BRING YOUR FAMILY TO CANADA! - Filipinos Making Wavesfilipinosmakingwaves.com/uploads/3/4/1/7/34170459/web_waves_mar_2016.pdf · -Trudeau, left, and their children Xavier James, Ella-Grace

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MARCH 2016 Vol. 5 No.3

“A brave, committed individual who lit a candle during the deep darkness of the dictatorship.”

This was how Malacan ang described former Senate President Jovito Sa-longa, who died Thursday, March 10. He was 95.

“With heads bowed in grief and re-spect, we extend our deepest sympa-thies to the family of Sen. Jovito Sa-longa,” presidential spokesperson Ed-win Lacierda said in a statement that extolled the statesman for his contribu-tion “to the restoration of our democratic way of life after the triumph of people power.”

The Palace official added: “(Salonga’s) life stands as a reproach to those who

(Continued on page 8)

THE BEST PRESIDENT WE NEVER HAD

Salonga, senator, patriot, statesman; 95 By: Nikko Dizon

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for an official visit with his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, left, and their children Xavier James, Ella-Grace and Hadrien, right, at An-drews Air Force Base, Md., March 6. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

TRUDEAU'S PRIORITY

BRING YOUR FAMILY TO CANADA!

EDSA 30 Years After: Then and Now

EDSA 1986. Soldiers aboard military trucks travel on their way to Camps Crame and Aguinaldo where thousands of people gathered. Photo: The Eggie Apostol Foundation

EDSA 2016. The daily gridlock became a source of frustration among Filipinos & a symbol of bureaucratic inefficiency in com-ing up with a lasting solution to the monstrous traffic jams.

Former Senate President Jovito Salonga

Plan features:

To bring in family members under restored family reunification program

increase incoming new immigrants to 305,000 this year 2016

repeal two tier citizenship of harper government

admit 151,200-162,400 caregivers and other skilled workers

also pledged to speed up / fast track up 48,0000 backlogs of caregivers

by waves news staff

Before embarking on an historic trip to the United States, the first official visit by a Canadian prime minister since 19 years ago, Justin Trudeau announced important but dramatic changes in immigration and citizenship policies of his ad-ministration, making a priority the long abandoned family reunifica-tion program by bringing in some

75,000 to 82,000 spouses, part-ners, children, parents and grand-parents of Canadian citizens.

The move was in fulfillment of his campaign promise to fix the immi-gration policies of the old Harper government which many considers as rigid and “restrictive”.


US $81 MILLION MONEY-LAUNDERING SCANDAL IN PH

$30M in cash delivered to Chinese high roller By: Daxim L. Lucas, Leila B. Salaverria

MORE than $30 million of the money that hackers stole from the Bangla-desh central bank’s account at the Federal Bank of New York was handed over in cash to an ethnic Chinese man in Manila, according to a senator look-ing into the suspected laundering scheme.

The cash deliveries over several days from a foreign exchange remittance firm were made up of P600 million ($12.87 million) and around $18 mil-lion.

“Obviously this is not one bang. It was done in installments,” Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee, said ahead of a pan-el hearing on the case that was due to open on Tuesday afternoon.

At the Senate hearing, the Chinese was identified as Weikang Xu, a high roller and junket operator for casinos in Ma-nila.

Typo error

The details that Guingona shed light on the money trail after last month’s


Sen. Teofisto Guingona III INQUIRER PHO-TO/LYN RILLON

The march of times has changed the iconic EDSA highway, site of the historic revolution of 1986 that led to the downfall of the strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

But more than physical change, the legacy of that fateful 4-day event now known worldwide as the Philippines’ “people power” revolution seem to have been lost.

Please see Editorial on page 4.

March 2016 2

Waves Filipinos Making News

March 2016 3


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Aquino: Clarify citizenship rules By Aurea Calica

LIPA CITY – President Aquino is hoping that the Supreme Court (SC) will clarify laws on citizenship after it allowed Sen. Grace Poe to run for pres-ident despite questions about her citizenship and residency requirements.

Aquino also sought an expla-nation on how Poe reacquired her Philippine citizenship, saying he did not know that she renounced her US citizen-ship after he appointed her to head the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).

“Sana yong ating Korte Su-prema, dito sa kanilang desisy-

on, ay magbibigay talaga… iyong todong kalinawan o paglilinaw sa samba-yanan (Hopefully our Su-preme Court, in their decision, will really give full clarifica-tion to our people) in their role as educator as far as the law is concerned,”Aquino told reporters after the change of command ceremony of the Philippine Air Force yesterday at the Fernando Air Base here.

“Para maging klarong-klaro sa lahat ng ating mamamayan kung ano ba talaga ang mga alituntunin sa pagiging citizen or non-citizen ng ating


Aquino: ‘I thought Poe renounced US citizenship before MTRCB post’

AMLC: Binay got billions 8 DUMMIES, 3 COMPANIES, 139 BANK ACCOUNTS TRACED TO VP

By: Nancy C. Carvajal

VICE President Jejomar Binay allegedly received “billions” of pesos from infrastructure projects while he was mayor of Makati City and used the amount coursed through dummies to fund his cam-paign in the 2010 elections, according to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

The AMLC finding was con-tained in a 62-page report, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer on Monday. It was the result of an investiga-tion ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman in November 2014 in the midst of a Senate

blue ribbon subcommittee into claims that Binay and his family illegally amassed wealth during his 20 years at the helm of the city.

The report, signed by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Bank Gov-ernor Amando Tetangco Jr., chair of the AMLC, and mem-bers Teresita J. Herbosa and Dennis B. Funa, said that to hide the origins of the illicit funds, Binay and persons linked to him “engaged in lay-ering, used third-party money launderers and made finan-cial institutions as conduits.”

Binay’s camp on Monday

night said it was “not aware of such a report” since AMLC reports are deemed confiden-tial.

“The AMLC, however, has gone on record before the Manila Regional Trial Court that the Vice President has only one bank account, not 242. The total deposits for the said account is P1.7 million and not billions. And more importantly, the said account has been VICE President Je-jomar Binay allegedly re-ceived “billions” of pesos from infrastructure projects while he was mayor of Makati City and used the amount coursed through dummies to fund his campaign in the 2010 elec-tions, according to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

The AMLC finding was con-tained in a 62-page report, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer on Monday. It was the result of an investiga-tion ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman in November 2014 in the midst of a Senate blue ribbon subcommittee into claims that Binay and his family illegally amassed

wealth during his 20 years at the helm of the city.

The report, signed by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Bank Gov-ernor Amando Tetangco Jr., chair of the AMLC, and mem-bers Teresita J. Herbosa and Dennis B. Funa, said that to hide the origins of the illicit funds, Binay and persons linked to him “engaged in lay-ering, used third-party money launderers and made finan-cial institutions as conduits.”

Binay’s camp on Monday night said it was “not aware of such a report” since AMLC reports are deemed confiden-tial.

“The AMLC, however, has gone on record before the Manila Regional Trial Court that the Vice President has only one bank account, not 242. The total deposits for the said account is P1.7 million and not billions. And more importantly, the said account has been declared by the VP in his SALN (statement of as-sets, liabilities and net worth), SOCE (statement of contribu-tions and expenses) and ITR (income tax return) for the

year 2010,” said Joey Salgado, Binay’s communications di-rector.

The report also said that the AMLC was authorized to file in the appropriate Regional Trial Court through the Office of the Solicitor General a peti-tion for civil forfeiture against Binay and his dummies in-volved 139 bank accounts, insurance policies, securities and investments and real properties, including the 350-hectare property in Rosario, Batangas province, tagged as “Hacienda Binay.”

“The totality of the findings of the investigation shows that VP Binay derived funds from the various projects in Makati City—construction of the City Parking Building, the Makati Science High School Building, birthday cakes for senior resi-dents—and used those funds for his election bid and for other personal purposes,” said the AMLC report.

Dummies

The report identified Binay’s purported dummies as Gerar-


Despite SC ruling, questions on citizenship still hound Poe By Ashzel Hachero

DESPITE getting a favorable ruling last week from the Supreme Court allowing her to run in the presidential race on May 9, the citizen-ship issue hounding Sen. Grace Poe is apparently far from over.

In his dissenting opinion, Senior Associate Justice An-tonio Carpio said the ques-tion on whether Poe is a nat-ural-born citizen was not resolved by the majority.

He noted that the voting on the citizenship stood at 7 in favor, 5 against, and 3 with-out expressing any opinion, meaning no majority of the en banc was reached as pro-vided under the tribunal rules.

The seven were Chief Justice

Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices Lucas Ber-samin, Jose Perez, Jose Men-doza, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Francis Jardeleza and Marvic Leonen.

Two magistrates – Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Benjamin Caguioa – joined the separate dissent-ing opinion of Associate Jus-tice Mariano Del Castillo, the original ponente of the case, that the high court should not rule on the citizenship issue on this case.

Carpio was joined by four other magistrates – Associ-ate Justices Teresita Leonar-do-De Castro, Arturo Brion, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Bienvenido Reyes – in his dissenting opinion that Poe

is not a natural-born Filipino and also lacks the residency requirement.

Carpio explained that de-spite the 9-6 ruling allowing Poe to run, “there is no ma-jority of this Court that holds that petitioner Mary Grace Natividad Poe Llamanzares is a natural-born Filipino citizen.”

Carpio said that under the tribunal’s Internal Rules, particularly Rule 12, Section 1, it requires that all deci-sions and actions in court cases “shall be made up up-on the concurrence of the majority of the Members of the Court who actually took part in the deliberation on the issues or issues involved and voted on them.”

He added that in a case where all 15 magistrates voted, at least eight votes were needed to achieve a majority ruling.

Spurred by Carpio’s opinion, former senator Francisco Tatad, one of the petitioners against Poe, said he will ask the justices to revisit their decision.

“We were made to believe that there were nine votes in


March 2016 4


COUNTERPOINT

EDITORIAL

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EDSA: A LOST LEGACY?

30 years after the 1986 rev-olution, the memory and spirit of that 4-day historic chapter of Philippine histo-ry seems to have gone down the drain.

Year after year, the crowds that pay homage to the icon-ic highway’s shrine seem to dwindle and the “dementia” is getting worse.

People, majority among them the young Filipinos, the millennials in particular, seemed to have only faint memory of what really tran-spired in those fateful days of February or what could have been their lives and fates if the dictator Marcos had not been kicked out of his 20 years of tyrannical rule.

Today’s generation is simp-ly clueless to what EDSA stands for.

Could it be that some per-sonalities or the govern-ment that came into power in those heady days simply were such in a hurry to pre-serve their gains and/or reneged on their promises of bringing back power to the people, who were in the first place, the main factor behind the success of the EDSA revolution.

Is it also because revision-ism had crept into the

brains of those “Cory” sup-porters whom many critics described as “those who stole in 2-years time what Marcos plundered in 20 years?”

Only a year after, the oli-garchs were back, congress welcomed the return of po-litical dynasties including the “pork barrel” and whose impunity in raiding the na-tional coffers reached its crescendo in the Pnoy Aqui-no presidency. In short “happy days” (of pre-martial law politics) came back!

It would be recalled that only a year after the 1986 EDSA, the main characters were conspicuously missing in the commemorative rites of 1987, among others for-mer defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile and cashiered colonel Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan and a host of other RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) leaders.

Advisers of the then Cory Aquino government alleged-ly launched a plan to “demonize” and discredit them in the eyes of Filipino.

For good reasons, Enrile et al were suspected to have masterminded a series of destabilizing “coup” at-tempts against Cory Aquino that led to his ouster.


A MEDIA STORY The next senator of Filipino origin to be appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may not be necessarily a member of his Liberal party or a party supporter.

Under his government, he wants a partyless and inde-pendent senate. Yes, you heard it right - a non-partisan senate.

To prove he meant business in reforming the much maligned upper house (or Red cham-ber) he had removed all sena-tors from his Liberal party caucus.

It’s only the first step but that’s good enough. The next hurdle is to “level the playing field” so all Canadians regard-less of color, race or status in income can take a shot at be-ing appointed.

To be a member of the senate, the law still requires that an individual should own a prop-erty worth to a minimum of $4,000 and net worth of at least $4,000.

Too, candidates will now be chosen on the basis of merits through a selection commit-tee. This means also hence-forth the position is no longer a political reward or a “spoils of war” plum of the winning political party.

We can now at least be as-sured of a quality “Senator” not a “half baked” bimbo.

*****

The observance of the 30 years of the EDSA revolution of 1986 came with a whimper. And most of the attendees, I was told, were students bused in by their superiors as a req-uisite for their school attend-ance.

