P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.abf@edgedavao.net

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO

FTAX, 10

TAX AMNESTY NIXED‘Delinquent taxpayers don’t deserve reward’

FRUITS GALORE. A fruit dealer displays ripe bananas in a fruit stall at Agdao Public Market in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

REGISTRATION. A Commission on Elections (Comelec) 11 personnel takes the biometric data of a registrant during the second day of voter’s registration for the 2016 elections at the Comelec 11 office inside Magsaysay Park in Davao City. Lean Daval Jr.

“Kanang amnesty man gud mura lang og… actually, you are rewarding somebody who has not done his duty,” he said in ‘I-Speak media forum’ at City Hall yesterday

Quitain pointed out that if the local government grants tax amnesty, it would be detrimental to the city’s campaign to raise local finance resources as the delinquent will only pay minimal amount as most charges are waived.

Earlier, Duterte declared that he will not grant tax amnesty but instead allow longer time for tax delinquents to settle their dues including penalties.

Last Tuesday, the city council approved on the first reading the proposed study for

the tax amnesty particularly on Real Property Taxes (RPT) not settled by delinquent land owners.

The proposal was submitted by former city councilor Peter T. Laviña who stated that the Local Finance Committee and the city council should first study and deliberate on the problem surrounding the RPT delinquency.

“I remember we faced the issue sometime in 1999-2000. And we were able to resolve it by passing legislation granting a ‘tax amnesty’ in 2001.The main purposes of which were, (1) To increase the RPT collection; (2) to help clean up the books on delinquent

CONsIsTENT with the position earlier de-clared by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Dute-rte, city administrator J. Melchor V. Quitain

yesterday expressed opposition to the proposed local legislation granting amnesty to delinquent tax payers.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 20142

FTAX REBATE, 10

EDGEDAVAO

THE BIG NEWS

DWARFED. Huge metal pipes dwarfed a construction worker of Therma South, Inc. coal-fired power plant in Binugao, Toril, Davao City. Lean Daval Jr.

A RETIRED region-al trial court judge flatly described all

pending Free of Informa-tion (FOI) bills in the senate as weak.

“I read all of these and all contain provisions that are discouraging almost 100 million Filipinos to re-ally know what’s going on in the government,” said re-tired judge Jesus V. Quitain during the Club 888 media forum at The Marco Polo Davao last Wednesday.

While showing cop-ies of the draft bills, he expressed opposition for the passage of the current version of FOI citing provi-sions common to different

bills authored by different senators that provides for exemption to right to infor-mation.

There are seven FOI bills now pending in the senate including the ver-

sions authored by senators Loren Legarda and Sonny Angara.

Quitain said that all draft bills contain common provisions that gives right to government officials to invoke their right to priva-cy, information involving national security are not for disclosure, and in good faith.

“The provision on the right to invoke privacy will make government officials not to disclose information and tell the public that they did it in good faith,” he ex-plained.

“The FOI bill, if it be-comes a law, will give thick shield to public officials,”

he said.Quitain said that the

bill may sound good to the public but it will be eventu-ally becomes a deterrent to the interest of the public.

“It will create confusion to the people because it is overlapping and creates duplication,” he said.

“We don’t need this be-cause we already have the right to information, free-dom of press, and freedom of speech,” the 75-year old retiree.

“What’s lacking is a tax payer who will file a case against government offices who refuses to give public information involving pub-lic transactions,” he said.

BuSInESS establish-ments in Davao City are urged to volun-

tarily construct rain water catch system and in return, get tax rebate

But how much? The city government has yet to make an assessment.

“We’re still assessing it but it will be implemented through the City Treasurer Office,” said councilor Leo Avila III, who authored the Davao City Rainwater Har-vesting Ordinance of 2009 as former chair of the com-mittee on environment.

He said that the pro-posed tax rebate is part of the local government’s effort to conserve water especially with the onset of a long drought season that the government has fore-casted starting this June

until the first quarter next year.

under the ordinance, new businesses are re-quired to construct rain water catch system before getting permit from the City Engineering Office while the existing estab-lishments are encouraged to undertake the same and avail of the rebate.

Avila also encouraged private households to col-lect rain water and utilize as an alternative source of water for basic household operation, adding that it can also help prevent flooding and flashflood.

Rain water collection will also help the Davao City Water District reallo-cate their water supply to areas where water is more

THE City of Davao is currently number 10 in the London’s

Financial Times’ fDi Mag-azine’s “Asian Cities of the Future.” As Mindanao’s premier agricultural and economic hub, Davao City is the perfect place to grow families and plan one’s fu-ture. Strategically located along the Asia-pacific rim, the province of Davao sits at a gateway between the

world’s Eastern and West-ern hemispheres, making the Port of Davao the bus-iest port in Mindanao.

With a view of the “Grandfather of Philippine Mountains” and the coun-try’s highest peak – the magnificent Mount Apo –Camellabuilta Caribbe-an-themed community with a selection of homes perfect for every kind of family.

Known for creating dream homes in thought-fully master-planned properties, Camellacreates a safe and secure haven of greenery where cozy homes peek out from qui-et groves, parks and pla-zas, and every day, one can come home to their very own private para-dise, where the stresses

‘All FOI bills are weak’crc@edgedavao.net

By ChENEEN R. CApON

Tax rebate awaits for businesses putting up rain water catch system.

Jesus V. Quitain

CAMELLA DAVAO

A Caribbean dream in a city where dreams come true

TRIP TO SHIZUOKA. A total of 26 members of the Mt. Matutum Lions Club of General Santos City travelled to the city of Shizuoka, famous for the snow-capped Mt. Fuji, a world heritage site, and met with its leader, Mayor N. Tanabe. Mt. Matutum Lions member Masao Oishi, acting as a special envoy of GenSan, presented a letter from GSC Mayor Ronnel Rivera to Mayor Tanabe. Contributed.

FCAMELLA, 10

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014 3EDGEDAVAO

SUBURBIA

ENJOYMENT. The pebble beach in Sitio Looc, Barangay Punta Bilar in Surigao City offers a good place for enjoyment to these beach goers. [MindaNews photo by Roel N. Catoto]

MORE than 300 Ata Manobos in the municipal-

ity of Talaingod availed the free registration on birth and marriage.

This was revealed by Merlyn Enriquez, pro-vincial director of the national Commission on Indigenous People (nCIP) based in the province.

Enriquez said that the project was done in partnership with the civil registrar’s office of the municipality since most of the indigenous peoples (IPs) had not known of the impor-tance of civil registra-tion.

The registration, which started on De-cember 3 of last year ended last May 6 with an exit conference with the local civil registrar and the nCIP.

Further, Enriquez said that due to the Indigenous People’s Rights Act or Repub-lic Act 8371, the trib-al weddings were also recognized by the civil registrar; nevertheless, their solemnizing offi-cers must get certifica-tion from the Philippine Statistics Office.

Enriquez also said that IPs, who have cor-rections of their birth certificates, also availed of free notarization ser-vices from the nCIP le-gal office.

Hoping that all in-digenous people will have birth certificates, Enriquez added that the free registration services will also be extended to other local government units in the province in the coming months. [PIA 11, Mi-chael Uy]

DAVAO DEL NORTE

Talaingod Ata Manobo avail offree birth, marriage registration

GENERAL SANTOS CITY

Panabo City

CARMEN, NoRth CotAbAto

CLASSROOMS in a remote village here will be more pu-

pil friendly once school year 2014-2014 resumes next month, officials said Wednesday.

This after the provin-cial government of Cota-bato completed a 2-class-room room in Pebpoloan Elementary School in Barangay Pebpoloan, Car-men for about 400 pupils.

The school building project worth Php 1.3 million has been turned over to the local govern-ment and school officials Wednesday by north Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza.

For several years, pupils in this village had been using a makeshift classroom, way sub-par as compared to their counterpart in developed villages.

The Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) and pupils of the school also joined the turn over cer-emonies along with Dis-trict Supervisor Bellale dela Cruz and Carmen Municipal Councilor Del-fos Manampan.

Rebecca Ocampo, principal of Pebpoloan El-

ementary School was not around during the turn-over as she was attending a seminar but was ably represented by her facul-ty.

Barangay Pebpoloan, where Moro families are dominant is around seven to eight kilometers away from the Sayre national highway in Carmen.

Gov. Mendoza said that along with agricul-ture, infrastructure, live-lihood, tourism and other developmental programs, her administration also gives utmost priority to education.

Currently, the Provin-cial Government of Co-tabato has almost 1,500 scholars under its Provin-cial Scholarship Program (PSP) in both private and public schools in different state colleges and univer-sities

After their gradua-tion, the scholars are no longer obliged to pay the provincial government for all the expenses in-curred, they only have to render free service for a month or two in the capi-tol or any other local gov-ernment unit in the prov-ince. [PNA]

Village gets new classroom building, repaired footbridge

AS plastic bags have been identified as a major contributing

factor of flooding in the market area, the City Gov-ernment of Panabo will regulate the use of plastics starting December this year.

This is pursuant to the newly passed City Ordi-nance no. 47-13, regulating the use of plastic bags in the city.

City Councilor Ronald Ang, author of such City Ordinance explained that

the city will not totally ban plastics because they have been the universal packag-ing material.

Ang said that the local vendors may still use plas-tics that are biodegradable or oxo biodegradable but he encouraged them to use paper bags, other recycla-ble bags made of cloth or indigenous materials as well as corrugated boxes.

Ang also revealed that aside from the plastic bags, the city government is also

looking at regulating the use of styrofoam which can only be used as con-tainer to store food but it cannot be used to keep food intended for selling.

Meanwhile, Panabo City environment and nat-ural resources officer Felix Senajon said that the poly-ethylene bags or the com-mon plastic bags have been clogging the major creeks of the city causing floods during heavy rains.

Senajon said that this

kind of plastics does not decompose but just adds up to the volume of the waste that the city dumps daily.

Senajon bared that ac-cording to their data which was collated in the Ecolog-ical Solid Waste Manage-ment Plan for 2014-2023, the collected plastic wastes last year reached a volume of 10,859 tons and would eventually build up to 11,680 tons by 2015. [PIA 11/Michael Uy]

LGU to regulate use of plastic bags

InSTEAD of an increase in the minimum wage, the local business

chamber is pushing for productivity-based incen-tives for private sector workers.

Raul Josefino Miguel, president of the General Santos City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc., said the group strongly opposes any government-mandat-ed wage increase at this time since “there is no significant increase in the prices of basic commodi-ties” in the area.

“There is ‘no felt need’ for such an increase as in fact no one has filed any petition for increase in minimum wage before the RTWPB [Regional Tripar-tite Wages and Productivi-ty Board] XII,” he said in a recent statement.

