Why do Filipinos use a lot of whitening products?

Wayne Spillett

It’s not just in the Philippines, it’s practically all of the South East Asia and Oriental Asia. The Chinese favour lighter skin, and their climate ranges from tropical to almost Siberian; and Japanese geishas -once the archetypal image of Japanese beauty- wore make-up that made them completely white.

Basically, in the cultures of most of these Asian countries, darker skin is synonymous with a life outdoors, everything from farming to begging on the streets, and so dark skin is regarded as a sign of poverty. If you have a good job and a nice house, you typically spend a lot of your time inside and therefore you are shaded from the sun and don’t get much of a sun tan.

They also spend their money unwisely where their skin is concerned, whitening soaps, scrubs and lotions are sold in huge numbers but factor 50 sunblock is a bugger of a thing to find in Asian supermarkets and stores. My wife is Filipina and from a very poor, provincial background and she is just the same. I always tell her that if she’d wear sunblock of a sufficiently high factor, her face, arms and legs, which are almost always exposed, would be the same colour as the parts of her that only she and I ever see; but what do I know?!

We white westerners are the other way around, many of us live in climates where a sun tan is a hard thing to obtain and so for us, darker skin is a sign of sufficient wealth to travel to sunnier climes!

Heavy downpour causes landslides, sinkhole in DavOro

RALPH LAWRENCE G. LLEMIT

March 01, 2022

THE heavy downpour experienced in some parts of Davao de Oro over the weekend resulted in some roads becoming impassable due to landslides, while some families were affected by a sinkhole.

On Sunday, February 27, six lanes of the national highway in Barangay Tapia, Montevista, Davao de Oro were not passable due to landslides.

In a report from the Philippine Information Agency, the Provincial Government, along with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), immediately conducted a clearing operation in the area, which resulted in some vehicles using other alternate routes.

On Monday dawn, February 28, the area was already passable to motorists.

Meanwhile, four families were affected by a sinkhole in Mawab as rains persisted on Sunday evening, February 27.

According to Mawab Municipal Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO), the houses of the four families were damaged by the sudden movement of the soil.

As of Sunday evening, February 27, Mawab MDRRMO reported that only one family evacuated.

The Provincial Government has yet to provide additional information on the incident.

The Municipal Government of Nabunturan, in a Facebook post, suspended the mining activities in the municipality due to the heavy downpours.

The Municipal Government said that it was a preemptive measure especially to barangay mining sites that are landslide-prone.

According to the 3:30 p.m. advisory of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), some parts of Davao de Oro, namely, Maragusan, Pantukan, Mawab, Maco, and New Bataan, were placed under yellow warning level due to heavy rains brought by the easterlies weather system.

Pagasa said flooding was expected, especially in low-lying areas and landslides in mountainous areas.

Heavy rains were also experienced in some parts of Davao Oriental.

Moderate to heavy rains were experienced in some parts of Davao de Oro, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao City, Davao Occidental, and other provinces in Mindanao.

Duterte-Carpio: City eyes lifting more Covid-19 restrictions

By RALPH LAWRENCE G. LLEMIT, SunStar Davao City

March 01, 2022

DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is pushing for the lifting of some Covid-19 restrictions and fast-tracking the further reopening of the city's economy.

Duterte-Carpio said in an interview stream lived on her official Facebook page Monday, February 28, that the City Government will issue an executive order to suspend some Covid-19 restriction policies.

This came after Davao City has been placed under a less-strict Alert Level 1 effective March 1 until 15 due to the continuing downtrend of Covid-19 cases.

The mayor did not specify when the executive order will be released.

Despite the lifting of some restrictions, she said the minimum health protocols, such as wearing of face masks and observing physical distancing, will remain.

“[Walaon na] Kanang pag-lockdown, pagsarado sa mga offices and businesses depende sa (We will lift the lockdowns, closure of offices and establishments depending on the) alert levels, so we want everyone to open, and we want everybody to be on full operations, except we will not lift the mandatory wearing of mask, and importante gihapon ang distancing (distancing is still important),” the mayor said.

The mayor cited the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) guidelines on Alert Level 1, allowing local governments to suspend implementations of Covid-19 restrictions.

"Naa didto sa IATF resolution na pwedeng i-suspend sa local government ang implementation sa mga Covid-19 restrictions, which is mao pud atong direction sa pagkakaron (The IATF resolution provides local governments the authority to suspend implementations of Covid-19 restrictions, which is the direction we are pushing), in lieu of this war dinha sa (there in) Ukraine ug (and) Russia because any war sa tibuok kalibutan will affect kitang tana (in some parts of the world will affect everyone),” she said.

“We need to move fast in reopening our city and economy tungod kaning giyera dinha sa Russia ug Ukraine duna na siya epekto diria sa ato (because the war in Russia and Ukraine would have a huge impact to everyone), especially in terms of prices sa (of) basic commodities, prices sa gasolina (and gasoline prices),” she added.

The move, she said, would uplift the business sector and provide more jobs to Dabawenyos.

Duterte-Carpio, meanwhile, said the business sectors will be given discretion in imposing restrictions against unvaccinated individuals.

She said, though, that restricting those unvaccinated would be difficult to impose.

“As I said kaniadto, lisod kaayo i-restrict ang mga unvaccinated (As I said before, it is hard to restrict those unvaccinated) when, in fact, dili man mandatory ang atoang vaccination. Mura gani’g gina-punish nato sila sa choice na ilang gipili na gitagaan man sila sa choice (since vaccination is not mandatory. It’s like we are punishing them for their choice),” Duterte-Carpio said, adding that restricting them would be possible if law would mandate the public to get vaccinated.

Dr. Michelle Schlosser, spokesperson of the Covid-19 Task Force, said the recent surge, suspected to have been caused by the Omicron variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, is over as the positivity rate drops to five percent as of February 20.

Schlosser said the city is considered "low risk" for the virus, and that it can now slowly shift to the “new normal.”