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By Kim Arveen Patria | Yahoo Southeast Asia Newsroom â€" 21 hours ago



Yahoo Southeast Asia Newsroom/Yen Baet - Booming and beautiful. Can you believe this is in the metro? Yen Baet took this shot of the Bonifacio Global City.


Here comes some good news.

A new global report claims Filipinos and foreigners would make a wise decision to invest in the Philippines now, thanks to a fast improving business environment.

But the crisis appears to be far from over, with the military saying they expect the rebels to continue putting up a fight. At the same time, aid workers predict that, even when the conflict is over, the humanitarian consequences will last for quite some time.

"We will continue to press forward in this calibrated military response. As to when this would end, we can't give you a specific time frame other than to say we hope to finish this as soon as we can," military spokesman Lt-Col Ramon Zagala said.

According to the Philippine Army, the death toll now stands at 97, which includes 78 MNLF fighters, 12 security forces and seven civilians, with dozens wounded on both sides.

The government is now negotiating with the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an MNLF splinter group, for the creation of what is envisioned to be an expanded autonomous region that would supersede the one handed to the MNLF, a development that Misuari and a number of still-loyal fighters oppose, which triggered the Zamboanga siege.

The siege has led to significant economic losses, and is now undermining President Benigno Aquino's aim to put an end to cycle of violence by the time he ends his term in 2016.

"The Zamboanga city crisis must end in order to prevent further loss of innocent lives and avert more damaging ramifications to the region's economy," said Luwalhati Antonio, head of the Mindanao Development Authority and an Aquino aide. "We are currently assisting in the process of assessing the full extent of the damage, as well as the quantifiable impact to the region's economy, in order to determine immediate recommendations for post-conflict rehabilitation.”

Peace efforts threatened

Meanwhile, questions remain as to the fallout this will have on the ongoing peace process.

Nur Misuari founded the MNLF in the early 1970s to fight for an independent Islamic state in the south, which local Muslims consider their ancestral home. The long-running insurgency has led to a proliferation of other armed gangs and a black market of unlicensed guns that contribute to the region’s instability.

Over 150,000 have reportedly died in the decades-long conflict. In 1996, however, Misuari signed a peace pact with Manila, ending his bid for independence in favour of the creation of an autonomous region, where he subsequently became governor. But the government later called the region a "failed experiment", in which Misuari's autonomous regime squandered millions of dollars in aid and failed to improve the lives of Muslims.

Air and ferry services and schools have been suspended for days, but shops and banks have slowly begun to reopen in Zamboanga, a major port city on southern Mindanao Island, which previously voted against joining an autonomous region once under the control of the MNLF.



Photo: Contributor/IRIN
Residents camp along the shoreline for shelter

“Since the fighting began, our Red Cross staff and volunteers are risking their lives and working around the clock to assist people displaced by the stand-off in Zamboanga,” Philippine Red Cross Secretary General Gwendolyn Pang said on 15 September.

Troops intensified their campaign on the fifth day of the crisis, deploying two attack helicopters that fired rockets toward enemy positions, allowing ground forces to significantly retake ground from the rebels. But the MNLF rebels have continued to engage in heavy sporadic fighting, using snipers and mortar fire to slow the advance.

Over the past two days, some 149 hostages have either been rescued or managed to escape to safety, where they were tearfully reunited with their families.

"Many are angry and are asking when this would end," said regional civil defence official Adriano Fuego, describing the situation as “tense”.

“They [evacuees] are helpless at the moment... Even if they want to flee the city, the airport is closed," he said.

The rebels razed entire communities and took dozens of hostages, whom they used as human shields. Many were trapped in their homes amid the crossfire, while the Philippine Red Cross temporarily suspended its operations in some areas after 10 of its staff and volunteers were injured.

Community response

Although there are reports that food stocks are sufficient to meet the current needs in the evacuation centres, the sudden influx of displaced is posing challenges in food distribution due to a lack of personnel and equipment, OCHA reported on 17 September.

Food supplies have been bolstered by local businesses helping to provide tens of thousands of food packs, and the Philippines Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has deployed health workers to help counsel the evacuees, many of whom were distressed after seeing their loved ones hurt or their homes burned down.

Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN

At the same time, residents living along coastal areas were staying in small boats anchored near the sea, only venturing inland to seek relief goods.

"We are just in the evacuation phase. The more challenging part is when they return to their destroyed communities and start to rehabilitate and rebuild," Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, who is supervising relief work in Zamboanga, told IRIN.

The crisis began on 9 September, when hundreds of MNLF rebels seeking to hoist their independence flag at the Zamboanga city hall seized control of six heavily populated coastal villages.

Thirty-seven percent of the city’s population is now displaced, the International Organization for Migration reported on 17 September.

Of the displaced, some 95,000 are now staying in more than 30 evacuation centres, including the city's main sports stadium, where lack of water and toilets is quickly becoming a concern, aid workers say. Over 50,000 people at the Joaquin Enriquez Sports Complex are now sharing 33 portable toilets, a dire situation that could pose health and sanitation problems soon.

