Manila Standard Today - August 01, 2012

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He won. Mark Barriga of the Philippines (in red shirt) wins over a taller Italian
opponent in the London Olympics. Videograb: IBC 13 AKTV
Shes back. Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, escorted by her son Ang Galing Pinoy Party-list
Rep. Mikey Arroyo, enters the plenary hall. It was Arroyos rst ap-
pearance in Congress since her hospital arrest in November 2011.
She left after staying a few minutes in the session hall.
Bound for Panatag. The BRP Gregorio del Pilar docks at the Subic Bay Freeport for refuelling as it prepares to leave for the Panatag Shoal. DANNY PATA
Picking up the pieces. Fishermen collect their belongings from a half-submerged shing boat in Navotas. Inset shows a Korean-registered
cargo vessel that ran aground in Mariveles (left) and a RO-RO vessel that sank in Looc Bay in Romblon. Photos by the AP and the Coast Guard
New smuggled
rice discovered
Barriga mauls Italian,
makes boxings last 16
THE Philippines on Tuesday re-
ceived bids from local companies
to explore offshore areas claimed
by China in a tender that the worlds
biggest oil and gas rms avoided as
the nations feud over territory.
Makati City-based Helios Petro-
leum and Gas Corp. submitted offers
for two of the blocks, while a group
including Philex Petroleum Corp.
bid on one, according to Energy Un-
dersecretary Jose Layug.
Two of the three areas fall with-
in Chinas so-called nine-dash map
of the South China Sea.
We normally receive bids
from medium-size companies,
not from the big boys, Layug
told reporters.
By Rey E. Requejo and
Joyce Pangco Paares
THE Judicial and Bar Council
has postponed the nal delib-
erations on the candidates for
chief justice to next week, giv-
ing President Benigno Aquino
III only 13 days to choose the
countrys top magistrate from a
shortlist that the panel is expect-
ed to send him by Aug. 6.
The postponement was an-
nounced as the council waited
for the Supreme Court to re-
consider its July 17 decision to
limit Congress to one seat on the
council instead of the traditional
two, one each for the Senate and
the House of Representatives.
The Supreme Court set the
oral arguments on the motion
for reconsideration for Thurs-
day, Aug. 2. Senator Joker Ar-
royo is expected to argue the
case for the Senate.
The council had earlier set
the voting Monday to give the
President one month to choose
from the shortlist. But the coun-
cil has already moved its voting
By Jonathan Fernandez,
Othel V. Campos and
Macon Ramos- Araneta
AT LEAST eight people died,
three were injured and four sher-
men went missing when Typhoon
Gener moved across central and
northern Luzon toward Taiwan on
Tuesday, disaster ofcials said.
Crop damage was initially
estimated at P17.66 million but
was expected to rise as reports
started coming in from Cagayan,
Bataaan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac,
the Agriculture Department said.
Most of the casualties
drowned---one victim was elec-
trocuted and another was hit by a
falling coconut tree---in swollen
rivers as the southwest monsoon
dumped heavy rain in the affected
areas, disaster coordinating coun-
cil executive director Benito Ra-
mos said.
Today ve more fatalities were
added to our recorded casualties.
We also have four shermen still
missing in Sablayan, Occidental
Mindoro, Ramos said.
By Sara Susanne
D. Fabunan
BEIJING said on Tuesday it is op-
posed to any intervention in the
South China Sea, apparently refer-
ring to reports that Tokyo will help
Manila boost its maritime security.
China has indisputable sover-
eign rights over the South China
Sea islands and their adjacent wa-
ters, and the country opposes any
military intervention in this area,
Chinas Ministry of Defense
spokesman Geng Yansheng told
the Xinhua News Agency.
China, which is claiming own-
ership of almost all of the islands
in the South China Sea, has an on-
going territorial dispute with Ja-
pan over the Diaoyu Islands, also
known as Senkaku.
The Diaoyu islands are located
in the East China Sea between Ja-
pan and China, and contains ve
uninhabited islands and three bar-
ren rocks.
Tokyo has been helping Manila
upgrade its Coastal Guard eet
since the 1990s and likewise gives
development aid to the country on
a long-term basis.
By Maricel V Cruz
THE House leadership has not
given up on its bid to push for
Charter Change despite President
Benigno Aquino IIIs continued
opposition to it.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
on Tuesday said Charter Change
was still alive and kicking.
He [President Aquino] did
not say no to it, Belmonte told
reporters.
The fact that he did not say
no, we now know what to do. In
that sense, the door isnt closed
yet, he said.
Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan,
an administration ally, said the
Charter Change telenovela was
pass as she downplayed Senate
President Juan Ponce Enrile and
Belmontes visit to the president.
The drama of Congress lead-
ers trying to convince President
Aquino to endorse Charter Change
is a clear attempt at screening the
latter from the dire repercussions
of Charter Change, Ilagan said.
She accused Malacaang of
supposedly playing coy to pro-
posals to amend the Constitution.
His neo-liberal thrusts all
It was in the same port two weeks ago
that Customs ofcials showed reporters 90
container vans loaded with 45, 000 sacks
of smuggled rice worth P42 million that
were declared as construction materials
and gypsum boards.
Biazon said the latest shipment came
from India and arrived at the port on April
4 on board the vessel Vinalines Mighty.
The shipment was consigned to Metro
Eastern Trading Corp.
Biazon said Customs ofcials became
suspicious when the importer failed to
produce the permits to import rice from
the National Food Authority.
There was clearly a grand design to il-
legally slip the 420,000 bags of imported
white rice into the country as not only was
the importation undocumented but its con-
signee tried to make the shipment appear as
a transshipment load to Jakarta, he said.
We will never allow unscrupulous
traders to exploit the privileges offered by
the countrys various freeport zones like
the Port of Subic to be their staging points
for smuggling.
LONDONAfter a rash of defeats, Team
Philippines finally scored a victory in the 30th
Summer Olympics here late Tuesday night
courtesy of a five-foot bundle of energy.
Mark Anthony Barriga, the smallest
Filipino ghter to grace the lightest of
boxings 10 divisions at 5 feet at, turned
the face of Italian Manuel Cappai into a
veritable punching bag and pulled off
a 17-7 win in a light-yweight bout at
10,000-seat Excel Arena east of the city,
Giving away six inches in height against
the crafty Italian, who ghts like defend-
ing champion Zou Shiming of China, the
19-year-old Barriga counter-punched his
way to a 5-2 lead in the opening round be-
fore another barrage midway through the
second gave the Filipino teener a 9-4 lead
going into the last round.
The Italian went for broke in the -
nal round, but it only sealed his doom as
By Maricel V. Cruz
THE supporters of the Reproductive
Health bill on Tuesday accused the six
congressmen who withdraw their sup-
port of the measure of succumbing to
political and Church pressure, but vowed
to push hard for the bills passage.
The move of the six lawmakers
showed a divided opposition in the
House but pleased the Catholic Church,
which is violently opposed to the RH
bill because, it says, it is a population-
control measure.
The bill is also expected to have a
rough sailing in the Senate as two sen-
ators---Senate President Juan Ponce En-
rile and Majority Floor Leader Vicente
Sotto III---are also against it.
As a result of the new developments
on the bill, House Speaker Feliciano Bel-
monte Jr. said he had launched a text bri-
gade to encourage the 284 lawmakers to
TODAY
Vol. XXVI No. 143 16 Pages, 3 Sections
P18.00 WEDNESDAY, August 1, 2012
www.manilastandardtoday.com mst@mstandardtoday.com
Standard
Manila
Again in Subic port; new shipment valued at P0.5b
Belmonte says Cha-cha
still alive and kicking
8 dead, crop damage mark Geners path
Oil majors
avoid PH
drilling bids
Beijing twits Tokyo on plan to boost Manilas maritime security
JBC resets
deliberation
on CJ bets
Church pressure splits
opposition over RH bill
Next page
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By Joel E. Zurbano and Christine F. Herrera
CUSTOMS agents seized another shipment of
420,000 bags of smuggled rice worth half a billion
pesos in the port of Subic, Customs Commission-
er Ruffy Biazon said on Tuesday.
Biazon made his announcement even
as Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala
said the no-rice importation policy for
next year remained in place as the gov-
ernment was on target for self-sufciency
despite the calamities.
But he warned that the self-sufciency
drive would be threatened if rice smug-
glers were not stopped.
No rice importation will be made next
year, Alcala told the Manila Standard on
the eve of the Senate investigation of rice
smuggling.
The country is well on its way to rice
self-sufciency maybe even earlier than
targeted.
Biazon, meanwhile said he and the of-
cials of the Subic Bay Management Au-
thority held a joint press conference to bely
reports of a turf war after the SBMA com-
plained that Biazons raid at the Subic port
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News
ManilaStandardToday mst.daydesk@gmail.com AUGUST 1, 2012 WEDNESDAY
A2
New...
two weeks aga was made out of
his jurisdiction.
There is no turf war. We
just held a joint press confer-
ence, Biazon told the Manila
Standard.
Metro Eastern claimed that the
real consignee of the 420,000
bags of rice was an India-based
company named Amira C Foods
International DMCC, and that the
rice shipment was originally des-
tined for Jakarta.
But because of the delayed ar-
rival of the vessel that carried the
rice shipment from India to the
Port of Jakarta, the shipments
import permit for Jakarta had al-
ready lapsed.
Jakartas Customs authorities
then did not allow the 420,000
bags of rice to be unloaded,
prompting Amira to seek a port
that allowed transshipment such
as the Port of Subic.
But Subic ofcials said that
contrary to the claims of Metro
Eastern, the shipment was really
destined for delivery to the Port
of Subic.
Without a doubt this is a case
of a large- scale attempt to smug-
gle rice into the country, Biazon
said.
Had we not stopped this il-
legal rice importation, it could
have caused tremendous dam-
age to our farmers.
Meanwhile, Senator Francis
Pangilinan, chairman of the
Senate committee on agricul-
ture and food, had summoned
to todays hearing Biazon
along with his Deputy Com-
missioners Danilo Lim and
Prudencio Reyes to shed light
on rice smuggling.
JBC...
twice because of Congress insis-
tence that it is entitled to two votes.
The President has 90 days to ap-
point a new chief justice after the
former top magistrate, Renato Co-
rona, was removed from ofce on
May 29 in an impeachment trial.
In a press conference on Tues-
day, Court spokeswoman Maria
Victoria Gleoresty Guerra said the
issue over the congressional vote
would be settled once and for all af-
ter the oral arguments on Thursday.
Guerra said the Court took into
consideration the great signicance
of the case and its crucial effect on
the three branches of government in
calling for oral arguments.
Associate Justice Diosdado Per-
alta, the only senior magistrate of
the Court who is not vying for the
post, will preside over the hearing
after acting Chief Justice Antonio
Carpio and Associate Justices Pres-
bitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leon-
ardo-De Castro and Arturo Brion
inhibited themselves from the de-
liberations.
Another nominee for chief jus-
tice, Associate Justice Roberto
Abad, did not inhibit himself from
the case and will participate in the
oral arguments.
The Court issued its ruling on
July 17 after former solicitor gen-
eral Frank Chavez questioned the
constitutionality of the councils
composition, which has included
two representatives from Congress
since 2001.
The Constitution says Congress
is entitled to a representative on
the council, not two.
Guerra said the justices had not
yet received the resolutions led
in the Senate reiterating its posi-
tion that the bicameral Congress be
granted two seats on the council.
In its ruling, the Court said the
current composition of the coun-
cil was unconstitutional and left it
to Congress to decide who among
its two representatives---Senator
Francis Escudero or Rep. Niel Tu-
pas Jr.---would take the one seat al-
lotted to Congress.
Guerra said the ruling would
take effect immediately, although
the respondents could still le an
appeal.
In their motion for consideration,
Escudero and Tupas argued that
the framers of the Constitution had
made an oversight in assigning
just one representative when the
legislature they created was bicam-
eral.
Also on Tuesday, the Palace
said it will respect the prerogative
of the Judicial and Bar Council to
exclude Justice Secretary Leila de
Lima from it shortlist because of
a pending disbarment case against
her.
We will leave that up to the
JBC, deputy presidential spokes-
woman Abigail Valte said on Tues-
day after the Integrated Bar of the
Philippines dismissed De Limas
petition to set aside the disbarment
case.
Asked if the Palace would be
disappointed if De Lima was not
among the nal candidates, Valte
said we will just wait as to who
will make it to the shortlist.
Valte noted that De Lima had
already sent an appeal to the coun-
cil asking that she not be excluded
over the disbarment case, even
though its rules say any candidate
facing administrative or criminal
charges will be automatically dis-
qualied.
Integrated Bar of the Philippines
spokeswoman Trixie Reyes-Ange-
les said the IBP board of governors
had denied De Limas petition to
summarily dismiss the disbarment
case led against her for calling
ousted Chief Justice Renato Co-
rona a lawless tyrant.
Oil...
Were very happy with the
turnout.
The Philippines, a US ally,
this month denounced intimi-
dation from China and warned
of possible physical hostilities
at a regional security meeting
that included Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton. Units of Total
SA, Exxon Mobil Corp. and
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which
were among about 40 compa-
nies prequalied for the auction,
didnt enter bids.
No one can afford to upset
the Chinese and be marginalized
in the Chinese market, Gordon
Kwan, the Hong Kong-based
head of regional energy research
at Mirae Asset Securities Ltd.,
said by phone.
The Philippines is simply not
a must-have market for the ma-
jor oil companies, he said, add-
ing that only businesses with
no chance in China would bid.
Chinese vessels last year
chased away a survey ship doing
work for the Philippines, and
Chinas government has said
companies need its permission
to explore in areas that were of-
fered today. A tripartite agree-
ment between the Philippines,
China and Vietnam to jointly
explore parts of the South China
Sea unraveled in 2008, prompt-
ing each nation to separately
pursue the search for offshore
oil and gas.
Helios bid on both Area 3
and Area 4, which fall within
Chinas claims based on its
nine-dash map. Philex, Philip-
pine National Oil Co.-Explo-
ration Corp. and Petro Energy
Resources Corp. jointly bid on
Area 4. London-based Pitkin Pe-
troleum Plc and Philodrill Corp.
jointly bid on Area 5, which is
closer to the Philippines than the
other blocks offered.
The Philippines may award
exploration contracts as early
as September, Layug said. Costs
for the three blocks up for bid
combined with a further 12 of-
fered earlier would total about
$6 billion, he said.
We dont think the tension
in the West Philippine Sea had
a negative impact, Layug said,
using the governments term for
the South China Sea.
These areas are clearly with-
in the sovereign rights of the
Philippines.
Arturo Morado, chief execu-
tive of Pitkin Petroleum, said
Monday he wanted to avoid po-
litical risk.
My gut feeling is that as you
go farther away from the Philip-
pines going into the deeper wa-
ters, I think China will be more
active there complaining about
any activities, he said by phone
from Manila.
That will be riskier than
blocks that are nearer to the
Philippines.
China surpassed the US as
the worlds largest energy user
in 2010, while the Philippines
wants to reduce its near-total re-
liance on imports. The govern-
ment in Manila plans to boost
hydrocarbon reserves by 40
percent in the next two decades,
according to an Enerby Depart-
ment plan.
Enhanced energy security is
whats important for us, Ra-
mon Carandang, a spokesman
for President Benigno Aquino,
said Monday.
Its important for the econ-
omy that we develop more in-
digenous sources of fuel and
power.
Philex Petroleum chief ex-
ecutive Manuel Pangilinan in
April said the tensions with
China might delay the devel-
opment of Reed Bank, which
may contain the countrys
largest gas field. He declined
to comment Monday on talks
with China National Offshore
Oil Corp. to settle a dispute
involving Forum Energy Plc,
a U.K.-based Philex affiliate.
Last year, Chinese ships
chased away a vessel working
for Forum Energy near Reed
Bank, which sits to the west of
the blocks up for bid on Tues-
day.
China probably would not ac-
cept a deal that included Forum
Energy because it wanted to only
deal with companies from direct
claimants, policy research group
International Crisis Group said
in a report this month.
Reed Bank is likely to re-
main a ashpoint as the Philip-
pines Philex Petroleum plans to
start drilling in the area by Au-
gust 2013, the report said.
So far, this has been held up
by a lack of capital and potential
partners, as major oil companies
fear jeopardizing their relation-
ship with China.
China has moved to secure
more hydrocarbons in the South
China Sea. China National Off-
shore, the government-owned
parent of Cnooc, last month
invited foreign companies to
explore offshore blocks that
Vietnam had already awarded to
companies including Exxon and
OAO Gazprom.
In May, Cnooc deployed Chi-
nas rst deep-water drilling rig
near disputed islands.
When asked earlier this year
about Philippine plans to of-
fer exploration blocks, foreign
ministry spokesman Hong Lei
reiterated Chinas indisput-
able sovereignty over the
area.
It is illegal for any country
or company to engage in oil and
gas exploration activities in wa-
ters under Chinas jurisdiction
without the permission of the
Chinese Government, he said
on Feb. 28, according to a tran-
script of the brieng.
The Philippines has sought
US help in improving its de-
fense capabilities, acquiring
a second Coast Guard cutter
and planning to obtain marine
patrol vessels and radar. The
Philippines spent $2.2 billion
on defense last year, compared
with Chinas $129 billion, ac-
cording to data compiled by
the Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute.
The bids are important be-
cause the exercise of sovereign-
ty is best shown by the ability
to exercise jurisdiction over the
area, said Prospero de Vera, a
political science professor at the
University of the Philippines.
The challenge there is, once
you exercise sovereignty in the
area you must back up your
words by protecting your inter-
ests. Bloomberg
8...
On Tuesday afternoon, Ty-
phoon Gener was spotted 180
kilometers east northeast of
Basco, Batanes, moving to-
wards Taiwan at seven kilome-
ters per hour. Storm signals re-
mained hoisted in the provinces
of Cagayan, Calayan, Babuyan,
Isabela, Kalinga and Apayao.
A Korean-registered cargo
vessel with 18 crew ran aground
at the Canas Point in Mariveles,
Bataan, on Sunday because of
strong winds and rough seas in
the area, the Coast Guard said.
Ofcials said the M/V Ocean
Galaxy was on its way to Manila
from China when it developed en-
gine trouble and decided to drop
anchor, but it was dragged by pow-
erful winds and ran aground.
Communication has been es-
tablished with the boat and all
crew were in good condition
with no sign of leakages, the of-
cial said.
In Batangas, ve shermen
swam to safety after their boat
capsized while on its way back
to Batangas from a shing trip
to Verde Island, a Coast Guard
report said.
In Tondo, Manila, a drifting
cargo vessel, MV Bayang, hit
an anchored barge, damaging its
hull and causing it to submerge.
In Romblon, a roll-on, roll-
off vessel with 57 passengers
and loaded with cargoes sank
in rough seas on Looc Bay
while enroute to Batangas from
Dumaguit via Odiongan, the
Coast Guard said.
The ship reported one casual-
ty but said the rest of the 57 pas-
sengers and 48 crew were safe.
The Agriculture Department
said damage to crop was esti-
mated at P17.66 million and
about 8,391 hectares of agri-
cultural land planted to rice
and corn were damaged in the
provinces of Cagayan, Bataan,
Nueva Ecija and Tarlac.
Agriculture Secretary Pro-
ceso Alcala warned traders
against taking advantage of the
situation by increasing prices of
consumer goods.
In Manila, Mayor Alfredo
Lim led the distribution of relief
and nancial assistance to 137
families in Baseco and about 100
families in Happyland, where 42
houses were damaged by the barg
The Philippine National Red
Cross said it sent a team carry-
ing relief to Paraaque to help
467 people in Ka Buboy Bridge
and Floating Village in San Dio-
nisio and helped evacuate fami-
lies in Navotas and in Obando
and Marilao in Bulacan.
Church...
attend sessions regularly to ensure a
quorum in order to speed up the
passage of the priority bills includ-
ing the RH bill.
He said the text brigade could be
an effective way of ensuring a quo-
rum particularly during the crucial
voting on the RH bill on Aug. 7.
I am confident that there will be a
quorum, Belmonte told reporters.
House Majority Leader and
Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gon-
zales said Belmonte started the
text brigade Tuesday morning.
Gabriela party-list Rep. Emmi
de Jesus slammed President Be-
nigno Aquino IIIs call for re-
sponsible parenthood in his State-
of-the-Nation Address espousing
a framework for population con-
trol.
We at Gabriela opt for the ex-
clusion of population control pro-
visions in the Reproductive Health
Bill, she said.
Archbishop Jose Palma, pres-
ident of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines,
on Tuesday praised House Mi-
nority Leader and Quezon Rep.
Danilo Suarez, Siquijor Rep.
Orlando Fua, Lanao Del Sur
Rep. Mohammed Huessein Pan-
gandaman, AA Kasosyo Party-
list Rep. Nasser Pangandaman,
Camarines Norte Rep. Elmer
Panotes, and ALE Rep. Catalina
Bagasina for their decision.
I am happy for that expression of
change of heart, he said. He called
on the other bishops to organize ral-
lies in their respective dioceses to
coincide with the prayer rally at the
Edsa Shrine on Aug. 4.
Still, the advocates of the RH
bill said they had high hopes that
an overwhelming number of votes
would be cast in its favor.
A Catholic group, the Manila
Catholic Laymans Association,
minimized the impact of the six
lawmakers withdrawal of sup-
port for the bill and said the gov-
ernment was bent on pushing it.
Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan, an RH
advocate, agreed.
The six minority congressmen
who withdrew their support of the
measure will be replaced by oth-
ers from the majority, said Ilagan,
vice chairman of the House com-
mittee on women.
Besides, the six will not change
the edge of the RH advocates, she
said.
Ilagan agreed that the six with-
drew their support of the bill as a
result of pressure.
I dont think it is only Church
pressure. There could have been
political pressure, too, she said.
Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casio
said he was saddened by the deci-
sion of the six lawmakers.
Its sad that they withdrew, he
told the Manila Standard.
Our nations mothers, children
and long-term future need a na-
tional reproductive health policy.
Malacaang on Tuesday called
on the CBCP to ensure that Satur-
days prayer rally against the RH
bill would be exactly that: a peace-
ful prayer rally.
Our only appeal for any move-
ments of this nature or any move-
ments of any nature, for that mat-
ter, is for it to be peaceful, deputy
presidential spokeswoman Abigail
Valte said.
We will be coordinating with the
Philippine National Police in that
area for the usual safety measures
and crowd control, she said.
CBCP president Jose Palma
had called for a show of force
at the Edsa Shrine three days
before the House of Represen-
tatives was to vote on the con-
troversial measure.
Earlier, presidential spokesman
Edwin Lacierda denied that the
government was waging an open
war on the Catholic Church in
pushing for the RH bill.
The bishops were fully
aware of the advocacy of the
President even during the cam-
paign about Responsible Par-
enthood, he said.
They have been fully aware of
the position we have taken and we
have actually cooperated, we have
actually taken into consideration
some of the concerns that they
raised. With Joyce Pangco Pa-
ares and Rio N. Araja
Beijing...
But while its Defense
Ministry continues to assert
Chinas sovereignty over the
South China Sea, the top mil-
itary officials of the Peoples
Liberation Army were try-
ing to downplay its military
buildup, saying it did not
pose a threat to any nation.
The development of the
Chinese armed forces poses
no threat to any nation in
that it aims to safeguard state
sovereignty, security and de-
velopment interests, said
Senior Colonel Wu Xihua,
vice director of the Emer-
gency Response Office of
the General Staff Depart-
ment of the Peoples Libera-
tion Army.
Wu said that despite the
progress in Chinas military
modernization, they were
still way behind the worlds
more advanced military in
terms of firepower.
The PLA colonel added
that China had always ad-
vocated a foreign policy of
friendship and partnership
with its neighbors.
Belmonte...
indicate a policy direction that re-
quires writing off the smallest pa-
triotic and protectionist provisions
in the Constitution. Why pretend?
Ilagan said.
President Aquinos Public Pri-
vate Partnership cannot go full
blast without Charter Change. The
presence of foreign troops, US
submarines and warships carrying
nuclear weapons being welcomed
by President Aquino all clearly vio-
late the Constitution.
Belmonte, meanwhile, said he
would refrain from discussing the
Cha-cha until President Aquino
had given them updates on the out-
come of the study to be conducted
by the Cabinet on the proposal of
Belmonte and Senate President
Juan Ponce Enrile to review the
restrictive economic provisions of
the Constitution.
The House Committee on onsti-
tutional amendments is deliberat-
ing on several proposals to amend
the Constitution.
Belmonte said the commit-
tee discussion on Charter Change
would be put on hold until the
President provided them feedback
following the Palace review.
I am not going to follow it up
to the Cabinet. Ill just wait for the
feedback from the President him-
self, Belmonte said.
Meanwhile, House Major-
ity Leader and Mandaluyong City
Rep. Neptali Gonzales II, chairman
of the House committee on rules
said Cha-cha could be undertaken
by simply adding the phrase un-
less otherwise provided by law to
certain constitutional provisions.
Barriga...
Barriga continued unleashing
punches in bunches to score the
10-point win amid wild celebration
from a small crowd of Filipinos
cheering him on at the sidelines.
Barrigas next assignment
may be against the rated Birzhan
Zhakypov, who is heavily favored
to beat Jeremy Beccu of France.
Meanwhile, shooter Paul Bri-
an Rosario oundered in the sec-
ond of three rounds in the qualify-
ing stage of the mens skeet under
windy conditions, nishing with
an aggregate of 66 points to land
32nd in a eld of 36, ending his
rst foray into the biggest stage of
em all in disappointment at the
Royal Artillery barracks range.
Also unfortunate was weight-
lifter Hidilyn Diaz, who missed her
three attempts in the clean and jerk
of the 58-kilogram division and
crashed out in a painful defeat that
left her in tears at the Excel Arena.
There are still two rounds left
in the qualifying, but Rosario is
too far behind to take a crack at
the sixth and last championship
slot, even if he produces two per-
fect 25s on the nal day of this
event expected to be dominated
again by the usual suspects.
For Rosario to make it, 30 of
the shooters should while away
their time at Hyde Park or pay
London landmarks a visit instead
of showing up at the old range on
Tuesday. Otherwise, its all over
for this young man.
I am terribly disappointed
to shoot that 19. Hindi naging
smooth ang movement ko sa mid-
second round. Parang nanigas,
coach Gay Corral quoted Rosario
as saying.
With Team Philippines of-
cials, headed by Philippine Olym-
pic Committee president Peping
Cojuangco, shooting head Mikee
Romero and International Olym-
pic Committee representative to
the Philippines Frank Elizalde
watching, Rosario got off to a
good start with a 22 using his old,
but reliable Perazzi shotgun, only
to come up with a poor 19 in the
next round that did him in.
Not even a perfect 25 in the
third rounda rst by a Filipino
in Olympic history, according to
Romerocould put Rosario within
striking distance of the leaders,
headed by the steady Vincent Han-
cock of the United States, who post-
ed a 74-point total built around a 25
in the rst and third rounds.
A Malabon businessman, whos
into his rst Olympics, Rosario was
doing well and looking good in the
early goings of the second, until he
missed three straight targets in a
sudden drop of form that left him
sitting on a bench for a long time
and pondering what went wrong
after the round.
It was the rst time that he
shot a 19 since we arrived here for
the training camp,said Corral,
adding the windy weather was not
much of a problem for the bespec-
tacled father of a nine-year-old
daughter. We trained under the
same condition during the camp.
He was shooting well until
that collapse in the mid second. Its
good he was perfect in the last. That
somehow lessened his frustration.
Hes still young and I know hell
recover from this, said Romero.
In another low moment, Diaz
fumbled her three attempts in the
clean and jerk as she went for 118 ki-
los. She lifted 92 in her rst try in the
snatch, but missed as she attempted
for 97 kgs in her second try.
The Beijing Olympics veteran
made a 97 in her nal attempt in
the snatch, which bettered her
personal best of 95, but paled in
comparison to the Olympic re-
cord of 108 of Chinas Li Xuey-
ing, who went on to retain the title
after a 138 in the clean and jerk
and a 248 total.
Then came the clean and jerk
stage, where everything went
wrong for the poor Diaz.
The fth in a brood of seven
by a tricyle driver in Zamboanga
City, Diaz was so devastated af-
ter the debacle that she cried as
she headed out of the stage. She
went straight to her room at the
Athletes Village after the 30-min-
ute bus drive from Excel, never to
come out until it was dinnertime.
AUGUST 1, 2012 WEDNESDAY
A3 News
ManilaStandardToday mst.daydesk@gmail.com
IN BRIEF
21 families hang on to Jusmag property
Cash transfers questioned
(MST-Aug. 1, 2012)
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
COMMISSION ON APPOINTMENTS
A N N O U N C E M E N T
President Benigno S. Aquino III has submitted to the Commission
on Appointments (C.A.) for confrmation the ad interim appointments of
the following offcers in the Armed Forces of the Philippines:
Noel A. Coballes Lieutenant General; Salvador Melchor B.
Mison, Jr., Ramon C. Cabal, Remigio C. Valdez, Rolando G.
Jungco, Arnulfo J. Marcos and Felicito Virgilio M. Trinidad,
Jr. Brigadier General; Manuel Natalio A. Abinuman -
Commodore; Larry B. Mojica (PA), Arnfn A. Arce (PAF),
Eugene Erwin R. Martinez (PN-M), Doroteo Jose M. Jalandoni
(PN-M), Philip S. Lapinid (PA), Aronito Y. Aaron (PA), Librado
N. Quilla (PA), Fernyl G. Buca (PAF), Frederick M. Cutler (PAF)
and Arnel Y. Romero (DS) - Colonel; Wilfredo F. Burgonio, Jr.
(PN), Sean Anthony U. Villa (PN), Florante N. Gagua (PN),
Danilo G. Fuentes, Jr. (PN) and Eric C. Ramos (PN) - Captain
The public may submit any information, written report or sworn
complaints or oppositions in forty (40) copies on the above appointments
to the CASecretariat, 6
th
Floor, PNB Financial Center, Roxas Boulevard,
Pasay City, Metro Manila.
For the schedule of the public hearings, the CA Secretariat can be
reached through telephone numbers 551-7532, 831-0893, 831-1824,
834-2706, 831-1566 and 834-2713.
31 July 2012.

