SAO PAOLO: Demonstrators occupied Brazil’s finance ministry, flooded the center of Sao Paulo and went on strike in a string of cities on Wednesday to protest reforms to the cash-strapped country’s pension system.

The biggest demonstration took place in the financial powerhouse Sao Paulo, where thousands of people filled a section of the main avenue.

Addressing a cheering crowd organizers said numbered up to 80,000 people, the fiery former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the government wants to “end the achievements of the working class over the past years.”

“The people will only stop when they choose a government democratically,” he said, alluding to the impeachment of his chosen successor Dilma Rousseff last year, which installed the current center-right President Michel Temer in office. Lula leads the polls ahead of elections next year.

In Sao Paulo, a strike by metro and bus workers in Sao Paulo earlier had paralyzed the morning rush hour.

During a dramatic protest in the capital Brasilia, hundreds of activists burst into the finance ministry before the start of the workday, occupying the building until late afternoon. Police said they vandalized the ministry and broke windows.

Staff at public schools in Rio de Janeiro also went on strike, trash collectors stopped work in Curitiba and the metro was shut down in Belo Horizonte, according to the news portal G1.

Rio’s protest ended in turmoil when some demonstrators clashed with the police, who threw tear gas and stun grenades, Globo TV reported.

The unrest in more than 20 cities marked the most serious challenge in the streets so far to Temer’s attempts to tame the budget and restore an economy mired in two straight years of recession.

“We’re on strike for the future of the country,” said Rio teacher Mirna Aragon at a protest with thousands of other people. “The rights of workers have been thrown in the gutter.”

Question of rights

A provision to set the retirement age at 65 is central to the pension reform — a shock to a country where many are able to draw pensions at 54.

That reform is needed to prevent the pension system’s “collapse,” the hugely unpopular Temer said in an address on Wednesday.

“No one will have their rights taken away,” he said, describing the reforms as “saving the benefits of today’s retirees and of the young who will retire tomorrow.”

Arguing that the country will be driven to bankruptcy if austerity measures are not taken, Temer has already steered a 20-year budget freeze through Congress.

He got one piece of good news Wednesday when financial ratings agency Moody’s upgraded its outlook for Brazil from “negative” to “stable.”

However, leftist opposition organizations say Temer is punishing ordinary Brazilians already suffering the worst recession in the country’s history, with unemployment at a record 12.6 percent — around 13 million jobless.

Popular actor Wagner Moura — who plays the drug lord Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series “Narcos” — added his voice, saying “this reform represents yet another enormous blow to the rights of Brazilian workers.”

Corruption probes

When Temer took over last year — after his leftist predecessor Rousseff was impeached for illegally manipulating government accounts with unauthorized loans — he made a return to economic health his main goal, saying he does not care if austerity measures decrease his already rock-bottom popularity.

However, Temer’s credibility among Brazilians is being hurt further by a ballooning graft scandal over embezzlement from the state oil company Petrobras.

The scandal entered new territory on Tuesday, when the prosecutor general requested the Supreme Court for the authority to investigate scores of politicians. They reportedly include five ministers as well as the presidents of both houses of Congress.

Temer has said he will not fire ministers unless they are actually charged with crimes.

However, earlier phases in the scandal have already claimed several ministers, raising questions over Temer’s ability to keep a congressional coalition together for the all-important vote on pension reform. AFP

AFP/CC

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An impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte was filed at the House of Representatives on Thursday, less than a year into his presidency.

Rep. Gary Alejano of Magdalo party-list filed the complaint, accusing the President of high crimes such as killing suspected criminals and graft and corruption.

“We believe that President Duterte is unfit to serve as highest elected public official. The state policy of killing drug offenders is already alarming,” Alejano said.

The lawmaker accused Duterte of ordering the execution of 1,400 people when he was mayor of Davao City, hiding wealth as much as P2.2 billion and hiring 11,000 ghost employees.

“The President should be impeached due to culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, and betrayal of public trust,” Alejano added.

Malacañang shrugged off the complaint.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez also dismissed the move to unseat the President.
“We are entitled to our stupidity,” Alvarez said in a text message. LLANESCA T. PANTI

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Actress Emma Watson AFP PHOTO

LOS ANGELES: “Beauty and the Beast” star Emma Watson is taking legal action after dozens of private pictures of her trying on clothes were stolen and posted online, her publicist said on Wednesday.

“Photos from a clothes fitting Emma had with a stylist a couple of years ago have been stolen,” the 26-year-old British actress’s spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

“They are not nude photographs. Lawyers have been instructed and we are not commenting further.”

Media reports said the pictures were shared on the so-called “dark web”—an encrypted part of the internet not easily accessible by users lacking specialist knowledge.

The incident follows controversy over a photo shoot in the March edition of Vanity Fair in which she partially exposed her breasts, prompting criticism that the shoot wasn’t in keeping with the United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador’s feminist image.

The “Harry Potter” star was also threatened on the controversial 4Chan message board in 2014 with a leak of nude images after delivering a speech on gender equality.

“I knew it was a hoax, I knew the pictures didn’t exist,” she said at a Facebook event the following year after the pictures failed to emerge.

“The minute I stepped up and talked about women’s rights I was immediately threatened— within less than 12 hours I was receiving threats.”

Last month, a 29-year-old Chicago man was jailed for nine months for hacking into the electronic accounts of celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, held by Apple’s iCloud service and stealing private information, including nude videos and photos.

Dozens of photos of stars were posted online as part of the 2014 phishing exercise, including shots of Rihanna, Kate Upton and Kirsten Dunst. Tech giant Apple admitted there had been a “targeted attack,” but denied its cloud storage system had been breached.

“Even worse than seeing women’s privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy,” Watson, who was not named among the victims, tweeted at the time.

“Beauty and the Beast”—Disney’s live-action remake of its own 1991 animated feature— hits theaters Friday with Watson in the lead role as Belle, and is already the fastest selling family film in history, outpacing previous record-holder “Finding Dory.” AFP

The post Emma Watson to sue over hacked photos appeared first on The Manila Times Online.

LOS ANGELES: Movie stars Emma Watson and Amanda Seyfried launched legal action Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) after private pictures were stolen and posted online, while Mischa Barton spoke of her anguish over a leaked sex tape.

Although the photographs of 26-year-old Watson merely show her trying on outfits, the images of Seyfried and Barton show them in a series of compromising and sexually explicit poses.

Watson’s publicist said her stolen pictures were taken during a fitting she had with a stylist “a couple of years ago,” without offering further details about the circumstances of the shoot or how the images had ended up in the wrong hands.

“They are not nude photographs. Lawyers have been instructed and we are not commenting further,” he told Agence France-Presse.

Media reports said the pictures had been shared on the so-called “dark web”—an encrypted part of the internet not easily accessible by users lacking specialist knowledge.

Later on Wednesday, Amanda Seyfried’s legal team said it is pursuing a website that had posted her nude photos, the celebrity gossip portal TMZ reported, including images of “intimate moments” with her ex-boyfriend.

TMZ posted what it described as a threatening letter from the actress’s lawyer to Celeb Jihad, demanding it immediately take down the images.

It was not immediately clear if the pictures, which remained available on the site early afternoon Los Angeles time, were obtained in an attack linked to the Watson theft.

Meanwhile, Barton told a news conference on the outskirts of Los Angeles she was taking action to stop the potential sale of a sex tape made against her will in a so-called “revenge porn” case.

Barton told reporters she had obtained a restraining order, and that cease-and-desist letters had been sent to those believed to be trying to buy or sell the images.

Worst fears realized

“I just want to say that I have been put through an incredibly hard and trying time,” said the 31-year-old actress best known for her starring role on the Fox series “The OC.”

Reading from a prepared statement, she said her worst fears were realized when she learned that someone she had loved and trusted had been filming her “most intimate and private moments” with hidden cameras.

“I came forward to fight this, not only for myself but for all the women out there,” she said. “I want to protect them from the pain and humiliation that I have had to go through.”

Barton’s lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said someone the actress had once dated was offering the tape for $500,000, adding that buyers could be prosecuted.

The images were recorded during the last year, she said, refusing to identify the culprit, citing an ongoing police investigation.

The theft comes amid a spate of cases in which female celebrities had private and potentially embarrassing images leaked online, sometimes by those intending to blackmail their victims.

Watson, who stars in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” due to hit US theaters on Friday, was threatened on the controversial 4Chan message board in 2014 with a leak of nude images after she had delivered a speech about gender equality. That threat turned out to be a hoax.

Last month, a 29-year-old Chicago man was jailed for nine months for hacking into the electronic accounts of celebrities—including Jennifer Lawrence—on Apple’s iCloud service, and stealing private information including nude videos and photos.

Dozens of stars’ photos were posted online as part of the 2014 phishing exercise, including shots of Rihanna, Kate Upton and Kirsten Dunst. Apple admitted a “targeted attack,” but denied its cloud storage system had been breached. AFP

The post Female celebrities take action over hacked images appeared first on The Manila Times Online.

US Fed’s balanced view ‘good for global growth, trade’

The Philippine central bank sees no need to tweak its policy setting following the US Federal Reserve’s move the other night to raise its key interest rates, as expected, saying the US’ balanced view of inflation could be good for global growth and trade with its partners.

Analysts had predicted that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) would retain its benchmark interest rates after an expected US rate hike, but said it would probably make some adjustments to the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for banks.

“The Fed’s move, though widely expected, still contained valuable market information, particularly the indication of a continued gradual pace of the next steps and the consequent market interpretation that the Fed is willing to let inflation overshoot” [its target], BSP Governor Amando J. Tetangco Jr. said in a text message to reporters on Thursday in immediate reaction to the US rate hike.

Tetangco said the Fed’s inflation outlook, in a way, could be seen as positive for risk sentiment in the near term, but added that on the whole, its balanced view could be good for global growth and trade, particularly for trading partners of the US such as the Philippines

“We will, therefore, watch out for further developments on the trade side to see the impact on banks and corporate credit activities,” he said.

“At the moment, however, given the Fed action was as expected and inflation for now is seen to be well behaved, there appears to be no need to tweak policy settings,” Tetangco added.

The BSP—after lowering its reverse repurchase rate to 3 percent from 4 percent on May 16 in the runup to adopting an interest rate corridor system on June 3 last year—kept its key policy rate unchanged at its first meeting for 2017.

The Monetary Board also held steady the corresponding rates for overnight lending and deposit facilities at 3.5 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

Monetary authorities have an inflation outlook of 3.5 percent for 2017, and 3.1 percent for 2018.

Details of the Fed move (see related story ‘US Fed raises benchmark interest rate a quarter point’ on B1)
The US Fed raised the benchmark interest rate by a quarter point at its March 15 to 16 meeting. In that meeting, the Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to raise the key federal funds rate to a range of 0.75 percent to 1.0 percent, although there was one dissenting voice. The higher benchmark interest rate will push up costs for mortgages and credit cards.

The FOMC statement noted that inflation was moving closer to the central bank’s 2 percent target, and “the labor market continued to strengthen” amid solid job gains, while “economic activity has continued to expand at a moderate pace.”

The FOMC once again said it expected those economic improvements to continue with only “gradual adjustments” in the policy interest rate.

PH unlikely to track Fed

London-based research consultancy firm Capital Economics said for most economies in emerging Asia, including the Philippines, it will be local factors and not the actions of the US Federal Reserve that will determine the next moves by the region’s central banks.

“With the Fed still projecting further rate hikes this year, there is likely to be speculation that Asia’s central banks will have to respond with rate hikes of their own,” Capital Economics’ Gareth Leather said in a report.
For instance, he noted that the People’s Bank of China just hiked rates on Thursday, while Hong Kong and Singapore—where exchange rate regimes mean a sacrifice of control over local interest rates—a rise in US interest rates could push up local rates.

“But elsewhere, there is little reason to think that central banks will need to follow the Fed’s lead… Indeed, historically there has not been a particularly close relationship between interest rates in Asia and the Fed funds rate,” he explained.

Leather, however, said that to the extent that US rate hikes do put pressure on Asian central banks to tighten policy, it will be through currency movements.

Nevertheless, he said that more generally, Asian central banks are unlikely to panic even if their currencies do lose some ground against the US dollar.

“US dollar-denominated debt is low across most of the region. Subdued inflationary pressures across the region mean that central banks will not worry about currency depreciation pushing up import costs. Finally, some central banks (and their country’s exporters) may welcome some currency weakness and the boost it should provide to their competitiveness,” he said.

Leather also pointed out that the upshot is that domestic factors will determine the outlook for monetary policy in most of Asia, not the US Fed.

“We think rates will remain low throughout the region this year…,” he added.

PH seen cutting RRR

Meanwhile, an analyst from a local lender who requested anonymity said the BSP could later adjust the reserve requirement ratio for banks lower.

The analyst said the BSP’s second monetary policy on March 23 represents probably the last window of opportunity for Governor Tetangco to slash the RRR, as he has been wanting to do as early as 2015.

“By doing so, he hopes to give the market an ample heads-up before his own projected rate hike probably at the May 11 meeting,” the analyst said.

Since May 2015, the central bank has maintained the reserve requirement at 20 percent to prevent a rapid increase in liquidity and credit expansion, which could threaten the stability of the country’s financial system if left unchecked.

The post BSP sees no need to tweak policy appeared first on The Manila Times Online.

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announces that 813 out of 1,317 passed the Physician Licensure Examination given by the Board of Medicine in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cebu and Zamboanga this March 2017.

