I ask everybody to call me mayor lang, he said. Mayor of the Philippines nga lang.

Nonetheless, his spokesperson Peter Lavia previously said that the public should sometimes for-mally address Duterte to respect the Offi ce of the President.

But as I said, you can call him by whatever name you prefer but there will be times that you have to

address him offi cially and formally as Mr. President, he reminded.

Duterte, who will become the Philippines 16th President by June 30, has been given several nicknames including Digong, DU30 and Rody.

Lavia had said that they will ask netizens to help them come up with a name for the next president.

MANILA, May 16 (Mabuhay) Presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte will focus on easing re-strictions on foreign direct invest-ments specifi cally on land owner-ship and share of capital, Ernesto Pernia, one of the members of his economic team, said on Monday.

Hes willing to go for a land lease for 50 years, renewable for another 50 years. And then on the share between the capital of foreign investors and local inves-tors, now its 60 percent local, 40 foreign. He said he is willing raise the foreign share up to 70 percent and 30 percent to local investors, Pernia said.

Those are what foreign inves-

tors are interested or have been complaining about in the past. If those measures are combined along with easing of constitutional restrictions in foreign direct in-vestment, Im sure we will have a surge in foreign direct investments in the coming years, he added.

Pernia, also the University of the Philippines economics profes-sor emeritus, said they also plan to raise infrastructure investment to 5 percent of the gross domestic product, where infrastructure spending shall go to the improve-ment of the agriculture sector in the regions.

Meanwhile, the next adminis-

T H E

Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016

E N T E R T I N M E N T

Iza Calzadoto go

toplessfor

new fi lm

See Page 7W W W . U S A S I A N P O S T . C O M

Vol. 5 No. 34 LOS ANGELES A BALITA MEDIA PUBLICATION

See CALL ME MAYOR, page 10

President-elect Mayor of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte on the cover of Time Magazine as posted by one of the countrys top photojournalists, Edwin Tuyay.

MANILA, May 14 (Mabuhay) Administration candidate Maria Leonor Leni Robredo dominated 10 regions as she maintained her lead in the vice presidential race, latest data from the Parish Pasto-ral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) showed.

As of 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, Robredo got 14, 014, 440 votes or 35.12 percent. Her closest rival Sen. Ferdinand Bongbong Mar-cos Jr. had 13, 798, 059 votes or 34.58 percent. Robredo is leading by 216, 381 votes.

PPCRV data showed Robredo

led in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Ne-gros Island Region, Mimamoropa, Calabarzon, and in regions 5, 6, 7, 10, 9, 13.

Marcos, meanwhile, led in the National Capital Region (NCR), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and in regions 1, 2, 3, 8, 12. The senator also led in the overseas absentee voting (OAV).

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who is in third place in the vice presi-dential race, got 5, 676, 902 votes or 14.23 percent. Cayetano led in

MANILA, May 13 (Mabu-hay) Poll technology provider Smartmatic-TIM insisted on Friday that the change in the program script to the Comelecs transparency server has not altered the tally of votes for the vice presidential race, which is being hotly contested by Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Ro-bredo and Senator Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr.

Bongbong has alleged that the new script boosted the con-gresswomans votes, allowing her to overtake him in the par-tial and unoffi cial tally, hours after polling centers closed last Monday.

In a letter, Marcos asked the poll body to shed light on the is-sue. But the Comelec, however brushed aside insinuations that cheating might have occurred during the cahnging of the server program script.

In its written explanation, Smartmatic said an observer called the attention of the Comelec IT officer, Rouie Pealba, who was stationed at the Parish Pastoral Council for

MANILA, May 13 (Mabuhay) The spokesperson of Davao City Mayor and presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday re-vealed the respective assignments of each member of the transition team in the search and selection of next Cabinet members.

At a press conference in Davao City, Peter Lavia said the fol-lowing will have their respective assignments:

MANILA, May 16 (Mabuhay) Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Monday disputed presumptive president Rodrigo Dutertes claim that the country has lost Scarbor-ough Shoal to China after a tense standoff in 2012.

Citing statements made by senior defense officials during two Senate hearings on the issue in 2013 and 2015, Trillanes said it is clear that the area remains

a part of the Philippines.Hindi totoo that we have lost

Scarborough Shoal, Trillanes said. Tinanong ko mismo sa mga defense and security offi cials ng ating bansa kung nawala na ba sa atin ang Scarborough, at lahat sila sinasabi hindi.

Scarborough is still ours and it is still the main subject of our arbitration complaint, added Trillanes, who chairs the Senate

committee on national defense and security and a vocal critic of Duterte.

Trillanes said he is clarifying the status of Scarborough Shoal because it is very dangerous of Duterte to say that the country has already lost it.

Its very dangerous for the pre-sumptive President to say weve lost Scarborough Shoal because it

MANILA, May 14 (Mabuhay) The Palace made an assurance on Saturday that it is strictly moni-toring Zika virus in the country fol-lowing reports of recent infections.

In a radio interview Saturday, Communications Secretary Her-minio Coloma Jr said the Depart-ment of Health is on top of the situation.

Nakikita naman natin Lany na masigasig ang ating Depart-ment of Health sa pangunguna ni Secretary Janette Garin sa pagsubaybay at pagtutok sa lahat ng kaso. Kayat agad na na-detect

at nai-report, na-quarantine, nagamot, na-identify kahit na nangibang-bansa na sila, he told dzRB Radyo ng Bayan.

The DOH is also coordinating with other centers for disease pre-vention in other countries to fi ght the virus, he said.

There is also a need to under-stand the nature of Zika virus. Like dengue fever, Zika virus is trans-mitted through mosquito bite. If the public observe cleanliness, there will be no transmission of Zika virus or other diseases.

Ballot boxes containing Certifi cates of Canvass (COCs) for the 2016 general elections on Thursday continue to arrive in Pasay City at the Senate, which will do the offi cial tallying of the votes. The COCs will be taken to the House of Representatives where the canvassing will take place.(MNS photo)

Duterte: Call me Mayor of the PhilippinesDAVAO CITY, May 16 (Mabuhay) Do not call him Mr.

President. Call him Mayor of the Philippines.Presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte told re-

porters late Sunday that he is not comfortable with being addressed as President. Rather, he wants to retain the title he held for 22 years.

Robredo dominates 10 regions, keeps lead over Marcos

Duterte economic team vows to ease restrictions on foreign investments

Duterte camp bares transition teams search and selection assignments for Cabinet execs

DOH strictly monitoring Zika virus infectionsTrillanes disputes Dutertes claim, says Scarborough Shoal still part of PHL

Server script wont affect vote tally: Smartmatic

See ROBREDO, page 10

See ZIKA VIRUS, page 10See TRILLANES, page 10

See SMARTMATIC, page 10

See ECONOMIC TEAM, page 10 See TRANSITION, page 10

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST2

MANILA, May 13 (Mabu-hay) The camp of pre-sumptive president-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Friday thanked all their social media volunteers and cam-paigners for their valuable support in helping him achieved victory in the May 9 presidential elections.

Peter Lavia, Duterte campaign spokesperson, said social media was a game changer that helped them win.

On behalf of Mayor Dute-rte and the campaign team, we would like to express our thanks to all our online

supporters, both here in the Philippines and abroad, who tirelessly worked to raise awareness about his candidacy, platform and programs, Lavia said.

And given our lack of funds to defray campaign costs, social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter gave us the platforms to convey and propagate our messages, he added.

The Duterte digital cam-paign involved hundreds of social media account groups, countless individ-uals and hundreds of infl u-

encers with a membership reach of over 14 million.

The Philippines has over 40 million Facebook ac-counts and pages alone and more than two million Twit-ter and Instagram handles.

In a related development, Lavia welcomed the sup-port being mulled by social media platform Facebook for the incoming Duterte presidency, saying that the connectivity afforded by Facebook is essential in building Filipino com-munities and pushing the reform agenda of the Presi-dent-elect.(MNS)

Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon speaks before media on Friday calling for an investigation of a protocol breach by poll technology provider Smartmatic. The transparency server script was tweaked by Smartmatic to correct a character in the names of candidates with in them.(MNS photo)

Duterte camp lauds social media volunteers, campaigners for May 9 victory

MANILA, May 16 (Mabu-hay) The Commission on Elections on Monday con-firmed reports that three SC cards were thrown away in Kabankalan in Negros Occidental.

At a press conference, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez quoted offi cials as saying that the SD cards were placed in envelopes that were taken out as trash

after the elections.What happened was

after the elections, election paraphernalia were gath-ered by the election offi cer and prepared for transmis-sion. Those envelopes were missing. They rearranged the offi ce na and taken out the trash. Hindi napansin na nasama yung envelopes na may laman na SD cards, he said.

He added that the SD cards were found in a dump site.

They were then returned to the provincial offi ce.

Jimenez assured that the contents of the SD cardswhich accounted for three clustered precincts in a ba-rangay therewere already uploaded before reports of the missing SD cards circu-lated. (MNS)

MANILA, May 13 (Mabu-hay) Election technology provider Smartmatic on Friday received a dressing down from Commission on Elections (Comelec) com-missioner Rowena Guanzon for making changes in the script of transparency serv-ers without due permission from the Comelec en banc.

