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April 2012
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Marcos ruled the country from THE Philippines said Saturday, ©AFP/File/Romeo Gacad KUWAIT AIRWAYS March 17 it will auction off two 1965 to 1986, much of this time properties once owned by late as a dictator. His family and their dictator Ferdinand Marcos for at allies are accused of stealing least 315.8 million pesos ($7.3 billions of dollars in state funds during this period. million). While Marcos and his family Prime real estate in a Manila suburb and the northern fled abroad after his downfall, mountain resort city of Baguio some of his key allies surrendered will be sold through public assets they were holding for the bidding on April 24, said a ex-president as part of settlement INTEREST EXTRA GURANTEED UK government agency set up to deals with government. FREE LUGGAGE AVAILABILITY ALL LOWEST INSTALMENTS ALLOWANCE YEAR ROUND PRICES The Presidential Commission recover the ill-gotten wealth of Gants Hill, Central Line on Good Government aims to use Marcos and his cronies. from Stratford. minutes Ilford, The 7two properties, totalling the recovered funds for a land 7,913 square metres (85,170 reform programme. OFFICE: FREEfrom UK1965 regional Short connection and baggage The MANILA commission said that Marcos ruled the country squareLONDON feet),OFFICE: were surrendered to to 1986, much of this time as a dictator. 269-275 Cranbrook Road, UNIT 2303 CITYLAND HERRERA TOWER, connections with all the way to the Philippines. the government by Marcos croney 93.4 billion pesos had so been Ilford IG1 4TG. 98 V.A. RUFINO CORNER VALERO STREET, ©AFP/File /Noel Celis The agency Jose Yao Campos in 1986 after recovered. 1227 MAKATI CITY. hopes to FREE regional connections a popular revolt toppled Marcos claw back 405.7 million pesos with in Philippines with this year. earlier that year. However the commission has “We are confident that... Byahe Pinoy is a part of 360 Travel Group Limited. Taxes are approximate and will be confirmed at the time of booking. All flights are ATOL protected and are subject to availability. the strategic location of the long complained that the lack of properties (would) attract more a paper trail and delaying tactics bidders, generating higher value,” employed by lawyers for the said Roger Amurao, commissioner Marcos estate prevented it from from the Presidential Commission recovering more. Although Marcos died in exile on Good Government. The Manila property is in 1989, his family has since located opposite a major leisure returned to the Philippines. His and casino project while the widow Imelda Marcos and their one in Baguio is situated near son, also named Ferdinand, were popular tourist attractions, the elected to parliament in 2010. ■ commission said. (AFP – Manila – March 17, 2012)
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Special Feature
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
President Aquino says in command of Philippines PRESIDENT Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III admits he needed weekend escapes from the job’s pressures when he started as the Philippines’ president, but nearly two years on he exudes passion and says he is firmly in control. During an in-depth interview with AFP at the presidential palace, Aquino pointed to a host of economic indicators to justify his enthusiasm, while displaying a relish for bare-knuckled political fights against his opponents. “There are so many things that have transpired that none of us could even have imagined when we were campaigning,” Aquino said reflecting on his first 21 months in office that followed a landslide election win. He referred mostly to the state of the nation’s economy, which after decades of under-performing has showed signs of steady, if incremental, improvement under his leadership and mantra of cleangovernance. Aquino, 52, insists the economy
is on the right track, citing a series of international credit ratings upgrades and the rise of the Philippine stock market to record highs in recent weeks as evidence. Among his proudest achievements are luring foreign manufacturers and other investors to the Philippines, extending health cover, cutting government waste and expanding an incentive scheme to keep millions of poor children at school. Critics accuse him of lacking urgency on the economic front, pointing out GDP growth was just 3.7 percent last year partly because he cut government spending when they say pump-priming was needed. But Aquino’s policies, which have an overarching theme of tackling the corruption infecting all sectors of the nation’s economy, have won endorsement from a wide range of sources. World Bank country director Motoo Konishi said last week the economy was in good shape with inflation stable at around 2.7
percent, manageable government finances and a well-focused social protection system. “Besides having strong macroeconomic fundamentals, the country is benefiting from political stability and a popular government seen by many as strongly committed to improving governance and reducing poverty,” he said. A survey released by one of the nation’s most reputable polling groups on Thursday also found Aquino was holding onto the support that carried him to the biggest election win in modern Philippine politics. The Pulse Asia survey showed his popularity ratings at 70 percent, with just nine percent disapproving. A big factor in Aquino winning by such a large margin in 2010 was brand association. He is the son of Corazon Aquino, one of the country’s most loved political figures who led the democracy movement against dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s and then succeeded him for six years as president.
Her death in 2009 led to an outpouring of support for the Aquino family, transforming the bachelor son from a publicityshy senator with a reputation for achieving little in politics into the country’s most popular politician. Meanwhile, business leaders are showing their support by opening up their wallets. One of the country’s biggest conglomerates, Ayala Corp, announced last week that its real estate arm would invest $1.4 billion over the next five years on projects within the country’s financial district of Makati. “The economy is on a positive track.... that’s why we’re aggressive in our investment,” said Ayala Land president Antonino Aquino, who is not related to the president. In last week’s interview, President Aquino said holding the reins of the country felt much more comfortable than the initial period after taking over from Gloria Arroyo, who ruled the Philippines for nearly 10 years before him. “The first three months we were
all looking towards Friday,” Aquino said. “When Friday came there would at least be a small break in between the discovery of other problems.” Aquino has repeatedly accused Arroyo and her allies of running down the country through massive corruption, and he referred again in the interview to her time in power as a “lost decade”. Aquino has mounted an attimes controversial campaign to prosecute Arroyo and her allies, who include Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. Arroyo is now awaiting trial and could spend life in jail after being charged with election fraud. Corona is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate and will lose his job if found guilty of corruption. Critics accuse Aquino of persecuting his opponents. But he made no apologies, and insisted there would be no let-up in the antigraft campaign. “We are trying to get the kingpins of corruption,” he said. ■ (AFP – Manila, Philippines – March 25, 2012)
©Gil Nartea/MPB/NPPAIMAGES
President Benigno S. Aquino III goes over his papers in his office in Malacanang Palace, March 15, 2012. President Benigno Simeon Aquino III leads the Wreath-laying ceremony at the Monument of President Corazon C. Aquino in P. Burgos St. corner Bonifacio Drive, Luneta, Manila City, February 25, 2012. The first memorial shrine for Aquino was sculpted by artist Eduardo Castrillo, standing 15 feet tall and weighing 250 kilos, the figure made of hand-crafted brass sheets was based on a photo supplied by the Aquino family. It shows the democracy icon flashing the Laban sign her campaign battle cry during the 1986 snap elections with her right hand and holding a slab of the 1987 Constitution with her left. The ceremony is part of the commemorative activities of the 26th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution. This year’s theme is Anong Taya Mo Para Sa Pilipinas Natin? The 1986 peaceful and bloodless uprising ousted the dictatorship and catapulted the late Corazon C. Aquino to the Presidency.
©Benhur Arcayan/MPB/NPPA Images
©AFP/File/Emmanuel Dunand
Philippines› President Benigno Aquino III addresses the 65th General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York, September 24, 2010.
HELLO PHILIPPINES
Events Diary
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April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Original Creation and Copyright Reserved By: Hello Philippines 2011
6
2012 CALENDAR OF EVENTS DATE / TIME
EVENT
1, 5, 6, 7 & 8 April 2012 Various Times
Semana Santa sa Southampton – Contact Father Claro Conde for more information
15 April 2012 – Sunday
Discovering the Cuisine of The Philippines nd
VENUE
ORGANISER
St Patrick’s Catholic Church, 45 Portsmouth Road, Woolston, Southampton SO19 9BD
CONTACTS / REMARKS Father Claro Conde 07803 191 502 / cconde8254@aol.com
London Cooking Club
Luiz Hara luizhara@hotmail.com / www.londonfoodie.co.uk
21 April 2012 - Saturday
Philippine Embassy 2 Consular Outreach Mission in 2012 – Belfast, Northern Ireland
Ennis Room, Belfast City Hospital, 51 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7AB
21 April 2012 – Saturday 6:00pm
Aegis Band – Rock-Rakan sa Dublin, Ireland
D4 Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland
22 April 2012 – Sunday
Aegis Band – Rock-Rakan sa Belfast, Northern Ireland
Ramada Plaza Hotel, Milton Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
25 April 2012 – Wednesday 6:00pm
Aegis Band – Rock-Rakan sa Norte
Hilton Bradford, Hall Ings, Bradford BD1 5SH
Ticket Prices: £25.00 / £35.00 / £40.00 Teody Ramos 07775 615 031
28 April 2012 – Saturday 5:30pm
Aegis Band – Rock-Rakan sa Newcastle
Lightfoot Center, Wharrier Street, Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 3BR
Ticket Prices: £25.00 / £30.00 / £40.00 Noralyn Rozas 07917 181 729 / 07930 652 068 / 0191 265 1302
29 April 2012 – Sunday 6:00pm
Aegis Band – Rock-Rakan sa London
Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, Hammersmith, London W6 9JU
Ticket Prices: £35.00 / £40.00 Elaine 07784 618 868 / Judith 07932 484 155 / Nugroovz 07717 616 546 / Fil-Events.com 07940 954 642
5 May 2012 – Saturday
Pinoy Showcase Talent
12 May 2012 – Saturday 1:00pm
Santacruzan 2012 in East London
St Antony’s Church, Stratford, London
Filipino Community in East London, London East End Rosary Crusade and Leyte-Samar Organization in the UK
12 May 2012 – Saturday 6:00pm
2nd Miss London NABA 2012 Beauty Pageant
Camden Centre, Euston Road, London WC1H 9DB
Controllers UK
19 May 2012 – Saturday 6:00pm to 1:00am
Rock Intensity – A gig for earthquake victims in Negros
Pettswood War Memorial Hall, Orpington, Kent BR5 1LA
Kabisig Bromley
26 May 2012 – Saturday
Independence Day 2012 – Celebrations in the Royal Borough of Greenwich 1. Flores de Mayo 2. Liturgical Service 3. Barrio Fiesta / Cultural Show Batangas Party
1. 2. 3.
