By Jade C. Zaldivar

THE P11.2 billion educational assis-tance fund program (EAFP) will be released starting May 10, Thurs-

day, by the Aquino government in time for the opening of classes.

Members of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) may receive P4,000 while qualified members of the Social Security System (SSS), specifically those with monthly salaries of P10,000 and below, may receive P15,000.

EDGE

By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE run-of-river hydroelectric power projects of Hedcor Bukidnon, Inc. at the Sita and Simod rivers in Kitaotao,

Bukidnon will not involve the relocation of homes in the areas, according to Gregorio Jabo-nillo, vice president for business development of Hedcor, Inc. last Monday during the signing of memorandum of agreement (MOA) with ba-

rangay council of Sinuda, Kitaotao, Bukidnon.“Run-of-river type, wala tay im-

pounding. Ang ato lang kung unsay tubig sa sapa mao ray atong gamiton as man-dated by the National Water Resources

P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.net

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8 , 2012

SportsPage 15

Education loansreleased May 10

IndulgePage A4

Science/EnvironmentPage 4

Serving a seamless society

FEDUCATION, 13

FBUKIDNON, 13

n 65,000 GSIS members in Davao Region may borrow

n But critics call amount “too small”

Follow Us On

DAVAO

Bukidnon hydro won’t dislocate homesHI-TECH. A tribal leader wearing the traditional garb of the Matigsalug Tribe sports a pair of dark sunglasses while using a handy digital video camera in Kitaotao, Bukidnon on Monday. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

GSIS, SSS assistance

Hedcor promise

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 20122 THE BIG NEWS EDGEDAVAO

By Jade C. Zaldivar

A total of 2,461 piec-es (490.21 cubic meters) of illegally-

cut lauan logs aboard 21 trucks were intercepted and confiscated by the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force (AILTF) headed by Louie Ceniza, last May 6 in barangay Kasapa, Lo-reto, Agusan.

The logs, valued at P3.4 million, were turned over to Tagum City Mayor Rey, presumably to be converted into school fur-

niture. “The apprehension

of the logs was made pos-sible through the joint ef-forts of the National Illegal Logging Task Force, the Community Environment and Natural Resources Of-ficers of Nabunturan and Tagum, the regional task force of Caraga Region, and the local government units of Tagum City and the Province of Compos-tela Valley,” Ceniza said.

Uy said the logs will be utilized by the local government of Tagum through its Care for

School Chairs (CFSC) Pro-gram which fabricates school furniture, like arm-chairs, desks, tables and kiddie chairs for students.

Uy estimates that the logs will make about 7,000 pieces of chairs “which will be of great benefit to students in Re-gion 11 as the CFSC Pro-gram does not limit its beneficiaries to Tagum City alone.

The program, Uy’s brainchild, has already distributed 40,022 chairs since August 2011.

21-truckloads of hot logsturned over to Mayor Uy By Lorie A. Cascaro

DATU Roelito Gawilan, chairper-son of the Federa-

tion of Matigsalog-Mano-bo Tribal Council (Fem-matrics) said last Monday he would not allow divi-sion of their ancestral do-main among fellow tribes in Davao City as request-ed by the Matigsalog-Manobo Tribal Leaders of Davao City.

The tribe’s ancestral domain covers Cotabato, Kitaotao in Bukidnon and Davao City and some tribe members want ar-

eas in Davao City to be managed separately from the Femmatrics after not-ing that most projects for indigenous people have been given to those in the Bukidnon area.

Saying that the city council has taken up the matter, Gawilan is opti-mistic that he would be able to unite the tribes and maintain their ances-tral domain intact.

“Dako akong paglaum nga matibuok gihapon sila, tapos dili sila maglan-taw nga taga Davao na sila, dili sila magtan-aw nga taga Bukidnon, nga dili nila paryente, pero kung tan-awon nimo ang ilang mga gikagikan, susa-ma sa usa ka kahoy, we are the leaves of the same tree, we are the fruits of the same tree,” he told Edge Davao.

He said Femmatrics had tried not to discuss political boundaries, which is the govern-ment’s responsibility, but they are still united in one culture, and ancestral do-main.

“Sa wala pa nahimong probinsiya ang Davao, wala pa may probinsiya ang Cotabato, wala pa ang Bukidnon, nahiusa mi pagpuyo dinhi. Tungod kay ang gobyerno man ang nagdesisyon sa mga political boundaries, wala

ginalantaw kung unsa ba ning mga tawhana ni. Tungod ang political boundaries dili nato ma-likayan nga magamit ang Matigsalog ug Manobo sa politika nga hisgutanan. Pero kung hisgutanang kultura, yutang kabilin, diha mi nagkahiusa,” he said.

Pertaining to the claim of some members that most projects were fo-cused in Bukidnon area, Gawilan said, “Dili kana tinuod, kay sama diri karon kung unsay kalam-buan moabot diri karon, kung pirmahan nako ang kasabutan sa Hed-cor, duna gihapon silay kalabutan didto ka yang ilang mga paryente naa diri sa Bukidnon.”

He signed the memo-randum of agreement (MOA) as barangay cap-tain of Sinuda with Hed-cor, Inc. last Monday for the Bukidnon Hydroelec-tric power project.

He will also be repre-senting the Femmatrics in the next MOA signing, which is also one of the requirements of Hedcor to secure permits from government agencies be-fore starting the project.

“Kung aduna may ka-lambuan dinhi, ang ilang mga pamilya ilang mga anak makabenipisyo gi-hapon kay usa ra man

No division of ancestral domainwith Davao tribesmen: Gawilan

FNO DIVISION, 13

HYDROPOWER. Hedcor Vice-President for its Business Department Gregorio Jabonillo (right) and Barangay Sinuda in Kitaotao Chairman Roelito Gawilan (left) lead the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement for the 28.2 MW Bukidnon Hydroelectric Power Project. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

SEVERAL measures seeking to institute reforms in land ad-

ministration in the coun-try and eliminate wastag-es in resources and man-power are now included in the priority bills .

The consolidated bill had been referred to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and other stakeholders for their respective posi-tion papers to help fine tune the delicate provi-sions of the measure.

“The reform mea-sure seeks to integrate all land administration func-tions currently dispersed among multiple agencies into a single agency and to enable the lands sector to contribute to econom-ic growth and poverty alleviation,” said Rep. Ce-sar Jalosjos, Chairman of the House Committee on Government Reorganiza-tion.

The authors of the bill are Reps. Juan Ed-

gardo Angara (Lone Dis-trict, Aurora), Diosdado Arroyo (1st District, Ca-marines Sur), Gloria Ma-capagal Arroyo (2nd Dis-trict, Pampanga), Rufus Rodriguez (2nd District, Cagayan de Oro), Maxi-mo Rodriguez (Partylist, Abante Mindanao) and Salvador Escudero III (1st District, Sorsogon).

“The Philippines is unusual, compared to its neighboring countries. The government’s land administration functions are currently dispersed across multiple agen-cies,” Angara said.

“The utilization of our land resources for national and local de-velopment is crucial to maximize the benefits derived from utilization, management and own-ership of land,” Arroyo said.

The five bills have been the basis for the Committees on Govern-ment Reorganization,

Natural Resources and Justice in coming up with a substitute measure, which has been referred to the Committee on Ap-propriations chaired by Rep.Joseph Emilio Abaya (1st District, Cavite) rel-ative to its funding pro-visions.

Key provisions in-clude that the Land Ad-ministration Authority (LAA) be attached to the Office of the President and shall be the primary government agency re-sponsible for land ad-ministration and public land management, Ro-driguez said.

Escudero said the proposed reform statute also vests adjudicatory powers on the Land Ad-judication Board over all land administration and public land management cases.

Escudero said the powers and functions of the LAA vested by law in the DENR, DOJ, the Land

Registration Authority, Register of Deeds, the Land Management Bu-reau, Land Management Service, the DENR and CARP National Secretari-at or any office within or attached to these agen-cies are transferred to the Office of the Director General.

Under the bill, the LAA shall formulate land administration and man-agement policies in ac-cordance with existing national laws. It shall also conduct, integrate and regulate the func-tions of geodetic and geophysical surveys, land classification sur-veys, mapping, aerial photography, remote sensing, mangement of resource information needed by both public and private sectors, and research development in accordance with existing laws and internationally accepted norms, proce-dures and standards.

House to prioritize bill integrating all land administration agencies SO C I O E C O N O M I C

Planning Secretary and NEDA Direc-

tor-General Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr., during the Philippine Corporate and Investment Pavilion and 45th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Develop-ment Bank (ADB), said good governance is the Philippine government’s guiding principle to “en-sure that public-private agreements are mutually advantageous and would safeguard the public’s interest.”

Paderanga also cited the country’s accom-plishments in the area of governance. The Phil-ippines, he said, has im-proved its competitive-ness ranking based on the Transparency Inter-national Corruption Per-ception index and World Economic Forum Com-petitiveness Rankings.

“With this, the Phil-ippines is considered an emerging market econ-omy in the region and is poised to become an

influential economy in the coming years. The country’s potential lies in the key growth areas of agribusiness, business process outsourcing and tourism,” he said.

In the same semi-nar, dubbed as “Building Infrastructure, Driving Growth: PPP as a Cata-lyst for Transformation,” Public-Private Partner-ship (PPP) Center Ex-ecutive Director Cosette Canilao stressed that PPP gained momentum with the approval of the DaangHari SLEX Link Road.

“It only took 13 months to get this proj-ect tendered,” Canilao said,adding that the gov-ernment worked on lay-ing the foundations to build productive part-nerships and instituted mechanisms and facili-ties that helped imple-menting agencies to un-dertake projects that are properly prepared, rele-vant and economically vi-able for both government and the private sector.

NEDA underscores good governance

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012

By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE principal of the SIR Elementary School, Matina, Davao

City, Ronaldo Seras said the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme under the Pantawid Pamily-ang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) had not resulted in an increase in the number of enrollees as had been ex-pected.

However, he said the number of enrollees in the last three years since the implementation of 4Ps, cannot be correlated with the expected result of the program since the commu-nity’s population has not increased appreciably.

“Daghan diri sa sur-rounding puro na boarders, wala na gyud nadungagan ang mga naay pamilya,” he

added.School records show

that in the academic year 2008-2009, the total num-ber of pupils from kinder and grades one to six was 1,484. In school year 2009-2010, there were 1,487 pu-pils; in 2010-2011, there were 1,500 pupils; and, in 2011-2012, 1,484.

The minimal decrease or increase in the number of pupils may be attributed

to the transfer of a pupil from one school to another because of sudden change of address, either due to demolition or that their par-ents found a new job in an-other location.

Seras recalled the time when some pupils who used to be informal settlers in front of World Palace at Juna Subdivision, Ma-tina, stopped schooling af-ter their makeshift houses were demolished.

He said an increase in population of a community means more pupils are en-rolled in a public school with or without 4Ps, cit-ing Kabacan Elementary School in Ecoland where there was a new batch of informal settlers.

Most of the student-beneficiaries of 4Ps had been enrolled in the school prior to the program’s im-plementation.

At the SIR Elementary School last year, some 200

3THE BIG NEWSEDGEDAVAO

F4PS SCHEME, 13

TO celebrate Davao’s widely diverse music culture and show-

case the inherent talent of its home-grown musi-cians, the Davao music community is launching a website to increase aware-ness and support for Davao music culture and Davao musicians.

Davao Music Nation (DMN) is an internet mag-azine created by the Davao music community for the fans and for anyone look-ing for good music.

“We have all this tal-ent in Davao City and most of us who live here aren’t even aware that they ex-ist,” says entrepreneur and website co-founder, Jessica Madrazo.

“There’s actually more to Davao than just show bands and ethnic music. We have reggae, hip hop, metal, folk, acoustic, jazz and many more. We have tons of great original mu-sic just waiting for an au-dience. And we have lots of great music places that could rival any bar or club in the country.”

Efforts like this have been done before, but the founders believe that this time, Davao City is ready to appreciate its own mu-sic.

Johann Calderon, member of the band Aus-tronauts and co-founder of the DMN, adds, “We know there are people in Davao looking for good, original music but they just don’t know where to find it. And with the population of the city growing at such a fast pace, the demand for good music is increasing.

And unlike the web-sites that came before us, we’re armed with the knowledge and skills to make these musicians more visible on the inter-net. We have a massive social media following. We have great online resourc-es now that make it easier for fans and musicians to interact with one another.”

In addition to being an online resource for Davao music talent, Jessica sees the website as a means to a bigger goal.

“By showing fellow Fili-pinos and the world how great Davao music is, we’re giving them more reasons to come and stay in Davao. We see this website as the first big step in strengthen-ing the Davao music com-munity so it can eventually make a mark in the local and music market. We have all the means to create and produce great music. DMN is simply the avenue to help musicians make their music more accessible to the public without chang-ing their identity.”

To show Davao City that DMN is intent on mak-ing its presence known, the website will celebrate its launch this May 26 with not just one, but two concerts which will occur simultaneously and these concerts will be streamed live on its website.

Why two concerts? “That’s how big the Davao music community is,” says JR de Castro, band mem-ber of Astronauts and co-founder of the DMN. “We have so much talent in Davao City that one con-cert is not enough.”

The first concert will be at D-Bar located in-side the Madrazo Com-pund, Bangoy Street. The second concert will be at Sales Diner and Moozika, located at Sales cor. Mon-teverde. Details of the concert will be released through DMN’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Both concerts will be streamed live on the web-site, DavaoMusicaNation.com.

Some of the local bands expected to per-form in the event include We Ride Dynamite, As the City Sleeps, Alto Indio, Anne and The 50s, Kwatro Medya, Maybe Someday, Pigflu, Simple lang and Vil-lain. [PR]

Music culture makeswaves in Davao City

SUPERMOON. Despite the downpour on Sunday evening, the rare occurrence in the solar system called “Supermoon”, where the moon is in its closest point to Earth, was witnessed by the residents of Davao. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

By Jade C. Zaldivar

THE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Ministry of Health

says the country needs the services of more medical workers.

