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LOS ANGELES — 17-year-old Ce-drick Argueta was honored on Tues-day, Feb. 9 by the Los Angeles Uni-fied School District (LAUSD) Board of Education for earning a perfect score on his Advanced Placement Calculus exam.

Argueta, the son of a Filipina nurse and a Salvadoran maintenance work-er, is one of 12 students in the world — out of the total 302,531 who took the exam — to achieve the perfect mark of 108.

“I’m glad that I’m able to do this, not just for my culture, but for all cultures so anybody can realize that anything is possible,” he said.

Speaking before LAUSD Superintendent Mi-

chelle King and the Board of Education, Argu-eta acknowledged that it was a “team effort” to pass the exam and that he is “one small ex-ample” of the school district’s work.

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L O S A N G E L E S

Volume 26 - No. 12 • 3 Sections - 22 Pages

February 10-12, 2016

MM I D W E E K

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DATELINEUSAFROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA MANILA — A cliffhanger of a race

to lead the country began yester-day with five candidates claiming to have a genuine chance of succeed-ing President Aquino.

Since emerging from dictatorship three decades ago, the Philippines has seen its political scene domi-nated by elite families, celebrities, corruption and violence, which have contributed to near-constant chaos.

Those factors are once again domi-nant themes in this year’s contest for the presidency, as well as the thou-sands of national and local posts up for grabs in the May 9 elections.

The current presidential front-

runner is Sen. Grace Poe, an inex-perienced politician who is riding a wave of popularity among the tens of millions of poor Filipinos, due in part to her adopted father, Fernando Poe Jr.

FPJ became one of the nation’s most loved actors by playing char-acters who championed the poor, and nearly translated that popular-ity into political success by coming in second in the 2004 presidential elections.

Grace Poe, 47, launched her politi-cal career only three years ago when she entered the Senate, but has en-

MILLIONS of Americans tuned in on Sunday, Feb. 7, as the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10 to win Super Bowl 50.

Playing at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the Broncos showed off their superior defense, gain-ing four turnovers — two of which resulted in touch-downs. Meanwhile, the Panthers struggled to ride on the momentum of their nearly undefeated season re-cord.

Many analysts noted that Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton, who was named the 2015 NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP), had an off night, failing to adapt to the Broncos’ rush. He was sacked seven times during the game.

During the second quarter of the game, Broncos’ wide receiver Jordan Norwood — who is a quarter Fili-pino — set a Super Bowl record with a 61-yard punt return.

Norwood received the punt at the Broncos’ 25-yard line and ran it down the right sideline all the way to the Panthers’ 14-yard line. Though Norwood’s run was unable to secure a touchdown, Denver earned a field goal that put them ahead 13-7.

The previous record was a 45-yard return by 49ers wide receiver John Taylor in Super Bowl XXIII against the Cincinnati Bengals.

At 39 years old, Peyton Manning of the Broncos be-came the oldest starting quarterback in Super Bowl history. Manning, whose 18-year career includes in-cludes two Super Bowl titles and 200 career wins, is expected to retire, though he has yet to announce that decision. He is also the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl with two different teams, winning Super

Denver Broncos defeat Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50Fil-Am Jordan Norwood makes history for longest punt return

by AJPRESS

MANILA — Foreign Affairs Sec-retary Albert del Rosario will join President Aquino at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-US sum-mit next week.

US President Barack Obama will host the leaders of the 10-member ASEAN on Feb. 15 and 16 at Sunny-lands in Rancho Mirage, California, Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

The summit aims to build deeper partnerships that the US has forged with ASEAN since 2009 and further advance Washington’s rebalance to

Asia and the Pacific.The US and the ASEAN have

worked toward stability, prosper-ity and peace in Southeast Asia for nearly 40 years.

The event will provide leaders a fo-rum to strengthen cooperation on po-litical security and economic issues under the new US-ASEAN strategic partnership, which was launched in November 2015 in Kuala Lumpur.

Del Rosario has resigned for health reasons effective March 7.

President Aquino accepted his res-ignation, according to Executive Sec-retary Paquito Ochoa Jr.

The DFA is mum on Del Rosario’s replacement. ■

Aquino to attend ASEAN-US summit next week

MANILA — After arriving from the United States on Tuesday, Feb. 9, Sen. Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV went to the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 142 to post bail for the libel case filed against him by dismissed Makati City Mayor Jejomar “Junjun” Binay.

Trillanes, also a vice presidential candidate, personally went to the Makati RTC and posted bail amount-ing to P10,000 after he was a issued warrant of arrest last February 1, ac-cording to a radio report.

The same court dismissed Trillanes’s motions to suspend the arrests and hearings on the libel case against him.

Trillanes posts bail for libel

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by ROSETTE ADELPhilstar.com

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by PIA LEE-BRAGOPhilstar.com

ABOUT 605,000 undocumented immigrants residing in California were granted driver’s li-cense in 2015, the first year that the state has permitted them to do so, according to a news release from the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

In October 2013, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation known as AB 60, which al-lows eligible undocumented immigrants in California to apply for driver’s licenses. The law further prohibits discrimination against undocumented immigrant drivers.

AB 60 allows individuals with these licenses to drive without fear of being fined or having their vehicle impounded.

License holders under the law, however, cannot use the identification to board planes for domestic flights. Furthermore, it does not grant these individuals a pathway to apply for a US passport, a way to work, or legal resi-dency status.

A dozen other states, along with Washing-

Over 600K driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants in CA

PRESIDENT Barack Obama sent Congress his eighth and final budget of his presidency on Tuesday, Feb. 9. The proposal includes a spending record of $4.1 trillion on a number of initiatives, from a new war on cancer to combating global warming to fighting grow-ing threats from Islamic State militants.

“While it is important to take stock of our progress, this Budget is not about looking back at the road we have traveled. It is about looking forward and making sure our econ-omy works for everybody, not just those at the top,” the President states in an emailed fact sheet on the 2017 fiscal year budget. “It is about choosing investments that not only make us stronger today, but also reflect the kind of country we aspire to be--the kind of country we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren.”

The proposed spending plan applies for

Obama sends Congress record $4.1 trillion 2017 �scal budget

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Filipino-Salvadoran math whiz honored by LA school board

by CHRISTINA M. ORIELAJPress

FROM THE FRONT PAGE

joyed huge success by trading on her father’s name while portray-ing herself as a reliable, honest advocate of the poor.

However, opponents have peti-tioned the Supreme Court to dis-qualify Poe, arguing she cannot prove she is a natural-born Fili-pino because she does not know who her biological parents are.

The SC could also disqualify Poe for failing to meet residency rules, because she spent many years living in the US and gained US citizenship before renounc-ing it and returning home.

If Poe is knocked out, with a court ruling expected during the campaign, the nation would be plunged into political turmoil with three contenders who are cur-rently each polling about 20 per-cent support ready to pounce.

A major contender is Vice Pres-ident Jejomar Binay, who heads the main opposition party.

Binay, 73, has spent decades building a vast political machine

but he has had to endure a bar-rage of corruption allegations that have seen him lose his front-runner status.

A Senate committee recently recommended Binay be charged with graft for kickbacks alleg-edly taken during his long stint as mayor of the nation’s financial capital, Makati.

President Aquino, who has overseen growth averaging 6.2 percent since 2010 and won international applause for try-ing to fight corruption, wants to hand over the keys to the presi-dential palace to longtime ally Mar Roxas.

However Roxas, 58, a US-edu-cated investment banker from one of the nation’s richest fami-lies, has consistently trailed Poe and Binay in surveys. Analysts blame a lack of charisma and in-ability to connect with the poor masses.

In contrast, controversial popu-list politician Rodrigo Duterte, 70, is making a spectacular charge

for the presidency by vowing a ruthless crackdown on crime.

Human rights groups have ac-cused Duterte of running vigi-lante “death squads” that killed more than 1,000 suspected crim-inals during his many years as mayor of the major southern city of Davao.

Duterte has acknowledged the existence of the death squads and said in speeches and press conferences in recent months that he had overseen the killing of drug traffickers.

The fifth contender is Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who chose Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as her runningmate.

Santiago reiterated that she will be running for the highest posi-tion for the third time to stop the corruption in the government.

Despite claims she has beaten cancer and her popularity among the younger voters with her strong presence in social media, Santiago has consistently trailed in the surveys. (Philstar.com)

t

Bowl XLI with the Indianapolis Colts.

“You know, I’ll take some time to reflect,” Manning said during a post-game interview. “I have a couple of priorities first. I want to go kiss my wife and my kids, I want to go hug my family. I’m going to drink a lot of Budweiser tonight. I promise you that. I’m going to take care of those things first, and say a little prayer to thank the man upstairs for this great opportunity. I’m just very grateful.”

For six tackles, 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles — leading to defensive and offensive touch-

downs — Broncos outside line-backer Von Miller was named MVP following the game.

Sunday marked the Broncos’ third Super Bowl title in fran-chise history.

”We had our opportunities. There wasn’t nothing special that they did. We dropped balls. We turned the ball over, gave up sacks, threw errant passes. That’s it. They scored more points than we did,” Panthers quarterback Newton said after the game.

Aside from the game itself, the most-anticipated part of the game was the halftime show, featuring Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars. Against a colorful

backdrop, Coldplay delivered a medley of their hits, but guest stars Beyonce, performing her new song “Formation,” and Bru-no Mars, singing and grooving to Uptown Funk,” stole the show.

Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach — who was reporting as a special correspondent for “Inside Edition” — praised Be-yonce on Twitter, saying “From Queen to Queen, @Beyonce you owned the show! –Pia.”

Super Bowl 50 was the third-most-watched television program in the United States with 111.9 million viewers, falling short to beat the viewership records from the last two years. ■

Denver Broncos defeat Carolina Panthers…t

The Makati court ordered the arrest of Trillanes after finding probable cause for the case filed against the senator.

The libel case arose from Trillanes’s expose that the Binay camp bribed two Court of Ap-peals 6th Division justices, name-ly Jose Reyes Jr. and Francisco Acosta for their ruling against the suspension of Binay.

Vice President Jejomar “Jojo”

Binay also filed a libel complaint against the senator in Septem-ber last year for accusing him of “perpetrating a P100 million racket a year in Makati involving ghost senior citizens.”

Trillanes said he will not back down against the libel case filed against him.

“Hindi ko siya aatrasan. Lala-banan ko siya rito at makkita na-tin, ‘di kalaunan kung sino nag-sasabi ng totoo at nagsasabi ng

tama,” Trillanes said in a televised ambush interview at the airport.

The senator again hit the Bi-nays for their alleged corruption.

“Dito niya (Vice President Binay) pinapakita kung paano inaabuso ang kapangyarihan,” Trillanes said.

“Ipapaalam ko sa mga tao na mandarambong ito so ‘pag ini-lagay ninyo sa pwesto ito, wala itong gagawin kundi magnakaw,” he added. ■

Trillanes posts bail for…t

the budget year that begins Oct. 1, just three-and-a-half months before he leaves office, accord-ing to the Associated Press. It addresses issues such as climate change, healthcare, opportuni-ties for small businesses and students, as well as national and economic security.

Obama already faces heavy fire from the GOP-controlled Con-gress, which is not expected to approve the proposal, and has called it “dead on arrival.”

Overall, Obama’s budget would increase taxes by $2.6 trillion in the coming decade-- nearly double the $1.4 trillion in new taxes Obama sought and failed to achieve in last year’s budget.

Congressional Republicans have already said they will ignore the proposal, rather than engage in another round of “fiscal brinks-manship” with the president, said the Washington Post.

“President Obama will leave office having never proposed a budget that balances — ever. This isn’t even a budget so much as it is a progressive manual for growing the federal government at the expense of hardworking Americans,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis).

GOP lawmakers said Obama’s proposal to impose a $10-per-barrel tax on crude oil--in order to bring in an additional $319 bil-lion in revenue--had “no chance of congressional approval.” The administration announced they would use the money to fund billions of dollars in alternative transportation programs as part of the president’s efforts to deal with global warming.

Ryan also pledged that House Republicans would produce a budget that does reach balance in coming weeks.

“In 2016, we will make it our goal to pass all 12 appropria-tion bills through regular order,” Ryan said back in December, laying out his plans for the year ahead. “This hasn’t been done since 1994--but it’s how Con-gress ought to operate so that we can better protect the taxpayer dollars and make our place the true representative body that it is.”

Even with the increased taxes, Obama’s budget projects sharply higher deficits in the near future, totaling $9.8 trillion over the next decade. Last summer, Obama’s baseline forecast a deficit of $8 trillion over the next decade.

Much of the deficit problem stems from the surge in spend-ing on benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare, whose budgets are predicted to soar with the retirement of mil-lions of baby boomers.

The budget sees the economy growing at a 2.6 percent rate this year, although administration of-ficials noted that projection was finalized in November, before re-cent stock market slide. Inflation would remain low, registering a 1.5 percent gain this year.

Obama’s new budget projects a deficit for the current 2016 bud-get year of $616 billion, which is sharply higher than the latest forecast by the Congressional Budget Office (totaling $544 bil-lion).

Republicans have long com-plained that Obama has failed to attack the chief cause of future deficits. Previous Obama bud-gets did propose such things as slowing the automatic infla-tion increase for Social Security. However, the President aban-doned those proposals when it became clear that Republicans were opposed to his suggestions

to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to benefit programs for the working poor.

On Tuesday, White House of-ficials expressed their goal to obtain bipartisan support for a number of Obama’s initiatives, such as the effort to combat her-oin and opioid addiction, fund a “moonshot” initiative to cure cancer, and expand tax credits for the working poor.

Other elements of his proposal include ideas to appeal to Demo-crats: increasing Pell Grants for college students from low-in-come backgrounds; bolster funds for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commod-ity Futures Trading Commission; funding the Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI); and renewing incentives for GOP-governed states to join the expanded Medicaid system, established under his landmark health care law.

Separately, Obama has also proposed $1.8 billion in emer-gency spending to combat the Zika virus, on top of the $1.1 tril-lion catchall spending bill that passed in December.

The budget also pledges to in-crease military spending to fight terrorist threats, and help make Americans safer. It includes in-creased support (around $19 bil-lion) for cybersecurity, upgrading computers across government agencies in the wake of last year’s major federal hack, which compromised the personal infor-mation of 21 million Americans.

“The budget that we are re-leasing today reflects my priori-ties and the priorities I believe will help advance security and prosperity for America for many years to come,” Obama told re-porters at the White House. (Al-lyson Escobar / AJPress)

Obama sends Congress record $4.1 trillion…t

ton D.C., have similar laws for undocumented immigrants.

“If you can approve policies that integrate immigrants, I think it’s a win-win for all people in a big state like California,” said Luis Alejo, a member of the Cali-fornia Assembly and author of the bill, according to Agence-France Presse.

In February, March and April, more than 70,000 licenses were issued per month.

A total of 830,000 individuals applied for licenses under AB 60 between Jan. 2, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2015. (Agnes Constante / AJ-Press)

Over 600K…t

THE top US intelligence offi-cial said on Tuesday, Feb. 9 that ISIS was likely to attempt direct attacks on the US through the coming year, and that the group was infiltrating refugees escap-ing from Iraq and Syria to move across borders.

“[ISIS] will probably attempt to conduct additional attacks in Europe, and attempt to direct

Defense intelligence chief predicts more ISIS attacks on US

by ALLYSON ESCOBARAJPress

attacks on the U.S. homeland in 2016,” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, testified in a security conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

Stewart linked his warning to the extremist group’s growing network of “emerging branch-es” in Mali, Tunisia, Somalia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, ac-cording to Reuters, and added that ISIS is likely stepping up its “pace and lethality.”

Director of National Intelli-gence James Clapper, also pres-ent at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, estimated in his “Worldwide Threat As-sessment of the US Intelligence Community” report that violent extremists were “active in about 40 countries,” and that there are currently “more terrorist safe ha-vens than at any time in history.”

