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ABS-CBN News Posted at  May 31 2019 12:55 AM Share Save Facebook Twitter LinkedIn President Rodrigo Duterte is currently in Japan for a working visit.  Toto Lozano, Presidential Photo MANILA—President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he has been invited to visit South Korea again, this time with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I've been invited to Korea again with President Putin. I’m trying to figure it out if it’s not so much," he told the Filipino community in Japan, but did not say who offered the invitation. "Kasi ’yung iba dito nagko-commercial lang sila, commercial kaming lahat," he added, saying that chartering a plane from the Philippine Airlines costs P5 million a day. Duterte traveled to South Korea for an official visit in June 2018, when he met with President Moon Jae-in and secured some $4.8 billion in trade agreements.

Reuters Posted at  May 31 2019 07:11 AM Share Save Facebook Twitter LinkedIn HONG KONG - Hong Kong will make concessions to a controversial extradition bill, Security Secretary John Lee said on Thursday, but opposition lawmakers called for the legislation, which they fear will extend Beijing's reach into the city, to be scrapped. Various groups in Hong Kong, including democracy activists, have objected to the proposals, which would allow case-by-case extraditions from the city to countries without formal extradition agreements, including mainland China. They fear it could undermine the city's rule of law and independent judicial system, guaranteed when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under the "one country, two systems" formula. Britain and Canada said on Thursday it was vital that extradition arrangements in Hong Kong were in line with "one country, two systems". Noting feedback from business an...

ABS-CBN News Posted at  May 31 2019 10:26 AM Share Save Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he might give a Cabinet post to outgoing Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, who lost in his reelection bid in the midterm polls. “Ito siya nanghinayang ako kay JV. Pero -- well anyway, you are still young. May Cabinet naman diyan kung mag-bakante,” Duterte said during a meeting with the Filipino community in Tokyo, Japan. Ejercito was among the many officials who joined Duterte in his trip to Tokyo, Japan. The senator welcomed the President’s pronouncement, saying an offer of a Cabinet post would be hard to refuse. “It’s an honor to be considered by the President for a Cabinet post. If given the chance it will be hard to say no. If called to serve the President, that means it’s a opportunity to serve the nation once again,” Ejercito said on Twitter. “More than the hint of offering me a Cabinet post, what moved me ...

posted  May 25, 2019 at 10:20 pm  by   Manila Standard At least 91 overseas Filipino workers were newly diagnosed as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive in March, up 14 percent from 80 in the same month in 2018, ACTS-OFW said over the weekend. “The March cases brought to 6,524 the cumulative number of OFWs found living with HIV since the government began passive surveillance of the virus in 1984,” said ACTS-OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III. OFWs now comprise 10 percent of the 65,463 confirmed cases listed in the National HIV/AIDS Registry as of March, according to Bertiz. The OFWs in the registry worked abroad within the past five years, either on land or at sea when they were diagnosed HIV-positive, Bertiz said. Many of the OFWs in the registry were from Metro Manila (2,110 cases, or 32 percent); the Calabarzon (1,139 cases, or 17 percent); and Central Luzon (761 cases, or 12 percent). Of the 6,524 OFWs in the registry, 86 percent, or 5,...

posted  May 24, 2019 at 11:00 pm  by   Vito Barcelo The Bureau of Immigration warned overseas Filipino workers from tour operators and travel agencies using their companies as fronts in sending undocumented OFWs abroad.   BI Commissioner Jaime Morente issued the warning after learning that two Filipino women, allegedly recruited by a travel agency to work in Qatar, were recently intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Morente said travel agencies who send Filipinos disguised as tourists to work abroad can be held liable for violating the law as they are not authorized and licensed to recruit and deploy overseas job applicants. According to BI port operations division chief Grifton Medina, the two were stopped by members of the bureau’s travel control and enforcement unit at the NAIA Terminal 3. Medina said the two were initially bound for Bangkok, Thailand where they were instructed by their recruiter to wait for their ...

