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Ecija

May 28th, 2009, 02:34 AM

4 more RP flu cases confirmed

By Dona Pazzibugan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:35:00 05/28/2009

Filed Under: Swine Flu, Health, Diseases

MANILA, Philippines—Four more people in the Philippines have been confirmed to have the A(H1N1) virus, bringing the total number of the new influenza cases in the country to six, the Department of Health (DoH) said Wednesday.

Among the latest confirmed cases, all Filipinos, are a one-year-old female baby who arrived from the United States on May 19, a 13-year-old boy who arrived from Hong Kong on May 23, a 26-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III reported in a briefing.

Duque said the DoH “is expecting more confirmed cases in the coming weeks due to its intensive contact tracing and heightened awareness among the public.”

Nearly 30 other patients are under observation in the country for the swine flu virus that has killed 92 people and infected more than 13,000 worldwide.

“There is no cause for the public to panic,” Duque stressed. “What is important is that anyone who has traveled to an affected country or has been exposed to a confirmed case and manifests symptoms like fever, cough or sore throat, (should) go to a doctor or call the DoH hotline 711-1001.”

‘Very low’ fatality ratio

He stressed that the case fatality ratio for A(H1N1) was “very low” at less than 1 per 1,000 infected cases.

“And the global consensus is that (it) is a mild form of influenza illness,” added Duque, who had just attended a World Health Organization conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

In the same briefing, National Epidemiology Center chief Dr. Eric Tayag maintained that the conditions of the latest four patients were not in any way serious.

The teenage boy, who was admitted to a hospital on the day he arrived, manifested symptoms on May 23 but had fully recovered as of Wednesday, Tayag said.

The infant, who was hospitalized on May 24, no longer had fever though she still had cough as of Wednesday, he added.

Tayag said health authorities had contacted the household members of the latest four cases and have advised them to observe home quarantine for 10 days.

He said they would also look for some of the airline co-passengers of the two children, mainly those who were seated one row behind and three rows in front of them.

Second generation

The two adults could be considered the country’s first “second-generation transmission” cases since they did not get the virus overseas but from an “index case,” or one who got sick after visiting an affected country, Duque said.

They manifested flu symptoms after coming into contact locally with infected persons, a Taiwanese woman and her daughter who attended a wedding that gathered about 50 people in Zambales on May 17, Duque said.

The Taiwanese mother and daughter tested positive of the virus after returning to their home country.

The DoH Wednesday said 11 of the wedding guests had shown flu symptoms, but three have tested negative for A(H1NI). Lab results for the remaining eight were still pending.

“Both adults are contacts of the confirmed case in Taiwan,” Duque told reporters. He said other guests at the wedding were being contacted.

“We’re now on second-generation transmission beyond the index case,” the official said.

The 26-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital on May 24, while the 55-year-old man was admitted on May 25. Both started to show flu symptoms on May 21.

Both still had cough, with the man nursing a fever as of Wednesday, the DoH chief said.

28 cases observed

Duque said 28 more cases were still under observation pending lab test results.

Earlier Wednesday, the DoH was alerted to another case overseas of a confirmed A(H1N1) infection that may have originated from the Philippines.

Health Undersecretary Mario Villaverde said a Filipino-Japanese boy who left the country on May 22 was found positive of the flu virus when he arrived in Japan.

Villaverde said the DoH was awaiting details from its Japanese counterpart, such as where the boy stayed in the Philippines and when, before it could begin the process of “contact tracing.”

The country’s first two confirmed cases of A(H1N1) infection were expected to be discharged from the hospital as soon as their repeat laboratory test confirm that they have fully recovered, the DoH added.

Once discharged, the two could no longer infect others, Villaverde said, adding: “At present their contacts have all turned out negative or do not have signs and symptoms of flu.”

He was referring to the 10-year-old Filipino girl who arrived on May 18 from the United States and Canada, and the 50-year-old Filipino woman who arrived from the United States on May 20.

Cleared in Butuan

In Butuan City, health officials have cleared an American and two Filipino women of the A(H1N1) virus but three more people remained isolated in a medical facility in Davao City as of Wednesday.

“The results of laboratory tests conducted showed (they are) negative for A(H1N1). They were suffering only from influenza-like illness,” said Dr. Gerna Manatad, chief regional epidemiologist of the Center for Health in Caraga. With a report from Reuters

FlashCollider

May 28th, 2009, 03:11 AM

I think it's high time as well to get our act together, if we want others to stop those "Offensive Jokes". Ganyan din tayo sa mga bumbay, tsekwa at kung sino sino pa, worst we are also rude towards our own like, the term Inday, Dong or Bisaya. Numero uno din tayong mapanglait. If we can be sensitive to that, might as well be sensitive about our own insensitivity.

What goes around comes around.

wynngd

May 28th, 2009, 03:25 AM

^^hehehe tama ka, ung mga taong malakas mang-asar ng kapwa tao, sya din ung nangungunang pikon.

barrera_marquez

May 28th, 2009, 11:08 AM

pinagpipiyestahan talaga itong si Kho maging ng mga pulitiko..:ohno:

Palawan declares Hayden Kho persona non grata (http://www.gmanews.tv/story/162881/Palawan-declares-Hayden-Kho-persona-non-grata)
05/26/2009 | 01:33 PM

MANILA, Philippines — Controversial celebrity doctor Hayden Kho Jr. is now considered persona non grata in Palawan province, a radio report said Tuesday.

Radio dzXL reported that the Sangguniang Panlalawigan ng Palawan adopted a resolution where the board members said there is no place in the province for someone like Kho.

The provincial board also said the resolution is not only for Halili but also for all women.

Halili, who hails from Palawan, joined the "Mutya ng Palawan" beauty pageant in 2003.

Last week, she filed a complaint against Kho for the posting on the Internet a sex video they had.

The report said the provincial board sent copies of its resolution to Halili, Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Revilla denounced Kho in a privilege speech last week and prodded Halili to file charges against her former boyfriend at the NBI. - GMANews.TV

_________________

pano nalang ung ibang tao na gumawa rin ng scandal pero di kasing-sikat ni Hayden??:ohno:

Oh they will just cry sa tabi and then the court will take care of their case... if they will really take care of the case.

And oh, imagine kapag ang artista nagpakawala ka lang ng sex video para ka nang presidente ng Pilipinas na nasa impeachment trial sa iyong pagkakasala at senado pa ang didinig sa kaso pero kung ordinaryong tao ka, swerte ka na kung magpakita yung kabilang panig. :ohno:

Askal82

May 29th, 2009, 05:05 AM

RonnieR

May 29th, 2009, 06:42 AM

Sky Harbor

May 29th, 2009, 06:08 PM

Oh they will just cry sa tabi and then the court will take care of their case... if they will really take care of the case.

And oh, imagine kapag ang artista nagpakawala ka lang ng sex video para ka nang presidente ng Pilipinas na nasa impeachment trial sa iyong pagkakasala at senado pa ang didinig sa kaso pero kung ordinaryong tao ka, swerte ka na kung magpakita yung kabilang panig. :ohno:

Retarded indeed. It's hardly understandable what their line of reasoning really is. I bet they can hardly answer themselves on what grounds they are really accused of if both of them agreed to have their sex video taken. Shouldn't they press charges on whoever put that video in public without their knowledge or permission?

Papogi points lang. Kesyo they are on the moral grounds to sanction that behavior. Loads of b/s.

I'll plug an article I wrote in my blog (Akiestar's Tidbits (http://akiestar.blogspot.com)). Whatever respect I have left for Bong Revilla as a senator has just gone down the drain. :ohno:

(By the way, do click the ads! :D)

----

Frustrations (part 2): halo-halo, hysteria and Hayden Kho (http://akiestar.blogspot.com/2009/05/frustrations-part-2-halo-halo-hysteria.html)

Finally, I got my long-awaited Chowking halo-halo: a big blue glass full of ingredients that make the Halo-Halo Fiesta of the veritable Chinese fastfood chain. I actually wanted to blog while eating it, but since it started dripping all over the place, I decided not to instead. As they say: "Onli in da Pilipins" (SkyscraperCity spelling makes me laugh).

Anyway, the three H's have struck again. The first one made me full, the second one crazy and the third one irate. But when you jumble that all together, it all seems like good, clean fun! Or does it?

I was on my way home from the Rockwell Club from a fairly intense workout (treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical and weight machines) when I overheard on the radio that Hayden Kho (yes, the doctor in those sex videos who happens to also be from my home province, Marinduque, and whose name is more properly pronounced "HEY-den" than "HAI-den") was declared persona non grata in Bohol. Given the big field day the media had been given over the scandal, I tried to forsee what could be the headline in the Bohol Chronicle.

This is what I came up with: "KHO DECLARED PERSONA NON GRATA". Then again, the doctor was also declared persona non grata in Palawan. I wonder what the headline will be there too.

(Everything after the previous statement was written not yesterday, but today)

Anyway, Hayden Kho admitted his guilt to making the said sex videos. It seems that Bong Revilla finally had his field day. The problem here though is that does it count as a proper field day?

What seems to escape my mind is why everyone is focusing on the video being produced, when the issue at hand is the video being distributed. Although the doctor admitted to producing the video, he didn't even know that it was released into the hands of the Philippine viewing public. The media frenzy over the video's contents seems to have everyone in arms: Ramon Tulfo seems to want his head on a silver platter. Everyone from the congressional zoo to Malacañang to the Catholic Church wants in on the take, so much so that Aquilino Pimentel himself declared the Senate inquiry a "distraction". I, for one, think its pointless.

I used to think that Katrina Halili consented to making those videos, which still sounds like she did. In that case, she is equally culpable as Hayden in sharing the blame. If you are aware that you are being videotaped, you should be equally aware of the ramifications of your actions. I don't see blaming the other person when you are equally as liable as he is.

However, that's no longer the case. He did admit, but that still does not justify the media field day over the issue. Plenty of sex scandals, it seems, are made in the Philippines every single day, and although it is supposedly illegal to produce sex videos and distribute them, why do we not prosecute all those other voyeurs? I don't think we have a successful deterrent here for future violations just by crucifying him in front of the Philippine viewing public. I, for one, will continue to forsee numerous other sex videos being filmed in inconspicuous places: in houses, condos, apartments, dark places, secluded places, faraway places, you name it. If I were to be a fair barometer of what this brouhaha is about: it's all about Katrina Halili being shamed rather than the issue of a sex video being made. It's all about salvaging one without any consideration for everyone else.

It is safe to assume that had the brouhaha between Halili and Kho had been between two regular people, the media and everyone else who ended up going on the bandwagon because of it would probably care less. This is not an issue about sex videos per se. This, sadly, became an issue over a celebrity playing tattle-tale with an influential political figure who happens to do nothing but sit on his pretty little chair, model his barong and do nothing. I'm sorry, but I've begun to lose even more respect for the Senate (especially for one of my most adored senators, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago) than before. What a shame indeed.

Sometimes, I wish the media can just take a breather and shut up. I pity everyone who has to suffer through this media madness: a highlight that the most powerful institutions our country has at its disposal, which so happen to be the media and the legislature, have nothing better to do.

demented_pigeon

June 1st, 2009, 11:33 AM

bad news or good news depending on which person you will ask.

manila_eye

June 1st, 2009, 11:41 AM

^^ at ano naman ang alam nya dasalan ang problema ng bayan just what like cory did? yung pampangga nga walang nangyari eh.

demented_pigeon

June 1st, 2009, 11:43 AM

^^ the plot thickens... mwahahaha!

jpdm

June 1st, 2009, 11:52 AM

bad news or good news depending on which person you will ask.

Ok na rin at good news.. :cheers:

keysa naman Erap tatakbo uling presidente at si bong revilla o jinggoy ang running mate nya...:ohno::bash:

wahhh...bad news talaga!!:bash:

stanleymalls

June 9th, 2009, 06:02 PM

Vancouver world's easiest city to live in, Harare worst: poll (http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090609/tls-lifestyle-world-health-environment-c-aeafa1b.html)

LONDON (AFP) - – Vancouver is the world's easiest city to live in while Harare is the toughest, a survey said Monday putting Europe and north America at the top while many African and Asian cities struggle behind.
Canadian and Australian cities hold six of the top 10 slots in the Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability poll, which ranks cities on five factors: health-care, stability, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

"At the other end of the ranking, most of the poorest-performing locations are in Africa or Asia, where civil instability and poor infrastructure present significant challenges," said the survey's authors.

In ratings ranging from zero (intolerable) to 100 percent (ideal), Vancouver scores 98 percent, "benefiting from strong Canadian infrastructure," while Harare languishes on 37.5 "thanks to the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe."

At the top end of the global easy-living scale, Vienna is in second place followed by Melbourne, Toronto, Perth, Calgary, Helsinki and Geneva, with Sydney and Zurich in joint ninth place.

The Japanese city of Osaka is just outside the top 10 on 13th place, and Tokyo is at joint 19th with Frankfurt.

European cities where life is generally not hard include Stockholm and Hamburg, Germany in 14th place, as well as Paris in 17th spot, Frankfurt in 19th, Copenhagen in 21st and Berlin in 22nd.

"With the exception of high scores in Australasia and some Asian centres, most of the better-scoring locations are based in the more developed regions of western Europe and North America," said the study.
A string of US cities fill the rankings from 30th to 50th position -- Washington DC in 35th place, Los Angeles in 48th -- followed by another smattering of European conurbations: London is in 51st spot, Rome 52nd while Athens has western Europe's lowest showing in 63rd spot, on 81.2 percent.

Any city with a score above 80 percent "will have few, if any, challenges to living standards," said the survey.
Lower down the orders come Moscow in 69th spot, Beijing in 76th, Johannesburg on joint 92nd with Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and Bangkok in 100th place.

The bottom rankings are occupied by a swathe of Asian and African cities: Manila in 108th, New Delhi in joint 114th spot with Cairo, Mumbai in 120th, Nairobi 122nd and Lusaka 126th.

Cities scoring below 50 percent -- which "present daily challenges to living standards" according to the authors -- include Tehran in 129th place, Karachi, Pakistan in 135th and Lagos in 136th.

The bottom three are Algiers, Dhaka and Harare -- where President Robert Mugabe called Sunday for leaders to "make Africa a continent of opportunity for all its people," as Zimbabwe struggles to emerge from an economic meltdown.

____________________

This is so bad. :ohno: :ohno: :ohno: :ohno: :ohno: :no: :no: :no: :no: :no: :no: :no: :mad: :rant: :bleep: :soapbox:

carl_vilches21

June 9th, 2009, 06:37 PM

^^
At least masaya tayong namumuhay dito sa bansa natin..

FCDallas

June 9th, 2009, 07:53 PM

Manila in bottom fourth of global liveability list
ASIAN CITIES are among the best and the worst places to live in but unfortunately Manila doesn’t rank very well, an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey found.

On a scale of one to 100 Manila scored just a 62.0, well below top-ranked Vancouver’s 98.0 and 3rd-placed Melbourne — considered an Asian city — which was rated a 97.5. The Philippine capital’s score, however, was still significantly better than Zimbabwe’s Harare, in last with a dismal 37.5.

Out of 140 metropolises surveyed, Manila’s ranking of 106th put it in the bottom fourth. Sixty-four cities scored more than 80, while 13 were said as occupying the "very bottom tier of liveability where ratings fall below 50."

The EIU, in a statement, said the "liveability of Asian cities depend on the individual degree of country development and city conditions rather than any regionally defined norm."

It noted that Asia — which included Australia and New Zealand — accounted for eight cities out of the top 20 and ten cities out of the bottom 20.

The London-based EIU said the rankings were based 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

"Cities that score best tend to be mid-sized, in developed countries with low population density benefiting from cultural or recreational availability, but with lower crime levels or infrastructure problems that can be caused by large populations," it said.

Canada, Australia, and West European countries dominated the top. Vancouver, the EIU said, only has petty crime and the availability of good housing as challenges.

"Any city with a rating of 80 or more will have a few, if any, challenges to living standards, while any city with a score of 50 or less will present daily challenges to living standards," the EIU said.

It noted that most of the poorest-performing locations were in Africa or Asia, where civil instability and poor infrastructure present significant challenges.

"The prospect of violence, whether through domestic protests civil war or threat of foreign incursion, plays a significant role," it added. — DGKC

tonight

June 10th, 2009, 05:28 AM

Coconut exports plunge 59.8% (http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=476067&publicationSubCategoryId=66)
By Marianne V. Go

MANILA, Philippines - Exports of coconut products plunged 59.8 percent to 134,428 metric tons in January and February this year compared to exports of 334,241 MT in the same period last year.

Citing official figures from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (UCAP) reported that cumulative revenues from coconut exports for the first two months of this year amounted to $98.289 million, dropping 62.3 percent compared to the $260.642 million earned for January and February 2008.

Breakdown of export volume is as follows, in MT: coconut oil 60,774 (181,672 last year), copra meal 25,541 (97,267), desiccated coconut 21,708 (17,722), oleochemicals 4,400 (18,474) in copra terms; coco shell charcoal 4,153 (2,540), activated carbon 4,142 (5,763), glycerin 1,450 (2,998), fresh coconuts 323 (139), Others 5,324 (4,544).

For February alone this year, PCA data showed a 37.8 percent year-on-year decline to 75,857 MT in copra terms from 121,863 MT.

Gross export receipts for February alone this year dropped substantially by 46.8 percent to $55.464 million from $104.257 million on sharply reduced traded volume and prices.

Except for desiccated coconut, all major exports suffered double-digit shortfalls.

Desiccated coconut export rose 9.7 percent to 10,479 MT from 9,552 MT.

Shipment of coconut oil plunged 39.6 percent to 36,195 MT from 59,905 MT, copra meal slumped 58.3 percent to 25,541 MT from 61,236 MT, oleochemicals plummeted 81.7 percent to 2,202 MT in copra terms from 12,007 MT.

Other products performed as follows, in MT: coco shell charcoal 2,828 (+149.5 percent from 1,134 MT), activated carbon 1,997 (-35.9 percent from 3,115), glycerin 957 (-30.3 percent from 1,374), fresh coconuts 161 (+185.2 percent from 57), Others 2,462 (+2.1 percent from 2,411).

Europe was market leader with purchases of 17,396 MT representing 48.1 percent of total export, followed by the United States with 9,559 MT (26.4 percent market share), China with 6,372 MT (17.6 percent), and Japan with 2,100 MT (5.8 percent).

The rest had market shares less than one percent.

Importers of crude coconut oil were Europe, specifically Netherlands with 17,289 MT, China 6,000 MT, USA 1,500 MT, Taiwan 300 MT, and Singapore 34 MT.

Cochin oil shipment went to USA 8,050 MT, Japan 2,100 MT, and China 21 MT.

Nearly a dozen countries bought RBD oil namely, China 351 MT, Europe (Bulgaria) 105 MT, Bangladesh 93 MT, Israel 78 MT, Iran 74 MT, Pakistan 71 MT, Russia 64 MT, Taiwan 34 MT, Australia 18 MT, USA 9 MT, Europe (Netherlands) 2 MT.

jpdm

June 10th, 2009, 12:03 PM

jpdm

June 16th, 2009, 01:07 AM

Manila Times

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

EDITORIAL

Is Satan in power among our elite?

The horrible murder of Ruby Rose Barrameda-Jimenez has made many wonder if those who say that something Satanic is now in control of Philippine society are right.

Her murder was by a small band of professional killers allegedly in the pay of a wealthy businessman, her father-in-law, who allegedly ordered the killers to deal with Ruby Rose the way they had also dealt with other targets for liquidation under this businessman’s orders. And the disposition of her body was in the US mafia gang style celebrated in movies and detective novels—she was put in wet cement in a sealed drum that was then dropped with weights into the sea.

What makes the notion of Satanic presence a hair-raising prospect this time—and no longer the “amusing drivel” of old women or overly religious people—is that Ruby Rose’s murder and tragedy fits into a pattern of mafia-style murders.

We do not need to go into the hundreds of murdered and disappeared leftist militants and working journalists. We will now just mention recent murders that come to our mind of persons who were done in obviously by people in power and of wealth—members of the elite—whose illegal activities were threatened with exposure by the victims.

The first to come to mind is the double murder of Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his friend and driver Emmanuel Corbito. They were abducted and, the witnesses say, burned and their remains were placed in a drum. Dacer apparently had the goods on some people of wealth and power.

Then there was the murder of journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat. There’s some good news about this. The actual killers of Marlene, who gunned her down in front of her two children in their house, sped away and eluded arrest but were eventually caught, arraigned, tried, found guilty and sentenced. But the masterminds—government officials with the Department of Agriculture whose activities Marlene was exposing—managed to evade prosecution. Finally, the court issued warrants for their arrest. Marlene was not just any kind of journalist. She had in fact served as the resident ombudsman of the agriculture department in Region XII.

There was also the murder of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin in front of Saint Carmel’s Church in Quezon City. This was a political murder.

Then we remember the abduction and violent murder of Edgar Bentain. He was the casino employee who apparently leaked photographs (taken by security cameras) of then-President Joseph Estrada gambling in the company of Atong Ang and other friends at the Heritage Casino. Bentain was alleged to have been immersed alive in a drum of wet cement.

There are so many other cases of mafia-style liquidations but these examples would suffice for now.

Loss of moral moorings

The second point we wish to talk about in this piece is that the masterminds and perpetrators of these crimes are obviously people who are no longer ruled by any moral structures.

This, unfortunately, is also the case with many of our political power holders in the three branches of government.

And this mentality could, in fact, be that of so many members of our elite who are not in politics. Consider the phenomenon of medical doctor Hayden Kho videoing his own lovemaking with his lovers and someone of his circle releasing these videos on the Internet.

This absence of morals and ethics, which Muslim, Protestant and Catholic churchmen have condemned, they say is the root of the problems of our society and the very Philippine Republic itself.

It is this absence of a moral compass that makes a great part of our electorate willing to sell their votes.

This reminds us of the bold and angry commentary “It’s Satan’s semen, stupid” by the Catholic activist and advertising expert, Minyong Ordoñez, that we published on August 15, 2008.

His fury in that commentary was leveled at the Reproductive Rights bill.

But his arguments, which may hit many non-Christians, atheists and supporters of the bill as too much, were on the mark.

A society that cannot even be willing to pause and consider that the fetus may indeed be a living human being and will use means to terminate millions of fetuses for the sake of utilitarian economic goals must be Satanic.

Here’s a part of Minyong’s commentary, which we quote here because we think the mind that ordered the murder of Ruby Rose is in the final analysis similar to the kind of mind that is described in the paragraphs below:

“Woman as victim

“Central to birth-control managers is their clever idea labeled as: The woman with “unwanted pregnancy.” Who decides whether the pregnancy is unwanted or not? Herself? Birth-control managers? Dark-alley abortionists? Critics of Humanae Vitae? Indifferentist demographers and social engineers at IMF World Bank who incentivize their loans to poor nations by tacking on birth-control funding?

“It can’t be the Francis of Assisi type of priest. Or the Mother Teresa type of nun. Or the God who is in the hearts of men.

“It must be the devil disguised as a do-gooder.

“Since a huge inventory of condoms [the modern version of onanism], abortifacients, inclusive of easy access to invasive birth-control technologies such as intrauterine device, ligation, sterilization, etc. are well funded, surely the educational campaign directed to the “woman with unwanted pregnancy” will be slanted in favor of aborticide using abortifacients. The much ridiculed but Church-approved rhythm method, sex abstinence and celibacy, has a poor chance, because to most birth-control managers those methods are prone to failure, medieval and a big killjoy. Abortifacients are safer and more effective. Safer for the killer. Fatal to the fetus. Isn’t it satanic?” :ohno::bash:

jun_of

June 17th, 2009, 04:16 AM

Jun 4th 2009 | MANILA
From The Economist print edition http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13794772

The cost of being tongue-tied in the colonisers’ tongue

ONCE it claimed to have more English speakers than all but two other countries, and it has exported millions of them. But these days Filipinos are less boastful. Three decades of decline in the share of Filipinos who speak the language, and the deteriorating proficiency of those who can manage some English, have eroded one of the country’s advantages in the global economy.

This week children trooped back to school for the new academic year. The government-approved textbooks they will study illustrate the problem. A passage in one for eight-year-olds reads: “The dog rolled on the floor so fast and fell on the ground. There he laid yelling louder than ever. The dog yelled on top of his voice.” A book for 11-year-olds advises, mysteriously: “Just remember this acronym—DOCSiShQACNMN—to make it easy for you to remember the order of adjectives in a series.”

Never mind the pupils, teachers have been flunking English for years. In 2004 only one in five teachers passed the English-proficiency test. The effect on pupils is plain to hear. Last year the country winced when the 17-year-old winner of the Miss Philippines World beauty contest failed spectacularly to answer in English the usual questions posed by judges in such events.

Call-centres complain that they reject nine-tenths of otherwise qualified job applicants, mostly college graduates, because of their poor command of English. This is lowering the chances that the outsourcing industry will succeed in its effort to employ close to 1m people, account for 8.5% of GDP and have 10% of the world market by the end of 2010.

America, as the colonial power, brought English and universal public education to the Philippines a century ago. But English as a subject has suffered from lack of money, along with public education as a whole. Some Filipinos also blame the introduction in the 1970s of Filipino, an artificial national language, as the medium of instruction.

The government is tackling the problem by throwing money at remedial English-language instruction for teachers and making greater use of English as the medium of instruction. It says these measures are working. A recent opinion poll suggests Filipinos believe their own ability to speak English is improving. Call-centre bosses are not convinced.

jpdm

June 17th, 2009, 04:34 AM

Business MIrror

Gloria’s Fantasyland

Written by Dispatches from the Enchanted Kingdom / Manuel Buencamino
Wednesday, 17 June 2009 00:10

In the news last month was the opening of a multibillion-peso amusement park in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte. Called Gloria’s Fantasyland, the amusement park promises children fun and excitement with the choco-cup ride, the midi-flume ride, the carousel, the swinger, the Apollo, the minitrain, a giant roller coaster, a horror house, and interactive rides like Happy Journey, Fight Shark, World of War and Telecombat.