ARTURO L. TIU
Secretary

J TH DAVI ES HOLDI NGS, I NC.
7
th
Floor, iAcademy Building
6764 Ayala Avenue, Makati City
NOTICE OF SPECIAL STOCKHOLDERS MEETING
TO ALL STOCKHOLDERS:
Notice is hereby given that a Special Meeting of the Stockholders of JTH Davies Holdings, Inc.,
(JTH) shall be held at the 7th Floor, iAcademy Building, 6764 Ayala Avenue, Makati City, Philippines,
on Friday, 10 August 2012, at 3:00 oclock in the afternoon, for the following purposes:
1. Call to Order
2. Certifcate of Notice and Quorum
3. Approval of the Minutes of the 8 December 2011 Stockholders Meeting
4. Private Placement of 795,817,789 shares
a. 397,908,894 shares to Capital Managers & Advisors, Inc.
b. 397,908,895 shares to STI Education Services Group, Inc. (STI ESG)
c. Waiver of the requirement to conduct a rights or public offering in connection with the Private
Placement Shares
5. Share-for-Share swap with STI ESG Stockholders using an exchange ratio of 6.5 JTH shares for
every 1 STI ESG share
a. Issuance of minimum of 2,646,226,871 JTH Shares to STI ESG Majority Stockholders
b. Waiver of the requirement to conduct a rights or public offering in connection with the Share-for-
Share swap with STI ESG Stockholders
6. Amendment of the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws
a. Increase in Authorized Capital Stock to Ten Billion Shares (10,000,000,000) with an aggregate
par value of Five Billion Pesos (P5,000,000,000.00)
b. Change of Corporate Name to STI Holdings, Inc.
7. Adjournment
The Board of Directors of JTH has fxed the RECORD DATE for stockholders entitled to vote at
this annual meeting on 29 June 2012.
Stockholders who will not be able to attend this meeting may designate their respective proxies
and send the proxy forms to the Offce of the Corporate Secretary not later than 4 August 2012.
Registration starts at 2:00 p.m. on the date of the scheduled meeting. For your convenience in
registering your attendance, please have some form of identifcation, such as your Professional I.D.,
Passport or Drivers License.

Very truly yours,
(Sgd.) ARSENIO C. CABRERA, JR.
Corporate Secretary
(MST-Aug. 1, 2012)
Filipino wins top
honors at Webster U
A FILIPINO recently graduated magna
cum laude from the Webster University
Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland, bringing
honor to the Philippines.
H o m e r
R a f a e l
Montecillo
N a r v a e z
from Manila,
gr a dua t e d
with a degree
in Finance,
earning an
overall grade
point average
(GPA) of
3.87. The
uni ver s i t y
requires a
minimum GPA of 3.8 to be considered for
the magna cum laude honor.
He was also awarded the School of
Business and Technology Departmental
Honors.
The Webster University Geneva is known
for pushing international education, with
students coming from over 90 countries and
a faculty that represents 25 nations.
Homers mother, Desiree, Programme
Ofcer for the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), says
that she hopes the feat will help inspire
young Filipinos back home.
Homer says that Filipino values such
as discipline, a positive work ethos,
and forward-thinking helped him a lot
through school.
Narvaez completed an internship with
HSBC and UNEP Finance Initiative.
He is set to begin his Masters degree in
Finance at the prestigious University of
Neuchtel in Switzerland this September.
He says that he looks forward to
applying his skills on nance and trade in
the Philippines someday.
Premium gas up by 20c
Pump prices went up again, this time by
P0.20 per liter of premium and unleaded
gasoline and kerosene. The new prices
took effect 6 am Tuesday.
But other companies, Seaoil
Philippines, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum
Corp. and Petron Corp. reduced the price
of regular gasoline by P0.35. Diesel was
unchanged.
Total price increase for the past four
consecutive weeks reaching P4.45 for
regular gasoline, P4.55 per liter for
premium plus gasoline, P3.10 per liter for
diesel, and P1.90 per liter for kerosene.
The Energy Department in its latest
monitoring report that world oil prices
have been falling due to concerns over
the eurozone debt crisis but this was
offset by Middle East supply worries
and positive economic data out of raw
material-hungry China. Alena Flores
Minority Leader Rep. Danilo
Suarez of Quezon and Rep. Ro-
dolfo Albano of Isabela, a mem-
ber of the House Committee on
Appropriations, urged Soliman to
explain the discrepancies in the
selection of CCT beneciaries
despite the adequate budget for
program.
The two lawmakers made the
statement after the Supreme Court
upheld the legality of the cash
transfers program. In the proposed
budget for 2013, the allocation
for cash transfer rose from P39.4
billion to P44.3 billion. We wel-
come the unanimous decision of
the Supreme Court upholding the
By Maricel V. Cruz

OPPOSITION lawmakers on Tuesday
vowed to tighten scrutiny of the P44.3
billion budget for the conditional cash
transfer program of the Aquino adminis-
tration for 2013, even as they chastised
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soli-
man for wrongly chosing unqualied
beneciaries.
constitutionality of the (cash trans-
fers) program, Deputy presiden-
tial spokesman Abigail Valte said.
But the opposition lawmaker
promised to dig deeper into the
discrepancies in the program.
Suarez said he would ask So-
liman to explain the basis for in-
creasing the CCT budget when the
incidence of poverty and hunger
continued to rise.
I have nothing against CCT, but
my concern is that the government,
the DSWD should be able to come up
with an exit plan as to how they would
arrest the rising number of Filipinos
living in poverty, and of the poor, Su-
arez told the Manila Standard.
What is obvious in all the hefty
budget increases is the intention to
increase the number of benecia-
ries, Suarez said, stressing that the
DSWD should be able to present
a comprehensive plan of the time-
line as to when to stop the imple-
mentation of the CCT and provide
a long term program to uplift the
lives of the poor.
A program which will not pro-
mote mendicancy, Suarez added.
For 2013, the government has
proposed an allocation of P44.3
billion for the CCT program: 12.4
percent more than this years ap-
propriation of P39.4 billion, and
78.8 percent of the budget of the
DSWD budget.
President Benigno Aquino III, in
his Budget Message to Congress,
said the total targeted households
has jumped from 336,208 in 2008
to more than 3.1 million in 2012
and further to 3.8 million house-
holds in 2013. The program covers
17 regions, 79 provinces, 138 cit-
ies and 1,261 municipalities with
the highest poverty concentration,
with most beneciaries located in
Regions 5 and 6 and in the ARMM.
Albano, in particular, questioned
the agencys huge budget of P1.4
billion for a specic portion of the
Aquino governments dole out pro-
gramthe training of CCT program
personnel and the evaluation and
monitoring of the program.
The huge yearly CCT budget
allots funds not only for the cash
grants to program beneciaries but
also for operational expenses of
the staff like wages and salaries,
trainings, monitoring or evaluation
and other administrative expenses.
So why have there been lapses in
the determination of CCT bene-
ciaries in the past?, Albano asked.
The CoA earlier said that it au-
dited the procedures and methods
of the DWSD in choosing CCT
beneciaries, and found out of
1,400 sampled beneciaries, 96
were not extremely poor and were
earning income which translates to
about six percent of those sampled
that would be equivalent to about
206,000 households of the total 3
million current beneciaries
Questioning the accuracy of the pro-
cedures and methodology used during
the selection of poor households, the
CoAsaid the objectives of the CCT
program may not be fully achieved if
the benefits will not be received by the
intended beneficiaries.
Albano said the government
has allotted enough funds for
training of CCT program per-
sonnel and for the monitoring
or evaluation and other admin-
istrative expenses. In 2011 for
instance, he said of the P21.194
billion total budget for the CCT,
P1.6 billion was allotted for train-
ing and P676.87 million was ear-
marked for monitoring/evalua-
tion and administrative expenses.
By Ferdie Fabella

THE Bases Conversion and
Development Authority urged
residents of Jusmag property in Fort
Bonifacio to vacate the lot and tap the
governments relocation program.
Arnel Casanova, BCDA president,
said only about 21 families out of 299,
or seven percent, living in the area have
not applied for relocation, insisting
that the BCDA has no jurisdiction over
the 35.5-hectare Jusmag area.
Casanova said 277 families
occupying 10 hectares of the property
have voluntarily vacate the area and
avail of the BCDAs relocation option.
Of the 277 families, 198 have already
vacated the area.
On the other hand, a total of 107
families have opted for outright cash
while 69 families chose to relocate
in the National Housing Authoritys
relocation site in Rodriguez, Rizal.
The relocation program presented
to the informal settlers is considered
one of the best relocation programs
so far offered to informal settlers,
Casanova said.
The relocation package consists of
cash equivalent to the value of their
respective houses as assessed by the
Taguig City Assessors Ofce, plus
a cash incentive which the resettlers
can use as start-up capital for any
livelihood project they may set up in
their new community, according to the
BCDA ofcial.
As to the remaining residents who
threatened BCDA of criminal lawsuits,
Casanova said they held a dialogue
with them on July 26.
However, the dialogue abruptly
ended following the unruly
behavior from representatives of
the seven percent minority who
refused to avail of the relocation
program, he said.
THE Pag-IBIG Fund has reduced the interest rate of its calamity loans
to help families displaced by typhoons and other disasters, said Vice
President Jejomar C. Binaym, also Pag-IBIG board chairman.
Pag-IBIGs calamity loan now carries a yearly interest rate of 5.95
percent, compared to the previous 10.75 percent, Binay said.
The housing czar said that Pag-IBIG aimed to offer the lowest
interest rate of calamity loans in the market without compromising the
sustainability of the Fund. Members may borrow the equivalent of 80
percent of their total savings.
Pag-IBIG also offered a 3-month moratorium on housing loan payments
to affected members. Members may also apply for insurance through Pag
IBIG, where they could get the value of the extent of damage.
Pag-IBIG cuts loan rate
By Maricel V. Cruz

THE House leadership on Tuesday defended
the Aquino administrations no-pork policy
against its political enemies.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said
that the opposition congressmen who did
not receive their priority development
assistance funds should be thankful that the
non-release of their entitlements was not on
a wholesale basis.
Belmonte made the statement in reaction
to complaints by some opposition lawmakers
led by Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay
over the release of pork funds through the
Department of Public Works and Highways,
and not directly to their ofces.
At least it wasnt a wholesale rejection
as was the norm in this chamber before.
A 99-percent batting average isnt bad,
Belmonte told reporters at a news forum.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad earlier said
the four lawmakers Pdaf would not be coursed
through their ofces but directly to the DPWH
which will oversee and implement the programs
and projects for their respective districts.
Abad has said President Aquino instructed
him to take care of the four lawmakers
districts even if they didnt have any part in
the PDAF release.
No-pork barrel
policy claried
by House chief
Narvaez
Performance
audit. Interior
Secretary Jesse
Robredo,right)
and National
Police Director
General Nicanor
Bartolome
testify before
lawmakers led
by Senator Frank
Drilon, chairman
of the finance
committee,
during their
performance
review held at
the Senate. EY
ACASIO

