Philippines to declare state of calamity at Boracay Island

By: ELLIE ABEN 

An aerial view of Boracay Island in the central Philippines. (Shutterstock)

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday that he will declare a state of calamity in world-famous Boracay island amid continuing environmental concerns.

Twice named as the best island in the world in Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards, Boracay has been a popular destination with tourists who are drawn to its white, talcum-powder fine sands and warm, crystalline waters.

In recent years urban and environmental planners have been warning of environmental degradation at the resort which in 2017 posted a record 2,001,974 tourist arrivals.

In February, the president himself labelled Boracay a “cesspool,” describing its waters as “smelly.”

“You go into the water, it’s smelly. Smell of what? Shit,” Duterte said. He then ordered Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to clean up Boracay within six months.

Following the president’s directive, a “mission team” was deployed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to serve notices to establishments initially found to have violated environmental laws.

Members of the team likewise went to check if the establishments are properly connected to the main sewer lines or have their own wastewater treatment facilities, at the same time, identify those directly discharging untreated wastewater into Boracay waters.

Reports indicate that over 60 establishments, including five-star resorts, were found draining their untreated sewage water directly into the sea.

In his speech during the oath-taking of new government officials in Malacanang on Tuesday, the president announced that he was placing Boracay under a state of calamity.

He explained that this action would allow the government to extend assistance to those who are displaced financially.

Interior and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) officer-in-charge Eduardo Ano has been put under orders by Duterte to “put an end” to Boracay’s problem in six months.

The president appealed to the public to work with the government to clean the island.

Meanwhile, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III declared his support for a plan to close some parts of Boracay to tourists from June 1 to July 31.

“We must carefully assess the damage to the local environment and take the necessary steps for the clean-up. The process is more easily done and more effective if there are no tourists around,” Pimentel said.

He added that while he understood the difficulty involved in closing the island for two months, he added: “It will be good in the long run for all stakeholders, including the tourists who are there for the natural beauty of the island.”

He noted that closing tourist destinations to preserve them is nothing new, as Thailand closed Koh Tachai island in May 2016 when record numbers of tourists threatened the natural environment.

Enjoying Lazy Days

ENJOYING LAZY DAYS

My column for BusinessWeek Mindanao

An exciting week is still ahead! Several meetings and seminars with business people are waiting. And another great event. I am blessed and very happy looking forward to the Tagum City Musikahan Festival - engaging the world through the language of the soul. Thank you so much Honorable Mayor Allan L. Rellen for the invitation.

Indeed, you don't get anything for nothing in life. This is our life's main motto. This is our biography's epigraph - whether we like it or not. Many times, I stressed this already in different write-ups in distinct publications.

I am on my veranda as I write this, and although the month of March has just begun, only a few people seem to be in summer mood. Yes, also today the sky is cloudy and looks like rain. But a wonderful summer (?) breeze is around me, more and more flowers in my big garden are blooming. Summer or not - I am thinking again about some lazy days -somehow somewhere in future ... !

Hurray, doing nothing is really something. No, I am not talking about those people, who just hang out day-by-day and week-by-week by doing nothing and -maybe- just fed by someone. No, I mean doing nothing is really something great after a period  of really hard work. By the way, it doesn't matter, if it regards us or our children. 

Talking about our children: School vacations are coming soon, and yes, children also deserve several lazy days. If I talk about my nephews and nieces here, I am surprised to learn: summer school vacations are not equal to three months total laziness. There are dance-, gymnastic- or piano lessons as well as summer classes. Great, guys! I like that!

Of course, time off should be really time off. Days by the beach - with family or alone. Let's stay outside and do absolutely nothing structured. I love to do drawings, more write-ups (that's not work for me!) or reading. There are still books in my library, which need to be 'discovered'.

I still remember several lazy summer days, sitting in the blazing sun (shouldn't be done anymore of course!), eating a Popsicle, getting all sticky, and running away from the bees. Of course, while still in Germany, those old lazy summer days turned into lazy winter days too. Lazy days shaped and characterized my whole (especially professional) life until now.

Relaxation, meditation and reinvigoration are needed. Life, affected by the "burnout syndrom" needs to reanimate with energy. So let's rest for a while to acquire new energy. HAPPY SUMMER DAYS!

Aguirre lauds Philippine Accession to Budapest Convention

By Jeffrey Damicog, Manila Bulletin

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has lauded the country’s decision to join global efforts to fight cybercrime.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II
(Kevin Tristan Espiritu / MANILA BULLETIN)

The Senate on February 19 concurred with the Philippines’ accession to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime which was signed by President Duterte way back in December 2016.

“Our accession to the Convention will level the playing field between the Philippines and foreign counterparts in pursuing a common criminal policy aimed at the protection of society against cybercrimes,” Aguirre said in a statement.

“Indeed, it is a most welcome development. Thank you President Duterte and thank you to the senators who supported this milestone undertaking,” he stated.

With its accession, the Philippines will be joining 56 other countries as party to the Convention.

The Budapest Convention provides the needed mechanisms for the eradication of cybercrimes by facilitating their detection, investigation and prosecution both locally and internationally.

It will also provide arrangements for rapid and reliable international cooperation.

One of the main features of the convention is the establishment of central authorities which will enable State-parties to ensure the provision of immediate assistance for investigation and prosecution of cybercrime and cyber-related cases as well as for the collection of electronic evidence which may be situated anywhere in the world.

Under Republic Act No. 10175 (the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012), the Office of Cybercrime of the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be designated as the Ccntral authority in all matters related to international mutual assistance and extradition for cybercrime and cyber-related cases.

Tourism remains vibrant in Boracay

By Ellalyn De Veraruiz, Manila Bulletin

Boracay Island – Officials of the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Tourism (DOT) conducted an aerial inspection of Boracay Island on Thursday, ahead of the Senate onsite investigation on the escalating environmental degradation in the world-famous beach resort in Aklan.

According to DENR Undersecretary and spokesman Jonas Leones, the officials are gathering sufficient evidence on the extent of pollution and contamination of its waters.

After the aerial inspection, the officials gathered for an inter-agency meeting in preparation for the Senate investigation this Friday.

DOT Secretary Wanda Teo, DENR Undersecretary Ernesto Adobo, and DENR Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna, among others, were present during the meeting.

Teo noted that even amid reports of environmental problems in Boracay, tourism remains vibrant in the island.

But Mario, a 32-year-old hat vendor in Boracay who declined to reveal his surname, said that since the government’s plan to temporary close the island from tourism activities was made public, it has affected his and other ambulant vendors’ livelihood.

Mario, who relies on the crowds for his livelihood, said there were fewer tourists coming to the island in the past few days.

It has become evident with his regular earnings from an average of P8,000 per day, which is now down to about P2,000-P3,000 per day.

He said most of the ambulant vendors in Boracay have been complaining of lesser earnings.

Selling hats has been his family’s only source of livelihood for the past four years.

And with seven children to feed, the closure of Boracay island to tourist activities will inflict a huge blow on Mario’s family.

Should the government implements the temporary closure of the island to ease the negative impact of heavy tourism, he said he will just follow what the government deems beneficial for Boracay.

Another vendor, Rene, said he will just look for an alternative livelihood for the meantime. He has been selling sunglasses to tourists and visitors for the past four years.

The fate of the vendors and establishment workers in the island will partly rely on the decision of the Senate after its investigation scheduled this Friday.

The Senate will conduct an onsite inspection of the island before the Senate-led inquiry in the afternoon.

One of the issues that they will look into is the compliance of resorts and establishments to existing environment and tourism laws.

The roughly 1,000-hectare Boracay Island recently made headlines when President Duterte threatened to close it due to overdevelopment, congestion, and escalating environmental degradation.

Tags: Boracay Island, DENR, DENR Undersecretary Ernesto Adobo, DENR Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna, DOT Secretary Wanda Teo, environment and tourism, Jonas Leones, the Senate, Tourism remains vibrant in Boracay – Tourism chief

Philippine Penny Stocks Spark Gold Rush

By 

Cecilia Yap

 and 

Ian C Sayson

• There’s a gold rush in Philippine telecom minnows and everybody’s invited. For now.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to award a new telecommunications license has sparked a frenzy as speculators bid up the prices of once-forgotten penny stocks which may benefit from the shakeup of the sector’s current duopoly of PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc.

NOW Corp.’s market value has surged almost 400 percent so far this year on wagers the broadband service provider will be part of a new consortium to challenge the incumbents. Its market value of about 21 billion pesos ($403 million) is 8,400 times the 2.5 million pesos in net income it posted in 2016. Earlier this month, it became more valuable than GMA Network Inc., the nation’s second-largest broadcaster, which earned 3.6 billion pesos during the same period.

