OWWA promises aid to family of MERS-CoV fatality

 News
Apr 142014
 
OWWA promises aid to family of MERS-CoV fatality

By Matikas SantosINQUIRER.net 10:09 am | Tuesday, April 15th, 2014 Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines – The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) assured that it will provide assistance to the family of the Filipino who died from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed Monday that the Filipino, a medical worker in Al Ain, died after contracting the deadly MERS-Coronavirus (CoV) that has claimed 88 lives worldwide according to the latest figures of the World Health Organization (WHO). Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said in a statement Tuesday that she has instructed OWWA Administrator Carmelita Dimzon to provide full assistance to the victim’s family. Five other Filipino health workers were also infected and have been put in quarantine, according to the DFA. “Our people in the [Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Abu Dhabi] are regularly sending us updates on the other Filipinos who have reportedly been in contact with the Filipino nurse before his death. The other co-workers, all nurses, are quarantined in a hospital and are under close observation,” Baldoz said. “We hope and pray that they will recover soon and that they will be safe from the killer virus,” Dimzon said in the same statement. The body of the Filipino who died is set to be cremated as soon as documents have been processed, OWWA said. According to records of the WHO, at least 212 cases of Read More …

Bangsamoro Basic Law draft submitted to Palace

 News
Apr 142014
 
Bangsamoro Basic Law draft submitted to Palace

Malacañang has received the draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), a measure which will formalize the creation of the Bangsamoro political entity that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. “In behalf of the OP [Office of the President], Usec Michael Frederick Musngi received from MILF panel chair Mohaqber Iqbal relevant documents pertaining to a draft bill on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law,” Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr. said in a text message sent to reporters on Monday night. He did not, however, provide anymore details. But on Monday, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte expressed confidence that the bill will stand legal scrutiny. The draft BBL, which was crafted by the 15-member Bangsamoro Transition Commission, was based on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro signed late March. The Palace had said the Office of Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs will review the draft then submit it to Congress. It added it aims to have the BBL ratified by the end of the year or the first quarter of 2015.  Once approved by Congress, the BBL will be put through a plebiscite involving Mindanao provinces that want to be part of the Bangsamoro political entity. The Palace hopes to conduct the plebiscite by June 2016. —Kimberly Jane Tan/KG, GMA News

Work in courts up to noon on Holy Wednesday —Supreme Court

 News
Apr 142014
 
Work in courts up to noon on Holy Wednesday —Supreme Court

Work in all courts on Holy Wednesday will be up to noon only, the Supreme Court said Tuesday. In an advisory on its Twitter account, the high court said this was on orders of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. “Work in all courts (for Wednesday) will be only up to 12NN, as per instructions of the (Chief Justice),” the SC Public Information Office said. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are already considered regular holidays. —Joel Locsin/KG, GMA News

Disease threatens world’s bananas—UN

 News
Apr 142014
 
Disease threatens world’s bananas—UN

Cavendish bananas from Mindanao. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO ROME—The United Nations warned on Monday of the potential “massive destruction” of the world’s $5.0-billion (3.6-billion euro) a year banana crop as a plant disease spreads from Asia to Africa and the Middle East. The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the TR4 strain of Panama disease, which has already hit tens of thousands of hectares in Southeast Asia, had been reported in Jordan and Mozambique. The disease is “posing a serious threat to production and export” of bananas, the fourth-most important food crop for the world’s least developed countries and a key revenue source for poor farmers, FAO said in a report. There is no cure for TR4, which particularly affects the Cavendish variety that accounts for 47 percent of world banana production—by far the biggest. The disease affects the trees but not the bananas themselves and the only solution is to cut down the trees, dig trenches between trees to prevent its spread and impose strict quarantine measures. Top producers in Latin America, including the world’s main producer Ecuador, have so far not been affected but FAO warned there was a “potential” risk. “I think it’s sheer luck. It’s not a question of whether it will arrive but when. There’s no prevention,” said Gert Kema, director of the banana research programme at Wageningen University in the Netherlands who manages the site panamadisease.org. Kema said the availability of bananas in Europe and the United States had not been affected by the Read More …

PHL to review export policy on firearms following US state senator's smuggling case

 News
Apr 142014
 
PHL to review export policy on firearms following US state senator's smuggling case

No firearms had been shipped out of the Philippines around the time US State Senator Leland Yee was said to be smuggling firearms from the country to the US, according to the Bureau of Customs. Just the same, reports of the supposed smuggling of firearms have prompted the BOC to review existing procedures in the exportation and importation of such weapons in the Philippines. “Wala kaming findings of declared (firearms shipment) nung time na iyon, supposedly out of Mindanao lumabas yung guns. Nag-check kami doon sa aming port collectors sa Cagayan de Oro as well as other ports, walang ni-report, walang dineclare na exports of firearms at the time,” BOC Commissioner John Philip Sevilla said on Monday. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Yee was part of a conspiracy to deal firearms without a license. The firearms were supposed to be sourced from a separatist group in the Philippines. Yee was arrested in March on charges of corruption and alleged conspiracy to illegally trade in firearms. The FBI also claims that Yee has associates in the Philippines “trying to overthrow the current government.” “Ngayon, ang pinapa-check namin is ano ba yung mga existing procedures ngayon regardless of what port para masiguro natin na… hindi rin nakakalabas ng Pilipinas yung contraband,” Sevilla said. Sevilla admitted that the government is “focused” more on monitoring the importation rather than exportation of products in the Philippines. “This is a good reminder na ito pwede ring magkaroon ng illegal activity pagpalabas ng products,” Read More …

