November 2015
FILIPINO FASHION DESIGNER
RETURNS TO TOP MODEL
LUISA MARSHALL AS
TINA TURNER ON ELLEN
Francis Libiran returns to Tyra
Banks' America's Next Top Model:
Guys & Girls for the long running
series' 22nd cycle.
Luisa Marshall's Tina Turner
Tribute invite d to the Elle n
DeGeneres Show as part of Ellen's
squad war with Taylor Swift.
>ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 20
>ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 12
Vol. 1 No. 8
METROVAN INDEPENDENT MEDIA
www.metrovanindependent.com
Manila airport
screeners in
silent protest over
‘tanim-bala’ claims
By MetroVan Independent News team
Hostages in Southern Philippines.
Two Canadians kidnapped in Southern
Philippines could mar Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau’s APEC visit
By MetroVan Independent News team
Suspected Abu Sayyaf abductors of
two Canadians, a Norwegian and a Filipino
woman on Samal Island off Davao City last
Sept. 21 suddenly released a video of their
victims apparently timed to coincide with
the arrival in Manila sometime next week of
newly sworn Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau who will attend the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
There are no known negotiations for
their release although sources in Manila
told Metrovan Independent News that the
initial demand was one billion pesos for
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each Canadian.
Police identified the victims as
Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, who was
the resort’s marina manager, and Canadians
John Ridsdel, 68 and Robert Hall 50. The
Filipino woman was identified as Teresita
Flor, Hall’s common law partner. Ridsdel
is reportedly a former reporter of Calgary
Herald.
A spokesman for the Department of
Foreign Affairs, said Canada was “pursuing
all appropriate channels to seek further
information.” Releasing more information
“may compromise ongoing efforts and
risk endangering the safety of Canadian
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citizens.”
Canada’s footprint in the Philippines
is small, so Canadian officials are likely
working closely with Philippine authorities
to contact the hostage-takers, perhaps
through an intermediary, it was earlier
reported.
Shirley Anthony, spokeswoman for
Calgary-based mining firm, TVI Pacific Inc.,
where Ridsdel serves as a consultant, said
the company was “doing all it can to secure
John’s release and help his family through
this difficult time.”
> NEWS PAGE 3
Employees of the Of fice for
Transportation Security (OTS) yesterday
held a silent protest at the Ninoy Aquino
International Airport (NAIA) over allegations
implicating them in the “tanim-bala” (bulletplanting) scandal that has already tainted
the image of the country in the international
community.
Wearing pink armbands, the OTS
employees decided to gather in a holy
mass officiated by airport chaplain Rev.
Fr. Ananias “Sonny” Merida at the NAIA
Terminal 2 as they condemned sweeping
allegations portraying that all of them are
involved in the bullet-planting mess.
> NEWS PAGE 2
An international
arbitral tribunal gives
nod to West Philippine
Sea claims
MANIL A , Philippines – One of the
Philippines' top legal scholars said that the
international tribunal hearing Manila's historic case against China “totally ignored”
Beijing's controversial 9-dash line.
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice
Antonio Carpio said that The Hague-based
arbitral tribunal did not consider the 9-dash
line in its initial ruling on jurisdiction, the first
round of the Philippines' case against China
on the South China Sea. Manila calls the
parts it claims as the West Philippine Sea.
> NEWS PAGE 3