EDGE

CENTRAL 11, Davao City’s emergency response unit, has introduced two new innovations which are “firsts” in

Mindanao, and perhaps in the country.Officer-in-charge Emmanuel Jaldon

said Central 911 started operating an early response team (ERT) composed of

six motorcycle-riding medics and the in-stallation of a mobile tracking system in all its twelve ambulances.

The ERT system is modeled after the emergency response system of the United Kingdom, Jaldon said during the I-Speak Forum at the city hall.

One medic is assigned to one motor-cycle equipped with first aid kit. Upon receiving the command to respond to a medical emergency call, the ERT medic

By Jade C. Zaldivar

THE 78 Taiwanese nationals arrested by Taiwanese and local police teams for involvement in alleged cyber fraud

are only a “pinky” of a large international syndicate.

Sr. Supt. Ronald dela Rosa, Davao City Police Police director, said on Thursday that the Taiwanese nationals

nabbed here “answer to their kingpins abroad.”

“Malaking sindikato ito, actually komingking pa lang ni sila sa kung unsa gyud sila kadako. Ang ilang mga boss, ang mga kingpin nila, tua sa Mainland China ug Taiwan,” dela Rosa said dur-ing yesterday’s I-Speak forum at the city

hall.The arrested Taiwanese nationals,

36 of whom are women, were collared during simultaneous raids in at their 24-hour ‘fake’ call center headquarters in Ladislawa Village in Buhangin; Villa Jo-sefina Village in Matina; and Valgoson’s Building in Talomo.

The DCPO was contacted by Taiwan-ese police early last March, for help to

P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.net

VOL.5 ISSUE 33 • APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

SportsPage 14

78 Taiwanese partof int’l syndicate

THE BIG NEWSPage 3

Serving a seamless society

FCENTRAL, 13

F78 TAIWANESE, 13

n Another house being watched

nInnovations include early re sponse team, mobile tracking system worth P3-M

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DAVAO

Central 911 has 2 more ‘firsts’

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CYBER CRIMES. Acting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte talks to Taiwanese nationals, some under the age of majority, arrested by operatives of the Davao City Police Office for alleged Cyber Crimes. A total of 78 Taiwanese nationals were taken into custody in three separate raids. [JOSEPH LAWRENCE P. GARCIA]

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

By Jade C. Zaldivar

TOP airline chiefs from Malaysia and the Philippines last

Wednesday bared plans to open flights from the city to premier tourist destination cities in Ma-laysia.

Malaysian airline MASwings Sdn. Berhad (MASwings) and the Southeast Asian Airlines (SEAir) plan to have di-rects from the Davao In-ternational Airport to Ma-laysia.

MASwings chief exec-utive officer (CEO) Mohd Nawawi Awang said they will begin to operate by the end of this year flights from Kota Kinabalu to

Davao, and Sandakan-Sabah and Sabah-Davao flights.

MASwings is a sub-sidiary of Malaysian Air-lines, and Awang said he is optimistic of this in-vestment.

“Currently we have 10 turboprop aircraft, each with a seating ca-pacity of 68 people, and we are looking forward to adding more aircrafts. We will have Davao to Malay-sia flights three times a week,” Awang said in an interview at The Marco Polo Davao where a press conference was held in line with the 1st Equator Asia Air Access Forum

and Airlines CEO Summit.Awang said he sees

‘continuing growth’ in the city and that there’s po-tential here.

“The very reason I came here (to the summit) is to propose my plans to have flights to Davao. Davao is the gateway to Mindanao and we believe in it’s potential,” he said.

Meanwhile, SEAir president and CEO Avelino Zapanta said they’ll also open this year

Kota Kinabalu-Davao and Sandakan-Davao flights.

SEAir, which was the country’s first airline to have direct flights to coun-

try members of the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area), did admit that their invest-ment failed.

“It was SEAir which first opened flights in ac-cordance with the BIMP-EAGA agreement,” Zapan-ta said.

“But then when we opened it, there were few passengers. For this to prosper, people have to respond, but few people wanted to ride,” he added.

Zapanta is positive that “there is a market here and people from Min-danao, businessmen, will be interested in having direct flights to Malaysia,” he said.

2 THE BIG NEWS EDGEDAVAO

n Kota Kinabalu, Sabah,Sandakan

A bigger Visit Samal Island (VSI) pro-gram will be held

this year with multi-sectoral partners linking up for the event.

This according to Cleto Gales IGaCoS City administrator, who bared that the city is only allo-cating a minimal budget of P250,000 despite it being much larger than last year. Gales cited the partnership of the differ-ent sectors particularly the private businesses in pushing for the VSI 2012 which links up the LGU, the Department of Tour-ism Region 11 and the private sector tourism stakeholders- the Samal City Resort Owners Asso-ciation.

The VSI campaign which used to be a month-long event is now extend-ed up to three months, lasting till July. The event is marked by cultural presentations, sporting events, beach parties, concerts and other forms of merriment.

The Visit Samal 2012, banners the tag-line “where life is fun.” is the second staging of the unique marketing strate-gy started last year which aimed at increasing tour-ism arrivals and putting Samal on the map as the destination of choice for domestic and local tour-ists.

According to Grego-

rio Boy Sarmiento the private sector represen-tative in the VSI execu-tive committee, they have created many first-time events which would draw in more tourists. Among these included Davao Gulf Line Fishing contest, Miss Body Beautiful pageant and a Level III shooting competition.

Also from May 4-6, the island will play host to an environment, arts and music festival dubbed as the Pigkayasan Festival under the initiative of the 2nd district congressional office under Representa-tive Anton Ladgameo.

The VSI 2012 will formally open this April 21, with grand motorcade around Samal Island and a silent drill conducted by the visiting cadets of the Philippine Military Acad-emy.

Jennifer Cariaga, tourism officer of the city said that they are hoping to build on the success of last year’s VSI. “Accord-ing to DOT data there was 64% increase in tourism traffic compared to the same period last year.” Cariaga said citing the positive effect of last year’s campaign.

We are targeting a 100% increase in tourism arrivals.” Cariaga added hoping that a much bigger VSI would bring in more tourists to Samal. [PIA 11/RG ALAMA]

A bigger Visit Samal Island

SPECIAL REGISTRATION. Persons with disabilities in the city went to the lobby of the Sangguniang Building as the Commission on Election conducts a special registration for PWDs. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

Davao-Malaysia flights eyed

By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE Balikatan military ex-ercises in the country with 6,000 troops deployed

will lead to heightened prostitu-tion and abuse of women, similar to the heyday of the US Army in Olongapo in the 1980’s, said May Ann Sapar, spokesperson of Ga-briela Southern Mindanao.

Sapar cited that 30,000 women, majority of them only 14 to 16 years old, worked in brothels and bars in Olongapo in the 80’s.

“If Aquino and other leaders in the government will not stop kowtowing to the military agenda of the US government, then they will be judged in history for be-ing accessory to the worst crime against women and children and for betraying their country,” she said.

The activist women’s group said the US troops came here for war, and the women who will be victim-ized by prostitution and abuses are the compro-mise in exchange of mate-rial and logistics supports from the US government.

“Filipinas are not for sale. We refuse to be used

for your sexual comforts” she said, adding that the US Marine’s statement referring to “scantily clad women” as a source of “fun” in the country was an insult and denigration of Filipinas.

The group demanded the immediate recall of all US troops recently de-ployed in the country.

Last April 16, a new round of Balikatan Exer-cises began in Palawan while more than 600 US commandoes, out of the 6,000, were deployed Mindanao.

To show strong protest against what the militant group calls “heightened US military intervention”, Patriyotiko Mindanao led a Mindanao-wide caravan of 4,000 delegates, which kicked off on the same date and arrived in Zam-boanga City yesterday.

Sapar recounted the statement of Foreign Af-fairs Secretary Albert del Rosario that P22 billion has been funneled to the government in the form of military aid in the last decade.

Women’s group warns vs Olongapo ‘remake’

MORE than 3,000 farmers, Lumads and small scale

miners affected by the im-pact of large scale mining will converge in Tagum City on April 22 for a camp-out and will troop to Pantukan the next day.

On April 24 and 25, Monkayo farmers will hold a camp-out against YENG YI Mining Com-pany and the Joel Brillan-tes Mining Corporation (JBMC) to denounce their open-pit mining and militarization in Pasian, Monkayo.

Simultaneously, Pan-tukan SSM Community will hold a second camp-out (the first was last March) against St. Augus-tine Mines and Minerals.

Environmentalist net-work PANALIPDAN said local struggles of the ru-ral poor farmers, lumads and small scale miners are spreading ‘like wild

fire’ in Mindanao. “We need to be stead-

fast protecting what re-mains of our biodiversity and resources amid the Aquino government’s fast-tracked awarding of mining concessions to mining TNCs and coal projects to energy mo-nopolists,” said Francis Morales, secretary gen-eral of PANALIPDAN.

Morales supports the passage of the NO MIN-ING ORDINANCE being pushed in the City Coun-cil and urged other LGUs to pass similar local laws that will strengthen en-vironmental protection of cities which should be protected from extrac-tive operations like large scale and foreign mining.

Noting mining’s im-portance to industrializa-tion, he said the industry has to be state – regu-lated and controlled, pri-marily addressing do-

mestic needs. Mining cannot serve

national economic de-velopment if the Philip-pine Mining Act is still enforced, he added.

The group, along with NO TO COAL – Davao kicked off yesterday with its DEFEND PATRIMONY campaign timed for this year’s Earth Day at the Centennial Park.

The group also staged “MANALIPOD STREET ART” together with young visual and per-forming artists, featuring the disastrous impact of large-scale and foreign mining, and deadly en-ergy industries like coal - fired and nuclear plants.

Young artists from SAMBAYAN, Sining Obre-ro, San Pedro College and Ford Academy did on-site mural painting, exhibits, tambulan (drums perfor-mance) and interpreta-tive dancing. [LORIE A. CASCARO]

Anti-mining group readyfor Pantukan camp-outCOMMITTEE on Good

Government and Public Accountability chair and

Iloilo Rep. Jerry Trenas today reit-erated his call for a swift action by Congress to postpone the 2013 ba-rangay elections to insulate it from the influence of partisan politics.

Trenas added that with the ongoing impeachment trial against Chief Justice Re-nato Corona and the loom-ing 2013 national elections, Congress only has a very limited window of opportu-nity to give full attention to fast-tracking the passage of a measure which would move the barangay polls to a more suitable schedule.

He noted that holding a barangay election only five months after the national polls will put an undue fi-nancial strain on the na-tional budget, apart from the fact that partisan conflict would still be too intense if elections are held almost simultaneously within one year.

Trenas authored House Bill 6005 which seeks to re-set the 2013 barangay elec-tions to the last Monday of October 2015, instead of the October 2013 set by law.

Postponement of barangay polls needed: Solon

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

MAKATI CITY -“We take great pride in Globe Telecom ‘s

direct and indirect contri-butions to national devel-opment – whether it be through the capital invest-ments that the Company makes to build a world class telecom infrastruc-ture for the country; the taxes and regulatory fees it pays to the government; or the businesses, jovs and livelihood generated through its relationship with over 782,000 retail-ers, dealers, distributors, merchandisers, and sup-pliers.”

This was the 2011 report of Globe Telecom Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala distributed during the Annual Stock-holders Meeting last Tues-day morning here.

He said “2011 proved to be a significant year for Globe Telecom. The com-pany posted significant im-

provements across all the key metrics or revenues, market share, profitabil-ity, and shareholder re-turns. This was achieved despite the weakness and uncertainty of our global markers, slower domestic economic growth, and a step-up in the competitive dynamics in the telecom industry, the report said.

Competitive dynamics“The recent changes

in our telecommunication industry structure has redefined the competi-tive dynamics; with our competition now owning a substantial share of the movile market, spectrum and distribution network,” he said, adding that “in the spirit of creating a truly liberalized telecom sector, we acknowledge the com-mitment of the regulator to create an even playing field through the re-allo-cation of resources, using an auction of 3G spectrum expected to commence in 2012.”

Strong operating re-sults

“Against this backdrop, Globe Telecom’s consoli-dated operating revenues rose by 9% to an all-time high of P71.6 billion. This was underpinned by the market’s positive response to the Company’s product and technology innovation and service enhancements. This growth compares fa-vorably where matched against an industry which grew by a modest 1% in 2011. Revenue growth was broad-based spanning all key product groups, brands, and market seg-ments. The Company was made significant headway against competition dur-ing this period, gained sub-scriber and revenue mar-ket share in both obile and broadband.”

Globe continued to provide one of the high-est dividend yields in the local market and among telecom companies in the region. The Company paid out a total of P8.2 billion in dividends in 2011 equiva-lent to 84% of prior year’s net income and translating to a vicident yield of 8%. Coupled with the increase in share price, total share-holder return in share price, total shareholder return in 2011 was 51% from -4% in the prior year.

500 jobs in expansion Meanwhil e, Globe is

adding about 500 jobs a year within the next five years to complement its $790 million expansion, according to Renato Yao, human resources head of the company.

Yao said Globe hires about 1,000 employees a year but it loses about 500.

“We are having several recruitment activities ev-ery year so that we can fill out the vacancies that need to be filled up, he said in an interview in ther sidelines after the annual stock-holders meeting at the In-tercontinental Hotel last Tuesday.

Although it has not encountered difficulty in finding new employees for rank-and-file positions, he explained that the situ-ation is different when it comes to highly specialized positions.

The ratio between the number of applicant and the hired is about 10:1, he added.

In jobs where expertise is a necessity, although it can find applicants many of those hired leave the com-pany when thy find better opportunities especially abroad.

“Of course the pay is better in other countries

3THE BIG NEWSEDGEDAVAO

HANDGUNS. Acting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte inspects one of the handguns confiscated  by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group XI during an

entrapment operation in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur early this week. Looking on is CIDG XI Chief Albert Ferro. [JO-SEPH LAWRENCE GARCIA]

FESTIVAL. A Philippine flag-inspired kite is prepared to fly up the sky over the black sand beaches of Glan Thursday, April 19, during the inter-barangay kite flying competition as one of the highlights of the opening day

of Mahin Festival celebration. This entry of barangay Taluya won first place. Mahin Festival events in the next two days will be held at Coco Beach Resort in Gumasa. [COCOY SEXCION/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE]

IN line with its advo-cacy to protect Mother Earth, Ayala Malls

launches GREEN FRIDAYS, a campaign to encourage shoppers to minimize the use non-biodegradable packaging when shopping and make it a habit to use an eco-bag to save the en-vironment.

Ayala Malls is offer-ing a stylish, eco-friendly bag for a minimal cost, available at the Concierge counter. Every Friday, shoppers are encouraged to use their eco-bags and will be rewarded with a chance to win an Avida House and Lot or an El Nido Travel package!

Promo runs from March 9 to June 8, 2012. As a con-crete pledge to save the environment and in part-nership with WWF, Ayala Malls commits to plant 100 trees for every 10,000 raffle coupons redeemed. Show that you care for the earth and start a Green Friday habit today!

Have a green Friday at Abreeza Mall!

FURBANITES, 13

FJAZA, 13

URBANITES. They are educated, fashion-conscious,

socially engaged, tech-savvy, and in tune to pop-ular culture. They aim to live a life rich with mean-ing, succeeding not only in career but also in their health, family, and other personal pursuits.

