YOUNG volunteers take a breather from building homes for the poor under the “1K for 1 Day” of Habitat for Humanity in Calauan, Laguna. MARICAR P. CINCO/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

CALAUAN, Laguna— Daisielynne Reyes, 23, had to put down the can of paint she was carrying and take off her work gloves in order to talk. She needed both hands to express her thoughts in sign language.

“She said she remembered doing the same when they had to paint their own home. But it was her first time to paint houses for other people,” said teacher Bea Francisco who interpreted for the hearing-impaired Reyes.

Reyes was one of the 60 students from the School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies of the De La Salle College of St. Benilde that took part yesterday in the “1K for 1 Day,” a project of the Habitat for Humanity Philippines (HFHP) to tap high school and college students in building homes at a government relocation site here.

Reyes’ family had to leave their home in Bulacan and move in with her grandmother in Manila to be closer to school. Her father, who was employed as a security guard, passed away in 2008. The family is being supported by a sister who works in the United States, having been brought there by a restaurant chain that she had started working for in the Philippines.

Reyes misses her old home but is happy about relocating to Manila because at least the family is together.

“She said that more than relocating, that’s what’s important,” said Francisco.

This was the message that Reyes conveyed to the families who had to relocate from the Estero de Paco in Manila but who will soon be occupying the houses that she and other volunteers had painted yesterday.

“People don’t get everything in life. To be given a new home is an opportunity and (the new house owners) must now be responsible for their homes and their families,” she said.

Overwhelming youth turnout

“1K” stands for the 1,000 targeted youth volunteers but the turnout was overwhelming. There were 1,600 students from international schools and private and public universities and colleges in Manila that volunteered to participate.

“It was a record number of youth volunteers, the largest number in a single day. So much energy and so much excitement,” said Fernando Zobel de Ayala, the Habitat campaign cabinet chair. He said it was the biggest Youth Build they’ve had so far in Asia.

Karen Davila, the ABS-CBN news anchor who is HFHP ambassador and campaign cabinet member, said she felt “good that students from all walks of life were here building homes for our kapwa (fellow) Pinoys! We need to expose our kids to these realities. Not all Filipinos live well or own their own home. They need us.”

Television host Kris Aquino, an HFHP nation-building ambassador, donated one house per month for a year in support of the campaign.

Ability, not disability

Reyes and her team of “differently abled” volunteers were assigned to paint a row of 90 houses that had already been constructed.

She said they did not feel any different from the other volunteers as everyone was focused on the idea of “building houses for the poor.”

“As we say, it’s the ability, not the disability. They can do just about anything but hear,” Francisco said.

Alex Eduque, the Habitat youth council chair, said the project sent a message to the youth about “the importance of volunteerism, cooperation and teamwork” regardless of who they were or where they came from.

Community service and workout

The rest of the volunteers were assigned to another block to build the foundation for 80 houses. They sifted sand, pushed carts of hollow blocks and piled concrete blocks under weather that rapidly changed from a simmering hot morning to a rainy mid-afternoon. Some even danced to the loud music from the speakers as they handed the concrete blocks to their teammates.

“Instead of spending the rest of the summer in the beaches, why not this way? Just the same, you’ll get a tan,” said Diane Gador, a student volunteer from Far Eastern University.

Her schoolmate, Kenn Vargan, said it was both a community service and a workout as they were surely burning fat in the heat.

“It’s an experience to familiarize ourselves in building houses,” said civil engineering student Jayson Reyes, who was with 300 engineering students from the Rizal Technological University, the biggest delegation of volunteers.

For Mary Anne Carillo, 25, and her sisters who are spending their two-week vacation in the Philippines, the experience of dirtying their hands as they carried concrete blocks was something to tell their friends when they return to New Jersey.

“I didn’t realize it would be this way, inspiring these youths from different schools and building (homes) for the Filipino people,” said actor and Habitat youth ambassador Matteo Guidicelli.

Panting as he laid out the bricks for a bathroom, Guidicelli said it was the first time he had joined a Youth Build.

HFHP managing director and CEO Ricky Jacinto said the houses that they had started building yesterday could be ready for use in 45 days.

