P 15.00 • 20 PAGESwww.edgedavao.netVOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino must take full responsibility for the

operation to capture terror suspect Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25 that resulted in the death of 44 members of the elite Police Special Action Force (SAF), Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte on Wednesday said.

“I do not want to offend the President but somebody has to tell him that he has to stop this blame game by taking full responsibility for what happened in Mamasapano,” Duterte said in a statement issued in Dumaguete City.

“As Mayor of Davao City, for example, I take full

responsibility for whatever happens in an operation which I order to be implemented,” he said.

The mayor cited a case in which policemen who were following his orders were charged for alleged excesses in the killing of suspected kidnappers in the city last year.

Duterte visited two universities in Dumaguete Wednesday to push his advocacy for federalism which he considers the best option should the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law fail to pass Congress.

He said somebody should own up the responsibility for the Mamasapano tragedy to

stop the blame game between the military and the police.

Duterte was referring to statements issued by the police and the military to media and during the congressional investigation. Both institutions attributed the high number of casualties to the alleged lapses done by either of them before and during the actual operation.

Marwan was reported killed in the operation based on a DNA test done by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a biological sample taken from the encounter site in Mamasapano.

Eighteen Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)

guerrillas and at least four civilians were also killed during the gunfight.

The MILF said they did not know they were fighting government forces since they did not have prior knowledge about the operation.

The government and the MILF have an existing ceasefire agreement. They signed last year the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, which is the product of on-and-off negotiations since 1987.

In his address on February 6, Aquino blamed sacked SAF chief Director Getulio Napeñas Jr. for the tactical lapses that led to the death of the 44 SAF personnel. (MindaNews)

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READY FOR V-DAY. Angeli, a 24-year veteran florist and flower arranger, makes bouquets of roses in preparation for Valentine’s Day on Saturday. Lean Daval Jr.

Affairs of the HeartA VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT S5

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 20152 EDGEDAVAO

THE BIG NEWS

THE SEARCH BEGINS. Mutya ng Dabaw 2014 Francesca Enriques (right), together with Sinag ng Dabaw Jowielle Dawn Dogma (center) and Diwa ng Dabaw Mary Joyce Villanueva, announces the upcoming 2015 Mutya ng Dabaw screen-ing on February 21 at The Royal Mandaya Hotel. The three women graced yesterday’s I-Speak media forum at City Hall. Lean Daval Jr.

THE Davao City Wires and Cable (WAC) tech-nical team is set to start

burying the electrical and communication wires be-tween City Hall and the Sang-guniang Panlungsod (SP) building next month after the Araw ng Davao delebration.

Speaking in yesterday’s “I-Speak Media Forum,“ Of-fice of the City Building Of-ficial (OCBO) assistant head lawyer Joseph Dominic Fe-lizarta told reporters that the

team will start the excavation in the vicinity after the Araw ng Davao celebration so that the activities will not be dis-turbed.

Felizarta said representa-tives from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), National Telecom-munications Commission (NTC), Davao City Water Dis-trict (DCWD), PLDT-SMART, Globe Telecom, DC Tech, Sky Cable, Abratique and Asso-ciates, and BayanTel partici-

pated in an ocular inspection yesterday initiated by the Davao Light and Power Com-pany (DLPC).

City Hall and the SP Building will be the pilot project on the proposed un-derground cabling system in the city.

“It is part of the prepa-ration... because if the un-derground cabling will be started there are lines from DCWD, DPWH, and cable companies that will be affect-

ed,” Felizarta said.He said the companies

were included in the inspec-tion so that the areas where the digging would be done would be identified.

DLPC will initiate the excavation, allocating more than P70 million for the un-derground cabling. The wires and cables of the telecom and cable companies will be in-cluded so that there would be no more digging afterward.

Felizarta, however, urged

the other companies to allo-cate a budget for the exca-vation and not to rely on the DLPC’s budget.

The project is targeted to be completed by December this year. Felizarta gave as-surance that the operations of the two government build-ings will not be interrupted.

Last January 28, Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Ex-ecutive Order (EO) No. 2 se-ries of 2015 constituting the WAC technical team based

on Ordinance No. 0177 - 14 series of 2014 which states that all electrical and tele-communication wires and cables within the vicinity of City Hall and the Sangguni-ang Panlugsod will be placed underground.

The ordinance aims to bolster the image of the city as internationally compet-itive, making it tourist- and investment-attractive while sustaining and enhancing its environment.

INVESTMENTS worth P17.3 billion are expect-ed “to be on the ground”

in Davao Region this year, according to data from the regional office of Depart-ment of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Data from DTI 11 said these came from the invest-ment leads that the depart-ment recorded last year, where 28 companies com-mitted to set up projects.

The biggest project was

the P9.9 billion-oil and gas venture being planned in Davao del Sur.

The oil and gas proj-ect was followed by the P5 billion-real estate develop-ment and transportation services projects which would cost at least P1 bil-lion. Both will be set up in Davao City.

Last year, the Board of Investments (BOI) 11 recorded P12.544 billion

A POLICE officer is in hot water after a detainee at Sta. Ana

Police Precinct escaped while throwing away gar-bage outside the precinct on Monday morning.

Operatives of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) have also mounted a man-hunt operation against Reymart Padada, who had been detained for a theft case.

Police said Padada escaped while throwing

garbage upon orders of Police Office (PO)3 Roman Baslan.

Police said Padada fled after pushing Baslan and ran towards nearby Mini Forest.

Sta. Ana Police Precinct station commander Super-intendent Royina Garma said Baslan admitted that he let the detainee out without permission from his officers.

DCPO spokesperson Senior Inspector Milgrace

Driz said the case against Baslan, who has returned to his poast at Sta. Ana Po-lice Precinct, is now under the Regional Investigation and Detective Manage-ment Division (RIDMD).

Driz said Baslan cannot immediately be suspended because he has the right to due process.

“We are still waiting for the result of the investiga-tion of the RIDMD. We can-not just suspend him with-out due process of the law

through hearing, summon, or investigation,” she said.

Police Regional Office (PRO) 11 spokesperson Superintendent Antonio Rivera said Baslan’s case is now under evaluation through the RIDMD.

“The evaluation will be the basis for filing a case against him,” Rivera said.

Authorities are looking to file an administrative case of infidelity in the custody of prison against Baslan.

Work on underground cablesto start after Araw ng DavaoBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.

abf@edgedavao.net

Cop in hot water as detainee escapesBy FUNNY PEARL A. GAJUNERA

P17.3B in investmentsexpected in Region 11

FP17.3B, 12

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015 3NEWSEDGEDAVAO

FREE DENTAL CLINIC SPONSORS. From left, Lawyer Leoncio Villa-Abrille, president of Don Cesareo Villa-Abrille Foundation; Rotarian Pres-Nominee Sheryl Sardido; Bucana Homeowners Federation Pres. Nanette Macapund-

ag; CVA Elem School principal Jean Fe Colango; RC South Davao Pres. Gerry Munda; and Rotary Community Corps Pres. Wesley Capute. Photo by Robinson Niñal Sr.

BANGSAMORO Tran-sition Commission (BTC) Chairman Mo-

hagher Iqbal said on Thurs-day it would be unfair to immediately blame on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) the reported atrocities and brutality in the killing of 44 Special Ac-tion Force (SAF) comman-dos in the Mamasapano en-counter.

“The delicate task of finding out who did what, especially the reported atrocities, cannot immedi-ately be blamed on the MILF. That would be unfair,” Iqbal

said at the resumption of the Senate inquiry into the bloody encounter last Jan. 25 in Mamasapano, Magu-indanao.

Iqbal said the MILF was not the only group but there were also the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and other private armed groups present when the SAF conducted ‘Oplan Exodus’ to capture two high-profile terrorists Zulki-fli bin Hir and Basit Usman.

“The SAF fought other armed individuals belong-ing to different networks and groups,” the BTC chair-

man told the joint Senate committees on public order and dangerous drugs, and peace, unification and rec-onciliation.

He denied allegation that the MILF and the BIFF are conniving with each oth-er.

Senator Miriam Defen-sor Santiago, however, did not buy the claim of the MILF official.

“I submit this failure to convey vital information such as the presence of Mar-wan in their area is a subject of bad faith,” Santiago said.

Iqbal said the ‘unfortu-

nate encounter’ resulted not only in the killing of 44 SAF commandos but also 18 MILF fighters.

“We must honor them by making sure that their sac-rifice would not be in vain. While we cannot change the past, we can do something about the future,” Iqbal said.

Iqbal, however, has no mention how many have been killed on the part of the BIFF.

In the first Senate hear-ing, relieved SAF chief Gen. Getulio Napenas estimated that the groups that en-

MALACAÑANG on Thursday assured the Filipinos that the mili-

tary is ready to face threats to national security.

Presidential Commu-nications Operations Office (PCOO) head Herminio Colo-ma Jr. stressed this after Sena-tor Miriam Defensor Santiago confirmed that she received information about a new coup plot allegedly being hatched by a well-known businessman.

Coloma said it is the duty of the Armed Forces of the

Philippines (AFP) to prevent and crush enemies of the state.

“At ginagampanan nila ang tungkuling ito sa lahat ng pag-kakataon,” he said in a Palace press briefing.

Coloma noted that Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin con-firmed the readiness of the AFP to perform its duty.

“Lahat ng mga banta laban sa estado ay tinututukan at ga-nap ang kahandaan ng ating Sandatahang Lakas laban sa mga bantang ‘yan,” he added. (PNA)

THE Davao City Social Services and Develop-ment Office (CSSDO)

is monitoring the 47 former members of the New People’s Army (NPA) who were given P50,000 each in livelihood as-sistance in December last year after surrendering to the gov-ernment.

In yesterday’s “I-Speak Media Forum,” Comprehen-sive Local Integrated Program (CLIP) focal person for rebel returnees Annabelle T. Lugo said the 47 ex-rebels are now focusing on their respective livelihoods.

Lugo said after the return-ees received their livelihood assistance, which came from the Office of President on the Peace Process (OPAPP), most of them invested in livestock and poultry production and vegetable farming.

“Before they received the livelihood assistance, upon

surrendering, we already con-ducted an activity and different programs in line with their re-integration program,” she said.

Lugo said they conducted a spiritual activity, basic busi-ness management skills train-ing, and medical mission.

“As of now, they are being monitored by the city social workers in the districts where they lived,” Lugo said.

The rebels surrendered on separate occasions since 2011.

Based on CSSDO data, there are 51 rebel returnees recorded in the city but only 47 received the P50,000 assis-tance from OPAPP.

Lugo said two died due to illness, one had already re-ceived the assistancer from CLIP of Davao del Sur, while one could notbe located.

The data showed that at the time of their entry to the NPA, 39 of them were farmers,

A DENTAL care mission was conducted last February 8 as part of

the celebration of the 66th foundation day of Cesareo Villa-Abrille Elementary School on February 13, Fri-day, as revealed by school principal Jean Fe Colango.

Henrietta Macapundag, president of the Federation of Bucana Homeowners Association, and Wesley Ca-pute, president of the Rotary Community Corps of Bucana and their members spear-headed the implementation of the free dental clinic at the school gym in Bucana.

The Rotary Club of South Davao, led by president Ger-ry Munda, president-nom-inee Sheryl Sardido and working secretary Charito Ceniza, also supported the dental clinic.

The Rotarians brought 11 USEP Rotaractors head-ed by Mildred Baguio who helped in cleaning the dental

instruments and in dispens-ing medicines.

The Bucana school was adopted by the South Davao Rotarians in 2004 when past Rotary governor Leoncio Vil-la-Abrille was club president.

The City Mayor’s Office headed Mayor Rodrigo Dute-rte supported the dental ac-tivities by providing free lu-gaw and free ice cream to the patients that Bucana Kaga-wad Bing Apa had requested.

The Don Cesareo Vil-la-Abrille Foundation Inc., a major sponsor of the den-tal mission, also provided snacks, lechon, food, and drinks for 100 people.

All in all, the team of Dr. Jessie Mar Culaste, Dr. Hexel Verano, and Dr. Julius Cezar Mirto, helped by dental as-sistants Ann Luay and Quen-nie Curambao, served 100 pupils of the school and 50 residents of the barangay, or a total of 150 beneficiaries. Frances Marian VA Castaña

Iqbal: Atrocities cannot beimmediately blamed on MI

AFP ready to crushcoup plotters: Palace

Former rebs focusedon livelihood: CSSDOBy ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.

abf@edgedavao.net

Rotarians, Bucana folksconduct free dental clinic

GOING UNDERGROUND. Office of the City Building Official (OCBO) assistant head lawyer Joseph Dominic Felizarta tells reporters that the Davao City Wires and Cable (WAC) technical team will start the excavation between City

Hall and the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) building for the underground ca-bling system after the Araw ng Dabaw celebration next month. Felizarta was a guest in yesterday’s I-Speak media forum at City Hall. Lean Daval Jr.

