Rain, rain, rain

MANILA, Philippines - Tropical depression "Vinta," the fifth cyclone of the country this month and the 22nd for the year, entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Tuesday.

"Vinta" was spotted 1,150 kilometers east of Virac, Catanduanes as of 4 a.m., moving west northwest at 20 kilometers per hour, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said.

PAGASA weather forecaster Chris Perez said in a state news report that so far, Vinta is not affecting the country and no public storm warning signal has been raised. However, the cyclone can still intensify while it is at sea.

Perez said that if "Vinta" sustains its current direction and speed, it may make landfall over Northern and Central Luzon by Wednesday or Thursday.

PAGASA said Vinta's forecast location by Wednesday morning was 600 km east northeast of Virac, Catanduanes by Wednesday morning, 300 km East of Baler, Aurora by Thursday morning and by Friday morning at 180 km west of Baguio City.

Ilocos, Cordillera, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Metro Manila will continue to experience cloudy skies and isolated rain showers especially in the evening and afternoon due to the northeast monsoon.

Do you believe in Rody Duterte? (Part II)

By Jesus "Jess" Dureza, President/Chair Philippine Press Institute

MISHANDLING ----Mayor Rody Duterte had a mouthful about recent events, And he was not mincing words. For example, his readout of the Zamboanga incident was quite to the point. In so many words, he was critical at the way "those officials" mishandled the situation, starting mistakenly tagging MNLF's Nur Misuari as a "spent force". Admitting that Nur Misuari was his friend and with whom he could talk any time, he marveled at how the authorities just got it all wrong. For how could armed men, crossing over in several waves from the nearby island provinces with ammunition and combatants be unnoticed by Zamboanga and then to wake up one morning already in deep shit? "Simple! Utter failure of intelligence!" he boomed.

(Photo: "Yours truly" Klaus Doring & Mayor Rody Duterte)

DON'T MESS UP ----  He had his own thoughts on how he dealt with his own in Davao - something Zamboangagenos ought to have learned from. "I am a mayor of all - Muslims, Christians, rebels or criminals. MNLF or MILF or NPA's. I respect them for what they stand for and I hope they respect mine. I talk to them, I even go see them. But they understand me when I say" You don't just mess up with my city or you are dead!"

MNLF IN DAVAO ---- I recall how Nur Misuari also marshalled several months before the Zamboanga incident his forces in Davao City in a peaceful rally at Sonny Dizon's horse tracks at the Crocodile Park area in Matina, all with MNLF flags hoisted and paraded. After Nur Misuari in his usual fiery and kilometric speech anleashed his angst, they peacefully dispersed and went home. Only a massive traffic jam at the diversion road saw the worst of it.

(TO BE CONTINUED!)

Do you believe in Rody Duterte?

BY JESUS "JESS" DUREZA

Lawyer Jesus G. Dureza was Presidential Adviser for Mindanao for former Presidents Fidel V. Ramos and Gloria M. Arroyo. He was also involved in the peace negotitations in the talks with the MILF and the CPP-NPA-NDF and initiated, while Presidential Adviser, the Tripartite Review of the 1996 MNLF Peace Agreement. He is currently President/Chair of the Philippine Press Institute. This piece is from his syndicated column Advocacy MindaNOW.

It's been a long while since I last listened to Mayor Rody Duterte deliver a speech. Until last Friday when I was invited by Businessman Sonny Dizon, bossman of the Davao American Chamber of Commerce to attend the joint foreign chambers meeting at the Abreeza Mall complex at Bajada. For almost two hours, his was not a speech but a conversation of sorts, down to earth, no frills, nothing bombastic, all times bordering on the unorthodox, interspersed with his trademark expletives. But yes, talking from his heart all throughout. And the fullhouse guests all listened in rapt silence.

DIDONG MY FRIEND? -- When I walked in, they were still waiting for the guest of honor to arrive.

Civic leader Nonoy Villa Abrille, the event's organizer conducted me to the head table and told me: "Sit beside the mayor. You are closed friends, right?"

