Weekend Balita December 19, 2015

At a press conference, Comelec chair Andres Bautista said the en banc voted 6-1 to accept Duterte as substitute for Martin Diño, who led a certi cate of candidacy for presi-dent under PDP-Laban in October then eventually withdrew it, citing Duterte as replacement.

Duterte led his COC to substitute through a lawyer last Nov. 27. He came to the Comelec main of ce in Manila last Dec. 8 to “reaf rm” it.

“This means he is now in our list of candidates,” Bautista said. “It is an administrative move on the part of Comelec en banc.”

Bautista declined to name the lone dissenting vote in the en banc’s de-cision, saying the resolution has yet to be signed by all seven members.

The resolution, as read by Bautis-ta at the press conference, said the Comelec resolves to “acknowledge and accept the certi cate of candi-dacy” of Duterte, as part of the poll body’s “ministerial function.”

Bautista explained: “’Yung pag-tanggap ng substitution is adminis-trative in nature. Kumbaga titingnan mo lang yung form... ‘Yung form nga mismo may kaunting [issue], pero

VOL. XXIII, NO. 46 LOS ANGELES THE LEADING SOURCE OF NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR FILIPINO-AMERICANSDecember 19 - 25, 2015

See ENTERTAINMENT, page 17

See DUTERTE, page 8

No stopping Duterte’s run in 2016 Comelec accepts Davao mayor’s COC for president

MANILA, Dec 17 (Mabuhay) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc on Thursday decided to accept the substi-tution of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as presidential candidate for PDP-Laban in the 2016 polls.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Dec 16 (Mabuhay) – Members of Sarangani Representative and senatorial aspi-rant Manny Pacquiao’s local party, the People’s Champ Movement, are publicly supporting Davao City May-or Rodrigo Duterte instead of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

This, despite local members re-newing their allegiance to the Binay-led United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) during Sarangani province’s Munato Festival celebration in No-vember.

Even though Pacquiao is rm in

MANILA, Dec 17 (Mabuhay) – The camp of Senator Grace Poe is hopeful that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would also accept the “honest mistake” in her certi cate of candidacy (COC) in 2013 after the poll body decided to accept the COC of her rival, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

“We welcome the decision of Comelec to accept the COC of Mayor Duterte. As stated before, we believe that in a true democracy, individuals should be allowed to offer themselves to the electorate to serve the country, as well as people should be allowed to choose their next leaders from a complete list of candidates. In a democracy, the freedom to choose is the most powerful tool of the people,” Poe’s spokesman, Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gathalian, said in a text message on Thursday.

“With this positive decision we are hopeful that the Comelec en banc applies consistency in rendering de-cision on the MR of Sen. Poe. In this case (Duterte case) they accepted

MANILA, Dec 16 (Mabuhay) – Nine people were killed and hun-dreds spent the night huddled on their roofs in the central Philippines as oods generated by a powerful typhoon inundated villages, disaster of cials said on Wednesday.

Typhoon Nona (international name: Melor) had paralyzed Manila by late Tuesday, with oodwaters chest-deep in some areas disrupting train services and causing traffic gridlock on major roads. Five people were listed as missing.

The typhoon was about 150 km (95 miles) northwest of Mindoro island, just to the south of Manila, with winds at its center of 130 kph (80 mph).

Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali said in a radio interview four people were killed in what he described as

one of the strongest typhoons to hit the province in years.

Another ve people were killed in Northern Samar, where Nona rst made landfall further south. About 90 percent of the province was af-fected, said disaster of cial Jonathan Baldo.

“Many people will spend Christ-mas in evacuation centres without power and potable water,” Baldo said.

Thousands of lightly constructed houses had been reduced to “match-sticks,” he said.

“It may take three to four months to restore power in the province after power lines and electricity posts were toppled by strong winds,” Baldo said.

Five shermen were missing in Albay gulf on the heavily populated main island of Luzon, of cials there

Grace-Chiz camp hopes ‘honest mistake’ would be forgiven

Pacquiao allies to support Duterte instead of Binay

See PACQUIAO, page 8

See GRACE POE, page 8 See TYPHOON NONA, page 8

2 Weekend Balita, Sat.-Fri., December 19 - 25, 2015 Balita

3Visit www.Balita.comBalita Weekend Balita, Sat.-Fri., December 19 - 25, 2015

owners are still behind on their payments, or sitting in homes that remain upside down in value versus debt, or both. Bottom line, home val-ues have not yet appreciated to the point where it makes sense to stay, or pay off large delinquencies in order to avoid a foreclosure.

Even with the new lower mort-gage rates, few home owners will succeed in refinancing under the government’s Harp 2 program, that provides re- nance options for prop-erties under water. For most, if your credit is compromised, or you do not have at least 40% equity, you are out of luck. Therefore a bank foreclosure may well be unavoidable during this new foreclosure wave that’s about to begin.

So how does that work? When you are unable to make your mortgage payments on time, the bank starts a foreclosure process. Foreclosure is a legal procedure that involves mortgaged properties. If a homeown-er defaults on his or her mortgage, by either failing to make mortgage payments or failing to follow other terms of the mortgage document, foreclosure may be the result. The homeowner relinquishes all rights to the property, and the mortgage lend-er takes possession of the property.

Usually there is a forced sale of the property at public auction; the proceeds of this sale are applied to the mortgage debt.

The most widely used remedy in dealing with foreclosure, is bankrupt-cy. Bankruptcy is a legal procedure that begins when an individual has a cash flow deficiency caused by debts they cannot manage. It can also protect against judgments, pay garnishments, evictions and buy time in foreclosure situations.

For those with little income, a chapter 7 bankruptcy gives debtors a fresh start. All unsecured debts are discharged. If you do have a regular income that is greater than the cost of living index for your area, you can still qualify for a chapter 13 bankruptcy.

The U.S. Courts’ publication Bankruptcy Basics refers to a Chap-ter 13 bankruptcy as “an adjustment

of debts of an individual with regular income” where the debtor works with the bankruptcy court to develop a repayment plan for the debtor to fol-low over the next three to ve years. Upon completion of the repayment plan, the bankruptcy court will dis-charge any remaining eligible debts.

A Chapter 13 bankruptcy ling can stall or derail foreclosure pro-ceedings. That’s because of bank-ruptcy’s “automatic stay” provisions that force creditors to the sidelines while the bankruptcy court sorts things out. The lender can petition the court to allow it to continue with the foreclosure, depending on where you are in the foreclosure process, but it should buy you some time.

The following, is from page 24 of the U.S. Courts’ publication Bank-ruptcy Basics:

By virtue of the automatic stay, an individual debtor faced with a threatened foreclosure of the mort-gage on his or her principal residence can prevent an immediate foreclo-sure by ling a chapter 13 petition. Chapter 13 then affords the debtor a right to cure defaults on long-term home mortgage debts by bringing the payments current over a reasonable period of time.

The debtor is permitted to cure a default with respect to a lien on the debtor’s principal residence up until the completion of a foreclosure sale under state law. 11 U.S.C § 1322©.

Clearly, you should hire a bank-ruptcy attorney to guide you through this complex process. That’s why the Law Of ces of Paul M. Allen is here to help you. Attorney Paul Allen can re-structure your nances through the exibility of a Chapter 13 plan, and provide you with options that will help you through many dif cult situations.

If you need help in resolving your nancial problems, easing that debt

load, and want to improve your credit scores, call the bankruptcy lawyer that people trust. Call the Law Of c-es of Paul M. Allen, at 818-334-5445 and 818-552-4500 and schedule a free consultation. With three convenient locations to serve you in Glendale, Cerritos and La Palma.

Recent press reports now indi-cate that banks are ready to begin a new push on delinquent mortgages through foreclosures and trust deed sales.

Although the recession seems to have bottomed out, and house prices are no longer falling, many home

MANILA, Dec. 15 (Mabuhay) – The Commission on Audit (COA) questioned the lack of accountability in the remit-tance of billions of pesos in Small Town Lottery (STL) income to police and lo-cal government units bene tting from its operations in a recently released COA report on the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Of ce (PCSO) 2014 dis-bursements and nancial transactions.

The report also raised serious ques-tions over the non-remittance of STL prizes that have not been claimed for over a year and thus, have been deemed forfeited.

According to auditors, the PCSO management committed “improper allocation” of P805 million in forfeited lottery prizes to a high-yielding savings account.

The state audit agency said transfer of the unclaimed lotto prizes may have

deprived “potential beneficiaries of additional funds for their health and medical assistance services.” State au-ditors tasked to examine PCSO nances have been invited to the congressional hearings on the alleged lapses in STL operations that may have cost the state lottery agency and its charity fund unrealized revenues reaching billions of pesos.

P879-M Taxes OwedIn the 2014 annual audit report, COA

said that for 2013 and 2014 alone, autho-rized agent corporations running STL operations already owed the Bureau of Internal Revenue a total of P879.40 mil-lion in documentary stamp payments.

“Direct remittance to LGUs and PNP resulted in non-establishment of accountability of the remittance of the share of LGUs and PNP local of ces,” COA said.


napahiya o nabuko. Kaya ganon,” the mayor said.

He added that a lot of people are also now saying that Roxas should not say that he is a Wharton alum-nus, but a UPenn graduate.

Replying to Duterte’s claim, Roxas said that he will ask Wharton School to con rm that he is an alumnus.

He said he will allow Duterte to slap him if it was proven that he is not a Wharton graduate, but said that he will have to slap the mayor if he proves that he is a graduate of the

prestigious business school.Rebecca Ricalde, a digital com-

merce executive who was a member of the Wharton MBA Class of 2011, said that undergraduates can claim to be Wharton graduates.

“Undergrads can de nitely claim to be Wharton grads. In fact, the un-dergrad is maybe more competitive than the MBA program,” Rebecca Ricalde. The Wharton School has con rmed that Roxas graduated in the school in 1979 with an economics degree. (MNS)

MANILA, Dec. 15 (Mabuhay) – With around 15 million voter constituents, the 40-member par-ty-list coalition (PLC) in the House of Representatives is considering voting as a bloc for six senatorial candidates in the May 2016 elec-tions.

“To ensure their victory, we might stick to supporting six can-didates instead of completing the 12 names [needed for a complete senatorial slate],” House Deputy Majority Leader and CIBAC par-ty-list Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian said in a press conference Tuesday.

The PLC said they will back the following senatorial candidates: Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian, former Tech-nical Education and Skills Develop-ment Authority (TESDA) Director General Joel Villanueva, Phil-Health Director Risa Hontiveros, ACT-CIS party-list Rep.Samuel Pagdilao and COOP-NATTCO par-ty-list Rep. Cresente Paez.

PLC acting president and Butil party-list Rep. Agapito Guanlao said the group arrived at the six names after ranking them based on certain criteria, such as ties to a member party-list and commitment to advance causes of the party-list sector in the Senate.

He said that Bayan Muna par-

ty-list Rep. Neri Colmenares, who is part of Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero’s Team Galing at Puso, was not included in the list of endorsed candidates because he has his own group, the Makabayan bloc.

With the exception of Gatchalian and Romualdez, who are district representatives, the other sena-torial candidates are former and incumbent party-list lawmakers.

Hontiveros, Paez and Villan-ueva will run under the Liberal Party’s banner, while Pagdilao and Gatchalian are part of the Poe-Es-cudero senatorial slate.

Romualdez, meanwhile, is a guest candidate of the United Na-tionalist Alliance.

Given that none of the candi-dates have yet to make it to the win-ning circle of senatorial candidates in recent surveys, PLC chairman and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe acknowledged that the group would have to work double to raise awareness about the six bets.

He said the coalition will lend all of its member party-lists’ machin-ery and resources to the candidates to ensure their victory in the up-coming polls. “We want to prove in the 2016 elections that we’re a force to reckon with. We’ll mobilize all of our resources to make our bets win,” he said. (MNS)

MANILA, Dec 16 (Mabuhay) – The Supreme Court (SC) junked the peti-tion against Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) “No Bio, No Boto” policy.

SC justices voted unanimously in junking Kabataan Party-list’s petition assailing the constitutionality of the policy.

With this ruling, the temporary restraining order earlier issued by the SC on the policy has been lifted.

In its petition, Kabataan Party-list assailed the constitutionality of the “No Bio, No Boto” policy of the poll body, which is said to deprive more than three million registered voters without biometrics of their right to participate in the upcoming 2016 synchronized national and local elections.

In its 32-page petition, Kabataan Party-list said the Comelec’s move to deactivate the registration of voters without biometrics is unconsti-tutional, and asked the high court to strike down certain provisions of Republic Act No. 10367 or “An Act Providing for Mandatory Biometrics Voter Registration.”

Petitioners also sought the nulli cation of Comelec Resolution No. 9721, dated June 26, 2013, Resolution No. 9863, dated April 1, 2014, and Resolution No. 10013, all related to deactivation of voter registration records in the May 9, 2016 National and Local Elections.

