Category: Philippine Star

Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 2 remains in effect over Batanes and the northeastern portion of the Babuyan Islands as Typhoon Rosal (international name: Champi) maintained its strength while moving northwestward over the sea east-northeast of Batanes, the state weather bureau PAGASA said Friday.

In its 5 a.m. bulletin on Friday, October 23, PAGASA said Rosal was packing maximum sustained winds of 155 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts of up to 190 kph.

The typhoon was last spotted 275 kilometers east-northeast of Itbayat, Batanes, moving northwestward at 15 kph.

Strong to typhoon-force winds extend up to 900 kilometers from the center.

Warning signals

PAGASA raised the following tropical cyclone wind signals:

Signal No. 2

Luzon

Batanes

Northeastern portion of Babuyan Islands (Babuyan, Panuitan, Calayan and Camiguin islands)

Residents in these areas may experience gale-force winds ranging from 62 to 88 kph within the next 24 hours, posing minor to moderate threats to life and property.

Signal No. 1

Luzon

Rest of the Babuyan Islands

Mainland Cagayan

Northeastern portion of Isabela (Maconacon, Divilacan, Santa Maria, Cabagan, San Pablo and Palanan)

Ilocos Norte

Apayao

Residents in these areas may experience strong winds ranging from 39 to 61 kph within the next 36 hours, posing minimal to minor threats to life and property.

The northeast monsoon and Rosal’s outer circulation will also bring strong to gale-force gusts over the following areas:

Friday, October 23: Most of Luzon and the Visayas, Zamboanga del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Lanao del Norte, Camiguin, Davao Occidental and Davao Oriental.

Saturday, October 24: Batanes, Babuyan Islands, Ilocos Norte, Polillo Islands, Bicol Region, Romblon, Capiz, Iloilo and Negros Occidental.

Sunday, October 25: Batanes and Babuyan Islands.

Sea conditions

A gale warning is in effect over the seaboards of Northern Luzon and the eastern seaboards of Central and Southern Luzon.

Very rough to very high seas, with waves reaching up to 12 meters, are expected along the northern and eastern seaboards of Batanes.

Waves may reach up to 9 meters along the remaining seaboards of Batanes and up to 8 meters along the northern and eastern seaboards of the Babuyan Islands and the northeastern seaboard of mainland Cagayan.

Seas may reach up to 6 meters along the remaining seaboards of the Babuyan Islands and mainland Cagayan, the seaboard of northern Isabela and the northern seaboard of Ilocos Norte. Waves may reach up to 5.5 meters along the remaining seaboard of Isabela and up to 5 meters along the remaining seaboard of Ilocos Norte.

Waves may reach up to 4.5 meters along the seaboards of northern Ilocos Sur and northern Aurora, the northern seaboards of Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte, and the northern and eastern seaboards of the Polillo Islands and Catanduanes.

PAGASA warned that sea travel is risky for all types of vessels in areas where very rough to very high seas are expected. Mariners were advised to remain in port or seek shelter in a safe harbor until winds and waves subside.

Operators of small vessels, including motorbancas, were also advised against venturing out to sea under rough conditions, especially if their vessels are ill-equipped or they lack experience.

Track, intensity

Rosal is expected to continue moving generally northwestward until Saturday, October 24, before moving northward and then north-northeastward between Saturday and Sunday, October 25.

On its forecast track, the typhoon is expected to exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) by early Saturday.

PAGASA said Rosal is forecast to weaken gradually within the next 24 hours before weakening rapidly. It may be downgraded into a severe tropical storm by Saturday morning and further weaken into a tropical storm by Saturday evening.

The government dangled a P20-million reward for information leading to the capture of gambling tycoon Charlie ‘Atong’ Ang.

If estimates of his earnings from gambling were accurate, Ang probably offered 10 times that amount to evade arrest over the kidnapping and suspected murder of dozens of cockfighting enthusiasts between 2021 and 2022.

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, whose department has jurisdiction over the Philippine National Police, announced recently that Ang had slipped out of the country through the southern backdoor and was last seen in Cambodia. This story has been circulating since Ang went missing following his indictment, but Remulla said that this time, it appeared to be true.

Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida said the Bureau of Immigration, which is under his department, has no record of Ang’s departure from the country. But with an arrest warrant for a non-bailable offense, Ang is unlikely to have exited the country through BI-controlled gateways or ports.

He is not the first high-value fugitive to slip out of the country through the backdoor. Alice Guo, the former mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, reportedly left the country for Malaysia in July 2024 through a yacht that she boarded in the city of Manila.

At the time, Guo was already wanted for multiple offenses including qualified human trafficking related to Philippine offshore gaming operations in Bamban.

POGO links also led to an arrest warrant for human trafficking for former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who surfaced in the United Arab Emirates in September 2024 and is currently seeking asylum in Europe.

The immigration bureau also has no record of Roque’s departure, but he was reportedly spotted in Tawi-Tawi shortly before he was seen in the UAE.

Guo’s escape by yacht highlighted the porousness of the country’s borders, and the ease of slipping out through unregulated and poorly policed private ports.

The problem persists, not only allowing fugitives to flee but also facilitating the smuggling into the country of all sorts of contraband, from guns to drugs and even motorcycles.

If ever the arm of Philippine law reaches Ang, authorities must determine how he left the country. Those who abetted his escape must also face the harshest penalties.

The Philippine peso sank to a fresh record low of P63.615 to $1 on Friday, October 23, marking the 31st time this year that it closed at an all-time low.

The peso weakened by 9.5 centavos from Thursday’s P63.52 finish, which had set the previous record.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona Jr. said Thursday that the central bank was not raising interest rates to support a particular exchange rate.

The central bank, however, may step into the foreign-exchange market to curb sharp swings that could fuel inflation.

“We do intervene a little bit in the foreign exchange market, but that’s mainly to avoid swings in the exchange rate that tend to be inflationary. We have estimates of how much the peso has to move before it becomes inflationary, and that’s when we tend to intervene,” Remolona said.

His remarks followed the Monetary Board’s decision to raise the BSP’s benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its fourth consecutive increase.

The BSP described the larger move as a response to broadening price pressures and further risks to the inflation outlook, rather than an attempt to defend the peso.

A weaker currency can make dollar-priced imports, including fuel, more expensive in peso terms and add to inflation. That gives the central bank reason to limit disorderly exchange-rate swings even as it allows the market to determine the peso’s level.

Police are hunting down dismissed colleagues who are allegedly working as henchmen of scam operators.

Philippine National Police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. vowed to pursue accountability for any PNP personnel protecting clandestine Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hubs.

‘Any active or dismissed PNP personnel caught enabling or shielding these rogue outfits will face swift criminal prosecution and total institutional purge,’ Nartatez said in a statement.

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said scam hubs are using dismissed police officers and military personnel as muscle for their operations despite the government’s ban on POGOs.

PNP spokesman Col. Allen Rae Co said yesterday that any police officer, whether active or no longer a member of the police force, should not get involved in scam operations and other illegal activities.

‘If it is proven that they are acting as henchmen, as reported or as stated by our secretary, we will enforce the law and all legal proceedings against them,’ Co said.

President Biden on different occasions, called Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘killer’ and ‘murderous dictator’. Indeed because of his decisions to wage war on Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Syria, Mali, Central African Republic, Libya, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger several million people, aggressors and defenders alike, have lost their lives.

A murderer is a person who kills another person with deliberate intent inflicting grievous bodily harm. That is what Putin was aware of when he launched all those wars. But is Putin the worst murderer in human history? Well-known mass killers in newer times are: Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Hideki Tojo, Pol Pot, King Leopold, and Napoleon. How about the older times?

The first militaristic dictatorship was the Assyrian Empire under Ashurnasirpal II around the years 2000 BC. In the Old Testament of the Bible, we learn about all the battles the Israelites fought to conquer the Land of Promise. Then in history lessons, we heard of Alexander the Great’s conquests, the Persian and Roman Empires. The Arabs subjugated with fire and sword North Africa and Spain. In Asia existed Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire, the Timurid Empire, the Golden Horde and the middle kingdom of China. The Inca, Maya, and Aztec Empires ruled in central and southern America. History is full of violence, atrocities, injustices, sufferings and gore.

