Marian at Enchong nagsingilan!

Tumawag ng pansin sa social media ang picture ni Marian Rivera kasama si Enchong Dee. Nakasaad sa caption ni Enchong sa Instagram ang, “@maximuaexandros your beautiful ninang @marianrivera said hvordan dai det? Dere begge er sa sote.”

Inakala ng followers ni Enchong na inaanak siya ni Yan Yan. Pero itinama siya ng isa pang follower niya ang komento na ninang si Marian ng anak ng kapatid ng aktor na si AJ Dee.

Tugon naman ni Yan, “Hahahaha miss you!” Sinundan niya ito ng, “@mr_enchongdee oo dami ko n utang sa inaanak ko wahahaha – babawi si ninang.”

Norwegian ang language dahil nasa Norway na si AJ nga­yon. Dating magkasama sa isang management company sina Marian at AJ na pinamunuan ni Popoy Caritativo.

Kahit magkaiba ng network, hindi isyu ito kina Marian at Enchong upang hindi magkasundo, huh!

Marvin, ‘love’ ang birthday wish!

Throwback ang inilagay na litrato ni Marvin Agustin sa kanyang Instagram kahapon, ang araw ng kanyang 39th birthday. Pabiro ang caption niyang, “Sabi na nga ba e, bata pa lang cute na ko! 39 years na akong cute! Thank you sa lahat ng birthday greetings,” bahagi ng caption ni Marvin sa lumang pic.

Heto naman ang kalakip niyang birthday wish:

“My wish is for all of us to be more kind, understanding, respectful and helpful to everyone and everything around us. Let’s choose to love and not to hate. Mas masarap magpasaya ng tao kesa mana­kit. Mas masaya magpangiti kesa magpaiyak.”

Naging sentro ng malisyosong tsismis ka­­ma­­kailan si Marvin dahil sa naka­raang biyahe niya sa Japan, na­ka­sama niya ang kaibigang si Markki Stroem. Hindi na lang niya pinatulan ang ibinabato sa kanyang tsismis.

Masaya kasi ngayon si Marvin dahil sa patuloy na pagtangkilik ng manonood ng kinabibilangang series na Kambal, Karibal dahil ilang araw na nitong tinatalo sa ra­tings sa AGB Nielsen ang katapat na programang La Luna Sangre, huh!

Interaksyon hindi tsutsugiin

Ini-launch na ng ESPN TV5 ang Philippine edition ng ESPN.com at ESPN Player bilang bahagi ng ESPN5 Licen­sing and Sponsorship collaboration.

Ayon kay Chot Reyes, TV5 President, “We are proud to be able to feature Philippine sports news, stories from the PBA, PSL, Gilas and other sporting events TV5 lovers as part of ESPN’s digital platforms. Now we can truly give our audience the broadest array of sports content when they want it, where they want it,” pahayag ni Coach Chot sa launch last Monday sa Raffles Hotel Makati City.

Sa ngayon, na-produced na ng sports network ang local edition ng SportsCenter last December. Ayon kay Reyes ang mga host dito ay hindi basta matatawag na news reader dahil sila mismo ang gumagawa ng istorya nila.

Pero kahit may pagbabago sa landscape ng primetime programs sa ESPN 5, tuloy pa rin ang news prog­ram nitong Interaksyon na nabalitang mawawala na.

“Interaksyon is Media Quest concern. We are TV5. Interaksyon is not going away. It’s still gonna be there. Now, it’s going to be part of the entire Media Quest umbrella,” pahayag ni Coach Chot.

Trial run on Little Mount-DMS Metro line in February

Chennai metro rail limited (CMRL) will commence the crucial first ‘trial run’ between Little Mount and AGDMS stations in a week’s time.

Chennai: Senior CMRL sources told DT Next that they have scheduled the run on the 4km stretch, which would soon extend metro connectivity to the city’s arterial road, Anna Salai, in the first week of February.

