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Thursday, November 17, 2022
Climate change causing ‘economic devastation’ to PH, says ranking solon
Published November 17, 2022, 9:42 AM
A House leader has highlighted the annual economic losses that the Philippines suffer from natural calamities, even as she called on government and stakeholders to immediately address the issue of climate change.
San Jose Del Monte City lone district Rep. Florida “Rida” Robes said in a privilege speech earlier this week that the country loses around $3.5 billion yearly from natural calamities based on World Bank (WB) estimates.
“We can definitely feel the economic devastation of climate change. To illustrate, recently, [super typhoon] Karding alone destroyed at least P160 million worth of high-value crops,” Robes said.
She said no less than 5,239 Bulakenos–1,571 families, including 1447 children and 231 senior citizens–were displaced and forced to evacuate due to the floods, which also cost the lives of five emergency volunteers.
“In the aftermath of super typhoon Karding, this representation would like to spark an honest dialogue to three inconvenient—yet vital—truths that affect our nation and humanity as a whole…The pressing and urgent need to strengthen our policies on environmental protection and adapting to climate change,” noted Robes, who chairs the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.
She said it is lamentable and alarming to know that the Philippines, in terms of global metrics, ranked second in the 2018 Climate Risk Index among countries heavily affected by extreme weather events.
She said the Philippines is also 11th out of 180 nations in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI).
Robes reckoned that climate change is no longer imminent. “We are already in a state of climate emergency,” she said.
“Our President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. addressed the UN (United Nations) General Assembly who declared that the country is the fourth most vulnerable country to climate change…This injustice must be corrected, and those who need to do more must act now,” she said.
Robes described the floods caused by Karding in her home province of Bulacan as “unparalleled and alarming”. She said significant areas in San Miguel, San Ildefonso, and San Rafael—areas not typically prone to flooding—were engulfed in deep floodwaters due to heavy rains.
The ranking solon also gave honor to the five emergency responders who died while saving residents who were stranded in a flood.
Robes said the “Bulacan Five”–George Agustin, Troy Justin Agustin, Marby Bartolome, Narciso Calayag Jr. and Jerson Resurreccion died “in the line of duty and service to our country.” She said they were ordinary men who displayed extraordinary acts of service.
Robes has already filed two measures empowering emergency volunteers with House Bill (HB) No.5584, or the Emergency Volunteer Protection Act of 2022; and HB No.5650 or Magna Carta for Public Disaster Risk and Emergency Responders.
Tourism post-pandemic
Published November 17, 2022, 12:02 AM
‘TOL VIEWS
Because of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, global tourism suffered significant losses. International tourist arrivals in January to May 2020 decreased by as much as 56 percent compared to the pre-pandemic records of 2019. This reduction, according to an August 2020 report of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), translates to $910 billion to $1.2 trillion lost in exports from tourism. Similarly, 100 to 120 million direct tourism jobs are at risk of dissolution and 1.5 percent to 2.8 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) lost due to the widespread lockdowns and travel restrictions.
From the same UNWTO report, the Asia-Pacific Region suffered the greatest reduction in tourist arrivals at 60 percent, hence the need for a renewed and revitalized regional strategy for tourism recovery and sustainability. This pandemic has revealed the vulnerability of world economies – even those from more developed regions. Covid-19 exposed the inadequacy of our contingent planning and response capacity as no one could have perhaps foretold the depth and breadth of its impact.
However devastated global tourism may be, hope for recovery remains high, especially in the light of the expected shift of Covid-19 from pandemic to endemic. With lesser restrictions on domestic and international travel, with accelerated vaccination rates in nearly all countries of the world, with heightened regional cooperation and partnerships to jumpstart tourism and economic engines, we can all hope to transform this health crisis into an opportunity for systems innovation and redesign in order to adapt to the demands of a post-pandemic tourism economy.
For the Philippines, it was projected that tourist arrivals 12 months after the pandemic will be at +9.7 percent, slightly above the average tourist arrivals data of the pre-pandemic years. Some of the figures for most Asian countries will remain on the negative axis when it comes to tourist arrivals and tourism revenue, but the brighter side of this trend is that 6 to 12 months after the end of the pandemic, the road to tourism recovery is clear. As with any other recovery phase in the aftermath of any crisis, the restoration of normalcy in the life of the people in the community will require re-assessment and re-designing of policies, plans, and programs in order to speed up rehabilitation.
Jumpstarting regional economy by strengthening regional tourism require policy response, not only to address the demands of a re-awakened tourism industry, but as well as to meet current and emerging needs. Enabling legislation shall be a crucial element in establishing a more adaptive tourism economy – one that will be vibrant, diverse, and inclusive. Sustainable tourism will entail expanded collaboration not only among national governments, but as well as building partnerships with private and non-government sectors.
