What’s wrong with Kris Aquino tipping a cabbie? Plenty, says Comelec By Philip C. Tubeza, TJ Burgonio Philippine Daily Inquirer

What’s wrong with giving a cab driver a fat tip during an election campaign?

Plenty, in the view of Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes who said popular television host Kris Aquino could be liable for vote-buying.

“It looks like you’re campaigning, you’re making an appeal and then you give a prize,” commented Brillantes.

“Anyone could ride a taxi, go campaigning and then give out cash,” he said.

The Comelec chief was actually reacting to media reports of a story that Aquino gave reporters, about how when she was campaigning in Cebu City last week, she let the taxi driver keep the change from the P1,000 bill she handed him after he agreed to vote for three senatorial candidates she was endorsing—Sen. Francis Escudero, Grace Poe Llamanzares and her cousin, Bam Aquino.

Palace defends Kris

Not surprisingly, Malacañang on Wednesday said it disagreed with the Comelec chief and defended President Aquino’s celebrity sister.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said it was apparent that Aquino “decided to let the taxi driver keep the change after he made it known to her that he was voting for the three candidates.”

The taxi driver “needed no persuasion nor was the money given in exchange for his vote as defined by the law,” she said.

“We respect Chairman Brilliantes’ opinion but disagree with it,” she said.

Brillantes said, however, that it would not be easy to charge Aquino. For one thing, there would have to be a complainant, he said.

“It’s not that easy. Who will be the complainant? She can always deny it. I don’t know if she would admit that under oath. I will not make any conclusion,” he said.

Vote-buying is an election offense and violators could face up to six years of imprisonment, the loss of the right to vote, and disqualification from holding public office.

Brillantes said Aquino’s narration of what happened showed that she gave the driver money “in good faith.”

“As far as she is concerned, she does not find anything wrong with it. It was like she was happy because she campaigned (for her candidates) and the driver said, ‘okay,’” he said.

‘In good faith’

“I think it was done in good faith. I’m making statements here… I might be jailed,” he added in jest.

Aquino, who has disclosed that she intends to run for governor of Tarlac in 2016, took time out from her busy schedule to pitch for Escudero, Llamanzares and her cousin in a two-day swing through General Santos, Davao, Cebu and Tacloban cities last week.

Talking with reporters while campaigning in Cebu City, Aquino said she took a taxi from the airport to her hotel and gave the driver a fat tip after the latter agreed to vote for her three candidates.

“I reminded him that apart from Chiz, and Grace, don’t forget Bam Aquino. When he said yes, I doubled my payment. I gave him P1,000 and told him keep the change,” she said.

Mom’s Saliva Can Strengthen Babies’ Immune Systems By Bonnie Rochman Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/06/moms-saliva-can-strengthen-babies-immune-systems/#ixzz2SeMtZVro

Picking up a dropped pacifier and sucking it clean may help infants to be better germ fighters.

The practice not only protects babies from the nasty microbes on the floor, but passes on good bugs that can lower the risk of allergies, according to a new study from Swedish researchers published in Pediatrics. “Parental sucking of their infant’s pacifier is associated with a reduced risk of allergy development and an altered oral flora in their child,” they write.

Infants whose parents use their tongues to burnish binkies were more likely to have different strains of bacteria in their gut, and with more helpful bacteria populating the intestines, the less likely the babies were to develop allergies and eczema.

When the 184 infants in the study were four months old, the scientists collected saliva samples to determine which types of bacteria resided in their guts. At six months old, parents reported whether their infants used pacifiers and how moms and dads cleaned them. The researchers checked back in with the parents when their babies were 18 and 36 months old to see if the infants had developed allergies and when the first symptoms appeared.

(MORE: Bacteria on Binkies: A Recipe for Crankiness)

By 18 months, 25% of the babies had eczema, 15% had developed some type of food allergy and 5% had been diagnosed with asthma.

But the children whose parents sucked on their pacifiers to sanitize them were one-third less likely to have eczema, which is considered the earliest sign of allergies, at 18 months than kids whose parents relied on other techniques — such as rinsing the binkies in tap water or boiling the pacifier. By the time the kids were 3 years old, those who had their pacifiers sucked clean were still considerably less likely to develop eczema than kids whose parents employed other cleaning strategies.

And it didn’t seem that parents were passing on more germs or infections to their little ones with the practice; regardless of how a parent cleaned a pacifier, all of the babies in the study developed an average of one and a half colds in their first six months of life.

To delve even deeper into the power of parents’ saliva, the researchers also looked for correlations between how a mother delivered her child and her tendency to suck the pacifiers clean. Moms who delivered vaginally tend to favor the cleaning practice more than C-section moms. (Those with a college degree, meanwhile, were less likely.) Indeed, vaginally-delivered babies are already exposed to more maternal bacteria thanks to their transit through the birth canal; tack on the oral bacteria from a parent’s mouth and babies in this group had the lowest incidence of eczema: 20%. C-section babies whose parents didn’t lick their pacifiers had the highest rate — 54% — of eczema.