Guanzon made the state-ment just as Smartmatics Marlon Garcia, who led its technical support team, fi n-ished demonstrating before the media how it tweaked the script to correct the ? in the names of candidates with .

The Smartmatic, in my opinion, breached our proto-col and for that, they should be liable to the Comelec. They should be liable to the people of the Philippines, a visibly irked Guanzon told the media at the Comelecs canvassing center inside the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay

City.Smartmatic should have

informed the Comelec en banc about whats the prob-lem, the consequences and gave us recommendation how to fi x it. They shouldnt have touched that program without our prior knowl-edge and offi cial consent, she said.

H o w e v e r , G u a n z o n echoed Smartmatics assur-ance that despite the latter breaching protocol, results of the unoffi cial vote count have not been altered.

She said the Comelec assures the people that they will have the said incident investigated.

The feisty Comelec com-missioner also stressed that Smartmatic should not have effected changes on the servers without the en bancs go signal as these are properties of the gov-ernment.

If you do any change, perhaps to make it look nic-

er, its our property. Its not their property. This auto-mated system is a property of the Comelec and theyre accountable to the people, to the Congress, theyre not supposed to touch it without our permission, she said.

Asked if the Comelec is considering ending their contract with Smartmatic, Guanzon said: Well see if the breach is enough to disqualify them.

She said she would vote for the cancellation of the poll bodys contract with Smartmatic if the matter would be discussed.

G u a n z o n s l a m m e d Smartmatic for not apolo-gizing for causing anxiety among the Comelec offi cials and the electorate.

The least that they could do now is to say that, we are very sorry. But Im not hearing it. The Comelec en banc didnt hear Im sorry. It caused you worry, she said. (MNS)

MANILA, May 13 (Mabu-hay) The Smartmatic offi -cial who tweaked the script of the transparency server on Thursday maintained that the update was just a straightforward minor cosmetic change that did not require the permission of the top officials of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

In a press conference on Friday, Marlon Garcia, Smartmatics project direc-tor, said the changecor-recting the ? in displays to read as required only simple instructions.

We are changing all the ? to so it will not look

ugly when you are looking at the fi le. When you read Osmea, you will see Os-me?a, he said as he showed the part of the program that was changed.

On a screen, he showed that the change consisted of just a single line of code that replaced instances of ? with .

Garcia said that the tweak changed the pro-grams hashcode, but not the poll results.

At any point in time, re-gardless of the change of or not, results can be seen. Anybody can take a look at any of the results and see nothing was changed. You

can take any printed data. There was no result change. Only the was replacing the ?. A was still there. B was still there. Everything remained the same, he said.

He also stressed that the change was announced and conducted in full view of both Comelec and Smart-matic officials, and was fully documented via CCTV camera.

Garcia also said that the change could only be done after the Comeled and Smartmatic offi cials input their individual passwords, implying consent from both agencies.

MANILA, May 13 (Mabu-hay) Poll technology pro-vider Smartmatic-TIM insisted on Friday that the change in the program script to the Comelecs transparency server has not altered the tally of votes for the vice presidential race, which is being hotly contested by Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo and Senator Ferdinand Bong-bong Marcos Jr.

Bongbong has alleged that the new script boosted the congresswomans votes, allowing her to overtake him in the partial and un-official tally, hours after polling centers closed last Monday.

In a letter, Marcos asked the poll body to shed light on the issue. But the Comelec, however brushed aside insinuations that cheating might have occurred during the cahnging of the server program script.

In its written explana-tion, Smartmatic said an observer called the atten-tion of the Comelec IT of-fi cer, Rouie Pealba, who was stationed at the Parish

Pastoral Council for Re-sponsible Voting Center (PPCRV) heaquarters in Manila on Monday evening, about question marks (?) in some candidates names in place of the usual character.

Pealba in turn called the attention of the Smart-matic technical support team led by Marlon Garcia.

Upon being notifi ed by the Comelec and after val-idating that changing the character ? required a minor cosmetic change to appease the observers at the PPCRV Transparency Center, the Smartmatic technical support team addressed the concern by introducing a correction on the script in the presence of everyone present there, said Smartmatic project director Elie Moreno in his letter to the poll body.

Both Pealba and the Smartmatic team then an-nounced to everyone (in-cluding members of po-litical parties) inside the PPCRV Transparency Cen-ter that the correction was made and all subsequent

displays would refl ect the candidates names properly, with instead of ?.

No one in the room ob-jected on the change, Peal-ba said in an incident report submitted to Comelec en banc.

He (Garcia) saw it as simple and cosmetic. Look at it also on the engineer-ing perspective. I am an engineer. I am trained to solve problems. So if I see a problem, I automatically try to solve it, Moreno said in a chance interview on Thursday.

Moreno also assured that there was no change in the results, the counting and canvassing of votes, and in the source code of the automated election system.

The change in the script did not, in any way, alter any result for any candi-date, he said.

To dispel insinuations of cheating, Moreno sug-gested to interested parties to compare the results in the transparency server with the printed election returns of all vote counting machines.

MANILA, May 16 (Mabu-hay) The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) on Monday formally dismissed multiple counts of tax evasion cases against former Supreme Court (SC) chief justice Re-nato Corona, following his demise last month.

In a brief hearing Mon-day morning, the CTA Sec-ond Division granted the motion to dismiss fi led on the same day by Coronas legal counsel Reody Antho-ny Balisi.

In the motion, Coronas camp cited Article 89 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC), which states that criminal liability is totally extin-guished by the death of the convictor when the death of the offender occurs before

fi nal judgement.Coronas camp further

pointed out that Article 89 of the RPC also states that death of the convict or the accused also extinguishes his or her personal and pecuniary liabilities.

The prosecution did not manifest any objection on the motion, prompting Second Division chairman Associate Justice Juanito Castaeda to rule in favor of the dismissal of all the cases. Corona was charged with six counts of violation Section 254 of the Nation-al Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) for allegedly failing to pay his income tax for years 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010.

He is also facing before

the Second Division a case of violation of Section 255 of NIRC for failure to fi le or to supply correct information in his income tax returns (ITRs), also for the same years.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) with the Department of Justice. According to the complaint, Corona owes the state around P120.5 million, inclusive of interests and surcharges, for his failure to pay his right taxes.

Present during the hear-ing was Coronas wife Cris-tina. She immediately left the courtroom after the proceedings, refusing to grant an interview with the media.

3 SD cards thrown away in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental

Smartmatic o cial insists code update was cosmetic, straightforward

Guanzon: Smartmatic broke protocol, should be held accountable

Server script wont affect vote tally: Smartmatic

Tax court dismisses cases vs. late ex-Chief Justice Corona

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 3

People joining the celebration of the 33rd International AIDS Candle Lights Memorial on Saturday at the Quezon Memorial Circle train their lights at the Quezon Memorial as a message is fl ashed on its columns signifying the fi ght against HIV/AIDS. The Department of Health and QC government organized the event.(MNS photo)

MANILA, May 13 (Mabu-hay) The Ombudsman on Friday ordered the fi ling of graft charges against six offi cials of the Department of Budget and Management in relation to the purchase of substandard inflatable rubber boats.

Facing charges for violat-ing Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) are Undersecretary Eve-lyn Guererro, Director IV Lourdes Santiago, Procure-ment Management Offi cer V Julieta Lozano, Procure-ment Management Offi cer III Mervin Ian Tanquintic, Administrative Assistant III Alvin John Perater and ad hoc member Lt. Malone Agudelo.

Anthony Hernandez of JOAVI Philippines Corpo-ration, which sold the boats to the government in 2010, will also be charged.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales cited pro-curement violations such as JOAVIs non-compliance

with the DBM-Procurement Service technical specifi ca-tions.

The boats were deemed substandard as they are not equipped with intercommu-nication or infl ation valves, over-pressure valves and roll-up fl oor. Instead of mil-itary model boats, the boats purchased were sports model, the Ombudsman said.

It was also discovered that a falsified technical evaluation report and post-qualification report were submitted.

Section 3(e) of R.A. No. 3019 declares the following act as a corrupt practice: Causing any undue in-jury to any party, includ-ing the Government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefi ts, advantage or preference in the discharge of his offi cial administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negli-gence.(MNS) M A N I L A , M a y 1 3

(Mabuhay) Department of National Defense Secre-tary Voltaire Gazmin and French Ambassador Thier-ry Mathou formally signed on May 11 the arrangement which will serve as frame-work of defense cooperation between the Philippines and France.

The two countries have been negotiating for the defense arrangement since 2014, DND spokesperson Dr. Peter Paul Galvez said in a statement on Friday.

Under this framework, both countries agreed to focus their cooperation on high-level dialogues and de-fense policy consultations, visits of defense and armed forces authorities, educa-tion and training exchanges and cooperation in the fi elds of defense equipment, logis-tics and defense industry.

Our relationship would be further enhanced as we institutionalize our cooper-ation through this agree-ment, Gazmin said.

