Lebanon on Gilas’ crosshairs

Gilas Pilipinas faces Lebanon while defending champion Iran takes on South Korea on Thursday in the knockout quarterfinal round of the 2015 FIBA Asia Cup Championship in China.

Ranked 31^st in the world, Gilas swept the second round with big wins over Japan, defending champion Iran and India for a 4-1 win-loss card. The teams take a rest day today.

Gilas actually ended tied with Iran at the top of Group E, but it secured the top seeding on account of its shock win over the vaunted Iranians.

Japan wound up with a 3-2 slate followed by India and Palestine each with 2-3 and Hong Kong with zero win in five games. Palestine dealt Gilas’ only defeat going into the quarterfinals.

On account of Lebanon being just three spots lower than Gilas in the world ranking, the Filipinos cannot take chances and must play with the same intensity they did in shellacking Iran and India.

Gilas coach Tad Baldwin credited the tenacity and killer instinct of his boys in the 99-65 win over India which he said was “put under pressure” by their whirlwind defense.

KAWAII 5 electrifies

Concept Central shoots this series of photos in a promotional show of the Kawaii 5 girls who will debut on TV5 this October their comedy-drama show Amachan based on a popular Japanese television series. Don’t be fooled by their Japanese looks and their fluency with Nihongo because they are true-blue Pinays. Here, they electrify the crowd at the Movie Stars Café in Pasay City.

(Text and photos by JhDodson)

What a wrecker

This is one shameless monkey who likes to eat mail and damage police cars.

Police in Orlando, Florida, had a Monday morning to remember after receiving a call about an escaped monkey making trouble in a suburban neighbourhood.

A concerned resident contacted the Stanford Police Department when she spotted the macaque monkey, named Zeek, running riot in her street.

Zeek, who belongs to a private owner, sat brazenly on the woman’s post box and began chewing on her letters before police hastily arrived at the scene.

 “Our officers respond to some pretty serious, sad and horrific calls,” she added. “It's nice to be able to respond to something of this nature, a little more light-hearted and have a happy ending.”

The mad monkey showed a clear distaste for the officers who responded to the call when he jumped on top of their police car.

 “We received a call from a Sanford resident reporting that a monkey was eating mail out of a mailbox,” the police department explained. 

Videos posted on their Facebook page show mischief-making Zeek swinging off a road sign and damaging the police car.

The mad monkey gave police the runaround for 20 minutes before Zeek’s owner managed to get him under control. 

Image by http://www.ibtimes.com/

         

                                                    

Looking up Climbing up

The Philippines continues to inch its way up the world competitiveness rankings as it climbed five notches in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Competitiveness Index 2015-2016.

The country ranked 47th among 140 economies this year, an improvement from its 52nd spot among 144 countries last year, a WEF report showed. The ranking last year was seven notches higher than the previous year’s spot.

The WEF competitiveness ranking is measured based on how institutions, policies and other factors affect the level of productivity of a country.

The Philippines got the highest ranking in terms of macroeconomic environment followed by market size and business sophistication.

The country, however, lagged in terms of infrastructure, labor market efficiency and goods market efficiency.

In emerging and developing Asian economies, the report revealed that competitiveness trends are mostly positive, despite the many challenges and intra-regional disparities.

China and most of the Southeast Asian countries performed well, while South Asian countries and Mongolia continued to lag behind.

The WEF report said the five largest members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations—Malaysia (18th), Thailand (32nd), Indonesia (37th), the Philippines (47th) and Vietnam (56th)—all rank in the top half of the overall Global Competitiveness Index rankings.

Foreign business groups welcomed the positive improvement in the country’s global ranking, but noted that there are still plenty of things that the Philippines needs to address to be totally competitive.

Image by www.philstar.com/

Gilas blasts India, 99-65

Gilas Pilipinas cut down a much taller India five, 99-65, to close out its second round campaign with a 4-1 win-loss card in the 2015 FIBA Asia Cup Championships in Hunan, China.

Gilas banked on a huge 34-15 run in the fourth quarter to post the rousing follow-up win to its   big victory over defending champion Iran on Monday.

The Filipinos go into the knockout quarterfinal round as the top seed from Group E.

Mark Pingris torched India with eight points in the third quarter where the Filipinos outscored and outhustled their rivals to take a 15-point spread into the fourth quarter, 65-50.

The Filipinos were never threatened from there with India coming closest at 58-66 early in the fourth after which the Filipinos came up with a killer finish.

Gilas trailed by one point, 16-17, at the end of the first quarter on back-to-back baskets by Ranidel Ocampo.

It was also Ocampo who hit a three-pointer to close out scoring in the second half that gave Gilas a 42-36 spread.

Terrence Romeo cashed in on three foul throws midway of the second quarter and followed those up with a triple for a 32-27 Philippine lead.