INTERNATIONAL
“New planet Earth”
By Jun Frank C. Condrada
Astronomers at the University of California
It has a mass three to four times that of earth and an orbital period of just under 37 days. Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet and has enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere, according to Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the leaders of the team that discovered the planet.
The planet is tidally locked to its star, meaning that one side is always facing the star and basking in perpetual daylight, and the other is in perpetual darkness because it faces away from the star.
With surface temperatures decreasing the further one goes toward the dark side of the planet and increasing as one goes into the light side, the most habitable part of the new planet would be the line between darkness and light, which is known as the "terminator".
"The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common," said Vogt.
sources:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100930/sc_space/alienworldtourtheexoplanetsaroundstargliese581
“Big-hearted but hard-headed” help to ends poverty
by Jun Frank C. Condrada
The UN summit in New York, this Wednesday ended with the call for a tougher battle against poverty. Countries around the world lead by the United States of America, Russia, Japan, Germany and other counties that are members of this united organization of nations pushed through the UN millennium development goals MDG that was launched in 2000.
The US president unveiled a new “big hearted but also hard-headed” US policy to push the worlds poorest counties toward prosperity, this is for the fact that millions of people who have relied on food assistance for decades that’s not development; that’s dependence, at it’s a cycle we need to break” as he added.
The UN sec Ki-moon launched a $40 billion drive to save the lives of millions of women and children. This is for his Global strategy for women’s and children’s health which he estimated that 16 million live could be saved by 2015.
Wealthy nations have promised to help for the success of this MDG campaign.
Despite these actions, many leaders still accused these rich nations of failing to keep their promises on assistance. In addition to this accusation, St. Vincent Prime minister Ralph Gonzalves said that rich nations were behind many of the obstacles stopping nations from moving toward prosperity the have replaced their firm and measurable commitment of assistance with platitude and empty rhetoric.”
sources:
http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=article_s&id_article=1963
UN summit ends with calls for tougher battle vs poverty
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20100923-293867/UN-summit-ends-with-calls-for-tougher-battle-vs-poverty
Tourists avoid Manila
by Jun Frank C. Condrada
It was in August 23 this year when the world witnessed the hostage crisis in manila. The international community was disappointed with the result of fiasco.Spanish era buildings like Intramuros and fort Santiago and other tourist spots have a visible impact which is alarming the authorities.
Hong Kong government has already put the Philippines in the block listed country which has a high security threat for their citizens.
The Philippines had showed its empathy and understands the action of Hong Kong.
“There is much work to be done to rebuild the country’s image abroad”, that’s according to Sec. Alberto Lim. Millions of peso and hundreds of workers are at stake with this crisis in tourism. Many tourists have canceled their trips to manila and to rest of the country after the hostage drama.
But despite of this, the country is still determined to reach its target percent or growth for the country’s tourism industry this year
Manila is a premiere city, at some point it experienced tourism down fall before and yet it managed to rebuild its image.
And now, Filipinos are still full of hope that once again, the beauty of the city and the tourist spots will shine through out the world. The simple and hospitable people along with the magnificent and extraordinary streets, heritage sites of the city will surely an irresistible for the tourists.
By: Jun Frank C, Condrada
Japan confirmed its first case bacteria of superbug, a newly discovered of gene in bacteria that allows micro organisms to become drug resistant. the man aged 50s was hospitalized because of high fever at the Tochigi hospital April 2009 after he had a medical treatment in India. He was discharged in October last year.
Tochigi hospital notified the japan's health ministry about the NDM-1 gene, superbug that no in-hospital injections were found, following the confirmation of the discovery- japan's first NDM-1 case.
The Dokkyo medical university hospital, kept a preserved sample of the superbug from the man and examined the sample after the lancet.
This new gene has been largely in the deadly Ecoli bacteria and DNA structures that can be easily copied and passed onto others type of bacteria,The world is not new with drug resistant bacteria, many bacteria are resistant to the world's first antibiotic, penicilin as well as successive generations drug. excessive and improper use of antibiotics have exacerbated the problem and lead to emergence of superbugs. the World Health Organization says.