Greenwich Filipino Community in line with the multi-cultural celebration for the declaration of Greenwich as a Royal Borough and the 2012 Olympics
Moises Espanola, President – 07894 548 939 / mespanola2@yahoo.com
Sion Manning RC Girls School, St Charles Square, Ladbroke Grove, London W10 6EL
Batangas Association UK
Ticket Prices: £10.00 Adult / £5.00 Child / Foods and Drinks for Sale and not included on the ticket price – Contact: 07956 271 750
2 June 2012 – Saturday 6:00pm to 11:00pm
Aguman Kapampangan – Summer Disco
Harrow Club W10, 87 Freston Road, London W10 6TH
Aguman Kapampangan UK
Erroll 07429 187 991 / Luz 07721 338 366 / Zanie 07733 781 858 / 07886 881 432
2 to 3 June 2012 – Saturday & Sunday
Bristol Barrio Fiesta 2012
Eastville Park, Fishpond Road, Eastville, Bristol BS5 6AX
Filipino Community in Bristol
Willy 07900 485 194 / Gerome 07717 884 293 / Carlo 07528 770 491 / www.filcombristol.co.uk
9 June 2012 – Saturday 3:00pm
114th Independence Thanksgiving Mass and Salo-Salo
The Holy Apostles Catholic Church, Winchester Street, Pimlico, London SW1V 4LY
Philippine Embassy, London, United Kingdom with various Filipino Associations
9 to 10 June 2012 – Saturday & Sunday
114th Philippine Independence Day in Morden
Morden Park, London Road, Morden, Surrey SM4 5DX
Bayanihan UK
Teresita Valencia-Juval 020 7341 7431 / juvaltravel@btconnect.com / Gil Zarcilla 07802 761 446
16 June 2012 – Saturday 9:00am
4th Pistahan sa Newcastle 2012 (Newcastle Filipino Festival 2012)
Filipino Community Association of Newcastle Upon Tyne (FILCAN)
Sally Sellars 07886 742 417 / sallysanchez@btinternet.com
17 June 2012 – Sunday 10:00am to 5:00pm
5th Yorkshire Barrio Fiesta 2012
Blaydon Rugby Club Field (Car Boot Sale Area), Hexham Road, Swalwell, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE16 3BN Rowntree Park, Terry Avenue, York YO23 1JQ
Yorkshire Maharlika Filipino Club in association with City of York Council
Lolita Boddy 01765 535 015 / 07973 469 450 / www.maharlika.org.uk
17 June 2012 – Sunday 9:00am to 6:00pm
Filipino Leeds Association Barrio Fiesta 2012
Kirkstall Abbey Leeds, Abbey Road, Kirkstall, Leeds LS5 3EH
Filipino Leeds Association
Eden 07809 404 580 / Wilma 07846 088 537 / Rowena 07717 220 095 / Mayona 07977 149 417
22 to 23 June 2012 – Friday & Saturday 7:30pm 23 to 24 June 2012 – Saturday & Sunday
East Meets West 2… Kantahan Naman!
Royal Overseas League, Overseas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London SW1A 1LR
Inter-Cultural Society of London
For more details contact: 07961 445 249 / gia@westendmamas.com
Woodgate Valley Country Park, Clapgate Lane, Bartley Green, Birmingham B32 3DS
Filipino Association of Birmingham (FAB)
Marlo Quilang, Chairman 0121 244 6900 / 0121 421 7762
23 to 24 June 2012 Saturday & Sunday
Filipino British Society (FBS) Barrio Fiesta in Milton Keynes
Campbell Park, Milton Keynes
Filipino British Society (FBS)
Maria 07737 676 850 / Merald 07909 957 313 / Fe 07588 636 573
Lampton Park, Lampton Road, Hounslow, Middlesex TW3 4DN
ABS-CBN Europe Limited in cooperation with The Philippine Centre
Event Coordinator 07577 813 104 / londonbarriofiesta@yahoo.com
Lady Hill Park, Allerton Road, Bradford
British-Filipino Association of Bradford
Nina Ricci Santos, Chairman bfabmail@yahoo.com
26 May 2012 – Saturday 6:00pm
–
30 June to 1 July 2012 – Saturday & Sunday 10:00am to 6:00pm 8 July 2012 – Sunday 8:00am to 6:00pm
5
th
28
Fiesta sa Birmingham-Midlands 2012
th
Barrio Fiesta sa London 2012
Bradford Pinoy Barrio Fiesta and Santacruzan 2012
Philippine Embassy, London, United Kingdom Ticket Prices: EUR 40.00 / EUR 50.00
Kensal Community Association and India Investment Plc
Powis High Street St Peter Church Gen. Gordon Square
Jojo Almojuela 07515 475 780 / Malcolm Conlan 07940 954 642 / Vanessa Horca 07921 079 199 / Myra Adap Dela Cruz 07896 955 96 / Elijah Villanueva 07414 924 303
Ryan Abeleda (President, Controllers UK) 07515 252 235 / controllers.basketball@gmail.com
FREE LISTING of your events on the Hello Philippines newspaper and if you know of any Events do not hesitate to contact us. Please kindly contact us and submit your event via email or text to the following at info@hello-philippines.com / 07989 403 904. DISCLAIMER: The Events Diary Listing does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by Hello Philippines newspaper. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Hello Philippines newspaper. This is merely an Events Diary Listing of what is happening within the Filipino Communities in Europe. This is for general information only.
8
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Special Feature
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
©MPB/NPPAIMAGES
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, accompanied by Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Superintendent M/Gen. Nonato Alfredo Peralta, Jr., AFP, salutes to the colors during the full military honors accorded to him as the Commanderin-Chief during the 107th Commencement Exercises of PMA “Bagwis” Class 2012 at the Borromeo Field, Fort General Gregorio del Pilar, Baguio City, March 18, 2012. Cadet First Class Tom Puertollano topped the 187 newly graduates and the recipient of the Presidential Saber. The Commander-in-Chief commissioned the 187 newly graduates of the academy as second lieutenants and ensigns of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
©Jay Morales/MPB/NPPA Images
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III addresses the Philippine Investment Forum at the Rigodon Ballroom, The Peninsula Manila, Makati Avenue, Makati City, March 27, 2012. The Philippines growth potential has raised new hopes amongst international investors. President Aquino’s administration is credited with taking determined and concrete actions in removing red tape, reducing corruption and presenting the country’s merits as a safe and lucrative investment destination during a time of uncertainty. The World Economic Forum saw a six-notch increase in the country’s financial development ranking and international rating agencies jointly raised the Philippines sovereign ratings. This conference will bring together government officials, top Filipino business executives and local and foreign investors to offer a global audience a balanced perspective on the renewed Philippines investment story.
©Gil Nartea/MPB/NPPAIMAGES
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III and the Amir of the State of Kuwait, His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Saber Al Sabah, reviews the honor guards during the Arrival Ceremony at the Malacañang Palace Grounds for his State Visit to the Republic of the Philippines, March 23, 2012. The State of Kuwait counts among the Philippines leading investment and development partners in the Middle East. Kuwaiti investments in the Philippines include the Gateway Logistics City, a 177-hectare aviation-oriented logistics and business center located in Clark Freeport, Pampanga. Kuwait is also host to around 130,000 OFWs working in the country. ©Gil Nartea/MPB/NPPAIMAGES
©Benhur Arcayan/MPB/NPPA Images
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III presided a meeting attended by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr., DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima and DENR Secretary Ramon Jesus Paje at the Study Conference Room, Malacañang Palace, March 21, 2012.
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, accompanied by MPVA Minister Park Sung Choon, tours and inspects the facilities of the Museum of the Philippines Expeditionary Forces to Korea (PEFTOK) Korean War Memorial Hall (PKWMH) during the Inauguration Ceremony at the Libingan ng mga Bayani Annex, Bayani Road, Taguig City, March 29, 2012. The PKWMH honors the 7,420 officers and men of the PEFTOK who fought in the Korean War and help rebuild the Republic of Korea (ROK) from the ravages of war. A two-storey structure with a touch of Korean Architecture, the PKWMH was funded by the Korean Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) through the Embassy of Korea in the Philippines. It features a library, an auditorium and a museum depicting vignettes of information on the Philippine contingent during the Korean War. It stands tall as an enduring symbol of the Great and Extraordinary Friendship between the Philippines and Korea that strengthens with the passing of time.
10
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HP News
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Malaysia says terrorist survived Philippine raid A Malaysian militant with a $5 million US bounty on his head survived a recent Philippine air strike, a Malaysian counter-terror official said Friday, March 16 despite Manila’s claims to the contrary. “We believe Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir, alias Marwan, is still alive,” Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, deputy head of the Malaysian police force’s counterterrorism unit, told AFP. Zulkifli, an Islamic militant, is “badly, badly wounded” and in hiding on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, he said. He cited Malaysian intelligence but declined to give further details. Last month the Philippine military said three of Southeast Asia’s mostwanted terror suspects were killed in the raid on Jolo, which was backed by US intelligence. It said the dead included Zulkifli,
who was trained as an engineer in the United States and who is suspected of providing bomb-making knowhow to Southeast Asian terror groups. The United States posted the bounty. However, the Philippine military has yet to release proof of the kill, with authorities saying bodies were taken away by fellow militants and quickly buried in line with Muslim custom. Military spokesman Colonel Arnuflo Burgos told AFP the armed forces were awaiting results of DNA tests on tissue samples from the scene. But he added: “We still maintain that, based on reliable sources on the ground, (Zulkifli)” and the other militants were killed. Ayob said the 46-year-old Zulkifli was a senior member of the Kumpulan Militant Malaysia,
which at one time harboured plans to overthrow the government of Muslim-majority Malaysia and form an Islamic state. He added that Zulkifli masterminded the bombing of a Hindu temple in 2000 in the capital Kuala Lumpur and the fatal shooting that year of a ruling party politician. Zulkifli “remains a security threat” because of his explosives knowledge, Ayob said. The Philippine government has previously declared extremist leaders dead, only for them to turn up alive. In 2001, then-president Gloria Arroyo announced that Khadaffy Janjalani, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, had been killed. He subsequently appeared on television, but was confirmed killed in 2007 in a clash with soldiers. ■
(AFP – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – March 16, 2012)
Three Filipino sailors kidnapped in Yemen YEMENI tribesman have kidnapped three Filipino sailors, demanding that one of their own be freed from jail in exchange for their freedom, the interior ministry said on Wednesday, March 21. The sailors were seized on Tuesday in the central province of Marib as they travelled to a port in the far-eastern Mahrah province from which they were to embark on their ship, a statement said. The kidnappers belong to the Bani Jabr tribe and are demanding the “release of one of their own, who is in prison in Sanaa for a serious
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criminal offense,” the ministry said. There was no immediate word on the identities of the sailors, nor on who employs them. The statement added that the men had been forced to travel overland after a flight from the capital was canceled because of a sand storm. Security forces have been ordered to “quickly free the hostages and arrest their kidnappers,” the ministry said. Theirs was the second kidnapping of foreigners in the poor and generally lawless Arabian Peninsula country in the past week. A Swiss woman teaching at a foreign language institute in the Red Sea port of Hodeïda was seized by gunmen from her home on March 14 and moved to the eastern province of Shabwa, according to the ministry. On Tuesday, a tribal chief who had offered to mediate her release
said she was being held hostage in eastern Yemen and was safe and in good health. As in the latest case, the ministry said the kidnappers were demanding the release of prisoners. A local official said those detainees were both Al-Qaeda suspects, and a security official said “the kidnapping bears the hallmark of Al-Qaeda.” Shabwa is a stronghold of loyalists of the jihadists’ local affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, whose militants fight under the banner of Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law). More than 200 people have been abducted in Yemen over the past 15 years, many of them by members of the country’s powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips with the authorities. Almost all of those kidnapped were later freed unharmed. ■ (AFP – Sanaa, Yemen – March 21, 2012) ©AFP/File/Gamal Noman
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Three Filipino sailors were seized on Tuesday in the central province of Marib.
