Typhoon Usagi Moves Towards Philippines and Taiwan

 
Typhoon Usagi has wind speeds of up to 175 km/h (109 mph).
 

The Philippines and Taiwan are braced for Typhoon Usagi, which meteorologists say could become the most powerful typhoon of 2013.

The typhoon was 560km (350 miles) east-southeast of Taiwan and 360km (225 miles) from the northern Philippines on Friday morning, weather officials said.

Both Taiwan and the Philippines have issued alerts and warned boats to exercise caution.

Typhoon Usagi had wind speeds of up to 175 km/h (110 mph) and gained strength early on Friday, Pagasa, the Philippine government's weather agency, said.

Philippine officials have issued storm warnings for flash flooding, landslides and storm surges for several northern provinces.

Emergency and health personnel in some provinces have also been placed on standby, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau issued a land warning on Friday morning, and forecast heavy rainfall for northern and eastern Taiwan.

China's State Oceanic Administration has issued a class I emergency response for the typhoon, its highest maritime disaster response level, state media report.

China's National Meteorological Centre has also issued a yellow alert in its weather warning system.

In August, at least two people died and thousands lost their homes after Typhoon Utor hit the northern Philippines. 

Davao City - my Second Home

 

More fun in Davao City(Official)

Good Evening Davaoeños!

98 days to go and it's Christmas!

Let's not allow anyone to destroy our beautiful, progressive and peaceful city, but please be safe guys! ...


Davao City - Fun is Here

^Angelknigh†^


(c) Owner of the PhotosSee More

Herzlich Willkommen Dietmar Prinz/Heartily Welcome Dietmar Prinz

Dietmar Prinz aus San Fabian, Pangasinan

Zu meiner Person: Ich bin am 10 .09.1948 geboren,  habe 37 Jahre ein Fliesenfachgeschäft   Verlegung   Beratung  Verkauf in Deutschland gehabt.Ich bin seit 16 Jahren in zweiter Ehe glücklich  verheiratet und habe die beste Frau und kann eigentlich,  und ich bin es auch,  sehr zufrieden sein  mit meinem Leben.

Meine Frau ist eine  Pinay. Ich  liebe  auch meinen grossen  Familienkreis. Klaus, ich kann manchmal nicht alle Kommentare ueber die Pinoys gutheissen. Sie sind nicht besser und  nicht schlechter als  alle anderen Menschen auf der Welt, SIGURO ...etwas anders für uns aus  Europa. Es gibt keine guten  Deutschen und schlechten Moslems. Es gibt überall auf der Welt gute und weniger gute Menschen - unabhänig  von Religion  und /oder Nationalität.  Manchmal fehlt nur ein wenig Verständniss für den anderen.   

Additional Requirements for Foreigners Before Marrying Filipinas?

A lawmaker on Friday urgend the government to impose an additional requirement to male foreign nationals desiring to marry a Filipina before a marriage license can be granted to prevent exploitation of Filipino women.

"We are all aware of incidents that some foreigners who come to the Philippines to marry Filipino women are vagabonds or social or moral derelicts, whose real motive is only to take advantage and exploit our women, "Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia (3rd District, Cebu City) said.

Garcia is author of House Bill 2387 or "An Act amending Article 66 of the Civil Code of the Philippines in order to prescribe additional requirements for male citizens or subjects of a foreign country to marry a Filipino woman."

"Not a few of these male foreigners' real motive for marriage is to exploit our women by making them work and worse, by sending them to prostitution, and other degrading and dehumanizing occupations,"Garcia said.

At present, Garcia said, "when either or both the contracting parties are citizens or subjects of a foreign country, it shall be necessary, before a marriage license can be obtained, to provide themselves with a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage, to be issued by their respective diplomatic or consular officials."

The bill provides that when one of the contracting parties is a male citizen or subject of a foreign country desiring to marry a female citizen of the Philippines, in addition to this certificate of legal capacity, the foreigner shall provide himself with a certificate of good moral character and a certificate that he has gainful trade, business or employment, to be issued by his diplomatic or consular official, before a marriage license can be obtained.

Garcia said the exploitation of Filipino women, thru the so-called mail-order or penpal, Facebook, website mail, and other internet instigated marriages, has not only caused miseries and sufferings to Filipino momen but also brought dishonor and disgrace to Filipino womanhood.

"The proposed requirements, in addition to the usual certificate of legal capacity, are intended to protect our women from these undesirable foreigners," Garcia said.

