US – Page 19 – Maniolas

Trade deficit widens to $1 B

Economy

Jun 252013

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines trade deficit in April 2013 widened to $1.020 billion from $153 million in the same period last year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday. The government statistics agency reported that total external trade in goods for April 2013 reached $9.263 billion, down 1.7 percent from $9.423 billion recorded in the same month in 2012. This was due to an 11.1 percent slowdown in exports to $4.121 billion in April 2013 from 4.635 billion in the same period last year. Merchandise imports, on the other hand, rose 7.4 percent to $5.141 billion in April 2013 from $4.788 billion in April 2012. The growth in merchandise imports in April was fueled by increased importation of transport equipment. Imports of transport equipment with an 11.5 percent share to total imports in April was valued at $593.61 million, 148.6 percent higher than the previous year’s level of $238.78 million and the highest annual growth rate among the top ten imports. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “Robust investments in the power and transportation sectors drove overseas purchases to a solid recovery in April,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan in a separate statement. Imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials was the top imported commodity in April 2013 with payments amounting to $1.283 billion. It went up 21.4 percent over last year’s figure of $1.057 billion. On a monthly basis, it grew 23.3 percent from the $1.040 billion recorded in March 2013. Volume Read More …

Market drops below 6,000; peso falls

Economy

Jun 242013

MANILA, Philippines – Continuous foreign selling amid external worries dragged the bellwether stock index to a six-month low yesterday and nearer bear market territory. At the same time, the peso hit a fresh 17-month low versus the greenback as investors expect positive data from the US this week to support a pullout of stimulus measures later this year. The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) sank 3.41 percent or 211.12 points to end at 5,971.05, its lowest since closing at 5,934.05 on Jan. 4. After hitting its 31st all-time high this year at 7,392.20 on May 15, the PSEi has since fallen 19.22 percent. A 20 percent or more decline marks the start of the bear market. Meanwhile, the local currency closed at 43.84 against the dollar, losing 12 centavos versus its close last Friday at 43.72. The close was the peso’s weakest against the US currency since Jan. 16, 2012 when it hit 43.88. Last Friday, the peso touched the 44-level, a two-year low, before it bounced back to close stronger. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “We broke down below 6,000 psychological support, trailing regional bourses’ performance,” said Freya B. Natividad, investment analyst at Papa Securities. “I think the weakness stemmed from continued sell-off of foreign fund managers in the local bourse,” she said. Net foreign selling hit P557.77 million yesterday. Justino Calaycay Jr., an analyst at Accord Capital Securities, said attention shifted to the growing weakness of the Chinese economy. “Bears kept its dominance, threatening Read More …

Militants challenge US gov't to heed SC order on Tubbataha Reef grounding

News

Jun 242013

Militants challenge US gov't to heed SC order on Tubbataha Reef grounding

Militant groups on Monday challenged the US government to heed a Philippine Supreme Court order for it to comment on a writ of kalikasan petition earlier filed in connection with the grounding of the US navy ship USS Guardian at the Tubbataha Reef last January. Salvador France, vice chair of the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), said the US government should no longer invoke international treaties to skirt the SC ruling. “The US government must respond to and account for their crimes against the people and the environment. That is simple as ABC, nothing more, nothing less. The incident merits the filing of criminal and other appropriate charges against officials and the 79 other crew of USS Guardian and the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Mutual Defense Treaty between Manila and Washington,” said France. Earlier reports claimed that the high court had issued a resolution directing the US government and Malacañang, as well as Cabinet and military officials to file a comment on the petition filed last April 17 by a group of two Catholic bishops, environmentalists, activists, and lawyers. Supreme Court Public Information Office chief and spokesman Theodore Te could not immediately confirm if such a resolution had been issued. The US servicemen named as respondents in the petition were Navy officials Scott Swift, Commander of the US 7th Fleet; and Mark Rice, commanding officer of the USS Guardian. For his part, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes welcomed Read More …

