MikeLigalig.com

In this Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014 photo, a house is half submerged in floodwaters following flooding of Compostela Valley and nearby provinces in southern Philippines. Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains from a low pressure area affected 132,000 people from 10 provinces but it was still unclear how many of them had to evacuate their homes, disaster response officials said Monday, Jan. 13, 2014. AP/A. Dayao

http://www.philstar.com/

Mindanao areas affected by heavy rains: Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Compostela Valley Davao Oriental, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi


MTSAT ENHANCED-IR Satellite Image as of 7:32 a.m. pagasa.dost.gov.ph

Kerry tried to steer the discussion back to Iran or Syria, but Lavrov plowed on.

"We used to do this in the Soviet Union," he said. "Now we try to do it from wheat."

A few minutes later, Lavrov awkwardly tried to tie the potato diplomacy to the Syrian negotiations.

"The specific potato which John handed to me has the shape which makes it possible to insert potato in the carrot-and-stick expression," he said to laughter from reporters. "So it could be used differently."

http://www.montrealgazette.com/

Kerry added: "I really want to clarify: There's no hidden meaning. There's no metaphor. There's no symbolic anything. ... He recalled the Idaho potatoes as being something that he knew of, so I thought I would surprise him and bring him some good Idaho potatoes."

The mention of vodka put Lavrov on a brief rhetorical bender.

"In Poland, they make vodka from potatoes," Lavrov said. "I know this. But that's in Poland."

After pictures of Kerry handing Lavrov the tubers during talks Monday morning surfaced on the Web, reporters pressed both leaders for an explanation hours later.

Kerry quickly sought to disavow any deep diplomatic meaning from the spuds, explaining that he was in Idaho over the holidays when he and Lavrov spoke by phone. The Russian, it seemed, associated Idaho with potatoes.

"He told me he's not going to make vodka. He's going to eat them," Kerry said of Lavrov, who was next to him at an otherwise grim news conference on militant threats to humanitarian aid for Syria.

In swap of bizarre gifts, US and Russia find light moment during grim Syrian peace talks

By Lara Jakes
The Associated Press
January 13, 2014


U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, standing left, gives a pair of Idaho potatoes as a gift for Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the start of their meeting at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Paris, France, Monday, Jan. 13, 2014. Kerry is in Paris on a two-day meeting on Syria to rally international support for ending the three-year civil war in Syria. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

PARIS - For some watchers of international diplomacy, the sombre road to Syrian peace was overrun Monday by potatoes and furry pink hats.

A swapping of delegation gifts between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov served as a distraction from predictions of elusive success in Syria.

The usually stern-faced Lavrov came to the meeting armed with at least two ushankas, a traditional Russian fur hat with earflaps that tie to the top of the hat. Both hats went to women on Kerry's press staff â€" including a bubblegum-pink one for State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

The more bizarre bout of diplomacy came over a pair of Idaho potatoes.

cool.

Quote from: islander on January 14, 2014, 12:48:32 AMWith that, the couple gazed into each other’s teary eyes and did a slow dance that could melt the hardest of hearts, while “Kahit Maputi na ang Buhok Ko” was rightfully playing in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itSedWEouiY#ws

Vicente, King’s son meanwhile said: “My grandfather (the late senator Francisco ‘Soc’ Rodrigo) wrote love poems to my grandmother.  My dad wrote the same things to my late mom.  And now, he has love poems for Tita Boots.”

King and Boots admit that while everybody is sure they will live happily ever after,  they will have to face the challenge of  adjusting to each other from here on. After all, Boots is a widow for six years now while King lost his first wife Olga five years ago. Having each other 24/7 after their wedding would surely take some getting used to.

“Tanggap ko na ang adjustment.  The blessing is, we are very willing to take the challenge of adjustment,” Boots spoke for herself and King.

With that, the couple gazed into each other’s teary eyes and did a slow dance that could melt the hardest of hearts, while “Kahit Maputi na ang Buhok Ko” was rightfully playing in the background.

http://ph.omg.yahoo.com/

Wedding preparations

Purple is the motif for the much-awaited wedding and Boots and King are getting a choir to provide the music. Boots hopes her friend Gary Valenciano can sing at the wedding, set Saturday, June 14, 5 p.m. at the Archibishop’s Palace in Mandaluyong.  Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will officiate the nuptial Mass.

