HAVING won practically everything there is to win in the Philippine Basketball Association, Tim Cone cannot be faulted if he decides to already take it slow. But the league’s winningest coach has signified he is anything but done, more so since he is coaching the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings.
Notched his 22nd championship in the PBA after guiding the Kings to the 2019–20 Governors’ Cup title over the Meralco Bolts in five games of their best-of-seven finals joust, Mr. Cone reiterated that now is not the time to slow down for him as he still enjoys the process of setting goals and achieving them.
“Winning never gets old. To watch our guys get excited and to push hard for something and to achieve it, and being part of that, is a really great feeling,” said Mr. Cone following their 105-93 title-clinching win over Bolts in Game Five on Friday.
It was the fourth time that Mr. Cone handed a title to the Gin Kings since moving to Barangay Ginebra in 2015, adding to the 2016 and 2017 Governors’ Cup titles and the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup title.
Prior to taking the head-coaching duties with the Kings, Mr. Cone, 62, won 13 titles with the Alaska franchise and five with the San Mig Coffee and B-Meg (now Magnolia) franchise. In both franchises he won a league grand slam — Alaska (1996) and San Mig (2013-14).
Coaching Barangay Ginebra, Mr. Cone said, provides a feeling all its own, something that keeps him going well into his third decade of coaching in Asia’s first play-for-pay league.
“The idea of coaching Ginebra is just a different feeling. It’s a great honor coaching Ginebra. It’s like coaching the national team. I’ve been coaching in the PBA for 30 years and coaching this team really reinvigorated me as a coach. All the attention from the fans, it really keeps you going and there is no time to slow down,” he said.
Immediate goal for Mr. Cone and the Kings is winning the All-Filipino title, something the team has not achieved under his watch.
He said they will use the momentum they got from their latest title conquest and bank on, and sharpen, the tools that they have at their disposal.
As for how long he will be coaching, Mr. Cone said that as long as he is enjoying it and his services are still needed he will continue.
“I’m enjoying it. My mentor Tex Winter (of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers) coached until he was 86. You’ll never know. I want to coach until that age. I doubt it if it will happen, but you’ll never know,” Mr. Cone said.
LOS ANGELES — Raheem Mostert rushed for four touchdowns as the San Francisco 49ers beat Green Bay 37-20 to book a spot in the Super Bowl where they will face Kansas City, who advanced to the NFL championship game for the first time in 50 seasons with a 35-24 win over Tennessee on Sunday.
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes was instrumental in their victory in the American Football Conference championship game, breaking the Titans’ backs with a dazzling 27-yard first-half touchdown run as the Chiefs overcame a 10-0 deficit.
Mahomes, who also threw three touchdown passes, gave the Chiefs their first lead at 21-17 with the tackle-breaking run with 11 seconds left in the opening half.
They went on to dominate the second half, chalking up their eight consecutive win to earn a berth in Feb. 2 Super Bowl to be played in Miami.
Kansas City has not been to the title game since January 1970 when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in the fourth Super Bowl.
“It’s amazing. It really is,” Mahomes said.
“To be here, to be a part of Chiefs Kingdom and to be able to do it here at Arrowhead, these people deserve it. And, we’re not done yet. We are going to get it (the Super Bowl title).”
Tennessee, the surprise package of the playoffs with a sixth seed, scored the game’s first 10 points on a field goal and Derrick Henry’s four-yard run.
But the Chiefs, as they had in overcoming the Houston Texans’ 24-0 advantage last weekend, rallied behind their quarterback.
Mahomes’ toss to wide receiver Tyreek Hill on a jet sweep brought the Chiefs within 10-7 before Tennessee scored on a one-yard pass from Ryan Tannehill to massive tackle Dennis Kelly.
The Chiefs rolled for the next 28 points.
Hill caught 20-yard pass from Mahomes and the quarterback added his key touchdown run, tiptoeing along the sidelines at times.
“When they are getting double-teamed and there are only three men rushing, and our line are blocking, it gives me room where I can run,” Mahomes said.
