ONB has 91 branches in Mindanao, Iloilo

By Jade C. Zaldivar

DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio yesterday admitted she has knowl-edge of alleged corruption involving

city councilors, adding, they are “not my

friends.”In her first media briefing after several

weeks in hiatus last month, Duterte-Carpio

said she knows who are involved in corrupt practices, adding that she even reported what she knew to the Office of the Ombuds-man.

“I wouldn’t even call them my friends,” she told the press in her city hall office.

EDGE

By Lorie A. Cascaro

COMMITTED to deliver modernized banking operations in rural areas, the One Network Bank (ONB) has 86 branch-

es in Mindanao, and five in Iloilo, ONB president Alex V. Buenaventura said yesterday during the

opening ceremony of the ONB seven-storey cor-porate center building in Sasa, Davao City.

“Small people in rural areas now have ac-cess to modernized banking,” he said, adding

that half of ONB branches in Mindanao are in areas where there are no rural banks.

The Consunji-led ONB is among the first ru-ral banks in the Philippines to offer automated teller machines (ATM) and point-of-sale termi-nals in the countryside.

ONB has 370,000 card holders for 120

P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.net

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22 , 2012

SportsPage 16

‘They’re not my friends’—Sara

Science/EnvironmentPage 4

Serving a seamless society

FTHEY’RE, 13

FONB, 13

n Support for 2013 elections could be withdrawn

n Some children also perform low grades in school, become computer game ad-dicts

Follow Us On

DAVAO

BLEESING OF CENTER. Alex V. Buenaventura, president of One Network Bank, says because of ONB, small people in rural areas can now access to modernized banking during One Network Bank Center Blessing and Annual Stockholders Meeting in Sasa, Davao City on Monday. [LEAN DAVAL, JR.]

IndulgePage A1 Corrupt councilors

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012

By Jade C. Zaldivar

SARA Duterte-Carpio yesterday dismissed rumors that she’ll be

resigning from her post as Davao City Mayor.

She said this in re-sponse to speculation that she will be resigning to give way to her father, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

“I will not resign. That will be a disservice sa mga tao nga niboto sa akoa,” she said during a press briefing inside her office.

“Kinsa man tong gusto mu-mayor muhulat sila. Kung kinsa man ang mud-aog,” she added.

Asked whether her three-week vacation from office had made her reach a decision on whether to run for public office in the 2013 elections, Duterte-Carpio re-plied she’s still “split” on the issue.

“Seriously, natunga ko kung mudagan ba o dili. Ang akoa lang is ang gasto (Seri-ously, I am split whether to run or not. My concern is the expense involved,” she said.

The younger Duterte said she spent P1.3 million her own personal money to finance her candidacy in the 2010 local election.

“Dili gyud na mubaba ug P1 million. Katong sa akoa ang nagasto was P1.3 million. Gikan to sa akong father-in-law, sa akong mama…dili pa apil ang gasto ni mayor ug gasto namo as a group,” she said.

Sara admits that if she

decides to run for a position, she’d need more funds for the city’s first district where there is “a strong opponent” referring to the Duterte’s po-litical rival the Nograleses.

“Mas gastos talaga pag nan-diyan tayo sa first dis-trict. Siyempre, I’m sure naa gyuy mudaggan pagka-mayor (sa ila) so mu-gasto gihapon ta dinha,” she said.

Duterte-Carpio also said she has no problem as to what position she’ll be running for.

“Mag-mayor man, vice mayor, or congress dili kana ang problema. These are jobs I think I can do with my capabilities,” she said.

Hugpong line-upThe Duterte’s aggrupa-

tion of supporters, Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (Hug-pong), has not yet convened, Duterte-Carpio said.

“Sa amoa, sa Hugpong, wala pay line-up. Wala pa mi discussion kung kinsa ni nga position, kay kinsa na nga position. Hilom lang,” she said.

“Nothing is final un-til we see the certificate of candidacy. Tanan man libre, tanan libre mudagan,” she added.

The city mayor added that Hugpong, which has filed its application to be-come a political party, will be forming an executive com-mittee to decide on their line-up.

By Lorie A. Cascaro

THE mysterious death last May 11 in Singa-pore of Apple Gamale,

a 23-year old caregiver from Ilangay, Lupon, Davao Ori-ental, may have been the result of foul play, accord-ing to her elder brother, Rey Gamale who, together with Migrante International – Davao City chapter, at-tended a press conference yesterday at the office of Center for Overseas Work-ers, Davao City.

“There is a big possibil-ity that our sister was raped or abused before she died,” Gamale said,adding that when they washed Apple’s body, they discovered bruis-es in the area near her eye and genital, although there was no sign of any bone fracture or major damage to the skull.

“If, indeed, she com-mitted suicide by jumping off the building, she could have fractured some of her bones. But, does one have to be hurt in the genital area after jumping off a build-ing?” he said in the dialect.

One major question that her family raised was how Apple was able to jump from

her employer’s room on the sixth floor to the fourth floor of another an adjacent building #22 Newton Road, Singapore.

Lani Oñada, case officer of Migrante –Davao, said, based on data they gathered since Apple’s body arrived in the city, they believe she did not commit suicide.

Oñada said they have yet to know which of her employers, either Dr. Chew

Li-Ching (wife) or her hus-band, Dr. Paul Ling Kah Hing, fetched Apple from her agency on May 9.

This is so because Apple was reported missing on May 10, and was found dead on May 11. Whether or not she actually arrived at her employers’ house remains a mystery.

Apple was directly hired by the couple through a certain Lorena Mejos who formerly worked for the couple; and facilitated by the Green World Placement Services in Quezon City, a lo-cal partner of JDM Manage-ment Services.

Mejos, Apple’s niece, also an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), who facili-tated the return of her body to the country, said she was able to chat through Face-book with another OFW working near the area of Apple’s death.

Mejos told Gamale’s family that Apple’s body was found in a building next to where she worked, and that jumping from one building to another with a wall in between is not pos-sible.

Almost in tears, Gamale told reporters, “Our sister was still single. She wouldn’t be homesick so soon after arrival in Singapore. Why would she commit suicide

when she went there to work? Being a strong wom-an, there’s a big possibility that she fought back against her aattacker.”

AutopsyGamale mentioned that a

certain Ed Sison of the Phil-ippine Embassy in Singapore told them that Apple’s death was due to suicide even before the hospital had re-leased her death certificate.

He said Sison could have told them to wait for the hos-pital’s report rather than to hastily conclude it was a case of suicide.

Along with Migrante, Ga-male family is pushing for the Philippine government to initiate its own investiga-tion on Apple’s death.

They want her body be autopsied, as part of their own investigation.

The local government of Lupon, Davao Oriental signi-fied its willingness to finance the expenses if the Depart-ment of Justice (DOJ) would request it.

Oñada said it would take time to reach out to the DOJ whoch is based in in Manila.

“What is preferable is to ask for a recommendation from the Department of For-eign Affairs (DFA) instead,” she added. The family wan-mts that autopsy to be done before her burial scheduled on May 24.

2 THE BIG NEWS EDGEDAVAO

n Says she’s split be-tween running, or not

n 20,000 apply for educational as-sistance

F9 GSIS, 13

Pre-election season

Sara says she’ll notresign before election

NEW CENTER. Fredesvinda Consunji, center, cuts the ribbon to signal the opening of the new One Network Bank Center in Sasa, Davao City on Monday. Assist-ing her are Victor A. Consunji, chairman of ONB board, left, and Alex V. Buenaventura, president of ONB. [LEAN DAVAL, JR.]

WAS SHE RAPED. Rey Gamale, Apple’s brother, shows a photo of the buildings where she worked and died in Singa-pore, saying that there is a big possibility that Apple was raped.

Suicide, or rape with murder?

Family sees foul play in Gamale’s death

‘ENVIRONMENTAL degrada-tion can be placed in a higher category than any of the usual suspects such the New People’s Army, Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf.’

--Lt. Gen. William Hotchkiss III, retired Air Force commander, on the biggest threats to the country.

Quips

NINE college scholarship grants are being offered to children of govern-

ment employees within the Davao region.

Government Service In-surance System (GSIS) for Re-gion 11 general manager Diety Manampan yesterday said this is out of 200 slots offered by GSIS nationwide.

“The GSIS will accept

scholarship nominees from members with Salary Grade 24 (P20,823,00) or below, with the nominee of parents with the lowest salary grades will be given priority in the scholarship

grant,” Manampan said during Kapihan sa SM press confer-ence at SM City Mall yesterday.

Although government employees with low income are given priority, the selec-tion is made narrower as “the nominee or the child of the GSIS member should be already en-rolled as an incoming freshman accepted in schools identified

by the pension fund.”Manampan said that in

Region 11, only two schools are associated with GSIS’ scholar-ship grant.

“These are the Ateneo de Davao University and the Uni-versity of Mindanao, both in Davao City,” he said.

Manampan said a scholar of the program “will be entitled

9 GSIS college grants available to R11 members

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012

A party-list lawmaker has called for a con-gressional inquiry

on the proliferation of smut tabloids and publica-tions in Metro Manila.

Rep. Angelo Palmones (Party-list, AGHAM) filed House Resolution 2358 urging the House Commit-tee on Public Information to conduct and investiga-tion on the publication of smut tabloids which are being sold in newsstands.

Palmones urged the house body to invite me-dia organizations, publish-ers, and the representa-tives of the academe.

Likewise, Palmones said the police authorities

and the officials of local government units will be invited during the inquiry to shed light on the matter.

“There has been nu-merous news aired and printed on cases of rape and lascivious behavior, with young people as vic-tims to have been influ-enced by smut publica-tions because newspapers and magazines are easily accessible to anyone any-where in the country,” Pal-mones said.

Palmones said the government should start paying attention to the proliferation of smut pub-lications and eradicate it permanently.

Palmones said mass media particularly print, has been accepted to play a crucial role in the think-ing and in the attitude of society, particularly the young people.

“The State recognizes the vital role of communi-cation and information in nation building. It is the

obligation of the State to promote and protect the physical, moral, spiritual and social well being of the youth,” Palmones said.

Palmones said it is the duty of the State to safe-guard the morality of so-ciety, especially the youth, against obscene and inde-cent materials.

3THE BIG NEWSEDGEDAVAO

FGPH, 13

‘THE HIGH prices of live-stock and other fresh pro-duce is largely blamed on lack of logistics like roads and transport –that it has become cheaper to import than to haul fresh produce from Mind-anao to Metro manila.’

--Sen. Ralph Recto

Quips

AFTER more than 70 public consultations in the past few months,

the government peace panel will conduct more dialogues with stakeholders in Mind-anao before the resumption of exploratory talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) set in Kuala Lumpur late this month.

Marvic Leonen, chair of the government peace panel, said on Monday a survey is also being conducted to feel the pulse of different sec-tors in southern Philippines on their views and opinions about the peace process.

The government peace panel had just held public consultation in Zamboanga City over the weekend.

Leonen assured the peo-ple that that the government is exercising “due diligence” in its negotiation with the MILF as issues are expected to become more difficult in the forthcoming negotia-tions.

The panel chair said that the government is carefully examining substantive is-sues, particularly legal as-pects such as the creation of a new political autonomous entity that will replace the current Autonomous Re-gion in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the power-sharing

and wealth-sharing that are contained in the Decision Points on Principles signed by both parties during the 27th formal exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur last month.

The consultation in Zam-boanga City was attended by civil society, business groups, security sector and the media.

During the dialogue, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles explained the GPH-MILF Decision Points on Principles which contains 10 common stand points mutually identified by both parties to serve as a frame-work for the final peace agreement.

Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat attended the consultation.

Leonen reiterated that the peace negotiation with the MILF is conducted with-in the framework of the Con-stitution.

He said the creation of a new political autonomous entity is allowed as stated in Article 10, Sections 15 to 22 of the Constitution.

Section 15 states that “there shall be created au-tonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao…(in) areas shar-ing common and distinctive

GPH peace panel to hold dialogues

SAKAY NA! Participants in the exciting Downhill race of the Davao Summer Games National Mountain Bike Challenge take the ride up to the starting gate at Devil’s Trail in Maa. The two-day bikefest attracted 300 downhill and cross country bikers from all over the country.

THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday

said the country’s “mari-time domain awareness” will be greatly boosted with the turnover of the frigate USS Dallas (BRP Ramon Alcaraz) to the Philippine Navy this week.

To be present in the turnover ceremony at Charleston, South Caro-lina on May 22 (U.S. time) are AFP chief-of-staff Gen. Jessie Dellosa and Philip-pine Fleet commander Rear Admiral Jose Luis Alano.

“This will provide us with more maritime as-sets to patrol our borders. This will allow us to go after poachers, pirates, drug smugglers and other elements who may violate our sovereignty in going about their unlawful busi-ness,” AFP spokesperson Col. Arnulfo Burgos Jr.

said.Burgos also said that a

third Hamilton-class cut-ter is also in the works as Filipino and U.S. officials are in the midst of talks regarding the ship’s pos-sible transfer to the PN.

“The crewmen who will be manning our ship are now at the U.S. un-dergoing training on how to efficiently operate our newest frigate,” he added.