Gloria’s Fantasyland is owned by Romeo Jalosjos, a former congressman convicted of two counts of statutory rape and six counts of acts of lasciviousness against an 11-year-old girl.

I know…my steaming-hot morning coffee went shooting out of my nose, too.

A month before his “Disneyland in the Philippines” was opened to the public, Jalosjos told the press, “This is our way of letting less fortunate children enjoy the different rides which they have not experienced before.”

I know…I, too, had visions of Uncle Romy’s 11-year-old victim experiencing different rides she had not experienced before.

Jalosjos admitted to acts of lasciviousness, but he vehemently denies he ever raped the child.

“The victim, according to the mother, was almost 13 years old or rather more than 13 years old,” he said.

Under Republic Act 8353, the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, statutory rape applies only when the victim is less than 13 years old.

Okay, so she was 13 and he was 56 at the time. Did they hang out with her friends, or his?

I know…age does not matter where lust is concerned.

Jalosjos never apologized to his victim directly. He believed his personal transformation was proof enough of his remorse: Hindi na kailangan ang word na ‘tawad’ ay marinig. [Ang] importante ’yung transformation na nakikita niya dahil sa pagsisisi [There’s no need to hear the word ‘sorry.’ What’s important is that she sees my transformation because of remorse].”

Two years ago, I wrote, “Maybe the aging pedophile will finally express remorse by turning his Dakak Island Resort into Uncle Romeo’s Enchanted Island Orphanage for Girls.”

It seems my quip was not too far off the mark. Jalosjos did build something for children.

I know…Jalosjos is making children happy instead of making happy with children.

I’m seriously thinking about bringing my nieces to Gloria’s Fantasyland. The only thing stopping me from doing it is the A (H1N1) virus.

I know…you, too, are worried about taking your kids to crowded places.

Gloria Arroyo graced the opening of the theme park. Some sectors did not approve of it. One columnist commented, “In other countries, heads of state are never to be seen with ex-convicts, much more a child rapist.”

I don’t know about that….

Jalosjos was convicted of raping one child. Arroyo is accused of raping 80 million people. Shouldn’t he be the one concerned about being seen with her?

But, kidding aside, Gloria Arroyo obviously has a soft spot for monsters. She pardoned Claudio Teehankee Jr., a man who shot and killed two teens in cold blood; she pardoned the soldiers who assassinated Ninoy Aquino; she hailed Gen. Jovito Palparan as a hero despite the mountain of human-rights abuse allegations against him; and she pardoned Romeo Jalosjos.

Gloria Arroyo did all of the above without consulting the families of their victims and, in the case of Jalosjos, the victim herself.

The woman Jalosjos raped sent Gloria Arroyo a letter that spoke directly to her disdain for victims.

“What is the government doing to protect victims?

“He [Jalosjos] did not listen to my cry. He ignored my tears. He raped and abused me repeatedly. He was about to buy me to be his live-in sex slave if I had not escaped. I was only 11.

“Please extend your compassion not to your political ally but to an innocent victim. Please do not condone his crime. I appeal to you. I deserve my justice. Please do not take it away from me.”

I know….:ohno::ohno:

TeslaCoil

June 17th, 2009, 04:54 AM

^^ Michael Jackson is that you? :lol:

jpdm

June 17th, 2009, 05:15 AM

^^ Michael Jackson is that you? :lol:

Kay Romeo jalosjos fantasyland. Child molester.Like young girls...:lol::nuts::ohno::bash:

Michael jackson, Neverland, Pedophile. Like young boys :nuts::lol::ohno::bash:

demented_pigeon

June 17th, 2009, 06:19 AM

demented_pigeon

June 17th, 2009, 06:21 AM

jpdm

June 20th, 2009, 01:48 AM

Philippine Star

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9211/startoon.gif

EDITORIAL - Globetrotters
Updated June 20, 2009 12:00 AM

The chairman of the National Historical Institute, who is defending his decision to paint the historic home of national hero Jose Rizal a garish green, is reportedly going with President Arroyo to Brazil. Why? Malacañang will find an excuse for it. The President also brought along with her an official of the Malacañang Museum during her junket to St. Petersburg, one of the most expensive places to visit on the planet. Why?

In her final year in office, the President seems bent on visiting every corner of the globe. At the drop of a hat, she changed her itinerary and jetted off to Washington in hopes of greeting newly installed US President Barack Obama, who did not even give her a nod of acknowledgment at a prayer breakfast.

Some Filipinos won’t mind if she stays overseas forever, except almost all of her trips are bankrolled by Philippine taxpayers rather than the host country. The public can see the necessity of the presence of the Philippine president at events such as the recent summit between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and South Korea. But with the economy projected to contract by one percent this year, the President should lead by example in frugality and ask herself, every time the travel bug hits her, which is every month: Is this trip necessary?

When a trip is necessary, such as a leaders’ summit, she should then go over the list of people accompanying her and honestly answer the question: Is this individual necessary in this trip? Even on the rare occasions when she is on a state visit, the host country foots the bill only of a limited number of people in her entourage. Her usual congressional traveling companions are rarely part of that privileged group, yet they keep burdening Filipino taxpayers with the bills for their first-class flights and five-star hotel accommodations.

The country will get foreign loans and aid and attract investments even without the presence of the President at signing ceremonies. Those decisions are based on many factors and are not made overnight. They do not arise from a chat with a head of government. But Malacañang needs excuses for presidential globetrotting, which has come to be seen as one of the perks of power in this country. Those foreign trips gall taxpayers when annual GDP growth is a record high 7.3 percent; they are even more galling when the economy is projected to contract and thousands of Filipinos are losing their jobs amid a global recession.
:ohno::bash:

bitoy

June 20th, 2009, 09:34 AM

^^ There was a list of those representatives and other officials that went with her to Japan and Brazil.

pi_malejana

June 22nd, 2009, 10:03 AM

:eek:

DOH announces first death in RP linked to A(H1N1) (http://www.gmanews.tv/story/165529/DOH-announces-first-death-in-RP-linked-to-A(H1N1))
06/22/2009 | 02:39 PM

MANILA, Philippines — A 49-year-old Filipino woman infected with Influenza A(H1N1) has died, the country’s first fatality related to the new flu strain, a health official said Monday.

In a press conference in Malacañang, Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, director for the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control of the Department of Health, said the woman died of "congestive heart failure secondary to acute myocardial infarction" on June 19.

Oliveros said the woman's case is complicated because she also had heart and liver disease.

According to the patient's family, the woman developed flu-like symptoms on June 17 but still went to work that day, radio dzBB reported. She was reported to have become "restless" two days later, which prompted her family to call for medical help, but she died at home before the doctor came, according to the report.

In a separate news conference at the DOH, Secretary Francisco Duque III said the woman had a "pre-existing heart disease" that worsened her infection.

A mouth swab was taken from the patient when she was already dead, which confirmed that she had been infected by the A(H1N1) virus, Duque said.

"A(H1N1) is not the cause of death, but the virus could have exacerbated the situation," Duque said.

According to the World Health Organization, many of the fatalities from A(H1N1) infection had other illnesses that worsened their condition. Most of the deaths so far have been reported in the United States and Mexico.

The Department of Health's latest tally of A(H1N1) cases stands at 445, but 84 per cent of the cases have recovered. - GMANews.TV
_______________________
yan nga ang common cause ng halos lahat ng AH1N1 fatalities...:(

jpdm

June 23rd, 2009, 12:07 PM

Editorial

Have gang, will travel

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:05:00 06/23/2009

BY the time president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo returns from her swing through Russia, South Korea, Japan and Brazil, she will have made 52 trips to 30 countries in eight years and spent billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money. There can be no doubt that she is the most widely traveled president in Philippine history. If someone would only bother to authenticate it, she could very well bid for the title of the most peripatetic head of state in the world.

Here’s a list of the countries she has visited: United States, 10 trips; China, 7; Japan, 7; Malaysia, 6; Brunei, 4; United Kingdom, 3; South Korea, 3; Thailand, 3; Hong Kong, 3; Mexico, 2, Italy 2; Bahrain, 2; Dubai, 2; and 1 each: Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Kuwait, France, Chile, Vatican City, Saudi Arabia, Macau, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Dubai, Peru, Qatar, Egypt, Syria, Russia and Brazil.

The President’s entourage on these trips has been almost invariably large—from about 30 to 192 (the 2007 trip to France, Spain and the United Kingdom). There is nothing to justify the travel of such huge delegations on presidential trips. The Philippines is not a world power, the trips were not of global importance and the Philippine president is just a dot in geopolitics, unlike the US president. The Philippines is not a rich country, unlike the United States.

A comprehensive estimate has not yet been made of the public funds spent on the President’s travels, but judging from the frequency and length of the trips, the great distances traveled, the people included in her entourage, the airplanes chartered to fly them and the posh hotels where they were billeted, the total could easily run into billions of pesos.

Just to give the readers an idea of the money spent on these extravagant trips: Senator Panfilo Lacson said about P800 million was spent on foreign travel in 2008. A news research report based on the Commission on Audit’s report on the Office of the President said in December 2007 that P482 million, or nearly a fifth of the OP expenditures, was spent on travel expenses in 2006. It was more than double the P210 million spent for travel expenses of the Office of the President in 2005.

In January 2008, Ms Arroyo flew to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with an 86-member delegation composed of Cabinet officials, legislators and local officials. Attending the Davos forum is not cheap. To give you an idea: The world’s largest businesses pay 42,500 Swiss francs (26,300 euros or $38,700 or P1.6 million) apiece for annual membership and an extra 11,000 euros (P668,646) per person to attend the meeting. A two-star hotel in Davos costs $300 a night.

Ms Arroyo has not allowed public opinion to get in the way of her proclivity for going on extravagant foreign travels. Last year, for instance, she continued on her trip to the United States even after Typhoon “Frank’’ battered Central Philippines, leaving thousands of people homeless, destroying millions of pesos in public works, crops and private property, and sinking the MV Princess of the Stars, with a loss of 807 lives. She is supposed to be the “mother of the nation,’’ but instead of returning home immediately to look after the needs of the typhoon victims and to commiserate with the survivors, she and her entourage traipsed off to foreign shores. She was like Nero who fiddled while Rome burned.

An observer of these presidential trips gets the impression of a chief executive who wants to squeeze the greatest personal, material and financial benefit from the perks of the office, and the taxpaying public be damned! Especially now that she is scheduled to bow out of Malacañang (actually, we don’t know if she will really leave the seat of power in 2010), she can be expected to go on more foreign trips paid for by taxpayers’ money up to perhaps April 2010.

It is well that the Senate committee on finance will conduct an inquiry into Ms Arroyo’s foreign trips. The taxpaying public will then get an idea of how profligate she has been with their money. Or how insensitive she has been to the suffering of the people whose urgent needs could have been ministered to with the billions of pesos that were spent on foreign junkets. Let the profligacy of Ms Arroyo be disclosed, and then watch the people weep and gnash their teeth.:ohno::ohno:

dvbaicrviser

June 23rd, 2009, 12:23 PM

Kala ko pa naman, si Fidel 'Viajero' Ramos ang may pinakamaraming travels abroad noong presidente siya.

carl_vilches21

June 23rd, 2009, 12:28 PM

^^
Noon yon..Di na ngayon..

pi_malejana

June 24th, 2009, 09:01 AM

seriously though, anu naman ang mapapala natin kung nag-stay si arroyo nung kasagsagan nung bagyo...??

at tsaka sa tingin, mas maganda ung pumupunta sa iba't ibang bansa, tignan mo, pagbalik ni arroyo sa RP, may mga trabahong dala, assistance katulad nung sa US para tulungan ung mga nasalanta ng bagyo, tapos naka attract din ng mga investors...

bitoy

June 24th, 2009, 09:53 AM

^^ Pero yung 55 na representatives na kasama ni Arroyo sa junket niya, mas maraming dalang shopping bags. :lol:

pi_malejana

June 24th, 2009, 09:57 AM

^^ :lol: yun nga siguro ang dapat punan ng pansin...
di ung trip mismo...:) di naman lakwatsa ang pakay ng pangulo jan eh, official business...

although one time nanuod siya ng Les Miserables sa broadway...:colgate:

bitoy

June 24th, 2009, 10:09 AM

^^ Hehehe, she can do whatever she wants, she's the leader of the band.
Meron column sa Inquirer about her trips since 2001, I think, the estimated expenses of the presidential trips since then was like P400 Bilion, plus the expenses of her entourage which are also being shouldered by the taxpayer's money.
And one columnist said that all she got were pledges from the nations that she visited and while some loans that she signed abroad were already formalized with or without her presence. Even the famous ZTE scandal na napurnada, she went to China with her group also and played golf with the ZTE big shots.
But her recent US trip was the most famous and criticized of them all. :lol:

jpdm

June 24th, 2009, 10:10 AM

bitoy

June 24th, 2009, 10:12 AM

its 4 billion pesos since 2001. :ohno:

oops... sorry, di ko kasi alam gano karami yung billion... so P4 billiones pala..... dami na rin nuon if they use the money on domestic problems.

jpdm

June 24th, 2009, 10:18 AM

oops... sorry, di ko kasi alam gano karami yung billion... so P4 billiones pala..... dami na rin nuon if they use the money on domestic problems.

Yes sir.

Just imagine how many public schools can be built with that money.

...Or toilets, faucets for our millions of public school students, equipments of our soldiers and low cost housing for our landless and homeless pblic servants.

TeslaCoil

June 24th, 2009, 03:22 PM

Her side trips in Dubai and tax haven countries are something we should ponder about. It's not part of her official business trip.

jpdm

June 25th, 2009, 01:41 AM

Manila Times

Thursday, June 25, 2009

VIRTUAL REALITY
By Tony Lopez

Ten major violations of the Constitution

At the Philconsa monthly meeting on Tuesday night, former President Joseph Estrada identified the 10 most serious violations of the Constitution by President Gloria Arroyo.

One, the constitutional guarantees of the freedoms of speech and of assembly of our people have been consistently set aside with the violent and cruel dispersal of protestors and demonstrators. This never happened when I was president. I did not order the military or the police to disperse the crowd gathered at EDSA.

These are supported by such illegal policies as the calibrated pre-emptive response and proclamation 1017 which unconstitutionally imposed emergency rule in February 2006;

Two, the freedom of the press is wantonly assaulted with such acts of harassment such as the raid of the offices of the Daily Tribune and the arrest and filing of charges against journalists and broadcasters covering the Manila Peninsula coup.

Of course, we can add to these the pathetic failure of this government to resolve the extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of journalists and media workers, as well as militants and activists critical of the government.

According to the international Reporters Without Borders, the Philippines remains today as one of the most dangerous countries for media.

Three, the time-honored and respected principles of checks and balances and separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution were gravely infringed with the refusal of the executive department and its officials to testify in congress because of executive privilege based on the issuance of Executive Order 424.

This prohibited officials of the executive department from appearing in congressional investigations to shed light on such anomalies as the NBN-ZTE broadband deal and the fertilizer scam, among others.

But more importantly here, we should recall the active and brazen interference of the executive in all the impeachment complaints against the President. We saw congressmen and governors leaving Malacañang with gift bags containing allegedly P500,000, as exposed by Governor Panlilio of Pampanga and Governor Mendoza of Bulacan.

Four, the due process clause of the Constitution was severely impaired with the unlawful arrest or detention without evidence or arrest warrants, and on trumped up charges of those critical of the regime. Among these cases are the abduction of the so-called Erap Five, the threat of arrest of the Batasan Five including the late Ka Crispin Beltran, and similar other cases;

Five, the violation of civilian supremacy over the military was gravely compromised with the unbridled appointment of over 100 retired military and police officials to civilian positions, including six members of Cabinet rank, namely, Secretaries (Eduardo) Ermita, (Hermogenes) Ebdane, (Leandro) Mendoza, (Angelo) Reyes, (Hermogenes) Esperon, and (Avelino) Razon. This is a regime that is now beholden to the military for its existence, and not to the People.

Six, related to this is the violation of the civil service protection clause under our Constitution. The appointment of retired generals of the military and the police to civilian functions such as heads of bureaus, line agencies, ambassadorships and foreign service officers has displaced deserving career officials to civilian positions. More than 2,000 presidential appointees to career positions are not eligible for not having passed the required civil service examinations.

Seven, the violation of the constitutional provision of separation of Church and State with the administration influencing the decisions of the Catholic hierarchy with disturbing reports of bribery, grants of privileges and other enticements given to bishops and priests;

Eight, the violation of the principle of executive supervision is another glaring instance of constitutional violation. This administration has systematically engaged in selective release and withholding of the internal revenue allotments of local governments, while also forcing selective suspension of local officials belonging to the opposition.

Nine, the violation of the constitutional provision that prohibits the use of public funds, resources and facilities in partisan election activities, especially such as that of the fertilizer scam in the 2004 elections. We can add here also the use of public funds without appropriations authorized by Congress. Of course, I need not dwell on the Garci tapes where no closure was ever made because of executive stonewalling.

Ten, one of the worst and condemnable violations is the attempt to dismember the Republic of the Philippines with the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain. This is not only a violation of the Constitution. It is in my understanding, that this is simply pure treason of the highest order. As far as I am concerned, the President as commander-in-chief must protect the territorial integrity of our country at all cost.

Finally, now, we have the railroading on Con-Ass, which is now under production in Congress and scripted in Malacañang.

This random listing, said Erap, of violations of the Constitution during the past eight years of this administration does not include the many cases of corruption, scandals, scams and other abuses of this regime.

biznewsasia@gmail.com

jpdm

June 25th, 2009, 02:26 AM

Philippine Star

EDITORIAL

'A private visit'

Updated June 25, 2009 12:00 AM

Presidents live in a fishbowl, although they are still entitled to some measure of privacy. The use of public funds curtails that privacy, especially when the funds are used for items or activities that are perceived to be unnecessary. In such cases, taxpayers deserve an explanation for the expenditure.

President Arroyo’s visit to Colombia on her way from Japan to Brazil is one such case. The visit to Colombia was not announced by Malacañang, but mass media got wind of it and reported the side trip. Yesterday, amid ugly speculation about the secrecy surrounding the stopover, Palace officials said the visit was not secret but a private one.

Does this mean the President and her entourage spent private money for the stopover? With the Philippine president entitled to contingency and intelligence funds whose utilization requires little or no public accounting, it is easy for an unscrupulous chief executive to blur the line between official and private use of public money. The blurring of the line becomes more appalling when done amid criticism of the massive expenditures for the President’s monthly — and sometimes bimonthly — foreign trips in a year of recession.

At the slightest excuse, the President has been packing her bags and taking off to see the world, with relatives, nannies and friends in tow. Rarely are the bills footed by the countries she visits, and the stopover in Colombia was certainly not one of those rare occasions.

In the interest of transparency and accountability in the use of scarce funds, the public deserves an explanation for this trip.

jpdm

June 25th, 2009, 02:27 AM

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/1686/startoonl.gif

Using taxpayers money for a private visit.

GOD!:ohno:

jpdm

June 25th, 2009, 10:58 AM

Malaya

June 25, 2009

Force of habit or shady business?

Editorial

‘Gloria acts like an imperious monarch rather than an accountable elected head of a democracy.’

Calls for a Senate investigation into the foreign trips are a non-starter. Where Gloria Arroyo goes is none of the Senate’s business. In the same way that the senators’ foreign trips, whether in pursuit of official business or for a chance to unwind in private, is none of the Palace’s business.

The cost of Gloria’s travels is also a non-issue. The President has a budget for her travels, whether overseas and domestic. There are some trips that are virtually obligatory following customary practice such as reciprocal visits to countries whose heads of state/government have visited the Philippines. Then there are trips that in the chief executive’s judgment, which is not subject to second-guessing by anybody else, are necessary in pursuit of national interest, which, again, she exclusively defines.

Whether the trips yield more benefits than the cost is likewise totally irrelevant. There is no room for accountants in the conduct of foreign relations.

That said, a chief executive who is conscious of her accountability to the people from whom her power is derived should at the very least inform them why she is going to some place and what they could expect as a result of the visit.

The trouble with Gloria is that she acts like an imperious monarch rather than an accountable elected head of a democracy when she makes these unannounced side trips. Before her surprise stopover last week in Cartagena, Colombia, she pulled off the same thing when she dropped by Dubai on the way home from a European swing.

Nobody knew the reason for the side-trips, not even the Department of Foreign Affairs which oversees preparations for such visits.

On the Cartagena weekend stopover, the Palace tried mightily hard to justify it as a "technical stop" for the aircraft and its crew which only drew guffaws from those who know their aviation.

It’s rather quaint nowadays to schedule a technical stop (for refueling and change in crew) given the advances in aircraft technology. In west-bound trans-Pacific flights, some pilots might land in Hawaii to top off fuel tanks in the event of strong headwinds. But these are rare occurrences.

No technical reasons attended the stop in Bogota. The Airbus 340 that Gloria and her party took, assuming it was one of the earlier models, has a range of 7,200 miles. It can easily make the 5,500 or so mile flight from Los Angeles to Brazil, without a stopover.

So why the lie?

Just force of habit or an attempt to hide some shady business?

TeslaCoil

June 25th, 2009, 04:38 PM

^^ Very good article. That biatch must be punished!!! I should've not supported her during EDSA II.

demented_pigeon

June 25th, 2009, 05:47 PM

^^ tama pala yung Sanlakas nung 2001, sabi nila "RESIGN ALL". Dapat pala nung 2001, kinulong na natin yang si Erap at Gloria. walang pinagkaiba, parehong trapo.

Juan Pilgrim

June 25th, 2009, 06:11 PM

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/1686/startoonl.gif

Using taxpayers money for a private visit.

GOD!:ohno:

Malaya

June 25, 2009

Force of habit or shady business?

Editorial

The trouble with Gloria is that she acts like an imperious monarch rather than an accountable elected head of a democracy when she makes these unannounced side trips. Before her surprise stopover last week in Cartagena, Colombia, she pulled off the same thing when she dropped by Dubai on the way home from a European swing.

No technical reasons attended the stop in Bogota. The Airbus 340 that Gloria and her party took, assuming it was one of the earlier models, has a range of 7,200 miles. It can easily make the 5,500 or so mile flight from Los Angeles to Brazil, without a stopover.

So why the lie?

Just force of habit or an attempt to hide some shady business?

Abusado!:bash:

:horse:

venntro

June 26th, 2009, 02:08 AM

It's all over the news that Michael Jackson just died at the age of 50. Farah Fawcett of Charlie's Angels fame, also died. :ohno:

jpdm

June 26th, 2009, 02:16 AM

Philippine Star

Scenarios

SKETCHES
By Ana Marie Pamintuan
Updated June 26, 2009 12:00 AM

With the joint opening of Congress and President Arroyo’s final State of the Nation Address (SONA) approaching, a new sinister scenario is being floated.

At this point the scenario looks more like wishful thinking on the part of desperadoes than anything else.

On the other hand, this administration has a track record for resorting to desperate, evil measures to serve its interests. At the risk of being deemed paranoid, certain seemingly wild scenarios must not be dismissed outright.

Those claiming to have first-hand knowledge of sinister plots want the nation to be on its toes, reminding Filipinos that grievous events have happened in this country in the past four decades that the people thought would never happen.

With the scenarios being floated in connection with the joint opening of Congress late next month, postponing the SONA may be a good idea.

The scenarios aren’t just health-related, though these are the wackiest, with anti-government forces supposedly planning to unleash germ warfare on the President and her congressional lackeys.

A more plausible scenario is that the House of Representatives will con senators into becoming part of a constituent assembly (con-ass) through their sheer presence at the joint opening of the third and final session of the 14th Congress.

Senators are expected to walk out, and the consequent tumult, according to certain quarters, will be used as an excuse to declare emergency rule, during which anything can happen.

It’s not beyond this President to impose emergency rule, shut down Congress, declare a revolutionary government and rewrite the Constitution so she can stay in power for life.

This is the scenario; you’ve been warned.

* * *

There are at least two wild cards in this scenario.

One is that the tumult against con-ass, with contrived Senate participation, may not be enough to justify the declaration of emergency rule. As recent events have shown, Filipinos are content to just wait for the May 2010 elections to roll around – whether automated or manual doesn’t matter all that much – to see a change in leadership after nine long years.

Also, unless senators are asleep, handcuffed to their seats or downed by a virulent form of Influenza A(H1N1) at the joint opening session, it would be impossible to prevent their walkout at the first hint that a con-ass is being convened.

But there is the possibility that for several million reasons, a senator or two (or even four) can be persuaded to stay on, giving the House the token Senate participation that it needs for con-ass.

The second wild card is military participation. Unless another diplomatic post is found for him, Victor Ibrado will still be the Armed Forces chief when the third session opens late next month. And like his predecessor and classmate in the Philippine Military Academy, Alexander Yano, Ibrado isn’t the type who will allow the AFP to be used for emergency rule.

While the President’s loyal aide Delfin Bangit is now in place to take over from Ibrado, and has filled key Army and intelligence positions with his PMA classmates, Ibrado is just starting to warm his seat. Sending Ibrado overseas like his two “mistahs” will look too suspicious — although when did that stop this administration?

As of yesterday the President’s House allies led by Speaker Prospero Nograles, whose position is on the line, were still blowing hot and cold on con-ass.

