This site is dedicated to Migrant workers and alike. Some posting maybe from your relatives, friends or not so friends who lift the Philippines. Recently, statistics showing huge percentage of Filipinos working or living abroad because of not so different reason with the others. This page is for us! Please feel free to drop your thoughts!
News clippings around the world is also available. Have fun reading!
Franco Cagayat and his automotive sculpture – Click above to watch video after the jump
We've seen some pretty amazing things happen when talent mixes with the proper medium, but this takes the cake. Top Gear Philippines magazine is featuring a story on Franco Cagayat, an autistic 21-year-old sculptor who specializes in carving detailed vehicle models from a single block of wood. Complete with doors that open and close, full interiors and complete engine bays, the vehicles are unlike anything we've ever seen. Cagayat says he got started by drawing every vehicle he saw and eventually learned to translate that talent into sculpting.
The artist first became a fan of Top Gear when a classmate offered to trade him a copy of the magazine for a wooden Ferrari Testarossa. We think Cagayat probably got the short end of the stick on that one, but he now uses the photos in the publication for reference when it comes time to carve the newest supercars of the world. Hit the jump to take a look at a video interview with Cagayat.
Joseph Abutan who visited the XPRESS office says he does not blame his three children in the Philippines for being angry with him, but he hopes they will forgive him someday
Dubai: A man jailed for accidentally killing his wife in a car mishap has made a tearful apology to his three children in the Philippines who still refuse to talk to him.
In the first media interview since regaining his freedom, Joseph Abutan, 37, said on Wednesday: "I just want to tell my children that I seek their forgiveness and that I'm not a criminal."
Dubai Police Chief Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim ordered his department on May 10 to pay diya, or blood money, as a humanitarian gesture to free Abutan.
The family of Abutan and his three children - Allysa, 15; Andrew, 14; and Al Joseph, 12 - will be the beneficiaries of the amount, as per Sharia Law.
"I have already suffered enough for what happened. I appreciate the humanitarian gesture and thank [Lt] General Dahi Khalfan Tamim for giving me another chance to put my life back in order," he said.
Abutan and his wife Imelda met with an accident on June 5, 2009, at around 6.30am near Dubai's Century Mall. Traces of alcohol were found in his blood.
While he sustained only minor injuries, his wife suffered a severe cervical neck injury and died after 23 days in hospital.
A judge ordered Abutan to pay a Dh10,000 fine and Dh200,000 diya. But his inability to pay meant he had to stay in jail indefinitely.
From his jail cell following the accident, Abutan said he promised his wife who was battling for her life in hospital, that he would take care of their children no matter what happens.
It's been three years since he last saw their children - all high school students and living with Imelda's parents in Balagtas town in Batangas province.
Abutan said he can't blame them if they were angry.
"I've been told that my children are not happy I am out of jail, that two years are not enough," a tearful Abutan told XPRESS in the Tagalog language.
"That's hurtful. I hope they can find a place in their hearts to forgive me. I did not want the accident to happen. And I do miss my wife."
Abutan, who embraced Islam while in jail and is now known as Abdullah, blames himself completely for what he termed the "biggest challenge" in his life.
"After spending time in jail, you would not want to hurt another human being," said Abutan, who is currently looking for a job either as a driver or AC technician in Dubai.
"I want to earn enough so I could go home someday and talk to my three children face to face."
And while he is happy to be free, Abutan said the only thing that would complete his happiness is being able to talk and embrace his three children.
His message to all drivers: "Life is so precious that we can't simply waste it in a few moments of carelessness."
US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is anchored off Manila Bay as it begins its four-day port call on May 15, 2011 with three other warships in the Philippines. US officials welcomed visitors on Sunday to the USS Carl Vinson warship, from which Osama Bin Laden's body was buried at sea.
Aboard the USS Carl Vinson: US officials welcomed visitors Sunday to the USS Carl Vinson warship, from which Osama Bin Laden's body was buried at sea, but did not discuss the ultra-secretive attack that killed him, reflecting America's concern over possible retaliation.
US defense officials were taking measures to ensure the security of the operatives involved in the May 2 assault on a walled fortress in Abbottabad, Pakistan, particularly the Navy SEAL team that killed the world's most wanted terrorist.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, accompanied by senior members of his Cabinet and military chief of staff, were flown to the massive aircraft carrier Saturday as it traveled in the South China Sea toward the Philippines, a key Asian anti-terrorism ally.
A group of journalists were invited to tour and talk to sailors aboard the 97,000-ton Carl Vinson, which anchored off Manila along with three other warships on Sunday at the start of a four-day routine port call and goodwill visit.
During the 30-minute ferry ride to the Vinson, US Embassy spokeswoman Wossenyelesh Mazengia told about two dozen journalists that nobody aboard the carrier would talk about bin Laden.