The rest of the displaced are staying with their families or friends, but remain vulnerable from desperate Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels now fleeing the assault.

“There are reports that some of the evacuation centres are overcrowded, and there are serious WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] concerns, as well as access issues to non-food items," confirmed David Carden, head of office for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Philippines. “We need to ensure that sufficient assistance is available to all those affected.”

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), as the crisis entered its 10th day on 18 September, the number of displaced in the city of Zamboanga and Basilan Province has swelled to 109,686, with humanitarian agencies calling on both sides to protect civilians and aid workers on the front lines.

http://www.irinnews.org/



Photo: Contributor/IRIN
More than 50,000 IDPs have sought shelter in a local stadium


ZAMBOANGA/MANILA, 18 September 2013 (IRIN) - Aid workers are struggling to provide assistance to more than 100,000 people displaced by fighting in Mindanao, a crisis that could undermine Philippine President Benigno Aquino's efforts to bring peace to the country’s turbulent south.

The king has come under fire for his household's lavish lifestyle while the tiny mountain kingdom's 1.2 million people struggle to make a living.

Mswati reportedly has a personal fortune of around $200 million (152 euros) and the UN estimates that 70 percent of his 1.2 million subjects live below the poverty line.

He has steadfastly resisted reforms.

View gallery."Unmarried Swazi women dance for King Mswati III at …
File picture shows unmarried women from Swaziland dance for Africa's last absolute monarch, King Msw …
The new engagement was announced at a festival which also counted regional delegates who will observe parliamentary elections on Friday.

Critics have slammed the polls as a sham, partly because political parties are banned and candidates are hand-picked by traditional leaders.

The weekend's celebrations were a smaller repeat of last month's official annual Reed Dance, where young virgins from across the kingdom gather and dance for the king.

"It just happened that the international community was there to witness the event," said Mtetwa.

The wedding only takes place once the fiancee falls pregnant. Dlamini will then become Mswati's 14th wife.

The monarch's colourful private life is off-limits in local media, but has drawn a lot of international interest.

Three wives left the household in recent years. The latest, Queen LaGija, fled the palace in 2012 claiming years of physical and emotional abuse.

Another queen, LaDube, was reportedly abused after she was caught in bed with the justice minister, a close friend of the king.

Mswati had kidnapped and married the queen when she was 16 in 2005.

AFP 6 hours ago



King Mswati III of Swaziland pictured during his visit to Taylor's University near Kuala Lumpur on July 3, 2013.
.

Swaziland's King Mswati III has chosen an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant as his 14th wife, a palace spokesman said Tuesday, days before a much-criticised parliamentary vote.

"I can confirm that the king has introduced to the nation a new liphovela (royal fiancee)," said Ludzidzini palace governor Timothy Mtetwa.

Mswati, a 45-year-old who is sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, introduced Sindiswa Dlamini at a Reed Dance celebration over the weekend, Mtetwa told AFP.

She wore red feathers on her head -- a sign of royalty.

The young woman graduated from Mbabane's St. Francis High School last year and is a finalist in the Miss Cultural Heritage beauty pageant. The winner will be announced on September 28.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/
Tuesday, September 17, 2013


FORMER Senator Francisco Tatad should stop lying, a Palace official said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said that Tatad's allegation that Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brain in the multi-billion pork barrel scam, was actually in Malacanang for six hours prior to her surrender to President Benigno Aquino III on August 28, was not true as he accused the former senator of just being up for publicity.

"He (Tatad) has been criticizing the government for a long time. He has lots of inside stories which were not true. This is just one of those many tall tales that he has already fabricated for the last several months," he said in a press briefing.

Asked of his message to Tatad, a public information minister during the time of late President Ferdinand Marcos, Lacierda said, "stop lying."

He also debunked Tatad's allegation that he was the one who accompanied Napoles in going to the Palace before noon on the day of her supposed surrender,

"He calls me the handler of Napoles. My goodness, for all intents and purposes, I have never met the lady until that day," he stressed.

Lacierda said that Tatad could continue standing by his story on Napoles' supposed "closed-door conversations" with the President and other Cabinet officials, but as far as the Palace was concerned, it was not true.

"He can stand all he wants...he can say all he wants, but the fact is it never happened," he said.

Napoles surrendered to the President through Lacierda's facilitation. (SDR/Sunnex)

At Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Ramos should name the “epal” in the negotiations with the MNLF, as he was sure that person was not from the original group that President Aquino had tasked to handle the incident.

“Who is he (Ramos) referring to?” he said. “With due respect, I don’t know who he is referring to. The President is in Zamboanga City. If he is referring to someone specific, we can answer his statement better.”

In Filipino slang, “epal” is short for “mapapel,” usually referring to a person who inappropriately presents himself in a situation or butts into a conversation.

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1


Lacierda said it was not possible for the administration to create a mess after the 1996 peace agreement and that it could not be blamed for the failure of its implementation.

“Now, on the second issue about ‘we handed it to you on a silver platter,’ I’m sure President Ramos knows that we were not the immediate successor to his administration,” he said.

“In fact, the Bangsamoro framework agreement is building on the gains of the 1996 final peace agreement (with MNLF).”

