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Edge Davao 6 Issue 243, February 25, 2014
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DAVAO City Mayor Ro-drigo R. Duterte said the entry of high-
grade shabu will now be the priority of the law-enforcers’ efforts in the war against the illicit drug trade.
Mayor Duterte made the statement in the wake of the big drug bust Friday in barangay Ilang which re-sulted in the killing of seven people and the arrest of 33 suspects, including a South Korean.
A large combined team of some 300 operatives from the Davao City Police Office (DCPO), Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Criminal In-vestigation and Detection Group (CDIG), backed by el-ements of the Maritime Po-lice, entered undetected the community made up mostly by houses on stilts, but when the lawmen started to serve 26 warrants of arrest for cer-tain personalities, they were reportedly met with armed resistance, prompting the enforcers to fire back.
The enforcers were led by no less than DCPO chief Sr. Supt. Vicente Danao, PDEA Regional Director Emerson Rosales and CIDG head Sr. Supt. Joel Pernito. The troops did not know where they were going until jump-off time.
Danao said it was verbo-ten for participating lawmen to be holding cellular phones during the operation.
He said the success-ful raid was the result of a long time of work starting during the time of former DCPO chief Sr. Supt. Ronald dela Rosa who conducted a series of Operation TokHa-ng, which were community dialogues to appeal to drug pushers and users to turn a leaf in life and abandon their illegal activity.
Danao said the opera-tion initially included the assignment of undercov-er operatives to live in the community to gather inside information about the drug trade. He said the big op-
By ANTONIO M. AJERO
P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
EDGE Serving a seamless society
DAVAO
FNEXT, 10
NEXT: HIGH GRADE SHABU Rody eyes drugs in smuggled rice
COMPETITION. A participant of Ciudades’ Kite-Flying Festival 2014 in Mandug Road, Davao City held over the weekend tries to outdo other competitors in the kite-flying competition. Lean Daval Jr.
Fstory on page 6PEOPLE POWER @ 28
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 20142
WEATHER FORECAST
EDGEDAVAO
THE BIG NEWS
FLEXIBILITY. A young girl shows off her flexibility while taking photographs of her brother and his peers during a press conference held at a restaurant along J.P. Laurel Avenue in Davao City. Lean Daval Jr.
OPPORTUNITIES. Job-seekers queue at the Philippine Employment Service Office (Peso) job fair held at the City Hall in Davao City last Friday. Lean Daval Jr.
FORMER president of the Davao Travel Agencies Association
(DTAA) Pia Montano is pushing for stricter regu-lations on the putting up of travel agencies in Davao City.
Montano warned Dabawenyos against bogus travel agencies selling trav-el packages online.
Montano said that there are only 150 regis-tered and licensed travel agencies in Davao City and over 400 that are not reg-istered.
“Selling online is easier and mas mura, but there’s a risk na maloko ka. So kung pwede nga to advise the public na when you do transactions, especially big transactions on online ticketing, make sure that the agency is licensed,” she said.
Montano, speaking in yesterday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City An-nex, said that they have received numerous com-plaints about fake tour packages which include hotel accommodations,
land tours, and plane tick-ets.
She said that most of these bogus travel agen-cies exploit the online tick-eting system, adding that most of these don’t have a physical office and are just working at home.
“We see a lot of people selling packages online and, because they don’t of-fices, they meet clients in coffee shops to receive the money,” she said. “We are talking about transactions in the hundreds of thou-sands here.”
Arnold King, current president of DTAA, said there’s a need for a law that will strictly regulate the process of putting up a travel agency, adding that there is no penalty for this.
“Minsan kasi walang declaration of initial capi-tal and san yung office nila kasi minsan sa bahay lang.”
Montano said that bo-gus transactions can qual-ify as estafa cases but they want the law to be more specific as it affects the booming industry of tour-ism.
Samuel Abrenilla, award-winning in-ventor and former
president of Mindanao In-ventors Association urges farmers and processors of cacao beans to incorporate technological inputs, like Moxtrak in cacao beans processing.
Abrenilla said during the Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Annex yesterday that the demand for cacao is growing. The Philippines imports 50,000 metric tons of cacao beans from Gha-na, Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other cacao exporting countries every year while only 10,000 met-ric tons are produced here and supplied to the local market.
Based on cacao indus-try reports, the total yield in the city reaches 2 tons but added that there are re-
ports that the city can only produce 500 kilos.
Given the big market for cacao not only in the coun-try but also worldwide, Abrenilla endorsed the us-age of Moxtrak, a dehydrat-ing machine that is capable of producing quality dried and fermented cacao beans.
He found out that it is more efficient to use Mox-tak compared to solar me-chanical driers provided by companies which part-nered with the Department of Trade and Industry.
In a test conducted by Abrenilla and the Feder-ation of Cooperatives in Mindanao, compared to traditional drying meth-ods which would take 4 to 5 days, Moxtrak can dry the beans by removing the moisture content in just 8 hours.
THE investigating panel formed by the Davao City local government
has to come out with a report on the P1.1 billion uncollect-ed real property tax.
A source who refused to be named for lack of authori-ty told EDGE Davao that law-yer Marlisa Gallo of the city legal office, and head of the panel, will submit a report to city administrator J. Melchor Quitain.
The source said that the panel already sorted out the glitches in the database of assessments as per order of Quitain, but the latter did not give any detail on it.
Earlier, Quitain said that the panel was formed to
cleanse the record on assess-ments addressing uncollect-ed real property taxes. He said that the panel is given up to March 10 to complete the process.
Quitain said he was prompted to form the pan-el after a report from a local newspaper that the city trea-surer’s office has had a hard time collecting taxes due to glitches in the database.
The city administrator said that there is a need to cleanse the record because there are double entries that have been recorded in the database, citing examples where sometimes there are two tax declarations cover-
Beware of bogustravel agencies
By CHENEEN R. CAPON
Inventor endorses Moxtrakfor faster cacao bean drying
REAL PROPERTY Gov’t panel to reporton uncollected taxesBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
FREAL, 10
FINVENTOR, 10
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014EDGEDAVAO 3
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 20144 NEWS
FERRY SERVICE. Commuters, composed mostly of students, from the Slum Improvement Resettlement (S.I.R.) area in Matina, Davao City wait for the passenger banca to dock at a boat terminal near Magallanes Street yesterday. Some sectors are proposing for the development of Bankerohan River ferry service as one of the solutions to the traffic problem of the city. Lean Daval Jr.
PROTEST. A transport group member flutters a flag at San Pedro Street in Davao City Friday afternoon where different progressive organizations converged to stage a protest rally against the government for failing to stop oil price hikes. Lean Daval Jr.
THE Davao City council is still re-viewing the pro-
posal of Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte to remove or amend the ordinances which are no longer applicable in the city.
City Councilor Tomas J. Monteverde IV, chair-man of the committee on rules, privileges, laws and ordinances, told Edge Davao that his committee has been reviewing about 500 ordinances.
“In due time I will call a committee hearing and invite every stake
holder to discuss the old ordinances that need to be amended,” said Mon-teverde.
He cited as example the ordinance on the PTA grounds board which was passed to manage activ-ities in the facility which is now not applicable be-cause the place was con-verted into what is now the People’s Park.
Monteverde said that most of the ordinances which passed by past city councils will not need to be amended because they are already superseded
THE growing de-mand for quality yet affordable smart
phones in Mindanao led mobile device manufac-turer Gionee Communica-tion Equipment Co. Ltd, a China-based company, to open its first-ever concept store in the country in Davao City last Saturday.
The new Gionee Con-cept Store is located on the third level, Spazio of Gaisano Mall Davao.
The company part-nered with Banana Tele-coms Inc., a Davao City- based telecom firm head-
ed by Wilson Lu. He is also the president and chief executive officer of Wiltel-com, one of the biggest mobile stores in Mindan-ao.
With former Davao City Mayor Sara “Inday” Duterte as the product ambassadress, the con-cept store aims to solidify its presence not only in Davao but also in Mind-anao by showcasing high-end and superior yet af-fordable smart phones, devices and other acces-sories.
Offering quality but user-friendly smart phone units, Gionee offers sleek, stylish but very wallet and pocket friendly devices. This will encourage more Dabawenyos to resort to smart phones and connect to their loved ones either by online or simple call and text 24/7.
Despite the hesitance of many Filipino consum-
DAVAO City Mayor Ro-drigo R. Duterte has issued an order to
regulate the selling of sec-ond hand or surplus vehi-cles in the city.
Duterte signed Execu-tive Order (EO) No. 14 of 2014, -- “An Order Directing All Importers, Distributors, Sellers and Agents of Sell-ers of Second Hand And or Surplus Vehicles within the Territory of Davao City to Strictly Comply with and Adhere to, the Provisions Of RA 6539 (An Act Prevent-ing and Penalizing Carnap-ping), PD 1612 (Anit-Fenc-ing) and Other Pertinent Laws on the Matter and Imposing Administrative Sanctions Against Viola-tors.”
The EO was issued due to numerous complaints
reaching the mayor’s office that there has been a prolif-eration in the sale of stolen vehicles, including those with dubious registration documents, by unscrupu-lous business establish-ments in the city.
“This illegal activity should be suppressed, be-cause it undermines the flourishing local trade and economic boom brought about by the sound and ef-fective fiscal incentives and policies of the local govern-ment,” stated the EO.
The EO further states that all entrepreneurs en-gaged in importing, buying and selling and displaying for sale in behalf of third parties, second hand motor vehicles, including repair shop owners within the city
‘It’s time to remove, amend all inapplicable ordinances’ By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
NEWCOMER GIONEE
VM PULONG
New phone conceptstore opens in Davao
By CHENEEN R. CAPON
Rody issues EO No. 14on 2nd-hand vehiclesBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
F’IT’S, 10 FNEWCOMER, 10
FRODY, 10
SARA DUTERTE
FIGHTING for freedom with courage is not an easy thing to do, but
with collaborative effort everything is possible.
“When you are fighting for something, you need to appear courageous, so that the people with you will feel the same,” Sylvestre Bello III, partylist repre-sentative said.
Bello was at the fore-front of the Yellow Friday Movement of Davao and the series of “welgang bayan” which helped fan the February EDSA Revo-lution that catapulted Cory Aquino to Malacañang and political power.
The movement was in-strumental in the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship, restoration of freedom and democracy in the country.
The movement was born out of a need to con-front injustices spawned
by the dictatorship. Its main financer/ supporter was the late industrialist, lawyer Jesus “Chito” V. Aya-la (JVA).
Bello, now in his early 70’s, has no regrets about fighting for the restoration of democracy, a hard-earned reward for every-one in the movement who enjoyed the privilege of do-ing his/her bit for the Fili-pino nation as a whole.
In his younger years, he used to walk the streets of Davao City together with other like-minded Dabawenyos who detest-ed martial law and craved for the return of freedom and justice. The “welgang bayan” usually paralyzed transportation for up to three days, things would be back to normal again. After all drivers and their fami-lies had to eat, but they had made a statement that was
not lost to the dictatorship.The Yellow Friday
movement took the form of a march from Magsay-say Park through the main thoroughfares and culmi-nated at Rizal Park. The thousands of marchers in yellow shirts were show-ered with confetti dropped from high-rise buildings along the way as Marcos’ military minions were spotted watching sullenly and taking photos of the marchers and the crowds that lined the streets.
Among the marchers were prominent people who dared show where their sympathy lay against all odds—among them the venerable Nanay Sol-ing (Soledad Roa Dute-rte) mother of assistant city prosecutor Rodrigo R. Duterte who, in time would himself be catapulted to where he is today, Mayor
of Davao City and its 1.3 million people. But that’s another story.
Conspicuous among the marchers were members of the Metro Davao Press Club led by Ram Maxey, Jun Gutierrez, Joe JV Velasco, Mariano Mallare, Jun Bar-ing, Jun Gonzales, Manny Cabrera, to name a few, who all longed for the return of freedom of the press and expression.
The Yellow Friday move-ment was in protest to the assassination of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino in 1983 and came about long before the Edsa Revolution of 1986. Today there remains hard-ly any trace of the Yellow Friday movement except in the hearts of those still alive who at the time dared to defy the martial law regime of the dictatorship. Partyl-ist representative Sylvestre “Bebot” Bello among them.
