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JANUARY 25-31, 2019 Volume 12 - No. 14 • 16 Pages
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PH may appeal US ban on Filipino workers by RAE
ANN VARONA AJPress
FOLLOWING an announcement by the U.S. last week that imposed a one-year ban on new Filipino migrant workers starting this year, the Philippines said that it may ask the U.S. to reconsider the decision if it finds that there is no basis for the ban. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a notification last week that identified foreign countries whose nationals are no longer eligible Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo to participate in the H-2A and HInquirer.net photo 2B Nonimmigrant Worker Pro-
DATELINE
USA
FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA
Democrats reject Trump’s proposal of temporary protection for immigrants, call it a ‘non-starter’ AS the government shutdown entered its 32nd day on Tuesday, January 22 — the longest its ever been in U.S. history — President Donald Trump’s most recent proposal to offer temporary protection for undocumented immigrants in exchange for border wall funding seems unlikely to succeed. Lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday after the Martin Luther King holiday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expected to make a move to vote on the proposal offered by Trump on Saturday, January 19. But Democrats maintained that they would reject the proposal, and called for the reopening of government to come before further negotiations. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif). said early Tuesday that Democrats were prepared to vote on more bipartisan bills to reopen the gov-
grams starting January 19, 2019 to January 18, 2020. In listing the Philippines as one of the now ineligible countries along with Ethiopia and the Dominican Republic, the agency reasoned that the Philippines had a high rate of H-2B overstays. In 2017, the DHS estimated that nearly 40-percent of Filipino H-2B visa holders overstayed their authorized stay period. H-2B visas allow U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the U.S. to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs, while H-2A visas allow them to bring foreign
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DOT: PH posts 7.1-M recordbreaking tourist arrivals Pacquiao ‘fine’ despite eye injury after win vs. Broner MANILA — The Philippines has set a record-breaking 7.1 million international tourist arrivals in 2018, the Department of Tourism (DOT) reported on Thursday, January 24. Data from the DOT showed that at least 7,127,168 foreign tourists visited the country, the “highest ever number” in the Philippines’ tourism industry, surpassing the 6,620,908 arrivals in 2017 by 7.68 percent. “This is a time that celebrates the 7.1 million tourist arrival count — the highest ever in our country’s history, while at the same time championing the cause of an economic activity that can support and transform lives of common Filipinos,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said in a statement The agency boasts that the country’s tourism growth rate has outdone the world average tourism growth and average growth for Asia and the Pacific of 6 percent as identified by the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s World Tourism Barometer. Consistent as the country’s top source market is
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Trump eyes Fil-Am Utah attorney general and pastor for president’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs
PACQUIAO RETURNS. Senator Manny Pacquiao, shown carrying his son Israel, with his wife Jinky, arrives at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 in Pasay City on Thursday evening, January 24. Pacquiao has successfully defended his welterweight title against Adrien Broner via unanimous decision in Las Vegas on Saturday, January 19. PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan
Tourists and their pets enjoy the waters and sights offered by Boracay as the resort island in Aklan province welcomes visitors after a six-month rehabilitation. Inquirer.net photo by Marianne Bermudez
by NATHALIE
MANNY Pacquiao’s camp on Monday, January 21, assured the public that the veteran boxer “is fine” after acquiring a reported career-threatening eye injury following his win against Adrien Broner on Saturday, January 19. The Filipino boxer’s team told the New York Daily News that they were alarmed when the 40-year-old boxer complained of pain and vision loss in his left eye on Sunday morning, January 20. The team found out that Manny Pacquiao was declared the winner via a unanimous decision victory over Adrien Broner the injury was a minor corneal at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to retain his secondary World Boxing Association (WBA) scratch from the tape on Bronwelterweight title on Saturday, January 19. Pacquiao earned the nod of all three judges with er’s gloves. scores of 117-11, 116-112 and 116-112, improving his record to (61-7-2) and sending Broner to a three-fight winless streak (33-4-1).
AJPress photos by Robert Macabagdal
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PH economy grows 6.1% in Q4 2018, misses full-year target MANILA — The Philippine economy grew slightly faster in the final three months of 2018, but failed to meet both the government’s full-year target and market expectations, the country’s statistics agency reported Thursday. Gross domestic product — or the value of all finished goods and services produced in the country — expanded 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter against the downwardly revised 6.0 percent in the preceding three months.
TWO Filipino-Americans are among the 12 individuals President Donald Trump intends to appoint to his Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), the White House announced on Thursday, January 17. A White House press release revealed the names considered for the commission, including Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and Herman Martir, a pastor from Texas. Reyes, whose father is of Filipino and Spanish descent, has been attorney general of his state since 2013 — during which he became the first ethnic minority to hold that position or any statewide office in Utah. Martir, a pastor at Nations Worship Center in Fort Worth, Texas, is the president of the Asian Action Network and the Asian Prayer Network. He also founded Emerging Leaders International, “a coalition of leaders working together to bring transformation in the seven spheres of society (church, family, government, education, media, entertainment and business),” Rep. Salvador Leachon of Oriental Mindoro 1st District (left), chairman of the House Committee on Justice, with Speaker
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ROBLES
AJPress
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, during the House deliberations on lowering the age of criminal responsibility. ManilaTimes.net photo by Roger Rañada
The October-December print was slower than 6.5 percent posted in the same period in 2017. For the entire 2018, GDP growth stood at 6.2 percent, below the state’s 6.5-6.9 percent goal for the year and the weakest in three years. But the Philippines is still as one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, just next to India, Vietnam and China. The Philippines experienced a rapid increase in consumer-price growth last year amid food supply
bottlenecks, higher excise taxes on certain goods and surge in the cost of oil imports. In a bid to fight capital outflow and keep inflation in check, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has lifted its policy rate by a cumulative 175 basis points since May 2018. But red-hot inflation and surging borrowing costs have sapped consumer spending, which has traditionally been the driving
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PH House changes proposed age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old MANILA — The House of Representatives on Wednesday, January 23, swiftly approved on second reading the bill that seeks to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility in the country after only two days of plenary deliberations. The bill breezed through the lower house through viva-voce voting. The approved bill now lowers the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 years old to 12 years old, instead of nine. The amendment was done last minute at the plenary. Under the controversial House Bill 8858, children as young as 12 years old who commit serious crimes with discernment would be mandatorily
confined at Bahay Pag-asa — youth care facilities mandated by law to offer rehabilitation and intervention to children in conflict with the law. The approval of the bill on second reading came only two days after it was passed by the House justice panel on Monday, January 21. The proponents of the measure stressed that the bill was filed with the intention to reform children in conflict with the law and not to punish them, and to protect them from being used by criminal syndicates. But some lawmakers and groups — especially those advocating a more “restorative” handling of children in
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