©AFP/Noel Celis
Philippine police investigate the area where a grenade exploded outside the Galleria shopping mall.
One dead in Philippine shopping mall robbery mayhem A security guard was killed and five people wounded Thursday, March 29 as men armed with guns and grenades created mayhem at a popular Manila shopping mall in a robbery against a bank courier, police said. The shocking mid-morning heist brought traffic to a halt outside the upmarket Galleria mall as police cordoned off the area in search of the gunmen, who were believed to have escaped. The fracas began when two men dressed as security guards opened fire on a bank employee and two armed escorts who were delivering cash to a money-changer at the mall, police investigator Chief Inspector
Bernard Plan said. “They (the bank courier and his guards) were immediately shot by the armed men who did not even declare that it was a hold-up,” Plan told AFP. The courier and one guard were wounded while the second guard was killed in the attack, Plan said. As the armed men fled the mall, they hurled two grenades to scare off pursuers although only one went off, scattering shrapnel over the storefronts. Three bystanders were also wounded in the attack, said Plan, who was unable to say if any money was stolen. ■ (AFP – Manila – March 29, 2012)
Philippine man murdered in video game row A man has been stabbed to death in Manila following a row between two groups of men playing the popular shooting video game ‘Counter-Strike’, police said Wednesday, March 21. The quarrel between the men playing the game – in which gamers playing either terrorists or anti-terror officers try to kill their opponents – erupted in an Internet cafe, police investigator Noel Ibañez said. The teams had bet 300 pesos ($7.15) on the outcome of their competition on Monday, but when one side won an argument broke out over payment, said Ibañez.
A member of the winning team, still angry over the dispute, later followed losing player Eric Cristobal to his home and stabbed him to death, he added. “He (Cristobal) did not start the quarrel. He just got caught up in it. But they all had long been betting on Counter-Strike,” said Ibañez. The suspect was arrested by police on Tuesday. Internet cafes are very popular in the Philippines, mainly among young people who pack into them to play computer games, often for hours on end. ■ (AFP – March 21, 2012)
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April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Gunmen free kidnapped teachers in Philippines GUNMEN who kidnapped two male teachers in the restive southern Philippines freed their captives after a week-long pursuit by troops, the military said on Monday, March 26. The men, Rene Somadang and Tino Sanchez, were recovered late Sunday after they were abandoned near the town of Tagoloan on the southern island of Mindanao, regional army chief Colonel Daniel Lucero said. “No ransom was paid and the release was due to our continuing operations,” Lucero said. “The operation has not ended and we will
see to it that the kidnappers will face the bar of justice.” The duo were snatched exactly a week ago by unknown gunmen while on their way to work. The gunmen demanded some four million pesos ($93,000) for their release, authorities said. Also last week, members of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group kidnapped a Filipina midwife elsewhere in the south, but freed her later, after local officials negotiated with the gunmen. It was not clear whether any ransom was paid.
The Abu Sayyaf is one of several armed groups in the restive south who have turned to kidnapping for ransom to raise funds and often targeting foreigners. Seven foreigners – a Dutch man, a Swiss national, an Australian, two Malaysian traders, an Indian married to a Filipina and a Japanese man – are believed to still be held by the Abu Sayyaf and other outlawed groups. US troops have been based in the southern Philippines for a decade to help train local troops to track down the Abu Sayyaf. ■ (AFP – Zamboanga, Philippines – March 26, 2012)
©AFP/File/Jay Directo
File photo of soldiers during a patrol in the southern Philippines.
Kidnapped midwife Philippines tightens released in Philippines watch on African arrivals
SUSPECTED Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists released a health worker they had seized in the troubled southern Philippines, two days after they seized her, officials said Thursday, March 22. The 54-year-old Filipina midwife was freed on the island of Jolo late Wednesday but it was unclear why she was let go, military and police said. “She was freed by the kidnappers in Patikul (town) through the intercession of local officials,” said regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang. It was not clear if any ransom was paid for the woman, who was seized on Monday by Ninok Sappari, a member of the feared Abu Sayyaf group and who has been linked to previous cases of kidnapping for ransom.
Jolo and the hinterland town of Patikul in particular are known strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf, a group founded with seed money from Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. The Abu Sayyaf is one of several armed groups in the restive south who have resorted to kidnapping to raise funds, often targeting foreigners. Seven foreigners – a Dutchman, a Swiss national, an Australian, two Malaysian traders, an Indian and a Japanese man — are believed to still be held by the Abu Sayyaf and other outlawed groups. US troops have been based in the southern Philippines for a decade to help train local soldiers in hunting the Abu Sayyaf. ■ (AFP –
airports was imposed after two Ghanaians were caught on March 13, bringing to eight the number of Africans stopped at Philippine airports in three weeks while trying to smuggle in illegal drugs. Bureau of Immigration spokeswoman Maria Antonette
March 22, 2012)
Singapore to hang Indian man for Filipina’s murder AN Indian shipyard worker will be hanged after a Singapore court on Wednesday, March 21 gave him the death penalty for the 2010 murder of a Filipina woman, local media reported. Bijukumar Remadevi Nair Gopinathan, 36, was convicted of the murder of Roselyn Reyes Pascua and was handed the mandatory death penalty by a district court judge. Justice Choo Han Teck said the prosecution had proved its case against Gopinathan beyond a reasonable doubt, the Straits Times reported. Pascua’s body was found inside a hotel room in March 2010. She had been stabbed several times. The Straits Times said Gopinathan did not deny stabbing the 30-yearold victim during his trial but argued that he was provoked, adding that she had solicited him for sex.
PHILIPPINE airport immigration officials have tightened monitoring of arrivals from Africa after a spate of arrests of drug mules from the continent, according to a spokeswoman said Saturday, March 17. The increased vigilance at all
Local media reports said Gopinathan was caught with Pascua’s mobile phone and some bloodstained money when he was arrested three days after the killing. His DNA was also found on items in the room where Pascua’s body was found, including a bra, a pair of denim hot pants and a brown wallet, the reports said. Capital punishment in Singapore is carried out by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial rule. Human rights groups have criticised Singapore for maintaining the death penalty and say mandatory capital punishment for certain crimes, such as murder and drug trafficking, leave judges with no room for discretion. But authorities argue the death penalty is necessary to maintain Singapore’s record as one of the safest cities in the world. ■ (AFP – March 21, 2012)
©AFP/File/Jay Directo
This file photo, taken in 2011, shows a member of the Manila international airport immigration team checking travellers’ documents. Philippine airport immigration officials have tightened monitoring of arrivals from Africa after a spate of arrests of drug mules from the continent, according to a spokeswoman.
Mangrobang on Saturday told AFP: “This is not discrimination. They will not be treated poorly. We are just asking our immigration people to be a bit more vigilant.” If a new arrival cannot fully explain why he or she is coming to the Philippines, immigration personnel can bar them from entering, she said. Mangrobang said she could not say why so many Africans, including nationals from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Guinea, had recently been caught trying to smuggle illegal drugs into the Philippines. The drug enforcement agency said it has arrested 38 members of African drug syndicates since last year, and information obtained from them led to the capture of 14 accomplices abroad. Most of these have been caught trying to smuggle the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride, popularly known as “ice”, into the Philippines. ■ (AFP – Manila – March 17, 2012)
Two dead, 270 families flee Philippine clash
FIGHTING between rival armed insurgent groups left two people dead and sent around 270 families fleeing their homes in the strife-torn southern Philippines, a military spokesman said Sunday, March 25. Eight houses were also burned as members of the main Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) battled fighters from the older Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), said Colonel Prudencio Asto. After a week of sporadic gunshots, MILF fighters attacked members of the MNLF in the agricultural town of Carmen in the southern island of Mindanao on Saturday, leaving one dead on each side, he added. MILF spokesman Von al-Haq said the fight was sparked by a personal feud between an MILF leader called
Commander Karim and an MNLF leader called Commander Teo and that it was not a wider war between the two groups. “They (the fighters) are alleging that Commander Teo is the mastermind of the killing of the wife of Commander Karim about three weeks ago,” he told AFP. He did not know why the woman was killed. The MILF, which is engaged in a ceasefire and peace talks with the government, has dispatched officers to the area to stop the hostilities while the military said it is sending troops to separate the two sides. There were about 400 MILF fighters and 300 MNLF members known to be operating in the farming village where the fighting broke out, the military added.
The MNLF was the original Muslim rebel group fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern third of the largelyChristian Philippines in the early1970s. However, when the MNLF signed an agreement with the government to seek some autonomy instead, the MILF split to wage their own war starting in 1978. In 2003, a truce was signed with the MILF to pave the way for peace talks with the government. Despite the peace process, MILF and MNLF fighters have been allowed to retain their weapons and individual commanders from both groups occasionally clash in the south over land and political influence. ■ (AFP – March 25, 2012)
Business & Finance
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
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Aquino says miners will have to pay THE Philippine government intends to impose far heavier taxes and tougher environmental restrictions on the mining industry, President Benigno Aquino said Tuesday, March 20. Aquino told AFP in an interview a review of the country’s mining policies was close to being finished, and the government would likely require all mining companies to start paying the government a “hefty” percentage of revenues. Aquino said the government currently only received a two-percent excise tax. “We are now reviewing what is fair... we get two percent of the profit and 100 percent of the risks. That doesn’t seem fair,” he said. Aquino said the government was looking at efforts by the Australian government to generate more money from the mining sector, where a 30-percent tax on extraordinary profits of coal and ore producers will start in July.
He said a 50-50 revenue sharing agreement was even being considered, although he emphasised the policy had not been finalised and refused to signal what percentage the government was hoping for other than a “fair share”. The Philippines is believed to have some of the biggest mineral reserves in the world – the government estimates the country has at least $840 billion in gold, copper, nickel, chromite, manganese, silver and iron. However the minerals have been largely untapped, partly because of a strong anti-mining movement led by the influential Catholic Church, while poor infrastructure and security concerns have also kept investors away. Aquino said the new mining policy would aim to regulate the industry much more closely and give certainty to investors.
©AFP/File/Ted Aljibe
Philippine President Benigno Aquino speaks during an interview with AFP.
“(But) once all of those minerals are extracted, that’s it. So if we go into gaining these resources on a temporary basis, we might be sacrificing the long-term opportunities for our future.”
Aquino said, under the new policy, mining would be banned completely from 78 sites deemed important to tourism, while other environmental restrictions would be imposed. ■ (AFP – March 20, 2012)
Philippines’ Cebu Pacific open to merger
©AFP/File/Noel Celis
This general view shows the Makati financial district of Manila.
