FRENCH LIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES

With 2011 drawing to a close, President Benigno Aquino III said the country has risen from the grave of corruption and poverty during the one-and-a-half-year of his administration, and claimed a raft of achievements, including substantial savings of P42 billion, creation of 2.1 million new jobs and the development of a secret aquatic product for export that he could not name just yet. Mr. Aquino said the country has changed for the better under his watch as he was able to bring back the people’s faith in the justice system. “Let us compare the present to the times past … we have returned the blindfold of Lady Justice. Prosperity is benefiting not just the rich and powerful but also the majority of our people,” he said in his New Year message that he delivered in Filipino Wednesday. Mr. Aquino vowed that the new year would see his government not only continuing with the reforms it had started but also bringing more immediate changes. The President thanked the nation for its supp...

Triste Noël que celui des personnes touchées par Sendong. Nombreux sont ceux qui vont passer les fêtes de fin d'année dans des abris provisoires, gymnases, écoles ou autres. L'avenir n'est pas des plus brillant, le gouvernement ne pouvant offrir que des villes ou villages de toiles pour reloger les dizaines de milliers de ceux qui ont tout perdu.  Tens of thousands of Philippine flood survivors queued for their Christmas meal in evacuation centres on Sunday, holiday spirits doused by thoughts of more than 2,000 dead or missing kin. Eight days after devastating flash floods swept to sea entire communities from the southern island of Mindanao, officials said 328,000 people were relying on emergency aid. Village chief Aurelio Magaro joined 422 other survivors from the rural hamlet of Digkilaan lining up for food in the courtyard of a school that was flattened by the overflowing Mandulog river. "We have a sad Christmas this year, but we remain hopeful that we wil...

Après un destroyer de la classe ''Cutter'', un second qui est sur le point d'arriver et un troisième en commande, c'est maintenant sur le ciel que se porte l'attention des défenseurs philippins. C'est donc le choix d'une douzaine de chasseurs F16 qui semble faire l'unanimité, aussi bien du côté philippin, que du côté américain, le pourvoyeur de ces matériels militaires. Mais ce ne sera pas suffisant ! Il va falloir une couverture radar, aussi bien pour guider que pour protéger ces appareils, des moyens de défense anti-aérien, etc. L'escalade ? De plus, on ne forme pas des pilotes de chasse dignes de ce nom en quelques semaines, c'est une race à part et les Philippins n'ont plus aucune filière de formation depuis de très nombreuses années. Un F16, c'est quelque peu différent d'un C172 ou même d'un bronco ! Ce qui est intéressant, c'est que Taïwan et l'Indonésie possèdent également des F16. Le Sud-est Asia...

The Vatican announced Tuesday that Blessed Pedro Calungsod of Cebu will be canonized as a saint for the Roman Catholic Church. Once canonized, he will be the second Filipino Catholic saint following Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, who was elevated to sainthood in 1987. According to Vatican’s news site, Pope Benedict XVI has officially approved the promulgation of decrees for canonization of Calungsod and six others who have been said to have performed miracles. No definite date, however, has been set for the canonization rites. The authorized miracle of Blessed Pedro Calungsod reportedly happened in 2003 at a Cebu hospital when a woman who was clinically pronounced dead for two hours was allegedly brought back to life through the intercession of Calungsod. A young martyr Calungsod, together with companion Blessed Diego San Vitores, was killed while doing missionary work in Guam in 1672. He was 17 years old then. Through their missionary efforts, many...

Une tragédie prévisible et qui aurait pu être, en partie tout du moins,  évitée. Pour ceux qui lisent le français, mon post du 14 décembre dernier sur le blog : < www.maretraiteauxphilippines.blogspot.com > La faute à qui et à quoi ? La conjonction de précipitations anormales, la marée qui était haute, la déforestation illégale et l'agriculture intensive, facteurs auxquels il faut ajouter le fait que cela se soit déroulé en pleine nuit ? Le système d'alerte de Pagasa, beaucoup trop axé sur la force du vent doit-il être revu ; les permanences de week-end de cette même Agence peuvent-elles être mises en cause ? Autant de questions auxquelles il faudra bien répondre, mais saurons nous un jour ? Philippine rescuers struggled against mud, fatigue and the stench of death Sunday to help the survivors of devastating flash floods that killed more than 650 people. As bodies washed out to sea began rising to the surface, mortuaries were overwhelmed and emergency teams stru...

Lourdes M. Evangelista-Castro July 23, 1926 – December 3, 2011 Lourdes Castro, a rare and great hero, lived an extraordinary life. She was a pioneering “veterana” of World War II, and a quiet warrior as well as a civil rights activist. She was a successful entrepreneur, devoted wife, and matriarch of the Castro clan.Servant leader and military service. During WWII, Lourdes Castro was a member of the recognized guerrilla forces, a member of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and served in the Medical Corps. She volunteered as medical staff to help wounded American soldiers and also worked as a courier for the US soldiers. Two valiant acts attributed to this young 18 year old soldier were: (1) her role in the liberation of the POWs in the Los Baños, Laguna concentration camp and (2) going “beyond the call of duty” by risking “limb and life” as she went into the battlefield, pulling wounded soldiers to safety and treating the wounded as a first...

Entre le Président Aquino et le Chef de la Supreme Court, cela ne semble pas être le grand amour ! L'Exécutif contre le Legislatif peut-il mener à une crise constitutionnelle ? The crisis triggered by the conflict between the executive and judicial branches over the planned trip abroad of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo loomed larger Wednesday. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Arroyo and her husband would still be barred from leaving until the Supreme Court ruled on the appeal that it had submitted. President Aquino delayed his scheduled flight Wednesday to Bali, Indonesia, where the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) opens at 9 a.m. Thursday, so he could “monitor the situation” here, according to his spokesperson Edwin Lacierda. Senator Joker Arroyo (no relation to the former President) said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s refusal to honor the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the high co...

A newly proposed law in the United States is threatening call center jobs in the Philippines and other countries by withdrawing incentives from American firms that outsource their operations. Introduced by New York 1st District Rep. Tim Bishop, the proposed US Call Center and Consumer Protection Act seeks “to bar corporations that sent US call center jobs overseas from receiving federal grants and loans,” the solon said in a statement Wednesday (US time). The bill, which was co-sponsored by Reps. Dave McKinley, Mike Michaud, and Gene Green, also “requires overseas call center employees to disclose their location to US consumers and gives customers the right to be transferred to a US-based call center upon request.” “It’s common sense that we should not be rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas while millions of qualified Americans are looking for work,” Bishop said. “Taxpayer dollars should only be used to incentivize good cor...

The Philippines is one of the countries that suffer the most from extreme weather events, which exact a high death toll and economic losses, a study by an international think tank said. Analysing data from 1991 to 2010, Germanwatch, a climate and development organisation, said the Philippines ranked 10th among countries when it came to exposure and responding to severe weather caused by climate change. All the countries identified to be most affected in the past two decades were developing countries, the study noted. Aside from the Philippines, these were Bangladesh, Burma, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Pakistan and North Korea. "This year's analysis underlines that less developed countries are generally more affected than industrialised countries, according to the Climate Risk Index. With regard to future climate change, the Climate Risk Index can serve as a warning signal indicating past vulnerability which may further increase in regions w...

Male homosexuality Christianity has traditionally regarded homosexuality, in the sense of human sexual behavior, to be an immoral practice (or vice) and sinful, and most major Christian denominations (containing the majority of Christians worldwide) continue to hold this view, including the Roman Catholic Church, conservative synods of the Lutheran Church (i.e., Missouri Synod, the Eastern Orthodox churches, most Evangelical Protestant churches, the Southern Baptist Convention, the LDS Church, the Brethren in Christ, and the Christian & Missionary Alliance. Some Christians have come to believe that gay sex is not an inherently sinful practice. Denominations holding this position include the United Church of Canada, the United Church of Christ, the Moravian Church, and the Friends General Conference. Also in Europe the Lutheran Church of Sweden, the Lutheran Church of Denmark, the Lutheran Church in Norway, the Lutheran Church of Icel...

Le génie se trouve dans la bouteille et la lumière jaillit dès qu'apparaît le soleil ! Filipino entrepreneur Illac Diaz is aiming to help a million poor people in a year, and with the help of some plastic bottles and a clever social media campaign may do even better. Diaz's project appears simple -- fill discarded soft drink bottles with water, place them in roofs of houses and allow the refracted light to brighten homes during the day instead of using electric bulbs. However, what began as a small-scale effort in a Manila slum early this year has quickly spread throughout the Philippines and even into impoverished communities as far away as Colombia, India and Vanuatu. It has also earned Diaz accolades from the United Nations, which will bring him to its climate change summit in South Africa next week to show world leaders how "solar light bottles" are helping to tackle global warming. "This has blown us away," Diaz, head of M...