The San Francisco Post Mar. 6, 2014 Issue

KIEV, Ukraine – Rus-sian troops said to

be 16,000 strong tight-ened their stranglehold on Ukraine’s Crimean Penin-sula Monday, openly defy-ing the US and the Europe-an Union and rattling world capitals and stock markets. The West struggled to find a way to get Russia to back down, but with little beyond already threatened

diplomatic and economic sanctions, global markets fell sharply over the pros-pect of violent upheaval in the heart of Europe. For its part, Moscow re-iterated its price for ending the crisis: restoration of a deal reached with the oppo-sition less than two weeks ago to form a national unity government in Kiev that represents pro-Russian as

well as Ukrainian interests, The crisis may prove to be a game-changer for President Barack Obama’s national security policy, forcing him to give up his foreign policy shift to Asia and to maintain U.S. troop levels in Europe to limit Russia’s reach. The ill will and mistrust also could spill over on two

MANILA —Former President Gloria

Macapagal-Arroyo’s con-gressional allies, includ-ing at least three who are now key allies of Presi-dent Aquino, spent a total of P10.6 billion on their pet public works projects and P3.9 billion to aug-ment their pork barrel al-lotments during the last six months of her admin-istration. This was confirmed by Public Works Sec-retary Rogelio Singson in his testimony before the House committee on good government and ac-countability that is con-ducting a probe on how the P69.7-billion con-

gressional insertions—of which P30 billion went to the Department of Pub-lic Works and Highways (DPWH)—in Arroyo’s last budget year (2010) were spent. Singson said only P10.6 billion of the P30 billion was disbursed as of Ar-royo’s last day in office, June 30, 2010, but the way the funds were used up “to the last peso” strongly indicated, he said, that the road repairs, dredgings, bridges and schools did not go through the bid-ding process. “Most of the projects were farmed out at exactly their ABC

VOL. 2 ISSUE 19 MAR 6, 2014- MAR 12, 2014WWW.SF-POST.COM

Arroyo’s P14-B pork spree in 2010 bared

FREE

A convey of army trucks carrying Russian troops roll on to Ukraine territoryin Crimea.

Russia tightens grip on Crimea

KIEV, Ukraine – Rus-sian troops said to

be 16,000 strong tight-ened their stranglehold on Ukraine’s Crimean Penin-sula Monday, openly defy-ing the US and the Europe-an Union and rattling world capitals and stock markets. The West struggled to

find a way to get Russia to back down, but with little beyond already threatened diplomatic and economic sanctions, global markets fell sharply over the pros-pect of violent upheaval in the heart of Europe. For its part, Moscow re-iterated its price for ending

the crisis: restoration of a deal reached with the oppo-sition less than two weeks ago to form a national unity government in Kiev that represents pro-Russian as well as Ukrainian interests,

USD to PHP Rate $1.00 = P44.73

as of Mar. 5, 2014

(Cont. on Page 15)

Dawn Jimenez strips for UNO mag-page 13

WE PROVIDE PRESS COVERAGE FOR ANY

EVENTS OR PROMOTIONS.Pacquiao too strong, quick for sparmate- page 12 See page 12 for details.

Pork scam whistleblower fires lawyer Story on page 6

SPORTS

(Cont. on Page 15)

TRENDING

(Cont. on Page 15)

US, EU ready tough response

OSCAR FOR FIL-AM. Filipino -American Robert Lopez and wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez (L) hold their award for Best Original Song for “Let It Go” from “Frozen” in the press room during the 86th Annual Academy ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, CA. (Story in page 8)

PAGE 2Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014 The San Francisco Post

REDWOOD CITY, California – Francis Weav-er, the third person in his family facing murder charges, entered a plea of not guilty in his own case at an Oregon court on Tuesday. Weaver is the son of the man convicted of kill-ing two Oregon teens in 2011, and the grandson of the alleged killer of a motorist and his girl-

friend in California in 1981.Weaver’s mother is Filipina. Authorities in Oregon arrested the 31-year old in the shooting to death of 43-year old Edward Kelly Spangler, in a recent drug deal. Weaver’s next court date has been set for April 16th.

FilAm facing murder rap enters not guilty plea

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, California – Cath-olic Charities of Santa Clara County recently briefed the news media on the potential benefits available for undocumented Filipinos, despite delays in Comprehensive Immigration Reform and US approval of a Temporary Protected Sta-tus (TPS) designation for the Philippines. Undocumented Filipinos still have other avenues to try, said Immigration Legal Services Program Director Robert Yabes and his team of Board of Immigration Appeals (IBA)-certified team. Yabes decried the low number of Filipinos willing to do something about their being out of status. “In Santa Clara County, 70 to 80 percent of our clients are Latinos. Asians, just 10 to 20 per cent. The rest are from the Middle-East, Af-rica and other countries.” “Out of 1.7 million qualified for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival or DACA (signed by President Obama in June 2012 for qualified youth, granting them a two-year work permit and a guarantee that they will not be deported), only 537,000 applied (as of July 2013). Only four percent of these were Asians. Of these, less than one percent or 0.7 were Filipinos. There are about 22,000 eligible Filipinos but only 18 per cent or 4,000 applied.”Yabes offered the manana (procrastination) and bahala na (leave it to God) attitudes among Filipinos as the culprits.But according to San Jose Peace & Justice Center, the $456 cost of application and the $550 fee for assistance puts DACA beyond most young people’s reach. And only a fourth of these could produce the required documents.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Yet, apparently, the fear factor among many Filipinos

“who fear being criminalized” is the biggest obstacle. Many fear that the collateral information gath-ered from the application will be used against their relatives and friends. Yabes told FilAm Star, “Even people apply-ing for US Citizenship need to disclose their spouse’s immigration status. But the DHS does not go after (those undocumented as revealed in the application) even if they have the same ad-dress and contact information as the applicant.”“Homeland Security’s top priority is to go af-ter people with criminal records or people who have been in the immigration court system and did not follow the judge’s order (like those still in the US despite a voluntary departure order).There are too many undocumented immigrants in the US and it is impossible to go after all of them.” “Logic dictates, why would the government provide a benefit like DACA, encourage the undocumented to ap-ply and then destroy all of it by arresting relatives of the applicants? It does not make sense.” The DHS website for DACA confirms that the said in-formation will not be disclosed to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Bor-der Patrol (CBP) unless there is a matter of national secu-rity, fraud or criminal offenses. Although Question number 10 (addressing this concern) contains the waiver: “This policy, which may be modi-fied, superseded or rescinded at any time without notice, is not intended to, does not, and may not be relied upon to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by law by any party in administration, civil or criminal matter.”

Hope for undocumented Filipinos in US

PAGE 3Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014The San Francisco Post NATIONAL

You can build your credit immediately after bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a so-lution to financial

problems and a way to start anew with what we have dreamt in life. After you are dis-charged from bankruptcy, you feel you are relieved of heavy burden you carried for so many years. You have passed the process and you have put the bankruptcy myths in the bottle.

Question: Will I be qualified again for credit after filing bankruptcy?

Answer: YES! Filing for bankruptcy does not mean that you will never

be qualified for credit again, whether for a home, a car or consumer items. Many people are concerned that bankruptcy will cause damage to their credit permanently. This is a myth. Although bankruptcy will remain in your credit report for 10 years, you will be able to rebuild your credit in a matter of one to three years from the day your debts are discharged in bankruptcy.

Question: Will I get approved for credit cards after bankruptcy?

Answer: YES! Bankruptcy is not the end of credit. In fact, many people

who file for bankruptcy enjoy new oppor-tunities for credit shortly after the bank-ruptcy is concluded. Many of people who received discharged with either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy cannot believe that they receive credit card solicitations only months after completing the bank-ruptcy process.

Question: What is my next step after my bankruptcy discharge?

Answer: Rebuilding credit after bank-ruptcy is something people do im-

mediately after discharge. Once you are discharged in bankruptcy, focus on the things you can do to actively improve your credit score. These include:• Get a secured credit card – This should be your first step. A secured credit card should be easy to get from a bank since it is secured for the bank. You need to de-posit some money with the bank which becomes your credit limit. Good thing about this credit card is that this will help you rebuild your credit history fast. Just make sure that an application fee is zero and the bank will send your credit history to the credit bureaus.•Maintain the job – It is very important to keep your job. If you don’t have one, try to get it as early as possible. The em-ployment along with your residence his-tory shows your creditors that you are reliable person whom they can trust and give loans.• Pay bills on time – Again a very critical point. This becomes the building block of rebuilding your credit after bankruptcy. Whatever utility or credit cards bills you may have, pay them off in time. Delay or missing payments on these can be prob-lematic. • Start using cash instead of card – This encourage self discipline while shopping. Usually, we misuse our credit cards and buy things even if you don’t want to since we can take them on debt using our cards. If you use cash, you will tend to buy only necessary items thus increasing your sav-

ings.• Keep track of your credit report – As per law, you can get one free

credit history report from all three credit bureaus. Keep a track of your credit. If you find any discrepancy, bring it to the bureaus as early as possible.• Rearrange your finances – You should have a fixed monthly budget and realign it as per your new financial status. Keep focus on savings and reduce spending wherever you can. Try to take credit after about 1 to 2 years which will help you re-build your credit after bankruptcy.

Question: What are the factors to con-sider when applying for credit cards

after bankruptcy discharge?

Answer: Here are some things to con-sider on how to obtain credit cards

after bankruptcy discharge:• Accept a pre-approved credit card offer• Know the terms• Contact your bank or credit union• Get a secured credit card• Get a co-signor

Bankruptcy Basics

1. Bankruptcy will actually improve your credit within one year because your un-secured debts are discharged. Although the bankruptcy will be in your records for 10 years, not filing bankruptcy will make your credit even worse until most of your debts are paid in full.2. If you are being sued by your creditors, most money judgment can be eliminated in bankruptcy.3. Collection actions continue and you can be sued if you are in debt settlement.4. Chapter 7 will eliminate all unsecured debts. If you are near retirement age, you must eliminate most of your debts.5. Bankruptcy will stop foreclosure ac-tions. If your trustee sale date is 10 days before, you can still file for bankruptcy.6. If your salary is being garnished, you have a court case about debts or you are being harassed by creditors, bankruptcy can stop garnishment, court cases, harass-ing creditors and eliminate the debt.7. Bankruptcy is cheaper, faster and safer than debt settlement which has no guar-anteed success. 8. Preserve your health, eliminate stress and live a happy life by eliminating your debts which is the root of all problems.

Note: This is not a legal advice.

Crispin Caday Lozano is an active member of the State Bar of California, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the National Association of Consumers Bankruptcy Attorneys. He specializes in immigration law and bankruptcy law. He earned his Juris Doctor at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, California. He is also a Certi-fied Public Accountant, and a Bachelor of Business Administration Cum Laude graduate. He has of-fices in Hayward, San Jose, and Cerritos, Califor-nia. You can contact him at 1-877-456-9266. Email questions to [email protected]/. Visit our website at www.crispinlozanolaw.com/. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

By Atty. Crispin C. Lozano

BUSINESS

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. said late Mon-day it will suspend talks with Russia aimed at boosting trade and investment, part of an effort to put pressure on Moscow after its military in-tervention in Ukraine. President Barack Obama had warned that the U.S. is considering a “whole series” of economic and diplomatic punitive measures against Russia after it sent troops into Ukraine, a move Mr. Obama said would be “costly” for Moscow. U.S. officials in recent months had begun in-formal negotiations with Russian counterparts in an effort to boost economic ties. Compared with the size of their economies, Russia and the U.S. have a small trade relationship, represent-ing just 1% of U.S. imports and exports from around the world. “Due to recent events in Ukraine, we have suspended upcoming bilateral trade and in-vestment engagement with the government of Russia that were part of a move toward deeper

commercial and trade ties,” said a spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.Russia entered the World Trade Organization in 2012, and Washington enacted a law granting the country permanent normal trade relations, a move that drew criticism from human-rights advocates. Last week Russia’s economy minister, Alexei Ulyukayev, visited Washington to discuss the trade and investment framework. The talks had less ambitious goals than negotiations to form a bilateral investment treaty with China or cur-rent efforts to form high-level trade agreements with Asia-Pacific countries and the European Union. The U.S. imported $27 billion worth of Rus-sian goods, mostly fuel oil, last year and ex-ported just $11.2 billion, led by aircraft, cars and parts, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.U.S. oil companies have invested in the Rus-sian energy market, which is dominated by Moscow’s state-controlled companies.