The HFHP has so far built more than 500 homes, each one measuring about 20 square meters and 2.74 meters high, on this site.

Power of youth

Jacinto said the HFHP would next partner with the Department of Education in a future project to build houses for schoolteachers.

He said HFHP has seen how the “power of the youth and their energy can make a difference.”

“It’s never too early or too late for nation-building. It’s time we (adults) learn from them,” Jacinto said.

After all, “Boy Blue,” as his friends call the man, has been at the helm of Phinma Inc. for many years now. And he managed to turn around the fortunes of one of the country’s oldest and most established industrial houses after the 1997 East Asian financial crisis.

He is also known as a patriot who led the Makati Business Club for many years outside the previous administration’s circle of influence, having called, unsuccessfully, for then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down in the wake of the “Hello Garci” election fraud scandal.

No, it was hardly surprising that Del Rosario was chosen for the prestigious award.

What was a surprise—in the most pleasant sense—was the MAP’s decision to name Lilia B. de Lima, the director general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), as the other Management Man of the Year for 2010.

With the upper echelons of Philippine business remaining largely male-dominated, it was the first time in its history that the MAP bestowed the honor on a woman.

Proof in numbers

By all accounts, De Lima’s award is well-deserved. And the numbers speak for themselves.

At present, there are some 2,400 companies doing business in the special economic zones nationwide, employing close to 800,000 highly skilled Filipino workers. Indirectly, another 4.4 million jobs are being created and sustained because of the business generated by these Peza locators.

With De Lima at the helm, Peza has also brought an estimated P1.7 trillion worth of foreign investments onto local shores since 1995, and remitted close to P13 billion to the government over the agency’s lifetime.

At the same time, the environment in the various economic zones has become so conducive to business that about 86 percent of the country’s manufactured exports are now made in Peza sites, cumulatively worth over $387 billion to date.

It is perhaps because of these numbers that De Lima has kept her job as director general of Peza under four presidents—itself an achievement in a country where most agency heads are changed along with the appointments and policies of the outgoing administration.

‘Non-Stop Shop’

De Lima is apparently not one to rest on her already impressive laurels, as she strives to push her team to excel in its work every day.

Her formula for success is strikingly simple, yet difficult to achieve in a local setting.

“Over the years we have built what is now known in the Peza community as the Peza brand of service—no graft, no corruption, no red tape, only red-carpet treatment for our valued investors and stakeholders,” De Lima said during the annual recognition event hosted on May 25 by the Philippine Daily Inquirer for the MAP awardees.

“Peza is a ‘One-Stop Shop,’” she said. “Import and export permits, now all automated, are processed or preprocessed by Peza, as building permits, visas, environmental compliance certificates and others are processed at Peza through memoranda of understanding with other government agencies.”

De Lima also made a revelation about the work ethic at Peza under her leadership, one that is certain to elicit head-shaking among employees of other government agencies: “Peza is not just a ‘One-Stop Shop.’ It is also a ‘Non-Stop Shop’ because in the zones, especially the manufacturing zones, we render service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including Sundays and holidays.”

“When I go on investment promotions abroad, I tell them that if any agency here or abroad can beat this service, I’ll be very sad,” De Lima said, adding that Peza personnel took a break from their duties only once a year—on Good Friday.

First Peza head

De Lima is the aunt and godparent of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, whose name is often confused with hers.

She was appointed Peza’s first—and so far only—head by President Fidel V. Ramos in 1995.

Born in San Agustin, Iriga City, De Lima is the youngest of 11 children born to the late Agapito de Lima and Felicisima Bagaporo.

She received an associate in arts degree from the Centro Escolar University, was a law scholar at the Manuel L. Quezon University, and was a fellow at the Academy of American and International Law, studying at the Southwestern Legal Foundation, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

One of her early stints as a public servant was as an elected delegate to the constitutional convention, representing the second district of Camarines Sur.

She has served in various government agencies and on the board of private corporations.

Courage, etc.

The MAP honored De Lima’s dedication to duty during the formal awarding ceremonies late last year.

It said that she deserved the Management Man of the Year Award for, among others, “her leadership role in Peza’s substantial contribution to national development in terms of job generation and income opportunities for various sectors of the economy.”

