By bestnomads
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnaGwpr-TX8
Friday, 27 November 2009
UP tops international programming tilt
By MELVIN G. CALIMAG
Manila Bulletin
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/231299/up-tops-international-programming-tiltof
Proving that Filipinos are one of the most talented IT talents in the world, a team from the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UP) topped the regional leg of an international computer programming contest held recently in the country.
UP captured first-place honors at the 2009 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Asia-Manila Regional Competition held at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City with tech giant IBM as event sponsor.
According to a media statement issued by the regional contest director, Dr. Rafael Saldaña of Ateneo de Manila University, team “Mga SOGO ni E.T.” solved 10 out of 10 problems to emerge as champion.
The UP team is composed of computer science students Kevin Charles Atienza and Marte Raphael Soliza, and computer engineering student John Eddie Ayson. Their coach is Eric Tambasacan.
First runner-up is team “Passion” from Ho Chi Minh City University of Science, in Vietnam. Members of the team were Pham Tuan Vu, rinh Tran Dang Khoa, and Le Do Hoan Nam. Their coach was Dang Nguyen Tien.
The second runner-up is team “NUSSOC1” from the National University of Singapore. Team members are Victor Loh Bo Huai, Adhiraj Somani, and Doon Hanh Hung. Their coach is Steven Halim.
ACM stands for Association for Computing Machineries, one of the most prestigious IT organizations in the world. Each year, ACM holds the ICPC participated by thousands of teams from hundreds of universities worldwide. From selected regional sites in six continents, winning teams advance to the world finals, which will be held on Feb. 1 to 6, 2010 in Harbin, China.
The ACM ICPC is a team competition consisting of three collegiate students and a coach. Each team is given a set of programming tasks (from 8 to 10 problems) to be solved in 5 hours using a standard computer and programming languages such as C, C++, and Java.
Fifty five teams from four countries and 23 schools participated in the ACM ICPC Manila regional on October 22-23, 2009 at the Ateneo de Manila campus.
This was the first time that a team from the Philippines has won an ACM ICPC Asia Regional competition and the third time that Philippine Team advanced to an ACM ICPC world finals.
Also, this was the third time that Ateneo de Manila University hosted an ACM Asia Regional Competition.
The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) traces its roots to a competition held at Texas A&M in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the UPE Computer Science Honor Society. The idea quickly gained popularity within the United States and Canada as an innovative initiative to assist in the development of top students in the emerging computer science.
The contest evolved into a multi-tier competition with the first finals held at the ACM Computer Science Conference in 1977. Headquartered at Baylor University since the 1980s, the contest has expanded into a global network of universities hosting regional competitions
Opening of The Porac Interchange of The Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway SCTEX
And Inauguration of the Hacienda Dolores PORAC Access Road Leading to The Interchange
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2ged6LCY0M
GDP grows 0.8% in third quarter
STATEMENT OF ACTING SOCIO-ECONOMIC PLANNING SECRETARY AUGUSTO B. SANTOS ON THE RELEASE OF THE THIRD QUARTER 2009 NATIONAL INCOME ACCOUNTS
http://www.neda.gov.ph/ads/press_releases/pr.asp?ID=1126
To reiterate the NSCB’s estimates, the country’s Gross Domestic Product or GDP grew by 0.8 percent in the third quarter of 2009. This reflects the Philippine economy’s gradual recovery in the period. There are signals that the global economic rebound is underway, with some Asian neighbors freshly out of recession. We like to stress the point that the Philippines had never entered the recession. Our economic performance though was a deceleration from the strong growth of 4.6 percent in the third quarter of 2008.
Indicators such as those in the July 2009 Labor Force Survey were in phase with GDP growth. Employment growth was modest, at 2.6 percent, and lower compared to July 2008’s 3.8 percent. Employment generation likewise reached 916,000 versus 1.275 million in July 2008, and the unemployment rate inched up to 7.6 percent from 7.4 percent a year ago.
Nevertheless, government and private sector programs, flexible work arrangements, and the frontloading of infrastructure projects under the Economic Resiliency Plan (ERP), kept the economy’s growth and employment afloat during the global recession. In contrast, several other economies are still experiencing massive layoffs and all-time high unemployment rates.
As gleaned from available data, the Philippine economy joined other economies with positive GDP growth in the third quarter. Based on year-on-year calculations, these other countries also posted positive growth rates: China (8.9%), Vietnam (5.8%), Indonesia (4.2%), Singapore (0.6%), and, South Korea (0.6%). The rest still contracted: Japan (-4.4%), Thailand (-2.8%), Hong Kong (-2.4%), and Malaysia (-1.2%). With the latter list getting shorter, the race is indeed on in Asia’s rebound.
Overseas Filipinos (OF) remittances boosted Gross National Product (GNP) growth to 3.5 percent in the third quarter. Total OF remittances in dollar terms grew by 6.9 percent in the same quarter, which mainly caused the 26.0 percent growth in Net Factor Income from Abroad (NFIA).
The economy’s growth was supported by services (4.0 percent) and agriculture (1.6 percent). The industry sector still contracted (-4.4 percent), pulled down by manufacturing (-7.6 percent) and utilities (-2.2 percent). Private consumption was modest at 4.0 percent while government consumption remained healthy, at 7.9 percent. Capital formation slumped by 11.3 percent mainly on account of durable equipment (-5.7 percent) and the further drawing down of inventories. Construction investments remained afloat at 1.7 percent, as the cushioning effect of the stimulus package continued. External trade growth is improving yet still remains negative, at -13.6 percent for total exports.
Indeed the global crisis is not over, but the worst is over. We have reasons to be more confident. The key growth drivers for 2009 are trade, BPOs, construction, mining and quarrying, and private and government services. Prospects remain bouyant for new markets of our agricultural products, for tourism’s adventure travel, for service quality improvements, for campaign spending till 2010, for growing demand for climate-adaptable production, for renewable energy investments, and for biotechnology applications on food production.
Looking at the tasks ahead, we should continue upgrading our national competitiveness (e.g. cheaper power) even as we let the ERP fulfill its remaining work this year. We should expand our SMEs by channeling to them the sufficient liquidity in the financial system. We must actively safeguard the welfare of our overseas workers. We must join in the conference of nations to make climate negotiations supportive of the more vulnerable economies. We should navigate through the crisis through a calculated exit plan. And we should craft an even grander entrance plan for better socio-economic achievement in the coming years. Maraming salamat.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
PGMA statement on the Maguindanao massacre
http://www.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2002329&Itemid=2
The gruesome killings in Maguindanao constitute a most heinous crime. What makes it particularly so is the fact that it counts among its victims, lawyers, media reporters, and other defenseless and innocent civilians. Like many others. I am appalled and outraged by it, and I join the rising chorus of indignation against it.
This is not a simple election feud between opposing clans; this is a supreme act of inhumanity that is blight on our nation.
Elections are supposed to be civil and decent contests for political leadership at different levels of government. They are supposed to be avenues for political renewal in a democratic order. But when they are marred by violence, they mutate into occasions for demonstrating brute power, unrestrained by civility.
I deeply commiserate with the kith and kin of the victims. I grieve the irretrievable loss of innocent lives. That loss, unbearable as it is, should now move us to fight those forces that thrive in violence and erode the integrity of elections in our country.
The perpetrators will not escape justice. The law will haunt them until they are caught.
No citizen of our nation should ever have to fear for his or her life in the free expression of political will. That these victims were brutally struck down while merely exercising their right to political freedom must be condemned by people everywhere.
I understand only too well the volatility of the political situation in the area, and for this reason, I reiterate with even greater urgency my personal appeal for calm and restraint.
I am declaring a national day of mourning in honor of the victims. This crime is too outrageous not to prick the conscience of this nation or any other nation for that matter. Let us hope that the outrage is overcome by reason and by our need to live our lives in peace, honor and human dignity.
On my instructions, the Secretaries of the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Justice are now in the area to directly lead in the immediate resolution of this case.
Be assured that our police and military forces are actively restoring normalcy in the area, and the national prosecution offices under the Justice Department are undertaking all the appropriate processes for the expeditious resolution of this crime.
In all this, the rule of law, the guarantee of equal protection under and equal application of the law, and the observance of due process and all legal processes, shall prevail. Let the full force of the law bear upon those who are found to be responsible for this offense and be made accountable for their acts.(PND)
UK fund to invest in Century Peak
Miguel R. Camus
Business Mirror
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/companies/18948-uk-fund-to-invest-in-century-peak.html
A FEW weeks after it listed by way of introduction, Century Peak Metals Holdings Corp. has found an investor for its proposed smelting plant in Leyte.
UK-based GEM Global Yield Fund Ltd. is planning to invest up to P2.9 billion in the listed company to fund the miner’s multibillion-peso nickel pig iron smelting facility.
In a filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Wednesday, Century Peak said GEM has committed to subscribe to P2 billion worth of shares of the company. In addition, the miner is issuing a warrant to the emerging markets investor granting it a three-year option to subscribe up to 150 million of its shares, worth another P900 million.