The Ministry says it has vacancies for 800 fe-male Muslim nurses and 500 physicians and medi-cal specialists.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administra-tion (POEA) Davao region chief Carolina Agdamag said in an interview that the KSA always has a high demand for medical work-ers, but noted this is the first time such a high num-ber are needed.

“Siguro dahil malapit na rin ang Ramadan. Their medical workers will need replacements as they ob-serve Ramadan,” Agda-mad told Edge Davao.

From July 20 to Au-gust 18 this year, Ramadan is the Islamic month of fasting, during which par-ticipating Muslims refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. The practice is intended to teach Muslims about pa-tience, spirituality, humil-ity and submissiveness to God.

Applicants for nurs-ing positions should be graduates of Bachelor of Science in Nursing, with or without board license, not more than 40 years of age, and with at least two years experience in hospital work or one year hospital experience but with Prometric Exams.

Female nurses are paid 3,150 Saudi Riyal or P35,532 per month.

Agdamag said the KSA will also be hiring as many as 500 doctors,

physicians, and medical specialists.

Applicants for these positions can be male or female, not more than 60 years old, with Bachelor of Science diploma and board licensed, with at least one year hospital work experience.

Salary offered is SR10,000 to SR25,000 or P112,800 to P282,000. Other benefits include free food and accommo-dation, paid annual vaca-tion with free roundtrip economy ticket, and free tickets for the family.

Agdamag advises qualified applicants to register online at www.poea.gov.ph or www.ereg-ister.poea.gov.ph and to submit a detailed resume with job description, school credentials, and employment certificates among others.

Saudi Arabia needs 800 nurses,500 doctors, medical specialists

Principal Ronald Seras of the SIR Elementary School, Davao City

4Ps scheme didn’t increaseenrollment, says principal

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012

By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE principal of the SIR Elementary School, Matina, Davao

City, Ronaldo Seras said the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme under the Pantawid Pamily-ang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) had not resulted in an increase in the number of enrollees as had been ex-pected.

However, he said the number of enrollees in the last three years since the implementation of 4Ps, cannot be correlated with the expected result of the program since the commu-nity’s population has not increased appreciably.

“Daghan diri sa sur-rounding puro na boarders, wala na gyud nadungagan ang mga naay pamilya,” he

added.School records show

that in the academic year 2008-2009, the total num-ber of pupils from kinder and grades one to six was 1,484. In school year 2009-2010, there were 1,487 pu-pils; in 2010-2011, there were 1,500 pupils; and, in 2011-2012, 1,484.

The minimal decrease or increase in the number of pupils may be attributed

to the transfer of a pupil from one school to another because of sudden change of address, either due to demolition or that their par-ents found a new job in an-other location.

Seras recalled the time when some pupils who used to be informal settlers in front of World Palace at Juna Subdivision, Ma-tina, stopped schooling af-ter their makeshift houses were demolished.

He said an increase in population of a community means more pupils are en-rolled in a public school with or without 4Ps, cit-ing Kabacan Elementary School in Ecoland where there was a new batch of informal settlers.

Most of the student-beneficiaries of 4Ps had been enrolled in the school prior to the program’s im-plementation.

At the SIR Elementary School last year, some 200

3THE BIG NEWSEDGEDAVAO

F4PS SCHEME, 13

TO celebrate Davao’s widely diverse music culture and show-

case the inherent talent of its home-grown musi-cians, the Davao music community is launching a website to increase aware-ness and support for Davao music culture and Davao musicians.

Davao Music Nation (DMN) is an internet mag-azine created by the Davao music community for the fans and for anyone look-ing for good music.

“We have all this tal-ent in Davao City and most of us who live here aren’t even aware that they ex-ist,” says entrepreneur and website co-founder, Jessica Madrazo.

“There’s actually more to Davao than just show bands and ethnic music. We have reggae, hip hop, metal, folk, acoustic, jazz and many more. We have tons of great original mu-sic just waiting for an au-dience. And we have lots of great music places that could rival any bar or club in the country.”

Efforts like this have been done before, but the founders believe that this time, Davao City is ready to appreciate its own mu-sic.

Johann Calderon, member of the band Aus-tronauts and co-founder of the DMN, adds, “We know there are people in Davao looking for good, original music but they just don’t know where to find it. And with the population of the city growing at such a fast pace, the demand for good music is increasing.

And unlike the web-sites that came before us, we’re armed with the knowledge and skills to make these musicians more visible on the inter-net. We have a massive social media following. We have great online resourc-es now that make it easier for fans and musicians to interact with one another.”

In addition to being an online resource for Davao music talent, Jessica sees the website as a means to a bigger goal.

“By showing fellow Fili-pinos and the world how great Davao music is, we’re giving them more reasons to come and stay in Davao. We see this website as the first big step in strengthen-ing the Davao music com-munity so it can eventually make a mark in the local and music market. We have all the means to create and produce great music. DMN is simply the avenue to help musicians make their music more accessible to the public without chang-ing their identity.”

To show Davao City that DMN is intent on mak-ing its presence known, the website will celebrate its launch this May 26 with not just one, but two concerts which will occur simultaneously and these concerts will be streamed live on its website.

Why two concerts? “That’s how big the Davao music community is,” says JR de Castro, band mem-ber of Astronauts and co-founder of the DMN. “We have so much talent in Davao City that one con-cert is not enough.”

The first concert will be at D-Bar located in-side the Madrazo Com-pund, Bangoy Street. The second concert will be at Sales Diner and Moozika, located at Sales cor. Mon-teverde. Details of the concert will be released through DMN’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Both concerts will be streamed live on the web-site, DavaoMusicaNation.com.

Some of the local bands expected to per-form in the event include We Ride Dynamite, As the City Sleeps, Alto Indio, Anne and The 50s, Kwatro Medya, Maybe Someday, Pigflu, Simple lang and Vil-lain. [PR]

Music culture makeswaves in Davao City

SUPERMOON. Despite the downpour on Sunday evening, the rare occurrence in the solar system called “Supermoon”, where the moon is in its closest point to Earth, was witnessed by the residents of Davao. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

By Jade C. Zaldivar

THE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Ministry of Health

says the country needs the services of more medical workers.

The Ministry says it has vacancies for 800 fe-male Muslim nurses and 500 physicians and medi-cal specialists.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administra-tion (POEA) Davao region chief Carolina Agdamag said in an interview that the KSA always has a high demand for medical work-ers, but noted this is the first time such a high num-ber are needed.

“Siguro dahil malapit na rin ang Ramadan. Their medical workers will need replacements as they ob-serve Ramadan,” Agda-mad told Edge Davao.

From July 20 to Au-gust 18 this year, Ramadan is the Islamic month of fasting, during which par-ticipating Muslims refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. The practice is intended to teach Muslims about pa-tience, spirituality, humil-ity and submissiveness to God.

Applicants for nurs-ing positions should be graduates of Bachelor of Science in Nursing, with or without board license, not more than 40 years of age, and with at least two years experience in hospital work or one year hospital experience but with Prometric Exams.

Female nurses are paid 3,150 Saudi Riyal or P35,532 per month.

Agdamag said the KSA will also be hiring as many as 500 doctors,

physicians, and medical specialists.

Applicants for these positions can be male or female, not more than 60 years old, with Bachelor of Science diploma and board licensed, with at least one year hospital work experience.

Salary offered is SR10,000 to SR25,000 or P112,800 to P282,000. Other benefits include free food and accommo-dation, paid annual vaca-tion with free roundtrip economy ticket, and free tickets for the family.

Agdamag advises qualified applicants to register online at www.poea.gov.ph or www.ereg-ister.poea.gov.ph and to submit a detailed resume with job description, school credentials, and employment certificates among others.

Saudi Arabia needs 800 nurses,500 doctors, medical specialists

Principal Ronald Seras of the SIR Elementary School, Davao City

4Ps scheme didn’t increaseenrollment, says principal

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 20124 EDGEDAVAOSCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT

THE Philippines , touted to be the Pearl of the Ori-

ent Seas , has the richest concentration of marine life on the entire planet, according to a study con-ducted by Kent Carpenter, Old Dominion University associate professor of bio-logical sciences in Virginia , USA .

“Scientists have long known that the area in Southeast Asia that in-cludes Indonesia , Malay-sia and the Philippines hold the richest marine biodiversity. I was amazed to discover that the ex-treme center of this bio-diversity is in the Philip-pines , rather than closer to the equator,” said Prof. Carpenter. “However, a geographical information system analysis of this ex-tensive database clearly shows this pattern.”

A multidisciplinary project headed by Carpen-ter that lasted more than a decade and involved 101 of the world’s foremost authorities on marine life produced 2,983 maps of marine species for the western Pacific Ocean . The study was conducted for the Food and Agricul-ture Organization of the United Nations. The com-puter analysis was done with the support of Con-servation International.

The results of these findings were published in the journal Environmen-tal Biology of Fishes under the title, “The Center of the Center of Marine Shorefish Biodiversity : The Philip-pine Islands.” Dr. Victor Springer of the National Museum of Natural His-tory in Washington , D.C. co-authored the article.

Most of the species found in the Philippine waters are endemic and threatened with extinc-tion. “The livelihood of many Filipinos depends on the health of their ma-rine ecosystem,” Prof. Car-penter said. “There is a big dilemma however, in that the use of this valuable resource is often at odds with its conservation, and without conservation the resource will soon loose its value.”

Scientists are still at a loss to the total number of marine species as to the continuing discovery and description of new spe-cies. In fact, some of them may soon join the extinct dodo and vanish from this part of the world without being named.

In the waters of Punta Dumalag in Matina Aplaya, Davao City , a new species of crab has been identified by Dr. Jose P. Naval. Ac-tually, it is a sponge crab similar to the one identi-fied in Australia by a sci-entist in 1923. The crabs

are called as such because of their habit of carrying a sponge at the back of their shells to avoid predators.

Dr. Naval is not a ma-rine scientist but a medi-cal doctor. How he dis-covered the crab is an interesting story in itself. On March 17, he left his clinic and drove some 20 minutes to Punta Dumalag to see Jerry Gumadane, a diver who had multiple body injuries due to mug-ging incident.

On entering the stilt house of the patient, he saw an unusual crab in-side a pail of water. It caught his attention but since he was there for the patient, he didn’t bother to examine it well. But af-ter treating the patient, he requested to see the crab closely. “I became inquisi-tive because it was no or-dinary crab,” he recalled. “Unlike the common crabs, it has no big pincers to defend itself.”

Dr. Naval suspected the crab was female due to its wide abdominal cover. “The tips of the sec-ond and third pair of legs are distinct claws,” he de-scribed. “The crab has two pairs of pointed pin-cer-like hooks at the back which hold something like a net to cover its shell as its way of a camouflage to distract predators.”

During their conversa-tion, Dr. Naval found out that the man brings such kind of crabs to his family for food consumption. A crab weighs from half a ki-logram to more than a ki-logram. Jerry, who is mar-ried with four kids, calls the crab kargador because it looks like a porter carry-ing a luggage for money.

Dr. Naval, who has seen a lot of crabs since child-hood and has eaten vari-ous species, was excited to see a crab which has a unique form. He asked the diver if he could bring the crab. At home, he took photos of the crab. He had no trouble doing research on it since biology was his pre-medical course. “One of our subjects was tax-onomy, the science of the classification and identifi-cation of animals,” he said.

Dr. Naval found a simi-lar species named Drom-idia australis. “Is it one and the same species?” he wondered. He made a comparative study based on the descriptions of the Australian species and the pictures in the book. He also checked on the Inter-national Commission on Zoological Nomenclature regarding the classifica-tion of the crab.

After his thorough re-search using the Zoologi-cal Catalogue of Australia by P.J. Davie, Dr. Naval con-cluded that what he found

Davao waters: Home to new crab speciesBy Jims Vincent T. Capuno

in the Davao waters was a new species of sponge crab. “Unlike the Austra-lian species, I discovered that the Davao species has bigger pincer-like struc-tures for males and they are hairy like velvet on their exoskeleton, like the ones described on mitten crabs.”

Since the new crab species was found in the waters of Davao , Dr. Na-val named it scientifically as Dromidia davawensis. “This is in honor of our city, which is the site of the discovery,” he says.

Indeed, Dr. Naval has gone a long, long way in his passion for the protec-tion of the environment. To think of, it was only in early 2000 that he start-ed his advocacy. “I saw a narra wood bought by my father from Kapalong, Davao del Norte in 1968,” he recalled. “I trans-formed it into a beautiful ornamental dragon table, which is now displayed in our house.”

Seeing the narra wood transformed into some-thing beautiful completely changed his outlook to-wards the environment. He now buys reject logs and turns them into some sculptured masterpieces. He displays some of them in his clinic and if you have the opportunity of visit-ing his house, you will see other beautiful carvings made from rejected logs.

During his spare time, he writes environmental issues and concerns in his newsletter, Environ-mental Watch, a project of the southern Mindanao chapter of Philippine Col-lege of Occupational Medi-cine . He was its former past president and now a member of its advisory council.

In one of the news-letter’s issues, Dr. Naval wrote about the envi-ronmental problems in Punta Dumalag, a turtle sanctuary. The area is supposed to be home to some of Davao ’s beauti-ful beaches as it has white sand scattered all over its seashores. But its beauty is spoiled by congested houses, growing popula-tion, and marine pollu-tion.

“As you drive along towards Punta Dum-alag, you will see the shorelines on both sides teemed with houses that congested the road,” he wrote. Not only that, the waters are contaminated with Escherichia coli bac-teria which made the city government to declare the shorelines not fit for swimming and dangerous to health.