The AFP spokesper-son explained that the new ships for the PN, aircraft and helicopters for the Philippine Air Force and modern weap-onry and communication equipment for the Philip-pine Army are part of the country’s gradual shift to territorial defense.

This is in line with the AFP’s efforts to build a credible defense force whose sole task is to pro-tect the country from in-ternal and external attack,

he said.“BRP Ramon Alcaraz”

was named after after the World War II hero who commanded one of the country’s three motor torpedo boats.

Incidentally, his com-mand was named “Abra” (Q-112), a British-built naval craft measuring 55 feet long and armed with two torpedo tubes and four .50 caliber machines guns.

Together with his “Abra” crewmen, Alcaraz shot down three of the nine attacking Japanese Zero fighters in the mid-dle of Manila Bay some-time in April of 1942.

When Corregidor fell on May 6, 1942, Alcaraz became a prisoner-of-war in Japanese-con-trolled camp in Malolos, Bulacan, where he gained much renown and re-spect for doing the best he could for his fellow

captives.Alcaraz survived Jap-

anese captivity and re-sumed his career at the PN and eventually be-came its ranking officer, reaching the rank of com-modore in 1966.

The BRP Ramon Al-caraz has a displacement of 3,250 tons, a length of 378 feet, a beam of 43 feet, and draft of 15 feet.

Its propulsion sys-tem consists of two die-sel engines and two gas turbines, giving it a top speed of 29 knots.

BRP Ramon Alcaraz has a range of 14,000 miles and capability of patrolling for 45 days.

It has a complement of 167 personnel and is armed with a 76mm Oto Melara automatic cannon and various closed-in weapon systems.

The ship is also fit-ted with modern sensor equipment. (PNA)

PHL’s maritime capability to get boost with arrival of newest frigate from US

A lawmaker has called for a c o n g r e s s i o n a l

probe into the report of the United Nations World Drug Report placing Fili-pinos as the leading sha-bu users in East Asia.

“This is a serious matter that we must face head on. Even if the rat-ing may not be that ac-curate, this matter must be looked into,” said Rep. Winston Castelo (2nd District, Quezon City), au-thor of House Resolution 2331.

Castelo said the 2011 United Nations World Drug Report says that the Philippines is seen in the world map as having the highest rate of shabu abuse in East Asia with 2.1 percent of Filipinos aged 16 to 64 using the il-legal drug.

Castelo also cited a report by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agen-cy (PDEA) from January to October 2011 that po-lice authorities seized 250 kilograms of shabu worth $68 million equiva-lent to P2.92 billion, con-fiscated 818 kilograms of marijuana, 17,222 grams of cocaine, 960 tablets of Ecstacy worth $17.4 million, $2 million and $26,790, respectively. The UN World Drug Re-port also stated that out of 9,850 drug operations,

8,491 suspects were ar-rested and 9,995 cases were filed in court, thus accounting for almost 30 percent of pending court cases in the National Cap-ital Region alone as drug-related and therefore poses a major challenge in prosecution.

Castelo said the pri-mary organizers and financiers of shabu traf-ficking are still Chinese organized crime groups and the West African Drug Syndicate (WADS) operating Northern Lu-zon and other Southeast Asian countries.

“It is high time for a multi-sectoral probe cum dialogue to run a so-called SWOT Analysis (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportuni-ties, Threats Analaysis) to better understand the seriousness of this drug trafficking problem and thereby prescribe new policy guidelines espe-cially focused against organized international drug or crime syndicates operating in the country,” Castelo said.

“The growing sophis-tication in the operations of drug syndicates also dictates that the State counter their operations with even more vigorous and equally sophisticated means, backed up by ap-propriate policies and statutes,” Castelo said.

UN says the Philippines’ shabu abuse rate highest in East Asia

Lawmaker seeks probe on proliferation of smut tabloids

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012

WITH more and more people now inhabiting

the world, the law of sup-ply and demand needs not to be explained any-more. This is particularly true in the case of sea cu-cumbers, which are found in shallow waters inhab-iting wide seagrass beds, soft bottom areas, and coral reefs.

There is a huge de-mand for these homely undersea animals around the world known scien-tifically as Holothuroi-dea. Across Asia, sea cu-cumbers have long been a staple in peoples’ diets, mainly in soups, stews, and stir-fries. They are fast gaining recognition among European chefs.

As demand continues to escalate, the supply dwindles -- to the extent that their population is now in jeopardy.

Sea cucumber stocks are under intense fish-ing pressure throughout the world, according to a recent report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organi-zation (FAO). Most high value commercial species have been depleted.

In Asia and the Pacific, the most sought-after spe-cies are largely deplet-ed. The region generates some 20,000 to 40,000 tons per year, which are exported to China and oth-er Asian markets. Most of them come from Indo-nesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

“The fast pace of devel-opment of sea cucumber fisheries to supply grow-ing international demand is placing most fisheries and many sea cucumber species at risk,” pointed out the FAO report, Sea Cu-cumbers: A Global Review of Fisheries and Trade.

After Indonesia, the Philippines is the world’s second largest exporter of dried sea cucumbers. The price rate of dried com-modity in the United States is from US$180 to US$250 per kilogram.

Sea cucumber is not popular among Filipino

consumers. It is usually an ingredient in prepar-ing mixed seafood and ho-to-taydishes popular in regular Chinese restau-rants. Unfortunately, the ingredient is unknown to many

Sea cucumbers are uti-lized almost exclusively as an export commod-ity. This huge export make the population of sea cu-cumbers in the country to decline significantly. “Yes, we used to have a lot of sea cucumbers in our coastal areas,” admits Dr. Rafael D. Guerrero III, for-mer executive director of the Laguna-based Philip-pine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD). “They have been depleted because of over-harvest-ing.”

But the good news is: There are now on-go-ing projects for the artifi-cial breeding and culture of sea cucumbers being conducted by the Marine Science Institute (MSI) of the University of the Phil-ippines (UP) in Bolinao, Pangasinan. In Mindanao, the UP is also conducting pond culture of sea cu-cumber in Davao City, in cooperation with a private entity, the Alson Aquacul-ture.

The Bureau of Fisher-ies and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has recently es-tablished the country’s first-ever commercial hatchery for sea cucum-ber to enhance massive raising of the commodity nationwide. The hatch-ery produces 60,000 “ju-venile” sea cucumbers every month, which can be distributed to farmers who are interested in cul-turing them in fish ponds, or for sea ranching (stock-ing them in a designated space in the sea for gath-ering later)

“Sea cucumber is a good material for sea ranching because, based on its behavior, it can trav-el just one to two meters a day and about one kilome-ter a year,” the BFAR said in a statement.

The mortality rate

of cultured juveniles is high. But once they weigh 20 grams and placed in the seafloor or in ponds, the survival rate is almost 100 percent, according to Dr. Westly Rosario, executive director of the BFAR’s Na-tional Fisheries Research Development Institute.

In a recent report, Northern Luzon corre-spondent Yolanda Fuertes wrote: “Aside from the initial cost of the juvenile sea cucumbers (P5 each), they are not fed commer-cial food, depending only on organic matter in the culture pond for nourish-ment (salinity should be at least 20 parts per thou-sand) or the sea tidal flats which are their natural habitats.”

Dr. Guerrero said that sea farming of sea cucum-bers “can be a profitable and environmentally-friendly livelihood indus-try for coastal communi-ties.” The PCAMRD, a line agency of the Department of Science and Technology, is supporting such kind of projects.

A study conducted at BFAR showed that it takes six months for the sea cucumber to reach 250 grams, the desired weight in the export market. One hectare of fishpond can accommodate 10,000 sea cucumbers. This means that after six months, a

farmer can harvest at least 2.5 tons.

But before they can be exported, they have to be dried first – shrunk to about 10 percent of their live weight. So, the mar-ketable harvest would only be 250 kilograms. At P4,000 per kilogram, the farmer earns a whoop-ing P1 million from his one-hectare pond in six months.

But sea cucumbers are not the only com-modity that can be raised in the pond. Dr. Rosario was quoted as saying by Fuertes: “(Sea cucumbers) can be cultured together with vannamei or Pacific white shrimps. They can also be alternated with white shrimps (in a pro-cess) similar to crop rota-tion. After the harvest of the shrimps, sea cucum-bers can be cultured and they will at the organic matter and impurities in the pond.”

Or as Dr. Guerrero puts it: “Sea cucumbers can be used for cleaning up the sea bottom in areas where fish cages are found because of their detritus-feeding habit.

The BFAR identified the following areas as most feasible for raising sea cucumber: Pangas-inan, particularly Bolinao and the Hundred Islands; Zambales, Palawan and Sulu archipelago which are rocky and sandy. It added that over 60 coastal municipalities in 14 re-gions of the country de-pend on sea cucumber fishery for livelihood.

The Philippines is home to 100 species of ba-latan (as sea cucumbers are called), of which 31 are commercially important. However, BFAR is only breeding the Holothuria sca-bra species (sandfish) because it is the easiest to culture, very meaty and commands a high price abroad.

“There is a big export market for sea cucum-bers particularly for Hong Kong, China, Korea and Ja-pan,” Dr. Guerrero claims.

Mostly, sea cucumber is used as a delicacy. An ideal tonic food, it is high-er in protein (at 55%) than most any other food except egg whites (at 99%). It is lower in fat than most other foods.

Sea cucumber is highly prized as an in-gredient in haute cuisine. Whole bêche-de-mer – as it is known among French – can be stuffed with a filling of pork, cornstarch and chopped fried fish. The Chinese poach the sea cukes, smother them in a thick sauce of garlic, ginger, on-ion and soy sauce and call them hai sum.

Aside from their use in cooking, there’s also an emerging market for the use of sea cucumbers in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

According to analysis by principles of traditional Chinese medicine, the sea cucumber nourishes the blood and vital essence, tonifies kidney (treats dis-orders of the kidney sys-tem, including reproduc-tive organs), and moistens dryness (especially of the intestines). It has a salty quality and warming na-ture.

Common medicinal uses of sea cucumber in China include treating: weakness, impotence, de-bility of the aged, consti-pation due to intestinal dryness, and frequent uri-nation.

Some species of sea cucumbers are believed

to be endowed with aph-rodisiac powers. The rea-son for this belief is the peculiar reaction of the creature on being knead-ed or disturbed slightly with fingers. It swells and stiffens and a jet of water is released from one end. This behavior is similar to the erection and sub-sequent ejaculation of the male sexual organ.

Sea cucumbers, al-though they can be pick-led, are not cucumbers at all. Rather they are a form of echinoderm along with starfish and sea urchins.

A remarkable feature of these marine animals is the catch collagen that forms their body wall. This can be loosened and tightened at will and if the animal wants to squeeze through a small gap it can essentially liquefy its body and pour into the space. To keep itself safe in these crevices and cracks the sea cucumbers hooks up all its collagen fibers to make its body firm again.

In particular, these creatures have the re-markable ability to live for months, often up to half a year, without feeding. It is very common for these creatures to be intro-duced into a system that can’t support them. Once it is hungry and not feed, it slowly shrink as it di-gests its own body mass to survive.

According to marine science, most sea cucum-bers reproduce by releas-ing sperm and ova into the ocean water. Depend-ing on conditions, one or-ganism can produce thou-sands of gametes.

4 EDGEDAVAOSCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT

Where have all our sea cucumbers gone?By Jims Vincent T. Capuno

‘WHILE strengthening the Amla (Anti Money Laundering Act) as anti-graft mechanism is well and good, there is still the responsibil-ity on our part o install safeguards or protocols within it to protect ou

citizens from possible abuse.’--Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cay-

etano

Quips

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 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

ABOITIZ Power Corp. through wholly-owned subsidiary AP Renew-

ables, Inc. (APRI) and the Aboitiz Foundation signed a partnership agreement with the Hapinoy Community Store Program, represented by its managing company MicroVen-tures Inc. (MVI), to energize households in off-grid commu-nities.

In a statement, Aboitiz Power said the company ex-pect to meet its goal by utilizing and installing innovative Solar Lamp Lease-to-Own Models in Laguna, where AboitizPower’s geothermal plant facilities are located.

Under a memorandum of agreement (MOA), Aboitiz Pow-er and the Aboitiz Foundation will provide the seed fund for the implementation of the ru-ral electrification pilot program for six months upon signing of the agreement. The research project will be used to develop a sustainable business model that can be scalable to other

underserved areas.Hapinoy, as the recipient of

the seed fund, will act as the project leader and coordina-tor between Aboitiz Power, the Foundation and their partner in the implementation, which is the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Aboitiz Foundation presi-dent Jon Ramon Aboitiz said the partnership’s objective was to conduct research, develop and pilot a sustainable model for bringing energy solutions to marginalized areas with lim-ited or no access to formal grid power.

“This agreement reflects the Aboitiz Group’s continuing commitment to empower com-munities that we serve,” Aboitiz said.

Aboitiz signed the MOA to-gether with APRI senior vice president for Corporate Ser-vices Juan Felipe Alfonso, MVI president Mark Ruiz, and Micro Ventures Foundation, Inc. pres-ident Bam Aquino IV.

“This project will help us

develop an innovative and sus-tainable model in bringing solar energy solutions that we wish to replicate across the Hapinoy Store network,” said Ruiz.

