winobomo's Healthkicker

NGO members slam pols for stopping MOA-AD signing

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:10:59 GMT

Members of Bangsamoro People Solidarity for Peace belonging to civil society, religious, youth and women's sectors have come together to condemn the suspension of the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front .

They said the MOA could have been a step forward in achieving lasting peace and genuine economic development in Mindanao.

They condemned the intervention of North Cotabato Vice-Gov. Emmanuel Piñol and Zambaonga City Mayor Celso Lobregat which resulted to the issuance of a temporary restraining order by the Supreme Court against the MOA-AD signing.

The MOA was supposed to be signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last August 5, 2008.

Piñol promotor ng giyera sa Mindanao. Hindi totoo na sinunog at kinupkop namin ang lupain ng mga Kristiyano. Kami ang inagawan ng lupa! said the group.

They also criticized other politicians who opposed the MOA particularly members of the political opposition such as United Opposition leader Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, Sen. Francis Escudero, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., former president Joseph Estrada, UNO spokesman Adel Tamano, Sen. Manuel Roxas II, and Makati City Rep. Teodoro Locsin.

The group said these politicians have never experienced war and do not how it feels to be in constant pain due to violence, conflict and poverty such as what the Bangsamoro people are going through.

They even added that these politicians are just using this issue to get media mileage to benefit their political ambitions. Escudero, Estrada, Tamano and Roxas are rumored to be running for Presidentr in 2010.

Sino sila? Nandiyan lang sila sa kanilang mga opisina. Ginagamit lang nila ito para maging popular, kasi gusto nilang tumakbo bilang presidente! said members of the group.

They also answered criticisms that the MOA signing could potentially result in the extension of President Arroyos stay in office beyond 2010. They said they support Mrs. Arroyos initiative to give peace in Mindanao but they expressed they would oppose any amendment in the Constitution that will make her extend her term.

They also made it clear that the MOA signing is just the beginning, after this, they still have to craft a Comprehensive Pact which will be forwarded to Congress and then submitted to the people for plebiscite.

Kung may gusto silang baguhin sa MOA, ayusin nila sa Kongreso. Kung di ka naman pabor sa resulta, eh di vote no sa plebiscite, members of the group added.

Members of the BPSP who slammed the suspension of the MOA signing include Norhaiya Macusang , Imam Abdul Basit Marangit , Ustadz Ayob Khan , Pendatun Disimban and Amina Ubrahim . Niña Corpuz, ABS-CBN News

Venezuela mobilizes forces to Colombia border

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:52:51 GMT

Reuters

CARACAS - Venezuela deployed tanks and air and sea forces toward the Colombian border on Wednesday in its first major military mobilization in a crisis that has raised fears for regional stability.

Venezuela's military said it started sending 10 tank battalions toward the border and activated its air force and navy. Military analysts estimates such a mobilization could include more than 200 tanks.

The action escalated tensions over Colombia's weekend raid to kill rebels inside another South American neighbor, Ecuador, which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an ally of leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, said could spark war.

While Ecuador and Venezuela have poured soldiers toward their borders with U.S.-backed Colombia in recent days, Wednesday's movements were the first signs of heavy firepower being mobilized.

Colombia said it would not deploy extra forces and governments worldwide urged the nations to defuse tensions as Venezuela and the United States blamed each other for the intensifying crisis.

"The empire and its lapdogs are war. We are the road to peace," Chavez said in a brief reference to the dispute during a speech on education he made wearing a military uniform.

The crisis pits OPEC nations Venezuela and Ecuador against Colombia, which receives billions of dollars in U.S. military aid and has received public backing from President George W. Bush in the crisis.

On Wednesday, the United States questioned why Venezuela is involved in a dispute Colombia and Ecuador should work out on their own, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"We do think it's curious that a country such as Venezuela would be raising a specter of military action against a country who was defending itself against terrorism. That says a lot about Venezuela," Perino said.

Chavez says Bush is using conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as a proxy in a plot to invade Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States. Washington denies the charge, similar to many that the Cuba ally has made before.

Troops on the move

In the second day of an emergency session in Washington the Organization of American States stopped short of condemning Colombia, as Ecuador's President Correa had demanded. Most Latin American governments have urged Colombia to apologize.

But the Western Hemisphere's top diplomatic body agreed in a resolution that Colombia violated international law when it killed more than 20 Marxist FARC guerrillas, including a top leader of the insurgency group, inside Ecuador.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has backed Chavez's mediation this year to free hostages held by Colombian rebels, urged the Venezuelan leader in a phone call to show restraint.

Chavez was due to huddle with Correa in Caracas later on Wednesday to thrash out a joint strategy as the Ecuadorean leader toured the region to lobby against Colombia.

A Reuters witness saw three armored vehicles on carrier trucks and four troop-movement vehicles driving in the direction of the border near the rural town of El Mojan. Local TV also showed fighter jets flying, albeit far from the border, and buses ferrying troops in the direction of the frontier.

Colombia's borders with Venezuela and Ecuador stretch in an arc from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean on the western shoulder of South America. The borders remain open, but Ecuador and Venezuela have cut diplomatic ties.

Despite the brinkmanship and risk of military missteps, political analysts said a military conflict was highly unlikely, especially as governments focused on diplomacy.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed.

"My personal view is that there's relatively little likelihood of military conflict," he said.

US Marine faces court-martial over Okinawa rape

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:32:00 GMT

Reuters

TOKYO - A US Marine faces a court martial on charges of kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old schoolgirl on Japan's southern island of Okinawa in February, US military officials said on Friday.