FFORMER, 12FIQBAL, 12

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 20154 EDGEDAVAO

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VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015 5EDGEDAVAO

ECONOMY

THE concept, design and costing of the pro-posed revival of “Little

Tokyo” in Barangay Mintal will be available by July, the City Tourism Operations Of-fice (CTOO) announced.

“We still have to meet with barangay officials of Mintal because it’s their flag-ship project for this year,” CTOO head Lisette Marques told edge Davao in an in-terview at the Marco Polo

Davao. Marques said a task

force will be created for the revival of Little Tokyo, which is eyed to become the city’s next tourist destination.

The concept, design and costing of the revival will be done by the local gov-ernment unit of Barangay Mintal. The proposed plan is to revive Little Tokyo by developing vital Japanese mementos in the area.

“Officials of the Barangay Mintal were the ones who identified areas that will be rebuilt, not the officers from CTTO or City Planning and Development Authority,” Marques said.

Once done, the pro-posal will be submitted to Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) of the Department of Tourism (DoT for possible funding.

However, Marques said there’s no specific timeline for the revival of the Little Tokyo which used to be a settlement for Japanese businessmen and farmers before the World War II broke out.

Earlier last year, Marques said the restoration of Little Tokyo “will include the map-ping of the Japanese heritage sites and the refurbishment and renovation of existing

Japanese monuments and relics in Mintal.”

According to an earli-er report, anyone can still find relic and ruins of Jap-anese hospitals at present, the Japanese cemetery, an artesian-well that was con-structed and the source of potable water by Japanese abaca farmers and a monu-ment in Mintal.

Marques also said the proposal to bring back the

Little Tokyo in Mintal will need a budget between P50 million and P100 million

The area, she said, needs to be restored because it is not in good condition any-more.

Marques said reviving and enhancing the site is very important given that around 13,000 Japanese tourists, the second biggest tourist visitors in Davao City every year.

Little Tokyo design due in Julycrc@edgedavao.net

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Davao Region reported

an increase of 14.8 percent in domestic sales resulting from its initiated interventions.

Based on its annual ac-complishment report, DTI-Davao reported that from a total of P942.78 million of do-mestic sales in 2013, it grew to P1.082 billion in 2014.

Furthermore, it can also be noted that the 2014 ac-complishment is four percent higher than the annual target of P1.040 billion.

Of the 2014 accom-plishment in domestic sales, 53 percent was generated through market matching, 41 percent from monitored sales, four percent from Pasalubong Centers, and the remaining two percent from trade fairs.

DTI-Davao offi-cer-in-charge Maria Belenda Q. Ambi said the domestic sec-tor’s remarkable performance can be attributed to the var-ious marketing, product de-velopment, and productivity interventions provided by the agency to the region’s micro,

small and medium enterpris-es (MSMEs).

“DTI has really been im-plementing programs, proj-ects, and activities that will surely help our MSMEs im-prove,” Ambi said.

Meanwhile, DTI-Davao was able to assist 7,169 MS-MEs in 2014. This is higher by 57 percent as compared to 4,579 in 2013.

Majority of these MSMEs, or 57 percent of them, have been previously assisted al-ready, while the remaining 43 percent are newly developed

and assisted.Most of these entrepre-

neurs are found in Davao City, with 1,853; Davao Oriental with 1,483; Davao del Norte with 1,344; Davao del Sur with 988; and Compostela Valley with 678.

Ambi said these MSMEs in the region benefitted from DTI’s programs and projects like the SME Roving Academy, Shared Service Facility (SSF), rehabilitation program for Typhoon Pablo-affected areas, and Industry Cluster. (DTI11/JenMendoza)

DTI: Domestic sales up by 14.8% in 2014

TAGUM City is set to go on a two-week revelry as the City Government

of Tagum and the Tagum City Tourism Council are all set for the second instalment of the city’s Trio Celebration.

The aforesaid trio celebra-tion is comprised of the 2015 Tagum City Musikahan Festi-vals, the Tagumenyo Bisa’g Asa and the 17th Araw ng Tagum and will run from February 23 to March 7.

The celebration, together with its calendar of activities, were adeptly presented during a Press Conference held on Feb-ruary 6, at the NCCC Mall, Ma-a, Davao City and at the February Edition of the Tagum Biz Talk at Big 8 Hotel on February 10 by its respective committee chairs: Ms. Marlene R. Alastra for the 2015 Tagum City Musikahan Festivals, Ms. Norma R. Perey-ras for the Tagumenyo Bisa’g Asa and Ms. Carmen B. Apura for the 17th Araw ng Tagum.

On February 12, their group is also set to promote the city’s Trio Celebration in a morning live TV guesting in Maayong Buntag Mindanao of ABS-CBN and on GMA’s Una Ka Bai on February 16.

Specifically highlighted at the two media events was the fledgling Tagumenyo Bisa’g Asa (TBA) which was concep-tualized on the premise that the expatriated constituents of the City of Tagum, including

the Overseas Filipinos Workers, will have to be recognized by the local government in consid-eration of their valued support and contribution to the econo-my of Tagum. The TBA will cel-ebrate its second year after its inception.

It was also stressed that the Tagum City Music Mak-ers Concert is a newly- added event which will be held during the 2015 Musikahan Festivals. The concert will feature all the beneficiaries-graduates of the Tagum City Musical Instrument Workshop Program, which is one of the city’s literacy pro-grams and is currently on its 11th year.

Meanwhile, one of the ma-jor events of the 17th Araw ng Tagum is the Tagumpay Awards and Recognition 2015.

During this event, the Tagumpay Excellence Award will be presented to any Tagu-menyo, either individual or group, who has greatly con-tributed to the city’s growth, honor and glory through their distinguished and exemplary achievements whereas the Es-torya ng Tagumpay Award will be conferred to any Tagumen-yo whose story of success has been an inspiration to others and whose contribution to the economy of the city has not only substantially impacted the city and its constituents, but also the people outside of Tagum. (Richi Gulle/CIO Tagum)

Tagum City all setfor Trio Celebration

GET ready to fall in and out of love this month of hearts. SKYcable, in part-

nership with local and interna-tional networks, brings three great stories of romance to the TV screen. Catch them this Feb-ruary and be enthralled by the highs and lows of passion, on how love can bring couples joy, and how trials can break them apart.

Premiering this February 13, Friday at 9:30pm on RTL CBS Entertainment (SD on CH 616, HD on CH 739) is Marry Me. A hit romantic comedy se-ries from the US, it follows the love story of a long-time cou-

ple as they take the crazy and bumpy road to the altar. Star-ring Carey Wilson as the high-strung Annie and Ken Marino as the easy-going Jake, each episode is about the couple’s funny and often heartwearm-ing misadventures. Sitcom fans mustn’t miss this great new show.

Debuting on Valentines’ Day, February 14, are two block-buster Filipino movies. Airing on PBO (CH 409) is the Trophy Wife. Starring Heart Evangelis-ta, Cristine Reyes, John Estrada, and Derek Ramsey, the movie centers on the conflict between two powerful women as they

vie for the hunky, party-going Chino. Fans of these great stars must watch this film to witness how romance quickly descends to maddening, suspense-rid-den thrills.

Airing on Cinema One (CH 401) is the romantic hit, Start-ing Over Again. Starring the country’s best dramatic actors, Toni Gonzaga, Iza Calzado, and Piolo Pascual, the film tracks the rise and fall of Ginny and Marco’s epic romance. Stretch-ing from each character’s youth to the height of their careers, drama fans can witness the tension between the charac-ters as the ultimate question is

asked: Do I stay with my true love or do I return to the wom-an that broke my heart?

Don’t miss these great stories of love and loss this February. Only SKYcable pro-vides quality home entertain-ment with the widest-range of standard and high definition channels with over 190 chan-nels and other top-of-the-line services such as flexible sub-scription 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.

CEBU Pacific flew 16.9 mil-lion passengers in 2014, an increase of 17.5%

from 14.4 million passengers flown in 2013.

On average, CEB flights were 84% full during the year. CEB achieved notable passen-ger growth in both domestic and several international mar-kets, with increased presence in the Middle East and Japan, and entry into Australia.

The Cebu Pacific Air group increased flights to domestic markets, as its newly acquired subsidiary, Tigerair Philip-pines, launched eight domestic routes from its hubs in Manila and Cebu to Butuan, Clark, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Gen-eral Santos, Roxas, and Tagbi-laran.

In 2014, the airline launched direct non-stop flights from Manila to Kuwait,

Riyadh, and Dammam. CEB also launched a five times weekly service from Manila to Sydney. These are additional routes to its existing long haul service from Manila to Dubai.

CEB expanded its opera-tions in Japan with the launch of daily services from Manila to Tokyo and a four times weekly service to Nagoya. The airline also increased its flights to Osaka, from thrice weekly to a daily service.

“Last January, CEB flew its 100 millionth passenger. We thank our passengers who have allowed us to fly with them throughout the years. Our passengers constantly in-spire us to find ways to serve them better, and we look for-ward to enabling even more Filipinos to fly,” said Candice Iyog, CEB vice president for marketing and distribution.

Celebrate romance this February only on SKYcable

CB flies 17M passengers

RELIGIOUS STORE. An elderly man checks out a miniature Sto. Niño figurine at a makeshift store selling religious items inside San Pedro Cathedral compound in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015

IN a bid to enhance the prov-ince’s thriving small-scale mining industry, the pro-

vincial government of South Cotabato has opened a support facility for the industry in T’bo-li town.

South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance-Fuentes said Thurs-day they established a Minah-ang Bayan Center at the town proper of T’boli to properly ca-ter to needs of the small-scale mining operators and other industry players.

She said the facility was put up at an open space within the municipal gymnasium of T’boli in Barangay Poblacion.

It was built through a funding of around P960,000 that was drawn from the bud-get of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Manage-ment Office, she said.

“The center will serve as a one-stop-shop dedicated to address the needs of the in-dustry players, especially the processing of their required

permits and licenses,” the gov-ernor said.

Fuentes said the Minahang Bayan Center is a project of the Provincial Environment Man-agement Office (PEMO).

She said the PEMO will handle the operations of the center through its mines and geosciences division.

Aside from being a one-stop-shop, Fuentes said they are planning to also utilize the center as a training facility for jewelry-making.

She said they will collab-orate with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Science and Technology for the implemen-tation of the project, which is mainly aimed to enhance the province’s gold and silver min-ing industry.

In 2012, the provincial government initially launched its jewelry development proj-ect in the area.

The project, which is a joint

THE ECONOMY6 EDGEDAVAO

CONSTRUCTION of the 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in

Malita, Davao del Sur is now 37 percent complete, the Regional Development Council (RDC) 11 reported.

Construction of the San Mi-guel Consolidated Global Pow-er Corporation (SMC-GPC)-owned coal-fired power plan, started with a ground breaking in July 2013 and will have an initial capacity of 150 MW.

“Construction of two units of 150 MW power plantsare scheduled for full commission-ing in 2016,” Davao del Norte Gov. and RDC 11 chair Rodolfo del Rosario said in a recent me-dia forum.

Del Rosario said the pow-er plant is upgradeable to 600 MW, and the initial 150 MW is scheduled for completion in second semester of 2015.

“SMC-GPC’s 300 MW pow-er shall be 36 percent of the

836 MW total power supply ca-pacity of Davao Region by year 2016,” he said, adding that the SMC-GPC is planning to expand up to 1,200 MW its power gen-eration capacity until 2020.

The construction of the 300 MW coal-fired power plant is just one of the power project in Mindanao that would bring availability of excess power supply including contingency reserves in Mindanao for the first time since 2009.

Based on the report of Min-danao Power Monitoring Com-mittee (MPMC), other power projects was Therma South Inc (TSI).’s 300 MW Coal-fired Energy Project in Barangay Binugao, Toril, Davao City and Barangay Inawayan, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.

The plant is reported to have started its steam blowing last month. The management of the Therma South said in a press release that there’ no

harmful chemical in steam blowing and it was executed to clear chimney.

Del Rosario reported that TSI’s300 MW power will ac-count for 56 percent of 536 MW total power supply capac-ity of Davao Region by this year.

Another power project that will provide excess power to Mindanao grid by 2016 is the operation of the first unit of the 200 MW Southern Mind-anao Coal-fired Power Station-

located in Maasim, Saranganni and owned by Sarangani En-ergy Corporation by the third quarter of this year.

Mindanao Development Authority (Minda)- investment promotions and public affair director Romeo Montenegro also said earlier that the excess power supply in the grid will be Mindanao’s big ticket in in-viting investors from the man-ufacturing and agribusiness sectors.

