USA: In Southern California, Filipino restaurants crowd the strip malls

KAREN GIVEN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE. Treats from Filipino Desserts Plus.

NATIONAL CITY, California. — Last summer, Travel Channel host Andrew Zimmern predicted Filipino food would be the "next big thing" and that the Filipino food revolution would come from San Diego. But he got at least one detail wrong. Although thousands of Filipinos have come to this country through Naval Base San Diego, they have since settled in the suburbs.

Filipino restaurants and markets crowd low-lying strip malls on both sides of Plaza Boulevard in National City, a few miles south of downtown San Diego. They have names like Villa Manila, Jolibee, and Pinoy Ranch. Tita's Kitchenette is one of the most popular. On weekdays at lunch time, the line files out the door and down the sidewalk, as no-nonsense servers pile food high on Styrofoam take-out dishes and deftly encase side orders in plastic wrap. While some patrons find space in Tita's humble dining room, most are ordering to go.

The food, set out in a dizzying array of chafing dishes, is not labeled. Nor does the menu on the wall offer much help. At first glance, the choices are simple: a combo meal with rice or pancit (Filipino cut noodles) plus a few side items like lumpia (Filipino spring rolls) and barbecue skewers. For payment, the options are even more limited. "Cash only" reads a bold sign under the menu.

When faced with more than a dozen choices, none of which are familiar, and a crush of hungry locals waiting to be served, ordering can be difficult. The servers at Tita's don't like to be kept waiting, but they're not the least bit offended by newbies who don't call the dishes by their proper names. Tita's is known as a "turo, turo" restaurant, which translates to "point, point."

On a relatively quiet Saturday afternoon, less than half of Tita's green and yellow cafe chairs are filled, but the line still trails out the door. Our group, led by a second generation Filipino-American, "point, points" to two combos, one with rice and one with pancit, and to what seems to be a well-balanced selection of barbecue skewers, fish, and vegetable side dishes. The bounty, enough to feed four with leftovers for days, comes to just under $30, drinks included.

Our most daring choice, pusit (squid) prepared in vinegar, is neither as fishy nor as vinegary as expected. The dish is mild, flavorful, and slightly sweet . . . if a little chewy. The eggplant, on the other hand, tastes strongly of fish. The kitchen is apparently not stingy with the fish sauce in that dish.

For a sure bet, ask for the adobo, meat cooked in vinegar. On this day, beef is the only choice, but adobo is often made with chicken or pork. Sometimes considered the national dish of the Philippines, adobo draws on the island nation's geography and history, marrying soy sauce from China and a vinegar cooking method that some say predates three centuries of Spanish rule.

The barbecue is also delicious. It's grilled behind a large plexiglass shield in the main restaurant so the aromas tempt diners waiting to place their orders. The pork and chicken skewers are crispy on the outside and juicy inside, and like many Filipino offerings, the marinade is salty and slightly sweet.

Tita's has a few bakery items for sale, but there's a larger selection next door at Valerio's Family Bake Shop. Bags of pandesal are piled high on shiny metal racks. Super soft and, again, slightly sweet, these Filipino dinner rolls make a satisfying breakfast warmed and served with a little butter and honey. We buy a couple of bags, but the desserts are not what our guide had in mind. So we head back down Plaza Boulevard to a place called Filipino Desserts Plus.

KAREN GIVEN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE. Pandesal rolls at Valerio's Family Bake Shop.

Desserts Plus isn't fancy, but every type of Filipino sweet seems to be crammed into the small space. We choose brightly colored packages of traditional two-bite treats. They include puto, soft and billowy steamed rice cakes, and kutsinta, orange-colored disks that are sticky and slightly chewy. There are even some rich-hued desserts made with ube, a purple yam.

By the end of the afternoon, our stomachs are full, our recommended daily allowance of sodium has been far exceeded, and our guide's kitchen is packed with leftovers. But if a trip to National City isn't in the cards, do like the 3.4 million Filipino-Americans do. Make something like adobo at home.

