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‘Kamsky clash like Pacquiao vs Cotto’

MANILA – Filipino teen Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So (with an ELO rating of 2640) advanced to the third round of the World Chess Cup by knocking out Ukrainian Super GM Vassily Ivanchuk (ELO 2739) Wednesday in Russia.

The 16-year-old chess whiz kayoed Ivanchuk, 1.5-0.5, by holding him to a draw in their second match at the Khanty-Mansiysk Festival of Arts.   So earlier beat his Ukrainian foe in the first game of their match after 39 pushes of a French duel using the black pieces.

The draw (46 moves of a Queens Pawn Game using the white pieces) spurred So’s progress to the third round where he will face defending World Chess Cup champion Super GM Gata Kamsky (ELO 2695) of the United States.

Kamsky eliminated Filipino GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio, Jr. (ELO 2574) in the first round and Chinese GM Zhou Weiqi (2603) in the second round.

Historic day for RP chess

National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president Prospero “Butch” Pichay, Jr. lauded So’s performance in the World Chess Cup.

“Anuman ang mangyari kay Wesley sa third round kontra kay Kamsky ay malaking karangalan na ang hatid niya sa bayan… Pero [I] hope makalusot din sana si Wesley sa third round,” said Pichay.

Former Olympian national master (NM) Glenn Bordonada remarked: “As a friend commented, this is a historic day for Philippine chess. It recalls to mind Torre’s win over Mikhail Tal in Leningrad.”

International arbiter and national master Erwin Carag also praised So: “Wesley So beating Vassily Ivanchuk is just like Manny Pacquiao beating Oscar de la Hoya, a legend.”

“Now, Wesley against Gata, will be like Pacquiao vs Hatton or Pacquiao vs Cotto? My feeling is Wesley can topple Kamsky. Pag white si Kamsky, paghandaan ni Wesley ang London System. Tinalo dati ni late IM chess artist Ruben Rodrgiuez si Kamsky,” commented Carag.

American GM Susan Polgar, meantime, commended the Filipino chess prodigy. “The more games the talented Wesley plays against world class opponents, the better and more confident he gets.”

The former prodigy added: “Well done, Wesley! With proper training, experience, and opportunity, I have no doubt that he will be an elite player for years to come.” – By Marlon Bernardino

The Philippines’ very own Efren Peñaflorida, the kariton educator, has been honored the 2009 CNN hero of the year.

The recognition was given to Peñaflorida at the third annual “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” held at the Kodak theater in Hollywood  Saturday night. The event honoring the top 10 Heroes of 2009, featured stars and award-winning actors and actresses including, Kate Hudson, Pierce Brosnan, Neil Patrick Harris, Carrie Underwood and Leona Lewis.

After seven weeks of online voting, Peñaflorida was hailed the victor with more than 2.75 million votes.

“Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry,” he said upon receiving his honor. “Each person has a hidden hero within, you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need.”

He also addressed the youth by saying, “My message to children of all races, please, to embrace learning and love it for it will embrace and love you back and enable you to change your world.”

He was granted US$100,000 and said in a previous interview that 90 percent of the cash incentive will be used to aid the DTC’s projects and the remaining 10 percent will go to the A Blessed Church in Cavite City.

Peñaflorida, who grew up in Cavite city, is an advocate of education. He brings education to deprived street children armed with his Kariton Klasrum and the determination to give every child the chance to be better. In 1997, he established a group that encourages children to learn instead of joining gangs and fraternities. The group is called the Dynamic Teen Company (DTC). The group brought education to children in the form of a mini-library with teaching aids carried by a kariton, thus spawning the present day Kariton Klasrum. 

Among the selected top 10 CNN Heroes with Peñaflorida are, Brad  Blauser with his Wheelchair for Iraqi Kids program; Roy Foster who provided life-changing help for almost 900 struggling homeless veterans; and Andrea Ivory, a breast cancer survivor who provides door-to-door free screening for uninsured women in Miami, Florida – By MALORIE D. MAGSUCI mb.com.ph

During the San Jose port Spanish colonial period, the human heart-shaped emerald isle bordered with fine, ivory beaches in the southernmost tip of Tablas Island in Romblon was called Isla de Carabao because during that time it was grazing land for carabaos and cattle.