MVI’s Hapinoy Store will be equipped with a solar charg-ing panel, by which all the so-lar lamps can be charged and rented out on a daily basis to neighboring households.

“We are extremely excited about Hapinoy’s partnership with Aboitiz Power and Aboitiz Foundation that will bring es-sential light to poor communi-ties in the countryside,” said Aquino.

Solar electrification for re-mote communities is part of the sustainability advocacy of the Aboitiz Group that seeks to promote and advocate the use of renewable energy. The solar technology will light up rural areas, and improve their general well-being, and in consequence achieve a balance of people, profit and planet.

Aboitiz Power is the holding company for the Aboitiz Group’s

investments in power genera-tion, distribution, retail and power services.

Aboitiz Foundation address-es social and economic develop-ment needs of less privileged communities and members of society in areas where Aboitiz companies operate.

The Foundation acts primar-ily through chosen programs in education, enterprise develop-ment, primary health and child care, and the environment, in order to improve the quality of life of its beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, the Hapinoy Store Program partners with sari-sari stores (sari-sari is the Filipino word meaning vari-ous kinds), small neighborhood stores that sell daily needs, mostly basic commodities.

Hapinoy is managed by Mi-croVentures who aspires to be the leading partners of micro entrepreneurs in the Philip-pines. In so doing, MVI leverages micro financing as a powerful tool to empower socially and ec-onomically challenged families.

Aboitiz to power off-grid communities

LOYOLA Plans Consolidated Inc., one of the biggest in-surance companies in the

country, will sign a memoran-dum of agreement with five new corporate accounts Saturday as it strengthens its sales force.

To lead the activity of the 43-year old company will be Elias D. Micael III, its senior vice presi-dent for sales and marketing.

The signing of the memoran-dum of agreement with new cli-ents, which will be held at Safari Grill along Torres St., will allow the company to strengthen its position in the insurance indus-try.

Micael will also lead the 80-strong sales force who will attend the launching of the company’s new microinsurance products intended to protect de-signed for the mass market who will get more values to their in-vestments as these are designed to provide a guaranteed benefit to the clients.

Other parts of the daylong ac-tivity will be the launching of the national awards, holding of prod-uct trainings and a fellowship.

This year, the company, which has “Gives” as its tagline, is guided by its battlecry of “evolv-ing through innovations.”

Among these innovations is its partnering with more pay-ment centers for payment op-tions to its ever-growing cliente. The list of these payment centers include outlets of M. Lhuillier’s ML Kwarta Padala, SM Payment

Centers and Hypermart, Banco de Oro, Metro Bank, Megalink au-tomated teller machines, Union Bank, East West Bank, United Coconut Planters Bank, Security Bank, Philippine National Bank.

Payments can also be auto-debited from the clients’ credit card and automated teller ma-chine cards depending on the arrangement with Loyola’s head office and regional offices.

The Puyat-led company, awarded with super brand sta-tus since 2010, has been looking for more sales agents as it con-tinues to grow its markets with new product.

Founded in 1968 by the late senator Gil J. Puyat, the com-pany has continued to innovate and offer new products to its clients, proving its leadership in the industry.

Last year, the company launched its Loyola Life Plan Memorial Service Benefit, a product that was the first to be approved y the Insurance Com-mission.

This product “was de-signed and conceptualized to be the first type of plan which has no maximum age limit for planholders who come from all walks of life,” the company briefer said. Aside from having no age limit, this product “has a non-forfeiture value which assures the planholder that the memorial service package shall always be there when they need it and where they need it.”

Loyola Plans inks deal with 5 corporate accounts

PAID UNDER PROTEST. Before paying, a consumer displays his electric bill, which is marked “PAID UNDER PROTEST” to show

his support for the protest versus the high electric rates in the city. [KARLOS MANLUPIG]

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 20126 THE ECONOMY EDGEDAVAO

It figures

TOTAL resources of Philippine banks in February, up 6.8 percent from P7.06 trillion in the same month last year, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The rise in the banking sector’s resources –which include deposits, retained earn-ings and capital –may trigger an increase in lending, something the economy needs this year to accelerate growth following last year’s slowdown.

ALLEGED total dollar accounts of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato C. Corona in five banks, according to re-cords of the Anti-Money Laundering Law Council (AMLC) presented by Ombuds-man Conchita Carpio Morales when she testified before the Senate Impeachment Court last Monday, May 14.

MINIMUM capital requirement set Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for banks to engage in investment management activities as well as trust and other fidu-ciary businesses.

NUMBER of proposals received by the Department of Energy (DOE) from local and international companies for 12 of 15 oil and gas blocks it offered under the Fourth Philippine Energy Contract-ing Round (PECRA4).

GEORGE SOROS is pledging $2 million to two outside groups supporting progressive causes and helping President Obama’s re-election campaign nd other Democrats running in November, accord-ing to a Soros aide.

NET WORTH of Rep. Imelda R. Marcos, former first lady, making her the second richest member of the House of Representatives, the richest being Saran-gani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, whose net worth is now P1.35 billion as he declared in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

$12million P932.8million16

P7.54 trillion

P300 million$2 million

THE government is set to send to China a team of experts

from the DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) led by Director Clarito Bar-ron to present the Phil-ippines’ plant quaran-tine protocols, as well as coordinate and validate with their Chinese coun-terparts in Beijing that Philippine bananas are of export quality and free from insects.

“We want to make sure that Philippine bananas exported to China are free from insects,” said Agri-culture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala, after meeting with banana growers in Davao, at the sidelines of a People’s Organizations Congress, sponsored by the DA’s Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP).

President Benigno S. Aquino III keynoted the event on March 14, 2012, attended by 1,500

farmers, fisherfolk, rural women, and indigenous peoples, who are recipi-ents of DA-MRDP liveli-hood projects.

“We will also invite Chinese quarantine of-ficials to visit the Philip-pines, particularly ba-nana farms in Davao, and see for themselves their respective processing and packing operations,” the DA chief said.

For his part, Dir. Bar-ron said they will go to China anytime this week to convince their Chi-nese agriculture and quarantine officials that Philippine bananas pass through rigid procedures which conform to inter-national standards.

“We will meet with them to reiterate that bananas imported from our country underwent proper procedures from production to processing, including washing, sort-ing, and packaging,” Bar-

ron said. Secretary Alcala urged

banana growers and ex-porters to “police their ranks” by strictly observ-ing international stan-dard protocols to ensure that their products are world-class and free from insects, diseases, and oth-er contaminants.

Early in March 2012, Chinese agriculture of-ficials withheld a total of 150 40-foot container vans of bananas on two separate occasions, as they reportedly found the bananas were infested with Aonidiella compere or scale insect, said Dir. Barron.

“The species found, however, are more com-mon in coconuts and not in bananas,” the DA-BPI chief said.

Chinese quarantine officials are currently conducting a 100% in-spection of Philippine bananas, exports follow-

ing the discovery of scale insects. The stringent measures were later ex-tended to pineapples and papayas.

With this develop-ment, banana growers claim they have incurred losses of about $236,000 or almost P1 billion.

The DA chief also in-structed Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service Director Leandro Gazmin to explore other export markets like the Middle East and Singa-pore, and expand Japa-nese market.

After Japan, China is the second-largest mar-ket for banana which con-tributes about 24 percent to the country’s total ag-ricultural exports. As the fifth-largest export today, the local banana industry earns about $720 mil-lion a year and directly employs some 240,000 workers. (Oda Rodriguez, DA Information Service).

DA to fight for PHL bananas New quarantine protocol to be presented to Chinese counterpart

USAID to align with country’s development plan

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philip-

pine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) have approved an enhanced version of the Strength-ening Program for Rural Banks (SPRB) to encour-age faster consolidation in the banking industry especially of small sub-scale banks. Labeled as the Strengthening Pro-gram for Rural Banks Plus (SPRB Plus), the program expands the original SPRB to include strong and well-managed thrift banks and commercial banks as among eligible Strategic Third Party In-vestor (STPI) or so-called “white knights” entitled to incentives when investing in problematic country-side based banks. This program is envisioned to further strengthen the ru-ral banking system, boost confidence, and improve the delivery of financial services to rural commu-nities.

The SPRB Plus is the second enhancement of the SPRB. Previously, SPRB Module II or the Strengthening Program for Cooperative Banks (SPCB) was launched in November 2011 to strengthen cooperative banks.

SPRB Plus offers a va-riety of financial and reg-ulatory relief and incen-tives to improve the pros-pects for success of new banking partnerships. Fi-

nancial assistance may be granted by PDIC to aug-ment capital shortfalls and attract new investors. BSP has also put on the table an expanded pack-age of regulatory relief and branching incentives for commercial, thrift and rural bank that step forward as white knights. In the original SPRB, only strong rural banks were allowed to act as white knights of other rural banks and with a more limited incentive package.

The SPRB Plus expects eligible STPIs not only to sustain and strengthen the financial condition of resulting banks but also to improve their quality of corporate governance and management. Both BSP and PDIC have re-ceived strong expressions of interest from a number of players in the industry to take part in the SPRB Plus indicating the strong buy-in of the banking sec-tor to strengthen the sys-tem.

As of March 2012, PDIC has received 17 ap-plications for the current SPRB involving 31 rural banks. Four of these ap-plications have been ap-proved by the PDIC Board and two are in process. For the SPCB, 24 out of 40 cooperative banks have expressed interest since its launching in Novem-ber 2011. PDIC is now evaluating three SPCB applications involving 14 cooperative banks.

PDIC, BSP new program to strengthen rural banks

MANILA and Washington re-viewed last week

the achievements of the United States Agency for International Devel-opment (USAID) in the Philippines over the past three years and discussed the aid agency’s proposed Country Development Cooperation Strategy for 2012-2016.

The review was done during the high-level bi-lateral consultations led by National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Deputy Director-General Rolando G. Tung-palan and USAID/Philip-pines Mission Director Gloria D. Steele.

“We are aligning this new strategy with the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) for 2011 to 2016, which fleshes out President Aquino’s Social Contract with the Filipino people,” Steele said.

Tungpalan thanked USAID/Philippines for aligning its proposed Country Development Co-operation Strategy with

the Philippines’ develop-ment priorities, including jobs, health and educa-tion.

“Jobs, health, educa-tion, and governance re-main as top concerns of Philippine development efforts, and we see them in USAID’s proposed strategy. We are grateful that the USAID advanced the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Ef-fectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action, which calls on developing na-tions to exercise leader-ship over their develop-ment priorities for more harmonized, transparent and effective actions,” Tungpalan said.

The proposed new USAID strategy also sup-ports President Obama’s new policy on global de-velopment which calls for a new approach on how the U.S. will implement development assistance, the U.S. embassy in Ma-nila noted.

In support of this vi-sion, the Agency launched USAID Forward, an ambi-

tious reform effort that changes the way USAID does business through new partnerships, and puts an emphasis on in-novation and a relentless focus on results.

“It is good to note that Secretary Hillary Clin-ton, at the Busan Fourth High Level Forum on

Aid Effectiveness, talked about how country-led development will lead to sustainable growth. We are interested in know-ing more about how the USAID proposed strategy will be implemented and we will work with USAID in carrying it out,” said Tungpalan. (PNA)

TOURISM FUN. Tourists frolic the morning after Saturday’s sunset-to-sunrise party in Gumasa, one of the Philippines’ best beaches. Some 50,000 people enjoyed the two-day Sarangani Bay Festival, which spurred local resorts and hotels, and backyard industries.

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012

LOCAL farmers agree with the Depart-ment of Agriculture

(DA) that the Philippines would be able to attain rice self sufficiency by 2013 and even export its production surplus in the near future.

However, since impor-tation of the commodity by private traders would remain to be allowed ow-ing to the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in which the Phil-ippines is a member, the farmers are calling on the government to initiate re-forms in the importation system so that the control on the country’s supply of the staple grain is taken away from the cartels.

These reforms would make rice importations by private traders favor-able to the farmers, lo-cal consumers and the government, said farmer leader Silvestre “Ka Sil-ver” Bonto.

Bonto is president of the National Confedera-tion of Irrigators’ Asso-ciation and head of the Angat Ahon Magsasaka, a non-government orga-nization with thousands of the country’s farmer’s groups as members.

Philippines had three forms of rice importa-tion and the first is the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) which is subdivid-ed into the Omnibus Ori-gin and Country Specific Quota (CSQ) of the WTO.

This scheme requires importers to pay a tariff

equivalent to 40 percent of the total volume of rice to be imported. Both farmer’s organizations and private importers are allowed to participate in this scheme.

The second scheme is the Private Sector Fi-nanced (PSF) wherein the volume to be imported in a particular transac-tion is determined by the National Food Authority (NFA).

In this scheme which is also open to FOs and private traders, the im-porters do not have to pay taxes for their imports but required to bid for a ser-vice fee equivalent to the volume to be imported.

However, since the FOs do not have the capacity to finance the payment of service fees, performance bond and all other finan-cial requirements, they are used as “dummies” in the bidding process by the private importers, particularly the Binondo rice cartel, Bonto said.

In the bidding for the MAV and PSF importa-tion of the 380,000 met-ric tons of rice conducted by the NFA last March, he said almost all of the vol-ume went to the cartel even as it appeared that 250,000 metric tons of it was won by 101 FOs and only 130,000 metric tons by the cartel.

