Saturday & Sunday, September 7-8, 2013 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Pt. Fermin Park 807 W. Paseo Del Mar San Pedro (Los Angeles), CA 90731 Website: filamarts.org/fpac The 22nd Annual Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture (FPAC) is an Angeleno tradition celebrating diversity through vivid artistry and cultural expression. It’s about you, me, family, tribes, being together, […]
Global Networking By Rodel Rodis 3:34 pm | Sunday, July 21st, 2013 Authors Walden Bello and Rodel Rodis As dark days go, July 24, 2012 is akin historically to what occurred in China on February 18, 1932 when Japan proclaimed the state of Manchukuo as the governing body for the region of Manchuria which it had invaded and detached from China. The people of China were driven to erase that infamous day from their history just as the Filipino people today are determined to do the same with their own dark day. This July 24 marks the first anniversary of China’s creation of the “Sansha City” garrison to “oversee and administer” the whole West Philippine Sea and all the islands and terrestrial features within it. Effective January 1, 2013, Beijing announced last October, its Sansha-based naval fleet would be authorized “to board, seize and expel foreign ships” found within the 3.5 million square kilometers of water that China claims it owns. Beijing’s creation of Sansha City was preceded by a series of provocative Chinese moves, including the June 2012 occupation of the Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) by up to 90 Chinese ships which barred Filipino fishers from their ancestral fishing grounds, an increased Chinese military presence at Ayungin Reef, and a Chinese general’s boastful exposition of China’s “cabbage strategy.” The thrust of the cabbage strategy, PLA Major General Zhang Zhaozhong explained, is to surround the Philippine territories with a massive Chinese naval presence to starve Filipino detachments and prevent Read More …
THE COURT of Appeals (CA) has denied the government’s appeal of a 2010 regional court decision declaring part of the oil deregulation law unconstitutional.
MANILA, Philippines – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sought a reversal of the Court of Appeals’ (CA) decision that allowed Camp John Hay’s private developer to sell condotel units. In a statement, the SEC said it filed on June 28 a motion for reconsideration regarding the CA’s ruling that favored Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevCo) and Camp John Hay Suites Corp. (CJHS). SEC chairperson Teresita J. Herbosa said they “hope that CA finds merit in the arguments presented by the SEC in its motion for reconsideration.” “Otherwise, the CA decision, as it stands presently, hamstrings the SEC’s efforts at weeding out investment schemes not registered with the SEC to the detriment of the investing public,” she added. Last month, the appellate court allowed the private developer of Camp John Hay in Baguio City to proceed with the sale of securities for the operation of The Manor Hotel. The CA’s Sixth Division granted the petition of CJHDevCo, which permanently enjoined the SEC from implementing its cease-and-desist order against the sale. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “The case is just one of the latest in the SEC’s continued battle to safeguard the public from falling victim to unlawful business schemes,” the corporate regulator said. Until CA resolves the motion for reconsideration, the cease order against CJHDevCo and CJHS remain effective, SEC said. State-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority earlier claimed that the sale of the units of The Manor and The Suites with leaseback or Read More …
The Office of the Solicitor General has insisted that a drug suspect who has been incarcerated for the past five years without formal charges, until recently, should remain behind bars. In a petition filed with the Supreme Court, the OSG, which represents the government in cases, asked that a recent Court of Appeals ruling ordering the release of Joan Urbina be reversed. Urbina and her boyfriend Ben Bryan Chua were arrested in December 2007 for alleged use of illegal drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia, in violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. In January 2008, the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the drug complaints against Chua for lack of evidence, while those against Urbina remained and were forwarded to the Department of Justice for automatic review. She was locked up at the Philippine Custodial Center in Camp Crame. It took the DOJ five years to finally file a formal complaint at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court just last May 9. In its ruling, the CA granted Urbina’s petition for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus and struck down the drug case filed against Urbina for being lodged way too late. “The Information filed before the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City, Branch 227 is hereby declared null and void for having been filed way beyond the period prescribed under pertinent rules of the Department of Justice,” the CA said in its 18-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Noel Tijam. In its petition with the Read More …
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Thursday said she is already awaiting the results of an internal investigation into the five-year illegal detention of a drug suspect. De Lima said she ordered the investigation after a Court of Appeals ruling that branded as illegal the detention of suspect Joan Urbina in the absence of any formal charges in court. Urbina and her boyfriend Ben Bryan Chua were arrested in December 2007 for alleged use of illegal drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia, in violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. In January 2008, the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the drug complaints against Chua for lack of evidence, while those against Urbina remained. She was locked up at the Philippine Custodial Center in Camp Crame. “I’m waiting for the result of the [DOJ] Internal Affairs Unit investigation. Titignan ko kung ano ire-recommend na sanction,” De Lima told reporters in Manila. “Titingnnan ko rin kung ang handling prosecution lamang ba ang dapat parusahan. [Kasi] baka may iba pa diyan,” she added. Assistant State Prosecutor Gerard Gaerlan had already owned up to the delay in the resolution of Urbina’s case. But De Lima stressed despite the prosecutor’s apology, she also wanted to take full responsibility for the illegal detention. “Inaako ko iyang kasalanan ng mga nasa baba sa akin. Kasalanan ko rin iyan but of course it’s humanly impossible to monitor all case here,” De Lima said. “But as head of the institution ako ang mananagot sa lahat, good or Read More …
Anne Curtis 2011 Album Cover The U.S. concert debut of “Annebisyosa” in Temecula, CA was a success. The show featured 28-year old Filipino actress, Anne Curtis, whose ambitions of becoming a singer were realized when the concert opened at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in the Philippines. Despite the fact the she admits to being a […]
By Joseph PimentelAJ Press/INQUIRER.net News Partner 4:41 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 LOS ANGELES–Fil-Am organizations are urging the public to call their local state assembly member and ask them to support AB 241, the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Filipino Migrant Center officials sent out a mass email to their supporters, asking them to support the bill, which would provide labor protections to household workers, caregivers and childcare providers working in private homes. These include the right to overtime pay, meal and rest breaks, uninterrupted sleep for live-in workers and use of kitchen facilities, FMC officials said. The bill will be voted on the assembly floor this week before it moves to the senate labor committee. “The Filipino Migrant Center works with Filipino caregivers to fight for fair wages, a safe and healthy work environment and dignity and respect and the right to organize,” officials wrote on the email. There are around 200,000 domestic workers in the state, tens of thousands of whom are Filipinos. This is the third time the issue has been brought up to the state legislature, each time the bill reached the governor, only for the governor to veto it. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill, AB 889, because he believed a possible “drafting error” and that it could cost the state nearly $200 million in uncertainties. Brown asked for the State Department of Industrial Relations to look into the matter further, before he would consider signing a similar bill again. Read More …
(Updated 5:59 p.m.) The Court of Appeals has stood firm on its earlier ruling that the military and the police should be held accountable for the enforced disappearance of political activist Jonas Burgos in 2007. In a resolution penned by Associate Justice Rosalinda Asuncion-Vicente, the CA denied a motion for partial reconsideration filed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) seeking to reverse the court’s March 18 ruling holding the two agencies accountable for Burgos’ disappearance. “Suffice it… to state that this court’s finding and conclusion that [Burgos] was abducted by a group of persons, one of whom was positively identified as Maj. Harry Baliaga, Jr. of the Philippine Army, coupled with the AFP’s lack of serious effort to conduct further and deeper investigation simply because [Burgos] is allegedly not in its custody, speak loudly of the leadership’s accountability,” the CA said. As for the PNP’s accountability, the appeallate court said: “In the case of the PNP, suffice it to state that its failure to rap and elicit leads and information from Jeffrey Cabintoy, who personally witnessed [the abduction] and who was able to positively identify his abductor, is eloquent proof of its failure to exercise extraordinary diligence in the conduct of its investigation.” Concurring in the latest CA decision were Associate Justices Remedios Salazar-Fernando and Franchito Diamante. In a phone interview with GMA News Online, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Brig. Gen. Domingo Tutaan said “they would respect the court’s decision.” Read More …
Largest Filipino media network’s popular channels – TFC, Bro, Cinema One Global & ANC – available on OSN starting May 1 REDWOOD CITY, CA, April 24, 2013 – ABS-CBN Corporation, a publicly listed Philippine firm and the country’s largest Filipino multimedia network, announced today that its subsidiary, ABS-CBN Middle East, has partnered with OSN, the leading […]