ISIS and its eight branches were the No. 1 terrorist threat

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Currently a senior at Abraham Lincoln High School, Argueta aspires to attend the California Institute of Technology and one day work for NASA’s Jet Propul-sion Laboratory as an engineer.

“I want to be an engineer be-cause I’ve always liked math and science, so going into that field makes sense for me,” he told the Asian Journal.

He credits his math teacher Anthony Yom, a Korean immi-grant, for helping him excel in the subject. In preparing for the exam, Yom designated Argu-eta as a study leader, and would spend after school and weekends making sure other students mas-tered the advanced concepts. Tuesday’s board meeting also recognized Yom and the high school’s principal Jose Torres.

In his remarks, Yom thanked students’ parents for making the commitment to drive their chil-dren to school on weekends so they could study for the exam and community members for opening up their facilities when the school wasn’t open.

“I want everyone to remember that it still takes a village to raise a child,” Yom said.

Yom — whose AP students have all passed the calculus exam in the last three years — noted that he doesn’t have any special strategies when it comes to teaching. Rather, he treats his students as “friends” and gets to know them on a personal level to build trust.

“If you don’t think of [teaching] as work, then you produce a bet-ter result,” he said.

Torres cited Argueta as an ex-ample of “what can happen…if we all believe that every child who comes into a classroom can learn, regardless of their background or where they come from.”

Argueta’s mother Lilian, who migrated to the United States from Batangas, Philippines in 1992, remarked on how studious her son is.

“At school, they have an after-school program to prepare for the test. When he gets home, he studies hard too. He’s always been like that,” she said.

She beamed with pride see-ing her son be recognized and receive a standing ovation by the school district’s board members.

“We’re all happy and proud of him,” she said. “He can be what-ever he wants to be. We’re here to support him.”

Since finding out about his test score, Argueta has received worldwide attention, and even got President Barack Obama to tweet at him: “Cedrick; way to go on your perfect score! How about you come by the next White House Science Fair?”

Getting a tweet “from the most influential and important man in the world” was an honor, Argu-eta said, and he is excited to take

Filipino-Salvadoran math whiz honored by LA…

that trip to the White House. In addition to his incredible

achievement on the AP exam, Argueta also scored perfectly on the math and English sections of the ACT college-entrance exam.

Despite being a math wiz (his nickname at school is “One of Twelve”), Argueta asserts that he’s just a normal teenager who likes sports, video games and hanging out at the mall.

His advice for high school stu-dents? Take advantage of avail-

able resources and balance aca-demics with other hobbies.

“I know everyone tells them to try hard and work hard, but real-ly try to get all the help that they can get. There are a lot of great resources,” Argueta told the Asian Journal. “Also, try not to make everything about academ-ics. Balance your life out. Try to put your time in something that’s fun for you, rather than just put-ting it into academics.” ■

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to the US, and it was using the refugee exodus from violence in Iraq and Syria to hide among innocent civilians and outreach other countries, Clapper warned.

He added that ISIS was “tak-ing advantage of the torrent of migrants to insert operatives into that flow,” and said they were “pretty skilled at phony passports so they can travel ostensibly as legitimate travelers.”

ISIS fighters have reportedly seized Syrian passport facilities with machines that of manufac-ture realistic-looking passports, according to CNN.

The Defense Intelligence Agency also confirmed that ISIS bas succeeded in making and deploying toxic chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria, the first such attack by an extrem-ist group in over two decades, since a chemical warfare attack in Japan in 1995, reported Fox News.

Clapper’s assessment also notes that “approximately five dozen” people linked to ISIS were

arrested in the US last year.The Islamic State has as many

as 25,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, down from a previous es-timate of up to 31,000, an intel-ligence report revealed. Over 36,500 foreign fighters, includ-ing at least 6,600 from Western countries, have also traveled to Syria from more than 100 countries since 2012, the report states.

“Daesh [a derisive Arabic ac-ronym for the Islamic State] is likely to increase the pace and lethality of its transnational at-tacks because it seeks to unleash violent actions and to provoke a harsh reaction from the West, thereby feeding its distorted nar-rative of a Western war against Islam,” said Stewart.

On the counter-ISIS campaign in Iraq and Syria, Stewart added it was “unlikely” that the Iraqi city of Mosul would be liberated in 2016.

While the National Intelligence assessment calls ISIS the “pre-eminent terrorist threat,” it also affirms that “al Qaeda affiliates

are positioned to make gains in 2016.”

Al Qaida, based in Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula, and Al Nusra Front in Syria were named the “most capable al Qaeda branches.”

“These threats are exacerbated by the security challenges of the Middle East, which is now facing one of the most dangerous and unpredictable periods in the last decade,” Stewart said.

“The perceived success of at-tacks by homegrown violent extremists in Europe and North America, such as those in Chat-tanooga and San Bernardino, might motivate others to repli-cate opportunistic attacks with little or no warning, diminish-ing our ability to detect terrorist operational planning and readi-ness,” Clapper noted.

“ISIL involvement in homeland attack activity will probably con-tinue to involve those who draw inspiration from the group’s highly sophisticated media with-out direct guidance from ISIL leadership.” ■

Defense intelligence chief predicts…t

MANILA — OFW Family Club party-list Rep. Roy Señeres yes-terday died of cardiac arrest, three days after he announced his withdrawal from the May 9 presidential race. He was 68.

According to his lawyer Candy Rivas, family members were pres-ent when Señeres passed away at 8am on Tuesday, Feb. 9. She did not give further details.

Last Friday, Rivas and Señeres’ daughter Hannah tried to file his statement of withdrawal with the Law Department of the Commis-sion on Elections, citing his poor health. The Comelec did not ac-cept the statement because the law provides that he should do it personally.

Rivas said she last saw Se-ñeres, a former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, on Saturday.

“He was telling me then that his prayers were answered be-cause he was feeling good. There was no indication that he was not feeling well,” said Rivas.

A known advocate of the rights of overseas Filipino workers, Señeres helped save domestic helper Sarah Balabagan from the death penalty in the UAE after she was sentenced to die for kill-ing her employer after he tried to rape her in 1994.

Balabagan, now based in the US, posted her condolences to the Señeres family on her Face-book account.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista also expressed condo-lences to Señeres’ family.

Bautista said that based on sub-

DATELINE PHILIPPINES

Señeres dies of cardiac arrest

stitution rules in case of death, Señeres could be replaced by someone from his political party Partido ng Manggagawa at Mag-sasaka, until midday of election day, provided that the replace-ment has a similar surname.

He, however, added that Se-ñeres’ camp must formally notify the Comelec about this because the poll body is set to start load-ing the names of candidates into the election management system (EMS) today. Othewise, his name will be included in the official ballots.

EMS generates the information that will be printed on the official ballots.

Señeres’ son Roy Jr. would re-place the late lawmaker as repre-sentative of the OFW Family Club party-list group in the House of Representatives.

Malacañang on Tuesday, Feb.

9 expressed its condolences to the Señeres family.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Her-minio Coloma Jr. said Señeres had pushed for the welfare of workers while serving as chair-man of the National Labor Rela-tions Commission and as ambas-sador to the UAE.

LegacyThough he did not become

president, Señeres left a remark-able legacy for Filipinos working here and abroad.

Señeres, until the time of his death, had been fighting for the rights and welfare of millions of Filipino workers, recruitment in-dustry leader Lito Soriano said.

“His advocacy to put an end to contractualization, which has been a growing problem affect-ing Filipino workers, was the

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THE administration vice presi-dential candidate in the 2016 elections, Leni Robredo, has been endorsed by former Presi-dent Fidel V. Ramos a day after she warned voters against the return of martial law.

Robredo, running under the ruling Liberal Party (LP), got the thumbs-up form the former leader on Monday, Feb. 8 after meeting with him in Makati City.

In a statement, she said Ra-mos shared his campaign ex-perience during the 1992 polls and offered her advice on how to woo voters as she visits differ-ent parts of the country during the 90-day campaign period that starts on February 9.

Ramos, a Defense secretary during the Corazon Aquino ad-ministration and an Armed Forc-es chief of staff during the martial law years, served as Philippine President from 1992 to 1998.

He was also one of the key fig-ures of the 1986 “people power revolution” that kicked out then-President Ferdinand Marcos and his family from Malacañang, with Ramos severing his ties with the Marcoses and joining the people in establishing a democratic gov-ernment under President-elect

Robredo gets FVR’s nodby LLANESCA T. PANTI

ManilaTimes.net

Corazon Aquino.Before meeting with Ramos,

Robredo warned the youth against the return of martial law during the Kaya Natin Youth Am-bassadors National Convention last Sunday.

One of Robredo’s opponents in the vice presidential race is Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the only son of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos.

In a Pulsa Asia survey released on Saturday, she ranked third with 18 percent, behind the younger Marcos (23 percent) and Sen. Francis Escudero (33 percent).

Robredo, however, ranked higher than Sen. Alan Cayetano (14 percent), Sen. Gregorio Ho-nasan (5 percent) and Sen. Anto-nio Trillanes 4th (4 percent).

“Let no one hoodwink you into thinking that martial law was good for the nation. Let no one be able to cover your eyes to the tor-ture, plunder, opportunism and culture of impunity that occurred during those days,” Robredo, whose speech was delivered by her daughter Tricia, pointed out.

The younger Marcos has re-peatedly said that he has nothing to apologize for his late father’s rule, even if there is an existing law–the Marcos compensation law–which provides P10 billion

worth of financial remuneration for victims of martial law atroci-ties such as summary executions, enforced disappearances and deadly torture, among others.

The same law created the Hu-man Rights Victims Claims Board, which has sole jurisdiction in de-termining whether a claimant is a human rights violations victim, unless he or she already enjoys the conclusive presumption ex-tended by the law to plaintiffs in the class suit adjudicated by the US Federal District Court of Ho-nolulu, Hawaii against the estate of the Marcos patriarch.

The presumption is also ex-tended to those acknowledged as human rights violation victims by the Bantayog ng mga Bayani.

The claims board alone also validates amounts to be granted to all claimants relative to the se-verity of the atrocities they have suffered and in accordance with a point system.

“Let no one kill your trust that ethical leadership is possible. Let no one be able to stop you from demanding transparency and ac-countability in government,” Ro-bredo, a lawyer, pointed out.

“Let no one be able to stop you from serving as public officials who maintain a strong moral code. Let no one pervert your idealism,” she said. ■

WARMER, summer-like tem-peratures have permeated Southern California, despite the fact the region was anticipated to be hit with rainy weather from El Niño at this time.

On Sunday, Feb. 7, Fullerton, California, held the record for highest temperature in America for the day at 89 degrees.

On Tuesday, Feb. 9, the Na-tional Weather Service issued red flag warnings for most of the Southland due to a combination of strong Santa Ana winds, high temperatures and low humidity, raising the risk of wildfires.

As of press time, the warning was scheduled to remain in ef-fect until 6 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Wind warnings and adviso-ries were also posted for vari-ous counties, including those in the Central Coast through San Diego.

In the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains, a high wind warning for 58-mile-per-hour gusts was set to be in force un-til 2 p.m., according to the Daily News.

Hot temps & strong Santa Ana winds hit Southern California

by AGNES CONSTANTEAJPress

Downtown Los Angeles hit a record 88 degrees on Monday, Feb. 8, surpassing the old re-cord by 3 degrees and marking 20 degrees above the norm for that date.

Temperatures were also higher than usual for this time of year in Northern California, where San Francisco posted highs in the 70s on a day when 60 is normal.

Recent rainfall did not alle-viate the situation much, said Margaret Stewart of the Los An-geles Fire Department, accord-ing to KPCC.

“The low moisture in the vegetation is not affected by that short amount of rain,” Stewart told KPCC. “A couple of rainstorms is not going to resolve it.”

Temperatures are expected to stay above normal on Wednes-day, Feb. 10, although a cooling trend will begin then, the Daily News reported.

Forecasters say El Niño storms remain likely, but masses of high pressure sitting on top of South-ern California and Nevada have repelled them, according to the Los Angeles Times. ■

INDIVIDUALS who suffer con-cussions are at an increased risk of up to four times for suicide even years after their injury, a new study from Canada sug-gests.

Researchers examined the medical records of 235,110 pa-tients with concussions that weren’t serious enough to re-quire hospitalization through-out a 20-year period in Ontario. Throughout an average follow-up period of nine years, they found that 667 had committed suicide. This is equivalent to 31 suicides per 100,000 each year, over three times higher than the suicide rate in the general popu-lation, according to the results.

The study further found that those who suffer concussions on weekdays are at a three times greater risk for suicide, while weekend incidents result in a four times greater risk.

“We know that a concussion

Study: concussions raise suicide riskby AGNES CONSTANTE

AJPress

can cause lasting changes in the brain that can alter mood, perhaps resulting in [behavior] changes including impulsivity,” Donald Redelmeier, a researcher and physician at Sunnybrook Re-search Institute, said in a press release.

Researchers said they don’t know the reason for the elevated risk of weekend concussions. However, they posited that it could be due to a number of pos-sibilities, among which include that those who are injured on Saturdays and Sundays may suf-fer during recreational activities and may receive care later com-pared to those injured on the job on weekdays.

“It’s possible that we’re see-ing greater suicide risk linked to weekend concussions due to risk-taking associated with rec-reation or misadventure, where-as weekday injuries may be linked to employment hazards. We may also be seeing an effect of self-blame if the injury event was self-initiated,” Redelmeier

said in the release.Study authors further noted

that emergency rooms are less likely to be adequately staffed on weekends, thus resulting in less adequate care and treatment that could have a long-term ef-fect on a concussion patient’s health.

On average, suicides occur about six years after a concus-sion, researchers noted.

Each year, up to 3.8 million concussions occur, according to the US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention.

Previous studies have exam-ined the effect of concussions on athletes, which have revealed that those such as football play-ers who have experienced four concussions were more likely than individuals without the in-jury to demonstrate depressive symptoms, TIME reported.

This particular study focused on adults in the general popula-tion. It was published Monday, Feb. 8, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. ■

DATELINE PHILIPPINES

SENATOR Grace Poe got a re-prieve from the Supreme Court (SC) when it junked a petition seeking to boot her out of the presidential race in the May 2016 elections.

The high tribunal, sitting en banc, on Monday dismissed the petition filed by Vicente Dante P. Adan against the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Adan had questioned the Com-elec’s decision to accept the sen-ator’s certificate of candidacy, as well as the COC of other candi-dates who had renounced their foreign citizenship to become Filipinos once again so they could seek electoral posts in this year’s polls.

But the High Court ruled that that the Comelec did not commit grave abuse of discretion when it accepted the COC of Poe and other candidates who reacquired their Filipino citizenship under Republic Act (RA) 9225, or the Citizenship Retention and Re-Ac-quisition Act of 2003.

In its ruling dated January 26, 2016, signed and promulgated by Felipa Anama, Clerk of Court of the en banc, the SC dismissed the petition for mandamus filed by Adan, saying the petitioner cannot ask the tribunal to compel the Comelec to reject the COC of

High Court junks DQ case vs PoeSC upholds Grace’s presidential candidacy

by JOMAR CANLASManilaTimes.net

Poe and other candidates via a mandamus petition.

“After a judicious review of the records, the court resolves to dismiss the instant petition for failure of petitioner Vicente Dante P. Adan to show that the cancellation of the certificates of candidacy of citizens repatriated under under Republic Act 9225 of the Citizenship Retention and Re-Acquisition Act of 2003, who are running for national elective offices, is a ministerial act of re-spondent Commission on Elec-tions and a proper subject of a petition for mandamus under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court,” it said.

Although Adan mentioned the cases of other naturalized Filipi-nos in his petition, only Poe was included as a private respon-dent.

The SC also ruled that Section 2 of RA 9225 is legal and consti-tutional, noting that it cannot be assailed by the petitioner through a collateral attack.

Section 2 of RA 9225 states that it is the policy of the State “that all Philippine citizens of another country shall be deemed not to have lost their Philippine citizenship under the conditions of this act.”

The tribunal pointed out that if someone wants to question the constitutionality of a certain law, he or she must file a petition di-

rectly assailing that law.If not, that law shall be pre-

sumed to be a valid one.“Moreover, the petition as-

sails the constitutionality of Section 2 of RA 9225 which, under prevailing jurisprudence, constitutes a collateral attack on the said law. It is settled that a collateral attack on a presum-ably valid law is not allowed,” it pointed out.

The case is separate from the disqualification cases filed against Poe that are pending at the high tribunal.

The SC continued to hear oral arguments on Poe’s case on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

The senator was disqualified by the Comelec on the ground that she is not a natural-born Fili-pino citizen.

The High Court, however, is-sued a temporary restraining or-der late in December 2015 stop-ping the poll body from dropping Poe from its official list of presi-dential candidates.

Also, the tribunal is yet to de-cide on another petition ques-tioning the decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) dismiss-ing the disqualification complaint filed against Poe.

Several personalities and groups question the candidacy of the senator, among them Fran-cisco Tatad, Antonio Contreras and Amado Valdez. ■

FOREIGN Secretary Albert del Rosario is resigning from his post, four months short of serv-ing the full six-year term of Presi-dent Aquino.

Based on a report from Ex-ecutive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Presidential Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said: “President Aquino has ac-cepted the resignation of Secre-tary Del Rosario effective March 7, 2016.”

Del Rosario cited health con-cerns for his decision.

“Having served our country for over 10 years, I have respectfully asked the President if I could be allowed to step down earlier than midyear due to health issues,” he said in a text message.

Del Rosario will still accompa-ny the President when the latter attends the special summit be-tween the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) and the United States in California this month.

Del Rosario has been facing health issues in the past few years, particularly back prob-lems that required surgery late last year.

Two sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), who asked not to be identified, said the foreign secretary also has a heart condition, which required him to get a pacemaker.

One of the sources said Del Rosario’s “personal choice” as his replacement was Undersec-retary Laura del Rosario, head of the DFA International Economic Relations office.

The undersecretary served as cochair of the meeting of se-nior ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Forum, which the Philippines hosted last year.

US tripThe 76-year-old Del Rosario’s

back problems have affected his sleeping schedule, one official said.

The richest Cabinet member under Mr. Aquino had wanted to resign by the end of March but his worsening back problems forced him to advance his exit.

A friend of Del Rosario’s, who also refused to be identified by name, said that he was not sur-

Del Rosario quits DFA, cites healthby CHRISTINE AVENDAÑO

AND GIL. C. CABACUNGANInquirer.net

prised the foreign secretary was quitting because he appeared in pain with his stooped back the last time they met.

The President’s trip to the United States next week is likely to be Del Rosario’s final official act as foreign secretary.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said in a text message he re-spected Del Rosario’s decision to quit for health reasons, say-ing he “gave his all to his work despite the excruciating pain in his back.”

Belmonte praised Del Rosa-rio’s initiative to go to dangerous places to secure the safety of Fili-

pino migrants.“His travels to the Middle East

and in Libya to help Filipinos during troubled times despite his pain were hallmarks of his dedi-cation to his responsibility,” he said.

Del Rosario was appointed for-eign secretary, replacing Alberto Romulo, on Feb. 24, 2011.

He led the Philippine delega-tion which appeared before the United Nations arbitral tribunal in The Hague last year for oral arguments on the territorial dis-pute with China.

He also provided leadership u

AFTER the Iowa Caucuses and before the New Hampshire pri-mary, a new national poll reveals the sentiment of the American people on where they want this nation to be stirred moving for-ward through the presidential elections.

On the Democratic front, Frontrunner Hillary Clinton has reportedly planned on shaking her campaign to stop the momentum that has been favoring Ver-mont Senator Bernie Sanders steadily and increas-ingly in the past year. From leading Sanders by 50 percent just a year ago, Clinton’s lead has now shrunk to a virtual tie as revealed by two major national polls.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Clinton lead-ing Sanders 48-45 percent, while a Quinnipiac University poll reveals Clinton leading 44-42 per-cent, both gaps within the margin of error.

After winning Iowa by just 0.3 percent, Clinton is expected to lose in New Hampshire, if polls are any indication. In the final CNN/WMUR tracking poll, CNN reports that it remains Bernie Sanders’ primary to lose, with the Vermont senator hold-ing a 26-point lead over Hillary Clinton, with 61

percent for Sanders versus 35 per-cent for Clinton.

While I monitor the exit polls in New Hampshire as of the press time, CNN has projected Sand-ers as the winner of the primary election in the state and Clinton has reportedly conceded. With potentially record-breaking turn-out, enthusiastic voters are eager

to make their voices heard in this election. Clinton won in New Hampshire when she ran

against Obama in 2008. What should Clinton do to stop Sanders’ momentum?

On the Republican side, the latest Quinnipiac University National poll reveals Donald Trump still leads the GOP presidential pack among Republi-can voters nationwide, with 31 percent. He is fol-lowed by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas with 22 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida with 19 percent. Dr. Ben Carson has 6 percent, with 9 percent un-decided and no other candidate above 3 percent.

Heading to New Hampshire, Donald Trump continues to lead the Republican race on the eve of the vote with 31 percent, according to the final CNN/WMUR tracking poll.

CNN reports that trailing behind Trump, Florida

Sen. Marco Rubio earned 17 percent support -- with-in the margin of sampling error of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 14 percent, but significantly ahead of the fourth and fifth place can-didates in the poll, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (10 per-cent) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (7 percent). Carly Fiorina stands at 5 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 4 percent and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 3 percent.

Exit polls revealed that Democratic voters are looking for the candidate who is honest and who cares about them, more than electability and experience.

Meanwhile, Republican voters want a candidate who is not part of the establishment, as more than half of them say feel betrayed by and are dissatis-fied with how the Republican party has done its job over the years.

Will it be 2008 again for Hillary Clinton? Will

Donald Trump continue to lord over the other GOP candidates moving forward?

ABANGAN!* * *

FEATURESOPINION

GEL SANTOS-RELOS

The Fil-Am Perspective

ACCORDING to the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) the incidence of pover-ty in the Philippines in 2014 was 25.8 percent. This includes individu-als earning less than P1,755 a month or a family of five earning less than P8,778 a month.

This begs the question: If only one-fourth of our population lives in pov-erty, does that mean that three-fourths do not?

Noted economist and former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno had some-thing to say about that in a piece he wrote in Business World in March last year, referring to the poverty threshold set for 2012:

“The real poverty picture may be worse than what the official statistics suggest. In 2012, the poverty thresh-old was P18,935 per year, P1,578 per month, or P52.60 per day. That’s the height of absurdity! I challenge public officials to survive on P52.60 per day for even a week.”

For those residing in the US, it is not easy to appreciate the relative value of what people earn in the Philippines. Conceivably, because of the much low-er cost of living here, what may appear to be meager minimum wage earnings locally can actually buy more goods and services than the minimum wage in the US.

It was in this context that I took note of Diokno’s commentary and decided to probe this issue further. What, in fact,

is the true picture of poverty in our coun-try?

Our home in Para-ñaque happens to be right across the creek from a squatters’ area (pardon me, I mean, an informal settle-ment) called Creek

Drive. Thus, I have easy access to the pulse of non-rich folks.

I hesitate to refer to them as “poor” because of the government’s definition of poverty.

We have known many of the squatters (oops, informal settlers) in Creek Drive for years. Before they called the place by that name, they used our home address for their correspondence. Letters from the province were delivered through us by the post office. My former ad agency driver, Jun, built a shanty and raised a family there. He now makes a living driving his own tricycle.

Jun earns from P800 to P1,000 a day from plying his tricycle route. That’s a monthly income of over P20,000, for himself alone, not counting that of his wife who is a grade school teacher and that of his son, also a tricycle driver. In other words, they are well above the poverty threshold, as defined by the economic managers.

But recently, Jun developed a lung in-fection and couldn’t drive his tricycle. Not covered by Philhealth and with-out any savings to afford medicine, his health deteriorated. Fortunately, being close to the family, we gave him some financial assistance and he managed to

get medical treatment. He is recovering now and could be well on the way to once again being “non-poor” (a term used by government numbers crunch-ers).

But even if Jun and his family manage to stay above the official poverty line, he is painfully aware that they are, in truth, poor and are vulnerable to the ravages of cruel circumstances -- no matter what the economic managers say.

Randy, a relative, earns P17,800 a month as a truck driver for a tire com-pany and his wife Kaye makes P11,500 a month as a department store sales girl. They live rent-free in quarters above our garage (the living area is as large as an apartment and more spa-cious than a condominium studio). Be-cause they don’t have to pay rent and they only have one child, who is in the grades, they are technically almost mid-dle income, based on the classification of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). They certainly are well above the government-defined poverty threshold.

But don’t tell that to the couple. Af-ter the usual deductions from their pay slips and considering the cost of trans-portation, food and utilities, they have very little left on payday and hardly any-thing set aside for emergencies. And when their daughter graduates from high school, it will be a struggle send-ing her to college.

Nene does our laundry once a week and also services several homes in the subdivision. For her labors, she earns over P10,000 a month. Based on the government’s definition of poverty,

Nene is not poor. But when her mother fell ill and needed oxygen, she couldn’t afford the cost of one that was mecha-nized and had to make do with manual pumping. That was not good enough to save her mother’s life.

Whatever the economic managers might say, Nene rues the fact that her mother would still be alive, if they were not, in fact, poor.

Grace, a niece whom my wife and I are sending to nursing school, gave me interesting findings derived by her class from households in a slum area in San Dionisio, a barangay in Parañaque. The survey was part of their course re-quirement.

Out of 54 families interviewed, 24 earn below the official poverty threshold. The rest technically qualify as non-poor because they earn above P11,000 a month. But try telling them that they are not poor and they will think you are being sarcastic.

Frankly, the government statistics are an exercise in denial and delusion. But the people are not being fooled. They know that they are poor. They can see it in the faces of their children whom they cannot afford to send to school. They can feel it in their empty stomachs and in the ailments that they must suffer because they cannot afford health care.

Those living in Mindanao and the ru-ral areas know that they are even more impoverished than the government will acknowledge. And they are keenly aware that all the talk about a booming economy does not include them and is mainly benefiting the wealthy few.

With the presidential elections only a few months away, the candidates have begun to woo the electorate in earnest. And, as suitors always do, they are all promising to make life more blissful for the Filipino masses and the future brighter for their children.

Three of the candidates have enunci-ated their main appeals to the voters in relatively clear terms, with the bottom line being a happier, more contented citizenry and a more progressive Phil-ippines.

Liberal Party standard bearer Mar Roxas is waving the flag of econom-ic gains through clean governance, expressed as “Tuwid na Daan” (or Straight Path). Davao City Mayor Ro-drigo Duterte is vowing to create a pro-gressive Philippines by killing criminals and stamping out corruption in govern-ment. Vice President Jejomar Binay is focusing on poverty and is promising to solve it by creating jobs and income opportunities for everyone, not just the rich.

The two other candidates, Senators Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor-San-tiago, are vaguely promising all or most of the above without really underscor-ing their primary pitch.

Which promise will resonate most effectively with the masses? The resi-dents of Creek Drive and San Dionisio have this to say:

“Lahat ng pangako nila ay maganda. Pero alin ba ang magiging laman ng sikmura?”

Translation: “All the promises are good. But which one can fill our stom-ach?” (gregmacabenta@hotmail.com)

What is the true picture of poverty in our country?

GREG B. MACABENTA

Street Talk

AND so it begins. Filipinos are in the throes of election fever as the campaign period for the upcoming May national elections officially began on Tuesday, Feb. 9. With 18,053 elective positions at stake, qualified voters in the Philippines and abroad have in their hands, the power and responsibility of ensuring candidates for public office are the most qualified for the respective positions.

Campaign season

On a national scale, Filipino vot-ers will declare who to fill the presi-dential, vice presidential, 12 senato-rial and 80 party-list representation seats. The local elections involve voters to elect district representatives (Congress members), provincial governors, vice governors, provincial board members, city and municipal mayors, city and municipal vice mayors, and town council members.

The promotion of people’s interests will be on top of political junkets once again. Issues such as criminality, high prices, unemployment, housing shortage, overpopulation, and the poor justice sys-tem are still expected to headline each candidate’s platform.

Vice President Jejomar Binay launched his presi-dential bid at the Welfareville compound in Manda-luyong City “to be with the Filipino poor.” Leading the opposition party, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), Binay’s camp said that the vice president chose to be with those “have been left behind and continue to struggle with poverty, hunger and un-employment. Because he wanted to share with the masses his vision of a nation where rich and poor share the benefits of economic growth.”

Binay was joined by his running mate Sen. Gre-gorio Honasan II, and UNA’s candidates for sena-

tors including Manny Pacquiao, former Special Action Force (SAF) director Getulio Napeñas, Parañaque councilor and actress Alma Moreno, Princess Jacel Kiram, labor lawyer

Allan Montaño and broadcaster Rey Langit.Sen. Grace Poe, who promises a “gobyernong

may puso (government with a heart),” led her po-litical party to Plaza Miranda in front of the historic Quiapo Church in Manila. Still facing disqualifica-tion over citizenship and residency issues, Poe said that just like an ordinary Filipino, her life is full of drama.

“With all my heart and strength, I will uphold and defend programs of a compassionate gov-ernment, our aspirations for the Filipino family, our hopes for the country and our children. The next three months will be a grueling journey for candidates and voters,” Poe promised her sup-porters.

The ruling Liberal Party and its standard-bearer Mar Roxas and running mate Rep. Leni Robredo kicked off their campaign in Roxas City, Capiz. The tandem vowed to continue Pres. Benigno Aquino III’s “daang matuwid (straight path)” policy. Aqui-no was also present during the campaign rally and appealed to the public on why his bets are deserv-ing to be elected.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte brought his team to Tondo, Manila. The no-nonsense presi-dential aspirant promised his kababayans that he will curb corruption and the proliferation of illegal drugs, and vowed to prioritize education and ag-riculture.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Sen. Bong-bong Marcos went north, to the latter’s hometown in Batac City, Ilocos Norte. Santiago vowed to go after people who were involved in the Priority De-velopment Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel

scam, while Marcos insisted on unity among Fili-pinos.

The next three months will be a grueling journey for both candidates and voters. It will test political aspirants on how they can engage the public to support their causes and grant them their previous votes. On the other hand, it will be the voters’ un-dertaking to identify all social, political, economic and environmental issues that are hounding the country and choose wisely who will best offer the solution for them. (AJPress)

Editorial

New national poll: Trump leads, Clinton and Sanders in a virtual tie

CONCEPCION, Tarlac — The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was the brightest Philippine President, Davao City Mayor Ro-drigo Duterte said during his vis-it to the hometown of President Aquino on Monday, Feb. 8.

“Don’t feel insulted. But [on] hindsight… except [for] the time that he [refused] to step down [from office], the brightest among the past Presidents was Marcos,” said Duterte, a presi-dential candidate.

He and his running mate, Sen.

Duterte says Marcos was the brightest of them all

by GABRIEL CARDINOZAInquirer.net

Alan Peter Cayetano, met a group of farmers in Barangay Talimun-doc, San Miguel in Concepcion town, where the President’s fa-ther, the assassinated Sen. Be-nigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., once served as mayor.

The older Aquino went on to become the youngest Tarlac gov-ernor at 29 in 1961. His murder in 1983 triggered the People Power Revolution in February 1986 that unseated Marcos, who ruled the country for more than 20 years.

Duterte said it was under the Marcos regime when the gov-ernment introduced “Biyayang

Dagat,” a program for fishermen, and “Masagana 99,” which ben-efited rice farmers.

