Mga Panghitabo (News)

 

‘Prince of fashion’ Yves Saint Laurent given grand farewell

PARIS — With a military salute, crowds thronging the streets and the cream of global couture in attendance, France’s "prince of fashion", Yves Saint Laurent, was given a grand send-off at his funeral Thursday.

A bevy of celebrities including Catherine Deneuve, France’s ex-supermodel first lady Carla Bruni, and Farah Diba, widow of the last Shah of Iran, were among the 800 people at the funeral which ended with tears and a military salute.

"These are my last words to you Yves," said his longtime lover and business partner Pierre Berge as pallbearers prepared to hoist the coffin into the street, where more than 1,000 mourners had thronged to offer a final farewell.

"You cannot hear me, you cannot reply," said Berge, who founded the iconic YSL house in 1961 with his then 25-year-old partner.

"With Coco Chanel, you were the greatest designer of the 20th century, she in the first half, you in the second. On your marble plaque, I have had them engrave, above your name, the words ‘French couturier’."

Saint Laurent, who dominated international couture from the swinging 1960s until his 2002 retirement, died Sunday in his Paris home of a brain tumor at the age of 71.

For much of the past year, after breaking both shoulders in a fall, he had been unable to move, speak or even eat alone.

Giant bouquets of white flowers, lilies, roses and gardenias, filled the church, where a string ensemble played Vivaldi and Mozart, and a recording of Maria Callas rendering Bellini recalled Saint Laurent’s love of music.

Former French lady Bernadette Chirac and Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe were among mourners joining Berge at a moving 90-minute funeral mass, watched on giant screens outside the church by a crowd that jammed streets by the Louvre museum.

"I came to pay homage to Saint Laurent," said one woman. "He knew how to dress women, not disguise them," said another.

There was thunderous applause from onlookers outside the Saint-Roch church when the designer’s coffin was carried in and total silence during the service.

Most of the women arriving for the funeral mass, including Bruni, attending with husband President Nicolas Sarkozy, were dressed in trouser suits, a tribute to Saint Laurent’s reputation as the designer who put women in pants.

Saint Laurent’s more than 90-year-old mother sat in the front row, holding a walking stick.

The reclusive and mentally frail fashion giant is hailed for his role in revolutionizing women’s wardrobes with a groundbreaking androgynous style that mirrored women’s push in the 1960s and 1970s for a stronger social voice.

"You belonged to this magnificent and tragic family of highly-strung people who are the salt of the earth," Berge said in his funeral speech. "All that is best comes to us from the highly strung."

In earlier statements this week, Berge said YSL turned fashion on its head, "making it socially relevant rather than merely aesthetic. With Saint Laurent, women ceased being clothes-horses or the objects of designer fantasies."

Notable at the funeral were the biggest names in fashion — Christian Lacroix, Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Valentino, Hubert de Givenchy, Sonia and Nathalie Rykiel, Kenzo Takada, Alber Elbaz and Ines de la Fressange.

Also attending was the chairman of the world’s leading luxury group LVMH, Bernard Arnault, along with the Christian Dior’s manager, Sidney Toledano.

Intimate friend Deneuve recited a Walt Whitman poem in homage to the man who created her outfits for the cult 1967 sexual liberation movie by Luis Bunuel "Belle De Jour," about a frigid housewife who spends afternoons as a prostitute.

Saint Laurent, who was born August 1, 1936 in the Algerian town of Oran in the pre-independence era, will be cremated and his ashes flown to a botanical garden in Marrakech, Morocco, bordering a home bought there by Berge and YSL.

The couturier "spent much of his life in Morocco. He will stay there in a country that influenced and marked him greatly," said Berge. "He will end up in the Maghreb where he was born."

 

 

Actor Snipes jailed for three years for not declaring tax

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 07:55:00 04/25/2008

MIAMI – Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in jail Thursday for failing to file his tax returns from 1999 to 2004, US media said.

The court laid down the harshest possible sentence against Snipes, star of such movies as "Blade 3," "Demolition Man" and Spike Lee’s "Jungle Fever, who was found guilty by a jury in February on three misdemeanor charges.

The US Department of Justice said in a statement earlier this month that Snipes had sought to evade paying more than $15 million in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Soaring rice prices grip Mindanao folk

Staple sold at P45-P51 per kilo

Mindanao Bureau
First Posted 21:01:00 06/01/2008

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Mindanao, the country’s food basket, is going hungry, as the price of rice soared to levels beyond the reach of many residents.

Polished rice is retailed at P45 to P51 a kilo, more than twice the government-subsidized rice that is not available to most consumers.

"It will be difficult for us to budget our daily expenses, especially now that my children will be going to school," said Cynthia Tuario, a resident of Kidapawan City in North Cotabato province.

The "milagrosa" variety, for instance, is sold at P47 a kilo in Kidapawan. In the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato and Zamboanga, the price of rice ranges from P40 to P50.

