OFW remittances up in May – BSP

By Mayvelin U. Caraballo, Manila Times

July 16, 2022

THE amount of money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) increased to its highest level in two months in May, according to data released on Friday by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Personal remittances, or cash or kind transfers between families, reached $2.70 billion in the fifth month of 2022, up 1.27 percent from $2.67 billion in April and 1.99 percent from $2.65 billion in May 2021. Since the $2.88 billion sent in March of this year, this was the most OFs ever sent.

The expansion over a year ago in May was related to remittances from land-based employees with contracts lasting one year or more, as well as from sea- and land-based employees with short-term contracts.

The total amount of remittances for the first five months of the year was $14.02 billion, a pickup of 2.5 percent from $13.68 billion from January to May 2021, according to the latest numbers.

Cash remittances, meanwhile, totaled $2.42 billion in May, accelerating 1.25 percent from the month before and 1.80 percent from $2.38 billion a year earlier.

The central bank said the year-on-year expansion in April "attributed to remittances from land-based workers on one year or longer contracts, and from sea- and land-based workers on short-term contracts."

From January to May 2022, cash remittances saw an uptick of 2.5 percent to $12.59 billion from $12.28 billion in the previous year.

The growth in cash remittances from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Qatar and Singapore, the BSP pointed out, contributed significantly to the growth in remittances in the first five months of 2022.

The Bangko Sentral kept its outlook of a 4-percent rise in cash remittances this year, noting the sector's long-term growth trend, expanding deployment as a result of employers' renewed interest in hiring OFWs and rising usage of digital financial services among OFs and their dependents.

PH Covid cases keep climbing

By Red Mendoza  and Catherine S. Valente

CASES of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the country continued to climb, breaching the 1,700 daily average mark over the past week.

In its Covid situationer issued on Friday, the Department of Health (DoH) said the national daily average jumped by 40 percent during the week of July 8 to 14, to 1,751 cases.

The National Capital Region or Metro Manila still has the steepest increase, with 748 daily cases, while Mindanao's numbers are also inching up.

Despite the rise, the risk classification remains to be low, along with average daily attack rates and health care utilization rates.

Severe and critical admissions are also low — 651 out of the total 7,629 cases in hospitals across the country.

The caseload is still a far cry from the record 39,004 cases on January 15, a surge driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.

Experts constantly remind that Omicron and its subvariants have high rates of transmission and could skirt immunity from vaccines.

Majority of the Omicron cases, however, are mild, compared to the Delta variant.

The DoH also reported that 71.2 million individuals have been fully vaccinated for Covid-19 as of July 13, while 15.5 million have received booster doses.

NCR remains under Alert Level 2

During a TV interview on Friday, Health department Officer in Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said vaccinations should not be a requirement for children attending in-person classes.

Full face-to-face classes are set to resume in November, and most parents are worried that vaccinated children may mingle with unvaccinated schoolmates.

Vergeire said that instead of mandating vaccinations, it is better to give incentives to parents who convince their children to get jabbed.

She said schoolchildren should not be deprived of education just because they are not vaccinated. "Education is a right, we cannot think of it into a mandate where they would not go to school because of this," Vergeire said.

Metro Manila remains under Alert Level 1

She said the DoH will set up vaccination sites in schools so that kids and their parents may be encouraged to get their shots.

Vergeire also said one of her plans as OIC is to speed up the release of benefits for health workers.

She said most of the issues encountered by hospitals in providing benefits to their staff were "transactional" in nature, such as non-signing of memoranda of agreement and liquidation of funds from some hospitals.

Alert Level 1 stays in Metro Manila, parts of PH

"We are planning to start discussing this with the health workers and looking at the challenges to facilitate the release of the benefits," Vergeire said.

She also said that one of her priorities is to work with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to hasten the approval of certificates of product registration (CPR) for Covid-19 vaccines.

Vergeire said the department will encourage manufacturers to apply for such a certificate to be able to use these vaccines once the state of public health emergency expires in September.

In a related development, Press Secretary Rose Beatrix "Trixie" Cruz-Angeles said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will continue to function under the administration of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

Cruz-Angeles made the assurance as the current quarantine classification was set to lapse on July 15.

During a press briefing Friday, she said she has not been informed when the IATF will meet and submit its recommendations to the President on the new alert levels for the rest of the month.

She said the government is prepared to extend the present levels if necessary.

Aside from Metro Manila, provinces and cities under Alert Level 1 until July 15: Abra, Apayao, Baguio City, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Dagupan City, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Batanes, Cagayan, City of Santiago, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Angeles City, Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Olongapo City, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Lucena City, Rizal, Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro, Puerto Princesa City, Romblon, Albay, Catanduanes, Naga City, and Sorsogon.

Also under Alert Level 1 are Aklan, Bacolod City, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo province, Iloilo City, Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City (Opon), Mandaue City, Siquijor, Biliran, Eastern Samar, Ormoc City, Southern Leyte, Tacloban City, Zamboanga City, Northern Mindanao: Bukidnon, Cagayan De Oro City, Camiguin, Iligan City, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Davao City, Davao Oriental, South Cotabato, Butuan City, Surigao Del Sur, Agusan Del Norte, Agusan Del Sur and Cotabato City.

Under Alert Level 1, travel is allowed without regard to age and comorbidities.

