Maniolas

Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) employees restore the electric posts along Mayon corner P. Florentino Streets at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City while a mango tree lies at the sidewalk along Visayas Avenue, Quezon City during the height of typhoon Glenda on Wednesday (MNS photo) MANILA (AFP) – The death toll is still rising and hundreds of thousands of homes are without power five days after Typhoon Rammasun’s (known locally as Glenda) rampage through the Philippines, authorities said Monday. Reports of fatalities from the typhoon, which struck the archipelago on July 16, continued to come in from isolated areas, bringing the number of dead to 97, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement. Officials have said most were killed by falling trees and debris or knocked down by the storm’s powerful winds. Six people, most of them fishermen who went out to sea, also remained missing, the council said. The Department of Energy said power had been restored to many areas but about 280,000 households in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces were still without electricity. Other provinces that felt the storm’s fury also had only partial electrical service as power companies struggled to repair tens of thousands of toppled electrical poles, said department spokeswoman May Militante. The Manila Electric Co., which distributes power to the capital and surrounding areas, hopes to have electricity restored to virtually all affected areas by Wednesday, the department said. But areas outside the capital region may not get power Read More …

President Benigno S. Aquino III, who likened Chinese rulers to the Nazi rulers “ironically” delivers his speech during the ceremonial signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) Foundation, Inc. and the Provincial Government of Leyte for the construction of 500 houses and five units of Barrio Schools for Typhoon “Yolanda” victims at the Rizal Hall of the Malacañan Palace on Wednesday (February 05). MANILA (AFP) – Philippine President Benigno Aquino, who has been criticized for his own inability to quit smoking, has signed a law requiring tobacco companies to print graphic warning pictures on packets, his spokesman said Sunday. The bill signed Friday has long been campaigned for by health advocates but is opposed by the tobacco industry. It requires companies to devote about half the space on packets to warnings including photographs of internal organs ravaged by smoking. The Philippines has long had a conflicted attitude towards smoking, with the government trying to discourage it even as it encourages a politically powerful tobacco-growing industry. In 2013 Aquino signed a “sin tax” bill dramatically raising the taxes on tobacco products. The Philippines is the latest developing country to follow Western nations in requiring shock pictorial health warnings. A similar Indonesian law came into force in late June, but was initially widely ignored. According to a 2009 survey, 28 percent of adult Filipinos are smokers.

Also in the same issue of YES! magazine, a feature on Korina Sanchez and her posh high-rise digs.

To help the Glenda typhoon victims, Alice Dixson is auctioning through her Instagram account (@alicedixson) 12 copies of FHM December 2013 issue, the one on which she is on the cover and a bestseller that year.

By Angelita  Felixberto Noli Me Tangere The Opera Washington D.C. : For the first time, Jose Rizal’s famous novel “Noli Me Tangere” will be staged at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. as an OPERA on 8-9 August 2014. The opera will be presented at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, by the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for Asian Artists (MAFFAA) in coooperation with its major sponsor, the Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC). After the Washington DC showing, Noli Me Tangere The Opera is slotted for twenty one shows from September 11 through 28, 2014 at the Resort World Manila, Manila, Philippines. The Noli Me Tangere The Opera first premiered in Chicago in 2012, through the KGB Productions. From Chicago it was then brought to New York by the Foundation for Filipino Artists, Inc. (FFAI) chaired by Loida Nicolas-Lewis, as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of Filipino-American History Month. Inspired A Revolution The “Noli Me Tangere” published in 1887, indirectly inspired a revolution, as the novel exposed the inequities of the Spanish Catholic priests and the ruling government. The work also paved the way for a national consciousness, national identity and brought to a pedestal, the personification of the ideal Filipina woman as someone who has unwavering loyalty to her spouse. “Noli Me Tangere” was noted for having lampooned, caricatured and exposed the various social ills during the colonial history of the Philippines. “Noli Me Tangere,” in Latin, means “Touch Me Not” and it refers to John 20:17 in the Bible as Mary Magdalene tried Read More …