Maniolas

Chinook in Flight: An Army Boeing CH-47 Chinook takes off during Balikatan 2016 in Subic Bay, Philippines, April 3, 2016. The purpose of the exercise is to strengthen interoperability and partner-nation capabilities for the planning and execution of military operations, and advance regional security operations. U.S. photo by Lance Cpl. Damon A. Mclean Manila, Philippines | AFP |   – US and Philippine troops began major exercises on Monday as China’s state media warned “outsiders” against interfering in tense South China Sea territorial disputes. The official Xinhua news agency gave the warning as Manila and Washington launched the 11-day Balikatan (Shoulder-to-Shoulder) exercises with a low-key opening ceremony in Manila. US Defence Secretary Ash Carter is to fly to the Philippines next week to observe live-firing of artillery and visit US Navy ships taking part. Some 5,000 US troops are taking part along with nearly 4,000 Philippine soldiers and 80 from Australia. “The… exercises caps Manila’s recent attempts to involve outsiders in (a) regional row,” China’s official news agency Xinhua said in a commentary. It cited Japan, which sent a submarine on a visit to the Philippines last weekend, and Australia. “However, a provocation so fear-mongering and untimely as such is likely to boomerang on the initiators,” Xinhua added. “A big country with vital interests in Asia, the United States should first clarify the targets of its Pivot to Asia strategy, which so far has featured no more than unscrupulous inconsistency between fear-mongering deeds and peace-loving words.” China lays claim to almost all of the South Read More …

Human rights groups protest the violent dispersal of farmers in Kidapawan City at the Department of Agriculture on Friday. Two people died and over a hundred were injured when members of the Philippine National Police clashed with activists and farmers affected by drought in Mindanao.(MNS photo) MANILA  (Mabuhay) – There were “so many” dialogues conducted with protesting farmers in Kidapawan City in Cotabato but they want nothing else than to “hostage the government,” Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ricardo Marquez said Monday. “They will not settle for anything else. Gusto nilang i-block ‘yun. Gusto nilang i-hostage ang government,” Marquez told reporters. Marquez, along with Interior Sec. Mel Sarmiento, was present at the turnover of fire trucks and patrol jeeps on Monday to be led by President Benigno Aquino III at the Quezon Memorial Circle. Marquez said the PNP is planning to file charges especially that one of its officers detailed at the rally is still unconscious. “We will file charges of course kasi ‘yung isang pulis namin unconscious pa hanggang ngayon. ‘Yung isang pulis namin may tama ng bala…The police were there in a legimitate situation,” he said. As more farmers are reportedly gathering at the rally site, the PNP chief said they will do everything to clear the highway citing affected business establishments and tricycle drivers unable to ply the route. “We will make sure na ‘yung highway na ‘yun ay bukas kasi kaya nagkaroon ng law enforcement operation. It has inconvenienced so many people already. We Read More …

The world’s first public dengue vaccination programme was launched in the Philippines on Monday as nurses began injecting the first batch of a million children with a French drug to combat the sometimes deadly disease. A student reacts before a nurse administers the anti-dengue vaccine at Parang Elementary School in Marikina.© AFP PHOTO/NOEL CELIS Several hundred children aged 9-10 queued in front of government health workers at a public school in eastern Manila for the injections, capping a 20-year, 1.5-billion-euro ($1.8 bn) effort by French drug manufacturer Sanofi to develop the vaccine. “We are the first country to introduce, adopt and implement the first-ever dengue vaccine through the public health system and under public school settings,” said Philippine Health Secretary Janette Garin. The Philippines had in December approved the vaccine, the first to be licensed globally to combat the mosquito-borne disease for people aged between nine and 45. Zelin Joice Carungay, aged nine, cried briefly as she and her classmates fell in line for the vaccine on teacher’s orders. “I’m terrified of needles but they told us we need it to avoid dengue,” the girl told reporters. “In the end it felt nothing more than an ant’s bite,” the relieved child said afterwards. Dengue or haemorrhagic fever, the world’s most common mosquito-borne virus, infects an estimated 390 million people in more than 120 countries each year, killing more than 25,000, according to the World Health Organization. Symptoms are often mild but more than two million people annually develop more serious symptoms Read More …

Vice President Jejomar Binay greets supporters during his campaign sortie in Borongan City, Eastern Samar on Thursday. Binay was also scheduled to lead the motorcade of United Nationalist Alliance candidates from Catbalogan to Calbayog City in the province of Samar.(MNS photo) MANILA, Apr 4 (Mabuhay) – Presidential candidates Mar Roxas and Jejomar Binay were the two bets least liked by voters to win in the May polls, a recent Bilang Pilipino Social Weather Stations (SWS) mobile survey revealed. The poll showed 27 percent choosing former Interior Secretary Roxas as the candidate they do not like to win the most in the upcoming presidential race, followed by Binay at 24 percent. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte came third with 17 percent. The two women candidates are at the bottom of the list, with 10 percent of the respondents saying they do not want Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago to win the elections and 5 percent saying the same with Senator Grace Poe. Seventeen percent of the respondents said they do not know who among the candidates they least want to win. The poll, conducted March 30, used a random sample of 1,200 validated voters nationwide (300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao). The sample was arrived at using standard statistical procedures. The respondents underwent face-to-face interviews on March 8-11 and were invited to participate in a mobile survey. Of the 1,200 contacted, only 733 or 61 percent responded. Mahar Mangahas, SWS head, said in a newspaper article on Saturday Read More …

In this suffering world, the month of March has just passed with a day devoted to the subject of happiness. The event was heralded as the International Day of Happiness, a global celebration coordinated by nonprofit Action for Happiness in 160  supported by a partnership of like-minded organizations. It was in celebration of the event that the United Nations made available the publication of its 2016 World Happiness Report that revealed astounding results of a survey of people in 157 countries. The survey report gave revealing insights into how “the most cheer most cheerful countries got their way and the richest countries are got that way.” The ranking in the survey was based on parameters that included the participating country’s per – capita gross domestic product (which accounted  for more than 30 percent of the total), social support (26 percent),  healthy life expectancy (18 percent), freedom to make life choices (12 percent), generosity (8 percent), and the absence of corruption (5 percent). Of the 157 countries surveyed in the report, the United States ranked 13th garnering a score of 7.104 on a 10-point score. Denmark was number one on the list with a score of 7.526 and the least happy, Burundi,a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of East Africa. Americans are not exactly unhappy, but there’s room for improvement, according to some observers. Happy Filipinos: The Philippines ranks 82nd among 157 countries studied by the United Nations on happiness as part of a research which was released Read More …