I did not answer. Well, Nonoy's question was addressed by the mayor himself in his talk when at one portion during his recollections, he mentioned how he was expelled from the Ateneo during his high school times, then transferred to other city schools and still not "good". So he had to be brought to Digos, a small municipality then (now a city) 60 kilometers south of Davao City. But that was where I grew up in my teens. I remembered one day (some 50 years ago?) his late father, Gov. Vicente "Tete" Duterte came to the campus of the boys of the Holy Cross of Digos (now Cor Jesu College) in the south. Tagging along was a young teen-aged boy. I was a working scholar then with the Canadian Brothers of The Sacred Heart when Rody was brought to Digos in "exile". He was frail and mestizo looking but had that naughty, mischievous flash in his eyes. We stayed in the same "dorm". That was a beginning of a friendship that lasted up to this day. (But I'll skip recalling those hig school days together, for the meantime, lest I miss up telling you about Friday's event.

RODY'S "DILEMMA" ---- Fast forward to Friday at Seda Hotel. The consular offices were represented by Koichi Ibara of Japan and Consul General Abdullah Zawawi Tahir of Malaysia. Also present from Manila was Martial G. Beck of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines. Several foreigners were also around. And I could tell that they could decipher the mayor's intermittent, usual expletives in the local dialect with the way they squirmed and reacted to the mayor's momentary tirades. (His favorite was of course when he talked about his "dilemma", DOJ Sec. Lilia De Lima, but that's more than I could write about, okay? Shhhhh.....).

TO BE CONTINUED!

Philippine Earthquake Creates Miles-long Rocky Wall

READ MORE Phivolcs|Philippine earthquake wall|Philippine earthquake|Negros Island Earthquake|Solidarity

This undated handout photo released on October 24, 2013 by Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology shows a house standing next to a ground rupture creating a rock wall in the village in Bohol province brought about by the quake which hit the province October 15. (Via AFP)

 

The deadly earthquake that struck the Philippines last week created a spectacular rocky wall that stretches for kilometres through farmlands, astounded geologists said on Thursday.

Dramatic pictures of the Earth-altering power of the 7.1-magnitide quake have emerged as the government worked to mend the broken central island of Bohol, ground zero of the destruction.

A "ground rupture" pushed up a stretch of ground by up to three metres creating a wall of rock above the epicentre, Maria Isabel Abigania, a geologist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told AFP.

"Our people have walked five kilometres so far and not found the end of this wall," she said, as experts from the institute surveyed the damage.

"So far we have not gotten any reports of people getting swallowed up in these cracks. The fault runs along a less-populated area."

A photograph on the institute's website showed part of the rock wall grotesquely rising on farmland behind an unscathed bamboo hut.

Another house was shown lodged in a crack of the Earth, while a big hole on the ground opened up at a banana farm.

Renato Solidum, head of the institute, said the ground fissures from the quake, which killed 198 people on Bohol and two nearby islands, were among the largest recorded since the government agency began keeping quake records in 1987.

"Most of our other quake records show a lateral (sideways) tearing of the earth, though we've also had coral reefs rising from the sea," he said, citing a 6.7-magnitude earthquake that hit the central island of Negros last year.

The Philippines lies on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire made up of chains of islands created by volcanic eruption that are also frequently hit by earthquakes.

President Benigno Aquino told reporters today the institute had assured him the worst was over, though Bohol would continue to be hit by aftershocks over the next few weeks.

"There is no immediate danger" either from the aftershocks or from the ground fissures, said Aquino, who slept in an army tent there overnight on Wednesday in solidarity with the survivors.

Photo Impressions from The Philippines

20 Killed, 44 Injured in Philippine Road Accident

Story Highlights

• Truck smashed into the rear of a passenger bus
• Incident set off a succession of crashes
• Bus driver lost control of his vehicle and hit two buses and four vans coming from the opposite direction

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Police in the Philippines say at least 20 people were killed and 44 others injured when a truck smashed into the rear of a passenger bus on a remote downhill provincial road, setting off a succession of crashes.

