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One mystical body
EXPLORING GOD’S WORD, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com
IN CHARACTER
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron get ready for all sort of glorious mayhem as Max Rockatansky and Imperator Furiosa in the post-apocalyptic steampunk spectacle.
Friday, May 15, 2015
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Furiosa Fabulosa and mad about Max
Director George Miller gets no small help from Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron in rebooting the high-octane franchise with ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ B R R Miami Herald
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OBODY does postapocalypse like George Miller. In 1979’s Mad Max, his low-budget directorial debut, the certified doctorturned-filmmaker depicted a society that had started to crumble, with leather-jacketed, sadomasochistic nomads terrorizing people on the roads outside Melbourne. The movie was a brutish, ferocious tale of grindhouse revenge filled with vehicular stunts that looked a little too real and dangerous. Mad Max launched the young Mel Gibson’s career and brought international attention to the burgeoning Australian film industry. Two sequels followed: 1982’s The Road Warrior (titled Mad Max 2 in its native turf), which kicked off what is considered to be the greatest summer movie season of all time (Blade Runner, Poltergeist, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Thing, Tron, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Rocky III) with a 94-minute bolt of turbocharged, R-rated action that made every other Hollywood car-chase picture made before seem like it was shot in slow motion. 1985’s Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, which Miller codirected with George Ogilvie, toned down the mayhem and threw in stunt casting (including Tina Turner) to lure in mainstream, PG-13-friendly audiences. Although it grossed more than the previous two installments, the cumbersome, talky Thunderdome wasn’t as well-received as its
predecessors. Miller, now firmly ensconced within the studio system, moved on to more respectable endeavors (Lorenzo’s Oil, The Witches of Eastwick). This is why the anticipation for Mad Max: Fury Road, the first new installment in the series in 30 years, has been sky-high ever since the first teaser trailer for the film was released in September. With Tom Hardy taking over for Gibson in the lead role, and an astonishing display of vehicular mayhem on a scale much larger than we had seen before, the movie promised a return to the lean, pared-down visceral thrills of The Road Warrior, right down to its R-rating, for violence and gore. Even Miller himself was blown away by the initial trailer—until he realized he would now have to fulfill outsized expectations. “The trailers were so great, I realized we would have to lift the bar higher than ever in order to live up to them,” Miller says via telephone from Los Angeles. “We were doing postproduction on the movie and I felt a new level of pressure. We had to deliver.” And he did. Too many big, spectacular entertainments today either fail to measure up to their elaborate, spoil-all marketing campaigns. Or they rely on over-the-top special effects to outdo what has come before, often at the cost of plausibility or basic common sense (see: Furious 7). But Mad Max: Fury Road, which opens on Friday, is a return to the tactile, thrilling excitement of The Road Warrior that broadens
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INDIA’S MODI
VISITS CHINA’S XI’AN AMID WARMING TIES BusinessMirror
World The
B3-1 | Friday, May 15, 2015 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) makes a statement watched by indian Prime Minister narendra Modi after signing agreements in new Delhi, india, on sep’tember 18, 2014. AP/MAnish swAruP
India’s Modi visits China’s Xi’an amid warming ties
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I’AN, China—Lion dancers and flower-bearing children welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to central China where President Xi Jinping planned to host him with a touch of personal diplomacy that is rare for a Chinese leader.
