P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO

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

DROP IN RODYRATINGS SEENAteneo prof says rape slur will bring down Duterte ratings EDGEDAVAOSports

Scan showsno serious injury P16

BATTLE OF PASTIMES. A young boy tries to fly a kite with his buddy on a

windy afternoon at Sta. Ana wharf in Davao City yesterday. Kite-flying is a

favorite summer pastime of kids in the past but its popularity somehow

declined when electronic gadgets and access to the internet became the in

thing. Lean Daval Jr.

A POLITICAL science professor of Ateneo de Davao University

(AdDU) sees a decrease on the ratings of presidential bet Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte who stayed on top of the latest Pulse Asia –ABS-CBN Survey.

AdDU political science professor Ramon Beleno III told EDGE Davao that his re-

cent issue on the rape slur will cause a decrease although he said he cannot predict to what extent.

Duterte remained on the driver’s seat with 32 percent of the 4,000 registered voters nationwide conducted last April 5 to 10.

“Still part of his momen-tum but it was taken first week of April before he made

the statement. We expect him to go down in surveys but we cannot determine the extent,” he said.

Beleno said despite the apology of Duterte the nega-tive effect on his ratings will remain since the rape joke is-sue is very sensitive.

“The apology could be only considered as damage control,” he said.

He said the statement of his opponents who appeared to be taking advantage of the issue to hit him can also affect his ratings.

Beleno, however, said that perhaps only those voters who believed in his platform of government can be lost on his side.

“But his solid supporters FDROP, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 20162 EDGEDAVAO

NEWS EDGEDAVAO

CBCP exec slams delayed release of El Niño fundsAN official from the social

action arm of the Catho-lic Bishops’ Conference

of the Philippines (CBCP) has expressed alarm over reports of delayed release of govern-ment funds that would help ease the burden of farmers suffering from the ill effects of the El Niño phenomenon.

National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA)/Caritas Philippines Executive Secre-tary Fr. Edwin Gariguez is re-ferring to the available funds from the national government such as the quick response funds (QRF), which were not yet fully disbursed despite requests by local government units of areas hit by El Niño.

“What is taking them long from releasing these available funds? We have already seen enough bloodshed in Kidap-awan which rooted from the government’s inaction to this

national concern,” Gariguez pointed out.

The statement was made in light of the recent violent dispersal of farmers rallying for food aid in Kidapawan City which resulted in the death of at least two farmers and doz-ens more injured.

A ranking official of the Autonomous Region in Mus-lim Mindanao (ARMM) re-cently confirmed that their “letter request for funding has not been acted upon despite follow-ups.”

This was also the senti-ment of the governor of North Cotabato, who said that they had not received any funding from the national government although the request was made as early as March.

“Time is of the essence here. The government needs to act now and disburse

U.S. Embassy Manila do-nated a newly-refur-bished building at the

Sulu Training Center, Camp Kasim, Jolo, Sulu to the Phil-ippine National Police(PNP).

The construction of the barracks began in early 2015 by the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force West, and was completed on April 4, 2016 at a cost of Php 16.9 million(USD 375,000).

The building will serve as barracks for PNP officers who are receiving U.S.-spon-

sored training at Camp Kasim and in Jolo City. PNP person-nel from all over the island of Jolo will be able to utilize the barracks during training sessions.

The ground floor of the new barracks consists of a conference room, Interna-tional Criminal Investigative Training Assistance training office, and two private offices, while the top floor consists of both male and female bar-racks areas. The barracks can support 36students. (PNA)

‘PRESIDENTIAL MAT’. A mother and her son use a campaign poster made of tarpaulin of leading presidential bet Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte as mat while they are sleeping on the sidewalk along R. Magsaysay Avenue in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

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

THE Police Regional Of-fice (PRO) 11 is taking a firm stand not to en-

ter into negotiations for the release of the captured police station commander in Davao City and his four subordinates who are in the custody of New People’s Army (NPA).

PRO 11 regional director Chief Supt. Manuel Gaerlan said in yesterday’s AFP-PNP Press Corps at Task Force Davao headquarters, any gov-ernment offices and agencies are not allowed to negotiate with any group who commit-ted criminal acts such as ab-duction.

Gaerlan, however, said the PRO 11 will welcome any ini-tiative from different groups and individuals who are will-ing to negotiate with the rebel

group for the safe release of Chief Insp. Leonardo V. Taron-goy, Police Officer (PO)3 Ros-enie L. Cabuenas, PO3 Rudolf Pacete, PO3 Abdul Azis A. Ali Jr and PO2 Neil C. Arellano.

“We do not say that nego-tiation is not allowed but only for us in the PNP (Philippine National Police),” he said.

He said the PRO 11 will not seek any help from any individual or group who will negotiate with the rebels.

Gaerlan said he received information that the family of the victims has sought help to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte for the immediate re-lease of the police officers.

He said he has not yet re-ceived any demands from the rebels for the release of the five police.

Meanwhile, Gaerlan said the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) formed the Special In-vestigation Task Group (SITG) Mapula to gather information and evidence for possible filing of charges against the abduc-tors.

“This case involves the lives and safety of the police officers,” he said.

Gaerlan said the opera-tions of police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Paquibato District.

“I will just hope and pray that this will not endanger the lives of our police officers,” he said.

He said he appealed to the NPA to release the five police because they did not commit crimes against the people.

“They are not the enemies

of the people, they are public servants,” he said.

Gaerlan said a certain Rigo-berto Sanchez, spokesperson of the NPA Regional Operations Command- Southern Mindan-ao Region (ROC-SMR), states that the 1st Pulang Bagani Command is responsible for the abduction of the police of-ficers and claims that the PNP personnel are held as “Prison-ers of War”.

“The Police Officers are ci-vilians and not military person-nel or combatants,” he added.

He also said the lawless act committed against the law en-forcers is not acceptable since the country is not at war and there is no declaration of war.

Gaerlan said Taronggoy and his four subordinates

PRO 11: No nego with NPA

Mt. Apo fire now under control but BFP still rounding up areasTHE Bureau of Fire Pro-

tection (BFP) 11 is still trying to subdue the fire

in Mt.Apo although it has de-clared the fire is already under control.

This was bared by BFP 11 spokesperson Insp. Nestor Jimenez in yesterday’s AFP-PNP Press Corps forum at Task Force Davao headquarters.

Jimenez said the firefight-ers and some volunteers in Mt.Apo are conducting ground verification to see if there are still smokes and small fires in some areas.

He said the Indigenous People (IP) living within the

mountain range is helping the BFP in their overhauling op-eration by digging the fire-hit portions to ensure that there is no more fire.

Jimenez said the Depart-ment of Science of Technol-ogy (DOST) is also assisting the volunteers by conducting thermal mapping operation to see if some areas still have fires.

“The thermal mapping will be our basis to declare fire out in Mt.Apo,” he said.

He said the operation of the thermal mapping which started yesterday will last up to four days.

Jimenez said the team experience difficulty in the conduct of thermal mapping because originally it supposed to be an aerial survey but due to bad weather, they resorted to ground mapping.

He said that since last Friday, the Mt. Apo has been covered with thick clouds that made the Huey Helicopter of Philippine Air Force incapable.

“When the team will go back here in the city, we will conduct another meeting with the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and the Davao del Sur Provincial Disaster Risk

Reduction Management Coun-cil by Monday, ” he said.

Jimenez said after the meeting on Monday, the DENR, Davao del Sur PDRRMC and BFP 11 will declare whether or not it is fire out.

He said the fire was al-ready manageable and the fire fighters now were just making the overhauling operations in the mountains on Thursday last week.

“Our fire fighters now are checking all the portions of the mountain and they are sup-pressing the fire through the use of power spray,” he said. ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.

US Embassy donates barracks at Camp Kasim, Jolo, Sulu to PNP

F PRO 11, 10F CBCP, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 3NEWSEDGEDAVAO

NURSES from both public and private hospitals and clinics

in Davao City will be showing their support for Presidential candidate City Mayor Rodri-go Duterte on April 30.

The group is called the “Nurses for Duterte”, who will kick off their motorcade around the city at 8 a.m. start-ing at the Davao Crocodile Park owned by businessman Philip “Sonny” Dizon, also a staunch Duterte supporter.

The motorcade will pro-ceed to the Diversion high-way, Ma-a, Matina, Sandawa, Boulevard, Agdao, R. Castillo, PRC, SM Lanang, Bajada, Gai-

sano Mall, Acacia, Ponciano Reyes, Rizal Extension and end up the San Pedro Cathe-dral.

They will also have a short prayer at the mini chap-el.

“Let us all unite in sup-porting the candidacy of our beloved Mayor Duterte, who is a good leader for our coun-try,” said the statement of the Nurses for Davao.

All the nurses and their friends will be wearing red T-shirts during the event. Free T-shirt printing is avail-able at the MK & MK Print-shop located Net Express Bonifacio.

Motorcade of nursesfor Duterte set April 30

UPDATES ON KIDNAPPED COPS. Police Regional Office (PRO) 11 director Chief Superintendent Manuel Gaerlan gives updates on the five police officers allegedly abducted by members of the New People’s Army (NPA)

who are still in the Paquibato District area. Gaerlan graced yesterday’s AFP-PNP Press Corps media forum at Task Force Davao headquarters. Lean Daval Jr.

WHAT happened to the marriage of presi-dential candidate

Rodrigo Duterte and former wife, Elizabeth Zimmerman, does not reflect Duterte’s im-pressive record as a public servant.

This was the assertion of Duterte’s daughter, Inday Sara

Duterte-Carpio amidst reports that her father’s rivals will use the failed marriage of her par-ents against him -- projecting him as incapable of governing the country as president.

Reports said Duterte will be painted as psychologically incapacitated, impulsive, self-ish, and someone who makes

decisions without remorse.But Inday Sara, a lawyer,

said her father might have failed in his marriage but defi-nitely not as an elected public servant.

“Psychological incapaci-tated in a marriage does not reflect the character of a per-son outside the marriage,”

she said. “He’s impulsive? He’s selfish? Does his track record in governance, as a public ser-vant, show that he is impulsive or selfish? They do not.”

One can only check out her father’s track records, which are public, she said.

“The court may have used

Sara defends Duterte over annulment issue

F SARA, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 20164 EDGEDAVAO

SUBURBIA

PUBLIC Attorney’s Of-fice (PAO) chief Persida Acosta and members of

the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) rushed here, Monday morning follow-ing reports that the 79 farmers involved in the April 1 bloody dispersal have not return to their respective homes, de-spite a court order after post-ing bail bond for their tempo-rary liberty.

Acosta said there were family members of the arrest-ed farmers that sent text mes-sages informing her that the released farmers instead of going home were being kept in an area owned by the Diocese of Kidapawan.

Acosta went to the Bish-

op’s Palace in Barangay Balin-dog, here to verify such report and found out that the farmers were being housed in an or-ganic farm in Sitio Maligaya, Barangay Balindog here.

Acosta’s group accompa-nied by the farmers defense lawyers, went to the area estimated at least 500 me-ters away from the Cotaba-to-Davao highway and there she met the farmers and con-vinced them to go home.

Tensions became high when some of those who have identified themselves as mar-shals exchange discussions with the PAO chief.

Acosta explained that the purpose of her coming was to verify whether the released

farmers were being prevented to go home or not.

Unidentified marshal also told Acosta that they conduct-ed consultations among the farmers and majority of them opted to stay at the organic farm because of fear of their security in their places.

The marshal clarified that they did not prevent those who wanted to go home. How-ever, they are still processing their papers as well as assess the situation in the ground whether it is safe for them to leave the farm and go home.

Acosta had given a chance to talk to the farmers. How-ever, she failed to convinced them to go home for them to be united with their respective

families.Only 5 farmers agreed to

return home.They were identified as

Roxanne Roquero of the town of Magpet; Lolita Porras, Ma-jonie Buguat, Ederlyn Daeldo and Vilma Vicente all of Ara-kan town.

They were personally ac-companied with PAO lawyers in their respective homes. They were also given financial assistance by the PAO.

Before flying back to Manila, Acosta assured the farmers of support and even instructed the PAO lawyers in Kidapawan to monitor their situation every now and then especially the status of their cases. (PNA)

TWO notorious drug pushers were killed in a shootout with police op-

eratives in an outskirt village in Koronadal City, South Cota-bato on Tuesday afternoon.

Supt. Barney Condes, city police chief, identified the slain suspects as live-in part-ners Jeffrey Dalamban and Bailyn Kudarat Balambag, both residents of Purok Kings in Barangay General Paulino Santos here.