King and Boots are glad their relationship and upcoming wedding are inspiring widows, widowers and single persons who want a second chance at happiness.

“We are happy na napadama namin sa iba ang pagpapahalaga sa sanctity of marriage,” said Boots.

King adds, “Entering into the sacrament of matrimony is the only right way to do it if you want to pursue love.”

The event: the well-loved Filipino tradition of pamamanhikan, where King, his petite mom beside him, formally asked for Boots’ hand in marriage. The place: the Andrea North Towers roof deck, where  one can get a breathtaking view of the Quezon City lights at night.

There was good food and music, as King offered a  bottle of red wine to his and Boots’ well-heeled  guests, among them their wedding sponsors, Manila mayor Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada and Susan Roces.

Susan feels she’s also representing her late husband, Fernando Poe Jr., one of Boots’ favorite leading men. Erap, on the other hand, described Boots and King as the ideal couple.


Boots Anson Roa and Atty. Francisco King Rodrigo Jr. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA IMAGES)

Boots Anson-Roa's children 'release' mom

By Maridol Rañoa-Bismark
Yahoo Southeast Asia Newsroom
January 13, 2014


Yahoo Southeast Asia Newsroom/(Czeasar Dancel/NPPA IMAGES) - Boots Anson-Roa, fiance Atty. King Rodrigo and his 99-year-old mom Remedios at the pamamanhikan, where he asked for the actress' hand  in marriage.

“In behalf of my siblings, we are releasing our mom to our new father.”

With this, Joey Roa, son of Boots Anson-Roa and the late Pete Roa, welcomed his future stepdad, Atty. King Rodrigo to their family.

Joey also made the guests, led by Remedios, the future groom’s 99-year-old mother, Chiqui, Boots’ daughter and other members of the Rodrigo and Roa clan,  relax, smile and laugh.

nag-unsa man si frightened ani?  tabangi ra god kog sabot, noy kulas.

scorched earth policy?  what is he?  a vietnam veteran?

maayo pod nga wa kahunahuna ug pangawat ug refrigerator...

A man with a child walks toward the top of Vodno Mountain in Skopje, Macedonia.

http://www.voanews.com/

An engineer crawls through a hole in a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) during the breakthrough of a tunnel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The world's first variable density TBM has completed the first section of the 9.5 km (5 miles) twin tunnels of the Klang Valley MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) line.

http://www.voanews.com/

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (2nd L) watches a basketball game with former U.S. NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman at Pyongyang Indoor Stadium in this photo provided by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

http://www.voanews.com/

A commuter ferry navigates through the ice flow in the Hudson River between New Jersey and lower Manhattan in New York.

http://www.voanews.com/

Children play around a man disguised as Batman at the Favela do Metro slum, area just near the Maracana stadium, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Families living in this shantytown within a stone's throw of Rio 's mythical Maracana stadium refuse to have their homes demolished as part of a project to renovate the district before the FIFA World Cup circus pitches camp in June.

http://www.voanews.com/

Nepalese children feed pigeons in Durbar Square in Kathmandu.

http://www.voanews.com/

A flower is surrounded by ash from Mt Sinabung near Sibintun village in Karo district, Indonesia's North Sumatra province, January 9.

http://www.voanews.com/

Volunteers use sticks to fend off the crowd trying to enter a food and supplies distribution point at a makeshift camp housing an estimated 100,000 displaced people, at Mpoko Airport, in Bangui, Central African Republic.

http://www.voanews.com/

Abdul Ghafar talks to her daughter known as Spozhmai in protective custody in Lashkargah, capital of Helmand province, south of Afghanistan. The father of the girl, who police say was part of a botched suicide bomb attack, said he's afraid the Taliban will kill him and his daughter if they return to their village.

http://www.voanews.com/

Iraqi police commandos unit march during a ceremony marking Police Day at the police academy in Baghdad.