Modi arrived at the airport in Xi’an clad in a traditional Indian costume. He then visited the museum showing China’s famed terra cotta warriors and a Buddhist temple housing works translated from Sanskrit. In the afternoon, he was scheduled to hold a lengthy meeting with Xi, whose family hails from the region. By hosting of Modi in his home province of Shaanxi, Xi is reciprocating for the Indian leader’s invitation
to Xi to his own hometown of Ahmadebad last year. Chinese leaders almost never receive their foreign counterparts in anything other than formal settings in Beijing. The visit highlights warming ties between the rising Asian powers—the world’s two most populous nations, with a combined population of 2.6 billion—despite their continuing rivalry and contrasting political systems. That trend has been given added impetus by the
personal authority enjoyed by the two men, who are widely seen as their countries’ strongest leaders in years. China is looking to India as a market for its increasingly high-tech goods, from high-speed trains to nuclear power plants, while India is keen to attract Chinese investment in manufacturing and infrastructure. With a slowing economy, excess production capacity and nearly $4 trillion in foreign-currency reserves, China is ready to satisfy India’s estimated $1 trillion in demand for infrastructure projects such as airports, roads, ports and railways. Modi’s top priority in China is finding ways to reduce India’s $48-billion trade deficit with its neighbor through greater market access for Indian goods and services and by convincing Chinese companies to manufacture in India. Indian and Chinese officials have said the sides plan to sign investment deals and trade agreements during Modi’s visit worth about $10 billion, the official China Daily newspaper reported on Thursday. Xi and Modi are also expected to discuss efforts to end a long-festering border dispute that sparked a
bloody monthlong conflict in 1962. No resolution is expected soon, although the sides have been in close contact to avoid flare-ups. India has also grown increasingly concerned about forays by Chinese naval vessels, including submarines, into what New Delhi considers its strategic backyard. China’s navy is active in the Gulf of Aden as part of antipiracy patrols, and Beijing has heavy invests in port facilities in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Another divisive issue is China’s deep ties with Pakistan, India’s archrival, where Xi received a lavish reception last month. China has made a commitment to invest up to $46 billion in Pakistani power generation and other projects. Meanwhile, the presence of Tibetan exiled leader the Dalai Lama in India rankles Beijing, although New Delhi has avoided using him as a diplomatic foil. China reviles the Buddhist cleric, who fled to India in 1959, as a separatist. On Friday Modi will hold talks with officials including Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing before moving on to Shanghai on Saturday for activities focusing on trade relations. AP
U.S. HoUSe paSSeS bill to end bUlk collection of pHone recordS
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ASHINGTON—The House of Representatives voted by a wide margin on Wednesday to end the National Security Agency’s (NSA) bulk collection of Americans’ phone records and replace it with a system to search the data held by telephone companies on a case-by-case basis. If the House bill becomes law, it will represent one of the most significant changes stemming from the unauthorized disclosures of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The House vote set the stage for a showdown with the Senate just weeks before the Bush-era provisions authorizing the program are due to expire. President Barack Obama supports the House legislation, known as the USA Freedom Act, which is in line with a proposal he made last March. The House passed a similar bill last year, but it failed in the Senate. Many Senate Republicans don’t like the measure, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced a separate version that would keep the program as is. Yet, he also faces opposition from with-
a sign is shown outside the national security agency campus in Fort Meade, Maryland. AP/PAtrick seMAnsky
in his party and has said he is open to compromise. Most House members would rather see the Bush-era provisions expire altogether than re-authorize NSA bulk collection, said Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee. The issue, which exploded into public view two years ago, has implications for the 2016 presidential contest, with Republican candidates staking out different positions.
The revelation that the NSA had for years been secretly collecting all records of US landline phone calls was among the most controversial disclosures by Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator who in 2013 leaked thousands of secret documents to journalists. The program collects the number called, along with the date, time and duration of call, but not the content or people’s names. It stores the information in an NSA database that
a small number of analysts query for matches against the phone numbers of known terrorists abroad, hunting for domestic connections to plots. Officials acknowledge the program has never foiled a terrorist attack, and some within the NSA had proposed abandoning it even before it leaked—on the grounds that its financial and privacy costs outweighed its counterterrorism benefits. Proponents of keeping the program the way it is argue that the rise of the Islamic State group and its efforts to inspire Westerners to attack in their own countries make it more important than ever for the NSA and Federal Bureau of Investigation to have such phone records at their disposal to map potential terrorist cells when new information surfaces. And they say there is no evidence the program has ever been misused. Under the House measure, the NSA would no longer collect and store the records, but the government still could obtain a court order to obtain data connected to a specific number from the phone companies, which typically store them for 18 months. AP
Deal reaCheD in senate that CoulD aDvanCe obaMa’s traDe Push
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ASHINGTON—Senate Democrats have dropped a key demand that led them to filibuster President Barack Obama’s request for expedited consideration of a major trade deal, quickly resolving a rare internal battle between the president and his party. On Tuesday a group of lawmakers opposed to a Pacific Rim trade agreement persuaded most of their fellow Democrats to join them in blocking a vote on Obama’s request that he be granted the authority he says he needs to help finalize negotiations with the 11 other nations in the pact. The Democrats’ blocking of Obama’s priority magnified the difficulty that the president has had in persuading his allies to support the trade agreement, which he calls the most progressive such deal in American history. Key Democratic constituencies, though, fear the pact could hurt American manufacturing. The deal is one of Obama’s top remaining legislative concerns, requiring a sustained lobbying campaign that included last week’s visit to Nike’s headquarters to highlight potential benefits to the US economy of increased exports and lower tariffs on goods produced by American companies. He also met on Tuesday after the filibuster with a group of 10 pro-trade Democrats at the White House to discuss the path forward. As a result of that and other negotiations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican-Kentucky, said the Senate will again attempt to vote on the trade measure in coming days.
