People walk past the Apple logo near an Apple Store at a shopping area in central Beijing February 19, 2013.
CREDIT: REUTERS/PETAR KUJUNDZIC

(Reuters) – Fresh off a $532.9 million jury win against Apple Inc (AAPL.O), a Texas company is again suing the tech giant, this time over the same patents’ use in devices introduced after the original case was underway.

Smartflash LLC aims to make Apple pay for using the patent licensing firm’s technology without permission in devices not be included in the previous case, such as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and the iPad Air 2. The trial covered older Apple devices.

On Tuesday, a jury in federal court in Tyler, Texas found that Apple willfully violated three Smartflash patents with devices that use its iTunes software. The patents relate to accessing and storing downloaded songs, videos and games.

The new complaint was filed on Wednesday night in the same court in Tyler, where Smartflash is also based and which over the past decade has become a focus for patent litigation. Smartflash licenses its patents but does not make products itself.

“Smartflash filed the complaint to address products that came out too far into the last proceedings to have been included,” Smartflash’s attorney, Brad Caldwell, told Reuters on Thursday. “Apple cannot claim they don’t know about these patents or understand that they are infringing. A diligent jury has already rejected those arguments.”

A representative from Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.

Apple said after Tuesday’s verdict it would appeal and that the outcome was another reason reform was needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that make money off patent royalties instead of products.

The latest suit alleges Apple infringes the same patents at issue in the trial, and names four others. Three of those additional patents were part of its older complaint against Apple, which was later narrowed.

Both Smartflash lawuits say that around 2000, the co-inventor of its patents, Patrick Racz, met with executives of what is now European SIM card maker Gemalto SA (GTO.AS), including Augustin Farrugia, who is now a senior director at Apple.

Smartflash has also filed patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS), Google Inc (GOOGL.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) over the same patents.

The case is Smartflash LLC et al v. Apple Inc, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 15-cv-145.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Christian Plumb)

Shoppers roam the aisles at the Safeway store in Wheaton, Maryland February 13, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/GARY CAMERON

(Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices fell over the past year for the first time since 2009 as gasoline prices continued to tumble, which could allow a cautious Federal Reserve more room to hold off on raising interest rates.

Other data on Thursday showed a rebound in business investment spending plans and a steadily firming labor market, suggesting the move into deflation territory would be brief. In addition, gasoline prices have been rising in recent weeks.

“We believe the Fed will wait until September before achieving liftoff on interest rates and, even then, the process of normalization will move at a glacial pace,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago.

The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index fell 0.1 percent in the 12 months through January, the first decline since October 2009 and a sharp deceleration from December’s 0.8 percent rise.

The CPI dropped 0.7 percent from December, the largest fall in six years, after slipping 0.3 percent in the prior month.

The dollar was unfazed by the weak inflation backdrop, rising more than one percent against a basket of currencies, while poor demand at a monthly note auction undercut prices for U.S. Treasuries. Stocks on Wall Street fell.

Fed officials, who have long viewed the energy-driven drop in inflation as transitory, could take comfort from a rise in underlying price pressures last month.

The U.S. central bank has a 2 percent inflation target and tracks a price measure that is running even lower than the CPI.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers this week that the central bank’s policy-setting committee “needs to be reasonably confident that over the medium-term inflation will move up toward its 2-percent objective” before it starts to raise interest rates.

The so-called core CPI, which strips out food and energy costs, rose 0.2 percent last month after December’s 0.1 percent gain. Economists, however, believe the effects of lower energy prices and a strong dollar still have to work their way through to the core CPI, which could mean tame readings ahead.

“It will be some time before the Fed gets the necessary confirmation that inflation will move back to target in the medium term,” said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

The core CPI was lifted by increases in the cost of shelter, recreation and apparel prices. In the 12 months through January, the core CPI rose 1.6 percent after a similar gain in December.

OIL GLUT

Softer global demand and increased shale oil production in the United States have caused an oil glut, causing crude prices to plummet.

Domestic gasoline prices plunged 18.7 percent in January, the biggest drop since December 2008, after falling 9.2 percent in the prior month. Gasoline prices have now declined for seven straight months.

Separately, the Commerce Department said non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending intentions, increased 0.6 percent last month after a revised 0.7 percent fall in December.

The increase followed four straight months of decline.

“Companies are laying in supplies to meet the demand from consumers down the road, so this is a positive for the outlook,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York.

“The economy looks on solid footing to start the year, with orders picking up and yes, there is some inflation out there.”

Business investment has been hurt by a softening global economy, as well as the strong dollar, which has dented the overseas profits of some companies. Lower crude oil prices are also undercutting demand for equipment in the oil field.

Shipments of core capital goods, which are used to calculate equipment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measurement, fell 0.3 percent last month after rising 0.3 percent in December.

Business spending was a drag on growth in the fourth quarter, holding the economy to a 2.6 percent annualized growth pace. First-quarter growth is currently forecast at around a 2.3 percent rate.

Another report from the Labor Department showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 313,000 in the week ended Feb. 21. The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 11,500 to 294,500 last week.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Paul Simao and Andrea Ricci)

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) participates in a panel discussion at the American Action Forum in Washington, in this January 30, 2015 file photo.
CREDIT: REUTERS/YURI GRIPAS/FILES

(Reuters) – Potential Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker told grassroots conservatives on Thursday that his battle with labor unions as Wisconsin’s governor had given him the mettle needed to take on militant groups like Islamic State.

“”We need a leader who will stand up and say we will take the fight to them and not wait until they take the fight to American soil,” Walker told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

“If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same in the rest of the world,” he added.

Democrats immediately seized on the comment to suggest Walker was comparing Wisconsin protesters to Islamic militants.

“If Scott Walker thinks that it’s appropriate to compare working people speaking up for their rights to brutal terrorists, then he is even less qualified to be president than I thought,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Mo Elleithee.

Walker spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said Walker was in no way comparing any American citizen to Islamic State militants.

“What the governor was saying was when faced with adversity he chooses strength and leadership. Those are the qualities we need to fix the leadership void this White House has created,” she said.

The Badger State’s 47-year-old governor has emerged as an early favorite in the battle to win the Republican nomination in the November 2016 presidential election. He was among more than a dozen potential candidates due to address activists at CPAC in Maryland near Washington on Thursday and Friday.

