Texters forge finals vs B-Meg

TALK ‘N TEXT’s  veterans can deliver as well.

Ranidel de Ocampo and Jimmy Alapag, silent for most of last night, drilled the baskets that mattered when the outcome was in the balance as the Tropang Texters tripped Barako Bull, 101-90, to enter the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

De Ocampo and Alapag combined for 11 critical points in the stretch that held off the Energy as the rubber match of this best-of-five series went down the wire.

The Texters advanced against the B-Meg  Llamados, who made the best-of-seven title  series on Tuesday after a 108-84 win over Barangay Ginebra and a 3-1 triumph.

“In the end, it’s about making the shots that matter. Jimmy’s triple and Ranidel’s four-point play. That’s how it is,” coach Chot Reyes, who will make the 15th title series appearance of his career, said.

“We had no illusions about the other team. We knew they were going to be very good,” Reyes said. “In the finals (against B-Meg), it will be that way again.”

The only two times in this series that the results weren’t blowouts were games won by the Energy, as their veterans carried the fight in the stretch.

It was De Ocampo and Alapag’s turn last night for the Texters, whose first two wins in the series were by an average of  23 points.

Alapag first drained a triple from close to 30 feet, and after the Energy had come to within four points heading into the final three minutes, De Ocampo completed a rare four-point play that kept the Texters’ heads above water, 96-88.

The reigning MVP Alapag then had an unmolested lay-up and De Ocampo sewed it all up for the Texters with two free throws with 60 seconds remaining for a 100-90 lead.

Donnell Harvey led the Texters with 29 points, 14 rebounds and three steals and De Ocampo finished with 18 that went with seven boards.

Reyes said Alapag shouldn’t have even played. Alapag’s father is battling cancer and his brother just suffered a stroke a day before the series started.

The scores:

TALK N’ TEXT 101—Harvey 29, De Ocampo 18, Dillinger 14, Castro 14, Williams 9, Peek 7, Alapag 6, Fonacier 3, Reyes 1, Alvarez 0.

BARAKO 90—Freeman 22, Seigle 21, Tubid 18, Allado 12, Miller 6, Salvador 4, Najorda 3, Arboleda 2, Pena 2, Weinstein 0, Pennisi 0.

Quarters: 25-27, 56-47, 77-74, 101-90

PBA News

NU may bench Youth skipper Alejandro this UAAP season

MANILA, Philippines—After the National University (NU) Bulldogs’ blowout 99-48 victory against the Jose Rizal University (JRU) Heavy Bombers  on Monday, Bulldogs head coach Eric Altamirano disclosed that Energen Pilipinas Under-16 national team captain Rodolfo “J-Jay” Alejandro III would not suit up for the team for UAAP Season 75.
“Well, right now, we’re not planning to put him (Alejandro) in the lineup yet for (the upcoming UAAP season),” Altamirano said. “Bata pa s’ya (He’s still young), so we try to give him time to mature first, and hopefully next year, he’ll be part of the team.”

NU secured a commitment from the 6-foot guard Alejandro last February. He led the Malayan High School Red Robins last year to a fifth-place finish at the NCAA juniors division while averaging league-best 25.4 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.8 steals.

He was named as the team captain of the Energen Pilipinas Under-16 team, which finished fourth in the 2011 FIBA Asia Under-16 Championships in Nha Trang, Vietnam, last October, where he once scored 34 against Japan in the second round of the tournament.

UAAP News

Strong Indonesian quakes cause panic, not tsunami

BANDA ACEH—Two massive earthquakes triggered back-to-back tsunami warnings for Indonesia on Wednesday, sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground in cars and on the backs of motorcycles. No deadly waves or serious damage resulted, and a watch for much of the Indian Ocean was lifted after a few hours.

Women and children cried in Aceh, where memories are still raw of a 2004 tsunami that killed 170,000 people in the province alone. Others screamed “God is great” as they poured from their homes or searched frantically for separated family members.

Patients were wheeled out of hospitals, some still lying in their beds with drips attached to their arms. And at least one hotel guest was slightly injured when he jumped out of his window.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first 8.6-magnitude quake was a shallow 22 kilometers (14 miles), hitting in the sea 270 miles (435 kilometers) from Aceh’s provincial capital.

An alert that followed from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii advised countries all along the rim of the Indian Ocean, from Australia and India to as far off as Africa, that a seismically charged wave could head their way.

Two deadly tsunamis in the last decade — the most recent off Japan just one year ago — have left the world much better prepared.

Sirens sounded along coastlines and warnings spread like wildfire by mobile phone text messaging. Though often chaotic, evacuations began immediately with streets clogged with traffic, especially in Aceh.

The only wave to hit, though, was less than 30 inches (80 centimeters) high, rolling to Indonesia’s emptied coastline.

Just as the region was sighing relief, an 8.2-magnitude aftershock followed.

“We just issued another tsunami warning,” Prih Harjadi, from Indonesia’s geophysics agency, told TVOne in a live interview.

He told his countrymen to stay clear of western coasts.

Residents in Aceh could hardly believe it.

“What did we do to deserve this?” cried Aisyah Husaini, 47, who lost both her parents and a son in the 2004 tsunami. “What sins have we committed?”

“I’m so scared, I don’t want to lose my family again,” she said, clinging to her two children in a mosque in Banda Aceh, where hundreds of people sheltered.