EasyCall Communications Philippines Inc., a former 1990s provider of paging services that’s seeking to build a wireless broadband network, has risen over 1400 percent since the end of November. Transpacific Broadband Group International Inc., a satellite station operator, is up more than 200 percent over the same period. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index has eked out a miserly 3 percent gain in comparison.

The ongoing interest was evident in trading Wednesday. EasyCall was up 49 percent and Transpacific 13 percent as of 11:39 a.m. in Manila. The benchmark stock index was down 1.2 percent.

The Philippines will bid out a new telecom license in the first half of 2018, a process set in motion by Duterte’s invitation in November to Premier Li Keqiang for a Chinese company to invest in the sector and improve services. The bidding was moved to May from an original plan of March upon the request of contenders, said Eliseo Rio, acting head at the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

The proposal sparked investor interest in potential domestic partners for any Chinese bidders, and NOW, EasyCall and Transpacific Broadband are among the 10 biggest gainers this year in the all-share index. Bets that they can leverage their franchises, existing operations and listed status to potential overseas bidders will likely continue until the bidding, according to Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO Unibank Inc.

“This gives hope to small, listed telecommunication companies that they could be the third major player,” Ravelas said. “The government probably wants a company that can be up and running immediately.”

Read: Terms of telco bidding to be changed, perks to be added

The speculation has even spread even to some real estate shares, according to market participants.

Golden Haven Inc., a builder of memorial parks that expanded into mass housing, has seen its shares surge over 1,300 percent this year on speculation its billionaire owner Manuel Villar will use the company to list his telecom venture that will bid for the frequencies the government will sell. Even Villar’s Starmalls Inc., a shopping mall builder, has risen over 170 percent in 2018 on the same speculation.

However, to some in the market, the rally has gone too far and there is a growing risk of a pullback. Rachelle Cruz, an analyst at AP Securities Inc. in Manila, is cautious on the sector given the speculative nature of the moves, even for shareholders of the company which gets the license.

“Share prices are already stratospheric and will likely collapse once the bidding is over,” she said. “Even the winner would see its stock collapse because raising the capital it needs will lead to massive dilution while its first five years of operations isn’t likely to be profitable.”

Gains in the stocks will moderate as the bidding nears, with the realization that the winner can’t build the business overnight, said Paul Michael Angelo, an analyst at Regina Capital Development Corp. “The incumbents will put up a tough competition,” he said.

As for the companies themselves, they aren’t convinced by the naysayers, preferring to highlight the logic they see behind the moves.

“There is irrational speculation, there’s rational speculation,” NOW President Mel Velarde said of his company which this month won a renewal of its franchise for another 25 years. “In this particular space, we are in the right spot and we want to seize this opportunity.”

— With assistance by Clarissa Batino

Nobody is perfect?

My column BusinessWeek Mindanao

Many of us believe perfectionism is a positive. You may count me in.

More often than I’d like to admit, something seemingly inconsequential will cause the same feeling to rear its head again. Something as small as accidentally squashing the makeup I was bringing my first girlfriend’s family for Christmas can tumble around in my mind for several days, accompanied by occasional voices like “How stupid!” and “You should have known better”.

Falling short of a bigger goal, even when I know achieving it would be near-impossible, can temporarily flatten me. When a former agent told me that she knew I was going to write a book someday but that the particular idea I’d pitched her didn’t suit the market, I felt deflated in a gut-punching way that went beyond disappointment. The negative drowned out the positive. “You’re never going to write a book,” my internal voice said. “You’re not good enough.” That voice didn’t care that this directly contradicted what the agent actually said. And, up to now, I didn't finish my first book, yet... .

That’s the thing about perfectionism. It takes no prisoners.

If I’ve struggled with perfectionism, I’m far from alone. The tendency starts young – and it’s becoming more common. Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill’s recent meta-analysis of rates of perfectionism from 1989 to 2016, the first study to compare perfectionism across generations, found significant increases among more recent undergraduates in the US, UK and Canada. In other words, the average college student last year was much more likely to have perfectionistic tendencies than a student in the 1990's or early 2000's.

It's heading toward an epidemic and public health issue. It's a great quotation from Katie Rasmussen.

“As many as two in five kids and adolescents are perfectionists,” says Katie, who researches child development and perfectionism at West Virginia University. “We’re starting to talk about how it’s heading toward an epidemic and public health issue.”