In Davao Oriental province, residents literally saw price tags change daily — P38 on Thursday to P40 on Friday and P42 on Saturday.

The price of rice continues to go up despite assurances from the government that the country has enough supply.

Rice prices in the world market hit record highs in April because of tight global supplies and partly due to the huge orders from the Philippines, the world’s biggest rice importer.

Difficult

Tricycle driver Reynaldo Pandi, 40, of Tagum City voiced worries on how to budget his P120 daily "take-home earnings" as he can only manage to buy two kilos of "good quality rice" for his wife and their four children, two of whom will go to school next week.

"Lisod na kaayo (Life has become difficult these days). You have to budget everything — pedicab rent to pay, rising price of gasoline amid dwindling number of passengers. Then this rising price of rice. Asa na man atong gobyerno (Where is now our government)?" Pandi asked.

Alfonso Doguil, a resident of San Isidro town in Davao Oriental, said: "We should start eating camote (sweet potatoes)."

On Friday, the government said it would give the poor subsidies worth up to P93.6 billion to help them with the rising prices.

Some 23.5 million Filipinos, or 26 percent of the population who earn P67 or less a day, have been hardest hit by high rice and fuel prices.

More sink into poverty

Some 2.3 million more Filipinos fall into poverty for every 10-percent increase in food prices, according to a new study by an Asian Development Bank economist.

If the price of rice alone rises by the same rate, expect 660,000 people to swell the ranks of the poor, ADB economist Hyun Son earlier said.

Food prices rose by an average of 12 percent in April compared with only 8.4 percent in March, said the National Statistics Office.

The price of rice, which accounts for nearly a third of the food expenditures of the poorest households, jumped in April by nearly 25 percent from its level a year ago.

Even a known rice-producing town in Davao del Norte felt the crunch of rising price of rice.

In Kapalong town where expanding banana plantations have been eating up vast rice lands, prices of commercial rice range from P41 to P50 a kilo, with the "cheapest variety" of "poor quality."

NFA outlets

The town’s three National Food Authority (NFA) outlets are not enough so consumers who cannot be accommodated go to commercial rice retailers, Mayor Edgardo Timbol said.

"Retailers here buy their stocks from traders at an already high price, forcing them to sell the product to the consumers at much higher cost," Timbol said.

He said he had met with NFA officials in the province on Friday to ask for additional outlets to be put up in some of the villages.

"The NFA promised to allocate new outlets in eight of our barangays when we have completed the requirements. That could help lower rice prices here as the demand for commercial rice will go down, with the public already having an alternative," Timbol said.

In Tagum City in Davao del Norte, "organic rice" sells for P46 a kilo at market stalls while the cheapest varieties range from P40-P41. Other varieties also hit the P50-mark, unimaginable two years ago.

In Digos City in Davao del Sur, polished rice is sold at P51 per kilogram.

Corn grits

A lot of people have opted to buy corn grits. First class (white) corn grits are sold at P31.50 a kilo, and yellow corn grits at P18.50.

Joseph Omero, a rice trader in Digos’ public market, said he could do nothing about rising prices of rice since "big rice traders sold their rice at a higher price."

The same is happening in the Socsksargen (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, General Santos City) area.

Girl collapses at queue

The high price of the staple is forcing people to queue to buy NFA rice.

In Alabel town in Sarangani province, 13-year-old girl Precy (not her real name) on Friday collapsed while she lined up to buy cheap NFA rice.

She and her uncle Ricardo Tumbocon failed to buy NFA rice for dinner that day as she was taken to the nearest hospital.

Tumbocon, who brought his niece to the hospital, said, "Ugma na lang mi mopilag balik (We will take the line again tomorrow)."

In General Santos City, NFA rice buyers start lining up at 10 p.m. at the city public market.

Rosemarie Pascua-Paz, a rice trader at the public market, said she had no choice but to increase the price of commercial rice. "If we will not increase, we will have no income," she said.

But the NFA office in Central Mindanao said that by the second week of the month, the subsidized rice sold at P18.50 a kilo would no longer be available in the public market.

Thai rice at P25/kilo

Art Aller, NFA regional operations chief, said the cheaper NFA rice would be replaced by Thailand rice.

Thai rice is priced a bit higher at P25 per kilo.

Aller said the P18.50-NFA rice would be pulled out from the public market and would be sold at the "Tindahan Natin" in different barangays.

The NFA in Central Mindanao expects 216,000 metric tons of Thai rice to arrive in the early part of June.

Beef and pork, too

Prices of meat are also soaring. Beef and pork prices have already doubled this year and with rising oil prices, increasing freight costs and a weakening peso, are set to rise again, according to an importers’ group.

Meat prices are expected to increase by August or September.

Jun Lim, vice president of the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines, said 90 percent of the country’s beef supply was imported, mostly from Brazil.

The price of imported beef in January was $2.65 a kilo, and in May it was $4.50 a kilo. Pork was $1.90 a kilo in January and $2.50 in May.

