Keep-ing our kids safe from predators’, was no lon-ger visible at 20:00GMT but a new page entitled ‘Keeping our kids safe from predators 2’ had ap-peared, gaining over 2,400 likes in just a few hours.

It is not clear wheth-er the creator of the new page is the same as the user that set up the origi-

nal one.However, the new

page’s administrator wrote in a posting at 15:30GMT: “Thats (sic) the first page gone :( sad day.”

More than 5,000 peo-ple had liked the original page before its removal.

Some of the latest posts were written after the judge made his ruling.

Facebook is under-stood to have removed the man’s photo and com-ments made about him but his legal team insisted that the page should be shut down. [AFp]

Facebook ordered to remove pedophile monitoring page

A Facebook page set up to monitor paedo-philes has been removed after a judge in Northern Ireland ruled Friday that it risked infringing the human rights of a convicted sex offender. [AFP]

INTERNET freedom will not be curbed or con-trolled, the head of the

UN telecommunications body, Hamadoun Toure, said as a meeting to re-view the 24-year-old tele-com regulations kicked off Monday.

Such claims are “com-pletely (unfounded),” Toure, secretary general of the International Telecom-munication Union, told AFp.

“I find it a very cheap way of attacking” the con-ference, he said, as the World Conference on In-ternational Telecommuni-cations (WCIT-12) set off in Dubai to review regula-tions reached in 1988.

Earlier, Toure told par-ticipants at the conference that the Internet freedom of expression will not be touched during the discus-sions at the meeting.

“Nothing can stop the freedom of expression in the world today, and noth-ing in this conference will be about it,” he said.

“I have not mentioned anything about controlling the Internet.”

UN Secretary Gen-eral Ban Ki-Moon who addressed the forum’s opening by video under-scored the importance of the meeting as a venue to enhance access to informa-tion and communication technology (ICT) across the globe.

“The overall objective is to ensure universal access to the benefits of informa-tion and communication technology, including the two thirds of the world’s

population currently not online,” he said.

“We must continue to work together and find a consensus on how to most effectively keep cyberspace open, accessible, afford-able and secure,” he said.

Google has been vo-cal in warning of serious repercussions on the In-ternet if proposals made by member states are approved at the WCIT-12 meeting, including permit-ting censorship over legiti-mate content.

“Some proposals could permit governments to censor legitimate speech -- or even cut off Internet access,” said Bill Echikson, Google’s head of Free Ex-pression in Europe, Middle East and Africa in a state-ment on Friday.

The Internet giant is also arguing that the ITU, which is the UN agency for information communica-tion technologies, is not the right body to address Internet issues.

“Although the ITU has helped the world manage radio spectrum and tele-phone networks, it is the wrong place to make de-cisions about the future of the Internet,” Echikson said.

“Only governments have a vote at the ITU,” he pointed out.

But Toure, whose Ge-neva-based organisation has 193 member states and over 700 private-sec-tor entities and academ-ic institutions, said that “consensus” is the way to make decisions at the agency.

Internet freedom not to be curbed: UN telecoms head

TWITTER Inc’s steadi-ly tightening grip over the 140-char-

acter messages on its net-work has set off a spirited debate in Silicon Valley over whether a social me-dia company should or should not lay claim over its user-generated content.

That debate has now landed in court.

A San Francisco judge on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining or-der compelling Twitter to continue providing access to its “Firehose” - the full daily stream of some 400 million tweets - to people-Browsr Inc, a data analyt-ics firm that sifts through Twitter and resells that in-formation to clients rang-ing from technology blogs to the U.S. Department of Defense.

As part of a broad-er revenue-generating strategy, Twitter in recent months has begun clamp-

ing down on how its data stream may be accessed, to the dismay of many third-party developers who have built businesses and products off of Twit-ter’s Firehose.

peopleBrowsr, which began contracting Fire-

hose access in July 2010, has continued to buy Twitter data on a month-to-month basis until this July, when Twitter invoked a clause in the agreement that allowed for terminat-ing the contract without cause.

The court’s decision to extend the two San Fran-cisco-based companies’ contract has not settled the legal spat; a judge will hear peopleBrowsr’s ar-guments for a preliminary injunction against Twitter on January 8.

THE secret’s out. pope Benedict’s new han-dle on Twitter will

be @pontifex, beating out other contenders that had been considered to show-case the thoughts of one of the world’s most visible leaders.

Benedict already has 1.2 billion “followers” in the standard sense of the word but next week he will have another type when he enters what for any 85-year old is the brave new world of Twitter.

The Vatican said on Monday that the pope will start tweeting on Decem-ber 12.

“The handle is a good one. It means ‘pope’ and it also means ‘bridge build-er’,” said Greg Burke, se-nior media advisor to the Vatican.

Among the other han-dles that Vatican officials had reportedly considered was @BenedictusppXVI, but they opted for some-thing that was linked to the office of the papacy.

But don’t expect tweets about how the

pope is feeling or which soccer team he is praying to win a derby.

The papal tweets will be spiritual, Burke told a news conference, and the pope will tweet when and how often he wants.

And, even though Ben-edict is not the kind of person who walks around with a Blackberry or ipad, Burke said “all the pope’s tweets are the pope’s words. Nobody is going to be putting words into his mouth.”

The first papal tweets will be answers to ques-tions sent to #askpontifex.

The tweets will be going out in Spanish, En-glish, Italian, portuguese, German, polish, Arabic and French. Other lan-guages will be added in the future.

primarily the tweets will come from the con-tents of his weekly gener-al audience, Sunday bless-ings and homilies on ma-jor Church holidays. They will also include reaction to major world events, such as natural disasters.

A Twitter page shows an entry from European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels March 11, 2011. [REUTERS]

Twitter in legal spat over data clampdown

Vatican unveils Pope’s Twitter handle: @pontifex

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

( Conclusion )

8 EDGEDAVAO

By DaviD axeCOMMENTARY

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EDITORIAL

Christmas and eatingTHE ENDLESS parties have begun. This is

common during the current Christmas sea-son and all Christmases before and in the

future. In this particular Christmas, when there is an appearance of abundance due to a a perceived economic boom, real or imagine, there will be sur-feit of everything, especially wine and spirits and yes, food. Contemporary experience tells us that ingested in excess food can become poison.

It is because of this, that we are taking liberty to reprint a very useful article on the dangers of too much eating from www.worldwidehealth.com.

“The fact is Christmas is filled with food. Throughout time food has brought families and friends together, food is a tradition. Food is glori-ous! Especially Holiday recipes they seem to hold many memories and foster a feeling of together-ness. The problem is we eat too much food during this Christmas season and then enter the New Year feeling bloated and disappointed which leads to making dramatic new years goals that are un-attainable. To avoid this repetitious rollercoaster there are a few Do’s and Don’ts that can help you enjoy what you eat and still remain comfortable without loosening your belt.

“The Do’sEat! Just maintain balance, for instance if you

have a function to attend in the evening and you know there will be lots of foods that you will enjoy eat smaller meals and snacks during the day.

Always keep a glass of water close by. It has been scientifically proven that water fills you up. As you are eating this holiday season develop the habit to always drink water with your food this will fill you up and fuel your body with needed goodness.

Help with preparing and organizing the func-tions. This will keep you busy burning calories with little time to over eat.

Keep an eye on the how much you have eaten. It can be very easy to loose track of how many slices of cake you have consumed. Keeping a little note

book handy is a great way to jot down what you have eaten and makes it easy to prevent over eat-ing. This also puts you in control of what you are eating and that is empowering.

Exercise. If you have over indulged get out and work your body shifting the extra weight before it becomes to overwhelming to shift. Exercising an hour or so before eating will increase your chance of listening to what your body needs without over eating.

Listen to your body. If you feel full stop eating. If you chew gum or clean your teeth after feeling full you will be less likely to continue eating.

