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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Saturday, July 30, 2016

Inday Sara Tasks Davao City Administrator to Go After Erring Officials

 (philstar.com)

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In this June 20, 2016 photo, president-elect Rodrigo Duterte's daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, takes oath as Davao City Mayor. Vice Mayor Pulong Duterte, Facebook
DAVAO CITY — Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio wants clean officials and employees working in the city government.
 
Duterte-Carpio has appointed acting City Administrator Atty. Tristan Dwight Domingo to file administrative or judicial charges on government workers involved in irregularities.
 
She signed the order that delegated some of her functions and duties to Domingo as mandated by the Republic Act No. 7160 or the 1991 Local Government Code.
 
Domingo will have the power to file charges "against any official or employee of the city who may have committed an offense in the performance of his officials duties, and functions."
 
The mayor has instructed Domingo to ensure that all employees and officials under the city's executive department are doing their jobs.
 
"And if they are not, Domingo's task is to run after them," Duterte-Carpio challenged.
 
The acting city administrator was also told to supervise and manage the affairs of the executive offices of the local government. He will also sign documents on behalf of the city mayor.
 
“Considering the magnitude of the functions and duties of the City Mayor and the need to provide appropriate action to any/or all matters that require urgent as well as quick pro-active response, there is a need to delegate some of the inherent powers, functions, and duties of the City Mayor to the Acting City Administrator,” Sara stated in the executive order.

Filipinos Optimism Hits New Record Highs

 (philstar.com) 

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The survey, conducted a week before President Rodrigo Duterte took his oath of office, indicated that 60 percent of Filipino adults were hopeful that the Philippine economy would be better in one year. STAR/file
MANILA, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) — Filipinos’ optimism about the quality of their lives and the economy reached new record highs during the second quarter of 2016, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said.
 
The SWS survey conducted from June 24-25 showed that 49 percent of Filipino adults nationwide were expecting an improvement in their quality of life in the next 12 months. Only 3 percent were pessimistic.
 
These brought net optimism at “record very high” at +46.
 
The survey, conducted a week before President Rodrigo Duterte took his oath of office, also indicated that 60 percent of Filipino adults were hopeful that the Philippine economy would be better in one year.
 
Measly 4 percent of them believed it would be worse, resulting in net optimism about the economy also at a record very high at +56.
 
The same survey said 30 percent of Filipino adults claimed their lives improved in the last 12 months while 21 percent of them said it was worse. Net gainers reached +9.
 
The survey was conducted among 1,200 Filipino adults nationwide, 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Humiliation and Death for Boxes of "Tuyo"

Inquirer Southern Luzon
By: Maricar Cinco
COUPLES suspected of selling or using illegal drugs are paraded in Tanauan City, Batangas, as part of the city government’s campaign to shame criminals.      PHOTO COURTESY OF TANAUAN CITY GOVERNMENT
COUPLES suspected of selling or using illegal drugs are paraded in Tanauan City, Batangas, as part of the city government’s campaign to shame criminals. PHOTO COURTESY OF TANAUAN CITY GOVERNMENT
Do you want Papa to give you baon (school allowance)?” Pedro Balaba Jr. asked his children before he left their house in Tanauan City in Batangas province one night in January.
But how and where he would get the money was a question his wife, Girlie Lopez, learned not to ask.
The next morning, Balaba, 28, did not come home. Instead, his body, riddled with bullets, turned up under a footbridge a few meters from the barangay hall of Darasa in Tanauan. No one saw the killing or heard gunshots fired, but a bicycle that was not his was found beside him.
Balaba’s death on Jan. 26 was briefly recorded in the barangay logbook. The city police did not have any suspect, leaving it as another cold case.
“We could not say [who was behind it],” a resigned Lopez said. “Maybe there were too many people angry at him.”

Market thief
Lopez, 34, met Balaba, a native of Nueva Ecija province, about five years ago. They had four children, the youngest a 10-month-old boy. Balaba earned loose change from being a porter at the city market, she said.
Life was hard that Lopez’s monthly salary of P4,900 as a caretaker of the barangay hall was barely enough. That might have driven her husband to steal, she said.
Lopez also said Balaba sometimes used illegal drugs. “He was an occasional user,” she said in Filipino.
According to police records, Balaba was arrested on July 4, 2013, for stealing vegetables valued at P2,800, and again on Feb. 26, 2014, for stealing boxes of tuyo (dried fish), worth P16,000, from a market vendor. On the second offense, he spent a year and two months in jail.
Shame campaign
Prison time, though, was not the only form of punishment he would receive. In March 2014, the city government paraded him around the market with a placard branding him a magnanakaw (thief) and pieces of dried fish dangling from the waist.
“I felt sorry for him,” Lopez recalled. “But I pitied my children more because they were bullied in school.”
Balaba was the first crime suspect who underwent public shaming. The city government called it a “walk of shame,” resembling the medieval walk of atonement.
The public humiliation drew varied reactions. Some supported it while others criticized it as mental torture.
In July 2015, a man arrested for stealing P3,000 worth of cable wires also took Balaba’s route. This year, the walk of shame was staged six more times and more frequently. It involved one suspected rapist and users of illegal drugs.
Lesson
MAYOR ANTONIO HALILI
MAYOR ANTONIO HALILI
“[My intention] is to warn people. If you see these people [tagged as drug users], you would not want any of your family near them. The public has the right to that information,” Mayor Antonio Halili told the Inquirer.
It was also meant to teach crime suspects a lesson so they would not repeat their offense, he said.
But Balaba, after his release, went back to stealing. “He used to carry this long knife and steal bikes from houses,” said a village watchman, who requested anonymity.
The shame parades became frequent and “thematic” by the time then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte won as President.
On May 23, the city government forced 11 drug suspects to walk under arches that read “Flores de Pusher,” simulating the traditional Santacruzan.
On June 19, the theme was “June Brides and Grooms,” involving seven suspected drug users. The women in the batch were forced to carry a bouquet. It was an “Independence Day” theme on July 7, involving six drug suspects.
Gerard Laresma, Tanauan information officer, said the city wanted to add a little “drama” to draw public attention.
“This began even before [the Duterte administration started office]. I declared a war on drugs since I took office,” said Halili, who won a second term in the May elections under the Liberal Party.
The mayor said Tanauan was once a haven of illegal drug trade. “I used to send them (suspected drug pushers) letters. I invited them to my office and talked them into changing their ways. There were some who listened,” he said.
This method, he said, forced pushers to leave, with some transferring to nearby towns and cities in Batangas. “I can’t do anything about that anymore (since) it’s already outside my jurisdiction,” he said.
Mayor’s group
Those paraded on the streets of Tanauan are only those arrested by the Mayor’s Anti-Crime Group (MACG), a group of about 70 civilians employed by the city government. Some of the MACG members have been issued firearms to augment the police force in curbing crime in the city.
After the walk, the suspects are immediately turned over to police officers, who would file charges in court and detain them.
Halili handpicked Allan Fajardo, a wealthy trader engaged in the scrapping business, to head the MACG.
Fajardo’s older brother, Rolando, was the suspected leader of a kidnap group behind the 1986 abduction of Japanese trader Noboyuki Wakaoji. Another brother, Polmark, is the village chief of Suplang in Tanauan and president of the Association of Barangay Councils.
“He is not his brother’s keeper, so to speak,” Halili said. “I needed someone with determination. [Allan] is very disciplined and he is very ‘clean.’”
The mayor denied that the MACG was his private armed group.
Incorrigible
So far, 35 suspected criminals have been forced to take the walk of shame. According to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), some are still detained.
“Whatever the law mandates has to be strictly adhered to by government agencies and instrumentalities. They are meting out punishments [even when suspects are not yet convicted],” said Jacqueline dela Peña, CHR director in Southern Tagalog region.
The CHR filed charges against Halili and the MACG for violating the human rights law on the first two instances. It is still investigating the rest of the cases, while closely monitoring the status of the victims.
“These people are incorrigible,” said Halili, who is earning the reputation as “Junior Duterte” for being tough on his policies, akin to the tough stance shown by President Duterte against crime in his 23 years as mayor of Davao City.
In defense of his campaign, Halili said the city’s crime rate significantly went down by deterring would-be criminals.
While he did not provide figures, Supt. Robert Baesa, the newly appointed city police chief, said the crime rate was lower than those recorded in Batangas and Lipa cities.
Tanauan’s Facebook account shows a video footage of a 3-minute interview with Balaba behind bars last year. A male voice could be heard asking him questions, such as “Did you think the CHR was right to accuse Mayor (Halili)?” Or “in short, are you admitting your offenses?”
In the footage, Balaba said he deserved what the mayor did to him and promised to change his ways once released. He repeatedly asked for help to find a job so he could send his children to school.
Balaba already lost that chance.

Kadayan Festival 2016 in Davao City

HAPPY KADAYAWAN FESTIVAL DAVAO CITY 2016!


Tuesday, July 26, 2016

AIDS doesn’t matter?!