“Any mandated wage increase without corre-sponding increase in pro-ductivity will only be in-flationary, and this will ne-gate or offset any intended benefit of such increase,” said Miguel, a lawyer.

He said the chamber supports the efforts of

the Department of Labor and Employment and the RTWPB XII to promote the grant of productivity-based incentives to workers.

Miguel urged chamber members and other busi-ness establishments to voluntarily adopt, in col-laboration with their em-ployees, such productivity incentive schemes they deem appropriate for their particular businesses.

The goal is to provide additional compensation or bonuses to employees based on measurable in-crease in productivity and

accomplishment of prede-termined qualitative and quantitative production standards and targets, he explained.

Private workers in the region last received an in-crease in their daily wag-es in April 2012 when the RTWPB approved Wage Order XII-17, which pro-vided an additional cost-of-living allowance (COLA) of P6 to P8.

The wage order set an additional COLA of P4 to P6 for the second tranche starting December 1, 2012. [MindaNews]

GenSan chamber pushes for incentives

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 20144 EDGEDAVAO

BIGGER PICTURE

An expert highlighted need for building com-munities’ resilience to

disasters particularly amidst looming climate change, not-ing capability to spring back from a shock is a life essential.

“Surely, the more resilient people are to adversity, the more positive their outlook is no matter what; the stronger their ‘esprit de corps’ and the keener their sense of commu-nity, the lower the likelihood of negative after-effects and permanent damage,” said Far Eastern university (FEu) Pres-ident Dr. Michael Alba on Tues-day at the 13th Asia Pacific network for International Ed-ucation and Values Education (APnIEVE) national conven-tion which the school hosted at its Manila campus.

He lauded unESCO-affil-iated APnIEVE for choosing “Values for building resilient individuals and communities” as its 2014 convention theme, saying this topic is “fitting and highly relevant” particularly as the threat of disasters contin-ues hounding the country.

“Very little is known about how individuals, families and communities coped and con-tinue to cope with the psy-chological (trauma) and other traumas of disasters even as massive rehabilitation is going on,” he noted.

unISDR said resilience is “the ability of a system, com-munity or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner,

including through the preser-vation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions.”

Experts identified earth-quakes, landslides, sea surges and flooding as among haz-ards threatening communities nationwide.

Resilience to potential hazard events “is determined by the degree to which the community has the necessary resources and is capable of organizing itself both prior to and during times of need,” not-ed unISDR.

Disaster is “a serious dis-ruption of the functioning of a community or a society in-volving widespread human, material, economic or envi-ronmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resourc-es,” unISDRalso said.

APnIEVE Treasurer Dr. Caroline de Leon earlier said through the May 6-8 conven-tion, the organization aims to help enhance capability of teachers and other stakehold-ers concerned to instill in the youth values essential in build-ing up resilience.

She noted APnIEVE de-cided presenting, during the convention, disaster risk man-agement-related research and best practices so delegates to the event can learn from these and possibly adapt several.

“With so many disasters happening, we want to help communities be ready in a wholistic way,” she said on the event’s side.

Topics for discussion during the convention also include cultivating resil-ience, positively coping with life’s challenges, the teach-ing-learning process, psycho-social first aid and therapeutic teaching.

The discussions will like-wise cover local environmen-tal knowledge towards envi-ronmental management of Diliman creek in Quezon City, global warming mitigation as well as FEu’s life safety sys-tem and energy conservation practices.

Among the event’s target participants are public and private school teachers, oth-er members of the academe, nGOs and civil society groups.

During the convention, Psychological Association of the Philippines President Dr. Ma. Regina Hechanova shared American Psychological Asso-ciation’s tips on building resil-ience.

She said people must make connections and accept the support others extend to them instead of becoming iso-lated.

“We see that in the midst of disasters, it’s really commu-nity members helping each other,” she noted.

She also said people must avoid seeing crises as insur-mountable problems.

“It’s being able to see things in a positive light,” she noted.

Other resilience-building tips she shared include ac-cepting that change is part of living, setting realistic goals, taking decisive action rather than retreating from prob-lems, seeking opportunities

for self-discovery, keeping things in perspective as well as maintaining a positive view of and caring for one’s self, she continued.

APnIEVE-Philippines is a regional network of individu-als and institutions focused on promoting values education and international education.

The organization’s main goal is to live out the values of peace, human rights, democ-racy and sustainable develop-ment among individuals and groups especially educators and the youth. [PNA]

Building resilience is key to survival: expert

unESCO has condemned a decision to allow the dumping of dredge

waste in Great Barrier Reef waters and recommended the Australian marine park be considered for inclusion on the World Heritage in Danger list.

The decision in January to allow three million cubic meters of dredge waste to be disposed of in park waters fol-lowed a decision by the gov-ernment to give the green light to a major coal port expansion for India’s Adani Group on the reef coast in December.

Conservationists warn it could hasten the demise of the reef, which is already con-sidered to be in “poor” health, with dredging smothering corals and seagrasses and ex-posing them to poisons and elevated levels of nutrients.

In its first comments on the issue, the united nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization “noted with concern” and “regrets” the move, which it said “was approved despite an indica-tion that less-impacting dis-posal alternatives may exist”.

It asked the government to provide a new report to the World Heritage Committee proving that dumping was the least damaging option and would not hurt the reef’s value.

More generally, unESCO expressed concern “regard-ing serious decline in the condition of the Great Barrier Reef, including in coral re-cruitment and reef-building across extensive parts of the property”.

The body said “a busi-ness-as-usual approach to

managing the property is not an option”.

Given the reef’s long-term deterioration, it recom-mended the World Heritage Commitee consider putting it on its in danger list in 2015 “in the absence of substantial progress on key issues”.

WWF Australia spokes-man Richard Leck said the government needed to act quickly to prevent the em-barrassment of the reef being listed as in danger.

“unESCO’S concern is shared by thousands of Aus-tralians and hundreds of leading scientists and we call on the federal government to ban dumping of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area prior to the World Heritage Commit-tee meeting in June,” he said. [AFP]

UNESCO condemns dredge waste dumping in Barrier Reef waters

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014 5EDGEDAVAO

THE ECONOMY

THREE student groups will represent the Philippines in an international tech-

nology competition organized by Microsoft, which encourages the youth to create applications, games, and solutions that can change the way people live.

The Pinoy representatives were selected from hundreds of groups in the local leg of Imagine Cup, which was or-ganized recently by Microsoft Philippines in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology -Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO), Intramur-os Administration, and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) – via the Smart Developer network (Smart Devnet) and Smart Bro.

The students will compete in the Asia Pacific leg of Imag-ine Cup this month. Winners of this contest will compete with fellow regional champi-ons in the overall finals to be held this July in Seattle, uSA. The final winning teams will each receive $50,000, as well as mentoring and networking assistance so they can move to-ward launching their project in the market.

A total of 77 countries par-

ticipated in this year’s Imagine Cup.

Excited to represent phTeam PewPew from De

La Salle university topped the Innovation category with its project Funimals, an appli-cation that generates stories based on pictures selected by children.

Meanwhile, Team Tala – comprised of students from Mapua Institute of Technology, Adamson university, and Tres-ton College – was adjudged champion of the World Citi-zenship category. The team’s Re-Link app seeks to link es-tablishments with recyclable waste (like bottles and news-papers) with organizations that buy such materials.

The three teams each received p50,000.

“We are very excited to represent the Philippines in the regional competition. Imagine Cup has given us an opportu-nity to showcase the skills and talents of young Filipinos. It has also been a great learning experience for us,” said Yvette Watson of Team Tala.

strong chance to win abroad

Monchito Ibrahim, dep-uty executive director of the

DOST-ICTO who was also a judge at Imagine Cup Philip-pines, said the Filipino stu-dents have a strong chance of winning abroad.

“The quality of projects presented today is very high, compared to what we’ve seen in other competitions. We saw apps that can add value to cur-rent government initiatives,”

he said during the local finals held in Intramuros, Manila.

“This competition has proved that Filipino students have a lot of potential. I’m very impressed with what they pre-sented today. Their ideas and execution were excellent,” said Alvin Gendrano, director of the developer and platform group of Microsoft Philippines.

“We at Smart are happy to partner with Microsoft for this event, which highlights the world-class technology skills of Filipino students. We are look-ing forward to mentoring the winning groups so they would be at their best form in the re-gionals,” said Smart developer evangelist and Imagine Cup Philippines judge Paul Pajo.

Aside from Pajo and Ibra-him, the Imagine Cup Philip-pines judges were DOST-ICTO deputy executive director Bet-tina Quimson, Smart digital services innovations manager Anthony Esporlas, Vibal Group chief technology officer Earl-john Hidalgo, and Marco Sadil-lo III of the Intramuros Admin-istration.

Team Animus from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde won the Game category of Imagine Cup Philippines, with FitPals, an app that utilizes the power of Xbox Kinect to enable children to remain active in a fun way.

PHL students to compete in Microsoft tech challenge

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014

LABOR and Employment official recognizes the informal sector’s crucial role in running the grass-

roots economy as it contributes to the nation’s overall growth.

Joffrey M. Suyao, regional direc-tor of Department of Labor and Em-ployment(DOLE) in Davao region said the continued eking out of income and doing livelihood activities of ev-ery individual in the informal sector fuels to make alive the economy in their (informal workers) community.

Workers in the informal secotr include micro-entrepreneurs, home-based workers, vendors, jeepney and tricycle drivers, small and landless farmers, fisherfolk, non-corporate construction workers, garbage col-lectors and recyclers, petty retailers, barter traders, small-scale miners and quarry workers, entertainers, beauticians and hairdressers, laundry persons, on-call domestic helpers, ba-rangay health workers and other vol-unteer workers, among others

“Your being productive day after day helps the local economy to move and flow,” Suyao said as he address at least 200 participants of the recent-ly conducted Informal Sector’s Day hosted by the agency at Homitori Dor-mitel in Davao City.

The event bearing the theme IS: Haligi sa Kalamboan, Kauban sa Kauswagan highlighted the awarding of livelihood projects, presentation of

the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Insur-ance and the AlakanSSSya Program of the Social Security System. Fun games and surprises made out the fiesta theme of the celebration.

Assistant regional Director Ven-erando C. Cebrano said that business-es among the informal sector, no mat-ter how small engages the informal sector in the whole economic scheme thus the need to provide social pro-tection and upholding of their rights.

“This celebration shows our high regard to the workers of the informal sector and further strengthens our advocacy for their protection and observance to uphold their rights,” Cebrano said.

“We find ways to help and pro-tect the informal sector by providing them livelihoods and various social insurances as they continue to tend their small income generating activi-ties,” he added.