US urged to comply with SC order to comment on Tubbataha case

News

Jun 242013

US urged to comply with SC order to comment on Tubbataha case

By Tetch Torres-TupasINQUIRER.net 2:42 pm | Monday, June 24th, 2013 In this photo taken on March 30, 2013, and released by the Philippine Coast Guard on Monday, April 1, 2013, the stern of the USS Guardian, a U.S. Navy minesweeper, is transferred to another ship after being lifted out of the water at the Tubbataha Reef, a World Heritage site, in the Tubbataha National Marine Park, southwest of the Philippines. Tubbataha park superintendent Angelique Songco said the fine for damaging the protected coral reef would be about 24,000 pesos ($600) per square meter, so the U.S. could be facing a fine of more than $2 million. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Left leaning fisherfolk group called on the US government to comply with the Philippine Supreme Court’s order to comment on a petition calling for a filing of criminal, administrative and civil cases against those responsible for the grounding of the USS Guardian last January 17 in Tubbataha Reef. “The US government through its embassy in Manila should respond to the Supreme Court and refrain from invoking several concerns that would make it very difficult for concerned groups which filed the petition,” Salvador France, vice chair of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a statement Monday. “The US government must respond to and account for their crimes against the people and the environment. That is simple as ABC, nothing more, nothing less. The incident merits the filing of criminal and other appropriate charges against officials and Read More …

USS Guardian grounding blamed on officers, gear

News

Jun 212013

USS Guardian grounding blamed on officers, gear

By Nikko DizonPhilippine Daily Inquirer 3:31 am | Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 In a photo released by the U.S. Navy, the mine countermeasures ship USS Guardian sits aground in this Jan. 22, 2013 file photo on the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea in the Philippines. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Lack of leadership and faulty navigational equipment led to the grounding of the former USS Guardian on the Tubbataha Reef last January, which could have been prevented, according to the official report of the United States Navy. “The USS Guardian leadership and watch teams failed to adhere to prudent, safe, and sound navigation principles which would have alerted them to approaching dangers with sufficient time to take mitigating action,” concluded Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, in the 160-page document. “The watch team’s observations of visual cues in the hours leading up to the grounding, combined with electronic cues and alarms, should have triggered immediate steps to resolve warnings and reconcile discrepancies,” Haney said. The US Pacific Fleet Public Affairs Office on Friday released a press statement summarizing the US Navy’s report on the results of its investigation into the minesweeper’s grounding on Tubbataha Reef. A link to the summary version of the report was also available online. Haney described as a “tragic mishap” the Jan. 17 grounding of the US vessel in the World Heritage Site, which destroyed more than 2,000 square meters of prized corals that would take years to rehabilitate. Preventable mishap “This Read More …

US opposes bullying by China in disputed seas

News

Jun 202013

US opposes bullying by China in disputed seas

Associated Press 9:37 am | Friday, June 21st, 2013 In this May 7, 2013 photo, a Filipino fisherman places ice on containers for fish before they are delivered to the market in the coastal town of Infanta, Pangasinan province, northwestern Philippines. Since China took control of the Scarborough Shoal last year, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island, Filipino fishermen say Chinese maritime surveillance ships have shooed them from the disputed waters in the South China Sea and roped off the entrance to the vast lagoon that had been their fishing paradise for decades. Now, they say, they can’t even count on the Chinese to give them shelter there from a potentially deadly storm. AP WASHINGTON— The nominee to become the top U.S. diplomat in East Asia delivered pointed comments about China in his confirmation hearing Thursday, saying there’s no place for “coercion and bullying” in the region’s seas. Danny Russel told a Senate panel that he will do everything in his power to “lower the temperature” in territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas and push claimants including China toward diplomacy. He also said it was “unacceptable” for China to demand only bilateral negotiations with the other claimants, and voiced strong U.S. support for efforts by Southeast Asia to negotiate as a bloc and frame a “code of conduct” to manage the disputes — an issue to be taken up at regional security talks in Brunei later this month. Russel is currently White House senior director for Asian affairs. Read More …

US prof held for sex with Filipino kids

News

Jun 202013

Associated Press 4:35 am | Friday, June 21st, 2013 This 2011 image provided by the FBI shows Walter Lee Williams, 64, one of the U.S. FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives has been arrested in the resort city of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Tuesday June 18, 2013. Prosecutor Gaspar Armando Garcia Torres says Williams is wanted on charges of sexual exploitation of children and traveling abroad for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with children. AP LOS ANGELES—A former professor of the University of Southern California (USC) accused of sex crimes involving two children in the Philippines has been deported to the United States after a Mexican citizen recognized his picture in a newspaper and informed the US Embassy. Walter Lee Williams, 64, will appear in a Los Angeles federal courtroom on Thursday to face charges of sexual exploitation of children and traveling abroad for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with children. He had been placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. The indictment alleges Williams traveled from Los Angeles to the Philippines to engage in sex acts with two 14-year-old boys he met online in 2010, the Department of Justice said in a statement. “He allegedly engaged in sexual activity via Internet webcam sessions with these boys and expressed a desire to visit them in the Philippines to have sex,” the indictment stated. A tip from a Mexican citizen who saw a photograph in a local newspaper and contacted the US Read More …

