Labor team off to Libya to aid OFWs

 News
Jun 082014
 
Labor team off to Libya to aid OFWs

Philippine Daily Inquirer 5:22 am | Monday, June 9th, 2014 Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz (in photo) has approved the deployment to Libya of a two-man contingency team that would augment the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) staff in Tripoli. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines–Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has approved the deployment to Libya of a two-man contingency team that would augment the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) staff in Tripoli. “I have approved the composition of the contingency team. Labor Attaché Nasser Mustafa and Welfare Officer Eduardo Mendoza Jr. will travel to Libya mainly to establish a network with overseas Filipino workers and their employers, assess the actual security situation, and recommend a plan of action to facilitate the evacuation of Filipinos when it becomes necessary,” Baldoz said in a statement. Mustafa and Mendoza were part of the ground team in Libya who helped handle the evacuation of OFWs there during the 2011 Libyan crisis. Baldoz said the Polo, in coordination with the Philippine Embassy, was closely monitoring the situation in Libya and was coordinating the appropriate action to ensure the safety and welfare of the OFWs there. “The DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) augmentation team should form part of the country’s rapid response team in Libya, together with the team from the Department of Foreign Affairs, under the one-country-team approach,” Baldoz said. POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac, chair of the DOLE’s Libya crisis quick response team, had told Baldoz that there had been violent disturbances reported in Benghazi, Read More …

Filipino joins Cousteau-backed team to document plastics pollution of Bermuda coasts

 News
Jun 082014
 
Filipino joins Cousteau-backed team to document plastics pollution of Bermuda coasts

Julian Rodriguez CONTRIBUTED PHOTO MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — You may have already seen Julian Rodriguez as host #16 in the distinguished line of “GAMEPLAN” TV hosts, or you may have seen his name flash among the credits of the international reality TV show “Survivor,” where he worked for four seasons, starting as a challenge tester and eventually working his way up to Assistant Cameraman. You’ll be hearing more about him soon. The 26-year-old Filipino starting June 8 will join a four-person expedition of adventure-driven individuals on a platform called Plastic Tides. The Plastic Tides expedition will last 10 days around the island of Bermuda. The team will camp from beach to beach while paddling around solely on stand up paddleboards to document the natural beauty threatened by the ever-growing coastal plastic pollution. This dream mission was conceived in the fall of 2012 at a National Geographic Young Explorers workshop at Cornell University, when Americans Gordon Middleton, Christian Shaw and Plant Scientist Celine Jennison started talking about the plastic problem that plagues the oceans. Shaw, who is a professional kiteboarder and avid waterman from New York knew that he wanted nothing more than to raise awareness about ocean plastic pollution through his passion for water sports. After a year of contemplation on how to fulfill this dream, the idea of a paddleboard expedition was set in motion, and Middleton and Jennison were quick to join the team. Middleton, who had worked side by side with Rodriguez on the set of “Survivor Read More …

Incumbent Democrats take the lead for Nov. ballot

 News
Jun 082014
 
Incumbent Democrats take the lead for Nov. ballot

Rob Bonta SAN BRUNO, California — Gov. Jerry Brown in June 3’s primary election easily paved the way for re-election to a second consecutive term in office this November. Other state-level Democratic incumbents did too. Statewide results as of June 4 reported that Brown received 1,716,920 votes (54.4 percent). He will be running against Republican candidate Neel Kashkari, who got 599,543 votes (19 percent). Assemblymember Tim Donnelly, (who is married to Fil-Am Rowena Donnelly), landed third with 467,655 votes (14.8 percent). Other Democratic incumbents who got their names on the November ballot were Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Kamala Harris, and Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. The three will face Republican challengers Ron Nehring, Ronald Gold and Ted Gaines respectively in the general election. Another incumbent who secured his seat is Filipino-American District 18 Assemblymember Rob Bonta, who took the lead at 84.9 percent of the vote or 27,591; against only opponent Republican David Erlich who only got 4,903 votes or 15.1 percent. Daly City Councilman Ray Buenaventura, 49, lost in the race to be San Mateo County’s Superior Court Judge to Court Commissioner Stephanie Garratt, 46. Garratt received 62.9 percent of 36,393 votes, while Buenaventura received 37.1 percent or 21,430 votes. The two, along with another candidate Christopher Shenfield, 51, were vying for the seat of retiring Judge Craig Parsons. Buenaventura is in private practice, works with the county’s private defender program for indigent defendants and is a Daly City councilman. Garratt was on the bench as a commissioner Read More …