And yet many of them cannot even recall what the whole anniversary is all about.

*****

THE NMPC: 30 YEARS AFTER: Speaking about EDSA, former employees of the National

Media Production Center (NMPC) finally held its first grand reunion after the 1986 EDSA revolution last February 28, 2016 at Camp Aguinaldo’s Tejeros hall.

At least these employees, most of them media practi-tioners composed of journal-ists, broadcasters, radio and TV producers and directors, graphic artists for print and TV, photojournalists and cine-matographers and what have you, can now breathe an air of closure after having been un-ceremoniously dumped only days after the 1986 EDSA rev-olution. But that’s getting ahead of the story.

The NMPC is the govern-ment’s information arm and facility created during the 1950s but gained prominence during the Marcos years.

It has been unfairly labelled as a propaganda arm of the Mar-cos regime, but unknown to many has always been an ef-fective tool and source of in-formation throughout the countryside.

For instance, the landmark self-sufficiency in rice by the Philippines in the late 70s enabled us to export the basic Asian staple for the first time to other countries.

The NMPC was deeply in-volved in providing farmers basic information on the vari-ous planting methods and strains of rice seedlings to be planted.

The “Balikbayan Program,” now a byword to mean a re-turning Filipino expatriate, was an NMPC supported pro-ject, originally

a brain trust of the late news-man Pete Tuason, of the then department of Tourism .

From a small bureau under the office of the President, the agency had acquired modern equipment and facilities for radio and television, modern film processing laboratory and sound studios, state-of-

the-art printing and other media technology that can compare with the rest of the world.

In fact, it somewhat became a mini-version of the famed British Broadcasting Corpora-tion (BBC) eventually becom-ing the country’s only training and learning center for media production.

It was therefore no surprise that any NMPC personnel at that time had a well rounded training and education in film, television, radio & print and other allied media subjects.

The then top honcho and di-rector Greg Cendana was a Boston-trained public rela-tions man who knew every corners of the media industry.

If you watch, hear and read most of today’s better known radio and TV newscasters or writers, chances are they were trained under the tute-lage of “Direk” Cendana of NMPC.

But the NMPC was dismantled

less than a month after a new regime came into power. Em-ployees found themselves in “limbo” and did not have the time to regroup as they found themselves suddenly jobless, unlike other existing govern-ment agencies whose opera-tions continued.

During the EDSA uprising, the Maharlika Broadcasting Sys-tem (MBS-4), also an entity under NMPC and known in those days as Channel 4 bore the brunt of the rebels sol-diers’ intense siege and as-sault, putting it off the air to prevent a last ditch broadcast by the fading Marcos regime.

In the days that followed, it became clear or so, it seemed at that time that the NMPC personnel became the target of the Cory government’s fury and revenge for its role in the media dissemination of the Marcos government.


March 2016 5


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The problem lies in the new govern-ment’s failure to distinguish between a professional media practitioner and a politically biased media hack of which there will always be a few in any given organizations like the NMPC.

*****

Eventually, the “new centurions of the Cory government” realized that indeed, most of the NMPC men are media pro-fessionals. In short, “trabaho lang”, they were just doing their jobs.

Eventually too, they realized that an organization such as this was needed to keep people abreast and well in-formed of what their government is doing.

They retained the organization but with another name, Philippine Infor-mation agency or PIA and NBN-TV (National Broadcasting Network) for the defunct Channel 4.

POSTSCRIPT: Among NMPC alumni here in Canada include the Hon. Flor Marcelino Filipina,nan elected (MLA)Member of Legislative Assembly of

Manitoba (equivalent of member of Provincial parliament) who holds the distinction of being the first woman of colour to be elected as an MLA and as a cabinet member in 2007 and is now the Minister of Multiculturalism and Literacy after being re-elected in 2013. In Toronto, we have Rey Tolentino, formerly with VOP (Voice of the Philip-pines-DZRP and is currently vice presi-dent of the Filipino Center of Toronto (FCT), Joaquin "Jojo "Taduran,also for-merly with the VOP –DZRP and hosted "Pulong-Pulong sa kaunlaran", a grass-root-based TV /radio program, Pete “Boy Cendana” of Mississauga formerly office of the Director-NMPC, Norma Rosal-formerly head of typesetting department (Scarborough), Zenaida “Nayds” Pua, former media strategist/writer of Public Relations and now re-sides in Mississauga and this writer also a former media strategist/writer, public relations dept. and former re-porter Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philip-pine Daily Express and the Manila Standard.

Among the current media personalities who started their media career with the NMPC are GMA’s Mel Tiangco, for-mer newscaster of MBS-channel 4,

Korina Sanchez Roxas of ABS-CBN who was then a young newsreader, ABS-CBN Mutya ng Bayan Doris Bigornia, who started as a TV news reporter with MBS-4, ABS-CBN Ces Drilon also from MBS-4 and UP prof. Elizabeth En-riquez, former TV Newscaster, also with MBS-4 among others.

*****

PINAS GRAPEVINE: Presidential candi-date Grace Poe may have scored a big victory in her disqualification case in the Supreme Court when they allowed her to run the May 9 polls as a candi-date on a vote of 9-6.

But there are still legal obstacles: her citizenship is still under question as the Supreme Court did not unanimously decide on that subject. They only ren-dered a 7-5-3 decision on the question of her citizenship but a unanimous de-cision of at least 8 votes is needed.

She is still short of one vote. Even if she wins in May 9, the citizenship issue will still hound her and could lead to a pos-sible impeachment.

*****

WHODUNIT? The big news in Pinas is the whooping $81 million money laun-dering case involving the country’s 5th

largest bank, The Rizal Commercial and Banking Corporation (RCBC) owned by the Yuchengco family.

The money is owned by the Bank of Bangladesh and hacked allegedly from its reserve bank, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and moved to the Philippines through the RCBC.

The money was then deposited in sev-eral accounts with the RCBC and later withdrawn in several tranches. The money was then converted to Philip-pine pesos and delivered to several persons or entities among them, two casino corporations despite a stop pay-ment requested by the bank of Bangla-desh.

The mystery involves allegedly the RCBC bank branch manager and its president, several “John Doe’s”, under whose name the accounts were depos-ited and a businessman whose name was allegedly used in several transac-tions.

A senate Blue ribbon committee is probing the bank scandal that could possibly result in a bank run for RCBC or taint the credibility of the whole

Philippine banking system.

ABANGAN!

(Continued from page 4)

COUNTERPOINT: A MEDIA STORY

Our Manila Bureau Chief and columnist Die-

go Franco will be missing his column this

month because he is travelling all over the

Philippines to gather materials and more

stories for Waves.

cyberheist of Bangladesh Bank’s current account at the Federal Re-serve Bank of New York, which net-ted hackers more than $80 million.

The hackers tried to withdraw about $951 million from the ac-count but the other transactions were blocked after a typo error in one of the instructions raised red flags.

Bangladesh Bank suspects $81 mil-lion of the money was sent to the Philippines in four installments and, once here, was diverted to ca-sinos.

The Bangladesh central bank has said it is working with the antimo-ney laundering authorities in the Philippines to recover the funds.

Bangladesh Bank officials say the money may have ended up in Hong Kong, but have not given any de-tails.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) said last week it was inves-tigating an $81-million deposit at one of its branches.

Guingona said the transfers into RCBC were consolidated into one account and some of the money was converted to pesos.

Manager’s instructions

At the hearing, the president of a foreign exchange remittance firm told senators that RCBC manager Maia Santos-Deguito directed Phil-

rem Service Corp. to deliver P600 million in cash to Xu and to remit the rest of the $81 million to other accounts.

Philrem president Salud Bautista said she met Xu once, and got in touch with him through a cell phone number provided by the bank. She also took a picture of his ID.

Philrem also sent $29 million to the Solaire casino and $21 million to


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March 2016 6


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Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship John McCallum made the announcement Tuesday March-8, in Brampton where he said the “new plan sends a message about the importance of family.

“It outlines a significant shift in immigration policy towards reuniting more families, building our econ-omy and upholding Cana-da’s humanitarian tradi-tions to resettle refugees and offer protection to those in need,” McCallum said.

Meanwhile, MP Michael

Levitt also held talks with the Filipino community where he was urged to speed up the backlog of some 48,000 foreign care-givers awaiting permanent resident status.

A petition is also circulat-ing in the community ad-dressed to McCallum to fast track the LCP-PR (Live-in caregiver program-for Per-manent residence) pro-cessing.

The petition aimed to gath-er as many signatures as possible to initiate the much-needed changes (pls. see full text of petition on page 8).

In essence it asked McCallum to clear the back-

log and make good his promise (when he was still a Liberal critic) to “provide not just permanent resi-dence status to caregivers but citizenship as well.

For key highlights of the Immigration Plan, pls. see page 17.

MP Michael Levitt also said the new plan also practical-ly repeals the two-tier citi-zenship and henceforth ensures that all Canadians, including those with dual citizenship, are “treated equally once again and can no longer have their citi-zenship stripped from them.(pls. see related col-umn of Michael Levitt on the issue on page 7).⦿


BRING YOUR FAMILY TO

US President Barack Obama and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hug during a welcome ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. AFP

"TRU-BAMA: The "Bromance" of North America's new BFFs (best friends forever)

“There is no relationship in the entire world like the Canada/US relationship”

do Limlingan Jr. Eduviges Baloloy, Mitzi O. Asedillo, Ber-nadette C. Portollano, Lily Hernandez Crystal, Antonio Lee Tiu, Daniel C. Subido and Mario Oreta and private com-panies such as Agrifortuna, Inc. Sunchamp and Meiriras, among others.

The report said that in 2010 when Binay ran in the vice presidential race, his personal account had cash and check deposits amounting to P223,771,273.70, which he declared as part of election contributions.

But the AMLC said that mon-ey was not touched by Binay for his campaign expenses, which came from other bank accounts.

“It appears that the funds used by Binay for his election expenses in 2010 were sourced from checks drawn from the accounts of Limlin-gan, Crystal and Sedillo and Baloloy,” it said.

Longtime associates

Limlingan is Binay’s longtime finance officer, Crystal and Sedillo works for Limlingan; Baloloy is Binay’s long time executive assistant; Oreta is president of Alphaland, Su-bido is the lawyer of Binay; and Tiu claimed he owned Hacienda Binay.

“They used a complicated and sophisticated system of layer-ing funds, including the open-ing of multiple bank accounts under the names of close and trusted associates and enti-ties whose officers and direc-tors are the very same per-sons, and high value and fre-quent transactions under the control and direction of the beneficial owner, VP Binay,” it said.

According to the AMLC re-

port, the subject accounts, especially those of Binay, and joint accounts of Limlingan, Sedillo Portollano and Baloloy showed “multiple large trans-actions amounting to billions of pesos coinciding with the period of construction of the New Makati Parking Building 11 and Makati Science High School, and the Joint Venture agreement with Boy Scouts.”

Forfeiture

“Probable cause exists that the subject bank accounts or investments are related to unlawful activities or money laundering which warrants the forfeiture in favor to the government,” the report said.

The AMLC findings showed: that multiple bank accounts were maintained by the dum-mies either individually or jointly with several banks; multiple transfers were made from bank accounts in the names of Binay and his dum-mies to other accounts of the same names or other either within the same bank or to other banks and subsequently withdrawn; the transactions, particularly deposits and placements, were made pre-dominantly in cash; the finan-cial transactions appeared to have no underlying legal or trade obligation, purpose or economic justification; the amounts involved were not commensurate to the finan-cial capacity of the account holders and the financial transactions were conducted during the construction of the parking building and Makati Science High School and dur-ing the implementation of the Joint Venture Agreement of the Boy Scout with Alphaland; and many withdrawals and terminations were made from and after the Senate hearings on the alleged overpriced parking building.

“Such acts of disposing assets or funds and withdrawals since the Senate inquiry start-

ed would indicate an inten-tion to hide or conceal pro-ceeds of the unlawful activi-ties in the construction of the two Makati buildings and the questionable transactions involving the Boy Scouts of the Philippines,” the report said.

The report also concluded that respondents whose mon-ey was frozen did not bother to get their money back.

“Tellingly, the named re-spondents did not seek the lifting of the effects of the Court of Appeal’s freeze or-der; this indicates that the accounts frozen did not be-long to them, but to another person, VP Binay, the princi-pal.”

Frozen accounts

The report said that based on the submission of banks, in-surance companies and secu-rities firms, a total of P427, 260, 401.44 and US$250,524,.45 were frozen.

Binay maintained multiple accounts either singly or jointly with Limlingan and Baloloy and hundreds of transactions were recorded in these accounts in various banks from 2007-2014.

