M a n i l a , P h i l i p -pines | AFP | Sunday 1/31/2016 – Philippine Pres-ident Benigno Aquino has ordered special efforts to en-sure a peace agreement with Muslim rebels is implement-ed even after his term ends

this year, his spokesman said Sunday.

Congressional leaders have said they are unlikely to pass the peace bill before the president’s term ends in June.

Aquino had ordered “con-

sultation and meetings with the stakeholders as well as meaningful action so we can continue the peace process”, his spokesman Herminio Coloma told reporters.

Aquino had hoped to pass the bill to seal a peace accord

with the largest Muslim reb-el group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

But opposition from some legislators had delayed its passage despite his lobbying.

Aquino’s chief peace ne-

Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016

Emotional Angel denies

split with Luis

See Page 5W W W . U S A S I A N P O S T . C O M

Vol. 5 No. 19 LOS ANGELES A BALITA MEDIA PUBLICATION

See ROUGH SEAS, page 12

See TRILLANES, page 12

See CHINA, page 12

See MUSLIM PEACE, page 12

See EMPEROR, page 12

See AKIHITO VISITS, page 12

See MAMASAPANO, page 12

SOUTH CHINA SEA JAN. 15, 2016: The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) conducts a live fi re gunnery exercise with its 5-inch .54-caliber gun. Curtis Wilbur (inset) is on patrol in the 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacifi c. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt.j.g. Jonathan Peterson/Released)

US explains role in Mamasapano operationW a s h i n g t o n , U n i t e d

States | AFP | Saturday 1/30/2016 – A US warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of a disputed island in the South China Sea Satur-day to assert freedom of nav-igation, drawing a protest from Beijing, offi cials said. “We conducted a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea earlier tonight,” Pentagon spokes-man Jeff Davis said in a statement.

Davis said the guided mis-sile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur made the “innocent

MANILA, Jan 29 (Mabu-hay) – US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg on Friday confirmed that America played a role in the Mamasapano operation, but insisted that it was done “within the legal framework” of both countries.

“There is cooperation, that all of this is done within the legal framework, and that there are agreements, and everything was done consen-sually or at the request of the Philippine government,” Goldberg said.

During the reopened Mama-sapano hearing at the Senate on Wednesday, Senate Minority Lead-er Juan Ponce Enrile said that the

CALIRAYA, Philippines | AFP | Friday 1/29/2016 – Japanese Emperor Akihito offered fl owers Friday at a shrine built in the Philippines for Japanese soldiers killed during Japan’s brutal World War II occupa-tion of the Southeast Asian nation.

The 82-year-old monarch and his wife, Empress Michiko, bowed twice while laying white bouquets at a table in front of the grey marble shrine, located in the lake town of Caliraya about three hours’ drive from Manila.

In a half-hour event aired live in Japan by public broadcaster NHK, the imperial couple spoke and shook hands with former

Japanese soldiers as well as relatives of their comrades killed in the Philippines.

“You have survived difficult times,” Michiko said to one of the the soldiers in attendance.

Akihito, meanwhile, told another: “Take care of yourself, stay well.”

The royals are winding up a fi ve-day visit to the Philippines to celebrate 60 years of diplomatic ties as well as to honour those who died during the Japanese occupation.

Akihito has made honouring Japanese and non-Japanese who died in World War II a touchstone of his near three-decade reign

MANILA, Jan 30 (Mabuhay) – Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko de-parted for Tokyo noontime Saturday after a fi ve-day state visit to the Philippines.

President Benigno Aquino III personally sent them off with departure honors at the airport tarmac. Aquino was accompanied by his sister Pinky who performed the duties of a First Lady.

Members of the Cabinet were also on hand such as Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Public Works Secretary Rogelio

MANILA, Feb 1 (Mabuhay) – A Makati court has issued a warrant of arrest against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV after it had found probable cause in the libel case fi led against him by dismissed Makati Mayor Junjun Binay.

Lawyer Maricel Cairo, clerk of court of Makati Re-gional Trial Court 142, said “there is an order of proba-ble cause” on the case fi led against the senator.

B o r d e a u x , F r a n -ce | AFP | Friday – Rough seas on Friday thwarted an attempt by salvage experts to prepare a stricken cargo ship for towing three days after it broke down off the western coast of France.

A helicopter carried four experts from Dutch firm

US tests China in South China SeaAmerican warship sails by island claimed by China: Pentagon

Akihito visits Japanese troop shrine in PHL Rough seas halt bid to rescue stricken cargo ship with Filipino crew off France

Japan’s emperor, empress end PHL state visit Cebu, Philippines | AFP | Sun-

day 1/31/2016 – The special envoy of Pope Francis told a gathering of hundreds of thousands in the Phil-ippines on Sunday that they had a special role to play in spreading the gospel, even to developed nations.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar was delivering a homily at the closing mass after a week-long International Eucharistic Congress.

“This nation holds great promise

to the Catholic world,” he told a crowd in a fenced enclosure esti-mated by police to number about 450,000.

Senior Superintendent Benjamin Santos, police chief of Cebu City in the central Philippines, said an even bigger number were listening outside the fence.

Bo said Catholicism faced prob-lems of empty churches and dying vocations in other nations, and

Church calls on massive crowd to spread gospel

Aquino says Muslim peace bid to continue after his term

Sen. Trillanes

Arrest warrant out vs. Sen. Trillanes over libel case fi led by Junjun Binay

See CHURCH CALLS, page 12

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST2

MANILA, Jan 30 (Mabuhay) – President Benigno Aquino III has instructed the Department of Health (DOH) to ensure public safety as much as it can amid the scramble of several countries to prevent the spread of the Zika virus that is associated with severe birth defects.

“The DOH has been instructed by the President to [study] this matter and to [ensure] public safety as much as possible,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Manolo Quezon III said in an interview on state-run dzRB radio on Saturday.

Quezon also allayed public fear of the disease saying that the virus is not easily trans-mittable, and that the DOH is already relatively prepared for the virus should it spread to the country. “Sa aking kaalaman at sa pagkakaintindi ko sa mga briefer at sa mga impormasyon tungkol sa virus na ito, it is not that easily transmittable.

“Pangalawa, ang sa aking pag-

kakaintindi ng mga advisories ng DOH, ang mga precautions dito ay very similar sa precau-tions against dengue. In other words, ang [pagtuunan] natin dito ‘yung mosquito na nagdada-la ng virus na ito,” Quezon said.

DOH spokesperson Dr. Lyn-don Lee Suy announced on Fri-day that the Philippines remains free of the Zika virus.

While a case was documented in Cebu City in 2012, no other Zika case has since been report-ed, he added.

“We don’t want to be alarmist, but it is not enough that people become aware of what is hap-pening. We should always be on guard because it’s happening in other countries and it can also happen here,” Lee Suy told reporters.

Quezon said each one has a role to play to keep the country free from the Zika virus.

“It begins sa sarili nating mga bahay at kapaligiran to make sure na walang mga stagnant

water... Second, kung mayroon tayong nakikitang outbreak of dengue or similar diseases, to get in touch with your barangay health center,” he said.

Tropical Southeast Asian countries said on Friday that they were bracing for Zika virus, with Malaysia saying it could “spread quickly” if introduced, but Thailand appeared to be bucking the trend with just a handful of cases a year.

This was after the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the virus was “spreading explosively” and could infect as many as four million people in the Americas.

Zika is linked to severe birth defects including babies born with abnormally small heads, is wreaking havoc in Brazil where the government has deployed more than 200,000 troops to eradicate mosquitoes.

The WHO has issued basic facts and prevention measures against the virus. (MNS)

Manila, Philippines | AFP | Sunday 1/31/2016 – Authorities at the Philippines’ main airport have taken possession of 47 rare ani-mals or birds which an airport policeman was allegedly trying to smuggle to Japan, a senior wildlife offi cial said Sunday.

The wildlife included 11 tarsiers, 11 snakes, 11 monitor lizards, eight sailfi n lizards, eagle owls and scops owls.

They were found on Thursday, packed in styrofoam cases which were labelled as aquatic plants, said Theresa Mundita Lim, head of the country’s biodiversity bureau.

“We received a tip last January. That is when we began our surveillance. We already observed (the suspect) going back and forth to the air-port,” transporting items for shipping, she told AFP.

The suspect had previously used his position at the airport to send shipments of suspected indigenous animals to a partner in Japan before he was caught, she added.