Socialize. Focus on chatting rather than eating.“The Don’tsAvoid taking full servings. There probably will

be numerous deserts available and you will proba-bly want a taste of several. By taking several small portions or sharing a portion with someone else will avoid over indulging.

Don’t eat right before bed. It’s best to avoid eat-ing right before bed as your body will burn very few calories while sleeping.

Don’t stay around the food. Take your portion of food and move away from the food, preferably to a place where you can’t stare at the food, thinking whether or not you should have more.

Don’t weigh yourself after you have eaten, it will only depress you and give you a false weight. Wait till the morning or after a bowel movement to weigh yourself.

Don’t snack all day long. Remember the impor-tance of balanced nutritious meals.

Avoid eating mostly one food group. When you are plating up a dinner at a buffet make sure you have a little of each food group.

Don’t just eat because you are offered food. Feel free to decline food, if you are worried about of-fending the host take some food home to eat at your connivance. [http://www.worldwidehealth.com]

VANTAGE POINTS

RUSSIA, China and Japan are also designing stealth warplanes.

Other radical new weapon systems that emerged from the Yom Kippur War include special “reactive” vehicle armor that explodes outward, destroying incoming projectiles. That armor, along with other Israeli-de-signed vehicle protection, is now stan-dard on the most popular American- and Russian-made ground vehicles.

The first combat-grade Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, were also rapidly designed by Israeli munitions manufacturers in order to avoid expos-ing reconnaissance pilots to enemy de-fenses, as happened in ’73.

The 10-foot-long Mastiff drone was unpopular — until thoroughly proven in tests. “Air force and army intelligence adopted it with much enthusiasm,” Eshel recalls. The Americans bought upgraded versions that are still in use today.

In the late ’70s, Abraham Karem, one of Israel’s leading drone inventors, immigrated to California, hoping to tap the much larger U.S. weapons market. Using his home as a workshop, he pro-duced the first prototype of what would become today’s General Atomics preda-tor and Reaper drones, perhaps the ma-jor weapons in America’s global count-er-terrorism campaign.

Inside the DomeSome analysts expect Israel’s Iron

Dome rocket defense to have an equal-ly profound impact on weapons devel-opment. Each Rafael-built Iron Dome system consists of a radar and three reloadable packs of 20 missiles, plus a command trailer. The radar, a sophisti-cated model designed by Elta, detects incoming rockets and other low-alti-tude projectiles and cues a maneuver-able missile to intercept.

Iron Dome was developed by Israel, with some U.S. funding, after the 2006 Israeli incursion into southern Leba-non. “Israel was defenseless against massive Hezbollah rocket fire,” Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, wrote in the newsletter, Israel Hayom. “A year later, Hamas rocket-fire on southern Israeli communities inten-sified and the need arose to develop a system to defend against short-range missiles.”

Eight Iron Dome systems have now been funded. Two were deployed in 2011. An Israeli official told Eshel that Hamas fired approximately 1,500 rock-ets during the recent fighting, of which 146 misfired or fell inside Gaza and 875 exploded in unoccupied areas. Iron Dome intercepted 421. Just 58 rockets penetrated the defenses and fell in pop-ulated areas.

Six Israelis died and hundreds were injured, according to the Israeli Minis-try of Foreign Affairs.

U.S. analysts have been watching and listening. Since the beginning of the Iraq War the pentagon has looked for ways to defend against intensive rocket strikes. As a stopgap, the military mod-ified fast-firing naval guns for ground use. In the United States, however, pur-pose-designed defenses like Iron Dome have failed to get past the prototype stage.

“people have been pointing to Iron Dome,” said David Wright, a missile-de-fense expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, “and saying it seems to show that kind of stuff can work.”

But many are concerned about the high cost.

Cornell’s Lewis estimates Hamas’ rockets cost at most $50,000 apiece. Each Iron Dome missile costs up to $90,000, according to a March report from the Congressional Research Ser-vice. “We assumed the missile approach to be too expensive,” said Lewis of Cor-nell University. “It’s astonishing that the Israelis are doing this with missiles.”

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

pRESIDENT Barack Obama recent-ly said Congress should “seize the moment” and summon a majority

to push immigration reform. There is only one problem – Congress already did that.

Majorities in the House and Senate backed the DREAM Act, a bill creating a path to citizenship for young illegal im-migrants brought to the United States as children, during Obama’s first term. The bill died, however, when a minority of Republicans filibustered it. So even if a new immigration majority material-izes next year, Republicans can just fili-buster again. Unless Erika Andiola gets her way.

The U.S. District Court for the Dis-trict of Columbia is due to hear argu-ments Dec. 10 in Andiola’s case – an ambitious and erudite lawsuit from Common Cause – which argues that a small band of senators have turned the filibuster into an unconstitutional as-sault on our democratic government.

Andiola is not a U.S. citizen, so you might wonder how she ended up in the middle of this debate. She moved with her parents from Mexico to Arizona at age 11. She was a quick learner, master-ing English, graduating in the top five of her class and earning an academic scholarship to Arizona State University.

Andiola was stripped of the schol-arship, however, after Arizona passed a law barring undocumented students from receiving educational benefits. Now she is one of the lead plaintiffs in Common Cause v. Biden, the legal element of an escalating campaign to combat filibuster abuse in the Senate.

Andiola’s lawyers have a novel argu-ment: She can sue the Senate because the filibuster thwarted legislation that would have protected her education.

Back on Capitol Hill, Democrats are also considering reforming the filibus-ter in January, once the new Senate is sworn in. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says the Senate can alter its rules with a bare majority on the first day of the session. (It would require a supermajority during the rest of the year.)

Other senators – mostly Republi-cans, but also some Democrats – say that no matter what day it is, the rules should be changed only with a super-majority. If Reid presses on, there will be a lot more debate about that arcane parliamentary question. The answer could determine the fate of Obama’s legislative agenda. And it’s a central is-sue in the filibuster lawsuit.

In the briefs for the case, Common Cause documents a radical shift famil-iar to C-SpAN junkies across the na-tion: The filibuster went from a rare procedure in the Senate to standard operating procedure. The Senate used to average about two filibusters per year, notes the brief, but that number skyrocketed to 137 for Obama’s first year in office.

Even if you are not a parliamentary junkie and expert on cloture, you have probably still heard the media echo of this trend. Any time a reporter says you “need 60 votes” to pass a bill in the Senate, he is referring to Republi-can filibuster threats which require 60 votes to overcome.

Over the past 20 years, and partic-ularly the last four, something radical happened in our democracy. The fili-buster has gradually transformed the legislative branch of government from a majoritarian democracy into a body frozen by a “minoritarian” veto.

A Syrian woman Hakima al- Qasi-mi in her fifties was seen setting up a tiny bonfire Sunday in the

winter coldness at the refugee camp of Domez, in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan autonomous region.

Qasimi was hardly the only one bat-tling the freeze among the thousands of Syrian people at Camp Domez, some 20 km south of the city of Dohuk, capi-tal of the Dohuk province.

The number of Syrian refugees, many of them Kurdish people seek-ing to flee their country’s ongoing vi-olence, has increased to more than 40,000 at the camps of the Kurdistan region, according to statistics released by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The number of families resorted to Domez has reached to 5,593, Niyazi Nuri, the head of the camp, told Xin-hua.

“The camp is still receiving hun-dreds of refugees every day and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is providing all the humanitarian needs of the camp in cooperation with

the international organizations,” Nuri said.

Subhi Ahmed, an UNHCR official at the camp, told Xinhua that his agen-cy is providing the camp with winter clothes and is preparing new shelters for the new families that are joining the camp every day.

“We will set up 1,000 tents in the coming days and the KRG is providing the logistic support by supplying the camp with pipes of potable water,” Ahmed said.

“The education directorate of Do-huk province opened a school at the camp and has received more than 1,646 male and female students after employing some 50 Syrian teachers,” Abdullah Mohammed Saeed, head-master of the school, told Xinhua.

