From the early 1900s to the 1960s, Escolta was the country’s premier shopping mecca. With the emergence of the commercial and business districts of Makati and Quezon City, the prestige of Escolta gradually faded. READ FULL STORY
Jun 242013
Jun 232013
The southwest monsoon and the inter-tropical convergence zone may bring rain to parts of northern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao Monday, state weather forecasters said. PAGASA forecaster Manny Mendoza also said the high tide may cause water levels to rise as it may go as high as 1.46 meters for the day. “Ang 1.46 meters, medyo mataas na yan,” he said in an interview on dzBB radio. PAGASA’s 5 a.m. bulletin said the high tide would reach its peak at 9:53 a.m. Earlier Monday, local governments in Malabon City and in Obando, Bulacan had suspended classes for the day in anticipation of floods brought by the high tide. Monsoon rain PAGASA’s 5 a.m. bulletin said the weak southwest monsoon was affecting the western sections of northern Luzon while the inter-tropical convergence zone was affecting Southern Mindanao. “The regions of Ilocos, Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, Western and Central Visayas, Zamboanga peninsula and SOCCSKSARGEN will experience cloudy skies with light to moderate rain showers and thunderstorms,” it said. Metro Manila and the rest of the country will be “partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms mostly in the afternoon or evening.” Moderate to strong winds from the southwest to south will prevail over the western section of Northern Luzon and the coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough. Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the east to southeast over the rest of the country with slight to moderate seas. PAGASA also said that Read More …
Jun 232013
5:34 am | Monday, June 24th, 2013 Jose Antonio Vargas. AP WASHINGTON, D.C.—“To be honest, this was not the film I sought out to make,” journalist Jose Antonio Vargas explained. He wanted to make a film about young people like him who grew up American but are undocumented. “But after sending a film crew to the Philippines to document my own mother, whom I haven’t seen for almost 20 years, the film took a different turn—I didn’t want it to go there but it had to go there.” “Documented,” a deeply personal story of Vargas’ own journey to the US as an undocumented immigrant, had its world premiere here June 21 at the American Film Institute’s documentary festival (AFI Docs), America’s leading showcase for documentary film. With immigration reform dominating the agenda in Capitol Hill these days, immigration reform advocates hailed the 90-minute documentary—written and directed by Vargas himself—as timely and relevant. This “journey inward as he reconnects with his mother” offers a firsthand glimpse on how a broken system has profoundly affected the lives of 11 million human beings, tearing families apart, says Frank Sharry, an immigrant rights champion who has been at the center of every major legislative and policy debate related to immigration for many years. “The film shows that at its core, our national debate is not about policy or politics but about our own morality and humanity as a people. It opens up hearts and minds and, hopefully, the possibility that we may yet solve Read More …
Jun 232013
The Commission on Elections will release this week the Random Manual Audit (RMA) results of 234 precincts during the May 13, 2013 midterm polls. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said that, “Walang problema, 99.99 percent.” However, he noted that not all the results from the 234 areas will be published, but he assured that it would be more than 200 precincts. “Yung iba hindi na mailalabas dahil may court order like protective order, protest,” the poll body chief explained. Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law states that there should be an RMA conducted in one precinct, randomly chosen in each of the 234 congressional districts. Earlier, Brillantes said that the RMAs of the 2013 and 2010 polls were practically the same. He added that the accuracy rate was what they expected, adding that there can never be a 100 percent matching count. “Visual appreciation and machine appreciation, there will always be difference. There will always be variants or discrepancies no matter how you look at it. It cannot be perfect no matter how you look at it,” he had said. — DVM, GMA News
Jun 232013
Philippine state weather forecasters believe there is little chance of the haze that has affected Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia reaching the Philippines. A report on Bombo Radyo quoted PAGASA as saying the winds from the southwest monsoon are likely to keep the haze out of the Philippine area of responsibility. In past days, a haze has affected Indonesia, caused by illegal forest fires on Sumatra island to clear space for palm oil plantations. The haze reached Singapore and now threatens Malaysia. According to reports on Malaysia’s The Star Online, winds from the southwest carried the haze from Riau to the central and southern part of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, with several schools in Malaysia having to be closed due to the haze. — BM, GMA News
Jun 232013
The camp of whistleblower Rodolfo Lozada Jr. has asked the entire fourth division of the Sandiganbayan to inhibit itself from the graft cases he is facing before the anti-graft court. In a four-page motion to recuse filed late Friday, Lozada’s camp accused Associate Justice Gregory Ong, who chairs the Sandiganbayan fourth division, of forming a “negative opinion” against Lozada. Lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno, Lozada’s counsel, said in the motion that Ong’s remarks during hearings on Lozada’s case last May indicate the magistrate’s supposedly negative opinion against the whistleblower. Diokno said Ong admonished Lozada in court for smiling and for being “escorted by too many people.” The associate justice also supposedly said that Lozada “loves talking.” “The foregoing comments indicate that His Honor has formed a negative opinion about Mr. Lozada; that it would be better if Mr. Lozada and his supporters do not personally attend the trial; and that Mr. Lozada talks too much and smiles too often,” the defense camp said in the motion. Lozada’s lawyer also said that Ong seems to be “monitoring the situation of Mr. Lozada vis-a-vis President Benigno Aquino III even if this is neither material nor relevant to the cases at bar.” The defense particularly took offense on this comment supposedly made by Ong in open court: “Para kung may importante kayong meetings or you want to go to the media and say something against our President again, you won’t be arrested, okay?” Aside from Ong, the defense camp also wants Associate Justices Jose Read More …
