GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Philippines is focusing more than usual on births and deaths with the UN declaring a girl born in Manila 30 October shortly before midnight, Danica May Camacho, 2.5 kg, to be the symbolic 7 billionth baby in the world. Meanwhile police in the city are gearing up to protect cemeteries during All Soul’s Day 1 November, according to the Manila Standard Today.
The UN Population Fund’s office in the Philippines organized media coverage to welcome the tiny girl into the world, but another special guest was the symbolic 6 billionth child, who is now 12 years old.
Some 2,000 police officers will be guarding city cemeteries and more than 1,000 others are on special traffic duties starting 31 October to ensure that All Saints Day and All Souls Day, 1 and 2 November respectively, remain crime-free, says the head of a major police district. “He made his statement even as an environmental watchdog asked the people visiting their dead on Nov. 1 and 2 to light only one or two candles and to bring their trash home to minimize pollution in the cemeteries,” reports the Standard Today.
Ed. note: Halloween, celebrated in several countries 31 October, is the eve of All Saints Day, and should not to be confused with All Souls Day, which in some churches, notably the Roman Catholic in the West, is observed 2 November 2011.
A typhoon with winds of up to 225km per hour and gusts of 260kph has struck the northern Philippines causing widespread destruction. One man died when he fell into a river. Megi hit the northern Luzon provinces of Cagayan and Isabela Monday morning, 18 October, and residents braced for the impact. The typhoon is moving southwest at 19kph, according to the Philippine weather service, Pagasa.
News services reported very high waves along the coast, and strong winds that were downing power lines and ripping roofs off buildings. The agriculture ministry warns that up to 600,000 tons of rice could be lost to flooding.
The army and emergency services have prepositioned emergency aid, and residents in Manila, 300 kms to the south, have been warned to stockpile food and water.
Links to other sites: BBC, Business Week,Philippine Inquirer, Pagasa site
Path of Megi, known locally as Juan
The typhoon called Ramil locally, and Lupit internationally, is gathering strength as it steadily makes its way westward across the Pacific Ocean with winds of 175km and gusts up to 210km. It is expected to make landfall on Wednesday 21 or early Thursday 22 October on the northern tip of the Philippines’ main island, Luzon, mostly sparing the capital Manila. The military is moving relief goods and trucks, speedboats and soldiers north in anticipation of rescue missions.
The Philippines is still recovering from the last two typhoons with survivors in the north still living in tents being urged not to return to their homes. Philippine weather service chief, Prisco Nilo, told a press conference in Manila 18 October that people should be evacuated “now that there is still time” [and not] “in the middle of a typhoon”. AP, Philippine Inquirer
The funeral procession of former Philippine President Cory Aquino after mass in Manila Cathedral 5 August was attended by tens of thousands of ordinary Filipinos, many dressed in yellow, who lined the streets in pouring rain to accompany her body to Memorial Park, where she is to be buried next to her husband. She died 1 August of colon cancer.
After her husband, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was assassinated at the airport in Manila on his return from exile in the US in 1983, she rallied the opposition people’s power movement until the resignation and exile of then-President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Elected president herself that year, she was instrumental in restoring democracy to the country. She was the Philippines’ and Asia’s first woman president. Two children of Marcos paid their respects at the wake. The Philippines has declared ten days of mourning and Wednesday 5 August a national holiday. BBC, Manila Times
