Tacloban to Hold Memorial Service for Still Unidentified Victims of Yolanda

The Tacloban City government will hold a memorial service on November 1 for more than 2,000 victims of super typhoon Yolanda buried in a mass grave in Brgy. Vasper.

“We are going to do a memorial service in the mass grave in order to put closure to this, that people will know that it's time to move on,” said Tacloban City mayor Alfred Romualdez in an interview with GMA News' Saksi aired Thursday evening.

“We've given them (victims) proper burial. Now we will give them proper rites,” he added.


According to the report, there were a total of 2,273 individuals whose remains were buried at the mass grave at Holy Cross Memorial Garden in Brgy. Vasper. Majority of these individuals remain unidentified by their families though the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has already conducted DNA testing on the remains.

The city government, however, assured that the DNA test results of each body buried in the mass grave have been stored in the NBI database to help relatives in tracing and verifying the identity of the remains.

The mass grave was divided into 157 lots, with each lot measuring four meters by eight meters.

Leandro Alapoop, caretaker of the mass grave, said there were 20 bodies buried in each lot.

“Oo, magkakatabi. Bale nakasalansan lang isa-isa. Hindi naman nag-aabot 'yung katawan. Maganda ang pagkalagay namin,” recounted Alapoop on how they buried the remains being examined by the NBI since December last year.

He said families of the victims may request to recover the remains and transfer them to another cemetery as long as they can prove the identity of a particular body.

The report said that as early as Wednesday, some residents of Tacloban started arriving at the Holy Cross mass grave to light candles and bring flowers despite not knowing if their departed loved ones were really buried in the area.

For Eric Cidro, the least he can do to ease the pain of losing his wife, two children, parents and some other relatives when Yolanda hit the city in November last year, was to pray for them at the mass grave.

Cidro was left with only a sole photograph of his wife.

Though he was not able to see the remains of any member of his family, Cidro said he will offer flowers and candles at the mass grave and pray for the repose of the souls of his loved ones nonetheless.

“Wala talaga. May nakakita daw pero hindi na maituro kung nasaan,” Cidro said.

On November 8 last year, Yolanda ripped through central Philippines, claiming over 6,000 lives and leaving P39-billion worth of damages.  

—Elizabeth Marcelo/KG, GMA News

Davao Police Chief Sued by 'abused' Wife

by Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News

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.

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

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

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.”

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!)

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

Celebrating 60 years of Diplomatic Relations between Germany and the Philippines ...

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

By Ted P. Torres (The Philippine Star) 
 

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.