Escudero supports Sugarcane Bill

Wednesday, 22nd May 2013

Taiwanese’s safety assured

By: Francis Allan L. Angelo

ERIC CHIEN (not his real name), 45, a Taiwanese national who is based in Iloilo City said he feels safe in the city.

But he is also wary that the sea row between the Philippines and his native country Taiwan might escalate to widespread violence in both countries.

“I hope that they will resolve it diplomatically soon so that our peoples will not anymore resort to hate and violence,” he said.

The Philippines and Taiwan are locked in a diplomatic row after Philippine Coast Guard members allegedly shot dead a Taiwanese fisherman last May 9 in disputed waters near Batan Island.

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Local HIV/AIDS councils needed

By: Tara Yap

THE HEALTH department urged local government units in Western Visayas to establish local councils that will tackle Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS).

Charity Yanson-Perea, coordinator for sexually transmitted and infectious diseases of Department of Health (DOH-6), said there is an urgent need to create the local councils as HIV/AIDS cases in the region continue to rise.

The DOH-6 led the 30^th International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Sunday.

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Jimena: We are ready for APEC ‘15

By: Michael Ray B. Quintana

THE Iloilo City Tourism and Development Office (ICTDO) said the city will be ready for the series of meetings between December 2014 and November 2015 relative to the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference Leaders’s summit.

City tourism office chief Benito Jimena said all preparations and ongoing infrastructure are on the right track and will be completed by the time the meetings begin.

Iloilo City is one of the potential venues for APEC-related meetings that will tackle a wide variety of economic issues and policies.

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Dengue kills 6 in Iloilo

By: Tara Yap

DENGUE CASES continue to rise in Iloilo province resulting in the death of six persons.

The Provincial Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the Iloilo Provincial Health Office (IPHO) noted a 178% increase in dengue cases from January 1 to May11, t.

A total of 849 cases were recorded including 106 new cases for the 19th morbidity week.

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Escudero said his support is still with the proposed bill and will work for the approval before the Senate goes on a break in June.

Under the ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement, tariff on imported sugar entering the country dropped from 38 percent last year to 28 percent this year, according to the Sugar Regulatory Administration. It will further drop to 18 percent in 2013, 10 percent in 2014 and 5 percent in 2015.

Meanwhile, Escudero said that he may remain as an independent in the upcoming 2013 elections for his reelection bid.

He confirmed though that there is an offer from the United Nationalist Alliance to join them.

The Liberal Party has also hinted of adopting him in their senatorial line up, he added.

Escudero resigned from the Nationalist People’s Coalition in 2009.

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Expendable

May 22,2013 12:56 AM

By: Modesto Sa-onoy

There was a war movie titled “They were Expendable” that tells the story of a unit in WWII that was dispensed with as a sacrifice for a greater and higher good – winning the war.

The story of all wars, military and political always has the expendables, the people whose loss is considered necessary for victory. Chess players sacrifice a pawn to save the knight or the rook to save the queen. Read more...

Facebook Face-off

May 22,2013 12:54 AM

By: Luis V. Teodoro

IT’S BEGINNING to look like a stretch, but assuming the integrity of the May 2013 mid-term exercise—meaning the votes cast were accurately counted by the Comelec’s problematic PCOS machines and transmitted—the efforts of individual Netizens as well as groups to influence the outcome seems to have come to naught. Read more...

The classroom teacher as a parent

May 22,2013 12:52 AM

By: Bonnie B. Barrientos

(The author is a Teacher III of Rizal Elementary School in Pontevedra, Capiz.)

THE TEACHER may be considered a parent in her classroom. She is more than a parent because she is responsible, more patient and understanding not only for the formal education of every children but also for their physical, emotional, social well being and mental development every time they are in school. Read more...

Was Comelec sympathetic to LP?

May 22,2013 12:50 AM

By: RANIE Z. JANGAYO

AS OF PRESS time, the opposition is still collating the reports on alleged vote buying committed particularly by Liberal Party candidates who already had the advantage of the entire machinery of Malacañang at their disposal before and during the campaign period, with a very sympathetic Comelec at that. Read more...

'My family has suffered so much'

May 22,2013 12:48 AM

By: Alex P. Vidal

A FORMER TV talent/account executive and disc jockey appealed to police authorities to "please tell the truth and nothing but the truth" saying his family "has suffered so much" from the negative publicity generated by his arrest last month on alleged possession of marijuana at a checkpoint outside a posh subdivision in La Paz district. Read more...

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