“The pattern of transactions in these accounts established Binay’s clear links to the men-tioned dummies,” the report said.

The AMLC resolved that its secretariat should file in court through the Office of the So-licitor General a petition for forfeiture order.

The report said the AMLC investigation was based on a referral from the Office of the Ombudsman and the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño

PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER


AMLC: BINAY...BILLIONS Elpidio Quirino re-interred at Libingan ng mga Bayani By Patricia Lourdes Viray

MANILA, Philippines - The remains of the late Presi-dent Elpidio Quirino was transferred from the South Cemetery in Makati City to the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City on Monday.

Feb. 29, 2016 also marks the 60th death anniversary of Quirino, the sixth presi-dent of the Philippines.

He will be the third presi-dent to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, joining former President Carlos Garcia and former President Diosdado Macapagal.

President Benigno Aquino III led the transfer of the remains of the late presi-

dent.

Quirino's grandson, Poncy Quirino, said that the rein-terment was granted with the help of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and the Of-fice of the President.

"It was a process but we were happy being taken care of by Manila... It was a very emotional feeling," the younger Quirino said in a television interview.

Quirino was elected to the Philippine Congress in 1919. He served as the vice president of Manuel Roxas and took office as president upon the latter's death in 1948. ⦿

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, center, watches beside former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, fourth from left, and rela-tives of former President Elpidio Quirino as soldiers seal the urn receptacle during the transfer of his remains at the Heroes' Ceme-tery in suburban Taguig city, east of Manila, Philippines, Monday, Feb. 29, 2016. Quirino's ashes were exhumed from the Manila South Cemetery and reinterred at the Heroes' Cemetery to com-memorate his 125th birth anniversary and to coincide with his 60th death anniversary. Quirino was the sixth President of the Philip-pines from 1948 to 1953. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

- Trudeau on his 1st official US visit

March 2016 7



MP’s Corner

Michael Levitt, Member of Parliament for York Centre

A Much Needed Fix for our Immigration System

It has been an exciting few months for our government in Ottawa, especially with regard to our immigration system. We are gradually fixing the problematic changes made under the previous government that ran counter to our vision of an immigration system grounded in compassion and economic opportunity for everyone.

Barriers and unfair require-ments put up walls that prevent good people from building a new life in Cana-da and contributing to our diverse society and our eco-nomic success.

But the worst part of the previous government’s

changes, and something I vocally campaigned against, was the creation of two tier citizenship. That is why on February 25, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, &

Citizenship, John McCallum, announced changes to fix the unfair elements that make it more difficult for hard-working immigrants to become Canadian citi-zens.

The fixes our government announced will ensure that all Canadians—including dual citizens like me—are treated equally once again, and can no longer have their citizenship stripped from them.

We will reduce the time permanent residents must be physically present in Canada before qualifying for citizenship by a full

year.

We know that newcomers often build an attachment to Canada before becoming permanent residents, and we will credit them for their time spent in Canada as temporary residents or protected persons.

We will also change the age range of those required to pass a knowledge test and meet French or English lan-guage requirements to qualify for citizenship from ages 14-64 back to ages 18-54.

These changes support our goal of removing barriers for immigrants to build suc-cessful lives in Canada, and are just some of the chal-lenges we are working to address, and commitments we are keeping.

I look forward to the excit-ing work and progress on this and many other issues to serve our country and our community.

Michael Levitt is the Member of Parliament for York Centre

THE PANEL includes Marco Mendicino (MP for Eglinton-Lawrence), Michael Levitt (MP for York Centre),Arif Virani (MP for Parkdale-High Park)

Among the attendees are seasoned journalists Nestor & Faye Arella-no (middle standing), advocates for the caregivers

After the enlightening information session, the crowd gathered for a photo with Michael Levitt and Arif Virani. Also in photo is Michelle Serrano, a die-hard Liberal supporter. PHOTOS BY ARIEL RAMOS

EDMONTON, Alberta – Fili-pina migrants are remind-ing Philippine candidates that their votes count and that they will use them to back candidates who up-hold women’s agenda.

About 100 women and their supporters marched in the streets of this city on Sunday, two days ahead in commemoration of the In-ternational Women’s Day, and some 40 Filipinos joined them.

“We are here to rise with other women in Alberta, we are here to rise for migrant women’s rights!” shouted Clarizze Truscott to the marching crowd. She is the Filipina Canadian president of Kabisig Society from Fort Saskatchewan, a town 25 km northeast of Edmonton.

Truscott lamented that the lack of services for Filipino compatriots has resulted in their apathy when it comes to electing Philippine candi-

dates.

“Voters really need to re-flect and understand who they’re really voting for,” she said, citing as example elected showbiz personali-ties who take seats in the government without track records.

“There are certain candi-dates like Duterte who ap-pear and claim to be differ-

ent from the rest and have shown great popularity on social media. But social me-dia is never a real reflection of voter turnout,” she add-ed.

“A huge source of income for the Philippines is OFW remittances. People should be reflective and vote for candidates who will serve OFW interests and who will

provide them with protec-tions and support…not just lip service as we’ve seen so many do,” said Truscott.

Minority

Data from Statistics Canada showed the number of Fili-pino women belonging to visible minorities in Canada at over 340,000 in 2011. Nine percent of this num-ber are mostly foreign workers, most with no per-manent resident status.

Merryn Edwards, one of the march and rally organizers, noted that Filipina migrant groups like the Kabisig So-ciety, have shaped the polit-ical landscape for women in Alberta.

“It was Filipino women who helped me [with] my politi-cal education,” she said. Ed-wards was an organizer for a grassroots women’s group in Vancouver where she had met Filipino wom-en espousing migrant advo-cacies.

“I was active in a women’s group that looked at a lot at issues of women equality here in Canada including child care for example. We could see that the only de facto child care program available in Canada was the live-in caregiver program, all it does is to transfer the burden for that work on to the back of third world mi-grant women,” Edwards said.

“When you create a second class of workers and deny certain rights, access to ser-vices and freedoms, that is injury to all workers…that is a basis that we could all come together on a day like International Women’s Day,” she added.

Reunification, readjust-ment

Noted Filipina Canadian professor Dr. Ethel Tungo-han said that programs such as the Live-in Caregiv-


Filipinas in Canada to Philippine politicians – give better service, protection By: Jhong de la Cruz

Members of Kabisig Society of Fort Saskatchewan march with oth-er women and their supporters in Alberta to celebrate Interna-tional Women’s Day. PHOTOS BY JHONG DE LA CRUZ

March 2016 8


Manila Feedback TO ADVERTISE please email at [email protected]

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would put personal gain ahead of public service, who would lower the standards of public discourse, and who would sac-rifice human rights and the rule of law either for personal or partisan advantage.”

Lacierda recalled Salonga’s contributions to the country, most significantly his fight against the Marcos dictatorship as a member of the opposition alongside Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., President Aquino’s father.

Plaza Miranda

Salonga was seriously wounded in the bombing of a Liberal Par-ty campaign rally at Plaza Mi-randa in 1971, which then President Ferdinand Marcos blamed on communist rebels.

The people “rewarded” the op-position with a Senate sweep that year, Lacierda said.

Salonga’s family has yet to re-lease details on his wake and interment, and requested that they be given time to grieve and mourn their loss.

The flag at the Senate office in Pasay City was lowered to half-staff after news broke of the senator’s death.

As one of the leading opposi-tion leaders of the Marcos re-gime, Salonga was briefly jailed

in 1980 and spent four years in US exile.

After the Marcoses were ousted in the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, former President Corazon Aquino appointed Sa-longa chair of the Presidential Commission on Good Govern-ment (PCGG) which was tasked to recover the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.

US bases

As the first post-Edsa Senate President, Salonga was among the so-called “Magnificent 12,” who voted for the removal of US military bases from the Phil-ippines.

Salonga later joined private groups Kilosbayan and Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foun-dation “to ensure that the sins of the past would not be repeat-ed in the future,” Lacierda said of the 2007 Magsaysay laure-ate.

In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, the Su-preme Court mourned Sa-longa’s passing as “a great loss to the legal profession and to the country.”

“He was an intellectual mentor and role model to many genera-tions of lawyers through his courage and integrity. The court recognizes his contribu-tion to the shaping of modern jurisprudence in basic human rights and fundamental civil liberties especially during mar-tial law and after the restora-

tion of democracy,” said the Supreme Court statement.

Salonga topped the bar exams in 1944, tying with the late Sen. Jose Diokno with a grade of 95.3 percent.

Lover of freedom

In a statement, Vice President Jejomar Binay called Salonga “a pillar of the protest movement who steered the Senate during the difficult years of transition from dictatorship to democra-cy. His capable leadership—forged and strengthened in the dark days that followed the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971—guided the Senate when it voted to oust the US bases in 1991.”

Fellow Liberal Party member and standard-bearer Mar Roxas described Ka Jovy as “an exem-plar of what it means to be a Filipino.”

Roxas added: “When democra-cy was endangered, he not only fought for it, but suffered for it. In the halls of the Senate, in Plaza Miranda where he was grievously wounded, in the loneliness of detention during the dictatorship, in self-exile, and once again, in public ser-vice in the PCGG and in the Sen-ate and civil society afterward, Ka Jovy put country above self.”

In her official Twitter account, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said, “We have lost a respected statesman today,” as she ex-pressed her “deepest sympa-

thies” to Salonga’s family.

Eternal reward

Former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, also a Marcos opposition lead-er, described Salonga as “a great Filipino passing on to his eternal reward.”

Sen. Grace Poe quoted Sa-longa’s famous words: “We cannot and do not deserve free-dom unless we are prepared to fight for it,” before exhorting the public to “relive in our deeds his ultimate legacy: the power of freedom.”

Senate President Franklin Drilon called Salonga “a verita-ble democrat, patriot and statesman … who dedicated the best years of his life to fight for the restoration of democracy in our country.”

Said Supreme Court spokesper-son Theodore Te: “He was the last candidate for President that I voted for and, with Ka Pepe (Diokno), the best Presi-dent we never got.”

Salonga was born on June 22, 1920 in Rizal province, the youngest in a brood of five boys born to a Protestant pastor in a remote barrio in Pasig.

The would-be presidential can-didate in 1992 led a hardscrab-ble life, pulling out grass from the rice fields behind their home which his mother would later sell as horse feed to scrape up enough coins for their school allowance.

He also sold ice drop and fetched water from the well for selling to their neighbors. A class picture dug up by a class-mate showed the young Sa-longa barefoot and the smallest kids in class.

Topped Senate elections

After topping the bar exams in 1944, Salonga obtained his master’s degree from Harvard Law School and his doctorate in jurisprudence from Yale.

On his return to the Philip-pines, he taught law in several universities before being elect-ed representative of the second district of Rizal in 1961.

Salonga was elected to the Sen-ate thrice: in 1965, 1971, and 1987, during which he consist-ently topped the elections.

As an outstanding senator, he contributed significant legisla-tion, among them the Anti-Coup D’Etat Law, the State Scholarship Law, the Magna Carta for Public School Teach-ers, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and the Anti-Plunder Law.

Salonga served as Senate Presi-dent from 1987 to 1991. With reports by Tarra Quismundo, Marlon Ramos, Leila Salaver-ria, Christine Avendaño and Inquirer Archives—PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER ⦿


SALONGA: SENATOR….95

TO: MP John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

WHEREAS a path to permanent residence status is guaran-teed to caregivers under the Federal Live-in Caregivers Program (“LCP”);

WHEREAS during a community roundtable meeting with then Liberal Immigration critic MP John McCallum, he pledged that a Liberal government would provide not just permanent residence status, but citizenship to caregivers;

WHEREAS participants of the defunct LCP had to work for 24 months or 3900 hours to qualify to apply for their per-manent residence status;

WHEREAS it usually takes then Citizenship and Immigra-tion Canada from 39 months and up to four years to com-plete the process of PR applications;

WHEREAS there is currently a backlog of an estimated 48,000 eligible PR applications for caregivers and their families;

WHEREAS there are PR applicants who have been waiting for their status for more than up to six (6) years;

WHEREAS the prolonged family separation, helplessness, uncertainty, anxiety, and vulnerability are only the imme-diate results of the delay in the PR processing suffered by the caregivers and their families;

WHEREAS members of the Filipino community cannot ig-nore the plight of the caregivers, who are waiting far too long for their permanent residence status and reunifica-tion with their families;

WE THE UNDERSIGNED believe that the social costs to caregivers of the effects of non-status and prolonged sepa-ration from families are harsh and unjust. We, therefore, call on the Honourable Minister John McCallum to act im-mediately in granting PERMANENT RESIDENCE STATUS to all the 48,000 applicants caught in the backlog.

