The United States Department of Labor has awarded a Filipina with the first annual Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor.

US Ambassador Kristie Kenney presented the award to Maria Cecilia Flores-Oebanda of the non-governmental organization Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF) at a ceremony at the US Embassy in Manila.

“It is a great honor to present the Iqbal Masih Award to Cecille, who is a long-time partner of the US Mission in the Philippines in combating exploitive child labor as well as trafficking of women and children for domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation,” Kenney said.

“The award recognizes Cecille’s work that has brought real change to the lives of thousands of children in the Philippines,” she added.

The Iqbal Masih Award was established by Congress to recognize the work of an individual, company, organization or national government to end the worst forms of child labor.

The award reflects the spirit of Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani child enslaved at the age of four who escaped servitude and became an outspoken advocate against child slavery.

Tragically, in 1995 at the age of 13 and a year after receiving the Reebok Human Rights Award, Iqbal was killed in Pakistan. His dedication to ending child slavery, however, continues to inspire individuals around the world.

Like Iqbal Masih, Flores-Oebanda was born into poverty. As a child she helped support her family by scavenging; as a teenager she advocated the rights of youth and farm laborers.

Flores-Oebanda later founded and now leads the VFF, a non-governmental organization that has rescued and provided assistance to more than 32,000 victims and potential victims of trafficking.

The VFF has helped to file more than 65 trafficking cases on behalf of more than 165 victims. Flores-Oebanda serves as the Southeast Asia coordinator for the Global March Against Child Labor and is active with other significant events supporting work against child and exploitive labor.

Kenney said the battle against human trafficking is a high priority of the US Government and the American people. Philstar.com

MANILA, Philippines – Luisa Kristabel “Abbey” Manliclic won’t watch the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on television. Unlike most of her peers, she has the rare chance to see the swearing-in of the first Black-American president right in the US capital.

Abbey, a Filipino exchange student in Arizona, is one of the lucky Filipinos invited to Washington when Obama takes his oath from Chief Justice John Roberts on the steps of the Capitol on January 20.

“I feel great, it’s like a chance of a lifetime,” Abbey said in an interview with GMANews.TV. “He’s the first Black-American president so the event would be nothing short of great.”

The 17-year-old Youth for Understanding scholar was chosen for being an exemplary student at the Mohave High School in Bullhead city in Arizona. Abbey’s father, Abel, a Manila-based businessman, said he feels proud of her daughter’s accomplishments.

But like any excited parent, Abel gave a few instructions to his daughter before she meets with the president.

“I told her it might be impossible to take a picture with her and Obama, “Abel told GMANews.TV, “So she should take a picture with his wife, Michelle instead.”

But Abbey has a plan of her own. In case she bumps into the president, the straight-A student wants to ask a few questions from the world’s most powerful man.

“I want to ask him how he would deal with the economy and the war,” she said.

Aside from Abbey, two more students from the Philippines have reserved slots for the historic oath-taking in Washington.

College freshmen Paul Michael Thomas Cruz and Anna Marie Liwanag have been invited to the inauguration of America’s 44th president later this month.

The two were selected for the honor by the University Presidential Inaugural Conference (UPIC) for their exemplary performance during the Global Young Leaders Conference (GYLC) in Washington and New York in 2007 while they were still high school seniors at Reedley International School in Manila’s suburb of Pasig.

However, the travel expenses amounting to $4,000 or about P200,000 each will not be paid for by the conference that granted them the invitation.

“Right now I’m raising funds. I’m writing letters to different people and trying to look for sponsors,” said Liwanag. GMANews.tv

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipina was honored as among the top 100 people influencing the Chinese hotel industry, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday.

The DFA said Rafaela “Apples” Chen, general manager of the International Hoteliers and Associates, was one of five non-Chinese in the “Top 100 People Influencing the Chinese Hotel Industry.”

Chen was among the awardees feted in ceremonies in Beijing last Dec. 3 to commemorate the 30 years of reform and opening Up of the Chinese hotel industry.

According to the DFA website (www.dfa.gov.ph), the award was given to people who have contributed “in a large way” to the success of the hotel industry in China. – GMANews.TV

MANILA, Philippines – Thea Minor, a Fil-Am tennis player, had an early holiday celebration when she won three championship titles and three runner-up crowns in three separate junior tennis tournaments in New Zealand.

Minor, who was born and raised in Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), competed for the second straight year as a member of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Pacific Oceania Touring Team.

She was joined by fellow CNMI junior netters Rafael Jones and Christian Miller, and Pacific Oceania teammate Tarani Kamoe of Fiji.

Minor teamed up with Kamoe in the girls’ 14-and-under doubles to win three titles while also claiming second place honors in three singles events.

She began her New Zealand stint in the Coca-Cola Waikato Junior Open in Hamilton where she celebrated her 13th birthday last December 11 wining the 14-and-under doubles title with Kamoe.

The Minor-Kamoe tandem defeated Fiji’s Annie Shannon and hometown bet Toni Katipa in the girls’ 14-and-under doubles finals, 6-3, 6-1. Minor and Kamoe also entered the 16-and-under doubles finals but lost to the second seed pair of Kerry Hampton and Ellie Verran of New Zealand.

Minor, however, was not that lucky in the singles event where she lost in the quarterfinals of the 14- and 16-and-under divisions.

The Pacific Oceania Touring Team then headed to Gisborne, northeast of New Zealand’s capital of Wellington, for the second tournament which is the Poverty Bay East Coast Ray White Junior Championship where Minor once again teamed up with Kamoe to claim the 14-and-under doubles title.

Minor, however, was unlucky anew in the singles event, losing to Kamoe in the 14-and-under finals and in the consolation draw of the 16-and-under division.

She then capped her impressive stint in New Zealand with another doubles crown and a runner-up finish in the Auckland Christmas Tournament.

Her tested partnership with Kamoe earned the Pacific Oceania team a third doubles crown at the Scarbro Tennis Centre in Nicholson Park. Minor and Kamoe were unseeded in the tournament but scored a 6-1, 6-1 upset of the No.2 ranked pair of Georgina and Kirsty Hayr of Auckland.

Minor remained unlucky in the singles event suffering a 6-0, 6-0 defeat at the hands of top seed Louise Oxnevad of Queensland.

Aside from receiving certificates and medals, she also received a cash prize from Poverty Bay and Auckland tournaments..

The three tournaments attracted the best and upcoming junior players in the Pacific Oceania region, Australia and New Zealand where close to 600 participated.

Minor returns to Saipan to join her parents, Boyet and Joy, and sister Theecel for the Christmas holiday. Her father Boyet works as a civil engineer in an architectural firm since arriving in Saipan in the early 90s. GMANews.TV

MANILA, Philippines – An overseas Filipino teacher has been inducted into one of the most prestigious international awards in the field of adult and continuing education.

Mumbai-based Maria Lourdes Almazan Khan was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame last December 4 in Budapest, Hungary, becoming the first and only Filipino to be given the honor since it was established in 1995.

According to the Hall of Fames’ website, election into it “acknowledges that these men and women have made distinguished contributions to the field of adult and continuing education.”

Khan is the secretary-general of the Mumbai-based Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education, which she transformed into an important adult education and civil society network in the Asia Pacific region.

The organization is apparently recognized regionally and internationally for its promotion of education work in general, and adult and continuing education work in particular.

Khan has reportedly also been a strong advocate for adult and continuing education by urging governments and private individuals to commit to providing education for all most specifically to the disadvantaged and marginalized.

Khan took her undergraduate studies at the University of the Philippines and her Masters in Rural Development at the University of East Anglia in Norwich in 1990.

She currently lives in Mumbai, India with her husband, Azeez Khan, the principal secretary (Industries) of the Indian state of Maharashtra. GMANews.tv

MANILA, Philippines – A Filipino child prodigy impressed an audience in Brunei with her violin playing, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Thursday.

According to the DFA, the Philippine Embassy in Brunei Darussalam reported that seven-year old Kristine Clair Uchi Galano performed at the Sheraton Utama Hotel in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam last October 19 .and drew rave comments from her audience, especially from members of the diplomatic corps and the expatriate community.

Performing in her 4th solo recital, Galano played a selection of Malay, Korean, classical, modern, and contemporary music, said the report.

The daughter of Evangeline and Romeo Galang, KC, as she is fondly called, began to show interest in listening to violin performances at the age of three.

At four, KC was given a violin by her parents as a gift, pushing her to take formal lessons at the Expressions Music School in Kiulap. Six months after enrolling, she started performing in Brunei and other neighboring states.

One of the highlights of KC’s career happened last July when she performed with noted violin teacher Albert Leonor as a musical offering to Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei.

She has also competed and won in numerous musical competitions, the most recent being the Malaysian Youth Music Festival 2008 held in Kuala Lumpur last August 23.

The child prodigy won the gold medal in all of the four violin categories she competed in, said the DFA.

She has also competed in the 15th Kota Kinabalu Music Festival held at the Pacific Sutera Hotel in Malaysia where she won one gold and six silver trophies.

Philippine Ambassador to Brunei Virginia Benavidez described KC as a “shining example of what the best the Filipino youth can offer” and that other Filipino children must be supported in other ventures as well.

“It is important that the members of the Filipino community in Brunei Darussalam continue to support the development of young Filipino artists such as Kristine Galano, who has made her family, school, her country and people proud with her numerous achievements,” she said. GMANews.tv

ABS – CBN News

Filipina scientist Jurgenne Primavera has landed on the pages of Time Magazine for her contribution to environmental protection.

In its October 6 issue, the international magazine named her one of 30 scientists, activists, celebrities, innovators and financiers all over the world for their noteworthy efforts in preserving the planet.

The magazine cited her campaign for sustainable fish farming, rooted in the protection of mangrove forests, and lauded her “groundbreaking studies” on the life cycle of tiger prawns in the country, which “helped galvanize an aquaculture revolution.”

Primavera, who has done aquaculture research on giant tiger prawns for 15 years, welcomed the citation for helping bring her mangrove and environmental concerns mainstream.

“In history, during Spanish times, the first ponds were built. We had a ratio of half a hectare of mangrove to half a hectare of pond. I’ve chanced upon an ecology paper that said no more than 20% of mangrove should be converted to ponds. As a precautionary principle, there should be four hectares of mangrove to a hectare of pond. As of 1994, there were only 20,000 hectares of mangrove remaining as against 200,000 hectares of pond. We’re in trouble,” she laments, citing how the ratio has dwindled over time.

But, she notes, there have been a number of success stories. She cites a mangrove plantation in Kalibo, Aklan that has generated income for locals since it was opened as an ecotourism destination, and the successful preservation of a natural mangrove plantation in Bais Bay.

Mangrove greenbelts

Today, she hopes to see mangrove greenbelts or buffer zones restored as they should be, as mandated by law.

“I hope to see the enforcement of greenbelt laws which mandate 100-200 meters from shorelines and along rivers. Republic Act 8550 requires fishponds to have a greenbelt, but there isn’t enough enforement. For policy makers, walang pesos and centavos. If you give those figures in black and white, maybe they will be better convinced.”

She adds, practices may be better if locals were made better aware of the function of mangrove ecosystems, not just as spawning grounds for fish and other aquatic life but as coastal protection.

Her advocacy for mangrove, she recalls, began as child’s play.

“I used to climb trees,” she recalls. “We’d eat fruits on trees. When we went into aquaculture, I realized ponds had been replaced by mangrove. I have seen meters of coastlines eroded, communities forced back by waves, because there are no greenbelts to protect them.”

Native tree species

Aside from mangrove, she has also picked up a love for native tree species as her latest advocacy.

She believes in using available native trees, specially the fast growing ones like the Molave, Yakal, Apitong and Dao to replace the exotic trees that line our highways.