Ayala to spend $1.4 billion on property REAL estate giant Ayala Land Inc. said Thursday, March 22 it will spend about 60 billion pesos ($1.4 billion) to revitalise the country’s main business district of Makati. The cash injection by Ayala Land and its subsidiaries over the next five years is intended to take advantage of improving economic conditions in the Philippines, the company president said. “The economy is on a positive track... That’s why we’re aggressive in our investment,” Ayala Land president Antonino Aquino was quoted as saying by Dow Jones Newswires. A statement filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange said the money would go on a variety of projects including residential, retail and office developments. Among the planned projects is a 22-hectare (54-acre) “integrated
But he signalled the government was not desperate to cash in on the global commodities boom, pointing out the mining sector played only a small role in the nation’s economy and created many environmental risks. “They (miners) claim they contribute quite a big amount to the national economy but at the end of the day it’s really just two percent,” he said. Aquino also indicated tourism was a much higher economic priority for the government than mining, which he said generally created only shortterm economic benefits. He said the government was aiming to attract 10 million tourists annually by 2016, up from four million currently, and that each visitor generated one job domestically. “If we get 10 million tourists, we get 10 million new jobs... this is sustainable. We can count on that year in, year out,” he said.
PHILIPPINES
township” and entertainment district on an abandoned racetrack, Ayala Land said. Ayala Land, the flagship of the diversified Ayala Corp. conglomerate, posted a 31 percent growth in its net profit last year, hitting 7.14 billion pesos. The company operates highend residences, office buildings, hotels, apartments, resorts and shopping malls across the country. Ayala Land has been dominant in the Makati suburb of the Philippine capital Manila, which houses the headquarters of many of the country’s top banks and corporations as well as its biggest skyscrapers. The Philippine government is targeting five to six percent economic growth this year after posting 3.7 percent growth in 2011. ■ (AFP – March 22, 2012)
BUDGET carrier Cebu Pacific, the largest airline in the Philippines, is open to mergers with other airlines including flagcarrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), its president said Thursday, March 15. Speaking in a conference call from Manila, Cebu Pacific president Lance Gokongwei said his airline had a “strong balance sheet” compared to rival carriers. Asked if he was considering a merger with PAL, he said: “We are not in any current discussions with Philippine Airlines but... if the opportunity arose, I would certainly look at it.” Regarding possible consolidation in the industry, Gokongwei said he believed many
of Cebu Pacific’s competitors, which he did not name, needed additional capital from their owners to stay in the air. “Cebu Pacific continues to operate in a profitable manner. We are able to make money and fund our growth plans,” he told reporters. Gokongwei said higher fuel prices and other increased costs had lowered the airline’s profits in 2011 but stressed it still posted positive figures. Net profits in 2011 amounted to 3.62 billion pesos ($85 million), a 48-percent fall compared to 2010, company figures showed. However total revenues in 2012 rose 16.7 percent to 33.9 billion pesos while total passengers ©AFP/File/Ted Aljibe
Cebu Pacific president Lance Gokongwei said his airline had a “strong balance sheet” compared to rivals.
increased 14 percent to 11.9 million. Gokongwei forecast that total passengers would rise to 14 million this year. Last month, a PAL spokeswoman confirmed that the loss-making flag carrier was in talks to sell part of its stake to local conglomerate San Miguel. PAL, majority owned by Philippine tycoon Lucio Tan, suffered a 1.45-billion-peso pretax loss in the three months to December 2011, its listed parent firm, PAL Holdings, reported. PAL was forced to cancel many flights during that quarter amid a wildcat strike as airline management outsourced 2,600 jobs in in-flight catering, airport services and call centre reservations in an effort to cut costs. PAL had a near-monopoly on the domestic aviation market two decades ago but has since been overtaken in number of flights by Cebu Pacific. Although some budget carriers in Asia are reportedly cutting back, Cebu Pacific is still pushing through with its plans to begin long-haul flights by next year using Airbus A320 aircraft, Gokongwei said. He said this service would cater to the estimated 10 million Filipinos working overseas, particularly those travelling to and from the Middle East, Australia, North Asia and Europe. ■ (AFP – Manila – March 15, 2012)
16
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Business & Finance
www.hello-philippines.com
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Robin Padilla takes on new role as MoneyGram Brand Ambassador Padilla to help promote the brand to more than 90 million Filipinos around the world MANILA (March 21, 2012) – Veteran actor Robin Padilla finds his latest starring role as MoneyGram International’s new brand ambassador. The announcement came at a news conference March 21 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Ortigas Center in Pasig City, where the company also unveiled a new television commercial and marketing campaign, “Moneygrado sa MoneyGram,” featuring the seasoned talent. The campaign supports MoneyGram’s strategy for increased awareness and brand affinity among Filipino consumers around the world. “MoneyGram chose Robin because he is seen by Filipino consumers to be a credible voice in advocating for products. We believe he will help strengthen our brand awareness among his devoted followers who rely on our money transfer services to help meet their family’s financial needs,” said Juan Agualimpia, MoneyGram’s chief marketing officer. Agualimpia also noted that Padilla possesses both the credibility and charisma that have resonated with Filipino fans throughout the years, as evidenced by numerous blockbuster hits under his belt. “Robin is not only a celebrity, but also has come to symbolize hope and second chances. His mass appeal among Filipinos living here and abroad only
gets stronger as time passes. Robin is widely viewed as a man of his word, the same principle governing MoneyGram,” he said. Padilla said he is honored to be chosen as MoneyGram’s brand ambassador, because the company has provided millions of Filipino workers with an affordable, efficient and convenient way to send essential support to their loved ones. “I am enthusiastic about this opportunity to represent MoneyGram and share with my fellow Filipino workers here and overseas this convenient money transfer experience,” he said. The Philippines is currently ranked as the fourth largest remittance-receive nation of money transfers worldwide. MoneyGram seeks to build awareness of the brand among Filipinos, including more than 8.3 million Filipinos living and working overseas, through its new global campaign. MoneygradoTM is a play on the term manigurado, which in Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines, means to “make sure.” Robin Padilla fans around the world can view the announcement and commercial online at www. moneygram.com/moneygrado. In addition to Robin and officials from MoneyGram, the event was attended by several of the company’s trusted agents in the Philippines, including Banco de Oro, SM, M. Lhuillier, Metro Bank,
San Miguel Corporation 2011 profits down TOP Philippine conglomerate San Miguel said Wednesday, March 28 its net profits fell 13 percent to 17.5 billion pesos ($407.59 million) in 2011, owing to one-off gains the previous year. The figure is down from 20.1 billion pesos in 2010, which included windfall items such as transactions that created its energy subsidiary, SMC Global Power as well as foreign exchange profits. The company did not disclose any details. “Taking out the effects of the onetime gain from (the) acquisition of SMC Global Power and forex gains in 2010, (San Miguel’s) recurring net income... increased 36 percent,” the statement said. It said sales revenues surged 118 percent to 536 billion pesos following significant growth in its new electricity generation and oil refining businesses. San Miguel, which started off as a beer company 122 years ago, is in
the process of a big diversification move and has interests in various major firms. It controls Petron Corp., the country’s top oil refiner, while it also has a minority stake in Manila Electric Co., the largest power distributor. The conglomerate has also bought a controlling stake in the downstream oil business of US firm Exxon Mobil in neighbouring Malaysia and taken a significant stake in two major Manila toll roads. ■ (AFP – Manila – March 28, 2012) ©AFP/File/Ted Aljibe
San Miguel, which started off as a beer company 122 years ago, is in the process of a big diversification move.
Cebuana Lhuillier, Peragram and Kwartagram. Robin Padilla: Born November 23, 1969 Known in the 1990s as “The Bad Boy of Philippine Action Movies,” Robin has since cultivated the opposite image. He is now seen as focused, spiritual and determined. Due to this conversion, he has gained the kind of credibility and charisma that makes consumers trust his product choices. His latest hit series is “Toda Max.” He received the Cinema One Legend Award at the Cinema One Original Film Festival in 2009. Padilla opened a school for Muslim Children, Liwanag ng Kapayapaan (Light of Peace), in a 1,100 sqm section in Quezon City, Philippines. He has a long history of aiding and supporting poor families and has formalized the establishment of the Liwanag ng Kapayapaan Foundation (LKF). He is donating part of his earnings to the foundation. About MoneyGram International MoneyGram International, a leading global money transfer company, enables consumers who are not fully served by traditional financial institutions to meet their financial needs. MoneyGram offers money transfer services worldwide
MG Executives with Robin at photowall.
Robin Padilla signing on photowall.
and bill payment services in the United States and Canada through a global network of more than 256,000 agent locations – including retailers, international post offices and financial institutions – in 192
Robin Padilla at photowall.
countries and territories around the world. To learn more about money transfer or bill payment at an agent location or online, please visit www. moneygram.com or connect with us on Facebook. ■
Red Bull co-founder and Thai tycoon Chaleo dies BILLIONAIRE Chaleo Yoovidhya, the co-founder of energy drink Red Bull and the second richest man in Thailand, died Saturday, March 17 at the age of 89, a company spokeswoman said. Chaleo was Thailand’s second richest man, with a fortune of $5 billion last year according to business magazine Forbes, having fallen from the top spot on its annual list which he held in 2009. According to local reports he was born into a poor Sino-Thai family in the northern province of Phichit who made their living from duck farming and fruit trading. Chaleo moved to Bangkok to help his brother in his drug store before becoming a salesman and later set up his own pharmaceutical factory in the old quarter of Bangkok. His TC Pharmaceuticals produced a “tonic drink” called Krating Daeng (“Red Bull”) which was popular
with factory shift workers and truck drivers and provided the inspiration for the international beverage. In 1984 Chaleo founded Red Bull with Austrian marketing whiz Dietrich Mateschitz, who had become aware of “tonic drinks” while travelling in Asia, and they started selling the drink in Austria in 1987. According to the company website, Mateschitz got the idea for the business while sitting at the bar in the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong in 1982. The pair each owned 49 percent of the company, with Chaleo’s son Chalerm holding the remaining two percent. The drink, which was produced in Chaleo’s factory, is now sold in more than 70 countries worldwide. Chaleo married twice and has 11 children, five from his first wife and six from his second. Apart from its energy drink
©AFP/File/Guillaume Baptiste
Chaleo founded Red Bull with Austrian marketing whiz Dietrich Mateschitz.
business, Red Bull also owns two football teams, Red Bull Salzburg in Austria and the New York Red Bulls in the United States, and a Formula One stable of the same name. Chaleo’s family were due to start week-long traditional Buddhist rites at a monastery west of Bangkok, a temple worker said. ■ (AFP – Bangkok, Thailand – March 17, 2012)
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International NEWS
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Aquino says more US troops welcome PHILIPPINES
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino said Tuesday, March 20 more US troops would be welcome to rotate through the Southeast Asian nation, but ruled out permanent bases. Aquino told AFP in an interview that talks were under way for the long time allies to hold more military training exercises in the Philippines, as well as increase the number of times that US navy ships visited. “We are talking with them. We will have more of the same, is what I am trying to say,” Aquino said, referring to a longstanding partnership that sees regular joint exercises and US port calls in the Philippines. “Their ships can come and call on us, can be replenished, but our constitution will not allow any permanent berthing here in any form. “There might be increases in terms of personnel, but it will have to be very clear on when they come in and go out. They cannot be here permanently.” The negotiations come while the United States is expanding its military presence in the Asia Pacific as a counterweight to rising China, having brokered a deal last year with Australia to place more troops there.
