Maniolas

President Benigno S. Aquino III reviews the honor guard during the send-off ceremony at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal II on Thursday (December 12). To attend the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in Tokyo, Japan. (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares believes the Aquino administration has as much as P500 billion in savings to date. Colmenares said the government had P223 billion in savings in 2013. He said the National Expenditure Program (NEP) also listed some P257 billion in funds for 2014. The lawmaker said the savings could easily have gone to the disbursement acceleration program of Malacanang if it had not been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. “Malaki pala pwede na DAP based sa sinubmit na NEP ng Malacanang. Bakit kailangan mangutang? Napakalaki savings, P500 billion na savings 2013 at 2014,” he said. Aside from government’s savings, Colmenares also intends to ask the government about its proposed redefinition of savings and the lump sum items in the proposed 2015 national budget. As much as P500 billion in lump sum special purpose funds are present in the proposed budget. Colmenares explained that the Palace’s proposal to allow government to declare savings midyear to realign it to other projects, a mechanism similar to the now unconstitutional disbursement acceleration program, allows the government to have two budgets. The first budget is from January to June and is approved by Congress while the second is from July to December based on the realignments of the Read More …

(DOTC logo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – The implementing rules and regulation (IRR) for Republic Act 10635 was approved by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). The legislation empowers the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) as the sole administrator in the enforcement of Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) for Seafarers. The agency is set to create a technical working group with the concerned government agencies and other stakeholders. Under Republic Act 10635, MARINA assumes “all powers and functions of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Health (DOH), and National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), relative to the issuance, validation, verification, correction, revocation or cancellation of certificates of competency, endorsement or cancellation of certificates of competency, endorsement, proficiency and documentary evidence required of all seafarers and all such other matters pertaining to the implementation of…the STCW Convention 1978.” “This development in the Philippine maritime industry is a step towards a stronger maritime nation that moves the world,” said MARINA administrator Maximo Q. Mejia, Jr. “MARINA is empowered to ensure that the certificates issued to Filipino seafarers are accepted by the maritime administrations and industry stakeholders around the world at its face value, a certificate backed by a credible, responsible, and high quality monitoring system,” he concluded. (MNS)

In this photo taken Feb. 25, 2014 by surveillance planes and released Thursday, May 15, 2014, by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, a Chinese vessel, top center, is used to expand structures and land on the Johnson Reef, called Mabini by the Philippines and Chigua by China, at the Spratly Islands at South China Sea, Philippines. The Philippines has protested China’s reclamation of land in the disputed reef in the South China Sea that can be used to build an airstrip or an offshore military base in the increasingly volatile region, the country’s top diplomat and other officials said Wednesday, May 14, 2014. The white arrow was added by the source. (MNS photo) MANILA (AFP) – The Philippines said Monday it has won support from Vietnam, Indonesia and Brunei for a plan to ease tensions in the South China Sea which it intends to present at a regional meeting this week. China and several of its Southeast Asian neighbors are embroiled in increasingly bitter territorial disputes over the strategic sea which Beijing claims almost in its entirety. Manila’s plan calls for an immediate moratorium on activities which escalate tensions and implementation of a code of conduct in the sea, which is home to vital shipping routes and is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits. The plan, to be presented to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Myanmar this week, was raised during Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario’s recent visits to Brunei, Vietnam and Read More …

Science is getting closer to diet-less weight loss. A new study from the Yale School of Medicine brings the latest findings.©Gts /shutterstock.com (Relaxnews) – Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine say that preventing weight gain could be as simple as calming the activity of a nuclear receptor in a tiny area of the brain. Blocking the effects of the nuclear receptor PPARGamma in a small amount of brain cells in mice not only reduced the animals’ appetites, it increased their metabolism to a point where they could be described as “resistant to a high fat diet.” PPARGamma receptors reside in the POMS neurons in the brain’s hypothalamus lobe. The receptors control the POMS neurons, telling them when to switch on and off, thereby regulating the appetite. “These animals ate fat and sugar, and did not gain weight, while their control littermates did,” says lead author Sabrina Diano, professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine. “We showed that the PPARGamma receptor in neurons that produce POMC could control responses to a high-fat diet without resulting in obesity.” In the study, Diano and her team genetically engineered their mice to lack PPARGamma receptors. “When we blocked PPARgamma in these hypothalamic cells, we found an increased level of free radical formation in POMC neurons, and they were more active,” said Diano, also a professor of comparative medicine and neurobiology at Yale and director of the Reproductive Neurosciences Group. The findings indicate more than another Read More …

Manilyn Reynes advises: Be humble, admit your mistake, say sorry.