Coal-fired power plantin DavSur 37% complete

crc@edgedavao.net

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

CHAMBERMEN IN DIALOGUE WITH JAPANESE. Top officers of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) Daniel T. Lim and Wilfred “Evoy” Teves, an architect and an engineer, took time out of their busy schedules to participate in the Philippine-Japan Economic Dialogue jointly organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry

(PCCCI), the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) and the Philippines-Japan Economic Cooperation Committee at the Rizal Ballroom of Shangri-la Makati Hotel on February 5. The event brought in more than 70 high-ranking officers of various Japanese companies to the country. (Contributed)

NEW APPLICATION.   Davao Light and Power Company’s customer retailsServices department supervisor Ruby Barnes (center) and Engr. Jeffrey Jomer Madolora (left) discuss the application procedure and requirements for new residential accounts during the company’s radio program last Saturday, February 7. The program,  Kaalam Sa Kuryente  which airs every

Saturday, 10:30 – 11:30 AM at DXUM Radyo Ukay 819 kHz, aims to give relevant information to Davao Light’s stakeholders. The topic for next Saturday, February 14 is the application procedure and requirements for new commercial accounts. Listeners will get a chance to win exciting prizes when they participate in the program’s Q&A.

SoCot opens support facility for small-scale mining

THE Social Security Sys-tem (SSS) expects to increase by 50 percent

its membership in the eastern part of Cagayan De Oro as it opens a new branch in Lapa-san, Agora on February 12, 2015.

The new SSS Lapasan Branch will serve about 7,600 members but projects 3,000 more by year-end as it starts to intensify mapping strate-gies for social security cover-age.

“We had initial discussions with the 10 municipalities and seven barangays under our ju-risdiction to encourage mem-bership especially among job-order personnel and farm workers,” said SSS Lapasan Branch Head Valentine Via-jar-Aunzo.

Areas covered by SSS Lapasan are the municipalities of Libona, Malitbog, Manolo Fortich, Villanueva, Claveria, Tagoloan, Balingasag, Lagon-glong, Jasaan, Salay and seven barangays.

SSS members will have easier access to the new branch located at the ground floor of the Market City build-ing in Agora Complex. The complex houses jeepney ter-minals of the 10 municipalities covered by SSS Lapasan as well as bus terminals bound for Bu-tuan, Davao, and Bukidnon.

“The SSS is increasing its

presence all over the coun-try to make SSS transactions easier and more convenient to our members. This also af-fords more segments of soci-ety immediate access to social security,” Officer-In-Charge for Northern Mindanao Edwin M. Alo said.

SSS Lapasan Branch issues SS number; accepts and pro-cesses applications on salary loan as well as claims on retire-ment, disability, funeral and death including sickness notifi-cation. It also has a UMID Data Capture Station and e-Center facilities.

Pensioners can also visit the Branch to comply with the Annual Confirmation of Pen-sioners to continue receiving their monthly pension.

To date, SSS Lapasan has 755 employer accounts with 4,146 employees with a pro-jected average collection of about P2 million per month. It also monitors membership of 2,707 self-employed members and 606 AlkanSSSya members which will remit about P2.7 million every month.

Started in 2011, the Al-kanSSSya program which de-rived its concept from a piggy bank, is a large metal safety box with secure individual com-partments in which members can put their savings to pay their monthly SSS contribu-

THE Philippines has the largest imports of Aus-tralian beef among ASE-

AN countries, Meat and Live-stock Australia (MLA) said in a briefing Thursday.

MLA country manager Peter Paul Perez said that beef exports to the Philippines in 2014 increased by 27 percent year-on-year to 34,352 tons.

This is higher than Malay-sia’s imports of Australian beef at 13,105 tons; Singapore’s 10,094 tons; Thailand’s 5,422 tons; and Vietnam’s 2,092 tons.

Perez said the country’s demand of sheep meat is also growing.

Philippine imports of lamb last year grew by 18 per-cent year-on-year to 566 tons; however, it is lower than im-ports of Malaysia with 7,389 tons, Singapore with 2,124 tons, Vietnam with 2,902 tons, and Thailand with 652 tons.

Likewise, Australian mutton meat imports of the country surged by 73 percent to 62 tons while Malaysia im-ported 15,939 tons; Singapore with 9,052 tons; Vietnam with 1,685 tons; and Thailand with 17 tons.

“More restaurants now are offering a wide range of red meat options,” Perez noted.

“Acceptance with meat is

growing,” he added.He mentioned that the key

drivers of red meat imports in Southeast Asia were the free trade agreement of ASEAN with Australia and New Zea-land (ANZFTA), population growth, expansion of the mid-dle class, fast urbanization, and gradual shift to a DIET with more protein.

However, Perez noted that there will be 15 percent con-traction on global supplies of beef this year until 2016.

The 15-percent con-traction was pushed by cli-mate change, feed prices, currency changes, and glob-al economic activity. (PNA)

SSS opens branch in CDO

Phl imports of Australian beef highest in ASEAN FSSS, 12 FSOCOT, 12

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015 7EDGEDAVAO

BIGGER PICTURE

All we need is love“THE person who tries to

live alone will not suc-ceed as a human being,”

Pearl S. Buck once wrote. “His heart withers if it does not an-swer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.”

The award-winning au-thor, of course, was talking about love. Marguerite De Valois readily agrees: “Love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and stretching the weak; mak-ing fools of the wise, and wise men of fools; favoring the pas-sions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy.”

It seems that everyone has his or her own idea about love. Mark Twain said, “Love is the irresistible desire to be irre-sistibly desired.” Oliver Wen-dell Holmes thinks: “Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.”

British actor Peter Ustinov believes: “Love is an act of end-less forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” Amer-ican actor Robert Mitchum has another idea: “Maybe love is like luck. You have to go all the way to find it.”

Mignon McLaughlin rhap-sodizes: “In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals ev-erything, and two minus one equals nothing.” Albert Ein-stein declares: “How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phe-nomenon as first love?”

Henry Ward Beecher quips, “Love cannot endure in-difference. It needs to be want-ed. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another’s heart, or its flame burns low.” To which Aristotle philoso-phizes: “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”

William Shakespeare, the father of English literature,

writes: “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. Being purged, a fire sparkling in lov-ers’ eyes. Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, a choking gall and a preserving sweet.”

Some noted authors have poked fun at the subject. “Love is like war: Easy to begin but hard to end,” writes one. “Love is like playing the piano. First you must learn to play by the rules, then you must forget the rules and play from your heart,” writes another. “Love is an electric blanket with some-body else in control of the switch,” Cathy Carlyle notes.

Germaine De Stael shares: “Love is the history of a wom-an’s life; it is an episode in man’s.” UB40 compares: “Love is a thing, well, it’s kind of like quicksand: The more you are in it, the deeper you sink. And when it hits you, you’ve just got to fall.”

Those who have experi-enced love have words of wis-dom to share. Hollywood actor Woody Allen states, “To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suf-fers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you’re getting this down.”

British singer John Lennon offers: “We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep water-ing it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.”

Elbert Hubbard advices: “Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.”

Iris Murdoch says, “We can only learn to love by loving.” D. H. Lawrence admits, “Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration.”

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa urges: “Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own home. Give love to your children, to a wife or husband, to a next-door neighbor.”

Love, so goes a song, comes from the most unexpected places. This happened to Lt. John Blanchard, a soldier in basic training in Florida during World War II. One evening, he wandered into the post library and found a book to read. The feminine handwriting in the margins intrigued him, so he turned to the front of the book and found the name of the pre-vious owner – a certain Miss Hollis Maynell.

Blanchard did some re-search and found her address in New York. The following day, he was shipped overseas. For 13 months, the two corre-sponded by letter and started to open their hearts to each other. He asked for her picture, to which she refused by say-ing that if he really loved her it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.

To make the long story short, the two decided to meet each other in Grand Central Station in New York City. “You’ll recognize me by the red rose that I’ll be wearing on my la-pel,” she told him in her letter. (If only there were cellular phones at that time!!!)

So, what happened next? Blanchard tells the rest of the story in his own words: “A young woman was coming toward me, beautiful, trim, blonde, eyes were blue as flow-ers, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her for-

By HENRYLITO D. TACIO

Archetypal lovers Romeo and Juliet portrayed by Frank Dicksee (from Wikipedia)

Robert Indiana’s 1977 Love sculpture spelling ahava (from Wikipedia) Lovers kissing on the street (from Wikipedia)

getting that she was not wear-ing the rose – and then I saw Hollis Maynell! She was stand-ing behind the girl. A wom-an with graying hair. But she wore a red rose on the rum-pled brown lapel of her coat. So deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had captured me that I approached her. There she stood, face was gentle and sensible and her gray eyes had a twinkle. I didn’t hesitate. My hand gripped the

small worn blue leather book which

was to identify me to her.“I squared my shoulders

and saluted and held out the book to the woman while choking back the bitterness of disappointment. ‘I’m Lt. John Blanchard and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad to meet you. My I take you to din-ner?’

“The woman’s face broad-ened into a smile. ‘I don’t know what this is about son,’ she an-swered, ‘but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, asked me to wear this rose.

And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the large restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!’”

It was Erica Jong who said, “Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it... It really is worth fighting for, risking ev-erything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk everything, you risk even more.”

And, yes, love makes the world go round!

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 20158 EDGEDAVAO

VANTAGE

Who is Purisima fooling?EDITORIAL

WHEN is an advice an order? And when is an order an advice?

In this apparent play with words, resigned PNP chief Alan Purisima sought refuge from linguistics and etymolo-gy in a desperate move to save his behind and that of the bigger gods that be in this imbroglio on the Mamasapano massacre.

In perspective, when a police general speaks to an officer low-er in rank, will the former’s words be taken merely as an advice?

Let’s put it this way: When then suspended PNP chief Purisi-ma spoke to SAF commander Getulio Napeñas on a very delicate operation to arrest a terrorist, did the latter take it as a mere advice?

An order and an advice are two words closely similar and like-wise vastly different.

An order is something you follow, never to break under the rigid laws of hierarchy of command. An advice is guidance or rec-ommendation offered with regard to prudent action. One’s act-ing on an advice is discretionary. On the other hand, acting on an

order is mandatory.In a system such as ours, the words of a superior come down

as an order, unless specifically stated otherwise. A subordinate failing to act on something the superior tells him could be guilty of insubordination – an omission that could cost him his job.

So when in doubt, it is incumbent upon a subordinate to heed the words of his superior as a sacred order and in this discreet operation like the Mamasapano, only those who speak the lan-guage are involved in the entire scheme of things to the exclusion of all others.

Purisima’s telling Napeñas to exclude the military and the DILG Secretary from the operations given the privacy and exclu-sivity of the information can only be taken as a directive and not merely an advice.

So if Purisima is telling us that if at all, he only gave an advice, who is he fooling?

Definitely not the Senators he faced in the hearing. And yes, definitely not the people.

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

OLIVIA D. VELASCOGeneral Manager

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THE initial effort to work for the beatification of Fathers Mateo Gisbert and Saturnino Urios, former Davao parish

priest, was launched on November 7, 2005 when Oliverio Suazo Divino, a Dabawenyo residing in Gaithersburg, Maryland, furnished the Vatican with voluminous historical documents, photos, and maps gathered from Centro Borja, San Cugat del Valles, in Barcelona, Spain, which were related to the life and works of the missionaries. He also submitted scholarly articles written by eminent Jesuit historians Miguel A. Bernad and Jose S. Arcilla.

Thirteen days later, the Postulazione Generale della Compagnia di Gesu, the Jesuit office in Rome, responded by facsimile. Prof. Fr. Paul Molinari, S.J., signatory of the response, acknowledged that the documents he received were “very interesting… and [the] pages are certainly throwing some light on the activity accomplished by [the missionaries] and the situation of that part of the Philippines where they spent themselves to spread the Good News and evangelize the members of the [B]agobo and others.”

Father Molinari cited two key points, based on the norms in the Causes of Beatification and Canonization, which he cited from his “long experience.” First, the bishops who were approached to support the beatification have “to ascertain that there exists among the people of God a widely spread reputation for holiness”

(italics not mine) of the person being processed for Ecclesiastical Inquiry, and second, there has to be “profound methodological difference” with regard to “recent” causes (actual testimonies of people who know the life, activity and virtues of the missionaries) and “ancient” or “historical” causes (documentary evidences as reliable bases in reconstructing the biographies).

As an essential preliminary condition for a cause of beatification, Molinari said the status of piety attributed to the two clerics should be extensive and well known to the large segment of the Christian community where they evangelized, the absence of which “would mean to work in vain” for the recognition of

Pastells and Gisbert as future saints. Even in the development of an accurate biography, the Jesuit professor called such enterprise as “very demanding” if the rules of beatification are considered.

Meanwhile, the Catholicization of Davao region, initiated in the first quarter of the 17th century, went full speed ahead only in the last three decades of Spanish rule (1868-1898). This was largely due to the untiring efforts of the Jesuits. Across hostile territories, braving the unpredictable gulf, infiltrating unfriendly regions, and risking lives under threat of ambuscades, the missionaries, mostly in their twenties, were more than just strangers introducing a brand-new religion. They were men whose dedication to God and country, using persuasion, grit, gutsiness and charm disarmed tribal leaders and Moro datus. They also became a source of legends.

While the conversions were made less perilous by the presence of law enforcers that accompanied the padres in their travels, the unusual courage the priests showed in the face of adversity surprised the non-Christian chieftains. Actually, there were missionaries who stood out as models, but the most iconic among those who made a big religious difference in Davao region were Fathers Pablo Pastells, Gisbert, Urios, and Marcelino Vivero.

