International Relations and Foreign Affairs

[tonight]

Originally Posted by hecky12

nalito ako sa second picture.. mag base na lang ako sa first.

parang ang ginawa naman ng vietnam e from 200 nautical miles sa shore nila pasok ang isang island then another 200 nautical miles from that island... sobrang layo na ng vietnam diyan.. yung mga flags indicated ng vietnam e malapit pa sa pinas.. we only have 10 flags there..

yun nga sobrang layo ng vietnam tapos sila pa ang maraming isla sa Kalayaan Group. mas malapit naman talaga ang Pinas kaya dapat nga mapunta sa atin yun.

yung China naman inangkin nila ang ibang isla dahilan daw ay napaligiran ng China Sea

[bledzoe]

just want to share this great oratorical piece by Carlos P. Romulo, who was fondly called then as "Mr. Philippines" and "Mr. United Nations". He served under eight Presidents of the Philippines from Manuel L. Quezon up to Ferdinand E. Marcos.

I am a Filipino
By Carlos P. Romulo

http://goodnewspilipinas.com/wp/?p=4416

I am a Filipino - inheritor of a glorious past, hostage to the uncertain future. As such I must prove equal to a two-fold task- the task of meeting my responsibility to the past, and the task of performing my obligation to the future. I sprung from a hardy race - child of many generations removed of ancient Malayan pioneers. Across the centuries, the memory comes rushing back to me: of brown-skinned men putting out to sea in ships that were as frail as their hearts were stout. Over the sea I see them come, borne upon the billowing wave and the whistling wind, carried upon the mighty swell of hope- hope in the free abundance of new land that was to be their home and their children’s forever.

This is the land they sought and found. Every inch of shore that their eyes first set upon, every hill and mountain that beckoned to them with a green and purple invitation, every mile of rolling plain that their view encompassed, every river and lake that promise a plentiful living and the fruitfulness of commerce, is a hollowed spot to me.

By the strength of their hearts and hands, by every right of law, human and divine, this land and all the appurtenances thereof - the black and fertile soil, the seas and lakes and rivers teeming with fish, the forests with their inexhaustible wealth in wild life and timber, the mountains with their bowels swollen with minerals - the whole of this rich and happy land has been, for centuries without number, the land of my fathers. This land I received in trust from them and in trust will pass it to my children, and so on until the world no more.

I am a Filipino. In my blood runs the immortal seed of heroes - seed that flowered down the centuries in deeds of courage and defiance. In my veins yet pulses the same hot blood that sent Lapulapu to battle against the alien foe that drove Diego Silang and Dagohoy into rebellion against the foreign oppressor.

That seed is immortal. It is the self-same seed that flowered in the heart of Jose Rizal that morning in Bagumbayan when a volley of shots put an end to all that was mortal of him and made his spirit deathless forever; the same that flowered in the hearts of Bonifacio in Balintawak, of Gergorio del Pilar at Tirad Pass, of Antonio Luna at Calumpit; that bloomed in flowers of frustration in the sad heart of Emilio Aguinaldo at Palanan, and yet burst fourth royally again in the proud heart of Manuel L. Quezon when he stood at last on the threshold of ancient Malacañang Palace, in the symbolic act of possession and racial vindication.

The seed I bear within me is an immortal seed. It is the mark of my manhood, the symbol of dignity as a human being. Like the seeds that were once buried in the tomb of Tutankhamen many thousand years ago, it shall grow and flower and bear fruit again. It is the insigne of my race, and my generation is but a stage in the unending search of my people for freedom and happiness.

I am a Filipino, child of the marriage of the East and the West. The East, with its languor and mysticism, its passivity and endurance, was my mother, and my sire was the West that came thundering across the seas with the Cross and Sword and the Machine. I am of the East, an eager participant in its struggles for liberation from the imperialist yoke. But I also know that the East must awake from its centuried sleep, shape of the lethargy that has bound his limbs, and start moving where destiny awaits.

For, I, too, am of the West, and the vigorous peoples of the West have destroyed forever the peace and quiet that once were ours. I can no longer live, being apart from those world now trembles to the roar of bomb and cannon shot. For no man and no nation is an island, but a part of the main, there is no longer any East and West - only individuals and nations making those momentous choices that are hinges upon which history resolves.