Damien Williams then rushed into the end zone on a three-run and Mahomes threw his third touchdown of the game on a 60-yard play to Sammy Watkins. Tennessee finally showed signs of life on Tannehill’s 22-yard pass to Anthony Firkser with four minutes left, but it was too late for the Titans.
In the National Football Conference championship game in San Francisco, the 49ers relied on the running game to build a 27-0 lead and took a 34-7 lead into the fourth quarter.
Mostert became the first NFL player with four rushing touchdowns in a conference championship game as he scored on runs of 36, nine, 18 and 22 yards, running for 220 yards in total.
Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who had 326 yards passing but was intercepted twice and lost a fumble, rallied the Packers to within 34-20 as they scored twice to open the fourth.
But Robbie Gould’s third field goal for San Francisco ended the scoring.
MOSTERT, 49ERS RUN ALL OVER PACKERS
Raheem Mostert rushed for a franchise-record 220 yards and scored four touchdowns, and the San Francisco 49ers pummeled the Green Bay Packers on both sides of the ball to notch a 37-20 victory on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game at Santa Clara, Calif.
Mostert’s historic showing was part of a dominating performance, as San Francisco reached the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2012 season and the seventh time overall. The 49ers will face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV in Miami on Feb. 2.
Mostert’s rushing output, which came on 29 carries, is the second highest in NFL postseason history behind Eric Dickerson (248 in the 1985 postseason). The four rushing scores ties with LeGarrette Blount (2013) for second, one behind record-holder Ricky Watters of the 49ers (1993).
Aaron Rodgers completed 31 of 39 passes for 326 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions for the Packers. Aaron Jones scored two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving), and Davante Adams caught nine passes for 138 yards.
It was the second time the 49ers easily handled the Packers this season. San Francisco won 37-8, also at home, on Nov. 24.
Mostert rushed for 160 yards and three touchdown on 14 first-half carries — helping the 49ers to a 27-0 lead — en route to becoming just the eighth player to rush for 200 or more yards in a playoff game. His yardage was the highest ever by a San Francisco player, regular season and postseason (Frank Gore, 212 in 2006).
His load only increased after Tevin Coleman was carted off the field with a right shoulder injury during the second quarter and didn’t return.
Mostert began the scoring with 5:55 left in the first quarter when he exploded through a huge hole on third-and-8 and headed to the left for a 36-yard touchdown run. Robbie Gould kicked a 54-yard field goal on the first play of the second quarter to make it 10-0.
Mostert added a 9-yard scoring run to extend the lead to 17 with 9:12 left in the half. The Packers turned the ball over on their next possession when center Corey Linsley never got the snap to Rodgers, and San Francisco’s DeForest Buckner recovered at the 49ers’ 25-yard line. The ensuing drive was capped by Gould’s 27-yard field goal to make it 20-0 with 1:57 left.
Emmanuel Moseley intercepted Rodgers with 1:01 left in the half, and San Francisco cashed in when Mostert again raced through a big hole to score from 18 yards out with 45 seconds remaining.
Green Bay got on the board when Rodgers connected with Jones on a 9-yard scoring pass with 8:44 left in the third quarter.
Mostert was back at it less than four minutes later, as he darted 22 yards to the left for a touchdown to make it 34-7 before the Packers attempted to rally.
A 42-yard pass from Rodgers to Jimmy Graham set up Jones’ 1-yard scoring run 25 seconds into the fourth quarter. The two-point conversion pass failed. Rodgers connected with Adams on a 65-yard play to lead to a 8-yard touchdown throw to Jace Sternberger with 8:13 left.
Gould booted a 42-yard field goal with 3:31 left to make it a three-score game, and Richard Sherman later intercepted Rodgers as the 49ers finished off the victory.
San Francisco is 5-1 in its previous Super Bowl appearances. The defeat came in its most recent appearance, after the 2012 season.
