Maniolas

NAYPYITAW, Burma—Burma, also known as Myanmar, will parade its once isolated capital to international leaders this weekend, hosting a landmark summit of Southeast Asia’s regional bloc as reforms see the country strut onto the world stage. Teams of local workers plucked weeds from manicured lawns while police practiced security checks on convoys of proxy diplomatic cars in Naypyitaw late Friday, in last minute preparations for the arrival of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ahead of Sunday’s meeting. “We are now fine-tuning, everything is ready,” government spokesperson Ye Htut said. The summit is the first top-level function held as part of Burma’s yearlong Asean chairmanship,  a debut for the country despite its 17-year membership of the bloc, because rights concerns during the former junta era kept it on the sidelines. A new quasi-civilian regime that took power in 2011 has thrust the country into the international limelight, with reforms including freeing political prisoners and welcoming opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament. Burma has taken the Asean helm under the slogan “Moving Forward in Unity to a Peaceful and Prosperous Community.”   Regional tensions But its first major diplomatic role is likely to be dominated by regional tensions after tempers flared this week between Beijing and Asean members Vietnam and the Philippines over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Hanoi on Wednesday accused Chinese ships of attacking Vietnamese patrol vessels near a controversial oil rig in contested waters. On the same day, Philippine maritime police Read More …

AMBASSADOR AHMAD: We are there for them, we care about them. In this basketball-crazed nation, one intrepid diplomat is hoping to literally change the game. British Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmad, an impassioned football fan, is marching on with his advocacy of propagating the world’s most popular sport still fledgling in the country by playing coach for one day to a local team of underprivileged children from a Taguig village. “This is a world first. I am coaching football in Filipino,” the Tagalog-savvy Ambassador said in jest on the sidelines of the training under the sweltering noontime heat on Wednesday at the tennis court in his Forbes Park residence. “In the Philippines, sometimes this sport of football is known for being only for rich people and their rich children. What we’re saying is, football is for everyone. And by choosing this team in this competition, we’re making sure the game is played in every barangay. The excitement that it will generate will be fantastic,” Ahmad said in an interview. Ahmad, who describes himself as a fan of the Liverpool Football Club on his official Twitter account, is keen to convert the Philippines from the court to the pitch, broaching the idea to President Benigno Aquino III during their first official meeting shortly after the envoy’s appointment to Manila last year. “I said to him, ‘Do you know the Azkals are now one of the highest-rated teams in Asia?’ And his adviser said, ‘Yes, that’s true Mr. President.’ I said Read More …

THE PSO Dubai team won the top prize at the culinary competition. On May 1, Labor Day, 30 pre-teen and teen-aged students from Philippine Schools Overseas (PSO)  in  Bahrain, Oman, Doha, Dubai, and Shanghai  converged in the kitchens of Enderun Colleges in McKinley Hill, Taguig to face-off and demonstrate culinary skills inspired by their Filipino heritage. Most of the student-contestants are children of overseas Filipino workers. Participants from various Philippine schools abroad face-off during the cookfest. The 1st Philippine Schools Overseas (PSO) Culinary Competition 2013-14 was conceptualized by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) to foster cultural connectivity.  The project was supported by the Mama Sita Foundation together with Banco de Oro,  Landbank of the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture, and GMA 7-International. According to Undersecretary Mary Grace Ampil-Tirona, executive director of the CFO, the primary objective of the project is to continuously strengthen the cultural ties of children of overseas Filipinos with the home country and to raise awareness of the vocational, technical and entrepreneurial tracks being opened under the government’s K-12 curricular reform program. The culinary competition focused on the development of youthful appreciation for national dishes, not just by eating  them with gusto,  but by learning how to cook a range of favorite Philippine signature dishes from “scratch.”  Blurring traditional gender roles, the competition drew both male and female contestants. After a year of classroom practice  under their mentors and coaches and the  submission of  well-documented on-campus elimination rounds simulating a food festival, five out of the Read More …

Presidential assistant for rehabilitation Panfilo Lacson denied a newspaper report alleging he has cleaned up a list of people who supposedly benefited from anomalies in the disbursement of lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund. In a text message to GMA News, Lacson said an allegation published on The Daily Tribune on Saturday that he has agreed to sanitize the list—which he says he received from the husband of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles—”doesn’t make sense.” “How can one sanitize something that he has not seen? Unless I’m the one being accused of sanitizing it, which doesn’t make sense since I announced the number of legislators on the list. It simply defies logic,” he said. Lacson has said that, based on his list, there are 13 more senators involved in the pork scam aside from Senators Juan Ponce-Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., who are already facing plunder complaints. As of this post, GMA News Online is still trying to reach Department of Justice Secretary Leila De Lima for comment. She has previously said, however, that she will release the list to the public in time and that the list will not be sanitized. According to the Tribune report, which cites an unnamed source, Lacson has been pressured by Malacañang to remove names of the Aquino administration’s allies from the list, which he supposedly then leaked to “a major yellow broadsheet.” Yellow has been used by government critics to refer to allies of the Liberal Party and of Read More …

The 11 Chinese fishermen who were caught by Philippine authorities engaged in illegal fishing off Half Moon Shoal (Hasa-Hasa Shoal) near Palawan on Tuesday, are set to undergo inquest proceedings, a television report on Friday said. According to a report on GMA News TV’s “Balitanghali,” the Chinese fishermen face charges for violation of Philippine environmental laws. It added that authorities are waiting for the arrival of the fishermen’s vessel loaded with several hundred turtles, most of them dead, and believed to have been captured in Philippine territory. Several species of sea turtles are protected under Philippine laws. The 11 suspects are being detained at the Palawan Provincial Police compound, the report said, adding that the crew members are in good physical condition. Last Thursday evening, a Chinese consul visited the suspects to check their condition. Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Thursday, Chinese Embassy spokesman Zhang Hua protested the arrest of the fishermen, and called it a “provocative act” meant to raise tensions in the South China Sea, portions of which are being claimed by Manila  as part the West Philippine Sea. He insisted the fishermen were fishing in Chinese territory. “China has indisputable sovereignty over Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters, including the Banyue Reef,” he said, referring to China’s name for the Philippine-claimed Half Moon (Hasa-Hasa) Shoal. On the other hand, Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma Jr. stressed that the incident was not meant to provoke China. He said the seizure and arrest were “in accordance Read More …