Biker babe. Its no joyride but the child appears to be safely ensconced on a bicycle as the mother plods
through a flooded street in Valenzuela City, Metro Manila. AP
Opinion Adelle Chua, Editor
ManilaStandardToday
mst.lettertotheeditor@gmail.com AUGUST 1, 2012 WEDNESDAY
A4
IF our senators and congress-
men truly see themselves as
servants of the people, they
must end all debates on the
long overdue reproductive
health bill forthwith and vote
to pass or reject it.
In the current Congress
alone, the bill has been debat-
ed extensively for more than a
year, both inside and outside
the legislative halls. But the
real debate has been going on
for much longer.
Since 1998, when the rst
version of the reproductive
health bill was led, the issue
has been vigorously debated.
Yet all efforts to even bring the
measure to a vote in Congress
have failed, derailed by a Cath-
olic Church-backed opposition
that has favored dogma, rhetoric
and ignorance over science, log-
ic and education. Thus far, these
forces have used fear, veiled
threats and delays to stie any
suggestion of population man-
agement. They will seek to do
it again.
Is it possible that we have
been unable to examine this
issue from all possible angles
after more than a decade of
discussion and debate? The
reasonable answer that pre-
sumes some modicum of in-
telligence on all our parts is
no. Given the years of dis-
cussion in Congress, in church
and town halls, on radio and
TV talk shows, and on count-
less pages of newspapers and
magazines, we must agree
with Senators Miriam Defen-
sor Santiago and Pia Cayetano,
who say that the time is ripe to
put the bill to a vote.
But Senate President Juan
Ponce Enrile disagrees, and
raises the possibility that de-
bates may be revived in the
Senate yet again, ostensibly to
take into consideration his latest
reasons for opposing the bill.
He dismisses their suggestions
for an immediate vote and even
mocks them, saying: Its ripe
for them but not for us. I dont
know what they mean by ripe.
It is not a banana, a mango or a
durian.
Senator Enriles latest objec-
tion to the reproductive health
bill is based on the phenome-
non seen in some industrialized
countries where a shrinking pop-
ulation of young workers must
pay for the care and upkeep of
a larger, aging population. This,
he warns, could strain or even
bankrupt the national pension
system.
Why the senator had not
brought this up before is any-
bodys guessbut now he has
put the idea out there, along
with thousands of others that
have already been digested by
his colleagues and the public at
large. There is no need to fur-
ther delay a vote simply to de-
bate that point.
Besides, one might argue
that a graying population is
one of those good problems
to have, in view of the current
situation in which millions
go hungry every day because
we simply cannot sustain our
birth rate, or the millions who
will grow up stupid and dull,
simply because their parents
cannot afford to give them the
proper nutrition and education
they deserve.
But Mr. Enrile already knows
this.
Who will become police-
men, soldiers, workers, labor-
ers? Who will plant [rice] for
the public to eat? he says. It is
gratifying to see that Mr. Enrile,
in his advanced age, has his pri-
orities straight.
No more RH delays
EDITORIAL
Two steps backward, one step forward
LEST we are lulled into a false sense
of security and delude ourselves that
quiet diplomacy is working, let us be
wary of reports Chinese ships have
withdrawn from Pag-asa in the Spratly
group of islands.
Remember it was Chairman Mao
Zedong who said To take one step for-
ward, take two steps backward. This
was the principle borrowed by General
Nguyen Vo Giap, in leading Vietnams
guerrilla warfare to defeat the armies
of two world powers, France and the
United States.
Global alliances have shifted with
Vietnam embracing former foe US,
and confronting China, its former
ally, because of Beijings claim over
the entire South China Sea. The Viet-
namese had fought a naval battle with
the Chinese in 1988 in which they
lost ships and more than 70 men in its
defense of the Paracels which Hanoi
claims as part of its territory.
Despite the regrettable failure of
Asean to forge a Code of Conduct in the
South China Sea during a foreign minis-
terial meeting in the Cambodian capital
of Phnom Penh , the Philippines should
nd common cause with Vietnam which
has a long history of ghting and win-
ning against foreign powers.
News that China has established a
military garrison in the Paracels which
the Chinese now calls Sansha adminis-
trative commission has sent ripples of
fear among the other claimants. Except
for the Philippines, security measures
and defenses have been stepped up by
Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan on the
islets and reefs they occupy.
The Chinese pullout of its otilla of
20 shing boats, except for two, was
reported by the AFPs Western Com-
mand (Wescom) over the weekend. A
Philippine surveillance plane spotted
the Chinese shing boats barely ve
kilometers from Pag-asa. The Chi-
nese boats, except for two, left after
harvesting coral reefs and endangered
sea turtles. The Philippine govern-
ment should internationalize this en-
vironmental plunder by asking global
organizations like Greenpeace to step
in and denounce the Chineses wanton
(not wonton) disregard of the eco-sys-
tem in the West Philippine Sea.
In view of Chinas refusal to rec-
ognize the United Nations Law of the
Sea and to submit itself to arbitration
by the United Nations Tribunal on the
Law of the Sea where the Philippines
has brought its case, expect the Chi-
nese to fortify their illegal claim by
building more garrisons and airstrips
on every piece of land above water in
the disputed territories. Beijing has no
other agenda than to control the sea-
beds untapped oil and mineral-rich
resources. If the Chinese gain control
of the entire South China Sea, its vast
shing ground would also help feed
its population of 1.3 billion. Already,
they are doing this and depriving com-
munities along the coast of the West
Philippine Sea of their livelihood to
sh in Philippine waters.
Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, former Armed
Forces Chief of Staff, has broached the
idea to ask the UN to form a peacekeep-
ing force in the South China Sea to pre-
vent a shooting war. Malacanang was
quick to dismiss the proposal and said
it is still opting for diplomacy to work.
The Palace should consider all options
to internationalize the issue; perhaps Bi-
azons suggestion may not be such a bad
idea after all.
If its any comfort, President Aquino
in his recent State of the Nation Address
said: If someone enters your backyard
and claims its theirs, will you give
away what is rightfully yours? Brave
words, but without the military hard-
ware, its nothing but hollow, empty
rhetoric. Our weak response has only
emboldened Beijing to advance its ex-
pansionist design in the region. Like the
bully it is, China kept silent when Rus-
sia red shots at Chinese ships intruding
in its territorial waters.
The escalation of tension in the
South China Sea is now the subject of
various foreign policy think tanks. US
Admiral Samuel J. Locklear in a recent
testimony before the Senate foreign re-
lations committee took to task the US
for failing to sign UNCLOS, reminding
Washington that ve of its seven US al-
lies are in Southeast Asia.
It is not reassuring for our allies
not to know how the US will react in
keeping SCS navigational lanes open
and to check Chinese aggression in the
region, Admiral Locklear said as he
urged the US to sign UNCLOS. Not
signing the UN treaty certainly dimin-
ishes the US role in the resolution of the
conict.
ALEJANDRO
DEL ROSARIO
BACK CHANNEL
JOJO
A. ROBLES
LOWDOWN
ROLANDO G. ESTABILLO Publisher
RAMONCHITO L. TOMELDAN Managing Editor
CHIN WONG/ RAY S. EANO Associate Editors
JOEL P. PALACIOS News Editor
ROGELIO C. SALAZAR President & CEO
MEMBER
Philippine Press Institute
The National Association
of Philippine Newspapers PPI
can be accessed at:
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Making bad news
worse
HERES one more reason why bad
news gets such good and long media
play: as bad as things get, the
government just cant seem to help
making them worse by reacting in
ways guaranteed to extend the shelf
life of any bit of the negativist news
that President Noynoy Aquino hates
so much.
But rst, a joke. The heavy rains
and strong winds brought about by
typhoon Gener beginning Sunday
in many parts of the Philippines didnt
really take everyone by surprise, as
many believed. According to this
story, the weather bureau purposely
did not report the typhoons arrival to
prevent the media from reporting bad
news, in keeping with Aquinos latest
petulant demands to the press.
You wont hear any laughing from
Malacaang Palace, however. There,
chief Aquino
spokesman Edwin
Lacierda is still busy
trying to get out of
the hole he dug for
himself when he said
that the government
did advise the people
about the typhoon
through the social-
networking site
Twitter.
Yes, the incredi-
bly dense (but tech-
nologically cool) Lacierda was able to
insinuate himself into the overheating
national conversation about the role
of media in the Aquino administration
by saying that if people had gotten
stranded in this weeks oods, it cer-
tainly was not the governments fault.
The media was to blame, he insisted,
because news organizations with
Twitter accounts did not follow tweets
sent by government agencies like the
Department of Science and Technol-
ogy about the heavy rains and oods.
You dont follow DOST,
apparently, the new media-savvy
spokesman told reporters at the palace,
condescendingly. But those who were
following the Twitter accounts [knew].
Lacierda, the new-media guru,
updated Marie Antoinette by basically
urging people who dont even have
food on the table every dayand
electricity during typhoonsto open
Twitter accounts, if they dont want to
get stranded in the oods. Next time,
perhaps militant groups will make
an efgy of the preternaturally smug
Lacierda impaled on a hashtag and
burn it.
(For two years now, the traditional
media has had to suffer the idiocy of
this unsinkable palace spokesman;
now that hes moved on to cyberspace,
hes still as big an idiot as he was
when he dealt exclusively with print
and broadcast. Garbage in, garbage
out, you know.)
Meanwhile, perhaps people should
assume that Aquino himself was also
following the news about the typhoon
on Twitter, even if no one has heard from
him since he threw a tantrum at the ABS-
CBN party where he was invited as the
guest speaker last Friday. Either that, or
Aquino must have been prevented from
reading the tweets, since everyone now
knows that the President can only take
so much bad newsespecially if it is
read by a certain Noli de Castro.
Now, if only the Aquino
administration spent more time and
effort in de-clogging drains, warning
people about typhoons and doing other
such useful things, would the perennial
oods and the widespread misery they
bring not decrease? If the salaries of the
spin-and-blame palace propagandists
are spent on more effective warning
systems and ood-control programs,
would this not be excellent news?
Also, the question must be asked:
Why does Aquino always disappear
during times of great calamity, be it a
hostage-taking or a typhoon?
But Aquino, at least, has the good
sense to disappear and not to make
matters worse during such critical
times by opening his
mouth. The same
cannot be said of that
Twittering twit of a
spokesman of his.
* * *
Speaking of
calamities, perhaps
the nation will be
spared the onslaught
of typhoon Leila,
the nominee for the
post of Supreme
Court chief justice
who fancies herself a veritable force
of nature as far as the selection process
is concerned. Perhaps not.
Amid reports that the Judicial
and Bar Council would bar Justice
Secretary Leila de Lima from the
nal short-list of three nominees to
be submitted to President Noynoy
Aquino on the ground that she was
facing disbarment, the Integrated Bar
of the Philippines said it was giving
due course to the complaints. De
Lima has defended herself from the
calls to disbar her, saying on different
occasions that politics was behind
them and that she was, in effect,
merely following orders.
Some quarters have taken De Limas
setbacks to mean that her personal
campaign to become chief justice has
effectively been deep-sixed. I wouldnt
be so sure of that.
Not with Malacaang Palace itself
virtually declaring that De Lima is its
fair-haired girl among the nominees
after putting on that elaborate song-
and-dance number about Aquino
wanting her to stay on at the justice
department. And De Lima herself
shamelessly urging JBC not to count
her out and give her a shot, like some
trying-too-hard suitor.
In the end, De Limas overweening
and very public desire to become
chief justice should disqualify
her. Someone who lusts after a
government position so badly
despite all the roadblocks strewn in
her waycant be up to any good.
Why does
Aquino always
disappear during
times of great
calamity?
A5 Opinion Adelle Chua, Editor
ManilaStandardToday
mst.lettertotheeditor@gmail.com
SINCE the Manila Overseas Press
Club was organized by foreign
correspondents right after the
end of World War II, it has been
our tradition to have an annual
Presidents Night. In fact, some
Presidents became MOPC guest
speakers twice each year.
For the past two years since
President Aquino assumed ofce,
the MOPC has reserved a night as
the Presidents Night. He has been
consistent in turning us down.
Babe Romualdez, MOPC
chairman, told me that when he
invited President Aquino to be our
guest speaker, the President told him:
Ill never speak
before the MOPC
so long as Emil
Jurado is there.
Well, Im
chairman emeritus
of MOPC and will
continue to be one
until I write 30.
I have however
offered to resign
if only to make the President
more comfortable attending the
Presidents Night. The board
of governors has refused my
resignation.
I also recall that one time, when
President Aquino was invited to
speak before businessmen with then-
MOPC chairman Tony
Lopez as emcee, he roundly
castigated Tony for being critical of
him.
I cannot understand why Mr.
Aquino cannot bear my presence
at the MOPC. Yes, I have criticized
him during the 2010 campaign and
during his two years in ofce. But it
is nothing personal. I go on record as
a constructive critic.
Why is he taking my criticism
personally?
I write this in reaction to what
the President did during the 25th
ABS-CBN TV Patrol Anniversary,
targeting former Vice President
Noli de Castro for what he called
media negativism and unbalanced
reportage.
Santa Banana, the President is
becoming a recidivist in insulting
his hosts. Recall that during his
inauguration in 2010, he intentionally
did not metion the name of then-Chief
Justice Renato Corona, who was there
seated as a guest. He greeted all the
other VIPs.
Again, during the judicial summit,
the President did not mince words
against Corona.
Now, its this tirade against TV
Patrol of the Lopez network which
has been very supportive of him.
Thats gratitude for you!
I agree that there should be
balanced news both in print and
broadcast. I have even gone on
record as a critic of the Lopez-owned
network for its negativism, reporting
crimes left and right. Its newscasts
are seen worldwide especially by
the overseas Filipino workers and
migrant communities.
We in media are only the
messengers. What we report
mirrors reality. So why shoot the
messenger?
I dont know who is advising the
President on how to deal with media.
I wonder who wrote that speech
Ricky Carandang, who was never
a journalist but only an anchor who
reads aloud what has been written by
other people? Sonny Coloma? Edwin
Lacierda? His deputy Abigail Valte?
These people have only been able to
show how good they are in putting
their feet into their mouths.
The President is so unlike his
father, the late Senator Benigno
Aquino Jr. Ninoy thrived on
criticism. He used to tell me
that criticism provided him the
opportunity to prove his critics
wrong.
He is more like is mother,
former President Cory, who sued
the late columnist
Louie Beltran and
publisher Max
Soliven for saying
that she hid under
the bed during
one of the coup
attempts.
PNoy seems
to take criticism
personally. Thus,
instead of miving forward, we
spent so much time revisiting the
past and prosecuting his perceived
enemies. As a result,he cowed
the Judiciary and the House of
Representatives into submission.
My gulay, we have a dictator in the
making!
* * *
Its more fun in the city of
Makati, especially if you are a
retiree, according to the Philippine
Retirement Authority, which named
Makati as the Most Retirement
Friendly and Aging-Friendly City in
the country.
The agency hailed the city for
fully complying with the age-
friendly criteria set by the World
Health Organization, including
accessible social services and
opportunities for community
participation for retirees and
the elderly. The PRA also cited
proximity of malls and hospitals,
security, business-friendliness and
livability of the environment.
I am an admirer of the Binays,
foremost of whom is Vice President
Jojo Binay, who was Makati mayor
for a long time, his wife Dra. Elenita
Binay, who was also mayor, and now
their son Jun-Jun. They have made
Makati City what it is today, not only
for the retirees and senior citizens,
but as the nancial district of the
Philippines.
Im not exaggerating when I say
that Makati now is better known
worldwide than other cities, except
perhaps, Manila, which has been
for a long time the capital of the
republic.
My wife and I have been enjoying
all the freebies Makati City has
been giving us senior citizens. We
are exempted from the number-
coding scheme and receive biannual
allowances now amounting to P4,000.
We also get free movies, birthday
cakes and other perks.
The President
and the media
Do we really care about the Constitution?
Part IV
FOR today, I promised to weigh the pros
and cons of constitutional change. Some
readers, however, have asked if I could
say just a little bit more about the sins of
our Constitution. This will need a little
more time. But let me say I believe the
Constitution, for all its aws, is less sinning
than sinned against.
The sins of the Constitution are really
sins against the Constitution. They range
from bad ideas to bad writing to the
cavalier treatment of its loftiest ideals.
We have seen some of the bad ideas, now
we can look at some of the bad writing.
Section 5 of the Transitory Provisions
takes the lead. The six-year term of the
incumbent President and Vice-President
elected in the February 7, 1986 election
is, for purposes of synchronization of
elections, hereby extended to noon of June
30, 1992, it says.
Why bad writing? Because it sorely
misrepresents the facts. Ferdinand Marcos
and Arturo Tolentino, not Cory Aquino and
Salvador Laurel, were the ones elected
president and vice-president respectively
in that exercise. Cory and Doy denounced
the results, the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines called it
a fraud, and people power abolished
the Marcos government. But the ofcial
results as proclaimed by the Batasang
Pambansa were never formally rescinded
and changed.
Cory was installed as revolutionary
president, but her tenure ended on Feb.
11, 1987 when the new Constitution
took effect. Not having given herself a
xed term, she had no six year-term to
extend. No one would have cried foul if
the Constitution had said, The incumbent
President and the Vice President at the time
of the promulgation of this Constitution
shall continue in ofce until noon of June
30, 1992. But it did not. So Corys
otherwise spotless record is stained with
that bungled prose.
In this age of globalization and revolution
in information and communications
technology, two provisions dene the state
of our being not there. Section 10 of Article
XVI says: The State shall provide the
policy environment for the development of
the Filipino capability and the emergence
of communication structures suitable to
the needs and aspirations of the nation and
the balanced ow of information into, out
of, and across the country, in accordance
with a policy that respects the freedom of
speech and of the press.
How many Einsteins or James Joyces
can cut their way through that inept
verbiage and get a sense of it, I wonder.
It is pure drivel, yet because it is in the
Constitution we are expected to make
some sense of it.
Sec. 11 of the same Article provides
that the ownership and management of
mass media shall be limited to citizens
of the Philippines, or to corporations,
cooperatives or associations, wholly-
owned and managed by such citizens
If you never knew why we have
been seeing so much garbage in our
entertainment media, and the Franken
and conscript press, you nally do now.
We shut out the foreign capital and talent
we needed, and took in all the refuse we
didnt. So mediocrity and ignorance
reign supreme.
But the Constitution suffers the most
from those who are sworn to protect it.
Top of the list is the Presidents virtual
control of the entire tripartite system of
government, which began when he had the
congressmen impeach the last Supreme
Court chief justice and he campaigned
openly for his conviction by the Senate.
Not far behind are the boys from
Congress. In bowing to the Executive, even
in matters where their exclusive authority
is undisputed, they simply compounded
their masters offense. At the instigation
of the global population controllers, and
on a rhetorical aside from the President
in his State of the Nation Address, they
are now trying to push a most dangerous
bill, with dire civilizational implications,
in open clash with the Constitution and the
Catholic Church.
This is the foreign-backed population
control cum reproductive health (RH)
bill by means of which the administration
congressmen would like to turn the State
from being the constitutional protector
of conception to being the rst provider
of contraception and ultimate preventer
of conception. And this, at a time when
at least half of humanity are looking at
depopulation or the demographic
winter in the West as the next global crisis.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile
and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. were
the rst to revive the call for constitutional
change. But as soon as the President heard
about it, he quickly advised them to tread
gentlyif it aint broke dont x it, he
said. Enrile and Belmonte did not have the
heart to tell Mr. Aquino that in the matter of
proposing amendments to, or revisions of, the
Constitution, the power and the burden lies
exclusively with Congress and the electorate,
without any role at all for the President.
But the President having spoken, the
two gentlemen could only appeal meekly
that their proposal be considered among his
legislative priorities. The Constitution has
thus truly fallen hostage to authoritarian
power, and once more Claro M. Recto is
right: the Constitution will not survive
unless it rst lives in the hearts of the
peopleand their leaders.
fstatad@gmail.com
Women on Boards
EMIL
P. JURADO
TO THE POINT
By Heather Perlberg
COMPANIES with women on their
boards performed better in challenging
markets than those with all-male boards
in a study suggesting that mixing genders
may temper risky investment moves and
increase return on equity.
Shares of companies with a market
capitalization of more than $10 billion and
with women board members outperformed
comparable businesses with all-male
boards by 26 percent worldwide over a
period of six years, according to a report
by the Credit Suisse Research Institute,
created in 2008 to analyze trends expected
to affect global markets.
The number of women in boardrooms
has increased since the end of 2005 as
countries such as Norway instituted quotas
and companies including Facebook Inc.
added female directors after drawing
criticism for a lack of gender diversity. The
research, which includes data from 2,360
companies, shows a greater correlation
between stock performance and the
presence of women on the board after the
nancial crisis started four years ago.
Companies with women on boards
really outperformed when the downturn
came through in 2008, Mary Curtis,
director of thematic equity research at
Credit Suisse in Johannesburg and an
author of the report, said in a telephone
interview. Stocks of companies with
women on boards tend to be a little more
risk averse and have on average a little
less debt, which seems to be one of the
key reasons why theyve outperformed so
strongly in this particular period.
Risk aversion
Net income growth for companies with
women on their boards has averaged 14
percent over the past six years, compared
with 10 percent for those with no female
director, according to the Credit Suisse
study, which examined all the companies
in the MSCI ACWI Index.The net-debt-to-
equity ratio at companies with at least one
female director was 48 percent, compared
with 50 percent at all-male boards, and the
study showed a faster reduction in debt at
businesses with women on the board as
the nancial crisis and global economic
slowdown unfolded.
While female representation increased
to 59 percent last year from 41 percent at
the end of 2005, countries such as Japan
and South Korea are lagging behind the
US and Europe, which has added female
representation the fastest over the six-
year period.
Larger companies have a higher
proportion of women on their boards,
as well as those in the health-care
industry73 percent have at least one
female directorand industries close to
consumers, the study shows.
Health-care and consumer companies
are slightly more defensive companies
anyway, but even within that we found
that stocks in the health-care sector and
the consume-staples sector, which had
some level of gender diversity on the
board, were generally outperforming
their peer group, Curtis said.
Not promoted
The materials and information-
technology sectors have the highest
percentage of male-only boards, both at
more than 52 percent, according the report.
Traditionally some industries
have just never really been seen as the
domain of a woman, like some of the
mining industries or heavy-capital goods
industries, Curtis said. Women havent
generally been promoted through the
ranks of those industries and then made
it up to board level.
The group 2020 Women on Boards,
which is pushing for 20 percent female
directors by 2020, has identied more than
200 companies that lack a single woman
on their board, including Sarasota, Florida-
based Roper Industries Inc.
Female candidates
While Roper Industries, which makes
engineering products for the water, energy,
transportation and medical industries,
doesnt have an open slot for a director, the
company is more than willing to consider
female candidates for the board and would
be anxious to nd one that would t in,
Chief Executive Ofcer Brian Jellison said
in a telephone interview.
In the US, 36 percent of companies still
have no women on their boards of directors,
according to a report by researcher GMI
Ratings on gender diversity released today.
The average corporate board has about
nine members.
Multiple academic studies have
concluded that diverse corporate boards
exercise more diligent oversight,
Michelle Lamb, author the study, said in
a report. They have better attendance
records than homogeneous boards, and
they invest more effort in auditing when
the complexity of the business warrants
heightened scrutiny.
Facebook, the worlds largest social
networking service, based in Menlo Park,
California, appointed Chief Operating
Ofcer Sheryl Sandberg as its rst female
director about a month after its May initial
public offering. Bloomberg
FRANCISCO S.
TATAD
FIRST THINGS FIRST
THIS month the series The
Newsroom starts on HBO in Asia.
The show stars Jeff Bridges as Will
McAvoy, an intelligent, popular but
temperamental news anchor; Emily
Mortimer as MacKenzie McHale, his
ex-girlfriend who has been brought
in to be his executive producer; and
Sam Waterston as Charlie Skinner,
the network president. The series
was created by Aaron Sorkin of The
West Wing and The Social Network
fame.
Let me spoil it a bit for you:
Will loses his entire staff after an
outburst. Charlie hires MacKenzie to
be the executive producerwithout
Wills knowledge, because they
had a bitter separation. MacKenzie
sets out to re-define how Will and
his program deliver the news
with less sensationalism and more
integrity. They work through various
actual episodes in the US recent
history: The oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico, the passage of the Arizona
law against illegal immigrants, the
shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
MacKenzie leads the young staff to
put together the kind of news she
and she thinks, Will wants delivered.
She makes some of the big speeches
on the show, like:
People will want the news if you
give it to them with integrity.
I am talking about reclaiming the
Fourth Estate, reclaiming journalism
as an honorable professioncivility,
respect, a return to whats important
the death of bitchiness, gossip,
voyeurismspeaking truth to stupid.
Charlie has acknowledged
orchestrating the overhaul because he
wants content to drive ratings, not the
other way around.
The show, which started airing
in the United States last month, has
received mixed reviews. Mediocre,
says Forbes, as it points out that
HBO has lifted the more favorable
phrases from the Times, Time and
Salon, which gave generally negative
reviews, in order to show that they
were raving about The Newsroom
instead. While it was portrayed as
having wit, sophistication and manic
energy, another critic said the show,
at its worst, choked on its own
sanctimony.
* * *
So who has the right to tell media
how exactly to do their job? Does
Sorkin, or HBO?
Does the President?
Here at home, President Benigno
Aquino III has been known to
castigate some members of media
for portraying the countryand his
administrationin a bad light. In
his State-of-the-Nation Address last
week, he said: there were those
who belittled our governments
performancethere are still those
who refuse to cease spreading
negativity; they who keep their
mouths pursed to good news, and
have created an industry out of
criticism.
Several days later, during the
anniversary party of BusinessWorld,
the President said: The news should
be about informing the readers
about giving them accurate, timely,
and contextualized facts, both the
good and the bad, so that they can
decide for themselves what to feel
we must veer away from negativity
and sensationalism. These must
not run the course of our national
discussions.
Mr. Aquino had the same message
during the TV Patrol anniversary on
the same day. This time, however, he
alluded to the former Vice President
Noli de Castro and chided the latter
for criticizing the administration
without basis, and even after he was in
government for six years under Mrs.
Gloria Arroyo.
To his credit, Mr. Aquino said
he did not mean that media should
refrain from criticism. He only did
not like media criticizing all the time.
Comments should have basis in fact
and be put in context. Sensationalism
for ratings sake must be thrown out
the window.
Many sectors of media however
take offense to this. It does sound as
though the President is taking them
(us?) to task for reporting the bad
news more than the good news. But
how is it possible that an organization
can only have negative things to say
about the administration? It is a given
that those who criticize without basis
have no business forming opinion
in the first place. Fact is not the
opposite of opinion but its building
block.
I agree that the positive as well as
the negative must be reported. But
I can understand how others may
resent that the President feels he must
lecture us on this. The press exists
independently of the government.
It must air or publish, commend or
criticize, as it sees t.
Mr. Aquino must also do away with
the thinking that every criticism of the
administrations moves is a put down of
his person. Its not about him! Believe
it or not, nobody has the monopoly
of good intentions in this country.
We want a better Philippines, too,
even though we are not government
cheerleaders.
Oh yes, we must agreeto disagree.
Only this ensures that democracy
is kept alive and well. And while
hes extolling the virtues of good
journalism, maybe Mr. Aquino can
set an example and set the passage of
the freedom of information law into
motion. That would really show us he
is sincere and not just putting on an
attitude.
adellechua@gmail.com
Choking on its own sanctimony
ADELLE
CHUA
CHASING HAPPY
Do we have a
dictator in the
making?
A6
News
ManilaStandardToday
mst.daydesk@gmail.com
Robredo
promises
campaign
vs crime
Singson:
All roads
repaired
by 2016
Drug agency gives
16 tipsters P4.6m
Another San Beda law student dies of hazing