South Korea, Japan to hold talks on comfort women

 News
Apr 132014
 
South Korea, Japan to hold talks on comfort women

AFP FILE PHOTO South Korea and Japan are likely to hold director general-level talks in Seoul next week to discuss the issue of Japan‘s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, Seoul government sources said Saturday. South Korea and Japan have been trying to set up a director-level meeting to try to resolve a series of pending issues arising from their shared history. Seoul reportedly wants the meeting, if held, to focus on the so-called “comfort women” issue while Japan insists that the topic should include territorial and other issues as well. “The talks will likely be held next week and South Korea is in the final process of discussion to fix the date of the director level-talks with the Japanese side,” one government source said, requesting anonymity. Other sources said that the meeting is likely to be held on Tuesday. Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that the sexual enslavement issue will be the main topic of the talks which also are likely to include North Korea as a side issue. The talks, if held, will be the first official attempt by the two governments to tackle the “comfort women” issue. Historians believe that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, as well as China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, were forced to become sex slaves in Japanese army brothels.Grievances among a group of old-aged South Korean women who were sexually enslaved to serve at front-line Japanese military brothels during World War II have been a vexing source of diplomatic tension Read More …

Reid picks Pacquiao over Bradley

 News
Apr 122014
 
Reid picks Pacquiao over Bradley

By Bert EljeraINQUIRER.net US Bureau 6:21 am | Sunday, April 13th, 2014 Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada with Saranggani Congressman Manny Pacquiao in Reid’s Washington, D.C. office two years ago. FILE PHOTO provided by Sen. Reid’s office LAS VEGAS  – U.S. Senator and Majority Leader Harry Reid picked Manny Pacquiao over American Timothy Bradley in their 12-round title bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Sat., April 12. The Nevada Democrat said Pacquiao, himself a member of the Philippine Congress, is too skilled and experienced for Bradley, who holds the WBO welterweight title he wrested from the Filipino champion two years ago. “I believe — as many people do — that he won their last fight,” Reid said. “Now, I think, it will be more decisive.” In the wake of that Bradley split decision victory, Reid had called for a review of the decision and threatened to introduce legislation creating a federal boxing commission to regulate all boxing matches in the United States. Nothing came out of the threat, but the noise following Bradley’s controversial win forced the WBO to review the fight. A panel of experienced judges found that Pacquiao, who landed more power punches, had won the fight. Reid was paying back what he acknowledged as Paquiao’s help in harnessing Filipino-American vote in his bruising bout with Republican and Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat. Pacquiao appeared at a Las Vegas campaign rally for Reid weeks before the midterm elections. Reid, one of the Read More …

Basilan deaths rise to 12

 News
Apr 122014
 
Basilan deaths rise to 12

Philippine Daily Inquirer 3:37 am | Sunday, April 13th, 2014 ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—The death toll in the fighting between Muslim rebels and soldiers in the southern Philippines has risen to 12, officials in the area said Saturday. Over 28 soldiers were also reported wounded in running gunbattles that began on Friday in the towns of Ungkaya Pukan and Tipotipo in Basilan province between government forces and suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists. The latest report from the Western Mindanao Command said the casualties included five suspected Abu Sayyaf members and two government soldiers, correcting earlier reports that listed only three casualties on the side of the Islamist fighters after the military attacked their bases in Ungkaya Pukan and Tipotipo on Friday. Capt. Jefferson Mamauag, a Philippine Army spokesperson, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that seven Abu Sayyaf members had been killed, “with authorities now searching for their burial sites.” Mamauag also said three members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), another Muslim guerrilla force with whom the government has just signed a peace agreement, were also killed Friday, but “their bodies were as yet unrecovered.” According to Alton Angeles, municipal planning officer of the town where most of the fighting occurred, MILF guerrillas were fighting alongside the government troops. However, MILF vice chair Ghazali Jaafar told AFP the rebel leadership had yet to receive a report of MILF casualties. “It’s possible people got killed because there was a firefight,” Jaafar told AFP by telephone. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao; AFP, Read More …

PH case vs China a model for int’l sea disputes

 News
Apr 122014
 
PH case vs China a model for int’l sea disputes

This undated handout photo taken by the Philippine Navy and released April 11, 2012, by the Department of Foreign Affairs shows Chinese surveillance ships off Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal. Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista on Monday, Feb. 24, 2014, accused China’s Coast Guard of firing water cannon at Filipino fishermen last month to drive them away from Panatag Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. AFP FILE PHOTO The Philippines’ case against China in the United Nations arbitral tribunal would be the country’s contribution to international maritime jurisprudence, setting an example of legal remedies that smaller nations could seek instead of submitting to lopsided negotiations with bigger countries, according to the Philippine ambassador to the United States. Speaking at a gathering of businessmen in Makati City on Friday, Ambassador Jose Cuisia Jr. asserted the Philippines’ right to seek international arbitration in the face of Chinese incursions into the West Philippine Sea, the part of the South China Sea within the country’s exclusive economic zone. “This arbitration case would be a model or an example for other smaller states in a similar situation to consider the dispute settlement mechanism under the Unclos (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) as a way of resolving disputes in a peaceful manner,” Cuisia said.   First of its kind “The arbitration case itself is the Philippines’ contribution to further strengthening Unclos… As the Philippine arbitration case against China is the first of its kind, the proceedings and its subsequent outcome would Read More …

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