Category Archives: Government

Entertainment, Government, International

HUGE WELCOME, TICKER TAPE PARADE AND TAX RECEIPT AWAIT “ASIA’S GOT TALENT” GRAND WINNERS

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imageMANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – El Gamma Penumbra, the Filipino shadow performing group that was the grand winner in the first season of “Asia’s Got Talent” will be treated to a huge welcome by their fans and supporters when they return to Manila from Singapore.

A motorcade will take them from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Malacañang Palace where they will be personally greeted by President NoyNoy Aquino. The motorcade will pass through main thoroughfares in Makati where ticker tapes  and confetti will be showered from the city’s tall buiildings.

The group will also be personally met at the airport’s VIP lounge by Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares who will have a tax receipt booklet in hand as she collects up to 30% of the group’s  $100,000 (4.4 Million pesos) prize money.

Henares
Henares

Henares is known to be a tough tax woman, always ready to collect the government’s share of international prize winnings by Filipino celebrities, not the least of whom is Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao’s prize money from his May 2nd fight with Floyd Mayweather is estimated at $150 Million.  That’s a whopping 6.6 BILLION pesos.

It is therefore not suprising that President Aquino is claiming that the Philippines is no longer the “sick man” of Asia, thanks to all that tax revenue.

Business, Economy, Government, Travel

GOOD NEWS: PRESIDENT AQUINO REPORTS ON HIS SUCCESSFUL STATE VISIT TO CANADA

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Canadian imports that arrived at the Port of Manila in 2013.
Canadian imports of ‘recycled’ materials that arrived at the Port of Manila in 2013.

MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – President NoyNoy Aquino returned to Manila Monday from a five-day trip to Canada and the United States with what he enthusiastically described as “good news.”

The good news consists of pledges for more Canadian investments in the Philippines and  a package of initiatives boosting trade and labor relations with this North American country.

To demonstrate his highly successful negotiations during his Canadian state visit, Aquino said that in the next 60 to 90 days, several ships will arrive at the Port of Manila, with hundreds of containers bearing recycled trash.

“This will augment the containers from Canada that arrived in Manila in 2013,” Aquino said. The importation consisted of about fifty 40-foot container vans of non-recyclable plastics, used adult diapers, broken bottles and glasses, waste paper and household/kitchen waste.

“Diplomacy works. We are proud to have brokered a very healthy trade cooperation with Canada,” Aquino told reporters.

Government, LGBT, Same-sex Marriage

IN LUXEMBOURG, GAY MEN RULE!

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L-R: Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and First Man?
L-R: Luxembourg’s Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and First Gentleman?

LUXEMBOURG CITY, Luxembourg (The Adobo Chronicles) – Luxembourg is a small European country with a population of just 550,000. It is a founding member of the European Union, NATO and the United Nations. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions and agencies of the EU.

In June of last year, Luxembourg’s Parliament  legalized same-sex marriage by a landslide vote of 56-4. The new law went into effect last January.

That is not what’s amazing about the country. Rather, it is the fact that it is now ruled by gay men. Its prime minister, Xavier Bettel, is openly gay and so is its deputy prime minister, Etienne Schneider.

Luxembourg’s gayness will even be more prominent when Bettel marries his same-sex partner, architect Gauthier Destenay, this week.  The couple has been civil partners since 2010.

It hasn’t been decided how Destenay will be called.

Could it be First Gentleman? First Man? First Spouse?