This month, various criminal activities like theft and robbery were recorded. Activities like these are expected to increase in the coming months. To counter this trend, the PNP deployed more police in the urban areas, especially in the so-called crime hotspots around Metro Manila. Police visibility was also increased in the malls and MRT stations to keep the public safe.

Police officials are also reminding the public to be more vigilant to avoid being victimized by criminal elements.

According to the new tourism chief in a recent speech before a joint meeting of the Makati Business Club and the European, American, and Canadian Chambers of Commerce, from a decline of 3.9% in 2009, arrivals are expected to post a growth of 12 percent.

“The Philippines has been rated by the Country Brand Index as among the world’s rising destinations. It ranked eighth as a value-for-money destination and ranked 11th in the entire Pacific region,” Lim said. The new tourism act, on the other hand, has reorganized the entire machinery for tourism development and mobilized resources for infrastructure development and tourism promotions.

In a span of six years, DoT is targeting six million tourist arrivals, $18.7 billion tourism receipts, and three million new jobs for the Filipinos. “The numbers could be more although I would prefer to over-deliver than to over-promise,” he added.

Lim enumerated the key strategies to achieve the above-mentioned program goals: Building infrastructure to support tourism; upgrading the quality of tourism products; harnessing nature, history, and culture; raising private investments in tourism infrastructure like hotels and resorts, strong local government participation; and sustained marketing promotions.

With regards to the new areas of the country that will be opened up for tourism development, Lim cited the current project to develop the Samar-Leyte Region, especially Guian, Samar, a sleepy town in Eastern Samar that boasts of pristine beaches and heritage sites.

The Philippines Miss Universe contestant Miss Venus Raj is now leading in the survey conducted by the Miss Universe Foundation among more than eighty (8O) contestants worldwide.

As of  August 11, 2010 9:02 pm here is the Top Five  survey result;

Miss Venus Raj gained the highest rating at 3.71%  (which is the only contestant that make it to gain votes that is more than 3%).

Miss Universe  Venezuela  contestant Marelisa Gibson follows next at 2.77%.

third is Miss Universe Thailand contestant Fonthip Watcharatrakul follow at 2.75%.

Tie for the fourth and fifth position  is Miss Universe Colombia contestant  Natalia Navarro and Miss Universe  Mexico contestant Jimena Navarrete at 2.74%.

You may vote online through http://missuniverse.com/.

Vote now!

The Miss Universe 2010 will be held at Las Vegas, Nevada – USA, Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Mandalay Bay Events Center, July 24th, 2010 Philippine time.

Last week, the whole nation was surprised by the sudden resignation of more than 20 pilots from PAL. The resignations resulted into cancelation of many flights and messed up the scheduled flights of the nation’s flag carrier. Many passengers were hassled by what happened and PAL management scrambled to smoothen its operation.

According to some reports, PAL pilots are complaining about their impending transfer to Air Philippines, which is the sister company of PAL. Pilots do not want to be transferred because pilots in Air Philippines receive benefits that less than what the PAL pilots receives. Before the PAL pilots got transferred to Air Philippines, they filed their resignation and went to foreign airlines.

The PAL management cried foul to what the pilot’s had done. The management says that the resigned pilots did not follow their contract with PAL. They are calling the resigned pilots to return to PAL. The resigned pilots will face charges if they fail to return. PAL management is also thinking of charging the airlines who accepted the resigned pilots.

Other Problems Surfaced

It is not only the pilots who have problems in PAL. Other employees of PAL also have complaints against the policies of the airline. One group that bewails the policies of PAL is the flight attendants. According to the news, flight attendants receive a base pay of about eight thousand pesos monthly, which is lower than the minimum pay prescribed by the government. Aside from that, flight attendant’s retirement age is 40 years old, which is an age that is too early for retirement and too late to find a new career.

PAL also laid-off some of its flight attendants, forcing the remaining attendants to carry more burden of work.

Reform is Imperative

The mass resignation of PAL pilots is a good thing. Though it caused hassle to many passengers, the incident showed to the Filipino people how PAL employees are shortchanged by the PAL management. It showed us how deaf Philippine Airlines is because it just acted when its operations went haywire due to mass resignation.

Now, the PAL management is reassuring the pilots that they will not be transferred to Air Philippines. If they got transferred, PAL promised that they will receive the same benefits that they currently receiving. However, these measures of PAL are just a short term solution. There is no guarantee that it will listen to all the pleas of the employees. The Philippine Airlines is in need of reforms. All employment issues and labor complaints should be properly addressed.

It is a shame that our flag carrier leads in labor exploitation. It is a shame that PAL pays below minimum wage for flight attendants. It is a shame that the management is treating its employees like rags that are thrown away when is already not needed.

I hope that the issue will result into widespread reforms in the whole airline company. The Department of Labor and Employment should not only address the complaints of pilots but also the complaints of the flight attendants and PAL’s ground crew.

Now that the decay inside Philippine Airlines had been put to public scrutiny, I believe that now is the time for the Aquino Administration to act and show to the Filipino employees that it cares for them.

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This is an opinion article regarding the mass resignation and other problems of the Philippine Airlines.

How about you? What is your opinion regarding the issue of PAL? What should be done to address the concern of the employees and the management? Please leave a comment and let us spark a discussion.

Guess what, he is so nice to show us his pay-cheque. Don’t believe it?

Check the photo of Noynoy’s salary below and let us know what you think…

What did you just say? No wonder that politicians in the Philippines become corrupt? Hmmm???

After the typhoons, oil spills and a coal spill occurred within the Philippine seas. Incidents of oil leakage were reported from the provinces of Batangas and Bataan. The coal spill was reported to occur in the province of Pangasinan. The reported oil spills added more the damage to the much exploited marine environment of the country.

According to reports, the oil leakage in Mariveles, Bataan came from vessels and barges sunk by Typhoon Basyang. Initially, the people feared that the leak came from an LPG tanker and may pose greater damage to their seas.