Petitioners stressed that the said law and Comelec issuances “impose an unconstitutional, additional substantive requirement imposed on the exercise of suffrage, thus violating Section 1, Article V of the 1987 Constitution.”

But the Comelec argued that the policy is anchored on on Republic Act No. 10367, or the Mandatory Biometrics Registration Law, which aims to clean out the voters’ list.

Comelec chairman Andres Bautista had earlier said that the inclusion of supposedly deactivated voters would mean 1,000 people will have to share one poll machine instead of the more manageable 800. (MNS)

Duterte insists Mar is not a Wharton graduateMANILA, Dec 16 (Mabuhay) –

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday night insisted that one of his presidential rivals, Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Mar Roxas, is lying about his academic background.

“That’s my simple truth na hindi talaga siya sa Wharton,” Duterte told reporters after a dinner meeting with congressmen members of the National Unity Party in Quezon City.

Duterte said that after hearing Roxas “boast” about being an alum-nus of Wharton, he had it checked.

“We had it checked actually. Si Mar, [sa] University of Penn. Under-grad siya don, he was taking special courses. Ang wharton kasi pala is MBA, masters ‘yan. Di siya pumunta roon. He was never there, but he was

using Wharton,” the mayor insisted.He said that during the meeting

with NUP, two congressmen who went to Wharton told him that they did not see Roxas in the prestigious school.

“Pero meron dito, I will not reveal the names, dalawang congressman na nagpunta ng Wharton. Sabi nila hindi talaga nila nakita. Sabi nila hindi talaga,” he added.

Duterte said that his revelation against Roxas’ claim that he was a Wharton graduate could be the reason why the LP bet has been challenging him to a slapping match and a st ght.

“Uminit si Mar kasi in all of the previous speeches sinabi niya Wharton... Kaya uminit siya siguro


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MANILA, Dec 17 (Mabuhay) – Senate President Franklin Drilon lauded Thursday what he called as the strong legislative performance of the chamber with 66 of the 148 local and national bills it passed signed into the law by President Benigno Aquino III this year.

“This year has proven to be a boun-tiful harvest for the Senate, in terms of new legislation that will improve the life of Juan dela Cruz through expanding the economy, advancing social welfare, and strengthening the judicial system,” Drilon said.

Since the start of the 16th Con-gress on July 22, 2013, 89 laws have been passed.

At the weekly Kapihan sa Senado news forum, Drilon said the Senate will not let up in its legislative efforts.

“Even with the elections drawing close, we have much work to do in the in the Senate. We intend to make good on our promise to the Filipino people on the start of the 16th Con-gress that we will help the poor, widen the delivery of education and other social services and improve the economy,” he said.

He added the Senate will continue to be a working chamber and “we will maximize our remaining time to continue our mandate and work on relevant, important and much-need-ed laws for our people.”

Drilon said included in the 66 new laws passed were new legislations aimed at increasing the take-home pay of Filipinos, such as the P82,000 tax exemption cap for 13th Month Pay (RA 10653) and other bene ts and Joint Resolution No. 5 that in-creases the daily subsistence allow-ance of all enlisted and uniformed personnel.

He said the Senate also has passed HB 5842, or the P2,000 across the board increase to the monthly pen-sion received by retirees under the Social Security System (SSS) and

now awaits the President’s approval and signing into law. It also passed on third reading the measure that will grant education assistance and bene ts to dependents of all members of the Armed Forces of the Philip-pines, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Philip-pine Coast Guard, and Bureau of Correctional. It likewise passed the bill that will provide retirement ben-e ts to barangay of cials, including barangay tanods, members of the Lupon ng Tagapamayapa, barangay health workers, and barangay day care workers.

Drilon expressed hope they will be able to pass the Salary Standard-ization Law IV, which will increase the salaries of about 1.6 million gov-ernment employees, on third reading upon the resumption of the session on Jan. 18, 2016.

The Senate also passed the Phil-ippine Competition Act (RA 10667), which enforces a national competi-tion policy and prohibits unfair and anti-competitive business practices; and the amended Cabotage Law (RA 10668), which allows foreign- agged ships to call at multiple ports within the country. “The passage of the Philippine Competition Act and the amendments to the Cabotage Law, which had languished in the legisla-tive mill for decades, is the de ning point of this year’s session. It is a victory for the average Filipino who will bene t the most from improved market policies,” Drilon said.

The Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (RA 10708) aimed to make transparent the s-cal incentives being issued by the government to the private sector was also enacted into law while Drilon expects the Customs and Tariff Modernization Act to be approved on third reading in January.

Matthew to be His disciple. Client had a confirmed Chapter 13 plan since 2013. The plan paid for her 2013 income tax owed of $10K, and $50K arrears in her mortgage. These are the only creditors that she owed. She had a 2nd trust deed of $100K, which was fully forgiven by Bank of America after we led her motion to avoid the 2nd trust deed. She had $60K credit card debt which all got discharged in her Chapter 7 case the year before. This was really an ex-treme reorganization of her nancial affairs that we were doing. Phase 1, she discharged all unsecured debt. Phase 2, was to handle the IRS and the $50K arrears on the mortgage. Things had gone quite well. The $100K second trust deed had com-pletely disappeared in an instant right after we led the LAM motion. We really did not expect that Bank of America would just forgive the entire 2nd mortgage. Our strategy was to argue that client did not have to pay Bank of America anything as unsecured debt upon approval of the motion to avoid lien because the previous chapter 7 discharge wiped

out the promissory note, so there was nothing to pay even as the lien was stripped. I wasn’t sure that the court would buy this argument but it was logical and legally correct.

The next step we took was to work on a loan modi cation for the rst mortgage. This worked out really well too. Not only did Nationstar reduce payment by $800 a month, it updated the loan such that there were no more arrears. Therefore, the loan modification cured the $50K arrears. With the LM in place, cli-ent was now completely current on her mortgage. Nationstar wrote a letter to the trustee saying that the LM cured the default and no more payments in the plan to Nationstar were needed!

So, the only debt left unpaid was the IRS of $10K. However, client failed to pay IRS her 2014 tax liabil-ity, which was $14K. This created a big problem because non-payment of the 2014 tax liability is a viola-tion of the terms of the con rmed plan. A violation of the terms of the plan is legal ground to dismiss the case. Thus, the IRS led a motion

to dismiss case. To set things right, we had to oppose the IRS motion to dismiss on the ground that if Na-tionstar withdrew its prepetition proof of claim which showed a $50K default which no longer exists, the plan could be modi ed to pay the IRS in full over the rest of the life of the plan. We also led an objection to the proof of claim of Nationstar because the loan modi cation wiped out the arrears of $50K. Hopefully, these will all combine to prevent the case from being dismissed.

Second client is 57 years old. He had a good paying job for 20 years. He cleared $150K a year every year for the last 20 years working 18 hours a day because he was so dedicated to his work. Although he was paid well, the kind of work he did was very stressful and it affected his mind. He would have nightmares involving what he saw at work. A lot of gore and blood, and he saw the evil that men do. He decided that it was time to start again in life without too much stress. Anyway, he had already quali ed for a good pension. He said the money wasn’t worth the stress that he had to go through every day. The guy was a nervous wreck. He still owed $70K of credit cards. He owned a house with a reasonable

mortgage payment of $1800 and two-car payments total of $1,000. He takes it easy nowadays. Does a little part time work here and there. His wife still works. With his pension and part time income, there’s enough to cover monthly expenses, but there is no money left to make minimum payments of $2K on his $70K credit cards. These have to go. With his fresh start in life, he will have no more $70K of credit card debt. This is what he wants, and it makes a whole lot of sense.

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No one has anything good to say about the IRS. Tax collectors were much hated even during the time of Jesus two thousand years ago. Jesus was walking along the street when He saw Matthew sitting in his tax collector booth, then Jesus called

Client with good income wants Chp 7 to discharge $70k credit cards


MANILA, Dec 17 (Mabuhay) – The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on Thursday said the uni ed ticketing system is good to go, and has nished its trial period.

The Contactless Automated Fare Collection, DOTC’s rst public-pri-vate partnership project, has reached Full Systems Acceptance after a limited trial.

“We have reached another mile-

stone through the rollout of a modern, unified ticketing system,” DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya said in a state-ment.

“We have been informed that we are the fastest in the world to achieve FSA, which means the system passed the standards and requirements we have set,” he added.

The tap-and-go ticketing scheme, which aims to cut queuing time and make switching rail lines easier, was

made available as early as July for the Light Rail Transit Line 2. The tap-and-go card was rolled for the LRT-1 in August and for the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 in October. The system let commuters to use a single

beep card for all three lines.As of Dec. 14, a total of 1,063,022

beep cards were sold, the DOTC said.The department plans to eventu-

ally use the beep card in other modes of transportation. (MNS)

MRT-LRT unifi ed ticketing system good to go, says DOTC

MANILA, Dec 18 (Mabuhay) – Four Filipinos were reported miss-ing while six others were rescued when a Danish cargo ship sunk after colliding with a chemical tanker off Indonesia’s Batam island last Wednesday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday said search and res-cue operations are being carried out by the Singapore Police Force Coast Guard to locate the four missing Fil-ipino crewmen.

The six Filipinos who were res-cued, meanwhile, are currently con- ned in a hospital in Singapore and

have already been visited by Philip-pine of cials, the DFA said, citing the Philippine Embassy in Singapore.

“The Embassy is coordinating with Singapore authorities and manning agent on the repatriation of the six Filipino seamen,” the DFA said.

According to a report by the As-sociated Press, the collision between Danish cargo ship Thorco Cloud and chemical tanker Stolt Commitment ripped a large hole below the water line on the cargo ship, causing it to sink.

The tanker, operated by Stolt Tankers, suffered only minor dam-

age, it said.The cargo ship reportedly had 12

crew members from Ukraine and the Philippines and was operated by Copenhagen-based Thorco Shipping.

The AP report also said more than 100 rescuers were deployed on three navy ships and seven rescue boats to search for the missing crew members.

Two soldiers were injured after a government relief convoy was ambushed by suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in typhoon-hit Samar province Friday morning, authorities said.

According to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Restituto Padilla, troops from the Army’s 546th Engineering Battalion and 81st Division Reconnaissance Company, on board two M35 trucks, one elf truck and a mini dump truck, were attacked in Barangay Pahug, Pinabacdao at around 7:30 a.m.

Department of Social Welfare and Development Assistant Secretary Vilma Cabrera said the convoy had just delivered relief items to victims of typhoon “Nona” in Oras, Eastern Samar and was on its way to pick up another set of relief goods for delivery in Catarman, Northern Samar.

Candaba, Philippines | AFP | Fri-day 12/18/2015 – Tens of thousands of people struggled Friday through waist-deep floods in typhoon-bat-tered farmlands near the Philippine capital, as yet another storm threat-ened to dump more rain.

Large parts of four farming prov-inces on the main northern island of Luzon have been submerged in water since Wednesday due to Typhoon Melor, which left at least 27 people dead in its wake.

Hundreds of thousands of people there had yet to recover from Ty-phoon Koppu, which claimed 54 lives while causing ooding that lasted for more than a week and destroyed vast swathes of rice crops just before harvest in October.

President Benigno Aquino on Friday declared a “state of national calamity” to hasten the government response, his spokesman, Herminio Coloma, told reporters.

Truck driver Roberto Mariano, who has been out of work since Koppu, again found the small bun-galow he shared with 15 relatives submerged.

“The oods mean no work and no money for me,” the 51-year-old told AFP, trying to keep his balance as he walked through strong ood currents in Candaba, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Manila.

Mariano, who used to earn 500 pesos ($10) driving, was on his way to his parents’ house to borrow money to buy rice.

“It’s very hard out here. I have to go out because we’ve run out of food in the house,” he said.

Mariano said he had spent the last two nights sleepless, anxiously watching as the waters nearly sub-merged the children’s wooden beds.

‘We’re used to this’Flooding was expected to spread

to other parts of the country with a tropical depression, locally dubbed Onyok, on course to hit coastal vil-lages on the main southern island of Mindanao late Friday.

In Surigao del Sur province, where Onyok was expected to make landfall rst, authorities prepared for possi-

ble evacuation and readied trucks and excavators to clear landslide debris, governor Johnny Pimentel told AFP.

“We are prepared for this storm... the biggest threat here is the oods,” he said.

While Onyok will hit land about 700 kilometres from the farming regions currently enduring oods, it could still bring rain to those areas, said Esperanza Cayanan, a state weather bureau forecaster.

The weather misery comes a week before Christmas, the most celebrat-ed holiday in the predominantly Catholic nation of 100 million people.

“We should not be in holiday mode,” Cayanan told reporters.

In the Candaba town centre, res-idents with groceries in hand rode small wooden boats and makeshift rafts made from refrigerator doors.

