KAKAMMPI News

A Filipina housemaid in Kuwait was arrested for allegedly putting bits of glass in the food of her employer's children. According to a report of the news site Emirates 24/7, the children's mother was shocked when she saw the maid mixing bits of glass into the food.   The mother told the police that the maid "pretended to be epileptic" to escape punishment.   Quoting a report of the Alwatan Arabic language daily, Emirates 24/7 said at the hospital, the maid was found to be normal and not epileptic. The doctors suspected that "she was simply pretending to be ill…the children’s father later asked police to deport the maid immediately,” Emirates 24/7 said.  - VVP, GMA News

BY MARY SLOSSON, REUTERS   SACRAMENTO - California lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday to allow some young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children to obtain driving licenses, in a move that could appeal to Hispanic voters in the heavily Democratic state.   The bill, which passed the state Assembly by a 55-15 vote before being sent to the desk of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, was introduced following the announcement of a federal program to relax deportation rules and grant some young immigrants temporary legal status in the United States.   "It is a victory for those who were brought here through no fault of their own, played by the rules, and are only asking to be included in and contribute to American society," the bill's sponsor, Assembly member Gilbert Cedillo, said in a statement.   He added that he was confident Brown would sign it into law.   The bill's passage marks the latest chapter in a long-running n...

PATRICIA DENISE CHIU, GMA NEWS     Any Filipino who has doubts about the authenticity of one's passport may return it to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), a DFA official said. In an email to GMA News Online on Friday, Assistant Secretary Jaime Victor Ledda of the Office of Consular Affairs of the DFA, said, "If a person has reason to believe that a passport is fake, he or she is kindly requested to bring the matter to the immediate attention of the Office of the Assistant Secretary at the DFA Office of Consular Affairs." GMA News Online asked Ledda about the fake passports issue after media reports came out that fugitive ex-Palawan Governor Joel Reyes used a tampered passport to flee the country earlier this month.   Reyes is wanted for the murder of Palawan-based environmentalist and broadcaster Gerardo "Gerry" Ortega in Puerto Princesa early last year.   Fugitives and fake passports Asked if there were other cases where fugitives use...

ROUCHELLE DINGLASAN, GMA NEWS   The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Wednesday said about 1,300 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are still waiting to be repatriated from strife-torn Syria.   “Sa ngayon sa ating estimate, mayroon pang mga 6,000 to 7,000 Filipinos na nandun pa sa Syria. Out of this, 1,300 na nagsignify ng interest na magrepatriate,” DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said in an interview with Howie Severino over GMA News TV’s “News To Go” program on Wednesday.   Since March last year, some 2,098 OFWs have been repatriated from the war-torn country, Hernandez noted.   About  19 Pinoys  returned from Syria on Tuesday. This was the latest batch of OFWS repatriated from the country.  “Basically ang ating mga kababayan ay nasa Damascus at Aleppo pero nandoon po sila sa mga mayayamang lugar... Ang sagupaan ngayon ay 'yung sa periphery at impoverished ng mga [nasabing] area,” Hernandez added.   Most o...

The United States is home to some 3,166,529 Filipinos, based on the  2010 Stock Estimate  of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas. SAN FRANCISCO - Two more visitors to Yosemite National Park have been diagnosed with a deadly rodent-borne virus, raising the total number of people infected in the unusual outbreak to six, California public health officials said Thursday.   Two men died from the rare lung disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and four other people survived the rodent-borne illness. Most of the victims are believed to have contracted the virus while staying in tent-style cabins this summer in a popular camping area called Curry Village.   Park officials earlier this week shut down 91 insulated tent-cabins after finding deer mice, which carry the disease and can burrow through pencil-sized holes, nesting between the double walls of the structures.   Park authorities have notified 2,900 parties of visitors who rented th...

ANDREO CALONZO, GMA News Pregnant teenage girls. Young children being left to fend for themselves. Couples with 16 kids struggling to raise their families. These were some of the images that greeted European legislators when they visited urban poor communities in Metro Manila this week. Carina Hägg, a member of the Swedish parliament, said she was overcome with emotion when she witnessed the plight of poor families living near dumpsites and under bridges in the Philippines’ capital region. “I really wanted to cry. It was very sad to see that not every woman here has access to healthcare. It was depressing to see kids lose their mothers too early,” she said in a press briefing in Quezon City on Thursday morning. At the same briefing, Portuguese lawmaker Ricardo Baptista Leite said that the situation in Metro Manila slums reminded him of the population situation in his country three decades ago. “It was really [a] learning experience for me. Thirty years ago in Portugal, we had very simi...