All DOLE’s direct beneficiaries of the livelihood projects are provided PRC Premier Bronze insurance.

During the event, DOLE has pro-vided a total of P3,030,783.00 worth of livelihood grants to 13 people’s organization and LGu recipients. The projects which included meat pro-cessing, basic sewing machines, live-lihood starter kits, food processing, negosyo-Karts, vermicast produc-tion, fishing package, banana powder production, abaca hand woven proj-

ect, Bangus processing and water refilling stations are expected to benefit a total of 1,347 beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Ang-ara pushed recently the pas-sage of Senate Bill 1941 or the Magna Carta of Workers in Informal Economy, which aims to provide the same basic constitutional rights to the informal sector.

“The ranks of informal workers, many of whom live in substandard conditions and cannot meet their basic needs, have been increasing through the years. It is essen-tial to look after their rights and interests if poverty in the country is to be effectively addressed,” Angara said.

In a press statement, An-gara pointed out that since most informal workers are not covered by the Labor Code and other legislation that could protect their rights, they are often subject to exploitation by unscrupu-lous employers, who make them work long hours and at very low wages, without benefits and under very poor work-ing conditions.

“This bill seeks to empower the

poor, marginalized, unprotected and underrepresented workers in infor-mal employment, and bring them into the mainstream of the Philippine

economy. It carries a strong bias to prioritize and empower the poorest of the poor,” he explained. [Sherwin B. Manual/DOLE 11]

6

by the numbersPHL inflation stood at

4.1% in April, faster than the

3.9% registered in March.

Source: PhiliPPine StatiSticS authority (PSa)

THE ECONOMY

DOLE exec: Workers in informal sector vital to propel local economy

FORTY-seven countries signed up to automat-ically share bank data,

including key financial cen-ters Singapore and Switzer-land, the OECD said, in what has been touted as a major step towards cracking down on global tax evasion.

under the declaration, the 47 countries have com-mitted to “swiftly” pass new domestic laws that will allow them to collect information on all bank accounts and au-tomatically exchange it with other participating countries.

They must also call on their financial centers “to im-

plement the new single glob-al standard without delay.”

The list of signatories in-cludes all 34 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment (OECD), a club of devel-oped nations that spearhead-ed the initiative.

That includes Switzer-land, Liechtenstein and the British jurisdictions of Jer-sey and Guernsey – all which have been criticized for high levels of banking secrecy in the past, laying them open to accusations that they serve as havens for tax evaders.

The list also includes

Luxembourg, even though it is blocking transparency ini-tiatives within the European union.

The OECD has also se-cured the participation of 18 non-OECD nations, including the key international finan-cial center of Singapore.

The new global stan-dard was described as “a real game-changer” by OECD chief Angel Gurria when it was unveiled in February.

Previously, countries would have to request data on suspected tax cheats using a process that was often com-plicated and some countries

were uncooperative.The united States was

the catalyst for the change with its so-called FATCA law which requires international banks to provide data on ac-counts held abroad by its cit-izens and companies or face sanctions.

The next step, the new declaration states, is for the OECD’s fiscal committee to provide within the coming months clear guidelines on how the standard should be put into practice, and come up with technical solutions to make sure it is effective. [AFP]

47 countries move on tax evasion by ‘agreeing’ to share bank data

THE Board of Investments (BOI) has discussed the strategic framework for

2014 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) which will identify incentives or non-incentive policy response for particular economic activities.

During the first public consultation for 2014 IPP Wednesday in Makati City, BOI has cited criteria in order for an economic activity to be included in the IPP list.

In order for a particular sector to be added in the list,

the sector must possess the following: potential to cre-ate employment; potential to move up in the value chain; potential to create spillover effects; and potential to create a competitive market.

The identified criteria is the first part of the frame-work.

Following the sector’s potentials in the four areas, supply chain gaps will be dis-tinguished.

In this part, the BOI will now decide whether these

supply chain gaps can be ad-dressed through incentives; if not, it should be identified how the sector will maintain its competitiveness through other policies without incen-tives.

For sectors eligible for government incentives, most binding constraints on put-ting up investments should be identified which include: high production cost; high risks, e.g. huge capital requirement and new technology; human capital; government regula-

tion; government policies; and other constraints like financing, competitiveness, standards, and quality.

This ends with policy re-sponse of giving incentives to a specific economic activity.

Further, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) As-sistant Secretary of Industry Development Rafaelita Alda-ba noted that giving incen-tives plays a significant role in growing investments and pro-viding more jobs for Filipinos. [PNA]

BOI bares framework for 2014 IPP

GLOBE Telecom re-ceived a citation from Finance Asia

based on a recent poll conducted by the leading financial publication in the region. The telecommuni-cations company was list-ed among the Philippine companies most commit-ted to a strong dividend policy. The poll was con-ducted to determine Asia’s top companies. The survey involved votes from inves-tors and analysts across the region.

“This is the eleventh straight year that Globe has been in the list of Asia’s best managed companies and we are honored by this recognition. This is also a reflection of the com-pany’s sustained revenue and earnings momentum translating into significant improvement in share-holder value,” said Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu.

Following a dou-ble-digit rise in Globe Telecom’s core net profit in 2013, the company’s board recently approved a cash dividend of P37.50 per common share for the first semester of 2014. On an annualized basis, the amount represents a 12% improvement from last

year’s distribution and equivalent to 86% of 2013 core net income, consis-tent with the company’s dividend policy of issuing between 75%-90% of pri-or year’s core net income.

The company’s divi-dend yield of about 4.6% (based on December 31, 2013 closing share price) remains competitive against yields of govern-ment securities and Phil-ippine listed companies. This reflects both the strength of Globe’s cash flows and its commitment to a sustainable and com-petitive dividend distribu-tion. Starting in the third quarter of the year, Globe will change the frequency of cash dividend distribu-tion from semi-annual to quarterly basis. This is to enable better cash man-agement and liquidity planning as well as provide a more consistent dividend distribution to sharehold-ers.

Globe reported a core net profit of P11.6 billion for 2013, the highest over the last 4 years as reve-nues reached a fresh re-cord of P90.5 billion, un-derpinned by the strong performance of its mobile, broadband and fixed line data services.

Globe Telecom receives Finance Asia citation for its dividend policy

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014 7EDGEDAVAO

ENVIRONMENT

GREEnPEACE, an environ-mental organization, has called for the shifting to

renewable energy rather than coal-fired power plants as it launched Wednesday in Makati City the first part of its study -- “True Cost of Coal” (TCC).

Greenpeace Philippines has the initiative to conduct the study on the real expense of us-ing coal and is also followed by Indonesia and Thailand.

Greenpeace Philippines said the TCC Volume 1 analyzes how ASEAn can prove that it can eliminate power poverty through investing in renewable or alternative energy in sourcing electricity.

According to the study, ASE-An is very dependent on coal yet more than 160 million of its pop-ulation is still in energy poverty.

Further, the study also at-tacked some myths on utilizing coal as power source that it is

the cheapest source of energy as it requires uS$ 2.5 million to produce a megawatt power compared to renewable energy which requires uS$ 3 million to generate the same amount of power.

Reuben Muni, Greenpeace climate change campaigner, ex-plained that it is only the capital investment for coal-fired power plants that is cheap, but it will still require maintenance like importation of coal and fuel.

It was also noted in the study that the country relies only in the coal resources of oth-er ASEAn country like Indonesia and Thailand.

About 34 percent of the country’s power generation comes from imported coal from Indonesia.

On the other hand, renew-able energy may require higher capital investments but will no longer need importation of coal

and fuel. It will also improve the domestic energy supply.

Greenpeace expressed “there is no such thing as clean coal” but companies claiming that they are producing clean coal means they are just reduc-ing the pollution released by coal-fired power plants.

The TCC Volume 1 reported that renewable energy can also run in baseload mode.

In fact, most of the baseload in Visayas and Mindanao were run by renewable energy sourc-es, according to Muni.

Greenpeace said it is pro-moting renewable energy as it is clean and domestically sourced.

”This initiative calls the government to make Philip-pines a leader on renewable energy in ASEAn,” said Amalie Obusan, regional climate and energy campaigner for Green-peace Southeast Asia. [PNA]

Greenpeace urges use of renewable energy

THE provincial govern-ment of South Cota-bato is set to convene

the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) to discuss the necessary preparations for the possible onslaught in the area later this year of the predicted long dry spell or El nino phenomenon.

South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said Tuesday she has called the attention of the Office of the Provin-cial Agriculturist and other

concerned local government offices to start formulating their mitigation plans for the El nino, which was foreseen to hit the area by the month of October.

“Based on the initial pro-jections, the coming El nino will be quite intense so we really need to prepare early to properly mitigate its potential impact,” she said.

The governor said they will prioritize the agriculture sector, which was hit hardest in previous droughts that had

affected the province, for the implementation of the mitiga-tion measures.

She said alternative pro-grams specifically need to be in place for farmers in areas that would be directly affected by the dry spell.

Fuentes said the local gov-ernment will coordinate with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the national Food Authority to ensure the avail-ability of enough food sup-plies, especially rice, during the predicted calamity.

She urged residents, es-pecially those situated in the upland areas, to start planting food crops in suitable sites like those near the river banks to ensure that there will be available supplies in case a shortage will happen during the drought.

She cited crops like ube, sweet and white potato, cas-sava, banana and other crops that could thrive in dry peri-ods or climate.

“If the El nino will come as predicted from October to

January next year, it means a longer dry period for our area since we usually experience reduced or low rainfall and in-tense warm weather from Jan-uary to May. That is primarily bad news for our farming sec-tor and food production,” she said.

For his part, provincial ag-riculturist Francisco Domingo said he has scheduled a series of meetings with the agricul-ture officers and members of the agriculture and fisheries councils of the province’s 10

towns and lone city to discuss the preparations for the com-ing drought.

He earlier met with per-sonnel from the DA’s Bureau of Soil and Water Manage-ment to initially discuss the possibility of conducting cloud-seeding operations in case the El nino will hit the area.

“We will initially propose for the allocation of counter-part funds to facilitate the conduct of the cloud-seeding operations,” he said.[PNA]

South Cotabato braces for El Nino

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 20148 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

Should the list be released?

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

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

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EDITORIAL

AFTER so much to-do the past few weeks, all par-ties appear now to be in favor of releasing the list of senators, other lawmakers and govern-

ment officials who are involved in the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam. Yes, they’re all for disclosing the contents of the list, except Justice Secretary Leila De Lima, who ironically holds the document reportedly handed her by suspected scam mastermind Janet Lim napoles during a marathon meeting not too long ago.