It is also expecting to station several combat ships in Singapore and step up deployments in Thailand, the chief of US naval operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, wrote in December. Aquino said the Philippines was also looking to the United States for help in building up its defence capabilities, amid a maritime territorial dispute with China that flared last year and a host of other security issues. The Philippines had asked the United States for F-16 fighter jets, as well as patrol vessels, transport aircraft and radar systems, according to Aquino. “They are still studying the request for the excess F-16s. We are hoping they will look at it favourably,” he said. Aquino said fighter jets were a top priority for the Philippines, which has one of the most poorlyequipped militaries in the region, because the country has none. “From nothing to one is a significant leap. I am told we can sustain two squadrons (24 aircraft).” Aquino emphasised there were many reasons the Philippines needed to increase its military capabilities, including combating terrorism, helping deal with natural disasters and evacuating
Filipinos from crises overseas. But he also talked in depth about the Philippines needing to protect its rights to parts of the South China Sea that are within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and are believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits. China and Taiwan also claim those areas as theirs, even though the contested waters are much closer to Philippine landmass than Chinese. Diplomatic tensions escalated last year when the Philippines accused China of harassing a Philippine-chartered oil exploration vessel in one of the disputed areas called Reed Bank, and of other bullying tactics. Philippine concerns abut China’s perceived aggressiveness prompted it to seek help from the United States in building up its maritime defence capabilities. The United States responded favourably, delivering a former coast guard cutter to the Philippine Navy last year and promising more military aid. The negotiations currently under way are an extension of that deepening partnership. While China has bristled at US interference in what it regards as a regional dispute, Aquino said the Philippines was entitled
©AFP/File
Philippine President Benigno Aquino gestures as he speaks during an interview with AFP at Malacanang Palace in Manila. Aquino said more US troops would be welcome to rotate through the Southeast Asian nation, but ruled out permanent bases.
to seek help from the United States in building up its military capabilities. “We are not getting any offensive capability from the Americans. But we do need -- I think all countries have a legitimate need for -- defence, and that is our focus,” he said. Nevertheless, Aquino said he was confident that the Philippines’
dispute with China would be resolved peacefully. He also said the Philippines was willing to allow Chinese companies to jointly develop the contested oil and gas fields. “We are open to getting them as partners in the exploitation of these resources, subjects to our laws of course,” he said. ■ (AFP – March 20, 2012)
Asian governments urged to US, Philippines monitoring planned rocket launch strengthen regional cooperation in fight vs drug trafficking THE Philippine Embassy in Bangkok reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the International Narcotics Control Board (ICNB) urged the Governments of countries in the East and Southeast Asian region “to devise appropriate and effective strategies to address the threats posed by trafficking in and abuse of methamphetamine and to strengthen regional cooperation in that regard,” at the launching of its Annual Report 2011 on February 28. The INCB made the recommendation after noting in its Annual Report that the abuse of methamphetamine is on the rise in many countries in the region, and especially among the youth. INCB’s 2011 Annual Report also noted the increased level of drug trafficking through East and Southeast Asia by West African and Iranian organized criminal groups. INCB specifically noted that
China (including Hong Kong), Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand reported trafficking in heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine by traffickers with connections to organized trafficking groups from West Africa and Iran. According to the Report, those criminal groups established trafficking networks in Southeast Asia and usually drug couriers from Ghana, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. The INCB is an independent monitoring body for the implementation of the United Nations international drug control conventions. It was established in 1968 in accordance with the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Its annual reports are submitted to the ECOSOC through the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. ■ (DFA – March 3, 2012)
THE Philippine and US militaries are coordinating to track the path of a planned North Korean rocket launch, parts of which are expected to land off the archipelago, an official said Saturday, March 24. “The Philippine military is coordinating with its US counterpart in the monitoring of the planned launch,” Foreign Department spokesman Raul Hernandez told AFP. His announcement came a day after the USS Blue Ridge, the flagship
of the US 7th Fleet in the Pacific, arrived in Manila for a four-day visit. Hernandez did not divulge details of the joint monitoring, but the allies were expected to hold large-scale joint military exercises in the middle of April to enhance cooperation in case of external threats. “We continue to strongly urge the DPRK (North Korea) not to proceed with its planned launch,” Hernandez said. “They should abide by the UN
Security Council resolutions which explicitly demand that they do not conduct any launch using ballistic missile technology.” Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the rocket launch would impact “in an area roughly between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines,” in a message to Australia’s Foreign Minister Bob Carr, according to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald. ■ (AFP – March 24, 2012)
Philippines says no to drone strikes
THE Philippines is allowing US drones to conduct reconnaissance flights over its territory but strikes from the unmanned planes are banned, President Benigno Aquino said Tuesday, March 20. “For reconnaissance,” Aquino told AFP in an interview when asked if US drones were operating in the southern Philippines where hundreds of American troops have been helping to contain an Islamic militant threat for a decade. When asked whether the Philippines would allow, or had allowed, US drones to drop bombs, Aquino said that
would violate a ban on the American forces from participating in combat operations. “No drone strikes,” he said. Aquino said the US forces had been following the bilateral agreement that restricted them to training. “They are here as advisers. They are here as trainers. They cannot participate in combat operations,” he said. The US forces arrived in the southern Philippines in early 2002 as part of the US government’s global “war on terror”. One key focus of their mission has
been to help the Philippine military deal with the threat of the Abu Sayyaf group, a small band of Islamic militants set up in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. The number of Abu Sayyaf fighters has dropped from roughly 2,000 a decade ago to a few hundred today, according to security analysts. However they remain a threat in the south, capable of kidnapping locals and foreigners, as well as bomb attacks, partly due to support from members of local Muslim communities. ■ (AFP – March 20, 2012)
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OFW News
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April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Hong Kong court overturns landmark maid residency ruling ©AFP/Antony Dickson
©AFP/File/Ed Jones
Eni Lestari (2nd left) and members of the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body stand outside of the High Court.
There are some 300,000 foreign domestic helpers mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines working in Hong Kong.
©AFP/File
©AFP/File
The High Court in Hong Kong ruled on September 30 last year that Philippine domestic worker Evangeline Banao Vallejos had the right to request permanent residency status, something that had been denied to foreign maids until then. Beh Lih Yi, AFP
HONG Kong’s court of appeal on Wednesday, March 28 overturned a landmark ruling that opened the door for thousands of foreign maids to claim residency in the southern Chinese city. “It must be up to the sovereign authority to decide the extent to which the status of permanent resident should be conceded to foreign nationals,” Judge Andrew Cheung wrote in a 66-page judgement accepting the government’s appeal. The High Court ruled on September 30 last year that Philippine domestic worker Evangeline Banao Vallejos had the right to request permanent residency status, something that had been denied to foreign maids until then. But the government argued that the authorities had discretionary power to decide who was eligible for residency, rejecting arguments that restrictions on maids were unconstitutional and discriminatory. The three-judge panel on the court of appeal unanimously accepted that argument, saying the High Court could not override the government’s authority to decide who can live in the city and who cannot. The decision will come as a major blow to tens of thousands of maids who could have been eligible for residency status if the Vallejos case had been established in law. “It is a fundamental principle in international law that a sovereign
state has the power to admit, exclude and expel aliens,” Cheung wrote. Vallejos’s lawyers said they would take the case – the first of its kind in Asia – all the way to the Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong’s highest court. “The interpretation of the law creates a second-class citizen,” counsel Mark Daly told AFP. “We will continue on to the Court of Final Appeal until we get justice.” Rights advocates said the ruling sent the wrong message to other Asian nations that relied on poorly paid maids from less wealthy countries to toil at jobs locals no longer wanted to do. “It’s not just about staying in Hong Kong – we don’t want to be excluded,” Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body spokeswoman Eni Lestari said outside court. The group represents over 10,000 foreign maids in Hong Kong, a glittering financial and banking centre of some seven million people, including almost 300,000 foreign domestic helpers mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines. Lestari said foreign maids should not be treated any differently to other foreigners who flock to the semiautonomous former British colony to find work as lawyers, bankers, accountants and managers. Most are eligible to apply for permanent residency, granting them additional rights and access to government services, once they have lived in the city for at least seven years.
©AFP Graphic
Foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. Foreigners working in Hong Kong can apply for residency after 7 years – all except foreigners working as maids.
“What makes us different from others? We work very hard, we support our families too,” Lestari said. “We are bound by Hong Kong immigration policies and yet they use it to exclude us, this is clear discrimination.” Some officials have warned of a deluge of permanent residency requests if the Vallejos precedent is allowed to stand. But government figures of applications from 1998 to 2011 show no significant uptick since September. Foreign maids in Hong Kong earn a minimum wage of HK$3,740 ($480) a month and receive other benefits such as one guaranteed day off a week. Rights groups say however that they still face discrimination and a lack of legal protection from abusive employers. Many live with their employers for years and send portions of their pay back to relatives at home, providing a huge source of foreign remittances to the Philippine and Indonesian economies. ■ (AFP – Hong Kong – March 28, 2012)
©AFP/File/Mike Clarke
Hong Kong’s court of appeal has overturned a landmark ruling that opened the door for foreign maids to claim residency.
A reporter reads the judgment handed down by the court of appeal. Hong Kong’s court of appeal on Wednesday overturned a landmark ruling that opened the door for thousands of foreign maids to claim residency in the southern Chinese city.
