Dispatches

The island province of Bohol in central Philippines was named the 8th best place you’ve never heard of by users of the travel website IgoUgo.com. Bohol is the only Asian travel spot in the list.

Click here to read the story from Reuters.

Photo: Chocolate Hills of Bohol (Source: Wikipedia)

By Jesus Llanto

Shortly before the end of 2007, the government created new local government units (LGUs), reinforcing its record as the administration that has formed the most number of LGUs.
(Read: GMA Creating Too Many LGUs)

The new LGUs included five cities, two municipalities, and a barangay in Negros Occidental. Their creation was passed by Congress and approved in plebiscites during the third quarter of the year.

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Photo: City Hall of Carcar Cebu (from www.flickr.com)

What do former US president Gerald Ford, former South Korean president Kim Dae Jung, and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have in common?

They all granted pardon to former presidents of their countries.

Gerald Ford, who assumed the presidency after his predecessor Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal, pardoned Nixon on August 9, 1974. Ford suffered a huge decline in his approval rating after his decision. According to US pollster Gallup, Ford’s initial approval rating of 71 percent dropped to 50 percent after issuing the pardon.

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What exactly is an “industrial disaster,” the term now being used by some in referring to the blast that occurred in Glorietta mall in Makati last Friday?

In “The Long Road To Recovery: Community Responses To Industrial Disaster,” a book written by James Mitchell and published by the United Nations University, an industrial disaster happens when hazards—defined as “threats to people and life support system caused by mass production of goods and services”—exceed human coping capabilities and the environment’s absorptive capacities.

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Photo: Chernobyl Plant, site of one of the most destructive industrial disasters in the word (Source: Flickr)

Manila, Otcober 25,2007-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo granted former president Joseph Estrada’s application for pardon.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Arroyo granted the executive clemency for Estrada on Thursday afternoon. The pardon shall take effect as soon as Estrada accepts it. It bars Estrada from running fom public office again but “restores all his civil and political rights.”

Estrada was convicted guilty of plunder by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan on September and sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribe from illegal numbers game jueteng, kickbacks from tobacco excise taxes and illegal commissions from the sale of the shares of a company, and of by depositing huge amount of money in a bank account under an alias.

In a television interview, Estrada’s son, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, thanked the Arroyo administration.

Photo Credits: Estrada (news.yahoo.com), Arroyo( www.philembassy.se)

By Jesus Llanto
Monday, 22 October 2007

Since 1992, when local government units (LGUs) started receiving properly computed and regularly released shares in the internal revenue allotments (IRA), several more funds have been put up supposedly to help LGUs keep up with the demands of decentralization.

We estimate that from 1998 to 2006, LGUs benefited from at least P58.82 billion in other allocations from the national government, or so-called “non-IRA funds.” (Click here for the allocations from 1998 to 2006)

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Photo Credit: www.flicker.com