US suspends trade talks with Russia

Massive winter storm slams US NortheastWASHINGTON — Another massive winter storm walloped parts of the US East Coast on Monday, shutting schools and the federal gov-ernment, snarling air traffic and turning roads into slippery slopes. The late winter blast was the latest in a succes-sion that have made this one of the harshest in years for residents of the eastern seaboard of the United States. In the capital Washington, expected to get the brunt of a fierce weather mix, the Mon-day morning commute was unusually calm as windswept, snow-covered streets stayed largely empty. As a precaution, employees of the federal government were told to stay home and area schools gave their students a snow day.While the city’s Metro was running on sched-ule, bus service was suspended due to danger-ous road conditions.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said a winter storm warning would remain in effect until 6 pm (2300 GMT) and that six to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) of snow were expected. The weather woes extended beyond the capital area, with the NWS predicting heavy snow from the Ohio Valley into the Mid-Atlantic region through the evening.Baltimore and Philadelphia were under a winter storm warning, with snow also ex-pected further north in parts of New Jersey.The icy rain and snow caused headaches for air travelers, with Washington’s Dulles International Airport tweeting that run-ways were open but that many flights were canceled. Baltimore’s BWI Marshall Airport said “only very limited” airline operations were expected Monday morning.

Harris appeals Ninth Circuit concealed weapons permit ruling

SACRAMENTO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has filed a petition in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, on behalf of the State of Cali-fornia, urging the court to review and reverse its decision in Peruta v. County of San Diego.In its February 13, 2014 Peruta decision, the Ninth Circuit ruled that San Diego County violates the Second Amendment by requiring individuals to show “good cause,” beyond a mere desire to carry a gun, when applying for a concealed-carry weapons permit. “Local law enforcement must be able to use their discretion to determine who can carry a concealed weapon,” Attorney General Harris said. “I will do everything possible to restore law enforcement’s authority to protect public safety, and so today am call-ing on the court to review and reverse its decision.”

California state law currently requires in-dividuals to show “good cause” to carry a concealed weapon, but gives local law en-forcement control over the permit process. If the Ninth Circuit’s ruling is allowed to take effect, officials throughout the State could be required to issue concealed-carry permits to individuals based on nothing more than the applicant’s assertion that they wish to carry a gun for self-defense. In San Diego County, concealed-carry permit applicants have, until now, been required to show “good cause” by demon-strating “a set of circumstances that distinguish the applicant from the mainstream and causes him or her to be placed in harm’s way.” On February 21, 2014 San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore announced he would not seek further re-view of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling.

NEW YORK — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is back on top of the list of the world’s richest people. Forbes magazine announced its ranking of the world’s billionaires Monday.Gates, who led the list for 15 of the past 20 years, won the spot back from Mexican telecom mo-gul Carlos Slim Helu, who had topped the list for the past four years. Gates’ net worth is estimated at $76 billion; Slim Helu follows at $72 billion. Spanish clothing magnate Amancio Ortega, known for the Zara retail chain, maintained his third-ranked spot and came out ahead of famed U.S. inves-tor Warren Buffett, who ranked fourth. Larry Elli-son of Oracle came in fifth.Forbes says a record 1,645 billionaires made the list this year, with an aver-age net worth of $4.7 billion. That’s up from 1,426 billionaires last year with a net worth of $4.2 billion. Total net worth of this year’s list was $6.4 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion last year.The magazine said that 1,080 of the billionaires were self-made, 207 inherited their wealth and 352 inherited a portion but are still growing it.

The largest net worth gainer on the list was Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who more than doubled his fortune to $28.5 billion as the value of his company’s stock soared. He ranks 21st on the list. The social media giant helped bring a few

notable newcomers to the list, including Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sher-yl Sandberg and WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton, who recently sold their business to Facebook for $19 billion. Forbes said 268 billionaires were new to the list, beating out a prior high of 226 new-comers in 2008. And a record number of women made the list this year, with 172 women joining, up 25 percent from last year. Altogether 100 people dropped out of the rankings,

while 16 passed away. The U.S. was the country with the great-est number of billionaires at 492, followed by China with 152 and Russia with 111. Billion-aires from four new countries joined, adding Algeria, Lithuania, Tanzania and Uganda to the geographic mix.

Bill Gates back on top of Forbes’billionaire rankings

It has been more than three months since typhoon Yolanda struck and

caused massive death and destruc-tion in several provinces in Central Visayas, particularly in Leyte and Sa-mar, and the devastation remains very visible in the affected areas. Recovery has been very slow, no thanks to the seeming apathy of the government. Filipinos in the United States have helped tremendously in the relief ef-forts in the first few days of the di-saster. Many, especially the relatives and friends of those directly affected by the super typhoon, want to help more but the undocumented Fili-pinos in the US can only wish they could be with their family in these times of need. These undocumented relatives of the typhoon survivors can help more in the recovery of the affected prov-inces if they could come out of the shadows and work for better pay and with peace of mind, and therefore be able to send more money to their poor families back home in Leyte, Samar and other affected areas. If

they can travel home to the Philip-pines, they can comfort their de-spairing parents, brothers and sisters and offer them hope. A temporary immigration relief would help them help their families recover from the tragedy. There is hope for them with the granting of a Temporary Protected Status to the Philippines by the Department of Homeland Security. TPS authorizes the President of the US to designate the nationals of certain countries to have relief from deportation. The country must have suffered from armed conflict or major calamity. The Philippines qualifies for this relief because of the heavy damage caused by typhoon Yolanda. If granted, TPS would provide undocumented Filipino nationals protection from deportation, au-thorization to work, and eligibility to travel. TPS is an administrative

measure that does not require congres-sional approval. Al-though the authority to grant TPS resides with the Depart-ment of Homeland Security (DHS), it has said that it will not do so without a positive recommen-dation from the De-partment of State.Almost three months since the Philippine govern-ment made a formal request for TPS for the country, the DHS has not made any decision on the

formal request. There have been a few meetings between DHS rep-resentatives and Filipino commu-

nity leaders in Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles where the Filipino representatives empha-sized the need for a TPS. “A denial of TPS would have se-rious repercussions,” Loida Nicolas Lewis, founder of the US Pinoys for Good Governance (USPGG), said during a recent meeting with DHS officials in Washington. The Filipinos met with Homeland Secu-rity Deputy Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, and his legal counsel Rob Silver. During the meeting, Lewis remind-ed the DHS officials that President Obama is slated to visit the Philip-pines in April. “I am sure President Obama would like to see this matter resolved when he visits the Philip-pines,” she said. There should be no debate on the country’s qualification for a TPS. A recent delegation of US congress-men, led by Rep. Ed Royce, saw for themselves the devastation more than three months after the typhoon struck. US Secretary of State also saw it with his own eyes when he visited Tacloban City, the ground zero for the disaster. US Ambassa-dor Philip Goldberg has also seen the destruction. Other international leaders, particularly UN Undersec-retary General Valerie Amos has repeatedly said it would take many more months and close to a billion dollars to complete the recovery of the affected.But with the many worldwide prob-lems that the US has to attend to, not counting the country’s own domestic problems, we cannot expect Presi-dent Obama and Secretary Kerry to (Cont. on page 15)

In a bold and daring

move, Rus-sian President Vladimir Pu-tin asked the Russian Par-liament to au-thorize send-ing troops to Ukraine and P a r l i a m e n t approved it unanimously. Within the hour, Rus-

sian military forces crossed the border into Crimea. Obviously, the Russian forces were ready to roll into Crimea and were just awaiting orders from Putin. The Russian invasion of Crimea is remi-niscent of Germany’s invasion of Czecho-slovakia in 1939 when Adolf Hitler broke the Munich Agreement and sent tanks and troops to Czechoslovakia on March 14, 1939. Within days, the Germans took control of the entire country… without fir-ing a shot. All hell broke loose and World War II began! Budapest Memorandum On February 5, 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton, U.K. Prime Minister John Major, Russian Federation President Bo-ris Yeltsin, and Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma signed the “Budapest Memoran-dum on Security Assurances.” Under the memorandum, Ukraine promised to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and remove all Soviet-era nuclear weapons and send them to disarmament facilities in Russia. Ukraine complied with the terms of the agreement. In return, the U.S., U.K., and Russia promised to protect Ukraine’s borders and respect her sovereignty and territorial in-tegrity as an independent state. They ap-plied the principles of “territorial integrity and nonintervention” in the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, a Cold War-era treaty signed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and 34 other states. The U.S. and U.K. kept their promises. But on March 1, 2014, Russia broke the 20-year-old agree-ment by invading Ukraine. Within days, Russia effectively took control of Crimea. The invasion caught the United States

and Europe by surprise. With 150,000 Russian troops deployed near the border of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government re-acted by saying that Russia’s action was a “declaration of war.” Ukraine immedi-ately placed her military on red alert and mobilized her reserves. But with 70,000 ground troops, Ukraine is no match for Russia. However, an attack on Ukraine could draw the 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into the con-flict… or to be more precise, nuclear war! All it takes is for Putin – just like Hitler in 1939 – to order an attack. The question is: Would Putin risk a con-ventional or nuclear war – Heaven for-bid! -- with the Western powers? And this brings to mind, what kind of a man is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin?

Rise to power Putin’s rise to power was preceded by a 16-year stint as a KGB officer, the notori-ous Soviet-era spy agency. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1991 -- when the Soviet Union was dissolved – and entered politics in his native St. Pe-tersburg. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin’s admin-istration where his meteoric rise to power began. Yeltsin resigned unexpectedly on December 31, 1999 and Putin became Act-ing President. In 2000, he ran for President and was elected. He served as President from 2000 to 2008, Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012, and again as President since 2012 to the present day. Last year, he an-nounced -- rather prematurely -- that he would run for reelection in 2016, seem-ingly a move to preempt any opposition. In 2005, in his annual state of the nation address, Putin said, “The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. And for the Rus-sian people, it became a real drama. Tens of millions of our citizens found themselves outside the Russian Federation.” Putin was alluding to ethnic Russians in Soviet republics that were once part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which ceased to exist in 1991. One of these republics was Ukraine, which arguably has the biggest component of eth-nic Russians outside the present-day Rus-sian Federation. A large number of these ethnic Russians are concentrated in the (Cont. on page 15)

PERRY SCOPEBy

Perry Diaz

A New Cold War

PAGE 4Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014 The San Francisco PostOPINION