Nograles, who seems like a sensible man, must know the futility of this effort. Instead of playing along, he can boost his political stock in time for the 2010 elections by coming clean on the true movers of con-ass.

If he does that, he will be denied by the individuals he identifies and he may go the way of his predecessor, Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia. It doesn’t take much for the majority of House members to prostitute their loyalties and votes to oust yet another speaker.

But this is a good time to disengage from evil, desperate schemes. Instead of crying his heart out in private to friends about pressure on con-ass, Nograles can show some intestinal fortitude and go public with his true sentiments. The House — and the nation — will be a better place.

* * *

Evil designs can be realized only if people do nothing about it.

So far, the word from the AFP is that there is no appetite among military personnel to take part in partisan activities for or against the administration at this time.

The betting is that if the commander-in-chief gives an order inimical to public interest, key military officers have the discernment to consider the order illegal and disobey it.

All is not lost for this country. When martial law was contemplated in 2005, a PMAyer refused to carry out an order to shut down abs-cbn. Civilian and military officials balked at a suggestion by the nation’s evil crackpot to set off a bomb at the Senate in the wee hours of the morning.

There are military officers who know how to turn their backs on illegal orders.

Thanks to punishment meted on participants in coup attempts in recent years, and thanks to defense reforms that have slowly taken root, AFP officers have also learned not to allow themselves to be used by power-hungry politicians.

But strange things happen in this country, and a bit of paranoia can be useful. Scenarios can be created, as in the staged ambush of Juan Ponce Enrile’s car that was used as an excuse for imposing martial law. Fourteen years later, as his influence in the Marcos regime waned, Enrile’s boys would try to unseat Ferdinand Marcos in a coup attempt that would trigger people power. Today Enrile, his loyalties unclear, heads the Senate.

If Filipinos had been more vigilant in 1972, martial law might not have been possible.:ohno:

View previous articles of this column.

jpdm

June 29th, 2009, 01:13 AM

Philippine Star

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9211/startoon.gif

EDITORIAL - Globetrotters
Updated June 20, 2009 12:00 AM

^^ There was a list of those representatives and other officials that went with her to Japan and Brazil.

Kala ko pa naman, si Fidel 'Viajero' Ramos ang may pinakamaraming travels abroad noong presidente siya.

^^
Noon yon..Di na ngayon..

^^ Pero yung 55 na representatives na kasama ni Arroyo sa junket niya, mas maraming dalang shopping bags. :lol:

^^ :lol: yun nga siguro ang dapat punan ng pansin...
di ung trip mismo...:) di naman lakwatsa ang pakay ng pangulo jan eh, official business...

although one time nanuod siya ng Les Miserables sa broadway...:colgate:

^^ Hehehe, she can do whatever she wants, she's the leader of the band.

And one columnist said that all she got were pledges from the nations that she visited and while some loans that she signed abroad were already formalized with or without her presence. Even the famous ZTE scandal na napurnada, she went to China with her group also and played golf with the ZTE big shots.
But her recent US trip was the most famous and criticized of them all. :lol:

oops... sorry, di ko kasi alam gano karami yung billion... so P4 billiones pala..... dami na rin nuon if they use the money on domestic problems.

Philippine Star

No stopping GMA's foreign trips - Palace

By Paolo Romero
Updated June 29, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo will not slow down on her foreign trips despite criticism over their necessity and expenses, Palace officials said yesterday.

Arguing that the trips bring huge investments and aid for Filipinos, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde and deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez, in separate interviews, pointed out that Mrs. Arroyo’s latest four-nation swing netted over $6 billion in investment and official development assistance (ODA) commitments as well as bigger markets for jobs and products from the Philippines.

The President was about to wrap up yesterday her most recent foreign travels that took her to Japan, Colombia, Brazil and Hong Kong.

“A good leader must do what needs to be done no matter how unpopular they are because good leadership means doing the right thing. A good leader has to pay a price for it because good leadership is not about being popular but about being right,” Remonde, part of the presidential delegation, said.

He said such foreign visits are necessary since presidents are the country’s top salesmen “especially in this time of crisis.”

“The President knows what she is doing and what needs to be done to bring huge investments and assistance to our country,” Golez said.

He said those criticizing Mrs. Arroyo on her trips are only doing so because of their personal agendas.

“The numbers and figures speak for themselves. The public would see how such trips benefit our country,” he added.

On her way back from her state visit in Brazil, Mrs. Arroyo made a stopover in Hong Kong to meet with some business leaders and members of the Filipino community yesterday.

She also attended Mass at the Hong Kong Cathedral with members of the Filipino community.

She is scheduled to meet with leaders of the Kuok Group to discuss the possible expansion of the latter’s investments in the country.

This afternoon, the President is expected to meet Hong Kong’s anti-corruption czar Tony Kwok to review the government’s campaign against corruption.

Mrs. Arroyo is scheduled to arrive in Manila around 9:30 tonight.

jpdm

June 29th, 2009, 01:55 AM

Getting high on excuses

EDITORIAL
Daily Tribune
06/29/2009

No matter how painfully moronic is Malacañang’s blind defense of Gloria, the Palace has elevated to an art, due to frequency, the spins it gives on issues that expose her many failures in governance.

The United Nation’s Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) issued a report naming the Philippines as a global center for methamphetamine hydrochloride drug, more commonly known as shabu, adding that the shabu produced in the country is exported throughout Asia and the Pacific.

The report was particularly damning since it came after Gloria crowned herself as the country’s anti-drug czar after the confounding tussle among the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), fiscals and the Department of Justice (DoJ).

The spin that the Palace chose for that occasion was that the country was named among the biggest source of the drug in the world since the raid of shabu cases became more prominent during Gloria’s assumption as anti-drugs czar.

A similar argument is used whenever Gloria is confronted about issues on corruption in government of which she has become the chief culprit. Her anti-graft officials would give the lame excuse that many corruption cases are brought out into the open as a result of the “relentless campaign” of Gloria against graft, and thus explains the case of the country landing among those having the most corrupt government in the world.

The drug menace, however, cannot be attributed to effective leadership nor clean governance and the fact is the problem never reached its current proportion.

The “Alabang Boys” controversy provided the public a window into how the government deals with the drug problem.

Law enforcers catch a big supplier of illegal drugs and Gloria or the head of the agencies engaged in the drug bust holds a media event with a lot of photo opportunities.

The case is then transmitted to the DoJ, first with the fiscals to determine the integrity of the case. In the public hearings held before the House of Representatives on the controversy, it was apparent that drug money starts to flow at this stage.

At the same time that drug syndicates do the rounds with the fiscals, negotiations also start with high officials in the DoJ. The price is set and the case is usually dismissed at this stage without reaching the courts.

The dismissal of drug cases is usually blamed on the failure of law enforcers to follow procedures in the processing of cases.

The PDEA which oversees law enforcement operations against drug-related crimes has complained of the lack of support financially and otherwise from other government agencies in the prosecution of drug cases.

That was evident in the Alabang Boys controversy when DoJ fiscals and officials were all too willing to square off with the PDEA on the cases the agency files.

There was even a situation where the fiscals have threatened to walk out of their jobs after exasperated PDEA officials complained of the briberies that go on to dismiss a case right at the preliminary hearing stage and after czarina Gloria ordered officials of the DoJ involved in the controversy to go on leave.

Everybody watching the confrontation among officials of PDEA, DoJ and the fiscals wondered about the necessity of the conflict, considering that an earnest effort against the drug menace would merely need serious coordination among themselves, as all are supposedly public servants.

The feud, all seen in public, was a reflection of the government failure against the spread of the drug menace.

Eventually arrested drug suppliers go scot-free but not after Gloria and her cabal had made a big splash about apprehending a big-time drug syndicate.

Everybody is satisfied, the officials with their loot and Gloria with her photo ops.

jpdm

June 29th, 2009, 05:54 AM

Accountant’s mentality

Editorial
Malaya Newspaper
June 29, 2009

We do not subscribe to the view that foreign trips of government officials, including the President, should be measured in pesos and centavos generated. There are obligations that have to be met that are meant to cement our place in the community of nations. These do not require the preparation of a profit and loss statement upon their completion.

So ordinarily, we would not question how much Gloria Arroyo’s foreign trips cost, especially if there were justifiable reasons in the name of national interest, however widely or narrowly defined. We would even take issue with Sen. Chiz Escudero’s weighing of the cost of the trips against spending on other government programs.

(Escudero said Malacañang travel expenses in 2007 alone were more than enough to fund the operations of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines for a year.

(He said the 2007 travel budget was even higher than the 2009 budgetary allocation for the National Labor Relations Commission, the Office of the Solicitor General and the Land Registration Authority.

(He added that Malacañang accounted for 11 percent of the P5.9 billion overall travel expenses of the government in 2007.

("That money could have been spent for programs that will help create jobs, jobs and more jobs," Escudero said.)

But, we guess, Malacañang was asking for it, for the kind of questions Escudero was raising.

We could not recall of any of Gloria Arroyo’s predecessors who were as fixated as her in boasting of the purported economic gains from foreign trips.

Take the visit to Tokyo, the first leg of a trip that took her to the United States, an unscheduled stop in Colombia, Brazil, then back to the United States and to Hong Kong, where is now enjoying "private time" before returning home.

Her presence in Tokyo, the Palace said, led to an agreement where the Japan Bank for International Cooperation committed to guarantee up to 95 percent of a planned $1 billion sovereign bond issue in the Japanese market.

Her visit, again according to the Palace, led to the signing of a clutch of agreements involving the putting up by Japanese investors of businesses in the Philippines.

In reality, these agreements could have been signed without Arroyo’s presence.

The Samurai bond guarantee deal needed the presence of only Finance Secretary Gary Teves to be concluded. The business agreements had long been clinched and their signing was merely staged to give Arroyo the opportunity to strut and reinforce her sense of self-importance.

Gloria, the transactional president, wants her every action judged by its economic benefit. It is, thus, proper for Escudero to weigh her by her own terms. And find her wanting.

wynngd

June 30th, 2009, 04:04 AM

^^napansin ko lang pag naghiglight ng lines parang Tabloid. Malaking malaki at namumula pa. hehe

FlashCollider

July 1st, 2009, 12:38 AM

GMA trips (http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=482666&publicationSubCategoryId=64)

COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva Updated July 01, 2009 12:00 AM

Excerpts:

Malacañang Palace is waging a media advertisement campaign — dubbed as “Miles for Progress” — that sought to justify President Arroyo’s foreign travels. This was in response to renewed criticisms from political quarters over the unfettered globetrotting of the President. But the media ad was ill-prepared and obviously hurriedly done and ends up in a lame attempt to address the issue head on.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

These presidential travels abroad have unnecessarily become fodder for politicking related to the May 2010 elections. While these criticisms may be popularly valid, they are not, however, realistic to the demands required from a President to lead the country in a globalized community of nations.

jpdm

July 1st, 2009, 02:11 AM

^^napansin ko lang pag naghiglight ng lines parang Tabloid. Malaking malaki at namumula pa. hehe

Maganda naman di ba?

Para kitang kita. Highlighted. Pang-broadsheet at pang-tabloid talaga.

Anyway,

So, what is your point?

jpdm

July 1st, 2009, 03:52 AM

Akon cancels RP concert over flu fears
Updated July 01, 2009 12:00 AM

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5484/70419410.jpg

akala mo naman tinatalaban ito ng A(h1N1)?:nuts::lol::nocrook:

csc36869

July 1st, 2009, 03:07 PM

Maganda naman di ba?

Para kitang kita. Highlighted. Pang-broadsheet at pang-tabloid talaga.

Anyway,

So, what is your point?

Sorry sir, but parang lahat ata ng mga post mo may parating may part na nkabold na, UPSIZE ang font, color red pa. Sori to say this, but masakit sa mata. pwede nmn cguro kung gusto mong iemphasize ung sentence by just making it bold.

PEACE!! :):)

amigo32

July 1st, 2009, 03:38 PM

Sorry sir, but parang lahat ata ng mga post mo may parating may part na nkabold na, UPSIZE ang font, color red pa. Sori to say this, but masakit sa mata. pwede nmn cguro kung gusto mong iemphasize ung sentence by just making it bold.

PEACE!! :):)

:lol:baka raw kasi hindi mo makita:D

bitoy

July 1st, 2009, 07:48 PM

Cory fighting for her life (http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=483000&publicationSubCategoryId=63)

Former President Corazon Aquino, who vanquished a formidable dictatorship and repelled seven coup attempts against her presidency in the 1980s, is now fighting for her life.

Close friends and relatives gathered yesterday for a Mass offered for Mrs. Aquino’s recovery from complications related to colon cancer at the Sto. Niño de Paz Community chapel in Greenbelt in Makati City, praying that the former president would win this last big battle.

Asked after the Mass how his mother-in-law was doing, Manolo Abellada, husband of Mrs. Aquino’s daughter Pinky, said sadly, “Not good. She has not been eating.”

Mrs. Aquino, 76, was diagnosed with colon cancer in March last year and has undergone chemotherapy, laparoscopy and radiation to fight the disease. She was hospitalized at the Makati Medical Center nine days ago after she lost her appetite for food, and close friends say she still has not regained her appetite. But sources say she is conscious and is still able to speak.

While the Mass was being said for her healing, Mrs. Aquino was resting in the hospital. Her only son Sen. Benigno Aquino III has asked for continuous prayers for his mother.

“Senator Aquino sincerely thanks all those who attended the novena Mass (yesterday) and those who continue to pray for his mother’s healing,” a statement from the senator’s office said.

“I thank God for not making her have much pain,” Pinky Abellada told this writer.

TeslaCoil

July 1st, 2009, 08:20 PM

^^ sa pex some are wishing her to go to heaven.

jpdm

July 1st, 2009, 11:10 PM

^^napansin ko lang pag naghiglight ng lines parang Tabloid. Malaking malaki at namumula pa. hehe

Sorry sir, but parang lahat ata ng mga post mo may parating may part na nkabold na, UPSIZE ang font, color red pa. Sori to say this, but masakit sa mata. pwede nmn cguro kung gusto mong iemphasize ung sentence by just making it bold.

PEACE!! :):)

:lol:baka raw kasi hindi mo makita:D

:lol::cheers::)

TeslaCoil

July 1st, 2009, 11:33 PM

ang aga mo yata :lol:

jpdm

July 2nd, 2009, 01:20 AM

ang aga mo yata :lol:

medyo, di makatulog.

Masama panaginip ko bka mag-hello garci na naman at may nagsabotahe ng automation.

Yung sa punto for punto ni ka tunying sabi nung guest sumingit daw ang 2Go ni Aboitiz kaibigan ni First gentleman.

Yung TIM na-pressure daw ng very influential people para makapag-hello garci uli...

Ecija

July 2nd, 2009, 02:17 AM

^^Masamang panaginip talaga pag hindi naipatupad ng maayos ang poll automation at bumalik tayo sa manual.:ohno:

Askal82

July 2nd, 2009, 04:05 AM

:lol::cheers::)

Seriously, you might be unaware of bringing yourself under the mod's radar screen for that.

le Reine

July 2nd, 2009, 01:38 PM

^^There is no rule against that, except if the entire post is in bold. But please, make the fonts a little smaller. I cannot see the sense of highlighting in red when it will also be put in very BIG font size. It's redundant.

jpdm

July 3rd, 2009, 12:58 AM

jpdm

July 3rd, 2009, 01:46 AM

Problem with alot of doctors (almost all of them) connive with pharmaceutical companies in selling overpriced drugs because of the 'perks" that they get i.e. free seminars abroad,hefty profit for every prescribed medicine etc...

In the name of profit, they rather see patients buy very expensive drugs (are they really effective-or only sugarcoated by ads).

Alot of poor pinoys die because of sky high prices of drugs here-an industry controlled by foreign corporations led by the a-hole Pfizer!:bash:(I came across of an article from the US denouncing Pfizer)

Philippine Star

A pharma industry war?

COMMONSENSE
By Marichu A. Villanueva
Updated July 03, 2009 12:00 AM

From an update of the Department of Health (DOH), the Philippines now has a total of 1,709 cases of confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) infection, including one death. Thus, the Philippines now ranks 7th worldwide and No. 1 in Southeast Asia in terms of “laboratory-confirmed cases” of H1N1 as reported to the World Health Organization.

Based on its worldwide monitoring, the WHO tallied a total of 77,201 cases of Influenza A (H1N1), with 332 deaths reported in 107 countries. As of late, however, the international pharmaceutical industry has yet to come up with large-scale production of anti-H1N1 vaccine for commercial distribution. The vaccine against common flu costs as much as P450 per shot. And because of the H1N1 scare, the anti-flu vaccine is running short in supply here.

Amid the H1N1 scare, the medical field is preoccupied over a raging “war” within the country’s pharmaceutical industry that is totally unrelated to swine flu. The apple of discord involves Norvasc, a medicine being prescribed as maintenance drug for patients with hypertension ailment.

And from what I have gathered, a discount card promotional scheme by a multinational pharmaceutical company is at the very center of this maelstrom. Whether or not the “war” would benefit many Filipinos — who clamor for more affordable medicines — is enough reason for us to take interest into this matter.

It all started when the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) parted ways with the controversial multinational pharma firm Pfizer while the debate on Cheaper Medicines bill was still raging then in Congress. The parting of ways, industry insiders told me, was far from cordial. It was reportedly due to Pfizer’s continuing promo scheme that features a discount card for its pricey anti-hypertensive drug.

Under the promo tack, a number of select hypertensive patients avail of a privileged 50 percent discount on Pfizer’s Norvasc tablets. The PHAP has reportedly strongly objected to the Pfizer promo come-on for several reasons. First, the Pfizer scheme appears to be a “direct-to-patient marketing” of a prescription drug or one that can only be dispensed with a doctor’s prescription.

The second PHAP objection is supposedly the requirement of Pfizer for patients to fill up a form which allegedly violates the industry’s ethics regarding “access to patient information.” From the PHAP standpoint, the Pfizer promo gives the multinational entity undue advantage by having in their data-bank these personal information that can be subsequently used for “cross selling.”

We do not know if this information is accurate, but “access to patient information” by pharmaceutical companies is likewise considered unethical in Pfizer’s headquarters in the United States. Why Pfizer indulges in the practice here is something that reportedly baffled PHAP which also has some other US-based multinationals as members.

PHAP’s other objection is that the Pfizer promo-scheme apparently “turns the medical community into one large marketing force” for the multinational’s drug products. As explained to me, the discount cards are channeled to doctors which is frowned upon in the medical profession. Secondly, the discount cards have bar codes and are swiped like credit cards. Many suspect these are used to monitor how Pfizer products perform as a result of the endorsement by a particular doctor.

The more ethical route would have been to let the drugstores distribute the discount cards since this is a marketing and promotional gimmick. Actually, this is reportedly also a volatile issue between Pfizer and the Drug Store Association of the Philippines (DSAP). But this is a different story altogether.

During those tumultuous days when the Cheaper Medicines bill was in Congress, PHAP stood by Pfizer when it was accused by several congressmen of allegedly mobilizing a phalanx of lobbyists to prevent the inclusion of provisions that could be inimical to its business. The alliance is apparently no longer there today, thanks to that discount card gimmick.

Does this pharma industry war promise to benefit Filipino patients suffering from hypertension and the aggravation caused by expensive prices of multinational drug companies for this ailment?

We can’t tell yet, but the controversy triggered by the discount card gimmick may have surfaced some very important issues that government health officials and lawmakers may want to step into. PHAP insiders point to two possible areas that are worth looking into — the 50 percent discount offered by the Pfizer card gimmick.

First, that Pfizer is giving out 50 percent discounts on Norvasc because it can actually afford to sell the pricey drug at 50 percent less than its current selling price. If that is the case, why doesn’t Pfizer just sell it at 50 percent less to all Filipino hypertensive patients? Why limit the privilege to a few select patients who have the goodwill of their doctors? Why limit the privilege to those whose names end up in Pfizer’s marketing data bank?

The other possibility is that the local Pfizer here is in no position to sell the pricey Norvasc at 50 percent less across the board. To do so would spell disaster to its bottom line performance. Thus, it could get them into trouble with their US headquarters.

Here is the interesting question: if Pfizer cannot afford to sell the product at 50 percent less, then who is subsidizing the losses it incurs with the discount card gimmick? PHAP insiders have an alarming insight on this.

Usually, the promo discount card is given to patients who regularly consult with doctors and who buy their medicines in bulk. That means the patients who are financially better off. Then, logically it could only mean that the less privileged patients who do not have discount cards end up subsidizing the discounts given to the privileged cardholders. Is this a case of the poor subsidizing the rich then?

We don’t know. But the mere fact that these issues have surfaced merely shows that the country can actually derive some benefits from this “price war” in the pharmaceutical industry.

Let’s keep watching. And let’s make sure we keep our blood pressure at normal levels. We can’t afford our blood pressure to shoot up. The cost of medicines, especially those manufactured by multinational drug companies are still beyond our reach.

balay_1

July 3rd, 2009, 07:03 AM

Ewan ko kung saan ko ito mailalagay. Lagay ko na lang dito kasi hindi naman magandang balita ito. Walang magandang dulot sa bansa.

Palace exec denies Arroyo breast implant fix (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20090703-213654/Palace-exec-denies-Arroyo-breast-implant-fix)

By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 11:53:00 07/03/2009

Filed Under: Health

MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's political adviser on Friday expressed shock at reports that Ms Arroyo had a breast implant replacement at the Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa City.

"What? Silicon implants? That's the first time I heard about that," Secretary Gabriel Claudio said in a phone interview.

"No way; I just heard that from you. I thought you were joking."

Claudio said that he had "absolutely no information" about Ms Arroyo's breast implant replacement, adding he was not even aware that she had an implant in the first place.

"I'd be curious to find out where that information came from," he said by phone.

Two other broadsheets reported that Ms Arroyo checked in at the Asian Hospital in Alabang, Muntinlupa early this week for a repair of leaking breast implants done in the 1980s.

Ms Arroyo checked in at the hospital on Tuesday night for a self-imposed quarantine, a day after she arrived from a 13-day swing through Japan, Brazil, Colombia and Hong Kong.

She checked out Thursday afternoon with a "clean bill of health," officials said.

Claudio believed that Ms Arroyo merely underwent quarantine at the hospital as part of the protocol against the Influenza A (H1N1) virus.

"I have no reason to believe that she underwent any other treatment," he said.

demented_pigeon

July 3rd, 2009, 07:31 AM

TeslaCoil

July 3rd, 2009, 08:17 AM

^^ Dapat ang gayahin natin yung sa UK and France kung saan libre talaga. Just watch Micheal Moore's docu Sicko and how he compares US health care to other rich nations.

Planning Democracy

July 3rd, 2009, 08:24 AM

Bastusan na talaga yung report about mga breast implants na yan. Can't believe the media is stooping so low, although I can't help but laugh at that stupid report which makes me just as malicious. :ohno: She probably did it for Mike Arroyo, who incidentally has his own set of man boobs, which Mikey also has.

balay_1

July 3rd, 2009, 08:31 AM

^^Wala lang sigurong magandang maibalita ang media na yan.

crappypants

July 3rd, 2009, 08:34 AM

Pati ba naman yan baka si Mike arroyo nagpaimplants.

le Reine

July 3rd, 2009, 03:04 PM

No problem. :)Thanks. :)

Ewan ko kung saan ko ito mailalagay. Lagay ko na lang dito kasi hindi naman magandang balita ito. Walang magandang dulot sa bansa.

Palace exec denies Arroyo breast implant fix (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20090703-213654/Palace-exec-denies-Arroyo-breast-implant-fix)
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's political adviser on Friday expressed shock at reports that Ms Arroyo had a breast implant replacement at the Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa City.

"What? Silicon implants? That's the first time I heard about that," Secretary Gabriel Claudio said in a phone interview.
Bastusan na talaga yung report about mga breast implants na yan. Can't believe the media is stooping so low, although I can't help but laugh at that stupid report which makes me just as malicious. :ohno: She probably did it for Mike Arroyo, who incidentally has his own set of man boobs, which Mikey also has.
Pati ba naman yan baka si Mike arroyo nagpaimplants.My goodness!!! HIndi talaga ako makapaniwalang pati breast implant pinagawa niya na rin ngayon at nabalita sa broadsheet pa! Minsan hindi ko alam kung dapat pa bang maniwala sa news http://statics.plurk.com/e8ed6c7eed76d2acd9dbf469f29fbec2.gif

Pero panalo talaga yung breast implant hahahahahah :rofl:

bitoy

July 3rd, 2009, 04:15 PM

^^ Baka napisak yung breast implants ni GMA, kaya niretoke. :lol:

Arroyo admits she has breast implants (http://abs-cbnnews.com/nation/07/03/09/arroyo-admits-she-has-breast-implants)

MANILA - A spokesman of President Arroyo admitted Friday that Mrs. Arroyo had breast augmentation 20 years ago but denied reports that the implants were leaking.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde earlier downplayed rumors that Mrs. Arroyo had checked in at the Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa City to have her breast silicone implants removed and replaced.

"Kayong mga lalake, alam niyo naman tingnan kung ang babae nagpa-retoke. Res ipsa loquitur," Remonde told male reporters using a legal term that means "the thing speaks for itself."

He added: "Si Presidente ba mukha na iyong tipo ng babae na magpapaganun (Is the President the type of woman who would do that )?"

[B]The press secretary later changed his tune and admitted that Mrs. Arroyo did have breast augmentation 20 years ago but that the implants were not leaking.

Remonde said the President was declared in good health after biopsies were conducted on lumps found on her breast and groin.

"The result of the biopsy is negative. The President is in good health. You will see her moving around in the next few days. That's the best proof of her health," he said.