So while it might seem unsanitary, sucking on that pacifier may end up giving babies just the right kind of good germs to better equip them to battle the more dangerous ones.

(MORE: Bring Back the Binky? Study Finds Pacifiers Actually Boost Breast-Feeding)

INC says it still has no list of senatorial bets to endorse (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines - The Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) still has no list of senatorial candidates it intends to endorse.

The office of INC spokesman Bienvenido Santiago said as of yesterday afternoon, the INC has not made any announcement as to the names of senators to be supported.

However, it is still possible executive minister Eduardo Manalo would make an announcement within the week.

The INC has reportedly between three million to 10 million members worldwide.

A radio station has reported that the INC has thrown its support behind seven members of Team PNoy and five from the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

The seven Team PNoy candidates are reportedly Aurora Rep. Edgardo Angara, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, former Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chair Grace Poe, Senators Loren Legarda, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Alan Peter Cayetano, and former lawmaker Cynthia Villar.

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

The five UNA candidates are reportedly San Juan Rep. JV Ejercito, former senator Richard Gordon, Nancy Binay, Sen. Gregorio Honasan, and Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile.

The INC reportedly prefers former President Joseph Estrada for mayor of Manila, over Mayor Alfredo Lim.

In Quezon City, the INC reportedly picked the six lawmakers running under the Liberal Party.

Ejercito remains hopeful that he would get the endorsement of the influential INC.

“I fervently hope and pray for the INC’s endorsement,” he said.

Angara said he would wait for the official announcement from the INC.

“One thing for certain is that all 33 candidates for the Senate are hoping for their endorsement,” he said.

UNA senatorial candidate Jack Enrile appealed yesterday to the “conscience and independent” voters as the campaign ends this week.

“Our voters are becoming more intelligent, independent and conscience-led because of the advance of education, the expanded coverage of social and professional media, and the growing patriotism among our young voters,” he said.  – Evelyn Macairan, Paolo Romero

Cavite bet's nephew shot, in critical condition ABS-CBNnews.com

MANILA -- A nephew of a vice mayoral candidate in Bacoor, Cavite is in critical condition after he was shot by unidentified men in Barangay Aniban.

Bacoor police chief Col. Ronaldo Mendoza identified the victim as Ferdinand Malvar, nephew of vice mayoral bet Edwin Malvar.

Initial investigation showed that Ferdinand, who was on board his vehicle, confronted a group of motorcycle-riding men who were taking out the campaign posters of his uncle.

The still unidentified suspects then suddenly shot Ferdinand.

Police are still Investigating the incident. -- Report from Eric Dastas, dzMM

Volcano eruption in Philippines kills 5 climbers, injures 7

One of the Philippines’ most active volcanoes rumbled to life Tuesday, spewing room-sized rocks toward nearly 30 surprised climbers, killing five and injuring others that had to be fetched with rescue helicopters and rope.

The climbers and their Filipino guides had spent the night camping in two groups before setting out at daybreak for the crater of Mayon volcano when the sudden explosion of rocks, ash and plumes of smokes jolted the picturesque mountain, guide Kenneth Jesalva told ABS-CBN TV network by cellphone.

He said rocks “as big as a living room” came raining down, killing and injuring members of his group, some of whom were in critical condition. Jesalva said he rushed back to the base camp at 914 meters (3,000 feet) to call for help.

AP

Among the dead were three Germans and their Filipino guide, said Albay provincial Gov. Joey Salceda. He said everyone on the mountain had been accounted for at midday, except for a foreigner who was presumed dead.

Eight people were injured, and Salceda said the others were in the process of being brought down the mountain. Ash clouds have cleared over the volcano, which was quiet later in the morning.

“The injured are all foreigners … They cannot walk. If you can imagine, the boulders there are as big as cars. Some of them slid and rolled down. We will rappel the rescue team, and we will rappel them up again,” he said from Legazpi, the provincial capital at the foothill of the mountain.

An Austrian mountaineer and two Spaniards were rescued with small bruises, he said.

Tuesday’s eruption was normal for the restive Mayon, said Renato Solidum, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

The 2,460-meter (8,070-foot) mountain about 340 kilometers (212 miles) southeast of Manila has erupted about 40 times during the last 400 years.

In 2010, thousands of residents moved to temporary shelters when the volcano ejected ash up to 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the crater.

Solidum said no alert was raised after the latest eruption and no evacuation was being planned.

Climbers are not allowed when an alert is up, and the recent calm may have encouraged this week’s trek. However, Solidum said that even with no alert raised, the immediate zone around the volcano is supposed to be a no-go area because of the risk of a sudden eruption.

Salceda said he would enforce a ban on climbers.

Despite the risks, Mayon and its near-perfect cone is a favorite spot for volcano watchers. Most enjoy the occasional nighttime spectacle of the rim lit by flowing lava, viewing from the safety of hotels in Legazpi.

The volcano has a trail to the crater that is walkable though it’s steep and strewn with rocks and debris from past eruptions.