Fondly called the “apostle of the Bagobos,” Fr. Gisbert was born on July 6, 1847, in Cherta,

Tarragona, Spain. He joined the Jesuit order on March 14, 1876 but only arrived in eastern Mindanao three years later at age 32. His first assignment was in Caraga where he stayed for half a year. He was reassigned to the Davao mission where he was missionarius excurrens (roving missionary) for 14 years, three as local superior. He was relieved by Urios in 1893 and was sent to Baganga where he stayed for six years. Due to the American takeover in 1898, he was moved to Manila to become administrator of the parish of Ermita. In 1901 he returned to Davao and took charge of the Jesuit mission until 1906. Ill health forced him to return to Manila where he died.

Born on November 12, 1843 in Jativa, Valencia Province, Father Urios entered seminary at the advice of the parish priest and with the support of his barber-father, who allowed him to pursue studies, first at Játiva, and later at the Seminario Conciliar in Valencia. He was ordained diocesan priest on June 6, 1868, but in January 1870 left for France where the Jesuits, exiled from Spain by the September Revolution, had established their novitiate. On July 30, 1874, he found himself boarding from Marseilles for Manila and Mindanao, where he worked as a Jesuit missionary for 40 years. He evangelized the natives and founded towns along the Agusan River and its tributaries. He was better known as the “apostle of the Upper Agusan Valley.”

ARE there marriages made in heaven? Below is a copy of letter of American evangelist Billy Graham to his wife,

Ruth Bell Graham, given two days before their twentieth wedding anniversary:

“How can I find words to express my appreciation for all you have meant to me. Your love and patience with me in my ups and downs… have meant more to me than you will ever know. Your counsel, advice, encouragement and prayer have been my mainstay – and at times I have almost clung to you in my weakness, in hours of obsession, problems and difficulties. ‘Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor from the Lord.’ (Proverbs 18:22) One reason that in spite of my lack of spirituality, discipline and consecration I have found favor of the Lord is because of you. I found a good wife and as a result have found favor with God.

“It seems that in the recent months of my capacity to love you has been increased – I did not think that age would bring greater and deeper love – but it has and is. I love the wife of my youth more every day! When we are apart, I miss you so much more than I used to. A week seems like a month. Yes, I am thankful to God for you. What a wonderful helpmeet He provided – certainly our marriage was planned in heaven. I am thankful for the five precious children you bore me – each one a bundle of joy. And what a wonderful mother you have been to them! No child ever had a greater mother than our children. You may compare yourself to Susana Wesley and thin you are a failure – but she did not rear her family in a modern, secular society. For our generation, you are near perfection.”

“For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” This is the first marriage

instituted by God as recorded in Genesis 2:24.

Since then, people from all over the world tied the nuptial knot. Gina Cerminara c o m m e n t e d : “Marriage is not for a moment; it is for a lifetime. It requires long and serious preparation. It is not be leaped into, but entered with solemn steps of deliberation. For one of the most intimate and difficult of human relationships is that of marriage.”

Adam and Even had an ideal marriage. You know why? Bob Orben replied, “Adam didn’t have to hear about all the men she could have married – and Eve didn’t have to hear about the way his mother cooked it.”

“There are some four-letter words which shock new brides – like cook, wash, and iron,” Joan I. Welsh said. On the opposite, here’s what a husband tells: “When we got married, my wife promised to love, honor and obey – and she does – she loves new clothes, honors her credit cards, and obeys her whims.”

Being married is no bed of roses, however. “Marriage is neither heaven nor hell. It is simply purgatory,” Abraham Lincoln said. Beverley Nichols pointed out: “Marriage is a book of which the first chapter is written in poetry and the remaining chapters in prose.”

Flora Davis explains: “Almost all married people fight, although many are ashamed

to admit it. Actually, a marriage in which no quarreling at all takes may place well be one that is dead or dying from emotional undernourishment. If you care, you probably fight.”

Sholem Aleichem (aka Solomon J. Rabinowitz) said: “I have a wife, you have a wife, we all have wives, we’ve had a taste of paradise, we know what it means to be married.” Robert Burton thinks otherwise: “One was never married, and that’s his hell; another is, and that’s his plague.” George Jessel forwards: “Marriage is a mistake every man should make.”

“By all means marry,” Socrates advised. “If you get a good wife, you will become very happy; if you get a bad one, you will become a philosopher – and that is good for any man.”

Ogden Nash has an advice for married couple: “To keep your marriage brimming with love in the loving cup; whenever you’re wrong, admit it; whenever you’re right, shut up.”

Man and woman have different views about marriage. “When a girl marries, she exchanges the attentions of many men for the inattention of one,” Helen Rowland claims. “Why does a woman work ten years to change a man’s habits and then complain that he’s not the man she married?” singer Barbra Streisand wonders.

In marriage, love is always there. Oscar Wilde said, “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.” Zsa Zsa Gabor agrees: “A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then, he’s finished.”

Of course, there are marriages made in heaven. So, one wonders: What makes a marriage work? Well, there’s no basic formula. But allow me to share to you a thought-provoking piece below. I don’t know who wrote it but I am sure you will agree with author:

“Blessed are the husband and wife who continue to be affectionate, considerate and loving after the wedding bells have ceased ringing.

“Blessed are the husband and wife who are as polite and courteous to one another as they are to their friends.

“Blessed are they who have a sense of humor, for this attribute will be a handy shock absorber.

“Blessed are the married couples who abstain from alcoholic beverages.

“Blessed are they who love their mates more than any other person in the world, and who joyfully fulfill their marriage vow of a lifetime of fidelity and mutual helpfulness to each other.

“Blessed are they who remember to thank God for their food before they partake of it, and who set aside some time each day for the reading of the Bible and prayer.

“Blessed are they who attain parenthood, for children are a heritage of the Lord.

“Blessed are those mates who never speak loudly to each other and who make their home a place ‘where seldom is heard a discouraging word.’

“Blessed are the husband and wife who faithfully attend the worship service of the church.

“Blessed are the husband and wife who can work out their problems of adjustment without interference from relatives.

“Blessed is the couple who have a complete understanding about financial matters and who have worked out perfect partnership with all the money under control of both.

“Blessed are the husband and wife who humbly dedicate their lives and their home to Christ and practice the teachings of Christ in their home by being unselfish, loyal and loving.”

Cecil Myers said it best: “Successful marriage is always a triangle: a man, a woman, and God.”

Happily married, thank you!VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015 VANTAGE POINTS 9EDGEDAVAO

Henrylito D. Taciohenrytacio@gmail.com

THINK ON THESE!

Future Davao ‘saints’

BY THE ARCHIVIST

FAST BACKWARD

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 201510 EDGEDAVAO

ICT HUB

GLOBE Game Changer Challenge, a competi-tion launched by the

leading telecommunications company for ideas to revo-lutionize the Filipino digital lifestyle, attracted the best and the brightest graduating students in the country.

The completion has at-tracted top students from ma-jor colleges and universities that include University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, University of San Carlos, Ateneo de Davao and De La Salle University Manila.

GGCC is a rigorous and prestigious competition to determine which top students from leading universities in the country will be able to help Globe achieve its vision of enriching the digital life-style of its consumers.

The GGCC competition involved around 300 out-standing students of major colleges and universities in the country including Univer-sity of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, Univer-sity of San Carlos, Ateneo de Davao and De La Salle Univer-sity Manila. Based on their academic standing, excellence in extra-curricular activities, the 300 aspirants were then trimmed down to 25 after going through a series of in-terviews and workshops on

THE White House is setting up a new agency designed to

coordinate cyberthreat in-telligence that currently is spread across the U.S. government.

The agen-cy will be m o d e l e d after the N a -tional

Counter Terrorism Center, which was established after 9/11 to coordinate terror-ism intelligence. The lack of

such an

agency before led to missed opportunities to thwart the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for home-land security and counter-terrorism, announced the new “Cyber Threats Intel-ligence Integration Cen-

ter” in a speech Tuesday at the Wilson Center in Washington.

U.S. companies have been buffeted by a series of damaging

Globe Game Changer Challenge attractsthe best and the brightest students

Obama to create new agency to examine cyberthreats

CHALLENGE. (From right) Globe President and CEO Ernest Cu; Camille Calma, Catherine Villarosa, Selynn Co, Christine Chicano, Greg Tolentino, Pebbles Sy-Manalang, Globe head of Product

Management, Vince Yamat, Globe Director for Innovations; and Globe Chief Human Resource Officer Ato Jiao.

innovation. The top 25 students were

then grouped into five teams and were asked to work on their big idea that would en-hance Filipino digital lifestyle. Their proposals were judged by the senior leaders of Globe Telecom.

“Globe has been at the forefront of innovation and the people at Globe need to be innovative, customer-cen-

tric and this is what we envi-sioned to achieve through the GGCC. It’s important for us to bring a lot of new ideas, for young people to deliver dis-ruptive, creative, innovative thinking unto the company because that is our life blood. Through the GGCC, we hope to bring the best of the best into the company,” Globe President & CEO Ernest Cu said.

The winning GGCC team

is composed of Camille Calma, a BS Business Administration student from the University of the Philippines, Diliman; Greg Tolentino, a BS in Applied Economics student from the De La Salle University, Manila; Catherine Villarosa, a BS Man-agement student from the Ateneo de Manila University; Christine Chicano, a BS Busi-ness Administration student from UP Diliman; and Selynn

Co, a BS Management Engi-neering student also from ADMU.

The winners will go to an all-expense paid trip to Singapore for an exclusive immersion in the SingTel In-novation Center. They were also awarded a cash prize of P50,000 and were each given an Ipad mini. The winners will also have a chance to be part of the company’s Management

Development Program Batch 2015. The Management De-velopment Program, intended for promising young talents, aims to develop effective cross management abilities, honing their decision-making skills that will help in achieving or-ganization goals and prepare them to take the company forward amid intense compe-tition and increasing demand for innovation.

cyber incidents in recent years — some from nation states, others from criminal groups. Government exper-tise in analyzing the various cyberthreats resides in a number of agencies, includ-ing the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.

White House cyberse-curity coordinator Michael Daniel has concluded that

cyberintelligence at the moment is

bedeviled by the same shortcom-ings that afflict-ed terrorism

intelligence before 9/11

— bu-r e a u -

cracy, com-pet-i n g i n -

terests, and no streamlined way to combine analysis from various agencies, the official said.

The hack on Sony’s movie subsidiary, for exam-ple, resulted in a variety of different analytical papers from various agencies. Each one pointed to North Korea, but with varying degrees of confidence.

Unlike the National Counter Terrorism Center, which gets most of its in-formation from intelligence agencies, the new cyber-agency may rely to a much larger extent on private companies, which are reg-ularly seeing and gathering cyberintelligence as they are hit with attempts by hackers to break into their networks.

Gathering threat signa-tures, and profiling hacker groups, has become a key component of collecting cyberintelligence — a dis-cipline practiced both by government agencies and private firms.

U.S. intelligence officials

have been warning about the dangers of cyberattacks for years, and the public is starting to pay close atten-tion.

Fifty-seven percent of Americans in a new Asso-ciated Press-GfK poll con-ducted Jan. 29-Feb 2 think there is an extremely or somewhat high risk of a foreign country or terror-ist group making a major cyberattack on computer systems inside of the Unit-ed States. That is more than the 50 percent who say the risk of a terrorist attack is somewhat or extremely high.

On the other hand, few-er Americans say the risks posed by computer hackers are important to them per-sonally (57 percent) than say the same of terrorism (71 percent).

Just over half of Ameri-cans, or 51 percent approve of the way Obama is han-dling threats posed by com-puter hackers, the survey found. KEN DILANIAN, AP Intelligence Writer

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015 11

CHILDREN learn lan-guage and arithme-tic through music,

movement, and art in a nature setting at Tuburan Institute, Inc. – the Steiner/Waldorf-inspired school in Davao City.

This coming school year 2015-2016, Tuburan In-stitute, Inc. will transfer to a donated farmland locat-ed in Purok 8, New Loon, Barangay Tugbok Proper, Tugbok District. The Ra-mon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. and Milow, an interna-

tional singer, donated funds to construct the first three green buildings under the supervision of Architect Ed-mundo Viacrusis.

To keep school fees to a minimum for low-income families, Tuburan is holding a series of Red Heart for a Green School fundraising dinners this Valentine’s week.

On February 12, Beli-to’s Vineyard located along Palm Drive, Bajada will of-fer a buffet meal for P500/person. The buffet offers pa-

ella negra, pumpkin soup, bokchoy with shiitake, beef caldereta, breaded chicken, steamed tilapia, pasta in pesto sauce, fruit salad, and camote tops juice.

On February 14, Balik Bukid located along Quim-po Boulevard will also offer a buffet meal for P500/per-son: farm salad with three dressings, callos, steamed fish fillet with ginger, but-tered vegetables, tarragon iced tea, and mascarpone cheese cake.