She was cited “for her courage, professionalism and ability to transcend politics and resist pressures” throughout four presidencies while “consistently preserving Peza’s integrity as an institution.”

The MAP also cited De Lima’s “contribution to reshaping national values by upholding integrity, excellence, firmness and fairness in her management career.”

De Lima and Del Rosario are now among the Philippines’ leading lights in business and management—a roster that includes the likes of Washington SyCip (the first awardee in 1967), Cesar Virata (1981), brothers Cesar and Rafael Buenaventura (1985 and 2004), father and son Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (1987 and 2006), and Del Rosario’s father, Ramon Sr. (1988).

Her ‘men’

For all that, De Lima has retained at least two key traits of successful managers—humility and generosity in sharing credit—as shown in her speech during last week’s recognition event.

She thanked the “men” behind her: “my three deputy directors general—Mary Harriet Abordo for operations, Justo Porfirio Yusingco for administration and finance, and Tereso Panga for policy and planning; our promotions group manager Elmer San Pascual; and my executive assistant Lita Malicdan.”

“They afford me the luxury of reaping rewards and recognition while they support me quietly working behind the scenes,” she said.

Human Rights activists say that incarceration in Philippine jails, no matter how brief, is in itself a death sentence, with convicts—the impoverished ones, that is—forced to live in misery and squalor.

Recent statistics of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology corroborate this view—62,000 convicts occupy a mere 985 prisons nationwide.

It’s like we were still in the late 19th century, when prisons everywhere were known for their dismal and insalubrious environments, with inmates often shackled with weights on their ankles and condemned to a living death.

During his brief stay in Hong Kong in 1892, Jose Rizal accompanied his Portuguese friend, Dr. Lorenzo Marques, on a medical visit to Victoria Gaol, the city’s penitentiary. Because Marques was the prison physician, Rizal was welcomed and allowed to move freely. And like any other curious visitor, he recorded his experience in the prison.

Wrote Rizal: “We saw a crowd of prisoners in the patio—anemic, pale, dirty. Their clothes were of white canvas, solidly made, and consisting of shirt and trousers.

“On the left side of the breast above the heart is sewed on the shirt the prisoner’s number in Arabic numerals; on the right side another piece of cloth with Chinese characters, probably his name or number in Chinese …

“When they wear two black stripes of the width of one finger on the right shoulder—parallel stripes which fall forward following the seam of the sleeves where they are joined to the body—they are recidivists, or at least they are serving a second term.”

Racial prejudice

Rizal described the prison cells as dark, scarcely lighted by a window with closed blinds.

Many of the prisoners were Chinese, punished through a meager diet of rice and water, and consequently debilitated by diarrhea.

“We saw among them many opium smokers, noticeable for the color of their skin, their dirty teeth, in some, lack of teeth, constipation, anemic figure, deep eyes, and bony fingers,” he wrote.

Racial prejudice was rampant, as indicated by the differences between the cells occupied by Chinese and those by Europeans: “The jails of the Chinese are clean; its furnishings consisted of one long and round pole, about 10 centimeters in diameter, fixed on the floor, which served as a pillow; and one square box full of sawdust and with a shovel which served as a privy …

“We visited various departments beside each other; I saw some Europeans. These have a narrow bed, which fold in the center like a chair, with a Chinese mat for a mattress.”

Well-behaved prisoners were transferred to workshops to learn skills in shoemaking, bookbinding and printing.

Others were engaged in tedious activities such as unraveling burlap threads to make coir mats. These prisoners were required to produce a quota of one-and-a-half pounds of burlap threads, or face punishment.

Grueling penalties

The hard-labor penalties were cruelly grueling, according to Rizal.

He wrote: “… Hard labor consists of walking to and [from] the interior of the cell to a leather-covered crank attached to the wall. This crank is connected to a meter with a plate whose numbers indicate what should be done before each meal.

“The room is dark. From outside can be seen the moving end of the axis; there is an arrow indicating the direction. Every prisoner has to walk back and forth 12,500 times a day and if he fails to do it, he will be punished.