Now called the town of San Jose, the 29 square-kilometer big island that is divided into five villages retained it sobriquet, Carabao Island. The waters that surround it are the Sibuyan Sea on its eastern coast and Tablas Strait on its western side.

Its downside is that being geographically isolated from the rest of Romblon,san Jose is one of the most depressed municipalities of the island province famous for its world-class marble. Its upside though is, due to its distance from the rest of Romblon, Carabao Island is still inits pristine condition, with powdery, white sand beaches comparable to that of Boracay’s famous west coast.

Its advantage over its world-renowned island neighbor though, is that Carabao Island’s talc-fine sandy beaches are 4.3-km. long on its east coast vis-à-vis 3.5 kilometers in the island “paradise” of Boracay, plus another 2.5-km. of the fine, white stuff on the west side of San Jose aka Carabao Island, whose fine terrain is characterized by lowlands in the northern and eastern sections, and by rolling hills in the central and southern part of the islands. What’s more it is three separated by a 3-km channel south of Carabao.

“I conceptualized an international airport at Carabao Islandd as an alternative to the small Caticlan Airport in the town of Malay in Aklan way back in 1989, but started negotiating for the land acquisition totaling 120 hectares only in 2004,” says Steve Tajanlangit, one of the pioneer resort hotel developers in Boracay Terraces Hotel on the northern end of White Beach.

“The ideal place to develop an international airport to expand the Boracay corridor is at Carabao island,which was mentioned by GMA in her SONA in 2006, as one of her major airport projects, together with Busuanga and San Vicente in Northern Palawan, because Carabao is located between Boracay and Tablas Island in Romblon, which has its own attractions, like a big lagoon, which can be developed into a yacht marina,” explains the Ilonggo tourism visionary who, as early as 1979, saw Boracay as a major tourist destination in the near future when small groups of backpackers descended on the pristine island whose grain of white sand is a mere 500 microns in size, making its 3.5-km white beachcomfortably cool even during high noon.

“From Carabao, a group of beautiful islands in Antique is just 30 minutes away, and beyond them, you’ll reach another new tourist destination, Coron in Northern Palawan.”

The envisioned P5-billion Carabao Island International Airport, with a runway 3.7-km. is long, enough to accommodate wide-bodied jetliners like the A-330. When finished in 2012, it will be much bigger than the present Iloilo airport-already considered the biggest in the Visayas, with the exception of the Mactan Cebu International Airport. The flight from Manila to Carabao Island will only be 40 minutes by plane, and 30 minutes from Cebu.

“Right now, Caticlan airport’s existing runway is only 900 meters, not long enough for even a 72-seater turboprop ATR passenger plane used by Cebu Pacific in its missionary routes,” says the vice chairman of the Boracay Property Holdings, Inc., the main proponent of the Carabao airport project.” Even if you level the hill (blocking the runway’s northeastern tip), you can only have an additional 800 meters or a total of 1.6-km,” points out Tajanlangit.” But, an international airport needs a 3.5-km runway.

“That’s why Carabao is an ideal alternative, considering that the area being considered for an airport development is flat,” avers the swarthy real estate developer. “We can promise, due to its favorable terrain, that we can have an airport by 2012, which comprises the P3-billion phase one, which includes the runway, tarmac and passenger terminal that can accommodate 2 million passengers a year,” he continues. “then, we implement the P2-billion phase 2, that is to expand the terminal further as the need arises.”

Considering that Caticlan can only accommodate 2,000 passengers daily, it can only fill in 1,000 hotel rooms (at twin sharing) in the island. But, Boracay at present has more than 7,000 rooms and this will balloon, with the continous expansion of resort hotels in the island, to 10,000!

“In 2012, we can bring in big planes to Carabao loaded with tourist from China, Korea, Japan, even people from Hongkong, who can have a nice weekend in Boracay,” says tajanlangit. “More tourists will come if we already have Carabao airport because at present, if a foreign tourist is going to Boracay, it’s a big hassle for him to fly in to NAIA then transfer to the Domestic Airport, then fly to kalibo, take a 1-1/2-hour bus trip to Caticlan, then a 15-minute ferry boat transfer before reaching boracay, wasting almost a day of unnecessary travel.

