Maniolas

Philippine Daily Inquirer 8:46 am | Sunday, August 17th, 2014 Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Saturday said President Benigno Aquino III had yet to decide whether or not to pull out the Filipino peacekeeping forces from the Golan Heights and Liberia, even as the Department of National Defense (DND) had recommended it. Liberia is among the West African countries stricken by the deadly Ebola virus, while the Golan Heights is the volatile buffer zone between Israel and Syria. The civil war in Syria continues to rage, while to the south Israel is currently involved in a battle of deadly missile barrages with Palestine in Gaza. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over government run-dzRB radio that Mr. Aquino wanted to be appraised of the protection and safeguards available to the more than 400 Filipino troops deployed to these two places under the UN flag. “My impression is the President has not made a decision yet. He still wants to know the available safeguards,” Valte said. There are 115 Filipino soldiers in Liberia and 332 in the Golan Heights. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the DND recommendation considered the health and security risks faced by the Filipino troops. Earlier, Mr. Aquino decided that the Filipino peacekeepers in Syria would stay put after two groups of Filipino soldiers were kidnapped weeks apart by Syrian rebels last year, Valte said. Nikko Dizon RELATED STORIES   Pullout of PH peacekeepers urged   DND mulls pullout of PH peacekeepers Read More …

MANILA, Philippines–The Akbayan party-list group has denounced what it called a “modern-day slave auction” in Singapore in which maids, including Filipinos, are displayed and marketed at a shopping mall in the city state. AFP FILE PHOTO The group Tuesday called on the Singapore government to crack down on the “display and marketing of migrant workers” at the Bukit Timah Shopping Center. The practice is dehumanizing and degrading for migrant workers who are being treated like “ordinary commodities,” said Walden Bello, the Akbayan member in the House of Representatives. Citing a report by the Al Jazeera TV network, Akbayan said migrants from the Philippines, Indonesia and Burma (Myanmar) working in “maid agencies” were being made to sit beneath signs identifying them as “Homekeeper” or “Budget Maid.” Prospective employers may choose from “super-promo” and “special discount rates,” in which Filipinos are tagged as “smarter,” Indonesians as “less bright,” and Burmese workers as “sweet-natured and compliant.” “The workers are also made to simulate real-life housework, like taking care of the elderly or children,” the group said. Investigation Vice President Jejomar Binay on Monday called for an investigation into the Al Jazeera report. “Practices such as this have already been consigned to history, to the age of colonialism when people were simply abducted and shipped thousands of miles from their homes to work as slaves,” Bello said. “It is shocking that this still happens in modern times and in Singapore no less, one of the most developed countries in the world,” he said. Akbayan Read More …

MANILA, Philippines—The governments of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have pledged to enhance cooperation in the regional crackdown on the illegal trade in marine turtles taken from the rich waters of the Coral Triangle. Sea Turtle. AFP PHOTO The commitment was made in a marine turtle trade workshop hosted by the Philippine government on June 3-4, according to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Philippines. “With the ongoing issue of poaching of marine turtles, the country recognizes the need for an integrated approach in addressing this challenge,” Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said. “The alarming trend over the past decade justifies the need for neighboring countries to make trans-boundary arrangements and improve the protection of turtles between governments,” Lim said in a WWF news release. “Entire populations of turtles are being wiped out by persistent poaching, both targeted and as by-catch,” Joel Palma, WWF-Philippines vice president for conservation, said. Organized trafficking “As foreign fishing fleets are often involved, such intergovernmental collaboration is essential to strengthen local and trans-boundary law enforcement to prevent marine turtles from being poached and traded for use as food and luxury items,” Palma added. The workshop came on the heels of an incident last month where Philippine authorities arrested Chinese fishermen off the coast of Palawan who had around 500 live and dead turtles in their boat. The involvement of local fishermen in the incident “suggests a higher degree of organized supply and trafficking Read More …

NEW YORK, New York —Anews item recently got my attention. Apparently, in a study of the deadly effects of hurricanes (or typhoons), a group of researchers observed that, in the United States at least, there were more fatalities and more destruction wrought when the hurricane/typhoon had been christened with a female name. Why was this? The researchers’ hypothesis was that those living within the area to be struck by the horrific act of nature didn’t think the typhoon would be as terrible as it would have been had it had a male name, and thus they took fewer precautions than they normally would have. Were the scientists perhaps having a private joke premised on the saying that hell hath no fury like a woman (and typhoon) scorned? I doubt that such theorizing holds any water, no pun intended. In the Philippines, at least, afflicted as we are by an average of 20 typhoons a year, folks take such natural disasters seriously, but as was shown in the case of Hurricane Haiyan/Typhoon Yolanda, the devastation was nevertheless extraordinary. By the way, the typhoons that plague our archipelago are usually named after women.   But while a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, it might be time to rethink this whole business of naming typhoons. If the intent is to make the inhabitants of the endangered area extra alert to the very real dangers of the impending fury, then I suggest the typhoons be named after historical figures Read More …