Urbanites live a con-temporary lifestyle steep

with urban experienc-es. They are described as “city-proud, media-literate, brand-centric, trend-sensitive, cultural-ly-aware, and time-poor” (www.urbandictionary. com).

As such, urbanites expect - not just seek - to live in a pleasant “urban village” that suits their liking in the most hip, con-

venient, and dynamic part of the city. And the only urban residential address that fits the bill is the British colonial-themed Camella Northpoint, the landmark condo develop-ment of Camella along JP Laurel Avenue and Bu-hangin Road.

Urbanites are driven by a successful, challeng-ing career, possessing a

Camella Northpoint is the perfect home base for up and coming urbanites.

Urbanites: At home in Camella Northpoint

JAZA cites Globe’s contributionsto national development in ASM

Zobel de Ayala

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

MAKATI CITY -“We take great pride in Globe Telecom ‘s

direct and indirect contri-butions to national devel-opment – whether it be through the capital invest-ments that the Company makes to build a world class telecom infrastruc-ture for the country; the taxes and regulatory fees it pays to the government; or the businesses, jovs and livelihood generated through its relationship with over 782,000 retail-ers, dealers, distributors, merchandisers, and sup-pliers.”

This was the 2011 report of Globe Telecom Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala distributed during the Annual Stock-holders Meeting last Tues-day morning here.

He said “2011 proved to be a significant year for Globe Telecom. The com-pany posted significant im-

provements across all the key metrics or revenues, market share, profitabil-ity, and shareholder re-turns. This was achieved despite the weakness and uncertainty of our global markers, slower domestic economic growth, and a step-up in the competitive dynamics in the telecom industry, the report said.

Competitive dynamics“The recent changes

in our telecommunication industry structure has redefined the competi-tive dynamics; with our competition now owning a substantial share of the movile market, spectrum and distribution network,” he said, adding that “in the spirit of creating a truly liberalized telecom sector, we acknowledge the com-mitment of the regulator to create an even playing field through the re-allo-cation of resources, using an auction of 3G spectrum expected to commence in 2012.”

Strong operating re-sults

“Against this backdrop, Globe Telecom’s consoli-dated operating revenues rose by 9% to an all-time high of P71.6 billion. This was underpinned by the market’s positive response to the Company’s product and technology innovation and service enhancements. This growth compares fa-vorably where matched against an industry which grew by a modest 1% in 2011. Revenue growth was broad-based spanning all key product groups, brands, and market seg-ments. The Company was made significant headway against competition dur-ing this period, gained sub-scriber and revenue mar-ket share in both obile and broadband.”

Globe continued to provide one of the high-est dividend yields in the local market and among telecom companies in the region. The Company paid out a total of P8.2 billion in dividends in 2011 equiva-lent to 84% of prior year’s net income and translating to a vicident yield of 8%. Coupled with the increase in share price, total share-holder return in share price, total shareholder return in 2011 was 51% from -4% in the prior year.

500 jobs in expansion Meanwhil e, Globe is

adding about 500 jobs a year within the next five years to complement its $790 million expansion, according to Renato Yao, human resources head of the company.

Yao said Globe hires about 1,000 employees a year but it loses about 500.

“We are having several recruitment activities ev-ery year so that we can fill out the vacancies that need to be filled up, he said in an interview in ther sidelines after the annual stock-holders meeting at the In-tercontinental Hotel last Tuesday.

Although it has not encountered difficulty in finding new employees for rank-and-file positions, he explained that the situ-ation is different when it comes to highly specialized positions.

The ratio between the number of applicant and the hired is about 10:1, he added.

In jobs where expertise is a necessity, although it can find applicants many of those hired leave the com-pany when thy find better opportunities especially abroad.

“Of course the pay is better in other countries

3THE BIG NEWSEDGEDAVAO

HANDGUNS. Acting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte inspects one of the handguns confiscated  by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group XI during an

entrapment operation in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur early this week. Looking on is CIDG XI Chief Albert Ferro. [JO-SEPH LAWRENCE GARCIA]

FESTIVAL. A Philippine flag-inspired kite is prepared to fly up the sky over the black sand beaches of Glan Thursday, April 19, during the inter-barangay kite flying competition as one of the highlights of the opening day

of Mahin Festival celebration. This entry of barangay Taluya won first place. Mahin Festival events in the next two days will be held at Coco Beach Resort in Gumasa. [COCOY SEXCION/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE]

IN line with its advo-cacy to protect Mother Earth, Ayala Malls

launches GREEN FRIDAYS, a campaign to encourage shoppers to minimize the use non-biodegradable packaging when shopping and make it a habit to use an eco-bag to save the en-vironment.

Ayala Malls is offer-ing a stylish, eco-friendly bag for a minimal cost, available at the Concierge counter. Every Friday, shoppers are encouraged to use their eco-bags and will be rewarded with a chance to win an Avida House and Lot or an El Nido Travel package!

Promo runs from March 9 to June 8, 2012. As a con-crete pledge to save the environment and in part-nership with WWF, Ayala Malls commits to plant 100 trees for every 10,000 raffle coupons redeemed. Show that you care for the earth and start a Green Friday habit today!

Have a green Friday at Abreeza Mall!

FURBANITES, 13

FJAZA, 13

URBANITES. They are educated, fashion-conscious,

socially engaged, tech-savvy, and in tune to pop-ular culture. They aim to live a life rich with mean-ing, succeeding not only in career but also in their health, family, and other personal pursuits.

Urbanites live a con-temporary lifestyle steep

with urban experienc-es. They are described as “city-proud, media-literate, brand-centric, trend-sensitive, cultural-ly-aware, and time-poor” (www.urbandictionary. com).

As such, urbanites expect - not just seek - to live in a pleasant “urban village” that suits their liking in the most hip, con-

venient, and dynamic part of the city. And the only urban residential address that fits the bill is the British colonial-themed Camella Northpoint, the landmark condo develop-ment of Camella along JP Laurel Avenue and Bu-hangin Road.

Urbanites are driven by a successful, challeng-ing career, possessing a

Camella Northpoint is the perfect home base for up and coming urbanites.

Urbanites: At home in Camella Northpoint

JAZA cites Globe’s contributionsto national development in ASM

Zobel de Ayala

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 20124 EDGEDAVAOSCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT

BREATHING in heavy traffic fumes can trigger a heart

attack, say UK experts.Heart attack risk is

raised for about six hours post-exposure and goes down again after that, re-searchers found.

They say in the Brit-ish Medical Journal that pollution probably has-tens rather than directly cause attacks.

But repeated ex-posure is still bad for health, they say, sub-stantially shortening life expectancy, and so the advice to people remains the same - avoid as far as is possible.

Prof Jeremy Pearson, associate medical direc-tor at the British Heart Foundation, which co-funded the study, said: “This large-scale study shows conclusively that your risk of having a heart attack goes up tem-porarily, for around six hours, after breathing in higher levels of vehicle exhaust

“We know that pol-lution can have a ma-jor effect on your heart health, possibly because it can ‘thicken’ the blood to make it more likely to clot, putting you at high-er risk of a heart attack.

“Our advice to pa-tients remains the same - if you’ve been diagnosed with heart disease, try to avoid spending long periods outside in areas where there are likely to

be high traffic pollution levels, such as on or near busy roads.”

Early peak The research looked

at the medical records of almost 80,000 heart at-tack patients in England and Wales, cross-refer-encing these details with air pollution data.

This enabled the in-vestigators to plot hourly

Studies show exhaust fumes can thicken the blood making it more likely to clot.

Car fumes raise heart attack risk

levels of air pollution (PM10, ozone, CO, NO2, and SO2) against onset of heart attack symptoms and see if there was any link.

Higher levels of air pollution did appear to be linked with onset of a heart attack lasting for six hours after exposure.

After this time frame,

risk went back down again.

Krishnan Bhaskaran from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who led the re-search, said the findings suggested that pollution was not a major contrib-uting factor to heart at-tacks.

For example, being

exposed to a spell of me-dium-level rather than low-level pollution would raise heart attack risk by 5%, by his calculations.

“If anything, it looks like it brings heart attack forward by a few hours. These are cardiac events that probably would have happened anyway.”

But he said the find-

ings should not detract from the fact that chronic exposure to air pollution was hazardous to health.

Prof Pearson from the BHF agrees: “Unhealthy diets and smoking etc are much bigger heart at-tack risk factors, but car fumes are the cream on the cake that can tip you over.”

“Unhealthy diets and smoking et cetera are much bigger

heart attack risk factors, but car fumes are the cream on the

cake that can tip you over.”

THE Department of En-vironment and Natural Resources-Environ-

mental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) is encouraging more public vigilance on proj-ects nationwide and assured immediate action on envi-ronment-related complaints against these.

It noted that proponents concerned are duty-bound to implement measures for minimizing such undertak-ings’ respective adverse im-pacts on people and their surroundings.

”People can report to us and we’ll immediately respond to their concerns,” DENR-EMB Asst. Dir. Gilbert Gonzales said.

He noted that DENR-EMB continues monitoring projects nationwide to help further curb environmental degradation.

But it still welcomes such reports as proponents con-cerned must comply with conditions under respective environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) which this agency issued to them.

”We issue an ECC only after a project’s proponent shows environmental im-pacts of a proposed under-taking can be addressed and identifies measures for achieving this,” he said.

Such measures can in-clude installing air pollution

control devices, treating water before discharging this into the open and estab-lishing solid waste manage-ment systems.

DENR-EMB issues ECCs for heavy industry, resource-extractive and infrastruc-ture undertakings as well as golf course projects since the agency considers these to be environmentally criti-cal.

”Even government is re-quired to secure ECCs for its projects,” Gonzales noted.

Projects in environmen-tally critical locations like protected areas are also required to have respective ECCs as these undertakings impact on the environment there, he added.

Elsewhere for projects having minimal impact on the environment and peo-ple, DENR-EMB issues cer-tificates of non-coverage to proponents concerned.

”Among such projects are establishing and operat-ing neighborhood or ‘sari-sari’ stores,” Gonzales said.

DENR earlier reported improvement in Metro Ma-nila’s air quality, saying pol-lutive total suspended par-ticulates (TSP) in the area already declined to some 117 micrograms per normal cubic meter (ug/Ncm) in 2011.

Such level is lower than

the 171 ug/Ncm TSP level recorded for Metro Manila in 2004, DENR noted.

The agency is aiming to further reduce Metro Ma-nila’s TSP level to at least the 90 ug/Ncm guideline value.

”We aim to achieve such goal perhaps in a year or two,” Gonzales said.

To help further clean up the air, he reported seven ad-ditional anti-smoke belching units were deployed to man Metro Manila’s main streets this week.

The units are tasked with apprehending smoke belchers there.

”We’re focusing on mo-bile sources which are the big pollution contributors, accounting for some 80 per-cent of air pollutants,” Gon-zales said.

The units’ deployment is in line with the anti-air pol-lution partnership DENR es-tablished in December 2011 with the transportation de-partment, Metropolitan Ma-nila Development Authority, Metro Manila’s local govern-ment units as well as private groups Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas and Philippine Medical Associa-tion.

DENR-EMB already tar-geted establishing more air quality monitoring stations that generate real-time data to help boost its campaign

DENR-EMB backs more public monitoring of ECC compliance

ENERGY Secre-tary Jose Rene Almendras on

Thursday assured the government will ob-serve measures to pro-tect the environment with the construction of coal-fired power plants.

In a forum at Sulo Ho-tel in Quezon City, Almen-dras admitted the harm-ful effects of coal to en-vironment but said there are ways to mitigate its negative impacts.

He made the state-ment after environmen-talists are calling for the government to stop put-ting up coal-fired power plants, particularly in en-ergy crisis-stricken Min-danao and implement re-

newable energy solutions instead.

“There’s enough tech-nology today to lessen the negative impact of coal. I’ll not go to every town and say we’ll put up a coal power plant... we’ll make sure that the negative en-vironment impacts will be handled properly,” he said.

Almendras said coal-fired power plants are part of the government’s short-term solutions to address energy problems in Mindanao.

“Kaya tayo nagtatayo ng (Why we establish) coal-fired power plants is because we need elec-tricity two to five years from now because they are fast, cheap and doable today,” he said.

Almendras said the

plan to add 10,000 mega-watts of renewable en-ergy sources by 2030 is attainable but noted that it has to be done slowly.

“Para hindi mabigla (It should not be abrupt). Some renewable energy sources ay mahal pa (are expensive),” he said.

In the same forum, DoE Undersecretary Jose Layug Jr. said they hope to award more coal operat-ing contracts to investors.

Environment group Greenpeace questioned the DoE’s move to push for the construction of a coal-fired power plant saying it poses harm to the environment.

The group said de-velopment of renewable energy sources would be enough to meet Mindan-ao’s energy shortfall. [PNA]

Protection measures assuredfor coal-fired power plants

against dirty air. ”We’ll upgrade little by

little because aside from TSP, other pollutants like particulate matter (PM) must be monitored as well,” Gonzales said.

He noted studies show-ing PM affects people’s health as these pollutants enter the human body.

PM can be as small as 2.5 microns, he warned.

On addressing water pollution, Gonzales report-ed DENR-EMB’s success in implementing its ‘Adopt-an-Estero’ program.

”As of last year, we al-ready inked with private companies in the country some 260 agreements for the latter to clean up ‘este-ros’ and other waterways,” he said.

Under the program,

companies choose which ‘esteros,’ waterways or por-tions of these to clean up us-ing respective resources.

DENR-EMB supports the companies’ efforts by conducting information and education campaigns that educate communities along such ‘esteros’ and waterways about dangers of disposing waste there. [PNA]

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

THE House of Representa-tives is expected to ap-prove on final reading the

proposed income tax exemption on any income derived by an in-ternational air carriers from do-ing business in the country, House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability Chair and Iloilo Rep. Jerry Trenas today revealed.

“The exit of international carriers from the country, where foreign carriers are taxed, has been in stark contrast to the growth in services experienced by neighboring Asian countries that either incent or do not tax foreign carriers,” Trenas said.

Trenas is author of an origi-nal measure, HB 4444, which was consolidated in HB 6022 that was approved on second reading before the Lenten re-cess of Congress. He lauded the move of President Aquino include the measure as one of Malacanang’s priorities.

“The country’s links with the global markets in tourism and in trade are poor relative to neighboring countries and will suffer substantial further deteri-oration if corrective statutes are not put in place,” Trenas said.

Trenas, who is also chair-man of the House Committee on Good Government, pointed out that international air transport connectivity is the most criti-cal infrastructure linking the Philippine to the global export markets of tourism and interna-tional business.

“Efficient air transport

connectivity enables the move-ment of more than 8.2 million Overseas Filipino Workers, in-cluding those in ship crewing, health care, IT, and hospitality industries,” he said.

Likewise, he added, the airlines are providing seamless travel connections for custom-ers and suppliers of service exporters like those in health tourism, retirement, logistics, creative industries, business process outsourcing, high yield backroom operations and re-gional headquarters that re-quire direct access and easy entry and exit to and from the Philippines.

“In other words, the impo-sition of said income tax means more losses than gains for the government,” Trenas said.