IN BRIEF
The transmittal letter of the 60-page audit
report to Makati Mayor Jejomar Junjun
Binay Jr. was dated June 29 and the report
was signed by COA Director Divinia Alag-
on, but was only released on Monday.
The report did not include the agencys
ndings on the Makati Friendship Suites
which is currently being investigated by a
special task force, led by Audit Commis-
sioner Heidi Mendoza.
The mayors father and predecessor in of-
ce, Vice President Jejomar Binay, admitted
that that there was an ongoing investigation
into the Makati Friendship Suites, which
used to be part of the BLISS housing project
in Makatis Guadalupe district.
The Vice Presidents spokesman Joselito
Salgado said a task force was specially cre-
ated to look into the projects of Binay when
he was a Makati City mayor for the past 23
years and claimed that it was part of a demo-
lition job against the Vice President.
The timing of the Makati Friendship
Suites audit is disturbing. And we feel
strongly that the real target of the audit is
the Vice President himself, Salgado said,
adding that the probe was being undertak-
en at the instance of Audit Commissioner
Mendoza.
Salgado said that the audit covers pro-
grams and projects previously cleared by
Makati resident auditors and special audit
teams sent by COA central ofce when the
older Binay was still Makati mayor.
We also received information that a
rst round of review showed that the pro-
grams and projects were all above board
and complied with all legal requirements,
which is consistent with the earlier nd-
ings. A second review has reportedly been
ordered, he added.
Salgado appealed to Mendoza not to allow
her personal opinion against the Vice Presi-
dent to inuence her work.
Commissioner Mendoza has been very vo-
cal about her dislike for the Vice President and
that she reportedly made her sentiments known
to members of Congress and other government
AMID the upsurge in crimi-
nality in Metro Manila, the
Department of the Interior and
Local Government and the Na-
tional Capital Regional Police
Ofce vowed to implement
drastic anti-crime measures
to minimize crimes in the me-
tropolis.
Interior Secretary Jesse Ro-
bredo met with NCRPO chief
Allan Purisima and they agreed
to order all the ve Metro Ma-
nila police district directors, lo-
cal chiefs of police, their sub-
station and police community
precinct commanders to imple-
ment the measures.
All concerned PNP of-
cers in Metro Manila had
been required to submit their
local anti-crime campaign,
such as mapping of crime-
prone areas, types and time
of crimes being committed,
appropriate police action to
be taken, and accurate crime
reporting, among others,
Robredo said.
The DILG chief said in
coordination with all baran-
gay ofcials in crime-prone
areas, the NCRPO will initi-
ate community-based crime
prevention activities which
include increased police vis-
ibility, deployment of motor-
cycle cops, walking the beat,
checkpoints/chokepoints, de-
ployment of secret marshals,
and night watch operations.
Robredo said after the one-
month intensied anti-crime
campaign in the NCR, he
would call for another com-
mand conference with all con-
cerned PNP ofcers in the re-
gion by September, and assess
the campaigns progress.
I will also meet with all
the 17 mayors and all con-
cerned ofcials, make an
honest to goodness assess-
ment of the crime situation
in the region, seek and adopt
local anti-crime strategies
and solutions, and implement
them soon, he said.
By Jonathan
Fernandez
SIXTEEN informants re-
ceived over P4.6 million
in cash rewards from the
Philippine Drug Enforce-
ment Agency during the
agencys 10th anniversary
celebration last Monday.
PDEA chief Jose Gutier-
rez Jr. lauded the sixteen
informants for providing
information which led to the
arrest of several notorious
drug personalities and the
conscation of illegal drugs
under the PDEA Operation
Private Eye, a reward and
incentive scheme of PDEA
designed to encourage pri-
vate citizens to report any
suspected illegal drug activi-
ties in their communities.
We can only identify
the 16 informants by their
codenames in order to en-
sure their security and pro-
tect their identity. All infor-
mation we receive through
Operation Private Eye are
being handled with utmost
condentiality, Gutierrez
said.
The Private Eye Rewards
Committee, composed of
members from academe,
non-government organiza-
tions, law enforcement, re-
ligious and business sectors,
has approved the release of
monetary rewards.
Among the informants,
Mariam received the big-
gest reward worth more
than P1 million for the in-
formation which led to the
discovery and dismantling
of a medium scale clandes-
tine laboratory, the arrest
of Chinese drug personali-
ties, and the recovery of a
sizable amount of shabu in
Muntinlupa early this year.
By Florante S. Solmerin
RELATIVES of the San Beda College
of Law freshman who died after alleg-
edly being subjected to fraternity haz-
ing asked the Department of Justice on
Tuesday to investigate the death of Marc
Andrei Marcos who died at the De La
Salle University Medical Center in Das-
marias City in Cavite on Monday.
Cavite provincial police director
Senior Supt. John Bulalacao said the
22-year-old Marcos has undergone an
autopsy, but declined to reveal the re-
sults.
Bulalacao, however, said they are try-
ing to identify the young men who
asked a certain Soledad Sanda to help
them bring Marcos, who was supposedly
comatose and covered in bruises, to the
Dasmarias hospital before dawn on
Monday.
Bulalacao said Marcos died around 5
p.m. of Monday and was brought to the
Philippine National Police Crime Labo-
ratory past 9 p.m.
Marcos relatives said the young man
said he would go to school to meet some
classmates to nish a project on Sun-
day, but failed to come home. They were
surprised to learn he was at the hospital
the following day.
Lets just his arms and legs were were
violet... His death was painful, said his
lawyer-uncle Jose Vener Ibarra.
His aunt, Marimir Marcos Rivera, said
she has in her possession records of the
mobile phone numbers he was in com-
munication with at the time of his death.
I was the registered owner of the
Globe phone that Andrei had, so I ex-
plained to Globe what happened and
they gave me the information on who he
was communicating with on Friday and
Saturday. They they gave us a number
and we called that number, said Rivera.
She did not disclose details, but said
investigators were already acting on it.
ALL 31,242 kilometers of
national primary and sec-
ondary roads will be com-
pletely rehabilitated and
paved before President
Aquinos term ends in 2016,
assured Senate Finance
Committee chairman Frank-
lin M. Drilon on Tuesday.
Drilon issued the state-
ment after a performance
review of the Department of
Public Works and Highways
to help the committee in the
assessment of its budget for
next year.
The DPWH budget for 2012
budget amounts to P126.4
billion. It will be increased
by 22.97 percent in 2013, or
equivalent to P152.9 billion.
Capital outlay will signi-
cantly increase by P41 billion
from its present allocation of
P99.5 billion which is com-
posed of P124.86 billion for
locally-funded projects from
P82.8 billion in 2012 and
P15.7 billion foreign-assisted
projects from P16.6 billion
this year, noted Drilon.
During the hearing, Pub-
lic Works Secretary Rog-
elio Singson told Drilons
committee that they intend
to improve and rehabilitate
7,232.82 kilometers of na-
tional roads that remain un-
paved until 2016.
Of the 7,232 kilometers,
1,878.66 kilometers are arte-
rial roads which the DPWH
plans to be 100 percent paved
until 2014. So far, they have
already paved 535.09 kms as
of June 2012, noted Drilon.
On the other hand,
5,360.16 kilometers belong
to secondary roads and will
be paved until 2016. As of
June 2012, they have con-
creted about 1,034.15 kilo-
meters, added Drilon.
By Merck Maguddayao and Sara Susanne Fabunan
THE Makati City government overstated at least
P245 million in completed projects for 2011, exclud-
ing hundreds of millions more in ongoing projects,
according to the Commission on Audits annual
report on the city government.
Korean hackers nabbed
THE police have arrested eight South
Koreans who allegedly hacked into one
of the countrys biggest telecommuni-
cations companies to lower the cost of
international cellphone calls for other
Koreans in the Philippines.
Police Cyber Crime Division chief
Gilbert Sosa said the hackers were
rounded up Monday in four raids around
Metro Manila along with seven Filipino
women working for them.
Sosa said Tuesday the group alleg-
edly hacked lines for international calls
of Globe Telecom and rerouted them to
mostly South Koreans users living in the
Philippines, charging them less than half
the normal international call rates of 11-
15 cents per minute.
The raids follow the arrest last week
of another South Korean who allegedly
hacked into the international gateway
of Smart Communications. Globe and
Smart dominate the Philippine mobile
market. AP
Pasig avenue reopened
THE local government of Pasig and Orti-
gas & Co. formally opened the expanded
portion of Meralco Avenue to motorists
Tuesday morning.
The widening of Meralco Avenue
one of the busiest roads that connect
Shaw Boulevard and Ortigas Avenue
from 9.7 meter carriageway to 22.2
meters with three lanes to service north-
bound vehicles and two lanes for south-
bound, Ortigas and Co. general manager-
real estate division Joselito Santos said.
Each lane of the three new lanes is
3.22-meter width with a total stretch of
450 meters beginning at Shaw Boule-
vard until the bend near Capt. Henry Ja-
vier Street.
Santos said a 134-percent increase in
capacity of Meralco Avenue is expected.
Prior to the expansion 1,800 vehicles
at most access Meralco Avenue during
peak hours. The widened roadway is
now expected to be accessed by up to
4,000 vehicles during peak hours.
He added that the widened road will
pave the way for a stable trafc ow and
reduced travel time for motorists who use
the road to access St. Paul College, Uni-
versity of Asia and the Pacic, PhilSports
Complex, and Valle Verde Country Club,
among others. Gigi Munoz-David
Drug test nets 3 soldiers
AT least three soldiers were tested posi-
tive during a surprise mandatory ille-
gal drug test conducted Monday inside
Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
Military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Mar-
celo Burgos Jr. did not give the names of
the soldiers as they are still undergoing
conrmatory testsm but should they test
positive again, they will face administra-
tive and criminal charges which could also
led to their dismissal from the service.
The three personnel were members
of the newly-formed the Standing-Joint
Task Force of the National Capital Re-
gion, formerly the National Capital Re-
gion Command. The commands current
commander is Col. Manuel Ramiro.
To date, 350 ofcers, 3,609 enlisted
personnel and 344 civilian employees
have been subjected to drug tests and
about 19 enlisted personnel and three
militiamen have tested positive and 12
of them discharged from the service, the
military said.
Supervised by the Task Group Ja-
cob, the SJTF-NCRs mandatory drug
test involved a total of 33 ofcers, 157
enlisted personnel and 10 civilian em-
ployees. Flor ante Solmer in
ofcials who have relayed the informa-
tion to the Vice President, he said.
While we respect her opinion, we
would like to remind Commissioner
Mendoza that our personal opinions
should not color our work or profes-
sional judgment, especially in such a
politically-sensitive ofce, he added.
According to the COA report, the
Makati City government purportedly
overstated the accounts for electrica-
tion and street light projects by P98
million; hospitals and healthcare facili-
ties by P45 million; school buildings by
P52 million; roads and bridges by P45
million; and parks, plaza, and monu-
ments by P98 million, among a number
of other projects.
In addition, the city also allegedly
overstated P43 million in other main-
tenance and operating expenses, which
include payment for deciency taxes to
the Bureau of Internal Revenue, seminars
and workshops, advertisements and tar-
paulins for the Makati Foundation Day,
and the 2011 Association of Local Col-
leges and Universities Olympics.
The COA report also claimed Makati
City failed to use P35-million from its
community development fund, but paid
out P25 million from the same CDF to
various contractors, despite the lack of
supporting documents to afrm the va-
lidity of the expenses.
Tipsters reward. An informer, codenamed Mariam, shakes the
hands of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Jose Gutierrez
after he is handed his reward for reporting drug trafckers. MANNY
PALMERO
Bone of contention. The Makati Friendship
Suites are now the subject of an investigation by the
Commission on Audit. The facility used to be part of the
BLISS housing project in Guadalupe in Makati City, but
was turned into lodgings for ofcial guests of the city.
Binays in the wringer
after city projects audit
A7 Sports Riera U. Mallari, Editor
ManilaStandardToday
sports_mstandard@yahoo.com
However, Top Rank
promoter Bob Arum told the
Manila Standard that there is
no definite word on the venue.
Earlier reports mentioned
the venue as the Home Depot
Center in Carson City, where
Donaire won the IBF title
from South Africas Jeffrey
Mathebula and the Alamadome
in San Antonio, Texas, where
he clinched the WBO title in
Some Olympians want marketing rules changed
Donaire-Arce tiff moved to Oct. 13
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
THE eagerly awaited title defense of
World Boxing Organization/Interna-
tional Boxing Federation super ban-
tamweight champion Nonito Donaire
against Mexican warrior Jorge Arce
has been moved to Oct. 13 from the
original Oct. 20 date.
IN BRIEF
Abueva is named top cager
THE Beast of Baste has been chosen
as the Accel/316 National Collegiate Ath-
letic Association Press Corps Player of the
Week, presented by Gatorade.
Calvin The Beast Abueva, who is on
his nal year with the San Sebastian Col-
lege Stags, got high marks after leading
his team past the Emilio Aguinaldo Col-
lege Generals, 94-93, last Monday at the
Arena in San Juan.
He scored three of four charities in the
last minute to help the Stags claim their
fth win in six games.
In that game, Abueva tallied 29 points,
18 rebounds and seven assists for the Stags,
who were undermanned following the injury
of Ian Sangalang during practice.
Abueva, who wants to leave his mark be-
fore he turns pro, is expected to improve on
his averages after their game against EAC.
He is now no. 1 in rebounds with an av-
erage 17.6 boards per game, rst in assists
with an average of 8.0, and the leader in
free throws made with 5.4.
The 63 Abueva is also fourth in scor-
ing with 19.4 points per game, third in
blocks with 1.6 and sixth in steals with 1.4.
Meanwhile, Nate Matute red 22 points for
the the Jose Rizal University Heavy Bomb-
ers, who turned the tables on the College of
St. Benilde Blazers in the fourth quarter for a
77-72 triumph late Monday evening.
LONDONMoney is prob-
ably not a worry for Sanya
Richards-Ross. She has en-
dorsement deals with BMW
and Nike and is married to
Jacksonville Jaguars corner-
back Aaron Ross, who will
earn $15 million over the next
three seasons.
But there are restrictions on
what Richards-Ross and other
Olympians can promote at the
London Games. That has upset
some competitors, who want or-
ganizers to change the policy
especially to help athletes with-
out lucrative sponsorship deals.
Ive been very fortunate to
do very well around the Olym-
pics, but so many of my peers
struggle in this sport. And I just
think its unjust, Richards-
Ross, an American sprinter,
said Monday.
Richards-Ross, who also
sells autographed photos and
posters on her website, was
among the athletes taking part
in a Twitter campaign, using
the hashtags WeDemand-
Change2012 and Rule40.
Rule 40 is the International
Olympic Committee policy bar-
ring Olympic athletes from us-
ing their names or likenesses for
advertising during the games.
The rule is in effect from July 18
through Aug. 15, three days after
the closing ceremony.
The IOC says it pours 94
percent of its commercial rev-
enue back into sports, and is
only trying to protect the mon-
ey that comes into the Olympic
movement.
A huge number of 10,500
athletes who are here would
understand why we are doing
this, spokesman Mark Jones
said. For one month, we ask
them not to endorse products
not related to the Olympics
that dont actually give money
back to the movement.
Sponsorship is everywhere
at the Olympicsbut ofcial
sponsors only.
Richards-Ross spoke at a US
Track and Field news confer-
ence in the Main Press Centre at
Olympic Park, where someone
setting up the room neatly ar-
ranged bottles of Coca-Cola and
Powerade on the dais.
A banner at a park entrance
reads: There would be no
goosebumps, gasps, pound-
ing hearts, tears of joy, records
smashed, strangers hugged, or
a whole world brought togeth-
er without followed by the
logos of McDonalds, Adidas
and Procter & Gamble.
That may explain why US
agbearer and fencing gold
medalist Mariel Zagunis was
allowed to post this to her
social media accounts: Big
thanks to P&G for taking care
of my mom when she ew in
early to watch me carry the ag
in the Opening Ceremony!
P&G has a facility in Lon-
don to host families of US
athletes, offering food, drink,
laundry and salon services. US
Olympic Committee spokes-
man Patrick Sandusky said
a comment like Zagunis is
permissible if the sponsor has
requested a waiver from the
USOC on the IOCs behalf.
Richards-Ross said only 2
percent of American athletes
can tweet about their sponsors
because they have USOC or
IOC sponsors.
With the games generating
billions of dollars, Athletes
just want to be considered,
she said. The Olympic reality
and the Olympic ideal ... right
now are different.
The Twitter campaign and
IOC response dominated part
of the USATF news confer-
ence Monday, prompting
USATF spokeswoman Jill
Geer to good-naturedly remind
reporters that we also have a
track meet coming up. AP
THE University Athletic Asso-
ciation of the Philippines will
open the Season 75 badminton
and beach volleyball competi-
tions this month at separate
venues.
Ateneo and University of the
East start their title defense in
mens and womens badminton
competitions, which begin on
Saturday at the Rizal Memorial
Badminton Hall.
In beach volleyball, Univer-
sity of Santo Tomas and Far
Eastern University stake their
womens and mens crowns
starting on Aug. 25 at the UE
Caloocan sand court.
Powered by Toby Gadi, the
Blue Eagles won the mens
badminton crown by defeat-
ing the Jofer Escueta-led Na-
tional University in an exciting
championship match last year.
The Lady Warriors, with
tournament Most Valuable
Player Fatima Cruz in tow,
claimed the womens tiara by
defeating the Lady Eagles in
the nale.
NU will host the badminton
competition for the second
straight season.
The Tigresses booked their
rst-ever womens beach vol-
leyball crown in Season 74 as
Maru Banaticla and Judy Ca-
ballejo defeated the Lady Ea-
gles pair of Alyssa Valdez and
Bea Tan in three nals games.
Bannered by Arvin Avila, the
Tamaraws capped their season
in mens beach volleyball un-
defeated by beating the Growl-
ing Tigers in the nals.
UE is the beach volleyball
event host.
Other rst-semester events
scheduled are swimming, table
tennis, taekwondo and judo.
Meanwhile, action in wom-
ens basketball resumes today
at the Filoil Flying V Arena in
San Juan with a four-game bill.
Defending champion Far
Eastern University collides
with La Salle at 10:15 p.m., to
be followed by the University
of the East -Ateneo match at 12
noon.
ILLAM softbelles aim for supremacy
DETERMINED to make history for
Philippine sports, the International Little
League Association of Manila girls soft-
ball team representing the country and
Asia Pacic will bat for supremacy in the
2012 Little League Softball World Series
at the Alpenrose Stadium in Portland,
Oregon on Aug. 9 to 15.
The Asia Pacic Regional champion
ILLAM, which is seeking to be the rst
foreign team to reign supreme in Port-
land, is composed of battle-tested Fili-
pina softbelles, led by Nicole Barandi-
aran, Sabina Bitong,Mia Laurel,Panjie
Legaspi, Therese Macasaet, Cheska
Nepomuceno, Mayu Nushijima, Anna
Ozaeta, Marianna Solitaria, Claire Ste-
vens and Grace Stevens and mentored by
coach Randy Dizer, with assistant coach-
es Apol Rosales, Rey Pagkaliwagan and
manager by Karen Solitaria.
According to ILLAM chief Norman
Macasaet, the Philippines [Asia Pacic] is
bracketed with teams from Canada, South-
east, East and West District in Pool B,
while Pool A is composed of Central and
Southwest District, the Netherlands, Mexi-
can BC of Latin America and host Oregon
District IV Raleigh Hills Little League.
Its a tough challenge facing the best
teams from America and the rest in the
World Series. No foreign team has won
the championship ever, but the girls are
ready to make history. Lets hope for the
best, said Macasaet, who acknowledged
the support of Hijo Resources, Connell
Brothers,Toyota, Knight Capital, Pacic
On Line, Little League Philippines and
Philippine Sports Commission Commis-
sioner Jose Luis Gomez.
Prior to the World Series, the ILLAM
lady batters reigned in the last 2012 Lit-
tle League Philippine Series girls soft-
ball championship in Clark, Pampanga
to qualify for the 2012 ASPAC Little
League Softball Regional Championship
in Jakarta, Indonesia last month.
The Philippines earned a ticket to the
World Series after sweeping China, In-
donesia and powerhouse Guam for the
Asia Pacic title.
Defending the crown is Sterling Little
League-Sterling, Illinois of the Central
District.
All ready
for UAAPs
badminton,
beach volley
DELTA White and UST Gold emerged wom-
ens and mens senior champions, respectively,
in the recent 35th Smart national taekwondo
tournament held at the Makati Coliseum.
Elaine Alora, named the best player, powered
the Deltans to the gold triumph past silver winner
UST Black and bronze medalist UST Gold.
UST Gold, led by best player Christian Al
dela Cruz, beat silver medalist San Beda Red
and bronze winner Delta E.
Alyssa Bonifacio, Leigh Anne Nuguid,
Apriel Solimen, Jyra Lizardo, Patricia Sem-
brano and Annalyn dela Pena backed up Alora
of Delta, which was handled by Stephen Fer-
nandez, who was tapped as the best coach.
Dindo Simpao was named best coach
of UST Gold, which relied on Dela Cruz,
Prince Marcos, Paulo Darilag, Paul Romero,
Ernest Mendoza, Ronnel Avenido and Ro-
dolfo Reyes to stash away the top plum.
The other gold medalists in the two-day
event organized by the Philippine Taekwon-
do Association follow:
AMTC-Bacolod composed of Roem Joseph
Ayuban, Ernesto Marcus Hintojas, Adriano
Horlador, Keith Smart Docado, Jan Michael
Casana and Deb Matthew Daclan, gradeschool
boys; Bacolod Tiger-A (Princess Ranie Rose
Dedoroy, Via Trocio, Sam Arrieta, Ashley
Alarcon and Julienne Bermejo, gradeschool
girls), Team Baguio (Angelica Joyce Gaw,
Leslie Marie Agyamoc, Suzzane Glehn, Shan-
nelle Romuar and Brighty Rio Salazar), junior
women; University of the East (Carl Garcia,
Aaron Galita, Philip Pineda, John Nityanda
Lim, Clifferson Romuar, Jake Calda and Dale
Brion), junior men.
Hintojas, Dedoroy, Caslangen and Cliffer-
son Romuar were selected best players for
their respective teams.
Delta White, UST Golf jins win
Mejia gets high marks
IT TAKES one to know one.
Grandmaster Jayson Gonza-
les believes Giovanni Mejia has
what it takes to become a grand-
master himself.
Mejia, 14, was the youngest
player to qualify in the 2012 Na-
tional Open Chess Champion-
ships, where he ofcially earned
his national master title.
He is an aggressive player who
can only get better with experience,
said Gonzales, also the executive
director of the National Chess
Federation of the Philippines and
longtime coach of powerhouse Far
Eastern University chess team.
Gonzales has keen eyes for
chess talents, a key factor in the
sustained dominance of his team
in collegiate chess competition.
In the event dubbed as the Battle
of the Grandmasters, Mejia played
like one. He gave the established
stars of local chess a run for their
money and even defeated the tourna-
ment top seed GM Oliver Barbosa.
His enthusiasm reminds me
of a young Wesley So, observed
Gonzales.
Gonzales witnessed rsthand
the initiation of So in a national
championship and beneted
from his gung-ho style of play.
The then 10-year-old So defeat-
ed International Master Chito
Garma in the nal round of the
2004 National Open to give
Gonzales the last berth in the
Olympiad that year.
a clash with Wilfredo Vazquez
Jr. of Puerto Rico.
The change of date was in
order not to clash with the
battle for the vacant WBO
bantamweight title between
No. 1 contender AJ Bazooka
Banal of the ALA Gym and
No. 2-ranked Pungluang Sor
Singyu of Thailand from the
big OneSingchai Promotions of
Thailand scheduled at the Mall
of Asia Arena along Roxas
Boulevard.
The new date for the
Donaire-Arce showdown will
enable ABS-CBN to telecast
both title fights on Channel 2
on successive Sundays.
Arum said there is a great
match-up on the undercard
of Donaire-Arce, featuring
undefeated light welterweights
Brandon Bam Bam Rios and
Mike Alvarado.
The 26-year-old Rios has
a record of 30-0-1 with 22
knockouts and is coming off
a controversial 12-round split
decision win over Richard Abril
in a World Boxing Association
lightweight title bout, in which
he failed to make the weight and
lost a chance to win the title.
On the other hand, Abril,
despite the defeat, was allowed
to retain his interim title.
The 32-year-old Alvarado
has a record of 33-0, with
23 knockouts and won the
vacant International Boxing
Federation Latino light
welterweight title with a
unanimous 10- round decision
over Gabriel Martinez on July
30, 2011, and retained the title
with a 10th-round TKO over
Breidis Prescott.
Prescott was the Colombian
fighter, who handed former
world champion Amir Khan
his first stunning defeat in
a 54-second, first-round
knockout victory in a clash
for the WBO Intercontinental
lightweight title on Sept. 6,
2008.
Asis wins in Australia
FILIPINO Jack Asis has scored a big win
against Japans Ryusei Yoshida in a ght
card at the Gold Coast Convention Center
in Queensland, Australia.
The 31-year-old Asis, who is ranked
No. 4 featherweight by the Oriental Pa-
cic Boxing Federation, improved his re-
cord to 26-18-4 with 14 knockouts, with
an impressive seventh-round technical
knockout of the 28-year-old Yoshida, who
dropped to 22-4 with 10 knockouts.
In an action-packed ght, Asis dropped
Yoshida in the opening round and twice in
the fateful seventh, before referee Adrian
Cairns called a halt at 2:29 of the round.
At the time of the stoppage, Asis was
ahead on the scorecards of all three judges.
Phil Austin had the Filipino up by a shut-
out 60-73, while Adam Height (59-54)
and Cyril Cairns (57-56) also favored the
Filipino. Ronnie Nathanielsz
Australian promoter Peter Maniatis told
the Manila Standard that Asis is an excit-
ing ghter and full of re and reminds him
of another hard-hitting Filipino Ranee KO
Kid Ganoy who is also based in Australia.
Ronnie Nathanielsz
Ghost not in Pacmans
league, says promoter
ROBERT The Ghost Guerrero, who
moved up two weight divisions and won
the vacant World Boxing Council inter-
im welterweight title and has called out
Manny Pacquiao several times in the past,
doesnt have a ghost of a chance of land-
ing a ght with the Filipino, according to
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.
Guerrero captured the vacant Interim title
with a unanimous decision over previously
undefeated Selcuk Aydin at the HP Pavilion
in San Jose, California last Saturday.
Arum, who is scheduled to arrive in
Manila on Aug. 6 with his wife Lovee,
told the Manila Standard that Guerrero
was ghting a very crude, ordinary guy
and is not in the same category.
In a post-ght press conference, Guer-
rero said: Bring on anybody. I am look-
ing for the best ghts, its just trying to get
these guys in the ring. Im the mandatory
for Floyd (Mayweather Jr) now. Lets
make it happen.
Arum said he hasnt discussed plans for
Pacquiaos next ght which is tentatively
scheduled for Nov. 10, pointing out that
theres no point talking on the phone.
He also disclosed that Pacquiaos adviser
Michael Koncz had just returned to Los An-
geles after a vacation in Mexico and is expect-
ed to be in Manila when Arum and Pacquiao
discuss his future plans. Ronnie Nathanielsz
Bear Brand kitefest.
Three veteran
photojournalistsTom
Guevarra of Peoples
Journal, Virgilio Noveno
of Peoples Tonight and
Ernie Mendoza of the
Philippine Starwon the
Bear Brand Powdered
Milk Kitefest photo
contest recently in Sta.
Rosa, Laguna and in
Pampanga. Through
their lenses, the winners
captured the ingenuity
of the kites own and
portrayed the bonding
moments of the
contestants and their
families, based on the
events theme of Sama-
sama ang pamilya sa
tibay at saya. According
to Jasmin Estacio,
consumer marketing
Manager of Bear Brand,
the three winning entries
topped 30 others for their
creativity, quality, and
relevance to the theme.
Photo shows the winning
entry of Guevarra.
Richards-Ross
Sports
AUGUST 1, 2012
Manila Standard TODAY
WEDNESDAY
A8
Tsui proves title potential with KF2 triumph
RISING up to the call of the ag,
Christopher Joseph CJ Tsui
of Industria Racing proved his
championship potentials with his
big feats in the 2012 Philippine
KF2-KF3 Cup Series and the
Philippine leg of the 2012 Asian
Karting Open Championship at
the Carmona Racetrack Sunday.
Groomed as the next big star of
Philippine karting, the 17-year-
old De La Salle-Santiago Zobel
Senior put up a gallant stand
against top-caliber foreign rivals
to be among the top three Fili-
pino nishers of the prestigious
annual international event on his
rst year in the premier senior di-
vision, crediting the big support
of Industria Racing Team and its
crew and his sponsor Asia Over-
seas Transport Co. Inc.
In the 2012 Philippine KF2-
KF3 Cup Series, he emerged
the KF2 Champion in Round 2
against his more experienced In-
dustria Racing teammate Bobby
Domingo and Cebuano hotshot
Tonyo Carcel. He later bagged
third place in Round 3, behind his
runner-up Industria Racing team-
mate Franco Reyes and champion
Milo Rivera.
Tsui played a bigger role for
the country in the Asian Karting
Open Championship, where he
wound up among the top three
Filipino in the winners podium
of the premier Formula 125 Open
Senior class with his fth-place
nish.
Right after erstwhile leader
Milo Rivera spun out of the race
following a loose tire, CJ took it
upon himself to carry on the ght
for the ag in the Pre-Final phase
as he rushed to get back in the
main pack from behind and save
the Philippines from a shutout
following his third-place nish to
end up as the lone Filipino among
the top ve nishers.
The Final race further tested his
racing prowess and determina-
tion. Starting third on the grid,
Tsui got caught in a mix-up that
shoved him down at the tailend of
the 22-man grid.
But midway in the 28-lap race,
his aggressive rally, passing local
and foreign drivers one after the
other, allowed him to claim fth
place.
It was a better feat than his
seventh-place performance as the
lone Filipino bet in the said pre-
mier class in the kickoff round
of the Asian Karting Open last
month in Macau, proving his
marked improvement and matu-
rity in his racing career.
There could only be one
champion in any race. Still, Im
glad to have played a signicant
role for the Philippine title cam-
paign in this prestigious event up
against the best of the Asian re-
gion. There were lessons learned
from this experience that hope-
fully will help me mature in my
racing career, said Tsui.
Rich PBA Annual Draft set on Aug. 19
A BIG man full of potential, the
reigning king of the National Col-
legiate Athletic Association, the
Philippine Basketball Association
D-League Most Valuable Player, a
former Smart Gilas-Pilpinas train-
ing pool member, and a slew of tal-
ented Fil-Ams, comprise the eld of
61 aspirants who have so far applied
for the highly awaited PBA Annual
Draft set three weeks from now at
the Robinsons Midland Manila.
Towering 69 Cebuano Jun-
mar Fajardo added a spice of
thrill in the Aug. 19 event when
he formally submitted his papers
at the PBA ofce Monday and
joined a cast of future superstars
that already included San Sebas-
tian stalwart Calvin Abueva and
Vic Manuel, recipients of the
Most Valuable Player award in
the NCAA and D-League respec-
tively, one-time national player
Aldrech Ramos, and foreign-bred
players Chris Ellis, Cliff Hodge,
Jason Deutchman, Charles Keith
Jensen and Alex Mallari.
Deadline for local players
wishing to join the leagues rst
formal activity for its 38th season
is on Aug. 3.
Air21 owns this years top
overall pick, although the rights
have since been traded to Petron.
And the Boosters have not been
reticent about their fondness for the
22-year-old Fajardo, who played
for the San Miguel Beermen in the
Asean Basketball League.
Fajardo, born in Compostela,
Cebu, has been the dominant big
man down South the past four
years, winning three MVP titles
and steering the University of Cebu
Webmasters to back-to-back cham-
pionships in the Cebu Schools Ath-
letic Foundation Inc. or more popu-
larly known as Cesa.
He once rivaled fellow big man
Greg Slaughter of the University of
the Visayas, until the Fil-Am center
went to the Big City and transferred
to Ateneo de Manila.
But this years Draft is more
than just the Fajardos, Abuevas,
Manuels, and the Hodges.
Other familiar names are also
in the list, the likes of Ronald Pas-
cual, who forms part of the Stags
dreaded `Big 3 along with Abueva
and Ian Sangalang, big man Dave
Marcelo who played a key role in
San Bedas back-to-back NCAA
championships, Jewel Ponferada,
Eman Monfort of four-time UAAP
title holder Ateneo, former Far East-
ern University gunner JR Cawaling,
and the Adamson quartet of Lester
Alvarez, Janus Lozada, Jerick Can-
ada, and Jan Colina.
Then theres also the second
generation of players such as
Raymond Austria, Paul Gonzal-
go, Danilo Pribhdas Jr., and Paul
Zamar.
sports@manilastandardtoday.com sports_mstandard@yahoo.com Riera U. Mallari, Editor
Trillo stays
on as coach
of Alaska
THE Alaska Aces decided to
stick it out with Luigi Trillo as
their head coach.
The organization promoted
Trillo, who coached the Aces in
the Governors Cup on an interim
basis, to be the teams permanent
head mentor, even after a dismal
showing by the franchise owned
by Wilfred Uytengsu.
Trillo got a two-year contract
to continue the teams develop-
ment and turn things around for
the Aces, who had a forgettable
season.
To further boost Trillos coach-
ing staff, Uytengsu also gave him
the green light to upgrade the
teams assistant coaches.
Top-ranked amateur coaches
such as Adamson coach Leo
Austria and Letran mentor
Louie Alas, as well as Powerade
assistants Alex Compton and
Charles Tiu, whose status re-
main uncertain with the Tigers
intention of leaving the league,
are being considered.
Trillo steered the Aces to a 2-7
record in the Governors Cup,
where the team nished ninth.
Alaska owns the second over-
all pick in the coming Annual
Amateur Draft and that might
help the team plug in some
holes in the roster. Jeric Lopez
SERENA DECLINES
American silver medalist stands in Javiers way
LONDONThe odds against
him are as long as the famous
River Thames when Mark Ja-
vier faces veteran Brady Elli-
son of the US in a Round-of-32
duel on Wednesday afternoon
in the 30th London Olympics
at Lord Crickets hallowed
grounds.
But dont tell that to Javier.
I will go there and play my
game. I dont mind being a heavy
underdog. I will do my best for
the country, said Javier.
In a performance, which he
would rather forget, Javier n-
ished only 55th out of 64 quali-
ers in the ranking round, draw-
ing Ellison, who comes into the
match carrying impressive cre-
dentials.
Only 23, the 511 Ellison was
a veteran of the Beijing Games.
Although he never gured in the
medal ght in 2008, he worked
hard to raise his game and start-
ed reaping the fruits as he won
the Pan Am Games in 2010 and
2011. The fruits of his labor net-
ted him a silver recently in the
team archery competitions.
Ellison wound up 10th in the
ranking round with a 676 total
on a day legally blind Im Dong
Hyun of South Korea dazzled
the world by establishing a new
world record of 699 and help-
ing his country capture the gold
medal in the team event.
Mark has chance, said Ko-
rean mentor Chung Jaeyun, hold-
ing a stick of cigarette on one
hand and a bottle of distilled on
the other. He must be focused.
The winners will advance to
the Round of 16.
Meanwhile, Jasmine Alkhaldi
giggled a lot when asked what to
expect from her when she com-
petes in one of seven heats in the
100-meter freestyle on Wednes-
day morning in the 30th Olym-
pic Games.
Maybe thats Jasmine way of
saying that her chances are as
grey as the London skies.
Its soooooo tough, loudly
said Jasmine, drawing attention
from some athletes a table away
as fellow swimmer Jessie La-
cuna, coach Pinky Brosas, Team
PH chief of mission Manny Lo-
pez and administrative ofcer
Arsenic Lacson laughed.
The 19-year-old Pinay swim-
mer, who took up the sport
when she was only three, sees
action in the third heat against
Mylene Ong of Singapore, Nas-
tja Govejsek of Slovenia, Ester
Dara of Hungary, Liliana Lopez
of Mexico, Karen Torres of Bo-
livia and Cielia Tini of Mauri-
tius, with none of them expect-
ed to go beyond the qualifying
heats.
I just told her to go for her
personal best and have fun, said
Brosas. The depth of the eld is
just overwhelming. AP
Painters go for the jugular
LOTTO RESULTS
6/49 000000000000
6/42 000000000000
6 DIGITS 000000000000
3 DIGITS 000000
2 EZ2 0000
P0.0M+
P0.0M+
Firmly holding a commanding
3-1 series lead, the Elasto Paint-
ers dont plan on slowing down.
Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao,
however, isnt exactly feeling the
nish line yet, knowing how dan-
gerous their opponent is with its
back against the wall.
We got some breathing
room, but by no means its done,
said Guiao. This is a vulnerable
moment for us, because we might
think that its over, but its not.
The outspoken veteran men-
tor is wary of the capabilities of
the team that won the leagues last
championship several months ago.
Anything can change in a
second with B-MEG. Its always
tough to stop that team once it
gets its bearings. We dont want
that to happen. Well focus on the
adjustments they will make.
The Elasto Painters once again
showed maturity in the endgame
last Sunday to take Game 4, 94-
89, and get the edge that they are
comfortably enjoying right now.
Facing a huge hole, B-MEG
coach Tim Cone knows that there
is no other option besides winning
and surviving.
Bottomline is that we got to go
out and win Game 5, said Cone.
We got to nd a way to put pressure
on them. Were just going to focus on
Game 5. Were not looking beyond
that at this point. They have a future
beyond Game 5 and we dont.
Reigning Rookie of the Year
Paul Lee will make a surprise
comeback today and play after
sitting out Games 3 and 4.
Lee, who re-aggravated his left-
shoulder injury late in Game 2, was
originally ruled out for the series,
but after feeling better the last sev-
eral days, he is ready to return to
action. However, his participation
still remains in the hands of Guiao.
By Jeric Lopez

