Canada PM Stephen Harper to praise Aquino for anti-corruption drive in Philippines

photo credit: ctvnews.ca

Stephen Harper to praise anti-corruption drive in Philippines

MANILA — Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper will pay tribute Saturday to the Philippines president for an anti-corruption campaign that has restored international confidence in the Southeast Asian nation.

Harper arrived here Friday evening for a quick stopover on a trip through the region. He meets with President Benigno Aquino III on Saturday, as well as business people.

It is the first time since 1997 that a Canadian prime minister has visited the Philippines.

Christopher Thornley, Canada's ambassador to the Philippines, said Friday that the country of 92 million people is experiencing an economic surge after decades of being held back by dishonest conduct by those in power.

"There has been a history of corruption in Filipino governments and Filipino society. It has been a hindrance to them.

He said international investors are pleased with how Aquino has been cleaning up the political system since he took office in 2010, and the country is on an economic roll.

"It's a country in an optimistic stage," said Thornley.

"It's a great time for Canada to be positioned, as I say, on the ground floor."

Harper and Aquino will meet at the presidential palace on Saturday.

Among the issues at the forefront: A continuation of Aquino's anti-corruption campaign; boosting Canada-Filipino trade ties, analyzing security threats from Islamic militant groups linked to al-Qaeda, and discussing the human trafficking both countries are trying to stop.

The two leaders will also point out the strong cultural connections that already bond their nations.

Since 2010, the Philippines has been the country sending the most immigrants to Canada.

There are more than 436,000 people of Philippine origin in Canada. Tagalog, the Philippine dialect, has become Canada's fastest growing immigrant language.

"Canada enjoys tremendous goodwill here," said Thornley. "Canada is viewed as the very top of the pecking order in terms of destination."

He said that Filipino immigrants integrate well into Canadian society and "fly under the radar" as they work hard to build a new life.

Harper's visit to the Philippines is sandwiched between a week-long trip to India and a quick stop Sunday in Hong Kong, where he will attend Remembrance Day ceremonies at a cemetery of Canadian soldiers who died during the Second World War.

Throughout this trip, Harper has repeatedly declared that Canada's future economic prosperity hinges on how well it expands its trade into emerging markets, such as those in Asia.

Canadian officials are keen to make the Philippines a prime target for future Canadian trade and investment. The two countries already have a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) — a pact designed to give greater legal comfort to investors so they know they can do business here with greater certainty.

Last year, Canada exported $554.7 million in merchandise to the Philippines — mainly minerals, meat, fertilizers and wood. The same year, Canada imported $915.9 million from the Philippines.

Those figures are bound to grow in future years, as the Philippines becomes a bigger economic player. The country had the world's 44th largest economy this year, but if current trends hold, it could jump to 16th place by 2050.

Economic growth in the Philippines was 6.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Almost two thirds of the population is of working age, providing the conditions for a strong economy fuelled by workers who pay taxes and form a strong middle class.

The country has a large call-centre industry, with many companies in the West outsourcing their phone work to Filipino workers.

All these pre-conditions have set up the country for a strong future, say many analysts. But there are some problems that it must overcome: Natural disasters, decades of political instability caused by high-level corruption, and violence caused by rebels seeking independence.

The country's leaders have been trying to control the violence stemming from Islamic rebels  — some of whom have been linked to al-Qaeda.

The country has plagued by floods, such as the one this past summer that left part of Manila under water.

The current president, Aquino, is a member of a political family. His father was an opposition leader who was assassinated in 1983, sparking a public uprising that led to the departure of the autocratic President Ferdinand Marcos. His mother, Corazon Aquino, was president from 1986 until 1992.

Political turmoil has been a fact of life in the country.

Last year, Aquino's government brought corruption charges against his predecessor, Gloria Arroyo. She was detained for months on charges of election bid-rigging. Ultimately, a judge ruled the charges were weak and she was released.

However, more corruption charges were laid against her last month in connection to misuse of state lottery funds while she was president.

mkennedy(at)postmedia.com.

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Vietnam’s HCM City finds hard to hire Philippine teachers of English

VietNamNet Bridge – Despite being highly appreciated, HCM City is facing many difficulties in realizing its plan to hire Filipino teachers of English. 

A good plan

Most schools in HCM City applauded the municipal Department of Education and Training's plan to hire Filipino teachers and upgrade study facilities for high school and vocational students for the 2011-2020 periods.

In recent few years, several schools in the city have hired foreign teachers from language centers with their own funds.

Schools have faced several obstacles including unqualified teachers, problems with expired work permits and controversial labor contracts.

Some schools had to change native English teachers from three to four times per year, leading to unstable teaching.

In other cases, some schools want to hire foreign teachers but they have failed as the schools lack recruitment experience. 

