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One of the biggest headline now in the Philippines is the sale of Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife), which is considered as the biggest insurance company in the country in the past 60 years.

Philamlife President Jose Cuisia Jr. has assured clients that this will not affect its operation or its ability to pay claims or compromise clients’ investments.

Philamlife, is the locally incorporated wholly-owned subsidiary of insurance giant American International Group or AIG.

AIG, considered by Forbes 2008 as the 18^th largest company in the world was badly hit by the U.S. financial crunch and just recently received $85 billion rescue loan from the government.

AIG announced last Friday its decision to give up Philamlife in its plans in global streamlining.

JP Morgan and Blackstone Group, which were the two investment banks tapped by AIG to handle the sale will determine whether it will be sold as one group or will be broken down into several units.

Analysts says that this will attract local conglomerates such as San Miguel Corporation and Ayala group and other local and foreign companies in offering its bid on the company.

There were also reports that prospective buyers include taipan, Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation; tycoon George Ty of Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., as well as retail and mall magnate, Henry Sy of BDO Unibank Inc.

Also, global insurance rivals with local operations Sun Life of Canada, Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. (Manulife) and British financial giant Prudential plc. shows interests.

According to the Insurance Commission, Philamlife has P108 billion in assets and a net worth of P21.4 billion as of 2007.

For the information of those who don’t have the luxury to watch television, read the newspaper or hear news on the radio, the Chinese government are now recalling and stopping all exportation and recalling certain products with milk because of the findings that those products contained the chemical Melamine.

 

Scientifically speaking, Melamine is being used with formaldehyde to produce very durable plastic. Actually, we do have some plastic saucer and plate in our house and Melamine was indicated on the back portion, meaning it was made from Melamine. So, how in the world is this chemical being used to make plastic is also the same compound being used in producing milk to be consumed by babies and adults alike?!

 

According to one source, this chemical is sometimes illegally added to food products because of its high-protein content. Also, it was said that it is non-toxic if induce in low content, but if it was combined with a certain cyanuric acid, then it could be fatal kidney stones because its protein content cannot be absorb by the body.

 

Before the scandal in milk in China, there was a previous animal feed recall last 2007, and the source of this was some traces melamine in pet food.

 

The scandal now involving milk and infant formula from China with Melamine content infamously gained worldwide attention. There were reportedly 53,000 people that became ill and four infant deaths already.

 

It was said that Melamine was added after water to increase it’s milk volume. This indicated a false increase in protein and nitrogen levels in the milk.

 

I received an email regarding the current news about the products that has milk contents from China. This explained how you can be sure that will not be fooled in buying milk goods from China. You will need to check the first 3 digits on the bar code.

 

If you see the bar code starting of with 690, 691 or 692, then definitely it was made in China.

 

If you see 471, then it was made in Taiwan, and it is safe to consume.

 

Everyone must be aware and vigilant about this. Some businessman will still try to fool people in order to get good profits in the expense of the health of their buyers.

 

I also received another email in regards to the updated list of milk products that were tested by the Bureau of foods and Drugs (BFAD) a branch of the Department of Health (DOH) in the Philippines.

 

Here is the excerpt of the email:

 

Department of Health (DOH) released a statement earlier today (October 3, 2008) that of the 30 milk brands that were already tested by Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD), two are only positive as containing melamine. Two brands are GREENFOOD YILI FRESH MILK and MENGNIU DRINK which have labels written in Chinese characters.

 

Here is the partial list of other products which are were found NEGATIVE for melamine content (total of 28 products):

 

Anchor Lite Milk
Anlene High Calcium, Low Fat Milk
Bear Brand Instant
Chic Choc Milk Chocolate
Farmland Skim Milk
Jinwei Drink
Jolly Cow Pure Fresh Milk
Kiddie Soya Milk Egg Delight
Lactogen 1 DHA Infant Formula
M&M Milk Chocolate Candy
M&M Peanut Chocolate Candy
Milk Boy
Nestagen 2 DHA Follow-up Formula
Nestagen 3 DHA Follow-up Formula
Nido 3 Plus Pre-bio with DHA
Nido Full Cream Milk Powder
Nido Junior
No Sugar Chocolate of Isomalt 2 Oligosaccharide (cocoa butter substitute)
Nutri Express Milk Drink
Pura Fresh Milk
Snickers (roasted in caramel nogut in thick milk chocolate)
Vitasoy Soya Milk Drink
Wahaha Orange
Wahaha Yellow
Want Want Milk Drink
Windmill Skim Milk Powder
Yinlu Milk Peanut
Yogi Yogurt Flavor Milk Drink

 

Complete list will be released by BFAD on Tuesday, October 7.