LET CAREGIVERS AND THEIR FAMILIES BE REUNITED. PR STATUS NOW!

NOTE: Pinoy Dreams Radio Show started this petition⦿

Amid all these, educators and policy makers have simply failed to inculcate among future generations the historical and social sig-nificance of EDSA as the world’s template of a blood-less struggle against tyran-ny and dictators.

EDSA inspired the fall of the Berlin wall that finally unit-

ed West and East Germany into what is now known as modern Germany, the Vel-vet Revolution that de-stroyed communist rule in Czechoslovakia, the solidar-ity movement of Lech Walesa in Poland , and the series of communist defeats in Hungary and Romania.

As one educator suggested, EDSA should be an essential reading in the curriculum of Philippine education and should be a foremost part of

history lessons.

And we should rectify an historical error: EDSA was a revolution of the people, not by a particular political family or party, not the mili-tary, not the religious but simply an uprising made possible by every single Fili-pino who at that time decid-ed that the dictatorship must finally end.

That legacy should not be lost. ⦿


EDITORIAL: EDSA….

CALL FOR

TALENTS &

VOLUNTEERS

March 2016 9


News TO ADVERTISE please email at [email protected] Community TO ADVERTISE please email at [email protected]

Calling all Bicolanos & Bicolanas!

The Bicol Canada Community Association (BCCA) will hold the

election of its new Officers and Directors for a term of 2 years,

2016 and 2017.

Date: April 3, 2016

Time: 2:30 PM reception/ Registration

3:00 - 4:00 Election of 21 Director members

4:30 - 5:00 Election of Officers from the Board of Directors

Place: Our Lady of Assumption Church

2565 Bathurst St.

Toronto, Ontario

Tel 416 787- 4547

All Bicolanos and Bicolanas are enjoined to participate and vol-unteer to be an active member of BCCA . Membership of BCCA are from the 6 provinces of the Bicol Region of the Philippines.

It is the vision of BCCA that the elected directors will be repre-sentative of the 6 Provinces of the Bicol Region: ALBAY, CAM-SUR, CAM-NORTE, MASBATE, SORSOGON and

CATANDUANES.

The current mandate of the Association is to initiate activities that will bring together all the Bicolanos here in the province of On-tario, in the GTA in particular and ultimately in Canada. Activities that only recognizes you as an individual Bicolano and Bicolana.

And ultimately, to be able to deliver a collective response to all concerns of our Kababayan’s concerns both here in Canada and in the Philippines, such as responses to calamities and other concerns that requires assistance.

For more information

Arlene Martirez, BCCA Secretary (outgoing) 416 892-2916

Rafael Nebres, BCCA President (outgoing) 416 618-1362

Calling all Bicolanos, Devotees to the Virgin of Penafrancia!

The Scheduled Novena Devotion to the the Virgin of Penafrancia will be on March 20, 2016( SUNDAY ).

Novena Devotions starts at 2:00pm - Holy Rosary followed by the Novena prayers and immediately followed by the celebration of the Holy Mass. Fellow-ship reception will follow at the Church hall after the Holy Mass.

Place: Our Lady of Assumption Church

2565 Bathurst St. Toronto, Ont.

Sponsor for this devotion is the province of Catanduanes, care of Felix and Mayette Reyes

For more info, please call 905 896-4958.

tel:905%20896-4958

March 2016 10


NEWS TO ADVERTISE please email at [email protected]

bansa (So it will be very clear to all our citizens what the rules really are on becoming a citizen or non-citizen in our country),” he added.

Poe expressed willingness to provide Aquino with the docu-ments she submitted in con-nection with her case.

The SC voted 9-6 on Tuesday to allow Poe to run for presi-dent, tossing out the decision of the Commission on Elec-tions (Comelec) to disqualify her.

The high court ruling has not yet been released and only SC justices have read it, Aquino noted.

He said that when Poe accept-ed her appointment to the MTRCB, “first time ko narinig na pumunta pa siya doon sa isang consular official ng America in 2011 para i-renounce yung citizenship, kung saang panahon na MTRCB chair na siya (it was my first time to hear that she had to go to a consular official of America in 2011 to re-nounce the citizenship, when she was already MTRCB chair).”

He asked why Poe had to do this when his assumption was that she had already reac-quired her Philippine citizen-ship for some time before her appointment: “At palagay ko maitanong ko rin, bakit kailangan pang gawin, dahil ang assumption ko nga ay

matagal-tagal nang na-reacquire supposed to be yung citizenship. So gusto kong makitang sana may tugon doon sa mga tanong tulad noon doon sa desisyon na hinihintay nating ilabas ng Korte Suprema.”

Poe’s lawyer George Garcia told ABS-CBN News Chan-nel that he himself was not sure if the SC had resolved the citizenship and residency is-sues.

Garcia said what the SC ruled on was that the Comelec com-mitted grave abuse of discre-tion in disqualifying Poe.

“There was no ruling on her citizenship and residency. We have to await the written deci-sion to see if these issues were discussed and resolved,” he said.

Aquino doused talk anew that he was secretly supporting Poe as four of his appointees in the high tribunal voted in her favor and the Office of the Solicitor General defended her.

While admitting that the SC decision could boost the chances of Poe, Aquino said the ruling Liberal Party would just have to keep its focus, especially since there were also surveys showing a major-ity of Filipinos supporting the continuity of administration programs like the conditional cash transfer.

Confusing

Aquino said it must not be forgotten that he personally found the status of Poe con-

fusing.

According to Poe, she and her three children became dual citizens in 2006 and that she renounced her American citi-zenship on Oct. 21, 2010, when she took her oath as MTRCB chief.

Poe also said she was already a resident of the Philippines in May 2005, longer than what she had indicated in her certif-icate of candidacy for senator, where she wrote that she had been in the country since 2006 and thus would not meet the 10-year residency require-ment for presidential aspir-ants.

As a foundling, critics said Poe was not a natural-born citizen and that she still used her US passport even after renounc-ing her American citizenship.

On his appointees to the SC, the President said he put them in the position to be independ-ent.

Aquino had earlier explained there was no point in having a secret candidate because he would always campaign for people he believed in.

“They exercised their inde-pendence. We go back to the fact that we want to see, get enlightened on all issues, hopefully there will be com-plete answers in the decision they will release,” the Presi-dent said.

Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV also belied reports that his uncle is a closet Poe support-


AQUINO: CLARIFY...


favor of Grace Poe’s so-called ‘Filipino citizen-ship.’ ‘Yun pala, walang nine votes, kundi seven votes, which is less than the major-ity so there is no ruling of the court. Simple majority of 15 is eight, not seven,” Tatad said in a press conference last Saturday.

Tatad’s lawyer, Manuelito Luna, said they will file a motion for reconsideration of the SC’s ruling on Tues-day.

Carpio’s opinion differed with that of Sereno, who said there was majority on Poe’s citizenship because only 12 of the 15 magistrates voted on that particular issue.

In his dissenting opinion, Carpio stressed that the ma-jority ruling is a mockery of election laws since it allows a candidate with uncertain citizenship status” to be po-tentially elected to the high-est position in the land de-spite it being reserved by the Constitution for natural-born Filipino citizens.

“The election process be-comes a complete mockery since the electorate is merci-lessly offered choices which include patently ineligible candidates. The electorate is also needlessly misled to cast their votes, and thus waste their votes, for an in-

eligible candidate,” he said.

“This will make a mockery of our election process if Peti-tioner wins the elections but is later disqualified by this Court for not possessing a basic qualification for the Office of the President, that is being a natural-born citi-zen. Any person, who is not a natural-born Filipino citizen, running for President is ob-viously a nuisance candidate under Section 69 of the Om-nibus Election Code,” he added.

Carpio also took issue with the majority ruling that the burden of proof in the case lies with the petitioners – Tatad, former GSIS lawyer Estrella Elamparo, former UE law dean Amado Valdez and political science profes-sor Antonio Contreras.

He said that it should be Poe who should present evi-dence since she claimed to be qualified to run for the presidency and as such, she has the burden of proving that she is a natural-born Filipino.

“Any doubt whether or not he or she is natural-born Filipino citizen is resolved against him or her. The con-stitutional requirement of a natural-born citizen, being an express qualification for election as President, must be complied with strictly,” said the senior magistrate. MALAYA.COM.PH


Despite SC ruling, POE...

Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. in several tranches and with the amounts converted into pesos, upon Deguito’s in-structions.

“We were instructed to remit the funds to the other bank and to deliver the cash to the beneficiary,” Bautista told the Senate blue ribbon com-mittee looking into the laun-dering of $81 million.

Executive session

But Deguito denied knowing Xu or that she provided his cell phone number to Bau-tista.

The bank manager said “there were instructions” with regard to the delivery, but said she would rather talk about the matter in an executive session.

She refused to answer ques-tions in the Senate pertaining

to specific transactions in-volving the $81 million that went to the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City, and, to the senators’ frustra-tion, repeatedly invoked her right against self-incrimination.

She also repeatedly made her request to speak in an execu-tive session, and cited the case that the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) filed against her.

Sen. Sergio Osmen a noted that Deguito apparently in-structed someone to deliver P600 million to someone she did not know.

“Can you deliver it to me next time?” Osmen a joked, eliciting laughter from the audience.

Stop-payment order

Guingona also took to task RCBC for not immediately acting on a stop-payment order sought by the Bangla-desh Bank when it was try-

ing to recover the funds sto-len from it.

Guingona pointed out that the stop-payment request from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was made at 5 p.m. on Feb. 8, which was a holiday in the Philip-pines.

But RCBC would have seen the request the following morning and could have act-ed on it then, he said.

But on Feb. 9, all the $81 mil-lion was withdrawn.

“On the morning of Feb. 9, the first banking day, you should have seen the stop-payment request, but appar-ently, it was not honored be-cause the funds were with-drawn. All the funds were withdrawn,” Guingona said.

Bank president mum

He cited documents showing that RCBC responded to the stop-payment request at 7:45 p.m. on Feb. 9, when the banking day had already

ended.

RCBC president/CEO Lo-renzo Tan said he could not confirm or deny the request or discuss the specific trans-action, invoking the bank secrecy law.

“Sorry, you’re honor. I cannot confirm or deny this request specific to this transaction,” Tan told Guingona. “But as a general rule, when there’s a freeze order on an account, the branch manager involved should comply with such an order.”

“As a general policy of the bank, these orders are sent by head office to the branch,” he said.

Frustrated by Tan and Degui-to’s invocation of the bank secrecy law, Guingona said the inaction of the bank on the request by its New York counterpart to hold the transaction allowed the funds to be withdrawn by still unknown parties.

The Inquirer broke the story about the laundering of funds through the local fi-nancial system on Feb. 29. On that day—20 days after the bulk of the funds was withdrawn from fictitious accounts created at RCBC’s Jupiter branch—regulators asked the Court of Appeals to freeze seven bank accounts suspected to be involved in the laundering activity.

The next day—three weeks after the funds were with-drawn from the bank and converted into pesos, with some being moved to local casinos—the Court of Ap-peals issued a freeze order. A report from Bangladesh quoted a government official as saying that only $68,000 had been frozen.

The Senate will resume its probe on the issue today, with an eye on amending the Anti-Money Laundering Act to strengthen it against fu-ture laundering attempts. PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER


$30M IN CASH DELIV….

Catch the WAVES www.filipinosmakingwaves.com

The “FEEL GOOD” Filipino Community Newspaper Email: filipinonewswaves@ gmail.com

March 2016 11


Community

LBC Express Inc., in its mission to have cargo services more accessi-ble in Ontario, opened 2 air cargo agents in the Greater Toronto Area.

Last February 13, 2016, LBC launched its Air Cargo services in Oakville, ON with partner Lasa Ma-nila, at 336 Kerr Street. In a fun get together, Mon Solis – LBC Market-ing and Elsie Abiertas - owner of Lasa Manila welcomed guests and patrons for some food, fun and prizes.

Lastly, on February 26, 2016, LBC added another outlet in North York and entered into partnership with Tagpuan Restaurant, located at 1740 Victoria Park Ave . Raffy Poli-carpio and Tagpuan owner Normie Pabitu welcomed the guests and

give away free air cargo coupons.