Good News for Senior Carers
THE UKBA (Home Office) has introduced a new rule which affects hundreds of work permit holders and Tier 2 general migrants in the UK. According to this rule those who are applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK after completing five years as a work permit holder also has to meet these criteria. The applicants those who do not meet these requirements will not qualify. For instance the minimum salary required for a senior health care worker to qualify for indefinite leave to remain in the UK is £7.02/hr. We understand that there are many thousands of immigrants including “Filipinos” that are affected (caught out) by this rule. It is apparent that those who are intending to apply for ILR will also be affected by these changes. Anyone who do not meet the required salary criteria will not qualify for ILR and will have to leave the UK at the end of their leave. We also note that one of the most affected by this rule are the senior health care workers as majority
of them do not get paid £7.02/hr as required by the UKBA code of practice. One of our clients from Newcastle had a similar issue as her salary was below the threshold. Her application for indefinite leave to remain has been refused by the UKBA for the above said reasons. However we took up this matter to the Tribunal and challenged the Home Office decision. After a prolonged litigation the court had pronounced a landmark decision accepting our plea and granted indefinite leave to remain for our clients. In view of the above court decision we have helped many work permit holders who were not meeting the minimum salary requirement. We therefore recommend anyone applying for ILR and has any issue with the salary to seek legal advice before making their application. If you are one of them or need to know more about this please contact our office on 020 8912 2280 and please ask for Mr Sajeev Kooran or email to sk@primarcsolicitors.com. ■
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Technology
February 2012 – No. 3 / Fortnightly • UK & Europe Edition
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Philippine Embassy Around The World
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
DepEd and PSC officials hold forum at Philippine Embassy
2012 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organization Overseas THE Embassy of the Philippines in London is now accepting nominations for the 2012 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas. Organized by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas of the Office of the President of the Philippines, the Presidential Awards aims to recognize individuals and organizations for their outstanding contribution to Philippine progress and development. The Awards are also conferred on overseas Filipinos who have shown excellence and distinction in their work or profession. There are four categories of awards to be conferred on Filipinos and private organization overseas as follows:
Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino (LINKAPIL) Award — conferred on Filipino individuals or associations for their exceptional or significant contribution to reconstruction, progress and development in the Philippines. Banaag Award — conferred on Filipino individuals or associations for their contributions in advancing the cause of or have benefitted significantly overseas Filipino communities or sectors. Kaanib ng Bayan Award — conferred on foreign individuals or organizations for their exceptional or significant contribution to Philippine reconstruction, progress and development, or have significantly benefitted a sector or community in the Philippines, or advanced the cause of overseas Filipino communities.
Pamana ng Pilipino Award — conferred on Filipinos overseas, who, in exemplifying the talent and industry of the Filipino, have brought the country honor and recognition through excellence and distinction in the pursuit of their work or profession. The completed nomination forms must be submitted to the Embassy of the Philippines on or before 07 May 2012 to give ample time for the Embassy to endorse the applications to the CFO. Kindly address all nomination forms and supporting documents to the following: Ms. Vivian Pascua, Embassy of the Philippines, 6-8 Suffolk Street, London, SW1Y 4HG, tel. no. 020 7451 1804. For more details, please visit www.2012presidentialawards.cfo. gov.ph. ■ (London, 20 March 2012)
Advisory: Consular Outreach Mission, BELFAST THE Embassy is pleased to announce the holding of its 2ND Consular Outreach Mission for 2012 at the following venue: DATE : 21-22 APRIL 2012, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY TIME : 9 AM TO 5 PM (SATURDAY) 9 AM TO 12 NOON (SUNDAY – SPILL OVER TRANSACTIONS FROM PREVIOUS DAY) VENUE : ENNIS ROOM, DINING FLOOR, BELFAST CITY HOSPITAL, LISBURN ROAD, BELFAST BT7 7AB SERVICES OFFERED: • E-PASSPORT APPLICATIONS (by booking with the Embassy from 9-13 April on a first-book/ first-served basis) – please see attached booking form) • EMERGENCY GREEN PASSPORT APPLICATIONS • PASSPORT VALIDITY PERIOD EXTENSION APPLICATIONS • PASSPORT AMENDMENT (FROM
SINGLE TO MARRIED NAME – ON GREEN PASSPORTS ONLY) • ONE-WAY TRAVEL DOCUMENT APPLICATIONS • REPORTS OF BIRTH, MARRIAGE, DEATH, DIVORCE • NOTARIAL & LEGALIZATION SERVICES (AFFIDAVITS, SPAs) • NBI FORM APPLICATIONS • ACCEPTANCE OF PHILIPPINE VISA APPLICATIONS (NOTE: NO ACTUAL VISAS WILL BE ISSUED DURING THE OUTREACH MISSION) • PHILIPPINE CITIZENSHIP RETENTION/RE-ACQUISITION • ASSISTANCE-TO-NATIONALS AND LEGAL ADVICE REGARDING PHILIPPINE LAW • SSS, PAG-IBIG AND OWWA MEMBERSHIP/BENEFITS (OEC ISSUANCE) • ADVICE ON EMPLOYMENT/ LABOR RELATED MATTERS • OVERSEAS ABSENTEE VOTING
REGISTRATION (Please bring a valid passport) All those who will avail of the services during the Outreach Mission are advised to check the documentary and other requirements at www.philembassyuk.org. Applicants may likewise download application forms in advance from the same website. Those who wish to receive their e-Passports, visas to the Philippines, or other documents by Post are advised to submit a selfaddressed stamped special delivery envelope with their applications. Payments for consular services can be made in cash (English currency) or with postal money orders made out to the Philippine Embassy. Personal cheques are not accepted for payment purposes. The Embassy looks forward to seeing you at the Consular Outreach Mission in Belfast. ■
Notice on Conference of Filipinos in Europe 27 to 29 September 2012, Rome
THE Philippine Embassy in London wishes to invite leaders of Filipino organizations in the United Kingdom and interested individuals to attend the 1st Conference of Filipinos in Europe which is scheduled from 27 to 29 September 2012 in Rome, Italy. The Conference is being convened by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) and
the Global Filipino Diaspora Council (GFDC). lt is designed “to provide a forum of Europebased Filipino organizations and associations for a consensual and collective thinking of issues regarding migrant socio-economic integration/re-integration in host and home country processes.” A total of seven (7) seats have been allocated for Filipino
community leaders from the United Kingdom to attend this Conference. lt will be on a first come-first served basis. Interested participants are advised to visit www.d2d.ph for further information and details regarding registration for this Conference. Philippine Embassy, London ■ (London, 20 March 2012)
LONDON, UK – Ambassador Enrique Manalo (second from left) welcomed Executive Director Fr. Carmelo Caluag S.J. (left) of the Department of Education’s Philippine High School for the Arts and Commissioner Chito Loyzaga (2nd from right) of the Philippine Sports Commission
to the Philippine Embassy on 15 March 2012 for a forum with the Filipino community in the UK. The Philippine officials discussed, among others, the government’s K+12 program and sports grassroots development activities. The forum was organized the by U.P. Alumni Association-UK. ■
MAM Awards: Now accepting nominations for 2012
NOMINATIONS to the Migration Advocacy and Media (MAM) Awards 2012 are now formally open. Conceived in 2011 by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas for the Celebration of the Month of Overseas Filipinos and International Migrants Day in the Philippines (December and December 18, respectively every year) chaired by the Philippine Migrants Rights Watch (PMRW) and co-chaired by the CFO, Migration Advocacy and Media (MAM) Awards aim to recognize the significant role of the media in the promotion and advocacy of migration and development. Eligible for the Awards are works by any individual, government and private media outlets, institutions and practitioners in the fields of print, radio, movie and television, advertising and internet based in the Philippines and abroad. Entries must have raised public awareness on issues on Filipino migration, advocated the cause of Filipinos overseas, or/and promoted a positive image of Filipinos overseas, and migration and development. Entries to the Awards must be submitted on or before September 30, 2012 to MAM Awards’ Secretariat, Commission on Filipinos Overseas, Citigold Center, 1345 Pres.Quirino Avenue cor. Osmeña Highway (South Superhighway) Manila, Philippines 1007.
The recipients of the first MAM Awards include “From Carabao to Sheep” by AKLnzPlNOYS (Print Journalism Award), “Multicultural Family Broadcasting for Filipinos” by Woongjin Foundation (Radio Journalism Award—Regular Radio Program), “Citizen Pinoy by ABS-CBN Global Ltd. (Television Journalism Award-Regular TV Program), “Front Row-Pag-Uwi” by GMA NEWS TV Channel 11 (Television Journalism Award -Episodic), “The Filipina On Top: Deconstructing Maria Clara” by lllustrado Communications FZ-LLC (Film Media Award-Documentary), “Highlights and Lowlights: 38 Years of Pinoys Abroad” by Joseph Holandes Ubalde, www.interaksyon.com (Interactive Media Award) and “Maglngat sa mga Illegal Recruiter” by CLTV 36 (Advertisement Award ). For more information on the Awards, please call the MAM Secretariat at (632) 561-8291 (telefax), (632) 5524766 or email at info@cfo.gov.gh. To download the primer and nomination form, please check www.cfo.gov.ph. ■
1898 – 2012
114th INDEPENDENCE DAY THANKSGIVING MASS AND SALO-SALO
Date: Saturday, 9 June 2011 at 3:00pm Venue: The Holy Apostles Catholic Church, Winchester Street, Pimlico, London SW1V 4LY Main Celebrant: Fr. Cirino G. Potrido, CM – Head, Filipino Chaplaincy Participation at the Mass: Fr. Agustin Paunon, Fr. Irvin Morastil OMI, Fr. Edgar Dizon of Wolverhampton
26
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www.hello-philippines.com
POLITICS
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Philippines says peace talks near ‘stalemate’ THE Philippines warned Monday, March 19 that negotiations with Muslim rebels to end a decades-old insurgency in the troubled south is approaching a “stalemate.” The government in February said it aimed to sign a peace deal this year with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which seeks an autonomous Muslim state in the nation’s south, and put it to a referendum the following year. But Marvic Leonen, chief government negotiator who had expressed hope a pact would be formulated within the first quarter of 2012, said both parties must make “difficult decisions” if a peace deal is to remain on track. “We are approaching what would seem to be a stalemate in our ideas for transition as well as in our ideas of how to make permanent the solutions that work for our peoples,” he said in a statement. “Perhaps, we can both keep
an open mind, we could convince ourselves that there are goals more appropriate rather than sticking to our encrusted positions,” he added. Leonen made the remarks as the Philippines and MILF negotiators began a three-day meeting in the capital Kuala Lumpur in another bid to advance the 15-year peace negotiations. While Leonen did not specifically point out the exact reasons for the possible stalemate, it is generally acknowledged that both sides had not gone beyond the key issues of how the proposed “genuine autonomy” would work. In particular, this involves powersharing, division of wealth, its scope and what role the MILF would play in the transition government. “The government has been optimistic, but the MILF has always said there are issues that need to be addressed – these
©AFP /File
Government chief negotiator Marvic Leonen.
things like power sharing, how to share revenues from mineral resources, and what role the MILF can actively play in the transition,” said Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research. Meanwhile MILF spokesman Von al Haq told AFP that both parties
have put offers on the table, but those have not been reconciled. “We need to talk about these very substantive issues. Let us not impose our will – even if one side wants it signed tomorrow for instance, but the other side has issues about the offer, then that will simply not work,” he said. The 12,000-strong MILF has
waged a rebellion since the 1970s, and the conflict has claimed up to 150,000 lives. Peace talks have been going on for about a decade, but have been frequently bogged down by deadly clashes with both sides accusing each other of violating a ceasefire. ■ (AFP – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – March 19, 2012)
Philippines seeks mercy for 77 on death row abroad
©AFP/File/Noel Celis
Former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. (C) is escorted by police after attending court in Pasay, east of Manila.
