Singer Chris Brown barred from leaving Philippines amid contract dispute

Singer Chris Brown is shown at a party on April 10 in Bermuda Dunes, California. image: CNN

Manila, Philippines (CNN)Award-winning U.S. singer Chris Brown has been barred from leaving the Philippines because of a contract dispute, the official Philippines News Agency reported Wednesday.

Brown was stopped Wednesday morning while preparing to depart on a private jet from Manila's international airport on his way to Hong Kong for a concert, the news agency said.

The Philippine Department of Justice said that an order had been issued Tuesday night to stop any attempts by Brown, 26, to leave the country.

Brown performed a concert that evening as planned, but the order was put in place to compel him to pay back money that promoters said was owed to them after he failed to appear for a previous appearance scheduled for last New Year's Eve.

That concert was supposed to take place at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, north of Manila.

The Bureau of Immigration said Brown and his promoter John Michael Pio Roda were both subject to an immigration lookout bulletin, but they could seek a clearance certificate that could allow them to leave if the Department of Justice consented.

It's not the first time that the chart-topping star has run into trouble with authorities.

A few months after Billboard named him Artist of the Year, Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna -- another popular singer -- inside a rented Lamborghini on the eve of the Grammy Awards in February 2009. He pleaded guilty that June to one felony assault count, after which he was put on probation for five years, ordered to serve 180 days of labor-oriented service and made to take a yearlong domestic violence class.

He made a public apology but didn't stay out of trouble. In 2012, he had an altercation with rapper Drake at a New York club. The next year, a woman accused Brown of shoving her at a club in Anaheim, California, bringing an assault and battery claim; he was accused of committing a hit-and-run in Los Angeles; and he was accused of felony assault after an incident outside a W Hotel in Washington.

Those incidents added up, along with a positive marijuana test and prosecutors' claim that Brown didn't finish his court-mandated community labor. He entered rehab in 2013 to "gain insight into his past and recent behavior," his representative said, only to get kicked out of the facility for smashing his mother's car window during a family session, according to his probation officer.

Brown entered another rehab facility, only to leave in 2014. He was then taken into custody by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies after a judge revoked his probation. He was released from jail in June 2014.

Last week, the artist was the apparent victim of crime after armed intruders burst into his Southern California home and locked his aunt in a closet, according to police. - CNN

Journalist Arlene Espiritu reported from Manila and Merieme Arif from Atlanta, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

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Philippines Budget Surplus expanded to ₱67.3 Billion Php in May 2015

PHL budget surplus widens nearly 6 times in May

More Amid the pressing need to boost public spending to pump-prime the economy, government revenues continued to outpace expenditures for the second month this year.

The budget surplus expanded by almost six times to ₱67.3 billion Php in May from ₱11.8 billion Php a year earlier, figures released by the Department of Finance (DOF) on Monday showed. 

The amount widens the ₱52.6 billion Php surplus reported in April, bringing the budget balance to a surplus of ₱86.4 billion Php in the first five months of the year. In comparison, the government registered an ₱8.5- billion Php surplus in January to May last year.

Revenues expanded by 41 percent to ₱242.5 Php billion in May. In January-to-May, revenues were 16 percent higher at ₱922.2 billion Php, according to the DOF.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue raked in ₱128.5 billion Php while the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of the Treasury collected ₱26.7 billion Php and ₱11.0 billion. Other offices contributed P76.4 billion, reflecting the ₱60.1 billion Php of coconut levy-related remittances.

Government expenditures increased by 9 percent to ₱175.2 billion Php, including ₱20.6 billion Php in interest payments. But the amount represents only about 72 percent of the total revenues generated during the month.

In January to May, expenditures reached ₱835.7 billion Php, a 6 percent increase from a year earlier. Interest payments decreased by 2 percent to ₱136.9 billion Php, accounting for 16 percent of total expenditures.

"Various volatile events in the global landscape serve as stark reminders of the importance of the hard work of reform carefully sustained by prudent fiscal management. We continue to build ample safeguards protecting the country from shocks that pose risks to our upward trajectory," Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said. 

But economists, credit watchers and banks have cited slow government spending for the worse-than-expected performance of the Philippine economy this year.

Even the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) admitted that meeting the lower end of the government's growth target of 7 percent to 8 percent would be difficult given the slowdown in global demand.

The government must focus on intervention in the agriculture and industry sectors to sustain the Philippine economy, former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno told GMA News Online.

"To me, ang dapat talagang palalakasin mo, side-by-side, ay agriculture and industry – meaning manufacturing, construction and power.

"Why agriculture? Because a third of the workforce is in agriculture and more than half of the poor is in rural areas," Diokno said.

A modern agriculture sector could translate into cheaper food prices and subsequently benefit the poor, ease the demand for higher wages and make inputs to food manufacturing cheaper, he added. – VS, GMA News

 

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