The students are studying in Kurd-ish language, Saeed said, adding that some 500 more students are prepar-

ing to join his school in the coming few days.

Abdul Kareem Osman, 64, arrived at the camp two days ago after he fled his home in Damascus amid the fierce battles that engulfed his city over the past days.

“There is no safe place in Syria. There is no electricity, no other pub-lic services and no work to live on,” Osman told Xinhua, adding “Our food ran out and we had no chance to stay alive.”

Qasimi, the female refugee, said that she left the Syrian city of Abu Ka-mal near the Iraqi border four days ago and came to Camp Domez after she failed to cross to Iraqi border through the al- Qaim border point which was closed.

“My son is in the Syrian govern-ment army and I haven’t seen him for more than a year because of the vio-lence,” she said, while avoiding the camera which possibly would identify her and result in danger for her be-loved son. [pNA/Xinhua]

( 1st of two parts )

By Jamal HaSHim, ZHang ningSPECIAl FEATURE

By ari melBerANAlYSIS

Fighting the filibuster

VANTAGE POINTSEDGEDAVAO 9

ENGENDERING SOCIAL AND ECO-NOMIC TRUST – The beatings of electoral drums are getting near-

er and louder – barely five months from now to be precise. On the part of candi-dates who are seeking reelection nota-bly lawmakers, lofty campaign promis-es must be kept aside because there is no shortage of crucial issues to be ex-amined. Aspiring candidates both in the national and local levels should always remember in the event some would successfully make it to the legislative chambers, they have one duty that precedes all others: to keep the coun-try stable, progressive and prosperous. That would mean bearing in mind to have more practical policy-making and less political point-scoring.

Successful candidates will need to directly involve themselves in the af-fairs of government especially in so-cio-economic management. If their aim was to demonstrate to the electorate the kind of public service the Filipi-nos would like to see, then they should not prematurely announce ambitious and make-believe initiatives, mostly schemes that reflect the desires of their constituencies. And for the next five months candidates of the contending parties will be flexing their political muscles, but their every moves and ac-tions will be closely watched and moni-tored by the wary electorate.

probably at this stage, candidates specifically those vying national posi-tions have already in mind what they envision for the masses. However, early signs suggest that the cautious voters may instead seek drastic and

contentious polit-ical changes – just when candidates are nervously awaiting either the most momentous or trivial segment of their political careers. They are fully aware that the voters want members of Congress and local officials who are courageous, credible, sincere, upright, and with powerful working ethic. Unfortunately, noted political experts and keen ob-servers noticed there’s a mixed-up list of candidates of the contending parties who are seeking Senate seats composed mainly of neophytes, reelectionists, “fa-vorite pets, has-been and have-nots.”

With the unconvincing composi-tion, the electorate should have to change their ways in voting if they want to elect rightful and desirable officials. The emphasis should now be the people themselves. Installing into office straightforward and trustworthy political leaders determines many things. There is no way we can become a strong and respected nation if we elect old and familiar faces but unde-sirable, heedless and devious Congress and local bets. This must be one of the voters’ priorities. We cannot solve the country’s socio-economic problems until we have elected the right people to remarkably mold well-meaning and pro-masses legislative measures and would keep intense watch over the so-cio-economic programs of the govern-ment.

The people’s main challenge during the May 2013 midterm elections actu-ally is how to choose rightful leaders who would help get back the country’s economic dynamism derailed because of the previous economic debacle. Furthermore, the people need leaders who could help mitigate the causes of social unrest we are seeing right now such as massive unemployment, food shortage, lack of shelter and proper education, medical care and violence. We are not going to elect incompetent and inept people to vital positions, which will only weaken the institu-tions they want to represent. In such a situation, it would be appropriate to have officials who would assert the prerogatives of the government in re-lation to the social and economic as-pects and to make sure that there is ef-fective political intervention on behalf of the underclass.

public dissatisfaction has risen with the perception that many of the candidates from the national down to the local levels who are seeking re-election have been unable to tackle, in particular, their sworn task. On a final thought, it would be so degrading to see these people strutting again in the halls of power like political demigods. It is very critical at this time with the midterm polls scheduled for next year because the burden is absolutely en-trusted to the electorate on how they would build what political analysts and legal luminaries call - social and economic trust. What to do? We ought to choose officials who can engender that kind of political conviction.

Less political point-scoring

Syrian refugees battling winter freeze

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 201210 EDGEDAVAONATION/WORlDNATION BRIEFS

Truce

In the spirit of the hol-idays, Armed Forces chief Gen. Jessie Dello-

sa will recommend a hol-iday truce with the New people’s Army (NpA) that will last almost 20 days, similar to last year’s.

“We will recommend to have a suspension of offensive military opera-tion (SOMO)…so that all can enjoy the Christmas season, so that soldiers and even (the rebels) in the mountains will at least be able to enjoy Christmas,” Dellosa said.

Purged

Some 280,000 ille-gitimate registrants have been removed

from the voters’ list in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Commission on Elections (Comelec) re-cords show.

According to the Election and Barangays Affairs Department, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) has detected 250,773 multiple regis-trants while the biomet-rics system has spotted 29,394 underage regis-trants. Biometrics refers to the picture, fingerprint and electronic signature recorded by a computer during the voters’ regis-tration period.

Confident

Malacañang is con-fident the Bang-samoro Frame-

work Agreement signed by the government and the Moro Islamic Liber-ation Front (MILF) will not suffer the fate of the Memorandum on Agree-ment on Ancestral Do-main (MOA-AD), which was declared unconsti-tutional by the Supreme Court in 2008.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, deputy pres-idential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Framework Agreement was crafted by govern-ment and MILF negotia-tors “with the Supreme Court decision on the MOA-AD in mind.”

Declined

The number of Fil-ipinos who are optimistic that

their quality of life will improve in the next 12 months declined in the third quarter, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

The survey found that 34 percent (optimists) expect that their quality of life will improve in the next 12 months, while 7 percent (pessimists) ex-pects it to become worse.

Cancelled

philippine Airlines and Air philippines Express have an-

nounced that they can-celed several Tuesday flights due to Typhoon pablo. pAL said in a Mon-day night news release that they canceled two domestic flights to Davao from Manila.

The airline also said that it is upgrading the aircraft of two subse-quent flights to Davao to accommodate pas-sengers of the canceled flights.

WORLD TODAYFirst child

Catherine, the wife of Britian’s prince Wil-liam, spent the night

in hospital where she is be-ing treated for acute morn-ing sickness following the announcement that the couple are expecting their first child.

The family revealed the news earlier Monday, ending fevered speculation about a baby destined to become Britain’s monarch whether it is a boy or a girl.

Rocket launch

North Korea said it would carry out its second rock-

et launch of 2012 as its youthful leader Kim Jong-un flexes his muscles a year after his father’s death, in a move that South Korea and the United States swiftly condemned as a provoca-tion.

North Korea’s state news agency announced the decision to launch an-other space satellite on Saturday, just a day after Kim met a senior delega-tion from China’s Commu-nist party in the North Ko-rean capital of pyongyang.

Drone

Iran captured a U.S. intel-ligence-gathering drone that entered its airspace

over the Gulf, its armed forces said on Tuesday, the latest in a recent succes-sion of alleged U.S. viola-tions of Iranian territory.

The incident highlight-ed tensions in the Gulf as both the Islamic Republic and the United States seek to demonstrate their mil-itary capability over the waterway amid a standoff over Iran’s nuclear pro-gramme.

Party mates

Germany’s Ange-la Merkel will rally the rank-and-file of

her conservative party at its annual congress Tues-day, eyeing a third term as chancellor of Europe’s top economy in elections next year.

Buoyed from her posi-tion as the country’s most popular politician, Merkel, 58, takes the podium at her ruling Christian Democrat-ic Union’s (CDU) two-day conference in the northern city of Hanover.