At the vanguard of progress in this part of the world I stand - a forlorn figure in the eyes of some, but not one defeated and lost. For through the thick, interlacing branches of habit and custom above me I have seen the light of the sun, and I know that it is good. I have seen the light of justice and equality and freedom and my heart has been lifted by the vision of democracy, and I shall not rest until my land and my people shall have been blessed by these, beyond the power of any man or nation to subvert or destroy.

I am a Filipino, and this is my inheritance. What pledge shall I give that I may prove worthy of my inheritance? I shall give the pledge that has come ringing down the corridors of the centuries, and it shall be compounded of the joyous cries of my Malayan forebears when they first saw the contours of this land loom before their eyes, of the battle cries that have resounded in every field of combat from Mactan to Tirad pass, of the voices of my people when they sing:

Land of the Morning, Child of the sun returning… Ne’er shall invaders Trample thy sacred shore.

Out of the lush green of these seven thousand isles, out of the heartstrings of sixteen million people all vibrating to one song, I shall weave the mighty fabric of my pledge. Out of the songs of the farmers at sunrise when they go to labor in the fields; out of the sweat of the hard-bitten pioneers in Mal-ig and Koronadal; out of the silent endurance of stevedores at the piers and the ominous grumbling of peasants Pampanga; out of the first cries of babies newly born and the lullabies that mothers sing; out of the crashing of gears and the whine of turbines in the factories; out of the crunch of ploughs upturning the earth; out of the limitless patience of teachers in the classrooms and doctors in the clinics; out of the tramp of soldiers marching, I shall make the pattern of my pledge:

“I am a Filipino born of freedom and I shall not rest until freedom shall have been added unto my inheritance - for myself and my children’s children - forever.

[Danny Chua]

Not exactly. Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei are claiming based on geography - the 200 mile thing. Vietnam and China's claims are based on historical records daw - their ancient records already showed these islands on their maps, never mind the fact that these same islands were routinely ignored for centuries, and only now became valuable real estate because of offshore oil.

Looking at the map, Philippines is indeed the closest to the islands. Unfortunately, the way the world works is that no amount of angry words or hot air will resolve this issue in our favor, if we do not have the military capacity to keep and defend what we claim to be ours. The same goes for every other claimant to any territory. (Falklands/Malvinas for example.)

Might makes right. Sadly. Always did, always will.

[venntro]

A very nice read.

[venntro]

Blair coming to Manila
Updated February 27, 2009 12:00 AM


MANILA, Philippines - Former British prime minister Tony Blair is visiting Manila on March 23 for a speaking engagement.

This was announced Wednesday night by British Ambassador Peter Beckingham during a dinner he hosted at his residence for Scott Wightman, head of the Asia Pacific Directorate of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Blair will be in Manila for a day. He will discuss “the leader as negotiator” during his visit, which was organized by the Ateneo de Manila University together with De La Salle, with PLDT as a key sponsor.

As British prime minister, Blair forged a peace agreement in Northern Ireland after several decades of armed conflict. But he was criticized at home for supporting the US-led invasion of Iraq and the Middle East policy of then US President George W. Bush.

Blair, named special envoy to the Middle East by his successor Gordon Brown, recently won the 697,000 euro ($1 million) Dan David Prize for “his exceptional leadership and steadfast determination in helping to engineer agreements and forge lasting solutions to areas in conflict.”

The Dan David Foundation is based in Tel Aviv University in Israel’s capital.

Blair was the keynote speaker at the recent National Prayer Breakfast in Washington where US President Barack Obama was a guest speaker.

President Arroyo had flown to Washington from Bahrain to attend the prayer breakfast on short notice, but her presence apparently went unnoticed by both Obama and Blair. Critics lambasted her for making the trip.

Blair never visited the Philippines during his term as prime minister.

[tonight]

DTI to study plea for P1-B export fund

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will have to study a P1-billion export development fund that exporters are asking from the government, to determine how exactly the money will be used, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila said.

“We still have to look at the specific requirements of exporters,” Favila said. “We have to break this down. We can’t just give funding to whoever is asking for it.”

Exporters say many of them will likely fold up or will be forced to lay workers off if they will not get government aid in the next two months.