THE Philippines said Tuesday, March 20 its diplomats had increased their efforts to save 77 Filipinos on death row overseas after four nationals were executed in China last year for drug trafficking. “We are helping them out. We are making high level representations and making sure they have access to legal and consular assistance and trying to get their sentences commuted,” Foreign Department spokesman Raul Hernandez said. Last year, four Filipinos were put to death in China for drug trafficking
despite the intervention of highlevel officials including an appeal from Philippines President Benigno Aquino. The executions triggered widespread condemnation in the largely-Catholic country which abolished the death sentence in 2006. Of those facing execution, 42 are detained in China on drugs charges, he said. Six Filipinos face the death sentence in Malaysia, five also for drugs-related offences, while one
Filipina convicted for the same reason is detained in Indonesia. There are 27 Filipinos on death row in the Middle East, most for murder, while another Filipino is facing execution for murder in the United States, said Hernandez. He did not say when the 77 were due to be executed. The welfare of Filipinos abroad is a sensitive issue in a country where more than nine million work overseas, many in harsh conditions where they can be tricked into acting as drug mules. ■ (AFP – March 20, 2012)
POLICE said Monday, March 26 they had arrested a wanted member of a powerful Muslim clan blamed for the country’s worst political massacre after he was injured in a blast. Ipeh Ampatuan, 27, was among 100 suspects at large for the massacre allegedly orchestrated by his grandfather in which 57 people were gunned down in the southern province of Maguindanao in 2009. Ampatuan was believed to have been escaping to remote marshland near the southern city of Cotabato on Sunday when a blast destroyed the boat he was in, wounding him and several others and leaving another person dead. “The arrested suspect has been hospitalised due to injuries sustained during the explosion,” provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Marcelo Pintac told reporters. He said it was not clear what caused the explosion on the boat, and police were surprised to discover Ampatuan was among those injured.
“He has warrants of arrest and we served it,” Pintac said. Pintac said he had deployed additional policemen and requested a Marine unit to guard the hospital, amid reports that Ampatuan gunmen could try to rescue the wounded suspect. Several members of the Ampatuan clan, including Ipeh’s father and grandfather, are also in custody while being tried for the murders. The Ampatuans allegedly led a group of about 100 gunmen in stopping a convoy of cars carrying relatives of a rival political candidate, their lawyers and journalists, and then systematically killing them near a grassy hill. The killings were apparently meant to stop Esmael Mangudadatu, a member of a rival political clan, from challenging the governorship of Maguindanao province, which the Ampatuans had controlled for over a decade.
Thirty-two of the victims were journalists, while the body of another reporter believed to be also in the convoy remains unaccounted for two years after the crime. Philippine politicians, especially those in remote areas, are known to control their own private armies and clashes among them are common. But the November 2009 massacre was the worst, and two years after the crime none have yet been convicted.
Warlord says not guilty to Philippine vote fraud Police arrest suspect in Philippine massacre A feared political warlord and ally of former president Gloria Arroyo pleaded not guilty Monday, March 26 to allegedly helping rig senatorial elections in the Philippines. Former governor Andal Ampatuan, who is already being tried for the country’s worst political massacre, was taken in an ambulance to a suburban court to be arraigned on the same charge as Arroyo last month. Flanked by assault-rifle-wielding guards, the wheelchair-bound Ampatuan tried to cover his face as photographers swarmed around him for a picture. Ampatuan, 70, made his plea before being swiftly whisked back to the ambulance, to be taken back to jail. He is accused of conspiring with Arroyo to rig the 2007 senatorial elections in his southern home province of Maguindanao so that an Arroyo ally won the final position available in the nation’s Senate. Arroyo pleaded not guilty to
the same charge last month but Ampatuan’s arraignment was delayed because of health problems. Aside from the alleged 2007 vote fraud, Arroyo has also been accused of massive corruption during her almost 10 years in office which ended in 2010. Then-president Arroyo had supported Ampatuan who had ruled Maguindanao for nearly a decade with his private army of a few thousand men being used by government as a proxy force against Muslim separatist rebels. But Arroyo was forced to cut ties with Ampatuan after his family and private army were linked to the 2009 massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao in a bid to prevent a rival from running for office. Ampatuan and several family members are among 64 people now being tried for the 2009 massacre but critics say the proceedings are moving too slowly and that many other suspects remain at large. ■ (AFP
– March 26, 2012)
■ (AFP – Cotabato, Philippines – March 26, 2012) ©AFP/File/Noel Celis
Philippine politicians are known to control their own private armies and clashes among them are common.
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28
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Environment
www.hello-philippines.com
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
©AFP/Dominique Faget
©AFP/Torsten Blackwood
The Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are darkened at the start of the 6th Annual Earth Hour.
File photo shows the Sydney Opera House with its lights turned off to mark Earth Hour on March 26 last year. ©AFP/Mohd Rasfan
©AFP/Louisa Gouliamaki
File photo shows the Eiffel Tower in Paris submerged into darkness for Earth Hour in 2010.
The Acropolis hill is pictured with its light switched off. ©AFP/Dale de la Rey
©AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam
Malaysia’s landmarks have their lights being switched off for Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur.
The Sydney skyline is illuminated shortly before the start of the 6th annual Earth Hour.
A view of Madrid’s famous Real Palace with the lights turned off during Earth Hour. ©AFP/File/Bertrand Langlois
©AFP/File/Drina Thurston
©AFP/Torsten Blackwood
Young people light up candles in the square outside Hanoi Opera House to mark the sixth global Earth Hour in Hanoi.
In Hong Kong the city’s skyscrapers turned out their lights dimming the usually glittering skyline.
Lights go off for Earth Hour Madeleine Coorey, AFP THE Eiffel Tower, the Acropolis and the Sydney Opera House were plunged into darkness on Saturday, March 31 for the annual Earth Hour campaign, leading a global effort to raise awareness about climate change. In a twist to this year’s Earth Hour, Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers will observe from the International Space Station countries around the world turn off the lights for 60 minutes from 8:30pm local time and post photos. From Sydney’s sparkling harbour to Egypt’s Tahrir Square and New York’s Empire State Building, thousands of cities will go dark when the switches are flicked in some 150 countries and territories. Australia’s Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House were plunged into darkness. “From the Sydney Opera House it was fantastic,” said Marni Ryan, from organiser WWF Australia. “We had the skyline of Sydney all out.” The Pacific island nation of Samoa was the first to make the symbolic gesture, with New Zealand’s city landscapes later dramatically darkened as lights on buildings such as Auckland’s Sky Tower were cut.
In Australia, where the event was conceived, harbour side buildings went dark, along with most big office buildings as some Sydney siders picnicked on the harbour foreshore by moonlight. Japan’s Tokyo Tower interrupted its sunset-to-midnight lighting to take part, as organisers said the Earth Hour was an opportunity to pray for last year’s earthquake and tsunami disaster. But the just completed 634-metre Tokyo Sky Tree, the world’s tallest communications tower, loomed with blinking lights as it prepared to open to the public in May. “We will ask the tower’s operator to turn off the lights next year,” WWF spokeswoman Akiko Ishihara said. In Hong Kong the city’s skyscrapers turned out their lights dimming the usually glittering skyline. Tourists and locals snapped pictures, although many were unaware of what was behind the switch-off. Since it began in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to become what environmental group WWF says is the world’s largest demonstration of support for action on carbon pollution. A total of 5,251 cities took part in 2011, as the movement reached 1.8 billion people in 135 countries,
it says. Newcomers to the Sydneyled initiative, now in its sixth year, include Libya, Iraq and the International Space Station, which will watch over the event as it rolls across the globe. “Earth Hour 2012 is a celebration of people power – the world’s largest mass environmental event in support of the planet,” said chief executive of WWF-Australia Dermot O’Gorman. “And we’re seeing hundreds of millions of people in different countries around the world take actions to go beyond the hour in support of positive actions for climate change and the planet.” In Beijing, Olympic Park’s two landmark monuments, the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, will spend an hour in darkness. And in Singapore, 32 malls – many located in the glittering Orchard Road shopping belt – and more than 370 companies including luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Armani will turn off non-essential lighting. In Taiwan, the presidential office will go dim and in the Philippines, more than 1,780 police stations and training centres will turn off all non-essential lights and electrical equipment. “We will turn off the lights in the offices but not the lights in the
©AFP/Getty Images/File/Michael Loccisano
perimeter because our detainees might escape,” said Philippine national police spokesman Superintendent Agrimero Cruz. In the Indian capital New Delhi lights at three iconic monuments, India Gate, Qutub Minar and Humayun’s Tomb will be switched off, while in Mumbai people gathered on the streets to light candles. “We have a lot of power cuts in our neighbourhood so we’re used to going without power, but my kids want to turn out the lights for Earth Hour – they’ve been learning about energy conservation at school,” Delhi mother-of-two Sangeeta Dayal said. As the initiative passed through the time zones, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, went dark in the United Arab Emirates. In debt-stricken Greece, lights were turned off at the Acropolis and at town halls across the country. In Paris, darkness fell across a string of monuments and buildings including Notre Dame cathedral, and the Bastille and old Garnier opera houses. The lights at the Eiffel Tower, however, were only turned off for five minutes for security reasons. The cupola of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and Buckingham Palace in London will dim their lights.
File photo shows New York’s Empire State Building turn off its tower lights in March 2010.
The effort will also be observed by the International Space Station, where Kuipers is hoping to share photos and live commentary as he watches from above. “There is no better way to raise awareness for the future of the most beautiful planet in the universe,” he said earlier this month. Earth Hour co-founder Todd Sampson, chief executive of advertising firm Leo Burnett Sydney, said the event began as an initiative to get Sydney siders to switch off the lights on the harbour foreshore. “We never would have predicted that it would be as big as it is now. And it is even bigger overseas than it is locally,” he said. The movement has met with some criticism, but Sampson said this was a healthy part of the debate. “It’s not designed, and it would be foolhardy to believe, that switching a light switch is going to save the planet,” he told reporters near the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Saturday. “It was originally done to raise awareness, to get people to think about it and then take action in many different ways. “I think scepticism is part of the debate. It moves everything forward.” ■ (AFP – Sydney, Australia – March 31, 2012)
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Special Report
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Asia is world’s top weapons importer: SIPRI PHILIPPINES
ASIA leads the world when it comes to weapon imports, according to a study released Monday, March 19 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Globally the volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons was 24 percent higher in the period 2007-11 compared to the 2002-06 period, the report said. Over the past five years, Asia and Oceania accounted for 44 percent in volume of conventional arms imports, the institute said. That compared with 19 percent for Europe, 17 percent for the Middle East, 11 percent for North and South America, and 9 percent for Africa, said the report. India was the biggest arms importer in the period covered, 200711, accounting for 10 percent in weapons volume. It was followed by South Korea (6 percent), China and Pakistan (both 5 percent), and Singapore (4 percent), according to the independent institute which specialises in arms control and disarmament matters. These five countries accounted
for almost a third, 30 percent, of the volume of international arms imports, said SIPRI. “India’s imports of major weapons increased by 38 percent between 2002-06 and 2007-11,” SIPRI said. “Notable deliveries of combat aircraft during 2007-11 included 120 Su-30MKs and 16 MiG-29Ks from Russia and 20 Jaguar Ss from the United Kingdom,” it said. While India was the world’s largest importer, its neighbour and sometime foe Pakistan was the third largest. Pakistan took delivery of “a significant quantity of combat aircraft during this period: 50 JF-17s from China and 30 F-16s,” the report added. Both countries “have taken and will continue to take delivery of large quantities of tanks,” it also noted. “Major Asian importing states are seeking to develop their own arms industries and decrease their reliance on external sources of supply,” said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme. China, which in 2006 and 2007 was the world’s top arms importer, has
now dropped to fourth place. “The decline in the volume of Chinese imports coincides with the improvements in China’s arms industry and rising arms exports,” according to the report. But “while the volume of China’s arms exports is increasing, this is largely a result of Pakistan importing more arms from China,” it added. “China has not yet achieved a major breakthrough in any other significant market.” China is however the sixth largest world exporter of weapons behind the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Britain. In Europe, Greece was the largest importer between 2007 and 2011, the institute said. Between 2002 and 2011, Syria increased its imports of weapons by 580 percent – the bulk supplied by Russia – while Venezuela boosted its imports over the same period by 555 percent, it reported. Throughout the Middle East as a whole, weapons imports decreased by eight percent over the period of the survey.
