...the ball and the bat

PHL crushes Vietnam in PONY baseball zone c'ships

01/14/2011

 

 

The Philippine Pony baseball team moved two wins away from earning a world championship slot after cruising to a 26-3 win over host Vietnam in Day 2 of the PONY Baseball Asia-Pacific Zone Championship at Vin Yen baseball field in Vinh Phuc Province, Vietnam.

Philippine pitchers Javy Limpo and Marty Ranada threw an array of pitches that kept the Vietnamese batters guessing, as the visiting squad scored its second lopsided win in the four-nation, single elimination round robin tournament.

The Filipino batters also had their share and continued their hitting streak after a 13-3 rout of Singapore in their opening game.

The Philippine team, competing in the Mustang Division and known as the Little Razcals, will end its single elimination round campaign against Indonesia, which suffered a 12-2 loss to Singapore in the other contest.

The champion will represent the Asia-Pacific region in the World Championship in August in Texas. - JVP, KY, GMANews.TV

...the boxer

Pacquiao contender for Laureus World Sports award

By Balitang America Staff

abs-cbnnews.com

01/13/2011 11:42 AM

 

CALIFORNIA – Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has been nominated for his first Laureus World Sportsman of the year award.

 

Pacquiao is considered the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world and was named Fighter of the Decade for the 2000s by the Boxing Writer Association of America.

The Laureus World Sports Awards is considered one of the top awards on the international sporting calendar. The jury is made up of 46 of the best sportsmen and sportswomen of all time. The awarding ceremony will be held in Abu Dhabi on February 7.

Pacquiao will get paid a hefty amount for his next bout in Las Vegas with Sugar Shane Mosley. He is expected to surpass $20 million with the addition of Pay-Per-View sales.

According to Pacquiao’s chief-of-staff Atty. Franklin Gacal, that comes out to about P660 million.
His competitor, Mosley, is expected to make around $8.5 million for his share, including the Pay-Per-View sales.

Pacquiao earned a total of $20 million in his previous fight against Antonio Margarito last November. Balitang America

...solar power

Group to invest P7.4B in solar ventures

By Amy R. Remo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
01/11/2011

MANILA, Philippines—Filipino-Japanese venture Eco-Merge Philippines is putting up the country’s biggest solar power facilities over the next three years, with total investments possibly reaching P7.4 billion.

Eco-Merge president Edgar Morada said the company was looking at putting up solar facilities in four prospective areas—Camarines Sur, Negros Occidental, Agusan del Norte and Zamboanga. The projects are expected to generate a total of 41 MW.

While Morada did not disclose actual investment figures for the whole solar power portfolio, he noted that a company would need to invest $3 million to $4 million to produce a megawatt from solar resources. This means that for a 41-MW portfolio, the company has to shell out $164 million or about P7.38 billion.

“Our initial foray will be in the solar power area, but eventually, the goal really is in renewable energy. We will eventually diversify our RE portfolio. But for now, the focus is on solar energy,” Morada said in a briefing on Tuesday.

According to Morada, the company was initially looking at Camarines Sur because of the fact that the “governor of Camsur is one of the best governors in terms of undertaking renewable energy projects [and] is also eyeing Camsur as the first ever green province in the country.”

The planned 11-MW solar power project in Camsur will involve the provincial government, with the Camsur Watersports Complex (CWC) buying the electricity to be produced from the facility.

Morada said that the company has tapped Snowy Mountain Engineering Corp. (SMEC) to conduct the feasibility study for the 11-MW Camsur solar project as well as to provide the engineering consultancy services.

The Australia-based SMEC has been in the country for quite some time, servicing power giants such as First Gen Corp. and Aboitiz Power Corp. It is one of the leading engineering and development consultant firms in the world, particularly in the field of new and renewable energy.

Eco-Merge targets to hold its groundbreaking for the Camsur solar power project by November 11, 2011. The facility is expected to start commercial operations the following year as it only takes six months to complete a solar project, Morada explained.