posted  May 20, 2019 at 11:10 pm  by   Nathaniel Mariano Malacañang said on Monday it supported the call to review the memorandum of understanding between the Philippines and Kuwait following the recent death of an overseas Filipino worker in the Gulf State. In a Palace press briefing, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said there was a need to review the agreement, aimed at protecting the welfare of migrant workers, with the Kuwaiti government. “I think we should because according to [Labor] Secretary Bello [III] there has been a breach in the agreement signed by the two countries,” Panelo told Palace reporters. Panelo made the remark after the Migrante-Philippines demanded a review of the MOU. According to the labor group, the brutal death of Constancia Lago Dayag at the hands of her employer in Kuwait last week prompted the appeal. “The incident just proves that the [MoU] between Kuwait and the Philippines is useless [in protecting over...

posted  March 28, 2019 at 10:50 pm  by   Vito Barcelo Filipinos who will be hired in Japan under its new specified skilled worker residency law will receive pay equivalent to local workers,  Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on Thursday. Bello who signed a memorandum of cooperation with Japanese officials in Tokyo, Japan also guaranteed the payment of better salaries for Filipino workers. “This is why we are very thankful to the government of Japan. Aside from giving preferential priority to Filipino workers for the requirements of their industries, our workers are assured of better benefits,” he said. He said Japan chose the Philippines to be the first to ink the agreement under the new specified skilled worker law which takes effect next week “because of Japan’s high regard for the Filipinos.” The Department of Labor and Employment estimated that Filipino workers would corner at least 30 percent of the 350,000 available jobs Japa...

posted  March 27, 2019 at 10:20 pm  by   Vito Barcelo Immigration officers intercepted an overseas Filipino worker from going to the United Arab Emirates who presented fake travel documents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said the female OFW, believe to be a victim of human trafficking, was offloaded for presenting a fake clearance from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. “It appears that the syndicates are now faking the stamp and signatures of POEA personnel at the airport in order to dupe immigration officers into believing that the employment papers of their victims are genuine,” Medina said. He warned OFWs against falling prey to the said scheme, saying “it will not escape the watchful eyes of our vigilant immigration officers at the airport.” The passenger was about to board her Cathay Pacific flight for Dubai when she was intercepted by members of the BI’s tr...

May 30, 2019   By Marlon Purificacion   People's Journal SENATOR Franklin Drilon is encouraging his colleagues in the Senate to use the money that will be generated by the new sin tax law to help fund the Universal Health Law that requires P257 billion in its first year of implementation. The Senate is expected to pass the measure before it adjourns next week after it was certified urgent by the President. Drilon said that the funds to be generated under the new measure, estimated at around P15 billion, would not even be enough to support the UHC program. Of the P257 billion first year budget, only P195 billion would come from the General Appropriations Act of 2019. “Given the huge funding requirement of the UHC program and other health needs of millions of poor Filipinos, we have to prioritize and make clear in the law where these new funds we expect to raise will go. The health of our people should be our number one priority,” Drilo...

May 30, 2019   By Ruben A. Veloria   People's Journal Container ship MV Bavaria (R), a vessel hired by Canada to ship tonnes of trash back to Canada, arrives at Subic Bay International Terminal Corporation on Subic Port, north of Manila on May 30, 2019. President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered tonnes of garbage dumped in the Philippines years ago to be shipped back to Canada, his spokesman said on May 23, but Ottawa announced arrangements to take back the offending cargo which led to a diplomatic row. / AFP / Noel CELIS SUBIC BAY FREEPORT -- The freighter Canada contracted to take back its garbage arrived at the New Container Terminal in Subic Bay on Thursday at 1:30 in the afternoon to load all the 69 remaining containers of trash that were illegally shipped to the Philippines way back in 2013. The MV Bavaria, a Liberian flag carrier having a gross tonnage of 39,941 and a length of 260 meters, left the Port of Manila on Thursday at 7:52...