Trenas noted that carriers with extensive global networks have already left the Philip-pines, shifting capacity to benefit neighboring countries’ tourism and trade,” he added.

He also noted that the once restricted market of China and Japan are liberalizing access and have invested in infrastruc-ture to attract foreign carriers.

“This measure seeks to advance Philippine tourism, trade and employment and eco-nomic integration with the rest of the world eliminating the negative impact of Common Carriers Tax (CCT) and Gross Philippine Billings (GPB) on the country’s international con-nectivity and competitiveness as an international investment destination,” Trenas concluded.

THE ECONOMY 5EDGEDAVAOStat Watch

MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2009 - December 2011)

Month 2011 2010 2009

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

September 43.02 44.31 48.139August 42.42 45.18 48.161

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

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

3.5%4th Qtr 2011

3.7%4th Qtr 2011

USD 3,342Million

Nov 2011USD 4,985

MillionNov 2011

USD -1,643Million

Nov 2011USD -114

MillionDec 2011

P4,442,355Million

Nov 2011

4.71%Oct 2011P128,745

MillionNov 2011

P 4,898Billion

Oct 2011

P 43.65Dec 2011

3,999.7Sept 2011

128.1Jan 2012

3.9Jan 2012

3.4Dec 2011

284,040Sept 2011

19.1%Oct 2011

6.4%Oct 2011

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

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

3. Exports 1/

4. Imports 1/

5. Trade Balance

6. Balance of Payments 2/

7. Broad Money Liabilities

8. Interest Rates 4/

9. National Government Revenues

10. National government outstanding debt

11. Peso per US $ 5/

12. Stocks Composite Index 6/

13. Consumer Price Index 2006=100

14. Headline Inflation Rate 2006=100

15. Core Inflation Rate 2006=100

16. Visitor Arrivals

17. Underemployment Rate 7/

18. Unemployment Rate 7/

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

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

as of august 2010

A Malaysian airline has bared interest to operate routes to Kota Kinabalu

and Sandakan, both in Sabah in Eastern Malaysia, through its 68-seater turboprop aircraft.

Dato’ Capt Mohd Nawawi Awang, chief executive officer of MASwings, said in a press briefing during the 1st Equator Asia Air Access Forum at The Marco Polo Davao Wednesday that they are looking to start their Davao operations within this year or early next year.

“Once we start our opera-tions in Davao, we targeted to gain 60 percent of the passen-ger load factor,” he said.

He said they are planning to have three flights a week from Davao to the two destinations in Malaysia and or vice versa. The company has currently 10 turboprop aircrafts since the airline was launched in 2007, offering affordable fare rates.

The company also plans to acquire narrow-bodied jets like the Boeing 737-400/800 or the Airbus 320/319.

He said they would ensure that their Davao operations will sustain through strength-ening the tourism promotions and marketing support. He said there should be a collabo-ration between the govern-

ment and the tourism industry.The company will further

study the economic growth, particularly of Davao City.

The Civil Aviation Author-ity of the Philippines reported that the number of passengers in the Davao International Air-port is seen to increase from about 2.5 million last year to 2.8 million by the end of this year.

Of the number of passen-gers last year, 1.284 million were in-bound passengers.

Transportation and Com-munication Secretary Mar Roxas, in his speech delivered by Undersecretary Jose Per-

petuo Lotilla, said that they are looking into the Davao Inter-national Airport as the largest international airport in Mind-anao.

He said the national govern-ment is currently improving the facilities in the country’s main gateways to gain 10 million for-eign visitors and 30 million do-mestic travelers by 2016. About P500 million was allocated for the installation of additional se-curity screening equipment in all 45 airports, including Davao International Airport.

MASwings also eyed to ser-vice Puerto Princesa and Zam-boanga City to Kota Kinabalu. [MINDANEWS]

Malaysian airline to operate flights to Kinabalu, Sandakan

WESTERN Samar Con-gressman Mel Senen Sarmiento today raised

the need to craft a law that would finally put a stop on the practices of budget airlines of overbooking, denied boarding, flight delays and cancellations “that cause travelers unnecessary inconvenience” as he cited the House Committee on Transportation’s ongoing initia-tive to standardize minimum ser-vices for budget airlines in a bid to provide fair and equal treatment for passengers.

While the increasing num-ber of cheap airfares as part of the marketing campaigns by various airlines have brought air travel accessible even to the poor, there has also been mount-ing complaints about the shabby treatment of passengers availing of these budget fare promos.

Sarmiento said he fully supports four resolutions and one privilege speech that were referred to the House commit-tee on transportation underscor-ing complaints by passengers of “arbitrary and unfair” policies of low-cost carriers.

According to Sarmiento budget airlines are not expected to provide services similar to full-service carriers but empha-sized that passengers should be “informed of what they’re get-ting” and they should not be treated as “second class” citi-zens.

“Giving passengers the shabby treatment just because they are paying less is abso-lutely unacceptable. Even these budget airlines should provide an acceptable level of comfort

for their passengers,” Sarmiento said.

Sarmiento, senior member of the transportation commit-tee, also expressed support for House Bill 2957 authored by Marikina Rep. Marcelino R. Teodoro which, mandates the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communi-cations (DOTC) to investigate and decide whether an air car-rier, foreign air carriers or ticket agent has been engaged in an unfair or deceptive practice or an unfair method of competition in air transportation.

Unfair practices include the failure of air carriers to inform a ticketed passenger if the flight is overloaded, delivering passen-ger’s checked baggage beyond 24 hours after arrival of flight, not informing the passenger of a delayed flight and reason for de-lay; and not refunding full pur-chase price of an unused ticket if the passenger requests a refund within 48 hours.

Mounting complaints about these unfair practices of budget airlines have prompted several congressmen to call for a con-gressional inquiry on the poli-cies and practices of domestic airlines in the country that cause unnecessary inconvenience and discomfort to passengers.

They claimed that even known domestic airlines have recently engaged in offering promo fares to consumers to en-courage both domestic and for-eign travels and attract patronage but without realizing that they compromise consumer’s inter-ests, welfare and protection.

Solon urges regulation of budget airlines

Tax exemption for int’l airlines set for approval

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 20126 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO

It figures

VOLUME of water in billion cubic meters, or 70 percent of the Philippines’ total water resources, lost or wasted each year, due to leaks and illegal connections, and other reasons, according to a study by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

NUMBER of major government agencies having a hand over Philippine water resources, according to Sen. Edgar-do Angara, author of the proposed Water Sector Reform Act or WSRA (Senate Bill 2997) for the effective management of wa-ter in the country.

AMOUNT the government still owes French company Oberthur Technologies, electronic passport (e-passport) service provider, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. The payment has not been made because the firm has not yet merged the database from machine-readable to e-passport.

TWO Filipino companies and two Filipino individuals are among 475 firms and 450 individuals worldwide barred from participating in projects funded by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank due to past violations.

GROWTH rate every year of the business-process outsourcing (BPO) sec-tor expected by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda). This growth rate will generate 3.15 mil-lion direct and indirect jobs and taxes in the amount of $6 billion every year.

VOLUME of oil and gas reserves that the Spratlys has, according to find-ings of the Geology and Resources Min-istry of China, dwarfing those of Kuwait’s 13 billion tons of reserves and making it the fourth biggest oil and gas deposit in the world.

16 2 and 2 17.7billion tons112 $2.59million 15percent

A big number of business estab-lishments, espe-

cially the smaller ones, on Kidapawan City and in the whole of North Cotabato province have already closed shop because of the long power outages, further exacerbated with the announcement of the local electric coop-erative that the blackouts will last form six to eight hours starting today.

Dan Sambrano, of the Metro Kidapawan Cham-ber of Commerce and In-dustry Foundation, Inc. (MKCCFI), said that since last month, around 50 percent of small business-es in the province have al-ready closed shops due to unstable power supply.

Many of these estab-lishments, he said, are in-ternet shops and beauty salons.

This morning, some establishments did not bother to open their businesses with the an-nouncement of a six- to eight-hour power out-ages.

“What income would we get with these long hours of brownouts? For how long are we going to suffer?” asked Armalyn Bravo, one of the beauti-cians at a local salon here.

Armalyn’s salon, lo-cated along Quezon Bou-levard here was supposed to open at 8 a.m. But with the announcement, she just had to close her store.

Vicente Baguio, spokesman for the Cota-bato Electric Cooperative (COTELCO), said the pow-er was shut off around 8:22 a.m. today and was restored only around 12:45 p.m., or after more than four hours.

Blackout was to re-sume later in the after-noon, for three to four hours more starting at 3 p.m.

The rotating black-outs in North Cotabato started October last year. But it got worse starting last February, according to Baguio, when the Na-tional Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) deducted at least 30 per-

cent from the regular load dispatched for COTELCO.

Starting today, Baguio said COTELCO was given only 42.8 percent of the total power requirement of North Cotabato, or only 15.4 megawatts of the usual 36MW.

“This is the reason why starting Wednesday our service areas would be experiencing six to eight hours of rotating brownouts daily,” he ex-plained.

The cooperative, how-ever, is working out that it be given a provisional authority by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) so it could buy power, at least 8MW, from a power barge in Davao City.

Meantime, the Sang-guniang Panlalawigan in North Cotabato is also bent on filing a case against the National Power Corporation (NA-POCOR) and the Power Sectors Assets, Liabili-ties, and Management (PSALM) for their refusal to grant the COTELCO 26MW from the two geo-thermal power plants lo-cated at Mount Apo with-in Kidapawan.

The provincial council also believes that as host of these plants, North Cotabato is entitled to a 25-percent load dispatch daily from the geothermal plants.

“Despite the existing laws, we are at the mercy of the power transmis-sion and generation fa-cilities as to whether or not they would give us the needed power for the province. We’re doing now a very careful study of the cases that would be filed against these agen-cies. We don’t want to go wrong this time,” said Co-tabato 2nd district board member Jose Ping Tejada, chair of the SP’s commit-tee on power.

Earlier, the SP warned it would go to court if NAPOCOR and PSALM still refuse to dispatch 26MW from the 104MW geothermal plants at the Mount Apo. [MALU CADELIÑA

MANAR / MINDANEWS]

NorthCot businesses suffer from blackouts

IMPROVEMENT. Customers pass through the skybridge linking the main building of the SM City Davao and its newly-opened Annex building. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

SEVEN out of 10 Fili-pinos own a house or other sort of real es-

tate, however most do not have financial security of holding bank savings, mak-ing them more vulnerable to the ‘rainy days’ or lean season, a survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral Pili-pinas (BSP) said.

The BSP’s Consumer Finance Survey (CFS) said the most common assets of an average Filipinos are own residence, home ap-pliance and retirement insurance, with 68.8 per-cent own their house and

lot while 30.8 percent own only their house.

Thirteen percent pay house rent while 18 per-cent do not own nor rent a house, a minority or 0.2 percent declined to answer.

Housing is largely paid through cash payment or inheritance or gift while 6.7 percent borrowed money for their housing, mostly through govern-ment housing institution.

Interestingly, eight in 10 household, or 78.5 per-cent of the respondents, are found to have insuf-ficient fund for their own

savings. Some 92.8 percent of them reasoned out they did not have enough mon-ey for a bank deposit. Some of them said they don’t need a bank/cash account, cannot manage an account, the minimum balance is too high and 1.8 percent of them said they did not want to deal with bank/fi-nancial institutions.

The survey also said 73.4 percent of those sur-veyed pay an annual inter-est rate of 10 percent and below, some 14.1 percent pay 11-20 percent per an-num and a minority of

them pay even a high of 21 to 60 percent per annum.

The survey also said most of the respondents own other forms of assets such as farms, business and motor vehicles.

The CFS result indicate a significant increase in the country’s labor force over the next decade. The sam-ple size of the said survey was 10,520 mainly from National Capital Region and areas outside NCR such as regions 1,7 and 11 during November 2009 to January 2010, with 89.4 percent response rate. [PNA]

7 out of 10 Pinoys own a house, but no savings

GLOBE Telecom Inc. claimed that compe-tition was alarmed

when its market share went up by two points last year.

The cellular market is currently dominated by Smart Communications Inc., the country’s No. 1 mobile-phone operator. Globe ranks second, fol-lowed by Sun Cellular.

“We gained two points in market share in 2011 and we saw competition got shaken by that,” said Globe Senior Advisor for Consumer Business Peter Bithos. Broadband reve-

nue market share was also higher by 3.6 percent last year based on two-player market.

Based on last year’s mobile revenue market share data, Smart cornered two-thirds of the market with 53.8 percent, Globe with 35.9 percent and Sun Cellular with 10.3 percent.

Globe mobile subscrib-ers stood at 30 million in 2011. The wireless units of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) now have a combined sub-scriber base of 65 million. Of the total, 50 million are from Smart, Talk ’N Txt and

Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprises Inc. (CURE). The remaining 15 million subscribers are from Sun Cellular, the mo-bile brand of Digitel, which was acquired by PLDT last year.

With Digitel folded into the PLDT group, the telco giant now has 70-percent control of the domestic mobile market.

“We are ready for the challenge,” added Bithos when asked how Globe will position itself in the two-player market.

Globe is owned by Aya-la Corp. and SingTel.

Ayala Corp. Chairman Jaime Agusto Zobel de Ayala told company share-holders that Globe “re-mains a strong challenger.”

Ernest Cu, president of Globe, explained that there is nothing wrong in being a challenger as ef-forts are expected to pay off soon.

“We are a challenger before we become a leader. It takes steps. The differ-ence in gap is quite large. We had a much narrower gap before they acquired the third player. You don’t gain market share in one year,” he said.

Globe’s market share improves

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

WHAT do pili nut and abaca have one thing

in common? Both are endemic to the Philippines , that’s what. But among the two, abaca has already captured the world attention.

In fact, the Philippines holds the distinction of being the abaca capital of the world. The reason for this: the country accounts for about 84% of the total world abaca fiber produc-tion. Such market domi-nance has made abaca one of its top dollar earners, contributing an average of US$76.8 million annually in export earnings during the last decade.

“The abaca industry is of particular importance as it supports the liveli-hood of around 140,000 abaca farm workers and strippers, as well as 78,00o small farmers with approx-imately more than 430,000 dependents and 143,429 strippers,” a report from the Department of Sci-ence and Technology said. “The fiber craft industry, which produces bags, rugs, placemats, hats, hot pads, coasters, yarns, and hand-woven fabrics, provides livelihood to rural women and out-of-school youths.”

Because of its eco-nomic importance, the government is pushing for abaca’s further develop-ment. “We have to push all commercial uses of abaca. Once fully developed, this industry can be a huge driver of economic and jobs growth,” said Senator Loren Legarda, who chairs the Senate committee on economic affairs.

But for how long the country will dominate the global abaca market, no one can predict. Some countries, including Ecua-dor , are already etching to dislodge the country of its supremacy.

This is bad news as the abaca industry in the coun-try is not doing well. This was the finding of the study entitled, “Supply Chain of Abaca Fiber in Selected Areas in the Philippines : Phase 1.” It was funded by the Laguna-based Philip-pine Council for Agricul-ture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

The study found that the abaca fiber production has been relatively stag-nant. “Although abaca is indigenous to the Philip-pines , its production can-not seem to catch up with

local and international consumption,” it disclosed.

