This year, Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Chief-of-Staff Hermogenes Esperon retired from army service but he wasn’t giving up on his government pension, he was ready for another post in the government and was very much ready to fill any job as a ‘civilian public servant.’ While it was expected that most of the retired AFP chief end up in another government post, the Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial team summed up the fishy motive behind the latest move. It was also here that the editorial team suggested that there is more to the quick punishment and reward of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV‘s former colleagues, who were sentenced and in record time were ordered released based on the President’s pardon.
Category: Travelog
Jim’s thoughts on his recent travels among others
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Optus to have iPhone
A Philippine Mobile Network announced that it is one of the first mobile phone service providers in Asia to bring the most anticipated phone of the decade, the iPhone. According to a report on Inquirer.net, Globe Philippines will exclusively offer iPhone in the country while Optus will carry the smart phone in Australia and Bharti in India. Both Optus and Bharti have yet to confirm the agreement which was said to have been finalized yesterday.
UPDATE: Optus confirmed that it will be bringing iPhone to Australia.
Western Australian Police from the Major Fraud Squad raided The Sunday Times last week in a complaint against the paper allegedly by the Department of Premier and Cabinet. A report from Perthnow.com quoted department statements as saying that “it had ‘referred allegations of the unauthorised disclosure of a confidential document to the police and the Corruption and Crime Commission’ relating to a political exclusive about taxpayers’ money being used to fund the Labor Party’s re-election campaign.”
An Australian Football League player recently made headlines after landing a heavy left hook on an opponent few days ago. Here’s the a news video grab about that:
Since I’ve blogged about Inquirer’s Radio online, it has become my most read blogged post ever. It has served the purpose for most of our expats and OFWs who Googled Philippine Radio Stations Online and relieved homesickness, I suppose. However, I’ve been contacted by some of Blogbastic! readers and visitors inquiring about 90.7 Love Radio. The Manila-based radio station is one of the most popular radio stations in the Philippines and appeals to the masses because of its lively programming and witty Disc Jockeys.
I’ve made online searches for any source of online broadcast streaming of Love Radio to no avail. So, I decided to write a person connected with Manila Broadcasting Company , the owner of the station, and inquire if they are broadcast streaming but as of this writing, I have yet to receive a response.
If you are kind enough to lend a hand and you are based in Manila, you might want to contact the station manager of Love Radio and inform them that a number of OFWs and expats are requesting that Love Radio find a way to broadcast online. It might be better if some will be able to ask permission from the station to stream the broadcast of the station online! Hopefully this call will be noticed by someone with close network to the station.
As one of my readers said, kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan?! 🙂
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Olympics Torch Down Under (UPDATED)
The Olympics Torch is set to arrive in Canberra this Thursday. The torch is set to arrive in Australia on 23 April and will appear for about five hours the following day. The Australian Olympic Committee said in its website that “the route will include major cultural icons of Canberra including Parliament House, the Australian War Memorial, the Civic Centre and will be rowed across Lake Burley Griffin.”
The route, however, might change at the last minute if protests similar to the London, Paris and India leg will be repeated. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, however, declared that Chinese security officials would not be allowed to exercise any authority in securing the torch unless in cases of terrorist attack.
Activists found the best way of sending China their message to improve its recognition of human rights and call for its withdrawal from Tibet through the disruption of the Olympics Torch Relay.
UPDATE (24 April): There’s some confusion during the torch relay in Canberra today as despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s declaration that the Chinese security escorts the Chinese ‘blue guards’ tried to interfere with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in securing the torch. This made the AFP scuffling not only with Pro-Tibetan protesters but also with the Chinese escorts.
Some Australians did not welcome the action of the Chinese security escorts as Beijing Organizers insisted that the blue guards had a security role to play. Excerpt from news.com.au report are as follows:
But the blue tracksuited guards were seen by Australian relay organisers as a deliberate act of provocation by the Chinese, who have been told for months that they would not be allowed to have a security role.
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From 20-20 to Top 20
A man has been charged over the weekend as a result of a police drama last Friday. The man threatened staff at the Australian Government Solicitor’s Office after an unfavorable court proceeding result. Police believed that he will return with a gun and the vicinity of the building was locked down for hours with hundreds evacuated. No gun was found.
In another news, a tragic accident literally arrived at the doorstep of a mother and her baby sending the baby flying meters away. The baby died on the spot and the man was apprehended by witnesses after trying to flee the scene. The mother received treatment for minor injuries.
Last year, Inquirer.net reported that the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) was rethinking its purpose and was aiming to preserve RP’s other languages. This is a welcome news since we are slowly losing our identity as our culture is slowly swallowed by the different colonizers that came to ‘teach’ us the proper way. The alibata is almost extinct while there are some dialect that are slowly becoming a dialect only spoken among the senior generation. So, the move by the KWF is welcome news. Personally, I believe if we know our language well, then we have a chance for development and better understanding of other languages. Filipino is based on the Tagalog dialect, strictly speaking if we follow a pure Filipino language not everybody will be able to understand it. My Filipino teacher back in High School pointed out that in Tagalog, month and moon are spelled the same–buwan, so, how do you differentiate month from the moon? In Filipino, (if my memory serves me right), month is buwan and moon is bulan. Some of my Bicolano readers might say–ei that rings a bell. Well indeed it does because the Filipino language, ideally, is a mixture of all the dialect of the Philippines.
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Are Filipinos being deceived?
I remember vividly how my ‘political awakening’ came into being. Ninoy Aquino’s arrival was on national TV. I was Grade 3 then, and then the gun shots. I could not believe my eyes that it was really happening but I remember my Dad trembling in anger of what they’ve done and pointing to a certain general speaking on TV looking so tense and shaking while explaining to the press that the former senator was assassinated and showing them the gun that was used.
As the saying goes and so what also legislators at the Australian Parliament did today as reported by news.com.au. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spent his Friday on an official visit to an indigenous community in New South Wales that the opposition went on “berserk” to “protest against his ‘rostered day off’.”
Blogbastic! 