This prices the shares at P6 apiece, or at a 10-percent discount based on Century Peak’s closing price of P6.7 per share yesterday. Shares of the miner rose 4 percent following the announcement.
“GEM Global Yield Fund is a welcome addition as an institutional investor into the company, given their global expertise, and proven reputation in capital markets and structured transactions worldwide,” said Century Peak president Wifredo Keng, in a statement.
The miner said funding will be used mainly to complete the Century Hua Guang Smelting Project, a nickel-chromite plant being built through a joint venture with owners of Zheijiang Hua Guang, a top nickel pig iron producer in China.
Century Peak earlier said the smelting plant will cost P7 billion, with the initial phase needing P2 billion. Keng said the company is targeting to produce 5,000 tons to 10,000 tons of pure nickel per year after the first phase of the smelting facility comes online.
Peak operation will double nickel production to about 20,000 tons per year.
At present, the company’s nickel mining subsidiary Century Peak Corp. holds a mineral production sharing agreement covering a 4,000-hectare property in the Dinagat Islands and Albor, Dinagat province in Surigao del Norte.
The miner also remains optimistic in its operations, with nickel imports to China hitting a record high in recent months. Century Peak shipped 52,873 metric tons of nickel to China in October.
Established in 1991, GEM is a $3.4-billion investment group having completed 275 transactions in 55 countries. It is an alternative investment group that manages a diverse set of assets across the world.
Last month, GEM also announced a P1.1-billion investment deal with another PSE-listed firm, AgriNurture Inc.
The climate-change fraud
John Mangun
Outside the Box
Business Mirror
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/opinion/18980-the-climate-change-fraud.html
SEE THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE
While it may be true that the Philippines is stuck in the middle of the South China Sea, you would think that at least one media outlet would choose to cover one of the biggest stories of the 21st century.
This past week, computer hackers or perhaps a “whistle-blower” insider released thousands of e-mail and other documents obtained from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in England. The email and internal reports show that data used to support the idea of man-made global warming and climate was falsified, manipulated; and scientific data that went contrary to the climate-change theory was covered up and suppressed.
And while this story is breaking news around the world, certain political leaders in the Philippines are pushing for increased taxpayer funding of the Philippine Climate Change Act, a law based on a fraud. The US Congress is opening investigations about “ClimateGate” and English newspapers are calling it the greatest scandal in modern science.
And not a single newspaper here chooses to cover this story. So I will.
The CRU is widely recognized as a leading institution concerned with the study of climate change. It is the organization that supplied a good portion of the data and analysis used in various UN reports and, of course, Al Gore’s famous movie, An Inconvenient Truth.
In September, a striking revelation was made that the data used to create the “hockey stick” of suddenly increasing global temperatures in the last 20 years was manipulated. The basis of the “hockey stick” of global warming that has made Al Gore a multimillionaire was the growth of trees on the Yamal peninsula in Russia. One of the members of the climate group at CRU, Keith Briffa, is the author of the “hockey stick” data that have been used for 10 years to create the climate-change hysteria. It appears calling him an “author” is appropriate since the “hockey stick” and the hysteria may be based on fiction.
After nearly a decade and hundreds of billions spent on the climate-change panic, the original data were finally released to other scientists. What Briffa did was to use data from a selected sample of tree rings that support the global-warming theory. Tree rings that refuted his claim were ignored. In September, other scientists put all the tree-ring data together and discovered that temperatures have not shown any unusual increase in the last 20 years and there isn’t any hockey stick of temperatures.
In other documents, CRU seems to acknowledge that their climate models are inaccurate, data were falsified or, at the very least, manipulated; scientists have no clue as to future climate trends, and no explanation for the cooling trend since 1998. Further, it also appears that any evidence contrary to the climate-change hysteria was ignored and suppressed.
From an e-mail referring to the fact that temperatures have been dropping since 1998: “I’ve just completed Mike’s nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years [i.e., from 1981 onward and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline in temperatures].” In other words, data were falsified to fit the climate-change conclusions.
Other e-mail suggest that pro-global warming scientists faked data to get the results they were looking for. Just over a month ago, on September 28, Tom Wigley wrote to Phil Jones of the Hadley Center about his efforts to get the right-sized “blip” in temperatures of the 1940s: “Here are some speculations on correcting SSTs to partly explain the 1940s warming blip. So, if we could reduce the ocean blip by, say, 0.15 deg C, then this would be significant for the global mean. It would be good to remove at least part of the 1940s blip.” Data that did not support global warming and climate change were removed from the studies.
Another problem is that the models just do not work. From an October 2009 e-mail “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment. Our observing system is inadequate.”
