You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Davao Police Chief Sued by 'abused' Wife



The wife of Davao City Police chief Sr. Supt. Vicente Danao Jr., Susie Danao, filed a complaint for violation of Republic Act (RA) No. 9262, also known as the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act, against her husband.

Mrs. Danao, an overseas Filipino worker, in a 12-page complaint-affidavit filed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday, alleged that she and her children "had been physically and verbally abused" by her husband in several instances from 2002 up to 2013

Mrs. Danao accused the Davao police chief of "psychological, economic, and physical abuse," and expressed fears that if she did not file a case against him, he might continue his abuse and "marital infidelity" to the detriment of their children.

Last August, a video of the police officer physically and verbally abusing his wife surfaced. His wife reportedly revealed his abuses in several police blotters during occasions she sought help.

Mrs. Danao was accompanied by Gabriela Party-List Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, who said in a statement that "it is doubly alarming that the perpetrator is one who is supposedly expected to uphold the law."

"How can he be expected to perform his functions in protecting women and children from violence when he himself is a perpetrator and insists on reducing cases of violence as trivial domestic concerns?" Ilagan said, in a press statement.

The criminal complaint is on top of an administrative complaint against Sr. Supt. Danao before the Philippine National Police Regional Internal Affairs Service. Danao was administratively relieved from his post for a month due to the administrative complaint. He was reinstated to his post early this month.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Bureau of Immigration Keeps Sueselbeck in The Philipines to Face Deportation Case

Laude fiance Marc Sueselbeck stopped from leaving PHL
Laude fiance Marc Sueselbeck stopped from leaving PHL. Marc Sueselbeck, fiance of slain transgender woman Jennifer Laude, is seen here at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 26, for his flight home to Germany. However, the Bureau of Immigration barred Sueselbeck from leaving the country after it filed a charge of 'undesirability' against him. Danny Pata

The Bureau of Immigration prevented Marc Sueselbeck, German fiance of slain transgender woman Jeffrey (Jennifer) Laude, from leaving the country on Sunday because of a pending deportation case against him.

Immigration Commissioner Siegfried Mison said in a text message that Sueselbeck had to defer his departure because of an undesirability case against him.

"A copy of the Charge Sheet was provided to him," Mison also said, adding Sueselbeck has been told to report to the BI's legal division on Monday.

 
On Oct. 22,  Sueselbeck and Laude's sister Marilou climbed a perimeter fence inside Camp Aguinaldo to get inside the Mutual Defense Board – Security Engagement Board (MDB-SEB) facility, a restricted area, where US Marines Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton, the suspect in Laude's death, was brought earlier in the day.
 
Sueselbeck has repeatedly apologized for the incident, saying he did not mean to disrespect Philippine authorities.

In a statement to the media, Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman,
said the AFP is "happy that the BI has done its job professionally and took swift action" in preventing Sueselbeck from leaving.

 
"The AFP has accepted his apology but remains committed to pursue the move to have him declared as an undesirable alien," he also said.
 
(C) 2014 by GMA News

Friday, October 24, 2014

Tourism Accolades for The Philippines

By Ed Biado, MANILA STANDARD 
 
These 7,107 islands are finally getting the recognition they deserve. After being perennially ignored for a long time in favor of other exotic Asian locales, the Philippines is now among the emerging destinations shaking up the world of travel. Thanks to aggressive marketing campaigns and effective branding strategies undertaken by the Tourism Department and supported by the the Filipino public here and abroad, Philippine tourism is on the brink of a renaissance.

Travel guide creator and publisher Lonely Planet included the Philippines in the list of top 10 countries to visit in 2015 in its “Best In Travel 2015” guidebook—one of only two Asian countries on the tally. (The other is Singapore, which takes the top spot.)

Baler in Aurora together with its more popular
counterparts are putting the Philippines back
on the map. DAVID CHAN
The write-up on the Web site states, “Many would say the time is well overdue for the Philippines to be recognized as the next big travel destination in Southeast Asia,” citing its “beautiful coastlines, fringed by dive-tastic coral reefs, sprinkled with sunbathe-ready white sand, backed by swaying palm trees and dotted with simple resorts of nipa-palm thatched huts.”
It adds that there are “plenty” of live-changing experiences (such as “clinging to the back of a jeepney speeding through the crowded streets of Metro Manila”), as well as “street parades, food festivals, sports tournaments and live music shows.”

