MANILA, March 31, 2013 (AFP) – The Philippines Sunday welcomed the removal of a US minesweeper that had been stuck on a protected coral reef for 10 weeks, but stressed that compensation must be paid for the environmental damage. Salvage crews contracted by the US Navy Saturday extracted the last remaining piece of the USS […]
THE MILLENNIUM Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P) is targeting to wrap up contract negotiations for projects funded by a grant from the US government this week, an official said.
By Jerry E. EsplanadaPhilippine Daily Inquirer 2:31 pm | Wednesday, March 13th, 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—The dismantling of the USS Guardian stuck on the Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea is about 50 percent complete, the Philippine Coast Guard said Wednesday. In a report to the PCG headquarters in Manila, Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista, head of Task Force Tubbataha and commander of the Coast Guard’s Palawan district, said on Tuesday the US Navy-contracted salvage team had dismantled about 50 percent of the grounded minesweeper. The salvage team is “expecting calm weather in the next three to four days so work will continue on the USS Guardian,” he added. Aside from the PCG, the task force includes the Philippine Navy, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Tubbataha Reef Foundation and local government units in the island-province of Palawan. Lt. Cmdr. Armand Balilo, the PCG’s spokesman, said on Wednesday that “with wind speeds of 10 to 15 knots and waves of less than one meter, weather conditions in the reef area have been very favorable to continue the salvage operation.” “Today, the salvage team will continue removing the pipelines in the engine room of the Guardian. The team is also scheduled to remove the remaining main engine and two auxiliary engines, as well as the Read More …
By Tetch Torres-TupasINQUIRER.net 1:19 pm | Monday, March 4th, 2013 MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Immigration has ordered the deportation of a convicted American pedophile wanted in the US for failure to report his location and activities to federal authorities. Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David said Earl Lynn Bagley, 60 who was arrested last February 4 at the Robinson’s Mall in Ermita, Manila will be deported for being an undesirable alien. David said Bagley is the subject of an arrest warrant issued last November by a US district court in Washington due to his failure to update his registration as a sex offender. Bagley’s passport was revoked by the State Department after he failed to update his registration as a sex offender in the US. In the Philippines, Immigration records showed that he did not extend his tourist visa since he last arrived in the country on April 17 last year. Meanwhile, Atty. Ma. Antonette Mangrobang, BI acting intelligence chief, Bagley’s offense stemmed from his failure to update his registration as a sex offender Mangrobang explained that the registration is a system in the US designed to enable authorities to keep track of the residence and activities of sex offenders. All 50 US states have reportedly passed laws requiring sex offenders, especially child sex offenders, to periodically report their residence upon leaving prison or after being convicted of their crime. Various websites on sex offenders revealed that on Oct. 29, 2004 a Seattle court sentenced Bagley to 51 months custody, including Read More …
(Philippine Eagle Foundation Logo) MANILA, Feb 28 (Mabuhay) -– The mating rituals of two captive Philippine eagles are being broadcast live over the Internet to rally global support for saving of the world’s rarest and biggest raptors, conservationists said Thursday. Livestreaming the pair gives a global Internet audience a rare insight into the courtship, mating and chick-rearing habits of the birds, which could soon become extinct, said Philippine Eagle Foundation spokesman Rolando Pinsoy. “This will give everyone a chance to learn more about this species and understand why we have to save them,” Pinsoy said. Customarily, the female lays a single egg in November or December and the chick hatches a month later, he said. In a project backed by the US-based Raptor Resource Project and the Internet videosharing site Ustream.tv, the pair can now be viewed 24 hours a day over the next 12 months at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/29615691 “Even for biologists, there is so much more that we need to learn about this species,” Pinsoy said. The Philippine eagle, or Pithecophaga jefferyi, is the world’s largest eagle in terms of length. It is found only in the country’s vanishing forests, where hunting, logging and land conversion all threaten its survival. The bird, with a distinctive shaggy and cream-colored crest, grows to up to 3.35 feet (one meter) in length with a wing span of up to seven feet. According to the foundation and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there are only about between 180 to 500 pairs Read More …
DETROIT (AP) — Americans want new cars and trucks, and they’re not letting higher gas prices or political dysfunction stand in their way. New car and truck sales were up four percent in February as rising home construction and cheap financing kept the US auto recovery on track. While the pace of growth is slowing, industry analysts expect more gains in the coming months, saying there’s little that could derail demand for new cars. Car buyers have already shrugged off higher Social Security taxes, which cut their take-home pay starting in January. Gas prices — which rose 36 cents to $3.78 per gallon in February — didn’t change their habits, either. And they ignored the debate over automatic spending cuts that were due to take effect Friday. “Quite frankly, we think most of America is getting a little tired of hearing about some of the dysfunction,” said Kurt McNeil, General Motors Co.’s US sales chief. “We think the fundamentals are strong and that’s what’s important, and that’s what’s driving the economy.” February sales hit an annualized rate of 15.4 million cars and trucks. That’s still short of the recent peak of close to 17 million in 2005, but it’s quite healthy compared with the anemic 10.4 million recorded during the recession in 2009. The industry isn’t likely to see the double-digit monthly gains it saw last year, when Japanese automakers came roaring back after the 2011 earthquake in Japan. Instead, auto companies are settling in for a period of slower Read More …
President Benigno S. Aquino III exchanges pleasantries with Accenture chairman and chief executive officer Pierre Nanterme during a courtesy call at the Music Room, Malacañan Palace on Thursday (February 28). Accenture is a US$27.9 billion global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 259,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Also in photo is Accenture chief operating officer Jo Deblaereo and Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo. (MNS photo) MANILA, Feb 28 (Mabuhay) – President Benigno S. Aquino III welcomed global outsourcing company officials who expressed confidence in the local market in Malacanang on Thursday. Accenture Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Pierre Nanterme paid a courtesy call on the Chief Executive at the Music Room of Malacanang Palace. He was accompanied by Chief Operating Officer Jo Deblaere and Country Managing Director Manolito Tayag. Also in attendance was Trade and Industry Gregory Domingo. Nanterme reinforced Accenture’s confidence in the the local market and the world-class capabilities of Accenture’ Philippine workforce who provide innovative information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions and services to top global clients. Accenture Philippines is the country’s leading management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 30,000 employees working in 16 facilities in its Manila and Cebu delivery centers. The Accenture Philippines works with an international client base in Europe, Asia and North America. It plays a strategic role in Accenture’s ASEAN growth strategy. The officials reaffirmed their commitment to partner with government in its advocacy to provide more jobs and Read More …
MANILA, Philippines – Hopes are high that leaders in the United States will strike a deal to stop spending cuts from taking effect Friday, an event that could trigger heightened risk aversion in the emerging markets like the Philippines, the central bank said. “Given what transpired at year-end, most analysts have probably not factored in ‘sequestration’ (or the automatic spending cuts) in their baselines,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco, Jr. said. “As in the past, I think we can expect heightened volatility in the market in the run up to March 1,” he said in a text message to reporters Tuesday night. US lawmakers found themselves pitted against each other anew, two months after dodging the “fiscal cliff”— the $600-billion spending cuts and tax rises— by choosing to hike income taxes to generate revenues. They however left decision on disbursement cuts, choosing to extend the leeway by another 60 days which is bound to end Friday midnight, Washington time. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 A total of $85 billion worth of cuts could kick in immediately, affecting government services and employee payrolls, seen detrimental to the still-fragile US economy. On Tuesday, the BSP chief said the market would evaluate how the US would act to avert a looming budget problem. “Again, what we could see in the market is a move to safe haven. But what that safe haven is would depend on risk appetite at that point,” Tetangco said. “Given the US Read More …
By Tarra QuismundoPhilippine Daily Inquirer 5:35 pm | Friday, February 22nd, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—A visiting lawmaker from the United States has lauded the Philippines’ “restraint” in dealing with China over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) issue and he hoped the Chinese side would “understand the need” to settle the long-drawn-out territorial dispute soon. US Rep. Jeff Miller, who leads a five-member delegation of US lawmakers on a three-day visit here, also reiterated his government’s support for a peaceful resolution of the dispute, an issue of keen interest to the US amid its defense pivot to the Asia Pacific. “We appreciate the restraint that the government here has shown in going through the arbitration process. I’m hopeful that China will be able to understand the need to resolve this issue as soon as possible,” Miller told the Inquirer while visiting the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Taguig City. Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario had briefed the delegation—Miller and fellow US Representatives Gus Bilirakis, Timothy Walz, Michael Michaud and Josiah Bonner—on the West Philippine Sea issue during the group’s courtesy call at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday. During the meeting, the Philippine side explained the country’s move to hale China to the United Nations arbitration tribunal in a bid to invalidate the Chinese side’s “nine-dash line” claim over territories in the contested region of the South China Sea, including a portion the Philippines refers to as the West Philippine Sea. The legal action, formally rejected by China Read More …
By Tarra QuismundoPhilippine Daily Inquirer 5:23 pm | Friday, February 22nd, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—The United States is open to a review of rejected benefit claims of thousands of aging Filipino World War II veterans as deserving former servicemen should receive the compensation due them, the chair of the US House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs said Friday. Florida lawmaker Jeff Miller, head of a US congressional delegation that visited the Philippines this week, told the Inquirer on Friday that his government was willing to take a second look at claims of Filipino veterans earlier denied by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA). Miller quickly pointed out, however, that such review was not a guarantee of a reconsideration, saying the US government is “very careful” in studying and approving claims of Filipinos who served under the US flag more than six decades ago. “We understand that there are other individuals who claim that they have a right to compensation, and I agree that every person should have the opportunity for a full and complete review,” Miller said. “But we have to be careful that only those that have earned the compensation get the compensation,” added the lawmaker, who led four other fellow lawmakers on three-day visit in the Philippines. During a meeting at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario requested Miller’s support as he called for a review of the rejection of claims of 24,385 Filipino veterans under the Filipino Veterans Equity (FVEC). Miller said Read More …