Democrats, led by Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Senate Democrat, had pushed to use the trade authority bill as leverage to force a vote on a measure penalizing countries that manipulate their currency. Schumer has long accused China of deliberately devaluing its currency to gain an unfair advantage in trade, and more recently critics have complained about Japan using its depreciated yen to do the same. China isn’t part of the trade negotiations, but Japan is, and American car manufacturers, labor unions and some others want the pact to include sanctions for countries found to be manipulating their currencies. The Obama administration has refused to seek tough currency provisions in trade negotiations, saying it would kill the deal, and Obama is likely to veto such legislation if it should clear both chambers and reach his desk. Though Democrats dropped the demand to package the currency bill with the measure to give Obama negotiating power on trade, a leadership aide said that if it were to pass the Senate, the House could still link the two. McConnell called it a “reasonable” solution that would guarantee Democrats had up-or-down votes on the currency bill “in a way that that will not imperil the increased American exports and American trade jobs we need.” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat-Nevada, also called it a fair outcome. “This is a complex issue, one that deserves a full and robust debate,” he said. TNS
cairo SUbway tHriveS beneatH tHe cHaoS a FeMale senior security officer speaks to women inside a female-only car at the shohadaa (Martyrs) Metro station, in Cairo, egypt. AP/hebA elkholy
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AIRO—Far below the gridlocked streets of Egypt’s capital, a virtual second city thrives. The Cairo Metro system sprawls across the city, delivering an estimated 3.6 million passengers a day over three different lines and approximately 78 kilometers of train track, both above ground and below the city center. In a city known, as much as anything, for its dysfunction, the Cairo Metro stands as a singular achievement. It’s reliable, well-maintained and relatively clean. And
it may be the only place in Egypt where nosmoking rules are actually enforced. At 1 Egyptian pound (13 cents) per ticket, the Metro is a bargain even in a country like Egypt where nearly half the population of 90 million lives near or below the poverty line. “It’s like the life train,” said Leila Abdel Basset, a 24-year-old journalist who has taken the Metro to work every weekday for the past three years. “It’s crowded in some stations, and empty in others, but it always gets me to my station.” AP
warriors make mincemeat of grizzlIes Sports BusinessMirror
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| Friday, May 15, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao
WARRIORS MAKE MINCEMEAT OF GRIZZLIES The Golden State Warriors crush the Grizzlies, 98-78, on Wednesday in Game Five of the conference semifinals to take a 3-2 lead in the series as they could not be stopped at Oracle Arena.