From “hundreds of places that are exciting right now,” the destinations that made the recommendations guide are “just 10 countries, 10 regions and 10 cities,” each “chosen for its topicality, unique experiences and ‘wow’ factor.” (“Best In Travel 2015” is now on sale through www.lonelyplanet.com for $14.99.)

In a separate story on the Lonely Planet Web site, writer Trent Holden raves about the nation’s capital. He says, “Boasting everything from craft beer, street food and speakeasy bars, to live music and a contemporary art scene, Manila is emerging as one of Asia’s most happening capitals,” crediting the development to “a new generation of fun-loving Manileños determined to put it back on the map.”

The country is also on the radar of luxury travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler. Its Readers’ Choice Awards for Top Islands in the World named Palawan as the number-one choice and Boracay as the 12th.

Meanwhile, travel industry publication TTG Asia, a licensee of Travel Trade Gazette, hailed the Philippines “Destination of the Year,” an award bestowed upon the “most outstanding destination [in the region] for taking proactive steps and initiatives towards the development and promotion of the travel industry.”

All these are expected to raise the profile of the country in 2015, which the DOT declared as Visit the Philippines Year, “an invitation for all to experience the enduring promise of more fun in the Philippines.”

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Filipino Values - that hinder progress in the workplace (I)

By Dr. Tomas Q. D. Andres, BLUE COLLAR, October 1988


There are some negatively oriented Filipino values that hinder the attainment of quality performance. An oversome of amorpropio, for instance, makes the Filipino oversensitive to correction and criticism. He is ever on the alert to note slights, fancy or real. A worker, when given constructive criticism by his supervisor in all candor and sincerity could get mad and retaliate by telling him: "Akala mo kung sining stockholder!" A brotherly suggestion designed to guide a worker and made with the noblest intensions tend to excite animosity against a supervisor.

Filipinos are proud winners but are unabe to take defeat gracefully. They always strive to win and are exceedingly jubilant what they do. However, Filipinos are poor losers and do  not know how to lose without a feeling of bitterness. When a piecerate worker's output is rejected because of poor quality, he feels humiliated and no amount of explanation can sweeten the unpalatable fact. He is always apt to put up an excuse or alibi, blaming the machine or the material.

Another value hast has a negative dimension affecting quality is "gayagaya" or "keeping up with the Santoses" (copy-cats). The desire to compete with the neighbor's standards of living at all costs makes a worker produce quantity at the expense of quality. This sometimes leads to "pasikatan" mentality in a factory, where a worker is judged according to how many and how much he does a day.

Gaya-gaya also works adversely against quality when the supervisor himself does not give a good example. "Ang lumikha ng batas siya mismo ang bumutas".

The "bahala na"-mentality is the thief of quality, the mother of indolence, the twin sister of idleness, the natural parent of vice, the roadblock to initiative and productivity, the producer of sluggards. Procrastination -or putting off for tomorrow what you can do today - Manana habit - is also negative dimension and lack of quality. Superstition and fatalism values (talaga ng Diyos, iginuhit ng tadhana, gasat (destiny) and malas affect quality in a negative way. The baka-makalusot mentality makes Filipinos pass poor quality products to costumers.

(To be continued!)

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Ramos Weighs in on New Bangsamoro Region

FORMER president Fidel V. Ramos said the government has set an unrealistic time frame for a proposed law intended to set up a new autonomous Bangsamoro region in Southern Philippines.

Speaking at the Islam Democracy forum organized by the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy (PCID) at the University of the Philippines in Diliman on Tuesday, Mr. Ramos said the government should extend its time frame to complete its plan.

Ang kulang ay yung panahon kasi [Time is lacking because] you can’t just take these things for granted. Just because there is an expert panel, that does not mean that everybody will accept it within the time frame established by the government. It doesn’t work that way,” the former president said.

The administration of President Benigno S. C. Aquino III is eyeing to have the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) approved by Congress by the first quarter of 2015.

