Maniolas

In this Feb. 13, 2013 file photo, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, immigration rights activist and self-declared undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on comprehensive immigration reform. AP McALLEN, Texas — Prominent Phillipines-born immigration activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who has lived and worked in the U.S. for years without legal documentation, was detained Tuesday by U.S. Border Patrol agents at a South Texas airport. Border Patrol spokesman Omar Zamora said Vargas was in custody, but he had no other details about the case. Vargas had been in McAllen, a city along the Mexico border, for several days as part of a vigil drawing attention to the plight of unaccompanied immigrant children and families coming into the U.S. illegally. At the city’s airport, near the border, Border Patrol agents stand beside Transportation Security Administration agents to check documentation, even for domestic flights. On Tuesday morning, Vargas tweeted: “About to go thru security at McAllen Airport. I don’t know what’s going to happen.” His spokeswoman, Maria Cruz Lee, declined immediate comment. She said a statement would be issued later in the day. The security situation at the McAllen airport — and elsewhere in the city — is familiar to the thousands of people living illegally in the U.S. along the Texas-Mexico border. Along highways out of the city, drivers are stopped at Border Patrol checkpoints about an hour’s drive north of the border. And it’s not uncommon for children who entered Read More …

Associated Press 8:12 pm | Tuesday, July 15th, 2014 MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine prosecutor says a court has convicted two Indonesians and three Filipino militants of detonating a vehicular bomb that killed a soldier and wounded several bystanders outside a southern airport in 2003. Prosecutor Aristotle Reyes says the handcuffed militants yelled “Allahu Akbar” or “God is great” after a court clerk read out the verdict and life prison sentences each of them received Monday in suburban Pasig city for the attack in front of the Awang domestic airport in Maguindanao province. Reyes told The Associated Press on Tuesday that three other Filipinos were acquitted. Reyes says that the Indonesian and Filipino militants had planned a series of bombings at the time to try to sabotage the government’s peace talks with a large Muslim rebel group in the south. RELATED STORIES Drugs eyed, 3 arrested in Cotabato bombing 2 killed in Zamboanga airport blast Follow Us Other Stories: World Bank president has good words for Aquino DFA reiterates PH sovereignty rights over Recto Bank More than 50 flights cancelled due to ‘Glenda’ Asia fears China military conflict over sea claims–study Recent Stories: Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Globe, Smart and Sun subscribers in the Philippines. Short URL: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/?p=107946 Factual errors? Contact the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s day desk. Believe this article violates Read More …

The Commission on Audit (COA) questioned the P3.19 billion from the Supreme Court (SC) budget that the court declared as savings in 2012, GMA News’ “24 Oras” reported on Monday. According to the 2012 audit report of COA, the SC has P3.19 billion in unspent funds from the P15-billion notices of cash allocations (NCA) it received from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that year. In its report, the COA questioned why the SC declared such huge savings when it had several unpaid obligations during that year. According to the “24 Oras” report, the COA said that since the SC declared P3.19 billion of its NCA as “savings”, payments for its obligations incurred in 2012 were taken from the SC’s 2013 budget. The COA said this practice was against the law on government spending. Meanwhile, the SC, in its reply to the COA report said, it has been a practice of the high court to declare unspent funds as “savings”. According to the “24 Oras” report, the SC said it has its own policies when it comes to spending. In his televised speech Monday afternoon, President Benigno Aquino III criticized the SC over its decision to declare the administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as partially unconstitutional. Among the practices under DAP that the SC ruled as unconstitutional were the declaration of unobligated and unprogrammed funds as “savings”, the “cross-border” transfer of savings of the executive branch to the other branches of the government, and the funding of projects not Read More …

A lone lotto bettor won P14.634 million in Monday night’s Mega Lotto 6/45 draw of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. The PCSO said the bettor got the combination of 24-19-09-35-07-43 to win the night’s jackpot worth P14,634,376. But as in the past, the PCSO is not likely to name the winner for security reasons. Last July 4, a lone bettor got the Mega Lotto 6/45 jackpot by getting the combination of 35-37-05-39-12-11 to win P92,361,380. On June 28, a lotto bettor hit the jackpot of the Grand Lotto draw, getting the combination of 04-52-55-38-46-08 to snag the jackpot worth P215,867,812. Also last June 28, a bettor won the Lotto 6/42 jackpot after getting the combination 27-01-29-04-06-18 to win P17,962,256. Last May 22, a lone Super Lotto 6/49 bettor won P98,612,308 with the combination of 31-35-04-06-30-03. On April 7, a lone bettor hit the jackpot of the PCSO’s Grand Lotto, getting the combination of 39-21-42-28-05-27 to win P249,841,572. But the biggest lotto prize in recent history was in November 2010, when a lone bettor won some P741.176 million for getting the winning combination 11-16-42-47-31-37. — Joel Locsin/JDS, GMA News

President Benigno Aquino III on Monday defended his administration’s controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program, which he said was used to address underspending and to pay for badly-needed projects like classrooms and rural electrification. Minutes after Aquino’s speech, the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson released a list of 116 projects that were alloted funds through the DAP. The allocations include almost P8.3 billion set aside for priority local projects nationwide as requested by lawmakers, local government officials and national agencies; almost 8.6 billion for peace and development intervention in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; and a 6.5 billion in support for local government units affected by the decrease in the internal revenue allotment in 2012. The list also includes the rehabilitation of both lines of the Light Rail Transit, the upgrade of operating rooms and medical equipment at the Philippine Heart Center, and additional funding for the Philippine National Police modernization program. He said the government will file a Motion for Reconsideration on the Supreme Court’s ruling that aspects of the DAP were unconstitutional. List of DAP Projects released by the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson — JDS/NB, GMA News