He has been arrested for violating wildlife laws and could face four years in jail, Lim said.

She said that while birds like cockatoos had previously been found being smuggled through the airport, this was the fi rst time they had found tarsiers, one of the world’s smallest pri-mates, hidden in an airport shipment.

The Philippine tarsier is listed by the Inter-national Union for Conservation of Nature as “near-threatened.”

Other species like the sailfi n lizard and the eagle owl are listed as “vulnerable,” meaning they are at risk of extinction in the wild.

It was the latest scandal affecting security personnel at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino Interna-tional Airport.

MANILA, Jan 29 (Mabu-hay) – The Bureau of Customs has seized 118 twenty-foot-er container vans of what it claimed as illegal importations of Thai white rice valued at P118,000,000.00.

Consigned to Calumpit Multi-Purpose Cooperative, the shipments arrived at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) from Thailand on separate occasions in November and December.

The bureau on Friday said the shipments did not have any import permit.

“A warrant of seizure and de-tention was immediately issued against the rice importations for violation of Section 2530 of

the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, as amended, by RA 7651 and Lack of Import Permit from the National Food Authority,” the bureau noted.

MICP Customs officials checked with the NFA if the shipments were issued an im-port permit.

“On 7 January 2016, the NFA clarified it did not issue any permit to the consignee, the Calumpit Multi-Purpose Coop-erative,” the bureau said.

Forty-four twenty-footer con-tainers first arrived at the MICP on November 24, 2015. Sixty two twenty- footer con-tainers followed on December 1 to 3. The last shipment of 12 twenty-footer containers ar-

rived on December 12.A representative of the

Calumpit Multi-Purpose Coop-erative wrote to the District Col-lector of MICP, saying the NFA import permit for the shipments were being processed, according to the bureau.

“However, NFA offi cials re-futed such claim,” the bureau said.

Customs Commissioner Al-berto Lina has ordered an inves-tigation to identify the people involved in the importations.

MICP offi cials recommended that the shipments be auctioned off to preserve the value and quality of the rice and contrib-ute to the revenues of the gov-ernment.

Manila, Philippines | AFP | Sun-day 1/31/2016 – Philippine President Benigno Aquino has ordered special efforts to ensure a peace agreement with Muslim rebels is implemented even after his term ends this year, his spokesman said Sunday.

Congressional leaders have said they are unlikely to pass the peace bill before the president’s term ends in June. Aquino had ordered “con-sultation and meetings with the stakeholders as well as meaningful action so we can continue the peace process”, his spokesman Herminio Coloma told reporters.

Aquino had hoped to pass the bill to seal a peace accord with the larg-est Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

But opposition from some legisla-tors had delayed its passage despite his lobbying.

Aquino’s chief peace negotiator Teresita Deles had told him that her offi ce would be meeting con-cerned parties especially the MILF to fi rm up the mechanisms and the

transition for when the peace deal is implemented, Coloma said.

“We need to do all that is possible to ensure the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement... be-yond this administration,” he quoted Deles as saying.

The draft law is aimed at ending a Muslim separatist revolt in the main southern island of Mindanao that has claimed over 100,000 lives since the 1970s.

The law would create an autono-mous area and grant a measure of self-rule to the Muslim minority in the south of the largely Christian nation.

Aquino wanted it passed this year but the timetable was set back se-verely following public outrage over the death of 44 police commandos in an encounter with Muslim separatist guerrillas last year.

Adding to the time pressure is parliament’s scheduled adjournment in February before the campaign for presidential and other elections in May.

Aquino orders DOH to ensure public safety vs. Zika virus

BOC seizes P118M worth of Thai rice

Aquino says Muslim peace bid to continue after his term

Airport cop held for smuggling rare animals

Mag Tayo!

Mag

Life and Leisure News

Tayo!

for Filipino-Americans

www.usasianpost.com

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 3

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan visit the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños Laguna on Friday (January 29) the last day of their fi ve-day offi cial visit to the Philippines. (MNS photo)

MANILA, Jan 29 (Mabuhay) – US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg on Friday clarifi ed that the disputes in the South China Sea are not covered by the Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

“EDCA isn’t directly related to the South China Sea issues. It’s about the United States helping its ally, the Philippines, as it goes about building a minimum credible defense,” Gold-berg said.

Goldberg added: “It’s not aimed at any country or the disagreements in the South China Sea.”

In case of a “shooting war” due to the sea disputes, the envoy said that the US will be ready to abide by the Mutual Defense Treaty that it signed with the Philippines in 1951.

“The Philippines is a treaty ally of the United States. President Obama, when he was here, said that the treaty is ironclad. We take seriously our responsibilities, our obligations under the Mutual Defense Treaty,” Goldberg said.

He, however, said that the US is not anticipating a “shooting war” due to the sea disputes.

“That is a hypothetical situation. You have to know the circumstances are,” he said. During the interview, Goldberg said that the US is opposed the visit of outgoing Taiwan Presi-dent Ma Ying-jeou to Itu Aba.

He said that the visit is not a “pos-itive development”

“We don’t see the utility of these kinds of actions, which are unilateral and which tend to infl ame the situ-ation rather than calm it,” he said.

Goldberg also reiterated the US’ stand against China’s construction activities in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, Goldberg clarified that “no new bases” will be built by the US under EDCA. He said that US facilities will be constructed on “co-located” facilities.

He explained that the presence of US facilities within Philippine armed forces camps will be built only in agreed locations.

MANILA, Jan 29 (Mabuhay) – The Jap-anese imperial couple’s visit to the Philippines will strengthen Philip-pines’ diplomatic ties with Japan and lead to economic opportunities for both countries, an offi cial said.

Philippine Ambassa-dor to Japan, Manuel Lopez said the Philip-pine state visit, a fi rst for Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in over five decades, shows a deepening of ties between the two Asian nations.

The ambassador said the announcement of the visit initially came as a surprise, noting the Japanese emperor and empress rarely travel and the Philippine gov-ernment is up against many other invitations for the couple sent by various countries.

“Since a few years ago we’ve been trying to work on the imperi-al royal family but we were only focusing on the crown prince be-cause the emperor and empress hardly trav-els... When we were told a few months ago that it’s now the emperor and the empress coming to the Philippines we could not believe it, we were surprised,” said Lopez.

Lopez acknowledged a “natural progression

of relationship” between Japan and the Phil-ippines, with “foreign direct investments from Japan going up year after year, followed by tourism.”

The past few years have also witnessed a series of big economic and political partner-ships sealed between the two countries, in-cluding the agreement on military aids for the Philippines, Japan’s expression of support for the Mindanao peace process, and the $2 bil-lion loan pledged by the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) to fund Philip-pines’ railway project.

Lopez said the Ja-pan-Philippines Eco-nomic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) also paved the way for an increased Japanese direct investments in the country.

“We have become much more competi-tive compared to our ASEAN neighbors so barriers have been re-duce, have been made almost zero, ever since the JPEPA came into play, so that display the very important factor in the entry of Japanese businessmen,” he said.

He also said many more Japanese for-eign investments in the country are on the line, soonest to mate-

rialize of which is the establishment of the car manufacturing pro-grams.

“There’s so many proj-ects in the pipe line, the one that will be coming up quite soon will be the car manufacturing program and we can see in the near future Jap-anese automobile com-panies setting up their factories here, together with their suppliers, with their spare parts manufactures, which will create thousands of new jobs for Filipinos. So we’re very excited about this because this will boost our economy defi nitely,” Lopez said.

But Lopez said the strong bilateral re-lations does not only benefi t Japanese com-panies as the Filipino companies now have gained more opportu-nities for investments in Japan. “We’re seeing now more and more Filipinos companies opening offices in Ja-pan like the banks--- Metrobank, BPI, BDO. Little by little we can see a bigger presence of Filipino companies in Japan,” he said.

“With a little im-provement on our side plus the reduction of tariffs I think you can see in the future more and more two-way in-vestments,” he added. (MNS)

MANILA, Jan 29 (Mabuhay) – The Sen-ate blue ribbon sub-committee has already wrapped up its probe on the corruption allega-tions against Vice Pres-ident Jejomar Binay, but one of his accusers say the fi ght is still not over and they might just have the chance to grill the Vice President.

L a w y e r R e n a t o Bondal believes the P200-million damage suit fi led against him and several other per-sonalities by Binay last year may provide them the chance to bring the Vice President to the witness stand, which they failed to do in the 25 hearings conducted by the Senate panel.

