Piercing Pens

“… You will always reap what you sow!” –Galatians 6:7

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday turned over an initial P221 million check from Pag-IBIG Fund to El Shaddai leader and Amvel Land Development Corporation chairman Mike Velarde. The check is part of a P353 million loan– reportedly the biggest loan ever from Pag-IBIG fund–granted to Velarde for the the construction Amvel’s condominium towers.

This photo from the Office of the Press secretary shows Arroyo and Velarde with Vice President and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chair Noli de Castro. (more…)

The Mozilla Foundation today released Firefox 1.0, the first major new product release since the Mozilla Suite’s 1.0 in June of 2002. Firefox 1.0 is the completion of roughly 2 years of work on the revolutionary new browser, which has raised the Mozilla Foundation’s profile greatly in its year of existance. The release follows up the hugely successful Preview Release which had over eight million downloads.

Included in the release is a new start page which was formulated from user research including the home page poll taken here. Futhermore, the release will feature over a dozen localized builds released at the same time as the main English build, a first for the Foundation. In coming days, the Foundation expects at least a dozen more to be available. (more…)

As of this writing, the world awaits for news about Angelito Nayan who was abducted together with two other election volunteers in Afghanistan. The deadline set by the Jaish-al Muslimeen, a Taliban splinter group has expired hours ag0 but there has been been no information yet on the hostages’ fate. Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas has expressed her high hopes that Nayan will be released since the Philippines have not deployed any troops to Afghanistan.

Robert Tarongoy, on the other hand, the OFW kidnapped by Iraqi rebels, has been reportedly released alongside Nepalese hostage Yunus Kawari. The Nepal government has confirmed the release of Kawari but officials here are careful to give any information on Tarongoy, a policy they have learned since Sec. Sto. Tomas’ too early announcement of Angelo dela Cruz’ release. (more…)