They said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had recently “verbally approved in principle” a P1-billion export development fund.

Favila said to reporters, “There’s some disconnect there. When President Arroyo approved that, she asked them to give them the bill of materials.”

The Export Development Council, a joint government-private sector body, is still liquidating P280 million in export promotions fund given last year.

Various exporters’ groups recently said the government should also consider giving them tax breaks, even for just 10 to 12 months.

[tonight]

Arroyo to Thailand Sat for ASEAN meet

MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will leave Saturday for Thailand to attend the 14th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, Malacañang said.

During the two-day meeting in Hua Hin, Arroyo will push for the “immediate” implementation of a proposed $120-billion liquidity fund for ASEAN, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde told a news conference at the Palace.

Arroyo and a small party will depart from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) at 5 a.m., he said.

Arroyo’s official delegation includes Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Trade Secretary Peter Favila, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, and himself, Remonde said.

Leaders of ASEAN are also expected to sign a declaration for a roadmap to establish a European Union-style organization in the region by 2010, according to a statement released by the Palace.

Arroyo is scheduled to return to the country on Monday.

[tonight]

SEAsian ministers to sign key trade deal

HUA HIN -- Southeast Asian ministers opened a key summit focused on the global economic meltdown Friday at which they were expected to sign a major free trade deal with Australia and New Zealand.

Ministers will also discuss forming a long-awaited human rights body, but the annual meeting in the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin is set to be dominated by efforts to shield their export-driven economies from turmoil elsewhere.

With the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) suffering plummeting demand from its developed trading partners, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called for cooperation to ride out the crisis.

"We must not resort to protectionist tendencies at trying times," Abhisit said in a speech to business leaders. "We must continue to believe in free and fair trade that shall remain the cornerstone of our ASEAN economic community."

The deal to set up a free trade area with Australia and New Zealand is the most comprehensive ever agreed by the bloc, which comprises nearly 600 million people.

ASEAN is starting to feel the effects of the global economic crisis, with its financial hub Singapore facing its worst recession since independence and others including Thailand sliding in the same direction.

Officials said the pact with the two Pacific countries was expected to be signed later Friday, nearly four years after talks on the deal first began.

It covers trade in goods and services, investment, financial services, telecoms, electronic commerce, intellectual property, competition policy and economic cooperation.

Australia is ASEAN's sixth-biggest trading partner and New Zealand the ninth, while ASEAN collectively is Australia's biggest overseas market.

The agreement is part of a raft of measures mooted by the organisation to ride out the crisis.

Leaders will sign a declaration on a roadmap for forming a European Union-style community by 2015 and discuss a $120-billion emergency fund agreed on by Asian finance ministers on Sunday.

Foreign ministers discussed the fund on Thursday night and called for it to be implemented as a "matter of urgency" to fight the global downturn, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters.

He said they agreed it should be completed "most desirably" before the 10 ASEAN leaders meet with their Chinese, Japanese and South Korean counterparts from April 10-12.

That meeting was originally due to take place in December alongside the summit, but both were postponed because of political turmoil in Thailand.

The ASEAN grouping, whose diverse members include a military dictatorship, an absolute monarchy, several young democracies and some communist countries, faces its perennially tricky problem of human rights.

Foreign ministers are due to meet Friday on a human rights body due to be set up under ASEAN's new charter, signed in December, but critics say it will be toothless because of the bloc's policy of non-interference.

The top problem in this department remains military-ruled Myanmar. Rights watchdogs urged the group again on Thursday to press the country's generals to end rights abuses and introduce political reform.

These abuses include the treatment of the Muslim Rohingya boat people, who hit the headlines earlier this year when Thai security forces allegedly abandoned hundreds of the migrants at sea.

The ASEAN summit itself also faces accusations of lacking relevance because of the absence of major regional partners and key economic powers China, Japan and South Korea.

They said they were unable to attend after the summit was delayed.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

[tonight]

ASEAN ministers debate rights body

HUA HIN -- (UPDATE) Southeast Asian ministers Friday discussed the details of a long-awaited human rights body that critics already fear may be powerless to stop abuses in regional blackspots such as Myanmar.