Yellow Friday rallies [email protected]
By CHENEEN R. CAPON
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
TEN months from now, the Philip-pines, along with
nine other countries will be integrated into one Asean Economic Com-munity.
Along with free trade among member coun-tries, the integration will promote and facilitate the exchanging of skilled and professional labor-ers.
Lawyer Josephus B. Jimenez, president of the People Management Association of the Phil-ippines (PMAP) said that among the professions that are most ready for the integration are the engineers and accoun-tants.
Accounting and engi-neering sectors, accord-ing to Jimenez, will bene-fit from the integration of Philippines, Laos, Thai-land, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei- Darussalam, Myanmar, Singapore, In-donesia, and Cambodia.
He said during the 450th General Member-ship Meeting of PMAP-Davao Chapter at the Apo View Hotel recently that the two professions are the expertise of the Phil-ippines.
Aside from account-ing and engineering sec-tors, the service sector is also considered as one of
the areas where opportu-nities will pour in.
The integration is also expected to facilitate the influx of tourist arriv-als among the participat-ing countries.
“Dyan magaling ang mga Pilipino,” he said, adding that the service sector of the Philippines is one of the most com-petitive in the Asean re-gion.
Jimenez said that next to service sector is the journalism, saying that the integration of-fers more opportunities to media practitioners, event organizers as there will be more trade expo-sitions, fairs, meetings, conferences and exhibit.
“This is an opportu-nity for Filipinos because we are highly resilient and passionate,” Jimenez
said.On the same event,
the set of new officials for PMAP-Davao chap-ter were inducted. The chapter president is Eliz-abeth P. Uy from Viscaya Plantation Inc.; Reynaldo V. Garote from San Pedro College (vice president); Baby Theress D. Castaños of Davao Medical School Foundation (secretary); Jeralyn P. Alderite from
King Cooperative (audi-tor); Ruby May B. Panun-cialman, Sr. from Work Experts & Allied Services (HRLDC director).
The board of di-rectors are Ricarte L. Mamparo (C-One Trad-ing), Eloisa E. Segarra (Apex Mining Company), Myrna S. Viado (Univer-sity of Mindanao), and Marites N. Zaballero (NCCC).
5Stat Watch
MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2011-September 2013)
Month 2013 2012 2011
Average 42.23 43.31December 41.01 43.64November 41.12 43.27October 41.45 43.45
September 43.83 41.75 43.02August 43.86 42.04 42.42
July 43.35 41.91 42.81June 42.91 42.78 43.37May 41.30 42.85 43.13April 41.14 42.70 43.24
March 40.71 42.86 43.52February 40.67 42.66 43.70January 40.73 43.62 44.17
7.1 1st Qtr 2013
7.8 1st Qtr 2013
USD 3,741 million
Feb 2013USD 4,708
million Feb 2013USD -967
million Feb 2013USD -640
millionDec 2012
P 4,964,560 million
Feb 2013
2.4 % Mar 2013P113,609
million Mar 2013
P 5,281 billion
Mar 2013
P 41.14 Apr 2013
6,847.5 Mar 2013
132.8 Apr 2013
2.6 Apr 2013
3.1 Apr 2013
418,108 Feb 2013
20.9% Jan 2013
7.1% Jan 2013
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 12:30Cebu Pacific Thu 5J965 / 5J968 12:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 13:25
Cebu Pacific Tue/Wed//Sat 5J965 / 5J968 13:35 Manila-Davao-Manila 14:05Silk Air Mon/Sat MI588 / MI588 13:35 Davao-Singapore 18:55 Silk Air Wed/Sun MI566 / MI566 15:20 Davao-Singapore 18:55Silk Air Thurs MI551 / MI551 12:05 Davao-Singapore 15:45Cebu 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 16:45
as of May 2013
Indicator Latest
1. Gross National Income Growth Rate (At Constant 2000 Prices)
6.8 2nd Qtr 2013
2. Gross Domestic Product Growth Rate (At Constant 2000 Prices)
7.5 2nd Qtr 2013
3. Exports USD 5,045 million
Sep 2013
4. Imports USD 5,711 million
Sep 2013
5. Trade BalanceUSD -665
million Sep 2013
6. Balance of Payments USD 692
million Jun 2013
7. Broad Money LiabilitiesP 5,980,938 million
Aug 2013
8. Interest Rate 2.0 % Sep 2013
9. National Government Revenues
P 127,336 million
Sep 2013
10. National government outstanding debt
P 5,609 billion
Sep 2013
11. Peso per US $
P 43.83 Sep 2013
12. Stocks Composite Index
6,191.8 Sep 2013
13. Consumer Price Index 2006=100
135.2 Oct 2013
14. Headline Inflation Rate 2006=100
2.9 Oct 2013
15. Core Inflation Rate 2006=100
2.5 Oct 2013
16. Visitor Arrivals 382,022 Aug 2013
17. Underemploymen Rate
19.2% Jul 2013
18. Unemployment Rate 7.3% Jul 2013
THE ECONOMY
Accounting, engineering sectorsmost ready for Asean integration
By CHENEEN R. CAPON
INBOUND. Laborers unload bags of cement shipped in from Cebu City at the Sta. Ana Wharf, Davao City. [MindaNews Photo by Keith Bacongco]
THE Philippine Contractors Ac-creditation Board
(PCAB) here has called on contractors to renew their licenses soonest to avoid rush, delay, and penalties.
At the start of Febru-ary, PCAB, an attached agency of the Depart-ment of Trade and In-dustry (DTI), has already been accepting renewal applications for the fis-cal year 2014-2015.
Based on schedule, contractors holding li-
censes ending in 0-1 must file their applica-tion by February; 2-3 by March; 4-5 by April; 6-7 by May; and 8-9 by June, including new applica-tions approved from Jan-uary to June this year.
However, despite the designated schedule, it has been observed that most of the licensed con-tractors don’t follow it.
With this scenar-io, DTI-Davao Offi-cer-in-Charge Ma. Belen-da Q. Ambi said the Board has issued Res-
olution No. 408 series of 2013 “Enjoining all contractors to file their applications for license renewal on schedule filing months and pro-viding for an additional processing fee (APF) for non-compliance there-with starting CFY 2014-2015.
The said resolution spells out that failure to file renewal within the designated schedule shall be assessed the payment of P5,000 APF and P5,000 additional
license fee (ALF), if re-newal application is filed after June 30.
Meanwhile, PCAB-Davao is encouraging all unlicensed contractors, subcontractors, and spe-cialty contractors to first secure a license from its office before engaging or attempting into any construction activities to avoid sanctions.
Ambi said measures are being envisioned by PCAB and the Construc-tion Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP)
against unlicensed con-tractors as well as proj-ect owners involved in the services of unli-censed contractors.
For inquiries, Ambi encouraged those con-cerned to reach the PCAB-Davao staff, Mr. Alex G. Domingo, at (082) 224-0511 local 417. They may also vis-it its office at 4/F Min-trade Realty Building, Monteverde Avenue corner Sales Street, Davao City. [DTI 11/Jen Mendoza]
PCAB calls on contractors to renew license
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
THOSE WERE the days of living dan-gerously in Davao
and elsewhere in the coun-try. Manila was exploding into what we call now the “EDSA People Power Revo-lution.”
As a photojournalist working for Sipa Press, one of the world’s biggest news photo agencies based in Paris, I was caught flatfoot-ed in Davao trying to figure out how to go to Manila on February 23, 1986, the day when all flights were banned as anti-Marcos mil-itary rebels led by General Fidel Ramos, joined in later by Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, turned Camp Crame into a rebel fortress surrounded by millions of Filipino people.
Lugging my heavy camera bag with all my Nikons, I was at the Davao airport begging desper-ately for any available seat on the Philippine Airlines from this southern city at around seven p.m., show-ing the airport manager my foreign press accredi-tation card and a pleading face that gave me the only available seat on that “last plane” out of Davao
There were talks around the plane’s cabin that rebel planes led by Gringo Honasan were fly-ing that night around Ma-nila’s skies on a lookout for planes carrying Marcos’ family fleeing the nation’s capital, so that added to our worries as the PAL plane flew above the night skies on the way to a met-
ropolitan city with millions of people out in the streets revolting against the Presi-dent of the country.
The plane’s passengers all sighed in relief when the cabin attendants and stewardesses walked along the aisle of the plane, all smiling, with their hands making the “V” sign of Cory Aquno.
That’s when we no-ticed the front pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer pasted all over the doors and cabin walls of this PAL plane , showing the big bold headlines of Ramos-Enrile breaking up with Marcos and the millions massing at EDSA and the front gate of Camp Crame to “protect” the military rebels from impending attacks of Mar-cos loyal troops.
All the plane’s passengers broke into applause, some cheering and shouting “Cory! Cory! Cory!” and I felt good, reducing the tension and anxiety in the plane as that last flight was nearing Manila. I spent the rest of the time on the plane, loading up my Nikons with color slide films, checking my flash batteries, and cleaning my wide and tele-photo lenses, ignoring my cold sweat and trembling fingers.
Checking in at an Er-mita pension house along Padre Faura, I watched a TV broadcast of the mili-tary rebels making state-ment on the air on RPN 9, followed minutes later by Marcos himself on a gov-
6 EDGEDAVAO
PEOPLE POWER @ 28
1986: The last plane out of DavaoBy AURELIO A. PENA
THE Philippines would have been plunged into a civil war had
the military-backed EDSA People Power Revolution in February 1986 failed.
The four-day bloodless military-civilian uprising abruptly wrote finis to the one-man rule of then Pres-ident Ferdinand E. Marcos who stepped down from Malacanang and fled to Clark Air Base in Pampanga before he was flown to Ha-waii, together with mem-bers of his family and close aides.
But just in case the up-rising would be crushed, the military rebels led by then Defense Minister and now Senator Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces vice chief of staff and concurrent Con-stabulary chief Maj. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, who later was elected as the 12th President of the Philippines,
would implement Plan “B” by fleeing to Northern Lu-zon, particularly in Cagayan Valley where they would mount a protracted guerrilla warfare.
But many believed that the triumphed at EDSA ’86 was due to Divine interven-tion.
With the military rebel forces outnumbered and lacking in guns and bullets to defend themselves, they have practically no match against an onslaught by government forces loyal to Marcos.
But by Divine inter-vention, outspoken Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin was awakened from his sleep on the night of Feb. 22, 1986 by one of his sub-ordinates and informed that Enrile and Ramos need his help as they have mounted a rebellion against Marcos.
Without hesitation, Car-
dinal Sin went over the radio to call on the people to go to EDSA (Epifanio delos San-tos Avenue) to protect the Enrile-Ramos forces from being attacked by Marcos loyalist troops.
People from all walks of life spontaneously heeded the urgent call of Cardinal Sin and went to EDSA en mass to protect the military rebels from being harmed.
Despite the risk of being killed or wounded, it was the only strategy to persuade Marcos forces from attack-ing the military rebels en-trenched in Camp Aguinaldo and later in Camp Crame.
From an initial number of a few thousands in the early evening of Feb. 22, 1986, the crowd ballooned to an estimated two million people during the four-day (Feb. 22-25, 1986) bloodless revolt that eventually forced Marcos and his family to flee
from Malacanang.It was a historic event
that changed the course of the country forever. It caught the whole world by surprise with a handful of military rebels defying Marcos’ iron-fist policy.
There was a dramatic turn of event that preceded the EDSA ’86 uprising when an over-confident Marcos declared a presidential snap election in 1986 with the aim of satisfying the Reagan administration at that time which was critical of Marcos government.
The opposition put up Mrs. Corazon “Cory” Aquino, widow of slain opposition Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr., against Marcos. The election was a major upset for Mar-cos.
As what served as an indictment of the fraudu-lent election, 30 computer programmers walked out
in protest over the counting and results of the election. At this juncture, the powerful Catholic Church in the coun-try condemned the election.
The US Senate echoed the protest. The stentorian cacophony of dissent rever-berated across the land. For the first time in its history, the Philippines was on the brink of anarchy. Marcos witnessed the wrath of a nation deprived of freedom and democracy.
