Maniolas

Members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) wave as they drive their armored vehicle in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the Quneitra crossing, the only border crossing between Israel and Syria, on August 30, 2014. AFP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines–The top Filipino commander in the Golan Heights has resigned as chief of staff of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (Undof) in protest of the Undof force commander’s handling of the crisis in the two camps manned by Filipino peacekeepers. Col. Ezra Enriquez, the head of the 7th Philippine Contingent, tendered his resignation to Undof Force Commander Iqbal Sing Singha last Sunday, Armed Forces Chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang said on Tuesday. Catapang said Enriquez also filed an administrative leave from the Undof, which Singha granted, effective last Sunday until the end of the contingent’s tour of duty in October. Enriquez, however, will continue to oversee the operations, and ensure the safety, of the Filipino troops until their repatriation to the Philippines, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief said. Catapang defended Enriquez’s decision, describing it as an honorable act. “It’s just like you have a boss and you are the secretary or the chief of staff, so if you are not anymore in good talking terms (with the boss), then it would just be an honorable act to file your resignation,” he said. Col. Roberto Ancan, the chief of the AFP peacekeeping operations center, said Singha sent a message saying that “he respected the will of the national contingent commander to be relieved as chief of his staff and granted Enriquez’s administrative leave.” Read More …

At the Hastings College of Law forum on minimum wage: Shaw San Liu (at the podium) of Chinese Progressive Action; (seated) Ken Jacobs, chair of UC Berkeley Center for Research on Labor and Employment; Michael Reich, director of the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment; Un Un Che, a worker; Ofelia Prettyman, also a worker. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS SAN FRANCISCO, California – Nearly a quarter of San Francisco, California’s work force would get a pay raise if voters approve a proposed measure in the November ballot. A recently released study by a group of economists of the University of California (UC) in Berkeley found that an estimated 142,000 workers or 23 percent of San Francisco’s workforce would benefit from Measure J’s passage. UC Berkeley economists Michael Reich, Ken Jacobs, Annette Bernhardt and Ian Perry and formally presented in a forum at Hastings College of Law recently. Measure J would raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour by 2018, phased in over four steps. It would raise the pay from the current hourly rate of $10.74 to $12.25 an hour on May 1, 2015; to $13 on July 1, 2016; to $14 on July 1, 2017; and to $15 on July 1, 2018. Subsequent years’ rates would then be pegged to inflation. Everyone who works in San Francisco would be covered by the measure except state and federal government employees and the self-employed. Wage boost substantial The study found that the measure, if passed, would result in an Read More …

New Consul General to Chicago Generoso Calonge CHICAGO, Illinois – The Philippines’ new Consul General held the first of his promised “dialogue with the community” on August 20 at 5:30 p.m., right after the regular office hours, lasting for about one and half hour. “The third Wednesday of the month will be for the concerns of Filipinos under my consular jurisdiction,” declared Generoso Calonge, the newly appointed Consul General in Chicago. This unprecedented move was made known early July when he made his first public appearance. “I was not able to start last month because of my participation in the 9th Ambassador Consuls General Tourism Directors Tour in Manila,” he explained to two-dozen area community leaders and media persons. Many of those who came took note of the tense and cool reception from the other consular personnel, who at some point aggressively told attendees that they would not be let in if their names were not on their list of those who called in for reservation. Many attendees countered that they actually called or confirmed their intention to join the dialogue, and this highlighted the persistent and common complaint about the poor telecommunication system in the consulate. The problem became the top topic for the afternoon, and Calonge promised to make sure an improvement would be made. Facilitating dual citizenship, passport applications and the electoral registration of overseas voters also were raised as the Filipino expatriates’ top concerns. “I believe that with the million Filipino citizens abroad, making sure that Read More …

The prosecution panel in the homicide case against Coast Guard men implicated in the Balintang Channel shooting said they have proof that a Taiwanese fisherman was killed in the maritime incident last year. In an opposition it filed with the Batanes Regional Trial Court, the Department of Justice asked the judge to junk for lack of merit a motion to quash earler filed by seven Coast Guard men accused in the case seeking the case’s dismissal. In its motion to quash, the defense had insisted the case should be junked because no proof that homicide happened was ever presented by the prosecution in its complaint. But the Department of Justice maintained that the coastguardsmen failed to point out an “evident defect or a glaring failure to allege an essential non-evidentiary fact” when it asked the court to dismiss the homicide case. The DOJ called the motion to quash ” frivolous, groundless and dilatory.” “By selectively citing portion of Resolution dated December 20, 2013 and deliberately twisting their meaning and context, the counsel for the accused resorted to evidence aliunde [from outside, or not part of the original document] in assailing the information, which is prohibited,” said the prosecution. In its motion to quash information, the defense said the complainant did not even attach a death certificate or an autopsy report to prove Hong’s death. “The information does not charge an offense, since there is no one who was killed, i.e. there was no crime of homicide committed,” the defense added. Read More …

AFP, Defense officials monitor ‘great escape’ . At Camp Aguinaldo on Saturday, August 30, Defense chief Voltaire Gazmin, Foreign Affairs Sec. Albert del Rosario, AFP chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr., and other military officials monitor the situation of Filipino UN peacekeepers who were on a standoff with Syrian rebels at Golan Heights. All 75 Filipino peacekeepers are now safe after the last batch slipped away under cover of night from besieging Syrian rebels. AFP/AFP-PAO The Philippine military is seeking an investigation against the commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for allegedly endangering the safety of the Filipino peacekeepers who figured in the Golan Heights standoff. According to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, Lt. Gen. Iqbal Singh Singha, an Indian national, ordered the Filipino peacekeepers to lay down their firearms to ensure the safety of the Fijian peacekeepers seized by Syrian rebels. “Under the Terms of Reference, it wasn’t mentioned there that we can be ordered to surrender our firearms,” Catapang said. “The UNDOF commander wanted to save the Fijians at the expense of the Filipinos.” He said aside from laying down their firearms, the Filipino troops were also ordered by Singha to “raise the white flag.” “He (Singha) said that if we were attacked, we should raise the white flag. I said no way. That means our soldiers will also be held hostage,” Catapang said. The Fijian peacekeepers — at least 44 of them — had been seized Read More …