Rappler Newscast | July 06, 2012

Today on Rappler.

• President Aquino leads the launch of Project Noah, a high-tech risk reduction system to prevent a repeat of Typhoon Ondoy.
• Nominees for the post of Chief Justice are down to 22.
• A Taiwanese diplomat to the US gets a two-year suspension for abusing her Filipina maids.

Story 1: PROJECT NOAH LAUNCHED
President Aquino leads the launch of government’s disaster risk reduction project called Noah in flood-prone Marikina City.
With real-time information and advanced technology, Aquino believes Filipinos will no longer leave their lives to chance.
This marker shows the height of the floods in Barangay Nangka, Marikina during tropical storm in Ondoy in 2009.
Dozens died as the disaster caught everyone by surprise.
Three years later, the community aims to be better prepared with the help of the nationwide assessment of hazards or NOAH.
Noah is a project of the department of science and technology in partnership with scientists and the private sector.  
At Noah’s launch in Marikina Friday, President Aquino says the project is not just a website but a comprehensive program to change Filipinos’ mindset on disasters.

PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III:  Hindi po ba’t karaniwan na kung ating marinig kay Juan de la Cruz ang mga linyang bahala na si Batman? Ang project Noah po ang magsisilbing arko ng mga Pilipino laban sa delubyo. Tutuldukan na natin ang nakasanayang pagtitiis tuwing tag-ulan. Hindi na pwede ang bahala na. Sawa na tayo sa kaba.

The Noah website is a one-stop shop for information ranging from rainfall and temperature to flood maps.
Data come from water level monitoring sensors, automated rain gauges, and doppler radars government is installing all over the philippines.
DOST Secretary Mario Montejo says the brains of Filipino scientists and engineers are behind the technology.

DOST Secretary Mario Montejo: It’s having that…pride ba tawag doon? Self-worth na kaya naman talaga natin. Before lahat ng flood modeling, foreign lahat, ito 100% local.

Noah proponents are building a flood monitoring and warning system starting with the Marikina river and in 17 other major river basins.  

This is the Marikina River. At the height of tropical storm Ondoy, waters quickly rose and rushed to this school, reaching the second floor. With Noah and a proactive community, teachers hope to prevent a repeat of the disaster.

Guidance teacher Arwin Arnibal of Nangka high school no longer wants floods to destroy school facilities like what happened in Ondoy.

He says residents on the ground must all play their part.

Arwin Arnibal, Nangka High School: Hindi natin alam ang takbo ng panahon eh. Kanina maaraw, ngayon nagdidilim so malaking pakinabang ang tinuturong proyekto. Dapat maging handa.

Rep. Miro Quimbo, Marikina, 2nd District: It now allows us to come up with a more cohesive warning system or steps pagdating sa mga tao naming dito. It’s still in the infantile stage. The challenge is how you translate that into a localized warning program.

With the destruction from Ondoy and other disasters, the Noah team hopes markers like this will not just be a reminder of the past but serve as a lesson for the future.

Story 2: SOUTHWEST MONSOON OVER PH; NO TROPICAL CYCLONE
A weak southwest monsoon affects the western section of the Philippines, bringing scattered rain showers and thunderstorms.
In its 5 p.m. bulletin state weather bureau Pagasa says a shallow low pressure area was spotted 150 kilometers east of Surigao City.
There is no cyclone in the Philippine area of responsibility.
The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers.