Others showed commitment to their daily routines, eating at road-side canteens waist-deep in flood waters. “We’re used to this, but it doesn’t make it any less dif cult,” said Candelaria Balagtas, a 68-year-old retired policewoman.

The country is ravaged by an aver-age of 20 major storms a year, many of them deadly.

Balagtas said she risked trigger-ing her arthritis by wading through the frigid waters to the market to buy rice and sardines for her daughter after they ran out of food.

“I’m lucky I have my pension, but the people here, their farms were destroyed, the shermen can’t go out to sh,” she told AFP.

The islands of the Philippines are often the rst major landmass that storms hit after they emerge over the Paci c Ocean.

In November 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms on record, attened entire commu-nities in poor farming and shing communities, leaving 7,350 people dead or missing.


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pinagpasyahan, 6-1, na tanggapin na natin administratively, but subject to sa kaso.”

Asked about the basis of the decision, Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said that as part of their ministerial duty, they looked at the COC only in its form.

“’Yung intrinsic issues, it has to be resolved by the [First] Division and then it goes to the en banc,” he said.

Bautista said there is still “a potential” that the mayor may be disquali ed, as provided by the res-olution.

It reads: “This (the en banc’s deci-sion) is entirely without prejudice to the pending disquali cation case in SPA No. 15-94BC entitled Ruben H. Castor vs. Martin Dino, Mayor Rodri-go Duterte, and Partido ng Demokra-tikong Pilipino-Laban, or any other case that may be led against him.”

The said case, which questions the validity of Dino’s COC, was submit-ted for resolution on Tuesday.

However, the First Division set a hearing for it on Friday morning.

Lim, presiding commissioner of the division, said there is no rule that stops them from calling for a hearing even after the case has been submitted for resolution—a practice that can be seen also in some cases before the Supreme Court.

Earlier, Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, a member of the First Division, said they subpoenaed the two lawyers who notarized Duterte’s COC for president and certi cate of withdrawal of his COC for reelection in Davao City to “verify some facts”

about the documents.Asked if the validity of Dino’s COC

will be tackled on Friday’s hearing, Bautista replied, “’Yun siguro nga, malamang, ang lalabas sa hearing bukas.” Bautista and Lim explained that the Comelec performs two functions—administrative and qua-si-judicial—both of which applies in dealing with Duterte’s case.

“Remember that the en banc, in accepting the substitution, is essen-tially performing an administrative function,” Bautista said.

“When the First Division is hear-ing the case, it is performing a qua-si-judicial function. Then the decision of the division can be appealed to the en banc.” For Lim’s part, he explained that the Comelec’s admin-istrative function may be likened to being an “election manager,” while its quasi-judicial function puts it as judge in cases led before it.

“If you compare the Comelec in the Philippines to the other electoral bodies, they’re one of the few [in the world] that performs two functions—administrative and quasi-judicial. We say quasi-judicial, parang hu-kom, para kang judge,” he said.

He added: “[When we say] admin-istrative, more as an elections man-ager—making sure that elections happen, all paraphernalia are there, all the candidates are properly listed. Our administrative functions are more as election managers.”

“So pagdating sa amin [ng aspi-rant], checklist lang: kung kumpleto ‘yung papeles, okay, kasama ka,” Lim said. (MNS)

supporting Binay, most of his local candidates in General Santos City and Sarangani are supporting Duter-te. Former General Santos City may-or and now city councilor Rosalita Nunez said she would have supported Binay if Duterte is not running.

“You know that by heart, si Con-gressman Manny Pacquiao is really for Mayor Duterte but he showed commitment to VP Binay already,” Nunez said.

Nunez said Pacquiao, being the chairman of the party, has been well-informed of their personal deci-sion and Pacquiao did not force any of his allies to support Binay, but encouraged all to stay with UNA.

“Nagpaalam na ako sa kanya and he knows very well na I am for Duterte because he is a Mindanaoan and we can’t afford to miss the gold-en opportunity that maybe the next president of the Philippines is from Mindanao,” Nunez explained.

Other local councilors under Peo-ple’s Champ Movement have been very vocal about supporting Mayor Duterte. Kagawad Jeng Gacal, Pac-quiao’s close friend said he is excited for Mayor Duterte.

“I think he is a very charismatic leader and the country needs a Dute-rte to lead the country,” Gacal said.

Gacal, who is originally a member of the PDP-Laban, hopes Duterte will not be disquali ed. He also warned that the public might get angry if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decides to disqualify Duterte.

“Sa tingin ko, talagang magkak-agulo if Comelec will disqualify Di-gong. I hope he won’t be disquali ed,” Gacal said.

Back in October, Pacquiao said it would be an embarrassment if he would not support Duterte for president. Back then, Duterte had yet to decide whether to run for the country’s highest post.

However, after Duterte did not le his certi cate of candidacy for

president, Pacquiao rmed up his alliance with Binay.

The boxing champion said he is staying with Binay because he does not want to be accused of being ck-le-minded. But Pacquiao’s af nity with his fellow Mindanaoan became evident when he defended the latter, who drew ak over his controversial remarks against the Pope. (MNS)

the ‘mistake’ of Mr. Dino, hence we believe that they should be consistent and accept ‘honest mistake’ of Sen. Poe in her 2013 COC when she ran for senator,” Poe’s spokesman added.

Gathchalian was referring to Mar-tin Diño, the original standard-bear-er of PDP-Laban, who later withdrew his COC. Diño was replaced by Duterte.

Diño’s COC indicated, however that he was running for mayor of Pasay City.

Meanwhile, Poe has a pending appeal at the Comelec en banc after its rst and second divisions ruled to disqualify her from the 2016 pres-idential race for allegedly making

false statements about her period of residency in the country and her status as a natural-born Filipino.

In its decision to disqualify Poe from next year’s presidential race, the Comelec’s Second Division ruled that there was a deliberate attempt on Poe’s part to mislead, misinform or hide a fact when she stated in her COC for President that her period of residency in the Philippines up to the day before the May 9, 2016 elections was 10 years and 11 months.

But such declaration, it said, was false based on her own COC for sen-ator in 2013 where she stated that she has been a resident of the country since November 2006.(MNS)

said. About 120 domestic flights were grounded and nearly 200 ferry services were stopped.

The storm forced the evacuation of about 800,000 people to shelters. Another storm is expected to hit the southern Philippines later this week,

forecaster Accuweather said.An average of 20 typhoons pass

through the Philippines each year. In 2013, typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people and left 1.4 million homeless in the central Philippines. (MNS)


immediate grati cation (i.e., the “I want it, and I want it now” mentality) instead of making temporary sacri- ces for long-term gain. The truth is

that most of the good things in life take time, not overnight.

Of course, not all debt is bad debt. For example, if you are borrowing money to start a business or purchase a home with the intention of making a pro t, there is an expected return on your investment that may justify the loan. But if you are borrowing money to purchase a rapidly depre-ciating asset, you may end up paying the debt back for the rest of your life way after the item you purchased has become worthless. So there is a difference between a “good debt” and a “bad debt”. Or how about those people who have no money to go on vacation so they end up charging everything on their credit cards? And then they dread getting their credit card statement the following month because they know that they’ve spent more than they can afford.

In this article I would like to talk about how it may be possible to live a life that is free from the stress caused by excessive indebtedness. If you are currently stuck in too much debt, perhaps you should ask yourself the following questions: What led me to this dif cult nancial situation? Could I have done things a little dif-ferently and put more thought into my nancial decisions? These are important questions to ask because unless we learn from our mistakes, we are bound to repeat them again.

Large debts start from small debts. Oftentimes, people are caught in the vicious cycle of borrowing because it is too easy to get credit these days. They fall into the trap of thinking that they can make small minimum payments, anyway, so what’s the

big deal? Before they know it, they can’t even afford to make the mini-mum payments on their credit cards. That’s when the problem starts. Unless credit card borrowing is con-trolled, it often leads to bankruptcy. I know because as a bankruptcy attorney, I know that credit cards are the main reason people end up in bankruptcy court.

Borrowing more money than you can pay back is not only irresponsible but will have serious implications for you. All actions have consequences and if you are not careful, you are likely to regret what you’ve done. You need to stay on top of your debt balances at all times and know ex-actly how much you owe, how much you’re paying in interest charges and how long it will take you to pay the debt back.

It’s a good thing that credit card companies are now required by law to print this on your monthly state-ment. Is it working? I don’t know. Apparently, some people don’t even read what’s there. Many times I’m shocked to hear from people that they don’t even know how much they owe because they’ve lost track. If this is you, you have a nancial disaster waiting to happen. It’s just a matter of time.

Another thing that gets most peo-ple in nancial trouble is spending more than they make. Their expenses are simply out of control and they are paying for a lot of things that they don’t even need or can afford. They have huge mortgage and car payments that are way too high for what they make and they are living a high-consumption lifestyle that makes them look good on the outside but unknown to their friend and family, they are financially broke and they have zero savings. They

are living a lifestyle nanced by the banks and credit card companies and once they lose their income, they lose everything overnight. Why because they own nothing. They’ve mortgaged everything they own to the greedy banks and nancial institutions who are happy to loan them money in exchange for blood.

If you wish to live a debt-free life, you need to develop the personal discipline of spending less than what you earn. Did you hear that? I know it sounds simple but that is the only way that you can ever save. If you think you may be over-extended in debt, make it your priority to repay your debts so that you are not wast-ing money paying interest charges. This is money you should be saving, not giving away to the credit card companies.

Don’t get me wrong. Being in debt doesn’t make you a bad person. If you’ve made some mistakes in handling your personal finances, acknowledge responsibility for where you are and nd a way to change course if you are going in the wrong direction. Yes, a debt-free life is possi-ble but it takes work, dedication and prudence in making nancial deci-sions For a free consultation, call my of ce at 866-477-7772. I have of ces in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Cerritos and Valencia.

(None of the information herein is intended to give legal advice for any speci c situation. Atty. Ray Bulaon has successfully helped over 5,000 clients in getting out of debt. For a free attorney evaluation of your sit-uation, please call RJB Law Of ces at TOLL FREE 1-866-477-7772).

A debt-free life is something that a lot of people aspire to have. And yet it is a known fact that sadly, many will never attain it because of their unwillingness to make the necessary adjustments in their lifestyle to make it possible. I am talking about people who continue to accumulate debt for

when the Petitioner dies? Are all those years of waiting wasted? Not quite. Normally, the Petition is auto-matically revoked once the Petitioner dies.

However, all is not lost by the death of the Petitioner. The bene -ciary has a couple of options depend-ing on whether they are inside the US or outside the US. The bene ciary may either avail of the INA § 204(l) which was signed into law in 2009 if the bene ciary is inside the US at the time the petitioner’s death and continues to reside inside the US.

Alternatively, if the bene ciary is outside the US, bene ciary may seek to reinstate the petition based on humanitarian grounds. The DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) may exercise discretion “for humanitari-an reasons” to reinstate the petition and to allow the Af davit of Support requirements to be satis ed by the qualifying I-864 of a spouse, parent,

mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, grandparent, or grandchild or legal guardian of the bene ciary, as long as the petition was “approved” prior to the Petition-er’s death.

If the bene ciary is inside the US either in legal status or grandfa-thered by INA §245(i) and the prior-ity date on the petition is current, the bene ciary may apply for adjustment of status. The bene ciary may also apply for an employment authoriza-tion card.

DHS discretion does not mean “guaranteed” approval. The case will be evaluated on a case by case basis. Some of the factors that the DHS may consider are 1) disruption of an established family unit; 2) hardship to US citizens or lawful permanent residents; 3) bene ciary is elderly or in poor health; 4) bene ciary has had lengthy residence in the US; 4)

It is very common for bene ciaries of family based petition to wait many years before their petition’s priority date becomes current. This is usu-ally the case with US Citizen parent petitions to adult son or daughter. This is also common among petition’s between Siblings. What happens

See REYES, page 12


‘Simbang Gabi’ was held at the Ca-thedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles and it was sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Filipino Ministry of the San Fernando Region.

As I recall from our Philippine history lessons, “Simbang Gabi,” or Midnight Mass originated during

the early days of Spanish rule in our country. Their rule over the Philip-pines spanned almost 300 years and as a “practical compromise to the farmers who worked before sunrise to avoid the noonday heat out in the elds, the Catholic priests conducted

Mass every morning instead of eve-nings. This was patterned after the

Spanish custom of conducting early morning Masses.”

As an agricultural country, the Philippines was known for producing rice, coconut and sugarcane and it is “understandable that the farmers (known as ‘saccadas’ or ‘campseinos,’ toiled all day with one break at noon when the heat would be at its peak.” There were times when farmers would “lose an hour due to unbear-able temperatures, so while they worked hard, they budgeted their time out of fear of the local ‘encar-gado,’ whose role was to administer land for the Spanish feudal lord or ‘hacendero.’