The murder of Zam-boanga Judge Rey-

nerio Estacio Sr. of the Zamboanga Regional Trial Court last Friday by two motorcycle-riding men brought to focus once more the culture of impu-nity that has pervaded Philippine society for decades. The ambush also brought to fore the worsening peace and order condition in the country and the

incompetence of the country’s law enforcement agencies. The latest killing came in the wake of a report by the US State Department that extra-judicial killings remained a concern in 2013 and a report by the International News Safety Institute (INSI) that ranked the Philippines second only to war-torn Syria as the “World’s Most Dangerous Country for Journalists.” So far, 27 journalists have been killed since 2010 when Aquino assumed power, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. While the media killings have sent shivers to crusading journalists all over the country, these crusaders have long accepted the fact that their noble profession comes with such risks. Hun-dreds of journalists have either been killed, maimed, or simply disappeared in the Philip-pines for years, but the deaths, the tortures, the imprisonment, and the disappearance of these journalists have not stopped other media men to

carry on the crusade to fight corruption, crimes, and other evils of our society. The criminal lords and corrupt politicians have grown even bolder. They have not only gone out to kill the me-dia men who expose crimes and corruption, they are now going after the adjudicators of their crimes, the judges. And they kill lawyers and judges in broad daylight, usu-ally near or in their homes, sometimes in front of their family, as in the case of Judge Estacio, who was shot seven times while revving his car in front of his house. His wife, who was with him, survived the attack. IBP president Roan Libarios said that in the last 10 years, at least 200 lawyers and judges have been shot in cold blood. He said most of these murders remain un-solved, with police authorities using the perennial line “lack of evidence and witnesses” to justify their failure, thereby generating a feeling of helpless-ness among the general public. The murders have exposed the criminals’ lack of respect and fear of the country’s law enforc-ers. These criminals are not even considering laying low despite the high-profile coverage of the assassinations, and the people’s angry reac-tion. They don’t seem to fear a police crack-down, or are they so confident that the police won’t go after them for reasons known only to them and their police collaborators? The government cannot allow the perpetra-tors of these dastardly crimes to continually get away with their treacherous acts. For one, the government’s failure to solve the murders would send the wrong signal to other crime lords and corrupt politicians that they can get away with murdering people in the same way that they have gotten away with illegal gam-bling, kidnappings, robberies, drug dealing, smuggling, bribery and many other crimes for years. How can a country combat crime and corrup-tion when the government cannot even protect the people who expose and prosecute these cor-rupt officials and criminals? How can police not find the killers and masterminds when the assassinations were executed in broad daylight and in very public places? How can they not pinpoint the masterminds when the motives can easily be established by looking into the recent writings or broadcasts of the slain journalists, and the high-profile cases handled by the murdered judges? The slain media men and judges had one thing in common -- they were at the time of their murders, exposing corruption by local officials, and/or their collusion with criminal syndicates, or in the case of the lawyers and judges, were handling serious criminal cases. By murdering the media men and the judges, the criminals are obviously sending warnings to other journalists and judges to keep off their activities. If President Aquino is really serious about curbing crime and corruption, he should place all nec-essary manpower and resources to arrest and put to jail, and immediately to the gas chambers, the perpetrators of these crimes. The government itself must instill fear on the criminals, in the same manner that the murderers are instilling fear on journalists and judges. ([email protected])

Will the killings ever stop?

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Community effort needed for TPSBy Atty. Crispin Lozano

PAGE 5Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014The San Francisco Post WORLD BRIEF

World scrambles as Russia tightens grip on CrimeaKIEV, Ukraine — Warning that it was “on the brink of disaster,” Ukraine put its military on high alert Sunday and appealed for international help to avoid what it feared was the possibility of a wider invasion by Russia. Outrage over Russia’s military moves mounted in world capitals, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling on President Vladimir Putin to pull back from “an incred-ible act of aggression.” A day after Russia captured the Crimean Peninsula with-out firing a shot, fears grew in the Ukrainian capital and be-yond that Russia might seek to expand its control by seizing other parts of eastern Ukraine. Senior Obama administration officials said the U.S. now believes that Russia has complete operational control of Crimea, a pro-Russian area of the country, and has more than 6,000 troops in the re-gion. Faced with the Russian threat, Ukraine’s new gov-ernment moved to consolidate its authority, naming new regional governors in the pro-Russia east, enlisting the support of the country’s wealthy businessmen and dismissing the head of the country’s navy after he declared allegiance to the pro-Russian government in Crimea. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said there was no reason for Russia to invade Ukraine and warned that “we are on the brink of disaster.” “We believe that our Western partners and the entire global community will support the territo-rial integrity and unity of Ukraine,” he said Sun-day in Kiev.World leaders rushed to try to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis. NATO held an emergency meeting in Brussels, Britain’s foreign minister flew to Kiev to support its new government and Kerry was to travel to Ukraine on Tuesday. The U.S., France and Britain debated the possibility of boycot-ting the next Group of Eight economic summit, to be held in June in Sochi,

the host of Russia’s successful Winter Olympics. In Kiev, Moscow and other cities, thou-sands of protesters took to the streets to either decry the Russian occupation or celebrate Crimea’s return to its former ruler. “Support us, America!” a group of pro-

testers chanted outside the U.S. Embassy in Kiev. One young girl held up a placard reading: “No Russian aggression!” “Russia! Russia!” the crowd chanted in Moscow. Kerry, interviewed on U.S. television news shows, talked about boycotting the G-8 summit, as well as possible visa bans, asset freezes and trade and invest-ment penalties against Russia. All the foreign ministers he talked to were pre-pared “to go to the hilt” to isolate Russia, Kerry said. President Barack Obama also spoke Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Polish President Broni-slaw Komorowski. NATO issued a statement saying it “condemns Russia’s military escalation in Crimea” and demanding that Russia respect its obligations under the U.N.

charter. Ukraine is not a NATO member, meaning the U.S. and Europe are not obligated to come to its defense, but the country has taken part in some alliance exercises. “We are on a very dangerous track,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. But “it is still possible to

turn around. A new division of Europe can still be prevented.” So far, however, Ukraine’s new government and the West have been powerless to counter Russia’s tactics. Armed men in uniforms without insig-nia have moved freely about Crimea for days, occupying airports, smashing equipment at an air base and besieging a Ukrainian infantry base.

Putin has defied calls from the West to pull back his troops, insisting that Russia has a right to protect its interests and those of Russian-speakers in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine. His confidence is matched by the knowledge that Ukraine’s 46 million people have divided loyalties. While much of western Ukraine wants closer ties with the 28-nation European Union, its eastern and southern re-gions like Crimea look to Russia for support. Russia has long wanted to reclaim the lush

Crimean Peninsula, part of its territory until 1954. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet pays Ukraine mil-lions annually to be stationed at the Crimean port of Sevastopol and nearly 60 percent of Crimea’s residents identify themselves as Russian.During a phone conversation Sunday with Merkel, Putin “directed her attention to the unrelenting threat of violence from ul-tranationalist forces (in Ukraine) that endangered the life and legal in-terests of R u s s i a n citizens,” according to a Krem-lin state-ment.

Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea reject Russian demands of allegiance

BAKHCHISARAY, Ukraine — The Russian soldiers outside an army base in this Crimean city had demands Monday for the Ukrainian soldiers inside: Pledge allegiance to the Rus-sian military or put their weap-ons in storage, abandon their post and go home.The Ukrainians refused. “They must know that should they attempt to storm the base, we will fight back until the last drop of our blood,” Col. Sergei Stashenko, the site’s Ukrainian commander, told The Times. “Whatever they are up to, we will not allow them to get hold of our weapons.” Outside the base, armed Rus-sian soldiers strolled around on a sunny afternoon, petting stray dogs and joking with a couple of young women in a nearby park. Over the barbed wire, armed Ukrainian soldiers watched their movements through binoculars. Of the Russian demands, Stashenko was adamant: “This is absurd and to-tally unacceptable to us. We remain committed to the oath we took be-fore our country and the Ukrainian people.” Throughout Ukraine’s Crimea re-gion Monday, Russia ratcheted up

its pressure on Ukrainian forces, de-manding their virtual surrender, even as Moscow continued to defy inter-national demands that it withdraw its troops. A Ukrainian coastal defense unit in the town of Perevalnaya, un-der siege by Russian forces for three days, faced demands that it give up its weapons. Russian naval forces, which have long leased a base in Crimea, block-aded two Ukrainian navy vessels in the port of Sevastopol and issued what was becoming a familiar demand to the sailors: Surren-der and swear allegiance. The Interfax news agency in Mos-cow denied that the ultimatum had come from the Kremlin. Russian troops also seized control of the commercial port of Kerch, on the far east-ern point of the diamond-shaped peninsula, and shored up patrols of military installations throughout the region. Moscow has defended the choke-hold its forces have put on the re-gion — which so far has not led to a shooting war — as necessary to pro-tect Russian citizens and military in-stallations in Crimea after the ouster late last month of Ukraine’s pro-Rus-sia president. But the intervention has spurred outrage in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and throughout the in-ternational community.

Invasion of Ukraine isn’t Putin’s only optionMOSCOW — President Vladimir Pu-tin knows there is little the West can do to get him to reverse his mobilization in Crimea, or to stop him from send-ing additional troops into other parts of Ukraine. But trade sanctions against Russia could be painful, and there are ways for him to get what he wants — keeping Ukraine from slipping out of his grasp — without ratcheting up the mili-tary pressure. The plan Russia pushed Monday calls on Ukrainian politicians to return to their earlier agreement to form a govern-ment of national unity. Importantly, the presidential election under that scenario would be held in December and not in May, as the government formed by vic-

torious protesters has planned. This would buy the Kremlin time. In the coming months the Ukrainian econ-omy could go into free fall, with the West helpless to stop it. There would be new pressure within Ukraine to turn to Russia. A similar thing happened when Ukrainians grew weary of the pro-West-ern leaders swept into power by the 2004 Orange Revolution. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Ukraine to return to a Feb. 21 agreement between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanu-kovych and his opponents just be-fore Yanukovych fled to Russia and his opponents named a new govern-ment. Ironically, that agreement re-

ceived the blessings of the West, but not Russia, at the time. Lavrov said representatives of Russia-friendly Ukrainian regions should be brought into the new government. “Instead of a promised national uni-ty government, a ‘government of the victors’ has been created,” he said at U.N. meetings in Geneva. This has been the position of the Kremlin all along, but now it is ne-gotiating from a position of strength. Russia has taken control of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based. Russian troops controlled all Ukrai-nian border posts and all military bases on Monday.

27 killed, 162 injured in Chinaknife attack

BEIJING -- A group of knife-wielding men attacked a train station in southwestern China on Saturday, leaving dozens dead and another hundred injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said, making it one of the deadliest attacks in China in recent years. Xinhua reported that at least 27 peo-ple were killed and 162 were injured. State television said on its official microblog that the incident had been deemed a “violent terror attack”. Xinhua, citing one of its reporters on the scene, said that several suspects had been detained. Kunming resident Yang Haifei told Xinhua that he was buying a ticket when he saw a group

of people mostly wearing black rush into the station and start attacking by-standers. There was no immediate word on who was responsible. State television’s microblog said domestic security chief Meng Jianzhu was on his way to the scene. The attack comes at a particu-larly sensitive time as China gears up for the annual meet-ing of parliament, which opens in Beijing on Wednesday and is normally accompanied by a tightening of security across the country.

TAX CORNER

The Health Insurance Mar-ketplace - Learn about Your Health Insurance Coverage Options If you don’t have cover-age or if you have it but want to find out about other options; help is available at the Health Insurance Marketplace. While no one is required to use the Marketplace, if you need insurance, it may be right for you. The Marketplace is where you can find health insurance coverage options that fit your budget and meet your needs. The Department of Health

and Human Services ad-ministers the requirements for the Marketplace and the health plans they offer. An open enrollment period to get coverage for 2014 through the Marketplace began on October 1, 2013 and runs through March 31, 2014. The start of your cov-erage depends upon when you enroll. When you visit the Mar-ketplace, you can fill out one Marketplace applica-tion to learn if you can get lower costs based on your income, compare your cov-erage options side-by-side, and if you choose, you can enroll in health insurance coverage. If you purchase cover-age through the Market-place, you may be eligible for the premium tax credit. This refundable tax credit helps people with moder-ate incomes afford health

insurance coverage they purchase through the Mar-ketplace. If you are eligible for the credit, you can choose to “get it now” by having some or all of the credit paid in advance. These payments go directly to your insurance company to lower what you pay out-of-pocket for your monthly premiums during 2014. Or you “get it later” by waiting to get the credit when you file your 2014 tax return in 2015. This article was provided by the IRS to help consum-ers on making tax prepara-tion choices. Al Maglan is a CPA li-censed in California and Nevada. You can contact him @ 510 432 7438. You may e-mail tax questions at [email protected] or [email protected].

Affordable Care Act – Individuals

by: Alvin C. Maglan, CPA

A woman passes by unidentified gunmen, as they guard Ukraine’s infantry base in Privolnoye, Ukraine, Sunday, March 2, 2014. Hundreds of unidentified gunmen arrived outside Ukraine’s infantry base in Privolnoye in its Crimea region.