“It is because 95 of the winning FOs are cartel-financed bidders and only six are bona-fide FOs,” he explained. [PNA]

7AGRITRENDSEDGEDAVAO

THERE will be no payao or fish aggregating device (FAD) to be

installed at Scarborough or Panatag Shoal, but only within municipal waters.

Director Asis G. Perez of the Department of Agricul-ture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) clarifies that payaos will be installed primarily within the 15-kilometer mu-nicipal water boundaries of coastal municipalities in the West Philippine Seas and not at Panatag Shoal, which is 119 nautical miles or 220 kilometers away from the coastal town of Paluig, in Zambales.

He said payaos are in-tended to be installed near the shore or within the 15-km municipal waters. Hence, they are called ‘near-shore payaos.’

He said 45 units of near-shore payao will be installed in the municipal waters off Zambales, of which four were installed last month in Subic. The remaining 41 units will be deployed with-in the month or after the southwest monsoon or ‘ha-bagat’ season in 10 coastal municipalities (San Antonio, San Narciso, San Felipe, Ca-banggan, Sta. Cruz, Masinloc, Iba, Candelaria, Palauig and Botolan).

On May 14, 2012, Direc-tor Perez will meet with the mayors and fisherfolk-lead-ers of said coastal municipal-ities, and lead in the deploy-ment of five payaos in the coastal waters off Masinloc.

The DA-BFAR is also cur-rently undertaking surveys in the coastal waters off Pan-gasinan to Ilocos region to identify appropriate areas where payaos are best suit-able.

In all, the DA-BFAR plans to install more than 200 units in other coastal mu-nicipalities throughout the country, right after the ‘ha-bagat’ season.

The payao is a fish ag-

gregating device that would provide marginal fishermen a specific area to catch fish. In payao areas, only hand-line fishing is allowed. That way, the fishermen would spare smaller fishes near the water surface that serve as food for the bigger fishes occupying the bottom areas and thus make the payao more sustainable.

Director Perez said in payaos, marginal fisher-men could catch as big as a 40-kilo tuna and other high value pelagic species, as re-ported in Tawi-Tawi, Mind-oro and Claveria where the DA-BFAR has deployed near-shore payaos early this year.

BFAR: ‘Payaos are only for municipal waters’

TRADE PARTNER. Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala (left) and Kuwaiti Ambassador Waleed Amad Al-Kandari discuss increased trade of agricultural products, particularly bananas and basmati rice, during the latter’s recent visit at the Department of Agriculture Central Office in Quezon City. Ambassador Al-Kandari said Kuwait will continue to buy fresh Philippine bananas, and in fact a Kuwaiti company which invested in a Davao banana

farm plans to expand its hectarage to satisfy increasing demand. Secretary Alcala also offered Basmati rice, which the Philippines will soon produce for both domestic and export markets. The DA is eyeing some 6,000 hectares in Compostela Valley, in Mindanao, to develop as a possible production area for Basmati rice and other high value crops.

PHL will be rice self-sufficient soon

THE National Food Au-thority yesterday re-ported that last Mon-

day’s bidding for 190,000 metric tons of imported rice under Private Sector Financed (PSF) Importation was a huge success with a record-high P1.14 billion income for the NFA coming from the winning bidders’ service fee.

A total of 109 bidders participated in the open por-tion of the PSF importation through the NFA’s Tax Ex-penditure Subsidy, which is a program whereby private im-porters are able to import rice using the NFA’s tax subsidy.

Of the total participants,

only 19 bidders with the high-est bids will each be given the permit to import a maximum of 10,000 metric tons of rice. The average service fee for this year’s PSF (open cat-egory) was at P6.28 per kilo or P614 per bag, which is a record high despite the lower volume this year of PSF im-portation pegged at 380,000 metric tons.

Another bidding for the remaining P190,000 met-ric tons is set next Monday (March 26) for farmers’ coop-eratives, which is expected to have hundreds of participants considering that the maxi-mum allocation per coopera-

tive is only 2,000 metric tons.Last year, the NFA earned

1.53 B for a much larger vol-ume of 660,000 metric tons with the average bid pegged at P2.31, or Php115.50 per 50 kg. bag. While last year’s PSF bidding earned significantly more, this year’s PSF bidding could earn for the NFA about P2.1 billion although the vol-ume to be imported is only about one-half of last year’s.

In terms of participants, the 2012 PSF bidding had 109 participants in the open cat-egory while the 2011 PSF bid-ding had only 66 participants.

“The open and transpar-ent bidding process showed

that government will earn more as compared to the car-telized and monopolistic prac-tice of allocating through a first-come, first served meth-od, where service fees are low and fixed, and the participants are virtually pre-selected,” said Administrator Angelito Banayo.

This year’s bidding was witnessed by representatives from the Commission on Au-dit and observed by a specially designated team from the De-partment of Agriculture head-ed by consultant Gregorio Tan, a former NFA administrator under the Arroyo administra-tion.

NFA earns record-high P1.14 b from PSF bidding

A farmers group ap-pealed to the gov-ernment to consider

the plight of tobacco grow-ers in reforming the excise tax structure for cigarettes and to avoid the tempta-tion of raising too much taxes that may have a crip-pling effect on them.

“Kami po ay nanawa-gan sa pamahalaan na maghinay hinay lamang po sa pagtataas ng buwis. Hindi po natin ninanais na mapigil ang pag asenso ng industriya ng tabako. (We appeal to the govern-ment to go slow with the tax increases. We do not want to stop the growth of the tobacco industry),” Saturnino Distor, president of the Federation of Free Farmers-Pangasinan Chap-ter, said.

To justify their appeal the group has come up with a statement dated May 18, 2012 claiming there is no need for tax increase since the tobacco farming industry has had a steady growth at an av-erage of 17.5 percent per year.

The FFF said more than

eight firms led by biggest tobacco buyer Univer-sal Leaf Philippines Inc. (ULPI), PMFTC and Trans Manila Inc. compete to buy their (farmers’) crop an-nually resulting in buying rates way above the floor price set for tobacco.

The FFF stressed that the annual floor price is determined by a tripartite body made up of represen-tatives from the govern-ment, the buyers, and the farmers.

“Wala pong katoto-hanan na ang presyo ng tabako ay namamanipula ng iisang kompanyang taga gawa ng sigarilyo. Ang floor price po ay itinatakda ng tripartite body kasama ang pamahalaan, mga buy-ers at mga farmer leaders sa iba’t-ibang probinsiya na nagtatanim ng tabako. (It is not true that prices of tobacco are being manipu-lated by one cigarette com-pany. The floor price is set by a tripartite body com-posed of the government, the buyers and us farmers from the different prov-inces that plant tobacco).” Distor said. [PNA]

Farmers asks reviewin rising excise tax

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 20128 VANTAGE POINTS

Smut in print and broadcastEDITORIAL

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

KARLOS C. MANLUPIG • JOSEPH LAWRENCE P. GARCIALEANDRO S. DAVAL JR.,

PhotographyARLENE D. PASAJE

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EDGEDAVAO

Perennial problems

PARTY-LIST Rep. Angelo Palmones of Agham (Science) wants tab-loids and other publications with

obscene articles, photographs and other images banned from circulation.

Palmones, himself a prominent mem-ber of the media as broadcaster, has asked the House of Representatives to investigate the proliferation of these smut publications in Metro Manila.

The laudable advocacy of Palmones is not actually new. In fact, a law had been passed against lewd literature, but the law, like many other Philippine laws, is more observed in the breach, a reason for the resurgence such indecent ma-terials which are peddled on sidewalks stalls and available even to minors.

This problem is not the monopoly of the permissive society in the nation’s capital. Davao City has its share of pub-lications containing lewd materials. One of them is a daily tabloid in the Visayan dialect. The publication also promotes the culture of gambling by openly sug-gesting possible winning number com-binations in the illegal numbers game

called Last Two. Some announcers are as guilty as their counterparts in the print media.

Yes, Palmones should also include in his advocacy smut in broadcasting, his home industry. There are radio stations in Davao City, for instance, which broad-cast radio dramas that leave little to the listener’s imagination scenes that depict sex.

These erring publications and broad-cast stations are of course motivated by profit. By airing vivid sex “scenes” in soap operas, the networks expect to notch higher listenership rating, while publications want to have more copies sold. These translate to more advertis-ing money.

While we cannot speak for Metro Ma-nila and other cities which have this problem, perhaps we can call on our own do-gooders to mount some kind of a cru-sade, if we may call it that, to cleanse our newsstands and airwaves of smut ma-terials with the welfare of our youth in mind (that is, if adults have become too jaded to care about their own welfare). Quips

‘WHEN I see people smiling, when I see that there’s opti-mism, that there’s a light i n their eyes where they used to be just suf-ferance, that I think is the best achieve-ment and that will propel us to achiev-ing even greater heights.’

--President Noynoy Aquino

THE ULTI-MATE SOLU-TION? – As

the SY 2012-2013 draws near, the debate over the im-plementation of the highly controver-sial K to 12 educa-tion enhancement program of the De-partment of Education (DepEd) continues. Government insists that students who com-plete 12 years of basic education will be bet-ter equipped technically or vocationally, and become competent enough with acquired skills upon graduation.

However, while top Department of Edu-cation officials argue that the K to 12 pro-gram is a key to competitiveness and em-ployment, critics say that lengthening the years in school will not necessarily improve quality of education. It is like saying that K to 12 planners were either ill-prepared or ill-advised.

The K to 12 education scheme, accord-ing to groups who see nothing good in it, is a burden rather than a solution to the crisis in education. The K to 12 guidelines are good only on paper. The oppositors say that the problems actually besetting the country’s education system are very basic,like lack of classrooms, lack of books and other facili-ties, and of course, lack of teachers. I agree.

The biggest problem is money because we just rely on the annual appropriation to meet the acute shortage. Admittedly, the annual government appropriation for edu-cation is not enough to meet the country’s educational requirements. Additional bud-get for education is what the country needs and not additional years of basic education.

Government should make education accessible and relevant to the times, take extra effort to lower our current high drop-out rates and invest heavily in traning and re-training of our public school teachers. No amount of adding years to basic educa-tion will work if the above-stated perennial problems.

With over 40 million Filipinos living on less than P50 a day, many families can afford to send their children to school. Children who are in school could hardly comprehend their lessons because of hunger. The truth is that many of them go to school without eating breakfast.

Child malnutrition is in fact a leading cause of the high student dropout rate es-pecially in the poor areas of the country. The dropout rates must be addressed and the government knows the factors behind but has so far failed to address them with success. Another serious problem is lack of good training for teachers.

Teachers’ salaries should be increased immediately if we are to keep members of this noble profession from leaving the country to look for greener pasture abroad or from going hungry. With such low pay and lack of proper training many qualified people are not attracted to teach in public schools – to the detriment of the students. Most importantly, in investing for their training, our educators can continue learn-ing and become more efficient teachers.

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012

AS of May 18, residents of Barangay Dao in San Fernando town, Bukidnon are still encamping the capitol grounds in

this city. Their number seems to have grown, as I saw more tents when I passed by the capitol from the bus terminal. And there is no telling when and if they can return to their homes.

It has been two months since the evacu-ees, most of them Manobos, arrived at the capitol for fear of becoming the next victims of a paramilitary group called New Indigenous People’s Army Reform (Nipar) led by a fellow Lumad named Aldy “Butsoy” Salusad.

A former New People’s Army rebel who surrendered in 2010, Salusad is the primary suspect in the killing on March 5 of Dao vil-lage chief Jimmy Liguyon, a tribal leader who had opposed the mining application of the San Fernando Manobo Tribal Datus Association (Sanmatrida).

Salusad’s father, Benjamin “Nonong” Salusad, is a member of Sanmatrida. Like his son, the elder Salusad was a rebel who sur-rendered last year. He is now a government militiaman under the 403rd Infantry Brigade.

Provincial officials have asked the evacu-ees to return to Dao. But the latter said they will only go back home once Butsoy is placed behind bars. Court records showed that the

suspect and his father have pending war-rants of arrest even before Liguyon’s murder, to which Butsoy categorically admitted in an interview with dxDB. Police have offered no satisfactory explanation why they have not been arrested.

Maybe Butsoy’s admission can explain why the police and civil authorities appear inutile against him and his group. He is confi-dent the arm of the law cannot touch him for reasons the people of Dao may have known but are afraid to say. These reasons may be found in the local social and economic context that led to Liguyon’s death.

Outsiders have coveted Dao for its gold deposits. Small-scale mining activities by lo-cals have resumed after these were stopped in the early 1990s. But Sanmatrida, big min-ing firms – and they said some politicians too – are all aiming to take control of this industry.

Further complicating the situation is the presence of armed groups of all shades – NPA, bandits, state-backed paramilitaries, and of course, the military. With so much at stake, it has become a necessity for capitalists – or their dummies – to enlist the support of any of these groups.

There were locals however who wanted to put a stop to the mining activities in Dao. Among them was Liguyon. His stand put

him at odds with Sanmatrida which, aside from having applied for a mining permit, has included Dao in its ancestral domain claim.

