Delivery riders: What would a day be without them?

BY MANILA BULLETIN

Feb 23, 2025 00:03 AM 

 

It’s Sunday and many households will likely meet a delivery rider who will bring food, drinks, snacks, or gifts to their gates.  Because of delivery riders, many of us will be able to stay home and rest, yet still enjoy the usual weekend treats like gourmet coffee, traditional desserts, or hot meals.  

Delivery riders have long been the lifeline of modern commerce, ensuring that food, medicines, and essential goods reach customers efficiently. Their importance was never more evident than during the pandemic when they braved lockdowns, bad weather, and health risks to serve those following stay-at-home orders.

Even today, they continue to perform crucial services, from delivering food to transporting medical supplies and important documents, keeping households and businesses running smoothly. Yet many riders work long hours, relying on fluctuating customer demand and incentive structures that often fail to provide a stable income.  If there are less delivery jobs for the day, many of them stay on to work up to 16 hours to make up for the loss of expected income for the day.  Tips from customers contribute a lot to their income.
According to a 2022 report By the Oxford Internet Institute and the "Fairwork," WZB Berlin Social Science Center's research project, there are about 85,000 delivery riders in the Philippines, a number that has increased by today. The study said a rider has a compensation below the minimum wage.

Despite their essential role, most delivery riders remain classified as independent contractors, or “partners,” operating as third-party hires without the basic benefits afforded to regular employees. This means they lack regular wages, healthcare, and job security, exposing them to financial instability.

Two Senate bills were filed in 2022 seeking to protect delivery riders and other workers in the gig economy which relies on short-term and freelance work provided by online platforms for a certain service. The bills are Senate Bill No. 1275 also known as the Delivery Platform Riders Protection Act of 2022 filed by Senator Francis Tolentino as principal author; and Senate Bill no. 1373 also known as Protektado ng Online Workers, Entrepreneurs, Riders at Raketera (POWERR) Act of 2022, filed by Senator Risa Hontiveros. 

Senate Bill No. 1275 seeks to provide delivery platform riders with fair wages, job security, and social protection under the Labor Code.  The bill aims to establish an employer-employee relationship between digital platform companies and riders, ensuring they receive the same benefits as other workers, including the 13th-month pay, PhilHealth, Social Security System (SSS), and Pag-IBIG contributions. Additionally, it mandates protections such as holiday pay, night shift differentials, and occupational safety standards.

The two Senate Bills pushing for this legislation is a step toward addressing the vulnerabilities faced by delivery riders and gig workers. Without legal safeguards, they remain at risk of unstable income, and a lack of protection in times of illness or accidents. By integrating them into the formal labor force, the proposed bill would provide the dignity and security they deserve.

The government, digital platforms, and society must recognize their contributions and support efforts to provide them with just compensation and security.  Making these changes possible faster needs more study by management experts who can work out a fair solution to breaking the lines between “partners” to “employees.”

Meanwhile, delivery riders could use all the kindness and generosity from customers. If you’re ordering food or drinks, include an item for him.  And don’t forget to give a tip.  Just think: what would a day without delivery riders be like? 

 

The sacred in every day

‘There is something powerful about how a piece of clothing, worn and lived in, becomes a vessel for memory.’

BY S.C. FOJAS

Feb 22, 2025 09:25 AM

  

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APARISYON oil on canvas, 40x30 inches, 2024

 

For Alee Garibay, the sacred resides not just in the grand cathedrals or ancient temples, but in the everyday objects that shape our lives. In “Poón,” her latest exhibit, she explored this concept and transformed ordinary items into powerful symbols of belief and devotion. 

 

The title itself, derived from the Filipino term for an object of veneration, set the stage for an exploration of how the sacred is consecrated through everyday objects.

 

ALEE GARIBAY

 

“The word poón carried weight—it signified something revered, held onto, and in many ways surrendered to,” said Garibay. “This exhibit was about tracing that tension, the way faith, memory, and materiality intertwined. I found myself drawn to how objects, over time, became vessels for belief. They were touched, prayed over, carried in pockets, and displayed in homes and altars. They accumulated stories. In the exhibit, I reflected on how these objects didn’t just depict the divine but, in some way, absorbed it and transformed it into something else.”

