MANILA, July 15 (PNA) -- The Bikol Region will eventually get its own international airport that promises to spur and accelerate the region's economic development.

NAGA CITY (July 16, 2009) -- TWO POLICE SUPERINTENDENTS have been relieved from their posts in the cities of Naga and Iriga and given new assignments in major urban areas of the Camarines provinces, following a reassignment order from police Sr. Supt. Thomas Belen Semeniano, Chief of the Regional Personnel and Human Resource Development Division, at the PNP regional office in Camp Simeon Ola, Legazpi City.

LEGAZPI CITY, July 15- Immediately after its reactivation, the Task Force Mayon is set to conduct massive dry run evacuation even as the alert status has remained at level 2 since Friday last week.

MANILA  - As progressive transport groups in the Philippines prepared for a nationwide strike to protest the alleged price manipulation of oil prices by oil companies, a leader of one such group was shot early today in Albay province.

Flaunting their bodies and flesh on stage under the glare of spotlights in front of a crowd of strangers, is probably one of the shallowest aspirations that women could ever have. Beauty pageants, as universally accepted as they are, do nothing but insinuate that women's primary goal in life is to make themselves beautiful, sexy and attractive - with voluptuous body, large breasts and hips, small waist, long and shapely legs, smooth skin, shiny hair, white perfect teeth - so that when the day of judgement comes, they will be pronounced the most beautiful of all. Pageants promote the petty, small-minded belief that women should beat other fellow women in their physical looks, and therefore perceive fellow women not as allies for a greater cause but as competitors of their temporal youth and beauty. Women should get the attention of the judges, most of whom are men, and some women who believe the same way.

It happened in April of 1982. Poets who were all based in the city, all very young, all in the throes of second and, perhaps, third love, but never in their last, submitted all at the same time, their poetry. The magazine that served as the formidable literary magazine of that decade and the decade before that could not ignore the works. Focus Magazine, edited by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera devoted a spread of the works and simply titled the collection, "Naga City."

The German word for voluntary work is "Ehrenamt," which literally translates to "honorary post." It is a highly valued "post" which is done by a volunteer and is not geared towards payment. It is carried out for a period of time and it is focussed on the common good. Ordinary people actively and voluntarily get involved in efforts of achieving a common goal. Such "honorary posts" can be with sports clubs as well as with fire brigades, charity institutions, kindergartens, courts, in elections; they can be politically, socially or culturally motivated. One in every three Germans is involved in some kind of such voluntary work, and that is why it is said, that German society is not thinkable without those "honorary posts."

A few days ago, I chanced on Erap being interviewed on ANC's "Strictly Politics." My attention was caught by how he was deftly answering Pia's pointblank questions and in straight English. He had some grammatical lapses, but these were negligible.

Sunod-sunod silang tumutumba. Ito ang isang bersyon ng tiempo muerto, o ang patay na panahon. Nauna kong narinig ang gamit ng "tiempo muerto" sa kalakaran ng paggawa ng sakadas, ang pana-panahong manggagawa sa bukid. Bukod sa pakyawan ang bayad, sa panahon lamang sila ng tagtanim at tag-ani may kabuhayan. Mas mahaba ang panahon ng paghihikahos kaysa sa isang kahig, isang tuka.

ROME, July 7, 2009-- Benedict XVI offers a timely, new take on economics, politics and society in his encyclical "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth), according to the secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis.