OFFBEAT MAIL

Nobody knows yet. Route of Malaysian airline flight 370. Photo: Wikipedia That's what most aviation investigators and experts have said in a series of news reports in the tri-media worldwide. Despite the collaborative efforts of at least 26 countries to help in the search for the missing Malaysian airline, which scoured the South China Sea, Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea, no signs of debris were ever found. After 11 days of futile searching, the whereabouts of the Malaysian airline Boeing 777 with 239 passengers aboard, remains a mystery. The Malaysian airline flight 370 took off at the Kuala Lumpur international airport on March 8 at around 12:41 a.m bound for Beijing, China. It was piloted by Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, a co-pilot. Of the 239 passengers, some 159 Chinese citizens were aboard the commercial airline. It could not be ascertained right now if the plane was hijacked or not. Recent news reports put China in the spotlight when more th...

China has again used its naval might to bully Filipino fishermen who were taking shelter due to bad weather 40 yards off the shore of the Bajo de Masinloc, which is inside  the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines. An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a seazone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.[1] It stretches from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles from its coast. In colloquial usage, the term may include the continental shelf. The term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 n.m.limit. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_Economic_Zone) The incident took place a few days when the Chinese Coast Guard deliberately bombarded two Filipino fishing vessels with a water cannon as a means to drive them away from the area. Although Philippine Foreign Affairs spo...

Water shortage is in the offing and it is likely to decide the fate of the agriculture industry in California. When this happens, the drought will surely affect  the various farms that are scattered all over the state. At this writing, growers of almond nuts are already feeling the pinch and they have doubts that almond production will be reduced to a certain level. At the moment, about 82 percent of the world's demands for almond nuts are sourced out from California. It is likely that when the supply is low, demands for this type of nut will be high. But in the absence of sufficient supply to satisfy the markets, prices of almond nuts will go up, too. In a study made by the University of California, it suggested that almond trees should be supplied with water to meet their full water requirement in order to attain maximun growth, yield and crop quality. The same study revealed that if water availability is limited, growers can react by applying irrigation water when trees...

Ms. Rose Fostanes, with girlfriend Adel and friends, celebrates victory at a bar in Tel Aviv. Whenever a certain individual of Filipino lineage becomes a cynosure of international beauty or singing contests, some people from other cultures and even fellow countrymen themselves would either make a potpouri of comments that are sometimes unimaginable and unreasonable. Last year, the Philippines bagged at least four international beauty crowns (Miss World, Miss International, Miss Supra International and Miss Tourism International, plus two 3rd runners-up finish). Consequently, one of the commentors,  believed to be a Singaporean citizen, had made a negative comment which equated the beauty titlist as part of the "nannies" kingdom. What happened next was that she was penalized by the Singaporean government for making such a negative comment in the social media. In view of these circumstances, I'm beginning to realize that winning international competitions, be it a b...

Ecstacy pills in the markets. Credit: bar.wikipedia.org Combined police operations have seized more illegal drugs in Metro Manila and the suburbs of Batangas province, where international couriers in cahoots with local Filipinos were apprehended and are now facing criminal charges for illegal drug peddling. This developed after the law enforcers received reliable tips from concerned individuals that led them to their posh condominium hideouts  in Makati City and a ranch in Lipa City, Batangas, owned by the Leviste family, recently. The anti-drug operations were conducted by the PNP, Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority (PDEA) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). According to Atty. Roque Merdegia, chief of the PNP's Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Force, they had been conducting surveillance operations concerning the movements of a drug dealer in Lipa City, believed to have tie ups with the Mexican-Sinaloa drug cartel, for a long time until they final...

Malampaya natural gas project in Palawan. When the Malampaya offshore gas project in Palawan underwent a maintenance repair, a power rate hike went berserk thus causing millions of Metro Manila consumers to express worry that the latest burden would impact on their household expenses. The question that lingers in my mind is how come the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), which sources out most of its cheap power supply from Malampaya failed to anticipate the disastrous impacts of the shutdown, knowing full well that this could terribly put millions of financially-hard up consumers on the quagmire? Consumer groups, however, have other complaints to make. Some of them even went out of their way to file a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) before the appropriate courts so that the latest spike in power rates could be averted outright. Likewise, they're putting the blame on the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for granting the sinister wishes of Meralco to increase the power...

Containers at the Manila port. Credit: Marnews.net Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has finally came out with the photo of a certain Davidson Tan Bangayan as the man behind the biggest rice smuggling activities which bleed the Philippine government of at least 1.3 trillion pesos in revenue losses. Previous reports claimed that David Tan was based in Davao City, which is the reason why Mayor Duterte rose up to the occasion of investigating the whereabouts of this alleged rice smuggler. Finally, Duterte showed the media the identity of the said smuggler during a press conference so that the public may know his real identity. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said in a media interview that David Tan may have been operating a single rice cartel. This is the reason why the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is digging deeper into the case to find out more details. Rice smuggling has become a hot issue in the Philippines, after groups of farming cooperatives have complained of s...