Celebrity News

Christian Bautista Dodges Question About Virginity, Plans To Marry In Two Years

Wearing the “31-year-old virgin” tag more as a badge of honor than a coat of shame, Christian Bautista, for the longest time, has directly said he has not done "the deed" just yet.

In a recent interview, however, Bautista dodged the question about his virginity though he did dismiss rumors that he and girlfriend Carla Dunareanu live under one roof.

“Hindi po kami nagli-live in. We’re separate..." said he in an interview with PEP posted Wednesday.

Despite being of age, the international singing sensation maintained that it’s his “personal conviction” not to succumb to the seeming trend of couples living-in prior to tying the knot.

“For me, I believe na mas okay kung hindi muna i-blur yung line by living together. I think it’s better to grow apart and then grow together in a different setting,” the “ASAP XV” mainstay said.

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Riyadh Blast

Filipino among 22 killed in Riyadh blast

A Filipino was among 22 people killed in a fuel truck blast and building collapse in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Thursday, Philippine officials said.

At least 12 other Filipinos were injured in the explosion, with 9 admitted to hospitals.

Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ezzedin Tago confirmed Thursday night that one of the fatalities is a Filipino.

The victim was inside a vehicle parked in the area when the explosion occurred, reports said.

"Iyung namatay na Pilipino, kasama niya yung bayaw niya kaya na-inform yung mga kamag-anak sa Pilipinas," Tago told ANC's The World Tonight.

Foreign Affairs spokesperson Raul Hernandez also confirmed that a Filipino died in the fuel truck blast.

He said 9 are in hospitals while 3 have been discharged.

The victims were brought to the National Guard Hospital, the Habib Hospital, the Jazira Clinic, and Shumaisi, Hernandez said.

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International News

Sandy Leaves 110 Dead

New York struggled to get back on its feet Tuesday after superstorm Sandy carved a path of destruction from the Caribbean to Canada that left at least 110 people dead and millions without power.

The cyclone drove hurricane-force winds and deadly ocean surges against a large swathe of the US East Coast, adding an uncertain twist to an already tight US presidential race.

President Barack Obama declared Sandy a “major disaster” in the states of New York and New Jersey, where he was due to tour flooded areas on Wednesday with Governor Chris Christie, a backer of his Republican rival Mitt Romney.

Romney cancelled a second day of campaign events Tuesday to focus on rescue and recovery work, just one week before American voters go to the polls.

The death toll from accidents related to the storm rose to 43 confirmed in North America since Sandy made landfall on Monday and 67 killed beforehand as the then hurricane tore through the Caribbean.

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Politics News

Mikey Arroyo’s lone bill for guards wallowing in ‘sheer laziness’

Ang Galing Pinoy (AGP) Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo authored only one bill on the welfare of security guards and the measure has been moving lethargically in Congress, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

In a 6-page resolution discussing crucial points that led the Comelec to cancel the accreditation of Arroyo’s party, the poll body said the lone bill, which has just gone past the first reading was a sign of either “sheer laziness” or a “glaring lack of empathy” for the plight of the truly marginalized.

The Comelec noted that the bill intended for security guards is not likely to be passed before the current Congress expires. The bill has just been referred to the House Committee on Public Order and Safety after passing the first reading.

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International News

No Pinoy casualties from superstorm Sandy

The Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. and the Consulate General in New York have yet to receive reports of possible Filipino casualties following the onslaught of superstorm Sandy in the east coast.

Ambassador Jose Cuisia said Sandy has claimed 10 lives, cut power and forced many to flee their homes.

There are more than 460,000 Filipinos in 13 states across the eastern seaboard that bore the brunt of Sandy.

Cuisia said a team is on 24-hour-standby at the embassy to respond to any request for assistance from Filipinos affected by the typhoon; monitor the progress of the storm; and receive updates from the Filipino Community.

Reports from the Filipino community indicate that a number of Filipinos in New Jersey and New York fled their homes due to floodwaters that the superstorm spawned shortly before it made landfall near Cape May in the southern coast of New Jersey.