In some of his recent trips, he noticed that some fishing boats com-ing from the different barangays of Davao City are using the west side of the shorelines of Punta

Dumalag for cleaning, re-pairing, and repainting of their commercial fish-ing boats as ‘wet-docks.’ “They come here as they please,” Dr. Naval de-plores.

In the ‘wet-dockings,’ the workers of fishing boats would scrape the rusts and paints of their boats. They make the sea water as a free source of cleansing water, “but their toxic waste is depos-ited in the shorelines and the sea bed.”

There are more con-cerns: “The seawater is also being polluted by the crude oil leaking from the boat’s engine,” Dr. Naval claims. “The whirlpool on the propeller side of the fishing boats likewise

disturbs the marine life beneath it causing marine habitat destructions.”

Dr. Naval wants Punta Dumalag to be protected from further pollution and destruction. He be-lieves if nothing is done soon, the newly discov-ered crab species may be-come extinct.

“I would like to en-courage everyone to do their respective respon-sibilities in the protection of our natural resources in general and the marine habitat in particular,” he points out. “By doing so, we would be able to pro-tect the new and the old species of flora and fau-na, especially the newly-identified crab of Davao , the Dromidia davawensis.”

White-sand beach at Punta Dumalag

The new crab species

‘WE recently held a meeting and shared the same apprehen-sion that we may lose the valu-able market in China as a result of the dispute over the shoal.’

--Stephen Antig, president of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PB-GEA). PDI

Quips

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012 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

PBGEA: Plantations in Bukidnon do good agricultural practices THE Pilipino Banana

Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA)

said that the agricultural plan-tations in the town of Malay-balay, Bukidnon are owned and operated by some of the world’s most acclaimed agri-cultural companies that have complied with the strictest in-ternational agricultural stan-dards.

This came as a reaction to the news that Malaybalay has passed a resolution stopping plantation expansion.

The companies operating in Bukidnon are composed of Sumifru, Dole, and Unifrutti.

“These companies have ISO Green certifications or are ac-credited by the Rainforest Al-liance, which shows that the agricultural practices that they are doing are sustainable and not harmful to the environ-ment, contrary to what some non-government organiza-tions’ claimed,” PBGEA execu-tive director Stephen Antig said.Moreover, Antig said that the resolution passed by the

Malaybalay council prohibiting the expansion of agricultural plantations is something that will drive away additional in-vestments in the area, which is primarily dependent on ag-riculture. While the operations of the agricultural plantations in the area will continue, the plantations will no longer be able to expand with the resolu-tion in place.

Antig also said that it is not only illogical for banana indus-tries to destroy the soil quality but also detrimental to their own operations as well, given that the produce of the banana plantations is heavily depen-dent on the soil quality.

The banana industry, one of the top employers in the countryside, contributes sig-nificantly to the economic de-velopment of areas where it is operating.

In April, the Malaybalay city council passed a resolution im-posing a moratorium on the expansion of agricultural plan-tations citing environmental and agricultural concerns.

City Councilor Anthony Canuto Barroso, chair of the committees on agriculture and environmental protection, said that the resolution was in re-sponse to complaints from ba-rangay councils against the fast conversion of farms into plan-tations and its effects on the environment and agricultural practices.

The city council noted the expansion of plantations in ba-rangays Bangcud, Cabangahan, Casisang, Imbayao, Laguitas, Magsaysay, Mapayag, and San Jose. Barroso said the fruit companies would deal directly with the land owners without bothering to obtain the prior consent of the barangay coun-cils and the City Environment and Natural Resources Office.

He said the resolution came after the committee hearings on the impact of the expansion on the environment and agri-culture.

“They have yet to convince us also about their flood con-trol and damage control sys-tems,” Barroso said, adding the

City ENRO is yet to form a tech-nical working group to study the actual impact.

City Councilor Roland Deti-cio, who filed a similar resolu-tion, argued that the resolution must be imposed already while the study is being conducted to stop the fast rate of expansion that endangers the city’s flood control system and food secu-rity.

Barroso clarified that they are open to dialogue with the fruit companies. He cited a fruit company, which has scheduled an audience with the city council.

“We will hear their position. They have to convince us about what their protection systems are (for the environment and agriculture),” he added.

He noted that they may lift the moratorium if they obtain the prior informed consent of the barangays, and “if they convince us about their mech-anisms.” “But if they can’t, the moratorium will stay for a long time,” he said.

COMMEMORATIVE BILL. The Philippine government issued today 500-piso Philippine banknotes with an overprint of the logo of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank to express solidarity with the ADB’s goal to free Asia and the Pacific from poverty. By ADB’s estimate, about 1.8 billion people in the region are poor and unable to access essential goods, services, and opportunities. The overprint

is on the 500-piso banknote that features the late Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. who said: “The Filipino is worth dying for.”  A total of 10 million pieces of these 500-peso banknotes were printed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to make it available to the general public through banks across the country. 

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 20126 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO

It figures

THE staggering economic cost of the more than 400 natural and man-made disasters that devastated the country last year, according to the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center.

INCOME in 2011 of Megawide Construction Corp., a listed building contractor partly owned by billionaire tycoon Heny Sy. The income last year jumped 124 percent over the income the year before.

ESTIMATED number of Filipino households whose members consider themselves poor in March, up from 9.1 million households in December, the lat-est survey of the Social Weather Stations found.

NET WORTH of Rep. Manny Pac-quiao, making him the only billionaire and the richest member of the House of Representatives. Manny’s net worth is shown in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth that he filed for 2011.

NET WORTH of Anakpawis par-ty-list Rep. Rafael Mariano, down from the P75,211.57 he reported in 2010. This makes him the poorest member of the House of the Representatives.

AMOUNT of money the Sandi-ganbayan has directed businessman Her-minio Disini to return to the government. The amount represented commission re-ceived by Disini for brokering the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) deal.

P750million $51-billionP1.35billionP26billion P11.1million P46,946

FRANCHISING will con-tinue to be a strong tool to move the global

economy forward, this af-ter international franchise leaders from world um-brella organizations World Franchise Council (WFC) and the Asia Pacific Fran-chise Confederation (APFC) affirmed the tried-and-tested investment benefits of franchising at the twin meetings of the WFC-AP-FC during Franchise Asia 2011 hosted by the Philip-pines through the Philip-pine Franchise Association (PFA).

Chairman Emeritus Sa-mie Lim said that franchis-ing, despite the worldwide financial downturn and other economic hurdles, had sustained its core mis-sion of enterprise develop-ment and employment gen-eration.

According to WFC-AP-FC Manila Declaration of 2011, many countries that recognized the advantages of franchising had adopted policies which actively supported new franchise business ownership, which in turn promoted MSME (Micro SME) development, the very backbone of any economy.

Thus, “the international franchise community is one in calling for a strong and constructive cooperation between and among the government, the banking sector and the franchise

sector to provide an en-abling environment which will provide stimulus to economies worldwide,” Lim, who also served as WFC chair, said.

Lim said that, based on the WFC country reports presented by national fran-chise associations for last year, franchising in eight of the top 11 countries created around 2 million franchise outlets, which generated over 17 million employment opportunities worldwide.

“Apart from these, fran-chising achieves other far-reaching economic and so-cial benefits, among them wealth creation, advance-ment of MSMEs, and em-powerment of women,” he said.

Included in the top 11 performing countries in the WFC report, the Philippines contributed more than a million jobs created from around 125,000 franchise outlets, which in turn ac-counted for a billion or 30 percent of retail output in 2011.

PFA, as the biggest fran-chise association in the country, continues to be the lead agent in creating pro-grams which serve as cata-lyst for the entire growth of the Philippine franchise sector. These programs are crafted and implemented through the various com-mittees of the Association, each of which are headed by

the top names in the fran-chising sector comprising the PFA Board of Trustees.

PFA president and Wen-dy’s Chairman Yvette Pardo-Orbeta expressed optimism that the local franchising sector will continue to be a main driver for national economic growth, citing record figures achieved by Franchise Asia 2011 last September.

“The International Fran-chise Expo, with its more than 50,000 visitors, is ex-pected to generate P 50 bil-lion worth of businesses in the next three years, which would be equal to around 12,500 actual franchise out-lets. These new businesses roughly translate to 200,000 additional job opportunities for the Filipinos. These num-bers from the franchising sector will definitely boost the country’s economic ac-tivity from 2012 onwards,” Pardo-Orbeta said.

Pardo-Orbeta cited PFA member companies’ con-tinuing expansion plans which echo the Association’s positive outlook for the sec-tor, among them Philippine Seven Corp., the local opera-tor of the 7-Eleven conve-nience store chain, and Jol-libee Foods Corp.

“7-Eleven has 150 new stores being planned for opening this year to sup-port the company’s target of 1,000 outlets by 2013. Jollib-ee on the other hand would roll out 300 new stores in

2012, including almost 150 stores within 11 existing international markets,” she said.

Aside from national ex-pansion, homegrown fran-chise companies are opting to use the franchising strat-egy to penetrate foreign markets.

PFA Chairman and Max’s president Robert F. Trota said: “Franchising has now become an important channel for successfully exporting Filipino brands, products and services. Aside from Jollibee, other Pinoy brands are proud flag-car-riers overseas, to name a few – Max’s, Red Ribbon, Chowking, Goldilocks, Po-tato Corner, Pancake House and Waffle Time.”

Trota, who sits as chair-man for the association’s Committee on Filipino Global Brands, cited PFA’s strong international net-work and affiliations, giving PFA the opportunity to pro-mote its member franchi-sors through various trade shows abroad.

“With PFA’s bilateral ties with other foreign fran-chise groups, we are able to introduce our homegrown franchises to international investors who might be in-terested to bring Philippine brands to their respective countries,” Trota said.

The PFA leadership also noted other positive devel-opments in the franchis-ing sector, most important

Franchising to push PHL economy

YEAR-on-year head-line inflation rose to 3.0 percent in

April from 2.6 percent in March. The year-to-date average of 3.0 percent was within both the Gov-ernment’s inflation target range of 3-5 percent for 2012 and the BSP’s fore-cast range for the month of 2.1-3.0 percent.

Higher inflation in April was attributed largely to the increase in inflation for housing, wa-ter, electricity, gas, and other fuels due to higher rental rates and electric-ity charges. Food inflation also went up as prices of fish and vegetables increased as a result of Lenten season demand. Likewise, transport infla-

tion increased owing to the implementation of the jeepney transport fare in-crease.

Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. noted that, while the April inflation rate was within expecta-tions, the BSP remains mindful of the upside risks to the outlook for inflation, particularly the impact of volatility in oil and other commod-ity prices. For this reason, the BSP will continue to keep a close watch on price pressures over the policy horizon and will ensure that monetary policy settings are consis-tent with the price stabil-ity mandate while being supportive of non-infla-tionary growth.

Money Talks

April inflation hits 3 percent

Just how green is green? 5 reasons why Baguio residents need not fret By Armando M. Palijon Arborist/Urban Forestry Practitioner

I am writing this simple prognosis in my capacity as a concerned private

citizen in order to provide some insights on the issue of balling and transplant-ing of Benguet Pine (Pinus kesiya) and Alnus (Alnus ja-ponica) trees at the SM City Baguio Expansion Project.

Tree Health Assess-ment.

I was commissioned to conduct tree health assess-ment inside the SM Prime Holdings Property at Lu-neta Hill, the site identified for the SM City Baguio Ex-pansion project sometime in February 2012. Without hesitation, I did the evalu-ation of the 140 trees (43 Alnus trees and 97 Pine trees) that were given earthballing permit by the DENR. I intentionally did not include the 42 trees that were marked x (meaning trees to be cut). They were not included in the list of trees that was provided to me prior to the tree health

assessment.The need to change the

Earthballing Permit to Cut-ting Permit.

Permitting for what-ever purpose should be science based. Science and practice of balling and transplanting Pines includ-ing Benguet Pine and Min-doro Pine have proven the unsuitability of the species.

Accordingly, the legal basis that was used in the issuance of the earthballing permit is the Executive Or-der 23 or the Logging Ban.

Earthballing permit should be rectified into cut-ting permit.

What SM is doing is basically compliance of the permit issued by the DENR. SM cannot just refute the earthballing permit be-cause DENR is the agency that has the technical ex-pertise. Therefore, SM as-sumed that the earthballing permit is correct, without realizing that it will become the source of controversy

and will be the main focus of public outrage

On SM City Baguio Ex-pansion Project

On SM development, the DENR Secretary can-not subvert the right of the private land owner particu-larly if the land that will be developed is really legiti-mate private land. The land is located at Luneta hill and is not a heritage site, not culturally and historically significant area, and not a proclaimed green space.

Compensatory activi-ties .

The DENR requires SM to replace 30 saplings for every tree that will be re-moved from site or a total of 5460 saplings for all the 182 trees. A show of sincer-ity and willingness of SM to compensate the 182 trees to be removed from site, it committed to plant 50,000 saplings of Benguet Pine or other native species in and around Baguio City. More-over, it is willing to adopt

parks in Baguio City.Accordingly, SM has

already planted 2,000 sap-lings of B Pines at Busol Watershed and is support-ing the maintenance of the trees and protection of the area.

Green Architecture The SM multi-function

building is a green build-ing. It has a sky garden that can compensate for the 182 trees in terms of CO2 se-questration. This skygarden can be a model for Baguio. It has rainwater harvest-ing, STP, park finders and others. It is, accordingly, an earthquake proof designed multi-function facility.

The presence of SM in Baguio City is changing the City’s image from ukay-ukay city to a more attrac-tive city. Definitely, SM City Baguio is a threat to local businesses. However, it will provide friendly competi-tion- a healthy environment for business and consum-ers.