He said the shootout en-sued after the suspects resist-ed arrest and opened fire at police officers during a buy-bust operation at an aban-doned house in Purok Rosal, Barangay Namnama at around 4:45 p.m.

After noticing police teams posted near the area, Dalam-ban and Balambag immediate-ly tried to escape, he said.

He said the two ran to-wards a nearby rice field and upon realizing that they were already surrounded by op-eratives, Dalamban drew his handgun and fired.

“As it turned out, one of them was armed and fired at us while attempting to escape,” said Condes, who led the oper-ation.

Dalamban and Balambag

were rushed to a local hospi-tal but succumbed to gunshot wounds on their chest and stomach. No one was hurt among the police operatives.

Police recovered at the scene Dalamban’s caliber .38 revolver, a spent bullet, several sachets of suspected metam-phetamine hydrochloride or shabu and a motorcycle.

Condes said the operation was a joint effort of the Koro-nadal City police station, South Cotabato Highway Patrol Group led by Chief Insp. Arnold Carino, and the City Anti-Drug Abuse Council headed by its action officer Dr. Glorio Sandig.

He said they carefully planned the operation based on initial reports that the sus-pects are “armed and danger-ous.”

The police official said they are currently verifying reports that Dalamban was involved in the daring robbery at the Agencia Brillantes pawnshop here in 2014 that resulted to the killing of two security guards.

He added that the suspect was allegedly a member of a “Martilyo Gang” that operated in Metro Manila and in parts of Region 12 or the Soccsksargen Region. (PNA)

JOINT police and military au-thorities are hunting down unidentified men who tried,

but failed, to topple two trans-mission towers of the National Grid Corporation of the Phil-ippines (NGCP) in Carmen, North Cotabato early Tuesday morning, police said today.

Chief Insp. Julius Malcon-tento, Carmen town police chief, said elements of North Cotabato police office and combatants of the 7th Infantry Battalion have joined forces in running after the perpetrators, who local officials claimed were residents of nearby towns in North Cotabato.

Malcontento said the sus-pects planted six powerful im-provised explosive devices on Towers No. 95 and 96 located in Barangay Aroman and Ba-rangay Kitulaan, respective, all in the town of Carmen.

Quoting village officials, Malcontento said that loud explosions were heard by vil-lagers that came almost simul-taneously shortly before 1 a.m. of April 19.

He said nobody was re-ported injured in the series of explosions, he said.

Police and military bomb disposal team’s investigation showed that the suspects planted three IEDs on Tower 95 and another three IEDs on Tower 96.

All three IEDs, fashioned from 60 mm mortars with mobile phone as triggering de-vices and attached to the struc-ture’s steel poles (tower 96) went off, cutting all the three legs.“The tower remained standing and still serviceable,” Malcontento said.

At Tower 95, two of the three IEDs went off, cutting two legs of the steel tower.

“It remained standing, too,” he said, adding that the third IED was safely defused

by police and Army bomb ex-perts.

When asked why the tow-ers were not toppled, Malcon-tento theorized that the other steel braces of the towers remained intact and that the power lines helped held the affected structures.

Malcontento said the two structures were also bombed in the past with Tower No. 95 bombed last December 24, 2015 and Tower 96 sometime in 2006.

“No one has owned up the bombing but police and Army probers are eyeing extortion-ist groups to be behind the attack,”

The structures carry the 138 KV line from NGCP station in Kibawe, Bukidnon to anoth-er station in Kabacan, North Cotabato.

Malcontento said the vil-lage officials of Kitulaan and Aroman have vowed to help the police identify the sus-pects.

“This is the 4th and 5th bombing of NGCP towers this year. Restoration of the two towers will commence as soon as the area is secured,” Mel-france Bambi Capulong, speak-ing for the NGCP southern Mindanao, said in a statement.

She said NGCP stressed that the bombings only serve to increase the burden of the public, which must suffer through service interruptions when towers are bombed.

“NGCP appeals to the local community and its leaders to help identify the perpetrators of the bombings to prevent longer power interruptions,” she said.

Malcontento said police and Army elements were de-ployed around the two towers while repair works conducted by NGCP field personnel were going on. (PNA)

A MAGNITUDE 5.0 earth-quake jolted the prov-ince of Davao Oriental on

Wednesday morning, accord-ing to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

In its bulletin, the agency said the tremor occurred at 1:17 a.m. with its epicenter traced at 16 kilometers north-east of Cateel in Davao Oriental which also felt Intensity 4.

Phivolcs said that Bislig, Hi-

natuan and Barobo, Surigao del Sur felt the tremor at Intensity 4 while Intensity 3 felt in Lin-gig and Lianga, Surigao del Sur and Bislig, Surigao del Sur and. Meanwhile, Intensity 2 was felt in Cagayan de Oro City.

Phivolcs described an In-tensity 4 tremor as moderately strong it felt generally by peo-ple indoors and by some peo-ple outdoors. Light sleepers are awakened.

It further noted that a vi-

bration like the “passing of heavy truck. Hanging objects swing considerably. Dinner, plates, glasses, windows and doors rattle while floors and walls of wood framed build-ings creak. Standing motor cars may rock slightly.

It added that liquids in con-tainers are slightly disturbed. Water in containers oscillate strongly while rumbling sound may sometimes be heard.

The tremor, which was tec-

tonic in origin, had a shallow depth of 102 kilometers.

Despite the reported in-tensity, the agency noted that there was no casualty nor dam-age reported from the quake.

However, the agency said that aftershocks are expected to hit the affected areas.

The Philippines lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where 20 to 25 earthquakes per day, most-ly imperceptible, are common. (PNA)

ANTI-DRUG operatives arrested three alleged drug pushers, including

a “high-value target,” in a buy-bust operation in the city’s downtown area on Tuesday night.

Kath Abad, public infor-mation officer of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Region 12, identified the suspects as Glory Mae Cor-puz, 28; Nathaniel Jorge Labra-da, 19; and, Julito Sambrana, 22.

She said Corpuz, who is re-portedly a cashier and resident of Purok Pearly Shell in Baran-gay Bula here, is number six in the agency’s drug watch list for the region.

Labrada is listed as a ven-dor and resident of Uhaw in Ba-rangay Fatima while Sambrana hails from Purok Silway Fatima in Barangay Dadiangas West.

Abad said the suspects were arrested at around 6:20 p.m. near the city’s oval pla-

za playground after one them sold a sachet of suspected ma-temphetamine hydrochloride or shabu to a PDEA agent who posed as a buyer.

Seized from their posses-sion were about five grams of suspected shabu worth PHP37,500, she said.

“The main target of the op-eration is Corpuz but we were able to capture her cohorts in the process,” she said.

Abad said Corpuz, who is

also known as alias Madam and Mimi, is reportedly a “big time” shabu pusher and linked to a major illegal drug syndicate op-erating in the region.

She said the suspects, who are currently detained at the PDEA-12 lockup here, will be charged with violation of Sec-tion 5 or sale of dangerous drugs), Article II of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. (PNA)

PAO chief meets with farmers of N. Cotabato in April 1 rally

3 drug pushers nabbed in GenSan buy-bust

2 drug pushers shot in dead in Koronadal City

Army, cops hunt downNGCP towers bombers

Magnitude 5 earthquake jolts Davao Oriental

GLOBE TELECOM HOLDS ANNUAL STOCKHOLDERS MEETING. Globe Telecom held its Annual Stockholders Meeting, on April 13, 2016, at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati. Globe Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (second from right) reported during the event that the company in 2015 surpassed its performance in the previous year, posting new highs in service revenues, EBITDA and net profit. The company’s remarkable performance was driven by broad-based data-driven growth across its key services,

helped in part, by the consolidation of Bayan in the second half of last year, he said. Photo above also shows (from left) Globe Director Fernando Zobel de Ayala; Globe Corporate Secretary Solomon Hermosura; and Globe President & CEO Ernest Cu. Following its impressive performance last year, the Globe board of directors approved early this year the declaration of a first quarter cash dividend of P22 per share for holders of its common shares.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 5EDGEDAVAO

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 20166 EDGEDAVAO

ECONOMY

crc@edgedavao.netBy CHENEEN R. CAPON

THE Department of Ener-gy has warned of higher power bills next month

due to the dispatch of die-sel-fired power plants.

“There will really be an impact due to the many coal fired power plants on mainte-nance shutdown -- replaced by bunker or diesel fired power plants,” DOE Secretary Zenaida Monsada said in a press confer-ence Monday.

She noted the Malaya oil thermal power plant was dis-

patching its capacity to the Lu-zon grid.

The secretary further said the Interruptible Load Program participants use generator sets that run on either diesel or gas-oline, which are more expen-sive than power brought from coal-fired power plants.

Monsada explained the higher rates was necessary for the stability of power in the Lu-zon grid.

She pointed out the power plant operators did not force

the outage of the coal-fired power plants, as the pow-er plants were on scheduled maintenance. It is part of the efforts of the department to en-sure enough power supply for the May 9 elections.

The secretary also cited the rising heat index as a factor to the higher power demand.

“If the forecast temperature is equivalent to the demand, we will not have alerts,” Monsada said.

She further said the heat in-

dex caused the grid to reach its peak demand of 9,300 mega-watts, which was initially ex-pected to occur in May.

The Luzon grid was put on red alert on April 15, due to high power demand and low power supply caused by the outage of some power plants. The Manila Electric Co. warned of rotating brownouts due to the alert.

The distribution utility ear-lier warned of higher power rates induced by the dry sea-son. (PNA)

Hike in power bills looms in May -- DOE

PRICE TEST. A fish trader at Bankerohan Public Market’s fish ‘bagsakan’ area gets meat sample of a small tuna to test and validate its quality which he use as basis for pricing his product. Lean Daval Jr.

DOTC told: Answer petitionto stop P19-B Sasa projectTHE Supreme Court has

given the Department of Transportation and

Communication (DOTC) 10 days to comment on the urgent petition for writ of Kalikasan with prayer for Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) filed against the P18.9-billion Davao Sasa port moderniza-tion project.

Lawyer Harry Roque, counsel of the petitioners, told EDGE Davao that the DOTC has not made its counter affi-davit since the case was heard on Tuesday last week.

The petitioners of the case, which was filed last March 14, are Davao City Councilor Di-osdado Mahipus Sr., former councilor Pilar Braga, repre-senting the consumer sector, former councilor Antonio Vergara, urban poor represen-tative Benjie Badal, and the Samal City Resort Owners As-sociation, Inc. (SCROA).

The 26-page petition asked the Supreme Court to is-sue a writ of continuing man-damus and Writ of Kalikasan with prayer for TEPO before the Supreme Court last March

14. The SC is now consider-

ing the petition which seeks to stop the Sasa port bidding by issuing a Writ of Kalikasan for the failure of the national gov-ernment to seek the consent of the people and for not comply-ing with environmental laws.

Roque said he is optimistic that the highest tribunal will rule in favor of the petitioners.

“There is an obvious viola-tion of the Local Government Code and the Environment Code,” Roque said, adding that the petitioners are using the decision of the Supreme Court on the case between Boracay Foundation, Inc. against Phil-ippine Reclamation Authority and the provincial govern-ment of Aklan in 2011 as its argument.

In this case, he said the Supreme Court issued a per-manent environmental pro-tection order not just a TEPO because of the noncompliance to the Local Government Code and Environmental Code as the barangay government did not give their consent to the project.

Roque believes that the

court will also apply the same decision on the Davao Sasa Modernization Project.

The enactment of the writ of Kalikasan “is a commitment that the court will use judicial power in order to protect the environment and promote the right of the people to healthy ecology.”

Earlier, petitioners togeth-er with other concerned citi-zens of Davao City and stake-holders in some parts of the Davao Region wrote a letter to the four remaining bidders to withdraw their bids and join the bandwagon calling for the review of the project.

“We ask you to withdraw your bids and join our call for the review of this project and let the next administration to pursue it,” the oppositors said.

The critics said the port development project “has wrong premises, design and cost and therefore not respon-sive to the needs of the port users of the Davao region. It has not also undergone the correct and transparent bid-ding procedures and process-es.”

The four bidders, the op-

positors said, will have to con-sider the “two huge obstacles” of the project which is, firstly, the objection of the city gov-ernment of Davao. “No less than the elected City Council of Davao issued a resolution of to this effect last December 21, 2015.”

Secondly, the group said an urgent case was filed be-fore the Supreme Court last month for the project which the group described as “white elephant and subject of a trou-blesome litigation.”