"The effect is not yet felt immediately because a lot of what is being sold in the market are meats that came in two to three months ago and were in storage," he said. "But once those stocks are depleted, price increases will hit the consumers." Reports from Frinston Lim, Julie S. Alipala, Aquiles Zonio, Rolando Pinsoy, Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, Eldie Aguirre and Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao; and Agence France-Presse

 

Reality check for KC Concepcion
By Nestor Torre
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 18:44:00 04/25/2008

MANILA, Philippines—Current fave and show biz “princess” KC Concepcion has been praised to high heavens for her recent TV performances. That sort of gushingly adulatory reception can go to a girl’s head—and, we hope it doesn’t. Because, truth to tell, KC still has some thespic adjustments to make before she can more objectively be regarded as an exceptional young actress.

These thoughts come to mind, because we caught last April 12’s telecast of “I Am KC,” Ms Concepcion’s recently-concluded anthology drama show on Channel 2.

Long-absent father

Titled “Time’s Up,” the episode cast KC as a young woman who missed her long-absent father—and suddenly found herself being shot in the chest by an escaping thief (Zanjoe Marudo).

The tragic ploy twist acquires fantasy coloration when an apparently spiritual personage informs KC’s character that she has in fact died—but, her fate could be averted if she “saves” a little boy gone wrong.

The fanciful plot conceit is a bit far-out, but we gamely accept it, hoping that, like the similarly fantasticating developments in productions like “It’s A Wonderful Life,” it will result in heartwarming and inspiring insights about human nature.

The kid in question is a streetchild (played by Makisig Morales) whose mother has left him to fend for himself with his grouchy father (Gardo Versoza). They’re so poor that they’re forced to live in a mausoleum.

Expectedly, Makisig’s character hates staying at “home” and prowls the streets with other young punks, getting into all sorts of trouble. KC is made to see that, if Makisig isn’t “saved,” he will grow up into her killer (Zanjoe).

Upbeat development

Given these thematic considerations, KC does her best to knock some sense into Makisig’s ornery head—to little effect. She then zeroes in on his surly father, with better results. However, this upbeat development is questionable, because it’s the result of “persuasion,” a relatively weak dramatic device.

In any case, time is running out on KC, so she ends up practically giving up hope that Makisig will have a change of heart before her tragic fate is permanently sealed. Happily, however, Makisig does reform at the very last minute—and all’s well with KC’s world, at long last.

On point of thespic quality, however, KC’s portrayal isn’t all that admirable. She’s a focused and giving performer, but it turns out that she has a slight problem speaking Filipino well—in this episode, at least. She plays an “ordinary” young woman, and yet, she sounds too self-consciously articulate to be completely believable in her role.

In addition, when she gets emotional, her voice tends to become too high-pitched for comfort. And, like many young actresses here, she fiddles with her hair too much.

Dialogue

To be sure, some of KC’s thespic lapses are not of her own creation, but result from occasional scripting foibles. For one, the script is too talky, so the actress is hard-put to sound and look natural while uttering all that dialogue.

For KC to do better, she and her handlers should insist on better material that she can more believably sink her thespic teeth into. Also, if she’s playing an “ordinary” character, she should realize that it’s very different from her own persona, so she has to work much harder—and longer—to make herself believable in the unfamiliar role.

Positive side

On the positive side, KC turns out to be the best performer (along with Gardo Versoza) in the episode. Zanjoe and other supporting players come up with stilted portrayals, and child actor Makisig has acquired so many bad habits from acting on TV that his performance is muddled throughout the drama-fantasy special.

That’s a great pity, since his character’s effective depiction is key to the drama’s effectiveness—so, KC has to work harder to be emotionally believable to compensate for her young coactor’s excessively hyper portrayal.

 

Mindanao rice sells up to P50 a kilo, drives man to suicide

Mindanao Bureau
First Posted 17:31:00 05/31/2008

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Agriculture officials in Southern Mindanao are looking for ways to alleviate the plight of consumers in the face of the skyrocketing price of rice in the region, which, at least one housewife believes, has driven a man to commit suicide.

For the past few days, prices of the staple have risen by between P6 and P10 per kilo from the previous week’s average of P37 per kilo in the provinces of Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Compostela Valley and the cities of Tagum, Panabo, Digos, Mati, and Davao.

Officials said they were puzzled because stocks were abundant and a new harvest was just coming in.

Rogelio Chio, director of the Department of Agriculture in Southern Mindanao, said they have received reports that in some areas, the staple was being sold at P50 per kilo.

In Midsayap, North Cotabato, which is part of Central Mindanao, a jobless man hanged himself on Wednesday reportedly out of desperation for being unable to feed his family due to the soaring price of rice.

Gloria Banca said her husband, Rodrigo, 52, had been complaining about his inability to buy rice, which was selling at about P45 per kilo. She said her husband had been trying to look for a job to feed his wife and two children.

