2014 Senior Tours, Alhambra Style

 General
Jan 152014
 
2014 Senior Tours, Alhambra Style

by Myrna Aquitania Myrna Aquitania Newshen colleague Lydia Solis, her sister Lulu Alcayde and I once experienced joining the senior outing tour sponsored by Alhambra’s Joslyn Recreation Center. They usually sponsor a couple of different tours every month. We were lucky to have joined one of LA’s “hidden treasures,” the Hsi Lai Temple tour in Hacienda Heights. It was a whole day’s worth of not only pleasurable and exciting but a spiritual experience as well. We boarded a passenger-packed luxury coach on an early weekend morning in front of the Recreation Center and we reached the Temple within half an hour where the view on top was exhilarating. Joslyn Recreation Center has recently published their 2014 tours and I truly recommend taking advantage of these inexpensive (minimal fees range from $12.00 to $20.00 per person, meals not included) outings because they’re really worth the minimal fee that went along with it. Following is the schedule this year: Farmer’s Market and The Grove on Friday, January 10th and the Pechanga Resort and Casino on Thursday, January 23rd. Registration for this tour was already done in December but you can check for availability of space by calling the Center at: 626/570-5056; In February, the outings include: Queen Mary, 9:30 am to to 4:00 pm, February 7th, fee $25.00, and the Getty Villa, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m, February 21st, fee $12 Registration just ended on January 7th, but again you may check with the Center for availability of space. The historical nature of the Queen Mary tour brings you back Read More …

KZ another millionaire in Singing Bee

 General
Jan 152014
 
KZ another millionaire in Singing Bee

MANILA, Philippines – KZ Tandingan started her new year on a high note after she bagged the P1M jackpot prize on ABS-CBN’s The Singing Bee last Jan. 11.  KZ bested fellow challengers and singers Frenchie Dy, Sitti Navarro, Duncan Ramos and Nyoy Volante, and four-week defending champion Miss International 2013 Bea Rose Santiago. KZ is the second millionaire for the current season of The Singing Bee following Sheryl Cruz, who also won the P1M jackpot last December. After KZ’s victory, The Singing Bee is again in search of its new champion, or new millionaire, this week since the championship seat has been unoccupied. Cast members of ABS-CBN’s newest sitcom Home Sweetie Home John Lloyd Cruz, Toni Gonzaga, Sandy Andolong, Rico J. Puno and Jayson Gainza take a break from comedy as they try their luck in the hit musical game show on Jan. 18. Who among them will win and become the new defending champion? Will one of them again take home the P1M jackpot prize? The Singing Bee, hosted by Roderick Paulate and Amy Perez, airs Saturdays after It’s Showtime.

DOH to DOF: Remove UP-PGH as sin tax beneficiary

 Entertainment
Jan 152014
 
DOH to DOF: Remove UP-PGH as sin tax beneficiary

The Department of Health-National Capital Region (DOH-NCR) together with the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) conduct joint anti-dengue spraying, disinfection and clean-up of the JAC Liner bus terminal along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) in Quezon City on Friday morning (July 12, 2013). (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – If Health Secretary Enrique Ona would have his way, the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) will not benefit from the incremental revenues to be generated by the Sin Tax Law. In his comments to the draft implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the law, Ona does not want UP-PGH, which was among those who actively participated in the congressional deliberation, to have any part in the implementation of the measure. Revenues collected from the Sin Tax Law will directly go to the Department of Health. The IRR specifies that DOH give UP-PGH some of the funds as a research center and by participating in decisions on human resources issues among health personnel. But in his letter to Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima dated 26 December 2013, Ona asked to “delete the last sentence of the Rule III of Sec. 5 of the IRR which specifies UP-PGH as the premiere national university hospital that DOH should primarily engage for research to support universal health care.” Ona said that “even before the passage of Republic Act 10532, the DOH had already established a ‘research reference hub’ under Department Order No. 2012-0197.” “The said DO itself does not prescribe a sole supplier to conduct Read More …

Catholic bishops welcome Quevedo cardinalship

 Entertainment
Jan 152014
 
Catholic bishops welcome Quevedo cardinalship

President Benigno S. Aquino III, accompanied by the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps His Excellency Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, leads the traditional toast for the New Year’s Vin d’ Honneur at the Rizal Hall of the Malacañan Palace on Friday (January 11, 2014). The annual reception which marks the 27th Vin d’ Honneur since the 1986 EDSA Revolution was attended by government officials, members of the Diplomatic Corps, officials of international organizations and businessmen. (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – Catholic prelates were elated with the naming of Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, OMI as Cardinal by no less than Pope Francis at the Vatican. Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle thanked Pope Francis for associating the Cardinal-elect prelate and the church in Mindanao to his Petrine ministry. Over the weekend, the Holy Father announced the names of 19 new Cardinals including Quevedo at the Vatican. “I thank Pope Francis for associating Archbishop Quevedo and the church in Mindanao to his Petrine ministry and solicitude for all the churches,” he said in a statement. He added, “The Church in the Philippines and Asia has been greatly blessed these past decades by the service and leadership of Archbishop Quevedo. Now this blessing extends to the whole Church.” The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) immediately welcomed the news on the Archbishop of Cotabato’s being named as a Cardinal. “He is known in the CBCP for his mental clarity and intellectual Read More …