A livestock technol-ogy and Negosyong Pinoy Caravan has

kicked off last May 4 in the province to celebrate the nationwide obser-vance of the Farmers’ and Fisherfolks’ Month.

The provincial gov-ernment of Compostela Valley spearheads the caravan, aiming to gather livestock farmers to foster partnership and collabo-ration in complementing efforts for a sustainable agriculture.

Among the highlights of the caravan include technical presentations covering the field of pro-duction, animal health, and exhibits to showcase production efficiency and farmers’ profitability.

The first stop of the caravan was done yester-day at the municipality of Montevista. The caravan

will also be held in Mara-gusan on May 10, to be followed by Maco on May 17, and the last stop will be in Mawab on May 29.

More than a hundred farmers in each munici-pality are expected to join in the event.

The Provincial Vet-erinarian’s Office, headed by Dr. Benjamin S. Reyno, DVM, is leading the event in partnership with the Department of Agricul-ture-XI.

The respective Mu-nicipal Agriculturist’s Of-fice and private partners in each town recipient are also supporting the live-stock technology and Ne-gosyong Pinoy Caravan.

This year’s celebra-tion of the Farmers’ and Fisherfolks’ Month is anchored on the theme “Sapat na pagkain, sama-sama nating kamtin!”

Entrepreneurship caravan kicks off in Compostela

of which is the increased awareness from related industries to support fran-chising to fully maximize its potentials.

“Franchising has now been receiving good feed-backs from enablers, among them IT companies and financial institutions. It is good that we are learning from what other countries are doing, picking up their best practices, to grow the

franchising sector and in turn , the economy as well,” Trota said.

“Hopefully, with PFA strengthening its effort of promoting entrepreneur-ship through wise franchise investments – especially with a series of franchise seminars all over the coun-try – we can secure the sus-tained growth of Philippine franchising,” said Pardo-Or-beta. (PNA)

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012 7PROPERTYEDGEDAVAO

Are you newlyweds looking for the per-fect nest to enjoy

your new life as a married couple? Or a young fam-ily looking for the perfect home to raise your kids in the right environment?

New couples and startup families will find everything they look for in the city’s newest pre-mier address, Camella Northpoint at the corner of JP Laurel Avenue and Buhangin Road.

Camella Northpoint is a British colonial themed condo community being developed by Camella, subsidiary of the coun-try’s largest homebuilder, Vista Land & Lifescapes.

Camella’s reputation alone is a big draw for newlyweds and young families who prefer a rep-utable real estate com-pany that can give them their ideal home. With a developer that has a solid reputation like Camella, they know their invest-ments are safe.

New couples can opt to get a studio unit that gives them an easy, conve-nient, and stylish lifestyle within the heart of the ur-ban growth area of north Davao. With Camella’s central location, newly-weds will find everything within close proximity, from markets, to malls, to banks, and public trans-port.

Their studio units are so versatile; it does not require much upkeep and maintenance. As a one-room abode, it allows new couples to clean as they go, and do their daily activities with everything they need within easy reach.

Arriving home after a day’s work, they can cook and dine together, and spend the rest of the evening snuggling at the

couch watching their fa-vourite shows on TV or Davao’s scenic nightlights from their window in the evening.

They can opt to enjoy Camella Northpoint’s re-freshing green outdoors and stroll along the jog-ging track with imported Caribbean pine trees all around them. Or don their swimwear and dive into the crisp waters of the salinated wellness pool of the clubhouse, Wakefield Manor.

What’s more, the in-timacy of a single-room dwelling intensifies the bond that newlyweds need to cultivate in the early years of marriage, making living together convenient yet exciting and sweet.

Startup families can opt for a two- or three-bedroom condo unit, where two children can each have their own room, or little ones can simply share a room. Being adja-cent to the master’s bed-room, the children’s room is easily accessible to par-ents, making monitoring the kids a breeze.

While preparing their meals at the kitchen, young moms can keep a close eye on the little tots as they play or watch TV in the living area.

For a fun day out, the family does not need to go far. They can simply go to the playground, frolic at the open, green spaces of green grass and sculpted lawns, or enjoy the facili-ties of Wakefield Manor.

The kids can enjoy the kiddie pool while the young parents can grab an hour or two of exercise at the fitness gym, or take a few laps at the wellness pool. Eating out is not a problem as restaurants and other food joints are just a short drive away.

Both newlyweds and young families will benefit from Camella Northpoint’s strategic location, making it close to business estab-lishments, modern offices, shopping outlets, restau-rants, bars, supermar-kets, department stores, churches, public markets, hospitals, banks, airport, seaport, and public trans-port.

The best shopping and recreational destinations are quite proximate to Northpoint as these are lo-cated up north of the city, such as the Abreeza Ayala Mall, Victoria Plaza, Gai-sano Mall, and the soon-to-open SM in Lanang.

In these commercial centres are also located the newest cinemas and indoor family entertain-ment spots, as well as a wide array of restaurants offering various cuisines, from Filipino, to Chinese, Spanish, Mediterranean, and more.

Camella Northpoint has a professional prop-erty management group that takes care of the condo community’s maintenance and repairs, allowing newlyweds and startup families to enjoy their studio unit and two- or three-bedroom units to the hilt.

These units are easy to acquire with special promos and discounts of-fered by Camella Davao at 2F Delgar Building, JP Laurel Avenue, Bajada, which is right across Northpoint, with tele-phone numbers (082) 222-0963 and (082) 222-5221.

Living in Camella Northpoint allows newly-weds and young families to experience ultimate convenience in life , giving them more time to spend on what matters most to them - each other.

Families enjoy what matters most at Camella Northpoint

Intra-ASEAN trade is expected to increase with the planned es-

tablishment of furniture pavilion in each ASEAN country, including the Philippines.

“With this, we can pro-mote each country’s fur-niture. And I see that the Philippines will standout because of our unique products and (excellent) design of our furniture,” said Emmanuel Padier-nos, vice president for market development of Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philip-pines (CFIP).

Padiernos bared that the Philippines and five other member countries of the ASEAN Furniture Industries Council (AFIC)

have agreed in principle to create the AFIC pa-vilion in each country around next year.

He said that aside from the Philippines, the pavilion will be also es-tablished in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singa-pore, and Vietnam.

Padiernos, the chief delegate of the Philip-pines to the AFIC, said he proposed the creation of such pavilion which can serve as a venue for trade shows.

“They asked me to map out the mechanisms/details which I am going to present during the next AFIC meeting by Septem-ber. Our target (for the creation of the pavilions) is March 2013 or 2014,”

he said. Apart from this initia-

tive meant to boost Phil-ippine furniture exports to ASEAN, Padiernos said, industry players are keen on penetrating more markets particularly the huge Chinese market.

“China is now be-coming a consumption economy rather than an export economy. I think China will become the next economic power in the future because of its large population and high economic growth,” he noted.

To this end, Padiernos said the Chamber is work-ing on the possibility of establishing a permanent furniture showroom in China. (DANIELLE VENZ-PIA 10)

PHL aims to become furniture design hub

SOON to rise in Brgy. San Antonio, Mabini of Compostela Valley

(ComVal) is a village to be called the “Ang Bag-ong Malambuong Mabini Us-wag Gawad Kalinga Vil-lage.” Uswag is a Cebuano word that means to make or do progress or prosper, or improve; while Gawad Kalinga is an initiative by the private sector in put-ting up houses with the help of the beneficiaries themselves.

ComVal will work on the Ninth Uswag GK Bay-ani Challenge slated on May 8 to 15.

The provincial gov-ernment lead by Gover-nor Arturo T. Uy will con-struct 10 houses while the rest of the 18 houses will be built by other volunteer-builders and partners.

The municipality of Mawab will soon host a set of houses to complete Uy’s target of putting up

Uswag GK Villages in all the province’s munici-palities.

The spirit of volun-teerism and bayanihan has been a culture and a way of life for the ComVa-lenyos, making every en-deavor easier to achieve by the province.

To date, nine out of the 11 municipalities have GK Villages already with Mabini soon to be the 10th. (IDS-COMVAL/GRACE ALMEDILLA/PIA)

Gawad Kalinga builds houses in Compostela

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 20128 VANTAGE POINTS

Public livesEDITORIAL

EDGEDAVAOProviding solutions to a seamless global village.

ANTONIO M. AJEROEditor in Chief

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

LORIE ANN A. CASCARO • JADE C. ZALDIVAR • MOSES C. BILLACURAStaff Writers

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

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EDGEDAVAO

Backlash of resentment and anger

APART from the all-important televised impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona,

Filipinos are these days also being entertained or irritated (as the case may be), by a surfeit of stories in-volving conflicts between and among public figures.

Amalia Fuentes against mother and daughter Anabelle Rama and Ruffa Gutierrez, Nadia Montene-gro against Anabelle Rama, Andi Ei-genman versus Albie Casino, et al, Raymart Santiago and Claudine Bar-etto vs Mon Tulfo. These are just a few of the so many verbal and physi-cally violent conflicts involving peo-ple who should be examples of good behavior in public. Majority of those enmeshed in the above-cited tiffs are movie stars.

Could it be the influence of the appearance last Sunday of Super-moon, a rare occurrence in solar system, when the moon is nearest

to the earth, or a logical effect of the extreme summer heat which has al-ready caused heat stroke, especially among senior citizens? Nobody can really tell.

What is sure is that breeding has something to do with it. Time was when people who lived public lives were careful about their behav-ior in public knowing they’re sup-posed to be more responsible to society than buffoons and criminal elements. However, in time, society had become tolerant and permissive to misdemeanor as mass media, in-cluding, and especially, the movie in-dustry, tended to even lionize public figures with deviant and anti-social behavior. This is evidenced by the huge success at the tills of exploits of such dubious characters as Asiong Salonga, Nardong Putik and other notorious murderous characters—and the public laps it up with gusto.

That’s entertainment?

CA N D I D SHOTS – The rich and

well-developed countries should view poor and under-developed nations such as the Philippines and their people as partners to be helped in times of financial trou-bles, and not as golden opportunities for taking over market shares when their as-sets have collapsed.

This is a customary manner among moneyed and influential nations, but a disturbing aspect of the bailout scheme arranged by, who else, the powerful and persuasive International Monetary Fund (IMF). Another is that they are turning out to be a bailout not of the financially trou-bled countries but of their international creditors. The private losses of foreign creditors seem to be socialized because under the bailouts, their debts are trans-ferred to the government and therefore must be repaid by the poor taxpayers.

There have even been reported cases in the past of banks in the country “looted” by their owners and the losses passed on to the government and the taxpaying pub-lic. All these are dangerous because they will result in a backlash of resentment and anger from ordinary citizens.

oooOoooDISAPPOINTING THING – It comes

as no surprise that another bank, the Ex-port and Import Bank (Export Bank), col-lapsed. The process of a financial collapse under way at said bank strikes at the very core of the country’s banking industry. In a situation like this, the poor depositors have been at the receiving end of a bank’s financial debacle.

A certain amount of confusion is al-ways present, especially in crisis like this. Mindful that all the uncertainty raises the possibility of bank runs, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) immediately takes over and put the af-fected bank under its receivership. The big worry, however, is that only cash deposits P10,000 and below would be refunded routinely by the PDIC while over P10, 000 will be acted upon only after proper docu-mentations had been done. Unfortunately, that would take place probably by next month, or maybe even beyond, according to PDIC officials.

Indeed, the collapse of Export Bank gets depositors in other banking institu-tions terribly worried about the current situation of the country’s banking system. Worry and poignant, many depositors complained that they are getting conflict-ing signals and the recent closure of Ex-port Bank has focused their minds on the safety of their bank deposits. Such senti-ment from millions of depositors reso-nates loudly – especially considering that the country is currently facing financial difficulties.

To cushion a negative impact, gov-ernment financial experts and economic managers, and other independent bank-ing analysts have assured the appre-hensive public there is nothing to worry about because the Export Bank fiasco affects only about 2% of the operations of the country’s entire banking system. But how about the more than 50, 000 de-positors of the affected bank, it might be asked? To what extent can they get back their hard-earned money? A tough ques-tion that needs an equally tough answer, isn’t it?

One of the disappointing things that came about as a result of the abrupt clo-sure of Export Bank was that the deposi-tors’ money might as well be placed un-der a “frozen” status while PDIC is still in the process of ironing out problems relat-ed to the release of all cash deposits and the payment of insurance claims. From the point of view of a depositor looking for a safe harbor, the latest banking inci-dent certainly dented the notion that the country’s banking system remains strong and stable as what the country’s top fi-nancial officials tend the public to believe.

The PDIC, through its stabilizing and supportive role to the banking commu-nity, is in the position to pay all the insur-ance claims of depositors of up to P500, 000, and likewise should encourage the public to always have faith and confi-dence in the country’s banking system. A comprehensive agenda for the stabil-ity and resilience of the banking industry with a formula of immediate resolution of the recurrence of a similar incident ac-ceptable to all parties involved is urgently needed.

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012

BR O W S I N G thru a piece of folded pa-

per before it goes to the trash can, I just thought it’s worth our time go-ing over some fig-ures of that paper titled “2010-2011 Socio-Economic Indicators – Davao Region” released by the NEDA Davao Re-gion a few weeks back.

Under the sub-title ‘Production”, the first thing that attracted our attention was Sugar which more than doubled its pro-duction from 256,802 metric tons in 2010 to 417,059 metric tons the following year 2011 or a whopping increase of 62.4%. Honestly, I really don’t know where all this sugar comes from which ended up being credited to the production statistics of the Davao Region.

I’m aware that Davao del Sur had been producing sugar for many years, peaking off and on, but just barely, since everyone knows only Bukidnon is known for its huge sugar plantations, specially the one at Que-zon town, right smack in the heart of Mind-anao. It’s natural of course, if the expansion of sugar farms had spilled over to Davao del Sur, considering that “moscado” that fa-mous raw brown sugar used as dessert for horses, is being produced for world export in that province.