“During those times, there were cooperatives. When a mem-ber borrowed money, it was the obligation of every cooperative member to pay. And there was no collateral,” Duterte said.

He promised to make irriga-tion a free public service if he becomes President. “It’s not only [for] you. Even in Mindanao. That’s why I’m upset with the government. Why should you pay for water when it is yours? I cannot understand that policy,” he told the farmers. ■

in the hosting of the 2015 Apec Leaders’ Meeting last November, the launch of the Asean Econom-ic Community last December and the talks on the Enhanced De-fense Cooperation Agreement.

In corporate worldFrom 2001 to 2006, he was

the Philippine ambassador to the United States. An appointee of then President Gloria Macapa-gal-Arroyo, he resigned to return to the private sector.

Del Rosario was on the board of more than 50 companies be-fore entering public service, ac-cording to his curriculum vitae.

He was chair of the Philippine Stratbase Consultancy and the

Makati Foundation for Educa-tion, and president of Gotuaco, Del Rosario Insurance Brokers and Philippine Telecommunica-tions Investment Corp.

He is also a longtime business ally of tycoon Manuel Pangilinan, as evidenced by his directorships in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), Busi-nessWorld Publishing Corp., First Pacific Co. (Hong Kong), PT Indofood Sukses Makmur (Indo-nesia), Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Philex Mining Corp., Met-ro Pacific Tollways Development Corp. (MPTDC), Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) and ABC Development Corp. (ABC 5)—all Pangilinan-controlled firms.

As a public servant, he has been a recipient of various gov-ernment citations and awards for his civic and official contribu-tions.

Promoting democracyIn 2001, he received the Edsa

II Heroes Award from then Presi-dent Arroyo in recognition of his efforts in promoting Philippine democracy.

In 2004, Del Rosario was con-ferred the Order of Sikatuna, rank of datu, by Arroyo for promoting foreign relations.

Del Rosario studied at Xavier High School in New York and graduated with an economics de-gree from New York University. (With reports from DJ Yap)

Del Rosario quits DFA, cites…t

main reason why he wanted to seek the presidency,” Soriano told The Star.

Soriano said Señeres told him that he would run for president because “now is the right time to push for necessary measures against contractualization.”

He said the late lawmaker is strongly against contractualiza-tion because it affects not only the lives of local workers, but also OFWs.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Bal-doz said the untimely demise of Señeres was a big loss to the De-partment of Labor and Employ-ment (DOLE) and the OFWs.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Al-bert del Rosario presented to Señeres on Feb. 24, 2012 the De-partment of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his exceptional ac-complishments, performance of duties and substantive contribu-tions in advancing the interests of the country and the Filipino people as he performed his work as ambassador.

The Filipino Workers Resource Center in Abu Dhabi also award-ed Señeres for his exemplary leadership in providing all out support to OFWs, particularly “maltreated domestic helpers” and for saving the life of Bala-bagan.

Some presidential candidates and other aspirants for national posts had approached Señeres for his endorsement when news spread that he was withdrawing his candidacy for the presidency, a family member disclosed yes-terday.

Señeres’ group is said to have over five million members world-wide.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said Señeres’ death was “a great loss to our overseas Filipino workers’ community, having spent most of his life champi-oning their concerns as well as those of the labor sector.”

“On behalf of my colleagues at the House of Representatives and of my family, I extend my sym-pathy and prayers to Roy’s loved ones and offer our great respect and gratitude for his unwavering dedication and sincere service to our nation onto the very end,” Belmonte said.

OFW advocate Susan Ople de-scribed Señeres as “a courageous leader” who consistently took up the cudgels for distressed OFWs even when he was a diplomat.

“The OFW community lost a

voice filled with passion, a man who went down fighting regard-less of the odds, for principles that he believed in,” Ople said.

Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said Señeres showed unwavering compassion for OFWs and he and other lawmak-ers should continue his crusade.

Isabela Rep. Rodito Albano III said Señeres not only fought for the rights of OFWs but also for welfare of local workers.

Sen. Grace Poe said Señeres “will be remembered for his cause

to make better working conditions for Filipino workers through their security of tenure.”

Sen. Francis Escudero said he was shocked by the sad news, while Sen. Bongbong Marcos noted that Seneres “championed the rights of OFWs as a diplomat and fought for the causes of the oppressed labor sector.” (With reports from Sheila Crisostomo, Mayen Jaymalin, Jess Diaz, De-lon Porcalla, Christina Mendez, Perseus Echeminada, Pia Lee-Brago and Paolo Romero)

Señeres dies of cardiac…t

COMMUNITY J O U R N A L

MANILA — The Philippines has overtaken Thailand and Vietnam as the investment destination of choice in Asia among Japanese companies diversifying beyond China, a ranking official of the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro) told The Star.

In an interview during his recent visit to the country, Jetro executive vice president Tatsuhiro Shindo said the Philippines has moved up on the Japanese investors’ list of their most favored destinations in Asia.

The country is now officially the “plus one” of Japan as it embarks on a China Plus One Strategy, he said.

“Yes, (the Philippines) is on top of our list. It used to be Thailand and Vietnam. But most recently it has become the Philippines,” Shindo said.

“Japan’s outlook to the Philippines is very posi-tive and very favorable because the Philippines is showing such a steady growth. It is so attrac-tive, especially compared with the other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)-member countries recently,” he added.

With China’s recent economic slowdown, Shindo said Japan is applying the China Plus One Strategy to the Philippines given the country’s sustained economic growth.

The China Plus One Strategy is aimed at spreading Japan’s in-vestments outside the world’s second largest economy.

“Japanese companies used to rush to China, but China’s econo-my was kind of sluggish as of late and Japan investors start to think about diversifying their investments to other countries. A couple

FILIPINOS’ love of food makes restaurants and other food outlets the core of the country’s vibrant mall sector, but breaking into the business can be a challenge, given the strong preference for estab-lished brands, the president of a successful Filipino food chain said.

Rommel Juan, president of Binalot Fiesta Foods Inc., which operates the Filipino-menu chain Binalot, said that established food brands are key drivers of mall operations, and are often preferred by mall

PH mall operates prefer top food brands

by KRISTYN NIKA M. LAZOManilaTimes.net

MANILA – A study conduct-ed among mobile networks in the world showed that those operating in the Philippines are among the worst perform-ing in terms of 4G LTE (fourth generation long-term evolu-tion) network.

Latest data from OpenSignal, which crowd sourced data from millions of smartphone users

by JANVIC MATEOPhilstar.com

THE Philippines has finally agreed to key air transport liberalization agreements with its Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) neighbors, paving the way for in-creased travel and trade within the region, and possibly cheaper flights.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said in a statement on Sunday that President Aquino signed Protocols 5 and 6 of the ASEAN Multilateral Agreement in Air Services, or MAAS, last Feb. 3, 2016.

With the signing, Philippine air carriers will be allowed to fly “unlimited frequen-cies to and beyond the capital cities” of the

ASEAN. This, the department said, will lead to better and more efficient connectivity and translate to more competitive fares and ser-vices.

As the next step, the DOTC and the Civil Aeronautics Board will assist Philippine air carriers in securing additional flight sched-ules with each of the nine other member States of the ASEAN.

The Philippines targets to have new flights operational within the next six months.

“We expect it to benefit our local tourism and service industries, as the agreement al-lows foreign airlines to increase their flights to Manila and other cities,” Transportation secretary Joseph Abaya said in the state-ment.

“Just as it will encourage more visitors to

come to the country, Filipinos will also enjoy a wider array of flight options and ticket pric-es to the rest of the ASEAN,” he added.

The agreement likewise increases mobil-ity of Filipino enterprises looking outside the country for expansion. It also opens doors for individuals, such as students and profession-als, seeking opportunities within ASEAN.

The MAAS is part of the ASEAN’s Road-map for Integration of Air Transportation Services. The roadmap lays down the foun-dation for the envisioned ASEAN Single Avi-ation Market, which is expected foster seam-less connectivity within the region.

Delays in the signing of the said proto-cols were earlier credited to limited slots in Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport,

Air pact allows PH carriers more ASEAN destinationsby MIGUEL R. CAMUS

Inquirer.net

operators to draw in crowd of consumers.

He cited a 2014 report by Euromonitor International, which indicated that various food franchisees constitute the largest presence in malls in the same year, accounting for a value share of 34 percent of all types of stores in a shopping mall.

Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) operating the novelty chain Jollibee had the most presence among the established food brands, having a value share of 34 percent.

The Euromonitor report pointed out JFC’s wide brand

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Japanese list Philippines as choice investment destination after Chinaby RICHMOND S. MERCURIO

Philstar.com

of years ago, Chi-na Plus One means China plus Thailand or China plus Vietnam, but recently, we are pushing more for China Plus One means Philippines,” Shindo said.

Foreign chambers in the Philippines have already dubbed the country as the next big investment hub in Asia as investors exit China due to rising costs, increased regulation, and an economic slowdown.

Shindo headed last week an investment mission from Japan which included small and medium-sized manufacturing enterpris-es seeking investment opportunities in the country.

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PH mobile network among world’s slowest – study

across the world, showed that the Philippines has the seventh slowest LTE network among 68 countries.

The report said the Philip-pines has an average down-load speed of six megabits per second (Mbps) in the last quarter of 2015. It was ahead of Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Paki-stan, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Iran.

The Philippines also ranked

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ASIAN American Professional Association (AAPA) welcomed more than 200 guests, including corporate leaders, community members, professionals, men-tors, mentees and alumni to its recent introductory session of its 2016 Mentoring Program. Fran-cis Cheung, AAPA president, shared an analysis on the Asian American achievement gap and how AAPA can help bridge that gap. Colin Cushnie, AAPA execu-tive champion, and Southern Cal-ifornia Edison’s vice president of energy procurement & manage-ment, shared his unique story and passion for mentoring.

The evening’s highlight was Keynote Speaker Martha Saucedo, executive vice presi-dent of AEG, who spoke about her career journey from AEG’s manager of community affairs to

THE Electric Vehicle Associa-tion of the Philippines (EVAP) has been luring foreign players to invest in the country’s elec-tric vehicles.

The group noted that the coun-try in the process of fulfilling its pledge to reduce greenhouse gases by 70 percent in 2030.

This was an offshoot of the Paris Summit in December last year, in which attended by 195 countries tackled issues and solutions relat-ed to global warming and climate change as causes of intense natu-ral disasters across the globe.

The Philippines pledged to cut by 70 percent its greenhouse gases, which is much higher than the commitments of big emitters like China and India—remaining vague on targets—as well as the United States that pledged only 20 to 30 percent.

As part of the efforts to hit the 70-percent target, EVAP Presi-dent Rommel Juan said the as-sociation is working to attract foreign players to join and possi-bly forge partnerships with local electric vehicle (EV) players to reduce the use of old and regular vehicles that emit the most pollu-tion into the atmosphere.

“We invite the whole world to look at the Philippines as the up and coming EV hub of Asia, as many programs are being imple-mented, many manufacturers are setting up and many EV invest-ments are being set in place,” Juan said in a statement on Mon-day, Feb. 8.

EVAP is implementing EV ini-tiatives that include the ETrike Program in Mandaluyong, Bora-cay, Naga and Cavite, as well as the recent commitment of ETrike maker BEMAC Motors to produce at least 3,000 ETrikes to replace

E-vehicle group entices foreign players to invest

by KRISTYN NIKA M. LAZOManilaTimes.net

Asian American Professional Association kicks o� mentoring program

executive vice president of exter-nal affairs. Martha’s interesting background represents a suc-cess story of diversity, women, and minorities in the workplace, and how one can achieve great things no matter who you are and where you come from. The audience learned valuable les-sons about how to overcome cul-tural barriers to succeed and get promoted, including being over-prepared for meetings, taking performance reviews seriously, going above and beyond, and making sure management knows about every accomplishment.

AAPA is dedicated to inspire, develop and promote the profes-sional community to maximize their career and leadership po-tential. Our vision is to foster a national network of diverse pro-fessionals in management and

executive pipelines who will be-come future leaders and inspire others in their community.

For 15 years, over 60 passion-ate AAPA volunteer Mentors provided the award winning AAPA Mentoring Program to over 850 Mentees in Southern California. The AAPA Mentor-ing Program is a year-long pro-gram providing an opportunity to build trusting mentoring re-lationship and leadership skills throughout the year. Its one-on-one mentoring, led by dedi-cated and qualified executives and managers, has produced highly-motivated and confident career-minded professionals. Proceeds from the Achievement Awards gala goes directly help to support the AAPA mentees in the program.www.aapamentor-ing.com ■

Shindo said the Japanese gov-ernment and companies only have praises for the Philippine Eco-nomic Zone Authority (PEZA).

“We have no concerns (in do-ing business in the Philippines), especially with PEZA. This is such a great institution. It gives us such a strong protection to Japanese investors and good in-

Japanese list Philippines…centives. Since PEZA offers very great incentives for Japanese companies, no need to make in-vestment outside PEZA or any-where else,” he said.

Accumulated investment from Japan to the Philippines to date has reached P460 billion, higher than the roughly P300 billion from the United States, Shindo said. ■

portfolio is present in every mall nationwide, and is almost universally recognized among Filipinos. These brands include Jollibee, Mang Inasal, Chowk-ing, Greenwich, Red Ribbon and Burger King.

Despite their dominance in current mall presence, the report said fast food chains in the Phil-ippines will see slower growth in the next few years, cooling to an annual growth rate of about 3 percent from the 5-percent growth the sector recorded over the last few years.

“The slowdown in growth is indicative of the category’s maturity, which limits its pros-pects for sustained increases in growth rates,” the report said.

“Another factor is the Philip-pines’ growing middle class, many of whom are likely to trade up to affordable full-service res-taurants at the expense of fast

food,” it added.But regardless of the catego-

ry, food sales per outlet in the Philippines are seen to improve in the next few years due to the entry of more foreign brands, which will also lead to stiffer competition among chains and restaurant operators.

This environment, the report said, will result “in the creation of more premium offerings, which is also set to boost sales per outlet in fast food over the forecast period.”

Binalot’s Juan stressed it takes a lot of time, energy and persistence to establish a brand name and earn top-of-mind name recall to fully enter the Philippines’competitive food landscape.

“But once you have it, it can translate into a very good advan-tage for the brand owner when he decides to grow the business and expand it further, specifi-

cally in the country’s top malls,” Juan said.

“In our case, we established Binalot in 1996 as a food deliv-ery business and got our first big break when we eventually got mall space. Since then, Binalot has grown into a franchise op-eration with 34 branches, and 1 branch in Dubai with plans of opening more in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Countries),” he said.

“Malls are always on the lookout for established brands that have name recall, a suc-cessful following and an es-tablished system. This ensures the mall operator of higher suc-cess rates for their store spaces and at the same time, they en-tice more mall visitors not just to window shop but to really shop,” he added.

The country’s largest retail-ers and mall operators — Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), SM Prime Hold-ings Inc., and Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) — are expected to launch more shopping malls in line with their five-year plans from 2015 to 2020. The bulk of the leasing spaces of these fu-ture malls are anticipated to ac-commodate more food and fash-ion brands on the back of rising incomes.

SM Prime and RLC both have plans to build four to five malls yearly towards 2020, while ALI is putting up retail spaces in ev-

which suffers from congestion amid growing air and passen-ger traffic and limited expansion space.

The DOTC has been moving to address this. It announced in September 2015 that it signed a contract with British firm NATS to increase runway utilization at Naia by about 50 percent over a 12-month period.

NATS provides air traf-fic navigation services to the world’s busiest single- and dual-runway airports: London Gatwick handles 53 air traffic movements per hour and over 250,000 flights per year; and London Heathrow handles 90 movements per hour and over 470,000 flights per year.