Aid supporting Bangsamoro hailed

By John Unson 

(philstar.com) | Updated April 30, 2013 - 1:31pm

COTABATO CITY, Philipppines --- Officials  see as “vote of confidence” to the on-going talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Monday’s launching of the World Bank and United Nations’ joint on-demand technical support to the setting up of the Bangsamoro region.

The Facility for Advisory Support to Transition Capacities (FASTRAC), was launched in nearby Camp Darapanan by  WB and  UN representatives  and the MILF’s chieftain, Al-Haj Murad.

“What else can be the best indication that the government-MILF talks are gaining headway? This cooperation between the World Bank, the United Nations and the MILF indicates that the Mindanao peace process, under the Aquino administration, is indeed gaining headway,” said Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.

Camp Darapanan, the MILF’s main headquarters, is located in Sultan Kudarat town in the first district of Maguindanao. The MILF has dozens of guerrilla camps in the province.

The FASTRAC, whose implementation will start next week, will provide expertise and intervention that can hasten and transition from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the Bangsamoro political entity the government and MILF panels  will establish under the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro.

UN resident Director Luiza Carvalho, who attended  the launching rite at Camp Darapanan, said the FASTRAC will provide on-demand advisory services and access to the most relevant national and international expertise needed in the Basic Bangsamoro Law, which will legitimize the ARMM’s replacement with a new autonomous government.

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

World Bank’s sector manager for sustainable development, Ousmane Dione, said FASTRAC will support the initiatives of the MILF and government’s peace panel, and the TransCom in furthering an inclusive Mindanao peace process.

The Murad-led MILF central committee agreed to the implementation of the FASTRAC early this month after a series of brainstorming sessions with representatives of the World Bank and the United Nations.

ARMM Gov Mujiv Hataman, chairman of the regional peace and order council, said the FASTRAC can be a showcase of international cooperation in pushing the Southern peace process forward.

“We in the ARMM regional cabinet see that as a `vote of confidence’ to the government-MILF talks,” Hataman said.

The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in Central Mindanao, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.

The MILF wants these areas grouped together into a new governing mechanism that has more administrative, fiscal and political powers. 

Let My People Awake!

By Orlan R. Ravanera
Kim's Dream

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

IT was written seven decades ago but that one poem of a poet laureate from India, Rabindranath Tagore still reverberates until now . . .”Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Where knowledge is free, Where the world is not broken down by narrow domestic walls, In that heaven of freedom my Father, LET MY PEOPLE AWAKE!”

Although the call to awaken the Indian people was one of liberation against the British Colonial Rule, it is still very relevant today. This time, the call is for us to be conscious of the contemporary issues believing that an awakened people can craft their own destiny based on the truism that the people united can never be defeated. Today, we strongly advocate:

Let my people awake to the painful reality that, according to scientists and environmentalists, the “current degradation of the environment and the massive loss of species are evidence that we are facing our own extinction and that “in the absence of a major change, the world system will collapse in less than a hundred years.”

Let my people awake that fundamental changes are now sweeping Africa, Latin America and now going to Asia and centuries-old beliefs and convictions are crashing down like the twin tower of the world trade center in New York. Among these are, the belief that nature is inexhaustible and this belief has lead to massive exploitation of our resources. The belief that the “Darwin’s Theory of natural selection to society is that by fittest means the strongest and the most aggressive. That is a gross mistake in principle. By fittest, it really means most cooperative, most adaptive and most caring.” That is why, we must advance cooperativism, the collective quest to make life better for the people rather than the individual quest for self aggrandizement and wealth.

Let my people awake on the unsustainability of the global economic system that is anchored on a dominant paradigm that pursues growth-at-all-cost development strategy. That unbridled consumerism and materialism where there is over-eating and obesity in the North while billions are hungry in the South; the gross inequities are very glaring as the combined wealth of the world’s billionaires equals the income of three billion people.

Let my people awake that social transformation has been so elusive all these years as the structures that breed poverty have remained as formidable as ever; that our country is not a capitalist country but one that follows block capitalism where only 300 families control the economy through cartels; that democratizing wealth and power cannot be had because those in control cannot moderate their greed.

Let my people awake that political exercises have proven to be exercises in futility in effecting social change because those running are voted not because they are for social re-structuring but because they are movie stars or good speakers or popular or because of their names, or because they have so much money as they are funded by vested interest groups or cartels to perpetuate their control over the economy.

Let my people awake that the Filipinos are poor not because they are lazy or lack resources (the truth is, our country is oozing with ecological resources) but because they are powerless to have access and control over their resources which are fast slipping through their fingers.

Let my people awake that poverty is the consequence of putting power where it does not belong, that is, to the politicians who are cornering gargantuan funds through massive corruptions (that is res ipsa loquitor), to the cartels that exploit our resources at the expense of the people and the environment, to institutions that are mouthing moral issues and social change but are only successful in enriching themselves and to TNCs that have made our country dumping grounds of finished products while extracting so much raw materials and natural resources at the expense of our ecosystems (this again, is res ipsa loquitor).