Seq. No.  N a m e

1 ABANIL, DANILEE MAY FLOR  VINOYA
2 ABASTAR, KATHRINA  SANA
3 ABDULRACHMAN, NAIMAH  MOALAM
4 ABDURAHMAN, KENERHAM  MOHAMMAD HASIM
5 ABELLA, JED MCLEE  GONZALES
6 ABENDAN, RAYNA  KARIYA
7 ABIQUI, KRIS DAVID  BAQUIRAN
8 ABUEL, JEREMIAH NEAL  HEBRON
9 ACERO, MONALISA  EBUENGA
10 ACUESTA, MARITESS  BALHIN
11 ACUÑA, GRACHELE CHARM  ASUNCION
12 ADLAON, LANCE ALDWIN  SINGCO
13 ADRIAS, ANGEL GLO  BALDONADO
14 AGNA, PAOLO RENATO  OIDA
15 AGONCILLO, MARIA ANGELICA  CALLANTA
16 AGPALO, BORIS MIKHAIL  DIMACALE
17 AGUILA, JULIE ANN DIANNE  MANAIG
18 AGUILAR, GRETCHEL  SUAREZ
19 AKAS, GUIAHOD  MANILI
20 ALBITE, ANGELA SALOME  LLENA
21 ALCANTARA, ANNE KRISTINE  BAYANI
22 ALCANTARA, LARA MONIQUE  SAN PASCUAL
23 ALCAYDE, DESIREE LAPIDEZ
24 ALDANA, ANGELA GLADYS  PALMES
25 ALFECHE, SANDRA JANE  SY
26 ALGABRE, ERNEST JOHN  DIMLA
27 ALI, AHMED-NHAWAF  AHMAD
28 ALICER, DIANA DAME  PALMA
29 ALIPONTO, ANNAJILLAH  MACARADI
30 ALMAZAN, JOHN ERIC  GUMNAD
31 ALMEIDA, CARMELO ADRIAN  BENDANILLO
32 ALMODOVAR, KATERINA MARIA THERESA  CORTES
33 ALOBBA, HYDEE CLAIRE  DALIT
34 ALON, RYAN KRISTOFFER  TOBIAS
35 ALONZO, KAREN ASHLEY  PASCUA
36 ALVAREZ, AEVON TRICHE  GREGORIO
37 ALVAREZ, CHARISSE  TOLEDO
38 ALVAREZ, LUIGINIO BRYAN  YU
39 ALVERIO, TESSIE VENUS  ONG
40 AMADA, AJE FRED  GALLEGO
41 AMADOR, MA BERNADETTE  TABARES
42 AMANTE, CARL ANGELO  ONG
43 AMBROSIO, DENICE MARI  REYES
44 AMPARADO, LLOYD  BERRO
45 ANCHETA, KEVIN LAWRENCE  MODESTO
46 ANDRADE, LIWAYWAY  REMEGIAS
47 ANDRES, EILEEN  YAP
48 ANDRES, RHYS  DEL PRADO
49 ANDUTAN, RAUL MARTIN BRIEN  CAYABYAB
50 ANGELES, MARK  BACAY
51 ANTIQUINA, PHOEBE  VILLARIN
52 ANUNCIACION, KRISTEL MARIE  PINE
53 APACIBLE, MARIE JEANNE THERESE  MOSCOSO
54 APEPE, SINBAD ALFONSO  APDUJAN
55 AQUINO, IRENE ANASTACIA  TRILLANA
56 AQUINO, JAM  GALLARDO
57 AQUINO, PATRICIA CLAUDIA  SORIANO
58 ARAMBURO, JETHRO  NAVAL
59 ARAO, KEVIN  AGUSTIN
60 ARAÑADOR, IRISH MAE  PEDROSO
61 ARCILLA, AISA MARIE  TABLIZO
62 ARCILLA, MICHAEL JOSE  TORRES
63 ARELLANO, IRENE  LLORIN
64 ARRIOLA, IDA MARIONNE  QUILANG
65 ASOY, ELNARDZ HARVEY  VASQUEZ
66 ATIENZA, CHRISTINE JOY  CARANDANG
67 AUSTRIA, DAWN MARIE  SACRAMENTO
68 AUXILLOS, ALYZZA  GUARDIAN
69 AVANCEÑA, ARMAN FRANCIS  VENIDA
70 AVILES, MAUREEN CHLOE  CABELLO
71 AZIS, KHADIJAH  BALBON
72 BACAY, GWYN  REMOTO
73 BADILLES, JASON  TEDOR
74 BAES, LEZZIE  FAJANILAN
75 BAGAFORO, MYRIANNE JADE  SIÑEL
76 BAJO, JOSE ANTONIO  MICABALO
77 BALBAREZ, VENCY LAURENT  ESCOBIN
78 BALUYOT, DAVID JOSEPH  MERCADO
79 BANIOLA, DECEGYL  AGUISANDO
80 BANIQUED, ALEX  CORREA
81 BANZON, JOSE GIAN LORENZO  AZARRAGA
82 BARBOSA, JUSTYNE  FIRMALINO
83 BARONDA, KAREN MAE  REYES
84 BAROQUE, GABRIEL ALEJANDRO  BANTUG
85 BARQUILLA, LEEZ VANESSA  NAMION
86 BARRION, JOHN PAUL  MALINAY
87 BARTOLOME, RUTHLYN  TAMBAUAN
88 BARZO, MORIEJON  MANCHETE
89 BASILIO, RHEALYN  GUARDIANO
90 BASTIGUE, SHERWIN ROE  PAGENTE
91 BATOBALONOS, RUBY ANNE  DUMOSMOG
92 BATONGBAKAL, KRISTINE KAYE  SANTOS
93 BEATRIZ, PRISTINE KAE  EMATA
94 BELEN, MANUELITO  LEYCO
95 BELJERA, RENCEL  HOFILEÑA
96 BELMONTE, CARMELLI PILAR  VERDE
97 BERDIN, ALZYN  BULANADI
98 BERINGUEL, PSYCHE  RONQUILLO
99 BERMUDEZ, KRISTINE CHERYLL  MEDIANO
100 BERMUDEZ, MAEVIR  PAJARILLO
101 BERNAL, ROMEO MANUEL III  ESQUIVEL
102 BERNARDES, MAE CHARISSE  ADOBO
103 BESINGA, HERLENE  BECAMON
104 BIGALBAL, JOBELLE ANN  DELA CRUZ
105 BILIRAN, ISIDORE  AMILA
106 BLAQUERA, GENE KELLY  PEREZ
107 BODIONGAN, ERWIN  GARCES
108 BOGLOSA, CHRISTINE JADE  TACLIN
109 BONDOC, HIDELISA  ENDAYA
110 BONITA, MARIANE TRIA  LEE
111 BORDA, CARLEONE  LUTAOS
112 BORDALLO, ZAYR  MENDOZA
113 BORJA, MARK KEVIN  DAVID
114 BORRES, ELIANE  PEPITO
115 BRAVO, VINCENT MARTIN  ESPINOSA
116 BRIÑEZ, MICHAEL ANGELO  OLIVERIA
117 BROZO, TONI-ROSE  ALEJANDRINO
118 BUATIS, PATRICK NANZ  OCAÑADA
119 BUGNA, MARVIN JINO  SALAZAR
120 BUGNAY, VINAH LYN  PATONG
121 CABANELA, CARYL ANNE  SANTUYO
122 CABANTAC, KATHERINE RHEA  DIGA
123 CABATAN, GABRIEL SEBASTIAN  DE LA CRUZ
124 CABAWATAN, LIZ DANIELLE  PEREZ
125 CABORNAY, AILEEN JAE  CRUZ
126 CABUNILAS, MARIA ANDREA  MARQUEZ
127 CAGUITLA, RAOUL NIÑO  JURADO
128 CAINGLET, YVES  MENDOZA
129 CAJITA-VALDEMAR, MYRENE THERESE  PECTOR
130 CALANDADA, RUFAIDAH  LALIA
131 CALBAY, DANIEL JAMES  VICTORIO
132 CALIBAG, MARIA KRISTINA KARIZZA  BARLAO
133 CALUB, PAUL AMBROSE  CAPATI
134 CALUBAN, HERLEUS  BALDOMERO
135 CALUMBA, MARK EPHRAIM  ACERON
136 CALUPIG, TIFFANY GRACE  CORAPAN
137 CALUSCUSIN, IGAN ROLLAN  CANTOS
138 CALUSCUSIN, IVAN ROMMEL  CANTOS
139 CALVELO, FLANZ ROVEN  DEVOTA
140 CAMACHO, HANS ROBERT  CARLOS
141 CAMAYMAYAN, GLENN  MILAG
142 CAMMAYO, DANA CELINE  BAYLON
143 CANDELARIO, SHIERYL JANE  RAFER
144 CANLAS, KATHERINE MAE  SONZA
145 CANO, CATHERINE  UY
146 CANOY, JEANETTE ANNE  MALACAD
147 CAPARAS, ANGELI JOY  CABANBAN
148 CAPARRAS, ANNALIZ  REYES
149 CAPUYAN, JAMIE JOY  LAWAGAN
150 CARIÑO, MINA LIZA  DALUYEN
151 CASIMIRO, FRANCES MARGARET  LAMES
152 CASINTAHAN, MARK ERNEST  ABAD
153 CASTILLO, APRIL JODY  HEJE
154 CASTILLO, PAOLO EUGENIO  BELTRAN
155 CASTRO, KAREN  RUELAN
156 CASTRO, LESLIE ANN  RICASA
157 CATALAN, LEA PAULA  PEDUCHE
158 CATIGAN, XYRA ALYSSA  UY
159 CAÑADA, NOTY  CONDA
160 CAÑETE, AILEEN  FORNOLES
161 CERVANIA, BIANCA NICOLE  FRONDOSO
162 CERVATOS, LUANNE MARIE  INAC
163 CHEN, CYDRIK NIMROD  BAYLON
164 CHEN, RACHEL  CARRASCOSO
165 CHEUNG, TERENCE  DYCHAUCO
166 CHIO, JUNE CHRISTINE  BIONG
167 CHUA, CHRISTIANNE BERNADINE  SY
168 CHUA, HEDLEY GHIZEL  LAXAMANA
169 CHUA, LIZA CARMELLI  ABIAD
170 CHUA, MARIA KRISTINA  LEGASPI
171 CHUA, PATRICK IVAN  ALCARAZ
172 CHUA-PASCUAL, ANGELIE  GO
173 CLEMENTE, ALYSSA MARIE  RECINTO
174 CO, JIAN MERYL  CORPUZ
175 COCOS, CHRISTINE CAMILLE  SORIANO
176 CODIZAL, ANNA SOPHIA  AQUINO
177 COLLANTES, JAYBY  MARCHADESCH
178 COLORADO, IMY ROSE  ALBERTO
179 COLORADO, YIMYR  GATCHALIAN
180 COMAHIG, LUIGIE  TIU
181 CONCEPCION, KRISTEL ANNE  DELA CRUZ
182 CONTILLO, MARK LEE  CLORES
183 CORDOVA, CARLSON  TAN
184 CORPUZ, JAMIE  ROMANES
185 CORPUZ, KARL ALVIN  ALIPIO
186 CORSAME, LESTER JAY  TAGALOGON
187 CORSIGA, KEIZA RUTH  MODINA
188 CORTEZ, ALEXANDER  DANTES
189 COSEP, CYNTHIA  ORTEGA
190 COSTE, BEVERLY GRACE  SALVADOR
191 CRUZ, ABRAHAM  ENRIQUEZ
192 CRUZ, ARCTURUS  EVANGELISTA
193 CRUZ, ERIKA MARIE  VENTURINA
194 CRUZ, JANA MAY MARIE  BALDERRAMA
195 CRUZ, JOEL JASON  MERCADO
196 CRUZ, LARA LUISA  BARCELONA
197 CRUZ, REGINA MELISSA  QUIOCHO
198 CUA-LIM, JACQUELINE  TIAMZON
199 CUADRA, PURA-ANN MARIE  ALCAZAREN
200 CUBIL, PHYLISS EMMANUELLE  CAÑAS
201 CUENCA, ANNA CRISTINA  LOZADA
202 CUNANAN, MARA ANGELICA  BAYAUA
203 CUNANAN, NIGEL GEROME  CASTRO
204 CUNTAPAY, IVY MARISSE  MEDINACELI
205 DADURAL, CYLIN TEHANI  FARINAS
206 DAGADAG, GUIA GRACE  PUYAO
207 DAKAY, DARYL  ROSALITA
208 DANAO, CLARISSE JEAN  NICOLAS
209 DAQUIOAG, JACKSON  VELASCO
210 DATOR, MA MEDY ZENA  UY
211 DAULAT, RICHARD VICTOR  ATOS
212 DAVILA, BRIAN  KIM
213 DAVILLO, ERICA TANIA
214 DAYO, PAUL JOSEPH  CAÑIZARES
215 DAYOHA, MA JOSEPHINE  ALTARES
216 DE GUZMAN, JIRAH JOY  ROSAS
217 DE JESUS, MARIAN  FACTORA
218 DE LA PAZ, MA SAMANTHA  ROCHA
219 DE LA SERNA, ROSS ANNE  MEDIO
220 DE LA TORRE, JUSETTE  MARAON
221 DE LEON, LUCKIE DIANE  NAVARRO
222 DE LOS REYES, ELISHA CHARLET  CERDEÑA
223 DE MESA, MARK BRIAN  ROMERO
224 DE PERIO, JEANNE THEA  CELI
225 DE VILLA, MA KATRINA  NABONG
226 DE VILLA, SHERRILYN MAY  LASTIMOSO
227 DEDACE, MA FLORICEL  HERNANDEZ
228 DEL ROSARIO, HENRY  VALDEZCO
229 DELA CRUZ, KORINA WEANGILOU  BONTIA
230 DELA CRUZ, MA KENNETH  SALVADOR
231 DELA CRUZ, SEMPRONIANO  BANDIOLA
232 DELA CRUZ, SEYCHELLE  SOLARAN
233 DELA PAZ, NOEL  PAZ
234 DELATADO, KARL MERVIN  RAFAELA
235 DELOS SANTOS, JANINA MARIE  VILLARIN
236 DELOS SANTOS, JANUAREE  EMOCLING
237 DEMAFILES, WILBUR JAN ROBERT  ANCHETA
238 DENILA, MARY ALEXANDRA  MABUNAY
239 DEPANO, VERA MAY  CAPITULO
240 DIAMANTE, DANIEL KEN  DIOPOL
241 DIANO, ADRIENNE BIANCA  DIMATAGA
242 DIANO, MARK WILLIAM  DIMATAGA
243 DIAO, LUCILYN SHYNE  MANAGBANAG
244 DIAZ, IKE JEREMY  BALLESTEROS
245 DIAZ, JOAN KRISTINA  OMICTIN
246 DIAZ, SHEELA MAE  CRUZ
247 DICKPUS, REICHA JAN  OLBA
248 DIGAL, JENNIFER  GAMALINDA
249 DIGMAN, KATRINA  MARQUEZ
250 DIJAMCO, GABRIELLE DOMINIQUE  SARMIENTO
251 DILODILO, MELAND ROSELL  CAPULONG
252 DIMAANO, PETER BOB  ZAMONTE
253 DIMATATAC, CHERRY MAY  SISIT
254 DINAPO, MARI  ARBOLERAS
255 DISOMANGCOP, MOHAMMAD FAIZ  DISOMANGCOP
256 DIVINO, JOANNALYN  REGACHO
257 DIZON, DARLENE  MEDRANO
258 DIZON, JENNIFER  LAGMAN
259 DOMAGAS, CLAIRE ANGELI  VILLENA
260 DOMINGO, MARIA ALEXIS JOY  SANTOS
261 DOMINGO, PORTIA BERNICE  DELA CRUZ
262 DOMINGO, XZY SHANE  RIGAT
263 DOMINGUEZ, MADISON  MORILLO
264 DOMINGUEZ, REYMAN  ESTRELLA
265 DOMINGUEZ, RIZYL  SURATOS
266 DONATO, JENNIFER  FERRY
267 DU, KHRISTINE  CUBILLAS
268 DUBLIN, RAYMOND PHIL  BACLAY
269 DUJALI, PETER PAUL JOSE  RIMANDO
270 DURO, GIEZELLE MARIE  ARCEGA
271 DY, MARK ANTHONY KIM  LIM
272 DYCOCO, RAJ JERAD  RAFAEL