Data from the National Statistical Coordination Board showed that abaca export has declined at the rate of 2.8 per year pri-marily due to its declining average yield. In addition, the annual growth of abaca fiber production (0.37 per-cent) could not keep up with the annual growth of domestic abaca fiber con-sumption (1.32 percent).

Domestic consump-tion of abaca fiber is largely accounted for by process-ing sectors, particularly (1) pulp, (2) cordage, yarns, and twines, and (3) fiber crafts and fabric manu-facturers. Low abaca pro-ductivity appears to be the core problem of the indus-try, according to country’s major supply chains of abaca fiber.

Three factors have been attributed to the poor quality of abaca fibers: (1) fibers are not classified at farm level due to inade-quate technical knowledge, (2) the abaca stripping de-vice is not used, and (3) storage/postharvest facil-ity is lacking.

Another layer in the multifarious problems of the abaca industry are inadequate extension service, poor roads, and high transportation cost. “These logistical issues af-fect the efficiency and flex-ibility of the supply chain and in turn, influence the nature, characteristics and condition of the abaca fiber while in transit to the final customer,” the study said.

Low productivity is attributed to inadequate replanting effort, declin-ing area planted to abaca, farmers’ non-adoption of recommended technolo-gies, limited value-adding and/or value-creating op-tions at the farm level, and inclement weather.

Disease infestation also add to the diminishing abaca production. Indus-try insiders say three main diseases, the abaca bunchy top, abaca mosaic and aba-ca bract mosaic continue to wreak havoc on thousands of hectares of abaca planta-tions: In Samar and Leyte alone, around 26,000 hect-ares of land planted to ab-aca are reportedly affected by these diseases.

The gross demand-supply mismatch, the PCARRD-funded study cautioned, can have a se-rious implication on the country’s export if not promptly augmented, es-

pecially in the light of the growing abaca industry in competing countries.

Known worldwide as Manila hemp, abaca is ob-tained from a tree-like ba-nana plant, scientifically called Mussa textiles. It is indigenous to the Philip-pines but is also found in Borneo , Indonesia and Central America .

Manila hemp replaced bark, which was once the primary source of cloth be-fore the Europeans arrived in the Philippines . It was not until 1685 that abaca was known in the western world. In 1820, John White brought few abaca fibers to the United States . By 1825, importation of abaca fiber took place.

Abaca was first culti-vated on a large scale in Sumatra , Indonesia in 1925 under the Dutch, who had observed its cul-tivation in the Philippines for cordage. This was fol-lowed up by plantings in Central America spon-sored by the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture. With the commencement of World War II, the supply from the Philippines was eliminated by the Japa-nese. When the war end-ed, the Philippines again became the world’s big-gest abaca supplier.

But on the onrush of modern technology, ab-aca was relegated to the background. Only to be brought back again in re-cent years – thanks to the global shortage of many natural resources and the

pollution being wrought by synthetic products on the environment.

Former Davao City Councilor Leo Avila re-ported that some coun-tries are now using abaca as a substitute for plastic bags, nylon ropes, and fi-berglass for some cars. “The use of nylon ropes for example is now changed with ropes made from abaca. People have the dif-ficulty in disposing nylon ropes, while with abaca, they can recycle it and uti-lize it again,” he said.

Abaca fiber is superior over all other fibers of its class because of its great strength and its resis-tance to the action of wa-ter. Considered the stron-gest of natural fibers, it is three times stronger than cotton. No wonder, it is the cordage of choice for ropes used in oil dredging or exploration, navies and merchant shipping.

Because of its strength and unusual durability, the fibers are also used in making currency papers and weatherproof bris-tols, industrial papers like power cable papers, insu-lating boards for motors; vacuum clear bags, tape papers, absorbent satu-rating papers (used for gasket work), sack papers, and abrasive base papers.

Unknowingly, the en-zyme of abaca is now be-ing widely used in cosmet-ics, particularly in the pro-duction of organic, hand-crafted therapeutic skin care products such as soap

and beauty cream. Abaca soap, which has anti-age-ing and therapeutic prop-erties, is now marketed in the United States , Japan , and even Europe .

In the Philippines , the abaca fibers are used in fishing nets, as they are particularly resistant to salt water. Abaca cords can be found aboard almost any marine vessel because of this trait. In addition, the country’s Central Bank is using 20% abaca for its 200, 500 and 1,000 peso bills.

Abaca is grown in 48 provinces with Catan-duanes as the country’s top abaca producer. Its es-timated fiber production from January to May 2010 is 14,140 metric tons, ac-cording to the regional of-fice of the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA).

The nine other prov-inces in the top 10 produc-ers are Leyte, Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, Davao Oriental, Surigao del Sur, Davao del Sur, Sulu, Sorsogon, and West-ern Samar .

The heyday of abaca in Davao was in the 1900s when Davao could barely be called a bustling town. History stated that a Ohta Kyosaburu, a Japanese merchant from Kobe , came to the Philippines in the early 1900s “to ar-range the importation of job–seeking Japanese la-borers who were readily hired by abaca plantation workers because of dire

lack of local hands.”Agriculturists say the

country’s agroclimatic conditions are perfect to grow abaca, which many people still mistake for banana plant. In the Phil-ippines , abaca has been found growing in virtually all types of soils and cli-mate. But it is found most productive in areas where the soil is volcanic in ori-gin, rich in organic matter, loose, friable, and well-drained, clay loam type.

Abaca requires a wa-ter table of 80 centimeters with 60-80% saturation and a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.0. Undulating or rolling to hilly or mountainous ar-eas less than 500 m above sea level with deep surface soil with slopes from 200 to 600 are ideal for abaca production. For normal growth of abaca plants, the soil must contain ad-equate amounts of organic matter, potassium, calci-um, and magnesium.

Abaca is easier to manage than most staple crops although it requires regular maintenance and harvest operations. It can be grown as an inter-crop with coconuts and other tall, slender trees. It can also establish itself in newly-cleared cogon grasslands, and outgrow them.

Abaca gains foothold in an area in a short time. In a year, the plant can pro-duce four to eight suckers. Within 18 months from planting, abaca is ready for the first harvest.

7AGRITRENDSEDGEDAVAO

Abaca: The premier natural fiber from the PhilippinesText and Photos by Jims Vincent T. Capuno

Abaca fiber

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

EC O N O M I C JOURNAL-ISM – The

technique re-mains the same, an old one: for-get the notion that business and economic stories are all about figures. Economists and financial expert remind would-be business and economic writers that business reporting is complex, but not impossible to learn. Their most basic tips, of course, is to fully understand the trade through study and research, focused reading on business news updates and understanding economic jargon.

Business reporters must have a basic understanding of economics, the rela-tionship between the money people earn and the money they need. Like reporting on politics, crime, weather or the envi-ronment, lifestyle and sports, business and economic writing is basically about people. It’s about people making a living, all kinds of living.

An understanding of economics is an understanding of life’s principal preoc-cupation – economics is about what we earn and what we get for it. However, the job is not going to be an easy one. These days there are many things that the busi-ness and economic journalists will have to battle against. For instance, there is so-cial apathy, or the way people do things and look at things – administrative inef-ficiency, political power seeking and cor-ruption.

Some helpful tips make specific rec-ommendations to aspiring business and economic writers, and I’m becoming to be one. Among them are: books and handy guides designed primarily to im-mediately improve one’s business writ-ing skill. The hardest part, though, is how to turn all the verbiage and figures into stories that are interesting and intelligi-ble to the average reader.

But if that sounds too tough for an aspiring business writer or reporter, then he or she may want to continue to concentrate on the police and crime beat, sports and lifestyle events, or even the political beat and spend their morn-ings in the coffee shops. Nevertheless, if you don’t get to become a business and economic journalist, you will be missing something – something to do with real life, real work and real people.

o--BEAUTY PATRONS – Beauty and skin

care clinics and hairstyling saloons are turning its attention to the rapidly ex-panding beauty market. Davao City is a case in point. Here, shops of beauty spe-cialists and hair styling experts armed with a vast array of beauty and hair care products – branded shampoo, condition-ers, gels, top-of-the-line and popular cos-metic supplements could be worth a visit for the beauty conscious people.

The proliferation of beauty and skin care and hair styling outlets in the city, which can be categorized in different classes are good for the highly demand-ing beauty patrons. The highly profitable beauty industry already has a strong pres-ence not only in Davao City, but through-out the country and the rest of the world. Different ideal customers will find them anywhere - in numerous commercial cen-ters, shopping malls, entertainment com-plex, or even in street corners.

Perhaps beauty conscious women or even some men nowadays put an average of 7 products on their faces each morn-ing or maybe even more before they get out of the front door. And we’ve not even mention the hair care supplements they applied on their sensitive hairs. That is precisely the reason why beauty and skin care and hair styling business managed to identify all the hot spots of growth in the beauty industry.

As ever, with the successes of the beauty industry, entrepreneurs take an in-novative approach. Medium to top beauty and skin care clinics and hair styling shops have to innovate things that would appeal to both ends of the age spectrum and to the very different customer levels. And most importantly, they have to be good at guessing what the customers really want.

Some analysts cite the other bigger beauty and hair care companies’ advertis-ing and promotions budget and the fact is that its result is more efficient than that of other line of businesses. Less prestigious outlets, however, rely heavily on the mass market therefore we see no reason why the beauty industry shouldn’t keep on growing including even the smallest ones.

8 VANTAGE POINTS

THE Philippines leads the world in the number of people who believe in God, said one news account

about a study yesterday. Datelined Wash-ington, the story said the study in the United States also found that the elderly across all countries tend to be the most religious.

“Belief in God tends to be strongest in the United States and Catholic countries and lowest in Scandinavia and former Soviet states,” according to the study by a reasearch group based in the University of Chicago.

The study found that 94 percent of people in the Philippines said they had always believed in God, followed by Chile with 88 percent and the US with 81 per-cent.

Superficially, the figures tend to heart-en Filipinos, we who are running out of things we can be proud of what with so many scandals rocking our country every so often.

We certainly hope that the above find-

ings would mean that things in this coun-try would get better, since religious peo-ple are supposed to be good citizens, are not greedy, believe in justice, abhor cor-ruption and other forms of venalities.

And yet, how often do we see people, our leaders, especially, go to church and contribute to charity only for show? We know them to be corrupt and grossly un-fair in dealing with their fellowmen.

Another finding is that senior citizens tend to be closer to God than the young-er set. And yet, a few oldies are in real-ity among the most vicious men who run crime syndicates with everybody, from the lowly patrolman to the highly regard-ed magistrates and powerful politicians in their pockets.

Indeed, hypocrisy is as old as prostitu-tion and sin.

In the future, we want to see studies on religiosity that reveal findings that are more relevant to society instead of those which only tend to show the hypocrisy of some superficially religious people.

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VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

THE next p r e s i d e n -tial election

is still four years away. Next year’s midterm election however will be

pivotal for anybody who wishes to run for president in 2016. Vice President Jejomar, who has publicly declared his intention to run for the highest post, has started his own preparations by initiating an alliance which is fast shaping up as a major opposition bloc despite denials he has parted ways with President Be-nigno S. Aquino III.

Binay, presumptive leader of the United Nationalist Alliance or UNA, is just waiting for Malacañang to an-nounce who will carry the flag for the administration Liberal Party. It seems the Palace is biding its time. It is not even testing the waters but simply standing on the shore keeping a keen watch on movements on the horizon.

Just because he has limited his response to issuing calibrated state-ments on the noise in the emerging opposition camp does not mean that Aquino is sitting idly by. The day of reckoning is too distant to

even think of how to deal a final blow. He knows that the constantly shifting “loyalties” – in short, oppor-tunism – of our politicians makes it difficult to predict with absolute cer-tainty the final alignment of forces.

Another factor that may have pre-vented Aquino from taking UNA’s bait is the absence of a strong presidential contender within the LP.

Communication and Transporta-tion Secretary Mar Roxas is still smart-ing from his loss to Binay in 2010, al-though he had questioned the result and filed a protest before the Presi-dential Electoral Tribunal. No one else within the party can give Binay a re-spectable fight if elections were held today. In fact, the vice president has gone around a lot, using as official cov-er his position as housing czar.

If Roxas wants to regain lost politi-cal ground, the best way is to run again for the Senate next year and mount the kind of campaign that enabled him to land on top in 2004. His current Cabi-net post is not the ideal launching pad for the presidency. Unlike, say, the De-partment of Social Welfare and Devel-opment, the DOTC hardly rings a bell to the masses, although it allows him to rub elbows with big business.

Moreover, Binay’s position in the Cabinet, though not as prestigious as Roxas’, gives Mr. “Sa Makati” a direct line to the lower classes.

But Roxas faces a dilemma: If he runs next year, it would mean abandon-ing his protest at the PET and conced-ing the vice presidency to Binay. Worse, he may not fare good enough in the Sen-ate race for at least two reasons – the presence of other strong candidates like reelectionists Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda, and the stigma of his having lost in the bigger battle.

For now, the LP can only wish that UNA would implode from having to accommodate a cacophony of inter-ests and bizarre bedfellows like Sena-tor Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and forced-to-resign senator Juan Miguel Zubiri. [MindaNews/H. Marcos C. Mor-deno writes mainly on the environment, human rights and politics. He can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com.]

ISN’T it flattering when people, especially stu-

dents, ask you if you’re a graduate of Ateneo because they think you can articulare well in English? Well, ac-tually I still can’t figure out why people who speak English very well are instantly identified as Ateneans, when there are so many schools in Davao which aren’t as “classy” and “elite” as Ateneo, but which churn out impressive English-speak-ing graduates.

I’m a college dropout and my profes-sors at the University of Mindanao refer to me as an “undergraduate.” I refused to graduate and earn a degree after spend-ing six years because I couldn’t figure out what I really want to do after college. I thought then than it’s a very personal de-cision whether to finish college, even my own mother (bless her soul) couldn’t do anything about it, after all I was working my way through college. UM gave me a work scholarship to do what I love most---painting. I spent most of my early college years, balancing myself on top of a scaffold-ing inside a classroom with an artist’s pal-ette and brushes, finishing mural illustra-tions of human skeletons, frogs, intestines, and even the nine planets in our Milky Way. There were just so many paintings I needed to finish in several class laboratories at UM.

No one spoke to me while I was paint-ing, but once in a while high on a scaffold-ing, a teacher below me would introduce me to the students, not as Michelangelo but simply as “Boy” because they didn’t know how to call me--- and my nickname was born.

During those early college years, I lived a quiet artist’s life until one day when a lady feature writer of the campus paper Mind-

anao Collegian wrote an article about me and made me a bit well-known among my classmates in all my Engineering classes. At the time, I was taking up Civil Engineering simply because I topped a Physics exam at UM Tagum high school. Mastering English was farthest away from what I wanted to do with my life.

After taking a summer class in News Writing, I found myself part of a new set of editorial staff of the Mindanao Collegian and began to establish myself as writer and editor of the campus paper. It was easy to blend with other college editors like Ce-sar Decena, Jun Magsuci, Rene Pagatpa-tan, Tony Ajero, Fred Javier, Boy Manigbas, Rose Medina, Bing Cerezo, Faye Jalandoni, and others whose names escape me at the moment---until one day when we had a devastating column against the Engineer-ing Deparment

Raging in anger and fury, Engineer-ing students gathered hundreds of copies of the Mindanao Collegian and put them to the torch, cheering and jeering, shaking their fists, as flames consumed our college paper. It was one of my most exciting times as a campus editor at UM, possibly the only school in Mindanao that allows press free-dom, the way it should be.