The coal spill in Bolinao, Pangasinan posed resulted into greater damage in the marine environment in the area because the coal spilled by an Indonesian barge is high grade coal. Currently, large swaths of coral reefs were already covered by the coal spill, killing fishes and other marine faunas. The damage became worse as the owner of the badge is still looking for a salvor company that offers cheap price to remove the coal barge.

The oil spill in Batangas was discovered after oil slicks were found in the mangrove areas in the town of Calatagan. The oil leaked from an undersea pipeline and already damaged the mangrove forests and the livelihood of the fishermen in that town. The oil continued to spread because the Philippine Coast Guard does not have the necessary equipments to contain the oil spill.

Oil and petroleum products are needed by our country to move the economy, but it is disheartening to hear about incidents that these products are unleashed to our seas due to irresponsibility of some people or corporations. Oil spill is one of the worst causes of destruction of the marine environment. The immediate effect of oil spill is that it poisons marine organisms. Previous incidents of oil spills around the world caused the deaths of fishes, birds, mangroves and other animals that lives and depends on the seas to live. The long term effect of oil spill is that it affects the marine food chain. Oil that is leaked to the sea creates a film that prevents sunlight and oxygen from entering the water surface. Because of this, marine plants and planktons are deprived of the sun’s energy, resulting to their death. Consequently, Animals that depends on plants for food will also die.
Previous incidents of oil spill in the country showed that our government lacks the political will to go after those who are responsible. The Guimaras Oil Spill is a testament to this fact and the recent oil spill incidents will also get the same fate, when the media coverage and the public attention went down.

Our marine environment is an important part of our nation. Our seas are the major source of livelihood for the large percentage of the Filipino people. Many fishermen were affected by the oil spill in Batangas and the coal spill in Pangasinan. This fact alone should make the government work hard to punish those who are responsible for the oil spills.

Now is the time for our government to seriously protect our seas and the marine environment. Going after the owners of the barge and pipelines that caused the spill is one of the best move that the government must do to show the public and the world that protecting our seas is a serious business.

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This is an opinion piece regarding the recent oil spills that plagued the Philippine seas. Leave your comments and let us talk about these tragedies that are besetting our seas.

He was attacking the Ex-President Gloria Arroyo and talks about corruption and why the Republic of the Philippines is nearly bankrupt. Read the full English Transcript of his speech here. We also have a Video version of Aquino’s SONA for you.

My beloved countrymen:

Our administration is facing a forked road. On one direction, decisions are made to protect the welfare of our people; to look after the interest of the majority; to have a firm grip on principles; and to be faithful to the public servant’s sworn oath to serve the country honestly.

This is the straight path.

On the other side, personal interest is the priority, and where one becomes a slave to political considerations to the detriment of our nation.

This is the crooked path.

For a long time, our country lost its way in the crooked path. As days go by (since I became President), the massive scope of the problems we have inherited becomes much clearer. I could almost feel the weight of my responsibilities.

In the first three weeks of our administration, we discovered many things, and I will report to you some of the problems we have uncovered, and the steps we are taking to solve them.

This report is merely a glimpse of our situation. It is not the entire picture of the crises we are facing. The reality was hidden from our people, who seem to have been deliberately obfuscated on the real state of our nation.

In the first six years of this year, government expenditure exceeded our revenues. Our deficit further increased to PhP196.7 billion. Our collection targets, which lack PhP23.8 billion, were not fully met, while we went beyond our spending by PhP45.1 billion.

Our budget for 2010 is PhP1.54 trillion. Of this, only PhP100 billion – or 6.5% of the total budget – can be used for the remaining six months of the current year. Roughly 1% of the total budget is left for each of the remaining month.

Where did the funds go?

A calamity fund worth PhP2 billion was reserved in preparation for anticipated calamities. Of this already miniscule amount, at a time when the rainy season has yet to set in, PhP1.4 billion or 70% was already spent.
The entire province of Pampanga received PhP108 million. Of this, PhP105 million went to only one district. On the other hand, the province of Pangasinan, which was severely affected by Typhoon Pepeng, received a mere PhP5 million, which had to be used to fix damages inflicted not even by Pepeng, but by a previous typhoon, Cosme.

The funds were released on election month, which was seven months after the typhoon. What will happen if a typhoon arrives tomorrow? The fund has been used up to repair damage from typhoons that hit us last year. Our future will pay for the greed of yesterday.

This is also what happened to the funds of the MWSS. Just recently, people lined up for water while the leadership of the MWSS rewarded itself even though the pensions of retired employees remain unpaid.

The entire payroll of the MWSS amounts to 51.4 million pesos annually. But this isn’t the full extent of what they receive: they receive additional allowances and benefits amounting to 81.1 million pesos. In short, they receive 211.5 million pesos annually. Twenty four percent of this is for normal salaries, and sixty six percent is added on.

The average worker receives up to 13th month pay plus a cash gift. In the MWSS, they receive the equivalent of over thirty months pay if you include all their additional bonuses and allowances.

What we discovered in the case of the salaries of their board of trustees is even more shocking. Let’s take a look at the allowances they receive:

Attending board of trustees and board committee meetings, and you get fourteen thousands pesos. This totals ninety eight thousand pesos a month. They also get an annual grocery incentive of eighty thousand pesos.
And that’s not all. They get a mid-year bonus, productivity bonus, anniversary bonus, year-end bonus, and financial assistance. They not only get a Christmas bonus, but an additional Christmas package as well. Each of these amounts to eighty thousand pesos. All in all, each member of the board receives two and a half million pesos a year exclusive of car service, technical assistance, and loans. Let me repeat. They award themselves all of these while being in arrears for the pensions of their retired employees.

Even the La Mesa watershed wasn’t spared. In order to ensure an adequate supply of water, we need to protect our watersheds. In watersheds, trees are needed. Where there should be trees, they built homes for the top officials of the MWSS.

We cannot remove them from their positions quickly because they are among the midnight appointees of former president Arroyo. We are investigating all of these things. But if they have any shame left, they should voluntarily relinquish their positions.

