President Benigno Aquino III is open to former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo seeking medical treatment abroad for humanitarian reasons, Malacañang confirmed Thursday.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Aquino's statement is "in consonance with the President's nature."

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino 3rd will hold his first state visit to China from August 30 to September 3 to “strengthen the over three decades of friendship and mutually beneficial relations” between Manila and Beijing, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas 2nd told lawmakers during a budget presentation at the House of Representatives that President Aquino would renegotiate, among other things, the suspended North Luzon Railways (NorthRail) project during the state visit.

With his team’s Grand Slam bid in serious jeopardy, Talk ‘N Text coach Chot Reyes is pressing the panic button.

The multi-titled mentor is bringing back original import Maurice Baker in place of the ineffective Scottie Reynolds, who was held to only two field goals in the pivotal game 5 of the 2011 PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-seven finals series between the Tropang Texters and the Petron Blaze Boosters. Talk ‘N Text lost the game, 93-80, and is now just one loss away from yielding the series.

Smart Gilas Pilipinas has named naturalized player Marcus Douthit, Chris Tiu, JV Casio, Chris Lutz and Marcio Lassiter as spearheads of the team seeking a berth in the 2014 FIBA World Championship.

The five make up the core of the team seeing action in the FIBA-Asia Championshipslated Sept. 15-25 in Wuhan, China which stakes a lone berth in next year’s London Olympics. “The players staying were already pin-pointed in that meeting and they are Tiu, Casio, Lutz, Lassiter and Douthit,” said a reliable source who requested anonymity.

Juan Manuel Marquez believes his talent alone won’t be enough to dislodge Manny Pacquiao from his lofty perch.

Even though Marquez is widely credited for giving Pacquiao a taste of hell on two occasions, the counter-punching Mexican is going the extra mile as he lays down the groundwork of his preparation for the third showdown with the pound-for-pound king on Nov. 12 in Las Vegas.

WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire Jr. left Manila for the US yesterday to start training for his title defense possibly against undefeated Argentinian Omar (The Hurricane) Narvaez at the Home Depot Center in Carson City, California, on Oct. 22.

Donaire said it’s still not certain if Narvaez will sign the contract that Top Rank has sent but he’s optimistic the fight will push through.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will investigate a reported P150-million deposit made in the account of former police Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao by a still unidentified person.

This, after Senator Panfilo Lacson revealed at a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday that account number 002150-086-06, to which a questionable P150-million check deposit was made, purportedly belongs to Mancao, a former aide of Lacson and an official of now defunct Presidential Anti-organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF)--an elite unit formerly headed by Lacson.

A suspect in last Monday's car bomb attack in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat has been arrested, a police official said Thursday.

Police Superintendent Benhardi Mantele, Philippine National Police Region 12 director, identified the suspect as Datu Karim Masdal of Macasampang, Guindolongan, Maguindanao. Masdal, 33, is charged with double murder and multiple frustrated murder.

Only 40 of the estimated 17,000 Filipinos in strife-torn Syria seek repatriation back to the Philippines, Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said Thursday. 

Hernandez said that some of the 40 who are in the Philippine embassy in Damascus are returning to the country over labor issues with their employers, and not over the mass protests against the Syrian government.

In just four days starting Monday, East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City recorded 185 dengue cases, said Dr. Ma. Victoria Abesamis, the chief of clinics.

Up to three children share a bed in the hospital. Some even have to stay in monobloc chairs instead of resting in beds in crowded wards, according to Abesamis. JC Bolo said he didn’t know how his 6-month-old baby got dengue. He said it pained him to see that baby Gabriel had to suffer while being given intravenous fluid therapy.

The Vatican Thursday granted priests the right to forgive the sin of abortion when hearing the confessions of hundreds of thousands of young people attending a Roman Catholic youth festival in Spain this week.

The termination of pregnancy is a sin punishable by excommunication under Church law. The World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrims will attend a mass confession in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday in a central Madrid park.

Hiningan ng reaksiyon ng PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal) ang manager ng Philippine national football team na si Dan Palami tungkol sa nagpapalipat-lipat na Facebook post na ikinukumpara ang Azkals sa Philippine Dragon Boat Team.

Ang Philippine Dragon Boat team, na tinaguriang "Dragon Warriors," ay nakapag-uwi ng pitong medalya (limang gold, dalawang silver) at nakapagtala ng mga bagong world records sa dinaluhan nitong 10th International Dragon Boat Federation World Championships sa Tampa Bay, Florida nitong Agosto.

Hindi natuloy ang nakatakdang operasyon kahapon ng aktor na si Joseph Bitangcol. Ito ang sinabi ng kanyang inang si Lydia Bitangcol sa panayam nito sa Showbiz News Ngayon kagabi, August 17.

Matatandaang noong August 10 ay nasangkot sa isang vehicular accident ang aktor habang binabaybay ang Sumulong Highway, patungo sa Antipolo City, kasama ang apat niyang kaibigan.

Hindi pala matukoy ang sakit ni Cristine Reyes na hanggang ngayon ay nasa Cardinal Santos Hospital pa. Halos one week na itong naka-confine dahil sa pabalik-balik na mataas na lagnat, pero up to now ay wala pa rin daw findings kaya nag-aalala na rin ang kanyang mga kaibigan at mahal sa buhay lalung-lalo na nga ang mommy niya at siyempre, pati na rin ang boyfriend na si Rayver Cruz.

Noong una ay hinihinala ngang dengue ito dahil nga sa pabalik-balik na high fever pero base naman sa tests na isinagawa ay nagatibo naman ito sa nasabing sakit.

Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson revealed Thursday that a P150 million check was allegedly deposited in the account of his former aide, Cezar Mancao, last year.

At the hearing of the Senate finance committee, Lacson questioned the executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, Vicente Aquino about account number 002150-086-06 amounting to P150 million. “I have no way of saying whether it’s authentic or not,” Aquino told the committee. But Lacson said, the transaction was “made in favor of Cezar Mancao.”

The Mayuga Report might have cleared the “Hello Garci” generals of poll fraud in the 2004 presidential election, but Bayan Muna Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Javier Colmenares cried “cover-up” after obtaining a copy of the 10-inch-thick document a day after it was declassified by the military on Tuesday.

Casiño said the report did not reflect what was actually discovered in the testimonies of military officers and enlisted personnel and civilians directly or indirectly involved in the 2004 polls.

The Reproductive Health measure is an affirmation of the constitutional right to privacy as stipulated in several Supreme Court decisions, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said yesterday.

“The Supreme Court has recognized a right to privacy, even if there is no specific constitutional provision, because it is implied by several provisions in the Bill of Rights,” Santiago said in her co-sponsorship speech on the RH bill. “The right to privacy applies to sex, marriage, and procreation,” she said.

For Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters leader Ameril Umbra Kato, the recent meeting between Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Murad Ebrahim and President Benigno Aquino III in Japan only doomed the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people and their longtime struggle for self-determination.

Kato formed the BIFF after he resigned from the MILF in January. He has been wanted for launching attacks on civilian villages in Central Mindanao in 2008 after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the still unsigned Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the government and the rebel group.

PETRON Blaze is now in a position few imagined it would be. The Boosters turned onthe heat from the start and kept it up for most of the way to carve a 93-80 win over Talk N Text Wednesday and move within another win of bagging the PBA Governors Cup championship at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Anthony Grundy, Arwind Santos and Danny Ildefonso each churned up a double-double as Petron followed up its 105-83 victory in Game 4 to go up, 3-2, in the best-of-seven series.