Naia at the time the contract was signed, handled 40 take-

the current fleet of tricycles that contribute to the air pollution in Metro Manila, alongside diesel-guzzling jeepneys.

“Currently, according to CAI-Asia, the regular diesel-fueled jeepneys comprise only 2 percent of the total vehicular volume, yet they contribute 80 percent of the air pollution in Metro Manila. Thus we need a viable non-polluting al-ternative to these,” Juan said.

“Aside from advocating the replacement of jeepneys with electric jeepneys, we also want to introduce more electric tricycles to replace the old polluting, two-stroke tricycles which number around 1.2 million units through-out the country,” he added.

In line with the drive to in-crease environmental-friendly vehicles to reduce gas emissions, EVAP is holding its annual Phil-ippine Electric Vehicle Summit in April to invite more EV play-ers, local and foreign alike, and entice them to invest more and engage in partnerships to sup-port the country’s EV initiative.

EVAP’s efforts are in line with the Malacañang’s promise to carry out the country’s commit-ments in the Paris Summit.

Earlier, Communications Op-erations Secretary Herminio B.

Coloma Jr. said the country will stick true to its pledges during the summit, noting that proper financing, technology and capac-ity building will be in place to achieve the target.

“The Philippines will fulfill its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) committing to reduce greenhouse-gas emis-sions conditionally by 70 percent by 2030. This is in solidarity with other nations that will provide support in terms of finance, tech-nology and capacity building,” Coloma said.

The Paris deal will also address the concerns of climate-vulnera-ble countries like the Philippines that “bear the heaviest, albeit a most disproportionate share of the burden of climate change in terms of assuring the convey-ance of resources that will fully support adaptation and mitiga-tion efforts,” he said.

Other groups are also support-ing the government’s drive to lower greenhouse gases. These include the Federation of Philip-pine Industries that suggested the use of renewable alternative energy in place of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas as well as to adopt a massive forestation program nationwide. ■

off and landing movements per hour. Passenger congestion, however, remains an issue, which is why the DOTC tapped the Japan International Coop-eration Agency to asses a new site for an international gateway serving Metro Manila.

The DOTC earlier signaled that the most viable location for the new airport would be in Sangley Point, Cavite. ■

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Air pact allows PH carriers more…

PH mall operates prefer top food…

MONETTEADEVA MAGLAYA

ImmigrantLiving: 101 and Beyond

Americaalendar of EventsacrossC

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FOR NON-PROFIT GROUPS

Beat the Valentine’s Day rush and get your tickets to “An Intimate Night with Miguel Vera,” a special Valentine Show featuring Miguel Vera, performing the greatest OPM hits and romantic Filipino classics by Cayabyab, Canseco, and Cruz. The one-night-only concert will take place at the Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel (7675 Crescent Ave, Buena Park, CA 90620) on February 12 at 8:00pm. Special guests include Annie Nepomuceno and Kit Navarro. Please call (714) 814-0412 or (818) 913-329 for tickets and information. Tickets are $40 each.

Eagle Rock High School invites the community to International Baccalaureate Open House Tours, from 8-10am during the spring semester on March 11; and Friday, April 1. Eagle Rock Junior/Senior High School serves students in grades 7-12, and was the first school in the LAUSD to be authorized to offer the prestigious International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (grades 7-10) and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (grades 11-12), a project-based program for concept and content-based learn-ing to promote global mindedness and service to others. The IB Open House is open to all interested students, and will include an introductory presentation in the ERHS library, followed by campus tours, classroom visits, and a short question-and-answer period. To register for the Open Houses, please visit www.erhs.la, and click on the “IB Open House Registration” link. Please email Mylene Keipp mylene.keipp@lausd.net for more informa-tion. We look forward to your visit!

The Philippine College of Commerce High School Laboratory Batch 1966 (now Poly-technic University of the Philippines) will be celebrating its Golden Jubilee from February 20-21 in Manila, Philippines. According to the President of the PCCHS Batch ‘66 Alumni As-sociation, ROLAND ATIENZA, about 55 batchmates from Australia, Canada and USA have confirmed attendance to the Homecoming and 50 from Manila local chapter. Activities lined up for the Golden Jubilee Celebration are as follows:

February 20, 2016 -- 6:00-12:00 pm. Formal Program/Dinner at the Banahaw Ballroom, The Legend Villas, Mandaluyong City, Philippines

February 21, 2016 -- 8:00 am - 9:00 pm - Visit the ANAWIM Home for the Abandoned Elderly, Montalban, Rizal Province (Fel-

lowship/Lunch/Donate basic needs of the elderly) - Tour of Manila (Former PCCHS in Lepanto, Intramuros Tour (old churches and Cathe-

dral, Rizal Park, Fort Santiago) - Dinner/Cultural Show, at Barbara’s, IntramurosFebruary 22, 2016 - BREAKUP GROUP (To Palawan, Laguna and respective hometown

provinces of the guests) For inquiries, please contact the following members of the CORE group: Agnes T.

Sule #09165567000 suleagnes@yahoo.com, Roland Atienza #09062947156 atienza8@ya-hoo.com, Rebecca T. Sayed 09064032624 rebecca.sayed@yahoo.com, Lourdes T. Flores lu-lutflores@yahoo.com, Rebecca Sayed rebecca.sayed@yahoo.com.

There is no better time for Gawad Kalinga (GK) to present the Philippines as the new land of opportunity, with a steadily rising economy--the fastest growing in the world next to China, according to Bloomberg--and alleviating poverty. GK continues to evolve as a movement, starting with philanthropy expanding to sustainability, and creating hybrid, in-novative systems to end poverty. The Summit will provide an opportunity for Filipinos, GK volunteers, partners, and millennials to reconnect with their homeland, contribute to their country and social entrepreneurship, and help to build bridges for a thriving nation. Asian Americans will have a taste of the emerging market of world-class, affordable Philippine-made products, such as Bayani Brew, First Harvest Peanut Spreads, Human Nature beauty products, and Theo Philo chocolates. Support GK’s humanitarian efforts to provide home and livelihood to the poorest of the poor, and learn about GK, GK USA, and GK Enchanted Farm programs. The Summit will take place from March 4-6, 2016, at the Radisson Midtown at USC, Los Angeles (3540 S Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA 90007). To register, please visit gk-usa.org.

As part of the GK USA National Summit, you are cordially invited to a dinner-dance, themed “An Enchanged Evening,” to benefit programs of Gawad Kalinga and GK En-chanted Farm. The Dance will take place on Saturday, March 5, 7:00pm, at the Radisson Midtown at USC, Los Angeles (3540 S Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA 90007). The cost is $100, with formal attire. The all-night program will include dinner, induction of the GK-USA Board of Directors, remarks from the Chairman of the Board, and all-night dancing. For more details on sponsorship packages for Gawad Kalinga builders and feeding programs, as well as GKEF programs and scholarships, please visit gk-usa.org. For tickets, please visit gk-usa.org/dinnerdance.

The Sto. Tomas, Batangas Association of Southern California will celebrate their fiesta on Sunday, March 13, at 1:00pm at Sliver Star Financial office (217 N Azusa St. Azusa, CA). For further details, please call Willie Manacsa (818) 400-7391, Ofie Villanueva (626) 383-4152, Rosie Sancianco (951) 898-7628 or Myrna Jaurigue at (909) 545-9876.

Amazing Pilgrimages for the Jubilee Year of Mercy! All are welcome to join Fr. Joe Joseph of Holy Trinity Church for the spiritual and fun-filled experiences of EASTERN EU-ROPE (April 17- 30): Poland, Czech., Austria, Hungary, Medjugorje; COLONIAL MEXICO/OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE (June 20 - 27): Mexico City, Theotihuacan, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Ocotlan, Xochimilco, Guanajuato, San Miguel De Allende, Guadalajara, San Juan De Los Lagos, Cristo Rey, Zapopan, Tonala; and INDIA (September 15 - 29): Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kerala. For more pilgrimage information and detailed flyers, please contact Berna-dette at bcorp1114@hotmail.com OR call 323-344-1548 & 323-547-6618.

ery township it establishes na-tionwide.

Citing a Savills World Re-search report, Juan said that by 2018, the total pipeline of addi-tional leasing space in the coun-try would amount to 600,000 square meters.

Leveraging on the growth of

malls in the country, Juan said it plans to expand its Binalot stores nationwide this year, mostly through franchising.

“This year, we plan to just open 10 more stores,” the Binalot president said.

Aside from local expansion, Binalot earlier bared its five-year plan to open 20 Binalot branch-

es in the Middle East by 2021. To date, Binalot has 34 outlets nationwide.

The homegrown fast food chain is know for its All Time PinoyVorite Meals all wrapped in banana leaves such as tapa, adobo, sinigang, tocino, bistek, and daing na bangus, among others. ■

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ATTY. LAWRENCE YANG

Debt Relief

Business owner with $1.0M labor lawsuits

CLIENT is 65. He operates a service-oriented business with 3 outlets in strip malls. He has been in business for 8 years. Of the 3 outlets, two are losing money, while the third has some profit that subsidizes the loss of the first two, and provides client with some disposable income that is barely enough to cover his monthly liv-ing expenses. The gross receipts from one outlet, is about $10K a month. 40% goes to rent, 50% goes to labor, so what else is left? The gross receipts from the sec-ond outlet is $4K a month, barely enough to cover rent. The third outlet, which turns a profit keeps client from becoming a homeless person and puts food on the ta-ble. So, it’s not a great business, but allows client to survive. He has no retirement accounts, no 401K or pension, and expecting minimum social security when he turns 66 next year. In other words, client still needs to keep the business going beyond retire-ment, just so he can live a decent life in a rented home. He doesn’t even own a house.

The problem with client’s busi-ness is that a service, is performed by individuals who are not techni-cally speaking, employees. When the service is rendered, client takes a cut from the receipt and gives the rest to the individual who performed the service. Let’s just say that these individuals are more independent contractors than employees. Business own-ers, if they can get away with it, prefer the independent contrac-tor to the employee. Independent contractors are paid on a per cus-tomer basis. If a customer walks in and the service is performed, client just gives the independent contractor his share of the pay-ment for services rendered. If there is no customer, there is no salary to pay. In addition, there is no overtime pay to worry about. For instance, trucking companies prefer to have their drivers buy their own trucks so they can clas-sify them as independent contrac-tors. As independent contractors, drivers do not qualify for employ-ee benefits and do not get paid a salary. Instead, they get a check for each delivery they make. At the end of the month, they prob-

Business owner �les chapter 7 due to $1.0-M labor lawsuits

Seniors seek chapter 7 relief for $48k credit card debt

ably get about $10K. From that amount, they deduct their oper-ating expenses. Whatever is left is their net profit for that month. Are truck drivers employees of the trucking company or are they independent contractors? The same thing can be said for UBER drivers. They own their cars. But UBER gets them the passengers and cuts them a check for each ride. I have clients who make $2K a month gross with UBER doing part time driving. Some make $4K a month gross. Are UBER drivers, employees of UBER or are they independent contractors?

The IRS uses the “control” test. If the business owner has control over most of the time of the indi-vidual, that individual is deemed an employee, not an independent contractor. Going back to client, he has 4 individuals who perform the advertised service for client’s business. He takes a cut from the gross receipt, then, gives the bal-ance to the individual. There are no set “work” times (9 to 5). If a customer comes in at 9.30 pm, the individual performs the ser-vice for the customer and then client and individual split the gross receipt for services ren-dered. Client has operated his business using this method for 8 years. Certainly, he consid-ers the individuals independent contractors, and for 8 years, the individuals appear to agree. But recently, all 4 individuals filed 4 separate state court lawsuits for overtime and back pay with each claiming $250K of unpaid over-time and back pay!! That’s $1.0M of overtime of back pay. Where will client get $1.0M? If he had $1.0M, he would probably just close his business and retire somewhere in the world where no one knows him and where he can live like a king. Maybe in the Caribbean or some remote island country where there’s plenty of sunshine everyday, and live the rest of his life in peace. Last he checked, he only had $1K in his business checking account. He’s just short $999K.

Client opts for Chapter 7 for a fresh start to discharge the $1.0M lawsuits. But can bank-ruptcy wipe out claims for un-paid overtime and back pay? It sure can. They are not exempted from discharge; therefore, they

are dischargeable. Even if plain-tiffs attempt to prove that these claims are not dischargeable under say, “intent to cause dam-age” or “fraud”, client would pre-vail because client’s intent was to enter into a business contract with these individuals and these individuals voluntarily and freely agreed to this business relation-ship between client and them. Client did not put a gun on their heads to force them to perform the service. It’s clearly a business relationship that worked for both client and plaintiffs for 8 years.

Seniors with $48k credit card debt

The next client is 68 with eq-uity in his residence of $150K but owes $48K of credit card debt. He started getting social security of $1,800. His wife gets social se-curity of $1,200. After the house payment of $1,500 and necessary expenses, there is no money left to pay minimum credit card debt of $1,400 monthly. This is a no brainer. Client and wife opt for a fresh start as seniors to discharge $48K of credit card debt, which they carried for 20 years. They only paid $312K of interest in 20 years and they still owe the same $48K. If they did a chapter 7 even 10 years ago, they still would have saved $156K of interest!! Since cli-ent is 68, his equity exemption is $175K. That is more than enough to cover his equity of $150K, so there’s no problem with his house. He keeps everything he owns, but got rid of $48K of credit card debt. It’s a great deal and gives them a fresh start in their retirement, and in another 3 years, their credit score will be over 620. In 5 years, it will be 690. In 7 years, 720. In 10 years, there is no record of their chapter 7 petition filing.

As it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God (Adonai/El Elohim) has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” —1 Corinthians 2:9

THANKFULLY, spring is al-most upon us in a few weeks and the earth beckons. The gardener at heart tunes out all dire predic-tions of doom and gloom,

This year will be an unsettling year. There is a national election in November and there will be so much uncertainty in the air. There exists the specter of a protracted war with radical Muslim terrorists gunning for world domination with their visions of a caliphate, loom-ing menacingly in the horizon.

The realist in us thinks there is reason to be anxious. But the true gardener at heart remains unfazed. Cool, calm and collect-ed, he chooses to live in that rare state of grace called equanimity.

It must come from the zen-like peace one gets when one gar-dens, even if it is simply tending a single potted plant on an office desk. Doing what must be done in the garden is his small way of keeping the delicate balance of nature in his own sphere of in-fluence.

In many ways, gardening is like praying. It keeps fears and anxiet-ies at bay and keeps one centered in the belief that all things in the cosmos work together for good.

I was and still am a reluctant gardener. I was thrust into it by circumstances since I have a thing about not wanting anything dying on my shift. I had to seek books and advice despite the frenetic schedule of a workaday world as I multitasked my way through the day. Nothing I did seemed right at the time. I tended to over water not knowing about the dangers of root rot.

My track record at growing things was dismal, yet I have of-ten wondered what it would be like to watch something grow. I marveled at my mother’s green thumb. She can stick a seemingly

Tweaking the lessons learned from the garden

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.” —Claude Monet, speaking of his garden at Giverny

lifeless stump at a clump of earth and grow a new beautiful plant nearly every time.

I wasn’t one to give up easily though. Tenaciously, doggedly I hung on to an image of me as a confident gardener. My edu-cation on the art and science of growing things had begun. I took baby steps and stumbled count-less times. I still do.

I became quieter within as I began to observe and seek to un-derstand the process of growth, the seasons and the cycle of life. I read voraciously volumes upon volumes about plants and watched public television that featured gardening. Nurseries and gardens have become my fa-vorite haunts where I could ask those who knew better. I boned up on my rusty, halting Spanish quizzing the gardener as best I could. Finally, I slammed on the brakes fearing I had become boringly, compulsively obses-sive. But I found that unless I got down on the ground myself, nothing happened.

I have discovered gardening to be a quiet, solitary pursuit somewhat fit for hermits and lon-ers — unglamorous, unexciting, backbreaking, time consuming, manual, icky, down in the dirt la-bor that was certainly not meant for immediate gratification.