Foreign ministers were finalizing the terms of reference and debating the makeup and scope of the panel, agreed under the charter of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed in December.

But sources said the current proposals would not only stick to ASEAN's policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of member nations, but also fail to give the body any investigative powers.

Officials have said they want the body to be operational before the end of the year although leaders gathering for their three-day annual summit in the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin were not expected to reach any concrete agreement.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi admitted that finding common ground on the body would prove challenging, while Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya described the ongoing talks as an "evolving process."

"It is going to be difficult. I want to admit this right at the beginning because we are at different stages of development," Abdullah said in an interview with the Bangkok Post.

"We are at different stages of development and our own history of development of democracy is different," he said.

"In this region we have Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians. So there are certain things that we may find that they are not compatible from cultural perspectives."

Human rights have been a perennial issue for ASEAN, which includes military-ruled Myanmar and two communist states. The group has repeatedly been pressed to use its influence to improve the rights situation in Myanmar.

Proposals outlining the body's mandate did not give it the power to investigate abuses, but rather to act in an educational and promotional capacity, sources said.

Yap Swee Seng, executive director of the Bangkok-based Asia Forum told Agence France-Presse that the body's ability to gather complaints and probe alleged abuses "are very important in order to provide limited protection for human rights victims."

He said the planned body risked being powerless unless it was given an expanded mandate and included independent representatives.

Diplomats said that while some countries wanted to appoint independent experts to the body, others were pushing for it to be made up of government officials.

"That is a concern for us," Yap said. "The body will not be independent if government officials are appointed."

Furthermore, a policy whereby ASEAN member states agree not to interfere in each others' internal affairs would also clip its wings.

"From what we understand... principles of non-interference will be enshrined in the terms of reference," Yap said.

"We fear that this would be invoked by some states to prevent the body or to prevent other states talking about human rights violations in that particular country."

International rights watchdogs and the United States on Thursday both urged ASEAN leaders to push for reform in military-ruled Myanmar.

"To be worthy of its name, the body must be empowered to effectively address human rights in Myanmar," Donna Guest, London-based Amnesty's Asia-Pacific deputy director, said in a statement.

The rights groups said the summit must in particular address the rights of refugees and migrants, in particular Myanmar's Rohingya boat people, whom the military of fellow ASEAN member Thailand is also accused of abusing.

Separately, the US ambassador to ASEAN, Scot Marciel, called on the region to push Myanmar's rulers for "political progress" using their contacts and access to the country.

ASEAN has not put the issue of the Rohingyas on its agenda for the summit, but the issue was discussed informally both on Thursday and Friday.

[Animo]

No country in the developing world has ever reached progress and equal treatment without fighting for self-determination and choosing an independent foreign policy.

By the Policy Study, Publication, and Advocacy (PSPA)
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
February 20, 2009

A rare opportunity to reform Philippine – U.S. relations is unfolding. This is signaled, first, by the start of the term of Barack Obama as the new American president where, in his inaugural speech, he made an oblique reference to the corruption and political persecution under Gloria M. Arroyo. Second is the Supreme Court’s (SC) Feb. 11 ruling directing the transfer of detention of convicted rapist U.S. Lance Corporal Daniel Smith from the U.S. embassy in Manila to Philippine authorities. The failure of both the Arroyo government and the U.S. authorities to honor the high court ruling has triggered calls in and outside Congress to review or scrap altogether the U.S.-Philippine 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

Third is the evolving global economic recession that is bound to cause the restructuring of the monopoly capitalist-dominated international system with a specific impact on Philippine-U.S. ties.

The imperative of reforming Philippine-U.S. relations, which takes its roots in the nationalist ferment beginning in the 1950s, is an issue whose ultimate resolution rests not on the Philippine government but on patriotic organizations, civil libertarians, and other sectors. This is because no Philippine president shackled to the reactionary tradition of deference to a colonial master is expected to begin the process of foreign policy reform. Moreover, the Obama presidency, despite its liberal rhetoric, is expected to push a right wing-oriented foreign policy to ensure U.S. global hegemony with a more interventionist tack in the Philippines.

