American Buddhist Net

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April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Philippine Catholic evangelist Mike Velarde says he can deliver as many as three million votes in next month’s presidential election to the candidate who most convincingly denounces birth control.

“We are looking really deep inside at their previous positions on this special matter,” Velarde, who says he has six million followers, said after his weekly open-air prayer meeting before thousands of worshipers April 24 in Manila. “If we don’t agree on this, don’t expect us to vote for you.”

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A Kawasaki man arrested on suspicion of selling pornographic DVDs of boys through a Web site also apparently shot obscene videos and had sex with underage male prostitutes in Indonesia and the Philippines, it has been learned.

Police found dozens of explicit videos and photos of young boys, thought to be from Southeast Asia, on a computer belonging to Yosuke Kobayashi, 29, when they arrested him after he returned from a trip to Manila in February, according to investigative sources.

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SAGADA, the Philippines — Goad Sibayan went prospecting recently in the remote Philippine highlands here known as the Cordillera. He clambered up and then down a narrow, rocky footpath that snaked around some hills, paying no heed to coffins that, in keeping with a local funeral tradition, hung very conspicuously from the surrounding sheer cliffs.

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On display every Sunday in this city's parks and along the miles and miles of hallmark elevated walkways is one of the secret ingredients that makes this economy so vibrant, resilient and adaptable.

For three decades or more a feature of Sundays in Central District on Hong Kong Island has been tens of thousands of Filippina domestic workers -- maids -- using their one day off of the week to gather with friends in a massive demonstration of cultural bonding and mutual support.

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SAN FERNANDO (Philippines) - DOZENS of devout Filipinos whipped themselves until blood flowed down their backs and others groaned while being nailed to crosses as Asia's bastion of Catholicism marked Good Friday.

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MANILA: Nearly everything can be done on a computer these days, so how about the Catholic tradition of "Visita Iglesia" or visiting seven churches on Maundy Thursday to pray and reflect on the coming suffering of Jesus Christ.

Now at the click of a mouse, believers can fulfill Holy Week obligations they otherwise could not for a variety of reasons—illness, work, or living in a part of the world where there are no Catholic churches.

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MANILA - Disgusted by a public official's sprawling mansion or bulky SUV that you think is ill-gotten? Take a picture and send it to these guys.

Anti-corruption activists Tuesday (March 23) launched the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) and its website, aiming to build from the grassroots "a constituency for change" to battle "endemic" graft and corruption.

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MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine army generals vowed on Monday to uphold democracy and not seize power if presidential elections on May 10 fail to produce a clear winner, dismissing reports of a possible junta as speculation.

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Greetings in peace and love,

I was wondering if any of you in this group may be interested in this:

A 4-month Temple Stay / study program for Mandarin language, arts and music, Chinese culture, Buddhist studies, meditation, vegetarian cooking and diet, gardening, and the monastic way of life. The program is called the "Fo Guang Shan Philippine Humanistic Academy of Life and Arts" and is scheduled APRIL 1 - JULY 31, 2010 in the Philippines (starting in Bacolod Yuan Thong Temple and ending in Manila Mabuhay Temple).

It is under the supervision of Fo Guang Shan monastic order of the Linji Chan (Rinzai Zen) lineage and the philosophy of Humanistic Buddhism (engaged, cultural, etc). The language of livelihood will be English, but the life will be following a monastic code (silence, disciplined, etc). This means contact with the outside world will be limited, however entrants will be allowed 1-2 hours weekly to communicate with family. An entrant can choose to have no contact at all.

Entrants will enjoy free food (vegetarian), boarding, clothing, and for the first time in the Philippines, a formal curriculum to be taught by the Sangha. There is also a Php1,500 monthly allowance.

Opportunities for further scholarship or employment in Taiwan ROC will be available to outstanding students after the study program. Application deadline is on March 15, 2010.

For the application form, go to http://bliabacolod.multiply.com or contact me at 0907-155-4885.

Palms joined
Ji Dao

Greetings in peace and love,

I was wondering if any of you in this group may be interested in this:

A 4-month Temple Stay / study program for Mandarin language, arts and music, Chinese culture, Buddhist studies, meditation, vegetarian cooking and diet, gardening, and the monastic way of life. The program is called the "Fo Guang Shan Philippine Humanistic Academy of Life and Arts" and is scheduled APRIL 1 - JULY 31, 2010 in the Philippines (starting in Bacolod Yuan Thong Temple and ending in Manila Mabuhay Temple).

MANILA (AFP) – Philippine Catholic bishops, already waging a bitter battle with the government over birth control, received an unwelcome gift Monday when female activists delivered them two baskets of condoms.

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MANILA, Philippines - After he lost almost all of his belongings in the floods brought about by Tropical Storm "Ondoy" last year, this jeepney driver thought it wasn't enough to simply thank the strangers who helped him get back on his feet.

Sonny Hernandez, 48, a resident of Barangay Nangka in Marikina City, felt it was but right to repay the generosity of his benefactors with the same acts of kindness and love he was shown when he was down and out.

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A Filipino woman in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to be lashed 100 times by the government as punishment for being raped. To add to the tragedy, the Filipino has been held in prison since September 2009. In December 2009, the woman — known only as “Camille” — miscarried. Now, she is facing a medieval crime — all because she was raped.

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MANILA - ONE in three newborns in the Philippines is unwanted or unplanned, the government said on Thursday, as the country struggles with a population explosion and the Church's opposition to birth control.

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TOKYO (AFP) - Police near Tokyo said Wednesday they had arrested three Japanese men and their transsexual "wives" from the Philippines for faking their marriage registrations.

The Philippine nationals used the identification papers of women in their home country to pretend they were born as females so they could marry their Japanese partners, police said.

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LEGASPI (Philippines) - TENS of thousands of villagers in the Philippines fled their homes on Tuesday as one of the nation's most active volcanoes spewed lava and sent ash plumes high into the sky, authorities said.

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Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian police have rescued five babies and detained 15 people believed to be part of a baby-selling syndicate headed by a doctor, a news report said Monday. Police revealed Monday that the arrests, which also included two childless couples who were allegedly customers of the syndicate, were made earlier this month following investigations and public tip-offs.

The syndicate was believed to have recruited women from the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia to bear and then sell their offspring back to the syndicate for 5,000 ringgit (1,430 dollars), federal criminal investigations chief Bakri Zinin was quoted as saying by the Star online news portal.

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PROSPERIDAD, Philippines — Gunmen agreed to release 47 hostages Sunday held in a southern Philippine jungle hide-out that is surrounded by troops and snipers.

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MANILA — Gunmen took 75 people hostage at an elementary school on Thursday in the southern Philippines, later releasing 18 of them, including all the children, officials said.

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GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines (Reuters) - The military chief in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao took over as local governor after martial law was imposed on Saturday, following the country's worst election-related crime last month.

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Reporting from Seoul and Zamboanga City, Philippines -- Authorities discovered the bodies of at least 30 people kidnapped early today in the southern Philippines and called the incident a politically motivated slaughter.

The victims -- including at least 13 women -- reportedly included a dozen journalists as well as lawyers and a woman who had planned to file her husband's nomination for elections next year.

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DUBLIN (AP) - A 79-year-old Irish Roman Catholic priest abducted in the Philippines a month ago was freed early Thursday and neither country paid any of the kidnappers' $2 million ransom demand, Irish and Filipino authorities said.

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Philippine troops and navy gunboats tried to encircle suspected Muslim militants to pressure them to release an ailing Irish priest, a military general said today.

No rescue was imminent out of concern for the safety of the Rev Michael Sinnott, 79, said regional military commander Major-General Benjamin Dolorfino.

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Manila, Oct. 12 (CNA) Eight tons of relief goods collected by a Fo Guang Shan Monastery, a Taiwanese Buddhist temple, for typhoon-affected victims in the Philippines arrived in Manila Monday.

The Philippines has been hard hit by two typhoons over the past few weeks, with nearly 1,000 people killed and more than 14,000 families left homeless and moved to temporary shelters.

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Fears are growing for an Irish missionary kidnapped in the southern Philippines, where militants are fighting the army for a separate Islamic state.

Father Michael Sinnott, 79, was seized yesterday at 7.30pm local time (11.30 BST) by six gunmen from his gated compound in Pagadian City, on the southern island of Mindanao.

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JAKARTA, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Indonesia's earthquake-ravaged city of Padang remains at risk of being wiped out during the next decade by a more powerful quake that could match the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami for destructiveness, an expert said on Saturday.

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Second storm slams into northern Philippines

(CNN) -- Ketsana, downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical depression, is heading towards Laos Wednesday after leaving a trail of death and destruction across Southeast Asia.

By early Wednesday morning, the death toll from the storm's rage had crossed 293: at least 246 in the Philippines, 38 in Vietnam and nine in Cambodia.

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MANILA — At least 83 people were killed and dozens of others were missing after a tropical storm swept through the northern Philippines over the weekend, with Manila experiencing its worst flooding in nearly half a century, officials said Sunday.

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Philippine authorities are continuing to search for about 30 people still missing after a ferry sank in the middle of the night.

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