PATRICIA DENISE CHIU, GMA News August 30, 2012 5:52pm http://www.gmanetwork.com/ news /story/271914/news/nation/ advo cates-call-for-adolescent- rh- education It's not always easy to answer a teen's questions about his or her body. And when they do not know who to go to for answers — to questions on a range of topics, from the color of their ejaculate to the irregularity of their menstrual periods — adolescent reproductive health education becomes necessary, advocates said Wednesday. “Questions like this you have to answer in a sex-positive way," Dr. Silvia Claudio, Director of the UP Women’s Studies Center, told reporters after a roundtable discussion with some 30 advocates and experts in Makati City. “Non-judgemental scientific information about sexuality in its broadest scope,” she added. “If you look at reality, you can see that this [sex-negative] approach is not working," Claudio said, pointing to rape, hazing and bullying as possible consequences of a “lack of ...

by Paterno Esmaquel II http://www.rappler.com/nation/ 11424-why-catholic-teachers- ca n-back-rh Posted on 08/29/2012 9:11 PM  | Updated 08/29/2012 9:56 PM MANILA, Philippines – Scholarly opposition is perfectly normal. The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) supports Catholic bishops but respects professors who back the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, said a top official of the Philippines' biggest association of Catholic schools. Founded in 1941, CEAP has over 1,200 members, including some of the most respected schools in the country. CEAP national advocacy chair Fr Joel Tabora on Wednesday, August 29, explained that the association supports Philippine bishops in opposing any law that does the following: *    includes provisions for “abortifacient” birth regulation *    forces Catholics “to act against his or her conscience” *    “usurps” parents' rights to educate their children on sexuality “The CEAP supports the bishops in the...

By: Cher S. Jimenez, Interaksyon.com August 29, 2012 7:06 PM http://www.interaksyon.com/ art icle/41778/natural-birth- contr ol-method-didnt-succeed- during -arroyos-term-despite- huge- funding---group MANILA, Philippines - Inspite of its huge funding, natural family planning (NFP), the only birth control method implemented by the previous administration, rose to only a few points, according to the non-government Likhaan Center for Women's Health. Dr. Junice Melgar, Likhaan executive director, said NFP during the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had risen only from .1 to .3 percent "despite the money poured into" it. According to Melgar, while the Arroyo administration was solely pushing for NFP and depriving Filipinos of modern reproductive health services, the unmet need for family planning rose from 15.7 percent in 2006 to 19.3 percent in 2011. The data is based on the latest Family Health Survey In 2004, the government awarded P50 million to the Catholic grou...

http://amnesty.org.ph/news. php ?item=news&id=267 For more than five years, Jonas Burgos has been missing. He is a victim of enforced disappearance, a crime under international law. While James Balao abducted four years ago, has never been seen as well. Despite pleas by both their families, the truth about their whereabouts has remained a secret. The families continue to be kept in the dark, Amnesty International Philippines said in a statement. “The cases of Burgos and Balao are only two among hundreds. The families of victims of enforced disappearances continue to be kept in the dark, still not sure of happened to their loved ones. The International Day of the Disappeared on August 30 is an appropriate time for the Philippine government to answer questions regarding unresolved cases of disappearances. We hope President Aquino will instruct the military, police and the justice department to improve and speed up the investigations of the cases of disappearances so that justice will...

ABS-CBNnews.com KUWAIT - After spending more than 3 weeks in the hospital in Kuwait, a Filipina household service worker finally returned home to Manila. Margie Pontillas was injured after escaping from her abusive employer by jumping off a two-storey house. With the help of officers from the Philippine embassy and POLO-OWWA, Pontillas finally boarded a flight to Manila last Saturday. "Sa awa ng Diyos, masaya po ako, nagpapasalamat po ako sa ABS-CBN, at lalong-lalo na po sa POLO-OWWA... Maraming-maraming salamat po," she said. She also thanked her agency in the Philippines for helping expedite her return to the Philippines. The 33-year-old Pontillas, a native of Carmen, Davao, is separated from her husband and has 5 children. She arrived in Kuwait on February 2, 2011 to work as a household service worker. She escaped from  her abusive employer last July 16 . Aside from a fractured right foot and broken toe nail, Pontillas had bite marks on her left arm and right for...

ABS-CBNnews.com MANILA, Philippines - Overseas Filipino workers may soon be able to file their claims online so they can be reimbursed for hospital bills incurred abroad. The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth) is exploring strategies to provide better service to its OFW members. "We want covered OFWs to receive immediate financial relief in the event they become ill and seek hospitalization in their host countries... Our plan is to install by next year a system that will allow OFWs to simply submit online their individual claims for repayment," Dr. Eduardo Banzon, Philhealth president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. Philhealth is mulling the possibility of contracting primary care physicians abroad to care for its OFW members. "We hope to start doing this in selected foreign cities with large concentrations of OFWs," Banzon said. At present, covered OFWs hospitalized abroad may file claims for reimbursement only by submitting h...

FILIPINO REPORTER   PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. — A Jefferson County jury has found a Brinnon man guilty of 41 counts of rape and assault against the Filipino woman he brought to his home with the promise of marriage.   The Peninsula Daily News reports that 49-year-old Patrick John McAllister was arrested on Aug. 5, 2012 and had been free on a $100,000 bond since that time.   His conviction was handed down on Aug. 10 by a five-woman, six-man jury after five hours of deliberation that began the day before.   The trial opened last Monday at Jefferson County Superior Court.   “I’m very pleased about the verdict,” said Prosecuting Attorney Scott Rosekrans.   “Obviously, the jury didn’t find the defendant’s story credible, and they reached a decision in less time than in many other similar cases.”   Rosekrans said the standard sentence range for these counts was 210 to 280 months behind bars, but McAllister’s sentence could be more...