The planned solar farms in Negros Occidental, Agusan del Norte and Zamboanga are expected to generate 10 MW.

So far, the biggest solar facility in the country is the 1-MW power plant owned by Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company.

...strong currency

Philippine peso among top currency picks in '11

Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - American investment bank Merrill Lynch has picked the Philippine peso as among its two currency favorites this 2011, saying the local currency was undervalued by about 10-15 percent given the strength of the country's external surplus.

Visiting Merrill Lynch foreign-exchange strategist Ashok Bhundia told reporters Monday (January 10) that the peso and the Singapore dollar were among his firm's top currency picks for this year.

"The peso, we believe, is mainly being supported by remittance inflows, which remain very s
trong. The growth dynamics is getting structural boost from a reform-minded government and if expectations prove right, we should see the fiscal position improve structurally," Bhundia said.

Based on a statistical model used by Merrill Lynch in estimating the sustainable level of current account, Bhundia said the country's surplus was "a little too large." As such, he said the local currency would need to appreciate to attain an equilibrium, thereby explaining the perceived undervaluation of the peso.

However, he said external jitters would likely bring the local currency under pressure in the second quarter. In particular, risk aversion from the lingering fiscal crisis in Europe is seen bringing the local currency to 43.50 against the US dollar by June from around 42:$1 by March this year.

But the currency upswing is seen resuming in the second half, bringing the peso to 42 by September and further to 40 against the greenback by end-2011.

Another factor that would underpin the strength of the peso and other Asian currencies, he added, would be the likelihood that China would allow the renminbi to appreciate.

The Philippines is also seen as among the few countries where the risk of resorting to capital controls was very low given recent pronouncements from the Central Bank (BSP) rejecting such an idea.

What the BSP had instead done, Bhundia said, was to stop rolling over maturing foreign-exchange currency swaps, which had the effect of squeezing peso liquidity by shutting down onshore borrowing rates in peso. But he said this was a very "technical" response that could not likely be sustained going forward.

"We don't think central banks will lean against appreciation. What they will lean against is too rapid appreciation," he said.

...mic

Pinoy singer shines at British talent tilt

By Patrick Camara Ropeta,

ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

Posted at 01/11/2011

LONDON - A Filipino vocalist from northeast England has beaten thousands of acts to make it into the finals of a national talent competition in the UK.

Jouver ‘JB’ Nagano, a nurse at the University Hospital of North Tees, has secured a place in the grand finals of Open Mic UK on January 15 at the London O2.

Based in Stockton-on-Tees, JB fought for his place in the finals by going through a rigorous audition process and a regional heat in the northeast of England. Thousands of acts auditioned from all over the country, and only a handful were chosen to appear in the finals.

“I feel incredibly blessed in getting through this far in the competition. I am really excited for the finals as well,” enthused JB, who will be competing in the over-25s category.

“I’m overwhelmed by the support that I’m receiving from the Filipino community in Stockton and Hartlepool, and also from friends and relatives in my hometown. It feels surreal. Winning this would just be a bonus. I’m enjoying the experience and making everybody proud.”

Open Mic UK is a national singing competition for unsigned artists. Open to all acts from different genres of music, it is divided into three categories: under 16s, 16-25, and over-25s. The winner will receive prizes worth £50,000, including a management and recording contract for a single release.

The grand finals will be decided by a panel of industry judges, and by a public vote via text messaging. Voting lines are now open and will close on January 15. The act who receives the highest number of votes will ultimately win the competition. For more details, visit www.openmicuk.co.uk/national_vote.

...foods

‘Food truck’ in LA is popular for its Pinoy dishes

By Yahoo! Southeast Asia Editors

By KC Santos, loQal.ph
For Yahoo! Southeast Asia

January 7th, 2011

Photo courtesy of The Manila Machine

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – A mobile food joint offering Filipino food has caught the fancy of casual diners and food critics.