Under Alert Level 2 are Benguet, Ifugao, Quezon, Occidental Mindoro, Palawan, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Antique, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, City of Isabela, Zamboanga Del Norte, Zamboanga Del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Lanao Del Norte, Davao De Oro, Davao Del Norte, Davao Del Sur, Davao Occidental, Cotabato, General Santos City, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Dinagat Islands, Surigao Del Norte, Basilan, Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Everything should be prayer

By Fr. Roy Cimagala*

WE have to realize that prayer is the only thing necessary in our life. (cfr. Lk 10,38-42) We need it more than we need air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink. And that’s simply because it is our basic and indispensable way to keep in touch with God which is what is most important in our life.

Let’s remember that our life is supposed to be a life with and in God always, since we have been created in his image and likeness, children of his, and sharers of his divine life, not only in heaven in our definitive state, but also while here on earth.

It does not mean that just because we always have to pray, we do nothing other than pray and that we should not get involved in our temporal and earthly affairs. Let’s never forget that God has placed us in the world to test us, if what he wants us to be is also what we want to be for ourselves, that is, to be children of his.

We should therefore be actively involved in our temporal and earthly affairs, but doing so by converting everything in these affairs into some form of prayer, into some form of engaging ourselves with God.

To be sure, this is possible and doable, because praying does not even need a bodily organ for it to be done. It is a spiritual operation that can transcend the use of our bodily faculties. It’s a matter of attitude, of belief, which we can always have even if it is not expressly articulated.

As such, it can be done in any situation—while we are working, playing, resting, etc. But it would be good that we spend some time doing nothing other than praying, directly engaging God in a loving conversation, because that would help us to be prayerful in all our other activities and situations in life.

Thus, we have to be ready to do some vocal prayers and mental prayer. These are exercises that can build and fuel our life of prayer. With them, we engage God in a more direct way, and in a more loving way, giving him due worship and adoration. 

Besides, those moments of vocal prayer and mental prayer would be good moments to thank God for everything we have received, and also to ask for pardon for the mistakes and sins we have committed, as well as to ask for favors that we need.

But in our present human condition, we need to fight to be able to pray. We need to struggle. We have to exert great and abiding effort to convert everything we do into prayer. That’s because as our catechism puts it, we should pray as we live because we can only live properly as we pray. (cfr. Compendium 572)

      

The forces of good and evil are always in conflict not so much in some places outside or war arenas somewhere, as in our very own heart. The combat is more internal than external, more spiritual and moral than material and physical.

Besides, the battle of contention starts in some little matters, not in big issues, that are not promptly attended to and are made to fester for a while until they become a crisis or a conflagration.

   

We need to be always on guard, and the best way to do that is to pray, to be in constant conversation with God, our Father, whose wisdom and omnipotence he is willing to share with us, his children, created in his image and likeness.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

A MOST DOWN-TO-EARTH BOOK

Overall, “Down to Earth” is a beautiful middle-grade book that I think a person of any age would enjoy. “Down to Earth” is a fascinating, middle-grade adventure that makes you feel in awe of the Universe, and I loved reading it! There are many reasons why I adored reading this book.

Do you feel like you’re living life but missing the information necessary for true happiness and fulfillment? Do you feel like someone threw you into life without the user’s manual? It’s hard to play a game when you don’t know the rules—especially when it’s the game of life! 

When tragedy strikes, it's easy to harden our hearts and cry out, "God, why did you let this happen?" Maybe then, we started praying. Before, when everything went smoothly, we would not even think a minute about praying... .

"To be a Christian without prayer, "said Martin Luther, "is no more possible than to be alive without breathing." Prayer is the only way of becoming what God wants us to be. This is the reason why Jesus spent many hours praying.

Unquestionable, our needs bring us to a place of prayer. Confronted with danger or tragedies, as I mentioned earlier, we look for God's help. Difficult times always cause the hearts of men to turn to God into prayer.

Let me ask you: How long has it been since you've brought your burdens to God? Since you asked His forgiveness for your shortcomings?

In his very interesting book "People in Prayer", Dr. John White reminds us that prayer is a divine-human interaction and it is always God who takes the initiative. White writes: "God speaks and we respond. God is always speaking. To hear his voice is not usually a mystical experience. It consists merely of a willingness to pay heed to God who lays a claim to our lives."

Yes, God always speaks. It is up to us whether we will listen and respond to Him. Many think we are the ones who initiate prayer. But prayers begin and end with God.

There was a time, I wasn't in the mood to pray any more. It seemed that God didn't listen to my prayer any more. I didn't get what I prayed for. Of course, not... ! That's not the meaning of praying to God. Will all my wishes be granted? Heaven forbid!

Sometimes, after we have prayed, God's answers may puzzle us. But as time goes by and as events unfold we see God's purpose in his answers. We might get a larger vision, what HE likes. Not what WE like... .

Think about it for a moment" How does the idea that prayer begins and ends with God affect me now? Do I have the habit of listening to god? How do I respond to Him? How do I usually pray?

I confess that a long time ago I have been trying to persuade God to change other people in my surroundings or circumstances. Nothing changed. Of course not, what a fatal attraction? I got confused because God never granted my requests. Meanwhile I got God's answers to my prayers. Maybe very simple: I was willing to let God change me... .This is how each one of us should start. Happy endings. Because I prayed according to His will... .

Talking about prayer, we also have to mention the probably most down-earth book in the bible which is  Proverbs. Its education prepares you for the street and the marketplace, not the schoolroom. The book offers the warm advice you get by growing up in a good family. It covers small questions as well as large ones: talking too much, visiting neighbors too often, being unbearably cheerful too early in the morning. Proverbs simply tell how life works most of the time.

I always love to quote proverbs, which express the truth about life in an elegant, witty kernel. You should not hunt through it for proverbs you might like. You should study the whole book to get its overall point of view. This takes time, for Proverbs covers dozens of subjects in subtle detail.