When you have this kind of academic freedom and school authorities allow you to write anything you want, including at-tacks against the school and the adminis-trators themselves, your whole creative boundaries are limitless and you simply fly free, high and endless, astounding even your own self as you discover just how much potential you have as a writer within you that’s crying out to be free.

It was this same freedom that allowed me to explore the world of theater, drama, script writing and stage production. I didn’t even know there were many students also yearning to act on stage and turn a stage play like Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero’s “Wanted

: A Chaperon” into life. They were also as fascinated as I was to turn a piece of Philip-pine literature alive onstage, breathing life into all its characters, exposing the Filipino audience to the wealth of our country’s lit-erature.

The result of being exposed for sev-eral years to memorizing scripts of Fili-pino plays in English, dramatic readings and performances of classic English plays which all require precise English articula-tion and right accents, etc--- all changed the way we speak at UM.

Surprisingly, our professors had noth-ing to do with our stage plays and how we learned to speak English so well at the UM Dramatic Guild which I founded and led for three years. With the guiding hand of the late E.O. Fuentes who taught Philip-pine Literature, I trained several actors and directors along the way with the scholar-ship in acting and directing I got from the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), then under Cecile Guidote-Alvarez.

UM may not have the classy “elite” brand names of Ateneo, UP, La Salle, etc, but human resource managers who only hire graduates from these exclusive schools have it all wrong. Because they’re so book-ish and so detached from the real world, many of these “elite” students end up as clerks in banks and hotels, while most UM graduates (and even dropouts) end up as mayors, councilors, branch managers, proj-ect engineers, lawyers, editors, journalists,--in other words, leaders in their chosen fields in Mindanao. Yes, sir, there was a time when more than half of the political lead-ers, leading professionals and businessmen and heads of government regional agencies were UM graduates.

Being so brand-conscious doesn’t nec-essarily mean you’ll always get the high quality you want in a product.

(Comments? Email: tradingpost_davao@yahoo.com)

I‘VE been writ-ing on profiles of women of power,

but this time allow me to talk about women and power, the kind that has everyone riled up for quite some time now, and gained the attention of no less than the President who came to Davao last Friday for the Mindanao Power Summit.

Many of the primary movers of the pow-er summit are women. First, it was the feisty Sec. Luwalhati Antonino, chair of Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), who led the agency to hold this gathering of all sectors affected by the power issue.

MinDA Executive Director Janet Lopoz and Director for Support to Operations Cora Ginete were at the lead of their team of mostly female staff in organizing and holding a suc-cessful event (not to discount the equal con-tribution of the male staff). And how apt that the summit was organized by an agency with a woman’s name, Minda.

Also present during the summit was Mindanao Commission on Women (MCW) chair Inday Santiago, Gov. Lala Taliño-Men-doza, and Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio, three women personalities who have been very vocal about Mindanao’s power problem. And that is not to mention other women from the LGUs, NGOs, civil society organizations, government agencies, and the private sector who all went to the summit.

One of the presentors was the equally vocal Dr. Melchie Ambalong of the Lanao Power Consumers Federation (LAPOCOF) and MCW, who pointed out the seemingly in-significant but very real impact of the power problem on women and their families.

Ambalong cited that women hold the household budget, 25% of which goes to the electricity bill. I was impressed at how ac-curate that was, as every month I find myself gnashing my teeth as I write a check for our electricity bill which takes about a quarter chunk off my household budget.

In fact my power bill has increased by at least a couple of hundreds per month this year, and just this April by twice as much as that. I don’t care to mention the exact bill amount as it makes me hyperventilate just thinking about it. I am just astonished at the rate it is increasing, given that our consump-tion has not increased over the same period of time.

As women apportion a quarter of their household budget to pay for power, we resort to cutting back on other essentials to make ends meet. This can take many faces, depend-ing on the circumstances women find them-selves in. It could be scratching off purchases for a child’s needs such as a pair of shoes or clothing, postponing a medical treatment if one can still manage the symptoms, or as simple as trimming down the food budget.

I don’t need to be melodramatic to show how the mere cutting down of the household budget can mean a lot of hardship for those already hard up (and with spiralling prices of basic needs and commodities these days, who isn’t?)

Bottomline is that women are at the bot-tom of the pecking order when it comes to feeding the family. If you’re familiar with the saying “isusubo na lang ng ina, ibibigay pa sa anak nya”, that line did not come from just imagination. So when the family is hard up, women mostly bear the brunt of it.

One can easily lose herself in all the fig-ures and rhetoric presented during the pow-er summit, but the worries are the same for women as it is for men. Dr. Ambalong sum-marized the issues as the privatization of the Agus-Pulangui hydro power complex, the sale of the power barges, the entry of coal-fired power plants, and the proposed Leyte-Mindanao Interconnection.

I am not an expert on the power issue, but from what I understand, these issues should make us worry. Why? Because it all leads to higher power rates in Mindanao.

If the Agus-Pulangui hydro power com-plex is sold to the highest bidder, it goes with-out saying that the investor’s goal would be to make a quick buck to recover his investment

and ensure profit. If we buy electricity from power barges,

we have to pay more for the fuel it consumes to generate power. Coal-fired power plants mean higher power rates as their genera-tion cost is much higher than that of a hydro power plant.

And lastly but not the least, the Leyte-Mindanao Interconnection provides us with power that is priced at Visayas rates. Accord-ing to Dr. Ambalong, effective March 2009, the generation charges approved by ERC for the Visayas is P4.0339/kwh as against the P2.8177/kwh for Mindanao. These figures say it all.

But is it just me or has the power issue become so convoluted these past months, so much so that many have become confused and have lost track of what the real issues are. There have been many personalities, groups, and sectors that have jumped into the fray. But the fact remains that common people like us will be the ones to bear the strain of rotat-ing brownouts and increasing power rates.

Enduring the brownouts may not sound that bad amid all the issues swirling around of late. But try placing yourself in a woman’s shoes, alone at home during a power outage. With the full impact of the summer heat bear-ing down on you, you swelter while you do your chores and take care of young children.

You have spoiled food in the fridge to deal with, a mountain of soiled clothes to wash manually, and shrieking young children who can’t sleep in the heat or in the dark. Now, compound that with the thought of your power bill eating up your household budget. These alone are enough to frazzle the nerves of any woman. I get warning visions of an on-coming migraine just thinking of it.

I would have wanted to end this article with some witty remark, but I’m afraid the is-sue at hand does nothing to draw my creative juices. Whatever short- or long-term solu-tions are arrived at over the coming weeks or months, here’s to hoping these solutions won’t flicker on and off like the power supply in this island-region we call home.

Roxas in a fix

9VANTAGE POINTS

Monkey Business

EDGEDAVAOWomen and power

What do you really want to be?

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 201210 SUBURBIA EDGEDAVAO

GLAN’S Mahin Festi-val kicks off vaca-tion fun in Saran-

gani as this is the onset of summer festivals that would climax with a sunset-to-sunrise beach party during the famed SarBay Fest next month in the white sands of Gu-masa.

The successful maiden celebration of Mahin Fes-tival last year triggered expectations of a bigger crowd to the three-day festivity starting tomor-row (April 19) until April 21.

As usual, Lumba sa Ka-bayo (horse race), Palu-pad Tabanog (kite flying), Bangkarera (boat race), Pintados (body painting), beach volleyball and foot-ball, Bikini Open, concerts (featuring Blakdyak) and fireworks display are the lined up activities.

Events during the first day (April 19) will be held at The Grove Beach in barangay Tango while in the next two days will be at Coco Beach in Gu-masa.

What makes it dis-tinct from Sarangani Bay Festival (SarBay Fest) on May 18-19, as a local his-torian in Glan and Sang-guniang Bayan Commit-tee on Tourism chair Dr. Jose Tranquilino L. Ruiz has once said, Mahin is a festival which “brings

back traditional beach activities the townsfolk have been fond of doing since then like horse rac-ing at the shoreline.”

“Games like this are now being forgotten,” Ruiz lamented.

Mahin is a Blaan word for ‘beach’ signifying the tranquility, calmness and mystery of water while the term was also coined to pay tribute to the first tribal inhabitants of Glan who are the Blaans.

Ruiz explained Mahin was basically conceptu-alized to also provide a generic name for both of the white and black sand beaches, which are the second top revenue earn-ers in Glan next to copra production.

Special Ordinance No 19-05 declaring April 2011 and every year thereafter to support the holding of celebration of Mahin Festival was also introduced.

As stipulated in the ordinance, Mahin will “spur tourism develop-ment” as this serves as an avenue to inculcate in the minds of the people the importance of uplifting their “economic and so-cial lives.”

Sandwiched between Mahin Festival and Sar-Bay Fest is Maitum’s Binuyugan Festival on May 3 to 7.

NA B U N T U R A N , Compostela Val-ley— The Asian

Development Bank (ADB) led by Joel Mangahas and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) led by Dir. Edgar G. Pato of the KC-National Project Management Office and their team visited the provincial capitol on April 18 to know more of the ATU PEACE project that the province has implemented.

The visit is part of the team’s scoping mission to evaluate the coordination of the provincial govern-ment on its implementa-tion of the Kapit-Bisig La-ban sa Kahirapan – Com-prehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) of the DSWD.

Coined as the ATU PEACE or Assistance To-wards Unity for Progress thru Empowerment, Ac-countability, Cooperation and Efficiency, the pro-gram has been guided by the KALAHI-CIDSS Com-munity Empowerment Ac-tivity Cycle which adopts the community-driven de-velopment approach.

Gov. Arturo T. Uy has replicated the program based on his past experi-ences as an official where he saw for himself that some projects and services were identified according to the whims and caprices of few leaders with same political lineage.

“There are barangays granted with many proj-ects because of their per-sistence in lobbying while those in far-flung areas are left unattended for simple reason that their leaders were not able to regularly pay courtesy call to the Governor.” He said the ba-sic concept of community

based intervention was somehow compromised to political patronage.

And so knowing the im-portance of a participatory democracy in every under-taking of the government, the governor has adopted and replicated the key processes of the KALAHI-CIDSS scheme.

Under the ATU-PEACE Program, it allows the ba-rangays to identify prior-ity projects to be imple-mented for the greater welfare of its constituents and provides the province an avenue to appropriately extend its financial assis-tance to all the barangays.

Each barangay will re-ceive Php300,000.00 to be released by batch within a 3 year period. To date, Comval LGU has appro-priated P25 million pesos since its inception to fund the identified priority pro-grams and projects of the 251 barangays of Comval.

Gerard Servais, a member of the ADB mis-sion team, hailed the ATU PEACE saying he “was im-pressed with the details” particularly on the process

ATU PEACE program hailed

of project identification and prioritization as well as its cost efficient imple-mentation.

Likewise, the team was also impressed with the “Kalinga sa Kabataan: Bayanihan sa Paaralan” program, an innovative approach of constructing school buildings through volunteerism and pooling of resources from public and private institutions and individuals.

Provincial Social Wel-fare and Development Of-ficer Josephine Frasco also

bared that Comval is the only province in Mindanao they have visited, the oth-ers are Leyte in Luzon and Legazpi for Visayas.

Also present during the briefing are DSWD Regional Director Ester A. Versoza and her staff, Yukiko Ito of ADB, Pro-vincial Administrator Virgie Allones, Executive Assistant Belo Melendres, PSWDO head Josephine Frasco, PPDO head Romy Celeste and other Depart-ment heads of Comval. (FE MAESTRE/IDS COMVAL)

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) visits Compostela Valley on April 18 to know more of the ATU PEACE project that the province has implemented. It is replicated from the DSWD’s KALAHI-CIDDS scheme. (R. ANTIBO/IDS COMVAL)  

Comval Gov. Chiongkee Uy shows off the famed Solidar-ity Ring to Yukiko Ito of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) mission team. The ADB and DSWD are in Comval to know more of the ATU PEACE project that the province has implemented. Said project is a replication of the DSWD’s KALAHI-CIDDS scheme. (R. AN-TIBO/IDS COMVAL)  

Mahin launches summer festivals

THE Association of Regional Executives of National Agen-

cies Region XI (ARENA XI) is set to bring its ban-ner project “Serbisyo Caravan,” a one-stop-shop delivery of government services to the province of Davao del Sur this month.

The ARENA-XI Serbi-syo Caravan will have its first stop in the municipal-ity of Sta. Cruz on April 20 where about 30 national government agencies (NGAs) are expected to provide their respective programs and services to the constituents.

The general assem-bly of beneficiaries and the general public will be gathered at the municipal gym, while the various services from the differ-ent NGAs will be provided at the Sangguniang Bayan Session Hall.

Among the NGAs that would render its services to its beneficiaries is the Department of Social Wel-fare and Development (DSWD) which is slated to put up three consultation desks for its Beneficiary Update System, Compli-ance Verification System and Grievance Redress System.

DSWD will also con-duct Office of Senior Citi-zens Affairs (OSCA) regis-

tration and membership. The Department of

Health will assist rural health units in the dis-tribution of medicines worth P25,000 and in-formation, education and communication (IEC) ma-terials.

Consultation, check-up and blood pressure screening will be given by the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples to its IP beneficiaries.

The National Food Au-thority will distribute rice through rolling stores, and will hold advocacy campaign on NFA Pro-grams, while the Depart-ment of Science and Tech-nology will offer demo on candle making and con-sultancy services on food processing.

The Department of Agrarian Reform and De-partment of Environment and Natural Resources will have its distribution of land titles during the caravan, while the De-partment of Agriculture will handle technical cli-niquing on its different banner programs.

The Department of Transportation and Com-munications, Land Trans-portation and Franchising Regulatory Board, and Land Transportation Of-fice will conduct lectures.

Serbisyo Caravan arrives in DavSur

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012 11COMMUNITY SENSEEDGEDAVAO

     

   

 

 

For  Inquiries:  Please  Call   :   PRYCE  CORPORATION  c/o  SONNY  MOLE  Contact  No.   :   0922-­‐879-­‐0036  /  (082)  224-­‐2686  Email  ADD   :   sonitomole1223@yahoo.com  

LOCATION   AREA  (sq.m.)   PRICE/sq.m.  Matina,  

Davao  City  17,940   P2,500  

Matina(Diversion)  Davao  City  

3,831   P1,500  

Bunawan,    Davao  City  

41,408   P800  

Indangan,  Davao  City  

7,056   P1,200  

Bincungan,    Tagum  City  

27,411   P1,000  

LOCATION   AREA  (sq.m.)   PRICE/sq.m.  Villa  Josefina  Resort  Village,  Dumoy  Toril,  Davao  City  

Minimum  of  240  sq.m.  

P5,985  

St.  Joseph  Homes,  Sirawan,  Toril,Davao  City    

Minimum  of  150  sq.m.  