Again, though, the threat quickly passed.

Experts said Wednesday’s quakes did not have the potential to create massive tsunamis because the friction and shaking occurred horizontally, not vertically. The earth’s tectonic plates slid against each other, creating more of a vibration in the water.

In contrast, mega-thrust quakes cause the seabed to rise or drop vertically, displacing massive amounts of water and sending towering waves racing across the ocean at jetliner speeds.

Roger Musson, seismologist at the British geological survey who has studied Sumatra’s fault lines, said initially he’d been “fearing the worst.”

“But as soon as I discovered what type of earthquake it was … I felt a lot better.”

The tremors were felt in neighboring Malaysia, where high-rise buildings shook, and Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

Those countries, Sri Lanka and the Maldives evacuated buildings and beaches and readied relief efforts in case of disaster.

The World Meteorological Organization said communication systems set up after the 2004 tsunami appeared to have worked well.

“Our records indicate that all the national meteorological services in the countries at risk by this tsunami have received the warnings in under five minutes,” said Maryam Golnaraghi, the head of WMO’s disaster risk reduction program.

The alert was sent out by U.S. National Weather Service, which operates a tsunami warning station in Hawaii, she said.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

The giant 9.1-magnitude quake and tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed 230,000 people in about a dozen nations.

Local News in the Philippines

Aquino assures war veterans of better health services; vows AFP modernization

ILAR, Bataan—President Benigno Aquino III assured Filipino war veterans of subsidized health services and vowed to continue the  modernization of the Armed Forces in Monday’s Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) rites that paid tribute to Filipino and American soldiers who fought the Japanese 70 years ago.

Mr. Aquino, who addressed the elderly soldiers and their relatives gathered at the Dambana ng Kagitingan entirely in Filipino, got thunderous applause when he announced that from March 31, 599 hospitals had been accredited by Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) as regional and provincial extensions, making it easy for the veterans to access medical benefits.

“The state honors our veterans and I believe we should repay their sacrifices by caring for them,” he said.

Colonel Roberto Gacayan, 85, a war veteran from La Union province, urged Mr. Aquino and legislators not to ignore the plight of the war veterans.

“It seems that the government has been slowly forgetting what we did during the war. We hope that our benefits will be increased … We will not live long and we hope that in the remaining years of our lives, we get to feel our true worth,” Gacayan, who heads the Confederation of World War II Veterans’ Sons and Daughters Inc., said.

“If it had not been for our sacrifices, the youth will not experience the freedom they are enjoying today,” he said.

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Release of ‘pork barrel’ tightened

The Aquino administration has tightened the release of pork barrel to senators and representatives to stem its misuse especially in the run-up to the campaign in next year’s midterm elections, according to the Department of Budget.

The pork barrel, called the Priority Development Assistance Fund  (PDAF), provides funding for the pet projects of congressmen and senators. It has been known to be a source of enrichment for certain legislators who receive kickbacks from private contractors handling their projects.

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad Jr. said the administration had “fine-tuned” the list of eligible projects for the P24.89-billion PDAF allocation this year and the release process as part of efforts to prevent abuses in the use of the pork barrel.

“The House of Representatives and the Department of Budget and Management have agreed that only one realignment will be allowed. We foresee a lot of requests for changes as we approach [the] 2013 elections with expected political alignments and realignments taking place,” said Abad in a text message. [A PADF allocation is realigned when its use is changed.]

The release of the pork barrel has been delayed because of requests by senators and representatives to change the projects they had submitted for funding “sometimes even after the special allotment release order (Saro) has already been issued,” Abad said.

A Saro is released by the DBM to advise lawmakers that funds have been allocated for their PDAF and public works funds.

A senator is entitled to P200 million and a member of the House  is allocated P70 million in PDAF yearly.

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Photos of ‘tourists’ posing with crosses on Good Friday anger Netizens

MANILA, Philippines—Anger and ridicule among netizens on Monday were targeted against women in skimpy shorts, believed to be tourists, posing with wooden crosses erected during the long Lenten break meant to remember the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

The first to have gone viral has a woman believed to be in her late teens to early 20s posing on a cross as if it’s a tourist item.  The snapshot was attributed to photographer Maike Domingo who posted it on his Facebook account.

The second photo, taken by professional photographer-college professor Jay Javier, has two women on a jump shot with two crosses as background.

Both incidents, as confirmed by Domingo and Javier, happened on Good Friday in Angeles City, Pampanga, which, for years has been the site of various re-enactment of the Crucifixion. Some devotees went as far as having themselves nailed on the cross like Christ as part of their yearly penitence.

While the blatant disrespect of the cross was the common reactions, others relate such sacrilege to another series of viral photos of a young woman riding a dead whale shark or butanding. Others remember last year’s exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, where artist Mideo Cruz’s installation piece had the face of Christ glued with wooden phallic symbols.

Even Javier was disgusted over the blasphemous acts of these tourists. In his Facebook account, his caption for the jump shot: “Angeles Pampanga. Good Friday 3.30pm. The site of a Passion Play and the reading of the ‘Siete Palabras’. Kailangan talagang gawin ito? Even non-believers will cringe at the sight of this blatant show of disrespect and impropriety.”

There were also references on policemen posing with the damaged tourist bus after the hostage drama in Rizal Park in August, 2010.

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