The conclusion of the

Philippines-France Defense Arrangement is very timely given the increasing de-fense and security chal-lenges both countries are confronted with. The coop-eration provided for in the agreement could enhance the two countries defense capacities and capabilities essential in addressing such challenges. Furthermore, this would enable France and the Philippines to co-operate in various regional security concerns to include humanitarian assistance

and disaster response, mar-itime security and count-er-terrorism, among others.

Both countries look for-ward to the initiatives that would be implemented in accordance with the defense arrangement.

Now that the agreement has been signed, we could start working on its imple-mentation. I am optimistic that we would be able to draw up a tangible coopera-tion pursuant to this agree-ment in the near future, Gazmin said. (MNS)

DAVAO CITY, May 16 (Mabuhay) One of the in-justices that presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte wants to correct during his administration is how Fili-pinos see Lapu-Lapu.

On early Monday morn-ing, Duterte told reporters that he will make Lapu-Lapu a proper hero for being the fi rst to fi ght the Spanish forces who landed on the island of Cebu over 300 years ago.

I will raise to level to the stature of a hero si Lapu-Lapu. He was the fi rst native who fought and even killed the imperialists, si [Ferdinand] Magellan. To honor his feat, he said.

Lapu-Lapu should be given the highest honor. Siya ang unang nakipag-bakbakan eh kasi ginawa lang nila si Lapu-Lapu na isda and I do not like it, he

added.In his campaign speech-

es, Duterte made it a point to remind the crowd about how Lapu-Lapu fought for the freedom of his land and eventually killed Magellan who is often credited as the one who discovered the Philippines.

But Duterte would also tell them how Islam had been long established in the Philippines long before the Spaniard conquerors came and introduced Christian-ity.

It is now time to rec-ognize the people who did something to our native land. Lapu-Lapu was one of them, he said.

Duterte is leaving it to the National Historical Commission of the Philip-pines to fi gure out when and how Lapu-Lapu will be rec-ognized nationwide. (MNS)

MANILA, May 13 (Mabu-hay) The camp of Sena-tor Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr, is urging the Commission on Elections to open its automated elec-tion system and platform for audit to dispel doubts about the accuracy of the automated election results.

In a press conference, transparency advocate Glenn Chong said there was a breach of protocol when a Smartmatic offi-cial introduced a script in the Comelec transparency server that changed the character ? to .

Chong said it is not enough that Comelec shows the original and changed script to prove that there was no cheating. Any IT

expert worth his salt will not accept that, he said.

What is the overrid-ing necessity? Ano ang pinakamabigat na dahilan bakit ninyo rinisk ang in-tegrity ng buong halalan para lang palitan ang ques-tion mark sa ?

He added that because of the change in the script, the results of the vice-presi-dential race as well as other elections down the line - in-cluding the senatorial race - will be put into question.

The Marcos camp also showed a chart that showed Marcos lead in the VP race dwindling until he was overtaken by Liberal Par-ty bet Leni Robredo by Tuesday morning, May 10. (MNS)

M A N I L A , M a y 1 3 (Mabuhay) Filipinos in Iraq have been advised to remain vigilant and restrict their movements amid the recent spate of terrorist bombings in Baghdad that left almost 100 people dead and many more wounded.

Charg dAffaires El-mer G. Cato said Friday that there were no Fil-ipinos among the dead and wounded in the car

bomb attack in Sadr City on Wednesday and the attack by two suicide bombers in Abu Ghraib on Thursday.

Fortunately there were no Filipinos among the dead or wounded in the latest attacks but just the same we would like to un-derscore the need for our kababayan in Iraq to re-main vigilant, Cato said in a statement.

Cato also warned the 300

Filipinos living in Baghdad to avoid demonstrations as these could also be targeted by extremists.

He also urged the 2,000 Filipinos working in Iraq to provide their contact details to the Philippine Embassy so that they could easily be reached in case of emergencies.

Filipinos who wish to be repatriated may also reach the Philippine Embassy for

assistance.More than 50 Filipinos

have been repatriated since Iraq was placed under Alert Level 4 in 2014.

Only Filipinos with ex-isting job contracts in the Kurdistan regions may travel to and from the Phil-ippines as all processing and deployment of new workers to Iraq remain on hold to the unstable securi-ty situation there. (MNS)

MANILA, May 13 (Mabu-hay) Warmer-than-nor-mal weather will continue nationwide this year de-spite the weakening El Nio phenomenon.

State-run Philippine At-mospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the country will still experience above-average temperature due to El Nio.

Were reminding people that warm days arent over yet so they must exercise precaution and prepare accordingly, said Anthony Lucero, PAGASAs Climate Monitoring and Prediction Section OIC.

In its latest outlook this week, PAGASA forecast maximumtemperature in the country to range from 30C to 42.3C this month, 29.7C to 40C in June and 28C to 42.6C in July 2016.

The countrys maximum temperature can range from 27.7C to 37.5C in August, 28C to 40.4C in September and 27C to 39.6C in October this year, PAGASA continued.

PAGASA said mean an-nual temperature in the Philippines is about 26.6C only.

People must observe precautions against ex-treme heat, noted Lucero.

According to Department of Health (DOH), exposure to hightemperature can cause heat cramps, heat ex-haustion, heat injury, heat stroke and other illnesses.

A m o n g D O H - r e c -ommended precautions against extreme heat are drinking more fluids and avoiding strenuous physical activity.

Wear light clothing, DOH also advised people.

Experts said El Nio and the La Nina phenomenon are thecorresponding warm and cool phases of a recur-ring natural climate pat-tern called El Nio-South-ern Oscillation (ENSO) across the tropical Pacifi c.

They noted an EN-SO-neutral state is one in which conditions are near long-term average.

Citing latest available data, PAGASA said the prevailing but weakening El Nio will likely return to ENSO-neutral condition by mid-2016.

PAGASA clarified El N i o - i n d u c e d w a r m -er-than-normal weather, rainfall shortage and dri-er-than-average conditions

will still linger for some time after ENSO-neutral condition returns, however.

For May and June 2016, PAGASA forecast below-normal rainfall in Luzon and the Visayas but expects Mindanao to expe-rience near-normal rainfall then.

Rainfall will still be be-low-normal in Luzon this July but near-normal in the Visayas and Mindanao that month, PAGASA said.

Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao will likely expe-rience near-normal rainfall in August, September and October this year, PAGASA continued.

PAGASA also expects 37 provinces comprising some 46 percent of the country to experience drought by May

2016s end.Likely under drought by

Junes end are 28 provinces comprising about 35 per-cent of the country, PAGA-SA further said.

The southwest monsoon or habagat is expected to be around by then but it wont be enough to ease drought in the country, noted Lucero.

He noted onset of the 2016 rainy season asso-ciated with habagat is likely between late May to mid-June.

PAGASA forecast inci-dence of drought to further ease, however, expecting this condition in 14 prov-inces, six provinces and two provinces by the end of July, August and Septem-ber this year.

DBM offi cials face graft raps for buying substandard rubber boats

Duterte plans to make Lapu-Lapu a proper hero

Marcos camp wants public audit of automated poll system

Gazmin, French ambassador sign arrangement for defense cooperation

No Pinoys hurt in latest Iraq bombings: offi cial

Weakening El Nio to still fuel hot weather

MANILA, May 16 (Mabuhay) The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) is already considering stopping its quick count, its co-founder and chairperson said on Monday.

Ambassador Henrietta De Villa told reporters that the Constitution, the PPCRV is not allowed to tally 100 percent of the votes, since doing so is the role of the Congress as the National Board of Canvassers to process all the election returns (ERs).

PPCRV is one of the accredited citizens arms of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) this 2016 polls.

She disclosed that she would meet with Comelec Chairperson Andres Bautista within the week to discuss the matter since the canvassing has already started. Impossible talaga eh. I will ask the clear di-rection from Comelec when we should fold up or close the electronic results that we are getting. I will try to work out an appointment para maresolve na naming ito, De Villa said.

She added that terminating the quick count would allow them to focus on the manual encoding of ERs.

Kailangan matapos rin naming iyon at maverify so that we can compare it with the electronic results we receive, the PPCRV chairperson said.

PPCRV eyes stopping quick count soon

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST4

OPINIONMANILA, May 14 (Mabuhay) Filipinos must maintain an opti-

mistic mindset as the country transitions from one administration to another after the conduct of presidential election this month, a Palace offi cial said.

In a radio interview Saturday, Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr was asked if the Palace worries about loosing economic momentum as the Aquino administration hands over the leadership to the incoming administration.

As a response, Coloma said that in the last six years, the Aquino government has strived hard to maintain investors confi dence for the Philippines.

Kaya nga sa nakaraang anim na taon ay masigasig nating itinatag ang matibay na pundasyon, matibay na imprastraktura sa pamam-agitan ng good governance o sa mabuting pamamahala, Coloma told dzRB Radyo ng Bayan.

Paulit-ulit ngang pinupunto ni Pangulong Aquino: Good governance translates to good economics. At panatag naman tayo na ang pundasyon na inilatag ay matibay, hindi ito mabubuway dahil lang sa hangin.

Staying positive will be good for the country, he said. Mahalaga dito ay ang pagkakaroon ng positibong mindset. Hindi

na dapat tayo mag-inject pa ng mga negatibong ideya sa ngayong panahon, according to Coloma.

