Tag Archives: Philippines

Politics, The Media

SENATOR MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO JOINS ADOBO CHRONICLES AS MANILA BUREAU CHIEF

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Santiago’s book cover: ‘Stupid Is Forever’ published by ABS-CBN Publishing

Silicon Valley, California (The Adobo Chronicles) – Who says politics and the media don’t mix?

The Adobo Chronicles announced today that the very popular Philippine Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago will assume the post of  Philippines Bureau Chief in Manila.

The announcement came just days after the 69-year-old feisty senator formally launched her new book  titled, “Stupid Is Forever.” The 132-page book features a collection of Santiago’s jokes, speeches and pick-up lines.

The publishers of The Adobo Chronicles said that “no other person is more deserving and capable of leading our Manila bureau than Santiago whose intelligence, sense of humor, sarcasm and fearlessness are great assets in the pursuit of our journalistic mission.”

The Adobo Chronicles  is published in California and distributed worldwide.  It has close to 12 Million readers, 30% of whom live in the Philippines.  Its top market is the U.S. at 40%.  The rest of its readership is spread throughout Asia, Europe, South America, Australia and the Middle East.

Santiago
Santiago

Santiago, a lawyer and an incumbent senator, holds the distinction as the first female editor of the University of the Philippines’ official student newspaper, The Philippine Collegian.  She was also editor of The Philippine Journal. 

Her colleagues in the Senate cower in fear every time she opens her mouth to debate issues or discuss pending legislation. She minces no words when confronting politicians and others accused of wrongdoing.

At her book launching, Santiago made a controversial comment, thanking “the millions of stupid Filipinos who inspired this book.” She later clarified her comment saying that she was referring to the millions of corrupt politicians in the Philippines and the world over.

At the same event, when asked by reporters what she would say to Pope Francis if she meets him in January during the Philippine papal visit, Santiago said, “Hi, Sexy!”

Readers of The Adobo Chronicles can look forward to bigger, better and more controversial articles originating from the Philippines.

Welcome, Madam Editor!

Business, International, Politics, Science and Environment

AUDIT: RED FLAGS OVER PHILIPPINES’ MALAMPAYA NATURAL GAS PROJECT

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imagePalawan, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – Yesterday, The Adobo Chronicles reported that the Philippines’ Commission on Audit (COA) has raised some red flags during its audit of the government funds raised from the natural gas extraction project off the coast of Palawan province.

The private service contract provides for a production-sharing scheme in which the government gets 60 percent of earnings from the operation. Part of the government’s share — 900 Million pesos — was allotted for the rehabilitation of farms in 97 towns devastated by powerful storms. Instead, COA alleged that the amount was siphoned off and channeled to questionable non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

(See full story here.)

Well it turns out that even before COA began the audit, the operators of the project already had raised many red flags over the offshore rig (see photo) which led to the fund scam inquiry.

Sometimes, banners do the trick!

Language, Law Enforcement, Politics

PHILIPPINES: NEW WORD ADDED TO TAGALOG DICTIONARY

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downloadManila, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – Previously, The Adobo Chronicles reported that ‘selfitis’ was officially added as a new word in the Oxford Dictionaries of English.

Today, a new word was added to the Tagalog (Pilipino) Dictionary, thanks to a new government fund scam uncovered by the country’s Commission on Audit (COA).  The new word is Malampaya.

Origin

Malampaya is a $4.5 Billion project started in 2002 off Palawan Island in the Philippines.  Operated by Shell Philippines Exploration BV and Chevron Malampaya LLC, it involves the extraction of natural gas off the waters of Palawan.

The service contract provides for a production-sharing scheme in which the government gets 60 percent of earnings from the operation.

Part of the government’s share — 900 Million pesos — was allotted for the rehabilitation of farms in 97 towns devastated by powerful storms. Instead, COA alleged that the amount was siphoned off and channeled to questionable non-governmental organizations, mostly associated with businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the incarcerated alleged mastermind of another fund scandal, a 10 Billion-peso pork barrel scam which benefited many top government officials.

In the Tagalog language, there is a word — Manampalataya — which means “to have faith.”

The Commission on the Filipino Language thought it appropriate to add the new word Malampaya to the Tagalog Dictionary because of this recent fund scam.  It will mean the exact opposite of Manampalataya.

The new word entry was indeed added to mean “to lose faith.”

Filipino language experts immediately hailed the new word addition, saying that “with the unending government fund scams and scandals that have preyed on taxpayer money, we urgently needed a new word to express our loss of faith in the government.”

Malampaya v., inf. lose faith; withdraw one’s faith in something, i.e., in a corrupt government