Maniolas

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis embarks on his second Asian pilgrimage this week, visiting Sri Lanka and the Philippines exactly 20 years after St. John Paul II’s record-making visit to two countries with wildly disparate Catholic populations. Francis will make headlines of his own, drawing millions of faithful in the Philippines and treading uncharted political waters following Sri Lanka’s remarkable electoral upset last week. New Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who capitalized on former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s unpopularity among the island nation’s ethnic and religious minorities, will be on hand to welcome Francis when he arrives in the capital, Colombo, on Tuesday. Francis will be bringing a message of reconciliation between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority and interfaith harmony after Sri Lanka’s quarter-century civil war ended in 2009 with the army’s violent crushing of the Tamil Tiger rebels. It isn’t known whether Francis will weigh in on Sri Lanka’s refusal to cooperate with a U.N. investigation into alleged war crimes in the final stages of the war. A 2011 U.N. report said up to 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians may have been killed during the offensive, and accused both sides of committing serious human rights violations. Here are five things to look for during Francis’ trip, split between two days in Sri Lanka and three in the Philippines: ___ TAMIL TRAVELS Significantly, Francis will travel to the Tamil region of northern Sri Lanka to pray at a Christian shrine and meet with Tamil faithful. The Our Lady of Madhu Read More …

The Commission on Elections has invited former poll commissioner Gus Lagman to show how the results of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines can be altered. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said he has sent Lagman a letter asking him to meet with the commission en banc. “I said: It is your duty as former Comelec commissioner that you should inform us on how it can be easily tampered. Turuan niya kami kako para mapag-preparahan namin yan for 2016 since we will be using the same machines. So we invited him na pumunta siya dito at pakita mo sa amin yan,” he said. Brillantes noted that Lagman did not raise the issue while he was a commissioner. “He was in the Comelec for 10 months. He never said this. He never mentioned PCOS machines being rigged, which could be easily rigged, that is the adjective there. He did say you can probably manipulate it but not easily. Now he is saying it is very easy and I dare him to show it to us,” the poll body chief added. Brillantes said that if Lagman fails to prove his allegations, the former poll official should refrain from criticizing the Comelec. Lagman was a Comelec commissioner from 2011 to 2012  when President Benigno Aquino III decided against reappointing him. He has since joined election watchdog groups in criticizing the use of the PCOS machines.  Lagman ready Lagman, for his part, said he is ready to prove that the PCOS machines can be Read More …

Responding to the call of Pope Francis, Filipino Catholics on Sunday prayed for the persecuted Christians in Syria and Iraq during Masses nationwide in observance of the National Day of Prayer for Peace, as well as the Day for Charity for thousands of victims of atrocities committed by the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis). PHOTO BY RICK ALBERTO/INQUIRER.net Manila, Philippines – Key facts about the Catholic religion in the Philippines, which Pope Francis will visit this week as part of his second trip to Asia: NUMBERS: Eight in 10 Filipinos are Catholic, making the nation of 100 million people Asia’s bastion of Christianity. Protestants, Muslims, and members of other Christian sects make up the rest. HISTORY: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan claimed the islands for Spain in 1521 on a voyage to circumnavigate the globe. The archipelago was named after the Spanish monarch King Philip II. Spanish rulers and friars entrenched Catholicism, over what had been mainly polytheist, animist and Muslim populations, during nearly 400 years of colonial rule that ended when the Americans wrested control in 1898. UNIQUE WORSHIPPING: Filipino Catholics are known for enormous, colourful and in some cases extreme expressions of piety. Millions of barefoot devotees each January join a religious procession Manila hoping to touch a centuries-old icon of Jesus Christ, called the Black Nazarene, which is believed to have miraculous powers. At Easter devotees whip their backs bloody while others have their hands nailed to crosses in all-too-real imitations of Christ’s passion. Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Remittances likely remained robust in November last year although at a slower growth rate than in October, UK-based investment bank Barclays said. The bank has forecast cash remittances to have grown 5.9 percent in November from the prior year. “A high base will lead to minor moderation in remittances growth in November,” Barclays noted. Official November remittances data will be released by the central bank on Wednesday, Jan. 14. Money sent home by Filipinos abroad went up seven percent to $2.224 billion in October from $2.079 billion in the same month in 2013. This brought the 10-month tally to $19.869 billion, 6.2 percent higher than in the same period in 2013. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said cash remittances during the period mainly came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The sustained demand for Filipino workers abroad has kept the flow of remittances strong, the BSP noted. Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed orders reached 768,741 in the 10 months to October last year. Most of these jobs were for service, production, and professional, technical, and related work in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan and Qatar. Remittances support domestic consumption, which remain as the largest driver of the Philippine economy. In 2013, cash remittances amounted to $22.968 billion and made up more than eight percent of the country’s gross domestic Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – The government’s outstanding debt rose to P5.72 trillion as of November last year due to rising domestic obligations. The latest figure  was up by P41 billion or 0.7 percent compared with the same period in 2013 with debt from domestic sources rising 1.2 percent to P3.79 trillion. Of the total outstanding debt, 66 percent was accounted for by peso-denominated liabilities while the balance of 34 percent comprised debts denominated in foreign currencies. Debt from foreign lenders amounted to P1.926 trillion, down 0.2 percent from P1.93 trillion. The decline was due to the appreciation of the local currency against the dollar. If the estimated 94 million Filipinos would be made to equally share the burden of paying the government’s outstanding debt, each would have to shell out P60,851. On a month-on-month basis, the outstanding debt of the country went up by P3 billion. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Total guaranteed debt, meanwhile, stood at P432 billion, 8.3 percent or P39 billion lower than the previous year. Currency adjustments brought down the value of external guarantees while domestic guaranteed debt was reduced by the redemption of outstanding agri-agra bonds. For the past two years, the government has relied heavily on external borrowings to help ward off speculative flows and curb the peso’s appreciation. The country recently raised $2 billion from  the sale of dollar-denominated bonds, marking its return to the international debt market.