LBC Express Inc. is the Philippines’ market leader in courier products, parcels and cargo logistics and re-mittance payments. With its net-work of 4,400 locations, partners and agents LBC is growing steadily and commits to moving lives, busi-ness and communities in the Phil-ippines and across the globe. Founded in 1945 as a brokerage and air cargo agent, LBC Express pioneered time sensitive cargo de-livery and 24 hour door to door delivery in the Philippines. LBC can move it for you: visit us at

www.lbcexpress.com or call 1-888-652-2522


Personal Care Products and Homemade Lotion Making Workshop, facilitated by Caryn Thompson, Environmental Health Promoter/Researcher of South Riverdale Community Health Centre (HRDCHC). Presented by Manzu Man Ara and Pinky Paglingayen of Thorncliffe Neighborhood Office (TNO) last February 27, 2016 at Leaside Park Drive, North York ON. Participants are TNO'S Caregivers-in-Transition and Seniors of RESPONSE Support for Elderly Persons with Susan Llanera and Linda Verzosa.

LBC Makes its Air and Sea Cargo services more accessible

LBC’s Mon Solis with Elsie Abiertas

Mon Solis, Normie Pabitu of Tagpuan Restaurant and Raffy Policarpio

Happy Birthday Sir Chito Collantes

Doctor Chito Collantes celebrated his birthday at Sheraton Hotel in Downtown To-ronto on March 5, 2016. Relatives, and friends from Knights of Rizal, and Kaba-baihang Rizalista attended the celebration. PHOTO BY ARIEL RAMOS

er Program, highly accessed by Fili-pino women for employment, leave migrant families “fragmented.”

“Extended periods of family sepa-ration is one of the biggest impacts of the feminization of migration. In order to support their families, many women leave their partners and their children behind to find work abroad,” she said.

Years of separation create wide gaps when families finally reunite, she said. “Many families have to go through a long period of readjust-ment, of getting to know each oth-er, after years living apart,” she said.

Tungohan, who teaches at the Uni-versity of Alberta’s Political Sci-ence Department, wrote From the Politics of Everyday Resistance to the Politics from Below, which won the 2014 First Prize under National Women’s Studies Association.

Since completing a study she co-authored in 2014, which examined the experiences of Filipina live-in caregivers, Tungohan noted that the situation of caregivers has worsened.

In December 2014, the federal gov-ernment overhauled the Live-in Caregiver Program with major changes in the path to permanent

status: a 5,000 cap in yearly appli-cations for permanent status, a dif-ficult language test and the removal

of the “live-in” requirement for care-

givers.

Tungohan cited the case of caregiv-ers Luvvy Alicbusan and Karen Talosig, who completed all of the requirements of the caregiver pro-gram but whose applications for permanent residency were denied because of “medical inadmissibil-ity.” Alicbusan has a son who has autism spectrum disorder while Talosig’s daughter is deaf. INQUIRER.NET


FILIPINAS IN CANADA TO PH POLS...

Kabisig Society’s Clarizze Truscott poses for a photo at Women’s March in Ed-monton.

http://www.lbcexpress.com

tel:1-888-652-2522

March 2016 12


Community TO ADVERTISE please email at [email protected]

Nutrition & Eating Well with Canada's Health Food Guide Workshop, coordinated by Manzu Man Ara and Pinky Paglingayen of Thorncliffe Neighborhood Office (TNO), presented by Saima Saleem & Shaista Iftikhar of South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC) held on January 23, 2016 at TNO's Employment Centre, 1 Leaside Park Drive. The participants are the TNO's Caregivers-In-Transition and Seniors of RESPONSE, Support for Elderly Persons with Linda Verzosa and Susan Llanera.

Welcome JULIA!

The new addition to the Clamucha family, Julia, with brother Jaden and dad Kevin.

INC CHORALE EASTERN CANADA COMPETITION. Choral Groups from locales of Durham, Markham, Scarborough, Victoria contended for the top prize in front of four judges at the Rembrant Banquet Hall. Durham came out the 1st place winner. Below, some of church officials and members of Iglesia Ni Cristo . PHOTOS BY WAVES.

Iglesia Ni Cristo’s Musical Evangelical Mission

The Caregiver Ministry headed by Jeannete Rosales conducted their seminar regarding getting US Visas, Philippine Pension SSS, taxation, and Philippine OWWA, etc.; at Our Lady of Assumption Church on Feb. 28, 2016.

March 2016 13



March 2016 14



March 2016 15


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Memorial for Francisco “BO” Portillo in Hamilton March 5, 2016

THE “BO SHOW” CONTINUES. You can not tell that the Portillo family just recently lost a loved one. This is how the our very dear friend, Bo Portillo, wants it. So much loved

by his family and many friends, Bo departed leaving so many happy memories. He will be missed but not forgotten. PHOTO BY WAVES.

March 2016 16



March 2016 17



The Kalayaan Cultural Community Centre (KCCC), Mississauga’s pri-mary institution for Filipino-Canadians, recently held elections to determine its current set of Of-ficers and Board of Directors. The new Board has been tasked to con-tinue the Centre’s vision to have an inclusive membership with a network of individuals and fami-lies deeply grounded to participate and promote the cultural values that make Filipino-Canadians unique in the world.

The following individuals have been elected officers of KCCC:

Resty del Rosario President

Gerry Rulloda Executive Vice President

Mayette Balbastro VP, Program Administration

Judy Montenegro Secretary

Treasurer: (Vacant)

Delfin Palileo Auditor

Dr. Solon Guzman and Karen Pascual-Binaday Press Relations Officers

Board of Directors:

Madoline Baluca

Chat Bautista

Lydia Bernardino

Luis Carbonell

Edgar Frondozo

Rodel Meier

Iluminada Montada

Nico Montenegro

Charity Roda

Rey Tamayo

KCCC continues to run numerous programs throughout the year such as cultural dances, rondalla, line dancing, ballroom dancing, Zumba class, hot hula fitness, Ar-gentine tango and Tagalog classes for adults/children. They also hold bi-monthly fundraising din-ners and have a variety of speak-ers that come in to talk about top-ics such as health and wellness, volunteerism etc. Annual events organized by the Centre include, Philippine Independence Day Flag Raising Ceremony, KCCC Golf Clas-sic Tournament, the KCCC Walk-a-thon, Halloween and New Year’s Eve Dinner/Dance and more.

For additional information about KCCC, please check their website at

www.kalayaancentre.ca

or their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/

kalayaancentre

Kalayaan Cultural Community Centre Elects a New Board

Key Highlights – 2016 Immigration Levels Plan The 2016 annual immigration levels plan outlines a shift in immigration policy towards reuniting more fami-lies.

The plan will improve processing times and backlogs will go down across multiple immigration programs including those for: spouses; partners and children; and parents and grand-parents – because the department will be able to welcome more people into Canada.

By the end of 2016, Canada will wel-come between 280,000 and 305,000 (target 300,000) new permanent resi-dents. This is a 7.4% increase in planned admissions over the 2015 levels plan.

Reuniting more families

Reuniting families helps immigrants build successful lives in Canada. When families are reunited, it improves inte-gration and economic outcomes for the immigrant while contributing to the development of Canada’s social, cultural and economic development.

The 2016 immigration levels plan is increasing admissions of sponsored spouses, partners and dependents to help reduce inventories and pro-cessing times, and is maintaining high immigration levels in the Parent and Grandparent Program.

IRCC is doubling the number of spon-sorship applications for parents and grandparents that it will accept for processing to 10,000 a year. 20,000 admissions are planned under the Par-ent and Grandparent Program and by

the end of 2016 it is expected that the backlog inventory will be reduced by approximately 15%.

Providing a place of refuge for those fleeing from persecution

The Government of Canada remains committed to upholding its humanitar-ian tradition to resettle refugees and offer protection to those in need. All Canadians play an important role by helping refugees integrate into Canadi-an society so they can build a success-ful life and contribute to Canada’s so-cial, cultural and economic develop-ment.

The 2016 annual immigration levels plan significantly increases admissions in the Refugees and Protected Persons class so that we can provide protection and welcome more people from around the world who are fleeing from war and persecution.

These increases will also allow the Government to complete its commit-ment to resettle Syrian refugees to Canada in 2016 and enable Canada to welcome higher numbers of refugees from other parts of the world with refugee populations such as the Demo-cratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, and Eritrea, as set through various existing multi-year refugee resettle-ment commitments.

As a world leader in innovative refu-gee programs, IRCC has almost tripled admissions space for privately-sponsored refugees and government-assisted refugees, and has more than doubled the admissions space for the

blended visa office-referred category.

Building our economy

Immigration supports Canada’s long-term economic growth while building strong communities and improving our global competitiveness. The con-tributions that experienced foreign professionals and skilled workers make to our country and economy re-sult in jobs, innovation, and growth in existing and new industries.

The 2016 immigration levels plan con-tinues to support Canada’s economic growth with significant admissions in economic immigration programs. The economic class will account for the majority of all immigration admissions in 2016, representing more than half of the overall total planned for the year.

The economic class includes the prin-cipal applicants as well as their spous-es, partners and dependants in the following programs and streams: Fed-eral Skilled Worker Program, the Fed-eral Skilled Trades Program and the Canadian Experience Class (collectively, the Federal Economic High Skilled programs) – since January 2015, all applications for these pro-grams fall under the Express Entry application management system; Fed-eral Economic Business programs; Quebec-selected Skilled Worker and Business programs (as set by the Gov-ernment of Quebec); the Provincial Nominee Program; and the Caregiver Program.—as posted in Canada gov-ernment website.

U.S. to return Bell of Bauang, La Union

Former American Consul General Santiago (Sonny) Busa

and his wife Ceres Cawagas Busa standing beside the Bell

which was taken from the Church of St. Peter and Paul in

Bauang, La Union, Philippines in 1899 as a booty during

the Philippine American War. It was stored at the Catholic

Church at West Point since 1937 as a booty of war. Super-

intendent Robert Caslen, a classmate of Sonny at West

Point, announced its return the Bell to Bauang soon.

http://www.kalayaancentre.ca

March 2016 18


National Shrine of our Mother of Perpetual Help

St. Patrick’s Catholic Church

131 McCaul St, Toronto

(416) 598-3269

WEEKLY WEDNESDAY MASS & DEVOTIONS: 7:30 am * 9:30am * 12 noon, * 2:30pm * 5:05pm * 7:00pm

Religious Inspirations Even the WAVES obey Him...

Toronto Police Services’ 52nd Annual Communion and Breakfast, Feb 28

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders (center) pose with officers and members of the Toronto Police Services and Emergency Services.after the breakfast reception at the Colo-ny Hotel. Sgt. Philip Mendoza (right) served as one of the ministers in the mass celebrated by His Eminence, Thomas Cardinal Collins at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Fasting and Abstinence

Abstinence. The law of ab-stinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Pas-sion of Jesus on Good Friday. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also forbidden are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are per-mitted, as are animal derived products such as margarine and gelatin which do not have any meat taste.

On the Fridays outside of Lent the U.S. bishops confer-ence obtained the permission of the Holy See for Catholics in the US to substitute a peni-tential, or even a charitable, practice of their own choos-ing. They must do some peni-tential/charitable practice on these Fridays. For most peo-ple the easiest practice to consistently fulfill will be the traditional one, to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. During Lent absti-nence from meat on Fridays is obligatory in the United States as elsewhere.

Fasting. The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday (Canon 97) to the 59th Birthday (i.e. the beginning of the 60th year, a year which will be completed on the 60th birthday) to re-duce the amount of food eat-en from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednes-day and Good Friday. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem to be contrary to the spirit of doing penance.

Those who are excused from fast or abstinence. Besides those outside the age limits, those of unsound mind, the sick, the frail, preg-nant or nursing women ac-cording to need for meat or nourishment, manual labor-ers according to need, guests at a meal who cannot excuse themselves without giving great offense or causing en-mity and other situations of moral or physical impossibil-ity to observe the penitential discipline.

Aside from these minimum penitential requirements Catholics are encouraged to impose some personal pen-ance on themselves at other times. It could be modeled after abstinence and fasting. A person could, for example, multiply the number of days they abstain. Some people give up meat entirely for reli-gious motives (as opposed to those who give it up for health or other motives). Some religious orders, as a penance, never eat meat. Similarly, one could multiply the number of days that one fasted. The early Church had a practice of a Wednesday and Saturday fast. This fast could be the same as the Church's law (one main meal and two smaller ones) or stricter, even bread and wa-ter. Such freely chosen fast-ing could also consist in giv-ing up something one enjoys - candy, soft drinks, smoking, that cocktail before supper, and so on. This is left to the individual.

One final consideration. Be-fore all else we are obliged to perform the duties of our state in life. Any deprivation that would seriously hinder us in carrying out our work, as students, employees or parents would be contrary to the will of God. Catholic Online---- Colin B. Donovan, STL

St. Joseph, ‘model of mercy’ In the context of the Jubi-lee of Mercy, a theologian counted St. Joseph, whom the Church honors on March 19, as among “the saints and blessed ones who made divine mercy their mission in life” (Misericordiae Vul-tus, 24) and, that by his example and interces-sion, can help the faithful to be merciful.

