Cranes in place to lift US ship piece by piece; Aquino OK’s plan

 News
Feb 072013
 
Cranes in place to lift US ship piece by piece; Aquino OK’s plan

By Michael Lim Ubac, Paolo G. MontecilloPhilippine Daily Inquirer 5:58 am | Friday, February 8th, 2013 President Aquino approved Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, the salvage operations plan submitted by the US Navy to use floating cranes to lift piece by piece its stranded minesweeper out of the Tubbataha Reefs in the Sulu Sea. AP PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—President Aquino approved Thursday the salvage operations plan submitted by the US Navy to use floating cranes to lift piece by piece its stranded minesweeper out of the Tubbataha Reefs in the Sulu Sea. In a statement, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said, “We have carefully reviewed the US Navy’s salvage operations plan and we were assured that among their priorities is to have no further damage to the Tubbataha Reefs.” He said the DOTC had “considered several factors and imposed certain conditions before we gave clearance for the US Navy and commercial salvors it has commissioned to undertake the dismantling and vertical removal of the grounded US ship.” “It was presented to [President Aquino] by Secretary Abaya and he has approved it,” said Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang at a briefing in Malacañang. After getting the President’s approval, Abaya promptly issued a statement to formally announce the government’s acceptance of the salvage plan. Asked if the plan had been modified in any way following discussions between Philippine and US officials, Carandang said the salvage plan was approved “as presented” by the US Navy. He said the plan would follow “a general timeframe,” but declined Read More …

PH draws German backing on sea disputes with China

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Feb 072013
 
PH draws German backing on sea disputes with China

By Fat Reyes INQUIRER.net 6:13 pm | Thursday, February 7th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines – A German foreign minister on Thursday expressed his country’s support for the Philippine position to solve its sea disputes with China under international law, saying that peaceful resolution was best for the two countries. In a press briefing Thursday, German Federal Foreign Minister Guido Guido Westerwelle AP said that the Philippines’ territorial disputes with China on the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) was discussed and that his country remained supportive of peaceful resolution of the disputes. “We appeal to all sides to resolve all the questions in accordance with international law and in a peaceful and cooperative way,” Westerwelle said in a statement. Westerwelle and a 12-man delegation from Germany were in Manila for a two-day visit, the first by Germany’s top diplomat to the Philippines in 12 years. For his part, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said that he conveyed to his foreign counterpart the Philippine initiative to bring the territorial disputes before an arbitral tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) to “clearly establish the county’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its maritime entitlements in the West Philippine Sea.” “I asked him to continue supporting the Philippine effort for a peaceful and durable solution to this dispute,” Del Rosario said in a statement. Westerwelle, when asked by reporters to explain Germany’s support, Del Rosario said that a German professor of international public law was appointed as Read More …

China accuses Japan of ‘smear’ over radar incident

 News
Feb 072013
 
China accuses Japan of ‘smear’ over radar incident

Agence France-Presse 5:34 pm | Thursday, February 7th, 2013 BEIJING—Beijing on Thursday accused Japan of seeking to “smear” it after Tokyo said a Chinese frigate locked its weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese warship, as the Asian giants are locked in a maritime row. Asked to respond to Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera’s description of the radar incident as a “threat of force”, Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “Recently Japan has been hyping up crisis and deliberately creating tension to smear China’s image.”    

Canadian’s year-old son abducted along with nanny in Pagadian

 News
Feb 072013
 
Canadian’s year-old son abducted along with nanny in Pagadian

By Richel Umel Inquirer Mindanao 5:09 pm | Thursday, February 7th, 2013 ILIGAN CITY, Philippines – A group of still unidentified armed men snatched the one-year old son of a Pagadian City-based Canadian businessman and the boy’s nanny around 6:30 a.m. Thursday. Superintendent Julius Munez, Pagadian City police chief, said the armed men barged into the house of the family of the Canadian trader on Sto. Rosario Road in Dau village and took the boy and the nanny at gunpoint. The boy’s father was not around when the gunmen struck. Munez said police have launched a search and rescue operation to recover the victims.