Lacierda said Aquino had authorized people to handle the negotiations in response to the statement of Ramos that he appeared to be lacking in support and that protocol was not being observed as other personalities tried to intervene in the negotiations.

“I am not in a position to comment on what he wants to say because, obviously, he has not mentioned any person,” he said. â€" With Aurea Calica

By Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star) | Updated September 18, 2013 - 12:00am





MANILA, Philippines - Former President Fidel Ramos is blaming the administration for the standoff in Zamboanga City for failing to address the concerns of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Speaking to reporters in Makati on Monday, Ramos said it would be wise for the government to allow international intervention to help resolve the crisis.

“Why don’t you clean up your own mess first because you did it in the first place?” he said. “After we turned the peace agreement over to you in a nice silver platter. Put your team in order, after that maybe you can succeed in cleaning up the mess.”

9. Associate fashion designer ($50,700; 9%). Fashion professionals tend to like what they do while also acknowledging the controversy over body-image issues in young women that’s tied to their industry. That generates a huge disparity between the percentage of fashion designers who find the work satisfying â€"73%â€" and the meager 9% who say the work is meaningful.

10. Laundry manager ($57,400; 9%). If you’ve never heard anybody brag about their job running a laundromat, it’s because the work is mundane and there are growing concerns about the chemicals used in detergent. At least they can say one thing others can’t: Everything comes out clean in the end.

7. Coffee shop manager ($27,500; 9%). Americans might love coffee, but they don’t really need it. Like many other workers at the lower end of the food industry, coffee-shop managers don’t feel they make much of a difference.

8. Web operations coordinator ($37,400; 9%). These workers oversee the various Web products of a given company to make sure there are no bugs and everything is properly coordinated. This involves a lot of troubleshooting to keep commerce flowing â€" but few psychic rewards.

5. Revenue analyst ($46,000; 8%). These money hunters seek new ways for their firms to boost revenue, from raising prices to peddling new products. Improving humanity is apparently one innovation few firms are pursuing.

6. Airline reservation agent ($28,700; 9%). If you think the glamour has gone out of flying, imagine how the people who handle your bookings and complaints must feel. Besides, reservation agents are another profession made nearly obsolete by the Internet.

3. Gaming dealer ($35,500; 7%). They might seem cool and indifferent behind the table, but the dealers who run blackjack and other casino games seem to realize how disastrous gambling can be for some unlucky players. More than 18% of dealers say their job makes the world a worse place, compared with about 1% for all workers on average.

4. TV news director ($34,500; 8%). It’s no secret that viewers have gotten turned off by the shallowness and sensationalism of much TV news. The people who produce it may be starting to feel the same way.

Least Meaningful Jobs

In a tough economy, some people are lucky to have any job at all. Still, people with some jobs often seem to wonder, what’s the point? Here are the jobs with the lowest proportion of people saying their job makes the world a better place:

1. Gas station attendant (median annual pay: $17,100; percentage who find the job meaningful: 4%). This is often a minimum-wage job with no perks and unpleasant work conditions. With drivers able to fuel their own cars in nearly every state, it’s also nearly obsolete.

2. Graphic artist/animator ($45,700; 4%). The job title might make you think of Disney or Pixar, but most graphic artists these days work in advertising, marketing, PR or website development, doing commercial work that artistes might consider lowbrow. “There might be a little bit of self-hatred going on here,” says Katie Bardaro, lead economist at Payscale.

9. Water plant technician or operator ($36,000). Most of us take clean water for granted, yet those whose job it is to keep the water supply safe take pride in doing something that’s vital to society.

10. Certified nurse midwife ($85,200; percentage who find the job meaningful: 98%). What’s more meaningful than delivering babies? Nurse midwives are usually RNs with additional training that allows them to oversee births without a doctor present â€" while enjoying some of the same on-the-job rewards that doctors do.

7. Child life specialist ($39,000). These workers are part counselor, part social worker, often working with struggling kids in schools, hospitals or private settings. Some hold a master’s degree but it’s usually not required.

8. Worship coordinator ($38,000). It takes effort to organize church events, arrange choir practice, make sure the leaflets get distributed at every service and shepherd the flock. These religious factotums are usually lay people working full-time for the church.

5. Sign language interpreter ($42,100). These interpreters might sign a university lecture for deaf students or work one-on-one with clients the way a home health aide does. Many are self-employed contractors who work as-needed.

6. Rehabilitation equipment specialist ($40,200). These technicians maintain and repair the machines that help injured or debilitated people recover and regain functionality, literally helping people get back on their feet.

3. Senior construction manager ($122,300). These supervisors â€" who are typically civil engineers â€" are in charge of public and private construction projects. Among other things, they’re responsible for building, maintaining and fixing the physical infrastructure that allows us to get to work and shop at the mall.

4. Deputy fire chief ($75,300). Many civil service workersâ€" including firefighters, cops and teachers â€" believe their work helps improve society. In some municipalities, the deputy fire chief focuses more on operations, while the chief handles less-desirable administrative issues and relations with political bosses.

Here are the 10 jobs that landed at the top and bottom of the Payscale list:

Most Meaningful Jobs

1. Dermatologist (median annual pay: $212,900). Most doctors feel their work is meaningful, with dermatologists beating out other specialists by a few percentage points. Dermatologists may have the edge because they tend to help prevent problems such as cancer, in addition to treating them.

2. FBI supervisory special agent ($129,400). They often race to the rescue in the movies, and FBI agents seem to feel their job is important in real life, too. SSAs are the FBI’s managers, with responsibility for other agents.

By Rick Newman | Yahoo! Finance â€" Tue, Aug 6, 2013 9:01 AM EDT


Do you do it for love? Or money?

New data from compensation-research firm Payscale finds that 58% of U.S. employees believe their work makes the world a better place. Many of those people work at relatively low-paying jobs, such as teacher, park ranger, soldier or police officer. A few professionals â€" mostly doctors â€" achieve a career twofer by working at jobs they find meaningful while also earning pay well into the six figures.

Payscale recently ranked 100 professions based on those that workers defined as most and least meaningful. Some people, including lawyers, salespeople and financial traders, work at jobs they define as satisfying but not especially meaningful â€" perhaps because they make a lot of money doing something that doesn’t seem to contribute much to society. The most unenviable employees may be fast-food workers, gas station attendants, baristas and others who feel their low-paying â€" and often minimum-wage â€" jobs are no more rewarding emotionally than they are financially.

Others, by contrast, do work they find meaningful, even though they earn considerably less than median pay. Payscale determines the most meaningful jobs by asking thousands of survey respondents whether their job makes the world a better place and counting those who answer “very much so” or “yes.” In all but one of the following jobs, 100% of people surveyed gave one of those two answers.

PORK SCAM | Bong Revilla accused of accumulating biggest kickback worth P224 million
--Headline


Apil sa pangandam ning kwartaha kay gustong mag-Presidente ang kanahan...

Hmm, if I remember correctly, fan si Bay Bugsay ani niya...

Quote from: TUBAGBOHOL.com on September 17, 2013, 09:31:53 AM
dili na ta mo-qualify ani bai hubs. basin si bugsay ug tigbao highly qualified pa.

Bwahaha! Depende unsa ka-stringent ang ilang requirements. Sa edad, morag apiki na si Bugsay. Hinuon, morag naa pay ubang TB members nga klarong qualified...

By Julie Bort | Business Insider â€" 8 hours ago



Bill Gates


For the 20th year in a row, Bill Gates has been named the richest man in America, according to the Forbes annual list which published on Monday.

Despite his praiseworthy work as a philanthropist and a promise to give away most of his wealth, he's still getting richer all the time.

And Microsoft is not the source of most of that wealth.

Gates is worth $72 billion with Microsoft accounting for one-fifth of that, reports Forbes. Microsoft did help out in August, when Steve Ballmer announced he would resign. Shares ticked up to over $36 on that news and are still trading at over $32.

But the bulk of his money comes from other companies. His investment firm Cascade owns a big chunk of tractor maker Deere & Co., as well as Canadian National Railway and Mexican Coke bottler Femsa.

Diversifying from Microsoft was certainly smart. Gates is $9.8 billion richer since the start of 2013, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index. Plus, at the start of 2013, he was $7 billion richer than he was at the start of 2012.

Gates was one of the founders of something called the Giving Pledge, where wealthy people vow to give away the majority of their wealth. By some accounts, Gates has given away at least $28 billion away to charitable causes between 2007 and 2012, but clearly his wealth is still growing faster than he's giving it away.

Hmm, milagro?

Hi folks! Ondoy Tagatigbotoy here to bring you the latest rains, er, weather update:



'Odette' will stay within Philippines until Saturday
By: Jaime Sinapit, InterAksyon.com
September 17, 2013 8:43 AM


MANILA - Tropical depression Odette will stay inside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) until Saturday, the state-run weather bureau said on Tuesday.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), meantime, is tracking a new weather disturbance outside PAR.

While inside PAR, Odette has enhanced the southwest monsoon to bring more rains to Central Luzon, Southern Luzon, and Visayas.

In its 5 a.m. weather bulletin, Pagasa said that as of 4 a.m. the center of the cyclone was estimated at 830 kilometers east of Tuguegarao City (17.9ºN,130.7ºE).

Odette is carrying maximum winds of 55 kilometers per hour.

“It is forecast to move west at 7 kph,” Pagasa said.

“Metro Manila and the rest of the Luzon and Visayas will have cloudy skies with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms. Mindanao will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms,” it added.

Hmm, what do you think, folks?

Hospital officials would take the donors' word for their sexual status, she added.

Some internet users defended the hospital, with one saying on Sina Weibo: "People who curse are basically those who haven't understood the whole story. Learn some science and rationality, rather than criticising others."

Female virginity was traditionally seen as a prerequisite for marriage in China, and today many Chinese men still prefer their wives to be virgins.

The continued importance attributed to virginity, combined with relaxed sexual mores in recent decades, has led to growth in the market for artificial hymens and restorative surgery which allows women to appear to be virgins.