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Politics News

Comelec lowers boom on Mikey Arroyo

It’s all over for the group of Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, son of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which claims to represent security guards and tricycle drivers, and an aspiring party-list group of journalists.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday disqualified Ang Galing Pinoy (AGP) and Alab ng Mamamahayag (Alam), bringing to 33 the number of party-list groups it had so far dropped from the list of organizations qualified to take part in the elections in May 2013.

Among the groups the Comelec earlier disqualified were Ako Bicol, 1st Consumer Alliance for Rural Energy and Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives, which have incumbent representatives in Congress.

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Inquirer Headline

‘Sandy’ batters East Coast

Flooded Ground Zero, New York

As Superstorm “Sandy” churned slowly inland, millions along the US East Coast awoke Tuesday without power or mass transit, and huge swaths of New York City were eerily quiet. At least 23 people were killed in seven states.

The storm that made landfall in New Jersey on Monday evening with hurricane force cut power to at least 7.4 million across the East and put the presidential campaign on hold just one week before Election Day.

New York was among the hardest hit, with its financial heart closed for a second day and seawater cascading into the still-gaping construction pit at the World Trade Center. The storm caused the worst damage in the 108-year history of New York’s subway system, and there was no indication of when the largest US transit system would be rolling again.

But the full extent of the damage in New Jersey was being revealed as morning arrived. Emergency crews fanned out to rescue hundreds.

A hoarse-voiced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave bleak news at a morning news conference: Seaside rail lines washed away. No safe place on the state’s barrier islands for him to land. Parts of the coast still under water.

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Technology News

Nokia Asha 309 now available in Philippines

Nokia Asha Asha 309s, the newest addition to the Asha Touch range and Nokia’s most affordable capacitive touchscreen devices to-date, are now available in the Philippines, Nokia has announced.

The single SIM Nokia Asha 309 gives consumers a smarter Internet experience thanks to Nokia Xpress Browser, which enables up to 90 percent more efficient mobile browsing and faster access to rich web applications compared to conventional browsers.

The new devices offer a fluid ‘swipe’ user interface and an open environment for third-party application development, characteristics that have earned the complete Asha Touch range full smartphone classification from global market research firm, GfK.

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Inquirer Headline

No Filipino casualty in Sandy’s sweep of Caribbean–envoy

There were no reported Filipino casualties during the deadly sweep of Hurricane Sandy across the Caribbean that claimed as many as 65 lives last week, the Philippine embassy in Washington said Tuesday.

An emailed statement from the embassy noted that Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia said that Filipino leaders in Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jaimaca, Haiti, Turks, and Caicos, the Bahamas, Trinidad, and Tobago informed the embassy that all their members were accounted for.

As Americans braced for Hurricane Sandy, the Carribean suffered from death and destruction with officials saying storm-related death toll has risen to 69 as of Tuesday.

It had been reported that Haiti accounted for 51 of the deaths, while other deaths had also been reported in Cuba, Jaimaica, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.

Meanwhile, the embassy again urged Filipinos in the eastern seaboard of the US to heed warnings from authorities and stay out of the way of what is feared to be one of the most devastating storms to hit the country.

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ABS-CBN News Headline

Use Miriam's sin tax bill, experts urge senators

Experts in medicine and the economy on Monday called on senators to reject the sin tax committee report of Sen. Ralph Recto, which critics have dismissed as a watered-down version of the proposed law.

Instead, they said senators should use the version of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago in plenary debates on the measure.

"It hews much more to the actual realities and the actual principles that we want. If everybody is in favor of a sin tax bill, let's start with that sin tax bill," economics professor Solita Monsod said of Santiago's version, where the projected tax revenue from tobacco and alcohol products is around P60 billion.

"You'll get more revenues. More lives will be saved," she added.

Recto, who resigned as chair of the Senate ways and means committee amid criticisms against his version of the sin tax bill, himself doesn't want his colleagues to use his committee report, saying it's his intellectual property.

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