"No one on the Vinson is authorized to discuss any operational details that involve Osama Bin Laden," Mazengia said. "I'm not trying to say you can't ask, you can."
Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Aquino and his entourage were given a tour of the warship and an exhibition of fighter jets landing and taking off from the Carl Vinson, including one flown by a Filipino-American pilot.
Aquino, at one point, sat on the cockpit of an F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet at a hangar bay as sailors snapped pictures. He talked and posed for souvenir pictures with many beaming Filipino-American sailors, Gazmin said. But the one thing on everybody's mind - Bin Laden's burial from the Carl Vinson just 12 days earlier - did not come up.
US Navy officials did not touch the sensitive subject and Aquino's group saw it fit not to ask questions, Gazmin said. "We did not ask for a briefing because it was too sensitive," Gazmin told The Associated Press on Sunday. "It was a friendly visit and we let it stay that way."
Gazmin, a retired general, said he was impressed by the stunning US commando night-time strike that got bin Laden, adding it showed the might of the American military force. Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who said it was his first time to set foot on an aircraft carrier, was impressed as war planes landed and were launched by catapults from the tarmac.
"You can feel the inherent power of these fighter jets," del Rosario said. In impromptu remarks on the ship, Aquino reaffirmed the "historic, defense and cultural ties" between the United States and the Philippines, one of Washington's oldest and closest Asian allies, presidential spokesman Ricky Carandang said.
US special forces have been training and arming Filipino soldiers battling al-Qaida-linked militants in the southern Philippines since 2003. The Carl Vinson came from the North Arabian Sea, where it had received a US SEAL team, which carried bin Laden's body after killing the long-wanted Al Qaida leader in a raid on his walled compound near a Pakistani military academy.
Pentagon officials have said that on the carrier, Bin Laden's body was placed in a "weighted bag," an officer made religious remarks and the remains were put on a flat board and tipped into the sea.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that during a recent meeting with members of the team that attacked Bin Laden, they expressed concerns about the security of their families. American officials agreed shortly after Bin Laden was killed not to release any operational details on the commando assault, Gates said, but added "that fell apart - the next day."
"We are looking at what measures can be taken to pump up the security," Gates said. The US Embassy in Manila said Carl Vinson's service members would take part in sports events, seminars and community assistance projects with their Philippine counterparts.
The visit will contribute about $4.65 million to the local economy from port fees and crew expenditures, the embassy said in a statement. Philippine police have said they will step up security in Manila, where left-wing groups have threatened to stage protests against the US warship's visit.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Three Filipinas facing illegal drug charges in Dubai are receiving help from the Philippine government, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Tuesday.
The DFA, in a press statement, said the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai identified the Filipinos as Crizelda Empleo, Jackie Lou Jabate and Rhoda Guisingam, who are accused of trafficking the hallucinogen Tramadol.
"An experienced and competent Bahraini lawyer hired by the Consulate will represent the Filipinas in today’s hearing," Consul General Benito Valeriano said.
Mohammed Pukunum, head of the Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) section of the Consulate, attended an earlier court hearing on the case last January 2.
Guisinga, Jabate, and Empleo were arrested inside the Hamarain Mall last November 10, according to the DFA.
The trio went to the mall where Guisinga told her friends she had to meet an Egyptian.
She was arrested by Dubai police, who later found a red plastic bag allegedly with illegal drugs in her possession. The bag was allegedly handed over by the Egyptian.
Jabate and Empleo were waiting for Guisinga when were also arrested by Dubai police officers.
Guisinga was charged with possession of illegal drugs while Jabate and Empleo were both charged with criminal complicity or "accessory to possession of illegal drugs."
The 3 Filipinas are on "visit visas" and are not overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the DFA said.
The Consulate's ATN officers regularly visit the Filipinas at the Al Muraqqabat police station where they are detained and have given them consular and legal assistance, it added.
Manny Pacquiao won a lopsided 12-round decision over Sugar Shane Mosley on Saturday night, retaining his WBO welterweight title with his 14th consecutive victory.
Pacquiao (54-3-2) didn't get the knockout he wanted, but the Filipino Congressman retained his position the most dominant and exciting fighter in the sport, methodically beating Mosley (46-7-1) at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao knocked Mosley down with a left hook in the third round, a punch that seemed to sap Mosley's willingness to engage. Pacquiao ran after Mosley the rest of the fight, but the former champion who has never been stopped in 18 years in the ring managed to finish the 12th round on his feet.
Pacquiao won 120-108 on one scorecard, 120-107 on a second and 119-108 on the third. The Associated Press had him winning 118-110.
