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OWWA opens application for EDSP Scholarship

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, July 15 (PIA) -- The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Regional Welfare Office 8 is now accepting applications for the Education for Development Scholarship Program of the agency.

OWWA Region 8 Director Norma del Rosario said the scholarship is open to children of married Overseas Filipino Workers or brother or sister of unmarried OFWs who are graduating fourth year High School students or High School graduates who have not yet earned any college units.

The OWWA provides qualified EDSP scholars with a P60,000.00 financial assistance per school year for a four or five-year baccalaureate degree course in any college or university of the scholar’s choice.

The tuition fee of the scholar is directly paid by the OWWA to the college or university while the remaining amount is given to the scholar upon submission of grades at the end of each semester.

The deadline for submission of applications is on July 31, 2013, Director del Rosario said.

Moreover, the qualifying examination which is to be conducted by the DOST-SEI is scheduled on September 22, 2013.

Application forms and further information are available and downloadable at the OWWA Website www.owwa.gov.ph.

Interested applicants may also visit OWWA-RWO8 office at the DOLE Compound, Trece Martirez St., Tacloban City, Director del Rosario added. (PIA 8)

Source:  PIA

Makati judge stops awarding of $2.26 B in damages to martial law victims

Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Sunday lauded the decision of a Makati Regional Trial Court trashing the petition to enforce the 18-year-old judgment of the United States District Court in Hawaii that awarded compensatory and exemplary damages to human rights victims during martial law.

In a statement issue on Sunday, the son and namesake of the former dictator said that their family felt vindicated by the decision.

“We feel vindicated because the judge (Pascua) recognized the arguments that we have been making for many years now,” Marcos said, referring to the 11-page decision dated June 25, 2013 penned by Judge Bonifacio S. Pascua of National Capital Judicial Region, Branch 56 of Makati City, dismissing the petition thus: “The final judgment in the case MDL No. 840 against the estate of the late Ferdinand R. Marcos et. al. is not conclusive yet, but presumptive evidence of a right of the petitioners against the Marcos estate.”

Marcos said the petition stemmed from a verdict on February 3, 1995 by the US District Court awarding plaintiffs Priscila C Mijares et. al. $2,260,000,000 as compensatory and exemplary damages after they won in the Class Action MDL 840. On May 21, 1997, the plaintiffs filed a petition for enforcement of the foreign judgment here in the Philippines.

“In his decision, Pascua said the plaintiffs have not presented any new evidence and that they anchored their cause of action in Hawaii upon the Torture of Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which was signed by President George H. W. Bush on March 12, 1992,” Marcos said in the statement.

Read the rest of the story at Interaksyon


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DILG to eradicate ‘padrino system’ in PNP

DILG Secretary Mar Roxas

Secretary Mar Roxas of Interior and Local Government yesterday said concrete measures are being undertaken by the Philippine National Police (PNP) to cleanse its ranks of any vestiges of corruption, particularly at the start of recruitment of its new personnel.

A survey done by Transparency International revealed that the public perceives PNP officials as among the most corrupt in the Philippines. In a scale of 1-5, the respondents of the survey gave the police a score of 4 overall.

In a statement, Roxas said the issue will be addressed by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), PNP, and the National Police Commission (NPC).

“This is a big challenge for us, but we will face this head on through concrete measures,” Roxas said in Filipino. He said major changes will be made in the selection process for the police force.

Roxas said that they will institute measures so that applicants to the police force will no longer have to depend on the support of an insider or a corrupt official, locally referred to as “padrino” system. He said that the tendency of a new recruit is to engage in illegal activity to recover the money that he gave to the corrupt official for processing of his application.

He said all applicants who passed the requirements and exams will now have an equal chance to be accepted in the PNP.

Roxas has ordered DILG personnel to finalize the implementing rules for processing of application. He said a new policeman who undergoes the legal application process most likely will not be pressured to resort to illegal activities. Overtime, there will be improvement in PNP’s public image. (RDA/PIA Newsdesk/DILG)

source:  PIA