edge davao 6 issue 119
DESCRIPTION
Edge Davao 6 Issue 119, August 29, 2013TRANSCRIPT
Pulong sues Australian
EDGE Serving a seamless society
DAVAO
Davao City gov’t. has P18.85-M ‘extra’ fund
INSIDE:
2
6BIR sees higher than P60-B sin tax revenues for 2013
16DC athletes win 2 golds
FFROZEN,10
FPULONG,10
By GREGORIO G. DELIGERO
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013 P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.net
PULONG’S RAPS. Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte (right) signs an affidavit of complaint for the direct assault case he filed against Michael Hatcher after a traffic altercation incident, in front of his lawyer Alexis Lumbatan (left) and city prosecutor Gaye Cañete Magdagasang at the Ninoy Aquino Hall of Justice in Ecoland yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.
BULLY OR VICTIM? Australian Michael Hatcher demon-strates to members of media how Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte pointed fingers at him and uttered harsh words while waiting for an inquest proceedings yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.
THERE’S a big fat ‘pork’ that went into the coffers of Davao City. Not to worry though, the pork is far from being consumed.
As of June 30, 2013, a total of P74.52 million coming from Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) were released to the local coffers of Davao City but the city government barely touched the funds identified by senators and congressmen.
AN Australian treasure hunter may have found the wrong guy to throw his rage and the wrong road to demonstrate his driving skills.
At least, that’s the version of the story from Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte and a police officer who both filed direct assault and frustrated murder charges against the Australian national after a morning road rage incident.
The treasure hunter identified as Michael Hatcher, 73, was escorted by police at the office of Prosecutor Gaye Cañete Magdagasang, for the inquest proceedings. He was booked earlier at the Talomo Police Station after the traffic altercation
around 10:35 am along McArthur Highway, south of Davao City for alleged reckless driving and for direct assault.
By EJ DOMINIC FERNANDEZ and By EMILORD P. CASTROMAYOR
FROZEN PORKP74.52-M PDAF barely utilized
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 20132 EDGEDAVAO
THE BIG NEWS
F3 PROBLEMS, 10
FMYLENE, 10
FCOLOMA, 10
LAUDED. Sec. Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Oper-ations Office (PCOO) lauds the recent # Million People March saying that although the number of participants was not impressive, what counts is
its concept during yesterday’s press briefing at the Royal Mandaya Hotel in Davao City. Lean Daval Jr.
ENTERTAINMENT. Kagan Dance Collective provides entertainment through its energetic dance number the guests and delegates of the 4th Organization of Socialized Housing Developers of the Philippines (OSHDP)-
Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) National Convention at the Marco Polo Davao in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.
PRESIDENTIAL Com-munications Opera-tions Office (PCOO)
Secretary Herminio “Son-ny” Coloma commended organizers of Monday’s Million People March for creating an avenue for a healthy and vibrant de-mocracy.
Speaking in a forum yesterday at the Royal Mandaya Hotel in Davao City, Coloma said that al-though the local event done at Rizal Park was joined by only over a thou-sand people, it was not the number, but the concept of the march that counted.
“The main concept is that there is an evolving process, where people are
slowly gaining maturity, and are becoming more vigilant by practicing their civic spirit,” he said, add-ing, “this is why the Pres-ident’s office is pushing to provide information and enhance the knowledge of the people about the budget process in govern-ment.”
“Our vision is to ensure that our people are ade-quately informed so that they can make informed decisions that will enable them to improve their commodities and contrib-ute to nation building,” he said.
“We have been track-ing the sentiments of the
THE Organization of Socialized Housing Developers of the
Philippines (OSHDP) held its Fourth National Conven-tion on August 28-29 at The Marco Polo Davao where they discussed issues on developing, improving, and financing of the housing sector in the country.
OSHDP President Chris-topher Ryan Tan, in his Program Thrust and Advo-cacies overview, presented four major frameworks for the convention.
The frameworks in-clude improving the regu-latory and institutional en-vironment for the housing development and construc-tion sector; improving reg-ulations and institutions for the housing finance sector; using well-targeted subsidy
incentives to improve the efficient supply of hous-ing supply; and providing well-targeted subsidies to households.
Tan pointed out the three major housing prob-lems in the country which are; (a) proliferation of in-formal settler families in urban areas – which, at lat-est count, reached 600,000 nationwide and 104,000 in rhe National Capital Re-gion (NCR) alone; (b) faster increase in housing needs compared to actual housing units production; and (c) widening affordability gap of minimum housing stan-dards, among others.
Tan said, OSHDP sup-ports the creation of a Department of Housing and Urban Development
DAVAO CITY Rep. Myl-ene Garcia-Albano (2nd dist) yesterday
explained why P9,450,000 of her Priority Develop-ment Assistance Fund (PDAF) went to the prov-ince of Isabela as stated in the 2012 report of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Saying that news re-ports that came were only half of the story, Mylene said “I did not give funds to Isabela. I exchanged the same amount.”
The 2nd district repre-sentative said that it was the result of an exchange or “swap” of her P9,450,000 budget for “soft” projects in her district with that of exactly the same amount (P9,450,000) for “hard”
projects in the PDAF of Isa-bela’s former Rep. Rodolfo Albano who happened to be her father-in-law, being married to Rodolfo “Rodi-to” Albano III.
“Hard” allocations are for projects like infra-structures, roads, bridg-es, drainage systems, and others which are usually implemented by the De-partment of Public Works and Highways (DPWD), while “soft” allocations are for trainings, disaster preparedness (not includ-ing procurement of tools, equipment and machiner-ies), computers, health care assistance, educational assistance, social services, livelihood and similar proj-ects that are implemented
By ANTONIO M. AJERO
By EJ DOMINIC FERNANDEZ
By GREGORIO G. DELIGERO
Coloma commends conceptbehind Million People March
Mylene clarifies P9.45MPDAF expense for Isabela
3 problems in housingbared in nat’l confab
WHO says the Davao City government is
short of funds?A closer look at Sup-
plemental Budget No. 2 deliberated on by the city council Tuesday afternoon showed that the city government has P235,121,207 available to fund more projects, as certified by the Lo-cal Finance Committee (LFC).
The total proposed supplemental appropri-ations, however, amount
only to P216,266,410, leaving and “extra” fund P18,854,797.
The bulk amount of P156 million or 66.71 percent of the total available money is from the general fund proper, particularly from busi-ness taxes and rever-sion of funds previously allotted for personnel services savings, lump sum appropriations and maintenance and oper-ating expenses.
Second biggest source of funds is the
annual development fund, contributing P74 million or 31.71 percent of the available money, mostly coming from re-version of funds allotted for various infrastruc-ture and non-infrastruc-ture projects which were unimplemented.
The city govern-ment-owned econom-ic enterprises shares a measly P3.68 million or 1.5 percent of the total available funds, mostly coming from personnel services savings.
In the proposed sup-plemental budget, the bulk of P190.92 million or 88.28 percent is al-lotted for the peace and order and Lingap health care program of the City Mayor’s Office (CMO).
The far second big-gest allocation is the P12.41 million, consti-tuting 5.7 percent of the total appropriations, allotted for garbage col-lection by the City En-vironment and Natural Resources Office (Cen-ro).
Davao City gov’t. has P18.85-M ‘extra’ fund
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013
IN a bid to resolve the General Santos City’s flooding problems, a
city council member here has proposed for the con-duct of extensive studies on the area’s drainage systems by experts from the Mindanao State Uni-versity (MSU) campus here.
City Councilor Rosa-lita Nuñez, chair of the city council’s committee on city land use, urban planning and develop-ment, said Tuesday the state-run university has a pool of environment and urban planning experts that could help the city government effective-ly address the perennial flooding in some parts of the area during the rainy season.
She said the university could specifically assist the city in drawing up sustainable management strategies on the problem by way of extensive stud-ies, researches, data gath-ering and analysis.
“A lasting and fast solu-tion to the city’s flooding problem indispensably requires the aid of such knowledgeable entity. Its recommendations for a sustainable drainage sys-tem and other proactive schemes shall be incorpo-rated in the existing flood management strategy of the city,” Nuñez said.
To expedite the move, Nuñez filed a proposed resolution during the
council’s regular session requesting MSU Gen-eral Santos to look into the perennial flooding in various parts of the city during the rainy season and recommend possible solutions to the problem.
The measure was re-ferred to the city council’s committee on city land use, urban planning and development for further studies and consultations.
Nuñez, who is a for-mer city mayor, said an earlier assessment showed that the advent of increased urbanization and inadequacy of drain-age facilities in the city, aside from climate change and high rainfall volume, caused the city’s flooding problems.
“It has interfered with the economic use of lands in the farming sector, de-stroyed structures like bridges within floodways and affected traffic flows in lowly-elevated road-ways of the city,” she not-ed.
The official said the problem, if not effective-ly addressed, could cause more significant damages to properties, further en-danger the lives of local residents and eventually hamper the city’s eco-nomic activities.
“The effect of the floods within the city’s ju-risdiction may seem triv-ial as tasked government agencies just perform the usual repertoire of doing
social works but in reali-ty, however, it actually in-flicts financial losses con-sidering the thousands and millions of pesos spent by the city govern-ment virtually every year in aiding the flood vic-tims,” she added.
Last month, around 290 families were affect-ed by severe floods that swept portions of Purok Kindat and Purok Bula-ong Extension in Baran-gay Labangal and Purok Silway Fatima in Baran-gay Dadiangas West.
The floods mainly af-fected communities near the banks of the Silway River, which flows to Sa-rangani Bay and serves as the main outlet of several river-tributaries from the upland areas in nearby South Cotabato province.
City Mayor Ronnel Ri-vera earlier said the local government had initiated negotiations with urban planners for a study and development of a com-prehensive drainage sys-tem for the city.
The mayor said the
study will cover baran-gays and communities traversed by various wa-terways that have expe-rienced severe flooding during the rainy season.
The Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) in Region 12 earlier iden-tified barangays Baluan, Buayan, Bula, Calumpang, Siguel, Lagao and Sinawal as high-risk to flooding.
The seven villag-es were among the 340 communities in Region 12 that were found to be highly vulnerable and will
likely become “uninhabit-able” during floods.
MGB said most of these areas are part of a flood plain and are vul-nerable to heavy flood-ing after just two to three hours of rains fur to the lack of substantial storm drainage.
Other areas in the city that are considered as flood-prone are baran-gays City Heights, Apo-pong, Labangal, Dadian-gas North and Dadiangas West. [Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews]
3GENERAL SANTOS CITY
STO.TOMAS, DAVAO DEL NORTE
SOUTH COTABATO
EDGEDAVAO
SUBURBIA
BSP TAGUM CITY. Tagum City Mayor Allan Rellon, who sits as the Council Chairman of the Tagum City Council of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, presides over roundtable conference in preparation for the 7th Coun-cil-Wide Rover Vigil and Investiture Ceremonies, which will be held on
September 7, 2013 at DepEd Function Hall in Energy Park, Apokon, Tagum City. The said ceremony will be participated by Barangay SK Chairperson, LGU department heads and personnel, heads of school, student councils, students and youth leaders. Photo by Leo Timogan of CIO Tagum
LGU to tap experts to solve flooding
THE Department of Agriculture here in Sto. Tomas town is
pushing for the promo-tion and implementation of organic agriculture through organic farming believed to promote a so-cially acceptable, ecologi-cally sound and econom-ically viable and techni-cally feasible production of food that chemical-free and safe to consume.
Elmer Degorio, head
municipal agriculturist of the Department of Agri-culture, said Wednesday that the town’s agricul-ture agency has allocated a budget of P789, 200 for the implementation of the said program aimed to help local farmers en-sure food security and produced foods that not detrimental to the envi-ronment and health of the people.
The amount, Degorio
said, “will greatly boost organic farming in the town which promotes environment-friendly food production practices which the country needs to invest in to help cut its carbon footprint and help address the challenge of climate change.”
As of August 2013, there are already eight (8) villages have been im-plementing the program. These are in San Vicente,
Esperanza, Tulalian, Ti-bal-og, New Visayas, Talo-mo, Pantaron and New Katipunan villages.
The program was ad-ministered by 300 farm-ers which were benefi-ciaries and graduates of Palay Check System— a farmer’s field school pro-gram that trains local farmers to complete a 16 weeks of comprehen-sive trainings on farming. [Mart Dumali Sambalud]
DA allocates P780k for organic farming
Annex provincial hospital eyed as medical centerSOUTH Cotaba-
to’s bid to convert its provincial hospi-
tal annex in Surallah town into a regional medical center has started to gain some momentum before the Senate and House of Representatives.