By Diamond Leung
The Oakland Tribune AKLAND, California—Blow by blow, the Golden State Warriors buried the Memphis Grizzlies with a barrage of backbreaking shots and now find themselves one win away from advancing to the Western Conference finals. The Warriors crushed the Grizzlies, 98-78, on Wednesday in Game Five of the conference semifinals to take a 3-2 lead in the series as they could not be stopped at Oracle Arena. Stephen Curry did a little bit of everything, racking up 18 points, seven rebounds, six steals and five assists. He came out firing and matched a playoff career high with six three-pointers. Klay Thompson scored a game-high 21 points, with his four-point play in the fourth quarter giving the Warriors a 24-point lead and one more thrill to remember before they headed back to Memphis for Game Six. The other standout for the Warriors was their collective defense, which smothered Memphis. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies were already in a bind when top perimeter defender Tony Allen was unable to play and guard Thompson due to a sore hamstring. Once Andre Iguodala (16 points) and Harrison Barnes (14 points) began doing what they wanted and enjoying big games, as well, there was little the Grizzlies could do but fight another day. Even if the Warriors can’t close out the series on Friday, Memphis would have to win a Game Seven on the road to advance. “You don’t want to mess around,” Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said of looking to end the series in Game Six. “You never know what can happen.” If Game Five wasn’t the knockout blow, it sure felt like one. The Warriors’ defense limited the Grizzlies to 39.8 percent from the field. Marc Gasol led them with 18 points, but was eight-for-22 from the field with Draymond Green draped all over him. Andrew Bogut added six points, all on alley-oop dunks, nine rebounds and four blocked shots. “This is what it’s going to take, this kind of defense from tonight,” Kerr said. “We sped the game up with our defensive activity, forcing turnovers.” The Warriors were 14-for-30 from three-point range with Curry leading the way and Thompson hitting three of them. Curry erupted and hit four three-pointers in the first quarter alone, bringing the Warriors back from as many as 13 points down to lead 26-25. Curry tantalized Beno Udrih with the dribble before launching from long range to close out the quarter with the Warriors in the middle of an 18-2 run. After the shot, Curry motioned to the Oracle crowd to get even louder than it already was. He hit two three-pointers during that stretch, with Green adding a three-point play. It was clear Curry came out ready to shoot, as he attempted eight shots from long distance in the first half and only one shot from two-point range. Zach Randolph finished with 13 points and had gotten the Grizzlies off to
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a hot start, making his first four field goal attempts, including a rare threepointer to give them an 11-4 lead. He had nine of those points and four rebounds in the first four minutes. While the Warriors blew numerous opportunities to score in transition and committed seven first-quarter turnovers, the Grizzlies took a 23-10 lead before Curry and Barnes led the comeback. Barnes had a three-pointer and a jumper followed by Curry’s threepointer in transition to cut the deficit to 23-15. Barnes’s second three-pointer gave the Warriors a 41-35 lead in the second quarter. Thompson hit a three-pointer, and then Curry drained his fifth from long range to give the Warriors a 49-37 lead. They finished the first half with 14 fast break points, with the Grizzlies failing to score any. Barnes scored 10 points by halftime and despite committing four turnovers was aggressive and effective. Late in the second quarter, his foot slid while guarding Courtney Lee and caused him to painfully do the splits. He still came out to start the second half. Curry’s sixth three-pointer gave the Warriors a 63-51 lead, jump-starting a 12-4 Warriors run. Andre Iguodala had two dunks in transition off passes from Curry, who after the second one once again motioned for the crowd to go crazy. Iguodala’s putback dunk off Curry’s lay-up attempt made it 74-57 heading into the fourth. In the final period, he had a three-pointer and another dunk to put the game out of reach for Memphis. Iguodala’s putback dunk off Curry’s lay-up attempt made it 74-57 heading into the fourth. STEPHEN CURRY does a little bit of everything, »racking up 18 points, seven rebounds, six steals and five assists. He comes out firing and matched a playoff career high with six threepointers. AP