Decline of capitalism

Global capitalism is on decline – and with it the hegemony of the American empire, whose regression became imminent in the 1970s with the U.S. quagmire in the Vietnam War.(1) Capitalism suffers a cycle of periodic crisis that has become more crippling in recent decades. But the financial meltdown of 2007 that led to the global economic recession which now looms as the Greater Depression has a trajectory of at least 15 years. Just as the financial meltdown that begun in the U.S. was a key factor for the defeat of George W. Bush’s Republican Party, the current global economic recession is seen to effect a profound political transformation throughout the world.

David Harvey, a professor of the City University of New York (CUNY),(2) assesses that Obama’s $800-billion worth of stimulus package as a step toward financial recovery will fail. It will fail, he notes among other reasons, not only because the money is short of the $2 trillion needed every year but also because recovery depends on the willingness of other countries such as China and the Gulf states to lend.(3)

Citing recent U.S. intelligence reports, Harvey said that “U.S. hegemony had been fading…for some time but its economic, political, and even military dominance was now systematically waning.” Indeed, a declassified intelligence report issued in November 2008 - or right after the election of Obama - by the U.S. National Intelligence Council(4) projects that by 2025 or 15 years from now, the U.S.’ relative power will decline corresponding to the rise to power of China and the other BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, and India - with China seen as a global economic and military power.

Economic rebalancing

Clearly, the same report concedes, the current capitalist-driven world financial crisis “is accelerating the global economic rebalancing” resulting in a new international system. Although on decline, capitalism will be more state-centered with a dose of protectionist measures, signaling a shift from the failed neo-liberal dictum and the two decades-long finance deregulation. But this will likely fuel more intense rivalry among states over scarce resources, trade restrictions, and food insecurity thus triggering more tensions and wars including nuclear war, however limited in its initial phase.

Obama’s director of national intelligence, former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, Dennis C. Blair, characterized the world economic crisis as a top security threat. Blair issued this warning in his report, “Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community,” which he read in a testimony before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last February 19. The report represents the findings of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

“The financial crisis and the global recession,” Blair told the U.S. senators, “are likely to produce a wave of economic crises in emerging market nations over the next year” that has the potential of causing “serious damage to U.S. strategic interests.” “Instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways to the international community,” he added.

Indeed, a fourth of the world’s countries have already experienced some form of instability, including regime changes, linked to the global economic recession. In Asia, the economic crisis is heightening the potential for social unrest in such countries as Indonesia as well as the Philippines. Despite projections of steady growth, China has lost 20 million migrant jobs with possible serious repercussions in the countryside where employment has become scarce.

Of course, the U.S. intelligence assessments on the impact of the global economic recession provide the framework for Obama’s executive-level policy makers in defining global strategies that underpin America’s national security objectives. Recall that as early as 1992 the Republican Party’s neo-conservative wing warned in a secret report about the threat of Islamic terrorism and rogue regimes and spelled out the right of the U.S. to undertake pre-emptive and unilateral military intervention. The report’s aggressive policy recommendations were implemented by Bush 10 years later.

Philippines Still Vital to Obama’s Right Wing Agenda

Barack Obama’s key Cabinet persons in charge of U.S. economic and security objectives are on record as apologists for economic neo-liberalism and right-wing politics. His economic team, led by economic council director Lawrence Summers, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and chief economic adviser Paul Volcker are accountable to the U.S. financial crisis. His national security team, led by Defense Secretary Robert Gates (a holdover from the Bush administration), State Secretary Hilary Clinton, National Security Adviser former Marines Gen. James Jones, and Blair have a record of being pro-war and pro-Israel with close ties to the mega-corporate world and the powerful military-industrial complex.

An evolving policy recommendation points to the use of multilateral institutions and diplomacy (such as the United Nations) – a tack all but ignored by Bush’s pre-emptive and unilateralist approach particularly in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.(5) Still, this tack as well as other recent policy recommendations, particularly from a think tank identified with Obama – the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) – stress the imperative “of preserving U.S. power and maintaining its leadership (read: hegemonic) position” in the world.(6)

Central to this strategy – which seeks to confront uncertainties and emerging challenges as a result of the global economic crisis - is the preservation of U.S. military forces and facilities in 150 countries around the world(7) classified as main operating bases, forward operating sites, and cooperative security locations a number of which are observed to be present in the Philippines. In East Asia, Obama – as he had pledged in a letter to Arroyo in June 2008 in the case of the Philippines – will continue U.S. military exercises and access agreements while shoring up defense partnerships with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, as well as the Philippines, and other countries.