Atimonan town police chief Jonar Yupio says the bus driver lost control of his vehicle and hit two buses and four vans coming from the opposite direction before toppling over, pinning many of the victims. Four children, the truck driver and his assistant were among those killed.

Yupio says it was raining when the accident occurred early Saturday morning, shortly past midnight.

He says there have been about five other accidents on the narrow downhill road in Quezon province, about 72 miles southeast of Manila.

Strong Earthquake in The Philippines/Starkes Erdbeben auf den Philippinen

M 7.2 Earthquake, 5km E of Balilihan, Philippines

5 hours, 2 minutes agoLocation: 13 miles (21 km) NE of Tagbilaran, ... Show more

Posted 4 hours, 44 minutes ago – U.S. Geological Survey

An earthquake with magnitude 7.2 occurred near Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines at 00:12:37.20 UTC on Oct 15, 2013. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Recommended actions

• Expect aftershocks. These secondary shockwaves are usually less violent than the main quake but can be strong enough to do additional damage to weakened structures and can occur in the first hours, days, weeks, or even months after the quake.
• Look for and extinguish small fires. Fire is the most common hazard after an earthquake.
• Be aware of possible tsunamis if you live in coastal areas. These are also known as seismic sea waves (mistakenly called "tidal waves"). When local authorities issue a tsunami warning, assume that a series of dangerous waves is on the way. Stay away from the beach.
• Be careful when driving after an earthquake and anticipate traffic light outages.

AFTERSHOCKS ARE BEING REPORTED IN CEBU CITY JUST A COUPLE OF MINUTES AGO!

Schweres Erdbeben erschüttert Philippinen

Ein Erdbeben der Stärke 7,2 hat die Philippinen erschüttert und
mindestens 32 Menschen in den Tod gerissen. Der Erdstoß war im Umkreis von
hunderten Kilometern deutlich zu spüren. Nach Angaben der Behörden gab es
die meisten Todesopfer in der Stadt Cebu, weitere auf den nahe gelegenen
Inseln Bohol und Siquijor. Cebu hat 2,5 Millionen Einwohner und ist das
politische und wirtschaftliche Zentrum in der mittleren Region des
Inselstaates. Gebäude stürzten ein, drei der ältesten katholischen
Kirchen im Land wurden beschädigt, ebenso zwei Flughäfen und der Hafen
von Tacloban. Das Epizentrum lag östlich von Balilihan in der Region
Bohol, die auch bei Touristen beliebt ist. Die Philippinen bestehen aus
mehr als 7000 Inseln. In der Region reiben drei verschiedene Erdplatten
aneinander.

Choosing to Believe

 

Like Many Things in Life, Hope too is a Choice

 

By MIKE MEDLIN, Manila

 

Just weeks after two bombings in Davao City and intense fighting in western Mindanao, 104.3 The Edge is challenging the community to take hope.  Starting Tuesday morning the air team will encourage believers in Davao to accept that the hope they want and desperately need for their city begins with them.

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.-II Chronicles 7:14

Hope & healing is our prayer for Davao and the nation.  Consider the recent headlines...

• Hundreds of Millions of Pesos Stolen in Political Pork Barrel
• HIV Infection Spread for Asia is the Fastest in the Philippines
• Youngest Confirmed Prostitute in Davao City Age 9

​In times like these, hope and belief are in short supply and that's why the positive message of the Edge Davao is so critical.  

Tomorrow morning, I'll be flying out for the week to join the team in Davao for their next fundraiser.  As a listener supported station, the Edge Davao is blazing a new trail for Christian media ministry in the Philippines.  Raising funds in a developing nation is challenging and a real leap of faith for everyone who sits behind the microphone.  Please join me in prayer for this station.