A four-car metro train would be taken on the underground stretch with officials on board. Trains would be operated at peak speed (70-80kmph) during the trial run, though the average operational speed is only 35-40kmph. Incidentally, metro officials had operated a four-car metro train from Nehru Park to Chennai Central (2.5kms) only last Friday. CMRL has planned to open Nehru Park – Chennai Central and Little Mount – DMS stretches together sometime in March after the successful completion of the inspection of commissioner of metro rail safety.

Though CMRL had originally planned to open the entire Anna Salai stretch in mid2018, partial opening from Little Mount to DMS was taken up owing to delay in completion of tunneling from Thousand Lights to DMS, where rocky terrain had affected the work progress.

So much so that CMRL had to delay one of its “wall breakings” at DMS a few months ago after the cutters were blunted by the tough terrain. If all goes to plan, Anna Salai would be offered partial metro rail cover and the crucial Airport – Chennai Central link established in a couple of months.

COMMENTARY: Affordable housing via transit-oriented dev’t

The “Build, build, build” program has opened a great opportunity to reduce the massive lack of affordable housing that previous administrations failed to solve.

One major project under the program is the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR), a mass transit system with 35 stations stretched over four provinces from Clark International Airport in the north to Los Baños in the south.

The NSCR is expected to attract further urban development, especially around its stations, similar to the commercial facilities and condominiums that sprouted around the stations of the LRT and MRT lines in Metro Manila. The 35 NSCR station areas offer a significant opportunity for the construction of affordable housing units within a short commute via the commuter railway to centers of livelihoods and employment. For example, a resident in a condo unit near the Malolos City NSCR station can get to Tutuban in 30 minutes.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency has projected Metro Manila’s population of around 13 million to reach over 16 million in 2035, thus making it even more congested. Last year, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council estimated the housing backlog in the Greater Capital Region to be over 800,000 units, with 2.4 million people living in danger zones. In 2013, the Department of Public Works and Highways reported that there were 19,440 informal-settler families living in eight priority waterways that needed to be cleared and improved to prevent future widespread flooding.

Attempts by previous administrations to relocate these informal settlers to disaster-free areas have failed miserably. The main problem is that most of the relocation sites are in places too remote from centers of livelihood and jobs. The families find the travel time too long and expensive, and most of the resettlement sites do not have schools, health centers and other community facilities.

The NSCR presents a possible solution to this problem through transit-oriented development that includes sites for affordable housing around the stations. But this will require collaboration between the government and the private sector, particularly landowners and developers, local government units, and relevant national government agencies.

There are laws and standards that can be used to implement the solution. One, Republic Act No. 7279 (the Urban Development and Housing Act, as amended), mandates “balanced housing.” This requires private developers to allocate 15 percent of the total area or total project cost of a subdivision and 5 percent of saleable area or total project cost of a condominium for socialized housing. The Local Government Code also empowers LGUs to formulate and enforce zoning laws and implement local housing programs.

The guidelines and standards of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board can also be applied to support the provision of affordable housing in the NSCR station areas. Pag-Ibig housing loans can be prioritized for such projects. The Board of Investments also can grant incentives to private companies who develop such housing units for their employees.

The LGUs where these stations are located can also benefit from the initiative. With the expected large number of people using the railway, commercial establishments will multiply around the stations, generating additional livelihood and job opportunities for the local population, and increasing LGU revenues.

Because of the NSCR’s national significance and the critical support needed from national agencies, the government has to take the lead role in planning and orchestrating this initiative. The large number of stakeholders involved requires a clear definition of their respective roles, duties and responsibilities as well as their working interrelationships. The LGUs have a critical role to play since the station areas are within their territorial jurisdiction.

If the project is implemented effectively, the NSCR station areas can accommodate at least 95,000 housing units, benefiting some 473,000 people. It’s an opportunity that the government should not miss.

* * *

Nathaniel von Einsiedel, an urban planner and architect, was commissioner for planning of the Metro Manila Commission (now MMDA). He joined the United Nations as regional director for the Asia-Pacific of the Urban Management Program. He has since returned to the Philippines and now specializes in consultancy services for sustainable and resilient cities.