Arroyo, 62, checked in at a private hospital south of the capital Manila on Tuesday night after returning from two weeks of travel to Japan, Colombia, Brazil and Hong Kong.

Remonde said the President had undergone a medical check-up before her trip last month but "some test results needed follow-up," including the biopsies.

The Manila Bulletin and Philippine Star columnist Jarius Bondoc were the first to report about Mrs. Arroyo's alleged need for "mammoplastic repair of leaking breast implants done in the ’80s."

Bondoc reported that Mrs. Arroyo used the post-travel self-quarantine for A(H1N1) early this week as a handy cover for gynecological procedures.

"The President has been suffering dysfunctional bleeding, likely due to polyps or myoma in the uterus. She had first walked into the hospital one dawn in 2008 for D&C (dilation and curettage) and left at dusk. News then was that she had an executive check. She’s had three follow-ups this year, the last in June. Menopause is inducing abnormal tissue growth and hormonal imbalance, a source said," he said in his July 3 column.

He added that doctors were also set to remove an inguinal cyst on the President's groin "and laser off extra hair growth in that area and the armpits."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

le Reine

July 3rd, 2009, 04:30 PM

^^ano ba yan. ano ba talaga ang totoo?

bitoy

July 3rd, 2009, 04:37 PM

^^ano ba yan. ano ba talaga ang totoo?

The president's self-quarantine in a private hospital did spark this innuendo.(might not be the right term)
Sa loob lang ng palasyo, puwede na mag-quarantine, eh, nagduda ang mga tao bakit sa hospital pa... :lol:
In short, the inquiring minds want to know. And I'm sure na panood ni ma'm yung video ni Kristina Halili, kaya pagkakataon na siguro para meron tumaas naman sa kanya. :lol:

Planning Democracy

July 3rd, 2009, 08:35 PM

Ok, let's be gentlemen and leave the presidential boobs alone, but this still warrants an investigation, what if she used taxpayer money to pay for her boob job? Will she be the next endorser of the Belo Medical group to pay for her legal fees after she retires? How much brain damage did Mikey Arroyo suffer after ingesting all that silicone as a baby? Is her mole REAL?

3cr

July 4th, 2009, 01:53 AM

The Philippines and the English Language
Competitive Advantage Eroding
From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13794772

The Philippines has claimed to have more English speakers than all but two other countries, and it has exported millions of them. But these days Filipinos are less boastful. Three decades of decline in the share of Filipinos who speak the language, and the deteriorating proficiency of those who can manage some English, have eroded one of the country’s advantages in the global economy.

This week children trooped back to school for the new academic year. The government-approved textbooks they will study illustrate the problem. A passage in one for eight-year-olds reads: “The dog rolled on the floor so fast and fell on the ground. There he laid yelling louder than ever. The dog yelled on top of his voice.” A book for 11-year-olds advises, mysteriously: “Just remember this acronym—DOCSiShQACNMN—to make it easy for you to remember the order of adjectives in a series.”

Never mind the pupils, teachers have been flunking English for years. In 2004 only one in five teachers passed the English-proficiency test. The effect on pupils is plain to hear. Last year the country winced when the 17-year-old winner of the Miss Philippines World beauty contest failed spectacularly to answer in English the usual questions posed by judges in such events.

Call-centres complain that they reject nine-tenths of otherwise qualified job applicants, mostly college graduates, because of their poor command of English. This is lowering the chances that the outsourcing industry will succeed in its effort to employ close to 1m people, account for 8.5% of GDP and have 10% of the world market by the end of 2010.

America, as the colonial power, brought English and universal public education to the Philippines a century ago. But English as a subject has suffered from lack of money, along with public education as a whole. Some Filipinos also blame the introduction in the 1970s of Filipino, an artificial national language, as the medium of instruction.

The government is tackling the problem by throwing money at remedial English-language instruction for teachers and making greater use of English as the medium of instruction. It says these measures are working. A recent opinion poll suggests Filipinos believe their own ability to speak English is improving. Call-centre bosses are not convinced.

TeslaCoil

July 4th, 2009, 02:55 AM

The main problem here are the teachers who can barely speak in English. Can't DepEd do something about this? Train them perhaps.

Planning Democracy

July 4th, 2009, 06:10 AM

^^

This has been discussed in "The Philippines as an English speaking country" thread and I wholeheartedly agree. There is just a rash of bad english in this country, and it probably started back in the 80s and 90s and we are "hearing" and "reading" the results now.

My only suggestion is that instead of admonishing our teachers and whoever for their bad english, those of us who have a good grasp of it should do our part and maybe volunteer for english language teaching jobs in public schools.

On the other hand that report could just be a backlash at our success in attracting BPO companies, thus, spin doctors are trying to over emphasize the current problems of the generation's english speaking skills.

le Reine

July 4th, 2009, 09:56 AM

The president's self-quarantine in a private hospital did spark this innuendo.(might not be the right term)
Sa loob lang ng palasyo, puwede na mag-quarantine, eh, nagduda ang mga tao bakit sa hospital pa... :lol:
In short, the inquiring minds want to know. And I'm sure na panood ni ma'm yung video ni Kristina Halili, kaya pagkakataon na siguro para meron tumaas naman sa kanya. :lol:P*tang sinungaling talaga yang si GMA. Sana tumagas nga yung implants para mamatay na, nang makabawi naman tayo. Ang problem kasi sa mga opisyal niya eh nagde-deny hindi na lang manahimik para hindi na kailangang magpalit ng statement after. Nahahalata tuloy na sinungaling sila. hahaha...

Ok, let's be gentlemen and leave the presidential boobs alone, but this still warrants an investigation, what if she used taxpayer money to pay for her boob job? Will she be the next endorser of the Belo Medical group to pay for her legal fees after she retires? How much brain damage did Mikey Arroyo suffer after ingesting all that silicone as a baby? Is her mole REAL?:rofl::rofl::rofl: I hope the Senate will investigate the presidential boobs. Investigation in aid of legislation is needed here. hahahahahahhaha... :rofl:

Planning Democracy

July 4th, 2009, 12:09 PM

^^

Yes, this might be a touchy subject, I hope the Senate doesn't end up groping around during the investigation, for once Bong Revilla may have an edge over the other Senators when it comes to his expertise on this soft and delicate matter and may have both of his hands full during the course of the investigation. Good luck to you Bong, I'm sure your wife Lani will understand.

jpdm

July 4th, 2009, 02:44 PM

Alot of poor pinoys die because of sky high prices of drugs here-an industry controlled by foreign corporations led by the a-hole Pfizer!:bash:(I came across of an article from the US denouncing Pfizer)

Manila Times

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Foreign chambers clamor
for repeal of medicine price cap:bash::bash:

By Ben Arnold O. de Vera, Reporter

FOREIGN businessmen have called on the Philippine government to reconsider the imposition of a maximum retail price (MRP) on medicines under Republic Act 9502, or the Act Providing for Cheaper and Quality Medicines.

In a letter to President Gloria Arroyo dated June 23, 2009, the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines said the government need not impose an MRP for medicines to lower the prices of these goods in the country.

“We believe that imposing an MRP may no longer be needed to achieve the goal of lowering prices of medicines in the Philippines. Market forces have already achieved a significant reduction in medicine prices,” the group said.

“There is also a growing proliferation of cheaper generic alternatives in the market, and selected companies have voluntarily reduced prices, either through patient care programs or outright price reductions. Thus, even prior to the enactment of R.A. 9502, market competition is healthy and moving towards lower-priced generics,” the group said.

“More importantly, the use of price controls in any industry can become counterproductive, discourage existing and future investors in all industries, and potentially lead to price controls over other industries and products which will no doubt send the wrong signals to potential investors outside the Philippines,” it added.

The Joint Foreign Chambers said revenues of local pharmaceutical firms recently posted double-digit growth:cheers::banana:, while those of multinational companies were growing at single digit rates.
:bash::bash:(buti nga!gahaman kayo e!)
The letter was signed by Austen Chamberlain, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc. president; Richard Barclay, Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc. president; Richard Mills, Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc. president; Hubert D’Aboville, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc. president; Yasu*hiko Arimitsu, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines Inc. president; Eun Gap Chang, Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc. president; and Shameem Qurashi, Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc. president.

gahaman talaga mga ito!:bash::bash:

Askal82

July 4th, 2009, 08:08 PM

^^ I think they should repeal the price cap for foreign medicine. There is really no point of them capping the retail prices of their medicines if the competition is gaining ground in favor of the local companies , dragging the price of medicine lower. In the end, the consuming public gets the benefits.

barrera_marquez

July 4th, 2009, 11:28 PM

What these companies forgot is the fact of patent, if a medicine is not yet 12 years old, then a generic version cannot be made because of patent.

jpdm

July 5th, 2009, 03:59 AM

What these companies forgot is the fact of patent, if a medicine is not yet 12 years old, then a generic version cannot be made because of patent.

Actually, local pharma companies are fully aware of that, thats why they are agressively manufacturing generic versions of off-patent drugs.

There must be a cap on medicine prices especially if the government is fully aware of the real prices of foreign owned branded medicine. This is to protect Pinoy consumers especially those who are taking life saving drugs that are not available locally.

The pharma industry is controlled by foreign companies and authorities have long found out they are victimizing Pinoy consumers with their overpriced drugs.

They should be controlled and tamed by the government for the benefit of pinoys and not some few vested interests!

Muffstar

July 5th, 2009, 11:05 AM

Five dead, 34 wounded in Philippine church bombingJuly 5, 2009 - 5:29PM
Five people were killed and at least 34 wounded in a suspected Muslim rebel bomb attack outside a Catholic church in the strife-torn southern Philippines, officials said.

A lone suspect left a home-made bomb outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato city which exploded just as the congregation was leaving early morning mass, officials said.

The church was not heavily damaged but a restaurant across the street appeared to have absorbed much of the impact, witnesses said. Ordnance experts searched for clues among blood-spattered debris on the road outside the church.

Police said four people, including two soldiers, were killed at the scene, while another died of his injuries in hospital.

Many of the wounded were women and children, according to Froi Cordero, a priest who helped bring the casualties to hospital.

City mayor Muslimin Sema said the number of wounded had reached 34, as he ordered stepped-up security to prevent further attacks.

"I condemn this incident that attacked innocent civilians," Sema said.

City police chief Superintendent Willie Dangane said no one had claimed responsibility for the attack, but confirmed that the suspected bomber was arrested as he tried to bring another device into the church.

Regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce was quick to blame the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the blast.

"The special operations group of the MILF is behind this," Ponce said, adding that the MILF had carried out similar attacks in recent weeks.

He said a bomb also allegedly planted by MILF rebels exploded in the nearby town of Datu Piang late Saturday, wounding three people.

"They are getting desperate because of the military operations," Ponce said, stressing that the attacks were apparently meant to divert military attention.

The military said it had received intelligence reports earlier indicating that the MILF was to carry out bomb attacks in major cities in Mindanao, the main southern island where they have been fighting for an independent Islamic state over the past three decades.

"That was why we had stepped up our troop visibility. But we only have so much troops and we can't cover all" of Mindanao, said army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu however denied the accusation, saying attacking civilians was against Islamic principles.

"The army has already blamed us even as an investigation into the bombing is yet to be carried out," Kabalu said by telephone from the south.

He said the bombing could also be the work of right-wing saboteurs opposed to any possible resumption of peace talks.

The 12,000-strong MILF broke a five-year-old ceasefire in August 2008, launching deadly attacks across several towns and provinces in Mindanao after a court rejected a proposed deal with the government that would have given them control over vast lands they considered as their "ancestral domain".

The fighting that followed left nearly 300 civilians and combatants dead, while more than half a million were displaced.

Many of those displaced have returned to their homes even as sporadic clashes have persisted. The government says more than 300,000 evacuees still live in various camps in Mindanao.

pi_malejana

July 5th, 2009, 11:08 AM

^^ :ohno:

RIP...

jpdm

July 6th, 2009, 01:21 AM

P*tang sinungaling talaga yang si GMA. Sana tumagas nga yung implants para mamatay na, nang makabawi naman tayo. Ang problem kasi sa mga opisyal niya eh nagde-deny hindi na lang manahimik para hindi na kailangang magpalit ng statement after. Nahahalata tuloy na sinungaling sila. hahaha...

:rofl::rofl::rofl: I hope the Senate will investigate the presidential boobs. Investigation in aid of legislation is needed here. hahahahahahhaha... :rofl:

Philippine Star

Caught lying, but still secretive about health

http://www.philstar.com/NewPhilstar/www/image/columnistPhotos/Jarius-Bondoc.jpg
GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
Updated July 06, 2009 12:00 AM

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was caught lying as usual. That is the to-do over the true cause of her recent hospitalization. Spokesmen’s obfuscating can’t distract public disgust with her habitual fibbing.

In checking in at the hospital Wednesday dawn, Arroyo made it look like she was self-quarantining upon arrival from abroad. Health authorities had earlier said there was no more need to isolate travelers for A(H1N1), but she was insistent. If she was acting on social duty, it was a farce. Why, she had partied all night Tuesday, bussing pals cheek-to-cheek at a Cabinet man’s wedding anniversary. And when she finally went into hospital at 4 a.m., it wasn’t to avoid spreading virus. She had mainly cosmetic procedures and, adding the Palace’s claim, one gynecological check on the side. The cosmetic job can be called delicate, given that it’s the President going under the knife. She had mammoplastic repair of leaking breast implants done in the 1980s, excision of inguinal (groin) cyst, and laser depilation of unwanted hair in that area and the armpits. Having survived all this, Arroyo saw no more need to self-detain for the prescribed ten days, and groggily checked out at 2 p.m. Thursday.

The chief talker gnashed that “the story is totally absurd ... I mean, look at the President if she’s the type who’ll have breast implant like movie stars.” By late afternoon he was eating his words, stammering that Arroyo had just told him she did have implants, so earning the moniker Ab-Cerge. Leave it at that, Lore-Lie butted in, Arroyo had a breast mass taken out and replaced, plus biopsy of a groin lump that turned out benign.

But that’s not the point. They were overemphasizing the President’s privates, yet imputing malice on the press for imagined doing so. Still the issue was why Arroyo hid the real reason for the hospital visit, the same way she made secret a Colombia side trip days before. For that matter, the same way they wrongly invoke privacy about Arroyo’s political plans after 2010 and the facets of her many financial schemes.

The issue is about transparency in public dealings, and telling the truth for a change. They evaded my item on Arroyo’s dysfunctional bleeding mid-last year that necessitated D&C (raspa) and three follow-up checks since Jan. The President’s health is a state concern; she has the duty to disclose, and citizens have the right to know, it. Feigning self-quarantine was devious. They could have announced the biopsy, if true, in a nice way. Example: the White House disclosed all about the removal of Ronald Reagan’s colon polyps. And the Great Communicator endeared himself to the world when, upon hospital discharge, he chuckled that his only distress was “now everyone knows about my internal pipes.” By contrast, it’s hard to pray for speedy recovery of someone you know is fooling you. Or worse, someone who’s inciting a witch hunt at the Asian Hospital for the leaker of her medical info, when the culprit can very well be inside Malac... oops, my lips are sealed.

Arroyo’s hospital stay came at a price to taxpayers. Her bodyguards and cooks took five rooms: P4,000@, or total P20,000 a day. She got two suites for herself and the First Family: P18,000@, or total P36,000 a day. Spokesmen claim the hospital did not charge a cent.

But how can we believe them, when they lie at every turn.

jariusbondoc@workmail.com

jpdm

July 6th, 2009, 02:25 AM

As I See It

Arroyo always presents a false front

By Neal Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:58:00 07/06/2009

Filipino gossips have suddenly ceased talking about Hayden Kho and his sex videos and shifted to the breast implants of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“What’s wrong with the President having had breast implants?” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde asked a day after denying Arroyo had such a breast implant.

Answer: Nothing. So why did Malacañang have to lie about it initially?

The issue is not that Arroyo had a breast implant but that they have to lie about such a simple matter. If you will recall, the Palace announced that the President checked into the Asian Hospital for self-quarantine after arriving from another of her innumerable trips abroad.

Yun pala, it was to have a “leaking breast implant” and a lump in the groin looked into. And a day after that report came out, Remonde was all over the media denying it, even showing photographs of a flat-chested Arroyo in a bikini and asking: “Does that look like she had a breast implant?” Before the day was over, a red-faced Remonde had to make an about-face when the Palace itself, realizing that hospitals and clinics have medical records, admitted that, yes, Arroyo had breast implants about 20 years ago.:ohno:

Poor Remonde. It was not his fault that he was caught telling a lie. The Office of the President told him that the implant yarn was false. The President had lied even to her own press secretary.
:bash:

Remonde’s plight reminds me of a similar plight of then-Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye during the “Hello Garci” scandal. Bunye had triumphantly appeared on television with tapes of the conversation between Arroyo and Garci and said they were “fake.” Only they were genuine and Bunye was forced to present again another set of tapes. That is the trouble with telling lies; you are caught in the web of your own lies.

But telling lies is common practice in Arroyo’s Malacañang. Remember when she promised she would not run for President again but then not only ran again but also stole the election from Fernando Poe Jr.? Lying is par for the course in Malacañang. Because, as we have seen, the occupant always wants to put up a false front.

jpdm

July 6th, 2009, 02:38 AM

Arroyo addicted to foreign travel

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:10:00 07/06/2009

Filed Under: Foreign affairs & international relations, Diplomacy

The President’s visit to Japan and Brazil from June 17 to 25 further buttressed her growing reputation as presidential globetrotter nonpareil. She or her Malacañang spinmeisters offer various justifications or excuses for her presidential junkets.

In her departure statement for her latest Japan visit, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, “My talks with senior Japanese government officials will focus on security issues—such as the irrational nuclear gamesmanship posed by North Korea.”

This blunt and uncouth statement will not sit well with Pyongyang which her foreign secretary officially visited last year. Why does she have to go all the way to Tokyo to obtain the Japanese view on North Korean intransigence when this could be done for her by the Philippine ambassador (who speaks Japanese) in that place? Also, does she not trust the assessment on the same issue by Foreign Secretary Alberto G. Romulo or the assessment by our ambassador to Seoul and ambassador to Beijing, regarding North Korea? Why does President Arroyo make our diplomats dispensable or inutile?

Foreign visits have become an obsession for Filipino presidents. Former President Fidel V. Ramos made 32 foreign trips during his six-year term. But President Arroyo does it obsessively to the point of addiction. Given our dire financial circumstances, it is high time that an in-depth assessment be made of Philippine presidential foreign trips. There are many questions that beg for answers.

For instance, the press secretary quantified to the media that the recent visit of President Arroyo to Syria and South Korea would generate over $3 billion worth of investments, loans, etc. If foreign visits are really that productive and beneficial, then President Arroyo’s over 50 foreign travels so far should put the Philippines in better economic straits rather than keeping us financially strapped, and constantly struggling to keep our heads above water.

More often than not, the size and composition of our presidential entourage serve as a source of embarrassment.

While Singapore or any other ASEAN member country would opt for a “lean and mean entourage,” our presidential retinue is almost always out of proportion to the nature of the visit, sometimes taking in tow spouses, children and even grandchildren.

Is it really in our nature to flout norms and be insensitive to our hosts? Are our officials incorrigible recidivists?

—MARIA LUISA INSIONG,
11 President Ave.,
Parañaque City

Muffstar

July 7th, 2009, 03:46 AM

Another bomb blast in Philippines :

Philippines bomb blast kills twoJuly 7, 2009 - 2:04PM
Two people have been killed and at least 24 others wounded in a powerful bomb blast outside a hardware store in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, police and witnesses say.

Two dead bodies were taken to the Jolo provincial hospital on Tuesday, an official there confirmed, while Navy spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said the number of wounded stood at 24.

But the death toll could rise with many of the injured in critical condition.

Witnesses said at least seven people had suffered shrapnel injuries.

The crude bomb had been hidden on a motorcycle parked opposite the store, authorities said.

"Many of the wounded are in critical condition so there is a possibility that there will be more than two deaths," Arevalo told reporters.

"We are still investigating who carried out the bombing," he said.

Police said another bomb was found near the Mount Carmel Catholic cathedral, also in Jolo, and disarmed.

Most of the wounded were passers-by, and authorities suspended school classes in Jolo for fear of more attacks.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes just two days after a bomb blamed on Islamic separatist rebels exploded outside a Catholic church in Cotabato city, also in the south, killing five and wounding about 50 others.

Abu Sayyaf Muslim militants are known to operate on Jolo, where the al-Qaeda-linked group has been holding hostage an Italian Red Cross worker since January.

In May, the island province's governor Abdusakur Tan escaped a roadside bomb attack by the Abu Sayyaf that wounded five of his bodyguards.

The Abu Sayyaf has been on the run from a military offensive launched after they kidnapped Italian aid worker Eugenio Vagni in January. A Filipina and a Swiss colleague abducted with Vagni were separately freed in April.

Malaysian-brokered peace talks between the government and the rebels collapsed last year when a preliminary deal on an expanded Muslim autonomous region fell apart, sparking deadly clashes that have displaced large numbers of villagers.

Unlike the Moro rebels, who are pursuing on-and-off talks with the government, the Abu Sayyaf is considered a terrorist organisation because of its al-Qaeda links and many terrorist attacks, including ones on Americans.

The group and its allies, numbering about 400, have turned to kidnappings to make money in recent years, raising concerns among Philippine and US security officials that ransom payments could revive the group, which has been weakened by years of US-backed offensives.

About two hours after the bomb attack on Jolo Island, a homemade device left inside a parked car exploded in the southern Philippine port city of Iligan, wounding seven people, including two soldiers, police said.

"The bomb was left inside a car parked near an army vehicle," said regional police chief Superintendent Danilo Empedrad.

He said no one had claimed responsibility for the attack but noted that Muslim separatist rebels were active in the area.

It was not clear whether the Iligan attack was linked to the explosion on Jolo island, the police chief said.

.

demented_pigeon

July 7th, 2009, 04:02 AM

demented_pigeon

July 7th, 2009, 04:15 AM

jpdm

July 7th, 2009, 04:25 AM

jpdm

July 7th, 2009, 04:46 AM

Actually, local pharma companies are fully aware of that, thats why they are agressively manufacturing generic versions of off-patent drugs.

There must be a cap on medicine prices especially if the government is fully aware of the real prices of foreign owned branded medicine. This is to protect Pinoy consumers especially those who are taking life saving drugs that are not available locally.

The pharma industry is controlled by foreign companies and authorities have long found out they are victimizing Pinoy consumers with their overpriced drugs.

They should be controlled and tamed by the government for the benefit of pinoys and not some few vested interests!

Editorial: Drug competition

Tuesday, 07 July 2009 02:01
Jimbo Albano / BusinessMirror

A FEW weeks ago, at a forum sponsored by the alliance of multinational drug companies operating in the Philippines, an industry leader predicted the steady growth of the in-country market share of the local or Filipino-owned drug firms, largely on account of the generics market.:cheers::)

The projection of one expert was that, in the next few years, locals would control half of the market—partly because many of the patents held for decades by the multinational companies (MNCs) are expiring, allowing room for locals to produce a greater array of generic versions; partly because of the improving quality—and, therefore, greater credibility and salability—of the local products, the doctors’ endorsements notwithstanding; and partly because, as times become harder and people more cost-conscious, they’d keep looking for cheaper alternatives to the medicine they buy today.:cheers::)

The good part of this projection is that competition will continue to play a key role in a vital market, something that’s indispensable considering the stakes—the public health of a huge market of 92 million Filipinos, and the contribution to the economy of the pharmaceuticals, and their huge allied businesses in nutraceuticals.

Simply put, the foreign drug firms are increasingly under pressure to reduce prices in order to keep their foothold in the market; and the local companies are compelled to keep improving quality, as well as marketing strategies, having suffered for a long time from the convenient bogey that most generics are either too weak, or of poor quality, or even fake and dangerous.(instigated by these a-holes foreign drug companies who want to monopolize the Philippine market:bash:)

Already, the trend in downpricing is getting keener. Market leader Pfizer, which originated the “sulit card” many years ago, last week upped the ante by tying up with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), allowing more than one million members to use their own GSIS cards to obtain discounts on drug purchases from Pfizer.

Before that, Sanofi offered its own discount program; and earlier, the local pharmaceuticals Pharex and Pascual Laboratories. Of course, leading local player United Laboratories has, for years, gained greater hold in the market with its continuous tweaking of its well-diversified offerings and competitive prices.

As all these positive aspects of competition are unfolding, meanwhile, there’s a tug-of-war between some government quarters and the foreign drug firms. Lawmakers, especially the sponsors of the Cheap Medicines Act, want Malacañang to sign the “MRP” list submitted by the Department of Health (DOH) a month ago to the Palace, containing the recommended maximum retail price (hence, MRP) for the 22 most-prescribed drugs.

The price caps would, indeed, give relief to buyers—a whopping 50 percent on average reduction.

Included in that list are those for hypertension and a slew of cardiovascular and metabolic ailments, diabetes and common pulmonary diseases. The foreign drug firms say the MRP distorts the spirit of the Cheap Medicines Act, because the government should only issue one in an emergency, say, an MRP order for Tamiflu or some such drug for a pandemic like swine flu.:bash:

The lawmakers insist that, contrary to claims of some quarters that putting out an exclusive list would be antipoor because most of those who use these are rich or middle-class, the drugs on the DOH list are, in fact, widely used.

The statistics also bear out the fact that many of what were once described as diseases of the rich now afflict a big part of the population. Cardiovascular ailments, described in past decades as the rich man’s disease, now top the list of killers, hitting one in five adults. Kidney ailments among the poor keep rising to alarming levels; and diabetes afflicts one in 20 Filipinos.