"Madalas ang kanyang reklamo na mahirap ang buhay, mahal pa ang mga kakanin (His usual complaint is that life is hard and food is expensive)," she said.

Finding an outlet for government-subsidized rice, which sells for P18.25 per kilo, was difficult in their village, according to Gloria.

She said for a few days before he finally took his life, her husband suddenly fell silent and appeared to be in deep thought.

Around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Gloria said her husband’s lifeless body was found hanging inside their house.

In Davao del Sur, one of the provinces in Southern Mindanao, residents of Digos City engaged in shouting matches and near fistfights as they tried to buy rice from an outlet of the National Food Authority (NFA) on Thursday. The price of rice at commercial stalls elsewhere had shot up to P47 a kilo in just two days.

Chio said he received a report from the DA’s monitoring team that the price of rice had increased to P50 per kilo on Saturday in Bansalan, Davao del Sur.

Because of the spiraling price of the staple, which the region also produces in abundance, Chio said they were drafting a proposal to Congress that aims to make rice a restricted commodity.

"It’s high time to recommend rice as a restricted item. There should be a price control. We recommend that this should become a national policy," Chio said during a press conference held at the DA office here, which was also attended by representatives from the region’s NFA office.

Chio said he discussed the situation, which he described as "alarming," with officials of the NFA and other government agencies during an emergency meeting earlier this week. They agreed the DA will draft a proposal for regulating the sale of rice and imposing price limits.

Chio said the proposal will be sent to House Speaker Prospero Nograles and Palawan Representative Abraham Mitra, chair of the House committee on agriculture.

Lorenzo Camayang, NFA regional manager, said the price spiral was puzzling because there was enough supply. He said an inventory made two days earlier showed the region had rice stocks good for 58 to 69 days.

"And more supply was expected as farmers have just finished harvesting the grain. The rice requirement for Region 11 is placed at 9,000 bags per day," Camayang said.

"It’s only now that we experienced a disparity of prices in rice. There is no shortage," he said.

To counter the rising prices, Camayang said, the NFA has set more NFA outlets, including 252 NFA all over Davao City in addition to the 12 Bigasan sa Parokya that they have put up in coordination with the Catholic Church.

If government officials were puzzled why the price of the staple has gone up, rice traders in the region said speculators from other areas could be behind the increases.

Juanito Loyola, president of SRSO Basic Commodities, said rice traders from Central Mindanao have been frequenting Davao City during the past days to buy stocks.

He said these traders would buy rice at the price quoted by local sellers.

Loyola also blamed millers, who were "slowing down the release of stocks," for the spike in prices.

"Something has to be done. We are really concerned about the daily wage earners. Mahihirapan talaga sila (They will be hit very hard). This will be a very big problem," Loyola said.

Chio said they were now checking reports that some traders in Compostela Valley were hoarding rice.

Reports by Judy Quiros, Dennis Santos, and Charlie Señase, Inquirer Mindanao

Rice shortage blamed on NFA employees
By Norman Bordadora, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Charlie Señase
INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:15:00 03/25/2008

MANILA, Philippines—Grain dealers in North Cotabato province are complaining of limited rice stocks sold by the National Food Authority, blaming the shortage on the sale of the staple to neighboring provinces by unscrupulous NFA employees.

The grain dealers accused the state agency of serving the needs of the provinces of Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao, depriving North Cotabato rice retailers of their supply.

Mayor Joselito Piñol of Mlang town and his brother Efren Piñol of Magpet town told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that they had been swamped by complaints that some 14,000 sacks of rice imported from Vietnam intended for North Cotabato had been sold to “outsiders,” leaving the supposed beneficiaries of the cheap NFA cereal with limited stock.

“This is unfair and, I suppose, an illegal activity that we have to look into,” Efren Piñol said.

The Piñols find it ironic that the NFA is selling its stocks to nearby provinces and municipalities in the face of a looming rice shortage in the country.

Global rice crisis

The world is facing a rice crisis and the Philippines is scrambling to import rice to cover its shortfall.

The country produces about 90 percent of its rice requirement and must import up to 2.1 million metric tons to maintain its two-month inventory.

The Philippines paid about $708 per ton at a tender this month for imported rice, more than double what it paid six months ago.

The NFA, the grain purchasing arm of the government that spends billions of pesos every year subsidizing rice to the public, is now one of the biggest drags on public finances, with net liabilities in 2006 of nearly P43 billion.

Limited impact

But the NFA has only a limited impact. In local markets, traders often tell customers they are out of NFA rice, which is kept at P18.25 a kilogram, forcing them to pay nearly P30 per kg for other varieties.

Mariano Bernad, newly installed North Cotabato NFA manager, said allegations that rice stocks meant for the province had been diverted to Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao were baseless.

Bernad said that there was abundant NFA rice supply for North Cotabato and that the rice was being made available to everybody, particularly the poor, at the “government-controlled price.”