“When the Carabao airport is finished in 2012, we can pump up economic activities not only in Boracay, but also in Aklan, romblon, where Carabao is, Antique, southern Mindoro Oriental, and even Marinduque,” state Tajanlangit, who also operates the 7107 Islands Cruise liner that plies the so-called ‘tourism golden triangle’-that starts from Batangas City to Coron in Busuanga and on to Boracay, and vise versa.

“We can now compete with other major tourist destinations in Southeast Asia like Phuket in Thailand and Bali in Indonesia; which can accommodate one million tourists while we are just dependent on Boracay,” concludes the Ilonggo tourism expert. “So, how can we attract 12 or 15 milllion tourist a year, the Carabao airport when it’s finished will attract that much visitors due to direct flights from their respective countries to our tropical paradise, and beyond.”

The multibillion-peso Carabao International Airport project will be modern and state-of-the-arts as envisioned by its developers. It will be designed by the same company that designed some of the best airports in the world. Fifteen hectares of  the land will be devoted for terminal facilities alone. A component infrastructure of the Carabao airport is a modern port that will serve twin-hulled catamarans and other big, fast craft that will ferry tourists and from Boracay.

“Vietnam is hitting 5 million a year, while we could barely get 3 million,” explains director Reynaldo dela Rosa of the Boracay-based Eminent Persons Group (EPG), a government agency under the Office of the President tasked to oversee the sustainable development of tourism in the island and has the rank of undersecretary in the Department of tourism (DOJ). “With the right tourism master plan for Carabao Island, we can compete with any destination in the region because our beaches here are better than those in Bali.”

So, in 2012, the heart-shaped Carabao Island will start throbbing to give life to the still slumbering and undiscovered scenic islands with alabaster beaches in Northern Panay, Southern Mindoro, Romblon, and northern Palawan, which will complement tourist arrivals in Boracay, the philippines’ diamond in its crown jewels of island tourist destinations. – Randy V. Urlanda – Philippine Panorama – Nov 7 Edition

As a first-time visitor to Iloilo City, my knowledge about the place is practically zero except for the fact that chicken inasal and batchoy are delicious food that supposedly came from that place. So when the Iloilo Economic Development Foundation Inc. invited the media for a 3-day familiarization tour of the city, I was raring to go, eager to discover what Iloilo is all about.

 Iloilo is about food.

Iloilo as I would come to discover is really about food. The Lingoes love to eat, nay they live to eat. For them eating is a way of life. Unlike in Manila where we often wolf down our meals to get on with our other activities, in Iloilo, meals are relished and seen as a social event among family and friends — a time to catch up on each other’s lives over servings of binnacle and nasal. During our lunches and dinners, we (writers from Manila) would already be getting our desserts while our Lingo friends seemed to be just getting warmed up. Our tour guide Eugene Tamerlane shares how it is in their house during weekend lunches — they would linger on the dining table way after lunch sharing stories, that before they realize it, they’d already be having marina, then later after that supper. He adds that in Iloilo they rarely use the sala to entertain guests, instead they just whisk them off into the dining room for a sumptuous meal or maybe a marina of sumac dipped in muscovite and home-made hot chocolate (made from tableau or cocoa tablets and endlessly stirred with a batgirl).

Another thing that makes Lingo cuisine different from other places like Manila became more evident on our third meal. I just realized none of our gracious hosts served us anything that’s fried, only broiled, steamed or grilled. Yes, the Lingoes love their food grilled. While grilling is something we do at home during special occasions, in Iloilo they grill on a daily basis. The grill, whether it’s a Hibachi or just an old chicken wire on top of rocks, is an integral part of the Lingo dirty kitchen. From fish to clams to the ubiquitous chicken inasal that can be found in restaurants on every block, the Ilonggos like them smoked and browned to perfection. Speaking of which, the Ilonggos are crazy about chicken too — more than pork or beef. Stands to reason that while in Manila Andok’s Lechon is but a small kiosk selling take-aways, in Iloilo it’s a huge semi open restaurant that’s always packed with people come dinner time. And not to mention that Mang Inasal, now easily the most popular and biggest grilled chicken restaurant chain in the country originated from Iloilo.