P3,600  

LOCATION   Lot  Area   Flr.  Area   PRICE  Blk.  4,  Lot  10    

Villa  Josefina  Resort  Village  Dumoy,  Toril,  Davao  City  

240  sq.m.   177.31  sq.m   P4.8  M  

FOR REFORESATATION.   Manuel Bendeta shows his rubber tree seedlings at his nursery in Pintatagan, Davao Oriental. He sold it per hill at P25. [SARX LANOS]

MGA BAYANI NG KALIKASAN. Members of the Pintatagan Forest Developers Association who planted and maintained trees in an area that was burned by forest fire years back. [IPID NEWS SERVICE]

Earth Rescue

AHON BAYAN. Lafayette Lim [left], Executive Director of NCCC Cares, Inc. and Ptr. Dante Montenegro of Living Stones Orphanage sign the Memorandum of Agreement on NCCC Cares educational grant for the disadvantaged children at the orphanage. The educational assistance project is being undertaken through the DSWD Ahon Bayan Program wherein projects of non-government organizations or even local government units are matched with resource providers or donor communities for partnership and program-related collaboration. Witnessing the event are [from left] Raquel E. Nunez and Nestor E. Estampa of DSWD, Aileen Gajo of NCCC Cares, and DSWD Director Ester A. Versoza.

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 201212 NATION/WORLD EDGEDAVAO

NATION BRIEFS WORLD TODAY

A bristling North Korea said on Wednesday it was

ready to retaliate in the face of international con-demnation over its failed rocket launch, increasing the likelihood the hermit state will push ahead with a third nuclear test.

The North also ditched an agreement to allow back inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. That fol-lowed a U.S. decision, in response to a rocket launch the United States says was a disguised long-range missile test, to break off a deal earlier this year to provide the impoverished state with food aid.

Pyongyang called the U.S. move a hostile act and said it was no longer bound to stick to its side of the February 29 agree-ment, dashing any hopes that new leader Kim Jong-un would soften a foreign policy that has for years been based on the threat of an atomic arsenal to le-verage concessions out of regional powers.

“We have thus become able to take necessary re-taliatory measures, free from the agreement,” the

CELEBRATION. A portrait of North Korea founder Kim Il-sung is shown during a concert in Pyongyang April 16, 2012. The concert was part of the celebration on the centenary of the birth of Kim.

N.Korea threatens retaliation

official KCNA news agen-cy said, without specify-ing what actions it might take.

Many analysts expect that with its third test, North Korea will for the first time try a nuclear de-vice using highly enriched uranium, something it was long suspected of developing but which it only publicly admitted to about two years ago.

“If it conducts a nucle-ar test, it will be uranium rather than plutonium be-cause North Korea would want to use the test as a

big global advertisement for its newer, bigger nu-clear capabilities,” said Baek Seung-joo of the Seoul-based Korea Insti-tute for Defence Analysis.

Defence experts say that by successfully en-riching uranium, to make bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima nearly 70 years ago, the North would be able to significantly build it up stocks of weapons-grade nuclear material.

It would also allow it more easily to manufac-ture a nuclear warhead

to mount on a long-range missile.

The latest internation-al outcry against Pyong-yang followed last week’s rocket launch, which the United States and others said was in reality the test of a long range mis-sile with the potential to reach the U.S. mainland.

China, the North’s main economic and dip-lomatic backer, called for “dialogue and communi-cation” and continued en-gagement with the Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.

CHINA on Wednes-day summoned a top Philippine

diplomat and expressed concern over the “ha-rassment” of Chinese fishing boats in disput-ed waters in the South China Sea, as a maritime stand-off rumbled on.

The two countries have traded barbs for more than a week over a territorial dispute that centres on a disputed shoal not far from the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, and has in-creased tensions in the region.

On Wednesday, Chi-nese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Wei-min said Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying had summoned the charge

d’affaires of the Philip-pine embassy on Sunday and Wednesday to lodge representations over the row.

“We urge the Philip-pines to bear in mind the overall good relationship between China and the Philippines,” Liu said.

The dispute centres on a group of islands known in the Philippines as Scarborough Shoal and called Huangyan island in Chinese and claimed by both coun-tries.

It first erupted last week when Chinese ves-sels blocked a Filipino warship from arresting the crews of Chinese fishing boats in the area, and spiked this week when Chinese vessels

were accused of harass-ing a Filipino research ship.

Beijing, however, claims the warship ha-rassed the fishing boats, and has urged the ar-chaeological research vessel to “leave the area immediately”.

“Philippine military vessels’ harassment of Chinese fishing vessels around Huangyan island have drawn the high concern of China,” Liu told reporters.

“We hope the Philip-pine side will honour its commitments and withdraw its ships in relevant waters immedi-ately so that the waters off Huangyan island can return to peace and sta-bility.”

The incidents are some of the most high-profile flare-ups in re-cent years between the two countries over their competing territo-rial claims to parts of the South China Sea, which is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits.

China insists it has sovereign rights to all of the South China Sea, even waters close to the coast of other countries and hundreds of kilome-tres (miles) from its own landmass.

The Philippines says it has sovereign rights over areas of the sea within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, and that its posi-tion is supported by in-ternational law.

China summons Filipino diplomat

FULLY ABLED. Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo delivers his keynote message during the launching of the “Fully Abled Nation” campaign at Makati Shangri-La in Makati City on

Wednesday. The nationwide campaign aims to increase the participation of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the 2013 Philippine midterm election and other democratic processes. [PNA/GIL S. CALINGA]

InstalledPHILIPPINE National

Police (PNP) Director-General Nicanor Bar-

tolome formally installed on Thursday eight senior police officers to key positions in the PNP Directorial Staff and National Support Units.

Bartolome said the last round of reorganization of officers occupying key po-sitions was recommended by the PNP Senior Officers Placement and Promotion Board (SOPPB) that aims to enhance organizational performance by “putting the right person in the right job.”

DirectedEXECUTIVE Secretary

Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. has directed all govern-

ment employees and con-cerned agencies to give their full support and participate in activities recognizing the Puerto Princesa Under-ground River (PPUR) as one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature (N7WN).

“Our campaign in mak-ing the PPUR as one of the world-famous tourist spots in our country was a success and we anticipate that it will further attract international interest as well as boost tourism and investment that will benefit our country,” he added.

Joint probeTHE Office of the Om-

budsman (Ombuds-man) and the Com-

mission on Audit (COA) on Wednesday formed a Joint Investigation Team for speedy prosecution of cases against government officials and employees.

As members of the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordi-nating Council (IAACC), the COA and the Ombudsman have collaborated their an-ti-corruption initiatives to enhance the filing and pros-ecution of cases of graft and corruption, and violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

DeclinedCOURT of Appeals (CA)

Associate Justice Noel Tijam declined to in-

hibit from handling a peti-tion of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampat-uan.

The detained former ARMM governor would like the CA to exclude him from the Maguindanao massa-cre case saying that he has already prejudged his case. Tijam is one of the justices who dismissed the petition of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, Sr. asking that he be excluded as among the principal ac-cused in the Maguindanao massacre case.

AssuranceMALACANANG made

an assurance that it would come up with

a well-defined mining policy soon after having extensive consultations with mining stakeholders.

“We can expect it soon. There are just a few more notes that need to go be-tween some of the depart-ments and then that should be out in a relatively short amount of time. We under-stand the concerns and it is exactly what we are trying to come up with -- a well-defined mining policy from which will flow specific ac-tions,” said Secretary Ramon Carandang of the Presiden-tial Communications Devel-opment and Strategic Plan-ning Office (PCDSPO).

Threatened

MADRID has threat-ened to retaliate after Argentina an-

nounced it will expropriate a subsidiary of Spanish oil giant Repsol, warning the move breaks a “good un-derstanding” between the countries.

Spain will take “all mea-sures it considers appropri-ate” to defend the interests of Repsol and Spanish busi-nesses abroad, Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria saidm adding that Spain is considering action on di-plomacy, trade, industry and energy without giving further details.

New bloodshed

SYRIAN troops continue to pound rebel strong-holds with deadly fire

while the regime sought to reassure an increasingly sceptical world that it is committed to a week-old ceasefire.

As UN observers were greeted by hundreds of anti-regime protesters on the streets of Damascus, Washington said their mis-sion was not being given the necessary freedom to properly monitor a halt to hostilities.

Investigation

UNITED Nations of-ficials are investigat-ing allegations that

China supplied technology for a North Korean missile launcher in a possible breach of UN sanctions, a leading defence journal said Thursday.

IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly quoted a senior of-ficial close to a United Na-tions Security Council sanc-tions committee as saying that an associated panel of experts was “aware of the situation and will pursue enquiries”.

Expert

AN FBI agent testify-ing in the trial of the suspected Bali bomb-

maker said Thursday the accused had been identi-fied as an explosives expert by other Islamic militants and had planned to kill US troops.

Indonesian prosecutors accuse Umar Patek, who was arrested last year in the same Pakistani town where US commandos later killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, of constructing the bombs that killed 202 peo-ple, mostly Westerners.

Jailed

A Chinese fisherman was jailed for 30 years on Thursday

for murdering a South Ko-rean coastguard officer dur-ing an operation to stop ille-gal fishing, court authorities said.

Cheng Dawei, a 43-year-old fishing boat skipper, was also fined 20 million won ($17,500) by the court in the western port city of Incheon. The skipper fatally stabbed one officer with a knife and seriously wound-ed another on December 12, after they boarded his boat inside South Korea’s exclusive economic zone in the Yellow Sea.

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012 13FFROM 1 FFROM 1

EDGEDAVAO

78 Taiwanese... Central...monitor the presence of the Taiwanese nationals in the city.

Dela Rosa said it was “very easy” to pinpoint the suspects as they “ar-rived in groups.”

“They were all within the age range of 20 to 30 and it was very easy to detect them because they arrived in groups of six, ten, or twelve and would all go to one of the hous-es,” he said.

The modus operandi of the syndicate is to tar-get their countrymen or those from mainland China, threatening arrest if they do not pay their bills. “They take turns, with the 33 people work-ing in shifts or an average of 11 per house working in the morning, afternoon and sa gabi. Kumbaga 24-hours na fake call cen-ter,” dela Rosa said.

“If the person in-volved in money launder-ing in mainland China or Taiwan does not pay up, the syndicate threatens to inform concerned au-

thorities abroad about the fraud. The money in-volved, dela Rosa, said is in the millions of dollars. “Yung napatakbo nila sa kanilang money launder-ing.”

Continuing investi-gation

The DCPO and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 11 are continu-ing to help the Taiwanese police team investigate the case, evenb as they suspect another house is serving as a den of the syndicate.

“We are monitoring one house, but we still have to come up with an arrest warrant in order to raid the house,” dela Rosa said.

The local police also want to know who has been helping the syndi-cate in finding houses for renting who could be a local Filipino or a Taiwan-ese who is familiar with the city.

Dela Rosa said the Taiwanese police suspect

that the dens found here could also be among oth-er bases the international syndicate has set up in the country.

The DCPO chief ex-pressed satisfaction with the success of the arrests, considering this is the biggest police operation hereabouts this year.

“We do not want Davao City to have the negative image of tolerat-ing these acts,” said dela Rosa. “We hope to show the city as peaceful, al-though we also think this is the reason they came here, that no one would suspect them of commit-ting a crime.”

Grave penaltyDela Rosa said the

Taiwanese police would not be spending so much to send a team of inves-tigators here if they did not consider a serious crime was being commit-ted against Taiwnese and Chinese. “Malaking kri-men ito sa kanila. Mabigat na parusa ang ibibigay sa kanila.”

will go ahead of the am-bulance to the area.

“This is to address the problem on traffic, because unlike the am-bulance the motorcycle is more versatile. Upon arriving, having been trained on emergency medical situations, the medic will do the first aid and make the assess-ment,” Jaldon said.

“By the time the am-bulance arrives at the scene much time has been saved before the patient is brought to the hospital because the ERT medic shall have made an as-sessment beforehand,” he added.

Jaldon said the six ERT medics have been highly trained to drive motorcycle and to act in response to an emergen-

cy situation. He looks for-ward to adding more per-sonnel and motorcycles to be assigned to the new ERT unit.

Mobile tracking sys-tem

Central 911 is cur-rently utilizing a mobile tracking system which keeps track of the loca-tion of its vehicles.

Jaldon said the tech-nology for this was do-nated by the Davao Light and Power Company Inc. (DLPC), an Aboitiz com-pany, and was financed by Jaime Jose Aboitiz, currently executive vice president and chief oper-ating officer of the Visay-an Electric Company Inc.

The technology was turned-over to the city January of this year and is in full use by Central

911’s twelve ambulances and other vehicles, Jaldon said. “Through the track-ing system we will know the progress of each emer-gency response.”

DLPC vice president for communication Ros-sano Luga said the utility firm turned over 35 units of the tracking devices, 28 of which have been in-stalled.

“This tracking system cost P3 million, and we are glad to hand it over to the Central 911, optimistic that this will be of great help in the service of the Davawenyos,” Luga said during the same forum.

Jaldon said the track-ing system is also installed in the mobile patrols as-signed to the Public Safety Command Center. [JADE C. ZALDIVAR]

demanding corporate job that requires them to be accessible and available at all times; hence prox-imity to the workplace is important. With its central location within the city’s urban growth area, Camella Northpoint makes it easy for its resi-dent urbanites to drive the short distance to their workplace.

They can whip up a quick breakfast at their expedient condo kitchen before going off to work, or grab a sandwich and coffee at the many coffee shops and 24-hour take-outs around Northpoint’s vicinity. The condo com-munity’s strategic urban location allows them to make a quick dash home anytime they choose to.

After knocking off from work, urbanites can drive a few minutes to one of the many eating joints within close range of Northpoint. There’s the restaurant row at Abreeza Ayala Mall, Victoria Plaza, or Gaisano Mall – not to mention another soon-to-open mall - all a stone’s throw away and offering a wide array of cuisines such as Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, American, Italian, and other specialties such as seafood, steak, and pasta.

To the north are Da-mosa Gateway and Robin-son’s Cybergate with their own line of restaurants from Thai to Spanish

dishes, to pizza and pan-cakes. Over to the south is a row of homegrown restaurants along Torres Avenue, Mabini, and Rizal, where an eclectic mix of bistros, coffee shops, tea house, and other dining places abound. Urbanites can also jaunt off to ho-tel restaurants or smaller food joints around down-town area.

These fashion con-scious yuppies will also find it very convenient to get the latest apparel and accessories to fit their style, as living in Camella Northpoint makes them quite near to commercial and retail centers where shopping is the name of the game.

After a hard day’s work, these energetic and modish city dwell-ers will want to have a night out to party work stresses away, or simply enjoy the evening with an intimate group of friends. They don’t have to travel far with the close prox-imity of bars, watering holes, and other night haunts in the city.

Better yet, they can just drive the short dis-tance to home, and in-vite their friends over to Camella Northpoint’s charming clubhouse, Wakefield Manor, with its stately multi-purpose hall, salinated wellness pool, cabanas and grill pits. Unwinding within Northpoint’s green, open

spaces and the fragrant Caribbean pine trees is a refreshingly unique experience they will not find anywhere else in the city.

All these short dis-tance driving or commute add up and can save the urbanites effort, time and even money from fuel ef-ficiency. Recreation, din-ing, and shopping cent-ers, high-end malls and other mixed-use devel-opments are near North-point, allowing urbanites to live the modern life-style they seek.