Now let’s discuss funds for infrastructure. The DPWH identified two hundred forty six priority safety projects to be funded by the motor vehicle user’s charge. This needs a budget of 425 million pesos. What they ended up funding were only 28 projects. They disregarded 218 projects and replaced these with seventy projects that weren’t in the plans. The 425 million pesos originally asked for became 480 million pesos, increasing because of projects allocated for a favored few.

These projects make no sense: unstudied and unprepared for, sprouting like mushrooms.

The era of such projects is at an end. Under our administration, there will be no quotas, there will be no overpricing, the funds of the people will be spent for the people.

There’s more. Five days before the term of the previous administration ended, they ordered 3.5 billion pesos to be released for the rehabilitation of those affected by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. This was supposed to fund eighty-nine projects. But nineteen of these projects amounting to 981 million pesos didn’t go through public bidding. Special Allotment Release Orders hadn’t even been released and yet the contracts were already signed. It’s a good thing Secretary Rogelio Singson spotted and stopped them. Instead, they will all go through the proper bidding, and the funds will be used to provide relief to those who lost their homes due to typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

Let’s discuss what happened in Napocor. From 2001 to 2004, the government forced Napocor to sell electricity at a loss to prevent increases in electricity rates. The real motivation for this is that they were preparing for the election.

As a result, in 2004, NAPOCOR slumped deeply in debt. The government was obligated to shoulder the 200 billion pesos it owed.

What the public thought they saved from electricity, we are now paying for using public coffers. Not only are we paying for the cost of electricity; we are also paying for the interest arising from the debt.

If the money we borrowed was used properly, then there would be added assurance that constant supply of electricity is available. However, this decision was based on bad politics, not on the true needs of the people. The people, after having to sacrifice, suffered even more.

This is also what happened to the MRT. The government tried again to buy the people’s love. The operator was forced to keep the rates low.

In effect, the guarantee given to the operator that he will still be able to recoup his investment was not fulfilled. Because of this, Landbank and the Development Bank of the Philippines were ordered to purchase the MRT.

The money of the people was used in exchange for an operation that was losing money.

Let us now move on to the funds of the National Food Authority (NFA).

In 2004: 117,000 metric tons (of rice) was the shortage in the supply of the Philippines. What they (the government) bought were 900,000 metric tons. Even if you multiply for more than seven times the amount of shortage, they still bought more than what was needed.

In 2007: 589,000 metric tons was the shortage in the supply of the Philippines. What they bought were 1.827 million metric tons. Even if you multiply for more than three times the amount of shortage, they again bought more than what was needed.

What hurts is, because they keep purchasing more than what they need year after year, the excess rice that had to be stored in warehouses ended up rotting, just like what happened in 2008.
Is this not a crime, letting rice rot, despite the fact that there are 4 million Filipinos who do not eat three times a day?

The result is NFA’s current debt of 177 billion pesos.

This money that was wasted could have funded the following:
- The budget of the entire judiciary, which is at 12.7 billion pesos this year.
- The Conditional Cash Transfers for the following year, which cost 29.6 billion pesos.
- All the classrooms that our country needs, which cost 130 billion pesos.

This way of doing things is revolting. Money was there only to be wasted.

You have heard how the public coffers were squandered. This is what is clear to me now: change can only come from our determination to stamp out this extravagance and profligacy.

That is why starting now: we will stop the wasteful use of government funds. We will eradicate projects that are wrong.

This is the point of what we call the zero-based approach in our budget. What used to be the norm was every year, the budget merely gets re-enacted without plugging the holes.

Next month we will be submitting a budget that accurately identifies the problem and gives much attention on the right solution.

Those that I have mentioned were only some of the problems we have discovered. Here now are examples of the steps we are undertaking to solve them.

There is a case of one pawnshop owner. He purchased a vehicle at an estimated cost of 26 million pesos.
If he can afford to buy a Lamborghini, why can’t he pay his taxes?

A case has already been filed against him. Through the leadership of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares, Customs Commissioner Lito Alvarez, and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, every week we have new cases filed against smugglers and against those who do not pay the right taxes.

We have also already identified the suspects of the cases of Francisco Baldomero, Jose Daguio and Miguel Belen, 3 of the 6 incidents of extralegal killings since we assumed the Presidency.

Fifty percent (50%) of these incidents of extralegal killings are now on their way to being resolved.
We will not stop the pursuit of the remaining half of these killings until justice has been achieved.
We will hold murderers accountable. We will also hold those who are corrupt that work in government accountable for their actions.

We have begun forming our Truth Commission, through the leadership of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide. We will search for the truth on the alleged wrongdoing committed in the last nine years.

This week, I will sign the first ever Executive Order on the formation of this Truth Commission.

If the answer to justice is accountability, the answer to the dearth in funds is a new and creative approach to our long-standing problems.

We have so many needs: from education, infrastructure, health, military, police and more. Our funds will not be enough to meet them.

No matter how massive the deficit is that may keep us from paying for this list of needs, I am heartened because many have already expressed renewed interest and confidence in the Philippines.

Our solution: public-private partnerships. Although no contract has been signed yet, I can say that ongoing talks with interested investors will yield fruitful outcomes.

There are some who have already shown interest and want to build an expressway from Manila that will pass through Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, until the end of Cagayan Valley, without the government having to spend a single peso.

On national defense:
We have 36,000 nautical miles of shoreline, but we only have 32 boats. These boats are as old as the time of (US General Douglas) MacArthur.

Some had this proposition: they will rent the Navy headquarters on Roxas Boulevard and the Naval Station in Fort Bonifacio.

They will take care of the funding necessary to transfer the Navy Headquarters to Camp Aguinaldo. Immediately, we will be given 100 million dollars. Furthermore, they will give us a portion of their profits from their businesses that would occupy the land they will rent.

In short, we will meet our needs without spending, and we will also earn.