Moreover, Liguy-on’s involvement in progressive groups made him a target of Nipar’s rightist politics. Butsoy in particular saw this as an op-portunity to eliminate a stumbling block to his group’s objective of controlling gold mining in Dao. In publicly owning up to the crime, But-soy cited as reason the victim’s participation in protest rallies, although Liguyon’s family members and supporters maintained it was his anti-mining stance that caused him his life.

Yet, no matter what the reasons are, au-thorities should have exerted serious efforts in going after Butsoy and his accomplices. After all, he has pending warrants and has ad-mitted to the crime.

But why have provincial and town officials not pushed for his arrest? Are they, as Neil Young lamented in one of his songs, “helpless, helpless, helpless?” And against whom? [H. Marcos C. Mordeno writes mainly on the envi-ronment, human rights and politics. He can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com]

9VANTAGE POINTS

Monkey Business

EDGEDAVAO

BY HONOR BLANCO CABIEOPINION

PHL colors: Symbol of culture, unity 

Not all that glitters

Conquering heights (and fear of it)IT is one acro-phobic’s worst nightmare but

also a child’s ulti-mate fantasy ful-fillment.

How many of us once dreamed we are the caped action heroes who crushed the evil and outlaws and once saved a damsel from falling from the Empire State building, or wherever, like Su-perman? Or if you are more current, recent Marvel comic book superheroes Iron Man, Thor and Captain America in the ultimate world box-office record-breaking superac-tion movie The Avengers (still running in the-aters worldwide)? Going more locale, Captain Barbell and Darna, Mars Ravelo classic super heroine?

To defy gravity and be able to hold your-self up in the sky with nothing to separate you from hundreds of feet above the air and the rocky mountain and cliffs below is every child’s dream. To be able to conquer heights and your fears of flying. It could dizzying. En-thralling.

But in the real world, it could also turn your stomach inside out and even induce self-inflicted death.

Those who have inordinate fear for the heights (acrophobia) will find the pteromer-hanophobics (people who fear flying) luckier. With fate hanging on both hands, the thin line between heavenly ecstasy and morbid and ag-onizing death will be staring at your face with one serious miscue or miscalculation.

But for some, they make a living and actu-ally have some fun out of it on the side.

Frenchman Armand Dard has been tak-ing off cliffs and mountain edges as a certified paragliding pilot and instructor for the last 17 years.

He was invited by brothers Coco and Ian Tan to take a look at the otherwise barren cattle ranch of the latters’ family-owned San Andres Fishing Industries (SAFI) Inc. in Seg-uel, Maasim. Armand gave it a try. He imme-diately fell in love with the place, said to be the only one of its kind in Mindanao and perhaps the best location for mountain launch para-

gliding in the country today.Fear of heightsOver the last few years, you see, I have de-

veloped this fear of standing at the edges of tall buildings. So when my time to try how it feels when you lift and hold yourself aloft in the air strapped in a harness with a handful of barely a millimeter of superstrong strands holding you and you friendly paragliding pilot from crushing to death, you have to conquer all those fears.

We had to drive all the way up on a 4×4 SUV to negotiate the steep and rocky edges of a cliff where, atop, a small clearing has been hastily built a few days before for a friendly competition among 10 paragaliders that in-cluded several Canadian friends of the Tan brothers and a Taiwanese the day earlier.

The pre-flight instructions were very brief. Just the basics.

We will be riding in tandem, says Armand, and you will have to follow my instructions. When I say roll over to your left, just lean to-wards your left and cross you right legs over your left. When I say right, do it the other way. When I say straight forward, just sit and relax on a built-in seat in your harness.

We have to run against the wind to have a quick and good lift and continue kicking your feet in running motion in case of aborted flight to avoid injuries when ‘crashlanding.’ We will land on the same head wind and take two steps backward upon touching ground before turning to your left towards the chute to avoid being dragged backwards.

The instructions from the Frenchman were in halting English, understandably. Be-fore I knew it, I was all ‘harnessed’, strapped from my back to Armand’s front and waiting for the right gale of wind for liftoff.

It was a short dash. Three or five arms length and we were up in the air. What hap-pened next was the longest seven minutes of my hidden acrophobic side. I felt the adren-alin rush. At first, I cannot seem to focus on objects below me including the vehicles parked at the edge of the landing which still has a visible landing accuracy target. Those vehicles looked like miniatures of match-boxes!

We made two turns each to our right and left before Armand decided the wind, at 2:30

in the afternoon, is not good enough for a long flight. By long flights, paragliders said it is 15 minutes or more. The Taiwanese friend of Coco said he was up in the air for two hours earlier in the day for their after-tournament fun fly. We landed smoothly.

Armand says accident do happen. It can come from misjudging the headwind and direction, a sudden downward draft or a faulty landing. Coco still had his left foot in a cast courtesy of a recent faulty landing. So too was his Canadian friend who had to be rushed to the hospital after he could no longer endure the paid on his ankle, probably sprained or, worse, twisted.

Future world attractionCoco said a team from the world as-

sociation of paragliders will be coming over next month to evaluate the site for possible inclusion in world paragliding tour competitions next year. If accred-ited, it will be the first of its kind in the Philippines.

Armand said the site in Seguel is by far the best throughout the country that even the ones Carmona in Cavite and Montalban in Rizal rating far behind.

What makes Seguel more attractive is the majestic view of Sarangani Bay and the day long wind that one para-glider can only dream of. The French instructor however says the best time to fly is between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Paragliding in this part of Mindanao is barely out of the woods. But as of Sun-day, Coco said there are already 10 en-thusiasts and plenty more waiting to do some solo flights.

The gear however can cost a fortune for some ordinary fixed-income earners. But it’s a one-time emptying of the pock-ets.

A brand new complete paragaliding gear can cost as much as Php150,000 (USD3,500). A second hand, like Ian’s gear, can be had for Php60,000 (USD1,400). Fees for fun flyers could range from Php1,500 to Php3,000 (USD35-70).

For bookings and instructions in get-ting to the place, contact Chris Romano 09426204950.

FOR 16 days starting May 28 each year, displaying the country’s tricolors has become part of a revered tradition and

culture of this multi-ethnic, multi-lingual country of nearly 98 million people from Batanes to Tawi Tawi.

Sometime in the latter part of the 1960s, a young correspondent, covering a news event in Sulu, saw this as the country’s na-tional anthem was played in front of the capi-tol.

When the anthem was played by the mili-tary band, coinciding with the brisk hoisting of the Philippine flag, the correspondent im-mediately realized the indivisibility of this one nation as every Muslim and Christian in the audience stood at attention.

But a question remains: How many of the population are familiar with the specifics regarding the flag, despite the annual pub-lic display for 16 days, called National Flag days?

The national flag, displayed with the blue field on top in times of peace, and with the red field on top in times of war, is a horizon-tal bicolor with equal bands of blue and red, and with a white equilateral triangle based at the hoist side.

In the center of the triangle is a golden yellow sun with eight primary rays, each con-taining three individual rays.

At every corner of the triangle is a five-pointed golden yellow star.

The flag is horizontally divided into two basic colors -- royal blue and scarlet red -- with a white equilateral triangle based at the hoist side.

At the center of the triangle is a golden-yellow sun with eight primary rays, each containing three individual rays, and at each corner of the triangle is a five-pointed gold-en-yellow star.

The flag’s length is twice its width, which translates into an aspect ratio of 1:2. The sides of the white triangle are equal to the width of the flag.

Each star is oriented such that it points towards the tip of the vertex at which it is located.

The flag’s colors are specified by Repub-lic Act 8491 in terms of their cable number in the system developed by the Color Associa-tion of the United States.

The Philippine flag, designed in 1897 by Emilio Aguinaldo while he was in exile in Hong Kong, is unique.

It can indicate a state of war when the red field is displayed on top, or on the observer’s left when the flag is displayed vertically, with the white equilateral triangle at the top end.

According to official sources, the white triangle stands for equality and fraternity; the blue field for peace, truth, and justice; and the red field for patriotism and valor.

The eight primary rays of the sun rep-resent the eight provinces which declared a state of war as soon as the first revolt was initiated in the 1896 Revolution of indepen-dence from Spain, and placed under martial law by the colonial government.

The eight provinces were Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, La-guna, and Batangas.

The three stars represent the three ma-jor geographical divisions of this Southeast Asian archipelago: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

Some have noted that the symbolism given in the 1898 Proclamation of Philippine Independence differs from the current offi-cial explanation.

One school of thought says the white tri-angle signifies the emblem of the Katipunan.

This is the secret society that opposed Spanish rule which was ushered in by Fer-nando Magallanes in 1521 until the Spanish armada was beaten by the troops of US Ad-miral George Dewey in 1898.

Another school of thought says the flag’s colors celebrate the flag of the United States as a manifestation of Philippine gratitude for American protection against the Spanish during the Philippine Revolution.

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012

KORONADAL City Mayor Peter B. Miguel has joined

South Cotabato Gov. Ar-thur Y. Pingoy Jr. in the bid to host the national games for the third time.

During the city gov-ernment’s regular radio programs, “Koronadal Boom…Boom…Boom” and “Kanami Koronadal,” May-or Miguel confirmed that during his visit to the 2012 Palarong Pambansa in Lingayen, Pangasinan, he submitted a letter of intent to host the 2015 Palarong Pambansa to the Depart-ment of Education.

He said, the city needs an ambitious activity like this as a way of promoting the City of Koronadal itself and the province of South

Cotabato as a whole. The event, he reasoned

, would be very timely to inform people from all walks of life to know that the city, the capital of the province of South Cota-bato, is one of the happiest and most peaceful places in Mindanao.

Especially now that it has become the seat of Re-gion XII, the city is positive-ly fast progressing as well as expected, the local chief executive added.

Miguel believes that the city has the capacity to host such a big event owing to the success of two Palaro held here

South Cotabato, spe-cifically, Koronadal City, hosted the Palarong Pam-bansa in 1996 during the

administration of Gov. Hi-lario de Pedro III and in 2007 under the leadership of Mayor Fernando Miguel.

Mayor Peter Miguel, son of the former mayor, also expressed confidence that with the support and coordination with the provincial government of South Cotabato, the 2015 Palarong Pambansa here would prove even better than the previous ones giv-en the chance to prepare this early.

Miguel was in Lin-gayen, Pangasinan during 2012 Palarong Pambansa to show his personal sup-port and to give financial assistance to the athletes and coaches coming from the City of Koronadal and to personally hand in his

letter of intent. While in Pangasinan,

the city mayor also hand-ed a total of P800,000 al-lowances to the city’s 59 athletes as well as their coaches.

City schools division sports supervisor Napo-leon Cumicho confirmed receipt of said amount upon the arrival of Mayor Peter B. Miguel at Lingay-en, Pangasinan on May 8.

Each athlete and coach received P10,000 aid from the city government.

Besides turning over the financial assistance to the city’s athletes, Mayor Miguel said, he also wanted to show his personal sup-port.

From Pangasinan, the mayor proceeded to Metro

10 COMMUNITY SENSE EDGEDAVAO

AS a way of show-ing their support to the Community

Skills Training Program of the Local Government of Tagum, three (3) Austra-lians who are working with separate meat companies in the land down under personally went here last May 18, 2012 to turn-over the KNIFE-SETTER and a CUT- RESISTANT GLOVES (worth almost 1 thousand Australian Dollars) made of aluminum for the city’s slaughterhouse located in Tipaz, Barangay Magugpo East. The turn-over hap-pened during their cour-tesy call with the Chief Executive at Tagum City’s Motorpool.

City Mayor Rey T. Uy extended his gratitude to the visiting Australians for giving the said equipment, noting that this will be a big help for the butchers of the city.

Miss Allison Silburn, the Labour Manager of Northern International, disclosed in an interview that this one way of ex-tending their full support to the local government’s pursuit in equipping its butchers with the nec-

essary skills enough for them to be competitive to work in Australia. Other Australians who joined Miss Silburn are Dean Til-son of Teys Bro Austalia and Mike Smith of Yang-wha Global.

Aside from donating equipments, they are also in town to scout potential butchers to work for their respective companies.

The city government under the leadership of Mayor Uy has been very serious in its skills training program for butchers—the thing which gained admiration from the visit-ing Australians. Graduates of the said program were then hired by Australian meat companies.

“We had already de-ployed Tagum City work-ers in Australia and they have been excellent in their job, they are very nice people, they work hard and they are very loy-al,” stressed Miss Silburn.

Ended, Ms. Silburn said she is looking for-ward that more workers from Tagum will be able to work in their company in Australia. [LOUIE LAPAT/EDWIN OF CIO TAGUM]

Australians donate equipment to Tagum City’s slaughterhouse

Mr. Mike Smith of Yangwha Global based in Australia demonstrates the proper usage of the KNIFE-SETTER as Mayor Rey T. Uy looks on. The said equipment along with a cut-resistant gloves (worth almost 1 thousand Australian Dollars) made

of aluminum was donated by Aus-tralian Meat Companies to Tagum City Slaughterhouse last May 18, 2012. The turn-over happened during their courtesy call with the Chief Executive at Tagum City’s Mo-torpool. [PHOTO BY LOUIE LAPAT OF CIO TAGUM]

City of Tagum Mayor Rey T. Uy (4th from left) and City Veterinarian’s Head Dr. Jesus Edullantes (2nd from left) wear the CUTY-RESISTANT GLOVES made of aluminum as they pose with (3) visiting Australians who donated these gloves along with a knife-setter (worth almost 1 thousand Australian Dol-lars) which will be installed in the Tagum City Slaughterhouse. The turn-over happened during their courtesy call with the Chief Executive at Tagum City’s Motorpool last May 18, 2012. [PHOTO BY LOUIE LAPAT OF CIO TAGUM.]