FIRST championship.
Thats what one more win can give Rain
or Shine as it shoots for all the marbles at
6:45 p.m. today against B-MEG in Game
5 of the best-of-seven nals of the 2012
Philippine Basketball Association Gover-
nors Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
US quintet
takes on
Tunisia next
LONDONWith a massive
budget, the US Olympic mens
basketball team has a treasure
trove of information on its op-
ponents. There are scouting
reports, game lms, statistical
breakdowns - anything and ev-
erything a coach or player needs
to prepare for any upcoming
game.
So, with the Americans get-
ting ready for their second pre-
liminary-round game, forward
Kevin Love was asked what he
knew about Tunisia.
Not much, he said.
He and his US teammates are
about to nd out.
Coming off a less-than-stel-
lar, but still impressive 27-point
win over France in its tourna-
ment opener, the US team will
play Tunisia on Tuesday night
in what has the potential to be
a blowout of epic proportions.
The US and Tunisia have only
met once previously with the
Americans romping to a 92-57
win at the 2010 world champi-
onships in Istanbul after leading
by only six points at halftime.
During Mondays practice,
the US team got familiar with
Tunisias offensive sets and
will be briefed on the Afri-
can champions personnel
before taking the court. What
the Americans will learn is
that Tunisian team is tall with
seven players on its roster over
2.03 meters (6-foot-8).
Other than that, there may be
no worries. AP
WIMBLEDON, EnglandSerena
Williams wont play mixed doubles at the
Olympics, and the two U.S. teams will
instead feature four doubles specialists -
the Bryan brothers and Liezel Huber and
Lisa Raymond. Raymond and Mike Bryan
will be reunited after winning their third
Grand Slam title together at Wimbledon
this summer. The other U.S. entry will be
Huber and Bob Bryan, who have won two
major titles together. AP
United States Brady Ellison (right) celebrates with teammate Jake Kaminski after beating South Korea in the seminal of the team archery competi-
tion of the 30th Olympics. The recently awarded silver medalist will be Mark Javiers foe today. AP
CJTsui flashestheNo.1signaftercapturingtheKF2crowninRound2ofthe
2012KF2-KF3CupSeries. Withhimat thepodiumarehisIndustriaRacingteam-
matesfourthplacerFrancoReyesandrunner-upBobbyDomingo, thirdplacer
TonyoCarcel ofCebuandfifthplacerSachaFelicianoofMarceloRacing.
Ray S. Eano, Editor extrastory2000@gmail.com
Business
Roderick T. dela Cruz, Assistant Editor
Tanduay to absorb
all Lucio Tan assets
GSIS, foreign groups
roll out $625-m fund
B1
5,307.66
29.76
5200
4460
3720
2980
2240
1500
1200
PSE COMPOSITE INDEX
Closing July 31, 2012
PESO-DOLLAR RATE
40
42
44
46
48
P41.720
CLOSE
Closing JULY 31, 2012
VOLUME 807.520M
HIGH P41.720 LOW P41.920 AVERAGE P41.833
MEGAWORLD Corp. is
increasing its investment in a
15-hectare integrated township
development at Fort Bonifacio
to P65 billion from an original
budget of P45 billion, on the
back of strong demand among
buyers.
Megaworld said in a disclosure
to the stock exchange the P65-
billion capital expenditure for
the Uptown Bonifacio project
would be spent over a 20-year
period.
The predominantly mixed-
use Uptown Bonifacio project is
centrally located in the northern
district of Fort Bonifacio, near the
British, Japanese and American
international schools.
Uptown Bonifacio will feature
18 towers, offering 500,000
square meters of residential
space, 400,000 square meters of
ofce space and 90,000 square
meters of retail space.
Uptown Bonifacio, touted as
the newest business district in the
Philippines, will take Megaworlds
renowned live-work-play lifestyle
to new heights, said senior vice
president for marketing Noli
Hernandez.
The 45-story Uptown Ritz
Residence, Megaworlds rst
ultra-luxurious, all-suites
condominium project in the
township, is valued at P8 billion.
Its suites will have spacious two-
to four-bedroom layouts.
Hernandez said sales
for Uptown Ritz had been
exceptionally brisk. We
have never experienced such
tremendous optimism in the
real estate market in the last 15
years, said Hernandez.
The property rm is also
developing Uptown Place within
the 15-hectare development,
which will feature recreational
facilities including an upscale
three-level retail complex.
Jenniffer B. Austria
Megaworld investing
P65b in Fort Bonifacio
By Jenniffer B. Austria
BEER and tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan
is folding all its assets, including airline,
cigarette, liquor, banking and real estate,
under listed Tanduay Holdings Inc.
Tanduay said in a disclosure
to the stock exchange the
company would be renamed
LT Group Inc. and become the
listed holding rm of the Tan
group.
Tanduay plans to invest in
all companies owned by the
tycoon, namely Asia Brewery
Inc., Fortune Tobacco Corp.,
Eton Properties Philippines
Inc., Philippine Airlines, Air
Philippines Corp., Philippine
National Bank and Allied
Banking Corp.
Tanduay said it would fund
the investment from a P5-
billion placement by Tangent
Holdings Corp. It expects the
investments to be completed
before the end of September
2012. Tangent is a holding
company owned by Tan.
The foregoing transactions
will materially expand and
diversify the investments held
by the corporation, Tanduay
said.
The board of directors
believes the enlarged portfolio
will provide the corporation
with signicant opportunities
for synergies and business
growth, including but not
limited to synergies in
marketing and distribution,
enhanced exibility in funding,
as well as improved nancial
prole, all of which, the board
believes, will contribute to
enhance shareholder value,
the company added.
The company said it would
call a special stockholders
meeting on Sept. 18 to approve
the plans.
Tanduay on Tuesday sought a
voluntary trading suspension of
shares, pending the disclosure
of material matter to be
discussed by the board of
directors.
Tanduay in a letter to the
stock exchange asked for one-
day trading suspension ahead of
a board meeting later Tuesday,
where material matters will
be discussed for which we will
be required to make disclosures,
if approved.
Tanduay shareholders on Friday approved
an increase in the companys authorized
capital stock to P25 billion from P5 billion.
Tangent Holdings, the companys major
shareholder, will subscribe to a fourth of the
increase.
But with the P5-billion investment of
Tangent, Tanduays public ownership will
fall below the 10-percent minimum public
oat required by the Philippine Stock
Exchange.
Tanduay said the management would
study and
recommend
measures to
comply with
the public
owne r s hi p
requirement
of the PSE.
S h a r e
price of
T a n d u a y
on Monday
c l o s e d
at P5.10
apiece.
By Bernadette Lunas
THE Asian Development Bank,
state pension fund Government
Service Insurance System and
two foreign fund managers
launched Tuesday a $625-million
(P26-billion) equity fund that
will nance core infrastructure
projects in the Philippines.
Asset manager Algemene
Pensioen Groep of the
Netherlands and Macquarie
Group Ltd. of Australia are joining
the ADB and GSIS in the largest
infrastructure fund in the country
called Philippine Investment
Alliance for Infrastructure.
Now is the best time to invest
in the Philippines, Frank Kwok,
a senior managing director at
Macquarie, said in a brieng in
Ortigas.
Macquarie Infrastructure
and Real Assets will manage
the $625-million fund that will
invest in energy, power, water,
environment, communication
and public-private partnership
projects.
We are condent there will be
a steady pipeline of projects and
that we can disburse the funds in
a relatively short period of time,
Kwok added.
Kwok said the PInAI fund
would target ve to 10 projects
with nancing of $50 million to
$125 million each.
GSIS president and general
manager Robert Vergara said the
state pension fund will contribute
$400 million while Phillip
Erquiaga, director-general for
ADBs private sector operations
managements said the bank will
invest $25 million.
Vergara said GSIS along with
other government nancial
institutions would no longer
pursue the so-called PPP bonds.
GSIS, Social Security System,
Land Bank of the Philippines
and Development Bank of the
Philippines earlier committed
P50 billion each for the PPP
bonds.
Macquarie and APG declined
to reveal the size of their
contributions to the PInAI fund.
TRADI NG SUMMARY
SHARES VALUE
FINANCIAL 18,206,741 1,133,202,962.84
INDUSTRIAL 103,495,261 1,118,927,142.28
HOLDING FIRMS 85,230,709 1,294,152,494.13
PROPERTY 209,244,543 1,153,378,710.88
SERVICES 60,679,669 1,083,184,383.15
MINING & OIL 493,438,538 261,748,497.59
GRAND TOTAL 970,385,461 6,044,594,190.87
FINANCIAL 1,320.32 (up) 16.79
INDUSTRIAL 7,905.82 (down) 13.71
HOLDING FIRMS 4,477.78 (up) 32.11
PROPERTY 1,998.50 (up) 17.60
SERVICES 1,798.21 (up) 11.47
MINING & OIL 23,679.09 (up) 91.46
PSEI 5,307.66 (up) 29.76
All Shares Index 3,503.30 (up) 11.46
Gainers: 103; Losers:56; Unchanged:36; Total: 195
Market tops 5,300;
banks lead gainers
Business
ManilaStandardToday
extrastory2000@gmail.com
B2
52 Weeks Previous % Net Foreign
High Low STOCKS Close High Low Close Change Volume Trade/Buying
MST BUSINESS DAILY STOCKS REVIEW
TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2012
M
S
T
FINANCIAL
70.50 46.00 Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. 63.05 64.55 63.10 64.45 2.22 3,192,570 93,649,124.00
76.80 50.00 Bank of PI 73.50 74.80 72.60 72.60 (1.22) 1,305,540 (3,927,774.00)
1.82 0.68 Bankard, Inc. 0.70 0.71 0.71 0.71 1.43 300,000
595.00 370.00 China Bank 478.00 478.20 478.00 478.00 0.00 35,260 (12,953,800.00)
1.95 1.42 BDO Leasing & Fin. Inc. 1.90 2.05 2.00 2.00 5.26 422,000 434,300.00
23.90 12.98 COL Financial 22.95 22.95 22.75 22.95 0.00 155,800 113,540.00
20.70 18.50 Eastwest Bank 18.78 19.00 18.80 18.86 0.43 938,500 (4,057,006.00)
22.00 7.56 Filipino Fund Inc. 10.50 10.50 10.24 10.24 (2.48) 4,700
0.95 0.62 First Abacus 0.76 0.80 0.80 0.80 5.26 100,000
89.00 50.00 First Metro Inv. 70.95 72.50 71.50 71.50 0.78 10,600
681.00 450.00 Manulife Fin. Corp. 439.00 439.00 435.00 435.00 (0.91) 490
98.00 60.00 Metrobank 96.80 101.00 96.50 100.10 3.41 4,162,680 132,222,793.00
3.06 1.30 Natl Reinsurance Corp. 2.02 2.02 1.99 1.99 (1.49) 158,000
126.00 45.00 Phil Bank of Comm 70.00 70.00 70.00 70.00 0.00 510
77.80 41.00 Phil. National Bank 74.00 76.00 73.50 75.00 1.35 1,017,820 15,037,710.00
95.00 63.50 Phil. Savings Bank 85.00 86.00 86.00 86.00 1.18 60
500.00 204.80 PSE Inc. 357.20 363.00 360.00 362.00 1.34 31,600 3,852,000.00
45.50 25.45 RCBC À 44.05 44.50 44.00 44.50 1.02 1,113,800.00 2,248,895.00
155.20 77.00 Security Bank 137.30 143.80 137.60 141.50 3.06 1,264,270 (26,704,103.00)
1240.00 890.00 Sun Life Financial 908.00 900.50 900.00 900.00 (0.88) 90
140.00 58.00 Union Bank 100.60 101.00 100.00 100.30 (0.30) 114,680 (302,700.00)
2.06 1.43 Vantage Equities 1.73 1.73 1.71 1.73 0.00 2,150,000
INDUSTRIAL
35.50 26.50 Aboitiz Power Corp. 34.40 34.55 34.35 34.55 0.44 2,157,900 44,308,670.00
13.58 8.00 Agrinurture Inc. 8.52 9.03 8.56 8.75 2.70 178,000
23.90 11.98 Alaska Milk Corp. 18.00 19.30 19.30 19.30 7.22 400
1.70 0.97 Alliance Tuna Intl Inc. 1.43 1.42 1.42 1.42 (0.70) 24,000
48.00 25.00 Alphaland Corp. 29.70 29.70 29.70 29.70 0.00 300
1.65 1.08 Alsons Cons. 1.41 1.42 1.40 1.42 0.71 123,000
Asiabest Group 26.70 27.80 26.35 27.40 2.62 69,500 10,760.00
138.00 45.00 Bogo Medellin 52.00 52.00 52.00 52.00 0.00 440
2.96 2.12 Calapan Venture 2.48 2.35 2.35 2.35 (5.24) 4,000
3.07 2.30 Chemrez Technologies Inc. 2.53 2.55 2.53 2.55 0.79 238,000 127,500.00
9.70 7.41 Cirtek Holdings (Chips) 9.60 9.74 9.60 9.74 1.46 3,100
7.00 4.83 Energy Devt. Corp. (EDC) 6.05 6.10 6.04 6.07 0.33 8,477,100 1,459,484.00
6.75 2.80 EEI 6.80 7.05 6.78 6.96 2.35 13,466,000 10,082,915.00
18.00 12.50 First Gen Corp. 19.00 19.28 19.04 19.20 1.05 7,757,200 59,974,140.00
78.55 51.50 First Holdings A 77.50 78.25 77.20 77.50 0.00 1,165,110 (22,570,968.50)
30.90 22.50 Ginebra San Miguel Inc. 19.90 20.00 19.88 20.00 0.50 13,000
0.02 0.0099 Greenergy 0.0140 0.0140 0.0130 0.0140 0.00 11,100,000 6,500.00
12.36 7.80 Holcim Philippines Inc. 11.90 11.96 11.80 11.92 0.17 615,500 1,359,706.00
7.40 3.80 Integ. Micro-Electronics 4.11 4.13 4.13 4.13 0.49 1,000
2.35 0.74 Ionics Inc 0.640 0.640 0.640 0.640 0.00 49,000
120.00 80.00 Jollibee Foods Corp. 104.00 104.50 102.00 103.10 (0.87) 609,720 (3,231,765.00)
Lafarge Rep 8.30 8.88 8.75 8.85 6.63 89,900
8.40 1.04 LMG Chemicals 2.02 2.05 2.01 2.03 0.50 235,000 (9,920.00)
3.20 1.05 Manchester Intl. A 2.70 2.70 2.46 2.60 (3.70) 65,000
3.19 1.08 Manchester Intl. B 2.55 2.58 2.56 2.58 1.18 21,000
26.00 18.10 Manila Water Co. Inc. 26.00 26.20 25.95 26.10 0.38 568,800 1,206,600.00
15.30 8.12 Megawide 16.20 16.50 16.02 16.02 (1.11) 559,000 (142,320.00)
295.00 215.00 Mla. Elect. Co À 273.00 276.00 265.20 265.20 (2.86) 817,540 (7,517,194.00)
12.20 7.50 Pancake House Inc. 11.00 10.88 10.88 10.88 (1.09) 500
3.00 1.96 Pepsi-Cola Products Phil. 3.30 3.39 3.16 3.28 (0.61) 13,163,000 114,700.00
17.40 9.70 Petron Corporation 10.14 10.26 10.10 10.26 1.18 1,073,500 2,691,670.00
13.70 10.20 Phinma Corporation 10.50 11.00 10.30 10.30 (1.90) 10,100 (104,086.00)
14.94 8.05 Phoenix Petroleum Phils. 8.75 8.80 8.60 8.75 0.00 39,900
3.78 1.01 RFM Corporation 3.30 3.35 3.30 3.35 1.52 556,000 (495,650.00)
6.50 2.90 Salcon Power Corp. 5.32 5.30 5.30 5.30 (0.38) 6,000
33.00 26.50 San Miguel Brewery Inc. 34.00 34.00 33.80 34.00 0.00 147,300
132.60 110.20 San Miguel Corp À 112.80 113.00 111.50 111.50 (1.15) 581,330 (2,579,514.00)
1.90 1.25 Seacem 1.94 2.08 1.95 2.06 6.19 24,207,000 25,999,780.00
2.44 1.80 Splash Corporation 1.85 1.84 1.81 1.82 (1.62) 57,000
0.250 0.112 Swift Foods, Inc. 0.135 0.144 0.134 0.134 (0.74) 1,900,000
3.00 1.99 TKC Steel Corp. 2.18 2.08 2.07 2.07 (5.05) 84,000
1.41 0.90 Trans-Asia Oil 1.19 1.20 1.19 1.20 0.84 17,000
69.20 37.00 Universal Robina 58.95 58.95 58.55 58.80 (0.25) 2,456,340 (16,125,844.50)
5.50 1.05 Victorias Milling 1.18 1.28 1.20 1.24 5.08 7,695,000 (1,990,280.00)
1.12 0.310 Vitarich Corp. 0.600 0.590 0.570 0.570 (5.00) 1,880,000
18.00 2.55 Vivant Corp. 9.21 9.21 9.21 9.21 0.00 3,100
1.22 0.70 Vulcan Indl. 1.07 1.08 0.98 0.98 (8.41) 1,138,000
HOLDING FIRMS
1.18 0.65 Abacus Cons. À 0.95 0.96 0.93 0.94 (1.05) 7,866,000 (18,800.00)
59.90 35.50 Aboitiz Equity 48.80 49.40 48.50 49.20 0.82 1,768,200 54,218,200.00
0.019 0.014 Alcorn Gold Res. 0.0170 0.0170 0.0170 0.0170 0.00 12,400,000 17,000.00
13.70 8.00 Alliance Global Inc. 11.60 11.78 11.58 11.68 0.69 12,701,300 60,808,540.00
2.97 1.80 Anglo Holdings A 1.99 2.00 1.99 2.00 0.50 213,000
5.02 3.00 Anscor À 4.72 4.74 4.69 4.69 (0.64) 457,000
6.98 0.260 Asia Amalgamated A 5.00 5.05 5.00 5.00 0.00 75,000
3.15 1.49 ATN Holdings A 2.85 2.98 2.75 2.75 (3.51) 2,176,000
4.16 2.30 ATN Holdings B 3.28 3.50 3.29 3.43 4.57 1,174,000 16,920.00
485.20 272.00 Ayala Corp À 432.80 436.00 430.00 435.20 0.55 657,360 50,473,434.00
64.80 30.50 DMCI Holdings 57.50 59.00 57.35 58.60 1.91 2,617,770 21,165,695.00
5.20 3.30 Filinvest Dev. Corp. 4.26 4.33 4.20 4.30 0.94 343,000 (65,900.00)
520.00 455.40 GT Capital 544.50 549.00 541.00 546.00 0.28 324,380 75,324,675.00
5.22 2.94 House of Inv. 4.95 5.00 4.90 5.00 1.01 954,000 1,548,990.00
36.20 19.00 JG Summit Holdings 33.00 34.10 32.75 33.80 2.42 1,005,300 13,189,185.00
6.21 4.00 Lopez Holdings Corp. 5.81 5.85 5.80 5.82 0.17 3,261,800 (16,066,926.00)
1.54 0.61 Lodestar Invt. Holdg.Corp. 1.11 1.13 1.08 1.09 (1.80) 2,382,000 405,300.00
0.91 0.300 Mabuhay Holdings À 0.425 0.460 0.425 0.430 1.18 4,320,000
3.82 1.790 Marcventures Hldgs., Inc. 2.40 2.43 2.40 2.40 0.00 213,000
4.65 2.56 Metro Pacic Inv. Corp. 4.16 4.21 4.13 4.18 0.48 21,595,000 (13,900,190.00)
6.24 2.55 Minerales Industrias Corp. 5.35 5.38 5.30 5.38 0.56 78,100
7.50 1.22 MJCI Investments Inc. 5.90 5.90 5.51 5.90 0.00 10,700
0.0770 0.045 Pacica À 0.0570 0.0570 0.0570 0.0570 0.00 220,000
2.20 1.20 Prime Media Hldg 1.460 1.500 1.460 1.460 0.00 49,000 21,900.00
0.82 0.44 Prime Orion 0.460 0.470 0.460 0.460 0.00 200,000
0.490 0.285 Sinophil Corp. 0.330 0.340 0.340 0.340 3.03 200,000
750.00 450.00 SM Investments Inc. 750.00 755.50 749.50 750.00 0.00 244,660 73,978,290.00
1.78 1.00 Solid Group Inc. 1.53 1.64 1.53 1.58 3.27 2,561,000 (320,560.00)
0.620 0.620 Wellex Industries 0.3200 0.3200 0.3100 0.3200 0.00 1,320,000
1.370 0.185 Zeus Holdings 0.460 0.450 0.440 0.440 (4.35) 1,610,000
P R O P E R T Y
3.34 1.70 A. Brown Co., Inc. 2.49 2.50 2.50 2.50 0.40 20,000
0.83 0.38 Araneta Prop À 0.570 0.600 0.600 0.600 5.26 50,000
0.218 0.150 Arthaland Corp. 0.170 0.184 0.184 0.184 8.24 10,000
22.85 13.36 Ayala Land `B 21.50 21.95 21.55 21.85 1.63 19,691,200 147,237,020.00
5.62 3.08 Belle Corp. À 4.99 5.05 4.98 5.02 0.60 2,810,000 3,639,880.00
9.00 2.26 Cebu Holdings 5.65 5.75 5.65 5.75 1.77 19,900
5.66 0.80 Century Property 1.46 1.47 1.44 1.45 (0.68) 2,523,000 (1,003,400.00)
1.50 1.07 Cityland Dev. À 1.15 1.20 1.12 1.18 2.61 195,000 (156,660.00)
0.127 0.060 Crown Equities Inc. 0.076 0.077 0.076 0.077 1.32 20,000
1.11 0.67 Cyber Bay Corp. 0.81 0.81 0.80 0.80 (1.23) 844,000
0.90 0.54 Empire East Land 0.880 0.890 0.880 0.890 1.14 14,854,000 (2,403,000.00)
3.06 1.63 Global-Estate 2.02 2.07 2.03 2.05 1.49 7,125,000 (2,763,850.00)
1.44 0.98 Filinvest Land,Inc. 1.35 1.37 1.34 1.36 0.74 57,699,000 6,261,700.00
3.80 1.21 Highlands Prime 1.80 1.80 1.68 1.80 0.00 21,000
2.14 0.65 Interport À 1.24 1.25 1.17 1.25 0.81 49,000
2.33 1.51 Megaworld Corp. 2.24 2.29 2.23 2.26 0.89 49,411,000 11,990,430.00
0.42 0.168 MRC Allied Ind. 0.1600 0.1670 0.1600 0.1610 0.63 1,990,000
0.990 0.080 Phil. Estates Corp. 0.6600 0.6700 0.6600 0.6700 1.52 1,058,000
0.71 0.41 Phil. Realty À 0.440 0.465 0.450 0.465 5.68 310,000
18.86 10.00 Robinsons Land `B 19.66 19.80 19.50 19.50 (0.81) 1,767,500 5,399,866.00
7.71 2.51 Rockwell 3.13 3.13 3.09 3.10 (0.96) 368,000
710.00 360.00 San Miguel Prop. 550.00 500.00 500.00 500.00 (9.09) 10
2.70 1.80 Shang Properties Inc. 2.60 2.60 2.60 2.60 0.00 16,000
8.95 6.00 SM Development À 6.20 6.26 6.17 6.20 0.00 3,419,900 1,949,222.00
18.20 10.94 SM Prime Holdings 13.94 14.14 13.76 13.98 0.29 25,406,300 151,845,408.00
1.03 0.64 Sta. Lucia Land Inc. 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.71 0.00 280,000
4.55 1.80 Starmalls 4.09 4.15 4.02 4.15 1.47 396,000
0.80 0.45 Suntrust Home Dev. Inc. 0.520 0.540 0.520 0.520 0.00 576,000
4.50 2.60 Vista Land & Lifescapes 4.300 4.420 4.290 4.400 2.33 15,783,000 5,975,260.00
S E R V I C E S
4.72 1.20 2GO Group 1.90 1.80 1.80 1.80 (5.26) 3,000
42.00 28.60 ABS-CBN 33.55 34.45 34.45 34.45 2.68 400
18.98 1.60 Acesite Hotel 1.52 1.53 1.45 1.53 0.66 1,917,000
0.78 0.45 APC Group, Inc. 0.630 0.650 0.630 0.650 3.17 618,000 (65,000.00)
10.92 7.30 Asian Terminals Inc. 8.83 9.00 9.00 9.00 1.93 50,000 450,000.00
28.80 12.20 Berjaya Phils. Inc. 27.00 27.00 27.00 27.00 0.00 1,000
102.80 4.12 Bloomberry 10.04 10.32 10.06 10.20 1.59 6,482,400 5,289,220.00
0.5300 10.2000 Boulevard Holdings 0.1230 0.1250 0.1210 0.1220 (0.81) 8,260,000
24.00 6.66 Calata Corp. 8.41 8.40 8.20 8.21 (2.38) 250,700 2,499.00
86.90 62.00 Cebu Air Inc. (5J) 68.45 69.00 68.40 69.00 0.80 119,100 1,897,422.50
9.70 5.40 DFNN Inc. 5.81 5.94 5.76 5.94 2.24 200
1270.00 831.00 Globe Telecom 1186.00 1182.00 1140.00 1147.00 (3.29) 114,135 (30,583,770.00)
11.00 6.18 GMA Network Inc. 10.28 10.30 10.20 10.20 (0.78) 2,384,900
77.00 43.40 I.C.T.S.I. 72.50 72.90 71.00 72.75 0.34 1,431,250 12,294,451.50
0.98 0.36 Information Capital Tech. 0.410 0.425 0.415 0.425 3.66 100,000
6.80 4.30 IPeople Inc. À 6.50 6.70 6.50 6.60 1.54 47,000 (198,000.00)
4.70 2.00 IP Converge 2.35 2.30 2.29 2.29 (2.55) 23,000
34.50 0.036 IP E-Game Ventures Inc. 0.042 0.042 0.041 0.041 (2.38) 19,800,000
3.87 1.00 IPVG Corp. 1.04 1.04 1.02 1.02 (1.92) 2,469,000
0.0760 0.042 Island Info 0.0510 0.0490 0.0490 0.0490 (3.92) 500,000
5.1900 2.550 ISM Communications 2.9000 2.9400 2.9400 2.9400 1.38 10,000 (29,400.00)
11.12 5.90 Leisure & Resorts 8.70 8.92 8.68 8.87 1.95 3,510,900
3.85 2.60 Liberty Telecom 2.72 2.72 2.72 2.72 0.00 9,000 24,480.00
0.84 0.57 Manila Bulletin 0.74 0.76 0.73 0.76 2.70 97,000
3.15 1.10 Manila Jockey 2.30 2.35 2.30 2.35 2.17 2,075,000 (1,127,000.00)
9.60 6.50 Metro Pacic Tollways 7.00 6.51 6.51 6.51 (7.00) 100
22.95 14.20 Pacic Online Sys. Corp. 13.96 14.00 13.90 13.92 (0.29) 11,100
8.58 4.60 PAL Holdings Inc. 7.30 7.31 7.26 7.31 0.14 20,900
3.32 1.05 Paxys Inc. 3.00 3.02 2.99 3.00 0.00 129,000
60.00 18.00 Phil. Seven Corp. 60.00 63.00 60.00 60.00 0.00 91,030 1,674.98
17.88 12.10 Philweb.Com Inc. 15.34 15.50 15.32 15.50 1.04 1,632,600 (8,466,520.00)
2886.00 2096.00 PLDT Common 2704.00 2750.00 2700.00 2734.00 1.11 176,095 15,182,760.00
0.48 0.25 PremiereHorizon 0.325 0.325 0.325 0.325 0.00 10,000
30.10 10.68 Puregold 26.65 26.70 26.30 26.55 (0.38) 5,444,600 (76,849,495.00)
3.30 2.40 Transpacic Broadcast 2.81 3.05 2.82 3.02 7.47 300,000
0.79 0.27 Waterfront Phils. 0.475 0.470 0.455 0.465 (2.11) 600,000 (23,500.00)
MINING & OIL
6.20 3.01 Apex À 5.00 5.06 5.06 5.06 1.20 14,500
6.22 3.00 Apex `B 5.10 5.10 5.01 5.05 (0.98) 37,500
25.20 14.50 Atlas Cons. À 17.42 17.50 17.44 17.46 0.23 968,600 1,821,398.00
0.380 0.148 Basic Energy Corp. 0.265 0.260 0.260 0.260 (1.89) 120,000
30.35 19.98 Benguet Corp À 23.15 24.95 23.20 24.95 7.78 41,000
34.00 14.50 Benguet Corp `B 23.15 23.20 23.15 23.20 0.22 1,000 (11,575.00)
2.51 1.62 Century Peak Metals Hldgs 1.27 1.28 1.28 1.28 0.79 50,000
61.80 5.68 Dizon 31.20 31.50 30.85 31.00 (0.64) 212,900 27,880.00
1.21 0.50 Geograce Res. Phil. Inc. 0.60 0.60 0.59 0.60 0.00 1,607,000
1.82 0.9000 Lepanto À 1.280 1.300 1.270 1.290 0.78 18,157,000
2.070 1.0200 Lepanto `B 1.370 1.380 1.360 1.380 0.73 9,117,000 9,235,060.00
0.085 0.042 Manila Mining À 0.0660 0.0690 0.0660 0.0680 3.03 213,800,000
0.087 0.042 Manila Mining `B 0.0680 0.0710 0.0680 0.0710 4.41 103,100,000 (68,000.00)
36.50 15.04 Nickelasia 28.35 28.50 28.00 28.00 (1.23) 688,800 1,734,240.00
12.84 2.13 Nihao Mineral Resources 9.88 9.94 9.86 9.88 0.00 423,600 (64,310.00)
8.40 2.99 Oriental Peninsula Res. 5.000 5.080 4.990 5.080 1.60 1,723,700 (4,545.00)
0.032 0.012 Oriental Pet. À 0.0180 0.0180 0.0180 0.0180 0.00 24,500,000
0.033 0.014 Oriental Pet. `B 0.0190 0.0190 0.0190 0.0190 0.00 500,000
7.05 5.10 Petroenergy Res. Corp. 5.92 6.00 5.93 6.00 1.35 6,500
28.95 18.50 Philex À 22.45 23.10 22.40 22.40 (0.22) 3,123,000 4,950,155.00
48.00 3.00 PhilexPetroleum 38.70 39.50 38.00 39.50 2.07 764,500 7,240,600.00
0.062 0.017 Philodrill Corp. À 0.051 0.052 0.050 0.052 1.96 105,270,000 (50,000.00)
257.80 161.10 Semirara Corp. 226.00 229.80 222.00 224.80 (0.53) 178,410 (9,750,608.00)
0.029 0.014 United Paragon 0.0180 0.0170 0.0160 0.0170 (5.56) 9,000,000
PREFERRED
47.90 27.30 ABS-CBN Holdings Corp. 31.95 31.95 31.90 31.90 (0.16) 1,400 (28,710.00)
First Gen G 102.70 102.80 102.50 102.80 0.10 22,500
11.02 6.00 GMA Holdings Inc. 10.34 10.30 10.26 10.28 (0.58) 842,100 2,058,600.00
116.70 107.00 PCOR-Preferred 110.70 110.80 110.70 110.80 0.09 37,380
1050.00 1000.00 SMPFC Preferred 1023.00 1023.00 1023.00 1023.00 0.00 100
6.00 0.87 Swift Pref 1.18 1.06 1.06 1.06 (10.17) 9,000
WARRANTS & BONDS
1.31 0.62 Megaworld Corp. Warrants 1.24 1.27 1.23 1.25 0.81 2,506,000 904,130.00
GERRY GERONIMO
THE TRUST GURU
Iigo, the unlikely Ignatius
STOCKS rose for the third straight day,
on encouraging domestic earnings and
expectations central banks in the US and
Europe will take steps this week to bolster
economic growth.
The Philippine Stock
Exchange index, the 30-company
benchmark, increased 29 points,
or 0.6 percent, to close at 5,307.66
Tuesday. Financial and property
companies led gainers.
The heavier index, representing
all shares, also added 11 points,
or 0.3 percent to 3,503.30, as
gainers led losers, 103 to 56,
with 36 issues unchanged.
Banks advanced on
anticipation of higher earnings in
the second quarter. Metropolitan
Bank & Trust Co. climbed 3.4
percent to P100.10 while BDO
Unibank Inc. added 2.2 percent
to P64.45. Security Bank Corp.
rose 3.1 percent to P141.50 and
Philippine National Bank gained
1.4 percent to P75.
Megaworld Corp., a builder of
ofce and residential buildings,
rose 0.9 percent to P2.26,
following news the US Senate
rejected an anti-outsourcing bill.
The bill would have eliminated
tax breaks for companies
outsourcing services and
manufacturing jobs to countries
such as the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks
pushed higher Tuesday as
expectations continued to build
that European policymakers will
unleash powerful measures to
battle the continents debt crisis.
Japans Nikkei 225 stock
average rose 0.6 percent to
8,690.41 and Hong Kongs
Hang Seng gained 0.9 percent to
19,753.35. South Koreas Kospi
rose 1.9 percent to 1,878.11
while Australias S&P/ASX 200
climbed 0.8 percent to 4,279.60.
Benchmarks in Taiwan, Indonesia
and New Zealand also rose.
Investors are pinning their
hopes on a European Central
Bank meeting later this week
where many expect ECB
president Mario Draghi to
announce big plans to support
the euro, following his comments
last week that the bank is ready
to do what it takes to save the
beleaguered currency.
Spains borrowing costs have
surged, raising the risk that one of
Europes biggest economies will
need a potentially unaffordable
bailout that would strain the euro
currency union.
With Bloomberg, AP