“It is a petition to stop this bidding by invoking the Writ of Kalikasan for the failure of the national government to seek the consent of the people and for not complying with en-vironmental laws.”

The group said the “na-tional government must be hiding these issues” from the interested port developers which will eventually become “unnecessary problems”.

“Hence, we appeal to your sense of fairness and justice. We are afraid you will eventu-ally be holding the proverbial empty bag if you pursue this bid,” the letter read.

THOUSANDS of Over-seas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Saudi Ara-

bia remained unpaid for their delayed salaries despite an agreement between the gov-ernment of the Philippines and concerned companies that the salaries would be released last Marach.

This was bared by Princess Muffy Daknash of Kaagapay OFW Resource and Service Center, Inc., a non-governmen-tal organization based in Cota-bato who graced in last Mon-day’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Annex.

Daknash said concerned companies and Ciriaco A. La-gunzad III, undersecretary for worker’s welfare and so-cial protection cluster of the Department of Labor, agreed to pay the workers, who are mostly in the construction ac-tivities, last month.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz earlier said two con-struction giants – Saudi Oger Ltd. and Saudi Binladin Group – employing a large number of OFWs are having difficul-ties paying the salaries of their workers on time since last year even before the oil crisis.

Based on the data of the Philippine Overseas Employ-ment Administration, Saudi Oger employs 8,757 OFWs, while 5,930 OFWs are working under the SBG’s airport, build-ing and construction division, a report said.

“It is already April and the month of May is fast approach-ing. However, nothing has hap-

pened until today,” Daknash said. “What we can provide are just temporary solutions to the workers’ problems.”

She said the Kaagapay has been involved in giving finan-cial assistance to affected OFWs in Saudi Arabia. “However, this assistance is very limited be-cause we are dependent on the donations we collect from fel-low OFWs in the Middle East.”

Daknash said most of th econstruction workers have not received their salaries for six months to one year as the result of the economic problem of the country.

She said most of families left in the Philippines have not received any support from their OFW counterpart, she said. “Some of their children cannot even pay for their tui-tion fees anymore.”

“Many of the affected old workers are getting sick and they cannot afford to go to hospital because they are not covered by health insurance anymore,” she added.

Some are also fined for not renewing their residency permits, Daknash said. “Each worker has to pay a fine of P200, 000 per month for over-staying.”

Meanwhile, Sec. Baldoz denied in a report two months ago about alleged mass re-trenchment of Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi companies are not dismissing Filipinos wholesale from their jobs contrary to re-ports,” she said. CHENEEN R. CAPON

Salaries of OFWs in Saudistill delayed: NGO report

CONSTRUCTION of the long-awaited Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7)

finally kicked off on Wednes-day morning with a ground-breaking ceremony at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.

The Php69.30-billion project includes the develop-ment of a 23-kilometer rail-way system with 14 stations from North Avenue, Quezon City to San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan, passing through Commonwealth Avenue and Quirino Highway in Novali-ches.

It is expected to initially accommodate 350,000 dai-ly passengers and shorten travel time from the current 3.5 hours on the road to one hour once completed and op-erational by its target date in April 2020.

Ultimately, about 800,000 passengers per day — most-ly residents from Novaliches, Quezon City and Caloocan City, Bulacan, and neighbor-ing areas in the north are ex-pected to benefit from a faster commute with the completion of the project.

The project also covers the development of an integrated transportation system, which includes the said railway sys-tem, a 22-km highway from the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) Bocaue interchange,

and an intermodal transport terminal (ITT) adjacent to the San Jose del Monte Station.

This way, commuters can take public utility vehicles (PUVs) or private cars and use the new highway from NLEX, alight at the ITT, and board the MRT-7 going to North Avenue, Quezon City.

President Benigno S. Aqui-no III led the groundbreaking ceremony, together with De-partment of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya.

Also present was the president of San Miguel Cor-poration (SMC), the parent company of contractor Uni-versal LRT Corporation (ULC), Ramon Ang.

Abaya welcomed the lat-est development, noting that the project is not only meant to provide better transport but also decongest traffic in Metro Manila and nearby ar-eas inthe north.

“The long-awaited MRT-7 will serve commuters who ply the heavily-congested Com-monwealth Avenue area for work and school on a daily basis,” Abaya said.

“The new railway system will not only significantly less-en travel time along this cor-ridor, but also help decongest traffic in Caloocan and NLEX,” he added. (PNA)

MRT-7 breaks ground; setto be operational by 2020

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 7EDGEDAVAO THE ECONOMY

crc@edgedavao.netBy CHENEEN R. CAPON

THE Philippine govern-ment is committed to ensure the integrity of

the country’s banking system as well as domestic financial transactions, a Palace official said Tuesday.

“The government sup-ports all legal processes that are observed to ensure the integrity of all banking and financial transactions in the Philippines,” Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Her-minio Coloma Jr. said in a statement.

On Monday, Bangladesh’s Criminal Investigation Depart-ment (CID) said about 20 for-eign nationals from the Phil-ippines, Sri Lanka, China and Japan were allegedly involved in theft of about USD 101 mil-lion from the Bangladesh Bank last February.

The CID, however, de-clined to give specifics on these foreign nationals but added that there were also Bangladesh nationals who would be investigated on for their involvement in the heist.

Of the total funds stolen from the dollar account of the Bangladesh’s central bank with the Federal Reserve of New York, about USD 81 mil-lion ended in the Philippines.

The funds were trans-ferred to four different ac-counts opened in the Jupi-ter-Makati branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corpo-ration (RCBC) in May 2015, which were idle until February this year.

These funds were consol-idated to an account under the name of Chinese-Filipino businessman William Go, who

THE Philippines regis-tered a USD 854 million balance of payment

(BOP) surplus in March 2016, reversing the deficit in the pre-vious month and in March last year.

Data released by the Bang-ko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Tuesday showed that the sur-plus in the third month this year is way better than the USD 316 million deficit last

February and year-ago’s USD 244 million deficit.

This brought the first quarter’s BOP position to a USD 275 million deficit, a big improvement from the end-February’s USD 1.1 billion deficit but a reversal from the USD 877 million in end-March last year.

BOP refers to the summa-ry of a country’s total transac-tions with the rest of the world.

Monetary officials are opti-mistic that the country will be able to stand against the global financial volatilities, thus, the assumption of a USD 2.2 billion BOP surplus for 2016.

In 2015, the country end-ed with a USD 2.6 billion BOP surplus, higher than the cen-tral bank’s USD 2 billion sur-plus target and a turn-around from the USD 2.86 billion defi-cit in 2014. (PNA)

PHL committed to ensuringintegrity of banking system

PHL posts $854-M BOP surplus in March

REBUILDING. Carpenters take a break from rebuilding houses at the fish ‘bagsakan’ area in Pag-asa, Bankerohan, Davao City to eat their lunch yesterday. Majority of residents in the area, mostly traders and vendors, have rebuilt their houses and stores that were gutted by a huge fire last week. Lean Daval Jr.

THE prospect that oil prices might fall hard to $20 per barrel has

increased significantly with the collapse of the Doha talks, and this is great news for the Philippines, which is heavily reliant on imported fuel, the party-list group Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers’ Association (LPG-MA) said Wednesday.

“The breakdown of the Doha talks means that Filipino households and businesses will enjoy for an extended pe-riod the economic benefits of depressed oil prices, including gas and electricity bills that are easy on the pocket as well as low transport costs,” LPG-MA Rep. Arnel Ty, a member of the House energy committee, said.

There is greater likelihood now that oil will fall back to below $30 per barrel, and pos-

sibly sink to as low as $20, ac-cording to Ty.

A potential pact to restrict output by 18 members and non-members of the Organi-zation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell apart Sunday after Iran refused to join in.

Amid a global overflow, Tehran has been ramping up oil production following the lifting of Western sanctions as part of a nuclear deal. Once the world’s second-largest oil pro-ducer, Iran is raring to grow market share and exporting up to 1.9 million barrels of oil per day.

“The huge cost-savings from cheap oil has put extra cash in the pockets of Filipino consumers, and the increase in buying power has helped stimulate demand for goods and services, thus firing up the

domestic economy,” Ty said.Owing to the steep drop

in oil prices, Ty said the Philip-pines generated $5.24 billion, or P238.43 billion, in cost-sav-ings from all the crude oil and finished petroleum products that it imported last year.

The Philippines spent only $7.19 billion to pay for its oil imports in 2015, down 42 per-cent from the $12.43 billion it spent in 2014, according to the Department of Energy.

The country purchased oil, mainly from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emir-ates and Qatar, at an average cost of $60.06 per barrel in 2015 -- down 46 percent from $106.89 per barrel in 2014.

After surveying 45 coun-tries, the global forecasting firm Oxford Economics Ltd. had predicted that the Philip-

$20 barrel now likely with Doha talks collapse: LPG-MA

Council passes Halal ordinanceMARILOU Ampuan,

chairperson of the Halal Commitee of

the Philippine Tourism Con-gress, said the passage of a Davao City ordinance requir-ing a separate lane for halal (permissible) products in business establishments will boost the city’s bid to become

a prime destination of tourists from Islamic countries.

“This will be a big contri-bution to inbound tourism and a boost in the promotion of our domestic destinations,” Ampuan told Edge Davao in a text message yesterday.

She said the legislative measure will boost the city’s

bid to be enlisted as one of the preferred destinations of Muslim tourists by the CrescentRating, a Singapor-ean-based accreditation body which is referred to as the world’s leading authority on halal travel.

Ampuan, who is also the secretary of the Mindanao Is-

lamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (MICCII), said the approval of the ordi-nance in last Tuesday’s regu-lar session of the city council was a “milestone.”

“This is a milestone for Davao City Council for sup-porting the halal industry,” she said. “We are proud that

Davao is the only city in the Philippines able to pass an ordinance segregating halal products.”

The measure authored by Councilor Halila Y. Sudagar, committee chair on cultur-al communities and Muslim affairs, was passed to “pro-mote, protect and respect, the

religious belief, customs and traditions of our Muslim com-munity in Davao City in their sacred concept of halal and to ensure spiritual purity and cleanliness on their food.”

The legislation requires stores “selling raw fish, sea-foods, meat, processed meat

F COUNCIL, 10

F PHL, 10

F $20 BARREL, 13

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 20168 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

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EDITORIALNot so quick response

WE have witnessed how farmers protested the failure of the government to ease the burden of Filipino farmers affected by the El Nino phenomenon. Lives have been lost, several others

sustaining injuries.Their cries perhaps fell on deaf ears.After a long silence and concentrating instead on the political front,

the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines finally came out in the open on the El Nino calamity.

An official from the social action arm of the CBCP expressed alarm over the delayed release of government funds farmers suffering from the ill effects of the El Niño phenomenon.

Fr. Edwin Gariguez, executive secretary of the National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA)/Caritas Philippines, is referring to the avail-able funds from the national government such as the quick response funds (QRF), which were not yet fully disbursed despite requests by lo-cal government units of areas hit by El Niño.

The statement was made in light of the recent violent dispersal of farmers rallying for food aid in Kidapawan City which resulted in the death of at least two farmers and dozens more injured.

So, what’s taking it long for the government to release the funds? A ranking official of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) recently confirmed that their “letter request for funding has not been

acted upon despite follow-ups.”The sentiment was also the same lament of the North Cotabato gov-

ernor who said that they had not received any funding from the national government although the request was made as early as March.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development boasted of the availability of P32 billion QRF for 2016 and another P6.7 billion for the implementation of cash-for-work and livelihood assistance for families affected by El Niño. But these funds were not yet fully downloaded to the affected LGUs.

Now what can you expect from a government that’s busy campaign-ing for its so-called “anointed son”?

What can you expect from the Department of Agriculture which de-nied the fact that there is a food shortage in North Cotabato and the nearby areas?

What can you expect from DA when It declared instead that there is enough food supply in North Cotabato when everyone is already clutch-ing their stomachs in hunger?

Notwithstanding CBCPs’ call for immediate action, the government must act on releasing quickly the QRF to the affected farmers.

As the name suggests, quick response funds and that is for emergen-cy releases as the need arises.

Unless you change it to late response funds.

INCLUSIVE Growth is a mantra repeated by many financial an-alysts, even established insti-

tutions like the World Bank. With the recent global economic crisis, inclusive grow this touted as the means by which long term econom-ic growth can be sustained, and shocks to the economic system, like the 2008 meltdown in Wall Street can be absorbed. The principle is that spreading wealth and income opportunity through the right pol-icies will make an economy strong, as opposed to the trickle down eco-nomic policies of the past 40 years that kept wealth within the realm of big economies and corporations and speculators. The global trend is in-clusivity and equitable opportunity. Without it, the global economic and financial system will collapse.