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who had been giving public statements and press releases about the P10-bil-lion scam on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and related matters is urging De Lima to reveal the contents of the list. So is plunder suspect Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, another plun-der suspect, appearing unperturbed by the serious sit-uation he is in, has also been giving public statements left and right. These gentlemen have been behaving as if they know something in the list that we, ordinary

mortals, are clueless about. This, against the deafening and intriguing silence of the other senators.

now, while Secretary De Lima appears to be the only one publicly against releasing the list, one can’t blame some people for suspecting that she is actually under orders to do just that. Yes, indeed, it is easy to suspect, rightly or wrongly, that the refusal of the plucky Justice secretary to release the list is designed to protect the reputation of some people, namely friends and allies of the administration of President noynoy Aquino, her boss.

However, many Filipinos, including those who are impressed by the so-called “Daang Matuwid” (straight path) dictum of the current administration believe that the Aquino government should not be afraid to make the list public since the document is not credible, anyway, coming as it is from a character named Janet Lim napoles, whose outstanding virtues do not include honesty.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014

AQUILES Z. ZONIOCorrespondent

VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

(Conclusion)

By Edward HadaS

COMMENTARY

By H. MarcoS c. MordEno

SOMEONE ELSE’S WINDOWS

Whipping up a lot more effort

Learning, loving to write

Apple’s many magic tricks

BuT Apple is trying. While eBay, another California success story, said on Tuesday that it has decid-

ed to pay the tax needed to bring cash earned abroad into the united States, Apple is doing its best not to pay that price, borrowing to fund its $11 bil-lion annual dividend and its $90 billion buyback plan.

The company has certainly got the hang of the buyback accounting manoeuvre. Share repurchases are counted as a return of capital, even when they clearly aren’t a response to a shrinking business. This unsound classification, though hardly Apple’s choice, pushes up earnings per share, the standard measure of corporate suc-cess. Hey, presto: the distribution of a high portion of profits, which is a sign of a lack of corporate opportunity, is changed into an EPS increase, a sign of growth.

Apple’s magic tricks matter.A shareholder, for one, should have

mixed feelings. While the financial re-turns of Apple’s asset-light approach have been excellent, its reliance on de-sign and marketing almost dooms it to be a niche producer. Rivals with more industrial depth and more willingness to share their expertise will eventual-ly capture most of the market for any product, as Apple has discovered in phones and is learning in tablets.

More fundamentally, there is some-thing disconcerting – perhaps even irresponsible – about a company with a market capitalisation above $500 bil-lion that does not manufacture much of what it sells, does not employ most of the people who make its products, does not pay tax at the full rate and does not tell a perfectly straight story in its financial statements, even if some of that follows from rules not of Apple’s making.

Apple tries to supervise its suppli-ers and it is always subject to discipline by its customers. Still, in effect, the rich rewards reaped by Apple and its share-holders come in part from leaving to others what used to be considered some of the most fundamental respon-sibilities of big, high-tech businesses.

From the perspectives of economic efficiency and economic justice, oth-er companies, groups of employees, governments or consumers proba-bly have a better claim than Apple’s shareholders on much of its profit. They also might make better use of the cash, which is too plentiful for Apple to spend wisely.

Of course, Apple isn’t alone in em-ploying some sleight of hand. And it makes real money, not just intangible paper profits. It doesn’t hand egregious amounts of stock to top employees. It’s less aggressive with tax-reducing convolutions than some. And it makes more effort than most to maintain both the image and the reality of good cor-porate citizenship.

Yet for all this, its magical – or per-haps just post-modern – business mod-el looks like a pretty weak way to sup-port a vital industry.

LOOMInG POWER CRISIS IS MORE SE-RIOuS THAn THE GOVERnMEnT IS WILLInG TO ADMIT – The worst is yet

to come. With reports indicating that the wa-ter in Lake Lanao is inching to critical level, longer brownouts are expected so does the anguish of the consuming public. Luzon and Visayas are likewise experiencing power in-terruptions but not as bad compared to Min-danao.

Davao City and the rest of Mindanao are most affected by the disgusting power sup-ply situation being solely dependent on hy-droelectric power. At the height of the pow-er crisis the Aquino administration should better stop bragging about scoring high in the economic front. Everybody notably the Department of Energy (DoE) needs to focus intently on the challenges facing the nation, particularly Mindanao.

now it can be told. The Aquino leader-ship’s major failure has been to neglect the energy sector. There is lack of investments in power generating facilities and govern-ment is not producing enough electricity from alternative sources for the country’s kind of power-reliance problem especially in Mindanao. The impending energy crisis has become the administration’s Achilles heel. It overshadowed whatever it has accomplished in the economic fore.

That’s the irony of it all. President Benig-no Aquino III and his bunch of over-bearing strategists notably Energy secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla may be able to do more than put a smiling face on the government’s fail-ure to provide potential solutions to the de-plorable power deficiency situation. The dis-satisfaction of the irate and aghast consum-ing public has risen with the perception that the government has been unable to tackle, in

particular, pow-er shortage.

The brick-bats and criti-cism had even eaten into the performance and net satis-faction ratings of the President who, in the first quarter of the year was over-whelmingly voted high by pollsters. In the midst of the power crisis the over-assuming Petilla even has the audacity to tell particu-larly the Mindanao consumers that massive brownouts are nothing new in the island considering that it is solely dependent on hy-droelectric power. Goodness gracious!

Instead of providing the people with con-vincing statements that the government is doing all it can to cushion the impact of the power shortage, the energy secretary only makes the people’s anxiety to rise. That has made the consuming public suspicious that the power deficiency problem could be more serious than the Aquino administration is willing to admit. The power crisis came as no surprise since the administration already knows full well about the looming problem as early as January of this year.

The debilitating brownouts lasting to 4 to 6 hours daily in Davao City and 10 to 12 hours in other provinces are not only infu-riating and disgusting, but also depressing prompting the disenchanted consuming public to berate and curse the government. Given their unpopularity to the consumers, ranking officials notably secretary Petilla should avoid strolling in crowded places

particularly in badly affected areas in Min-danao to avoid being pelted with rotten to-matoes while people from the sidelines are chanting, “Resign! Resign now!”

In Mindanao these days it is not safe to assume anything especially about the power situation. The vagueness, from offi-cials who should know exactly such crucial situation, nothing is definite; everything is hanging on the balance. Confusion can be found in every nook and cranny of con-cerned government agencies. The consum-ing public should never assume anything because nothing is quite what it seems. The current power distribution system is really very sick.

In a country where power generating fa-cilities and distribution system is uncertain, it is no wonder that consumers glean from whatever solutions are available. There is so little effort, snail-paced action, and so much obfuscation and dissembling, that no one is sure of anything. This is certainly the case when it comes to government explain-ing unclearly and in uncertain terms the recent public dissatisfaction because of the unabated power interruptions.

The Aquino administration’s problems don’t end there. Aside from the looming energy crisis, the inflation spiral is expect-ed to worsen with an impending increase in prices of gasoline and other refined pe-troleum products. Rice cartels continue to manipulate prices while the government rice importation program has been ques-tioned for alleged overpricing. The incom-parable PDAF financial scandal continues to haunt the government and a never ending list of more pressing concerns. The Aquino administration may need to whip up a lot more effort to meet the challenges ahead.

ALMOST everybody, if not everybody, thinks that writing is a gift, not a craft that can be learned, honed

and mastered. If you’re talking about po-etry and other forms of creative writing, maybe you’re right. Surely, William Shake-speare and Edgar Allan Poe were a species above Homo sapiens when it comes to lit-erature. It would take eons of evolutionary process to equal or surpass their superior literary genes.

But I’m talking about the “ordinary” forms of writing, the one we use at work, in school and other daily interactions. These don’t require skills in applying fig-ures of speech like metaphor and hyperbo-le. The only requisite here is knowledge on verb-subject agreement, proper grouping of sentences into a paragraph, and logical sequencing of ideas.

Sadly, not a good percentage of stu-dents, including those in college, can write a few coherent sentences much less para-graphs that tell a story or convey a mes-sage clearly. I’ve read a good number of essays by both high school and college stu-dents, and the way they’re written made my blood pressure rise. Mind you, it’s not only the grammar and syntax that we’re dealing with but also the obvious absence of mental effort – never mind heart – put into them.

One must wonder how students – in

particular those taking up social sciences and other courses that require a lot of writ-ing – come to earn degrees if they barely have the basic skills in written communi-cation. Reading their term papers, exams and dissertations would be instructive of just how much the educational system it-self has become one huge anomaly.

Such problem naturally extends to the workplace. Many office workers have to wrench their guts out to be able to write a simple report or memo. In my previous work with a un-funded environment proj-ect, many of my fellow employees were honest enough to admit that writing re-ports is the last thing they’d like to do.

So, whose fault is it if our students and children cannot effectively communicate in writing? Are the schools and teachers to blame? And if they are at fault, what could be lacking in the instructional system? It would help to ask English language teach-ers how much time they devote to teaching their students to write.

Yet, whatever shortcoming our schools may have is only part of the entire picture. I believe the home is the best place to start

teaching children to write. Parents need not be good writers themselves to do this. nor do they need to converse with their children in English in the belief that it would subsequently develop their writing ability too. not at all, the biggest thing that talking in English at home could do is alien-ate the children from their native tongue.

Here’s what my own parents did to me: They just pampered me with books. And no, I didn’t start right away with novels like “The House of the Seven Gables” but with kiddie stuff like “Snow White and the Sev-en Dwarves”. I started from there and later gobbled up Greek mythology, King Arthur, the Shakespearean tragedies and the other classics.

In short, my parents taught me to love reading but not in an imposing way. They would just place the reading materials ei-ther on my bed or beside my toys. That’s how I fell in love with the written word. And when it happened, it was like an un-stoppable flood rushing into a vast desert of thirst for knowledge.

You want your children to learn writ-ing? Make them fall in love with reading first. It will open a whole new world for them – now and in the future.

[MindaViews is the opinion section of Mindanews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com.]

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 201410 EDGEDAVAONEWS

Tax...

Tax rebate...

Camella...

FFROM 1

FFROM 2

FFROM 2

FOAMS. Sponges made from overrun foams for beds and sofas are transported by a peddler from Matina to the retailers at Bankerohan Public Market in Davao City. Lean Daval Jr.

landowners, and (3) to offer amnesty by way of waving penalties, interests, and surcharges payable during defined period,” Laviña said.

“The same aims, I believe, remain very valid in today’s situation. Moreover, I remember that during the debates, it was pointed out the amnesty should not be granted again for at least 10 years. Well, it has been 13 years now since we passed the amnesty program,” he added.

Laviña said Davao City is not actually “remiss” in its RPT collection as its performance is way above the median among the key cities in the country.