 

Garibay’s works combined abstract and figurative elements, where text emerged as a powerful visual component. “Text, for me, was another kind of mark-making,” she explained. “It wasn’t just there to be read. It was part of the body of the painting. I liked how words can function like relics, something etched onto surfaces over time, shaping how we see and understand an image. Text in my work functioned beyond inscription. It breathed within the composition, blurred the boundaries between ornament and flesh. Graphemes, words, and phrases did not simply label. They carried weight, existing as both visual and conceptual elements.”

 

BAGONG PARAISO oil on canvas, 40x30 inches, 2024

 

For Garibay, the text mirrored the way faith is inscribed into objects, bodies, and culture. According to her, language is powerful in that way, dictating meaning and at the same time unraveling it.  

BARO oil on canvas, 48x48 inches, 2024

 

The artist’s process was deeply intuitive, driven by a desire to capture the essence of the subjects that captivated her. “I spent time gathering images, sometimes from history, sometimes from everyday encounters, things that feel charged, that lingered,” she said. “From there, I sketched, layered, and let the painting take shape. Gesture is important to me. There’s something about the act of painting itself—the weight of the brush, the pressure of the hand—that made an image more than just representation. It became a presence.”

 

MABUTI oil on canvas, 40x26 inches, 2024

 

More than a collection of paintings, “Poón” was an invitation to contemplation. “I didn’t want to dictate how people should see the work,” said Garibay. “More than anything, I hope “Poón” created a space for reflection. There was a familiarity in the imagery—figures, relics, fragments of faith—but I wanted to leave room for questions. What made something sacred? Is it the object or is it what we project onto it?”

 

EMPERATRIS oil on canvas, 24x20 inches, 2024

 

 

When asked about her favorite pieces in the exhibit, Garibay highlighted Baro and Bagong Paraiso. Baro, she explained, “was deeply rooted in my fascination with garments, not just as coverings but as carriers of history, devotion, and identity. There is something powerful about how a piece of clothing, worn and lived in, becomes a vessel for memory.”

 

BAGONG PARAISO oil on canvas, 40x30 inches, 2024

 

“Bagong Paraiso,” she continued, “was more of a reckoning, a tension between the ideal and the real, between lushness and transience. The interplay of flora and figures suggested something both abundant and fleeting, like a paradise that is at once promised and precarious. These works, like the rest of the series, were about how we seek permanence in things that are, by nature, impermanent.”

 

SAGRADO oil on canvas, 24x20 inches, 2024

 

Garibay’s work, with its rich textures and colors, prompted a deeper appreciation for the sacred within the ordinary. 

 

SANTA oil on canvas, 48x36 inches, 2024

 

“Poón” ran until Jan. 30 at Cartellino inside Galerie Stephanie on the sixth floor of the East Wing at Shangri-La Plaza Edsa.

Oscar favorite ‘Anora’ wins best film, director and actor at Independent Spirit Awards

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Feb 23, 2025 09:48 AM

  

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AT A GLANCE

• The Spirit Awards, held in a beachside tent in Santa Monica, California, is the shaggier, more irreverent sister to the Academy Awards, celebrating the best in independent film and television.

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Mikey Madison (AP) 

CALIFORNIA (AP) - Sean Baker’s “Anora” won best film, best director and best actor for Mikey Madison at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday in what could be a preview of next Sunday’s Oscars: The film about a Brooklyn sex worker and her whirlwind affair with a Russian oligarch’s son has emerged in recent weeks as an awards season front-runner.

The Spirit Awards, held in a beachside tent in Santa Monica, California, is the shaggier, more irreverent sister to the Academy Awards, celebrating the best in independent film and television.

Host Aidy Bryant called it “Hollywood’s third or fourth biggest night.” 

In accepting the directing prize, Baker spoke passionately about the difficulty of making independent films in an industry that is no longer able to fund riskier films. He said indies are in danger of becoming calling card films — movies made only as a means to get hired for bigger projects.

“The system has to change because this is simply unsustainable,” Baker said to enthusiastic applause. “We shouldn’t be barely getting by.”

“Anora’s” best film competition included Jane Schoenbrun’s psychological horror “I Saw the TV Glow,” RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s “Nickel Boys,” Greg Kwedar’s incarceration drama “Sing Sing” and Coralie Fargeat’s body horror “The Substance.”