“To do this, the prisoner must remain standing in semi-darkness. We saw one, naked until the waist, doing this. The resistance weight of the crank is probably from 10 to 16 pounds. There is a book there in which are recorded the number of turns one has made and the number of days that he has to work. It is hard work and it is a pity that so much motive power is not employed in something useful.”

Hard labor included picking round shots and at intervals placing or removing them from hollows in foot-high socles, and carrying on the shoulders a bamboo pole with two heavy granite stones suspended from each end and walking around a patio for hours.

Attempted escape

Rizal also recounted that a prisoner tried to escape by jumping from the high wall and was severely injured:

“… The poor devil … had committed theft in China, was caught in Hong Kong and was …  to be sent back to China. He tried to escape without knowing the topography of the place.

“They fired at him several times without hitting him. When he jumped, he fell on his feet; he bent forward, rested on his hands, and his face hit the ground. He is suffering from fractures of the … base of the skull. At the beginning, he had a slight fever.

“He is 30 years old.”

Rizal left Victoria Gaol alone, yet he was visibly affected by what he had witnessed. Did he pity the condemned for the harsh punishments they were suffering? How did he regard the colonial justice system imposed by the British?

As he stepped out of the prison doors, Rizal must have reflected on French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau’s words: “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”

In all probability, Rizal felt that oppression existed in all countries under colonial rule, and this fueled his determination to strive for equality and freedom for Filipinos during his final homecoming on June 26, 1892.

The 150th birth anniversary of National Hero Jose Rizal will be celebrated on June 19.  The National Historical Commission of the Philippines is marking the event with a yearlong calendar of activities here and abroad. For details, log on to www.nhcp.gov.ph.

Until quite recently, Fred Jamili, a 59-year-old experienced mountain climber, lived a life entirely devoted to the mountains.

Not that he has shaken off his passion for high places, but Fred has found a new love.

It is ironic that after more than three decades of conquering mountain peaks here and abroad, Fred would find his new love waiting for him to set foot in Zamboanga City.

And it was all thanks to the Philippine Balangay Expedition, which last year took replicas of the historic precolonial vessel on a triumphant 12,600-kilometer journey across the country and Southeast Asia.

Fred, who was a member of the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition Team’s technical and support group, was one of the voyage’s leaders.

His new love

In March 2010, the expedition’s three balangays (boat villages) docked in Zamboanga City, a few months before it completed its 15-month Asian voyage.

One of those who welcomed the expedition was Fred’s future bride, Russelle Tabuniar.

“I thought, yes, I will forever be married to the mountains. I had convinced myself that the mountains are my wives until I met her,” said Fred.

Russelle, 30, a history professor at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, will wed Fred, 59, today, something they both never imagined would happen to them until they met.

“This is a special wedding for the special woman in my life,” said the soft-spoken Fred.

The groom will be wearing a coat embellished with beads. The bride will wear a matte-gold beaded dress.

“We want it to be simple and something that will take us back to our cultural roots. The beads will connect us to the culture of the indigenous peoples. It is something that is always part of their life, art and culture,” said Russelle.

Shipboard wedding

The wedding will be celebrated on the Masawa Hong Butuan, one of the balangays, which is now moored at Barangay (village) Bading in Butuan City.

It is the couple’s way of paying homage to the reason why their love blossomed.

“I met her because of the balangay. When we decided to get married, we both wished it to happen here,” said Fred, who is from Bago, Negros Occidental.

“It was not love at first sight. Nothing like that,” said Russelle of their first meeting when the expedition docked in Zamboanga City last year.

Russelle was part of the committee formed by Ateneo de Zamboanga to hold a symposium on the voyage.

“That was a very formal meeting. We were not even properly introduced. Even during dinner, the discussion was very formal but she already made a good impression on me because she was very knowledgeable about history,” said Fred.

A texting romance

Two months after they met, Fred and Russelle were in love.

There was no formal courtship. Everything happened through constant texting.

“We just found ourselves in love with each other. The words and the process of courtship were no longer needed,” said Russelle.

A month after they first met, Fred told Russelle by text message that he wanted to marry her. And then over dinner in Pagadian City, he personally proposed marriage, which she happily accepted.