What inclusive Growth means for the Philippines. Has it been achieved?

It means that poverty levels need to go down, strong agriculture that provides affordable and abundant food, and gainful employment in

e n t e r p r i s -es that add real value to the economy in the long term such as manufactur-ing. This is the antidote of the job-less growth cycle that plagued the Philippines since the 1980s.

Sadly, after six years of Daang Matuwid, the reality remains the same. While manufacturing seems to pick up, and our GDP is truly higher than many Asian countries at 5-7%, Agriculture continues to shrink as a share of GDP, our electricity rates remain Asias highest, and poverty levels remain nailed at the 25-30% level from what it has always been since the 1950s. We cannot be na-tion of call centers, OFW beneficia-ries and resorts alone. The dollars earned mean nothing if food and electricity prices continue to rise, and looming food imports will turn

us into a nation of poor consumers. Whatever GDP growth we achieve will be beaten by higher costs.

We are not as inclusive as our

Asian neighbors, and are least at-tractive to FDIs

Foreign direct investment and inclusivity by looking at poverty levels are basic indicators that al-low us to see how well an economy is performing, and how well it can perform. There are many other indi-cators but these two give us a basic picture. High poverty rates over a twenty year period indicate low in-clusivity, and show high inequality- the gap between rich and poor. Low foreign direct investments indicate that the economic growth is diffi-cult, since new businesses that are needed are unable to take off. These two figures have to be taken over a ten to twenty year historical track to make sense. The figures are not as encouraging as we hoped. While there are slight improvements over the least two years, more improve-ments are needed.

Unfortunately, in spite of the

Aquino governments pronounce-ments pushing this mantra, we lag behind our ASEAN neighbors in ensuring economic inclusivity. The Philippines economy remains the realm of big interests. It is in their interest that the economy remains as it is. Malacanang’s treatment of the calamity- stricken Kidapawan farmers to weeks ago only reinforc-es this.

Last year’s Foreign Direct Invest-ment (FDI) figures may be highest in a long time, but still lag behind our ASEAN neighbors by far. Indo-nesia has always fared better, and Vietnam has overtaken us in the last ten years. Our record in obtaining foreign investment has always been poor compared to our immediate neighbors. While some are proud of the 6.2 billion dollars gained in 2014, we are almost 3 billion dollars lower than Vietnam among the ASE-ANs top 6 FDI recipients. This shows that No amount of investment pro-motion, nor incentive generation will work if government remains difficult to deal with, and corruption remains the rule.

A DAY after May 9, 2016, the Philippines will have elected a new president who will rule in

authority for six years.Since the 2010 balloting, when

the first computerized elections were held, the issue about widespread cheating has not died down. Despite protestations and accusations from several IT experts, notable of which were those that came from former Comelec commissioner Gus Lagman himself, the poll body has remained dogmatic about its position.

(Lagman, whose posture did not please the appointing authority, was eased out consequently. His appoint-ment was not renewed by Pres. Noy-noy Aquino.)

The safeguards that were estab-lished by technology service provid-er Smartmatic did not appear im-penetrable as the succeeding 2013 midterm elections were not them-selves spared as several occasions of cheating and other irregularities were filed with Comelec.

There are persistent rumors cir-culating in political circles and in the grapevine that the forthcoming

presiden-tial con-test will be marred by a sophisti-cated web of com-puterized cheating.

T h i s w o u l d emerge as mind-boggling to those who are sim-ple-minded but to those who have a good grasp of democratic gover-nance, cheating of whatever form does not deserve even an iota of space in our existence.

Elections all over the world, whether in a democratic set-up or in semi-controlled atmospheres are the cornerstones of genuine gover-nance for, of and by the people. Lives of martyrs and even inconsequential people – collateral damage as this is often called – are lost and wasted for its sake.

The hackers who recently entered into the Comelec website exemplified just how easy it is for IT

nerds to penetrate the Comelec web-site despite poll officials’ vehement claims against hacking.

And to add credence, the inter-national gambling syndicate who stole $81 million from the Bangla-Desh Central Bank stored into its account with the New York Federal Reserve Bank proves without doubt that nothing prevents professional hackers from stealing information, secrets and monies from those who believe their websites are completely safe.

The rumors are machiavellian in shape, form and character and spread by word-of-mouth because there isn’t much documentation that can be gathered at the moment. We can only marvel at the grandiosity of the idea, however illusory it may seem because the protestations of Lagman and other IT experts are coming back to the fore.

The political surveys, at this point, may be of consequential help as they statistically pre-determine the heart-beat of the nation. If a candidate whose survey rating is way down be-low the totem pole suddenly arises

from out of the blue to win the pres-idency, then it is logical to assume that his/her victory is something we have to doubt for its authenticity.

Who among the presidential hors-es want to win the race at all costs re-gardless of the consequences?

By the campaign messages they deliver to the electorate, we know who they are already. They woo the Filipino voters with promises made in heaven but realistically lacking in credibility and substance. They put up a front that will put to shame St. Teresa – mingling with the down-trodden, cuddling babies, hugging the poor and shaking the hands of the unshod and the illiterate.

Personally, I think the candidate who wants to win at all costs is the candidate who will brazenly attempt to thwart the will of the Filipino peo-ple. He/She will buy him/herself out of the deep hole that he/she is in be-cause snatching the presidency is the only thing that matters.

Who was it who said that “vigi-lance is the price of liberty?” (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) God bless the Philippines!

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

John Triaecisouth@gmail.com

MY TWO CENTS’

How real is the inclusive growth being talked about?

How safe and clean are the 2016 polls?

Fred C. Lumba

SPECKS OF LIFE

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 201610 EDGEDAVAONEWSDROP... FROM 1

Sara... FROM 3

PHL... FROM 7

PRO 11... FROM 2

Council... FROM 7

CBCP... FROM 2

THE WAIT. Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) 11 spokesman Fire Chief Inspector Nestor G. Jimenez says the agency is still waiting for the result of a thermal imaging being conducted by a group of experts from the

Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Mount Apo before declaring fire out. Jimenez was among the guests of yesterday’s AFP-PNP Press Corps media forum at Task Force Davao headquarters. Lean Daval Jr.

these as grounds for the an-nulment of the marriage, but the court did not say that he is unfit to become a leader,” she said. “The court said my par-

ents are unfit to be together in a marriage, but it did not say that my father is unfit to be-come our leader.”

Inday Sara said the resur-

rection of this issue does not surprise the family.

“This is election. I grew up in politics,” she said. “The fami-ly is no longer surprised. Every

election period, this is one of the issues his rivals use against him. But they’ve already used so many other issues. Sanay na kami. Sanay na si mayor.”

will remain in his side until the day of election,” he said.

He said the mayor and his team should work hard on his campaign to recover from the issue being thrown to him.

“Makakatulong din sig-uro ang performance niya sa debate this Sunday (Maybe, his performance on this Sun-day’s debate will help him re-cover),”

Duterte on Tuesday issued an apology statement saying that there was no intention of disrespecting our women and those who have been victims of this horrible crime.

The mayor however, said he will not apologize for the things he has done to protect our people, especially the weak and defenseless, from crime.

He said he knows what it can do to the victims and their families and the anguish and pain caused.

Duterte said that sadly the government has failed to pro-tect the victims.

He said if given a chance to lead this country, he prom-ises to protect the women, and families from the horrors and disorder of crime.

Some of the women coun-cilors of the Davao City council yesterday defended Duterte from his critics on the rape joke issue.

Chairman of the city coun-cil’s committee on women, children and family relations councilor Leah A. Librado-Yap said the apology of Duterte is already enough for her.

“I am happy that he apolo-gized,” she said.

Librado-Yap said when she first watched the video of Duterte on social media she did not condone the statement because it was really offensive on the part of a woman.

“He (Duterte) explained that it was not bad joke but a bad remark,” she said.

She said if people just de-pend on a certain portion of

the video many people could really react but if the people will see the full video it was a form of narrative that he was angry of the incident.

“Pero, unta wala nalang niya to giingon (But, he should not supposed to say it),” he said.

Librado-Yap said with this issue, Duterte’s opponents will “capitalize it” because his rat-ings are really increasing.

She said the people of the city know who Mayor Duterte is and it could be seen in the programs in the city how the women and children are being protected.

“I hope those who listen, he or she should examine the issue first,” she said.

For her part, councilor Antoinette Principe-Castrodes said it was unfortunate that the mayor was criticized over the issue but people should know the real thing first be-fore hitting him.

“Rape joke is not a laugh-ing matter but we have to see beyond what he said,” Princi-pe-Castrodes.

Principe-Castrodes said despite Duterte’s macho im-age he is a staunch defender of women’s rights in the city.

“We have a Women’s De-velopment Code which he signed into an ordinance as mayor,” she said.

She said the video of the mayor was not taken in the full context because it was spliced and chose only the part which is destructive on the part of Duterte.

Councilor Joanne Bonguy-an-Quilos for her part said the statement was obviously fil-tered out from the whole con-text of the video just to make issue against Duterte.

Bonguyan-Quilos said people who are hitting the mayor did not see the whole message of the mayor.

“Let us not limit ourselves on the statement from the so-cial media,” she said.

went to Barangay Mapula last April 16 to respond to the call from the residents who were wounded in the gun battle against the soldiers of the 72nd Infantry Battalion.

He said if the rebels will hurt or kill the police officers they are criminally liable.

“We are not in the business

of revenge, if they kill a person that is murder,” he said.

Gaerlan also called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to investigate the case because based on the informa-tion he got the five police offi-cers are tied or handcuffed to make shift animal cages under sub-human conditions.

products to segregate halal food from non-halal/haram food items, from delivery to storage, display, weighing slicing, carrying through bas-kets/carts/trolleys, until its final packing in the payment counter.”

The ordinance also covers grocery stores, meat shops, supermarkets and other es-tablishments inside malls, marts, and centers and those outside malls whether regis-tered with properties or not.

Section 6 of the ordinance likewise states that “suppli-ers, owners of grocery stores or supermarket through the managers, staffs, and tenants shall provide separate storage, container, or freezer exclu-sively for halal food items and halal-certified meat products” to segregate it from non-halal products.

“They shall also use separate equipment, tools, gears, and other apparatus which are exclusive for halal food items and halal-certified products only,” it says.

Among the prohibited acts, under Section 12, are im-proper covering or sealing of halal products, mixing of halal with non-halal products, and failure to provide a space in the payment counter in super-market, and shop or store.

Violators shall be fined P500 but not more than P1,000 for first offense; P1,000 but not more than P3,000 and/or suspension of business permit and license to operate for at least three months but not more than six months for the second offense; and P3,000 but not more than P5,000 and revocation of busi-ness permit and liecense to operate for the third offense.

A task force will be created to monitor the compliance of supermarkets, shops, stores, centers, suppliers and other establishments. It will be com-posed of City Health Office, City Veterinarian’s Office and Business Bureau, with Na-tional Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF). (CRC with reports from Mindanews)

the funds intended for the farmers, who have suffered enough. Loss of livelihood means hunger for our people who are already living in pov-erty to start with,” the priest stressed.

The church official added that several dioceses in Min-danao particularly the Archdi-ocese of Cotabato and the Di-ocese of Marbel have already raised the concern about how the drought is taking its toll to their farmers.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development earlier claimed the availabili-ty of Php 1.32 billion QRF for 2016 and another Php 6.7 bil-lion for the implementation of cash-for-work and livelihood assistance for families affect-ed by El Niño. But these funds were not yet fully downloaded to the affected LGUs.

Apart from implementing

the Catholic Church’s largest rehabilitation program for Yolanda survivors, NASSA/Caritas Philippines has always been a staunch supporter of farmers’ rights, advocating agrarian reform and land rights, good governance, and sustainable agriculture.

NASSA/Caritas Philip-pines also currently imple-ments a climate change adap-tation program called FARM-FIRST in eight provinces by helping farmers and fisher-men adapt to changing envi-ronmental conditions for food security and environmental preservation.

The CBCP earlier released an “Oratio Imperata”, a special prayer for rain, which may be considered by the dioceses in their respective pastoral juris-dictions as the country reels from the effects of El Niño. (PNA)

repeatedly claimed that the account was not his and was opened without his knowl-edge.