The Garcia bill has been referred to the Committee on Revision of Laws chaired by Rep. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas (6th District, Pangasinan).

By: PNA

MNLF Rebels Hold Philippine Forces at Bay

Filipino rebels have held scores of hostages as human shields in a two-day standoff with government forces. Since Monday, fighting has virtually shut down a southern port city. 

Troops have surrounded 200 Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrillas and their roughly 180 hostages in four coastal villages near Zamboanga since the fighting began Monday. The conflict has displaced about 1,500 residents of the mainly Muslim districts near the city, including women and children forced to spend the night sleeping on the floor of crowded gyms after fleeing. At least eight combatants have been killed and 24 wounded.

"The primary mission of the government now is clear: do everything possible to convince the armed MNLF group to free all the captive residents they are using as a 'human shield' against military and police operations," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said. He added that government forces would now focus on "saving as many lives as possible."

The MNLF's 42-year rebellion has claimed 150,000 lives. The group signed an accord with the government in 1996, but retained its weapons and has accused officials of reneging on promises of an autonomous region for Muslims in the Mindanao region of the largely Catholic nation. Last month, the MNLF issued new threats to secede by establishing its own republic.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said government forces discovered in advance a planned attack in Zamboanga - a city of around 800,000 - and positioned themselves offensively to deter that. Navy spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Gregory Fabic said commandos had killed seven rebels as they marched into the city, though the sea battle also led to the death of one soldier.

President Benigno Aquino III said his government would make hostage safety a top priority. He has deployed top Cabinet officials and his military chief of staff to oversee the situation.

MNLF vs. MILF
 
MNLF rebels have felt excluded after the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which split in 1978, successfully engaged the government in talks brokered by Malaysia. Monday's attack came as the government prepared to resume negotiations Tuesday.

"We condemn acts of violence perpetrated by spoilers out to derail the people's journey to a just and lasting peace," said presidential adviser Teresita Deles, who has helped to oversee negotiations with the MILF. "How can you demand to hoist your flag in the name of peace while brazenly bearing arms and hurting innocent civilians?" Deles added.

The MNLF rebels have given no indication as to whether they would engage in talks or what they intend to do next.

"Our forces will stay where they are," MNLF spokesman Emmanuel Fontanilla told DZMM radio "They are on a defensive posture."

The 11,000-strong MILF has made substantial progress toward a new autonomy deal for Muslims in the peace talks with the government. The latest round of those talks resumed Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

mkg/ph (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Audios and videos on the topic

Philippines: Muslim rebels in Zamboanga conflict

By: Deutsche Welle TV, Germany

Protect The Media

Re-published Editorial from Mindanao Daily Mirror, September 6, 2013, with friendly permission of my publisher and editor-in-chief Marietta Songco.

"The attacks on the media in the Philippines continue unabated, with a radio broadcaster getting shot dead in Iligan City last week and two Davao City media executives getting convicted of libel also last week. These two may seem to be very different cases, and in many ways they are: one was a violent crime, while the other was a long drawn-out case. But the net effect is the same: media practitioners know they live under a sword that could fall on their heads any time, in one way or another.

What confounds the media community is how indifferent government has been  to its plights. Almost three decades have passed since the 1986 People Power revolution that supposedly brought democracy back to the country, and yet here we are, a media industry constantly under threat of being killed, arrested, jailed, imprisoned. 

Of the roughly 200 journalists killed since 1986, more than 130 were murdered in the time of their duty. Most of the killers have gone scot-free, and practically all masterminds have never been arrested. Five presidents have taken residence in Malacanang, but none of them have taken concrete steps to protect the media.

As for libel, government has shown no inclination to decriminalize it, making the Philippines one of a very countries where one can go to prison for expressing oneself. Freedom of expression is enshrined in our Constitution, but as long as libel is a criminal offense, we will be merely paying lip services to it. Every single journalist lives with the thought that he or she could go to prison  for something he or she wrote or said on air, and that can have profound effects on how the truth is reported. Under threat of libel, explosive stories can have a way of disappearing from view, neer to be seen to the public.

The Aquino adminstration styles itself as the one that is walking the straight and narrow path, but it has a ling way to go to prove its commitment by way of protecting the media. Without free media, good government is nothing but fiction."

Philippine Newspaper Editor Killed

Vergel Bico, 41, who edited weekly paper, is second journalist to be killed in a week in Philippines.

Nearly 160 journalists have been killed since 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists. Photograph: Pat Roque/AP
 
A Philippine newspaper editor who recently wrote about illegal gambling has been killed – the second journalist to be murdered in the country in a week, police say.