The financial goal set by the station leadership is a humble P72,000.  That's less than $2000 USD and yet enough to cover for the station's lease for an entire year.  If God moves your heart, it would be a real encouragement to the team if their American brothers and sisters would join them in "Fueling Hope for Davao City."  If you'd like to make a special one time donation to their cause please click the link below.

   We've set up a special PayPal account for this cause.   Click here to give to Edge Davao.  (The account is set up in Philippines Pesos which are currently exchanging at P43=$1.)

Who's racist?

Editorial MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR from Saturday, October 5, 2013 with friendly permission by Marietta F. Siongco, publisher and editor-in-chief

"A lot of Filipinos were incensed at the Facebook post of a certain "Devina Dediva" who had expressed incredulity that a candidate from a coun try where "filthy maids" come from could win the Miss World crown. Racist, Devina Dediva was called, and rightly so: her remarks certainly betrayed a mind that is narrow and uneducated, one that cannot look beyond a few feet from her own nose to see that the world does not in fact revolve around her. Her myopic view is that Filipinas are maids who clean toilets, quite forgetting the fact that cleaning toilets is an honorable job. That such one would win an international beauty title was simply incomprehensible to her.

But as abhorrent as Devina Dediva's comments were, we must as Filipinos take this as an opportunity to look at ourselves and see if we are not guilty of the same kind of racism. If we were to be really honest, we would say that yes, Filipinos can be as cruelly racist as Devina Dediva, and perhaps even more so. We are, after all, a country that values skin color above all oher physical traits: dark skin is considered unattractive, as shown by the numerous skin whitening products being sold and advertised. Dark-skinned people are made fun of, turned into laughing stocks and derided in public. Actors with screen names like Whitney Houston and Mang Tem-i become butts of jokes on television and the movies, and no one thinks there is anything wrong with it.

A recent incident also showed how racist we can be. Last August, the Philippines came close to winning the FIBA Asia Championship, beaten only by Iran in the final game. What came after the game was positively embarrassing: Filipinos took to social networking sites to call the Iranian players all sorts of names based on their nationality, how they looked, and even how they supposedly smelled. A country that thinks nothing of doing this does not deserve to protest when a foreigner derides us."

It's Christmas in The Air...

It's known already: The Philippines got the longest Christmas Season worldwide.

It's October, and Christmas is also already in the air. I found a very wonderful album:

Inspirational Diva Jamie Rivera shares her newest composition in her first ever Christmas album with some of the best-selling artists in the country. Her song "Christmas Around The World" features among many others Toni Gonzaga, Bugoy Drilon, Erik Santos and Janella Salvador. Find also a special renditions of classic Christmas songs like "Pasko Na Sinta Ko", "I'll Be Home For Christmas", "Joy To The World", "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" and many more.

The wonderfulo album is avalaible at all record bars in the Philippines or can be downloaded via amazon.com.

LONG LIVE PHILIPPINE CINEMA !

Local Film Development Council for Davao City Eyed

Davao City Councilor and friend Leo Leonardo Avila is proposing through an ordinance the creation of the Film Development Council of Davao City. The resolution was inroduced by first by him during the October 1 City Council Session.

According to the resolution of Councilor Avila,there is already a thriving film industry in Davao City which has become a favourite destination  for location shoots, both for national and international films.

According to Avila, there is a need for the local government to support film industry and harness its potentials. One of the guests yesterday at the Council Session was film director Brillante Mendoza, the only Filipino director to win the best director prize in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Mendoza is currently on tour among Davao City schools.

Availa's proposal which was treated as the resolution's first reading was given to the City's Council's Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Culture and Arts chaired by Councilor Maria Belen Acosta for further hearings.

PIA/with RG Alma

It's never too late!

Re-published from Mindanao Daily Mirror, Opinion Section, my column dated September 20, 2013 with friendly permission of my publisher Marietta F. Siongco.

I know a lot of pension expatriates living in the Philippines for good. Many of them get a big problem after staying here for only a couple of months: they get bored.

Having a vacation all day, all week, all month and all year long is really not an egg's yellow. I experienced the same in 1999 after moving to Davao City. At that time I justed turned 46.