Archbishop of Los Angeles, The Most Reverend Jose H. Gomez, DD

was the principal celebrant at the “Simbang Gabi’ last Tuesday. The ceremony began with a choir song of “Pasko Ng Pag-Ibig” as a Prelude, Pre-Liturgical Movement, and sub-sequently followed by the Parade of Parols and the Mass went on, con-cluding with a recessional rite which included Archbishop Gomez’ solemn blessing, plus the choir singing “Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit” and “Simbang Gabi Medley.”

It was really astounding to see hundreds of Southland Filipino-Amer-icans attending this year’s highly-at-tended event at the Cathedral.

To all of you dear readers, wishing you all peace and abundant blessings on CHRSTMAS and NEW YEAR!

Southland Pinoys celebrated the 13th annual Archdiocesan ‘Simbang Gabi,” or Midnight Mass, last Tues-day, December 15. Though back home in the Philippines, we have all learned that ‘Simbang Gabi’ usually starts on December 16, which runs through December 24, Chirstmas eve, thus designating a 9 – consec-utive day celebration. This year’s

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Thursday 12/17/2015 – California motor vehicle department of cials on Wednesday proposed self-driving car regulations that included mandating that a person could take the wheel if needed. The draft set of rules released by the California Department of Motor Vehicles for a public comment phase would not allow for legal operation of an autonomous car being tested by Google because it lacks a steering wheel or foot pedal controls.

“We’re gravely disappointed that California is already writing a ceiling on the potential for fully self-driving cars to help all of us who live here,” Google said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

California rules-of-the-road for self-driving cars would have the poten-tial to set precedent, and the proposed regulations were seen at sure to slow down the speed with which the technology would go mainstream.

“The primary focus of the deployment regulations is the safety of auton-omous vehicles and the safety of the public who will share the road with these vehicles,” DMV director Jean Shiomoto said in a release.

“We want to get public input on these draft regulations before we initiate the formal regulatory rule making process.”

Workshops were planned to gather feedback from industry, consumer, academic and advocacy groups as well as from the general public.

The proposed regulations call for a licensed driver to be in a self-driving car and able to take control in the event of a technology failure or other emergency.


HEALTH & BEAUTYLOS ANGELES

Dahil sa Health and Wellness resources ng AARP, si Loida at iba pang katulad niya

are now able to have as much fun in the ballroom as they did in the boardroom.

Loida has enjoyed a long career as a successful businesswoman, and she remains just as active today. Bilang miyembro ng halos 20 na taon, she keeps current with AARP publications on health, diet, exercise at iba pang activities that help her enjoy life and live it to the fullest. Not surprisingly, her boundless energy and generous contributions para sa Filipino community have made her a role model for many. Para kay Loida, walang hanggan ang mga posibilidad and the best is yet to come. AARP offers members a wealth of resources na siguradong makapagbibigay ng saya, sigla at importanteng impormasyon para rin sa inyo. To learn more, visit aarp.org/aapi or call 1-866-805-1986 today.

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on the insurance carrier.IF Speaker Paul Ryan is successful

in passing a bill into law transform-ing Medicare from “fee for service” to a “voucher” system, at least 2 salu-tary results are expected to happen.

The Medicare market will be wide open to competition. Prices for medi-cal services will not remain stale as it is today, being dictated by appointed government bureaucrats. Medical providers (doctors, hospitals, labs, pharmacies) and insurance compa-nies will improve their services and

bring down their prices to compete in the market.

The Medicare member will control his health care. As the term “vouch-er” suggests, the member is expected to act responsibly in spending his limited budget. He/She will de nitely search for needed medical services that promise quality at the lowest possible cost.

This event will create tremendous opportunities for the Philippines.

The twin features of quali ed Fil-ipino specialists performing quality

medical and surgical procedures at “very low prices” will serve as a per-fect match to a Medicare member’s need.

Aside from the “medical emergen-cy coverage” bene t currently obtain-ing, the market for elective medical and surgical procedures will be cre-ated. Armed with a voucher, what will prohibit the Medicare member from outsourcing the services from a country that can provide “quality and affordability” like the Philippines?

And, IF the Philippines is suc-cessful in attracting the Medicare market, the Individual and Family Plans as well as the Large Employers markets will certainly follow suit.

The event may happen. This early, the Philippines should start establishing its position to tap the opportunities when they arrive. The

opportunities are too huge and im-portant to leave the planning to the Philippine government.

The Philippine providers (doctors, hospitals, labs and pharmacies) must lead in this endeavor as they (the providers) will be the first direct bene ciaries.

The rst step is learning What Is Medicare.

If you need help, call me at 323-535-7373 or e-mail at: [email protected].

Leo Monsalud has been helping members choose the right Medicare plan for them for more than five years now. He holds CA license #0G55218 as well as Non-Resident license # 837521 for Nevada. He is also a Certi ed Insurance Agent for Covered California and HealthLink of Nevada.

Today, a Medicare member en-rolled in a Medicare Advantage plan or some Medicare Supplement plans is covered if he/she meets medical emergency while visiting the Phil-ippines. The amount of coverage ranges from a few thousand dollars to “unlimited” coverage, depending

Tuesday December 15 2015 (Relax-news) – A recent US study has found that short sleep, de ned as less than seven hours a night, increases the con-sumption of sugary drinks, and could increase the risk of obesity.

Researchers at the University of Alabama looked at data from 28,150 American adults between the age of 21 to 65 who took part in the American Time Use Survey between 2006 and 2008. Using the data the researchers analyzed the time that participants spent on primary eating and drinking, secondary eating and drinking, and the amount of hours they slept each night.

Secondary eating is eating “while

primarily engaged in another activi-ty, such as television watching,” and secondary drinking also occurs while engaged in another activity, but is “drinking beverages other than water -- such as sugar-sweetened beverages”. The team found that the participants who reported short sleep, less than seven hours a night, engaged in sec-ondary eating for an extra 8.7 minutes a day compared to those who reported normal sleep, seven to eight hours a night.

In addition, they also reported en-gaging in secondary drinking for an extra 28.6 minutes a day on weekdays, and 31.28 minutes on weekends.

Gabriel S. Tajeu, one of the authors

of the study, commented on the nd-ings saying as short sleep is associated not only with secondary eating, but also secondary drinking of sweetened beverages, “This potentially suggests a pathway from short sleep to increased caloric intake in the form of beverages and distracted eating and thus poten-tial increased obesity risk, although more research is needed.” The ndings were published online in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

A French study published earlier this year also found that “sleeping less than six hours in a 24 hour peri-od means exposing oneself to risk of obesity.”

The study, which was carried about

by the French National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance (INVS) and French health insurer MGEN, looked at data from 49,086 individuals to nd that failing to get enough sleep

is linked to an increased risk of obesi-ty, with the ndings suggesting that sleeping less than six hours a night increases the risk of being seriously overweight by 34% for women, and by 50% for men.

The study also found that poor sleeping habits can lead to poor eating habits, with those sleeping less snack-ing more between mealtimes, and particularly at night when tiredness sets in, leading to cravings for sugary foods to boost energy.


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NOW!bene ciary has no home to go to; 5)undue delay by USCIS or consular of cer in processing petition and visa; 6) and Bene ciary has strong family ties in the United States.

The beneficiary must be pre-pared to show proof of the original I-130 that was led, proof of I-130 approval if approved, a copy of the Petitioner’s death certi cate, proof of substitute sponsor’s relationship to the bene ciary, and meet all the I-864 requirements.

Please note that this article is not legal advice and is not intended as legal advice. The article is intended to provide only general, non-speci c legal information.

This article is not intended to cover all the issues related to the topic discussed. The speci c facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be

anticipated by you. This article does create any at-

torney client relationship between you and the Law Of ces of Kenneth U. Reyes, APLC. This article is not a solicitation.

Attorney Kenneth Reyes is a graduate of Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. He was President of the Philippine American Bar Association. He is a member of the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA) and the Los An-geles County Bar Association, Im-migration and Family Law Sections.

You may contact Atty. Reyes at (213) 388-1611 or via e-mail at [email protected]. LAW OFFICES OF KENNETH REYES, APLC. is located at 3699 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 747, Los Angeles, CA. Visit us at Kenreyeslaw.com to learn about our rm.

thinking of how different Christmas is celebrated in their home county. The signs begin to manifest when the months end in “ber” and the frenetic preparations commence. The Phil-ippines is said to be a country that celebrates Christmas the longest.

While Christmas in the Philip-pines conjures up memories of time honored traditions introduced to its shores by foreign in uences, the prac-tices and symbolisms still persist and have been embellished by touches of modernity,

In their adopted county the Christ-mas scenery is almost similar – a warm house fully decorated, Christ-mas tree, light and families, and friends coming together to enjoy sumptuous meals- except for snow.

The Philippines’ Christmas tradi-tions are representations of the deep and religiosity and fervor brought about by foreign in uences.

The observance of the tradition of the nine-day devotion called “Simbang Gabi” has endured for more than 400 years. The prelude

pre-dawn celebration of the Mass where the faithful brave the coldness of the morning to hear Mass tells of profound piety and religiosity of the people.

Catholic churches in hundreds of different locations in the Philippines, and even at the corridors of malls and shopping centers are venues for the celebration of the Mass with the participants hoping to earn Divine favor for their petitions..

Simbang Gabi is considered as one of the oldest Catholic traditions and traces its origin from Mexico in the 15th century with the granting of a petition by a certain Father Diego de Soria to hold the celebration of the Mass out the church perimeters owing to the large number of attend-ees which the church was unable to accommodate.

Simbang Gabi traditionally starts on the 16th of December and culmi-nates on the 24th where church bells peel as early as 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. to invite the pious to hear The faithful endures the coldness of the morning harboring big hopes that by complet-ing the attendance to the ritual they will have their prayers answered.

After Mass, attendees reward themselves with a variety of native delicacies with bibingka and puto bumbong always being the top fa-vorites.

Over time, Simbang Gabi has undergone some adjustments that

took into consideration the realities of the modern time. Many parishes in the United States celebrate “Sim-bang Gabi” at around 7 o’clock in the evening, not just in the morning to accommodate the needs of people with varying work schedules.

The Catholic leadership has en-couraged their ock to attend Sim-bang Gabi Masses as the practice as “it a great source of spiritual nour-ishment in preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ”.

The hanging home-made lanterns (parol) by the windows is another tradition that has persisted for cen-turies. It is not only a decoration, but a work of art” that symbolizes oneness with the community spirit of celebrating and honoring the birth of Jesus Christ,”

The parol-making tradition began after the Philippines was Christian-ized. The word parol has its origin from the Spanish farol, which means lantern which originated from the Mexican piñata which like the parol is decorated with crepe paper, the most commonly used materials.

Originally from Italy, the piñata took a journey to Spain, Mexico and nally to the Philippines when the

Spaniards brought Christianity to its shores.

The parols were used originally to illuminate the way of the church-go-ers on their way to attend the tradi-tional Misa de Gallo.

The Christmas season is the most favorite time of the year to millions of Christians around the world where traditions have evolved and refuse to yield to the trappings of the modern era.

Filipinos in the U.S. could not have but feel emotional and nostalgic

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PECHANGA INDIAN RESERVA-TION, Calif. – (Dec. 16, 2015) – The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians held a ceremonial ground breaking to-day on its much anticipated $285 mil-lion resort expansion. Tribal of cials gathered around a circular mound of dirt near the property’s hotel entrance and sunk their gold-gilded shovels into the ground as Tribal Members, local of cials, the media and resort management looked on and cheered. When completed in approximately two years, the Pechanga Resort & Casino will more than double the size of its resort amenities, and add more than 3,500 jobs to the region.

“Today, with the Eagle IV Expan-sion, we celebrate the beginning of the next chapter of Pechanga Resort & Casino and our history,” said Tribal Chairman, Mark Macarro. “This devel-opment will build upon the quality and reputation of the original resort and continue our Tribe’s entrepreneurial spirit for future generations. We are grateful and proud as a Tribe to be in a position to strengthen tourism in the Temecula Valley and Southern California with this project.”

The project involves adding a new, AAA Four Diamond, 568-room and suite hotel wing; a stand-alone luxury two-story spa and salon with 17 treat-ment rooms, a tness center and hy-drotherapy pool terrace; a resort-style pool complex with eight pool areas; two new restaurants; and an additional 67,000 square feet of event space. Tutor-Perini, the project’s builder, es-timates the expansion to be completed in 24 months. Pechanga of cials say guests and the public will be noti ed when the new resort areas (hotel, spa, pool, restaurants) will begin taking advance reservations.

“We estimate the expansion will result in an economic output of over $550 million, generating roughly 2,944 jobs up front as a result of construc-tion-related activities,” said Dr. Chris-topher Thornberg, Founding Partner of Beacon Economics. “We estimate the local economy will bene t from an additional 560 jobs per year going forward as a result of expanded oper-ations at Pechanga Resort & Casino.”