The funds were then trans-ferred to remittance company, Philrem Services Corp., for conversion before it was deliv-ered in tranches to casino jun-ket operator Kam Sin Wong, alias Kim Wong, businessman Weikang Xu, and casinos East-ern Hawaii Leisure Company, and Bloombery Hotels Inc.

Meanwhile, Wong has again returned million pesos worth of money that was part

of the funds stolen from the BB.

Philippines’ Anti-Money Laundering Council (ALMC) Executive Director Julia Ba-cay-Abad, during a Senate hearing on the case on Tues-day, said the lawyer of Wong returned Php 200 million, which AMLC accepted for safe-keeping.

This is the third time Wong’s camp turned over funds to AMLC after the USD 4.6 million last March 31 and the Php 38.28 million last April 4. (PNA)

ed Grade 6 on top of his class shared that his love for his fam-ily pushed him to study hard and really listen to lectures. Dela Cruz also received medals as Best in Filipino, Mathemat-ics, English and Values.

Life lessons

Languban said he learned how to lead a good life at the center and how to show re-spect. “I am grateful to the staffs for helping me become a better person. We should strive to acquire education to be able to help others.”

Meanwhile, Engaud ad-mitted he acquired a deeper understanding of God with his more than two-year stay at RRCY. “I have learned a lot here like respecting, understand-ing and appreciating others. I want to finish school and take on a job. We should not waste the opportunity while we are

young because we are the hope of our nation.”

For Dela Cruz, he learned respect for elders and obe-dience to rules. “Nakakat-on usab ko pag-ampo, pagpau-bos, pagsabot ug pagpasaylo (I have also come to value prayer, humility, empathy, and forgive-ness).”

In her message, EMAR President and Chief Executive Officer Ma. Lita A. Montalban stressed that education should be made available to all even for those in rehabilitation cen-ters. “What is most important is for every one of you to have access to education and to fin-ish your schooling. Let us live up to our deportment awards and merits that we earned this morning and avoid committing mistakes again. Let us dream to be professionals someday and prove our capability. Let us dream, change for the better

and finish school.”Montalban is also presi-

dent of Private Schools Athletic Association and Sunday High School Administrators’ Asso-ciation and serves as governor for Soroptimist Internation-al-Mindanao.

DSWD chief of Protective Services Raquel E. Nuňez chal-lenged the completers, “Our dreams will come true if we work for them. This is only one part of our accomplishment to becoming useful citizens of our country. What you must possess foremost is a good character and then education, these two would definitely last a lifetime.”

Partners in education

The DSWD-RRCY is a reha-bilitation facility of the govern-ment that provides treatment and interventions to children in conflict with the law (CICL)

to enable them improve their social functioning and facili-tate their reintegration to their family and community.

On the other hand, EMAR is a private educational institu-tion here offering grade school, high school, technical-voca-tional, college and Sunday school curricula.

EMAR implements the same education reach-out program in Davao City’s Bahay Pagasa, Balay Dangupan, and Paginhawaan Center.

In June, EMAR is set to open this joint program at the DSWD Home for Girls and Women wherein regular Kto12 school curriculum is brought and taught at the center.

Moreover, EMAR has heartily opened its doors to 18 high school graduates of RRCY who will pursue Technical-Vo-cational education or a four-year course. (DSWD)

Family... FROM 14

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 11

By HENRYLITO D. TACIO

EDGEDAVAO

HEALTHThe coming of superbugs

“UNLESS we take sig-nificant actions to

improve efforts to prevent infec-tions and also change how we produce, prescribe and use anti-biotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implica-tions will be devastating.” -- Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization’s assistant direc-tor-general for health security.

***

Dr. Emmanuel Edwin R. Dy, then senior research specialist at the Philippine-Australia Co-operation Project on National Drug Policy, reported that Fili-pinos use antibiotics inappro-priately. He based his state-ment from the results of his 1995 study, which he present-ed in a symposium convened by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Develop-ment.

“This research was brought about by the desire of the government to address the problem of antimicrobi-al resistance in the country,” Dr. Dy pointed out during the symposium. “The government wanted somebody to come up with raw data, with hard evi-dence that there is resistance brought about by inappropri-ate use of antibiotics.”

Inappropriate antibiotic use refers to improper ad-ministration with respect to choice, dose, interval, and du-ration in the light of proper clinical situations and/or fi-nancial considerations.

In his study, Dr. Dy found out that most Filipinos use antibiotics inappropriately because of misconception, fi-nancial constraints, prescrip-tion recycling, and widespread self-medication.

Dr. Dy acknowledged that the problem of inappropriate, which leads to improper, use of antibiotics in the Philippines is rather complicated. “There is no simple solution,” he de-plored.

The Philippines, however, is not alone in this dilemma. “Globally, we have recorded 50 percent antibiotics overuse and the number is still increas-ing,” said the World Health Or-ganization, the United Nations health agency based in Geneva, Switzerland.

“In many countries, anti-biotics are available without doctor’s prescription, which

l e t s p a t i e n t s diagnose and dose themselves, often inap-propriately,” Time journalist Michael D. Lemonick wrote. “And high-tech farmers have learned that mixing low dos-es of antibiotics into cattle feed makes the animals grow larger. Bacteria in the cattle become resistant to the drugs, and when people drink milk or eat meat, this immunity may be transferred to human bac-teria.”

But even when doctors dispense antibiotics properly, there is no guarantee they’ll be used that way. Several stud-ies have shown that a third of all patients fail to use the drugs as prescribed. In his special Time report, Lemonick wrote: “Patients frequently stop taking antibiotics when their symptoms go away but before an infection is entirely cleared up. That suppresses susceptible microbes but al-lows partially resistant ones to flourish.”

Emergence of superbugs

The inappropriate use of antibiotics is the primary cause of the emergence of what health experts called as superbugs. These are antibiot-ic-resistant bacteria that pose a deadly threat to humanity; in fact, they are now evolving to become a global threat.

One of the best known superbugs, Methicillin-re-sistant Staphylococcus au-reus (MRSA), is alone estimat-ed to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States -- far more than HIV and AIDS -- and a similar number in Eu-rope.

“If we keep using antibi-otics improperly, the day may come when our antibiotics no longer work against bacteri-al infections-we will have an infectious disease apocalypse that will endanger the human race,” said Dr. Rontgene M. So-lante, an internist and infec-tious diseases specialist.

“The overuse of antibiotics -- especially taking antibiot-ics even when they’re not the appropriate treatment -- pro-motes antibiotic resistance,” the US-based Mayo Clinic ex-plains. “Antibiotics treat bac-terial infections but not viral infections.”

For example, an antibiot-

ic is an a p p r o -p r i a t e t r e a t -m e n t for strep

t h r o a t , which is

caused by the bacteri-um Streptococcus pyogenes. It’s not, however, the right

treatment for most sore throats, which are

caused by virus-es.

“If you take an antibiotic

when you ac-tually have a viral in-

fection, the antibiotic is still attacking bacte-

ria in your body -- bacteria that are either beneficial or at least not causing disease. This mis-directed treatment can then promote antibiotic-resistant properties in harmless bac-teria that can be shared with other bacteria,” the Mayo Clinic further explains.

According to Dr. Solante, there are already two types of bacteria that are already anti-biotic-resistant in the Philip-pines: one that causes gonor-rhea and another that causes tuberculosis (TB).

Drug-resistance cannot only impede the treatment of many common infections, it can also contribute to more serious illness and increased deaths, as well as raising costs of treatments.

Treating a single case of multidrug-resistant TB, for instance, can cost as much as US$250,000. In comparison, treating a person with non-re-sistant TB can cost as little as US$13. “Antibiotic resistance is a particularly difficult prob-lem in developing countries, where the ability to obtain costlier and more effective antibiotics is compromised by lack of financial resources,” notes a report released by the Washington, D.C.-based World Resources Institute.

The origin

Although the mechanisms of antibiotic action were not scientifically understood un-til the late 20th century, the principle of suing organic compounds to fight infections has been known since ancient times.

Crude plant extracts were used medicinally for centu-ries, and there is anecdotal evidence for the use of cheese molds for topical treatment of infection. The first obser-vation of what would now be called an antibiotic effect was made in the 19th century by French chemist Louis Pasteur, who discovered that certain saprophytic bacteria can kill anthrax bacilli.

In the first decade of the 20th century, German physi-cian and chemist Paul Ehrlich started experimenting with the synthesis of organic com-pounds that would selectively

attack an infecting organism without harming the host or-ganism. His experiments led to the development, in 1909, of salvarsan, a synthetic com-pound containing arsenic, which exhibited selective ac-tion against spirochetes, the bacteria that cause syphilis. Salvaran remained the only effective treatment for syphilis until the purification of peni-cillin in the 1940s.

Penicillin was discovered accidentally in 1928 by Brit-ish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming, who showed tis effec-tiveness in laboratory cultures against many disease-produc-ing bacteria. This discovery marked the beginning of the development of antibacterial compounds produced by liv-ing organisms.

The first antibiotic (which comes from two Greek words: anti, “against,” and bios, “life”) to be used successfully in the treatment of human dis-ease was tyrothricin, isolated from certain soil bacteria by American bacteriologist Rene Dubos in 1939.

Today, many different classes of antibiotics have been developed. Each has a different chemical composi-tion and is effective against a particular range of bacteria. None is effective, however, against viral infections. Some have a broad spectrum of ac-tivity against a wide variety of bacteria. Others are used in the treatment of infection by only a few specific organisms.

Antibiotics work in one of these ways. Some, such as penicillin and cephalospo-rins, are “bactericidal,” which means they actually kill dis-ease bacteria. These drugs work by damaging the cell walls and causing the bacteria to burst.

Other drugs, like the tetra-cyclines, are “bacteriostatic,” which mean they hold bacteria in check without killing them. They work by interrupt-ing the normal process-es that allow the cells to grow. Then, when bac-teria can no longer mul-tiply, the body is able to muster its defenses and destroy the germs.

Since their discov-ery, antibiotics have been hailed as miracle drugs. “While they have indeed wrought mira-cles, they cannot cure all infections and some-times can cause serious harm,” warns Lawrence Galton, a New York-based health writer. “Often, when antibiotics don’t measure up to ex-pectations, it’s because they haven’t been sued correctly.”

Getting the full benefit

Here, Galton shares some guidelines “that can help you get the full benefit” from antibiot-ics:

Don’t take antibiotics indis-criminately. There are more than 500 infectious diseases, each caused by a different organism. Of these, at least 200 cannot be treated with antibiotics. One reason is that the drug works only against bacteria, and many infections, including the common cold, are caused by viruses. Al-though some doctors, often under pressure from patient, will prescribe antibiotics for nonbacterial illnesses, the drugs won’t work in these in-stances and may cause other problems.

“When antibiotic therapy is given for such ailments, the patient is needlessly subjected to expense and risk of a drug reaction,” maintains Dr. Ste-ven Sahn, associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver.

There is also the danger of developing a secondary infec-tion from bacteria that are re-sistant to the drug. Antibiotics kill off many harmless bacteria that are normally present in the body. When resistant bac-teria no longer face competi-tion, they may cause trouble.

Take antibiotics for the full period recommended. Many people stop taking medicine as soon as they feel better, in-stead of following the doctor’s prescription. “With too little of the drug, the bacteria may not be completely eradicated and the infection may reappear,” writes Galton.

In addition, surviving bac-teria are those with a low-level resistance to antibiotics. Of-tentimes, these bacteria un-dergo a change that increases their resistance, rendering the drug ineffective.

Learn how to take the drug properly. Some antibiotics ar-en’t effective when taken with other drugs or with certain foods. For instance, tetracy-cline is particularly absorbed

by calcium, so that medicine should not be taken with dairy products. Similarly, penicillin is partially destroyed by acid and should not be taken on an empty stomach, when acid is at a minimum. “Failure to take drug properly means, then, that you can actually get less of it than you swallow,” Galton reminds.

Don’t use leftover antibiot-ics. Using up old prescriptions for new infections or allowing other family members to use leftover drugs could be dan-gerous as different drugs have different effects. The medicine that knocks out one bacterium may be powerless against an-other.

For example, penicillin works against pneumonia only when certain organisms have caused it. Using the wrong antibiotic could allow an illness to become more serious or even life-threaten-ing. In addition, the drug that cured you could be harmful to someone else.

Discuss side effects with your doctor. Some side effects are only minor annoyances that disappear when your body becomes accustomed to the drug. However, other reactions can be life-threaten-ing. While any troublesome symptom should be reported to your doctor, some require notifying him immediately or discontinuing the drug if he can’t be reached.