 

 

The end of the Ramadan season reached its culminating end this Wednesday, October 1 in the Philippines. Eid ul-Fitr or the holiday to break the fast is celebrated worldwide as a national holiday in Muslim countries and other countries that has recognizable Muslim population.

 

For our Muslim brothers and sisters, it marked the end of the month-long sacrifice for the Muslims by restraining from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset.

 

The feast has no fixed date on the Gregorian calendar but according to Qur’an, the Eid-ul-Fitr is always celebrated on the first day of the Islamic lunar month of Shawwal.

 

This celebration is a national holiday in the Philippines and even the non-Muslim population take a break off from the normal working day.

The Ateneo Blue Eagles dominated the court and captured the championship crown against the De La Salle Green Archers in the 71^st season of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines men’s basketball tournament at the Araneta Coliseum on Thursday, September 25, 2008.

Ateneo swept the best-of-three series, and ending game 2 with 62-51 points. The win was Ateneo’s first title since 2002 and the fourth overall since joining the league in 1978.

This was the fourth UAAP championship titles of Ateneo and second this decade.

20,000 people jampacked the Coliseum of mostly students, faculty members, alumni and supporters of the two premiere universities in the country.

Coach Norman Black was ecstatic of the result of the team’s hard work. Black has been coaching the Blue Eagles for four year’s already and this was his first championship crown in the collegiate level.

Ateneo team captain Chris Tiu made up for his poor performance in the first game, contributing 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal.

Nonoy Baclao, who was later on named as the final’s most-valuable player, had 8 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks for the Blue Eagles.

The season’s most-valuable player, Ateneo center Rabeh Al-Hussaini, chipped in 7 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block.

Meanwhile, the Green Archers’ star player JV Casio finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal, while PJ Walsham and Rico Maierhofer combined for 15 points.

The Archers inched within just 3 points, 47-50, going into the final 10 minutes, with Casio’s triple behind the arc.

Unfortunately, La Salle’s Center Maierhofer was thrown out of the game for taunting.

The Eagles displayed a very impressive defense down the stretch, as they limited the Archers to just four points.

In the first championship game, Ateneo wins over the Green Archers 69-61.

Even if I’m not an Eagle’s or Archer’s fan, still I congratulate the Blue Eagles – the 2008 UAAP 71 Men’s Basketball Champions!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Top news centers reported Hurricane Gustav hits the Gulf Coast this Monday, September 1 and flooded New Orleans, Louisiana. Violent winds delivered powerful blows in Mississippi and then moved to the west of New Orleans. Officials reported that Gustav flooded U.S. Highway 90.

Forecasters once feared a storm that chased nearly 2 million from the coast would arrive as a devastating Category 4 with much more powerful winds.

In Biloxi, Gulf waters pushed to about 100 yards from the normal coastline into the highway.

Levees seems to hold

The Industrial Canal’s floodwall was pounded by wind-driven water but still holds even after being partially repaired after hurricane Katrina devastated it.

In the Upper Ninth ward, half of the street closest to the canal were flooded with knee-deep water.

Gustav is not that strong compared to Katrina

Katrina was much stronger when it hit Mississippi coast in August 2005 as a Category 3 storm. Gustav passed around the coastline but not passed through the entire state.

Nearly 2 million people evacuated under the mandatory evacuation order issued by the mayor of New Orleans.

At 2 p.m. CT, Gustav weakened to a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 90 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Gustav made landfall in Monday near Cocodrie, a low-lying community in Louisiana’s Cajun country about 72 miles southwest of New Orleans.

While Louisiana was being bombarded by heavy rains and howling winds, reported news that Tropical Storm Hanna will become a hurricane and will hit in a couple of days in Miami and North Carolina.

The hurricane is expected to move into Texas by Thursday. Gustav was the seventh storm of the Atlantic Hurricane season. The eight was Tropical Storm Hanna, which is strengthening and moving towards Miami and North Carolina later this week.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic games has reached its peak and ends in a joyous closing ceremony at the National Stadium on Sunday, August 24, 2008.

Pyrotechnic display, silver bells dancers, light wheels and other performers made this closing event very special to more than 90,000 spectators.

The 16 days coverage of the Olympic games became the most watched television event of all time.

The performance in the closing ceremony was more lighter than the opening ceremony.

The host of the Summer Olympics has topped the count for gold medals, whilst the United States bagged the most number of medals.

Unfortunately for us Filipinos, we didn’t get any medals. However, even if our athletes returned to our homeland empty handed, we are still proud that they gave a hell of a fight. There should be no pinpointing of who’s fault and who’s to blame for the performance of our athletes. They compete hard and gave their very best . We are not just fortunate enough to win medals in this summer game. Maybe we’ll get lucky enough in 2012 in the UK!

The closing ceremony marked the start of London’s commitment as host for the 2012 Olympics.