BANGKOK, Thailand (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – Authorities have tripled to $85,000 a reward for information leading to the arrest of the main suspect in the Erawan shrine bombing that killed 20 people at one of Bangkok’s top tourist attractions.
The increased reward was announced after investigators said that very little progress was being made in locating an unidentified young man dressed in yellow shirt leaving a backpack at the scene of the carnage Monday night.
Apparently, investigators were following an erroneous lead from a very prestigious American daily newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News, which claimed through its August 19 headline that the suspect was hiding somewhere in Taiwan.
BRUSSELS, Belgium (The Adobo Chronicles®) – As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump laid out details of his immigration policy, the European Union (EU) adopted a resolution that, in effect, negates Trump’s ill intentions against the estimated 11 Million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.
Trump’s immigration policy includes building a wall along the southern border to be paid for by Mexico, eliminating birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, and the resolve to deport all 11 Million immigrants.
Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, the EU countries unanimously approved an immigration policy that would open their doors to the deported undocumented U.S. immigrants.
The EU is an economic and political union of 28 countries. It operates an internal (or single) market which allows free movement of goods, capital, services and people between member states.
The EU countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
Under the new EU policy, any deported undocumented U.S. immigrant will be allowed entry into any of the EU countries without the necessity of a visa. The only documents required upon entry is a valid passport from the immigrant’s home country and proof of residency in the U.S., such as a phone bill or a photocopy of an apartment rental agreement.
The immigrants will be automatically given a permanent residency status as well as government assistance in job training and job search. Free housing for one full year will be available to those who cannot afford to rent an apartment.
Education and health care are already either provided free or with government subsidy in most EU countries, so these will not be an additional burden to the immigrants.
In adopting the new policy, the EU council said that the member countries have great confidence in the skills that the immigrants will bring with them which, in return, could result in greater productivity and improved economy.
The EU says that the member countries especially encourage undocumented U.S. immigrants who speak a second language other than English, to apply for EU permanent residency.
“The EU countries pride themselves of being the ‘melting pot’ of language and culture, and immigrants from all over the world can only further contribute to this favorable image,” the council said in a statement.
MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – President NoyNoy Aquino will have a lasting legacy to leave behind when his term as president expires in 2016.
Today, Aquino announced that the Philippines is now officially a “rich country,” thanks to his administration’s economic and social programs over the last five years. “We’re now at par with first world countries in the West,” he said.
Aquino made the announcement after receiving a report from the Japanese Cooperation Agency (JICA) confirming that the Philippines is losing 2.4 Billion pesos daily because of the traffic situation in Metro Manila.
The JICA report noted that because of daily congested traffic, workers report late to work, business meetings are cancelled, commercial transactions are jeopardized, and delivery of goods and services come to a stand still. In other words, productivity is cut by more than half, which is costing both government and private enterprises huge revenue losses.
But Aquino and his technocrat advisers are looking at the positive side to this loss of revenue. The president said that the fact that “our country can afford to lose billions of pesos every single day means we have the money to spare, and only rich countries have that capability.”
Is it any wonder then that the government seems disinterested in solving the nightmarish transportation and traffic problems of the country, especially in Metro Manila?
MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – President NoyNoy Aquino will have a lasting legacy to leave behind when his term as president expires in 2016.
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