The case prompted thousands of Okinawan residents to rally last month to protest against crimes by US troops and demand a smaller US military presence on the island, host to about half the nearly 50,000 US military personnel in Japan.

The US troops are stationed in Japan under a bilateral security treaty that is the pillar of Tokyo's post-war security policy, but those who live near the bases often complain about associated crime, noise and pollution.

US Marine Sergeant Tyrone Hadnott was arrested by police in February on suspicion of raping the girl, but Japanese prosecutors dropped the case after she withdrew her complaints, a move some in Okinawa said was to escape the public spotlight.

Hadnott has been charged under the US military justice code with rape and abusive sexual contact with a child under 16 and kidnapping through inveigling, the US Marine Corps in Okinawa said in a statement.

"The above are merely accusations," the Marines said. "The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty and has the right to a fair and impartial trial."

No date has been set for the court-martial.

Four other US Marines from a base in southwest Japan also face court martial over the rape of a Japanese woman last year.

LtGen. Edward Rice, the recently arrived commander of US troops in Japan, said earlier this month that he would demand high standards of behavior after the high-profile allegations against US servicemen, including the rapes and murder.

Norway needs more Pinoy nurses, other skilled workers

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:43:48 GMT

Norway needs more nurses and other skilled workers from the Philippines, but the language barrier appears to be the biggest stumbling block to the recruitment of more Filipino workers to Oslo.

Employers said they prefer workers who can speak and write Norwegian, according to Rizalina Galiza Jenssen, the only legal recruiter of Filipino nurses to Norway.

Jenssen has been a resident of Norway for 28 years. She is married to a Norwegian.

Since 2001, Jenssen managed to recruit only 289 nurses from the Philippines since all are required to undergo a six-month course on Norwegian language.

She had to put up a small school building in her native province of Ilocos Norte, which conducts a Norwegian language course.

Jenssen said a total of US$6,000 will be paid out by each recruit but only after the worker gets his or her first salary.

When the new recruits arrive in Norway, Jenssen explained that they will go through an additional advanced tutorial course.

The Level 3 advanced Norwegian course normally takes about a month and is part of the expenses.

Seventeen of Jenssen's new recruits are set to start work next week in various nursing homes with an initial salary of almost US$3,000 each month.

Its a dream come true for most Filipina nurses who have brought their families to Norway.

They say Norway is pro-family, and offers a lot of benefits to its residents, although Oslo is considered as the most expensive city in the world.

Ambassador Victoria Bataclan is pushing for a bilateral agreement between Norway and the Philippines.

Should this happens, Bataclan will lobby for a centralized learning center of Norwegian culture in Manila.

Apart from nurses, other potential jobs in Norway include those for engineers, hotel workers and IT specialists. -- Danny Buenafe, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau in Oslo

Michael Jackson drops lawsuit against accountants

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:19:58 GMT

LOS ANGELES - Pop star Michael Jackson has dropped a lawsuit against an accounting firm he had accused of making deals and hiring people without his permission, according to court papers obtained on Thursday.

The papers, filed on April 14, did not say whether Jackson had reached a settlement with the firm or dropped the litigation for another reason.

Jackson, through his production company, MJJ Productions Inc., sued the accounting firm of Bernstein, Fox, Whitman, Goldman and Sloan in December 2006, alleging negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.

The lawsuit alleged the firm did not pay workers' compensation payments on his behalf in 2004 and 2005 and was late paying taxes he owed, in addition to hiring people and entering into contracts without his authorization.

The accounting firm countersued Jackson the day after he filed his court papers, claiming the singer owed nearly $1 million in unpaid bills. That action was dismissed.

Jackson has maintained a low profile since his June 2005 acquittal on child sex abuse charges in California. His lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.

Judge dismisses case over 9/11 remains

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:34:19 GMT

Reuters

NEW YORK - A US judge on Monday dismissed a case brought by families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks who said the city denied proper burials by sending debris containing possible human remains to a garbage dump.

The lawsuit, filed in 2005 by a group called WTC Families for a Proper Burial, sought to have the estimated 1.2 million to 1.8 million tons of rubble originally from the World Trade Center site transferred out of the Fresh Kills landfill located on New York's borough of Staten Island.

The families said the city should move the residue that had been finely sifted multiple times to a more suitable location and have a cemetery created.

US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, saying the city's decisions about where to off-load the debris "were difficult and complicated," found the city had "acted responsibly" in bringing about a "swift and efficient recovery from the terrorists' attack."

"Plaintiffs have no property right in an undifferentiated, unidentifiable mass of dirt that may or may not contain the remains of plaintiffs' loved ones," he said.

There are no New York laws that require burying the debris in a different location, he said, "however worthy the citizen and however honorable the deceased."

About 1,100 out of the 2,749 people killed at the World Trade Center site perished without leaving a trace. Full bodies were recovered for only 292 victims and partial remains for 1,357, sometimes only a fragment of a bone, the ruling noted.

Almost immediately after the attacks, all visible human remains were removed from the debris, bagged and taken to collecting points.

Victims' families argued that debris surrounding some remains would have contained other bone fragments and remains.

The president of the WTC Families, Diane Horning, lost her son, Matthew Horning, in the attacks. His wallet and a piece of his occipital bone were recovered from debris at Fresh Kills.

Hellerstein concluding his ruling by suggesting a "beautiful nature preserve" and memorial at the garbage site and said the families of victims "have suffered a wrong for which there can be no remedy."

"No matter the authority and power of this court, it cannot bring back the loved ones lost, and it cannot bring peace to the plaintiffs or surcease to society's collective grief around the events of September 11, 2001."