After more than six months, lawyers of the parties involved in the case met for a judi-cial dispute resolution (JDR) at the Maka-ti City Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Fri-day morning. The case is presided by Judge Elpidio Calis of Makati RTC Branch 133.

It was on July 20, 2015 when Atty. Cla-ro Certeza, on be-half of Binay, filed a P200-million damage suit against two sen-ators, witnesses, and government officials for allegedly issuing damaging and prejudi-cial statements against him.

Binay has accused

his enemies of mount-ing a smear campaign against him ahead of the 2016 presidential elections.

Included as respon-dents in the complaint were Senators Antonio Trillanes IV and Alan Peter Cayetano, Calo-ocan Rep. Edgar Erice, former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mer-cado, former Makati official Mario Hecha-nova, former Makati barangay official Re-nato Bondal, Nicolas Enciso, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr, Insurance Commission-er Emmanuel Dooc, Se-curities and Exchange Commission chief Tere-sita J. Herbosa, AMLC officer Julia Abad, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Certeza, also a law professor, explained to reporters that the JDR is the last step of the court to allow mediation between par-ties and do away with the long and tedious process of litigation. But if the parties fail to resolve the dispute and agree to proceed with the trial, then the pre-trial conference is set.

According to Bon-dal, since Binay is the plaintiff in the case, he would have to face the court and will be com-

pelled to take the wit-ness stand to expound on his complaints.

“He would have to be the fi rst to take the witness stand, and that will be our opportunity to get him. He had al-ways been evading us in the Senate. Here, he cannot avoid it any-more,” said Bondal in an ambush interview shortly after the JDR.

Bondal believes the proceedings will be ad-vantageous to them since their evidence can be used against the Vice President.

Certeza, however, disagreed.

He said if the pro-ceedings will be to the advantage of respon-dents, then why did they file a motion to dismiss the case and eventually a motion for reconsideration, which were subsequently de-nied by the court.

Certeza assured that the Vice President will face the respondents in due time.

“If it is necessary, we will do that. Because there are other ways by which we can prove our case,” he said.

The JDR was sus-pended and the next meeting is set on March 28, 2016, upon the re-quest of respondents’ lawyers that other is-sues related to the case be settled fi rst before proceeding with a full-blown JDR.(MNS)

MANILA, Jan 30 (Mabuhay) – A Palace official on Saturday shrugged off rumors that Malacañang pressured Senate Minority Lead-er Juan Ponce Enrile against presenting his “eight points” against President Benigno Aqui-no III over the Mamasa-pano bloodbath during the Senate re-investiga-tion last Wednesday.

Instead, Presidential Communications Under-secretary Manolo Que-zon III hit back saying Enrile often does things different from what he says. Enrile failed to

present his “eight points” against Aquino at the Senate re-investigation, giving way to rumors that Malacañang pres-sured the senator to keep silent.

“I’ll answer that by pointing out that it would be diffi cult to base what Senator Enrile is going to do on what Senator En-rile has said, if only be-cause Senator Enrile has often done something different from what he has said,” Quezon said on state-run dzRB radio.

“Pwede na lang po na-tin balikan ang mga pa-palit-palit na kuwento

tungkol sa Martial Law, medyo katakataka na over the past 40 years, medyo nag-iiba halos bawat dekada ang mga kuwento tungkol dito. I think the reality spoke for itself,” he added. A day before the Senate re-investigation, Enrile said he would present “eight points” against Aquino.

“I will prove eight points against the Pres-ident, I will prove eight specifications against the President,” Enrile, who requested for the re-opening of the investiga-tion, said in a television interview.

What PHL will gain from Japan imperial couple’s visit

US envoy: Sea disputes not covered by EDCA

Palace downplays claims Enrile pressured not to speak vs. Aquino

Binay accuser wants Veep grilled in court

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST4

OPINIONMANILA, Jan 29 (Mabuhay) – Senate President Franklin Drilon warned Friday of a possible reversal of the country’s economic growth if wrong leaders are elected as he urged voters to make the sustainability of the economy a major issue in the May 2016 polls.

Drilon issued the statement following the report of the National Economic Development Authority that the coun-try’s gross domestic product grew by 5.8% in 2015.

“There is a lot at stake for our economy in this upcoming election. All the economic gains we have achieved in the past six years will be put to naught and our people cannot fully benefi t from them if our country falls into the hands of the wrong leaders,” he said in a press statement.

He said outgoing Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ar-senio Balisacan is correct in saying that “the challenge for next administration is to maintain momentum for reforms.”

He said the ability of the country to sustain its economic momentum is mostly due to the reforms implemented by President Benigno Aquino III all throughout his term, buoyed by the fi scal discipline that was employed by his economic managers.

Drilon said that the 5.8% growth in 2015 is a far cry from the 1.1% recorded in 2009.

He said the economic gains could be reversed if the peo-ple would elect an inexperienced, ineffective, and corrupt leader.

“The upcoming election is crucial in the sustainability of these reforms. The election will make or break whatever we have started under the Aquino administration. We must safeguard the reforms we have painstakingly put in place,” said the Senate leader.

“Let us not throw away the gains we have made. Let us work together in order that we can sustain the reforms that made our economy robust and attractive to both local and foreign investments,” he added.

The Senate chief also said that the laws passed by Con-gress helped lay the foundation for a healthy economy. These include, among others, the Sin Tax Reform Law, the GOCC Governance Act, the Philippine Competition Act, as well as the law that allows the full entry of foreign banks.

Drilon is running for re-election under the administra-tion’s Liberal Party. (MNS)

By Jennie Matthew

New York, United States | AFP | Sunday 1/31/2016 – Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential hopeful beating Hillary Clinton in the Iowa polls, is the country’s longest serving independent Congressman who is calling for a political revolution in America.

An outsider like Donald Trump, albeit at the opposite end of the spectrum, the 74-year-old Democratic socialist may be the eldest contender in the White House race but he has done the most to inspire passionate support among young liberals. Outwardly serious – even friends call him grumpy – the senator from Vermont has spent a lifetime in public offi ce addressing income inequality and fumes that the top 0.1 percent of Americans owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

Bernie, as he is known to fans, calls inequality the great moral, economic and political issue of the times, and demands campaign fi nance reform that would prevent billionaires from spending unlimited funds in propelling their candidates to the White House.

He has drawn thousands to his rallies, winning endorse-ments from Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which concocted a new fl avor “Bernie’s Yearning” – mint covered in a thick chocolate – in his honor.

“We are touching a nerve with the American people who understand that establishment politics is just not good enough. We need bold changes, we need a political revo-lution,” he said during a CNN townhall debate in Iowa on Monday.

By Michael Mathes

W a s h i n g t o n , U n i t e d States | AFP | Sunday 1/31/2016 – Once reviled by fellow Republicans as a “wacko bird” eager to shut down the US government, Ted Cruz now aims to outmaneuver rivals and bring his Tea Party conservatism straight into the White House.

With the Iowa caucuses looming Monday, Cruz is locked in a tight con-test with frontrunner Donald Trump for their party’s presidential nomina-tion.

But Cruz, who has fought hard to maintain a prominent place for faith in American life, also sees himself in a battle for the very soul of the nation.

As a freshman in the US Senate, the 45-year-old Texan – an intellectual proponent of a grassroots movement that has simmered for years under the Republican mainstream – has barely three years under his belt in Washing-ton.But in the 2016 presidential race, his outsider status has played well with the right-wing base furious with what he derides as the “mushy middle” GOP establishment unwilling to play hardball against US President Barack Obama.

For Democrats, Cruz is a dangerous demagogue they love to hate.

To religious conservatives, he is a patriot, a thinking man’s champion of the common folk sent to Congress—and perhaps to the White House—to disrupt the ways of the go-along-to-get-along establishment and fulfi ll the principles of smaller government.

He has since become the movement’s north star, but critics blast him as a posterboy for Washington gridlock.

Cruz, a master orator with a clear sense of mission, has angered his el-ders in both parties for showing little deference to seniority and snatching the spotlight from more experienced political stalwarts.

He insists the government has wrecked the economy, infringed on reli-gious liberty, put constitutional rights “under assault,” overtaxed Americans and sought to take away their guns.

“We know how to fi x this. And it’s to get Washington to stop screwing it up,” he told a conservative event last year.