273 EBERO, RICHARD ED  AGUILA
274 EDORA, JESSICA LARAINE  SALAZAR
275 EDULAG, ELAINE LOUISE  OBANI
276 EKE, JOHN JR  ABALON
277 EMBESTRO, ANGELA  AGNAS
278 EMETERIO, NIGELLO  RAMIREZ
279 EMILA, JOSE CELESTINO III  DIZON
280 ENCARNACION, ANABELLIE  BALBACAL
281 ERECRE, CHRISTOPER  JABAGAT
282 ESCOBER, PATRICIA GAIL  TESORO
283 ESCURIL, GHIA  INDINO
284 ESGUERRA, WINSTON  LANDICHO
285 ESLAO, JESSICA  CABILATAZAN
286 ESMERIS, VICTOR MARCO  HUALDA
287 ESQUIVEL, AIZA MARIE  SALONGA
288 ESTA, FRANCIS JOAN  RIVERA
289 ESTELLA, SUGAR EMILY  LONGAZA
290 ESTERON, RAIZEL ANN  TOSE
291 EUFRACIO, MA CHRISTINE ANGELA  DUCUT
292 EVANGELISTA, JESUSA  TEMPLANZA
293 EVANGELISTA, ZYRIL PRINCESS  MONDALA
294 FABELLON, LOWEL  FABITO
295 FABUNAN, MONICA MARIE  GALLARDO
296 FACINABAO, VINA  DUATIN
297 FACTOR, DARYLOWIE  ARIÑO
298 FALGUI, ALRIN  FLORES
299 FARSHID MEHR, NINA  SANTOS
300 FAUSTINO, MINVEE  GUILLERMO
301 FELICIANO, MARK ANTHONY  GUEVARA
302 FERNANDEZ, ANDREA  VILLAPANDO
303 FERNANDEZ, GRAZELLE ANNE  REGODOS
304 FERNANDEZ, MARTIN LOUIS  MANIO
305 FERNANDO, ANGELA LAUREN  DIZON
306 FERNANDO, DAWN MARGARITA  BORJA
307 FERNANDO, JOAN GRACE  BRASILEÑO
308 FERRAREN, JHUFEL  LERIOS
309 FERRER, JOSEDITH  DOMINGO
310 FESALBON, KAREN  SARIGAN
311 FLAVIANO, CLAIRE ABEGAIL  QUIMPO
312 FLORENDO, FLORA LAINE  LUGOD
313 FLORES, FRANCIS EUGENE  AGUILAN
314 FLORES, MARK JORREL  FRIAS
315 FLORES, RALPH JOHANN  OVIEDO
316 FORNOLLES, ROXANNE JEEN  LARGADO
317 FORTEZ, FIEL RONAN LEO  RESMUNDO
318 FRANCISCO, HANZEL  DIÑO
319 FRANCISCO, LESTER RYAN  MARIANO
320 FRANCISCO, NOAHDEL HALLEL  CAJEGAS
321 FRANDO, JAN PETER  MENDIZABAL
322 FRIAS, ALYA MARIE LOURDES  ROA
323 FULO, JOHN BENEDICT  TITO
324 GABRIEL, MARIA REGINA  CASTRO
325 GABUCO, MARK RENFRED  TABERNILLA
326 GACAYAN, WILKINSON  BINOYA
327 GACULA, SEAN IRA  GUARIN
328 GAHID, IRISH  BUYOG
329 GALDO, MADELYN  SANTOS
330 GALLARDO, JANDALE  ALEDIA
331 GALLEGO, PAULO ANGELO  TORRECAMPO
332 GALVAN, ENRICO RAY  CHUA
333 GANDEZA, SIGFRED  UY
334 GANDIA, MAJA GRACIELA  AGUILAR
335 GANIR, ESTEL JOYCE  BENITEZ
336 GANIR, MARK RONDALE  AGODON
337 GANNABAN, FRANCIS  GUMARO
338 GARBANZOS, CLINT CHRISTIAN  TAN
339 GARCIA, ANDREY CHRISTOPHER  BONGOLAN
340 GARCIA, DON  GONZALES
341 GARCIA, KATHERINE SUZANNE  JURISPRUDENCIA
342 GARCIA, LEA PATRICIA  ANCHETA
343 GARCIA, MELVIN  MANIMTIM
344 GARDE, GERONA MAE  MAQUIRANG
345 GARIBAY, MAY FLORENCE  CHU
346 GATCHALIAN, SARAH DANIELLE  TEODORO
347 GATERA, JAD PAULO  CATAPANG
348 GAYOLA, MARY STEIZEL  FASIOLAN
349 GENERAO, ART LESTER  ALCID
350 GENTAPANAN, RONEL RAY  CABRERA
351 GERMONES, KAREN  MUÑOZ
352 GIBRALTAR, FRIN CHEEN  GERSAVA
353 GO, CAMILLE CELESTE  APOLINARIO
354 GO, JOHN ANTOLIN  TAN SANCHEZ
355 GO, RIZZA JENIELLE  CUA
356 GO, SHAYNE JANELLE  RUBIO
357 GO, SIR LAWRENCE  BUNAG
358 GOLAMCO, GELYN  GUERRERO
359 GOLONG, CATHERINE  HORTELANO
360 GONEO, JEN MAE  GARCERA
361 GONZALES, JOAHN GODFREY  UREÑA
362 GONZALES, VON ELDON  ROXAS
363 GRATIL, CATHERINE  REBUSTILLO
364 GUBATAYAO, HANSEL  SORONGON
365 GUCE, JHEFF  GEORGE
366 GUIANG, KIMBERLY ANNE  MULLIKEN
367 GUILLERMO, GINALYN  SISON
368 GUINGONA, MONSERRAT  MURGA
369 GUINID, BERNADETTE  CHOCYAGAN
370 GUMAPON, CHRISTIAN KARL  BADANA
371 GUMASING, BEVERLY ANNE  MARAMBA
372 GUZMAN, ANGELO JAIME  PUZON
373 GUZMAN, HAIZEL  CARAG
374 GUZMAN, JED PAUL  GEREZ
375 HABALUYAS, CHRISTOPH ANTON  TOBILLO
376 HABAN, RENDREI  DEL ROSARIO
377 HABEL, CHRISTINE JOY  NAVAL
378 HACHUELA, MICHELLE KATHRYN  PAGUNTALAN
379 HADJULA, MUKRAMEL  MAADIL
380 HERNAL, CRISELITA  SANSAIT
381 HERNANDEZ, CHRISTOPHER JR  RAFA
382 HERNANDEZ, REGGIE  TRUFIL
383 HERRERA, ANGELO  VELASCO
384 HIBIONADA, DIANE  CARUMBA
385 HILARIO, ANDREW JASON  FORTUNO
386 HIZON, GERARD JOSEPH  SANTIAGO
387 HOCSON, ANDREI  ILUMIN
388 HONG, MAE PEARL  ELAJAS
389 HUBAHIB, RIC WILLIAM  ESPINOSA
390 HUERTO, CHRYSMEISIS  DEL ROSARIO
391 IBAÑEZ, MA HAIDEE  LATONIO
392 IDIA, JHOANNA GRACE  MALAPIT
393 ILAGAN, MAY  DE CASTRO
394 ILAYAT, NAGIE  MIRANDA
395 IMBONG, SARAH JANE  BIENES
396 IMPERIAL, CINDY RUTH  ABAD
397 IMPERIO, EMMA PILAR  GUE
398 INGKING, MAE LIZA  MANLAWE
399 ISIDRO, DENELYN MARICE  DE GUZMAN
400 ISIDRO, KRISTY MARIE  CORPUZ
401 JABARANI, JEHAN  AJIBON
402 JABOLA, PIA  TORRES
403 JAVELLANA, SARRAH JANE  ANDAYA
404 JAVELONA, ANGELICA  KILAYKO
405 JAWADIL, CHRISTIAN DIORJ NIKOLAI  NADALA
406 JILOCA, MARY BEAL AURORA  MENDOZA
407 JOSUE, IVAN  DE JESUS
408 JOVES, PHILIP JOHN  MARQUESES
409 JULAO, CARL KEVIN  LUMALANG
410 JUMAWAN, JOHONEY BE  LAGUD
411 KANNI, JARRHUMA  PEÑAFLOR
412 KHO, BEATRIZ BARBARA  ALINDOGAN
413 KHO, KRISTINE MAE  BANDALAN
414 KNAIK, ARIANE BRYLLAINE  TADUS
415 KOOK, MIN KI  KIM
416 LACIA, APRIL SHILA  MARATAS
417 LACUIN, DESIREE JANE  CARRIAGA
418 LAGAJINO, EDZEL JOY  ESCAME
419 LAGAN, BEVERLY LOURDES  MACALALAD
420 LAGANSON, CHALIZ ANNE ROUCHEL  GONZALES
421 LAGON, CINDY TASHANA  SEVALLA
422 LAHORRA, ANGELITE WEYNE  MATEO
423 LAMBIO, NONA TERESA  LESCANO
424 LANCERO, DANREB  PONCE
425 LAPADA, KAREN  CHIO
426 LAPE, STACY  VENTURA
427 LAUS, ABIGAIL  MAYLED
428 LAW, JOHN JOSHUA  LUI
429 LAZO, HOSSANAH HARRIET  MANGA
430 LEDESMA, JAMES AL  BANZALI
431 LEDRES, GLADYS KRYSTABELLE  ISRAEL
432 LEE, JIN HEE
433 LEE, JULIE ANNE MERIEL  FABILA
434 LEGASPI, ROBERTO JR  TAN
435 LIBONGCOGON, RAYMOND  GURA
436 LICUP, KARL SEDFREY  GOMEZ
437 LIGO, AISZEL ANGELI  PEPITO
438 LIM, AIZEL JANE  CHUA
439 LIM, ALEXIS  REYES
440 LIMBAÑA, THERESE ANNE  TAYONG
441 LINGAN, PAUL ARIES  CATABAY
442 LINGAT, KRISTEL JOYCE  ASEGURADO
443 LIRIO, ALVIN  ELAGO
444 LIU, FRANCESCA DEBBIE  LEE
445 LIU, JISELLE MARIE  ALABATA
446 LLAMZON, PATRICIA MARIE  HERNANDEZ
447 LLANOS, FITZ GERALD  MAHIPUS
448 LOCARA, JULIUS NOEL  POTENTE
449 LOCQUIAO, JIMSY GALE  OPADA
450 LOMBRIO, JULIE FAITH  VIÑAS
451 LOMUNTAD, MERRY GINIS  INOPERIO
452 LOYOLA, CHRISTIAN  ALMORO
453 LUARDO, KIM  TUBOG
454 LUBAG, JOHN CARLO  ZAPANTA
455 LUCENTE, JEFEL  FARIOLEN
456 LUCERO, VENUS CRYSTAL  LAURON
457 LUCERO-BILIRAN, ANNA LISA  AVECILLA
458 LUCMONG, JOSANE  DECIERDO
459 LUDOVICE, MARIA THERESA KRISTINA  MARONILLA
460 LUKBAN, IRENE KRISTINE  BELLEN
461 LUKBAN, MARIA CHRISTINA ANGELA  LAGUMEN
462 LUMA-AD, MARIA AURORA  DELA FUENTE
463 LUMAPAT, GENELIZA  ORDANEZA
464 LUNAS, MANUEL EDUARDO II  SANDIQUE
465 MA, MAYFORD  YEE
466 MABANGLO, PAOLO MIGUEL  SERRANO
467 MACA-AYAN, AL-ANBARI  AGUAM
468 MACABITAS, JEFF VICTOR  FRIGILLANA
469 MACASAET, TRINA  ORIJOLA
470 MADRID, ANN MARGRETTE  ANTIOQUIA
471 MADRIDONDO, LEOMER  CAMANCHE
472 MAGALLANES, JOMAR  CABAYAO
473 MAGALONG, JAN MARVINS  BIBAT
474 MAGALONG, LERMA  SANGUEZA
475 MAGANITO, SANDY  CHIONG
476 MAGBITANG, ROMMELYN  VALENZUELA
477 MAGKASI, KAREN JOAN  BANTAY
478 MAGNO, FRENZ DALE  LEGUA
479 MAILIG, FELIMON JR  PANDAOG
480 MAKIL, JURAYYA  PASAGI
481 MALCAMPO, JOHANNA  ELARDO
482 MALLARI, CHRISTIAN  DIZON
483 MALONDA, JOSE RAFAEL  GRIARTE
484 MALQUISTO, DANIEL KEILL  OJEDA
485 MAMAROBA, KHAIRIA  PANGARUNGAN
486 MANALANG, KERWIN LOUIS  LIM
487 MANALASTAS, CELINA FAYE  CAPUNO
488 MANALO, JINGLE  LAGARZA
489 MANAPAT, ALLEN  MONTEAGUDO
490 MANASAN, MARC ERNEST  SANTOS
491 MANCOL, JOYCE LINDSAY  DIGAL
492 MANGABA, LENDYLL  AGUILAR
493 MANGIO, VALERIE  AUSTRIA
494 MANGUIAT-MARTIN, MALYN KATHRYN  MARCELO
495 MANLAPAZ, JOANNA CHRISTIE  ABECINA
496 MANUEL, REUBEN MITCHELL  MANALO
497 MANUMBAS, JOSEPHINE KATRINA  LIM
498 MANZO, GERARDO JUAN LUIS  BAROA
499 MAQUIRAN, NEWEL CASSIUS  BELZA
500 MARAAT, OLIVE JANE  PALOMAR
501 MARAVILLA, RACHELLE DIANE  BAUTISTA
502 MARAÑAN, ANNA MARIES  CAGATAN
503 MARCOS, NEIL RYAN  APELUDDIN
504 MARIBAO, SHANNA KATHLEEN  GAMBOA
505 MARIBBAY, MARIA CRISTINA  VALDEZ
506 MARQUESES, ANGEL  ARNALDO
507 MARQUEZ, ALEXANDRA  FELIPE
508 MARTIN, JUVAL SHANE  BIGORNIA
509 MARTIN, KRISTINA  VICENTE
510 MARZAN, MARC  BAGO-OD
511 MEDALLA, IVY MAE  CAHINDE
512 MEDINA, MARVIN THOMAS  RAMIREZ
513 MENCHAVEZ, RACHELLE LOURDES  VILLACAMPA
514 MENDIOLA, PERICLES  LOPEZ
515 MERCADER, KARL EMMANUEL  CUEVA
516 MERCADO, ZUCHI  CALINAYA
517 MERLE, MARY DIANNE BROOKLYN  MUNGCAL
518 MERMAL, MEHETABEL  MAGANG-AN
519 MIGALLOS, VANESSA  PEÑAVERDE
520 MIL, MA SELENE  BALBUENA
521 MILITANTE, HAZEL MARIE GERMAINE  TUJAN
522 MINGLANA, JUAN TESORO  VILLON
523 MIRASOL, JOSE PAOLO IV  ONA
524 MOLINA, JESS STANLEY  MARTIZANO
525 MOLINTAS, HAZELINE  LUIS
526 MONES, JOSCLE ACHILLES  COME
527 MONES, JOSEPH ANTHONY  COME
528 MONTALLANA, KEEYES MAE  NOROMBABA
529 MONTANA, JUSTINE ERIKA  TAN
530 MONTEJO, ALYSSA MARIZ  MARTINEZ
531 MONTERO, KAREN  BORJA
532 MONZON, CARMINA JANNA  MANIGBAS
533 MORALES, LEANNE JEANNE  ROL
534 MORANCIL, LUTHER KING  CASTRO
535 MORANO, AL KEVIN  ROSELL
536 MORDENO, QUEEN GESA  TAMAYO
537 MUKARAM, SHERNALYN  ADDALINO
538 MULA, KEZIAH NISSI  BALOLONG
539 MULDONG, CHONA MARIE  RABANG
540 MUSANIP, HISSAM  TAMPUGAO
541 MUÑOZ, ARIANNE  ESMINO
542 NADALA, FRANCIS ADRIAN  JAMERLAN
543 NAGUIAT, ANJELICA  SUAREZ
544 NARAG, ANDREA LUZ  BERNARDO