The rise in perfectionism doesn’t mean each generation is becoming more accomplished. It means we’re getting sicker, sadder and even undermining our own potential.

Here is another great example: a perfectionist, French Claude Monet often destroyed his paintings in a temper while saying, ‘My life has been nothing but a failure'.

Perfectionism, after all, is an ultimately self-defeating way to move through the world. It is built on an excruciating irony: making, and admitting, mistakes is a necessary part of growing and learning and being human. It also makes you better at your career and relationships and life in general. By avoiding mistakes at any cost, a perfectionist can make it harder to reach their own lofty goals.

But the drawback of perfectionism isn’t just that it holds you back from being your most successful, productive self. Perfectionistic tendencies have been linked to a laundry list of clinical issues: depression and anxiety (even in children), self-harm, social anxiety disorder and agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, binge eating, anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, insomnia, hoarding, dyspepsia, chronic headaches, and, most damning of all, even early mortality and suicide.

“It’s something that cuts across everything, in terms of psychological problems,” says Sarah Egan, a senior research fellow at the Curtin University in Perth who specialises in perfectionism, eating disorders and anxiety.

Culturally, I learned, we often see perfectionism as a positive. Even saying you have perfectionistically tendencies can come off as a coy compliment to yourself; it’s practically a stock answer to the “What’s your worst trait?” question in job interviews. (Past employers, now you know! I wasn’t just being cute).

This is where perfectionism gets complicated – and controversial. Some researchers say there is adaptive, or ‘healthy’ perfectionism (characterised by having high standards, motivation and discipline) versus a maladaptive, or ‘unhealthy’ version (when your best never seems good enough and not meeting goals frustrates you). In one study of more than 1,000 Chinese students, researchers found that gifted students were more perfectionistic in the adaptive ways. (Maladaptive perfectionists, on the other hand, were more likely to be non-gifted). And while research shows that maladaptive attributes like beating yourself up for mistakes or feeling like you can’t live up to parental expectations make you more vulnerable to depression, some other studies have shown that ‘adaptive’ aspects like striving for achievement have no effect at all or may even protect you.

It is difficult to tell who is motivated and conscientious and who is a perfectionist. In my daily teaching at the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City, I meet the student who works hard and gets a poor mark. If she/her tells herself: “I’m disappointed, but it’s okay; I’m still a good person overall,” that’s healthy. If the message is: “I’m a failure. I’m not good enough,” that’s perfectionism.

That inner voice criticises different things for different people – work, relationships, tidiness, fitness. My own tendencies may differ greatly from somebody else’s. It can take someone who knows me well to pick up on them. (When I messaged one of my friends I was writing this story, he immediately sent back a long line of laughing emojis).

Perfectionists can make smooth sailing into a storm, a brief ill wind into a category-five hurricane. At the very least, they perceive it that way. And, because the ironies never end, the behaviors perfectionists adapt ultimately, actually, do make them more likely to fail.

Thinking of perfectionism, makes me think of my own childhood peppered with avoiding (or starting and quitting) almost every sport there was. If I wasn’t adept at something almost from the get-go, I didn’t want to continue – especially if there was an audience watching. In fact, multiple studies have found a correlation between perfectionism and performance anxiety even in children as young as 10.

Mental health problems aren’t just caused by perfectionism; some of these problems can lead to perfectionism, too. One recent study, for example, found that over a one-year period, college students who had social anxiety were more likely to become perfectionists – but not vice versa.

When it comes to the most dramatic example, suicide, numerous studies also have found that perfectionism is a lethal contributor all on its own. One found that perfectionism made depressed patients more likely to think about suicide even above and beyond feelings of hopelessness. A recent meta-analysis, the most complete on the suicide-perfectionism link to date, found that nearly every perfectionistic tendency – including being concerned over mistakes, feeling like you are never good enough, having critical parents, or simply having high personal standards – was correlated with thinking about suicide more frequently. (The two exceptions: being organised or demanding of others).

Some of those criteria, particularly pressure from parents and perfectionistic concerns, also were correlated with more suicide attempts.

In many ways, poorer health outcomes for perfectionists aren’t that surprising. “Perfectionists are pretty much awash with stress. Even when it’s not stressful, they’ll typically find a way to make it stressful,” says Gordon Flett, who has studied perfectionism for more than 30 years and whose assessment scale developed with Paul Hewitt is considered a gold standard. Plus, he says, if your perfectionism finds an outlet in, say, workaholism, it’s unlikely you’ll take many breaks to relax – which we now know both our bodies and brains require for healthy functioning.