Mas importante ang pagiging positibo, ang pagiging optimistiko, at ang pagkakaroon ng matatag na paniniwala natin sa ating sarili na tayo ay mabubuting tao at kaya natin lumikha ng maaliwalas na kinabukasan para sa ating bansa.

With regards to the plan of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to retain some Cabinet members from the Aquino government, Coloma said it is up to the newly elected president to decide.

Duterte must be given a free hand in choosing the composition of his Cabinet for him to get the best and the brightest, Coloma said.

At sa aking personal na opinyon, makakatulong din yung mayroong karanasan sa nakaraang administrasyon kumbaga ay mababawasan ang learning curve, yung paghahanda, yung pagiging maalam dahil meron ng nakaraang karanasan na pagbabatayan, he said. (MNS)

MANILA, May 16 (Mabuhay) The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Catholic church will oppose presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Dutertes plan to ask Congress to revive the death penalty in the Philippines.

Aantabayanan natin ang [magiging] deliberasyon sa Kongreso, at kami sa Commission on Human Rights ay magsa-submit ng posisyon doon. Ang kasalukuyang posisyon ng [CHR] ay iyong death penalty is contrary to human dignity and human rights, CHR chairman Luis Martin Chito Gascon said.

Gascon said they are against the death penalty because of the coun-trys weak justice system.

Sa isang weak justice system na maraming loophole, madalas ang resulta ay may mga napapatawan ng capital punishment ay maaaring later on ay mapatunayan na hindi pala nagkasala, he explained.

In an interview late Sunday in Davao City, Duterte said he will ask Congress to restore the death penalty on heinous crimes.

He added he wanted the death penalty carried out by hanging.In a separate interview, Archbishop-emeritus Oscar Cruz told Bali-

tanghali that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines will also oppose Dutertes proposal.

Siyempre po naman tututulan po namin iyan, lalo na ng CBCP. Hindi maaaring maupo lamang ang Simbahan diyan. Tatayuan iyan, Cruz said.

Wala pong binigyan ng buhay ang estado na kahit sino kay ahindi po siya puwedeng kumuha ng buhay ng kahit sino. Iyan po ay mali-naw, he added.

The prelate also said that instead of reviving the death penalty, the next administration should help improve the countrys justice system.

Global trendGascon, meanwhile, cited that the global trend is for the abolition

of the death penalty.Ang trend po ay para sa abolishing ng death penalty. Kada taon

dumadami ang mga estado na nag-a-abolish nito, he said.He added that it has proven that death penalty is not an effective

deterrent to crime.He added that the countrys criminal justice systems intention is

to rehabilitate convicts.Sa pamamagitan ng criminal justice sytem sinasabi natin sa mga

nagkasala at mga nagkamali na kailangan silang parusahan pero sa pamamagitan na matututo sila., Gascon said.

Sa death penalty, wala nang pangalawang pagkakataon pa ang mga salarin at mga convicted na magbagong buhay dahil kikitilin na ang buhay nila.

Gascon, meanwhile, said that it will respect the decision of Congress.If ever the death penalty is revive, he said the CHR will closely

monitor how it will be implemented.

MANILA, May 14 (Mabuhay) It is still a neck and neck battle between Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo and Senator Bongbong Marcos for the vice presidency.

While nothing is defi nitive yet about their race, a spokesperson of presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte said the winning vice-president may get any Cabinet position he or she wants.

Dutertes spokesperson Peter Lavia said in a press conference on Friday that the President is willing to give any Cabinet position to the winning vice-president.

While Lavia was careful not to name anyone, it seemed that he is anticipating the winner to be Robredo.

We have not determined who will be the VP. But we have already said that there will be a Cabinet position for whoever wins. And it will not be a, as I said earlier as a joke, it will not be a fl ower vase, Lavia said.

Mayor is a very generous person naman. He can deal with anyone. So, it will be a post that will be mutually discussed between the two highest posi-tions in the land... Baka may personal preference ang winning vice president, so we can immediately say that this post is vacant and that she can take it if she wants, di ba? Or she can hand to the president-elect a list of her preferences, he added, referring to the

next vice-president in a feminine pronoun.Lavia, however, clarifi ed that the executive sec-

retary position is not up for grabs.All the positions are possible, except of course

executive secretary. Its the only one siguro na non-negotiable because it is a full-time job. Number one among equals. Plenty of work for the executive secretary. But down the line, I think its open, Lavia said.

Asked if the vice-president will have a free hand in choosing the Cabinet position and in recommending appointees, Lavia said this may not be a possibil-ity at all since Robredo, as he mentioned, is polite enough not to demand for herself.

Its not really a free hand. I dont think the personality of Cong Leni, if we are talking about Congresswoman Leni Robredo, I dont think shes the type that will demand or will present herself, Lavia explained.

I think she will be polite to ask the incoming President what also will be fi tting for her so she can contribute to the administration, he added.

Meanwhile, not a few noticed that Duterte has been missing from the public eye in the past few days.

His executive assistant Bong Go said the pre-sumptive president is taking a rest to recover from fatigue caused by the campaign period. (MNS)

MANILA, May 14 (Mabuhay) The incoming Duterte administrations stock is rising among lawmakers in the Lower House as more come out to support the presumptive president in the 17th Congress.

The latest is the countrys second largest politi-cal party, the Nationalist Peoples Coalition (NPC), party of former Ambassador Eduardo Danding Cojuangco, which backed Senator Grace Poe in the 2016 elections.

The party plans to work alongside President-elect Rodrigo Duterte for the betterment of our country, NPC spokesperson Mark Enverga said.

Enverga, however, said the NPC is still on the fence on the Speakership.

For now, we intend to sit down and hear out the legislative agendas both of Cong. Bebot Alvarez and Speaker Sonny Belmonte, Enverga said.

Duterte has endorsed the Speakership bid of long-time friend and PDP-Laban party-mate, incoming Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez. 16th Con-gress Speaker Sonny Belmonte currently leads the Liberal Party (LP) in the Lower House.

There are about 100 LP lawmakers in the Low-er House, the largest bloc of congressmen. NPC is second with over 40 congressmen, followed by the National Unity Party, Nacionalista Party, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) and Lakas.

The party-list coalition is a separate group of 40 congressmen, excluding the Makabayan bloc.

The House of Representatives has traditionally been led by surrogates of the sitting president, with congressmen historically switching loyalties to the president in offi ce.

The Makabayan bloc, in a separate statement, said it welcomes the victory of Duterte, who has a

commanding lead of six million votes over his closest rival, LP standard bearer Mar Roxas.

We recognize such victory as an expression of popular outrage over and rejection of the regime of Daang Matuwid and a cry for sweeping change in the elitist and anti-people system, it said.

The bloc then challenged the Davao City mayor to hold outgoing President Benigno Aquino III and Budget Secretary Butch Abad responsible for the allegedly illegal and graft-ridden Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Priority De-velopment Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Aquino and other responsible offi cials must also be held to account for the Mamasapano carnage and the killing and maiming of protesting farmers in Kidapawan, it added.

Belmonte, for his part, is still mulling his options. In 1998, Manny Villar led congressmen to the Estra-da fold and this helped him secure the Speakership even if Estrada had other candidates for the job.

On the fl ip side, Lakas-CMD may coalesce with other lawmakers to form a bloc with the UNA and see if they have enough numbers to form the new minority in the House.

Returning Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez told ABS-CBN News by phone: Siguro ang direction namin is coalesce pero magfo-form kami ng bloc, maybe Lakas-UNA. Thats our fi rst direction. But if we will have suffi cient number, you will try to run for the minority.

Suarez believes they might end up battling with Belmonte.

Question siguro ilan matitira sa kanya at ilan mag-stick sa amin. We will try to form a coalition of different members and bid for the minority, he said.(MNS)

MANILA, May 14 (Mabuhay) A Church-based poll watchdog on Saturday insisted that the un-offi cial tally of votes for the vice presidential race is credible based on anomaly tests conducted on Friday night.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) made the statement in response to allegations that the security of the transparency server had been breached to make sure that the poll results it releases would favor administration vice presidential bet Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo.

At a press conference, PPCRV communications director Ana de Villa-Singson said their IT per-sonnel on Friday night ran anomaly tests on the results and found out that the data transmitted by the vote-counting machines remained untouched.

We ran several anomaly tests to demonstrate the credibility of the partial unoffi cial results. No single anomaly found, she said.

De Villa said that they usually conduct anomaly

tests after the elections, but the revelation of the camp of Sen. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. about the changed hash code prompted them to conduct the tests earlier.

The thing is after the explosion of the hash code incident, the credibility of the result has been put to question, she said.

The tests were done on poll results from precincts with problems including multiple transmissions, de-layed transmittal of results (after the 5 p.m. closing time), transmittal with more than 95 percent of votes went to one presidential candidate, exactly 10 votes for vice president, and multiple results for a given candidate in different election returns.

Meanwhile, precincts that went missing on May 12 and 13 from results fi les also caught the PPCRVs attention.

These precincts are located in Barangay San Antonio, Paraaque City and Barangays Isabela Proper, Busay and Calvario in Isabela City, Basilan.