Koronadal bids to host 2015 ‘Palaro’

A 1 5 . 3 - k i l o m e t e r provincial road section here, which

traverses the towns of Bu-luan, Pandag, Paglat, and SK Pendatun, and con-nects with the national highway in Buluan Pobla-cion, has been completed and turned over to local authorities.

This makes it possible for residents of these re-mote communities, which lie along the fringes of the Liguasan Marsh, to now travel safely and ef-ficiently to the main high-way running from Makila-la in North Cotabato to Tacurong City in Central Mindanao.

The upgraded road, consisting of all-weather gravel sections and con-crete sections, is expected to significantly improve residents’ access to mar-kets, business centers, schools, hospitals and government services.

Travel time from SK Pendatun, the most re-mote of the four munici-palities, has been reduced from one hour to approxi-mately 20 minutes.

The completed in-frastructure project was turned over on May 16 to the Maguindanao provin-cial government by Depu-ty Chief of Mission Leslie Bassett of the U.S. em-bassy in Manila, together with Reed Aeschliman of the U.S. Agency for In-ternational Development (USAID).

At the ceremony, Bas-sett praised the govern-ment leaders for their commitment to the proj-ect, and for helping to foster peace and develop-ment in this conflict-af-fected area of Mindanao.

Philippine govern-ment officials present included Secretary Luw-alhati Antonino, Chair of the Mindanao Develop-ment Authority (MinDA), Regional Governor Mujib Hataman of the Autono-mous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Representa-tive Simeon Datumanong (Maguindanao 2nd Dis-trict) and Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangu-dadatu.

The US government-funded project was im-plemented by USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Pro-gram, in partnership

with the provincial gov-ernment.

The latter provided a counterpart contribu-tion of about 26 percent of the total project cost, with support from the Maguindanao 2nd Con-gressional District Office.

The ceremonial turn-over took place alongside the Maguindanao Infra-structure Development Forum being held in Bu-luan, which focused on intensive efforts by the provincial government to implement vital infra-structure projects in the province.

The visiting officials later traveled to Tumbao, in the municipality of Mangudadatu, where the U.S. government turned over a boat landing on Lake Buluan completed in partnership with the municipality. The landing facility will help ensure regular water transport services for the residents.

To date, the US gov-ernment, in partnership with the local govern-ments, has built more than 1,450 infrastructure projects in Mindanao’s conflict-affected areas through USAID’s GEM Program which is imple-mented under the over-sight of MinDA. These include larger-scale Re-gional Impact Projects, like the Buluan provincial road, designed to benefit people in multiple baran-gays or municipalities.

Bassett also met with a select group of young leaders who are alumni of U.S. government-sponsored exchange programs. Participants included those who stud-ied in the United States under State Department scholarships, and alumni of USAID’s Congressional Internship Program for Young Mindanao Lead-ers, which gave youths from Mindanao the op-portunity to intern in the National Congress of the Philippines.

The group had a lively discussion about youth issues and youth pro-grams in Maguindanao and the ARMM, and the alumni participants shared with Ms. Bassett their suggestions on how the U.S. can better sup-port programs for young Mindanaoans. (PNA)

15.3-km road completed

Manila to follow-up the scholarship grants from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) intend-ed for Koronadal City.

Gov. Pingoy, who au-thored the house bill that sought for the declaration of arnis as the national sport while he was still a congressman, has been vo-cal about his desire to host for the third time the na-tional games.

During the CRAA meet here in March, he said, the upgrading and improve-ments implemented at South Cotabato Sport Com-plex are intended towards this purpose.

The governor said, hosting the Palaro here would propel local econ-omy and boost the prov-ince’s advocacy to be known as a major tourist destination in this part of the country.

In Maguindanao

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012 HERITAGE 11EDGEDAVAO

     

   

 

 

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

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

Davao  City  17,940   P2,500  

Matina(Diversion)  Davao  City  

3,831   P1,500  

Bunawan,    Davao  City  

41,408   P800  

Indangan,  Davao  City  

7,056   P1,200  

Bincungan,    Tagum  City  

27,411   P1,000  

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

Minimum  of  240  sq.m.  

P5,985  

St.  Joseph  Homes,  Sirawan,  Toril,Davao  City    

Minimum  of  150  sq.m.  

P3,600  

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

Villa  Josefina  Resort  Village  Dumoy,  Toril,  Davao  City  

240  sq.m.   177.31  sq.m   P4.8  M  

APPLICATIONS for the University of the Philippines

College Admission Test (UPCAT) are now being accepted. All incoming 4th-year high school stu-dents are invited to ap-ply. This was announced by University Registrar Prof. Karen Cayamanda. Application forms are available at the Universi-ty of the Philippines Min-danao (UP-Mindanao) Office of the University Registrar, Mintal, Davao City.

Application forms can also be downloaded from the U.P. website at “www.

upcat.up.edu.ph”. The deadline for ap-

plication is June 22, 2012. Each UPCAT application should have the follow-ing requirements: (a) correctly and completely accomplished UPCAT Forms 1 and 2; (b) four pieces of 2” x 2” identical ID pictures taken within the last 6 months; (c) non-refundable applica-tion fee of P450; and (d) self-addressed stamped envelope.

Applicants from fami-lies with an annual gross income of P100,000 or less, or who are among the top ten prospective

graduates of public high schools for School Year 2012-2013, are exempt-ed from filing the appli-cation fee.

Applicants should send their applications by mail to the following address: Office of Ad-missions, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101. For more information, inter-ested parties can contact the Office of the Uni-versity Registrar of UP Mindanao at telephone number (082) 293-0201. Online application is also possible at “www.upca-tonline.up.edu.ph”.

UP College Admission Test application now accepted

ARE you an incom-ing Grade six pu-pil? Do you want to

become a scholar of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS)? Or do you have kids who are incom-ing grade six this school year? If your answer to the questions is “Yes,” then please read on.

The annual search for PSHS scholars for the school year 2013-2014 is now open for application. The 2013 PSHS system National Competitive Ex-amination (NCE) is slated on September 29, 2012.

The one-time screen-ing is composed of Scho-lastic Aptitude Test (SAT) which is designed to mea-

sure the scientific ability, quantitative ability, ab-stract reasoning, and the verbal aptitude of the ap-plicant.

The scholarship is open to all graduating el-ementary pupils from any Department of Education (DepEd) recognized el-ementary school.

The applicant must meet the following crite-ria:

• Belongs to the upper 10 percent of the graduat-ing class as certified by the School Principal, or have special aptitude in Science and Math as supported by the report card and letter of recommendation, with at least a grade of 85 in all

subjects; • A Filipino citizen

with no pending applica-tion as immigrant to any foreign country;

• Not more than 15 years of age by June 30, 2012;

• Be in good health and fit to undergo a rigorous academic program;

• Be of good moral character; and

• Not taken the PSHS National Competitive Ex-amination (NCE) previ-ously.

Application forms are available and may be filed at the PSHS Southern Min-danao Campus or DOST Regional and Provincial Offices.

PhilSci NCE application is now open

Especially for Moms. In celebration of Mother’s Day last May 13, Eden Nature Park and Resort, gave all mom flowers during the resort’s Mother’s Day Lunch Buffet.

Moms were also serenaded with love songs while din-ing at Vista Restaurant. The resort raffled off vegetable baskets and gift certificates to lucky moms.

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 201212 NATION/WORLD EDGEDAVAO

NATION BRIEFS WORLD TODAYIncorporated

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the decision of the wage

board granting a P30 cost of living allowance (COLA) instead of a direct wage hike won’t stoke inflation in the country

In a text message to reporters, BSP Gover-nor Amando Tetangco Jr. said the wage increase was already incorporated in the central bank’s latest inflation forecast for the year.

Pawikan meat

BUSINESS is brisk, judg-ing from the throng of people and cars parked

outside this makeshift eatery in Pasil, a shoreline barangay.

The customers, some in long sleeves and tie, do not mind the heat and the dishevelled slum area. They are here for one reason: To eat their favorite stewed dish of sea turtle or pawikan, an endangered species whose hunting, sale and killing have been banned by law since 2001.

Warrant

AMalabon City judge is-sued a warrant Friday for the arrest of three

men who allegedly shot dead Philippine international shooting team member Mi-chael Lontoc eight months ago.

Judge Zaldy Docena of the Malabon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 170, directed “any officer of the law” to arrest Mar-vin “Aben” Tresvalles and Renante “Renan” Egioma, both residents of Sitio 6 inBarangay Catmon; and Jimmy “Toto” Pianiar, a resi-dent of Barangay Tonsuya. All three have been charged with murder for the Sept. 25, 2011 attack on Lontoc.

Benefits

THE Department of Na-tional Defense (DND) enumerated on Mon-

day the direct benefits that the Philippines would get if the Senate would ratify the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) with Australia.

During the public hear-ing conducted by the Senate committee on foreign rela-tions, Defense undersecre-tary for legal and legislative affairs Pio Lorenzo Batino said Australia can help in terms of the modernization program of the Armed Forc-es of the Philippines (AFP), including transfer of military capabilities under SOVFA.

Urged

DEPARTMENT of Jus-tice (DOJ) Secretary Leila M. De Lima on

Monday urged the public not to prejudge Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato C. Corona. Corona is facing charges of graft and corrup-tion, culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust before the Senate Impeachment Court.

De Lima said that many things have already been said and accusations have been hurled against the chief magistrate. However, he still remains as a respondent, adding that until such time that the senator-judges have rendered their verdict, the respondent cannot be con-sidered as “guilty”.

THE US and Southeast Asian nations em-barked on three

days of talks Sunday that would include security cooperation, shortly after aPentagon report raised concerns about China’s military build-up.

The Philippines, hosts of the discussions and an Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASE-AN) member, is engaged in a month-long mari-time stand-off with China over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

“Eminent persons” and senior officials from the United States and ASEAN would meet from May 20 to 22 in Manila, US embas-sy and Philippine foreign department statements said.

Deepening security co-operation, climate change and trade and investment will all be on the table over the three days of talks. They will also “review key elements of the US-ASEAN

THE VENUE. A general view shows the Makati financial district of Manila in 2011. The US and Southeast Asian nations embarked on three days of talks Sunday that would include security cooperation,

ASEAN, US talk security amid China stand-off

partnership”, the embassy said.

The meeting will also prepare for US-ASEAN leaders’ talks in Novem-ber.

The poorly armed Phil-

ippines has been stressing its defense ties with close ally Washington to help bolster its position against China.

A Pentagon report on Friday said China was

carrying out aggressive cyber espionage as part of a steady build-up of its military power. Beijing ex-pressed its “firm opposi-tion” to the findings of the annual assessment.

Release

SRI Lanka’s president has ordered the re-lease of his jailed

electoral foe, ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka, bowing to US-led pressure three years after the end of the island’s long ethnic war.

The 61-year-old for-mer four-star general could leave prison on Monday following legal formalities, an official said Sunday, after Presi-dent Mahinda Rajapakse marked the third anniver-sary of the Tamil Tigers’ crushing defeat.

Funeral

MARY Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy

Jr. who died in an apparent suicide earlier this week, was recalled Saturday as an “angel” who was ulti-mately overwhelmed by a lengthy fight with depres-sion.

Those remembrances came as members of the Kennedy clan, including Robert F. Kennedy’s wid-ow Ethel and late Presi-dent John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline, gath-ered for her funeral here at St. Patrick’s, a small Catho-lic church in this wealthy Westchester County ham-let about 50 miles (81 km) north of New York City.

Devastated

EUROPEANS are avoiding vacations to Greece this summer

fearing instability sparked by the debt crisis, indus-try sources say, inflicting a hard blow to the coun-try’s already devastated economy.

“From the aftermath of the elections on May 6, we have experienced a 50 percent drop in bookings,” said George Drakopoulos, director general of the as-sociation of Greek tourism enterprises (SETE).

Gang rape

FRENCH prosecutors on Monday opened a preliminary inves-

tigation into accusations that disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn took part in a gang rape in the United States.

Prosecutors in Lille, where Strauss-Kahn and three others have been charged in a pimping case, said the probe centered on an incident “that could be described as gang rape” that took place in Washing-ton, DC.

Banned

PAKISTAN banned ac-cess to Twitter on Sunday because of

“blasphemous” material, a Pakistani official said, but normal service was re-sumed after 12 hours. The government did not speci-fy which users or messages had prompted the ban on the microblogging site or why it was allowed to op-erate again so quickly.

Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by many Muslims, who make up the overwhelming majority in Pakistan.

CHIEF Justice Renato Corona, the defense team’s final and

much-awaited witness, will finally testify today, May 22, his lawyers told the impeachment court. As earlier promised, Co-rona will take the witness stand following the tes-timonies of hostile wit-nesses Ombudsman Con-chita Carpio Morales, and complainants Risa Hon-tiveros, Harvey Keh and Emmanuel Santos on the alleged dollar accounts.