Congress approves new overseas voting bill

 News
Feb 072013
 
Congress approves new overseas voting bill

By Leila B. Salaverria Philippine Daily Inquirer 2:57 pm | Thursday, February 7th, 2013 Representative Walden Bello MANILA, Philippines—Before adjourning for the campaign, Congress approved a bill that would make it easier for overseas Filipinos to cast their vote, and change the way that the country recognizes its voters who are not in the country. The House of Representatives ratified Wednesday night the amended overseas voting bill, which means it could now be sent to the President for his signature so that it could be enacted into law. The Senate ratified the bicameral report earlier. Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello, the bill’s author in the House, said the measure will improve the way the country recognizes the role and contribution of overseas Filipinos to nation-building. The bill will no longer give them the tag “overseas absentee voters” and instead recognize them simply as “overseas voters,” Bello said in a statement. This was an important, emotional matter for the Filipinos abroad, he said. The bill will also make it easier for immigrants to join the electoral exercise, he said. The bill would remove the provision in the law that requires Filipino immigrants or permanent residents abroad to execute an affidavit stating that they intend to resume physical permanent residence in the Philippines in three years before they could register as overseas voters. The new registration rules, however, are expected to be applicable for the 2016 elections because the registration period for the 2013 elections ended last year. “Removing the return requirement will Read More …

In California, a push to highlight the Filipino story

 News
Feb 072013
 
In California, a push to highlight the Filipino story

Kuwento By Benjamin Pimentel 2:22 pm | Thursday, February 7th, 2013 Photo courtesy of Assemblymember Rob Bonta’s office. SAN FRANCISCO – It didn’t take long for it to become evident that finally having a Filipino in the California State Assembly would be a big deal for Filipinos in California and beyond. Just five weeks after being sworn in, Rob Bonta, California’s first Filipino-American assembly member, began working on a bill that would finally honor Filipino immigrants who, nearly a century ago, moved to the US to work as field hands in California, but went on to make history. Bonta’s bill would require California school districts to teach students about the contributions of such historic, but mostly forgotten, figures, as Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong, Pete Velasco and Carlos Bulosan. “As the first Filipino-American state legislator in the history of California, I have the opportunity to provide a voice for the Filipino-American community — a community whose contributions have been historically underemphasized in the story of our state,” he said. Now to be sure, the idea of highlighting the Filipinos’ incredible journey in California didn’t have to come from the state’s first Filipino-American legislator. In fact, Bonta had the work of other legislators, who were not Filipinos, to build on. Ten years ago, Assemblymember Pat Wiggins pushed a resolution that would recognize the contributions of Filipinos in the farm labor movement.  Five years later, in 2008, Assemblymember Warren Furutani moved for a formal state recognition of the contributions of Filipinos to Read More …

Korean faces raps for protected area encroachment

 News
Feb 062013
 
Korean faces raps for protected area encroachment

By Maricar Cinco Inquirer Southern Luzon 6:43 pm | Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 THE TAAL Volcano Jung Ang Leisure and Resort facility during its dismantling by the DENR in July last year. PHOTO COURTESY OF CENRO BATANGAS SAN PEDRO, Laguna, Philippines—A Korean national, who owns the P5-million floating restaurant that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had shut down, is facing charges of violating Philippine environmental laws. Alexander Sandoval, assistant Batangas prosecutor, recommended the case against Kim Young Ok, the owner and president of the Taal Volcano Jung Ang Leisure and Resort located in Barangay Buco in Talisay town. In a resolution dated Dec. 10, 2012, Sandoval said Ok violated the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 and the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 for building and operating a restaurant in part of Taal Lake, a protected area. The DENR, through the office of the Taal Volcano Protected Landscape (TVPL), in June 2012 closed down the facility after the owner refused to heed a notice of violation of environmental laws and voluntarily close down the facility. Sandoval agreed to the findings of the TVPL that the establishment did not have a waste disposal facility. He said its toilets, for instance, are not connected to any septic tank and flush out waste directly into the lake. The TVPL also said the company illegally reclaimed a 20-square meter portion of the lake when it built a wharf that connected Read More …

