KAKAMMPI News

MOGADISHU - Somali pirates have freed 26 Asian sailors held captive in a small fishing village for more than four years since their ship was hijacked in the Indian Ocean, a government official said on Saturday. The sailors -- from China, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Taiwan -- were seized close to the Seychelles in February 2012, a time when pirate attacks were a regular occurrence in waters linking Europe with Africa and Asia. "The crew is here (in Galkayo). They will be flown to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Saturday," local mayor Hirsi Yusuf Barre, told Reuters. "The crew did not say if ransom was paid," he added. Barre said the ship's captain was killed in the hijacking, while two others died from illness during their time in captivity -- one of the longest among hostages seized by pirates in the Horn of Africa nation. A local security official said their vessel had sunk in unknown circumstances. The sailors were held in Da...

A total of 435 out of 1,255 passed the Nurse Licensure Examination given by the Board of Nursing in the Middle East, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced Friday. [ Click here for complete list of passers. ] The PRC said the examinatino was given to Filipinos in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Al-Khobar, Jeddah and Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Doha, Qatar; and in Kuwait last September.  —KBK, GMA News

Japanese labor authorities have ruled that the death of a Filipino technical trainee two years ago was due to overwork, Japanese media reports said. A  report on the Asahi Shimbun  said Joey Tocnang died of heart failure at his company dorm in April 2014, three months before his scheduled return to the Philippines. He was 27 years old. Prior to this death, Tocnang was logging in 78.5 to 122.5 hours of overtime a month, according to the Gifu Labor Standard Inspection Office of the Japan Labor Ministry, which ruled in August that his death was due to overwork. Tocnang's death was the first case of "karoshi," or death by overwork, involving a foreigner in Japan since 2011, the report said. A  separate report by Japan Times  said prior to Tocnang, a foreign trainee in Itako, Ibaraki Prefecture, had perished from overworking in 2010. Citing the Gaikokujin Ginojisshusei Kenri Network, a Tokyo-based advocacy group for foreign trainees, the report said the first i...

Photo courtesy of Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur Bicolano artist Pancho Piano is the sole representative of the Philippines and Southeast Asia in a recent art exhibit at Malaysia. Piano's stained glass and abstract paintings are part of Art Expo Malaysia (AEM) Plus 2016, a public exhibit held at MATRADE Exhibition and Exhibit Center in Kuala Lumpur. His paintings were the only representation for the Southeast Asian region in the AEM's Embassy Row, which includes works from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, France, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Mongolia, Romania and Russia. Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia J. Eduardo Malaya said it was an honor to have the multi-awarded artist represent the country in the embassy's fourth year of participation at the AEM. "We are pleased that he has agreed to be our representative for this year, as we aspire to bring the best of the Philippine art scene in Malaysia," Malaya said. Piano's pieces draw from t...

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) on Thursday announced that 42 out of 163 passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Licensure Examination given in the Middle East last month. [Click here for list of passers.] The examination was held on September 14 and the following days in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Al-Khobar, Jeddah and Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Doha, Qatar; and in Kuwait.  —KBK, GMA News

HK lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung (left) joins Filipino and foreign peace advocates in condemning the violent dispersal of rallyists in Manila by the police. HONG KONG — Indignation over Wednesday's violent dispersal of protesters near the US Embassy in Manila has reached Hong Kong, with human rights and peace advocates holding a picket at the Philippine Consulate General on Thursday. Some 30 Filipino and foreign protesters, including Indonesian migrant workers and Hong Kong people, joined the picket, some carrying placards showing the pictures of the policemen blamed for the violence with the word 'WANTED.' Hong Kong lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung also joined the picket. In a statement, the Hong Kong Campain for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) said the "brutality of the police force, as caught on videos and pictures, is most contemptuous and showed the shallow regard of these beasts in uniforms to human rights and the search for...

The Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and its counterpart in Qatar is set to sign an agreement promoting the rights of migrant workers, OFW advocate Susan Ople said Thursday. "I've been informed [by the CHR] that for the first time, we will have a human rights agreement with the government of Qatar," Ople said during a human rights forum in Quezon City. "Sa Middle East kasi, Saudi [Arabia] and Qatar, 'yan ang tinitignan. [But] Saudi is sensitive now. Kuwait is also more sensitive now. That's why we have to seize the advantage," she added. Ople said this is a welcome development, as there will now be a policy that will protect the rights of OFWs amid the increase of human trafficking cases in the Middle East. In a slideshow she presented at the forum, Ople said as many as 1,000 Filipinos, most of them domestic workers, have entered Iraq since 2015 despite the Alert Level 4, which bans the deploment of workers, imposed by the Department ...