545 NARBARTE, MARIA LUCILA  TANA
546 NASAYAO-LATIDO, IVY RUTH  ZAMORA
547 NAVAL, CATHERENE  TEJANO
548 NAVALES, JON KYLE  OLIVERIO
549 NAVARRA, MAECHELLE ANNE  DELOS SANTOS
550 NIFAS, MICHELLE  ABELLA
551 NOCOM, GERARD NOEL  DE CASTRO
552 OANDASAN, ART CONSTANTINE  UJANO
553 OANDASAN, LARAE AVONNA  DAGURO
554 OBALLO-SANCHEZ, MICHELLE LYNN  RODRIGO
555 OCOMEN, KEITEL LARRAINE  FERRER
556 ODONES, EUNICE  RENIDO
557 OJANO, JOSE KARLO  RAGRAGIO
558 OLANDAG, ROGER JAMES  BERIOSO
559 OLGADO, JULIAN JOSE ALEJANDRO  CRUZ
560 OLLER, RANDOLF LEONEL  ESQUEJO
561 OMANDAC, ROMINA FRANCHESCA  DIONG
562 ONG, MARIA EMMAROSE  CUENCO
563 ONG, NIÑA FRANCESCA  AGAPITO
564 ONG, ROCHELLE JANE  IBAN
565 ORAA, MIKHAIL JOREX  BATICA
566 ORDOÑEZ, MELVIN TROY  LOPEZ
567 OREL, HANNAH MAE  POMBO
568 ORTEGA, ANDRIE LORENZO  FIDEL
569 ORTEGA, ARIEL  MEJIA
570 ORTEGA, CARL MARTIN  ACOSTA
571 ORTEGA, CARMINA  VALDEZ
572 ORTEGA, REINA  LUY
573 PABER, FARHANA  ISIP
574 PABILA, RYUJI NICHOL  KUDEKEN
575 PABLICO, CLINT  BONITA
576 PACHANO, JEANETTE  DEL ROSARIO
577 PACUNAYEN, JONATHAN  CASTILLO
578 PADLAN, ROSE ANNE  ONG
579 PADULLO, MARK ISIDORE  MONTES
580 PAGAL, QUEEN KAREN  UGALDE
581 PAGULAYAN, JOWANA LYN  SANTIAGO
582 PALACIOS, MARIA ISABELA
583 PALANCA, LOU ANDREW  RIEGO DE DIOS
584 PANABANG, KATHLEEN  MIRA
585 PANAGLIMA, KARLEEN MAE  CHUA
586 PANANGUI, JOANNE MARIE  TALAUE
587 PANG, NICOLE GIRLYN  TAN
588 PANGA, RUTH ELIZABETH  SE
589 PANGAN, GHIYLL EVANNIE  GULTIANO
590 PANGARUNGAN, ROJEMA  ALI
591 PANILAGAO, RHEA KARLA  PADILLA
592 PAPANDAYAN, ZAINODIN  GALAPON
593 PAPORO, NORHABIB  PANTARAN
594 PARAGAS, JANELINNE  GOMEZ
595 PARAISO, WILLIAM REGIL  CAÑA
596 PARAN, MARK JOSEPH  GARCIA
597 PARAYNO, JELISSA MAE  GANIBE
598 PARCON, JEFFREY  DIESTRO
599 PASCUAL, CAREN ANGELIE  BARIT
600 PATRON, IVAN ROY  ALPASAN
601 PAULINO, LOUIE GRAY  MARQUEZ
602 PAZ-CARREON, ANNE MARGARETTE  CABANILLA
603 PELAYO, NIKKI ANNE  ALONZO
604 PELIA, DOMINIQUE ANN  ANDAMAN
605 PELLICER, RYAN  FRANCIS
606 PENADOS, LOIS RENIEL  PRECIADO
607 PERLAS, JESSIE JAKE  MILLAMENA
608 PESONS, CHRISTIAN HARRY  VILO
609 PEÑA, RISA MARIA LOURDES  OPOLENCIA
610 PIANO, JOHN REGINALD  DOMAGAS
611 PICHAY, HENREIN CRIZEL  SIBAYAN
612 PILAPIL, CHARISMA  CANUA
613 PIMENTEL, MARC ALADIN  SOLA
614 PINEDA, RALPH THADDEUS  ADIONG
615 PLASABAS-MALLARI, CLEOFE  VILLAMOR
616 POSADAS, FELINA JOYCE  LLAMADO
617 PRUDENCIO, DEBBIE JANE  JAVIER
618 PULIDO, DENZEL ANNE  RAM
619 PUMA, ELDBERT JED  DUMARAOS
620 PUNZALAN, KRISTOFFER KING  CAÑEZAL
621 PURAL, KEVIN BRAYNEL  MAGO
622 QUANICO, CELINE  DYCOCO
623 QUEJA, YILDEZ  SORIANO
624 QUEJADAS, KATHYREN JOYCE  CASULLA
625 QUINDIPAN, DINNE  GENTOZALA
626 QUINIT, VANESSA CRYSTAL  AMISCARAY
627 QUITIQUIT, MARIE  LORICA
628 QUIZON, SAMUELE ANTON  EDMILAO
629 RADA, CHRISTIANE YVES LLOYD  ENGAÑO
630 RALLOS, GLADYS NYLE  LEE
631 RAMAJO, KEVIN CARLO  AGDIGOS
632 RAMIREZ, FRANK LOUIE  MARANGA
633 RAMOS, BEVERLY GIL  SIDIANGCO
634 RANCES, CATHERINE  TUY
635 RARA-BUÑO, WINSOME CHLOE  MOSO
636 RASPADO, CLIFFORD  RATUM
637 RAVANILLA, SOCORRO ANGELINE  TAN
638 REBLANDO, GEORMAE ANNE  KOH
639 REGALA, JEYEFF XOGIE  RODRIGO
640 REGIS, JERROLD  PINEDA
641 REMOTIGUE, JOSE LOUIE  DELA CERNA
642 RENDON, NICARDO  LEONARDO
643 REOTUTAR, JAFET IAN  BALLESTEROS
644 REQUILME, VICENTE II  BERNAL
645 RESOL, CLYDE  BRETAÑA
646 REYES, CARLA THERESE  MUSNI
647 REYES, IVAN GERALD  LANGUIDO
648 REYES, JOSEPH IAN  ADLAWAN
649 REYES, MA SHASTINE  TABURAZA
650 REYES, MARIE ELEANOR  RIVERAL
651 RICABLANCA, GIBRAN  OBOSA
652 RICALDE, NICCOLO MARTYN  ADRICULA
653 RIDULME, PAULO CALVIN JAY  LALAS
654 RIEGO DE DIOS, GRACIELOU  ARCEO
655 RIEZA, HUEY  BACOLOD
656 RISONAR, STEPHANIE ALVA  GALANG
657 RIVERA, ELLA MAE  UY
658 RIVERA, TANIA MARICE  PAVINO
659 RIVERA, TESS CORGETTE  ALABAR
660 ROBLES, KHRISTINE MAYE  PASCUA
661 ROJAS, MARVIN  SOSA
662 ROLDAN, KAYE ABIGAEL  DANGANAN
663 ROMAN, DAVID ARVIN  PUATU
664 ROMERO, KRISTINE JOY  VISTAN
665 ROMULO, RAYMOND CARL  VALEROSO
666 ROSALES, PAULINE ANGELA  SIMANGAN
667 ROSALES, ROSS JACOB  ANG
668 ROSAURA, FRANZ  DIAZ
669 ROSILLO, ARANI FENELA  REYES
670 ROSIT, JAN JESSICA  IYANA
671 ROXAS, MELVIC MAE  MANIO
672 RUBARES, JERMAE  CAMPANER
673 SAAVEDRA, MARTHA VERONICA ANNE  JUNTILLA
674 SABADAO, MARC  DOMINGO
675 SABEROLA, LYL ASYLL  LA SAGE
676 SALAS, REYCA NIÑA  ENTERO
677 SALAZAR-PARAS, DIANNE KATHERINE  RODRIGUEZ
678 SALES, KEVIN MATTHEW
679 SALOMA, ARVIN JUN  GENERALAO
680 SALVADOR, MARIA JORQUIZA  SABAYLE
681 SALVANTE, IAN RAY  LANDAZABAL
682 SAMILEY, SYLVIA PAMELA  JUAN
683 SAMSON, JOYCE FAYE  ALTAMIRA
684 SAN ANDRES, JERROX REY  BOMBITA
685 SAN PEDRO, DIANA MARIE  TAN
686 SANCHEZ, ELENE MAY  VILA
687 SANCHEZ, NICOLE  MANGAOANG
688 SANCHO, STEPHEN ERNEST  PADRON
689 SANDICO, OPHEL YVETTE MARIE  CABANBAN
690 SANIATAN, INOCENCIA  DOMINGO
691 SANTIANO, EDLYN  SEBASTIAN
692 SANTOS, GIOVANNI  GALERA
693 SANTOS, JUSTIN  ESCOBAR
694 SARAJAN, ALDILYN  JULAMBRI
695 SARMIENTO, APRIL MADELINE  CASTILLO
696 SARMIENTO, MEA JANELLE  FAJARDO
697 SAWIT, MARCELLE JAN  TAGUBA
698 SAYO, MARIANNE ISABEL  ABOLA
699 SERATO, MARY JOY  DACULLO
700 SERRANO, JILLIAN  OLIVAR
701 SEVERINO, JOHN VINCENT  LOYOLA
702 SHARMA, JANOO  TRILOK
703 SI, EDWARD BRYAN  SORIANO
704 SILADAN, KAREN LOUISE BETHANY  VALLECER
705 SILAN, RAPHAEL  PAMPOLAN
706 SINFUEGO, VIELLE  DELA PEÑA
707 SOBRETODO, JIPRELE IKE  SAPIAN
708 SOLIDEO, SIENALYN  ALAM
709 SOLIMAN, JOHN KING  CORCEGA
710 SOLIS, RONDA KLAIR  GESTA
711 SOLIVAS, JOCELYN SHARMAINE CYDA  TABABA
712 SOLIVEN, MARIA MONIQUE THERESITA  MERCADO
713 SONGCO, CARMINA  GOZUN
714 SORIA, ZAIRA MAE  OMIPLE
715 SORIANO, KATHLEEN DENISE  SAN JUAN
716 SORONGON, MARNELLI ANN  MONTECILLO
717 SORRA, MARC GREGORY  SOSITO
718 STA LUCIA, APRILEE  AZAULA
719 STA LUCIA, LEVANGEL  CARA
720 STA MARIA, GENIEVIEVE MARCHESSA  VALENCIA
721 SUBA, MAEBEL ALLANA  VANGUARDIA
722 SUBELDIA, KRISTINE MAE  FUSINGAN
723 SUBOL, CHERRIE NIÑA  CORREA
724 SUERO, LAURA PAULINE  SEGUI
725 SULIT, ALEXIS ANGELO  LOMOTAC
726 SUMAGAYSAY, KREEM YZRA  BAÑEZ
727 SUPERFICIAL, ALENA  VILLARETE
728 TABARES, RITA ABIGAIL  BANAY
729 TABIGUE, MAUDE  SANG-AN
730 TABUGA, HANNAH MAE  LARROZA
731 TACCAYAN, JOYANNE MAE  GO
732 TAGAYUNA, CRISELDA  ALLAS
733 TAGHAVI, SAYED MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN  DE JESUS
734 TAGORDA, RALPH LAWRENCE  RUIZ
735 TALO, FARYN  DUMALUAN
736 TAMPARIA, DARWIN  ROMA
737 TAN, BRYAN CHRISTIAN  CASCO
738 TAN, DEBBYLENE  SANTOS
739 TAN, JAMIE LYNND  DY
740 TAN, JEMBURT  TAN
741 TAN, JERIC ALLAN  BENIGAY
742 TAN, JESSA MAE  DE PAZ
743 TAN, JOSEPH IVAN  BIZON
744 TAN-GUZMAN, HONEYVEE  RODRIGUEZ
745 TANCHULING, RYAN  VILLANUEVA
746 TANGHAL, ROEMER  DIZON
747 TANTAMCO, MA CHARIZA  DIZON
748 TANTINGCO, MARICELL  JAVATE
749 TAPALES, SOL LOREN  APUADA
750 TARADJI, ADEL  JAMMIH
751 TARDO, BIEN  SINDIONG
752 TAYAG, EMERIE FRANCESCA HENEDINA  LORENZO
753 TAYCO, JOAN MARIE  DELA CRUZ
754 TEJADA, TYRONE THEODORE  ALEGRE
755 TEMPLO, JANA MARIZ  CARINGAL
756 TEO, CRISTAL JOYCE  SHIA
757 TIBI, ZENLIN  FLORES
758 TINIO, IVAN JAE  DOMINGO
759 TIU, CLIFFORD  TAN
760 TIU, EARL JANSSEN  CHUAHU
761 TIU, MARTIN  PEMPEÑA
762 TOLEDANO, CARLO EMMANUEL  BAGO-OD
763 TOMAMPOS, DOMINIQUE ARIEL  BINGCANG
764 TORCUATOR, GENESSIE APRILLE  BETITO
765 TORRECAMPO, JUAN ANTONIO  SANTOS
766 TORRES, KRISTIN AVERIL  JIMENEZ
767 TRISTE, MA JESSICA JEAN  ESTRADA
768 TULAWIE, PRECIOUS NARIMAE  BAIRD
769 TUMACMOL, MARIO JR  TOLENTINO
770 TUMBALI, MA FE  MACAWILI
771 TUMIGUING, JESSWARD  PIHAYON
772 TUY, MELISSA ERIKA  SANDIL
773 UCAB, CHRISTINE VALERIE  VICERRA
774 UNTALAN, APPLE ROSE  PEREZ
775 URMATAM, EMILIO ELTRES III  JURADO
776 UY, ARVIN MARTIN  SAMONTE
777 UY, MIKO MARIEL  ONG
778 VALDEZ, ELMOR  CAMPOMANES
779 VALENZUELA, APRIL ABIGAIL  AZURIN
780 VALLEJERA, MARY JOY  OROS
781 VALLES-MACAPIL, LOREDANA APRILE  LUNA
782 VALMONTE, DAPHNE JO  SAMSON
783 VAZQUEZ, PAULA  DEE
784 VELASCO, MARIA VERONICA  NONA
785 VENIEGAS, VANIA  DE LUNA
786 VERGARA, ANNA DOMINIQUE  VILLAVICENCIO
787 VERGARA, DARLEY  ROA
788 VERGARA, MARA RAISEL  PEREZ
789 VERZOSA, ACE TAJASHI  NAVARRETE
790 VIBAR, MARY ARIANNE  HERNANDEZ
791 VIDALLO, ALEXANDRA PAOLA MARTINA  AGUSTIN
792 VIGAFRIA, MARY ROSE  CEDEÑO
793 VILLANO, FRANCIS MARTIN  DEL FIERRO
794 VILLANUEVA, EDWARD PHILIP  IGLE
795 VILLANUEVA, GENEL  ILAGAN
796 VILLANUEVA, KRIZELLE-ANN  UTTOH
797 VILLARINA, MELINDA  OTAGAN
798 VILLAS, ALVIN LESTER  SAMSON
799 VINOYA, GRETEL BEAU  LISWEG
800 VIRAY, MARIENESSA  ZACARIAS
801 VITTO, AL KENNETH  GAVENIA
802 VITUG, PETER JAMES  BAYARON
803 WASIL, AVERY GAIL  CLEMENTE
804 WONG, MARY AIMEE  COSING
805 YAP, RAQUEL TANEE  LAMELA
806 YAÑEZ, GEOFFREY REUEL  QUINAQUIN
807 YECYECAN, CHRISTIAN  VIRAY
808 YU, CHRISTINE JOY  MISPEÑAS
809 YU, VINCEN GREGORY  YU
810 YUAGA, JESICA  CASTAÑEDA
811 YUMANG, LORRAINE ANNE  PANSOY
812 ZARAGOZA, GIAN CARLO  BAYACAL
813 ZARATE, MARIA MARGARITA  REYES