Vergel Bico was shot twice in the head on Wednesday as he rode his motorcycle in Calapan City in Mindoro Oriental province. The gunman fled on a motorcycle, which was driven by another man.

The police chief D'Artagnan Katalbas said the motive was not yet known but investigators were not ruling out the possibility that the killing was related to Bico's work as a journalist. "We are looking at suspected guns for hire here," Katalbas said.

Bico, 41, was editor of the weekly Kalahi newspaper in Calapan, about 75 miles south of Manila.

Ronald Bula, publisher of the Bandera Pilipino weekly, where Bico worked as a columnist for two years before leaving last October, said Bico had recently written about illegal gambling in another Mindoro town.

Last week, the radio commentator Fernando Solijon was shot dead by a motorcycle-riding assailant in southern Iligan City.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said Solijon had criticised local politicians on his programme and linked a village chief to illegal drugs.

Nearly 160 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, the union said.

By:

Associated Press Manila

Woman Tied to Philippine Graft Scandal Surrenders

A wealthy businesswoman at the center of a corruption scandal has surrendered to Philippine President Benigno Aquino III three days after a large protest in Manila to condemn large-scale graft allegations in a country long mired in poverty.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said he fetched Janet Lim-Napoles, accompanied by her lawyer, late Wednesday in a cemetery. She was then brought to the Malacanang presidential palace to briefly meet Aquino before she was turned over to police. Her lawyer said she had received death threats and wanted to be assured of her safety.

Napoles has been accused of illegally detaining a former aide who accused her of stealing huge amounts of government development funds, derisively called pork-barrel funds, in conspiracy with powerful lawmakers. She has denied any wrongdoing but was ordered arrested by authorities, with Aquino announcing a 10 million peso ($227,000) bounty for her capture.

Philippine media reports of her lavish lifestyle, including the alleged ownership of an array of elegant houses and condominiums, have angered many Filipinos in a country where nearly a third of the 97 million people live on a little over a dollar a day and about a tenth have left the country in search of jobs and better opportunities abroad.

Amid an outrage expressed on social media, tens of thousands of Filipinos massed up at Manila's Rizal Park Monday to demand the scrapping of the corruption-tainted development fund and called on Aquino to crack down harder on corruption. Aquino, son of revered pro-democracy champions, rose to power in 2010 with a landslide victory on a promise to fight corruption and poverty.

It was one of the largest rallies seen in the Philippines since the huge protests that hounded Aquino's predecessor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who faced allegations of massive corruption. Arroyo has denied any wrongdoing but has been detained in a hospital on corruption and election fraud charges.

Davao City Wins National Literacy Award 2013 Hall of Fame

Davao City bagged the National Literacy Awards 2013 Hall of Fame under the Highly Urbanized Cit Category.

In a letter to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Department of Education Undersecretary Rizalino Rivero said Davao City will be given recognition for its inspiring efforts in sustaining the City's exemplary programs in literacy and for the impact the programs have created on the community.

"We extend our heartfelt congratulations for winning the Hall of Fame award," Rivera stated in the letter.

In the report for the bid to the said national awards, then Mayor Sara Duterte said Davao's vision is one where all sectors have access to basic services, where all citiziens live in a progressive socviety, able to realize their potentials and live their live to the fullest.

"Literacy programs do not fall under peace and order, disaster managament, the invironment, health rural development and socio-economic improvement," former Mayor Sara Duterte, said.

Davao City's programs are known to have been institutiionalized to ensure generations of Davaoenos empowerment in governance and further develop their skills and becvome self reliant, proactive and dynamic members of society.

The Department of Education will be holding its annual National Literacy Conference on September 3 to 5 in Bagiuo City.

One of the ightlights of the conference is the presentation of the Hall of Fame Award to Davao City for being the three-time first place winner in the Outstanding Local Government Unit Category.

Mayor Rody Duterte has been invited to the said conference and is expected to receive the Hall of Fame Award.

With City Information Office, Davao City.

Davao City - My Second Home in The Philippines

DAVAO CITY - The Most Peaceful City in East and Southeast Asia for seven years and is home to the “Best Police Office in the Country” for six consecutive years. 

For four consecutive years, Davao City has also been recognized by Asiaweek as one of the 20 Best Cities in Asia. Davao City was nominated as New 7 Wonders Cities. 

I am proud to live here - in my second (at last!) home in the Philippines.

(Photo Courtesy: BIYAHENG DAVAO)