In an interview with CBCP News, Fr. Rey Zerrudo, professor of Biblical Studies in St. Jo-seph Regional Seminary and parish priest of San Jose Obre-ro Parish in Molo, Iloilo City, pointed out that St. Joseph was not merely a “just” man.

“The Gospel according to St. Matthew (Mt 1:19) presents the Holy Patriarch as ‘just’ not only in the sense that he was ‘righteous’ or ‘observant of the law’ but, above all, he was a ‘good’ man which, in the context of the Bible, means ‘merciful’ and ‘compassionate’,” he said.

‘Wife-saver’, not a ‘wife-beater’

The Bible professor pointed out that a closer look on key episodes in the Gospels mani-fest St. Joseph as a compas-sionate and merciful man.

“The first is when Joseph, learning that Mary, to whom he was betrothed, was preg-nant even before they were married and living together,” he said.

“Rules for unmarried women at the time were harsh. Ac-cording to the law, if a woman was already betrothed in marriage to a man she could be stoned to death if it was discovered that she had rela-tions with another man.”

“Joseph, being a man of kind-ness, and even knowing that Mary’s child was not his, was concerned for his betrothed’s safety, so he decided to put her away as quietly as possi-ble,” explained the priest.

“Another episode,” Zerrudo continued, “is when Joseph, upon being told by an angel in a dream to take Mary as his wife and to name the child conceived by the Holy Spirit ‘Jesus’. He got up immediately and obeyed (Mt 1:21).”

“Joseph’s naming of Mary’s son was an act of paternity which is a manifestation of his acceptance of the child as his very own.”

“You can observe in the Gos-

pel’s that the rest of Jo-seph’s life centered on serving and protecting Jesus and Mary.”

“In all these incidents never can you detect in Joseph a word or an atti-tude of reproach or anger but of constant care and concern of a husband and a father,” the priest un-derlined.

Prototype of mercy

The Bible professor also underscored that the mercy of St. Joseph can be

detected in Jesus’ public min-istry.

As an example, he cited the episode of Jesus being con-fronted by the Pharisees to decide on the fate of a woman caught committing adultery.

“The answer of the Lord brought the men to realize that all of them were sinners and, therefore, did not dare throw the first stone against the woman. Jesus did not con-demn the repentant woman and exhorted her to ‘Go, from now on, do not sin anymore,’” the priest related.

“Jesus, growing up with Mary and Joseph, was raised in an atmosphere of mercy. Joseph was the ‘prototype’ of mercy and Jesus is the ‘archetype; of mercy. By not condemning the woman and by leading her to repentance, Jesus acted like St. Joseph his father,” added Zerrudo. (Fr. Mickey Car-denas / CBCP News)

An image of St. Joseph rests beside what is believed to be a relic of the saint. PHOTO by RAYMOND A. SEBASTIAN

March 2016 19


FILIPINOS MAKING WAVES TO ADVERTISE please email at [email protected]

Imeldific Book! A new Filipino Canadian lawyer

Please join us in congratulat-ing Miguel Mangalindan (resident of Toronto, Ontario) on being called to the Ontario Bar and achieving the distinc-tion of Barrister and Solicitor. Miguel was called by the Law Society of Upper Canada in June 2015. Miguel has since joined the law firm, Levine, Sherkin, Boussidan Barristers in North York, Ontario, as an associate. He practices in all areas of civil litigation, with a particular focus on corporate/commercial, employment, and real estate litigation. He regu-larly appears in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as an advocate for his clients.

He is a graduate of University of Windsor Faculty of Law (Windsor, ON) 2011-2014 Juris Doctor. Miguel spend a semester abroad at the Uni-versity of Lucerne Faculty of Law (Lucerne, Switzerland), 2013 and was a graduate of McGill University (Montre al, QC) 2006-2010 Bachelor of Arts; Major in Psychology, Minors in Marketing, Sociolo-gy and Anthropology.

Miguel is Co-Founder and Co-

President, Windsor Law Ath-letics Society 2011-2014 Es-tablished a society responsi-ble for health and athletic ini-tiatives throughout the school; President, Asian Law Stu-dents’ Organization 2012-2014 Forged a stronger alli-ance with the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers and organized; volunteer initia-tives in the local community McGill University (Montre al, QC) VP Academic, McGill Psy-chology Students’ Association 2008-2010 Organized events designed to improve staff-student relationships and ad-dress academic issues; Ath-lete, McGill Varsity Track and Field (2009-2010 Captain) 2006-2010 Two-time Nation-

al Championships finalist and Provincial Championships medalist.

Miguel is a son of proud par-ents Raul and Vica Mangalin-dan.

When asked about his thoughts on being a lawyer in the Filipino-Canadian commu-nity, Miguel had these words to say: “I am honoured to have the opportunity to represent, and give back to, the commu-nity that has raised me all these years. Filipino-Canadian lawyers are a small, but growing, group. I hope that, together, we can assist in making the Canadian justice system more accessible, and aim to address the legal issues that face the Filipino-Canadian community today.” We certainly hope so. If you have any legal questions or issues, Miguel can be reached at the contact information below. Contact: Miguel Man-galindan, Associate, Levine, Sherkin, Boussidan Barristers, Tel: 416-224-2400, Ext. 114, Email: [email protected] (RR)

Among the attendees at the NMPC reunion was GMA-channel 7 TV personality Carmela "Mel " Tiangco (middle) who started her career at MBS-4 as newscaster. At far right is Bong Serra who directed the trio of Tito Vic and Joey (of Eat Bulaga fame) in their first TV show "OK lang".

National Media Production Center (NMPC) Grand Reunion, Feb 28

Photo journalist Emmanuel Jolly Riofrir (right) presents a new book entitled, “Imelda”, to his subject - Philippines’ former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos. Riofrir served as the Imelda’s official photographer when he was recruited to join National Media Production Center (NMPC) as special events photographer and cinematogra-pher from 1974 to 1984. chronicling her overseas trips worldwide and in local sorties around the Philippines. The book, which is now on sale, contains unpublished photos of the former First lady.

Former employees (personnel from 1955-1981) of the now defunct National Media Production Center gathered at the Tejeros Hall in Camp Aguinaldo for a grand reunion held on Feb 28. NMPC is the precursor of government-owned and managed agencies: Channel 4, Philippine Information Agency, National Printing Office, DWBR-FM, Radyo ng Bayan, and other radio stations of national broadcast quality.

Manitoba Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA ) Flor Marcelino (third from right) also made it to the NMPC reunion and met with former colleagues with the Regional Office division (ROD) where she was formerly assigned. Waves’ Tenny and Myrna Soriano, alum-ni of NMPC, missed the reunion but were shown on one of the slides. Waves From Home columnist Diego Franco, also an NMPC alumnus, was one of the attendees.

March 2016 20



Migrante Sectoral Partylist (MSP) Canada Coor-dinator Maru Maesa advises registered overseas Filipino voters to submit their ballot requests by mail to the Special Ballot Reception and Custody Group (SBRCG) on or before April 22, 2016, the deadline set by the Comelec.

"Kailangan po nating ipaalam sa lahat ng ating mga kababayan ang panibago na namang devel-opment na ito ng Comelec. Ikalat po natin sa so-cial media, sa Twitter, Facebook, sa lahat upang hindi maaksaya at mawalang-saysay ang ating mga boto," (We need to inform our compatriots of this recent change by the COMELEC. Let us spread the word to everyone concerned via social media, Twitter, Facebook so that our votes are not wast-ed.), Maesa said.

The Comelec has recently adopted the Automat-ed Election System Modified Postal Voting (AESMPV) in its consular offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa for the upcoming elec-tions which run from April 9 to May 9, 2016.

Overseas Filipino registered voters who want to have their ballots mailed are requested to file their written request personally or by email to the consular offices. The consular offices should receive their request letters on or before the set

deadline of April 22. The request should include the voter’s complete mailing address. However, registered overseas voters who are able to go to their respective embassy or consulate can vote in person until May 9, 2016, 7 pm (Philippine time). Meanwhile, MSP Canada presses its de-mand for mobile polling sites or satellite polling stations particularly in Alberta and Montreal. As per latest Comelec count there are more than 1.3 million registered voters for the Overseas Ab-sentee Voting.

MSP has been vocal about the Philippine govern-ment's neglect of migrants despite the $21 Bil-lion (U.S) remittances they receive from over-seas Filipino workers, money which has practi-cally kept the Philippine economy afloat all these years.

The group urges its fellow migrants to vote for people who will truly serve and protect their rights and welfare as echoed by MSP's slogan "Serbisyo Hindi Negosyo, Proteksyon Hindi Koleksyon” (Service not business, protection not collection!)

Requests for ballots through mail may be sent to the following email, fax and phone numbers as provided by the Comelec:

TORONTO

email at [email protected], fax at 416 922 2638 or phone 416 355 2784 & 416 355 2790,

ask for Rosalie and Roberto.

VANCOUVER

email at [email protected]

fax at 604 685 9945

phone at 604 685 1619 or mail at Office Overseas Absentee Voting, Phil Consulate General. 999 Canada Place, Suite 660 Vancou-ver BC V6C 3E1

OTTAWA

email at [email protected] fax at 613 233 4165 or phone at 613 233 1121 ask for Rhodora Liggayu or Glen Rich-

ard Martinez

MSP ADVISES VOTERS ON DEADLINE FOR BALLOT REQUEST BY MAIL

TORONTO MAHARLIKA LIONS CLUB 2nd CHARTER ANNIVERSARY Congratulations to the TMLC officers for a very successful 2nd Charter Anniversary event held recently at the JC Banquet Hall. Awards were handed by District Governor Lion Harold Hobson and TMLC president Alex Castro. Special awards were given toLion Joe Roblo and Lion Ferdy Coronel (right). PHOTOS

COURTESY OF F.CORONEL.

mailto:[email protected]

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tel:416%20355%202784

tel:416%20355%202790



tel:604%20685%209945

tel:604%20685%201619


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March 2016 21


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er. The senator said the Presi-dent had made clear his unwa-vering support for the tandem of Manuel Roxas II and Cama-rines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo.

The Chief Executive also downplayed a survey result showing Poe and vice presi-dential candidate Sen. Ferdi-nand Marcos Jr. in the lead.

The survey was supposedly conducted during the week that the nation was celebrat-ing the 30th anniversary of EDSA people power revolu-tion.

Survey results change

The President said numbers could change so there was no point in betting much on sur-veys.

“How will (the administration campaign) be affected? Of course, her candidacy will get a boost,” the President said. “How long will it last? We do not know.”

At the end of the day, Aquino said people would just have to do what they have to do in-stead of getting fixated with

something beyond their con-trol.

He said he does not mind what other groups were doing be-cause his administration is focused on building on its strengths like its track record.

He said some of the admin-istration foes used to criticize the CCT, only to backtrack and claim support for the program.

In the 60 days left to cam-paign, Aquino said the plans of candidates would become clearer, including on how CCT could be strengthened.

He said the administration has succeeded in lifting Filipinos out of poverty through CCT and the focus now must be on how the gains could be sus-tained.

“The next campaign must be about how to pull them far away from the poverty line,” he said.

The so-called “near poor,” he said, should be protected so that “even in times of disaster or illness, they will not go back to severe poverty.”

In a campaign sortie in Cande-laria, Quezon, Poe said the SC ruling made her “both emo-

tional and happy.” She lament-ed that her detractors had to take advantage of the citizen-ship and residency issues to discredit her.

“If you have no issues of steal-ing and corruption, they will come out with any issue against you including your citizenship,” she said.

The SC decision on Poe’s case drew both praises and expres-sions of concern.

Former law dean Amado Val-dez, one of those who sought Poe’s disqualification, said under a more recent SC deci-sion, residency should be reck-oned from the time a candi-date reacquires Philippine citizenship.

Valdez and another petitioner, former senator Francisco Ta-tad, have announced that they would appeal Tuesday’s SC ruling reversing Comelec’s disqualification of Poe.

Garcia said if the tribunal does not resolve his client’s citizen-ship and residency in the writ-ten ruling it would release in one week, such issues would continue to hound Poe even if she wins in May.

“Her qualifications could be

questioned before the Presi-dential Electoral Tribunal (which is the SC),” he said. “We expected to win but through a close 8-7 vote,” he said.

In Valenzuela City, presiden-tial candidate and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said the SC decision would create chaos.