Warned

president Barack Obama dramatically told Syria’s president

Bashar al-Assad not to turn chemical weapons on his own people, following US warnings his forces were mixing deadly sarin gas.

Obama publicly told the increasingly isolated Assad not to unleash the “worst weapons of the 20th century” in the 21st, capping a day of alarming American warnings on the Syrian regime’s intentions.

NATION/WORlD

THE economy notched another vote of confidence

as the philippines land-ed in an international news website’s list of 40 best-performing stock markets this year.

CNN Money ranked the philippines as the 9th bourse with the strongest performance so far in 2012, noting a 26-percent gain as of Nov. 14.

The list, which is also tagged as the “best in-vestments in the world,” includes stock markets which posted “healthy gains” despite “a volatile year and a slowing glob-

al economy,” CNN Money said.

The recent thumbs-up for the philippine econo-my comes as local stocks soared to new all-time highs 32 times so far this year.

The latest record was hit Thursday when the pSEi rose by 0.12 percent or 6.73 points, closing at 5,640.45.

“A number of stock markets around the world have delivered solid per-formances this year, but if you look at the standouts, there’s a common thread: they’re all small emerg-ing markets,” CNN Money

said.The best-performing

markets are those are insulated from external events and have enjoyed stable local and political environments, it added, quoting a fund analyst.

Venezuela sat on top of the list of 40 markets, hav-ing posted a year-to-date gain of 219 percent so far this year.

It was followed by Egypt (55 percent), Tur-key (43 percent), pakistan (33 percent) and Nigeria (31 percent).

At the bottom of the list, meanwhile, are Taiwan and the United

States,which both post-ed 6-percent gains; and Czech Republic, Iceland, Luxembourg at 4 percent.

“While most of the top-performing markets are still small when it comes to liquidity and volume, they’re starting to gain positive attention from investors, fund man-agers and rating agencies,” CNN Money said further.

In the case of the philippines, the three major credit rating agen-cies--Standard & poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch--now placed it only a notch below investment grade. [Yahoo]

A worker counts one thousand pesos bills inside a money changer in Manila November 28, 2012. The Philippine peso hovered around its strongest level in more than 4-1/2 years on Wednesday after stronger growth data, while most other emerging Asian currencies slid on worries about the looming U.S. fiscal crisis and doubt on the Greece debt deal. [REUTERS]

Soaring stock market earns thumbs-up for Philippines

VIETNAM is setting up patrols to protect its fisheries in the South

China Sea after a state company accused Chinese boats of sabotage and In-dia declared itself ready to deploy naval vessels to safeguard its interests in the disputed waters.

Vietnam’s civilian-led

patrols, backed by marine police and a border force, will be deployed from Jan-uary 25 to stop foreign vessels that violate fish-ing laws within Vietnam’s waters, Vietnam’s govern-ment and state media said.

The patrols illustrate mounting tension in the South China Sea where

claims by an increasing-ly powerful China have set it directly against U.S. allies Vietnam and the philippines, while Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia also claim parts of the miner-al-rich waters.

A decree forming the Vietnamese patrols was signed on November 29,

the day Chinese media announced new rules authorising police in the southern Chinese province of Hainan to board and seize foreign ships in the South China Sea.

“It’s going to lead to friction,” Carl Thayer, a Southeast Asia security expert at the University of New South Wales in Aus-tralia, said of China’s new rules that take effect from January 1 on boarding ships which “illegally en-ter” waters it claims.

“If it begins to assert these rights and isn’t challenged over time it becomes customary, it be-comes practice.”

Vietnam’s announce-ment on the patrols, pub-lished in Tuesday’s Dan Viet newspaper, comes a day after its state oil and gas company, petroviet-nam, accused Chinese boats of sabotaging an ex-ploration operation by cut-ting a seismic cable being towed behind a Vietnam-ese boat.

Naval warships form a line during an exercise in the waters of Bay of Bengal in Chennai January 24, 2010. [REUTERS]

Vietnam steps up sea patrols as tensions with China climb

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012 11EDGEDAVAO

FFROM 1

FFROM 1

FFROM 3

FFROM 2

FFROM 2

Pablo...

Bangsamoro...

DOH...

Sereno...

Karapatan...lines.

In Davao Oriental, plan-ning and development of-ficer Freddie Bendulo said six people were killed, in-cluding an elderly woman in Manay town who was crushed to death when a tree fell on her house, add-ing that they are still identi-fying the other five and find out how they had died.

Bendulo said four fish-ermen were also reported missing off the province’s east coast.

In Compostela Valley, Governor Arthur Uy said at least six residents were feared dead after an Army truck evacuating them to safer ground was swept away by floodwaters.

Uy cited initial reports reaching him indicating that the incident occurred in Barangay Andap in New Bataan town. “As of 4 p.m. hindi mapasukan ang New Bataan dahil mataas

masyado ang tubig,” he said in an interview on dzBB ra-dio. He feared there may be more who were swept away by flood.

Uy said New Bataan was one of the worst-hit areas in the province. Cit-ing initial reports, Uy said the Army truck was about to make a turn when it got swept away. “Nang lumiko sila biglang bumuhos ang baha,” he said. When asked if there could be more ca-sualties, he said it was pos-sible.

Reports reaching the regional office of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) 11 said that 20 soldiers were reported missing or feared dead in barangay Andap, New Bataan, Compostela Valley.

OCD 11 regional direc-tor Lisa Mazo said they are still verifying reports that the soldiers’ outpost was buried by a landslide.

But National Disas-ter Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) head Benito Ramos said the only con-firmed death involving a soldier was the one who drowned while helping evacuate residents affect-ed by floods in Compostela Valley.

Ramos said the re-ported missing soldiers belonged to Charlie Com-pany of the 66th Infantry Batallion, 10th Infantry Division of the philippine Army.

“We are trying to es-tablish contact with them as the area is totally isolat-ed. Roads are not passable and no communication available,” he said.

The typhoon disrupt-ed communication with damaged cell sites while roads were made impass-able by fallen trees and landslides.

C. Gascon, of the Office of political Affairs of the Office of the president, during a three-hour spe-cial dialog Monday with members of the Regional peace and Order Council in Southern Mindanao (RpOC 11) headed by Davao del Norte Gov. Ro-dolfo del Rosario.

Also in attendance were Gov. Corazon N. Malanyaon (Davao Ori-ental), Gov. Arthur T. Uy (Compostela Valley), Mayor Michelle N. Rabat (Mati City), regional di-rectors and commanders of the philippine Army units and philippine Na-tional police in the re-gion.

Gascon, who was the youngest member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission and served in Congress as partylist representative, inter-acted with RpOC mem-bers, particularly on the views and comments of six local government units (LGUs)—Davao City, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Com-postela Valley, Davao del Sur and panabo City -- on the FAB document.

Gascon said he had read the seven-and-a-half page document and found it “encouraging” and “very positive.”

The views and com-ments from Davao City occupied more than half of the 7.5 pages.

Using the power point presentation of prof. Maria Coronel

Ferrer, senior member of the philippine peace panel, Dept. of political Science, Up entitled

“The political Settle-ment with Bangsamoro,” Gascon told members of the RpOC and ranking officers of the Armed Forces of the philip-pines and the philippine National police that the Bangsamoro land con-templated in the FAB is “not the final peace agreement” and “defi-nitely not the controver-sial MOA AD.”

He said, however, that it is a roadmap to the achievement of final peace in Mindanao.

He said the situation today is that both sides of the Mindanao con-flict are no longer “face to face” negotiating, but rather “side by side working on the agree-ment.”

He said both sides “see the need to closely work together.”

He said the panels are now hammering out agreements as followup documents to the FAB. The panels are negoti-ating on power sharing, wealth sharing and nor-malization.

Discussion on power sharing, he said, is fo-cused on the reserved, concurrent and exclu-sive lists of powers and competencies, intergov-ernmental relations and territorial scope and jurisdiction. This part is “95 percent completed,”

said Gascon, who did not elaborate.