SUCCESSFULLY hurdling its first test in AFC Champions League 2020 last week, top local club football team Ceres-Negros FC looks to sustain its push forward when it collides with Port FC of Thailand in an away Preliminary Round 2 match today in Bangkok.
Happening at the PAT Stadium at 8 p.m. (Manila time), the “Busmen” will try to build on their Round 1 victory over Shan United of Myanmar on Jan. 14 to move closer at booking a spot in the group play of Asia’s most prestigious club competition.
Ceres defeated Shan United, 3-2, at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in a game that had the former getting a good start but somehow faltered in the end.
Robert Lopez Mendy, Bienvenido Maranon and OJ Porteria provided the goals for Ceres in the win to earn a date with Port FC, which incidentally will feature former Ceres captain Martin Steuble.
Mr. Lopez Mendy broke through for the Busmen in the fifth minute, converting a cross from teammate Pika Minigeshi to make it 1-nil for the home team.
Ceres continued to put the pressure on Shan United’s defense after, with Mr. Maranon and Mike Ott having their chances at a goal.
The Busmen eventually doubled up on their opponents in the 41st minute when Mr. Maranon found the bottom of the net off a pass from Mr. Porteria.
The count remained at 2-0 at halftime.
Ceres sustained its aggressive play at the start of the second half, getting four chances at a goal in the first four minutes of the reboot which unfortunately it could not complete.
Shan United took jabs at a goal as well as the half progressed but Ceres’ defense proved to be up to them.
But the resilience of the visitors paid off in the 73rd minute when Shan United’s Zin Min Tun scored to narrow the gap, 2-1.
The Busmen tried to steady the ship after.
They would create further distance anew in the 79th minute as Mr. Porteria connected to make it a 3-1 lead for them.
Shan United scrambled to get some real estate back and got a goal in the 87th minute care of Djawa M. to close in anew, 3-2.
It continued its charge back all the way to the four-minute added time.
But Ceres would stand its ground to hang on and preserve the win.
Having their troubles closing out the match, the Busmen underscored the need for them to shape up some more against Port FC to see their Champions League push further.
“I don’t know how much percent we are in right now but I think we are still far from the form we want to be in. Three training sessions are not enough. It usually takes six weeks to prepare a team well. Hopefully we get to put in more in training and be better,” said Ceres coach Risto Vidakovic after their win over Shan United as he touched on how they had limited time to prepare in the lead-up to the preliminaries.
Just the same, the team was happy with the win and deemed it as a “good step” towards getting their collective groove back.
“We showed a lot of heart and we did not give up. This is a good step. The game was not easy but we adjusted. We are still working our way to form but we will get there eventually,” said man of the match Porteria.
In the ongoing competition, Bacolod-based Ceres, the three-time Philippines Football League champion, is trying to make another spirited run, looking to better its performance from 2018 where it reached the third round of the preliminaries.
MELBOURNE — Defending champion Naomi Osaka overcame a patchy and error-prone performance to advance to the second round of the Australian Open on Monday with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Czech Marie Bouzkova.
The 22-year-old Japanese next faces China’s Zheng Saisai, who needed just 72 minutes to beat Russian qualifier Anna Kalinskaya 6-3 6-2.
Third seed Osaka struggled in the opening exchanges but broke the 21-year-old Bouzkova twice in the first set, which she clinched with a forehand winner in 36 minutes.
The pair battled with swirling winds on Rod Laver Arena and Bouzkova managed to break in the sixth game of the second set but Osaka, who relied on a big serve and booming ground strokes to get out of trouble, broke back twice again and sealed victory when the Czech sent a backhand wide after 80 minutes.
SERENA SWEEPS PAST TEENAGER POTAPOVA
Seven-times Australian Open champion Serena Williams looked in ominous form as she opened her 19th campaign at Melbourne Park with a 6-0 6-3 trouncing of Anastasia Potapova on Monday.
American Williams, 38, arrived at the year’s first Grand Slam having won her first WTA title in three years and made short work of the out-gunned Russian teenager on Rod Laver Arena.