Star-studded ‘Sama Saya’ goes on through summer from Alaska to Toronto

 News
Jun 082014
 
Star-studded ‘Sama Saya’ goes on through summer from Alaska to Toronto

REDWOOD CITY, California –– After supporting the successful 36th Santacruzan and Flores De Mayo in Jersey City, New Jersey, last May 25, the longest-running Filipino celebration of that kind in the East Coast, The Filipino Channel’s “Sama Saya 2014” will continue throughout the summer. “What we started last April with our TFC 20th anniversary gala with the promise of celebrating the ‘galing’ or innate greatness of the Filipino continues throughout various states, provinces, cities in North,” said ABS-CBN North America Managing Director Olivia De Jesus. TFC is reaching out to “more states and organizations where there is a robust Filipino presence as part of our mission to serve the Filipino wherever he or she may be,” said ABS-CBN North America Marketing Director Jun Del Rosario, also concurrently ABS-CBN Global Head for Carriage. TFC will join Filipino events, several of which celebrate Philippine Independence and Fil-Am Friendship, on the following schedule: June 14 Philippine Independence Day Fiesta at Cooper River Park in Cherry Hill, New Jersey by the Philippine Community of Southern New Jersey, Inc. with Don Tagala of Balitang America, Monette Rivera of Adobo Nation, TFCK at Finalist Damie Juat and classical singer Jared Martin; June 21 Pista Sa Nayon in Delaney Park, Anchorage, Alaska by the Filipino Community of Anchorage, AK, Inc.; Kalayaan SF 2014, Union Square in San Francisco by Filipino American community leaders and the Philippine Consulate General of San Francisco with Adobo Nation’s Michi Salta & Lee Robin Salazar and the Prince of Pop of the Read More …

Utility company updates ethnic media on safety and technological upgrades

 News
Jun 082014
 
Utility company updates ethnic media on safety and technological upgrades

PG&E Management Staff (left to right) Ben Almario, Libby O’Connell, David Irwin, Jonathan Marshsall, Sumeet Singh and Fiona Chan. INQUIRER.net PHOTO SAN CARLOS, California — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. recently briefed ethnic media representatives on the status of its safety measures and upgrades on facilities, energy efficiency, electric and gas reliability, as well as tips on rebates. Sumeet Singh, vice president for Gas Operations welcomed the media, highlighting the company’s updated systems technology to enhance and streamline operations, pipelines and customer safety. Jonathan Marshall, chief of corporate relations spoke about the safety initiatives done in the past decade, especially in the past couple of years. As a result of the fatal San Bruno conflagration, there has been an aggressive and comprehensive safety enhancement program to strength-test more than 500 miles of transmission pipelines. Nearly a hundred miles of transmission pipelines have been replaced, he said, adding that a hundred miles of distribution piping within the system are being replaced on an annual basis. On electric safety and reliability, Ben Almario, director of Electric Operations, enumerated precautions and electric tips: • Make sure electric outlets use ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protection on all electrical outlets, particularly those near water sources such as bathroom and kitchens; • Keep balloons, kites and toys like remote control aircraft away from overhead electric lines. Never attempt to retrieve any object that is caught in a power line. • When celebrating any occasion with helium filled metallic balloons, make sure they are secured to Read More …

Dancing star Cheryl Burke raises funds for PH scholarships

 News
Jun 082014
 
Dancing star Cheryl Burke raises funds for PH scholarships

Cheryl Stephanie Burke MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Multi-awarded Filipino American choreographer and “Dancing With the Stars” star instructor Cheryl Stephanie Burke on June 6 hosted a big fundraising event for scholarships and entrepreneurship programs in the Philippines. The $150-a-plate dinner featured dancing, silent and live auctions, organized by the non-profit Philippine Development (PhilDev) Foundation, which is trying to boost economic development in the Philippines. “You Should Be Dancing — an Evening of Giving and Grooving,” host Burke is of half Filipino and Irish-Russian ancestry. She was a Primetime Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Choreography in ABC 7’s “Dancing With the Stars” for the “Freestyle” and “Paso Doble” dances in 2005. Born in San Francisco, Burke began her dancing career when she started training in ballet at the age of four, and at the age of 11 she began ballroom dancing. She opened her own dance studio, offering professional ballroom dancing lessons, in Silicon Valley in the spring of 2008. Her mother, Sherri, runs the Cheryl Burke Dance Studio in Mountain View, appeared live recently on ABC 7 (KGO) before veteran TV anchor and journalist Cheryl Jennings, along with entrepreneur and philanthropist Dado Banatao to publicize the fundraising event. The Burkes are helping PhilDev connect Silicon Valley to the Philippines through Banatao, a man tagged by Jennings as “the Bill Gates of the Philippines.” “We may be crazy enough to be the only foundation that says we build the economy of the Philippines,” Banatao said during interview. Banatao founded several Silicon Read More …