North Korea parliament to meet amid rocket launch tensions
NORTH Korea said Saturday, March 24 it would hold an annual parliamentary session next month around the time of a planned rocket launch by the nuclear-armed state that has sparked widespread condemnation. The meeting of the rubber-stamp body will also take place just two days before deceased founder Kim Il-Sung’s 100th birthday and will be the first under new leader Kim Jong-Un. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) would convene on April 13. The assembly is constitutionally able to appoint the chairman of the National Defence Commission (NDC), a top military decision-making body wielding great influence over the highly militarised communist state. The parliament will likely promote Jong-Un, currently vice chairman of the commission, to the NDC’s highest post, which was held by his father and the country’s ex-leader Kim Jong-Il, who died in December from a heart attack, analysts said. Separately, the North’s ruling communist party said last month it would convene a rare special conference in April on an unspecified date in an apparent attempt to wrap up the power transfer to the new leader. The party meeting is likely to appoint Jong-Un to his father’s old posts of party general secretary and chief of its Central Military Commission, analysts said. Jong-Un has been proclaimed the “great successor” but has so far been formally appointed to only one of the
late Kim’s posts, commander-in-chief of the 1.2 million-strong military. North Korea announced earlier this month it would launch a rocket between April 12-16 to put a satellite into orbit to celebrate the centenary of Kim Il-Sung’s birth. The move has been condemned by the United States, South Korea and other nations as a pretext for a longrange missile test banned by the UN. It has also jeopardised a deal with the United States announced last month on suspending uranium enrichment and long-range missile tests in return for food aid. A senior US official warned that the rocket launch would be aimed south for the first time and impact in an area “roughly between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines”. Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, delivered the message in person to Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Saturday. “We have never seen this trajectory before,” he was quoted as saying. Philippine Foreign Department spokesman Raul Hernandez told AFP that his country’s military was coordinating with the US military to track the path of the planned launch. Indonesia’s deputy foreign minister said his country was “concerned” by North Korea’s plans. On Friday, the North said preparations “have entered a fullfledged stage of action” and promised unspecified “counter-measures” against opponents of the operation. It came shortly after Tokyo said
it was preparing missile defences to shoot down the rocket if it threatened Japan. North Korea’s main ally China called for all sides to “keep calm and exercise restraint”. Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said that “the rocket launch and parliamentary and party meetings are all part of the North’s plan to usher in a new era under Jong-Un.” “It will declare it has become ‘a strong and prosperous state’ on the 100th anniversary,” he said. Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong Institute said the North was likely to name Kim Jong-Il the eternal chairman of the NDC in the same manner that its founder Kim Il-Sung was declared the country’s president for eternity. “The North’s parliament may change the constitution to create a new state organ to replace the NDC and make Jong-Il the eternal NDC chairman,” Cheong told AFP. World leaders including US President Barack Obama are meeting in Seoul from Monday for a summit officially focused on nuclear terrorism. On Saturday UN chief Ban Kimoon and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak described the planned launch as a “grave provocative act against the international community” in a joint statement released by Lee’s office. They said that North Korea’s announced plan was “in breach of a UN Security Council resolutions” and vowed to tackle together any threats arising from it. ■ (AFP – March 24, 2012)
©AFP/File/Raveendran
India is the world’s largest arms importer.
©AFP/File
China, which in 2006 and 2007 was the world’s top arms importer, has now dropped to fourth place. ©AFP/File/ Dmitry Kostyukov
©AFP/File/Jung Yeon-Je
South Korea accounts for 6 percent of all weapons imports in the world.
Visitors look at A Russian Su-30MK fighter jet on display during the MAKS 2009 International Aerospace Show.
However SIPRI warned “this trend will soon be reversed.” Tunisia, where mass protests ousted strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali early last year, launched the so-called Arab Spring and inspired similar movements in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. “During 2011, the governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria used imported weapons in the suppression of peaceful demonstrations among other alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
“The transfer of arms to states affected by the Arab Spring has provoked public and parliamentary debate in a number of supplier states,” the report said. The volume of deliveries of “major conventional weapons” to African nations increased by a massive 110 percent in 2007-2011 over the previous five-year period, with deliveries to North Africa up by 273 percent. Morocco saw its own imports increase by 443 percent, the report added. ■ (AFP – Stockholm – March 19, 2012)
Philippines seeks US help on North Korea rocket THE Philippine government said Thursday, March 22 it anticipated US help to track a North Korean long-range rocket, part of which is expected to land off the Philippines. “Of course we need the help of the United States to monitor the path because we don’t have that capability,” Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told reporters. “But with our alliances, we will be provided with the necessary information. We should know the details so that we will know how to inform and warn our people who will be in the (rocket’s) path,” he said. Pyongyang of North Korea announced last week it would launch the rocket to place a satellite in orbit between April 12 and 16, insisting it was purely for peaceful space research. But the United States and other nations see the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test, and say that it would breach a UN ban on North Korean missile launches. A previous North Korean longrange rocket in 2009 flew over Japanese territory and the boosters landed safely in waters off Japan. In a letter to the UN’s International Maritime Organisation, North Korea said the second stage of its latest rocket was expected to splash down 190 kilometres (118 miles) east of the northern Philippines.
The first stage of the rocket would fall about 140 kilometres off South Korea’s west coast, in international waters between China and the South, the letter said. On Wednesday, the Philippine government joined its US and South Korean allies in criticising North Korea’s planned launch, calling it “unacceptable”. “The Philippine military is ready to coordinate with its US counterpart in the monitoring of the planned launch,” the Foreign Department said in a separate statement. ■ (AFP – March 22, 2012)
©AFP/File
Map showing the expected splashdown points of two stages of North Korea’s planned rocket launch in April, according to details submitted to the International Maritime Organization.
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Sports
April 2012 – No. 6 • UK & Europe Edition
Pacquiao focuses on fight, not tax WORLD boxing champion Manny Pacquiao said Thursday, March 29 that a growing row with the Philippine government over tax will not distract him from his Las Vegas showdown with the undefeated Timothy Bradley. The eight-time world champion, a member of parliament who enjoys iconic status in the Philippines, said of the tax issue: “I am not affected. That is nothing to me.” “I have been reading the bible to gain strength and inspiration,” he said. “I am still focused and I won’t allow these issues to affect my concentration.” Pacquiao, 33, a Catholic who has talked increasingly of his religious beliefs, said he was already doing roadwork ahead of the start of his official training camp on April 16. He faces the American Bradley on June 9. On Monday, Pacquiao vowed to launch a countersuit after the Bureau of Internal Revenue filed a criminal case against him last month for failing to submit proper documents about his huge earnings. Internal revenue chief Kim Henares said Thursday that Pacquiao – regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters around – was firing up
the controversy that the boxer says is costing him money in endorsements. “If there is (negative) publicity, it is fuelled by Congressman Pacquiao,” she told reporters. “If he just does the simple thing of presenting the documents, then the case will be closed.” She stressed that her agency had never accused Pacquiao of tax evasion and just wanted to make sure he had paid the right amount of taxes from his boxing matches and numerous commercial endorsements. Pacquiao, who has a 54-3 winloss record with two draws, stakes his World Boxing Organisation welterweight crown against Bradley. ■ (AFP – Manila – March 29,
©AFP/File
Manny Pacquiao attends a press conference announcing his upcoming WBO welterweight championship fight against Timothy Bradley at The Beverly Hills Hotel on February 21, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California. ©AFP/File/Timothy A. Clary
2012) ©AFP/File/Timothy A. Clary
Undefeated junior welterweight champion Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao faces off with Timothy «Desert Storm” Bradley Jr, after a February 23, 2012 news conference at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers at Pier 60 in New York. Pacquiao, Bradley, will be announcing their upcoming world championship battle June 9, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Manny Pacquiao is set to face his American opponent, they will fight for thw WBO welterweight title on June 9.
Pacquiao hits back at tax man
BOXING superstar Manny Pacquiao said a tax suit filed by the Philippine government had caused him millions of dollars in endorsements, and vowed to fight it out in court. Pacquiao, one of the world’s richest athletes, said the case filed against him by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for ignoring an order to submit records of his earnings smacked of harassment. “Why the BIR singled me out smacks of bad faith designed to tarnish my reputation. In just one instance, the BIR has tarnished my name,” Pacquiao, 33, told reporters. “I shall rise to the occasion and I shall fight this case until the last and final round. We will fight,” he said while being flanked by lawyers. The BIR last month filed a criminal case against the eight time world champion for failing to submit proper documents about his earnings. If found guilty, the millionaire sportsman could face up to two years in jail. Pacquiao said his lawyers were preparing to file a countersuit against a local tax official in
his home province, and possibly against higher BIR officials he did not name in the capital Manila. Pacquiao refused to elaborate when pressed why he thought he was being harassed, and called on Philippine President Benigno Aquino to sack those behind the tax case. His tax woes are the latest colourful event in Pacquiao’s career, which he hinted last week was nearing an end because God had told him to retire soon. He claimed to have dropped all his vices, including wild partying and gambling to become a more vocal advocate of Christianity, frequently quoting the bible at every opportunity. Seen as the world’s best pound for pound boxer, Pacquiao, also a politician, declared assets at the end of 2010 at 1.13 billion pesos ($26.3 million) and no liabilities, making him the country’s wealthiest member of parliament. Forbes.com magazine estimated he spent $7 million in his election campaign in 2010 while also earning $35 million for his two fights against Joshua Clottey and Miguel Cotto. ■ (AFP –
Manila – March 26, 2012)
©AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe
©AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe
Philippine boxing icon Manny Pacquiao gestures as he speaks while two members of his battery of lawyers (back) listen during a press conference in Manila on March 26, 2012. ©AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe
Philippine boxing icon Manny Pacquiao (R) listens while one of his lawyers Abraham Espejo (L) speaks during a press conference in Manila.