“I really do not know, but it will create a very chaotic con-dition now,” Duterte, a lawyer, said.

“I just don’t agree with it be-cause it contradicts the funda-mentals that we have (learned),” he added. But he clarified he respects the deci-sion of the magistrates.

Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is running for vice president, said the ruling would be good for the electoral process.

“It is a welcome development. It is healthy for the electoral process as the Filipino voters will have more choices in the elections,” he said.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) also said the high court’s decision would result in more enlightened votes.

“There are no more doubts as to who the candidates for presidents are. The voters can now seriously discern who to vote for,” PPCRV national chairperson Henrietta de Villa said.

With Poe now allowed to run, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said it would be more difficult for him to make a choice for next president. He said he is close to both Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay. The mayor promised to announce his choice on March 28.

In Bacolod City, a group called ALL4GP (All for Grace Poe) said it “lauds the SC for its wis-dom and fairness that looked beyond the letters of the law and decided in favor of what is right and in accord with the spirit of true justice.”

The Global Pinoys for Grace and Chiz Movement praised the SC for its ruling, which it said affirmed the magistrates’ role as “knights of justice” and not mere legalists. – With Alexis Romero, Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez, Marvin Sy, Non Alquitran, Danny Dangcalan, Jose Rodel Clapano, Perseus Echemina-da, Robertzon Ramirez


AQUINO: CLARIFY...

NYPAA SETS SPRING OFFICERS INDUCTION and FUNDRAISER

The North York Pinoy Athletic Associ-ation (NYPAA) , a popular and ever-active FilCan amateur basketball sports organization in the Greater Toronto Area, will hold its "Induction of Officers and Spring Dinner Event" on April 9, 2016 (Saturday), 6:00 p.m.. Composed mainly of volunteer parents and their basketball - playing children, relatives & friends, the 150 - member organiza-tion slates the evening celebration at Our of Lady of the Assumption Church Parish Hall at #2565 Bathurst Street, North York, Toronto.

To be inducted for the 2016- 2017 term are: President - Sharonne Columbano, Vice President - Mylene Escalona, Sec-retary - Brenda Agoncillo, Asst. Secre-tary - Arlyn Perez, Treasurer - Joanne Ligsay, Sports Commissioner - Renato Columbano, Asst. Sports Commissioner - Mark Victoria, Youth Sports Develop-ment - Victor Montero, Website moder-ator - Arnel Dipaling, Director - Ed Sot-to, Director - Vilma Tahsin, Director - Bob San Juan, Director - Roger Tarca, Adviser - Tim Sinclair, Adviser – Chris-tina Fernandez and Immediate Past President & Adviser - Jimi Fernandez.

Miss Agnes Miranda, a senior executive of World Financial Group (WFG) and Toronto community leader, as Guest Speaker, will induct the new officers. The Member of Parliament for York Centre, Hon. Michael Levitt, as well, is invited to grace the affair. Expected to attend and extending their support are friends, players and officers of other competitive basketball clubs and com-munity-based associations in Ontario.

The 16-year old organization is a mem-ber of the North American Basketball Association (NABA) and has been spon-soring and supporting amateur basket-ball competitions & clinics and partici-pating in numerous city and inter-city tournaments in Canada and the USA since 2005.

Everyone is invited! For tickets and further information, please call Sha-ronne at 289-200-8653 or check out Website: www.nypaa.ca. Book your tickets now! Admission is $30.00 and Attire is Semi-formal. Come and join us welcome Spring with a ball and a blast! (BSJ /tsj).

tel:289-200-8653

http://www.nypaa.ca/

March 2016 22


LIFESTYLE TO ADVERTISE please email at [email protected]

You know it’s election time again when you see every single electric post in your neighborhood covered in candidates’ campaign posters/tarpaulins vying for your vote. Well, we unanimously vote that these eye-sores blighting our cityscape be re-moved. If we may repeat a popular campaign slogan when Cory Aquino ran for president: “Tama na, sobra na!” And if we may add, “Tanggalin na!”

Read this: Our collective cry has not been in vain. Since Feb. 9, some eight tons of illegally placed election cam-paign tarpaulins have been removed by Metro Manila Development Au-thority (MMDA) and donated to the EcoWaste Coalition for recycling. You heard that right — recycling!

“Those given to the EcoWaste last Feb. 18 in a ceremonial turnover cer-emony, presided by MMDA general manager Corazon Jimenez, were among those tarps taken down from bridges, cables, lamp posts and trees, which are outside the Comelec-permitted poster areas,” says our good friend Manny Calonzo.

Who’d think that these tarps could be turned into functional items (which we can probably find more use for than a lot of these candidates)? Even single parent Leticia Calusayan, who earns a living by making bags and doing odd jobs, didn’t think she could make something beautiful out of dis-carded tarps — such amazing, prom-ising items from campaign tarpaulins

that are full of empty promises! Lolit is now even busier working from her home at Barangay Krus in Ligas, Que-zon City. In her skilled hands, these tarps have found new life — and new purpose — as pretty purses, mini carry bags, tote bags, multi-purpose organizers, aprons, tool belts, etc. If you want to know more about Lolit’s designs, email her at [email protected].

We asked Manny: Are these items for sale? Where and how much?

He tells us, “It was not really the in-tent of the EcoWaste Coalition to sell these repurposed tarpaulins. What it did was to produce prototypes that would demonstrate the many practi-cal uses of tarps.”

He adds, “Hopefully, enterprising community women and youth would be encouraged to create functional crafts from tarp materials to prevent them from turning into garbage. If sold, these sturdy products should sell from as low as P50 to probably P200 or more depending on the size and complexity of the design.”

“With an ounce of creativity, we can make a variety of practical crafts out of politicians’ tarpaulins, which we can find all over the place as the cam-paign goes full blast,” notes Aileen Lucero, EcoWaste Coalition coordina-tor. “Repurposing the campaign tarps will help keep these plastics out of dumpsites that are bursting at the seams as the country’s garbage con-

tinues to swell.”

The message is loud and clear: “Tarps: Dump not, burn not.” Instead of these tarps ending up in the land-fills, EcoWaste unveiled an array of beautiful items: shopping bags in var-ious sizes, petite carry bags, shoe bags, magazine organizers, recepta-cles for office and household recycla-bles such as paper, newspapers, glass and plastic bottles, aluminum and tin cans.

These tarps can also be used as sun and rain shields for pedicabs, tricy-cles and jeepneys, as well as impro-vised awnings for homes and shops.

Repurposing or recycling these cam-paign tarps for non-food purposes, says EcoWaste, will help cut the vol-ume, as well as the toxicity, of dis-cards that are disposed of in dumpsites.

Lucero warns, “Dumping these tarps will lead to their chemical ingredi-ents leaching into the soil, as well as to surface and ground waters. Burn-ing these tarps, which are mostly made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, will create and discharge ex-

tremely toxic pollutants, namely di-oxins and furans, that can contami-nate the food supply chain and harm human health.”

As these tarps contain undisclosed chemicals of concern, the public is cautioned not to use them in applica-tions that may contaminate food or expose young children to these haz-ardous substances.

Is EcoWaste not thinking of selling these items to the politicians?

Manny quickly replies, “It will be wonderful if politicians could buy back the recycled products as a token for the environmental service provid-ed by those who repurposed their tarps. But we hope that well-meaning politicians will, first of all, abide by the Fair Elections Act and desist from putting campaign materi-als outside the authorized areas. We further hope that they will take the initiative of removing materials that are illegally displayed and disman-tling them after the campaign season is over.”

But of course, who doesn’t want “clean” — and honest — elections?⦿

CONSUMERLINE

Ching M. Alano (Reprinted from Philstar)

TO PARTICIPATE AT

TASTE OF MANILA SPONSORS, FOOD VENDORS,

TRADERS & EXHIBITORS

“FIRST COME-FIRST SERVED”

Call Rolly Mangante

416 845-4984 Email: [email protected]

Wanted: ‘Clean’ elections

From tarps to riches: Campaign tarpaulins can be recycled into useful items such as multi-purpose organizers, carry bags, shopping bags, purses, aprons, tool belts.

March 2016 23


Community TO ADVERTISE please email at [email protected]

Manila set to host the World Street Food Congress 2016

World Street Food Congress 2016 announced the gather-ing in Manila, touted as “one of the world’s best food des-tinations” from April 20-24, 2016.

The world’s most influential movers, thinkers, food gurus and advocates will be to-gether for 2 days at Boni-facio Global City Manila in the WSF Dialogue to share their latest ideas, develop-ments, ideals and opportuni-ties about culinary street food culture.

Participants from 10 coun-

tries will also offer their spe-cialized fare at the WSF Jam-boree, a street food feasting festival which will last for 5 days. Cooking demonstra-tions amid live music will be open to the public.

The WSF Awards will cap the event with recognition given in 5 categories, recognizing the best soldiers and leaders in the field of culinary street food.

Filipino food has been gain-ing recognition around the world with food festivals dedicated to the country’s

unique fare.

WSCF brought about a dozen international and local me-dia for a 15 hour Food Fren-zy Safari in February, to sample the offerings of Ma-nila and Pampanga. Reviews of the trip affirmed that com-fort heritage street food such as that offered in the Philip-pines are the flag bearers of excellent but inexpensive food fare.

WSFC16 in Manila is the 3rd edition since its establish-ment in 2013.

Sponsors, exhibitors and food vendors prepare for TO’s biggest Filipino street festival—Taste of Manila

City Councillor James Pasternak is presented with 2016 festival layout by organizers Rolly Mangante, Pete Torralba and Teresa Torralba

Courtesy call to Marco Mendicino, Liberal MP for Eglinton-Lawrence

Presenting the festival plans to prospective sponsors.

Welcome TRUREAL to Taste of Manila 2016

PCCC chair Rolly Mangante (right front) welcomed Gold Sponsor TRUREAL executives, Horace Thomas, President & CEO (left 4th) and Vice-President & Co-Founder Josephine Zappone (left front) and associ-ates during the signing of contract. The TRUREAL Loyalty Program provides a full service solution to three very important sectors within our community (charities, merchants, general public). PHOTO BY WAVES

Mutya ng Maynila 2016 is line produced by IPEN president Edgar Sulit (left) with PCCC Board of Directors Philip Beloso, Teresa Torralba (acting for Joseph Franco), Pete Torralba, Danny Doma & Bong Capitin. PHOTO BY WAVES

MUTYA NG MAYNILA 2016

March 2016 24


Mon Torralba

MUSIC STAND

Thank you to the followers of this page. For LENT,

I took a break from publishing chords of your favourite OPM songs. Please continue to email us at [email protected].

"Music is what feelings sound like"

A Reason, A Season, or A Lifetime?

People always come into your life for a reason, a

season and a lifetime.

When you figure out which it is, you know exactly

what to do.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inward-ly.

They have come to assist you through a difficulty, or to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physi-cally, emotionally, or even spiritually.

They may seem like a godsend to you, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an in-convenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die, Sometimes they just walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.

They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done.

They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season. And like Spring turns to Summer and Summer to Fall, the season eventually ends.

LIFETIME, relationships teach you a lifetime of lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.

Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people

(anyway);, and put what you have learned to use in all

other relationships and areas in your life. It is said that

love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. Thank you for

being part of my life..... (author unknown)

Many good times I shared with my friend, my brother Bo Portillo. We learned the ropes together from our elementary and high school years in La Salle. Bo fol-lowed me into this world as I am just a mere day older. But fate made me follow him in Canada after 7 years of not seeing him. We continued to be best of buddies. We were both Sagittarians and both students of the Archers nook. I can’t believe Bo has left us with so many memories. But like a true archer, he made sure that he shot arrows to our hearts before he departed. Thank you Bo for the memories.

With Bo’s son Corbin and daughter Jackie at the me-morial for him on March 5 in Hamilton billed as, “The Bo Show”. Bo’s many friends and relatives packed the banquet hall to celebrate his life and to share fond memories of him. To Bo, continue to celebrate life... this time in paradise! PHOTOS BY WAVES

In REtroSPECT, a show filled with people, energy and fun!