The department's plan is expected to help ensure teacher quality, their legal status and stable working conditions.

Vo Thi Ngoc Thu, head of Office for Education and Training in District 5 said the plan would provide major help to local schools, as it would especially increase student comprehension and speaking skills. These teachers would attend classes run by local teachers and take part in outdoor activities to share teaching experience.

Challenges

Despite the ambition, HCM City has found it difficult to realise the plan due to financial issues.

The plan said schools had to call on parents to contribute to pay for foreign teachers and share half of the funding for the purchases of teaching facilities.

This means that each student would have to pay VND120,000 (USD5.75) per month for foreign teachers and from VND500,000-VND2 million (USD23.96-USD95.87) for equipment purchases.

Several principles said that it the plan would be more feasible with the funding from the municipal government as students from poor families could not afford such fees.

The parents of some students from better-off families are more worried about teacher quality than financial issues. Some have sent their children to language centers which charge VND70,000-VND80,000 (USD3.35-USD3.83) per month.

Pham Thi Thuy Ha, principle of Nguyen Van Troi Primary School in District 4 said over 400 students at the school are pursuing English study at language centers. In order to realize the plan, it was necessary to expand the numbers of targeted students.

Due to the modest number of students registering to study with Filipino teachers, some schools shared funding to hire a teacher to save expenses.

As a result, some schools have refused to join the plan. Some local offices for education and training which have signed contracts with foreign teachers are struggling to find classes.

100 Filipinos recruited to teach English in HCM City

 HCM City's education sector school system has hired 100 teachers from the Philippines to teach English at primary, secondary and high schools beginning in November, according to the city's Department of Education and Training.

Le Hong Son, head of the department, said the teachers, all of whom have university degrees in education, would also share their knowledge about effective teaching methodologies and supplemental activities with Vietnamese teachers of English.

The teachers will be paid VND40 million (US$2,000) per month and teach 35 class sessions per week.

The People's Committee initially had agreed to subsidies 50 per cent of the total costs to pay salaries, but on August 7 city leaders reversed that decision.

Instead, schools that want to hire the teachers should ask students' parents to contribute to the costs, the committee suggested.

Because of the limited number of Filipino teachers, schools that want to hire one or more of the teachers must register with the department, Son said.

The city's education department plans to hire more teachers if the plan proves successful.

The goal is to improve the English proficiency of students in primary, secondary and high schools.

Most high schools and universities in the Philippines offer instruction in English and use an American curriculum.

VNN/DTriNews/VietNamNet/VNS

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Chinese & other 4 foreigners, 11 Filipinos sued for illegal mining in Misamis Oriental

Mudslide in Pantukan for unregulated and illegal mining in the Philippines

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Northern Mindanao has sued four foreign nationals and 11 Filipinos and their companies for alleged illegal gold mining activities along the Iponan River.

MGB regional director Rex Monsanto said Friday he and lawyer Christine Lu, the bureau's legal officer here, filed the charges before the city prosecutors' office and the Misamis Oriental prosecutor's office.

Those charged, identified with KFNET Corp., were Koreans Kim Hyo Soeg and Kim Hyong; and Filipinos Oliver Paningbatan, Zarex Ramirez, Elmer del Rosario, Leo Ching and Onofre Contreras.

On the side of the Philippine Long Sangda Mining Corp., charged were Chinese nationals Yuan Xue Song and Huang Ying Yiang; and their Filipino associates Johnry Loreja, Lucille Sy, Janette Go Sy, Roberto Buniales, Marilou Alquizar and Ivy Edong.

Monsanto said the 15 were identified as directors or incorporators of the companies conducting illegal gold mining operations along the Iponan River, based on documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Monsanto said the MGB filed the complaint against KFNET at the provincial prosecutor's office after they were able to determine through GPS tracking that the firm was operating in the Opol, Misamis Oriental side of the Iponan River.

Philippine Long Sangda, on the other hand, was found to have been operating in the Cagayan de Oro side of the river, he said.

Monsanto said the MGB had ordered the companies to stop their activities as early as February but they ignored it.

He said the MGB had acquired pieces of evidence, including photographs and documents, which showed that the companies continued to operate despite the cease and desist order.

City prosecutor Fidel Macauyag said he would carefully study the MGB complaint and help the bureau in building a strong case against the suspects based on an order given by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

De Lima was here recently and had instructed prosecutors to help in strengthening cases against illegal mining activities.

Incidentally, Macauyag was the same prosecutor who dismissed the illegal mining complaint filed by the environment watchdog Sulog against two Chinese nationals last week "on the basis of technicalities."

The suspects, Zong Hengyuan and He Jiancheng, were arrested in late October by the multi-sectoral task force against mining, which included Sulog, for illegal mining activities along the Iponan River.

Inquirer 

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