HORFORD SAVES HAWKS A
TLANTA—Atlanta’s Al Horford swooped in to snatch an offensive rebound and dropped in a shot from right under the basket with 1.9 seconds remaining to give the Hawks an 82-81 victory over Washington on Wednesday and a 3-2 lead in the National Basketball Association Eastern Conference semifinals. Atlanta went more than seven minutes in the fourth quarter without making a basket, then ripped off 14 straight points to take the lead. Then there was another sudden shift as Atlanta went cold again, and it looked as though Washington’s Paul Pierce had doomed Atlanta for the second time in the series. Having already made a buzzer-beating winner in Game Three, he got open in the corner and swished a three-pointer with 8.3 seconds left, putting the Wizards up 81-80. Pierce taunted the Hawks bench and home crowd on his way back down the court before bowling over teammate John Wall, who was playing for the first time since Game One after fracturing several bones in his left hand. Wall didn’t mind, throwing up his hands in celebration. The Wizards were on the verge of heading home with a chance to wrap up the series. Atlanta had one more chance. The Hawks gave the ball to backup point guard Dennis Schroder, who ignited a fourth-quarter rally and stayed in the game at the suggestion of All-Star Jeff Teague, who watched the closing minutes from the bench. Schroder drove down the lane and put up a shot, which was swatted off the backboard by Wall. But Horford yanked the ball away from Nene, who tumbled to the court, leaving the Hawks
center all alone under the basket. Horford, who had 23 points and 11 rebounds, put it the easy shot on a night when both teams struggled offensively. “I wasn’t supposed to be involved in the play at all,” Horford said. “When I saw the ball go up, I just ran in there.” The Wizards threw up a wild shot from halfcourt that didn’t come close as the horn sounded. The sellout crowd nearly stormed the court, held back by security while the Hawks celebrated. Horford screamed and pumped his fists, having put the Hawks one victory away from advancing to the third round of the playoffs for the first time since the team moved to Atlanta from Saint Louis in 1968. About 10 minutes after the Wizards lost, there was more heartbreak for D.C.sports fans. The Capitals were eliminated from the National Hockey League playoffs with a Game Seven overtime loss to the New York Rangers. At least the Wizards still have a chance. Game Six is on Friday night in Washington. “These guys are fighting. I love it,” Washington Coach Randy Wittman said. “They made one more play than us.” Wall, who fractured several bones in his left hand in the series opener and missed the next three games, wound up with 15 points, seven assists and four steals. Bradley Beal led the Wizards with 23 points. AP AL HORFORD’S late follow gives the Atlanta »Hawks an 82-81 win over the Washington Wizards. AP
sports
By Bianca Cuaresma
GERI INCOME SOARED 35% IN JAN-MARCH
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REDEFINING BAR FARE CLASSICS »D3
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BSP: No need to tweak rates
furiosa fabulosa and mad about max W
TfridayNovember 18, 2014Vol.Vol. 10 No. n Friday, May 15, 2015 10 No. 21840
‘ECONOMY PRIMED FOR CONTINUED GROWTH WITHOUT NEED FOR MONETARY-POLICY SUPPORT’
INSIDE
E, Christians, are not just people who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in Him as the one with whom we form one mystical body. We do not exist along with Him, but in Him, since at our baptism we have been engrafted into Him. “I am the vine, you are the branches.” This is not a figure of speech, but a wonderful reality. It is thanks to our deep union with Him that we can enjoy God’s salvation and produce fruits that are worthy of our new life in Him. Such is His gift to us and His challenge. Amen.
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nly eight months old, the country’s monetarypolicy settings were left unchanged on Thursday’s ratesetting meeting of the Monetary Board (MB) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), a development various economists and observers widely anticipated.