Marcos was proclaimed by the Batasang Pambansa, the Philippine parliament, as the winner in the snap election and vowed to stay in power in spite of the con-demnation of the fraudu-lent election by the Catholic Church, the Reagan adminis-tration and other countries, including the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which the Philippines is a founding member.
He threatened to meet force with force, leaving no doubt that he would use the Armed Forces to enforce his mandate. The gap between the rhetoric of Marcos and the cruel realities of the civil chaos only aggravated Gen. Ramos’ disillusionment of the government.
This writer was the night editor of the Philip-pines News Agency (PNA), a state-owned wire service, when the EDSA uprising broke out. I monitored closely the unfolding events on TV. I thought of the con-sequences anticipating a bloody confrontation.
By this time, the outspo-ken Cardinal Sin went on air over “Radyo Bandido” and appealed to the people to go to EDSA to protect the En-rile-Ramos forces.
Butz Aquino, brother of slain former Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr., responded to the
1986 EDSA People Power averted civil war By BEN CAL
F1986, 10
ernment TV station warn-ing the Camp Crame rebels that 105 mm Howitzers were aimed at the camp and ordered the rebels to “surrender peacefully or else”.
The taxi that took me to Mendiola, not far from the gates of Malacanang, now a darkened palace at around 10 p.m. that night, was met by gunfire along the way, freaking out the driver who made a sharp U-turn to avoid being hit by bul-lets coming from nowhere. I was forced to get off and made my way to Mala-canang on foot, crouching from time to time, to the sounds of occasional gun-
fire. I was met by a group
of desperate-looking Mar-cos loyalists who vowed to defend Marcos at all costs with their lives, their heads tied with red bands and their hands gripping big pieces of wood for weap-ons.
Having heard over the radio that Marcos had al-ready fled the palace, I asked the loyalists about it. “Hindi pa naming alam, po,” one of the loyalists told me. “Umalis na,po? Hindi totoo yan! Buwis namin
buhay dito sa kanya!”Walking over to the
darkened main gate of Malacanang Palace, I saw a Marine soldier in full combat attire approaching the gate from the inside, coming out from the dark-ness into the low glare of the sodium lamps, asking me quietly to go back be-cause, according to him, the millions at EDSA were on the way to the palace that night.
I noticed immediately the yellow ribbon on the mouth of his M-16 armalite
and another yellow ribbon tied around his camou-flaged helmet. As I left the gate, the Marine broke into a smile and gave me the “V” sign of Cory.
Minutes later, the EDSA crowd came running furi-ously to the gates of Mala-canang Palace, first by the hundreds, then by the thousands, overwhelming the small group of Marcos loyalists trying to “defend” the palace.
One of the loyalists was knifed to death near the gate as the angry mob of EDSA crowd broke open the gates by sheer force, untouched by the Marine soldiers wearing yellow ribbons, giving way to people venting their an-ger against a dictator after long years of an oppressive regime.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
THE World Resourc-es Institute (WRI), Google, UNEP and
a group of more than 40 partners on Thursday launched Global Forest Watch (GFW), a dynam-ic online forest moni-toring and alert system that empowers people everywhere to better manage forests. For the first time, Global Forest Watch unites the lat-est satellite technology, open data, and crowd-sourcing to guarantee access to timely and re-liable information about forests.
“Businesses, govern-ments and communities desperately want better information about for-ests. Now, they have it,” said Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO, WRI. “Global Forest Watch is a near-real time moni-toring platform that will fundamentally change the way people and busi-nesses manage forests. From now on, the bad guys cannot hide and the good guys will be recog-nized for their steward-ship.”
According to data from the University of Maryland and Google, the world lost 2.3 mil-lion square kilometers (230 million hectares) of tree cover from 2000 to 2012 equivalent to 50 soccer fields of for-est lost every minute of every day for 12 years. The countries with the highest tree cover loss are: Russia, Brazil, Can-ada, United States, and Indonesia.
“Managing the world’s forest resources is today both a local and global undertaking, and technology has provid-ed Global Forest Watch with an unprecedented opportunity to connect not only information and data but people, whether they be forest managers, businesses and private sector, or consumers across the globe. This is a great example of a communi-ty coming together and providing the world with a truly groundbreaking and pioneering product. Hopefully in a few years’ time we will be able to monitor the impact and
the results in terms of what actually happens on the ground that will be both a litmus test and I think the greatest affir-mation that the time for this idea had come,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Direc-tor.
“We are honored to partner with WRI and power the Global For-est Watch platform with Google cloud technol-ogy, massive data and turbo-powered science,” said Rebecca Moore, Engineering Manager, Google Earth Outreach and Earth Engine. “GFW is an ambitious vision, and yet it’s both time-ly and achievable given WRI’s knowledge of en-vironmental science and policy, strong partner-ships, and the high-per-formance Google cloud technology that we’re donating to this initia-tive.”
What’s new about Global Forest Watch:
• High-resolution: Annual tree cover loss and gain data for the en-tire globe at a resolution of 30 meters, available for analysis and down-load.
• Near-real time: Monthly tree cover loss data for the humid trop-ics at a resolution of 500 meters.
• Speed: Cloud computing, provided by Google, multiplying the speed at which data can be analyzed.
• The crowd: GFW unites high resolution information from satel-lites with the power of crowdsourcing.
• Free and easy to use: GFW is free to all and no technical exper-tise is needed.
• Alerts: When forest loss alerts are detected, a network of partners and citizens around the world can mobilize to take action.
• Analytical Tools: Layers showing bound-aries of protected ar-eas worldwide; logging, mining, palm oil and other concessions; dai-ly forest fire alerts from NASA; agricultural com-modities; and intact for-est landscapes and bio-
diversity hotspots.Global Forest Watch
was launched on Thurs-day 20 February at the Newseum in Washing-ton, D.C by a group of leaders in government, business, and civil soci-ety.
“Partnerships like Global Forest Watch that bring together govern-ments, businesses and civil society and tech-nological innovation are the kinds of solutions we need to reduce forest loss, alleviate poverty and promote sustain-able economic growth,” said Administrator Ra-jiv Shah, U.S. Agency for International Develop-ment.
Global Forest Watch will have far-reaching implications across in-dustries. Financial insti-tutions can better eval-uate if the companies they invest in adequate-ly assess forest-related risks. Buyers of major commodities such as palm oil, soy, timber, and beef can better monitor compliance with laws, sustainability commit-ments, and standards. And suppliers can cred-
ibly demonstrate that their products are “de-forestation free” and le-gally produced.
“Deforestation poses a material risk to busi-nesses that rely on for-est-linked crops. Expo-sure to that risk has the potential to undermine the future of businesses,” said Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever. “That is why Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan has set tar-gets to source 100 per-cent of agricultural raw materials sustainably. As we strive to increase the visibility of where the ingredients for our products come from, the launch of Global Forest Watch a fantastic, inno-vative tool will provide the information we ur-gently need to make the right decisions, fostering transparency, enforcing accountability, and facil-itating partnerships.”
Global Forest Watch can support other users like indigenous commu-nities, who can upload alerts and photos when encroachment occurs on their lands; and NGOs that can identify defor-estation hotspots, mo-
bilize action, and collect evidence to hold govern-ments and companies accountable. At the same time, many governments like Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, welcome Global Forest Watch because it can help them design smarter policies, enforce forest laws, detect illegal forest clearing, manage forests more sustain-ably, and achieve conser-vation and climate goals.
“Indonesia is com-mitted to reduce its greenhouse gas emis-sions by 26 percent, or 41 percent with in-ternational support, which reflect national and international com-mitments to combat climate change. How Indonesia meets that commitment is large-ly defined by how we manage our forests,” said Heru Prasetyo, Head of the REDD+ Agency, Indonesia. “The ability to better moni-tor our forests and have up-to-date information to make decisions are critical. I commend the Global Forest Watch ini-tiative, will continue to
support it, and expect that it will be an effec-tive tool for the world and each nation as we leave neglect and igno-rance in the past.”
Global Forest Watch was created by the World Resources Insti-tute with over 40 part-ners, including Google, Esri, University of Mary-land, United Nations En-vironment Programme (UNEP), Imazon, Center for Global Development, Observatoire Satelli-tal des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale (OSFAC), Glob-al Forest Watch Canada, ScanEx, Transparent World, the Jane Goodall Institute, and Vizzuality. Major companies have also provided early in-put, including Unilever and Nestle, and the wid-er Tropical Forest Alli-ance 2020 Partnership. Core funders include the Norwegian Climate and Forests Initiative, U.S. Agency for Inter-national Development (USAID), Global Envi-ronment Facility (GEF), U.K. Department for International Develop-ment (DFID), and the Tilia Fund. [UNEP]
7EDGEDAVAO
ENVIRONMENT
LOST. It is estimated that the world lost 2.3 million square kilometers (230 million hectares) of tree cover from 2000 to 2012—equivalent to 50 soccer fields of forest lost every minute of every day for 12 years.
TO PROTECT FORESTS WORLDWIDE
Online forest monitoring,alert system unveiled
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 20148 EDGEDAVAO
VANTAGE
At 28, what?
OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager
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EDITORIAL
THE People Power Revolt on EDSA, the bloodless coup that sent strongman President Ferdinand E. Marcos fleeing from the country he had ruled
with an iron hand during the martial law regime, turns 28 years old today.
On February 25, 1986, Marcos, with his family and some cronies, fled from Malacañang Palace for Hawaii where he stayed in exile for a few years until his death.
The flight of the strongman ended the so-called ‘con-jugal dictatorship’ and restored democracy in the coun-try. This meant the return of free elections and the lib-eration of the economy from the stranglehold of the cro-ny capitalists around Marcos. This was the perception, or impression, that could be either right, or wrong, or both.
What was the situation then before Marcos was driv-en out of the country?
Capt. Rex Robles, believed to be the brightest of the soldiers who composed the RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement, 1986), the rebel soldiers who played a major role in the EDSA Revolt, had this written in the
Brotherhood of the Flag, a book on RAM distributed by Senator Gregorio Honasan in 2013:
“Yet, the Brotherhood’s real enemy was even bigger than Marcos, for tightly woven into the fabric of Phil-ippine politics was centuries’ worth of corruption and wrongdoing that had become ingrained in every sector of society, especially in the Philippine military.”
Now, almost three decades after RAM and the EDSA People Power had driven Marcos out of the Philippines, it may be asked: Has the country really achieved mean-ingful changes and reforms?
In the light of what is happening in the country as borne out by screaming headlines in the media about all forms of scams in high and low places, in and out of government, our simple question is, can we say we have achieved a lot, achieved little, or none of the above?
Perhaps, each one of us can find the time today to reflect on the true meaning of the EDSA People Power Revolt of 1986. Otherwise, it may yet go down in histo-ry as an exercise in futility. And with only ourselves to blame (who else?).
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
NO one believes you these days if you think “out of the box” because you don’t want to
conform to the “traditional” or “con-ventional” way of doing things.
Take for instance, the problem of licking the problem of fusarium wilt, a.k.a. Panama disease, which is wreaking havoc not only in the Philippine banana industry but also in banana plantations in Honduras, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Africa, Austra-lia and other countries into growing Cavendish bananas for export.
Faced by a widespread Panama disease attack against almost all Cavendish banana farms in Mindan-ao, government, through the Depart-ment of Agriculture has set aside hundreds of millions of pesos to fight this plant disease that usually crop up during heavy flooding after heavy rains.
Most of this money goes to the pockets of “consultants” with names followed by “Ph.D’s” , who do a lot of deep research work and experiments and make recommendations, using conventional methods discussed in books they have read about this dreadful disease.
Since they all do it “by the book,” they’ll recommend the intensive use of chemical pesticides, chemical fer-tilizers and other chemicals to fight this plant disease--- thus a market bonanza for big multi-million dollar foreign chemical companies supply-ing them to banana companies all over the world.
But the findings of a little-known Davao banana scientist here seem to be working better than other re-search experiments being done by other groups, most especially the
one funded by the DA, us-ing “Caven-dish” clones developed by Ta i w a n e s e scientists.