Based on available data at the Bureau of Local Government Finance, Laviña said he was able to get comparison of key cities in Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao on the submitted financial reports for 2012 showing the RPT share of the total local tax.

“Davao City actually has one among the respectable share in RPT in local tax

collection, at 35 % next to Bacolod, which had 37.51 % and Makati, at 36.57 %. Quezon City had an RPT share of only 22.56%., way below the average,” he said.

“Obviously, both LGus and landowners are beset with problems with challenges on this issue that aiming a 100% RPT collection is nearly impossible. Many LGus throughout the country have, in fact, granted RPT amnesty, mostly recently Cabanatuan City, Parañaque City and Mandaluyong City,” he added.

Laviña expressed his belief that Davao City can improve on this performance if it would grant RPT amnesty.

“I recall in 2002, Treasurer Riola reported an increase in the RPT collection as well as clearing up the list of delinquent landowners. To propose a new RPT amnesty now for Davao City would give the Local Finance Committee and the city council to study and deliberate on this issue. And if approved, it can be implemented immediately in the first quarter of next year,” he said.

needed.Avila said first thirty

minutes of heavy down-pour is ideal time to collect water, pointing out that five liters of water collect-ed would already mean big savings to the house-holds.

Avila said subdivisions are also required main-tain rainwater catchment

system.“This is very viable here,” he said.

He pointed out that harvesting of rainwater has been practiced in oth-er countries like Israel which has advance tech-nology for the adopting the process. The first to adopt the system in the city is the Philippine Sci-ence High School. [CRC]

and noise of the rest of the world seem so far away.

In Camella Davao, a beautiful guarded entrance welcomes residents and guests into a verdant land-scaped avenue that leads into streets and paths fringed with greenery and blooms that highlight the vibrant colors of the homes they enfold. Here, a selec-tion of 12 home models al-lows one to choose exactly how one prefers to live. From the luxurious Jewel Series, the community of-fers the Lladro, Murano, Rubyand Emerald models – each one a work of art. From the popular Camella Series comes the Elaisa, Dri-na, Carmela, Mara, Marga and Rinamodels; and from the cozy LessandraSeries, the community offers the Margaritaand Reana mod-els –both ideal for families who are just beginning to turn their dreams into re-alities.

The sprawling club-house with a tropical feel inspires a sense of cama-raderie among neighbors. Here, residents gather for

special events and mem-orable moments. Around the clubhouse, a series of children’s playgrounds and a basketball court ring with the sounds of play and friendly competition. Strewn throughout the de-velopment is a network of pathways and bike lanes for joggers, bikers, skateboard-ers, or just plain strollers. Parks scattered around the village are the perfect places for more play, pic-nicking and other activities that bring families closer together and create lasting friendships.

To guarantee the resi-dents’ sense of well-being and safety, roving guards and full perimeter walls embrace the property pro-viding the security families need to live fully and com-fortably.

Beyond this, andin line withCamella’s and Vis-ta Land’s dream to build homes for every Filipino family, Camella offers easy payment schemes, mak-ing it even easier to own a home.

Live With Complete Ac-

cessibility and ConvenienceCamella Davao’s en-

trance is conveniently ac-cessible from Davao’s main thoroughfares – the Airport Road, Lanang Road and JP Laurel Avenue – where the city’s major establish-ments and businesses are located. The International Airport is conveniently five minutes from the commu-nity’s gate and the busy Sasa Wharf is only 15 min-utes away. All these give residents an easy access to means of transportation-and a hassle-free move-ment throughout the city and province. This unpar-alleled accessibility also means that living in Camel-la Davao makes one closer to the province’s historic landmarks and bewitching beaches – especially with the jump-off point to Samal Island being so near by.

To allow for the life-style that Filipino families deserve, the community is located close to the city’s business and commercial hubs. It also has very easy access to schools. Jose Maria College, Colegio de

San Ignacio, nikkei Jin Kai, Stella Maris Academy, and the Happy Tots Early Child-hood Academy are all with-in 10 quick minutes from the community, while the university of Southeastern Philippines is no more than 15 minutes away. Malls and entertainment centers like SM Lanang, Abreeza, Mall, and the Damosa Com-plex – a BPO and restau-rant row, are also less than 15 minutes away. And for the homeowner’s daily needs, the Panacan and Agdao public markets are a quick five to 10 minutes from the village. There are also several places of wor-ship nearby, such as the Carmelite Sisters, the King-dom of Jesus Christ, the Redemptorist Church, the Iglesia ni Cristo, and the Scripture Baptist Church.

Because health is a key concern, the Davao Medi-cal Center, Davao Medical School Foundation, Inc. and the Metro Davao Med-ical and Research Center are all conveniently close by. One can reach them in less than 15 minutes.

THE Development Acad-emy of the Philippines (DAP) is determined to

establish a higher education de-velopment leadership institute and a career system for state universities and colleges (SuCs) to further enhance the compet-itiveness of higher education in the country.

In an interview with the Philippines news Agency, Den-nis Barnachea, program manag-er of the Executive Development Program for State universities and Colleges (EDPS), said these initiatives would help boost the capability of school administra-tors and faculty in implementing initiatives in reforming the high-

er education system.These proposals are also

supported by the 92 SuC presi-dents who completed the Exec-utive Course in Education Man-agement and Leadership which is a component of the EPDS.

According to Barnachea, the establishment of a higher edu-cation development leadership institute will further provide training and development to fac-ulty and SuC heads.

“The institute will offer pro-grams that will help boost the capability of our faculty and SuC heads and will institute profes-sionalism among their ranks,” according to him.

On the other hand, the SuC

career system will help ensure that the selection of school heads will be based on merits.

“The SuC career system aims to make the selection pro-cess of SuC management not po-liticized. This would ensure that only the best and brightest will be selected to head the learning institutions,” Barnachea said.

The Executive Development Program for State universities and Colleges (EDPS) is a pow-erful and practical learning opportunity for key officials of SuCs, through the delivery of executive leadership and man-agement competencies, putting emphasis on performance ex-cellence, strategic innovation,

entrepreneurship and global competitiveness.

It seeks to develop skills of the SuC leadership to imple-ment innovations in pursuit of the Philippine Higher Educa-tion Reform Roadmap.

The roadmap seeks to im-prove the efficiency of opera-tions of SuCs through increas-ing student financial assistance, rationalizing the number of public higher learning institu-tions, align leading SuCs to in-ternational standards, modern-ize facilities of developing SuCs, and establish an executive de-velopment program to improve management of schools, among others. [PNA]

THE MGB has finally rec-ognized the Court of Appeal’s (CA) decision

to grant a Writ of Preliminary Injunction to the nationwide Development Corp. (nADE-COR), the Philippine partner of the uS-based St. Augustine Gold & Copper Ltd. (SAGCL), in developing the uS$2-billion King-King Copper Gold Proj-ect (KCGP) inPantukan, Com-postela Valley.

The recent move by the MGB signifies that it is now recognizing the Calalang-led board of the nADECOR as the legit owner and operator of the mining project inPantu-kan.

In a letter to nADECOR, noel B. Angeles, the acting re-gional director of MGB Region 11, even clarified that the MGB “did not return the DMPF nor recommended for its cancella-tion.” He further said that the MGB proceeded with the pre-liminary review of the DMPF (Declaration of Mining Proj-ect Feasibility) on January 21, 2014.

Subsequently, the MGB approved two programs of the KCGP necessary for the proj-ect’s continuing development in Pantukan. Approved by the MGB for implementation were the Annual Safety and Health

Program (ASHP) and the Com-munity Development Pro-gram (CDP) of KCGP for this year. The ASHP was approved last March 14 while CDP was approved on April 14.

KCGP submitted the safe-ty and health plan wherein activities will be managed in accordance with best prac-tices and applicable laws and regulations. It addresses hazards whether or not they are regulated by government standards.

KCGP country manager Clyde Gillespie said that safe-ty is not only a priority but a core value and KCGP works to build a culture of safety not only in the work site but throughout the community.

“The goal is to ensure that every employee returns home safe and healthy from their work place every day. The King-king project strives to create a safe, and acci-dent and injury free work-place and community,” said Gillespie.

On the other hand, the CDP’s Certificate of Approval was granted after the KCGP substantially complied with the mandated requirements specified under the DEnR Ad-ministrative Order (DAO) no. 2010-13. [BOT]

DAP to implement new programs for quality higher education in PHL

MGB recognizes CA grant of injunction to NADECOR

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014

WHILE social media may be used by healthcare practi-

tioners as a tool to share help-ful tips, if misused or abused, it could ruin the entire medical profession.

Based on a mini-survey conducted by the Healthxph, a site which shows how social media can impact the Philip-pines health landscape, it was reported that a majority of Filipino doctors own a social media account.

About 96 percent of these doctors have a Facebook ac-count, the remaining four percent plans to open an ac-count in the future and of the 96 percent, only eight percent of doctors use Facebook for healthcare.

Orthopedic surgeon and Healthxph medical blogger Dr. Remo-Tito Aguilar of St. Louis Hospital said that separating personal and professional presence online was already difficult for healthcare practi-tioners to do in itself.

“If you are a doctor then the people will interpret your actions online as that of a healthcare professional,” Dr. Aguilar said during day 2 of the seminar conducted by the Phil-ippine College of Physicians on Tuesday.

He noted that there is no such thing as private space in social media because once a person posts a status update, comment or photo, it immedi-ately goes to the public domain and may be found in searches by the public.

Consequencesnowadays, healthcare

practitioners would post on Facebook without thinking of the implication of their rants on patients, bashing on col-leagues or even simply post-ing photos of them being like everyone else going crazy at the beach and partying while chugging down large amounts of liquor.

Doctor-lawyer Ivy Pat-

du-Calaquian of the Asian Hos-pital and Medical Center for her part said that the conse-quences of the misuse or abuse social media are both legal and ethical.

“There are some legal con-sequences such as copyright infringement, defamation or libel, cybercrime law but just because something is not ille-gal or can be punished by im-prisonment doesn’t mean it’s allowed,” Atty. Calaquian said.

Health practitioners who purposely or accidentally post confidential information about their patients are immediately at risk of losing their job.

“Ethical violations espe-cially for physicians in the Philippines can be the cause of administrative liability which could mean revocation of your (medical) license,” she added.

She said that to avoid situations like these from oc-curring, it would be best not to add patients as a friend on Facebook or using a separate account for personal matters.

For physicians who would like to discuss cases with fel-low physicians, creating a pri-vate group could also come in good use.

‘Pause before you post’ Gastroenterologist Dr. Ivan

Vicente of university of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital meanwhile remind-ed healthcare practitioners to mind their own internet presence and monitor what it is they post.