Since food bloggers Marvin Gapultos and Nastassia Johnson started the business seven months ago, the Manila Machine never fails to draw crowds whenever it goes around the city.

The huge orange Manila Machine truck has become the first food truck specializing in Filipino food in LA attracting not only Filipinos, but American diners as well with its wide selection of Filipino food including sisig, silogs, pork belly and pineapple adobo, carabao wings, beef tapa, turon, and ube cupcakes, among others.
The Manila Machine has also earned a spot in the 2010 Top Newcomers in Los Angeles, from bloggers, food writers, and critics from all over LA.

Renowned food critic Jonathan Gold even endorsed The Manila Machine to some big food events in the US while fashion designers Monique Lhuillier and Oliver Tolentino are among the high-profile diners to visit the food truck.

The mobile food joint even has its own music video that diners can listen while waiting for their orders.
However, Marvin stresses that The Manila Machine will always cater to the “cravings of the masses.” He adds that the business started when he and his friends decided to specialize in Filipino food that they miss back in the Philippines.

Aside from pioneering the Filipino food truck business, he hopes to be able to bring the mobile food joint to other cities across the US.

...short stories

FilAm nominated for literary Pushcart Prize

By Lisa Gray-Garcia
INQUIRER.net First Posted 16:07:00 01/09/2011

 

SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States—Filipino American Tony Robles, revolutionary poet, nephew and son of many disaporas, was nominated at the esteemed Pushcart Prize for his short story, In My Country, published in Mythium magazine (http://www.mythiumlitmag.com/).

The Pushcart Prize winners are to be announced in May 2011.

Robles is a deeply rooted community story-teller and poet of the people who follows in the footsteps of his uncle, the late Manilatown poet and historian Al Robles. His short story was nominated by Mythium editor Crystal Wilkinson (www.crystalwilkinson.com) for the Pushcart Prize.

From being a tenant organizer for elders in poverty in the Tenderloin, Mission, and Manilatown districts of San Francisco to being the co-editor and contributor of one of the most revolutionary media organizations in the nation, Poor Magazine/Prensa Pobre, Tony has never compromised his values, his community, or the voices of his multi-racial family of Filipino- and African-descended resistance fighters based in the increasingly gentrified San Francisco Bay Area.

This dedication to community, ethics, and resistance began as a young child with the teaching he received from his family of brilliant, conscious artists, and organic revolutionaries who, like himself, supported their families with work in the janitorial or service industry. Throughout his life of work and in the last two years, Robles has worked as a security guard. Through his own lens this "revolutionary worker scholar," as is the title of his Poor Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork column, has penned a series of brilliant narrative essays and short stories about workers, workplace injustices, and people struggling with poverty, homelessness, and racism in the US.

“In My Country was inspired by poverty and migrant scholar Jose Sermeno of the Apollo hotel located in San Francisco's Mission District," Robles said as he described his connection to the protagonist. He went on to point out that Jose was a tenant representative and worked with other migrants in poverty like himself who were working as day laborers.

In addition to working as a tenant advocate and community journalist, Robles authored two bilingual (English and Tagalog) children's books, published on Children's Book Press: Lakas and the Manilatown Fish and Lakas and the Makibaka Hotel. As well, Tony is a teacher and playwright who authored a play, Hotel Voices, which he co-produced with his wife, Lisa "Tiny" Gray-Garcia, co-founder and co-editor of Poor Magazine.

Hotel Voices is an innovative theater production which took place in the Single Room Occupancy Hotels of San Francisco and included a 20 week script-writing and performance workshop and was performed to sold-out audiences across the Bay Area in 2009.

The phrase "In my country", according to Robles, means in my heart, and with his heart, the protagonist of the story, like himself, brings his country, his heart, and his humanity into the struggle for place, home, memory, and justice into the increasingly cold and bereft land where all of us poor workers, migrants, elders, and families struggle to dwell.