“She is outgoing and we have almost the same interests. Academically, she is into history. It’s like we’re similar in a lot of things, something that I have not found in other women,” he said.

“She is very special to me,” he added.

For Russelle, married life is something unimaginable if it were not with Fred.

“He is adventurous. I love the fact that he understands the life that I was imagining to be. I am very adventurous myself and I want to spend a lot of my time outdoors. Other men would not understand that,” she said.

Better late than never

Art Valdez, Fred’s mountain climbing partner since 1979 and the Balangay expedition leader, said their group was happy that “[Fred] has found someone other than the mountains.”

“All his life, he had no one to care about, he was carefree and always out there … it is worth celebrating that he has finally found something that will temper him and will complete the cycle of life,” said Valdez, a former transportation undersecretary who chairs the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines.

“It is better late than never,” he added with a laugh, remembering the bridegroom’s age.

According to Valdez, a lot of things changed in Fred after he met Russelle.

“He was always cross. A terror. Very strict. But when he found love, he changed. Love brightened him, lightened him up,” he said.

But Valdez, who will be godfather at the wedding, hopes that Fred’s romance with the mountains and the great outdoors will not be weakened by marriage.

“But I am confident that Fred will always be part of our expeditions. His wife will understand,” he said.

Like launching a ship

As for his advice to the couple, Valdez said: “Marriage is like the launching of a ship in an unchartered sea. It is full of challenges but determination and love will be able to bring you to that desired destination. Overcome the big waves and bad weather. And it will make the journey worth it.”

For Fred and Russelle, marriage only signals the beginning of their journey together.

“I know it will be an exciting journey with him. People asked me if I am excited about the wedding day and yes, I am. But what I am more excited about is the journey with him, that life with him,” Russelle said.

And Fred has another adventure in his mind.

“We are not only living a new life as husband and wife but we will also be building our own boat house, our own balangay,” he said.

“I think the Cabinet secretaries who didn’t go to the airport can all heave a sigh of relief,” Lacierda said in jest when asked yesterday if he regretted meeting the President upon the latter’s arrival from a state visit to Thailand.

“You know, it can be anyone of us. It may be a cliché but we serve at the pleasure of the President. We serve at his behest,” Lacierda said.

Speaking with reporters at the airport, Mr. Aquino said there could be a Cabinet reshuffle. He said an official could be reassigned if issues in the official’s agency were not resolved.

He also said that the official was among those at the airport.

Lacierda said that prior to Mr. Aquino’s departure for Bangkok on Thursday, “there was no indication at all” that he was displeased with the performance of a member of his Cabinet.

“I suppose the President is keeping his cards close to his chest on this one,” Lacierda said. “This will be made clear in the coming days.”

The President was explaining to reporters what had made him decide to make permanent the appointments of Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo when he disclosed the possibility of changes in the Cabinet.

His move concerning Paje and Robredo has drawn praise from Senator Joker Arroyo.

“That’s a very good decision on the part of the President,” Arroyo yesterday told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

He said Paje was “a very good choice,” and Robredo was “fit for the position of local government secretary.”

Arroyo also said the permanent appointment of Paje and the impending confirmation of career ambassadors augured well for the career service.

“The President should be commended for promoting the career service. In other words, the appointments are not political,” he said. With a report from TJ Burgonio

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will start arresting on Monday smokers puffing away in public places within the perimeter of Metro Manila’s major and secondary roads.

MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino and the 17 city mayors and municipal councils agreed to intensify the authority’s no-smoking drive, extending its scope to cover the entire metropolis. The MMDA no-smoking campaign previously covered only government buildings.

“We are not against the smokers or the tobacco industry, but we want to protect the rights of the nonsmokers,” said Dr. Loida Labao-Alzona, head of MMDA Health Public Safety and Environmental Protection.

Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and each cigarette stick is made up of 4,000 chemicals, she said.

“A secondhand smoker who is around a smoker has the same risk of getting cancer,” Alzona said.

Areas covered

The public places include bus and jeepney terminals, loading and unloading bays, pedestrian passes, schools, hospitals, youth recreation centers and government offices.