The Boston Globe

Written by: Karen Given can be reached at kgiven@hotmail.com.

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Filipino Desserts Plus

2220 East Plaza Blvd., 619-479-6748

Tita's Kitchenette

2720 East Plaza Blvd., National City, Calif., 619-472-5801

Valerio's Family Bake Shop

2720 East Plaza Blvd., 619-470-3742

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Bullets manufacturing to begin Production in the Philippines from Canada Technology

Government Arsenal to buy Canada machines for ammunition production

The Government Arsenal is the first agency to benefit from the recently signed defense cooperation between the Philippines and Canada.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the Philippine government has placed an order with Canada for machines for the Government Arsenal.

The equipment would be for the improvement of "our capability to produce ammunition such as the casing, everything about bullets and ammunition manufacture," Gazmin told reporters on Monday, following anniversary ceremony of the Department of National Defense (DND).

The Government Arsenal in Limay, Bataan, manufactures the ammunitions needed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

An agency under the Defense Department, the Government Arsenal was created under Republic Act. No. 1884 and signed into law in 1957.

According to the Government Arsenal website, it was 14 years later when the first small arms ammunition (SAA) cartridge "rolled out of the GA's production assembly line."

"Three years later, the integrated SAA manufacture began, with all the components—case, primer, propellant powder, and bullet assembled into a complete cartridge—(were) manufactured in the arsenal," the website said.

Republic Act 7898 or the AFP Modernization Act "provides for the modernization of the Government Arsenal for the development of production capabilities to enhance self-sufficiency in defense requirements," the website noted.

Gazmin also said that the Defense Department has been eyeing the purchase of "small boats for rough waters."

"We are receiving offers already. So we are looking at these water assets," he said.

The recent state visit of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the Philippines saw the signing of the deal that would help Manila purchase military equipment to help defend its territory.

According to a Canadian government statement, under the deal, Philippine purchases of equipment and expertise from Canada's C$12.6 billion (US$12.6 billion) defense industry are guaranteed by the Ottawa government.

Gazmin said there have been no contracts made yet for big-ticket items.

"There are all in the process… (which is) going towards the final stages. But there is no contract signing yet," Gazmin said. (http://is.gd/M28Al5)

Inquirer

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Indigenous Miners help China Loot the Philippines

Bagacay Mining. Messing with Mother Nature

Illegal Chinese mining results in billions of dollars of losses and environmental wreckage

China's mining industry has found both a literal and figurative gold mine in the Philippines through some of estimated 500,000 small-scale miners operating throughout more than 30 of the Philippines's 80 provinces.

Two decades ago the government pushed through the People's Small-Scale Mining Act of 1991, and more recently, the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, which gives indigenous miners priority rights over mining applications. These applications, which bar the use of explosives, cyanide, mercury and heavy or sophisticated drilling machines, skiploaders and excavators, are granted by local governments for a mere ₱10,000 (US$241).

But the romantic idea of the hard-working local, out there with pan and shovel, is sadly out of synch with reality. Operating through lawyers in the Philippines and co-opting Filipino proxies, the Chinese firms circumvent the enormous time – five to 10 years – and expense of complying with large-scale mining requirements, using the locals to purchase mining permits or special ore extraction permits to avoid large capital requirements, fees, and taxes associated with large-scale mining.

The gold is usually transported by ship from mining provinces like Surigao del Norte to ports such as those in Cebu where they are shipped by private plane outside of the Philippines, typically to Hong Kong, where one of the world's largest gold depositories has just gone into operation at Hong Kong International Airport. The Israeli-based owners of the facility refused comment on their operations.

The numbers of Chinese piling in to loot Filipino resources are increasing. Overwhelmed authorities have arrested more than 100 Chinese nationals since January for their involvement in illegal mining operations. The Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau has expressed alarm over the increasing number of Chinese nationals working mines illegally.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources concedes that the industry is plagued with rampant misdeclaration, undervaluation and illegal export of minerals from the Philippines to China. It also acknowledges that large-scale mining operators have been hiding under small-scale mining permits to avoid paying their full tax obligations. In 2008, the department disclosed that an estimated three million tonnes of mineral ores processed in China were unaccounted for by the Philippines, thus depriving the national and local governments of billions of pesos in tax revenues.

