Maniolas

THE PSO Dubai team won the top prize at the culinary competition. On May 1, Labor Day, 30 pre-teen and teen-aged students from Philippine Schools Overseas (PSO)  in  Bahrain, Oman, Doha, Dubai, and Shanghai  converged in the kitchens of Enderun Colleges in McKinley Hill, Taguig to face-off and demonstrate culinary skills inspired by their Filipino heritage. Most of the student-contestants are children of overseas Filipino workers. Participants from various Philippine schools abroad face-off during the cookfest. The 1st Philippine Schools Overseas (PSO) Culinary Competition 2013-14 was conceptualized by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) to foster cultural connectivity.  The project was supported by the Mama Sita Foundation together with Banco de Oro,  Landbank of the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture, and GMA 7-International. According to Undersecretary Mary Grace Ampil-Tirona, executive director of the CFO, the primary objective of the project is to continuously strengthen the cultural ties of children of overseas Filipinos with the home country and to raise awareness of the vocational, technical and entrepreneurial tracks being opened under the government’s K-12 curricular reform program. The culinary competition focused on the development of youthful appreciation for national dishes, not just by eating  them with gusto,  but by learning how to cook a range of favorite Philippine signature dishes from “scratch.”  Blurring traditional gender roles, the competition drew both male and female contestants. After a year of classroom practice  under their mentors and coaches and the  submission of  well-documented on-campus elimination rounds simulating a food festival, five out of the Read More …

By Allan MacatunoInquirer Central Luzon 4:46 am | Friday, May 2nd, 2014 SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines—Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) representatives are to meet with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) officials to discuss expanded access by American troops at the former US Navy base here, an SBMA official said. Zharrex Santos, manager of SBMA’s airport department, said on Wednesday there were plans to use portions of the airport here in connection with the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) but “no definite details” had been agreed upon yet. The Subic airport has been serving as a jumpoff point for US troops participating in military exercises, he said. Santos said the arrival of the latest batch of American troops in the free port was covered by the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), not by the Edca. About 100 American soldiers landed in Subic on April 23 to take part in the exercises. National security “Some of them were deployed somewhere in the country and might stay for two weeks, while others stayed in the airport area to establish work stations,” Santos said. The US Navy built the airport during the Korean War in the 1950s. It was rehabilitated in 1992 after the US Navy left Subic Naval Base. SBMA Chair Roberto Garcia said earlier that his agency, which manages the free port, supported the new agreement on the military’s use of sections of the free port “as this would strengthen national security.” He said the new agreement had become necessary because of Read More …

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, right, toast as they attend a state dinner at Malacanang Palace in Manila, Philippines, Monday, April 28, 2014. AP MANILA, Philippines — What was going on with United States President Barack Obama? Ask him about his first-ever visit to Manila and he’ll probably tell you about one unforgettable night at the Palace when he “jammed” with three Philippine Cabinet members audacious enough to perform live for their VIP guest. All of that happened at last Monday’s state dinner during which there was clearly no shortage of professional performers, the likes of Apl.de.Ap, Leo Valdez, Bituin Escalante, Kuh Ledesma, and the Philippine Madrigal singers. Enter the trio of Secretaries Florencio Abad, Jose Rene Almendras and Rogelio Singson, who belted out their no-holds-barred rendition of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 Motown classic, “What’s Going On?” It’s one of Obama’s favorite songs (reportedly second on his iPod list), a deeply textured tune inspired initially by police brutality against black kids in the US. Anyone among the celebrity singers in attendance could have done justice to Marvin Gaye. But Almendras said it was probably better to let the “non-pros” do it, if only to encourage Obama and his delegation to sing along. “Baka mahiya kumanta kung mga professionals,” he told reporters. And sing along they did throughout the brief performance. Almendras said Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, was so into it that her boss eventually gave her the microphone. “Ang lakas ng boses n’ya. Read More …

By Germelina LacorteInquirer Mindanao 5:41 pm | Sunday, April 27th, 2014 President Barack Obama. AP FILE PHOTO DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged US President Barack Obama to use his Manila visit to press the Philippine government to fulfill pledges to improve respect for human rights and accountability for serious abuses. “President Benigno Aquino III’s administration has undertaken reform efforts in some areas but failed to match rhetoric with meaningful action to end impunity for extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “While abuses overall have decreased since the previous Arroyo administration, killings of political activists, environmental advocates, and local politicians continue with alarming frequency and have begun to rise again, in many cases with apparent involvement by local authorities and the security forces,” the HRW said. “The Philippines remains a risky place to be an outspoken activist or muckraking journalist,” said John Sifton, HRW Asia advocacy director. “People taking on powerful local interests all too frequently make the news as victims, and those responsible for killings are almost never prosecuted,” Sifton added. The rights watchdog also wrote a letter to Obama the previous month, urging the US president to raise human rights issues during his visit to Manila. “The last year featured a major surge in killings of journalists in the Philippines: 12 were killed in 2013, bringing to 26 the total number of media workers killed since Aquino took office in 2010,” the HRW statement Read More …

By Norman BordadoraPhilippine Daily Inquirer 5:45 am | Friday, April 25th, 2014 MANILA, Philippines—Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano hopes US President Barack Obama will categorically state that the United States will defend the Philippines if it is attacked by China over disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea. In an interview with Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper ahead of his departure for a four-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region that began on Wednesday, Obama said the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, being administered by Japan, fell within the scope of the US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, and an attack by China on Japan over those islands would invite a reaction from the United States. Speaking at a news forum on Thursday, Cayetano said he hoped Obama, whose tour of the region also takes in the Philippines, would categorically state that the United States is likewise obligated under its Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines. “In the case of Japan, they made it very clear that these islands are covered by the defense treaty. So that’s what the Philippines wants and that’s what the Filipinos need, I think, at this point in time—a very clear statement from the United States through their president saying that these islands, this area, is Philippine territory,” Cayetano said, referring to Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal), Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) and other islands in the Spratly archipelago in the West Philippine Sea, the part of the South China Sea within the Philippines’ 327-kilometer Read More …