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/110620/affordable-housing-via-transit-oriented-devt#ixzz55enlbLPr
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A colossal deception

A case study of corruption, cronyism and regulatory capture…

WRITTEN by veteran investigative journalist Rigoberto D. Tiglao, “this book exposes one of the biggest deceptions ever foisted on the nation, which has hidden from it foreigners’ complete domination of our telecommunication industry and certain other public utilities, a blatant violation of the Philippine Constitution. Former President Benigno S. Aquino III defied in 2012 a Supreme Court ruling ordering a stop to the foreign control of such strategic public utility.”

According to Tiglao, “Foreign ownership in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. [PLDT] and Globe Telecom [Globe]—the duopoly in the lucrative telecom industry—are 76 percent and 73 percent, respectively, way above the 40-percent limit set by the Constitution on public-utility firms. The Constitution’s Section 11, Article XII indeed is quite categorical: ‘No franchise, certificate, or any other form of authorization for the operation of a public utility shall be granted except to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations or associations organized under the laws of the Philippines, at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens.’”

In his well-researched book, Colossal Deception, in 171 pages published in 2016 by Strong Republic Books and The Manila Times Publishing Corp., Tiglao said: “To skirt this constitutional limit, these foreign-controlled firms have claimed and widely propagated the falsehood, that they are majority Filipino-owned: PLDT claims its foreign ownership is just 18 percent, while Globe, 27 percent.”

“With such fabrications,” he explained, “foreigners have been able to control, mostly own, and profit from the country’s telecoms industry, a strategic sector of the economy that exploits sovereign natural resources and the radio spectrum, mobile telephony’s medium. This fact has been concealed from the Filipino nation since 2000.”

He explained: “In just about 15 years, an Indonesian magnate, Anthoni Salim, the biggest, controlling stockholder of PLDT through his Hong Kong-based firm First Pacific Co. Ltd. and its subsidiaries used the telco as his launching pad to establish and expand in the country a conglomerate even bigger than those built over so many decades by the old Spanish and Chinese-Filipino elites.”

“Salim, through First Pacific, now controls and mostly owns the biggest conglomerate of public-utility companies in the Philippines. Its 26-percent shares in PLDT make it the controlling stockholder in the country’s biggest telecommunications firm that has 70 percent of the telecom market. Its two other huge public-utility firms are Manila Electric Co., which has monopoly of power distribution in Metropolitan Manila and six adjacent provinces, and Maynilad Water, the water-distribution monopoly for the western part of the metropolis. It also has a major mining company, Philex Mining and Exploration, with its four oil and gas exploration subsidiaries, one of which has as its area of exploration in a disputed area in the Spratlys islands,” Tiglao said.

He further explained in the overview of the book in Chapter 1, thus:

“Through his holding firm MPIC, Salim controls Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., now the biggest toll and expressway operation in the country managing the North Luzon Expressway, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and the Manila-Cavite Expressway.

“Under President Aquino III’s administration, First Pacific has expanded rapidly and bagged the contracts for the country’s biggest infrastructure projects.

“In 2013 55-percent controlled Salim consortium was chosen to build the P65-billion Light Rail Transit [LRT] Line 1 Cavite Extension, the biggest infrastructure project awarded under the Aquino regime. In 2015 Salim led the consortium that won the bidding for the Cavite-Laguna Expressway project with its offer of P27 billion, P5 billion more than the next highest bidder, a group led by San Miguel Corp.

“Either because of Salim and his partner, the Ayalas’s persuasive genius or, allegedly, their strong influence with President Aquino, thrown in into this project was the award of the construction of the LRT-MRT common station in Quezon City to the consortium, which moved its location from its original site at SM City North EDSA to the nearby Trinoma mall of the Ayalas—who are Salim’s partners with a 35-percent stake. This government decision was so irregular that the owner of the SM group, the Henry Sy family who were originally members of the consortium, has sued government, even elevating the case to the Supreme Court, and the project was suspended.