Let my people awake that we now must work for social change, for paradigm shifts. Debunk conventional agriculture because it is just successful in impoverishing the peasantry and in polluting our environment. Stop those who are exploiting our natural resources with utter disregard for nature and the welfare of the coming generations. Stop those cartels that all these years are depriving the people of their ownership of utilities.

Let my people awake to stop political dynasties (which is prohibited in the 1987 Constitution); to stop vote-buying and to elect only those who are subservient to the interest of the people and not to those who are advancing the interest of a few elite.

Only when the people have awakened that we can bring this country to “that heaven of Freedom” where the people are free from hunger and poverty!

Dynasty, RH stand crucial for Senate bets

ByAmando Doronila
Philippine Daily Inquirer

12:29 am | Monday, April 29th, 2013

 

CEBU CITY—Sharp exchanges punctuated the debate among the senatorial candidates on what to do to implement the constitutional ban on political dynasties, the topic of the third and final episode of the Inquirer Senate Forum here on Friday.

The exchanges crystallized the public’s strong sentiment against the domination of Philippine politics by a few but influential and powerful families. The question that surfaced is whether the next Senate will push legislation to give teeth to the constitutional ban.

The intensity of the debate showed that political dynasties are one of the most contentious issues in the May 13 midterm elections, along with the controversial reproductive health (RH) law that has put the Catholic Church in a collision course with the Aquino administration, which backed the measure in Congress.

Their stand on the two issues would either make or break the 33 senatorial candidates’ political fortunes, as indicated by the public’s reaction to them in the three episodes of the Inquirer Senate Forum (the first was held in the University of the Philippines in Diliman and the second in Baguio City).

The three forums tapped into the vein of the views of the senatorial candidates, as the winners will be the policymakers who will shape the national agenda, including political dynasties, the RH law, the economy, poverty, education and taxes.

Social cross-section

The eight candidates, who took part in the Cebu forum, represented a cross-section of society—incumbent office holders, those seeking reelection, and the NGO (nongovernment organizations) sector, with no financial base to fund a campaign, unlike the candidates from political families who had ample resources.

In a way, the candidates from the NGO sector who are seeking electoral support are pitting themselves against the resources of the embedded political families. What are their chances against the goliaths of the dynastic families?

Although they are fighting an uphill battle, the aspiring “outsiders,” the Inquirer forums have found, are rich in ideas and have much to offer to the voters. They can, if elected, democratize the social base of the Senate.

A sort of consensus emerged in the Cebu forum, i.e., there was a need to level the playing field by bringing down the prohibitive costs of electoral campaigning, especially of political advertising.

Independent senatorial candidate Teddy Casiño opened fire on the dynasty issue. After a stint in the House, representing the Left in Philippine politics, Casiño appeared to have already acquired the airs of a veteran senator when he pointed out that he had authored several antidynasty bills, but none of them went to the plenary “because of opposition from lawmakers belonging to big political families.”

Second-degree

Using his own definition of political dynasty, Casiño said the wife, children, parents and siblings—or second-degree relatives—should not be allowed to run for the post being vacated by an outgoing elected official. Singling out Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, Casiño said, “There are other families who have young and budding politicians.”

Angara is running for the Senate as a candidate of the administration’s Team PNoy, led by President Aquino himself, scion of the country’s most powerful dynasty, which has produced two presidents (the incumbent and his mother, former President Cory Aquino).

Casiño lamented the fate of the antidynasty bills being killed in Congress. How can the bills be reported out to the floor after the President has stubbornly refused to certify them as urgent legislation?

Angara replied that Casiño’s definition does not apply to him because his father, outgoing Sen. Edgardo Angara, is retiring in June after serving in the Senate for 24 years. “Everyone must be given equal opportunity to serve,” the younger Angara said. But voters, he said, should not elect him because of his family name but because of his track record.

The six other candidates in the forum were former Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, Bro. Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas, Rizalito David of Ang Kapatiran Party, Mary Grace Poe of Team PNoy, Samson Alcantara of the Social Justice Society, and independent Ricardo Penson.

Charter definition

According to Alcantara, there is no need to define what a political dynasty is because the Constitution is clear that “political dynasties are prohibited, whether they are good or bad.”

David and Penson agreed that the Constitution had already sufficiently defined what a political dynasty was. But they pointed out that the constitutional prohibition had not been implemented because the electorate had kept on voting the wrong officials into office.

Villanueva reiterated his earlier position that no one should be discriminated against in serving the country through the government because of his or her family name, so long as he or she is competent and of good moral standing.

A religious leader, Villanueva has a son, Joel, who is chief of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, a government agency.

Casiño, David, Penson and Alcantara, a lawyer, are against political dynasties.

Zubiri made a pitch for a broad public health care system subsidized by the state. He belongs to a political family in Bukidnon. He is the son of Bukidnon Gov. Juan Zubiri Jr. and the younger brother of Bukidnon Rep Jose Ma. Zubiri III. He contended that there are scions of political clans who have excelled and surpassed the performance of their parents and grandparents.