“Before you take an an-tibiotic, ask if there are nay dangerous side effects,” Galton cautions. “You should also try to prevent side effects by men-tioning any medical condition you have that could make a drug unsafe for you. The doc-tor who treats your infection should also know about oth-er drugs you’re taking. And he should know if you’ve ever had an allergic reaction to any drug. The one he’s prescribing could have similar effects.”

Antibiotics

How antibiotic resistance happens (from CDC)

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO GENSAN PARTNERS

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO PARTNER ESTABLISHMENTS

12CLASSIFIEDS EDGEDAVAO

FOOD

EDGEDAVAOINdulge!

WHEN ONE TALKS ABOUT DAVAO, THE CONVERSATION E V E N T U A L L Y LEADS TO FOOD. With its unique mix of influences coming from the many set-tlers from all over the Philippines, dining in Davao is as diverse as any metropolitan city in the world. This flavour fusion was more evident a few weeks ago at SM Lanang Premier’s Flavor Fusion: Davao on a Plate event. A part of the Flavors of the Philippines celebra-tion spearheaded by the Department of Tourism in support of Madrid Fu-sion Manila 2016, the food event brought together many of Davao’s culinary stars for an afternoon of uniquely Davao treats. Chefs who participated during the well-attended event were Crazy Cook’s Carmina del Rosario who served her famous Kita-yama Wagyu Balbacua, Viking’s Chef Anton Abad who served Tuna Kinilaw three ways, Marco Polo Davao’s Chef Alex Destri-za with a savoury Malagos Cheese Panna Cotta and a Pomelo Salad with Salm-on, and Chippens’ Chef Chino San Jose on the other-hand served Davao Humba. Giving curious guests a taste of the exotic, Water-front Insular Hotel Davao’s

Davao’s new cuisine direction

Chef Victor Barangan served the aptly-named Crocodillio a rice dish us-ing crocodile meat with a smoky civet cat coffee glaze while Bistro Selera’s Chef Googie Sanga served the restaurant’s trademark Bacon-wrapped Tuna Milt. To end the a good meal, CACS’s Chef Eliseo de

Guzman Jr. served a Pom-elo Margarita while Park Inn by Radisson Davao’s Chef Jovi Uy created a trio of desserts featuring Du-rian, Malagos Cheese, and Davao Cacao. I was truly amazed at the kaleidoscope of flavors at the event that are truly Filipino but with a unique Davao twist. Thanks to

this event, Dabawenyos now have more food sto-ries and experiences to talk about, and THAT is a good thing. Follow me on Insta-gram or on Twitter at @kennethkingong for more travel stories, foodie finds, and happenings in, around, and beyond Duri-anburg.

Waterfront Insular Davao’s Chef Victor Barangan’s Crocodillio.

Carmina del Rosario’s famous Kitayama Wagyu Balbacua.

Chef Chino San Jose’s Davao Humba.

Chef Anton Abad’s Tuna Kinilaw with pomelo and watermelon.

Bistro Selera’s Bacon-wrapped Tuna Milt was also one of the crowd favorites.

Savory and sweet Malagos cheese Panna Cotta by Marco Polo Davao’s Chef Alex Destriza.

Park Inn by Radisson Davao’s Chef Jovi Uy gave the event a sweet with her Malagos Cheese Cotton Cheesecake.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

I love my coffee. That’s a fact. But...I also love to pair my coffee with some sweet baked treats. What’s my personal favorite? Pancake. Yes, I’m a pan-cake lover and I love mine fluffy and plain – with just butter and honey. I don’t like overly sweet baked goodies – it takes away the taste and aroma of coffee. What I want are nibbles that complement the bit-ter, rich taste of coffee and vice versa. True, Davao is a big box of delicious goodness. What I love about the city? There is always something new to find, discover and munch on. Here’s some of my fave coffee pairings. What’s yours? On any given day, I’d settle for a donut. Yes, I love donuts – with or without holes (my nephew doesn’t consider filled do-nuts as donuts – they don’t have holes). Donuts are instant perk me uppers that you can easily buy , eat and take wherever you may be. I’m a classic; I love the old school taste. I am adventurous, yes, but I love the taste of classic do-nuts more than anything. Krispy Kreme’s original glaze and Dunkin’ Do-nuts’ boston kreme is my go -to flavours. Blueberry Ensaymada from Green Coffee has always been a personal favorite coffee pair. Back when we would have cof-fee before going to class (MBA Batchmates!), we’d end up at this cafe and munch on these gigantic fluffy treats in an instant. Personally, the ensay-mada is already sweet but is not overly on the sweet side. It could still pair up with a cup of coffee. It is the burst of blueberry that I always look forward to. Not much of a cheese-cake lover but I love

Huckleberry’s Sweet Po-tato Cheesecake. It’s not everyday that you get to taste something like this. The cheesecake itself is relatively not sweet. But as you take a bite with the toppings, you’d be sur-prised. The sweet potato pairs well with the cheese-cake. This is something I’d definitely order again.

Recent fave? Well, for those who know me, I don’t really dig peanut butter. Except for peanut butter cups. Though on the sweeter side, I still love Dulce Vida’s YOLO cake. It’s creamy and sweet and packed with flavours with every bite. It’s actually ad-dicting to the taste buds. I especially love the creamy, buttery center filling. Yum yum!

A2 INdulge! EDGEDAVAOFOOD

ENDING APRIL ON A SWEET, SWEET-ER, SWEETEST RUN WITH SOME SWEET BAKED FAVORITES FROM DAVAO’S MANY DELECTABLE SHOPS. It’s not a ‘top..list of’ but a list of what I have loved, love and will always love when I’m having a slow coffee day with friends and colleagues.

A baker and barista LOVE AFFAIR

Also, I adore macarons. But mostly, I pair them with tea. For a time, I was always munching on some hot belgian waffles from Starbucks. I love how they present it. The crisscross pattern on the waffle, creamy white goodness of cream with drizzles of chocolate syrup – simply decadent. Another new love from Starbucks is their French Toast. I love anything with cinnamon and honey. The combina-tion is just so divine – it’s my jagged pill of happi-ness. One other notable pair for coffee is Frog Kaffee’s sachertorte cake. There’s something about this cake that makes me excited to take a bite. It’s not a dense cake -- that’s for sure -- and is not overpowering. This pairs well with either hot or cold. Make #TheRoyalChef your Thursday habit! Fol-low my messy food affair at theroyalchefeats.word-press.com and on Insta-gram at @theroyalche-fleebai.

Another from Dulce Vida that I have loved since they opened their Ecoland shop is major ma-jor. It’s not for the faint of heart – really. Chocolate, nuts and mallows.. you can’t go wrong with that. It’s like a slice of happiness every single time. Person-ally, I love eating this after a long and tiring week. Nothing beats chocolates to cheer you up.

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

INdulge! A3EDGEDAVAOENTERTAINMENT

Families win big in SKYcable and HBO Funtastic Family Getaway

Lifestyle brings back glampingat the 2016 Summer Siren Festival

SKY DELIGHTED THREE OF ITS LUCKY REGIONAL SUBSCRIBERS with an exciting Manila trip via the HBO-sponsored FUNtastic Family Getaway promo. Edwin Bitana of Luzon, Merafe Leyague of Visayas, and Jessielou Gelbolingo of Mindanao won the raffle that included enjoying the perks of getting VIP access to SKY Alive Fair, the industry’s first ever and biggest experiential assembly that showcased SKYcable’s featured shows and characters. They were also treated to a trip to Kidzania Manila, a “play city” built for children in Bonifacio Global City. Bitana expressed his deep gratitude saying the trip was “a birthday gift to my son and a graduation gift to my daughter.” “It was a lot of fun, especially for the kids,” Gelbolingo, who hails from Davao, said. On why they chose to subscribe to SKY, Leyague, who is from Cebu, said, “Because of HBO, which my family loves.”

The trip was SKYcable’s way of thanking its subscribers’ unending support in the 25 years it has delivered unmatched entertainment, pioneered in digital cable TV, constantly innovated to provide the best entertainment experience to its subscribers. SKY continues to offer viewers with diverse options to enjoy TV entertainment with its value and premium service offerings. Only SKYcable provides quality home entertainment with the widest-

range of standard and high definition channels and other top-of-the-line services such as flexible subscription options via SELECT; iRECORD that records, pauses, and rewinds live TV; as well as real-time coverage of live concerts and sporting events via FREE VIEW and PAY-PER-VIEW. To subscribe and to know more about SKYcable, log on to www.mysky.com.ph, or call the 24-hour customer service hotlines at 082-305-5456 for Davao and 083 301-3134 for Gen. Santos City.

IF THERE IS ANYBODY THAT KNOWS HOW TO BRING GLAMPING BACK TO THE SCENE, IT’S LIFESTYLE TV. The event dubbed as “Glamping by Lifestyle: Pitch 3” at the Summer Siren Festival 2016 at Crystal Beach in San Narciso, Zambales proved just that as it treated its hundreds of glampers to lots of style, comfort, and entertainment. Stylishly set up tents by Coleman, styled by H&M Home decked the beach, each with its own airbed and round-the-clock electricity to power every glamper’s own modern conveniences. After serving up sumptuous breakfasts, MetaBEATS got glampers on their feet with the unique 4-minute burst exercise program taught by Coaches Jim and Toni Saret, two of the country’s leading fitness and health experts. The glampers were the first ones lucky enough to experience MetaBEATS. MetaBEATS is the first locally produced fitness and wellness nutrition program which

premiered last April 16 on Lifestyle. MetaBEATS airs every Saturday and Sunday at 8AM and 4PM. Replays will be every Tuesday and Thursday at 5AM, 7AM, and 4PM.

During the day, glampers beat the heat with the make-your-own ice cream booth by Coleman and free iced tea drinks at the Nestea booth. They also got to have gold

and silver metallic body art temporary tattoos perfect for the great outdoors as well as t-shirt styling by Smart. Glamping by Lifestyle also featured their “Beach Mane Session” booth free for glampers who want to get the perfect summer braids. Completing the list of lifestyle activities are yoga sessions, flow arts and poi dancing, hula hooping, and hand-drumming. MYX also staged the first

ever MYX sessions at this year’s Summer Siren Festival. Hosted by MYX VJs Ai, Tippy and Alex, the number one music channel in the country kicked off the first night by headlining

some of the finest artists in the local music industry such as Ebe Dancel, Hale, Moonstar88, Quest, and a whole lot more. As part of the welcome dinner hosted by Lifestyle, an exclusive jam session at the glampsite featuring Zsaris Mendioro, Mossimo Music Summit 2015 grand winner and best known for her impressive talent in live looping, was also one of the highlights of the event. With beats perfect for the festive vibe, glampers enjoyed the music as they watched the sun set. “Glamping by Lifestyle: Pitch 3” was mounted in Partnership with Coleman Philippines and H&M Home, co-presented by Smart Communications, Inc. and Claritin Philippines, brought to you by MILO® Philippines NUTRI-UP and NESTEA. ‘Glamping by Lifestyle’ successfully debuted at last year’s Summer Siren Festival with hundreds of glampers in attendance, receiving lots of positive reviews. With no tent to pitch, nor sleeping bags to unroll, or fire to build, it was indeed the ultimate upgrade to the camping experience.

R13/*PG

PG

PG1:00 | 4:00 | 7:00 | 10:00 LFS

BATMAN V SUPERMAN:

DAWN OF JUSTICE

Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill

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

BASTILLE DAY/ * HIGH STRUNG

12:00 | 2:00 | 4:00 LFS / *6:00 | 8:00 | 10:00 LFS

Idris Elba, Richard Madden, Kelly Reilly/*Nicholas Galitzine, Jane Seymour

THE JUNGLE BOOK

Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba, Bill Murray

April 20 – 26, 2016

12:00 | 2:30 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 10:00 LFS

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR

Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Emily Blunt

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

A4 INdulge!EVENT

SEDA ABREEZA’S TWO-DAY COOKING-AND-BAKING WORKSHOP FOR KIDS produced a new batch this year. A fun sum-mer activity which began last year, this culinary rec-reation was scheduled last April 15 and 16, and was one of the events lined up for the urban lifestyle hotel’s anni-versary month. Children wearing their mini toques and aprons enjoyed their culinary sessions with the chefs of Seda Abreeza, led by Sous Chef Bang Flores, and the menu pre-pared for the workshop. On their first day, kids were taught to create a Pepperoni Pizza Quesadillas, Oreo Fudge Bars, and Crema de Fruta. Grilled Cheese Roll Ups, Strawber-ry Cheesecake, and Mango Pandan Salad were on the menu for the sec-ond day. Kids who were with their parents and guardians during the workshop were also taught how to serve it to them. Seda Little Chefs culminated last April 16, with certificates and souvenir photos. Seda Abreeza Ho-tel Manager Ken Kapulong said that the Little Chefs continued on this year as he realized that fun in learn-ing is very essential for children, and sharing the enjoyment of cu-linary art is a good summer recre-ation while the kids are on vacation.