NOTHING FOLLOWS———————-         

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BRASÍLIA: Brazil’s prosecutor general wants to investigate more than 100 politicians as part of the massive Petrobras corruption probe, a source close to the case said Thursday.

The latest list of suspects in the highly explosive case remains secret.

But speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said there were “probably… more than 100” politicians who currently enjoy immunity from prosecution in ordinary courts as sitting members of Congress or cabinet ministers.

Top prosecutor Rodrigo Janot on Tuesday asked Brazil’s Supreme Court—the only one that can try such suspects—for permission to open 83 new investigations into a sprawling corruption scheme centered on state oil company Petrobras.

Each of those investigations may involve more than one person, and a given suspect may be targeted in more than one investigation.

The total number of politicians targeted has not been officially released.

Several Brazilian news sites say at least five ministers in President Michel Temer’s center-right government are in the crosshairs, including his recently appointed foreign minister Aloysio Nunes, as well as the presidents of both houses of Congress.

Leftist ex-president Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor and mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a huge figure in the Brazilian political scene, were also on the list, Brazilian media reported.

The complaints against the politicians ramp up the so-called Car Wash probe, which has uncovered massive embezzlement at Petrobras.

The accusations in Janot’s list are based on a deluge of testimony given in plea bargains struck with 77 former executives of the giant Odebrecht construction firm, which was at the heart of the Petrobras scheme.

The former Odebrecht employees, including ex-chief executive Marcelo Odebrecht, have confessed to systemic bribery of politicians in exchange for inflated contracts with Petrobras and favorable legislation in Congress.

The case has upended politics in Brazil just as Latin America’s largest economy struggles through the worst recession in its history. AFP

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SEOUL: Rounder eyes, narrower faces, bigger breasts: a South Korean girlband is celebrating the country’s obsession with surgically enhanced beauty by going under the knife to praise the virtues of “Becoming Pretty.”

All four members of obscure K-pop outfit SixBomb went through extensive plastic surgery, from nose jobs to breast implants, before releasing their new single on Thursday.

A series of videos showed the four women visiting a clinic, strutting into an operating theatre and lying on the operating table. Another had them practicing dance moves in sunglasses with their heads wrapped in bandages.

“Everyone follows me, they know I’m pretty,” they sing in “Becoming Pretty”—an electronic dance number with a hook reminiscent of South Korean singer Psy’s 2012 global phenomenon Gangnam Style.

The track could be the direct antithesis to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, lyrics: “I’m beautiful in my way/Cause God makes no mistakes/I’m on the right track, baby/I was born this way.”

It has raised questions over the South’s ultra-competitive, looks-obsessed society, where physical features enhance social standing and can help secure jobs, with many recruitment adverts requiring a “neat appearance” and a CV with photo.

Despite a population of only 50 million, it is the world’s third biggest plastic surgery market, with thousands of clinics performing an estimated 1.2 million procedures a year.

Adverts showing dramatic before-and-after pictures are omnipresent on street billboards, subway trains, bus stops and toilet walls, urging women to “change” their lives or admonishing them: “Everyone but you has done it.”

‘Come out of the closet’

SixBomb’s lead singer Dain had her breasts enlarged and her cheekbones shaved to make her face look smaller for the song.

“We all wanted to get some surgeries done to look prettier… and thought, ‘Why not perform a song about it instead of trying to conceal it?'” she said.

“People will notice it anyway… so we wanted to be open about this reality where many women want to look pretty,” she told Agence France-Presse.

SixBomb were founded in 2012 and have released five albums, but have yet to become major stars and with their members now in their mid-20s, time could be running out for them in a youth-driven market.

The project was funded by their management, which spent 100 million won (around $90,000) for “almost every kind of surgery that could be done on a face” and breast implants, said head manager Kim Il-Woong.

“We haven’t committed any crimes. Our only crime would be talking about it in such an open manner,” he said, adding many celebrities go under the knife but do not “come out of the closet.”

Korean Wave

K-pop has conquered much of Asia and spread beyond it in a “Korean Wave”, with top girl- and boybands, their good looks often surgically perfected and performing dance moves with military precision, enjoying huge followings.

Many are tightly controlled by their managements, who dictate everything from what songs to sing, to what to eat—or not—to maintain rail-thin figures, and what operations to have.

Their popularity has itself fuelled the surgery business, with many fans—including from overseas, particularly Chinese—having procedures in the hope of looking like their favorite stars.

A prominent Seoul clinic confirmed that SixBomb’s members had gone through extensive operations “all above the waist.”

None of the four were forced to go through surgery, they said, although rapper Soa had to think “long and hard” before having the “double eyelid” procedure to make eyes wider and rounder.

“I really liked and was satisfied with my previous eyes, so I had to think long and hard before deciding to take part in this concept,” Soa said.

‘Worshipped and consumed’

The stunt has raised eyebrows.

“I understand that you guys are desperate for publicity… but did you really need to go this far?” asked one online commentator, while another described it “flat-out bizarre”.

The move is emblematic of the “plastic surgery culture” prevalent in a country which ranks at the bottom of OECD surveys on gender equality despite being Asia’s fourth-largest economy, said Jung Seul-Ah, media monitor at rights group Korea Womenlink.

Looks often play a key role in South Korean women’s “social survival” and job prospects, Jung said.

“This culture has made plastic surgery something essential for many women deemed not pretty enough,” Jung said, and an “absolute necessity for female celebrities whose looks are worshipped, consumed and capitalized on incessantly”.