A 2014 study by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College found the combined economic impact of Pechanga tribal and resort activities resulted in the direct employment of 5,257 people, making the tribe one

Pechanga breaks ground on $285-M resort expansion, ushers in thousands of construction & hotel/casino jobs

of the 10 largest employers in the Inland Empire region of Southern California.

Pechanga has also committed nearly $20 million to mitigate the effects of the expansion on the sur-rounding south Temecula area. A recent agreement reached with the City of Temecula provides funds for a new Temecula Parkway off ramp, widening of Pechanga Parkway, and annual payment of an additional city police of cer.

“We are completely committed to making Pechanga Resort & Casino a world-class resort destination,” said Patrick Murphy, President of the Pechanga Development Cor-poration. “We have consistently provided our guests with excellent quality and customer service, and now we’re making their experience even better. We’ve brought in some of the best designers, architects and builders who have worked with other iconic properties to create stunning resort features. We are very excited for the future.”

The design team is led by Delawie architects, the original designers of the Pechanga Resort & Casino when it was built in 2002. Lifescapes In-ternational has been selected as the pool area and landscape architects. Over the past ve decades, the rm has designed iconic landscapes at world-class resorts including the Bellagio, Wynn, and Venetian ho-tels. CLEO Design out of Las Vegas and Los Angeles-based KNA Design will be leading the interior designs.

Pechanga Expansion Has an Eco-nomic Output of over $550 million

• Nearly 3,000 jobs up front from construction-related activities

• 560 total new jobs going for-ward from expanded operations

Local Improvements Funded by Pechanga as Result of Expansion

• $5 million to widen Pechanga Parkway and improve local roads. Over $9 million in funding for local law enforcement

• $14 million contributed for Interstate 15/Temecula Parkway Ultimate Interchange

Snapshot of Pechanga When Re-sort Expansion Is Complete:

• Casino square footage: 200,000• Event/meeting/convention

square footage: 100,000 (indoor) 174,500 (outdoor)

• Number of hotel rooms: 1090• Number of restaurants: 13• Number of pools: 13• Number of employees: 4,560

About Pechanga Resort & CasinoPechanga Resort & Casino offers

one of the largest and most expan-sive resort/casino experiences any-where in the United States. Voted the Number One casino in America by readers of USA TODAY and rated a Four Diamond property by AAA since 2002, Pechanga Resort & Casino provides an unparalleled getaway. Offering more than 3,400 of the hottest slots, table games, world-class entertainment, 517 ho-tel rooms, dining, spa and champi-onship golf at Journey at Pechanga, Pechanga Resort & Casino features a destination that meets and ex-ceeds the needs of its guests and the community. Pechanga Resort & Casino is owned and operated by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. For more information, call toll free 1-888-PECHANGA or visit www.Pechanga.com. Follow Pechanga Resort & Casino on Facebook and on Twitter @PechangaCasino. Pechanga Resort & Casino is open 24-hours. Guests must be 21 and older to enter the casino.

14 Visit www.Balita.com Weekend Balita, Sat.-Fri., December 19 - 25, 2015 Balita

OPINIONMANILA, Dec. 15 (Mabuhay) – President Aquino on Mon-

day thanked his “Bosses” – the Filipino people – for helping his administration achieve reforms in government and for being his steady source of strength as he faced the rigors of governance in the past six years.

In his speech at the “Pamaskong Handog” of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), his last before he steps down in 2016, Aquino said it is a time of thanksgiving to his Bosses for their support to his administration’s “Daang Matuwid.”

“Kayo pa rin ang aking lakas, at kayo pa rin ang gumaga-wa ng pagbabago. Sana po, kahit papaano, ay masuklian ng munting handog ng inyong gobyerno ang wagas na sakripisyo at dedikasyon ninyo sa inyong kani-kanyang trabaho [You are my strength and you allow these changes to happen. I hope the government is able to repay all your sacri ces and hard work],” he said.

The President also expressed optimism that his “Bosses” will choose the right candidates who will continue the “Daang Matuwid.”

“Kayo pong mga Boss, nasa mga kamay ninyo ang kapalar-an ng ating minamahal na bayan; nasa kamay ninyo ang kinabukasan ng inyong mga anak, ng inyong mga mahal sa buhay, at ng inyong kapwa. Tiwala naman ako, sa gabay at tanglaw ng Panginoon ay talagang maitutuloy natin ang maganda nating nasimulan [My Boss, the future of this country is in your hands. I am con dent that with God’s guidance, we will be able to continue the good that we have started],” he said.

The President led in the distribution of gift packs to 50 bene ciaries out of 3,100 composed of street sweepers, senior citizens, members of the Tricycle Operators and Driver’s Association (TODA), and support staff from the 4th District of Quezon City.

He also witnessed the handing over of Pagcor’s P2-billion check for various school buildings to the Department of Ed-ucation (DepEd) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The President thanked Pagcor for the reforms within the system, particularly for shunning corrupt practices.

“Sa loob lamang ng mahigit limang taon, nagawa ninyong ikabig ang Pagcor mula sa dating ahensiyang pugad ng katiwalian, patungo sa isang ahensiyang bukal ng serbisyo sa sambayanang Pilipino. Taos-puso rin po akong nagpapas-alamat sa inyong lahat [In more than ve years, Pagcor was able to transform from an agency riddled with corruption to an agency of service to the Filipino people],” he said.

For Pamaskong Handog 2015, Pagcor gave away noche buena gift packs containing ham, cheese, pasta noodles, cookies and other grocery items.

Pagcor’s Pamaskong Handog 2015 also bene ted indigent and homeless families; orphaned and abandoned children; underprivileged kids with congenital heart disease; children with mental retardation, autism and multiple disabilities; the elderly; cultural minorities; abused and disadvantaged women; barangay health workers; and disaster volunteers, among others.(MNS)

MANILA, Dec 16 (Mabuhay) – President Benigno Aquino III’s public satisfaction rating suffered a nine-point drop from +41 in September to +32 this month, results of the fourth quarter Social Weather Sta-tions (SWS) survey released on Wednesday showed.

The survey conducted from December 5 to 8 among 1,200 adults nationwide found 58 percent were satis ed, 16 percent undecided, and 26 percent dissatis ed with Aquino.

Despite the nine-point decline, Aquino’s net satisfaction ratings were still considered “good.”

SWS classi es net satisfaction ratings of

+70 and above as “excellent”; +50 to +69 as “very good”; +30 to +49, “good”; +10 to +29, “moderate”, +9 to -9, “neutral”; -10 to -29, “poor”; -30 to -49, “bad”; -50 to -69, “very bad”; as well as -70 and below as “execrable.”

In Luzon areas outside Metro Manila, Aquino’s net satisfaction rating plunged by half from +46 in September to +23 in December.

His ratings also dropped by eight points in Mindanao from +39 in September to +31 in December.

In the National Captial Region and Vi-sayas, Aquino’s ratings improved from +18 to +23, and +50 to +58, respectively.(MNS)

MANILA, Dec. 15 (Mabuhay) – Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Christian Monsod on Tuesday added his voice to those opposing the poll body’s “no biomet-rics, no boto” policy for the 2016 elections.

In a phone interview, Monsod said the right to vote should be the primary right to be considered by the Comelec, citing the 1987 Constitution.

“The Comelec has plenary power to im-plement and execute lahat ng batas tungkol sa elections,” Monsod said. “Number 1 diyan na batas is the Constitution. And the Con-stitution says na the right of suffrage can be exercised by everybody.” Monsod added that the Constitution did not state that biometric data is required to exercise the right to vote.

The Comelec launched the “No Bio, No Boto” campaign during the registration pe-

riod to encourage voters. However, Comelec data showed 3,059,601 registered voters re-mained without biometrics as of September 30, 2015 and thus stand to lose their right to vote.

According to Monsod, the Comelec should instead revise the system to accommodate al-ternative ways of con rming voters’ identities instead of disenfranchising millions of voters.

“Ang dapat gawin ng Comelec ay gumawa ng paraan para magkaroon ng sistema for using alternative IDs,” Monsod said. “In fact, nasa old election code yung mga alternate way of identifying,” he added.

The Supreme Court has already issued a temporary restraining order against the implementation of “No Bio, No Boto” policy after groups, including Kabataan party-list, questioned its legality. (MNS)

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Wednesday 12/16/2015 – Migrants are increasingly par-ticipating in a globalised economy, notably in the services sectors, according to a report released Wednesday by the ILO.

The International Labour Organization shed light on new data which quanti es for the rst time the extent to which a global migrant workforce estimated at 150.3 mil-lion people – 44 percent of them women – is carving a professional niche in the countries receiving them.

At a time when mass migration, height-ened by the con ict in Syria and economic cri-sis, has become a political hot potato the ILO said its calculations showed migrant workers make up almost three quarters – 72.7 percent – of a global migrant population which it puts at 206.6 million people of working age.

Manuela Tomei, Director of the ILO’s Con-ditions of Work and Equality Department, said she believed the data, which relates to 2013, would allow for “better informed de-bates” about migrants in general and their contribution to the societies they join.

“These are people who make important contributions to the labour market and the economy of countries of destinations,” Tomei asserted.

“We believe the most important contribu-tion is that very often the debates surround-ing migration are inflamed debates and are characterised by a mismatch between perceptions and realities.

“So we believe and we hope that these esti-mates may indeed help in terms of providing further insights and greater clarity to this debate,” said Tomei.

For ILO statistical director Rafael Diez

de Medina, “this report sets a new standard in the quest to have sound global gures to guide policy makers” and said the issue would over the coming years be at the forefront of the development agenda.

The ILO estimates the total global mi-grant population at 232 million people but its gures do not show what proportion have migrated illegally or at least not through an established, legal process.

However, Tomei referred to previous ILO ndings estimating “irregular migrants” at

“between 10 and 15 percent of the total” – including people without proper paperwork or those who living in a country after over-staying a visa.

The ILO said its findings suggested migrants generally do not compete for em-ployment with native populations with “the vast majority” of them based in the services sectors, followed by industry.

Tomei stated that the study of date from 176 countries showed most people migrate to better themselves and the ILO’s methodology would “add signi cantly to our knowledge base on migration and provide a strong foundation for the development of effective migration policies.”

But the ILO warned there was a need to monitor domestic work, describing a sector which typically sees a strong concentration of migrant women as requiring regulation owing to “relatively low visibility” prone to “multiple forms of discrimination.”

The ILO also warned this week of the per-ils of forced labor, calculating that 21 million people are victims – 11.4 million women and girls – with the vast majority exploited by private individuals or enterprises.

Aquino’s satisfaction rating down in SWS Q4 survey

Right to vote more important than biometrics: ex-poll chief Monsod


It seems that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s hatred for former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is un-paralleled.

Although the word war between Duterte and Roxas seemed to have cool down a bit lately, the feisty and ip- opping Davao City mayor can-

MANILA, Dec 18 (Mabuhay) –Presidential aspirant VP Jejomar Binay on Friday called for a “political cease re” among candidates for the May 2016 elections.

“Ang Christmas wish ko? Alam mo, peace...Pwede ba ho tigilan na ang paninira, tigilan na ho yung pagsisinungaling, tigilan na ho yung nagpe-personalan, doon ho sa pagka-kahati-hati,” Binay said on a radio interview in General Santos City.

“Kita mo naman, yung NPA (New People’s Army) may cease re pati ang pamahalaan. Sana sa larangan ng politika may cease re din. Dapat ang mag-prevail ay peace,” he added.

Also, he said his appeal for politi-cal peace is for all candidates – local or national – for the coming May polls

“Kung magkikita ay magkamayan, magyakapan at sama-sama sa pag-darasal,” he said.

Moreover, he said he plans to spend the holidays in Makati City, where he resides, and visit sick pa-tients in hospitals there. “Hindi ako katulad ng ibang mga namumuno o yung mga halal, na pagdating ng pas-ko nawawala. Nandito lang ako. Sa Makati, nandoon lang ako,” he said.

Binay is the standard bearer of the opposition party United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

Meanwhile, the broadcaster who led a petition against Davao City

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Martin Diño said he has nothing against the mayor and even wants him to be president.

In an interview after the Com-mission on Elections First Division hearing on Friday, Ruben Castor said he wants Duterte to run only through legal means.

He said he is doing this as a fellow member of Guardian International, where Duterte is a high-ranking member. “Lagi niyang ipinagbibilin sa amin, sumunod sa batas, so ‘yun lang. Mahal namin si Mayor,” he told reporters.

Asked if he wants Duterte to be president, he replied, “Aba, siyem-pre!” “Isa ako sa tagahanga dahil Guardian ako, Guardian siya. Kaya gusto ko, ‘yung ginagawa niya nasa tuwid na landas,” he said.

Castor’s camp is arguing that Diño’s certi cate of candidacy, where Duterte’s substitution is grounded on, is void because of its errors.