For Mosley, the fight was strikingly similar to his bout a year ago against Floyd Mayweather Jr. - except this time he didn't even land a big punch like he did early on against Mayweather.
His biggest moment on this night came when referee Kenny Bayless mistakenly ruled that Mosley knocked Pacquiao down in the 10th round when he hadn't even hit him with a punch.
The ruling seemed to spur Pacquiao on as he went after Mosley the rest of the round and again in the 11th. By then, the crowd was cheering ''Knock him out, knock him out,'' but Pacquiao - bothered by a cramp in his left leg since the fourth round - didn't have enough to finish him off.
''It wasn't my best performance,'' Pacquiao had. ''I did my best. I did not expect this result.''
Mosley said he thought he did a good job despite losing round after round, and wouldn't blame his bad performance on his age.
''I fought the best fighter in the world,'' Mosley said. ''He has exceptional power, power that I've never been hit like this before.''
Promoter Bob Arum defended putting Mosley in the ring against Pacquiao despite signs in Mosley's last two fights that his reflexes were slipping.
''Nobody can really perform against him,'' Arum said. ''Some of these guys are pretty good fighters, but nobody in their whole experience has ever faced somebody like (Pacquiao). Everybody is going to look the same way.''
Mosley was tentative from the opening bell, moving backward and seemingly unwilling to trade punches with Pacquiao. Pacquiao finally made contact with a left hook at the end of the third round, sending Mosley to the canvas for only the third time in his professional career.
Mosley was up at the count of five, and managed to survive the final minute of the round despite Pacquiao's best efforts to take him out.
Pacquiao pressed the fight most of the night, but he also appeared hesitant to take many chances, which trainer Freddie Roach said was because of the muscle cramp that his corner tried to massage between rounds.
''He had no leverage to move after that,'' Roach said. ''It was a very gutty performance in my mind.''
Pacquiao said his leg first started bothering him in his fight last November against Antonio Margarito.
''I thought Shane did a great job, he had some speed,'' Pacquiao said. ''I couldn't move because my left leg got tight. It's a problem I've been having lately. I'm going to work on my legs in future training camps.''
The sellout crowd of 16,412 booed Mosley repeatedly in the late rounds for his refusal to trade punches with Pacquiao.
Mosley fought as if trying to protect his legacy of having never been knocked out and, if that was his strategy, it succeeded. But it made for a lackluster fight and did nothing to burnish the legacy that the Filipino champion has built with 14 straight wins over the last six years - including some over the biggest names in the game.
Pacquiao made a minimum of $20 million for the fight, while Mosley was guaranteed $5 million.
In a bout on the undercard, Kelly Pavlik (37-2) beat Alfonso Lopez (21-1) by majority decision in the former middleweight champion's return from nearly 13 months out of the ring.
Pavlik hadn't fought since last April, when Argentina's Sergio Martinez took away his two middleweight title belts in a bloody unanimous decision that ended Pavlik's 2 1/2-year reign atop the division.
In another bout, former three-division champion Jorge Arce of Mexico (57-6-2, 44 KOs) stopped Wilfredo Vazquez of Puerto Rico (21-1-1) in the 12th round to claim Vazquez's WBO 122-pound belt.
Filipino fashion blogger Bryan Grey-Yambao, more popularly known as Bryanboy, is taking things to the next level. The 23-year-old has just announced he's signed a deal with LA-based Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to manage his career.
Often considered one of the leading talent agencies, CAA's clients include celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg and Will Smith.
The deal marks a phenomenal leap for Bryanboy, who rose from obscurity by blogging about fashion from his hometown in Manila.
Nowadays he's front-row staple at some of the biggest fashion shows in London, Paris, New York and London, rubbing shoulders with the biggest names in the industry. It is also proof of the increasing clout of fashion's internet stars.
The details of the deal have not been specified.
"After being a one-man blogging circus for almost seven years, it's high time that I change the way I do things," Bryanboy blogged on his website, bryanboy.com, which has become the go-to place for fashion-lovers. "I need to focus on what I love doing and delegate the rest."
Bryanboy began blogging from his parents' home in the Philippines. His unique, often funny, take on the latest trends and looks soon caught the attention of the world. Buoyed by the growing popularity of social networking websites, he soon joined an elite group of fashion bloggers around the world who landed much-coveted front row seats at some of the most high profile fashion shows.
With fashion labels and designers keen to grow their internet footprint, Bryanboy, along with other bloggers, became a force to be reckoned with.
"I've been approached by several agencies in the past but sometimes, you have to go with who you think is the right fit for you and what you want to do in the future," he added. "I've signed a contract last week with one of the world's high-profile agencies, CAA. They represent major people like Oprah, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Zac Efron, Blake Lively. They also represent music stars like Christina Aguilera, Mariah, Justin Timberlake, Usher, among many others."