The small rice traders alleged that the NFA rice sold to “outsiders” earned bigger profits that went to the pockets of enterprising NFA employees.

Cover-up

North Cotabato Gov. Jesus Sacdalan said he had ordered his staff to check the veracity of the complaints brought to his attention by the Piñol brothers, who suggested that an inventory of NFA rice stocks be made.

At the height of the Moro rebellion in the 1970s, reports of alleged irregularities in the NFA rice distribution in Central Mindanao were covered up by making it appear that NFA warehouses were razed by guerrillas, North Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Piñol recalled.

The fires happened at a time when some NFA personnel sensed that a Commission on Audit team from Manila would investigate missing NFA rice stocks.

Land conversion

In the Senate, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said “wanton conversion” of rice lands particularly in Central and Southern Luzon into residential subdivisions and commercial districts was the “most significant factor” that led to the rice crisis.

Zubiri called the press conference to pin the blame on land conversion and defend his pet project, the biofuels program, which Sen. Francis Escudero had tagged as the culprit for the vanishing rice fields.

Chronic neglect

Escudero said the Arroyo administration’s “chronic neglect” of the agriculture sector had led to its failure to achieve food security.

“We are now defining food security as the ability to grow our food but to simply have the money to buy it elsewhere and thus we deserted irrigation, abandoned farms, and neglected post-harvest facilities. So when foreign food becomes more expensive, we do not have a vibrant farm sector to fall back on,” he said.

Sen. Jamby Madrigal noted that trade liberalization had led to the country’s dire rice situation because imports soared to over one million metric tons a year in 1995-2006 from 151,588 metric tons from 1984 to 1994.

Corporate rice production

In the House of Representatives, Speaker Prospero Nograles proposed that the country’s top businesses start planting rice to address the needs of their employees and their families.

Nograles noted that “corporate farming” was done during the Marcos regime to ensure the food supply of the corporations’ work force and its dependents.

Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra, chairman of the committee on agriculture and food, said in Filipino in a text message: “The top 100 corporations should be required to plant rice for the employees and their families so that they would not have to compete for the current low supply [of rice].

“They have the capability and funds for planting unlike the ordinary, working Filipino,” Mitra said.

“They should help the government curb this problem because their employees would be the ones to suffer,” he said.

Mitra made the proposal a day after Sen. Loren Legarda warned of a “politically explosive” situation brought about by the rising cost of rice in the country.

Increase farm-gate prices

House Deputy Minority Leader Satur Ocampo of the party-list Bayan Muna wants the strengthening of the NFA’s local procurement capacity by raising farm-gate prices and by dismantling the rice cartels.

Ocampo also proposed that government abandon its liberalization policy on rice, stop land-use conversion from agricultural to other types and realign debt service and anti-insurgency budgets to food production.

For its part, the Centro Saka and the National Rice Farmers Council (NRFC) said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s recent directive for the release of P1.5 billion to augment the Department of Agriculture’s budget to increase rice production was a case of “too little too late.”

In a statement, Omi Royandoyan of the farmer-based research NGO Centro Saka said the current crisis was the result of years of neglect of agriculture.

The government’s hybrid rice commercialization program, which relies heavily on private seed producers, is flawed, according to Centro Saka. In fact, despite the billions poured into the program, hybrid rice contributes only 12 percent of production, it said.

Under existing policies, the growth in rice yield from 3.07 metric tons per hectare in 2000 to 3.68 metric tons per hectare in 2006 was hardly significant given the steady rise in population, according to Centro Saka.

“Also telling is the near stagnant growth in rice harvested area at around 4 million hectares,” said Jimmy Tadeo of the NFRC.

In Libmanan, Camarines Sur, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said he never meant to tell Filipinos to eat less when he urged fast-food outlets last week to offer half portions of rice because of a looming rice shortage.

Yap said it was the NFA’s suggestion that he urge fast-food outlets to offer a “half-rice-serving” option to their customers.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelai Fajardo said not only the government but everyone must do something to help mitigate the impact of the global rice shortage.

“Maybe our countrymen should be aware of this problem and that they should put on their plates only what they could eat because a lot of rice is being wasted,” Fajardo said in Filipino on radio.

“As what Secretary Yap has said, at least 30 percent of what we are not able to consume become trash, especially in restaurants. This is why even restaurant owners are encouraged to serve half rice especially to those who do not eat much,” she said.

Fajarado said the administration was also doing something, citing the mitigating measures that government agencies have implemented to address the problem.

“In other words, we are prepared to address the rice crisis but nevertheless, even if there is no crisis, we still encourage people to save regardless of whether this is oil, rice, even water and electricity,” she said.

Enough supply in the Visayas

Despite warnings of a possible rice supply crisis, several provinces in the Visayas still have sufficient supply for the next few months.

In Central Visayas, NFA information officer Edgar Diez said the buffer stock of rice was around 600,000 bags, which is good for three months.

