Employers have reiterated the need to update the country’s Labor Code with a resolution approved at the close of its annual conference on Friday.
May 162014
May 162014
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines plans to develop a P2.39-billion transmission project to accommodate a new 600-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Davao del Sur.
May 162014
‘GET OUT, CHINA’ That is the clear-cut message Filipino and Vietnamese expats are sending to China on Friday, denouncing its incursions into their countries’ exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea. In photo below, the protesters call for international support for the Philippines and Vietnam against what the United States calls “China’s provocative, unilateral actions” in disputed areas. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ Filipinos and members of the Vietnamese community in Manila staged a joint protest on Friday against China’s incursions into South China Sea territories claimed by their countries. But an unrepentant China defended its actions in disputed waters amid warnings of war with Vietnam and the Philippines. Riot police blocked the entrance to a high-rise building in Makati City that houses the Chinese Embassy as the protesters marched toward it. The protest, which was peaceful, came after deadly riots in Vietnam that Hanoi said were triggered by China’s deployment of a deepwater oil drilling rig in the East Sea, part of the South China Sea within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. ‘China get out’ Chanting “China get out,” more than 200 Filipinos and Vietnamese picketed the Chinese Embassy carrying banners, including one that urged Manila and Hanoi to “join hands” against Beijing. China claims 90 percent of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea, which is crisscrossed by sea-lanes where a third of annual global cargo passes and where islands, islets, reefs and shoals are believed to be sitting atop vast oil and gas reserves. Protests against China in Vietnam have turned violent, Read More …
May 162014
The Philippine National Police is working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will provide a framework for cooperation between itself and the Russian Federation Police which would strengthen cooperation “in the prevention and combating transnational crime.” In a Friday statement, the PNP said that during the 34th ASEANAPOL conference earlier in the week, Russian Federation Minister of Internal Affairs Police Colonel General Vladimir Kolokoltsev and PNP Chief Police Director General Alan Purisima held bilateral talks to address issues such as terrorism, cybercrime, and drug trafficking. The statement also said the Russian police were concerned over the Russian women who were allegedly victims of trafficking and exploitation in the Philippines. Last April, at least 19 women, including three Russian nationals, were rescued by the National Bureau of Investigation’s anti-human trafficking division and the Department of Social Welfare and Development following a raid on a suspected sex den in Pasay City. Aside from the three Russians, among those rescued were 13 Filipinas and three Ukrainians. Authorities had said that the foreigners rescued had no permits nor proper visas to work in the Philippines. “The creation of MOU will promote awareness on the arising peace and order issues and concerns in both countries,” the PNP statement said. According to data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, there were 1,376 reported victims of human trafficking in the Philippines in 2012, and 645 more victims in the first semester of 2013. However, an earlier DSWD report hinted that the actual number of Read More …
May 162014
Is Chloe Dauden open to doing frontal nudity?
May 162014
President Benigno S. Aquino III converses with Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Alan Purisima during the 34th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Chiefs of Police (ASEANAPOL) Conference at the Luzon Ballroom of the Sofitel Philippine Plaza in Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City on Tuesday (May 13, 2014). (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) — The jobs of Budget Sec. Butch Abad, Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director Joel Villanueva are safe, at least for now. On Thursday, President Benigno Aquino III said that he will not fire the Cabinet officials for being mentioned on the list of government officials supposedly involved in the pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles without any proof. “Mali siguro na may nag-criticize [lang], dapat tanggalin na kaagad. Siguro ang importante: May ebidensya nga ba?” Aquino told reporters during the inauguration of a new solar plant in Negros Occidental. The President’s remark came following calls by government ciritics for Aquino to relieve Abad, Alcala and Villanueva from their posts for being included on the unsigned Napoles list and affidavit turned over by former Senator Panfilo Lacson to the Senate blue ribbon committee. The President, however, said that is not how the justice system works. “Baka hindi alam ng ating mga kaibigan sa kaliwa ..pero dito sa bansa natin karapatan ng bawat isa ang pinangangalagaan at isa sa mga tenets ng ating batas ‘innocent until proven guilty’. Hindi ‘guilty until you prove yourself innocent’” he said. He added that the bottom Read More …
May 162014