But for her part, singer Dain had no doubts. “I really love my new face and am proud of how good I look on TV screens,” she said, adding she would welcome “any kind of public attention, good or bad” for the project. AFP

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WASHINGTON: The US military said Thursday it carried out a deadly air strike on an Al-Qaeda meeting in northern Syria and would investigate reports that more than 40 civilians were killed when a mosque was struck in the raid.

“We did not target a mosque, but the building that we did target—which was where the meeting took place—is about 50 feet (15 meters) from a mosque that is still standing,” said Colonel John J. Thomas, spokesman for US Central Command.

According to a Centcom statement, “US forces conducted an airstrike on an Al-Qaeda in Syria meeting location March 16 in Idlib, Syria, killing several terrorists.”

The Centcom spokesman later clarified that the precise location of the strike was unclear—but that it was the same one widely reported to have targeted the village mosque in Al-Jineh, in Aleppo province.

“We are going to look into any allegations of civilian casualties in relation to this strike,” he added, when asked about reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that 42 people died, most of them civilians. AFP

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WASHINGTON: World Bank investments in commercial financial institutions is indirectly allowing land-grabs, evictions and pollution in Southeast Asia, a watchdog group charged in a report Friday.

By investing in banks and other so-called financial intermediaries, World Bank funds can increase poverty, social strife and promote projects which hasten climate change, according to a report by Inclusive Development International.

These investments by the World Bank’s private financing arm, the International Finance Corporation, violate its own guidelines on environmental and social conditions, the report alleges.

“Once again, we have found that outsourcing the World Bank Group’s development mandate to private financial institutions is a recipe for disaster,” David Pred, the group’s managing director, said in a statement.

Pred’s US-based non-governmental organization, which researches the activities of development agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, issued another report in October saying the IFC’s investments helped finance a “coal boom” across Asia even though the World Bank had pledged to phase out most support coal-fired power.

An IFC spokesman defended the practice of working with private financial firms, saying they were “essential” to poverty reduction and job creation.

“The multiplier effect of FI investments enables us to support far more enterprises critical to development than we would be able to on our own,” IFC spokesman Frederick Jones told Agence France-Presse.

“We work with our FI clients to improve their environment and social risk management practices.”

In 2016, the IFC poured $5 billion into commercial banks, insurance companies, private equity firms and others, representing about half of its new annual long-term commitments, according to an internal IFC watchdog. The investments are aimed at boosting domestic capital and financial markets and supporting development.

But critics have grown increasingly critical of the practice in recent years, saying the financing can support end-users who violate World Bank environmental and social safeguards given the lack of oversight on how the funds are used.

The IFC compliance office said in a report last week that although supervision of these investments was improving, the corporation still lacked a means to assess whether clients met its standards. IFC disputed that report’s findings, saying they did not give an accurate view of its performance.

Friday’s report singled out IFC support for Raiffeisen Bank International of Austria, which the report said had financed the Thai mining firm Earth Energy, the main underwriter of a coal project in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region that allegedly involved land-grabbing and mining on ancestral lands that could affect as many as 16,000 people.

The report also said IFC bought a stake in Vietnam’s state-owned VietinBank, which financed coal power, bauxite mining, rubber plantations and hydropower in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Those including Vietnam’s Son La project, which had resulted in the displacement of 91,000 people, and Cambodia’s Lower Sesan 2 dam, which threatens Mekong river fish stocks. AFP

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JAKARTA: Indonesia summoned the British ambassador Friday after a cruise ship on a voyage organized by a London-based company smashed into coral reefs in a popular tourist spot and caused extensive damage.

Raja Ampat in eastern Indonesia is one of the most biodiverse marine habitats on Earth, and attracts intrepid travelers and divers to its palm-fringed islands surrounded by coral and fish.

The accident happened this month when the 4,200-ton ship smashed into the reefs at low tide around Kri, one of hundreds of small islands in Raja Ampat, after taking tourists on a bird-watching expedition.

The boat, which was carrying 102 passengers and 79 crew, was grounded on the reefs and only refloated later on a high tide. Numerous attempts to free it using a tug boat failed, causing further damage to the corals.

The incident in West Papua province infuriated the government, who say the British captain could face criminal charges, while marine researchers believe it will take decades and cost millions of dollars to restore the corals.

On Friday Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Panjaitan, a senior figure in the cabinet who is close to President Joko Widodo, summoned British ambassador Moazzam Malik to Jakarta.

After the meeting at Panjaitan’s office in the capital, Malik told reporters he had a “very good discussion” with the minister.

“I’m disappointed to learn about the damage to this coral reef in West Papua, as we are with any environmental incident that occurs in Indonesia or anywhere else in the world,” he said.

“We hope the matter can be resolved quickly between the Indonesian authorities and the company that is responsible for this accident and was managing the ship.”

However, Malik also noted that the ship was in fact owned by a Swedish company. The tour operator Noble Caledonia, which organised the voyage to Indonesia, is based in London.

Panjaitan said authorities were taking the reef destruction “very seriously”.

“He (the captain) attempted to break free from the reefs and made the damage even worse even though he was ordered to stop,” he said, adding it could take up to 100 years to restore the corals.

Authorities have expressed anger that the Bahamas-flagged vessel left Indonesia and sailed on to the Philippines without waiting for a full damage assessment to be completed.

Noble Caledonia has apologized for the accident and said they are working to reach a settlement with the government. AFP

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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s explosive allegation that his predecessor wiretapped his Manhattan skyscraper wilted further Thursday as two high-ranking senators and the top Republican in Congress said they saw no evidence to back the claim.

The Trump’s administration is facing calls to either shore up, or drop, the unsubstantiated claim that Barack Obama ordered the phones tapped at Trump Tower during the election campaign.

Upping the pressure, a statement from both the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Richard Burr, and the committee’s Democratic vice chair Mark Warner, said they had seen no information to support Trump’s allegation, made in a tweet on March 4.

“Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,” they said.

The clear verdict from the committee leaders comes a day after two heads of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said they had received no information to back the Trump tweets.

Their rebuttal of Trump’s claim was further echoed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican on Capitol Hill, who told CNN Thursday that “we have not seen any evidence that there was a wiretap”—although he also argued the false claims would not damage Trump’s credibility.

“I think the president’s going to be marked and judged by his record,” he said.

Trump sparked a furor with the March 4 tweets that accused Obama of ordering a wiretap on the New York skyscraper where he and his family live and run his real estate empire.

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“Is it legal for a sitting President to be ‘wire tapping’ a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!” he wrote in a second tweet.

Obama swiftly issued a denial, and the White House was swamped with questions on the basis for Trump’s claim. While he had offered no evidence, the president can access information on law enforcement and intelligence investigations, and potentially classified information supporting the claim.

‘Utterly ridiculous’

No such details have been forthcoming, and both Trump and the White House now say the president’s tweet was making the broader claim that he was subjected to surveillance prior to the election.

In an interview late Wednesday with Fox News, when asked how he found out about the alleged wiretapping, Trump referred to a number of unspecified news reports that mentioned the possibility.

“I had been reading about things,” he said.

“Don’t forget: when I say wiretap, those words were in quotes… because wiretapping is pretty old-fashioned stuff. But that really covers surveillance and many other things,” he added.

Faced with the rejection of Trump’s allegations by top legislators of both parties, White House spokesman Sean Spicer insisted Thursday the president “stands by” his belief.

“I think the president has been very clear when he talked about this,” Spicer told reporters.

“When he talked about it last night, talked about wiretapping, he meant surveillance.”

Spicer read aloud to reporters unproven news reports from recent months that suggested there could have been spying on Trump Tower or the Trump campaign, and said people should wait for the formal conclusion of any investigations.

He quoted at length from an unproven media report that alleged Obama had used Britain’s signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, to monitor Trump.

In the report, Andrew Napolitano claimed that “three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command” to order the tap.

A spokesperson for the British agency called those claims “utterly ridiculous.”

“The media allegations about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense,” a GCHQ spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.

“They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.” AFP

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NEW YORK: Leading blues harmonica player James Cotton, who rose from poverty to introduce his instrument to the rock world, died Thursday. He was 81.

The Grammy-winning artist, who toured for more than 60 years even as throat cancer in the 1990s made him give up singing, died of pneumonia at a hospital in Austin, Texas, his publicist said in a statement.

Cotton made his name in Chicago as part of the Muddy Waters Band and by the 1960s his harmonica piqued the curiosity of the hippies who sought to explore the blues roots of rock.

He opened concerts for Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead and collaborated with Led Zeppelin.

The Dead had “never seen a man play the harp like that,” he said of his harmonica.

“And there was nobody playin’ music like they were playin’. It was a bit too loud for me, but I enjoyed it,” he told the Montreal Gazette in 2015.

He became a mentor to Paul Butterfield, one of the most prominent rockers to play harmonica, a partnership that Cotton credited with giving him a window to white audiences.

Cotton had grown up laboring on a plantation in Mississippi and was orphaned by age nine. But his mother had already introduced him to harmonica, using a cheap version to imitate the sounds of chickens and train.

He had heard pioneering blues harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson II on the radio and was taken by an uncle to see the master, who took him under his wing.

Cotton later told the Chicago Tribune that Williamson taught him “how to chase women, how to drink and how to play the blues.”

“Anything he played today, I learned it tomorrow. He never said anything,” Cotton said.

Cotton, who lived his final years in Austin, released his last album in 2013, “Cotton Mouth Man,” a semi-autobiographical look at his roots. AFP

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ATHENS: Investigators suspect a Greek far-left group—known as the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei—was behind a letter bomb that wounded an IMF secretary in Paris on Thursday, the same day the group claimed responsibility for an explosive device found in Berlin.

The following is a fact file on the background and activities of the elusive outfit, which is known for its letter bombs.

Who are they?

Police say they are militant youths with no proven links to other Greek extremist organizations.

In contrast to other groups who have used industrial explosives and assault weaponry, Conspiracy tends to use common materials in their attacks such as gas cannisters, gunpowder extracted from firecrackers, and pressure cookers.

The organization denounces capitalism, consumerism, police repression and worker exploitation.

Police say the name “Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei” has been used as cover by urban militants carrying out minor arson attacks against car dealerships and police vehicles since the middle of the last decade. But their activities escalated from early 2008 onwards.

How do they operate?

The group aims for maximum effect with minimum risk. In January 2008 they carried out a late-night arson barrage against Athens luxury car dealerships and banks. Nobody was injured.

At the time, gas cannister bombs were their weapon of choice, but the outfit quickly upgraded to explosives hidden in pressure cookers as well as dossiers and carved-out books.

In most cases, anonymous telephone calls were used to alert authorities before the explosives went off.

The device found at the Paris offices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) where the letter bomb exploded appeared “to have been a firework or a big firecracker, according to the city’s police chief, who described the device as “relatively rudimentary and nothing like a bomb.”

Main strikes

The group began to be taken more seriously by police in February 2009 after planting a gas cannister bomb outside the home of a senior prosecutor. It caused minor damage.

In July 2009, another bomb hidden in a pressure cooker detonated outside the home of Greece’s former police minister and in early 2010, it targeted the Greek parliament. Nobody was hurt in either incident.

In late 2010, the group began to expand their range of targets, sending a series of letter bombs to European leaders including Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi and Jose Manuel Barroso, the then-president of the European Commission. Again, there were no victims.

Brush with police and resurgence

In 2011, several of its members, many of whom were very young, were convicted of “participating in a criminal organization” and given long sentences in prison.

But three years later the group announced its return and has since committed sporadic attacks, including on the headquarters of the Greek socialist party PASOK, who at that time were sharing power with the right-wing New Democracy.

Many Greeks blame Germany and the IMF for imposing years of public sector cuts and reforms in exchange for bailout packages needed to prop up the debt-ridden country. AFP

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MAURO GIA SAMONTE

Part 3

IF family heritage is the source of a man’s heroism, then Dr. Jose P. Laurel had had much of it long before his incarnation into the world. His legendary ancestors, who were the original settlers of Batangan (the ancient name of Batangas) were the early breed that resisted the Spanish invaders. This heritage of gallantry against foreign aggressors would continue down the country’s history, all the way into the last gasps of Spanish colonialism where Dr. Laurel’s father, Judge Sotero Remoquillo Laurel, was a delegate to the Malolos Convention, Secretary of the Interior in the First Philippine Republic under President Emilio Aguinaldo, and died in an American concentration camp when Dr. Laurel was just a small boy.