Grace Dagala, Department of Agriculture information officer in Region 7 (Central Visayas), also noted that the region’s rice production had increased.

Vilma Zarraga, officer in charge of the NFA in Western Visayas, said the rice inventory in the region, estimated at 4.2 million bags, could last for 72 days.

The daily rice consumption in the region stands at 58,000 bags or 1.74 million bags monthly, according to Zarraga.

Zarraga said she also expected the arrival of imported rice from Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan, consisting of 126,000 bags for Negros Occidental and 74,000 bags for Iloilo.

Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco said NFA records showed that the province had a rice inventory of 1.4 million bags, enough to supply the province’s requirement for 61 days.

The Capiz provincial agriculturist office also maintained that the province would have ample supply of rice because the recent flooding damaged only 4,888 hectares of the 19,000 hectares planted to rice.

NFA Leyte provincial manager Amador Gregorio also said the province had sufficient supply of rice. With reports from Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Carla P. Gomez, Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Joey A. Gabieta, Felipe Celino and Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas and Maila Ager, INQUIRER.net

 

Malacañang: Arroyo not seeking emergency powers

MANILA, Philippines — Despite soaring food, power and fuel costs, a nine-year high inflation rate and the sliding peso, Malacañang on Friday said the situation remains “manageable” and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sees no need for emergency powers.

Nevertheless, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye did not rule out the possibility, noting that the newly-created National Food and Energy Council (NFEC) "shall advise the President and Congress if and when emergency powers are required."

"While [that] provision is inserted, I guess everything has to be deliberated upon, depending on the situation at a particular time, [before a] recommendation [to seek emergency powers] will be made to the President and to Congress," Bunye said.

"I believe the situation is manageable. We’re better positioned, because of our macroeconomic fundamentals, to withstand external shock," he told reporters in a news conference.

Responding to calls from lawmakers to admit the existence of food and power crises, Bunye said the government is "dealing with it," citing the programs recently launched by Arroyo, among these a power subsidy for the poor, and loans and scholarships for students.

Created through Executive Order 728, the NFEC will formulate programs and strategies to ensure adequate food and fuel supplies for the country over the next five years.

The NFEC shall also "advise the President if and when the exercise of emergency powers would be required to address food and energy problems."

Asked if the current inflation of 9.6% can be considered a situation needing emergency powers, Bunye said: "Let me state, first, that this [inflation] is imported, caused by high fuel and food prices outside the country. We believe it’s not only Philippines affected. The high prices will impact on other countries, so this is something not unique, and maybe will just have to take appropriate steps in alleviating impact of high prices on the people."

Bunye said the economic team that is talking with both the Manila Electric Company and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) would come out with a recommendation to the Cabinet on Tuesday on measures to lower power rates.

Separate Opinion
The rice shortage
By Isagani A. Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:57:00 05/11/2008

I DON’T BELIEVE THERE’S A REAL RICE crisis in this country. It’s bugaboo created by the administration to divert attention from the real problem of the nation. It’s not the alleged shortage of rice that should alarm us; it is the appalling shortage of sincerity and honesty in the government.

I used to pass by a big store or bodega in Las Piñas where columns of sacks of rice were stacked from floor to ceiling to nobody’s surprise. What surprised me later—and I suppose others too—was that the place suddenly became completely empty overnight. Where the rice went, I cannot tell although I would unsuspectingly say it went for some valid purpose.

Others would more cynically conjecture that the announcement of the supposed rice shortage by the government might have prompted some greedy businessmen to hide and hoard their rice for heavier profits as the artificial emergency gets more serious. Already the price of a kilo of rice has risen astronomically like the price of gasoline, which threatens to soar even more.

The oil companies must have bought their present stock for less than what they are charging now with the successive increases in the price of gasoline, no less than 10 times during the past several days. The profits they must be raking in must be tremendous, but the public has no choice but to submit to the plunder permitted by the government. There were announced plans to inspect the books of the oil companies but Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes must still be crooning.

To go back to the rice problem, I think it is not as serious as the government would overstate it. I know there is a food crisis all over the world, but the Philippines is not as hardly hit as the other developing and really starving countries. At least not yet. We were moribund during the Japanese Occupation when we could afford rice, if at all, only as thin lugaw, and most of us had to make do with castañog and camote. But somehow we survived.

We have not yet come to similar suffering, at least not in the less disadvantaged places in Metro Manila. Recently I had lunch in one of the turo-turo eateries in Makati offering fixed meals for various prices, depending on your appetite and wallet. My choice that cost only P99 consisted of a leg of roast chicken, one fresh lumpia, and plenty of white rice.

What impressed me was the generous quantity of the rice that to me was the best argument against its claimed shortage. In fact, the other meals offered included not only plain but fried rice, and the price was not only for the elite gourmet.

