Smarter Cities Conversations - Mayor of Davao Sara Duterte

She is Pregnant!

After years of trying, Mayor Sara Duterte is finally pregnant with her husband lawyer Mans Carpio.

Her husband has also posted a status update on his Facebook timeline that simply said, "proof of life."

Congratulations!!!

Wishing you all the best!!!

NAIA Janitor Returns 634.807 Philippine Pesos

It hasn't been the first honest person on the International Airport in Manila. A janitor has returned a bag containing assorted documents and 634.807 Pesos in cash he found at the terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport late Monday afternoon.

Marie Cherrie Lyn Cruz, of the NAIA T2 Lost and Found Section, reported that Janitor Ronald Gadayan first noticed the black bag unattended at the Gate 1 of the pre-departure area around 3:30 pm.

After 30 minute, the janitor still found the black bag prompting him to retriee it and inform authorities who consequently turned it over to the lost and found section.

At around 4 pm, a certain Manuel Manahan appeared before the office of the lost and found section to inquire if someone had found a black bag owned bis his employer, a passenger of PAL flight PR 849 leaving for Cebu.

Manahan, who claimed he was authorized by his employer identified only as Francis Chua, thanked Gadayan for returning the bag containing also the cash amount.

Hello from Davao.: Magnitude of 7.6 Earthquake hits East of Philippin...

Hello from Davao.: Magnitude of 7.6 Earthquake hits East of Philippin...: A earthquake of a magnitude 7.6 has occurred east of the Philippines and has the potential to generate a tsunami across the Pacific...

You Should Not Missed it...

September 15, 2012 at 7 pm in CAP Auditorium in Davao City. 

See you there.

Cancer and Kidney Transplant in Mindanao

Cancer ranks third as the leading cause of death in the Philippines. It is estimated that for every 1,800 Filipinos, one will develop cancer annually and it is very common among Filipino patients to seek medical advice only when the disease is at advanced or terminal stage.

This topic is also very imported for foreigners/expatriates living in the Philippines.

I was surprised and happy being informed, that it is with this premise that the Davao Regional Hospital took center stage in developing a 200-million Pesos worth NUCLEAR RADIOTHERAPY CENTER that was inaugurated by no less than the Philippine Secretary of Health, Dr. Enrique T. Ona and paved its way as an additional service to the public already on January 8, 2012.

The first and only government hospital in Mindanao with the state-of-the-art digital medical linear accelerator, Davao Regional Hospital's Nuclear & Radiotherapy Center provides the most comprehensive services and affordable treatment for cancer patients not only in the region but in whole Mindanao.

For more detail information on the Radiotherapy Services you might contact:

084 - 4005614 or 0999 - 7622544 or 0933 - 942 6431 or email drh_tagum@yahoo.com.

One more thing: kidney transplant. The Davao Regional Hospital in Apokon, Tagum City, Davao del Norte  as a DOH (Department of Health)-retained Tertiary Teaching Hospital  has provided a comprehensive, accessible and quality kidney transplant service to the people in Davao and whole Mindanao since 2002 already. In the 5-year Kidney transplant census (2007-2011) of the Philippine Renal Disease Registry, Davao Regional Hospital is the NUMBER 1 TOP PERFORMING TRANSPLANT CENTER OUTSIDE METRO MANILA and on Rank 8 out of 32 transplant centers in the Philippines.

The Kidney Transplant Program is powered by a dedicated team of experts headed by Dr. Romulo A. Busuego with telephone-numbers 084 - 4005323 or 0908 - 5803585 or 0933 - 9426431 or email drh_tagum@yahoo.com.

Absurd

(Re-post of the Editorial of MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR from August 21, 2012 with friendly permission of the Publisher and Editor in Chief Mrs. Marietta Siongco.)

Senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto, or at least his chief-of-staff, Hector Villacorta, have unwittingly given the go-signal for everyone in the Philippines to take everything in the internet and using it in any way possible without having to attribute the source - indeed, we can now even claim the words, pictures, music, and other creations of other people as our own without fear of being taken to court. This scenario has come out after Villacorta, in explaining Sotto's apparent plagiarism of blogger Sarah Pope, said Philippine law still regard the Internet as public domain and that no liabilities should be raised when information was taken from this source.

This means Filipino students from now on can copy-paste any work taken from the Internet and use it for their term paper, theme writing, essays, and other school work and not be scolded by their teachers. Online publications can take any article, photograph, art work, music - literally anything - from any online source and publish it without having to pay the artists, or even inform them. And yes, government officials can swipe the research of other people and use them for their own purposes, without having to do their own work and without even having to verify if the research is accurate.

if that scenario sounds absurd to you, that's because it is. In the irst place, it is not true what Villacorta said: we do have the Intellectual Property Code o the Philippines, officially known as Republic Act No. 8293, which holds that copyright is automatically given for creative works. While the Internet is not explicitly mentioned, the fact is that blog posts - or any other material on the Internet - are owned by their creators and as such much not be appropriated without attribution. Any use of the material without proper citation is tantamount to stealing. Everyone knows that - except, apparently, for Sotto and his people.

 

Philippines and Germany to Sign New Tax Treaty in 2013

 

The Philippines and Germany are set to sign in 2013 a new tax agreement aimed at increasing German investments in the country.

In a meeting in Berlin last July 20, both countries have concluded the third and final round of negotiations on the revision of the accord, called "Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes on Income and Capital, at Germany's Federal Ministry of Finance.

All outstanding issues were resolved during the last round of the five days meetings, with both parties agreeing on the adoption of new standards in the adoption in the tax treaty.

The new tax treaty is designed to protect against the risk of double taxation where the same income is taxable in the Philippines and in Germany.

the signing of the new agreement is expected to take place in Germany early 2013. Amid an unresolved airport terminal dispute between Manila and Berlin, Germany remained a strong significant partner of the Philippines  with a total bilateral trade valued US$ 2.9 billion in 2011.

Magicians in Davao

 

The Asian Magic Association (AMA) was founded last April 28, 2003 In Hong Kong during its 2003 International Magic Convention, by magic societies from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Philippines and Korea. On the 9th convention AMA has chosen to hold it in the Philippines: and, the beautiful city of Davao takes pride as the host city. It was made possible through the efforts of James Infiesto (also one of my Facebook connection), Davao City's Father of Magic and Convention Director.

The convention will be on September 14 to 17, 2012. It is a star-studded affair with Asian celebrities in Magic wherein some will either compete, show-off, and give lectures. Two Star Magic Shows on September 14 and 15, is both a delightful source of amazing magical moments for Davao people to mark their calendars. Fortunately, a power cast lectures promises a vast opportunity to gain insights and techniques for Filipino magicians to hone their talents. 

For more details visit http://www.asianmagicdavao.com or call James Infiesto at 0933 663 5401 or 0910 204 1199.

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