A subsidiary of the country’s largest home-builder, Vista Land & Lifescapes, Camella holds office at 2/F Delgar Building, JP Laurel Ave., Bajada, Davao City, (082) 222-0963 and (082) 222-5221. It offers studio units and two-bedroom condo units in Camella Northpoint that are just what urbanites need, with affordable and easy-on-the-pocket financial schemes especially for those conscious about budget.

Living within the posh ambiance of Camel-la Northpoint is a clear mark of success in life, a badge of achievement urbanites can be proud of. That’s because the exclusive reputation of Northpoint reflects their aspirations in life, uplift-ing their status as near-ing their way to the top.

FFROM 3

FFROM 3

Urbanites...

JAZA...that hire them,” he said.

He added the company, which has started the ex-pansion project in Davao City in December, has not had any problem with hir-ing new employees in posts that need expertise because it has invested on them by training them to cope with the demand of new technol-ogy like equipment.

When the company

contracts an equipment provider, part of the con-tract is for the provider to educate its employees on the new technology.

“So it is hard for quan-tify how much is the com-pany allocating for the skills development,” he added.

The company has em-barked on what it claimed as a”future-proof” expan-sion after its main competi-

tor, Smart Communications, gobbled up the third player, Sun Cellular of the Gokong-wei group.

Last month, Petet Bithos, company adviser on consumer business, earlier said that the com-pany identified Davao City as uts jump-off point in its expansion project so it can strengthen its presencein the city.

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

AND then, there were two. It’s going to be a Talk ‘N Text versus B MEG Lla-

mados in the finals.One team is making its

fifth straight finals appearance, the other is taking its coach to his 24th. Definitely, a big en-counter looms on the floor and in the bench.

The finals cast was com-pleted Wednesday night after Talk ‘N Text clinched the series against Barako Bull in Game 5

of their semifinals clash.After successfully keep-

ing the Philippine Cup last con-ference, the Texters will now have a chance to defend the Commissioner’s Cup.

The Tropang Texters made a return trip to the fi-nals with a hard-earned 101-90 triumph over Barako Bull in their do-or-die semifinals match Wednesday night at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.

Old reliables Jimmy Ala-

pag and Ranidel de Ocampo delivered big down the stretch, picking up from where import Donnel Harvey left off.

Alapag and De Ocampo’s clutch baskets in the final three and a half minutes helped weather the final uprising by Barako Bull, which pushed the favored Tropang Texters in the series.

“It’s always a special feel-ing to get to the finals,” said Talk ‘N Text coach Chot Reyes

after the game. “I had high re-gard for Danny Seigle, one of my all-time favorite players, Willie Miller, Wynne Arboleda, and Dorian Pena. We had no illusions about the other team because we know they know how to play the game.”

“Coach Junel Baculi and Bong Ramos put together a game plan where they had a chance of winning, but in this series, it’s the team who can make the big shots down the stretch which mattered the most. Tonight, we saw Ranidel making a four-point play and Jimmy Alapag hitting a three-pointer. In the finals, we expect that it’s going to be that way again.”

Alapag’s three-pointer at the 3:39 mark of the fourth quarter shoved the Tropang Texters lead up to eight, 92-84. After Tubid made back-to-back shots to give Barako Bull a lease on life, De Ocampo hit a dagger four-point play to knock the spirit out of the En-ergy.

The Tropang Texters have made it to the champion-ship round for the fifth straight time. The last time to team make five straight finals ap-pearances was the San Miguel Beermen, which entered the championship round from the 2000 Commissioner’s Cup to the 2001 Governors’ Cup.

14 SPORTS EDGEDAVAO

A Dream Finale

Talk ‘N Text vs B Meg in FinalsThe stage is set for the Commissioner’s Cup Finals between B MEG and Talk N Text.

THE Philippine na-tional men’s rugby union team con-

tinued its winning run in the Asian Five Nations Division I tournament, defeating Chinese Taipei, 34-12, Wednesday night at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

The Volcanoes set up a title showdown with Sri Lanka, which also remained undefeated in the competition after beating Singapore, 35-10, in the earlier match.

Saturday’s match be-tween the Philippines and Sri Lanka serves as the title match, with the winner earning a promo-tion to the Top 5 division.

Division I is the sec-ond tier of competition in Asian Five Nations

Volcanoes advance to finals

THERE is another battle looming in the PBA Finals. This

one involves two good friends.

Two great coaches too.

But something has to give. For now, in the Fi-nals, at least.

Friendship has to be set aside when coaches Tim Cone of B-MEG and Chot Reyes take cen-terstage on Monday’s opening salvo of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup fi-nals.

The two men go back a long way. Reyes’ first job as a PBA assistant coach was with Alaska, as a deputy for Cone.

They have gone on to become two of the most successful coaches in PBA history, with Cone winning 13 titles and Reyes having eight un-der his belt.

They will be meeting for the sixth time in the championship round, with Reyes holding a 3-2 lead in their matchup.

Cone said it’s always a pleasure coaching against his friend and rival.

“Chot brings out the best in you,” said Cone, who defeated Reyes in the 1996 All-Filipino Conference and the 2003 Invitational Conference.

Reyes, who has vic-

tories over his friend in the 1994 Commis-sioner’s Cup, the 2002 All-Filipino Conference, and the 2008-09 Philip-pine Cup, said he’s look-ing forward to matching wits once more against Cone, who is gunning for his first title since leav-ing Alaska.

“Tim and I go back a long way and I will al-ways cherish the oppor-tunity playing against him,” he said.

“But he has a different set of pieces right now. Meeting Tim always de-mands the best in me. As coaches that’s what we live for. You make your team do their best.”

Chot vs. Tim: Battle between two Friends

FRIENDS. Tim Cone of B MEG meets former assistant Chot Reyes (Talk N Text).

Players of the Philippine Volcanoes whoop it up after winning over Chinese Taipei in the 5 Nations Rugby at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

I know the Davraa inci-dent involving young athletes forced to play

under unplayable condi-tions will, as always, fall in deaf ears again.

Deaf as in Deaf-Ed. We were hoping the

Department of Education or whoever is responsible for such intolerable negli-gence will at least explain the incident. However, there seems to be no one interested in explaining this.

You see, when people are used to doing things wrongly, they pass it off as right. By simply argu-ing that there were no available alternate venue for the football matches that is why they had to play the competitions

in a quasi-football pitch quasi-ricefield is a lame excuse.

Oh well, we cannot perhaps fault DepEd if they do not issue an ex-planation. Until today, no one from among the city and provincial delega-tions filed a formal com-plaint.

Sila sila lang yan eh.It will still boil down

to the officials of DepEd in the city and provincial level or those participat-

ing in the Davraa to file the complaint. As it is, no one dared. Not even the Davao City Division Office of DepEd.

You see, the parents can only grumble at the sorry incident their chil-dren had to go through. They can shout all invec-tives but hell will not break loose until and un-less the complaint will come from the proper au-thorities. In this case, the City Schools Division Of-fice should do it in behalf of its players.

But would you think the Division Office of the DepEd will do that?

I doubt.Hahaha.That’s almost impos-

sible.The hierarchy of

DepEd is by its nature very parochial. Very pro-tective.

We have to live with it. Year in and year out. Every Davraa has its own story and they never learn.

I am just intrigued here. Why is it that the delegation from Davao del Norte did not com-plain too? They played against Davao City and won in the finals played in that basakan of a pitch. Does it mean the pitch is acceptable to them?

Is it what you call “homecourt advantage?”

Just asking.

Deaf-Ed?

‘Oh well, we cannot

perhaps fault DepEd

if they do not issue

an explanation. Until

today, no one from

among the city and

provincial delegations

filed a formal

complaint.’

rugby, next only to the Top 5. Last year, the Phil-ippines lost in the semi-

finals to South Korea, which was promoted to the Top 5.

DABAWENYOS love to eat! Be it fine dining, fun dining, or even street food. Everyone has a spe-cial “someplace” to have the best barbecued chick-en or “somewhere” where the paella is just spectacu-lar. This passion for food extends beyond basic eating as the Sa-broso Sunday Market proves. Bringing together food enthusiasts, food start-ups, and hidden food es-tablishments this food market held every Sunday at the Yellow Haus along V. Mapa allows Dabawenyos to taste family recipes and hidden foodie finds that, dare I say, will be hidden no more. My favorite would be the most sinful grilled burger in the city that

is topped off with a slice of fatty, deli-cious foie gras. Cra-zy! Add s o m e o t h e r f o o d i e finds and we have a

sure winner of a diet buster. Based on the crazy crowd that attended the event, I can say Dabawenyos approve! Catch this Sunday’s Sabroso Market at the Yellow Haus from 3pm to 9 pm. Follow me on twitter @kenneth-kingong for more foodie and culture finds.

INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 33 • APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

EDGEDAVAOSTYLE

Sabroso-delicious!

By Ariel Balofinos

I recently got introduced to Simsimi (pronounced Shim-shimee) by my of-ficemates and friends.

While I have been seeing this mentioned in a number of posts of friends at Facebook, I didn’t bother to check this out. And with some encouragement from peers, I found myself checking it one day and then that was when I began to un-derstand what this is all about. So who or what is Simsimi? Ac-cording to a story that was posted by the International Business Times dated 23 January 2012, it is an iPhone and Android app that is “an artificial intel-ligence conversation program that has the world laughing. Created in 2002 (so it took about 9 years before I got in-troduced to it! Ha ha ha) by the Korean tech company ISMaker, it uses artificial intelligence (or AI) to converse with human users. “ The blog spot, sim-simi000.blogspot.com, is quoted by the IBT post to provide further explanation on how it works: “SimSimi is a super ad-vanced chatting robot that makes amus-ing conversations to engage with users. Using this app is really simple. Just start a talk session at your touch screen then Simsimi will instantly greet you with a cheerful chat.” So, “who answers the questions and your messages?” The said app, accord-ing to IBT, “draws on a base of about 10 million question-and-answer conversa-tions to come up with what many users describe as the best conversation app they have ever used. The IBT goes on to explain that “when a user sends a text to the Simsimi app on their iPhone or Android device, or communicates with it on their computer, the app responds by automatically scanning for related conversations in its massive database, then spitting out a relevant, and often hilarious, response. The blog spot cited in the report adds, “Don’t be surprised by Simsimi’s fast response. It’s a super-duper robot, you know!” I saw that, up to some extent, it did look like any common messaging pro-grams such as Skype or Yahoo Messen-ger. When you key in a sentence, be it a question or a statement, it readily an-swers back. And take note, dear friends, it can answer back in Tagalog and Ce-buano plus other local languages (I think I even recognized Maguindanaon there!) So how was my experience? Well, there were times when answers by Sim-simi were indeed hilarious; others were just downright, well, blah, out of this world, or plainly off…

Hits: Me: I’m fine! How about you?Simsimi: I’m great, thanks!

Me: Kasabot ka og bisaya?Simsimi: Taronga og explain para kas-abot ko…

Misses:Me: How are you doing?

Simsimi: Mrs. McLain is really awe-some, isn’t she?(ha?!!!)

Me: nag breakfast na ka?Simsimi: oo, nabuang si Mariella!

But it’s not merely about the won-derful (and perhaps not-so-wonderful) technical and technological features of Simsimi that made me interested to talk about it here. It’s how, I realized, it can reflect real life sit-uations, particu-larly on h o w we hit a n d miss i n o u r con-v e r s a -t ions…our natural “Sim-simi moments”. But never mind the hits, the really funny and interesting ones are the misses... I came across an article on how we try to answer questions but end up not re-ally answering them directly, and this, it says, is typically Filipino. To illustrate:

Q: Saan ka na? Kanina pa kami naghi-hintay! A: Malapit na ako!

Q: Guwapo ba sya? A: Matangkad sya! Q: Oo nga, pero gwapo ba sya?A: Mabait!

Q: Anong oras na?A: Maaga pa

Q: Kumain ka na?A: Busog pa ako

And my conversation with the Carlo Mallo yesterday went like:

Ariel: Sino kasama mo?Carlo: Di mo kilala eh

It’s quite funny if you really think about how we have these conversations or variations of such and what’s inter-esting is that these conversations have somehow become part of the norm. I asked a few friends why we have these “Simsimi moments” and they gave sev-eral reasons. A number of them have attributed these to evasiveness, i.e. when one is guilty of committing something that is likely to displease the other, then we skirt the question or statement and try to come up with a response that we think would be non- or less- incrimi-nating, yet may be more or less related. Others say that it could perhaps be a case of being too polite (given our being too sentimental or sensitive as a people). So naturally, if you ask about a person’s trait that s/he may not neces-sarily have, then you point to a differ-

ent, and hopefully, obvious, character-istic, hoping that there will be no more follow-through question. Related to this would be our tenden-cies to deny or gloss over something in order to tone down what are glaringly weak spots, just to advance self interests or desires, such as, “Q: effective ba tala-ga yang moisturizer na yan? A: ay naku,

ito baya gyud ang gigamit ni Anne Curtis sa

mukha nya kaya bilhin

mo na g y u d

i t o da!”

I n m a n y

cases, many of us do not pay atten-

tion to the question. Either we are too pre-occupied or

are just too bored to really lis-ten and respond (note: Simsimi comes from the word simsim, meaning bored) that we just blurt out a response to the word(s) that might have registered in our heads. Again, could be a typical case of us wanting to be polite by keep-ing the conversation alive, even if, it no longer seems like an good one. And then there are those that I would group to be on the extreme end: the case of those who have poor active lis-tening skills, those who really can’t train themselves to listen very well, or prob-ably those who refuse to listen… In my own office, I have seen people whose relationships crumble just because they fail to effectively listen, and also com-municate their thoughts and feelings. I have seen a number of staff members uncomfortably go through a web of dis-cussions because one is raising the ques-tion and the other feels, perceives, or is actually being attacked by the question. And in the end, the original question or statement is not addressed. I would say that this can potentially be worse because while the Simsimi robot may “learn”, these people may just not be able to do so… Simsimi may just be a technological fad or perhaps evolve into something more complicated. I would also like to think that these programs somehow resonate our desire to communicate and to have someone to communicate with. No matter what form it is, I believe that it will still most likely end up reflecting the quality of conversations that we will have several years from now. However, that as long as we still aim at understand-ing each other and being there for each other, then these all just adds to dyna-mism, layers, and color of our every day communication. However, let us all be reminded not to stray far from and to make the effort to get the real message.

A2 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 33 • APRIL 20 - 21, 2012EDGEDAVAOCULTURE

There is a Simsimi in all of us…

ZAC Efron really is a lucky fella. Not only does he having his new flick, The Lucky One, hit-ting theaters on Friday… But Mr. Efron, 24, has some really steamy scenes in the flick with his beautiful costar Taylor Schilling, 27. “We had great chemistry,” Zac told me at last night’s Lucky’s premiere in Hollywood. The sexy work didn’t come until they had been working together for about four or five months. “We knew each other every which way,” Efron said, adding, “It felt great.” (When I mention that he has similar scenes with Nicole Kidman in the upcoming The Paper Boy, Efron beamed, “Yeah, hot blondes!”) “We were so comfortable with each other,” Schilling said. “Honestly, I was more nervous about some of the more emo-tional scenes then I was about that.” Efron impressed offscreen as much as he did on. Said Court-ney J. Clark, who plays Efron’s

sister in the flick, “He taught the little boys who play my sons in the movie how to peel a banana like a monkey.”