I remember my last days in an international publishing house in Berlin (with branch offices in New York and Amsterdam. I packed up my things after signing my resignation letter. Of course, I hadn't reach my final pension age yet, but I got a lot of ideas on how to shape and organize my "new" life in the Philippines. I never forgot some office mates smiling at me: "We can't cross such bridges before we come to them!" Of course guys, you have been right!

Anyway, age doesn't matter - you can enjoy the second half of your life residing in the Philippines. As many of you know already: I stayed in many countries worldwide. I could have migrated to the U.S. I didn't. I choosed the Philippines.

Most important thing: Keep yourself busy... .

Sure, there is always a time, when we should rest and really enjoy life. Sure, we brought our savings and many of us enjoy the monthly pension in Euro or Dollar. Several weeks ago, I read a good idea in an U.S. business weekly: "Partner up with entrepreneurs who have long been in the business, or those who have just retired as well!" Worth to think about it!

Getting bored, means also for some to start grumbling and complaining about everything and everybody in the Philippines. I always keep my distance to such negative people. We are not here to change this country and its people. Why? What for? Filipinos are also not planning to change our home countries or us!

I really don't get more stressed than in my home country before. Critics reproach and accused me of living a life as expatriate while wearing pink tinted glasses. Sorry, but my conscience is very clear.

I keep myself busy, too busy sometimes: Teaching, translating, writing, in the radio, and many more things. It's never too late. It's your life! Take your chance and enjoy life in the Philippines. And stay away from grumblers and grousing people... .

Noli me tangere - Ruehr' mich nicht an... - Don't Touch me...

Ich war schon immer fasziniert von Jose Rizal, dem philippinischen Nationalhelden.

1887 erschien in Berlin ein spanisch geschriebenes Buch mit dem lateinischen Titel NOLI ME TANGERE (Ruehr' mich nicht an!). Autor war der junge philippinische Schriftsteller Jose Rizal. Er hatte nach seinem Studium in Madrid und einem Aufenthalt in Paris 1886 Deutschland bereist und in Heidelberg die Niederschrift seines Romans beendet.

Der Erscheinungsort Berlin ist kein Kuriosum. Wie so viele wache und begeisterungsfaehige Koepfe jener Zeit suchte Rizal die Verbindung von wissenschaftlicher Erklaerung und "deutschem Idealismus". Sein Roman, der von der spanischen Kolonialherrschaft der Philippinen als politisch brisant betrachtet werden musste, war "mit Herzblut geschrieben", wie Rizal's oesterreichischer Freund, der Gelehrte F. Blumentritt, schrieb: Er wollte ebenso aufklaererisch wie aufruettelnd wirken.

Die spanische Kolonialmacht erkannte sofort die subversive Kraft des Romans: nicht in den manchmal karikaturartigen Einzelgestalten, sondern darin, dass die Fremdherrschaft eben als FREMDherrschaft ad absurdum gefuehrt wird. Noch im Erscheinungsjahr 1887 wird der Roman verboten. Am 30.12.1986 wird Rizal als geistiger Urheber der nicht laenger zu unterdrueckenden philippinischen Freiheitsbewegung exekutiert. Zwei Jahre spaeter endet die spanische Herrschaft auf den Philippinen, ebenso auf Kuba, wo Jose Marti eine aehnliche revolutionaer-literarische Rolle gespielt hat.

Noch heute teilt sich die leidenschaftlich politisch-ethische Kraft dieses wirkungsreichen  Romans dem Leser unmittelbar mit.

Ich besitze die spanische, englische und deutsche Ausgabe (aus dem philippinisch Spanisch uebersetzt von Annemarie del Cueto-Moerth, 1. Auflage 1987, Insel Verlag, Frankfurt/Main).

More Rain and Landslides in The Philippines

Luzon has been drenched by monsoon rains enhanced by Typhoon Usagi. Photograph: Francis R. Malasig/EPA
 
Torrential monsoon rains have hit the north-west Philippines triggering landslides and killing 20 people in areas already weakened by a powerful typhoon, and raising the death toll to 47 from storms across Asia.

