Good News Thread [Merged]

[Dieseler]

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS200508116305.htm

Taguig government rewards honest taxi driver
By Edu Punay
The Philippine Star 08/11/2005

The city government of Taguig has cited and rewarded a 28-year-old taxi driver, whose act of honesty has become a source of inspiration for all hardworking Filipinos.

Reio Lance, a resident of Centennial Village in Barangay Western Bicutan, did not think twice in returning the P150,000 left behind by a passenger.

Little did he realize that his simple act of honesty would also save the life of a sick child.

In the morning of Aug. 7, Annie Joy Angana and her friend Liezl Rolona flagged down Lance’s taxi and asked that they be taken to the Domestic Airport for a flight to Cotabato.

On the way to the airport, the driver chatted with his passengers, telling them how he has been working hard to provide for his family.

Lance, an aspiring seaman from Iloilo, said when there are no taxis to drive, he sells balut or flowers.

Minutes after dropping off his passengers, Lance noticed a bag containing cash at the backseat of the taxi.

Without hesitation, he drove back to the airport and searched for his two passengers.

He eventually found them, much to the relief of Angana, who had borrowed the amount from a relative. The cash was intended for the operation of her five-year-old daughter Gwyneth, who suffers from a brain tumor.

Angana was very thankful and even offered cash to Lance for returning the money. He refused to accept any reward.

Touched by Lance’s honesty, Angana’s friend contacted ABS-CBN and narrated the inspiring story, which the network featured in one of its programs.

Rolona, who works for a shipping firm, also vowed to help Lance fulfill his dream of becoming a seaman because she happens to work for a shipping firm.

Taguig City Mayor Freddie Tinga learned about Lance’s story and promised to reward the honest cab driver.

Last Tuesday, a teary-eyed Lance received a certificate of recognition from Tinga during a simple ceremony at City Hall. He also earned the admiration of City Hall employees who attended the ceremony.

"Good things happen to people who do good things. He should serve as a role model to people in the government," the mayor said during the ceremony.

Tinga also offered a job for Lance at City Hall while City Administrator Wilfredo Villar and Social Welfare head Nitz Jordan also assured him that his two daughters, Reiozel, 5, and Rhazelle, 3, would be receiving elementary and high school scholarships.

[cutedoc]

i was able to watch the details on tv patrol, good things happen to good people, God is good

[mazdamazda]

Mindanao clashes subside by 1,200%
GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star 08/12/2005

How does one measure peace? In Mindanao, torn by 35 years of Moro secession but now steeped in peace negotiations, it’s by stories. For instance, when big news used to be of Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels ambushing government troops, it’s now of their "clashes" in basketball. Or, of families returning from refugee camps to replant cornfields. And, of tots learning once again to laugh, play and do school Math.

Statistics back up the stories. In 2002 under a shaky, because largely unsupervised truce, soldiers and rebels skirmished 112 times. When the Armed Forces pursued bandits inside the MILF’s Buliok camp in the first half of 2003, hundreds of fighters from both sides perished in 410 clashes. In the second half, when monitors from Malaysia, Brunei and Libya arrived to ensure cessation of hostilities, brushes fell to 33. From Oct. 2004, when formal talks to settle the conflict resumed, to June this year, only 37 cease-fire violations were reported. More tellingly in the same period, soldiers and rebels teamed up 21 times to hunt down rustlers and Abu Sayyaf terrorists, and confront warring clans.

Mindanao peace is still tentative, but it is holding so far. And, going by conservative forecast of government peace panelist retired Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, political concord may be reached by middle of 2006. Counterparts in the MILF team are more optimistic, saying a peace settlement can be signed after three more meetings in Kuala Lumpur.

A sign that lasting peace may be at hand is that businessmen from Christian enclaves have begun to venture jointly with Muslim traders. The Mindanao Business Council has taken the lead to train erstwhile rebels for livelihood projects backed by multimillion-dollar foreign aid. Most of the projects – banana plantations and seaweed culture for export as candied chips and carrageenan – are in MILF-held locales in the five provinces of the Muslim Autonomous Region. But the MBC will soon expand to the eight other provinces with large Muslim populations, chairman Antonio Santos vows. Any end of war brings commerce. But for now, says Santos whose son is married to a Moro princess, Christian and Muslim business leaders are helping instill confidence on both sides.

A major confidence builder was MILF chairman Hashim Salamat’s renouncing of terrorism before he died from illness last year. Manila authorities matched it with more funds to rehabilitate ruined communities. The US-Agency for International Development plunked in $26.5 million in 2004, a fourth of it for small businesses, and the rest to irrigate crops and transmit electricity. Other countries sent aid for educational-TV, farm tools and fishing boats. The World Bank has earmarked a $35-million soft loan once a peace treaty is signed.

Peace negotiators have hurdled so far two of the three major issues: security of armed units, along with joint anti-crime operations, during the cease-fire and beyond, and reconstruction of Muslim areas. Under the first, MILF rebels presently are driving Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafy Janjalani and ten suspected Indonesian terrorists out of hideouts onto soldiers’ lines. Reconstruction has always been a government priority, although hobbled by perennial fund shortage.

Last in the list is the issue of ancestral domain, which would define the "Bangsamoro territory" under a peace accord. The term used to raise the hackles of civilian and military officials who interpreted it as separation from the Republic, and Christians who fear expulsion from their land and work. With new aspirations of Christian and Muslim leaders for a federal-type government, however, it now means peaceful co-existence and self-rule from imperial Manila.

[BoEinG_747]

MARILAO - Two young Bulakeños have returned P803,000 worth of cash and checks they separately found within the same mall here.

"They are real men because they are honest," Sheryl de la Rama, head of the mall’s public relations office, said after the management handed commendations to Wilfredo Garcia of Barangay Santa Rosa, Marilao, and John Wendell Abayan.

Garcia, an employee at the food court of the giant neighborhood mall here, found a wallet containing P300,000 cash and P500,000 worth of checks belonging to a Banco de Oro-SM Marilao branch client on July 29.

Bank manager Medardo Fabro said that Garcia returned the wallet and the bank contacted the client. BDO didn’t identify the client.

"It feels good when you do something good for other people," Garcia said.

He was given a plaque of commendation last week by the SM City Supermall-Marilao management after the bank management informed the mall management.

"We are really proud of him," de la Rama said.

She also said that a mall customer, John Wendel Abayan, returned P3,000 cash he found at the automated teller machine within the mall premises.

Abayan was about to withdraw money using his own ATM card when he found the cash.

He was also given a commendation in recognition to his honesty.

[mazdamazda]

For the month of August, the NG posted a 3B budget surplus.