We had the division of the world between the two superpowers Spain and Portugal by Pope Alexander VI in 1494. Portugal was allowed to subject Africa, India and later Brazil while Spain got Mexico, South America and the Pacific up to the Philippines.

European colonization began in the late 16th century with stronger nations occupying the opposite coast. England conquered Ireland and Sweden invaded Germany 1630-1648 in the Thirty Years’ War. Full-scale colonization took place after the Napoleonic Wars: France colonized Algeria and Africa from west to east, Indochina and Canada. England subjugated Africa, India, and North America. Belgium’s King Leopold II took his Congo Free State. The Netherlands seized Indonesia. The German Empire became the third-largest colonizer conquering territories in the Pacific, China, and Africa. The Third German Reich under Hitler caused between 70 and 80 million fatalities worldwide in WWII.

The Italians colonized Albania on the opposite coast and in northeast Africa Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia.

The first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible conquered Kazan in 1552. The empire subjugated and exploited by and by about 200 ethnic groups in Siberia. The successor states Soviet Union and Russian Federation try to expand the territory belligerently up to today in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

Among the non-European colonizers, the Turks established the Ottoman Empire that at its peak in the 17th century spanned across parts of Europe, Asia and North Africa. It encompassed over 40 modern-day nations. The Japanese subjugated Taiwan, Korea, parts of China and Russia and the Philippines. The Chinese added to their country Tibet, East Turkestan (Xinjiang), and a part of Mongolia. Their leader plans to conquer Taiwan. Finally, the United States of America –after gaining Independence from England– displaced the indigenous population in a form of settler colonization and then colonized Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa and the Philippines.

The question who is the worst among all the ruthless rulers cannot be answered. But we know that on September 9, the number of Russian dead, wounded and missing soldiers exceeded 1,500,000. Ukrainian fallen fighters may amount to 460,000. Trump’s Epic Fury cost the lives of estimated between 10,000 and 18,000 people from nine countries mostly Iranians.

So far, so good.

That was how Nxled coach Guidetti Ettore viewed his Chameleons after roaring to a third straight victory following a 25-16, 22-25, 25-17, 25-19 victory over ZUS Coffee yesterday in the PVL All-Filipino Conference at the MOA Arena.

‘It’s nice to see that we have the same resilience that we showed in the last part of the PVL on Tour as well as the Invitational,’ said Ettore. ‘Definitely following the same line of determination and they’re more serene when faced with difficult situations.’

While there was a slip of concentration in the second set, Nxled was relatively calm almost all throughout in carving out a third straight triumph.

The Highrisers went down to their third loss in a row.

It helped that Jonah Sabete-Escamillan stepped up when Brooke Van Sickle struggled, and unloaded a 22-point performance that she spiced up with 18 kills, three blocks and an ace. Van Sickle wound up with just 12 hits but helped preside over the squad’s floor defense with a match-best 13 digs.

For Sabete-Escamillan, quickness was their weapon. ‘Knowing matatangkad sila, kailangan namin ng fast game,’ she said.

The Chameleons have been riding high on their runner-up finish – their best finish in franchise history – in the Invitational just a month ago. And the way they’re playing right now, there is a strong chance they may end up going all the way.

Murder charges have been filed against eight suspects tagged in the murder of a barangay chairman in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.

The charges were filed before the Office of the City Prosecutor in Sto. Tomas on Wednesday afternoon.

Of the eight suspects, only Michael Ben Calalo, 30, was arrested. The rest including two businessmen, two drivers, a former politician, a barangay kagawad and the gunman remain at large.

Calalo allegedly helped the gunman, who was reportedly his cousin, escape after killing Dennis Austria in Barangay Anastacia on Oct. 15.

Calalo and the assailant sped away on a motorcycle before transferring to a Toyota Vios.

The suspect was arrested on Tuesday at his alleged hideout in Barangay Balagtasin in the nearby town of San Jose.

Police said the arresting team recovered the Vios, which was reportedly registered under the name of Calalo.

Video footage of a closed-circuit television camera showed Calalo and the gunman transferring from a motorcycle to the Vios.

Calabarzon police deputy chief Col. Mario Mayames Jr. said Calalo signed an extra-judicial confession, admitting his participation in the crime.