Other original Ilonggo specialties that have gained national popularity are pansit molo from the district of Molo and La Paz batchoy from the district of La Paz. Try Deco’s version of batchoy together with puto for a truly satisfying merienda. While there, you can also get your pasalubong from their store next door where you can choose from a wide array of Ilonggo pastries and delicacies.

For authentic chicken inasal, try Tatoy’s Manukan where they use only native chicken and is one of the more popular restaurants frequented by politicians and celebrities. Just a few meters away is Breakthrough which specializes in seafood specialties such as lobsters, blue crabs and various clams and shellfish that are mostly found in this region. It is situated along the beach so you’ll be dining amidst the sounds of the waves and the scent of the sea breeze, enhancing your tropical dining experience.

If fine dining is more your taste, visit Al Dente restaurant at the Sarabia Hotel for their boneless take on chicken inasal and the hearty Binakol (chicken soup with coconut meat and water) served inside a fresh coconut. On the cheap end, there is a small fast food restaurant called Roberto’s that is famous for its halo-halo and jumbo “King” siopao that is one of Iloilo’s best kept secrets.

They know how to have a good time

If you think Iloilo has nothing to offer like Manila by way of nightlife, you’d be surprised. Though the Ilonggos appear to be simpler and more conservative than the Manila folks, it does not mean that they don’t know how to have a good time.

Head over to Smallville, their smaller version of Eastwood City to sample the food and entertainment provided by the different restaurants and bars that make up this hip and happening complex. From dining, to disco, to videoke or live bands, you only need to walk around to find the place that’s up your alley. The place is crawling with families, students, and employees every night and closes later on weekends.

There is no Starbucks here, but they have their own Iloilo – based Coffeebreak which is not only cheaper but has the ambiance and taste that will give the franchised coffee shops a run for their money. Coffebreak along with the other restaurants in the same area are the brainchild of restaurateur whiz Johnny Que who is also behind Waffle Time which started in Iloilo and is now 423 outlets strong all over the Philippines.

Iloilo is more urban than you think

Iloilo City is a fast – growing metropolis fueled by the increasing number of Business Processing and Outsourcing (BPOs)/ call centers that have set up shop in the city. As the province’s educational hub, with 13 colleges and universities, Iloilo becomes an ideal investment site for skills-required and English-proficient job employments. Though Iloilo City may not have the high-rise buildings of Makati, it is not that far behind in terms of infrastructures, facilities, and standards of living either. In some aspects Iloilo is even better off. Iloilo City seems to have lesser traffic, wider streets, lesser potholes and garbage and a cleaner waterway. I did not find any shanties or squatters within the city either. With better infrastructures and a new coal – powered plant set for completion in 2010, Iloilo is poised to attract even more investors and visitors.

A jump-off point to Guimaras

With a modern airport in Sta. Barbara and the city being strategically located, Iloilo stands as a gateway and jump-off point to other tourist destinations. Just 15 minutes from the Iloilo wharf by boat is the island of Guimaras, known for its export quality mangoes, pristine beaches and scenic landscapes. Alubihod Beach in Nueva Valencia is the more popular resort known for its white sand and clear water ideal for swimming and other water activities. When in Guimaras be sure to drop by the Trappist Monastery where you can ask for the monks’ blessing and you can get dried mangos, jams, jellies made from fruits they grow and harvest themselves.

Iloilo’s rich cultural heritage

Iloilo’s rich cultural heritage can be best gleaned from the old churches, mansions, and buildings that are evidence of the city’s once glorious past of being the textile capital of the Philippines more than a century ago. Architecture students will have a field day studying the old buildings along Calle Real that retained the various design standards of the time: art deco, Spanish, European, etc. Nelly’s garden in Jaro is one of the finest examples of residential mansions owned by the most prominent families of the province. The mansion’s facade looks like it was cut out of a postcard and looks even better when lit up for Christmas. Jaro Cathedral and Molo Church are not only magnificent structures, with Jaro having its Belfry separate and across the street and Molo with its Neo-Gothic style, but they are also unique because Jaro Cathedral only houses male saint sculptures while Molo as its counterpart only has female saints.

While Iloilo is no longer known for weaving, there are still some locals who keep the tradition and art of the loom alive. One such place where you can buy quality sinamays or hablots is in a heritage house in Arevalo where you can find shawls and placemats made from the finest jusi or pinya fibers.