Like many other potential candidates, Walker has argued that Democratic President Barack Obama has not been aggressive enough in the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State and other extremist groups in the Middle East.

Walker triggered weeks of bitter protests shortly after he took office in 2011 when he pushed legislation that stripped collective-bargaining rights for many public workers and cut their benefits. He emerged as a national figure after surviving a recall attempt the following year and was re-elected in the politically competitive state last November.

Walker is expected to sign a bill currently making its way through the Republican-controlled state legislature that would make Wisconsin a “right to work” state, which would further erode labor unions’ strength in the industrial state by allowing workers to opt out of paying union dues.

(Additional reporting by Emily Flitter and Steve Holland; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Ken Wills)

A masked, black-clad militant, who has been identified by the Washington Post newspaper as a Briton named Mohammed Emwazi, brandishes a knife in this still image from a 2014 video obtained from SITE Intel Group February 26, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/SITE INTEL GROUP/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

(Reuters) – The masked “Jihadi John” killer who fronted Islamic State beheading videos has been identified as Mohammed Emwazi, a British computer programming graduate from a well-to-do London family who was known to the security services.

The black-clad militant brandishing a knife and speaking with an English accent was shown in videos released by Islamic State (IS) apparently decapitating hostages including Americans, Britons and Syrians.

The 26-year-old militant used the videos to threaten the West, admonish its Arab allies and taunt President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron before petrified hostages cowering in orange jump suits.

Emwazi’s name was first disclosed by the Washington Post. Two U.S. government sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to Reuters that investigators believed Jihadi John was Emwazi.

Dressed entirely in black, a balaclava covering all but his eyes and the bridge of his nose and a holster under his left arm, Jihadi John became a menacing symbol of Islamic State brutality and one of the world’s most wanted men.

Hostages called him John as he and other Britons in Islamic State had been nicknamed the Beatles.

He was unmasked publicly for the first time on Friday by British media which published a photograph showing Emwazi as a schoolboy.

The Daily Mail newspaper published a picture showing Emwazi smiling and sitting cross-legged on the grass at the front of the photograph from the St Mary Magdalene Church of England primary school in Maida Vale, West London.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait but came to Britain aged 6 and graduated with a computer programming degree from the University of Westminster before coming to the attention of Britain’s main domestic intelligence service, MI5, according to an account given by Asim Qureshi, the research director of the Cage charity that campaigns for those detained on terrorism charges.

Emwazi, a fluent Arabic speaker, said MI5 had tried to recruit him and then prevented him from traveling abroad, forcing him to flee abroad without telling his family, Qureshi told a news conference in London.

Emwazi traveled to Syria around 2012, Qureshi said.

MI5 does not publicly comment on the identity of militants or their backgrounds while an investigation is still ongoing. The British government and police declined to confirm or deny Emwazi’s identity, citing an ongoing security investigation.

AGENCIES HUNTING JIHAD JOHN

“We don’t confirm or deny matters relating to intelligence,” said a spokeswoman for Cameron, who has ordered spy agencies and soldiers to track down the killer.

“Jihadi John” rose to notoriety in August 2014 when a video appeared showing a masked man raging against the United States before apparently beheading U.S. citizen James Foley off camera.

Intelligence services in the United States and Britain used a variety of investigative techniques including voice and facial recognition as well as interviews with former hostages to identify the man, intelligence sources said.

But security officials made great efforts to avoid publicly naming Emwazi, fearing that would make him more difficult to catch. Two intelligence sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were uneasy that the name had been revealed.

There was no answer at two addresses in west London where Emwazi was listed to have lived. Neighbors described the family as “normal people” and “friendly”.

“This is the first time anything like this happens in this neighborhood,” said Fatima Al-Baqali. “We have to be careful now. I didn’t know this family and I usually know everyone here.”

Qureshi, of the Cage charity which describes itself as having campaigned against the ‘War on Terror’ for more than a decade, said that although he could not be certain Emwazi was John, there were some “striking similarities”. He declined to elaborate.

In a meeting with reporters in London, Qureshi painted a picture of a kind and thoughtful young man who faced harassment from MI5, which apparently suspected he wanted to join the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab.

British authorities have linked Emwazi to another British militant killed in Somalia in a U.S. drone attack.

A British court ruling dated December 2011 reported that Elwazi was an associate of Bilal al Berjawi, a high-ranking leader of the Somali-based militant group al Shabaab, a person in possession of the court ruling said.

Reuters has not seen the original court ruling. Media reports said he helped supervise the recruitment and training of new Shabaab members.

BRITISH SPIES

Qureshi said British spies had tried to recruit Emwazi as a source but declined to provide specifics.

“There’s one character that I remember, one kind person that I remember and then I see that image and there doesn’t seem to be a correlation between the two,” Qureshi told reporters.

“I feel like a prisoner, only not in a cage, in London..,” Emwazi wrote in an email to Cage.

He felt like “a person imprisoned and controlled by security service men, (who) stopping me from living my new life in my birthplace and my country, Kuwait”.

Cage said Emwazi was detained in Tanzania, where he went for a safari holiday with two friends in August 2009.

He was deported to Amsterdam and interrogated by MI5 and a Dutch intelligence officer and then sent back to Britain, according to Qureshi.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the version of events given by the charity, which provoked criticism for shifting the responsibility for Emwazi’s crimes.

“I think this is an attempt to deflect attention from Jihadi John,” said Shiraz Maher, Senior Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization, King’s College London.

“They’re trying to lay the blame for this at the feet of the British government,” he told Sky news.

The Cage charity, which also worked with the family of Michael Adebolajo, the Muslim covert who with an accomplice killed a British soldier in London in May 2013, said both men had been victims of undue pressure from the security services.

Britain’s MI5 security service was not immediately available for comment on those allegations. MI5 has argued to British lawmakers that it would be damaging to national security to comment on allegations that is sought to recruit Adebolajo.

The British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee said last year that MI5 had investigated Adebolajo five times, twice as a high priority, but had found no evidence that any attack was being planned.

The Committee said it had found no evidence that Adebolajo was harassed by MI5.

After becoming frustrated following three failed attempts to return to Kuwait, and changing his name to Mohammed al-Ayan, Emwazi left his parents’ home and slipped out of Britain, according to Qureshi.

Four months later, police visited the family home to say they had information he had entered Syria. His family thought he was in Turkey doing aid work.