Asked what the administration should do to ensure that the planned Bangsamoro region will not be doomed to fail, Mr. Ramos said the national government should invest more in training the right people who will occupy key positions in the new region.

“There needs to be continuous training, at yung mga mahahalal na chief minister [and the chief minister who will be elected] must be well trained from the very beginning with the proper patriotism, proper sharing and caring for others and the republic of the PH.

“They will be part of the Philippines, they are not an independent entity,” Mr. Ramos said further.

Mr. Ramos was Philippine president from 1992 to 1998 -- the second chief executive in the restored democracy of the Fifth Republic which followed the fall of his cousin, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos. Mr. Ramos was a leading participant in the People Power Revolution of 1986 that led to Mr. Marcos’s ouster and exile.

In 1996, Mr. Ramos forged a peace agreement with Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) head Nur Misuari that briefly reintegrated the rebel leader into the political mainstream with his election as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), an entity organized during the administration of Mr. Ramos’s predecessor, Corazon C. Aquino.

In light of Mr. Misuari’s controversial stint in government, Mrs. Aquino’s son, the incumbent president, had criticized the ARMM as “a failed experiment. Many of the people continue to feel alienated by the system, and those who feel that there is no way out will continue to articulate their grievances through the barrel of a gun. We cannot change this without structural reform.”

Mr. Ramos emphasized that the ARMM is the outcome of a political process dating back to Mrs. Aquino’s presidency.

“It’s the leaders of the ARMM who were bad, not the Constitution,” he also said. 
(C) 2014 by BusinessWorld Online - Alden M. Monzon


Ramos Weighs in on New Bangsamoro Region

FORMER president Fidel V. Ramos said the government has set an unrealistic time frame for a proposed law intended to set up a new autonomous Bangsamoro region in Southern Philippines.

Speaking at the Islam Democracy forum organized by the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy (PCID) at the University of the Philippines in Diliman on Tuesday, Mr. Ramos said the government should extend its time frame to complete its plan.

Ang kulang ay yung panahon kasi [Time is lacking because] you can’t just take these things for granted. Just because there is an expert panel, that does not mean that everybody will accept it within the time frame established by the government. It doesn’t work that way,” the former president said.

The administration of President Benigno S. C. Aquino III is eyeing to have the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) approved by Congress by the first quarter of 2015.

Asked what the administration should do to ensure that the planned Bangsamoro region will not be doomed to fail, Mr. Ramos said the national government should invest more in training the right people who will occupy key positions in the new region.

“There needs to be continuous training, at yung mga mahahalal na chief minister [and the chief minister who will be elected] must be well trained from the very beginning with the proper patriotism, proper sharing and caring for others and the republic of the PH.

“They will be part of the Philippines, they are not an independent entity,” Mr. Ramos said further.

Mr. Ramos was Philippine president from 1992 to 1998 -- the second chief executive in the restored democracy of the Fifth Republic which followed the fall of his cousin, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos. Mr. Ramos was a leading participant in the People Power Revolution of 1986 that led to Mr. Marcos’s ouster and exile.

In 1996, Mr. Ramos forged a peace agreement with Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) head Nur Misuari that briefly reintegrated the rebel leader into the political mainstream with his election as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), an entity organized during the administration of Mr. Ramos’s predecessor, Corazon C. Aquino.

In light of Mr. Misuari’s controversial stint in government, Mrs. Aquino’s son, the incumbent president, had criticized the ARMM as “a failed experiment. Many of the people continue to feel alienated by the system, and those who feel that there is no way out will continue to articulate their grievances through the barrel of a gun. We cannot change this without structural reform.”

Mr. Ramos emphasized that the ARMM is the outcome of a political process dating back to Mrs. Aquino’s presidency.

“It’s the leaders of the ARMM who were bad, not the Constitution,” he also said. 
(C) 2014 by BusinessWorld Online - Alden M. Monzon


Monday, October 6, 2014

The Next Typhoon is On the Way ...