A clean crosscourt winner gave the eighth seed the first set in under 20 minutes and although former Wimbledon junior champion Potapova made her fight harder in the second the match was wrapped up inside an hour.
Williams will play Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek or South Korean wildcard Han Na-lae in the second round as she continues her quest to match Margaret Court’s record career tally of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.
SHAPOVALOV SHOCKED IN FIRST ROUND
Canadian young gun Denis Shapovalov was sent spinning out of the Australian Open first round on Monday with an ill-tempered 6-3 6-7(7) 6-1 7-6(3) defeat by unseeded Hungarian Marton Fucsovics.
Seeded 13th, Shapovalov appeared out of sorts from the start and exploded at the chair umpire after receiving a code violation for pounding his racket into the blue hardcourt when broken early in the third set at Margaret Court Arena.
Shapovalov gave up a 4-2 lead in the fourth set to be dragged into a tiebreak and Fucsovics raced to a 6-2 lead before closing out the contest when the Canadian hammered an unforced error.
Fucsovics will play the winner of Italian Jannik Sinner’s match against Australian qualifier Max Purcell. — Reuters
World Junior (Under-20) Championship
New Delhi, India
Oct. 15–25, 2019
Final Top Standings
1. GM Evgeny Shtembuliak UKR 2577, 9.0/11
2. GM Shant Sargsyan ARM 2580, 8.5/11
3. GM Aram Hakobyan ARM 2561, 8.0/11
4–8. GM Miguel Santos Ruiz ESP 2560, GM Murali Karthikeyan IND 2617, Wang Shixu B. CHN 2370, GM Chithambaram Aravindh IND 2609, IM Mihnea Costachi ROU 2463, 7.5/11
Total of 94 participants
Time Control: 90 minutes for first 40 moves then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds added to your clock starting move 1
GM Evgeny Shtembuliak
GM Evgeny Shtembuliak was an unfamiliar name to most of us until October last year when the won the World Junior (Under-20) Championship. He started off as the seventh seed with a rating of 2577 behind favorite Tabatabaei of Iran (2642), Murali Karthikeyan (IND 2617), Chithambaram Aravindh (IND 2609), Dmitrij Kollars (GER 2587), Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera (CUB 2581) and Shant Sargsyan (ARM 2580). Then he jumped into the lead right from the start with 3/3 and kept it all the way to the end.
Playing Black is Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the new chess star from India. Born Aug. 10, 2005, he is the fourth youngest person in history to achieve the grandmaster title behind Sergey Karjakin, D. Gukesh and Javokhir Sindarov, achieving the title at the age of 10 years 10 months and 19 days. Pragg achieved his first GM norm at the 2017 edition of the World Junior Championship, finishing fourth with 8/11 points. Now he wants the full title.
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 d5 4.cxd5
The main line is, of course, 4.e5 but the text move seems to be enjoying some popularity at the top level lately.
4…exd5 5.e5 Ne4 6.Nf3
Many years ago the famous GM Savielly Tartakower used this line a lot with White and he preferred to grab the pawn with 6.Nxe4 dxe4 7.Qa4+ Nc6 8.Qxe4 but it seems to me that 8…Be6 9.Nf3 Bd5 10.Qe3 Nb4 Black has more than enough compensation.
This is a move not to be made lightly. It weakens the squares around his own king but prevents …h5–h4 and fights for space. Shtembuliak does not like passive play and aggressively pushes back.
21…Qf5
[21…Bxh4? 22.Bxc5 Bg3+ 23.Kg1 Black does not have a follow-up]
That was not all. In his very next tournament he became the Champion of Ukraine which, as most of our readers know, is the 5th strongest chess country in the world (after Russia, USA, China and India).
Ukraine Men’s Final — 2019
Lutsk, Ukraine
Dec. 10–19, 2019
8–9. GM Vitaliy Bernarskiy 2593, GM Alexander Kovchan 2572, 3.5/9
10. IM Petro Golubka 2479, 2.5/9
Time Control: 90 minutes for first 40 moves then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds added to your clock starting move 1
Ivanchuk, Korobov and Ruslan Ponomariov weren’t playing, but Kryvoruchko, Volokitin, Moiseenko, Kuzubov and Golubka are all former champions, and Pavel Eljanov is a long-time national team player.