After all, many of us live in societies where the first question when you meet someone is what you do for a living. Where we are so literally valued for the quality and extent of our accomplishments that those achievements often correlate, directly, to our ability to pay rent or put food on the table. Where complete strangers weigh these on-paper values to determine everything from whether we can rent that flat or buy that car or receive that loan. Where we then signal our access to those resources with our appearance – these shoes, that physique – and other people weigh that, in turn, to see if we’re the right person for a job interview or dinner invitation.

Fear of failure is getting magnified in other ways, too. Take social media: make a mistake today and your fear that it might be broadcast, even globally, is hardly irrational. At the same time, all of those glossy feeds reinforce unrealistic standards.

In my opinion, and I am not alone with it, it’s the idea that you don’t have to be perfect to be lovable or to be loved. It’s a work in progress. And,  what I’ve noticed too, is that, each time I’m able to replace criticizing and perfecting with compassion, I feel not only less stressed, but freer. Apparently, that’s not unusual.

How about you my dear readers?

German Support for Farmers in Central Luzon

By: German Embassy Manila

German support for farmers in Central Luzon alleviates poverty and stimulates entrepreneurship – an excellent example: The German embassy received a visit of a delegation of farmers from Bataan and Zambales in Central Luzon. They described vividly how their economic situation has improved as a result of support financed by the German government and provided through German Protestant Church development assistance arm "Bread for the World" together with Philippine non-profit organizations PDI and FIAN. The "Peoples' Development Institute" (PDI) which supports marginalized population groups in questions of land tenure, livelihood and empowerment showcased some of their agricultural products. The “Foodfirst Information Action Network” (FIAN) is a human rights organization that promotes the right to adequate food. The visitors shared not only their touching success stories, but also showcased some of the food items they nowadays can produce and market - concrete proof for development support leading to tangible – and delicious… - results.

Paper still matters

PAPER STILL MATTERS

The frequent whirring of printers in offices - despite the Internet, Microsoft Word, social media (I love Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter), scanners, smart phones applications and many much more - attest to that.

I was very much old fashioned in many things. While still typing on an old manual typewriter,  my former colleagues in different publishing houses used already electric units. I loved my antique typewriter. I love it till today. Yes, it's still here at my office in Davao City. I can't use it anymore, because no more ribbons are available in the Philippines. It's fine for me. My electric typewriter is also here. Just beside the manual unite. Those were the days, my love... .

It has been sometimes at the end of the 1990's. I worked in an international publishing house in Berlin with branches in Amsterdam and New York. I still used one of those wonderful electric type writers - and tried to avoid vehemently a personal computer. Already during that time, I needed to hold paper in my hands. Paper, says the productivity expert David Allen, is "in your face". I strongly agree with David. He said, "Its physical presence can be a goal to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten. I am also returning to paper planners for this very reason. Smile ... .

David Allen, the author of "Getting Things Done", does much of his writing on a computer. So do I meanwhile. But, there are still times when writing with a fountain pen on a notepad. It allows "us" to get "our" heads in the right place. When I tried to learn more from David Allen, I really got surprised, that we have many things in common. Old fashioned or not? I don't care. Here are some facts:

Paper print outs serve an important function. For long texts, a print out can allow a reader to better understand relationships between sections and writings. Paper handouts are still a presence at meetings partly because they are useful for taking notes. Reading a long document on paper rather than on a computer screen helps people "better understand the geography of the argument contained within, "said Richard H.R. Harper, a principal researcher for Microsoft in Cambridge/England and co-author with Abigail J. Sellen of "The Myth of the Paperless Office," published already in 2001.

I also strongly agree with Sellen, saying, that using more than one computer screen can be helpul for all this cognitive juggling. But when workers are going back and forth between points in a longer document, it can be more efficient to read on paper. 

How about "e-reading a book"? A novel, a drama, whatever? What do you prefer, my dear reader? You wanna know my opinion? I am sure, you can imagine. Yes guys, I still need a book in my hands for my leisure reading. I need to feel the book as well as I need to smell a fresh-printed newspaper. Environment savers might start jelling at me now, though I am one of them. So, where is the edge and borderline?

