Maniolas

President Benigno S. Aquino III is joined by the Liberal Party candidates from Zamboanga del Norte Province and Dipolog City, headed by reelectionist Dipolog City Mayor Evelyn Uy, Zamboanga del Norte Gubernatorial candidate former Dipolog City Mayor Roberto Uy, Vice Gubernatorial candidate Dipolog City Vice Mayor Senen Angeles, reelectionist Zamboanga del Norte 2nd District Representative Rosendo Labadlabad, 1st District Congressional candidate Vicente Balisado and 3rd District Congressional candidate Isagani Amatong, flashes the Laban “L” sign during the meeting with local leaders and the community at the Dipolog Sports Complex in Barangay Olingan, Dipolog City on Thursday (April 18). LP was founded on January 19, 1946 by Manuel Roxas, the first President of the Third Philippine Republic. (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is asking media organizations to submit a report detailing political advertising on radio and television. “Hihingi rin kami ng mas epektibong kooperasyon mula sa media entities na mag-submit sila ng report, as required by law, ng kontrata for advertisement ng kanilang mga kandidato,” Comelec Commissioner Luie Guia said. The Comelec official made the statement after the Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down as being “arbitrary” the airtime limits on campaign ads imposed by the Comelec. The high court unanimously junked the poll body’s resolution of summing up the total airtime of political advertisements instead of limiting the airtime per station, and declared parts of Comelec Resolution Nos. 9615 and 9361 as a violation of press freedom. The resolutions set the following guidelines for political Read More …

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the National Food Authority will name the parties behind the hoarding of rice will be named soon, but not while an investigation is still ongoing. She said the NFA is not keen on publicizing names at this time, lest those involved be tipped off. (MNS Photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – Exepct the price of rice to remain high in the coming two months amid delays in the government’s procurement of additional supply, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said today. Agriculture Assistant Secretary Edilberto de Luna said farm gate prices would remain elevated until end-October after farmers put off planting on fears that the looming El Nino dry spell would lay their crops to waste. “There are some movements in the planting calendar because farmers fear that there will be insufficient water supply and delayed rainfall in these areas,” said de Luna, who is also coordinator of the DA National Rice Program. “About 77,000 hectares of rainfed areas were delayed. Instead of planting in June, farmers opted to start their cropping calendar in July, which will be harvested by October,” he added. With the delay in planting, the third-quarter harvest may reach only 3 million metric tons, or short of the 3.3 million recorded last year. “At P18-P21 per kilogram of palay would be a ‘good price’ for farmers. That’s why there’s the imported rice…to stabilize prices,” de Luna said. The June to September period is considered the lean season for rice, which is why the Read More …

A recent study says that exercise is important if one is to reap the cardiovascular health benefits of wine.©.shock/Shutterstock.com (Relaxnews) – At the European Society of Cardiology Congress, researchers from the Czech Republic presented a first of its kind study in which they concluded that wine has its greatest cardiovascular benefits for those who exercise. “This is the first randomised trial comparing the effects of red and white wine on markers of atherosclerosis in people at mild to moderate risk of CVD,” says Professor Milos Taborsky, Director of the Internal Cardiology Clinic of the University Hospital and Palacky University in Olomouc. “We found that moderate wine drinking was only protective in people who exercised. Red and white wine produced the same results.” Dr. Taborsky’s “In Vino Veritas” study involved 146 participants who, according to Heart Score, an international risk assessment tool, carried mild to moderate risk of cardiovascular disease. They were assigned at random to drink a moderate amount of Czechoslovakian wine from the same year and region over the course of a year, either Pinot Noir (red) or Chardonnay-Pinot (white). Researchers defined moderate consumption according to the World Health Organization standards of .02 L for women and .03 L for men, not more than five times per week. Participants made no dietary changes and kept a logbook of wine and other alcohol intake in addition to medication use and, importantly, exercise. To insure that participants drank their wine rather than selling it, researchers required them to reveal their corks, also Read More …

Baao Children and Youth Choir (Photo: Benny Uy) The Baao Children and Youth Choir (BCYC) is a community and church based choir composed of 11 to 18 year-old students from Rosary School Inc. and Baao National High School Special Program in the Arts. Beginning August 6 up to September 3, 2014, the Baao Children and Youth Choir held its 4th International Tour to the United States and represented the Philippines in the 15th Mundial de Coros in Puebla, Mexico. Last August 29, the choir had a concert at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church at Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles coordinated by the church’s musical director, Pete Avendano, and with the blessing and attendance of Pastor/Administrator, Fr. Larry Revilla.

If the facts following do not jolt the senses of Californians into taking drought seriously, maybe nothing else will. The Golden State, now on the third year of one of the worst droughts in the past century according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, has 82 percent of it in extreme or exceptional drought compared with 28 percent at the beginning of the year. The situation brings with it the obvious risks of wild fires and crop losses and surfaces the utter need of the state and localities to prepare for extreme weather conditions. Community College Reaches Out: The North Orange County Community College in Anaheim has reached out to the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County in its effort to spread the advantage of education to the community in a meeting recently between the two organizations’ key officers. Fil-Am Chamber president Rodolfo (Jun) Jao is at extreme right. Agriculture in the Central Valley, where half of the country’s fruits and vegetables are grown, has felt the effects of the drought. A billion dollars worth in revenues has already been lost in the industry that used to rake at least $45 billion and some 17,100 jobs already lost. The impact of the recurring water lack should have been greater had it not been for underground water being pumped to augment water supply for agricultural purposes. Problems are expected to arise with underground aquifers being tapped at unsustainable rates with the situation being likened to a savings account where everybody Read More …