Shtembuliak won five games (versus Volokitin, Moiseenko, Eljanov, Kuzubov and Golubka) without losing any.
GM Andrey Volokitin was one of the brightest young stars in Ukraine a few years ago. He achieved the grandmaster title in 2001, when he was 15 years old. In 2004, he entered the top 100 of the FIDE world ranking list, won the 73rd Ukrainian Chess Championship and was a member of the gold-medal winning national team at the 36th Chess Olympiad. In 2005 he won the Lausanne Young Masters tournament with a rating performance of 2984.
Since then he has slowed down a bit but still remains a formidable opponent.
This is the Semi-Tarrasch line of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. I have written several columns on this already but suffice it to say that if you want to play this line you have to familiarize yourself with Polugaevsky versus Tal and Spassky against Petrosian. For your reference I will show them again here.
Black wanted to play 30…a4 but noticed that it is met by 31.Rg3 Qe5 32.Nxf6+! so first he moves his king out of the potential pin on the g-file.
31.Rf3! Qg5 <D>
This is Black’s point. If now 32.Rg3? Qe5! equalizes. However, White is not obligated to push his rook to g3.
32.h4!
[32.Nxf6 gxf6 33.Rxf6+ Ke7 Black holds]
POSITION AFTER 31…QG5
32…Qxh4 33.Nxf6! gxf6 34.Rxf6+ Kg8
With the Black queen now located on h4 instead of g5 White will mate his opponent starting with 34…Ke7 35.Qe5+.
35.Rg6+ 1–0
Shtembuliak’s dream run was not yet over. Earlier the Ukrainian-turned-American GM Alexander Onischuk recruited him to study in Texas Tech University on a chess scholarship. After winning the Ukrainian championship he hurried back to the USA to represent his school in the Pan-Am Intercollegiate Championship. This is not just another school competition, the Pan-Ams is the western hemisphere’s most prestigious university open chess tournament. These schools treat their chess seriously — the Webster University Chess Team, for example, includes GMs Jorge Cori (Peru), Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba), Aleksandr Shimanov (Russia), Vasif Durarbayli (Azerbaijan), etc. Former players include Wesley So, Le Quang Liem, Ray Robson, but you get the idea.
The Texas Tech “Check Them Tech” squad won its second-ever Pan-Am Intercollegiate Championship, and its first outright. They did this over the heavily-favored Webster University Gorloks. Ever since the inception of their college chess program Webster had won or tied for first in seven years in a row. It took Texas Tech and their Ukranian connection of GMs Andrew Baryshpolets, Evgeny Shtembuliak and Pavlo Vorontsov to dethrone them.
In a space of three months GM Evgeny Shtembuliak has risen from unknown status to World Junior Champion, Ukrainian chess champion and member of the Pan-Am Champion team. We will eagerly await to see what new surprises he will spring on us in 2020.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
The Chiefs figured the Titans were going to hit the ground running, both literally and figuratively. It was a no-brainer, really. Given the way their opponents blazed the starts of set-tos against the Patriots in the wild card game and the Ravens in the divisional round, they knew the same determined effort would challenge them from the get-go yesterday. And, true enough, they were greeted by a ground attack starring Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry, who put up 32 yards in the first two series that netted 10 points. With 5:52 still left in the first quarter, they were already down by double digits.
The Chiefs would persevere, though. They wound up surviving the initial salvo, and even when their ensuing touchdown was matched by the Titans, courtesy of 29 more yards from Henry, they remained confident of their chances to prevail. After all, they firmly believed they had the superior roster. From wunderkind Patrick Mahomes to such notables as Damien Williams and Sammy Watkins, they possessed the offense to match a vaunted coverage slated to provide them with ample more opportunities. And, as things turned out, they were right.
