Maniolas

LOS ANGELES, California — Filipino crew members aboard a 700-foot freighter are asking for “humanitarian parole” from the US Customs and Border Protection after being stuck for over four months on a shop anchored in the Delaware River. The ship is manned by 17 Filipinos (not 18 as previously reportec), aged 23 to 54, two Ukrainian officials and an Egyptian captain. Although provided with cell phones, Internet connection, food and water and regular paychecks, the Filipino seamen demanded they be let out of the ship Nikol H. “They want to get out, so now, Seaman’s Church Institute is helping them to get humanitarian parole that would allow them to go outside the ship,” Philadelphia Filipino community leader Ruth Luyun said. “If you can imagine,” said the Rev. Peter Stube, Seamen’s Church executive director, “being on a small boat for three or four months without being able to get off, and land within sight. We have made a point of making sure they can stay in touch with the families.” “Most of them have visas when they arrived, which allowed them off. [T]he visa however is only good for 29 days so once the 29-days limit was up then they were restricted to their ship,” Stube said. The Greek-owned ship, Nikol H failed to pass a routine maintenance test that caused it to dock at Pier 48 in South Philadelphia for a month. The US Coast Guard detained the freighter, because its owner, Derna Carriers, failed to pay its docking bills Read More …

Asia’s longest dual-cable zipline, Bukidnon [via Fullness of Life] The Philippines is a beautiful country teeming with tourist spots in every corner of the archipelago. If you are looking for your next holiday destination, I highly recommend this wonderful Philippine eco-tourism site in Bukidnon (from the Visayan vernacular ‘Bukid’ or mountain), the highland province at the heart of Mindanao island blessed with nature’s rolling grassland plateaus, deep canyons and valleys, alternating with low plains, that makes it a picturesque vista for tourists who are lucky enough to behold its pristine glory. Bukidnon’s high terrain, with an elevation averaging 3,000 feet above sea level, brings with it a nice, cool climate perfect for producing food crops such as rice, corn, sugar, coffee, rubber, pineapples, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables, making it one of the Philippines’ important food baskets. Now, as for the eco-tourism destination in Bukidnon that I was talking about, it is no other than the Dahilayan Adventure Park and Dahilayan Forest Park, two of the latest attractions of Bukidnon province that local and foreign tourists alike have come to discover and are raving about. Getting there Dahilayan is located in the Bukidnon municipality of Manolo Fortich, about 40 kilometers from Cagayan de Oro City passing by Del Monte Camp Phillips. It is in the foot of the Mount Kitanglad Range National Park, home of the majestic Philippine Eagle, one of the rarest, largest and most powerful birds in the world. It is a scenic ride going to the Read More …

Philippine Daily Inquirer 8:46 am | Sunday, August 17th, 2014 Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Saturday said President Benigno Aquino III had yet to decide whether or not to pull out the Filipino peacekeeping forces from the Golan Heights and Liberia, even as the Department of National Defense (DND) had recommended it. Liberia is among the West African countries stricken by the deadly Ebola virus, while the Golan Heights is the volatile buffer zone between Israel and Syria. The civil war in Syria continues to rage, while to the south Israel is currently involved in a battle of deadly missile barrages with Palestine in Gaza. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over government run-dzRB radio that Mr. Aquino wanted to be appraised of the protection and safeguards available to the more than 400 Filipino troops deployed to these two places under the UN flag. “My impression is the President has not made a decision yet. He still wants to know the available safeguards,” Valte said. There are 115 Filipino soldiers in Liberia and 332 in the Golan Heights. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the DND recommendation considered the health and security risks faced by the Filipino troops. Earlier, Mr. Aquino decided that the Filipino peacekeepers in Syria would stay put after two groups of Filipino soldiers were kidnapped weeks apart by Syrian rebels last year, Valte said. Nikko Dizon RELATED STORIES   Pullout of PH peacekeepers urged   DND mulls pullout of PH peacekeepers Read More …

By Department of Health, DoH, European Union, Health Services |Philippine Daily Inquirer 5:53 am | Sunday, August 17th, 2014 MANILA, Philippines—The European Union has extended a grant of 30-million euros, or around P1.8 billion, to the Philippines to help the government push for initiatives that would improve the health sector, according to the Department of Health (DOH). The DOH said that under the agreement, 20.5-million euros, or roughly P1.2 billion, would go directly to the National Treasury while the rest of the grant would be used to fund various technical assistance and capacity-building programs to boost its health delivery systems. “The DOH has continually aspired to strengthen national and local health systems by rationalizing and improving the quality of health services and ensuring better access to these services by Filipinos, especially the poor and the disadvantaged,”  Health Secretary Enrique Ona said in a statement. “The partnership of the Philippines and the EU provides the much needed boost to further the health sector reforms towards the achievement of universal health care for Filipinos,” added Ona. The latest agreement brings to three the number of EU-funded programs supporting the Philippine Health Sector Reform Agenda, which was launched in 2005 to speed up the implementation of critical health interventions. Under the Aquino administration, the government launched the Aquino Health Agenda highlighting the Universal Health Care Strategy, which aims to provide health insurance coverage to all Filipinos and improve their access to quality hospital and health care facilities. The new deal between the Philippines Read More …

LIKE A ROCK STAR Pope Francis (inset) on Saturday celebrates Mass at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, where he beatified 124 Koreans martyred in the 18th century. Crowd at the beatification Mass and rites tops a million, according to Korean media, a significant number where only 10 percent of South Korea’s population is Catholic. AFP SEOUL, South Korea—Pope Francis beatified 124 early Korean martyrs on Saturday at a Mass in Seoul and challenged the massive crowd to ask what values they might be willing to die for in an increasingly materialistic, globalized world. “They challenge us to think about what, if anything, we ourselves would be willing to die for,” the Pope said in his homily. “Their example has much to say to us who live in societies where, alongside immense wealth, dire poverty is silently growing; where the cry of the poor is seldom heeded,” he said. Hundreds of thousands of believers, most of them invited church groups from across South Korea, attended the open-air ceremony, held in hot, humid conditions in Gwanghwamun plaza, the city’s main ceremonial thoroughfare. Police declined to give an estimate of the crowd size, but local media reported it had topped 1 million. The number was significant given that Catholics represent only about 10 percent of South Korea’s 50 million people. The centerpiece of the Pope’s five-day visit, the beatification Mass, was the subject of a massive security operation, with bridges, roads and subway stations closed and police snipers posted on the roofs of Read More …