Maniolas

FILE PHOTO PETALING JAYA, Malaysia — Maid agencies are stunned by a “new” directive im­posed by the Immigration De­­part­­ment barring them from hiring non-Muslim maids. Employers have questioned the rationale behind the policy, which department officials said was not new, as they were worried that they may not get any maids at all. Malaysian Maid Employers Asso­ciation (MAMA) president Engku Ahmad Fauzi said the policy would limit the supply of maids for Muslims. “Religion should not be an obstacle. When you work in an office, you don’t base it on religion and likewise, this should not be the case for the maid in the home,” he said yesterday. He called on the Immigration Department to enlighten people on the rationale of the policy. A maid agency owner in Selangor who did not want to be named said she had applied for non-Muslim maids for Muslims who wanted them through the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System online but they were rejected. “When I called, I was told to go to the counter to submit the application. But at the counter, the officers said that the policy was a directive from the director-general,” she said. The officers said the policy had always existed and if she still wanted to put in the application, they would reject it, she said. “If they did not allow Muslims to hire non-Muslims from the beginning, why did they allow it earlier? “There was no circular to inform us about this,” she said, adding that the rejection Read More …

Philippine Daily Inquirer By: Maricar B. Brizuela, September 13th, 2015 08:59 PM INQUIRER FILE PHOTO With the re-implementation of the truck ban along all Metro Manila roads starting Tuesday, the local government of Parañaque announced that the city would expand its truck ban to ban cargo trucks from the city’s major streets from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Mondays through Fridays. In a statement on Sunday, Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez announced that the move was also in anticipation of the Manila leg of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and to address the “worsening traffic congestion in Metro Manila.” Olivarez added that the expansion would involve changes in the previous city ordinance that regulated trucks inside the city but “only along secondary roads.” Under the expanded truck ban, trucks will be prohibited from using Sucat Road, the East and West Service Roads of the South Luzon Expressway, Ninoy Aquino Avenue, Airport Road, and Quirino Avenue, according to the city government. “The ban will be in effect from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., with a window from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays,” Olivarez said. He claimed that the expanded truck ban would prevent APEC summit delegates from getting stuck in traffic jams. Covered by the ban are 10-wheeler cargo trucks, trailer trucks, transit mixers and heavy vehicles transporting sand and other heavy materials. He, however, said that six-wheeler trucks would be exempted from the ban. “[This will] allow logistics and cargo Read More …

Philippine Daily Inquirer By: Julie M. Aurelio, August 16th, 2015 06:42 PM The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has received P2.7 million in resources from the Asia-Pacific Information and Coordination Center for Combating Drug Crimes to boost its anti-narcotics drive. APICC secretary general Park Jae-Uck recently visited the country to strengthen the fight against illegal drugs in the region as part of the advocacy of South Korea’s Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. The advocacy project included a donation of equipment and vehicles worth P2.7 million to boost PDEA’s operational capability in various regional offices in Luzon. “We greatly appreciate the generosity of APICC to our regional offices in Luzon. We strongly believe that part of the vision of building a drug-free region would entail strong international cooperation with our neighbors in the Asia-Pacific,” said PDEA director general Arturo Cacdac Jr. The donated equipment include surveillance kits, laptops, split-type air conditioners, cameras, external hard drives, digital voice recorders, computers and motorcycles. The donations will be fielded for use in PDEA’s regional offices in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa and the Cordillera Region. The APICC, with the help of the PDEA Academy, also conducted a two-day workshop for PDEA’s regional directors, drug enforcement officers and chemists in Luzon. The APICC counts Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines as among its member countries. It is a regional drug control center for international cooperation, which shares information on drug trends, the successful investigation of cases and Read More …

Philippine Daily Inquirer By: Erika Sauler, August 16th, 2015 06:01 PM Protesters tell Canada to take back tons of garbage illegally shipped to a port in Manila from Canada two years ago. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/FILE PHOTO After officials of Tarlac and Bulacan provinces objected to the dumping of garbage from Canada in the local landfills, concerned groups also urged the Quezon City government to pass a resolution opposing any plan to dispose of the foreign waste in Payatas. A proposed resolution filed by Quezon City Councilor Dorothy Delarmente said that the Bureau of Customs “is reportedly scurrying for alternative sites where the illegal garbage imports from Canada can be disposed of after Tarlac and Bulacan provincial officials have raised legitimate objections to foreign waste being dumped in local landfills.” The draft measure expresses strong disapproval of any move to dump the Canada waste at the Payatas Sanitary Landfill in Quezon City. “The Quezon City Council finds the dumping of foreign waste into our country as totally inexcusable and unacceptable and demands that such unethical and unlawful act be brought a halt,” the proposed resolution said. Aileen Lucero, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition, said the resolution should be swiftly adopted by the City Council, noting that its passage would be a “great gift the councilors can give as the city marks on August 19 the 137th birth anniversary of former President Manuel Luis Quezon after whom the city was named.” “They will surely earn ‘ganda’ and ‘pogi’ points for saying ‘no’ against dumping,” Read More …