Surely, “lifestyle-related” diseases now afflict both rich and poor. And if the drugmakers want to stay competitive, they have to bring down prices, or lose their market. As Rep. Teddyboy Locsin Jr., a champion of the Cheap Medicines Act, put it, the risk of a boycott by drug MNCs of a 92-million market is nowhere near as realistic as the risk of a boycott by poor people of drugs that cost so much more than what they eat.

jpdm

July 7th, 2009, 04:53 AM

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/images/stories/Daily_Images/2009/July/07072009/oped-pic.jpg

Business Mirror
July 7, 2009

I really hope to see the end of the domination of these exploitative and manipulative multinational companies of the local pharma market...they have for the longest time victimized the Filipino nation!

absinthe_888

July 7th, 2009, 04:54 AM

Arroyo needed breast implants – Palace

By Christian V. Esguerra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 16:40:00 07/06/2009

MANILA, Philippines -- The breast implant procedure done on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo back in the 1980s was a "medical necessity" and was not spurred by vanity, her deputy spokeswoman, Lorelei Fajardo, said on Monday.

Fajardo, however, did not tell reporters why the chief executive needed breast augmentation.

But Fajardo said Arroyo was “offended” by talk about her breast implants.

“As a woman, President Arroyo was offended,” Fajardo said.

“A little delicadeza (sense of propriety) won’t hurt,” she said of discussions about the breast implants.

...

Once again, not answering the question. Why did you have to f*^%#ng lie?!

Yuhoo, Ms. Lore-lie, the point here is not GMA's breat implants. If meh implants sha so be it.

Pero yung sasabihin nyong pumunta sha ng Asian Hospital supposedly for "self quarantine" after her circumnavigation of the world tapos todo pa ekek pa kayo sa TV na walang operation o "boob job" only to caught red handed and ADMIT that yes there was a medical procedure done on the President and ASKS for privacy on the matter...Wow.

Ayan tuloy, mas nagmukang t@nga si PGMA.

serlio

July 7th, 2009, 07:06 AM

demented_pigeon

July 7th, 2009, 09:58 AM

Yuhoo, Ms. Lore-lie, the point here is not GMA's breat implants. If meh implants sha so be it.

Pero yung sasabihin nyong pumunta sha ng Asian Hospital supposedly for "self quarantine" after her circumnavigation of the world tapos todo pa ekek pa kayo sa TV na walang operation o "boob job" only to caught red handed and ADMIT that yes there was a medical procedure done on the President and ASKS for privacy on the matter...Wow.

Ayan tuloy, mas nagmukang t@nga si PGMA.

I lost count, who has had more spokespersons, George "Dubya" Bush or Gloria Arroyo? I don't think you get spokespersons who lie... or if they do lie make sure they don't suck at it.

chocolato1000

July 7th, 2009, 11:00 AM

^^ at least Dubya's press officers are way much intelligent than those of Gloria's...my PE teacher can even retort better answers to press questions. ahahaha

le Reine

July 7th, 2009, 01:28 PM

funny thing about Remonde was he was asked why they had to lie about the matter and his reply was there's nothing wrong with a breast implant.
Arroyo needed breast implants – Palace

MANILA, Philippines -- The breast implant procedure done on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo back in the 1980s was a "medical necessity" and was not spurred by vanity, her deputy spokeswoman, Lorelei Fajardo, said on Monday.

Once again, not answering the question. Why did you have to f*^%#ng lie?!That's what I can't understand either. Why do they have to hide it and then admit it, then make excuses. They're making the situation worse. One word: STUPID. If GMA still cares about her popularity rating (as if she had one to start with), first thing she should do is to fire his spokespersons because they are all stupid, or maybe because they can't cope with how their boss is lying-too honest for GMA.

........mag gargle ka muna bago punta dito sa ssc......para walang bad words.....:)Don't tell me what to do because I did not break any rules... (that's why I've put them in asterisks. ST****) And please, stop your OT posts in other threads because one more shot and you're dead meat. You should worry more about that.

absinthe_888

July 7th, 2009, 03:49 PM

........mag gargle ka muna bago punta dito sa ssc......para walang bad words.....:)

Ilang beses ba kailangan sabihin, huwag galitin si Madam...

marchitecto

July 7th, 2009, 04:10 PM

Masyado nang maselan na topic yung breast implants ni GMA, ang OA naman kung saasbihin pa sa public. I understand kung bakit pinagtakpan ito ng Palace.

amigo32

July 7th, 2009, 04:14 PM

hehehehe, ano bang pinagpuputok ng mga bochi nila?

hindi ko kasi alam wala akong TV eh:D

Anong problema sa implants nya? hehehe, baka malaman nila na dating Lalake pala si PGMA:D toink joke lang

TeslaCoil

July 7th, 2009, 05:51 PM

...kulang ka sa diciplina...:)...at tinuturuan pa ako kung saan magpopost....

...sa pyongyang lang puede yung style mo....nanakot pa...parang NPA hihihi

Uy, nabasa ko yung una mong un-edited post. Parang urban poor lang. So, kinakalaban mo na ngayon si Madam Butterfly. Hihihihi.

TeslaCoil

July 7th, 2009, 06:08 PM

....uyyy...nagbabasa ka rin pala...buking!....:)...pagaralan nyong mabuti ha....actually hindi ko kinakalaban....sinasabihan ko lang na mag gargle!....mahilig mag bad words eh....parang walang pinagaralan....

You can always pm Jan (the admin of this site) if you think that a moderator is abusing his/her power;)

By the way, who are you to tell us what is wrong or right?

jpdm

July 8th, 2009, 12:28 AM

Manila Standard
July 8, 2009

Govt backs Imelda on jewels

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

IN what could be the biggest birthday gift ever, the Office of the Solicitor General now supports the claim of Imelda Marcos, who turned 80 last week, that the government’s forfeiture case against her family never included $7 million worth of jewelry that the state confiscated in 1986.

Mrs. Marcos, who says she is too poor to pay the travel bond when she needs to fly abroad for medical treatment, seeks to reclaim the jewelry.

In a 20-page motion dated June 24, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, Assistant Solicitor General John Emmanuel Madamba, State Solicitor Magnolia Velez, and Associate Solicitor Moses Florendo confirmed that the so-called Roumeliotes and Hawaii Collections were not covered by Civil Case 0141.

Devanadera, who is also acting justice secretary, had initially balked at her predecessor’s suggestion that the jewelry collections were not covered by the government’s case against the Marcoses.

The Roumeliotes collection, the biggest and most expensive of the three, was seized from Greek national Demetriou Roumeliotes, a friend of the Marcoses, at the Manila International Airport on March 1, 1986. It is still being kept in the Bangko Sentral’s vaults.

The United States Customs Service, meanwhile, confiscated the Hawaii Collection from the Marcoses when they landed in Honolulu after they fled the Philippines at the height of the Edsa People Power Revolt that toppled the Marcos regime.

In the June 24 motion that was sent by post and received by the Sandiganbayan’s First Division on Monday, government lawyers sought a partial summary judgment only over the Malacañang collection.

They pointed out that the anti-graft court had in fact declared that the two more valuable Marcos jewelry collections were not covered by the civil case against the Marcoses.

They insisted that only the set known as the Malacañang Collection worth an estimated $110,055 to $153,089 was mentioned in the ill-gotten-wealth case.

Items in the Malacañang collection were found on Feb. 25, 1986, abandoned by the Marcos family and were turned over to the Central Bank on March 1, 1986.

But the Solicitor General asked the anti-graft court to consider the total value of all the jewelry among other ill-gotten assets already forfeited in favor of the government, particularly since Mrs. Marcos had claimed ownership of the Malacañang and Hawaii collections and had demanded their return.

The solicitor general also invoked the Supreme Court declaration that the lawful income of the Marcoses during their stay in government only amounted to $304,372.43, which “demonstrates manifest and gross disparity” with the value of the jewelry collections alone.

Based on the 1991 valuation of auction house Christie, Manson and Woods International Inc., the Roumeliotes, Malacañang and Hawaii Collections were worth between $5,313,575 and $7,112,879.

jpdm

July 8th, 2009, 12:33 AM

Don't tell me what to do because I did not break any rules... (that's why I've put them in asterisks. ST****) And please, stop your OT posts in other threads because one more shot and you're dead meat. You should worry more about that.

Well, my reply on serlio's flame baiting post was deleted and yet his flame baiting post was not. It seems this guy can always get way with his pathetic posts.

jpdm

July 8th, 2009, 12:39 AM

...kulang ka sa diciplina...:)...at tinuturuan pa ako kung saan magpopost....

...sa pyongyang lang puede yung style mo....nanakot pa...parang NPA hihihi

....uyyy...nagbabasa ka rin pala...buking!....:)...pagaralan nyong mabuti ha....actually hindi ko kinakalaban....sinasabihan ko lang na mag gargle!....mahilig mag bad words eh....parang walang pinagaralan....

Ayos rin ito...

Anyway, blunder na naman on the part ng mga spokesperson ng malacanang yan tulad nung nangyari kay Bunye at Dureza..

jpdm

July 8th, 2009, 12:48 AM

Manila Standard
July 8, 2009

Customs falls short of goal, blames trade slowdown

By Joel E. Zurbano

The Customs bureau last month collected only P20.7 billion in duties and taxes from the ports, or 20 percent below its P25.91-billion target for June.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said a 38-percent drop in imports, from $4.8 billion to only $3.04 billion, impaired collections. “Our performance depends on imports because ours is to capture revenue from external trade. The indisputable equation is that less importation equals less collection. Yet our target remains the same, unaffected by unfolding economic realities such as marked slowdown in inbound shipping traffic.”

Nine of the Customs bureau’s 17 districts, including the major ports of Manila, Batangas, Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Manila International Container Port, suffered from the slowdown in trade and failed to meet targets assigned to them for the month of June.

Of the nine ports, Manila incurred the biggest shortfall, collecting only P2.944 billion, or P3.056 billion below its P6-billion target, Morales said.

MICP earned P4.828 billion against its P5.579-billion target while Batangas collected P3.775 billion, short by P245 million against its P4.020 target. Naia, on the other hand, posted P1.325 billion, down by P65 million against its P1.390-billion target.

Other collection districts that failed to meet their targets were San Fernando, Iloilo, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro and Limay.

The Office of the Customs Commissioner came up with only P4.292 billion, or 1.3 percent short of its P4.394-billion target.

Import volumes are also down, Morales said. Oil and lubricants are down by half, from $1.03 billion in April last year to $551 billion. Textile went down 28 percent, plastics by negative 39 percent, electronics products by negative 42 percent, iron and steel by negative 59 percent, and transport equipment by negative 59 percent.

But several smaller ports managed to surpass their targets, among them Legazpi with P5.9 million, 8 percent over its P5.5-million target; Cebu with P535 million collection, or 2.7 percent over its P521-million target; Surigao, P5.2 million, from its P1.5-million target; Zamboanga, P4.7 million; Davao, P228 million, or 30.9 percent over its P174-million target; Subic, P390 million, or 1.6 percent over its P384-million target; Clark, P78 million, 9.8 percent higher than its P71-million target; Aparri, P31 million or 81 percent higher than its P17-million target.

Lawyer Arnel Alcaraz, Port of Manila district collector, said a limited volume of importation took its toll on the bureau. There was a marked reduction in the importation of motor vehicles and steel, he said.

Manila’s Harbor Center suffered from a 60 percent reduction in importation of steel, cement and soya, Alcaraz said.

Alcaraz said there could be a turnaround in the third and fourth quarters of the year as traders step up shipments in time for the Christmas season.

le Reine

July 8th, 2009, 10:08 AM

Well, my reply on serlio's flame baiting post was deleted and yet his flame baiting post was not. It seems this guy can always get way with his pathetic posts.I haven't seen his posts, and FYI, I've deleted it when I saw some. I even warned him.

You can always pm Jan (the admin of this site) if you think that a moderator is abusing his/her power;)

By the way, who are you to tell us what is wrong or right?That's correct. Everyone has the right to contest our actions to other mods and admins. But of course, every decision and actions starts with us first. Therefore, we have the right to exercise our duties regardless of what other people say.

...kulang ka sa diciplina...:)...at tinuturuan pa ako kung saan magpopost....

...sa pyongyang lang puede yung style mo....nanakot pa...parang NPA hihihiNewbie, it seems you are not familiar with how things are going around here.

This is the fact: SSC is not a democarcy and it will never will be.

So you don't want to be warned?! OK now, I'll just personally ship you to Pyongyang. Bye! :wave:

OK.

This is just my opinion about that "boobs issue"

I know that it is sensitive for the President but the main point is: "why do they have to lie several times to hide when they can admit it in the end, anyway?" They are not only making themselves look stupid but they are also making a fool out of us all.

I hope this boob implant issue would stop now. We are just running in circles. Same arguments over and over, very unproductive.

jpdm

July 8th, 2009, 11:31 AM

Malaya
July 8, 2009

Editorial

All is fluff; there is no competence at the core.’

COME July 27, the nation once again will be entertained by the dog-and-pony show that is the State of the Nation Address. Gloria Arroyo will again boast of her purported accomplishments and promise of better things yet to come in the coming year. And hopefully, make it clear she is exiting on June 30, 2010, as mandated by the Constitution.

But in the meantime, we who live day to day and not for the pie in the sky by and by, we suppose, would just have to further tighten our belts in the face of static incomes and the threat of losing our jobs and other sources of income as the economy slows down.

Let’s leave Gloria to her fantasies. The reality is the government has lost its ability to influence the economy’s direction in the last six months. The much ballyhooed fiscal pump-priming is nowhere to be seen. Nobody in government could offer a coherent explanation why despite claimed massive releases of money, government expenditures have not appreciably risen.

The reason probably is simple. The government does not have the administrative capability to undertake the projects listed in the stimulus package. And that should be a fitting epitaph to the Arroyo administration. All is fluff; there is no competence at the core.

And why this is so? Just take a look at the faces in the Cabinet. Save for a couple, the cabinet secretaries have no proven executive ability. They got their posts solely on the basis of their rapid loyalty to Gloria and their willingness to accommodate the megabuck corrupt deals of you know who.

Yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Art Yap was defending rice purchases from Vietnam against allegations of over-pricing. In the absence of evidence of corrupt dealing, we give the benefit of the doubt to Yap.

But the more telling issue against Yap is his business-as-usual attitude toward rice importation. Year in and year out, the Philippines is importing 10 percent of its rice requirement. What happened to the billions that the government has been shoveling into the agricultural sector?
:bash:
The same is true with most of the rest of the line departments. They cannot deliver on their commitments.

This is not the way to run the government. And yet Gloria continues to entertain thoughts she is indispensable and needs to extend her stay. How much more conceited could one get?

RonnieR

July 8th, 2009, 11:51 AM

I haven't seen his posts, and FYI, I've deleted it when I saw some. I even warned him.

That's correct. Everyone has the right to contest our actions to other mods and admins. But of course, every decision and actions starts with us first. Therefore, we have the right to exercise our duties regardless of what other people say.

Newbie, it seems you are not familiar with how things are going around here.

This is the fact: SSC is not a democarcy and it will never will be.

So you don't want to be warned?! OK now, I'll just personally ship you to Pyongyang. Bye! :wave:

OK.

This is just my opinion about that "boobs issue"

I know that it is sensitive for the President but the main point is: "why do they have to lie several times to hide when they can admit it in the end, anyway?" They are not only making themselves look stupid but they are also making a fool out of us all.

I hope this boob implant issue would stop now. We are just running in circles. Same arguments over and over, very unproductive.

Let's not make an issue on the breast implant...anyway, at the end of the day, the doctors at Asian Hospital gave the President a "clean bill of health". They could be lying or not, I think the spokesman didn't know that GMA had one in 1980's.

Cerge Remonde believed that a woman with breast implant has big boobs, he even mentioned the artistas hahahahaha. Stupidity or he has no knowledge about cosmetology. :lol:

ponso

July 8th, 2009, 09:50 PM

Sorry to butt in, but for all my two cents' worth, statements like this, especially from a moderator, are not helping, not at all. I've always thought this forum was for free exchange of ideas, not for anyone to wave a stick, real or imagined.

Anyways, that's just my two cents, let's move forward, shall we?

This is the fact: SSC is not a democracy and it will never will be.

marchitecto

July 9th, 2009, 03:12 AM

jpdm

July 9th, 2009, 03:16 AM

all of these were but assumptions, right?

Maybe or maybe not.

But,for me, their is truth in it.

RonnieR

July 9th, 2009, 10:06 AM

Thailand reports 2 more swine flu deaths
Updated July 09, 2009 01:56 PM

BANGKOK (AP) -- Thailand's Public Health Ministry is reporting two more swine flu-related deaths, bringing the country's total to 13.

Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Nop-amornbodi said Thursday the latest victims were a 52-year-old man who died in Bangkok on Wednesday and a high school student who died in northeastern Mahasarakham province Thursday.

He said that the man suffered from a kidney infection prior to contracting the virus, weakening his immune system.

The ministry also reported 211 new cases Wednesday, bringing the country's total to 2,925.

According to latest figures Monday from the UN World Health Organization, there have been 94,512 swine flu cases worldwide and 429 deaths.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia has reported 10 deaths, New Zealand five and the Philippines one.

^^ not much is reported in Phil. media about H1N1 update nowadays...

amigo32

July 9th, 2009, 10:18 AM

hindi na sya uso sa media, yung kay GMA naman:D

pi_malejana

July 9th, 2009, 10:27 AM

nakita nyo ba ung pagkahulog nung 2 coast guard natin?? :eek:

nahulog sila habang bumababa sa helicopter gamit ang rope... eh maiksi pala, parang halos kasing taas ng 2 palapag ung kinalaglagan nila... kawawa naman...:(

RonnieR

July 9th, 2009, 10:49 AM

hindi na sya uso sa media, yung kay GMA naman:D

Kaya naman pala....should be in good news thread:

95% of 1,709 H1N1 patients recover – DoH

By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:15:00 07/09/2009

Filed Under: Swine Flu, Health, Diseases

MANILA, Philippines – Ninety-five percent of the 1,709 confirmed Influenza A(H1N1) cases as of last week have recovered from the disease, a health official said, as she warned that more people would be infected by the virus.

The Department of Health (DoH) did not confirm new A(H1N1) cases this week because test results of suspected patients have yet to be released by the National Epidemiology Center, said Doctor Yolanda Oliveros, director of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

“About 95 percent of the 1,709 cases reported last week are now fully recovered from the illness. Majority of them have been mild cases and were treated with Tamiflu,” she said.

While the A(H1N1) strain that infected people in the country was mild, Oliveros said the public should continue taking the necessary precautions by observing proper hygiene and boosting their immune system.

“The virus is here and it spreads rapidly. No one can tell if there would be a second wave from a more virulent form of the virus,” she said.

Oliveros also reiterated the health department’s warning against food supplements that claim to cure A(H1N1).

“We repeatedly stress that there are no vaccines or food supplements that can cure those infected of the virus,” she said.

chocolato1000

July 9th, 2009, 03:05 PM

^^ isn't that good news? :colgate:

absinthe_888

July 10th, 2009, 03:22 AM

barrera_marquez

July 11th, 2009, 01:39 PM

Kaya naman pala....should be in good news thread:

95% of 1,709 H1N1 patients recover – DoH

By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:15:00 07/09/2009

Filed Under: Swine Flu, Health, Diseases

MANILA, Philippines – Ninety-five percent of the 1,709 confirmed Influenza A(H1N1) cases as of last week have recovered from the disease, a health official said, as she warned that more people would be infected by the virus.

The Department of Health (DoH) did not confirm new A(H1N1) cases this week because test results of suspected patients have yet to be released by the National Epidemiology Center, said Doctor Yolanda Oliveros, director of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

“About 95 percent of the 1,709 cases reported last week are now fully recovered from the illness. Majority of them have been mild cases and were treated with Tamiflu,” she said.

While the A(H1N1) strain that infected people in the country was mild, Oliveros said the public should continue taking the necessary precautions by observing proper hygiene and boosting their immune system.

“The virus is here and it spreads rapidly. No one can tell if there would be a second wave from a more virulent form of the virus,” she said.

Oliveros also reiterated the health department’s warning against food supplements that claim to cure A(H1N1).

“We repeatedly stress that there are no vaccines or food supplements that can cure those infected of the virus,” she said.

Bad news sa mga students... wala nang suspension. :lol:

carl_vilches21

July 11th, 2009, 01:48 PM

chocolato1000

July 11th, 2009, 03:31 PM

^^ nagkaroon ng simulation about sa isang cruise liner na na-hijack ng mga terrorist...tapos may dalawang animo'y siguradong coast guards special force na nag rappell pababa ng helicopter to respond...eh sobrang taas yung pagbagsak nila kaya un siguradong nabalian sila...

nakakahiya nga eh kasi may mga observers pa from the japanese navy.

jpdm

July 14th, 2009, 02:35 AM

Philippine Star

EDITORIAL -

Just implement the law

Updated July 14, 2009 12:00 AM

The time to argue for or against a proposed law is during congressional deliberations on the measure. And the pluses and minuses of the measure seeking to bring down medicine prices were argued to death in the two chambers of Congress before it became law. Early last year, Congress approved the reconciled version of the measure. In June last year, President Arroyo finally signed into law Republic Act 9502, or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008.

The public, long burdened by the cost of medicine, waited for the law to take effect and bring down drug prices. And the public waited… and waited some more.

Yesterday, with the 13-month-old law still not enforced, the government announced that it had given pharmaceutical companies until this Saturday to voluntarily slash by up to 50 percent the prices of 22 drugs used for the treatment of hypertension, diabetes and asthma. Also included in the list are antibiotics used for common ailments.

The government made the announcement as Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile accused a pharmaceutical giant during a Senate hearing yesterday of virtually bribing the government with about five million medicine discount cards for the poor in exchange for President Arroyo’s withholding of an executive order that would impose price ceilings on 22 essential drugs.:bash::bash:

RA 9502 gave the President the power to impose medicine price controls. The idea was to give her the authority to bring down medicine prices if the goal of RA 9502 could not be achieved through measures provided in the law, including parallel importation and patent protection limits that will allow local companies to produce generic versions of certain drugs produced by multinationals.

The pharmaceutical industry had lobbied fiercely against several provisions of the law, succeeding in killing a proposal to require doctors to prescribe only generic medicine. The lobby has also apparently succeeded in delaying the implementation of the law. From medicine to relieve the common cold to complex drug cocktails for illnesses such as tuberculosis, drug prices in this country remain high compared to those in other Asian countries.

Pharmaceutical firms, whose executives met with President Arroyo and several of her Cabinet members last July 8 to discuss the planned price ceilings, have long defended their pricing schemes and have argued that key provisions of RA 9502 are not the answer. The public won’t know for sure until the law is given a chance to work. Amendments can be made later.:bash:

jpdm

July 14th, 2009, 02:50 AM

Drug firm hit for ‘bribe’
Pfizer offer to Arroyo rejected

By Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:54:00 07/14/2009

MANILA, Philippines—Several lawmakers on Monday accused Pfizer Philippines, a multinational drug company, of attempting to “bribe” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through the Department of Health (DoH) with five million “sulit (discount) cards” to be distributed to indigent patients around the country.

At Monday’s hearing of the affordable medicines oversight committee, the lawmakers said the bribery attempt was apparently aimed at convincing Ms Arroyo not to sign an executive order, drafted last month by the DoH, that will cut drug prices in half.

“The fact is the [cheaper medicines] law was passed by Congress. For somebody to offer (the cards that) is already an indication that the purpose of the offer is to stop … impede the enforcement of the law. I will tell you as a lawyer … that is as an offer of bribe,” said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Enrile was reacting to the statement of Reiner Gloor, executive director of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP), who said that Pfizer’s offer was not a bribe. PHAP is an umbrella organization of 50 multinational drug companies.

“Even if it was offered to the secretary of health, then the same thing. It’s still the same carabao, a bribe,” Enrile said.

Neither the President nor Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has accepted Pfizer’s offer.

Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Palawan Rep. Antonio Alvarez, co-chairs of the oversight committee, called the hearing following Roxas’ revelations on Friday that Ms Arroyo met with officials of giant pharmaceutical companies on July 8 ostensibly to block the implementation of the maximum retail price (MRP) on 22 essential medicines.

The law, championed by Roxas, increases the people’s access to cheaper medicines by imposing an MRP, which will slash drug prices in half.

Section. 17, Chapter 3 of the law says that “The President of the Philippines, upon recommendation of the Secretary of the Department of Health, shall have the power to impose maximum retail prices over any or all drugs and medicines as enumerated in Section 23.”

Huge savings

Roxas said Gloor and other representatives of pharmaceutical firms could not stop the government from implementing the MRP, which covers maintenance medicines for those suffering from hypertension (Norvasc), diabetes (Diamicron) and high cholesterol (Lipitor).

Roxas said lowering the price of Norvasc (5 mg), for instance, from the present P44.50 to P22.50 would give Filipinos extra money to buy half a kilo of rice, one can of sardines and three packs of Payless instant noodles every day.

This will translate to a saving of P7,920 a year, he said.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano noted that Norvasc cost P7 in India. Pharex retails a generic version (5 mg) in the Philippines at P11.

For Lipitor (10 mg), a saving of P31.25 (from P62.50 to P31.25) will allow families to buy a kilo of rice, a can of sardines and four packs of noodles; Diamicron (80 mg) with a saving of P7.40 (from P14.75 to P7.35), diabetic patients can still buy a pack of noodles. [Ritemed’s generic version of Diamicron sells for only P5.85.]

Buying Ciprobay (500 mg), an antibiotic, from P79.15 to P39.57, will result in a saving of P39.58 that will allow patients to buy one and one-fourth kg of rice, three cans of sardines, six packs of noodles, one-third kg of fresh tilapia and one-fourth chicken.

