Sunday, February 4, 2018


Please visit also our Facebook pages: https://free.facebook.com/iamanakbalayan/ https://free.facebook.com/iamanakbalayanorg/ https://free.facebook.com/AnakBalayanspotlightsblogPh2016/

A New Year A New Life


It's good to be back again blogging !

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Give the Fisherfolk what is DUE for them !


National Anti-Poverty Commission better known as NAPC has a program/project for fishers that would construct fish landing facilities in coastal communities in the country. This program includes organizing, capacity/capabilty-building and strengthening Fisherfolks organisations of the sites that are looked to need this facility. It has its fund and therefore must be implemented. However because of the change in administration and personnels in the commission, the supposed June implementation has lazily halted up to this day ! The halt started after the change in the commission leadership.

Friday, August 26, 2016

MARCH 2016 in the Philippines Highlights


* March 23 * Diwata-1  was launched to theInternational Space Station  (ISS) aboard the Cygnus  spacecraft on asupply mission . Cygnus itself will be launched using the Atlas V  rocket. The satellite was deployed into orbit from the ISS on April 27. Diwata-1 is the country's first micro-satellite and the first satellite to be built and designed by Filipinos.[53] * The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (under the Memorandum Circular 94) that aimed at "achieving unified action" as part of efforts to find a resolution to the country's territorial dispute with China on the West Philippine Sea  is created.[54] * March 25  – Customs at the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen  destroyed 34.78 tons of "substandard bananas" imported from the Philippines due to excessive pesticide use.[55] * March 26  – A raging fire on the Philippines highest mountain, Mt. Apo , forced hundreds of people to flee from the peak by foot.[56] * March 27  – Anonymous  Philippines has hacked the website of Commission on Elections  to force them to place security features on Vote Counting Machine (VCM).[57]  Soon, the LulzSec Pilipinas leaked  sensitive information of voters all over the Philippines from the COMELEC website, and the incident has been called the "biggest government data breach in history".[58] On April 21 , one of the hackers involved in the recent defacement and supposed leak of data from the Commission on Elections' official website has been arrested in Sampaloc, Manila.[59]  On April 29 , another hacker allegedly responsible for leaking the information of voters from the Comelec website was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation.[60] * March 28 * Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) general manager Neric Acosta has been sentenced to a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment after being found guilty of one count of graft by the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division in connection with the misuse of his pork barrel funds as district representative of Bukidnon.[61] * None of the three pre-qualified bidders have submitted offers for the largest Private-Public Partnership (PPP) project to date, the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway estimated to cost around P123 billion.[62] * Several piles of license plate sheets were stolen from the Quezon City central office of the Land Transportation Office during the Holy Week break.[63] * March 29 * Ten Indonesian crew members on board a tugboat were kidnapped byAbu Sayyaf  militants in the Philippines.[64]  On May 1 , ten Indonesian sailors who had been held hostage by Islamist militant group were released in Jolo.[65] * President Aquino has signed Republic Act No. 10754 into law a bill authored by Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez  granting persons with disabilities (PWDs) exemption from the 12-percent value-added tax  (VAT) on certain goods and services.[66] * The Commission on Elections has decided not to stop the broadcast of senatorial candidate Manny Pacquiao's boxing match on April 9.[67] * March 30  – The Office of the Ombudsman filed graft and technical malversation cases against Sen. JV Ejercito , before the Sandiganbayan over the alleged anomalous purchase of high-powered firearms worth P2.1 million during his term as mayor of San Juan City.[68]

