All Souls Day?

Some Religious groups don't celeberate All Souls day. It's not written in the bible. There is no such thing as All Souls day. Sorry but that is the truth. According to the Roman Catholic doctrine, All Souls' Day commemorates the faithful departed. This day is observed in the Roman Catholic Church, churches of the Anglican Communion, Old Catholic Churches, and to some extent among Protestants. The Eastern Orthodox Church observes several All Souls' Days during the year. The Roman Catholic celebration is based on the doctrine that the souls of the faithful which at death have not been cleansed from venial sins, or have not fully atoned for mortal sins, cannot attain the beatific vision in heaven yet, and that they may be helped to do so by and by the sacrifice of the Mass.

Is there any prof that this event exist in the past days? Even before the Christ was born? I'm sorry to all my fellow christians, but I think this is the truth. Good luck to all. Happy weekend!

Battleship Musashi - Plan to refloat off Sibuyan Island

Battleship Musashi sunk by allied forces in World War II.

A Japanese group visited yesterday Sibuyan Sea off this island province as it bared a plan to refloat a big Japanese warship that was sunk in the area on Oct. 24, 1944 during a great naval battle between the allied forces and the Japanese Imperial Navy in World War II.

The Japanese, group headed by Kiyoshi Goto of the Japanese government and Toshihiko Suzuki, chief executive officer of AIPAC (Asian Countries and Islands Optical Fiber Communication and Philippines Property in Asia), made yesterday an offer to the Philippine government to refloat the sunken Japanese warship in the Sibuyan Sea.

The Japanese offer calls for the conversion of the warship into a tourist attraction which could be made a symbol of friendship between the Philippines and Japan.

Goto and Suzuki, who arrived the other day in the country from Japan, said that their group would shoulder all the expenses for the refloating of the warship.

The two Japanese executives came all the way to this historic island to drop flowers and sprinkle champagne at the area in Sibuyan Sea where the warship was sunk during World War II.

The group is proposing to develop the area into a tourist destination for the benefit of the Filipinos and the Japanese, particularly the relatives of the crews of the sunken warship.

As this developed, Gen. (retired) Dominador C. Resos Jr., president of the Romblon Cultural Heritage Association Inc. (ROCHAI), is inviting foreign dignitaries, including US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and top Japanese Embassy officials, to witness and recall once again the Battle of Sibuyan Sea, which is described as "the greatest and deadliest naval battle ever recorded in the history of World War II," that took place on Oct. 24, 1944.

"Join us in our return to this tragic chapter of World War II when the blue waters of Sibuyan Sea turned blood red, caused by the mixture of blood shed by the international soldiers led by the protagonists, American and Japanese soldiers, and their respective allies," General Resos said.

Dubbed as "the world’s biggest battleship," Japan’s Musashi with 1023 of her crew sank to her watery grave in the seabed of Sibuyan Sea. One hundred or more warships and aircraft also sank and gave company to Musashi on the ocean floor.

Shortly after the furious naval battle, historians say, some 2000 bodies of soldiers floated in the Sibuyan Sea waters.

Some of the bodies drifted to coastlines and beaches, including those of Boracay Island and Carabao Island.

Resos said that old folk, fishermen, and amateur "ghostbusters" had claimed that Sibuyan Sea is full of mysteries, saying "it is haunted and enchanted.

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Apologized!

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has formally apologized for a comedy show it aired that offended Filipinos both in the United Kingdom and in the Philippines, the Philippine government said on Friday.

The apology was contained in a letter dated Oct. 10, from BBC Director General Mark Thompson to Philippine Ambassador in Londan Edgardo Espiritu, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

In a Sept. 26 episode of "Harry and Paul," the comedy sketch showed comedian Harry Enfield ordering his Filipino maid to mate with his friend Paul Whitehouse. The Filipino woman was shown gyrating in front of Whitehouse in an effort to seduce him.

Here is the video:


Following the release of the show, which obviously upset the 200,000-strong Filipino community in the United Kingdom, the Philippine embassy in London sent letters to different British government offices, including the Mayor of London, and the BBC itself to protest the "slur" on Filipino domestic workers in Britain.

Filipinos in both the Philippines and Britain protested the "insulting reference to Filipino women, typifying them in a dual role as domestic workers and sex toys of their British employers."

In the letter, Thompson asked the Filipinos to accept his "sincere apologies, on behalf of the BBC, for the offense that this program caused."

Overseas Filipino workers are considered "modern-day heroes" of the Philippines, whose billions of dollars of remittances act as a cornerstone of the national economy in the Southeast Asian country.

It was the second time in recent months that Filipinos reacted vehemently against their negative portrayal on major foreign television. Last year, Filipinos were offended by the American Broadcasting Co. and made the U.S. TV giant apologize and deleted the controversial segment from its TV show "Desperate Housewives."


from: magdiwangromblon.ning.com/virgil rotoni radan

Recovered bodies from ‘Princess’ now at 36 - Coast Guard

The number of bodies recovered from the capsized MV Princess of the Stars rose to 36 after divers retrieved the remains of three more victims as retrieval operations continued on its third day.

A radio dzBB report quoted Coast Guard commandant Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo as saying that as of Tuesday afternoon, the number of bodies recovered on Tuesday alone rose to 16, raising the total number of bodies retrieved from the capsized ship to 36.

Divers from salvage group Harbor Star and counterparts from the Coast Guard had been searching the ship since Sunday for remains of more than 500 passengers trapped inside.

Tamayo said he has instructed the divers to search all accommodation spaces, including other decks of the ship, for remains.

"Ginagawa natin ang lahat na paraan (We are doing all we can)," Tamayo said in an interview on dzBB radio.

He also said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has a team on standby to identify bodies that will be retrieved from the capsized vessel.

The Sulpicio Lines-owned MV Princess of the Stars capsized off Romblon last June 21 at the height of typhoon "Frank."

Johanna Camille Sisante, GMANews.TV

MERCENARY FOR HIRE?

One day my officemate, told me that the Blackwater US are hiring Pinoys to work as mercenary abroad, particularly in Iraq and other Middle Eastern Nations. Some of you well ask, what is Blackwater? Well guys, Blackwater is a private military company founded in 1997 byErik Prince and Al Clark. It has alternatively been referred to as a security contractor or a mercenary organization. It is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors.

My friend told me that police and military personnel are the most qualify to apply. According to him, some of his friends in the military, are able to passed the screening and now working abroad as mercenaries.

The contract will be 6 months, $3000 a month. After the deployment, everyone is guaranteed an immigrant visa. If the mercenary can survive, then he is a US Citizen after 6 months, including his/her family.

Survey of Princess of the Stars for bodies starts

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has started surveying the M/V Princess of the Stars off Romblon to locate the bodies of passengers who were trapped when the vessel sank at the height of typhoon “Frank” last June 21.

PCG commandant Vice Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said, “We have already met with the officials of Sulpicio Lines Inc. and the salvaging firm Harbor Star and when they said they were ready to conduct the survey operations, we told them to go ahead.”

But Tamayo said there is no definite timetable for the retrieval of the bodies.

Earlier, salvors removed 400 packs of the toxic pesticide endosulfan as well as Bayer Crop Science products, and siphoned off 176,000 liters of bunker fuel from the sunken ship.

At least 33 people survived the sea tragedy. More than 200 have been confirmed dead, while 515 others were listed as missing.

In Cebu City, meanwhile, acting Mayor Michael Rama gave assurance that the bodies that would be recovered will not be brought to Cebu unless they are cleared of contamination by toxic substances carried by the vessel.

Rama said the bodies will first undergo thorough examination by the Department of Health to ensure that they do not pose any public health risk.

Dr. Renato Bautista, head of the National Bureau of Investigation-Disaster Victims Identification, also promised to preserve the remains in their best possible form to facilitate easy identification.

Rama also echoed the call of authorities for the families of Princess of the Stars passengers still listed as missing not to go to Cebu unless they are contacted and once the recovered bodies are processed at the mobile morgue put up at the Cebu International Port.

from: www.philstar.com

The Battle of Sibuyan Sea

I read in another newspaper about a plan to re-float the sunken Musashi, the largest battleship in the world, and convert it into a tourist attraction and a symbol of the friendship between the Philippines and Japan. I don’t know about the symbolic part, but I do agree that it would certainly become a major tourist attraction for the Philippines. After all, the Battle of Leyte Gulf may have been fought between the Japanese and the Americans, but this greatest of battles happened right in our backyard.

The Musashi was the flagship of then Admiral Mineichi Koga, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Combined Fleet, who took over the command on April 18, 1943 when Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was ambushed by a squadron of Lockheed P-38 Lightnings and crashed in Bougainville, the Solomons.

Allow me to refresh the memory of our faithful readers who may have forgotten who Admiral Koga is as we wrote his story sometime ago. This story is about the highest-ranking Japanese officer ever captured in the entire Pacific War. He was captured some 35 kilometers south of Cebu City on April 1,1943 by Cebuano guerrillas under Col. James Cushing.

On March 31, 1943, two Kawanishi “Mavis” flying boats carrying Admiral Koga and his chief of staff, Rear Admiral Shigeru Fukudome, flew from Korkor, Palau to Davao as they were transferring their headquarters to Mindanao 600 miles away. But the two seaplanes ran into a violent storm and got lost and eventually separated somewhere between Leyte and Cebu.

Admiral Koga’s plane vanished, while Admiral Fukudome’s plane crashed at sea off San Fernando, Cebu where he survived with his crew and they were captured by guerrillas. A guerrilla also found in the flotsam the so-called “Koga papers,” the secret Z-Plan or Sho Plan for the defense of the Philippines. The Koga papers were sent to Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia via the submarine USS Crevalle. Because of this secret information, Gen. MacArthur decided to change his invasion plans and advance the date of invasion to October 1944 in Leyte instead of Mindanao in 1945.

I’m writing about the super battleship Musashi because it is the 64th anniversary today of the Battle of Sibuyan Sea, which was the opening act of the famous Battle of Leyte Gulf, the greatest naval battle in the world. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was Japan’s counter-attack because of the invasion of Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944. Both super battleships Yamato and Musashi (they carried 18-inch guns, while the US Navy’s battleships only had 16-inch guns) were under the command of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita and sailed from Brunei on Oct. 23, 1944, then through the Palawan passage and into Sibuyan Sea on Oct. 24, 1944.

When the battle started, the Yamato was hit by dive-bombers and immediately withdrew to Palawan, while her sister-ship, the Musashi, was hit by Hellcats from the USS Intrepid (this carrier is now a museum docked in New York City), the USS Bunker Hill and other carriers of Task Force 38. But the deadly blow came from the USS Enterprise, which hit Musashi with a total of 20 torpedoes and 17 bombs, with 18 bombs hitting near her bow. The Musashi sank in Sibuyan Sea (I guess this is not far from the site of the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars) with her 2,399 men on board. Only 1,023 survived the sinking, while Admiral Kurita retreated to San Bernardino Strait.

Meanwhile, the US also lost the carrier USS Princeton in that battle, but she was scuttled east of Luzon, while the USS Birmingham and many other American Navy ships were badly damaged. The following day, the other battle of Leyte Gulf commenced and this was the Battle of Surigao Strait, one of the turning points in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. But then that’s another great history that someday I would also write about.

from: www.philstar.com

8th National PESO Congress

The 8th National PESO Congress was held at Butuan City last October 1-3, 2008 at Almont Hotels Inland Resort.

Our Division was assigned to facilitate the PESO Congress. We were all busy for a month, preparing for this event. We arrived at Butuan City one day before the congress. We need to make sure that the venues and accomodations for 700 participants are already ok. Whew there are 700 participants and we are only 12 from the Bureau, excluding the top officials of DOLE.

The Congress is very helpful to different PESOs throughout the Country. There are speakers from Government agencies, particularly from POEA and top officials from DOLE. They discussed the different trends and issues regarding employment.

What is PESO?

The Public Employment Service Office or PESO is a non-fee charging multi-employment service facility or entity established or accredited pursuant to Republic Act No. 8759 otherwise known as the PESO Act of 1999.

To carry out full employment and equality of employment opportunities for all, and for this purpose, to strengthen and expand the existing employment facilitation service machinery of the government particularly at the local levels there shall be established in all capital towns of provinces, key cities, and other strategic areas a Public Employment Service Office, Hereinafter referred to as PESO, which shall be community-based and maintained largely by local government units (LGUs) and a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or community-based organizations (CBOs) and state universities and colleges (SUCs). The PESOs shall be linked to the regional offices of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for coordination and technical supervision, and to the DOLE central office, to constitute the national employment service network.

The congress also showcase the different presentations of PESOs. A dance competition, with hawaiian motive, to be presented on the last night of the Congress. The grand price was won by Region 12, the first-runner up goes to Region IV-A and the second-runner up went to Region 10. The grand price winner take home P10,000. There are other awards given to different PESOs. The BEST PESO take home P45,000.

On the next day, we were invited to attend the birthday party of a PESO Manager from Surigao City, Ms. Amor Morales, an active member of PESOPhil. It takes 2 hours from Butuan to Surigao City. The foods are great, litson baboy, crab meat , seafoods whew pampabata...hehehe.

On Oct. 4,2008, we went home with a smile. The 8th National PESO Congress was successful.