This lo-cal scientist, known as “Dr. Castillo” who was formerly a research di-rector of an American banana com-pany in Davao, has found out that the Panama wilt disease is not really a “disease” problem but a “nutritional problem” --- a theory that was reject-ed by almost all the banana firms in the Davao Region. Behind his back, they were all laughing at him when he kept insisting that this supposed “dreadful disease” is simply a “nutri-tional problem”.
This is what happens to you when you think “out of the box”, according to Koronado Apuzen, executive di-rector of the Foundation for Agrari-an Reform Cooperatives in Mindanao or FARMCOOP, whose farmers’ coop plantation in Panabo volunteered the use of their affected farm areas to test this theory of Dr. Castillo.
Most of the soil underneath Davao banana plantations, accord-ing to Dr Castillo, have “lost all their nutrients” after more than 60 years of absorbing all kinds of chemicals--- pesticides, fertilizers, etc. Fact is, this is something he had known all along since he was still with the ba-nana export firm he was working for, but he didn’t want to antagonize his bosses and the chemical suppliers with his theory on the possible cause
of Panama wilt disease.Together with six foreign scien-
tists from the Netherlands, Italy, Af-rica, USA, Australia and Costa Rica, along with Philippine scientists from UP Mindanao, I saw the farm experiment--- how it’s done and the impressive results on treated ba-nana plants. Dr. Castillo’s theory was clearly working and all the banana scientists were all impressed.
“We’re very, very impressed with what you’ve done so far,” says Dr. Gert Kema, a Dutch scientist from Wageningen University, the Nether-lands who saw how the treatments were done on the banana plants.
It was all the more impressive be-cause the treatments made on affect-ed banana plants were done using only organic pesticide and fertilizer. The organic pesticide was 100% or-ganic from Japan that Apuzen even took a few gulps just to prove it’s re-ally organic, not toxic, and therefore safe to ingest.
Fertilizer used on the affected plants was also pure organic made from chicken manure, coco peat, banana rejects, burnt palay, etc pro-duced by the Organic Producers and Exporters Corporation, the trading arm of FARMCOOP.
A scientist from UP Mindanao , visibly impressed after watching the demo by a farmers’ coop on fighting Panama wilt disease, told the visiting foreign scientists that “this can be nominated for a Novel Prize” for discovering a natural treatment for the dreaded plant disease.
Question is : Have we finally found the cure to Panama disease in all the world’s banana plantations ?
(Conclusion)
BY PATRICIO P. DIAZ
COMMENTARY
AQUILES Z. ZONIOCorrespondent
VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO
Hanging on the balance
Dabawenyo finds way to lick fusarium wilt Complicating Implications
IT has committed to deliver the Bangsamoro as the solution to the Bangsamoro problem. Will
the Bangsamoro to be inaugurated as his legacy in June 2016 without the proper transition be that com-mitment -- the Bangsamoro that will solve the Bangsamoro problem?
It is not. It cannot be without the proper transition. To be that com-mitment, it must be allowed to go the full length of three years. After that, it will hold its first election un-der the Bangsamoro electoral sys-tem separately from the national elections.
Legacy Will that deprive Aquino III of
his legacy? Not! The Bangsamoro is deemed entrenched upon the rati-fication of the BBL and the setting up of its interim government un-der the BTA. His legacy is assured. Let the establishment of the regular government and the stabilization of Bangsamoro be the legacy of other Presidents after him.
Are Aquino III and his govern-ment thinking that peace with MILF and the solution of the Moro Problem their work alone? That is egocen-trism. Is that why “Government of the Republic of the Philippines” has been changed from “GRP” to “GPH”?
In capsule, the peaceful solution of the Mindanao or Moro Problem is a long process. President Fidel V. Ramos started it; President Joseph Estrada signed the Ceasefire Agree-ment and opened the first round of formal talks; President Gloria Maca-pagal-Arroyo, reviving it after Presi-dent Estrada had scuttled it with an “all-out war”, initialed the MOA-AD, the ill-fated first framework agree-ment; President Aquino III, as the FAB and its Annexes show, contin-ued and completed the “renegotia-tion” or “re-framing” of the MOA-AD according to the advice of the Su-preme Court in its October 14, 2008 Decision declaring the MOA-AD un-constitutional.
President Aquino III must be re-membered for doing his part of the process. But as the process is far from over, he can enhance his lega-cy by ensuring the proper transition of the Bangsamoro to make it easi-er for other presidents after him to help stand on its own feet.
How effectively the Bangsam-oro can solve the Mindanao or Moro Problem will depend on the sound-ness of the values of its leaders and people andon the efficiency of its asymmetrical relation with the Cen-tral Government and its ministeri-al form of government. These are what future presidents are expected to help Bangsamoro attain – easier done if the Bangsamoro is proper-ly transitioned. [“Comment” is Mr. Patricio P. Diaz’ column for Minda-Views, the opinion section of Min-daNews. Mr. Diaz is the recipient of a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Titus Brandsma for his “commit-ment to education and public infor-mation to Mindanawons as Journal-ist, Educator and Peace Advocate.” You may e-mail your comments to [email protected]]
SEPARATE SCUFFLE FOR PEACE – Today, the peace process and the finalization of the Frame-
work Agreement on the Bangsaram-oro (FAB) seem to be facing glitches. One reason is that the Moro National Liberation Front (MILF) Nur Misuari faction is hell bent on muddling the talks insisting that the 1976 Tripo-li Agreement should be the basis in the creation of a real Bangsaramoro homeland. Another reason is that the MNLF considers the FAB as high-ly illegal and unconstitutional.
Furthermore, people in some war-ravaged provinces of the Auton-omous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and a large part of North Cotabato believe that the breakaway rebel group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) will not want to join the Moro Islamic Liber-ation Front (MILF) in their crusade in the quest for lasting peace. This is why there is a flurry of renewed at-tacks perpetrated by the BIFF com-batants against government troops and public infrastructures. As a re-
sult, thou-sands of poor farm-ers and their families in the far-flung f a r m i n g c o m m u n i -ties of Magu-indanao and North Cota-bato flee to safer grounds to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
The hostilities between the BIFF forces and the government soldiers ruined new hopes of peace in the Bangsamoro homeland. The armed conflicts shredded holes in the frag-ile road map to peace the govern-ment (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are putting forward to bring the two sides to a permanent settlement.
While the government and the MILF are putting their best efforts to finally seal a long-lasting peace in Muslim-dominated areas, the BIFF
and the MNLF-Misuari faction are proving to be spoilers and are feared to be successful in bringing the peace talks to a stalemate. The continued attacks on government troops and innocent civilians seem to have been set in motion juts as euphoria was beginning to intensify over the antic-ipated success of the GRP and MILF panels in creating a genuine peaceful environment.
The BIFF has spent a long period of planning surprise attacks, stock-piling explosives and improving its capability in jungle warfare. Govern-ment, through the various adminis-trations, has spent more than four decades in trying to achieve a lasting and meaningful peace in the Bang-samoro homeland through peaceful negotiations.
Instead of supporting the peace process, the BIFF today is more iso-lated, armed and dangerous than ever before. Sadly, the government remains a failure in trying to con-vince them to abandon their hostile activities.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 201410 EDGEDAVAONEWSNext...
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Republic of the PhilippinesDepartment of Transporta-tion and CommunicationsLAND TRANSPORTATION
FRANCHISING AND REGULA-TORY BOARD
Regional Office No. XIDavao city
Petition for Renewal of a Certificate of Public Convenience to op-erate aa FILCAB Ordinary Regular Service
ARLENE A. AGAPAY, Petitioner Case No.2009-XI-00444
x- - - - - - - - -- - - -----x
NOTICE OF HEARING
Petitioner is a grantee of a Certificate of Public Con-venience issued in this case authorizing the operation of a FILCAB Ordinary Regular Service on the route: CAMP CATITIPAN VIA JP LAUREL AVENUE ROUTE with the use of ONE (1) unit, which certif-icate will expire on February 2, 2015. In the petition filed on February 14, 2014, pe-titioner requests authority to extend the validity of said certificate to operate along the same route with the use of the same unit previously authorized.
NOTICE, is hereby given
that this petition will be heard by this Board on MARCH 10, 2014 at 09:50 a.m. at this of-fice at the above address.
At least, TEN (10) days prior to the above date peti-tioner shall publish this No-tice once in a one (1) daily newspaper of general circula-tion in Mindanao
Parties opposed to the granting of the petition must file their written opposition supported by documentary evidence on or before the above date furnishing a copy of the same to the petitioner, and may if they so, desire ap-pear on said date and time.
This petition will be acted upon by this Board on the ba-sis of its records and the doc-umentary evidence submit-ted by the parties, unless the Board deems it necessary to receive additional documen-tary and/or oral evidence.
WITNESS the Honorable BENJAMIN A. GO, CESO V, Re-gional Director, this 14th day of February 2014 at Davao City.
TERESITA DELA PEÑA-YÑIGUEZ
Chief Transportation Development Officer
call of Marcos thought he could
persuade the rebel troops to surrender in a few hours. He was wrong.
From an initial crowd of some 50,000 civilian sup-porters gathered at Gate 1 of Camp Aguinaldo along Boni Serrano Avenue that evening, the crowd ballooned to over two million people during the next three days.
Just before midnight of Feb. 22, Marcos appeared on TV and accused Enrile of plotting a coup. Marcos warned Enrile and Ramos that he could annihilate them, together with the rebel forces and called on them to surrender to end “this stu-pidity.”
The psychological bat-tle between the rebel forces and Marcos went into high gear that night until the fol-lowing day, Feb. 23, holding press conferences to air their charges and counter charges.
Enrile told Marcos that he “will not surrender because I did not commit a crime.” He declared that he was ready to die if necessary. Then Enrile unleashed a stinging statement that might have touched many compatriot Filipinos: “If I will be killed, let my blood be a part of the Philippine soil. If he (Marcos) sends troops here, the Presi-dent will become the butcher of his soldiers. He cannot cow us anymore.”
A defiant Enrile added: “Mr. President, you know that your time is up. I am morally convinced that Mrs. Corazon Aquino is the duly elected President and we will support her.”
Cut off for the first time from Gen. Ramos whom I have covered for many years, I relied on other sources for my news dispatches. I learned from one such source that the rebel forces of Enrile and Ramos had pre-pared a contingency plan for any such attack.
They would defend Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame for a while after which they would disperse into small groups and fight the Marcos regime in guerrilla warfare that could spark a civil war throughout the country.
The burgeoning crowd that gathered along EDSA stood their ground. Brig. Gen. Alfredo Lim, commander of the Northern Police District, defied an order from Mar-cos to disperse the crowd. Instead, he and his men de-fected to the Enrile-Ramos camps.
A column of armored Landing Tank Vehicles (LTV) and Armored Personnel Car-riers (APC) from the Phil-ippine Marines, backed by other military vehicles under Brig. Gen. Artemio Tadiar ar-rived near the vicinity of Orti-gas Avenue along EDSA.
The tanks threatened to mow people down under its massive metallic weight un-less the crowd cleared the path leading to Camp Crame. But the huge crowd stood their ground amidst the risk of being crushed. Steadfast in their faith, the people knelt in the middle of EDSA, raised their rosaries, brandished
their crucifixes, and lifted their voices in prayers that drowned the sounds of the LTV and APC motors.
In the hearts of the Fili-pino people, the withdrawal of government forces was a Divine intervention. Prayers and faith have averted what could have been the biggest bloodbath on a single day not only in the Philippines but the whole world.
Many of the crowd cried with tears of joy thanking God and through the inter-cession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the patron saint of the Philippines, for answering their prayers at the time the country needed most. [PNA]
The equipment uses a low heat system to ensure that color and the texture of the cacao bean is retained.
Abrenilla said the Mox-trak is cost-efficient because it will save labor and time during the processing stage.
“It is very cost efficient, especially in the use of elec-
tricity kasi it will turn-off when it reaches the 60 to 80 degree Celsius heat require-ment,” he said, adding that the dehydrator can dry up to 500 to 600 kilos per day. FEDCO can dry 500 kilos of cacao beans in 4 days.
He said that the produc-tion cost in using the tradi-
tional dryer is more than P5 per kilo, while Moxtrak is more or less P3 per kilo.