So, why do it at all? I don’t really know. Must be borderline idiocy. Of course, I speak only for myself. For one thing, it teaches you the patience of Job and the virtue of humility. I have failed more than succeeded and am still working on it. But as time passed, I have

been encouraged by modest re-sults. I became synchronized with the seasons and their gentle nu-ances. I took baby steps and was off and running at one point

I could call most plants by name these days and seem to instinctively know what to do when a problem arises. If things don’t work on my own accord, I seek help. I still am a failure with azaleas. Azaleas have been dy-ing on my shift so I am staying away from them. I suspect it has something to do with the amount of light and too much water that has drenched the soil because of an unusually wetter, longer win-ter season. I said goodbye too to a beautiful sago palm that must have suffered root rot. Farewell too to a French lavender bush that gave me so much fragrance. The garden gets a lot of shade being in a Northwest orientation so I am quite alright with the fact that I will never have roses which I would love to have but can’t. Be-lieve me, I tried. So I just admire them in my neighbors’ gardens with a southeast orientation.

My journey to self-discovery has been made easier by under-standing the process of nature, the seasons and the nature of things: of why a seed no matter how good cannot grow in a cer-tain type of soil; or how a young tree cannot grow in the shadow of a mighty oak; or of how much light a plant needs to burst with flowers, of the impeccable timing and the cycle of the seasons that are in God’s perfect divine order like a well rehearsed dance or a

WHAT: Asian American and Pacific Islander students and families are invited to Cali-fornia State University, Los Angeles for “Journey to Success,” a college exposition open to high school and community college students who are interested in Cal State LA. “Journey to Success” will feature workshops on how to prepare and pay for college, information on CSU requirements for admission and application processes, and representatives from Cal State LA and other CSU campuses to answer questions. The outreach event will include free parking, breakfast, special giveaways, college resources and student panels. The college expo is sponsored by the California State University’s (CSU) Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative.

WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016, 9:30 am to 12:30 pm WHERE: The Golden Eagle Ballrooms at Cal State LA. (5151 State University Dr, Los

Angeles, CA) For more information and details, please go to calstate.edu/journeytosuccess or call

the Office of Outreach and Recruitment at Cal State LA, (323) 343-3839.

u

PH mall operates prefer top food…

ATTY. KENNETH URSUA REYES

Barrister’s Corner

MANY people try to file and open their own divorce case without an attorney in an effort to save on legal fees. Often, the self-represented divorce litigant would seek the assistance of the court facilitator’s office in pre-paring the papers to open their own divorce case. However once the divorce case is opened, many self-represented petitioners are not able to finish their divorce case to judgment for various rea-sons. The most common reasons are the following:

Improper Proof of Service of Divorce Petition

Self-represented litigants are not familiar with the code of civil procedures on how initial plead-ings should be served on the op-posing party and the notice re-quirements. As such the Court is unable to exercise jurisdiction on the other party until proper service on that party is done properly.

Failed to prepare and ex-changed required financial dis-closures

California family code requires that both parties exchange com-plete and accurate financial disclosures. Proof that these financial disclosures have been exchanged needs to be filed in Court. The court will not enter judgment on a divorce case un-less the financial disclosure re-quirements are satisfied.

Default Judgment does not conform with the Petition for

dissolutionIf the respondent has been de-

faulted and the petitioner is mov-ing for a default divorce judg-ment, the default judgment must conform to the divorce petition. If the two does not conform to each other, the court will often reject the judgment.

Child Support requested is not guideline

Child support in California is based on guideline. Sometimes the self-represented litigant will try to ignore child support or seek a child support order that is not based on guideline. This will result on the judgment being rejected by the Court.

Pension and Retirement plans were not joined

Some pension and retirement plans (such as local government retirement plans) need to be joined in the divorce action if there is a community property interest in these plans. Self-rep-resented litigants are not aware of these rules and often ignore this requirement.

QDRO was not prepared to divide Pension and Retirement plans

Certain pension and retire-ment plans that are covered by ERISA requires a qualified do-mestic relations order to be di-vided (QDRO). Self-represented litigants often ignore this re-quirement. As a result, the plan is not divided.

Unequal division of commu-nity property in default divorce cases

If there is no settlement agree-

ment, then the court has to di-vide the community property and debt equally between the parties. Often, self-represented parties will try to propose or prove up an unequal division of commu-nity property and debt usually in their favor.

Trying to save on legal fees by handling your own divorce case could turn into a nightmare if your case has issues that needs to be handles a certain way. It is like trying to fix your own plumbing problem if you have no plumbing experience, it could end up costing you more. If you opened up your divorce case but cannot seem to finish it due to some issues, it is best to seek the help of a highly qualified family law attorney.

* * *

* * *

How to complete divorce papers

Beethoven symphony; of why you must resist moving a plant from a place where it is growing so well to another place simply to satisfy a whim or a feng shui decorat-ing principle; when and where to prune, of knowing when to water by sticking a finger in the soil or noting the droop of the leaves; or the merits of clay pots and plas-tic pots; of when to re-pot or top dress; even how to propagate.

The most important lesson perhaps is learning when to leave well enough alone and letting go; of accepting death as part of life. I make it a point to take pic-tures when the flowers are in full bloom, knowing that no matter how pretty they are, their beauty is fleeting. I am left with images

and memories. The irony of it all is that the

more I know, the more I realize how little I know. I guess that is the paradox of all lifelong learn-ing. I now appreciate more clear-ly the delicate balance on which our planet depends for it to sus-tain life — of how vastly critical it is for everyone to do their part to ensure that life continues, spe-cially that of human life.

But do reject the rabid, un-hinged proponents of climate change whose real agenda is a political and economic wind-fall for its billionaire backers. It is sheer hubris and madness to pretend to usurp the laws of na-ture to push an agenda.

One can see life’s longing for itself in the perennial grass that

grows. There is great wisdom in gardening. If you dig in the gar-den long enough, you will find an infinite variety of the parallel laws that govern all life with un-surpassed clarity. Gardening, if you stick with it long enough, is a metaphor for human life itself.

Gardening has taught me a zen-like passive skill of enjoying quiet solitude, of observing what works and what won’t, of doing what needs to get done with very little struggle and ultimately, of accepting and of simply letting go when all I have done is all I can do.

* * *

Tweaking the lessons learned from the…t

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EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT

THE Law Offices of Mary Lyn T. Sanga, a Professional Corporation (MTS Law) will be holding a free naturalization and legal consultation clinic on March 26, 2016. The clinic will be from 9am to 4pm, at Asian Youth Center, 100 Clary Avenue, San Gabriel, CA 91776.

This project is MTS Law’s second an-nual free legal clinic, a public service program that it started in 2015. This year, MTS Law is organizing the clinic in col-laboration with Asian Youth Center. Ac-cording to Atty. Angela Leong of MTS Law, “with the elections coming up this year, we decided to expand the scope of the legal clinic.” As an added service, the clinic will not be limited to free legal con-sultation as in the previous year, but will also help qualified lawful permanent resi-dents (also known as green card holders) apply for citizenship.

Citizenship confers certain rights not available to green card holders, includ-ing the right to vote for US President and federal officials, apply for federal govern-ment jobs, run for an elective federal of-fice, and apply for a US passport. To be eligible to naturalize, the applicant must be at least 18 years old, have been a law-ful permanent resident for at least 5 years

(3 years if married to a US citizen for at least 3 years), and establish good moral character, among other requirements.

The clinic will start with a 30-minute introduction to the basic requirements and procedure to apply for naturaliza-tion. It will then be followed by in-per-son assistance with preparation of N-400 application for naturalization and related documents, including fee waiver applica-tion. There will also be licensed attorneys to provide one-on-one legal consultation on issues relating to immigration, family relations, personal injury, and employ-ment.

Seats are limited, so interested par-ticipants are encouraged to register in advance. To register, call (213) 2323154 (English, Tagalog & Spanish) or (626) 800-6019 (Chinese), register online at [link], or email info@mtsangalaw.com (English, Tagalog & Spanish) or aleong@mtsangalaw.com (Chinese).

MTS Law is a Los Angeles-based law firm with principal office located at 3600 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 920, Los Angeles, CA 90010. MTS Law handles all areas of im-migration, personal injury, and family law. For more information about MTS Law, please visit www.mtsangalaw.com. ■

Free naturalization and legal consultation clinic

March 26, 2016, at Asian Youth Center ATTORNEY Ray Bulaon, known as “the Filipino Community’s Debt Re-lief Expert”, has opened a fourth of-fice location in Los Angeles in order to be more accessible to all clients in the area including the Historic Fili-pinotown. Attorney Bulaon helps clients take control over their over-whelming debt problems so that they can recover quickly and rebuild their finances.

The firm’s Los Angeles office ad-dress is 3727 W. 6th Street, Suite 603, Los Angeles, CA 90020 in Ko-reatown (corner of 6th and Harvard St.) and is easily accessible by pub-lic transportation. Attorney Bula-on’s team members -- who together have more than a decade of expe-rience -- have helped thousands of clients in solving all kinds of debt problems related to IRS taxes, fore-closure, credit cards, student loans, lawsuits, judgments and all types of collection actions. The firm’s legal team includes Tax Attorney & CPA, Jessica Monroe, and Debt Mediation Attorney, Talin Bahadarian. They are able to handle cases in the Cali-fornia State Courts as well as cases in the U.S. District Court in the Cen-

tral District of California. The firm also serves individuals and business owners throughout Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Other office locations include Cerritos, Pasadena and Valencia.

Clients who turn to the firm for help can expect to have their case handled with utmost respect and confidentiality. The firm’s legal team is responsive to client needs and

the staff is trained to understand the difficulties that clients are going through when facing debt challeng-es so they are sensitive to clients’ needs. “When people don’t address their debt problems quickly, the con-sequences can be devastating”, says Attorney Ray Bulaon. “If you are facing any kind of debt problem that threatens your financial security, the worst thing that you can do is to pretend that it doesn’t exist and do nothing.”

Individuals and business owners in the local region who need assis-tance in getting their financial affairs back in order can learn more about how the law firm can provide assis-tance and request a free one-hour consultation with Atty. Bulaon. The number to call is 866-477-7772 and firm’s website is www.bulaonlaw.com. For those who are consider-ing bankruptcy as an option, Atty. Ray Bulaon also wrote a book called: “What You Need To Know Before Filing Bankruptcy” and it can be downloaded free of charge at www.beforefilingbk.com or call the above number to request a FREE COPY.

Debt relief attorney Ray Bulaon opens Los Angeles o�ce

T A J

MDWKMAGAZINEWednesday, FEBRUARY 10, 2016

VALENTINE’S DAY 2016 SPECIAL FEATURE

*Images used on the cover are stock photos only and do not represent actual people who are involved in online dating or relationships that resulted from online dating. Photos cannot be used in any other publication without permission.

The Asian Journal MDWK MAGAZINE - February 10, 2016

2 cover story

by MALOU LIWANAG-BLEDSOE /AJPRESS

Press enter for love: Romance and relationships in the digital age

Connections: Couples who have found love online

Illustration by Kendrick Tan

BEFORE the Internet became a household name, dating and courtship went through normal stages. That is, you meet people in person, go on a date and if it worked out, then you go on to a more committed relationship.

Today, some still manage to do it the conventional way. How-ever, technology has found a way to bring romance and relationships to many — through their computers. Some still have reservations about the possibility of meeting “the one” through this manner. Of course, this is understandable due to the fact that you shouldn’t believe any-thing—or anyone—you read and meet online.

Love online anyone?Since the explosion of the

Internet in the 1990s, it was used immediately for online dating. Even before the Web itself was created, newsgroups, bulletin boards, and forums were somewhat unintentionally used to post personal ads, just like the ones in newspapers. People who were online met with others with similar interests and would go on to meet in person. Chat rooms were offered by Internet service providers and heavily advertised these features. Although techni-cally limited, it spurred a dating culture to many who were just starting to get acquainted with the technology.

However, the first major dating website was

First impressions aren’t always important

IN time for Valentine’s Day, the Asian Journal asked a few couples how they found their significant others online & how they’ve made the relationships last.

Pat Bolognese and Arleah Baingan-BologneseMet through:Filipinofinder.com in 2005Courtship: Chatted on and off for a year, then regularly for another year. Dated for seven years before getting married.Married: April 14, 2014 in Orchard Park, NYSon: Zavi was born on April 3, 2015 in Buffalo, NY

First time meeting:

P: “We first met in 2007. Not much changed the first time we met but the second time was when things really exploded.”

A: “He told me he liked me right away. I thought he was a nice guy.”

Challenges in their relation-ship:

A: “There were many chal-lenges to this kind of set-up (long distance re-lationship). Physi-cal togetherness is very different from just seeing each other on-cam. Second, there is an issue of trust. You really don’t know what your partner is doing. He/she can say one thing and do another. It is difficult to verify a person’s claims when you are so far from each other and your means of communication is mostly online. I missed going out on ‘real’ dates. I get paranoid at time when he wasn’t online on our usual chat schedule.”

P: “Some of the challenges are that things can be misun-derstood...There are also times that outside things like traffic or weather, that affect timing (like if you were supposed to chat at a certain time but the MRT was late or traffic was heavy and one was late. I wouldn’t know anything about a MRT break-

the combination of Kiss.com and Match.com, both registered by the same person in 1994 and 1995 respectively. Other dating sites also existed, but focused on international dating slanting towards the “mail order bride” services. By 1996, Yahoo listed 16

dating websites, including the then popular Friendfinder.com and OneandOnly.com.

The movie “You’ve Got Mail” in 1998 star-ring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan brought Internet dating some cultural boost. Though their characters didn’t really

meet on a dating site and the

movie

wasn’t about online dating, the story showed how the Web can bring people together.

With its popularity and grow-ing public acceptance, Match.com and OneandOnly.com were bought by Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch for an un-disclosed sum. Major Internet players like — Yahoo and AOL —upped their game and started to develop their personal/dating section. Others followed suit dur-ing the dot-com boom in the late 90s and early 2000s.

The dot-com crash in 2001/2002 brought a lot of the frenzy and sites to an end. How-ever, it also changed the online world. For dating sites, the change came more from the launch of social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace in 2002, and Facebook in 2004. The mentality was that the idea of online social networking car-ried a much smaller stigma than

online dating sites, as it was used by those who are not seeking a partner at all.

Still, with the social network-ing wave, online dating has continued to thrive. According to Online Dating Magazine, nearly 20 million people visit at least one online dating site every month, and 120,000 marriages every year take place due to that.

Finally, the public’s percep-tion of online dating is chang-ing and the stigma of finding a partner online has been slowly lifting due to the popularity of social networking. Although the majority of marriages still meet through more traditional means, nearly everyone on the Web has met someone or made a friend online. And in this fast-paced world, people find it a lot harder to make time to meet and date people in person. Why would they, when all one has to do is log on and click?

down and Arleah would not know about a traffic problem here so one may think some-thing is wrong). Also, not being able to actually go on dates is very difficult.”

Advice for those who want to try online dating:

A: “Online dating is not for everyone. I might suggest it to my friends who are open-minded, those who are not afraid to take chances, because it is a very challenging set-up. If you are the clingy or jealous type, like you want your boy-friend/partner to report his/her every move, this may not be for you. There are so many people online who are just out there to have fun and take advan-tage of those who are gullible enough. Also, it is easier to lie when you’re online. It’s impor-

Pat and Arleah Bolognese with their son, Zavi

Continued on Page 3

features 3The Asian Journal MDWK MAGAZINE - February 10, 2016

Tips on �nding love on the Internet

BY MONET LU

I OFTEN hear (and use) the idiomatic phrase, “Wear your heart on your sleeve.” It is often thrown at someone who is bent on concealing his or her true feel-ings. And since we live in a world filled with mysteries and false pretenses, many can relate to the phrase. The phrases’ pervasive-ness is so casual, it found its way to the lyrics of different songs by known artists: from Ringo Starr to Eminem to Carrie Underwood. But did you know the story be-hind this casual expression?