My first Iloilo City experience was a journey of discovery. I look forward to going back to experience the Dinagyang Festival in January as three days are not enough time to really know Iloilo… and there’s a lot more to discover.

(Cebu Pacific flies to Iloilo five times daily from Manila, 18 times weekly from Cebu, and daily from Davao.) – mb.com.ph

There’s a fine line separating hero and martyr.  From a macro view, overseas Filipino workers are indeed “unsung heroes” but look micro, at individuals, and you find silent martyrs.

Some nine million Filipinos work overseas, annually sending home about US$17 billion, just a bit smaller than the value of our agriculture and fishery industries output.  Thanks to worker remittances, Balance of Payments, Gross National Product, income and employment, exchange rate, prices—all economic indicators in fact—are in fine shape.  Our unsung heroes keep the county’s economy afloat.

To be an OFW, one has to have a waiting job, a passport and working visa, and a plane ticket.  These require time, patience, and money.  Think birth certificate; NBI/police/barangay clearance; bio-data; evidence of education, training and work experience; medical exam; trade test; pre-departure orientation.

One could exhaust family (or clan) savings, sell property, borrow at sky-high interest, to raise the P60+ thousand needed to cover recruitment fee (maximum—one month’s salary), health insurance premium and costs supposed to be borne by the prospective employer (but are ultimately charged to the worker anyway), e.g., airfare, working visa fee, POEA processing fee, OWWA membership contribution, etc.

There are circling vultures.  Stories abound of people getting fake passport, visa and plane tickets, of those who find themselves illegal entrants.  Some people supposedly paid US$500 to cross each of three borders only to be caught and deported back to the Philippines.

Many live miserably, work for abusive employers, get little job satisfaction—licensed teachers working as nannies, doctors as nurses, lawyers as clerks, master carpenters as peons—suffering discrimination and daily humiliations.

Earnings are not always that great even with moonlighting.  After paying for board, lodging and incidentals, and after setting aside loan amortization, an OFW could be sending home not much more than US$250 a month.  Savings could be dissipated on pasalubong, balato, good time.

The personal and social costs of family separation are heavy and worrying.  Children grow up fatherless or motherless, undisciplined and unguided.  Lonely spouse, whether overseas or stay-at-home, finds a short-term love.  Special problems arise when both parents leave and children are left with grandparents or other relatives.  A mendicancy mind-set develops, with spouse and children simply waiting for a monthly check, whining with delay.

School administrators report how the relatively rich OFW children seem not to care about learning, content with coasting along and expecting an indefinite flow of support from absent parents.

There is increasing competition from other countries’ workers, but we will no doubt hold our own in terms of total workers deployed, total remittances received.  Many rich countries function smoothly only with workers from elsewhere.  We could therefore be okay from a macroeconomic standpoint, but zoom in on individuals and you could find parents with little income and no savings, untrained and aimless children.

It is sad that there are not enough jobs to keep our best people from leaving, tragic that many in the next generation are growing up in broken homes, growing up dependent. – WALA LANG : mb.com.ph

Of late, we have all witnessed nature’s onslaught – raging floods that killed thousands and left many homeless, tons of mud that buried people alive, catastrophic landslides and erosions, heavy winds that uprooted trees and toppled homes. All of these are Mother Earth’s response to the abuses we have made, and a very portentous and apparent caveat comes with this: We will all perish lest we do something about it.

This seems to be the message that the University of the Philippines (UP) Alumni Centennial Artists are trying to get across in their last exhibit at the Trade Hall of the Gateway Mall. The group exhibit is still part of the continuing art education of the UP Alumni Association. Although not entirely an offshoot of the Ondoy and Pepeng typhoons, the show dubbed as ‘Kalikasan’ hit home and came out very timely.

Poetic, colorful, and alive, the 113 artworks in the show depicted nature at its best. Wielded and rendered in different artistic expressions, the paintings remind us that the environment should be given the utmost attention and care for the very reason that it sustains us.  They tell us that Mother Earth is inherently good to us and gives us a stunning and picturesque escape when not left to man’s destructive devices. Central to the opuses in the exhibit are pristine falls, vast green fields, perennials, blooms, bodies of water, and wildlife among others.

