December 23, 2013 Edition

The world should not forget. Fresh from his visit to Tacloban City on December 21, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to the international community to further extend “their already generous response” to survivors of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). “I hope my visit will provide an occasion for the international community to keep focus on this crisis,” Ban said in a joint press conference with Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario in Manila on December 22. During his visit to Tacloban, Ban announced the UN is mobilizing up to P800 million (P33.1 billion) in funds over 12 months to aid rehabilitation efforts in typhoon-hit areas. UN’s strategic response plan is in line with the government’s P360.9 billion ($8.17 billion) reconstruction blueprint for Yolanda-devastated areas.

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Manila mayor and ousted president Joseph Estrada paid a visit to the woman he once accused of grabbing power from him: Pampanga Representative and former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Reports said Estrada visited Arroyo at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City on December 22 at shortly before 3 pm. “It’s very touching. It’s a different feeling when you see them talking. Every Filipino knows what happened between Erap and Arroyo,” said Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, who accompanied Estrada to the hospital. Arroyo was Estrada’s vice president until she replaced her following the Edsa 2 revolt that forced him to quit the presidency.

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We’re ready to pay blood money, Al-Qaeda said, following its admission that a deadly December 5 attack on a Yemeni defense ministry hospital was a mistake. The brazen daylight attack on the defense ministry complex 56 people dead, including patients and foreign medics from the Philippines, Germany, Vietnam and India. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has already claimed responsibility for the attack and on December 21, its military chief said in an online video the assault on the hospital had not been authorized. The militants’ target was the ministry of defense, but one jihadist disobeyed orders, it said.

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Snap elections? No way, says Thailand’s main opposition Democrat Party, following a vote against participating in the polls. The announcement puts further pressure on the government as protesters prepared to ramp up rallies aimed at forcing the prime minister to quit. Embattled premier Yingluck Shinawatra, who called the February 2 elections in an effort to cool tensions, has insisted the polls will go ahead regardless of the Democrat decision. But the move throws Democrat backing firmly behind protesters who are calling for democracy to be paused for an unelected “people’s council” to be installed to enact reforms before a future vote.

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“How can the Church help couples (and their children) who find themselves” in live-in relationships or situations of divorce? This isn’t a survey question from a profitable firm; it’s from Catholic bishops who are heeding a request from the Vatican to survey Filipinos on family issues, including contraception and gay unions, for a worldwide meeting on the family in 2014. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said the laity can fill out the survey form and the responses would be summarized and transmitted to the Vatican. It’s the bishops’ initiative of giving voice to Catholics in the Philippines, the CBCP said.

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The Philippine government had exceeded its revenue collection goal from tobacco and alcohol products for the first year of the sin tax law’s implementation. A total of P91.6 billion has been generated from the taxes imposed on tobacco and alcohol products for the first 11 months of 2013, exceeding the full year collection target of P85.86 billion, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares said. The sin tax law was signed by President Benigno Aquino III a year ago – Dec 20, 2012 – and was implemented Jan 1, 2013. The law was crafted to revise the rather outdated tax rates that made at least the tobacco products in the Philippines one of the cheapest in world.

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After a decade of unrest, Bethlehem has seen a surge in visits to Christ’s traditional birthplace, raising hopes of a tourism bonanza in the West Bank town despite Israel’s separation barrier. The Palestinian territories’ top tourist destination is a victim of the barrier which cuts off the town from nearby Jerusalem, just 10 kilometers (six miles) away. The expansion of nearby Israeli settlements has deliberately helped to isolate the city. But since a UNESCO decision in June 2012 to grant world heritage status to Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity – hailed as a “historic” diplomatic victory by the Palestinians – the town has been eyeing a tourist bonanza that could boost the local economy.

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They either inspired us or left us speechless and sad. Here are 10 of the stories that moved us this year – challenges that made us close ranks, conversations that engaged us, tests that brought out the heroes in us. The list includes how citizens kept watch over the May elections, how Filipinos helped victims and survivors of typhoon Yolanda, and how a family produced 5 valedictorians.

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A Filipino based in Lithuania, harassed and beaten by a local mafia boss, has decided to make peace with his aggressors and turn what was an ugly incident into a positive experience. The couple will donate their share of the US$10,000-settlement to their daughter’s school, the Waldorf School in Vilnius, Lithuania. On June 29, 2012, Filipino Andy Hernandez and his Lithuanian wife, Monika, were harassed by a mafia boss who demanded to be served in the couple’s restaurant past closing time. The couple sued him and his companions. Hernandez said the agreement was mediated by a friend, adding it was time to bury the hatchet since the trial had gone on for so long.

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“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” read dismissed PR executive Justine Sacco’s infamous tweet, posted December 20 as she boarded an 11-hour flight to South Africa. At the time Sacco was the communications director for the Internet company InterActive Corp (IAC), owner of such popular websites as Match.com, Dictionary.com, OkCupid and Vimeo. Her tweet created an online uproar, and in a few hours, #JustineSacco and #HasJustineLandedYet were trending on Twitter worldwide. Upon landing in South Africa, Sacco deleted the message and her Twitter account, but it’s too late. IAC, her employer, announced they had “parted ways.”

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