“Jihadi John” fronted gruesome Islamic State videos that showed either the killing or bodies of victims including U.S. citizens James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, Britons David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese Kenji Goto and over 20 Syrian soldiers.

(Editing by Peter Millership)

Workers from the United Steelworkers (USW) union walk a picket line outside the Shell Oil Deer Park Refinery in Deer Park, Texas February 1, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/RICHARD CARSON

(Reuters) – The United Steelworkers union (USW) and representatives for several U.S. refineries discussed on Thursday a possible resumption of face-to-face negotiations to settle a 26-day strike, two people familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

No date had been set as of Thursday for resuming direct meetings with Shell Oil Co, which is representing the refiners, the sources said.

About 6,550 USW members were on strike at 15 plants, including 12 refineries that account for one-fifth of national capacity.

“The USW continues to be ready and willing to resume negotiations with Shell at any time,” said union spokeswoman Lynne Hancock. “Other than that, I don’t have any information on when talks will resume.”

Shell Oil Co, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L), confirmed making contact with the union.

Direct meetings between negotiators for the USW and Shell broke off on Friday, after refinery owners balked at a possible settlement and the union ordered walkouts at three Motiva Enterprises LLC [MOTIV.UL] refineries co-owned by Shell.

The USW has said it is seeking to retain safety provisions from previous contracts and tighten fatigue standards for workers, as well as win back daily maintenance jobs now done by non-union contractors.

Shell and other companies have said the strike came about because of the union’s insistence on replacing the non-union contractors with USW members, which would impair management’s flexibility in refinery staffing.

Companies have called on temporary replacement workers to keep plants running at nearly normal levels.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Ken Wills and Gopakumar Warrier)

A supporter holds up a sign with a drawing of Indonesian domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, during a protest calling for better protection of migrant workers, outside the district court in Hong Kong February 27, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/TYRONE SIU

(Reuters) – A Hong Kong mother of two who punched her maids, beat them with mops and threatened to kill their relatives was jailed for six years on Friday in a case that triggered outrage and exposed the plight of millions of domestic helpers across Asia.

Former beautician Law Wan-tung, 44, looked stunned as the sentence was passed after being found guilty of 18 of 20 abuse charges. She was also ordered to pay a fine of HK$15,000 ($1,934).

The charges included inflicting grievous bodily harm and criminal intimidation against Erwiana Sulistyaningsih and an another maid, also from Indonesia.

Law looked emotionless as she was led out of court. She had pleaded not guilty to the 20 charges but had admitted one of not buying insurance cover for her maid.

Judge Amanda Woodcock read out her verdict saying “damning evidence” revealed “how little care and kindness the defendant showed” for Erwiana, who had told media she would forgive her former boss and her family.

The brutality meted out to Erwiana has sparked calls for Hong Kong to revise its policies on migrant workers. Around 30 supporters of Erwiana protested outside the court.

Erwiana, who arrived in Hong Kong in 2013, returned to Indonesia in January last year where doctors said burns on her body were caused by boiling water.

Photographs of a battered Erwiana posted online sparked outrage and Indonesia’s then president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, described her treatment as torture.

Hong Kong has about 330,000 foreign domestic helpers, most of them from the Philippines and Indonesia and nearly all women, who can earn more in Hong Kong to send back to their families than they can at home.

They earn a small fraction of the minimum wage and are forced to live with their employers, often in tiny apartments. Human rights groups say they often suffer physical and emotional abuse, including sexual assault.

(Reporting by Pak Yiu; Editing by Farah Master and Nick Macfie)

Shipping containers stand in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California in this aerial photo taken February 6, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/BOB RIHA, JR.

(Reuters) – The Obama administration is confident lawmakers will warm up to a proposed Pacific free trade deal on the grounds it is a chance for the United States, rather than China, to dictate the rules of Asian trade, a top official said on Thursday.

“It’s a choice between us writing it and, frankly, China writing it, which I think is very compelling to many members of Congress,” Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews said during a call to announce more support for rural exporters, such as by promoting more trade shows and workshops.

The White House is lobbying hard to win support for trade in Congress, particularly among Democrats worried about the impact of trade deals on U.S. jobs.

Andrews said the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, deal was a chance to get an agreement with Mexico on new labor and environmental standards that were not part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

But some Democrats are not convinced, with eight senators taking to the Senate floor later to raise concerns about trade.

“The proposed TPP trade deal should be judged by whether it creates good-paying American jobs, or destroys those jobs,” said Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. “Too often, trade deals with low-income nations have destroyed jobs.”

Washington views China, the United States’ second-biggest trading partner, with concern since the Asian giant has inked major trade agreements in the past year and also favors an Asia-Pacific free trade zone some see as a rival to the TPP.

China is not a party to the TPP talks but could join later.

President Barack Obama used China as the main argument in his State of the Union pitch on trade in January. On Thursday, Obama took the message outside of Washington in interviews with local television stations.

“If we don’t do this, China is essentially going to be writing the rules in the largest market in the world,” Obama told KMBC-TV of Kansas City, Missouri.

Many lawmakers view China as an adversary and are alarmed by America’s rising trade deficit with the Asian powerhouse.

Lawmakers are expected to introduce legislation soon to streamline the passage of trade deals in Congress, which majority Republicans see as contingent to their support for the TPP.

Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler said Thursday that movement in Congress gave momentum to narrowing the list of outstanding TPP issues.

“There are fewer issues but they are really, really tough, that’s what we are increasingly focused on,” she said.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Additional reporting by Krista Hughes; Editing by Andrea Ricci, David Gregorio and Peter Cooney)

FILE PHOTO: Senator Juan Ponce Enrile (UNTV News)

QUEZON CITY,  Philippines — Nanawagan na sa Sandiganbayan ang dalawang leader ng minority group sa mababang kapulungan ng kongreso na pagbigyan ang hiling na i-house arrest na lamang ang senador.

Sa resolusyon na akda ni house minority leader Ronaldo Zamora at Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano, sinasabi nitong sa edad ng senador na 91-anyos at sa kasalukuyang karamdaman dapat itong mabigyan ng sapat na atensyong medical.

Ang resolusyon ay nakatakda nilang ihain sa Lunes.

Mula sa Pnp General Hospital sa Camp Crame sinugod si Enrile sa Makati Medical Center kahapon ng alas-3 ng madaling araw dahil sa sakit sa pneumonia.

