The agreement is aimed at preventing exploitation of Filipina maids such as confiscation of their passports to control them, overworking them with no rest days and preventing them from returning home.

Like many developing countries, the Philippines is seeing sustained growth, thanks in part to remittances from overseas Filipino workers. That’s why for Juan Dayang Jr., he and the rest of the Philippine diplomatic community should make it a priority to ensure the welfare and rights of these workers.

He may be no Black Mamba like Kobe Bryant, but Vice President Jejomar Binay unabashedly dribbled around Yao Ming, as if challenging the 7’6” former Houston Rockets center to a one-on-one. A shocked Binay welcomed Yao and his Shanghai Sharks to his Coconut Palace Monday morning, gaping at the giant and looking up to shake hands with the retired NBA player.

AS Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia head to the polls this year and the next, it is interesting to note that discussion on foreign policy is almost absent in the local campaigns we are witnessing. This is symptomatic of the elections in Southeast Asia as a whole, and has been the case for decades, in fact. It may also signal the recognition that as relatively young states, the countries of the Asean region recognise that as single entities their foreign policies may not have an impact wider than the region they inhabit.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario has asked consular officers at the Department of Foreign Affairs to “strive harder” in providing services to the public even as he noted improvements in the agency’s passport processing and authentication systems.

Jakarta was the final stop of the deputy defense secretary's weeklong trip to Asia, which included visits to defense and government officials in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. Speaking as part of an international panel at the third Jakarta International Defense Dialogue, or JIDD, Carter said the United States is serious about its commitment to the region and detailed elements now in motion of a rebalance called for in the department's 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance.

If she would get her hands dirty, she’d rather do so by planting trees. Or so said reelectionist Sen. Loren Legarda, who spiced up a recent informal meeting with INQUIRER editors and reporters with random bits and snatches of what she called her unknown causes, notably climate change and indigenous culture.

It would seem, from this quick thumbnail sketch, that Chinese soft power has been extraordinarily successful in the Philippines as in the rest of Asia. But that’s only part of the story. China, after all, has not restricted itself solely to the exercise of soft power to increase its influence in the region.