The prohibition also includes a 100-meter perimeter from the public areas involved. Warning signs will be placed in major roads.

Violators will be fined P500 on first offense while those who cannot afford to pay the fine will be required to render eight hours of community service.

The MMDA environmental enforcers will start issuing tickets in July, following a month-long buffer in June to give enough time for the information to be disseminated.

Alzona clarified that MMDA traffic enforcers are not allowed to issue violation tickets but they can “warn and remind” violators.

Sixty-four environmental enforcers have been assigned to monitor major roads, while local government units have their own mechanisms to implement the program in secondary roads.

Operative laws

Tolentino cited Republic Act No. 9211, or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003, the smoking prohibitions of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and local ordinances as the bases for the program.

Valenzuela is the only district in Metro Manila without a local ordinance against smoking. But Alzona said the Valenzuela government has indicated it will be issuing such an ordinance by Monday.

Tolentino, together with the 17 Metro mayors and LTFRB Chair Nelson Laluces, will officially launch the program, called the “100% Smoke-Free Metro” on Monday at the MMDA Makati headquarters.

The MMDA said its expanded antismoking drive coincides with the World No Tobacco Day and is aimed at achieving a smoke-free Metro Manila by 2012.

World No Tobacco Day

On May 31 each year, the World Health Organization celebrates World No Tobacco Day, to draw global attention to the health risks associated with tobacco use and advocating for effective policies to reduce consumption.

Tobacco use is the second cause of death globally (after hypertension) and is currently responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide.

“We must be very strict in implementing our antismoking regulations. We want the MMDA to become a model government agency in terms of compliance,” Tolentino said.

The New York-based Bloomberg Philantrophies has approved a P9.5-million grant to the MMDA to finance the antitobacco use program.

“We should transform Metro Manila into a smoke-free community. A healthy Metro Manila is a healthy and progressive Philippines,” Tolentino said.

Theresa Mondita Lim, director of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said yesterday that the damaged area could reach “almost five times the size” of Manila and not just almost twice its size as initial reports said.

Environment officials had said that poachers damaged a reef complex almost twice the size of the city of Manila when they harvested more than 21,000 pieces of black coral and killed 161 endangered turtles and other marine life that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) later intercepted.

Lim said that the DENR was preparing to file charges against Exequiel Navarro, the consignee of the contraband, and the other persons that Navarro named as responsible for the poaching and the smuggling attempt.

“We will file the charges against those responsible for this as soon as possible. We won’t let them get away with this,” she said.

Five times Manila’s land area

Lim added: “Our initial estimate was that it was twice the area of Manila but we validated this with a renowned expert on soft corals who is now in the country and he said that the area was much bigger.”

She said Gary Williams of the California Academy of Sciences estimated that the area damaged or destroyed could reach up to 190.8 square kilometers, or five times Manila’s land area of 38.55 sq km.

Lim described Williams as a world-renowned expert on corals whose research had brought him to the Galapagos Islands, Patagonia, southern Africa, the Russian Far East, Antartica and the sub-Arctic.

“He is now in the country conducting a survey in Anilao (Batangas),” Lim said.

Lim said Navarro was in the custody of the BOC and had revealed who were behind the poaching and smuggling attempt.

Names to be released tomorrow

“The BOC is supposed to release their names (tomorrow) and we will work on that to file the charges before the green courts,” Lim said.

She explained that the Supreme Court in 2009 designated special courts to handle environmental cases to expedite their resolution. “We will charge them for violating the Wildlife Act and the Fisheries Code,” Lim said.

She said that Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, chair of the Senate committee on the environment, will inspect the confiscated black coral and dead turtles on Monday in the port of Manila.

Afterwards, the stuffed turtles would be brought to the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife while the black corals would be taken to the storage facility of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Lim said.

The conciliatory words were uttered by Jiang Shusheng, vice chair of the 11th National People’s Congress of China, to Vice President Jejomar Binay when he paid a courtesy call on the latter on Friday.

Jiang’s visit follows that of China’s defense minister, General Liang Guanglie.

Binay said his meeting with Jiang touched briefly on the Spratlys issue and that both agreed that incidents connected to the issue should not become a thorn in bilateral relations.