The only plausible reason I could think of, without asking NEDA, is a long produc-tion slump of sugar in Davao del Sur for many years before a sugar farm expansion kicked off that sudden surge of 62.4 % for sugar crop last year. Of course, that surge in production could be spurred by surge of interest in sugar due to a surge in global prices for sugar.

One distressing sign in that NEDA re-port was the slump in production for man-go which harvested only 29,720 metric tons of fruit in 2010, compared to 33,908 metric tons last year, slipping down by –12.3%, an alarming sign that something’s going wrong with the region’s mango industry. I’ve been at some of the meetings of the mango industry cluster two years ago and I saw the discord, the mistrust among man-go farmers, and the reluctance of banks to

help mango farmers with production loans. “Gubot kaayo, wala sila’y nagsinabot !” one mango grower told me.

From my vantage point, the mango in-dustry groups composed of buyers, trad-ers, growers and farmers are not as united as the banana industry cluster, the group where I spent time with coops working to-gether on training programs and strategic planning to reach their goals.

Within the banana industry group, we don’t have members who are hard-headed and stubborn and refuse to adjust to the rest of the group in seeking practical solu-tions to problems facing the industry. Of course, this is natural in any organization whose members have their own ideas how to make things work--- and that’s good if they’re only flexible enough to keep har-mony within the industry cluster.

Not all is well, however, within the ba-nana industry which is still buckling under the same problems of low buying prices for bananas, the threat of Panama disease wip-ing out whole farms, the millions of unpaid loans of farmers to government banks and rural banks, all of which are forcing many banana farmers to diversify their farm ar-eas to other crops like cacao, coffee and oil palm.

Banana production rose slightly from 3,804,460 metric tons to 3,855,000 met-ric tons from 2010 to 2011, an increase of only 1.3% which is actually better to previ-ous years when the industry faced output slumps due to various traditional problems of bad weather, over supply, global compe-tition, etc. One banana grower kept telling me, “Mubu kaayo ang presyo! Naipit na gyud me sa mga utang! Daghan gi pang de-duct, wala nay nabilin!”

Pineapple production looks promis-ing for Davao since we all know that this fruit comes only from Polomolok, South Cotabato and Malaybalay, Bukidnon where the world’s biggest pineapple plantations are located, Dole and Del Monte. We don’t know if they’re running out of farm areas out there to plant pineapple, to bother with the smaller farm areas in Davao.

Although the figures are small, they’re enough to grab our attention with 22,840 metric tons in 2010, rising to 25,306 in

2011, an increase of 10.8%, a good sign that pineapple is on its way to become one of the region’s fast-growing industries. With foreign importers in China, New Zealand, Australia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, etc, all eager to buy our Davao-grown pineapples, we’re no longer surprised to see new farm areas in Calinan. Davao Del Sur, Davao del Norte, all opening up to pineapple growing for export.

We’re keeping an eye for cacao, coffee and oil palm, but the figures we got from NEDA aren’t promising yet as the output for coffee crop dropped from 22,681 metric tons to 20,465 metric tons declining by –9.8 % from 2011 to 2010. Cacao on the other hand, has started to move up from 3,506 metric tons to 3,617 metric tons from 2010 to 2011, rising slightly by 3.2% as more and more farmers are shifting to cacao from ba-nanas, coffee and rice.

With the funding support of the US De-partment of Agriculture and some of the world’s biggest chocolate makers like Mars, etc, we expect to see cacao output rise steadi-ly in the years ahead as the momentum for cacao production is now in full swing.

We’ve met global buyers and traders tell-ing us that they’re bent on making Davao one of the world’s biggest cacao producer because they want to quit dealing with war-torn, unstable Sierra Leone, West Africa, the world’s biggest cacao supplier.

Not on the NEDA list yet is oil palm since its current output comes from Agusan del Sur which has the largest areas planted to oil palms by Filipino-Malaysian partners. With millions of pesos approved by Land Bank for oil palm plantations to be run by big farmers’ cooperatives in Davao del Norte, farm areas are now being set aside for large scale plan-tations in Asuncion, Monkayo, Banaybanay, Compostela, etc.

Soon , we’ll start to see the figures for palm oil production in metric tons, inching up on the NEDA data board, alongside the output for other crops like bananas, cacao, coffee, pineapple, sugar, coconut, rubber, etc. Things are moving fast in Davao these days, we’re looking at a brighter future for our children…

[Comment? Email me: tradingpost_davao@yahoo.com]

FL O Y D M a y -w e a t h e r

Jr.’s nose and mouth were bloodied, but while pushed to the limit he still came out a clear and con-vincing winner over the game and competitive Miguel Cotto to wrest the latter’s super welterweight title and probably continue to lay claim to being the best pound for pound boxer, except that Manny Pacquiao has something to say about that.

Mayweather was never in danger of absorbing his first career loss, but for the first time in 10 years, he found him-self in a competitive fight.

Cotto came bent on keeping his crown, but Mayweather simply showed far more superior skills and was far faster than any fighter he had ever met, except for, again, Pacquiao. Cotto came close to going down in the 12th round when a left uppercut by Mayweather found his chin. Cotto had his moments

but once more fell short against an elite fighter.

If anything, Cotto at least survived Mayweather. That cannot be said of his fight with Pacquiao who put him down twice before being rescued by the ref-eree from further punishment in the last round.

Cotto, likewise, exposed some holes and cracks in Mayweather’s defenses that work against right handed fight-ers. Mayweather looks very vulnerable against left hooks and straights from a southpaw where his shoulder roll de-fense will be ineffective. Take note of that, Coach Freddie Roach.

And while Mayweather basks in the glory of picking up Pacquiao left-overs, his greatness will always be sus-pect against the Filipino boxing cham-pion. Before, during and after the Cotto fight, Pacquiao was always mentioned in the equation of future fights involving Mayweather. But as the color commen-tators of the Mayweather-Cotto fight said, one wonders if that will ever hap-pen.

Despite all the Mayweather ranting

and diatribes, boxing fans and aficio-nados will always view him as the sole obstacle to making the Pacquiao fight a reality. Mayweather will repeatedly find excuses to torpedo any fight deal with Pacquiao despite the huge financial bo-nanza that awaits both fighters.

When pressed by Larry Merchant in the post-Cotto fight, Mayweather again paid lip service to such a fight but did not categorically say when he is going to take up the challenge. Come to think of it, if Mayweather wants the fight all he has to do is fight – no ifs and buts.

But then again, why risk losing all the future money he could get fighting handpicked opponents if he losses to Pacquiao? For as long as Pacquiao keeps fighting, Mayweather will always find ways for the gullible among us to believe that he will one day fight the Filipino boxing idol.

As for Pacquiao, with or without Mayweather, 2013 will be the last year of his colorful and spectacular boxing ca-reer. Let us wait and see if Mayweather will continue to be a PPV attraction once Pacquiao is gone from the boxing scene.

9VANTAGE POINTS

Monkey Business

EDGEDAVAO

Tested, Floyd wins convincingly—so, what now? Like Charles Lindbergh

Is sugar replacing banana as Davao’s main crop?

ERWIN Mas-c a r i n a s ’ article on

retired Air Force general William Hotchkiss was rather too short for the long vi-sion of this rare breed of an of-ficer and gentleman. I’d like to think that Hotchkiss holds a wisdom that has enabled him to break free from the mental straitjacket that strangles people in the profession of arms.

His sister Emma and brother Charles, the first Air Force pilot to defect to the rebel soldiers’ side dur-ing the 1986 Edsa People Power Re-volt, are also active in the anti-mining cause. An encounter with these won-derful siblings would be great. Some-day.

But what have they got to do with Charles Lindbergh? Interestingly, brothers William and Charles and the latter’s American namesake are all aviators, although it should be in the past tense for Lindbergh – he died on August 26, 1974.

Although a civilian, Lindbergh saw action as a combat pilot in the Pacific War and was appointed as an Air Force brigadier general by Presi-dent Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. And like the Hotchkiss brothers, Lind-bergh became a conservationist after he felt he had had enough of flying.

Maybe it’s the privilege of fre-quently seeing the world from above that made these three aviators love the beauty of creation. They must have rued those days that duty to fa-therland forced them to drop bombs that laid to waste the gifts of Nature below them.

It wasn’t the combat missions however that made Lindbergh famous but his 33½-hour flight from New York to Paris, on May 20-21, 1927. Be-ing the first to accomplish a solo, non-stop flight across the Atlantic – many before him had tried but failed (read died) – the feat made him an interna-tional sensation and revolutionized the aviation industry.

In 1953, Lindbergh wrote The Spirit of St. Louis, after the name of the plane that brought him fame – and a small fortune. He received $25,000 promised by a New York hotel owner named Raymond Orteig to the first pilot to conquer the ocean’s breadth. The book brought him more fame, as it won the Pulitzer Prize the year after it was published.

In the twilight of his years, Lind-bergh traveled to Africa and the Phil-ippines and became deeply involved in conservation issues. The sight of a Philippine Eagle in flight so amazed him that he called it “the air’s noblest flier.” A fitting tribute to the world’s largest yet endangered raptor from the “Lone Eagle” himself.

It’s refreshing to know that Lind-bergh wasn’t the last of his kind. The Hotchkiss siblings may not be celeb-rities like “Lucky Lindy.” What counts though is not the stature but the spirit to pursue what one has set out to do. After all, true greatness lies in sincer-ity and humility even if one is able to soar above the rest. If eagles can talk, they would call it grace in flight. [MindaNews/H. Marcos C. Mordeno writes mainly on the environment, human rights and politics. He can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com]

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 201210 COMMUNITY SENSE EDGEDAVAO

SHERWIN “WIN” T. Gatchalian, multi-awarded youthful

mayor of Valenzuela City, has urged civic clubs and all other groups of do-gooders to pursue proj-ects aimed at giving edu-cational opportunities to children of the poor.

Gatchalian, still in his thirties, made education the theme of his talk be-fore JCI Central Davao, Inc. during its recent 11th installation of officers and new members and third Jaycee Senate investiture at the Pinnacle Hotel and Suites.

Chosen one of the 2011 Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines (TOYM) by the JCI for his impressive projects in Va-lenzuela, Gatchalian told young civic leaders led by newly inducted JCI Central Davao president Porfirio “Jojo” Caronan III that be-cause his father, industri-alist William Gatchalian, was a school dropout, he has made education an ad-vocacy in his private and public life.

He said that the ad-vise of his father was to give priority to education, whatever he planned to do with his life.

“Di baling magkaroon ka ng anak, mag-asawa ka, ano pamang plano mong gawin sa buhay mo, seguraduhin mo lang na makatapos ng iyong pag-aaral, seguraduhin mo na may diploma ka pag-uwi mo,” was the advise of the

Gatchalian urges civic leadersto focus on education projects

elder Gatchalian which stuck to the mind of the young Sherwin when he was about to go to college.

Gatchalian graduated from Boston University in Massachusetts with a bachelor of science in finance and operations, advance language course from the Beijing Language

and Culture University and advanced corporate fi-nance from the Euromon-ey Institute of Finance.

As congressman from 2001 to 2004, Win figured in sponsoring and co-sponsoring laws on edu-cation, money-laundering, anti-drug campaign, pre-need and 15 other bills

and laws on various other issues.

In his three terms as mayor of Valenzuela whose population is more than 500,000 people, he priori-tized projects on education as well as reforms in the bureaucracy of his city.

Believing that “educa-tion is the ultimate tool to

reduce poverty,” the new mayor immediately tack-led education and educa-tion-related problems in his city.

He said Valenzuela is facing five big problems re-lated to education.

“Due to the rapid growth of the population, we have to keep on building

schools, hiring new teach-ers and buying new books,” Gatchalian said, adding that poverty was behind the high school dropout rate.

“Malnutrition was also very high in Valenuela,” he said, as 80 percent of schoolchildren, aged zero to 12 years were found malnourished.

(L-R) 2012 JCI Central Davao Secretary General JCI Member Chris Silda, Hon. Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian, 2012 JCI Central Davao President JCI Member Jojo Caronan

(L-R) 2012Area 5 Vice President JCI Senator Steve Arquiza, 2012 JCI Philippines President JCI Senator Ivan Ruste, 2012 JCI Central Davao Outgoing President JCI Senator Lito Oasan2012 JCI Philippines President JCI Senator Ivan Ruste

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012 11SUBURBIAEDGEDAVAO

     

   

 

 

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OFFICIALS of Gener-al Santos City and Polomolok, South

Cotabato town were are in Singapore to attend a program on water re-source management.

Tacurong City May-or Lina O. Montilla and other officials attended the 2nd Temasek Foun-dation Water Leadership Program from April 23 to May 4 at the National University of Singapore.

The two-week ex-ecutive program was de-signed by the Temasek Foundation, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Pol-icy at the National Uni-versity of Singapore and Public Utilities Board, Singapore’s national wa-ter agency.

There organizing in-stitutions selected dis-tinguished teams of aca-demics and policymakers from all over Asia who would benefit from the program.

Selected recipients are those who are com-mitted in devising in-novative thinking to ad-dress a critical health sustainability issue that is currently hamper-ing Asia’s progress, “the growing water and sani-tation needs of 3.7 billion

people.” Having passed a cou-

ple of assessments and interviews, Montilla, and other members of the Philippine team obtained free full tuition expenses and hotel accommoda-tion from the program.

Other members of the Philippine team were are General Santos City gen-eral manager Engr. Arn B. Gellangarin, Polomolok Water District general manager Engr. Andresito J. Degilla, Prof. Faustino Jerome Babate also Gen-eral Santos City; Prof. Ma. Adela A. Fiesta from Cotabato City, and Fer-dinand Ferrer, division manager of Gen Santos Water District.