Nakasaad rin sa resolusyon na mismong si PNP Health Service Spokesperson Chief Inspector Raymond Ramos ay nagsabing hindi sapat ang pasilidad ng Pnp General Hospital upang matugunan ang medical na pangangailangan ng senador.

Si Enrile ay nakulong kasama nina Senator Jinggoy Estrada at Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr dahil sa kasong plunder na may kaugnayan sa pork barrel scam.
Ipinauubaya na lamang ng malakanyang sa hukuman ang pagdedesisyon.

“Ang pagkakaloob ng ganyang estado ay nasa pagpapasya ng hukuman at reresponde ang panig ng pamahalaan kapag nagkaroon ng kaukulang kahilingan,” saad ni Presidential Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. (UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: PNP General Hospital Emergency Room (UNTV News)

QUEZON CITY, Philippines — Nakalabas na ng Philippine National Police General Hospital ang 13 sa 15 Special Action Force members na nasugatan sa Mamasapano operation noong Enero 25.

Ayon kay PNO-PIO Chief P/CSupt. Generoso Cerbo, kinumpirma ni PNPGH Spokesperson and Emergency Room Head Dr. Raymond Santos na ala-6 ng umaga nang lumabas ang mga ito sa ospital.

Ani Cerbo, fully-recovered na ang 13 SAF members at nangangailangan na lamang ng stress debriefing.

Matapos ang stress debriefing ay pagpapahingahin muna ang mga ito kasama ng pamilya at saka ibabalik na sa kanilang mga mother unit.

“Lumabas po sila sa ospital at nasa isang secured na lugar with their families. Doon po ginaganap ang kanilang final debriefing. After this debriefing, ire-release na po sila to their families,” pahayag ni PNP-PIO Chief P/CSupt. Generoso Cerbo.

Gayunman, sinabi ng heneral na dalawa sa SAF members naman ang mananatili pa sa ospital dahil nangangailangan pa ng medical at surgical intervention.

Nilinaw din nito na wala naman sa kanila ang nakaranas ng war shock at pawang may psychological clearance na rin ang mga ito.

Kung may hihiling naman aniya sa mga ito na ilipat sila sa ibang unit idinagdag ni Cerbo na pag-aaralan ito ng PNP.

Muling iginiit ng PNP na mahalaga sa kanila ang kondisyon at kaligtasan ng mga nasugatang SAF members kaya’t ibibigay nila kung kailangan ng mga ito ng bantay pansamantala habang nagpapagaling para sa kanilang seguridad. (LEA YLAGAN / UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: MILF Peace Panel Chair Mohagher Iqbal, Malaysian facilitator Tengku Dato Abdul Ghafar, and Philippine Government Peace Panel Chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer present the signed Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) during ceremonies at Malacañang Palace, 27 March 2014. (Malacañang Photo Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang believes that the personalities pushing for the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law are not the factor for passing the bill and will still be passed not because of personalities pushing for it.

This comes as several senators question the loyalty of Government Peace Panel Chief Negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer and Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Deles to the government.

These senators alleged that the two government officials defend the MILF Group in the Mamasapano clash.

“I think it’s quite clear that the two women stand for the government of the Philippines and every time they faced the table that they do represent our interest.”

According to Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte, although the passing of the BBL is going through a difficult process due to the Mamasapano incident, they will continue to promote it.

Meanwhile, Valte denied the accusation of Akbayan Representative Walden Bello that Malacañang wants to control the release of information about the Mamasapano clash.

This, she said, came after the President’s meeting with several congressmen last Monday.

“I would not say that the President is managing the flow of information because that will imply that there are things that do not get out because the President wishes it so,” USec. Valte added. (NEL MARIBOJOC / UNTV News)

Ang bahagi ng pagbisita ni France President Francois Hollande sa mga mamamayan ng Guian, Eastern Samar nitong Biyernes, Pebrero 27, 2015 bilang bahagi ng kanyang state visit sa bansa. (Photoville International)

SAMAR, Philippines — Nais ni French President Francois Hollande na makita ang kalagayan ng mga residente sa Guiuan, Eastern Samar na lubhang naapektuhan ng Bagyong Yolanda.

Pahayag ni Pres. Francois Hollande, “In the name of France, I come here to help you, support you in the most painful moments. With Mayor Gonzalez, I signed today an agreement. The France cannot do everything alone. France have special duty to more because we will be holding the Climate Change Conference this December. In this occasion, what I’ve seen here will shed light in what we will be doing in Paris.”

Pagdating nitong alas-onse ng umaga ay agad itong tumungo sa LGU office ng Guiuan para sa isang maikling pagpupulong sa mga lokal na opisyal ng Eastern Samar.

Sa pagpupulong lumagda ang Local Government Unit ng Guian sa pangunguna ni Mayor Sheen Christopher Gonzales ng pledge of support sa adbokasiya ng France patungkol sa climate change.

Pinuntahan rin ng French entourage ang terminal ng Guiuan para sa maikling interaction naman sa mga fisher folks association.

Ayon sa Guiuan Fisherfolks Federation president, isa sa dahilan kung bakit kakausapin sila ng presidente ay upang alamin kung ano ang maaring maitulong sa kanila ng French government.
Nag-iikot rin ang entourage sa Palengke at sa iba pang public structures upang obserbahan ang isinasagawang rehabilitasyon pati na ang mga naging improvement sa lugar.
Nagbigay rin ng talumpati si Hollande sa Guiuan East Central School upang turuan ang mga kabataan kung papaano lalabanan ang umiiral na problema sa climate change.
Pahayag naman ng kinatawan ng mga kabataan sa Guiuan na si lixia Althea Aranas, “We, the youth of Guiuan, ask you to please create an agreement on climate change that will save our future. We have experienced how bad climate change can impact our families when super typhoon Haiyan happened and we need the world to take action so that events like that will not be our new normal.”

Matapos ang pagbisita sa paaralan, pasado ala-una ng hapon ay agad na umalis patungong maynila si Hollande. (JENNELYN GAQUIT / UNTV News)

People hold flags and posters during a march to commemorate Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Friday night, near St. Basil’s Cathedral in central Moscow March 1, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/SERGEI KARPUKHIN

(Reuters) – A corpse on a bloodstained bridge, with the Kremlin’s red stars glowing behind: the perfect symbolic backdrop, Russian media say, for the West to step up a campaign to vilify President Vladimir Putin.