Elsewhere in the slums, the government has started selling quality rice for a reduced price but for a limited amount only per family. The parish priests have been asked to assist in its distribution although, as my good friend Antonio C. Abaya recently observed in his column, only the Catholic Church has been entrusted with the task. Are the other Christian groups, and the Muslims as well, only good for election campaigns?

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s solution to the so-called rice problem is straight from the Brothers Grimm, except that it’s grimmer. She would grant P500 a month to each of the 300,000 neediest families in the land to be determined by the barangay heads in their sole discretion. That discretion is presumed to be above board, based on their superior knowledge of who are the most impoverished residents in their community.

The first among the neediest will have to be the barangay head himself; that’s a given. The rest of the beneficiaries will have to be chosen on the strength of their connections with the political parties under Ms Arroyo. This qualification is likely to create disputes among the neighbors, but that is to be expected for this is a democracy. That is how it works in this country.

And how long will this bonanza continue?

By expressing my doubts about the gravity of the rice crisis, I do not mean to minimize the present food problem threatening the whole world, including the Philippines. But it is not my purpose either to maximize that difficulty as requiring our total attention to the neglect of other difficulties also demanding our serious concern. After all, man does not live by rice alone. There are goals we must also pursue like compassion for the poor, the protection of human rights, and the end of corruption in our government.

Have you noticed how, with the alarums raised by the administration about the rice problem, public interest has died down on the ZTE contract and its protected “Greedy People + + ”? Jonas Burgos is still missing after more than a year since his seizure in broad daylight by armed men. There is no more news either about the furtive delivery of enormous cash doles to selected beneficiaries in the halls of Malacañang itself.

Valid or not, the rice problem has proved the expertise of the GMA spinmasters in manipulating public opinion to suppress further exposés of government venalities. The Senate has meekly thrown in the towel although the Neri case has yet to be finally resolved by the Supreme Court. Have the Garci tapes been erased forever? What about the silenced Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante on the fertilizer fund? And are the plunder charges against the AFP generals moving at all? Ho-hum. Meanwhile, the media have nothing more serious to headline than that Cory is in the pink of health.

 

(UPDATE 6) Actor Rudy Fernandez dies

INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:58:00 06/07/2008

The late Rudy FernandezÂ’s birthdate is March 3, 1952 not March 3, 1953 as previously posted. This makes the actor 56 years old at the time of his death. We apologize for the error.

MANILA, Philippines — Movie actor Rudy Fernandez succumbed to periampullary cancer in his home in White Plains, Quezon City at 6:15 a.m. Saturday. He was 56.

Fernandez had been battling the disease for more than two years.

The action star passed away five days after he was brought home from the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City, where he had been confined for a month. He and wife Lorna Tolentino celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Sunday.

He suffered a seizure on Wednesday but refused to be taken back to the Cardinal Santos Memorial Center.

His close friends, Sens. Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla, broke the news to media minutes after his death.

His wife and other friends were with him as he passed away, Estrada said.

Fernandez’s remains lie in state at the Heritage Park in Taguig City. Interment will also be at Heritage Park on Thursday. The wake is open to the public.

He is survived by his wife Lorna, and their two sons, Rap and Renz, and a third son with actress-politician Alma Moreno, actor Mark Anthony Fernandez.

Revilla told the Inquirer that Fernandez had suffered from internal bleeding for several days. He also said Fernandez was glassy-eyed most of the time and had difficulty recognizing people.

Revilla said that while he was on his way to the Fernandez home at 9 p.m. Friday, the veteran actor’s blood pressure had plummeted. Fernandez’s manager, Lolit Solis, also told the Inquirer that he was reduced to murmuring instructions to his wife. The actor would wince at the lightest touch.

Fernandez, born March 3, 1952 in Manila, started appearing in movies at age three in a film directed by his father Gregorio “Yoyong” Fernandez, LVN Pictures’ “Luksang Tagumpay” in 1956, according to the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art. Delia Razon, star of “Luksang Tagumpay” remembers the young Rudy as a “shy, but obedient kid.” “Rudy was always hanging out, playing on the set. He was Yoyong’s pet,” Razon recounts.

But his actual movie career started in 1970 under a Sampaguita Pictures contract for the film entitled “For Your Mama.”

Fernandez’s entry in the action genre came in 1976 in the biopic of a notorious criminal, “Bitayin si Baby Ama,” a box-office hit that established him as a big name in Philippine movies for the next three decades. His words were etched in local cinema parlance with the line, “Trabaho lang, walang personalan (This is just a job, nothing personal),” in the 1992 movie “Markang Bungo,” which is another biopic, this time of a Baguio City cop, Bobby Ortega. He also played Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Gen. Victor Corpus, former actor Eddie Fernandez and politician Vincent “Bingbong” Crisologo in blockbuster films.

Fernandez was an affectionate colleague, Razon recalls. “He was always respectful. Every time he would see me in show biz gatherings, he’d stand up and greet me,” says Razon.

Ara Mina, Fernandez’s leading lady in two films, “Palaban” and “Diskarte”, said they called each other “best friends.” “Every time we see each other, he tells me, ‘Ang ganda ng best friend ko ngayon. Pumayat ka. (My best friend is so beautiful today. You’ve lost weight.)’ That was how he used to tease me,” Mina said.

Fernandez starred in 65 films throughout his career, the last being the 2002 film “Huli Mo, Huli Ko.” He had since appeared in the television docudrama “Kasangga,” the sitcom “Da Boy and Da Girl,” and the soap “Twin Hearts.” His last project, “Atlantika” was aired in 2006.

He is a winner of two FAMAS best actor trophies for the 1984 film “Batuigas…Pasukuin si Waway” and the 1988 “Victor Corpus” biopic and one Film Academy of the Philippines best actor plum for “Batuigas.”

The Philippine Movie Press Club recently gave Fernandez the 2008 Ulirang Artista Lifetime Achievement Award.

Marinel Cruz, Bayani San Diego, Jr. and Gerry Plaza

Winner, loser share lessons of political ads

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Tarra Quismundo

MANILA, Philippines–For a moment, a forum on the power–and pitfalls–of political advertising on Tuesday turned into a verbal tussle between a big-spending loser and a low-budget winner in last year’s senatorial elections.

"It’s only in the Philippines that a former president convicted of plunder endorses a candidate on TV and he wins," said Prospero Pichay Jr., an administration bet who lost despite incurring the biggest ad expenses of all the candidates.

Feeling alluded to, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who ran under the opposition ticket backed by deposed President Joseph Estrada and won despite a relatively modest campaign kitty, retorted:

"And it is only in the Philippines that a sitting president endorses a candidate and (that candidate) loses."

"And that’s the state of Philippine politics," Pichay sighed, drawing laughter from the audience.

The exchange provided some amusement during a forum marking the launch of "Selling Candidates: Political Ads in the 2007 Senatorial Elections," a book project of the online magazine Newsbreak, the German foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and Ateneo de Manila University.

The 107-page book was authored by Ana Maria Tabunda, Carmela Fonbuena and Aries Rufo.

Dominant topic
Pichay’s debacle proved to be the dominant topic during the three-hour discussion at the Hyatt Hotel in Malate, Manila.

The former Surigao del Sur congressman did not make it to the Senate’s "Magic 12" even after placing P98.6-million worth of TV ads (based on estimates by polling firm AC Nielsen). He placed 16th in the final tally.

With a surname that sounds like a vegetable, Pichay then courted voters with the tagline "Itanim sa Senado" (literally, "Plant him in the Senate").

Fielding a question from moderator CheChe Lazaro, Pichay said he lost the election probably because he lacked both the "old name" of political clans and "the organization" to guard his votes.

"In politics, there’s also (the principle of) repeat purchase," he said. "Who were the people who won? They are the old names in politics like Escudero (Sen. Francis Escudero) and Cayetano."

Cayetano, who spent only P27.1 million for ads but still placed 9th in the race, offered a simpler explanation for Pichay’s loss: "Three letters–GMA (the President’s initials)."

Political analyst Mon Casiple, who attended the book launch, shared Cayetano’s view.

"(Pichay) really tried to connect with the issues pero wala, eh (it just didn’t happen). When it came to his identification with GMA, tapos na siya (he was finished)," Casiple told reporters after the forum.

Guest panelist and TV journalist Chari Villa of ABS-CBN told Pichay pointblank:

"Sir, you were promising to solve poverty. People are more discerning now, and that was such a gargantuan task. There was a disconnect between the message and what the people want," she said.

Villa was apparently alluding to Pichay’s other campaign mantra–"Pangarap kong tuparin ang pangarap mo" (It’s my dream to fulfill yours).

Still, Pichay managed to point to a silver lining and noted that his ads helped raise his "approval rating from 5 percent to 30.9 percent" during the 90-day campaign period.

And it was not entirely true that he spent all the P98.6 million, Pichay said, since "I was given a 13-percent rebate [by the ad placement agency]."

Strategy
In the book, "Selling Candidates" coauthor Tabunda noted how "many candidates ran political ads that focused on building personal images, or mentioned the candidate’s qualities while raising issue concerns."

This strategy, she wrote, "continued to yield dividends."

The panelists also recalled how actual media coverage of legitimate news involving a candidate bolstered his or her chances of winning.

Voters, they said, had also become more discerning and this could help explain the "fading glory" of movie celebrities who ran for the Senate last year, like actors Richard Gomez and Cesar Montano.

As for the 2010 presidential elections, Cayetano said candidates can be expected to exploit the "diversifying media." The Internet, for example, could be the next best platform for those with limited campaign budgets, he said.

Casiple sees campaign strategies for the next national polls being shaped by "gut issues," referring to the current price surges in rice and fuel.

"Rice is a gut issue. Poverty is a gut issue. And these have huge bearings on who will be the choice as president in the 2010 elections," Casiple said.