The superbug has first discovered in India which spread and was detected in the small numbers in Australia, Canada, United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom and other countries in Europe,Travel for less expensive elective procedures like cosmetic survey was likely the reason for superbug gene would spread worldwide,The potential of NDM-1 to be a world wide public health problem is great and coordinated international surveillance is needed according to the British journal in August.
The World Health Organization recommends that the government focus their efforts in four areas; surveillance, rational, antibiotics use, legislation to sales and antibiotics without prescription prevention measures such as hand washing in hospital
LOCAL
Blast not from Frats?
By: Cherryben M. Portacio
The allegedly fraternity war disaster at De La Salle University last Sunday may not be the cause said the National Bureau of Investigation.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the motives behind grenade explosion outside the university campus in Manila is remain uncertain. The NBI held a case discussion earlier in the day before the news briefing last Thursday.
"There is no clear angle yet, even the fraternity war. There were five young men around the area who did not look like law students. At this point, they're (NBI) unwilling to state clearly that it's a fraternity war," De Lima said.
Conflicts among law school fraternities, Tau Gamma Phi and Alpha Phi Omega, were widely considered to have caused Sunday's violence. NBI findings showed the violence started from an argument between fraternities whose members "got drunk, became unruly, and went overboard."
Grenade explosion and the throwing of beer bottles injured 47 people. About 47 people were injured. San Sebastian College law student Raissa Laurel had to have her legs removed because she is near to the grenade that was exploded.
"To those of you who are guilty: The full resources of the state are being unleashed against you. Surrender... Do not add to the troubles you are now facing. Otherwise, have no doubt that you will be caught. You will not escape the consequences of your actions," said the President Noynoy Aquino, who visited Laurel at the Philippine General Hospital last Wednesday.
The Supreme Court formed a committee headed by Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr. to help the NBI and the Manila Police District promptly finish the investigation.
Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/202302/frat-war-may-not-have-caused-bar-exam-violence-nbi
Media also to be Blame?
By Cherryben M. Portacio
After almost a month since the Quirino Grandstand hostage crisis, The five-day marathon enquiry of Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) headed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima already named names to be blame about the tragedy. According to the report that President Benigno Aquino III released to the public on Monday after furnishing the Chinese Embassy with a copy, some media people have faults and they will be subjected to some charged cases.
Some journalist of GMA-7, TV5 and ABS-CBN may be later included in the 12 people accountable for the bloody incident. The least two includes Erwin Tulfo and Michael Rogas from the radio station Radyo Mo Nationwide (RMN).
Civil society group Center for International Law (CENTERLAW) appealed for President Benigno Aquino III that media must be free from guilt in connection with the August 23 hostage crisis.
“[The media’s] coverage may have affected the outcome of the incident; this, however, is but a natural consequence of the right of the public to information on matters involving public concerns," according to a statement released by CENTERLAW.
“While we acknowledge that media may have failed to observe the highest degree of professionalism and self-restraint in their coverage of the unfortunate incident, still this is not a basis for holding them liable for breach of the country’s criminal laws," CENTERLAW added.
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and National Press Club (NPC) moreover disagreed and warned the Aquino administration not to file any charges to the media.
Members of the international community also have argumentative response. "Criminal charges against media personnel would set a dangerous precedent for the Philippines that would potentially cause journalists and media organizations to censor coverage of other sensitive situations for fear of criminal liability," said the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Director Jacqueline Park. Even the Hong Kong Journalists' association (HKJA) disagreed on putting any charges to their counterparts here in the Philippines .
The report which was posted at the Official Gazette website, included recommendations on who shall be liable for the hostage tragedy.
Sources: http://www.gmanews.tv/100days/story/201559/media-groups-to-iirc-pnoy-dont-charge-the-messengers
Manila’s citizenry
By: Cherryben M. Portacio
Being the capital city of the Philippines, Manila’s population gets bigger and bigger. According to National Statistics Office of the Philippines, from 1,630,485 people in 1980, It went down to 1,601,234 after 10 years. In the year 2000, It descended to 1,581,082.Last three years, the people in manila increased to 1,660,714. It is equivalent to 41,014 people per square kilometre. People are trying to fit in the land area of 38.55 square kilometres. Some districts are more crowded with 65,000 people per square kilometer.