Seda Little Chefs on its 2nd year

DAVAO PARTNER ESTABLISHMENT

EDGEDAVAO VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 13EDGEDAVAO NEWS

$20 barrel... FROM 7pines, which imports nearly all of its oil requirements, would prosper the most and its econ-omy would grow the fastest in a low oil price setting.

“Even assuming oil does not nose-dive to $20, it is clearly not going up anytime soon, as long as the market is swamped with a big surplus,” Ty said.

The world market is now oversupplied at a rate of 1.5

million barrels of oil every day, according to commodity ana-lysts.

Oil prices have fallen from $105 per barrel in mid-2014 to $33 in January this year. Prices started to recover above $40 this month on expectations of a deal to freeze supply, but have since fallen back to below $40 following Doha’s failure. (Office of LPG-MA Rep. Arnel Ty)

THE provincial government of Compostela Valley with the support of the nation-

al government agencies has dispersed a total of 1,422,641 cacao seedlings to farmers who wished to venture into high-val-ue crop (HVC) .

ComVal government report-ed that the data were based on the records of dispersal from the year 2009 to 2015 under the government’s agriculture program.

It also emphasized that ag-riculture, particularly the devel-opment of HVCs is among the priorities of the leadership of outgoing governor Arturo “Chi-ongkee” Uy, who will end his nine years of service come June of this year.

For 2016 another Php 1.185 million worth of cacao seedlings are set to be distributed among farmers in Compostela Valley, a program that the provincial gov-ernment will undertake togeth-er with the Department of Agri-culture in Davao region (DA-11) and the Mindanao Development

Authority (MinDA).Of the data presented by the

provincial government, the most number of cacao dispersal were facilitated last year with a total of 508,841 seedlings handed over to the farmers in the area.

Most of the cacao seedlings were produced from the local government-owned cacao nurs-ery at the Lamdag Agro-Eco Tourism Complex in Barangay Pasian, Monkayo town.

Other seedlings were also sourced out through the imple-mentation of the Bottoms-Up Budgeting of the local govern-ment unit (LGU) of Montevista town, the DA-11, and the Philip-pine Coconut Authority (PCA).

The breakdown of distri-bution per year as reported by Compostela Valley’s Provincial Agriculturist Office (PAGRO) indicated that a total of 32,770 cacao seedlings were received by the farmers in the area in 2009; 23,950 in 2010; 52,050 in 2011; 142,166 in 2012; 232,356 in 2013; and 430,510 in 2014. (PNA)

More than 1M cacao seedlings dispersed to farmers in ComVal

THE Palace has con-demned the abduction of five officers of the

Philippine National Police (PNP) in Davao City last week.

“We join the PNP in con-

demning this lawless act against our police officers, who were performing their duty to protect the security and well-being of our people,” Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. said in a

statement issued on Tuesday (April 19).

The Palace official said the PNP is exerting efforts to apprehend the suspects, while ensuring the safety of police officers.

According to news re-ports, five PNP personnel on board patrol car No. 82 of the Davao City Police Office, were abducted at about noon on April 16 by heavily armed men. (PCOO News Release)

REDUCING the issue of rape to ridicule is alarm-ing because the reality

shows that every 53 minutes, a woman or child is raped. Everybody cringes with such information. Every woman or girl feels unsafe. And the ques-tion is: what is the government doing about it?, asked Jojo Guan, executive director of the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), a research and train-ing institution established in 1982.

Based on CWR’s research, the number of recorded rape cases during the Aquino ad-ministration increased by 92% from 5,132 in 2010 to 9,875 in 2014, meaning a woman or child was raped every 53 minutes. Seven in 10 victims of violence were chil-dren.

Violations of the Repub-lic Act (RA) 9262 or Anti-Vi-olence against Women and their Children Act escalated by 200% from 2010 to 2014.

Despite the alarming number, victims could hardly find solace with the absence of support, aggravated by the impunity enjoyed by the

perpetrators. Government re-cords showed that of the 9,445 rape cases reported, only 59% were filed in court. Victims were usually discouraged in pursuing their cases because of the expensive litigation and the slow judicial process espe-cially that most of them belong to the lowest wealth quintile.

Guan reminded that May-or Duterte’s joke was not the first in trivializing the issue of rape. A t-shirt stating rape is a snuggle with a struggle was sold in the boys department in the biggest retail store in the country. A famous TV person-ality also used rape as a joke in one of his concerts.

Guan added, what is more despicable is the patronizing attitude of the Aquino govern-ment in dealing with the issue of VAW (violence against wom-en). It enjoys the international accolades of being one of the most gender-sensitive coun-tries in the world but it hardly lifts a finger in solving violence against women and children.

According to Guan, per-sistent poverty and crisis re-sulting from the implementa-tion of anti-women, anti-poor

neoliberal policies of President Aquino aggravated the condi-tion of women and children, leaving them more vulnerable to abuse. Based from 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey, women from low wealth quintile are more vulnerable to physical and sex-ual abuse than women from high wealth quintile. Their in-digent condition made them more vulnerable to abuses and sexual exploitation.

A culture of impunity also prevailed especially in the crimes committed by state authorities. Data from the hu-man rights group Karapatan showed that from June 2010 to November 2015, there were 10 reported cases of mil-itary rape. The usual victims were children and indigenous women. Some of these cases involved a 21-year-old wom-an in Aroroy, Masbate (2010), the case of two teenage girls from Mankayan, Benguet (2012), and the case of a young Lumad from Talaingod, Davao (2015). Not a single soldier was charged and penalized for these brutal acts.

Guan also added that the

return of US military service-men through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agree-ment (EDCA) has resulted to more exploitation of women. In the Walking Street in Fields Avenue, Angeles City, Pam-panga, at least 15,000 women work as waitresses, dancers, and entertainers. They are paid Php170.00 per night with some incentives. Most of the women who work in the establishments came from Visayas and Mindanao. Based on the initial interviews of CWR, American soldiers are the main customers especial-ly during Balikatan exercises. Bars even offer military appre-ciation discount for US military customers.

The proliferation of vi-olence is caused by an ex-isting culture that promotes exploitation and subjugation of women especially in the lowest echelon of society. It is a culture where the power-ful dominates the powerless. Such domination is translated in the treatment of women, especially those who belong to the marginalized sector, Guan explained.

Fact not joke: a Filipino woman or child is raped every 53 minutes

Malacañang condemns abduction of five policemen in Davao

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 201614 EDGEDAVAO

COMPETITIVE EDGE

SALES BLITZ. The Green Windows Dormitel Sales team led by marketing manager MJ Escudero recently launched a regionwide marketing blitz. The 88-room hotel offers the most affordable dormitel and standard/deluxe room facilities located at FTC Tower, Mt. Apo Street, Davao City.

PROJECT B.E.S.T. BATCH II GRADUATES. The 22 graduates of the Davao Light and Power Co.’s Basic Electrician Skills Training or Project B.E.S.T. proudly show off their certificates during the graduation ceremony last February 26, 2016 at Malabog National High School in Paquibato District, Davao City.

22 beneficiaries graduate in Davao Light’s Project B.E.S.T.22 BENEFICIARIES from

Brgy. Malabog, Paqui-bato District, Davao

City graduated in Davao Light and Power Co. Basic Electri-cian Skills Training or Project B.E.S.T.

The graduates, who have successfully completed and passed the 10-day skills train-ing, have now become full-fledged electricians having a National Certificate (NC) II as

certified by TESDA.Project BEST is one of the

corporate social responsibil-ity projects of Davao Light in partnership with the Aboitiz Foundation Inc., which is aimed at providing free skills training to the residents in far-flung communities, such as Brgy. Malabog, that will help them make a living and have an advantage of em-ployment having certified by

TESDA.The project is also in coor-

dination with the Davao City 2nd District Congresswoman Mylene Garcia-Albano.

The graduation rites, which was held in Malabog National High School, was at-tended by the team members of Davao Light as led by Engr. Ronald Chan, AVP and Panao Branch Manager, and Fermin Edillon, Manager of Commu-

nity Relations. Also present were the members of TESDA and the members of the local government unit in Malabog as represented by Congress-woman Mylene.

These electricians are the second batch of graduates of the Project B.E.S.T..

To date, a total of 40 elec-tricians have received an NC II from TESDA through this project.

DAVAO City Water District advises of two sets of water

service interruption in some city parts.

First set is from 8:00 PM of April 23 until 2:00 AM of April 24 affecting these areas in Ma-a: Gem Village, Don Julian Village, New Argao Village, por-tion of Don Julian Rodri-guez Avenue (from Emer-ald Street in Gem Village to Charity Street in Don Julian Village) and imme-diate environs. This water service interruption will give way to the installa-tion of gate valve for step test area for the District Metered Area Project at Ma-a road corner Metro-ville Subd. to help reduce non-revenue water.

Second set is on April 26 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Affected are most ar-eas in Catalunan Grande: South Villa Heights, Ca-masura Compound, SGR Subd., Stone Rock Subd., Caflor Subd., Diagro Com-pound, Ruby Subd. Phases I, II and III, Skyline Subd., Skyline Pag-ibig, Hacienda Grande, St. Francis Xavier Village, Monte Maria Vil-lage, Lozano Compound, Bahay Pag-ibig Heights, Forest View Village, Sea Gems Village, Skyline Road, SDV Seminary, Sa-cred Heart Seminary and Pink Sister Monastery; portion of Carlos P. Gar-cia National Highway: La Vista Monte Subd. Phase 2, Mountain View Subd., Countryside I and II, Hill Crest Subd. and Peralta Subd.; and right portion of Davao-Cotabato Na-tional Highway (from Matina Balusong Bridge

to Hope Avenue): DSLA Village, Matina Baluso-ng, Hope Avenue, Peace Avenue, Union Avenue, Tahimik Avenue, Sabate Street, Santan Street, Or-chid Street, Pag-asa Street, Marlboro Street and Hap-py Valley Street. DCWD crew will tap the newly installed 150mm diam-eter steel pipeline to the existing 300mm diameter Mortar Line Coated Steel Pipe for the mainline im-provement at Catalunan Grande Road. Once com-pleted, said project will increase water pressure in Sea Gems Village, Pag-ibig Heights Ruby Subd. and immediate environs.

DCWD general manag-er Edwin V. Regalado asks for the understanding and cooperation of would-be affected customers. He also advises them to store enough water prior to the scheduled water interrup-tions. Water supply may be restored earlier if work goes smoothly or later if unforeseen problems arise.

The general public may visit DCWD website (www.davao-water.gov.ph) and official Facebook page (www.facebook.com/davaowater) or call the Central Information Unit / Call Center through the 24-hour hotline 297-DCWD (3293) and press “1” on their phone dial to listen to latest daily water updates. They may also call / text 0927-7988966, 0925-5113293 and 0908-4410653 for other up-dates, complaints, queries and matters pertaining to DCWD services. (Jamae G. Dela Cruz)

Water service interruptionson April 23, 24 and 26

Family support inspires CICL to excelA FAMILY will always play

a crucial role in any-one’s life. Friends and

acquaintances may appear at some point in your life but at the end of the day, it will al-ways be your family that will see you through and help you pull through. Most often, your family is your ‘forever’ espe-cially if you are a resident of a rehabilitation center.

For John Pip A. Languban, 18, a ward of the DSWD Re-gional Rehabilitation Center

for Youth (RRCY), his family is his inspiration in all his accom-plishments. Languban com-pleted Grade 9 as First Honor under the Reach-Out Program of EMAR Human and Envi-ronmental College, Inc. which started in 2015.

Languban was also named Best in English, Science, Mathe-matics and Araling Panlipunan during the first recognition day held on Monday at RRCY covered court with 57 gradu-ates under three categories –A

(Kindergarten to Grade 3), B (Grades 4 to 6) and C (Grades 7 to 10).