 A new typhoon hovering over the Pacific Ocean was forecast to enter the Philippine area of responsibility on Wednesday but the state weather bureau said it is unlikely to affect any part of the country as it moves toward Japan.
Vongfong was expected to pass through the northeastern boundary of the country on Wednesday or Thursday, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said yesterday.
Vongfong will be locally named Ompong once it enters the Philippine
area of responsibility, PAGASA said.
It said Vongfong may follow the track of Typhoon Neneng (Phanfone), which exited the country on Saturday.
“If it maintains its current track of west-northwest, it may enter the Philippine area of responsibility by Wednesday or Thursday,” PAGASA weather forecaster Fernando Cada said.
The weather bureau said that light to moderate rains may affect the eastern section of Luzon, Palawan and the Visayas on Wednesday due to the trough of the typhoon.
Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies apart from rainshowers or thunderstorms, it added.
PAGASA said the tropical cyclone was forecast to move toward the southern islands of Japan.
“It is not expected to make landfall in any part of the country,” the weather bureau said.
Meanwhile, PAGASA said the intertropical convergence zone will continue to bring cloudy skies with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms over the Visayas, Bicol region, Caraga and the provinces of Mindoro until today.
Metro Manila and the rest of the country will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms.
PAGASA said the coastal waters of Northern Luzon will be moderate to rough in the next 24 hours.
 
(C) 2014 by Philippine Star

Worldbank Downgrades Philippinen Growth Outlook


The World Bank has revised downward its economic growth projections for the Philippines this year and the next, warning that growth would largely depend on public spending, disaster reconstruction, and further structural reforms.

In a report, the World Bank said baseline growth projections were revised downward from the original 6.6 percent to 6.4 percent for 2014, and from the earlier 6.9 percent to 6.7 percent for 2015.

According to the World Bank, private consumption driven by strong remittance inflows would drive the economy “but growth will depend heavily on the ability of the government to ramp up spending.”

“An acceleration of reconstruction spending can support growth at above six percent,” the World Bank said.

A number of external and domestic factors could likewise pose risks to growth, it added.

External risks could come from disorderly policy normalization in high-income countries, a disorderly adjustment in China’s property market, political tensions in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and territorial disputes with China.

On the domestic side, the main sources of risk are low government consumption, slow reconstruction spending, and domestic reform lags, in particular reforms to raise tax revenues needed to raise infrastructure and social services spending.

Inflation is projected to reach the ceiling of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ three-to five-percent target.

It will also force monetary tightening and greater use of macro-prudential measures, such as further increases in the RRR and policy rates.

The World Bank report, entitled East Asia Pacific Economic Update, warned that food supply could remain tight throughout 2014 because of poor harvests due to weather-related disturbances, and could be exacerbated by droughts due to El Niño.

In addition, because rice is a basic consumption necessity with inelastic demand, any delay in the importation of rice, which is controlled by the government, could result in sharp increases in rice prices. Moreover, short-term depreciation of the peso and higher fuel prices are sources of inflation.

The World Bank said growth can be sustained and made more inclusive by pursuing structural reforms and investing more in human and physical capital in the medium term. Key structural reforms include protecting property rights, promoting more competition, and simplifying regulations.

The report noted the government’s planned doubling of infrastructure spending to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and significant increases in health and education spending, which require new sources of revenues.

“This can be achieved through a package of tax policy and administrative reforms,” the World Bank said.

There is scope to increase tax revenues, by, for example, broadening the base and making the tax system simpler, more efficient, and more equitable, while simultaneously lowering certain tax rates to increase the political feasibility of such a package.

The government has successfully raised taxes by 1.2 percentage points of GDP in the last three years through the sin tax reform, improved tax administration, and higher growth.

Accelerating the current reform momentum would help the country yield additional tax revenues to create the fiscal space needed to enhance growth in the coming years.

Meanwhile, economic growth of developing East Asia is seen to slow down to 6.9 percent this year, from 7.2 percent in 2013 due to various external risks.
World Bank East Asia and Pacific regional vice-president Axel Vann Trotsenburg said the region has the potential to continue to grow at a higher rate and faster than other developing regions if policy makers implement an ambitious domestic reform agenda.

