Booking Online on Philippine Airlines Using Credit Card

from Philippine Airlines policy:

Successful completion of a transaction means that the credit card owner binds himself and the passenger(s) to the Terms and Conditions for online transactions, General Conditions of Carriage and the applicable Fare Rules.

To avoid fraudulent transactions and to protect credit card owners, PAL reserves the right to require that the credit card used in purchasing the ticket(s) online be presented at the ticket collection point, upon check-in or in cases of reissuance, rebooking or refund of a ticket.

If the credit card owner is not part of the travelling party and is unable to present the credit card used, PAL also reserves the right to require the presentation of clear photocopies of the front of the credit card and the valid PHOTO ID of the credit card owner at the ticket collection point, upon check-in and in cases of reissuance, rebooking and/or refund . It shall be the responsibility of the credit card owner to ensure that the passenger(s) comply with the requirement.

PAL reserves the right to deny boarding to passenger(s) or refuse to reissue, revalidate, rebook or refund a ticket for failure to comply with foregoing requirements.

Without prejudice to criminal prosecution under Republic Act No. 8484, PAL may cancel a confirmed reservation or may remove from any flight any passenger if PAL has reason to believe that a ticket(s) has been purchased using a fraudulent credit card.

Virtual credit cards are NOT accepted as form of payment as we may require the actual presentation of the credit card used online.

For check-in purposes, a valid PHOTO ID issued by the government or known corporations is required to enter the terminal.

The passenger(s) is required to arrive at Carrier's check-in location sufficiently in advance of the indicated flight departure time to permit completion of any government formalities and departure procedures and in any event not later than 45 minutes before the approximate departure time. If the passenger(s) fails to arrive on time at Carrier's check-in counter or boarding gate (even if the passenger(s) has already checked-in for the flight), Carrier may cancel the space reserved for the passenger(s). Carrier is not liable to the passenger(s) for loss or expense due to the passenger's failure to comply with these provisions.

Manny Pacquiao in Dubai UAE

The current pound-for-pound king in the world could not make it to the 'The Philippines vs. The Rest of the World' Dubai boxing event due to the fast-approaching May 10 elections. He was invited by the Dubai-based KO Promotions to grace the card.

The coming card features top ALA Gym fighters including Bohol's Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and Milan Melindo, according to an updated report from Cebu City.

Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao won't be going to Dubai as a guest of honor in the upcoming "Philippines vs. The Rest of the World" boxing event on April 23 at The Lodge.

Pacquiao, the current World Boxing Organization welterweight champion, was invited by Dubai-based promotional outfit KO Promotions to attend the event. However, the 31-year-old pound for-pound king chose to skip the event because he is busy campaigning for a congressional seat in the May 10 Philippine polls.

Pinoy Boxer Donito Donaire Jr vs Vic Darchinyan

Bohol's ring sensation - Nonito Donaire, Jr. has been warned by boxing  observers and fans here not to be over-confident in his coming grudge return bout with co-world champion Vic Darchinyan. The camp of Donaire Jr. has accepted the challenge of Darchinyan.

Despite the fact that no deal for the fight date has been sealed, WBC and WBA superflyweight champion Vic Darchinyan of Australia has continued with his verbal assaults against the man who handed him his only knockout loss, Nonito Donaire Jr., of the Philippines.  

Donaire (23-1,15 KOs) used a single left hook to the jaw in the fifth round to snatch Darchinyan's IBF flyweight crown in Connecticut three years ago. Connecticut three years ago. That fight was voted the 2007 Knockout and Upset of the Year and launched the Filipino Flash to boxing stardom. Donaire (34-2-1, 27 KOs) has vowed to destroy Donaire. For the past two years he has been ripping the Filipino in various interviews saying that "If I meet him again, I'm gonna break him," "He knows he got lucky and he wants nothing to do with fighting me" and that Donaire should be "taking a new job."

The rematch has been set on Aug. 7 at the at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles.

Korea and Bohol Philippines Business

Korean partners fueled up Gov. Erico Aumentado's bandwagon of development that grooms northeast Bohol as the multi-industry capital of the province or even the region.

The multi-industry cluster team of the Korean embassy came last Friday with officials of the Department of Science and Technology to check the status of the ongoing land preparation at the special economic zone in Talibon.