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

West Philippines Sea Update


The Filipino fisherfolks may smile with the favorable news of granting the Philippines claim to disputed Kalayaan Group of Islands in West Philippines Sea by UN arbirtrary tribunal over other claims including most of China. However, rejoicing is yet far for us Filipino fishers lest all other claims obediently accept the ruling including China by way of dismantling its structures and facilities in the area as well as leave the group of islands waters, only then we can shout Mabuhay ! Meantime we must be continously vigilant to watching and protecting our sovereignties by pushing our government of what is must and necessary for the good of fishery sector in particular and the Filipinos in general ! ‘NO HISTORIC RIGHTS" ’Int’l tribunal invalidates China’s nine-dash line, massive claimsJuly 12, 2016 5:31pm The Philippines on Tuesday scored a victory against China in a landmark ruling by an international tribunal that invalidated Beijing’s massive claims in South China Sea. "The Tribunal concluded that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line’," the Permanent Court of Arbitration said in a news release. "[Although] two Chinese navigators and fishermen, as well as those of other States, had historically made use of the islands in the South China Sea, there was no evidence that China had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters or their resources," it added. The 501-page ruling was handed down in The Hague, Netherlands, more than three years after the case was filed by the Philippines in January 2013. The case, brought by the Philippines in 2013, hinges on the legal status of reefs, rocks and artificial islands in the Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Island group. Manila's 15-point case critically asks the tribunal to rule on the status of China's so-called "nine-dash line", a boundary that is the basis for its 69-year-old claim to roughly 85 percent of the South China Sea. The tribunal will not decide on matters of territorial sovereignty, but will apply the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in determining which countries can claim economic exploitation rights, based on geographic features. "PHL can seek assistance’ South China Sea expert Carl Thayer of the University of New South Wales, Australian Defense Force Academy said the decision "would give the Philippines, other claimants, Association of South East Asian Nations and ASEAN dialogue partners a strong legal and moral case to apply diplomatic and political pressures on China to comply." "[The Philippines] could legitimately seek outside assistance to protect its rights under international law," Thayer told GMA News Online. Despite the ruling, Thayer believes China will retain de facto control over these features “because it is the stronger power.” “Might makes ‘right’ and the Chinese apparently will continue to use coercion and force against the Philippines and other claimants,” Thayer said. Thayer warned that China “is likely to be isolated by the international community, including the major maritime powers ” if it will continue to defy the tribunal’s ruling. GOING BIG Under the 1982 UNCLOS, islands grant their owners a 12 nautical mile radius of sovereign territorial waters. Manila argued in closed court hearings that none of the islands, shoals and reefs in the Spratlys are large enough to grant an additional 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for fishing and extracting seabed resources. Prior to the decision, Hofstra University law professor Julian Ku said a decision on the nine-dash-line's legality would signal that the court's judges had "decided to go big." "If the nine-dash line were declared invalid, then in theory all the other countries would be emboldened," he said. The court has no power of enforcement, but the victory could spur Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei to file similar cases. Japan, which is involved in a separate territorial dispute with China in the East China Sea, said its military would closely monitor Chinese activity after the ruling. IGNORING THE RULING China had already said it will ignore the ruling. China has boycotted the hearings, saying it does not have jurisdiction over the dispute. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, asked how China would be getting the ruling, said it would have nothing to do with the court. "We won't accept any of their so-called materials, no matter what they are," Lu told reporters. China's state-run Xinhua news agency said the "law-abusing tribunal" had issued an "ill-founded award". In a dispatch from Manila, it said the award was made "amid a global chorus that as the panel has no jurisdiction, its decision is naturally null and void". The ruling stands to ramp up tensions in the region, where China's increased military assertiveness has worried its smaller neighbors and is a point of confrontation with the United States. CALL FOR SOBRIETY Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Pefecto Yasay called for sobriety from all parties involved. Yasay made the plea after welcoming the PCAs unanimous decision in favor of the Philippines for the historic rights and maritime entitlements in the arbitration case against the People's Republic of China. "Our experts our studying the award with the fairness that this significant arbitral outcome deserves," he said. "In the meantime we call all concern to exercise restraint and sobriety. The Philippines strongly affirms its respect for this maritime decision as an important contribution to ongoing efforts in addressing disputes to the South China Sea," Yasay added. Responsible member The United States and  other Philippine allies have called on China to comply with the ruling to show that, as an emerging global power and as a responsible member of the international community, it adheres to the rule of law. How the Philippine government under newly-installed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte would act on the verdict remains to be seen. While Duterte said that he would not compromise the country’s sovereignty in its claimed features in the South China Sea, he has adopted a conciliatory tone towards China, saying he wants to improve strained ties with Beijing and is ready to negotiate bilaterally after the ruling. Such move is a departure from the position of his predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, which initiated the arbitration case, when China took control of Philippine-claimed Scarborough Shoal in 2012 after a tense standoff. —NB/JST withReuters

Sunday, July 10, 2016

The West Philippines Sea: What lies ahead with Filipino Fishers ?


The Philippines has new administration and a new look with the issue on West Philippine Sea . With the last administration's diplomatic strategy in reclaiming [to us Filipinos, our sovereign rights over Kalayaan Group of Islands better known as Spratlys Islands,] and China's continous ignoring our claim despite some positive support from other nations, the impact is a burden carried on by our noble fisherfolks who were grabbed of their rich fishing grounds and consecquently thereby pinning them more to poverty. It is for a fact that most of these fishers experienced prohibitions from fishing to the or near the disputed area where in the past they caught fish abundantly.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

The CHANGE is Here !

Today is the 30th of June 2016 and the Philippines got a new president after the recently held national election. More than 15 million Filipinos have chosen him from the other candidespite the tremendous effort of the last administration to push up its candidate and the popular controversial candidates. His battle cry CHANGE sweep the heart of the too many "not decent, well-bred and matitino" few + opportunity-authority-money faced pinoys. These too many people are pool of poors, dissatisfied, wary and real filipinos who were all shouting CHANGE in the forsaken Philippines. As President Rodrigo Roa Duterte take his oath, 5m+ and the balimbings once more wished CHANGE of their lives and the coated-cream Philippines !

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

EARTH HOUR 2016


Earth Hour is scheduled on March 19, 2016. We call every to join the global initiative of reversing climate change by starting to lessen carbon and other heat-holder gases in the atmosphere through an hour of candle light in minimum or a day of no electricity use. Though not enough to made an impact on the current global warming it is the best way of starting in the reversing struggle. Bear in mind EARTH is our HOME ! ! ! #MakeEarthaBetterPlacetoLivein