South Cotabato Gov. Dai-sy Avance-Fuentes said sec-ond district Rep. Ferdinand Hernandez is now working on the passage of a House resolution seeking the adop-tion and development by the Department of Health (DOH) of the Upper Valley
Community Hospital in Ba-rangay Dajay in Surallah into a regional-level facility.
She said the proposed resolution specifically seeks the conversion of the hospi-tal into a DOH-operated re-gional medical center.
“The proposal has al-ready gained the support of a number of congress-men but we need to get their actual signatures first and that might take some time,” the governor said.
At the Senate, Fuent-es said Senate President Franklin Drilon already
gave his commitment to “champion” the province’s conversion bid for the provincial hospital annex.
She said Drilon pledged to allot some funds for the construction of additional facilities and the acquisition of more equipment for the hospital.
To facilitate these moves, she said the provincial gov-ernment is now working on the creation of a techni-cal working group that will spearhead the hospital’s de-velopment initiatives.
The construction of
the hospital, which is clas-sified as an annex of the provincial hospital in Koro-nadal City, is currently on-going and is due for comple-tion by the last quarter of the year.
The facility, which will serve as the main inter-lo-cal health zone hospital or health care hub for the prov-ince’s upper valley area, is projected to help decongest the main South Cotabato Provincial Hospital in Koro-nadal City by 25 percent. [Allen V. Estabillo / Min-daNews]
DEPARTMENT of Social Work and D e v e l o p m e n t
Director Priscilla N. Ra-zon led the launch of the Synergizing Efforts for Disaster Risk Reduction program in the Provinc-es of Compostela Val-ley and Davao Oriental Tuesday at The Pinnacle Hotel and Suites.
Also present at the launch was World Food Programme Represen-tative and Country Di-rector Praveen Agrawal who provided the pro-gram brief.
Catholic Relief Ser-vices (CRS), Plan Inter-national (Plan), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) initiated the program with funding from the United States Agency for International Develop-ment’s Office of U.S. For-eign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA).
The three agencies agreed to work closely together and build upon each organization’s DRR
(disaster risk reduc-tion) programs to make a bigger impact on vul-nerable communities.
The three will share information and assess-ments and mapping of program areas and in-terventions to ensure no overlap in their re-spective projects. The agencies will also con-duct joint monitoring and evaluation activi-ties and share technical expertise and resources as part of the coopera-tion.
Under this synergy of initiatives, CRS will implement its project in three municipalities (Compostela, Monkayo, New Bataan) and 15 ba-rangays in Compostela Valley. Plan will imple-ment in Baganga, Bos-ton, Cateel and in 12 schools in Davao Orien-tal. WFP will implement in the two provinces focusing on the PLGUs, Monkayo, New Bataan, Baganga and Cateel. [UN/DSWD]
Synergy Initiatives launched
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013
IN a bid to resolve the General Santos City’s flooding problems, a
city council member here has proposed for the con-duct of extensive studies on the area’s drainage systems by experts from the Mindanao State Uni-versity (MSU) campus here.
City Councilor Rosa-lita Nuñez, chair of the city council’s committee on city land use, urban planning and develop-ment, said Tuesday the state-run university has a pool of environment and urban planning experts that could help the city government effective-ly address the perennial flooding in some parts of the area during the rainy season.
She said the university could specifically assist the city in drawing up sustainable management strategies on the problem by way of extensive stud-ies, researches, data gath-ering and analysis.
“A lasting and fast solu-tion to the city’s flooding problem indispensably requires the aid of such knowledgeable entity. Its recommendations for a sustainable drainage sys-tem and other proactive schemes shall be incorpo-rated in the existing flood management strategy of the city,” Nuñez said.
To expedite the move, Nuñez filed a proposed resolution during the
council’s regular session requesting MSU Gen-eral Santos to look into the perennial flooding in various parts of the city during the rainy season and recommend possible solutions to the problem.
The measure was re-ferred to the city council’s committee on city land use, urban planning and development for further studies and consultations.
Nuñez, who is a for-mer city mayor, said an earlier assessment showed that the advent of increased urbanization and inadequacy of drain-age facilities in the city, aside from climate change and high rainfall volume, caused the city’s flooding problems.
“It has interfered with the economic use of lands in the farming sector, de-stroyed structures like bridges within floodways and affected traffic flows in lowly-elevated road-ways of the city,” she not-ed.
The official said the problem, if not effective-ly addressed, could cause more significant damages to properties, further en-danger the lives of local residents and eventually hamper the city’s eco-nomic activities.
“The effect of the floods within the city’s ju-risdiction may seem triv-ial as tasked government agencies just perform the usual repertoire of doing
social works but in reali-ty, however, it actually in-flicts financial losses con-sidering the thousands and millions of pesos spent by the city govern-ment virtually every year in aiding the flood vic-tims,” she added.
Last month, around 290 families were affect-ed by severe floods that swept portions of Purok Kindat and Purok Bula-ong Extension in Baran-gay Labangal and Purok Silway Fatima in Baran-gay Dadiangas West.
The floods mainly af-fected communities near the banks of the Silway River, which flows to Sa-rangani Bay and serves as the main outlet of several river-tributaries from the upland areas in nearby South Cotabato province.
City Mayor Ronnel Ri-vera earlier said the local government had initiated negotiations with urban planners for a study and development of a com-prehensive drainage sys-tem for the city.
The mayor said the
study will cover baran-gays and communities traversed by various wa-terways that have expe-rienced severe flooding during the rainy season.
The Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau (MGB) in Region 12 earlier iden-tified barangays Baluan, Buayan, Bula, Calumpang, Siguel, Lagao and Sinawal as high-risk to flooding.
The seven villag-es were among the 340 communities in Region 12 that were found to be highly vulnerable and will
likely become “uninhabit-able” during floods.
MGB said most of these areas are part of a flood plain and are vul-nerable to heavy flood-ing after just two to three hours of rains fur to the lack of substantial storm drainage.
Other areas in the city that are considered as flood-prone are baran-gays City Heights, Apo-pong, Labangal, Dadian-gas North and Dadiangas West. [Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews]
3GENERAL SANTOS CITY
STO.TOMAS, DAVAO DEL NORTE
SOUTH COTABATO
EDGEDAVAO
SUBURBIA
BSP TAGUM CITY. Tagum City Mayor Allan Rellon, who sits as the Council Chairman of the Tagum City Council of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, presides over roundtable conference in preparation for the 7th Coun-cil-Wide Rover Vigil and Investiture Ceremonies, which will be held on
September 7, 2013 at DepEd Function Hall in Energy Park, Apokon, Tagum City. The said ceremony will be participated by Barangay SK Chairperson, LGU department heads and personnel, heads of school, student councils, students and youth leaders. Photo by Leo Timogan of CIO Tagum
LGU to tap experts to solve flooding
THE Department of Agriculture here in Sto. Tomas town is
pushing for the promo-tion and implementation of organic agriculture through organic farming believed to promote a so-cially acceptable, ecologi-cally sound and econom-ically viable and techni-cally feasible production of food that chemical-free and safe to consume.
Elmer Degorio, head
municipal agriculturist of the Department of Agri-culture, said Wednesday that the town’s agricul-ture agency has allocated a budget of P789, 200 for the implementation of the said program aimed to help local farmers en-sure food security and produced foods that not detrimental to the envi-ronment and health of the people.
The amount, Degorio
said, “will greatly boost organic farming in the town which promotes environment-friendly food production practices which the country needs to invest in to help cut its carbon footprint and help address the challenge of climate change.”
As of August 2013, there are already eight (8) villages have been im-plementing the program. These are in San Vicente,
Esperanza, Tulalian, Ti-bal-og, New Visayas, Talo-mo, Pantaron and New Katipunan villages.
The program was ad-ministered by 300 farm-ers which were benefi-ciaries and graduates of Palay Check System— a farmer’s field school pro-gram that trains local farmers to complete a 16 weeks of comprehen-sive trainings on farming. [Mart Dumali Sambalud]
DA allocates P780k for organic farming
Annex provincial hospital eyed as medical centerSOUTH Cotaba-
to’s bid to convert its provincial hospi-
tal annex in Surallah town into a regional medical center has started to gain some momentum before the Senate and House of Representatives.
South Cotabato Gov. Dai-sy Avance-Fuentes said sec-ond district Rep. Ferdinand Hernandez is now working on the passage of a House resolution seeking the adop-tion and development by the Department of Health (DOH) of the Upper Valley
Community Hospital in Ba-rangay Dajay in Surallah into a regional-level facility.
She said the proposed resolution specifically seeks the conversion of the hospi-tal into a DOH-operated re-gional medical center.
“The proposal has al-ready gained the support of a number of congress-men but we need to get their actual signatures first and that might take some time,” the governor said.
At the Senate, Fuent-es said Senate President Franklin Drilon already
gave his commitment to “champion” the province’s conversion bid for the provincial hospital annex.
She said Drilon pledged to allot some funds for the construction of additional facilities and the acquisition of more equipment for the hospital.
To facilitate these moves, she said the provincial gov-ernment is now working on the creation of a techni-cal working group that will spearhead the hospital’s de-velopment initiatives.
The construction of
the hospital, which is clas-sified as an annex of the provincial hospital in Koro-nadal City, is currently on-going and is due for comple-tion by the last quarter of the year.
The facility, which will serve as the main inter-lo-cal health zone hospital or health care hub for the prov-ince’s upper valley area, is projected to help decongest the main South Cotabato Provincial Hospital in Koro-nadal City by 25 percent. [Allen V. Estabillo / Min-daNews]
DEPARTMENT of Social Work and D e v e l o p m e n t
Director Priscilla N. Ra-zon led the launch of the Synergizing Efforts for Disaster Risk Reduction program in the Provinc-es of Compostela Val-ley and Davao Oriental Tuesday at The Pinnacle Hotel and Suites.
Also present at the launch was World Food Programme Represen-tative and Country Di-rector Praveen Agrawal who provided the pro-gram brief.
Catholic Relief Ser-vices (CRS), Plan Inter-national (Plan), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) initiated the program with funding from the United States Agency for International Develop-ment’s Office of U.S. For-eign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA).
The three agencies agreed to work closely together and build upon each organization’s DRR
(disaster risk reduc-tion) programs to make a bigger impact on vul-nerable communities.
The three will share information and assess-ments and mapping of program areas and in-terventions to ensure no overlap in their re-spective projects. The agencies will also con-duct joint monitoring and evaluation activi-ties and share technical expertise and resources as part of the coopera-tion.
Under this synergy of initiatives, CRS will implement its project in three municipalities (Compostela, Monkayo, New Bataan) and 15 ba-rangays in Compostela Valley. Plan will imple-ment in Baganga, Bos-ton, Cateel and in 12 schools in Davao Orien-tal. WFP will implement in the two provinces focusing on the PLGUs, Monkayo, New Bataan, Baganga and Cateel. [UN/DSWD]
Synergy Initiatives launched
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 20134 EDGEDAVAO
NATION
ON STANDBY RESCUE. Firetruck offer free ride to commuters stranded in Bacoor City proper to Kalinisan st. in Zapote Market.[right]Bacoor PNP Police personnel reserve command prepare to be dispatched in the city of Bacoor upon the instructions of the city government to help in the clean up drive,Wednesday morning, Aug. 28,2013.[PNA Photo by Marvie A.Lloren]
MANILA
SENATE Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano is deter-
mined to push for the passage of Senate Con-current Resolution No. 4 which seeks to abolish the pork barrel system.
“I will not let anyone derail the passage of Senate Concurrent Reso-lution No. 4. The Million People March shows that it is not enough to say ‘We are listening to the people’. We need to act now,” he said.
The Senator recently filed Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4 amidst calls for a thorough in-quiry into the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scandal, seeking an end
to the Priority Develop-ment Assistance Fund (PDAF) and pushing to reveal, investigate, and prosecute those involved in the pork barrel scam (R.I.P. Pork).
Cayetano also called on fellow lawmakers to open their books to state auditors for great-er transparency and ac-countability in the 16th Congress.
“The clamor for transparency is great. Let us be transparent. Those tagged in the is-sue should be willing to submit themselves to questioning during an investigation in the spirit of transparency, account-ability and reform,” he
said.“(Sa investigation,
lahat ng lead kailangan mong sundan. So if it leads to the door of a sen-ator or a congressman, whether pamilya niya o staff niya o kamag-anak niya o siya mismo ang ipatawag ng NBI, huwag silang matatakot at ang senador naman hindi niya dapat isipin na in-sulto ito kung hindi part of the investigation lang,” Cayetano pointed out.
It was in line with his call for lawmakers to submit themselves to investigations on the PDAF scam that Cayetano slammed the decision of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee not to allow
the questioning of sena-tors tagged in the scandal in its hearings which will begin on Thursday.