According to group leader Romy Carlos, majority of the works have been made solely for the exhibit while others have been made several years back such as National Artist Jose Joya’s landscape of Zarraga, Iloilo made in 1980 and National Artist Cesar Legaspi’s pastel drawing of a hot summer day in Iloilo that was finished in 1976.

Notable and memorable pieces include Araceli Limcaco-Dans’ painting of a scene in Batanes titled ‘The Carabao,’ where several Igorots are walking an earthy pathway with a carabao in tow; Vincent de Pio’s almost abstract seascape done with thick impastos of black and with hints of fleshy and rosy tones; Roberto Duldulao’s Zen-inspired oeuvre; and Norly Membian’s artwork fashioned with gestural splatters of paint.

Two of the participating artists in the exhibit are Mar Bongalon and Manuel Gamboa. Known for being a figurative artist, Bongalon captured nature using an impressionistic technique. His works ‘Carillon Receding Light’ and ‘Carillon Sunset’ arrest the passage of time and transient light over a scenic view. Gamboa, on the other hand, painted his hideaway from the bustling metropolis for the show.

Billed ‘Secret Coves,’ the diptych has a childlike and effervescent quality. One can tell that it was done with a fervent passion for colors and play rather than with the rigid rudiments of form and structure.
Come December, Carlos said that they are mounting another Mother-and-Child-themed exhibit. The month will also see the core group of the Centennial Artists staging another show titled ‘Sining Saysay.’ It will coincide with the 50th anniversary of Araneta Center. The would-be suite of paintings will put into murals some of the country’s most significant historical events—from pre-colonial period up to Martial Law.

Works from this would-be exhibition will be hung around the Araneta Coliseum. UP Professor for art history and curator Ruben Defeo will be part of the overseeing committee for this project, said Carlos in a previous interview. Slated to participate aside from Carlos are National Artist BenCab, Janice Young, Gig de Pio, Tessie Duldulao, Eileen Lanusa, Cris Cruz, and Ding Hidalgo to mention a few.

So far, the group has produced six shows in just half a year.

For more information about the UP Alumni Association and the UP Centennial Alumni Artists and their works, contact Ang Bahay ng Alumni, Ramon Magsaysay Avenue, UP Diliman, Quezon City; 929-8327, or visit www.upalumni.ph

The government’s bid to ensure food security got a big boost after a rice variety that can survive flooding was discovered recently.

Senator Manny Villar, president of the Nacionalista Party (NP), immediately lauded the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) on their discovery as he vowed to focus attention on farmers to improve rice production, so that the country will be self-sufficient and does not have to import rice.

“We used to export rice to other countries, now we are the biggest importer of rice. The government has been postponing the country’s rice self-sufficiency targets. We should stick to these targets and be rice self-sufficient soon,” said Villar.

IRRI recently announced that the Philippines would be the first to try submergence-tolerant materials that will produce new rice hybrids such as “sub1 or submarine rice” that can withstand being submerged in flood for weeks. There is also the so-called “aerobic rice” that can be planted in mountainous areas and does not need much water or irrigation.

Villar finds it ironic that the Philippines is leading the discovery of these new rice varieties and yet so many Filipinos are still experiencing hunger because they cannot afford to buy rice.

The Third Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey also showed that 41% of Filipino families or an estimated 7.5 million consider themselves as Food-Poor while 35% put themselves on the Food-Borderline and 24% consider themselves as Not Food-Poor.

SWS said that Self-Rated Food Poverty rate has steadily risen from 36% in February, 39% in June, and 41% in September of 2009 after declining from 42% in December 2008. The number of families who put themselves on the food-borderline slightly declined from 33% as well as those who considered themselves as not food-poor, which was 28% in the June 2009 survey.

Villar emphasized that the next administration should support local farmers in using the new varieties of rice to increase their rice production and for the country to avoid spending too much on rice importation.

The discovery of the new varieties of rice, according to Villar, is also very timely since the country is still reeling from the effects of the recent typhoons. “We are all aware of the damage that storms “Pepeng” and “Ondoy” brought in Luzon, which is the country’s so-called ‘rice bowl.’ The rice crops of farmers, who were supposed to harvest already, were destroyed,” said Villar.

Villar is pushing for government to extend financial assistance and credit line facility to farmers to help in their expenses particularly in fertilizers, which are really expensive.