Underrepresented

Zubiri took pains to point out that his region, Mindanao, is grossly underrepresented on the two main contending tickets. It is represented only by him and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III of the dynasty founded by former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr.

Dynastic lineage runs across interlocking party lines. None of the two alignments can claim superiority in being able to push antidynasty legislation in the next Congress. Both are blighted on this issue.

There is no more ironic setting for the third Inquirer Senate forum than Cebu. As the campaign heated up, I observed that the walls in the city were plastered with election posters that carried the pictures of candidates from Cebu’s political dynasties.

Among the cities or ethnic regions of the country, Cebu has the most political dynasties. The posters carry the names of families that have ruled the region since the turn of the 20th century—the Osmeñas, Duranos, Garcias, Sottos and Cuencos.

According to a study by Bobby Tuazon of the Center of People Empowerment in Governance, 94 percent of the provinces (73 out of a total of 80) have political dynasties. The average number of political families per province is 2.31. Cebu accounts for at least six. Whether the density of dynasties has made Cebu more democratic and more economically progressive is an issue that calls for further academic research.

Poverty: The good, bad and ugly news

By Cielito F. Habito
Philippine Daily Inquirer

10:07 pm | Monday, April 29th, 2013

 

By some accounts, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and its mother agency the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) ruffled feathers in the Palace and the Cabinet with the way they announced the first semester 2012 poverty figures last week. Some even speculated that it may have cost Neda Secretary Arsi Balisacan his slot in the President’s delegation to the Asean meeting in Brunei, having dropped out of the list at the last minute.

I can see why NSCB Secretary General Jose Ramon Albert and Secretary Balisacan, disciplined academic professionals as they have been in their former nongovernment personas, would choose to report the news the way they did, and when they did. They can be expected to report the facts as they are, good news or bad. They must also adhere to a previously announced schedule for release of “designated statistics” that include the quarterly reports on gross domestic product (GDP) growth and other key statistics. Postponing the release of not-so-flattering news until after the elections would have been an obvious temptation for the government’s political strategists. But NSCB and Neda would betray their constitutionally provided independence—not to mention raise suspicions at the expense of their credibility—if they were to deviate from their committed release schedule for data as important as these.

On the other hand, perhaps it’s the journalist in me, but NSCB didn’t really have to headline its report by outright saying that Philippine poverty incidence had “remained unchanged.” It could just as easily (and no less truthfully) have headlined that the poverty rate appears to have gone down, from the 2009 level of 28.6 to 27.9 percent of the population, or from 22.9 to 22.3 percent of families. It could then qualify that the difference was not statistically significant (I have seen NSCB do this before). Notice how when GDP growth rises or falls by a few decimal points, no one pays attention to whether the difference is statistically significant or not; GDP growth goes up or down, period. Indeed, choice of words can make a great deal of difference. And at the height of political season such as now, the administration’s political strategists would understandably wish that NSCB and Neda had taken some lessons on “wordsmithing” and been more politically savvy in their reports, without necessarily forsaking the truth. Media professionals call it “spin.”

There is, after all, good news in the poverty figures along with the bad (and ugly). It is welcome news, for example, that poverty incidence actually went down in the majority of our regions (9 out of 16) and provinces (50 out of 81). The best performing regions were Cagayan Valley (Region II) and Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX), both of whose poverty rates (as a percent of families) fell by more than 11 percent. Poverty dropped from 22.3 to 19.8 percent of families in Cagayan Valley, and from 41.5 to 36.9 percent in the Zamboanga Peninsula. Other top performing regions were the Ilocos Region (18.5 to 16.7 percent, or a 9.7 percent drop), Central Visayas (31.6 to 28.8 percent, or a 9 percent drop), Western Visayas (26.7 to 24.7 percent, a 7.5 percent drop), Mimaropa (30.6 to 28.4 percent, a 7.2 percent drop), and Bicol Region (36.5 to 34.1 percent, a 6.6 percent drop).

Tawi-Tawi was the best performer among the provinces, with poverty rate dropping from nearly half (48.3 percent) of families in 2009 to only one-fifth (20.8 percent) by 2012, a steep 57 percent fall. Following closely are Aklan (from 38.4 to 21 percent, dropping by 45.3 percent), Biliran (34.6 to 20.7 percent, a 40.2 percent drop), and Benguet (whose already low poverty incidence of 7 percent was further cut to 4.3 percent, a 39 percent improvement). Other top performing provinces were Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Ilocos Norte, Camarines Norte and Zamboanga del Norte. Interestingly, the last used to be the nation’s poorest province, with 63.6 percent of its families poor in 2009. Now it is only the fifth poorest, dislodged by Lanao del Sur, Apayao, Eastern Samar and Maguindanao, in that order—all of whose poverty rates shot up in the three-year period by 27 to 54 percent.