Other countries also eligible for the scholar-ship are Cambodia, In-donesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lan-ka, Afghanistan, Kazakh-stan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajiki-stan, Turkmenistan, Uz-bekistan, Mongolia, and China.

The program was de-signed for water leaders coming from Asia where increasing water and sanitation demands are

currently becoming a challenge.

It exposed them to the best practices in wa-ter utilities governance, practical guidance on managing water utilities effectively and potential strategies to deal with existing and future chal-lenges in their respective countries and localities.

For a convenient and effective learning, the program was conduct-ed in a state-of-the-art classroom setting with the use of a combination of lectures, case studies and panel discussions among practitioners.

The teams also had the opportunity to go on site visits, which im-mersed them in the real scenario on how Singa-pore has dealt with chal-lenges on its water re-source management.

Montilla, along with the other members of the Philippine team, is expected to come home with advanced and im-proved knowledge on water resource manage-ment that would benefit not just the local govern-ment of Tacurong but the entire country as a whole. [DED/JBILLANO-PIA12/TACURONG LGU]

SouthCot officials attend Singapore water summit

AROUND 3,000 cou-ples have already been wed through

the “Kasalan ng Bayan” as part of the weekly ‘Lingap sa Barangay’ program of the local government.

Reports from the Mu-nicipal Information Of-fice (MIO), Local Civil Registrar Lydia Erasmo revealed that the number of “live-in” couples get-ting married from the 31 barangays in the area has increased because of the intensified campaign of the administration on the importance of matrimo-ny and the benefits they could get from the local

government. Mayor Reynaldo Con-

stantino repeatedly ex-plained that a lot of ben-efits can be enjoyed by “live-in couples” from the municipal government if they get married such as free education, PhilHealth medical assistance, liveli-hood and other programs for the family members.

Constantino clarified that the only requirement of the municipal govern-ment to avail of the differ-ent programs is to pres-ent the marriage contract or marriage certificate of the wedded couple as he encouraged other un-

married partners to take advantage of the said pro-gram for the benefit of their family.

“Kasalan ng Bayan” is one of the services of the local government for the residents of the munici-pality where Constantino, along with other repre-sentatives from different agencies of the govern-ment visit even the re-mote areas of the town to deliver basic public services especially to the least served people in Malungon. (PGFruylan with reports from MIO Malungon-PIA 12, Saran-gani)

3,000 couples join Kasalan ng Bayan in Malungon town

BARGE. Passengers riding in a motorcycle who are taking the short barge ride from Davao to Samal Island pay the basic fare in the booth along the coast of Davao City. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 201212 NATION/WORLD EDGEDAVAO

NATION BRIEFS WORLD TODAYWebsite

IN an effort to spur in-terest among Filipinos regarding the Palarong

Pambansa 2012, the Depart-ment of Education (DepEd) has activated a website (http://www.palarongpam-bansa2012.com/) specifi-cally for the upcoming event.

This will be the first time that DepEd launched a web-site for the annual Palaro, which is attended by some 10,000 student athletes in different sporting catego-ries.

Rehydrate

WITH summer tem-perature in the Metro rising above

36 degrees, the Department of Health (DOH) urged the public, especially senior citizens, to drink at least 13 glasses of water to avoid de-hydration and heat stroke.

The regular eight glasses of water daily intake is not enough during the warm season especially with high temperatures that can cause heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses, said DOH assistant secretary and chief of the National Epidemiol-ogy Center Eric Tayag.

Slashed

A survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pili-pinas (BSP) showed that

economists of foreign and local private banks slashed anew their inflation forecast for the Philip-pines despite soaring oil pric-es and possible second round ef-fects such as higher food prices, transport fare hikes, and clamor of wage increases.

Based on the central bank’s Private Sector Econ-omists’ Inflation Forecast for the first quarter of 2012, inflation would average 3.5 percent instead of 4.2 percent this year and fall within the target of three percent to five percent set by the BSP.

Charged

AN inter-agency fact-find-ing panel found prob-able cause to file crimi-

nal and administrative charges against Bureau of Corrections chief Gaudencio Pangilinan and six other BuCor officials over an allegedly anomalous renovation project at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

The panel recommend-ed that Pangilinan and the other officials be held re-sponsible for violating the government procurement and anti-graft laws for the P1.4-million renovation of the NBP administration building, which was done without a proper public bidding.

Successful

AFTER the hugely suc-cessful rollout of the first official TV ad of

the Department of Tour-ism’s (DoT) ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ campaign on the Cable News Network (CNN), airing to more than 280 million households around the world, the Phil-ippines is, quite literally, ev-erywhere these days.

The ad is currently air-ing on CNN, which is very timely as CNN also features the country through a spe-cial segment called ‘’Eye on the Philippines.’’

US Secretary of State Hillary Clin-ton urged India on

Monday to further cut its imports of Iranian oil, say-ing New Delhi should use its growing clout to help isolate the Islamic republic.

“India... is certainly working towards lower-ing purchases of Iranian oil. We commend the steps they have taken thus far,” she told an audience in the eastern Indian city of Kol-kata.

“We hope they will do even more and we think there is an adequate sup-ply (from other exporters) in the market place ... We think this is part of India’s role in the international community.”

India, which depended on Iran for 12 percent of its imports last year, says it has reduced Iranian imports “substantially” despite initially saying it would not join US and Eu-ropean-led efforts to cut off oil revenues for Tehran.

Clinton, speaking ahead of meetings with India’s leaders, said that it was essential that pressure re-mained on Iran over its dis-puted nuclear programme and she said a new round of negotiations were the fruits of previous efforts.

REINVIGORATE. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) holds a sari during an Anti-Human Trafficking event in Kolkata, on May 6. Clinton landed in India with hopes

of reinvigorating a relationship seen as losing steam despite efforts to bring the world’s two largest democra-cies closer. [AFP]

Clinton presses India to cut Iranian oil imports

In New Delhi later Mon-day, Clinton will sit down with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh aiming to re-spark a bilateral re-lationship hailed as “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century” by President Barack Obama.

The world’s two largest democracies have rapidly expanded ties since over-coming mutual mistrust during the Cold War, but tension over Iran and dif-ficulties in their trade ties

have stunted progress.Relations were reset by

former US president Bill Clinton in the 1990s and invigorated by his succes-sor George W. Bush, who signed a landmark nucle-ar energy deal that was meant to hand business to US companies.

Legislation passed in India since then is seen by Washington as penalising its private nuclear com-panies, who are unable to take on the liability im-

posed on them in case of an accident.

State-backed compa-nies from France and Rus-sia have profited at their expense.

“We’ve made it clear to the government that under the legislation that was passed it would be difficult for US companies to par-ticipate,” Clinton said. “We are still discussing this and we’re hoping there will be a way to work out the re-maining kinks in this.”

CONTRARY to claims that the government has been generating

profits from power sales in the Mindanao grid, the Power Sector Assets and Li-abilities Management Corp. (PSALM) actually incurred accumulated losses amount-ing to P15 billion from 2001

to 2011 from the operations of its power facilities in Min-danao.

PSALM made the state-ment to ensure utmost transparency to all relevant sectors as to the actual finan-cial position of the Mindanao plants’ operations.

According to PSALM

President and Chief Execu-tive Officer Emmanuel R. Ledesma Jr., while operation of hydro plants results in op-erating profits, losses from coal, geothermal, and diesel-fired plants significantly ex-ceed the revenues generated from the hydro plants.

In fact, the cost of pro-

ducing electricity from these facilities is more than the time-of-use rate imposed on Mindanao consumers.

Ledesma pointed out that the revenues gener-ated from the hydro plants are being used to cover the operating losses from these facilities.

PSALM incurs P15-B losses in Mindanao

BENEFICIARY. A beneficiary of government’s Conditional Cash Transfer program tends vegetable she is selling in her garden to augment her family income in Pateros, Metro Manila April 30, 2012. Through the Pantawid

Pamilya (Family Subsistence) program in the Philippines, about 3 million poor households get small grants from the government if they take their children to health centers regularly and keep them in school. [REUTERS]

Third term

VLADIMIR Pu-tin takes office on Monday as Russian

president for a historic third term in a glittering Kremlin ceremony shad-owed bybloody clash-es between police and the protest movement against his rule.

Putin will officially take over from outgo-ing President Dmitry Medvedev after swearing in his oath to protect the rights of Russian citizens and defend the country’s integrity.

President-elect

FRANCE’S president-elect Francois Hollande set about the task of

building his government and ties with allies on Monday as world markets eyed political developments in the eurozone with concern.

The 57-year-old So-cialist won power Sunday in a close race against France’s outgoing right-wing leader Nicolas Sar-kozy, triggering joyful street parties, and now faces the immediate chal-lenge of dealing with Eu-rope’s debt crisis.

Asia trip

TTBCV President Ol-lanta Humala will set off this week on his first

official trip to Asia, seeking to sell his country as an ideal hub for trade between Latin Ameri-ca and the Asia-Pacific.

Humala, who will be accompanied by several key ministers and a num-ber of business leaders, on Tuesday will make his first stop inJapan, Peru’s num-ber five trading partner.

Ready

AFGHAN forces are ready to take respon-sibility for security in

2013, the defence ministry said Monday, reacting to a pledge to withdrawFrench troops early by president-elect Francois Hollande.

“For us a NATO stance is more important than individual decisions by in-dividual nations,” ministry spokesman General Mo-hammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. “And Afghanistan is well prepared to take over all security responsibili-ties in 2013.”

Bullish

GERMANY has always been the cornerstone of the European economy

but Europe is not as important to Germany as it used to be.

For the first time China has become German com-panies’ top foreign invest-ment destination, totaling $1.36 billion by the end of last year, according to a survey by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. The amount was more than the combined Ger-man investment in France, Spain and Italy.

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012 13FFROM 1

FFROM 2

FFROM 3

FFROM 1

EDGEDAVAO

Education...

No division...

4PS scheme...

Bukidnon...Applications for the

loan will run until Decem-ber 28 this year.

In the Davao region, the GSIS last Friday began accepting applications for the EAFP while the SSS will begin the accommo-dation as soon as they re-ceive their version of the application form.

GSIS Davao regional manager Deity Manam-pan in an interview said GSIS members have been inquiring about the EAFP since President Benigno Aquino III mentioned it during his Labor Day commemoration speech last May 1.

“It’s quite under-standable why people would be very interested in the educational loan. We too welcome this. We are glad na merong avail-able na tulong para sa ating mga miyembro,” he said in his Matina.

“We received info that the release may start by Thursday, in the mean-time we have set up a special lane for the edu-cational assistance, four attendants will be happy to accommodate your in-

quiries and applications,” he added.

The GSIS has 30,000 members from Davao City, 65,000 within the re-gion and 1.3 million mem-bers nationwide.

“We are ready to ac-commodate the 65,000 members from the region. We are expecting that all of the 1.3 million GSIS members nationwide will apply for the educational fund as this would be of great help to them. It’s five years to pay at 6% in-terest which means they would be paying only P20 per month which is very low,” he said.

Meanwhile, the SSS is yet to receive the imple-menting rules and regula-tions for the release of the EAFP from their agency.

SSS public informa-tion officer for Southern Mindanao Mario Daray asked for the under-standing of the public saying they will make an announcement once they are ready to receive ap-plicants to the EAFP.

“Hulat lang sa mo gamay but we are expect-ing that by [this week]

we’ll receive the neces-sary guidelines for us to start the releasing of the loan. We will announce it as soon as possible,” he said in an interview in his office.

“We are encouraging our members to avail of the loan and we do hope that next year merong educational assistance as we know it would be for the good of all concerned. Malaking tulong po ito sa pagpapaaral ng kabata-an,” Daray added.

Of the P11.2 billion EAFP fund, P5 billion is provided by the De-partment of Budget and Management, an amount certified by the Bureau of Treasury as part of the excess dividend col-lections remitted by government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs).

The GSIS and SSS, on the other hand, will pro-vide P6.2 billion in coun-terpart funding.

Under the EAFP, P4.2 billion will go to GSIS members, while P7 billion will be allotted to SSS.

Board nga mo-retain ta for aquatic resources kay bisan layo kaayo ng sapaa, naa gihapoy mga isda gamay diha. Mao nay among gitan-aw una mi mosugod nga walay marelocate,” he said.

He cited the Sibulan hydro power plant in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, where no community has been relocated since the beginning of the project.

“Sa among tan-aw bisan sa ubang mga proj-ect sa Hedcor, adto mi mobutang sa diversion nga walay mga tao. Wala pa gyuy nagpuyo. Sapa ra man tapos 1.5 meters lang man unya wala siyay hazard,” he added.

The Bukidnon hydro-electric power will har-ness the water running from the Sita River and Simod River, generating a total capacity of 28.2 megawatts (MW), with 16.4 MW from Sita Hy-droelectric Power Proj-ect, and 11.8 MW from Si-mod Hydroelectric Power Project.

Using the water to run its turbines for power generation, Hedcor will return the water to the

river in a cleaner state, and expected to generate 159 million kilowatt per hour (kwh) annually.

Datu Roelito Gawilan, barangay captain of Sinu-da, said his constituents are glad with the Hedcor’s project upon knowing that it will augment the village’s internal revenue.

As agreed in the MOA, the barangay will receive 1 centavo per kwh gener-ated from the Bukidnon hydroelectric power.

Having spoken with the communities where Hedcor’s projects are lo-cated, Gawilan said, “Sa edukasyon motabang sila, farm to market road, livelihood, ingon ana ang akong gusto makita nga kalambuan para sa akong mga katawhan dinhi sa Brgy. Sinuda ug sa Brgy. Kipilas, kay wala koy na-kita nga ubang investors nga ingon ani ka pur-sigido nga mohatag og proyekto ug ginarespeto ang proseso kung unsa ang nalatid dinha sa IPRA law. Wala gyud lipud li-pud.”