The decision, observers said, is a validation of the view that the $272-billion economy is primed for continued growth and without need for monetary-policy support. According to the BSP, the potential for accelerated growth this year remains undiminished, such that the rate at which it borrows from or lends to banks had been kept steady at 4 percent for borrowing and 6 percent B3-1 for lending. The banks’ deposit-reserve ratio and the interest rate on special deposit accounts the various lenders maintain at the BSP were similarly left unchanged. “The MB decision is based on its assessment that current monetarypolicy settings remain appropriate given a manageable inflation environment. The MB, likewise, observed that the risks to the inflation outlook continue to be broadly balanced,” BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said at the post-MB meeting news briefing. BSP Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo said the central bank now forecasts inflation to average 2.3 percent for 2015, or slightly higher than the assessment in March of only 2.2 percent. For 2016, the BSP also recalibrated its inflation forecast upward c1 from 2.5 percent originally to 2.6 Continued on A2
PESO exchange rates n US 44.7610
By VG Cabuag
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new pccci officers Philippine-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCCI) outgoing President Anson Tan (second from right) and incoming President Wong Cheung Sha hand a plaque of appreciation to Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, who served as the inducting officer and inspirational speaker during the organization’s induction ceremony at a restaurant in Pasay City. The senator urged the newly elected officers and members of PCCCI to continue promoting trade and investments here and abroad, and keep pace with the market and policy shifts due to the impending Asean integration. ROY DOMINGO
Electricity-rate hike feared on WESM price increase, Malampaya supply cut
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By Lenie Lectura
he Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is worried over the sudden price hike at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), saying this could trigger an increase in power rates if it continues to shoot up. “We have observed that WESM prices since Monday have, at times, been approaching P30 per kilowatt-hour [kWh]. In contrast, for the whole of last week, spot-market prices seldom exceeded P5 per kWh,” Meralco Utility Economics Head Lawrence Fernandez said. Meralco sources about 3 percent of its power requirements from the WESM, which serves as the trading floor for the buyers and
sellers of electricity. Fernandez shared this observation after he was asked to give updates on the Malampaya natural-gas supply cut that started on May 10. “While natural-gas supply normalized this morning [May 14], we were just advised that SPEX [Shell Philippines Exploration BV] will again curtail natural-gas supply,” the Meralco official said. Early Wednesday, Fernandez said the Malampaya gas power facility was starting to produce more gas compared to last Sunday. In particular, Unit 2 of Kepco Philippines Inc.’s 1,200-megawatt (MW) Ilijan combined cycle plant was switched on again. Later that day, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla said, “as far
as Malampaya is concerned, they are back to normal.” However, he added, “there could be lag in the switching from liquid to gas.” The Malampaya facility accounts for 40 percent of the Luzon grid’s requirements. It supplies natural gas to Ilijan and to the 1,000-MW Santa Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas plants of First Gas, a subsidiary of the Lopezes’ First Gen Corp. Fernandez said the latest advisory Meralco received was that “starting 4 p.m., five of the six First Gas units will be forced to shift to liquid fuel.” No further details were provided as of press time. Officials from SPEX and the Department of Energy also did not reply when sought for comment. “We See “Malampaya,” A2
lobal Estate Resorts Inc. (Geri), owned by tycoon Andrew L. Tan, reported that its net income grew 35 percent in the first quarter of the year after its sales and hotel income soared. The company that develops integrated tourism estates said its income reached P139 million for the period from last year’s P103 million. Consolidated revenues for the first three months of the year amounted to P885 million, a growth of 38 percent from P640 million last year, as residential sales and hotel and service income soared. “It has been an impressive start of the year for Geri. We started 2015 with a robust sales performance across our projects. We are confident that Geri can sustain this strong momentum for the rest of the year,” said Lailani Villanueva, company chief finance officer. Real-estate sales grew 35 percent year-on-year, to P554 million from P411 million last year. The company said this was attributed to strong residential sales in various estate projects, such as the Boracay Newcoast in Aklan, Santa Barbara Heights in Iloilo, Twin Lakes in Tagaytay, Southwoods City in Cavite-Laguna and Alabang West in Las Piñas City. “The strong marketing efforts for our various projects across the country have certainly gained ground as far as revenues are concerned. With our vast land bank, we have more opportunities to tap to even further expand our developments,” the company said. At the moment, Geri, a unit of Megaworld Corp., has five major developments across the country covering more than 2,200 hectares of land. Megaworld last year folded Geri into the company after it bought the 49.2-percent stake of parent firm Alliance Global Group Inc. for P10.43 billion. Megaworld now owns 80 percent of Geri and leads the company in transforming its huge tracts of land bank into integrated urban townships.
n japan 0.3756 n UK 70.4314 n HK 5.7747 n CHINA 7.2144 n singapore 33.7870 n australia 36.2878 n EU 50.8082 n SAUDI arabia 11.9363 Source: BSP (14 May 2015)