In September 2013, his conservative star power soared when he spoke for 21 hours straight to try to block a stopgap spending bill in the leadup to a crip-pling shutdown the following month.

Many Republicans blasted Cruz for convincing Tea Party adherents in the House of Representatives to shut down government in a doomed quest to defund Obama’s crowning domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act.

Cruz’s apparent eagerness to gum up the works led an exasperated John Mc-Cain, the 2008 Republican nominee, to deride Cruz and other Tea Party law-makers as “wacko birds on the right.”

From Harvard to the Hill -

A Texas-raised, Harvard-educated lawyer with a Cuban father and an American mother, Cruz joined the legal elite when he was accepted as a clerk for US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 1996.

He was part of former president George W. Bush’s legal team arguing the 2000 Florida presidential recount, later serving in Bush’s Justice De-partment and the US Federal Trade commission.

He returned to Texas and in 2003 was appointed solicitor general, argu-ing many cases before the Supreme Court in Washington.

In 2012, he ran for Senate with support from the anti-government, anti-tax Tea Party, defeating the establishment Republican and then steamrolling his Democratic opponent in the election.

Cuban-American Cruz may enjoy plenty of support in Hispanic-heavy Texas, but he is a staunch opponent of immigration reform.

He blasted Obama’s efforts last year to shield millions from deportation as “illegal amnesty,” and feuds with fel-low candidate Senator Marco Rubio – whose parents immigrated to the US from Cuba – over who can clamp down harder on illegal immigration.

A run from the right For millions of conservatives outside

the US capital, the staunchly unapol-ogetic Cruz is a hero, and he has fi red up the base during his run.

Cruz found himself in a crowded running lane: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, ex-senator Rick Santorum and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee have sought the far-right conservative vote. Cruz has outshone them all.

Only Donald Trump, the billionaire real estate tycoon who has refashioned himself as a conservative populist, now stands in his way of securing the nomination—or at least winning Iowa.

With Trump upending the political playbook and launching personal at-tacks on his rivals, including Cruz, the Texan pledged not to sink “into the mud” in a battle of insults.

“I think issues and substance, pol-icy and vision and record should be the meat of politics,” he said during Thursday’s Republican debate, which Trump boycotted.

Trump has hammered Cruz over his Canadian birth, suggesting bluntly that Cruz may not be eligible for the presidency.

It has emerged as a point of conten-tion in the campaign, but Cruz insists he is a natural-born citizen.

Cruz pledges to “stitch together a winning majority” by bringing together conservatives, libertarians and evan-gelicals, who are all-important in Iowa.

How will voters know that he is the candidate who will defend life, tradi-tional marriage and religious liberty?

Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Sunday 1/31/2016 – Japan has doubled the number of F-15 fi ghter jets deployed on the southern island of Okinawa, near disputed islands in the East China Sea, the defence ministry said Sunday.

Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force now has about 40 F-15s on Okinawa’s Naha base, according to the defence ministry.

The move comes as Japan and China have routinely clashed over ownership of the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Is-lands in the East China Sea.

Japan administers the uninhabited islands under that name but China

also claims them and calls them the Diaoyus.

Chinese ships – mostly coast guard vessels – and aircraft have approached them to back up Beijing’s claims and test Japan’s response.

“This is a very front line of national defence,” said Deputy Defence Min-ister Kenji Wakamiya, quoted by Jiji Press, at the Sunday ceremony at the Naha base to mark the creation of a new unit composed of the extra jets.

The defence ministry moved about 20 F-15s from the Tsuiki base in the southwestern island of Kyushu to Naha, the defence ministry said.

Drilon: Economy at stake in May elections

Sanders: Democratic socialist calling for revolution

Ted Cruz: Tea Party fi rebrand aims to storm White House

Japan doubles number of F-15s on southern island of Okinawa

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 5LOS ANGELES

After her failed marriage to Turkish businessman Yilmaz Bektas, Ruffa Gutierrez is not in a hurry to tie the know again. Gutierrez, who is cur-rently in a relationship with a French-Israeli businessman Jordan Mouyal, said her prior-ity right now are her daughters and work.

“I really want to focus on business. I want to focus on building my empire like you,” Gutierrez said. “I’ve been there, done that so now I’m very careful to just jump in a rela-tionship.”

Gutierrez, who stressed that

she and Mouyal are not living together, also admitted that her mother, feisty talent man-ager Annabelle Rama, doesn’t like her boyfriend.

But she is hoping that Rama will eventually accept him.

“I pray for it every day. That’s probably the reason why mag-kasundo na kami ngayon. She’s not fi ghthing with me all the time, so I’m very happy that even if she doesn’t accept, she respects,” Gutierrez said.

Rama, for her part, explained that she doesn’t want her daughter to get hurt again.

“Ayaw ko na ulit mangyari

‘yung nangyari sa kanya ‘yung sa ex-husband niya. Natakot ako eh,” she said. “Nung sila pa ni Yilmaz, grabe, wala akong tulog. Kapag nag-ring ‘yung phone ng madaling araw, alam ko na umiiyak sa telepono ‘yon, naggugulpihan, maririnig mo na nagsasampalan sila. Alam mo gusto ko siyang i-save, ang layo ko naman. Sus grabe umii-yak sa telepono. Kinukulong daw siya. Sabi ko lumayas ka na diyan,” Rama said.

Gutierrez married Bektas in 2003. Their marriage was declared null and void in 2011. (MNS)

ungkotpa

ongungamon,moamangmii-ongka

taswas11.

Luis Manzano nei-ther confi rmed nor de-nied that he and Angel Locsin have already broken up, but admit-ted that they are cur-rently going through a rough patch.

Manzano made the admission after the pre-miere screening of “Ev-erything About Her” on Tuesday, which stars Locsin and his mother Vilma Santos.

However, Mazano re-fused to go into details but pointed out that this has been their fi rst major misunderstand-ing since they got back together in February 2014.

Citing a source, Man-zano and Locsin are still trying to work things out.

Despite this, Man-zano said he still loves Locsin, which was why he showed up at the

premiere night of “Ev-erything About Her” to support his girlfriend.

“That’s a fantastic movie. Sobra sobra. Nung kinukwento nila mommy, nila Angel, grabe. Lahat ng kaba nila, lahat ng hard work nila for this mov-ie, and everyone na part of the movie, ta-laga namang sulit na sulit. It’s a beautiful

movie. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. It’s a spe-cial night for so many people so nandito talaga ako,” he said.

In his column for the Philip-p ine Star on W e d n e s d a y , Ricky Lo cited an “unimpeachable source,” claiming that Locsin and Manzano have p a r t e d w a y s again weeks af-

ter they arrived from their recent vacation to the US.

Lo, who did not re-veal the reason for the break-up, added that there was no third par-ty involved in the split.

Manzano and Locsin decided to give their relationship another try in February 2014. (MNS)

Ruffa Gutierrez thanked her younger brother Richard Gutierrez for allowing her and her daughters to stay in his house in Dasmariñas Village. Gutierrez revealed that she and her daughters are using four rooms in Richard’s house. Richard and his twin brother, Raymond, turned 32 on Thursday.

“He is nice. Chard was even say-ing, ‘Mom, come live with us na.’ He

wants everyone to live in one house,” Ruffa said.

Ruffa hopes that by admitting that she is staying with her brother, rumors that she is living in with her French-Israeli businessman Jordan Mouyal would now stop.

Aside from Richard, Ruffa also thanked her parents for taking her back and for always supporting her. (MNS)

An emotional Angel Locsin denied reports that she and Luis Manzano have called it quits.

Locs in c lar i f ied that she and Manza-no are still a couple but are currently go-ing through a rough patch.

“Hindi pa po,” the

“Everything About Her” s t a r s a i d . “Mag pinag-d a d a a n a n lang po kami. Pero inaay-os naman po namin.”

Asked how she is coping with the fi rst test to their relationship s ince ge t -ting back to-gether back in February 2014, Locsin expla ined:

“Sa lahat ng tao na nagmamahal sa akin.”

“Kahit kay Luis, hu-muhugot pa rin ako sa kanya. Hindi pa rin naman nawawala iyung – kahit may problema kami, nandi-yan pa rin ang pag-mamahal. May mga kailangan lang kam-

ing ayusin. And I’m hoping na maayos,” she added.

Locsin refused to go into details. She said: “Natatakot ako na baka may masabi ako na imbis na maay-os namin, makasama pa. Ayaw ko naman kasi manloko o mag-sinungaling.”