Today, there is no stopping Primavera’s dream of having a better environment even in some small way. She recently bought 3 hectares of land in Iloilo City with her retirement pay for a mini-forest of native tree species.

Philippine Entertainment Portal

Dating couple Geoff Rodriguez and Tisha Silang of the Philippines made it to the final leg of Amazing Race Asia 3 after finishing second in tonight’s episode. Tisha and Geoff will join Malaysia’s Ida and Tania, who stepped on the mat first, and Hong Kong boys Vince and Sam, who came in third place, in the 11th and final leg.

The finale episode of Amazing Race Asia 3 will be aired next Thursday, November 20, in AXN.

Amazing Race Asia 3 is the third installment of the popular reality game show, which is actually a spin-off of the Emmy award-winning reality show Amazing Race. It is hosted by Singapore-based Chinese-American actor Allan Wu.

Geoff and Tisha now have the chance to become the first team from the Philippines to win Amazing Race Asia and the $100,000 cash prize. They will also have the chance to erase or at least duplicate the third-place finish of Marc Nelson and Rovilson Fernandez last season.

Geoff and Tisha are actually good friends with Marc and Rovilson.

At the start of the 10th leg, Geoff and Tisha were in third place; behind the teams from Hong Kong and Malaysia. In fourth place was A.D. and Fuzzie of Singapore.

Geoff and Tisha were actually behind most of the 10th leg when they made some crucial errors. First was when they failed to answer correctly the year Mahatma Gandhi, India’s major spiritual and political leader, was born (1869). Then, in Detour (a task that all teams must perform), both Geoff and Tisha had a hard time counting the exact number of nuts inside a sack.

Luckily, all teams got lost going to the Roadblock (a task that only one member of the team can pefrorm) in Muscat, Oman, so Geoff and Tisha arrived there the same time as the other teams. Geoff also finished the Roadblock easily that enabled them to came in second, behind the team from Malaysia.

The team from Singapore, which finished last, got eliminated.

Amazing Race Asia 3 started with ten teams from different Asian countries, including India, South Korea, and Thailand. After each leg, one team gets eliminated, although there are pre-determined non-elimination legs.

Throughout the race, Geoff and Tisha made some enemies mainly because of Geoff’s attitude that turned off the other teams. It was also only Geoff and Tisha who chose to use the Yield and U-Turn against the other teams this season. A team that was yielded will have to wait for a pre-determined time before continuing the race, while the team that was U-Turned has to do the other detour that they did not previously completed.

Tisha was crowned Bb. Pilipinas-Universe in 1998 but resigned due to her Canadian citizenship. She also tried hosting before in some shows of GMA-7, including Mornings@GMA. Tisha also had a relationship with TV host Paolo Bediones.

Geoff, on the other hand, was a member of the all-male group Powerboys, which also included Jordan Herrera, Frank Garcia, Greg martin, and Jay Salas.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines— A spellbinding victory for Philippine cinema.

Visitors to the Cable News Network entertainment website voted Ishmael Bernal’s “Himala,” which starred Nora Aunor as a simple provincial girl turned faith healer, as the best movie of all time in the Asia-Pacific region, outclassing such greats as Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” and Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Others in the top 10 that vied for the honor, in which “Himala” was the only Filipino film, included Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s “Mou Gaan Dou (Infernal Affairs)” from Hong Kong, Chan-wook Park’s “Old Boy” from South Korea, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)” from Japan, Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” from India, Peter Weir’s “Gallipoli” from Australia, Wong Kar Wai’s “Chung Hing Sam Lam (Chungking Express)” from China, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s “Gabbeh” from Iran.

According to the CNN website, critics, industry insiders, Asian film stars, and CNN viewers chose the movies that landed in the shortlist of ten films. The online poll that ran in October determined the winner.

The Filipino classic, which was written by Ricky Lee and originally released in 1982 for the Metro Manila Film Festival, was announced the top vote-getter in the popular vote and named the winner of the CNN-APSA Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of All Time on Tuesday at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Hundreds of film industry luminaries from around the world attended the event.