Posting health advices for a specific patient may be taken generally and may even result to other Face-book users applying these

advices for themselves when it is actually not applicable.

He also warned health-care practitioners of the dan-gers of bashing co-workers or ranting about patients on social media as it could affect the profession as a whole.

“Medical professional-ism has been ingrained in our heads since med school. But why are there still lapses online? Why do we still see doctors posting unprofes-sional content? Dr. Vicente said.

One factor, he stressed, is due to the fact that there are no policies or guidelines on social use publicly available in medical schools, societies or institutions unlike abroad.

Atty. Calaquin however said that being a healthcare practitioner meant having to

face a higher form of respon-sibility.

BenefitsDespite the consequenc-

es to social media misuse and abuse, Dr. Aguilar said that it had just as many ben-efits to the health sector—one of which is patient edu-cation.

Dr. Aguilar cited the Facebook page of cardiolo-gist known for his guestings in TV show, Salamat Dok, Dr. Willie Ong which is regular-ly updated with health tips posted by Dr. Ong himself.

He said that another common use of social media is to provide patient support groups since it facilitates conversation between pa-tients.

One example is the Smil-ing Kidneys Club which pro-

vides moral, sometimes even financial support for kidney patients.

Social media also allows healthcare practitioners to increase awareness for the general public by posting health alerts. He noted that even the Department of Health (DOH) had its own Facebook and Twitter ac-counts.

For healthcare practi-tioners who are part of an institution, social media can be used to provide support services, to listen to the community and increase the brand awareness.

“Do not fear social me-dia,” Dr. Aguilar said. “It is an amazing tool for healthcare professionals however you should learn to use it prop-erly.” [PNA]

11EDGEDAVAO

BIGGER PICTUREPHL doctors spell out limits of social media use in the medical profession

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 201412CLASSIFIED

INdulge! VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014

EDGEDAVAOFASHION

The Fashion Institute of Design and Arts (FIDA) recently held their graduation fashion showcase at the Atrium of SM Lanang Pre-mier. Already FIDA’s second graduation, the show featured thirteen graduates, four from their two-year program, eight from their one-year program and one for fashion merchandis-ing. This year the collec-tions that were showcased by the fashion design graduates were inspired by movies from a wide spectrum of genres from recent hits such as The Great Gatsby and Sex and the City, to more classic movies such as The Step-ford Wives and Break-fast at Tiffany’s. Daphne Balagtas, the sole gradu-ate of the fashion mer-chandising course styled and showcased the latest collection by Forever21.

Nicole Calope’s Pasquinade collection featured flapper

dresses with intricately done beadwork inspired by the

romance and opulent 1920’s setting of The Great Gatsby.

Inspired by the colourful world of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Julia Ilarde’s Curious collection featured a range of styles from pastel coloured floral appliqués on ethe-rial flowing dresses, quirky earth-toned ensembles with jewel-tone accents, to red dresses with beaded gold accents.

April Carolino took inspira-tion from the Bollywood film, Fashion for her Desire collection with featured various playsuits and short dresses with gold appliqués.

Transforming from the light to dark-ness, Don Maki’s Delirium collection captured the tone of the physiological thriller, Black Swan. His beautifully crafted dresses played with light and shapes and were inspired by the costumes worn by ballerinas on the stage, transition-ing from pink and demure to black.

Taking the Academy Award winning musical Chicago as her inspiration, Maizy Colleen Tan was inspired by the 1920’s vibe and dance movements of the cabaret shows in the movie.

FIDA’s new breed of fashion designers

By Kenneth Irving Ong

For Mother’s Day, Abree-za Mall hosts a big celebra-tion befitting our beloved mothers. From May 8 to 11, 2014, a series of events are in store for moms and their families: The Mom-preneur Fair: Celebrat-ing Davao’s Smart, Savvy Women from May 8 to 11; reel Love, a Mother’s Day video booth that runs from May 9 to 11; and on Mother’s Day itself, Fun Fitness sessions hosted by holiday Gym & Spa and a fitness talk by Filipina sports icon Dyan Cas-tillejo. From May 8 to 11, The Mompreneur Fair takes over the Activity Center with its showcase of one-of-a-kind products and services by Davao’s en-terprising moms. Also at the exhibit are Abreeza Mall merchants bring-ing health, wellness, food, and fashion offerings to the mix. A unique component of this year’s Mother’s Day celebration is reel Love, a campaign across all Ayala Malls nationwide that involves a booth where mall-goers get to ex-press their love for mom

through 15-second vid-eos. Abreeza Mall’s reel Love video booth runs from May 9 to 11 at the Ground Floor hallway (near Chowking).The top three video entries will be posted on Abreeza Mall’s Instagram account for online voting from May 13 to 14. The participant whose video entry garners the most number of likes will be announced on May 16 and will win spe-cial prizes for his or her mom. on May 11, Mother’s Day, moms are invited to enjoy an active afternoon at the Abreeza Mall Activ-

ity Center beginning with Fun Fitness with holiday Gym & Spa, which fea-

tures Dance Mix at 2:00 p.m. and Yoga at 3:00 p.m. To inspire ladies to stay fabulously fit, Dyan Cas-tillejo, host of ABS-CBN’s Sports Unlimited and one of the country’s female sports icons, gives a talk at the Activity Center at 4:00 p.m. For inquiries and up-dates on Abreeza Mall events, please visit the Main Concierge at the ground floor or call (082) 321-9332. Stay updated by liking www.facebook.com/AbreezaMall and fol-lowing @abreezatweets on Twitter and @ilove-abreezamall on Instagram.

A2 INdulge! VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014EDGEDAVAOUP AND ABOUT

ASUS Philippines today announced new N550JK multimedia notebook with fine-treated metallic sur-faces throughout, including the underside. The elegant design, which uses light and durable aluminum, also re-tains the ripple-like speaker mesh seen on previous N Series models. The note-book is the first-ever to fea-ture a quad-speaker array with the use of ASUS Sonic-Master Premium to deliver rich surround audio. The N550JK notebook now ship with 4th-genera-tion Intel® Core™ i7-4700HQ processor and also feature NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX850M graphics with 4GB VRAM for outstanding visual per-formance. Equipped with a non-reflective screen and IPS display for vibrant im-ages with wide viewing angles.

SonicMaster Premium audio with quad-speaker array The N550JK advances

multimedia notebook sound performance with SonicMaster Premium, co-developed by Bang & Oluf-sen ICEpower®. The N550JK is the first-ever notebooks with four speakers, and therefore are capable of cinematic-quality surround sound to enhance immer-sion in movies, games, and other content. The patented external SonicMaster subwoofer augments bass output and adds powerful deep notes that music lovers are sure to appreciate. Strong bass likewise makes movies and

games more realistic and impressive. For flexible user-controlled and auto-matic sound tuning, ASUS includes professional Maxx-Audio sound-processing tools and the exclusive ASUS AudioWizard utility. Cus-tomers can easily change sound settings or choose one of several presets based on preference and usage.

High-powered multime-dia 4th generation Intel® Core® i7-4700HQ processor provide fast and smooth performance in all applica-

tions, including handling heavy multitasking loads. For graphics, N550JK Se-ries notebooks ship with discrete NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX850M with 4GB VRAM that is gaming-grade GPUs that support the latest Di-rectX® 11 gaming in high de-tail. Also ideal for video edi-tors and graphics artists that requires heavy rendering for their precious work.  N Series notebooks fea-ture powerful dual rear-venting exhausts to expel heat and push noise away from users. Lower tempera-tures translate into stable operation, while customers enjoy cooler and quieter en-vironments. Entertainment-enabling displays For vibrant and detailed visuals, the N550JK uses a 15.6-inch IPS display with 178-degree viewing angles. It offers full HD 1080p, so photos, movies and games always look their best and color accurate.

MOTHER’S DAy is the perfect time to show our gratitude to all moms. What better way to celebrate Mom’s special day than to treat her to a delight-ful family lunch where she can feast on a wide variety of culi-nary specialties, without having to lift a finger in preparation? RBG invites you its Mother’s Day lunch buf-fet featuring a spread of inter-continental dishes, added with prime meat and Italian fla-vors on the carving and pasta stations.

Children also get to make their own burger and select their own filling from a range of ingredi-ents provided at the kiddie table. The main highlight at carving station is RBG’s luscious Roasted Crown of Pork with

Vegetable Stuffing, while the pasta station offers Italian specialties and a variety of rich and tasty essences and top-pings.  Rounding out RBG’s lunch menu are trays and plat-ters of assorted meat, seafood, chicken and veg-etables, plus an ar-ray of soup, salads, fresh fruits, and cakes. There’s also a station where you can mix your own Halo-Halo --- something sweet and refreshing to cool off the summer heat. Call 272 7600 and book your table now. RBG (Restaurant, Bar & Grill) is located at the ground level of Park Inn by Radis-son Davao.

SHE is the light of the family, the bond that binds everybody together. The epitome of unconditional love, she gives us strength and the courage to face the world. She is simply called “Mom.” This May 11, 2014, celebrate Mother’s Day at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao and treat your Mom to an International Buffet Lunch at Café Uno with as much as 50% dis-count. Give her a taste of scrump-tious cuisine from around the world with the whole family, without having to hop on a plane. If a noontime meal sounds a bit too heavy, head on over to Pizzaiolo and indulge in a merienda buffet of Afternoon Treats. Animated conversations and capturing moments in between snacks of assorted sandwiches, cakes and pastries would be memories with Mom worth treasuring. The cool sea breeze, beautifully landscaped gardens and relaxing ambiance all add to the perfect afternoon setting for quality family time. An entire day of delighting mom to show our appreciation for a lifetime of care would be mo-ments spent well at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao. Reservations are highly encouraged. Call us at (082) 233 2881 extension 8700 or 300 8881. Like us also on Facebook, www.facebook.com/waterfront.davao.

UP AND ABOUT

Celebrate Mother’s Day at RBG

Waterfront’s Salute to Moms

Dyan Castillejo, The Mompreneur Fair, Reel Love, and more at Abreeza

Mall this Mother’s Day weekend

ASUS launches N550JK multimedia notebook with quad-array speakers

INdulge! A3VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

KAPAMILyA child stars Adrea Brillantes and Rai-kko Mateo will celebrate Mother’s Day this Saturday (May 10) as they pay trib-ute to mommy viewers in the continuation of their “Wansapanataym” special ‘My Guardian Angel.’ As he disguises himself as a normal kid, Kiko (Rai-kko) finally feels the love of a mother when ylia’s (Andrea) family decided to adopt him. However, despite his intention to help, ylia begins to feel jealous of Kiko be-cause of the attention that

Carol (Mylene Dizon) has been giving him. How will Kiko be able to help in fixing ylia’s relationship with her

mother now that she hates him? Also featured in ‘My Guardian Angel’ are Ejay Fal-con, Ketchup Eusebio, Ruby

Rubi, Gerard Pizarras, Abby Bautista, Racquel Pareño, Lui Villaruz, Dale Badillo, and Vangie Martell. It is written by Joel Mercado and direct-ed by Jon ‘Sponky’ Villarin. Don’t miss the continua-tion of Andrea and Raikko’s month-long special in the 2014 Gandingan Awards’ Best Development-Ori-ented Children’s Program, “Wansapanataym” this Sat-urday, 6:45pm, after “Bet On your Baby” in ABS-CBN. For more updates, log on to www.abs-cbn.com or follow @abscbndotcom on Twitter.