This year had several other possible Oscar winners celebrating. Kieran Culkin, considered an Oscar favorite, won the supporting performance award for “A Real Pain.” His director, co-star and writer Jesse Eisenberg won best screenplay for the film about two cousins embarking on a Holocaust tour in Poland. 

Culkin was not there to accept — he also missed his BAFTA win last weekend to tend to a family member — but other Oscar nominees like Madison and Demi Moore were.

Madison won the top acting prize over Moore at the BAFTAs last weekend, as well, and stopped Saturday to pet Moore’s dog Pilaf on the way to the stage. Acting categories for the Spirit Awards are gender neutral and include 10 spots each, meaning Madison and Moore were up against Oscar nominees like Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”) and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”).

The documentary prize went to “No Other Land,” the lauded film by a Palestinian-Israeli collective about the destruction of a village in the West Bank which doesn’t have distribution. It’s also a strong Oscar contender in a competitive category. The filmmakers were not in attendance to accept the award.

“Flow,” the wordless animated Latvian cat film, won best international film. At the Oscars, it’s competing in the international film category and animation.

While the Spirit Award winners don’t always sync up with the academy, they can often reflect a growing consensus as in the “Everything Everywhere All At Once” year. The awards limit eligibility to productions with budgets of $30 million or less, meaning more expensive Oscar nominees like “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two” were not in the running.

Sean Wang accepted best first feature and best first screenplay prizes for “Dìdi.” He said it was special to be sharing the stage with one of his stars, Joan Chen, who was also nominated for the same award 25 years ago for “Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl.” 

The Netflix phenomenon “Baby Reindeer” also picked up several prizes, for actors Richard Gadd, Jessica Gunning and Nava Mau.

Mau, who is trans, spoke about the importance of actors sticking together “as we move into this next chapter.”

“We don’t know what is going to happen, but we do know our power,” Mau said. “We are the people and our labor is everything.”

Other television winners included “Shōgun,” for best new scripted series, and “How to Die Alone,” for best ensemble.

“How to Die Alone” creator and star Natasha Rothwell was emotional while accepting the ensemble prize. The show was recently canceled after its first season.

Rothwell said it was “a show about the need to feel seen, to be valued just as you are.”

“For Black stories, visibility isn’t a privilege: It is a necessity,” Rothwell said. “We deserve to take up space, to be complex, to be hilarious and to be fully human.”

The generally lighthearted show took a moment to acknowledge the impact of the wildfires on Los Angeles. Bryant made a plea to anyone watching the show, in the audience or on the YouTube livestream, to help rebuild L.A. She pointed to a QR code that appeared on the livestream to make donations to the Film Independent Emergency Filmmaker Relief Fund, providing grants to alumni impacted by the wildfires.

The show also paid tribute to longtime Film Independent president Josh Welsh, who died earlier this year at age 62. Welsh had colon cancer.

Bryant said in her opening that it had been a “great year for film and a bad year for human life.” The “Saturday Night Live” alum kicked off the event ribbing some of the nominees, like Emma Stone.

“Emma was a producer on four nominated projects tonight,” Bryant said. “But even more importantly, her hair is short now.”

Stone also featured prominently in Eisenberg’s speech, when he picked up the best screenplay prize for “A Real Pain.” Since they met on the set of “Zombieland” in 2009, he said, she’s been supportive of his writing despite being “the most famous person I know” and produced both of his films.

“I think of her not as my producer, but as a fairy godmother, like I’m riding the coattails for her goodwill,” Eisenberg said.

The camera cut to Stone, teary and moved, in the audience. She and her husband Dave McCary’s production company Fruit Tree also produced Julio Torres’ “Problemista” and “Fantasmas” and Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow.”

“I Saw the TV Glow” went into the show tied with “Anora” with six nominations. It left with only one, for producer Sarah Winshall.

At 72, I can bring a little credibility

From my own experience, here are three things to avoid after 70. 

1.Most other 70-year old. That sounds cruel — and it may blow a big hole in my circle of friends, many of whom are 70+ and who I do love and cherish. I suspect I may have some explaining and repair work to do. But here’s my rationale.