“Even if we follow the draft MRP, which gives us 50 percent off the present price, the price will still give much profit to drug companies and is still too stiff,” Cayetano said, adding that the proposed MRP list did not contain other essential drugs like Bentolin inhaler for asthmatic.

10-day deadline

Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Baraquel said Pfizer had offered five million discount cards to Ms Arroyo to “block the implementation of the maximum retail price.”

Baraquel said the DoH drafted the executive order on MRP as early as June 10, but the President instead gave giant pharmaceutical firms 10 days to submit alternative proposals to lower drug prices.

“Gloor himself confirmed this (offer) not only during the July 8 meeting with GMA (President Arroyo), but possibly during the advisory council meeting on cheaper medicines law” with Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, according to Baraquel.

“That constitutes bribery because the offer was made during the period when the executive order is about to be signed, and the one who made the offer was a company to be affected by … the MRP,” Baraquel said.

Discriminatory

The discount cards are already being distributed by Pfizer to select drugstores and clients but only cover Pfizer medicines, said the Akbayan lawmaker.

Baraquel said the practice was discriminatory. “If they can absorb a profit cut through sulit cards, why can’t they implement an across the board decrease in drug prices so that everyone can avail [himself or herself] of it over the counter?”

“If each of the five million (cardholders) buys one Norvasc at a 50-percent discount, Pfizer will lose P100 million (at P22 each per 5 mg) for this brand of drug alone,” she said.

Roxas said that the MRP did not violate agreements with the World Trade Organization and Intellectual Property Organization, and that price control was being practiced in 122 countries.

Ms Arroyo and her four Cabinet officials—Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Health Secretary Francisco Duque, Trade Secretary Peter Favila and Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr.—snubbed the summons of the committee.

When the hearing started, Roxas read a letter from Ermita saying the Palace officials could not attend the hearing because the Senate summon was only received on Friday. But Roxas pointed out that the presidential barcode showed that it was received on July 9.

Upon learning of the Ermita letter through a radio report, Duque and Favila later told a committee staff by phone that “they have verbal instructions not to attend unless they have clearance to attend.”

“They (Duque and Favila) said they were en route … but claimed they were stuck in traffic due to the rain. Suddenly, they (backed out),” Roxas said.

‘Ballpen’

Summarizing the three-hour hearing, Roxas said what was established was the following—the unacted DoH recommendation to implement the MRP on June 10, the meeting of drug companies with Ermita on July 2 and with the President on July 8.

“The point is until now the President has not signed the executive order. When will she fulfill her promise to lower drug prices?” Roxas said.

“The lives of the people are at stake, not politics. You only need a ballpen, Mrs. President (to sign the EO),” he added.

Gloor insisted that price control would not work. He said the President, during the meeting, had given industry players 10 days to come up with an alternative to the MRP, otherwise she would sign the executive order.

Assistant Trade Secretary Lourdes Baua said the drug firms were proposing “voluntary compliance,” but Roxas said the MRP was a “provision in the law without limitations” and a “complete tool kit … to lower prices.”

Gloor said if industry players could voluntarily lower prices by 50 percent, then there would be no more need for price control.

Roxas told Gloor that the government was against gouging, price manipulation and monopolistic activities. With Inquirer Research:bash::bash:

jpdm

July 15th, 2009, 04:46 AM

100 congressmen jostling for US trip
:bash::bash:

By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:01:00 07/15/2009

MANILA, Philippines—No less than 100 congressmen—or nearly 40 percent of the total membership of the House of Representatives—are jostling for slots in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s entourage in her July 30 meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington.

Some of them had earlier signed up for Ms Arroyo’s trip to Egypt but later canceled their bookings—apparently preferring the White House over the pyramids. The President left for Egypt yesterday.

A source at the House office, which processes the lawmakers’ travel papers, yesterday said it had been swamped with requests since Malacañang on Sunday announced the Arroyo-Obama meeting.

The requests were still subject to approval, the source explained, doubting whether all of them would be granted.

In February, the last time the President went to the United States and failed—for the third time—to have an audience with Obama, about 20 congressmen accompanied her to Washington.

Double the Vegas junket

The estimated 100 congressmen seeking to travel with the President are double the number of lawmakers who flew to Las Vegas in May—while Congress was in session—to watch the championship fight between Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao and Britain’s Ricky Hatton.

The President is again leaving for the US capital shortly after delivering her last State of the Nation Address (SONA) before Congress on July 27.

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez yesterday said he was still weighing whether to join the trip considering that Congress has just resumed session by then after a two-month break.

“I still have a lot of paperwork to finish. I might not join the trip,” Suarez said.

Anakpawis Rep. Joel Maglunsod warned fellow House members joining the US trip against spending public funds for the tour.

“They’ve had too many foreign trips and already spent millions in taxpayer money. It’s a shame that they are jetsetting at the expense of their poor constituents,” Maglunsod said in a statement.

51 presidential trips

Lawmakers on official business trips abroad receive funding for their travel and hotel accommodations, plus allowances, from the House’s P5-billion budget.

Ms Arroyo has taken 51 foreign trips since assuming office in 2001, all costing an estimated P3 billion.

Meanwhile, a senator surmised that Obama’s decision to meet with Ms Arroyo means that her allies’ perceived efforts to keep her in power through Charter change (Cha-cha) are over and that the country will have elections next year.

“This is because I don’t see the (leader of the) US government, which fosters freedom and democracy across the world, agreeing to meet with a President if they have not cleared up the issue that there will be no more Cha-cha or any attempt to subvert our Constitution,” Sen. Mar Roxas told reporters yesterday.

So, this is a good sign,” said Roxas, considered among the front-runners in the 2010 presidential race. “(It’s) a sign that the elections will proceed and Cha-cha is no more.”:bash:

demented_pigeon

July 15th, 2009, 04:58 AM

sana makidnap yang mga kongresista na yan sa MidEast.

TeslaCoil

July 15th, 2009, 06:29 AM

Muffstar

July 15th, 2009, 10:13 AM

WTF! What the hell are they gonna do in that trip? Sariling pera ba nila ang gagamitin nila?

Asa ka pa:ohno:

dvbaicrviser

July 15th, 2009, 11:57 AM

Dapat yang 100 congressmen, isakay sa isang eroplano at dalhin lahat sa Iraq o kaya Afghanistan.

le Reine

July 15th, 2009, 02:42 PM

demented_pigeon

July 15th, 2009, 03:04 PM

Kung sinoman sa inyo dyan na kongresista nyo ang pupunta dyan. Alam nyo na dapat nyong gawin.

dvbaicrviser

July 15th, 2009, 03:53 PM

Ang kakapal ng mga pagmumukha. Dapat siguro ilagay sa frontpage ng mga broadsheets ang litrato ng 100 congressmen na iyan at ilagay rin sa TV.

TeslaCoil

July 15th, 2009, 04:05 PM

Paanong?! What?! Ano ba yan! :rant::bash: Guys, this is the time to be patriotic! Let's plant a bomb on the plane :lol:

Sana nga mag-crash ang eroplano nila. I'll be the first to celebrate:bash:

RonnieR

July 15th, 2009, 04:17 PM

guys, before we freak out.... Breaking news

Only 7 solons can join Arroyo US trip

By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:25:00 07/15/2009

MANILA, Philippines—Speaker Prospero Nograles on Wednesday said only seven congressmen could join President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her trip to the United States for a meeting with President Barack Obama end of this month.

Nograles said he wanted members of the House of Representatives to be present in the sessions as Congress would have just reopened by then.

Sessions resume July 27, four days before Arroyo’s first time meeting with Obama in Washington.

The House leader also said that only few officials would be allowed to take part in the meeting. During the previous meeting between Arroyo and President George Bush, he said that only three or four persons were allowed to enter the room with the Philippine leader.

Reports have said close to 100 lawmakers have expressed interest to join the US trip on July 31

TeslaCoil

July 15th, 2009, 04:28 PM

^^ Okay overacting ako. Sheesh... express of intention lang naman pala :lol:

le Reine

July 15th, 2009, 04:33 PM

^^eh baka kasi magaya sa dati na ilang dosenang tongresman ang sumama. :lol:

carl_vilches21

July 15th, 2009, 04:55 PM

demented_pigeon

July 15th, 2009, 05:01 PM

^^eh baka kasi magaya sa dati na ilang dosenang tongresman ang sumama. :lol:

at matulad na naman dati na naihi pa sa eroplano.

demented_pigeon

July 15th, 2009, 05:03 PM

This is good news..:lol:

Mga manunulat talaga..

well the older article just mentioned that 100 congressmen were jostling for the slots but then there are only seven slots. Nonetheless, 100 congressmen who are fighting to get on that trip speaks a lot about our congressmen.

carl_vilches21

July 15th, 2009, 05:05 PM

^^
Hala..Good luck sa pag uunahan nila..Have a safe trip nalang..

bitoy

July 15th, 2009, 05:48 PM

^^ 7 members of congress plus their entire families and extended families. :lol:

jpdm

July 16th, 2009, 01:44 AM

well the older article just mentioned that 100 congressmen were jostling for the slots but then there are only seven slots. Nonetheless, 100 congressmen who are fighting to get on that trip speaks a lot about our congressmen.

Yes.

Sagad sa buto ang kakapalan ng mga mukha nila. Mga inutil na gahaman at matakaw pa sa kapangyarihan at pera. :bash::bash:

Planning Democracy

July 16th, 2009, 03:43 AM

well the older article just mentioned that 100 congressmen were jostling for the slots but then there are only seven slots. Nonetheless, 100 congressmen who are fighting to get on that trip speaks a lot about our congressmen.

Yeah, that they're a bunch of freeloaders trying to get into a junket.

Maybe they should have the slots auctioned among the congressmen so the government can recoup some of the money these congressmen stole.

alexela

July 16th, 2009, 04:53 AM

26 Pinoy nurses lose racial bias case in NY

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090716-215615/26-Pinoy-nurses-lose-racial-bias-case-in-NY

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:08:00 07/16/2009

GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK—The discrimination claims filed by 26 Filipino nurses and physical therapists in New York have been rejected by a US federal judge.

In their suit, the health workers said they were forced to quit their jobs at nursing homes in New York City and suburban Long Island, and that agreements made about working conditions before they left the Philippines were not honored by their US employers.

On June 30, an administrative law judge ruled that the resignations were not protected by federal immigration employment law.

The immigration lawyer of the health workers said he was disappointed that the ruling was made without a hearing. He said he was considering an appeal.

The health workers were hired by Sentosa Recruitment Agency (SRA) for its New York-based parent company, Sentosa Care Group, to help ease a staffing shortage in the United States.

Win and lose

Sentosa and the health workers have been exchanging suits in the United States and the Philippines.

Only in January, the New York Supreme Court acquitted 10 of the nurses of misdemeanor charges for endangering sick patients by quitting their jobs in a Long Island nursing home.

The nurses resigned from their jobs at Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center on April 7, 2006, in protest over SRA’s purported recruitment violations. They said contract provisions on pay and housing and working conditions were not followed.

In reaction, Sentosa Care brought a $50-million damage suit against the 10 nurses and their lawyer, Felix Vinluan, for purported breach of contract, conspiracy and child endangerment.

The New York court upheld the nurses’ petition to stop the Suffolk county from prosecuting them.

The court said the nurses resigned after their shifts ended, thus rendering “speculative” the accusation that they endangered the lives of their patients, including children, by quitting.

The court also said the nurses had “the constitutional right to be free from involuntary service.”

But in 2007, the US Department of Justice dismissed the charges of recruitment violations filed by the 26 health workers against Sentosa.

In 2008, they lost the cases they had filed in the Philippines against Sentosa for purported illegal recruitment, contract violations, illegal dismissal and nonpayment of salaries.

The case of Elmer Jacinto

A number of the nurses are licensed doctors in the Philippines who took up nursing to be able to work in the United States.

Among them is Elmer Jacinto, who graduated from medical school magna cum laude, completed his premed course of nursing cum laude, and topped the medical board exams in 2004.

In earlier interviews in the Philippines, Jacinto, a consistent scholar and honor student, said he was leaving the country for a nursing contract in the United States that promised higher pay.

“While it pains me to do so, I’m looking forward to going abroad and not to let the opportunity pass. If only the [job] market for medicine graduates were good here,” he had said. Reports from Associated Press and Inquirer Research

Juan Pilgrim

July 16th, 2009, 04:58 AM

^^:ohno:
I am not blaming any of these Filipino nurses at all!
But it is just different here in the U.S. and I am sure in other places too.
This should teach all Filipinos living and working abroad a lesson!

:horse:

bitoy

July 16th, 2009, 05:39 AM

^^ Lesson#1 ~ Stay away from Sentosa Recruitment Agency and Sentosa Care LLC. :D

jpdm

July 16th, 2009, 10:54 AM

Yes.

Sagad sa buto ang kakapalan ng mga mukha nila. Mga inutil na gahaman at matakaw pa sa kapangyarihan at pera. :bash::bash:

Philippine Star

Mad scramble for Obama trip

Updated July 16, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Congressmen are in a mad scramble to join President Arroyo’s trip to Washington on July 30 to meet with US President Barack Obama.

Malacañang officials said they would try to dissuade “non-essential congressmen” from joining the President’s trip to spare Mrs. Arroyo from criticism on the large number of her delegation.:bash:

Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar, however, said the Palace could not totally bar lawmakers from joining Mrs. Arroyo’s trips, as they are members of a co-equal and independent branch of government.

Olivar said it was not surprising that concerns about too many congressmen joining such trips at government expense have been relayed to them after criticisms of the President’s foreign trips came out.

“Having said that, how much further can the Palace go beyond that (dissuading)? After all, the congressmen are from a separate and co-equal branch and if they comply with the requirement of the law… it’s their call (to join the foreign trips),” Olivar said.

Officials said terrorism and climate change would top the agenda of the meeting.

Mrs. Arroyo will be the first leader from Southeast Asia to visit the US under the Obama administration, a White House statement said.

The White House said the two leaders will have “an opportunity to discuss ways to enhance US-Philippine cooperation on critical global issues, including counter-terrorism and climate change, as well as further the traditionally strong alliance and bond between our nations.”

While in Washington, the President will also meet with key US government officials and members of Congress, private sector partners, business groups, and the Filipino community. — Paolo Romero

:bash::bash::mad2::wtf::puke:

jpdm

July 17th, 2009, 03:33 AM

^^^^

Philippine Star

Cruz: GMA has her own 'Estribo Gang'

Updated July 17, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz called yesterday people who habitually join President Arroyo on her trips abroad as members of the “Estribo Gang.”

“The phenomenon of the so-called Estribo Gang is but a political manifestation of a dependent personality syndrome,” Archbishop Cruz said.

To determine whether the company that the President keeps are freeloaders, he cited three signs.

“First, (they) have this habitual preferential option for free rides; second, the definite and defined reversal of public servant to self service; and third, it is submission not leadership, adulation more than truth, always yes, never no.”

The archbishop’s comment came a day after it was reported that congressmen were in a mad scramble to join the President on her trip to Washington on July 30.

Mrs. Arroyo has often been criticized for bringing a large delegation whenever she goes abroad.

He explained that the term “Estribo Gang” originally referred to those who are fond of availing of free rides on board passenger jeepneys and buses.

Oftentimes, these are the people who are seen hanging outside the vehicle or colloquially termed as “sumasabit.”

The prelate added that it does not mean that to become a member, a person has to rob a public vehicle. “There is no significance to crime.”

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Public Affairs Committee (CBCP-PAC) chairman Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez said those planning to join the trip should thoroughly think it over.

It is often speculated that these traveling congressmen, who at times bring their wives with them, are using public funds to pay for their plane fares and accommodations.:bash:

“They should reflect on justice and on the common good. They should bear in mind that they are public servants and we are expecting them to be transparent and accountable… but if they would be using their personal money, then it is okay,” said Iniguez. – Evelyn Macairan

RonnieR

July 17th, 2009, 07:30 AM

2 foreigners held for robbing Filipino host

By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:54:00 07/16/2009

Filed Under: Crime

MANILA, Philippines – Police have arrested two foreigners accused of robbing their Filipino host of cash and valuables worth P600,000.

Manila Police District General Assignment Section (MPD-GAS) operatives arrested a Korean national named Kim Se Young, 29, and Helen Yung Lim, 40, from China, after Michelle Saga claimed that they ransacked her condominium unit and stole her valuables.

Saga told the police that she had allowed the two foreigners to stay in her unit at the Pearl of the Orient Tower Condominium on Padre Faura Street in Ermita because they were friends with her Korean live-in partner, Choi Byeong Min.

MPD-GAS head Chief Inspector Froilan Uy said the two were caught on the building’s closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras as they were taking some of the victim’s possessions out of her unit.

Lim was arrested by police operatives as she was leaving a casino while her alleged accomplice was apprehended in a room at a hotel where he was temporarily staying.

^^ nagmagandang loob ka na nga sa mga kaibigan mong foreigners, ninakawan pa. :bash:

RonnieR

July 18th, 2009, 04:45 AM

July 18, 2009
Goodyear to close Manila plant

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_404786.html
AKRON (Ohio) - THE Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co said on Friday it will cut 500 jobs by closing its tire plant in the Philippines as part of a strategy to reduce manufacturing capacity that the biggest US tyremaker believes is no longer competitive.

Goodyear opened the Las Pinas plant in 1956. The closure is to be completed by Sept 30 and will affect most of the company's 600 employees in the Philippines. Its sales and marketing operations there remain.

Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear wants to transfer some tire production to lower-cost plants in the company's Asia-Pacific Region, but did not specify where within the region. Planned closure of the plant in Las Pinas will end annual production of 2 million tires there.

Goodyear wants to reduce production by 15 million to 25 million units over the next two years.

The company plans to record about US$20 million (S$29 million) in charges tied to the closure in the third quarter of this year.

Goodyear plans to report its results for the second quarter on July 30.

In this year's first quarter, Goodyear recorded a loss of US$333 million. It lost US$330 million in the last three months of 2008.

Shares of Goodyear rose 31 cents, or 2.5 per cent, to US$12.92 in Friday trading. -- AP

jpdm

July 18th, 2009, 01:47 PM

^^^^

Very sad with this news.:ohno:

This means only Yokohama Philippines will remain the only local manufacturer of tires here.

The rest of the Philippine market will just be supplied by imports.

Our industrial capability is really going and going to the dogs...thanks to high power cost and massive liberalization of our market (our tire market is flooded by imports..)

jpdm

July 19th, 2009, 02:20 AM

The massive garage sale of the Philippines and the Filipinos tot he foreigners continue....:bash::ohno:

Sunday, July 19, 2009

SUNDAY STORIES
By Marlen V. Ronquillo

Adding insult to injury

What has become of us Filipino farmers?

I asked this question to myself. I asked the same question to farmers in my own farming community. Then, the same question was passed on to farmers from neighboring areas with a mixture of embarrassment and wounded pride. The trigger to the round of questioning, of course, was the report that South Koreans got dirt-cheap leases on 94,000 hectares of land in Mindoro to raise yellow corn and other feedstock.

There is no rationale for leasing the lands to Koreans for the rudimentary purpose of yellow corn production. None what so ever, unless the intent is to slap our farmers around and assault their integrity as tillers of the soil from time immemorial.

Raising yellow corn, while requiring quality seeds and improved technologies, is not really rocket science. Given adequate inputs and production capital, the Filipino farmer can produce the globally acceptable yield. If the standard is six to seven metric tons per hectare, the Filipino farmer, who farms with tender loving care, can raise it to eight, nine or 10 metric tons per hectare.

The only requirement for successful yellow corn production is adequate inputs and enough capital to last through a single production cycle.

Another reason: yellow corn is not an exotic crop. Or a crop recently introduced into the farming mainstream. Raising it does not need expertise from over seas or sophisticated growing technologies. Every farmer can do it and do it well. Within this context, the act of granting Koreans dirt-cheap leases on Philippine land for yellow corn production is an insult on our farmers bordering on travesty.

According to the Koreans who got the lease on the Mindoro land, Korean animal feed millers and animal raisers need ample stockpile of yellow corn—which have a shelf life of months—because of the price surges in the cost of this main animal feed ingredient. This is a lot of bull.

Last week, first class yellow corn was being delivered to feed millers and hog and poultry farms in Central Luzon from various corn-producing areas of Northern Luzon at a maximum price of P11 per kilo. This was A-1 yellow corn with the most ideal moisture content. This was a dirt-cheap price, which has been the case with yellow corn prices over the past several weeks.

For that same period, I was buying yellow corn between P8 to P10 per kilo delivered, from the yellow corn producing areas in Pampanga such as Magalang town. The Magalang yellow corn is somewhat inferior to the Isabela corn but its quality is good enough to serve the needs of a semi-commercial hog farm.

What prices surges are the Koreans that got lease to the Mindoro land talking about? Yellow corn farmers in Luzon have been suffering from depressed prices and the rock-bottom prices have been the norm for months. The last price surge was in February yet.

Instead of leasing lands to foreigners for undertaking as basic as yellow corn production, the government should just push through with a grand and viable agricultural program that has been mothballed for unknown reasons—the One Million Hectares, One Million Jobs program.

The benefits, economic and social, are self-explanatory:

• One million hectares of idle/underutilized farmlands will be put to good use.

• With an employment of one person per hectare, one million agricultural jobs will be readily generated.

• The program requires minimum investment as local agri-business corporations have pledged to be the ready market for the crops (yellow corn, cassava) to be produced from the one million hectares. They (the local agri-business corporations) are also willing to advance money for the initial production costs.

Essentially, the government component in the implementation of that grand program are basic: assistance in the land preparation and provision of irrigation facilities. For too little an investment, the state can, using a cliché, hit two birds with a single stone.

The Filipino farmer has been out of the radar screen of policy makers for so long—the invisible man—that the unilateral adaptation of anti-farmer policies has become routine and seemingly mandatory.

But the leasing of land to foreigners to undertake agricultural activities that Filipino farmers can do efficiently even with only one arm functioning is too much. It is adding insult to injury. And rubbing salt on an already gaping wound.

mvrong@yahoo.com

demented_pigeon

July 19th, 2009, 04:42 AM

jpdm

July 19th, 2009, 05:18 AM

^^ Atin ang lupa, sila nagtanim, sila ang magbabantay, sila ang magmamanage, sila ang aani, sila ang kikita... generate jobs? yeah right.

We don't need to lease our land, we can raise the corn ourselves then they buy it. Leasing the means of prduction is tantamount to eliminating jobs not creating it.

This country is now overran by unpatriotic, merchants who sell everything for a few bucks!

Time will come this country will just burn in flames by a revolution led by millions of landless, middle class, farmers, fishermen, laborers, honest civil servants and conscientious military sicked and tired of a callous government, politicians and self-centered elites and landowners!:bash::bash:

jpdm

July 19th, 2009, 05:35 AM

Business Mirror

Editorial:

What’s going on?

Thursday, 16 July 2009 21:58

Jimbo Albano / BusinessMirror

REPORTS that a little-known South Korean firm had managed to lease thousands of hectares of land in Mindoro Oriental, in a deal known only to some local officials but not to the departments of agriculture or environment, is certainly cause for alarm.

While it’s state policy to encourage foreign investors to set up business in the country and thus provide jobs, especially in a time of crisis, the benefits from such large-scale contract farming with nebulous terms remain unclear. In fact, if the worst fears of farming communities come true, such a deal could even impact on the food security of local inhabitants.

Even more alarming is that several similar arrangements are reportedly being forged in many parts of the country, and in many cases those in government who should know about them are either in the dark, or not serious about their regulatory duties.

We are not surprised, meanwhile, that in several recent controversial cases involving the exploitation of natural resources, South Korean firms are involved. The “Korean invasion” is for real, make no mistake about it, and while Filipinos are good neighbors and hosts, it’s time to look into the seemingly unstoppable muscling in of some Korean interests into various sectors and areas. For instance, the new “gold rush” area in a part of the Compostela Valley—site of the famous Diwalwal gold rush—counts scores of Korean prospectors among the hundreds flocking to the place, mostly unregulated.

The argument may be made that it’s good that foreigners are making a stake here and investing their money for business. Yet it behooves government agencies concerned in every case to make sure the benefits from allowing foreign business to operate here far outweigh the negatives—that is, that “dirty money” from organized crime isn’t laundered in Philippine-based operations; that the ventures are fair to the host communities and will not degrade the environment; that the foreign employers create a substantial number of jobs and follow local labor laws strictly (think Hanjin and its slew of cases in Subic); and fundamentally, that these ventures don’t infringe on the Philippine Constitution.

TeslaCoil

July 19th, 2009, 05:40 AM

^^Oh my! They really are invading us. We have laws to protect locals and it should be implemented strictly.

jpdm

July 19th, 2009, 06:05 AM

^^Oh my! They really are invading us. We have laws to protect locals and it should be implemented strictly.

A year ago, my friends now based in England and Scotland (both nurses) ask me if its good to buy a condo or a house and lot in the Philippines for their investments. I said they should buy land immediately because the next time they visit the Philippines, with our treacherous Tongressmen railroading chacha, the whole country is already overrun by Koreans.

Ngayon pa nga lang may restrictions na constitution, hindi na sila mapigilan, what more if stupid Nograles and the whole Lakas-kampi,Filipino puppies of foreign interests like PCCI and Makati Business Club, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Businessmen and joint foreign chambers in the Philippines finally succeeded in eliminating the provision prohibiting foreigners to own land in the Philippines...

This country will mostly become an unofficial colony of South Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan and even Malaysia in the future.

And to hell to millions of Pinoys who cant even buy a 50 sq meters of land worth 200 thousand pesos.