On the other hand, he said that other issues con-fronting cacao farmers and growers in Davao City are the high cost of transport, low consciousness for prod-uct quality, low technology
and skills.The issues are said to be
a hindrance to the industry’s target. In 2020, the industry is targeting to increase ca-cao production by 100,000 metric tons. The industry is also eyeing to expand cacao plantations by 10,000 hect-ares. [CRC]
eration had the blessing of Duterte.
In a statement aired by GMA Super Radyo, Mayor Duterte said the law enforc-ers, and he himself, have noticed the entry of refined shabu in some areas of the city and now hot on the trail of the traffickers responsible for the peddling of the high-grade shabu in the city.
The city mayor also bared that high-grade shabu
materials are also inserted in rice shipments smuggled through the ports of Davao City. Calling it “ride-on,” Duterte said the activity is now being closely watched by authorities.
He said “ride-on” drug insertion is one of the rea-sons he is very angry at rice smugglers.
Earlier this month, the mayor threatened to kill rice smugglers like David-
son Tan Bangayan if they are caught smuggling rice into the Davao port.
He repeated his threat-ening words when he testi-fied on rice smuggling be-fore the Senate Committee on Agriculture headed by Senator Cynthia A. Villar.
It may be recalled that rice smuggling has been very rampant in the ports of Davao due to the failure of the Bureau of Customs to
detect the entry of the con-traband cargo shipments in to the port during past and present administration. At least one former Customs collector had been fired from his job by the Om-budsman for failure to act properly on the report on smuggled rice in the port during his watch.
Duterte said high-grade shabu is expectedly more expensive.
ing only one parcel of land.Last Feb. 13, Edge Davao
reported that the database glitch hindered CTO from collecting taxes due to errors with the assessments.
Victor Ranada, acting head of CTO’s real property tax division, said that there were duplications on assess-ments which he cited as the
main reason they could not effectively collect correct tax-es.
He added that there are problems in the assessments in which the property, al-though already sold to a third party, the former owner’s name still appears in the as-sessment.
Ranada said that because
of deficient data they are having a hard time locating delinquent taxpayers while there are names in the data-base that must be exempted from paying real property taxes but are still included in the list of taxpayers in the P1.1 billion tax delinquency report.
Ranada cited a road in
Toril which is owned by the city government but was assessed and taxed around P200,000 when in fact it is exempted from it.
The panel will be com-posed of four personnel from the city treasurer’s office, four from the city assessor’s office and headed by the city legal office.
by national laws.Vice Mayor Duterte
said earlier that it’s about time for the city council to review the code on or-dinances as he sees that some of them can be del-
egated or be enacted into barangay ordinances.
Duterte said there is a need to remove some or-dinances that many local government units have borrowed from the city’s
code of ordinances.The vice mayor add-
ed the council will also review public safety ordi-nances pertaining to the Davao International Air-port because during the
time of Mayor Sara Dute-rte an emergency team from Central 911 was prohibited from assisting passengers of a Cebu Pa-cific plane that overshot the runway last year.
ers to try new names in the telecomm market, Gionee was able to imprint per-sonality, like Inday Sara, who uses an ELife E6.
Duterte said that be-fore endorsing the prod-uct, she was able to prove to herself its quality and to maximize the features of the Chinese smart phone.
Katrin Salanga-Gre-gorio, Gionee Philippines Mobile head, said during a press briefing, that even she herself was hesitant to try the new brand, but after using it she was con-vinced that it can offer much more superior expe-rience compared to other smart phone brands avail-able in market.
“In Gionee, trust me when I say that quality is experienced in every handset. It offers features that are products of its own well-funded research and development that con-tinues to upgrade, update, and innovate. The strict manufacturing process of every mobile phone unit will definitely bust the myth of the made in China bias,” Gregorio said.
Gionee launched its first flagship smart phone -- the Gionee Elife E6 -- in the country last October. A report from Philippine Star said that “it is now among the top smart phone brands in the world, selling over 23
million handsets per year worldwide.”
With its “golden qual-ity” features, the Elife E6 has a 50 inches display, 13-megapixel back cam-era and 5-inch megapizel front camera with pan-oramic capability, a Quad Core Cortex A7 1.5 giga-hertz (GHz) Super CPU, a 32 gigabyte internal memory and 2 gigabyte RAM, and run by Android version 4.2 Jellybean OS, and motion sensing tech-nology, among its features.
Other models are the Elife E3, P3, G3 which are the fastest and biggest dual sim phablets and the P2 smartphone unit.
Gregorio said that in
March, Gionee will be launching its first two models of feature phones which run by a Java soft-ware. It will launch the L 206 and S96. Aside from text messaging and call-ing, users can now access social networks like Face-book, Twitter, and web-sites like Youtube, etc.
She said that that it will be the first time that a feature phone will be ca-pable of downloading like mobile applications.
On the other hand, it will open a store branch in Manila first month of the second quarter this year. The company is also look-ing for ten other sites for expansion.
are directed to comply with existing laws.
Section 8 of RA 6539 states that any person engaged in this business should keep a permanent record of his stocks, stating therein their type, make and serial numbers and the names and address-es of persons whom they acquired them from, and to whom they sold them and render an accurate re-port of transactions to the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
Section 3 of the EO states that section 6 of PD 1612 or the Anti-Fencing Law should be strictly com-plied with which requires all stores, establishments, or entities dealing in the buy and sell of goods, ar-ticles, items, objects or anything of value obtained from an unlicensed dealer or supplier thereof, shall, before offering the same for sale to the public, secure the necessary clearance or permit from Highway Pa-trol Group or the Philippine
National Police (PNP).It is mandated that the
owner of the shop is pro-hibited from displaying in behalf of third parties or offer to sell or buy a sec-ond hand vehicle without checking first with LTO, where the vehicle was reg-istered, validity of the certif-icate of registration and se-cure a clearance certificate attesting to the validity of the registration which must be available for inquiry by the buyer and authorities, as stated in section 4 of the
EO. The establishment is also mandated to inform in the PNP Traffic Group of the intention to display before the actual date of displaying for sale.
The EO states that the business bureau is tasked to monitor and enforce strict compliance with the provisions of the order.
The order added that any violation committed in this order will result to the revocation of the business permit or denial of applica-tion of the shop owner.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014 11EDGEDAVAO
PROPERTY
CONDO living at North-point offers plenty of ad-vantages for big or small
families, even newly married couples preparing to have kids. The perks allow them more time to spend with each other, strengthening their bond and enhancing their family life.
Hassle-free mainte-nance. It is easy for a family to get caught up in the main-tenance of a single detached home such as mowing the lawn, trimming and watering the plants, or fixing a leaky roof. At Northpoint, they only need to expend their time and energy in their own condo unit, leaving the rest of the mainte-nance needs to the property management team tasked to take care of the upkeep of the grounds, buildings, facilities, and overall condo property.
Families don’t want to be dealing with outdoor chores and maintenance issues on a weekend, probably their only time to bond. With mainte-nance off their hands, they can enjoy their weekend together inside their cozy condo home, doing home chores or simply watching TV or chatting with each other.
They can also enjoy the outdoors by biking around the trails and avenues, hang out with family and neighbors at the clubhouse called Wakefield Manor, stroll around the tree-filled grounds, or have a picnic at the green open spaces of Northpoint.
Safety. When the kids are home alone or outside enjoy-ing Northpoints amenities,
parents don’t need to fret about their safety knowing their children are safe with-in the condo premises. The whole condo property is under a tight round-the-clock secu-rity, with security personnel manning the guardhouse at the main entryway and the condo gates.
Female family members who will be left alone in their condo home will also feel safe. They won’t feel alone and inse-cure knowing there are neigh-bors next door and at common places such as the elevator, basement parking, and the clubhouse.
There are security camer-as and roving security person-nel around the property and at the basement parking. Entry to the condo community is re-stricted to homeowners and their guests, and unexpected visitors are carefully screened. As long as family members are within Northpoint’s premises, they are safe and secure.
Amenities. What family does not want hotel-like ame-nities such as a swimming pool, fitness gym, or a jogging track? Having these and other amenities means families don’t have to go out of Northpoint to swim, exercise, and have fun.
It’s a breeze to go swim-ming when all they need to do is don their bathing suits and trunks, step out of their condo units, and stride over to the clubhouse to dive into the salinated waters of the adult swimming pool and let the young ones splash around the kiddie pool.
They can even have a pool party, taking advantage of the cabanas around the pool area, as well as the grill pits that can be used for a barbecue. The multi-purpose hall at the clubhouse is also ideal for an intimate gathering or a social event.
Families can have a healthy lifestyle in Northpoint by doing their exercise regimen at the fitness gym, or letting the kids frolic in the playground or run around the open spaces. They can brisk walk or jog along the track that will take them to the
pocket gardens and nature park, giving them the opportu-nity to commune with North-point’s verdant nature.
Green lifestyle. Living at Northpoint allows families to have a healthful and green lifestyle with its nature-filled surroundings and its condo structures built to principles of green architecture. As green buildings, Northpoint’s condos have excellent indoor air quali-ty, making it comfortable to live in it and requiring less air-con-ditioning, thereby reducing electricity cost, saving energy,
and reducing carbon emission into the environment.
With a central location, Northpoint is proximate to a family’s daily destinations such as schools and univer-sities, malls, cinemas, super-markets, banks, restaurants, clinics, worship places, airport, and other public utilities for their daily essentials. They don’t have to drive far to get to their desired location and can opt to take public transporta-tion, thereby reducing their carbon footprint.
All these advantages of
living in Northpoint give its homeowners convenience and ease of life that will benefit any family. Top that with living in a masterplanned subdivision with a premier address, and families will find in Northpoint everything they look for in a home and more.
Camella makes acquiring a Northpoint condo unit eas-ier with its special packages available at the Camella of-fices at Delgar Bldg. (fronting Northpoint) along JP Laurel Avenue in Bajada, Davao City, telephone number 295-3973.
Perks of condo living for families
REAL estate giant, Mega-world, is expanding its office space inventory to
around 712,000 square meters this year, cementing its leader-ship as the country’s no. 1 of-fice developer and landlord.
Megaworld has currently 26 corporate office towers in the country – 10 in Eastwood City, 14 in McKinley Hill, 1 in Newport City, and 1 in The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. Four more office towers are expected to be completed this year – two in Uptown Bonifacio, which are now LEED-registered; one in The Mactan Newtown; and
one in Iloilo Business Park.Around 112,000 square
meters of office spaces suited for Information Technolo-gy-Business Process Outsourc-ing (IT-BPO) and corporate offices will be added to the inventory this year upon the completion of the first two towers, Uptown Tower 1 and Uptown Tower 2 – each with 30,000 square meters in the 15.4-hectare Uptown Bonifa-cio, Megaworld’s P65-billion township in the northern tip of Fort Bonifacio.
On the other hand, around 30,000 square meters of BPO office spaces will be complet-
ed in the 8 Newtown Office Tower and another 7,000 square meters in the six-sto-rey Two World Center, both in the 28.8-hectare The Mactan Newtown by second half of this year.
Another 10,000 square meters of office spaces will likewise be completed in the IBP BPO Building A and 5,000 square meters in the Rich-monde Office Tower, both lo-cated in the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park at the site of the old Mandurriao Airport in Il-oilo City by middle of this year.
“Megaworld remains committed to be the leading
office space provider in the Philippines. Year after year, we are looking into aggres-sively expanding our office space inventory to increase our rental income,” says Jer-icho Go, first vice president, Megaworld.
Currently, an estimated 110,000 employees are work-ing in Megaworld’s townships. The biggest bulk of which are in Eastwood City, the coun-try’s first IT park; and McKin-ley Hill, the company’s biggest township project in Metro Manila which is also home to four foreign embassies and four international schools.
The completion of the ad-ditional four office towers in Uptown Bonifacio, The Mac-tan Newtown and Iloilo Busi-ness Park will create around 60,000 additional jobs in the next five years.
“As we continue to build more state-of-the-art, envi-ronment-friendly office tow-ers, we hope to help grow the country’s BPO sector by en-couraging more companies to come and operate in the Phil-ippines. Megaworld’s exper-tise in building LIVE-WORK-PLAY-LEARN township com-munities is a tried-and-tested success formula that earned us the trust and confidence of many of these companies through the years,” explains Go.