The Majority Leader stressed that the first step the Senate should take in order to protect its integrity as an insti-tution representing the people is for all Senators to allow themselves to be questioned and inves-tigated during the Blue Ribbon hearings most especially those whose names have been linked to the Napoles scam.
Asked about sena-tors’ parliamentary im-munity, Cayetano said : “Under the rules, we have the option to ap-pear or not to appear
before the investigat-ing panel (and be ques-tioned). But under the same rules, we also have the option to waive this rule.”
The Senator said that moves to shield mem-bers of the Senate from the hearing will be un-fair to the Filipino peo-ple clamoring for a thor-ough and transparent investigation.
Cayetano has already opened his books to the public and allowed state auditors to scrutinize his use of the Priority Devel-opment Assistance Fund (PDAF) in the past years especially those not cov-ered by the recently re-leased Commission on
Audit (COA) report. He likewise urged his col-leagues from both hous-es of Congress to do the same.
The Majority leader further suggested that Senators be willing to sign a waiver declaring that they will disclose to the public all their trans-actions involving public funds during the ongo-ing investigations.
“The best way to re-solve the issue is for ev-eryone to come clean. No excuses. No exemptions. I am urging all lawmak-ers to open their finan-cial records to the public in the spirit of transpar-ency, accountability, and reform,” he maintained.
Cayetano bent on ensuring passage of Senate resolution abolishing ‘pork’
PRES. Benigno Aqui-no III has remind-ed Army Brig. Gen.
Alexander Balutan to re-main neutral and refrain from issuing statements that could create “nega-tive consequences.”
Aquino said he had seen Balutan’s post on Facebook where he ex-pressed his discontent on the P10 billion ‘pork bar-
rel’ fund scam. Balutan said the mon-
ey could have been spent in social services.
Lack of social ser-vices, he said, was one of the causes of poverty in Mindanao where a lot of soldiers have died fight-ing rebellion.
“Agree ako dun... kasama niya akong nadi-dismaya at kasama niya
ako na naghahanap ng katarungan at hustisya dito. Pero ‘di ka maaaring magsalita ng ganoon da-hil maaaring maraming gumamit sa mga sinabi mo para mag-create ng negative consequences sa lipunan. Sana mapaa-lala kay General Balutan ‘yun,” Aquino said.
Being a current serv-ing military officer, Balu-
tan should stay neutral, Aquino said.
“Wala naman ako na-kikitang mali sa sinabi ni General Balutan. Pero meron tayong patakaran na dapat ang ating mili-tar at kapulisan ay kail-angan all the time neutral para ‘di tayo magkaroon ng sitwasyon na pwede magkagulo,” he said. [PNA]
Aquino to Gen. Balutan: Stay neutral FORMER Philip-pine National Police (PNP)
chief Avelino Razon Jr surrendered at the Sandiganbayan Wednesday after-noon, August 28, af-ter the graft court ordered his arrest earlier.
The surrender is conected to a case of alleged anomalous transactions during his time as PNP head.
Besides Razon, 32 others were ordered arrested for graft and malversation charges.
The warrants were based on a criminal case filed by the Office of the Ombudsman on July 11 over the anom-
alous repair and maintenance of sev-eral light armored vehicles (LAVs) in 2007.
Razon’s co-ac-cused are former and incumbent PNP officials and several private individuals, including two for-mer Philippine Na-tional Police comp-trollers: Geary Bar-ias and Eliseo de la Paz.
They face mul-tiple indictments: graft and malversa-tion. Graft is a bail-able case, but the Ombudsman recom-mended no bail for the malversation charges faced by the principal accused. [Rappler.com]
THE Bureau of Immi-gration (BI) revealed on Tuesday that the
three yachts reportedly be-ing used or owned by Janet Lim Napoles went missing from the Manila Yacht Club (MYC).
In a press briefing, BI Officer-in-Charge Siegfried
Mison said the informa-tion was relayed to him by a “confidential source” last week after the issuance of the warrant of arrest against the Napoles sib-lings.
“I was informed that Mrs. Napoles has 3 yachts, parked at the Manila Yacht
Club but according to the source wala na mga yacht niya dun,” he said.
However, the BI official did not identify the names of the luxury sea vessel and he is not certain if Napoles owned the missing yachts.
“We confirmed sabi ng source meron daw 3 dun
dati ginagamit niya, hindi lang ako sure kung sa pan-galan niya or ginamit niya, na wala na dun sa yacht club,” he added.
Despite this, Mison is confident that Napoles and her brother, Reynald Luy Lim, are still in the country. [PNA]
Yachts allegedly owned by Janet Napoles missing
Ex-PNP chief Razon surrenders
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013 5EDGEDAVAO
COMMUNITY SENSE
THE Davao City lo-cal government has been selected by
Beyond Access for library modernization project aimed to support district libraries and reading cen-ters in rural communities become more responsive in providing information and services related to eco-nomic activity.
“On behalf of Beyond Access, IREX is extremely pleased to be cooperating with the city government of Davao on a library mod-ernization project. Due to the clear commitment of and partnership offered by the city government, Davao was selected as the first city in Asia with which Beyond Access is cooperat-ing on a project to support public library develop-ment,” said IREX Ari Katz deputy director for tech-nology and civil society.
Beyond Access is a movement of people and organizations committed to the idea that modern public libraries help drive
economic and social de-velopment. With mem-bers around the world, the movement is an initiative of non-profit corporation IREX, international groups of librarians and several US-Based foundations.
The lone Beyond Ac-cess member in the city is former Davao City Public Library head Nora Fe H. Alajar.
“We hope that this proj-ect will be a model for the Philippines and the Asean region,” Katz said in a for-mal communication ad-dressed to Davao City May-or Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Yesterday, Katz signed a Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) with the Davao City local govern-ment represented by Atty. Tristan Dwight P. Domingo, assistant city administra-tor for administration who signed the document on behalf of Duterte.
Under the MoU, the IREX will provide techni-cal assistance throughout the project’s development
and implementation “to ensure the project serves as a pilot to demonstrate the value of public librar-
ies in meeting their com-munities’ needs.”
Specifically, IREX will provide around 100 com-
puters to be distributed to district libraries and par-ticipating reading centers while the city government
will provide personnel, facilities, computer main-tenance and internet and utility costs.
MOU. Ari Katz, deputy director for technology and civil society of IREX, dis-cusses the salient features of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the group inked with the local government of Davao City. Also in photo are Pe-drita M. Badar, officer-in-charge of the Davao City Public Library, Atty. Tristan
Dwight P. Domingo, assistant city administrator who represents Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte and Dr. Angelo Ramos, director of Molave Develop-ment Foundation, an active partner of IREX in the Philippines.
By GREGORIO G. DELIGERO
Davao City selected by global research group for library modernization project
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013
ASEAN member countries, which include the Philip-pines, expect to roll out
more key initiatives until next year -- meant to bring more op-portunities to investors across the region.
“Investors should be famil-iar with trading ASEAN stocks just as they are trading stocks in their home market,” said Philip-pine Stock Exchange President and Chief Executive Officer Hans B. Sicat in a recent ASEAN Exchanges CEOs meeting.
Sicat said the initiatives aim to further promote ASEAN as an asset class as well as profile the ‘exciting’ companies listed on the seven exchanges.
The ASEAN Exchanges is a collaboration of the exchanges from Malaysia, Vietnam (two exchanges), Indonesia, Philip-pines, Thailand and Singapore to promote the growth of the region’s capital market by driv-ing cross-border collaboration, streamlining access to ASEAN, creating ASEAN centric prod-ucts and implementing targeted promotional initiatives.
Such Exchanges have a com-bined market capitalization of approximately $ 2 trillion and more than listed 3,600 compa-
nies. Some of these are the larg-
est and most dynamic firms in the world, including leaders in finance and banking, energy, telecommunications, commodi-ties, automotive manufacturing and other industrial sectors.
Since 2011, the seven Ex-changes have rolled out im-portant marketing initiatives including the enhanced ASEAN website, the marketing of the ASEAN Stars and the Invest ASEAN retail roadshow.
As a point of reference and resource on ASEAN invest-ments, investors can also refer to the ASEAN Exchanges web-site which is built around the ASEAN Stars.
ASEAN Stars are the 180 ASEAN blue-chip stocks, which represent the 30 most exciting companies of each ASEAN coun-try as ranked by investability in terms of market capitalization and liquidity.
On the other hand, the ASE-AN Exchanges website features aggregated ASEAN content, allowing investors to view the performance of the seven ASEAN exchanges individually as well as providing a single, integrated view of the ASEAN
market. A FTSE/ASEAN Indices
Weekly Report is also available on the ASEAN Exchanges web-site.
“(These initiatives) have
produced a strong momen-tum and awareness amongst investors as well as regulators and capital market players in the region,” Sicat further said. [PNA]
6 EDGEDAVAO
BY THE NUMBERSBudget allotted for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in 2014 increased by 21 percent
as compared to this year’s allocations.
SOURCE: DBM
Cebu Pacific Daily 5J961 / 5J962 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:15Zest Air Daily Z2390 / Z2390 5:45 Manila-Davao-Manila 6:25Cebu Pacific Daily 5J593 / 5J348 6:00 Cebu-Davao-Iloilo 6:30Philippine Airlines Daily PR809 / PR810 6:10 Manila-Davao-Manila 7:00Philippine Airlines Daily PR819 / PR820 7:50 Manila-Davao-Manila 8:50Cebu Pacific Daily 5J394 / 5J393 7:50 Zamboanga-Davao-Zamboanga 8:10Cebu Pacific Daily 5J599 / 5J594 8:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 8:30Cebu Pacific Daily 5J347 / 5J596 9:10 Iloilo-Davao-Cebu 9:40Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri/Sun 5J963 / 5J964 9:40 Manila-Davao-Manila 10:10Philippine Airlines Daily PR811 / PR812 11:30 Manila-Davao-Manila 12:20Cebu Pacific Daily 5J595 / 5J966 12:00 Cebu-Davao-Manila 12:30Cebu Pacific Thu 5J965 / 5J968 12:55 Manila-Davao-Manila 13:25
Cebu Pacific Tue/Wed//Sat 5J965 / 5J968 13:35 Manila-Davao-Manila 14:05Silk Air Mon/Sat MI588 / MI588 13:35 Davao-Singapore 18:55 Silk Air Wed/Sun MI566 / MI566 15:20 Davao-Singapore 18:55Silk Air Thurs MI551 / MI551 12:05 Davao-Singapore 15:45Cebu Pacific Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri 5J507 / 5J598 15:00 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 15:30Philippine Airlines August 15:55 Mani2Mani 16:50Zest Air Daily Z2524 / Z2525 16:05 Cebu-Davao-Cebu 16:45
as of May 2013
MONTHLY AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE (January 2012-April 2013)
Month 2013 2012 2011
Average 42.23 43.31December 41.01 43.64November 41.12 43.27October 41.45 43.45
September 41.75 43.02August 42.04 42.42
July 41.91 42.81June 42.78 43.37May 42.85 43.13April 42.70 43.24
March 42.86 43.52February 40.67 42.66 43.70January 40.73 43.62 44.17
Stat Watch7.1
1st Qtr 2013
7.8 1st Qtr 2013
USD 3,741 million
Feb 2013USD 4,708
million Feb 2013USD -967
million Feb 2013USD -640
millionDec 2012
P 4,964,560 million
Feb 2013
2.4 % Mar 2013P113,609
million Mar 2013
P 5,281 billion
Mar 2013
P 41.14 Apr 2013
6,847.5 Mar 2013
132.8 Apr 2013
2.6 Apr 2013
3.1 Apr 2013
418,108 Feb 2013
20.9% Jan 2013
7.1% Jan 2013
1. Gross National IncomeGrowth Rate(At Constant 2000 Prices)
2. Gross Domestic ProductGrowth Rate(At Constant 2000 Prices)
3. Exports 1/
4. Imports 1/
5. Trade Balance
6. Balance of Payments 2/
7. Broad Money Liabilities
8. Interest Rates 4/
9. National Government Revenues
10. National government outstanding debt
11. Peso per US $ 5/
12. Stocks Composite Index 6/
13. Consumer Price Index 2006=100
14. Headline Inflation Rate 2006=100
15. Core Inflation Rate 2006=100
16. Visitor Arrivals
17. Underemployment Rate 7/
18. Unemployment Rate 7/
EDGEDAVAO
THE ECONOMY
THE Bureau of Internal Reve-nue (BIR) expects to exceed the P60 billion sin tax col-
lection target for 2013.“We may exceed a little than
the P60 billion target,” Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares told Senators
during the hearing of the pro-posed 2014 national budget Tues-day.
