Robinsons set to open 5 new provincial malls

 Economy
Apr 012015
 
Robinsons set to open 5 new provincial malls

MANILA, Philippines – Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) is expanding its mall presence in new territories outside Metro Manila with the scheduled opening of five new provincial malls this year and next. Aside from Robinsons Galleria Cebu which will open later this year, RLC said new malls in growth areas are also being developed to bring the Robinsons retail brand to the countryside. RLC said Robinsons Place Tagum in Davao del Norte would open its doors to the public by December this year while Robinsons Place Jaro Iloilo, Robinsons Place Gen. Trias Cavite and Robinsons Place Antique are set for unveiling by next year. “These new additions to Robinsons Land Corp.’s network of 44 malls all over the country highlight the company’s confidence in the growth areas outside the National Capital Region. We believe that creating these retail hubs in the countryside will offer growth opportunities not only to retailers but also the local entrepreneurs,” said Arlene G. Magtibay, Robinsons malls general manager. Robinsons Place Tagum will have a total gross floor area of 65,800 sqm, of which about 60 percent or 34,439 sqm will be for lease to over 300 tenants. “Tagum City serves as the province’s business gateway and functions as convergence area for developments and processing centers.  A study conducted in 2007 by the premier business school Asian Institute of Management cited Tagum as one of the top seven most viable mid-sized cities to do business in the Philippines. The city makes up 25 percent of Davao del Read More …

Maysak enters PAR; PAGASA alerts Bicol, Samar, Aurora, Quezon

 News
Apr 012015
 
Maysak enters PAR; PAGASA alerts Bicol, Samar, Aurora, Quezon

Maysak approaches PAR. A PAGASA weather forecaster shows a satellite image of Super Typhoon Maysak as it approaches the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) as of 11:00 am on Wednesday, April 1. It will be named Chedeng after it crosses the boundary, and will affect the Philippines come Easter weekend. GMA News Typhoon Maysak finally entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) before midnight Wednesday and was locally codenamed Chedeng. State weather agency PAGASA’s 11:30 p.m. advisory said Chedeng will bring heavy to at times intense rainfall within its 150- to 200-km radius. PAGASA said it will raise Public Storm Warning Signal 1 over Bicol and Samar in 18 hours, and “sea travel over these areas will be possibly suspended.” Also, it said Chedeng may make landfall over the eastern coast of Samar, Quezon or Isabela by late Saturday to early Sunday. PAGASA alerted the public against possible flash floods over low-lying areas and landslides along mountain slopes particularly over Aurora-Quezon area. It also warned of possible storm surges and sea surface waves of up to four meters, over the eastern coast of Samar, Bicol and Aurora-Quezon. PAGASA advised fisherfolk not to venture out over the eastern seaboard of Bicol region and of Visayas. As of 11 p.m., PAGASA said Chedeng was estimated at 1,015 km east-northeast of Guiuan, Eastern Samar or 1,040 km east of Borongan, Eastern Samar. It packed maximum sustained winds of 180 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 215 kph, and is forecast Read More …

Thai Deputy PM to visit PHL April 6-7

 News
Apr 012015
 
Thai Deputy PM to visit PHL April 6-7

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn will visit the Philippines April 6 to 7, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday. In an announcement, the DFA said this will be the Thai deputy prime minister’s first official visit to the Philippines. During his visit, Patimapragorn will meet DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario to “discuss the progress of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Thailand,” the DFA said. “The two ministers will also discuss issues of mutual concern in the fields of economy, trade and investments, agriculture, education, defense, technical cooperation, as well as relevant developments in the region,” the DFA added. Patimapragorn served as the Supreme Commander of the Royal Thai Armed Forces and was appointed Foreign Affairs Minister in September 2014. The DFA said Thailand is one of the Philippines’ “long-standing friends and closest partners in the region.”  Engagement and cooperation between the two countries in various areas spanned 67 years. “Formal bilateral relations between the Philippines and Thailand were established with the signing of the Treaty of Friendship on 14 June 1949,” it said.  — Joel Locsin/ELR, GMA News

NBI nabs 62-year-old swindler, readies estafa charges

 General
Apr 012015
 
NBI nabs 62-year-old swindler, readies estafa charges

The National Bureau of Investigation arrested a swindler who dupes people into investing in fake companies supposedly connected with the local government unit of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. In the NBI’s entrapment operation for her, the suspect tried to get P200,000. An exclusive report on GMA 7’s “24 Oras” on Wednesday said that 62-year-old Catalina Villamarin used fake documents and introduced herself as a businesswoman who is helping ARMM procure medicines, school supplies, and books.    During NBI’s entrapment operation, she used a supposed bank letter of confirmation where she faked the signature of the bank president.  The bank document stated that the ARMM allocated P1.2 billion for her supposed projects with the local government unit.  She also used the letterhead of the ARMM in the document and faked the signature of Governor Mujiv Hataman.  During the transaction, Villamarin asked for P200,000 from the NBI agent to hasten the process, which prompted the NBI to arrest the businesswoman and her companions.  But she denied the allegations against her.  “Lehitimo ho akong negosyante. Hindi naman po panloloko ‘yan kundi mag-negosyo ho eh,” she told the NBI representatives.  ARMM Manila Liaison chief Jolly Lais said that people like Villamarin are giving the region a bad reputation.  “Ang problema ho diyan, sumasama ang aming image, ‘yung ARMM, kasi ‘yung supplier legitimate eh. Hihingan nila–pambihira manloloko pala ang mga taga-ARMM. Pero sila ang manloloko, hindi kami,” he said.  Villamarin will face syndicated estafa through falsification for misrepresenting the officials of ARMM.  NBI Read More …