Filipinos must be positive as new administration assumes offi ce, says Palace

CHR, CBCP to block Dutertes plan to revive death penalty

VP can get choice Cabinet position: Duterte spokesman

NPC, Makabayan bloc express support for Duterte

PPCRV: Partial, unoffi cial tally for VP race passes anomaly tests

MANILA, May 13 (Mabuhay) The camp of pre-sumptive President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed heads for six clusters to effect a smooth transition of power to the incoming administration.

Dutertes campaign manager, Leoncio Jun Evasco, will head the cluster on social development while his executive assistant, Christopher Bong Go, will focus on peace and security.

Former agriculture secretary Sonny Dominguez will head the economic development cluster while Dutertes lawyer, Salvador Medialdea, will focus on the justice system.

Another lawyer, Loreto Ata, will zero in on gov-ernment-owned and controlled corporations.

His spokesperson, Peter Lavia, will focus on infrastructure development.

The Duterte transition team is a holdover of the relatively small campaign team that oversaw Dutertes rise from reluctant candidate to winning the elections with one of the largest mandates since the restoration of democracy in 1986.

What is important for the mayor is getting people who can deliver. We have a lot of promises to meet and we have to have impact immediately,

Dutertes spokesman, Peter Lavia, earlier told ABS-CBN News.

Foes turned allies, old pals help Duterte build new govt

Lavia said the team has received a list of nom-inees for potential Cabinet members and heads of various agencies.

He pointed out that the criteria for the selection of future leaders include shared vision, integrity, competence and willingness to sacrifi ce. We will announce the names of the Cabinet as soon as they are ready, even piecemeal, he said.

Lavia said the team is aware that Duterte must immediately appoint an economic team and a foreign affairs secretary to immediately convey to the busi-ness community and the world that we are ready to immediately go down to business.

Some current Cabinet men of the Aquino admin-istration will also undergo the selection process, he said.

He said that in the Armed Forces and Philippine National Police, the future offi cials will be chosen based on merit, seniority and loyalty to government and country.

Duterte takes page from Justin Trudeau, eyes balanced Cabinet

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 5

U T R E A C HWASHINGTON, D.C.

The Flavors of the Philip-pines is getting ready to take the largest diplomatic community in the world by storm at the 8th annual Embassy Chef Challenge that will be held on 25 May 2016 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washing-ton, D.C.

As Washingtons lead-ing international culinary event, the Embassy Chef Challenge is the night when participating Embassies wield their respective cui-sines as the main diplomat-ic tool.

This is the fi rst time that the Philippines will join the Embassy Chef Challenge. It is a signifi cant step for our culinary diplomacy as cultural and economic ob-jectives drive our participa-tion. We want to celebrate our cuisine, bridge cultural differences and foster in-ternational understanding, and promote Philippine ingredients and products, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. said.

Embassy chefs from di-verse nations will prepare world-class cuisine and compete for the Judges Choice and Peoples Choice Awards, the latter being selected by the guests at the event.

I n t e r n a t i o n a l l y - a c -claimed Filipino chef Claude Tayag will represent the Embassy in the high-profi le

competition. The Embassy Chef

Challenge is a wonderful opportunity to showcase not just the unique fl avors of Philippine cuisine but also the accessibility of our food. It has been said that food culture is a refl ection of a nations soul, and so I intend our offering to be a culinary demonstration of our peoples inherent open-ness and generosity. After all, Filipino cuisine is meant to be shared, Chef Claude Tayag said.

Chef Claude Tayag was born in Angeles City in the province of Pampanga, the Culinary Capital of the Philippines. A renowned artist, food writer, and chef, Claude Tayag is no novice to international festivals, where he showcases his delicious creations and car-ries his passion for Pam-pango cuisine. He was the Philippines culinary expert during the Memphis in May International Festival in 2012 and was part of Team Philippines in the interna-tional gastronomy congress of the Madrid Fusin Ma-nila in 2015.

Together with his wife Mary Ann, Chef Claude es tab l i shed Bale Du-tung (Wooden House), his abode turned into a restaurant serving tradi-tional Pampango cuisine. The by-reservation-only restaurant gained popular-ity when world-renowned chef and writer Anthony

Bourdain personally visited and featured the restaurant in his TV show, No Reser-vations in 2008.The couple also co-authored Linam-nam: Eating Ones Way Around the Philippines, a culinary guide book on what food to eat in every region of the country as well as what makes each dish unique and outstanding in its own right.

Chef Claude has likewise written an award winning book, Food Tour: A Culi-nary Journey and was the co-author of Kulinarya: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine.

He will take on eighteen (18) chefs from other Em-bassies, including that of Venezuela whose cuisine topped last years challenge as both the Judges and Peo-ples choices.

Aside from the actual competition, this years Em-bassy Chef Challenge will also feature silent and live auctions, premium beers, wines, and spirits, and cul-tural performances. Tick-ets are available at www.eventsdcembassychefchal-lenge.com.

Chef Claudes partici-pation is a joint project of the Philippine Embassy, Philippine Trade and In-vestment Center and Offi ce of the Agricultural Attach in Washington D.C., in part-nership with the US-Phil-ippines Society, Philippine Airlines and Seafood City Supermarket.

Hundreds of stations to be added for area employees, customers, residents and students

ROSEMEAD, Calif., May 16, 2016 Southern Cal-ifornia Edisons Charge Ready program will bring representatives of local businesses and other or-ganizations together on Wednesday in Irwindale to learn how they can take part in the pilot program that will add as many as 1,500 electric vehicle charging stations to SCEs service area.

The $22-million Charge Ready pilot aims is to get more electric vehicle charging stations installed at locations where cars are parked for extended periods for example, at workplac-es, apartment and condo complexes, fleet vehicle parking lots, campuses and recreational areas.

We are excited to part-ner with employers, land-lords, universities and other organizations to make it more convenient to charge electric vehicles in Southern California, said Caroline

Choi, SCEs vice president for Energy and Environ-mental Policy. Under the Charge Ready program, participants, or site hosts, will own, operate and maintain electric vehicle charging stations, and SCE will install and maintain the supporting electrical infrastructure at no cost to participants.

As an additional incen-tive to participate, SCE will offer rebates to offset some or all of the cost of the charging stations and their installation, depending on the location and type of es-tablishment. The program also calls for at least 10 per-cent of the charging stations to be installed in disadvan-taged communities.

What separates Charge Ready from other electric vehicle charging programs is that it encourages broad market participation, cus-tomer choice and technol-ogy innovation, Choi said. Participants will have the ability to select equipment suppliers and charging ser-vices based on their sites needs.

Charge Ready will also help support state envi-

ronmental improvement goals and make better use of the power grid, she said. Additionally, the pro-gram provides funding for education and outreach to develop awareness about the benefi ts of driving elec-tric vehicles and charging from the power grid.

At the pilots conclusion, SCE plans to seek authority from the California Public Utilities Commission to ex-pand the program to about 30,000 charging stations.

The event will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at SCEs Energy Educa-tion Center, 6090 North Irwindale Ave., Irwindale. Parking is available in the centers lot, which has eight EV chargers available for public use.

About Southern Cali-fornia Edison

An Edison Internation-al (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edi-son is one of the nations largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 5 mil-lion customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coast-al and Southern California.

Chef Claude Tayag to showcase Flavors of The Philippines in annual Embassy Chef Challenge

SCE launches Charge Ready Electric Vehicle Charging Pilot Program

The $22-million Charge Ready pilot aims is to get more electric vehicle charging stations installed at locations where cars are parked for extended periods

RODOLFO LACSON TIRONA re-cently retired after serving 43 years at California, Los Angeles County, Department of Health Services. Mr. Tirona worked in various county de-partments and currently for the Los Angeles County + University of South-ern California Medical Center as a Patient Financial Services Control Worker.

He is thoroughly knowledgeable about the medi-cal program. He established himself as a genuine and warm individual with sympathetic relationship with both patients and co-workers in the hospital. He assisted in the fi nancial aid program benefi cial to patients and the department. He enjoyed working, helping patient fi -nancially and was fortunate to have his career where he makes a differ-ence serving the diverse population of the Los Angeles County community. He is exceptionally well like and received written recognitions in the performance of his job.

Mr. Tirona is a 1959 graduate of Jose Abad Santos High School, Binon-do, Manila, Philippines. He graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education in 1965 at the Philippine Normal University and completed masteral units in Gener-

al Education in 1972 at Manuel L. Quezon University, both in Manila, Philippines.

After graduating in college Mr. Tiro-na taught fi fth and sixth grade school children at the Division of City Schools Manila, Philippines for seven years. He migrated to the United States in April 1972 and lived with his wife Merla Diaz Tirona in Los Angeles, California. He is a member of the prominent Tiro-na Family Clan from Imus, Cavite, Philippines.

Tirona recently retired at LA County, Department of Health Services after serving for 43 years

May 5, 2016 LOS ANGE-LES Councilmember David Ryu and the City of Los Ange-les will be rounding off the end of Los Angeles Asian Pacifi c American Heritage Month (LAAPAHM) with Pacific Bridge, a high energy family-friendly concert that invites some of the most renowned Asian Pacifi c American(APA) artists and entertainers for an evening of celebration and live performances. This free event will debut on May 21, 2016 between 6:00pm 9:00pm on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall.

