Malacaňang declared that September 10 of this year is a non-working holiday in commemoration with the end of Muslim’s Ramadan.

The holy month of fasting for the Muslim is about to end next weekend. So, that would be a 3-day holiday from September 10-12.

Republic Act No. 9177 was signed into law in November 2002 during the term of ex-president Arroyo. It states the declaration that the first day of Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic calendar, a national holiday for the observance of Eidul Fitr.

Eidul fitr are two Arabic words, eidul meaning festivity and fitr referring to purification. They are cleansing their sins through the 30-day fasting period.

Their month of festivity always depends on the Islamic calendar so it would be changing depending on the dates.

Seven Asians were honoured for their selfless and devoted agenda in furthering the welfare of their fellowmen through the 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Award.

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III lead the presentation of awards. He also had his congratulatory speech at the end of the program.

The recipients of the highly-coveted award are Tadatoshi Akiba of Japan, Huo Daishan of China, Pan Yue and Fu Qiping both from China, A.H.M. Noman Khan from Bangladesh, and Christopher and Ma. Victoria Bernido represents our country.

The award which remembers the late president of the Philippines, Ramon Magsaysay, is the counterpart of the prestigious Nobel Prize. This annual event was organized by the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation lead by its Board of Trustees.

The awardees are chosen for their unrelenting advocacy of uplifting their nation as well as the whole Asia.

Akiba is a three-term mayor of Japan who pursye the stopping of nuclear proliferation. Daishan is a journalist who take care of the Huai River which benefits million of residents of China. While Khan’s advocacy is for the people with disability, Pan Yue and Fu Qiping strengthen environmental protection. Meanwhile, the Bernido couple fosters quality education through science and technology.

All of them except for Pan Yue and Fu Qiping accepted the award at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Reports said they have their personal reasons for not attending the ceremony.

Philippines being called as the texting capital of the world is using the phone mania in the field of agriculture as suggested by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

The IIRI which is located in Los Baňos, Laguna is employing the use of cutting edge technology in efficient rice production.

From this month, a plan to use text messaging to send precise management advice and fertilizer recommendations to local farmers by Interactive Voice Response (IVR) was suggested by IIRI scientists.

How will it work? It is through the power of the fingertips that farmers can ask questions about farming whereabouts. By simply dialling number on his mobile phone for free, he will be asked a series of questions to which he should respond by pressing a number on the phone keypad.

He will receive a text message after answering the questions which states the recommendations on the amounts, sources and timings of fertilizer applications for his specific rice paddy.

Farmers need not to worry because the language could be Filipino or English. Or their daughter or son could help them in case that they cannot use cell phones.

Initial testing of the program gained positive feedbacks from the farmers. With the efficiency of mobile phones, it could easily and directly reach the farmers even in remote areas.

There is no more smiling PNoy on Facebook. His profile picture is now a serious-looking photo uploaded after the president was chided because of his smile.

News from China showed some criticism on President Noynoy Aquino when he sat with the press for his official statement regarding the Manila Hostage Taking. They said he could smile despite of the tragic hostage drama.

PNoy then defended that he looks smiling even though he’s not. They “might have been misunderstood” him.

Criticisms regarding his smile flooded the Facebook page of the president. But it decreased after the week of the incident.

“I have several expressions. I smile when I’m happy, I smile when I’m faced with a very absurd situation, and if I offended certain people, I apologize to them,” he said.

The administration lead by Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma, is monitoring the page. They did not refrain the public from negative comments but they deleted the slanderous and profane ones.

On the other hand, as the week started, the page earned comments defending the president.

As of late, the administration is doing their steps in recovering the Philippines from the tragedy. A fact-finding report is expected to be submitted to the president in three weeks time. They want to make sure that the probe would be “thorough, impartial and comprehensive.

While there are still rallies from the citizens of Hong Kong bursting out anger and demands, the Philippine government is negotiating the delegations to China.

The Hong Kong Apple Daily released an anime reenactment of the hostage taking happened in Quirino Grandstand, Manila. It shows the summary of the hostage drama in almost 2 minutes.

It was 10:15 a.m. Monday in when Rolando Mendoza, 55 and married with three children, hijacked a bus with Chinese nationals who visited historic sites in the city of Manila. He wore a camouflage uniform and carried an M16 rifle. The rest of the incident id a history showed in the video below.

The video is posted in Youtube.

Animated Reenactment of Manila Hostage Taking

The bloodbath happened in front of a grandstand where Aquino had been sworn in as president on June 30. After midnight he was back there, staring at the bloodstained, bullet-riddled bus.

July 2010 Nursing Board Exam Results are out!

At least 37,679 out of 91,008 examinees passed the exams that were given in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, La Union, Legazpi, Lucena, Pagadian, Pampanga, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, and Zamboanga last July 3 and 4, 2010.

According to the Professional regulation Commission a student from Ateneo de Naga named Rayan Abogado top the said Board Exam getting 86.80%.

All successful examinees who took their examination in Manila is expected to attend the oath-taking ceremonies for will be held before the Philippine Nursing Board on September 20 and 21 at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City.

Below is the statement of Hong Kong Journalists Association regarding the role of media in the hostage taking. Noted also is their anger and concern of their country.

Dear President Aquino,

The Hong Kong Journalists Association expresses its deepest condolences to the families of those who died in Manila’s hostage tragedy. We also want to express our appreciation and respect to those who acted bravely and astutely during the long standoff, thus allowing some of the hostages to survive. We are, however, filled with anger and concern over the blame being heaped on the media for allegedly contributing to the tragedy.

The HKJA notes with concern that President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines made the media the scapegoat when he said: “Media coverage of his brother being taken into custody further agitated the hostage-taker…” Using this flimsy excuse, Mr. Aquino said he would consider imposing new restrictions on media coverage should a similar crisis occur.

We have no idea what further restrictions are under consideration but what we are sure of is that President Benigno Aquino’s words were uttered hastily and without careful consideration. Without a thorough investigation such conclusions cannot be taken seriously and the HKJA views the president’s hasty conclusions with grave misgivings.

The role of the media is to tell the world what is happening and what has happened. This is the essence of what the democratic world has come to know and to accept as freedom of the press and freedom of expression. The media’s presence is vital to the preservation of human rights of minorities in any conflict. As in the case of Manila’s killings, nobody can tell if the same tragedy would not have taken place without the presence of the media. What we can be sure of is that without the presence of the media no knowledge of this horrific tragedy would have been known to the outside world.

Moreover, the police force of the Philippines should have known that negotiations were going on between the gunman and his brother, and that this was being telecast. The act of arresting the brother would, clearly, irritate the gunman. Yet the police forcibly wrestled the brother down and handcuffed him, all directly in front of the media.

The police, clearly, had neither strategy nor the necessary know-how to deal with such a situation. With the development of the new media, it is unrealistic to ask the media not to broadcast live in a matter of huge public interest not only to the Filipinos themselves, but also to people in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Proper media arrangements, including a safe area for the media at the scene, in accordance with internationally accepted standards, are of paramount importance. None were forthcoming.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association calls on the Philippines government to refrain from using this incident to introduce harsh measures against the media in order to cover up their incompetence. We will closely monitor the incident and any further deterioration of press freedom in Philippines arising from this tragedy.

With Kind Regards,
Hong Kong Journalists Association

26th August 2010

As if the flak that the Manila Police Department (MPD) is getting is not enough after the incident of the hostage taking last Monday, photos of police officers and SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives) are also circulating in Facebook.

Yes, PNP officers having their photos taken in front of the bus where the hostage taking happened — as if the bus is now a tourist monument (no pun intended).

Now, we can’t really tell the people of Hong Kong (and the Chinese for that matter) to calm down and be civil if we ourselves cannot act like one and be sensitive and sympathize to the victims. This is another blow to the Filipinos and the entire nation.

That does not include the Flash Game of the Hostage Taking that was posted hours after the incident here.

No wonder Hong Kong officials immediately posted a ban on travel to the Philippines. The whole incident was all over Twitter and we can’t deny the fact that everybody is talking about us.

The tourist bus was still at the scene this afternoon, 2 days after the incident. It was later towed to Camp Bagong Diwa for further investigation and gathering of evidence.

A flash game of the 10-hour hostage taking incident at Quirino Grandstand in Manila was released by an unknown programmer.

The game was created by a certain author named “keybol” at the day of the hostage taking. It earned quick popularity among online gamers after it was published in Newgrounds.com as a flash game.

The game which features the same scenario as the Manila hostage drama is entitled “Bus Hostage by Policeman”. The aim of the game is to shoot the rude policeman who hostage 25 Asian citizens in one-minute given time.

Moreover the tagline of the game says this: “”Seeking to arm-twist authorities into reinstating him back, a dismissed policeman has taken a bus with 25 passengers hostage here. Can you stop him and blow his brain?”

When the time runs out, regardless of how many times the policeman in the game is shot, a photo of dismissed PNP Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza is displayed along with the caption, “I want to be reinstated back to my job so I hostage these people.”

Below are the comments coming from the other users of the site:

“You totally didn’t just make a mockery of a tragic attack on innocent people,” sarcastically wrote user “chitoryu12″.

“Many innocent people died in this, and yet you make fun of it? Basing on your profile, you’re probably a Filipino. Don’t you feel ashamed of what you’ve done? This was already a great embarrassment to our country, don’t make it worse. I’ve read some of the comments and it’s damaging the reputation of the country some more. Please do realize the things you’ve done and do take further action. Lastly, please grow up,” said user jarmzzz

“You made it soooooooooooo fast! kuya,” commented by pinoygamegeek.

“do you even know what are the families of the hostages feeling? THINK FOR JESUS CHRIST!!!” added user “jmb13″

Perhaps, the game author believes that the game he created will easily gain popularity, which is true to reality.

After the hostage taking drama on Monday, Security Bureau of Hong Kong advised its citizens to avoid all travel to the Philippines. As expected, the said hostage crisis would affect much the tourism in our country.

The warning was released by the Security Bureau one hour after the 10-hour hostage incident. 4 Chinese nationals killed by the hostage-taker Rolando Mendoza, a former police officer. The incident ended when a SWAT sniper shot Mendoza in the head.

Before, our travel status with the Security Bureau is “amber alert warning”, meaning there were signs of threat. This is due to the rampant kidnapping incidents happened in our country. Unfortunately, it will be changed by the bureau to “black alert warning” meaning there are severe threats on the country’s security.

“The Chinese government demands the Philippine government launch a thorough investigation into the incident and inform the Chinese side of related details as soon as possible,” Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website late Monday.

Six of the hostages were confirmed alive. The rest of the passengers’ fate is still unknown.