On the other hand, if the degree of academic and intellectual achievements were to be the criterion for heroism, then what historians would ascribe to Rizal as a polymath would actually pale much in comparison. Witness how Dr. Laurel’s curriculum vitae stood after 1945:

Academic Background
• Elementary, Tanauan, Batangas; San Juan de Letran
• Secondary, Manila High School (Araullo High School)
• A.B., La Regeneracion (University of Santo Tomas), Manila
• (1915) LI. B., College of Law, University of the Philippines, Manila – Salutatorian
• (1919) LI.M., Escuela de Derecho, Manila -Licenciado en Ciencias Juridicas
• (1920) D.C.L., Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
• (1920) Special Studies, Sorbonne University, Paris
• (1920) Special Studies, Oxford University, United Kingdom
• (1936) Ph.D., University of Santo Tomas, Manila
• (1938) LI.D., Tokyo University, Japan – Honoris Causa

Public Service
• (1909) Temporary Clerk (Messenger), Bureau of Forestry
• (1912-1914) Permanent Clerk, Code Commission
• (1915) Permanent Clerk, Executive Bureau
• (1918) Chief Clerk, Law Division, Executive Bureau
• (1921) Chief Clerk, Administrative Division, Executive Bureau
• (1922) Undersecretary, Department of the Interior
• (1923) Secretary, Department of the Interior
• (1925) Senator and Floor Leader, Philippine Senate Congress
• (1934-1935) Delegate and Temporary Chairman, Constitutional Convention
• (1936) Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the Philippines
• (1936) Member, Electoral Commission
• (1939) Member, Moral Code Committee
• (1941) Vice-Chairman, Code Committee
• (1941) Acting Secretary, Department of Justice
• (1941) Chief Justice, Supreme Court
• (1942) Commissioner, Department of Justice
• (1942) Commissioner, Department of the Interior
• (1943-1945) President, Second Philippine Republic

On books written, Rizal wrote two, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
Dr. Laurel wrote:

1. The Election Law Annotated – Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1922.

2. Cases on Municipal Corporations – Manila: Oriental Comm. Company, 1924.

3. Cases on Constitutional Law – Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1925.

4. Election Law of the Philippine Islands – Manila: Oriental Comm. Company, 1925.

5. Local Government in the Philippine Islands – Manila: La Pilarica Publication, 1926.

6. Political Law Review Questions and Notes – (Includes extraordinary legal remedies on the subject of municipal corporation) Manila: Oriental Comm. Company, 1926.

7. The Law of Elections of the Philippine Islands – Manila: Oriental Comm. Company, 1928.

8. Assertive Nationalism: A Collection of Articles and Address on Local Problems – Manila: National Teachers College Manila, 1931, reprinted 1991. 221p.

9. The Election Law – Manila: Cecilio Press, 1931. 966p.

10. The Election Law and Amendatory Acts – Manila: Cecilio Press, 1931.
Rizal and Dr. Laurel both wrote pieces while in prison, Rizal in Fort Santiago in Manila and Dr. Laurel in Sugamo Prison in Japan.

Rizal wrote Mi Ultimo Adios, consisting of 13 stanzas that were but evocations of literary muses – so easily memorized that for college students it’s virtually all that’s required to pass the Spanish subject during my time in college.

Dr. Laurel wrote War Memoirs, consisting of 72 chapters of an engrossing epic narrative comparable in scope and spectacle to the Iliad by Homer, or even better in fact, considering its rich content of principles of international law. In his book A Child’s Footnote to History, the late Vice President Salvador “Doy” Laurel, the son of Dr. Laurel, rightly calls his father’s perilous trek together with his family and some members of his War Cabinet through the guerrilla-infested and treacherous hills of Mountain Province onward to the very fringes of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima – the Odyssey.

The charm of Mi Ultimo Adios stems from the literary criterion that of all the forms of literature, poetry is the most pure, complete and fulfilling, given its spatial limitation and its requirement of rhyme and rhythm, meter, and cadence. To wit: “Encampos de batalla, luchando con delirio/otros te dan sus vidas, sin dudas sin pesar”. See how spectacular images of great battles and lives sacrificed are evoked by one single line such that when in the end Rizal delivers his last farewell, he appears like the gallant knight in shining armor making his last heroic charge: “Morir es descansar.” And Rizal crumpling from the shots of the rifles of the Spanish civil guards that morning in Bagumbayan on December 30, 1896 was all that was needed to ensconce him in the psyche of a nation so gullible to unscrupulous machination for propagating false gods and fake heroes. (Need we recall here the image of Ninoy Aquino sprawled on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport that noon of August 21, 1983 which millions regard as martyrdom for the nation but this one single author dares say a case of euthanasia or, in Greek, “good death”?)

And yet, has anybody ever asked: What campos de batalla did Rizal ever fight in? If nobody can point to an answer, it’s because Rizal had fought in none. In fact, during his trial, Rizal vehemently protested that the 1896 Katipunan Revolt was not his revolution. Indeed, it was not his. It was Bonifacio’s. But then why execute him in the first place? Because he was a traitor to Spain. Simple as that. And it is a non sequitur that for being a traitor to Spain, one should be a hero to the Philippines. Just as Dr. Laurel would put it: He was neither pro-Japanese nor pro-American, but pro-Filipino.

It is on the question of “for whom” that Rizal fails in any appreciation for heroism. It was always for “self” that Rizal was struggling. Noli Me Tangere was chiefly for exposing friar appropriations of economienda lands, of which the Mercados of Calamba were among the major beneficiaries, and advocating reforms to redress the abuses of the friars. It is quite intriguing to note that of the many courses in college that had to do with the struggle of the masses, social studies and political and military sciences for example, Rizal sought to pursue surveying. What had land survey anything to do with revolution? Nothing at all, from all appearances. But as far as the Mercados’ lands were concerned, surveying certainly mattered most importantly, and in this context Rizal’s choice of the college course is very well understood. Landowning had dominated Rizal’s life’s concerns such that even as he had turned to writing the El Filibusterismo with the failure of the reformist Propaganda Movement, he returned to the Philippines to make a last-ditch effort to replace the vast Mercado lands that had been appropriated by the friars. He appealed to Governor General Despujol to let him bring 100,000 Philippine inhabitants to establish a Filipino colony in Borneo. Only after Despujol rejected his plea did Rizal make good the revolutionary threat in Fili by organizing the La Liga Filipina. But between the formation of the Liga in 1892 and the outbreak of the Katipunan revolt in 1896, Rizal had had time to accumulate wealth, including landholdings, amounting to P1 million at the time (reckon that amount with the $20 million dollars with which the United States bought the entire Philippines from Spain), and when, in defiance of Rizal’s instruction to relinquish leadership of the revolution to Antonio Luna, Bonifacio launched the Katipunan revolt just the same, Rizal promptly volunteered to serve the Spanish army fighting revolutionists in Cuba – evidently an effort to escape complicity with the uprising of the Katipuneros.

Always it was for “self” that Rizal found his campos de batalla.

It is to the contrary that the light of Dr. Jose P. Laurel shines. His entire political career showcased a way of life in which always he put the nation above self. In 1923, for instance, he resigned his post of Secretary of the Interior in protest against Governor General Leonard Wood’s reinstatement of a suspended police detective. The resignation triggered a mass resignation of all the other Filipino Cabinet members. To Dr. Laurel, Wood did not violate organizational discipline. In Dr. Laurel’s own words, Wood “trampled Filipino honor.” He asked,
“Would Wood have done the same (bypassing his direct authority over the issue) if that police detective were a Filipino?” The police detective happened to be American.

Wood confronted Dr. Laurel for his act: “Remember it was on the strength of Taft’s high recommendation that I appointed you Secretary of Interior. Now you are causing me so much embarrassment here and in Washington.

You better reconsider your resignation.” Dr. Laurel responded: “… I cannot with dignity continue serving under the circumstances. The honor of my country as well as my own do not permit me.”

The rest of the American period actually witnessed Dr. Laurel undertaking a seemingly self-imposed task of seeing the Filipino nation through its manifold trials and difficulties. In the 1934 constitutional convention he was elected delegate and became content with just sitting as temporary chairman in the proceedings for the election of convention officers, notably Claro M. Recto, who was elected convention president. He was, as a matter of course, selected as one of the so-called Seven Wise Men, the group tasked with drafting the Constitution, the other six sages being Filemon Sotto, chairman, and Norberto Romualdez, Manuel Roxas, Vicente Singson Encarnacion, Manuel C. Briones, and Miguel Cuaderno.

Dr. Laurel shared with the group his belief that the norm of action more appropriate at that time was constructive conservatism and not radicalism, which he saw as only seeming to be more democratic but in the long run more harmful to the country. Having thus shared his many insights on the framing of the Constitution, he stepped aside from the group, giving way to Conrado Benitez, in order to focus on drafting the Bill of Rights, which to this day Filipinos can cling to in defending themselves against state terrorism.

Ultimately, the Constitution passed by the convention was in large measure an embodiment of Dr. Laurel’s own ideals: the presidential, republican form of government; the doctrine of the separation of powers; the provision for a Bill of Rights; women’s suffrage; the supremacy of the Constitution; the independence of the judiciary; and so many more legacies of law.

But the greatest test for Dr. Laurel’s service to the nation was the presidency of the Second Philippine Republic established on October 14, 1943. Self-serving politicos seek glory and fortune in government office in times of peace. At wartime, neither glory nor fortune was there to seek. Dr. Laurel knew it was a puppet government he was heading. With precise foresight, he had seen it coming, and that’s why in the last meeting of the Commonwealth Cabinet before President Quezon left for exile to the United States, he had expressed the desire to leave the government and together with his family join the guerrillas in the hills. But consistently upholding the interest of the nation, he could not but acquiesce when Quezon asked him to stay and “help” cushion for the people the impact of the Japanese invasion. If being President of a nation is difficult enough in times of peace, how far more gargantuan is that task in times of war. Just days before the deliberations for the wartime republic got underway, Dr. Laurel was fired upon by an unknown assassin while playing golf at Wack Wack Golf and Country Club. He survived the assassination attempt, and while still recuperating from his injuries at the Philippine General Hospital, he drafted the proposed Constitution for the upcoming republic. Subsequently the draft was passed by the National Assembly (earlier constituted by the Executive Commission with Benigno Aquino, Sr. as Speaker) which eventually elected Dr. Jose P. Laurel President of the Philippine Republic.

Thus did Dr. Jose P. Laurel bear the nation on his shoulders like a cross on Calvary at a time nobody else would.

He did so against the unanimous objection of his family, particularly incurring the “tears”, he said, and utter animosity of his wife, Paciencia, who simply detested what she herself called Dr. Laurel’s puppetry to the Japanese. Sad that not even his loved ones understood the full implication of Dr. Laurel’s admitted collaboration with the Japanese invaders. He did it on purpose in order to, in his words, “tide the nation over to better times.” He steadfastly promoted the policy of “national survival” as the primordial doctrine for the Filipinos under the conditions of war. That the policy—collaboration with the Japanese—was correct is proven by the fact that the more than 100,000 Filipino casualties often cited as a result of the World War II in the Philippines were not killed during the Japanese invasion in its entirety but during the American re-occupation of the Philippines in 1945 – in just one battle, the battle for the so-called liberation of Manila.

In other words, under Dr. Laurel’s stewardship, the nation survived and averted what would have been a truly great debacle had he not been President.

American artillery destroyed homes and buildings and ravaged inhabitants in the Battle of Manila, turning the Pearl of the Orient into the greatest of shambles of World War II next only to Warsaw, Poland.

Certainly, the Japanese suicide fighters inflicted harm too upon the Filipinos who were caught in the crossfire, but Japanese bayonets could only kill one at a time; American shells blasted people hundreds at a time, and those more than 100,000 could not possibly have been killed by bayonets but by bombs.

It was too bad that when MacArthur returned, Dr. Laurel had been forced by General Yamashita to retreat to Japan. He would, as he did to the Japanese in 1942, have stood up to MacArthur in 1945 and thus spared Manila from the terrible death and destruction.

But, as in Greek tragedy, that’s just how irony works. Yamashita forced Dr. Laurel into retreat to Japan in order to escape MacArthur only for Dr. Laurel to fall right into the hands of MacArthur once he became Proconsul of Japan upon Emperor Hirohito’s surrender in 1945.

(To be continued next Saturday)

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YEN MAKABENTA

First Word
IT’S striking that the political opposition in America and the Philippines have gone in markedly different routes to challenge the incumbent Presidents. This is a reflection of the presidential system of government to which both countries subscribe.

In the United States, the opposition has challenged in court Donald Trump’s executive order barring the entry into the country of immigrants from five Muslim-majority countries. In this effort, it has already won some partial victories in several states, where district judges have blocked the order. But now, the issue will go to the US Supreme Court where the Trump administration intends to fully argue the issue.

In the Philippines, the opposition has filed an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte in the House of Representatives in a bid, not only to stop Duterte’s war on drugs, but to oust him from office.

The contrasting approaches of each opposition group suggest the level of difficulty that each group will face in order to achieve its aims.

In the US, the opposition has chosen a wholly legal route. It questions the constitutionality and legality of Trump’s travel ban, and victory will depend on whether the US Supreme Court will sustain the findings of some lower courts or completely overturn them.

In the Philippines, the preferred route is impeachment of the President in the Congress, where the opposition must contend with the superior numbers of the administration in both houses of Congress.

Under the Constitution, the House of Representatives has the exclusive power to initiate a case of impeachment against the President. The Senate has the sole power to try and decide a case of impeachment, in a trial where the Supreme Court Chief Justice will preside.

An invidious comparison

I am drawing what is called an “invidious comparison” between the two projects in bringing them together. This means the contrast will tend to arouse resentment or rejection because it is unfair or unpleasant.

The Philippine project is strategically aimed at bringing down a constitutionally elected President. The hope is that by unseating him, his elected successor, the Vice President, can then take over.

The American project is focused wholly on overturning a controversial policy in court. Its aim is simply to defeat Mr. Trump on a question of policy via the rule of law, and thereby delegitimize his presidency.

It’s striking that both projects are taking place in a presidential system of government (the Philippine system is sprung from the US, having been installed when the Philippines was under US colonial rule).

Had these moves happened under a parliamentary system as in the United Kingdom, a vote of confidence would be called in Parliament and the issue would have been quickly resolved by the majority.

Omnibus impeachment complaint

It is intriguing that Filipino opposition leaders went straight to the impeachment solution, instead of lodging first a legal challenge against the drug war and drug policy. This suggests that a bigger initiative may be in the works, wherein many groups are involved, and multiple actions will then converge on a common objective.

