KAKAMMPI News

ABS-CBN News Posted at  Feb 20 2019 09:35 PM MANILA - Three Filipinos were imprisoned in Hong Kong for opening bank accounts using forged documents, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday. The DFA, in a statement, said the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong is providing free legal assistance to the three call center employees who were sentenced to 5-month imprisonment last Monday.  The three were arrested on Oct. 12, 2018 and are expected to be freed next month after "serving a reduced sentence for pleading guilty to two counts of 'using a false instrument' before the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts," the DFA said. It said the Filipinos went to Hong Kong in October and opened bank accounts, believed to be used for money laundering, at the Bank of China and Standard Chartered Bank using falsified documents.

Agence France-Presse Posted at  Feb 20 2019 06:18 PM KUALA LUMPUR - Six people, including three foreigners, were killed when a fire broke out Wednesday in a Malaysian karaoke center, with rescuers describing scenes of chaos as the blaze engulfed the building. The fire erupted before dawn on the fourth floor of an eight-story building in the city of Ipoh, northern Perak state. Firefighters rushed to the scene and found the bodies of six people who had died of smoke inhalation, Perak fire department acting director Sayani Saidon told AFP. "We came across two locals, two Vietnamese women and a Bangladeshi man. We are still determining the identity of the sixth person," she said. Firefighters rescued eight people alive, including two in critical condition, she added.  People inside were unable to find the way out after the fire erupted as exit lights did not come on, she said. Those that survived had run to an upper level to escape the flames. "When t...

Kyodo News Posted at  Feb 21 2019 07:47 AM TOKYO - The Japanese government plans to ease language requirements for foreign technical interns to work in the nursing care business as part of efforts to bring in more laborers from abroad, government sources said Wednesday. Japan opened up its nursing care sector for foreigners who are willing to work as trainees from November 2017. But the number of such trainees has grown at a sluggish pace apparently due to the Japanese language proficiency requirements, which have been set higher than interns in other sectors. Currently, the care workers are allowed to extend their stay on the condition that they pass a certain level of a Japanese language test a year after they arrive in Japan. If they fail, they have to return to their own country. But the government now plans to allow the workers to stay two additional years as long as they express their willingness to continuously study the language, according to the sources...

Published  February 21, 2019 7:27am  Ambassador to Austria Maria Cleofe R. Natividad (second from the left) congratulates IAEA Division Director Dr. Jane Gerardo-Abaya (second from the right). They are joined by Consul General Deena Joy Amatong (far left) and Vice Consul Allen Carillo (far right).  DFA photo A Filipina scientist was recently appointed as one of the directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Austria-based Dr. Jane Gerardo-Abaya assumed her new position as director of IAEA's Department of Technical Cooperation Asia and the Pacific Division last month. Abaya paid a courtesy call in the Philippine Permanent Mission in Vienna’s chancery on January 18 where she was personally congratulated by Philippine Ambassador to Austria Maria Cleofe Natividad for her appointment. During the courtesy call, Natividad conveyed the Permanent Mission's full support to Abay...

Published  February 18, 2019 10:01pm  The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Friday arrested a Chinese national for alleged illegal recruitment and human trafficking of Filipino workers. The suspect was identified as Kai Kai Wang, alias Jackson Ong. He was detained along with his secretary, a Filipina named June Rose Taguba De Agtaran. The NBI also rescued five Filipinas who applied for work at Wang’s office after some earlier recruits invited them to come. NBI operatives went to Wang’s office in Binondo, Manila and pretended to be applicants interested in working in China. Wang offered a P40,000 salary for domestic helpers but he does not have a permit or any connection with the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA). With no proper paperwork to operate, Wang’s agency smuggles applicants to China via boats from Vietnam. The NBI is currently investigating the status of other Filipinos who were illegally taken to China earlier ...

Published  February 19, 2019 10:17am  The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has opened a consular office in Misamis Occidental to serve the demand for passport and the other consular services in Zamboanga and Northern Mindanao regions. The new consular office — the DFA's 35th — is located at Clarin Town Center in Clarin and was inaugurated last February 11. It will be open from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Appointments for passport services are now available from via passport.gov.ph/appointment, the DFA said. In his remarks during the inauguration, DFA Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Neil Frank Ferrer said the opening of the CO in Clarin would help the department fulfill its commitment to bring its services closer to the public. He added that not only would the new CO provide passport services but also assistance-to-nationals services, where the public can request assistance from the DFA for their distressed relatives abroad...

Published  February 20, 2019 10:50pm  TAIPEI, Taiwan - A rescue operation was under way after a knife fight broke out aboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean, with one worker killed and several thrown overboard, Taiwan's coast guard said Wednesday. A nearby Taiwanese boat responded to the distress call and rescued four seamen from the waters 1,500 nautical miles northeast of Mauritius. "Many of the crew members were forced off the ship, but we don't know how many are in the waters," a coast guard statement said. Rescuers from the nearby vessel were prevented from boarding the distressed ship by a worker wielding a metal bar as a weapon, a government official said. A Taiwanese fishing association said at least 10 people had been sighted in the water. "We believe that the captain and his chief engineer are safe and have locked themselves inside the bridge," said Chai Pao-hsin, manager of the Liu-chiu Fishermen'...