In a statement, the Hong Kong chapter of a women’s rights group said Pag-IBIG chief executive officer Jaime Fabiaña declared that they would not force OFWs to become members of Pag-IBIG, nor will it be made a requirement to process their documents.

Gabriela-HK chairperson Cynthia Abdon-Tellez said Fabiaña announced this in a forum with leaders of OFW organizations on February 1 at the Philippine Consulate General in the Chinese territory.

“It is a victory for the vigilant OFWs resisting schemes of government exaction. While the Arroyo government is bent on squeezing more income from our labor, we shall always be there to fight its schemes every step of the way,” Tellez said.

Full Story: GMA News

“Shane has signed. I sat with him [Friday] and we went through every provision of the contract and he signed,” Mosley’s attorney Judd Burstein told ESPN.com. “He is excited to move forward with the bout.”

The fight is set on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Mayweather, who has yet to sign the contract, has reportedly expressed his intent to fight Mosley, according to Ellerbe.

“All of the deal points have been agreed to,” Ellerbe said. “We still have to put pen to paper, but everything is agreed to.”

Full Story: ABS-CBN/Yahoo PH

At the forum at the De La Salle University (DLSU)-Manila campus, moderator Ted Failon asked the presidential hopefuls: “Is there something for which President Arroyo should be held accountable? How should she be made accountable?”

At first, Teodoro, the administration presidential candidate, hesitated to give an answer, saying his previous working relationship with the President bars him from doing so.

“Just think about it, if I participate (in efforts to prosecute her), people would say ‘lulutuin mo lang’ (you’ll just fix it.) If I don’t participate, people would say I did not work for justice,” said Teodoro, who resigned as defense secretary to run in the May elections.

“In the end, anyone with reason to file a case against her should just do it. I should not interfere,” he added.

Full Story: Inquirer.net

Executive Director Butch Meily of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation, which serves as partner of the Special National Public-Private Reconstruction Commission (SNPRC), announced the scheduled arrival of the California-based experts on reconstruction and rehabilitation along with the Hollywood action hero-turned-politician.

He said in a press briefing last Thursday that Schwarzenegger and company ”will be spending days” in Manila to share with their counterparts their practices and strategies in addressing damages brought by catastrophes.

In the same briefing, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said the California governor would ”assist in the heavy lifting” task of the SNPRC to address the damages from the devastating typhoons last year as well as to attract humanitarian assistance to fund the government’s rehabilitation efforts.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo, also the head of the Commission’s Secretariat, said they are hoping to mobilize $877.58 million (P40 billion) in foreign funding for the rehabilitation efforts.

Full Story: Manila Bulletin/Yahoo PH

Phivolcs seismologist Henremagne Penarubia said the quake was recorded at 2:49 a.m., with the epicenter traced northeast of Virac, Catanduanes in Bicol.

“Magitude-6.0, medyo malakas siya pero ang location medyo malayong dagat (It was measured at Magnitude 6.0, but it was too far from land to cause damage),” Penarubia said in an interview on dzBB radio.

Citing initial reports, he said the quake was felt at Intensity III in Virac, Catanduanes and in Naga City in Camarines Sur.

It was also felt at Intensity II in Legazpi City in Albay, and even parts of Quezon province in Southern Luzon.

Penarubai also assured there was no tsunami caused by the quake, saying a tsunami is likely if a quake is of magnitude 6.5 to 7.0.

Full Story: GMA News

“We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product,” said Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant last year and was making just his second public appearance since September.

The long-awaited iPad has a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) color screen and resembles an oversized iPhone. It is 0.5 inches (1.3 cms) thick, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.7 kgs) and comes with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of flash memory.

The cheapest iPad model, with Wi-Fi connectivity and 16GB of memory, is 499 dollars while the most expensive — which includes 3G connectivity and 64GB of memory — costs 829 dollars.

“I think it’s a home run,” said Gartner analyst Van Baker. “It becomes a viable alternative to a netbook and I get the 140,000 applications in the App Store. It is a pretty compelling value.”

Apple said it would start shipping the iPad, which has a virtual keyboard but can also be hooked up to an external keyboard, within 60 days, making them available worldwide in late March.

The 3G version will reach the market in late April.

Full Story: AFP/Yahoo SG

In an impassioned speech, Santiago reminded her fellow senators that the rules of the Senate frown on the use of improper language during debates in the plenary, especially against each other.

“Our language and behavior did not serve the nation…Our parliamentary immunity entitles us to freedom from liability in anything we say or do against anybody except our fellow senator or against any public institution such as the institution of the presidency, Congress or Supreme Court,” she said.

Santiago reserved her harshest criticism for Enrile whom she took to task for implying that she had not brushed up on jurisprudence that showed that a senator could be censured by a vote of the majority.

She cited the Philippine Daily Inquirer account of the heated Senate session which said that “Enrile shrugged off Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s opinion that the penalty of censure would require the vote of two-thirds of the Senate membership.”

Full Story: ABS-CBN/Yahoo PH

The unusually large canvas, measuring 77.25 by 45.38 inches (196 by 115cm), sustained a vertical tear of about six inches (15cm) in the lower right-hand corner in the accident on Friday.

The museum, located on the eastern edge of New York’s Central Park, did not elaborate on why the woman fell.

But The Met said the damage did not impact the “focal point of the composition” and that it should be repaired in the coming weeks ahead of a major Picasso retrospective featuring some 250 works at the museum opening on April 27.

Full Story: AFP/Yahoo PH

The effects of El Niño could result in as much as P20 billion in economic loss in the next six months, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

Immediately after its reactivation, members of the task force, chaired by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, met at the Palace to come up with “a comprehensive and integrated action plan to address the coming El Niño phenomenon,” Secretary Conrado Limcaoco, officer-in-charge of the Office of the Press Secretary, told a news briefing.

Agriculture Undersecretary Bernardo Fondevilla, who was present at the briefing, said the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) had reported that this year’s El Niño would likely be moderate.

Full Story: PhilStar

Tickets to the March 13 fight between the Filipino pound-for-pound champion and challenger Josh Clottey are out, and with still 50 days left before the big day, promoters might be forced to have a few thousands more printed.

According to ESPN.com, more than 20,000 tickets were sold in the first three hours of sales Saturday. Because of the size of the venue, tickets prices were slashed more than half of what they used to be for Pacquiao fights.

The Dallas Cowboys Stadium, a $1.3 billion wonder, can seat more than 100,000 fans for a football game. But for this fight, the men behind the fight have decided to block off the outer sections and limit the capacity to around 40,000.

Still, that’s more than twice as big as when Pacquiao fights in Las Vegas, whether it’s the MGM Grand or the Mandalay Bay, where ringside tickets are given a face value of $1,500. In Dallas, the choice seats will go for just $700.

The cheapest tickets for this WBO welterweight clash will go for $50, just the equivalent of dinner and good bottle of wine in a nice restaurant. In previous Pacquiao fights, fifty bucks can’t even get you past the entrance of the fight venue.

Full Story: ABS-CBN/Yahoo PH