HE CERTAINLY was not what your spinster aunts
would describe as santo santito. Certainly not, if
the information relayed by John Padberg to James
Martin is reliable: He may be the only saint with
a notarized police record: for nighttime brawling
with an intent to inict serious harm.
James Martin (I need to disclose before I further
proceed in order to avoid exposing myself to the
accusation of plagiarism) is the author of The
Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything with the
subtitle A Spirituality for Real Life. His book,
save for data freely downloadable from the net, is
the source of my information for this piece. John
Padberg, who is Martins source of the information
concerning the saints criminal record, is a noted
historian. Both of them are Jesuits. Hence, caveat
lector. Verbum sapientia satis.
At any rate, Iigo was born in 1491 in the castle
of Loyola above Azpeitia in the Basque province
of Guipuzcoa in northern Spain. It is possible (and
I am tempted to so believe) that he was named after
Iigo Arista, who according to Wikipedia, was the
rst king of Pamplona in the rst half of the 9th
Century; the more reliable Catholic Encyclopedia,
though, says he was named after St. Enecus, Abbot
of Oa, a municipality in the province of Burgos,
Spain.
History is certain, though, that Iigo was the
youngest son of Don Beltran Yaez de Oa y
Loyola. His mother, Marina Saenz de Lieona
y Balda, died soon after he was born and was
therefore mercifully spared the sufferings
essential to being the mother of a son like him.
He was thus brought up by the local blacksmiths
wife and later found himself serving as a page in
the household of a relative, Juan Velsquez de
Cuellar, a contador mayor, or treasurer, of the
kingdom of Castile. It must have been there, as
well as while in the service of Antonio Manrique
de Lara, Duke of Njera and Viceroy of Navarre,
that he acquired, relished and, in fact, fell in
love, with the ways of the world.
The young Basque, writes James Martin,
was something of a ladies man and, according
to some sources, a real hothead. A contemporary
is said to have written that he is in the habit of
going around in cuirass [a metal armor] and coat
of mail...wears his hair long to the shoulder, and
walks around in a two-colored, slashed doublet
with a bright cap.
He had reason to swagger about. He was a
soldier, after the death of Velsquez in 1517, in the
service of Antonio Manrique de Lara who found
his leadership qualities useful; he was after all a
gentilhombre, a gentleman (gentle from the
original genteel, or man of noble birth). Under
the Duke, he participated in many battles, but
suffered no injury therefrom.
But the law of averages caught up with him. On
May 20, 1521, during the siege of the fortress of
Pamplona which he was defending, the French,
who did not have qualms about interfering in
the political affairs of its neighbor, sent a cannon
ball in his direction. The cannon ball was no
respecter of men who would get in its way and
unceremoniously passed between his legs. In the
process, it tore open his left calf and broke his right
shin. Seeing their leader struck down, the defenders
of the fortress lost heart and surrendered.
The French, exhibiting their signature savior
faire, did not put him in chains as is done with
captured enemies. Instead, they treated him well
and carried him on a litter back to his castle in
Loyola.
At Loyola, his leg had to be broken and reset,
and a protruding end of the bone was sawn off.
The limb, which was shortened by inept setting,
had to be stretched out by weights. In sum, he
underwent several surgeries, all of them very
painful as those were the days that did not have
the benet of anesthesia. Despite being in the
receiving end of all that torment from the tedious
series of leg repair and rexing, Iigo suffered
voluntarily and without a cry or scream escaping
from his lips. He wanted the surgeons to do a
good job; it was his desire, writes James Martin,
that his leg, when everything was said and done,
continued to look good in the fashionable tights
of the day.
To while away his time while convalescing, he
asked for reading materials. Iigo wanted tales of
romance and chivalry as were his favorites before
the cannon ball. But the library of the castle of
Loyola was not as well stocked as the Rizal
Library of the Ateneo University in Quezon Citys
Loyola Heights. There were none. So, instead,
his brothers wife, like many in-laws very nice to
their family by afnity, gave him materials about
the life of Christ and the lives of the saints.
Not at all humbled by the consequences of his
clumsy inability to avoid a cannon ball coming
in his direction, he was challenged by the saints
capacity to express their love for Jesus. He asked
himself What if I should do this which St. Francis
did and this which Saint Dominic did? Thus
began a transformation of a self and of many other
selves thence, moving like the ripples that rush
from the epicenter caused by a pebble thrown into
the water.
My point though is not what every Jesuit, or
ex-Jesuit, or Jesuit-product would tell you at the
slightest provocation about how Iigo became
Ignatius. What I marvel at is how a most exhaulted
God could choose to use as a channel of His glory
an instrument most lowly.

For feedback, e-mail thetrustguru863@gmail.com.
By Lailany P. Gomez
GMA Network Inc. chairman
and chief executive Felipe Gozon
said Tuesday a buyout deal
with Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Co. will likely to be
concluded within the year.
Gozon said if GMA Network
and the PLDT group could not
sign an agreement this year, the
two companies were not likely to
conclude anything. PLDT owns
broadcast network TV5.
I think it will either terminate
or go through within the year,
if thats the parameter you will
give me. Because thats too long
already to be talking, Gozon
told reporters at the sidelines of
GMAs fth listing anniversary
in the stock exchange.
Gozon said he was still in a
wait and see position on the
negotiations with PLDT, as there
were still outstanding issues that
needed to be resolved.
He said the broadcast
company and PLDT had not
agreed on any timeline yet as to
when the negotiation would be
completed.
GMA 7
waiting
for deal
Manila
Standard
TODAY
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
Business
ManilaStandardToday extrastory2000@gmail.com WEDNESDAY
B3
AUGUST 1, 2012
CebuPac selling 10 aircraft
Exchange proposes
to create new board
5th year of listing. The Philippine Stock Exchange hosted a bell-ringing ceremony on the
occasion of GMA Network Inc.s fth year of public listing. Shown (from left) at the PSE Plaza in
THE Philippine Stock
Exchange has proposed the
creation of a new board that
will replace the second and
small and medium enterprises
boards.
The new board aims to lure
small-capitalized companies
seeking to list in the stock
market and sought market
comments on the proposed
rules.
The PSE said a company
applying for listing on the new
board must have an authorized
capital stock of P100 million or
more, with at least 25 percent
subscribed and fully paid.
With these proposed rules,
we are enhancing the investor-
protection features of the
listing rules for smaller cap
companies intending to list on
the PSE, said PSE president
and chief executive Hans
Sicat.
The bourse said an applicant
must have a cumulative pre-tax
prot of at least P15 million,
excluding non-recurring and
extraordinary income or loss
in the last three scal years
preceding the application for
listing.
The applicant must also
demonstrate stable nancial
condition and prospects
for continuing growth by
submitting, among others, a
ve-year business plan.
The rules state that the
shares of existing stockholders
who benecially own at least
10 percent of the issued and
outstanding shares of the
applicant company will be
locked up for a period of two
years from listing.
This means existing
shareholders cannot sell or
dispose of their securities
during the lock-up period.
The proposed rules also
prohibit a secondary sale
during an initial public offering
and forbid the company from
changing its primary business
purpose for ve years from
listing.
We envision the rules for
the new board to be more
responsive to the needs of
investors and other market
participants, Sicat said.
The PSE last month
suspended the listing on
medium and SME Boards
pending review of the rules.
Prior to the review, the PSE
requires companies under
the second board to have an
operating history of at least
a year prior to listing and a
market capitalization of at
least P250 million.
Jenniffer B. Austria
THE opening days of the trial on the injunction case against
the Environment Department and the SM Group for the earth
balling of trees in Baguios Luneta Hill were, to put it mildly,
very revealing. Happy Hour stool pigeons reported a few
uncomfortable moments when a lawyer for the defendants started
questioning Dr. Michael Bengwayan, a witness presented as an
expert by the complainants calling themselves the Cordillera
Global Network. Bit by bit, the defense lawyers hacked away
at Bengwayans independencein the process revealing
that the witness (who describes himself as a communitarian
environmental worker, journalist, writer and educator) is
actually one of the complainants himself. Ergo, he should not be
entered as an independent, neutral expert because obviously,
he would not be in a position to provide unbiased opinion
regarding the civil case docketed as No. 7595-R, Happy Hour
sources commented.
The sala of Baguio RTC Branch 5 presided by Judge Antonio
Estevez must have literally felt like a hot seat after Bengwayan,
whose prolic articles on the age, health and oxygen production
capacity of the said 182 trees portrayed him as an expert, was forced
to admit that he had not made any scientic study to accurately
determine the age and health of the trees. In its complaint, the
Cordillera Global Network also asserted that each of the trees
that are more than 100 feet and are 18-inch in diameter at its base
produces 6,000 pounds of oxygena statement that Bengwayan
for some strange reason had forgottenonly to have his memory
return when defense lawyers showed a copy of his bylined article
for the Igorot Journal, Happy Hour sources relayed.
In the same article, the communitarian asserted that each of those
trees absorb 45 pounds of carbon every year, thus all 182 trees absorb
some 8,190 pounds of carbon annually, making the air cooler and
ridding the atmosphere of harmful CO2. But a big surprise was the
defense disclosure that Bengwayans authoritative statements seem
to have been copied from a foreign article publishing the exact same
informationseemingly without proper attribution. (The revelation
made Happy Hour guzzlers scramble for a dictionary to check the
denition of plagiarism.)
Things were a bit more sedate on the second day though, with
Baguio Bishop Carlito Cenzon presented by the complainants as
witness. Despite his brief appearance at the witness stand, Bishop
Cenzon made quite an impression when he acknowledged the
Catholic Churchs ownership of rival shopping establishment Porta
Vaga Mall. The good bishop has previously been allowing masses
at SM Baguio mall, but the happier days have taken a different turn
with the prelate becoming a leading gure in protests calling for
a boycott of the establishment, which has become a rival of the
Porta Vaga mall. To which a Happy Hour compatriot wondered
whether SM has marginalized the prots of the church-owned mall,
surmising that understandably priests also need to look after not just
spiritual health but also material wealth.
Cursed by the numbers
Employees who have been aiming for a promotion better heed
the results of a survey conducted by market research rm Harris
Interactive and published by US online jobsite CareerBuilder.com:
Put a gag on those swear words. According to the survey conducted
for one month from May to June involving over 2,000 employers/
managers and 3,800 workers from a wide range of industries in
varying sizes, 64 percent of employers said they would think less of
employees who repeatedly curse (they leave a bad impression) while
57 percent admitted they are less likely to promote the offenders
(they appear unprofessional and less intelligent).
On the other hand, more than 50 percent of employees said
they swear at work, with 95 percent disclosing they do so in front
of co-workers while some 51 percent say they do it in front of
their boss. However, the picture changes when they are in front of
the top company honchos (13 percent) or clients (7 percent). Not
surprisingly, men are more likely to cuss than women although
the disparity is not that notable (54 percent for men, 47 percent
for the women). Interestingly, the workers most likely to swear
are located in the US capital of Washington D.C., while the state
with Americas rudest city, New York, landed at Number 9.
For comments, reactions, photos, stories and related