“Force multipliers”

In the pipeline is a move to deploy more low-profile U.S. advisers and special operations forces – dubbed “force multipliers” - in “micro security projects” (such as Sulu) to promote good governance as well as counter-insurgency “in the mode of Edward Lansdale.”(8)

From the U.S. national security lens, the Philippines belongs to the “arc of instability” where social unrest, challenges to the weak regime, and “extremism” will likely increase in the short term. Thus the country will remain a major chip of the U.S. template to contain China from rising as a hostile regional – or even global – hegemon threatening to alter the balance of power in East Asia and causing the slide of American hegemony. Southern Philippines and other locations of joint war exercises will be preserved as a laboratory for counter-insurgency training to generate lessons and military manuals vital to bigger operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries where U.S. force engagement is long and intractable.

By the looks of it, there is nothing to expect from the Obama presidency but more U.S. intervention and the preservation of the Philippines as a conduit serving U.S. security interests in the region. Evidence is ample enough showing the costs of maintaining this “special relationship” with the colonial master – a status of underdevelopment, continuing rule by the oligarchy, tying the Philippines as a second-rate state in the world community, anti-terrorism that serves as a tool for political persecution, and so on.

The call for the abrogation of the VFA can prove to be a major leap in the continuing search for an independent foreign policy, however limited the opportunities it will offer. However limited the opportunities were, the dismantling of the U.S. military bases in 1992 led to the economic conversion of the former base locations and peripheral communities, drastically reduced U.S. military aid, moved the peace process with the armed Left and the Moro rebels several knots ahead, and the crafting of a development-oriented foreign policy. The withdrawal of the bases was, of course, a hard-fought gain of the historic anti-bases struggle of the Left and progressive opposition that ended with the equally landmark Senate rejection of the proposed bases renewal treaty.

But Fidel V. Ramos’s neo-liberal mindset led to the rehabilitation of the base areas in favor of foreign investors even as he refused to heed appeals from communities for justice for the atrocities and disease-causing toxic wastes left by the base operators. A few months before stepping down in 1998, Ramos signed the VFA.

The long-term global economic recession opens opportunities for the assertion of people-oriented economic blueprints. The decline of U.S. world hegemony that now suffers from “imperial overstretch” and the lethal blows of financial losses should provide a stimulus for restructuring the country’s neo-colonial relations with America as Filipinos continue to build the blocks of alternative democratic governance. No country in the developing world has ever reached progress and equal treatment without fighting for self-determination and choosing an independent foreign policy.

The next 15 years will be crucial.

[jlshyang]

The Sabahans are staunch supporters of the government of Malaysia.

They voted overwhelmingly for the ruling party in the last general election in contrast with voters in Peninsular Malaysia where 5 Peninsular states were taken over by opposition parties.

BTW, I come in peace. Here are some photos of Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah state.

image hosted on flickr








image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[jlshyang]

This is the new Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

[carl_vilches21]

...Is there still a chance na makukuha pa ng Pilipinas ang Sabah?

[leviaragon]

kung ang pinas pa ang nagpatakbo ng sabah i'm sure hindi matamo ng sabah ang ganyang progress,,,pinugugaran lang siguro ang islang ito ng mga milf...
its quite a long story kung kunin pa ng pinas ang sabah..

[kiretoce]

Taiwan extends visa waiver to tourists from RP

Filipino tourists can now visit Taiwan without a visa, according to a new government policy that took effect Sunday.

The visa waiver extended to the Philippines—as well as to India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam—is the latest move of Taipei to help boost the island’s economy that has been battered by the global economic turmoil.

The visa-free waiver would apply to Filipino tourists who already hold a valid visa to the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, according to local media reports, citing Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The reports said that the waiver would also cover those who hold a Shengen visa, which is needed to enter any of the member-countries of the European Union. Filipinos who are permanent residents of those member-countries are also covered by the visa waiver.

But Filipinos who had worked in Taiwan as blue-collar workers would not be eligible for the visa waiver, also according to the local media reports.