Many, if not most, 70-year-olds are innocently in the “decay mode”, attitudinally and biologically, with resignation to the myths of automatic senescence and accelerating physical decline. Dinner conversations rarely progress beyond the latest knee replacement or shoulder surgery, concerns about memory lapses, or a friend with this or that malady.

I’ve started calling them “organ recitals.”
“Getting old isn’t for sissies” and “aging is a bitch” are common cliches.

Rarely does the conversation swing to how to continue to honor one’s birthright of good health and counter the accelerating decline with good practices that should have been a part of life all along.

There is little appreciation for “it’s never too late to start, but always too early to quit.”

As an outspoken advocate for living to 100 or beyond (I’ve set my target at 112 1/2), I’ve learned not to bring it up at gatherings of my 70-something friends as I’ve endured enough derision to know not to put my hand on that hot stove again. The repulsion is deep and wide.

Famed motivational speaker, Jim Rohn said: “You rise to the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Selfishly, as time squeezes in, I ask myself how can I grow through this relationship and is this person open to considering that life doesn’t need to be one of accelerating decline.

I love hanging with a kick-ass 70-year old who is relaunching and not landing. But there’s a lot of chaff and not a lot of that type of wheat in our demographic.

Edith Wharton once said: “In spite of illness, in spite of even the arch-enemy, sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.”

Maybe it’s just my circle, but I don’t find many that peer into elderhood with excitement or have that “unafraid of change, insatiable curiosity, big thinking” attitude.

I’m more inclined to find it existing in the youngers and suggest that, as 70-year old, we are better served by increasing our efforts to hang with the generations behind us with two thoughts in mind: (1) to grow and learn from their creativity and energy and (2) to help guide them with our acquired wisdom and experience.

If you would like a big dose of the logic behind this and the results of this type of effort, check out Chip Conley and his book “Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder.”

2.The retirement trap. OK, here again, I’m trespassing and entering sacred ground. But the evidence is there to support this heretic suggestion. The traditional leisure-based, “vocation to vacation” retirement that has been pounded into our heads for 5–6 decades is a Trojan-horse that has led several generations into a lifestyle counter to our biological nature and to a pattern of “living short and dying long” in the western cultures where it exists.

Retirement doesn’t exist in nature nor did it exist anywhere on the planet 150 years ago. It’s a Euro-American concept that doesn’t exist in many countries, some of which can claim the longest-living citizens.

It is a concept constructed for political purposes and has no relevance to today’s world.

Retirement puts us on a path to accelerated biological decline because it implies “winding down” is preferable to staying in the growth mode. We are given only two choices with our bodies and brains — grow or decay. Retirement, which is derived from the French verb “retirer” which means retreat or go backward, can put us on the decay path — and does for most.

What are the fruits of traditional, leisure-based retirement? Here a few that we see that are not-life enhancing:

Increased isolation — a major killer.
Sedentary living — despite best intentions, most retirees fail to maintain adequate exercise to sustain good health.
Self-indulgence — we are wired to serve. Retirement says you’ve paid that price and earned the right to be a self-indulgent consumer and to abandon being a selfless producer.
Removal of work from the lifestyle. Work is a key factor in longevity — retirement takes us in the other direction.
Fortunately, we are waking up to the fallacy and irrelevance of traditional retirement as we find ourselves in the unfamiliar territory of having a 20–40-year longevity bonus. Un-retirement and semi-retirement now represent a rapidly developing trend.

3. Drifting. Because, as boomers and pre-boomers, we’ve been indoctrinated to covet the leap from labor to leisure, most of us move into that “third age” space between end-of-career and true-old age without a roadmap or plan for what that now-extended period is going to look like. We are now in new territory with 20–40 more years with limited precedents to guide us.

The result, for many, is entering an extended period of life in a drift, feeling their way through at the expense of the reservoir of energy and drive that exists in the early stages of this phase.

For example, we know that 2 of 3 retirements commence with no semblance of a non-financial plan that addresses the mental, physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual sides of life in this new territory.

Retirement can be like an iceberg, drifting and with little of the realities of retired life on the surface. It can become a purposeless, drifting, unfocused time of life that can put us on the path to accelerated deterioration.

Dan Sullivan, renowned business and entrepreneur coach and founder of Strategic Coach, says:

People die early for three reasons:

No money
No friends
No purpose.