“In partnership with the Ayala group, the Salim conglomerate also won the P1 billion worth of projects to operate an automated fare-collection system for the mass- transit lines. Other infrastructure projects awarded to Salim’s group by the Aquino Administration are the P11-billion North Luzon Expressway (Nlex) Harbor Link, the P7-billion Nlex Citi Link and the P12.4-billion Connector Road/Metro Expressway Link. The group has diversified into bridge construction, as well, with its P18-billion project to build the Cebu-Cordova Bridge.”

Tiglao added: “The last time in Philippine post-war history that a foreigner wielded such economic power in the country was in the 1950s, when a US army lieutenant who fought here during World War II and stayed on, Harry Stonehill, built a conglomerate of cigarette, glass and cement manufacturers. His net worth was estimated at $50 million at the time, equivalent to $400 million today—peanuts compared with Salim’s estimated assets in the country of $6 billion, based on the worth of his shares in PLDT, his infrastructure-holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Philex Mining.”

To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@gmail.com.

Mainstream screening for ‘Changing Partners’

The indie movie “Changing Partners” impressed us when it won several awards at the 2017 Cinema One Originals. These awards were the Audience Choice Award, the Champion Bughaw Award for Best Film, the Best Director for Dan Villegas, Best Actress for Agot Isidro, Best Actor for Jojit Lorenzo, Best Editing for Marya Ignacio, Best Music for Vincent de Jesus, and a Special Citation for Ensemble Acting.

Agot Isidro

Co-starring Anna Luna and Sandino Martin, “Changing Partners” was also the top box-office hit. Based on the PETA play of the same title, the script was written by Lilet Reyes and Vince de Jesus.

With a cutting-edge take on gender and relationships, “Changing Partners” is about Alex and Cris who are celebrating their first anniversary as a live-in couple. Though they are very much in love with each other despite their 15-year age gap, “they navigate the different challenges that come with their relationship.

“Changing Partner” is a love story that is shown through the perspective of different genders, showing how a real relationship works,” the writers said.

They added: “‘Changing Partners’ aims to probe into the age-old question on whether or not the perfect match between couples really exist. The film is eventually a story about falling in love and falling out of love and all the realities that go with it.”

Star Cinema releases “Changing Partners” tomorrow in cinemas nationwide.

• • •

Ruru, Gabbi on ‘Sherlock, Jr.’

Gabbi Garcia and Ruru Madrid

GMA Network has started airing its newest primetime offering “Sherlock Jr.” featuring one of the network’s hottest love teams Ruru Madrid and Gabbi Garcia, along with an endearing dog named Serena. In a special guest participation is the beautiful and talented actress Janine Gutierrez.

Ruru plays Sherlock “Jack” Jackson, Jr., a clever investigative reporter who never backs out from solving mysteries. Aside from being a good son (his mom is played by Ai Ai delas Alas) and brother, he also loves his girlfriend very much.

Gabbi plays the role of Lily Pelaez, a bubbly veterinary clinic assistant. She loves joining anything that could make her famous including various contests and beauty pageants.

Catch “Sherlock Jr.” after “24 Oras” on GMA Telebabad.

• • •

Tidbits: Happy b-day greetings today, Jan. 30, go to Boots Anson-Rodrigo, Omen Ortiz, Jono Babarin, Ricky Mansueto, Victor Ang, Baby de Guzman, Marissa Bernardo, Sister Mercy Medinilla, Tess Celestino, Len Llanes, Mary Charmaine Musngi, Ivy Lisa Mendoza, Aris Aldrin Medina, and Michael Locsin… Jan. 31. GMA Network’s Lilibeth Rasonable, Ronnie Liang, Bong Villafuerte, Larry Esguerra, Tere Orendain, Londoners Nicholas Manuel Almontero and Michael Jeffrey Marshall, Cynthia Sico, Iraida Tanopo, Nitz Mirrales, Noel Pura, Roxanne Fujas, Joed Serrano, Cayle Soco, Majella Villaroman,  and Marc Logan…