Faced with a wave of revulsion around the world at the assassination of leading opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, the loyal media establishment is on the counter-attack, preparing Russians for a malicious propaganda campaign by a hostile West.

“And they say that’s how the ‘bloody regime’ kills its competitors. The world is outraged and indignant. And then – sanctions, credit downgrades and the further demonization of Russia and its leader,” Dmitry Kiselyov, a TV anchor reputed to be one of Putin favorite journalists, told his prime-time audience on Sunday evening.

“At a time when there is grief, to engage in polemics is disgusting.”

With the gunning-down of Nemtsov in central Moscow late on Friday, Russia enters a new phase of the ‘us or them’ tug-of-war that has played out in the media, increasingly pliant to Putin, since Ukrainians took to the streets and overthrew their Moscow-leaning president just over a year ago.

Russia accused the West of backing ‘a coup d’etat’ in Ukraine. Now those who support the West or Ukraine are called traitors or a ‘fifth column’, a term Putin used a year ago to suggest the presence of internal enemies ready to help stir up discontent.

It was a term familiar to Nemtsov who, along with many opposition figures, had criticized Putin for annexing Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, supporting separatists in east Ukraine and causing the West to impose sanctions on Russia.

While the murder is so far unsolved, Putin’s critics say the ‘fifth column’ rhetoric has helped to create a climate in which pro-Kremlin hardliners could have felt they were performing a patriotic duty in disposing of a man like Nemtsov.

“BORIS WILL BE MISSED”

In his Sunday night show, Kiselyov moved away from Putin’s initial characterization of the murder as a ‘provocation’ meant to undermine the Kremlin chief.

Putin is an elected leader whose popularity ratings have hit 86 percent, Kiselyov pointed out. Nemtsov, he implied, was an opposition figure of little significance, not to be compared with the president.

Instead, he claimed Nemtsov as Russia’s own, calling him by his first name and describing him as a “muzhik”, a typical Russian bloke, and a charmer.

“He was seen as a handsome, charismatic, open and energetic man. An artistic orator with a biting tongue … And of course Boris will be missed like spice, which in small doses can give a rich taste,” he said.

Russian officials, most of whom have followed Putin by blaming the country’s woes largely on the West, took a similar line to Kiselyov on Monday.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the United Nations Human Rights Council it was “sacrilege to use such tragedies … to try to substitute investigators and law enforcement organs by pushing politicized, ungrounded and provocative interpretations”.

RIFT WIDENS

Russia still has some independent media critical of the government and, at times, Putin. The president is frequently satirized on the Internet; a few newspapers such as Novaya Gazeta, part-owned by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, are fiercely critical of him.

But the vast majority of Russians get their news from television, and all the main channels are either in the hands of the state or of business leaders loyal to the Kremlin.

Reactions to the murder underscored a rift in society between a small liberal middle class, which feels marginalized and fearful of expressing its views, and a pro-Putin majority that opponents see as increasingly strident and aggressive.

The authorities have come up with several possible motives and lines of investigation, from jealousy over Nemtsov’s girlfriend, model Anna Duritskaya, to his support of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo over its cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

They are also muddying the waters, reminding people Nemtsov had visited and supported Ukraine, had a much younger girlfriend, and was once a deputy prime minister who may have had rivals and enemies.

The arguments did not deter tens of thousands from marching in big cities on Sunday holding banners declaring: “I am not afraid”. Many said they feared for the future of Russia.

But a Twitter feed belonging to rebels in eastern Ukraine under the name “Strelkov”, in homage to a former Russian rebel commander who fought there, called Sunday’s march “a gay parade for Ukraine supporters and liberals”. Gay is a term that is used as an insult by some conservatives.

Opposition leaders have failed so far to unite the critics of Putin’s leadership, hamstrung by his popular appeal to patriotism. Nor have they been able to overcome their own rivalries and differences.

But Nemtsov’s murder may have broken a psychological barrier, wrote Vedomosti, a business daily that is critical of the government and whose future is in doubt.

“It has happened at a moment when society is in the middle of a cold civil war,” said the newspaper, adding that such killings often prompt leaders to pursue tougher policies.

A tightening of the screws, it said, “would mean the almost complete political and economic closure of the country, the severe repression of those who disagree, and put the kibosh on the economy.”

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Lidia Kelly, editing by Timothy Heritage and Mark Trevelyan)

Two gorillas are pictured in their enclosure at the zoo in Los Angeles, California in this file photo taken January 28, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/MARIO ANZUONI/FILES

(Reuters) – Revealing new details about the origins of AIDS, scientists said on Monday half the lineages of the main type of human immunodeficiency virus, HIV-1, originated in gorillas in Cameroon before infecting people, probably via bushmeat hunting.

HIV-1, which causes AIDS, is composed of four groups, each coming from a separate cross-species transmission of a simian version of the virus from apes to humans.

Previous research identified chimpanzees in southern Cameroon as the source of HIV-1 group M, which has infected more than 40 million people worldwide and triggered the AIDS pandemic, as well as the geographically limited group N, identified in only about 20 people.

Until now, the source of the two other groups, known as O and P, had not been confirmed. The new research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed those groups originated in western lowland gorillas in southern Cameroon.

“Thus, both chimpanzees and gorillas harbor viruses that are capable of crossing the species barrier to humans and causing major disease outbreaks,” said virologist Martine Peeters of the Institute for Research and Development and University of Montpellier in France.

The researchers examined fecal samples from different gorillas across central Africa, including western lowland gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas and mountain gorillas in Cameroon, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, for evidence of the gorilla version of HIV.

Genetic analyses implicated the western lowland gorillas as the source of HIV-1 groups O and P.

“The mode of transmission is most likely exposure to infected blood and/or tissues during hunting and butchering for bushmeat,” Peeters said.

Group O viruses, the second most common HIV-1 lineage, have spread across Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria and neighboring countries and have infected about 100,000 people. Group P viruses have been documented in just two Cameroonian patients.

The researchers said group O emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. Group P arose sometime later that century.

University of Pennsylvania microbiologist Beatrice Hahn, the study’s other co-leader, said there does not appear to be any inherent viral property that prevented the group O lineage from becoming a pandemic-causing pathogen like group M. “Hence, on this occasion, humans got lucky,” Hahn said.