There is stiff competition in Manila’s entertainment industry. To have been a three-time “ALIW” Best Group Performer awardee, there must be great en-tertainment value in this group they call REtro-SPECT. And in anticipation of a great show, a large crowd filled Prestige By Night on March 5 to witness the energy-filled quality performance. Retrospect, com-posed of members J. Martin Castro with sister Mari-gold “Goldie” Castro and Ogie Ramos, indeed lived up to the billing. From start to finish, the group took the lively crowd for a ride to decades of musical history – a mix of hits from the 60’s to the 80’s. A blast from the past, the lineup includes hits from music icons complete with slides of the artists and at times, the group wore rep-licas of the costumes these celebrities were identified with – such as Michael Jackson with the glittering glove and the Earth Wind and Fire tunics. There was a convincing impersonation of Tina Turner by Goldie as she sang “Private Dancer”, complete with the harsh voice, mini-skirt and long scarf. The vivacity of the show was in crescendo as they performed high-energy disco hits, including OPM classics from Juan de la Cruz band, Sampaguita, VST and Company, Hotdog and much more. But what made the night special was they acknowledged the presence of Toronto’s very own Mon Torralba, as they sang one of his hit composition, “Pag Tumatagal Lalong Tumitibay, a song they included in the CD tracks they have recorded.

The show was a big surprise not only for the big crowd but for the individual members of REtroSPECT themselves. The group declared that the Toronto audience is the best crowd they ever performed for. They felt the unsurpassed warmth of the audience as they sang along and danced to almost every track in their repertoire. Our gratitude to Mr. Joey Abrenilla, the producer that brought REtroSPECT to Toronto. O, what a night! Editor: Thank you REtroSPECT for the RESPECT!

REtroSPECT show wowed Toronto audience with a spectacular, high-energy show. PHOTO BY WAVES.

Joey Abrenilla , producer of the show, stands behind REtroSPECT’s Ogie Ramos, Marigold “Goldie” Castro & J.Martin Castro at the March 3 press conference held at the Cusina Lounge. PHOTO BY ARIEL RAMOS

Foreign music still rules airwaves, concerts in PH By: Tina Arceo-Dumlao

Only about one in 10 songs played on radio, in malls and retail stores, restaurants, hotels and bars is original Filipino music, according to data from the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Filscap).

Filscap president Noel Cabangon said during the recent Pandesal Forum at Kamuning Bakery that foreign music continues to dominate the air-waves, with foreign catalogue accounting for as much as 86.39 percent of total monitored music frequency for public performance.

As for Filscap revenues for royalty distribution to copyright owners in 2015, 59 percent was ac-counted for by foreign composers and publishers and just 41 percent went to local composers and publishers.

The revenues totaling P56.392 million came from various sources including live concerts, TV/cable, digital music and general licenses from radio, restaurants, hotels, bars and other businesses that use music.

On revenues from live concerts in 2015, Filscap monitoring data showed that 63 percent was ac-counted for by foreign acts, again showing the dominance of foreign acts in the Philippines.

Cabangon said during the forum that foreign mu-sic had long dominated the local music scene. This is under the purview of Filscap, the govern-ment-accredited collective management organi-zation that administers the performing rights of copyrighted works of over 1,000 local compos-ers, lyricists and publishers, and over 50 foreign affiliate societies worldwide as mandated by the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.

It administers over 20 million songs and holds the right to license the public playing or transmis-sion of at least 90 percent of the popular copy-righted local and foreign musical works. Televi-sion/cable was more even with foreign revenues at 51 percent foreign, 49 percent local.

Cabangon said the fact that foreign music rules the airwaves or public performance is cause for grave concern as music is part of culture, and the extremely high exposure of foreign music means that Filipinos have become more exposed to for-eign culture than local cultural nuances.

In the 1970s, original Filipino music flourished, which is why that era has been referred to as the Golden Age of Original Pilipino Music—when local music enjoyed greater airplay than their foreign counterparts.

The trend shifted, he said, in the 1980s, due in part to the rise in the popularity of American Top 40 and MTV. Filipino music gained back lost ground in the 1990s, when local bands seized the spotlight. But trends shifted again with the changes in technology that made it easier to

download and stream foreign music. Philippine Daily Inquirer

Noel Cabangon

March 2016 25


Charice to release new pop-rock album by Rap Torres

The international singing sensation is back!

Complementing her new look and style, Filipino singer Charice revealed that a new album is also underway dur-ing the MYX Music Awards 2016 last Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Charice said that she is cur-rently working on a pop-rock album with Filipino alterna-tive rock band Mayonnaise. The 23-year-old singer also said that the album will fea-ture songs which she wrote herself.

Charice, who surprised the crowd with her short blonde hair, performed with Mayon-naise the song Smells Like Teen Spirit by 90s American rock band Nirvana during the

MYX Music Awards.

Aside from the new album, Charice is also holding a na-tionwide tour. She held shows at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Calamba City, Laguna; at the Bulawan Festival in Compostela Val-ley; in Tiblao, Antique; and at the CSI Stadia in Dagupan City, Pangasinan.

Just recently, Charice was included in the first ever “30 Under 30 Asia” list by Forbes magazine last February 25, 2016. Forbes credited the singer as only the second Filipino to rank on the Bill-board Hot 100 chart.

Meanwhile, Nadine Lustre dominated the awards night with five to her belt, while singer-songwriter Ogie Al-

casid received the MYX Magna Award, an annual award given to music icons who have made “significant contributions” in the OPM industry.

Several artists gave their ren-ditions of the classic Ogie Alcasid hits as a tribute to the icon. Christian Bautista and Yeng Constantino sang Pan-gako, Jonalyn Viray and Top Suzara sang Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang, Jay-R and Aicelle San-tos sang Dito sa Puso Ko, Ky-la and Erik Santos did Nandi-to Ako, Matteo Guidicelli and Angeline Quinto performed Sa Kanya, and Jaya per-formed Huwag Ka Lang Mawawala. Ending the trib-ute was the group’s perfor-mance of Hanggang Ngayon. Manila Bulletin

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JC de Vera ends speculations: I am not courting Jessy

MANILA - JC de Vera has put an end to speculations that he is courting "You're My Home" co-star Jessy Mendio-la in an interview on "Tonight with Boy Abunda" on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old actor, who admitted to feeling very comfortable with Mendiola, said that he has no plans to woo the actress, adding that he is just enjoying their time together.

"Siguro kasi maraming nag-tatanong tungkol diyan kasi nakikita nila onscreen, nag-tra-translate po talaga [ang chemistry], and nakikita nila ang happiness naming dala-wa sa mga ginagawa namin, nage-enjoy ng sobra-sobra,"

he said.

De Vera, who has admitted that he prefers dating wom-en outside of showbiz, and Mendiola have been vocal about their friendship, regu-larly posting photos and vid-eos together on their respec-tive Instagram accounts.

"Baka kasi Tito Boy kailangan namin i-enjoy ang ride, i-enjoy ang journey na ito since ako first time ko na ma-experience ang ganito," De Vera said.

Meanwhile, Mendiola ex-plained that De Vera, along with her role in "You're My Home," has played a part in helping her move on from


March 2016 26


(Waves of our Lives)

Host:

KUYA NESTOR

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Catch the WAVES every Sunday at

www.pinoyradio.com

Sundays 8:30 pm - 9:00pm

Migrant Filipinos’ stories highlighted in “The Stories of Us” documentaries

“THE STORY OF US” gains praises, now the most talked about teleserye on primetime

The love story of Tin and Ma-coy has just begun in “The Story Of Us,” but the series has already generated over-whelmingly positive feedback from viewers and netizens for its engaging storyline and spectacular scenes.

The series – starring the premier love team of Kim Chiu and Xian Lim – is mostly praised for its fast-paced nar-rative and the breathtaking shots of El Nido, Palawan shown in its first week.

“Feels like watching a movie sa ‘The Story of Us.’ Superb cinematography, and it’s also in HD,” commented a Twitter user.

Aside from the stunning scen-ery and camera-work, the thing that keeps the series together are the heartfelt per-formances of the cast, which includes veteran actors Aiko Melendez, Susan Africa, Gardo Versoza, and Zsa Zsa Padilla. Not to be outdone are Zaijian Jaranilla and Alyanna Angeles, who portrayed the young Ma-coy and Tin, whose perfor-mances reveal a depth of emo-tion needed to illustrate the two main characters’ friend-ship and love.

Many netizens, including Twitter user @DoYourBestNY88, also com-mended director Richard Somes by saying, “I cannot stop crying! Not because of sadness but because of ex-treme joy and gratitude that I am watching this remarkable show. My faith in Pinoy serye has been completely renewed by this show.”

But what truly made a mark on viewers are Kim at Xian, who have injected maturity into their performances – a departure from the type of roles they used to play.

“We worked hard to come up with this material. We em-braced our characters to show you a very wonderful love story. You still have a lot to see from Kim and me,” said Xian.

And even though titled “The Story of Us,” the series is a reflection of Filipinos’ person-al love stories, according to Kim. “There is nobody who won’t be able to relate to this story. Every one of us has ex-perienced it.”

As the story continues, Tin and Macoy are bound to start

over in Manila as they prepare to go to college and reach their dreams. But amidst the misunderstandings and ef-forts to make their relation-ship work, Tin will be forced to go to the United States to be with her estranged mom.

How will Tin and Macoy con-front the biggest challenge yet in their relationship? Will the distance between them even-tually make them give up on each other?

And to pay tribute to Filipino migrant workers who work hard to provide a better fu-ture for their families, ABS-CBN is set to launch a series of documentaries as part of its advocacy campaign. It will feature the different stories and colorful experiences of migrant Filipinos overseas and will be aired during “The Story of Us” beginning next week.

Stay tuned to “The Story of Us,” weeknights after “Dolce Amore” on ABS-CBN Prime-time Bida. For exclusive up-dates, log onto Twitter.com/StarCreativesTV and Insta-gram.com/StarCreativesTV.

Actress Aiko Melendez, Director Will Fredo, Xian Lim, Kim Chiu, Alyanna Angeles, Zaijian Jaranilla, and Director Richard Somes.

'I Am PoGay' contestant to represent PHL in Malta pageant

MANILA - A former contestant of "I Am PoGay," a segment on "It's Showtime" dedicated to gay men which aired back in 2014, will represent the coun-try in an international pageant this year.

Christian Lacsamana, a 30-year-old public school teacher, will compete in the 2016 Mr. Gay World to be held at Malta on April. He was handpicked by Mr. Gay Philippines national director Wilbert Ting Tolentino, the first-ever Filipino to compete in the pageant.

In an interview with Push, Lacsamana shared that the recent death of his mother has been keeping him motivated as he aims to take home the country's first-ever Mr. Gay World title.

"Sa ngayon 30-plus ang mga makakalaban natin mula sa iba-ibang bansa. Basta gagawin natin ang lahat para makuha ang korona na first time ma-susungkit ng Pilipinas kung saka sakali," he said.

And much like Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach, Lacsama-

na, a college graduate with a bachelor's degree in educa-tion, will be advocating for more awareness on HIV.

Mr. Gay World is a global com-petition that aims to inspire and empower gay men by giv-ing hopefuls a venue to "demonstrate that both in-ward beauty and physical ap-pearance are equally im-portant as is leadership and confidence."

"It was our hope that by bring-ing these men together they would share their experiences to open both each others’ as well as the public’s eyes that in many regions on our planet being gay is a challenge and a fight for basic human rights."

Hong Kong's Mass Luciano is the current reigning Mr. Gay World title-holder. He took over when Klaus Burkart of Germany resigned as the win-ner last November.

Back in May 2014, Lacsamana finished runner-up to Baguio's John Raspado for the title of the first-ever grand winner of "I Am PoGay." - ABS-CBN

News

the controversies that plagued her personal life last year.

"Of course, after all that hap-pened to me last year, I'm in a state where binuhos ko lahat yung attention ko, yung focus ko sa trabaho. And that's what makes me happy right now," he said.

The two also shared the les-sons they learned from

working on the late night drama.

"I learned that you have to give your everything and you have to fight for some-thing you really believe in. ...Para sa akin, ang natutunan ko ka Grace, she really fought for it. Pero ang isa ko naman gustong i-unlearn from Grace is palagi na lang inuuna niya ang ibang tao, palaging pamilya niya," Men-diola said.

For his part, De Vera added: "As Christian talaga, bago ka

mayroon gawin na isang bagay kailangan talaga pagii-sipan mo talaga ng mabuti. Kasi mayroon mga conse-quences na in the end ha-harapin mo. At hindi mo tal-aga alam kung tama ba o mali ang ginawa mo."

"You're My Home," which also stars Dawn Zulueta and Richard Gomez, airs week-nights after "The Story of Us." The series is down to its last five episodes.- ABS-CBN

News


JC DE VERA ENDS SPEC...

March 2016 27



March 2016 28


Documents

BRING YOUR FAMILY TO CANADA! - Filipinos Making Wavesfilipinosmakingwaves.com/uploads/3/4/1/7/34170459/web_waves_mar_2016.pdf · -Trudeau, left, and their children Xavier James, Ella-Grace