They are also recommending that Duterte seek another party and stan-dard-bearer to substitute for, such as the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) and presidential aspirant Augusto Syjuco Jr.

a remark made by Roxas that Davao City’s reputation as the safest city in the Philippines was a myth. Duterte red back at the LP presidential bet,

claiming that Roxas graduation from Wharton business school was also a myth.

***President Aquino is still relentless

in pushing for the enactment of the controversial Bangsamoro Bill in Congress.

In a luncheon meeting with some 120 congressmen, mostly from the Liberal Party, President Aquino sought their cooperation in pushing for the eventual passage of the BBL.

However, the principal author and co-sponsor of the controversial mea-sure in the Lower House appears to have given up hope for its eventual passage.

Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City said there are only 10

days left within which to pass the bill. There is doubt that the measure will be enacted before Congress adjourns this month. Their problem is how to muster the required quorum in the House of Representatives. Most Congressmen seem to be avoiding from being known as giving any form of support to the controversial bill, which many people believed will not solve the peace and order situation in Mindanao.

Despite the rumored “payola” be-ing dangled by Malacañang to mem-bers of the Lower House in exchange for the approval of the bill, the BBL appears to be dead in Congress.

Even House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte admitted that there is no way they could pass the bill before Congress adjourns December 19. Maybe, the BBL will eventually be approved but not on President Aqui-no’s time.

not hide his disdain for the Liberal Party presidential candidate.

In his recent television interview, Duterte said he will support the pres-idential bid of Vice President Jojo Binay once he and Senator Grace Poe Llamanzares are disquali ed. But the Comelec has just voted en banc in his favor, paving the way for his presidential run.

The latest presidential poll sur-veys conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS) showed that Duterte is preferred by 38 per cent respondents nationwide.

Binay and Poe Llamanzares were tied with 21 per cent. Roxas came in third place with only 14 per cent and Senator Mirriam Defensor Santiago with 4 per cent.

As of this time, Sen. Poe Llaman-zares is waiting for the decision of the Comelec en banc based on the motion for reconsideration which her lawyers led on her behalf. The Comelec’s First and Second Divisions ruled recently that she is not eligible to participate in the 2016 presiden-tial election for failing to meet 10-year residency requirement under the Constitution.

In Duterte’s case, the Comelec has allowed as a substitute candidate and so we may yet see a president com-ing from Mindanao this time. That is if he wins against Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Although being pilloried by his political opponents of being corrupt, there is no denying that Binay has done a lot for the poor residents of Makati such as free college education from the University of Makati, free hospitalization from the Ospital ng Makati and free medicines for the poor.

I am sure that Binay will do a lot

for the poor that what Roxas will intend to do. Binay can easily relate to poor people because he came from a poor family. Roxas, on the other hand, came from a very rich family.

***The recent verbal tussle between

Duterte and Roxas showed what kind of a president the Philippines will have if one of them gets elected to be the next president.

Duterte is a ip- opping macho guy while Roxas is onion skinned or “pikon.” For two days, they traded barbs, insults and even hurled chal-lenges. From slapping, to st ght and eventually to a gun duel.

We all know nothing of that sorts will not happen. This is what I call political strategem. Mayor Duterte is a master of this political ploy. He knows how to get public attention whenever he needs one.

Roxas, for the good image he has been trying to project for many years, should not have gone down and dirty with Duterte, who is known for having a foul-mouth. His political handlers should have advised Roxas to keep silent and instead focus on his so called “Daan Matuwid (kuno)” platform.

By being silent, Roxas would have probably won the sympathy of unde-cided voters to his side. At least, for a change, he would have come up as the winner in their recent verbal tussle.

Good thing, the word war between the two presidential aspirants ended. It has not done anything good to both men, especially to Roxas. I hope both men will nd time to renew their friendship. I think it is possible since Duterte said that he is not closing any doors to a possible reconciliation with Roxas.

Duterte was apparently irked by


FOOD & DINING


ENTERTAINMENT

Kim Chiu sent her supporters abuzz when she said during the press conference of “All You Need is Pag-ibig” that all she needs is her long-time onscreen partner, Xian Lim.

The actress made this statement when asked whether their relation-ship has leveled up since both of them have been vocal in their pre-vious interviews that they consider each other special.

She shared that she got to spend some quality time with Lim while shooting scenes in Palawan.

“Ngayon halos every day kami magkasama. Nakadalawang balik kami sa Palawan, yung isa for our teleserye (The Story of Us) tapos ito naman [for the movie] sa Coron, parang six days kami doon. Na-kapag-bonding naman kami nang maayos,” she said.

As if the “kilig” wasn’t enough, Lim said Chiu supposedly asked him about how he feels for her.

“Nung ginagawa namin yung ‘The Story of Us,’ tinanong ako ni Kim. Sabi niya, from the rst time na nagkaeksena ba kami up to now, pareho pa rin daw ba ang pagtingin ko sa kanya, meron pa rin daw bang nagsa-spark, kung pareho pa rin ba yung nararamdaman, kung meron pa rin ba?” he said.

“[Sabi ko sa kanya] Siyempre. Every time nakikita kita, mas du-madagdag pa yung nararamdaman ko sayo.”

According to Lim, his feelings for Chiu never became “stagnant” from the rst time that they got to work with each other in “My Binondo Girl” until today. (MNS)

SAVE THEPLANET


“mas matapang at parang hindi siya nagiisip ng mga ginagawa niya.”

“Praning din ’yung character ko,” she quipped with a laugh.

She added that Jasmine tends to get physical, too, and does not hesitate in slapping or pushing Joey/Destiny Rose (Ken) who is now getting cozy with her lover, Gabriele Antonioni (Fabio Ide).

“Alam ko na may nangyayari na sa kanila kasi nanlalamig na si Ga-briele sa akin at wala na siyang time kumain at makipag-date (kasama ang character ko),” Katrina said.

The 29-year-old praised Ken for his performance on the series, noting that she has been giving him advice on how to be a woman.

“Nagtatanong talaga siya kung paano ’yung tamang lakad niya, kung paano tumingin lalo na nu’ng nag-ramp siya,” she said.

Katrina is grateful that the show continues to receive high ratings and praises from netizens. On so-cial media, the hashtags of #DR are among top trending topics. It won’t be a surprise if the show goes on an extended run.

Katrina is happy to be working with Jackie Lou Blanco on “Desti-

ny Rose.” The two play kontrabida mother-daughter pair.

“Minsan nga nakaka-miss siya kapag hindi kami magkasama sa taping. Kasi kapag kaming dalawa ang magkasama, maingay at magu-lo,” Katrina said.

She and Jackie Lou have worked on other teleseryes in the past, name-ly “Magdusa Ka” and “Indio.” Ka-trina said she learns a lot from her.

“Madalas kinokontrabida niya ako. Pero ngayon sa show ang mi-namaldita namin eh, si Destiny Rose,” she said.

“Destiny Rose” also stars Manilyn Reynes, Irma Adlawan, Joko Diaz, Sheena Halili, Jeric Gonzales and JC Tiuseco. The show airs weekdays on GMA Afternoon Prime. (MNS)

Kris Aquino has been given a medical certi cate advising her to undergo med-ication and complete voice rest for the next ve days. Aquino’s physician, Dr. Keith Aguilera, wrote in the certi cate that the 44-year-old actress went to his clinic complaining about the “hoarseness” of her voice.

In the caption, Aquino wrote: “I’m home, signing off & obeying my doctor- COMPLETE vocal rest. Bago nyo ko pagalitan na pinilit kong magtrabaho,

uunahan ko na po kayo. 1. I honored my commitments 2. The people I work closely with shouldn’t be deprived of Christmas income kung kakayanin ko pa naman and 3. We tried 2 days vocal rest but it wasn’t enough. GOOD NIGHT. Accord-ing to Aquino, she was prescribed with an anti-in ammatory and anti-allergy medicine. She also revealed that before she was brought to the hospital, she was shooting with Erich Gonzales, Pokwang, and Team Kramer for an advertisement.

Katrina Halili relishes current villainess role

Oyo Sotto defended his father, vet-eran comedian Vic Sotto, who is set to marry long-time girlfriend Pauleen Luna.

Oyo posted a photo of him and his kids on his Instagram account when one of his followers lambasted the elder Sotto in the comments section.

This did not sit well with Oyo, who called out the basher and asked him to “stop the hate.”

Sotto, 61, is engaged to marry the 27-year-old Luna.

The comedian hinted that the wedding might happen early next year. “For me, personally, before the Year of the Goat ends,” he earlier said.

According to the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Goat will last until February 7, 2016.

Sotto has four children with his previous partners – Danica and Oyo with Dina Bonnevie, Vicco with Coney Reyes, and Paulina with Angela Luz. (MNS)

Kris Aquino undergoes ‘complete voice rest’ for 5 days

Katrina Halili is not new to por-traying kontrabida roles, having done so in numerous teleseryes since establishing her career in 2003. These include nemesis roles on “Dar-na” (2009) and “Marimar” (2007).

Nowadays, Katrina makes the life of Joey/Destiny Rose (played by Ken Chan) miserable on “Destiny

Rose.” As the scheming Jasmine, she is certainly good when gone bad, proven by the many bashers the actress has online. “Nanggigigil na sila sa character ko at siyempre ganu’n ’yung ine-expect namin,” she said in an interview. Katrina has crafted Jasmine to be different from past villains she portrayed in that


COMMUNITYWASHINGTON, D.C. – A young

artist whose creative works are in-spired by a love for the environment and a hope for a better future was featured by the Embassy as a culmi-nation of its celebration of Philippine design, textiles and fashion.

Francis Sollano, a twenty eight year-old visual artist and self-made social entrepreneur from Cebu, is making waves in the international fashion scene with his innovative pieces made from upcycled trash. A portmanteau of trash and fashion, the trashion movement has helped mobilize the local community and has empowered women and youth.

Sollano traveled to Washington, DC to showcase his work and share his story during a talakayan and ex-hibit entitled “From Waste to Hip: A Creative Paradigm” on 14 December 2015 at the Philippine Embassy.

Featured in the exhibit were state-ment dresses, bags, dolls, jewelry, and sculptural pieces made from recycled trash such as plastic bags, PET bottles, drinking straws, and sticker paper.

During the exhibit opening, Am-bassador Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. talked about the signi cance of Sollano’s art at a time of climate vulnerability.

“Tonight’s event is in support of the Philippine and global vision on sustainable development and climate change adaptation,” said Ambassa-dor Cuisia.

“Francis and the Youth for a Liv-able Cebu are showing us the way from Waste to Hip. Upcycling is the new wave of sustainable fashion. It produces beautiful and original works from what are often considered waste materials. The new term trashion is truly an apt description of what this exhibit is about. However, as you look around tonight, I want you to think of the signi cance of displaying

these crafts that represent not only a means of livelihood but also a labor of love and expression of creativity in the midst of material scarcity,” said the Ambassador.

The motivation for using trash came from a love for the environ-ment and an experience Sollano had three years ago while driving home in heavy rain.

“Three years ago while I was driving, my car’s carpet started to wave. It was then that I realized that it was ooding after just a few minutes of rain. Aside from the kids bathing in the ood rain, garbage was also all over the place. It was a painful picture. I immediately felt the urge to do something about it in the way I feel most comfortable—trash-ion,” said Sollano.

He added, “It was never a dif cult decision to choose trash as material. It is painful to see garbage littered all over our cities, much worse see-ing Filipinos throw their garbage in the streets as if our country is a huge trash bin. I wish to re-ignite a culture that truthfully values our environment and to take responsi-bility over our waste. It would be a very beautiful country to live in with products that speak the language of the earth.”

Creating fashion and art pieces from trash is no longer a solo endeav-or for Sollano. Through a partnership with the non-pro t Youth for a Liv-able Cebu (YLC), local communities have become an integral part in Cebu’s trashion scene.

“I can recall my childhood playing with candy wraps and turn them into trinkets. It was when I joined YLC that I started to take trashion seriously. YLC, as a youth group, advocates for sustainability and part of its programs is upcycling. I saw this as a wonderful platform to

introduce my art pieces and network with commercial establishments,” said Sollano.

Women also play an active role in the production process. According to Sollano, trashion has allowed the women of the community to not only earn an income but also to rediscover their worth.

“Under YLC’s pillar of Work, the social enterprise of trashion aims to provide alternative sources of income to women from nancially deprived communities. During one of our evaluations, we found out that most women felt happier about the exercise because they had found a new sense of worth in themselves, that they are able to contribute in their community and produce designs that are beautiful for the world to own. Instead of having a routinely lazy day, the women now enjoy cre-ating trashion. Money has become secondary,” said Sollano.

Although trashion is a fairly new concept, Sollano believes there is a lot of potential for it to become a thriving industry.