TeslaCoil

July 19th, 2009, 01:05 PM

My aunt based in Australia is teaching her compatriots based also in Oz to buy lands or properties there. In fact, just in Melbourne alone, most of the owners of houses and condos near the beach are pinoys. She will be buying a farm in Batangas this year as she plans to retire here in the country.

Yung mga OFW dapat nating sabihan na lupa sa pilipinas ang bilhin at hindi sa bansang pinagtatrabahuan nila.

The closure of GoodYear is very sad. Ang tagal na nila dito tapos ngayon pa sila magsasara. We have to be competitive especially this time of crisis. Our electricity cost must be lowered further.

TheAvenger

July 19th, 2009, 11:17 PM

This is war, Arroyo says when told of attack

By Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:07:00 07/20/2009

MANILA, Philippines—A young daughter of a government agent involved in fighting drug syndicates was abducted at the weekend and later found drugged and sexually abused in a heinous attack that provoked Malacanang to warn late Sunday night: “This is now a war on drugs.”

The girl, a minor, is “still in shock” and is confined in a hospital, a top government official told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, asking not to be identified because the family had asked him not to talk about the matter with the media.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said in a statement that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who appointed herself in January the country’s “anti-drug czar,” had been told of the attack.

“The President has just been informed … We will mobilize all forces to help the family involved,” Remonde said.

Before Malacañang issued its statement, law enforcers said they were looking at a certain drug syndicate supposedly with political connections as the possible perpetrator of the attack.

The Inquirer decided not to identify the agent or the office where he works to protect the family’s identity and the girl’s interest.

A Philippine law on violence against women and children prohibits the publication of any identifying information about the victim or a family member without the family’s consent.

The tragedy that befell the family appears to show how audacious drug syndicates have become in the Philippines, which ranks fifth in the world in terms of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) seizures in the last 10 years.

Officials have put the value of the illegal drugs trade in the country at a high estimate of P300 billion and a low estimate of P150 billion a year.

The girl’s tragedy also strikes a grim parallel to what has happened in other countries where drug cartels and gangs have turned drug trafficking into a frightful, flourishing business.

In Mexico alone, nearly 10,000 drug traffickers, state agents and civilians have been killed in drug war-related incidents since 2007, the Los Angeles Times has reported. Some victims were beheaded.

‘This is narco-politics’

“Without discounting other suspects, I think this is the handiwork of a drug syndicate which was the subject of a recent crackdown … just by assessing previous incidents following the bust,” the top official told the Inquirer.

He described the syndicate as “well-connected politically.”

“This involves narco-politics. May kalaliman ito (This goes deep) assuming the angle we are pursuing is right. But we’re bent on considering that angle,” the official said.

Another theory is “baka napag tripan ng barkada (a gang might have taken a fancy to the girl) but that is speculative,” an Inquirer source said.

Sketchy reports indicated that the girl went missing on Saturday night. She was recovered at around 6 a.m. Sunday near a military facility in Luzon, the official said.

There had also been a previous, but failed, attempt to abduct the young girl, the official said.

Both the rich and poor

Illegal drugs have become an insidious, pervasive menace in the Philippines, sucking into their vortex both the rich and the poor.

Of the country’s 3.4 million drug users, 1.8 million are regular users while 1.6 million are occasional users, law enforcers said.

The 2009 World Drug Report released by the United Nations recently said the Philippines was fifth after China, the United States, Thailand and Taiwan in terms of shabu seizures from 1998 to 2007.

“The Philippines remains a significant source of high potency crystalline methamphetamine used both domestically and exported to locations in East and Southeast Asia and Oceania,” the report said.

It said that while many countries manufactured shabu, China, Burma (Myanmar) and the Philippines accounted for most of the production.

Foreign chemists

The report noted that the illegal drug was often manufactured in industrial-size laboratories operated by transnational organized crime syndicates and staffed by foreign chemists.

The UN report said that in 2007, a notable increase in the seizure of methamphetamine-related manufacturing facilities in the Philippines was reported with nine significant laboratories and 13 chemical warehouses seized. This rose to 10 laboratories in 2008.

The report identified interregional trafficking routes as being from Burma to Bangladesh and India; from Hong Kong, China, to Australia, Indonesia, Japan and New Zealand; from the Philippines to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States; and from East and Southeast Asia to Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The report said that global markets for cocaine, opiates and cannabis were steady or in decline, while the production and use of synthetic drugs was increasing in the developing world.

Cannabis or marijuana remained the most widely used drug around the world, although estimates were less precise. With a report from Inquirer Research

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090720-216285/Daughter-of-drug-agent-seized-raped

jpdm

July 20th, 2009, 11:53 AM

Philippine Star

Yap not told of Korean, Japanese farm leases:bash::bash:

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
Updated July 20, 2009 12:00 AM

News took officials by surprise. Supposedly a South Korean province has leased 94,000 hectares of farms in Mindoro to grow 10,000 tons of corn a year. Agriculture Sec. Arthur Yap says it has not been cleared with him, so worries about the effects on domestic food supply and farmers’ welfare.

This isn’t the first time that items reached the press ahead of officials about foreigners leasing large tracks of Philippine farms.

Early this month an ex-congressman in Ilocos region announced that a Japanese partner is to lease 600,000 hectares of coconut plantations for bio-diesel. In Dec. 2008 officials accompanying President Arroyo to Qatar opened talks to rent out 100,000 hectares to the oil-rich desert state. And in 2007 agrarian reform bureaucrats said China was aiming to use 1.24 million hectares of Filipino soil to feed its growing population.

Yap cannot imagine what would happen to small owners of farms to be leased. Will they be leaving their backbreaking rain-or-shine toil and instead laze around on verandas counting the foreigners’ lease payments?

Yap says Gov. Josephine Ramirez Sato of mountainous Mindoro Occidental has denied knowledge of the Korean lease. Being in Palau for fisheries talks when news broke in Manila, he has yet to question leaders of Mindoro Oriental plains. About the Japanese lease in Ilocos, Yap cautiously avoided prying into a “private deal”.

Says he: “We want to entice foreign investors to develop our agriculture, but we must secure food supply and farmers’ rights. As a matter of policy, we don’t allow the conversion of farms for food to farms for non-food.” The Mindoro corn project was billed for food and animal feed. The Japanese coconut lease aims for the new bio-fuel moneymaker on top of edible oil.

Agriculture employs 35 percent of the workforce, and makes up 18 percent of GDP. Labor statistics show that the sector has created more work than others during the global financial crisis. Yap says one advantage from foreign lease of farmlands would be irrigation. It costs P600,000 to water a hectare of farm, money the government doesn’t have.

Muffstar

July 20th, 2009, 01:11 PM

TheAvenger

July 20th, 2009, 11:13 PM

By Arlyn dela Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:24:00 07/21/2009

MANILA, Philippines—A lawmaker leading a congressional inquiry into illegal drugs Monday said a weekend attack allegedly carried out by a drug syndicate had left an antinarcotics agent devastated upon learning that his young daughter was abducted, drugged and raped.

“He’s devastated but he remains determined to pursue his campaign against illegal drugs,” Ilocos Norte Rep. Roquito Ablan, chair of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said in Filipino.

“But now, he is focused on taking care of his kid more than anything else … Tatay muna siya bago isang anti-drug agent,” said Ablan, who has developed a close relationship with the agent.

Also on Monday, a top government official said the agent was “bitter and angry” at what had happened to his young daughter based on their last communication Monday.

“He said he had neglected his family because he was dedicated to his job. He was blaming himself … The ironic thing was he was trying to solve the problems of others,” said the official who disclosed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Sunday that the agent’s daughter had become the latest casualty in the war on illegal drugs.

The official, who requested anonymity, said the agent was so dedicated to his job that he and his family experienced “extreme poverty.”

He described the agent as an honest government worker who would not ask help, especially financial assistance, from anyone.

Antinarcotics agents perform “extreme sacrifices” in running after drug syndicates “but the help they get from government is lacking,” the official said.

“When something happens to them, to whom do they go? Where is the support of the government?” he asked.

The official said the gruesome crime was most likely perpetrated by a “politically well-connected” drug syndicate against the agent.

The official said the text messages he had been receiving from the agent had become few and far between since the latter’s young daughter was reported missing on Saturday.

“We are all blind now,” the official said when asked where the agent and his family were now.

But the official said colleagues had been dispatched to lend the agent support. With report by Nikko Dizon

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090721-216455/Girls-father-devastated-blames-selfsolo

TeslaCoil

July 21st, 2009, 12:23 AM

What beaches in Melbourne ?

St. Kilda;)

cool_blue

July 22nd, 2009, 03:59 AM

Goodyear to close Philippines tire plant
Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:51am EDT Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+]

(Reuters) - Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT.N) said it will close its tire plant in the Philippines by the end of the third quarter, as it tries to cut production capacity to cut costs by $700 million this year.

The closure of the plant in Las Pinas will result in 500 job losses from the company's 600 in the Philippines, and curtailment of nearly two million units of annual production capacity, the company said in a statement.

Goodyear, the largest U.S. tire maker, said production from the plant will be transferred to lower-cost plants in the Asia-Pacific region.

The company plans to eliminate 5,000 jobs worldwide in 2009 -- or 6.7 percent of its staff.

Goodyear, like other auto parts suppliers, has come under intense pressure from U.S. auto sales at nearly three-decade lows and a steep downturn in consumer demand that has prompted major automakers to slash output.

The company will record about $20 million in charges associated with the closure in the third quarter of 2009, principally for non-cash asset write offs.

Shares of the company closed at $12.61 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Hezron Selvi in Bangalore; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

THIS IS A BIG OUCH!

Muffstar

July 22nd, 2009, 04:34 AM

St. Kilda;)

Very trendy area too.

RonnieR

July 22nd, 2009, 07:39 AM

Ex-Army caught in 'car sex' in QC

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 07/22/2009 10:30 AM

MANILA - An ex-Army and an alleged senatorial staff was arrested for having sex inside his car parked in a dark and grassy area of Fairview in Quezon City late Tuesday night.

Police said Ricky Bill Hinola was caught in the act of having sex with an unidentified woman inside his parked car on a dark and grassy area of Belfast Road in Fairview before midnight.

The Quezon City Police District said its mobile team was patrolling the area when they spotted the car. It said policemen went to check if the car was occupied, and saw Hinola and a girl having sex.

Police said Hinola tried to escape using his vehicle, but was eventually arrested after colliding with a police mobile car.

Hinola refused to comment when an ABS-CBN News crew tried to confirm the police's claims. Police also seized a handgun from the former soldier.

Police said they will file several criminal cases against Hinola, including public scandal charges.
as of 07/22/2009 11:12 AM

Planning Democracy

July 24th, 2009, 08:11 AM

Cory is dead?? Blame it on Miriam Quiambao:

RT @miriamq Hey twitters. Our former President Cory Aquino passed away past 12nn. Please pause for a short prayer

:lol:

She's not dead yet, FYI.

pi_malejana

July 24th, 2009, 08:23 AM

^^

False alarm on Aquino’s death

By Anna Valmero, Maila Ager, Tina Santos
INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 13:20:00 07/24/2009

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 2) A text message that former President Corazon Aquino has died is circulating, but a daughter, a friend, and a staff member of her son Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III denied the story.

Toward the end of a mass for Aquino at the Manila city hall on Friday, former Supreme Court justice Adolf Azcuna was prompted by fellow Cabinet members of the former president to make the announcement after they all received a text message saying “Cory is dead.”

The announcement by the former presidential legal adviser caused churchgoers to break out into sobs.

Margie Juico, Aquino’s private secretary during her term, had just arrived when Azcuna made the announcement. She had just come from Makati Medical Center, where Aquino has been confined, and was surprised to hear about the news so she called up one of Aquino’s daughters Pinky, who told her that the news was not true.

“Please let us not make these untoward statements against Cory. She is still alive. Let us await word from the family. Let us respect that and let us all pray for her,” said Juico.

Azcuna apologized for the false alarm. “I made the announcement because they told me to do it after we all received the text. I phrased it this way: 'We received word that Cory has died.' But after the verification and the announcement of Ms. Juico, we are very glad that Cory is still alive and I call on all Filipinos to please pray for her,” he said.

The United Kingdom embassy, apparently receiving the same text message, issued a message of condolences to the Aquino family. It has since recalled its message.

absinthe_888

July 24th, 2009, 09:13 AM

Buhay pa, pinapatay na agad eh. tsktsk.

I wonder what will Krissy say on TV Patrol later :lol:

pi_malejana

July 24th, 2009, 09:15 AM

Buhay pa, pinapatay na agad eh. tsktsk.

I wonder what will Krissy say on TV Patrol later :lol:

that's the power of Talk n' text daw!!!:D:nuts:
madali lang gumawa ng false alarm ngayon, nuon nga pati school cancellation sa GM na dinadaan...:lol:

Planning Democracy

July 24th, 2009, 09:43 AM

You should've read her wikipedia entry an hour ago:

Death

On March 24, 2008, the Aquino family announced that the former President had been diagnosed with colon cancer.[54] Aquino underwent chemotherapy, and in public remarks made on May 13, 2008, she announced that blood tests indicate she is responding positively to the medical treatment.[55]:

By July 2009, Aquino was reported to be in a very serious condition and confined to a Makati City hospital due to loss of appetite.[56] It was announced that Aquino and her family had decided to cease chemotherapy and other medical interventions.[57][58] Aquino likewise reportedly received the Catholic sacrament of the anointing of the sick.[59]

On 1:23 PM July 24, 2009, Cory Aquino was officially pronounced dead. Behlat!

:lol:

cool_blue

July 24th, 2009, 11:05 AM

absinthe_888

July 24th, 2009, 11:26 AM

Planning Democracy

July 26th, 2009, 03:45 PM

Sunday, July 26, 2009
EDITORIAL: Obama the sanitizer

White House visit validates scandal-plagued Philippine president

Somebody at the National Security Council dropped the ball. On Thursday, President Obama is welcoming Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the White House for his presidency's first visit by a Southeast Asian leader. The choice of Mrs. Arroyo for this honor was a mistake because Mr. Obama is being used to give political cover for the Philippine president's troubles back home.

Mrs. Arroyo's domestic political position is precarious. A poll released June 8 by the Pulse Asia polling firm pegged Mrs. Arroyo's public approval at only 26 percent. Street demonstrations against her are routine and growing in size. These protests are in response to a dubious mandate following a dirty 2004 election and numerous allegations of corruption against her family and administration. Her husband, Mike Arroyo, has left the country and used doctors' notes to say he is too ill to obey court summons related to corruption charges.

The Philippines has become less free during Mrs. Arroyo's 10-year presidency. According to Freedom House, "Corruption is extensive throughout the Philippine state apparatus, from the lowest to the highest levels. Bribes and extortion seem to be a regular element of the complex connections among bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen, the press and the public." In Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, the Philippines ranked 141st out of 180 nations on a list in which No. 1 is the least corrupt. The level of Philippine corruption is tied with Iran and Yemen and worse than in dodgy places such as Libya and Nigeria.

The corruption problem is affecting Manila's relationship with other allies. A senior Philippine official told The Washington Times that German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent Mrs. Arroyo an ultimatum last month that Berlin-Manila ties are at risk if the Philippines doesn't pay $60 million owed to the German government for Manila's new international airport. The Philippine government seized the airport and refused to pay a German company -- which is partly owned by the German state -- for its construction after revelations that the contract allegedly was laden with millions in bribes and kickbacks.

There are also serious human-rights abuses in the archipelago. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, "The Philippines ranks sixth worldwide among countries that fail to prosecute cases of journalists killed for their work." Between 1992 and 2008, at least 34 journalists were murdered in the Philippines; there were convictions in only three of these cases. Four more members of the press were killed this June alone. Opposition voices regularly disappear as well.

On top of all this are machinations by Mrs. Arroyo to cling to power by setting aside next May's presidential election. The president and her allies are pushing to amend the Philippine constitution to change the current U.S.-style presidential system into a parliamentary system whereby Mrs. Arroyo could serve as prime minister. This would allow her to circumvent the presidential term limit which prevents her from staying in office. This move, incidentally, is similar to the strategy strongman Ferdinand Marcos used to stay in power after declaring martial law in 1972.

The relationship between Washington and Manila is an old and important one. After the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American war in 1898, the Philippine islands were a U.S. colony for half a century and have remained a close ally in the six decades since independence was granted in 1946. The current Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries allows U.S. troops on Philippine soil to help in the war on terrorism and to assist the Philippines with its fight against Islamic insurrection in the southern islands.

But the nation should be differentiated from its lame-duck leader. Welcoming Mrs. Arroyo to the White House only validates her troubled rule.

Planning Democracy

July 26th, 2009, 03:50 PM

^^

I can't get over that corruption thing, because it's so true, lahat na lang may tongpats! :ohno:

demented_pigeon

July 26th, 2009, 04:08 PM

^^ funny thing is even the conservative Washington Post sees bad news with GMA's visit. To think that even the nutjobs on the American Right can smell corrupt among one of their own "SOB" just shows that if the Right can be wary of her visit, so should the so-called liberal Democrats.

Juan Pilgrim

July 26th, 2009, 04:50 PM

^^:ohno:Unfortunately this U.S. invitation to GMA to meet in the White House will make her feel vindicated and her administration validated, which she really doesn't deserve.:ohno:

:horse:

absinthe_888

July 27th, 2009, 04:05 AM

^^ Tignan nyo na lang ang ngiti ni GMA pag asa Oval Office na sha together with Obama :D

Muffstar

July 27th, 2009, 12:39 PM

Ex-Philippine leader's cancer spreadsJuly 27, 2009 - 5:59PM
Former Philippine president Corazon Aquino's cancer has spread from her colon to her liver and her condition is so delicate that she cannot undergo chemotherapy, her son says.

"Initially it was in the colon but now it has spread to the liver," said Aquino's son, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.

"Her weakened condition does not allow chemotherapy," he said, adding that the 76-year-old former leader, who has been in hospital for a month, was being fed intravenously.

"We have reached the point where you're not sure if the intervention will help or worsen the condition," he told reporters.

Special prayers have been said throughout this largely Roman Catholic country on behalf of Aquino, who is held in high regard as a symbol of democracy.

Aquino, the widow of assassinated opposition leader Benigno 'Ninoy' Aquino, was propelled into the spotlight in 1986 when she headed a massive "people power" movement that toppled late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The housewife-turned-president went on to restore democracy and rewrite the country's constitution.

Over the past four weeks, Aquino's friends and former officials have been rallying support for the family.

© 2009 AFP

OtAkAw

July 28th, 2009, 11:27 AM

^^We just have to accept that only a miracle could save Pres. Aquino right now. My grandmother has undergone exactly the same situation 11 years ago, we were fortunate enough to have been able to be with her for a few months before she passed.

My prayers for Pres. Aquino as always.

diz

August 1st, 2009, 12:55 AM

Wow nakakaiyak. I was struck with a shiver an overwhelming feeling of sadness. May she rest in peace and my condolences to the Aquino Family.

le Reine

August 7th, 2009, 11:15 AM

Sobrang out of topic na tayo. Yung Cory thread nasa Samahan. I'll move it here in the econ section so more people could join.

As for media's "suspicious" mistakes, it doesn't matter now. I don't think it will still be productive to know if they are really intentional or not. Same goes with the debate about the "pull-out." Whatever really happened still caused GMA her already rock bottom popularity (if it's intentional, then I must say that it was indeed a very STUPID decision).

bitoy

August 7th, 2009, 11:17 PM

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08072009/photos/gloria_macapagal_arroyo.jpg

THE economic downturn hasn't persuaded everyone to pinch pennies. Philippines President Maria Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was at Le Cirque the other night with a large entourage enjoying the good life, even though the former comptroller of her country's armed serv ices, Carlos Garcia, was found guilty earlier this year of per jury and two of his sons were arrested in the US on bulk cash-smuggling charges. Maca pagal-Arroyo ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08072009/gossip/pagesix/eat_and_drink_183333.htm

TeslaCoil

August 7th, 2009, 11:24 PM

^^ Wow, that's more or less a million pesos for a one-night party. Still cheap compared to some high-end party/debut here in the country. But a million pesos is a million pesos.

crappypants

August 7th, 2009, 11:26 PM

yeah you don't know how the elite rich in the PHilippines spend considering the amount of poverty and hardship existent in the masses. it's sick sik.

bitoy

August 7th, 2009, 11:39 PM

^^ Wow, that's more or less a million pesos for a one-night party. Still cheap compared to some high-end party/debut here in the country.

ahhh... ok, lagay ko rin sa good news para sa iyo.... buwahahha!

:wink2:

crappypants

August 7th, 2009, 11:40 PM

:lol:

TeslaCoil

August 7th, 2009, 11:53 PM

ahhh... ok, lagay ko rin sa good news para sa iyo.... buwahahha!

:wink2:

Did I say it's okay? And it was edited just a few minutes ago.

Sige lagay mo if that will satisfy you :|

bitoy

August 8th, 2009, 12:12 AM

Did I say it's okay? And it was edited just a few minutes ago.

Sige lagay mo if that will satisfy you :|

:lol: Kahit inedit mo, your key words are " Still cheap".

If they reserve the place for 100 persons(which I think is the capacity of Le Cirque dinner area) then it would be around $200 per person, kung nakakaattend ka nga ng mga party/debut that cost that much in your area, o' e di ok pala. :|

TheAvenger

August 8th, 2009, 12:22 AM

^^ Wow, that's more or less a million pesos for a one-night party. Still cheap compared to some high-end party/debut here in the country. But a million pesos is a million pesos.

Well, the point is not about cheap or not.

The point is that that money spent in that one-night party is from the Filipino taxpayers.

Okey lang kung ang perang ginastos nila ay galing sa sariling bulsa nila.

bitoy

August 8th, 2009, 12:41 AM

^^ Mas ok kung pera ni TeslaCoil ang gagamitin... :lol:

O' baka mapikon si Tesla...

let's go on with the thread...

TeslaCoil

August 8th, 2009, 12:46 AM

^^ Hindi naman ako pikon. I already raised my point.

manila_eye

August 8th, 2009, 08:04 AM

Pinagtitripan ka lang nila no biggie :lol:

Bad news: Matatalo ang Pilipinas sa Sokor sa FIBA (inunahan ko na:lol:)

gen1

August 8th, 2009, 09:57 AM

igor09

August 8th, 2009, 10:58 AM

Pinagtitripan ka lang nila no biggie :lol:

Bad news: Matatalo ang Pilipinas sa Sokor sa FIBA (inunahan ko na:lol:)

Bilog ang bola..:cheers:

carl_vilches21

August 8th, 2009, 12:37 PM

^^
Yup...Bilog nga..

Kagaya nung nangyari sa ADMU vs. UP match where the powerhouse Ateneo was beaten by UP..:D..

Oops!..OT.

Sky Harbor

August 8th, 2009, 01:55 PM

^^ I digress being beaten by a "public school" (that's how the Blue Babble Battalion, of which I am not part of, refers to UP in ADMU-UP games). Hopefully we'll beat La Salle.

But moving on, I hope the President will clear up this brouhaha. P1 million is just too much, but if it comes out of her or her companions' wallets (KKB?), then we shouldn't have a problem.

carl_vilches21

August 8th, 2009, 02:33 PM

^^
Ohh..I see..Abangan natin bukas..:D

jpdm

August 8th, 2009, 03:11 PM

Askal82

August 8th, 2009, 09:36 PM

TheAvenger

August 9th, 2009, 08:14 AM

demented_pigeon

August 9th, 2009, 08:42 AM

while driving at MacArthur Highway in Barangay Mabiga, Mabalacat Pampanga a cloth poster on the
middle of the street that says :

" Noynoy Aquino for President Movement"

Later this afternoon I will drive back and take photos of that poster.

Anyhow I rather vote for Bayani Fernando than Noynoy.

funny, Noynoy won't run, as his father before him, he's an ardent liberal. Pag tanungin mo ang liberal party, iisa lang kandidato nila, at yun si Mar Roxas.

Muffstar

August 9th, 2009, 08:47 AM

Is that you Mahal or Mura? :lol:

Nothing like a junket if you get on it

jpdm

August 9th, 2009, 08:57 AM

Arroyo dined for P1M in New York—report
:bash:
Critics: ‘Lavish’ meal in bad taste
By Alcuin Papa, TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:56:00 08/09/2009

MANILA, Philippines—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her party racked up a dinner bill of close to P1 million at a ritzy New York restaurant during her recent trip to the United States, according to an online news report.

And the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), which referred to the story of the New York Post that was posted August 7 on its website, is demanding an explanation.

“Malacañang has a lot of explaining to do about this latest allegation which came out in an American paper. Who spent for the lavish dinner?” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said in a statement.

In a statement issued Saturday, Makati Mayor and United Opposition president Jejomar Binay said: “How Mrs. Arroyo and her administration can justify blowing P960,000 for dinner and expensive wine at a time of economic difficulty is beyond me.”

‘Just dinner’

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, who was with the President’s entourage, did not respond to calls on Saturday.

But he sent a text message explaining that it was Leyte Representative Martin Romualdez who hosted the August 2 dinner for the President and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo.

“There was no partying. Just dinner pure and simple,” he said.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer managed to reach Romualdez Saturday afternoon by phone. He said he was busy at the moment because there were people with him, and that he would call back.

He never did. The Inquirer tried to reach him again several times later in the day but he did not pick up.

Arroyo and her entourage flew to the United States for a working visit on July 29.

The President was billeted at the Waldorf Astoria, several blocks away from Le Cirque, when she was in New York.

Caviar and champagne

Arroyo arrived back in Manila early on August 5, and went straight to Manila Cathedral where the remains of former President Corazon Aquino lay in state, to pay her last respects.