http://www.voanews.com/

Devotees struggle to hold the Black Nazarene during a grand procession in Manila, Philippines. The Black Nazarene, a life-size wooden statue of Jesus Christ carved in Mexico and brought to the Philippines in the 17th century, is believed to have healing powers in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

http://www.voanews.com/

but his name sounds italian, which means he may be of italian ethnicity.  why not leave proper pizza eating to italians?

today i realized that i've unwittingly made it a habit to look for my favorite national broadsheet columnists-- fr joaquin bernas, solita monsod, randy david, juan mercado of the philippine daily inquirer, and jarius bondoc of the philippine daily star.

despite his tiresome writing style, i get to read the inquirer's conrado de quiros too, if only for additional information about our country's current state of affairs. 

ambeth ocampo is a good read for some historical perspective.  and i will always go for the inquirer's editorials, which i still regard as the most luminous editorial column of the land.  (i understand it's not just one but a group of writers who take turns at writing the paper's editorials.)

this goes without saying that i also read bohol and cebu local papers and some selected columns.

John Wilkes



When unconcerned with being diplomatically correct, politicians spew the best insults of all time. Such was the case between the 18th century political rivals, John Montagu and John Wilkes. During one of their verbal sparring matches, Montagu spat at Wilkes and said, “Upon my soul, Wilkes, I don’t know whether you’ll die upon the gallows, or of syphilis.” Wilkes retorted, “That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles, or your mistress.”

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/

Babe Ruth



In the 1920s, the prolific Yankee batsman Babe Ruth was having such a great run that he soon scored a $80,000 salary. But when the financial crisis hit home in the early 1930s, Yankees officials asked Ruth to slash his pay by $5000â€"a request Ruth declined. At a later press conference an intrepid reporter commented that Ruth had a higher salary than current President Hoover and received a cutting remark: “Maybe so,” Ruth retaliated, “but I had a better year than he did.”

Abraham Lincoln



During a debate, the popular but not so attractive Abraham Lincoln was accused of being two-faced. Lincoln’s rebuttal proved more self-effacing than insulting, but people still felt the sting around the room. He retorted: “If I had two faces, do you think I’d be wearing this one?”

Gandhi



His vocalization of non-violence doesn’t mean Gandhi wasn’t lethal with his wit. One such incident was when Gandhi traveled to London and a reporter asked him what he thought of Western civilization. Gandhi replied with this scathing remark: “I think it would be a good idea.”

Winston Churchill



The extremely witty and much-loved British Prime Minister Winston Churchill tops the list with his verbal spat with Lady Astor. The conservative dame forever admonished Churchill for his cigars and alcohol habits, and Churchill was not one to take the insults lying down. Of their famous squabbles, the most memorable is when Astor commented, “If you were my husband, I’d poison your tea.” Churchill’s riposte? “Madame, if you were my wife, I’d drink it.”

for more than 20 years, bangladeshi politics is all about two fighting women who can never reconcile.  it was never about ideology or political talent and brinkmanship.  it's just a clash of personalities and ambitions of two women who happen to be heirs of political leaders who were writ large in bangladeshi history.  if their bitter rivalry won't end violently, then the country would be lucky.

sayang layo ni sa amo kay tua mi sa bukid-bukid... hinoon, pilay pad ug gold diay tong madiskubre sa among tugkaran.

ultraviolent is more like it...

gapasabot ba nga nagwapo kay sigeg jogging?

Quote from: hubag bohol on January 13, 2014, 09:34:24 AM
Tubag: Dili, kana kon ang kuoton kwarta...

puwes, like the color of money, kanang kuoton nga di kwarta pareha rag hitsura tanan.

Quote from: hubag bohol on December 26, 2013, 08:50:01 AM

blue christmas.  it looks blue to me.

kay kinsa bay niingon tawon nga ang mangunguot kadto rang bati ug mga nawong?  nahimo ba ning news abi kay mga gwapa kunohay ang na-monitor sa CCTV?  kun bati pag mga hitsura, di ni mahimong balita?

tubag: oo.  since time immemorial nang mga mangunguot sa basilica.  aw, di lang sa basilica.  nahimo lang news ni karon tungod kay hitsuraan kuno ang mga mangunguot.  otherwise, what else is new?   

laing pangutana:  mga hitsuraan ba pod ang gipangkuotan?  bilib na gyod ko sa pulis kun ang tubag ani oo.

hinaot molihay sa agaton sa ilang lolla sa digos.

kinsa pa kaha ron ang bunyagan ug agaton sa?  kanyahay ra bagyo na lang ang ginganlan.

daghanang entries from india.  di sad hinoon lalim ang designs sa ilang temples.  hinoon, nakaduha ug entries ang pinas.  not bad.

world's longest banana split


Courtesy of Susquehanna University Archives
ANY GIVEN SUNDAEâ€"Selinsgrove residents create the world’s longest banana split in 1982, measuring in at approximately 1.52 miles.

http://thesucrusader.com/

5. Awake It from Its Deep Slumber

Remove your gadget from its drying bowl and inspect its body. If you see condensation anywhere, dry it with a towel. Bending a pipe cleaner to brush against the edges of your gadget ports is also helpful to gauge the amount of moisture remaining. If it still looks wet, put it back in the bowl and wait another day. If it’s totally dry, turn it on and see how it works. Even if only parts of it are functional, you may be able to have it repaired for less than what a new phone would cost you.

And if not â€" well, the next drink’s on us. Metaphorically, at least.

http://www.yahoo.com/

3. Suck Out the Liquid

This is when things get Bear Gryllsy. Unless you are in the direct vicinity of a vacuum cleaner with small nozzle attachments, you’re going to have to perform reverse CPR on your gadget’s orifices. Get an empty bowl and set it down next to you. If we’re talking about an iPhone, you’re going to want to focus on the earphone port, the earpiece, the microphone port, and the charger area. Every time you suck in some liquid, spit it into the bowl to avoid swallowing any sort of weird mechanical chemicals.

4. Let It Be

Submerge your drenched gadget in a bowl of rice. Or, per the recommendation of Gizmodo’s Brent Rose, Rice Krispies. Hell, I bet packing peanuts even work. Using heat powered devices to dry it, or chemicals will not. So put down the hair-dryer and let it sit there for about 48 hours. Rotate it every once in a while.

1. Turn It Off

It may be your first instinct to test whether your gadget actually works, but just a few seconds could make a difference in whether it survives. As soon as it plunges into that toilet, fish it out and turn it off.

2. Make It Naked

Take off those covers, remove the SD Cards and SIM Cardsâ€"any possible thing that can be removed to dry on its own. The more areas of the phone that can air out, the better.

So Your iPhone Just Got Really Wet. What Do You Do Now?

Alyssa Bereznak
Jan 4, 2014



Splish splash, it’s your worst technological nightmare: You’ve got a wet iPhone, Android or Windows Phone that you have likely spent hundreds of dollars on, and that carries your life in it; and now, there it is, sitting in a puddle of orange soda, its guts corroding in delicious artificial flavors.

So, you spilled water (or another liquid, we’re not judging) on your smartphone. There may still be some hope! Quickly follow these instructions below and you might be able to save your phone from dying a slow and painful death.

Dark clouds and a heavy rain approach Montevideo from the Rio de la Plata, Uruguay, Jan. 7, 2014.

http://www.voanews.com/

Hot lava from Mount Sinabung volcano hits trees as seen from Berastepu village in Karo district, Indonesia's North Sumatra province.

http://www.voanews.com/

Protesters set a car on fire near a police vehicle during clashes with riot police at Nasr City district in Cairo, Egypt.

http://www.voanews.com/

Newly recruited members of the Yemeni military police force participate in exercises at their barracks in Sana'a.

http://www.voanews.com/

Patrick O'Brien in a Spiderman wind suit jogs around Lake Harriet in south Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. A blast of Arctic air gripped the mid-section of the U.S., bringing the coldest temperatures in two decades, forcing businesses and schools to close and causing widespread airline delays and hazardous driving conditions.

http://www.voanews.com/

German Chancellor Angela Merkel uses crutches as she attends the annual reception for Carolers at the chancellery in Berlin. Merkel suffered a pelvis injury during ski holidays in the Swiss Alps and will have to cut back on her work schedule for the next three weeks.

http://www.voanews.com/

Members of the Australian cricket team wave to passengers sailing past on ferries during a public celebration ceremony at the Sydney Opera House.

http://www.voanews.com/

on the contrary, the head is very much attached to its body, that's why it's running amok, scaring those humans.  call it canine revenge. 

another great story.  there's an up-and-coming female scientist, with thanks to the current scientists.  wow!  it pays to be human. 

The U.S. side of the Niagara Falls is pictured in Ontario on Wednesday. The frigid air and "polar vortex" have resulted in record freezing temperatures affecting about 240 million people in the United States and southern Canada. (Photo by Aaron Harris, Reuters)

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/

labi na tong nakakita ug lungon nga naglutaw sa dalan.  nilihay sila sa lungon, mosibog pod ang lungon kay babagan sila. 

unsay akong gikaon karon?  inun-onang bangus.  gusto unta nakong mokaon aning gikaon ani niya uy...


gutmon man tang magtan-aw...

The realignments are “raising some alarm bells” because of the controversies involving the PDAF, he says. “But what happened in the past has not been proven yet.”

Members of the House still insist that their scholars and medical patients should continue to get the assistance they used to get from their pork barrel.

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga says executive agencies, particularly the DepEd, DOH, DSWD, DPWH, Tesda and Department of Labor and Employment, should draw up guidelines to ensure that lawmakers’ constituents will be able to continue receiving medical and burial assistance, scholarships and skills training.

The 2014 budget lists the various infrastructure projects that the House members had identified, like roads and bridges, water supply systems, and multipurpose buildings.

Each House member identified five infrastructure projects costing a minimum of P2 million each but with a total limit of P24.5 million.

“Until now there are no clear rules and regulations, and our constituents are inquiring about [the matter],” Barzaga says. “Part of the Supreme Court’s ruling is for the Executive to find solutions to ensure that the services offered by lawmakers’ PDAF will continue.”

There are reportedly 248,000 scholars of lawmakers from 73 legislative districts. These scholars still have a chance of receiving funding for their education from the 2014 budget because it has a provision that the CHEd should ensure that scholars whose funding came from other sources will continue to receive assistance.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

Members of the House had realigned a much bigger amountâ€"P930 billion, including the PDAF.

On the part of the executive branch, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad says the realignments would still need “a special budget request for their release.”

But Colmenares says: “Why does the President have to give his clearance before releasing the funds realigned by the senators? This is patronage politics; the PDAF was just converted into presidential pork.”

Escudero disagrees with Colmenares: “It’s completely in the hands of the executive [branch], including the decision to release or not to release the fund, or to ask for a program of work; [lawmakers have] no say in that.”

All the projects funded out of the allocations of the nine senators were itemized in the 2014 budget, Escudero says. These projects will be posted on the Senate website.

On the other hand, this is the pertinent provision of the Constitution (Article VI, Section 25): “No law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations; however, the President, Senate President, House Speaker, Chief Justice and heads of constitutional commissions may, by law, be authorized to augment any item in the general appropriations law for their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations.”

Does that provision authorize the transfer of the PDAF, already declared unconstitutional by the high court, to other departments?

As I see it, it does not. The realigned amounts were not savings from items in the budgets of the departments to which they were given. But lawyers and members of Congress see things differently from the layman. They can interpret, twist, and find loopholes in the law to justify what they want.

The realignments were not put to a vote. The senators had agreed in an earlier caucus to let each senator do what he/she wants to do with his/her pork allocation.

“The Supreme Court was not clear on whether lawmakers could realign the funds or not because it is clear that Congress has the power of the purse and has the prerogative where government money should be spent,” says Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares. “What it was clear on was that lump-sum items should be discontinued and that everything in the budget should be itemized.”

According to reports, the nine senators are the siblings Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano, the siblings Jinggoy Estrada and JV Ejercito, actors Bong Revilla and Lito Lapid, PDAF critic Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Ralph Recto, and Antonio Trillanes.

Is the realignment legal or constitutional in the light of the high court’s decision on the PDAF?

Yes, says Sen. Francis Escudero, chair of the Senate finance committee. The realignments (Escudero calls them “amendments”) came before the implementation of the P2.265-trillion national budget, he says.

The high court had declared unconstitutional all provisions of the law that allowed legislators “to wield any form of post-enactment authority in the implementation of the budget.”

But Escudero says the identification of beneficiaries of the realigned PDAF “does not violate” the high court’s ruling. “It’s well within our right to review and approve the budget,” he says. “This is preenactment intervention.”

As I See It

Pork barrel lives, in another guise

By Neal H. Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Friday, January 10th, 2014
     
Like Dracula, the pork barrel is still alive, only in another form. It turns out that nine senators merely realigned a total of P1.8 billion and congressmen P930 billion of their pork barrel in the 2014 budget despite a Supreme Court ruling that the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the official name of the allocation, is unconstitutional.

Realignment means transferring the budget allocated for an approved item in a project to another item. The P200-million PDAF of each of the nine senators has been transferred, in the 2014 General Appropriations Act, to the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, University of the Philippines, Commission on Higher Education, Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, Philippine National Police, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, calamity fund, and local government units.

indefensible, no matter how they parse the legalities of what they did.  i hope this is the death knell of their political lives.  let these people disappear from the country's political landscape, like former senator heherson alvarez (who dat?).

Plunder complaint

Estrada is facing a plunder complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman, together with Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile, businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and 34 others over the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Escudero said the Senate had been “very careful” not to violate the Supreme Court ruling and even quoted its decision on post-enactment intervention in the budget, and incorporated “transparency and accountability” provisions that would hold liable any official caught misusing funds.

“We removed all post-enactment interventions. Now they can’t remove from us the function of amending any bill, including the budget,” he said. “That power can’t be taken away.”

He advised the public to closely monitor the disposition of the funds.

“The control mechanism is not to have it released, or monitor the release,” he said.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/

Special provision

Assistance to LGUs used to be a lump-sum item in the national budget, Escudero said.

In the 2014 budget, the Senate introduced a special provision specifying amounts for specific LGUs and requesting the Department of Budget and Management to provide data in cases where the recipient LGUs were not identified.

As far as he could recall, the budget allotted for assistance to LGUs in 2014 was roughly P300 million, including the P200 million from Estrada’s PDAF.

As for the rest of the nine senators, the projects funded out of their allocations were itemized in the 2014 budget, the senator said.

All the projects of the nine senators will be posted on the Senate website.

“Because of the controversies involving Senator Estrada, that’s why it’s raising some alarm bells. But what happened in the past has not been proven yet,” he said.

Not an insertion

“I will contest the use of the word ‘insertion,’” he said. “We’ve been very transparent with everything.”

Escudero said Estrada’s identification of the LGUs did not violate the Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional all provisions of the law that allowed legislators  “to wield any form of post-enactment authority” in the implementation of the budget.

“His identification of the LGUs does not violate the Supreme Court decision. That’s part of our function in Congress. It’s well within our right to review and approve the budget. This is preenactment intervention,” he said.

“With the 2014 budget, there was no post-enactment intervention,” he added, referring to old practices by lawmakers in identifying projects and beneficiaries of pork barrel while the budget was being implemented.

Escudero said Estrada had “no say” at all in the implementation of the assistance to LGUs.

“It’s completely in the hands of the executive department, including the decision to release or not to release the fund, or to ask for a program of work. Completely, Jinggoy has no say in that,” he said.

Approved in caucus

Early on, all the senators agreed in a caucus “to respect what each senator wanted to do with the original PDAF allocation,” Escudero said by way of explaining the different modes taken by the senators in disposing of their pork barrel.

“The decision was not to put it to a vote, and to just let the senators decide, and be responsible for it,” he said.

The manifestations of the nine senators were carried out as amendments since the Senate did not follow the original House budget measure that realigned P25.2 billion in congressional PDAF, including the Senate’s portion, to five departments, Escudero said.

Lump-sum items

“The Supreme Court was not clear on whether lawmakers could realign the funds or not because it is clear that Congress has the power of  the purse and has the prerogative where government money should be spent. What it was clear on was that lump-sum items should be discontinued and that everything in the budget should be itemized,” Colmenares said in a phone interview.

He said the House practically realigned P930 billion worth of items in the 2014 budget, including the pork barrel, because it wanted to ensure that all expenses were itemized and not carried as lump sums.

“So why does the President have to give his clearance before releasing the funds realigned by the senators? This is still patronage politics, the PDAF was just converted into presidential pork,” he said.

Trillanes justification

Sought for comment, Trillanes said he decided to realign his allocation to fund the scholarship programs of state universities and colleges, and support charity patients in public hospitals and the construction of barracks for soldiers affected by the abolition.

“Deleting it from the national budget will not allow me to do this unless I will realign funds from the budget of other government agencies,” he said in a text message Wednesday night.

In a text message, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the amount that Estrada realigned was approved by the Senate and adopted by the bicameral conference committee.

“They were introduced as amendments to the budget. As such, they will require a special budget request for their release,” said Abad.

While Abad could not verify the other realignments made by Lapid, Revilla and Trillanes, he said these would also be subject to the same treatment as Estrada’s realignments.

“We still have to find out where said PDAF allocations were realigned. And if indeed they were realigned, they are also subject to special budget request,” the budget secretary said.

In the House, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said he was surprised about Abad’s claim that the realignments would still need clearance from the Department of Budget and Management.

Breakdown

Based on data culled by the Inquirer from the 2014 General Appropriations Act, four senators allocated the funds to the following:

â€" Estradaâ€"Manila, P100 million; Caloocan City, P50 million where Mayor Oscar Malapitan is a political ally; and Lla-lo, Cagayan province, P50 million, where an airport is being built to serve the Cagayan Special Economic Zone.

â€" Lapidâ€"Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), P193 million; Department of Health (DOH), P5 million; and Department of Social Welfare and Development, P2 million.

â€" Revillaâ€"DPWH, P84.5 million; DOH, P75 million; and University of the Philippines, P35 million.

â€" Trillanesâ€"DOH-Office of the Secretary, P102.45 million; Commission on Higher Education, P36.2 million; Philippine Army, P27.95 million;  Philippine Navy, P22 million; Philippine National Police, P7.4 million; and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, P4 million.

Cayetano et al.

Escudero said Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Joseph Victor Ejercito manifested to have their PDAF allocation realigned to the calamity fund.

Escudero said Senators Ramon Revilla Jr., Lito Lapid and Antonio Trillanes IV decided to allot their PDAF to schools, hospitals and public works projects, while Estrada opted to have his allocated to the LGUs.

“In accordance with the powers of Congress, all of us can introduce an amendment. That’s our legislative power. If the President submits the budget, we can’t skirt our duty to amend it. What are we, a rubber stamp?” Escudero said by phone, chuckling.

As the pork barrel scandal roiled Congress, 15 senators opted to have each of their P200-million annual PDAF allocation deleted from the 2014 budget, as did Vice President Jejomar Binay.

That was P3.2 billion less than the House of Representatives-approved P2.268-trillion budget. In the end, both chambers approved a P2.265-trillion budget that President Aquino signed into law before Christmas.

The other nine senators decided to realign their respective allocations.

9 senators realign P1.8-billion pork

By TJ Burgonio, Gil C. Cabacungan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Thursday, January 9th, 2014


(from left to right) A. CAYETANO, P. CAYETANO, EJERCITO, ESTRADA, LAPID, RECTO, REVILLA, SANTIAGO, TRILLANES. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Nine senators who had their pork barrel totaling P1.8 billion realigned to projects and the calamity fund in the 2014 national budget were well within their rights to do so, Sen. Francis Escudero said on Wednesday.

For instance, Escudero said, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was doing his job when he introduced an amendment to allot his P200 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation to three local government units [including Manila where his father is the mayor].

This came ahead of the implementation of the P2.265-trillion national budget, and hence, did not violate the Supreme Court decision striking down the 2013 PDAF as unconstitutional, according to the chair of the finance committee.

Even so, the final decision to release or not to release the fund allotted to the three local government units (LGUs) lay with the executive department, he said.

so what happens when someone doesn't want to or is rendered incapable to stand again?  is the coffin academy answerable?

People lie in caskets at the Coffin Academy, during a controversial seminar that uses death as inspiration for character improvement. Clients pay $25 for a four-hour course that ends with them lying for 10 minutes in a closed coffin. (John M. Glionna / Los Angeles Times)

hahay.  hasta irong inosente anginon sa storm surgery...

semfol.  ondoy na sila.

Yes you might be tired of all things Macaulay Culkin/pizza related, but this one is pretty good. Macaulay acted out an almost perfect recreation of the 1981 short film Andy Warhol Eats A Hamburger, except of course with pizza. I’ve posted both videos below and you can check them out side by side at YouTube Doubler to see how exact they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pzm1lQX0qU#ws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejr9KBQzQPM#

http://freewilliamsburg.com/macauley-culkin-parodies-andy-warhol-eats-a-hamburger/

more dadaism samples:




gata mona lisa

Da·da or da·da  (dädä) n.

A European artistic and literary movement (1916-1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity.

[French dada, hobbyhorse, Dada, of baby-talk origin.]

Dada·ism n.
Dada·ist adj. & n.
Dada·istic adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

salamat nga modalikyat kag bisita dinhi, sir fd.  happy new year!  may your 2014 be as blessed as the years past.

Bulgarian men dance in the icy waters of the Tundzha River during a celebration for Epiphany Day in the town of Kalofer, some 150 km (93 miles) east of Sofia, Bulgaria.

http://www.voanews.com/

Nuns attend a mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, to mark Epiphany. The Epiphany day is a joyous day for Catholics in which they recall the journey of the Three Kings, or Magi, to pay homage to baby Jesus.

http://www.voanews.com/

Members of the Edo Firemanship Preservation Association display their balancing skills atop bamboo ladders during a New Year demonstration by the fire brigade in Tokyo, Japan.

http://www.voanews.com/

An Afghan child holds his boots in a camp for the internally displaced on the outskirts of Mazar-e Sharif, north of Kabul.

http://www.voanews.com/

Cars are partially submerged in floodwater following heavy rains in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

http://www.voanews.com/

A French soldier talks to curious children as he mans a roadblock in the Miskine neighborhood of Bangui, Central African Republic.

http://www.voanews.com/

Students of a madrasa, or religious school, watch people entering a polling booth during parliamentary elections in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Voters cast ballots amid heavy security in parliamentary elections boycotted by the main opposition, marred by deadly violence and shunned by international observers as flawed.

http://www.voanews.com/

People role playing as members of the royal entourage await the arrival of the Three Wise Men by helicopter, at San Lorenzo beach in Gijon. Children in Spain traditionally receive their Christmas presents on the morning of Jan. 6, delivered by the Three Wise Men.

http://www.voanews.com/

A motorcycle is covered in volcanic ash from an eruption of Mount Sinabung in Tiga Pancur, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Jan. 4, 2014.

http://www.voanews.com/

People take part in Friday prayers as members of the police stand guard in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The country is set to vote in nationwide polls on Sunday.

http://www.voanews.com/

Cambodian police stand guard during a garment workers' protest to demand higher wages in front of a factory in Phnom Penh. Rights campaigners denounced a Jan. 2 crackdown on striking garment workers by a special military unit, describing it as a "disturbing new tactic" by authorities.

http://www.voanews.com/

Boys carry firewood in Herat, Afghanistan. High unemployment and the high cost of living have increased the vulnerability to the weather for large sections of the Afghan population.

http://www.voanews.com/

Waves batter the sea wall at Wimereux, France on the Channel coast. High tides and strong winds have brought flooding to areas of the UK and northern France.

http://www.voanews.com/

A Nepalese man climbs the Boudhanath stupa in Katmandu, a world heritage site, for renovation.

http://www.voanews.com/

In this photo provided by Dubai World Record 2014, fireworks explode over Palm Jumeirah Island, front, and World Islands, rear, to celebrate the New Year as the city attempts to breaks the Guinness World Record for the "Largest Firework Display."

http://www.voanews.com/

the kinder euphemism is more comforting-- "put down"; painlessly, pakatulgon ug overdose ug anesthesia.  ihaw as in slaughter is terrifying.  may those who dare do that end up barking.