Taipei is taking gradual steps to attract more of its neighbors to visit the island to blunt the impact of the global crisis, Frances Chung-Feng Lee told The Manila Times on Friday. She is the deputy director general of the Department of East Asian and Public Affairs of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“We need to strike a balance between our national security and economic benefits,” Lee told The Times.

Taiwan typically receives about four million tourists annually, about 700,000 of them are from Asean, she said. Asean is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional bloc composed of the Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Countermeasures taken

The travel and tourism business is seen as vulnerable to the crisis, prompting industry players and governments to take countermeasures. Thailand, for example, had announced that it would waive visa fees for all foreign travelers—including those from Taiwan—from March 5 to June 3.

Lee said that the United Kingdom recently waived visa requirements for Taiwan tourists in an apparent bid to capture the nine million Taiwanese who travel overseas annually.

Like most countries, Taiwan is suffering from the crisis. Unemployment surged to 5.31 percent here in January, the worst since 1978, according to other media reports, citing government sources. Worse, analysts forecast unemployment to top 6 percent.

Earlier this year, Taipei issued vouchers each worth 100 Taiwan dollars to its 23 million citizens—a stimulus plan aimed at boosting consumer spending.

Also on Friday, the Taiwan dollar dipped to a five-year low of 34.95 Taiwan dollars to $1—bad for the island’s economy but good for those who can still afford to travel.

Lee said they hope to see more visitors from Asean. “The more you learn [about] Taiwan, then [the more] you will understand Taiwan, and maybe fall in love with Taiwan.”

Taiwan is one of the closest neighbors of the Philippines. The flight from Manila to Taipei takes about an hour and 45 minutes.

[tonight]

Arroyo, Badawi meet on Mindanao peace
By Noel Adlai O. Velasco

CHA-AM, THAILAND—The Philippine government is seeking the resumption of the stalled peace talks with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The proposal to resume the talks dominated discussions during the brief bilateral meeting between President Macapagal-Arroyo and Malaysian Prime Minister Addullah Ahmad Badawi on the sidelines of the 14th ASEAN Leaders Summit here.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez Jr., who attended the bilateral meeting, said Ms Arroyo wanted the talks to resume, so she asked Malaysia to help initiate moves for both negotiating panels to meet again.

Badawi agreed to help facilitate the resumption of the negotiations. He also assured Ms Arroyo of Malaysia’s continued commitment to support the peace process in Mindanao.

Gonzalez could not say when the talks would resume. “No date was mentioned but I am assuming it would be as soon as possible,” he said.

The bilateral meeting was also attended by Rafael Seguis, head of the government panel in the peace negotiations.

The Philippine government called off negotiations with the MILF after the Supreme Court last year ruled as “unconstitutional” a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain that would have carved out an expanded Bangsamoro land for Muslims in Mindanao.

Gonzalez said it was explained to the Malaysians that because the Supreme Court had ruled on the ancestral domain issue, the Philippine government could not do anything about it.

“We told them that just like in Malaysia, you accept the decision of the Supreme Court,” he said.

[tonight]

para naman yan sa Sultanate of Sulu, IMO magtulungan naman sila ng Brunei

[venntro]

Originally Posted by leviaragon

kung ang pinas pa ang nagpatakbo ng sabah i'm sure hindi matamo ng sabah ang ganyang progress,,,pinugugaran lang siguro ang islang ito ng mga milf...
its quite a long story kung kunin pa ng pinas ang sabah..

Still it's still a question of ownership at the end of the day.

[neyoneyo80]

call it unpatriotic, but i'm just so glad that sabah went to malaysia... the pictures posted below explain my point

give that territory back to the philippines and the manila govt will make a mindanao out of it.... bato-bato sa langit, ang tamaan wag magagalit

thanks for posting these wonderful pictures

Originally Posted by jlshyang

This is the new Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

Originally Posted by jlshyang

The Sabahans are staunch supporters of the government of Malaysia.

They voted overwhelmingly for the ruling party in the last general election in contrast with voters in Peninsular Malaysia where 5 Peninsular states were taken over by opposition parties.

BTW, I come in peace. Here are some photos of Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah state.

image hosted on flickr








image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[venntro]

Sabah looks gorgeous.