A total of 126 companies are leasing from Megaworld’s office spaces offered in vari-ous townships in Metro Ma-nila, Cebu and Iloilo. Around 87% of the total leased spaces account for IT-BPO compa-nies.
To date, IT-BPO compa-nies such as Accenture, HP, Wells Fargo, IBM, United Health Group, Thomson Re-uters, Dell, WNS and Sam-sung are operating in various Megaworld townships.
Recently, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has given Uptown Bonifacio an accreditation as a “special economic zone”, mak-ing it the first cyberpark in BGC. By 2016, Uptown Bonifa-cio will have an initial 150,000 square meters of leasable of-fice spaces.
“Following the success of
our first and biggest cyber-park in Fort Bonifacio – the McKinley Hill – we hope to offer our customers with new, state-of-the-art and environ-ment-friendly office towers in Uptown Bonifacio. Here, we expect major multination-al corporations, and BPO/IT offices to establish their of-fices and headquarters as we position Uptown Bonifacio to be BGC’s premier central busi-ness district,” says Go.
Colliers: Megaworld is top office space provider
A study by third party analyst Colliers International Research confirms that Mega-world remains to be the top office space provider in the Philippines.
In a study released by Col-liers International Research in January 2014, Megaworld dominates the office space leasing business with a 23 percent market share, making it the leader in both traditional office spaces for corporations multinational companies and office spaces designed specif-ically for the IT-BPO industry in terms of total leasable floor area.
In terms of the total leas-able spaces for IT-BPO com-panies, Megaworld dominates the market with a 27 percent market share.
Based on existing BPO office space inventory as of 2013, Colliers showed that Megaworld is the leading BPO space provider with 539,384 square meters while its clos-est competitor has only about 306,094 square meters of BPO office spaces.
Megaworld ramps up office space inventory
THE MACTAN NEWTOWN. The 28.8-hectare The Mactan Newtown is Megaworld’s first and only township with a beachfront in Lapu Lapu City, Cebu.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
KALILANGAN 2014 opened with an elab-orate musical pro-
duction number depicting the city’s milestones and colorful fireworks making the event widely consid-ered a success.
The opening program did not only aim to exhibit General Santos City’s tran-sition of culture but it also served as the stage to high-light the changes under the new administration.
In the night of Kalilan-gan’s opening last Friday, February 21, City Mayor Ronnel Rivera took the op-portunity to relay to every-one, especially the foreign dignitaries and business community representatives present, the leap that the city government has made in bringing public service closer to the constituents of the city.
Mayor Rivera opened his speech by imposing that throughout the revelry he wants a “CLEAN GenSan” not only through the sur-roundings but also in the conduct and celebration of the residents.
Creating a Livable En-vironment for All Generals towards Nation building or commonly known as “CLEAN GenSan” is the flagship program of Mayor Rivera that advocates the improvements focused in education, health and mod-ified social services.
According to Rivera, “CLEAN GenSan” started on education, upon welcoming the University of Sto. Tomas in General Santos City.
Then with the help of City Social Welfare and Development Office, the AKLAT (Alay sa Kabataang Generals Lahat ng Alaga at Talino) office and AK-LAT-ECCDI (Alay sa Kabata-ang Generals Lahat ng Alaga at Talino-Early Childhood Care Development Initia-tive) have been launched to prepare the children to for-mal education.
On other areas, Rivera gave merits on the success of the City Engineers’ Office together with the Depart-ment of Public Works and Highways on the illumina-tion of primary and second-ary lines of the city through the implementation of LED based streetlight, which costs around P100 million.
The City Housing and Land Management Office and City Planning and De-velopment Office (CPDO) have also started “land banking”, to which the city government is eyeing avail-able land pieces for resettle-ments and relocation sites.
In Bawing, a land area waived by the Yalen Clan in favor of the local govern-ment of General Santos City is the first crop of the said land banking.
The revision of the city’s Comprehensive Land
Use Plan is also one of the pipeline goals of CPDO this year.
Things that have never been addressed in the past and achievements have earned respect for Rivera’s “troubleshooting” skills.
Mayor Rivera disclosed that General Santos City District Hospital has under-gone a systems and finan-cial audit to sort out the real causes of problems that
have stifled the hospital for years.
Through the help of the League of Cities of the Phil-ippines (LCP), Rivera said that the overdue problems in the transport sector will slowly be given light.
As a start, the city mayor informed that there are already 690 tricycle franchises distributed to tricycle drivers and opera-tors to lessen the number
of illegal tricycles plying around and within the city.
Rivera did not also for-get to address the peace and order issues in Gen-San.
He ordered General Santos City Police Office (GSCPO) PSSupt. Froilan Quidilla and Joint Task Force GenSan Col. Rolando Bautista to give him “peace and order solutions” and he will help them in achiev-
ing it. Prior to ending his
speech, Rivera said that Kalilangan is a celebration of GenSan’s progress and without the aforemen-tioned improvements, Ka-lilangan 2014 will not be possible.
A grandiose fireworks display punctuated the night’s presentation. [Gen-San Info Office/Ian John M. Lagare]
12 EDGEDAVAO
SUBURBIA
MINDANAO’S FIRST. Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, OMI, D.D. of the Archdiocese of Cotabato was formally elevated as Mindanao’s first Cardinal at 11:50 a.m. Saturday, 22 February 2014 (6:50 p.m. Philippine time). [MindaNews photo taken from a live broadcast over EWTN [Global Catholic Television Network) by Toto Lozano]
GENERAL SANTOS CITY
KORONADAL CITY TAGUM CITY
Kalilangan 2014 highlights culture, milestone and success of GenSan
THE Koronadal City local government is s pushing for the
full transfer here with-in the next two years of the main regional base or headquarters of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 12.
City Mayor Peter Mi-guel said Monday the local government has formally tendered to the Philip-pine National Police (PNP) central office several idle lands in two exterior vil-lages in the city as possible sites for the new regional headquarters of PRO-12 and its service offices.
He said the potential sites, which are all private-ly-owned or titled lands, are located in Barangays Morales and Paraiso.
The mayor said the of-fer was based on an earlier request made by PRO-12 and PNP Director General Alan Purisima to facilitate the transfer of its regional
headquarters in the city, which is the regional cen-ter of Region 12.
“It’s now up to the PNP to select the most ideal site, make the acquisition and implement the trans-fer,” the mayor said.
Purisima initially ap-proved in principle early last year the transfer of the PRO-12 headquarters from Barangay Tambler in General Santos City to this city following a meeting with city officials.
Miguel said Purisi-ma personally pledged to work out the relocation and sought the local gov-ernment’s assistance to facilitate the move.
The mayor said the lo-cal government has made initial negotiations with the owners of the pro-posed sites for the region-al police headquarters.
But he said the PNP should be the one to pur-
sue talks for the purchase and the local government will just facilitate them.
Miguel said the PRO-12 is a special case since the local government could not offer to them the established regional cen-ter in Barangay Carpenter.
“They require a vast area so each of the pro-posed sites that we iden-tified stretches around 15 hectares,” he said.
Miguel said they ex-pect the PNP central office to make a decision soon regarding the PRO-12’s site and make the acqui-sition.
He assured the PNP that the local government will provide all the neces-sary assistance to ensure the smooth transfer of its regional offices to the area.
The city was designat-ed as Region 12’s regional center by virtue of Execu-tive Order (EO) 304 issued
in March 2004 by then President Gloria Macapa-gal-Arryo.
EO 304 also sets the immediate transfer of all regional line agencies from Cotabato City, the previous regional center, to Koronadal City.
Region 12 compris-es the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, North Cotaba-to and the cities of Gen-eral Santos, Koronadal, Kidapawan and Cotabato.
Some 40 regional lines agencies have so far fully transferred their offices while 11 other of-fices and bureaus have es-tablished satellite offices in the area.
The City Planning and Development Office cited in a report that a total of 36 regional line agencies already acquired lots at the regional center site here. [MindaNews]
LGU pushes for transfer of PNP regional HQ
DRUMMING up a sim-ple yet festive mode in its soft opening
last February 21, the City Government of Tagum and the Tagum City Tourism Council offered a prelude to its highly-anticipated trio celebration top-billed by Musikahan Festival, the city’s annual revelry fo-cused on music.
Mayor Allan L. Rellon led Tagumeños during the soft opening held in front of the City Hall, where the city’s homegrown musical talents exhibited their tal-ents during the ceremony attended by Tagumeños from all walks of life.
The local chief ex-ecutive reiterated that this was just a prelude to something bigger and ex-citing about the 13th year of the Musikahan Festival, which will have its grand opening on February 28,
2014 at the Freedom Park. Last Friday and over
the weekend, several events were held includ-ing musical outreach performances in Tagum Doctors Hospital, Tagum City Jail and Gloria Christi Regis Center for Orphaned Children.
A photo exhibition in Rotary Park’s Beach Volleydrome, which visu-ally narrates the transfor-mation of Tagum from a sleeping municipality to a bustling urban hub, was also opened on Friday in anticipation to provide a venue for Tagumeños to appreciate the city’s jour-ney to development. The said photo exhibition is curated by the City Infor-mation Office as the head secretariat of the City His-torical and Cultural Com-mission. [Louie Lapat of CIO Tagum]
Musikahan jumpstarts LGU’s trio celebration
INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
EDGEDAVAOTRAVEL
With its rugged coastline and scenic vistas over the Sulu Sea, a road trip along Zamboa-ga del Norte’s highway between Dipolog and Zamboanga is a unique way to appreciate the rich history, cultural heritage as well as the cuisine of the province.
I was fortunate to expe-rience that on a familia-risation trip together with DOT’s Assistant Secre-tary Arturo Boncato and DOT’s XI’s regional direc-tor Mary June Bugante together with fellow travel and lifestyle writers from Davao City. Straight from our direct flight from Davao City to Dipolog on Cebu Pacific, the group checked in at the nearby Ariana Hotel and immediately got on the bus for a road trip with our end-point set at the seaside municipality of Sindangan some 87 kilometres away. We headed South East from Dipolog City towards the municipality of Kati-
An extraordinary road trip
punan which was celebrat-ing its hundredth founda-tion day. Katipunan is an idyl-lic town and is known as the location where our na-tional hero, Jose Rizal, once owned a farm which was given to him by a patient he treated while on exile at nearby Dapitan. Jose Rizal’s farm was where he would often take Josephine Braken out on strolls while tending to the fruit trees he planted. The farm is now owned by the grandchil-dren of one of Jose Rizal’s students who bought the farm from him. I especial-ly loved Katipunan’s city plaza which features a tree house as well as the tallest Rizal monument in the province. After Katipunan, we ar-rived at the municipality of Manukan where the fa-mous Zamboanga fighting cocks originated. We defi-nitely knew we were at Ma-nukan as we were greeted
by the biggest cock we had ever seen standing by the side of the road. Standing over 30-feet tall and housing the local tourism office as well as a mini-museum inside, the giant of a rooster was a
welcome and funny stop-over for the group. It was just too bad that we were not able to go inside as the tourism office had already closed for the day. The rest of the trip was idyllic but with the high-way hugging the Zambo-anga del Norte coastline, each twist and turn of the well-paved highway held spectacular views of beach-es as well as the Sulu Sea beyond. The group finally ar-rived at Sindangan just in time for dinner at the Sea Heights Diner, I guess the almost three-hour road trip made everyone ex-tra hungry and in need of good food, and good food we did have. Director June revealed that Singangan is a popular stop-over place for people traveling between Zambo-anga City and Dipolog. The seafood of the municipality being the major draw as to why people would choose to stop at Sindangan. Singangan also has a
marine sanctuary as well as beautiful beaches which unfortunately we were not able to see or experience since we arrived much later than anticipated but the fresh seafood such as the sweet and juicy grilled mamsa (giant jackfish) panga, the delicious mar-lin kinilaw and the tender
cooked squid more than made up for the time spent on the road ensuring that there were happy faces and filled tummies on the bus trip back to Dipolog City. Follow me on Instagram or Twitter for travel and foodie finds as well as hap-penings in, around and be-yond Durianburg.
Stunning views from the Dipolog -Oroquieta Highway make the ride scenic and enjoyable.
Meeting the biggest fighting cock at Manukan.
Katipunan’s charming town plaza.
The media group together with DOT Assistant Secretary Arturo Boncato and DOT XI regional director June Bugante at the Dipolog City Airport.
Tender and smoky mamsa panga, marlin kinilaw, and spicy squid.
The Rizal monument at Katipunan is said to be the tallest in the province.
The marker at Jose Rizal’s Farm.
Grilling up some fresh fish at Sea Heights Diner.
Me sizing up the freshly caught mamsa.
& Grey Davao. Inspired by the idea, Apo View Hotel President and CEO Chris Pamintuan commissioned the agency to develop a map that hotel guests can
enjoy and use with ease. The hotel and the agency also worked hand in hand to promote the map as a means for tourists and locals alike to discover or
re-discover the many sides of downtown Davao. To further promote the cam-paign, Celdran, one of the country’s most famous tours experts, was asked to road test the map. Through the coverage of several media outfits, as well as Celdran’s own posts on his social media accounts, the campaign sparked massive interest for Davao. As one com-menter on Celdran’s page put it, “OK, I’m booking Davao soon. Thanks.” Even DOT Assistant Secretary Art Boncato saw promise in the project. On his Facebook page, he commended the hotel’s contribution to the city’s tourism growth, calling the campaign a “brilliant initiative”. Campaigns & Grey is the only multinational ad-vertising agency and 4As (Association of Accred-ited Advertising Agencies – Philippines) member with offices in Davao and Cebu. Under the Grey Group, whose anthem is “Famously Effective since 1917”, Campaigns & Grey uses Grey-standard com-munication tools for op-timal brand building and management. For more information about Campaigns & Grey Davao, please contact (082) 224-2085.
ABREEZA MALL ushered in a fierce new year in Davao fash-ion with Style Paradigms, a two-part program that parades the looks and trends to expect in 2014, as well as advocates environmental awareness through the fusion of art and style. On February 14, 2014 at the Activity Center, Abreeza Mall staged Juxta:Pose Fashion Run-way Preview, Style Para-digms’ runway com-ponent, to give people a glimpse of the latest collections of Abreeza Mall brands and of cre-ations by 10 of Davao’s most renowned fashion and accessory design-ers. Besides featuring the freshest picks from Marks & Spencer, Free-way, Plains & Prints, RRJ, BAYO, Original Pen-guin, Cocoon, Bauhaus, Artwork, Mags, Petrol, and SOUL Lifestyle, the third outing of Abreeza Mall’s yearly fashion event show-cased pieces by garment designers Egay Ayag, Aztec Barba, Popoy Barba, Dodjie Batu, Edgar Buyan, and Emi Englis of the Davao Elite Fashion Group, and accessory designers Car-maela Alcantara of Crystal Seas, Shiela Marie Damalerio, Fu-miko Kuroda, and Yvette Celi Punzalan of Yvette’s.
What makes the 2014 edition of this annual fashion spec-tacle even more special is it expands its theme and scope this year to promote a social consciousness that values the environment. Also launched at Style Paradigms was the program’s second component, Juxta(Positions): The Collo-cation of Art and Design, a fashion photo editorial exhibi-tion that integrates the works of the 10 participating fashion
and accessory designers with those of Davao’s art and design icons to push for awareness of the destructive effects of climate change. Some of the art and design icons who lend their talents to Juxta(Positions)—Alfon-so “Boy” Guino-o (fash-ion design), Tita Lacam-bra Ayala (literary arts), Agnes Locsin (dance), Brenda Zafra Barba (visu-al arts and art education), Aida Rivera-Ford (liter-ary arts), Ann Tiukinhoy Pamintuan (jewelry and
furniture design), Dr. Macario Tiu (literary arts), Chef Eduardo Tuazon (culinary arts), Kublai Millan (visual arts), Arnel Mar-doquio (film), and Joey Ayala (music)—were present at Style Paradigms to formally launch the exhibit. Juxta(Positions) is produced in partnership with Philip-pine Women’s College of Davao’s Helena Z Benitez School of Fine Arts & Design. The exhibit is on display in three loca-tions at Abreeza Mall’s second floor until March 5. For updates on events and activities at Abreeza Mall, visit the Main Concierge at the ground floor or call (082) 321-9332. Stay updated by liking www.facebook.com/AbreezaMall and fol-lowing @abreezatweets on Twitter and @iloveabreezamall on Instagram.
Style Paradigms promotes fashion with a
cause at Abreeza Mall
A2 INdulge!UP AND ABOUT
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014EDGEDAVAO
Local ad agency’s campaign for hotel sparks interest for
Davao walking toursWHEN celebrated Manila tour guide and cultural activist Carlos Celdran up-dated his Facebook page with pictures of his Davao City tour, his last post garnered over 1,200 likes and was shared more than 200 times. These posts were live updates from his two-day walking tour and video shoot for Apo View Hotel. During his tour dubbed as “Carlos Cel-dran does Davao”, he ex-plored Davao’s vibrant downtown district using the Apo View Hotel Street Map, a customized city guide that features little known or underappreci-ated attractions near the hotel’s location. Leveraging Apo View Hotel’s prime location at the heart of the city and its proximity to many of Davao’s historical and cul-tural sites was the driving idea behind this campaign conceptualized by adver-tising agency Campaigns
One of the country’s most famous tour experts Carlos Celdran sets off on his Davao adventures from Apo View Hotel.
Carlos Celdran with Kharisse Cubelo and Marga Rey of Campaigns & Grey Davao.
Apo View Hotel President and CEO Chris Pamintuan describes the hotel’s advantage of being in the heart of the city, in the center of old Davao
Celdran was impressed by the four-hectare People’s Park and cites it as one of his favorite locations during this two-day walking tour.
KOREAN superstars Siwon and Donghae of popular K-pop boy band Super Junior and one of Taiwan’s most adored actresses, Ivy Chen, become official Kapamilya as their hit Asianovela “Skip Beat” premieres this Mon-day (Feb 24) in ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Gold. The long wait is finally over as two of the hottest Korean heartthrobs from the 13-member group, dubbed as the “King of Global Ko-rean Wave,” hit Philippine television with a must-see series that originally aired on Taiwan. Follow the story of Nikki (Chen), a girl who dedicated her life to support her close friend and childhood sweet-heart Sam (Donghae) so that he can pursue his dream of becoming a singer. Reality hits her one day when she overheard Sam talking to another woman and said that he is just using her. From that moment on, she vowed to reclaim her pride and seek revenge. Her fury further ignited when Sam belittled her and said she won’t be able to avenge herself because they live in two very different worlds. He even quipped that the only way for Nikki to seek revenge is by be-ing famous too just like him. These hurtful words prompted Nikki to also enter the world of show business. Nikki then works her way up to becoming an actress and strives to become more successful in the biz than the man who broke her heart. While learning the ropes, Nikki meets Kean, a certified superstar in the industry and Sam’s number one rival.
Kean learns of Nikki’s ven-detta against Sam and will help her become a better actress. Nikki, on the other hand, also helps Kean over-come his insecurities. This newfound friend-ship will draw them closer together that will lead to something more. Is Nikki ready for a new love? Or is she still hoping to be with her first love Sam at the end of it all? Will she pick the man she loved in past or the man who loves her in the present? A week before its pilot telecast, “Skip Beat” already landed on the top Twitter trending topics nationwide not just once, but twice, af-ter Asianovela fans poured and expressed their excite-ment on the upcoming series via tweets when the show’s teaser aired on TV. Don’t miss the super ‘kulit’ and super ‘kilig’ Asianovela “Skip Beat,” weekdays after “Galema: Anak ni Zuma” on ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Gold. For more updates, follow @Kapamilanovela on Twitter or like the official Kapamily-anovela Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ABSCBNKapamilyanovelas.
Baron von Trapp, hired a governess to teach her and her brothers and sis-ters.Maria recounted the memory in a post on her family’s website for their Austrian-inspired lodge in Vermont: “As a result of scarlet fever, I was too sickly to walk the three miles to school every day, and the doctor advised that I stay home. This condition brought Ma-ria Augusta Kutschera to teach me first grade gym-nasium, the equivalent of middle school. She came to us as my teacher and after three years became
our second mother.” Born Maria Franziska, the second eldest daugh-ter and third oldest child, she fled from Austria with her family in 1938 to es-cape the Nazis. The famous singing siblings’ tale sparked the 1959 Rodgers and Ham-merstein Broadway mu-sical and the 1965 film, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plum-mer. Heather Menzies portrayed Louisa, Maria’s character. The classic movie won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
MARIA VON TRAPP, whose family’s story served as the inspiration for The Sound of Music, has died. She was 99. Maria, who was the last surviving member of the family of seven brothers and sisters, passed away in her sleep at her home in Vermont, a family friend confirmed to the Austrian Times. “It was a surprise that she was the one in the family to live the longest because ever since she was a child she suffered from a weak heart,” Mari-anne Dorfer, who runs
the von Trapp Villa Ho-tel in Salzburg, told the
newspaper. Dorfer continued that
Maria’s poor health was the reason her father,
KATY PERRY did sing, once upon a time, how she kissed a girl and liked it. And Miley Cyrus decided to take full advantage. The 21-year-old pop star locked lips with her good pal during her Bangerz concert in Los Ange-les on Saturday night. Let’s set the scene: Cyrus was performing “Adore You” and in the middle of the song, she bent down to give the “Dark Horse” singer a smooch. “I just kissed a girl and I really liked it a lot,” Cyrus declared after the duo’s spontaneous moment, which was captured in this fan’s Instagram video. And the blond beauty also made a perfect refer-ence to Perry’s smash hit from 2008. After the show, Cyrus added a snapshot of the two ladies kissing to her Twitter account, along with several lip emoji icons. Perry was clearly excited for the show and tweet-ed before the concert, “I hope @MileyCyrus sings Breakout or The Climb tonight please bb!”
INdulge! A3
Super Junior’s Siwon and Donghae topbill ABS-CBN’s newest asianovela ‘Skip Beat’
Maria von Trapp, last surviving member of the famous singing family, dies at 99
ENTERTAINMENT
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014EDGEDAVAO
Miley Cyrus kisses Katy Perry at Bangerz concert
PG 13
PG 13
PG 13
PG 13 12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS
R-16
ROBOCOP 2D
12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS
STARTING OVER AGAIN 2D
12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS
THE BOOK THIEF 2D
Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman,
Michael Keaton
12:00 | 2:00 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 8:00 | 10:00 LFS
POMPEII 2D
Kit Harington, Emily Browning
Piolo Pascual, Toni Gonzaga
Sophie Nélisse, Nico Liersch
A4 INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014EDGEDAVAOEVENT
KINANG, the open-ing ceremony of the 75th Kalilangan Festival was held at General Santos City’s Oval Plaza last Feb. 21, 2014. The program featured fun, colorful and theatrical perfor-mances accompa-nied by sets of video presentations. With emphasis on the mo-ments from the past that made Gensan what it is today, what the city has now, and glances of the future, as aspirations and dreams were shared by a number of Gen-sans youth. Glimpses from Gen-sans past were highlighted from photos and video testimonies of the early settlers, pioneers and descendants of General Paulino Santos. It was an evening of sparkle, pre-sented by the city’s best and brightest performers. A landscape of awesome-ness showcasing a vivid cultural celebration of col-
ors and diversity, perfectly interpreted in song and dance numbers reflecting the city’s rich history and evolution. In his opening speech Mayor Ronnel C. Rivera thanked every genera-tion of GenSans early set-tlers and pioneers on how their contributions have helped put GenSan in the local and global commu-nity. He also encourage the citizens of Gensan to be the eyes and ears of the government, told the Lo-cal Government Unit offi-cials and employees to roll up their sleeves and work on the things that need to be fixed, and also to the peace and order units of
the city to continue pro-viding peace and present more peace and order so-lutions for the Generals, lastly the business sector, to continue in building a strong and stable eco-nomic structure of prog-ress in GenSan. After his speech, 75 torches were lit, representing the years
and decades of the city’s evolution, and a grand fireworks display dropped the crowd’s jaws to the ground. Follow me on Twitter or Instagram, @kyriekoutre for more adventures in and around my wonder-land that is Gensan, Tuna Capital of the Philippines.
