ellen tordesillas – Page 75 – Making life worth living.

Del Rosario fights media battle while China controls battlefield

Published by Ellen on June 19, 2014

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario: his policy is to 'shame" China. — Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario: his policy is to ‘shame” China.

Statements coming from Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario betray helplessness over the situation in the South China Sea.

The Philippines is losing the battle that he led the country to wage against China.

Yesterday Del Rosario said that the Philippines will ask the United Nations Arbitral Court to hasten the resolution of the 2013 suit it filed questioning the legality of China’s nine-dash line map in the light of the latter’s expansion activities on islands they are occupying in the disputed areas of the Spratlys in the South China Sea.

Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza had said that they expect the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea to rule on both jurisdiction and merit of the Philippine claim “between 2015 to 2016.” China has refused to participate in the Philippine case.

Protecting El Nido’s coral reefs

Published by Ellen on June 18, 2014

Cadlao mountain island, the highest in El Nido.

When God blessed the earth, he must have been standing near and facing Palawan because the province is so rich in natural resources and possesses spectacular sceneries – on the ground, underground, on the water, underwater.

In the northern part of Palawan is El Nido, a municipality of almost 40,000 in an area covering 92,326 hectares. The town is named after Swiflets (local name is Balinsasayaw) nests made from the bird’s saliva found in the crevices of the limestone’s cliffs in the area.

The mountain islands of El Nido are simply breathtaking. They are towers of stone so high they almost kiss the clouds.They come in all shapes and forms, depending on your imagination.

China’s New Calculations in the South China Sea

Published by Ellen on June 12, 2014

This article appeared in East-West Center, Asia Pacific Bulletin
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/china%E2%80%99s-new-calculations-in-the-south-china-sea

Chinese oil rig in Paracels. Thanks to www.upi.com

By Yun Sun

In recent months, China’s unilateral actions asserting its claims in the South China Sea (SCS) have driven regional tensions to a new high. China’s well-calculated moves are motivated by multiple internal and external factors. These include boosting President Xi Jinping’s prestige and authority for his domestic reform agenda, along with an assumption that the United States is extremely unlikely to intervene at this moment in time. Other than the overt actions to assert its claims in the SCS, official statements and legal studies analysis from within China also reflect a recalibrated determination to uphold the country’s controversial nine-dashed line in the South China Sea.

From a Chinese perspective, the most transparent and direct explanation of China’s rising assertiveness in the South China Sea is simple: China believes that its past unilateral restraint has done nothing to improve China’s position regarding SCS disputes and these inactions have in fact resulted in other claimant countries strengthening their presence and claims. Therefore, for China to improve its position in the current climate or for future negotiations, it must first change the status-quo through all available means necessary.

China prefers to utilize civilian and paramilitary approaches but does not reject military coercion if required. An advantaged position and certain exclusive privilege in the South China Sea are both believed to be indispensable for China’s aspiration to become a “strong maritime power,” a “key task” stipulated by the 18th Party Congress in 2012 and a policy personally endorsed by Xi. While China’s aspirations for a “Blue Water Navy” and naval expansion face multiple choke points along its east coast from Japan down to the Philippines, the South China Sea is considered to offer China a much larger and less constrained maritime domain for naval maneuvers.

How many more media deaths to move the government?

Published by Ellen on June 12, 2014

Nilo Baculio Sr. with Atty Romel Bagares of CenterLaw and NUJP's Sonny Fernandez. — Nilo Baculio Sr. with Atty Romel Bagares of CenterLaw and NUJP’s Sonny Fernandez.

The death of Mindoro broadcast journalist Nilo Baculio Sr. should bear not only on the conscience of the Court of Appeals judge who dismissed his petition for protection as “unsubstantiated” but also on this government especially President Aquino by being cavalier about media killings in the country.

Last Monday, June 9, 2014, the 67-year old Baculio, who hosted the program “Isumbong Mo kay Ka Nilo” over radio station dwIM in Calapan City, was gunned down by two unidentified men riding in a motorcycle.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, who monitors the state of media in the country including media killings said: “Baculio was the 165th journalist murdered in the country, the 33rd under the watch of President Benigno Aquino III and the fourth this year.”

Lawyer Harry Roque, who represented Baculio in procuring from the Supreme Court the first ever Writ of Amparo in favor of a journalist in 2008 but was refused by the CA ,said “There is blood in the hands of the CA Justices who refused Nilo Baculio protection.”

Feel good French movies

Published by Ellen on June 10, 2014

Featured in this year’s French Film Festival, a much-awaited annual event by movie enthusiasts, are “feel good” movies, according to French Ambassador Gilles Garachon.

“Lots of love stories, romantic comedies,” he said adding that “We need that.”

So true. With all the horror stories we are getting from newspapers and television, we need a good laugh.

Last Monday, we watched a romantic comedy “20 ans d’écart” (“It Boy”) about an uptight editor of a fashion magazine and her transformation when she met a refreshing 20-year old student.

We hope to catch up with “Quai d’Orsay,” a fun film on French diplomacy.

The festival screening, at the Greenbelt 3 cinemas in Makati City,started last Monday and will last up to June 15. Tickets are for P100 only.

Feel bad TV reality show

Published by Ellen on June 10, 2014

Chairman Eugenio “Toto” Villareal of The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board is not happy with what ABS-CBN in their Pinoy Big Brother reality show did to the two female housemates.

He will meet with “PBB:All In” executives today about its June 4 and 5 episodes wherein Big Brother or “Kuya “ challenged housemate Jamey Jalandoni to pose for a nude painting as part of her weekly tasks.

Jayme Jalandoni. (From ABS-CBN PBB website)

Media reports said Jalandoni, known to be a religious person, was initially reluctant to perform the challenge, saying “Kuya, ayoko maghubad (Kuya, I don’t want to take off my clothes).”

Big Brother sternly told her: “Marami ang nakasalalay rito; ang inyong weekly task, ang tulong na maibibigay sa pintor at sa kaniyang adbokasiya… Bibigyan kita ng oras para makapag-isip (There is a lot riding on your decision; your weekly task, the help you can extend the painter and his advocacy… I will give you time to think).”

The empowering effect of yoga

Published by Ellen on June 8, 2014

By Ellen T. Tordesillas, VERA Files
Photos and Video by Mario Ignacio IV and Mario I. Espinosa

The amazing thing about yoga is that you are empowering yourself without being conscious that that is what you are doing.

Yoga instructor Jasper Colina, who just opened OM Yoga Studio in Parañaque (he also teaches yoga at Fitness First), shares the experience of a female student who had fear of crossing the street. After several yoga sessions, she experienced changes within herself. She became confident with every pose she was able to accomplish and later on mustered enough courage to cross the street by herself.

Colina said most people initially go into yoga for physical fitness. In the process, however, they undergo not only physical change but also inner transformation which usually leads to a change in lifestyle—one that is gentler and more meaningful.

Justice Carpio debunks China’s historical claim of South China Sea

Published by Ellen on June 7, 2014

Justice Antonio T. Carpio demolished China’s historical claims on almost the whole of South China Sea by using China’s ancient maps.

In a lecture at De La Salle University “Historical Facts, Historical Lies and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea”, Carpio took up China’s invitation to look at the “historical facts” by examining not only Chinese ancient maps but also maps of Philippine authorities and other nationalities.

Carpio said “All these ancient maps show that since the first Chinese maps appeared,the southern most territory of China has always been Hainan Island, with its ancient names being Zhuya, then Qiongya, and thereafter Qiongzhou. ““Hainan Island was for centuries a part of Guangdong Province until 1988 when it became a separate province,” he added.

The latest from Aquino on China

Published by Ellen on June 5, 2014

President Aquino flanked by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

For reporters, President Aquino is always worth the time and effort to interview because he always says something newsworthy. Either a controversial remark (when he compared China’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea as similar to Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Czechoslovakia after they were handed Sudetenland by Great Britain) or a new information.

Reporters usually do not get that kind of candidness from more mature and prudent statesmen especially in foreign relations issues.

In other countries, they have department or ministry spokesmen, who do the talking on running issues. But President Aquino is, well, PNoy.

Making sure calamity-resilient classrooms will be built as designed

Published by Ellen on June 3, 2014

Every time there’s a place in the country hit by a typhoon, a landslide, or an earthquake, a common post-calamity sight is school children having classes under a tree exposed to elements.

That situation would be minimized, if not completely eliminated, if the Department of Education’s new school building design would be built according to specifications.

VERA Files trustee and writer Yvonne Chua reported that DepEd will be building this year 30,000 calamity-resilient classrooms costing 60 per cent more than the ordinary classroom. Example: a complete one-story one-classroom building with basic features that is not calamity-resilient would cost P685, 000. The new, stronger design costs P1.1 million.

Chua said “To make each building more resilient to earthquakes, the DepEd is banking on a bigger footing or base and thicker beams and columns. It now requires a tie beam even for a single-story school. The horizontal beam connects several columns to make the structure stable.”

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