New Bureau of Immigration Departure/Arrival Cards

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) launched the new immigration departure and arrival cards which will be used nationwide effective next month.

The BI-NAIA said the newly designed and printed immigration cards is just one of the projects of the bureau in its coming efforts to simplify frontline services and improve access by the traveling public.

The arrival card is coded blue, while the departure is in red. These cards are used to document passengers, for border management and compilation of tourism statistics.

Unlike the old immigration cards which are printed by airline companies, the BI-NAIA said the new cards are funded by the government, distributed by authorized personnel, and are free of advertisements.

The design and data fields of the cards are aligned with the BI's existing computer systems - the upgraded BI-Information-System (BIIS). The size of the color-coded forms are aligned with that of the standard passport page.

The BI-NAIA said the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) provided valuable inputs to the new cards while the National Printing Office (NPO) was tapped to print the cards and to ensure regular supply.

Happy travelling everyone!

Philippines has World's 3rd Most Journalists' Killings

The Philippines had the third most number of journalists killed last year and has continued to be among the countries where press freedom is imperiled, according to two international media watchdogs.

In its "Killing the Messenger" report released Tuesday, the London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) said that last year 14 journalists were killed in the Philippines, next to Syria with 20 journalists killed and Iraq with 16.

The INSI reported that 134 journalists and media staff were killed in 29 countries in 2013, of which 69 happened in peacetime while the rest during armed conflicts in different parts of the world.

Of the 14 journalists killed in the Philippines, four were officially listed as having died while they were working at a radio station in Tacloban City in central Philippines when super typhoon Haiyan hit the area on Nov. 8, 2013.

According to the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), a local media watchdog, 10 other media workers, who were on duty when the typhoon struck, have remained missing and were presumed to have died.

Also late last year, three radio commentators in southern Philippines were gunned down within two weeks but up to now the killers have not been apprehended.

In the Philippines, particularly in the provinces, anyone can buy radio time where part-time commentators attack or malign their enemies on air. The object of these attacks often resort to hiring a professional killer to "silence" the commentator. Killings like these almost always remain unsolved in the Philippines.

According to the INSI, of the total casualties, 65 died covering armed conflicts, primarily in Syria and Iraq, while 51 were killed in peacetime covering issues like crime and corruption, and 18 died in accidents.

The total was down from 152 deaths recorded in 2012, but there was an accompanying rise in assaults, threats and kidnappings directed at journalists that largely go unreported, the INSI said.

Last week, the international media group Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders) also said that the media situation in the Philippines has remained in a "difficult situation" and the environment of freedom "has even worsened."

According to the RSF's "2014 World Press Freedom Index" the Philippines went down two notches to the 149th among 180 countries included in the index.

The Philippines ranked 156th in 2010 after the Maguindanao Massacre on Nov. 23, 2009 when 32 of the 58 people killed were journalists.

According to the RSF, the Philippines and Pakistan are among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

When Philippine President Benigno Aquino III took office in 2010, the country managed to climb to the 140th spot in 2011 before sliding down again to the 147th place last year.

Even the troubled countries of Mali (now ranked 122nd) and the Central African Republic (now 109th), which dropped more than 120 spots, were better off than the Philippines, the index showed.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the Aquino administration has failed to make any "significant progress" last year to address impunity in media killings.

The HRW listed only 12 Filipino journalists killed in 2013 which has brought to 26 the total number of journalists killed since Aquino assumed office in June 2010.

According to HRW of the 26 media killings, police have arrested suspects in only six cases and the government has secured convictions in only two cases.

Reacting to the media watchdogs' findings, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said the Aquino administration is " committed" to pursue and prosecute the assailants of slain journalists.

"We will continue to ensure that there are no prior restraints to the exercise of press freedom," Coloma said.

But the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) said that killing of journalists in the Philippines has remained unabated even during the present administration.

"The apparent apathy of the government toward killings and attacks against press freedom emboldens attackers to inflict harm as they go unpunished," the NUJP said in its Facebook page. 

Philippine Christians on Charity Walk for Typhoon Victims

Thousands of members of an influential Christian group in the Philippines have walked in a fundraising rally for victims of November's typhoon. Former footballer and UNICEF ambassador David Beckham also paid a visit. 

Police in Manila said 200,000 people took part in the walk on Saturday to raise money for survivors of one of the country's worst-ever typhoons. All those who walked the three kilometers along the capital's seaside avenue bought special white t-shirts to wear during the march, with all proceeds being donated to help victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

The walkers were members of the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) which has at least three million members in the largely Catholic nation of 100 million people. The group's conservative members tend to vote as a group and are, as a result, politically significant.

It is a hundred days since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on November 8, killing more than six thousand people and displacing four million. A million homes were either damaged or destroyed. Many people are still living in tents and other temporary shelters supplied by an international humanitarian effort led by the United Nations.

"We cannot afford to be complacent," Luiza Carvalho, the UN coordinator for the Philippines, said on Saturday. "The need for durable shelter for millions of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed is critical."

"Millions of livelihoods were similarly destroyed or impaired when the typhoon tore down or damaged 33 million coconut trees, flooded fields with saltwater and took away or wrecked 30,000 fishing vessels," Carvalho added.

Carvalho also called for more donations to help the survivors. She said that only 45 percent of the UN's aid appeal for $788 million (575 million euros) launched in December has been raised so far.

Beckham benefit

Former footballer David Beckham paid a two-day visit to typhoon-hit areas in his role as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). On Friday he played football with children on the sports field of a ruined school in Tanauan, one of the towns worst hit by the typhoon. Earlier he had visited a health care center.

“As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, seeing how children are being given a sense of normality amidst the rubble of their communities has been amazing,” Beckham said via a UNICEF blog. “I want to show people around the world how their generous donations have had an enormous impact on children and their families and how thankful people here are for their kindness.”

jm/dr (dpa, AFP)

(C) DW.DE

Get Serious

Re-published Editorial from MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR dated February 11, 2014 with friendly permission of publisher Marietta F. Siongco.

"The bus accident that claimed the lives of 15 people - including comedian Arvin "Tado" Jimenez and former Ateneo de Davao University Grade School teacher Leah Abrasaldo Reyes - is yet another tragedy that need not have happened had government only taken seriously the calls for it to clamp down on wayward bus companies. The accident in Bontoc, Mountain Province last Friday happened less than two months after the fatal fall of a bus from the Metro Manila Skyway on December 16 last year which killed 18 people, and at the time an outraged populace had demaanded that government do something to keep passengers safe while in public transport. Indeed, a big fuss made officially on the issue for a while, only to die down as the matter got buried in other news.

As it is, our roads often seem like highways to hell, each trip we make a gamble on whether or not we would live to tell the tale. For a country whose people must regularly travel through hundreds of kilometers of concrete and asphalt, this is a totally unacceptable state of affairs. Bus drivers literally have our lives in their hands as they weave in and through roads and traffic as breakneck speeds, with obviously no regard for safety. Many such drivers seem to feel earning money is the be all-end all, and they drive recklessly in order to achieve it. Caught helplessly in the middle are the passengers who often have no choice but to take the bus, especially on long trips.

Each time an accident like this happens, we ask: How many more mishaps need to happen before government does something? The answer is obviously, "Much more". The Skyway accident last December passed without any real solutions being made, and now the Bontoc tragedy has really overwhelmed it. Not even the fact that a celebrity was one of the fatalities seems to be moving the authorities to doing something about the problem of abusive bus companies. The proper agencies have not yet gone around inspecting buses to make sure they are roadworthy, and none has bothered to check the licenses and franchises given to the companies. Last week's accident need not have happened, but government allowed it to. It's time to get serious about transport safety."