ZAMBOANGA CITY – This city continues to suffer from six to nine hours of daily brownouts as a result of the massive power failure that struck Mindanao last Feb. 27. At 3:53 a.m. that day, the entire island was blanketed in darkness for still unclear reason.The business community in this city is now losing millions of pesos in sales and income due to the daily brownouts imposed since last Thurs-day by the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco).Residents have been asking Zam-celco management why the city is still suffering from long rotational

and daily brownouts considering that the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported last Feb. 28 that the Mindanao grid had already been fully re-energized as of 12:18 p.m. on Feb. 27.In a statement sent to the Manila Bulletin last Saturday, the Depart-ment of Energy (DOE) said they were closely monitoring the power situation in Mindanao, adding that an investigation on the root cause of the system-wide shutdown was underway.The NGCP reported that the Min-danao system demand stood at 785 MW while the supply was at 853 MW, thus having a 93-MW reserve,

at around 3:52 a.m. on Feb. 27 when all the lights went out.Residents in this city, however, claimed that Mindanao is suffering from low power generation, hence electric cooperatives are now receiv-ing reduced power allocations.The DOE said initial reports indicat-ed that a tripping of the power lines occurred, emanating from the break-er of a switchyard in a power plant.The DOE and National Transmis-sion Corporation (TransCo) are still gathering information to validate the reports from the National Power Corporation (NPC), the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and NGCP, the DOE statement said.

The San Francisco PostPAGE 6Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014

MANILA -- The Independent Mi-nority Bloc on Monday questioned the government’s sparing of two more pork scammers whose modus operandi was similar to alleged pork bar-rel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles even as Malacañang vowed to expedite the probe on the scam before the end of President Benigno Aquino III’s term. Abakada Rep. Jona-than dela Cruz, a member of the IMB, said Napoles also had dealings with the two “scammers” but they allegedly dealt with administration allies and pock-eted as much as P30 billion. Dela Cruz identified the alleged scammers as Godofredo Roque and Rose Lao who also allegedly used bogus NGOs in dealing with

the administration lawmakers that benefited from multimillion kick-backs. Dela Cruz said the Palace, Com-

mission on Audit, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and the Department of Justice were being selective” in filing cases against opposition law-makers. Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin, the leader of the bloc, agreed with Dela

Cruz’s sentiments. “We have no problem (with the probe). In fact, we are all for the in-vestigations, for the prosecution of those who are allegedly guilty. But it should be done across the board and there should be no selective prosecution. The government should be color blind on this. It’s quite obvi-ous that if kaalyado ka e di parang exempted kayo. Pero kung medyo kontra ka o critic ka, sangkot ka,” said Martin, also the president of the opposition Lakas-CMD. Dela Cruz said the COA’s special report on the Priority Development Assistance Fund in 2007-2009 was “conflicting” with the report done by resident auditors. The disparity, according to Dela Cruz, can be seen in the figures, the amounts released, the number of NGOs as recipients, and the recipi-ents themselves, among others. Asked what exactly Roque and Lao do in public works projects, Dela Cruz said, “Ask Iloilo City Rep. Niel Tupas because he was named in that particular report.”

‘Selective prosecution’ in pork scam hit

HOMELAND

Aquino abolishes 6 GOCCs MANILA — President Aquino has abolished six gov-ernment-owned and controlled corporations and has approved the abolition of more as part of an ongoing crackdown on “non-performing” or “unnecessary” firms operating under the bu-reaucracy.The Governance Commission of GOCCs (GCG) said on Monday it has been “actively” monitoring 116 such corporations, with the aim “to reduce [the number] to less than 100 by the end of 2014 through abolition, privatization or merger.”“The streamlining of non-performing and/or unnecessary GOCCs is a key objective in GCG’s strategic roadmap to improving ef-ficiency and transforming the GOCC Sector into a significant tool for economic growth and development,” it said in a statement.“Affected employees are given separation pay amount-ing to around one month’s salary for every year of ser-vice, unless an administrative or criminal case is failed against them.”The President has given the go-signal to abol-ish six GOCCs, namely: the Southern Phil-ippines Development Authority (SPDA), Philippine Fruits and Vegetables Corporation (PFVC), San Carlos Fruits Corporation (SCFC), Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corporation (PADCC), Bataan Technology Park, Inc. (BTPI), and the PNOC Shipping and Transport Corporation (PNOC-STC).Cagayan De Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez earli-er filed a bill seeking to dissolve 19 state com-panies, including two that allegedly figured in the P10-billion pork barrel scam—the ZNAC Rubber Estate Corp. (ZREC) and the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor).Last year, the President approved the termina-tion of ZREC and Nabcor, including the Hu-man Settlements Dev’t. Corp. (HSDC), Phil-ippine Forest Corp. (PFC), and the Cottage Industry Technology Center (CITC).Of those included in the Rodriguez list, eight more had been recommended for abolition, according to the GCG.These are the Marawi Resort Hotel Inc. (MRHI), Philippine Aerospace Dev’t Corp.

(PADC), NDC-Philippine Infrastructure Cor-poration, Batangas Land Co., Kamayan Re-alty Corp., GY Real Estate, Inc., Pinagkaisa Realty Corp., and the Technology Resources Center (TRC).TRC chief Dennis Cunanan earlier applied to become state witness, alleging that at least P600 million worth of pork barrel had been channeled through the agency while he was serving as its deputy head.The GCG said it had also recommended for “abolition/privatization” the Alabang Sto. To-mas Development, Inc. (ASDI), Tierra Factors Corp. (TFC), Traffic Control Products Corp. (TCPC), DISC Contractors, and the CDCP Farms Corporation.The GCG said six more companies listed in the Rodriguez bill were part of the commis-sion’s “regular sector-wide evaluation of GOCCs based on financial viability and rele-vance to current national development plans.”These are the Banaue Hotel and Youth Hos-tel, BCDA Management and Holdings, Inc., Masaganang Sakahan, Inc., Northern Foods Corp., Tourism Promotions Board [referred to as Philippine Convention and Visitors Corp.], and Trade and Investment Development Corp. [now PhilEXIM].Also under evaluation is the National Livelihood Dev’t Corp. (NLDC), which was also allegedly listed as an implementing agency for bogus non-government organizations put up by Janet Lim Napoles.Fourteen of the state companies had been “actually dissolved-by-expiration-of-corporate-term, rendered non-operational, or liquidated under the direction” of the GCG.These were the Manila Gas Corp. (MGC), PNOC Malampaya Corp. (PNOC-MC), Aviation Services and Training Institute (ASTI), Calauag Quezon Prov-ince Integrated Coconut Processing Plant (CQPICPP), Clark Polytechnic Dev’t Corp. (CPDF), First Centen-nial Clark Corporation (FCCC), GSIS Properties, Inc., LBP Financial Services SpA, LBP Remittance Com-pany, LBP Singapore Representative Office, Paskuhan Dev’t., Inc., Phil. Centennial Expo ’98 Corp., Philpost Leasing and Financing Corp. (PLFC), and the Metro Transit, Inc. (MTI).

Recto says Vilma has no plans to run in 2016 polls

MANILA -- Batangas Gov-ernor Vilma Santos is not eyeing to run for a higher post in 2016, her husband, Senator Ralph Recto dis-closed Mon-day. The adminis-tration senator said that the reports saying that Vice Presi-dent Jejomar Binay-Santos tandem can be seen in the 2016 elections are just rumors.“Walang plano si Vilma na tumakbo sa 2016 na alam ko [Vilma does not have any plans to run for 2016, that’s what I know],” Recto told re-porters after the Senate

committee on science and technology’s hearing on measures repealing the Cy-bercrime law.

Reports said Binay, who decided to leave Partido Demokratiko ng Pilipinas (PDP)-Laban and form a

new political party is woo-ing Santos to be his run-ningmate. Recto said Binay and

his wife never talked about politics, ex-plaining that when the Vice President visited Batangas, they only talked about housing concerns of the people of Batangas. He said the 60-year old Star for all Sea-sons, who is on her third and last term as the governor of the province of Batangas, will likely retire from politics and concen-trate on making mov-ies. When asked about his electoral plan, Recto

said he will likely run for re-election in 2016.

2 Coast Guard ships ready to guard Panatag Shoal

MANILA — Not a single Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel has been deployed to Panatag Shoal (Scarbor-ough Shoal) since PCG ships and their Chinese counterparts faced off in the West Philippine Sea rock for-mation for two weeks in mid-2012. But Commander Armand Balilo, PCG spokesperson and chief of the public affairs office, told the Philip-pine Daily Inquirer on Monday, that at least two Coast Guard ships—the search-and-rescue vessel BRP Cor-regidor (001) and the buoy tender BRP San Juan (AE-391)—were “on standby” at the PCG headquarters in Port Area, Manila and could be sent to the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) rock formation “if or-dered by the higher-ups.” Balilo was referring to “Malaca-ñang through the DOTC,” not the Western Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, tasked by the government to oversee security in the West Philippine Sea. The 540-ton Corregidor is 56 me-ters long, has a cruising speed of 26 knots and a range of more than 1,000

nautical miles. Built by the Australian shipbuild-ing firm Tenix, the multi-role vessel was commissioned by the PCG in June 2002. In November, it was one of several PCG vessels that ferried relief goods to Eastern Visayas provinces rav-aged by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan). The 730-ton San Juan, nearly 57 meters long, was built by Niigata Engineering, a Japanese shipbuild-ing company. It runs at a slow 12 knots but has a cruising range of over 2,000 nautical miles. The ship was commissioned in February 1998 by the agency. Balilo said “any ship deployment to Panatag Shoal would be done in a less provocative manner.” Like AFP top officials, Balilo said they woud not want any confronta-tion with the Chinese Coast Guard.He noted that as a matter of policy, the government would like to re-solve the dispute over Panatag, which Manila also calls Bajo de Ma-sinloc, through peaceful means and

through international arbitration. Balilo did not comment on reports that China’s Coast Guard fired wa-ter cannons at Filipino fishermen on Jan. 27 to drive them away from the shoal, a rich fishing ground off Zam-bales province. A senior military official in charge of monitoring disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea said the Chinese vessels used water cannons only to scare the Filipino fishermen off the shoal, adding that the fish-ermen were not actually hit by the spray. The incident appeared to be an isolated one, and no other acts of intimidation have been reported by Filipino fishermen, according to the official, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak to the media. In mid-2012, Manila broke the standoff with Beijing by calling back its vessels from Panatag Shoal, which is within the Philippines’ ex-clusive economic zone, as a storm approached.

The House Independent Minority Bloc, led by Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (center), Buhay Rep. Joselito Atienza (left), and Abakada Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz, de-plored the selective distribution of aid to disaster victims and the biased prosecution of parties involved in the pork barrel scam at a news briefing on Monday

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Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos

Zambo still in darkness

Benhur Luy drops Baligod as counselMANILA -- Pork barrel scam whistle-blower Benhur Luy on Tuesday dropped Levito Baligod as his lawyer for the pork barrel scam case. Earlier, Baligod allegedly had a conflict with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima over the acceptance of new witnesses in the case. De Lima assailed Baligod for bringing two new witnesses to the Office of the Om-budsman without informing her. However, in a one-page letter, Luy denied that the rift between De Lima and Baligod was the reason why he decided to drop the latter as his counsel. Luy said he decided to sever his ties with Baligod due to the latter’s lack of time for him because of his numerous advocacies which he did not specify. “It has been a rough and rugged words for us, and for all you have done, I am eternal-ly thankful. However, I have noticed that you were very busy with your other advo-cacies that is why I have decided to pur-sue this journey even without you guiding

me. It will not be easy though but this will mutually benefit us in the end,” read Luy’s letter, which he signed before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Monday. “I would like to thank you for your time in protecting my rights and representing me in my legal battles. My family and I wish you all the best in your life especially in pursuing your advocacies. With deep grati-tude for our friendship, I formally release you from any obligation and/or contract to litigate on my behalf and to represent me as legal counsel effective 03 March 2014,” he added. Sought for her comment, Justice Secre-tary Leila de Lima said she respected the decision of Luy. “We have to respect Benhur Luy’s deci-sion, prerogative yan ng kliyente to change his lawyer [it’s the client’s prerogative to change his lawyer]. Maski si Atty. Bal-igod alam nya yan at nirerespito nya yan [Even Baligod knows and respects that],” de Lima said in a press briefing.