CARMINA VILLARROEL will play the role of a martyr wife and mother in the upcom-ing Mother’s Day special of “MMK” this Saturday (May 10). Dina’s (Carmina) fam-ily life is almost perfect until her husband Carlo (Bernard Palanca) gets involved in an affair with another woman with whom he has two kids. Dina loves Carlo so much that she is willing to accept him back after several years of being separated. How deep is a mother’s love that would do just about anything for her fam-ily, including taking care of her husband’s children from his past relationship?  Also featured in “MMK” are yam Comcepcion, Paul Salas, Miguel Vergara, Carlo Lacana, John Vincent Ser-

villa, Louise Abuel, Jhiz Deo-careza, Ces Quezada, Boboy Garovillo, and Sonjia Calit. It is directed by Raz dela Torre, written by Benson Logro-nio and Arah Jell Badayos, and researched by Juvien Galano. 

“MMK” is led by business unit head Malou Santos, production manager Roda dela Cerna, and executive producers Lindsay Anne Dizon and Fe Catherine San Pablo. Don’t miss Asia’s longest-

running drama anthology, “MMK,” this Saturday night after “Wansapanataym” on ABS-CBN. For more updates, log on to MMK.abs-cbn.com, follow @MMKOffi-cial on Twitter, and like ang Facebook.com/MMKOfficial.

EXPERIENCE a different Saturday adventure with Solenn Heussaff and Belle Daza as ‘Taste Buddies’ hits the streets early to catch the freshest food finds inside Quezon City’s popular mar-ketplace – Farmer’s Market. Solenn teams up with Ryza Cenon to become a fruit vendor’s protégés for the day. Will they learn the skills to create a watermelon basket? Meanwhile, Belle and Benj Alves learn how to debone a bangus! Culinary graduate Steven Silva, on the other hand, will go solo to buy ingredients and cook his version of Sinigang na Miso. Belle will also show two incredible ways to store leafy greens to keep them fresh while Solenn will give

tips to female vendors on how to attract more cus-tomers in Ganda Kayang Kaya.

The teams will also get to sample Aling Cadiang’s most delectable “paluto” dishes.

It’s another Saturdate with the lifestyle show Taste Buddies on May 10, 8:45pm, on GMA News TV

ENTERTAINMENT

Andrea and Raikko salute mothersin ‘Wansapanataym’

Carmina Villarroel topbills ‘MMK’ Mother’s Day special

Kalerkilengke in ‘Taste Buddies’ this Saturday

May Fourth, or more popularly called World Star Wars Day, may be over but that will not stop us from posting an out of this world Star Wars tribute photo starring local celebrities Iza Calzado, Julia Bar-retto and Iya Villania dressed as everyone’s favourite Star Wars lead-ing ladies.

Photo of the day

PG 13

PG 13

R 1312:25 | 2:20 | 4:15 | 6:10 | 8:05 | 10:00 LFS

R-16

BRICK MANSIONS 2D

12:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS

SO IT'S YOU 2D

Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA

Carla Abellana, Tom Rodriguez

PG 1312:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS

THE OTHER WOMAN 2D

Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton

1:00 | 4:00 | 7:00 | 10:00 LFS

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 2D

Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone

A4 INdulge! VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014EDGEDAVAOFASHION

The sci-fi action movie In Time was the inspiration for Elaine Pocot’s Cynosure collection. Elaine used geomet-ric lines paired with sexy cuts that accen-tuate the body.

Neil Jimlani’s Luxuex collection utilised white, choc-olate and white to exude an air of elegance befitting his Breakfast at Tif-fany’s inspiration.

With jewel tone accents paired with copper and gold, Michelle Fausti-no’s Lush collection harken back to the Abu Dhabi scenes of Sex and the City 2. From cocktail dresses to harm pants, her pieces are modern with a touch of playful-ness and sexiness.

Feminine and fun, this is Yvette Lopez’s Sweet Fabulosity collec-tion inspired by the movie The Stepford Wives. Her bright floral pieces have a vintage feel yet excuse an air of young confidence.

Unpredictable and daring are not typically how one describes a collection but that is how Ron Santos’ aimed for his collection to be such. Titled Ave Sinistra, the collection was inspired by the movie Snow White and the Huntsman and had Punk-Goth inter-twined with hints of glamour.

Dark and edgy silhouettes with sleek modern lines exemplify Mariah Michael’s Solstice collection. Getting inspiration form the movie Underworld, Mariah’s collection has an almost an-drogynous Goth feel with creative use of materials and lines.

Inspired by the movie Tron, Jasmine Castillo’s Spectrum collection is modern with a geometric and structured look with pieces in black, white and copper with metallic accents.

EDGEDavao Davao Partners

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014 13

MInDAnAO’S premier shopping and lifestyle destination – SM Lanang

Premier – will be officially launch-ing a free membership card exclu-sively for tourists this May 9, 2014.

The mall’s Tourist Privilege Card (TPC) “Shop, Eat, Enjoy” will be presented to guests from the media, government, diplomatic community, and Davao-based foreign associations at a launch to be held this Friday at Archipel-ago 7107, at the 2nd Level of SM Lanang Premier. It aims to offer local and foreign tourists a unique shopping and dining experience, with special discounts and excit-ing promos from participating stores at SM Lanang Premier.

The TPC is SM Lanang Pre-mier’s initiative to attract more tourists to come, visit and do

their shopping in Davao City. It had its soft launch during the Department of Tourism-initiated Big Davao Fun Sale period from March 14 to April 16. Since then, ongoing issuance of the TPC has been done at SM Lanang Premier to cater year-long to tourists, up until April 2015.

Twenty-seven (27) tenants of SM Lanang Premier are support-ing the TPC to give cardholders premium discounts and free-bies on their products/services.Among these are food tenants such as Bistro Selera, Blugre Café, Archipelago 7107 by Barrio Fies-ta, Cellar de Boca, Dayaw Coffee, The French Baker, Giardino Gela-to, Hog’s Breath Café, Manna Ko-rean Restaurant, Marina Tuna, To-kyo, and Toryano’s Chicken Haus; various retail shops and concept

stores– Celine, Karat World, Mags, Mossimo, The SM Store, Tim-berland, Juego, Crescendo, Kul-tura,Prestige and Meridian; and service providers –Skin Station, Rocky’s Barbershop, Benlife, and Davao Gorilla Auto Detailing.

To avail of the TPC, foreigners and Filipinos who are not resi-dents of Davao City must register with their government-issued ID and addressat the Global Pinoy Center at the Lower Ground Level of SM Lanang Premier. They can use the TPC for seven (7) days from the date of issuance.

The Tourist Privilege Card will also be implemented in SM City Davao, which will have its respective set of participating tenants offering exclusive dis-countsand treats for local and for-eign tourists.

EDGEDAVAO

COMPETITIVE EDGETourist Privilege Card at SM Lanang Premier

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 201414

The car show featured the latest trends in car kits, painting and decals, auto wraps, au-dio-video set ups and car accessories. From small cars to trucks, car experts showcased their wares complete with sexy female models setting the mood to “underground level” as car

connoisseurs check out the array of wheels on display.

This one I wouldn’t let pass without saying I had an eyeful but there is still something that will keep you looking for more.

Hotter Import nights please next time.

EDGEDAVAO

MOTORINGHot Import Nights 3 at Metrowalk

njb@edgedavao.net

By NEILWIN JOsEph L. BRAVO

AFTER my recent trip to phuket, an invitation from a friend to a car show at the Metrotent of Metrowalk in pasig City featuring hot Import Nights 3: Underground Edition, the biggest auto show this

summer.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014 15SPORTSEDGEDAVAO SPORTS

FORMER national u standout Ray Parks has one goal in mind at the

moment. Just this tiny goal of his. To make it to the nBA.

After a couple MVP’s in the uAAP and denied a champion-ship, Rayray looked like he was ready to finish his stint in the D-League and head straight to the draft. The PBA draft. Af-ter a couple conferences with

BDO and nLEX, he decided to pursue the ultimate dream. A crack at the nBA.

After having dinner with Hans Sy of SM, Rayray packed his bags and caught a flight to Cali. He now lives in Beverly Hills. “I train in Carson City now, working from 9am-4pm everyday, just trying to get bet-ter.”

His trainer there is the

same guy who recently trained Terrence Williams, former nBA and nBA D-League vet who is on the way here to play for Meralco in the Gover-nors’ Cup. “Tomorrow, I’ll be training with Boobie Gibson on shooting and other things” said Parks.

Parks Jr. is the son of the late PBA import Bobby Ray Parks.

WBO light flyweight champion Donnie “Ahas” nietes is in

terrific shape for his manda-tory rematch against Interim champion Moises Fuentes of Mexico in the main event of “Pinoy Pride XXV” at the Mall of Asia Arena on Saturday night.

Strength and condition-ing coach nick Curson told the Philboxing.com that nietes “looks amazing. His physique has changed and so has his endurance which was always kind of suspect” as evidenced in his first fight against Fuentes when nietes appeared to fade in the last couple of rounds which was aggravated by two cuts he suffered above his eye-brows

Curson revealed that they had done some “altitude train-ing” using a simulator which he brought from the uS and has used for the last month. He indicated that as a result of his overall training regimen nietes “looks phenomenal.”

He said nietes “has been

sparring with some great guys such as Milan Melindo and former IBF light flyweight champion Johnreil Casimero who lost his title on the scales last week when he came in five pounds over the 108 limit.

The strength and condi-tioning coach told us that in his first fight with Fuentes, nietes “tired out” and that now “he knows his faults and has been working on the fight strategy.”

He echoed what trainer Edito “Ala” Villamor told us and that is nietes “looked great (in sparring) and he is ready to go. His conditioning is there and I don’t see why he can’t win.”

Curson was clearly im-pressed with featherweight Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista who is making a comeback af-ter a close, twelve round split decision loss to Jose Ramirez more than one year ago.