Pacifi c Bridge aims to rec-ognize the historical and cul-tural ties between the City of Los Angeles and the Asian Pacifi c American community through art, food, and live performances.

This community concert is a new effort from the City of Los Angeles to highlight the talent and diversity of APA artists and entertainers in the entertainment industry said Councilmember David Ryu. Pacifi c Bridge gives an opportunity for residents and families all over Los Angeles to join us in celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage with a fun, and free evening of live performances.

Pacifi c Bridge is part of a series of events LA APAHM is hosting throughout the month of May to highlight that APAs are part of the fabric of the City of Los Angeles and re-inforce the 2016 LA APAHM theme We Are LA.

Below is a sneak peak of the performance lineup:

Awkwafi naAwkwafina is a Queens-

born rapper, comedienne and actress. She is best known for her viral music videos with a feminist tint, and has been featured in the New York Times, Vice/Noisey, New York Magazine, The Daily Beast,

NBC News, Jezebel, Gawker and more. She is currently a featured cast member on MTVs Girl Code and will appear in the upcoming fi lms Neighbors 2 and Dude. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

DumbfoundeadFrom the battlegrounds to

silver screen, Jonathan Park (a.k.a.Dumbfoundead) in less than a decade has built a legendary history in the LA hiphop scene. While he grew up listening to all genres of music, the hip hop scene in the nineties was no doubt bustling and through that Dumbfoundead found his ini-tial hip hop clique that clicked and clacked from a Macarthur Park community center to Project Blowed, an open mic workshop in south central LA. Dumbfoundead developed his skills with an exponential rise to local and even national acclaim with everything from rap battle videos with views in the millions, to spotlights on shows like Late Night with Carson Daly, to most recently his curator role in one of Ktowns most happening parties: Spamneggs along-side Far East Movement and Tokimonsta.

Tribal TheoryTribal Theory of San Diego,

California has established themselves as the originals of Urban Reggae music. Con-tinuously producing fresh musical compositions that are undeniable masterpieces.

Formed in 2005, Tribal Theorys signature is the fusion of their Pacifi c Island culture with the feel good vibes of Reggae, grittiness of Urban Ska, and thesoul-ful harmonies of R&B. This hybrid sound has the depth and versatility to span across many different genres includ-ing Reggae, IslandReggae, R&B, Alternative, Roots, and

World music.Run River NorthSince the bands begin-

nings just over four years ago, their rise has been steadily spectacular, marked by ap-pearances on national tele-vision, sold out shows at his-toric venues, tours with rock and roll royalty and heaps of praise from fans and critics alike. As they blossomed, they embraced their initially folk driven sound, which found its harmonic home alongside rootsy, foot stomping, sing-along leading peers like Mum-ford & Sons, The Head and the Heart, and Of Monsters and Men. Powered by the acoustic-guitar and vocals songwriting of frontman Alex Hwang, their 2014 self titled debut record, produced by Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Modest Mouse, Band of Horses), was released with their lineup rounded out by the strings duo of Daniel Chae and Jennifer Rim, Joe Chun on bass, Sally Kang on keys, and John Chong on drums.

In addition to live perfor-mances and entertainment, Pacifi c Bridge will host some of Southern Californias most popular food trucks.

This event is free and open to the public. Visit http://apahm.lacity.org/ for more information.

About Los Angeles Asian Pacifi c American Heritage Month

May is Asian Pacifi c Amer-ican Heritage Month (AP-AHM), a celebration of Asian Pacifi c Americans(APAs) in the United States.

For the last three decades, the City of Los Angeles has held a series of events throughout the month to high-light the signifi cant contribu-tions that APAs have made to the citys past, present and future. Visit http://apahm.lac-ity.org/ for more information.

City of Los Angeles announces entertainment lineup for Pacifi c Bridge Concert

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST6

Being on the heavier side may not be as dangerous as it was in the 1970s, at least when it comes to the risk of dying, according to a study Tuesday.

The optimum ratio of weight and height known as body mass index or BMIis now on the upper side of the healthy range, according to the report in the Journal of the Amer-ican Medical Association (JAMA).

Compared to the 1970s, todays overweight individ-uals have lower mortali-ty than so-called normal weight individuals, said Borge Nordestgaard, clin-ical professor at the Uni-versity of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University Hospital.

The reason for this change i s unknown. The report was based on more than 100,000 people in Denmark. The study spanned three groups, or cohorts, whose risk of dy-ing for any reason was ex-amined in 1976-78, 1991-1994, and in 2003-2013.Currently, doctors define the normal range for BMIcalculated by weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared as between 18.5 and 24.9.A BMI of 25-29.9 is con-sidered overweight, while 30 or higher is obese.In the 1970s, the opti-

mal BMI for the lowest risk of death was 23.7.This would be the equiva-lent of a six-foot (1.83 me-ter) tall man who weighs 170 pounds (77 kilograms), or a fi ve-foot-fi ve (1.65 me-ter) woman who weighs 143 pounds (65 kilograms).By 1991-94, the optimal BMI had risen to 24.6.A n d i n 2 0 0 3 - 2 0 1 3 , i t r e a c h e d 2 7 .Compared to four decades ago, that would mean add-ing 30 pounds (14 kg) to the frame of the a person who stands six-feet tall, or 19 pounds (nine kg) to the frame of someone five-foot-five.Researchers also found that obese people in the 1970s were more likely to die than normal weight people, but this association disap-peared in the 2000s.

The increased risk of all-cause mortality asso-ciated with obesity com-pared to normal weight decreased from 30 percent 1976-78 to 0 percent in 2003-13, said principal investigator Shoaib Afzal, of Copenhagen Universi-ty Hospital in Denmark.Health authorities have long warned of the risks of being overweight, in-c lud ing d iabetes and cardiovascular disease.Nordestgaard said the cur-rent fi ndings suggest a need to revise the categories pres-ently used to defi ne over-

weight, which are based on data from before the 1990s.However, experts cautioned that the biological mecha-nism behind the new fi nd-ings remains poorly un-derstood, and the results should not be interpreted to mean that people can cease caring about what they eat.According to Naveed Sat-tar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, the study is of interest but dos not merit changing advice on obe-sity and preventing extra pounds.

In recent years, as pop-ulations become more obese and with wider availability of cheap preventative med-ications many more such individuals are likely to be better treated for abnormal blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol and, if also pres-ent, type 2 diabetes, lead-ing in turn to lower death risks, said Sattar, who was not involved in the study.

In other words, the cur-rent fi ndings do not mean that being overweight is protecting you from death, far from it rather, many confounding factors may give the current result and we know from many other studies that being overweight or obese does increase mortality risks, in the same way that it in-creases risk for many other conditions.

The optimum ratio of weight and height -- known as body mass index or BMI -- is now on the upper side of the healthy range, according to the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) connel/shutterstock.com

Heavier is now healthier than in 1970s: study

New research suggests that yoga and meditation may not only give you a fl ex-ible body and inner peace but that a combination of the two could also help improve cognitive function.

The study, led by a team of researchers from UCLA and Australias University of Adelaide, is the fi rst to compare yoga and medita-tion against memory train-ing, which has often been considered the best way to manage mild cognitive impairment.

The team followed a group of 25 participants all aged 55 and over during a three-month course of either yoga and meditation or memory training.

Participants had all shown signs of mild cogni-tive impairment, reporting problems with their memo-ry such as easily misplacing things, or forgetting names, faces or appointments.

Participants were split into two groups. Eleven par-ticipants attended memory enhancement training and practiced memory exercis-

es daily, while the other 14 participants attended classes of Kundalini yoga and practiced 20 minutes of Kirtan Kriya meditation daily, which involves chant-ing, hand movements and visualization of light, and has already has been prac-ticed in India for hundreds of years as a way to prevent cognitive decline in older adults.N All participants received brain scans and completed memory tests at both the beginning and end of the three-months.

The results showed that although all participants demonstrated similar im-provements in verbal mem-ory skills, the skills that are needed for remembering names, it was the partic-ipants in the group who practiced yoga and medita-tion that showed better im-provements in visual-spa-tial memory skills, which help with recalling locations and navigating.

In addition, participants in the yoga and meditation group also showed bigger improvements in levels of

depression, anxiety, cop-ing skills and resilience to stress, all of which are especially important when coming to terms with the onset of cognitive impair-ment.

Commenting on the sig-nifi cance of the results Har-ris Eyre, the studys lead au-thor, said, Historically and anecdotally, yoga has been thought to be benefi cial in aging well, but this is the scientifi c demonstration of that benefi t. Were convert-ing historical wisdom into the high level of evidence required for doctors to rec-ommend therapy to their patients.

Senior author Helen Lavretsky added, If you or your relatives are trying to improve your memory or offset the risk for develop-ing memory loss or demen-tia, a regular practice of yoga and meditation could be a simple, safe and low-cost solution to improving your brain fi tness.

The study was published in the Journal of Alzhei-mers Disease.

A combination of yoga and meditation can reduce cognitive impairment

A team of US researchers have declared that physical activity is the most effective way of tackling the global epidemic and cardiovascu-lar disease, comparing its effects to a magic bullet.