A successful, healthy third-age requires a plan, a sense of purpose, a direction. Without it, we waste the talents, skills, experience, and energy that still reside in us as 70-year old.

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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.

The Philippines and me in 2025

 

In summary, the Philippines in 2024 is grappling with a multitude of social issues ranging from religious influence, political reforms, cultural identity, citizenship paradigms, government communication, sexual behavior, labor migration, indigenous rights, social responsibility in healthcare, and international economic ...

The Philippines faces a warmer future with rising temperatures, shifting rainfall, and intense tropical cyclones. Climate models project significant risks to agriculture, infrastructure, ecosystems, and public health by the century's end.

The economy has sustained its strong momentum, growing 6.0 percent in the first half of 2024, placing it among the top growth performers in the region. As a result of continued recovery and reforms, the Philippines is on track to transition from lower-middle to upper-middle-income status this fiscal year.

Philippines society is facing numerous social issues that need urgent and prompt solutions, including poverty and inequality, corruption, education inequities, health care inequalities, substance abuse issues related to women and children, and violence against Filipino migrants or overseas workers – these being among ...

Filipino society is based on economic class rather than on clans or totemic groups. The primary difference is that the former consists of strata that are formally and inherently subservient one to another.

We are ( and count me in )  a nation rich in potential. Our abundant natural and human capital resources position us to become a first-world country by 2050. With projections supporting the strength of the Philippine economy, the country is poised to be the 16th top economy in the world by 2050 and the top 12th economy by 2075.

Unfortunately, the majority of the Filipino youth undergoes many problems. According to the Philippine government, poverty, lack of education, drug or substance abuse, vice, crime, and unemployment are among the top issues Filipino youth of today are facing.

One's position in the social class hierarchy may impact, for example, health, family life, education, religious affiliation, political participation, and experience with the criminal justice system.

Social status is the relative level of social value a person is considered to possess. Such social values include respect, honor, assumed competence, and deference. On one hand, social scientists view status as a "reward" for group members who treat others well and take initiative.

I have been living in this wonderful country since 1999 without leaving to any other part of the world. Why? My wife (Filipina with German passport) makes my life in the Philippines more than lovable. GRABE. 

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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook and LinkedIn or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.

“Let charity with ardor blaze”

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

I SAW that phrase in one of the daily prayers for priests, the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Breviary. It struck me immediately since it reminded me of how charity should be. It should be ardent, never cold, and blazing, never like a dying ember.

Indeed, charity which is none other than a vital participation and the very expression of the love that is the very essence of God as shown in full by Christ, cannot be other than that. Despite our weaknesses, we should just try to develop such kind of charity since that would identify us with God as we should, his image and likeness as we are.

Remember the description of charity made by St. Paul: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor 13,4-7)

And in the Song of Solomon, we have this description of charity: “For love is as strong as death, and ardor is as relentless as the netherworld.” (8,6)

We have to realize more deeply that we are made for charity and we should try our best to develop that charity in ourselves, if we want to be consistent to our basic identity and dignity as God’s image and likeness, sharers of his divine life and nature.

We, of course, have to continually ask for God’s grace to enable us to develop and grow in charity. But what can help us also is to develop that attitude of being pro-active in loving everyone, irrespective of how they are to us. Whether they are friendly to us or not, helpful to us or not, etc., we should take the initiative to love them, not only in terms of intentions and sweet words, but most importantly in terms of deeds, of service that should be done gratuitously.

We have to be wary of our tendency to judge others based only on what we know so far of them. Again, let’s remember what St. Paul said in this regard: “Love never fails,” he said. “But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” (1 Cor 13,8-11)

Our judgment on others, based only our limited knowledge of them, can at best be only tentative. What should always abide in our relationship with others should be charity. That is why Christ even went to the extent of commanding us to “love our enemies.”

It’s when we have this pro-active attitude of charity that we can manage to be always in good spirit, full of desire to do a lot of good, to understand everyone, to find excuses for whatever faults and failures we see in others and in ourselves. It’s when our charity would indeed be with blazing ardor.

Obviously, for this to happen, we should be willing to make sacrifices and to suffer, because we cannot deny that we all have our weaknesses and mistakes. But then, if we have the proper understanding of these conditions, we know that they give us the chance to grow more in charity.