Better than teaching them how to remove a bra, right? Efron and Schilling made for quite a pretty pair last night as

both were wearing Calvin Klein. Also at the premiere were the film’s Blythe Danner, Jay R. Fer-guson and Riley Thomas Stew-

art, director Scott Hicks, Nicho-las Sparks, 90210 hottie Matt Lanter and Efron’s High School Musical costar Ashley Tisdale.

A3INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 33 • APRIL 20 - 21, 2012EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

TV legend signs off at 82

Zac Efron is the Lucky OneNOW SHOWING

TIME sadly caught up with America’s oldest teenager. Dick Clark, the iconic TV host and producer who put younger folks to shame with his work ethic and energy until he was slowed by a stroke eight years ago, has died. He was 82. He suffered what his agent, Paul Shefrin, de-scribed as a “massive heart attack” this morn-ing while at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, where he was recovering from an out-patient procedure he has last night. “Attempts to resusci-tate were unsuccessful,” Shefrin said in a state-ment. “He is survived by his wife Kari and his three children, RAC, Duane and Cindy.” And, needless to say, generations of fans who could have picked any decade and tuned into Clark on radio or TV. From the pioneering song-and-dance series American Bandstand—the format of which is still being copied to this day—to his annual Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve, the New York native was a fixture of the enter-tainment scene.

Even when he wasn’t on camera, Dick Clark Productions (which he sold in 2007 for a report-ed $175 million) was a force behind event tele-vision like the Golden Globes, the American Music Awards, the Acad-emy of Country Music Awards and So You Think You Can Dance. Since he first heralded the dropping of the ball in Times Square for ABC in 1972, Clark missed host-ing his New Year’s Eve show  exactly once: He

took the night off in 2004 after suffering a stroke earlier in the month, but was back on the air in 2005 along with cohost and ultimate successor Ryan Seacrest. (For the record, Rockin’ Eve was preempted in 1999, but Clark still pulled count-down duty.) “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” Clark said on the air as he waited for 2006 to arrive. Most recently, he and Seacrest ushered in 2012 together.

A4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 33 • APRIL 20 - 21, 2012EDGEDAVAOTRAVEL

TRAVELLING can either be a breeze or a huge hassle. When it all boils down to it; the success of any travel relies largely on how prepared you are. And this is often brought by good judg-ment from years of experience. Unfortu-nately, some of us do not have the luxury to allow teacher time to impart its travel les-sons just because we want every trip to be a success. Not every-one finds adventure in discovering some-thing in the form of a travel mishap. So how can one learn all that he has to without ac-tually going through some bad travel ex-periences? He could continue reading. I am not exactly the most well-travelled writer in the industry; but I have gone to enough places (to look for hot parties, of course) to know a thing or two about travelling. Although the following pieces of advice are not exactly break-throughs, these are some ideas and tips I have come up with during my years of back pack-ing. So sit back, relax, and try to keep reading this host of tips to help your travels. Tip # 1: Always bring a spare pair of shoes. The thing is, shoes are too bulky and with light travels, shoes are something that should kept at a minimum. Most people (especially men) wear the pair of shoes they in-tend to use for the duration of their stay when they board the plane, bus, or road vehicle that will take them to their destina-tion. Most people think it is sensible to bring a pair of shoes that goes well with everything you packed. Unfortunately, I used to be ‘most people’. How-ever, a ridiculously rainy eve-ning in Cagayan de Oro taught me that wearing the same pair of shoes you intend to use for the duration of the trip is a big mistake. Rain gets you shoes wet and stinky. Obviously, you don’t have the time to dry them out in a sunny place to get rid of the moisture. The best thing to do then is to use another pair of shoes and let the wet pair dry. Ergo, bringing a spare pair, no matter how bulky it makes your backpack, is a must. Tip # 2: Always keep your money safe. You know they al-ways say that you should keep your money in different places? I am a firm believer of this. But this does not mean that you can have a friend keep your money. No matter how long you’ve known them or how close you are. Never trust any-one with your money. The fact that it isn’t theirs would sim-ply make them less cautious.

So here is the deal. No matter how drunk you predict you’ll be; keep some money with you and keep some in your purse and luggage. I always take money that is enough for any immediate purchase and keep that amount in my pocket. That way, when I need to pay for something, people around me while I’m making the pur-chase wouldn’t see how much I have in my wallet. Keep a larger amount in your wallet as well. Aside from this, keep a couple of thousands in an ob-scure pocket inside your bag or purse. Also leave a couple of thousands inside your lug-gage which should be safe in your hotel room. I lost thirteen thousand in Boracay once. Trust me. This is worth all the hassle. Tip # 3: Always bring a med-icine kit. Take some deconges-tant, anti allergy, pain killer, paracetamol, and some lozeng-es at the very least. Feeling sick-ly during a vacation or trip is bad. What makes it even worse is having to shell out a huge amount on medication when you can spend your moolah on something more worthwhile…like a cocktail. Also, taking some decongestant before a flight helps keep your sinuses

unclogged which makes it less likely for you to suffer from headaches caused by pent up pressure in that area. Tip # 4: Always reserve a ho-tel room at least a month before your scheduled trip then follow the reservation up by calling the hotel a three days before you reach your destination; look-ing for a hotel a couple of days before leaving for your destina-tion leaves you with very little options. Not reserving a hotel at all is just suicidal. Trust me. The last thing you would want to happen is to check in to an inn that is below your standard just because you can not find any other place to stay in. Tip # 5: Bring as little toilet-ries as possible. This is one tip not many people apply but I think it is very important. If you use a brand of soap or sham-poo that you can buy in any convenience store or sari-sari store, then don’t bring a stash with you. Instead, purchase your toiletries at your destina-tion. Why? Toiletries don’t pack well. You can’t squeeze them in or push them around. Some toiletries even spill during the travel and get your clothes all sticky. Of course, you could also keep them inside a Ziploc bag but really, why don’t you just leave them behind and purchase shampoo, soap, and toothpaste at your destination?Catch Confessions of a Par-typhile (The Radio Show) on 105.9 Mix FM every Wednes-days from 6 to 9 PM. For com-ments, suggestions, and more confessions from this partyph-ile, log on to http://party.i.ph or follow the columnist on twitter.com/zhaun

Top travel tips

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 2012

LONDON — Roberto Di Matteo said Chelsea’s old guard had silenced

their critics after leading the club to a 1-0 upset of hold-ers Barcelona in the Cham-pions League semi-finals on Wednesday.

The elder statesman of the Chelsea line-up — 34-year-old Didier Drogba — scored the winner as the Premier League side with-stood a furious Barcelona onslaught to hang on for a memorable first-leg victory.

Chelsea’s win came despite being outplayed by long periods, with Barcelona enjoying 72 percent posses-sion throughout the match to their opponents’ 28.

The Spaniards also had 24 attempts on goal while Chelsea’s only shot on target came in the shape of Drog-ba’s winner.

Nevertheless the win was a triumph for Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Petr Cech as Barcelona were sent crash-ing to their first European

defeat this season.“In the past a lot of the

public opinion has been that these boys are over the line and too old to play two games at this level,” Di Mat-teo told reporters, referring to Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final win over Tottenham on Sunday.

“It wasn’t just (Drogba) — we had other players on the pitch that you regard as old guard that have played two games in such a short period of time. I think they gave their answer on the pitch tonight.”

Di Matteo had sur-prised many pundits by electing to start with Drogba in attack ahead of £50 mil-lion man Fernando Torres.

However the interim Chelsea manager admitted he had chosen Drogba to start after being impressed by his goalscoring contribu-tion to Sunday’s 5-1 drub-bing of Spurs at Wembley.

“I felt I had to be fair looking back at the game on Sunday with the way we

wanted to play. For today’s game he was the right man to play,” Di Matteo said.

While praising the vet-erans of Chelsea’s line-up, Di Matteo was at pains to pay tribute to a “tremendous” collective effort.

“I think that the bal-ance has to be good within the team. It’s not just the de-fenders defending — it’s the whole team,” Di Matteo said.

“So I think you need to be able to close down the space as much as pos-sible and limit their threat as much as possible. But ultimately with the quality of the individuals they have they will create some prob-lems.

“But it wasn’t just our defenders it was a collective defensive performance.

“We’re delighted with the performance of the team and the result we got today. We’ve won all our Champi-ons League games at home this season and we’ve faced some tough opponents.

“I think tonight was one

of the biggest challenges we’ve had for many years.”

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola meanwhile said the defeat had left Chelsea as favourites to advance to next month’s final in Munich.

“They are favourites,” Guardiola said. “They have a good result but at least we have the challenge to play 90 minutes. And in that time we have the opportunity to cre-ate chances. But 1-0 is a very good result for them.”

Di Matteo brushed off Guardiola’s assessment of the tie however.

“I don’t think it makes us favourites,” he said. “It’s 50-50 for both teams to go through to the final.

“You know what to expect when you go to the Camp Nou — it’s going to be very very difficult. We still have to believe that we might be able to score a goal there. It’s going to be a tough game, it’s a tough game for anyone going there.

“We’ll have to be at our best again. We’re very pleased but it’s only half-time and nothing has been decided. We’ve another game to play yet.”

Guardiola meanwhile dismissed suggestions that Barcelona had been robbed of victory given their over-whelming dominance of possession and shots on goal.

“They won, that’s foot-ball,” Guardiola said. “It’s not a question of fairness. They scored, and we didn’t. Congratulations Chelsea.

“If football matches were awarded to teams who had the most average possession of the ball we would win every game. But the most difficult thing is getting the ball into the net.”

15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

NEW York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, who captured

the world’s imagination earlier this season with his Cinderella run for the struggling NBA team, has been named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Peo-ple in the World.

Tim Tebow, another sports celebrity with an Asian history, made it to the list. Tebow, the Den-ver Brincos quarterback who was later traded to the New York Jets follow-ing the Broncos’ loss in the NFL semis, was born in Makati City to mission-ary parents assigned here two decades ago.

Tebow is known for “Tebowing” or the act of kneeling down in prayer during games. He also popularized the wearing of face bandages with bib-lical sayings scribbled on them.

Tebow’s Foundation is set to open a hospi-tal project in Davao City, Philippines, according to his website.

Lin, an Asian-Amer-ican product of Harvard University, overcame long odds to become a cult hero for fans of the struggling Knicks. United Stated education secre-tary Arne Duncan, a fel-low Harvard alumnus and also a former Crimson

basketball player, wrote Lin’s profile for Time.

“He’s dispelled the idea that Asian-American guards somehow couldn’t hack it in the NBA,” Dun-can said, “and that being a world-class athlete on the court is somehow at odds with being an excellent student off the court.”

Left undrafted by NBA teams last season, Lin was signed to a two-year deal by the Golden State Warriors after an impressive performance in summer camp. But he was unable to get any sig-nificant playing time with the Warriors, and was cut twice in his second season — first by Golden State and then by the Houston Rockets — before being picked up by the Knicks.

Lin was on the verge of being cut by the Knicks when former coach Mike D’Antoni took a flyer on the untested guard, and he responded by string-ing along several mem-orable performances, leading the team to wins without stars Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire.

But Lin’s amazing year was cut abruptly after he suffered a knee injury. He underwent surgery in April for a lat-eral meniscus tear, which rendered him out for the season.

Lin, Tebow in Top 100Most Influential People

LONE GOAL. Chelsea’s Ivorian forward Didier Drogba celebrates after scoring a goal during the UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg football match between Chelsea and Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in London, England. Chelsea won 1-0.

THOSE dreaming of scor-ing a rare hole-in-one should be awe-struck

by the whopping bonanza awaiting the lucky ace scorer in the 7th Pomelo Tee.

The lucky one-shot-wonder will be swept away with its top bonanza--P1 mil-lion cash—on holes No. 6, 11 and 17. A Subaru Forester and a Royal Caribbean Asian Tour are also up for grabs at all par 3 holes.

The annual Pomelo Tee Invitational golf tournament, now on its seventh edition, hits the tees on May 17 to 20 at the posh Rancho Palos Verdes Golf and Country Club.

Expected to draw an-other record field of 400, the Pomelo Tee will be staking cash bonanza and trophies as well as golf merchandise and appliances in the raffles.

Organizers say it prom-

ises to be another exciting year for the Pomelo Tee par-ticipants as the tournament will be as competitive as usu-al but with the mix of fun and entertainment.

Larry Miculob, the RPVGCC media relations committee member bared the details of the tournament during the weekly Davao Sportswriters Association (DSA) Forum at the Tower Inn early this week.

Up for grabs are net and gross titles and prizes in Classes A, B, C and D.

Miculob said partici-pants from Visayas and Lu-zon are expected to crowd the hunt with the locals in the three-day golfest which dedi-cates part of its proceeds to the Pablo Lorenzo National High School’s computer lit-eracy program.

Registration fee is P3,500 per entry.

P1M, cars for hole-in-one scores in 7th Pomelo Tee

DETHRONED

Didier Drogba (R) vies with Barcelona’s Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets (L).

Chelsea boots out Barcelona 1-0

VOL.5 ISSUE 33• APRIL 20 - 21, 201216 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS

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email: manggorio09@yahoo.com

Davao’s schedule:APRIL 19 4pm

-Davao FA vs. Bacolod APRIL 21 2pm-Davao FA vs.Dumanguete APRIL 22 1pm-Davao FA vs,San Carlos

The Davao Under-13 Girls squad dropped the upset axe on defending champion RIFA-Manila 4-1 on Wednesday to be-gin their campaign in an auspicious note in the PFF Under-13 Girls foot-ball eliminations in Ba-colod City.

Zuleika Yee blasted home a pair of markers and her teammates Moira Calizo and Elizabeth San-tos backed her up with a goal each against the favoured bets from Ma-nila in this tournament serving as the qualifying school for the Under-13 Philippine Girls Team set to compete in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U13 Girls Festival of Football 2012 this June in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

The Davao squad’s

participation is bank-rolled by the Davao Foot-ball Association (DFA) un-der President Chaya Lam.

The participating teams are Bacolod, San Carlos City, Dumaguete, RIFA-Manila and Davao. The Philippine Football Federation, in a circular, has designated the tour-nament as the selection process for the national U-13 girls team.

The DFA-Davao squad is composed of Bea De Luna, Joannah Adao, Pa-

tricia Francisco, Therese Reyes, Kyra Gabinete, Kyra Paronda, Michae-la Co, and Drew Datu-manong of Ateneo de Davao University, Moira Calizo, Zuleika Yee, So-fia Paredes, Jade Carasig, Arwen Allado and Felice Tuazon of Sakya, Joyce Semacio of Black Knights, Elizabeth Santos of Tam-bayan and Kim Villacen-cio of St. Paul. Coaching the team is Reynalyn Ra-vanes with Analou Ingles as her assistant.

Davao U-13 girls turn back Manila 4-1 GIANT SLAYERS

DFA U-13. Davao’s DFA Under-13 Girls squad with coaches Reynalyn Ravanes and Analou Ingles. The team won its first match on Wednesday in Bacolod City 4-1 against defending champion RIFA-Manila.