concerns, readers may e-mail to happyhourtoday2012@
yahoo.com.
SM Baguio trial
unmasks critics
Makati City are GMA Network
executive vice president
and chief nancial ofcer
Felipe Yalong, independent
director Artemio Panganiban,
president and chief operating
ofcer Gilberto Duavit Jr.,
chairman and chief executive
Felipe Gozon, PSE chairman
Jose Pardo, president and CEO
Hans Sicat and GMA Network
independent director Jaime
Laya.
GLOBE Telecom Inc. will bid
for an additional network band-
width after Connectivity Un-
limited Resource Enterprises
formally surrendered its 3G
frequency to the National Tele-
communications Commission.
CURE disposed of the
frequency as a condition to
the acquisition of Digital
T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s
Philippines Inc. by Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Co.
The NTC also ordered PLDT
to divest of its ownership in
CURE as a condition to the
Digitel sale.
CURE surrendered all
its assets, including its
congressional franchise and 10
megahertz 3G license, to the
NTC for bidding.
The NTC is set to conduct a
competitive auction, allowing
prospective buyers like
Globe to bid for CUREs 3G
frequency bandwidth within
six months.
Weve been vocal about our
interest to bid for CUREs 3G
spectrum as part of our drive to
provide our subscribers with a
better network, especially with
the growth of smartphones and
the explosion of mobile data
use, said Froilan Castelo,
Globes lawyer.
Lailany P. Gomez
Globe
eyes 3G
license
By Lailany P. Gomez
CEBU Pacic, the countrys largest
budget airline, said Tuesday it will sell
its entire eet of 10 Airbus A319 aircraft
to Allegiant Travel Co. of the US and
replace them with bigger and brand-new
aircraft.
Cebu Pacic said the A319
eet would be delivered to
Allegiant over a 15-month
period beginning March 2013.
Allegiant is the owner and
operator of Allegiant Air, an
American low-cost airline.
The Airbus A319s are our
oldest and smallest jet aircraft.
While they have served us
well for the last six years as
we have grown our business
and developed new markets,
the time is right to trade up to
bigger, brand new Airbus A320
aircraft, Cebu Pacic president
and chief executive Lance
Gokongwei said in a statement.
Gokongwei said between now
until 2014, Cebu Pacic would
acquire 15 brand new Airbus
A320 and four Airbus A330
aircraft. These aircraft, with
capacity of 130 to 300 seats, are
larger than the 124-seat A319
planes.
Cebu Pacic said it was also
exploring options to advance the
delivery of Airbus A320 orders
scheduled for delivery between
2015 and 2016.
CEBs eet expansion plan
will accommodate the growing
demand for air travel, while also
ensuring greater operational
efciency. With the delivery
of bigger and newer aircraft
over the next 10 years we will
continue offering the lowest
fares, y to even more routes,
and ultimately deliver a better
ying experience for all our
guests, said Gokongwei.
Cebu Pacic expects to begin
its long-haul services by the
third quarter of 2013, with the
delivery of up to eight Airbus
A330 aircraft.
The Airbus A330 has a range
of up to 11 hours which means
the airline could serve markets
such as Australia, the Middle
East, parts of Europe and the
US.
Provinces
Agriculture expands rural program
Seair starts Cebu flights
Estrada: Protect maids
By Othel Campos
THE government is
seeking a $500 million loan
from the World Bank to
expand the proposed $627-
million poverty mitigation
strategy in the countryside
to cover more regions.
The Philippine Rural Development
Program is an upscaled Mindanao Rural
Development Program, Agriculture
Secretary Proceso Alcala said. It will be
implemented nationwide possibly by August
2013.
World Bank lead rural development
specialist Carolina Figueroa-Geron
said the Philippine government would
raise $120 million as counterpart fund
to the $7-million grant from the Global
Environment Facility.
She said the agriculture ofce is required to
present a proposal to the National Economic
and Development Authoritys technical board
for evaluation.
Mindanao Rural Development Program is
a agship poverty alleviation thrust of the
agriculture department, across 225 towns in
26 provinces.
MRD director Lealyn Ramos said the
Australian Government Overseas Aid has
provided a $3 million grant to upgrade
agricultural services in project design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
It will also be used to improve the
livelihood opportunities for the targeted
communities and institutionalize the program
among the local government units delivery
of services that promotes participation,
transparency and accountability, she said.
By Macon Ramos Araneta
SENATE President Pro Tempore Jinggoy
Estrada has renewed his call for the passage
and enactment of the Kasambahay Bill
following a case of a maid who almost lost
her vision after her employer pressed a hot
iron against her face.
He said cases of abuse and maltreatment
of domestic workers must be stopped and
prevented.
Bonita Baran, of Catanduanes, visited
Estradas ofce on Monday after recovering
from an eye surgery at Philippine General
Hospital. She was accompanied by her
mother Erlinda and sister Olivia and Public
Attorneys Ofce Chief Persida Rueda-
Acosta.
Baran, now 21 years old, had been with
her employer in Quezon City for several
years. She showed up with a forehead
severly burned, blind in the right eye and
deformed ear and lips.
All I want is to give justice to Bonita,
said Estrada, chairman of the senate
committee on labor and employment. Her
employer should be put to jail and pay for
all the maltreatment on her.
Acosta said eight counts of serious
physical injuries and frustrated murder will
be led against Baraans employer.
Kasambahay Bill is a landmark legislation
which denes the labor rights, increases
the minimum wages and provides regular
employment benets for the domestic
household workforce, including the maids,
houseboys and yayas.
The measure has been approved by
the Senate on third and nal reading
last December 2010. The House of
Representatives is expected to pass their
version of the bill.
Estrada recently co-sponsored proposed
Senate Resolution 816 concurring with the
ratication of ILO Convention 189 which
sets the minimum standards for decent work
for domestic workers and provides them
with the same protection accorded to other
workers.
With the enactment of Batas Kasambahay,
people will recognize domestic work as
a formal sector of the economy and each
kasambahay needs to be treated with the
same respect and dignity with regular
members of the able workforce. I hope that
the era of treating them as slaves and lesser
mortals will end with the passage of this
bill, he said.
I am hopeful that this would be passed
into law during this Congress. If not, we
will start from the scratch in the 16th
Congress. I hope this does not happen, he
added.
Kasambahay Bill was originally led
during the 10th Congress (1995-1998) and
has failed to be enacted since.
By Eric B. Apolonio
SOUTH East Asian Airlines maiden Cebu
ight took off Tuesday on a 144-seater Air-
bus 314 to start a daily three-ight schedule
as part of its expanded routes, covering Ka-
libo in Aklan along with the cities to Iloilo,
Bacolod, Tacloban, Davao and Puerto Princ-
esa.
Cebu is one of the most important desti-
nations in the country and its central location
makes it a major gateway to the islands in the
Visayas region, Seair chief executive ofcer
Patrick Tan said.
Seair converted its business model from
a leisure airline to a low-cost budget airline
with a eet consisting of three Airbus A320s
and two A319s. It ies to Singapore, Hong
Kong, Bangkok, Kota Kinabalu, and Kalibo
out of Clark International Airport.
Tan said expansion plans are geared to
the growing market with a fresh investment
of around $30 million for each new Airbus
added.
Seair became the rst Tiger Airways part-
ner in the Asia Pacic region, launching its
ight to Singapore via Clark in December
2010.
Tan said partnering with the Singapore-
based Tiger Airways is aimed at the carriers
vision of becoming one of the biggest airlines
in the country.
The change in business model can only
enhance our passenger experience of short
and safe ights from one island destination
to another, he said. The new airbus planes
are more spacious and can accommodate up
to 180 seats.
Among the guests at the inaugural were
Civil Aviation Authority head retired Lt. Gen
William Hotchkiss III, Seair president Aveli-
no Zapanta, vice chairman Captain Nick
Gitsis, vice president for operations Bert Yap
and airport ofcials.
Faraway Zamboanga. Mayor Celso Lobregat
sails on a vinta, the traditional Muslim boat to
promote cruising of the indigenous kind. The vessels
come from the Sama Laut shing community that is
noted for its seafaring way of life.
Zamaboanga is known as Asian Latin City
because of the Spanish inuence in its Chavacano
language and its lifestyle, and charms such as Fort
Pilar, Pasonanca Park, Sta. Cruz Island, Yakan Village
and curacha seafood.
SIXTO KWAN jR.
Edited by Leo A. Estonilo www.manilastandardtoday.comleoestonilo@gmail.com AUGUST 1, 2012
B4
WEDNESDAY
standardlifestyle@gmail.com
home work relationship
sha.re/
C1 Manila Standard TODAY
Gianna Maniego, Editor
Dinna Chan Vasquez, Assistant Editor
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 1, 2012
WINE PRICES TO RISE?
Wine lovers should brace for higher
prices with the Aquino administration
calling the Sin Tax Reform Bill as a crucial
bill to generate much-needed funds.
W
H
A
T
S
I
N
S
I
D
E
INSPIRING OTHERS
Fortune Life, in partnership with
the Department of Education and
advocacy expert Marylindbert
International, recently launched
the second year of its advocacy The
Value of Hard Work and Discipline.
Every year, the countrys political gures
and their guests make strong fashion
sometimes, politically motivated
statements with their ensembles. They also
use the red carpet as a platform to promote
Philippine fashion, traditional regional
garments and native materials and fabrics.
If anything, the SONA is a celebration of
Filipino culture and heritage.
Assunta De Rossi, hands down, was
best dressed. The wife of Negros Occidental
representative Jules Ledesma donned a regal
cream terno with lace overlay designed by
Cheryl Vicente. Regal is also the word to
describe Leyte representative Lucy Torres-
Gomez, who walked the red carpet in an
apricot Randy Ortiz.
Although it was a fantastic decision to
wear a culturally relevant sari-style jacket,
Cavite representative Lani Mercado failed
to impress. Her green Rajo Laurel outt
made with fabric from Lanao del Sur was
lackluster. Sulu representative Nur-Ana
Sahidullas rich Muslim gown with crystals
looked so much better.
However, the most excellent use of
regional materials award should go to former
representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, who
shone in a yellow abel Iloko dress with striking
detachable terno sleeves in Tnalak textile. The
ensemble was created by Joel Acebuche.
Political
FASHION
By Ed Biado
THE State of the Nation Address, delivered annually by the President of the
Republic, is an event that people from all sectors of society look forward to. For
most, its the interest is political. For others (i.e. those of us who appreciate looking
at beautiful dresses), its about the red carpet.
Among the men, the distinction should
be given to Ifugao representative Teddy
Baguilat Jr., who wore a barong, but
showed off his regional afnity with an
Ifugao Pungot headdress and sash made
of indigenous cloth.
The women from Taguig were a fashion
powerhouse. Taguig City representative
Freddie Tigas wife, Kaye, radiated
with an aubergine Pepito Albert terno,
which stood out because of its bold hue
and impeccable silhouette. Mayor Lani
Cayetano (wife of Senator Allan Peter)
was in a neutral terno, similar to what De
Rossi was wearing. Of course, Senator
Pia was not going to be left out. Her
vintage-inspired dress in dusty tone was
classic, but also surprisingly modern.
The Cayetano siblings colleague in the
Senate, Loren Legarda, chose to wear a
Paul Cabral dress made with recycled
pia fabric, reecting her green advocacy.
Cebu representative Rachel del Mars
dress said that her dress only cost her
P4,000, which signied her thriftiness.
Other policos expressed their
sentiments in a more obvious way.
Gabriella representative Emmi de Jesus
Luzviminda outt had a wrap with
the words, Libre, Angkop, Batayan at
Kagyat na Serbisyong Kalusugan written
on the wrap of her skirt. Anakpawis
representative Rafael Marianos barong
came with an embroidered personal
message to the president, Hacienda
Luisita, Ipamanagi Na! while Bayan Muna
representative Teodoro Casino had his with
the phrase, Presyo Ibaba, pertaining to the
prices of basic goods.
Meanwhile, the wife of Northern
Samar representative Raul Daza,
Tessie, a self-proclaimed Aquino
fan, showed her support for the
president with a yellow dress.
She also had the yellow
ribbon, a symbol associated
with the Aquino presidential
campaign, painted on her
ngernails. A little much,
yes, considering that even
the president himself didnt
wear a yellow ribbon on
his Paul Cabral barong.
Books for the Philippines project rolls out
THE Philippines is a beneciary of donated
books from the Rotary International, approved
and nanced as a humanitarian Matching Grant
#76247 of The Rotary Foundation (TRF).
The project is called Books for the Philippines
as sourced through the Books for the World
Project of the Rotary Club of Beaverton, RI
District 5100 of Oregon, USA.
Under the leadership of Dr. Joyce M.P.
Lockar d, the Club collects used books donated
by local school districts, book distributors, book
stores, libraries and many individual donors in the
United States.
The project aimed to provide large quantities of
used and new text and library books to elementary
and high schools and to colleges and universities
in the Philippines where education is in English.
The donation consists of four 40-ft shipping
containers, each carrying about 40,000 lbs
of books (approximately 25,000 books per
container), to help ameliorate the shortage of
books.
The books willl be used solely for the purpose
of the donation, which is for the benet of
the youth in the Philippines in uplifting their
opportunities through the advancement of the
quality of their educational programs.
Credits for the initiation of the Books for the
Philippines Project are due to Past District Gov.
Juanito Sonny Ventur a of RI District 3810
of Manila, past president Rober t Aguir re of RC
Portland Westside and Dr. Joyce M.P. Lockard
of RC Beaverton, of RI District 5100 of Oregon,
USA.
During one of his ofcial Rotary trips to the
US, Ventura visited the Rotary Clubs of Oregon
to propose a TRF Matching Grant for the
donation of much-needed used and new textbook
to various school districts in the Philippines in
pursuant to one of TRFs six areas of focus in the
implementation of community service projects
worldwide, which is education and literacy.
PP Aguirre accepted the challenge and
organized the different clubs in the District to
participate.
The Rotary Club of Portland Westside, the
International Partner Club, raised the funds
through The Rotary Foundation Matching
Grant Program to nance the projects extensive
logistics for ocean freight shipping and
transportation of the containers onward to its
nal destinations in various school districts in
the Philippines through Recipient Rotary Clubs
in Metro Manila, San Pablo City, Dagupan City
and Davao City.
Even to The Rotary Foundation, the
project turned out to be a unique multi-
district program which covers a wider range
of beneficiaries.
The University of the Philippines Library
at Diliman, Quezon City was nominated as one
of the beneciaries of the donated books where
25,000 volumes were delivered on June 28.
Separate container vans of donated books were
also delivered on the same day to recipient clubs
RC Dagupan in Pangasinan and RC San Pablo
City South in Laguna. RC West Davao received
its share through interisland shipping to the Davao
City Port on July 3.
The Rotary Club of San Francisco Del Monte,
the Host Partner Club of the project in the
Philippines, and the University of the Philippines
Library have scheduled a formal turn-over
ceremony of the donated books on Aug. 10 at 3:30
p.m. to be held at the 2nd oor, Gonzalez Hall, UP
Diliman Main Library.
Tessie Daza
Lucy Torres-Gomez
Assunta
de Rossi
with her
sisters
Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel
Lani Mercado with her daughter
ANSWER
TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
ANSWER TOMORROW
66 cole enrollee
67 Bakers device
68 Address at a Scottish
pub
69 Fi rst Ameri can Red
Cross president Barton
70 Venison source
71 Effort
Down
1 I , Robot a ut hor
Asimov
2 Artistic ice cream blend
3 Filet mignon order
4 Not as much
5 Derby-sporting Addams
6 Yes, mon ami
7 Rechargeable battery
8 Shrank in fear
9 Oil-drilling equipment
10 Be up against
11 Quo Vadis emperor
12 Marks love, casually
15 Distort, as facts
19 Microwave no-no
21 Black, to Blake
25 Six-time baseball All-
Star Moises
26 Like a newborn
27 Holiday entre
Across
1 Doctrine suffix
4 Predatory cat
8 Swiss bread?
1 3 A B B A s h o me
country: Abbr.
14 Sewing cases
16 Defamatory text
17 Live __: 1985 charity
LOS ANGELES
TIMES
CROSSWORD
concert
18 *Hangman drawing
20 Pisces follower
22 Centuries on end
23 Excessively
24 *Layered lunch
28 Cabbage
29 Resident of a city at
nearly 12,000 feet
33 Chance in a game
35 __-dokey!
38 Overplay a part
39 Words wi th pri ce or
premium
40 *Actors prompt
42 Endearing tattoo word
43 Slowly, in scores
45 Dumb gi r l of ol d
comics
46 Message from the boss
47 Inferior and inexpensive
49 Deduce
51 *Col l eague of Wyatt
Earp
56 Karate belt
59 Inside info
60 Rental agreement
61 *Feature of Ful ton s
Clermont
65 Strings in Hawaii
30 Trampoline maneuver
31 Physics particle
32 Jules Verne captain
33 Powder on a puff
3 4 S u n d a n c e F i l m
Festival state
36 Green prefix
37 Toyota subcompact
40 Compromise with the
district attorney
41 Tirade
44 Chew the fat
46 For a __ pittance
48 Plains native
50 Gals guy
52 Trims the lawn
53 Gr een- bel l i ed sap
sucker
5 4 S c h i n d l e r o f
Schindlers List
55 Clingy, in a way
56 Oil acronym
57 Obj ect that may be
struck by the starts of
the answers to starred
cl ues
58 Thought
62 TiVo, for one
63 Wide shoe letters
64 Morns opposite
WEDNESDAY C2
AUGUST 1, 2012
Gianna Maniego, Editor
Dinna Chan Vasquez, Assistant Editor
ManilaStandardToday
home work relationships
sha.re/
standardlifestyle@gmail.com
(PART 1)
LAST June 6, House Bill (HB)
5727, or better known as the Sin
Tax Reform Bill, which aims to
modify and increase the excise tax
system of `sin products made from
alcohol and tobacco, was passed
by the House of Representatives
or Lower House of Congress. It
included provisions on allocating a
portion of revenues to the countrys
much needed health care programs.
The bill was also mentioned by our
beloved President Noynoy Aquino
in his State of the Nation Address
(SONA) last week as a crucial
bill to generate much needed
government funds. This bill is now
in the Senate for approval before
enactment into law.
While the major components
of this HB 5727 is more on the
high consumption sin products
of distilled spirits, beers and
WINE PRICES?
ARE WE READY FOR HIGHER
The Champagnes will become more prohibitive with HB5727
cigarettes, wine is also going
to take a hit in this Sin Tax
Reform bill. The Philippines
already lost a case at the World
Trade Organization (WTO)
last December, led against the
country by both the European
Union (EU) and the United States
(US) - the two largest exporting
blocs of distilled spirits. The WTO
is the only global international
organization dealing with the
rules of trade between nations.
The case won by the EU and the
US was on tax discrimination
by the Philippine government
on imported liquors that violates
WTO rules on acceptable trade
practices. This new bill as
correctly pointed out by liquor
importers will further violate the
discrimination suit.
House Bill 5727 Effect on
Wine Excise Tax
Even if HB 5727 affects cigarettes,
beers and distilled spirits, as much as
it does on wines, I will only tackle the
wine side on this column. Below you
will find a table on the HB 5727 bill
juxtaposed against the present excise
tax system.
Classication
Present Excise Tax
Amended HB 5727
% Increase
Still Wines
PhP 22.00 per Liter for 14%
alc and below
PhP 30.00
36%
PhP 44.00 for above 14% alc
PhP 60.00
36%
Sparkling Wines
PhP 183.41 for PhP 500 or
less NRP
PhP 250.00
36%
PhP 550.24 for above PhP
500 NRP
PhP 700.00
40%
Bias against Sparkling Wines
One glare at the chart, and one
can immediately see the huge
disparity between still wines (non-
carbonated) and sparkling wines.
This is an outright discrimination
of byproducts from same grape
fruit, but altered only by the
secondary fermentation and its
corresponding methods. I have
really been against this huge
disparity of excise tax padded on
sparkling wines, which at present
already is higher than still wines
from a whopping 317 percent to
a mind boggling 1,150 percent,
even using the higher wine tier
above 14 percent alcohol. These
gures double if we use the lower
still wines tier. We are the only
country from my knowledge to
tax still and sparkling wines
so disproportionately! It is no
surprise our countrys sparkling
wines linger at less than 2 percent
of wine imports. And the new
HB 5727 further pushes the tax
discrepancy - very uncalled for
at this point. It is also because
of this high excise on sparkling
wines that trade insiders know
that the so called `grey market
exists in this category alongside
the many megabrands of spirits.
On top of the unfair excise tax, the
implementation based on NRP
or Net Retail Price (computed
as Retail Price less excise and
VAT) is to be honest quite awed
because of its tedious manner of
monitoring. And then there is
the issue on amount of P500.00
as benchmark. The P500.00
amount seems ripe for a forex of
P25.00 to a US$, rather than our
current exchange rate. Several
sparkling wines will fall above
this benchmarked amount in
the NRP computation. If the
purpose of the higher tier is to
tax consumption of luxurious
spar kl i ng wi nes, not abl y
Champagnes, then the NRP (if
to be insistent on as basis) should
be P1,000.00 minimum for the
higher tax bracket. Right now,
in Europe, French Champagnes
cost at least 18.00 a bottle
while Spanish Cava and Italian
Proseccos can cost just below
6.00. Filipinos being price
sensitive and poorer in general,
should not be penalized for
sometimes wanting to drink
these celebratory bubblies. With
the higher pegged ceiling of
P1,000.00 as NRP, Filipinos can
now afford good Cavas, while
saving for Champagnes.
(To be continued next week)
FORTUNE Life, in partnership
with the Department of Education
and advocacy expert Marylindbert
International, recently launched
the second year of its advocacy
The Value of Hard Work and
Discipline.
Amba s s a dor An t on i o
Cabangon Chua, chairman
emeritus and founder of Fortune
Life, makes no secret of his humble
beginnings. His struggles are, in
fact, the foundation on which the
company's advocacy is built.
The campaign aims to inspire
and teach students from grades 3
and 4 that through determination,
perseverance and discipline, they
can fulll their dreams.
As part of the advocacy,
For t une Li f e di st r i but ed
thousands of workbooks to public
schools for free. The workbook
features the experiences of
Cabangon and his mother, among
the other success stories of well-
respected business personalities
in the country.
Teachers are also given teaching
guides and are trained by DepEd
experts, personality development
coaches and speakers.
One of t he advocacys
CSR files
Inspiring students through hard work and discipline
highlights on its second year
is the expansion of its target
schools from NCR, Region 3 and
4 to Cebu and Davao. The launch
also signifies Fortune Lifes
continuous effort to establish,
sustain, cement relationship with
each of its current and future
policy holders.
Department of Education
Secretary Hon. Bro. Armin Luistro
and Undersecretary Yolanda
Quijano together with teachers and
principals from different schools
joined launch of the adovacy's
second year at the Bulwagan ng
Karunungan, DepEd Complex.
Fortune Lifes executive vice
president and general manager
Evelyn Caradas warm welcome
remarks were followed by a speech
on Walking the Talk on Hard
Work and Discipline by Ar nold
Cabangon, president of Fortune
Life. Ambassador Cabangon
Chua gave an inspirational
and thanked everyone who
unselfishly gave their time
in the implementation of the
program.
The event also paved the
way for quite a number of
interesting revelations. Luistro
revealed that Arnold Cabangon
was his former student in La
Salle. He also acknowledged
the advocacys contribution in
the students value development
and personhood to the recently
launched K to 12 program of the
Department of Education.
Five advocacy implementors
were given recognition for
excellence in implementing
the program in their respective
schools. Awardees are Amcy
Esteban of Legarda Elementary
School, Benzon Ger man of
East Rembo Elementary School,
Rosanilia Saludo of GB Lontok
Memorial School, Cat alino
Inover o of DepEd Bulacan and
Edna Madr id of DepEd Pasig.
The event served as the
launching pad for Fortune Lifes
song entitled Pangako.
The l yr i cs r ef l ect t he
company's vow to better their
service and to share to others the
blessings it has reaped over the
years. The song was interpreted
by songbird, J essa Zar agoza
over a sumptuous merienda cena
prepared by Via Mare.
Barangay health workers in
Glan, Sarangani use the rCHITS
program to generate health
data in their province. Glan,
Sarangani is one of the three
pilot areas of rCHITS.
THE United Nations Childrens
Fund (UNICEF) has partnered
with leading telecommunications
provider Globe Telecom in
delivering an integrated mobile
and desktop social system that
can be used to report real-time
data on maternal and child health
for improved public health care,
particularly in far-ung areas.
Real-time Community Health
Information Tracking System or
rChits was developed and tested by
the University of the Philippines
Manila for the National Telehealth
Center (NTHC). It is a ve-month
project funded by UNICEF with
Globe providing ICT support. The
project falls under the iAccess pillar
of Globe Bridging Communities,
the CSR arm of Globe. It enables
key agencies to gain state of the
art ICT to increase effectiveness
and efficiency of humanitarian
and welfare services and gives
opportunities for greater grassroots
access to ICT solutions through
research and development.
For the pilot run, Globe
and UNICEF identified three
disadvantaged areas in Luzon,
Visayas, and Mindanao, namely: Sto.
Domingo, Albay; Gamay, Northern
Samar; and Glan, Sarangani.
Globe equipped the three
municipalities with ICT tools
such as mobile phones and special
Globe BridgeCom SIM cards
which give rCHITS program
leaders access to more affordable
mobile services when gathering
information on maternal and child
health in rural areas.
The ongoing pilot testing
showed that mobile phones, the
Internet, and free and open source
software are effective not only
in real-time data reporting of
maternal and child health but also
in monitoring compliance with
the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino
Program of the Department of
Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD), and in alerting local chief
executives about emergencies and
disasters in their areas.
Tools
for accurate
data
reporting
RiteMed offers seamless quality, safety checks from start to nish
Fortune Life chairman emeritus
and founder Ambassador
Antonio Cabangon Chua
Present during the event are (from left) Fortune Life general manager Evelyn Carada, DepEd Undersecretary Yolanda
Quijano, Ambassador Antonio Cabangon Chua, Benzon German, Amcy Esteban, Rosanilia Saludo, Catalino, Inovero,
Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro, Edna Madrid and Fortune Life president Arnold Cabangon.
PLANTS have been used for medicinal
purposes for thousands of years.
Modern technology enabled these
plants to be processed into herbal
medicines and supplements. Given the
preparations involved in converting
the plants to become over-the-counter
drugs, the public attention is now
focused on the procedures involved,
in terms of quality and safety of the
nished products.
Since it was established a decade
ago, RiteMed has been following
stringent quality and safety checks to
ensure that medicines will reach the
customers in perfect condition. Such
quality process is nothing different
from the farm-to-table approach of
food manufacturers.
Our quality check starts even
before planting and harvesting our raw
materials. It does not begin and end at
the middle. It starts where it should be,
at the rst step of the whole process.
And the most important thing is that
we need to make sure that the quality of
medicine is sustained until it reaches the
patients, said Nicandr o Salud, sales
and marketing head of RiteMed.
Ri t eMed wor ks cl osel y wi t h
i t s part ners i n produci ng herbal
medicines. Its entry into the herbal
market was undertaken in partnership
with the authorities and experts in the
eldwith the Department of Science
and Technology (DOST), Philippine
Council for Health Research and
Devel opment ( PCHRD) and t he
National Integrated Research Program
on Medicinal Plants (NIRPROMP).
Ritemed, the leading unibranded
line of medicines in the Philippines,
started marketing its rst herbal product
(StopCough Lagundi) during the latter
part of 2011. It is backed by United
Laboratories, Inc. (Unilab), which has
been in business since 1945. It is the
oldest and the largest pharmaceutical
company in the Philippines.
Ri t eMed ensur es t hat i t s r aw
materials for StopCough are subjected
to several processes in accordance
with the methods and systems that
st r i ct l y adher e t o t he Food and
Drug Admi ni st rat i on (FDA) and
World Health Organization (WHO)
regulations and standards.
RiteMeds StopCough medicine
passed through 48 quality tests before it
was made available in the market. Early
this year, RiteMed, again in partnership
with NIRPROMP, DOST and PCHRD,
launched its Sambong herbal drug for
patients suffering from renal problems.
Both herbal drugs go through intensive
tests that include ensuring that the plant
materials go through pharmaceutical
quality assurance to prevent bacterial
and fungal contamination and that
the active ingredients from the herbal
plant, is sustained over a period of time
consistent with the desired efcacy of
the herbal product.
RiteMed is fully committed to
the formulation, manufacturing and
quality assurance processes that adhere
not only to the NIRPROMP guidelines
but also to Unilabs international
standards.
The Department of Health (DoH)
has identied Lagundi and Sambong
as two of the 10 medicinal plants that
have medicinal value in the relief
and treatment of certain diseases,
particularly cough and renal problems.
The City Government of Makati, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), invites suppliers/
manufacturers/distributors/contractors to apply for eligibility and to bid for the hereunder projects:
NO. NAME OF PROJECT AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION LOCATION APPROVED BUDGET
1 Brand New Chemical Firetruck with Foam Propotioner for the
use of Makati Fire Department
OM P9,190,996.00
2 Brand New Fire Trucks for the use of Makati Fire Department OM P60,181,772.00
3 Brand New Ambulance for the use of various barangays of
District I and II
OM P14,387,620.00
4 Desktop and Notebook Computers for the use of University
of Makati
UMAK P36,127,000.00
Prospective Bidders should have experience in undertaking a similar project with an amount of at least 50%
of the proposed project for bidding. The Eligibility Check/Screening as well as the Preliminary Examinations
of Bids shall use non-discretionary "pass/fail criteria. Post-Qualifcation of the Lowest Calculated Bid shall
be conducted.
All particulars relative to Eligibility Statement and Screening, Bid Security, Performance Security, Pre-Bidding
Conference(s), Evaluation of Bids, Post-Qualifcation and Award of Contract shall be governed by the pertinent
provisions of R.A. 9184 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).
The complete schedule of activities is listed, as follows:
ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE
1. Pre-Bidding Conference at BAC Conference Room, 9th Floor August 09, 2012 (02:00 P.M.)
2. Opening of Bids at BAC Conference Room, 9th Floor August 23, 2012 (02:00 P.M.)
Bidding Documents will be available only to Prospective Bidders upon payment of a non-refundable amount
of ______________________to the City Government of Makati Cashier.
(fee for Bid Documents) (Procuring Entity)
The City Government of Makati assumes no responsibility whatsoever to compensate or indemnify
(Procuring Entity)
bidders for any Expenses Incurred in the preparation of the bid.
The City of Makati reserves the right to disqualify any or all proposal, to waive any defects or informalities
therein and to accept such proposal as may be considered most advantageous to the Government.
Approved by:
(Sgd.) MARJORIE A. DE VEYRA
Chairperson