On February 14 and 15,

both Riverwalk Exotic Res-to Grill and Kaonanan sa Tribu K’ Mindanawan locat-ed in Crocodile Park, Maa will offer plate-in meals for P350/person: chicken barbecue or grilled pork chop, pinaputok na tilapia, rice, and calamansi juice. Meal tickets are inclusive of entrance to the Crocodile Park, the butterfly house, the cultural show, and the fire dance show.

For reservations, please contact Weng at 09328692851.

A TOTAL of 1,840 more families in the towns of Baganga, Cateel and Bos-

ton received their Certificate of Occupancy to their permanent homes through the modified shelter assistance program (MSAP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Develop-ment (DSWD) in coordination with the Provincial Govern-ment.

DSWD provides funding while the Provincial Govern-ment handles acquisition and development of resettlement sites.

“Only our houses blown by ‘Pablo’ left us, but the hope still remains,” typhoon Pablo survi-vor Reysalina Donaldo said.

“For two years, my family never slept in a comfortable home but I am still grateful that blessings from the govern-ment flooded our municipality. They never left us during our most trying days,” Donaldo re-counted.

DSWD 11 assistant region-al director for operations Re-becca A. Santamaria said she is optimistic that all remaining houses targeted for construc-tion will be completed by the end of March this year.

“These homes mark a new beginning for you. Now that we are given the security of a home, DSWD can now focus more in accessing different livelihood activities under the Sustainable Livelihood Pro-gram so that you can totally rise and get going. Houses built under MSAP may not be your dream house but at least government can offer you a comfortable and secure place you can happily call your own home.”

“Dili nako mapugngan nga

muhilak nga nakabalay napud kami kay mahinumduman nako akoang bana nga nama-tay sa depresyon human sa Bagyong Pablo. Sakit pa pero kailangan nako mutindog kay kabalo ko dili ko pabayaan sa gobyerno (I can’t help but cry with this new home because I remember my husband who got depressed and died after typhoon Pablo. It is so pain-ful yet I need to move on for I know government will not neglect us),” said survivor Ger-trodes D. Purazo of Baganga.

Meanwhile, Governor Corazon N. Malanyaon said the downpour of support from the national government agencies especially DSWD has made her province grow stronger and resilient.

“Despite the mounting challenges, there are still peo-ple with kind hearts that will help meet the urgent needs and help the province build re-silience,” she said.

To date, 13,780 perma-nent housing units have been already completed on the ground, offering typhoon sur-vivors opportunity for a fresh start.

During the turnover cere-mony, Santamaria announced the upcoming Listahanan sec-ond round of assessment and encouraged everyone to co-operate in the data collection process.

Listahanan-identified poor families will benefit from social protection programs of DSWD and other line agencies.

She also bared that age re-quirement for qualified benefi-ciaries of social pension has al-ready been lowered from 77 to 65 years old. DSWD/Florame B. Espada

EDGEDAVAO

COMMUNITY SENSE

A red heart for a green school

1840 more ‘Pablo’ shelterscompleted in Davao Oriental

TAGUM City is set to go on a two-week revelry as the city government

and the Tagum City Tourism Council are all set for the sec-ond installment of the city’s Trio Celebration.

The trio celebration is composed of the 2015 Tagum City Musikahan Festivals, the Tagumenyo Bisa’g Asa and the 17th Araw ng Tagum and will run from February 23 through March 7.

The celebration, together with its calendar of activities, were presented during a press conference on February 6 at the NCCC Mall in Maa, Davao City and at the February edi-

tion of the Tagum Biz Talk at Big 8 Hotel on February 10 by respective committee chairs Marlene R. Alastra for the 2015 Tagum City Musikahan Festivals, Norma R. Pereyras for the Tagumenyo Bisa’g Asa, and Carmen B. Apura for the 17th Araw ng Tagum.

The group also promoted the city’s Trio Celebration in a morning live TV guesting in Maayong Buntag Mindanao of ABS-CBN on February 12 and will go on GMA’s Una Ka Bai on February 16.

Specifically highlighted at the two media events was the fledgling Tagumenyo Bisa’g Asa (TBA) which was concep-

tualized on the premise that the expatriated constituents of the City of Tagum, including the Overseas Filipinos Work-ers, have to be recognized by the local government in con-sideration of their valued sup-port and contribution to the economy of Tagum.

The Tagum City Music Makers Concert is a newly- added event which will be held during the 2015 Musikahan Festivals. The concert will fea-ture all the beneficiaries-grad-uates of the Tagum City Mu-sical Instrument Workshop Program, which is one of the city’s literacy programs and is

DDC announces search for 44 Founders’ ScholarsIN celebration of the 40th

Foundation Anniversary of Davao Doctors College this

year, 44 slots are being offered for High School graduates who are aspiring to finish a college degree at Davao Doctors Col-lege.

The DDC Founders’ Schol-arship Grant is put up to honor

the school’s founders as well as to recognize and motivate incoming freshmen who did exemplarily well in the DDC Entrance Examination.

This competitive grant will be awarded to the topmost 44 examinees based on raw score ranking in the entrance exam-ination.

It is open to all High School gradu-ating students in the region, regardless of school or place of residence.

Four awardees will be given the Founders’ Memo-rial Scholarship for garnering the top four places in the entrance exam.

This scholar-ship grant will allow them to take any course at DDC with free tuition.

On the other hand, 40 awardees

will be granted the Founders’ Scholarship for Merit, giving them 50 percent discount on tuition when they enroll in the school’s developmental cours-es: Bachelor of Secondary Education major in Biological Sciences, Bachelor of Science in Biology Major in Medicinal Horticulture, Bachelor of Sci-ence in Entrepreneurship and Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management.

Recognizing the potential of HS graduates who are not necessarily in the top of their class but are willing to strive hard to pursue their dreams, Davao Doctors’ College offers more opportunities for success in their chosen fields, especial-ly those geared towards the sciences.

As a premier institution of learning, primarily in the healthcare sciences, DDC con-tinues to shine in its banner courses in Nursing, Radiologic Technology, Physical Therapy, Biology, Pharmacy, Medical

Laboratory Services (popular-ly known as MedTech), Optom-etry and Occupational Thera-py, producing graduates who garner top places in the medi-cal licensure examinations.

Just recently, Davao Doc-tors College got another feath-er in its cap in the recently-con-ducted nationwide Physical Therapy Board Examination. Staying true to DDC’s pursuit of academic excellence, Derek Bayquen, a DDC alumnus of the school’s Physical Therapy Program, garnered the 5th place among the 766 examin-ees all over the country who took the examination. DDC’s Class 2014 of the Physical Therapy Program registered a 100% passing mark in the same examination.

To know more about the DDC Founders’ Scholarship Grant or admission to Davao Doctors College, interested students may contact the DDC Admissions Office at (082)222-0850 to 53 loc 112.

All set for Tagum’s Trio Celebration

ALL SET. Officers of the Tagum City Tourism Council promote the city’s upcoming Trio Celebration at press conference at NCCC Mall in Davao City. From left, Norma R. Pereyras for the

Tagumenyo Bisa’g Asa, Carmen B. Apura for the 17th Araw ng Tagum, and Marlene R. Alastra for the 2015 Tagum City Musikahan Festivals. Photo by Edwin B. Lasquite CIO TagumFALL, 12

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 201512 EDGEDAVAONEWS

Former... FFROM 3

Iqbal...

P17.3B...

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FFROM 11FFROM 6

FFROM 6four were students, two were drivers, two were babysitters, two were delivery boys, and one was a gold miner.

Last December, Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte said aside from the financial assistance, he will also give the former rebels where they can build

their permanent houses.Lugo, however, said those

who already have houses will not be given that assistance.

“Dili tanan ang makaku-ha kay uban kay naa nay mga luna (not all of them can avail it since some of them already have houses),” she said.

currently on its 11th year.One of the major events of

the 17th Araw ng Tagum is the Tagumpay Awards and Recog-nition 2015. On this event, the Tagumpay Excellence Award will be presented to any Tagu-menyo, either individual or group, who has greatly con-tributed to the city’s growth, honor and glory through their distinguished and exemplary

achievements.The Estorya ng Tagump-

ay Award will be conferred to any Tagumenyo whose story of success has been an inspira-tion to others and whose con-tribution to the economy of the city has not only substantially impacted the city and its con-stituents, but also the people outside of Tagum. Richi Gulle of CIO Tagum

tions. An SSS account officer goes to the site every month to credit the contributions. SSS signs an agreement with partner associations that represent self-employed or informal sector workers.

The SSS will continue to open additional branch-

es this year with five new branches and five service offices in the pipeline this year. As of December 2014, SSS has 262 offices across the Philippines located in NCR (60); Luzon (118); Vi-sayas (41), and Mindanao (43).

public and private sector undertaking, is a pet initia-tive of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau-Region 12.

It was supported by the DTI, Tribal Mining Cor-poration (TMC), National Economic and Develop-ment Authority, barangay

and the municipal gov-ernments of Tboli and the Soccsksargen Responsible Miners Association.

TMC, which is a for-eign-backed mining firm operating in T’boli town, had acquired a package of jewelry-making equip-ment to help train local residents on jewelry-mak-ing. (MindaNews)

gaged the SAF in the bloody encounter suffered at least 250 casualties.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Mujiv Hataman said among the casualties were three civilians, including an eight-year-old whose house is near the firefight.

Iqbal said the MILF has also been investigating the conduct of their men “to see if anyone violated the rules of conduct.”

“We thought that we had effective protocols and mechanisms in place that would prevent things like these from happening,” Iqbal said.

The BTC chief said that aside from their own inves-tigation, the MILF is also pushing for a truly indepen-dent group similar to the Truth Commission being proposed in the Senate that would conduct ‘a fair and impartial investigation on the incident.’

During the hearing, Iqbal revealed that the MILF had rescued 28 SAF men who were part of the first team holed up in an area one kilometer northeast of Tukanalipao.

“They were already be-ing fired upon by uniden-tified armed groups. The 28 SAF men are alive today because of the efforts of the MILF and finally, it is the will of God,” he said.

He also clarified that the MILF is against all forms of terrorism and in fact, have made solemn vow to fight terrorism in their areas.

“The MILF did not har-bor Marwan and Usman. The MILF has no links with these terrorists and terror-ist organizations. Marwan

and Usman were in areas outside the MILF-controlled areas,” Iqbal said.

Iqbal said he has not seen a video showing a grue-some killing of a wounded SAF man but he described it as a monster act that was “more than a terrorist act.”

Iqbal also assured that the MILF is committed to peace which they have been advocating for the last 17 years.

“We signed the Frame-work Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the Compre-hensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Each of these agree-ments is a testament to our commitment to pursue our objectives through peaceful means,” he said.

He appealed to the law-makers to help achieve the peace in Mindanao.

“We promised to our people that peace will be our legacy. We seek your help in making this promise possible. We cannot do it by ourselves. We seek you to help us live in peace. Let us be partners for peace,” Iqbal appealed.

Meanwhile, Iqbal said MILF chairman Al-Haj Mu-rad Ebrahim is expressing his condolences to the fami-lies of the so-called fallen 44.

Iqbal clarified also that the MILF will no longer be a revolutionary move-ment once the BBL is finally passed into law by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“Once the final peace has been achieved, the MILF will no longer be a revolu-tionary movement but a so-cial movement,” Iqbal said. (PNA)

worth of investments. It said majority of the invest-ments were on transporta-tion, logistics and storage projects in Davao del Norte.

Romeo L. Castañaga, provincial director of DTI-Davao del Norte, said earli-er in an interview that these were the projects of Hijo International Port Services Inc., San Vicente Terminal and Brokerage Services and HLC Construction and Development Corp. which were granted fiscal incen-tives by BOI.

Based on the records from BOI 11, Hijo Inter-national Port Services Inc. is pouring P5.724 billion for a seaport and contain-er yard in Tagum City that can accommodate 450,000 20-footer equivalent units (TEUs) a year.

The other investor, San Vicente Terminal and Brokerage Services, a

unit of Anflocor Group of Companies, has set up a P2.653-billion Davao In-ternational Container Ter-minal in Panabo City. The terminal has a capacity of 400,000 TEUs per year.

BOI 11 added that HLC Construction and Develop-ment Corp. ventured into the Oakwood Residences project in Panabo City to the tune of P116.210 mil-lion.

Apart from BOI 11, Castañaga said Robinsons Land Corp. was also able to gain fiscal incentives from the local government of Tagum City for its P2.7 billion-mall. The company planned to start commer-cial operations by the end of the year.

“It is the first project that the local government of Tagum City granted with fiscal incentives last year,” he said. (MindaNews)

Lawyer withdraws legalservices to Sen. RevillaTHE lead counsel of

detained Senator Ramon “Bong” Re-

villa has formally cut his legal relations with the senator, a two-page doc-ument submitted to the anti-graft court reveals Thursday.

Lawyer Joel Bodegon, in his manifestation sent to the Sandiganbayan First Division, said he was officially terminating his legal services to the senator.

“Undersigned law firm respectfully with-draws as counsel for Sen.

Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. in this case. Sen. Revilla’s conformity is indicated herein below,” the docu-ment said.