OPINION In My OpinioNIN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring
For five days, 20,000 delegates met in the South African coastal city of Durban to take stock of progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, against a background of warnings that recent gains are under threat. The delegates to the 21st Inter-national AIDS Conference in Durban came from more than 180 countries around the world. Most were from the worst-affected regions in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Nearly 20 million people in Africa are afflicted with the AIDS virus. South Africa has the highest infection rate in the world with nearly seven million affected. One of the senior HIV/AIDS research specialists in South Africa, Professor Jerry Coovadia, presented a paper on the state of the disease in that country. Coovadia said South Africa had made enormous prog-ress in curbing the spread of AIDS and providing treatment to affected people.
But, Professor Jerry Coovadia is optimistic that the fight against AIDS can be won.
South Africa has the largest antiretroviral (ARV) program in the world with more than three million people on ARV treatment. He said there was no doubt that “we will continue to make progress. To really eradicate HIV/AIDS is going to be a long job but it’s not impossible, given the advances in medicine, given the advances in what we know about genes and how genes can affect it, given our advances in the best forms of treatment. Very important, too, is prevention – circumcision, condoms, change in sexual behavior, monogamy and so on. So I think it is possible but it is going to take a long time.”
Yes, there are plans for a new vaccine study. Delegates expressed great interest in the announce-ment made at the conference that promising results from an early safety trial with a potential HIV vaccine had paved the way for a major new study in South Africa. 5,400 volun-teers will take part in trials for the experimental vaccine called HVTN 702 due to start in November.
How about official and in-official figures and numbers for the Philippines?
The alarming situation should be addressed immediately as this may lead to an epidemic. But, the topic AIDS has been, is and seems to remain a hot potato, though only an immediate government intervention is badly needed to stop the spread of AIDS. The Philippines is among the countries who posted dramatic increase of AIDS victims closely being monitored by the United Nations.
AIDS doesn’t know any special season. Not the question “Sex first before love, or love before sex” is relevant. Besides all discussions regarding “pro-and-contra-life”, feminists’ sexual rights and freedom , using contraceptives or observing the safe periods in lovemaking, yes, what partners (married or not!) are doing is practically avoiding pregnancy.
Chasteness and chastity seem to become more and more empty words. Ask the young generation and don’t wonder if you’ll mostly hear a plucky laughter. Not ONLY “pro-and-contra-life-discussions” regarding pregnancy or non-pregnancy are important.
AIDS-tests for married willing couples? So far so good, but how about the most of new HIV/AIDS infections following the UN-study involving heterosexual men, gays, or those men who forced prostitutes to have sex without condoms? How about drug users, who spread the AIDS virus because of using “dirty” injection needles? Worldwide, several immigration authorities require AIDS-tests before entering the country and/or before a continuation of immigration permanent status documents processing.
Especially depressing is still for many fellows the condemnation and ignorance of condoms – the only 99% sure HIV-AIDS protection as several times proved. AIDS doesn’t matter, what a fatal attraction for those people, who love to play Russian roulette.
+++
Email: doringklaus@gmail.com  or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visitwww.germanexpatinthe philippines.blogspot.com.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

BI Reshuffles NAIA Personnel to Prevent Corruption


SHARES: 309
Philippine Daily Inquirer
By: Julie M. Aurelio, 

An immigration personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport processes a foreign national who has been barred from the Philippines for violating the conditions of his stay. (AFP file photo)
An immigration personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport processes a foreign national who has been barred from the Philippines for violating the conditions of his stay. (AFP file photo)
MANILA — The Bureau of Immigration has revamped its immigration head supervisors at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to put an end to familiarization and corruption in its frontline units.
Most immigration officers at the BI main office in Intramuros will be reassigned to the airports as a first step in the reshuffle of immigration personnel, according to the BI.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the reassignment would be in line with implementing President Duterte’s marching orders to eradicate familiarization in the agency’s operating units.
“The revamp is aimed at preventing fraternization among employees, which was pinpointed as a major source of corruption in government agencies,” the immigration chief said on Friday.
The revamp will affect about two-thirds of immigration personnel stationed at the NAIA’s three terminals.
Morente stressed that the reorganization of immigration agents stationed at the airports would be the first in a series of personnel reassignments upon his assumption last July 1.
“In the next days, we will be issuing new orders reassigning to the airports the immigration officers currently stationed at the main office for faster and more efficient service,” he said.
Aside from designating new immigration head supervisors, the BI chief also reassigned immigration officers to head key units at the main office and subports.
BI spokesperson Tonette Mangrobang said the agency would beef up its campaign against illegal aliens as part of the President’s order to law enforcers to crack down on illegal drug syndicates usually run by foreign criminals.
“The restructuring and streamlining of the BI’s intelligence and enforcement units was prioritized to serve notice to illegal aliens and foreign criminals that their days are numbered,” she added.
Earlier, retired police general Charles Calima Jr. was designated to lead the BI intelligence division.  The fugitive search unit is now headed by Jose Carlitos Lucas.
Mangrobang said the FSU reverted to its former status as a unit under the intelligence division.  SFM