PAGE 7Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014The San Francisco Post

If you were petitioned by your spouse and you received a decision from USCIS stating

a finding of marriage fraud you should immedi-ately consult an experienced immigration attor-ney. The Immigration and Nationality Act Sec. 204 (c) prohibits the approval of a subsequent petition if the alien committed marriage fraud in a prior petition. It also prohibits the approval of the first petition if the Attorney General de-termined that the marriage is a sham. The finding of marriage fraud usually hap-pen during the adjustment of status interview mostly in marriage cases. If there are incon-sistencies in the responses of the petitioner and beneficiary to the questions raised by the US-CIS officer, it will likely trigger a conclusion of marriage fraud. If you received a decision stating your marriage is primarily for the pur-pose of obtaining immigration benefit, then, your case is likely a marriage fraud case. The result of this decision is that even if your suc-ceeding petition is not marriage case such as employment based or petition by your son or daughter, or parent, the petition will not be ap-proved. There are limited remedies available but you have to act immediately as soon as you received this kind of decision. One exception to this rule is that if the alien has already obtained an immigrant visa or al-ready adjusted status before he or she is sent to removal proceedings. The prior finding of mar-riage fraud can be waived and the original en-try or adjustment of status as an immigrant can be made valid once the waiver is granted. But if you have not yet received a visa or adjusted your status, then, you have a big problem.

Question: I was charged with fraudulent mar-riage when I applied for an immigrant visa

at the U.S. Embassy in Manila as spouse of a U.S. citizen. I was denied a visa at that time. My spouse divorced me afterwards. Later on my mother petitioned me as single daughter to a lawful permanent resident. When the prior-ity becomes current I applied for immigrant visa and I was approved. When I was apply-ing for naturalization, the USCIS found out the marriage fraud in my record. I was denied my naturalization application and they sent me to removal proceedings. What is my relief from removal?

Answer: You are inadmissible as a Lawful Permanent Resident at the time you ob-

tained your immigrant visa based on the peti-tion of your mother because of the marriage fraud you initially committed. The good news is that you can request for a waiver of the fraud or misrepresentation you have committed. The

requirements for this waiver are:1. Must be the spouse, par-ent, son or daughter of a U. S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.2. Was in possession of an immigrant visa or equivalent document and was otherwise admis-sible to the U.S. at the time of such admission except for the grounds of inadmissibility which was the result of his or her fraud or misrepre-sentation. You may qualify for a waiver because you are the daughter of a U.S. citizen. At the time of your admission to the U. S. you are in posses-sion of an immigrant visa and you are other-wise admissible except for your prior fraud or misrepresentation. The Immigration Judge has the discretion to grant a waiver in this situation. The Judge will weigh the positive factors about your case and compare them with the negative factors.

SUCCESS STORIES

1. On November 21, 2013, we received an ap-proval from USCIS for adjustment of status un-der SAME SEX MARRIAGE.2. On November 14, 2013, we received an ap-proval of adjustment of status from Immigra-tion Judge for a client who was originally de-nied adjustment by USCIS.3. On November 4, 2013, we received an ap-proval of waiver of misrepresentation from the Immigration Judge for a client who entered the U.S. as single but actually married.4. On October 24, 2013, we received an ap-proval by an Immigration Judge on the review of I-751 Application to Remove Condition on Residence that was previously denied by US-CIS.5. On October 2, 2013, we received an approval of adjustment of status based on SAME SEX MARRIAGE.6. On August 14, 2013, we received a grant of waiver of misrepresentation from the Los An-geles Immigration Court for an alien who en-tered the U.S. as single but actually married.7. On July 11, 2013, we received an approval from the Immigration Court for a waiver of misrepresentation for a green card holder who entered the U.S. as single but actually mar-ried at the time of entry. The grant of waiver stopped his removal and allows him to apply for naturalization.8. On June 3, 2013, we received an approval from USCIS of a petition that continued despite the death of the petitioner under Public law 111-83.

9. On May 8, 2013, we received an approval of adjustment of status for a client who has a problem

with entry document but has Sec. 245(i) eligi-bility.10. On January 25, 2013, we received an ap-proval from the Immigration Court for an ad-justment of status for an alien who originally entered as a Philippine Government Official under A2 visa.11. On November 30, 2012, we received an approval from Immigration Court of waiver for use of d i f f e r e n t name upon entry to the U.S. and ad-justment of status.12. On October 25, 2012, we received an approval of green card from the Im-m i g r a t i o n Court based on Cancel-lation of Re-moval of a client under the Violence a g a i n s t Women Act. She origi-nally en-tered under a Fiancée visa but the marriage did not worked and she end-ed up filing a self peti-tion.

C r i s p i n C a d a y Lozano is an active member of the State Bar of California, the Ameri-can Im-migration L a w y e r s

Association and the National Association of Consumers Bankruptcy Attorneys. He specializes in immigration law and bank-ruptcy law. He earned his Juris Doctor at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, California. He is also a Certified Public Accountant, a Real Estate Broker and a Bachelor of Business Admin-istration Cum Laude graduate. He has of-fices in San Francisco, Hayward, San Jose, and Cerritos, California. You can contact him at 1-877-456-9266. Email questions to [email protected]/. Visit our web-site at www.crispinlozanolaw.com.

Did you receive a USCIS decision of marriage fraud?By Atty. Crispin C. Lozano

IMMIGRATION

PAGE 8Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014 The San Francisco Post

FilAm Robert Lopez wins Best Original Song

HOLLYWOOD – He’s done it! Filipino-American Robert “Bobby” Lopez, along with his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez, has won the Academy Awards for Best Origi-nal Song for “Let It Go,” from Disney’s Frozen. “Happy Oscars to you, let’s do Frozen 2!” said the couple in their acceptance speech, where they also thanked the Frozen cast and crew, their parents, and their daugh-ters. “Thank you Academy and to our fellow nominees, you are all rockstars, literally,” the couple said. This win is special for the married couple, especially as this marks his inclusion into the exclusive EGOT circle – a select group of people who have won an Emmy, Gram-my, Oscar, and Tony. Robert first won a Tony for Avenue Q in 2004 and The Book of Mormon in 2011, for which he also snagged a Grammy. He got two Daytime Emmy Awards for Won-der Pets in 2008 and 2010, and now he has his Oscar for Best Original Song.Filipino pride Lopez paid tribute to his ancestral home-land during a backstage press conference after the win. “Filipino pride. I’m so excited. I’m just

sending love to the Philippines,” said Lo-pez. “I know they’ve had a tough year and I just send out my feelings to them,” he said, referring to the devastating Typhoon Hai-yan (Yolanda) which battered the country last November, leaving thousands dead. Lopez and his wife revealed they are plan-ning a benefit concert for the Philippines on March 12 in New York. Meanwhile, Anderson-Lopez presented her husband with a home-made necklace to commemorate his EGOT status. “The girls and I made something for you, Bobby. Just in case this moment happened. We made it last week,” she said, hanging it around his neck.“It’s made of pasta.” Lopez meanwhile paid tribute to the input of his wife on his phenomenally successful career. “(She) has been in the background of all of my work – for every single show that she’s not received credit for, she’s been whispering in my ear the whole time,” he said. “So, I’m glad that she is finally getting credit for being the amazing artist that I’ve always known that she is.”

PAGE 9Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014

The San Francisco Post

HEALTHPAGE 10Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014 The San Francisco Post

Cinnamon may help ease common cause of infertilityCinnamon has long been used to add flavor to sweet and savory foods. Now, preliminary re-search suggests the spice may also help jump-start irregular menstrual cycles in women affected by a common infer-tility disorder. A small study by research-ers from Columbia Univer-sity Medical Center in New York City found that women with polycystic ovary syn-drome who took inexpensive daily cinnamon supplements experienced nearly twice the menstrual cycles over a six-month period as women with the syndrome given an inactive placebo. Two of the women in the treated group reported spontaneous preg-nancies during the trial. “There is a lot of interest in homeopathic or natural rem-edies for this condition,” said study author Dr. Daniel Kort, a postdoctoral fellow in reproduc-tive endocrinology at the medical center. “This may be something we can do using a totally natural substance that can help a large group of patients.”

The study was scheduled for presentation Wednesday at a meeting of the International Federation of Fertility Societies and American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Boston.

An estimated 5 percent to 10 percent of women of childbearing age have polycystic ovary syn-drome, with up to 5 million Americans affected. Polycystic ovary syndrome, which involves many of the body’s systems, is thought to be caused by insensitivity to the hormone insulin.

Typical symptoms include menstrual irreg-ularity, infertility, acne, excess hair growth on the face or body, and thinning scalp hair. Treatment for polycystic ovary syn-

drome currently includes weight loss, ovulation-inducing drugs such as clo-miphene (brand name Clomid) and diabetes medications such as metfor-min, said Dr. Avner Hershlag, chief of the Center for Human Reproduction at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. Kort said that it’s not yet clear exactly why cinnamon may work to regulate menstrual cycles in those with polycys-tic ovary syndrome, but it may improve the body’s ability to process glucoseand insulin. Prior research among diabetic patients suggested the spice can reduce in-sulin resistance. Of the 16 patients who completed Kort’s trial, 11 were given daily 1,500-milligram cinnamon supplements and five were giv-

en placebo pills. Diet and activity levels were monitored, and patients completed monthly menstrual calendars. After six months, women receiving cinnamon had significant improvement in menstrual cycle regularity, having an average of nearly four

menstrual periods over that time compared to an average of 2.2 periods among the placebo group. Two women reported spontaneous pregnancies after three months of cin-namon treatment, meaning they became pregnant without additional help. Polycystic ovary syndrome “is one of the most common causes why women don’t have regular menstrual cycles,” Kort said. “But the clinical consequences later in life are truly great -- from an increased risk of diabetes and glucose intolerance to endo-metrial cancer. Many women can go their whole lives without regular menstrual cy-cles, and it doesn’t necessarily bother them until they want to have children.” The 1,500-milligram cinnamon dose was cho-sen for this trial because it was between the 1,000 to 2,000 mg daily that seemed to have metabolic effects on diabetic patients in earlier research, Kort said. But all doses in that range are cheaply obtained, costing pennies per cap-sule. “Compared to most medical therapies these days, the cost is very small,” he said.Although the study suggests a link between cin-namon and improvement of polycystic ovary syndrome, it doesn’t establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

Ha v e y o u

s e e n the lat-est from F o r b e s M a g a -z i n e ? F o r b e s is a US publica-tion pub-l i s h e d bi-week-ly that

features finance, investments and the rich and the famous. Recently, the magazine came out with the list of richest individuals in the world. So amusing is to see some of our phi-lanthropist and self made taipans make it to the powerful list. Henry Sy, the brains behind the SM supermalls is on top of the Philip-pines’ richest but placed 97th over-all in the list. His net worth is at $11.4 billion. He is fol-lowed by El Capitan Lucio Tan (227th world-wide) who owns Asia Brewery and Fortune Tobacco at $6.1 billion. Third in the list is An-drew Tan ( 319th worldwide) of Megaworld Properties at $4.7 billion. They are followed by Enrique Razon, Jr (#354) at $4.2B, John Gokongwei (#388) at $3.9B, David Consunji (#483) at $3.3B, George Ty (#764) at $2.3B, Tony Tan Caktiong (#1046) at $1.7B so on and so forth. What is funny about all of this listings? None of them landed in the top five of individual tax payers. Only Lucio Tan and Andrew Tan made it to the top ten. Lucio at 6th paid P5.822B while Andrew at 8th paid

