THE FINAL feasibility study for a mass transport system that will connect four business districts in Metro Manila is expected to be released in October, the head of state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said over the weekend.
THE POWER Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) plans to start the bidding process for two geothermal power plants in Mindanao this quarter, the state-run firm’s top official said over the weekend.
AS THE day of reckoning for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community (AEC) draws closer, our clients have been asking how further integration will impact doing business and operating in a regional environment given the diversity of culture, political platform, scale of market and geography.
Over 5 years, traveler Che Gurrobat has visited 80 of 81 provinces in the Philippines. Here, her thoughts on the ups, downs, and discoveries from her unique experience. READ FULL STORY
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
US President Barack Obama (right) and President Aquino MALACAÑANG FILE PHOTO The new defense agreement the Philippines and the United States could sign on or before the visit of US President Barack Obama later this month is designed as a “security cover” for the Philippines amid the changing security landscape in the region. This is how a ranking government official privy to the talks described to the Inquirer the “Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation” that gives, among other things, a boost to the minimum defense capability posture of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. “It’s more for deterrence, a security cover for the Philippines,” said the official, who requesting anonymity for lack of authority to speak to reporters. “We are taking our neighbors into account as well,” the official added, without referring to China with which the Philippines is locked in a bitter territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea, the part of the South China within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone. The United States has openly challenged China’s claim to 90 percent of the 3.5-square-kilometer South China Sea and sided with the Philippines as well as Japan in the territorial disputes. Japan and China are both claiming ownership of the Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu Islands by China) in the East China Sea. According to the official, the draft agreement does not yet spell out how exactly the US military could boost the AFP’s capability, but “we are headed toward that.” The official noted that the press statement released Read More …
ANTONIO Cartagena , Basilan born and an alumnus of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, is now the mayor of Walnut, an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California. AJPRESS PHOTO LOS ANGELES—Filipinos are slowly making their mark in the political realm in the United States. In California alone, a number of Fil-Ams have secured positions in the corridors of power, where they can create positive change for the Filipino community in the Golden State. A few names come up: State Assemblyman Rob Bonta, Cerritos Mayor Pro-Tem Mark Pulido and Carson City Mayor Pro-Tem Elito Santarina. The list of current and former Fil-Am politicians would no doubt include many other illustrious names. However, only a few can compare to the tenure, experience and legacy of the City of Walnut Mayor Antonio “Tony” Cartagena. Walnut, an affluent city in Los Angeles County, spans 23.05 square kilometers and hosts around 30,000 residents. Born and raised in province of Basilan, Mayor Cartagena is a longtime Walnut City councilor. Today, he is serving his fourth term as Walnut City mayor (he was appointed in July 2013). He previously held the post in 2002, 2006 and 2010. Cartagena is passionate about promoting diversity in a previously Caucasian-dominated city council. A more diverse council can be more responsive to the needs of all its constituents, he said. His goal is to preserve Walnut’s rural atmosphere by preventing the proliferation of street gangs, conserving Walnut’s open spaces and continuing the tradition of excellence in the local school district. Read More …