On the other hand, talks on wealth shar-ing between the panels involve taxation, block grants and subsidies, revenue share from nat-ural resources and other sharing modalities, he said.

Also being negoti-ated is the normaliza-tion portion of the final agreement. Gascon said this involves security, which deals on the de-commissioning of com-batants, disposition of weapons and policing the ranks of the forces on both sides, socio-eco-nomic matters and, fi-nally, justice and recon-ciliation.

He said the Bangsam-oro is intended to have a parliamentary form of government, rather than the executive-legis-lative form like what the country has now. It will be headed by a “chief minister” (not a “prime minister”).

The Bangsamoro will elect members of its as-sembly, who will in turn elect the chief minister.

The Bangsamoro will be given due respect for its religious and cultural identity.

The Bangsamoro and the national government will have an asymmetric relationship instead of a co-equal relationship, where the national gov-ernment is higher than the Bangsamoro.

and firecracker victims in strategic public places.

She said they tapped the Department of Educa-tion to help enhance the campaign by educating schoolchildren and stu-dents regarding the per-ils of using fireworks and firecrackers.

The agency has also linked up with the De-partment of Trade and Industry, philippine Na-tional police (pNp) and the Bureau of Fire pro-tection (BFp) to ensure proper implementation of

government regulations regarding the selling and distribution of fireworks and firecrackers, she said.

Ventura said the BFp was specifically tasked to conduct fire safety orien-tations to fireworks and firecracker vendors and establish display areas for them.

She said the pNp will be responsible for the monitoring and enforce-ment aspect, specifically the confiscation of illegal or banned items.

Based on the govern-

ment’s regulations, the selling and distribution of firecrackers and fire-works containing gun-powder measuring to more than a third of a teaspoon are strictly pro-hibited.

Among the firecrack-ers that had failed such standard but have re-mained available in the markets are pla-pla, bin laden, big triangulo, super lolo, goodbye philippines, goodbye world and pic-colo. [Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews]

of RCAO in Region 7 in Cebu City.

They also denied that they allowed Sere-no to appoint Judge Ger-aldine Faith A. Econg to be the Officer-in-Charge of RCAO Region 7.

Associate Justice De Castro wrote a letter

to the SC en banc ques-tioning the resolution issued by Sereno with-out authority from the en banc.

During Tuesday’s en banc session presided by Carpio, the issue as to the RCAO was still pursued.

The SC en banc has decided to put on hold the assumption of Econg as RCAO head.

It has designated As-sociate Justice presbite-ro J. Velasco, Jr. to talk to Econg not to perform her duties and assume her post. [pNA]

streamers but are pro-hibited from bringing firearms and other dead-ly weapons which is not allowed by law.

“They are free to ex-

press themselves. We will allow them to do so,” he said.

In this year’s celebra-tion, it was also the first time that Task Force Davao,

10th Infantry Division and Amnesty International (AI) are joining hands to lead the 25th commemoration of Human Rights Weein the country.

THE Senate leader-ship gave assur-ances Tuesday the

proposed Freedom of Information bill faces no hindrances for its pas-sage in the upper house of Congress.

Senate president Juan ponce Enrile assured the Senate will approve the FOI bill which, if passed into law, would give even ordinary Filipinos, spe-cially media members, access to information in the government offices.

Senate minority lead-er Alan peter Cayetano and Sen. Loren Legarda delivered co-sponsor-ship Tuesdsay in support of the measure.

“Best Christmas gift we can give to Filipinos is the passage of the FOI – a measure institution-alizing transparency and accountability in this country,” Cayetano said.

Legarda expressed support for Senate Bill 3208, An Act Fortifying

the people’s Right of Ownership over Infor-mation Held by the peo-ple’s Government. She stressed that honesty, transparency and ac-countability must always be upheld to gain back the people’s confidence and faith in the bureau-cracy.

“While the present administration is under-taking efforts to elevate the citizens’ trust and confidence in the gov-ernment, we must give the people something that they can hold on to,” said Legarda in her co-sponsorship.

Legarda explained that the various contro-versies in the past de-cade have left Filipino citizens doubting the capability of the govern-ment to do its mandate of serving the best inter-est of the people.

“Under this proposed measure, we aim to feed our people with infor-

mation about us, the leaders they elected in office, and the business-es our offices deal with. All government agen-cies will be mandated to disclose information on public interest transac-tions, documents or re-cords,” she pointed out.

The Senator said the compulsory disclosure shall be done by post-ing the aforementioned documents on govern-ment websites for easy access, aside from pro-viding these documents upon a person’s request.

Furthermore, vital information must be translated into major Filipino languages and made easier to compre-hend.

Senate committee on public information and mass media chairman Sen. Gregorio Honasan said if nobody would interpellate, the Senate would proceed to vote on second reading. [pNA]

Senators sees smooth sailing of FOI bill

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 201212 EDGEDAVAOClASSIFIEDS ADS

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VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

THE Davao City Wa-ter District is grant-ing special discount

and privilege to senior citizens on their water bills as provided in the expanded Senior Citi-zens Act of 2010 or also known as Republic Act 9994. The utility has been implementing this since 2010 which is also in line with its service pledge

and customer satisfaction program.

To avail of the said privilege or discount, the senior citizen or the au-thorized representative may apply at any DCWD offices in Bajada, Matina, Victoria plaza and Toril by submitting the following requirements: proof of identity (OSCA ID), proof of account registration

(DCWD Water Bill), proof of residency (barangay certification) and autho-rization of representative.

For individual service connection applications, five percent discount will be given provided that these conditions are met: the connection account is in the name of the senior citizen residing therein for a period of one year;

discount is applicable only on the month/s when water consumption does not exceed 30 cubic meters; privilege has a validity of one year and is subject to re-application/renewal otherwise it may be reverted to its original scheme if not re-applied/renewed. Said privilege may be discontinued in case of death of the ac-

count holder or any viola-tion of DCWD policies and shall not be excused from imposition of penalty.

Senior Citizen Insti-tutions can also avail of the privilege and shall be granted of the 50% discount under the fol-lowing conditions: the discount privilege is given on a monthly basis and is valid for one year and

subject to re-application or renewal; discount may be reverted to its origi-nal scheme if not re-ap-plied or renewed; it will be discontinued in case the institution’s license/accreditation is terminat-ed by the DSWD or ex-pired and any violation of DCWD policies and shall not be excused from im-position of penalty.

13EDGEDAVAO COMPETITIVE EDGE

HEDCOR has given out a chance for five out-of-school-

youth (OSY) to complete a Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) course under the Technical Education and Skills Development Author-ity (TESDA).

The course calls for 268 hours of practical training where upon completion, the scholars will be quali-fied for TESDA’s assessment toward a level 2 National Certification (NC) in SMAW.

The National Certifica-tion will help the youth land higher-paying jobs wherev-er they are minded to apply.

The beneficiaries are members of the Bago-bo-Tagabawa tribe, the in-digenous group that hosts

the Sibulan and Tudaya hydropower plants in Sta Cruz, Davao del Sur.

This is the second batch of scholars to receive the same scholarship from the renewable energy compa-ny. The first scholars from last year’s program are al-ready applying their skill at work.

“Hedcor is indeed our partner in shaping the fu-ture of our youths,” said tribal leader Datu Rogelio Manapol.

Hedcor is the front run-ner in run-of-river hydro-power in the philippines with 19 hydro plants in Benguet, Davao and Ilocos Sur generating a total ca-pacity of 155 megawatts. [Hedcor]

Hedcor grants training for OSY

DCWD grants discount to senior citizens

SUSPENDED. A security guard of Magallanes Elementary School along Magallanes St. shows the “No Class Today” sign posted at the school’s main gate due to typhoon

“Pablo” that made Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio suspends classes yesterday. LEAN DAVAL JR.