P5.082B. Amazing! …..POLITICAL COMBINATION. Jojo Binay / Vilma Santos tandem. How about Mar Roxas / Kris Aquino combo. Bongbong Marcos / Bong Revilla duo. Alan Cayetano / Antonio Trillanes match. Waiting in the wings are the names of Jinggoy Estrada, Loren Legarda (again?) and an assortment of wannabes. What is glaring in the list is that all of them are a rehash of the old. As they say, it is the same dog with a different collar. Amazing! …..POLITICS STILL. While we are still at it, po-litical parties are now positioning themselves at the forefront of the news. Lakas CMD’s Representative Martin Romualdez keeps on floating the name of Senator Bong Revilla as a Presidential wannabe. He even compared Bong to Erap Estrada who placed 2nd in the Presidential race and won Mayor even after he was convicted and eventually pardoned of plunder. Meantime, Senator Jinggoy is offer-ing the Presidency of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino to VP Jojo Binay who recently bolted from PDP-Laban informing them of his in-tention to put up his own political party. The Nacionalista party of of Manny Villar is still reluctant for a Bongbong Marcos run imply-ing that they have a good relationship with PNoy’s Liberay party. It is a good 2 years so we expect a lot of things to happen still. Re-member now dear friends, in Philippine poli-tics there is no permanent enemies, no perma-nent allies but always a permanent interests. I mean self interest. Amazing! …..BINAY. Navotas Representative and United

Nationalist Alliance or UNA Secretary Gen-eral have announced that Vice President Jojo Binay is bent on forming his own political party and looking to launch on June 12, the 116th anniversary of Philippine Indepen-dence. According to him, the paperwork is now In process and the draft of its by-laws is already in the works. Joining in the list of those bolting out of PDP-Laban is the Vice Presidents children Senator Nancy, Repre-sentative Abigail and Makati Mayor Junjun Binay. Expected to join too are Sarangani Representative Manny Pacquiao and Cebu Representative Gwen Garcia. ….. SHORTS. Congratulations to our Filipino American songwriter Robert Lopez for win-ning in the recent Oscars for best song for the animated movie “Frozen” together with his wife. The award made Lopez the young-est member of EGOT or Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony grandslam awardee. These are Hollywood’s most prestigious award giv-ing bodies….While writing my piece, there are reports coming from my source that Atty Levito Baligod is on the way out as lawyer for the whistle blowers. According to Benhur Luy, Baligod has not spent much time to the cash, I mean case…. Observers as well as crit-ics on the very slow pace of investigation in the pork barrel scam have scored the media battle being wage by protagonists. They say that those involve rely on media spin rather than the undisputable facts of the case. Amaz-ing Talaga! For comments please email me at [email protected]

Amazing

SAN BERNARDINO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced the arrest of seven suspects who have been charged in a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded more than 1,550 Inland Valley homeowners seeking loan modification services during California’s foreclosure cri-sis. The felony complaint al-leges that Nehad “Nick” Ayyoub Ayyoub, 57, of San Bernardino and president of The Firm Loans, Insurance and Investments Inc. and First Choice Debt Solutions Inc., along with his six colleagues, Ghydan Ayyoub Rabadi, 38, of Los Angeles, Zaid Rabadi, 49, of Los Angeles, James Clemons, 55, of Riverside County, Wissam Ismail, 32, of Riverside County, Eddie Mercado, 57, of San Bernardino, and Majid Safaie, 60, of Orange County, deceived homeowners by il-legally charging up-front payments for loan modification services and lying about the ser-vices they provided.

“These individuals profited from the fear and desperation of hard working Californians who were simply fighting to keep their homes dur-ing the height of our state’s foreclosure cri-sis,” Attorney General Harris said. “This kind of predatory activity is reprehensible.”

The suspects are charged in a 24 count complaint of felony grand theft, personal and cor-porate income tax evasion and con-spiracy. The sus-pects were booked at Murrieta Deten-tion Center, Orange County Jail, Ran-cho Cucamonga Jail and Azusa Po-

lice Department today. Ayyoub is being held with bail set at $75,000 and all others are being held with bail set at $50,000. Ayyoub is facing a maximum exposure of 12 years in prison while his colleagues are facing a maxi-mum exposure of 8 years. According to court filings, Ayyoub and his colleagues took advantage of homeowners who were desperate to lower their mortgage payments by selling them home loan modi-

fication services and requiring payment of up-front fees. Homeowners were falsely told that attorneys would be negotiating their loan modifications, that they would get a loan modification with no risk of failure, that they would receive a refund if they were dissatis-fied and that the suspects had special contacts with lenders, which would give them an ad-vantage in obtaining lowered monthly pay-ments. Homeowners were instructed to stop paying their mortgage and to instead give the money to Ayyoub and his colleagues to ensure that they would obtain a loan modification, caus-ing many victims to default on their home loans without obtaining a modification, ac-cording to court filings. The suspects operated this scam from Janu-ary 2007 to March 2010, according to court filings. Attorney General Harris’ Mortgage Fraud Strike Force began investigating this case in 2010 yet business records were immediately sealed until September 2012 when Safaie’s claim of attorney client privilege was over-ruled. Homeowners who feel they may have been victimized should file an online complaint with the California Attorney General’s Office: http://oag.ca.gov/consumers.

REAL ESTATE7 arrested in $6.2M mortgage fraud scam

LET’S HAVE COFFEEBy

Don Augusto Orozco

PAGE 11Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014The San Francisco Post AROUND TOWN

The Placards says it all. ABUNDANT FRUIT BEARING was launched by Iglesia Ni Cristo members from San Jose, Mountain View, Milpitas and Watsonville congregations. The Pep rally was in re-sponse to the call of the INC Executive Minister Brother Eduardo V Manalo to bear more fruits of soul. The activity was participated in by members of the Christian Family Organizations of the Church. Photo number 1 is the Buklod or the married brethren for ABUNDANT. Photo #2 is the CWS and Binhi or the children 17 and below and carries the FRUIT banner. While photo #3 is the KADIWA or representing the singles which carries the tag BEARING. Members of the INC is inviting everyone to their Chapel on March 8 and March 29 at 7:30pm for their FREE Bible study and INC Evangelical Mission. All of this are under the project of My Countrymen, My Brethren (kabayankokapatidko.org) of the Felix Y Manalo Foundation, Inc.

If you have a spouse who does not earn an income or who earns less than you do, your spouse (including a same-sex spouse) may be entitled to Social Security spouses’ ben-efits based on your record. Social Security can be an important fi-nancial asset for married couples when the time comes to apply for retirement ben-efits. In many cases, one spouse may have earned significantly more than the other, or may have worked longer. Or it could be that one spouse stayed home to do the work of raising the children, caring for elderly family members, or managing the house-hold while the other focused on a career. Whatever your situation, Social Security will look at all possibilities to make sure both spouses receive the maximum Social Security benefits possible, whether based on each spouse’s earnings record or the higher wage-earner’s record. Your spouse can apply for benefits the same way that you apply for benefits on your own record. He or she can apply for reduced benefits as early as age 62, or for 100 percent of the full retirement benefits at “full retirement age.” Not sure what the full retirement ages are? To learn your and your spouse’s full retirement ages, based on birth year, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/ageincrease.htm.

The benefit amount your spouse can re-ceive at full retirement age can be as much as one half of your full benefit. If your spouse opts for early retirement, the ben-efit may be as little as a third of your full benefit amount. Note that benefits paid to your spouse do not decrease your benefit amount. If you have already reached full retire-ment age but continue to work, you can ap-ply for retirement benefits and request to have the payments suspended until as late as age 70. This would let you earn delayed retirement credits that will mean higher payments later, but still would allow your spouse to receive a spouse’s benefit. People can also apply for spouse benefits based on the earnings record of an ex-spouse or deceased spouse if mar ried for at least 10 years. Spouses can consider a number of options and variables. We make it easier to navigate them. A good place to start is by visiting our benefits planner at www.socialsecurity.gov/planners. Take note of the “Benefits As A Spouse” section. If you are ready to apply for benefits, the fastest, easiest, and most convenient way is to apply online! You can do so at www.so-cialsecurity.gov/applyonline and complete your application in as little as 15 minutes.Due to a Supreme Court decision, we now

are able to pay benefits to some same-sexcouples. We encourage people who think they may be eligible to apply now. Learn more atwww.socialsecurity.gov/same-sexcouples.

Whether you receive benefits on a spouse’s record or your own, rest assured we will make sure you get the highest ben-efit for which you qualify. Learn more at www.socialsecurity.gov.

YOUR SPOUSE MAY BE COVERED BYSOCIAL SECURITY

Swalwell to Visit Job Workshopfor Unemployed

Swalwell has repeatedly called on Speaker Boehner to restore emergency un-employment benefits CASTRO VALLEY, CA U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell (CA-15) will visit Job Lab, a weekly, free workshop at the Cas-tro Valley Library to help the long-term unemployed re-enter the job market and find work. Volunteers as-sist job seekers with online job searches, online job applications, and resume writing. In December, House Re-publican Leadership let emergency unemployment

benefits expire, cutting off a vital lifeline for 1.8 mil-lion Americans. Swalwell sent two letters calling on House Speaker John Boehner to restore these benefits. An analysis found the expiration of federal unemployment benefits will cost the economy over $3 billion in just January and February. “I look forward to visit-ing Job Lab at the Castro Valley Library and seeing their good work helping job seekers attain the skills and preparation they need to be hired in today’s job market,” said Swalwell.

“Congress needs to do its part to assist the long-term unemployed by extending unemployment insurance for the many Americans struggling to find a job or make ends meet.” “We are proud that our Job Lab has helped so many find work,” said Jean Ho-facket, Alameda County Li-brarian. “We appreciate the volunteers who give their time and skills to make it a success. Job Lab is a good example of one very impor-tant way that libraries are helping our communities thrive.”

PAGE 12Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014 SPORTS The San Francisco Post

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MANILA -- Geneses Servania bucked a nasty cut opened up by a punch and aggravated by an accidental head-butt to retain his World Boxing Organization Intercontinental super bantam-weight title with a rousing 12th-round TKO of former two-time world super flyweight champion Alexander Munoz of Venezuela before a cheering crowd at the Solaire Resort and Casino on Saturday. A slight cut opened up in the sixth round was ripped apart by an accidental head-butt by Munoz in the eighth, which ap-peared to spur Servania to go af-ter the Venezuelan, who was pre-viously knocked out only once by the great world bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz and had an impressive KO record of 28 knockouts in 36 wins. With the win, the 22-year-old Servania kept his undefeated streak going and improved to 24-0 with 10 knockouts, while the seemingly ageless Munoz, who is a 35-year-old veteran of many classic ring battles, dropped to 36-6 with 28 knock-outs. Servania, who is ranked No. 3 by the WBO and who was named WBO Best Boxer of the Year in 2013, cracked Munoz with an overhand right in Round 11 and after stunning Munoz with a stinging right straight, dropped

the former two-time world cham-pion with a hellacious right hand. And as Munoz wobbled to his feet, referee Tapdasan wisely waved it off at 2:22 of the 12th and final round. ALA Promotions president Mi-chael Aldeguer told the Manila Standard that the cut was stitched in Manila and they would have it checked when they return to Cebu on Monday. In the main supporting bout, “Prince” Albert Pagara put on a royal performance with a scin-tillating first-round knockout of Indonesia’s tough Isack Junior after ripping the Indonesian with a right straight and a devastating left to the liver with referee Ver Abainza reaching the count of 10 at 2:41 of the round, with Isack Junior in obvious pain still lying on the canvas. Mexico’s Fernando Aguilar (9-6,1 KO), a last-minute replace-ment for Juan Hernandez, who was injured in a motorcycle acci-dent, gave world-rated super fly-weight “King Arthur” Villanueva the surprise of his life, turning what was expected to be a walk in the park into a ferocious war typical of Mexican ring warriors. Villanueva escaped with a unanimous 10-round decision, although a one-point deduction by referee Bruce McTavish for a low blow in Round 9 possibly cost Aguilar a majority draw.

