Maniolas

Ambassador Cuisia answers questions during the open forum moderated by retired US Ambassador Richard LeBaron. WASHINGTON, DC — “We look forward to the US continued engagement with Asia. Despite budgetary constraints and the pull of other global commitments, it is here in the Asia-Pacific where America must clearly advance its interests and priorities. As Asia is becoming more prosperous, security tensions must be addressed.” This was one of the key messages of Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose L. Cuisia, Jr. when he addressed a diverse audience on the first day of the Discover Diplomacy Weekend on Friday, 06 May, at the historic DACOR Bacon House in Washington, D.C. In a comprehensive keynote speech, Ambassador Cuisia underscored the vital contributions of Philippines-US alliance to regional stability and how the people are the alliance’s “best asset”. “Having witnessed first-hand how the relations have grown in the last five years, I would say the glue of the alliance has been the people and the greatest value proposition of the alliance is the ability to develop robust economic relations and the capacity to jointly address security challenges,” the envoy said. The Ambassador gave an overview of Philippines-US relations along people-to-people, economic, and defense and security lines of collaborative efforts. He cited the strong bond between the Filipino and American peoples as evidenced by the outpouring of US support to the Philippines in the aftermath of natural calamities.  The Ambassador also outlined the goal of increasing the number of Filipino students pursuing higher education in Read More …

Presumptive president-elect offers hand to presidential rivals Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Vice President Jejomar Binay on signing the peace covenant for the May 9 elections at the Manila Cathedral. (PNA photos by Avito C. Dalan) DAVAO CITY, May 9 (PNA) – Presidential aspirant Mayor Rodrigo Duterte offered a hand of reconciliation to his presidential opponents and other candidates and “let us begin the national healing now.” In his talk with members of the press at the Duterte-Cayetano Media Center, Duterte called out to presidential aspirants Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senator Grace Poe, former Interior secretary Mar Roxas and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago including Senator Antonio Trillanes, who have filed plunder charges against him, to begin the healing, saying, “the black propaganda and false accusations are just clearly part of the days’ work in an election.” Duterte is offering his hand to the four of his presidential opponents especially the past few days have been virulent for all of them. He said all of them have been ruffled terribly and hurt by the black propaganda including the “whole kitchen sink to his direction. United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) presidential bet Vice-President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ Binay (left), with son and dismissed Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay, cast their vote at the San Antonio National High School in Makati City, on Monday. There are 54.4-million registered voters and 1.38-million local absentee voters abroad.(MNS photo) “Let us forget and start the healing. Let us be friends. Let us forget the travails of the Read More …

Only 17 out of the 66 national candidates attended the signing of the Truthful, Responsible, Upright, Transparent, & Honest (TRUTH) covenant spearheaded by the Archdiocese of Manila and its radio network, Radio Veritas, on Monday (May 2, 2016). According to Fr. Anton Pascual, Radio Veritas president, they have sent invitations to each of the candidates running for the presidential, vice presidential and senatorial seats but many of them were not available as they were in their respective campaign sorties. Left and middle photos show Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Vice President Jejomar Binay signing the peace covenant for the May 9 elections at the Manila Cathedral. (PNA photos by Avito C. Dalan) MANILA  (Mabuhay) – The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Thursday advised other presidential candidates not to celebrate yet amid their rise in the surveys. “To the other candidates: Do not celebrate yet, good things are about to happen, Binay is coming,” lawyer Rico Quicho, the Vice President’s spokesperson, said in a press statement. “It will be a tight race all the way to Election Day,” he added. He said the surveys do not capture the intense ground campaigning by the Vice President’s core supporters and parallel groups nationwide. “These efforts have intensified after April 29 which was the last day of the surveys. The final visibility push this week via motorcades, house to house campaign and sectoral events like the Indigenous People’s summit for Binay in Cagayan de Oro last Tuesday showed the Read More …

Quezon City – By next week, the Philippines will have a new president that will hopefully address the endemic problems the country has been dealing for a long period of time that includes poverty, crime, corruption and unemployment. People are hoping that their next president will be able to rally and unite the fragmented Filipinos into one nation so that it can move on and progress economically like its neighboring Asian countries. Most often than not the country for so many years has been unable to attain economic progress due to partisan politics and pervasive corruption in all corridors of the government. Ever since the downfall of the Marcos regime, the country has not so far attained the economic growth every president after Marcos has envisioned in order for the government to at least improve the lives of millions of destitute Filipinos, particularly those living in far-flung provinces. By Monday, May 9, on election day here in the Philippines, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte appears to be the top choice of most Filipinos to be their next president. Most people that I have talked with, from taxi drivers, restaurant workers, sales workers as well as jeepney and tricycle drivers and young college students, are all rooting for a Duterte presidency. They all have the same answer when asked why Duterte. They want radical change. They said they are tired of all the empty promises of traditional politicians who do nothing to improve the lives of the “common tao.” The frustrations, Read More …

Commission on Election Chairman Andres Bautista demonstrates the function of a vote-counting machine (VCM), which will be used for the May 9 national and local elections, at a warehouse in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Thursday. The machines are currently undergoing Hardware Acceptance Test (HAT).(MNS photo) MANILA  (PNA) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the proclamation of winning senators may be close to the announcement made in the 2013 polls. Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez noted that the names of the new lawmakers may be known three days after Election Day. “In my estimates, we will not be far from the 72 hours (in 2013),” he said. In the midterm elections, the first six winning senators were proclaimed three days after the elections while with the next three proclaimed a day later and the final three the next day. On the other hand, Jimenez added that it was more important for them to have credible and transparent results in the May 9 polls than beating the previous records in proclaiming winning candidates at the soonest possible time. “We are not looking at any previous performance as a hard target. We are looking at previous performance as benchmarks to improve upon. If we add more procedures or change procedures and they end up being a little more complex or complicated or similar even, that all goes into the determination of whether or not the results are credible,” he said. Jimenez added, “What’s important is that the procedures that we adopt are shown to Read More …