The purported menu included caviar; such appetizers as lobster salad, wild burgundy escargot and soft shell crab tempura; main courses of black cod, halibut, Dover sole, saddle of lamb and prime dry-aged strip steak; and Krug champagne at $510 a bottle.

Bayan’s Reyes wondered if it was “appropriate for a head of state of a Third World country like Mrs. Arroyo to wine and dine in such a manner, given that we’re in the midst of a crisis.”

“This is one dinner that certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth, at least for the rest of the Filipino people,” he said.

Reyes said that even if someone else had picked up the tab, it still did not look “appropriate.”

Embarrassing

“It’s embarrassing for the Philippines to have such writeups appear in a foreign paper. It begs the question, what is Mrs. Arroyo really doing during her trips? Are taxpayers being made to shoulder the lavish lifestyles of the so-called rich and famous?” he said.

Reyes also said the mention of Garcia in the report was a sad commentary on Philippine officials’ reputation as corrupt.

“This ostentatious display of affluence reminiscent of [strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ widow] Imelda Marcos reinforces the perception that Philippine officials are corrupt and are living it up while others wallow in crisis. It is truly disappointing and disgusting,” he said.

He pointed out that in a November 2008 study that was part of Gallup’s World Food Day survey, 40 percent of Filipinos reported having experienced hunger “often or sometimes” in the last 12 months.

Hypocrisy

“The extravagance showed the Arroyo administration’s insensitivity and hypocrisy,” Binay said, adding that the dinner was held hours before Ms Arroyo and her party flew back to Manila ostensibly to catch former President Aquino’s wake.

Binay said spending a huge amount of money equivalent to three square meals for almost 3,000 poor families appeared to be Ms Arroyo’s idea of honoring and respecting Aquino.

“What they did was deplorable, especially if taxpayers’ money was spent. If they spent private money, what they did was in bad taste and again showed insensitivity to the millions of Filipinos who face hunger daily,” he said. With reports from Leila Salaverria and Niña Catherine Calleja

watcher09

August 9th, 2009, 09:16 AM

The president should have watched the "Pobreng Pinoy" documentary of GMA7 wherein our pitiful countrymen had to eat maggots, rats, etc. in order to survive, para matauhan s'ya.

jpdm

August 9th, 2009, 09:25 AM

The president should have watched the "Pobreng Pinoy" documentary of GMA7 wherein our pitiful countrymen had to eat maggots, rats, etc. in order to survive, para matauhan s'ya.

Matatauhan pa ba yan?:ohno:

gen1

August 9th, 2009, 10:27 AM

but at least she got some sort of publicity from the state visit which was largely ignored by US media :D

TheAvenger

August 9th, 2009, 11:00 AM

funny, Noynoy won't run, as his father before him, he's an ardent liberal. Pag tanungin mo ang liberal party, iisa lang kandidato nila, at yun si Mar Roxas.

http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af217/cris46/100_8736.jpg

demented_pigeon

August 9th, 2009, 11:43 AM

http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af217/cris46/100_8736.jpg

well. that's fine and dandy if people from tarlac want him to run the problem is abad, andaya, tanada, cruz, aquino, drilon, et al have decided that's the liberal party will be fielding mar. Interesting thing is, a friend of mine who works for a prominent liberal party member attended a luncheon of the liberal party attended by senior members in the senate, house and the provinces. It seems its already decided that its Roxas who will be the standard bearer of the Liberal Party. Apparently, the LP already chose Roxas 2 years ago after a consensus among its members. The idea that noynoy will run is already far fetched, if you ask LP members who their offical candidate is, they'll tell you its fairly obvious. As early as 2007, the LP senators and congressmen already came out in yellow shirts bearing the words "oras na, roxas na", noynoy among them.

dancethingy

August 9th, 2009, 02:18 PM

What does it mean to be in the Liberal Party of the Philippines? What does the party stand for? I just want to know because i'm not so well acquainted with Filipino politics.

TheAvenger

August 9th, 2009, 05:38 PM

Nang binabaybay natin ang South Luzon Expressway noong Miyerkoles sa libing ni Pangulong Cory Aquino, tinatanong ko ang mga taong nagtiyaga maghintay lima or anim na oras para lamang makapag-paalam sa isang taong nagbigay ng tapang sa Filipino na manindigan para sa demokrasya kung ano na ngayon ang gawin natin kay Gloria Arroyo.

Kaagad ang sagot ng marami, “Gloria, resign! Gloria, resign!” Merong isa nagsabing, “Patalsikin si Gloria!”.

Sigurado akong hindi gusto yun ni Pangulong Cory. Okay na yang patalsikin. Hindi naman talaga siyang binoto ng taumbayan. Nagnakaw siya hindi lang pagka-presidente pati pa kaban ng bayan, hinuhuthut.

Habang nagdadalamhati ang taumbayan para kay Cory ito palang si Arroyo ay nagsasaya sa New York at gumastos ng $20,000 sa isang hapunan lang sa “Le Cirque”, isang mamahaling restaurant sa New York.
Lumabas noong Biyernes ang isang news item sa New York Post na nag-dinner si Arroyo doon at marami siyang kasama. Dahil sa nag-order sila ng mamahalin na wine, inabot ang kanilang bill ng $20,000.

Kung i-convert mo sa pesos ang $20,000, aabo ng P954,000 o galos isang milyon pesos! Diyos mio, may konsyensya pa kayang natira itong si Arroyo at ang kanyang mga kasamahan?

Iniisip ko, ilang libong balot ng kanin na may kasamang pritong galunggong at sinabawang monggo ang mabibili nng $20,000 para mapakain sa nagugutom na mga Pilipino. Ilang pasyente sa Philippine General Hospital ang matutulungan nun sa pamamagitan ng pagbili ng mga gamot na hindi alam ng mga kamag-anak kung saan kamay ng Diyos kukunin.

Kinumpirna ni Press Secretary Cerge Remonde na nagdinner nga sila sa Le Cirque, na isa sa pinakamahal na resurant sa New York. Kasama raw siya. Ngunit sabi niya, imbitado lang sila ni Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez. “Hindi Malacañang ang nagbayad,” sabi niya.

Kung akala ni Arroyo safe siya sa kanyang mga ninakaw na pera ng bayan, ito ang itanong niya: paano nalaman ng New York Post ang bill niya? Ibig sabihin nun maraming inis sa kanya kaya siya binuking.

August 9, 2009 12:22 am
Ang ganda ng update ng Uniffors on the Le Cirque dinner:

http://www.ellentordesillas.com/?p=6649

Juan Pilgrim

August 9th, 2009, 06:10 PM

^^if there were at least 10 people who dined at Le Cirque, that $20,000 bill was really not that much.
The party occupied two tables and there were more than 10 people present.

I am sure GMA didn't pick up the tab because I know who paid for it.(not the taxpayers as Bayan alluded.)

:horse:

Sky Harbor

August 9th, 2009, 06:42 PM

^^ Who? Martin Romualdez? Even Arroyo critics are saying that if Romualdez was the one who paid the bill, the money still came from the taxpayers' pockets.

manila_eye

August 9th, 2009, 06:54 PM

Juan Pilgrim

August 9th, 2009, 07:11 PM

^^ I know. :ohno:

:horse:

gen1

August 9th, 2009, 07:53 PM

bitoy

August 9th, 2009, 10:57 PM

Bakit hindi na lang kasi kumain sa kahit saang Filipino restaurant sa NY. Ma surpresa pa yung mayari at ibang Pinoy na kumakain dun, o kaya sa Jollibee. :D

..never mind, baka ayaw nila kay GMA... :lol:

TheAvenger

August 10th, 2009, 12:25 AM

well. that's fine and dandy if people from tarlac want him to run the problem is abad, andaya, tanada, cruz, aquino, drilon, et al have decided that's the liberal party will be fielding mar. Interesting thing is, a friend of mine who works for a prominent liberal party member attended a luncheon of the liberal party attended by senior members in the senate, house and the provinces. It seems its already decided that its Roxas who will be the standard bearer of the Liberal Party. Apparently, the LP already chose Roxas 2 years ago after a consensus among its members. The idea that noynoy will run is already far fetched, if you ask LP members who their offical candidate is, they'll tell you its fairly obvious. As early as 2007, the LP senators and congressmen already came out in yellow shirts bearing the words "oras na, roxas na", noynoy among them.

Last night, I have seen the GMA TV stories that it was the Mabalacat Mayor who is floating the idea of Noynoy candidacy for President.

VIDEO :

Noynoy Aquino urged to run for president in 2010

http://www.gmanews.tv/video/46030/Noynoy-Aquino-urged-to-run-for-president-in-2010

demented_pigeon

August 10th, 2009, 04:23 AM

What does it mean to be in the Liberal Party of the Philippines? What does the party stand for? I just want to know because i'm not so well acquainted with Filipino politics.

Let's put it this way, the LP is in transition from traditional trapo party into an ideology based party. The Liberalism espoused by the party is not classical liberalism which calls for negative freedoms or the taking out of impediments to freedom like lowering taxes to promote business. In that regard, the LP is less of a business party and more of a social party. The liberalism they have is social liberalism which is for positive freedom which calls for creating institutions to promote freedoms. So a classical liberal views the state as being an impediment to freedom while a social liberal views the state as necessary to promote freedom. That is why the social liberals somewhat share similarities with social democrats.

The reason the LP of today is somewhat different from the LP pre-marcos is that during the time of marcos, the elite of the pre-marcos LP practically left the party and moved to the KBL. Those who were left were civil libertarians. So during the restoration of democracy, the LP was already a small party led by ideologues like Jovito Salonga and student activists who turned moderate like Chito Gascon. I'm not wholly sure of this but during the Salonga candidacy up to today, there was a plan to restructure the LP from being a ward leader party (read: padrino system) into a mass based party of individual members. Today we are feeling the effect of that. That is why many (not all) LP members value party unity and unity in platform and are somewhat ideological in their decision. That's the same reason why the LP of Salonga as opposed to the LP of Manuel Roxas (lolo ni Mar) can easily coalesce with moderate leftists because many of their members are friends with the other camp's leaders. But of course the LP is still in transition, hindi natin alam kung sa pagusbong ng kandidatura ni Mar magrerelapse and LP pabalik sa LP ni Manuel Roxas at umusbong uli yung mga pamilya at mawala na ng tuluyan yung mga social liberals ni Jovito Salonga. Posible din na ito na ang huli sa mga pamilya ng lumang LP (Roxas, Aquino, Tanada) lalo na't matanda na si Mar at si Noynoy ay wala pang asawa.

jpdm

August 10th, 2009, 04:45 AM

That's the same reason why the LP of Salonga as opposed to the LP of Manuel Roxas (lolo ni Mar) can easily coalesce with moderate leftists because many of their members are friends with the other camp's leaders. But of course the LP is still in transition, hindi natin alam kung sa pagusbong ng kandidatura ni Mar magrerelapse and LP pabalik sa LP ni Manuel Roxas at umusbong uli yung mga pamilya at mawala na ng tuluyan yung mga social liberals ni Jovito Salonga. Posible din na ito na ang huli sa mga pamilya ng lumang LP (Roxas, Aquino, Tanada) lalo na't matanda na si Mar at si Noynoy ay wala pang asawa.

I had a small chat with former Sen. W. Tanada, when I asked him about LP, he didnt mentioned anything about the Salonga and Mar wing. He only mentioned Lito Atienza's effort to take LP.

demented_pigeon

August 10th, 2009, 06:16 AM

I had a small chat with former Sen. W. Tanada, when I asked him about LP, he didnt mentioned anything about the Salonga and Mar wing. He only mentioned Lito Atienza's effort to take LP.

because there is no salonga or mar wings. its just one whole liberal party with an attempted split by atienza. the salonga "wing" is practically the LP. of course i may be wrong and i need to brush up on the LP but im pretty sure that the LP has achieved party unity.

dancethingy

August 10th, 2009, 06:27 AM

Let's put it this way, the LP is in transition from traditional trapo party into an ideology based party. The Liberalism espoused by the party is not classical liberalism which calls for negative freedoms or the taking out of impediments to freedom like lowering taxes to promote business. In that regard, the LP is less of a business party and more of a social party. The liberalism they have is social liberalism which is for positive freedom which calls for creating institutions to promote freedoms. So a classical liberal views the state as being an impediment to freedom while a social liberal views the state as necessary to promote freedom. That is why the social liberals somewhat share similarities with social democrats.

Thank you for that. I somewhat have a better understanding of the Liberal Party's platforms. It's good to know which party certain politicians belong to. The question is, can ordinary Filipinos identify themselves with certain parties, like the liberal party, and become well heeled voters? I for example can't identify myself with any party in the Philippines.

Which party does Bayani Fernando belong to again? i forget.

demented_pigeon

August 10th, 2009, 06:31 AM

Thank you for that. I somewhat have a better understanding of the Liberal Party's platforms. It's good to know which party certain politicians belong to. The question is, can ordinary Filipinos identify themselves with certain parties, like the liberal party, and become well heeled voters? I for example can't identify myself with any party in the Philippines.

Which party does Bayani Fernando belong to again? i forget.

he's with LAKAS-KAMPI. but i'll make a fearless forecast that he'll split from it and make his own. LAKAS isn't really known for its ideological consistency much less its party unity. Tingnan mo na lang, si JDV na masasabi kong tunay na christian democrat ay wala na sa LAKAS. Si FVR na nagtatag sa LAKAS ng Tao party na building bloc ng LAKAS ay dumidistansya na. Si Raul Manglapus na ideological father ng LAKAS ay patay na. Halos lahat ng miyembro ng LAKAS-KAMPI ay pawang mga recycled politicians mula sa LDP, PMP, NPC at PDP-Laban. kaya tama lang na tinanggal na yung katagang CMD sa pangalan nila kasi duda ko kung may christian democrat o muslim democrat pa sa LAKAS-KAMPI.

TeslaCoil

August 10th, 2009, 09:25 AM

ahhh... ok, lagay ko rin sa good news para sa iyo.... buwahahha!

Kahit inedit mo, your key words are " Still cheap".

If they reserve the place for 100 persons(which I think is the capacity of Le Cirque dinner area) then it would be around $200 per person, kung nakakaattend ka nga ng mga party/debut that cost that much in your area, o' e di ok pala.

Mas ok kung pera ni TeslaCoil ang gagamitin...

O' baka mapikon si Tesla...

let's go on with the thread...

Lagay ko din dito dahil good news pala para sa iyo.....

if there were at least 10 people who dined at Le Cirque, that $20,000 bill was really not that much.
The party occupied two tables and there were more than 10 people present.

I am sure GMA didn't pick up the tab because I know who paid for it.(not the taxpayers as Bayan alluded.)

OWNED! Ang karma nga naman ang bilis. :rofl:

jpdm

August 10th, 2009, 09:42 AM

because there is no salonga or mar wings. its just one whole liberal party with an attempted split by atienza. the salonga "wing" is practically the LP. of course i may be wrong and i need to brush up on the LP but im pretty sure that the LP has achieved party unity.

I think, in my analysis, you are saying the truth maybe in terms of ideology...

Salonga, Tanada and Abad are different from Roxas and Aquino.

jpdm

August 10th, 2009, 11:32 AM

demented_pigeon

August 10th, 2009, 11:43 AM

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/2009/august/10/mainphoto.gif

Photo1: The menu na hindi ko maintindihan

Photo 2:The generous congressman (mayaman!) na namlimbre! Dami pera o masiba mga kumain at lumalaklak ng mahal na alak

Photo 2:Hmmm...look who's defending the lavish dinner of Gloria..

...The former attack dog of Erap and critic of Gloria and devoted lapdog of the Arroyo administration.

actually, miriam distanced herself from the dinner and criticized it as well. tama ba ako dun? batay lang ito sa nadinig ko sa radyo. Anyway, to be fair, kung hindi pera ng bayan yung ginastos ni GMA, sige magapakasasa sila wala naman akong interes sa buhay nila. Pero kung pera ng bayan ang ginamit, problema yun.

Pero syempre may isang issue na dapat sagutin at yun ay kung bakit ganun ganun na lang sasagutin ni kongresman yung bill. Ewan ko lang kung ganun siya ka yaman. At kung ganun sya kayaman, bakit may pera siyang panggastos samantalang yung distrito nya e naghihirap? do i hear road widening project tongpat/komisyon?

jpdm

August 10th, 2009, 11:48 AM

actually, miriam distanced herself from the dinner and criticized it as well. tama ba ako dun? batay lang ito sa nadinig ko sa radyo. Anyway, to be fair, kung hindi pera ng bayan yung ginastos ni GMA, sige magapakasasa sila wala naman akong interes sa buhay nila. Pero kung pera ng bayan ang ginamit, problema yun.

Opps, I stand corrected. Sorry.

In-edit ko na.

Pero syempre may isang issue na dapat sagutin at yun ay kung bakit ganun ganun na lang sasagutin ni kongresman yung bill. Ewan ko lang kung ganun siya ka yaman. At kung ganun sya kayaman, bakit may pera siyang panggastos samantalang yung distrito nya e naghihirap? do i hear road widening project tongpat/komisyon?

Sabi sa ANC, based sa interview nila sa expert bawal daw sa isang presidente magpalibre sa isang congressman.

dvbaicrviser

August 10th, 2009, 12:34 PM

Juan Pilgrim

August 10th, 2009, 01:54 PM

:ohno: masiadong pinalaki. yung ipis naging kasing laki na ng kalabaw.

:horse:

gen1

August 10th, 2009, 02:33 PM

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/2009/august/10/mainphoto.gif

Photo1: The menu na hindi ko maintindihan

Set meal yan. for $58 you get a three course meal consisting of an appetizer, main course, and dessert. pili ka which appetizer, main course, and dessert you want.

the resto is famous though for its well stocked wine cellar. tignan mo ang wine offerings and price para masindak ka :lol:

the Romualdezes are like newly rich because only now with the GMA adminstration do they feel safe enough to start bringing out the wealth they hid after the fall of Marcos.

tagal din na panahon ang kanilang hinintay para ilabas ang hidden wealth nila. It is an open secret in the right circles that they are in a spending spree for the last few years.

jpdm

August 10th, 2009, 03:20 PM

Set meal yan. for $58 you get a three course meal consisting of an appetizer, main course, and dessert. pili ka which appetizer, main course, and dessert you want.

the resto is famous though for its well stocked wine cellar. tignan mo ang wine offerings and price para masindak ka :lol:

the Romualdezes are like newly rich because only now with the GMA adminstration do they feel safe enough to start bringing out the wealth they hid after the fall of Marcos.

tagal din na panahon ang kanilang hinintay para ilabas ang hidden wealth nila. It is an open secret in the right circles that they are in a spending spree for the last few years.

Para ngang lumalabas na uli Marcos-Romualdez...at lumalabas na rin yung pera nila...:bash:

bitoy

August 10th, 2009, 04:31 PM

Hindi naman daw si Congressman Romualdez ang nanlibre kundi yung kapatid/kamag-anak na si Architect Daniel Romualdez, isang de-kalibreng arkitekto at designer sa New York. Mani lang sa kanya yang bill na yan.

Kahit ayoko kay Gloria Arroyo, palagay ko hindi natin siya dapat sisihin sa kontrobersyang ito. Inimbitahan siya, masama namang bastusin niya ito. Huwag na sanang palakihin pa at gawan ng isyu ng iba ang nangyari, dahil hindi naman pera ng taong-bayan ang ginastos.

:ohno: masiadong pinalaki. yung ipis naging kasing laki na ng kalabaw.

It's the lavishness of that function given to her and to her entourage that's in question. With her credibility nowadays, not a lot of people will believe on who paid for the expenses of that dinner.
I know these public officials or alleged relatives can easily cough up that amount of money to entertain a vip, kaso may nakapansin at pinaguusapan dahil sa lagay ng ekonomiya ng Pilipinas.

absinthe_888

August 10th, 2009, 05:11 PM

Sabi nung kapwa kong taga govt employee sa Tacloban, mayaman talaga yang si Ferdinand Martin "FM" Romualdez...medyo OT na to, pero ang dad nya ay si Kokoy Romualdez.

Juan Pilgrim

August 10th, 2009, 06:35 PM

Sen. Miriam D. Santiago is really amusing!
Ang bilis maghugas ng kamao sa publico.
http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab25/docjp_2009/Dinner%20with%20the%20President/PRESIDENT048.jpg

:horse:

TeslaCoil

August 10th, 2009, 07:01 PM

It's the lavishness of that function given to her and to her entourage that's in question. With her credibility nowadays, not a lot of people will believe on who paid for the expenses of that dinner.
I know these public officials or alleged relatives can easily cough up that amount of money to entertain a vip, kaso may nakapansin at pinaguusapan dahil sa lagay ng ekonomiya ng Pilipinas.

Why question it when in the first place it was given to them for free? So they are not entitled for lavish things once in a while given the situation of the country?

Juan Pilgrim

August 10th, 2009, 07:19 PM

^^it's all delicadeza, guilt, double standard and third world mentality all rolled in one according to critics, I think.

:horse:

TeslaCoil

August 10th, 2009, 07:24 PM

^^ As if BAYAN is not using the people's fund to do some very noble thing... PROSTESTING and leaving their rubbish after.

bitoy

August 10th, 2009, 07:31 PM

Why question it when in the first place it was given to them for free? So they are not entitled for lavish things once in a while given the situation of the country?

I quote:

“Even if it is not public money, it is very imprudent,” ~ Bishop Deogracias Iniguez

Yes, with the current situation of the economy of the country, they should not avail of the lavish things being brought to them, all the watchful eyes of the critics are all over.

pi_malejana

August 10th, 2009, 09:59 PM

wag ngang magsasalita ang simbahan, akala nila malilinis sila...
mga impokrito...:D

gen1

August 11th, 2009, 12:39 AM

It's the lavishness of that function given to her and to her entourage that's in question. With her credibility nowadays, not a lot of people will believe on who paid for the expenses of that dinner.
I know these public officials or alleged relatives can easily cough up that amount of money to entertain a vip, kaso may nakapansin at pinaguusapan dahil sa lagay ng ekonomiya ng Pilipinas.

Pare, you should give her that na lang.

I mean, she traveled all the way to washington and obama doesn't even host her dinner (or even a photo op).

kaawa-awa naman ang pobrecita.

:D

bitoy

August 11th, 2009, 01:24 AM

^^ Kasi nga, hindi na na meet ni Lito Lapid si Obama, hindi pa nasiyahan si Lito sa dinner na ito, kaya nagkabulgaran. :lol:

jpdm

August 11th, 2009, 01:41 AM

Manila Times

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

EDITORIAL

Keeping the end of a bargain

NEWS of President Arroyo’s dinner at a ritzy restaurant in New York at a time when Filipinos are scrounging to make ends meet betrays official insensitivity.

That a legislator from Leyte financed the lavish feast for the presidential entourage at New York’s Le Cirque restaurant only makes the whole episode obscene.

Leyte after all belongs to a region that suffers from the second lowest per capita gross regional domestic product (GRDP).

Per capita GRDP is a broad measure of wealth produced by a person in a particular area.

According to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), Eastern Visayas had a GRDP of P7,020 per head last year, next only to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which had the smallest economic output of P3,572 per head.

Indeed, the poverty indices of Leyte are hardly one to inspire us.

The nearly P1 million tab the Leyte lawmaker picked up on behalf of the presidential entourage may have been his personal kitty, but his constituents surely wouldn’t mind having the money thrown their way in the form of some relief from the current economic downturn.

But let his constituents deal with the lawmaker come next year’s elections.

Assuming Malacanang didn’t spend a centavo for that Le Cirque dinner, having accepted the offer shows the national leadership’s failure to set the example to bureaucrats, let alone its citizens.

How could the Palace now rally government personnel around the call for austerity amid its efforts to plug a record budget deficit?

How could revenue officials be expected to ramp up their collections?

It’s a matter of having and maintaining the moral high-ground.

Referring to the New York Post item disclosing Malacanang’s indiscretion in the Big Apple, Palace spinmeisters cry black propaganda.

But that is hardly the best defense to raise at this point in time.

Indeed the Le Cirque news couldn’t have come at a bad time for the President.

The Manila Times on Monday carried a Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism report detailing how the improvement in Mrs. Arroyo’s wealth had outpaced the growth in the assets of previous post-Martial Law regime presidents.

Lest her spinmeisters put a second foot in their mouths, we suggest they rethink their response to this.

Assuming Mrs. Arroyo and her party deserved the sumptuous meal after keeping the ship of state steady and the economy humming despite the global financial turmoil.

But that’s giving the government too much credit than it deserves for the Philippine economy’s having emerged from the global turmoil relatively unscathed.

As we’ve said in this space before, the government has the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) to thank for the domestic economy’s continued growth.

Consumer spending sharply fell, but managed to stay afloat in the first quarter, as OFWs kept on sending money home to their loved ones.

OFW remittances after all fuel consumer spending, which is the main driver of the country’s economic expansion.

As any economist worth his salt knows, the true measure of a government’s impact on growth is its fiscal policy, which includes its spending as well as revenue-raising efforts.

On the spending front, the first-half data from the Department of Budget and Management shows that promised pump-priming especially by key agencies were failed to materialize.

The four agencies—the Departments of Public Works and Highways, of Agriculture, of Education, and of Transportation and Communications—failed to hit the President’s directive of using at least 60 percent of the productive portions of their budgets in the first six months of the year.

On the revenue front, the first semester data from the Bureau of Treasury is more damning. Targets have all been missed, not least because of the slowing economy.

Much needs to be done in terms of fiscal policy.

The government therefore has to keep its end of the bargain before it can dig in at Le Cirque or whichever ritzy restaurant, whether in New York or elsewhere. :ohno::ohno: