House committee approves Nets big man Blatche’s naturalization

 Entertainment
Mar 102014
 
House committee approves Nets big man Blatche’s naturalization

Andray Blatche of the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets and seen here on a 2013 invite to his birthday bash is reported to have asked to be naturalized as a Filipino citizen. MANILA (Mabuhay) – The house committee on justice approved Marikina representative Robbie Puno’s House Bill 3783, for the naturalization of Brooklyn Nets big man Andray Blatche. The committee approved the bill though, subject to the condition that Blatche appears before a Philippine consulate to express his intent to be a Filipino citizen. Blatche is also expected to answer questions to be forwarded to the consulate by the Committee on Justice. Meanwhile, Puno withdrew a similar bill filed for the naturalization of JaVale McGee. The Denver Nuggets center is out indefinitely with a fractured tibia. (MNS)

Estate lawyer Cainglet to speak on Standalone Retirement Trust

 Entertainment
Mar 102014
 
Estate lawyer Cainglet to speak on Standalone Retirement Trust

Seminar to focus on anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether creditors can go after inherited IRA accounts Estate and Trust attorney Edward R. Cainglit will be presenting a seminar on the Standalone Retirement Trust. LOS ANGELES, California  – In anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Clark et us. V. Rameker, which will determine whether creditors can go after an inherited IRA, estate and trust attorney Edward R. Cainglit will be presenting a seminar on the Standalone Retirement Trust. The nation’s highest court will hear arguments on March 23 in a fight over whether Heidi Heffron-Clark and her husband, Brandon Clark, can keep creditors from going after $300,000 in an IRA inherited from Heffron-Clark’s late mother. Qualified retirement plans like the 401(k) are asset protected under federal law.  IRAs are protected to at least some extent under state law. Many wrongly believe that these accounts will remain asset protected after their owners die.  Furthermore, many are unaware of the required distribution rules and taxation of these accounts following the death of the owner. According to the Investment Company Institute, Americans held approximately $14.5 trillion in retirement assets, up from $10.5 trillion at the end of 2002. Edward will discuss how the Standalone Retirement Trust can provide asset protection and maximize tax-deferred growth for beneficiaries who inherit retirement assets like the 401(k) and the IRA. Watch Kababayan TODAY on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 4PM on the LA18 KSCI network where Edward will be discussing this timely topic with Read More …

Resource scarcity and climate change

 Economy
Mar 092014
 

“GOING GREEN” has rapidly become the new norm for the industries of tomorrow. This mindset — coupled with initiatives and policies that focus on climate change, resource scarcity, and increased consumer, industry and political interests — is putting pressure on businesses to evolve from traditional technologies to more innovative ones. In this environment, it is inevitable that clean technologies for efficient resource consumption, renewable energy, biofuels, information technology, and waste reduction and management, among others, will lead to a paradigm shift in business practices.

Ayala unit considers IPO

 General
Mar 092014
 
Ayala unit considers IPO

By Doris C. DumlaoPhilippine Daily Inquirer 12:18 am | Monday, March 10th, 2014 Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) of the Ayala group is warming up to a potential initial public offering (IPO) to comply with the requirement of the local bourse where it listed by way of introduction four years ago. IMI also expected to exceed the strong results it chalked up in 2013, during which the company nearly doubled its net profit to $10.5 million. Business expansion in Europe and the Philippines allowed it to defy the global downturn last year. “We’re open now (to the IPO) because, compared with previous years, our story is a bit more attractive,” IMI chief finance officer Jerome Tan said in a telephone interview. IMI is even more upbeat now that the world is in a much better shape with the recovery of most Western economies, he said. “When we look at the global economy, we expect our performance this year to be better than last year,” Tan said. IMI is now waiting for its growth figures and favorable market conditions before it complies with the IPO requirement. To date, it has opted to pay fines for its delay in complying with the IPO requirement. In a memorandum dated March 6, the Philippine Stock Exchange said IMI had paid the corresponding penalties for failure to comply with the IPO requirement after it listed without selling shares to the public. IMI listed by way of introduction on Jan. 21, 2010 under the 2009 rules on Read More …

With Delfin Lee caught, Task Force Tugis has four more fugitives to find

 News
Mar 092014
 
With Delfin Lee caught, Task Force Tugis has four more fugitives to find

Task Force Tugis, the police unit formed to go after the country’s so-called “Big 5” fugitives have scored a win with the arrest of property developer Delfin Lee, but it has more work to do. “We had five original targets. One down, four to go. Hopefully, mahuli yung the rest,” Police Senior Superintendent Conrad Capa said in a report aired on “24 Oras” on Sunday. Lee, who had been a fugitive since 2012, was arrested outside a hotel in Manila on Thursday. Still on the task force’s list are former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother former Coron mayor Mario Reyes, as well as former general Jovito Palparan, and former Dinagat representative Ruben Ecleo. “Kami as Task Force Tugis, we are just doing our mandated task,” Capa said.  Capa said in the report that police managed to track Lee down in December after they found the house that Lee had been living in in Metro Manila. Since then, the police had been watching Lee and waiting for a chance to arrest him over a syndicated estafa charge. The charge stems from around P6.6 billion in fake and suspicious loans that Lee’s company, Globe Asiatique, allegedly got from the Pag-IBIG fund in the names of “ghost” borrowers. “Dalawang occassions na hinabol namin siya, pero hindi umabot eh. Sinundan, tapos nawala,” Capa said. Lee was finally tailed to the Hyatt Hotel in Manila last Thursday, where police managed to serve an arrest warrant issued against him by a San Fernando, Pampanga court. Read More …

Philippines has ‘right’ to defend its territory like China – Palace

 News
Mar 092014
 
Philippines has ‘right’ to defend its territory like China – Palace

MANILA – The Philippines also has the right to defend every inch of its territory, President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman said on Sunday, after China made a similar warning. Spokesman Herminio Coloma’s remarks came after China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said on Saturday said his country would vigorously defend its sovereignty against “unreasonable demands from smaller countries”. Although he was referring to Japan, which has its own territorial dispute with China, his remarks could also cover China’s other territorial dispute with the Philippines and other countries over parts of the South China Sea. “It is the right of every country to defend its national territory. That is also the principle we are following,” Coloma told reporters, commenting on the Chinese minister’s remarks. Coloma added that the Philippines was basing its position on the principles of international law like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS. The Philippines and China, along with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam are all claimants to parts of the South China Sea, a major sea lane and rich fishing ground which is believed to sit on vast mineral deposits. The Philippines has also expressed growing concern at the increased aggressiveness of the Chinese in pressing their claim to almost all of the waters, even up to the coasts of its neighbors. The Philippine government has sought UN arbitration under UNCLOS to settle the dispute but China has rejected the move. Last month the Philippines lodged a protest after the Chinese coast guard Read More …

AFP coordinating with Malaysia, Vietnam to find missing plane

 News
Mar 092014
 
AFP coordinating with Malaysia, Vietnam to find missing plane

Grief seizes kin of passenger on missing Malaysian plane. Journalists attempt to interview a woman who is the relative of a passenger on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, as she crouches on the floor crying, at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing March 8, 2014. Reuters The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) continues to coordinate with defense officials from Malaysia and Vietnam in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight bound for Beijing, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said Sunday. Coloma said in an interview over the government-run dzRB that President Aquino is constantly being updated about the AFP’s efforts in the search operations for the missing plane. Since Friday, the AFP has mobilized its surveillance plane and naval assets, including the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, to conduct search operations in the West Philippine Sea and the sea lanes of Palawan. The Boeing 777 jet, which had 239 people on board, took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:30 a.m. Friday. It lost contact with ground controllers at around 2:40 a.m. and is believed to have crashed somewhere between Vietnam and the West Philippine Sea. A massive international search has been launched to locate the missing plane. — Xianne Arcangel/BM, GMA News

PMA cadet Cudia given until March 19 to appeal dismissal – Palace 

 News
Mar 092014
 
PMA cadet Cudia given until March 19 to appeal dismissal – Palace 

Philippine Military Academy cadet Aldrin Jeff Cudia has until Mar. 19 to submit a position paper on his dismissal for allegedly violating the academy’s honor code, Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma Jr. said Sunday. In an interview over government-run dzRB, Coloma said Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Emmanuel Bautista met with Cudia on Feb. 24 and gave the cadet until the next day to submit his appeal. That deadline was moved to Mar. 4, and again to Mar. 19. “Sa pananaw po ng AFP, ito ay isang magandang pagkakataon para sa kanya na maipaliwanag nang buo ang kanyang posisyon. At ang gabay naman po na ginagamit ng AFP sa paghawak ng kaso ni Cadet Cudia ay ‘yung katotohanan at patas na pagtingin,” he said, citing a statement by AFP spokesperson Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala In a report aired on “Balitanghali” Saturday, Cudia’s family claimed they have two sworn statements from sympathetic witnesses who say the honor committee absolved him in an 8-1 vote, but that the vote was later overturned.    The Cudia family did not provide copies of the supposed statements. Cudia is technically dismissed from the academy after the honor committee found him guilty of

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