He said Jiang supported President Benigno Aquino III’s call to settle the issue peacefully through talks.

“We should keep a friendly atmosphere and in handling this situation, we should always keep in mind the relationship between our countries and our peoples,” Jiang said in a statement.

The Spratlys, a reputedly oil-rich chain of islands and reefs, is claimed wholly or in part by the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan.

China has insisted it has sovereignty over the entire archipelago—which the Chinese call Nansha Islands but which everyone else refers to as the Spratlys—and is moved to “enforce” its claim from time to time by flexing its military muscle in the area.

Jets intrude with impunity

The most recent incident was reported last week on the eve of the arrival in Manila of Liang. Chinese jet fighters had reportedly intruded into Philippine airspace in the vicinity of Reed Bank, part of the Kalayaan group of islands in the Spratlys that the Philippines claims.

Initial reports said the fighters were Chinese. But the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said it was still validating the report even as it conceded that it had no capability to detect and intercept the jets.

In March, two Chinese vessels reportedly harassed a Philippine exploration ship at Reed Bank, prompting the AFP to send planes and Coast Guard ships to the area.

Malacañang had earlier said that the Philippines and China had agreed to hold dialogues on the disputed islands in the South China Sea following a meeting between President Aquino and Liang.

Mr. Aquino said he reiterated the Philippines’ position that countries in the region should focus on regional prosperity to ease the tensions caused by the rival claims of China and Southeast Asian countries over the Spratlys group.

Binay took the opportunity to ask Jiang about the status of the proposed “exchange of sentenced prisoners by the two countries.” But he said that no commitment was given by the Chinese official as the proposal was still being reviewed.

The Chinese government in late March executed three Filipinos arrested in China on drug trafficking charges.

The Vice President said that China was looking forward to expanding trade and economic relations with the Philippines, and promoting high-level visits between Manila and Beijing.

Director Suzette H. Lazo of the Food and Drug Administration said the food products may have been contaminated with the chemical Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP).

“The Taiwan government has informed the Department of Health that a company may have exported to the Philippines food products containing additives contaminated with DEHP,” Lazo said in a statement.

“Efforts to trace the local counterpart of this company are currently in progress,” she added.

Widely used in the manufacture of plastic articles like intravenous bags and tubing, blood bags and infusion and gastric tubes, DEHP was “found to have been illegally added” to a food product raw material intended for emulsification in Taiwan, Lazo said.

She said that while low doses of DEHP were generally safe, high doses or prolonged exposure could have harmful effects.

Children are specially prone to the harmful effects of high doses of DEHP or to repeated exposure which could lead to testicular defects, fertility problems and toxicity in kidneys, she added. Philip C. Tubeza

The Sandiganbayan Second Division sentenced Ricardo Inding to 6-10 years in prison and disqualified him from ever holding public office after it found him guilty of scamming the city government of P30,500.

Inding was accused of faking drug busts against alleged drug pushers and users in 1997 and falsifying documents so that he could claim reimbursement for supposed expenses.

The antigraft court said Inding made it appear that he headed the committee on illegal drugs of the Sangguniang Panlunsod of Dapitan City, when no such committee existed.

What he chaired was the committee on tourism and he was also a member of the committees on youth and sports development, and on health and sanitation, the court said.

It said Inding’s confidential report on the supposed drug operations showed that surveillance, test buys and busts were conducted from January to August 1997, but only two arrests were made as shown by police records. The records, however, did not mention Inding or credit the arrests to his antidrug campaign.

The Sandiganbayan also said that the documents Inding submitted to support his reimbursement claims included community tax certificates whose dates of issuance did not tally with official records.

The tax certificates were issued to purported members of the raiding team by Inding’s cousin, barangay treasurer Efrina Inding.

The court said it got the impression that the members of the team were fictitious.

“In this case, accused created a fictitious committee that undertook fictitious activities involving fictitious persons, for the purpose of obtaining, as he obtained, a sum of money from government coffers. He did a wrong for his own interest. That is evident bad faith,” the Sandiganbayan said.

The court also noted that while Inding was given the opportunity to present evidence in his defense, he did not do so. Leila B. Salaverria