Philippines, US to hold naval exercises near disputed reef

News

Jun 202013

Philippines, US to hold naval exercises near disputed reef

Agance France-Presse 3:11 pm | Thursday, June 20th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines – The United States and the Philippines are to hold joint naval maneuvers in the South China Sea next week between the main island of Luzon and a reef claimed by both China and Manila, the Filipino navy said Thursday. The exercises taking place from June 27 to July 2 by the two allies are to be held about 108 kilometers (67 miles) east of Scarborough Shoal, navy spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Gregory Fabic told AFP. Chinese government vessels are still believed to be patrolling the waters around the shoal after a lengthy stand-off last year with the Philippines, which ended with a Filipino retreat. “This was planned way back in 2010. Whatever happened since then was purely coincidental,” Fabic said when asked if holding the exercises there this year were a way for the Philippines to reassert its sovereignty over the shoal. The maneuvers would be held over 12,347 square kilometers (4,767 square miles) of waters, he added. Chinese embassy spokesmen in Manila could not be reached for comment Thursday. Beijing claims it has sovereign rights over nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters far away from its main landmass and approaching the coasts of Southeast Asian countries. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim parts of the sea, and the area has for decades been regarded as a potential trigger for major military conflict in the region. Since last month the Philippine navy has also Read More …

Phl posts $75-M BOP surplus

Economy

Jun 192013

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines still managed to post a balance of payments (BOP) surplus in May despite the start of a huge sell-off in the financial markets. The country’s BOP — which measures all inflows and outflows — posted a surplus of $75 million last month, the lowest for the year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday. BSP officials could not be reached for comment. A surplus indicates more than enough resources to meet external trade and debt obligations. It brought the year-to-date tally to $1.884 billion, a wider surplus against the $1.302 billion in the same period last year. Financial markets have slumped after reaching its peak last May 15, owing to investor concerns the US economy would scale down its stimulus measures soon. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 As a result, foreign portfolio investments — which record placements to bond and stock markets — plunged to a net outflow of $640 million in May, the highest on record. Portfolio investments, together with foreign direct investments, feed in the capital account segment of the BOP. While this portion was on the negative, BOP sourced strength from current account flows, which included remittances and exports. BSP data showed remittances hit $6.916 billion as of April, up 5.7 percent. Merchandise exports, meanwhile, went down 7.95 percent to $16.12 billion for the first four months.

China Sea row discussed in US officials’ call on DND

News

Jun 182013

China Sea row discussed in US officials’ call on DND

Philippine Daily Inquirer 3:19 am | Wednesday, June 19th, 2013 Secretary of the Navy Mabus is honored by Philippine military members after a meeting with the Philippine Defense Secretary of National Defense Voltaire Gazmin. Mabus discussed Tuesday regional security issues during the meeting. US NAVY PHOTO/MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS ARIF PATANI MANILA, Philippines—US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus discussed Tuesday regional security issues in a meeting with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. “The representatives from the two departments discussed security issues in the Asia-Pacific region, modernization efforts, and the US’s commitment to provide humanitarian assistance in times of disasters/calamities,” the Department of National Defense (DND) said in a statement. “Secretary Mabus further intimated the critical nature of the Philippines for the US rebalance in the Asia-Pacific,” the statement said. Also in the meeting at the DND headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo were Navy Flag Office in Command Vice Adm. Jose Luis Alano, US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas, and Defense Undersecretaries Honorio Azcueta and Pio Batino. Thomas described Mabus’ visit as a “mutually beneficial and important trip.” He said one of the issues discussed was the situation in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). He noted that Mabus’ trip came on the heels of the trip to the Philippines by Adm. Samuel Locklear III, commander of the US Pacific Command. “We have sent many high-level officials here in the last few years to Read More …

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