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012SPORTS14 EDGEDAVAO

WITH two wins this year against the Singapore

side, the philippine Az-kals are oozing with con-fidence in the buildup to the much-awaited semi-finals home game on Sat-urday.

Azkals star striker phil Younghusband be-lieves that those wins against Singapore will give them an edge in the semifinals of the 2012 ASEAN Football Federa-tion Suzuki Cup.

The Azkals beat Sin-gapore twice this year in friendly matches – a 2-0 triumph last September 7 at Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore and repeat-ed with a 1-0 victory last November 15 in Cebu.

“We’ve had good re-sults against them and that gives us confidence,” Younghusband said in a recent television inter-view. “We know how Sin-gapore (plays).”

playing their first home game in the coun-try could give the Azkals the much-needed psy-chological boost.

But just how import-ant it is to play in your own turf and before your legion of fans, the Singa-poreans know better.

Over at Singapore, the Lions fans are getting ready for the big clash with the Azkals by ensur-ing there will be no ‘visi-tors’ in the stands of JBS on December 12 for the Singapore home game.

In their official Face-book page, Lions fans asked organizers to make the tickets exclusively sold to Singapore fans on the first day of sales.

Ahmad Loqman Ishak posted on the Exclusive Singapore Lins XII Face-book page: “(We) must fill Jalan Besar Stadium with Singaporean... if not, the pinoys here will fill in JBS and support their own team for sure.. Go Singapore Go!!!”

Ishak has a point. Even in Singapore, the Azkals have legion of fans.

Another Lions fan Ro-land Lim said: “Will be in-teresting how FAS plan to arrange the ticket sale as

sg got tons of pinoy sup-porters! Suggest should allocate at least 1000 tickets min (minimum)?”

Realizing that, other fans suggested to sell the tickets, which fetch to 10 Singapore dollars for gallery and 16 Singapore dollars for the best seats, to Singapore fans.

Suggested Lions fan Lyz Ja’afar: “Can I suggest to open the ticket sales solely for Singaporeans on the first day, then the remaining tickets unsold to be open for all includ-ing foreigners on e next day so tt we, e Singapor-eans will b given e ut-most opportunity to fill up e stadium to support our Lions team. Also, I strongly feel tt tickets should not b set available thru e AXS if we want to c the cheers, the roars & the wave by our true Sin-gaporeans! Rest assured, we Singaporeans will b thr to support them if tickets are being priori-tised for us e Singapor-eans. Show ic upon pur-chase! please.. please.. please...!!!”

Azkals’ confidence soar,But will the Lions roar?By Neil Bravo

Phil Younghusband (left) says the Azkals are more confident with two wins over Singapore this year. Inset, Shahril Ishak of the Singapore Lions will be the main man for the Lions whose fans will try to make an exclusive Lion’s den of their home stadium.

Veteran Azkals standout Chieffy Calig-dong will again be relied upon by coach Michael Weiss off the bench.

Aidx’s favorite muses whom he has worked with the ad campaigns for Pickled and Peppered. Aidx also had a hand in styling his artists with help from Davao-born clothing brands, SOUL Lifestyle and Pickled and

Peppered. The musical score was done by two independent artists from Manila, name-ly Idris Vicuña from the Bee Eyes band and Francis Regalado from the group Love in Athens. These art-ists are quite known in Ma-nila’s underground music scene. “Somnolence” will be shown on December 8 at the Cinema 5 of Gaisano Mall. Movie starts at 8pm.Discover what a young blood like Aidx Paredes can do, and let’s support the next generation of Filipino filmmakers.

and independent film mak-ers who show a lot of prom-ise in the art of storytelling. A few more years before he steps out of college, Aidx Paredes, photographer / graphic artist, is now mak-ing his debut as a film-maker. He has made a huge transition with his newly completed short film, “Somnolence.” The 14-minute silent film, written and directed by Aidx, tells of a girl and a boy who fall in love and are faced with the challenges of their own dreams and desires. Love does not en-compass all in between bi-zarre realities that surround the couple. Just when love is supposed to find them, it opens doors to their own self defiance which leads to further complications. Aidx draws inspiration from sad movies and sen-timental songs. The styling, the treatment, and the rest of the elements of are viv-idly inspired by the hipster culture Tumblr has created. He even gives him film a touch of nostalgia with digitalized film burns and vintage color application. JM Santillan, the director of photography, is also the first “litratista” of the year of the prestigious school award, the Foto Modelo Ateneo. He recently won an award in an Asian pho-tography contest. Aidx finds harmony with JM’s treatment, having worked with him for almost a year through collaborations and magazine shoots. To-gether, they have come up with a mutual idea of how they want the film to look, branding it with their own style and vision. The cast, LA Subido and Michael Lu, are two of

INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNEDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012

EDGEDAVAOARTS & CULTURE

The reel deal on Aidx ParedesIT’S been seven years since I graduated from the UP Film Institute and I have been feeling a bit idle for not having gotten any hands on experience in film production right after college. While I still re-visit my love affair with photography through various outlets and projects, I have yet to finish my full length script and experience the “reel” deal. Despite my time off from film production, I continue to get inspiration from young

In prehistoric times, the bodies of our ancestors adapted perfectly to peri-ods of intermittent starvation, becom-ing highly efficient at storing extra en-ergy (calories) they came across and consumed.  Unfor-tunately, in these bountiful 21st cen-tury times of plenty, this energy-storing efficiency that served the caveman so well now contributes to our problems with weight gain and obe-sity. What does our body do with the extra energy we consume? We first store our ex-tra food energy away in fat cells beneath our skin, dispersed evenly through-out the entire body. This initial energy “sink”—if it happens during a period when the person is con-suming normal amounts of food—is healthy. But if a person keeps consuming more and more calories, those fat-storage cells will continue to grow, and will become overstuffed and “sick.” The bloated condition of these cells will then trigger in-flammation and cause fat to be deposited within and around our main in-ternal organs. This means

that if a person continues to indulge in serious glut-tony, this consumption of excess calories will cause substantial amounts of fat to accumulate in our liver, around our abdominal or-gans, within muscle, and around the heart—and it’s this type of fat that is par-ticularly dangerous to our

health! This fat that is deposited around the vital organs is called visceral fat and it’s more metabolically active than regular subcutane-ous (under the skin) fat, so that it produces more inflammation, more meta-bolic problems, and more diabetes and cardiovascu-lar disease. Importance of Waist Size There are many differ-ent body types, reflect-

ing different responses to weight gain. Some people have a greater capacity to store energy in a healthy way during that first en-ergy “sink” that are men-tioned above. In others, excess calories start to be deposited much earlier as fat, in and around the vital organs.

It also turns out that this pattern of fat deposition varies by gender and race: Men’s bodies have a sig-nificantly greater tendency to store visceral fat than do women’s bodies, and peo-ple of South-Asian descent are also much more likely to make this kind of fat. A Simple But Crucial Diagnostic Test Has your doctor ever measured your waist cir-cumference? This is usu-ally done with a simple

tape measure. It turns out that waist circumfer-ence is more indicative of visceral fat than is either your weight or your body mass index (BMI)—which means that waist circum-ference is a better predictor of the onset of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. So watch your belly! If you are a man, try to keep your waist circumfer-ence less than 40 inches—women should aim for be-low 35 inches. There is good news and bad news. The bad news is that visceral fat in and around your belly is bad for you. The good news is that, once we start to exercise, our body seems to preferentially burn this unhealthy fat first. Therefore, even with modest weight loss, you will begin to see belly fat start to melt away! And the beneficial metabolic effects of this kind of weight loss cannot be underestimated: By trimming your belly, you can markedly reduce your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. So the important thing to remember here is, please do not be frustrated if your initial efforts don’t produce your ideal weight loss—since not all body fat is created equal, as long as your belly is shrinking, then you are making prog-ress! (Yahoo! Health)

MigUEL AnTonio, an 11-year-old boy blessed with a voice of an angel, is set to bring the love and warmth of Christmas to SM Lanang Premier on December 22. Young boy Antonio who re-cently launched his first EP (What is Christmas to You) first per-formed on stage at his school’s idol contest in 2010 where he won first prize. Since then, Miguel took part in vari-ous competitions and performed at various char-ity shows. The young lad also performed in Dis-ney Channel’s Upin and ipin Beatbox promotional trail-er. in 2011, Miguel sang at “David Foster and Friends Concert in Singapore” accompanied by Mr David Fos-ter on the piano. Rearranged with a lighthearted jazz feel, Miguel’s rendition of “give Love on Christmas Day” brings a whiff of freshness, retaining the nostalgia to this festive classic. Experience a jazzy Christmas! Catch Miguel Antonio live at SM Lanang Premier on December 22, 5PM at the mall atrium. Admission is free. For inquiries, call 285.0943. Like SM Lanang Premier on Facebook or follow @smalanangpremier on Twitter for event and promo updates.