He said Bautista has “im-proved so much. He was so tense, so tight in his last fight that every punch appeared it would knock him down.” Cur-son disclosed that the flaws

have been corrected and “now he’s got head movement, his muscles are more relaxed and he looks like he is 19 again and the kid they were talking about as the next Manny Pacquiao.”

During a workout last Sat-urday, Curson said Bautista “he was like a Mike Tyson. This kid was so loose and explosive. It was great to see.”

Recalling that “Boom Boom’S father “used to throw him in the water when he was 5 or 6 years old to get the fish-ing nets out he has known hard work his whole life” but point-ed out that “brute strength doesn’t work well in boxing.”

Curson said “you have to have a little bit of finesse, com-bined with a little bit of that and explosive power and that’s what we’ve been working on. I think he’ll look good in this fight and show great improve-ment. I think it will take one or two more fights to see what he is really capable of. I think at that point he will be a world champion. I really do.” (phil-boxing.com)

THE WBO light fly-weight title fight between defending

champion Donnie nietes of the Philippines and man-datory challenger Moises Fuentes of Mexico this Sat-urday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila has gained added significance when the Ring Magazine has ele-vated the bout to vie for the Ring Junior Flyweight Lin-eal Belt.

In a note from its latest ratings update, Ring stated that the “Ratings Panel has OK’d this bout to be for THE RInG’s vacant junior fly-weight title.”

nietes is rated no. 1 and Fuentes no. 3 by Ring. The Ring light flyweight title became vacant when then lineal champion Giovanni

Segura of Mexico moved up in weight on September 19, 2011.

With this development, nietes attempts to become the 4th Filipino boxer to win a lineal title in the pres-ent crop of Filipino pugilists following the footsteps of Manny Pacquiao (Feather-weight, nov. 15, 2003; Su-per Featherweight, March 15, 2008; and Junior Wel-terweight, May 2, 2009), nonito Donaire Jr (Junior Featherweight, Oct. 13, 2012) and Sonny Boy Jaro (Flyweight, March 2, 2012).

Filipino boxers who previously won lineal titles were Francisco Guilledo (Pancho Villa), Dado Mari-no, Flash Elorde, Ben Villa-flor, Erbito Salavarria and Frank Cedeno.

Additionally, nietes is in hot pursuit to break the long standing record of Ga-briel ‘Flash’ Elorde as the longest reigning Filipino title holder. Elorde reigned as world junior lightweight champion for seven years and three months from March 16, 1960 to June 15, 1967. nietes, who won the WBO minimumweight title on Sep. 30, 2007 and then the WBO junior flyweight title on Oct. 8, 2011, will be eight months shy of Elorde’s record if he successfully de-fends his title against Fuent-es this Saturday.

nietes and Fuentes battled to a majority draw during their first encounter on March 2, 2013 at the Wa-terfront Hotel & Casino in Cebu City.

InTERnATIOnAL Boxing Organization (IBO) Su-perflyweight Champion

Edrin “The Sting” Dapudong of M’lang, north Cotabato will defend his title against South African challenger Lwandile Sithaya in East London, South Africa July 6.

It will be the 28-year-old Dapudong’s first defense of the title he won in June last year by 1st round knockout of South African champion Gideon Bu-thelezi in Johannesburg.

The title defense which has already been sanctioned by the IBO, comes after two botched title defense promotions, first by the Golden Gloves Promo-tions of South Africa which canceled a november schedule and then later by a group led by Sugar Shane Mosley, Brit-ish Promoter Dennis Hobson, Fil-Am businesswoman Ger-maine Giles and lawyer Syd-ney Hall whose plan to stage a

fund-raising boxing event May 25 for Typhoon Yolanda vic-tims did not push through.

The fight against the 27-year-old Sithaya, a fly-weight who is moving up to the superflyweight division, effec-tively saves Dapudong’s box-ing title from being stripped by the IBO.

IBO President Ed Levine earlier agreed to extend Dapudong’s title defense pe-riod to May because of the planned Mosley fund-raiser and recently allowed the Fili-pino champion to keep his title for the July 6 title defense after it was arranged by South Afri-can promoter Alyanda Matiti.

The July 6 title defense against Sithaya will be staged in the Orient Palace in East London, South Africa. This will be Dapudong’s third trip to the country at the tip of the Afri-can continent which could be

reached after almost a day of travel from Davao City.

In his first trip in 2013, Dapudong fought former Olympian and 2-time world champion Buthelezi for the vacant IBO superflyweight ti-tle dominating the fight and knocking down the South Af-rican in the 9th round only to lose by split decision.

In a rematch June 15 last year ordered by the IBO, Dapudong knocked out Bu-thelezi in the first round to win the title.

With his feat, Dapudong, a product of a grassroots boxing program I started when I was Governor of north Cotabato, earned the distinction of being the first boxer from the prov-ince to win a world title.

While the IBO is still not as popular as the WBC, WBA, WBO or IBF, it is gaining huge following with several big names owning IBO belts.

NBA HOPEFUL. RayRay Parks Jr. hopes to join the NBA Draft.

GOING FOR THE RECORD. Donnie Nietes fights Moises Fuentes on Saturday night at the MOA Arena.

Parks pursues NBA dream

NorCot ring star to defend world title

Nietes in great shape for rematch

Nietes-Fuentes fight is also for Ring Lineal belt

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 201416 EDGEDAVAOSports

THE Far Eastern uni-versity (FEu) went to their reinforcement

duo of Power Pinays Ra-chel Anne Daquis and Jove-lyn Gonzaga showed their fangs as they combined for 41 points for the Lady Tamaraws who defeated the former league leading Arel-lano university (Au) Lady Chiefs 25-16, 25-15, 24-26, 25-16 and assure itself of a semifinals berth in the ongo-ing Shakey’s V-League’s first conference.

In another interesting match, a rejuvenated Adam-son university demolished crowd-favorite Davao in straight sets 25-15, 25-23, 25-15 to keep its Final Four

hopes alive.Daquis, the national

team skipper, unloaded a season-high 21 markers for FEu which included five aces from her vaunted “Remote Control Serve” as the Lady Chiefs’ form continued to plummet after opening the season with an immaculate 3-0 slate. Au has now lost three of its last four matches with this last one being the final blow to their title aspi-rations as they will join idle St. Benilde as the two teams eliminated from Group 2.

While Daquis, the 26-year-old bombshell from Taytay, Rizal kept the oppos-ing receivers busy with her tantalizing serves, Gonzaga,

the 21-year-old from Jor-dan, Guimaras tore apart the Arellano defenses with her lefty detonations off brilliant sets from league Best Setter frontrunner Yna Papa. Gon-zaga also shone brightly on defense as she came away with twenty “excellents” (13 excellent digs and 7 excel-lent receptions) that led to almost flawless playmaking for Papa, whose 28 excellent sets padded her lead in the setting department over her closest rival; Davao’s En-En Raterta.

The regular starters also had a field day as starting middle-hitter Remy Palma—slowly regaining her agility as she recovers from a bum

left knee—garnered four-teen points (including three blocks) and team scoring leader Bernadeth Pons, who unleashed a barrage of shots en route to eleven markers.

Arellano showed its old form in the third set when they capitalized on some lackluster moments from the Lady Tamaraws to get back into the groove on both ends. Former FEu player Danna Henson—now fully recov-ered from a bout with the flu—scored most of her elev-en points in the third canto as she was joined by six-foot teenager CJ Rosario and former national university (nu) varsity athlete Elaine Sagun in matching FEu

practically spike for spike. However, the Lady Chiefs seemed to run out of fuel in the fourth set and the Moray-ta lasses imposed their will anew to advance to only its fourth semifinal since join-ing the league in 2004.

The last time the Lady Tams advanced to the Final Four was in 2010, then un-der Head Coach nes Pamilar and lost the bronze medal series to Lyceum. That was also Daquis’ final year as a regular player for FEu.

The victory by the Lady Tamaraws also assured that nu—the defending cham-pions—also advance to the semis, which should render the Lady Bulldogs’ upcoming

clash against nCAA semifi-nalist the College of St. Benil-de on Thursday (May 8th) a non-bearing affair.

But there actually is so much at stake for nu in that match-up as a win would as-sure them of the top spot in their group and avoid a semi-finals confrontation with—quite possibly—the universi-ty of Santo Tomas (uST); the squad that stretched them to five sets during the prelimi-nary round.

But Adamson may have a thing or two to say about that claim as they became the last team to get their quarterfinal stint underway and ended up getting the much needed tri-umph over the Lady Agilas.

THE Rancho Palos Verdes, the first development of Sta. Lucia in Davao City,

celebrated this year’s Earth Day by releasing ten wild birds at its 164-hectare golf and residential property located in Mandug-In-dangan.

RPVGCC general manager Albert Caseñas and his staff re-leased four Serpent Eagles, two Falcons, two Brahminy Kite and two Grass Owls one at a time.

Among those who released the birds were HR head Marissa Baduya and Events and Promo-tion Erzza Abuan. Also present were Davao Crocodile Park op-eration manager Phil Amer Me-

dina and animal caretakers Cri-santo Villanueva and Ponciano Pianar, who assisted in releasing the birds.

The young birds were courtesy of the DCP zoo in Maa, which is owned by the Dizon family that also owns the land in Mandug/Indangan which the Sta. Lucia has developed into an all-weather world-class golf course and residential property.

“We also have Philippine deer and crocodiles here at Ran-cho Palos Verdes,” said Caseñas.

The all-weather golf course use to have ostriches and mon-keys.

“But the ostriches and

monkeys were brought back to the zoo. The monkeys were disturbing the golfers by taking their balls at the course,” said Medina.

Aside from releasing the birds, employees and caddies also jointly conducted a street cleaning at Barangay Mandug in the morning. They were able to fill up sacks of plastic bottles and cellophanes taken from the streets. The sacks were later thrown at the garbage pit of RPV for proper disposition.

Later in the afternoon, a kite flying contest was held at the driving range near hole no. 10.

FEU advances, Davao fumbles

RELEASING THE BIRD. Rancho Palos Verdes Golf and Country Club general manager Albert Casenas holds on to one of the 10 birds they released at the golf course in Mandug/Indangan. 

Rancho Palos Verdes releases 10 wild birds during Earth Day 2014

ALL AROUND. Adamson hotshot Sheila Pineda had a great all-around game in the win (Photo: Noel Monzales/Yahoo Philippines)

DAVAO AGILAS. Davao playmaker En-En Raterta had her hands full against Adamson (Photo: Noel Monzales/Yahoo Philippines)

RETURN OF THE QUEEN. Rachel Anne Daquis scored a game-high 21 in the win (Photo: Noel Monzales/Yahoo Philippines)

VOL. 7 ISSUE 39 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 9-10, 2014