The future of the country’s tourism shall be largely shaped by the policy response of today. An integrated regional tourism policy for the Asia Pacific Region will be essential as the policies and actions of one country may have implications on the policies and actions of another.
MOVIEGOER: Landmark deal between ABS-CBN, GMA-7
by Nestor Cuartero
A landmark deal, a first in Philippine TV, is the recent agreement between ABS-CBN and GMA-7 in the production of a new tele-series to combine artists and creative talents from their respective camps.
“Unbreak My Heart” reunites the beloved loveteam between Jodi Santa Maria and Richard Yap, the couple who scored a major daytime, long-running hit out of an ABS-CBN series, Be Careful with My Heart. Joining them are Joshua Garcia and Gabbi Garcia, and other cast members coming from both sides of what used to be a network war.
Dreamscape, represented by its head, Deo Endrinal, is producing the series.
This recent tie-up between GMA-7 and ABS-CBN speaks well of growing cooperation in our television industry. It can result in improved quality in programming and fresh casting requirements that can eventually raise the bar for excellence, excitement and entertainment among viewers and advertisers alike.
Some might say said collaboration between the two giant networks couldn’t have occurred had not the pandemic happened, or had not ABS-CBN lost its franchise to operate. Be that as it may, what’s important is the end-result such collaboration can bring to the table of our consumers. “Unbreak” isn’t the first collab between the two major networks. Earlier, ABS-CBN assigned airing of Star Cinema movies to GMA. Network also airs some of its programs on TV5 and on its various digital platforms.
Five months after its theatrical run with not much success, Ngayon Kaya, is now being hailed, with sweet vindication, as the No. 1 Filipino movie on Netflix.
On a Facebook post, producing company T-Rex Entertainment thanked the public “for catapulting the romantic film on top of the universe and in your heart.”
Paulo Avelino and Janine Gutierrez co-star in Ngayon Kaya, directed by Prime Cruz and written by Jen Chuaunsu (the creative pair behind Isa Pa With Feelings and Can We Still Be Friends).
It tells the story of college buddies AM and Harold, an unlikely pair between a shy probinsiyano and a rich city girl who are college buddies-turned-band mates.
Harold had a crush on AM, but he never had the guts to tell her. Even after college, they stayed friends and continued pursuing their music dreams. Harold stifled his feelings for fear of losing her friendship. Eventually, time runs out for Harold when he’s forced to choose stability and work in Canada, leaving AM to wonder what could have been if Harold had stayed.
Ngayon Kaya features songs by Mayonnaise, Typecast, Ang Bandang Shirley.
The pressing and the precious
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By Fr. Roy Cimagala *
IN life, we have to learn how to give due attention and care to both the pressing things and the precious ones. In the end, we have to learn how to give due attention and care to all the different aspects and dimensions of our life: the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal, the short-run and the long-run, the emotional and the intellectual, the personal and the social, etc.
We are somehow reminded of this point in that gospel episode when Christ got angry at those who converted the temple into a marketplace and drove them away, but at the same time he did not neglect the task of continually preaching there. (cfr. Lk 19,45-48) It was a pressing matter for him to see to it that the dignity of the temple was kept while still pursuing the precious duty to preach.
This ability to know how to put these different aspects together will certainly require a discipline which would be composed of the results of our experiences, regular study of things and issues, examinations of conscience, a series of trial and error, etc. We should be willing to go through this discipline that will certainly involve effort, wins and losses, success and frustration.
But as long as we are humble enough to be realistic about our life, I believe we would not mind so much the heavy drama that will be involved. Such experiences will only enrich our lives!
We have to learn how to handle our emotions properly, because once they become too strong, they can displace our intelligence, and even our faith, that give us an overall picture of things. It’s not a matter of suppressing them, since that would be inhuman. It’s a matter of guiding them always, not allowing them to be simply on their own, since they lack the proper way of knowing things. Theirs is quite simple and shallow.
Our Catechism tells us that our emotions and passions are “movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.” (1763)
In fact, the Catechism tells us that our emotions and passions are “natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of mind.” (1764)
Thus, once properly formed and guided, they can be very powerful in helping us carry out our more precious duties of preaching, evangelizing, doing apostolate, etc. They offer an effective linkage to other people as we go through our duties and responsibilities, especially the spiritual ones.
Our emotions and passions therefore serve as a link between our body and soul. They are where we materialize what is spiritual in us, and spiritualize what is material in us. As such, they create a rich texture in our lives. They create the consistency proper to us as a person and as a child of God. They also help to give focus on our judgments, modulate our will, and add sensitivity to our reasoning.
In other words, they play a decisive role in achieving a happy and fully human life. They contribute to achieving the full potential of our humanity. But given the wounded condition of man, our emotions and passions need to be purified and thoroughly educated. They offer the link between the pressing and the precious in our life.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com