There have already been many proposals from local to foreign investors to provide for our various needs.
From these public-private partnerships, our economy will grow and every Filipino will be the beneficiary. There are so many sectors that could benefit from this.

We will be able to construct the needed infrastructure in order to help tourism grow.
In agriculture, we will be able to have access to grains terminals, refrigeration facilities, orderly road networks and post-harvest facilities.

If we can fix out food supply chain with the help of the private sector, instead of importing, we will hopefully be able to supply for the needs of the global market.

The prices of commodities will go down if we are able to make this efficient railway system a reality. It will be cheaper and faster, and it will be easier for travelers to avoid crooked cops and rebels.

A reminder to all: creating jobs is foremost on our agenda, and the creation of jobs will come from the growth of our industries. Growth will only be possible if we streamline processes to make them predictable, reliable and efficient for those who want to invest.

We make sure that the Build-Operate-and-Transfer projects will undergo quick and efficient processes. With the help of all government agencies concerned and the people, a process that used to take as short as a year and as long as a decade will now only take six months.

The Department of Trade and Industry has already taken steps to effect this change, under the leadership of Secretary Gregory Domingo:

The never-ending horror story of registering business names, which used to take a minimum of four to eight hours depending on the day, will be cut down drastically to fifteen minutes.

What used to be a check list of thirty-six documents will be shortened to a list of six, and the old eight-page application form will be whittled down to one page.

I call on our local government units to review its own procedures. While we look for more ways to streamline our processes to make business start-ups easier, I hope the LGUs can also find ways to implement reforms that will be consistent with the ones we have already started.

All will certainly benefit from this streamlining — be it businessmen, soldiers, rebels and ordinary Filipinos. As long as the interests of Filipinos will not be jeopardized, we will explore all available avenues to make this a reality. We must start now, and we should all help achieve this and not stand in each other’s way.
The time when we will no longer be made to choose between our people’s security and the future of our children is upon us now.

Once we implement these public-private partnerships, we will be able to fund public service in accordance with our platform.

This will enable us to fund our plans for education.

We will be able to expand our basic education cycle from seven years to the global standard of twelve years.
We can build more classrooms, and we will fund service contracting under the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Program (GASTPE).

Conditional cash transfers that aim to lessen the burden of education on parents will also be funded if this partnership becomes a reality.

Our plans for improving PhilHealth can now be within reach.
First, we will identify the correct number of Filipinos who sorely need PhilHealth coverage, as current data is conflicting on this matter. On one hand, PhilHealth says that eighty-seven percent (87%) of Filipinos are covered, then lowers the number to only fifty-three percent (53%). On the other hand, the National Statistics Office says that only thirty-eight percent (38%) of Filipinos are covered by Philhealth.

Even as we speak, Secretary Dinky Soliman and the Department of Social Welfare and Development are moving to implement the National Household Targeting System that will identify the families that most urgently need assistance. An estimated 9 billion pesos is needed in order to provide coverage for five million poor Filipinos.

Our country is beginning to see better days ahead. The private sector, the League of Provinces headed by Governor Alfonso Umali, together with Governors L-Ray Villafuerte and Icot Petilla, are now ready to do their share when it comes to shouldering the financial burden. I know that the League of Cities under the leadership of Mayor Oscar Rodriguez will not be far behind.

If the local governments share in our goals, I know that I can surely count on Congress, the institution where I began public service, to push for our agenda for change.

Our Cabinet has already showed it skill by identifying not just problems but also proposing solutions in a matter of three weeks.

In the aftermath of Typhoon Basyang, we were told by those in the power sector that we would be without electricity for four days. The quick action of Secretary Rene Almendras and the Department of Energy resulted in the restoration of power to almost all those affected within twenty-four hours.

The so-called water shortage in Metro Manila was quickly attended to by Secretary Rogelio Singson and the Department of Public Works and Highways. Secretary Singson did it without prodding, which alleviated the suffering of those affected.

We also witnessed the competence and initiative of those we appointed to be part of our Cabinet. It is but just that they not be forced to go through the eye of a needle to be confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. Should this happen, competent Filipinos will be encouraged to help our country through service to the public.

In the soonest possible time, we will convene the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) to discuss the important bills that needs to be addressed. Rest assured that I will keep an open mind in order for our relationship to be true to our people.

We will push for the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, where we cannot push for bills that will need funding, rather only those that have already identified its sources of funding. We need 104.1 billion pesos to fund those laws already passed but whose implementation remains pending because of lack of funds.

We will re-evaluate fiscal incentives given in the past. Now that we are tightening our purse strings, we need to identify those incentives that will remain and those that need to be done away with.

We will not allow another NBN-ZTE scandal to happen again. Whether from local or foreign sources, all proposed contracts must undergo the scrutiny of correct procedures. I now ask for your help with amending our Procurement Law.

According to our Constitution, it is the government’s duty to ensure that the market is fair for all. No monopolies, no cartels that kill competition. We need an Anti-Trust Law that will give life to these principles, to afford Small- and Medium-Scale Enterprises the opportunity to participate in the growth of our economy.

Let us pass into law the National Land Use Bill.

It was in 1935, during the Commonwealth, that the National Defense Act was passed. There is a need to amend this law in order to make it more responsive to the current needs of national security.

I appeal to our legislators to pass the Whistleblower’s Bill to eradicate the prevalent culture of fear and silence that has hounded our system.

We will strengthen the Witness Protection Program. We must remember that from 2009 to 2010 alone, cases which involved the participation of witnesses under the program resulted in a ninety-five percent conviction.

There is a need to review our laws. I call on our lawmakers to begin a re-codification of our laws to ensure harmony and eliminate contradictions.

These laws serve as the basis of order in our land, but the foundation of all rests on the principle that we cannot grow without peace and order.
We face two obstacles on our road to peace: the situation in Mindanao and the continued revolt of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Our view has not changed when it comes to the situation in Mindanao. We will only achieve lasting peace if all stakeholders engage in an honest dialogue: may they be Moro, Lumad, or Christian. We have asked Dean Marvic Leonen to head our efforts to talk to the MILF.