The fact that the models do not accurately work is known to the global-warming scientists, and they will not publicly admit that their theory cannot hold up to investigation. In a 2005 e-mail from Phil Jones, he says, “The scientific community would come down on me in no uncertain terms if I said the world had cooled from 1998. OK it has, but it is only 7 years of data and it isn’t statistically significant.”
Here is the point. The Philippines has limited resources that need to be used wisely. Too often though, local leaders talk and act as if pesos grow on trees. This nation cannot afford to spend money foolishly, and climate-change measures are becoming more foolish with each passing day.
Hopefully, a leader will emerge who has the wisdom and the courage to create a list of priorities that need funding and not just talking for political pogi points. Every centavo spent on the silly climate-change nonsense is money that is not spent on education. Every peso spent on things like nationwide WiFi is money that is not available for improving agricultural production.
Talk is cheap. What we need is a candidate who spells out in black and white what he or she thinks should be the specific spending priorities of government. Not just noble-sounding words, but concrete ideas with numbers to back the ideas up.
This nation is capable of making great strides very quickly if its leaders would only focus resources wisely and specifically, rather than trying to do everything, meet every need, and eventually accomplishing little.
PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by CitisecOnline.com Inc. E-mail comments to mangun@email.com.
First in Asia: P50-million automated system installed in RP airports
By RONNIEL DE GUZMAN
Manila Bulletin
http://mb.com.ph/articles/231224/p50million-automated-system-installed-rp-airports
The country’s top aviation body has installed a cutting edge communications system, linking the Philippines with other countries to get the latest aeronautical and other relevant information critical to flight safety.
Dubbed as the Automated Aeronautical Information Service (AIS), the new facility has brought the country closer to achieving Category 1 status, two years after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has moved the country one notch lower to Category 2.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Director General Ruben F. Ciron said the new system will automatically update information in real time, reaching subscribers without the time lag associated with the old mode.
“The new system brought the CAAP closer to regaining its category 1 status,” said Ciron. “We have now one of the most advanced telecommunication systems and this would hopefully convinced the FAA of our serious concern to bring our aviation body at par with the world.”
The AIS facility, costing P50 million is fully automated and is capable of sending updates and new data to subscribers in a flash. It is housed at the CAAP compound in Pasay City and was put by the Energy Systems and Resources Inc. (ISRI), with the help of Frequentis, a European firm represented by Christian Troemer, Chief Regional Officer of the company.
The new AIS replaced a dated and decrepit system that broke down a few years ago and temporarily disconnected the Philippines with the rest of the International Civil Aviation Community.
In recent past, Air Transportation Office (ATO) (now switched to the CAAP) air communications experts were using typewriters and outmoded teletype in sending Notice-to-airmen (Notam) and other contents of aeronautical publications to all the members of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Flight plans and the flow of critical data transmitted way ahead of flights leaving the Philippines could not be processed in advance, thus delaying international flights coming and going into the country.
These prompted authorities to facilitate the provision of needed funds to update the system. Consequently, an upgraded AFTN was put up and linked to the internet but still manually operated.
Present during the ribbon cutting ceremony were Ciron of the CAAP; Susan Tecson, Managing Director of ESRI; Consul Florian Brandl of Austria, Isabel Schmiedbauer, Commercial Attache.
For those unable to download them, hard copies of maps, charts and voluminous records of the AIP could also be obtained from the CAAP.
The AIP contains all there is to know about the status of the country’s airports, including maps, charts, route of flights, available navigational aids and their locations, ongoing constructions of airports and facilities and upgrading of other services.
Troemer said the Philippines is the first Asian country to have adopted the new automated system and would soon be followed by New Zealand, Australia, and Japan.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
LET US CONDEMN ALL VIOLENCE!
AND LET US ALL PRAY AND WORK REALLY HARD FOR PEACE!
Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi
(baptised as Giovanni di Bernadone)
(1182-1226)
"O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is discord, harmony.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sorrow, joy.
Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life."
Peso seen rallying to 43 to $1 in 2010
Funds flowing to emerging markets
By Doris Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20091124-238134/Peso-seen-rallying-to-43-to-1-in-2010
MANILA, Philippines - British banking giant HSBC sees a long-term bullish trend for the peso against the dollar and a possible avoidance of any interest rate increase by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas through 2010 unless inflation shoots up sharply in the latter part of next year.
In a briefing Tuesday, HSBC country treasurer Wick Veloso said if and when the central bank needs to exit from its accommodative monetary policy alongside its overseas peers, the BSP may first resort to contracting more foreign currency swaps with terms longer than the three- to six-month contracts currently in its books.