The ugly news was the drastic rise in poverty in 19 provinces where poverty incidence jumped by more than 25 percent within just a three-year period. The island province of Camiguin—proximity to dynamic Cagayan de Oro notwithstanding—fared worst, with poverty rate more than doubling from 17.2 to 34.9 percent. Second worst was Zambales, with poverty rate nearly doubling from 9.4 to 18 percent. North Cotabato’s poverty rate jumped 80 percent, from 24.4 to 43.9 percent. Also seeing a dramatic rise in poverty rates are Ifugao, Maguindanao, Aurora, Quirino, Batanes, Nueva Vizcaya and Guimaras, all jumping by more than 40 percent. From the list, one might venture reasonable guesses on why these provinces saw such a dramatic poverty rise, including political turmoil and geographic isolation, especially in the case of island provinces.

The recent reported poverty trends are sobering, but not surprising. Even with huge amounts (P39.4 billion) given out as targeted conditional cash transfers (CCT) to poor families in 2012, NSCB calculates that more than twice that amount would have been needed to close the poverty gap. Also, and as widely lamented, recent improvements in the economy have not permeated down to the Filipino poor. We all have our favorite theories and solutions, but what is clear is that trickle-down economics and business as usual simply won’t bring our poverty numbers down to where we all need them to go.

Philippines President Benigno Aquino coughs during campaign trail President will continue to canvass for votes ahead of May 13 elections

By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief

Published: 13:30 April 30, 2013

Manila: President Benigno Aquino has been coughing during a campaign trail in southern Luzon, prompting a spokesman to clarify that Aquino remained in the “pink of health”.

“There is nothing wrong with the president. There are no indications of any illness,” said Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda.

Aquino will not stop campaigning for the Liberal Party’s senatorial candidates for the next two weeks before the May 13 elections, said Lacierda, adding that it is natural for the president to campaign for candidates of the ruling party.

“This is a campaign for reform. We still have three more years left in this administration and he wants these three years to be even more productive than the first three,” said Lacierda.

His voice was hoarse and he coughed severely six times during a political campaign in Lucena, Quezon, a TV report showed.

“I am asking for forgiveness ahead of this speech. I have a cold but I will try to clearly enunciate what I want to say [in this campaign speech],” said Aquino.

He reminded his audience about the advice of Health Secretary Enrique Ona who had earlier asked him to get some rest.

Aquino has been asked to stop smoking. But he said smoking relaxes him and he is not willing to give it up.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika: Is Algeria’s Strongman on His Way Out?

By Vivienne Walt       
April 29, 2013

                                 FAROUK BATICHE/GETTY IMAGES

               Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika welcomes 

                          the Emir of Kuwait in Algiers on Jan.14,2013

Two days after Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was airlifted to a military hospital in Paris to be treated for a supposed “mini-stroke,” his doctors raced to reassure the country that the autocratic ruler was not seriously ill and, indeed, would soon be home — a message that seemed designed to ward off any maneuvers by his rivals to oust him during his absence. “The President is in very good health,” his doctor Rachid Bougherbal was quoted as saying in the government-aligned Ennahar newspaper on Monday, adding that the President would return to Algiers “in not more than seven days.”

Still, the doctor’s message did little to tamp down furious speculation among Algerians. Bouteflika had barely left the country when politicians and analysts began debating whether his 14-year rule was finally over, or at least how much longer he was capable of governing the oil-rich North African country, which has by far the region’s biggest military, and which has faced a long-standing Islamist insurgency. Algerian newspapers were filled on Monday with heated discussion over the country’s future. With the government notoriously secret, Algerians have grown accustomed to picking apart official statements and looking for clues about the true state of affairs. “There is something new this time, in that the announcement of the President’s illness was made by the presidency,” political analyst Rashid Grim told the Algerian newspaper al-Watan; previous bouts of illness went unexplained to the public. “This means he is sick but that his life is not in danger.” Grim also said he believed the regime had already chosen someone to step into power in case Bouteflika were incapacitated.

(MORE: With Limited Freedoms, Many Algerians Vote With Their Feet)

Bouteflika came to power after Algeria’s devastating civil war against Islamist fighters, which is believed to have killed up to 200,000 people, on the promise of cracking down hard on militants, and keeping Algeria safe from insurgency — to a large extent, at the expense of open democracy. For Western leaders, Bouteflika’s departure, if it happened, could entail a tough adjustment, especially since the Arab Spring ousted longtime allies in Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia’s Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

After the 9/11 attacks, Bouteflika signed an intelligence-sharing relationship with the U.S. Bouteflika refused to join the NATO-led campaign against Muammar Gaddafi in next-door Libya in 2011, and refused to send Algerian troops to join the French-led offensive in northern Mali in January. Yet when Islamist militants seized the In Amenas gas plant in southeastern Algeria in January, killing dozens of foreign oil workers, Bouteflika allowed U.S. surveillance drones to hover overhead throughout the siege. “Algiers has been feted by Paris and Washington in the hopes of enlisting Algeria’s help in stabilizing northern Mali and performing a broader regional counterterrorism role,” says Geoff Porter, director of North Africa Risk Consulting Inc. in Washington. “If the presidency is prematurely up for grabs, Algeria would turn acutely inward. France and the U.S. would find themselves without reliable interlocutors.”