Gawilan signed the MOA between Barangay Sinuda Council and Hed-

cor, Inc., together with barangay councilors Aquino Uban, Roque La-cubay, Dionesio Pangcat, Ceasar Mangado, Jr., Din-do Banggaan, and Bern-abe Pandia.

Jabonillo said the company is in the pro-cess of completing all permits which may take a year, and will begin the project by 2014.

Having completed the MOA signing with Baran-gay Kipilas last April 30, Hedcor will have to sign MOA with the Federation of Matigsalog-Manobo Tribal Council, Munici-pality of Kitaotao, and Provincial Government of Bukidnon to manifest social acceptability of the project.

After that, he said Hedcor will secure per-mit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, en-vironmental compliance certificate, and building permit, among others, adding that they wanted to complete all permits before starting the proj-ect; however the process takes longer with the Aquino administration.

among teritoryo, usa ra mig ancestral domain, usa ra mi sa genealogy, mga paryente gihapon nako na sila,” Gawilan said.

At press time, the conflict among tribe members remained un-resolved, said Gawilan,

saying “there is one poli-tician” meddling in the issue. He refused to name the politician.

Meanwhile, he ac-knowledged the efforts of the city council in help-ing them through con-sultations, one of which was held last March 30

in Bukidnon. Councilor Datu Benino Libayao Mambuo earlier said that based on the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, certificates of an-cestral domain title can-not be divided, however, division of management may be allowed.

students were under 4Ps, he said, adding that he can only monitor the number based on the certifications released which are among one of the requirements of a household to avail of the CCT.

Parents should ask for certification from the school principal, testifying to the fact that their chil-dren are enrolled, so that they can avail of P3,000 per year for the education of one child, from three to five years old for preschool, and six to 14 years old for el-ementary and high school.

During the school year, there is an additional P1,400 monthly subsidy for each student. Another P6,000 per year is provided per household for health and nutrition of children.

“Kining mga bataa sa una makaeskwela gyud pero walay kaon. Pag abot sa 4Ps, nagdahum ta nga naa na silay kaon ug mas makapalit na og mga lapis ug papel kaysa sa una,” he told Edge Davao.

AttendanceSince the implementa-

tion of 4Ps, students have been attending classes reg-ularly and maintain their grades, said Seras.

A beneficiary student should have 85% of at-tendance the whole school year. Last year there were 202 school days, thus a pupil should be present at least 172 days; and, is only allowed a maximum of 30 absences, or three to four absences a month.

Attendance per quar-ter is monitored by way of CB Form 2, an evaluation form that will be the basis of stopping the subsidy if the student fails to meet the conditions.

“Naa pud mga names nga dili na ma-locate sa mga teachers kay wala ni-sulod pero nagpa-enrol,” he added.

Nutrition In a highly urbanized

city, malnutrition of chil-dren is typically high like in Davao.

“Ang mga ginikanan

man gud diri sa siyudad maong dili makaprepare og pagkaon sa ilang mga anak pirme tungod sa ilang mga trabaho. Ang uban sayo pa kaayo moadto sa isdaan, bilinan na lang ang bata og pagkaon,” said Seras.

Last year at the SIR Elementary School, some 200 children were ei-ther “severely wasted” or “wasted”---the terms used for those who are malnour-ished.

To address the prob-lem, the school conducted feeding programs support-ed by the community.

With 4Ps, children are expected to be prop-erly nourished, he said, but cash transfer is not enough for parents to provide good health and education to their children.

“Dapat naa pud gyud livelihood. Pero before man gud ta moingon nga tagaan natog livelihood pakaona sa. Wala man ta nag ingon nga wala na silay trabaho. Wala lang gyud silay kasud-lan nga trabaho,” he said.

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 201214 SPORTS EDGEDAVAO

A player from Davao’s Medvil FC ducks as a Compostela Valley FC standout kicks the ball in their encounter in the Suzuki U23 National Cup eliminations in Compostela Valley recenty. Medvil FC won 5-0. [DAPOY DIAMANTE]

Abella, Jaro top Eco Run

FOR 23-year-old Denzel Bowles, the two free

throws to send Game Seven of the Commis-sioner’s Cup finals into overtime were the big-gest challenge of his young basketball ca-reer.

His coach, Tim Cone, had his doubts if he’ll pull through.

“For some reasons, I had doubts Denzel would make his free throws, so I put in two big guys there just in case he misses it,” he said.

But Bowles was confident after his in-tial shot hit nothing but net.

“When I made the first free throw, I knew I was going to make the second one,” he said.

“I’ve never been in this situation before, but these shots were the biggest shots of my career. I’m glad that I

Unstoppa-Bowles

ANTHONY Abella and Cynthia Jaro asserted their su-

premacy in the Eco Green Run held last Sunday at the out-and-back course in Abreeza Mall.

Abella negotiated the 12-kilometer race in 40 minutes, 42 seconds to win the event sponsored by Smashville Fitness Center and Matina South Health Studio. Checking in second was Arnie Ma-caneras in 40:58 while Gilbert Maluyo finished third in 41:53.

In the distaff side, the multi-titled Jaro beat her own coach Monalisa Am-basa in 50 minutes and 48 seconds. Ambasa settled for second in 51 minutes and 27 seconds. Yvette Go was third in 1:05:14.

The other winners in the race officiated by Vantage Sports were Mi-chael Barrosa and Ardeen Abella in the 8-k category and Rolly Paderna and Diana Mae Memoracion in the 4-k category.

The complete re-sults:

4K  MALE      PLACE  

 NAME   TIME  

1st    

ROLLY  PADERNA     13:30  

2nd    

GASPER  JUNE  DOMINADO   14:08  

3rd    

JESSMAR  LOPEZ   14:22  

     1st  

 

DIANA  MAE  MEMORACION     18:12  

2nd    

EMILY  ONG   26:33:00  

3rd    

CHARMAINE  VILLAFLOR   27:31:00  

2nd    

SONNY  WAGDOS   28:37:00  3rd  

 ELMER  BARTOLO   29:57:00  

 1st  

 ARDEEN  ABELLA   44:42:00  

2nd    

RUVY  BARNES   57:53:00  3rd  

 SHERYL  LOO   1:08:23  

 1st  

 ANTHONY  ABELLA   44:42:00  

2nd    

ARNIE  MACANERAS   40:58:00  3rd  

 GILBERT  MALUYO   41:53:00  

 1st  

 CYNTHIA  JARO   50:48:00  

2nd    

MONALISA  AMBASA   51:27:00  3rd  

 YVETTE  GO     1:05:14  

 

Denzel Bowles was very emotional after the championship win by B MEG.

got an opportunity to win a championship.”

Bowles ran back to the bench in tears, overcome with emotion with those two shots

that had the mam-moth Sunday crowd of 21,046 at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.

But instead of shrinking, the tourna-

ment’s Best Import came through in the overtime period, scor-ing 11 of his team’s 14 points to finish with 39 points along with 21

Tim Cone gestures the no. 1 sign after the B-MEG Llamados closed out the PBA Commissioners Cup against Talk ‘N Text in Game 7.

IN his fruitful 23-year coaching career, B-MEG coach Tim Cone

doesn’t want for much.“I have two goals left

in life: send my kids to college, and catch up with Baby,” he said.

“Baby” would be the PBA’s “Maestro” Virgilio Dalupan, the legendary coach who holds the re-cord for most titles in the league at 15.

After leading the Lla-mados to the Commis-sioner’s Cup crown on Sunday, Cone moved just one championship short of tying Dalupan’s record.

Ironically, Cone was a Toyota fan who grew up hating Dalupan, the archi-tect of Crispa’s dynasty in the early years of the PBA.

“Man, I really hated him because he was coaching the wrong team being the arch nemesis of my favorite team Toyota. And he and his team was so successful,” said Cone.

The early days of the PBA played a big role in shaping Cone’s basket-ball sense, and Dalupan

played a big part in that.“People don’t realize,

I grew up in the Philip-pines. I learned my bas-ketball here,” he said.

He soon developed a grudging admiration for Dalupan as he got older.

“When two teams with equal talent like Crispa and Toyota go at it, one thing you will realize is it will boil down the lead-ership and Crispa was so successful because of Da-lupan’s leadership.”

As fate would have it, Cone’s first championship appearance as a coach in the PBA came against Da-lupan in the 1990 Third Conference.

“He beat me up,” said Cone with a laugh.

That was Dalupan’s last title in the league, and it came with the same Purefoods franchise that Cone coaches today — a curious twist of fate.

As for his other goal?“This championship

will help me send my kids to college,” quipped Cone shortly after his Commis-sioner’s Cup victory.

Cone closes in on Baby’s record

rebounds, to lead the B-MEG Llamados past the Talk ‘N Text Tro-pang Texters, 90-84.

At the end of the game, Bowles was overcome with emo-tion, embraced the bas-ketball while lying on the Big Dome floor.

After the game, he confessed he had doubts about his team winning the champion-ship.

“With six minutes left, I don’t think we’re winning, but when

[Talk ‘N Text import Donnell] Harvey fouled out, that gave us life. I didn’t want us to lose championship. I didn’t want to mess up like in Game 2,” he added.

He dedicated his victory to his mother, his biggest fan who flew all the way from the United States to watch him earlier in the series.

“I know my mom is crying now, because this victory is a break-through for my family.”

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012

EDGEDAVAOSTYLE

Siem Reap by neon light

ORDERING and aping Angelina Jolie while trying Red Piano’s signature Tomb Raider Cocktail.

NEON lights signal the way to Pub Street.THE trendy scene outside ANGKOR What?

DANCING is de riguer at Temple.

ONE of the many side streets of Pub Street.THE Red Piano was Angelina Jolie’s hangout of choice.

ANY adventure is not complete without a visit to the local wa-tering holes and my recent trip to Siem Reap was no differ-ent. To be honest, I really did not expect Pub Street to be such a happening place as for sure what I thought of Siem Reap was that the Angkor Temples are located here, nothing follows. Good thing I was so wrong. In fact, Pub Street was lined with so many differ-ent bars and night spots, it was difficult to take a pick. Me and fellow travelers, Ian Garcia, Jojie Alcantara and Maya Padillo decided to go around first and ex-plore the many side streets that radiate from the main Pub Street. These are lit al-leyways that lead to smaller and quieter bars and res-taurants that remind me of scenes from French paint-ings of sidebars in Paris, and are a nice contrast to the glare and blare of the main road. We eventually made our way along Pub Street for some dancing at Temple Bar where the party was al-

ready in high gear. Drinks were cheap at around US$1.50(Ian, and Maya or-dered some Angkor Beer while I chose to down a bucket of long island ice tea which cost US$8.50), and the crowd was energetic to say the least many thanks to the four Airbus-ful of Span-iards who just flew in in the morning. I just wish they had a better DJ (or maybe a Pinoy DJ?) to make sure the dance tracks spun are more current. But when in Siem Reap any club music is good enough. The following night we visited Red Piano, the bar made famous as being the local haunt of Angelina Jolie when she was film-ing scenes for her movie, Tomb Raider. As a tribute to the superstar, Red Piano named a drink after it was concocted by Angie herself in 2000. I, of course had to try the drink which was a bit on the sour and sweet side with a hint of spice that is sure to make your lips pout. All in all, Siem Reap’s night life was a blast, it was just too bad that we had to leave early. Perhaps coming

back soon is in order many thanks to Cebu Pacific’s eas-ier direct connection from Manila. Cebu Pacific flies direct to Siem Reap, Cambodia three times a week. Check out www.cebupacificair.com. Many thanks also to Cambodia Airports for showing us the sights and sounds of Siem Reap. Follow me on twitter @kennekingong for more travel tips, foodie finds, fun events, and random crazy thoughts.

INdulge!

A2 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

Some things (and people) just get better with age. George Clooney, for example. The charitable  Descendants  star, who turned the big 5-1 Sunday, wrapped up a monumental mile-stone year chock full of awards-show accolades, humanitarian efforts and strong political statements. And it doesn’t look like he’s slow-ing down any time soon. To say the least, it’s been quite the 365 days for Clooney—and we’re not just talking career-wise. Shortly after his 50th birthday, the seasoned thesp was back on the mar-ket after an “amicable split” with Ital-ian actress/model  Elisabetta Cana-lis in late June. But, before too many ladies could get excited about the prospect of a sin-gle-again Clooney, the actor coupled up again, canoodling with Dancing

With the Stars alum Stacey Keibler in September. While the pair tried to keep their romance  under wraps  at first, they made their red carpet debut in Oc-tober, showing up arm-in-arm at Clooney’s  Descendants  premiere in NYC. And Clooney’s newfound rela-tionship with Keibler wasn’t the only thing sizzling. The Academy Award-winning ac-tor found himself back in the midst of awards show fodder for his roles in  The Ides of March  and  The De-scendants. While he didn’t snap up  an Os-car  this year (Clooney was nomi-nated for best actor for The Descen-dants and for best adapted screenplay for The Ides of March), the twice-over “Sexiest Man Alive” was considered the frontrunner of this year’s awards

season, snapping up a Critics Choice Award  and a  Golden Globe award, among many other accolades. After awards season came to an end, we saw Clooney re-focus on humanitarian and political efforts. In March, the actor  testified against violence  and human-rights abuses in Sudan, and went on to get arrested  after demanding humani-tarian aid for the African country outside of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington D.C.  Then, after hobnobbing with the press, politicians and other celebs at the White House Correspondents’ dinner in April, Clooney is expect-ed to raise a  whopping $12 mil-lion  for  President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign May 10. Not a shabby way to ring in a 51st  birthday, if we do say so our-selves. (E! Online)

Happy 51st,George!

A3INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT

The Avengers smashes US box office

Is Justin Bieber now Floyd Mayweather’s bff?