Veloso said the BSP would likely not be in a hurry to tighten interest rates given the need to support the growth momentum especially through 2010, a presidential election year. At the same time, he noted that there was no danger of the peso sharpy depreciating against the dollar, which in the past was sufficient reason for the BSP to tighten interest rates.
Based on HSBC’s long-term currency forecasts, the peso is likely to gain against the dollar in the years ahead. The local currency is seen ending this year at 46 against the greenback, strengthening to 43.59 by end-2010 and further to P42.50 by end-2011.
“A weak US dollar would always point toward a stronger peso,” Veloso said, noting that low interest rates in the United States were prompting flows of capital into emerging countries and creating a downward pressure on the greenback.
The upward pressure on emerging market currencies is, in turn, seen prompting some central banks to resist sharp local currency appreciation by building up their foreign exchange reserves.
In the case of the Philippines, he said the country was starting to benefit from a global rebound, with export receipts now recovering. Aside from the government’s domestic pump-priming, he noted that strong remittances from overseas Filipinos as well as election spending would help support growth next year.
HSBC sees Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowing from 3.8 percent in 2008 to 1.8 percent this year, but Veloso said actual growth for 2009 could end up higher than this forecast. By 2010, the country’s GDP growth is seen to accelerate to 4.2 percent and to 4.7 percent by 2011.
Veloso said the central bank would likely restrain itself from raising interest rates too soon next year given the early stages of economic recovery and after a new administration would have been in place after the 2010 elections, he said such caution would prevail.
“There’s a strong chance that interest rates will be flat next year unless the central bank sees a compelling reason [to raise rates] by November or December,” he said.
Allied Bank net income rises five times from last year to P413.3M for third quarter
Erik de la Cruz
Business Mirror
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/banking-a-finance/18913-allied-bank-net-income-rises-five-times-from-last-year-to-p4133m-for-third-quarter.html
TYCOON Lucio Tan’s Allied Banking Corp. posted a net income of P413.3 million for the third quarter, more than five times what it earned in the same period last year as interest income improved.
Its financial statement filed with regulators showed net income of P888.5 million in the first nine months, up 81 percent over last year’s P489.7 million.
Allied Bank, the country’s ninth-largest bank in terms of deposits as of end-June, said net interest income in the third quarter swelled by 10.4 percent to P1.56 billion due to the increase in loans and receivables.
The bank’s asset base expanded by 10.4 percent to P182 billion as of end-September from a year ago, reflecting the hike in loans and receivables by over P19 billion. Its nonperforming loans (NPL), however, increased by P507 million to P2.37 billion. Its NPL ratio thus inched up to 2.09 percent, from 1.9 percent a year earlier.
Total liabilities climbed by 8.6 percent to P157.9 billion, with deposit liabilities up 12.1 percent. The bank last month expanded its deposit base by issuing long-term negotiable certificates of time deposit (LTNCD) with a five-year maturity in the amount of P3.5 billion.
In March Philippine National Bank (PNB)—another Tan-owned bank—raised P3.25 billion by offering LTNCD with a five-year maturity. Proceeds were used for general corporate purposes and banking operations.
Allied Bank and PNB are scheduled to merge next year, with PNB as the surviving entity. Their union is expected to catapult PNB toward becoming the fourth-largest local bank in terms of assets and give strong competition to the three biggest—Banco de Oro Unibank, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., and Bank of the Philippine Islands.
Remittances, spending in polls expected to drive 2010 growth
L. D. Desiderio
BusinessWorld
http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=2089
ROBUST REMITTANCES from Filipinos overseas and the impact of spending for national elections will drive growth to accelerate in 2010, HSBC said yesterday.
In a briefing yesterday, HSBC Philippines Treasurer and Head of Global Markets Jose Arnulfo "Wick" A. Veloso told reporters that Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to expand by 4.2% next year, compared to the government’s own projection of 2.6%-3.6%.
For this year, the government sees GDP growth falling within the 0.8%-1.8% range.
"Next year, we have to consider the elections. A lot of employment is expected to be generated with each candidate who is serious about running to be spending around P5 billion for the campaign," he said.
He added that this factor adds to the fact that remittances from overseas Filipino workers, which have constantly defied expectations they would be weighed by the economic crunch, will remain robust as the global economy starts recovering next year.
GDP growth for the April-June period was 2.4%, against 1.5% the previous quarter.
Inflation, he said, could reach 3.2% this year and 4.8% next year, within the government’s targeted 2.5%-4.5% this year and 3.5%-5.5% next year.
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