Lawmakers approved in December last year the amend-ment of the Sin Tax Law, which increased excise tax collection on sin products effective January 1,
2013.The government targets to
collect an additional P34 billion from sin products this year due to the amendment.
Of the total P33.9 billion ex-pected incremental sin tax reve-nues this year, Henares said P11
billion would come from alcohol products while the bigger share of P22.9 billion would come from tobacco products.
At the end of the first half this year, BIR data show that excise tax collection from sin products grew by 46.06 percent or P12.15 billion to P38.54 billion. Year-ago collec-tion totalled to P26.39 billion.
Of the total, excise tax reve-nues from tobacco products to-talled to P22.38 billion, up 53.14 percent from year-ago’s P 14.61 billion.
Excise tax collection from al-cohol products during the same period reached P16.16 billion, up by 37.27 percent or P4.39 billion over the P 11.77 billion same pe-riod last year.
Henares said the increase in the excise tax from tobacco prod-ucts transpired even as tobacco companies reported lower sales, which earlier reports attributed to frontloading at the latter part of 2012 to pay lesser taxes.
Asked by Sen. Serge Osme-na III on how much the increase on the tobacco excise tax had the companies did not frontload, Henares said last year’s first half revenues could be “more than double.” [PNA]
BIR sees higher than P60-B sin tax revenues for 2013
More initiatives to bring more investment opportunities across ASEAN countries
REPACKING AREA. A transient vendor makes the sidewalk his makeshift repacking area for the calamansi he hawks around Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013
ENVIRONMENT Sec-retary Ramon J. P. Paje has under-
scored the need for more action to save the reefs in the region known as the Coral Triangle amid growing threats to their ecosystems – from over-fishing and pollution to impacts of climate change.
Paje said that while the Philippines had al-ready taken important steps to protect its own reefs and the marine life they host, more needs to be done in developing sustainable solutions for the threatened reefs in
the Coral Triangle, a glob-al hotspot of marine bio-diversity.
“We face a crisis on the continued degradation of our fragile ecosystems and resources that could endanger the survival and quality of life of future generations,” Paje said.
“Investing in coastal and marine protection can certainly help en-sure a better future for our children and a better environment for all,” he added.
Last week, the CTI-Philippines National Coordinating Committee,
which is co-chaired by the DENR and the Depart-ment of Agriculture host-ed the CTI Forum in Maka-ti City, which also saw the launch of the Sustainable Coral Reef Ecosystem Management Program or SCREMP, designed by the Philippine government to more effectively protect and rehabilitate the coral reefs in the region.
According to Paje, the SCREMP would focus on habitat conservation and protection, as well as en-hancing public awareness and protection, to miti-gate and reverse the dam-
age brought by unsustain-able human activities and climate change.
The Philippines, being at the apex of the Coral Triangle, is a partner-na-tion of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Se-curity (CTI-CFF). The triangle also covers the exclusive economic zones of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.
CTI-CFF is a multilat-eral cooperation among six member countries to safeguard the Coral Tri-
angle, which is home to more than one third of the world’s coral reefs, in-cluding over 600 different species of reef-building coral and 3,000 species of reef fish.
These coral ecosys-tems provide food and income for more than 100 million people working in marine-based industries throughout the region.
“At the apex of the Coral Triangle or the world’s center of marine biodiversity is the Philip-pines. We are one of the 18 megadiverse countries that contain 75 percent of the global biodiversity. And yet, we too are one of the hottest of the marine biodiversity hotspots in the world,” Paje pointed out.
According to a study by the World Resources Institute called “Reefs at Risk,” about 85 percent of the reefs in the Coral Tri-angle are in peril. It noted that threats to the region come from overfishing, watershed pollution and coastal development.
Factors such as cli-mate change and ocean acidification increase the number of threatened reefs to 90 percent, the study added.
Paje said that it is for these reasons why the Philippines has been very committed to the CTI-CFF and actively do its part in safeguarding the world’s richest ma-rine area.
He noted that when the multilateral coop-eration was launched in 2009, the Philippine government immediate-ly came out with an ex-ecutive order adopting the country’s CTI-CFF National Plan of Action (NPOA), which includes five goals, 10 targets and 60 priority actions.
The National CTI Co-ordinating Committee was also created to pro-vide guidance in imple-menting the NPOA and to serve as the country focal point for the implemen-tation of the CTI-CFF Re-gional Plan of Action.
The NPOA serves as the framework of the country’s efforts in the protection and conserva-tion of its coastal and ma-rine resources, coupled with the implementation of the National Integrat-ed Coastal Management Program that intercon-nects the management of natural resources from the uplands down to the sea, and involves strate-gies for climate change adaptation and mitiga-tion.
With support from its partners, Paje said the Philippines has already achieved significant progress in the imple-mentation of the NPOA. “Some of our initiatives, particularly in the field of marine protected area management, are for rep-lication in other coun-tries,” he said.
7EDGEDAVAO
SCIENCE/ENVIRONMENT
Paje: More needs to be done to protect Coral Triangle
U.S. researchers said Wednesday they have found
magmatic water, or water that originates from deep within the moon’s interior, on the surface of the moon.
The findings are the first such remote de-tection of this type of lunar water via the U.S. Moon Mineralogy Map-per instrument. Earlier studies had shown the existence of magmatic water in lunar samples returned during the Apollo program.
Scientists used the Moon Mineralogy Map-per, which is on board the Indian Space Re-search Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 space-craft, to image the lu-nar impact crater Bul-lialdus, located near
the lunar equator.Scientists were in-
terested in studying this area because the central peak of the cra-ter is made up of a type of rock that forms deep within the lunar crust and mantle when mag-ma is trapped under-ground.
“This rock, which normally resides deep beneath the surface, was excavated from the lunar depths by the impact that formed Bullialdus crater,” said lead author Rachel Klima, a planetary ge-ologist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Labo-ratory, in a statement.
“Compared to its surroundings, we found that the central portion of this crater
contains a significant amount of hydroxyl -- a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom -- which is evidence that the rocks in this cra-ter contain water that originated beneath the lunar surface,” Klima said.
The detection of internal water from orbit means scientists can begin to test some of the findings from sample studies in a broader context, in-cluding in regions that are far from where the Apollo sites are clus-tered on the near side of the moon, said the researchers. For many years, scientists be-lieved that the rocks from the moon were bone-dry and any wa-
ter detected in the Apollo samples had to be contamination from Earth. [PNA/Xinhua]
“Now that we have detected water that is likely from the inte-rior of the moon, we can start to compare this water with other characteristics of the lunar surface,” said Klima. “This internal magmatic water also provides clues about the moon’s volcanic processes and internal composition, which helps us address ques-tions about how the moon formed, and how magmatic pro-cesses changed as it cooled,” Klima added.
The findings are published in the jour-nal Nature Geoscience.[PNA/Xinhua]
Scientists detect magmatic water on moon’s surface
UNILEVER Philip-pines, collaborate Tuesday with two
leading trade names in the country in a proj-ect that will encourage every Filipino to partic-ipate in taking care of the environment.
The project dubbed as “Sachet Recovery Program” is formulat-ed via partnership with Smart Communications and Cebuana Lhuillier.
“In line with the celebration of the 25th year anniversary of Surf detergent products, Unilever, together with these two big brands in the industry had formu-lated a project that aims to create an impact in the environment while at the same time bene-ficial also to the recipi-ents of the output of the project,” said Unilever Philippines chairman and CEO Peter Cowan.
According to Cow-an, they conceptualized the project in the aim to achieve healthy sur-roundings for the Fili-pino community as part of the company’s com-mitment in educating and empowering them.
He cited that under the project, the con-sumers are encourage to collect sachets of “Surf” and exchange them to points equiva-lent to “free text” cour-tesy of Smart Commu-nications redeemable at any of the more than 1,800 Cebuana Lhuilli-er branches nation-wide.
The collected sa-chets then will be shredded and pro-cessed as cement pav-ers and cement blocks that will be donated to about 30 public schools that will be used as school pathways. [PNA]
Unilever, Smart, Cebuana Lhuillier launch ‘sachet recovery program’
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 20138 EDGEDAVAO
VANTAGE
OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager
Columnists: MA. TERESA L. UNGSON • EDCER C. ESCUDERO • AURELIO A. PEÑA • ZHAUN ORTEGA • BERNADETTE “ADDIE” B. BORBON • MARY ANN “ADI” C. QUISIDO • LEANDRO B. DAVAL SR., • NIKKI GOTIANSE-TAN • NICASIO ANGELO AGUSTIN • EMILY ZEN CHUA • CARLOS MUNDA Economic Analyst: ENRICO “GICO” G. DAYANGIRANG • JONALLIER M. PEREZ
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RICHARD C. EBONAMarketing Supervisor
SOLANI D. MARATASFinance
AQUILES Z. ZONIOCorrespondent
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AGUSTIN V. MIAGAN JRCirculation
EDITORIALFast fading
THE so-called scam that is the pork barrel fund has brought to fore the strength of a nation awakened to the issues that concern us all. It all began in the social
media where the usual self-centered posts of netizens on Facebook became a vehicle for channeling disgust and re-sentment over various kinds of misuse and abuse of the bud-get at the disposal of our lawmakers purportedly for country-side development.
The deluge of reaction became a consolidated voice for an informed Filipinos belonging to the cyberspace popula-tion—which is not too many by protest standards, but has a multiplier effect that can effectively change how the world turns, and in a flick of a finger on the keyboard or on the touch screen.
After Monday’s mass action, everyone realized how pow-erful today’s means of communication and interaction is. If the power of the media was instrumental in the EDSA 1 and 2 mass actions, the power of social media is the showcase of the #Million People March. It’s like this. You do not count how many marched, but how many were awakened by the call and
how it spread like wildfire in so short a notice. Monday’s protest against the pork barrel fund scam spread
worldwide and we saw Filipinos overseas doing their share of expressing disgust and contempt for the enemy, which is not necessarily the pork barrel fund alone but corruption in general. Pinoys in California, New York, United Kingdom, the Middle East and just about every corner of the world where there are Filipinos joined in the unique anti-corruption pro-test.
There were those who did not march but posted on Face-book and Twitter their reactions and statements on the sub-ject of pork barrel and corruption. It has the same effect, we believe.
Having said that, let’s revisit the classic Pinoy attitude—the short memory and “ningas kugon” attitude. Can we sus-tain the voice that reverberated around the world last Sun-day? After the mass action, where is the caged pig “Porky” now? Did they roast him or is he back fattened in his cage?
That’s a 10-billion-peso question, no pun intended. Facebook is fast, and so is our fading memory.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013
IT is easy to love pork in its vari-ous mouthwatering forms-lechon, lechon kawali, barbecue, pinak-
upsan, adobo, etc. But it is indeed a good thing when we protest against another form of pork, take to the streets to try to exercise the fat, and exorcise a sinis-ter societal demon. However, before we look at pork and its attendant fat with a socio-political lens, let us look at our own consumption of pork and how this redounds to how we make ourselves fat physically and otherwise.
I have a scholar acquaintance who suffered a stroke at such a young age. We later found out that he would have pinakupsan( cubed small pieces of pork deep fried in oil) at every meal, an indul-gence he and his family thought nothing of. A relative whose long-running am-bition was to become mayor of his town dies of cardiac arrest from eating too much lechon at his own victory party. A wealthy friend whose blood tests show high cholesterol profiles still unhesitat-ingly orders and eats sisig. These are few very telling instances wherein sup-posedly intelligent and driven individu-als throw caution to the winds and suc-cumb to the tastiness of pork. Intellec-tual pursuits become meaningless when
the body becomes use-less because of clogged arteries. A dream ful-filled comes to naught because a p o r k - b a t -tered body cannot sus-tain life. Ma-terial wealth cannot be fully enjoyed be-cause the body now imposes limitations caused by thoughtless consumption. The appetitive instincts rule us and we think we can just allow that without repercussion. Or we think that we are generally good and accomplished indi-viduals and that is what matters anyway, not what we eat and consume. A cardi-ologist friend of mine has a huge tum-my and I cannot help but think that his professional integrity is compromised because he eats too much even when he knows better not to. Besides, other than fat, a huge tummy also indicates that fecal matter has encrusted into the intestines. Not quite a pretty picture, to put it mildly. Somehow, the overcon-
sumption and the waste that enlarges the waist point not just to a damaged body but to a damaged person as well. Think of the countless policemen with distended bellies. They hardly inspire trust. When they try to extract kotong from us, we are not surprised. Howev-er, good, God-fearing men and women may also have huge tummies. It may seem irreverent to notice such a fact in the face of faith and goodness. But then again, there is that tendency to not cater to the whole human person but only to certain aspects of the self that we deem important. And there lies a significant problem and disconnect of our humani-ty, and consequently, of our society.