There are lots of factors why the population is increasing in Manila. People from different provinces and even foreigners more likely wanted to go in the capital city. First reason includes job opportunities. As an urban place, Lots of Filipinos thought that money is a lot easier to get when they go to Manila. Primarily a wrong perception because as you walk by through the city, vagabonds are in everywhere. People from different culture gathers to the small city looking for work and usually ending up as a beggar. Children at a very young age are force to work just to survive the everyday living in the city. Pathetic situation but true. Probably the reason of this thinking is because lots of business can be found in the city. Yes its true but Filipinos had great percentage of unemployment. People are still struggling to find jobs—any jobs.
Another factor includes studies. Universities are in all over the map of Manila. Foreigners are abound because the tuition fees here in our country is affordable. Nursing is the most eminent course that foreigners more likely to enroll at. Also, Filipino students from province chooses to have their college degree in the city. This is for the reason that many great schools are placed in Manila. University belt(U-Belt) offers good schools that everyone can choose. It is also in Manila where you can find the most affordable state university.Polytechnic University of the Philippines is famous for their 12 pesos per unit tuition fee.
Manila have a lot of things to offer but if the population continues to grow, It will surely have its negative effects on everyone.
Sources: http://www.citypopulation.de/Philippines-MetroManila.html#Stadt_alpha
http://www.mapsofworld.com/cities/philippines/manila/demography.html
New fare, Be aware!
By: Cherryben M. Portacio
Fact: Metro Railway Transit runs along EDSA. Light Rail Transit line one is from Monumento to Baclaran while the LRT line two will start from Santolan up to Recto. There are 500,000 MRT riders daily while the LRT lines one and two have a combined average of about 400,000 riders a day.
General Manager of MRT Reynaldo Berroya and Transportation and Communications Undersecretary for Public Information Dante Velasco both agrees in considering the idea of increasing the fare in both MRT and LRT. The regular P15 maximum MRT fare will be P25 which is not more than of its 100 percent. Regarding the two lines of LRT, the fares will range from P20 to P30. If this happen, an additional income of one billion pesos a year will be give to government.
President Aquino even admitted an “inevitable” increase in fares regarding the two transits. Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines were forced to buy the mass railway transit in order for the local commuters to continue using it. Fare hike is necessary because the government can’t no longer sustain the subsidy due to the high cost of operations and maintenance. Transportation Secretary Jose de Jesus said the government spends more than P5 billion a year for MRT uses. Our president wanted to make MRT fares same or atleast equal with other PUV(buses and jeepneys) with an easier and faster travel to proffer. He said that he is still studying proposals that has acceptable fare for the riding public and at the same time allows the government for lower subsidy for train operations.
The hike was indispensable to let the MRT to improve losses. Transportation Undersecretary Thompson Lantion discussed that the recent fares of the MRT at P15 are being subsidized by the administration. Lantion said that the situation may get worse if the government subsidy will be removed. He said that it will be a lot better to have government subsidizes fares at an average rate of P45 per passenger than having an increase up to P60.
Some officials including Sen. Pia Cayetano requested the government to find other ways to keep the mass rail transit system affordable for everyone. According to her, the many benefits must be consider and not only the government’s losses in terms of subsidy to the LRT and MRT. One of the benefits includes less air pollution. Because of the MRT, atleast 9,000 buses were pulled out of EDSA reducing pollution, traffic as well as accidents. The easiness and economic benefits must also be regard for what it brings to ordinary workers who chooses to ride in MRT or LRT to avoid traffic jams. Also according to Cayetano, as others blame the past administration in bailing out the debts of MRT and LRT is of no use. The present government must consider this issue as a challenge to keep mass transportation affordable to the public and to moderate the impact of any fare hike. Public consultations and even other government agencies including the Department of Health, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) must be aware and consulted on application for the fare increase. Regarding this, Senator Cayetano called the Department of Transportation and Communications whose responsible about the matter.
Just like Senator Cayetano, Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez doubted on the fare hike. He even adviced the president to think twice before deciding to slip the subsidy in total. He said that it was the government’s duty to make Filipino life easier and that includes mass rail transit system.
“We have this principle of equality between a rich person and a poor person in transport, that is found in mass transit. Both can reach their destinations at the same time,” Suarez said.
If the new MRT or LRT fare will be so high, for sure lot commuters will go back in riding buses. For sure Metro Manila will be more crowded if that happen.
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