The region remains vulnerable to a sharp slowdown in China, which though unlikely to happen, could hurt commodity producers which include metal exporters in Mongolia and coal exporters in Indonesia.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Study Links Heat Waves in Asia to Climate Change




The report, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, investigates the causes of a wide variety of extreme weather and climate events from around the world in 2013. Titled "Explaining Extreme Events of 2013 from a Climate Perspective" the 84-page document examines the causes of 16 individual extreme events - including heat waves, rain, flood, droughts and storms - that occurred on four continents in 2013. 

Thirteen independent studies mentioned in the report - compiled by 92 scientists from around the globe – determined there was a link between extreme weather and the burning of fossil fuels. But while the authors found that human influence had substantially increased both the likelihood and severity of heat waves in places like Asia and Australia, it was more difficult to measure the influence of human activity on other events like droughts, heavy rain and storms.

Thomas Peterson, principal scientist at NOAA's National Climactic Data Center and one of the report's lead editors, says in an interview with  Deutsche Welle TV Berlin, that while scientists could not identify a linkage between human-caused global warming and some extreme weather events, the data gathered provides evidence that human activity has increased the intensity and likelihood of heat waves in Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea.


Peterson: 'Human activity has influenced the strength of extreme weather or increased its likelihood'

Which extreme weather events did you focus on in Asia and why?

Thomas Peterson: Each of the four topics evaluated in Asia was selected by the author team for subjective reasons. Often because the event was of interest to them on a personal level, as it impacted them, their families and their friends. For instance, the report focuses on Japan, Korea and China which all experienced extremely hot summers in 2013.

The fourth topic focused on heavy rain in India. With an early arrival of monsoon-like atmospheric circulation in June, the heavy precipitation that occurred in northern India was a once-in-a-century event.

What were the key findings of the report?

The report found that long duration heat waves during the summer and prevailing warmth for annual conditions are becoming increasingly likely due to a warming planet, as much as 10 times more likely due to the current cumulative effects of human-induced climate change, as found for the Korean heat wave of summer 2013.
Extreme precipitation events of last year were found to have been much less influenced by human-induced climate change than extreme temperature events. Furthermore, prolonged cold waves have become much less likely, such that the severely cold 2013 winter over the United Kingdom was perhaps the most remarkable event of all those studied in 2013 - its probability of occurrence may have fallen 30-fold due to global warming alone.

However, there was no clear evidence of human influence on any of the three very intense storms examined, which included a surprising winter-like storm during autumn in the Pyrenees, an extreme blizzard across the US High Plains, and Cyclone 'Christian' that delivered damaging winds across northern Germany and southern Denmark.

To which extent did climate role play a role in extreme weather events in Asia last year?

All four events evaluated in Asia were found to indicate that human activity had influenced the strength of extreme weather or increased its likelihood. For instance, analyses of observed and simulated June precipitation provided evidence that human-caused climate change has increased the likelihood of much stronger precipitation in northern India, and made heat waves more likely to occur in Japan, Korea and Easter China.

How come human factors were found to have influenced some weather events, but not others? 

Natural variability was a prime cause of all events, just the randomness of the weather. For some of these events, in addition to the natural causes, human influence helped make the events stronger or more likely. But for some events in other regions, the analyses that scientists conducted could not identify a linkage. For a few events, greenhouse gases actually made the extreme event less likely.

Three independent studies which examined Pacific Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric anomalies, found some, but not conclusive, evidence for the impact of human-caused climate change on the ongoing rainfall deficit in the US state of California. For example, one paper found evidence that atmospheric pressure patterns related to the drought increased due to human causes, but their exact influence on the California drought remains uncertain.

So, in your view, which weather events are more likely to be influenced by human factors than others?

Three papers with different methodologies looking at the Chinese, Korean and Japanese heat waves reached the same conclusion. This is a very powerful message. If increases in greenhouse gases are making an event more likely, then it implies that we should expect events like that more often in the future.


The study examined the causes of 16 individual extreme weather events around the world in 2013.

If some extreme weather events could be linked directly to climate change, what does this tell us about the urgency to tackle the issue?

It tells us that climate change is not just in the future but, for example, for the people in eastern China, Korea and Japan, climate change is in their own backyards.

Thomas C. Peterson is President of World Meteorological Organization's Commission for Climatology and the Principal Scientist at the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States.

(C) 2014 Deutsche Welle TV Berlin/Germany