8 PH international airports to get security cameras—CAAP

 News
Feb 062013
 

By Jerome Aning Philippine Daily Inquirer 6:33 pm | Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said Wednesday it has allocated P100 million for the installation of closed-circuit television cameras in the immigration areas of eight alternative international airports in the country. CAAP Director General William Hotchkiss III said the installation of the surveillance camera systems was in line with the agency’s safety and security program for all Philippine airports. According to Hotchkiss, CAAP will be signing this month an agreement with the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat) which would co-manage the operation of the CCTV systems that would record goings-on at the immigration counters. “The agreement is a joint effort by the Iacat and the CAAP designed to enhance airports’ capability in monitoring passengers and other airport users’ movement in the immigration areas,” Hotchkiss said in a statement. The eight airports are the Clark International Airport in Pampanga; Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City; Iloilo International Airport; Bacolod–Silay International Airport; Kalibo International Airport; Puerto Princesa International Airport; Zamboanga International Airport; and Laoag International Airport. Under the agreement, CAAP will provide funding for the surveillance equipment through competitive bidding while Iacat will co-manage the operations of the integrated surveillance systems. The Iacat, composed of five government agencies and three private-sector representatives, is tasked with crafting and implementing policies to stop trafficking in persons. There have been allegations that unscrupulous immigration and airport officials are conniving with traffickers to allow in and out of the Read More …

Lapid’s wife gets 3 years probation in US

 News
Feb 062013
 
Lapid’s wife gets 3 years probation in US

By Nimfa U. Rueda Inquirer Correspondent 6:14 pm | Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 Sen. Lito Lapid and his wife Marissa LOS ANGELES—The wife of  Sen. Lito Lapid felt “very relieved” that her cash smuggling case is over following her sentencing by the US district court to three years of probation, said her lawyer Eliot Krieger. The probation period includes five months of home confinement. Krieger said that Marissa Lapid, who remains confined in her residence in Las Vegas, Nevada, may be able to return to the Philippines “after five months of home confinement with the permission of the Probation Department.” Marissa Lapid “is very relieved to have the whole thing over,” Krieger told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Krieger said that in a plea agreement that he negotiated, Lapid pleaded guilty to cash smuggling and conspiracy to structure transactions “with intent to evade reporting requirements.” Lapid was charged before US Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen in Las Vegas and sentenced on Monday (Tuesday in Manila). The reporting violations stemmed from a series of cash deposits made by Lapid in different banks in Las Vegas from January 2009 to June 2010 totaling more than $150,000. Banks are required to submit to the federal government currency transaction reports on cash deposits that exceed $10,000. Lapid’s cash deposits ranged from $5,000 to $9,000. All the deposits, plus the $40,000 confiscated from Lapid when she arrived at McCarran International Airport on Nov. 27, 2010, were forfeited by the US government, Krieger said. The lien placed on Read More …

US navy contractor dumped millions of liters of wastes in Subic

 News
Feb 062013
 
US navy contractor dumped millions of liters of wastes in Subic

SAYS LEGARDABy Matikas Santos INQUIRER.net 5:48 pm | Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 Sen. Loren Legarda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Millions of liters of sewage wastes were dumped in the Philippine waters by US Navy contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia without proper permits from the government, Senator Loren Legarda, who headed an investigation into the waste dumping incident in Subic Bay in October, said Wednesday. “We are talking here of millions of liters of sewage wastes disposed at sea by Glenn Defense over a period of time, without the requisite permits from the government,” Legarda said in a statement. “They do not even have the necessary accreditation as waste collectors from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA),” Legarda said after the joint investigation of the Senate committees on foreign relations and environment and natural resources into the incident. Legarda said that Glenn Defense was guilty of violating Philippine laws when its tanker, MT Glenn Guardian, dumped sewage wastes collected from US Navy ships 37 kilometers off Subic, last October 15. She said that Glenn Defense, the Philippine arm of a Singapore-based company that operates in 27 countries providing marine husbanding services, had been doing the practice over the past several years. The estimated 200,000 liters of sewage that the MT Glenn Guardian collected from the US Navy ship Emory Land had previously been found to be in excess of the toxicity standards set by the DENR. The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) had also Read More …

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