Maniolas

By INQUIRER.net |INQUIRER.net 7:17 pm | Friday, August 15th, 2014 UN Filipino peacekeepers FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines–The Department of National Defense is considering the pullout of military personnel serving for the United Nations as peacekeepers in Golan Heights and Liberia due to the worsening conflict situation in the Middle East and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. “If they are not given proper equipment and tools for their protection, we should not continue the deployment. We cannot put our soldiers to risk,” Defense Secretary Voltare Gazmin told reporters in Filipino on Friday. A military assessment revealed that the deployment of peacekeepers to Liberia and Golan Heights has become hazardous. The Armed Forces of the Philippines deploys military personnel to Liberia, Golan Heights and Haiti as part of its commitment to help the United Nations.  There are 115 peacekeepers in Liberia, 332 peacekeepers in Golan Heights, and 157 in Haiti. Gazmin said that the recommendation to pull out Filipino peacekeepers does not cover the operations in Haiti. “We will not pull out all the contingents. It may only be done in areas that are risky because of health reasons and conflict,” he said. The recommendation will be upon the approval of President Benigno Aquino III. In Liberia, UN peacekeepers have been ordered to restrict their movements to avoid the Ebola virus, which has already killed over 1,000 people in West Africa. In 2013, 25 members of the 6th Philippine contingent to Golan Heights were seized in two separate incidents by Syrian Read More …

Exchange of views: Officials of the Department of Homeland Security led by Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Alan Bersin exchange views with leaders of the Filipino-American Community during a dialogue on the request of the Philippines to be placed under Temporary Protected Status at the Romulo Hall of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. PHILIPPINE EMBASSY PHOTO/ELMER G. CATO WASHINGTON, DC – Federal officials are seriously studying the proposal to place the Phililppines under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assured Filipino-American community leaders at a meeting on August 13 at the Philippine Embassy. In a dialogue at the Embassy’s Romulo Hall arranged by Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia, Jr., Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Alan Bersin told Filipino-American community leaders the DHS is still in the process of evaluating Manila’s request to place the Philippines under TPS in the wake of the massive devastation wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan last year. If granted, TPS would allow undocumented Filipinos as well as those holding a temporary visa to work and live legally for a finite period of time in the United States. An estimated 300,000 Filipino immigrants with no legal status would benefit from TPS. “This is a matter that is under consideration by Secretary Jeh Johnson. There are no specific deadlines, but this does require the kind of outreach, time and consideration that it is being given,” Assistant Secretary Bersin told the Embassy’s Radyo Tambuli after the meeting. “I know my colleagues in Read More …

Jeepney Gastropub’s Choriburger (with longganisa, banana ketchup, etc.). SCREENGRABS NEW YORK, New York — It’s been a savory run for Filipino chow in the Big Apple. Filipino eatery Jeepney Gastropub won the golden hamburger trophy at the South Street Seaport 2014 Battle of the Burger on August 7, where throngs of grazers who paid the $29 fee to eat at the festival voted for their favorites. Meanwhile on July 31, a New York Times food critic gushed over the sisig at Lumpia Shack Snackbar in the West Village. Jeepney Gastropub out-grilled the competition with its umami-loaded Chori Burger, a thick patty slathered in Maggi aioli, in banana ketchup and Maggi aioli and topped with longganisa, hence “chori” burger (for chorizo). 
 In the same competition sponsored by Time Out New York, Fil-Am Dale Talde’s entry was a runner-up. Talde’s saloon Pork Slope (a play on Park Slope, a neighborhood in Brooklyn) specializes in pork dishes. At the New York Times, food columnist Ligaya Mishan rhapsodizes over the sisig served at Neil Syham and Angie Roca’s Lumpia Shack Snackbar http://lumpiashack.wordpress.com/ , which has counter-seating only: “Ears, jowls, belly. They come brined, blanched, shattered and fried, each tip blackened and alchemized, each pocket of fat approaching liquefaction. A raw yolk idles on top. Stab it and churn,” writes Mishan. “This is sisig, the greatest pork hash — arguably greatest pork dish — on earth. Say the name with two flicks of the tongue, somewhere between a whisper and a hiss,” she adds. Read More …

In this aerial photo taken on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013, and released by the Philippine Air Force, a ferry boat is seen washed inland from a massive storm surge caused by Typhoon Haiyan, in the city of Tacloban, central Philippines. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Secretary Panfilo Lacson likened super typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) to a “world superpower” that is “bullying” any country it wants to, knowing “with certainty that she would not be challenged.” “To the extent that the Filipino people are being made to confront a mighty power sinister in purpose and so treacherously concealed in the dead of the night, densely fogged in false diplomacy if it were likened to an armed aggressor in the ancient times of the dynasties,” Lacson said Thursday in his speech delivered before a delegation from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). “Being one of the most powerful threats in the history of mankind and all nations in this part of the globe, the tempest of phenomenal proportions has had the luxury of being able to do more or less whatever she wants in arrogantly confronting any jurisdiction impressively weak and helpless along her path, maybe conscious and with certainty that she would not be challenged,” he said. Despite what could be construed as clear references to China, Lacson clarified that he was not referring to any country with his speech before the Asean High-Level Conference on Assistance for the Recovery of Yolanda-affected Areas. “For those of you who are more Read More …

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport after being repatriated from war-torn Libya Monday Aug. 4, 2014 at suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. The Foreign Affairs Department and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration said about 13,000 Filipino workers are currently in Libya and less than a thousand has so far been repatriated. AP MANILA, Philippines—Board the chartered ship for repatriation out of Libya now because it’s the only one there is, Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario told Filipinos in Libya on Thursday amid reports that hundreds of them had backed out from repatriation. “There will be no ship after this. It’s difficult to get a ship and we don’t have the numbers to be able to support another ship,” del Rosario told reporters in an interview. Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Charles Jose said in a briefing Wednesday that the number of Filipinos who registered for repatriation got smaller by a few hundred. Some 450 passengers boarded the chartered ship when it docked in Benghazi. The initial number of registrants there was 490, but decreased to 477. “The ship left Benghazi with 449 passengers and we also have citizens of other countries on that ship,” del Rosario said. There was one American, five Maltese, one Ukrainian, and five Spaniards who boarded the ship from Malta that was rented at a cost of $1.8 million and has a capacity of 1,500. After Benghazi, the ship will next dock at Misrata some time Thursday where Read More …