The overpowering lust to consume and consume and consume is killing us as individuals and as a society. To satis-fy our appetites, we sacrifice health and quality of life. Fecal matter encrusted in our tummies from overconsumption of pork and other meats is also fecal mat-ter encrusted in our minds and hearts. When a country is robbed of Php10B by unthinking , unfeeling, and over-consuming individuals, it is no longer just the diplomatic fecal matter that is encrusted in them but smelly shit that makes up their being.
(1st of two parts)
THE drumbeats of a new Western military intervention in the Mid-dle East are beating louder and
louder. U.S. Secretary of State John Ker-ry said on Monday it was “undeniable” that chemical weapons had been used in an attack last week in Damascus. Mean-while, the British foreign secretary said the UK and its allies could launch a mil-itary intervention without the approval of the United Nations. This is because a U.N. resolution authorising an attack on Syria would almost certainly be blocked by Russia.
The desire to do something to pun-ish Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime is understandable, particularly after last week’s gas attack. But the West still mustn’t rush in. Before it takes any mili-tary action, it needs to present compel-ling evidence that Assad is the culprit. Any intervention should also be a specif-ic response to the gas attack rather than suck the West into this ghastly civil war.
Many people will argue that we al-ready have the evidence we need to know that Assad is guilty. The weapons were used in a part of Damascus where his troops had been vainly trying to dislodge rebels. Assad has a big stash of chemical weapons and the means to deliver them. What’s more, he refused to give U.N. investigators immediate ac-cess to the site – seemingly the action of a man who wants to cover up a crime rather than that of an innocent who has been slandered.
This is all strong circumstantial evi-dence. But none of it amounts to proof. That matters because we have seen dos-siers sexed up before – notably the one used by Tony Blair to justify the invasion of Iraq. It also matters because, as with Iraq, any intervention in Syria will prob-ably have to be undertaken without U.N. approval. It is not in the West’s interests to undermine the U.N.’s authority any further. Just look at its intervention in Libya in 2011, which went beyond what the U.N. authorised. Russia has used that as an excuse to block U.N. resolutions on Syria.
While the West should not deny it-self the possibility of going outside the U.N. framework in exceptional circum-stances, the circumstances do need to be truly exceptional. In this case, that at least means having hard evidence and presenting it to world opinion – so that all but the most bone-headed will agree that Russia is willfully denying the truth if it vetoes a U.N. resolution.
The U.N. inspectors, who briefly reached the site of the attack on Monday, may be able to provide some evidence – although much of it has probably now been obliterated. Kerry also says Amer-ica has “additional information” which it will provide in the coming days. If this evidence is not compelling, the West should hold fire.
There will be those who say that the failure to take action will give Assad a green light for further chemical attacks. But that’s not so. If he continues to gas his opponents, as well as innocent ci-vilians, the evidence will eventually be-come compelling.
BY HUGO DIXONCOMMENTARY
VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO
AQUILES Z. ZONIOCorrespondent
West mustn’t rush into Syrian
conflict
Something in common
Fecal matter
IS ABOLITION THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION? – Much has been said and talked about the Priority Development Assistance Fund
(PDAF) controversy and more disclosures of irregularities have been unearthed lately. Not quite incidentally, the pork barrel fund scandal overshadowed other recent equally controversial issues – rampant corruption in the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and threats of terrorism. Luckily for Customs Commission-er Ruffy Biazon, he could bide his time while everybody’s concern is mainly focused on the PDAF fund anomalies.
Pondering over the series of events sur-rounding the pork barrel fund scam, I’ve amassed a lot of thoughts already. It would seem this notion develop from cautiousness on the brewing critical issues. At the moment unabated corruption and other irregulari-ties in the BoC is not eliciting much interest, mostly because they are not as pervasive as the PDAF fund scam, and besides the latter issue has switched into a political dimension. All this is expected but the fact that corruption in the Customs bureau has something in com-mon with the pork barrel fund anomalies, a no-nonsense probe and total revamp of rank-ing BoC officials still has to be strictly carried out to the letter.
During the ‘Million People March,’ peo-ple of diverse opinion, political inclination, religious belief and left-leaning movement denounce the misuse of PDAF funds by some thick-faced and enterprising members of Con-gress and called on the President Benigno Aquino III to totally abolish the scandal-prone pork barrel funds. Likewise some four months ago when news about widespread corruption in the BoC broke out, it turns out there was a startling proposal no less by Commissioner
Biazon to abol-ish the bureau and start from scratch. He was in some trouble for a perceived failure to restrict the wave of cor-ruption in the bureau.
There is no easy answer to the commissioner’s proposal to abolish the BoC. The triggering event was the failure to check what industry players are allegedly in-volved in rampant oil smuggling. And, he was unhappy, the fact that President PNoy lam-basted and singled out the BoC for being negli-gent and remiss on their job during the SONA. Perhaps Biazon came to realize that there is absolutely no chance to cleanse the bureau and rid it of “rotten tomatoes,” he immediately tendered his resignation. But for obvious rea-son, the President declined to accept his resig-nation, and instead instructed him to fully ex-ecute a total revamp of all customs collectors and sub-collectors and institute immediate reforms in the system. It is a glaring indication that Biazon still enjoys the confidence of the appointing authority.
While at this, there’s no small irony in the BoC and Biazon being in charge of totally eliminating corruption in the bureau. He em-phasized that when corruption is entrenched in a certain institution, “one concept done by other governments is a complete overhaul through abolition and we might have to do that.” Well, it’s easier said than done. That’s one way of looking at it, but some lawmak-ers do not share his proposal to abolish the
BoC and start all over again. They contested Biazon’s idea of abolition saying that corrup-tion could be eradicated and there are ways. It’s only the application of common sense and small details of government procedures. After all, the culture of corruption is inher-ited from a colonial system where it’s even patriotic not pay taxes and to cheat on our colonial masters.
Five months after the Customs imbroglio, nothing could be heard about the much-pub-licized total revamp boasted by Biazon. This is not to say that he is doing nothing to rid the bureau of “mischievous characters” that are lurking in the dark corridors of the BoC. Just like the public demand calling to totally scrap the pork barrel funds, we do not know whether abolition process is in fact the ap-propriate solution. That is the core of the prevailing controversies and the President needs to determine it for himself. He spent time in Congress not know that behind the seethe of perception is the froth of habitual corruption in all government levels.
Sure, the bulk of government funds pro-vide an avenue for corruption but it is not solely to be blamed. There’s a larger picture of people, public officials in particular, who in one way or another undermine their capa-bility to think honestly and prudently about their actions that could affect their repu-tation and integrity. The irate and aghast people will make their voices heard again in open and vacant public spaces if no concrete plans could be reached in the days ahead. A collective will and action is needed to ignite interest among our people so that corruption in its worst forms will be exposed. All they want is a clean and honest government – nothing more.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 201310 EDGEDAVAOPulong..
Frozen..
Mylene..
Coloma.. 3 problems..
FFROM 1
FFROM 1
FFROM 2
FFROM 2 FFROM 2
NEWS
Hatcher, at 5-foot-10 and barrel-chested, walked into the prose-cutor’s office remorse-ful and subdued, a stark difference from the hulk-ing attacker he was de-scribed in the affidavit complaint of Vice Mayor Duterte. Hatcher said he is also planning to file illegal detention and abuse of power charges against the vice mayor, otherwise, he would like to have an amicable set-tlement.
In his affidavit, Dute-rte said the Australian trader, who was on a Honda Wagon, blocked his Nissan Navarra while crossing Tahimik Avenue in Bangkal on his way to work.
“I thought it was an ambush,” Duterte said, adding that when he went out of his car to talk to the Australian, the Australian went berserk.
The police officer es-corting Duterte, SPO3 Roey Alquizar Ociones, tried to contain the situ-ation, but the Australian suddenly revved up his engine and almost ran
over the vice mayor and the police officer.
Ociones said in his af-fidavit that “upon reach-ing the intersection of MacArthur Highway and Balusong Drive in Bang-kal, I noticed that the first car where the vice mayor was riding turned left. However, it came to a sudden halt because a black Honda Wagon swerved to my car’s left side blocking my car as he wanted to force his way and go ahead of the convoy of the vice may-or.”
“As a police officer, I went out of the vehicle sensing that there was trouble and proceeded in front to block the black vehicle. I immediately declared my authority by introducing myself as a police officer and or-dered him to turn off the engine and step down. However, the driver did not turn off the engine, rolled down his window (driver’s side) and shout-ed, “Step aside! Or I will kill you! Step out!”
Ociones said that while he was in front of
the black car, he noticed the vice mayor disem-barked from his vehicle and proceeded to the side of the black vehicle. He said Duterte knocked on the window of the passenger side of the black vehicle, introduced himself as the vice mayor and instructed the driver to roll down his car win-dow but to no avail.
Ociones said he can hear the driver of the black vehicle repeatedly saying, “I don’t care! Step aside! I will run you over! I will kill you!” Ociones said he instinctively stepped backward and then heard Hatcher step on his engine, accelerat-ed his gas and drove off.
“I hurriedly jumped to the side to avoid be-ing hit and ran over,” said Ociones.
The vice mayor also said they jumped to the side to avoid being hit. “Nangambak mi,” Duterte told Edge Davao.
Duterte and his es-corts pursued the Austra-lian, and when they were able to catch up, the Aus-tralian reportedly went
down and tried to beat up the vice mayor.
“The Australian was shouting ‘this is only the Philippines, I am an Aus-tralian,’ and I dont give a damn who he is, this is the Philippines, this is my country,” Duterte said.
Hatcher, however, had an entirely different sto-ry.
Hatcher said he did nothing wrong to the vice-mayor and defended himself that he did not stop the car for fear that he might be abducted.
“I did not stop be-cause I thought they were abductors, “ Hatch-er reiterated. He said he was abducted this year at Cagayan de Oro, and that his friend was killed during that incident.
Hatcher and his Filipi-na fiancé drove their ve-hicle supposedly headed for General Santos City for a business meeting but the motorcycle con-voy of the vice mayor’s vehicle chased him and eventually caught up with him.
Hatcher said Duterte went to his vehicle, ut-
tered harsh words and pointed fingers in front of his face. The police es-corts then came and sent him to jail.
According to Hatcher, he was not overspeed-ing because there were many public utility vehi-cles in the road. “If I did something wrong that might piss off to him, then sorry, “ he said.
“I’m not a bad guy, I do humanitarian ser-vices and in fact I donat-ed clothes to flood vic-tims in Typhoon Pablo,” Hatcher pleaded before local media.
The vice mayor reit-erated that the case was not for selfish reasons, but for all the Dabawen-yos being abused by for-eigners.
“This is a message to all Dabawenyos, if you are being abused by a foreigner and you want to file charges, look for my lawyer, Alexis Lum-batan, for free services” Duterte said. “I am just practicing my rights, because had I punched him, I would be facing international human
rights charges.”Hatcher meantime
told members of the me-dia, “I’ve never seen such abuse, he (Duterte) can-not control his temper and his evilness, it’s dis-gusting and it’s not good to the Philippines.”
Lumbatan, Duterte’s lawyer, said Hatcher has the right to answer all the allegations, and a time frame of 15 days to file his counter affidavit.
“I have talked to by-standers where the in-cident happened and found out that the Aus-tralian was abusive, es-pecially in traffic issues,” Lumbatan said.
Hatcher reported-ly owns Solar Resource trading company and is especially known for his recovery of large quanti-ties of Chinese porcelain from the VOC ship Gel-dermalsen (known as the “Nanking cargo”) which was sold at auction by Christie’s in Amster-dam in 1986. In 1999 he discovered the Tek Sing shipwreck and re-trieved 360,000 pieces of porcelain.
Records obtained by Edge Davao showed that of the total amount, P52.88 million or 70.95 percent remained undisbursed as of March 31, 2013.
Of the remaining bal-ance, only P4 million or 7.56 were disbursed for projects considered as completed. These consist of the P1.5 million used as source of funds in the Supplemental Budget 1 passed earlier this year and P2.5 million used in the rehabilitation of the Calinan Police Station which is now 85 percent complete in construction progress.
Nearly 70 percent or P36.22 million of the re-maining balance is classi-fied as “unimplemented” while P12.65 million or 23.92 percent are “still on-
going.”The release of funds
for unimplemented proj-ects was made as early as September 6, 2003. This is the PDAF identified by Sen. Franklin Drilon for the construction a multi-purpose building in barangay Carmen, Baguio district.
Other unimplemented projects include the P1.5 million identified in 2004 by former Sen. Aquilino Q. Pimentel for the enhance-ment program at the Re-gional Trail Court.