The defense has fin-

ished presenting the four on Wednesday but asked for a two-day break to prepare Corona’s rebut-tal.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile granted the defense’s request but stated that there will be no more postponements to be allowed as they have to finish the trial this month.

In an interview after the proceedings, lead de-fense counsel Serafin Cue-vas said their team was able to prove that the pur-

ported report on Corona’s bank transaction records were unverified.

Morales earlier pre-sented a report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council which allegedly showed that Corona owns 82 dollar accounts with $10-million transactional balance and $12-million fresh deposits.

“Wala namang ebidensyang kaniya yung mga dollar account eh. Sila na nagsabi na hindi nila vinerify yung re-port,” Cuevas said.

When asked if the chief justice will testify on the dollar account issue, Cuevas said it re-mains a legal battle since they still have a pending petition before the Su-preme Court to hinder the disclosure of the dol-lar accounts.

Nevertheless, the lead defense counsel main-tained that the chief justice will face all the charges against him.

“Maipagtatagumpay naming maipaliwanag iyan lahat,” he said.

Chief Justice Corona: The last witness

FARM WORKERS. Handout photo from UN’s World Food Programme shows North Korean co-operative workers preparing rice fields near Sariwon, North Hwanghae province.

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012 13

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“Politically, isa ra mi ka grupo. Personal decision na nila to corrupt themselves. Morally, I do not support them,” Sara told Edge Davao through text message earlier.

Duterte-Carpio said she personally knew of “these incidents” when she was still the vice mayor from 2008 to 2010.

“Naa gyud koy nahibaw-an. Lahat ng alam ko sinabi ko sa Ombudsman. But my testimony did not hold weight because it had to be consolidated with other tes-timonies,” she said.

The mayor said she knew there were investiga-tions made on alleged cor-rupt councilors but she has no knowledge as to what became of the investigations.

Asked whether these councilors would receive backing in the 2013 elec-tions from Duterte’s group Hugpong sa Tawong Lung-sod (Hugpong), the mayor

said the decision will not be hers alone.

“Since we’ve already filed a application to official-ly make Hugpong a political party, we’re just waiting for its approval. After that, when a Hugpong executive com-mittee is formed, then it will be the committee which will decide whether or not to give them (councilors) sup-port,” she said.

She added that Hug-pong’s executive committee will be talking to those coun-cilors personally.

“Storyahon gyud sila, face-to-face. They will per-sonally talk about it. And after that, kung ano man ang mapag-usapan, will be basis for a decision whether they’ll be part of the line-up or not,” she said.

Sources of corruption Vice Mayor Rodrigo

Duterte last May 15 said he has been “keeping track” of the Council’s resolutions on

requests for land reclassifi-cation as these have become “sources of corruption.”

Duterte said the City Council “should not be spared” from his scolding re-garding corrupt practices in local governance.

“Kahibalo ko, naa puy corruption sa City Council. Even before, and kanang mga reclassification, source na sa corruption. I am keep-ing track of the papers,” the vice mayor said during his TV show Ato ni Bai.

Duterte said city coun-cilors who deal in corrupt practices should “shape up” or risk exposure.

“People who deal in these resolutions will even-tually tell me. I know which councilor ang naga-binuang. You better shape up or I will talk again. Giingnan na tamo even before. Stop it now or you will receive a word from me or better yet panganlan tika publicly,” he said.

ATMs that dispend P1.7 billion a month, most of which are lo-cated in progressive communi-ties unserved or underserved by commercial banks.

Victor A. Consunji, ONB chairman said ONB has 1,200 employees in Mindanao with 560,000 depositors and 90,000 borrowers.

The ONB corporate build-ing, with a total area of about 9,670 square meters will serve as the nerve center in delivering to the countryside modern banking operations, he said.

Buenaventura said the building has two floors in-tended for the expansion of its head office upon its expan-sion in Luzon, which will be after expanding in Visayas five years from now.

ONB will tap business outsourcing companies as tenants of the two floors, each with 1,200 square meters

area, in the meantime.Lawyer Demetrio E. Ca-

sipong, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) regional direc-tor, said the new building, the growing number of branches and the bank’s increasing profitability are living mani-festations that ONB is well managed by competent and dedicated management with excellent corporate gover-nance.

“OMB is supported by stockholders, effective mar-keting strategy, using the ap-propriate tools and modern technology, and surely, with deep love and concern for stakeholders, consistent with the BSP’s mission of uplifting the lives of every Filipino,” he continued.

Stock swapThe widest rural banking

network in Mindanao, ONB signed a partnership agree-ment with Banko San Enrique

(RBSEI), a rural bank in Iloilo last April 21 in the form of a stock swap whereby every one share of stock of RBSEI will be exchanged with 2.43 shares of ONB’s stock.

They plan to merge RBSEI with ONB upon the approval by BSP within a year.

RBSEI has six branches in Iloilo, namely Iloilo City, Gui-maras, Passi, San Enrique and Gingle, plus one Business De-velopment Office in Iloilo City.

As merger incentive, five branches will be applied for subject to BSP’s approval, making a potential network of 11 branches over a period of two years.

As of March, ONB had a net worth of P2,565,400,286.69 in capital and P16,011,487,391.26 in assets.

RBSEI has a net worth of P9,843,800 in capital and P119,485,633.91 in assets.

historical and cultural heri-tage, economic and social structures, and other rel-evant characteristics within the framework of this Con-stitution and the national sovereignty as well as terri-torial integrity of the Repub-lic of the Philippines.”

Further, he said “the ba-sis of autonomy is democ-racy.”

“In the national poli-tics, there will always be a minority whose views and concerns cannot be always accommodated because they could never become a major-ity.

Thus, the only way to guarantee a level of democ-racy is allow them to govern in one region, but still re-main in the entire Republic of the Philippines,” Leonen said.

In her message, Deles underscored that the gov-ernment fully recognizes the concerns of the people, say-ing “that’s why we are here.

The panel conducts consul-tations in order to directly listen to the views of the public.”

On the same note, Le-onen said that the GPH panel “takes to heart the concerns” of the people and consider them on the negotiating table.

He said the panel has al-ready conducted more than 70 consultations.

During the forum, Fr. Bert Alejo of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University asked “what constitutes valid and sufficient consultations” in view of the peace process, taking into account the les-sons of the 2008 MOA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain) that was declared unconstitu-tional by the Supreme Court due to lack of public consul-tations.

It may be recalled that the aborted signing of the MOA-AD had triggered re-newed fighting between gov-

ernment forces and the MILF in some parts of Central Min-danao four years ago.

Leonen agreed that “suf-ficient consultations” should be clearly defined, adding that consultations are not only one set and not always a formal one.

He said “it may be a bit too legalistic” to qualify valid consultations while falling short of “looking behind its spirit.”

Leonen also said that “consultation means listen-ing earnestly, trying to un-derstand the points raised by various sectors, and re-flecting it as best as we can in order for persons making the political decision (from the different branches of government) to be properly informed.”

The GPH panel is set to conduct more consultations with key stakeholders before their next round of formal meeting with the MILF panel by the end of this month. (PNA)

to the actual cost of tuition and miscellaneous fees not exceed-ing P20,000 and a monthly sti-pend of P2,000.”

“The scholar may also opt to take a four- or five-year course, but must meet the scho-lastic requirements set by the school for student retention un-der the program,” he said.

The distribution of the

200 scholarships nationwide among the regions will be pro-portionate to the number of GSIS members in each region, he added.

Education assistanceMeanwhile, Manampan

said GSIS Davao region has so far received 20,000 applications for its P4,000 education assis-tance fund program (EAFP).

“So far, we have processed 5,000 applications, with still an-other 15,000 applications still

to be processed,” Manampan said.

“Release of the funds has not yet started. We are expect-ing na all GSIS members will be applying for the EAFP. Medyo matagal lang sa encoding. We do them manually pa kasi, we type-in the information on the applicant,” he added.

The EAFP is part of the na-tional government’s response to the incoming enrollment pe-riod for school year 2012-2013.

PRESIDENT Benigno S. Aquino III met with Iglesia ni Cristo’s Ex-

ecutive Minister Eduardo Manalo to “touch base” with the group which has supported the former since his days as senator.

Presidential Spokes-person Edwin Lacierda confirmed the meeting in a news conference Monday, only hours after the two met at the INC Central office in Quezon City.

Lacierda addressed doubts from some groups the meeting was primar-ily focused on the alleged lobbying of the INC for im-peached Chief Justice Rena-to Corona’s acquittal by the Senate Impeachment Court.

The presidential spokesman said the meet-ing was scheduled even before the Holy Week but their respective schedules did not permit a meeting until Monday.

Lacierda said: “Today, we confirm that the Presi-dent met with Ka Eduardo of the Iglesia ni Cristo this morning. Their meeting has been previously scheduled, in fact before holy week

pa… there was already a planned meeting with Ka Eduardo, unfortunately the schedule of the President and the schedule of Ka Edu-ardo could not jibe then.

“It was only today that they were able to find a common schedule.”

Lacierda added: “The purpose of the President’s meeting was to touch base with Ka Eduardo and the Iglesia ni Cristo.

‘THE VERDICT in this trial rests primarily on determining whether these dollar accounts exist.’

--Sen. Francis Pangilinan

Quips

Palace confirms PNoy’s meeting with INC leader

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 201214 SPORTS EDGEDAVAO

By Neil Bravo

JUN Rey Navara of South Cotabato rode trouble-free and coasted to an

easy victory in the Cross Country race of the Davao Summer Games National Open Mountain Bike Chal-lenge on Sunday.

The 19-year old Navara, a native of Tupi, broke away from the main pack right entering the rough trails midway through the race then attacked relent-lessly to cross the finish all by himself in one hour 11.25 seconds.

“Masaya ako na nanalo dito, mahirap kasi maram-ing malakas. Pinagsikapan

ko lang talaga,” said the red-thin Navara shortly after the race. He won P15,000 for his feat.

Navara left a good dis-tance between him and second placer Vicente Vic-mar who checked in one minute later while Jayrald Daraydo came in third in the premier Open Elite class of the race organized by the BONE Mountain Bike Club Davao and sup-ported by the Duaw Davao Festival Foundation, chief organizer of the Davao Summerfest 2012.

Vicmar took home P10,000 while Daraydo settled for P5,000.

The cross country race,

covering a distance of 33 ki-lometers in an out and back course from Maa’s Team Davao Shooting Range, is one of the events of the Davao Summer Games, the competition phase of the Davao Summerfest.

In the Juniors division, Roel Quitoy bested rivals Nhoe Baldomero and Leo Jade Lopez to pocket the title in the under-19 cat-egory while Danny Tapao beat Romilito Villarubia and Jojo Genonsalo for the Veterans division title. In the Masters 1 category, vet-eran Glen Yap took the top prize followed by another veteran Ruel Casaljay and Joel Rojo while Alberto Al-

feche won the Masters 2 crown over Ronelo Ablanda and Ernesto Sagarino.

The winners in the Fun Ride (non-competitive) are Arnold Simple for Fun Ride A, Reneboy Tigtig for Fun Ride B, Ariel Jamisola for Fun Ride C, and Nick Canque for Fun Ride D.

Earlier last Saturday, national team riders JR Bar-ba and Joey Barba ruled the Downhill competition of the two-day Davao bikefest backed up by Davao Light and Power Company, Inter-national Pharmaceuticals Inc., SM City Davao, AMA Computer College Davao, H2Zero Mineral Water and Nature Spring Water.

South Cot rider wins XC race

QINHUANGDAO, China – Josie Gabuco played deaf to the lusty and

thunderous cheers of the hometown crowd for her opponent Xu Shiqi to fi-nally upend her Finals foe in the AIBA Women’s World Championships at the Olympic Sports Center here.

It took some doing, all 4 rounds, before Gabuco could pull off a squeaker, 10-9 at the end of the bout. The first three rounds went to Xu, 1-2, 3-5 and 7-8.

“It was like fighting thousands of opponents”, acknowledged in the ver-nacular by the 25 year-old single mother of a 5-year-old boy. “The crowd defi-nitely got to me at first, so I was very cautious and tried to come up with an antidote to my shifty opponent.”

Xu was also wily, tying up the Puerto Princesa box-er several times and then dropping to the canvass as if she was wrestled down. The lady Hungarian referee, however, was wise to the antic and issued a warning against the Chinese boxer

in the 3rd round.Gabuco then started

cutting off the exit points of her opponent, allowing her to deliver some damaging straights to the head and uppercuts to the side of her opponent’s body.

The fourth round found the Chinese constantly backtracking but getting cornered and hit, thus con-vincing 4 of the 5 judges to give the nod to Gabuco. The fifth saw the round even.

Team manager Kar-ina Picson was in tears when the decision was an-nounced.

“No one deserves it more. Josie worked long and hard despite personal tribulations, including the sudden loss of her mother last year after a brief strug-gle with cancer. She was unlucky in the Asian Cham-pionships in Mongolia last March but rebounded with a vengeance here”, said the AIBA international techni-cal official and Asian Wom-en’s Commission member.