We will learn from the mistakes of the past administration, which sprung upon the people an agreement reached without consultation from all concerned. We are not blind to the fact that it was done with political motivation, and that the interest behind it was not that of the people.

We recognize the efforts of the MILF to discipline those within its ranks. We are hopeful that the negotiations will begin during the first one hundred days of my administration as your president.

To the CPP-NPA-NDF: are you prepared to put forth concrete solutions rather than pure criticism and finger-pointing?

If it is peace you truly desire, then we are ready to call for an immediate cease-fire. Let us go back to the table and begin talking again.

It is difficult to begin discussions in earnest if the scent of gun power still hangs in the air. I call on everyone concerned not to waste a good opportunity to rally behind one goal for peace.
Our foundation for growth is peace. We will continue to be shackled by poverty if the crossfire persists.
We must understand that now is a time for sacrifice. It is this sacrifice that will pave the way for a better future.

With our freedom comes our responsibility to good unto our fellows and to our country.
To our friends in media, especially those in radio and print, to the block-timers and those in our community newspapers, I trust that you will take the cudgels in policing your own.

May you give new meaning to the principles of your vocation: to provide clarity to pressing issues; to be fair and truthful in your reporting, and to raise the level of discourse with the public.

It is every Filipino’s duty to closely watch the leaders that you have elected. I encourage everyone to take a step towards participation rather than meddling. The former takes part in finding a solution; from the latter, never-ending complaints.

We have always known that the key to growth is putting the interest of others beyond one’s own. One thing is clear: how do we move forward if we keep putting others down? How will those without education secure quality jobs? How will the unemployed become consumers? How will they save money for their future needs?
If we change all this, if we prioritize enabling others, we will open a world of opportunities not just for ourselves but for those who direly need it.

We have already begun the process of change, and we are now able to dream of better things for our country. Let us not forget that there are those who wish us to fail, so that they will once again reclaim power to do as they please at the expense of our people.

I believe that God and the people have brought us to where we are now. While we focus on uplifting the lives of our fellow men, we are assured of blessings and guidance from God Almighty. If we truly believe that we have God on our side, is there anything that we cannot endure?

The mandate we received last May 10 is testament to the fact that the Filipino continues to hope for true change. The situation is not what it was before; we can all dream again. Let us all become one in achieving a fulfilment of our hopes and aspirations for our country.

Thank you very much.

The problem of inadequate water supply is haunting Metro Manila for the past years. However, the ignorance and inefficiency of the Manila Water and Sewerage System (MWSS) made this problem transform into a crisis that the metropolis is currently experiencing.

Multiple Water Sources Being Pushed

In a TV interview, head of the MWSS admitted that they became too confident of the capacity of Angat Dam that they forgot to develop other water sources. Wawa Da The volume of water from Wawa is enough to answer the water requirement in Montalban, San Mateo, and Marikina. Using the dam will ease the pressure on Angat Dam and help in reducing the water crisis.

MWSS relied only to Angat Dam for its needs. The problem is that the Angat Dam is not only used for supplying the waters of Metro Manila. Many sectors are relying on it for their needs. The water stored by Angat Dam is used for irrigation and electrification. Thus, not all water in the Angat Dam can be used to supply the water requirement of the metropolis.

The water crisis forced Maynilad to extract water from the Laguna Lake for its customers in Muntinlupa. The two water concessioners are considering other water sources like the Marikina River, Pampanga River, and Wawa Dam.

People Urged to Save Water

According to PAGASA, normal rainfall will resume around September. Because of this, the water level at Angat Dam will not return to normal and the water crisis in Metro Manila will continue. To ease the problem, the MWSS are urging the people to conserve water.

The Department of Health warned people about the dangers of Dengue now that people are storing water in drums and containers that could be used as breeding grounds of mosquitoes. People are urged to cover their drums and containers to avoid Dengue virus from spreading.

—

This is an opinion article regarding the water crisis that Metro Manila is experiencing.

But since current supply cuts have severely affected nearly 20% of its clients, the firm said authorities would have to give it a greater share of water from Angat Dam, whose level is already at a historical low. It also wants to take water from the La Mesa dam, which is being used by east zone concessionaire Manila Water Co., and source supply from its fellow utility, among other measures.

Regulators said they still had to validate Maynilad’s claims, while a weather bureau official said Angat’s level was unlikely to stabilize soon given forecasts of below normal rainfall for this month and the next. The water level at the multipurpose Angat facility in Bulacan province, which provides some 97% of Metro Manila’s needs, hit a record low of 157.75 meters last Friday. This was despite scattered rain showers and the passage of typhoon Basyang last week, which the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewage System said on Friday raised the water level by just 0.13 meters.

A continuing drop in Angat’s level prompted the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) earlier this month to again cut allocations for Metro Manila to 32 cubic meters per second from 33. A dry spell caused by an El Niño had prompted supply cuts in the first half. Given an average drop of 10 centimeters per day, Angat’s water level could fall to around 151 meters by mid-September, Maynilad chief operating officer Herbert M. Consunji said in a press briefing yesterday.

“Now if the average [daily] drop is 15 centimeters, by September it’ll be at 140 meters and that’s almost critical,” Mr. Consunji said. “If we reach September and there are no rains, then we might be at the critical level of 120 meters [for domestic water supply}. If that happens, technically there is no more water for Metro Manila."

The critical level for all systems in Angat, this includes the Angat Hydroelectric Power Plant, is 180 meters. The facility’s spilling level is 210 meters. Its previous historical low was 158.15 meters, hit in 1998. National Water Resources Board (NWRB) executive director Vicente S. Paragas stated the agency still had to validate Maynilad’s claims. "The NWRB is yet to meet with Maynilad to discuss the water situation. We can’t confirm or deny that by September we may reach the critical level," Mr. Paragas said.

