According to my foreign friends, these are some of the Filipino dishes they can’t resist.
For desserts, these are the ones they love.
You can read more about Filipino food here: Top Must-Try Filipino Dishes
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By Kristina Maralit and Aric John Sy Cua
December 21, 2022 1180
(UPDATE) TELEVISION personality and The Manila Times columnist Daphne Oseña Paez has been appointed as the official "press briefer" of the Palace.
Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) Officer in Charge Cheloy Garafil formally introduced Paez to the Malacañang Press Corps in a briefing on Tuesday.
Garafil said that Paez's main role will be to give the press briefer on "every activity, program of President [Ferdinand] Marcos Jr."
Paez, who earned her degrees in Fine Arts and History from the University of Toronto, began her career in media in the country in ABS-CBN as a news reporter in the 1990s. She was also the weather presenter of the late night English newscast, "The World Tonight."
As Malacañang's "explainer," Paez will "regularly be the source of updates from the Palace."
"I look forward to working with all of you in a harmonious and collegial manner because I am also one of you. I am very honored to be communicating the message and programs of this administration, of course, in an accurate and effective way and I will do my best," the 52-year-old said.
She likewise clarified that she is not the new Palace spokesman and that Marcos will still continue to "speak for himself."
"I am just here to support the Office of the Press Secretary for now," she said.
Paez told reporters that this is her first time working directly with the government.
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By Agence France-Presse
PARIS: Europe and North America have seen shortages of the key antibiotic amoxicillin and other medications as surging illnesses particularly among children have increased demand for the drugs.
Hospitals in many countries have come under pressure from a rising number of illnesses including what has been dubbed a "tripledemic" of Covid-19, influenza and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) which causes bronchiolitis.
But ramping up production of antibiotics has proved difficult for drug makers, particularly for cheap generic medicines that offer a slender profit margin.
What and where?
Amoxicillin is a member of the penicillins antibiotic family and is used to treat a range of bacterial illnesses, including chest and ear infections, often in children.
In France, the medicines regulator ANSM said last month that there are "strong supply tensions" for the version of amoxicillin most used by children, warning the situation could last until March.
Spain's medicines agency also warned last month of potential amoxicillin shortages.
Germany, too, has sounded the alarm about shortages of a range of drugs including amoxicillin and other antibiotics.
Last week, the UK government issued "serious shortage protocols" for three penicillin-based antibiotics.
The move came after at least 19 children died from Group A Streptococcus (Strep A), amid reports that doctors and parents are struggling to find antibiotics to treat the illness.
Outside of Europe, amoxicillin has been on the US Food and Drug Administration drug shortage database since October.
The FDA told AFP that it "is currently working with the approved manufacturers and others in the supply chain."
Other countries including Canada and Australia have also recently put amoxicillin on their list of drugs for which pharmacists are authorized to find substitute treatments.
What is causing the shortages?
Winter in the northern hemisphere has brought a particularly nasty influenza season as well as spikes in other viruses such as RSV. The surge comes after two years in which Covid measures such as quarantines, self-isolation and mask-wearing significantly decreased the rate of such illnesses.
Pharmaceutical companies who had cut back production because of the previously falling demand are now scrambling to meet skyrocketing orders, causing delays.
The producers of the drugs' active ingredients have also struggled with shortages.
Sandoz, the generic drug division of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, told AFP that the "stock shortages at our competitors also contribute to the unexpectedly high sales of our drugs, and therefore to additional supply difficulties."
Sign of a wider problem?
Antibiotics are old drugs whose patents have often fallen into the public domain, meaning that generic versions can be sold cheaply.
Drug makers therefore have little monetary incentive to produce such antibiotics. Indeed, even generics producers can struggle to maintain a significant profit.
Thomas Borel, the scientific director at LEEM which represents French drugs firms, said there had been insufficient investment from the industry "in view of the growing demand for this type of medicine."
He added that the economic model makes it difficult for drug makers "to recover their costs" when it comes to antibiotics.
Another issue is that only around 10 firms, most of them in Asia, still produce the active ingredients for amoxicillin.
Solutions?
In the short term, national health authorities have recommended that pharmacists and doctors substitute the drugs in short supply with other medications whenever possible, as well as limiting treatment duration.
Manufacturers including Britain's GSK have also ramped up production speed.
Sandoz said it has hired more staff and invested in upping production at its Kundl site in Austria.
More broadly, some industry specialists have called for a new business model that combines the needs of patients and those of the companies that produce such cheap drugs.
LEEM's Borel said "the pharmaceutical industry must be considered to be a strategic sector in which public authorities must be more vigilant than they have been in recent years."
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By Arlie O. Calalo, Manila Times
December 21, 2022
A low pressure area (LPA) has entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) but has less chance of turning into a tropical depression in the next 48 hours, the state-run weather agency said on Wednesday.
The LPA was spotted past 3 a.m. some 210 kilometers east-northeast of Davao City, according to weather forecaster Grace Castañeda of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).
She said the weather disturbance was less likely to escalate into a storm over the next two days but it may bring rain over Visayas and Mindanao.
Pagasa said the shear line, the point where the cold and warm air converge, is affecting the eastern section of Southern Luzon while the northeast monsoon locally known as "amihan" is affecting the rest of Luzon.
The rest of the country, meanwhile, may experience partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms due to the trough of LPA and localized thunderstorms, the weather bureau said.