Manzano admitted that his relationship with the actress has hit a snag. He, like Locsin, also refused to go into details.

Locsin and Manza-no fi rst became a cou-ple in July 2007, but separated two years later. They confi rmed their first break-up in October 2009, four months after their ac-tual separation.

Manzano and Loc-sin decided to give their relationship an-other try in February 2014. (MNS)

Why Ruffa is not interested in getting married again

Why Ruff a is thankful to brother Richard

Ruffa Gutierrez

Luis admits problems in relationship with Angel

Luis Manzano

Emotional Angel denies split with Luis

Angel Locsin

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST6

He has been absent from Insta-gram for nearly three months, but actor JM de Guzman is now back online and has chosen to promote the upcoming commercial show-ing of his independent fi lm for his comeback post.

On his personal account, the 27-year-old De Guzman shared a promotional poster for the fi lm “Tandem.” His role in the fi lm won him Best Actor in the New Wave category of the recently concluded 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival.

Back in November, De Guzman apologized to his followers for “los-ing control of himself” after posting a series of cryptic messages on his Instagram account.

In one particular post, he even dared his father, Ronniel de Guz-man: “Are you going to send me to rehab again?”

It came a week after actress Jessy Mendiola confi rmed that she

has again called off her relation-ship with De Guzman.

The actor, however, urged his fans to stop putting the blame on the actress. He wrote: “Please don’t blame Jessy nor ABS-CBN and my ‘All of Me’ family. I was going through very tough times, but by the grace of God.”

The posts has since been taken down.(MNS)

It seems that all is well between Ciara Sotto and Julia Clarete despite rumors tagging the singer as the rea-son behind the sepa-ration of Sotto and her husband, Jojo Oconer.

Clarete has been rumored to be the third party in Sotto and Oconer’s marriage because she left the noontime show “Eat Bulaga” just days be-fore Sotto announced on social media that she left her husband.

On Instagram, Sotto shared two videos of Clarete and her son Sebastian visiting her on Monday night.

“I love youuuuuuuuu! I really missed you and Seb,” Sotto wrote in the caption.

In another post, Sot-to gushed over Sebas-tian’s cuteness.

Clarete left “Eat Bu-laga” because she is now residing in Ma-

laysia. She has re-turned the country to

do a show in Makati on Tuesday. (MNS)

Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtz-bach believes Kapamilya star Liza Soberano would make a good beauty queen.

Wurtzbach made this remark during a Twitter question and answer where she was asked who among the local celebrities could become Miss Universe.

“I can think of a lot. But if I had to pick one.. Liza Soberano. She’s beautiful,” she answered.

Wurtzbach’s response sent So-berano’s followers abuzz, with most of them saying the beauty queen has great taste.

Soberano, who is the lead actress in the upcoming ABS-CBN series “Dolce Amore,” is one of the fi rst Filipino celebrities who congrat-

ulated Wurtzbach when she won Miss Universe last December.

Both of them are part of the Star Magic family. (MNS)

MANILA, Jan 29 (Mabuhay) – The Sandiganbayan has ordered a 90-day preventive suspension of Optical Media Board chairman Ronaldo “Ronnie” Ricketts and three other OMB officials over graft stemming from the alleged mishandling of confi scated DVDs and VCDs in 2010.

In a resolution promulgated on January 27–a copy of which was released to media on Friday –the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division orders the preventive suspension (pending litigation) of the respon-dents’ graft case in accordance with the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019).

“Accordingly, the prosecution’s Motion to Suspend Pendente Lite is GRANTED…In the meantime, accused..are directed to cease and desist from exercising the function and privileges of their offi ce for 90 days immediately upon receipt of this resolution,” part of the reso-lution said.

Aside from Ricketts, the other OMB offi cials ordered suspended were Enforcement and Inspection Division (EID) head Manuel Man-gubat, EID investigation agent Joseph Arnaldo, and EID computer operator Glenn Perez.

The court also directed the Offi ce of the President to implement the suspension order.

Under Section 13 of the RA 3019, “any incumbent public offi cer against whom any criminal prose-cution under a valid information” is pending before the court “shall be suspended from offi ce.”

Covered in Section 13 are cas-es “involving the crime of direct bribery, or of any offense involving fraud upon government, public

funds or property.”Since all the accused were ar-

raigned on July 23, 2015, the information of the case against them is already deemed valid and understood by each of them, and that that if there is no pending motion from any of the accused to quash the case, the validity of the case information remains, the court said.

“Under the rule, it becomes man-datory for the court to immediately issue the suspension order upon proper determination of the valid-ity of the information,” it added.

Meanwhile, the court noted that in their respective oppositions to the motion for suspension, the ac-cused maintained that the facts in the case information sheet do not constitute the crime.

But, the court said that the va-lidity of these pieces of evidence the accused are refuting can be best resolved in a full-blown trial.

In a graft complaint fi led by the Office of the Ombudsman with the Sandiganbayan in June 2015, Ricketts and the other respondents were accused of “conspiring” with each other in “giving unwarranted benefi t, advantage or preference” to private company Sky High Mar-keting Corporation.

Based on the information of the case, personnel from the OMB under Ricketts, confi scated from Sky High Marketing building in Quezon City tons of pirated DVDs and VCDs on May 27, 2010. But in the afternoon of the same day, the confi scated items were “released and reloaded into the corpora-tion’s vehicle” instead of fi ling the appropriate charges against the company.

JM de Guzman returns to Instagram after ‘losing control’

JM de Guzman

Pia thinks Liza Soberano could be Miss Universe

Liza Soberano

Sandiganbayan orders suspension of Ronnie Ricketts, 3 others

Julia Clarete visits Ciara amid third party rumors

Julia Clarete

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 7

W A S H I N G T O N , D.C. — “In the past seven decades, the Philippines and the US have seen them-selves become treaty allies, strategic part-ners and close friends. We believe that bi-lateral relations are truly at their best as they are comprehen-sive, dynamic and for-ward-looking,” Phil-ippine Ambassador to the United States Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. said in the opening of his spe-cial briefing for the members of the Na-tional Press Club on 27 January 2016 at the Philippine Embassy.

The Ambassador briefed the audience on the outcomes of the recently-concluded 2nd Philippines-US Ministerial Dialogue, the Philippine Su-preme Court’s favor-able decision on the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agree-ment (EDCA), and the Philippines’ position and advocacies on the South China Sea issue, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the Asia Pacifi c Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Trans Pacifi c Partnership (TPP).

“The Philippines and the United States recognize EDCA as a security component of our treaty alliance. It is especially critical to

enhancing joint capac-ities for the provision of humanitarian assis-tance and disaster re-lief, and to increasing the inter-operability of the Philippine and US Armed Forces,” the envoy remarked.

Capacity-building ef-forts form a signifi cant part of Philippines-US defense cooperation.

“We appreciate the commitment and as-sistance of the Unit-ed States towards en-hancing our capacity for maritime domain awareness and mari-time security,” Ambas-sador Cuisia said.

The Philippines and China are currently embroiled in a mari-time row concerning certain areas in the South China Sea.

The dispute led the Philippines to initiate arbitral proceedings under the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea in January 2013.

“Having an impar-tial third party rule on a case holds weight because one side will have the backing of international law,” the Ambassador explained.

He also expressed support for sustained US Freedom of Naviga-tion operations (FON-OPs) in critical sea lanes of communica-tion.

On the subject of re-gional economic inte-

gration, Ambassador Cuisia described the evolution of the AEC as a “slow and steady process that strikes a balance between the high ambition of full integration, and the realities of domestic constraints and equal-ly important develop-mental objectives in the Member States.”

“There is also clearly more complementari-ty today, rather than competition among ASEAN industries. Re-cent years have seen more trade within in-dustries, belying the sceptics of the 1990s who predicted little im-pact and benefi t from the ASEAN free trade area,” he added.

Ambassador Cui-sia also informed the group that expanding economic cooperation between the United States and ASEAN will be among the top-ics of discussion when US President Barack

Obama hosts the ten ASEAN leaders, in-cluding Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III, in a special summit in California next month.

The Ambassador l ikewise remarked that the key results of the Philippines’ host-ing of APEC 2015 are “vital building blocks towards eventually achieving the Bogor Goals for free and open trade and investment in the Asia Pacifi c re-gion”.