Jun 232013
How do you prepare a politician with zero experience in government for three to six years in office—and do it in less than a week? This is the challenge being faced by some institutions which offer crash courses to newly-elected local officials and lawmakers to try to prepare them for the tasks ahead. The University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), for instance, recently organized a five-day course for Senator-elect Nancy Binay. Before winning her Senate seat last elections, Binay served as personal assistant to her parents, Vice President Jejomar Binay and former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay. Maynard Matammu of the UP-NCPAG’s Center for Policy and Executive Development, one of the persons who prepared Binay’s crash course, explained that the topics tackled during Binay’s course were “customized” based on the senator-elect’s preferences. “We drafted the course and met with the senator. We informed her about the specific topics per session and who the resource persons will be. We made sure that the course will touch on her priority areas and subjects that were in her platform,” Matammu said in an interview. He said the center has been organizing these courses for years as part of its “extension services” to the public. In Binay’s case, her course included introductory discussions on the Philippine administrative system, the Senate, the economy and the national budget process—all tackled in sessions that lasted for an hour and a half. The course likewise allowed Binay to have “sessions with experts” on Read More …
Jun 212013
By Nikko DizonPhilippine Daily Inquirer 3:31 am | Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 In a photo released by the U.S. Navy, the mine countermeasures ship USS Guardian sits aground in this Jan. 22, 2013 file photo on the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea in the Philippines. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Lack of leadership and faulty navigational equipment led to the grounding of the former USS Guardian on the Tubbataha Reef last January, which could have been prevented, according to the official report of the United States Navy. “The USS Guardian leadership and watch teams failed to adhere to prudent, safe, and sound navigation principles which would have alerted them to approaching dangers with sufficient time to take mitigating action,” concluded Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, in the 160-page document. “The watch team’s observations of visual cues in the hours leading up to the grounding, combined with electronic cues and alarms, should have triggered immediate steps to resolve warnings and reconcile discrepancies,” Haney said. The US Pacific Fleet Public Affairs Office on Friday released a press statement summarizing the US Navy’s report on the results of its investigation into the minesweeper’s grounding on Tubbataha Reef. A link to the summary version of the report was also available online. Haney described as a “tragic mishap” the Jan. 17 grounding of the US vessel in the World Heritage Site, which destroyed more than 2,000 square meters of prized corals that would take years to rehabilitate. Preventable mishap “This Read More …
Jun 212013
By DJ YapPhilippine Daily Inquirer 1:47 am | Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 CRUSHED At least 5 tons of smuggled elephant tusks worth an estimated $10 million are destroyed by a road roller in support of a global effort to stop the illegal ivory trade. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ MANILA, Philippines—Environment officials on Friday led the crushing of some five tons of smuggled elephant tusks worth an estimated $10 million in a symbolic move to show the seriousness of the Philippine campaign to stop the “blood ivory” trade. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Friday destroyed the confiscated ivory using a road roller at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center in Quezon City. The shattered parts were to be incinerated at a government animal crematorium, officials said. The destruction of the stockpile would also eliminate any opportunity for corrupt officials to resell the ivory. “This act is a strong statement to the rest of the world that the Philippines is serious and will not tolerate illegal wildlife trade,” Environment Secretary Ramon Paje told a crowd of foreign dignitaries, wildlife campaigners and local and international media. Ivory can fetch from $1,000 to $2,000 per kilogram on the black market and more than $50,000 for an entire tusk, according to reports. Bonaventure Ebayi, chair of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force, an intergovernmental body on illegal wildlife trade based in Nairobi, Kenya, said the Philippine government’s action was a model that ought to be replicated in other parts of Asia. The US Read More …
Jun 212013
By Nikko DizonPhilippine Daily Inquirer 1:37 am | Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 President Benigno Aquino III gives a miniature figurine to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim before the historic signing of the framework agreement between the Philippine government and the MILF at the Malacanang Presidential Palace last Oct. 15. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Formal talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur will resume in July, government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said in a statement released by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) on Friday. “The panel chairs have already agreed on a date early next month to further discuss the annexes on wealth sharing, power sharing and normalization,” Ferrer said. Amid reports of a “stalemate” in talks to solve the 40-year rebellion in Mindanao, Ferrer met informally with MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal in Oslo where they both attended the Oslo Forum 2013. The event was organized by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue last June 18 and 19. Ferrer said she had given Iqbal the government’s full proposals on the wealth sharing annex “for the MILF to study and consider.” The wealth sharing annex has been a controversial issue of late between the government and the MILF, with the latter protesting a “review” conducted by the Aquino administration on the document even after the two panels’ working committees affixed their signatures on it. The MILF considers Read More …