THE Avengers  is the new king of the opening weekend. The superhero movie grossed a unprecedented $200.3 million in its Friday-Sunday box-office debut, its studio estimated. The film is the first to break $200 million in three days. It destroyed the mark held by the previous week-end record-holder,  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.  The Avengers  started out big—taking in  $18.7 million in midnight screenings—and got big-ger:  $80.5 million  for all of Friday; $69.7 million on Saturday, a new record for that day; and, a projected $50.1 million on Sunday. The film easily bested the opening-weekend performances of the Marvel Studios movies whose hero-stars were as-sembled for  The Aveng-ers: Iron Man ($99 million) and Iron Man 2 ($128 mil-lion);  Thor  ($66 million); and, Captain America ($65 million). It blew away even the

superhero-record $158.4 million posted by The Dark Knight, and raised the bar considerably for the Bat-man franchise’s upcom-ing adventure,  The Dark Knight Rises, due out July 20. The Avengers  made money the old-fashioned way: Everybody bought tickets. The opening-weekend audience was evenly split between the young (un-

der age 25) and the older (over age 25), polling data showed. It was watched by women (40 percent) almost as much as men. It worked as a date-night movie (55 percent of ticket-buyers were part of couples), and a fam-ily movie (24 percent were part of a family group).  And then there was perhaps the most quaint thing of all: People went to see it in 3-D. 

The once-promising, then presumed-dead for-mat represented slightly more than half of all ticket sales. In IMAX, the movie grossed about $15 mil-lion, roughly tying it for that format’s biggest-ever opening weekend.  “IMAX had one big issue,” IMAX exec Greg Foster said in an email. “We ran out of seats to sell!” The people who saw

the movie liked the movie, and, if possible, liked it more than critics. The Joss Whedon-directed film was graded an A-plus by audi-ences.    After just over a week in release worldwide,  The Avengers  has grossed $641.8 million overall. Elsewhere, there was no elsewhere.  The Avengers  outgrossed the weekend’s second-place movie,  Think Like a Man,

which held well all things considered, by 2,500 per-cent, and the new  Kate Hudson movie, A Little Bit of Heaven, which aver-aged $894 at 11 theaters, by $200.3 million.  Here’s an  Avengers-re-vised rundown of the top 10 all-time opening week-ends, as compiled per Box-OfficeMojo.com stats: 1. The Avengers, $200.3 million 2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, $169.2 million 3. The Dark Knight, $158.4 million 4. The Hunger Games, $152.5 million 5. Spider-Man 3, $151.1 million 6. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $142.8 million 7. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1, $138.1 million 8. Pirates of the Carib-bean: Dead Man’s Chest, $135.6 million 9. Iron Man 2, $128.1 million 10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, $125 million

WHO knew  Justin Bie-ber  was on the money team. Shortly after Floyd Mayweath-er defeated Miguel Cotto for the junior middleweight title Satur-day night in Las Vegas, the Biebs was spotted cheering in the boxing ring with the likes of 50 Cent and Lil Wayne. So, how did this odd posse come together?  We’re not exactly sure. But the 18-year-old pop su-perstar and the boxing champ known as “Money” made sure to tweet each other prior to the match-up, and it was clear Bie-ber was excited about getting in on the action. He even carried Mayweather’s weight belts (next to a money-toting 50 Cent) as he walked into the MGM Grand’s Garden arena. “cinco de mayo.... #Mayweath-erCotto yeah @FloydMayweath-er today is a BIG day,”  Bieber wrote Saturday. “#FIGHTNIGHT.”   Mayweather  respond-ed shortly after, tweeting, “@justinbieber keep up the great work and thanks for the support #TheMoneyTeam. Enjoy the fight.” But, that wasn’t all.  Bieber continued to show love to May-weather via Twitter post-fight, writing, “@FloydMayweather Hard Work & Dedica-tion. congrats champ. glad i could be a part of it.” We suppose the “Boyfriend” crooner’s friendship with the 35-year-old boxer

shouldn’t come as that much of a sur-prise, however. In the February issue of  V Magazine, Bieber compared himself to the sports star, saying, “Now that I’m on top, every-one wants to bring me down…Every-one’s trying to tug at me and take my spot. Like Floyd Mayweather, he’s the best boxer in the world. Now he is a champion. Every time he goes to a fight now, people are like, ‘He’s going to lose this time.’” The haters were wrong again!

A4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012EDGEDAVAOTRAVEL

Samal celebrates Pigkaysan FestivalEXPECT the won-derful  rhythm of drum beats and Agongs to soothe your ears and your sights be filled with a variety of colors as Igacos launches the Pigkaysan Festival this afternoon at the Peñaplata Elementa-ry School Grounds, Samal District, Is-land Garden City of Samal. Presented by the offices of Cong. Anton F. Lag-dameo, Jr., FABC President Vincent R. Floirendo and SKF President Maiki Fer-razzini, the Pigkaysan Fes-tival, is an environmental, music, arts and culture fair which will be held from May 4 to 6, 2012 as part of the Visit Samal 2012 Cam-paign program of the De-partment of Tourism and the LGU. Various activities have been lined-up as part of the festival highlighting the culture and traditions of the different tribal mi-norities in this paradisaical island. Traditional Tribal houses of the Sama’l and Muslim Tribe will be pre-sented throughout the festivities with various cul-tural presentations galore at night time. Davao-born musician and composer Eric Dalisay and the Sa-mal Sound Project is the composer/arranger of the Pigkaysan Music that will be  the official sound of the festival. Among the expected guests during the opening ceremonies include DOT R-XI Regional Director Arturo Boncato, Igacos City Mayor Aniano P. Antalan, Davao del Norte 2nd District Congress-man Anton F. Lagdameo, Jr., FABC Prexy Enteng Floirendo and SKF Presi-dent Maiki Ferrazzini.

There will be an Ag-ong and Kulintang play-ing demonstration on the 2nd day (May 5) as well as a variety show to be led by the Isla Danc-ers together with various bands. Then the Mebuyan Band, an all-female rock & roll band also based in Davao City,  will serenade the night with their engag-ing  music, a fusion of eth-nic, pop and alternative. On its 3rd day, Undak-Undak Contest and tribal presentations will be held which will be concluded with a Tribal Ritual of

Prayer calling for unity, abundance and peace among the Samal tribes. Pigkaysan sa Samal Fes-tival is being sponsored by the ANFLOCOR Group of Companies and Davao Light & Power Company as well as Felcris Super-mart, Dapacor, and L. Ari-zola Construction. Minor sponsors include Merco, Daneco, BRLL Electric Systems, Engr. Arthur Abad, Boardmembers Ely Dacalus and Dr. Daniel Lu, Engr. Darwin Ravelo and Ms. Jean Lao. (Edwin C. Lagumbay, Jr.)

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

DENVER (AP)-- Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum

put up their usual big numbers. Their sup-porting cast came up even bigger, sealing the Los Angeles Lakers’ 92-88 victory over Denver on Sunday night that put the Nuggets on the brink of elimination.

Bryant had 22 points and Bynum added 19 to help the Lakers overcome a six-point halftime deficit and take a 3-1 lead in the first-round play-off series that they can wrap up Tuesday night when the series shifts back to Staples Center for Game 5.

Sixth-man Jordan Hill had 12 points and 11 rebounds, and re-cently acquired guard Ramon Sessions and reserve point guard Steve Blake each hit crucial 3-pointers in the final minute as the Lakers broke free.

Those were the players the Nuggets preferred had the ball in crunch time, and Bryant wasn’t at all

hesitant to oblige.‘’Sessions has hit

big 3s. Even when I was out he hit some big 3s to win games. He did it again tonight. I have confidence in him,’’ Bryant said. ‘’If you’re observing the game in the third quarter I hit Sessions for an open shot, Blake for an open shot and (Matt) Barnes for an open shot and they missed all three of them. George (Karl), being observant as he is, saw I was (ticked). I was and didn’t think I would trust them at the end of the game to knock down those shots, but they stepped up and knocked them down.’’

With the game tied at 86, Danilo Gal-linari was covering Bryant when a hard screen from Pau Ga-sol sent the Italian to the floor grabbing his throat. While Gallinari stayed down, Sessions’ 3-pointer from just in front of the Nuggets bench put the Lakers ahead 89-86 with 48 seconds remaining.

‘’It was a tough pick, you’ve got to expect that in the playoffs,’’ Gallinari said. ‘’I’ve got to be ready and play defense. Unfortunately, they hit a big shot out of that.’’

Andre Miller was whistled for basket in-terference at the other end, and Bryant found Blake for a 3-pointer from the left corner with 18.9 seconds left for a six-point cush-ion, L.A.’s biggest of the night.

Blake got a bear hug from Bryant during the 20-second timeout.

‘’Those moments don’t scare him,’’ Bry-ant said.

‘’It’s always good when you get a hug from Kobe. It means you did something right,’’ Blake said. ‘’It was a total team effort for us tonight.’’

Sessions, whose ac-quisition from Cleve-land this spring led to the trade of five-time NBA champion Derek Fisher, finished with 12 points, and Blake had 10.

Super sidekicksSupporting cast carryLA Lakers to 3-1 lead

LAS VEGAS (AP)-- Floyd Mayweather Jr. was getting ready to

make his ring walk about the time Manny Pacquiao arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Philippine Airlines Flight 102. He’ll be occupying a cell at the Clark County De-tention Center by the time Pacquiao makes his way to this gambling city for his June 9 fight with Timothy Bradley.

The two are seemingly destined never to be in the same spot at the same time. Certainly not in the ring, something Mayweather made clear Saturday night after taking on Miguel Cot-to in a bruising fight that, if not his best, was certainly

among his most exciting.‘’The Pacquiao-May-

weather fight is not going to happen,’’ Mayweather said. ‘’It’s not my fault.’’

More on that later, though Mayweather could be called out for using some convoluted logic about why the fight won’t happen. Suf-fice it to say he believes he’s in the driver’s seat for any mega-fight, and is both sus-picious of Pacquiao and un-willing to take equal money for the bout.

After making a mini-mum $32 million in an im-pressive performance Sat-urday night against Cotto, Mayweather could be ex-cused for dismissing what would be the richest fight in boxing history. But, with

jail time coming up for a do-mestic abuse charge, there will be plenty of time for re-flection about his future

‘’I don’t know where we’re going to go from here because we basically have fought everybody in this sport,’’ Mayweather said. ‘’I don’t have to fight if I don’t want to.’’

Indeed, Mayweather hinted of retirement fol-lowing his tough battle with Cotto, which ended with Mayweather claiming a piece of the 154-pound title with a unanimous decision. But there’s huge money still to be made, and he’s a fighter who burns through cash with a Money Team entourage that seems to grow with each fight.

Money talks, Money balksMayweather says fight with Pacquiao won’t happen

Steve Blake of the Los Angeles Lak-ers celebrates his three point shot with 18 seconds remaining in the game against the Denver Nuggets with Kobe Bryant of the Los Ange-les Lakers and Pau Gasol #16 of the Los Angeles Lakers in Game Four of the Western Conference Quarter-finals in the 2012 NBA Playoffs at Pepsi Center on Moday in Denver, Colorado. The Lakers defeated the Nuggets 92-88 to take a 3-1 lead in the series.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. (L) and Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto (R) duel it out last Sunday in Las Vegas, Nevada, during their Super Welterweight Championship fight. Mayweather Jr. defeated Cotto on a unanimous decision in the 12-roud bout.

VOL.5 ISSUE 45 • MAY 8, 2012SPORTS16 EDGEDAVAO

JAMES and Phil Young-husband starred in the Loyola Meralco Sparks’

dominant 3-0 win over Stallion Giligan’s, while Philippine Air Force Phoe-nix and Philippine Army Fritz & Macziol battled to a 2-2 draw in a pair of heated United Football League en-counters Saturday at Uni-versity of Makati.

Loyola dominated a shorthanded Stallion squad, which began the game without starters Baek Seong Kab, Ruben Doctora Jr, and Park Bo Bae, who were serving match sus-pensions. James Younghus-band opened the scoring at the 10th minute before his brother gave Loyola a 2-0 edge 29 minutes into the

game.Stallion could not get

going in the second half, and the match once again turned physical between the two squads. Stallion caught a terrible break when goalkeeper Wilson Muñoz was sent off at 59th minute for his second yel-low card for a handball outside the penalty box.

Phil, James lead Loyola vs Stallion

THE Philippines’ Under-14 boys football team, also

known as the Little Az-kals, has chalked up five wins in six matches so far in Italy.

Captained by Davao City’s Jed Diamante, the Little Azkals beat their taller opponents in Italy, the last one coming in Balistrate against Regina Calcio which they pum-melled with a one-sided 8-0 scoreline. Earlier, the team also beat Panormus

98 where another Davao standout Javi Romero-Salas led the Little Az-kals’ attack with two big goals that made the dif-ference in their 6-1 win.

“We are very proud of Javi and the rest of the Little Azkals. Their experience in Italy will surely be a big help to the team,” said Javi’s mother Marie Georgette Romero-Salas.

The Little Azkals oth-er victories were against Inter Reggio in Reggio

Calabria via a 10-0 de-molition, Giacomo Te-desco Scuola Calcio, 5-0, Cristina Scuola Calcio 2-1. Their only loss came at the hands of Mezzoju-so Scuola Calcio, 0-3.

The boys also got a treat when they were visited in their training camp by Italian football star Giacomo Tedesco, a standout in the Italian Serie A league.

The Little Azkals will be returning home on May 10.

Little Azkals chalk up 5 wins in ItalyDAVID VS. GOLIATH. The Philippines Little Azkals led by team captain Jed Diamante of Davao City shake hands with players from Inter Reggio during their current tour in Palermo, Italy. The Little Azkals also have Javi Romero-Salas (right) who starred in their win against Panormus.