A special allotment re-lease order (Saro) issued by DBM last October 10, 2004 for projects identi-fied by former Davao City Third District Rep. Ruy Lopez amounting to P4.85 million was untouched un-til P151,000 of the budget
was made as among the sources of funds in SB 1.
Other PDAF used in SB 1 are the projects amount-ing to P1.5 identified by Sen. Francis M. Pangilinan and released by DBM sep-arately in 2008 and 2010.
Pangilinan topped among nine senators who identified Davao City as the implementing agency of some of their PDAF with P8.41 million followed by Sen. Teofisto Guingona with P2.7 million. Other senators who identified the city are senators Fran-cis Escudero and Edgardo Angara and former sena-tors Manny Villar and Mar Roxas with PDAF ranging from P500,000 to P2 mil-lion.
Most of their projects are still up for implemen-tation.
Among the congress-men, Third District Rep. Isidro Ungab topped with P24 million coursed through the city’s coffers. Second District Rep. Myl-ene Garcia-Albano has P1.9 million PDAF for the city government almost the same amount of her predecessor brother Vin-cent Garcia which identi-fied P2 PDAF for the local government but left unim-plemented since he vowed out from office in 2010.
Partylist representa-tives Mario Joyo Aguja (Akbayan), Joel Virador (Bayan Muna), Antonio Tinio (ACT Teacher), Ho-mer Mercado (1-UTAK party list) and Luz Ilagan (Gabriela) also identified Davao City for their PDAF but except for Ilagan, whose projects whose im-
plementation is now on-going, all their identified programs and projects are unimplemented.
There no PDAF com-ing from First District Rep. Karlo B. Nograles.
The process of re-leasing PDAF allocations starts with a senator or congressman making a request for the release of his or her allocation with a list of proposed project which should be included in the menu specified in the annual General Ap-propriations Act.
After receiving the request, the DBM makes sure that the project list conforms to the menu in the budget law. The DBM will then release the funds to the implement-ing agency identified by the lawmaker, who is fur-
nished a copy of the re-lease document or Saro.
Disbursements under the PDAF are coursed through implementing agencies classified as “soft” and “hard” proj-ects: the former largely referring to non-infra-structure projects such as scholarships and finan-cial assistance programs and the latter referring to infrastructure projects which would be coursed through the Department of Public Works and High-ways or local engineering office.
Majority or 75.40 percent of PDAF projects coursed through the local government are consid-ered as soft projects and the remaining 24.60 per-cent or P13 million are hard.
people in social media like Facebook and Twit-ter, and found out that, out of 13,000 people online, 67% support President Aquino’s move to scrap the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) a.k.a. “pork barrel” but re-
placed with a new system that still allows the coun-try’s impoverished sector to access help from the government.
Coloma said he be-lieves that this is a great indication of the people’s approval rate of the Pres-
ident since the penetra-tion rate of the internet in the Philippines is 50 percent.
This is a big number since there are 95 million mobile phones that can access the internet in the Philippines, he said.
by government offices and public hospitals like the Southern Philippines Med-ical Center (SPMC).
Hard projects can also be implemented by local government units usually by administration if the al-locations are downloaded to LGUs.
The office of the lady lawmaker showed a copy of the request of congress-man Rodolfo Albano to House Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte for the release of his allocation for “hard” projects to Con-gresswoman Mylene.
The lady lawmaker said
she was the first to request for allocations for more “hard” projects, “because our district needs it.”
She said that the P9,450,000-allocation for his district went to 10 “hard projects,” seven of which were finished and issued certificates of com-pletion, another two have been finished but have yet to be issued certificates of completion while the 10th project is undergoing cor-rective by a contractor.
She said her infra proj-ects in her district are:
1. Concreting of road in Purok Putting Lupa
in barangay San Anto-nio, Agdao district worth P1,500,000;
2. Concreting of road in Purok 1 to 2 in ba-rangay Mudiang, Bunawan district worth P1 million;
3. Concreting of Bariles Street in Barangay Lapu-lapu, Agao district worth P1 million;
4. Concreting of Sol-id Street, Barangay Lapu-lapu, Agdao district worth P500,000;
5. Completing of Agdao elementary school in Barangay Tomas Mon-teverde, Agdao district val-ued at P700,000;
6. Completion of ba-rangay hall in barangay Ag-dao Proper, Agdao district valued at P244,000;
7. Completion of barangay gym in barangay Acacia, Buhangin district valued at P1 million;
8. Completion of multi-purpose pavement in barangay Agdao Proper, Agdao district valued at P220,000;
9. Construction of drainage system in baran-gay Paciano Bangoy, Agdao district worth P1,963,500; and
10. Water system in Puroks 3A and 3B, Baran-
gay Callawa, Buhangin dis-trict valued at P1,322,500.
Albano said that also in 2012, she “exchanged” her “hard” budget of P1,083,000 for the same amount of “soft” budget for the needs of the Depart-ment of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Rep. Mylene also said that as a matter of poli-cy, she does not deal with non-government organiza-tions (NGO).
Meanwhile, Fe Jagna Bohol, acting director of DBM in Davao City, said they could not comment on
the allotment by Congress-woman Mylene because their mandate is only to re-lease the approved amount after it has been endorsed by Congress.
“Any fund endorsed na for release sa Congress ug sa Speaker kami ra ang magrelease in cash,”Bohol explained, adding that the right person to comment on the issue is the person who endorsed the devel-opment project.
She also explained that Garcia was justified to re-ceive P96 million last year since she had P28,455, 168 continuing project.
(DHUD) as a major insti-tutional reform given the limited powers of the Hous-ing and Urban Develop-ment Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and will move for Congress to finally pass DHUD.
OSHDP also supports the passage of a genuine
national land use and pol-icy act, not masquerading as an agrarian reform bill, that will put as a high pri-ority low-cost and social-ized housing sites, he said.
Tan also presented the engagements OSHDP has done for the regulations and institutions for the
housing finance sector.One of the engage-
ments is for the Pag-IBIG Fund to improve their buyers evaluation of ca-pacity to pay without dis-qualifying or discourag-ing borrowers to invest in and buy their own homes. EJF
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013 11EDGEDAVAO
ICT HUB
IF David Huang had left his native Taiwan for Sweden a generation
ago, he would have taken a giant leap into the un-known.
Now, with the help of Skype, the 35-year-old businessman is able to reach relatives from his Stockholm home as easily as if they lived around the corner, and not half a world away.
“Skype has made work easier, but more important than that, it has enabled me to talk to my family whenever I feel like it,” he said.
Internet messaging service Skype, which cele-brates its 10th anniversary on Thursday, has shrunk the world in profound ways that few could have foreseen in 2003.
A total of 300 million
users make two billion minutes of online vid-eo calls a day. And in the surest sign of success, the brand name has been turned into a verb - a rare distinction shared by the likes of Xerox and Google.
In another sign of suc-cess, Skype has spawned competitors with a host of similar technologies, most importantly Apple’s Face-Time.
But revolutionary as Skype’s technology may seem, it didn’t start com-pletely from scratch but built on existing communi-cation technologies.
“We already had cheap international calling using the Internet,” said Martin Geddes, a leading Brit-ain-based telecommunica-tions consultant.
“The significance of Skype was and is the
‘Wow!’ experience of high definition voice, and the sense of ‘being there’ with your distant friends and family in a way not possi-ble before.”
Skype was released in August 2003 -- written by a team of Estonian de-velopers in Tallinn and, launched by two Scandina-vian technology entrepre-neurs, Niklas Zennstroem of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark, who expand-ed on existing peer-to-peer networking technologies.
Skype, which allows its online users to make high-quality calls to each other anywhere in the world for free, quickly took off, bringing the world closer together in an age when globalisation and intercontinental travel pulled more families apart than at perhaps any other time in history.
“I’m touched by the ways people use Skype, from an active duty sol-dier meeting his baby girl for the first time... to just the simple, extraordinarily ordinary instances,” said Elisa Steele, Skype chief marketing officer.
These simple instances, she said, include “a mum and daughter being able to see and talk to one anoth-er in a way that feels like they’re just sitting across the kitchen table from each other. Our greatest
achievement lies in these moments.”
While Skype helps peo-ple to stay in touch with those they already know, it also enables new connec-tions to be formed.
One example was early this year, when students aged between 11 and 15 from Woodham Acade-my in Britain and Merton Intermediate School in Wisconsin carried out a cross-Atlantic dance con-test.
“For a lot of them, I think they’d been in a small-town mentality where they hadn’t real-ly gone out as far as they might have wanted to into travelling,” said Woodham assistant head teacher Jon Tait.
“They had seen films from abroad, but to actu-ally physically speak to these kids in America was absolutely brilliant. It was amazing.”
Skype isn’t for humans only. At Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas, orangutans Mei and Mukah are reward-ed for completing tasks by being allowed to communi-cate via Skype with orang-utans in other zoos.
The question many ask however is: Is it possible to make money on a busi-ness offering free calls? US software maker Microsoft thought so, paying $8.5 bil-lion for Skype in 2011.A woman communicates with her family abroad by using the Internet telephone system Skype, in Stockholm, Sweden, on August 26, 2013. Skype celebrates
its 10th anniversary on Thursday.
Skype marks 10 years of shrinking the world
TWITTER and The New York Times were hit with cyber
attacks, with credit quick-ly claimed by a group backing embattled Syrian strongman Bashar Al-As-sad.
The Times site re-mained out of service early Wednesday follow-ing the attacks that began Tuesday.
The Syrian Electron-ic Army (SEA), ironically, used Twitter to tout its efforts to take down the globally popular one-to-many messaging service and the Times news web-site.
“Media is going down,” a message at the SEA Twit-ter account proclaimed. “Twitter, are you ready?”
The cyber attack was evidently aimed at the Do-main Name System that that acts as a directory of sorts for routing online traffic to website address-es.
Hackers can hijack web traffic by altering DNS ad-dress information to send site visitors to websites of their choosing.
An Australian domain registration service ap-peared to have been hit in the attack.
“Our DNS provider experienced an issue in which it appears DNS re-cords for various organi-zations were modified, including one of Twitter’s domains used for image serving, twimg.com,” Twit-ter said in a post at its sta-tus blog.
“Viewing of images and photos was sporad-ically impacted,” the San Francisco-based compa-ny’s message explained.
“No Twitter user in-
formation was affected by this incident.”
The trouble was re-solved within two hours, according to Twitter.
The New York Times said that its website went down Tuesday due to a “malicious external at-tack.”
Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy also made the announcement on Twitter, two weeks after the site went offline due to what the daily said was an
internal server problem.Her full tweet said: “re:
http://nytimes.com - ini-tial assessment - issue is most likely result of ma-licious external attack. working to fix.”
The newspaper’s main Twitter account said shortly after 2000 GMT that the website “is expe-riencing technical difficul-ties” but that news was still being published via Twitter and other links. [AFP]
File photo of the NYTimes.com website. Twitter and The New York Times were hit with cyber attacks, with credit quickly claimed by a group backing embattled Syrian strongman Bashar Al-Assad
Cyber attacks hit Twitter, New York Times
FACEBOOK has began letting members col-
laborate on shared online photo albums at the leading social network.
The Shared Al-bum feature was to be introduced slowly, first becom-ing available to a small group of En-glish-language us-ers before gradually spreading across the social network.
“A shared album is an album that multiple people can upload photos to,” Facebook said in an online post explain-ing the new feature.
“When you make an album shared, you can add your friends as contribu-tors,” the post con-tinued. “This allows them to add, view and edit photos in
the album.”Previously, Face-
book members could only add pho-tos to their own on-line albums at the social network.
The new feature, inspired by feed-back from Facebook users, is intended to let friends or family members collabo-rate on photo al-bums memorializing shared events or oc-casions.
Facebook mem-bers can invite as many as 50 friends to contribute digital photos to online al-bums.
Privacy settings allow sharing of al-bums to be limited to those who con-tribute or opened to friends of contrib-utors or the public, according to Face-book.[AFP]
Facebook allows sharedonline photo albums
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VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 201314 EDGEDAVAOSPORTS
ERIC Ben Giganto booked a rare fi-nals hat trick and
his game-long brilliance was all that Columbia Computer Center need-ed to repulse a fagged out Philippine National Police side, 4-1, and win the 2013 ACER Cup foot-ball tournament over the weekend at the Tionko Grounds.
Columbia Football Club bannered mostly of players from the Rizal Me-morial Colleges, surged back to life after getting stymied to a 1-all halftime scoreline.
The Computer Spe-cialists of team owner Edward “Chaya” Lam came back with a relent-less attack in the final 45 minutes that saw Gigan-to closing out with three goals to repulse the al-ready tired Policemen.
Giganto, who is now a varsity of the Far East-ern University in Manila and a reserve player of the Meralco Sparks in the
United Football League, first scored the goal for Columbia in the 38th min-ute with a high ball inside the box.