Industry sources suggest that Chinese mining firms claiming to manage small-scale ventures actually engage in large-scale operations, using heavy equipment, mercury, cyanide, and various types of explosives to extract ore, contrary to national mining laws. The Chinese companies thus are gaining a reputation for trampling on environmental standards. Often cited as among the world's worst violators of occupational health and safety standards in their own country, they are being blamed in the Philippines for fast-rising floods during heavy rains, landslides, poisoned water bodies, soil erosion, deforestation, and even a decline in farm output in areas where there has been a surge in questionable projects.

Certainly the minerals aren't being passed legally through official channels. In June, the environmental agency sought help from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force and the Bureau of Customs after the Mines and Geosciences Bureau reported a 38 percent first-quarter decline from the previous year in production value, from ₱31.40 billion (US$752 million) to ₱9.61 billion, a shortfall of ₱11.79 billion. The mines bureau attributed the drop to the smuggling of mineral ores abroad, particularly to China. The environment agency has formally recommended to the Philippine Government that the smuggling of mineral resources from the Philippines be declared a crime of economic sabotage.

The Chinese companies offer notoriously malleable local politicians the right price and the right deals, which local government officials justify, arguing that little to none of the tax and permit revenue paid by large western mining firms to the national government is ever remitted to local government units, as required by law.

It also appears that the government is not holding China to the same legal benchmarks that are applied to Western firms. Indeed, the other traditional foes of western mining – the Catholic Church, environmentalists, and other activists generally leave the Chinese companies alone while placing formidable obstacles in the path of western mining companies, whose standards are usually considerably higher.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau concedes that some Chinese investors buy local companies with mines still in the early stages of development. Chinese companies are also increasingly partnering with other Chinese firms that want to invest in the same mine site, thus eliminating competition and bringing in more resources to accelerate a project.

In the Philippines, a 100 percent foreign-owned company is allowed to obtain mineral processing permits, mineral exploration permits and financial technical assistance agreements. Mineral production sharing agreements, however, must adhere to the Philippines' constitutional requirement of 60-40 ownership in favor of a Filipino company.

By actual count, however, as of July 31, 2012 the mining bureau listed only five Chinese companies with processing permits, 14 with production sharing agreements and just two with exploration permits. None has a financial technical assistance agreement with the government.

Yet, according to industry sources inside and outside the Philippines, at least 40 Chinese mining investors are involved in mineral extraction. That is because many operate under the names and licenses of their Filipino counterparts or subsidiaries. For example, Philippine mining company Oriental Synergy has a production sharing agreement on Dinagat Island but has also partnered with the Chinese company Macao Quanta in a separate agreement assigned to Filipino partner Minahang Bayan ng Mamamayan ng Dinagat Island Cooperative. The Ecleo family, the island's ruling and most dominant political clan, heads the small-scale mining cooperative.

The majority of small-scale miners are also accused of illegally selling their output to the black market or to foreign buyers abroad at below market value to evade taxes and government fees. There are related allegations that these small-scale miners go beyond the allowed tonnage and land area limits. Industry sources assert that in some cases, small-scale miners haul 50,000 tonnes of ore per month from a five-hectare area, and thereafter simply renew their small-scale mining permits issued by the local government.

Following the renewal, the small-scale miner only needs to show proof of active extraction to secure a longer-term permit. Indeed, these types of permits have apparently become a venue for larger firms that simply want to speed up mineral collection. Given such mining practices, it is no surprise that these operations devastate the land.

Corruption and manipulation of the law has rendered national agencies such as the DENR helpless in regulating and monitoring small-scale mining operations, as provincial mining and regulatory bodies often become rubber-stamp institutions of local politicians who are working in collusion with the mining companies. (http://is.gd/VbAG41)

Asia Sentinel 

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