The team of professors from Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Flori-da Atlantic University made their conclusions after eval-uating evidence on physical activity and its benefits, publishing their conclusions in an editorial in the current issue of Cardiology.

However despite the huge body of evidence revealing the health benefits of ex-ercise, including decreased risk of heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, osteoar-thritis and certain cancers as well as improved mood, energy, sleep and sex life, only around 20 percent of Americans take part in the recommended levels of reg-ular physical activity and around 64 percent never do any physical activity at all.

Europeans are not much better, with just 33 percent taking part in regular ex-ercise and 42 percent never getting active.

Physical exercise also becomes more important as we get older, as we tend to gradually pile on the pounds. Many individuals will start to gain an extra 1

to 3 pounds per year in their 30s, leading to some being as much as 30 to 50 pounds overweight by age 55.

The authors also warned that that with obesity a large factor in cardiovascu-lar disease, now the leading cause of death worldwide, more emphasis and educa-tion needs to be placed on the importance of physical exercise, which could also be a more effective way of maintaining weight than calorie control.

There are a lot of misper-ceptions about the role of regular physical activity, caloric intake and calories burned during exercise, commented Steven Lewis, one of the co-authors of the paper, As a result, calorie restriction dieting has been recommended as more prac-tical for weight control than regular physical activity, and this is a big problem.

Most people have great difficulty achieving and maintaining weight loss solely by restricting their calorie intake, added co-au-thor Charles H. Hennekens, with the authors pointing out that brisk walking for just 20 minutes a day can burn around 700 calories a week, as well as reducing the risk of heart disease by as much as 30 to 40 percent.

Activities such as walk-

ing can also be enjoyed by most people, even the el-derly, although the authors also recommend adding in resistance exercises such as weight lifting for added health benefi ts.

But despite their recom-mendations the authors believe that regular exercise is still too much time and effort for many, with 42 percent of the Europeans surveyed citing lack of time as the main reason for their sedentary lifestyle.

If regular physical activ-ity were a pill, then perhaps more people would take it, commented Hennekens.

Researchers recommend physical activity as magic bullet in fi ght against obesity and cardiovascular disease

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 7

E N T E R T I N M E N T

Ready na ako. Kasi feeling ko noong time na yon, ginamit ko muna siya para sa sarili ko. I wanted to fi x myself also and I wanted to spend time with my family and my friends. So ngayon, pwede na. Okay na, Magdayao said.

Magdayaos last relationship was with John Lloyd Cruz. The two broke up in 2012.

After that, the actress was linked to Sam Milby and Piolo Pascual.

Magdayaos older sister, Vina Morales, said: You know what, honestly, ang daming tumatawag sa kan-ya, nagpaparamdam sa kanya. But I think that time, she wasnt ready, kaya siguro hindi niya nakikita na may chance pala... o possibility na maging boyfriend, ganyan.

Ngayon, nag-pray na siya. Pagbalik niya, sinabi ni Shaina kay Padre Pio, gusto na niyang mag-boyfriend, she added. (MNS)

If given the chance, is actor John Lloyd Cruz ready to be father?

The 32-year-old Cruz said that marriage will have to come fi rst, as well some alone time with his future wife to get to know each other more.

Ideally, Id still want to get married fi rst and may-be enjoy a couple of years just with my wife. Kami lang muna. Theres so much discoveries to realize with one another na wala pang bata, he said.

But Cruz quickly added that he is also open to fa-thering a child should circumstances have it. Kahit sinasabi ko na ideally hindi ko pa gusto, maaring hindi ko pa kaya o hindi ko pa handa, pero sino ba naman ang makakapagsabi kung kailan ka handa?

Cruz was asked to clarify a report quoting him to have said that he is ready to have a child. I think Im ready kung anak lang ang pag-uusapan, he said in a press conference about Just the 3 of Us held last month. (MNS)

Actress Iza Calzado is all set to go topless for her new fi lm to be helmed by Jerrold Tarog, the direc-tor behind the acclaimed historical biopic Heneral Luna.

Actually, its more sen-sual than sexy. Pero mara-mi talaga siyang nudity, shared Calzado, adding that she is more than ready to bare it all for the upcom-ing thriller movie.

I think Im a bit of a risk-taker. Para sa akin, work is work, she rea-soned. As long as the role is kind of fun or challeng-

ing, Im going to accept it. It doesnt matter.

Asked if her boyfriend, British entrepreneur Ben Wintle, disapproved of her plans to go nude, Calzado replied: I dont know. Hes very cool. Hes very ded-ma. Even his parents, Ive already told them.

Meanwhile, Calzado also addressed questions about her marriage plans. Wala pa. And so many people are getting married this year so parang wala na silang budget para pambilig rega-lo sa amin. Defi nitely, not this year, she said. (MNS)

Iza Calzado to go topless for new fi lm

Is John Lloyd ready to have a baby? After four years of being single,

actress Shaina Magdayao is ready to fall in love again

Shaina Magdayao

John Lloyd Cruz

Iza Calzado

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST8

&Fil-Am News Lifestyle

Balita.comYour premier source for Fil-Am

Lifestyle. Updated daily with local, national and internation

al news.

Actor Richard Gomez will be taking a break from show business now that he is the mayor-elect of Ormoc City.

Last Tuesday, the 50-year-old Gomez was proclaimed the mayor of Ormoc City in Leyte after he defeated Liberal Party candidate Ondo Codilla.

Pahinga lang muna ako sandali sa showbiz. Tutal Im sure every once in a while ay makikita nila ako, Gomez said.

Gusto ko nga sana kung pwede silang mag-taping sa Ormoc, mag-ASAP sila sa Ormoc. We will make Ormoc an open city para makita ng mga tao (ang ganda nito), Gomez told the radio shows host Amy Perez.

Gomez said this is his way of giving back.

Alam mo tayong mga artista, nakikita nila na magandang tao, magandang lala-ki, pero kapag umuuwi kami ng probinsya namin nakikita ko na ang daming tao na

ang hihirap talaga ng buhay. So, siguro ito na yung payback time para makatu-long ako sa kanila. Ito kailangan ngayon giving back tayo, ma-improve man lang natin ang buhay nila ay okay na ako doon, he said.

This is Gomezs fi rst win in several tries for an elective post. Party-list group Mam-amayan Ayaw sa Droga (MAD), which named him as a nominee, was disqualifi ed by the Supreme Court in 2001.

In 2007, he ran for senator but lost. He again tried for a seat in the House of Rep-resentatives in 2010 but was disqualifi ed due to residency issues.

In 2013, he lost the mayoralty race to Edward Codilla by a slim margin of fewer than 3,000 votes. Gomez admitted that this years election wasnt easy for him.

It took me a lot of perseverance. Kasi ang nakalaban ko sa Ormoc, 21 years sila nakaupo, tuloy-tuloy. Ganoon kab-

igat yung tinibag natin na political family. ... Mahirap talaga pero sa tulong ng maraming tao ay nanalo din tayo, he said.

As the new mayor, Gomez said that he will be working on improving the peace and order of the city.

Ang pinaka-importante dito sa Ormoc ay yung peace and order. Kung maayos ang peace and order madali ng ma-develop ang tourism at cultural programs dito. Gusto din namin na tumaas ang economy ng Ormoc, may pumasok na malaking negosyante at ma-improve namin yung agriculture namindito, Gomez said.

Gomezs wife Lucy Torres also won as the congresswoman of the 4th District of Leyte. (MNS)

ag natin na politicalap talaga pero sa

ming tao ay nanalod.ayor, Gomez said

working on improving rder of the city.mportante dito sapeace and order. Kungce and order madali ng tourism at cultural

Gusto din namin na nomy ng Ormoc,,,,,,, a malaking

ma-improve riculturemez said.Lucyas the of the eyte.

JC de Vera could not hide his excitement working again with his previous on-screen partner Jessy Mendiola.

De Vera said he is thankful to have another project with Mendiola because he is already comfortable working with her.

Masarap talaga sa pakiramdam na mer-on kang katrabaho na sobrang komportable ka, yung walang issues. Pag nasa work lang kayo talagang masaya lang kayo, kom-portable at wala na kayong iniisip na iba, the actor said. De Vera and Mendiola will star in the upcoming Wansapanataym installment Just Got Laki, which started airing recently.

Although the two already dismissed ru-mors linking them roman-t ical ly , the young actor cannot help but praises and offer ro-mantic ges-tures to the actress.

This is why fans of their o n - s c r e e n tandem con-tinue to won-der if there is a chance for

them to become a real-life couple.For de Vera, whats important is to pre-

serve their friendship.Im sure yung mga taong nakapaligid

sa amin nakikita rin na were both relaxed and were both steady. Pero proud ako kasi never pa kami nag-away or ayaw namin na maging magkatrabaho alam mo yun. Kasi ang sarap lang sa pakiramdam na nagta-trabaho ka ng magaan, he added.

Despite this, de Vera thinks Mendiola would make a good partner.

Siyempre along the way nakikilala mo ng mas deeper kasi nga yun nga, ino-ob-serve ko lang siya everyday na ganun. Girlfriend material siya, he said.(MNS)

The younger sister of actress Julia Barretto is now a recording artist.