Another virus type, called HIV-2, is mainly restricted to West Africa, less easily transmitted than HIV-1 and has a slower progression to AIDS. It was transmitted from monkeys called sooty mangabeys to humans in West Africa.

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

A billboard with a message about Ebola is seen on a street in Conakry, Guinea October 26, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/MICHELLE NICHOLS

(Reuters) – Health officials botched more than 20 Ebola blood tests in January and February which led to the release of at least four positive patients, two of whom later died, Guinea’s anti-Ebola coordinator and other health officials told Reuters.

Five health officials and experts familiar with the incidents said the mistakes occurred at two different treatment centers and resulted in as many as 52 botched tests, exposing many others to the virus and revealing weaknesses in Guinea’s response to the crisis.

Dr. Sakoba Keita, Guinea’s anti-Ebola coordinator, confirmed the mistake had occurred but gave lower figures. He said in an emailed response to questions that 23 patients were affected, of whom four tested positive when they were retested and two died.

“This error was detected and the order was immediately given to withdraw the tubes and to find the sick in order to test them again,” Keita said.

Health officials, some of whom asked not to be named because they were worried about embarrassing the Guinean government, said the mistakes took place in Coyah, where Cuban medics are supporting a government-run center, and in Conakry, where medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres runs a center at the Donka hospital complex, when staff placed blood samples in the wrong test tubes, damaging specimens.

Patients were discharged from the centers in western Guinea, one of the biggest remaining Ebola hot spots in the region, after the test results came back negative from the laboratory at Donka, the health officials said.

At least six patients were later found to be Ebola-positive when further tests were carried out, and two of them died, the officials said.

“There were deficiencies from the moment the samples were taken right through to the test results,” said one health official in Guinea, who requested anonymity.

The incident involved many actors in the Ebola response in Guinea, where the current outbreak was first confirmed a year ago and officials are scrambling to meet a regional deadline to reduce the number of cases to zero within six weeks.

The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed nearly 10,000 people across West Africa. Guinea has recorded 2,091 deaths – fewer than in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the other worst-hit nations – and cases have fallen sharply in the past month.

Several officials said the blood test incident pointed to gaps in the country’s response.

“It’s not that their staff didn’t receive training. It’s just a question of being rigid and organized and that seems to be hard for Guinea,” said a Western health expert who spent months in the country.

TEST TUBE MIX-UP

MSF said it discovered on Feb. 6 that blood samples from 43 patients taken from its Donka center had been placed in tubes containing the blood-thinning drug heparin.

Heparin typically takes the form of an invisible coating inside a tube whereas Ebola tubes are either empty or contain a blood preservative called EDTA. It should have been easy to identify the correct tubes since the set containing heparin have green lids and the ones used for Ebola are red or purple.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said staff taking samples had run out of the correct tubes and instead used the heparin tubes, without reporting it.

“MSF took the incident very seriously and immediately replaced the tubes and opened an investigation,” said Rosa Crestani, MSF’s emergency program coordinator.

Three of those tested were later discovered to be Ebola positive and recovered, she said. No one who came in contact with the trio contracted the disease.

At the Coyah center, Guinea’s busiest Ebola facility, which is also supported by staff from the African Union, the samples of nine people were accidentally placed in tubes also containing heparin, said another health official.

The official said that after initially being found to be negative, three of the nine later tested positive, of whom two died. No further cases among contacts of the Ebola patients released from Coyah have been identified, he said.

President Alpha Conde hopes to get to zero cases by mid-April as he seeks to lure back mining investment ahead of a presidential vote due later this year.

But Guinea is still battling often violent resistance to its Ebola health campaign. One of the sources said that a similar mix-up had occurred in late 2014. The government did not respond to a question about whether it had happened before.

Guinea has received less financial aid than other Ebola countries, with $266 million in commitments – about half that for Sierra Leone and a third of Liberia’s total, according to the U.N. financial tracking service.

France is providing technical support to its former colony, but it has not launched a military operation like Britain did for Sierra Leone and the United States did in Liberia.

The WHO said the mistake was not detected in the Donka laboratory, which tested both sets of samples, where technicians had received a “huge amount of samples”.

The laboratory is run by Guinea and supported by the Institut Pasteur de Dakar – a foundation created in 2009 by a statute signed between Senegal and France’s Institut Pasteur.

Dr. Andre Spiegel, director of the Institut Pasteur Dakar, declined to comment, saying the information was sensitive and confidential.

Guinea’s Keita said the WHO had sent a supervisor to assist the laboratory.

Another Western official in Guinea said partners in a Guinea anti-Ebola drug test were now nervous about extending it to other centers in Guinea such as Coyah.

Dr. Dan Kelly, founder of the Wellbody Alliance providing healthcare in Sierra Leone, said it was not unusual for centers to run out of test tubes, but procedures existed.

“Stock outs happen. What you are supposed to do is wait for the right colored tubes to arrive,” he said.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Misha Hussain for the Thomson Reuters Foundation; Editing by David Lewis, Sonya Hepinstall and Leslie Adler)

FILE PHOTO: Isang botanteng nagpapa-biometric registration sa isang COMELEC office (UNTV News)

MANILA,Philippines – “No Bio, No Boto” ang kampanya ng Comelec para sa darating na 2016 elections.  Ibig sabihin, kung hindi nakapagpa biometrics hindi makakaboto.

Sa ilalim ng Republic Act 10367 o ang Mandatory Biometrics Registration Act of 2013, nakasaad na kailangang may  biometrics  ang mga botante; at kung wala, tatangalin ito sa voter’s list.

“Yung list of voters will be generated only for those with biometrics. Yung programa natin na nag ge-generate ng printout mayroon siyang filter. Ika nga, kung walang biometrics hindi ipiprint, ” saad ni Comelec spokesman James Jimenez.

Upang mas masigurong tanging ang mga may biometric ang makakaboto sa 2016, gagamitin ng Comelec ang voter verification system.

“In a small pilot area mayroon pa tayong additional na measure yung onsite verification ibig sabihin doon mismo mag-check ng biometrics just to see kung nasa listahan o wala. Karagdagang measure lang yun,” dagdag ni Jimenez

23,000 VVS units ang gamitin ng komisyon sa darating na presidential elections. Sa march 10 itinakda ng Comelec ang submission of bid para sa mga interesadong supplier. 727 million pesos ang inilaang pondo para sa lease ng mga VVS machines.