“The future of trashion is very

promising, most especially with the new consciousness that the upcoming designers bring with them. There are also fashion brands that have started to adopt the same principles of upcy-cling. For our brand, we hope to pre-serve its aesthetic with its products as pieces of art while we aim to grow its reach in different regions across the globe,” said Sollano.

YLC is the youth arm of the Movement for a Livable Cebu (MLC). Started in June 2012, the MLC is a network of young professionals and volunteers collaborating in creative and sustainable ways to make Cebu a better place to live in.

Earlier this year, the Embassy fea-tured Philippine hand-woven fabric and the Grand Dame of Philippine Fashion, Ms. Patis Tesoro. From Waste to Hip: A Creative Paradigm caps off 2015 as a year of Philippine textiles, design and fashion.

Talakayan sa Pasuguan is the Em-bassy’s ongoing forum series which serves as a venue for the discussion of timely and relevant issues that affect the Filipino-American community.Photo 1 caption:

Hollywood Filipino fashion de-signer Oliver Tolentino snapped into action to rescue the Philippines’ can-didate for the Miss Universe pageant when she was facing the prospect of not having an evening gown for today’s preliminaries.

Tolentino, who was on vacation after the successful grand opening of his new Beverly Hills boutique last weekend, received a panicked phone call from Las Vegas just a day before the preliminaries. People with Pia reported that an off-the-rack gown purchased by the organizer did not t the Philippine bet and she had no

real alternative.According to Tolentino, “I’m in

Aspen on vacation when my cell phone rang as I was skiing down the mountain. I took the call and told them I would do whatever I could to help the Philippines.

I had 9 gowns from the new Bev-erly Hills boutique sent that after-noon to Las Vegas in order for Pia to have as many choices as possible for the right design, and of course, to make sure something t,” added the designer.

“I was told Pia loved a red-orange silk crepe de chine mermaid gown with a bodice fully embellished with red Swarovski crystals and a front slit at the center,” reported Tolentino.

“They said she loved it and felt good in it and was nally able to relax – which is so important the night before a candidate’s preliminaries. I have no idea why this was all so last minute, but anyway, I was happy to help Pia and the Philippines, even though I was not there,” shared the designer.

Tolentino has some experience regarding high-profile events and clientele. He’s the rst Filipino in 53 years to have dressed an Oscar winner at the Academy Awards and only the second Filipino to dress nominees at the Emmy and Grammy award shows.

More than 75 Hollywood celebri-ties have worn his creations. He also proudly promotes Philippine fabrics in Hollywood with celebrities Jessica Alba, Emmy Rossum, Sophia Bush, Ceelo Green, Tara Lipinski, Maria Menounos, and Carrie Underwood all having worn piña (Underwood performed on American Idol in it).

Oliver maintains a brand new boutique in Beverly Hills and also a boutique in Makati near Greenbelt. For more info: www.OliverTolentino.com.

818-552-4503CALL

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al Reserve’s expected hike in its benchmark short-term interest rate this week — combined with rate increases the next few years — is likely to ripple across the U.S. economy, nudging up rates on ev-erything from mortgages to bank savings rates and corporate bonds. But Fed policymakers have stressed they intend to move gradually and in small increments, and will pull back if the economy falters, tempering the impact on consumers and business-es. We have not had a rate hike in almost a decade and it’s nally good to see some bene ts from it, but there are two sides to this.

The Fed is expected to boost rates only a quarter of a point last Wednes-day and move gradually after that. A 1 percentage point increase in the Fed’s rate over the next year could curtail economic growth the follow-ing year by 0.15 percentage points and monthly job gains by 30,000, ac-cording to Moody’s Analytics. Here’s how players in various sectors view the coming rate rise.

HousingPerhaps no sector has bene ted

more from ultra-low rates than housing, which was devastated by the real estate crash. Home sales are expected to total about 5.7 mil-lion this year, up from 5.4 million in 2014 and 4.6 million in 2011. The recovery can at least partly be traced to 30-year xed mortgage rates that

remain below 4%, down from about 6% in 2008, keeping borrowing costs low for buyers.

But today’s housing market is supported by far more than low mortgage rates — namely steady job and economic growth. What’s more, 30-year mortgages are priced off 10-year Treasury note yields, which do rise as short-term rates climb, but not as steeply.

Doug Duncan, chief economist of Fannie Mae, the giant govern-ment-sponsored funder of mortgag-es, expects this week’s Fed hike of a quarter of a percentage point to have virtually no immediate impact on Treasury or mortgage rates, noting markets already have priced in the move.

Assuming the Fed raises its rate by a percentage point over the next year, Duncan expects 30-year mortgage rates to drift from 3.9% to 4.1% during the period. That would boost the monthly cost of a typical $225,000 mortgage by $26 to $1,454 — not enough to deter most buyers.

Adjustable-rate mortgages, many of which are modi ed annually, could increase about twice as rapidly, by about a half a percentage point. Yet as long as job growth and aggregate U.S. incomes increase proportion-ally, Duncan expects any market impact to be modest. A far bigger restraint on home sales, he says, is a limited supply that should push up

prices by nearly 5% both this year and in 2016. As a result, Duncan expects home sales to increase 4% in 2016, down from 8% this year, with higher rates holding back 1% to 2% of deals.

“As long as the rate rise is gradual, I don’t see it as a hugely important factor,” he says.

AutosAuto sales are likely to top 17

million this year for the rst time since the Great Recession, juicing the economy.

Auto loans have been pretty low but only for those who really qualify and have really high credit scores, but for those who really needs a car, a quarter or half a percent in their interest rates probably would not make a difference.

Auto loan companies are very innovative in structuring auto loan for all types of buyers in all types of market condition. I believe they will do ne.

ConstructionConstruction spending is up a

healthy 10.7% this year as manufac-turing, hotel and of ce building takes off. Slightly higher borrowing costs for projects is unlikely to alter that dynamic.

“If anything, a move by the Fed might provide a signal to nervous investors that the Fed is con dent about the strength of the U.S. econ-omy,” says Ken Simonson, chief economist of trade group Associated General Contractors. “Higher rates could also attract more foreign inves-tors in all types of assets, including real estate.” Especially in the com-mercial sector.

BanksThe nation’s banks are among the

few winners spawned by a Fed rate

hike. Low rates have forced banks to make do with smaller margins between the interest rate they offer depositors and the rates they charge consumers and businesses for loans.

The most immediate impact of a Fed move will be on the credit cards and home equity loans offered by the nation’s largest banks. Those rates are variable and so should rise quick-ly in response to a higher fed-funds rate, which is what the Fed charges banks for overnight loans. In other words, banks will pass along their higher borrowing costs to consumers and businesses.

Rates on deposits, however, are tied to market forces, he says. Cur-rently, banks are ush with deposits from risk-averse consumers and businesses and so don’t need to lift savings rates immediately to attract more deposits for lending, he says.

Deposit rates could rise by a portion of that amount in about six months, he says, leaving the bank a fatter margin.

Money Market Mutual FundMoney market funds are another

bene ciary. The liquid funds invest in a mix of safe, short-term securi-ties, such as Treasuries. But with yields well below 1%, investors have ed the assets in recent years. Total

investment in the funds has fallen by nearly half since the 2007-09 recession, says John Carbone, prin-cipal and portfolio manager for The Vanguard Group.

Hope you are will have a great Christmas and a very Happy New Year, please call Ken Go of 1st In-novative Finance for all your mort-gage nancing needs and real estate inquiries. Call Ken at 562-508-7048 or write to [email protected] BRE 0102122 3 NMLS 238636.

The Federal Reserve is expected to announce a rate hike this week. IF the feds did, Dow would go up above 17, 500 points and the economy is nally recognizing a better future,

but is it really better for us.Rising interest rates should only

modestly slow rebounding indus-tries, such as housing. The Feder-


citizen. Immigration fraud occurs when

an individual willfully and know-ingly provides material information and/or documentation that is false for an immigration bene t. An indi-vidual commits fraud if, for example, they entered the US under a false name, date of birth, or marital sta-tus. Another example is if they le an application with the US Embassy or Department of Homeland Security based on invalid information, such as a LULAC legalization application that falsely claimed entry before the required date. Yet another example of fraud, in certain situations, are false claims made on a Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Veri cation form.

A fraud waiver under section 212(i) of the US Immigration and

Nationality Act can be granted if an individual can show that his US citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or parent (i.e. qualifying relative) would experience extreme hardship if he is denied permanent residency. Individuals should note that the fraud waiver does not allow a showing of extreme hardship to children. So, unless an individual has a US citizen parent or spouse, they would not qualify to apply for a fraud waiver.

The laws do not speci cally de-fine what qualifies as “extreme hardship.” Rather, the de nition has been developed over time on a case-by-case basis. As well, the DHS and US Embassies have established various criteria that they consider in assessing whether extreme hardship has been demonstrated. There are

no speci c requirements as to what must be shown; rather, the DHS and Embassies take a look at the totality of the circumstances to determine extreme hardship. The following are some criteria used in evaluating extreme hardship:

Health: Ongoing or specialized treatment requirements for a phys-ical or mental condition; availability and quality of such treatment in the applicant’s home country, anticipat-ed duration of treatment; whether a condition is chronic or acute, or long-or-short term.

Financial Considerations: Future employability; loss due to sale of home or business or termination of a professional practice; decline in standard of living; ability to recoup short-term losses; cost of extraordi-nary needs such as special education or training for children; cost of care for family members (i.e. elderly and in rm parents).

Education: Loss of opportunity for higher education; lower quality or limited scope of education options; disruption of current program; re-quirement to be educated in a foreign language or culture with ensuing loss of time for grade; availability of special requirements, such as training programs or internships in speci c elds.

Personal Considerations: Close relatives in the US and/or the in-dividual’s own country; separation from spouse/children; ages of in-volved parties; length of residence and community ties in the US.

Special Factors: Cultural, lan-guage, religious, and ethnic ob-stacles; valid fears of persecution, physical harm or injury; social

ostracism or stigma; access to social institutions or structures.

With respect to these factors, it is reminded that the key term in the law is “extreme” hardship and therefore only in cases of real, actual or prospective injury to the qualify-ing relative will a fraud waiver be granted. Applications must there-fore clearly address the reasons why extreme hardship would be encountered by the qualifying rela-tive and supporting documentation evidencing the hardship claims are essential.

The fraud waiver is a viable solution for those who have made a prior mistake of committing fraud or misrepresentation. Unfortunately, some individuals are unethically counseled to commit further fraud to try to handle a prior incident of fraud. This approach should never be taken as the DHS is highly unlike-ly to thereafter grant a fraud waiver when an individual has repeatedly committed fraud. The road may not be easy, but peace of mind can be attained when handling matters legally and appropriately.

For further information, please schedule an appointment with an attorney at Aquino & Loew, Certi ed Immigration Law Specialists; (888) 797-1140 or (626) 799-3089; [email protected]. Please also visit Aquino & Loew at www.aquinoloew.com, watch us on Kababayan Today every 1st Tuesday, connect with us on Facebook and Twitter, and read about us on Yelp. Aquino & Loew also handles family law and criminal matters. Providing Personalized Service Nationwide & Abroad Since 1996.

For individuals who are seeking to obtain lawful permanent residency, any past fraud or misrepresentation renders the individual inadmissible and ineligible to legalize status un-less they are granted a fraud waiver. This includes all individuals who have committed fraud, even those who are married to a United States

ROSEMEAD, Calif., Dec. 7, 2015 — Christmas trees are the divas of holiday decorations.

They are often the center of attention and they are very high maintenance. They also can be very dangerous.

Two reminders of this occurred in less than a week last January when a re that followed a Christmas tree being ignited by a candle destroyed a home in Azusaand a blaze fed by an aging, brittle tree demolished a North Hollywood home. Though three firefighters were injured in North Hollywood, it could have been worse.

To help prevent accidents, South-ern California Edison reminds its customers that nothing is more im-portant than safety when putting up and maintaining their decorations this holiday season.

“Christmas tree fires can be explosive and ll a room with chok-ing smoke and heat very quickly,” said Paul Jeske, SCE director of Corporate Health and Safety. “For safety, live trees should be watered daily and arti cial trees should be fire resistant, and they must be kept at least three feet away from heat sources like space heaters and candles. They also should never

be decorated with worn light stands or broken bulbs.”

Christmas tree res, while not very frequent, are usually seri-ous. U.S. re departments respond to about 210 home fires annual-ly because of the trees that cause an average of seven deaths, 19 injuries and $17.5 million in damage. Home Christmas tree res are ve times more likely to end in a death com-pared to home res not involving trees. One-third of Christmas tree res result from electrical issues.

Meanwhile, power lines should be a major concern when decorat-ing outdoors. Lights or decorations should never be installed on them or utility poles and decorators should stay at least 10 feet away from power lines.

SCE recommends some other safety tips for the holidays:

Use wooden or berglass ladders when decorating outdoors. Metal ladders conduct electricity. Stay at least 10 feet away from overhead power lines when using ladders.