Claudia Barretto signed a re-cording contract with Universal Records on Wednesday and is looking forward to share her music with her fans.

Its something Ive always wanted to do, she said in a vid-eo posted on the Facebook page of Universal Records, adding, I decided that it was time to start making music.

Claudia said people can expect her songs to be a mix of pop and RnB, and is hoping to have the chance to work with Yeng Con-stantino and Sam Concepcion.

When asked how Julia reacted to her decision to be part of the local music scene, the younger Bar-retto replied: She was so happy because shes wanted this dream for me as much as I wanted it.

Claudias mother, former actress Marjo-rie Barretto, said in a previous interview that she will support whatever her daugh-

ters decide to pursue.She (Claudia) is pretty serious with her

studies so feeling ko I dont have to worry about her entering show business. Gusto lang niya maybe someday hosting, maybe singing, pero pag-aartista hindi pa niya nababanggit, she said. (MNS)

After win, Richard Gomez to take a break from showbiz

Richard Gomez

Julia Barrettos sister Claudia now a recording artist

Claudia Barretto

JC de Vera describes Jessy as girlfriend material

Jessy Mendiola and JC de Vera

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 9

For advertising, call (818) 552-4503 ext 402 Fax (818) 550-7635 email: advertising@balita.com

C L A S S I F I E D STEL.: (818) 552-4503 ext 402 Fax: (818) 550-7635 MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRITHoly Spirit Thou who make me see everything and show me the way to reach my ideal, You who give me the divine gift to forgive and forget the wrong that is done to me and who are in all instances of my life with me. I, in this short GLDORJXHZDQWWRWKDQN

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST10

Mag-

tayo!

Life and Leisure News for Filipino-Americans

www.usasianpost.com

SMARTMATICFrom page 1

ROBREDOFrom page 1

CALL ME MAYORFrom page 1

ZIKA VIRUSFrom page 1

ECONOMIC TEAMFrom page 1

TRILLANESFrom page 1

TRANSITIONFrom page 1

We solicited help from the people, particularly on social media. We will let their creativity flourish. Many would call him Pres-ident Digong, President Rody, President D-U-3-0 or President Duterte, he said.

We just let the people do it on their own. Meron daw

PRRD, PRody, PGong, he added. Speaking with mem-bers of the media on Sun-day night at Hotel Elena, Duterte laid down his initial plans once he takes over the presidency.

He said he will implement a nationwide liquor and smoking ban.

Duterte also said that he will impose a curfew and will order the arrest of the parents of children who will be caught violating it.

The Davao City mayor also said that once he as-sumes the presidency, he will ask Congress to revive the death penalty. (MNS)

region 11.In the presidential race,

presumptive president Ro-drigo Duterte cemented his lead as he is close to getting 16 million votes. As of 10:45 a.m., Duterte had 15, 956, 395 votes or 38.95 percent.

The Davao City mayor led in 11 regions. (MNS)

Kaya lahat ng yan dapat ay pagtuunan natin ng pansin at handang-handa naman ang ating pamaha-laan, maagap at masipag ang ating Department of Health at ang mga ahensya nito sa pagharap sa mga vi-rus at sa iba pang mga banta sa ating kalusugan, he said.

Coloma also said the pub-lic must also support DOH especially after the launched of AIDS hour aimed at rais-ing awareness about the dis-ease. Part of the government initiative is disseminating information about HIV and AIDS to warn the public about the virus.

Pagtulungan po natin yan, nag-uumpisa po sa awareness, nag-uumpisa sa kamalayan na kung ano ang dapat gawin, kung isasapu-so natin ito ay mas madali nating mapagtutulungan ang pagtugon sa banta ng HIV virus at ng AIDS, Co-loma said. (MNS)

Responsible Voting Center (PPCRV) heaquarters in Manila on Monday evening, about question marks (?) in some candidates names in place of the usual character.

Pealba in turn called the attention of the Smartmatic technical support team led by Marlon Garcia.

Upon being notifi ed by the Comelec and after val-idating that changing the character ? required a mi-nor cosmetic change to ap-pease the observers at the PPCRV Transparency Cen-ter, the Smartmatic techni-cal support team addressed the concern by introducing a correction on the script in the presence of everyone present there, said Smart-matic project director Elie Moreno in his letter to the poll body.

Both Pealba and the Smartmatic team then an-nounced to everyone (in-

cluding members of political parties) inside the PPCRV Transparency Center that the correction was made and all subsequent displays would refl ect the candidates names properly, with instead of ?.

No one in the room object-ed on the change, Pealba said in an incident report submitted to Comelec en banc.

He (Garcia) saw it as simple and cosmetic. Look at it also on the engineer-ing perspective. I am an engineer. I am trained to solve problems. So if I see a problem, I automatically try to solve it, Moreno said in a chance interview on Thursday.

Moreno also assured that there was no change in the results, the counting and canvassing of votes, and in the source code of the auto-mated election system.

The change in the script

did not, in any way, alter any result for any candidate, he said.

To dispel insinuations of cheating, Moreno suggested to interested parties to com-pare the results in the trans-parency server with the printed election returns of all vote counting machines.

Thats the perfect proof that nothing has been done (to change the results), he said.

He also said the CCTV coverage can be reviewed to validate that the process was done transparently. (MNS)

tration plans to lower mar-ginal tax rates on low and middle income earners, and increase taxes of the upper income class.

Corporate taxes will also be reviewed and compared with other ASEAN coun-tries.

Pernia said the foregone revenues will be compen-

sated by reduced losses from tax evasion, smuggling, and other illegal activities.

He also stressed a need to rebalance the gains of the economy, where a big-ger share of the economys growth will go to the poor rather than the upper in-come class.

But he clarifi ed that the

fi scal and monetary policies of the Aquino administra-tion will be maintained.

Those things will be continued and maintained, theyre good. To complement good macroeconomic poli-cies, you need good sectoral and micro policies at the lower levels, said Pernia. (MNS)

will weaken our claim unless nagpapauna siya at ituturo lang sa amin, he said.

I will not allow that to happen because I have it on record na bago siya (Dute-rte) mag-assume ng office ay sa atin ang Scarborough Shoal, Trillanes added.

During the Senate pan-els fi rst hearing on October 30, 2013, Trillanes asked National Security Council Director General Cesar Gar-cia if the country has lost the shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc, to China.

In response, Garcia said: No sir, we have not lost Scarborough Shoal.

Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino affi rmed Garcias statement at the hearing.

Nearly two years later, on May 7, 2015, Trillanes posed

the same question to Garcia at another Senate hearing, which was jointly conducted with the Senate committee on foreign relations.

Garcia issued the same response and added that the shoal is the subject of the Philippines arbitration case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands.

On the campaign trail, Duterte blamed Trillanes, who ran for vice president, for the countrys supposed loss of the Scarborough Shoal, saying China started building structures on the area after the senator made his 16th visit to Beijing as part of backchannel negoti-ations. Trillanes, however, said China has not under-taken any reclamation ac-tivity in the area.

Contrary to the mayors belief that the backchannel negotiations with Beijing caused Manila to lose Scar-borough Shoal, Trillanes said his backchanneling mission was a success.

Ako, nung nag-back channel ako doon, ang only mission ko was pahupain ang tensyon kasi nung mga panahon na yon, naggigi-rian na ang mga barko ng Pilipinas at Tsina at maaar-ing mapunta sa putukan. Hindi namin pinag-usapan yung sovereignty claims. So nagawa ko ang aking misyon at napahupa ang tensyon kaya nga walang reclamation diyan at wala ring girian ng mga barko, he said. Trillanes had earlier claimed that his action had the blessing of President Benigno Aquino III. (MNS)

National campaign head and Maribojoc Mayor Leon-cio Jun Evasco will handle search under Social Ser-vices and Development.

Executive assistant and campaign sortie manager Christopher Bong Go will lead the selection in the Se-curity and Peace and Order cluster.

Businessman and cam-paign fi nance manager Car-los Dominguez III will fi nd people to handle Economic Development.

Dutertes Personal law-yer, Salvador Medialdea,

will lead the Judiciary.Lavia himself will han-

dle the search for people under Infrastructure De-velopment. And another personal lawyer Loreto Ata will handle search for GOCCs.Lavia previous-ly revealed that outgoing Sen. Pia Cayetano will serve as their adviser and recommend women to be considered in various posts.

In appointing the Cab-inet members, Lavia stressed that prospective members must share the vision of the Duterte ad-

ministration, must have the integrity, competence and abilities to handle the post, and must be willing to sacrifi ce.

Shared vision, meaning they adhere to the program of government of the next administration, he said.

Meanwhile, an addition-al criteria has been set to appointing heads of the police and military.

The mayor said this would be based on merit, seniority, of course on loy-alty to the government and the country, Lavia said.

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, May 20 - 26, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 11

K I T C H E N O M I C S

Grilled Hawaiian Ham SandwichBy Amanda FolkensServes: 1

1 tablespoon brown sugar1/2 tablespoon seasoning pepper

1 to 2 1/4-inch thick ham slices (about the same thickness as the bread)

Cooking sprayPineapple slices (can be fresh or