The mastermind of the murder reportedly promised the gunman P250,000.

With the filing of the charges, Mayames said the Austria murder case is considered solved.

Col. Oliver Ebora, Batangas police director, urged anyone with information about the case to coordinate with the police, to help strengthen the charges and ensure conviction of those responsible.

It’s a crucial PBA Governors’ Cup duel against Blackwater that looks all too familiar for Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone.

Last game of the group stage, two ways to advance to the playoffs.

Seal it with a win. Or at the very least, get the Last-8 ticket by emerging on top of a potential three-way tie at 4-6 with Meralco and the Bossing (3-6) after tiebreak.

Thanks to their +30 points differential against the Bolts (+7) and Pat Aquino’s Bossing (-37), the Gin Kings can still afford to drop tonight’s Group B windup at Ynares Center-Antipolo and move forward – as long as the losing margin won’t reach 24.

Otherwise, it would drag Cone and his bunch to second among the three, allowing Meralco to catch the last bus to the crossover quarters instead.

For the Bossing to overtake the two in a tiebreaker, they must to beat Ginebra by a whopping 45 points.

On our way to work, me and my wife Denise usually pass by the NBC network office at the Rockefeller Center along 48th St. as there is a cheap Chinese take-out diner in the vicinity. After we bought our food last Monday morning, there was a sizeable crowd gathered around a pop-up store on 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Since we still had a little time, we checked what it was all about.

It was the final two days of the NBA Tip-Off Comic Drop showing limited-edition superhero inspired comic books featuring stars of all 30 NBA teams. This is NBC Sports’ promotional campaign celebrating Year 2 of the NBA on NBC and was the first time that a network had telecasted an NBA Tip-Off triple header. Yes, I completely forgot about this as the comic giveaways began in the first week of October in selected areas around Manhattan.

The promotional issue has five collectible covers with designs that show the triple header opening night matchups, the New York Knicks starting five and the main stars of the opening night matchups on three other covers – Cade Cunningham (DET) and Jayson Tatum (BOS), LeBron James (PHI) and Jalen Brunson (NYK) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) and Victor Wembanyama (SAS).

We didn’t know that they were already giving away those comic books early that morning, so we proceeded to work. Denise got off early afternoon and on the way home, she passed by the area and decided to line up. After an hour and 15 minutes on the line, she got a copy. Clueless, she sent me a photo asking me who’s the player inside the booth. It was Ron Artest/Metta World Peace interacting with the crowd.

The contents mainly are a recap of the previous Finals and a preview of all 30 teams done in typical comic book artwork. LeBron has overstuffed biceps, Stephen Curry as a Roman warrior, Kyrie Irving looks like a western gunslinger, Kevin Durant depicted like a Voltes 5 hybrid, Tatum looking like a toned-down Green Lantern, Wemby as an elongated Django and Luka Doncic looks like Iron Man who forgot his mask.

We went early the next day and when we got to 30 Rock before 9am, there was already a long line. Denise asked the first guy on the line what time he was there and said he came in a little past 7am. The things you do for freebies. Long story short, we got our comic books, a copy of the NYK starting five and three copies of the tip-off matchups as you can’t choose which.

For the love of the game and for collectibles, I lined up. Denise, since she got off earlier than me, lined up again in the afternoon. Not for the love of the game but for the love of the husband. Charot.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is investigating how fugitive businessman Charlie ‘Atong’ Ang managed to elude law enforcement authorities and leave the country.

Ang, the alleged mastermind in the kidnapping and killing of cockfighting aficionados or sabungeros, has fled the Philippines and is reportedly in Cambodia, according to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla.

PNP spokesman Col. Allen Rae Co said there is an ongoing probe on Ang’s reported departure in coordination with other concerned government agencies.

‘We will be investigating all circumstances surrounding this development,’ he said at a news briefing in Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Ang is accused of ordering the systematic murder of hundreds of sabungeros who allegedly cheated in cockfight games, with most of the bodies allegedly buried in Taal Lake, Batangas.

Co assured the victims’ families they will not stop until Ang is arrested and brought to court to face trial.

‘Regardless of his current whereabouts the PNP remains committed to serving the warrant of arrest, bringing him before the courts to answer for the charges against him,’ he said.