The impeachment complaint was filed Thursday by party-list lawmaker, Rep. Gary Alejano of the Magdalo party-list group of opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes. Alejano is a former member of the Marines, who joined the failed 2003 Oakwood rebellion against the Arroyo administration led by Trillanes.

In his impeachment complaint, Alejano accused Duterte of responsibility for 1) the alleged killing of some 7,000 drug suspects; 2) the alleged execution by a Davao Death Squad of some 1,400 individuals during Duterte’s stint as Davao City mayor; 3) hiding wealth of as much as P2.2 billion from his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth; and 4) hiring 11,000 ghost employees of the city government when he was Davao City mayor.

The complaint drew an immediate riposte from the administration and its allies in Congress.

Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panel dismissed the complaint as a mere list of general allegations that are totally without substance. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre 2nd declared that the President has committed no impeachable offense and would not be impeached.

Rep. Karlo Nograles of Davao City said the complaint “is based solely on conjectures, supposition, hearsay and wild imagination.” It cannot prosper in Congress.

Under the Constitution, a verified impeachment complaint, meaning a complaint endorsed by a House member (in this case, Alejano) would have to be included in the House of Representatives’ order of business within 10 session days and referred to the proper committee.

The impeachment complaint will not move until May 7, when Congress resumes sessions after a Lenten break.
If Alejano’s complaint is referred to the House justice committee, the panel will determine if the complaint is sufficient in form and substance, by a majority vote of its members.

If approved, the House justice panel will have to come up with a report to be submitted to House leaders within 60 session days. The complaint must reach the plenary within 10 session days after the House leaders receive the House justice panel’s report.

At least one-third of the 292 House members, or 98 lawmakers, must vote in favor of the impeachment complaint for Duterte to face an impeachment trial in the Senate.

Coordinated and converging actions

Administration officials also contend that the impeachment effort is just part of a larger scenario to bring down President Duterte. They believe that the variant actions are not random happenings but are coordinated and are designed to converge at some point.
Justice Secretary Aguirre believes that this is the case. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella alluded to “dramatic” and “coordinated” efforts to destabilize the administration.
They cited the following:

1.Vice President Leni Robredo’s taping of a video message that was scheduled to be played on Thursday before the 60th annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Austria.

2. The statement of the European Parliament calling on Duterte to stop the extra-judicial killings (EJKs) being committed in the drug war.

The actions individually may come to nothing, but combined, in Panelo’s view, they create scenario for the opposition to propagandize against the government ad absurdum.

The hope is that at some point many Filipinos will be agitated enough to rally in massive numbers against Duterte.

What will happen to the scenario when Robredo predictably takes back her words and denies participation in any plot to destabilize the government?

What happens when the successor shows no stomach for the sustained action which serious destabilization demands?

The plot will collapse like a house of cards. Senator Trillanes will remain, ready to unveil new accusations against the President.

Then perhaps, the nation will realize that their national treasury is funding so many public officials whose chief activity these days is solely to bad-mouth the President. They do not dare to take the drug war to court.
The main point of the opposition is to keep on talking and issuing press releases.

yenmakabenta@yahoo.com

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THEY don’t join singing contests because they just want to express themselves in song and, sometimes, in dance if television time allows it.

Filipinos also don’t want to be boxers because they just want to beat the living daylights out of their hapless opponents.

Aspiring singer or boxer wannabe, the Filipino enters the stage or the ring because he only wants to lift his family from poverty, which is not a crime no matter the sceptics sneering at the rather unadulterated concession to an ordinary life.

To be fair, he is just being honest about his reason for signing up, which candor does not distract from the Filipino warrior—pug or crooner—backing up his story with real talent (think Rose Fostanes, a caregiver and 2013 X Factor Israel grand prize winner, or, farther back, legendary boxer Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, for many years from the mid-1960s the junior lightweight or lightweight world champion).

This year’s first-prize winner of the national singing contest Tawag ng Tanghalan—Noven Belleza—is a farmer and he proudly identifies himself as one.

Another boy of humble roots and ahead of Belleza in achieving glory for himself and the country—international boxing icon and senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao—will always serve as an inspiration to the materially deprived that they also can make it anywhere, New York (New York) included.

Fostanes and Elorde and Belleza and Pacquiao are proof that persistence, perseverance and patience, with a stroke of good luck thrown into the mix, could propel ordinary Filipinos to what they want to be if they set their mind to it.

But some Filipinos apparently do not have it in them to carry on with true grit given their circumstances, opting instead for the easy way out because they are “poor.”

Their situation likely stems from lack of education, without which they will find it difficult to land even lowly jobs, thanks to apparent government neglect of poor students.

Many of them, apparently, are using their “poverty” as an excuse for biting the bullet and engaging, perhaps, in drug dealing, which assures them a quick buck.

Their mahirap (poor) mentality, however, can work against their better judgment, even forcing them to risk it all and getting killed in the process on suspicion of, say, pushing or selling prohibited substances.

When things settle down and the government’s war on drugs is blamed for what critics of the Duterte administration call “extrajudicial killings,” the finger-pointing gains more traction if the alleged victims are “poor.”

The so-called collateral damage has led to these critics accusing the administration of being anti-poor and pro-rich.

The President himself has dismissed the accusation, insisting that being part of the drug-dealing circle can actually turn the mahirap into the mayaman (rich) overnight.

He could be saying that not all of the poor are saints and that not all of the rich are sinners, in the same vein that that not all policemen are wolves wearing wool.

Something has got to give or else we will just be oversimplifying the truth that the poor cannot be past committing the evil that (rich) men (and women) do.

This is exactly what Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo is doing in airing her country’s—and that of the Duterte administration that she will be part of at least until 2022—dirty linen before the 60th United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs annual meeting in Vienna through a nearly six-minute video message.

A highlight of the message, which will have been shown on Thursday, reportedly is palit-ulo or head-swapping.
Robredo claimed that under this apparent sleight-of-hand, police in “poor” communities take as hostage either the wife, husband or relative of a drug suspect whom they are actually looking for if they cannot find the suspect himself.

She offered no evidence of her allegation as to force the President to make some heads roll.

If the video message made the rounds of the United Nations beyond the Von Trapps’ native Austria, it would just be unbelievable for the world body to let itself be taken for a ride in Robredo’s “defense” of the “poor” Filipino.

The rich—and the Vice President is decidedly “not poor”—can actually capitalize on the “poor” to push their platforms.

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WASHINGTON, D.C.: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says diplomacy has failed and military action against nuclear-armed North Korea is an “option on the table,” and President Donald Trump insists a long-range nuke from Pyongyang “won’t happen.”

While war with North Korea may be unlikely for now, Pentagon planners and private analysts have given deep thought to how US military intervention with the reclusive country would play out.

Hint: There are no easy options, and the risks are enormous.

Surgical vs. all-in

Preemptive military action against North Korea would mean the United States and its allies won’t wait until a North Korean nuclear ballistic missile is launched, even though dense defense networks could likely shoot one down.

So first question would be whether to go all in — a la Iraq — and push for regime change, or whether to limit intervention to surgical strikes on nuclear program targets.

Stratfor, a US private intelligence firm that recently published a paper looking at possible Pentagon options, said Washington does not want a long-term intervention in North Korea, meaning “levels of violence would be limited.”

A broader military campaign would risk full-scale war, and Pyongyang would inevitably be forewarned, making it more likely it would carry out its own preemptive strikes.

Bruce Klingner, who formerly worked for the CIA and now specializes in Korean and Japanese affairs for the Heritage Foundation think tank, warned that any preemptive allied strikes or missile shoot-downs should only occur in the event of an imminent North Korean attack.

War hardware

The United States has an “ironclad” alliance with South Korea and has stationed thousands of troops there since the end of the Korean War, with about 28,000 currently based in the South.

The two countries are also currently running joint military drills called the Foal Eagle exercises.

A strike on the North would likely come via US stealth bombers, which can penetrate deep into enemy territory without leaving a significant radar trail.

While North Korea has good air defenses, these would be no match for stealth planes like the B-2 bomber, the F-22 fighter and, eventually, the F-35.

America also has ships and submarines in the region, so firing cruise missiles from unexpected locations is also an option.

What to strike

B-2 stealth bombers carrying Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs and other armaments could easily incapacitate North Korea’s known nuclear production sites and weapons storage facilities.

Stratfor says an initial wave of bombing could be followed up by a massive barrage of F-22 strikes and cruise missiles that would focus on wiping out North Korea’s weapons delivery vehicles.

Pyongyang has about 200 of the so-called Transporter Erector Launchers (TELs) dotted around the country.

But destroying Pyongyang’s obvious military targets does little to prevent North Korea delivering a nuclear device through other means — perhaps via a civilian fishing boat — that would be detonated by a suicide operative.

Leader Kim Jong-Un is well aware he has limited — but powerful — options when it comes to retaliation.

An all-out attack on South Korea, Japan and US military bases would most likely bring about a massive international response and hasten the end of his regime.

But even a limited response would be devastating.

North Korea has amassed artillery units along its border with South Korea.

The capital, Seoul, is only about 35 miles (55 kilometers) away and some of the canons could rain shells onto the city of 10 million.

Even limited shelling and rocket fire would likely lead to mass casualties.

But that would end badly for the North, said Stratfor analyst Sim Tack, who co-authored the report.

It would put “the United States and its allies into a position where they have no choice but to come in and try and destroy the entire military capability of North Korea,” Tack told AFP.

Unknowns

Stratfor warns the US and its allies lack perfect intelligence on North Korea, so they would not be certain they had destroyed all nuclear devices and delivery vehicles.

“The longer the North Korean program evolves, the more this becomes a reality,” the Stratfor report states.

“Realistically, absent the use of nuclear weapons or the invasion and occupation of North Korea, the United States and its allies are already at a point where they cannot guarantee the complete removal of the threat of a North Korean nuclear attack.”

Another big unknown is China.

Beijing likes having North Korea as a buffer between itself and US-allied South Korea, but also has shown signs of impatience over North Korea’s continued nuclear testing. AFP

AFP/CC

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AL JINEH: The US said Friday it carried out an air strike in Syria against an Al-Qaeda meeting but denied hitting a mosque where a monitor said 49 people were killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of the dead in the late Thursday raid on the village of Al-Jineh in the northern province of Aleppo were civilians.

In Washington, the Pentagon insisted a mosque was not hit but rather a nearby building containing “dozens” of Al-Qaeda members, “several” of whom were killed.

“The mosque is still standing and relatively unscathed,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said. “The building we targeted was adjacent” and the strike “clearly hit the intended target”.

He showed a black-and-white image of what appeared to be an old mosque with a flattened building a short distance away.

Another Pentagon spokesman later said: “Intelligence indicated that Al-Qaeda leaders used this partially constructed community meeting hall as a gathering place, and as a place to educate and indoctrinate Al-Qaeda fighters.”

An AFP correspondent who visited the area Friday said there are two Omar bin al-Khattab mosques in Al-Jineh, adjacent to each other. The old one was damaged and the new one totally destroyed.

Rescue workers in white helmets were still hoping to dig people out of the rubble, and managed to extract the body of a man.

Dusty Korans lay on the ground, the correspondent said.

US warplanes have been bombing jihadists in war-torn Syria as part of an international coalition since 2014, with hundreds of civilians unintentionally killed in the country and in neighbouring Iraq.

The US Central Command said Friday it would “look into any allegations of civilian casualties in relation to this strike”, which was carried out unilaterally by the United States.

Some bodies ‘unrecognizable’

Saleh Saeed al-Sheikh, whose brother Mustafa was killed in the air strike, said there was a Koranic school inside the mosque.

Much of the building, identified outside by a black placard as a mosque, had been flattened.

Fearing additional air strikes, weekly Friday Muslim prayers were cancelled in towns and villages across northern Syria, AFP’s correspondent said.

Rescuers had earlier left the wreckage site but were forced to double back when they heard moaning come from the rubble.

“More than 100 people were wounded,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said on Thursday, adding that many were still trapped under the collapsed mosque in the village some 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of Aleppo.

Al-Jineh is held by Islamist groups, but the Observatory said no jihadist factions are present.

Resident Abu Muhammed told AFP that he “heard powerful explosions when the mosque was hit. It was right after prayers at a time when there are usually religious lessons for men in it.

“I saw 15 bodies and lots of body parts in the debris when I arrived. We couldn’t even recognise some of the bodies,” he said.

Syria says shot Israeli jets

The strike was condemned by Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, which said targeting mosques was a war crime under international law.

More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests six years ago.

A ceasefire between government forces and non-jihadist rebel groups was brokered by rebel backer Turkey and regime ally Russia in December, but violence has continued.

The skies over Aleppo province are busy, with Syrian regime and Russian warplanes as well as US-led coalition aircraft carrying out strikes.

Russia began a military intervention in Syria in September 2015, and in the past has dismissed allegations of civilian deaths in its attacks.

The US-led coalition said earlier this month that its raids in Iraq and Syria had unintentionally killed at least 220 civilians since 2014.

Critics say the real number is much higher.

Israel also carried out pre-dawn air strikes in Syria, hitting several targets near the famed desert city of Palmyra which prompted Damascus regime forces to retaliate.

The Syrian army said it had downed one Israeli plane and hit another, but Israel’s military insisted the safety of its aircraft had not been compromised.

Israel said it intercepted one missile. Jordanian military sources said missile shrapnel hit the north of the kingdom without causing any casualties.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes — the most serious incident between the two countries since the Syrian civil war started in 2011 — targeted “advanced” weapons bound for Hezbollah.

The Lebanese Shiite movement fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006 and is now fighting alongside the Syrian government. AFP

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