The two-page docu-ment did not mention the reason or reasons why he cut legal ties with Revilla.

Revilla has been ac-cused of funneling mil-lions of pesos in his Pri-ority Development Assis-tance Fund (PDAF) oth-erwise known as “pork barrel fund” to fictitious non-government orga-nizations for kickbacks owned and controlled by

his co-accused business-woman Janet Lim-Na-poles. Revilla and his co-accused allegedly re-ceived Php 224.5 million in kickbacks from 2006 to 2010.

Just last year, the San-diganbayan First Divi-sion chaired by Associate Justice Efren dela Cruz, denied Revilla’s bid for temporary freedom. He has filed a motion for re-consideration that is cur-rently pending before the anti-graft court.

Bodegon asked that all of Revilla’s documents

related to the pork barrel scam be sent to the sen-ator’s office at the Sen-ate, until a new lawyer is named.

“Henceforth, it is kindly requested that copy of all orders and processes of the Hon-orable Court as well as pleadings, motions and other submissions be served directly upon ac-cused at Room 506, GSIS Building, Financial Cen-ter, Roxas Boulevard, Pa-say City, until appearance of new counsel,” Bodegon said. (PNA)

HOT LUNCH. A group of elementary students take their lunch under the scorching heat of the sun at Rizal Park in Davao City yesterday. Lean Daval Jr.

EDGEVOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015

DAVAO

Conquest in the Name of Love

Davao’s History P.4 Pamperyour love onValentine’s P.2 P.5

7 old-school waysto win your love’s heart

heartAffairsof the

A VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

Taking goodcare of your

heartBy CHARLES RAYMOND A. MAXEY

People in Davao City or elsewhere in Mindanao who are suffering from heart diseases need not go to Manila or abroad to seek medical services.

All they have to do is visit the Davao Doctors Hospital to have their ailing hearts cured.

The Davao Doctors Hospital offers a full array of medical services when it comes to cardiology and boasts state-of-the-art equipment to answer to the needs of the patients.

The hospital has two centers that attend to pa-tients with heart problems—the Cardiac Rehabilita-tion Center and the Cardiac Diagnostic Center.

This is, of course, aside from heart operations which the hospital is capable of doing.

Dr. Raul Martin Coching, head of the department, said that based on available technology worldwide, the Davao Doctors Hospital can cover 85 to 90 percent of the medical needs of the patients as far as facility is concerned.

“We offer a full array of medical services as far as cardiology is concerned,” said Dr. Coching. “We can practically diagnose most if not all the possible condi-tions on the book.”

But while they perform heart surgeries, Dr. Coch-ing admitted their services are limited when it comes to equipment and manpower.

“If you go to our invasive treatment like surgery we are bit limited as far as surgery is concerned be-cause sometimes it is limited by the equipment need-ed. Sometimes, it’s limited by available skilled physi-cians to do that,” Dr. Coching said.

Silvery Ann Carbonnel, unit manager of the Cardi-ac Rehabilitation Center and Cardiac Diagnostic Cen-ter, said they are planning to enhance their operations at the hospital by using a system that will speed up transmittal of data to their doctors.

Called the Picture Archiving Computer System or PACS, this method will have the hospital’s equipment connected to the system which allows the transmittal of data to the doctors wherever they are.

FTAKING, S4

S2EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAOPamper your love on

They say celebrating Val-entine’s Day doesn’t need to be expensive, but if you have the money to make this day special so that your love will feel extra special, do it. Here are some of the places just in the heart of Davao City that you want to check out:

1. Marco Polo Davao

Let love come your way this Valentine’s Day as Marco Polo Davao make your eve-ning more romantic with live serenades and special give-aways.

Dine out at Café Marco where the buffet features roasted US Prime Rib, Aus-tralian Leg of Lamb, Whole Tuna Sashimi, and other in-

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

Valentine’sMaking Valentine’s Day memorable is quite a

challenge, especially to men. You women must admit this: you want to be pampered and treat-

ed extra special on every hour of this day. Some have high expectations while some totally lose the spark. But this sill can be revived on Valentine’s.

ternational dishes. The Lotus Court’s savory Cantonese spread includes Roast Peking Duck, Lechon, and premium seafood items. Polo Bistro of-fers an enticing Carvery sta-tion with US Roast Beef, Polo Bistro’s Famous baby back

ribs, and others.For reservations and in-

quiries, please call 221-0888 local 7222 for Café Marco, 7232 for Lotus Court and Polo Bistro at 7955.

Stay in Marco Polo’s Su-perior rooms for only P3,900 net per night inclusive of breakfast for two. Take de-light in the Cabana rooms for only Php7,888 net or Deluxe suite at P10,888 net and en-joy a special breakfast in bed, bottle of wine and late check out.2. Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao

Spend the night with love songs while sipping a glass

of wine as Waterfront cele-brates February 14 with its event dubbed BLACK IS THE NEW RED: A VALENTINE GALA. It will be held at the Grand Agila Ballroom on Feb. 14 from 6 - 11 pm. Tickets are at P1,350 nett per person, in-clusive of buffet dinner and a glass of wine and 1 round of soda. Entertainment during dinner will be a pianist and saxophonist who will be play-ing your favorite love songs. Come dessert time and on-wards, the Songspell Philip-pines Inc. will do their rendi-tions of Broadway excerpts from plays like Les Misera-bles, Miss Saigon.

Enjoy this on the beach as Waterfront offer special Room Package available at P5,500 nett, which includes an overnight gift certificate in a Deluxe Room with buffet breakfast for 2 persons and 2 tickets to the Valentine’s Din-ner event.

Guests have the option of using the gift certificate any time in the month of February 2015, and not necessarily just on Valentine’s Day. 3. Park Inn by Raddison

Planning a romantic getaway on the 14th? Check Park Inn’s “Thrill of the Grill,” a station where guests can choose from a selection of savory meat cuts and the freshest local fish and seafood for grilling. “Aside from pre-mium grilled items for your

main course, it also has Sea-food Paella, Morcon, Chicken & Tomato 4-Cheese Melt and Shrimp Scampi.” Regular buf-fet rate is at P950 net per per-son, inclusive of bottomless juice and one glass of wine. Premium buffet package is at P1,250 net, with unlimited lo-cal beers and spirits. Dinner is served from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

Book the Romance Pack-age and delight your loved one with a number of treats to add sparkle to your overnight stay. This package for Stan-dard Room accommodation is priced at only P4,500.00 net per night. Aside from the complimentary bottle of wine and breakfast for two, you also get to partake of RBG’s Valentine dinner buffet.

heartAffairsof the VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015

“I will be spending my day with the one and only, the love of my life in a “quiet” restaurant here in Davao City.” - DCCCII past President Daniel Lim

S3EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO

By CHENEEN R. CAPON and ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.

“Since it will be most difficult to get a table for two, I decided to will cook a nice dinner for my chef wife for a change.” – Davao City Investment and Promotion Center head Ivan C. Cortez

IT is the love month and, naturally, love blossoms during this time of the year. Love, actually, is eternal, but when February 14 comes along each year people renew their intense feeling of deep affection to one another.

Chocolates and flowers abound, and Cupid goes overtime finding the right couple and fire that arrow straight to the hearts, as the story of the classical mythology says.

But, what do people, err, lovers do on Valentine’s Day? Edge Davao asked some officials on what they will do on the day of the hearts and they provided some straight and interesting answers.

“This year’s Valentine’s day happens to be my 17th wedding anniversary Che. So i will be spending this special day with my hubby. Actu-ally wala mi plan. Siguro spontaneous na lang kung unsa ang maisipan. I’m in Palawan until tomorrow and my husband is also out of town so no definite plans yet. Dine out lang siguro kasi Sunday I have to leave again for Manila. Kaya walang time mag weekend vacation.” – Department of Trade and Industry Regional Director Maria Belenda Q. Ambi

“Hahahahaha. Believe it or not, I am working. We are participat-ing in one of the biggest Travel Expos in SMX Mall of Asia, the Philippine Travel and Tour Expo. Promoting our summer event, VISIT DAVAO FUN SALE. No other Valentine but Davao City. I love Davao!” – City Tourism Operations Office head Lisette Marques

“Punta ako Manambulan research station and oversee preparation for Sec. Alcala’s visit for the mass distri-bution of farm mach. Date with the

personnel at the station. Dami nila.” - Department of Agriculture 11 director

Remelyn Recoter

“I’m celebrating my birthday and Valentine’s Day as one by inviting my sisters, brother, who grew up with me, and their spouses.

A good time to recollect the beautiful past, enjoy the present and remind each other

of the limited future God have long decid-ed.” – Davao City Chamber of Commerce and

Industry Inc. chairman John Gaisano

“Although I was born on a love month I usually don’t cele-brate Valentine’s Day except greeting my love ones a sincere Happy Valentine’s Day. For me, like Christmas, Valentine’s Day should be celebrated daily like the love of God to us daily for He’s the source of real love as He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. HAPPY VALEN-TINE’S DAY.” - DCCCII president Antonio Dela Cruz

“Will you introduce a Valentina to me on Valen-tine’s Day? I will be very happy if you do.Hahaha. Anyway, for me nothing special on that day. I will

still be working on Valentine’s Day. Meeting some Japanese buyers of vegetables for our farmers

in Buda.” - Mindanao Business Council chairman Vicente Lao

“February 14 will be the birthday of my first grandchild with my son, Councilor Karlo Bello and my wife and my youngest child agreed that I will attend my grand-child’s birthday. Then, I will fly back to Manila and have a Valentine dinner with my wife and my youngest. I will be also holding a Valentine medical and dental mission in Barangay Panacan,” – 1BAP Party List Rep. Sylvestre Bello

“We will have dinner with family in our house on Valentine’s Day.” – Davao City 3rd District Rep. Isidro T. Ungab

“I will be spending my Valentine’s Day with my family since I do not have any special someone. I will just make the celebration the most out of it with my father.” - Davao City Police Office spokesperson Sr. Insp. Milgrace C. Driz

“I will spend time with my family, then I will go out with my boyfriend. Since

the food trip is already and traditional and boring, so, we will have a nature

trip. We will rediscover the Philippine Eagle Center because we believe we

should not be estranged from our homeland.” - Ateneo De Davao Univer-sity English Instructor Consuelo Celine

O. Fuentes

heartAffairsof theVOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015

L ve is everywhere

S4

FEBRUARY is deemed a love month. Whether in literature, cinema or

history, romantics talk about battles that have been waged in the name of LOVE.

In Homer’s historical novel, Iliad, Helen of Troy, the most beautiful Greek woman, married Menelaus, king of Sparta. But the wedded bliss was short-lived. Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, fell in love with Helen. She was abduct-ed and brought back to Troy. To retrieve her, the Greeks assembled a large army un-der Agamemnon, Menelaus’ brother. As a result of the siege, Troy was ruined and Helen was returned safely to Sparta to reunite with her spouse, Menelaus.

The love story of Antony and Cleopatra is also immor-talized in literature. They fell in love at first sight and would place Egypt in a dominant position. But the love affair enraged the Romans. Amid threats, the two still got mar-ried. It was while fighting the Romans that he got hold of the bogus news of his wife’s death; devastated, he fell on his sword. When Cleopatra learned of her hubby’s death, she also took her own life.

The most moving por-trayal of love in a movie was immortalized in Margaret Mitchells’ Gone with the Wind, a story of love and ha-tred between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, who en-tered into a stormy marriage.

Scarlett, who was teasing, loose, and alluring, had an-other suitor, Ashley Wilkes. When she eventually decid-ed to settle down with Rhett, her promiscuity forced her spouse to move away just as the American Civil war was raging. Rhett left town while Scarlett longed for the day when they would be reunited.

Close to home, the Siege of Baler, a historical war dra-ma, tells of a forbidden love between a Spanish mestizo soldier and a Filipina at the turn of 19th century. The young couple fought with great effort to keep their il-licit love alive despite fam-ily opposition and political tensions that culminated in 11-month-long cordon. The event took place while the Filipino revolutionaries laid siege to a fortified church manned by colonial Spanish troops in Baler, Quezon Prov-ince.

Conversely, Davao’s his-tory, which is about the con-quest of Datu Bago by Basque colonizer Don Jose Oyan-guren, was launched in the name of love.

According to the Suazo family tradition, Maria Luisa Azaola and her brother An-tonio, both Spanish orphans, were living in Sigaboy when she met Oyanguren. Antonio, a trader, was then opening new trade links with the fief-doms around the gulf but she opposed her brother’s plan to go to Davao for fear he would

meet the pirates. With the pledge to bring back brass-works, pearls, and gold dust they would sell in Spain, and the assurance his trip would be safe, he eventually pre-vailed. (The Suazo patriarch was recruited in Tandag by Oyanguren.)

The Bislig (now a city in Surigao del Sur) governor ar-rived in town just days after Antonio and an interpreter left for Davao. His arrival, expectedly, drew public at-tention. Brash and arrogant, he had been a frequent visi-tor to the place. The people knew he was not coming to town simply to visit the set-tlement as part of his control. Everybody also understood he was courting Maria who, until then, was more focused in helping his brother. That night, she was listless know-ing her brother was travel-ling to uncharted territories. Fortunately, she did not have to worry about meeting the governor because the follow-ing day the politician left.