But some commentators in China have said the pressure placed on women to remain virgins is demeaning and evidence of a double standard.

AFP News â€" 17 hours ago
 

A Chinese hospital's request for blood from healthy female virgins for use in medical research has been condemned as insulting to women, state-run media reported Monday.

The Peking University Cancer Hospital said it needed the blood of 100 female virgins aged from 18 to 24 years old for studies on the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is usually transmitted through sexual contact, the China Daily reported.

Some internet users condemned the request as promoting virginity worship and demeaning to women.

"Male virgins are not needed, just females, how is this science?" wrote one user of Sina Weibo, a social media service similar to Twitter and a lively forum for popular opinion.

The hospital defended the call for donors, saying that virgins' blood was less likely to be infected with HPV.

"It's in line with international practice to collect female virgins' blood samples, which serve as negative control substances in HPV research, given that the risk of contracting HPV is low among women who have never had sex," the China Daily quoted spokeswoman Guan Jiuping as saying.

As for Botoy, whoever wants to drive him out of TB will have to toinks twice.

Come on, Bay Tigs. Don't let anyone toinks you out of TB...

Quote from: taga tigbao on September 16, 2013, 05:34:56 PM
Ingon si Migo Mike nga give TB a second chance didtos FB pero murag tungod aning usa ka toinks dinhia, di na ko mobalik.

Bwahaha! Unsa to, "toinks"? Now pa ko ani nga word. Toinks. How onomatopoeic. You can hear the sound of a nut loosening up. (In other words, madungog ang pagliso sa tornilyo.)

Tropical Depression Odette continued its westward movement and inched closer to Tuguegarao City in Cagayan province early Tuesday, state weather forecasters said.

PAGASA, in its 5 a.m. bulletin, said Odette was estimated 830 km east of Tuguegarao City as of 4 a.m., with maximum sustained winds of 55 kph.

Tropical Depression Odette is forecast to move west at 7 kph, even as the southwest monsoon is affecting Central and Southern Luzon and Visayas.

PAGASA said Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon and Visayas may expect "cloudy skies with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms."

Mindanao will be "partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms."

Moderate to strong winds from the southwest to south will prevail over Luzon and its coastal waters will be moderate to rough.

Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate coming from the southwest to south with slight to moderate seas, it said. â€" DVM, GMA News

PAGASA: TD Odette moves west, rain over Luzon and Visayas
September 17, 2013 5:50am

Intellectual disability is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors, commonly known in the late twentieth century as mental retardation (MR). It was historically defined as an intelligence quotient score under 70. Once focused almost entirely on cognition, the definition now includes both a component relating to mental functioning and one relating to individuals' functional skills in their environment. As a result, a person with an unusually low IQ may not be considered intellectually disabled. Syndromic mental retardation is intellectual deficits associated with other medical and behavioral signs and symptoms. Non-syndromic mental retardation refers to intellectual deficits that appear without other abnormalities. --Wiki

Agoi, wa ba kahay taga didto nga napaakan ani nila...

The statue was later taken out for procession, afterwards which Legazpi then ordered the creation of the Confraternity of the Santo Niño de Cebú, appointing Father Andrés de Urdaneta as head superior. Legazpi instituted a fiesta to commemorate the finding of the image, and the original celebration still survives.

The Minor Basilica of Santo Niño (Spanish: Basilica Minore del Santo Niño) was built on the spot where the image was found by Juan de Camus. The parish was originally made out of bamboo and mangrove palm and claims to be the oldest parish in the Philippines. Pope Paul VI elevated its rank as Minor Basilica on its 400th year anniversary.

On 28 April 1565, Spanish mariner Juan de Camus found the statue in a pine box amidst the ruins of a burnt house. The image, carved from wood and coated with paint, stood 30 centimetres tall, and wore a loose velvet garment, a gilded neck chain and a woolen red hood. A golden sphere, a replica of the world, was in the in the left hand, and the right hand is slightly raised in benediction. Camus presented the image to Miguel López de Legazpi and the Augustinian priests; the natives refused to associate it with the gift of Magellan, claiming it had existed there since ancient times. Writer Dr. Resil Mojares wrote that the natives did so for fear that the Spaniards would demand it back. The natives’ version of the origin of the Santo Niño is in the Agipo (stump or driftwood) legend, which states that the statue was caught by a fisherman who chose to get rid of it, only to have it returned with a plentiful harvest.

In 1980, Filipino historian Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín wrote about the 44 years after Magellan's soldiers left before the next Spanish expedition came under Miguel López de Legazpi. Joaquín said that the statue was once denounced by natives as originally brought by Magellan, but was re-inforced again by de Legazpi which the natives continued to dispute claiming that the statue came originally from their land.

According to Antonio Pigafetta, Italian chronicler to the Spanish expedition, Ferdinand Magellan handed Pigafetta the image to be given to the Rajah's wife right after the baptismal rite officiated by Padre Pedro Valderrama. As it was Pigafetta himself who personally presented the Santo Niño to the newly-baptised Queen Juana as a symbol of the alliance, her newly baptized husband King Carlos, Magellan presented the bust of "Ecce Homo", or the depiction of Christ before Pontius Pilate. He then presented an image of the Virgin Mary to the natives who were baptised after their rulers. Magellan died on 27 April 1521 in the Battle of Mactan, leaving the image behind. Legends say that after initial efforts by the natives to destroy it, the image was venerated as the animist creation deity Bathala. Many historians consider the facial structure of the statue made from Belgium, where Infant Jesus of Prague statues were also common.

History

In April 1521, Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of Charles V of Spain, arrived in Cebu during his voyage to find a westward route to the Indies. He persuaded Rajah Humabon and his chief wife Humamay, to pledge their allegiance with Spain. They were later baptised into the Catholic faith, taking the Christian names Carlos (after Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) and Juana (after Joanna of Castile).

Genius na lang, aron madali...

Description

Measuring approximately twelve inches tall, the statue is believed to be originally made in Flanders, Belgium, and is highly similar in iconography to the Infant Jesus of Prague.

The statue is clothed in its distinctive and expensive red manto, and bears regalia that include a gold crown, globus cruciger, and sceptre mostly donated from devotees in the Philippines and abroad. It is permanently housed encased in bulletproof glass at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu City. Its feast is celebrated every Third Sunday of January.

The Santo Niño de Cebú (Spanish: Holy Child of Cebu) is a celebrated Roman Catholic religious vested statue of the Child Jesus venerated by many Filipino Catholics who believe it to be miraculous.

Claiming to be the oldest religious image in the Philippines, the statue was originally given in 1521 as a baptismal gift by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan via Antonio Pigafetta, who physically handed it to Lady Humamay, the principal wife of Rajah Humabon, along with a statue of the Our Lady of Guidance and a surviving bust statue of Ecce Homo.

The image merited a Papal blessing on April 28, 1965, the 400th centennial anniversary, when Pope Paul VI issued a papal bull for the Canonical Coronation and Pontifical High Mass via the papal legate to the Philippines, Cardinal Amleto Giovanni Cicognani.

The Santo Niño image is replicated in many homes and business establishments, with different titles reinterpreted in various areas of the country. The image's feast is liturgically celebrated every third Sunday of January, during which devotees carry a portable Santo Niño image onto the street fiesta dancing celebrations. The image is one of the most beloved and recognizable cultural icons in the Philippines, found in both religious and secular areas.

The Santo Niño de Cebú (Spanish: Holy Child of Cebu) is a celebrated Roman Catholic religious vested statue of the Child Jesus venerated by many Filipino Catholics who believe it to be miraculous.

Claiming to be the oldest religious image in the Philippines, the statue was originally given in 1521 as a baptismal gift by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan via Antonio Pigafetta, who physically handed it to Lady Humamay, the principal wife of Rajah Humabon, along with a statue of the Our Lady of Guidance and a surviving bust statue of Ecce Homo.

The image merited a Papal blessing on April 28, 1965, the 400th centennial anniversary, when Pope Paul VI issued a papal bull for the Canonical Coronation and Pontifical High Mass via the papal legate to the Philippines, Cardinal Amleto Giovanni Cicognani.

The Santo Niño image is replicated in many homes and business establishments, with different titles reinterpreted in various areas of the country. The image's feast is liturgically celebrated every third Sunday of January, during which devotees carry a portable Santo Niño image onto the street fiesta dancing celebrations. The image is one of the most beloved and recognizable cultural icons in the Philippines, found in both religious and secular areas.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Holy Child of Cebu
Balaang Bata sa Sugbo
Santo Niño de Cebú

Location   Cebu, Philippines
Date   21 April 1521
Witness   Ferdinand Magellan
Antonio Pigafetta
Rajah Humabon
Type   Wooden statue
Holy See approval   Pope Innocent XIII
Pope Paul VI
Pope John Paul II
Shrine   Basilica Minore del Santo Niño

Na hala, tawgon na lang natog GENIUS...

But TD Ameritrade's Sherrod says the ultimate goal of LikeFolio is to instill a general interest in investing among neophytes and get people in their 20s and 30s comfortable with the stock market after a harrowing decade of ups and downs.

That makes sense - brokerages are going to need a new generation buying equities. Once LikeFolio users' investing interest is piqued, they are funneled to TD Ameritrade.

"When they are ready to take the next step, they can open a brokerage account and start to go deeper, like learning about fundamental analysis," Sherrod says.

Speaking of such due diligence, another of the companies that pops up in my social media feeds is Yum Brands Inc, parent company of KFC. Maybe it is time to do a deep dive into its fundamentals, with a family-size bucket of chicken.

"The idea that we could take this mass of tweets and suggest what qualifies as a good investment is very scary to me," says Robb. "Just because something is well-regarded in social media doesn't make it a sound investment."

Robb suggests that newbie investors, targeted by LikeFolio, would be better served with broad-based, low-cost index mutual funds. Such funds would probably include the companies that pop up on Twitter feeds, without the risk of betting on just a few stocks.

And the idea of basing one's investments on the chitchat of celebrities, who are not generally known for their financial acuity? A nonstarter.

"If it is purely for entertainment value, that's fine," Robb says. But from an investment standpoint, "I shouldn't be concerned with what products Miley Cyrus is buying."

JUSTIN BIEBER PORTFOLIO

LikeFolio even allows you to compare your own top stocks against those mentioned in celebrity social media feeds. In fields like music, sports, and entertainment, the minds of 162 top celebrities like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift are probed for their musings on companies that are publicly traded.

Their top five results: Nike Inc, Google, Apple, Facebook and Viacom Inc, with a $10,000 investment up $3,887 in a year. Well-played, celebrities, but not quite up to the gains my friends and I would have generated. Take that, Lady Gaga.

Of course, underlying this whole venture is a troubling question: Do social media mentions actually translate into solid investing ideas?

There is no doubt that the idea of leveraging Twitter for stock ideas has some investors and academics very interested indeed. Associate professor Johan Bollen of the University of Indiana's School of Informatics and Computing has published studies of how moods prevailing on Twitter can affect share prices.

As a result, hedge funds have been trying to figure out how to turn billions of tweets into cash. In 2011, Derwent Capital Markets' Absolute Return fund became known as the world's first "Twitter hedge fund." It later shut down, only to return earlier this summer as the Cayman Atlantic trading platform, with a broader, but still Twitter-focused investment approach.

Intrigued by the idea that my friends and neighbors might be founts of fabulous stock tips, I plugged my own information into LikeFolio. The top five stocks spit out: Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, Google Inc, Yahoo Inc and LinkedIn Corp.

A tech-heavy portfolio, perhaps because of the nature of the milieu. The good news: $10,000 invested in those stocks would have turned into $16,261 in a single year, garnering me 62.6 percent annual returns over the past 12 months. Maybe there was something to this idea after all.

The service is free, but for it to work, you have to grant access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, which might give some privacy activists a stroke (even though LikeFolio promises not to post on walls, share your data or spam your friends).

"It's all about allowing people to use social media to extract greater value out of that dialogue," says Nicole Sherrod, managing director of TD Ameritrade's trader group. "It's like the old Warren Buffett concept: Invest in what you know."

A fun idea, that there might be some real wisdom in the torrent of tweets out there. But that notion alone is enough to give some personal finance experts the willies. "I find it terrifying, to be honest," says Cliff Robb, an associate professor of personal financial planning at Kansas State University.

By Chris Taylor, Reuters
Posted at 09/14/2013 8:24 AM | Updated as of 09/16/2013 9:32 AM
(The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his own.)


NEW YORK - By now, we all know what social media is best for: Instagram shots of your delicious brunch, videos of cute kittens and a twerking Miley Cyrus.

But could your Facebook and Twitter streams also be a rich mine of potential stock ideas?

The folks at LikeFolio.com think so. The service, which TD Ameritrade Holding Corp and Louisville, Kentucky, developer SwanPowers LLC launched in August, scans your social media feeds for the top five stocks that you and your buddies are talking about and spits out a hypothetical portfolio.

My day is made, too...

He he, di baya ko retard, ha...

Hmm, you mean to say, ang imoha kay inherited wealth?

Of course your "good cat" is drunk. Here he was earlier...

Just in time. Matagal na kasi akong naunggoyan...

Hmm, EQ is better than IQ? As in, eediot is better than idiot?

Hu hu hu. Did I say anything wrong?

"I swear."

In Florida, it's "El unggoy misutoy!"

Aw, if I got it right, milyonir PUD kuno ka, Madame, so peanuts...

Quote from: islander on September 16, 2013, 04:15:28 PM

the lawyer (in light blue barong) with benhur luy and justice secretary leila de lima at the senate hearing.  behind benhur are his security team

Hmm, cool pud og dating ni si Benhur, he he. Abi nakog a la Charlton Heston...

Three cheers for Atty. Baligod! May your tribe increase!

Quote from: islander on September 16, 2013, 03:40:55 PM
tradition?  the horror, the horror.  i hope this is just an aberration.

Hmm, isn't it possible to have a tradition of aberrations, Madame?

Quote from: islander on September 16, 2013, 03:56:59 PM
how creative naman.  hasta ako gi-thrillingan, hadlok when naay matuwad.  kalayo ra ba gyod anang oac, hehe.

Excuse me. Not at all.

Agoi, in a state of shock man. Unsay kahang inunggoya ang nakit-an...

He he, here's one from Bay Aqua (oi, wa na man tawon siya mobalik dinhi):

Cebuano: Midagan ang bata.
Spanish: El niño misutoy!

Hmm, huwat lang ta sa next fall...

Hmm, wa man hinganli ang 3 senators. Kinsa kaha?

by Niko Baua, ABS-CBN News
Posted at 09/16/2013 12:59 AM | Updated as of 09/16/2013 8:39 AM


MANILA (UPDATED) - The bad weather over the weekend did not stop Justice Secretary Leila de Lima from calling for a sudden meeting with National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) officials and the pork barrel scam whistleblowers on Sunday.