Paalala ng Comelec, bagamat hanggang sa Oktubre pa sa taong ito tatagal ang pagpapa- biometrics ng mga botante mas mainam na magtungo na sa mga local Comelec offices hangga’t maaga upang hindi ma-delist.

“Ang bulk ng problem remains NCR, Region 3 and Region 4A. So mostly kita mo to mga professionals to, so baka talagang kulang sa panahon,” pahayag ni Jimenez.

Sa paglilibot ng UNTV News team ilan sa kanilang nakapanayam ay walang ideya na kailangan palang magpa biometrics para makaboto sa susunod na taon.

“Hindi ko nga rin alam kung ano yun, dahil basta pag bumuboto ako kasi nandoon lagi yung pangalan ko sa presinto kaya hindi ko rin nagpapa biometrics,” ang pahayag ng botanteng si Benjie Sale.

Nanindigan ang  Comelec na puspusan ang kanilang ginagawang kampanya at information drive upang maipaalam sa publiko ang no bio no boto policy nito. (Victor Cosare / UNTV News)

FILE IMAGE: Si Vice Gov. Jolo Revilla kasama ang kanyang mga magulang na sina Congresswoman Lani Mercado Revilla, Senator Bong Revilla at si Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla sa isang pagharap sa media.  (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Mahigpit na ipatutupad ng Philippine National Police (PNP) ang kautusan ng Sandiganbayan sa pagdalaw ni Sen. Bong Revilla sa kanyang anak na si Cavite Vic Gov. Jolo Revilla sa Asian Hospital & Medical Center.

Ayon kay PNP Public Information Office head Chief Superintendent Generoso R. Cerbo Jr., alas-3 ng hapon hanggang alas-8 ng gabi lamang ang oras na ibinigay ng korte sa senador upang madalaw ang anak sa ospital.

Hindi rin papayagang mag-side trip kung sakaling hilingin ito ng senador dahil tiyak na mananagot ang mga pulis na bantay nito.

“If he bought to other places other than don sa na-mention ng Sandiganbayan obviously bawal yun at pag ginawa ng personnel natin yun obviously we will investigate them and they will be charge accordingly,” ani Cerbo.

Sinabi pa ng heneral na kasama sa convoy ni Revilla ang mga personnel mula sa iba’t ibang unit ng PNP.

Kabilang sa mga ito ang mga tauhan ng Headquarters Support Service, Muntinlupa City Police, Public Safety Battalion galing sa NCRPO, Highway Patrol Group at ambulansya.

“There is a personnel from the health service for any medical emergency,” saad pa ni Cerbo.

Bukod sa oras ng dalaw, kasama rin sa mahigpit na babantayan ng PNP ang paggamit ng gadget ng senador at maging ang pagpapa-interview sa media.

Ngayong muling lalabas sa Custodial Center si Sen. Bong Revilla, tiniyak ng PNP na hindi na mauulit na nalusutan ang mga pulis nang makadalo ang senador sa isang salu-salo sa kaarawan ni Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile noong Pebrero 14. (Lea Ylagan / UNTV News)

DTI proposed highest fine for erring traders (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) submitted to the House of Representatives the proposed amendments in the Consumers Act of the Philippines.

The DTI would like to expand the law with the purpose of increasing the protection of the rights of the consumers. Under the proposed amendments in the Consumers Act, the highest penalty to be imposed on violators will be increased to P10M from P300,000.

The DTI believes that this will improve the quality of the goods and services that will be made available to consumers.

“What we want to achieve is to increase the amount of the fine, hopefully by increasing the amount of the fine, hardware stores will now be compliant right from the start, they will not be left behind in the quality of their goods,” DTI Usec. Vic Dimagiba said in an interview.

The DTI will also be given powers over e-commerce or online shopping businesses.

Under the amendments on the Consumer Act, the DTI can shut down the online shops who break the rules and regulations of the proposed law.

Amendments have also been made by the DTI on the use of mass media to advertise which include the internet, mobile phones and the like.

The DTI will also stiffen the punishment for those who caught selling substandard and low quality construction materials.  Likewise, the DTI will immediately order the closure of the hardware stores that are caught in addition to the fine.

The amendments by the DTI are based on the 8 consumers rights, including the right to basic needs, choose, representation, redress,consumer education, safety, healthy environment and information.

Meanwhile, the DTI is going to launch a new strategy for price monitoring in the market. DTI will inspect the supermarkets nationwide to make sure that they are compliant to the suggested retail price (SRP).

“I think it’s a good strategy telling the supermarkets owners that were serious to see the prices are within the SRP,” Dimagiba said.

Last year only the big supermarkets were inspected by the DTI.  Since Feb. 27, DTI have inspected almost 50% of the supermarkets in Metro Manila. (Mon Jocson / UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: Si President Benigno S. Aquino lll sa pagsaksi sa turnover ceremony ng balangkas ng Bangsamoro Basic Law sa pagitan ng Bangsamoro Transition Commission Chairman Mohagher Iqbal at Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles kina Speaker of the House Feliciano Belmonte Jr. at Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, during ceremonies sa Malacañan Palace noong September 10, 2014. (Photo by the Malacañang Photo Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines – Para sa dalawang lider ng kongreso, ang Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) ang sagot sa matagal ng kaguluhan sa Mindanao at hindi na maaaring ipagpaliban pa ang pag-pasa nito.

Kaya naman napagkasunduan ng liderato ng House of Representatives at Senado sa kanilang regular monthly meeting ngayong Lunes na ipasa ang proposed BBL sa darating na Hunyo.

“By June 30 we will have a Bangsamoro Basic Law which is consistent and in accordance with our constitution,” pahayag ni Senate President Franklin Drilon.

“I think BBL will have to continue there are also difficulties with it but we have to continue because the alternative is what? A war again in Mindanao,” saad naman ni House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Ayon kay Ad Hoc Committee on the Proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law Chairman Rufus Rodriguez, masyado nang na-delay ang pagtalakay sa BBL.

Hindi matutuloy ang nakatakda sanang pagdinig sa BBL bukas, Martes dahil sa Marso 6 pa lamang isusumite ng PNP Board of Inquiry sa DILG ang kanilang report ukol sa Mamasapano incident.

Dalawang linggo mula ngayon ay saka palang nila maitutuloy ang BBL hearings.