Antonio’s trip to Datu Bago’s kingdom, fortuitously, was a success. He was diplo-matically welcomed by the chieftain and his lieutenant, Datu Nakoda, although there were times when the datus had to wrestle with the idea of harming him because he was a Spaniard. The Muslims never disappointed Antonio. Bronze ornaments from the best foundries, pearls and other commodities were bar-

tered. Both sides exchanged pleasantries. At one point, Datu Bago encouraged the Spaniard to bring Spanish muskets during his return, but Antonio was quick to re-tort that such act was against colonial laws. Feigning satis-faction, the two datus simply smiled and bade the trader adieu, assuring him he was still welcome in his next visit.

The second stopover at Datu Bago’s turf, true to Ma-ria’s fear, ended in tragedy. Antonio was allowed to trade peacefully. While on his way home to Sigaboy, though, he was intercepted in the open sea, arrested, and accused of betraying the Muslims. The charge was an offshoot of the tragic incident that happened while Antonio was in Datu Bago’s territory. A Muslim fleet that left a few nights af-ter the Spaniard’s arrival was badly decimated by a superi-or force, which the Muslims thought was the handiwork of a Spanish navy, with the knowledge of Antonio, to spy on the Muslims.

In exchange for Antonio’s freedom, Datu Bago wanted 10,000 pesetas. To make his intention known, he allowed Pantayani, the Spaniard’s trusted interpreter, to sail on a small boat to Sigaboy. The Muslim ruler wanted the ransom delivered in two weeks, inclusive of the length of travel Pantayani had to make in bringing the demand to Maria’s attention. But the

amount being asked was only partially complied. But, the trusted ally had to hurry back to Davao to offer what was collected in the hope to save Antonio from imminent death. The effort was not worth it because by then An-tonio had already been killed. Pantayani still managed to es-cape from his Muslim captors despite being injured, and reached home to convey the sad news.

The historical accounts, though, differ slightly from folklore.

Towards the end of the first half of the 19th century, unrest was brewing in Ma-drid, and Oyanguren, a hi-dalgo (knight), was forced to leave Spain after his maverick political stance did not sit well with authorities. The Consti-tution passed by the Cortes, the Spanish legislature, em-braced the liberal idea the Charter was not exclusive to Spaniards in their homeland but also to Spanish subjects the world over. Oyanguren, a Basque born in 1800, resent-ed the liberalism of the law, which was contrary to the position of the Basques, who were mainly Carlists.

Oyanguren and other Carlists were rounded up for execution, but the Spanish authorities thought it was prudent to banish them to Marianas, far from the moth-erland, to undergo hard la-bor. It was while in exile that Oyanguren heard that in the

Philippines a fellow knight and Basque, Claveria, was incumbent governor general. He sought transfer and, with the help of the usual bureau-cratic connections, got an approval to be banished to Manila.

When Oyanguren arrived in Manila in 1825, Spanish rule in the country was on the decline. Muslim raids in many parts of the archipelago were sapping the government’s re-sources. There were ongoing revolts in various areas of the country, mainly against co-lonial abuses. While Europe was on the brink of industrial revolution, the condition in the islands was deteriorat-ing, in part due to excesses committed by the colonizers. Still, these unsettling devel-opments did not dampen Oy-anguren’s interest to explore possibilities in the islands.

Claveria treated Oyan-guren well during his exile in the islands. He issued him three ships which the lat-ter used for opening trade with the Provincias de Mo-ras (Moro Province) in the 1830’s. It was in one of his sorties in Tandag that he met Luisa, the daughter of a cap-itan general by a local resi-dent. The two agreed to live together as partners because Oyanguren, a Catholic, could not marry her because he left behind a wife in Spain. She bore a son by a Monteroso years after the Basque colo-nizer died.

By Antonio V. Figueroa

Conquest in the Name of LoveDavao’s History

“We are planning for our doctors who have clinics and patients here to get updates through their phones, wheth-er they are at home or out of the country,” Carbonnel said.

She said the Cardiac Re-habilitation Center is for pa-tients who have just under-gone operations.

Cardiac rehabilitation is a physician-supervised re-habilitation program which helps and guides patients re-cover from a heart attack or a serious cardiac event like open heart surgery.

“Ang amin lang dito ay makabalik kung anu yung ginagawa nya before (What we do here is to give back what the patient has been doing before (the opera-tion),” Carbonnel said.

“We make sure that when the patient goes out, this patient is already fine,” she added.

The cardiac rehabilita-tion team is composed of a primary attending physi-cian, cardiologist and senior medical resident, physical therapist and cardiac rehab nurse, psychologist and nu-tritionist.

Carbonnel said when the center opened back in 2010, they initially had five pa-tients, two from Davao City and one each from Cotabato, Kidapwan and Manila.

As for the Cardiac Diag-nostic Center, Carbonnel said they have two beds for the vascular and one bed each for ECG and 2D Echo.

Presently, the center is offering what they call Heart Packages to those needing their services.

The center offers echo-cardiogram, treadmill stress-echocardiogram, treadmill stress test, dobuta-mine stress echocardiogram,

transesophageal echocardio-gram, fetal echocardiogram, contrast echocardiogram, 24-hour holter monitoring, ECG, arterial and venus vas-cular duplex scan of both upper and lower extremity, ABI procedure and carotid duplex scan. Clinic hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. from Monday to Sunday and also 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on holidays.

To Dr. Coching, Davao Doctors Hospital is the right place for people with heart diseases.

“This facility, the Davao Doctors Hospital facility is pretty much capable of doing most of cardio active diseas-es that need to be treated,: Dr. Coching said.

“I’d say as far as Davao Doctors Hospital is con-cerned, I am comfortable that we can serve adequately the needs of Davao City.”

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO heartAffairsof the

TAKING S1

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S5

1. Go snail mail.Effort always counts. Forget posting your sweet messag-es on her/ his FB wall. Why not pull a sheet of paper and a pen? Write your personal message, hope, and dreams

that you might want to spend with her/him. Put some personal touches, of course. If possible, you can surprise your “lov-ey” by sending it through snail mail.2. Print pictures.

Remember the first date you had, your out-of-town trips, the photo of his or her eyes and lips? How about the photo of your hands locked together? Print them. Pic-tures do not only paint a thousand of words but capture special moments that can be treasured forever. Remem-ber, nothing’s sweeter than reminiscing those minutes

EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO heartAffairsof the

old-school waysto win your love’s heart7

By CHENEEN R. CAPON

WAYS to win someone’s heart have changed so fast over the years. Today everything is conve-nient, high-tech, and handy – even in the ear-

ly days of courtship. There’s Facebook (FB), Viber, and Twitter, online tools that have made distance reasonable.

But this Valentine’s day, wouldn’t it be nice to be just beside your sweet potato or hubby (whatever you call her/him is valid) and surprise her/him with old school Valentine’s Day stuff? These might help you make your girl or boy fall in love with you again using the old moves:

when everything seemed so perfect that even the stars aligned to make a perfect heart!

3. Wrap those gifts.Flowers, chocolate bouquets, teddy bears, couple shirts, and jewelry – name it, girls love them! These items tran-scend time and have already proven their worth during

Valentine’s Day. However, your girl will soon realize that everyone, if not all, in the street is holding one or two these Valentine’s

Day gifts.4. Sip a cup of personalized coffee.

How long have you two been celebrating February 14 to-gether? Maybe one, two, or even longer. But what’s more important is to remind each other of the ups and downs that the two of you have conquered.Brew some coffee and then sit back, relax, and sip. Savor its aroma while the two of you talk of your past and how you want to spend the future together.If you really want to enjoy this moment, do it at home when you’re not time bound and it’s cheaper. Do this when the kids are asleep (if you have any) and when you’re just waiting for Valentine’s Day to end.

5. Do the harana This would be probably the most outdated in this list but

guys, try this because it might be the “corny-iest” and the sweetest. Snatch your bakada and show the talents that your momma gave you. What girl will not melt if her boyfie will sing her Ed Sheeran’s “Baby I will be loving you till 70”?

6. Go stargazing in the beach.Escape the city night and drive somewhere where the sky is clearer. Remember, Davao City is just 10 minutes away from Samal Island where some of the region’s best beaches are located. Go skinny dipping and stargazing. Wait for a shooting star and wish something forever. The constellation of stars in the night sky might be the same stars your folks once gazed in the old days.

7. Turn off your phone and other gadgets.This will surely complete your old school Valentine’s Day celebration. Whatever the two of you will be into this day, stop checking your phone, email, Facebook, and candy crush or Clash of Clans. Savor every moment and spend each time talking, dreaming, and planning.To make this moment immortal, take a photo using a Polaroid (if have one) and snap those extra special moments on Valentine’s Day.

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S6EDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAOEDGE Serving a seamless society

DAVAO heartAffairsof the

9 ways to a healthy heartBy Henrylito D. Tacio

“THE most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched,” said Hel-

en Keller, “they must be felt with the heart.”

The average human heart, which throbs at 72 beats per minute, will beat approxi-mately 2.5 billion times during an average 66 year lifespan. Among males, a heart weighs 300 to 350 grams while it is between 250 to 300 grams among females.

The heart is one of the most important organs in the human body, as it is respon-sible for pumping blood and delivering all the nutrients your body needs in order to function correctly. Nonethe-less, some of your habits take their toll on your hearts and you do not realize this until it is too late.

Here are some of the things you need to do:

1. Have regular exercise. According to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality, causing an estimated 3.2 million deaths around the world each year.

The WHO says regular moderate intensity physical activity -- such as walking, cy-cling or participating in sports -- can reduce the risk of car-diovascular diseases, diabetes, colon and breast cancer, and depression, as well as cutting the risk of bone fractures and helping to control body weight.

2. Get enough sleep. In a

large study done in the United States, people who tended to get less than six hours of sleep nightly were more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and to be obese.

Researchers at the Univer-sity of Chicago reported in the Journal of the American Med-ical Association that too little sleep can promote calcium buildup in the heart arteries, leading to the plaques that can then break apart and cause heart attacks and strokes.

3. Quit smoking. Smokers who quit may cut heart risk faster than earlier thought. Previous studies showed that older for-mer smokers who had consumed less than 32 pack years of cigarettes could re-duce their risk of dying from heart dis-ease to the level of lifelong nonsmokers after 15 years.

4. Avoid drinking al-cohol excessively: Having a drink every once in a while will not have a major impact on your heart (especially if you consume wine, which has a se-ries of health benefits). In fact, alcohol has mild anti-coagulat-ing properties and might help prevent blood clots that can lead to heart attack or stroke, the Women’s Heart Founda-tion reports.

Moderate alcohol con-sumption lowers the risk of

coronary heart disease by 20 to 40 percent, says the Hop-kins Hospital. Moderate con-sumption is defined as 1 to 2 drinks per day. But the Amer-ican Heart Association does not promote alcohol use as a preventative for heart disease. Once an individual begins con-suming 3 or more alcoholic drinks per day, the risk f o r alcoholic car-

diomyopathy, w h i c h

is a

w e a k -ening of the heart muscle, increas-es, and other heart related problems in-creases as well.

5. Think before you drink those sugary beverag-es. Women who imbibe sug-ary soft drinks almost every day are 83% more likely to have certain health problems, including heart attacks. This was the findings of a study

conducted in Japan and was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

From nearly 40,000 peo-ple who answered a dietary, health and lifestyle question-naire, the researchers tracked how many people developed heart disease or had a stroke from the beginning of the study period until 2008. Out of 11,800 women who rarely had a soft drink, 205

(1.7%) went on

to have an ischemic stroke.

Some 921 wom-en drank a soft drink

every day and 28 (3%) of them had experienced a

stroke.6. Don’t eat foods with

too much salt: There are some definitive evidences that linked heart disease and salt. A recent report said that eat-ing too much salt contribut-ed to 2.3 million deaths from heart attacks, strokes and other heart-related diseases

throughout the world in 2010, representing 15 percent of all deaths due to these causes.

“Eating too much salt may raise your blood pressure, and having high blood pressure increases your risk of devel-oping coronary heart disease,” the British Heart Foundation claims. “So to keep your heart healthy it’s important that you don’t eat too much salt each day.”

7. Find a pet. If you want to cut your risk of suffering from a heart disease, consid-er getting a pet. According to the American Heart Associa-tion, owning a pet may help to decrease a person’s risk of suffering from heart disease and is linked with lower levels of obesity, blood pressure and cholesterol.

“Pet owner-ship, particularly dog ownership, is

probably associated with a decreased risk of heart dis-ease,” pointed out Dr. Glenn N. Levine, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Hous-ton, in a statement published online in the journal Circula-tion.

8. Don’t take stress for granted: Stress has emerged as one of the most serious health issues of the 21st cen-tury as it makes people around the world vulnerable to many diseases, according to a recent report released by the Interna-tional Labor Organization.