Three minutes later, veteran Hendrich Bitio, however, managed to tie the game after Columbia’s goalie Sandro Banderas was alone with no help defence after a free kick.
Giganto, younger brother of skipper Edwin, then received two excel-lent assists from team-mate Al Dinn Tiboron for his two back-to-back markers in the 75th and 79th that gave Columbia a 3-1 lead.
And if that was not enough, Giganto, a first year sports and recre-ation management stu-dent, added one more goal in the 90th from an-other perfect pass by Ti-boron from the left wing.
“We made some ad-justments like putting Al Dinn as a decoy in order to win,” said coach Albert Ryan “Abing” Lim.
THE Philippine Sports Commis-sion (PSC) said
the 2013 Batang Pinoy Games Mindanao leg, which kicked off at the Davao Del Norte Sports Complex on Tuesday, is the biggest region al qualifying ever in terms of participation.
Over 1,700 young athletes coming from 40 local government units all over Mindanao at-tended the opening rites of the 5-day qualifying leg aimed at laying the foundation for young Filipino athletes aged 15 and below to become future national team he-roes.
“We have exceeded our expectations and it’s going to be the biggest Mindanao leg since we started the program two years ago,” said Atty. Jay Alano, Project Director of Batang Pinoy.
She said the number could go beyond 2,000, as delegates continue to arrive even while the games have started.
Alano bared only 415
athletes competed in the 2011 Mindanao qualifi-er, while 635 vied in the 2012 edition in Dapitan City last year.
She recognized the effort of the host prov-ince for sending out spe-cial invitations to all the LGUs in the region to make it yet the best-at-tended Mindanao leg.
Governor Rodolfo del Rosario assured the province has left no stones unturned to en-sure security and other requisites for the suc-cess of its first hosting of the games.
He said the event will contribute a lot to the vision of the province to become the sports tour-ism capital in the region.
“We hope to be af-forded with the same confidence to host much larger sporting events in the future,” he said.
The governor is allud-ing to the Palarong Pam-bansa, which the prov-ince hopes to eventually host in 2015, among oth-er bigger events. By Noel Baguio
Columbia-RMC wins 2013 ACER Cup
CLOSE RANGE GOAL. Eric Giganto of Columbia Football Club (yellow) scores from close range against the fallen goalie of the Philippine National Police in the 2013 ACER Cup Invitational Men’s Football tournament last Aug. 25
at Tionko grounds. Columbia won 4-1 to bag the title and P30,000 cash, a trophy and medals. (Photo by BOY LIM)
2013 Batang Pinoy Mindanao biggest ever
BATANG PINOY. (L-R) PSC commissioner Jolly Gomez, POC official Romeo Magat, PSC Chair Ricardo Garcia, Mrs. Milagros del Rosario, Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario and 1st District Congressman Anthony del Rosario acknowledge the delegations to the 2013 Batang Pinoy Mindanao leg at the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Center. Noel Baguio/DavNor PIO
DAVAO is all about food and Kadayawan is just one of the seasons when Dabawenyo urbanites go out in droves to party on the streets, eat and have an all-around good time. I love the energy and vibes I get from the buzz and
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EDGEDAVAOFOOD
Finding Davao’s new flavors at SM’s Gourmet Collective
dancing on the streets but what I love more are the good eats and new food concepts that are making their way out through the many bazaars and food festivals that have sprung up just for the Kadayawan weekend and one of these is SM Lanang Premier’s Gourmet Food Collective that was held last from Au-gust 16 to 18 at the atrium of SM’s only premier mall in Mindanao.
From restaurants to foodies The Gourmet Food Col-lective gathered some of Davao City’s chefs, foodies, restaurants and caterers for a unique food trip that al-lows guests to sample and taste some of Davao’s best and most unique bites un-der one roof, highlighting the city’s fast-evolving and vibrant food scene. In the food fair were everything from Cellar de Boca’s famous Argentini-an-style beef and chorizo empanadas as well as their famous steak rice. I love the sweet and salty chorizo empanada with the super savoury beef empanada also getting top foodie
points. Pair it with some wines from Lagarde and every bite is heaven. Hog’s Breath Cafe had steak samples for everyone to nibble on while Morisco had some of their menu items ready for tasting as well. Davao fabulous caterers also joined in the celebra-tion with their special dish-es. Tita Baby Montemayor’s Villa Margarita showcased their three-cheese lasagna, while Carmina del Rosa-rio’s Bongkok Wok show-cased their much-missed Bagoong Rice and Catfish Salad. The Crazy Cook (also by Carmina) showcased their delicious steamed buns called Baos in mouth-watering flavours such as Slow-cooked Angus Beef, Shiitake, Chicken Sate
and Bulgogi. My favourite would be her Slow-cooked Angus Beef Bao which lit-erally melts in the mouth thanks to the fatty and deli-cious beef.
Crispy means nom nom Also at the fair was the beautiful Chef Monica Floirendo and her burritos and margaritas. There were two kinds, the chicken and the bagnet burrito and I would say that the bagnet (crispy-fried Ilocano-style pork belly) was the prob-ably the burrito I have tast-ed in a long time. I guess it must be thanks to the Floirendo family’s secret bagnet recipe that made it such a delicious treat. When talking about crispy, there is Beko’s Biik and their lechon. They also featured their special lechon roll which is basi-cally fatty pork belly stuffed and fried to a crisp. It was just too bad they only sold the rolls as a whole and not as sliced up pieces, it would have been a run-away hit
Barrio Burrito’s Monica Floirendo and her Bagnet Burrito.
Morisco’s delicious-looking display. The Lechon Roll from Beko’s Biik.
Malagos’ La Maria cheese. Malagos’ Blue Goat Cheese.
Various fresh soft cheeses.
Olive Puentespina and her fabulous cheeses.
SM Lanang Premier’s Atrium was full of foodies from all over.
Olive’s daughter showcases Malago’s 65% Dark Chocolate bars.
Jonathan Ramirez and his tarts and pies.Baby Montemayor showcasing her Three-Cheese Lasagna.
FFINDING, A4
SKIN CARE products of GTCosmetics Manufactur-ing Inc. are consistently manufactured to a qual-ity appropriate for their intended uses, says the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Phil-ippines. The FDA, after completing the chemical analyses of the products, recently conducted a thorough inspection of the GT Cosmetics manufacturing plant in Liloan, Cebu and de-clared that GT Cosmetics is currently generating good qual-ity products in compliance with the General Regulations for the Enforcement of the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act. In its Certificate of Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) issued to GT Cosmetics, the FDA says the Cebuano company has also complied with the requirements speci-fied for in the exportation of products to neighboring ASE-AN countries. The Department of Health, which oversees the functions of the FDA, has adopted the ASEAN CGMP Guidelines to as-sist the Philippine cosmetics industry in complying with the ASEAN Cosmetic Regulatory Directives and get its share of the ASEAN market. GT Cosmetics founder and national sales manager Engr. Leonora B. Salvane said complying with CGMP is manda-tory in their line of business, but they never once had a problem in meeting the requirements and its relevant rules and regulations. “Over the years, complying with the guidelines was nev-er a problem,” said Salvane, who formulated and personally manufactured the first GT products at home in 1994. ”Com-pliance just comes naturally for us, as we have been observ-ing good manufacturing practice right from the start.” “I started this business unaware of the CGMP guidelines. I just did what I thought was right and I was issued a license to operate. That’s why we named our company GT, which stands for `God’s Talent,’” said Salvane, a chemical engineer. “Since our products are for skin protection, they must be manufactured properly and with all the right proportions of every ingredient. Why would you make a harmful prod-uct when your business is about skin care. That would be ironic,” Salvane added. The FDA only issues licenses to cosmetic manufacturers upon compliance with CGMP, which provides assurance that products are manufactured using methods, facilities and control procedures adequate to preserve their quality and safety. The prime objective of the CGMP guidelines is to safe-guard the health of the consumers as well as to ensure the good quality of the products. Even if it has passed all the testing protocols, a product may be deemed unsafe or of low quality if found to be manufactured in a condition that violates current good manufacturing guidelines. All GT products are effective and environment-friendly. They are made using herbal and natural ingredients. They also have highly-refined coconut oil base that leaves the skin moisturized and prevents it from scaling. The GT Carrot Soap, GT Bleaching Soap, GT Papaya Soap, GT Moisturizing Soap, GT Bleaching and Whitening Creams, GT Clarifiance, and GT Carrot Lotion are available in about 200 retail outlets nationwide. Products of GT Cosmetics are locally sold at your nearest Watsons Personal Care stores, Robinsons supermarkets, SM malls and supermarkets, Savemore supermarkets, Gaisano Metro chain of stores, and at other leading malls, depart-ments stores, supermarkets, and drugstores nationwide.
GROWING UP with people who love to party, cook and eat has its many advantages. Yes, I would dwell on the positivity that it brings forth to life; life is too short to sulk. That is why, as a kid, I was already exposed to the many secrets of our kitch-en confines. I would often stay, watch and much on anything (isn’t it obvious?) cooked either by my par-ents or of anybody who has a ladle on hand. Of the many dishes that blew my senses away, the Tiramisu left a whole-lotta-lovin in my heart. The first time I tasted it, I was constantly bugging my mama to replicate it. Ever the “let’s buy instead of cooking”, she told me to learn it on my own. And I did. Thanks, Mama! Tiramisu (pick me up or lift me up) is a sweet, layered dessert that origi-nated in Italy. It consists of alternating layers of coffee or brandy soaked ladyfingers with a layer of thick and rich mascarpone and egg sweet filling. It is an easy assembled dessert that could be done in min-utes. This week, I have two Tiramisu recipes, one from my culinary hero, Gordon Ramsay and the other, is mine. Try them out and have the most wonderful Tiramisu party with your loved one.
Egg and Mascarpone - less Tiramisu I have heard of this but never actually tried it. Now, here is my attempt at an eggless version of this all time favorite dessert of mine.
Ingredients: 1 pack lady fingers (bought mine from S&R)Coffee soaking syrup: 4 tbsp ground coffee (Thanks Sir Michael of Mang Gorio)3 tbsp white sugar 1 cup warm water Filling: 1 bar cream cheese, soften5 tbsp white sugar ¼ cup Bailey’s½ cup all purpose cream, chilled 3 tbsp confectioner’s sugar Cocoa powder for dusting
Method: In a baking dish, mix ground coffee and sugar and dissolve in warm wa-
ter. Make sure there are no lumps. Dip each ladyfin-gers and repeat until done. Set aside. In another bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and all purpose cream. Blend well. I used a hand whisk. Add Bailey’s and confectioner’s sugar and mix again until well incorporated. In a baking dish, drop a tablespoon of cream cheese mixture and spread. Line soaked ladyfinger. Spread cream cheese mixture to form a layer. Repeat layering. Chill. Dust with cocoa powder before serving. Tiramisu ala Gordon Ramsay Here is a world-class recipe from one of the most celebrated chefs in
the world.
Ingredients:1 tsp Vanilla extract3 tbsp Brandy150 ml strong Espresso, cooled and room temp150 ml Single cream 4 tbsp icing sugar16 sponge cakes (lady fingers)70% chocolate bar, frozenCocoa powder
Method: Whisk mascarpone with the vanilla and bran-dy and 50 ml of coffee until everything is incor-porated. Whisk the cream with the icing sugar until smooth, then fold mas-carpone mix. Pour the
remaining coffee into a bowl. Take one sponge finger at a time and dip it in to the coffee. Set aside and continue with the re-maining. Line four serv-ing glasses with 4 sponge fingers, breaking them in half. Spoon mascarpone mixture until you reach the top of the glass. Chill for 20 minutes. Allow the flavors to infuse. Remove tiramisu from fridge. Take chocolate bar and grate a little. Finally, dust with sifted cocoa powder to serve. Thank you to my sis-ter in sorority and for life, Mrs. Mhyla Ruth Sara-Lee of Joie de Vivre Traveling Tours for the sumptuous food (topuki!) and for ac-commodating my friend’s family from Iloilo. Love yah! See you soonest. Visit www.chefroyale.com and be treated to an endless array of delicious word play and food display! Follow me on instagram @herroyalheiress for the lat-est in food and food finds in the metro. Email me at [email protected] if you want to be a part of Davao’s Thursday Habit.
A2 INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013EDGEDAVAOUP AND ABOUT FOOD
GT Cosmetics products pass FDA quality tests Filipino tiramisu!
ACCESSORY SALE AT THE SM STORE. SM Accessories, the fashion accessories authority goes on sale from August 1 to 31. Drop by the SM Store Davao, General Santos and Lanang Premier and get up to 50% off on selected items! Get a free bag with your SM Advantage, SM Prestige or SM BDO Rewards Card for every P1,000 minimum single receipt purchase.