PNoy meets with Cabinet over Yolanda rehab. President Benigno Aquino III presides over a meeting on Yolanda rehabilitation updates in Malacañang on Friday, May 16. Gil Nartea President Benigno Aquino III on Friday ordered his Cabinet to hasten the completion of plans for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas affected by Typhoon Yolanda. “President Aquino directed the Cabinet to act with an increased sense of urgency in finalizing the post-Yolanda rehabilitation plan, especially in view of the expected onset of the rainy season in June,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement issued after Aquino’s five-hour meeting with his Cabinet on Friday. A joint congressional inquiry had earlier discovered that the government had yet to come up with a master plan to rehabilitate typhoon-hit areas, six years after the powerful cyclone hit the Visayas region. Coloma said National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council executive director Alexander Pama presented during the Cabinet meeting a summary of the latest Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), which will be the basis for the master plan. The PDNA, which assessed the total needs cost at P104.6 billion, covers four regions, 11 provinces, and Tacloban City. Coloma explained that though the PDNA had been “approved in principle,” some aspects of the report were still being fine-tuned. Rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson, meanwhile, told the President on Friday that rehabilitation plans for Tacloban City and Leyte, Western Samar, and Cebu provinces had been completed. Coloma said that after a final review session, each Read More …
May 162014
The Senate pork barrel scam probe was suspended on Tuesday (Sept. 24, 2013) after Blue Ribbon Committee Chair, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III (left) expressed disappointment on Justice Secretary Leila De Lima for not bringing whistleblowers to testify at the hearing. (MNS photo) MANILA, May 8 (Mabuhay) — Whistleblowers Association of the Philippines (WAP) president Sandra Cam on Thursday said that she will wait for Justice Secretary Leila M. De Lima to release first the list given to her by Janet Lim Napoles before she also releases her own list. The list purportedly contains the names of lawmakers implicated in the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam. Napoles is the alleged “brains” behind the P10-billion pork barrel and the P900-million Malampaya Fund scams. De Lima earlier said that she will release the so-called Napoles’ list once the thorough and extensive validation of the testimony of the alleged pork barrel queen is finished. Likewise, De Lima asked the Senate to give her more time to finish the validation of the Napoles’ list before she releases such a list. According to De Lima, she has specific instructions from President Benigno S. Aquino III not to “sanitize” the Napoles’ list. On the other hand, Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery Panfilo Lacson earlier disclosed that he received Napoles’ unsigned and incomplete affidavit, which also includes a list of those involved in the pork barrel scam. In a press conference at the Aloha Hotel along Roxas Boulevard, Manila, Cam said that she cannot yet Read More …
May 162014
Philippine Army Cpl. Kenneth Dumagco, foreground, moves to a notional extract location during helicopter insert and extract training with U.S. soldiers on Fort Magsaysay, Philippines, April 29, 2014. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Pete Thibodeau CROW VALLEY, May 15, 2014 (AFP) – US aircraft dropped bombs and marines tore forward under artillery fire in war games in the Philippines on Thursday, weeks after the allies signed a defense deal against a backdrop of flaring Chinese tensions with its neighbors. The live rounds made a dull thud and kicked up dust as they rained down on a dry riverbed in the northern Philippines at the start of the hour-long maneuvers, involving about 100 American and 200 Filipino marines. “We’re training to take over a key enemy position,” US Marines spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jay de la Rosa told AFP from a nearby ridge observation point, as F/A-18 and A-10 aircraft unloaded their payloads. Artillery shells also poured down from nearby hilltops before V-22 Osprey aircraft and conventional military helicopters made paratroop drops of marines on the simulated battlefield, later joined by colleagues aboard armored vehicles. “It’s a maritime security scenario,” Filipino Navy Captain Annaleah Cazcarro said. “We don’t have a target country,” she emphasized. Thursday’s maneuvers came at the end of 10 days of annual war games between the US and its close ally the Philippines, involving 5,500 troops and this year addressing security issues in the flashpoint South China Sea. China is engaged in increasingly tense rows with both the Read More …
May 162014
Levito Baligod , the former lawyer of pork scam whistle-blower Benhur Luy, believes his former client has the more credible list of lawmakers implicated in the pork barrel scam of Janet Lim Napoles. He said he made separate lists based on the information, which was then verified by the pork scam whistle-blowers. MANILA, May 15 (Mabuhay) – The camp of pork barrel scam whistleblower Benhur Luy on Thursday opposed the bid of Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the multibillion-peso anomaly, to become a state witness and get immunity from suit. “We believe that she should not be granted immunity. Her questionable credibility is a natural liability that can do nothing to contribute to the cause of our witnesses,” Luy’s legal counsel Raji Mendoza told reporters on Thursday. Mendoza noted how Napoles had lied “many times”, citing her appearance at a Senate inquiry where she denied any knowledge on the P10-billion anomaly. But lately, Napoles confessed to taking part in the scheme and even produced a list implicating several people. “We do not know kung ang sinasabi niya ba ay ang buong katotohanan, bawas na ang katotohanan, nadagdagang katotothanan, or pawang kasinungalingan,” Mendoza said. On the other hand, the camp of Technology Resource Center director general-on-leave Dennis Cunanan, a co-accused in the scam who turned provisional state witness, refused to comment on the Napoles’ immunity bid. “For now wala kaming mai-co-comment diyan sa intention niyang maging state witness at ang pagkakadinig ko according to her lawyer, hindi naman siya nag-a-apply Read More …