Maniolas

The world’s first public dengue vaccination programme was launched in the Philippines on Monday as nurses began injecting the first batch of a million children with a French drug to combat the sometimes deadly disease. A student reacts before a nurse administers the anti-dengue vaccine at Parang Elementary School in Marikina.© AFP PHOTO/NOEL CELIS Several hundred children aged 9-10 queued in front of government health workers at a public school in eastern Manila for the injections, capping a 20-year, 1.5-billion-euro ($1.8 bn) effort by French drug manufacturer Sanofi to develop the vaccine. “We are the first country to introduce, adopt and implement the first-ever dengue vaccine through the public health system and under public school settings,” said Philippine Health Secretary Janette Garin. The Philippines had in December approved the vaccine, the first to be licensed globally to combat the mosquito-borne disease for people aged between nine and 45. Zelin Joice Carungay, aged nine, cried briefly as she and her classmates fell in line for the vaccine on teacher’s orders. “I’m terrified of needles but they told us we need it to avoid dengue,” the girl told reporters. “In the end it felt nothing more than an ant’s bite,” the relieved child said afterwards. Dengue or haemorrhagic fever, the world’s most common mosquito-borne virus, infects an estimated 390 million people in more than 120 countries each year, killing more than 25,000, according to the World Health Organization. Symptoms are often mild but more than two million people annually develop more serious symptoms Read More …

President Benigno S. Aquino III on Thursday graced the 25th anniversary celebration and thanksgiving program of the Center for Community Transformation Group of Ministries at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City Thursday (March 31). He praised the group for accomplishing programs that are aimed to alleviate poverty, as their civic work have done so much impact on the lives of the poor. The CCT started in 1991 as a small ministry and has now evolved into 12 ministries committed to helping the “poorest of the poor.” Also in photo are PCOO Secretary Sonny Coloma, DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman, CCT Chair Bertram Lim, and CCT President Ruth Callanta. (MNS photo) MANILA, Apr 4 (Mabuhay) –  President Benigno Aquino III garnered the highest approval rating among the top national government officials, according to the latest Pulse Asia Research Inc. “Ulat ng Bayan” national survey. Aquino was the only government official who secured a majority approval rating, with 52 percent of the respondents saying that they have a positive opinion on the work he has done, the pollster noted in the “Performance Trust Ratings of the Top National Government Survey and the Performance Ratings of Key Governmnet Institutions” released on Monday. “A little over half of Filipinos (52 percent) have a positive opinion of the work done by President Benigno Aquino III in the past three months,” the pollster said. The survey was conducted from March 12 to 18, 2016, using face-to-face interviews with a probability sample of 1,800 Read More …

Performers walk on stilts during a street dancing competition, which culminates the Kaamulan Festival in Malaybalay City, Friday. Kaamul is a gathering of Bukidnon’s seven ethnic tribes–Bukidnon, Higaonon, Talaandig, Manobo, Matigsalug, Tigwahanon and Umayamnon–to promote their traditions.(MNS photo) BUKIDNON  (Mabuhay) – Bukidnon Governor Jose Maria Zubiri Jr. has officially endorsed the presidential candidacy of fellow Mindanaoan, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Speaking in front of a huge crowd during the annual Kaamulan Festival on Friday, the influential political leader of Bukidnon introduced Duterte as the next president of the Philippines. According to Zubiri, his endorsement of the Davao City mayor was not a personal decision but the decision of his party, the Bukidnon Paglaum Party (BPP). “I gave them slips and said to them, ‘Who do you want to vote for Vice President and President of this country?’ When they gave that, I kept it myself, brought it to my house and one by one, I opened it. It was a unanimous decision,” Zubiri said. On October 6 last year, it was reported that Zubiri, along with the 20 mayors of the province, had announced that they will support administration standard bearer Mar Roxas in the May 9, 2016 elections. Zubiri, however, changed his tone after Duterte eventually filed his certificate of candidacy for president. Both Zubiri and Duterte admitted that they are long-time friends. Like Duterte, Zubiri also wants a change in the government system to federalism. Zubiri denied saying that they would support Roxas’ presidential bid. “I only Read More …

In this suffering world, the month of March has just passed with a day devoted to the subject of happiness. The event was heralded as the International Day of Happiness, a global celebration coordinated by nonprofit Action for Happiness in 160  supported by a partnership of like-minded organizations. It was in celebration of the event that the United Nations made available the publication of its 2016 World Happiness Report that revealed astounding results of a survey of people in 157 countries. The survey report gave revealing insights into how “the most cheer most cheerful countries got their way and the richest countries are got that way.” The ranking in the survey was based on parameters that included the participating country’s per – capita gross domestic product (which accounted  for more than 30 percent of the total), social support (26 percent),  healthy life expectancy (18 percent), freedom to make life choices (12 percent), generosity (8 percent), and the absence of corruption (5 percent). Of the 157 countries surveyed in the report, the United States ranked 13th garnering a score of 7.104 on a 10-point score. Denmark was number one on the list with a score of 7.526 and the least happy, Burundi,a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of East Africa. Americans are not exactly unhappy, but there’s room for improvement, according to some observers. Happy Filipinos: The Philippines ranks 82nd among 157 countries studied by the United Nations on happiness as part of a research which was released Read More …

Chinese businessman Kam Sin Wong, also known as Kim Wong, shows a photo of the Php100 million delivered to Solaire Resorts and Casino during the Senate hearing on the $81 million money laundering scheme. Wong admitted coursing some of the money to the RCBC Jupiter branch.(MNS photo) Manila, Philippines | AFP |   – More than $4.5 million of tens of millions recently stolen from Bangladesh and funnelled into Philippine casinos was recovered Thursday, as a lawmaker in Manila said almost half the haul could still be salvaged. On February 5, unidentified hackers shifted $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account with the US Federal Reserve to a nondescript bank in Manila, and then to the casinos where the trail went cold. Representatives for casino agent Kim Wong, who is under criminal investigation after a portion of the stolen money was traced to his account, surrendered $4.63 million in cash to the Philippine central bank on Thursday. “He kept his promise to return the money,” Wong’s lawyer Innocencio Ferrer said in a statement. Wong testified at a marathon parliament hearing Tuesday that two high-rollers from Beijing and Macau shifted the $81 million to dollar accounts in Manila’s Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC). Wong said he did not know the money was stolen from Bangladesh and that he merely helped the two men – who are also his casino clients – open bank accounts. He offered to return the money, which he said remained in his account in Solaire, one of the Philippine capital’s gleaming Read More …