PHILIPPINES’ TAX WOMAN WANTS TO CONFISCATE MANNY PACQUIAO’S NEW BEVERLY HILLS MANSION

March 18, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

LOS ANGELES, California (The Adobo Chronicles) – World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight king Manny Pacquiao has bought a Beverly Hills mansion formerly owned by Sean John Combs, popularly known by his stage names Puff Daddy, Diddy and P. Diddy.

Diddy is an American rapper, record producer, actor and entrepreneur. He and Jennifer Lopez were once a couple.

Elsa Nelson, vice president and manager of real estate firm Nelson Shelton & Associates, said three bidders had signified interest in buying the prime estate. “The two other bidders offered a much higher price but the current owners decided to sell it to world boxing icon Manny Pacquiao,” Nelson said.

Various media reports put the cost of the mansion at about $12 million (P540 million).

Immediately after being informed of the purchase, the Philippines’ taxwoman, Bureau of International Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares, filed a petition with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the garnishment of Pacquiao’s new mansion, as payment for back taxes that the Filipino boxer reportedly owes the Philippine government.

It is no secret that Henares and Pacquiao have been long at odds over what Henares claimed to be the boxer’s unpaid taxes from his U.S. boxing fights’ prize winnings.

Pacquiao will fight American Floyd Mayweather on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in what is being billed “The Fight of the Century.”

Government, Technology

YAWNS AND GIGGLES AS GOVERNMENT ROLLS OUT FREE WI-FI ACCESS IN THE PHILIPPINES

March 17, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

wifi-philippines_1 The Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is planning to roll out its free public Wi-Fi internet access project across the country beginning July of this year.

The One Billion-peso “Free Wi-Fi Internet Access in Public Places” project aims to provide free Wi-Fi Internet access in select public spaces in the country including parks and plazas, airports and seaports, public schools and hospitals, train stations and government offices.

Once fully deployed, the Project will serve 105,000 concurrent users with an average speed of 256 kbps (kilobytes) each. (Remember, the Philippines has a population of 100 Million.)

The DOST announcement was met with yawns and giggles by the Internet-savvy Filipinos, and here’s why:

256 kbps is equivalent to 2.048 Mbps (Megabits)

To put it in perspective, let’s take a look at the wi-fi speed in South Korea:

Capture

That’s 47.73 Mbps download and 48.99 Mbps upload speed in South Korea vs. 2.048 Mbps in the Philippines! And it is estimated that almost half of South Korea’s 50 Million population have access to high-speed Internet.

Any questions? Log on to the website of the DOST. That is, if you are able to get a connection, or have time for a little nap while waiting for your connection.

Perhaps, instead of building more high-rise condos and shopping malls, the Philippines should build a better Internet infrastructure. After all, isn’t the Philippines supposed to be the “New Asian Tiger?”

Or is it still the “Sick Man of Asia” when it comes to Technology?

Film and TV, International, Music

X FACTOR NEW ZEALAND JUDGE NATALIE KILLS FIRED FOR BEING HYPOCRITICAL (VIDEO)

March 17, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (The Adobo Chronicles) – Two judges on New Zealand’s X Factor have been fired for “bullying” a contestant live on air after a diatribe that makes Simon Cowell cringe in his judge’s chair.

Husband-and-wife duo Natalia Kills and Willy Moon were booted off the reality show for their “destructive tirade” on Sunday evening.

Kills criticized a 25-year-old contestant, Joe Irvine, on Sunday’s show for allegedly stealing her husband’s look “from the hair to the suit”. She called him “disgusting” and “creepy” and asked: “Do you not have any value or respect for originality?” She even declared that she was “ashamed to be here,” listening to Irvine’s rendition of “Cry Me A River.”

MediaWorks, the owner-operator of TV3, the network that airs X Factor New Zealand, however clarified that the Kills and husband were not fired for their critical comments.

“Kills was fired for her lack of originality when she appeared on the show made up like Cleopatra,” the network said. “We want our judges to be original, just as we expect our contestants to be so.”

The network added: “We want our judges to be critical, but not hypocritical.”

Kills is known for copying the looks of many other famous celebrities.

Here’s the video of Sunday’s segment: