Apparently, Singapore now also prohibits going there too often as one Baguio resident found out when he was detained at the airport for visiting his girlfriend one too many times.

Arnold (not his real name) said when he arrived in Singapore, airport officials brought him to a room and repeatedly asked him why he kept coming back to Singapore.

Arnold has been in Singapore thrice to visit his girlfriend and added that in all of his visits, he always came back before his visit visa expired.

Arnold said it was his first time to be questioned by airport officials. Despite assuring the airport officials that he has plans of returning because he is studying, they still detained him for eight hours and repeatedly asked him the same questions.

Arrest you for being a tourist, can!

He was not allowed to contact the Philippine consulate or even to use his mobile phone. Singapore airport police told him they would contact his girlfriend to tell her he was being detained but they did not do so. I guess that was so he wouldn’t have a girlfriend to visit in Singapore anymore.

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We need to get our shit together, for one thing. It seems being caught flat footed (either by flash floods or a hostage taker) is becoming a national pastime.

On the other hand, there’s also this, from HK-based blog Libertines Pub:

Thanks to Manila and its police force, we have come to the realisation that we are merely the play-things of luck and fate. Aside from the tragedy itself and the uselessness of the Manila police force, we are suddenly drawn back to investigate the tension between stability and chaos.

It’s a pretty sobering thought, and a bit of a downer. But at least there was no mention of idiots, monkeys, or Filipino idiot monkeys at all.

Pretty magnanimous of them considering the howl we raised when a columnist from Hong Kong referred to us as a nation of servants last year. And considering how no official apology has yet been made to the Hong Kong government for .

If they were a real pub, I’d buy every Libertine in it a San Miguel just to keep the discussion going.

yam sing!

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“As soon as we come off vacation, we’re going to cook that little yellow chump. We ain’t worried about that. So they ain’t gotta worry about me fighting the midget. Once I kick the midget ass, I don’t want you all to jump on my dick. So you all better get on the bandwagon now. … Once I stomp the midget, I’ll make that motherfucker make me a sushi roll and cook me some rice.”

To which Pacquiao’s only response should be: “Nigger, please”.

Classy.

(UPDATE: Mayweather has apologized for the rant. He says he was only joking around. Hold the sushi rolls.)

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Defensor-Santiago said Lhakpa Tshoko, representative of the Dalai Lama, asked her in August to form a group in the Philippines to support Tibetans advocating autonomy and religious freedom under China.

“As a longtime advocate for Tibet, I am honored to accept this request. I am confident that the Tibet Support Group in the Philippines will be of great help to the cause,” she said.

"I am a simple Buddhist monk — no more, no less."

Defensor-Santiago’s support may prove crucial in the Tibetan struggle. The Dalai Lama, for all his wisdom and saffron robes, has made little progress in changing the situation in Tibet since he went into exile in 1959.

In an informal poll, 100% of Tibetans surveyed “strongly agreed” that Tibet is still part of China.

Defensor-Santiago, who, in 2007, accused the Chinese of inventing corruption and is known for storming out of Senate sessions after beating the crap out of her enemies with her extensive vocabulary, may just be the voice that Tibet needs.

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Like so.

Luckily for at least one member of Congress, though, not everyone has to endure the mind-numbing exercise that is passing the budget.

Part-time Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, for example, will be missing the debates because he’ll be getting ready for his match with Mexican boxer Antonio Margarito.

Pacquiao, who flew into Los Angeles today, says he plans to sleep in his office at the Batasan Pambansa when he comes back so he won’t have to miss plenary sessions.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte has offered a solution that will allow Pacquiao to be both pro fighter and congressman. Rep. Pacquiao will be excused from Congress sessions when his training starts.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s late or absent for a couple of days. Sabihin niya (He can tell us) he’s doing a patriotic duty,” he said.

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Fallacy of being a complete idiot!

In an attempt to discredit expert testimony from a psychologist that both parties in a marriage annulment case “suffered from psychological incapacity” and should not have been married in the first place,  the OSG trotted out a Wikipedia article, which you could imagine they hastily Googled five minutes before the government lawyers filed their appeal.

The court said in its decision that it found “incredible … if not a haphazard attempt, on the part of the [OSG] to impeach an expert witness, with … unreliable information. This is certainly unacceptable evidence, nothing short of a mere allegation totally unsupported by authority.”

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Or, at least, that seems to be what Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto wants. At a joint congressional hearing of the Senate committees on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, and Justice and Human Rights, Sotto fired the first shot in a battle to restore the high regard that we have for ourselves.

Yes, the Philippine National Police bungled the operation, and eight tourists died, he said, but

“let us not forget that many Filipinos have lost their lives saving hostages, foreign hostages. If I recall it right, when we saved the Burham couple [kidnapped in 2001, rescued in 2002 but the husband, Martin, died during the operation--OneTamad], there were more than 30 soldiers who died saving this couple who are foreigners.”

“We’ve said our piece. We’ve told the international community and China, the Chinese government and the Hongkong government how sad we are and how we wished it could not have happened. But I think we should not too worry too much about the international repercussion, because Bali, Indonesia has been bombed so many times by Indonesian terrorists but the tourists keep coming back. had they been blaming the Indonesians in their countries?” [Actually, tourism to Indonesia dipped by more than half a million visitors in 2003 after the 2002 Bali bombings--OneTamad]

Stay classy, Philippines.

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Thinking that taking pictures in front of a bus where nine people died in a botched police operation seen on worldwide TV is a cool thing to do like these nursing students did.

Hi, mom!

Hi, Mom!

And yet we rage and wonder when other nations say bad stuff about us. If you thought Chip Tsao’s ‘nation of servants’ comment was bad, then don’t bother going online for the next few weeks. We’re being called everything from monkeys to idiots to idiot monkeys all because of this group of Mean Girls.

And if PinoyChan’s /b/tards can be trusted (they can’t), these students have been taking pictures to show their insensitivity for quite some time now:

Hi, Mom!

Hi, Mom!

More here and here.

(Thx, PinoyChan /b/!)

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One of these guys is a Congressman

Singson is out on bail now and he will probably get to go home eventually.

What’s (marginally) interesting, though, is what Quimbo, a lawyer, had to say about the case:

“Speaking from a legal standpoint and based on experience we had in the past Congress, it’s an unchartered territory because the conviction—we’re proceeding from the assumption that he gets convicted—takes place outside the country”

So, basically, nothing. Despite House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte being so concerned at what Singson’s arrest could do to the reputation of the House that “he literally sent a team,” we get what basically amounts to a shrug couched in pretty words. Remember that old song, Rep. Quimbo: You say it best when you say nothing at all.

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Department of Health officials in Cebu say ‘lingam massages,’ basically paying a girl to grope your jiji, does not fight cancer or impotence or erectile dysfunction or anything, really.

Speaking to the Cebu City Council, DOH medical specialist Dr. Jocelyn Abellana said “definitely, it has no role in the prevention of prostatic cancer. Massage like this certainly will not help at all.”

Lingam massages are popular in the Queen City of the South and Cebu is considering either banning the service or regulating who can have their penises fondled and who they can pay to do that.

Hey, big boy...

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