What came out of the meeting is that cases that were supposed to be filed before the Ombudsman's office on Monday morning would have to be moved to the afternoon because of the stacks of documents that are being prepared.

“Reproduction ng mga documents. Just imagine, for every respondent, there are so many documents,” said Atty. Levito Baligod, counsel of the whistle-blowers.

De Lima refused to name even the initial respondents who will be charged with plunder and malversation of funds. But according to ABS-CBN sources, three senators are included in the list.

Besides the testimony of the whistleblowers, De Lima said they also have the paper trail proving that some lawmakers participated in the release of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) through the alleged fake non-government organizations (NGOs) operated by Janet Lim Napoles.

"Documentary trail, kaya ganyan hanggang ngayon. Ino-organize naman na, but they are all telling me ready iyan," de Lima said.

According to the NBI, a Mass will be held Monday morning with the whistleblowers before the charges are filed.

Two closed vans will be used to deliver all the documents and the complaints to the Ombudsman.

According to Baligod, around 25 people will be charged for the pork barrel scam investigation on Monday, and another batch of cases will be filed soon.

Another set of charges also await those accused of misusing Malampaya funds.

Kas lang nig kan-on...

Quote from: Lorenzo on September 16, 2013, 12:25:28 AM
Our unrighteous anger towards our brothers and sisters affects the Lord. First, it grieves His heart. Hostility does not fit who we are as children of God. Second, it hinders His work.

Those who harbor resentment are often not willing to obey His voice. Third, the Father will not pour out His blessings on an angry person.

Yes indeed. But of course, giving in to momentary outbursts of anger is totally different from nurturing soul-consuming hate and resentment.

An intrinsically cute species, if you ask me.

Lucid interval na...

Quote from: islander on September 15, 2013, 11:51:06 PM
unsaon na lang ang kuto ani.

Hmm, who knows, maybe she's breeding them. Himoong kuto burger...

Way to go!

Herpes-Infected Monkeys Invade Florida
By Andri Antoniades | Takepart.com 8 hours ago


If any state in the union best represents the dangers of invasive species, it's Florida. The Sunshine State is home to what's been a raging Burmese python invasion for some decades. And its Cuban tree frog problem isn't doing the eco-system any favors either.

But now the state has a new issue: wild monkeysâ€"with herpes.

There are about 1,000 feral Rhesus monkeys living in Florida right now. The majority of those scooped up by wildlife officials over the years have tested positive for the Herpes B virus, and this week, the entire colony was declared a public health hazard.

A small handful of the wild animals originally landed in the state in the 1930s, courtesy of  "Colonel" Tooey, a tour operator who wanted to give visitors a Tarzan-inspired experience of Florida's Silver River State Park.

Tooey kept the monkeys sequestered on an island, but they've since taught themselves how to swim, easily reaching the mainland and putting down roots as far as Jacksonville, which is hundreds of miles away.

Herpes B doesn't cause serious symptoms in these particular animals, but in humans, it can lead to neurological impairment or fatal encephalomyelitis, an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.

Florida's Rhesus monkeys are known to act aggressively towards people, and the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, concerned the animals could spread their disease or cause other injuries, are warning tourists and natives to be aware and keep their distance. -- http://news.yahoo.com/

As a policeman, he served as liaison officer and houseparent at the Community Youth Guidance Center where he was called “Kuya Bill.”

Felisan, his wife Myrna and their three children are active in church. They agreed to use  part of his P20,000 cash award to help repair their community chapel.

Last year, Insp. Rogelio Ruiz of the Cebu City Police Office won third prize in the same nationwide contest. Ruiz heads the Cebu City police’s records section.

The annual search for the Model PNP Families started last year as a project of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the PNP and the National Crime Prevention Week Technical Working Committee.

His work with streetchildren is an extension of his personal experience growing up in Cebu City’s slums in the 70s.

Felisan recalled scavenging for food, selling iced water and diving for coins at the pier area thrown by arriving passengers to support himself.

In one instance, he was caught stealing fish viand and taken to the Community Scouts Youth Guidance Center. It was at the center that Felisan decided to become a policeman.

Through study and hard work, he passed the Philippine Education Placement Test and put himself through college.

Felisan graduated with an Industrial Technology degree, major in Applied Electronics at the Cebu State College of Science and Technology- Abellana College of Arts and Trade.

By Chito Aragon
Cebu Daily News
8:34 am | Sunday, September 15th, 2013


He used to scavenge for food in the slums and swam for coins as a child, but now, SPO2 Egmedio B. Felisan Jr. has indeed come a long way.

With his wife and children at his side, Felisan received the Most Outstanding Model PNP family award at Camp Crame last Monday, besting 48 other policemen from around the country.

“Wa ko magdahum nga akoy mapili kay mga maayo sad sila (I didn’t expect to win because the others were just as good),” said Felisan, who’s assigned at the Police Community Relations department of the Cebu City Police Office.

No stranger to awards Felisan was cited as one of Cebu City’s most outstanding policemen by the Kiwanis Club of Cebu in 2008.

Hmm, maybe the face gives a clue to the heart?

Amen.