It’s been said that in the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names to see who their Valentine would be. To do this, they would wear the name pinned to their sleeve for one week so that everyone would know their supposed true feel-ings. This etymology made me wonder how uncomplicated it must be like to just go around declaring your search for true love and actually finding it. On second thought, isn’t this the basic principle of internet dating? So it is possible to meet your true love by clicking the right button – rather, profile?

The answer to that ques-tion was served to me by one of my clients who told me her cyber-love story. I did her hair and makeup and it has been customary for me to know a little bit about my clients. Actually, I didn’t even insist or pry. She was very enthusiastic to tell me how she met her then cyber-prince. She told me how they met on

Facebook, fell in love, met per-sonally and got married – now they have a 4-year-old kid. All of that because she happens to be one of those who applied the basic principle of the old days: “to wear your heart on your sleeves.”

“You have to be very specific with what you want. I was so specific in my description. I said I wanted to be with a Chinese guy, earning an average income and so on…”, my client advised as she recalls the fond memo-ries she had when she decided to start her (online) search for “forever.” I was kind of skeptic, imagining how vulnerable I’d be if I were to be as open as she claimed but hey, who am I to argue with a happily married woman with an adorable child?

But just in case there are others out there who are like me – careful and cautious to a fault – It wouldn’t hurt to pay atten-tion to these advice I gathered from my client, as well as from those I know who have worn their hearts on their sleeves and succeeded in finding true love. Here are 3 tips on finding love on the Internet.

1. BE SPECIFICJust like what my client told

me, you have to know what you want and state it in 250 charac-ters or less. Most relationships end because neither parties know what they want out of the relationship or one of them just aren’t interested in knowing. Suf-fice to say that all relationships should start with a basic under-standing of what you really want. It doesn’t have to be as detailed, not to mention overboard, as knowing how many children you want or the layout of your love nest. But it would be a good

Indulge in a love-�lled feast at Café Sierra HiltonSCOURING to make plans

for Valentine’s Day? Bring your Valentine to Café Sierra for a memorable meal with gastro-nomic offerings.

During Valentine’s week-end – from Friday, Feb. 12 to Sunday, Feb. 14 – Café Sierra is pulling all the stops to bring a decadent culinary lovefest for couples to mark the special occasion.

Experience a visual and visceral feast set in an ambience of classic elegance. Through the years, Café Sierra at the Univer-sal City Hilton has achieved the gold standard in buffet dining among many members of the Filipino-American community.

For Valentine’s Day on Sunday, Feb. 14, enjoy a brunch from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm

where jazz music will fill the din-ing rooms and champagne will be abundant. This buffet brunch is $58/person for adults and $28/child (3-10 years old).

At night, romance and dance with your Valentine at the No. 1 rated Vegas-Style Seafood Buffet, where king crab legs, lobsters, oysters and more fresh crustaceans abound. This dinner offering is $64/person for adults and $30/child (3-10 years old).

On this day only, a rose and chocolate gift will be given to your Valentine.

Looking to celebrate before the big day of love? Café Sierra has you covered. On Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13, its famous Prime Rib, Seafood and Lobster Dinner Buffet with Raspberry Champagne is of-

Throughout the weekend, be serenaded and enjoy the musical talents of Babes nʼ Friends Band. Composed of four members (Ed Samson on keyboards; singer/vocalist Babes Gutierrez; Dexter Javier on the bass guitar; and Rolando Quizon on the drums) Babes Nʼ Friends Band plays a variety of music from the 1960s to the 2000s to ballroom to reggae.

PICTURE THE CAFÉ SIERRA BUFFET—so luxurious, it is fit for royalty. Imagine yourself dining on Dunge-ness Opilio & King Crab Legs, Shrimp, Oysters, Mussels on ice, Hand-carved Prime Rib & Leg of Lamb, Chinese Specialties, Made-to-Order Sushi, Tapas and Tacos Action Stations, Festive Holiday Desserts, Chocolate Fountain and so much more.

With its high vaulted ceilings and luxurious appointments that create a classy atmosphere, no one this side of the Pacific Ocean comes close with what Café Sierra at the Hilton has to offer.

fered. For both days, the hours are from 6 pm to 10 pm. At $58/person for adults and $26/child (3-10 years old), this meal is sure to impress your Valentine.

Café Sierra is well-known for its Seafood & Prime Rib Buf-fet. The seafood choices from lobster to crab legs will have any seafood lover coming back for more. With choices like Sushi, Paella, Crepe and Taco stations, there’s a whole array of delight-ful gastronomic choices. Don’t forget the wine. Their extensive wine choices will enhance your dining experience.

Authentic Chinese dishes such as BBQ Duck and Walnut Shrimp are featured on the buf-fet as well. Try their signature offering, Café Sierra’s mouth watering prime rib. Every bite is magical in flavor.

Looking for a lighter alterna-tive or watching your weight? There are many salad options and fresh fruits.

Be sure to save room for dessert. The heavenly choices of sweet delights will make you want one of everything. Sample

the chocolate covered strawber-ries or dip one yourself in the chocolate fountain. You can fill your plate with dessert choices. Fun selections like cotton candy and cupcakes are available for the younger crowd.

Throughout the weekend, be serenaded and enjoy the musical talents of Babes n’ Friends Band. Composed of four members (Ed Samson on keyboards; singer/vocalist Babes Gutierrez; Dexter Javier on the bass guitar; and Rolando Quizon on the drums) Babes N’ Friends Band plays a variety of music from the 1960s to the 2000s to ballroom to reggae. With a wide repertoire of classic and modern songs, those in the audience – whether young or old – will surely have a blast.

Tax and gratuity are not included and all prices, times, dates and menu items are subject to change without notice. You may call 818-509-2030 or log on to www.cafesierrahilton.com for reservations, directions and park-ing information.

*Advertising Supplement

start to know what you want in a relationship – and know who or what type of person you want to have that relationship with.

2. BE HONESTNow this deals with what

kind of person they expect to have a relationship with. Don’t be afraid to tell something interesting about you like your obsession to peanut butter or your love-hate relationship with your neighbor’s dog (on second thought, you can leave that last part out – animal lovers are ador-able). You can be open about yourself without selling yourself out. Just remember, it is better to be yourself than to pretend someone you are not.

3. INCLUDE A WELL-WRITTEN INTRODUCTION AND A GOOD PICTURE

And when I say, “well-writ-ten,” I mean grammatically correct. It doesn’t have to be an autobiography. A twitter-like intro would be enough but make sure it is not filled with typos and wrong tenses. When in doubt: google it. The picture has to be recent. I am not one to judge those who love to use filters and

photo editing apps but please make sure it’ll still look like YOU, the real ‘I-woke-up-like-this’ You.

Tinder, Hinge, Match.com., You name it, these dating apps are everywhere. And while some (like my client) have found their true love via the internet, not everybody end up in the same happy ending. As much as I wish otherwise, some people can be misleading – or worse, psycho killers. So take the necessary precaution. I agree that we should once in a while wear our “hearts” on our sleeves (or post in on the web), but it would save you a ton of heartaches if you proceed with caution. Good luck and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Connections: Couples who...tant to get to know each other, take your time and check their background. It’s a personal decision.

“Finding, keeping and staying happy with ‘the one’ is probably life’s biggest adven-ture. If there’s opportunity to meet and get to know new people, try it and take advan-tage. Give it time. Do your research. Trust your instinct. Ask a lot of questions.”

P: “ You can only date online if you are patient and understanding and accepting

that things don’t always hap-pen as they are planned. It is difficult but not impossible. I would tell someone that wants to date online that they should talk to someone that has when they have issues. I would never tell someone not to. I would tell them to just take it slow and to be careful. There are many men that just want to have fun and many women that just want money. If you take it slow, you will be able to tell if the other person is serious.”

No ExpectationsChris Bledsoe and Malou Liwanag-BledsoeMet through: Yahoo Messenger in November 2007Courtship: No actual courtship. Friends on and off for a year.Married: February 5, 2010 in Redwood City, CA

First impression about each other:

Malou: “It was a little weird. He just popped out of my Ya-hoo Messenger and said hi. He seemed nice so I chatted with him. We were online friends off and on for a year. I wasn’t looking to date anyone. But my mom thought he looked like a ‘gangster’ (laughs).”

Chris: “I don’t know how I found her on-line (or I forgot). She seemed nice, she just moved to the US and she was still adjusting to the culture and missed her friends. I told her to give it some time.”

First time meeting:M: “The first meeting we

planned didn’t push through so we set up another one. We refused to call it a date and saw it as a friendly meeting. Just as he promised, he hugged me. He was very sweet.”

C: “She was cute and small. I thought she was re-ally funny. I picked her up at her apartment. We went to the beach, walked around, talked about the Philippines and Spongebob Squarepants and got sandwiches at a local deli. There were no expecta-tions of romance or putting on your best clothes—it was just a simple but really nice day.

Challenges in their rela-tionship:

C: “After the first date we knew we wanted to see each other again. I lived on the oth-er side of the Bay that time and had crazy work hours. Also, both of us were going through some personal matters that needed to be dealt with.”

M: “We tried to see as much as we can and just as

he said, there were personal matters in our respective lives that we needed to fix. Another thing was I was avoiding the stigma of having met someone online and how other people viewed it (I have a friend who does online dating, and tries to ask money from men). Also, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay in the US after my work visa expires.”

Advice for those who want to try online dating:

C: “Again, don’t expect romance right away—or at all. Start with being friends, because it’ll help you know the person on the other side better. It is not for everyone.”

M: “I’ve never really dated online, and I don’t know if I would consider ours as one. I keep calling our story as ‘no expectations,’ because that’s how it was, really. Also, be cautious and careful. Chances are, you’ll come across some sleazy person who only wants either money or naked pictures of you. Stalkerish it may seem, try to do some research on the person—that’s what Facebook and Google are for.”

Chris and Malou Bledsoe

From Page 2

Continued on Page 5

4The Asian Journal MDWK MAGAZINE - February 10, 2016

entertainment

Joyce Bernal Philstar.com photo

Vic-Pauleen’s rocky path to the altarby ALLAN POLICARPIO

Inquirer.net

THEIR lips met not without a little humor. Before lifting the veil of his bride (Pauleen Luna), the groom (Vic Sotto) turned his gaze to the people inside the church, and pulled a face. He dabbed his wife’s lips with a finger, and tasted it, sending the couple into a fit of giggles. Then, at last, the TV host-co-median leaned forward for the kiss, with the crowd erupting into cheers.

The embrace that followed, however, was different. It was long and touching, with Vic and Pauleen patting each other’s backs and mouthing the words, “I love you,” as the song “When I Fall in Love” came on. Vic, who’s usually reserved, was misty-eyed after, fanning his eyes with his hand to hold back the tears.

It was, the couple related, one of the wedding’s most “emotional moments”—one that had memories flooding back. “When we hugged, the years flashed back, everything we’ve been through,” Pauleen, looking radiant in her Francis Libiran gown, told reporters, more than an hour after they tied the knot at St. James the Great Parish in Muntinlupa

City, last Saturday, Dec. 30.The path to the altar was,

undoubtedly, a rocky one for Vic, 61, and Pauleen, 27. For almost five years, the couple have had to parry incessant negativity from critics de-nouncing their relationship, mostly because of their 34-year age gap—this was empha-sized by the fact that Pauleen was once a contestant in the noontime show “Eat Bulaga’s” “Little Miss Philippines” seg-ment.

Pauleen was called, among many other things, a gold digger—a comment she found

most unfair.“It wasn’t easy,

but … things ended up well,” said Pau-leen, who walked down the aisle with her mother, Chat, and father, Eugenio.

Another hurdle was getting the bless-ing of Vic’s children, Danica and Oyo (with Dina Bonnevie), Paulina (with Angela Luz) and Vico (with Coney Reyes), some of whom had initial misgivings about their dad’s May-December romance. But after several talks with his children, Vic and Pauleen eventually

received their blessing.Vic also turned emotional

during the homily when the officiating priest, Fr. Jeffrey Quintela, thanked the actor-host’s children for “giving their father a chance to prove that he could be a good husband again.”

“We’re happy for the sup-port of Vic’s family. It was an answered prayer,” Pauleen added.

The reception was held at the nearby Filinvest Tent, which was tastefully decorated with white flowers, crystal charms and light fixtures. Dinner for about 250 guests was catered by Bizu.

The festivities featured the couple dancing silly in a fun dance number to the ditties, “Dessert” and “Hotline Bling,” and exchanging wedding vows, among other things.

“Sanay ako sa mga dyowa lang, sa syotitay, syota, mga fling! Masarap pala sabihing, ‘asawa ko,’” Vic jested, elicit-ing laughter. But turning seri-ous, Vic once again thanked his kids for understanding him, saying, “I won’t waste the re-spect and love you give me.”

Pauleen, on the other hand, thanked her husband for “sticking it out and fighting for me.” “You made me see that true love knows no age, no boundaries,” she said.

Meet the new Mr. And Mrs. Vic Sotto ManilaTimes.net photo

The newlywed couple in a loving gaze

5The Asian Journal MDWK MAGAZINE - February 10, 2016

features#RelationshipGoals Thanks to social media, not only are fans able to live vicariously through celebrities’ lives, they also get to

witness their idols as they document their sweet moments. Check out our favorite celebrity couples as they give us glimpses into their relationships. (AJPress)

Vanessa Hudgens & Austin Butler

“Wow. Vanessa singing ‘Worst Things’ had me in tears. Just brilliant #GreaseLive,” - Austin Butler in Jan 2016, after the emotional perfor-mance in Fox’s “Grease Live.”

“I think you just have to put that other person first. If you’re constantly looking for ways that you can make them happy, and they’re constantly looking for ways that they can make you happy, then you kind of lift each other up as much as pos-sible and you can’t go wrong.” - Austin Butler to ET in August 2015

Jasmine Villegas & Ronnie Banks

“You’re my better half.” - Jasmine Villegas on Insta-gram, December 2015

“You’ve made me so d*mn happy and you really do mean a whole lot to me. I’d be lost without you. I know it took me awhile to finally admit my love for you, but I ain’t ever felt this way about anyone before. I’m happy to be spending the rest of my life with you and I can’t wait to meet our baby girl in February.” - Ronnie Banks on Instagram, December 2015

Kobe Paras & Gabrielle Current

“I’m not so good with self-ies, but with her in every pic it’s flawless.” - Kobe Paras in January 2016

“What’s sweeter than a cup of hot cocoa? A kiss from a beautiful girl named Gabrielle Current.”

Bruno Mars& Jessica Caban

“Bruno is about to bring it!! Dancing more than ever. He’s been working so incredibly hard for you all!! Baby you’re a STAR” - Jessica on Twitter before Bruno Mars’ performance on the Super Bowl 50 halftime show.

Jericho Rosales& Kim Jones

“Jackpot.” - Jericho Rosales wrote on his photo with wife Kim Jones when they attended the Star Magic Ball last year.

“Best wife ever.” - Jericho Rosales, in February 2015

Billy Crawford & Coleen Garcia

“Currently en route to #MasaiMara. I’m so blessed to be here with you, @billyjo-ecrawford Thank you for being the perfect travel buddy, as al-ways. Love you! #BillyColeen” - Coleen in December 2015

“Thank you, love, for always making everything ten times more fun and memorable! I,’ al-ways at my happiest when I’m with you @billyjoecrawford.” - Coleen in November 2015

Charice Pempengo& Alyssa Quijano

“The love connection between us is what’s important. It’s not about gender.” - Alyssa to ABS-CBN in June 2014.