E N T E R T A I N M E N T scribes Ogie Diaz and MJ Felipe keep people in-the-know on showbiz hap-penings as they bring the hottest and juiciest gossips and news in their newest program, “OMJ,” on DZMM every Saturday at 9 PM. Aside from intriguing in-side scoops and exclusive blind items, Ogie and MJ also conduct interviews with controversial celebrities to clarify some issues and sat-isfy the listeners’ curiosity. Actor Gerald Anderson first took the hot seat of “OMJ,” wherein he shared that it took eight hours to shoot his bed scene with Dawn Jimenez in their mov-ie “On the Job. “The movie will not come out great if I will not give my best in that certain scene,” Gerald shared. Gerald also shared that he is willing to do a movie or teleserye with his girlfriend Maja Salvador if given a chance. Ogie and MJ also update the fans on showbiz events such as mall shows, concert, premiere nights and many more. Meanwhile, veteran an-chor Norma Marco touches not just the ears, but also the hearts of the listeners and viewers as she brings nos-talgic music via another new program, “Remember When” every Sunday, at 3 PM. People may have travel to the past and reminisce mile-stones in their lives as Nor-ma plays classic music of 50s to 80s sang by iconic artists including Paul Anka, Frank
SEE a comedic version of the recently screened film and Vilma Santos-starrer “Ekstra” this Saturday (August 31), as Jon Santos steps in as Ate Bhe with Vhong Navarro to audition as movie extras when a taping is set to hap-pen in Beverly Gils. Jon Santos plays the part of Isabel’s (Angel Locsin) aunt, Ate Bhe, who pays a visit to Beverly Gils. Ate Bhe works as an extra for films and television soaps. Almost as if it were perfect timing, a soap opera is set to be taped in Beverly Gils at the time of Ate Bhe’s arrival, and so auditions are to be held for interested residents of Bev-erly Gils. Ate Bhe becomes the prime choice for the soap opera’s important scenes. Justin (Vhong Navarro) fares well, too, being chosen to
play the son of Ate Bhe.See how the cast of “Toda Max” puts a twist on the suc-cessful film “Ekstra” with its
own “Anak ng Ekstra”, which airs this Saturday (August 31) on ABS-CBN Channel 2 after “Maalaala Mo Kaya”.
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Version of award-winner ‘Ekstra’ in ‘Toda Max’
Ogie and MJ bring the hottest and juciest showbiz news in ‘OMJ’ on DZMM
“GOT TO BELIEVE” WINS NATIONAL TV RATINGS; TRENDS WORLDWIDE ON TWITTER. Philippine showbiz’s ‘teen king and queen’ Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo have once again proven the ‘KathNiel magic’ as their highly anticipated primetime series on ABS-CBN, “Got To Believe” debuted strongly last Monday (August 26). According to data from Kantar Media, the premiere telecast of “Got To Believe” hit a national TV rating of 34%, or more than twice the viewers who watched its rival show in GMA “Mundo Mo’y Akin” that only scored 16.1%. Various hashtags related to “Got To Believe” also trended worldwide on the microblogging site Twitter as netizens shared their joy about the show’s debut and their excitement over the introduction to the story of Chichay (Kathryn) and Joaquin (Daniel). The pilot episode featured the love triangle of sweethearts Jaime (Ian Veneracion) and Betchay (Manilyn Reynes), and Jaime’s boss Julianna (Carmina Villarroel). Continue to witness the magical journey of love in 2013’s most romantic TV series, “Got To Believe,” weeknights, after “Juan dela Cruz” on ABS-CBN Primetime Bida.
Sinatra, The Platters, Beatles, The Carpenters at mga OPM artists gaya nina Cinderalla, Rey Valera and Apo Hiking Society. She also gives trivia
about the songs she plays. Don’t miss “OMJ” every Saturday, 9 PM and “Remem-ber When” every Sunday, 3 PM on DZMM TeleRadyo
R 16
PG 13
PG 13
R 13 12:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS
R-16
PEE MAK 2D
12:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS
THE CONJURING 2D
12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS
MORTAL INSTRUMENTSCITY OF BONES 2D
Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower
Mario Maurer
12:40 | 3:00 | 5:20 | 7:40 | 10:00 LFS
OTJ 2D
Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson
Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson
A4 INdulge! VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013EDGEDAVAOFOOD
since everyone (even po-liticos) loves pork right?
Beyond durian When one talks about Davao, certain foods come into mind like the pungent yet creamy durian and the tart sweet mangosteen, but lately Davao has been mak-ing waves in Manila’s culi-nary books as well thanks to one lady, Olive Puentes-pina and her many artisan cheeses. Occupying one corner of the fair, Olive’s booth, in my opinion, has got to be THE best booth of the fair as she featured her many differ-ent cheeses, from the pun-gent Blush, to my favourite La Maria, to her deliciously complex Blue Goat Cheese, all generously laid out for anyone and everyone to sample, taste and enjoy. She also has a tub of Malagos’ famous 65% dark chocolate for everyone to have a bit of heaven grown from Davao’s soil.
A Sweet ending Of course when it comes to eating, what would it be without dessert? Enter JR Pastry by Jona-than Ramirez who is also known for his cupcake cre-
ations who offered cream puffs, tarts and pies. There was also Blugre and their well known desserts like their Red Velvet Cake and their Choco Torte. The most interesting desserts of the fair though would have to be the ones by Joel Rodriquez of Osvaldo’s. Already known for his deca-dent Blue Cheese Walnut and Fig Cheesecake, Joel also served a curiously delicious Spicy Dilis Cream Cheese Cupcake which had a sweet and briny flavour without the fishiness associated with the dilis fish. Knowing that I love food with lots of acidity, I had to say that my favourite cake of the fair would be the Candied Orange Peel Pecan Cupcake which had lots of bright acidity thanks to the use of orange peel plus the delicious nutty richness of the pecan. Overall, the fair was a delicious success and it showed as lines formed with lots of hungry urban-ites wanting to have a taste. As for me, I can’t wait for the next one. Follow me on Twitter and on Instagram for more foodie finds, travel tips and happen-ings in, around, and beyond Durianburg.
Lagade wines from Argentina.
Members of the Gourmet Food Collective strike a pose together with DOT XI Director Art Boncato.
Cellar de Boca’s empanada.
Angus Beef Bao.
Osvaldo’s Orange Pecan Cupcake.Spicy Dilis and Cream Cheese Cupcake.
Various Baos
EDGEDavao Davao PartnersFinding..FFROM A1
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2013 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS
DOUBLE BAGELAzarenka makes triumphant return to US Open
NEW YORK (Reu-ters) - A teenage American girl with
a squeaky voice and an incredible tale of survival stole the spotlight at the U.S. Open on Tuesday with a stunning upset win over the former champion, Sam Stosur.
While Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and the rest of the sport’s old order calmly went about their business, 17-year-old Victoria Duval became the toast of New York.
Making her second ap-
pearance in a grand slam event against the Austra-lian who beat Serena Wil-liams in the final just two years ago, the pint-sized Duval clawed and fought her way to a 5-7 6-4 6-4 first-round win.
It was a remarkable performance but made all the more astonishing be-cause of her background.
When she was seven years old, Duval was taken hostage by robbers at her aunt’s house in Haiti, a ter-rifying incident that con-vinced her parents, both
doctors, to move back to the United States.
View gallery.”Federer of Switzerland reacts after his win over Zemlja …
Roger Federer of Swit-zerland reacts after his win over Grega Zemlja of Slove-nia at the U.S. Open ten …
“It’s not a good memo-ry, so I try to forget as much as I could about it. I don’t remember too much of it anymore, which is great,” she told reporters.
In 2010, her father was buried alive in the Haiti earthquake. He survived
by digging himself out but suffered serious injuries, including broken legs, bro-ken ribs and a punctured lung.
Duval took to tennis in-stantly and has quickly ris-en through the American junior ranks but Tuesday’s win was by far her biggest.
With her family watch-ing from courtside and chants of “U-S-A!” echoing around the Louis Arm-strong Stadium, Duval had
to battle all the way to beat the vastly more-experi-enced Stosur.
“I think I’m very much of a child at heart ... (but) on the court, you have to be a warrior because that’s just the sport we are in,” she said.
Stosur paid tribute to Duval, saying she deserved the win, but said she had contributed to her own downfall with a whopping 56 unforced errors.
View gallery.”Federer of Switzerland reacts after his win over Zemlja …
Roger Federer of Swit-zerland reacts after his win over Grega Zemlja of Slovenia at the U.S. Open ten …
“I’m not going to be a sore loser and say she didn’t do anything,” said Stosur. “But, you know, I think I certainly helped her out there today, that’s for sure.”
Djokovic, Federer advance
NEW YORK (Re-uters) - Twelve months after her
agonizing defeat in the U.S. Open final, Victoria Azarenka made a trium-phant return to Flushing Meadows on Tuesday.
In her first match back on the Arthur Ashe Stadi-um since her gut-wrench-ing loss to Serena Wil-liams, Azarenka chalked up a rare double-bagel win, thrashing Germany’s Dinah Pfizenmaier 6-0 6-0 in just over an hour.
“I’m really happy to be back on this court, the last time I was here it was very emotional,” she said.
“To come back and compete at one of the most famous arenas in the world, it’s great ... I love New York.”
The world number two arrived in the Big Apple brimming with confidence after beating Williams in the final of the Cincinnati Open and was untroubled against Pfizenmaier, ranked 99th.
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus returns a volley to Dinah Pfizenmaier of Germany during their first rou …
She hit 14 winners and made just 10 un-forced errors but had to fend off three break points on her own serve.
“It was a lot closer than the score,” Aza-renka said. “I thought I played really well in the important moments and raised my game when I needed to.”
Azarenka was just two points away from beating Williams in last year’s championship match when the American drew on her all her experience to win a three-set thrill-er.
It was a painful loss for the fiercely compet-itive Belarusian but she showed she was quick learner, overcoming her disappointment and re-bounding to win her sec-ond Australian Open title in January.
OVERPOWERING. Viktoria Azarenka was just too much in a rare double-bagel win, dominating Ger-many’s Dinah Pfizenmaier 6-0 6-0 in the second round of the US Open. (Below) Roger Federer also breezed through the next round while teener Victoria Duval (right) leaps for joy after an upset over former winner Sam Stosur.
VOL. 6 ISSUE 119 • THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 201316 EDGEDAVAOSports
DAVAO City flexed its muscles early win-ning two gold med-
als after the morning ses-sion yesterday as the 2013 Batang Pinoy Mindanao Qualifying Leg went full throttle at various venue
all over nearby Tagum City in Davao del Norte.
The Davao City con-tingent drew first blood in the five-day competitions to select the region’s qual-ifier to this year’s Batang Pinoy National Finals set
November in Zamboanga City wining the first gold medal at stake in the boys’ 5,000-meter run at the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Center.
Long-distance runner Jomar Angga bagged the
first gold with a strong fin-ish in the boys’ 5000-me-ter run clocking 19 min-utes and 35.6 seconds af-ter cutting loose from his pursuers in the final 800 meters. Edrian Bentulan of Davao City placed second
(19:54.0) and John Rey Ulanday of Koronadal City wound up third (20:04.7).
``Sobrang init. Nakaki-ta ako ng pagkakataon na manalo nung bigla silang bumagal,’’ said the 13-year old Angga, son of a banana plantation worker and a second-year pupil at Davao City National High School.
The second gold for Davao City came from Fer-nando Jison Jr. who made good use of his length and athleticism to rule the boys’ high jump.
At 5-foot-11, the 15-year-old Dona Carmen Dena National High School junior cleared the bar at 1.70 meters. Louie Restau-ro of GenSan settled for the silver (1.50m) and Davao City’s Joel Torralba Jr. the bronze after clear-ing 1.30 meters.
Christine Joy Jorban of General Santos City shared the limelight with Angga after becoming the first female athlete to capture a gold medal following a triumphant performance in girls’ long jump.
The third-year stu-dent from General San-tos National High School registered 4.76 meters on her fifth jump to defeat schoolmate Jessica Jane Cora (4.39) and South Co-tabato’s Pauline Paquierda (4.31) in the week-long meet organized by the Philippine Sports Com-mission.
BATANG PINOYMINDANAO
DAVAO DEL NORTE
FRIENDSHIP FLAME. PSC Chair Ricardo Garcia holds the Games’ torch before passing it over to Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario, right, who then gave it to the torch bearers before the lighting of the cauldron of the 2013 Batang Pinoy Mindanao leg at the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Center. Noel Baguio/DavNor PIO
DC athletes win 2 golds