EnjoY a day of fun and excitement as SM Lanang Premier holds a Rurouni Kenshin Fan’s Day in celebration of the Ruroni Ken-shin live action movie premier on Decem-ber 5, 2012 at the SM Cinema Lobby of Lanang Premier. Cosplay as your favorite Samurai X characters or join our open Cosplay competition where you have a chance to win Rurouni Kenshin movie tickets and iMAX loot bags.Rorouni Kenshin stars Takeru Sato stars as the titular political assassin turned non-lethal protector, Takei Emi as Kamiya Kaoru, Aoki Munetaka as Sagara Sanosuke, Taketo Tanaka as Myoujin Yahiko, Aoi Yuu as Takani Megumi, Eguchi Yosuke as Saitou Hajime, Kikkawa Kouji as Udou jine, and Kagawa Teruyuki asTakeda Kanryuu. The film will be screened exclusively at all SM Lanag Premier and SM City Davao and will run from Decem-ber 5 to 9.

There is good news and bad news. The bad news is that visceral fat in and around your belly is bad for you. The good news is that, once we start to exercise, our body seems to preferentially burn this unhealthy fat first.

A2 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012EDGEDAVAOUP AnD ABoUT

Miguel Antonio brings jazzy Christmas to SM Lanang Premier, Dec 22

Is all body fat created equal?

Rurouni Kenshin premiers Dec 5 at all SM Cinemas

no need for ear-muffs or a tetanus shot, Brad Pitt. Mike Tyson isn’t mad at Angelina jolie’s fiancé for allegedly sleeping with his ex-wife Robin givens back in 1988. Sat-urday, the retired boxer recounted walking in on the World War Z star and givens in bed together during an interview with “in Depth with graham Bensinger” on Yahoo! Sports. “i was getting a di-vorce. i was going to my lawyer’s office to divorce her that day but i wanted to sneak in a quickie,” Ty-son said. “This particular day, someone beat me to the punch…i guess Brad got there earlier than i did. i was mad as hell. You should’ve saw his face when he saw me.” This isn’t the first time Tyson’s spoken out about this purported betrayal: Earlier this year he re-

counted the events to Conan o’Brien on his eponymous talk show, and he also told global grind about the incident in harsher terms. So while he certainly hasn’t forgotten, he

seems to have forgiven. “i hope Brad doesn’t think i’m mad at him,” Tyson said. “i’m not mad at this guy, no way.” glad to see Mikey T has finally acquired some an-ger management skills!

INdulge! A3VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012 EDGEDAVAOEnTERTAinMEnT

Kate Middleton pregnant! Royal, Prince William expecting first baby!

Mike Tyson ‘not mad’ at Brad Pitt for sleeping with ex-wife Robin Givens

Kate Middleton is pregnant! no, seri-ously, for real this time. While speculation of Prince William’s royal heir kicked into high gear last week, St. james’s Palace this morning confirmed the worst-kept secret in England, and announced that the Duke and Duch-ess of Cambridge are ex-pecting their first baby. “Their Royal Highness-es the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that the Duchess of Cam-bridge is expecting a baby,” the palace said in a statement this morning. no doubt intending to keep this highly public news as private as pos-sible, there was no word on whether Kate and Wills are expecting a boy or girl, or a possible due date for the little royal. The palace did an-nounce that Kate was “in the very early stages” of her pregnancy, however, and today was admitted to King Edward Vii Hospi-

tal in London due to suf-fering hyperemesis grav-idarum—in other words, acute morning sickness. She’s expected to remain in the hospital for just a few days and will rest at home after. in fact, it’s believed that the royal mama-to-be has not yet hit the 12-week mark, but was forced to announce the pregnancy owing to her hospitaliza-

tion. “The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Har-ry and members of both families are delighted with the news,” the palace said.As is the world at large and those in favor of the continuation of the mon-archy, we’re guessing. Congrats!

EnTERTAinMEnTEVEnTA4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012EDGEDAVAO

Megastar

MS SHAROn CUnETA, the country’s one and only megastar, awed Dabawenyos when Abreeza Mall once again treated them to a once-in-a-lifetime experience through its “A Thanksgiving Musical”

last Sunday.

wows Davao

Text and Photos by Lean Daval, Jr.

Abreeza’s activity center was bursting with swooning human-ity including Sharon’s adoring fans which began pouring into the mall from all directions as early as 11 o’clock in the morning just to get seats near the stage so they could see her up close, even though the show did not start until 4 o’clock in the af-ternoon.

The Megastar’s enduring charis-ma was very evident as soon as she stepped on the stage and performed her best known hits which made her star-struck Dabawenyo fans giggled with excitement. Her sweet voice has not changed; it’s still like listening to her original songs from the albums that her avid fans collected through the years.

Performances from Dabawen-yos Maan Chua and Chokoleit, Tal-entadong Pinoy’s Rhyzza and Zion Show spiced up the event. Chua, a Tunog Mindanaw 2011 grand cham-pion, sang her winning piece Ilaw ng Kapayapaan ,while the comical Cho-koleit sang and made the audience guffaw at his unique antics.

The country’s beloved Megastar may not be seen regularly perform-ing or doing concerts like she used to when younger, but it was clear that to her fans and followers, this was the same Sharon Cuneta that captured their hearts for over three decades ago.

Allow us to share some of the pic-tures we took at the memorable show last Sunday.

Maan Chua

ChokoleitRhyzza

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2012 SPORTS15EDGEDAVAO

MANNY pacquiao’s fourth showdown with Juan Man-

uel Marquez tols its final countdown when the camp of the Filipino ring icon leaves for Las Vegas.

pacquiao sparred on Monday (Tuesday in Ma-nila) for one last time at the Wild Card gym at around mid-noon, and after fresh-ening up, embarks imme-diately for the four-hour travel to the entertainment capital of the world.

His entourage that includes trainer Freddie Roach, assistants Buboy Fernandez and Nonoy Neri, and strength and condi-tioning coach Alex Ariza, is expected to arrive in Vegas by night time, just in time for the formal arrival cer-emony by the two fighters on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) at the lobby of the MGM Grand.

A long convoy of vehi-cles will accompany the 33-year-old pacquiao on his way to ‘Sin City,’ includ-ing the customized bus provided by Top Rank that bears the huge image of the ‘pacman.’

Marquez and his group are also going to Vegas on Monday after arriving in LA on Saturday aboard a private plane from Tolucca, Mexico, where his training camp was based.

The final press confer-

ence for the 12-round fight is set on Wednesday while the formal weigh-in is set Friday noon.

pacquiao is heading to his fourth fight with Mar-quez from a camp that was bereft of distractions so unlike the last time he had prepared for the Mex-ican. It was before his fight against Marquez exactly a year ago when rumors first came out that pacquiao’s relationship with wife Jin-kee was on the rocks.