Villar has also previously filed Senate Bill 1897 that aims to end the monopoly in rice importation and to allow farmer cooperatives and organizations to handle these to increase their income. – mb.com.ph

Pero single ulit ang action star dahil inamin niya sa isang veteran columnist na two years na silang divorced ng kanyang asawa na si Liezl Sicangco. Kinumpirma rin ni Robin na may asawa nang iba si Liezl sa Australia. Halos 20 years nagsama noon sina Robin at Liezl.

Tumangging magbigay ng iba pang detalye si Robin.

Kinausap ng PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) sa pamamagitan ng telepono nitong umaga ng Biyernes (November 6), ang isang taong malapit kay Robin upang humingi ng iba pang mga detalye tungkol dito.

Tinanong namin ang aming source kung bakit ngayon lamang lumabas ang balitang divorced na pala sina Robin at Liezl.

“Siguro, dahil wala namang lumabas na issue tungkol doon at wala rin namang nagtanong sa kanya,” sagot ng aming kausap. “Pero I’m glad na maayos naman pala silang nagkahiwalay ni Liezl at mas naging magkaibigan pa sila ngayon. Nasa higher level na ang friendship kaysa noong mag-asawa pa sila.”

Idinagdapa ng kausap na, “Mas masaya ang relationship nila, na kay Liezl pa rin ang mga bata at kung may okasyon na dapat ay narito silang mag-iina, dumarating sila rito. Last year, magkakasama silang pumunta sa Europe, bale birthday gift niya [Robin] ‘yon kay Liezl. Sa November 19, uuwi rito ang mag-iina dahil sa November 23, 40th birthday nga ni Robin.”

Gayunman, wala umanong malaking selebrasyon na gagawin sa kaarawan ng aktor dahil may ibang pinagkakaabalahan ito.

“Walang big celebration, mas concentrated ngayon si Robin sa kanyang mga advocacies. At sa araw ng birthday niya, sama-sama silang pupunta sa Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija para mamigay ng relief goods. Tuluy-tuloy din ang pagpunta niya sa depressed areas ng mga kapatid niyang Muslim,” anang kausap sa telepono.

Natuloy ba ang pagpunta ni Robin sa Libya?

“Hindi siya natuloy,” sagot ng aming source. “Dapat ay aalis siya ngayon pero nagka-sore eyes siya. Nasa bahay lamang muna siya dahil ayaw niyang makahawa.”

Tentative pa rin ang pag-alis ni Robin sa U.S. sa December 10. May tatapusin pa kasi siyang commitments sa ilang endorsements niya na willing ding mamigay ng relief goods sa iba’t ibang apektadong lugar na gusto niyang puntahan.

Kabilang umano rito ang bayan ng ama niya sa Panganiban, Camarines Norte, na pupuntahan niya bago umalis papuntang U.S. Nagpunta umano si Robin, with BB Gandanghari sa Panganiban at nakita niya kung gaano ito napinsala ng bagyo.

Ang bunsong anak nina Robin at Liezl na si Ali ang nag-request sa action star na gusto nitong pumunta ng Disneyland. Ipinakuha na rin ni Robin ng visa ang ibang mga anak niya na sina Queenie, Kylie, at ZhenZhen dahil first time lang nilang pupunta sa States.

Ang mga babaeng anak daw ni Robin ay dadalaw rin sa anak ng action star sa dating aktres na si Leah Orosa, si Camille, 19 years old na naka-base na roon. Magba-bonding daw sila.

After ng Christmas vacation nila sa States, back to work na ulit si Robin para tapusin ang shooting ng movie niya with Toni Gonzaga for Star Cinema.

Ngayong puwede nang mag-girlfriend ulit ni Robin, ready na rin kaya siya for another relationship? – Nora Calderon, PEP

Manny Pacquiao is going through his throwing motion at Yankee Stadium. With easy deliberation, he shows off the form he says he perfected playing elementary school baseball in the dirt-poor southern Philippines before boxing took him over completely. His shoulder slips back, his torso pitches smoothly forward, left hand and arm torquing an imaginary ball into the depths of the air-conditioned players’ cafeteria, where he is waiting to take the field for an announcement. The diamond stud in his ear catches the light.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1935091,00.html#ixzz0W5O2tMRK