Delving into the Phil-ippines’ keen interest in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Ambassador Cuisia acknowledged the need to ensure that domestic economic reforms and good governance mea-sures should parallel the high standards re-quirements of the TPP.

He shared that the Philippines has en-gaged TPP partic-ipants in informal

consultations in order to understand what would be required for accession to TPP.

In the ensuing Q&A session, Ambassador Cuisia also fielded questions on Philip-pines-Japan relations, Philippines-US coop-eration in countering terrorism and the good governance program of the Aquino Adminis-tration.

“I have to say that the relations between Japan and the Philip-pines have also never been better. Japan has been very, very sup-portive of the Philip-pines,” the envoy said, adding that Japan has consistently been the Philippines’ largest provider of offi cial de-velopment assistance and leading trade part-ner.

Japan’s assistance in boosting the Philip-pines’ defense and se-curity capacities were also cited as proof of the strong ties between the two countries.

On the May 2016 presidential elections, Ambassador Cuisia pointed to poverty as one of the top campaign and election issues. He said that the Philip-pines must continue with the good gover-nance reforms of the Aquino Administration in order for the coun-try to have a fi ghting

chance in sustaining economic growth and alleviating poverty.

The Ambassador’s briefing was well re-ceived by the members of the National Press Club (NPC).

Tyler Crowe, who co-chairs the NPC’s In-ternational Correspon-dents Committee with Congressional Quar-terly reporter Rachel Oswald, remarked, “This is our fi rst event of the year. I’ve been to the Embassy of the Philippines a couple of years ago when I fi rst joined the Nation-al Press Club. I have always loved coming here because every-body is so nice and I always end up learning a lot.

I think 2016 is going to be a good year for our Committee as we plan to have a lot of really interesting and thoughtful panels with a lot of interesting and thoughtful people, and so I’m glad we can start it here.”

“The National Press Club thoroughly en-joys the opportunities to greet Ambassadors from across the world and we really enjoyed the wonderful, educa-tional conversation we had with Ambassa-dor Cuisia,” said Mr. Thomas Burr, Presi-dent of the National Press Club.

Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Satur-day 1/30/2016 – The two remaining escap-ees from a jail break in southern California have been captured in San Francisco, police announced Saturday.

The two – identifi ed as Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Jonathan Tieu, 20 – were arrested after a passerby recognized their white van as the

one authorities said had been stolen fol-lowing the dramatic jail break last week in Santa Ana, near Los Angeles.

O r a n g e C o u n t y Sheriff Sandra Hutch-ens told reporters that Nayeri ran from the van, which was in the parking lot of a Whole Foods grocery store near Golden Gate Park, as police ap-

proached. Nayeri was arrested

following a short foot chase, and Tieu was then captured when police returned to the van.

Hutchens said “a number of” rounds of .380-caliber ammuni-tion – but no weapons – were found in the vehicle.

A fellow escapee, Bac Duong, 43, was

arrested Friday in Santa Ana after turn-ing himself in.

The men’s escape, in which they managed to cut through a ven-tilation grill and then use knotted bedsheets to rappel from the roof of the jail, had sparked an intense manhunt, leaving area residents in fear.

The trio had been described as danger-

ous, “desperate” and probably armed.

But on Saturday, Hutchens said that “the entire state can breathe a sigh of re-lief, because we have the other two danger-ous individuals back in custody where they should be.”

She said her depart-ment was coordinating with San Francisco police, who made the

arrest, for the men’s return to Santa Ana.

The parking lot where the men were found is on Haight Street, in an area made famous as a hip-pie destination in the 1960s and 1970s, and which still attracts a sometimes motley mixture of tourists, drifters, hipsters and well-to-do residents.

Cuisia briefs DC-based journalists on PHL foreign policy

Final 2 California escapees captured near upscale store

ARY News TV Chief Correspondent Jahanzaib Ali interviews Ambassador Cuisia following the special briefi ng for the members of the National Press Club on 27 January 2016.

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST8

By Sara Puig

Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Sun-day 1/31/2016 -

A n e w c o f -fee diet claiming to help lose weight and improve IQ is gaining a major following in the United States – and raising eyebrows among doctors skepti-cal of its benefi ts.

D a v e A s p r e y , t h e f o u n d e r a n d CEO of the “Bullet-proof Diet,” pulls no punches when making claims for his radical health recipe, cup of coffee in hand.

“You become a bet-ter employee, better parent, better friend, better person,” said the former Silicon Valley entrepreneur now living in Canada. “My energy changes, my brain changes. I can pay attention, I can follow through.”

The cornerstone of Asprey’s diet is a drink called Bullet-proof Coffee, a mod-ified version of the caffeinated beverage which uses beans stripped of mycotox-ins – essentially mold that forms during the fermentation process.

Add to that butter from grass-fed cows and medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil.

The ingredients are

blended together to produce a creamy, nat-urally sweet beverage a bit like a milkshake, taken at breakfast in lieu of a meal.

“So you drink a cou-ple of these and all of a sudden you don’t care about food for a very long time,” said Asprey.

“Your brain has en-ergy that doesn’t come from sugar, you didn’t want sugar in your coffee and you lose the craving and you sort of have freedom.”

Asprey used to weigh 300 pounds, and spent much of his life battling to lose weight.

The coffee diet idea came to him during a trip to Tibet in 2004. He was weak with al-titude sickness while traveling in the moun-tainous region – until he drank yak butter tea.

Asprey was so im-pressed by the en-ergetic effect of the drink that he tried to reproduce it at home.

After years of trying all kinds of ingredi-ents and combina-tions, he unveiled a patented formula in 2009 through his blog and on social media, claiming the coffee and an associated health regimen helped him attain a “body-

builder” physique. ‘Better our body’ -Asprey’s diet is now

one of the most pop-ular in the United States, where a third of the population of some 320 million is obese.

And his modified coffee has become the fi rst link in an empire that includes the New York Times bestsell-ing book “The Bullet-proof Diet.”

In addition to people looking to lose weight, it attracts athletes and supporters of “bio-hacking,” a movement that combines biology and food technology to improve physical and mental capacity.

“Me and my wife are in the fi tness indus-try, so we are trying to do things that better our body,” said Justin Lovato, a burly per-sonal trainer.

Past the hit of morn-ing coffee, the method advocates a diet free of gluten and sugar that draws around half of its calories from “healthy fats” such as MCT oil, 20 percent from protein – preferably grass-fed meat and dairy or wild caught seafood – and the rest from organic fruit and vegetables.

Other foods are classified as “bullet-proof”, “suspect” or

“kryptonite” according to how they fi t into the diet’s categories and meals are taken on a set schedule.

A young athlete who gave his name as Ray said drinking the cof-fee every morning “in-creases your energy levels for sure.”

“You don ’ t f ee l sleepy anymore, you don’t have the crash I would say after 20 minutes. Its effects are longer” than any of the products he has tested before, Ray added.

Asprey also advo-cates brief bursts of high-intensity exer-cise, with a focus on allowing the body to recuperate with food and sleep.

Where are the nu-trients?

Several celebrities have publicly laud-ed the benefits of the “miracle drink,” like actress Shailene Woodley – protagonist of “The Divergent Se-ries” saga –

]and comedian Jim-my Fallon.

But experts have raised the alarm over the diet’s nutritional value.

The British Dietetic Association listed the “Bulletproof” method among its top 10 ce-lebrity diets to avoid for 2016 – along with

such questionable fads as the “all kale and chewing gum diet.”

“Un-bull-ieveable!” was its verdict. “Whilst the idea of minimizing alcohol and processed food is positive, the classifi cation of foods is at odds with health recommendations and lacks evidence.”

UCLA Medical Cen-ter nutritionist Amy Schnabel told AFP the diet could work short term.

“ I n i t i a l l y , any diet that has you restrict large food groups does result in some weight loss,” she said.

She also said the di-et’s popularity was un-derstandable—wheth-er or not it is rooted in actual health benefi ts.

“Coffee is a good source of antioxidants and it has caffeine. That would make any of us feel good,” said Schnabel, “whether it is black or loaded with cream.” “If you expect to drink one cup of this and feel good, and have mental clarity, you probably will – just because of the placebo effect.”

But Schnabel also warned “the dan-gers o f fo l lowing this diet long term are possible nutrient defi ciency.”

D o c t o r s w i d e l y

caution that the fi rst meal of the day is the most important one and should contain cereal or bread (car-bohydrates), eggs or yogurt (protein), fruit (fiber) and coffee or tea (stimulant).