Biz Buzz: Project proposal do’s and don’t’s

 General
Jun 082014
 
Biz Buzz: Project proposal do’s and don’t’s

Just like other aspects in life, there are do’s and don’t’s when it comes to making unsolicited proposals for big-ticket infrastructure deals to President Aquino. Already on shaky ground, given the administration’s well-known bias against unsolicited deals, proponents can still get their message across without rubbing the commander in chief the wrong way. For example, it is perfectly okay to submit a comprehensive proposal, including what the private sector would earn, while clearly outlining how it would benefit the Filipino people. What is not okay is when groups propose project names with “Aquino” or “Aguinaldo” attached to them, thinking they would gain some extra advantage with their intended audience. Not so, according to Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya, a great-grandson of revolutionary hero Emilio Aguinaldo, the Philippines’s first President. In fact, more than not giving a project any extra advantage, it could possibly irk those who make decisions at the top. “We told them to quit that style. It won’t fly,” Abaya quipped in a recent chat with reporters. Then we worried about what became of the multibillion-dollar airport-seaport proposal of All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corp. (ARRC) consortium, led by the group of William Tieng of the Solar Group, in the Sangley Point, Cavite area. You see, ARRC last year submitted proposals for an airport-seaport project, which it called Aquino-Sangley International Airport and the Aguinaldo-Sangley International Seaport, respectively. Oh, dear. Then no more was heard of the ARRC proposal as the transportation department said that the Japan International Cooperation Agency was Read More …

Alfredo Liongoren: Perfectly above ground, also deeply underground

 General
Jun 082014
 
Alfredo Liongoren: Perfectly above ground, also deeply underground

MANILA, Philippines –  In the Philippines, no other abstract painter is as renowned as Alfredo Liongoren in perfecting figurative and other art forms. He also makes fearless excursions beyond art at the risk of silencing his canvases and compromising the visual genius he is known for. This way, he does not lose art and life, he says, adding he does not mind being life-sensitive and art-challenged at the same time.  In a one-month exhibit titled “Balesin in My Mind” currently on view until June 15 at the showroom of Alphaland Makati Place on Ayala Avenue Extension, Liongoren showed two different styles: figuration and semi-abstraction. His three watercolors depict children at work, in figurative forms, a part of his “Koronang Tinik” (Crown of Thorn) series done in 2010. “Batang Pacquiao” shows a young boxer’s outstretched paw and a child’s frail image on a jar. “The series is an ode to children. Their values are affected by our moral standpoint in life. They become what we are in life,” lectures Liongoren. Liongoren’s  “Koronang Tinik“ series has an old nest. After an alliance with social realist painters who emerged in the ’70s, he focused on the oppression of the poor and learned to depict class struggle in figuration. Also in the Alphaland exhibit are Liongoren’s seven semi-abstract art works in acrylic, meant to depict scratches on earth, extractions from nature, and lessons learned about defiled environment. Only two in the collection have pastel colors but they ache for summer and springtime, making them symbolic of Read More …

SMC urges DPWH to resolve petty CALAX issues

 Economy
Jun 082014
 
SMC urges DPWH to resolve petty CALAX issues

MANILA, Philippines – Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) urged the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to immediately resolve the delaying tactics employed by other bidders for the P35.4- billion Cavite – Laguna Expressway project. In a statement, Mark Dumol, president of SMC’s Private Infra Development Corp. (PIDC), said the DPWH should not be distracted by the small issues being raised by the three other bidders of the public private partnership (PPP) project. Dumol issued the statement after the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) failed to resolve the issues raised by Malaysia’s Alloy MTD Philippines, Team “Orion” of conglomerate Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Group as well as MPCALA Holdings Inc. of infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC). The three bidders questioned the compliance of the bid proposal submitted by SMC’s Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. last June 2 particularly on the validity of its bid security as well as the packaging and labelling of its proposal. “Are they intimidated by our financial bid that they now choose to find the tiniest fault in the bid submission? Clearly, the government gets the best price if there are several bidders,” Dumol said. He said the petty complaints of some bidders were understandable considering that SMC has always been known to give its full support to the government’s privatization efforts through its aggressive bids. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 He cited the case of the P15 billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) expressway wherein the diversified Read More …

Bidding for Mt Apo IPPA attracts 9 groups – PSALM

 Economy
Jun 082014
 
Bidding for Mt Apo IPPA attracts 9 groups – PSALM

MANILA, Philippines – The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has attracted nine investor groups for the selection and appointment of the independent power producer administrator (IPPA) for the output of the Mindanao I and II (Mt. Apo 1 and 2) geothermal power plants. PSALM president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. made the announcement after the lapse of the deadlines for the initial requirements such as the submission of a letter of interest on May 30, 2014, and payment of the P120,000 non-refundable participation fee and the execution of a confidentiality agreement and undertaking with PSALM on June 6, 2014. Of the ten investor groups which submitted letters of interest, nine have complied with the initial requirements, according to PSALM. These are EDC Mindanao Geothermal Inc., FDC Misamis Power Corp.,  GDF SUEZ Energy Philippines Inc., Good Friends Hydro Resources Corporation, SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., SPC Power Corp., Therma Southern Mindanao Inc., Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. and Vivant Geo Power Corporation. Ledesma reiterated that the deadline for the submission of bids is on Sept. 24, 2014, with the opening and evaluation of bids commencing thereafter.  PSALM will hold the pre-bid conference for the Mt. Apo 1 and 2 IPPA on June 26, 2014 at the PSALM office in Ayala Avenue, Makati City.  The bidding exercise is PSALM’s first IPPA auction in the Mindanao region.  Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The Mt. Apo IPPA will be tasked to manage the output Read More …

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