The highly-disputed majority decision pac-quiao later fashioned out against Marquez added fuel to the fire as reports of the rocky marriage were picked up by major US newspaper dailies despite the boxing superstar’s ve-hement denials.

Now that he’s facing Marquez once more, pac-quiao is certain no such distraction will ever affect him again.

“Walang aalalahanin, 100 percent (ang) con-dition and focus, no dis-traction,” he said without mentioning in particular past troubles that both-ered him in past training camps.

Since renewing his faith in God, pacquiao has completely turned his back on his old vices of gambling, drinking, and at times, womanizing.

NEW YORK — Man-ny pacquiao did some training with

a heavyweight for his next bout: Charles Barkley.

Barkley and fellow NBA Hall of Famer Reggie Miller visited the boxing megastar in camp before his fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, the sub-ject of a 30-minute special

that will air Thursday on TNT (Friday, Manila time) after the network’s NBA doubleheader.

“Charles & Reggie: Toe to Toe with Manny pac-quiao” features clips in which Barkley and Miller spend time with pacquiao and trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California

— Barkley even having to steady himself while holding the heavy bag as pacquiao hits it. Miller also joins pacquiao on his morning run through Grif-fith park in Los Angeles.

Barkley, who once famously brawled with Shaquille O’Neal in a game, says that “as a boxing fan, it was one of the coolest

things I’ve ever done.”He and Miller, both TNT

analysts, are also shown shooting baskets with pac-quiao, a basketball fan who last year delayed his ring entrance so he could watch the end of a Boston Celtics playoff game.

pacquiao fights Mar-quez on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

THE Los Angeles Lak-ers’ Jekyll and Hyde act continued apace

over the weekend, with a Friday night blitzing (17 3-pointers, 54 percent shooting, a 28-and-20 per-formance by Dwight How-ard and 122 points) of the Denver Nuggets giving way to a Sunday night stumble against an Orlando Magic team that entered Staples Center at 5-10, losers of three straight and five of its last seven. But in the two teams’ first meeting follow-ing the four-team, 12-play-er offseason blockbuster that sent Howard from cen-tral Florida to Hollywood, the Magic hung with a Lak-er side that’s experienced its share of turmoil this sea-son, too, and pulled away with a 35-19 burst over the game’s final seven minutes.

The loss drops the Lak-ers to 8-9, a below-.500 mark that seems stunning given both the collection of talent on hand and the statistical note that L.A.’s got a top-five offense and a top-10 defense in terms of points scored and allowed per 100 possessions, ac-cording to NBA.com’s stat tool. The win-loss-win-loss trading, the alternating progress and regression on display every night, has been somewhat under-standable — after all, the team has had three differ-ent head coaches in the

space of a month and has been without injured star point guard Steve Nash, ex-pected to be the triggerman first for Mike Brown’s new-look princeton offense and now for the spread pick-and-roll system he ran un-der Mike D’Antoni for years in phoenix, for all but 50 minutes this season. Still, explanations aside, this is hardly the way most fig-ured the Lakers would look one-fifth of the way through the 2012-13 season.

As the losses mount — the Lakers would have to go 65-0 to fulfill Metta World peace’s preseason wish, which seems unlike-ly — patience is wearing thin, not only within the Lakers’ fan base (which, as we’ve seen, can be pretty intense) but also within the ultra-competitive mind of L.A.’s top dog. From Joe Mc-Donnell of FoxSports.com:

Kobe Bryant had seen enough.

Another humiliating loss to another bad team Sunday night had the Lak-ers co-captain ready to take on the whole team if his teammates don’t start getting their games — and attitudes — together.

“I’ll kick everybody’s ass in this locker room if it doesn’t happen,” Bryant said after a 113-103 loss to the Orlando Magic at Sta-ples Center. Yes, the 6-10 Orlando Magic. “It’s the atti-

tude you have to have. Met-ta is the same way. Dwight has it in him as well. Even though he smiles a lot, he cares a lot about this. Come hell or high water, this has to get done.”

This seems to be the general consensus around the Lakers — all hands on deck, we’re surrounded, wins need to be strung to-gether like popcorn for a Christmas tree and what-ever must transpire for those wins to start coming needs to happen, like, yes-terday.

Lakers fans surely ap-preciate hearing those words from Bryant, but would probably much rather hear them from charity-averse center How-ard (9 for 21 from the free-throw line against Orlando, including 7 for 14 during L.A.’s fourth-quarter col-lapse, a career-worst 46.5 percent on the season) or, even better, from out-of-sorts big man pau Gasol (11 points on 4-for-11 shooting against the Magic, sadly stuffed at the rim by earthbound-and-down Or-lando counterpart Glen Da-vis, playing the least pro-ductive basketball of his NBA life) than from a ver-sion of Kobe who’s playing perhaps the most efficient ball of his career while serving as the Lakers’ pri-mary scorer and facilitator in Nash’s absence.

Manny Pacquiao, pictured in a light mood with trainer Freddie Roach, has declared that his condition and focus is at “100 percent” as he wraps up training camp for his fight against Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez. AP

Kobe Bryant has seen enough of the Lakers’ misfortunes.

Team Pacquiao off to Vegas

Barkley joins Manny in training

I’ll kick everybody’s ass if we don’t fix things

VOL.5 ISSUE 197 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 201216 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS

THE AAK Davao con-tinued to reap the dividends of its in-

tensive program after it romped off anew with a medal harvest in the recent 2012 Adidas International Karate Cup at the SM Mall of Asia.

AAK Davao hauled off 7 gold medals on top of 8 sil-vers and 8 bronzes in a stint described by head coach Rommel Tan as “more than what we expected.”

The gold medalista are. Rick David Aquino (Davao Central HS) in the 6-7 yrs old boys intermediate kata, Alexa Gabrielle Barnes (Davao Central HS) in the 6-7 girls intermediate kata and 6-7 girls kumite, Dar-lene Mara Mara (Tecarro) in the 12-13 girls kumite, Kassandra Danielle Barnes (Davao Christian HS) girls Cadets intermediate kata, Arthur Lao III (Ateneo de Davao University) in the juniors open kata and pvael Jervis Bacayo (University of the Immaculate Concep-tion) in the juniors above 68-kg kumite.

Bagging silver medals were Onna Ysabelle Barnes in the kata and kumite, Vivian Cortes (UIC) in the girls kata, Denzel Mara Mara (Tecarro) in the girls kata, Angelica Noro (UIC) in girls kumite, Mary Ann pilarte (UIC) in girls kata, pavel jervis Bacayo (UIC) in boys kata and Arthur Lao III

(Ateneo) in kumite.The bronze medalists

are Carmela Marie Estari-ja in girls kata and kumite (Stella Maaris Academy), Danya paquil in girls kata and kumite (UIC), Denzel Mara Mara (Tecarro) in girls kumite, Angelica Noro in girls kata, Mary Ann pi-larte (UIC) in girls kumite, and Kassandara Barnes (Davao City High School) in girls kumite.

More than 400 entries joined the championships which attracted entries from powerhouse Japan and Indonesia.

The team also attended the kumite seminar con-ducted by Shin Tsukii Sen-sei at the Jose Rizal Univer-sity gymnasium.

“We had a great time and we learned a lot from the seminar given by Sensei Shin Tsukii who is the for-mer philippine Team coach and is now based in Japan, he is regarded as one of the best instructors in Japan to-day,” said Tan.

The event was graced by newly re-elected pOC presi-dent peping Cojuangco and pOC Sec-Gen Steve Honti-veros along with Manuel pocholo Veguillas, Chair-man of AAK and president of the Ice Skating Union of the philippines and Hans Sy of SM.

The team also paid a visit pSC Executive Direc-tor Atty. Guillermo Iroy, Jr.

AAK UIC Karatedo Team celebrate after receiving their medals.

AAK Davao Karatekas pay courtesy call to PSC Executive Director Atty. Guillermo Iroy Jr.

AAK Davao stamps class anew