Another resident, Geo-vanne O. Engaud, 18, who fin-ished Grade 9 as 2nd Honor re-plied when asked what made him succeed, “Na-inspire ko sa akong pamilya. Silbi balos nako ni sa akoang pamilya sa ilang kaayo sa akoa (I was inspired by my family. This is my way of expressing my gratefulness [to my family] for the kindness shown to me).”

Engaud’s father Juanito said he and his wife see to it that they visit their son every weekend. “We come here to bond with him and advise him. Also, my son stays with us for four days during Christmas-time.” Engaud was also cited as Best in Filipino, MAPEH and in Values. All members of his family came to celebrate his graduation.

Nineteen year-old Liwi Lee E. Dela Cruz who complet-

F FAMILY, 10

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016 15EDGEDAVAO SPORTS

CONOR McGregor is offi-cially out of UFC 200. His fighting future remained

unclear.McGregor, one of the big-

gest draws in UFC, created a stir on Tuesday (Wednesday, Manila time) when he tweet-ed that retirement was on the horizon and the UFC later tweeted that McGregor had been pulled from its marquee show on July 9.

The 27-year-old McGre-gor tweeted, “I have decided to retire young. Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya’s later.”

McGregor was scheduled for a rematch against Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 200.

UFC president Dana White told ESPN that he pulled Mc-Gregor from the card after he decided not to attend pre-fight promotional appearances in Las Vegas.

“Is Conor McGregor retir-

ing? Only he can answer that question,” White told ESPN. “I don’t know. But he will not be a part of UFC 200.”

White added he was working on a new main event and could keep Diaz on the card. The stacked card already included an interim feather-weight championship bout between Jose Aldo and Frank-ie Edgar and Miesha Tate de-fends her bantamweight title against Amanda Nunes.

Diaz beat McGregor by submission in the second round of a welterweight bout March 5 at UFC 196, ending one of the most lucrative pay-per-view shows in mixed mar-tial arts history with a remark-able upset.

McGregor’s 15-fight win-ning streak ended in the bout, which was fought 25 pounds above his usual 145-pound fighting weight. The rematch was set to be contested at 170

pounds, the UFC said.The loss punctured the

intimidating aura gathered by McGregor, the loquacious Irish star who sits alongside Ronda Rousey as the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view stars. McGregor had stopped his previous five opponents, and he landed nu-merous big shots on Diaz be-fore tiring and losing the fight on the ground to Diaz’s supe-rior jiu-jitsu.

Although McGregor said immediately after the loss that he would probably return to featherweight, he decided in-stead to take a rematch with Diaz, the entertaining veteran. Diaz accepted the first fight less than two weeks before-hand after lightweight champ Rafael Dos Anjos dropped out with an injury.

McGregor is still the UFC’s featherweight champion, but Aldo and Edgar will meet for the interim belt.

The winner was scheduled to get the first shot at a unifica-tion fight against McGregor.

All of those dream bouts are suddenly uncertain.

Diaz playfully replied to McGregor’s tweet with his own “retirement” announcement. He tweeted, “I guess my work here is done I’m retiring too.”

McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, added fuel to the re-tirement speculation with his own tweet that said, “Well was fun while it lasted.”

Kavanagh later posted an Instagram photo of WWE Hall of Fame manager Jimmy Hart with the caption, “New job uniform.” It could be a playful photo — or a cryptic hint — that McGregor could follow former UFC star Brock Lesnar from the octagon to the WWE squared circle.

Other UFC fighters later joked on Twitter that they also would retire.

STILL CHAMP. Conor McGregor is still the UFC’s featherweight champion, but Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar will face off for the interim belt. AP

UFC pulls McGregor from fight vs Diaz

BAYERN Munich needed a disputed penalty to secure a 2-0 win over

Werder Bremen and reach its 21st German Cup final on Tuesday.

Thomas Mueller scored both goals in the semifinal, the second coming from a 71st-minute contested pen-alty. Substitute Arturo Vidal fell after a careless challenge by Janek Sternberg but video replays appeared to show that the Chile midfielder had taken a dive.

“From my point of view it wasn’t a penalty, it was a dive,” Mueller said after watching the replays. “But in the match it looked like a foul, the chal-lenge was very risky.”

Werder surprised Bayern with aggressive pressing and was unfortunate not to score from several chances. But the penalty took the fight out of

Viktor Skripnik’s team.The win kept Bayern on

course for a second treble in its history in Pep Guardiola’s final season as coach. Bay-ern is close to clinching the Bundesliga title and is in the semifinals of the Champions League.

Bayern has won the Ger-man Cup title a record 17 times, losing only three finals. Werder, fighting against rele-gation in the Bundesliga, is the second best German Cup cam-paigner with six titles.

Mueller scored the open-ing goal in the 30th with a header from Xabi Alonso’s corner, as Bremen’s Clemens Fritz slipped to leave Mueller unchallenged.

“We made many mistakes, we can play a lot better. But we made the final and that’s no small achievement,” Muel-ler said.

Mueller brace sendsBayern to title match

Rio Olympics will be spectacular despite crissis

BEAST MODE. Calvin Abueva of Alaska Milk goes ahead of Moala Tautuaa of Talk N’ Text in Game 2 of their quarterfinals playoffs. Abueva carried Alaska to a rubber match in Game 3 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup. PBA Images

DESPITE the political and economic crisis current-ly faced by Brazil the Rio

Games will be a spectacular success, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach predicted on Tuesday.

Speaking at the SportAc-cord convention in Laussane Bach was emphatic in his con-viction everything would come together.

“We know the current eco-nomic and political situation in Brazil will continue to make

the final preparations challeng-ing,” he admitted.

“I remain convinced that the Olympic Games Rio 2016 will be truly spectacular,” he said, offering two reasons for his position.

“The Olympic Games enjoy the strong public support of the Brazilian people. Secondly, the organisers can count on the solidarity of the Olympic family and the sporting world.”

Bach also took time out to discuss what is being done to

combat doping.“With regards to protect-

ing the clean athletes, the IOC has strengthened the world’s anti-doping system and made the sanctioning of doped ath-letes independent from sports organisations,” he said.

“The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will handle cases from the Olympic Games Rio 2016 onwards. We are con-vinced that all these changes are necessary to better protect the clean athletes and enhance

the integrity of sport.”Brazil’s president Dilma

Rousseff insisted on Tuesday preparations for the Games in Rio are ahead of schedule.

“We have transformed Rio: I hope this will be a great Games for Brazilians and for everyone else.”

“The Games are in a totally adequate situation, we’re even a little ahead of schedule and more so than we had planned for,” Rousseff told a press con-ference in Brasilia.

LEBRON James played down talk of a feud with Detroit Pistons coach

Stan Van Gundy on Tuesday as the Cleveland Cavaliers target-ed a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference playoff series.

Van Gundy was fined by the NBA on Monday for crit-icizing the officiating during Detroit’s defeat to Cleveland in game one, suggesting officials were reluctant to give fouls against Cavs star James.

However James brushed off suggestions that Van Gun-dy’s comments may prompt him to change his style head-ing into game two on Wednes-day.

“I would never change my game no matter what a play-er or coach says,” James told reporters after a practice on Tuesday.

“My main thing is however I can help my team get a win, how I can go out and put an imprint on the game and play as hard as I can. I’ll live with the results of that.

“Stan has gotten the better of me in a playoff series be-

fore in his Orlando days. But it’s not about me versus Stan. It’s about his teams versus the teams that I’ve been on and I’m not having an individual matchup with Stan or an indi-vidual matchup with Stanley (Johnson) or any other Stan they can possess.

“It’s about getting my guys ready. That’s all that matters.”

Van Gundy scored a post-season victory over James and the Cavaliers in 2009 when he was in charge of the Orlando Magic.

The Detroit coach sparked uproar during Sunday’s 106-101 defeat when he told an ESPN reporter that James re-ceived special treatment from referees.

“LeBron’s LeBron. They’re not going to call offensive fouls on him. He gets to do whatev-er he wants,” said Van Gundy, who was subsequently fined $25,000 (22,000 euros) by the league for the remarks.

James however was ad-amant that the controversy would not prove to be a dis-traction.

THE more things change the more the San Anto-nio Spurs remain con-

stant.Twelve years to the day

after holding Memphis to fran-chise lows in total points and points in a quarter, San Anto-nio put another stranglehold on the Grizzlies.

Patty Mills had 16 points, Kawhi Leonard added 13 and San Antonio never trailed in beating Memphis 94-68 on Tuesday night to sweep the first two games of the first-round series in imposing fash-ion.

The Grizzlies’ lowest post-season production came two days after they suffered their largest postseason defeat.

“We’re coming to a gun-fight with some spoons,” Mem-phis forward Matt Barnes said. “We’ve got to do something to try to switch this up at home next game.”

If history and the Grizzlies’ current state are any indica-tion, Memphis’ prospects don’t look good heading into a home game Friday night.

The Spurs first established those dubious records against the Grizzlies on April 19, 2004, on their way to a sweep of their first-round series.

Don’t expect San Anto-nio to relax following 30- and 26-point victories. Not with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich

Spurs take commanding 2-0 leadtelling his team to play with some pride during a timeout of a game they led by 29 points.

“You’ve got to fight,” Leon-ard said. “We’ve got to still exe-cute. (We) turned over the ball a lot today. They were physical. They’ve got hands, but there’s still opportunity for us to im-prove. They’re still an NBA team.”

LaMarcus Aldridge had 10 points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes. Aldridge sat out the entire fourth quarter along with Leonard and Tony Parker while Tim Duncan and Danny

Green made brief appearances.Tony Allen led Memphis

with 12 points and Zach Ran-dolph had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

After matching a franchise low with a 13-point first quar-ter in Game 1, the Grizzlies lowered that mark by tying a franchise low for any quarter with 11 points in Tuesday’s opening period.

“I think bringing that en-ergy and effort that’s one thing that we try to do,” Mills said.

The Grizzlies continued to struggle to find consisten-

cy on offense without injured starters Marc Gasol and Mike Conley.

Memphis took 20 more shots than San Antonio in fall-ing behind 2-0.

“It doesn’t matter where we play, we’ve just got to play better,” Barnes said. “We can play here, we can play at the YMCA, we can play in Mem-phis; it doesn’t matter where we play at if we play the way we’ve been playing the court doesn’t matter. It’s on the play-ers we’ve got to do a better job executing.”

Lebron brushes off Van Gundy

VOL. 9 ISSUE 36 • THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 201616 EDGEDAVAOSports

STEPHEN Curry’s trou-blesome right ankle has no serious struc-

tural damage.The reigning NBA MVP

underwent an MRI exam on his injured right an-kle on Tuesday in the Bay Area (Wednesday, Manila time), and the Golden State Warriors said nothing of concern came up on the test. Curry remained ques-tionable for Game Three of his team’s playoff series on Thursday in Houston.

Curry missed Monday night’s 115-106 victory against the Rockets at Or-acle Arena after cutting short his warmup routine because his troublesome ankle was tender. He will continue to undergo treat-ment for the injury ahead of Thursday, and coach Steve Kerr mentioned there is ample time for Curry to try to get healthy and stay off his feet.

“We’ll see how he re-sponds the next couple of days, and if he’s not right obviously being up 2-0 does give us more cush-ion if we decide to sit him,”

Kerr said after Monday’s game. “But it will be based on his health, not the se-ries score. It’s really what the training staff says and what Steph says about how he’s feeling.”

Top-seeded Golden State leads the best-of-seven series 2-0 as it shifts to Houston for the next two matchups. The War-riors had the day off from practice Tuesday ahead of their flight to Houston on Wednesday.

The news about Cur-ry’s MRI was huge given the superstar point guard had two surgeries on that ankle in 2011-12. He av-eraged a league-leading 30.1 points per game this season and does so many other things to make his teammates better and set them up to score.

“When Steph goes down, that’s obviously not easy to replace, so not one guy’s going to come out and do what Steph does for this team,” Draymond Green said. “Even if a guy comes out and gets 30, he’s still not going to do what

o r bring w h a t Steph brings to this t e a m . H e d r a w s so much attention that he gets other peo-ple shots as well. ... I think we’re the deepest team in the NBA.”

S h a u n Livingston contributed 16 points and six as-sists playing in Curry’s place, while Klay Thompson had 34 points and five assists. An-dre Iguodala, last year’s Fi-nals MVP, added 18 points with four 3-pointers and Green had 12 points, 14 rebounds and eight as-sists.

Stephen Curry is still questionable

of Game Three of the Warriors-

Rockets series. APScan showsno serious injury