ABAP president Ricky Vargas was likewise eu-phoric:

Pinay boxer wins gold

COME FLY WITH ME. Davao’s Dave Unlay is shown here in a sequence of shots taken by John Tomesa of BONE Mountain Bike Club Davao during the Downhill Race of the Davao Summer Games National Mountain Bike Challenge at the Devil’s Trail in Maa. Unlay won the Masters title. Lower photo shows Onying Parenas negotiating a drop while open elite champion JR Barba (below) goes down the single trail.

BLAST. Jong Tan watch-es his chip shot from the fringe during the 7th Pomelo Tee golf tour-nament at the Rancho Palos Verdes golf and country club. (BOY LIM)

WHO would have known that one can find heaven in a 760-hectare banana plantation? And that heaven is called the Hijo Estate Resorts. Hijo Estate Resorts is a mixed-use tourist development that caters to leisure, cultur-al, and adventure travelers alike, thanks to its diverse offerings all of which I was able to explore last week. What used to be known as Hijo Plantation, Hijo Es-tate Resorts includes a his-toric and still-functioning banana plantation within its property, and is the only one in Davao that offers banana plantation tours that show the public how bananas are propagated, raised, harvest-ed, and packed for export to markets all over the world. But enough about ba-nanas! Arriving at the Hijo Es-tate Resorts, one is greeted with cold scented towels at the Lanikai Heritage House. What used to be the origi-nal plantation home is now transformed into a charm-ing bed and breakfast with its ground floor serving as a dining room and art gal-lery featuring artworks by Davao’s Kublai Milan. Hijo Resources Corpo-ration’s Chief Executive Of-ficer Rosanna T. Forés said that she grew up within the plantation and every chance she can return to ex-perience the resort’s many charms she will take it. “There are many activities the resort can offer and are

truly unique experiences that can be found no where else,” she said while person-ally touring our group. A short drive away is Banana Beach, a 4-km long beach with facilities like an infinity pool, gar-den huts, and a beachside restaurant that serves local cuisine. The more adven-turous might want to go on a jungle safari and ex-plore the estate’s secondary growth forest with its own canopy walk, jungle trails, and matching wildlife resi-dents. Those wanting to enjoy some peace and quiet can try their luck catching talakitok, bangus, and the occasional wild barracuda at the resort’s fishinag spot. I love the river cruise going back to Lanikai, that was both relaxing and an adventure. It was also nice to see a clean river with a thick growth of hundred-year-old mangrove trees flanking both sides of its banks. I only wish I could go back and explore the 4.5-km stretch of it in a kayak. But I guess that gives me more reasons to come back to Hijo and to find my piece of Heaven.

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012

EDGEDAVAOTRAVEL

Heaven found in Davao

The idylic fishing spot.

Hijo Resources Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer Rosanna T. Forés giving a personal guided tour. Just some of the locals in the jungle.

The scene at the front lawn of the Lanikai Heritage House.

INdulge!

ENTERTAINMENTEVENTS

A2 INdulge! EDGEDAVAO

ZION Accuprint Publishing Inc., a relatively new play-

er in the printing-pub-lishing industry, turned five years old this month. It had a sapphire anniver-sary bash in a joint cele-bration with Edge Davao, its sister company, which was launched formally as a daily, in cocktails held at the Lotus Court and Jade 2 of Marco Polo Davao, Thursday night. The par-ty was attended by some 150 guests composed of Davao region’s top busi-ness leaders, profession-als, government leaders, media practitioners and top players of the printing business, who are mem-ber of the PIADI (Print-ing Industry Association of Davao Inc.) Multi-Pur-pose Cooperative.

Ms Cheeree “Buga” Pajarillaga, administrative assistant, and Zaldy Boy

Nemenzo, press operator, were bestowed awards for their loyalty as pioneer-ing workers of Zion from the time it only had five personnel, including the owners. The duo received Sapphire certificates and wristwatches.

Zion which has a computer-to-plate press, a state-of-the-art equip-ment, is capable of print-ing books, labels, post-ers, stickers, brochures, leaplets, magazines, news-papers and calendars.

As part of the fun, gift

certificates were raffled off to those who attend-ed the twin events. The winners included former Vice Mayor Louie Bon-guyan, Joe Custodio of JB Custodio and Sons, Joel Nacito of Equibrium In-tertrade, Catherine Bella of Insular Waterfront, Juan “Jonjon” Ramirez of Cortess Printing Press and Val Dionisio of Mo-tormall Davao.

The gift certificates were for Marco Polo Davao (overnight stay with breakfast for two), Pearlfarm (overnight stay with breakfast for two) and Microtel Hotel (over-night stay with breakfast for two).

Zion observes Sapphire yearn Employees Zaldy

and Buga get loy-alty awards

CHEERS! The Zion-Edge celebration gathered media practioners from other outfits. In picture (L-R) Leandro Daval Sr., Ramon Maxey, Jade Zadivar, Neil Bravo, Charles Maxey and Elmer Kintanar.

Diretor of sales Jocelyn Panes, Editor-in-chief Antonio M. Ajero and general manager Olivia D. Velasco give the Loyalty Award to Zaldy Boy Nemenzo.

Elena Botoy and Gilbert Daro of RG Magazines

The admin and marketing staff with GM Velasco Nicolai Miagan, Uean Bacsal and Miggy Pajarillaga

Marvin M. Cruz of AdDU

Engr. Bert Barrigaof ICT Davao

Aurelio Peña and Antonio M. AjeroJocelyn Panes, Imelda Lee and Lani Maratas

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012EDGEDAVAO A3INdulge!

Zion observes Sapphire year

Cheree Pajarillaga receives the Loyalty Award from Mr Ajero and Ms Velasco.

Light moment with Mr. Ajero

Dr. Lourdes C. Camintoy of PWC

Editorial Team (from left) Karlos Manlupig, Lorie Cascaro, Greg Deligero, Jade Zaldivar, and Carlo Mallo.

Editorial ConsultantRam Maxey The Zion and Edge Davao production staff

IN celebration of The Travel Club’s 20th Anniversary, they have brought back Mad About Travel; a series of events that focuses on travelling for lei-sure, fitness, and re-laxation. Mad About Travel happened at Abreeza Mall from May 18 to 20 which was preceded by the TriNoma leg during the 16 to the 18th and will be followed by the Ayala Center Cebu (July 20 to 22) and Glorietta (Octo-ber 12 to 14) legs. Mad About Travel is a one-stop-shop of sorts; an exhibit as well as a retail display of all the best trav-el products and services in the country. This gave the Travel Club’s patrons more access to discounted products which includ-ed lines from Travelon, Delsey, Hedgren, Slen-dertone, Backjoy, FitFlop, JanSport, Victorinox, Hedgren, The North Face, and Healthy Back Bag to

name a few. Some of the other companies present during the exhibit were Bellarocca, El Nido, Trav-elife Magazine, Filman Travel, Planet Infinity, Philippine Airlines, Pearl Farm, and Waterfront Insular Hotel who all gave away exciting prizes through raffles during the three-day affair. Aside from the three day exhibit, Mad About Travel also hosted several talks about the best travel destinations, flight and accommodation news and trends, travel agency tips, and travel in general. To provide more infor-

mation for their patrons, helpful travel tips were also scattered throughout the exhibit area. The Travel Club Plati-num Mastercard, a prod-uct of the partnership between Allied Bank and The Primer Group, was also launched during the exhibit in celebration of The Travel Club’s 20th Anniversary. The card guarantees the holder dis-counts to Primer products, Mabuhay miles mileage points, a 0% instalment payment option, rebates, free purchase protection insurance, and free travel insurance.

A4 INdulge! VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012EDGEDAVAO

Mad About Travel at the Abreeza Mall

ENTERTAINMENTEVENTS

The iconic oversized JanSport bag made an appearance at the event, much to the delight of backpack enthusiasts A display of some of the best selling pieces of lugage at discounted prices

The Travel Club Platinum Mastercard

The expansive exhibit area at the Abreea Mall.

Helpful tips were scattered throughout the venue

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

LOS ANGELES -- The San Antonio Spurs mowed down an-

other opponent, using their guile under pres-sure to close out another perfect playoff series.

Tim Duncan scored 21 points, Tony Parker added 17 and the Spurs beat the Los Angeles Clippers 102-99 on Sun-day night to win their second-round matchup 4-0 and advance to the Western Conference fi-nals.

‘’They played great, they made it tough on us,’’ Parker said. ‘’The last 2 minutes we got the stops we needed. Every-body did something.’’

The Spurs extended their winning streak to 18 games and their play-off record to 8-0, tying the third-best postsea-son streak in franchise history.

‘’Until we go all the way, I can’t compare this team,’’ said Parker, who has won three NBA titles with the Spurs. ‘’We’re just trying to stay fo-cused.’’

Danny Green and Gary Neal added 14 points each, and Manu Ginobili and Thiago Splitter had 11 each.

‘’We needed a game like that. It arrived at the perfect time,’’ Parker said. ‘’We battled. We ex-ecuted our plays, made big baskets.’’

San Antonio could find out as soon as Mon-day night who it will play next. Oklahoma City leads the Lakers 3-1 in their series, with Game 5 on Monday.

‘’We haven’t done any-thing yet. We’ve won two rounds,’’ Duncan said. ‘’We haven’t done any-thing so you can’t qualify or classify our team as anything other than that we’ve gotten this far.’’

The Spurs trailed much of the fourth un-til tying the game twice in the final 3:32 before their 30-something trio of Duncan, Parker and Gi-nobili took over most of the scoring.

‘’Their experience showed with their execu-tion,’’ Clippers coach Vin-ny Del Negro. ‘’Tim looks great and the rest of the guys are feeding off that.’’

Hunger GamesSpurs clinch West Finals

INDIANAPOLIS -- The coveted NBA champion-ship, the one LeBron

James needs to validate everything, was vanishing.

With 18,000 towel-wav-ing fans roaring like the en-gines at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indiana Pac-ers had knocked the Miami

Heat to the floor and to the edge of elimination.

James didn’t panic. He simply picked up his team-mates and carried them to a win.

And this time, Dwyane Wade helped.

James scored 40 points with 18 rebounds and nine

assists, and Wade added 30 points - 22 in the sec-ond half - as Miami rallied to even their semifinal se-ries against Indiana with a 101-93 win on Sunday over the Pacers, who had the de-fending Eastern Conference champions down couldn’t keep them there.

Miami levels series

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers trudged off the Staples Center

floor late Saturday, a single loss now separating them from season’s end, another fourth-quarter collapse once again causing their undo-ing. They didn’t show much poise in the locker room, ei-ther, with Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum pointing blame at others for allowing the Oklahoma City Thunder to steal their second victory in three games.

Bryant missed eight of his 10 shots in the final quarter, but shrugged off his struggles by saying his teammates’ lack of aggres-siveness “forced” him to take tough shots. He also left no question which teammate deserved the most blame for the 103-100 loss in Game 4.

Pau Gasol. Bryant faulted Gasol

for not playing aggressive enough. It was also Gasol’s turnover that led to Kevin Durant making the winning 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds

left. “Pau’s got to be more as-

sertive,” Bryant said. “He’s the guy they’re leaving [open]. When he’s catching the ball, he’s looking to pass. He’s got to be aggressive. He’s got to shoot the ball or drive the ball to the basket. He will be next game.”

Bryant has periodi-cally targeted Gasol with his public criticism, hoping to motivate him to lift his performance. But with the Lakers now down 3-1 in the series and facing Game 5 on Monday in Oklahoma City, Bryant’s patience has been exhausted. Gasol’s inconsis-tency has been a problem for the Lakers throughout the season, and he never seemed to recover after the team tried to trade him in December to the Houston Rockets in a deal with the New Orleans Hornets for Chris Paul. NBA commis-sioner David Stern blocked the trade, and Gasol has ad-mitted his tenuous status with the franchise has both-

ered him. Gasol totaled just 10

points and five rebounds in Game 4. Most recently, Bry-ant criticized both Gasol and Andrew Bynum after a list-less performance in a Game 6 loss to the Denver Nuggets in the first round. Gasol re-sponded with 23 points and 17 rebounds in the Lakers’ clinching Game 7 victory.

After a dominant first half by Andrew Bynum on Saturday, the Thunder began fronting the Lakers’ center with Kendrick Perkins. Bry-ant thought Gasol didn’t at-tack enough when Serge Iba-ka left him to help Perkins.

“He’s looking to swing the ball too much,” Bryant said. “He’s got to take his shot.”

That was the case on the game’s most critical posses-sion. After a steal by Steve Blake, Gasol tried to pass to Metta World Peace only to have Durant knock the ball away with 33.9 seconds left. Durant followed with the 3-pointer.

Kobe blames Pau

Tim Duncan and Danny Green of the San Antonio Spurs celebrate late in the fourth quarter while taking on the Los Angeles Clippers in Game Four of the Western Conference Semifinals in the 2012 NBA Playoffs on Monday at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Califor-nia. (right) Lebron James and Dwyane Wade in a tight embrace after levelling the series with Indiana while Blake Griffin (below) drops in frustration after the Clippers were sent to the exits by the San Antonio Spurs.

VOL.5 ISSUE 56 • MAY 22, 2012SPORTS16 EDGEDAVAO