Story 3: 22 CANDIDATES FOR CHIEF JUSTICE
The Judicial and Bar Council releases the names of candidates for the post of Chief Justice.
Of the initial 26 bets, 22 make it to the JBC’s long list.
4 were disqualified for various reasons.
Of the 22 nominees, 6 are Supreme Court insiders: Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Roberto Abad, Lourdes Sereno, Presbitero Velasco Junior and Teresita Leonardo de Castro.
Five nominees are government officials appointed by President Aquino: Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, Governance Commissions for GOCCs head Cesar Villanueva, Presidential Commission on Good Government chairman Andres Bautista and Securities and Exchange Commission head Teresita Herbosa.
Outsider nominees in the list are law professor Soledad Cagampang-De Castro, De La Salle School of Law Dean Jose Manuel Diokno, UP Law Professors Katrina Legarda and Rafael Morales, Former UP Law Dean Raul Pangalangan, Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, retired Judge Manuel Shangco Junior, University of the East Law Dean Amado Valdez, lawyer Vicente Velasquez and Ex San Juan Representative Ronaldo Zamora.
The JBC, which vets nominees for the post before submitting a shortlist to the President, will hold public interviews on the candidates on July 24 to 26.
The President has until August 29 to appoint the replacement of dismissed Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Story 4: LP SHORTLISTS 16 SENATORIAL HOPEFULS
The Liberal Party comes out with a list of possible candidates for the 2013 senatorial elections.
This after President Aquino’s confirmation that his party is in coalition talks with the Nacionalista Party and Nationalist People’s Coalition.
The list has 16 names and is not limited to members of LP, NP, and NPC.
It includes 4 members of the Nacionalista Party namely Cynthia Villar, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, former Surigao del Norte Gov. Robert “Ace” Barbers, and NP ally Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
Only 3 in the list come from the LP. They are Customs chief Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon, Quezon Representative Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III, and former Senator Ramon “Jun” Magsaysay.
Also in the list is President Aquino’s cousin Bam Aquino.
Also in the list are re-electionists Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, Loren Legarda, and Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel III.
LP stalwart secretary Butch Abad says Escudero, who is very close to President Aquino, is definitely in.
He adds, they have discussed the inclusion of Senator Legarda in the ticket with the NPC.
Senator Pimentel recently bolted the United Nationalist Alliance or UNA after protesting the inclusion of resigned Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Other administration candidates are  Aurora Representative Sonny Angara of LDP, TESDA director-general Joel Villanueva, former Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros, MTRCB chair Grace Poe Llamanzares, and Former Senator Jamby Madrigal.
How about Cagayan Representative Juan Ponce “Jack” Enrile Jr?
Abad says the son of the Senate President cannot be included because he is already with UNA.
Abad adds reducing the number of bets will not be easy.
He says survey ratings will be considered in cutting the number of candidates to 12.
Asked what administration candidates will get from Malacañang, Abad answers: ‘The President’s endorsement.”
He adds “We’re not making any promises. We’re not using government money.
We tell them, you have to get support from friends.”

Story 5: PH ADOPTS UN RESOLUTION FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
The Philippines and Germany lead the successful adoption of a resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council for human trafficking victims.
Philippine representative to the UN Evan Garcia says this resolution encourages states to recognize trafficked persons as victims with specific protection needs.
Data show there are at least 2.4 million people who are victims of trafficking at any time.
At least 66 percent of the trafficked victims are women and 16 percent are girls.

Story 6: TAIWAN DIPLOMAT SUSPENDED FOR ABUSING FILIPINA MAIDS
A Taiwanese diplomat is suspended from her job for abusing two Filipina maids.
Taiwan’s civil servant disciplinary committee suspends foreign ministry official Liu Hsien-hsien for quote–“severely damaging” Taiwan’s image.
Liu was deported by the United States in February for abusing two Filipina maids working in her Missouri home.
She was arrested in November after a maid sought help from a Filipino she met at a grocery store.
She served time for a fraud charge after reaching a plea bargain deal with US prosecutors.
Liu denies the allegations.

Story 7: DAVAO CITY ROLLS OUT CASHLESS CAB PAYMENTS
No cash for cab? Swipe it!
Davao City rolls out cabs that accept ATM or credit cards as payment.
A post on Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s Facebook Fan Page went viral after it announced the innovation.
The post says select Black Mabuhay Taxis which will accept payment from passengers using ATMs and credit cards are connected to Megalink and BancNet.
Mabuhay Taxi says the Black cabs will have the same rate as regular cabs.

Story 8: SPANISH QUEEN WRAPS UP PH VISIT
Queen Sofia of Spain finishes a five-day official trip to the Philippines, where she visits aid development projects.
The Queen says she wants more Filipino students to learn Spanish.
Carlos Santamaria reports.

Spain colonized the Philippines for over 300 years…
But all that is in the past, and Spain now wants to boost it ties with its former colony, named after a Spanish king.
Spain’s Queen Sofia calls the Philippines a sister country.

QUEEN SOFIA OF SPAIN: We see the Philippines not only as a sister country with whom we share many historical, social and cultural links because of our common past, but also as a key partner in Asia to boost development, we are fully committed.

Since 2006, Spain contributed over 6 billion pesos to development projects in the Philippines, the priority country for Spanish aid in Asia.
Of all european nations, Spain is also the highest aid donor to the country.

QUEEN SOFIA OF SPAIN: The Philippines has been and will always be a priority country for the Spanish cooperation for development. We will also stand by the Filipino people to overcome the frequent national disasters that the country suffers just like typhoon Sendong last December.

Queen Sofia spent all week touring Spanish-funded development projects in Manila, Albay and even Zamboanga, where the local language is chabacano, reminiscent of old Spanish.
She is promoting a program that will teach Spanish in public schools.

QUEEN SOFIA OF SPAIN: I wish to emphasize the support we give to the educational sector and particularly, the efforts of the Department of Education for the successfully making reality the re-introduction of Spanish language in the public educational system not only because it is part of the cultural heritage of the Philippines but also because it opens up the opportunities to secure the well-being of  future generations of Filipinos in a globalized world.

CARLOS SANTAMARIA: Queen Sofia also wants more Spanish companies to invest in the Philippines, which Spain sees as the perfect gateway to Asian markets, and look into President Benigno Aquino’s Public-Private Partnership program.
Carlos Santamaria, Rappler, Manila

Story 9: IMF WARNS OF SLOWING GLOBAL ECONOMY
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warns of a slowing global economy, despite an upgraded assessment earlier this year.
In April, the IMF hiked its global growth forecasts to an annual rate of 3.5 percent this year.
Better financial conditions and easing fears about the eurozone crisis prompted the April assessment.
But since the last forecast, Lagarde says the outlook became “more worrisome.”
The IMF says the global economy is slowly improving, but it remains fragile.
In contrast, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch says the Philippine peso is set to outperform other currencies in Southeast Asia this year.
The chief investment strategist of Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific says the peso will resist against the US dollar, unlike currencies of other ASEAN countries that have high foreign ownership in their bond market.
The Merrill Lynch official forecasts the peso to hover around 42 per dollar this year, compared with 43.3 in 2011.

Story 10: THE wRap: YOUR WORLD IN ONE READ
At number one, the UN Human Rights Council passes its first resolution on Internet freedom.
Despite opposition from nations including China, Russia and India, 85 co-sponsors support the resolution, which calls for all states to respect individuals’ rights online as much as offline.

At number 5, Two former Argentine dictators receive heavy prison sentences for overseeing the systematic kidnapping of babies from leftist activists killed during the 1976 to 1983 dictatorship.
86-year-old Jorge Videla was sentenced to 50 years in prison and 84-year-old Reynaldo Bignone was given a 15-year jail term.
Hundreds of people — relatives of the victims, children reunited with their families and activists — cheered the ruling.
Several other former military officers receive sentences of up to 40 years for their roles in a “systematic plan” to kidnap the babies of activists.

At number 7,The World Health Organization alerts the Philippines and neighboring countries about an unknown respiratory disease that killed 61 children in Cambodia. The WHO says the disease has quote “neurological symptoms.”
The Cambodian Health Minister says they are quote– “currently investigating the cases but definite identification of the cause and source may take some time.”

And at number 9, The Syrian conflict extends to social media.
Media reports say supporters of Syrian President Bashar Al-assad hacked the Twitter account of Al-Jazeera’s English-language social media show “The Stream.”
The program’s Twitter account featured links to pro-Assad material.
“The Stream’s” producer confirms the account was hacked.
For the full top 10 visit Rappler.com’s ‘the wRap.’

Story 11: MEGAUPLOAD FOUNDER TAKES ‘FREEDOM FIGHT’ TO TWITTER
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, formerly Kim Schmitz, takes his quote– ‘freedom fight’ to Twitter as he waits to find out if the United States can extradite him from New Zealand to face online piracy charges.
Dotcom now has over 58,000 followers in less than three weeks since he began tweeting on June 19.
US authorities allege Megaupload and related file-sharing websites netted more than 175 million dollars in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners more than 500 million dollars by offering pirated copies of movies, TV shows and other content.
Dotcom denies any wrongdoing in a case US prosecutors describe as the world’s largest copyright action.
Dotcom is currently free on bail.
Schmitz legally changed his last name to Dotcom.

Story 12: #MoveBicol: MAY POWER KA BA?
Rappler’s citizen journalism arm MOVE finishes its fourth installment today in Naga, where we host MoveBicol.
Students from all over the region gather to discuss the power situation and how social media can be harnessed to improve or cope with the crisis.
The event is called “May Power Ka Ba?”

– Rappler.com