Asprey’s empha-sis on the removal of mycotoxins is also potentially mislead-ing, since coffee pro-ducers now regularly use wet-processing, during which the beans are washed and the toxins eliminated.

He insists the ben-efits of his formula are proven. And be-yond the science, the commercial success of Bulletproof Coffee is undeniable.

The “Bulletproof” website does a brisk business in coffee and related health prod-ucts – from engineered “healthy fats” to coffee “performance kits”, sleep-inducing mat-tresses, nightlights and “Zen” iPhone pro-tectors that fi lter out blue light.

The future looks bright, too, after As-prey’s company re-ceived an injection of $9 million from in-vestors to expand its network of stores, the fi rst of which opened in affl uent Santa Mon-ica, near Los Angeles, last year.

(Sacramento, CA) – Today Assemblymem-ber Rob Bonta (D-Oak-land) introduced leg-islation to uncover disparities within California’s diverse Asian Pacifi c Islander (API) population. AB 1726, the Accounting for Health and Edu-cation in Asian Pacifi c Islander Demograph-ics Act (AHEAD Act) will track the status of API subgroups with respect to health out-comes and educational achievement.

“Despite the gener-al portrayal of APIs as ‘model minorities’, each of our diverse c o m m u n i t i e s h a s unique social, econom-ic, and educational needs that must be addressed different-ly,” said Bonta.

“Instead of lumping many API communi-ties together under the catch-all ‘other Asian’ category, the AHEAD Act challeng-es these stereotypes and identifies API subgroups that are being left behind.”-California is home to the nation’s largest Asian American and second largest Native Hawaiian and Pacifi c Islander (NHPI) pop-ulations.

The Census Bureau calculates that each population grew by 34 percent and 29 per-

cent, respectively, be-tween 2000 and 2010.

“The population of California is unique-ly diverse, especially within the API com-munity.

There’s no place on the planet like it,” Bonta said. “Hmong, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Samoan….

There are more than 23 distinct communi-ties within the Asian American population and 19 within the Na-tive Hawaiian and Pacifi c Islander popu-lation.”

Despite the diver-sity of California’s API population, state agencies only report demographic data for a few of the major API communities. The list includes: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Laotian, Cambodian, Hawai-ian, Guamanian, and Samoan Americans. By failing to account for a large portion of the API population, California is unable to track the progress of the some of the fastest growing groups, in-cluding Hmong, Indo-nesian, Thai, and Tai-wanese Americans.

R e c e n t s t u d i e s demonstrate that some communities within the API community have fallen behind in important measure-

ments of public health and education. Al-though data shows the average API tends to have health insurance and is on track to ob-taining a four-year degree, a break down by ethnicity demon-strates that Koreans, Cambodians , and Thai Americans have a higher percentage of being uninsured, and that Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian and Hmong American adults have the lowest educational attain-ment of Asian Ameri-can ethnic groups.

AB 1726 takes a critical and practical step for the API com-munity by requiring higher education in-stitutions and pub-lic health agencies to disaggregate data into additional cat-egories. The bill re-quires the California Community Colleges, California State Uni-versity, the Univer-sity of California, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Healthcare Services to collect and release demographic data for the following addi-tional populations: Bangladeshi, Hmong, Indonesian, Malay-sian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, Thai, Fijian, and Ton-gan Americans.

Coffee diet woos Americans with ‘Bulletproof’ pledge

Bonta to address education, health disparities in Asian Pacifi c Islander community

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 9

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

TEL.: (818) 552-4503 ext 402 • Fax: (818) 550-7635 • MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

GLECY

PRAYERS

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

ANETH

PRAYERS

CAREGIVERS

for Asian Americans

T H E

right at your finger tips!

Mag

Tayo!

CAREGIVER

917-774-3006

BalitaGET RESULTS!ADVERTISE WITH

US TODAY!

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST10

MOTORING

Mag-

tayo!

Life and Leisure News for Filipino-Americans

www.usasianpost.com

Thursday January 28 2016 (Relaxnews) – Following Toyota and Nissan, Bosch is the latest car company to realize the benefi ts that Japan offers as a loca-tion for developing and testing autonomous driving technologies in real-world conditions.

The company is set-ting up a dedicated facility in the country with the aim of having a highway pilot system – that can take over the driving on freeways – ready for production vehicles by 2020.

“Because peop le there drive on the left, and because of the com-plex traffi c conditions, Japan provides us with valuable insights for development,” said Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, a member of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH.

The US has estab-lished itself as the country for carmakers looking to develop au-tonomous driving tech-nologies in real-word conditions. The subject even made President Obama’s State of the

Union address on Jan-uary 14. America is allocating $4 billion in funds specifically for automated vehicle research and develop-ment, but the focus is on easing congestion and pollution and re-ducing the number of road traffi c accidents.

“Meeting the chal-lenge of a transforma-tion to a cleaner and more modern transpor-tation sector requires infrastructure that re-duces congestion not by just paving new lanes, but by making better use of the lanes and capacity we have. Au-tonomous vehicles offer us a realistic way of do-ing that,” said the head of the Department of Transportation (DOT), Anthony Foxx.

According to UN fi g-ures, 1.25 million peo-ple around the world are killed each year in road traffi c accidents, and 90% are caused by human error. “In crit-ical traffi c situations, the right support can save lives,” explains Hoheisel about the technologies Bosch is

developing.Autonomous driving

is also predictive, con-siderate driving, and US studies show that the types of autopilot technologies that will soon be production re-alities could offer fuel savings of up to 39%; less fuel burned means less pollution generat-ed.

However, allowing semi-autonomous cars on the road for test-ing and clearing the regulatory and moral issues surrounding the technology so that it can become a consum-er reality, is another matter.

During the Tokyo motor show, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn underlined this prob-lem. “No one can put autonomous driving technology on a car and let you benefi t from it without the regulator accepting it,” he said. And that is one of the major reasons why Ja-pan is set to become a very attractive location for taking semi-autono-mous technology to the next level.

Bosch is accelerating its development of autonomous driving in Japan. ©The Bosch Group

Can Japan overtake the US as the place to test autonomous driving tech?

Friday January 29 2016 (The Hague-AFP) – The Netherlands started test-driving its first driverless mini-buses on Thursday hoping to introduce a full-time autonomous passenger service in a central Dutch province by summer.

Dutch Infrastruc-ture Minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen took the first ride in a so-called “WEpod” shuttle, designed to carry six people with-out a driver between

the towns of Wagen-ingen and Ede in the Gelderland province.

“Currently two WE-Pods will drive around the campus” at Wa-geningen University, where it is being test-ed, said Jac Niessen, the university’s science spokesman.

“At the end of a suc-cessful testing phase, the route will be ex-panded off campus,” the province said in a press release.

The 12-minute route will take passengers

along quiet back roads, but the minibus will have to contend with cars, cyclists and pe-destrians.

I t w i l l b e p r o -grammed with a care-fully mapped-out route in which all obstacles including trees and streetlights have been documented.

The eventual plan “is to have them drive on a route, within traffi c from nearby Ede to Wa-geningen by the middle of the year,” Niessen told AFP.

Dutch test fi rst self-drive minibuses

THE US ASIAN POST Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 Visit www.usasianpost.com 11

Photos courtesy of Getty Images

FAMILY FEATURES

If you are like most Americans, you might have lapsed a little on your New Year’s resolution to eat healthier. Getting back on track is easy and

guilt-free, and can be done with just a few steps.

Celebrity chef and registered dietitian

to help you get back on the right track and make sure you are eating the right foods:

Eliminate sugary drinks, like soda, as

Identify ways to reduce the amount of food you eat, as we all tend to eat more than we need to.

Most importantly, limit the amount of carbohydrates you eat – this means trying to reduce the amounts of pastas, breads and sugars you are consuming

vegetables, healthy fats and optimal protein.“It’s easy to transform your favorite

meals into healthy, low-carb meals that

Henderiks said.Henderiks has transformed some of

her favorite meals into low-carb delicious-ness for each meal of the day, including dessert, because you can still enjoy your favorite sweets and all of their great

them healthier.

Living a low-carb lifestyle can also be

unwanted weight – just in time for spring. Find more recipes that make it easy to

eat low-carb all year long at Atkins.com.