“When stress is excessive, it can contribute to everything

from high blood pressure, also called hypertension, to asth-ma to ulcers to irritable bowel syndrome ,” said Dr. Ernesto L. Schiffrin, professor and vice chair of research for the De-partment of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal.

9. Avoid eating fatty foods: They are high in calo-ries, which can increase your weight. Yet when it comes to heart disease, all fats are not equal. Healthy fats, such as monounsaturated and polyun-saturated fats, may lower your risk of heart disease, whereas, unhealthy fats, such as saturat-ed and trans fats, may increase your risk.

Saturated fat – which is found in animal products such as beef, pork, poultry and dairy – may increase your risk of heart disease. In a study published in Diabetes Care in 2008, scientists at Athens University Medical School in Greece discovered that a meal rich in saturated fats harms the endothelium, the layer of cells that line the interior of your arteries, whereas a monounsaturated-fat-rich meal does not. Impairment of the endothelium may cause your arteries to narrow and increase your risk of coronary heart disease.

Now, you have no reasons why you can’t take good care of your heart. “Keep love in your heart,” Oscar Wilde once pointed out. “A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.”

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VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 2015 13CLASSIFIEDEDGEDAVAO

VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 201514

THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National

Police (PNP) have affirmed support for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) even with the outrage over the unfortunate incident in Mama-sapano, Maguindanao.

Expressing the apprehen-

sions of people from Mind-anao that the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law will be delayed or scrapped off in the wake of the Jan. 25 Mamasa-pano incident, House of Rep-resentatives’ Deputy Speaker and Lanao del Sur second dis-trict Representative Pangalian Balindong asked top police

and military officials if they support the passage of the BBL as a way forward in achieving peace. ‎

To this, both PNP offi-cer-in-charge Deputy Direc-tor Leonardo Espina and AFP Chief of Staff General Grego-rio Catapang responded “Yes” and affirmed their support to

the passage of the BBL during the HOR’s first public hearing Wednesday on the incident that claimed lives of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) policemen, armed rebels and civilians.

Balindong, a Muslim, ap-pealed that the “peace process should continue so our (refer-ring to the people of Mindan-

PNP, AFP affirm support for BBLao) hearts may be at ease.”

He urged the conduct of an “uninterrupted review of the BBL” parallel to the Congres-sional probe on the Mamasa-pano incident.

Meanwhile, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles said the passage of the BBL is‎ really in the hands of Congress and expressed her respect to the power of the body to legislate a law that will address the as-pirations of the Bangsamoro people.

The passage and ratifica-tion of the BBL shall establish a Bangsamoro government that will exercise genuine au-tonomy, and replace the Au-tonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The BBL is the en-abling law of the Comprehen-sive Agreement on the Bang-samoro (CAB) signed by the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liebration Front (MILF) on March 27, 2014. The CAB also provides a normalization pro-cess that includes decommis-sioning of the MILF weapons and forces, simultaneous to the establishment of the Bangsam-oro.

Earlier, Espina empha-sized in a very emotional manner that, “we (the PNP) are for peace, we are first and foremost your peacemakers. Whatever it takes to attain the peace, let us do it po‎.”

Implication of non-pas-sage of BBL

In response to a question from Caloocan City second dis-

trict Rep. Edgar Erice on what will be the effect on the ground if the BBL will not be passed into law, Catapang pointed out the security repercussions.

According to the AFP chief, government forces and MILF had a zero skirimish record for three years since 2012 until this year when the trag-ic incident in Mamasapano happened due to the ceasefire accord.

However, Catapang noted that in the past, encounters between the government and MILF forces from 2001 to 2012 resulted to: 491 deaths among AFP and PNP; 841 deaths among civilians; and 1,267 deaths among MILF members. The record for the wounded were 1,089 among AFP and PNP; 1,673 for civilians; 237 for the MILF.

Catapang expressed “Pa-hihintulutan po ba natin na mangyari at maulit ito kung hindi natin itutuloy ang nation-al endeavour na magkaroon ng kapayapaan? (Do we allow this to happen again if we do not continue the national endeav-our of achieving peace?)”‎

Deles on her part said, “Your honor we already know what the situation is when there is no ceasefire. I thank Gen. Catapang for already hav-ing stated that. I think your honor it also has some impli-cations on what we tell our people about our capacity to be able to make peace. What it tells our people about our ca-pacity to fulfill a constitutional mandate on autonomy.” (PNA)

NEWS EDGEDAVAO

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ENSURING THE INTEGRITY15EDGEDAVAOSports

THE province of Davao del Norte has taken the lead in the campaign

against the use of perfor-mance-enhancing drugs to ensure the integrity of sports.

With 81 days more to go before its crucial hosting of the Palarong Pambansa 2015, the province organized the Sub-National Anti-Doping Conference, in coordination with the Philippines Sports Commission (PSC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organi-zation (UNESCO).

Governor Rodolfo del Rosario said the province is committed to uphold the in-tegrity of sports, particularly the country’s largest sporting event, by impressing the val-ues of fair play and promoting a drug-free culture among the young athletes.

He vowed the Palaro offi-cials will never allow banned performance-enhancing substances to corrupt the ideals of the athletic compe-tition, which he tagged as a powerful tool in promoting peace in the region.

“Never will we allow dop-

ing to directly challenge the fairness of the competition,” he stressed during the com-mitment campaign on an-ti-doping in sports at the Bul-wagan ng Lalawigan, Mankil-am, Tagum City.

Over 200 coaches, trainors, medical doctors and nurses from the Davao Region attended the event, which was the first of its kind in the island of Mindanao.

Dr. Alejandro Pineda, Jr., Medical Director and Doping Control Head of the PSC, said the conference intended to provide fundamental informa-tion on anti-doping in sports and everyday living to sports stakeholders.

It also sought to inculcate upon the athletes the values of true play and clean game, while creating a sporting envi-ronment conducive to healthy living.

Pineda bared well-trained athletes can win even without prohibited drugs particularly if they have the right preparation and confidence for an event.

“Athletes do not need performance-boosting drugs provided that they were given

CHRISTOPHER “Bong” Go and Glenn Escandor ral-lied the City Mayors Of-

fice to push its winning streak to 12 against Everball Colum-bia Center with a 93 – 82 de-cision on Tuesday night at the Genesis 88 Gym.

Escandor, the spot-up shooting businessman sports-man, anchored the early offen-sive assault as Go led a sensa-tional finishing stretch to keep the City Hall dribblers roaring.

The trusted aid of May-or Rodrigo Duterte piloted a remarkable fight back by the CMO which was trailing at the start of the fourth period.

Go, who had game-best 34 points, opened the final canto with three consecutive triples to take the lead and never looked back to pull away with

another come from behind vic-tory.

Escandor came through with 17 baskets on a great of-fensive game for the City Hall dribblers who kept the Ever-ball Columbia winless in the first 12 games of the series.

Everball Columbia was determined to end its losing streak, dictating the tempo of the match from the opening tip.

But they could not cut loose as the CMO remained within the striking distance behind the big first half of Es-candor.

Suarez paced Everball Co-lumbia with 23 points. Earl Angsinco and Cabrera had 15 and 12 respectively.

Michael Peloton chipped in 10 for the CMO. (Rico Bili-ran)

AGDAO District pulled off a 94-81 win against early-favoriteTugbok

District yesterday to force a do-or-die Game 2 of their cross-over semifinal match in the Duterte Basketball League (DBL) Inter-Political Basket-ball Tournament at the Al-mendras gym.

Game 2 is set on Monday, Feb. 16 at 1 p.m. according to tournament chair Goldie Delvo, officer-in-charge of the organizing City Sports Devel-opment Division-City Mayor’s Office.

Agdao had an erratic start and trailed by eight, 17-25 after the first quarter as Tug-bok’s prolific scorer Kagawad Roy Bangkas made 15 of his 22 points.

Agdao, however exploded

a 24-15 bomb to grab the lead, 41-40 in the 2nd quarter.

In the third canto, Tug-bok suffered a big blow after Bangkas injured his left knee that totally removed him out of the game.

Agdao then widened its lead by nine points, 70-61 as Kagawad Jose Roy de Lara scored all of his seven points and Flordelito Cagampang and Randibol Villasenda each made six points apiece.

Cagampang, a head coach of the Jose Maria College men’s basketball team, con-tinued to wax hot in the final quarter by hitting 11 points to top Agdao with 24 markers.

Villasenda finished with 20 followed by Karlo Godoy with 14. Joel Crisanto had 8 while Peter Epe contributed 7

with one 3-pointer.Bangkas still topscored

Tugbok together with Jeje Juntong with 22 points each.

Armando Caparoso made 10 while Barangay Captain Jerry Ceballas shot 8.

“I hope na maka laro na ulit si Bangkas sa next game,” said Ceballas.

The winner will face the winner of the other semifinal match between top qualifier Poblacion B and no. 4 Bun-awan District slated today (Feb. 11).

Poblacion B, which swept the elimination round, also enjoys a twice-to-beat advan-tage against Bunawan.

Both teams are played by three barangay captains. Poblacion B has barangay captains Rolando “Antoy”

Bantaya, , Erlan Guevara (34-D) and Lito Maguiling (25-C) while Bunawan has barangay captains Dante Apostol (Pana-can), Erwin Piatos (San Isidro) and Allan Simo-ag (Lasang).

Poblacion B is also com-posed of Kagawads Zaldy Aporto, Gary Barriga, Roge-lio Cabantug, Harrish Ratag, Ronald Valenzona, Joel Valles, John Paul Rosalada, Abdullah Ameril and Romeo Yap. Coach is Barangay Captain Jorgio. Bunawan, on the other hand, is also powered by Kagawads Welfredo Calag, Robert Calvo, Arnulfo Sumalinog, Margo Ba-bao, Ronald Galendez, Clyed Tan, Ronnie Odenia, Basildy Delica, Ging Aban, Geovan-ni Labrica, Jerry Rebosa and Doce Apostol. (LDR/CSDD-CMO)

Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario, right, receives the plaque of appreciation from Dr. Alejandro Pineda, Jr., Medical Director and Doping Control Head of the PSC, for his all-out support to the anti-doping in sports awareness and commitment campaign. noel baguio/davnor pio

Davao del Norte leads drugs-free sports campaignBy NOEL BAGUIO

proper endurance-building, as well as, physical training and conditioning,” he said.

He also asked the coach-es and trainers to be wary of

sports drinks and other sub-stances that might have al-ready been declared as banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Aside from the applicable policies and the health and legal consequences of using prohibited substances, experts from the PSC and the UNES-

CO also provided enlighten-ing talks on sports medicine, sports science and sports nu-trition, which contain the best “formula for winning”.

IN a situation clouded with doubt and distrust, is it wise to push forward with

the negotiations?That is the big question

lawmakers are throwing to the government negotiating panel on the ongoing peace talks with the MILF.

Senators Alan Peter Cay-etano and Miriam Defensor Santiago lashed out at the MILF questioning their sin-cerity in the peace negotia-tions.

Whatever this leads to, the ultimate goal of achieving peace in Mindanao is in great peril.

I could not help but com-pare that with the ongoing Manny Pacquiao-Floyd May-weather megafight negotia-tions.

On one hand you have the Pacquiao negotiating panel with Bob Arum at the helm. On the other, the Mayweath-er negotiating team led by Al Haymon.

It’s much like the GPH-MILF negotiations with both panels pushing forward their agenda with the aim of achieving the envisaged peace and autonomy in Min-danao.

Then came Mamasapano.

The peace talks were on its way to its final stages until a cabal impeded its way.

In the case of Pac-quiao-Mayweather, it is Mi-ami not Mamasapano.

In Miami, the two pro-tagonists finally had a chance encounter, unplanned per-haps, providential even. The Miami encounter led to the hotel truce complete with video footages captured clan-destinely by the Mayweather camp.

In the Mamasapano en-counter, footages were appar-ently also shot by the MILF showing morbid execution of brave SAF commandos.

Given the clandestine moves by the other camp, would the GPH do a Bob Arum move?

This is where I think

Bob Arum, a living study in the art of negotiations, could teach us a lesson or two in statesmanship. In Bob’s case, salesmanship. He is a master of this craft, holding his own in a long protracted battle with the Mayweather camp. In his 50 years or so in this business, there are no fight negotiations handled by Arum that he came out short-changed. He always is on the upside. In control from start to finish.

So don’t be surprise if the current negotiations with the Mayweather camp will take time. Don’t be surprised if

this fight won’t happen on May 2 but later.

Bob is in charge here and he knows what he’s talking.

Are we also doing well with our GPH negotiating team?

It’s hard to lay judgment but let’s put it this way. If someone in the panel had the mind of a Bob Arum, we will surely be negotiating from a stronger side of the table.

We can move fast but we don’t need to hurry.

Postscripts: Listen to “Let’s Get It On with Neil Bravo” on 105.9 Balita FM every Satur-day 8-10 a.m.

Like Mayweather

Neil Bravo

LET’S GET IT ON

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VOL. 7 ISSUE 235 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 - 14, 201516 EDGEDAVAO