Divorce law won’t pass this Congress: lawmaker

 Entertainment
Apr 012015
 
Divorce law won’t pass this Congress: lawmaker

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (right) sprinkles holy water to devotees waving palm fronds after the Palm Sunday mass at the Manila Cathedral in Manila. Millions of Filipino Catholics trooped to churches nationwide to observe the beginning of the Holy Week. (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – A party-list lawmaker pushing for the passage of a divorce bill in the House of Representatives is under no illusions that it will be passed in the 16th Congress. Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan said House Bill 4408 remains pending in the committee on the revision of laws. “Mukhang hindi ito mapapasa ngayon. The chairperson of the committee is not putting it on the agenda. I have been lobbying to put it on the agenda so we can discuss it. We have no illusions that it will pass this Congress,” she said. Ilagan said there is a real need to legalize divorce in the Philippines as shown by the results of a recent Social Weather Stations survey. The December 2014 survey showed 60% of Filipinos are in favor of granting divorce to married couples who are legally separated and cannot reconcile anymore. This is up from a “plurality” of 50% in March 2011 and a split 43-44% in May 2005. Ilagan said the survey is evidence that Filipinos want another remedy available for couples in problematic marriages. Present remedies include annulment and legal separation. She said some spouses have been abandoned by their partners for years without any support while some wives endure abuse from their Read More …

Pacquiao pays BIR $3.7-M in taxes

 Entertainment
Apr 012015
 
Pacquiao pays BIR $3.7-M in taxes

Manny Pacquiao does his daily routine of exercises at Griffith Park in Los Angeles as the Filipino pugilist is in deep in training for the “fight of his life” against Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: Benny Uy Manila, Philippines, APF – Boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, who faces his biggest fight against unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather, already holds top spot as the number one taxpayer in the Philippines, government records showed Saturday. A list of top individual tax-payers for 2013, posted on the Bureau of Internal Revenue website, put the boxer-turned-congressman at number one with 163.84 million pesos ($3.72 million) in taxes paid. This was about 64 percent higher than the second-highest taxpayer. Internal revenue chief Kim Henares confirmed that Pacquiao topped the list but stressed that he still had a case pending over alleged non-payment of taxes earlier. Although hailed as a national hero for his boxing feats, Pacquiao has run afoul of tax officials before and is embroiled in a dispute with the revenue bureau saying he owed at least 2.2 billion pesos in unpaid taxes for 2008 and 2009. “It (the case) is still ongoing. No, he has not settled. Being a top tax-payer… does not mean he paid the correct taxes. The two (issues) are not synonymous,” Henares said in a statement to AFP. The boxer has previously insisted he paid the 2008 and 2009 taxes in the United States, so did not need to do Read More …

Aquino should not be crucified for Mamasapano incident – House allies

 Entertainment
Apr 012015
 
Aquino should not be crucified for Mamasapano incident – House allies

Members of various militant groups march towards Mendiola Bridge on Friday as they call for the resignation of President Aquino. The groups scored Aquino for giving false information to the public and not taking responsibility for the Mamasapano incident that claimed the lives of 44 SAF troopers. (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – President Benigno Aquino III was a “victim,” too, in the Mamasapano debacle, according to his allies at the House of Representatives. Liberal Party (LP) lawmakers on Friday sought to paint a picture of a suffering Aquino, whose approval and trust ratings had plunged to their lowest levels in the aftermath of the Jan. 25 bloodshed in Maguindanao province, the worst crisis to hit his administration. Aquino “is also a victim in the bloody Mamasapano raid and should not be treated like he is one of culprits” in the clash that killed more than 60, including 44 police commandos, said Western Samar Representative Mel Senen Sarmiento, secretary general of the ruling LP. “Why would [his critics] want to crucify him on something that he had no control of? I think that the President has had enough of this Mamasapano issue,” he said in a statement. Sarmiento said Aquino had done everything humanly possible not just to help the families of the victims but also to explain the “very little role that he had” in the Mamasapano operation. “He doesn’t need to explain himself anymore,” he said. On Thursday, Aquino asked for the public’s understanding for his actions in the Read More …

Claudine, Raymart decide to be good parents

 Entertainment
Apr 012015
 
Claudine, Raymart decide to be good parents

Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barretto (MNS photo) Claudine Barretto and Raymart Santiago have agreed not to bad-mouth each other in media interviews. Barretto said she and Santiago are trying their best to be better parents despite their failed marriage. “I actually talked to Raymart. Napag-usapan namin na sana let’s not talk about each other anymore. Let’s not accept questions regarding each other kung hindi maganda ‘yung sasabihin natin. We are trying to be good parents for the kids. We failed as husband and wife, we are trying to not fail as parents now,” she said. Earlier this month, the estranged couple made headlines when Barretto posted on Instagram pictures of their family as she and Santiago accompanied their children at a fun run organized by their school. “My daughter, she had ‘yung fun run. As family, we attended. We are very civil. We are talking,” she said. As proof of their “civil” relationship, Barretto revealed that their family actually had dinner some weeks after the fun run. Barretto earlier accused Santiago of “physical, sexual, psychological and economic” abuse, supposedly dating back to 2002. These are detailed in her complaint against the actor for his alleged violation of the Anti-Violence against Women and Their Children Act of 2004. Santiago, for his part, alleged that he was also a victim of domestic violence. In his complaint, the actor accused his wife of being mentally ill and having a history of drug abuse – claims backed by the actress’ estranged siblings Gretchen, Marjorie, Read More …

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