Philippine officials said soldiers and villagers were also searching for at least seven people missing in mountainside villages hit by the landslides on Monday in the province of Zambales.

In China, where typhoon Usagi struck after passing by the Philippines, officials said the storm killed 25 people in the southern province of Guangdong, 13 of them in the city of Shanwei where it struck the coast late on Sunday.

Two people drowned when a passenger boat capsized in north-east Aurora Province in the Philippines.

Jeffrey Khonghun, mayor of Subic, Zambales, said 15 bodies were dug out in two landslide-hit villages in his town. Five people also died in landslides in two other towns in Zambales, according to army officials and police.

Rescuers used their hands, pots and shovels to dig through the muck that buried a cluster of houses, while relatives of two other missing residents waited in the rain in the village of Wawandue.

"This is the first after a long time that we were hit by this kind of deluge," Khonghun told Manila's DZBB radio network. He had to stop the interview when another body was pulled out from the mud near him.

Typhoon Usagi enhanced the torrential monsoon rains that drenched the main northern Philippine region of Luzon over the weekend. The powerful typhoon blew away late on Saturday and a new tropical storm off southern Japan was continuing to intensify the downpours in Luzon, government forecaster Samuel Duran said.

Many low-lying areas of the Philippine capital, Manila, and outlying regions were swamped on Monday, prompting authorities to close schools and offices.
In Hong Kong flight schedules were returning to normal on Monday after major disruptions caused by Usagi, which was the season's strongest storm. At its peak it forced about 250 flight cancellations in Hong Kong, before weakening to a tropical depression over the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Train and airline services around Guangdong had returned to normal after the storm, China's state broadcaster CCTV said.

China's national weather centre said the storm would continue to weaken as it moves north-west.

Philippine Church "Right" despite Pope Francis Comments

 

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma: Be involved. Photo from http://www.cbcponline.net/

Philippine Catholic leaders are standing firm against contraception, abortion and homosexual marriage despite Pope Francis’ comments urging a change of tone on those issues, the national Church said Tuesday. 

 

About 80 percent of the Philippines’ 100 million population are Catholics, making the country the bastion of the faith in Asia, and Church leaders insisted that its dogma would remain in place.

“He is not saying that what the Church deemed before as wrong is now right. He is merely telling us to be more compassionate,” Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Jose Palma said in reaction to the recent papal statement.
“He won’t be saying contraceptives, and even abortion, are now okay. No! Do not expect that to happen,” Archbishop Palma said in comments made Monday.
In an interview published last week, the Argentine pontiff urged a break with the Church’s harsh “obsession” with divorce, gays, contraception and abortion.
Philippine Church leaders have led a decade-long campaign against a birth control law that required the state to hand out free condoms and birth control pills, and provide post-abortion medical care.

The Supreme Court suspended the law in March so that judges could hear formal petitions from a range of Church-backed groups arguing that it was unconstitutional.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, the vice president of the bishops’ group, said: “He (the pope) did not rebuff the strong opposition to contraception, abortion or homosexual marriage. He just set it on proper grounding.”

The transcripts of Palma’s and Villegas’ comments were made available by the bishops’ organisation to AFP on Tuesday.

Edcel Lagman, a former legislator who wrote the birth control law, told AFP the pope’s comments had put the Filipino Church leaders on the defensive, saying they belonged to its “ultra-conservative wing”.

“I think they will have to reconcile their doctrines and make themselves attuned to the liberal thinking of the new pope. There is no way to go but to follow the pope,” he said.

Lagman said the Filipino Church’s conservative activism was rooted in its key role converting locals to Christianity as part of the Asian islands’ 17th-century colonisation by Spain.

“The Church feels it should meddle in the affairs of the State,” he added.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/494061/philippine-church-right-despite-pope-francis-comments#ixzz2fnRr9wWZ