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Philippine Star  "Endangered remittances" Several banks have denied shutting down their operations in Italy following the multimillion-dollar electronic heist that saw money stolen from the Bank of  Bangladesh account in the US Federal Reserve being laundered through Philippine casinos and the banking system.  The scandal has not only become a national embarrassment for the Philippines, where a large portion of about $81 million still has to be traced, but has also  endangered the remittances of millions of overseas Filipino workers. This concern has been raised by the Department of Foreign Affairs, even as it denied yesterday  the reports about several Philippine banks shutting down their operations in Italy due to the money laundering scandal.  Credit rating agencies and various analysts have expressed confidence that the Philippine banking system will weather this storm. There are also no indications so  far that the scandal might put the country ...

Inquirer  about El Ni ño and tarsier There’s a dark shadow on the holiday season that is now upon us: the fragility of our environment, as underscored by the climate change conference in Paris, the resulting consensus of which is most crucial to the planet. That fragility is brought home to our part of the world by El Niño, which threatens to be severe, as well as a poignant report that the Philippine tarsier is now on the most-endangered list. [...]  The prevailing dangerous times are also particularly illustrated by the recent announcement of wildlife experts that more than half of the primates worldwide are facing extinction as a result of habitat destruction and hunting.  For the first time ever, the list of at-risk species now includes the Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrchta), according to scientists who attended a conference in Singapore last week. [full text] Manila Bulletin   on ASEAN We have long seen ourselves as a nation which asserted its indep...