KinangThe grand opening ceremony of
the 75th Kalilangan Festival
EDGEDavao Davao Partners
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014 13Realty
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NOTICE OF LOSSNotice is hereby given that the estate of the late MARIA
P. NAVARRA has been the subject of an EXTRA-JUDICIAL SETTLEMENT with affidavit of self-adjudication executed by her heir per Doc. No.158; Page No. 31; Book No. XI; Series of 2010 of the NOTARY PUBLIC NEIL B. JAO, M.A.
2/25/3/4,11
EDGEDAVAO
COMPETITIVE EDGE
BARANGAY Tagbaobo of Kaputian District, Island Garden City of Samal
took the center stage during the recent 5th World Ecotour-
ism Conference held at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City from February 20-22, 2014. The international event’s theme was “Marine and Coast-
al Ecotourism: Oceans of Un-certainties, Waves of Opportu-nities.
The Tagbaobo Commu-nity-Based Tourism program was chosen along with four other LGU’s in the country in a presentation before hundreds of ecotourism stakeholders from all over the globe. Other destinations/topics present-ed during the forum were El Nido Resorts: Why Green-er is Tougher, Ridge to Reef Ecotourism Destinations of Central Visayas, Linking Con-servation to Ecotourism, and Into the Heart of Cordillera Mountains.
The annual World Eco-
tourism Conference is being held in collaboration with the World Tourism Organization (WTO) and is the world’s most important conference in the ecotourism fraternity.
The World Ecotourism Conference provides a strate-gic podium for high level eco-tourism experts, proponents, practitioners, stakeholders, legislators, educators and consultants to network and share among their peers their knowledge and experiences with coastal communities in developing nations.
Ms. GeneRoseTecson, President of the Tagbaobo Tourism Council, presented an
audio visual and PowerPoint presentation highlighting the development of various tour-ism sites in the barangay with the local residents as its prime movers. The AVP was prepared by MuscleMedia, a leading Au-dio-Visual firm in Region XI.
Tecson is also the new-ly-elected President of the Iga-cos Tourism Council and head of the Region XI Tour Guide Association. She also mans the district office of Davao del Norte District 2 Representa-tive Anton F. Lagdameo, Jr. as the latter’s Chief of Staff.
Among Tagbaobo’s sight-seeing offerings are the scenic Magongawong & SampaoFalls, Cawa-Cawa Rice Field, Horse-back Riding, Samal Tribal House in Sitio Libud, a marine sanctuary and exotic flora & fauna perfect for adventures and selfies. It is ideal for fami-ly and group picnics including activities such as camping, hik-ing, biking, snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming, boating and fishing.
Tecson acknowledged that there is still a lot to be done for the barangay to fully bloom as a primary tourist destina-tion in the region. She howev-er expressed optimism that with the active participation of various stakeholders, espe-cially her fellow constituents, it would catapult Tagbaobo as one of the next melting pot and frontier for visitors to discover and enjoy.
The Tagbaobo Tourism Council is a DOLE-registered organization supported by the Barangay Council, LGU-Igacos, DOT and the Office of Cong. Lagdameo. [edlagumbay]
5TH WORLD ECO TOURISM CONFERENCE
Tagbaobo, IGaCoS hug center stage
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 201414
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VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014 15SPORTSEDGEDAVAO
JASON Collins did not register a single point on Sunday, but
he scored a moment for basketball history as he became the first openly gay player to appear in an NBA game.
Collins, who last April revealed he was gay, signed a 10-day contract with Brooklyn earlier in
the day before making his appearance for the Nets in a game in Los An-geles against the Lakers.
Collins entered the contest 10:28 left in the second quarter and re-ceived a warm recep-tion from the opposing crowd.
“I thought it was great,” Collins told re-
porters, of the greeting.“Being an L.A. kid, I
can’t think of a better situation, playing for the Nets and playing here and getting the win. Just glad Kobe (Bryant) and Shaq (O’Neal) weren’t out there.”
Collins finished with no points, two rebounds, one steal and five fouls
in 11 minutes.On a night he made
history, the Nets (26-28) also snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Lakers (19-37).
“The most important thing is the team got the win,” Collins said.
“I don’t care about scoring. I care about my team winning.”
DUBAI (AFP) - Roger Federer’s performance in
reaching the semi-final of the Australian Open last month is the first step in a mini-revival of tennis’ great legend. This week could see the sec-ond.
That is the scenario Federer intends pursu-ing when he returns to the ATP Tour and tries to win back the title at his adopted second home at the Dubai Open.
Victories over Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Melbourne will be followed by a chance to challenge Novak Djokovic, the top-seed-ed titleholder, here.
Although the formi-dable Serb is seeking a record fifth Dubai title, Federer has a better re-cord against Djokovic than against Rafael Na-dal, the man who halt-ed him last month, and he feels encouraged by his performances in the first Grand Slam of the year.
“I think it has been a very good start to the season for me overall, “ Federer said.
“I have played some really good tennis. I still feel my best tennis is ahead of me right now.
“So I’m looking forward to the com-ing months, and how they’re going to play out, and hopefully by April I feel like I’m going to be a hundred percent again.”
Federer believes his moderate 2013 results were caused partly by fitness problems, trig-gered by a persistently troublesome back, and that he is in significantly better shape this year.
- ‘New racket’ -He also has a new
racket, reportedly with a frame of 98 square inch-es, which means he is no longer experimenting with what is best. On-off equipment changes may also have contributed to some of his 2013 prob-lems.
Most conspicuously he has a new coach.
Some pundits think that his decision to team up with Stefan Edberg, an outstanding volley-er when he was world number one, is a mas-ter stroke, especially as this an area of the game which Federer is trying to develop.
“Technically Roger is strong,” says Edberg. “But I also think it would be good if he would vary his game a bit more than he does at the moment.”
Down 3-2 in the se-ries, Rain or Shine head coach Yeng
Guiao still believes it’s their destiny to win the title.
In their last trip to the Philippine Cup Finals, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters lost via sweep to the Talk ‘N Text Tro-pang Texters. They were gunning for back-to-back championships then and they felt it was their time to take the crown away from Talk ‘N Text. The Elasto Painters believed it was their destiny.
It wasn’t.Talk ‘N Text was just
too good for the young Rain or Shine squad. They were swept in the series, which was more corona-tion than competition.
Down 3-1 against the San Mig Super Coffee Mix-ers, the Elasto Painters could have just accepted
the same fate: accept de-feat, wait for an import to back you up, and try to win the Commissioner’s Cup instead. However, Rain or Shine refused to allow the Mixers to write their happily ever after for their Cinderella run.
“We just grinded out a win and we’re still behind in the series but one thing we can promise the fans is that we will fight it out to the end,” said the defiant Rain or Shine head coach. “We’re still looking to win the championship. One thing I told the boys before the game is that you can’t lose that sense of destiny. Even if we’re behind, it’s not over. We have to believe in ourselves.”
Last year, after losing for the third straight time to the Tropang Texters, Guiao simply said they wanted to delay Talk ‘T Text’s par-ty. Now, he added another
phrase that showed how his team is approaching this series.
“We will delay or post-pone the celebration of San Mig Coffee,” Guiao started his familiar statement. “If we can delay it enough, maybe it can be our cele-bration.”
The Elasto Painters fought with a renewed sense of confidence in Game 5 of the series. They didn’t play like a team just wanting to survive. They played like a team that be-lieved they could still win the entire thing.
“Sinabi ko sa kanila, kahit na discouraged sila, kahit na masama yung pa-kiramdam nila, they need to keep that to themselves. They cannot show that to their teammates,” Guiao added. “Kung pinakita nil-ang discouraged sila, tata-pusin ko yung career nila dito.”
“So we’ll see each other on Wednesday; also on Fri-day, hopefully.”
One of the players who displayed this mentality was guard Ryan Arana. He is still nursing in injured right shoulder and he was once again reacquainted with a hard Rafi Reavis screen but he played on to help his team in whatever capacity he can.
“Malaki yung tiwala ko na kaya pa naming manalo basta magtulungan lang kami sa loob, magtiwala lang sa isa’t isa, at magtiis lang kasi mahirap talag-ang manalo,” Arana said after the game.
Last season, Arana also remembered the feeling that it was their destiny to win the Philippine Cup. But when things got tough, the Elasto Painters failed to respond. Now, Arana says things are much dif-ferent.
Down 2-3, Painters out to win series
Scoreless but happy
Federer reviving greatness
SERIOUS. Business Mirror columnist Al Mendoza (front) reads the green as Edge Davao managing editor Neil Bravo (back) walks to his ball on no. 10 at the Negros Occidental Golf and Country in Bacolod City during the PAL Interclub Media Golf Tournament. Lean Daval Jr.
BLAST. Davao’s Imee Garcia, Sun Star columnist, plays out from the bunker during the PAL Interclub Media Golf Tour-nament at the Negros Occidental Golf and Country in Bacolod City. Boy Lim
LUISITA’S RETURN. Members of Luisita receive their championship trophy after a triumphant 2-point cliffhanger showdown with rival Canlubang at the conclusion of the PAL Seniors Interclub at the Marapara golf course in Bacolod City. Photo shows Luisita flanked by PAL officials. They are, from left, Rene Aviles, PAL Bacolod branch head; Eddie Bagtas, Richie Garcia, Joey Romasanta, Pepot Iñigo, Bong Sison, Iggy Clavecilla, Francis Gaston and Dina May Flores, PAL Revenue Management head.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 201416 EDGEDAVAOSports
BACOLOD – The heavily-wooded Negros Occiden-
tal Golf and Country Club, otherwise known as Marapara, will again be the venue of the final round of the 67th Phil-ippine Airlines Inter-club Men’s champion-ship on Saturday.
Precision off the tees and well-placed ap-proach shots are what will be demanded from the field as Cebu Coun-try Club tries for its first-ever ‘three-peat’ against several formida-ble squads.
A total of two rounds will be played at the Marapara and another two at the Bacolod Golf and Country Club – also known as Binitin –in Murcia town.
Cebu CC will miss the services of aces Mark Dy and Lloyd Jefferson Go and will pin its hopes on old hands Ramontito Garcia, Carl Almario and many-time club cham-pion Eric Deen.
Dy turned pro just
weeks after the Cebua-nos nipped Alabang last year, while Go, who won the national amateur championship in devas-tating fashion at Wack Wack East last month, is in the United States on a golfing scholarship.
Alabang again takes a stab at a first championship division crown with a team built around Andres Saldana and a host of teenaged members.
Saldana, who is com-ing off a close second place finish to Rupert Zaragosa in the 19th WExpress-DHL tour-nament at Canlubang North last week, ban-ners a young Alabang squad that also has Jus-tin Quiban, Basti Loren-zo and Gabriel Manotoc.
Southwoods, the pe-rennial title contender just several years back, will be spearheaded by former pro Antonio Asistio and the veteran Jun Jun Plana.
Orchard also looks good on paper with
veteran internation-alist John Kier Abdon and the seasoned King Stehmeier spearhead-ing the squad.
Del Monte, with the products of its grass-roots program getting better by the year, is also a solid title threat.
The Bukid-non-based squad also sent its mainstays to Canlubang last week with Magno Arancon impressing the most. Arancon finished third by nine shots but showed a great all-around game.
This year’s Interclub is being co-sponsored by CrossOver with Boe-ing, Philippines Graph-ic, Stargate Media (Peo-ple Asia) and Rogue as corporate backers. Also lending support are Airbus, Business Mir-ror, One Mega Group (Travel Now), Phil-ippine Broadcasting Corporation, Manila Broadcasting Corpora-tion, Petron and Manila Bulletin.
Marapara to decide Men’s Interclub champion
VOL. 6 ISSUE 243 • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
MEDIA GOLF. Edge Davao managing Editor Neil Bravo (left) studies his line of putt as Jon Develos (right) takes his shot at hole. No. 9 at the Negros Occidental Golf and Country in Bacolod City during the PAL Interclub Media Golf Tournament. Lean Daval Jr.