Servania retains WBO bantam title MANILA — After three sparring sessions with Manny Pacquiao, Lydell Rhodes feels the $1,500 incentive offered by chief trainer Freddie Roach if he could knock down the Filipino ring icon is be-yond reach. Pacquiao has prov-en to be too strong and too fast for Rhodes, who needs to sneak in a power punch that could probably bring the Fighter of the De-cade down to his knees. Had the world’s only eight-division champion wanted it, Pacquiao could have easily knocked down Rhodes. The disparity in skills was obvious in their third spar-ring session that lasted six rounds Saturday at Pac-quiao’s Wild Card Gym in General Santos City. Each time Rhodes went on attack mode, Pacquiao would just spun around and leave the unbeaten American (19-0, 9 KOs) in an awkward stance and open for a crunching shot. Pacquiao, however, would allow Rhodes to re-gain his balance before the Sarangani representative resumed his sparring session in preparation for his grudge rematch with Timothy Bradley on April 12

at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Assistant trainer Nonoy Neri, who doubles as Pac-quiao’s personal cook, noted that Rhodes also packs a wallop. The coaching staff that also includes assistant

trainer Buboy Fernan-dez is focusing on fur-ther honing Pacquiao’s left uppercut for the 12-round bout with Bradley, who wrested Pacquiao’s WBO wel-terweight crown via a widely criticized split decision in late 2012. In their first sparring session that went four rounds Tuesday, Pac-quiao bloodied the nose of Rhodes, who’s is as tall and as bulky as the 5-foot-6 Bradley. Pacquiao and Rhodes did five rounds last

Thursday. To keep Pacquiao from hitting peak form early, the next sparring session on Tuesday will also be for six rounds. Team Pacquiao will leave for the United States on Saturday for the second and tougher phase of train-ing camp at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. There, Pacquiao will have new top-caliber spar-ring partners in Kendall Hoyt and Steve Formes. Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s adviser, has contact-

ed the former world cham-pions to simu-late Bradley’s fighting style.

Pacquiao too strong, quick for sparmate

GILAS Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes has add-ed Petron Blaze swingman Marcio Lassiter and Rain Or Shine backcourt star Paul Lee to the national pool, from which the team for the FIBA World Cup, which opens in late August will be selected. Making a return to the ros-ter are Greg Slaughter and Jared Dilinger, who were with the pool that trained for the FIBA Asia Cham-pionships last August, in which the Gilas team fin-ished runners-up to Iran and qualified for a place in the coveted World Cup af-ter 40 long and agonizing years.Chot Reyes Reyes told Manila Stan-dard that he is “very hap-py” with the line-up he has, because Lassiter “gives us a lot of flexibility since he can play the 1, 2 or 3 spots, while Lee and the returning Dillinger give me size in the backcourt.” The Manila Standard ran the story of the choice of Lassiter and Lee earlier this

week, even as Reyes an-nounced than that the Gi-las Pilipinas national team will begin practice for the World Cup on Monday, with two players, who were not in the original pool be-ing added to the roster. Reyes said then he was hoping to add Petron Blaze swingman Lassiter and Rain or Shine backcourt star Lee to the training pool, while bringing back Dillinger, who was out initially because of an in-jury in a vehicular accident as well as Ginebra center Greg Slaughter. Meantime, Reyes said he is waiting for the go-signal from the PBA as to when the team can begin practice on a regular basis, consider-ing the short time available before facing the big names in international basketball in the World Cup. Reyes also said that “it’s almost a certainty” that he will make some changes in the lineup for the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, which will take place not long after the

World Cup. He mentioned the name of the “Best Player” in the recently concluded PBA Philippine Cup in Mark Barroca of San Mig Cof-fee, who had an amazing series and “perhaps another shooter” and others, so as not to allow South Korea, which will also be seeing action in the World Cup, to feel comfortable thinking the Philippines will field the same team. Several followers of the fortunes of Gilas Pilipi-nas, who came out in their thousands to support the team during the FIBA Asia Championship in August, have mentioned that the PBA should appreciate the fact that players like Marc Pingris, shooting star Jeff Chan, big men Junmar Fa-jardo and Japeth Aguilar had benefited substantially from their stint with Gilas Pilipinas. Reyes also mentioned that naturalized center Marcus Douthut is also in town and ready to begin practice with the 16-man pool.

Lee, Lassiter make PH Gilas pool

PAGE 13Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014The San Francisco Post SHOWBIZ

Paulo exerting extra effort in wooing KCActor Paulo Avelino said he has been ex-erting extra effort in wooing actress KC Concepcion, who is currently studying abroad. Avelino said that despite their busy schedules, he and Concepcion still make it a point to get in touch with each other. “Now sobrang busy namin pareho. Now I’m doing a soap here and she’s in the US taking different classes. [But] we still communicate. Siguro ang masasabi ko lang ngayon, I am inspired,” Avelino said. “May effort. Kung baga, she’s studying, winter doon. Sometimes you just want to

inspire someone, ganoon din siya. She has been inspiring me also, giving me advice,” he added. It was Novem-ber last year when Avelino confirmed that he is dating Concep-cion. The actor said he is impressed by Concep-cion’s beauty and brains. Currently,

Avelino is busy taping for the finale of ABS-CBN’s hit series “Honesto,” which will air its last episode on March 14. “Honesto,” which stars child actor Raikko Mateo, airs weeknights after “TV Patrol.”

Paolo & KC

Aga recalls firsts as ‘Bagets’ starAS HIS launching movie, “Bagets” marked many firsts for then 14-year old showbiz newcomer Aga Muhlach. What Muhlach did not realize was that this film about five carefree boys in high school would make him a household name. It would be the start of a long and fruitful career in show business. Thirty years since it was first released in February 1984, “Bag-ets” remains a memorable experi-ence for the 44-year-old actor. “At 14, it was my first movie, hindi mo maiisip ‘yung prepara-tions,” Muhlach told ABS-CBN Publishing’s Maxim Philippines in a 2009 interview marking the film’s 25th anniversary. “It was more of kaba lang. Ang una kong concern was the clothes na gaga-mitin ko sa buong movie. I didn’t have enough clothes so I had to shop,” he said. The film’s line producer, late talent manager Douglas Quijano, in the same interview re-called his first meeting with a young Muhlach, who had been looking to get his big break in showbiz. “That was 1984 and I was working as a project coordinator for Regal. I brought it up to Mother Lily [Monteverde, Regal Films producer]. It was going to serve as a launching pad for Aga Muhlach who was brought to me by his father Cheng when he was, I think, 13. I remember asking Aga, ‘How old are you?’ ‘Thirteen.’ I told him, ‘Come back to me when you’re 14.’”Even as Muhlach returned a year older, produc-tion on “Bagets” didn’t take off right away, as Monteverde remained unconvinced of the new-bie’s potential. “It turned out ayaw ni Mother Lily kay Aga,” Quijano said. “So I presented the idea to Vic del Rosaio [of Regal’s rival studio that time, Viva Films].” Jake Tordesillas, the scriptwriter of “Bagets,”

remembered it was Quijano who came up with the film’s title, which clicked with the bosses at

Viva. “Naririnig niya sa mga parlor na tawag sa boyfriend ng mga bading. It means ‘bata,’” he said. “Young, fresh, vibrant,” Quijano added. The project was already in pre-production when it underwent a big change, Tordesillas recalled. Viva wanted a light, youth-oriented movie, but director Ishmael Bernal had some-thing different in mind. “Hindi si Maryo J [delos Reyes] ang dapat magdi-direk dun nung una. Dapat si Ishamel. Excited ako nun kasi it would have been my first time to work with Bernie,” Tordesillas said. “Nagpi-pre-prod na kami nun kaya lang hindi matimpla ni Bernal kasi may pagka-dark ‘yung vision niya sa project. Gusto niyang mag-tackle ng male prostitution, drugs. Eh sina Vic del Ro-sario at Douglas, ang gusto nila fun-oriented lang. Bernal ended up doing ‘Bilibid Boys.’” Delos Reyes, who earlier tackled teen angst in “High School Circa ‘65,” was brought in to carry out Viva’s film about “family life, chang-ing attitudes, peer system.”

Aga Muhlach in a scene from ‘Bagets.’

Dawn Jimenez strips for UNO magMANILA - “On the Job” actress Dawn Jimenez gets “messy” in her first photo shoot for men’s magazine UNO in its March 2014 issue, where she appears as cover girl. Jimenez, who played Gerald Anderson’s love interest in the acclaimed Star Cinema flick, gets creative with different kinds of chocolate in the sexy pictorial. On the cover, which was formally unveiled Wednesday, Jimenez poses wearing only em-bellished underwear while holding out a bunch of Kisses. “Actually, for me, it wasn’t that challening,” Jimenez said, when asked how she prepared for the shoot. “It was very exciting, because I love choco-lates! So when I found at na ‘yung theme

was chocolate, super na-excite talaga ako. ‘Oh my god, it’s so me,’ sabi ko. ‘Ang hilig ko sa choco-lates so para sa akin talaga ‘to.’” The upcoming ac-tress was speaking during an autograph signing event held in Makati, along with Kapamilya star Bangs Garcia, who appeared on the cover of UNO’s February 2014 is-sue. Asked which par-ticular shot from the pictorial she liked best, Jimenez said, “My favor-ite would be ‘yung nag-si-swimming

na ako sa chocolate!” The March 2014 issue of UNO is now out on newsstands.

Actor Richard Gomez eyes national volley teamACTOR-sportsman Richard Gomez may make history on March 9 if the Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) decides to include him in the national men’s team that will see action in the 2014 PLDT HOME Fibr Asian Men’s Volley-ball Club Champion-ship (AMCC). Should he make it, Gomez will become the first athlete to join the Philippine team in four different competitions. Philippine team coach Francis Vicente has trimmed down to 30 the number of athletes com-peting for places in the national team, Gomez being one of them. Gomez, 47, first joined the national team as a member of the rowing team in the early 1990s. After that, he made it to the national fencing team, winning two gold medals in the 2003 and 2005 Southeast Asian Games. He also won a bronze medal in 1995 in Brunei, two silver medals in 1997 in Jakarta, a silver in 2001 in Malaysia SEA Games as a fencer. He also was named to the national shooting team in the 2005 SEA Games in Manila, where he placed fourth.

“I am determined to join the men’s volleyball team,” Gomez said. “I’ve been joining the try-outs since coach Francis issued the call and I’m not going to miss this chance at serving the flag once more.”

“Gomez would be a welcome addition to the new national team. Aside from his leadership, his experi-ence playing the three national teams will be a big factor for the team,” said AMCC Organizing Commit-tee Chairman Philip “Ella” Juico, former chairman of the Phil-ippine Sports Com-mission (PSC). The event is being co-organized with SportsCore and will be held starting March 9.

TV-5 will be the official broadcast partner of the AMCC. All games by the Philippine Team will televised live. Signal will also provide volleyball fans with live streaming of the games. PLDT will provide technical support and title sponsor PLDT Home Fibr will provide assis-tance through its broadband.

Richard Gomez

Dawn Jimenez

WHAT made model Daniel Matsunaga decide to stay in the Philippines despite having worked and lived in over 25 coun-tries after he left his hometown in Brazil to pursue a modelling career? In an article by “Umagang Kay Gan-da” host Bianca Gon-zales for The Philip-pine Star on Sunday, the male model and his sister Vanessa Matsunaga narrated how that they left Bra-zil when they were still 18 and 16, re-spectively, to pursue a career in modelling in different countries. They would move from one country to another every two to three months, looking for places and proj-ects in the fashion industry. The original plan was to stay in the Phil-ippines for only a few months, but things worked out for the siblings and they have

been in the country for almost five years now.

Despite having no Fili-pino blood, Daniel said he found showbiz excit-ing. It was also some-thing new to him com-pared with modelling. For her part, Vanessa said she as about to leave to move on to another country when she met her future husband, Jun Sunga. She eventually fell in love with him and after five months of dat-ing, Sunga proposed. They got married five months after that, and have now been together for three years. Daniel has had a couple of serious relationships, but he believes that there’s a strong chance

that he will end up with someone from the Philippines. Compared to their fellow Brazilians, the siblings said Filipinos are more conserva-tive, family-oriented, and sweet.