“We talk about that a lot. We consider ourselves like a married couple…the way we treat each other, the way we plan our lives together…we know that’s where we’re head-ed.” - Charice in June 2014.

Photo from Austin Butlerʼs Twitter account Photo from Ronnie Bankʼs Instagram account

Gabrielle Current Photo taken by Kobe Paras on his Instagram account

Photo from Jessica Cabanʼs Twitter account

Photo from Coleen Garciaʼs Instagram account

Photo from Jericho Rosalesʼs Instagram account

Photo from Erwan Heussaffʼs Twitter account

Anne Curtis& Erwan Heussaff

“Happy birthday to the most caring and hardest work-ing woman I know. Today you turned 30, a number that freaks out most people, sending them into a frenzy of ‘What have I done with my life?’. In your case you’ve accomplished so much already. You’ve kept a strong head during tough times and have arrived more fulfilled than ever. I can’t wait to conquer more countries with you, eat our way through bizarre cities, wreck ourselves at workouts, binge watch TV series’ and bounce around like idiots at different concerts. Remember you’re just 18 with 12 years of experience under your belt.” -Erwan wrote on Instagram when he greeted Anne on her 30th birthday last year.

Mark & PJ Met through : Tinder in 2014

No BoundariesBy ALLYSON ESCOBAR

AJPRESS

Love is when the person is your other half, no matter the distance

Mark Bautista, 24, and his girlfriend of over a year, Precious Joy aka. “PJ,” 22, met on the social dating app Tinder in 2014. The location-based application, which connects to Facebook, matched Mark and PJ up as a pair while the two were both working in Manila, where Tinder culture is large and thriving. After just a few weeks on Tinder, Mark asked PJ for coffee, and the rest was his-tory. The two made it official after just a few weeks of dating.

“My friends would always make fun of me for using the app [Tinder], but then I showed it to them and soon they were using it too,” Mark, a videographer now based in Southern California, laughed.

When he and PJ began dat-ing, it was apparent from the start that the both of them were going to leave to the US to launch their careers individually. Back home in the Philippines, they hardly saw each other because of PJ’s frequent visits to her family in the northern province of Isabela. They communicated frequently, and when they did see each other, it was as if no time had passed.

Soon, long distance began to run its course. Mark obtained his visa and went to California to con-tinue his career, while PJ took up a temporary position in Colorado, working for hotel management, before she went back home to Manila for work in December 2015. Mark remained in Southern California with his family. Despite nearly a day’s time difference, the two have always made it work, with the help of communication and technology, mutual respect, and maturity.

“We’re really private about our relationship, and it’s one of the factors that’s kept us going. No one’s going to bother you. We’ve gotten a lot stronger as a

couple, especially after this first year.”

The two were also able to see each other last year, sharing their love for travel while visiting the East Coast; Canada, New York, New Jersey, and Washington DC. It was a rare moment for the two to be face to face, in a relation-ship rooted and sustained in online digital communication.

“We connect mostly through Facebook, Viber, and Skype--we Skype almost every single day, at the same time, while I’m going home and she is on her way to work,” Mark shared. “As a long-distance couple, communication is the thing that will really hold us together.”

The couple also sends each other surprise gifts for birthdays and holidays, despite being oceans apart, and they have many future travel plans in mind, includ-ing a grand tour of Asia.

“You need to bond by doing things together, and learn from each other. We love to travel; she loves photography, I love video. She teaches me cooking--for example, when she was in Colorado we were on Skype, and she taught me how to cook while on camera. Those are our dates. And we are very similar--she’s the girl version of myself.”

Mark and PJ hope to settle together in the US someday, but for now, they will continue to pursue their careers and work on growing themselves. They con-tinue to communicate every day.

“Respect and communica-tion. That’s key. You need to be mature enough to know what’s right and wrong, and to be understanding of one another’s situations,” Mark shared. “Now, after a whole year--I’m proud to say we are making it.”

Connections: Couples who...From Page 3

Mark Bautista and Precious Joy aka. “PJ.”

Photo from Alyssa Quijanoʼs Twitter account

Dingdong Dantes& Marian Rivera

“Celebrating 10 months of marriage over a sliced banana and some ice cream.” - Ding-dong in November 2015

“I couldn’t get enough of my girls.” - Dingdong in August 2015

Dingdong, Marian and baby Maria Letizia Photo from Dingdong Dantesʼs Instagram account

entertainment6The Asian Journal MDWK MAGAZINE - February 10, 2016

‘KathNiel’ for real this time?by BOT GLORIOSO

Philstar.com

MANILA—If we are to judge by the way they exchange sticky glances and they hold hands, it’s safe to say that there’s some-thing going on between Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo. It

Pangako SaʼYo, starring Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, will air its final episode on Feb. 12. Philstar.com photo by Ver Paulino

affected by the way she feels and that’s what you call… love. Thank you so much.”

Asked why he has become so expressive of his feelings towards Kathryn compared be-fore, Daniel said that it is best for him to tell the truth rather than lie about his feelings “at baka mag-buckle pa ako ’pag hindi ko sinabi ang totoo.”

Besides, Kathryn added that what is important is to show to people what they are on- and off-cam. “Kung ano po ’yung nakikita n’yo ganun po talaga; that we care so much for each other. We’re like magnets that you cannot easily pull apart.”

Meanwhile, Daniel and Kathryn are happy that “Pan-gako Sa’Yo” continues to enjoy consistently high ratings since it began airing in May. The series, Kathryn shared, ushered them to mature roles. “This is the perfect project because it’s been tried-and-tested. You can see that we really have grown here. And that’s the goal — to show a different side of us.”

Aside from the undeniable impact of KathNiel, there is also the unexpected loveteam of Jodi Sta. Maria and Ian Venera-cion, now popularly known as AmorAdo, that adds excitement to the primetime series.

What’s in store for ‘AlDub’ outside Kalyeserye?by NATHALIE TOMADA/Philstar.com

MANILA—GMA Network is looking forward to do the first primetime teleserye for the AlDub love team of Alden Richards and Maine “Yaya Dub” Mendoza.

“GMA 7 really wants to give Alden and Maine a soap,” said Gigi Santiago-Lara, GMA senior assistant VP for Alternative Pro-ductions, in an interview early this week. “But di pa maka-commit si-la Mr. Tuviera. The priority for now is ‘Eat, Bulaga.’”

Tony Tuviera is the big boss of APT Entertainment, manager of Maine’s career and a subsidiary of Tape, Inc., the producer of Eat Bulaga. Alden, on the other hand, is solely being managed by GMA Artist Center.

There’s no telling how long will the Kalyeserye run or if a soap

must be a real romance be-tween the young stars.

Surprisingly, Daniel has also become so expressive of his thoughts about Kathryn which was something he seemingly dreaded to do in the past. Are they beginning to open up on

whatever real romantic goings-on between them?

During the presscon for “Pangako Sa‘Yo” finale week held Thursday, Feb. 4, Daniel openly shared varied thoughts about the actress that played on his mind while on his way to the presscon venue.

“I’ve been thinking about Kathryn and the times that we’re together,” he began. “Grabe na din pala yung pinagsamahan namin and I am proud of whatever she’s been achieving lately. We’re happy for each other’s successes. I thank God for being so kind to me and I really cannot ask for anything more. Iniisip ko kung may kulang pa sa akin pero wala na talaga akong mahihiling pa.”

Kathryn knows, Daniel added, that he will take care of her as long as they’re together.

It can be recalled that Daniel and Kathryn were first paired in 2012 via the ABS-CBN series “Princess and I.” It was followed by several projects that appealed greatly to the au-dience which led to the birth of their loveteam KathNiel. Since then, the reel pairing stirred the public’s curiosity if it will blos-som into a real romance.

For Kathryn, Daniel is the type who is serious in ev-erything he does. “Si DJ (as she fondly refers to Daniel), sobrang lalim n’ya mag-isip and he has matured a lot that’s why he was able to help me grow as a person — from the simplest things like dealing with other people to handling my problems in such a way na di ako masyado mai-stress. I’m thankful to Daniel for teaching me all of that.

“In return, I promised him that we will understand each other no matter what. Ilang years na yung loveteam namin? Four years na and with that, it’s not impossible to get tired of each other or magkasawaan. But we always try to understand each other by accepting who he really is at ganun din s’ya sa akin kaya nag-grow kami together.”

They openly care for each other yet Daniel and Kathryn are still mum on the real score between them. But Daniel has a ready answer.

“Whenever I see Kath on the set feeling blue, I instantly get affected; naba-bad trip na ako but when she’s smiling and obviously happy, I can work un-til the following day. I am really

Continued on Page 7Maine Mendoza and Alden Richards Philstar.com photo

can be done simultaneously with the noontime show segment. Maine already had a litmus test of sorts in teleserye acting when she guest-starred in Tape, Inc. and APT Entertainment’s daytime series Princess in the Palace.

Should the GMA teleser-ye push through soon or sooner than expected, expect a light-romantic drama, and word has it that it will be a Filipino remake of a widely-popularKoreanovela.

Lara said, “Something like the concept, something that fits them, but we still can’t do it or we can’t confirm it because Eat, Bulaga is still the priority.”

Their first starring film togeth-er is also in the pipeline. “There’s also a movie but we’re just waiting

7featuresThe Asian Journal MDWK MAGAZINE - February 10, 2016

Search for Top Model of the World PH 2016 is on

THE search is on for the next Top Model of the World (TMW) Philippines.

Top Model of the World is the largest and most prestigious international model and pageant competition for vibrant young women. It com-bines fashion, modeling and pageantry as its main components.

This 2016, the search is open to qualified can-didates from Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, the Philippines and the United States.

The event is expected to draw attention and participation from Filipino communities across the globe, particularly from Southern California, Northern California, the US East Coast and US Midwest, the aforementioned countries, Italy and New Zealand.

In the US, pageant and fashion veterans Trini Foliente and Cora Soriano of Pageantry Global, Inc. are behind the screening of potential candi-dates.

Foliente, who has been a pageant promoter since the 1980s, said she has witnessed pageants help boost the self-confidence of young women. It’s also a phenomenon Soriano has seen, which is why she said she supports and is fond of pag-eantry.

“The transformation of the personality is what we need for them to succeed because if you are very confident ... you can go anywhere,” Soriano said.

As a young girl, Soriano shared she was often told she was beautiful. Frequently hearing that helped her build self-confidence, and it’s some-thing she makes an effort to tell young girls, regardless of their physical appearance.

“The compliments help. And that is related to the pageantry because if [they] feel like [they’re] beautiful ... it will help them tremendously in their lives,” Soriano said.

Some former pageant candidates Foliente has helped throughout her years in the industry have

gone on to secure careers as actresses in Hol-lywood, as well as various positions in the medi-cal field. She credits successes like these to the women’s involvement in pageantry, which she said boosts their self-esteem.

Coinciding with the search for the next Top Model of the World (TMW) Philippines is the launching of the 2016 Top Model of the World (TMW) Philippines in the greater Melbourne area to be lead by its partner and cooperator, “Face Australia Promotion & Management.” Face Aus-tralia is a leading pageant operator in Australasia and the Oceania.

The much-awaited national pageant will be a pioneering launch, as most pageant and model searches in the Philippines are done in Metro Manila. It will be the ‘first’ of such a renowned national event to be entirely launched outside the Philippine.

The grand coronation of the Top Model of the World (TMW) Philippines will be held on July 9 in Australia.

The winner of the competition will represent the Philippines in the forthcoming Top Model of the World 2016 pageant.

Requirements for young women to join the TMW pageant is as follows:

- Minimum height 5’7”- Must have Filipino lineage- Must be between the ages of 18 and 25- Must be bubbly with a pleasing personality- Must be single, have never been married and

have no childrenFor more information, please contact:USA: Pageantry Global, Inc. Trini Foliente(818)455-2132 Cora Soriano (213)999-1993 tmwusacanada@gmail.comAustralia: faceaustralia@gmail.comCanada: ipenevents@gmail.comPhilippines: tmwasia@gmail.com

MOONLIGHTING

by MYLAH DE LEON

The day a man retires

WORK is a mysterious thing. Many of us claim to dislike it at times, but it takes a grip on us that it captures our emotions and loyalties we never knew existed in us.

It was a retirement party for a man who had spent forty years with the same company and his colleagues from his office were in attendance. There were pre-pared speeches, toasts and gifts, just like hundreds of retirement parties being held around the country that night.

Some guests came a little early, while others came a little late. The women kissed, press-ing their cheeks, kissing the air, while the men backslapped each other and then settled, with either short of long lapses of disconnection.

Then, they would mill around the retiree, go back to their seats but like a magnet, each one would go back to the man, repeat a tale and offer him what-ever. More than just breaking

bread with him that evening, it seemed like each person had to something say to him. Looking faintly bewildered, the guest of honor looked like he could read his colleagues’ faces. Whatever he was looking for, he found it in their demeanor and every burst of laughter.

It is said that a man’s work—if he is good at it—is just as important to him as his family. It requires a delicate balance, giving equal attention between the two, not having the luxury to overlap.

With his job separate from his family, the men and women he had worked with in that same company for 40 years were just names. Now that he is 65 years old, the rules had to apply—he must retire.

The speeches began, filled with references and in jokes that made the man laughing and nodding his head in recognition as every speaker took turns mak-ing the people in the room roar with glee. The speeches were specific, not general. It was mostly of little matters that had happened over the course of the years, and each remembrance was like a small gift to the re-

tiree, sitting and listening. As a quiet observer, I

thought about how the man was going to feel the next morning, knowing that for the first time in his adult life, he wouldn’t be driving to the building where the rest of people there would be reporting for work. The separation pains have to be just as strong as losing of a family member. However, in the world of the universal work force, a man is supposed to accept retirement.

None of us really can change the world, but we can touch the people around us. That is the real purpose of a retirement party like this one—to tell a man that those memories will remain, even though the work rules say that he has to go away.

The plaque and office gift was presented, and 40 years of work found its end—then he went back home to ponder about what his life would be in retirement.

And the rest of us went back to our own homes, our lives, to wait for our time to retire.

***E-mail Mylah at moonlightingmdl@aol.

com

for material, we have to discuss it. But there’s a plan. Lahat ng ginagawa namin (in Artist Center for Alden) naka-connect sa APT,” said Lara.

A follow-up release to Alden’s Wish I May album under GMA Records, which turned double platinum last December, is tentatively set in May. “It was sup-posed to be this first quarter, this February, but obviously it can’t be done, but we’ll do the second album this year, around May.”

Lara also confirmed that there’s an album offer for Maine from GMA Records. “I know they’re working on it but no formal signing yet.”

2015 was marked with inter-national exposure, with the likes

What’s in store for AlDub outside...of BBC and Reader’s Digest fea-turing the phenomenal tandem. For 2016, according to Lara, “we’re working out something — it’s not an interview — but yes, something international.”

Sought for a reaction on comments addressed to Alden’s management to ease up his workload amidst reports of Alden getting sick due to his relentless schedule, Lara said, “I think nasasabi nila yan because seven days a week siya nakiki-ta (on TV) from ‘Eat, Bulaga’ to ‘Sunday Pinasaya.’ Gusto mo bang bawasan natin siya sa ‘Eat, Bulaga,’ siempre sasabihin ng AlDub Nation na parang huwag kasi yun yung time nila ni Maine.”

Alden has also said in a

previous interview that it was his decision to commit to “a lot of schedules because I’m a worka-holic” and that he enjoys being busy. “Yes, he’s very hardwork-ing,” Lara said.

2015 proved to be such an eventful year as well for AlDub in terms of brand endorsements. From print, billboards to TV, the love team was all over. As of Dec. 15, 2015, Alden has four solo endorsements and 10 more as part of AlDub. In the Kantar 2015 media report furnished to The STAR, it was noted that from the 733 AlDub commercials aired in September 2015, the number leapt to 1,359 TVCs in November last year. More endorsement deals are expected to come this year.

From Page 6

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