Bids and Awards Committee
J.P. Rizal St. corner F. Zobel St., Makati City
Tel. No. 870-1000 Fax No. 899-8988
www.makati.gov.ph
INVITATION TO BID
REPUBLKA NG PLPNAS
LUNGSOD NG MAKATI
(MST-Aug. 1, 2012)
I NVI TATI ON TO BI D
(MST-Aug. 1, 2012)
Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLC WORKS AND HGHWAYS
Region XI
DAVAO DEL SUR 1
ST
DISTRICT ENGINEERING OFFICE
OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ENGINEER
Digos City
DPWH NFRA-07 - Standard Advertisement-Revised RR
The Davao del Sur 1
st
District Engineering Ofhce, through its Bids
and Awards Committee (BAC), invites contractors to apply to bid for the
following contracts:
Contract D: 12LD0034
Contract Name: Repair/Rehabilitation/Improvement along Davao-
Cotabato Road (Brgy. Matti), Digos City, Davao
del Sur
Km. 1569+339 Km. 1569+859 with exception
Contract Location: Digos City, Davao del Sur
Scope of Work: Asphalting of Roads and mprovement of Drainage
System
Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC): P 9,900,000.00
Contract Duration : 30 calendar days
Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures
in accordance with R.A. 9184 and its Revised Implementing Rules and
Regulations.
To bid for this contract, a contractor must submit a Letter of ntent
(LO) and must meet the following major criteria: (a) prior registration with
DPWH, (b) Filipino citizen or 75% Filipino-owned partnership, corporation,
cooperative, or joint venture with PCAB license applicable to the type and
cost of this contract, (c) completion of a similar contract costing at least
50% of ABC within a period of 10 years, and (d) Net Financial Contracting
Capacity at least equal to ABC, or credit line commitment for at least 10%
of ABC. The BAC will use non-discretionary pass/fail criteria in the eligibility
check and preliminary examination of bids.
Unregistered contractors, however, shall submit their applications for
registration to the DPWH-POCW Central Offce before the deadline for
the receipt of LO. The DPWH-POCW Central Offce will only process
contractors applications for registration, with complete requirements, and
issue the Contractor's Certifcate of Registration (CRC).
The signifcant times and deadlines of procurement activities are shown
below:
1. Receipt of LO from Prospective Bidders July 26, 2012 to August 9, 2012 @ 2:00 p.m.
2. Issuance of Bidding-Documents July 26, 2012 - August 14, 2012
3. Pre-Bid Conference August 2, 2012 @ 2:00 am.
4. Receipt of Bids August 14, 2012, 2012 @ 2:00 p.m.
5. Opening of Bids August 14, 2012 @ 2:10 p.m.
Prospective bidders shall submit their duly accomplished forms as
specifed in the Bidding Documents (BD's) in two (2) separate sealed
bid envelopes to the BAC Chairman. The frst envelope shall contain the
technical component of the bid, including the eligibility requirements. The
second envelope shall contain the fnancial component of the bid. Contract
will be awarded to the Lowest Calculated Responsive Bid as determined
in the bid evaluation and the post-qualifcation.
Prospective bidders may download the Registration from the DPWH
website: www.dpwh.gov.ph. The BAC will issue hard copies of Bidding
Documents at Davao del Sur 1
st
District Engineering Ofhce, Digos City,
Davao del Sur, upon payment of a non-refundable fee of P 10,000.00,
Prospective bidders that will download the Bidding Documents shall pay
the same amount upon submission of their Bids. Bids must accompanied
by a bid security in any acceptable form in the amount stated in Section
27.2 of the Revised IRR.
The Davao del Sur 1
st
District Engineering Ofhce. Digos City.
Davao del Sur reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bid and to
annul the bidding process anytime before Contract award, without incurring
any liability to the affected bidders.
Approved by:
(Sgd.) AMPARO M. CLAR
BAC Chairman
(MST-July 30, 31 & Aug. 1, 2012)
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Finance
BUREAU OF CUSTOMS
Collection District II
NAIA, Pasay City
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
TO : NCBWOC
IMPORTERS
EXPORTERS
CUSTOMS BROKERS
FORWARDNG COMPANES
AND OTHERS CONCERNED
WHAT : PUBLC HEARNG,
RE: PETTON OF NCBWOC FOR TARFF RATE
ADJUSTMENTS OF WAREHOUSNG CHARGES
WHEN : AUGUST 2, 2012 (THURSDAY)
2:00 P.M.
AUGUST 8, 2012 (WEDNESDAY)
2:00 P.M.
WHERE : CONFERENCE ROOM
3
RD
FLOOR
BUREAU OF CUSTOMS BULDNG
NAA, PASAY CTY
ATTY. CARLOS T. SO
District Collector of Customs
C3
TECH
ManilaStandardTODAY
onlineeditor@manilastandardtoday.com
IMMAP
holds 6th
annual
summit
Social media on London Olympics
Consumers to spend $2.1T on tech products in 2012
Edited by Marlon Magtira
CONSUMERS will spend $2.1
trillion worldwide on digital
information and entertainment
products and services in 2012,
according to research rm
Gartner.
This amounts to a $114 billion
global increase compared with
2011, and spending will continue
to grow at a faster rate than in
the past, at around $130 billion a
year, to reach $2.7 trillion by the
end of 2016.
The $2.1 trillion consists of
what the consumers will spend
on mobile phones, computing
and entertainment, media
and other smart devices, the
services that are required to
make these devices connected
to the appropriate network, and
software and media content that
are consumed via these devices.
The three largest segments of
the consumer technology market
are, and will continue to be,
mobile services, mobile phones
and entertainment services, said
Amanda Sabia, principal research
analyst at Gartner.
There are two product classes,
which in terms of absolute dollars
are signicantly smaller, but offer
tremendous growth by 2016.
These are mobile apps stores and
e-text content. We fully expect
consumers to more than triple
their spending in these latter two
categories by 2016.
Mobile services are expected
to generate 37 percent of total
worldwide consumer technology
spending in 2012 that is $0.8
trillion rising to almost $1
trillion by 2016. Mobile phones
will account for 10 percent of
total spending in 2012 that is
$222 billion rising to almost
$300 billion by 2016.
Similarly, entertainment
services cable, satellite, IPTV
and online gaming, will account
for 10 percent of total consumer
spending on technology products
and services in 2012, at $210
billion, rising to almost $290
billion in 2016.
Gartner predicts that consumer
spending on mobile apps stores
and content will rise from $18
billion in 2012 to $61 billion by
2016, and that spending on e-text
content (e-books, online news,
magazines and information
services) will rise from $5 billion
in 2012 to $16 billion by 2016.
Our research consistently
shows that consumers are willing
to pay for content they deem
worth it, Sabia said.
However, our research has
also found that consumers
are willing to tolerate an ad-
supported business model in
exchange for free functions and
content such as personal cloud
storage, social networking,
information searching, email,
IM, person-to-person (P2P)
voice (Skype and mobile voice
over IP [VoIP]), streaming/
downloading video and musical
content when accessing the
Internet.
The inter-relationships among
the various segments are getting
more critical.
For example, new multi-device
rate plans being announced by
US mobile carriers are enabling
consumers to get more from
their devices. These persistent
The June poll also showed that women
will be driving social media engagement
around the sporting event.
The poll data revealed that the Internet
provided the most value as a source for live
updates, with over half of respondents from
Philippines and Malaysia attributing it as
a preferred platform to extend the viewing
experience of sporting events over other
sources.
Easy access to player information or
schedules of play, ability to access repeated
coverage, social sharing options and mobile
access were also significant factors.
Dinesh Arasaratnam, Effective Measure
regional managing director for South East
Asia said, The Internet plays a huge role
in enabling international viewers who are
not able to visit London during the Games
to still be part of the action be it through
digital TV, social media or the various
websites and online news portals covering
the event.
The rising popularity of smartphones
and tablets allows viewers in SEA to access
live data and news as a value add to the
main broadcast experience. Malaysian
viewers in particular, indicated that
mobile access gave the Internet the edge
over other sources, reflecting that better
bandwidth or an increase in Wi-Fi access
points across the country can increase the
extended engagement of live global events,
Arasaratnam said.
The top three channels that South East
Asians intended to use to comment on
the Games were social media, traditional
word-of-mouth (WOM) such as face to face
interactions or phone conversations and
SMS or email.
Social media featured significantly across
SEA, especially in Philippines (71 percent),
where a majority of respondents stated
that social media sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, and YouTube are their preferred
communication channels to comment on
sport-related news.
Respondents across all four countries also
shared the reasons why they would tune in
to the Games. Supporting favorite sport
stars rated highest with Malaysians and
Indonesians at 34 percent and 42 percent
respectively.
In the Philippines, the idea of being
inspired while watching the Games is the
most popular reason at 44 percent, while
Thais believe that the Games is more exciting
to watch compared to other programs at 26
percent.
We look forward to seeing the metrics
shift in online and offline media consumption
patterns during the Games and how South
East Asia will use social media and mobile
to access and engage with the event and
brands, Arasaratnam said.
Marlon C. Magtira
Newsbytes.ph leaps into the cloud with ArcusIT.
Newsbytes.ph recently inked a service agreement with cloud
computing rm ArcusIT for the IT news websites storage and hosting
requirements. Seen in photo sealing the deal are (from left) Melvin
Calimag, Newsbytes.ph executive editor, Jannie Gareza, business
development manager of ArcusIT, and Sheryll Pabalan, marketing
manager of ArcusIT.
A SURVEY by ad network Effective Measure has revealed
that social media and mobile engagement will be setting new
records as the majority of South East Asian sports enthusiasts
ock online to share and comment on their viewing
experience of the Games in London.
THE Internet and Mobile
Marketing Association of
the Philippines (IMMAP)
is scheduled to hold its 6th
Internet and Mobile Marketing
Summit with the theme of Hit
the Heart of Digital on August
23-24, 2012 at the Rockwell
Power Plant Mall Theaters 2
and 3, Makati City.
Keynote summit speakers
include local and international
digital industry shakers and
movers. CNN Digitals senior
editor Tyson Wheatley and
PLDT and SMART chairman
Manny V. Pangilinan.
Other speakers include
Department of Tourism
assistant secretary Domingo
Ramon C. Enerio III, internet
marketers Matt Sutton, Todd
Malicoat, Angeli Beltran,
Leigh T. Reyes and Ben
Reyes, web strategists Charlie
J. Ellis, Jeff Lippold and Aya
Montebon, Rob Grifn, Nick
Fawbert, blogger and tech
reviewer Abe Olandres, online
publishers Carlo Oplen, Maria
A. Ressa and Charie S. Villa,
Pepsico Philippines marketing
director Steve Romasanta,
WoodWing Asia Pacic Sdn
Bhd managing director Remco
Koster, Singapore based social
and mobile enthusiast Kartik
Ram, consumer researcher
Goutam Mitra, Rina Azcuna-
Siongco of Globe Telecom,
Sandra C. Puno of Nestle
Philippines.
Autodesk Flame 2013 launched in PH. Autodesk Flame
2013 and Autodesk Flame Premium 2013 are now available in the
Philippines market to further push the quality of nishing designs that
professionals can integrate in their respective works and the level of
entertainment that Filipinos can experience from local productions.
Photo shows (from left) Autodesk Industry Sales Manager for Creative
and Finishing Brad Bowyer, Autodesk Application Specialist for Visual
Effects David Wood, Challenge Systems, Inc. President Richard Padilla
and Autodesk Philippines Country Manager Teddy D. Tiu.
connections to more phones,
tablets and mobile PCs will
increase the value of entire
ecosystem and will drive
hardware sales.
Partnerships among vendors
in different segments are needed
to build the bridges among the
various platforms and deliver
simpler solutions.
Marlon C. Magtira
PH ocks online to monitor events
Tech
ManilaStandardToday
C4
Isah V. Red, Editor standard.showbiz@gmail.com
showbitz
ENTERTAINMENT CITY
RISING IN BAY AREA
THINGS are coming up
roses in Paraaque as the
city residents are anticipat-
ing the emergence of Enter-
tainment City, an ambitious
real estate development ad-
jacent to SM Mall of Asia
that should put not only the
city but the entire Metro
Manila in the world map of
leisure and entertainment.
This was what Congress-
man Edwin Olivarez told
members of the press over
lunch at Marios on T. Mor-
ato recently.
He said that currently there
are developers already in
different stages of construc-
tion of their projects, hence,
in a couple of years, the
landscape of the city will be
changed dramatically. He is
very positive that the Enter-
tainment City as it is called
right now will be able to help
generate employment for
Paraaque residents.
Because it will have not
only hotels and casinos, but
malls, live entertainment
venues, and other facilities
to make it a real city within
a city, he said.
Olivarez completes his
last term as Representative
of Paraaques First District
in July next year. And hed
like to go back to becom-
ing an administrator rather
than a legislator. The lat-
ter gives you more lati-
tude to be in direct contact
with your constituents and,
rst hand, you know their
problems and aspirations.
A district to serve
as the countrys
equivalent to Las
Vegas. A univer-
sity the City of
Paraaque can
call its own, a city
medical center
did you know we are
the only city
without
a city
hos -
p i -
tal?and a community
breathing with high hopes
for a promising future.
These are just some of the
Olivarez.
He said, I am an output-
oriented man. His track
record as public ofcial can
attest to that. To the Con-
gressmans constituents he
is plain and simple Kuya
Edwin and his close friends
address him that way, too.
Currently, he is
embarking on
a mission to
spread good
vibes espe-
cially for his
desire to help
Paraaque City
become a bet-
ter place
f o r
its residents.
Some of the acts he au-
thored in the congress had
direct impact to the welfare
of Paraaque people, such
as the establishment of Para-
aque District Hospital, and
the construction of y over
along Roxas Boulevard and
MIA Road. Others are help-
ful to people beyond the
Citys boundaries like the
one strengthening the Study
Now Pay Later scheme for
post-secondary education
and the provision of tax cred-
its to assist the private sector
in establishing nationwide
pregnancy care centers.
The son of former Para-
aque mayor Pablo Oli-
varez, Kuya Edwin also
served as Vice Governor
of Laguna, and for a time
the provinces Acting Gov-
ernor. He is involved in
sports, particularly in ten-
nis. He had collected tro-
phies as a professional
player, serving as head of
the local organization ad-
dressing the needs of the
sport.
Yet, it is the Entertain-
ment City that is making
him feeling like he can
smash a winner shot again.
Richar d Poons
The Crooners
Songbook
Big Band crooner Rich-
ard Poon is undeniably
an icon in the local music
industry, despite his very
young age.
In fact, he is the surprise
item in the local music
menu when he broke new
grounds with his rst Big
Band album, Ill Take
Care of You, in 2007.
Now, with four hit stu-
dio albums tucked under
his belt, Richard has es-
tablished himself as the
lone singer of this music
form.
Recently, his debut al-
bum raked in a Double
Platinum Record Award
while his third album
Ill Be Seeing You scored
gold. His other albums
are For You, also a Gold
Record, and Christmas
with Richard Poon.
In celebration of his
achievements as a record-
ing star, MCA Music has
just released The Croon-
ers Songbook: The Best
of Richard Poon, which
summarizes the nest
works of the singer from
2007-2012.
Songs included in the al-
bum include All of Me,
Moon River, Kahit
Maputi Na Ang Buhok
Ko, among others.
It also features live ver-
sions of the songs The
Way You Look Tonight,
L-O-V-E and All The
Way, tracks that were
not released previously,
as well as his duets with
Nina and Sitti.
The last ve years
had been a very big, un-
expected blessing, says
Richard. This album is
a celebration of those ve
wonderful years. This is
my way of thanking ev-
eryone who has supported
me throughout all these
years.
New daytime
ser ies to watch
If youre not a fan yet,
start watching Please
Be Careful With My Heart
on the Kapamilya channel
mornings before the noon-
time show Its Showtime.
If you havent fallen in
love yet, you will. Even
Jodi Sta. Maria and
Richard Yap feel the
same way.
Be Careful is so special
to me as it is my rst-ever
lead role in a teleserye.
This is also the rst time
to work with Richard,
said Jodi, who plays
Maya, a provincial lass
who dreams to become a
ight stewardess to help
her family out of poverty.
Mayas tale is winning
the hearts of daytime
viewers
She said, They will
surely be inspired by Ma-
yas character. She is so
optimistic with life. For
her, everything can be
done and nothing is im-
possible!
The series is equally
memorable for Richard.
Its his rst drama as a
leading man.
Richard plays Mr. Lim.
Hes a widower who
works hard for his three
children. But because he
is busy with his business,
he needs help.
He added, Its more of
an unexpected love story.
Viewers can expect a lot
of kilig moments and Im
sure they can relate to it.
AN INSTALLMENT
of the worldwide smash
Step Up franchise, it is
sets against the vibrant
backdrop of Miami.
Emily (Kathr yn Mc-
Cor mick), daughter of
a wealthy businessman,
arrives in Miami with
aspirations of becoming
a professional dancer,
but soon falls in love
with Sean, a young man
who leads a dance crew
in elaborate, cutting-
edge ash mobs.
The crew, called The
Mob, strives to win a
contest for a major spon-
sorship opportunity,
but soon Emilys father
threatens to develop the
Mobs historic neighbor-
hood and displace thou-
sands of people. Emily
must band together with
Sean (Ryan Guzman)
and the Mob to turn their
performance mobs into
protest mobs, and rish
losing their dreams to
ght for a greater cause.
Heres how the lead
stars see themselves in
the movie.
Guzman: I was in awe
of what was going down
around me. The audi-
tion process was really
scary for me, especially
freestyling in front of a
bunch of people, but it
made me that much more
motivated. I was practic-
ing until one oclock in
the morning, and then
showing up early to do
my thing. I was a little
shaky when I saw all
the professional danc-
ers in their element, but
I pushed past the fear.
Even though they had a
dance double ready to
ll in for me, I said, No
way. This is my movie; I
want to do everything.
McCor mick: As an
actor, you denitely
have to drop your ego.
You have to dive into
the moment and listen
to the person whos talk-
ing to you. Scott was
an incredible director.
I always trusted him to
tell me the truth. I was
really grateful to have
someone who cared so
much.This is something I
never in a million years
thought I would be do-
ing. It is denitely a step
up from what Ive been
doing and its one of the
most challenging things
Ive ever done.
It was great to have
past cast members in
[the lm]. Theyre in-
credibly talented and
inspiring to watch. And
because they brought so
much history with them,
it made my experience
that much richer.
Step Up Revolution
opens in cinemas nation-
wide today, from Pio-
neer Films.
Dancing along in Step Up Revolution
Daytime TVs new love team
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Manila Standard Today - August 01, 2012

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Manila Standard Today - August 01, 2012

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