Safe house construction diagnostic tool out this year – Phivolcs

 Entertainment
Jan 152014
 
Safe house construction diagnostic tool out this year – Phivolcs

Vice President Jejomar Binay (right), Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez and Councilor Cristina Romualdez discuss the construction of 400 houses in Tacloban City and another 200 houses in Palo, Leyte for the victims of typhoon “Yolanda” after the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement Thursday at the Office of Vice President Jejomar Binay at the Coconut Palace, Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Pasay City on Thursday (Jan. 9, 2014). (MNS photo) MANILA  (Mabuhay) – The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) will make available to the public beginning this year its diagnostic tool for helping people gauge if their houses are safe to live in. “We’ll launch that tool within 2014’s first quarter,” said Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum Jr. The launch is part of Phivolcs’ continuing campaign for safe construction to help better protect life, limb and property. Phivolcs is pursuing such campaign, noting earthquakes are natural occurrences in the Philippines since this country lies in tremor-prone Pacific Ring of Fire. Solidum noted the tool features 12 safe construction-related questions that users must answer using the numbers one or zero to get a total score that’ll indicate whether or not their houses are safe. A score of 11 to 12 points indicate a user’s house is safe, he said. He said a score of eight to 10 points indicate the user must already have his or her house inspected. ”Scores below eight points indicate the house is dangerous to live in,” he noted. This week, Phivolcs reported Read More …

Ex-Marcos aide sentenced over sale of Monet painting

 General
Jan 132014
 
Ex-Marcos aide sentenced over sale of Monet painting

A US judge sentenced a former personal secretary to Imelda Marcos Monday to two to six years in prison for conspiring to sell Impressionist masterpieces belonging to the Manila government that vanished when Ferdinand Marcos was ousted. But Justice Renee A. White of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan said Vilma Bautista, 75, who has a pacemaker and chronic heart disease, could remain free on $175,000 bail while her lawyers appeal, the New York Times reported. White also ordered Bautista to pay $3.5 million in income taxes she owes to New York City and to New York State. He said she failed to report $28 million she obtained from selling one of the paintings, a famous Claude Monet water lily work, to a London gallery, which then resold it to a hedge fund manager in Switzerland. Bautista’s lawyer, Fran Hoffinger, said the court should impose no jail sentence because of her frail health. Hoffinger pointed out that paramedics had wheeled Ms. Bautista out of the courtroom on a gurney twice during her five-week trial after heart palpitations and fainting spells. “Incarceration for her would be a death sentence, or at least a life sentence,” Hoffinger said, according to the Times. It took a jury less than three hours to convict Bautista in November of conspiracy and tax fraud in connection with the sale of the Monet piece, “Le Bassin aux Nympheas” (1899). The painting had been taken along with three other works in late 1995 from the walls Read More …

PNoy: BOC reforms to help solve smuggling problem

 News
Jan 132014
 
PNoy: BOC reforms to help solve smuggling problem

President Benigno Aquino III is confident that the reforms being implemented by his administration within the Bureau of Customs (BOC) will address the country’s smuggling problem. “Palagay ko naman we are addressing it, tingnan ninyo yung movement of people in Customs,” Aquino told reporters after the groundbreaking ceremony of the San Gabriel Power Plant Project in Sta. Rita, Batangas City. He issued the statement after the group Federation of Philippine Industries said the government lost more than P1.33 trillion in revenues from 2002 to 2011 due to smuggling. But Aquino said things are slowly changing since they started reshuffling officials within the BOC, which recently saw the resignation of Ruffy Biazon as its commissioner. “What I’m trying to say is we pressed the restart button, parang sa computer,” the President said. The personnel changes within the BOC began after Aquino, in his last State of the Nation Address, publicly called out the bureau for supposedly failing to curb smuggling operations in the country. Since then, Aquino has tranferred those he feels are not “contributing to the [reform] efforts” to their mother unit, the Department of Finance. Aquino recently appointed John “Sunny” Sevilla” as the new commissioner of the bureau, replacing Biazon, who stepped down after having been named respondent in a malversation case by the Department of Justice. Aquino admitted he had to convince many appointees to transfer to BOC to help him initiate changes. “Ang expectation is these people will carry out their faction.  It’s not perfect, they have Read More …

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