News & Current Events
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Sweetie’s Crackdown on Online Predators
To those who have not met her yet, Sweetie is a 10-year-old Filipina girl who chats with men on online video chat rooms. (Photo credit to the owner.) Some of these men offer to pay her money to perform indecent acts online. I’m sure you have heard of the likes of Sweetie who fall in the clutches of pedophiles but what makes her different is that she’s not real. You see, Sweetie is a computer-generated child set up by Terre des Hommes, a Dutch children’s charity, to track online sex offenders. Hopefully, through this crackdown, more children would be playing yamaha fg730s at wwbw instead of being forced into a…
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Sixteen and Sixty
May-December affairs are not unfamiliar to us. But when music icon Freddie Aguilar came out in the open with his relationship with a girl 44 years his junior, public controversy was stirred. People had mixed reactions to this news. (Photo credit to the owner.) While some supported the 60-year-old’s declaration of love for his 16-year-old girlfriend, there are many who found this immoral. A 16-year-old should be taking music lessons in Huntsville and not being in the arms of a man who is old enough to be his grandfather. Though this may be a case of lovers against the world, Freddie Aguilar may face charges of qualified seduction.
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Full Text: President Noynoy Aquino SONA 2013
State of the Nation Address of President Benigno S. Aquino III to the Congress of the Philippines, Batasang Pambansa Complex, Quezon City, July 22, 2013 [This is an English translation of the SONA delivered at the Session Hall of the House of Representatives, Batasang Pambansa Complex, Quezon City, on July 22, 2013] Vice President Jejomar Binay; Senate President Franklin M. Drilon; Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.; Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and the eminent Justices of the Supreme Court; former Presidents Fidel Valdez Ramos and Joseph Ejercito Estrada; distinguished members of the diplomatic corps; honorable members of the House of Representatives and of the Senate; our leaders in local government; members…
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When Water Begets Death Not Life
Water is an abiotic factor essential to the survival of living organisms. Without water, no plant or animal can survive. However, over congested urban areas and worsening poverty has led to pollution and to poor sanitation which in turn cause various illnesses and diseases. What used to be sources of nourishing water now become havens for bacteria and other elements that cause diseases which most often lead to death. Just recently, UNICEF said that 1,800 of the 2,000 children under the age of five who die daily from diarrheal disease succumb to the illness due to contaminated water, lack of sanitation, or inadequate hygiene. Furthermore, almost eight million Filipinos are…
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Guidelines Against Misleading Seat Sale Ads
Did the airline companies thought that they can mislead everyone with their seat sale or fare promo? Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has issued a warning against the misleading advertisements on promotional fares, even as it set guidelines on how to promote such “seat sales.” Among the guidelines set by the DOJ are: 1. Airline companies should be conscious of the allowable limits of their advertisements under the Consumer Act and the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights. 2. Ads should also contain reasonable details about the deal being offered, taking into account the perspective of a consumer. 3. Reasonable caveats or warnings like ‘plus applicable fees and charges,’ ‘exclusive of…
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Media Finally Gets To Exercise Their Right To Suffrage
Campaign season has already started and sorties are being held left and right in different regions of the country. Equally busy as the electoral candidates are the media personnel that cover and report every election related news. Now’s a great time to stock up on barefruitsnacks you can munch on while watching election related news and infomercials on the tube. Every election, whether local or national, media personnel covering the news on election day itself do not get the chance to cast their votes. This year though, media personnel will be allowed to cast their votes ahead of the elections. The Commission on Elections promulgated Resolution 9637 last February 13…
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Governments Raise Flag on Owning and Carrying Guns
US President Barack Obama is not easing up on his bid to get his gun ban proposals approved in Capitol Hill. He takes his campaign out of the White House as he hies off to rally supporters for his weapons ban campaign in Minnesota. Obama’s anti-gun campaign seeks to revive the assault weapons ban which expired in 2004. Although the details of the proposal are not yet certain, Obama has cited that the need to require gun purchases to undergo a universal background check will be part of the legislature despite the strong opposition coming from the National Rifle Association. Advocates of the anti-gun campaign are gathering their forces to…
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Lawyers Worried With New Supreme Court Flip-Flopping
The country’s top legal luminaries have expressed deep concern that the Supreme Court might be sliding back to its flip-flopping days following it”s decision to reverse itself and lift entry of judgment on a decision that was already rendered as final and executory. In a manifesto, top lawyers led by Dean Amado Valdez, Chairman of the Philippine Association of Law Schools and Dean of the UE College of Law, are worried that the High Tribunal might be going back to its old habit of reversing its own decisions which eventually undermined its credibility and resulted in an embarrassing impeachment process that removed former Chief Justice Renato Corona. “We have been…
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Who Is The True Killer?
While I am writing this post, my heart is still mourning for a death of an old man. He is not a relative nor a friend but a total stranger. He died few minutes ago, as confirmed by the doctors. He could have survived if some people had a heart to help him. This old man deserve to die with dignity. Early in the morning while sipping my hot coffee in a press office, I received an information about a man who just fell down and died while walking in a busy street of Aurora Boulevard in Cubao, Quezon City. I went to the area to confirm and it breaks…