Man Hwan Park was, country representative of the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of the Korea Export-Import Bank (Eximbank), came earlier on April 12 to relay the Korean government's full commitment to Bohol's progress during the birthday bash of Constantino Reyes- -runningmate of Ubay Mayor Eutiquio Bernales.

Park assured that the Korean government will pour multi-billion-peso projects to the second district under the multi-indutry cluster concept.

  

Philippines and Korea had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the establishment of a multi-indutry cluster in May last this year during the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries. - Bohol Chronicle

Philippine Elections 2010

With less than a month before the Philippine national elections, it's understandable that you and other members of Jose Carillo's English Forum might want some leeway to talk in the Forum about your respective choices for president and vice president. The Forum's Lounge section is therefore opening a window of opportunity for you to do so for the rest of the official campaign period. In keeping with the Forum's nonpolitical and nonpartisan nature, however, please confine your commentary within the bounds of thoughtful, intelligent, and civilized discourse—and in proper English, please. Feel free to endorse your chosen candidates and justify your choice; do so now before it's too late for your opinion to matter! 

Even as most everybody gets preoccupied with the election campaign, however, the Forum remains steadfast in its advocacy for good English. For this week's edition, I have critiqued three instances of highly questionable English usage in three of the major Philippine broadsheets. And for your time out from English grammar, the Forum takes a peep at four recent biographies showing the seamier, even shocking side of the iconic Mahatma Gandhi and of three literary greats in English—Charles Dickens, John Cheever, and V.S. Naipaul.  

Davao City Water Issue

April 12, 2010 

 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND MANAGEMENT

Davao City Water District

Bajada, Davao City 

Dear DCWD Board and Mgt., 

Kalinaw! 

Kami nagasulat kaninyo isip grupo nga nag-uban kaninyo sa pagbabag sa proyekto sa Hedcor diha sa sapa sa Tamugan-Panigan ug sa pagpasabot sa kadaghan sa paghatag ug prioridad sa paggamit sa tubig sa Tamugan-Panigan isip ilimnon sa dakbayan, dili sa enerhiya. 

Nagkauban kita ug nag-inunongay alang sa usa ka multi-sectoral nga kalihukan aron batukan ang plano sa Hedcor sa Tamugan-Panigan River. Gisagubang ang kainint sa adlaw, kagutom ug bisan asa kita miduol aron mohangyo sa ilang suporta kay lagi dili kita mosugot nga among-amongan ang tinubdan sa tubig nga mao ang naghatag ug kinabuhi sa tanang nilalang. Daghan gyod kita ug na-agian nga kalisod. 

Apan dako ang among kahikuhat ug natingala kami sa dihang migula sa mga mantala-an ang inyong pagkasabot sa Hedcor aron maundang ang bangi taliwala kanila ug sa DCWD. Dili kami mopugong sa inyong desisyon basta dili lang madehado ang katawhan ug kinaiyahan, apan gamay nga respeto lang unta sa mga sector nga inyong "gigamit" aron babagan ang Hedcor. Simpleng konsultasyon lang unta una ang final agreement ninyo sa Hedcor. Nag-uban god ta sa kalisdanan, unta sa kalamposan pod magkuyog ta. 

Nahiubos gyod kami kay mora lang mi og potos nga gibiyaan sa daplin kay nakita na ninyo ang kahayag luyo sa kangit-ngit. 

Busa aron dili molawom pag-ayo ang kahiubos sa mga sector nga inyong "gigamit", ma-ayo tingali nga mopatawag ang DCWD ug usa ka multi-sectoral forum aron didto iyag-yag ang mga pagbati nga may garas sa kahiubos aron pod mahibalik ang maayong relasyon taliwala sa DCWD ug sa mga stakeholders. 

Nanghinaot kami sa inyong aksiyon. Daghang Salamat 

 

Kaninyo matinahuron, 

 

KAWAL TUBIG

    * Boy Deduro (Fisherfolk sector)

    * Tom Villarin (SIMCARRD)

    * Lia Jasmin Esquillo (IDIS)

    * Atty. Mon Salas (Saligan)

    * Dr. Jean Lindo (KAABAY)

    * Dags Magaway (MAAS)

    * Anita Morales (METSA)

    * Atty. Jenny Ramos

    * Norma Javellana (Brgy. Maa Federation of Homeowners Asscn, Inc)

    * Akbayan

    * FDC

Catholic Bishops in the Philippines Criticized Over Banana Issue

We, members of the Alternative Law Groups, Inc. (ALG) in Mindanao, express our disappointment with the Joint Pastoral Statement made by the Bishops of Davao, Digos, Tagum and Mati  (DADITAMA) on the issue of Aerial Spraying.