Algerians have good reason to question the statement from Bouteflika’s doctor about the President’s health. In 2005 and again in 2006, Bouteflika was flown to the same French military hospital in Paris, for what his doctors said was treatment for a hemorrhagic stomach ulcer. A year later, Bouteflika admitted that he had been “very, very ill.” But it took a few years more before Algerians learned that their President had in fact undergone treatment for cancer — and even then, they were not told by their own government. The truth emerged only in 2011, when WikiLeaks published a U.S. diplomatic cable in which then ambassador Robert Ford wrote in 2007 that a doctor close to Bouteflika had “told us in strictest confidence that the President suffered from cancer.” That was news to Algerians.

(MORE: ‘We Did Not Predict This’: Top Algerian Official Discusses January Hostage Crisis)

This time, Bouteflika, 76, has taken ill at an intensely awkward time. For months, top officials in the regime have squabbled bitterly over who might ultimately succeed Bouteflika — a subject that until recently seemed almost unmentionable. Under constitutional reforms that are currently under way, Algeria is set to appoint a Deputy President for the first time, a move aimed at paving the way for succession, after years in which Bouteflika has ruled the country with unchallenged authority.

Despite his frail health, Bouteflika has made it clear he intends to stand for a fourth term in office. That would all but ensure his victory, since the controlled process weeds out serious threats to his leadership. “The intelligence services are trying to make sure that the succession process goes their way,” says Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa analyst for the Eurasia Group in London. Given the fact that Bouteflika’s successor could rule for more than a decade, who comes next is crucial for Algeria. Despite its mammoth oil and gas reserves, the country faces declining production and high youth unemployment — both factors that could potentially spark an Arab Spring–style revolt. “There is no long-term perspective about when Algeria’s oil runs out,” Fabiani told TIME on Monday. That could happen, he says, “realistically between 10 and 20 years’ time.”

For most Algerians, the political crisis has arrived far sooner. With Bouteflika out of sight, the tone in the country’s media was impatient, and even irreverent, given the President’s fragile state. The Oran Daily, a newspaper in Algeria’s industrial city, said on Monday that it was unclear whether Bouteflika could last as President even until next year’s election, and warned that Algeria risked all-out revolt by keeping its ruler too long, as Libyans did with Gaddafi and Syrians with Bashar Assad. “We are dangerously infected with the syndrome of Gaddafi or Bashar,” the paper’s editorial said. In a more irreverent tone, a cartoonist in al-Watan showed Bouteflika’s medical team addressing a press conference, and announcing in unison: “The President will need to maintain total rest during his fourth term in office.”

(MORE: The Rising Power of North Africa’s Jihadists Rattles Algeria)

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/04/29/abdelaziz-bouteflika-is-algerias-strongman-on-his-way-out/#ixzz2RzzRrh8B

The Reign of Spain: Can Roca Ousts Noma as World’s Best Restaurant

By Lisa Abend / London     
April 29, 2013

DAVID RAMOS/GETTY IMAGES

Cooks and prepare dishes at the restaurant

 El Celler de can Roca on May 19,2011, in Girona Spain

The king is dead; long live the king. Just when it seem that the food world had moved definitively beyond the high-wire pyrotechnics of modern Spanish cooking to embrace the less adorned lichen and sea buckthorn of new Nordic cuisine, along came the 2013 list of the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants to say: not so fast. At its annual awards ceremony, held April 29 in London’s Guild Hall, the top honor went to El Celler de Can Roca, located in the northeastern Spanish city of Girona. There, avant-garde executive chef Joan Roca invents daring new dishes from things like distilled soil; one of his younger brothers, sommelier Josep, keeps a cellar where music and video images are matched to the flavors of his favorite wines; and the other, pastry chef Jordi, creates desserts that taste like the fragrance of well-known perfumes. Copenhagen’s Noma, which had held the top spot for the past three years, fell to second place.

Among Spaniards, Can Roca’s victory came as welcome reassurance that the country’s moment in the culinary sun was not over. Although Spanish restaurants have performed strongly for several years — two others, Mugaritz and Arzak, retained their positions in the top 10 of 2013’s list — it hasn’t taken first place since Copenhagen’s Noma displaced Ferran Adrià’s revolutionary elBulli in 2010. “It shows a consolidation of our position,” says Rafael Ansón, president of the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy. “It’s the strongest confirmation that in the world of chef-artists, we are the best.”

(MORE: Nomanomics: How One Restaurant Is Changing Denmark’s Economy)

But the results came as a surprise to some. Says Joanna Savill, director of the festival Crave Sydney: “You have to admire Can Roca, because what they do is so beautiful, so poetic, so evocative. But that’s not the global story at the moment. The global story, the new story, is about chefs reflecting who and where they are.”