By the time the first half ended, the Chiefs had the advantage. Fittingly, their first taste of the lead came care of Mahomes, who skirted the left sideline on the way to a spectacular 27-yard touchdown run with 11 seconds to spare in the second period. From then on, it was a matter of staying ahead — which they did with aplomb by scoring on their second, third, and fourth drives of the second half. The Titans never recovered, with Henry restricted to seven yards and quarterback Ryan Tannehill unable to turn to other weapons with consistency to keep pace.
Up next for the Chiefs: their first Super Bowl appearance since 1970 and just the third all told since they were established nearly 61 years ago. Needless to say, they’re keen on making good, never mind their relative inexperience in the sport’s grandest stage. And who’s to say they can’t follow through? With Mahomes at the helm and head coach Andy Reid bent on moving past a final-game defeat in 2004, the Vince Lombardi Trophy may yet be in their grasp when all is said and done.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
THE NATION’S top seismologist on Monday warned of a sudden explosive eruption as gas continued to build up beneath Taal Volcano, one of the world’s smallest and deadliest.
“Compared with other volcanoes, there is much more gas and magma involved,” Renato U. Solidum, Jr., director of the local volcanology agency, said in Filipino at a briefing streamed on Facebook.
“People might think the eruption is easing but based on indicators of more gas, aside from earthquakes swelling of the volcano, and we can show that there is magma underneath,” he said. “That could cause a sudden explosion.”
Taal Volcano in Batangas province forced thousands of residents to flee after it emitted a thick ash column on Jan. 12. The ashfall covered cities near the capital, forcing financial markets to suspend trading and the Manila airport to close.
About 50,000 families in Batangas, Quezon, Laguna and Cavite had been affected by the eruption as of 6 a.m. yesterday, according to the local disaster agency’s report.
It said 26,767 families were taking temporary shelter in 408 evacuation centers while 17,391 families were being served outside the centers.
Meanwhile, at least P600 per family or P12 million a day for 60 days is needed to rehabilitate communities, Albay Rep.Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda said.
Out of the total, P500 will be used on food, and the rest will be used for the family’s health expenses.
Seismologists have recorded 714 volcanic earthquakes in the Taal region since Jan. 12, 176 of which were felt at intensities 1 to 5.
These earthquakes signified “continuous magmatic intrusion beneath the Taal edifice” that could lead to further eruptions, it said.
Also Monday, the Local Government department said police would force shops in Tagaytay, a popular upland resort city on a ridge that overlooks the picturesque Taal Volcano and its surrounding lake, to shut as the volcano continues to erupt.
Commercial activities within the 14-kilometer danger zone are prohibited, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco V. Densing III told reporters.
This comes after reports that some businesses in Tagaytay continued operating amid the volcano’s unrest. — Genshen L. EspedidoandGillian M. Cortez
A MEDICAL mask maker is donating more than 100,000 face masks to areas affected by the Taal Volcano eruption, the Trade department said in a statement on Monday.
Medtecs International Corp. Ltd. will give away the masks through the agency’s regional offices amid low supply.
“The public should not worry,” Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said, saying his agency was working to ensure the supply of reasonably priced masks to protect people from volcanic ash.
“While we are conducting price monitoring operations to certify that there is no overpricing of medical face masks, we are safeguarding the production of critical products needed to address the calamity through a program of incentives in the 2020 Investment Priorities Plan as well,” he said.
Medtecs has donated a total of about half-a-million face masks to victims of the volcanic eruption.
The company said it would receive 400,000 face masks from its headquarters overseas by next week.
Medtecs Chief Financial Officer and Director Wilfrido C. Rodriguez said the company had not increased prices, and bulk orders would become available in the wake of the eruption.
Medtecs is the only medical face mask manufacturer in the Philippines. — Jenina P. Ibañez
A QUEZON CITY court has ordered the transfer of two suspects in the massacre of more than 50 people a decade ago to a cell in Taguig City.
