Maniolas

BEIJING — China is building its second aircraft carrier, a senior naval officer has told media, the most explicit confirmation yet of a widely expected move that will boost Beijing’s maritime power. China’s first aircraft carrier was a 300-meter (1,000-foot) Soviet-era vessel bought from Ukraine and commissioned in September 2012 — at the time a milestone for the country’s growing military might. Since then “confirmations” from military and government officials of a second domestically built ship have been sporadically reported — and often deleted shortly afterwards. The news follows reports last week of another double-digit spending boost for China’s military — the world’s largest — during 2015, as the country pursues a series of territorial disputes with its neighbors. Senior colonel Liang Fang said China “accumulated a lot of experience” from the first vessel, the Liaoning, and told Internet portal Sohu it had now taken the “next step.” “The reason we imported the first aircraft carrier is so that we could be capable of building our own in the future,” she said. “And now, just like what some media have revealed, that is what we have done — built the second aircraft carrier,” added the officer, a professor at the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Liang was responding to a question on senior PLA officers previously confirming the building of the vessel. Her comments were reported Wednesday from an interview on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, the communist-controlled legislature. Beijing Read More …

Top officials of property developer Alphaland Crop. skipped on Thursday the continuation of the Senate probe on the controversial land deal it entered into with the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, which supposedly benefited Vice President Jejomar Binay. Alphaland president Mario Oreta was not able to attend the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing due to “medical reasons,” his lawyer told the panel. To this, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, who is heading the investigation, commented, “Medical reasons? He doesn’t want to hear the opinion of Commissioner [Kim] Henares?” Henares, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) chief, was present during Thursday’s hearing. She is expected to give her insights on whether Oreta’s supposed failure to declare his share from the land deal was tantamount to tax evasion. Alphaland owner Roberto Ongpin was also absent during the hearing. He is currently in Europe, according to his lawyer. During the last hearing, former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado accused Binay of getting as much as P651 million from the land deal between Boy Scouts and Alphaland Corp.    Binay’s camp has repeatedly said that Mercado’s accusations are politically motivated. Boy Scouts and Alphaland officials also insisted that the land deal they entered into was not anomalous. — RSJ, GMA News

(Updated 9:47 a.m.) If Philippine National Police Board of Inquiry chairman Director Benjamin Magalong would have his way, he would release the BOI report on the bloody Jan. 25 Mamasapano clash to the public. “The public should know,” said Magalong in a text message to GMA News Online. Magalong is also head of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.  “But it depends on SILG [Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Manuel Roxas II], who has the final say. It was he who created the BOI,” he added. At the same time, Magalong said the Board will “definitely” submit the report on Thursday, adding that the turnover will be announced to members of the media by PNP officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina. On Wednesday, Espina told reporters that the decision to make the BOI report public is up to the members of the Board and higher officials. The BOI was supposed to submit its report on the Mamasapano bloodbath by end of February, but the team had asked for an extension twice since last week. Forty-four elite police troopers died during the Mamasapano clash with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, members of its splinter group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and some gunmen of other armed groups in Maguindanao. At the time, the police commandos were on a mission to arrest Malaysian terrorist Zulkifi bin Hir alias Marwan of Jemaah Islamiyah and Filipino bomb-maker and Abu Sayyaf member Basit Usman. Authorities claimed Marwan was killed but Read More …

MANILA, Philippines—The defense chiefs of Malaysia and Philippines met on Wednesday at Camp Aguinaldo to strengthen bilateral ties and to discuss the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) and other issues. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Minister Defense of Malaysia YB Dato Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein exchanged views on regional and global security challenges and committed to strengthen defense cooperation between the Philippines and Malaysia, the Department of National Defense said in a statement. The two defense ministers met amid China’s aggressiveness in the disputed waters. Both are claimants to the resource-rich West Philippine Sea, including China, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan. “At the meeting, the two ministers reaffirmed the importance of promoting peace, security and stability, maritime security, unimpeded trade and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea,” the statement said. Both sides agreed that disputes in the West Philippine Sea should be resolved peacefully in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Malaysian defense minister also invited Gazmin to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers’ Meeting and the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition on March 15-16 and 17-21 in Malaysia. The two countries also expressed concern over the terroristic attacks of Islamic State and other extremist groups Iraq and Syria. They also agreed to strengthen mutually beneficial efforts to enhance disaster risk reduction and disaster response, the statements said. Both countries also encouraged their respective militaries to pursue more opportunities for engagement in Read More …

Elder abuse suspect Herminigilda Manuel’s Valley Manor care home in Castro Valley, California. SFGATE PHOTO SAN FRANCIS CO — The Filipina owner and the administrator of a Castro Valley assisted-living facility were each charged March 19 with 14 felony counts of elder abuse, which could send them to prison if they’re found guilty. The charges were filed in Alameda County Superior Court against Herminigilda “Hilda” Manuel, 58, who owned the failed Valley Manor care home, and administrator Edgar Babael, reported SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle. Manuel had been in trouble with authorities for the way she ran her assisted living facilities. If convicted, Manuel and Babael face up to 17 years in prison and fines of up to $6,000 per count. The charges were the result of a joint investigation by the state Department of Justice, the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse and the sheriff’s office. In 2013 the San Francisco Bay Area was shocked when 14 sick and elderly residents were abandoned in the care home, and a few workers volunteered to take care of the patients without pay. The case led lawmakers to tighten California’s oversight of residential care homes. Manuel and Babael are accused of walking out of the home on Apricot Way on October 24, 2013, after the state ordered it closed. Inside, authorities found indigent patients, many of them bedridden, attended by a few volunteer staff members. The staffers who stayed, including a cook and a janitor, “stayed because they felt bad for the patients,” Read More …