The DADITAMA Bishops believe that there are no sufficient data to warrant total ban on aerial spraying, but at the same time indicated of the need to avoid future harmful effects in the use of fungicides. Conveniently, the statement chose to ignore the evidence of the harmful effects of aerial spraying practice as found by government agencies, local government units and civil society.

The Department of Health (DOH), a government agency on health issues and concerns, found that pesticide aerial spraying is harmful and recommends its ban. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR), an independent Constitutional body, found enough reason to recommend a ban on aerial spraying as it violates people's right to health and the environment. The LGUs of Davao City, Bukidnon and Cotabato sought to ban it through their respective ordinances. Local groups and international networks called for an immediate ban of this practice. Even their fellow Bishops in Luzon and Catholic Bishops worldwide found the issue as a moral one as the aerial spray practice infringes upon human health and dignity.

Amidst all these support for the aerial spray ban, our dear Bishops chose to side with the plantation owners and the interest of the banana industry to continue this debilitating practice of pesticide aerial spraying. We are puzzled with their concern with hard data, when the legal and scientific communities always cite Precautionary Principle in environmental laws to enact drastic measures to prevent harm. This principle states that whenever there are threats of serious and irreversible damage to the environment, lack of scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation. Banning aerial spraying is an adequate precautionary measure before degradation to people's health and environment becomes really irreversible and a serious issue.

But the DADITAMA Bishops should also look at the issue as a moral one as the Church always refers to morality as a sacred principle in its stand on issues, and not only on the evidence. Children going to school have to take cover so as not to be showered by the substances released from an aerial spraying plane. Families have to cover their food because of the drift reaching their homes. Farmers have to watch their crops destroyed as it wilts from contact with the substance coming from the planes. Women have to fetch from another source as the water from their wells after an aerial spray activity becomes tangy. And there are other stories of women and men suffering from itchiness, coughing and other health problems due to contact with the drift of aerial spraying. The stories of these simple people, while might not stand the scrutiny of science, are based on their own personal experience and show clear violation of their morality and human dignity.

As an alternative law group working in partnership with local communities, we seek your compassion to hear the voices in these communities. We appeal to your sense of mercy and morality and see if what they suffered are not violations of their dignity and well-being as humans. The communities near and living in the borders of these plantations only deserve the protection of the Church, which the Davao Bishops failed to provide. But in the end, the people themselves must be empowered to take action to protect their right to health and the environment. So help them God.

Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for the Development of Mindanaw (BALAOD Mindanaw)

Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan (KAISAHAN)

Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan-Friends of the Earth (LRC-KSK-FOEI)

Tanggapan ng Katutubong Pilipino (PANLIPI)

Paglilingkod-Batas Pangkapatiran Foundation (PBPF)

Pilipina Legal Resources Center, Inc. (PLRC)

Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (SALIGAN)

 

LIA JASMIN M. ESQUILLO

Executive Director

Interface Development Interventions (IDIS)

082-2994552

liajasmin@prime.net.ph

www.dirtybananas.org

Restoring order, honesty, and decency to Philippine governance

By Renato Beato

Like many of you, I was initially enchanted by the Cory Magic and entertained the notion that a Noynoy Aquino presidency would be a great step towards restoring order, honesty, and decency to Philippine governance. Change for the better was finally at hand, I thought with unqualified optimism! 

During the past few months of the presidential election campaign, however, it began to painfully dawn on me that perhaps the Liberal Party had bet on the wrong horse by drafting Noynoy Aquino to be its presidential candidate. This was because telltale signs of his unfitness for the country's highest public office started to come in trickles—at first only in polite whispers or in little TV images or sound bites, so to speak. But now, I think you will agree with me, his evident daftness is now an open secret.

My suspicions actually dated back to September 2009 when I came across Noynoy Aquino's self-serving, revisionist claims of heroism in his Senate website. Listen to his unabashed lie long before he was drafted as presidential candidate by his party: "The defense of democracy nearly cost Noynoy his life. He was almost killed during the military coup against President Aquino in 1990 when he met retreating rouge soldiers at the front gates of Malacañang. Three of his bodyguards died while he suffered five bullet wounds. A bullet is still embedded in his neck." It seemed to me strange that despite the fact that it was public knowledge that he and his bodyguards were plain ambushed with no opportunity at all to fight back, Noynoy would contrive to give the false impression that he actually engaged those soldiers by meeting them headlong—and "in defense of democracy" at that! (Sensibly, his handlers have since removed this lie from his Senate website, but I can send you a copy if you wish.)