Asahan na aniya ang pagkakaron ng marathon hearing at session extension kapag sinimulan nang talakayin ang BBL sa plenaryo.

Tiniyak ni Rodriguez na magkakaroon ng pagbabago sa ilang probisyon ng BBL matapos ang Mamasapano clash na ikinamatay ng 44 na miyembro ng PNP-SAF.

Hindi rin aniya nila papayagan ang hiling ng MILF na magkaroon ng sariling police force.

“That will be difficult having their own police force that we are under 1 national police,” saad ni Rodriguez.

Binigyang diin pa ng kongresista na kung hindi isusuko ng MILF ang mga commander nito na may kinalaman sa madugong engkwentro ay hindi niya matitiyak ang pagpasa nito.

“Yes, possibly if there is no coordination and no cooperation of the MILF for achieving justice for our fallen soldiers of course we are not going to approve a bill that the other partners is not also cooperating justice for our policemen,” saad pa ni Rodriguez. (Grace Casin / UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: Mga pasahero ng MRT (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Dismayado ang ilang mambabatas at labor groups sa ‘di maktwirang taas-pasahe sa MRT at LRT.

Dahil dito, isang petisyon ang inihain nila ngayong Martes sa Korte Suprema upang isyuhan ng temporary restraining order ang fare hike.

Kabilang sa petitioners sina Senador JV Ejercito, 2nd District Parañaque Rep. Gustavo Tambunting, Ang NARS Partylist Rep. Leah Paquiz, Buhay Partylist Rep. Lito Atienza, Irwin Tieng at Mariano Michael Vellarde, dating Cavite 3rd District Rep. Crispin “Boying” Remulla, Allan Tanjusay ng Trade Union Congress of the Philippines
(TUCP); Allan Montaño ng Federation of Free Workers (FFW); Leody De Guzman ng Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP); Rene Magtubo, ng Partido Manggagawa (PM); at Annie Geron ng PS Link.

Ayon sa kanila, bigo ang DOTC na makipagkoordinasyon sa Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) upang mag-comply sa publication, notice at hearing requirements sa fare hike.

“Nagkaisa kami sa umagang ito na mag-file na ng TRO sa Korte Suprema upang maitigil ang pagtaas ng presyo ng pasahe ng MRT at LRT, sa amin po hindi makatarungan sa dahilang ang serbisyo ngayon ng MRT ay hindi maganda,” pahayat ni Senador JV Ejercito, isa sa mga petitioner.

Ayon naman kay Parañaque Rep. Gustavo Tambunting, “Ayusin na muna natin ang serbisyo natin, saka na natin singilin ang taong bayan, mahirap na po sila, maliit nga ang sweldo.”

“Walang due process na nangyayari at the same time wala pong basis ang pagtatas nila ng hike ng fare kasi nga po supisyente po yung budget na binigay natin sa kanila,” pahayag pa ni Ang NARS Party-list Rep. Leah Paquiz.

“Pero bakit ho kapag manggagawa humihingi ng dagdag sahod ay dumadaan sa proseso, dumadaan sa wage board, sa prosesong ito at inaabot ng tatlong buwan ngunit pagtaas ng MRT at LRT, ang pagtaas sa pasahe ay sandali lamang at wala sa proseso,” saad naman ni Spokesperson, TUCP Spokesperson Allan Tanjusay.

Kaya naman panawagan nila sa Korte Suprema na idaan ang fare hike ng MRT at LRT sa LTFRB.

Batayan ng mga petitioner ang Executive Order 202, kung saan sinasabing ang LTFRB ang may adjudicatory power upang idetermina,rebyuhin at aprubahan ang pasahe sa public land transportation services ng motorized vehicles.  Nakasaad anila ito sa 2011 LTFRB rules of procedure.

Ayon sa mga ito, hindi marapat na ang DOTC ang siyang nag-aapruba sa MRT-LRT fare increase, dahil wala itong otoridad at mandato na gawin ang naturang hakbang.

Kabilang sa respondents ng petisyon sina LTFRB Chairman Winston M. Ginez, DOTC Secretary Emilio Abaya, MRT 3 Office officer-in-charge Renato San Jose, Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC) at Light Rail Manila Consortium (LRMC) Administrator Honorito Chaneco.

Ayon pa sa mga petitioner, ang responsibilidad na maprotektahan ang ekonomiya laban sa inhustisya ay nababalewala kung ang isang departamento ay nagdedesisyong mag-isa sa pagpapatupad ng fare adjustment. (Bryan De Paz / UNTV News)

FILE PHOTO: Computer Shop (UNTV News)

MANILA, Philippines – Nagbabala ang Department of Justice (DOJ) sa publiko na mag-ingat sa pagpo-post ng mga personal information sa mga social networking site na maaring magamit sa sextortion activities ng mga masasamang loob.

Ayon kay Justice Secretary Leila De Lima, karamihan sa mga subscribers ngayon sa mga social networking site ay kadalasang nagbibigay ng mga personal na impormasyon na madaling na-aaccess ng mga masasamang loob.

Dahil sa malawak na access sa internet, binigyang diin rin ng kalihim na isa rin ito sa mga nagiging dahilan ng mga nagaganap na cybercrime sa bansa.

Ang sextortion ay isang uri ng modus operandi, kung saan gagamitin bilang pananakot sa isang biktima ang pagpopost sa internet ng mga hubad nitong larawan kapalit ng pagbabayad ng pera.

Ayon sa DOJ, mahalaga rin na mabantayang mabuti ng mga guro at mga magulang ang kanilang mga anak lalo na ang mga menor de edad sa pagse-search sa internet.

Importante rin na maituro sa mga bata ang mga angkop at di angkop na bisitahing website.

Panawagan ng ahensya sa publiko, sinomang may impormasyon kaugnay ng mga kaso ng sextortion, ay agad na ipagbigay alam sa mga kinauukulan.

Hinikayat rin nito ang mga internet service provider at telecommunication companies na makipagtulungan sa mga otoridad upang mapigilan ang sextortion activities.

Sa ilalim ng Revised Penal Code 282 ang sextortion ay sakop ng kasong grave threats at mahaharap sa kaukulang parusa o penalty ang sinomang lalabag dito.

Payo ng DOJ, dapat maging matalino at maingat sa pagpopost ng mga larawan at impormasyon sa internet upang hindi mabiktima ng mga masasamang loob.  (Joan Nano / UNTV News)