That the restaurant industry now craves novelty almost as much as Hollywood does can be attributed in part to the 50 Best list itself. Founded 11 years ago, its audacious innovation was to rank restaurants, based on the votes of the hundreds of chefs and journalists who make up its jury. That simple mechanism has made it tremendously influential, catapulting chefs to prominence and changing the economic fortunes of their restaurants. The day after Noma first won the top slot, its reservationist received 100,000 booking requests.

(MORE: When the World’s Top Restaurant Serves Up a Bug)

This year, chefs from 49 of the 50 restaurants attended the award ceremony — proof of how highly regarded it is among them. “It’s an incredible honor,” says Alex Atala, chef of São Paulo’s DOM, which placed 6th this year. “To get this kind of recognition, especially when you come from a part of the world that hasn’t been known for its restaurant culture, is incredible.”

By insisting that jurors use at least three of their seven votes on restaurants outside their own regions, the organization helps ensure a certain geographic diversity. For countries or regions that have not traditionally been part of haute cuisine’s pantheon, the sense that the centers of gravity are expanding can be exhilarating. “We’re the first restaurant from Melbourne to ever make the list, and I’ve been getting messages from people at home — maybe 200 of them — all day,” says Ben Shewry, chef of Attica, which came in at No. 21. “But there’s also a sense of pride among Australiaas a whole; I feel like the whole country is behind us.”

Yet for all the enthusiasm that surrounds it, the list is not without controversy, and not just of the “How did that place get there?” kind. Britain’s Restaurant magazine, which oversees the rankings, has been criticized for a lack of transparency. The organization never releases the number of actual votes that each restaurant receives, nor does it require proof from its jury members that they have actually dined in the restaurants they vote for.

(MORE: Noma Takes Top Spot, but U.S. Dominates World’s 50 Best Restaurants)

And of course the very premise that something as subjective as a restaurant can somehow be judged “best” in the world is itself questionable. Nevertheless, because the list tends to elevate not just chefs but the cuisines that give rise to them, it helps contribute to the sense of a hierarchy of nations — first Spanish cuisine was on top, then Nordic — and raise expectations that one cuisine will replace another (for premonitions of the next big thing, look to the unprecedented presence of six Latin American restaurants on this year’s list).

In London, a visibly moved Joan Roca was modest as he stepped on stage to accept the award for a restaurant that he and his brothers started over a decade ago. “We don’t know if we are the best, but you can be sure we will continue working with audacity, with generosity, and with creativity,” he told the audience. But as photographers crowded around to shoot photos of the world’s newest top chef, he couldn’t help reflecting on the win’s national importance. “Spanish gastronomy needed this,” he told TIME. “We needed a push like this to prove ourselves again in front of the world.”

MORE: The New Spanish Scent That’s Good Enough to Eat

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/04/29/the-reign-of-spain-can-roca-ousts-noma-as-worlds-best-restaurant/#ixzz2RzwiJsFb

Obamacare Progress

By Joe Klein        
April 29, 2013

A few weeks ago, I gave the President a tough time about the slow and messy implementation of his health care plan. But there’s been some progress in recent weeks — and I’m happy to pass it on.

One of the things that concerned me was the 21-page application form that was required for people to join a health care exchange — which, if you’re unfamiliar with the jargon, is an online health-insurance superstore (think Orbitz or Hotels.com) where individuals will have the collective market power of large corporations like, say, Time Warner.

Tomorrow morning the Administration will announce a spiffy, new three-page application for individuals (which we’ll attach here when it becomes public).* There will be a seven-page application for families (11 including the appendix), but even that one will be far better designed than the initial effort. “We did a lot of work testing words, to come up with simpler language,” an Administration official told me, “and we did time tests. Our average was seven minutes to fill out the paper version and even less if you do it online.”

(MORE: The Cost of ObamaCare’s Coverage Provisions)

This compares favorably with applications for private insurance plans, which average about 17 pages (and can go as high as 35). “We’re hoping to move as many people as possible to the e-mail application form,” a second Administration official told me. “We received a lot of [negative] feedback from insurers and individuals like you when we published the first application forms, and we’re trying to be responsive to those concerns.”

My primary concerns remain the implementation of the online superstores. I remain concerned that employees of small businesses won’t have a choice of health plans in the first year. I’m also concerned that the state exchanges run by the federal government — over the opposition of Republican governors — won’t offer as many choices as a true market should.

There are more than a few other concerns and ways the system might be improved that I’ve written about in the past. The good news about the streamlined application, though, is that it shows the Administration is alert and flexible and responsive — and, if we’re lucky, may turn out to be innovative in enacting a system that will bring health care to those who haven’t had it before, and lower costs to the self-employed masses who’ve had to go out and buy insurance on their own.

*The application form will be even simpler for higher-income individuals and families that aren’t eligible for a health-insurance subsidy but want to shop at the exchange in search of less expensive coverage.

MORE: Obamacare and GOP Governors – Is This a Tipping Point?

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/29/obamacare-progress/#ixzz2RzvXvmvR