You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Showing posts with label NCR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NCR. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

NCR retains Alert Level 2 status; Alert Level 3 in 7 areas from Feb. 16-28

 


The government’s pandemic task force has decided to keep the National Capital Region (NCR) under the coronavirus (COVID-19) Alert Level 2 while it placed seven other areas under Alert Level 3 from February 16 to 28, 2022.

In a statement, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said that the following areas will be under Alert Level 3:

Iloilo City, Iloilo Province, Guimaras, Zamboanga City, Davao de Oro, Davao Occidental, South Cotabato.

Saturday, September 18, 2021

57 NCR areas under granular lockdown – DILG


Romina Cabrera - The Philippine Star 

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 57 areas in Metro Manila are on granular lockdown under the new quarantine alert level system, with 11,808 people breaking health protocols on the first day of its implementation last Thursday, authorities said.

Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, spokesman for the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), told the Laging Handa media briefing yesterday that the 57 areas under granular lockdown are spread throughout all local government units (LGUs) in the National Capital Region (NCR).

“We had an orderly pilot run on the first day of implementation of the alert level system. LGUs were clear on the guidelines, which were the result of a series of consultations with the MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority) and mayors,” Malaya said in Filipino.

He said LGUs have deployed marshals and officers to monitor compliance of establishments with the guidelines as more businesses are allowed to reopen under the new system.

He noted that there were unvaccinated individuals caught in barber shops and they were instructed to leave.

Malaya said LGU personnel and police have been ordered to intensify their enforcement of minimum health standards, as enforcing the rules across so many more establishments allowed to operate is a challenge.

“On the issue of warning (residents in lockdown areas), that’s in the hands of the LGUs,” Malaya said. “I must emphasize the granular lockdown is smaller and better (managed). Our goal in intervention must be to the smallest possible affected area. PNP flags 11,808 violators

The first day of the new alert level system with granular lockdowns was “generally peaceful” even if the Philippine National Police (PNP) recorded 11,808 health protocol violators.

PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said yesterday about 55 percent of these individuals flagged by the police were warned, 38 percent of them fined and seven percent charged with various violations of mandates against mass gatherings and wearing of masks.

“Compared to MECQ (modified enhanced community quarantine) the past 26 days, we were averaging 12,600 violators per day.

So it’s almost the same number even though we all know that more people are expected outdoors because of additional permitted industries to operate,” Eleazar said.

Police personnel have been ordered to maintain their presence in outdoor leisure areas such as parks amid the enforcement of Alert Level 4 in Metro Manila.

“The presence of our uniformed personnel in these areas will serve as a reminder for our citizens to continuously observe the necessary protection for themselves and their companions,” he said.

Those who are not allowed outside their residences under Alert Level 4 are people aged below 18 and above 65; those with immunodeficiencies, comorbidities or other health risks and pregnant women.

These individuals will only be allowed to go out to access or obtain essential goods and services, or if it is for work in permitted industries and offices.

Like restaurants and other business establishments, tourist spots are also gradually opening.

In Manila, Rizal Park now allows the entry of a maximum of 500 people at a time, the Department of Tourism (DOT) said.

Several areas in Intramuros also reopened but under shortened hours of operation. Alert downgrade eyed. MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos said they are aiming to have a downgrade of the alert level once the pilot implementation of the new quarantine system lapses at the end of the month.“The challenge here is for us to be successful, because we (Metro Manila LGUs) are the pilot implementation. If we are successful, hopefully, we could go down one level so the economy would be more open,” Abalos told an episode of the “The Chiefs” aired on Cignal TV’s One News.

“The goal is to make sure that the region would be downgraded by one level, into Alert Level 3, so there would be an increased capacity of 30 percent (in business establishments),” he added.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Clark as new NCR?


Clark as new NCR?



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It took us over two hours to check out the new developments in Clark and we didn’t even get to see the proposed site of the new Clark City because it was way further off. Even with light traffic, it takes time to go around Clark because it is just too expansive. It is easy for a space oppressed Metro Manila resident to be overwhelmed.
Flat lands, rolling hills and even mountains can be found at Clark. In the area known as Clark Sun Valley, a well maintained and challenging golf course has been attracting Koreans for some time now. A new Hilton Hotel is being constructed as you drive up the clubhouse. And the panoramic view is simply fantastic.
Feverish construction activities are all over the Clark Freeport as they rush facilities for the ASEAN summit conference late this year. A master planned 177-hectare development known as the Clark Global Gateway City is fast rising to rival Metro Manila’s central business districts with its extra wide avenues and underground utility connections.

The first building to be completed is the now functioning Medical City’s Clark hospital which was built from scratch. The buildings intended to house various business offices are interconnected and reveal a close attention to the interrelationship of buildings, people and the environment. There are wide sidewalks and bicycle paths. A solar energy installation is providing half of Clark’s needs.
They are finally serious about modernizing and expanding Clark’s airport. The BCDA, not DOTr, is bidding out the construction of the new French designed terminal that is good for up to eight million passengers. After construction has been awarded, BCDA will also award the operations and management to a qualified private sector entity. It should be able to start operations by 2020.
As far as I know, BCDA was ready to bid out and complete the Clark airport as early as 2012 until Mar Roxas transferred it to DOTC without consulting BCDA. That was a few months after I last visited Clark to get a briefing from then airport head Chichos Luciano.
Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
Indeed I recall BCDA’s energetic former president, Arnel Casanova, fighting hard to have it returned. The worst part is that Mar and P-Noy did not appoint members to the airport’s board of directors for about two years so that absolutely nothing moved. Mar wasted the time and talent of Chichos who had great plans that is only now being realized.
Then again, even after P-Noy appointed a cousin to head Clark airport, it didn’t help. He and former DOTC sec. Abaya ignored him for the most part. That’s why nothing happened until now.
Art Tugade knew this sad situation as CDC head at that time. I am sure it is Art who worked to return the Clark airport project to BCDA in this administration. Art knows BCDA, a corporate entity, can do the project faster and better. Art, unlike most bureaucrats and politicians, is not after turf protection… he just wants the project done.
BCDA and CDC also recently received an unsolicited proposal to build a government center from the group that helped build Malaysia’s Putrajaya.  If the proposal is taken seriously by BCDA and CDC, six government departments will be the first tenants of the new buildings. Best of all, there are no front end costs for the taxpayers. The proponents will be compensated as the facilities are used.
It seems it is all systems go to develop Clark as a new National Capital Region. Of course that will take time, but the attraction of the proposal is to move government offices out of Metro Manila and into Clark. 
Unbearable describes the feeling that comes from the severe congestion being felt in an expanded metro area of over 25 million souls. We all suffer daily traffic jams. And living conditions for the poor are so inhuman something has to give.
Just before he took over the transportation department, Sec. Art Tugade said he wants to decongest Metro Manila. It isn’t a cure all but it should help.
Tugade said he would, among others, propose to stop giving tax incentives for BPOs and other industries locating within Metro Manila to alleviate transport congestion problems. Indeed, they should just reject all pending applications for PEZA BPO incentives to property developers who insist on building within Metro Manila.
Ordinary Metro Manilans can only agree with Tugade. Many of us view Metro Manila as increasingly dysfunctional or even unlivable. Many of us see the need to decongest it by relocating major urban functions or building new cities outside the existing metropolitan area.
Urban planner Dr. Art Corpuz, in a recent paper, agrees that Metro Manila’s problems are indeed unacceptable, especially based on international benchmarks, but he is not convinced moving out of Metro Manila by itself is the right response. In other words, he asks, if something is broken, do you discard it (by moving to another location) or do you fix it in its place?
Dr. Corpuz warned of unintended consequences. “If the relatively low density government activities in the Malacañang, Batasan and other affected areas are replaced by high density, large scale commercial and residential uses (following the prevailing practice of maximizing government revenues from the disposition of public land), then it is likely that congestion, at least in those parts of Metro Manila, will worsen.”
Dr. Corpuz pointed out that “in the case of the 240-hectare portion of Fort Bonifacio that government auctioned off in 1995, total gross floor area has increased more than 10 times since it was initially redeveloped. It has been transformed into the second largest business district and one of the largest traffic generators in the country.”
Dr. Corpuz also observed that bigness by itself is not the problem. “It is also difficult to equate density, which is one of the most easily perceived characteristics of an urban area, to levels and perceptions of quality of life.
“Services and environmental conditions in some higher density urban areas are much better than in Metro Manila. In Hong Kong, where quality of life is arguably much better, Kowloon has a density of over 45,100 persons/sqkm; the density of the Kwun Tong district is even higher at 56,300 persons/sqkm. (An area of Hong Kong even reaches 400,000 persons/sqkm.) These are higher than Metro Manila’s 20,300 persons/sqkm or even the 40,400 persons/sqkm of the city of Manila, which approximates the scale of Kowloon…”
Dr. Corpuz is of the opinion that “there is no basis for saying that Metro Manila or any other city is too big and over-concentrated…” He correctly pointed out that we just failed to deliver primary government responsibilities to the extent similar to other cities…
Ultimately, Dr. Corpuz concludes, “city size and density thresholds are products of history, governance and technology, and none may be considered as empirical absolute limits.” But the reality is that it is doubtful our government (national and LGUs) will ever be able to put greed and vested interest aside and do what is right for Metro Manila.
This is why the points of Dr. Corpuz considered, I still think we ought to work to make Clark bloom if only to show our people we are capable of having a well – planned and well – managed city. Seeing it happen in Clark should hopefully make us realize that the mayors have been sleeping on their jobs and should be kicked out.
I hope the enthusiasm of Clark officials won’t fade until they are able to deliver on the promises. They have everything they need to have a model major city… from an international airport to hotels, resorts and the factories and businesses that are the envy of other areas. The only thing I didn’t see them doing or planning to do is a good public transport system.
Still, it is morale boosting to see the current heads of BCDA and CDC actually moving projects forward. No more excuses… let’s get going now.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.