Why Daniel Matsunaga decided to live in PH

Daniel Matsunaga

PAGE 14Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014 CLASSIFIED The San Francisco Post

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PAGE 15Mar. 6, 2014 - Mar. 12, 2014The San Francisco Post

(approved budget cost) which obviously means they were not bid out right. Most of the projects were cut into small parcels, like a P100-million project into smaller projects of P500,000 each,” said Singson. “Whatever was allocated was used up to the last peso. If they were bid out properly, the project cost should have been lower than the budget cost,” he said. Singson said the DPWH could not establish whether these were “ghost projects” because “I cannot possibly check all of them, we are just looking at the big-ticket items.” He has left it to the Commission on Audit to de-termine if these DPWH projects were implement-ed properly. The House committee has summoned several of the contractors involved to its next hear-ing. “At this point there are suspicions, but noth-ing has been established yet,” said Singson, who stressed that the DPWH could not blacklist con-tractors on mere suspicion. But Singson revealed that the DPWH was close to wrapping up its investigation of one of the big-gest contractors involved in the suspected scam—JSG Construction and E. Gardiola Construction owned by Edwin and Judy Gardiola. Singson said that most of the special allocation release orders (Saro) were given directly to the DPWH district offices without the knowledge of the central office. Singson said these anomalies led him to adopt reforms in farming out DPWH projects such as stopping direct releases to offices, stopping the submission of letters of intent from bidders (which allows syndicates to determine in advance the auction participants) and discontinuing the use of credit line certifications from banks as a basis for determining the capacity of bidders, which Sing-son said had allowed fly-by-night contractors to bid for big contracts.

The officials who were the biggest recipients of the Arroyo administration’s “midnight” spend-

ing were: former and incumbent Representatives Ferdinand Martin Romualdez of Leyte’s first dis-trict (P735 million), Exequiel Javier of Antique (P636 million), Alfrancis Bichara of Albay’s sec-ond district (P633 million), Elandro Jesus Ma-drona of Romblon (P609 million), Glenn Chong of Biliran (P570 million), Proceso Alcala of Que-zon’s second district (P560 million), Aurelio M. Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga’s third district and Ar-royo’s hometown (502.5 million), Mark Mendoza of Batangas’ fourth district (P412 million), Edcel Lagman of Albay’s first district (P322.7 million), Carlos Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya (P300 million), Diosdado Macapagal Arroyo of Camarines Sur’s first district (P268 million); Marc Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur (P260 million), Lorenzo Tañada III of Quezon’s fourth district (P220 million), Carmen Cari of Leyte’s fifth district (P210 million), Pedro Romualdo of Camiguin (P181 million), Vicente Garcia of Davao City (P175 million), Adeline Rodriguez Zaldar-riaga of Rizal’s second district (P167 million), Reno Lim of Albay’s third district (P165 million), Orlando Fua of Siquijor (P160 million), Trinidad Apostol of Leyte’s second district (P152.5 mil-lion), Arthur Pingoy Jr. of South Cotabato (P150 million), Edwin Uy of Isabela (P147 million), Ma-ria Evita R. Arago of Laguna’s third district (P130 million), Neptali Gonzales of Mandaluyong City (P120 millon), Victoria Reyes of Batangas’ third district (P120 million), Danilo Suarez of Quezon’s third district (P120 million), Thelma Almario of Davao Oriental (P107 million) and Prospero Nograles (P83.5 million). Tañada, Alcala and Neptali Gonzales are closely allied with the Aquino administration. Tañada is the spokesman of the ruling Liberal Party, Alcala is agriculture secretary while Gonzales continues to be the Mandaluyong congressional representa-tive.

(Cont. from page 1..ARROYO’S P14-B)act on the request without us Filipinos constantly remind-ing them of the urgent need for a TPS for the Philippines.It is really up to us Filipinos in the United States to help our fellow Filipinos obtain the needed temporary immi-gration relief so that they can be of more help to their rel-atives in the affected areas. We need to continue flooding the White House, the State Department and the Depart-ment of Homeland Security with phone calls, letters and petitions so that they would finally act on the Philippine government’s request, which was submitted last Decem-ber 12, 2013 through the Philippine Embassy.

I traveled to Manila two weeks ago to contribute to the effort. In four separate radio and television inter-

views, I appealed to Filipinos in the Philippines to help in the effort to prod the US government to grant TPS to the country by writing to the US State Department through the US Embassy on Roxas Blvd., Manila reiterating the need for TPS. With a concerted community effort by Filipinos both in the US and in the Philippines, we should be able to convince the President and Secretary Kerry to direct the DHS to grant Temporary Protected Status to the country and enable the close to 500,000 undocumented Filipinos to obtain temporary immigration relief.

(Cont. from page 4..MY HUMBLE OPINION)

Ukrainian province of Crimea, which was once a part of the Russian Republic until 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrush-chev decreed to transfer Crimea to the Ukraine Republic. But since both the Rus-sian Republic and Ukraine Republic were part of the USSR, it didn’t make any differ-ence then. But now it does. Little did Khrushchev realize that 37 years later the USSR would disintegrate and Crimea would no longer have any link or association with Mother Russia. But Putin had none of that. A few years ago,

Russia started issuing passports to ethnic Russians in Crimea. And with ethnic Rus-sians comprising 60% of Crimea’s popula-tion of two million, Russia can then assert hegemony over Crimea. It is for this reason that Putin sent Russian troops to Crimea ostensibly to protect Russian “citi-zens.” However, many believe that Putin has a much bigger agenda, which is to ul-timately bring Ukraine back into Russia’s sphere of influence. Well, that is just for starters. But one thing is for sure: a new Cold War has just begun. ([email protected])

(Cont. from page 4..PERRY SCOPE)

with new elections to be held by December. Ukraine, meanwhile, accused Russia of piracy for blocking two of the besieged country’s warships and ordering them to surrender or be seized. The US originally estimated that 6,000 Russian troops were dispatched to Crimea, but Ukraine’s mission to the United Na-tions said Monday that 16,000 had been deployed. That stoked fears that the Krem-lin might carry out more land grabs in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine. US Secretary of State John Kerry was headed to Kiev in an expression of sup-port for Ukraine’s sovereignty, and the EU threatened a raft of punitive measures as it called an emergency summit for Thursday. The Pentagon said it was suspending exer-cises and other activities with the Russian military, and a senior US official said the US would not move forward with meetings designed to deepen the trade relationship between the two countries. Lacking autho-rization to speak publicly about the trade meetings, the official requested anonymity.Troop Pullout Responding to Kerry trip, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered tens of thousands of Russian troops participating in military exercises near Ukraine’s border to return to their bases. But tensions remained high in the strategic Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea with troops loyal to Moscow fir-ing warning shots to ward off protesting Ukrainian soldiers. The massive military exercise in western Russia involving 150,000 troops, hundreds of tanks, and dozens of aircraft was sup-posed to wrap up anyway, so it was not clear if Putin’s move was an attempt to heed the West’s call to de-escalate the cri-sis that has put Ukraine’s future on the line.It came as Kerry was on his way to Kiev to meet with the new Ukrainian leadership that deposed a pro-Russian president, and has accused Moscow of a military invasion in Crimea. The Kremlin, which does not recognize the new Ukrainian leadership, insists it made the move in order to protect Russians living there.Under the current situation, Russia appeared to be driving the agenda. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva that Ukraine should return to an agreement signed last month by pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych – but not Moscow – to hold early elections and surrender some powers. Yanukovych fled the country after sealing the pact with the opposition and foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Poland.“Instead of a promised national unity government,” Lav-rov said of the fledgling new administration in Kiev, “a government of the victors has been created.” The latest flashpoint came when Ukrainian authorities said Russian troops had issued an ultimatum for two of the besieged country’s warships to surrender or be seized.

“I call on the leadership of the Russian Federation. Stop the aggression, stop the provocations, stop the piracy! These are crimes, and you will be called to account for them,” said acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Tur-chynov. “The commanders and crews are ready to defend their ships. They are defend-ing Ukraine,” Turchynov said in a tele-vised address to the nation after a military spokesman said Ukraine’s corvette Terno-pil and command ship Slavutych were be-ing blocked by four Russian navy ships in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Vladimir Anikin, a Russian defense min-istry spokesman, dismissed the accusation as nonsense but refused to elaborate.Wrong Side Of History In Washington, the State Department warned of a “dangerous escalation” and said the US would hold Moscow directly accountable for any threat to Ukraine’s navy. Russia is “on the wrong side of histo-ry” in Ukraine, President Barack Obama said, adding that continued military ac-tion would be “a costly proposition for Rus-sia.” Speaking to reporters in the Oval Of-fice, Obama said the U.S. was considering economic and diplomatic options that will isolate Russia, and called on Congress to work on an aid package for Ukraine. Still, it was not clear what the West could do to make Russia retreat. The clearest weapon at the disposal of the US and the EU appeared to be economic sanctions that would freeze Russian assets and pull the plug on multibillion dollar deals with Russia. Late Monday, the EU threatened to freeze visa liberalization and economic cooperation talks and boycott the G-8 sum-mit in Russia later this year.Russian Market Tumbles Already the economic fallout for Russia was being intensely felt. Russia’s stock market dropped about 10 percent Mon-day and its currency fell to its lowest point ever against the dollar. But the economic consequences of antagonizing Russia were also acute for Western Europe. The EU re-lies heavily on Russian natural gas flowing through a network of Ukrainian and other pipelines. Global market reaction to the Russian seizure was furious. On Wall Street, both the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq composite closed sharply down, while oil prices rose on fears that Russia, a major oil exporter, might face sanctions. In European trading, gold rose while the euro and stock markets fell. The greatest impact, however, was felt in Moscow, where the main RTS index was down 12 percent at 1,115 and the dollar spiked to an all-time high of 37 rubles. Russia’s central bank hiked its main inter-est rate 1.5 percentage points to 7 percent, trying to stem financial outflows.

(Cont. from page 1..RUSSIA TIGHTENS)

other global security fronts - Syria and Iran - where Rus-sia has been a necessary partner with the West. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave no indica-tion that he would heed the West’s warnings. Hundreds of armed men surrounded a Ukrainian military base in Crimea, a pro-Russian area. In Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk alerted allies that “we are on the brink of disaster.” Senior Obama administration officials said they be-lieve Russia now has complete operational control over Crimea and has more than 6,000 forces in the region. The U.S. was also watching for ethnic skirmishes in other ar-eas of eastern Ukraine, though the officials said they had not yet seen Russian military moves elsewhere. The offi-cials were not authorized to publicly discuss the situation and spoke on condition of anonymity. Secretary of State John Kerry said he has consulted with other world leaders, and “every single one of them are prepared to go to the hilt in order to isolate Russia with respect to this invasion.” President Barack Obama spoke Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Polish President

Bronislaw Komorowski. Kerry planned to travel to Kiev Tuesday for meetings with the Ukrainian government. Officials said the Obama administration would also focus this week on putting to-gether a package of economic assistance for Ukraine. In Brussels, NATO’s secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said Russia’s actions have violated a U.N. charter. He said the alliance was re-evaluating its rela-tionship with Russia. “There are very serious repercussions that can flow out of this,” Kerry said. Beyond economic sanctions and visa bans, freezing Russian assets, and trade and investment penalties, Ker-ry said Moscow risks being booted out of the powerful Group of Eight group of world powers as payback for the military incursion. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told a Washington audi-ence on Sunday that the United States is ready to work with other countries and the International Monetary Fund to provide support to bolster Ukraine’s economy. He said he had been assured in discussions with Ukrainian officials that the new government is prepared to pursue the necessary reforms to overhaul the country’s ailing economy.

(Cont. from page 1..RUSSIA TIGHTENS)

PAGE 16Feb. 27, 2014 - Mar. 5, 2014 The San Francisco Post