Paper can be indeed a luscious and beautiful thing - the way we savor fine food and wine, as Steve Leveen, co-founder and CEO of Levenger, said. People complain that writing by hand is slow (yes I am really!), BUT that can be good for thinking and creating! Here we are again!

Yes, it matters still: in defense of the power of paper! What do you think, my dear readers, while holding this newspaper right now in your hands?

I love you!

Mindanao Daily Mirror

I LOVE YOU!

This week, it's time again for Valentine's Day. Expensive flowers, sweets, lunches, hotel overnight stays ... .

Do you know something about the legend of St. Valentine? The history of Valentine's Day – and the story of its patron saint – is indeed shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.

From February 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. ... Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.

Being married since almost 35 years now, Valentine's Day lets me always recall lovely moments from the past.

In a very old issue of PHILADELPHIA NEWS, which is still on my desk, columnist Larry Fields confessed: "I lead a life of wine, women and song (by the way, a wonderful waltz by the Austrian king of waltz Johann Strauss!) - it's cheaper than petrol, food and rent!"

Well, some marriages are mad in heaven. You know some? I do. The best of the rest are down-to-earth. Maybe also yours? I am blessed and happy celebrating my  wedding anniversary next month.

Maybe you remember this: "Then the prince swept the lovely young maiden into his arms and carried her home to his castle. And they live happily ever after!" Indeed, they did.

What I would like to see is an autonomous in home affairs study of all these title of nobility bearers seven years after their happily-ever-after marriages. or even earlier, because the so-called darned and tricky seventh marriage year could be even the first one already.

The truth is that life isn't made up of the continual highs found in the initial stages of courtship. Of course, flirting is fun and a wide groove existing. But after a while our system needs a rest. Unanimously we're in the second stage sooner or later and our marriage life needs badly a new outside coating.

All of a sudden, the partner prefers day and night watching all the sports channels, falls asleep while you're revealing your innermost secrets and even forgets the anniversary for the first or even second time . Just bear in mind: You've won each other's acceptance  and sometimes even feelings terrible gloomy. This acceptance shouldn't be undervalued.

Even we see a house that has to be cleaned, many other things have to be organized, and the partner, who looks as fatigued and bored as you feel. Logical question: "That's it? That WAS it?"

And suddenly, we experienced the third stage and learned, why it's worth the ups and downs. Maybe we men don't mention any more, how incredible she looks, but we enjoy bleating and grousing at her spending innumerable hours putting her together. But then, suddenly, we men are to unload the garbage without being asked for.

Although no marriage is continually blissful - it can be pretty good most of the time. When we lasted through arguments, money worries, and kid's problems or slowly but surely coming up mid-life crises, we should face reality that our relationship is not always a big day celebration.

It's because the fundamental  reason for a marriage has outlasted the craziness of day-to-day living: we love each other. That's MY idea of "Happily ever after, indeed!"

And one thing more: in my opinion, Valentine's Day shouldn't be only on February 14. It doesn't matter, if one is married or not.

+++

Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me in Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or visit www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com .

Philippine Airlines becomes Philippines' first 4-star airline

ABS-CBN News

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The Philippine Airlines has been certified as a 4-star airline by Skytrax, a London-based international air transport rating organization.

MANILA - Philippine Airlines has been certified as the country's first 4-star airline, the flag carrier said Thursday.

PAL joined 42 other 4-star airlines on the list of Skytrax, a London-based international air transport rating organization.

"PAL achieved this coveted rating after Skytrax conducted a rigorous audit of the airline's inflight and on ground service for both international and domestic flights and noted major enhancements on its end-to-end passenger experience and distinct whole-hearted service called Buong Pusong Alaga," the flag carrier said in a statement.

PAL chairman and chief executive officer Lucio Tan called the accreditation a "big win for the Philippines."

“We are elated by this recognition which is a victory for the more than seven thousand members of the Philippine Airlines family. Our achievement is the country's achievement and we share this with all Filipinos around the globe," Tan said in a statement.

Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted said the rating "recognizes the great improvements that the airline has introduced over the last 2 years."

"New and retrofitted aircraft have played an important part in the quality improvement process, and this looks set to develop further when Philippine Airlines introduces the A350 into their fleet. We look for consistency of quality in the 4-Star rating, and we look to Philippine Airlines to ensure this is duly delivered to customers," he said.

PAL placed 67th in Skytrax's Top 100 Airlines in 2017, a 16-notch increase from its 83rd place in 2016.