To date, Bryanboy has even had a bag named after him by designer Marc Jacobs. Major brands now announce their collaborations with him with a flourish and he is constantly on the road - jetting around the globe.
"It's not easy to werq (sic) and hustle my way like the rent is due tomorrow when half of my time is spent 38,000 feet above ground," he said on the blog, announcing the deal. "I could only do as much as I can. Even my personal life is suffering — my contact with my family is limited to the odd, occasional phone call (Osama Bin Laden is dead, says my mum).
"I'm very excited with this new chapter in my life. I'm in this for the long haul. It's been a pleasure of mine to share my dreams with you over the years through my blog. Now that I have a powerful machine working with me and protecting my interests, perhaps in the future, I'll get to share even bigger, brighter dreams."
Freddie Roach-trained Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines trains during a media workout at Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles last month as he prepares to defend his World Boxing Organisation welterweight title against Sugar Shane Mosley, which will take place on May 7 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Los Angeles: "I hope I can do this until the day I die," Freddie Roach says calmly as he explains the depth of his addiction to a dangerous business.
Boxing has consumed his life with a blurring combination of pride, fame and Parkinson's disease.
Words now tumble from him in a softly spoken slur which is a reminder of the damage done to such a warm and open man. Before he became the best trainer in the ring today, working with the greatest fighter on the planet in Manny Pacquiao, Roach used to be a boxer.
"Yeah," Roach says wryly, "I had five fights too many. I lost four of ‘em. I had the finest trainer there's ever been, Eddie Futch, and he knew I'd had enough. But I was 26 years old and still hard-headed so I couldn't see it. This is how it is. Boxing gets in your blood and you just can't quit."
Boxing, amid the squalor and heartbreak, is a drug. But it is difficult to think of Roach as one of its victims in a week when he goes to work again with the extraordinary Pacquiao who faces Shane Mosley in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Roach's serene training of Pacquiao has been complicated by the Filipino's astronomical fame both in the US and his home country. His popularity is such that Pacquiao is now a congressman in the Philippines. Before he fought Antonio Margarito, Pacquiao lamented in training that he missed congress.
Yet last week Pacquiao added another dimension to his preparations for the Mosley fight by releasing his first record an unashamedly schmaltzy cover of the already saccharine Sometimes When We Touch.
It's all part of the Pacquiao phenomenon, which outdoes Hollywood in the way his story moves from poverty in the Philippines which he left at 14 to start boxing in the hope he might earn enough money to help his mother and five siblings to global fame.
Pacquiao now earns many millions of dollars every year but he seems intent on giving most of his money away to his entourage and to strangers who affect him with their tales of deprivation.
"That's my biggest fear with Manny," Roach says while starting another day in his Wild Card gym, a seething hothouse in a rundown part of Los Angeles. "We talk about it all the time but I can't get it across to Manny. He's 32 and he can make his own decisions. But I keep telling him, and hoping, that he'll put away something for him and his family."
In Roach's small office a sign makes a surreal promise: Everyone Here Seems Normal Until You Get To Know Them.
Back from brink
The madness is contagious and offers an appropriate backdrop for Roach to remember how boxing almost ruined and then saved him. He once wanted to be either a tree surgeon, like his father, or a world champion. Instead, having become a damaged fighter nicknamed The Choir Boy, Roach found redemption as a cornerman.
"I worked with my dad and my major was in forestry. So I once knew a lot about trees. But my last job as a tree-man made me $300 (Dh1,101). It was enough to buy a ticket to Vegas and turn pro." Roach had a decent record, winning 40 of his 53 bouts. But he took too many punches for too little money. His biggest purse was $7,500 and, after boxing, he did some bum jobs.
"I was a busboy at the Golden Nugget, cleaning tables at the restaurant. I wasn't too good with people and so they made me a dishwasher. But I was worse in telesales selling ballpoint pens with a company name on them. Life's turned out sweeter since then."
The former fighter was approached by Mickey Rourke an actor with a chaotic dream of becoming a professional boxer. In exchange for training Rourke, Roach was given the money for his gym: "I opened up this place and then, a couple of years later, Manny Pacquiao walked through that door. That changed my life forever."
Roach's own health has suffered from Parkinson's. However, medication and a strong resolve have enabled him to keep working without a holiday for the past six years. "For the most part it's pretty stable, but small things pop up... Some nights I don't sleep much because I'm thinking about the fight. But [last Wednesday] I went 15 straight rounds with Manny on the pads and I felt good. I can still do it but it would be the end if I couldn't work with the mitts. I couldn't get close to my fighter, and give him the messages he needs, if I couldn't take his punches in my mitts."
