US Marine: PHL has no case

 Entertainment
Dec 292014
 
US Marine: PHL has no case

Pemberton asks court to dismiss criminal charges AFP chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. (left) and US Marine officials inspect the 20-ft. shipping container which was converted into a temporary detention cell for USMC Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, suspect in the killing of Filipino transgender woman Jeffrey Laude, in Camp Aguinaldo on Wednesday, October 22. (MNS photo) Manila, Philippines  – A US Marine facing trial for the murder of a Filipina transgender woman urged the Philippine Department of Justice on Monday to dismiss the case against him. In a petition filed with the department, the lawyer for Private First Class Joseph Pemberton argued that prosecutors did not present enough evidence to charge him with the killing of Jennifer Laude. The body of Laude 26, also known as Jeffrey, was found at a cheap hotel in the red light district of the northern port of Olongapo in October after she checked in with Pemberton, police in that city said. But the petition argued that the evidence linking Pemberton to the killing was “based on nothing but conjectures and speculations”. “There was no evidence presented as to the details of the purported assault during the preliminary investigation other than the surmises and conjectures of the supposed witnesses and the baseless conclusions of the (Olongapo) police,” the petition argued. The murder case against Pemberton was filed with an Olongapo court which issued a formal arrest warrant for him last week. However a petition to the justice department is also an option Read More …

Gravitas & levity

 Entertainment
Dec 282014
 
Gravitas & levity

The poem uncannily titled “Repetition Compulsion” has this second and final stanza: “In the binds of tenderness, we reach./ Yet we are not who we touch./ In altered words, we speak of futures/ glimpsed in mirrors we are wedded to/ where the remnant of the child/ restores. She of the soft flesh/ given to the marvels of the wound —/ the cuts that heal many times over/ into scars nurtured beyond notice,/ skin burnished by the hands/ of voice chasing after her name/ as she runs breathless/ each instance of embrace.” As a love poem, it has all the merits of intrinsic value: images of choice intimacy, evidence of cyclic hurt (from “wound” to “cuts that heal” to “scars”), the chase, short of breath, for an instance of fugitive endearment. It is one of the first six poems in the first of four sections of Naming the Ruins, Dinah Roma’s third poetry collection, published by Vagabond Press / Asia Pacific Poetry, which is based in Australia. This first section is titled “The Wayside of Love.” What follow are: “Mercies of Camouflage” (which includes “Beyond Ondoy”); “Of Mortal Grasp” (including a poem “in memory of the victims of Haiyan…”); and “The Gift Beyond” — where the poems are on Asian temples, motifs, a river, tradition. We have to cite these demarcations and thematic taglines to stress the obvious gravitas that marks this collection as a mature, responsibly calibrated array of verses, whose concerns dwell beyond the familiar personal frippery of much Read More …

Who has legal authority on US Marine?

 Entertainment
Dec 262014
 
Who has legal authority on US Marine?

The bigger issue regarding the murder trial of U.S. Marine Joseph Pemberton which needs to be resolved without damaging the American-Philippine relations is who has the legal authority over the murder suspect. Both the United States and the Philippines are claiming that their government has the right to claim legal custody of a U.S. military personnel under criminal investigation or indictment as stated in the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in 1998. If we are going to base it on a Philippine Supreme Court ruling handed down in 2009 involving another American military personnel accused of raping a Filipino woman also in Subic City, then it is the Philippine government which has legal custody of any American soldier accused of a crime if committed within Philippine jurisdiction. The United States is seeing it differently based on their own interpretation of the 1998 VFA. It is the hope of everybody that both U.S. and Philippine government officials will be able to negotiate amicably the “custody issue” without damaging the cordial relationships nurtured through the years by both countries. I hope too that they will resolve this sensitive issue before it becomes a full blown “tug-of-war” between both countries. No less than President Aquino in a statement said that the case should not “sour” the country’s relations with the United States – the Philippine’s most important diplomatic and military ally. Because of what seems to be an unabated Chinese aggression in a long-running territorial dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea, Read More …

8 delicious ways to cook leftover chicken from the holidays

 Entertainment
Dec 262014
 
8 delicious ways to cook leftover chicken from the holidays

MANILA, Philippines – There’s a great deal of leftover food during the holidays. Given that budgets can be tight these days, leftovers should not be ‘left’ over. There are many ways in which you can cut down your food waste. By refrigerating, shredding or boiling leftover chicken, a new dish for dinner is ready to be served. Revel on your chicken previously served for Noche Buena. Here are some  recipe ideas for left over chicken. Chicken Pot PieGet recipe here. Photo from onehungrymama.com Chicken Salad SandwichGet recipe here. Lifestyle Feature ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: Photo from chow.com Chicken and Chickpea saladGet recipe here. Photo from mymansbelly.com Chicken QuesadillasGet recipe here. Photo from chow.com Creamy Chicken Enchiladas Get recipe here. Photo from goodcheapeats.com Chicken and Cheese BurritoGet recipe here. Photo from goodcheapeats.com Chicken Fried RiceGet recipe here. Photo from goodcheapeats.com Chicken Noodle SoupGet recipe here.  Photo from mmn.com

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