Mr. Consunji said Maynilad was harder hit by the water shortage because it services a more populated area and does not have La Mesa Dam to source water from, unlike Manila Water. Maynilad said a little over 300,000 households had been affected by supply reduction. It claimed that around 152,000 households or 1.13 million people, representing 18% of the 6.7 million people it services, had been severely affected, having no water for up to six hours daily.

Maynilad’s concession area includes the cities of Manila, Quezon, Makati, Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas, and Malabon, all in Metro Manila, plus the municipalities of Bacoor, Imus, Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario in the province of Cavite. Manila, Caloocan and Quezon City have the most number of barangays severely affected by supply cuts, Mr. Consunji said.

To mitigate the disruptions, Maynilad needs to get more of the metropolis’ current water allocation, he said. "We want to stabilize the inflow of raw water. As it’s reduced, our percentage gets lower. We’re following a 60-40 [sharing] protocol right now and we are asking for a 75-25 level at least for the peak hours,” Mr. Consunji.

Manila Water officials were not immediately available for comment. Representatives said earlier in the day that the firm would be issuing a statement but none had been released as of press time. Mr. Consunji said Maynilad would “temporarily source water from Manila Water, source additional water tankers, tap public fire trucks for water tinkering, request for cloud seeding over the Angat area and the joint use of the La Mesa Dam.”

Maynilad chief financial officer Randolph T. Estrellado said the company had also reduced its overall growth target to 10% from 18%. “There is an initial impact of El Niño on our growth. We reduced it to 10% for the whole year. The issue now is if we can still sustain that forecast. At this point I guess what I can say is given the situation, if it does not worsen by August and September we can still maintain that target,” Mr. Estrellado said.

Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services chief Prisco Nilo, meanwhile, told BusinessWorld there may not be enough rains to raise Angat to a comfortable level by September. “Our forecasting tools showed that by September there would be substantial rains but it may not be sufficient to stabilize the Angat Dam. For this month and August we also expect rains to be below normal,” Mr. Nilo said in a telephone interview.

It was the day of the inauguration of the new President of the Philippines Noynoy Aquino and the last day for outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Here is our video collection of the inauguration day of Noynoy Aquino.

Enjoy, Tweet and feel free to share and comment below…

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In his speech, President Noynoy Aquino stated these things:

1. Raise government revenue by raising tax collection.

I think President Aquino plans to achieve this by strengthening the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC). These two revenue generating agency always fall short of their target. BIR never achieve its target and there are many private companies that evade paying tax. The BOC is so corrupt and is quite famous for having the most corrupt government employees in the country. Making the BIR efficient and cleaning BOC is a good way of increasing the public fund. Before creating new tax, President Noynoy should fix BIR and BOC first.

2. Develop trading centers to help the Agricultural Sector.

President Noynoy said that he wants to help the farmers by creating trading centers where farmers could directly sell their produce without going through the middlemen. His goal here is to reduce price of agricultural products by removing the middlemen in the equation. Middlemen are guilty of placing to buying goods from farmers at very low price and selling those goods at the market at very high price. I agree with him here. The middlemen should be removed for the sake of the poor.

3. Cut red tape and level the playing field for businesses.

One of the investors’ complaints is the lengthy process in setting up a business in the Philippines. President Noynoy promises that he will remove bureaucratic red tape so as to speed up the process. Reducing red tape is also a good way of removing corruption in the government because red tape breeds government officials that asks bribes for speeding up the processing time in the government. However, many presidents promised reducing red tape and failed. President Noynoy will fail too if he will plan to reduce red tape by following the previous presidents’ example. The key in achieving this is by having guts of steel in streamlining the government.

4. Raise the number of jobs.

This is another one of the old promises uttered by many presidents. This could only happen if President Noynoy succeeds in raising tax revenue and in reducing red tape. Being successful on those endeavors will make the country more attractive in the eyes of foreign investors, ergo, more jobs in the country.

5. Raise the number of soldiers and police.

President Noynoy said that the number of soldiers and police are disproportionate to the population. This is the reason why he intends to raise the number of soldiers and policemen. This plan of Noynoy is ominous to rebel groups around the country because it will strengthen the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). I approve of this plan of President Noynoy, but he must understand that raising the number of soldiers and police in the field is not the only solution to the problems of AFP and PNP. These institutions are still hounded by issues of corruption. President Noynoy must clean AFP and PNP. He should also initiate the modernization of the AFP. Now is the time to consider having new equipments, especially the Navy and the Air Force, so that we are not ridiculed by other nations.

6. There is no reconciliation without justice

This is President Noynoy’s clear message to former President Arroyo and her cohorts. No one will get off the hook after stealing money from the public coffers. I agree with him. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and gang must face justice for their crimes. But this statement of should not only be applied to GMA, it should also be applied to all corrupt government officials from the Marcos administration to Arroyo Administration. Also, the people who killed the Hacienda Luisita farmers, the perpetrators of Mendiola Massacre, and the Maguindanao murderers should also pay for their crimes. “Justice for all,” that is what I am saying here.

7. No “wang-wang” or the removal of privileged class?

Noynoy said that he want to remove the people who uses wang-wang (police siren) off the streets. Wang-wang had been the symbol of privilege in the country. If you have wang-wang on your car then you have the power to pass through heavy traffic at the expense of the Filipino people. People suffering from congested traffic despise this noisy wang-wang. It is the symbol of the privileged class and President Noynoy implies that he want to remove the privileged class. He is somewhat saying that we are all equal. This is the hardest thing of all the promises in his speech. He will have a hard time in fighting against the elite class because he and his family is part of the elite class. If he is serious then he will betray his class.

Noynoy Aquino’s speech is full of big words that require large amount of effort and guts of steel to achieve. It can’t be denied President Noynoy stirred some in his speech. He makes the people believe that there is still some hope for this country and he could deliver it. The Filipino people is hoping upon hope that he will not destroy the trust that he received people because if he does then this country will fall and its people will be alienated further to their government.

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This is an opinion piece for President Noynoy’s inaugural speech. How about you dear reader? What are your thoughts about Noynoy’s speech? Please leave your thoughts in the comment box.