Judge Jocelyn A. Solis-Reyes also ordered the two suspects, who were arrested early this year, to enter their plea on Jan. 21.
The court said in a separate order the 58 counts of murder charges against Kagi Faizal and Gambayan M. Kasim had been “revived and returned to the active docket.”
The two were among the estimated 80 suspects who were still at large.
The court last month convicted former Maguindanao Mayor Datu Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan, Jr. and his brother Zaldy, who is a former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, along with 26 other principal accused for 57 counts of murder.
More than a dozen more people were convicted as accessories to the crime. Their other brother, Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan, was acquitted along with more than 50 others.
The massacre took place when family members and the media were accompanying Esmael G. Mangudadatu to the Commission on Elections to file his certificate of candidacy on Nov. 23, 2009. Mr. Mangudadatu was then running for governor of the Mindanao autonomous region to end the 20-year rule of the Ampatuan family.
More than 50 people were murdered, including 32 journalists. New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists called the attack the “worst single incident of journalist killing.”
Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan rejected Andal Jr.’s plea to dismiss his graft cases in connection with the allegedly anomalous purchase of fuel by the government of Maguindanao.
The anti-graft court noted that the Ombudsman had found probable cause to indict him.
“Accused Ampatuan’s motion is hereby denied for lack of merit,” it said in a resolution.
Andal Jr., along with other public officers and his late father, Andal S. Ampatuan, Sr. had acted with “manifest partiality” when they awarded the contracts for the supply of fuel and lubricants to Shariff Aguak Petron Station without a public bidding, it said.
Shariff Aguak Petron Station was owned by Andal Jr. — Vann Marlo M. VillegasandGenshen L. Espedido
THE PANGASINAN provincial government will investigate the emergence of new African Swine Fever (ASF) cases in two towns and charge those who will be found to have “directly or indirectly” contributed to the situation “just to gain undue profit.” Gov. Amado I. Espino III, in an emergency meeting on Sunday, ordered the Task Force ASF to conduct the probe as they implement measures to contain the spread of the virus. The new cases were confirmed in the last two weeks in hog farms in Binmaley and Malasiqui. The ASF cases last year in Mapandan and Bayambang were addressed through culling operations. “Were it not for these new cases, the DA (Department of Agriculture) was expected to formally certify our ASF-free status this month,” Assistant Provincial Veterinarian Jovito Tabarejos said in a statement from the provincial government. Mr. Espino also approved the task force’s recommendation to draw up a “reward system” to encourage public participation in the crackdown against profiteers.
PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. Duterte on Monday called on Congress to allocate more money to build evacuation centers in disaster-prone areas. “I’m urging Congress, sa lahat ng (in all) prone areas of disaster…. magkaroon na ng evacuation center na malalaki (to have evacuation centers that are large),” he said in his speech before evacuees in Sto. Tomas, Batangas who have been displaced due to the Taal Volcano eruption. Thousands of families have been evacuated from the 14-kilometer danger zone around the volcano, which started spewing ash on January 12. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has since declared an alert level 4, which means a possible hazardous eruption could happen within hours or days. Mr. Duterte assured the affected population that government has enough funds for the relief and recovery operations, adding that he will expedite the release of a P30-billion fund. — Gillian M. Cortez
A WEEK-LONG trade fair featuring products from the different towns of Iloilo province opened on Monday at the capitol compound in time for the Dinagyang Festival, the biggest annual festival of the independent city of Iloilo. Provincial Administrator Suzette A. Mamon said they also wanted to offer activities to residents and guests through the provincial government’s own “Dagyang sa Kapitolyo” apart from the events lined up by the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation. “Dagyang sa Kapitolyo is open for everybody. We see to it that if they visit the Capitol, there are activities prepared for them,” she said in a statement. Aside from the trade fair, local bands and artists will be performing at the coffee shops and bars in Casa Real, the old capitol building that has been declared as a National Historical Site. Artworks by local artists are also on display at Grand Ballroom. The Dinagyang Festival main events are held every fourth Sunday of January.