Waldorf Chicken Salad in Lettuce CupsServes: 2 1/4 cup Greek yogurt 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 1 teaspoon dried thyme pinch of salt freshly ground black pepper 2 cups cooked, skinless chicken breast, coarsely chopped 1 rib of celery, diced 1/4 English cucumber, diced 1/4 apple, washed, peeled and diced 1/2 cup toasted, chopped walnuts 4 large Boston lettuce leaves, rinsed and patted dry 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheeseIn medium mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt, mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper.

Fold in chicken, celery, cucumber, apple and walnuts.

Place 2 lettuce leaves on each plate and spoon 1/4 of chicken salad into each cup. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Mexican Stuffed Breakfast Portobello Mushroom Serves: 2 2 large Portobello mushroom caps 1 teaspoon olive oil 10 ounces (about 3 links) sweet Italian turkey sausage, removed from casing 1 cup chopped baby spinach 1/2 cup salsa (jarred or Quick Tomato Salsa recipe) 2 eggs 1/2 avocado, peeled and sliced thinly 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

cilantroHeat oven to 400 F.

Place mushrooms, smooth side up, on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven and place mushroom caps smooth side up on platter lined with paper towels to drain some of the water.

In medium frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Brown sausage and break into small pieces with back of wooden spoon while cooking. Stir in spinach and salsa. Transfer mixture to mixing bowl to cool slightly.

Carefully separate egg yolks then place whites in one bowl and yolks in 2 separate small bowls. Beat egg whites with fork.

On baking sheet lined with parch-ment paper, place mushrooms smooth side down. Place half of avocado slices under mushrooms.

Add egg whites and cheddar cheese to sausage mixture and com-bine well. Divide mixture in half and

avocado. For each mushroom, make well in

center of sausage mixture large enough for egg yolk.

Bake 10 minutes and carefully pour yolk into each well. Bake until yolks are set, about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Quick Tomato Salsa 1 tomato, cored and diced

onion

cilantro sprinkle of ground cumin sprinkle of garlic powder 1 lime wedge, juice only salt and pepper, to tasteIn mixing bowl, combine tomato, onion and cilantro. Season with cumin, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper, to taste.

Luscious Lemon SquaresServes: 16Crust: 1/2 cup almond or hazelnut meal

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon pinch of salt 1 tablespoon natural sugar replacement 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extractFilling:

2 tablespoons natural sugar replacement 4 large eggs 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juiceHeat oven to 350 F. Line 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper.

To make crust, in large bowl, combine

salt and sweetener. Add melted butter and vanilla extract. Combine all ingre-dients together and press dough evenly into bottom of baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly golden around edges. Remove from oven and set aside.

sweet ener together. Whisk in eggs and lemon juice.

minutes, until golden around edges.Let cool at room temperature then

refrigerate a minimum of 2 hours before cutting into squares.

Visit www.usasianpost.com Friday - Thursday, February 5 - 11, 2016 THE US ASIAN POST12

MAMASAPANOFrom page 1

CHINAFrom page 1

TRILLANESFrom page 1

EMPERORFrom page 1

ROUGH SEAFrom page 1

CHURCH CALLSFrom page 1

MUSLIM PEACEFrom page 1

AKIHITO VISITSFrom page 1

government should explain the role of the US in Oplan Exudos, which was aimed at neutralizing Malaysian ter-rorist Zulkifl i bin Hir alias Marwan.

Enrile cited that the US-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement deals only with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“It does not cover police operations which is actu-ally nothing more than the enforcement of the criminal laws of the Philippines han-dled by the police organiza-tion of the country,” Enrile said after former Special Action Force commander Getulio Napeñas claimed that the US provided “re-al-time intelligence” during the operation.

The Philippine National Police’s Board of Inquiry also mentioned in its report that the US provided real-time intelligence during the op-

eration.Goldberg said during the

interview that the US has agreements with the Philip-pine National Police.

“We have agreements that cover the police as well and our cooperation with Special Action Force has to do with international ter-rorism. We have dealt with the Special Action Force,” he said, insisting that the role of the US in the operation was done within the legal framework of the Philip-pines and America.

There were reports that “real-time” situation of the operation in Barangay Tu-kanalipao, Mamasapano town on Jan. 25, 2015 were fed to a command center in Zamboanga City through a US drone.

Goldberg declined to con-fi rm or deny the presence of a US drone in Mamasapano during the operation.

passage” off Triton Is-land in the Paracel is-land chain, which is claimed by China, Tai-wan and Vietnam.

No Chinese navy ships were in the area at the time the US de-stroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of the tiny 1.2 square kilome-ter island, he said.

The operation was conducted “to challenge excessive maritime claims of parties that claim the Paracel Is-lands,” Davis said.

While the United States takes no position on the various claims to the island, it does not

recognize any claim-ant’s right to its terri-torial waters.

Beijing quickly re-sponded, saying the move violated Chinese law and urging the United States to main-tain peace.

“The US warship, in violation of relevant Chinese laws, entered China’s territorial wa-ters without authorisa-tion. The Chinese side has taken lawful sur-veillance, vocal warn-ings and other related measures,” China’s for-eign ministry spokes-woman Hua Chunying said in a statement.

– known as Heisei, or “achieving peace” – and now in its twilight.

He has previously journeyed to other Pa-cifi c battle sites where Japanese troops and ci-vilians made desperate last stands in the name of his father Hirohito.

On Wednesday he bowed his head in sor-row during a sombre ceremony at the Philip-pines’ biggest war cem-etery in Manila, vowing later never to forget the many Filipinos killed during the occupation.

Tens of thousands of Philippine and allied US troops died march-

ing to Japanese con-centration camps or in confi nement during Japan’s World War II occupation. An estimat-ed 100,000 Filipinos also died during the month-long campaign to liberate Manila in 1945, which saw aerial bombings and artillery flatten the city. Aki-hito’s visit is the fi rst by a Japanese emper-or to the Philippines and comes as the two countries strengthen economic and defence ties, partly to counter China’s increasingly assertive actions in dis-puted regional waters.

Asked if a warrant of arrest has been issued, Cairo said: “That is al-ready automatic.”

In a separate phone interview, lawyer Claro Certeza, Binay’s coun-sel, said he received an information from a source that an arrest warrant was issued against Trillanes in connection with the libel case.

However, he has yet to be given a copy of the court’s decision.

“Hindi daw ako en-titled sa kopya kaya hindi ako binigyan,” Certeza said. “Maghi-hintay na lang ako ng kopya.”

Singson and Transpor-tation Secretary Jun Abaya.

Also present were Philippine Ambassador to Japan Manuel Lopez and Japanese Ambas-sador to the Philippines Kazuhide Ishikawa.

The visit coincided with the 60th anniver-sary of the normaliza-tion of Philippine-Ja-pan relations with the President telling the Emperor during the state banquet that the visit underscored the depth of the two coun-tries’ friendship which has been elevated to a strategic one.

Smit Salvage to the Panamanian-registered Modern Express, which was listing dangerously in rough seas around 270 kilometers (170 miles) off the seaside resort of La Rochelle.

The Dutch team managed to fix a line between the ship and a towing vessel, but swells of up to fi ve me-ters (16 feet) “caused

the line to snap”, mar-itime authorities said.

Nightfall prevented a second attempt and the operation will resume early Saturday, offi cials said.

Because the 164-me-tre-long (538-foot) ves-sel is listing at 40 to 50 degrees, towing it will be dangerous and diffi -cult, but not impossible, experts said.

the Philippines held a unique position as the world’s third-largest Catholic nation with a largely young popula-tion.

“Christianity, they

say, is in a twilight zone,” he said.

“Take heart , my brothers and sisters. The Philippines can take the twilight zone into an exciting dawn.”

gotiator Teresita Deles had told him that her office would be meet-ing concerned parties especially the MILF to fi rm up the mechanisms and the transition for when the peace deal is implemented, Coloma said.

“We need to do all that is possible to ensure the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement... beyond this administration,” he quoted Deles as saying.

The draft law is aimed at ending a Muslim separatist revolt in the main southern island of Mindanao that has claimed over 100,000 lives since the 1970s.

The law would create an autonomous area and grant a measure of self-rule to the Muslim minority in the south of the largely Christian nation.

Aquino wanted it passed this year but the timetable was set back severely following public outrage over the death of 44 police com-mandos in an encounter with Muslim separatist guerrillas last year.

Adding to the time pressure is parliament’s scheduled adjournment in February before the campaign for presiden-tial and other elections in May.