Anyway, I thought that this was just an isolated, harmless fib by someone who was still in the process of establishing his own self-worth. But last March 14, in a sidebar story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, I found proof positive—and a very painful, demoralizing one at that!—that the man whom you and I want to be Philippine president is not only a habitual prevaricator but someone with the mind of a small child or an adolescent with a very low IQ. 

Lest you think that this is just another poisoned concoction from the other political camps, I will be quoting extensively from the Inquirer report about his interview during a break in Noynoy's campaign sortie in Surigao City. I must assure you that I wanted to be as dispassionate and objective as possible in reading the Inquirer's account of the interview; I even entertained the notion that the reporter probably just wanted to be nastily cute by contriving absurd questions for Noynoy to answer, or perhaps had just made up a lampoon story for the Inquirer's funny section. 

After reading the interview story, however, there was no mistaking the fact that Noynoy's sense of understanding things is very poor indeed! To even very simple questions, he reacts like a petulant spoiled brat who will concoct just about any nonsense in his mind just to reassure himself of his superiority to anybody. I really find it weird, but he has begun to believe that he is Superman! I now therefore find it unthinkable that the Aquino family and Noynoy's political handlers—and you and I as well—could have ever entertained the notion of propelling this person to be president and chief executive of the Philippines? What were we thinking?

Protecting Schools Against Lawsuits

LEGAL &  LABOR ISSUES IN EDUCATION LAW

Protecting Schools Against Lawsuits

Lawsuit-proof your schools by understanding the different legal and labor issues and problems uniquely faced by educational institutions. Learn the solutions and align your policies and approaches to the different government regulations by knowing your education law. This program is a comprehensive presentation of the laws, cases, and updates specially relevant to schools.

Whether you are starting a school, managing one, or expanding your branches or curriculum, it is a must to understand education law.

The Center for Global Best Practices invites everyone to attend this two-day pioneering seminar entitled, "Legal and Labor Issues in Education Law", scheduled on Thursday & Friday, April 29 & 30, 2010 at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City, Philippines.

For inquiries, please call (+63 2) 556-8968 or 69 or telefax (+63 2) 842-7148 or 59. 

Noynoy Aquino and his shameless propagandists William Esposo, Solita Monsod, and Conrad Dequiros

April 2, 2010

Ms. Domini M. Torrevillas

Columnist, Philippine Star

Dear Domni:

In your column in the Philippine Star on April 1, "Was Manny Villar poor?," you wrote:

"It's funny, and sad, and very frustrating, to hear and read and witness the bashing of candidates in this campaign. Bashers trump up charges (remember how Manny was being trumpeted as owning a multi-million dollar worth mansion in Utah?), and call rival camps immoral. Says Manny: "You guys are so different from people like me and the rest of the MBV supporters, because we cannot be as good, as holy, as virtuous as you hypocrites are."

I share your sadness over the ghoulishness of the Noynoy Aquino camp, but you overlooked the fact that its ghoulishness is surpassed a thousand times over by your fellow Philippine Star columnist William Esposo and Inquirer columnists Solita Monsod and Conrad Dequiros—all rabid propagandists of the Noynoy Aquino campaign disguised as newspaper columnists. On the basis of anonymous and unauthenticated documents provided to them by the Noynoy Aquino camp itself, they viciously ran the demolition job against Manny Villar in practically the same words and with almost the same conclusions. Now that their despicable act has began to backfire on them, they are now disowning in chorus their respective demolition jobs and their own reckless conclusions in what they wrote. The ever clueless Noynoy Aquino also denies on TV that he had any hand in the demolition job, but he has the gall to say that he agrees with its conclusions! Even Franklin Drilon of the Liberal Party has become a denial king, washing his hands off the affair like a Pilate on TV!

Noynoy Aquino and his shameless propagandists William Esposo, Solita Monsod, and Conrad Dequiros have overstepped the bounds of civilized behavior in their overpowering desire to pave the way for themselves to Malacañang by hook or by crook. Shame on them! They should be repudiated, condemned, and boycotted by all decent, self-respecting Filipinos!

Sincerely,

Sammy Abiertos