Maniolas

Photo from paulallen.com TOKYO—Debris scattered over a large area at the bottom of the sea in the Philippines indicate that the massive Japanese World War II battleship  Musashi  was blown up into pieces in an undersea explosion 70 years ago. Experts from a research team analyzing a live feed from an unmanned underwater probe Friday said they believe the  Musashi  suffered at least one explosion while descending in the 1,000-meter (3,280.84-foot) deep sea. Except for an initial series of partial photos and images of the ship, Friday’s more than 2 ½ hour feed was the first detailed images showing the current status of the ship. Back Story: Nostalgic crewman recognizes photos of Musashi The  Musashi  sank in October 1944 in the Sibuyan Sea during the battle of Leyte, losing half of its 2,400 crew. It was last seen disappearing into the water in one piece. Back Story: US billionaire finds Japan’s famed battleship in PH “The wreck is actually very damaged,” said David Mearns, a marine scientist on the  Musashi  research team. “It appears she suffered at least one, if not two, magazine explosions which would have sheered off the bow and the stern, and its entire middle section of its super-structure.” The footage showed sections of the ship that used to be an air-combat platform. The debris scattered in areas approximately 800 meters (2,600 feet) by 500 meters (1,640 feet), according to the research team. The feed also showed holes in the bow area, apparently made by U.S. torpedo Read More …

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago reiterated Friday her appeal to her colleagues and the public to support her bills to instutionalize gender equality. Santiago, author of the Magna Carta of Women (Republic Act No. 9710) and co-author of the Reproductive Health Law (RA No. 10354), said some of her proposed legislation on women and gender equality remain at the committee level. “I have written the committee on women, family relations, and gender equality earlier this year to ask that it prioritize public hearings for my bills,” the senator said in a press statement One of the measures pending in the committee is the proposed Child Support Act (Senate Bill No. 403), which seeks to penalize any parent who refuses to support a child. “This will protect single parents, especially women, from being financially abandoned by the child’s other parent,” the senator said. She also filed the Safe Haven Bill (S.B. No. 2457), which caters to women unprepared or unfit for motherhood, while ensuring the safety of their babies. The bill seeks to allow women to turn over their newborns with government-assigned safe haven providers rather than haphazardly abandoning them. Another pending measure is the Battered Women’s Testimony Bill (S.B. No. 1558), which seeks to facilitate the use of expert testimonies in cases of women subjected to domestic violence. Santiago is also pushing for the creation of a task force that will recommend a national strategy to protect women against violent crime. The senator also filed Senate Bill No. 1751, which seeks Read More …

The police findings on the Jan. 25 Mamasapano clash may already be available online, but Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has chosen to suspend her judgment on the matter, saying “speculations” cooked up by some sectors only threaten to aggravate the situation. De Lima told reporters on Friday that she has yet to receive an official copy of the Philippine National Police’s probe results prepared by its Board of Inquiry “Talaga namang bibigyan kami ng copy, hopefully within the day, matanggap namin para ma-evaluate agad namin,” De Lima said. She added that if she gets her hands on the report by today (Friday), she will spend her weekend going over the report, which had already been posted online by the PNP earlier in the day. “I cannot be commenting on something I havent seen or havent read yet. I cannot rely on media accounts on what purportedly are contained in that report. Hindi maganda iyan kasi lalong magkakaroon ng sari-saring ispekulasyon,” De Lima said. “Iyan nga ang dapat iwasan natin ngayon, yung mga ispekulasyon kasi may mga sectors na nagfu-fuel ng mga ganyan, para instead na magkaroon ng maayos na closure, may mga sectors na mas gustong nagkakagulo,” she added. Separate DOJ investigation underway The DOJ, through the National Bureau of Investigation and the National Prosecution Service, is in the middle of a separate probe on the incident. The joint task force has committed to come up with findings by Apr. 2. Apart from the BOI report, De Lima is Read More …

BEIJING — China is building its second aircraft carrier, a senior naval officer has told media, the most explicit confirmation yet of a widely expected move that will boost Beijing’s maritime power. China’s first aircraft carrier was a 300-meter (1,000-foot) Soviet-era vessel bought from Ukraine and commissioned in September 2012 — at the time a milestone for the country’s growing military might. Since then “confirmations” from military and government officials of a second domestically built ship have been sporadically reported — and often deleted shortly afterwards. The news follows reports last week of another double-digit spending boost for China’s military — the world’s largest — during 2015, as the country pursues a series of territorial disputes with its neighbors. Senior colonel Liang Fang said China “accumulated a lot of experience” from the first vessel, the Liaoning, and told Internet portal Sohu it had now taken the “next step.” “The reason we imported the first aircraft carrier is so that we could be capable of building our own in the future,” she said. “And now, just like what some media have revealed, that is what we have done — built the second aircraft carrier,” added the officer, a professor at the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Liang was responding to a question on senior PLA officers previously confirming the building of the vessel. Her comments were reported Wednesday from an interview on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress, the communist-controlled legislature. Beijing Read More …