Wearing an traditional barong rather than his boxing outfit, Manny Pacquiao was among other local officials who took their oaths of office in the capital of the Sarangani province.

“I will be more effective in politics than in boxing,” he told the crowd of 3,000 after the ceremony.

The 31-year-old fighter said he would work on improving infrastructure, medical services and security during his three-year term in parliament.

Before the ceremony, Manny Pacquiao transferred from the Nacionalista Party (NP) to the Liberal Party. And now enjoy the video.

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]]> http://manilainformer.com/videos/3905/manny-pacquiao-now-fights-in-congress-video/feed/ 0 http://manilainformer.com/other-news/3877/get-ready-for-the-manila-typhoon-season-especially-if-you-live-in-one-of-those-areas/ http://manilainformer.com/other-news/3877/get-ready-for-the-manila-typhoon-season-especially-if-you-live-in-one-of-those-areas/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:21:21 +0000 Robert http://manilainformer.com/?p=3877 The Philippine National Police Maritime Group has identified flood-prone areas in Metro Manila where its disaster response units will be concentrated as typhoon season nears, an official said on Monday. Superintendent Oliver Tanseco, operations chief of the PNP Maritime Group, told reporters that these flood-prone areas are in the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela) area and the city of Marikina.

Tanseco said the PNP has already deployed its equipment such as rubber boats into these areas in anticipation of possible disasters. At the same time, the PNP has already trained almost all of its Maritime personnel not only on rescue but also on first aid and equipment handling, Tanseco said.

“Our deployment plan was already pre-determined so the experiences during typhoon Ondoy last year will not happen again,” he told reporters. Let’s all prepare for the typhoon season and hope that he is right. Or maybe it is really time to move away from Manila now? What do you think?

But this was not official and for a long time Joseph ERAP Estrada was not giving up, saying he might still win. We covered this here – Is Joseph ERAP Estrada finally giving up?

But as of today, Benigno Noynoy Aquino is our new President.

A joint session of parliament proclaimed Mr Aquino the 15th president of the Philippines. His six-year term will begin on June 30 when he will take over from Gloria Arroyo, who has reached the legal limit of time in office. The son of former president Corazon Aquino took a record 42 per cent of the election vote, well ahead of his nearest rival.

Here our collection of articles about Noynoy Aquino during the election time:

What did Noynoy Aquino say about the defective voting machines?

Official Election Results for the Philippine Presidential Elections 2010

Benigno Noynoy S Aquino III – The new President of the Republic of the Philippines

Manny Villar concedes and congratulates the new President of the Philippines Noynoy Aquino – Video

The New President of the Philippines Noynoy Aquino says thank you to his voters – Video

Benigno Noynoy Aquino – Why Gloria Arroyo needs to be scared of him now – Inside report – Video

So it is official, we have a new president. If we voted for Noynoy Aquino or not, we believe we should all support him now. He has some pretty rough tasks ahead and the current president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is not making it easier for Noynoy. She is still busy putting her people in place and making jobs available for “good friends”. Of course not official, but you know how it works in the Philippines.

Aquino, our new president, will probably be measured on the success he will have in cutting down on corruption in the Philippines and how he can make us all work in the same direction, as a team. If he can get those things done as our new president then we can do everything here in the Philippines. Congratulations Mr. Noynoy Aquino …

Estrada is currently in second place in the presidential race with 9,125,823 votes, trailing Aquino with 14,641,083 as of the latest tally of Congress Thursday night.

“President Estrada is no longer inclined to file any protest. He will respect whatever final outcome is pronounced by the Joint Canvassing Committee in Congress,” said Estrada’s spokesperson Margaux Salcedo in an interview over ANC.

However, she added that they will continue to study reports of electoral fraud across the country, as well as electronic results even as these do not tally with their own records.

Salcedo also clarified the former President will not concede prior to the conclusion of the canvassing.

Estrada was earlier reported to have offered his services to Aquino.

“Should Senator Aquino be proclaimed the next president, President Estrada will take on the role of elderly statesman and would be glad to work with the next administration to pursue his unfinished pro-poor programs.

However, he will wait until the proclamation is made by Congress before engaging in any talks with Senator Aquino,” Salcedo explained.

She added Estrada and Aquino can “very well work together” as they are both from the opposition.

“In her final days, President Estrada also became very close to President Cory Aquino, especially after her public apology which meant a lot to him, so it will be easy for President Erap to support Senator Aquino in whatever capacity if and when he is proclaimed,” said Salcedo.

Even as the canvassing of votes has yet to be concluded, Estrada left for London Thursday morning to attend the graduation rites of one of his daughters.

Rumors earlier circulated that Estrada was junked by his running mate former Makati mayor Jejomar Binay, who continues to lead the vice presidential race by a slim margin over Sen. Manuel Roxas II.

Both Estrada’s and Binay’s camps have dismissed the allegations

Power distributor Manila Electric Company or Meralco issued a statement on Tuesday, warning households and establishments to prepare for power outages. “There will be a tentative 1-hour rotational brownout today, (June 1) between 10 am – 4pm due to the insufficient generation power capacity of the power generation suppliers.”

Meralco said electricity is likely to be interrupted because at least three power plants are undergoing maintenance and repair. It said that a defective boiler tube of the coal-fired Masinloc power plant in Zambales is being repaired. The natural gas-fired San Lorenzo Power Plant in Batangas is also undergoing repair, along with the Limay combined cycle power facility in Bataan.

The maintenance work on these three plants means the temporary loss of some 655 megawatts in the Luzon power grid. The National Grid Corp. said current power demand in Luzon is about 7,400 megawatts, but supply is short at 7,000 megawatts.

Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said Manila and nearby provinces were spared of the outages on Tuesday, as the San Lorenzo plant’s repair may be completed sooner. There is still a possibility that the rotating brownouts will be implemented as electricity reserves are still thin.

