Maniolas

Another batch of lawmakers, including three more senators, will be added to Janet Lim-Napoles’ list of personalities involved in the pork barrel scam. Interviewed by ANC on Monday, Napoles’ legal counsel Bruce Rivera said the names of the other lawmakers will be included in an “amended list” that they would submit to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Thursday. Rivera, however, said he was “not sure” if the three senators whose names will be added were former or incumbent. Asked if other Cabinet officials will also be added on the amended list, Rivera said: “Wala yata. I am not sure. Ang sure, senators at congressmen may madadagdag.” In the same interview, Rivera apologized to Senator JV Ejercito, a neophyte senator, for the inclusion of his name on the official list, a copy of which De Lima handed over to the Senate blue ribbon committee last Thursday. “It was really an unfortunate error. We were making a list (and) Mrs. Napoles is making fond of side comments, like situation ni Sen. Jinggoy [Estrada] and Senator JV. It was like a personal thing. Kasi nagkekwento lang si Mrs. Napoles tungkol sa dalawa, nasulat sya,” Rivera explained. He said Ejercito’s name was inadvertently included on the list by the encoder. “Later on, nung pinrint out na ang list for her to sign it.. Ito nangyari, she was asked to read it and said ‘Bakit nandito to, wala to,’” Rivera recalled Napoles as saying. “Nagkamali ang kampo namin. We were apologetic… It looks suspicious. Read More …

To own a house is a big deal for every OFW family because that would remind them of the fruits of their labor overseas. Juanillo “Jun” Martinez, a foreman for the past seven years in a construction company in Saudi Arabia, and his wife, Ning, have been looking forward to finally moving into their own house. Unfortunately, they fear they have been victimized by a bogus developer. They related that an agent had shown them an attractive brochure and encouraged them to buy a house and lot being developed by AJEM Properties and Development Corporation. Elmer Mallorca is the president of the company which lists its office address as Unit E, 2/F Orange Building, 310 Zabarte Road, Brgy. Kaligayahan, Novaliches, Quezon City. The couple checked the pictures of AJEM projects on Facebook and chose a house and lot with a contract price of P1.35 million located at Mystical Rosa Villa in Brixtonville, Camarin, Caloocan City. They paid a reservation fee of P20,000 on April 2012 and paid P10,000 monthly from May to September 2012. They paid another  P10,000 on November 2012 and P15,000 last January 2013. On February 2013, the Martinez couple visited the site and were surprised that AJEM, contrary to their agreement, had not constructed any house on the site.  They decided to back out from their deal and asked the company to give them back the money they had paid out. AJEM president Elmer Mallorca reportedly promised to return the amount of P55,000. The couple even agreed Read More …

By Nikko DizonPhilippine Daily Inquirer 8:15 am | Saturday, May 17th, 2014 US and Philippine marines storm the beach to simulate a raid during the joint U.S.-Philippines military exercise dubbed Balikatan 2014 Friday, May 9, 2014 at the Naval Training Exercise Command, a former US naval base. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines and its allies will help each other in upholding peace, territorial integrity and sovereignty as the Asia Pacific faces new security challenges in the 21st century “that no nation’s armed forces can face alone.” This was how Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista summarized the Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) relations of the Philippines and the United States as the 30th iteration of the joint military exercises formally closed on Friday. The Australian military also participated for the first time in the war games, where its P3-Orion surveillance plane was used in the Combined Arms Live Fire Exercises at Crow Valley in Capas, Tarlac. “Today’s dynamic security environment presents challenges that no nation’s armed forces can face alone. These challenges of the 21st century include maritime security and climate change,” Bautista said. The military chief said the Balikatan exercises “demonstrated that the only way to overcome these challenges is for everyone to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, which speaks of a global bayanihan.” “[The Balikatan] emphasizes that as friends and allies, the Philippines and the United States will, in our collective capacity, safeguard international peace and security and ensure that territorial integrity and sovereignty are respected,” Bautista said. Read More …

‘GET OUT, CHINA’ That is the clear-cut message Filipino and Vietnamese expats are sending to China on Friday, denouncing its incursions into their countries’ exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea. In photo below, the protesters call for international support for the Philippines and Vietnam against what the United States calls “China’s provocative, unilateral actions” in disputed areas. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ Filipinos and members of the Vietnamese community in Manila staged a joint protest on Friday against China’s incursions into South China Sea territories claimed by their countries. But an unrepentant China defended its actions in disputed waters amid warnings of war with Vietnam and the Philippines. Riot police blocked the entrance to a high-rise building in Makati City that houses the Chinese Embassy as the protesters marched toward it. The protest, which was peaceful, came after deadly riots in Vietnam that Hanoi said were triggered by China’s deployment of a deepwater oil drilling rig in the East Sea, part of the South China Sea within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. ‘China get out’ Chanting “China get out,” more than 200 Filipinos and Vietnamese picketed the Chinese Embassy carrying banners, including one that urged Manila and Hanoi to “join hands” against Beijing. China claims 90 percent of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea, which is crisscrossed by sea-lanes where a third of annual global cargo passes and where islands, islets, reefs and shoals are believed to be sitting atop vast oil and gas reserves. Protests against China in Vietnam have turned violent, Read More …

PNoy meets with Cabinet over Yolanda rehab. President Benigno Aquino III presides over a meeting on Yolanda rehabilitation updates in Malacañang on Friday, May 16. Gil Nartea President Benigno Aquino III on Friday ordered his Cabinet to hasten the completion of plans for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas affected by Typhoon Yolanda. “President Aquino directed the Cabinet to act with an increased sense of urgency in finalizing the post-Yolanda rehabilitation plan, especially in view of the expected onset of the rainy season in June,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement issued after Aquino’s five-hour meeting with his Cabinet on Friday. A joint congressional inquiry had earlier discovered that the government had yet to come up with a master plan to rehabilitate typhoon-hit areas, six years after the powerful cyclone hit the Visayas region. Coloma said National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council executive director Alexander Pama presented during the Cabinet meeting a summary of the latest Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), which will be the basis for the master plan. The PDNA, which assessed the total needs cost at P104.6 billion, covers four regions, 11 provinces, and Tacloban City. Coloma explained that though the PDNA had been “approved in principle,” some aspects of the report were still being fine-tuned. Rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson, meanwhile, told the President on Friday that rehabilitation plans for Tacloban City and Leyte, Western Samar, and Cebu provinces had been completed. Coloma said that after a final review session, each Read More …