Showing posts with label Manila. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manila. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Storm strands passengers in central Philippines

I used to wade on the waters… a fishpond, a river, the sea, and the streets… back then the water is clear and unpolluted…

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Posted: 24 June 2009 0508 hrs

Pedestrians walk through flood water on a street in the financial district of Manila, Philippines.

MANILA: Vessels were on Tuesday told not to leave the central Philippine islands as tropical storm Nangka hit the region packing maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometres an hour, officials said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage as the strengthening storm struck Samar island in mid-afternoon.

The coastguard issued an advisory banning all maritime traffic around 14 central islands and the southeastern tip of the main island of Luzon - the expected immediate path of the storm.

Ferries and cargo ships weighing 1,000 tonnes or less were also restricted to port in Manila and along the nearby coast of Luzon or ordered to seek shelter if they were already at sea.

The local weather service said the storm was moving northwest and due to pass just south of Manila on its way to the South China Sea on Wednesday afternoon.

Local television in Samar said hundreds of people who rely on small ferries to commute between central islands were stranded at major ports in the area. - AFP/de

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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Monday, June 22, 2009

November fight may be the last for politics-bound Pacquiao

LAS VEGAS - MAY 02:  Manny Pacquiao of the Phi...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

06/22/2009 | 10:53 PM

MANILA, PhilippinesManny Pacquiao appears bent on entering the political ring that he is seriously contemplating leaving the boxing ring for good.

The reigning pound-for-pound king declared he is good for one last fight, his projected November 14 gig at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas intended to be his swan song.

"Siguro last fight ko na ito para magserbisyo naman ako sa mga tao," Pacquiao said in an interview on 24 Oras.

"Ang mama ko nga ayaw na niya akong lumaban pero sabi ko, kaya ko pa naman, isa pa," added the two-time Fighter of the Year, whose camp is currently in negotiations with WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto for a possible showdown.

Pacquiao is eyeing a congressional post in Saranggani Province in next year's elections and he has already set the wheels in motion for this bid by forming his own local party, the People's Champ Movement, and setting residence in the province.

Over the weekend, he graced the celebrations for the founding anniversary of the district of Malapatan, where he publicly expressed his intention to serve them as congressman.

"Itong mga kamao ko na ginamit ko pang-knockout sa mga kalaban sa boxing, gagamitin ko para makatulong sa inyo," he told his highly-appreciative "constituents."

To show his seriousness to help the townsfolk, Pacquiao, one of the highest-paid athletes in the world according to Forbes magazine and one of the most influential people based on a list by Time magazine, donated an ambulance and fire-truck for the district's use.

This would be the Pacman's second attempt at a House seat after getting knocked out in 2007 by incumbent Rep. Darlene Custodio over in South Cotabato district.

But before Pacquiao could train his 100 percent attention to politics, he has to take care of one more business in the ring first.

Currently, his promoter is in talks with fellow Top Rank fighter Cotto for his "lash hurrah."

The Filipino ring icon himself had greenlit the negotiations with Cotto after personally seeing the Puerto Rican fight and escape with a split decision win over challenger Joshua Clottey in New York last June 13.

Top Rank boss Bob Arum had expressed confidence he would get Pacquiao and Cotto to sign on soon for what he described as a terrific fight. Among the issues still to be ironed out are the purse split and possible catch weight. – GMANews.Tv

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Film star sex video scandal grips Philippines

And some things that aren't supposed to be discussed with young people at home, suddenly gets a prime time slot on national airtime… Kids will ask questions after questions… it is hard being a parent. And what more if you are the parent of the man, or the woman, in this scandal? The father of the guy I knew had a heart attack, who was the first doctor in the family himself…

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Posted: 01 June 2009 2218 hrs

Philippines film actress Katrina Halili

MANILA - Steamy sex videos of a cosmetic surgeon and his celebrity patients indulging in more than the standard nip and tuck have gripped the devoutly Roman Catholic Philippines.

Home movies showing Hayden Kho going beyond the usual doctor-patient boundaries with a rising film star and commercial model are spreading around the Internet, as hawkers on Manila's street corners sell DVDs of their trysts.

The videos and the manner in which they came into the public domain have fascinated and repulsed this deeply religious country.

One of the unwitting stars of the films is up-and-coming actress Katrina Halili, 23, who has now filed a criminal complaint.

Halili is the only woman who has identified herself as one of four appearing separately with Kho in the videos.

"I fully gave my heart and soul to a man who was doing his own movie," she said.

"In our culture, this will stigmatise me for life."

She now has what many young actresses aspire to -- instant name recognition -- but for all the wrong reasons.

In a country that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stanley Karnow once described as "300 years in a Catholic convent and 50 years in Hollywood" this fame is working against her.

This week workers began pulling down from Manila's main avenue a large billboard of Halili endorsing a popular local brand of lingerie.

The young actress later confirmed she had lost an endorsement contract and that film and modelling offers had also dried up since the tapes went public.

Kho, 29, has issued a public apology and suspended his medical practice as calls increase for him to have his licence revoked -- all the while insisting he was not the one who made the recordings public.

Now suspicion has shifted to the cuckolded boyfriends or girlfriends -- or their associates -- of some of the personalities in the videos.

Fifty-something Vicki Belo, another cosmetic surgeon to Filipino movie stars and one-time lover of Kho, said she learnt of her estranged boyfriend's activities with other women from video files stored on her clinic's computer.

But despite saying in a sworn statement that she was aware Kho had made a similar recording of their own lovemaking, Belo has denied spreading the videotapes of Kho having sex with the younger women.

Recording the videos and making them public without the women's consent "is a form of violence," said Sylvia Claudio of the University of the Philippines Centre for Women's Studies.

"We're seeing that even with this new technology, it still tends to go along the lines of old problems. Women's status is low in society, so we see this new technology where a lot of women are being hurt," she said in a television forum on the controversy.

Halili is now appealing for the public to stop watching the recordings, saying: "You also have daughters, sisters, girlfriends, wives."

But so far, her appeal has fallen on deaf ears. A middle-aged street vendor who would identify himself only by his first name, Jose, openly hawked a "Katrina-Hayden Scandal" video disc outside Manila's largest shopping mall, alongside his usual fare of pirated copies of Hollywood films.

"It's all over the Internet now, so sales are not that brisk as last week. But people still come here to buy them," Jose said.

A blue-collar worker who called himself "Joe" said he bought a copy because he had no Internet access.

"Every red-blooded Filipino male dreams of being in bed with Katrina Halili," he said. - AFP/vm

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.


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