“If Masinloc and San Lorenzo are not put back, the power shortage will continue until Friday. It just so happened that the repair and maintenance work on the three plants had to be done all at the same time. Tomorrow until the rest of the week, I don’t know what will happen,” said Zaldarriaga.

Better get your candles and flashlights ready if you live in Metro Manila…

“It’s very moving and truly thrilling to be part of something that people have connected with and have strong feelings about,” says Parker, “something that they’ve welcomed into their homes every week and then gone to the theater to watch. So we gave a lot of thought as to how we’d take them into the next phase, two years down the road.”

For Carrie Bradshaw, an unconventional woman by any definition, doing what’s expected of her has never been the norm, and her stance in this film is no different. As writer-director Michael Patrick King puts it, “tradition snuck in and it freaked her out.” In fact, Parker notes, “Carrie, who at one point thought she might not be the marrying type, is finally married to the love of her life, the man she spent most of her adult life pursuing.” She further adds that Carrie is not alone in reaching a crossroads in her life. “All the women, at this point in their lives, appear to be content with having what they thought they wanted. But, as Michael Patrick so cleverly does in his writing, there’s nuance and layers and complications under the surface.”

In the film, when we first glimpse Carrie and Big in their home together, Carrie is feeling a bit unsettled in her settled, married life, wondering “what happens after you say ‘I do.’” And because Carrie is also a writer, she has even gone so far as to express her feelings about the idea of marriage in her new book — a collection of comic essays in which she lampoons the idea of traditional wedding vows.

“Carrie has spent her career writing about being single, and for the first time she’s writing about a different topic, being married,” Parker observes. “The truth is, she doesn’t know a lot about it yet. But she’s learned that there’s a difference between having a wedding and being married. She’s been married for a very short time and she’s not quite wearing it as comfortably as she wants to.” Parker adds, “Carrie likes to go out, she likes to live the city life, looking, watching, participating. One of the many things she’s secretly struggling with is the idea of staying in, of these shackles she has figuratively projected onto herself. She’s able to intellectualize it, but emotionally, she’s not actually where she would like to be in the marriage. She wants to be able to say she feels good about the expectations she has had of her partner and herself. So for Carrie, it becomes a story about ‘Yes, I had a wedding, but am I married? Am I married?’”

For the cast and crew of “Sex and the City 2,” working together throughout the years has become, perhaps, the best of traditions.

“I think what was most interesting to me about the ‘Sex and the City 2’ shoot was getting away with everyone,” Sarah Jessica Parker says. “We were all removed from the most important people in our lives, our families, and that was very difficult, but I think it also helped us grow even closer than ever—and we’ve all been pretty close going on 12 years now. It was probably the best time we ever had as a group, and it was so great to have that experience.”

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Sex And The City 2 will start screening in the Philippines the day after tomorrow, June 2. Are you going to watch it on the opening days? Are you going to watch SATC2 at all? Let us know in the comments section below please…

The Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the 29-year-old Filipino legal accountant after Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad convicted him of breaching the Filipina’s modesty and molesting her.

When the accused, R.P., appeared in Courtroom Four earlier this month, he apologized for using his iPhone’s camera to breach the modesty of the 28-year-old woman.

Prosecutors accused R.P. of molesting 28-year-old M.I. and taking indecent images of her while she was undressed and using the bathroom.

“Yes I am guilty your honor… I apologize for what happened,” contended the accused when he defended himself in court.

According to the arraignment sheet, prosecutors said the defendant breached the woman’s privacy and modesty and molested her by taking pictures of her with his iPhone.

Prosecution records said 28-year-old M.I. spotted the camera lens focused towards her while she was on the toilet seat.

“My sister had warned me the earlier day that she had discovered a camera lens placed inside a skirt and focused towards the inside of the bathroom,” claimed M.I. in her prosecution statement.

Spotted

“My sister asked me to be careful because she thought that maybe a woman had forgotten her mobile phone in the skirt. But when I sat on the toilet seat, immediately I spotted a small rug [hung on the door's hangers] which had a small hole and the lens was focused towards me,” she said.

“The iPhone was knitted to the back of the rug and covered with a cloth… I discovered a 31-minute video recording. Immediately we informed the police and handed them the phone.”

Pronouncing yesterday’s judgment, Presiding Judge Abdul Jawad said the accused will be deported after the completion of his imprisonment.

The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.

Pacquiao’s chief of staff, Jayke Joson, said Monday that doctors discovered the 31-year-old boxer had an ulcer during a routine checkup Sunday and his family convinced him to stay in a suburban Manila hospital for a few days.

“Really, Manny can only rest if you confine him to a hospital,” Joson told The Associated Press, adding Pacquiao was receiving intravenous dextrose drips. “It’s been so intense a campaign, he missed some of his meals.”

Pacquiao’s boxing promoters are working toward a possible bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr., or another fighter, as early as November.

Pacquiao’s mother, Dionisia, told The AP her son was well and may be discharged from the hospital later Monday or Tuesday.

Pacquiao won a seat in the Philippine’s powerful House of Representatives, which he will assume on June 30.

Aside from preparing to enter the political arena, Pacquiao is yet to complete advertisements for products ranging from food to sports items, Joson said.

Promoter Bob Arum has said he’ll soon start talking to Mayweather’s camp about putting together the world’s top two welterweights for a Nov. 13 bout in Las Vegas or Texas.

Arum said he hoped to match Pacquiao against former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito if talks with Mayweather fall through.

Should Gloria Macapagal Arroyo be scared of Benigno Noynoy Aquino, the new President of the Philippines?

After nine years of Gloria Arroyo, the Philippines is gearing up for a new president. Benigno Aquino, known as Noynoy, is set to take power from Gloria Arroyo, the outgoing president. But can Benigno Aquino deliver the change his people desperately need? This is an inside story video about our new President of the Philippines, Benigno Noynoy Aquino.

This interesting report shows different opinions and highlights the many challenges facing our new leader Noynoy. As always, feel free to comment, tweet and share

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