Keep lights directly away from carpeting, furniture, drapes and other ammable materials.

Be sure electrical cords are not placed at an angle or position that pinches them, like in windows.


ROSEMEAD, Calif. –Panda Cares, the philan-thropic arm of Panda Express and its parent compa-ny, Panda Restaurant Group, hosted its 8th annual Leader In Me Holiday Carnival on Friday, Dec. 11.

Four hundred students from Encinita Elementary School in Rosemead, CA, were recognized at the event for their academic and leadership achievements in The Leader in Me program, a whole school transfor-mation process created by FranklinCovey, that teach-es leadership skills at the elementary school level.

The students were welcomed by the Panda Express Panda Bear mascot and will enjoy carnival-themed booths created and staffed by Panda Restaurant Group associates. All attendees were treated to a delicious Panda Express lunch and receive Panda swag. Toy manufacturer, Mattel Inc., will also join the celebration by donating gifts for the students.

Through Panda Cares, Panda has supported The Leader in Me program in over 550 schools throughout the country. Encinitas Elementary School, sponsored by Panda since 2009 is one of 27 schools sponsored by the company that has earned the prestigious Lighthouse School designation from the program.

“We are proud to bring leadership development to schools nationwide,” said Peg-gy Cherng, co-chairman of Panda Restaurant Group. “Through this pro-gram, students have the opportunity to become insightful and con dent leaders who will contribute to their communities.”

The Leader in Me program was inspired by Stephen Covey’s book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effec-tive People,” that integrates timeless leadership principles with practical character and life skills relevant to today’s challenges. By building self-con dence, interpersonal skills, elevating student achievement, and reducing school-wide discipline prob-lems, this program helps children be-come leaders in their eld of interest. Earning Lighthouse School status is the highest level of achievement within the program. There are cur-rently 161 schools in The Leader in Me program that have been designat-ed as Lighthouse Schools, including Encinitas Elementary School.

About Panda Restaurant GroupFounded in Southern California in

1973, Panda Restaurant Group Inc. is the world leader in Asian dining experiences with more than 1,800 lo-cations in 46 states along with stores in Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada, Mex-ico, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Korea. The family-owned and operated chain of fast casual, full service and quick service restaurant concepts includes Panda Express, Panda Inn, and Hibachi-San. For more information visit www.pandarg.com, or become a fan on Facebook.

About Panda CaresEstablished in 1999, Panda Cares’

mission is to bring hope to children in need purpose is to foster the spirit of Giving within Panda by directly serving the health and educational needs of underserved children.

With close to two decades in the travel and tour industry, there are many things I am grateful for. Ev-ery year Travel International Group grows as a business and I thought this is a perfect time to spend a few moments giving thanks to the folks that impact our business every year.

Without a doubt, I am extremely thankful for our clients. Without them, we’d had nothing.

To all our wonderful and valued clients – present and past – for giving us the opportunity to assist with your travel needs and provide you with the best service possible.

Thank you for the pleasure of trav-elling with you, of exploring distant places, of discovering new cultures,

of experiencing exciting adventures, of building memories, building part-nerships and relationship and devel-oping bonds of friendships.

We are pleased to say that our group tours have been nothing but exciting and memorable, providing

us the opportunity to share countless, unforgettable and incredible travel memories.

We cannot fully express our ap-preciation by giving thanks once a year, or even every day of the year. Our clients have been – and always

will be – our key drivers for success. For any of your travel needs,

please call us at Travel International Group at (310) 327-5143 or at our toll-free number at 1-844-320-1499. Fore more information, visit our website at www.travelinternational.net.

A message of thanks from Travel International


MOTORING

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(Relaxnews) – At a special event at i ts company headquarters this week, BMW took the wraps off a new plug-in hybrid sys-tem and with it, signalled the direc-tion that Europe’s leading carmakers are going in order to meet increasingly stringent pollution, emissions sand fuel economy regulations that are coming into force.

Called the Power eDrive and demonstrated in a special prototype BMW 5-Series GT, the new pow-ertrain promises the sort of power one expects from a 6-liter V12 Rolls-Royce but combined with the CO2 emissions more associated with a Toyota Prius.

By 2021, companies will have to meet a ‘ eet average’ emission

level of 95g of CO2 /km. In simple terms it means when the emissions levels of all of a manufacturer’s dif-ferent cars are added together and the average taken, it needs to be 95g of CO2 /km.

That’s an easy target to hit for a company like Smart, which only builds two, highly ef cient, tiny city cars. But for brands like Volvo, VW and BMW, with potent luxury se-dans, serious sportscars and heavy SUVs in their ranges, the challenges

Tuesday August 18 2015 (Relaxnews) – According to the magazine Road & Track, the Italian Lamborghini manufacturer will debut an 800 bhm (596 kW) sports car at the Geneva International Motor Show.

The rumor regarding the existence of a Lamborghini hypercar is not new. In fact, the hypercar was expected to perhaps be revealed at Pebble Beach or the Frankfurt Motor Show. Road & Track now reports that Lamborghini director Stephan Winkelmann has con rmed the car’s of- cial world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show from March 3-13, 2016.

Little is known about the characteristics of the automobile but it has been suggested that it will be a hybridized vehicle equipped with an 800 bhp engine. Production will inevitably be limited to a mere dozen units.

The new model, which could be called “hyperVeloce,” should be similar to the Bugatti Veyron, McLaren P1, Ferrari, Porsche 918 Spyder and Koenigsegg Regera – the supercar of all vehicles with a horsepower of 1500 bhp and the ability to go from 0 to 248 mi/h (400km) in 20 seconds.

Lamborghini’s most powerful Roadster revealed in the USMeanwhile, Lamborghini has only just revealed the Roadster version

of the Aventador LP750-4 SV (Superveloce) in Pebble Beach. The 750 bhp vehicle will be limited to 500 units. Interested buyers will need to fork out close to 500,000 euros (550,000 dollars) to bring this jewel home come spring 2016. The Roadster should be able to reach a top speed of 217mi/h and go from 0 to 62mi /h in only 2.9 seconds.

(86th Geneva International Motor Show, March 3-13 2016, Palexpo of Geneva, web site: salon-auto.ch)

and costs are major—a point that was high on the agenda at this year’s International Conference on Advanced Automotive 48V Power Supply Systems, held in Düsseldorf earlier in November.

“Until we have a really signi cant breakthrough with battery chemis-try or fuel-cell technology, the high voltage approach to hybridization and pure battery electric vehicles will remain too expensive for uni-versal application across high vol-ume vehicle platforms,” said Paul Bloore, product validation manager for CPT, a multinational company that provides “clean technology” to car companies, at the event.

Instead, car companies will grav-itate towards solutions that balance ef ciency with expense, which means evolving existing engines, power-trains and hybrid technologies in the hopes of hitting emissions targets.

Thrill of the ride not sacri cedBut even with that approach, the

BMW eDrive shows that the cars of the next decade will be able to meet increasingly stringent targets yet still be exhilarating to drive. The eDrive uses a 228bhp turbocharged four cylinder engine and two electric

motors which can deliver an incredi-ble 670bhp when working together—more power than any car in BMW’s range (including Rolls-Royce) can currently offer.

The gas engine’s main job is to generate power for the electric mo-tors but can also send power to the wheels for extra acceleration. The car can travel for 62 miles (100km) on electric power alone and despite only having a 30-liter fuel tank will cover 370 miles (595km) before it needs to be plugged in and the tank topped up.

The new drive train is expected to be offered on BMW’s premium SUVs and could soon be powering its smaller Rolls-Royce models, too. BMW hasn’t mentioned CO2 gures, but an earlier incarnation of the tech-nology was demonstrated at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show capable of emitting just 90g/km when powering a BMW X5 SUV.

If you want to check out the latest BMW vehicles, all you have to do is visit our friendly kababayans _ Edu-ardo tiempo at (818)-601-5667 and Ronald Rodillas at (323) 683-9351 _ at the Paci c BMWlocated in 800 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale CA 91204.

BMW hybrid system balances power with responsibility


Nissan Murano tops Midsize SUV segment in 2015 J.D. Power Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout

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T h u r s d a y December 20 2015 (Relax-news) – Toyota has unveiled the newest edi-tion of its icon-ic Land Cruis-er, which has been in a state of constant in-novation both inside and out since making its debut some 60 years ago.

The new Toyota Land Cruiser is an evolution from the outside – a sharper but familiar grille, daytime LED running lights and special attention paid to eliminating any-thing that could possibly impede on the car’s off-road approach or departure angles.

And thanks to new Multi-Ter-rain-Select (MTS) technology to simplify everything from locking differentials, to stepping-down gear ratios and feeding the right amount of power to the right wheel at the right time, taking full advantage of the car’s off-road capabilities has never been easier – especially if speci ed with automatic trans-mission.

MTS has five default settings for coping with everything from mud and sand to loose rocks and will take over the throttle angle, braking and traction control to suit. The car also offers a choice of ve speed settings – think of it as

off-road cruise control – for careful, controlled ascents and descents and for automatically getting unstuck from mud or snow.

Serious off-roaders can go for the

manual trans-mission option and get more hands on with the Land Cruis-er’s capabilities, but even they will appreciate the car’s self-lev-el ing suspen-sion, sonar (for gauging wading depth and clear-

ance) and the fact that the wheels are digitally rather than physically linked via the suspension system so that the whole shell doesn’t sway from side to side when one wheel hits a dip.

Inside, creature comforts and materials are on a par with the Land Rover’s smarter sibling, the Range Rover. Piano black wood-grain veneer is a new dashboard option, for example as is a stand-alone multimedia system for rear-seat passengers. As for engines, the new Land Cruiser gets a new 2.8-liter diesel engine that has been tailored to deliver optimum torque off road and the best fuel ef ciency and predictability when cruising at motorway speeds. Toyota claims that thanks to a urea selective cat-alytic reduction system, 99% of NOx emissions are eliminated and while it’s not lightning quick -- 0-100km/h in 12.7 seconds, it offers an economy of 7.4l/100km.

The Toyota Highlander started the midsize crossover SUV category 15 years ago, so it had a head start on becoming a benchmark. The third-generation model, now enter-ing its third year, offers room for up to eight, a choice of three power-trains and four model grades. It all adds up to the ideal family vehicle.The Highlander didn’t need much to get even better for 2016, but Toyota went ahead and made the towing package standard on all V6 models. The package includes a heavy-duty radiator with engine oil cooler, 200-watt fan coupling, supplemental transmission oil cooler and 150-amp alternator and allows the V6 models to tow a trailer up to 5,000 pounds.

Other powertrain choices include a 2.7-liter 4-cylinder in the LE front-drive model, and Hybrid Syn-ergy Drive with 280 total system horsepower.

The four-cylinder and the V6 are both teamed with a six-speed automatic transmission.The Highlander is sized for families with up to 158.7 cu. ft. total cabin volume.

That includes 13.8 cu. ft. with the third seating row in use – a 34-percent increase over the previ-ous generation (2013 model). With the 60/40 split fold- at third-row seats lowered, cargo space expands up to 42.3 cu. ft. and then up to 83.7 cu. ft. with the 60/40 split fold- at second row also lowered.

Outdoors enthusiasts have turned to the Toyota 4Runner for three decades as the go-to, go-anywhere SUV that also excels as an everyday driver. The TRD Pro Series intro-duced for 2015 continues for 2016, underscoring the 4Runner’s off-road persona, and all models feature up-graded Entune multimedia systems.Whether the destination is a dif- cult-to-reach bike trail, a hidden

access point for river rafting or sim-ply a spectacular view, the Toyota 4Runner has been getting owners there for 30+ years.

The current-generation model is the roomiest and most capable in its history and sacrifices none of its rugged function to deliver everyday comfort and versatility. The 4Runner really is the do-it-all SUV. Available third-row seats

allow up to seven-passengers to ex-perience great outdoor adventures.For 2016, the 4Runner does it all again, this year while treating oc-cupants to more functionality from upgraded Entune multimedia sys-tems. In the SR5 and Trail models, the Entune Audio Plus with Connect-ed Navigation (Scout® GPS Link) uses the customer’s smartphone to provide navigation functionality through the head unit.

All Entune units are upgrad-ed to 2.5 version status, which includes Siri® Eyes Free mode.The SR5 Premium and Trail Pre-mium grades feature standard Entune Premium Audio with Integrated Navigation and App Suite, and the Limited gets Entune Premium JBL Audio with Inte-grated Navigation and App Suite.

Toyota’s off-roader: Cruising back into the spotlight


Toyota’s new fuel call car still has some distance left to go

DCH Toyota of Torrance is located at 2909 Paci c Coast Hwy Torrance, CA 90505.

You can reach Nile Villanueva or his fellow kababayan, Sales & Leasing Consultant Phillip Rivera at 1-888-311.0102.

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Weekend Balita December 19, 2015

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